User Plane Path Monitoring With Configurable Failure Delays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing user plane path failure handling in communication networks is inefficient, leading to unnecessary signaling and impact on user experience due to immediate deletion of bearer contexts or PDU sessions, and lacks sufficient information for the control plane to correctly identify affected sessions, especially in cases of overlapping IP addresses.
Innovation Solution
Implement a configurable delay in reporting user plane path failures and recoveries, with additional information such as destination interface and network instance, allowing the control plane to manage resources more efficiently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the user plane function node immediately reports user plane path failure to the control plane function node, then the control plane can quickly respond to failures, but unnecessary signaling is generated and bearer contexts are deleted even during transient failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by introducing a delay mechanism before reporting failure. The user plane function node waits for a configurable period after detecting a path failure before notifying the control plane, allowing transient failures to self-heal without triggering unnecessary signaling and bearer context deletion.
2Productivity
If the control plane function node deletes bearer contexts immediately upon receiving failure report, then resource cleanup is achieved, but user experience is impacted during transient failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by implementing a delay mechanism that prevents immediate deletion of bearer contexts. The control plane function node waits for a configurable period before deleting bearer contexts, allowing transient failures to recover while maintaining service continuity.
3Device complexity
If only Remote GTP-U Peer IP address is included in failure report, then the report format is simple, but the control plane cannot correctly identify affected sessions when IP addresses overlap
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by adding specific identifying information (destination interface identifier and network instance identifier) to the failure report. This enhances the precision of session identification in locations where IP address overlap causes ambiguity, without changing the entire report structure.
4Reliability
If the control plane function node maintains bearer contexts during operator configurable maximum path failure duration, then service continuity is preserved, but network resources are wasted when paths remain failed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the bearer context retention period configurable. The operator can adjust the maximum path failure duration based on network conditions and service requirements, dynamically balancing service continuity and resource efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatus for user plane path failure and recovery handling. A method comprises detecting that a user plane path is failed; and monitoring the user plane path within a configurable period to determine whether the user plane path is recovered or not.