Internet DRAFT - draft-mueller-ila-mobility

draft-mueller-ila-mobility



 



INTERNET-DRAFT                                                J. Mueller
Intended Status: Informational                              AT&T Foundry
Expires: August 07, 2017                                      T. Herbert
                                                                Facebook
                                                       February 07, 2017

        Mobility Management Using Identifier Locator Addressing
                     draft-mueller-ila-mobility-03


Abstract

   This specification describes a new mobile network architecture which
   improves mobility management using Identifier Locator Addressing ILA)
   in IPv6 for next generation mobile telecommunication networks such as
   5G and Mobile Edge Clouds. Identifier-locator addressing
   differentiates between location and identity of a addressable network
   element, which can be a mobile device or a data center task. The
   approach presented in this draft enables mobility management on Layer
   3, and provides a simplified, GTP-tunnel-free and more efficient
   architecture with less core network utilization compared to
   traditional architecture.


Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF 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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   http://www.ietf.org/1id-abstracts.html

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html


Copyright and License Notice

 


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   Copyright (c) 2016 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
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document. Please review these documents
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   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 and Problem Statement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.1. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   2. Related Work, Protocols and Concepts  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     2.1. Mobile IPv6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     2.2. Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     2.3. Host Identity Protocol (HIP)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     2.4. Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     2.5. Identifier-Locator Addressing (ILA) . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     2.6. Comparison of ILA to alternative approaches . . . . . . . .  8
       2.6.1. Identifier Locator Network Protocol (ILNP)  . . . . . .  8
       2.6.2. Locator Identifier Separation Protocol  . . . . . . . .  8
   3. Mobility Management Architectures Using ILA . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.1. Address format for ILA mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.2. Architecture with Functional Elements and Reference
          Points  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.3. Functional Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     3.4. Signaling and Data Flows  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       3.5.1. Provisioning  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       3.5.2. Attachment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       3.5.3. Communication Scenarios for End-to-End Data Transport
              Sessions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       3.5.4. Homogeneous Handover  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       3.5.5. Heterogeneous Handover  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       3.5.6. Detachment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
       3.5.6. Idle-mode and paging  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
   4. Discussion, Evaluation and Summary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
   5. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     5.1. Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     5.2. Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

 


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1. Introduction and Problem Statement

   The Internet Protocol (IP) has been overloaded in its functionality
   in the sense that it has been used as service locator and service
   identifier at the same time. Since changes of the associated IP
   address during a connection-oriented TCP session causes service
   interruptions, mobility has become a challenge. Mobility has been a
   challenge for IP based network since the area of smart phones began
   and has been addressed with Layer 2 and Layer 3 tunneling solutions.
   More specifically, uplink and downlink data traffic is encapsulated
   with GPRS-Tunneling-Protocol (GTP) headers, which are routed through
   the core network between the service and the base stations. One big
   challenge of client mobility is to ensure seamless and transparent
   mobility (e.g. IP address preservation) for mobile devices among
   different geographical locations and in between several Radio Access
   Technologies. Due to the deployment of micro-service architectures,
   another dimension in the complexity of mobility occurs. Single IP
   addressable tasks might change their physical location within a
   (virtualized) data center architecture as well. Therefore, mobility
   on both ends of the End-to-End (E2E) connection can be observed.
   Hereby, mobility requires a large number of service registry (e.g.
   DNS) updates and the state synchronizations between registries
   perhaps located in different (geographical) locations. In regard to
   current research and development on next generation mobile broadband
   networks (such as Mobile Edge Cloud and 5G), key requirements such as
   high-availability, low-latency and ultra-high-bandwidth are required
   to ensure the reachability of the massive number of communicating
   instances including from cellular communications, high-definition
   multimedia streaming, Internet-of-Things (IoT), critical
   infrastructures, etc.

   This specification describes a new mobile network architecture which
   improves mobility management using Identifier Locator Addressing ILA)
   ([nvo3]) in IPv6 for next generation (virtualized) fixed and mobile
   telecommunication networks such as 5G and Mobile Edge Clouds. ILA
   shares many properties of the Identifier-Locator Network Protocol
   (ILNP) ([RFC6740], [RFC6741]) which is also a protocol that perform
   identifier locator split in IPv6 addresses. Identifier-locator
   addressing differentiates between location and identity of a
   addressable network element, which can be a mobile device or a data
   center task. A network architecture aligned on 3GPP is presented
   which evolves existing policy, charging and mobility concepts and
   substitutes GTP tunnels with ILA and therefore, improves mobility,
   latency, and service placement closer to the edge of the network.

   The key advantages of the presented ILA mobility solution are:

      1) Backwards-compatibility within existing IPv6 network
 


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         architectures such as the AT&T network,
      2) Enablement of ultra-low-latency Mobile-Edge-Cloud (MEC)
         services by locating services closer at the network edge,
      3) GTP-Tunnel-free and flatter architecture with less protocol
         overhead and less hops on the end-to-end path,
      4) Reduce complexity by merging data plane gateways into a single
         gateway,
      5) Proven applicability of ILA within the Facebook data centers
         and related networks at scale.

