Removing Application Identifiers in 5G User Plane Entities

The session management function acts as an intermediary between the policy control function and the user plane function. When an application identifier needs to be removed, the session management function receives the request from the policy control function, coordinates the removal across all relevant packet detection rules, and ensures all entities are synchronized. This intermediary role prevents data misalignment and reduces signaling complexity by centralizing the coordination logic.

The system performs preliminary validation and coordination before actually removing the application identifier. The session management function first identifies all packet detection rules associated with the application identifier, prepares the removal sequence, and ensures all necessary entities are ready. This preliminary action prevents partial removals and data inconsistency, ensuring reliable data consistency across the network.

The removal process is segmented into multiple phases: identification of affected packet detection rules, validation of ongoing sessions, staged removal of rules, and verification of consistency. By segmenting the removal process, the system can maintain ongoing sessions that are not affected while selectively removing only the necessary packet detection rules, thereby reducing impact on session stability while maintaining operational flexibility.

The system performs a partial removal action by selectively removing only the packet detection rules associated with the specific application identifier while leaving other rules intact. This partial action approach ensures that ongoing sessions using other application identifiers continue unaffected, maintaining session stability while achieving the operational flexibility needed to remove the specific application identifier.