Internet DRAFT - draft-li-alto-cellular-use-cases

draft-li-alto-cellular-use-cases







Internet Engineering Task Force                                    G. Li
Internet-Draft                           China Mobile Research Institute
Intended status: Informational                            S. Randriamasy
Expires: 13 January 2022                                 Nokia Bell Labs
                                                                C. Xiong
                                                                 Tencent
                                                            12 July 2021


                 ALTO Uses Cases for Cellular Networks
                  draft-li-alto-cellular-use-cases-00

Abstract

   This draft presents a number of use cases of applications running on
   endpoints located in cellular networks and whose performances highly
   depend on network information.  This document first, shows how the
   performances of these applications can be further improved with ALTO
   provided abstracted network information and transportation means
   thereof.  Second, upon reviewing the existing ALTO capabilities, it
   lists the ALTO features that need to be extended or defined to
   support the presented use cases.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 13 January 2022.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.



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   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text
   as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     1.2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   2.  Motivation And First Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     2.1.  Overview of challenges for applications on cellular
           networks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     2.2.  Benefits expected from using ALTO to expose network
           topology to applications  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     2.3.  First considerations on ALTO information features for
           wireless network  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   3.  Example applications and use cases  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.1.  Use case 1: rate adaptation for cloud VR/gaming . . . . .   8
       3.1.1.  Application needs in information capabilities from
               network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       3.1.2.  Missing ALTO information and features . . . . . . . .  10
     3.2.  Use case 2: Video-conferencing applications . . . . . . .  11
       3.2.1.  Application needs in information capabilities . . . .  12
       3.2.2.  How the application can get the 5G network information
               from ALTO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     3.3.  Use case 3: ALTO supporting applications on UEs . . . . .  14
       3.3.1.  Use case: Access-aware AEP selection from UE with
               cascaded ALTO Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
       3.3.2.  Scenario and assumptions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
       3.3.3.  Missing ALTO information and features . . . . . . . .  15
   4.  Highlights on 3GPP Information Useful to ALTO . . . . . . . .  15
   5.  Gap analysis with Existing ALTO features  . . . . . . . . . .  16
     5.1.  ALTO limits w.r.t.  Cellular Network Information  . . . .  16
     5.2.  ALTO Limits on network information transport: gap analysis
           with ALTO SSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   6.  Summarizing ALTO added value and gaps for cellular
           networks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     6.1.  Summarizing ALTO added value to cellular use cases  . . .  17
     6.2.  Summarizing new ALTO features needed to support cellular
           use cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
       6.2.1.  ALTO Cellular Network Information . . . . . . . . . .  18
       6.2.2.  Efficient transport for ALTO Cellular Network
               Information based on SSE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
       6.2.3.  Time constraints on ALTO-provided Cellular Network
               Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19




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       6.2.4.  ALTO notifications to non-GBR as well as GBR
               traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   Appendix A.  Additional Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21

1.  Introduction

   The ALTO protocol has been defined as modern network traffic started
   to convey a majority of user-initiated multimedia flows comprising
   essentially video payload.  The purpose of ALTO is to alleviate
   network costs, congestion and load while maintaining application
   performances.  To this end, ALTO provides to applications that have a
   choice among several endpoint location.  This guidance consists for
   ALTO in exposing a Network Map that is a subjective abstraction of
   the Internet provider network.  The Network Map is an arbitrary
   provider-defined partition of the provider topology in zones that
   have a human-readable identifier named PID and that gather network
   endpoints that may be treated similarly, see RFC7285 sec 5.1.  Among
   these PIDs, the ALTO Cost Map defines abstracted network costs.

   The design of ALTO is flexible and generic enough to support further
   evolutions of application traffic and enable lightweight protocol
   extensions.  In particular as per section 5.2 of RFC7285, "There are
   many types of addresses, such as IP addresses, MAC addresses, or
   overlay IDs.", while the 7285 "document specifies (in Section 10.4)
   how to specify IPv4/IPv6 addresses or prefixes."  Likewise, the time
   granularity of ALTO path costs was intended in the initial
   requirements of RFC6708 to be in the order of days or more,
   extensions such as RFC 8688 specifies the value encoding in floating
   numbers, allowing thus smaller time interval durations.
   Nevertheless, ALTO is by no means meant to provide information in
   real-time.













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   In the first two WG charters, the ALTO applications and use cases
   have focused on applications using network maps, cost maps defined on
   IP Networks.  Nevertheless, while the central use case in the base
   protocol was peer-to-peer file sharing, the ALTO WG progressively
   moved to CDN use cases, following thus the usage trend and the needs
   of the service providers exposing their network abstraction.  This
   has produced extensions supporting finer grained information in terms
   of network capabilities and time span.  Applications are today
   evolving to require more resources, performance, service presence and
   reactivity.