1.1. Terminology

   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].

   The following terminology will be referred to in the document.

   * SIR: As defined in ([nvo3ila]): "In order to maintain compatibility
     with existing networking stacks and applications, identifiers are
     encoded in IPv6 addresses using a standard identifier
     representation (SIR) address. A SIR address is a combination of a
     prefix which occupies what would be the locator portion of an ILA
     address, and the identifier in its usual location."

   * SIR: Standard Interface Representation.

   * SIR Prefix: A sixty-four bit network prefix used to identify a SIR
     address.

   * SIR Address: An IPv6 address composed of a SIR prefix (upper sixty-
     four bits) and an identifier (lower sixty-four bits). SIR addresses
     are visible to applications and provide a means to address nodes
     independent of their location.

   * ILA Identifier (ID): An identifier that identifies an addressable
     element in the network independent of its location and type. ILA
     identifiers are sixty-four bit values. An ID can be generated on a
     per session basis with the effect to secure the privacy of the end
     point. The International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) or the
     International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) can be used for ID
     generation. The ID is comparable with the Globally Unique Temporary
     UE Identity (GUTI) in the mobile space.

   * ILA Locator (LOC): A network prefix that routes to a physical host.
     Locators provide the topological location of an addressed node. The
     locator is represented in the prefix of the SIR address.

 


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   * ILA Host: An end host that is capable of performing ILA
     translations for both sending and receiving. An ILA host uses the
     ILA resolver protocol to get identifier to locator mappings for
     destinations in communication.

   * ILA Router: A network device that performs ILA translations and
     packet forwarding. ILA router participate in distribution protocol
     mapping.

   * ILA Node: A network node capable of performing ILA translations.
     This can be an ILA router or ILA host.

   * User Equipment (UE): A device with an identifier such as a mobile
     phone, IoT gateway or another SIM equipped mobile device.

   * Access Point (AP) and Base Station (BS): A edge network element
     such as evolved-NodeB (eNB) in 4G that bridges the radio network
     and fixed network.

   * Gateway (GW): A central network element such as Serving-Gateway
     (SWG) or Packet-Data-Network-Gateway (PGW) in 4G.

   * Application Function (AF): The AF refers to the 3GPP terminology
     and stands for any IP addressable endpoint such as service or task.

   * EXA: An Internet routable prefix, may be use as a SIR

2. Related Work, Protocols and Concepts

   This section provides an overview on the state-of-the-art on
   protocols and concepts for mobility management on mobile networks. In
   particular the 4th Generation (4G) of mobile telecommunication
   networks has been taken into account for this draft on functional and
   conceptual comparison.

2.1. Mobile IPv6

   The IETF specified the Mobile IPv6 ([MIPv6]) protocol to ensure
   connectivity and reachability in case of client mobility within an
   IPv6 network. Mobility within a MIPv6 network is solved by assigning
   an additional IPv6 address - the Care-of-Address (CoA) - next to the
   current IPv6 address that as been assigned in the home network.
   Therefore a UE is equipped with a home address together with a
   primary CoA in case of foreign network attachment. IPv6 is classified
   as host-based mobility protocol, due to the fact that the UE is in
   charge of announcing its mobility to the network. In particular it is
   the client's responsibility for sending binding updates to the Home
   Agent (HA). In order to ensure reachability, the UE communicates its
 


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   new assigned CoA(s) to the HA, which acts as a router and registrar
   for UEs. Connection requests are intercepted and re-routed in case
   CoA entries for a UE exists. A tunnel is established between the UE
   at the CoA and the HA for securely exchanging packets. By default,
   the first packet is routed from the correspondent UE towards the CoA
   of the UE via the HA. This route is not always the shortest path. All
   consecutive packets of the same data stream will follow on the same
   path, which might include a detour, but hides the new location of the
   UE for privacy reasons. The feature of route optimization allows the
   UE to directly contact the correspondent UE, therefore cuts out the
   HA from the communication path and forwards packets on a shorter
   route. Security of the Mobile IPv6 is enhanced through IPSec for
   binding updates to avoid spoofing of CoA for a UE.

2.2. Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6)

   The IETF specified PMIPv6 ([PMIPv6]) provides network-based mobility
   management for UEs and extends the Mobile IPv6 in the way, that host-
   based mobility management functionalities in Mobile IPv6 are excluded
   from the client into the network. Hereby, the Local Mobility Anchor
   (LMA) acts as topological anchor point and manages the UE's binding
   state. The Mobile Access Gateway (MAG) manages mobility-related
   signaling on behalf of the UE at the access router. It is responsible
   for tracking the UE's movements to and from the access link for
   signaling the UE's local mobility anchor.

