GigaSMART 3GPP CUPS Support

CUPS stands for Control and User Plane Separation of Evolved Packet Core nodes. 3GPP CUPS enhances the Evolved Packet Core nodes by introducing the following three new interfaces between the control plane and user plane functions of the S-GW, P-GW and TDF, respectively:

■   SXa
■   SXb
■   SXc

1 illustrates 3GPP CUPS Network topology

 

1 3GPP CUPS Network topology

The advantages of 3GPP CUPS include the following:

■   Increased flow of data traffic.
■   Reduced latency.
■   Independent User Plane and Control Plane scaling.

Starting in software version 5.6, GigaSMART GTP correlation leverages the SXa and SXb interfaces of the 3GPP CUPS architecture to receive additional traffic that is used to include the GTP session with the Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) session. With this enhancement, control traffic and user traffic are processed at the following nodes (engines):

■   Control Processing Node (CPN) - to process control traffic
■   User Processing Node (UPN) - to process user traffic

The CPN and UPN communicate with each other.

The following topology diagram explains about the communication between CPN and UPN:

 

2 Topology diagram of CPN and UPN Connections

The user traffic is processed in UPN-1 and UPN-2 present in Location B and Location C, respectively. The control traffic is processed at CPN present in Location A, and few control parameters are sent to UPN-1 and UPN-2. Location A handles control traffic corresponding to the user traffic of Location B and Location C. The CPN and UPN can be present at the same location or at a different location.

When the GigaSMART engine in the CPN receives the control traffic, it generates a session table with information such as IMSI, MSISDN, IMEI, QCI, APN values and performs whitelisting, flow sampling and load balancing. UPN supports engine grouping, whereas CPN do not support engine grouping.

A Subscriber Flow Forwarding Protocol (SFFP) profile is created from CPN IP interface to transfer the appropriate control parameters to the corresponding UPN IP interface. The apps exporter at the CPN IP interface instructs the control processing node about the number of user groups it supports, and the source and destination port to route the packets.

The apps listener at the UPN IP interface receives the control parameters from the CPN to UPN interface and helps the UPN to generate a session table based on the Transport Agent (TA) packet information received at the IP interface. IP interface is a communication channel between the CPN and the UPN. The session table performs whitelisting, flow sampling and load balancing at the UPN. UPN correlates the user traffic by using the populated session table.

■   Engine Grouping on CPN is not suported.
■   SXa, SXb packets are broadcasted to all the tool ports.
■   A loop back IP connection with a router is required in-between the CPN and UPN if they are present within the same chassis.

The following table summarizes the required tasks for configuring the GigaSMART 3GPP CUPS:

S.No

Task

Refer to...

1.

Configure an IP interface to send and receive the Gigamon Transport Agent packets.

IP Interfaces

2

Configure the apps listener to configure the TCP connection at the IP interface in the UPN.

 Configure Apps Listener

3

Configure the apps exporter to configure the TCP connection at the IP interface in the CPN.

 Configure Apps Exporter

4

Configure the SFFP Profile.

Note:  You can configure SFFP profile using CLI commands and Ansible Playbook.

 To configure the SFPP proflies refer to the command SFFP profile in GigaVUE-OS CLI Reference Guide5.16 and GigaVUE-FM Automation with Ansible Playbook.

5

In the first level map configuration create a new rule to pass SXa, SXb packets through port number 8805.

 

6

Configure a node role for the control and user node, and attach a SFFP-profile to the CPN node in the GigaSMART engine.

To associate the SFFP profile to the CPN node refer to the command SFFP profile in GigaVUE-OS CLI Reference Guide5.16.

To configure the apps listener, do the following:

1.   (missing or bad snippet)
2. Select the device on which you want to configure an apps listener by clicking the Cluster ID of the device.
3. Select GigaSMART > TCP/IP Host > Listener.
4. Click New.
5. On the Listener page, do the following:
a. In the Alias field, enter the name of the listener.
b. In the Application Type, select GTP CUPS from the drop down list.
c. In the GigaSMART Group, select a GigaSMART group for which you want to associate the Listener.
d. In the L3 Protocol drop down list, select a Layer 3 protocol.
e. In the L4 Protocol drop down list, select a Layer 4 protocol.
f. In the L4 Port field, enter a list of port numbers through which the traffic is to be received. The value must be between 1 and 65535.
g. In the TTL field, enter the time-to-live (TTL) value. The value must be between 1 and 255.
h. In the DSCP field, enter the DSCP value. The value must be between 0 and 63.
i. Select OK.

To view the Apps Listener statistics, go to GigaSMART > TCP/IP Host > Listener Statistics.

To configure the apps exporter, do the following:

1.   On the left navigation pane, click , and then select Physical > Nodes.
2. Select the device on which you want to configure a SFFP profile by clicking the Cluster ID of the device.
3. Select GigaSMART > TCP/IP Host > Exporter.
4. Click New.
5. On the Exporter page, do the following:
a. In the Alias field, enter the name of the exporter.
b. In the Application Type, select GTP CUPS from the drop down list.
c. In the GigaSMART Group, select a GigaSMART group for which you want to associate the Exporter.
d. In the Source field do the following:
•   Select an IP interface through which you want to export the information from CPN.
•   In the L4 Port, enter the port number through which the traffic is to be transferred. The value must be between 1 and 65535.
6. In the Destination field do the following:
•   Select a Layer 3 Protocol.
•   Enter the time-to-live (TTL) value. The value must be between 1 and 255.
•   Enter the DSCP value. The value must be between 0 and 63.
•   Select a Layer 4 Protocol and enter their corresponding port value. The L4 port value must be between 1 and 65535.
•   Select OK.

To view the Apps Exporter statistics, go to GigaSMART > TCP/IP Host > App Exporter.