   Modern Applications now span endpoints in both fixed and cellular
   networks.  They are usually catered by Servers located at the edge or
   within the core network.  Servers view and manage IP flows while
   Clients are associated to one or more flows defined according to
   their hosting network technology.  For example, a Client located in
   3GPP defined cell is mapped to a so-called QoS flow, that may map to
   one or more IP flows, either because the application involves say
   voice or video, or because the user equipment (UE) is running several
   applications simultaneously.  These applications are also the most
   Quality of Experience (QoE ) demanding ones.

   The COVID period has witnessed frequent service degradation and
   interruption in applications such as videoconferencing or gaming on a
   mobile phone.  The Servers need to be reactive enough to correctly
   adapt their resources to the challenged users.  To do so, they need
   to have a reliable view of the network capabilities and bottlenecks,
   while that view should cover application paths end to end and not
   only at the user access network.  There is a strong need for
   application vendors to sustain user QoE, especially low latency and
   acceptable throughput.  Given the number of user flows, the
   complexity of the network and sensitivity of user and network
   information, the application server should get all and only what
   information it needs.  In other words, the network abstraction
   exposed to applications must be reliable, preserve confidentiality,
   suit the application needs and minimize the data exchange volume.

   This draft emphasizes the importance of abstracted cellular
   information, as the cell resides in the last IP hop, which is usually
   the bottleneck.  Therefore, last hop network information is critical.
   It is important to have end to end information for apps having
   cellular user footprint that covers both the edge and core Internet
   and the access plus the cloud.  The current networking SDOs such as
   3GPP, ETSI, IETF do not cover all these areas simultaneously but
   provide each a separate focused view.  Note that it is the same for
   Open Source organizations such as Open RAN (ORAN) or Facebook
   sponsored - Open Computing Platform (OCP) providing in-band telemetry
   info for DC networks.



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   This draft focuses on popular applications that have a user footprint
   in cellular networks.  It explores on one hand the requirements of
   such applications in terms of network information, the capabilities
   of 3GPP network information functionalities such as the Network
   Exposure Function (NEF), and their the missing.  On the other hand,
   it explores what ALTO may potentially provide to compensate and
   extend the scope of 3GPP information.  The draft is thus motivated by
   the following "gaps" between ALTO and 3GPP:

   *  Cellular information provided by 5G is limited in 2 ways: RAN
      scope only, and QoS negotiation for only given type of traffic
      (GBR),

   *  ALTO on the other hand is generic regarding the type of access.
      However, it lacks small grain information and its dynamicity is
      currently limited.  Above all, the ALTO protocol and its
      extensions are specified for IP networks.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

1.2.  Terminology

   TO BE COMPLETED

   QoS, ABR, RTT, GBR, XR/VR, AR, CGS

2.  Motivation And First Considerations

2.1.  Overview of challenges for applications on cellular networks

   This section lists some challenges faced by applications running on
   cellular networks that motivate the definition of ALTO-based network
   topology exposure to improve application performance.

   *  New popular applications running on mobile networks: The current
      ALTO protocol exposes endpoint addresses or path information.
      ALTO was initially designed for P2P file or chunked data download
      applications.  Nowadays, P2P-like applications are no more widely
      used.  Instead, mobile internet got more popular, the price to buy
      legal music/video/ebook files for download or streaming from a
      dedicated service provider have dramatically reduced.
      Consequently, there is little need to allow a user to change the
      destination server address the path to destination server.  The
      major challenge now is to better support applications running on



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      the mobile internet.  In 5G networking, selection of an
      destination application server and related path is no major issue:
      the 3GPP has defined a mechanism in [TS23.548] to let the
      application change the Edge Compute server on the fly during the
      download, where this change is automatic and transparent to the
      user.  A bigger issue, in 5G networks, is how to adapt the
      application behavior, based on the data rate fluctuation in the
      mobile network.

   *  5G low-level network information too complex for application
      developers: Too detailed radio level (low layer) parameters are
      very hard to be understood by the application developers and are
      thus very hard to be tested for the application development and
      deployment.

   *  Notifications of RAN changes restricted to GBR traffic: In 5G
      networks, notifications to CGS of QoS level change are currently
      sent only for Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) traffic whereas they
      should be used for non-GBR traffic as well.

2.2.  Benefits expected from using ALTO to expose network topology to
      applications

   The first and fundamental benefit expected from ALTO is the ability
   to expose simple and abstracted network topology information to
   applications.  An ALTO Client collocated with an application server
   could easily get concise and safe information allowing adaptive
   application behavior and QoE maintenance.  Besides, with ALTO and its
   handy JSON contents, application developers can take advantage of the
   ALTO services to rapidly develop and update wireless applications
   with less changes in their code.