2.3. Host Identity Protocol (HIP)

   HIP ([hip]) is providing a secure solution for identifier/locator-
   split by adding a new host identity layer into the protocol stack. A
   cryptographic namespace build upon a host identity as public key
   allows scalability and multi-homing within the network. An extension
   of DNS supports rendezvous server functionality for secure host
   identity lookup. A secure channel is establishment over Diffie-
   Hellmann-key exchange between two communicating entities. The
   communication setup is considered as robust against DOS, due to a
   riddle solved at the requestor side. On the other side a high
   overhead for the secure communication establishment due to key
   exchange has to be taken into consideration. HIP requires an
   additional protocol layer between L2 and L3 for encapsulation.

2.4. Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP)

   LISP is a network-layer-based protocol that enables separation of IP
   addresses into two new numbering spaces: Endpoint Identifiers (EIDs)
   and Routing Locators (RLOCs). Tunnel router encapsulates and
   encapsulates packets.

 


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2.5. Identifier-Locator Addressing (ILA)

   ILA is outlined in detail in ([nvo3]), ([nvo3ila]) as well as in this
   document. In a nutshell, the concept of ILA splits IPv6 addresses
   into a locator and an identifier, eliminates the need for tunneling
   and therefore reduces the header size. ILA routers create and
   maintain a mapping table of identifiers of locators.

2.6. Comparison of ILA to alternative approaches

   This section compares the ILA approach to some alternatives that have
   been discussed in 5gangip list.

2.6.1. Identifier Locator Network Protocol (ILNP)

   ILNP ([rfc6741]) is an experimental protocol that splits and IPv6
   address into a locator and identifier. ILA is fundamentally based on
   ILNP.

   The key differences between ILA and ILNP are:

      * ILNP requires changes to the transport layer. This limits ILNP
        to be used only on hosts and every transport protocol
        implementation would need to be modified to use ILNP. Presumably
        to overcome the limitation above, some sort of ILNP proxy could
        be defined to perform ILNP in a middle-box.

      * ILA does not require changes to the transport layer.

      * Checksum neutral translation means that transport layer does not
        need to be parsed to perform ILA. This also ensures that
        existing device offloads (like checksum offload) work
        seamlessly.

      * ILNP employs IPv6 extension headers which are mostly considered
        non-deployable. ILA does not use these.

      * Core support for ILA is in upstream Linux, to date there is no
        publicly available source code for ILNP.

      * ILNP involves DNS to distribute mapping information, ILA assumes
        mapping information is not part of naming.

2.6.2. Locator Identifier Separation Protocol

   Locator Identifier Separation Protocol (LISP ([rfc6830)) is an IP
   encapsulation protocol where the destination address in the outer IP
   header is a locator and the destination address in the inner header
 


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   is an identifier.

   The key differences between ILA and LISP are:

      * ILA is not encapsulation so there is no associated encapsulation
        overhead. For instance IPv6/IPv6 in LISP would have fifty-six
        bytes of overhead whereas ILA translation has zero.

      * LISP may not work with some network device offloads whereas ILA
        works with all stateless offloads (ILA is transparent to the
        network so that it would just see TCP/IP packets for instance).

      * ILA has been accepted into Linux, LISP has not been accepted.

      * ILA can run either on end hosts (ILA hosts) or in the network
        (ILA routers). ILA maintain a cache of identifier to locator
        mappings.

      * ILA defines locators and identifiers to be sixty-four bits
        whereas LISP allows them to be full 128 bit addresses increasing
        the memory needed in mapping table.

      * The process of ILA translation is much more efficient than
        performing LISP. The translation path is:

        1) Parse IP header and extract the destination address

        2) Lookup destination in a hash table (obviated with cached
           route for ILA hosts)

        3) Write new destination address (16 byte copy)

        4) Forward to new destination (or receive at final destination).

        5) At the final destination, a reverse translation is performed
           to restore the originally sent address.

   LISP processing is more involved. To do encapsulation:

        1) An outer IP header, UDP header and LISP header need to be
           inserted in the packet. Tunnel fragmentation and MTU need to
           be considered [RFCXXXX] (i.e. increasing the size of a packet
           may exceed tunnel MTU).

        2) At the remote tunnel end point, the outer IP header must be
           validated and a lookup done on the destination address to see
           if it is a local address. A lookup must be done on the
           destination UDP port to find that it is a LISP port. If the
 


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           UDP checksum is not zero that must also be validated.

        3) The LISP header must is processed and validated.

        4) Once the encapsulation is verified, the headers are removed
           and the inner packet is either forwarded or received.

3. Mobility Management Architectures Using ILA

   This section outlines the ILA protocol structure and architecture
   supporting ILA in mobile networks. The main functional blocks for
   connectivity, mobility support, security and charging are presented.
   Message flows for basic use cases executed by the mobile UE such as
   attachment, data transport with session handover and detachment are
   outlined.

3.1. Address format for ILA mobile

   The address format is derived out of the ILA draft in ([nvo3]) and is
   used without modifications in this draft.

