Decentralized SMF Consensus for Synchronized 5G Session Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
The 5G network faces challenges in session management due to the deployment of UPF entities closer to the edge, leading to delays and asynchrony, and the inefficiency of conflict resolution mechanisms among SMF entities, especially in distributed systems without centralized control, resulting in scalability, flexibility, and reliability issues.
Innovation Solution
A decentralized session management scheme is implemented using a distributed consensus protocol among SMF entities to synchronize UPF states and handle PDU session requests without relying on a centralized entity, ensuring conflict-free operations through a distributed system of SMF entities organized as peers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If UPF entities are deployed closer to the edge of the mobile network while SMF entities are deployed in a centralized telecom cloud, then the flexibility and scalability of the network are improved, but delays and asynchrony occur when updating UPF states
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the session management function into distributed SMF entities that operate independently as peers, eliminating the centralized bottleneck. Each SMF entity can autonomously manage UPF state updates in its local region, reducing synchronization delays while maintaining overall system flexibility and scalability.
2Device complexity
If a centralized controlling SMF entity is used to aggregate all UPF states and resolve conflicts, then conflict resolution is simplified, but scalability and flexibility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the conflict resolution function from a centralized SMF and distributes it among multiple peer SMF entities. Each SMF entity independently resolves conflicts related to its local UPF states through direct peer-to-peer communication, eliminating the single-point bottleneck while maintaining simplified conflict resolution mechanisms at the local level.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple SMF entities are deployed in a distributed system without centralized control, then scalability and flexibility are improved, but conflict resolution efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic peer-to-peer communication among SMF entities, where the role of conflict resolver is not fixed but dynamically assigned based on which SMF entity detects the conflict first. This dynamic approach maintains high conflict resolution efficiency in a distributed system while preserving scalability and flexibility, as any SMF entity can become the temporary coordinator for a specific conflict scenario.
Data Source
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AI summary
This disclosure relates to managing sessions in a mobile communication network, for instance, a 5G network. The disclosure proposes a first entity for a decentralized session management, which may be performed together by a plurality of first entities. The first entity receives a first transaction indicating information of a first session-management-related message, and sends it to other first entities. Further, it receives second transactions from the other first entities, wherein each second transaction indicates information of a second session-management-related message. Then, the first entity composes a first transaction set including the first transaction and/or the second transactions, and performs a distributed consensus protocol with the other first entities, to obtain a consensus result indicating whether the first entity or one of the other first entities is entitled to propose the first transaction set or second transaction set.