   Another important benefit is the ability of ALTO to support to
   exposition to applications of the QoS supported by a path, given that
   the supported QoS may vary over time.  A fundamental ALTO service to
   support the 5G would be the notification of different bit rates
   supported in the access network.  Providing such path QoS
   notification to is of highest importance, as it allows the
   applications to appropriately adapt their behavior, that is, in the
   present case, their bitrate.  Given that the path QoS can vary very
   quickly, the information exchange must be fast, with simple terms,
   while moderating the volume of exchanged information.

   A first step in this direction is to introduce the definition of
   three levels of path QoS supported for applications, that can be
   defined in abstracted from 3GPP in ALTO terms.  Each level may draw
   specific requirements on the interaction between ALTO Client and ALTO
   Server.



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   *  Basic Level: for e.g. video streaming; normal data rate, and loose
      latency requirements (e.g. network transport latency lower that
      150ms)).  In such case, the ALTO interaction can use the basic QoS
      Notification Control (QNC) and alternative QoS profile (different
      bit rate) defined in 5G.

   *  Medium Level: for e.g. conference call; high data rate (e.g.
      higher than 5Mbps), but moderate vlatency requirement (e.g.
      network transport lower than 150 ms).  In this case the ALTO
      interaction can use the QNC and small measurement time.

   *  Hard/complex Level: for e.g. cloud gaming, XR/VR services; high
      data rate (e.g. higher than 5Mbps) and low latency (lower than
      10ms for network transport, lower than 100ms end to end in service
      level) services.  More technologies are being studied in 3GPP R18.
      e.g. new QoS Notification Type.

   It is desirable to have the same data model in ALTO to express the
   different QoS values or levels for different the use cases.

2.3.  First considerations on ALTO information features for wireless
      network

   This draft does not aim at defining ALTO extensions to support
   applications on cellular networks.  This section lists some initial
   considerations that would characterize such extensions.

   Firstly, the use cases and associated needs of this draft do not
   restrict to 5G cellular networks.  They cover potential application
   queries for ALTO network information that happen within the first IP
   hop.  Such needs may be true for 4G and 5G networks.

   Currently in ALTO, the only way for an application to get a more
   adequate QoS level is to use another path by selecting another
   endpoint.  In a wireless network, the application must use the same
   path in which the QoS can change over time.  The end user cannot
   create or select another path during an application session.  But
   because of the physics of the wireless, the QoS of the wireless
   connection may change quickly, so the application in the end user and
   in the application server needs to detect the change of the QoS value
   and adapt the application bit rate accordingly.  Therefore, if the
   ALTO service is used in a wireless network, we need to extend ALTO to
   support only one path but with changes in the path cost or supported
   QoS that occur very quickly, e.g. within seconds or sub-seconds.

   A first architectural assumption is needed here for the ALTO Server
   that would expose "below 1st hop" network information.  We assume the
   availability of a Local ALTO Server, that manages the information



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   covering the "below" first IP hop area delineated by the UEs and the
   Packet Data Network (PDN).  In the use cases of this draft a Local
   ALTO Server may cover a 4G or 5G topology.  It is queried by ALTO
   Clients that may be associated to application functions in the
   network edge or in end systems.  It is not scalable to provide ALTO
   information on paths from all UEs to all application endpoints in the
   Internet.  Therefore, it is desirable to use "cascaded" ALTO Servers,
   where a local server covers the relevant access area and can, if
   needed compose its information with a "core" ALTO Server that manages
   information at an IP hop level or above.  Such a solution is proposed
   in sections 5.1 of [alto-cost-context] and section 2.3.3 of RFC 7971
   on deployment cases.  Thus:

   *  A Local ALTO Server (LAOS): covers a local and restricted part of
      the network.  It is typically located before the Internet gateway,
      in the access network.  For example, it can be collocated with the
      NEF, as in the Cloud Gaming use case or with a gateway.  It hosts
      the information on the local 4G/5G network, covering the paths
      between e.g. the UEs and the cells or the PGWs/UPFs.  It may host
      an ALTO Client that sends an ALTO request to a "core" ALTO Server,
      covering the zone beyond the PGW/UPF.

   *  A "core" ALTO Server covers the whole ISP network view, at the IP
      and beyond level, as it would if the "local ALTO Service" is not
      available or deactivated.  That is, it does not see the details
      below the (UE, PGW/UPF) hop.

