User-Plane Path Selection for the Edge Service

An apparatus of a user-plane entity of a core network, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the memory medium, wherein the apparatus is configured to perform operations for selecting a user-plane path, the operations configured to:
• receive a forwarding policy including a set rules and corresponding actions from a control-plane entity, wherein the set of rules include the corresponding actions, wherein the corresponding actions include actions of whether a packet is to be forwarded or dropped;
• determine respective user-plane paths for first and second IP packets based on a comparison of respective header fields of the first and second IP packets and the set of rules of the forwarding policy, wherein based on the determined respective user-plane paths, the operations are further configured to:
• in a first case, forward the first IP packet to a local network without general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol (GTP);
• and
• in a second case, GTP encapsulate and forward the second IP packet to a second user-plane entity of the core network;
• and
• forward the first and second IP packet packets for transmission based on the respective determined user-plane paths.

A method for selecting a user-plane path, the method comprising:

• by a user-plane entity of a core network:
• receiving a forwarding policy including a set rules and corresponding actions from a control-plane entity, wherein the set of rules include the corresponding actions, wherein the corresponding actions include actions of whether a packet is to be forwarded or dropped;
• determining respective user-plane paths for first and second IP packets based on a comparison of respective header fields of the first and second IP packets and the set of rules of the forwarding policy, wherein based on the determined respective user-plane paths, method further comprises:
• in a first case, forwarding the first IP packet to a local network without general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol (GTP);
• and
• in a second case, GTP encapsulating and forwarding the second IP packet to a second user-plane entity of the core network;
• and
• forwarding the first and second IP packet packets for transmission based on the respective determined user-plane paths.

An apparatus of a control-plane entity of core network comprising:

• non-transitory computer-readable memory medium;
• one or more processors coupled to the memory medium, wherein the apparatus is configured to perform operations for configuring selection of a user-plane path, the operations configured to:
• transmit, to a first user-plane entity, a forwarding policy including a set rules and corresponding actions from the control-plane entity, wherein the set of rules include the corresponding actions, wherein the corresponding actions include actions of whether a packet is to be forwarded or dropped, wherein the set of rules include fields for comparison to respective header fields of incoming packets at the first user pane entity, wherein the forwarding policy includes a configuration for user-plane path selection at the first user-plane entity,
• wherein a first rule of the set of rules corresponds to a first action of forwarding a first IP packet to a local network, wherein forwarding to the local network is performed without general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol (GTP);
• and
• wherein a second rule of the set of rules corresponds to a second action of GTP encapsulation and forwarding the second IP packet to a second user-plane entity of the core network, wherein forwarding the second IP packet to the second user-plane entity includes GTP encapsulation.