SDN Serving Gateway User Plane Idle Buffering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless communication networks, specifically in SDN environments, lack the ability to signal and buffer user equipment in ECM-IDLE state, leading to inefficient resource management and increased energy consumption due to the inability to support IDLE mode signaling reduction.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method within the SDN architecture that uses protocols like OpenFlow or FOrCES to introduce an additional information element 'ECM-IDLE active' for resource optimization, allowing the serving gateway user plane to allocate a buffer for packet buffering and notify the control plane only of the first received packet, aggregating subsequent packets for efficient data transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If the SGW user plane buffers packets for IDLE mode UE, then resource optimization and energy efficiency are improved, but the control plane signaling load increases due to lack of idle mode signaling reduction support
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the SGW into control plane (SGw-C) and user plane (SGw-U) functions. The SGw-U handles packet buffering for IDLE mode UEs independently, while the SGw-C manages signaling. This segmentation allows the user plane to buffer packets without requiring continuous control plane involvement, reducing signaling load while maintaining energy efficiency benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism where the SGw-U can autonomously manage IDLE mode packet buffering using buffered packet indicators (BPI) and buffered packet notifications (BPN). This intermediary approach between the control plane and user equipment allows efficient resource management without increasing signaling load, as the user plane handles buffering operations independently.
2Reliability
If the SGW controller receives notifications for every buffered packet, then packet delivery reliability is improved, but computational complexity and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements partial notification where the SGw-U notifies the SGw-C only about the first buffered packet (using BPI/BPN mechanisms) rather than every single packet. This partial action approach maintains reliability by ensuring the control plane is informed of buffering status while significantly reducing computational complexity and processing overhead compared to notifying for every packet.
Solution Approach 2:
The SGw-U performs preliminary buffering actions autonomously before notifying the control plane. The user plane pre-processes and buffers packets, maintaining reliability through independent user plane buffering, while reducing computational complexity by deferring control plane involvement until necessary (only for the first packet notification).
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention addresses a method, apparatus and computer program product for enabling PMM/ECM IDLE buffering within software defined network architecture. Thereby, it is indicated that a user plane idle state is active, a buffer for a user plane idle procedure is allocated in a user plane node, and a communications protocol controller is notified about received packets at the user plane node, wherein only the first received packet is to be indicated to the communications protocol controller while any subsequent received packet is appended to the allocated buffer.