NF Set Profile Registration for 5G Core Signaling Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for network function profile administration and discovery in 5G core networks are inefficient, leading to large NF profiles, unnecessary signaling, and storage issues, and do not fully leverage the concepts of NF sets and NF service sets.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of new concepts for NF set and NF service set profiles, with enhanced NF management APIs to register, discover, update, and manage these profiles efficiently, avoiding multiple registrations and notifications, and ensuring backward compatibility with older systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If NF profiles are registered with all attributes including NF set ID and NF service set ID, then discovery accuracy is improved, but profile size and signaling overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and separates NF set ID and NF service set ID attributes from individual NF profiles. Instead of including these attributes in every NF profile, the system creates separate NF set profiles that contain these attributes, which are then referenced by individual NF profiles. This extraction reduces the size of individual NF profiles while maintaining discovery accuracy through the separate set profile structure.
2Quantity of substance
If NF set profiles are introduced to reduce profile size, then storage efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a nested structure where NF set profiles contain NF set ID attributes, and individual NF profiles contain references to these NF set profiles. This nesting allows the system to store common attributes at the set level and reference them from individual profiles, improving storage efficiency while maintaining a structured and manageable system architecture through hierarchical organization.
3Productivity
If multiple NF instances share a common NF set profile, then registration overhead is reduced, but profile update complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates NF set profiles that serve multiple NF instances within a set, making the set profile a universal template that can be shared and referenced by multiple instances. This multi-functionality allows a single NF set profile to support multiple NF instances, reducing registration overhead while the system manages update complexity through the structured reference mechanism where updates to the set profile automatically apply to all referencing instances.
Data Source
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AI summary
There are provided measures for optimization of network function profile administration and discovery. Such measures exemplarily comprise, at a network entity in a network entity composition, transmitting, towards a network repository function, a network entity registration request including an identifier of said network entity, an identifier of said network entity composition, and network entity specific attributes of said network entity, and receiving a network entity registration response indicative of a result of said network entity registration request.