3.  Example applications and use cases

   This section presents emblematic examples of application use cases on
   cellular networks.  For each use case, it lists the network
   information needed to maintain or improve application performances,
   which one is available from 3GPP and from ALTO, which ones are
   missing.  Current examples applications are: Cloud gaming,
   Conferencing, and use cases are divided in network-based decision
   making and UE-based decision making.

3.1.  Use case 1: rate adaptation for cloud VR/gaming

   FOR FURTHER VERSIONS: Need artwork based on slide 1 of "ALTO
   Recharter for Wireless Use cases-V6SR-2004"

   5G is beginning to be commercialized globally since 2020, and there
   is a great improvement regarding bandwidth enhancement and latency
   reduction.  Cloud-based interactive streaming applications such as
   cloud Virtual Reality (VR) and cloud gaming are booming.





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   This type of applications requires low latency and highly reliable
   transmission of motion tracking instructions from user to server in
   the cloud, while the cloud is required to perform the rendering of
   pictures per frame and deliver them to users with usually low latency
   and high data rate.  The required end-to-end transmission delay may
   be as low as 20ms.  The less the latency, the better the user QoE as,
   for instance, a slight extra delay may cause user dizziness.  The
   downlink bandwidth normally depends on different parameter settings
   such as DoF (Degree of Freedom), image resolution, frame rate,
   adapted rendering and compression algorithm.  For example, a high
   definition with 1080p with 60 frames per seconds may require at least
   20Mbps and ultra-high definition with 4K may require more than
   40Mbps.

   Cloud VR/gaming is regarded as one of killer applications as well as
   major traffic contributor to cellular 5G networks.  The major
   advantages of cloud VR/gaming are easy and quick start since there is
   no need to download and install a big volume of software in the user
   device beforehand, and also it is cost effective and demands too
   moderate processing load in the user device.  Last, it is also
   regarded as a more trusted solution.  Thus, cloud gaming becomes a
   competitive replacement for console gaming using cheaper PCs or
   laptops.  On one hand, the above cloud-based interactive applications
   normally require high bandwidth and low latency, on the other hand, a
   larger radio bandwidth implies larger variations since radio
   resources are shared and competed by mobile users in a cell.
   Therefore, the last mile radio link is viewed as the bottleneck of
   the QoE.

   To address this problem, the application usually estimates available
   bandwidth based on application-level measurements such as traffic
   throughput, RTT and latency.  It then uses an adaptive bitrate (ABR)
   mechanism to change the video encoding bitrate so as to match the
   fluctuation of radio bandwidth.  However, it is hard to accurately
   estimate or predict user cellular link status only from the
   application's perspective since only the cellular network has a full
   understanding of all users' radio channel status, traffic
   fluctuation, moving in and out of cells.  Moreover, bandwidth
   estimation based on application level traffic throughput statistics,
   rather than radio channel capabilities may be inaccurate.

3.1.1.  Application needs in information capabilities from network

   Based on the above use case analysis, it would be beneficial if the
   cellular network could inform the cloud streaming application on the
   cellular network link status.  The following approaches may be
   considered.




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   *  The application uses request/response to query the link status
      from the cellular network for a specific user.  This may cause
      extra latency since two way signaling is required.

   *  The cellular network periodically reports network link status to
      the application.  This may cause extra signaling overhead if the
      reporting period threshold is too frequent.

   *  The application uses a pub/sub-like mechanism, specifically, the
      application may subscribe a certain condition (for example,
      whether the QoS requirement is satisfied or significant QoS change
      happens) for cellular network.  As soon as the predefined
      condition is fulfilled, the notification will be triggered
      immediately and if the condition is not triggered, no signaling is
      involved.  Obviously, this approach is more cost effective from
      signaling point of view and timely compared with request/response.

   The application may inform the cellular network of the following
   information ( not exhaustive list, new information may be added
   later):

   *  QoS requirements of application, e.g., min and/or max bandwidth,
      latency

   *  Significant QoS changes, e.g., 30% drop of bandwidth change

   The cellular network link status may include the following
   information (not exhaustive list, new information may be added
   later):

   *  The available bandwidth and latency of the cellular network

   *  Whether QoS requirements of application are satisfied or not by
      the radio network

   *  Whether significant QoS changes happen

3.1.2.  Missing ALTO information and features

   However, the current ALTO protocol and extensions are missing the
   following information.










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   *  The ALTO representation of the QoS of an application path requires
      to represent the path endpoints.  That is the path source and
      destination.  It the ALTO Endpoint Cost Service (ECS) is used, it
      requires to indicate the endpoints.  This is possible for the
      destination, as it is the CGS, usually identified with an IP
      address.  However, the UE address would to be identified with an
      identifier relating to cellular address.  And the current ALTO
      protocol only supports IP addresses.