   The IPv6 canonical address format is:

   	+-----------------------------+-------------------------+
   	|           64 bits           |           64 bits       |
   	+-----------------------------+-------------------------+
   	| IPv6 Unicast Routing Prefix |  Interface Identifier   |
   	+-----------------------------+-------------------------+

   The address format using ILA is:

   	+--------------------------------------------------------+
   	|            64 bits         |3 bits|1|    60 bits       |
   	+-----------------------------+--------------------------+
   	|          Locator           | Type |C|    Identifier    |
   	+--------------------------------------------------------+

   The C bit is used to indicate that checksum-neutral mapping has been
   performed ([nvo3]).

3.2. Architecture with Functional Elements and Reference Points

   The presented architecture in Fig 1 is aligned on the 3GPP Evolved
   Packet System (EPS) ([23401], [23402]) following the separation of
   control plane and data plane. Whereas 3GPP EPS addresses mobility
   through Layer 3 tunneling with GTP, this approach provides a Layer 3
   mobility approach utilizing the ILA concepts for mobility without
   tunnels.
 


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            +--------------------+ +--------------------+
            |    Access Network  | |  Policy Charging   |
     +------+    Discovery and   +-+ and Rules Function |
     |      | Selection Function | |                    |
     |      +------------+-------+ +---------+-----+----+
     |                   |                   |     |   
     |                   |                   |     |   
     |            +------+-----+   +---------+--+  |   
     |            |  Mobility  |   |    Home    |  |   
     |            | Management +---+ Subscriber |  |   
     |            |   Entity   |   |   Server   |  |  
     |            +-----+------+   +------------+  |  
     |                  |                          |  
     |                  +--------------------------+--+
     |                  |                             |
     |          +-------+-------------+               |
     |          |                     |               |
   +-+--+    +--+-----------+    +----+----+    +-----+------+
   | UE |====| Base Station |====| Gateway |====| IP Service |
   +----+    +--------------+    +---------+    +------------+

   	Fig 1: ILA-Based Architecture for Improved Mobility

   Similarities between this new mobile network architecture and the
   3GPP EPS are:
      1) Split control and data plane.
      2) Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) architecture
         and interfaces.
      3) Network-based mobility management using Access Network
         Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF).
      4) Home Subscriber Service (HSS) for managing and control dynamic
         and static user profile information.

   Differences between this new mobile network architecture and the 3GPP
   EPS are:
      1) Combined gateways and aggregated data plane functions within a
         single gateway.
      2) Interfaces between the PCRF and ANDSF, HSS.
      3) Enhanced mobility support as further outlined in 3.5.3.
         Communication Scenarios for End-to-End Data Transport Sessions.
      4) Localized traffic handling within the Base Station to transport
         traffic among associated clients without core network
         involvement.
      5) The associated network address is an ILA IPv6 address


   +--------+                                                +--------+
   | Mobile +-+                                         +----| Mobile |
 


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   | Node 1 | |                                        (')   | Node 3 |
   +--------+ |            ................           (   )  +--------+
              |  +---+--+  .              .  +---+--+  (_)
              |  | ILA  |--.     IPv6     .--| ILA  |   |
              +--|router|  .    Network   .  |router|---+
                 +---+--+  .              .  +---+--+
                  /        .              .
                 /         . Ipv6 Overlay .   +--+-++--------+
   +--------+   /          .    Network   .   | ILA|| Mobile |
   | Mobile +--+           .              .- -|host|| Node 4 |
   | Node 2 |              .              .   +--+-++--------+
   +--------+              ................

   	Fig 2: Distributed ILA Network Architecture [nvo3ila]

3.3. Functional Elements

   This subsection summarizes the key functional elements of the ILA
   based mobility architecture.

   * The User Equipment (UE) is the SIM enabled mobile device (cellular,
   gateway, etc.) executing services such as apps on the device, binding
   apps to the ID as communication endpoints, handling the bindings of
   all associated LOC/ID's and performing mobility as described below.
   The UE performs security related functions via its (embedded) SIM
   handling at least one or multiple identifiers provisioned by one or
   multiple network operators. Security related functions include
   authentication of the UE towards the network (more specifically the
   BS) and certificate management for establishing secure transport
   connections. Either the UE supports IPv6 or ILA for handling locator
   and ID bindings and updates or the network is handling ILA
   functionality on behalf of the UE. Storage and management of multiple
   locators for multi-path and multi-homing is supported by the UE.

   * The Base Station (BS) or Access Point (AP) are the first point of
   contact from the UE when attaching over radio to the network. Its
   main purpose are routing, gating and forwarding data and control
   packets. The Radio Access Technology (RAT) is independent of the
   proposed concept and therefore out of scope of this document. 3G, 4G,
   5G or WiFi are applicable RATs for the presented architecture. The BS
   is also capable of caching of content and state as close as possible
   to the user at the edge of the network. Another aspect of the cache
   is to support transparent handovers, during which buffering of
   packets at the target BS is required. Therefore, an X2-like
   connection between BSs is required. The BS supports a support a
   policy enforcement function (PEF) as well as a Event Reporting
   Function (ERF) aligned on the 3GPP defined Policy Control and
   Charging (PCC) functionality for the EPS in ([23203], [29212]).
 


