Virtual BNG Packet Processing with UP Proxy Lease Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
In conventional broadband network gateways (BNGs), the decoupling of control and forwarding functions results in inefficient IP address lease renewal management, requiring the user device to communicate directly with the control plane (CP) device, which can lead to performance bottlenecks and reliability issues when the CP-User Plane (UP) link fails.
Innovation Solution
The UP device is empowered to perform online management independently by determining and managing proxy leases, allowing it to handle lease renewals and offline management without direct CP intervention, using extended Protocol for Controlling the Flow of Packets (PFCP) packets for communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the UP device forwards all lease renewal request packets to the CP device for processing, then the CP device can centrally manage IP address leases, but the CP device becomes a performance bottleneck and the system reliability decreases when the CP-UP link fails
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the lease management function by introducing a proxy lease mechanism where the UP device can independently handle lease renewals within a limited scope. The CP device retains authority for initial lease assignment and policy decisions, while the UP device manages routine renewals autonomously using cached lease information, dividing the monolithic control plane functionality into distributed micro-functions
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a proxy lease as an intermediary mechanism between the UP device and CP device. The proxy lease acts as a local cache or representative of the actual lease, allowing the UP device to process renewals without direct CP device involvement. This intermediary layer absorbs routine processing loads and maintains system operation during CP-UP link failures
2Productivity
If the user device communicates directly with the CP device for lease renewal, then centralized control is maintained, but communication overhead increases and response time decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having the UP device cache lease information and prepare proxy lease data in advance. When a lease renewal request arrives, the UP device can immediately process it using pre-cached information rather than initiating a full round-trip to the CP device. This preliminary preparation of lease data significantly reduces renewal processing time
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the routine lease renewal processing function from the CP device and relocates it to the UP device. By taking out this repetitive, time-consuming operation from the centralized control plane and placing it at the distributed user plane, the system eliminates communication overhead for routine renewals while maintaining centralized control for policy decisions
Data Source
AI summary
This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and provides a packet processing method, apparatus, and system, and a computer-readable storage medium. The method is applied to a user plane (UP) device of a virtual broadband network gateway. The UP device receives a first packet sent by a control plane (CP) device, where the first packet carries first indication information, and the first indication information indicates the UP device to perform online management on a terminal device that accesses a network through a virtual broadband network gateway; determines a proxy lease of a first terminal device based on the first packet, where the first terminal device is the terminal device that accesses the network through the virtual broadband network gateway; and performs online management on the first terminal device based on the first indication information and the proxy lease of the first terminal device.