   *  One possible workaround would be to identify a cell as a PID.
      However, a PID MUST specify the network addresses it contains and
      only IP addresses are supported.  The path cost from a UE/Cell to
      a CGS should be specific to a cell, but the IP address that is
      provided to the UE is not.  The ALTO Server should ensure that the
      metric used to indicate the quality of the path to a CGS reflects
      the specifics of a cellular network.

3.2.  Use case 2: Video-conferencing applications

   In the current context of massive teleworking, reliable video-
   conferencing tools are of utmost importance.  Poor experience or
   service interruption occur more than often and may be caused by
   factors impacting functions at both the Server end and the UE end.

   In 2019, over 500 million active users were using online personal
   live show services in China and there are 4 million simultaneous
   online audience watching a celebrity's show.  Low delay live show
   requires the close interaction between application and network.

   Compared with conventional broadcast services, this service is
   interactive which means the audience can be involved and is able to
   provide feedback to the anchorwoman or the anchorman of the game.  A
   gaming show has almost the same QoS requirements as
   videoconferencing.  It broadcasts the game playing to all the
   audience, and also requires playing game interaction between the
   anchor and the audience.  A delay lower than 100ms is desired.  If
   the delay is too large, there will be undesirable degradation on user
   experiences especially in a large-scale show.  To lower the latency
   and provide size-adjustable show content, the application also
   requires QoS information of the transport layer of the wireless.











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3.2.1.  Application needs in information capabilities

   The bit rate of radio link changes quickly.  If the bit rate is
   downgraded and the application still uses the previous bit rate to
   send in the downlink to the user, the RAN will soon be in congestion
   state, the user video will be frozen and user's QoE will be very bad.
   So, the application needs to detect the bit rates of the transport
   network.  The DASH-based mechanism defined in MPEG can be used.
   However, while the DASH based mechanism is normally for the file
   download type video streaming, it is not suitable for the interactive
   video.  In the interactive video case, the transport can provide the
   supported bit rate to the application, and application can adaptively
   change its video bit rate down to the supported network bit rate and
   there is no congestion anymore [TS 23.501].  The QoS Flow in the 5G
   cellular network is established to transport the video streaming for
   the conference, and application server may request the 5G network to
   provide network information by the steps as described below, and
   specified in [TS23.501]:

   *  The application requests the 5G network to notify the link status
      and indicate whether the required GFBR (Guaranteed Flow Bit Rate)
      can no longer be guaranteed or can be guaranteed again.

   *  The cellular network will notify the application that "GFBR can no
      longer be guaranteed" if the radio link cannot provide the
      required guaranteed bit rate.  However, it does not specify the
      amount of guaranteed bit rate.  In this case, the cloud video
      server (normally the medio server) will downgrade the video
      streaming bit rate in order to avoid the video service being
      frozen.  However, since the video server does not know the
      currently supported bit rate, the downgraded bit rate may be still
      higher than the supported bit rate.  After receiving the above
      notification, the video service may still be frozen frequently.
      If the video server downgrades the bit rate two much, the quality
      of the video may be too downgraded and the user QoE becomes
      unacceptable.

   *  The cellular network will notify the application that "GFBR can no
      longer be guaranteed and the supported bit rate is XXX" if the
      radio link cannot provide the required guaranteed bit rate, but
      the cellular network can provide additional information of
      supported guaranteed bit rate.  Upon receiving this notification,
      cloud video server can downgrade the video streaming bit rate
      below the indicated bit rate.  In such case, the user QoE does not
      downgraded too much.






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   *  The cellular network will notify the application that "GFBR can be
      guaranteed again" if the radio link can provide the required
      guaranteed bit rate again (for example, the user handovers to
      another radio station).  After receiving this notification, the
      cloud video server can upgrade the video streaming bit rate to the
      previous required guaranteed bit rate.  In such case, the user QoE
      can be recover to the best.

   The application may inform the cellular network of the following,
   given that the list below will be completed in the future:

   *  QoS requirements of application, e.g., the guaranteed bit rate,
      the alternative guaranteed bit rate.

   *  The measurement time for the guaranteed bit rate, e.g. 2 seconds
      (i.e. 2000ms) or 200/500 ms (to improve the response time, i.e.
      more quickly to provide QoS Notification from the 5G RAN).

   The cellular network link status exposed to the application may
   include the following, given that the list below will be completed in
   the future:

   *  "GFBR can no longer be guaranteed",

   *  "GFBR can no longer be guaranteed and the supported bit rate is
      XXX",

   *  "GFBR can be guaranteed again".