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   Uplink QoS management is handled by the BS, too. In order to
   differentiate between multiple types of data traffic, signaling,
   high-priority, real-time and non-real-time connections can be
   distinguished and the order of packet processing in the BS can be
   influenced for uplink. The same concept applies for downlink in the
   GW. Forward Error Correction (FEC), IP header compression, encryption
   of user data stream are supported by the BS, too. Traffic filtering,
   gating, legal interception on the BS, to include the case, in which
   traffic re-routed only by the BS and is not traversing the GW.

   * The Gateway (GW) encompasses data and control traffic related
   functions. Its main purpose is routing, gating and forwarding data
   and control packets. Therefore functionalities such as downlink QoS
   enforcement, APN management and charging is performed by each GW.

   * The Application Function (AF) or IP Service are an examples of any
   IP addressable service in network. Other than in the 3GPP defined
   architecture, the IP service does not need to reside in the SGi LAN
   reachable only after terminating the GTP tunnel in the PGW.
   Furthermore services can be reached directly after the RAN connection
   is terminated within the BS.

   * The Mobility Management Entity (MME) handles the initial
   authentication, authorization and mobility management of UE's over
   the control plane. The MME is responsible for tracking the UE's
   mobility and is in charge for updating the registries with near real-
   time status updates for LOC/ID mapping. ID and LOC assignment are
   performed by the MME.

   * The Home Subscriber Server (HSS) stores and manages user profile
   information. These include the static information such as the
   assigned ID, security credentials as well as dynamic information LOC
   and the current Tracking Area.

   * The Policy Charging and Rules Function (PCRF) controls data flows
   in the network architecture according to pre-defined rules. Such
   rules can be created by the network operator such as rate limiting or
   traffic shaping. Other rules differentiate between class of services
   for various traffic flow types identified on their Traffic Flow
   Template (TFT) characteristics such as source, destination, port and
   protocol information. The PCRF is handling charging for traffic flows
   using online (pre-paid) and offline (post-paid) charging. Both
   charging modes include a modes of operations with metrics such as
   service invocations, online time, data transferred, or no-charging.
   Out of credit events may influence the current connectivity for
   online charging, whereas offline charging is accumulating charging
   records which are usually processed in a monthly period.

 


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   * The Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) is an
   operator controlled database used for mapping the user location with
   available (radio) access networks. With this information, the ANDSF
   is capable of signaling suggestions for handovers to UE's. A UE is
   therefore able to operate only on one interface at a time to save
   resources. In case of the availability of adjacent RAT and after
   reception of a handover suggestion from the ANDSF, the UE is able to
   enable the suggested interface, perform a scan and finally decide
   whether or not to attach to the new targeted RAT. The database can be
   filled using device monitoring/telemetry statistics signaled from the
   UE to the network or by active measurements of the environment.

3.4. Signaling and Data Flows

3.5.1. Provisioning

   A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-card is provisioned by the network
   operator with a unique and secure identifier that is comparable to
   the IMSI in 3GPP telco architectures (2G, 3G and 4G). This draft does
   not differentiate between a physical or an embedded SIM. In addition,
   security credentials and preferred network identifier are provisioned
   for authentication as well as network selection are provisioned. The
   matching information to the SIM card is stored in the HSS.

3.5.2. Attachment

   After powering on the device, a scan for available radio networks is
   performed on the device, which selects the initial network (e.g. with
   the strongest signal) and performs a network attachment procedure
   aligned on ([23401], [23401]) towards the BS using security
   parameters, ID, last MME associated with (GUMMEI) and last GUTI
   assigned by MME with ID GUMMEI - the Packet Temporary International
   Mobile Subscriber Identity (M-TSMI). A secure identifier on the SIM
   is used to generate a temporary ID (the ILA ID), which is only valid
   for one session, hides the privacy of the UE in the network and
   unambiguously identifies the UE within the global network. This ID is
   used for identification, authentication, authorization and charging
   purposes.

   For each network attachment, and due to privacy concerns for not
   revealing the identify of the UE towards the public, a new unique and
   temporary ID is generated. This ID is valid for a single session and
   is renewed afterwards.

   The BS derives the last MME association out of the network attachment
   request sent by the UE and queries the last or a new MME based on
   availability of information for UE authentication. The MME performs a
   lookup in the user database of the network operator, which is the
 


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   Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and/or Home Location Register (HLR) and
   receives a profile in return. Hereby the MME is able to query the
   mapping database for existing mappings or to retrieve a unique ID for
   the UE.

   In the following, the MME selects and configures the BS and GW
   according to the profile received and signals the profile including
   the ID towards the BSs of a certain tracking area and GW.

