Residential Gateway ECN Marking for 5G L4S Congestion Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing 5G System architectures do not support Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S) services at residential gateways, specifically lacking ECN marking capabilities in 5G-RGs, which are crucial for real-time congestion management and application layer rate adaptation.
Innovation Solution
Residential gateways, such as 5G-RGs, are enabled to detect congestion and perform ECN marking in both uplink and downlink traffic, indicating support through PDU Session Establishment Requests, and share congestion information with the 5G Core Network, allowing simultaneous ECN marking by both the gateway and the radio access network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If ECN marking is implemented at the residential gateway level for L4S services, then congestion management capability and service quality (low latency, low loss) are improved, but device complexity and network configuration requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the ECN marking function across multiple network elements (residential gateway, W-AGF, core network nodes) rather than concentrating it at a single point. Each segment performs congestion detection and marking independently, distributing the complexity while improving overall reliability of the L4S service.
Solution Approach 2:
The residential gateway performs preliminary ECN marking of packets before they reach the core network, proactively managing congestion at the edge. This preliminary action prevents packet loss and latency issues before they propagate through the network, improving service quality without requiring complex real-time intervention throughout the entire network.
2Reliability
If simultaneous ECN marking is performed by both residential gateway and W-AGF, then L4S service quality is improved, but processing overhead and network latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
Each network element (residential gateway, W-AGF) performs ECN marking based on its local congestion conditions rather than following a centralized control path. This local quality approach allows independent congestion management at each node, reducing processing overhead while maintaining L4S service quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The residential gateway and W-AGF autonomously perform ECN marking based on their own congestion detection, without requiring continuous coordination or centralized control. This self-service capability reduces processing overhead and network latency while ensuring reliable L4S service delivery.
Data Source
AI summary
A residential gateway (RG), e.g., a 5G-RG, indicates its support for ECN marking for L4S in uplink and/or downlink via a PDU Session Request message, e.g., a PDU Session Establishment Request message, communicated from the RG via a wireline access gateway function (W-AGF) to a core network, e.g., a 5GC. The indication, in some embodiments, is provided in either: a Session Management (SM) capability field, e.g., a 5GSM capability field, or as a new indication, which is included as part of a N1 SM container. A RG may, and sometimes does, determine congestion in its buffers/queues and perform ECN marking and report if traffic congestion is being experienced within its own buffers/queues for uplink and/or downlink traffic. In some such embodiments, both an RG and a W-AGF can, and sometimes do, perform ECN marking for L4S simultaneously in both directions (i.e. uplink and downlink).