   All in all, the network should more quickly provide QoS Notification
   to the application

3.2.2.  How the application can get the 5G network information from ALTO

   The application (i.e. the ALTO client) can use the restful API to
   subscribe and be notified by the message from the ALTO Server, the
   application can adaptively change its encoding scheme to make the bit
   rate just below the provided network bitrate notified by the network.
   Also, the application can be pushed to get the message from the ALTO
   server using the SSE as defined in RFC 8895[RFC 8895].











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3.3.  Use case 3: ALTO supporting applications on UEs

   This section presents use cases where a UE runs an application with
   the support of an ALTO Client.  The application in the UE needs to
   decide to which application endpoint (AEP) in the Internet to
   connect.  An AEP is assumed to be an application server for e.g.
   content download, videoconferencing, or other applications for which
   many servers are deployed.  For now, the ALTO-based selection of an
   AEP is usually done in the network, sometimes with the help of an
   authoritative entity based on the cost or performance of the path
   from the UE to the AEP.  However, the capabilities of the access
   network, in the first path IP hop, may highly impact the application
   performance and therefore needs a deeper insight.  The use cases in
   this section illustrate how network abstraction within the first hop
   can be beneficial to optimize application path performance.

3.3.1.  Use case: Access-aware AEP selection from UE with cascaded ALTO
        Servers

   In this use case, a UE is located in a 4G or 5G network and may
   connect via several access technologies, e.g. 4G/5G Cellular or WiFi.
   It is assumed that the UE has subscribed to the same ISP for both
   fixed and mobile access with a given Service Level Agreement SLA.
   Users and ISPs tend usually prefer fixed or WiFi connection to
   cellular, because it is cheaper, more performant and cellular
   resources are limited.  However, it is observed that in many places,
   including some urban areas in countries with a good average network
   infrastructure, the fixed network coverage is very poor and worse
   than the cellular coverage, so that users need to connect via a cell
   phone or a 4G/5G dongle.  Sometimes also, MNOs and ISPs have spare
   data resources or offer them for free or at low price to users,
   depending on their SLA.  For both parties, access-aware Endpoint
   selection for users is thus beneficial.

   The major QoE challenges in wireless network arise in the access
   network, that is, in the first hop, between the UE and its one or
   more associated packet data network gateways (PGW for 4G) or user
   plane function (UPF for 5G).  The path of a UE to its associated PGW/
   UPF impacts the path to the AEP and thus the application QoE.
   Therefore, once the PGW/UPF has been selected and will stay
   unchanged, it is beneficial to help the UE selecting between Cellular
   and WiFi access.

3.3.2.  Scenario and assumptions

   The end to end path from the UE to the AEP is considered in 2 parts

   *  the path from the UE to the PDN,



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   *  the path from the PDN to the AEP.

   FOR FUTURE VERSIONS: ARTWORK ON SCENARIO

   We assume the availability of multiple cascaded ALTO Servers, as
   mentioned in section XXXX, to provide a (UE, AEP) path cost.  In our
   "cascaded" use case, we define 2 types of servers involved in
   conveying the end to end ALTO (UE, AEP) path cost, as follows:

   *  A Local ALTO Server (LAOS): hosts the information restricted to
      the local 4G/5G network, covering the paths between e.g. the UEs
      and the cells or the PGWs/UPFs.  It receives the ALTO request
      issued by the local ALTO Client LAOC associated to the UE.  It May
      host an ALTO Client that can send an ALTO request to a "core" ALTO
      Server, covering the zone beyond the PGW/UPF, if needed by the
      application.  It composes, when applicable, the response of the
      "core" ALTO Server with its own response to the LAOC query to
      obtain a better-informed end to end view of the application path.

   *  A "core" ALTO Server covers the whole ISP network view, as it
      would if the "local ALTO Service" is not available or deactivated.
      That is, it does not see the details below the (UE, PGW/UPF) hop.

3.3.3.  Missing ALTO information and features

   However, the ALTO information in the path between a UE and an AEP
   currently provides a cost for one single path only.  It does not
   consider that multiple paths to the PGW/UPF are possible.  Currently,
   the access technology is accounted in RFC 7971 (on deployment cases)
   in the last hop, to prefer selecting an AEP located in a fixed
   network over an AEP located in a mobile network.  One way to achieve
   this is that ALTO provides a path cost that, for a given metric,
   takes multiple values each depending on parameters such as access
   technology and the access technology or SLA.

4.  Highlights on 3GPP Information Useful to ALTO

   This section lists the 3GPP information that can be used by ALTO.
   Either as it comes in, with a minimal encapsulation, or as input to
   an aggregated form.

   In 3GPP specifications [TS23.501, 23.502, 23.503], the following
   mechanisms have been specified to enable the interaction between AF
   (application function) and NEF (network exposure function) from
   network's perspective.