   The BS allocates a LOC for the UE, binds the ID-LOC combination
   locally in a cache, publishes its binding in the MME/NVA and signals
   the ID-LOC towards the client.

   Quality of Service (QoS) and charging related policies are installed
   in the BS and GW. The BS handled uplink and the GW downlink related
   traffic shaping functions. Charging can be performed in both
   functional elements (BS or GW), whereas a centralized charging in
   case of multi-path streaming is preferred.

   After the successful attachment, a service can be invoked.

3.5.3. Communication Scenarios for End-to-End Data Transport Sessions

   After the successful attachment, applications can start communicating
   in the network using its assigned ILA by constructing IPv6 packets
   with the SIR source information (ID+LOC) and the mandatory target ID.
   The target LOC can be either set directly or can be defined as a
   broadcast message, in which the target LOC will be determined at the
   edge of the target.

   The following main high level use cases have been defined. The use
   cases can be distinguished into the following cases:
        1) UE accessing a service in the AF,
        2) UE is communicating with another UE attached to a different
   base station via a gateway,
        3) UE is communicating with another UE attached to a different
   base station,
        4) UE is communicating with another UE attached to the same base
   station,
        5) Mobile Edge Cloud for localized traffic handling and low-
   latency communication,
        6) Gateway mobility for enhanced mobility use cases

   The example use cases are outlined below in details and the
   differences compared to today's networks are discussed. Fig. 3
   depicts the network elements and control and data flows related to
   those use cases. The communication form can be multicast, broadcast,
   anycast or unicast.
 


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   +------------+
   |    UE 1    |
   | +--------+ +---+
   | | Task 1 | |   |                       +------------+
   | +--------+ |   |   +------+   +----+   |  Host H1   |
   +------------+   |   |      |   |    |   | +--------+ |
                    +---+ BS A +---+ GW +---+ | Task 0 | |
   +------------+   |   |      |   |    |   | +--------+ |
   |    UE 2    |   |   +------+   +-+--+   +------------+
   | +--------+ +---+              |
   | | Task 2 | |                  |
   | +--------+ |                  |
   +------------+                  |
                                   |
   +------------+       +------+   |
   |    UE 3    |       |      |   |
   | +--------+ +-------+ BS B +---+
   | | Task 3 | |       |      |
   | +--------+ |       +------+
   +------------+

   	Fig 3: UE attachment over multiple base stations

     1) E2E connection between the UE to AF (Task to Internet)

   Considering a communication scenario in which a UE (source) queries a
   web site (target) e.g. "http://about.att.com/innovation/foundry" in a
   browser represented by T1.


        SIR:T1,Iaddr ->   // Transport endpoints at T1
        L1:T1,Iaddr ->    // On the wire in data center
        EXA:T1,Iaddr      // In the Internet

   The request is forwarded to the BS, which performs ILA router
   functionality. In case a broadcast address has been selected as a
   target LOC, a cache lookup in a local lookup table is performed.
   Depending on finding an entry in the local cached lookup table, the
   routing is influenced and the packet is redirected. Otherwise the
   packet is routed on to the destination ILA SIR address (LOC/ID).

     2) UE 1 to UE 3 are attached to distinct BSs via gateway

   Considering a communication scenario in which one task (T1) mobile
   device of UE 1 is contacting a second task (T3) on mobile device of
   UE 3. Both UEs are connected to different BSs. ILA routing is done in
   the BS.

 


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   The transport endpoints for task to task between UE's communication
   are the SIR addresses for the tasks. When a packet is transported
   through the ILA network, the locators are set in source and
   destination addresses of the packet. On reception the source and
   destination addresses are converted back to SIR representations for
   processing at the transport layer.

   If task T1 on UE 1 is communicating with task T3 on UE 3, the ILA
   translation sequence would be:

        SIR:T1,SIR:T3 ->  // Transport endpoints on T1
        UE1:T1,UE3:T3 ->  // ILA used on the wire
        SIR:T1,SIR:T3     // Received at T3

     3) UE 1 to UE 2 are attached to distinct but interconnected BSs An
   extension of the scenario will happen, when If task T1 on UE1 is
   communicating with task T2 on UE 2 via interconnected BSs, the ILA
   translation sequence would be:

        SIR:T1,SIR:T2 ->   // Transport endpoints on T1
        UE1:T1,UE2:T2 ->   // ILA used on the wire
        SIR:T1,SIR:T2      // Received at T2

     4) UE 1 to UE 2 attached to the same BS

   Considering a communication scenario in which two communicating
   entities are attached to the same BS and therefore are in close
   proximity. The solution for routing traffic in today's network is the
   establishment of the data path from the UE over the access network
   (e.g. eNB) through the core network (e.g. EPC) into the AF (any IP
   addressable service or task) and backwards to the access network and
   finally terminated at the UE. Charging needs to be performed in the
   BS for this data flow. This communication pattern in today's networks
   creates a delay caused by the bearer concept of 3GPP network, which
   encapsulate and de-capsulate data in GTP-tunnels between the eNB and
   the PGW.

