Protection of application metadata in transport protocol

Abstract

Systems and methods of sending application metadata to on-path network elements are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method comprises establishing an application session between an application client running on user equipment (UE 106) and an application service (AF 222), identifying application metadata associated with the application session, formatting a transport protocol packet with the application metadata, deriving an encryption key based on keying material, encrypting the application metadata in the transport protocol packet using the encryption key, and sending the transport protocol packet over a user plane network path comprising one or more on-path network elements (RAN node 1002, UPF 240).

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