   *  Alternative QoS profiles,




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   *  notification control.

   The application inform the cellular network of the specific QoS
   requirements, which may include a list of QRP( QoS requirement
   parameters, such as min/max bandwidth) in a prioritized order.  Such
   requirements will be conveyed to the RAN and the RAN will always try
   to fulfil the QoS requirement in the list with highest priority.  And
   in the meantime, whether QoS requirements is fulfilled or not in each
   item of the list will be notified to the application timely.  In
   order to avoid too frequent signalling, it is assumed that RAN can
   apply hysteresis (e.g., via a configurable time interval) to reduce
   too much signalling overhead.  On the other hand, the QoS values
   within the list of QoS requirements are required not to be too close
   to each other.

5.  Gap analysis with Existing ALTO features

   This section assesses the currently existing ALTO features against
   the needs in network information and related transport capabilities
   listed along with the use cases.

5.1.  ALTO limits w.r.t.  Cellular Network Information

   ALTO is by design not expected to provide real time information.  The
   initial use cases were defined for cost maps conveying BGP-based path
   costs.  Later use cases for CDN and video download on individual end-
   systems support finer grained network information.  Nothing though
   prevents ALTO information to be in minutes or sub-minutes frequency.
   ALTO may convey values that are valid for a couple of seconds.
   However, an interval of 2 seconds, in regard of a cellular, network
   may be too large.

5.2.  ALTO Limits on network information transport: gap analysis with
      ALTO SSE

   In RFC8895, ALTO Incremental Updates Using Server-Sent Events (SSE)
   introduces a mechanism to allow an ALTO server to push updates to
   ALTO clients to achieve two benefits:

   *  (1) updates can be incremental, in that if only a small section of
      an information resource changes, the ALTO server can send just the
      changes

   *  (2) updates can be immediate, in that the ALTO server can send
      updates as soon as they are available.






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   SSE is a well-shaped pub/sub-like mechanism based on subscription,
   which quite matches the requirements of proposed cellular use cased
   in section XXXX, for example, cost effective and immediate.
   Therefore, SSE can be used as a baseline for protocol extension of
   cellular use cases.  The following message flows can be reused.  In
   the following figure, init request of step 1 is used to subscribe QoS
   requirements.  Data update message of step 2a is used to notify
   whether subscribed QoS requirements are satisfied or not.

   FUTURE VERSIONS: ARTWORK ON SSE COMES HERE

   Based on the existing SSE message flows, attributes should be
   extended for each message flow for the proposed cellular use cases.
   For example, subscribed QoS parameters and conditions in step 1, the
   corresponding notification/data update in step 2a.

6.  Summarizing ALTO added value and gaps for cellular networks

6.1.  Summarizing ALTO added value to cellular use cases

   *  ALTO abstraction covers several network technologies

   *  ALTO abstraction covers several network scopes (RAN, edge, core,
      transport, WAN)

   *  ALTO can aggregate network information over several technologies
      and scopes

   ALTO can provide end to end path information with insight on selected
   parts.  To our knowledge, standards covering the RAN, the edge, the
   transport and the WAN (cite 3gpp, ETSI, others) provide a separate
   network view to applications, if ever.  There is therefore no way
   currently for applications to get an integrated view, allowing more
   informed decisions.  Additionally, ALTO provides abstracted network
   information, that protects operator confidentiality by exposing only
   relevant information to applications.  This last aspect adds
   simplicity to the efficiency gained with network-aware decisions.
   Simplicity all the more allows quick decisions, which is crucial in
   cellular networks, that have high dynamics.

6.2.  Summarizing new ALTO features needed to support cellular use cases

   The uses cases presented in this draft are stressing the need for new
   or extended ALTO features to convey cellular network information.
   This section also lists a number of concerns raised, in some cases,
   by the exposure of particular cellular information to third party
   applications.  Other needs may be identified as the cellular use
   cases will be further investigated.



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6.2.1.  ALTO Cellular Network Information

   ALTO features to represent identify a cell or a WiFi access point.

   Abstracted and simplified metrics and costs for wireless networks:
   ALTO Clients can request a list of supported values for a given set
   of ALTO metrics.  All these metrics are easy to be understood and to
   be tested by the application developer and application platform
   (service provider).  Examples of useful metrics for our use cases
   include: throughput/bit rate, latency, priority, error rate, Jitter.
   Most of these metrics are being standardized in [alto-performance-
   metrics].  However, their values need to be abstracted from the data
   provided by the 5G network, typically via the NEF.