   A practical use case is the communication between autonomous vehicles
   (e.g. self-driving cars or self-organized and autonomous drone
   swarms) through a telecommunication infrastructure. A very low delay
   is required for the interaction and precise management. In order to
   reach such a low delay, the communication needs to stay local in
   order to result in a low delay.

   The presented solution on ILA mobility allows to keep traffic local
   for the case in which the communicating parties attached to the same
   BS.

 


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   Due to a lower amount of hops between UE 1 and UE 2, a lower latency
   can be achieved which results in a lower delay.

     5) Low-latency Mobile Edge Cloud (MEC) Service

   Considering a use case in which a UE is accessing a service with
   ultra-low latency requirements in the network such as image
   recognition, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) or other 5G
   low-latency and/or high throughput services. Other examples include
   vehicle control (drone or fleet management, traffic information,
   robot or power grid). In order to provide a high quality of
   experience for the user and customer, latency in the communication
   between the mobile device and the service has to be reduced in order
   to achieve a lower delay. Where multimedia streaming has an
   acceptable latency requirement of ~100ms, ultra-low latency services
   have strict requirements on the communication with under ~10ms or
   even close to 1ms. Classic cloud approaches that concentrate services
   centralized in the network are not applicable for ultra-low delay
   services due to the fact, that E2E latency is even too high.
   Violations of latency requirements result in motion sickness for VR
   users, outdated traffic information for autonomous self-driving cars,
   accidents with robotics in factories and the development of a new
   type of MEC services is hindered.

   Therefore, a request is created and addressed with the source LOC/ID
   and targeted towards the destination LOC/ID.

   +------------+            +------------+            +------------+
   |    UE 1    |            |     MEC    |            |   Host H1  |
   | +--------+ |            | +--------+ |            | +--------+ | 
   | | Task 1 | |   +----+   | | Task 2 | |   +----+   | | Task 0 | |
   | +--------+ |   | BS |   | +--------+ |   | GW |   | +--------+ |
   +------------+---+----+---+------------+---+----+---+------------+

   	Fig 4: Mobile Edge Computing architecture with ILA

   The innovative point in this use case depicted in Fig. 4 is the fact
   that the URL invocation may result in a redirect to a local service
   or content rather then a remote object. Hereby, the request may
   trigger a (third party) service or content deployment at the network
   edge instructed by the MEC_orchestrator and a policy decision. The
   policy decision is the outcome of the reasoning process within the
   MEC_orchestrator which takes context, user behavior, system load
   (throughput, latency, packet-loss, etc.), network topology map,
   distance between UE and service measured in hops, and other available
   metrics into account. Geographical load-balancing is therefore
   possible and enabled. Even when the first set packets of the
   connection are exchanged with a remote service over a longer
 


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   geographical network distance, a context handover during the active
   session away from the remote and towards a closer service instance
   (out of the same type or load-balancing group) can be applied.

   In case service, task or content are available in MEC, ILA
   translation on the wire at the BS changes the locator to the closest
   point of presence. The following ILA steps are performed.

        SIR:T1,Iaddr_T0 -> // Transport endpoints at T1 invokes Task 0 (T0)
        L1:T1,Iaddr_T2 ->  // Optional ILA translation from T0 to T2
        EXA:T1,Iaddr       // In mobile edge cloud data center

   Finally, the number of hops between UE and AF are reduced and a lower
   delay on the data path is achieved. Otherwise, in case the Edge Cloud
   capabilities cannot be utilized, basic routing is applied as outlined
   example 1) E2E connection between the UE to AF (Task to Internet)
   above.

     6) Base Station or Gateway Mobility This use case covers situations
   in which the user stays connected to a BS but the core network is
   mobile and changes its location and connectivity to the
   service/Application Function. One example would be a BS that is
   attached to a vehicle (drone, car/bus, train, cargo ship, etc). The
   user facing side provides cellular service, backhaul is either WLAN,
   satellite, laser, MMWave or temporary a fixed connection. The AF
   facing side changes connection with each change of a transport
   connection such as WiFi, cellular or satellite.

   Gateway mobility requires the update of forwarding entries in related
   BS and AF to continuously forward the packets on the data path.

   The network setup is depicted in Fig.5 and Fig. 6 with both gateways
   (GW 1 and GW 2) both have connections to the same BS and AF.

                                               +------------+
                        +------+   +------+    |  Host H1   |
                        |      |   |      |    | +--------+ |
                    +---+ BS A +---+ GW 1 |+---+ | Task 0 | |
   +------------+   |   |      |   |      |    | +--------+ |
   |    UE 1    |   |   +------+   +------+    +-----+------+
   | +--------+ +---+                                |
   | | Task 1 | |                  +------+          |
   | +--------+ |                  |      |          |
   +------------+                  | GW 2 +----------+
                                   |      |
                                   +------+

   	Fig 5: Gateway mobility with attached UE via GW 1
 


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   The difference between Fig. 5 and Fig.6 is that BS A changes its
   association with the network by handing over its connectivity from GW
   1 towards GW 2. Due to the use of ILA, and the related address-space
   translation capabilities, no GTP tunnels need to be updated and only
   the address translation between the gateway and the service space is
   updated. All attached UE's preserve their ILA IPv6 address and
   continue to be addressable in the network.

