Investigating Inter-NF Dependencies in Cloud-Native 5G Core Networks

Endri Goshi, Michael Jarschel, Rastin Pries, Mu He, Wolfgang Kellerer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

The increasing popularity of cloud-native approaches has led to their wide adoption in the telecommunications industry. 5G Core Networks (5GCN) are developed to take advantage of cloud-native design principles, with a high degree of functional decomposition and distributed deployment. This results in implications in inter-Network Function (NF) dependencies that need to be studied. This work focuses on investigating the effect that these dependencies have in how the resources are utilized from the 5GCN NFs. We consider a private cloud environment where a reference 5G Core implementation, namely Free5GC, is deployed and orchestrated with Kubernetes. In addition, a gNB UE Emulator is developed to allow for the execution of different control plane procedures. Our evaluations highlight the importance of catering for the inter-NF dependencies in achieving efficient resource utilization as well as avoiding deployments where a single NF can bottleneck the entire 5GCN.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2021 17th International Conference on Network and Service Management
Subtitle of host publicationSmart Management for Future Networks and Services, CNSM 2021
EditorsProsper Chemouil, Mehmet Ulema, Stuart Clayman, Muge Sayit, Cihat Cetinkaya, Stefano Secci
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages370-374
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9783903176362
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event17th International Conference on Network and Service Management, CNSM 2021 - Virtual, Online, Turkey
Duration: 25 Oct 202129 Oct 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 2021 17th International Conference on Network and Service Management: Smart Management for Future Networks and Services, CNSM 2021

Conference

Conference17th International Conference on Network and Service Management, CNSM 2021
Country/TerritoryTurkey
CityVirtual, Online
Period25/10/2129/10/21

Keywords

  • 5G
  • Cloud-Native
  • Kubernetes
  • VNF

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