Overview

Required License : 5G-Correlation and CUPS

Supported Devices : GigaVUE- HC3 Gen 2, and GigaVUE-HC3 Gen 3.

Refer to Supported GigaSMART Operations for more details on the devices that support GigaSMART operations.

The GigaSMART 5G CUPS traffic visibility fabric solution provides network visibility across the control and user planes for the 5G stand-alone packet core network. A 5G stand-alone packet core network comprises the following network functions:

  • Authentication Server Function (AUSF)
  • Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF)
  • Data Network (DN), e.g. operator services, Internet access or third party services
  • Structured Data Storage network function (SDSF)
  • Unstructured Data Storage network function (UDSF)
  • Network Exposure Function (NEF)
  • NF Repository Function (NRF)
  • Policy Control function (PCF)
  • Session Management Function (SMF)
  • Unified Data Management (UDM)
  • User plane Function (UPF)
  • Application Function (AF)
  • User Equipment (UE)
  • (Radio) Access Network ((R)AN)

The following diagram shows the 5G Stand Alone Packet Core Network, in which only the N11, N3 and N4 interfaces are supported:

1 5G Stand Alone Packet Core Network

The GigaSMART 5G CUPS traffic visibility fabric solution has the following three functional areas:

 

Access Accesses the traffic through physically or virtually tapping specific interfaces connecting various network element functions.
Correlation Subscriber-aware session traffic correlation to enable sending both the control plane portion and user plane portion of a given session to the same tool.
Forwarding Traffic forwarding through a combination of subscriber-aware white-listing, flow sampling, flow filtering, and load-balancing.

The following diagram explains the LTE and 5G CUPS traffic visibility solution:

 

2 CUPS Traffic Visibility Solution

In the Figure 2 : CUPS Traffic Visibility Solution, specific interfaces of the user plane control functions such as SMF, SGW-C, PGW-C and the user plane functions such as UBF, SGW-U, PGW-U are accessed for getting a copy of the traffic that crosses each interface, and therefore collection of traffic from those access points becomes the basis for traffic monitoring and analysis.

Once the traffic is accessed, it is correlated in order to combine the control plane and user plane traffic for a given subscriber-related session. Then the traffic is forwarded through a combination of white-listing, flow sampling, flow-filtering, and/or load-balancing to traffic monitoring/analysis tools in a load balanced way so that the tools can be used in the most efficient way.

The CUPS solution managed by GigaVUE‑FM supports the following mobility networks scenarios based on visibility and analytics fabrics:

  • 5G stand-alone mobility networks
  • 3G/4G LTE mobility networks
  • Mix 3G/4G LTE and 5G mobility networks

Supported Platforms

GigaSMART 5G CUPS traffic visibility fabric solution is supported in the following platform:

  • GigaVUE‑HC3