   Other associated parameters associated to path cost metrics may be
   useful.  For instance, a new type of useful metric would be an
   abstracted form of the time span to measure the bit rate.  The
   network also needs to expose the attributes of supported alternative
   QoS.  These include alternative throughput/bit rate, the time span to
   measure the bit rate, latency, priority, error rate, Jitter and
   associated priority.

   Other abstracted and simplified parameters, thresholds or attributes
   If radio level or low layer information are provided, a gateway is
   needed to translate or map these information to the high level
   terminology the ALTO Server.  ALTO can then provide the abstracted
   information to the application.  This gateway can be implemented in
   the southbound of the ALTO server and the gateway can be NEF or NWDA,
   see reference to 3GPP TS XXx, TS23.288.

6.2.2.  Efficient transport for ALTO Cellular Network Information based
        on SSE

   Improvements are necessary of the following ALTO SSE features:

   FUTURE VERSIONS: ARTWORK ON EXTENDED SSE COMES HERE

   Based on the existing SSE message flows, attributes should be
   extended for each message flow for the proposed cellular use cases.
   For step 1 in the procedure of "init request", the following
   parameters may be included:

   *  User IP flow ID, or other information relating to UE IP address

   *  DL/UL capabilities

   *  A list of QoS requirements and conditions including: Priority, Min
      bandwidth, Max bandwidth, delay threshold



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   For step 2a, the corresponding notification/data update can be
   included regarding subscribed QoS parameters and conditions in step
   1.

   *  User IP flow ID, or other information relating to UE IP address

   *  DL/UL capabilities

   *  A list of QoS requirements and conditions including: Priority,
      current bandwidth or current delay

6.2.3.  Time constraints on ALTO-provided Cellular Network Information

   The main constraint when conveying ALTO information is speed.  When a
   significant change occurs in the RAN it should be ideally be notified
   to an application in real-time.  As this is not feasible with ALTO,
   it is necessary to specify constraints such as: acceptable
   notification delay, maximum delay beyond which the application
   performance would get degraded, parameters defining an acceptable
   degradation.

   A typical example is as follows.  The default measurement time for
   the guaranteed bit rate is 2000ms, and the maximum rate of
   notification is 1 time every 2 seconds in the case of data rate
   fluctuation.  This causes too much latency for low latency (lower
   than 10ms) and/or high date rate (higher than 20mbps) services such
   as cloud gaming.  But it is acceptable for normal latency (e.g.
   higher than 150ms) and normal data rate (lower than 5mbps) services.
   The measurement time can be changed to 500ms or 200ms to improve the
   response time, but the total number of notifications should not
   increase too much.  That is, the total number of notification times
   should be the same level with the measurement time = 2000ms in a long
   time span such as 1 hour.

   As opposed to fixed networks for which ALTO was initially specified,
   mobile networks, especially RAN have high traffic and network state
   dynamics.  ALTO is by no means expected to provide real-time
   information.  A careful design of 5G metrics abstraction and
   hysteresis thresholds triggering ALTO notifications is necessary.
   The resulting non-real time but highly dynamic ALTO information can
   reduce the volume of data exchanged with the applications and in some
   extent facilitate anticipation and reduce oscillations.









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6.2.4.  ALTO notifications to non-GBR as well as GBR traffic

   In 5G networks, notifications to CGS are currently sent only for
   Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) traffic whereas they should be for non-GBR
   traffic as well.  In practice nothing prevents an ALTO Server to do
   so.  To this end, the ALTO Server needs to have the necessary
   identifiers of the IP flow that is impacted by the network conditions
   (or QoS level) change.

7.  Acknowledgements


8.  IANA Considerations

   This draft includes no request to IANA.

9.  Security Considerations

   FUTURE VERSIONS: TBC

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [min_ref]  authSurName, authInitials., "Minimal Reference", 2006.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

10.2.  Informative References

   [DOMINATION]
              Mad Dominators, Inc., "Ultimate Plan for Taking Over the
              World", 1984, <http://www.example.com/dominator.html>.

   [RFC2629]  Rose, M., "Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML", RFC 2629,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2629, June 1999,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2629>.

   [RFC3552]  Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing RFC
              Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72, RFC 3552,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3552, July 2003,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3552>.






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   [RFC5226]  Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
              IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", RFC 5226,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5226, May 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5226>.

Appendix A.  Additional Stuff

   This becomes an Appendix.

Authors' Addresses

   Li Gang
   China Mobile Research Institute
   Beijing
   China

   Email: ligangyf@chinamobile.com


   Sabine Randriamasy
   Nokia Bell Labs
   Nozay
   France

   Email: sabine.randriamasy@nokia-bell-labs.com


   Chunshan Xiong
   Tencent
   Beijing
   China

   Email: chunshxiong@tencent.com


















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