                                               +------------+
                                   +------+    |  Host H1   |
                                   |      |    | +--------+ |
                                   | GW 1 |+---+ | Task 0 | |
   +------------+                  |      |    | +--------+ |
   |    UE 1    |                  +------+    +-----+------+
   | +--------+ +---+                                |
   | | Task 1 | |   |                                |
   | +--------+ |   |   +------+   +------+          |      
   +------------+   |   |      |   |      |          |
                    +---+ BS A +---+ GW 2 +----------+
                        |      |   |      |
                        +------+   +------+

   	Fig 6: Gateway mobility with attached UE via GW 2


   Service interruptions may occur during the time of detaching from GW
   1 and attaching to GW 2 when using a single radio interface for
   wireless back hauling. The capabilities of the 3GPP MME are extended
   with the ability to select the target GW for the BS, management of
   the BS-GW handover by reserving resources on the target GW 2 and
   releasing resources on the source GW 1. GW 1 caches packets during
   handover and forwards them to GW 2 (in case a connection exist
   between them) until packets are transported on the new uplink and
   downlink paths.

3.5.4. Homogeneous Handover

   Client mobility in homogeneous networks is usually caused by physical
   location changes, changes in the received radio signal strength or
   network based handover due to network policies such as UE load
   balancing on the BSs.

   The status information (the list of signals received from adjacent
   BSs including their signal strength) signaled from the UE towards the
   BS enables positioning via triangulation as well as the selection of
   alternative BS's to which the UE may connect to alternatively.

   Reasons for handovers may be evacuation/preemption of resources on
 


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   the BS due to emergency scenarios or higher priority calls,
   UE/BS/service load balancing or physical mobility of the UE among the
   network. Current resource utilization (e.g. data rates) of the UE or
   historical traffic pattern may influence the handover and the BS
   selection process.

   Mainly the MME selects a target BS (BS_target) as target for the
   handover of the UE away from the current BS (BS_source). The decision
   is signaled to related BS's and the UE. BS_source starts de-
   allocating resource blocked by the UE and BS_target blocks resources
   required by the UE. Since most UE's are considered to have only a
   single RAT of each type (one WLAN or one LTE interface) an
   interruption in the connection while handover is to be expected. In
   order to avoid packet loss at the UE, buffering at the BS_target as
   well as packet forwarding from BS_source to BS_target are supported.
   Only after UE successfully establishes connectivity at the BS_target,
   previously blocked resources at BS_source are freed up, which are
   used as handover role-back in case of failure. Finally the MME
   announces the new ILA ID (BS_target_LOC)/ID for the UE as an update
   at GW and in the ILa registry.

   New incoming connections are forwarded directly towards the UE over
   BS_target using the proclaimed ILA ID (LOC/ID).

   Homogenous handovers with one radio technology interface supported
   have interruptions during the handover. Nevertheless those
   interruptions are relatively small due to techniques such as improved
   handovers in WiFi (802.11x, 802.11k, 802.11r, and 802.11v) or context
   handover via X2 in 4G.

3.5.5. Heterogeneous Handover

   Client mobility may involve various Radio Access Technologies (RAT),
   in which the client is handed off from RAT_1 to RAT_2. The client is
   not required to move physically for heterogeneous mobility. Instead
   measurements on the UE or suggestion from the network (signaled over
   the ANDSF) may trigger handovers to alternative networks even when
   the UE is physically not moving. Such a handover can be done between
   WiFi, 4G and 5G.

   Heterogeneous handovers are motivated for optimizing connectivity
   between UE and AF/service to move a multimedia connection with high
   bandwidth requirements from cellular (4G/5G) towards WLAN, a security
   sensitive bank transaction from WLAN towards cellular or simply a
   better transport-cost-per-bit-ratio.

   Heterogeneous (compared to homogenous) handovers may be performed
   seamlessly with establishing a second alternative connection in
 


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   parallel to the existing active connection and tearing down the old
   connection only, after successfully establishing the new connection.
   Usually this is possible, because more then one interface is
   available on the client, which can be used in parallel to establish
   connectivity in parallel. In order to provide higher bandwidth over
   multi-path, both connections may be kept open in parallel. In this
   regard, the MME adds another LOC'/ID as update to the existing entry
   LOC/ID in the registry on the gateways and DNS.

3.5.6. Detachment

   A detachment from the network can happen gracefully by shutting down
   the phone and de-registering it from the BS or suddenly due to a loss
   of connection. In both situations, a de-registration from the UE out
   of the list of active users attached to the BS is done directly or
   indirectly (after inactivity for a predefined time). Resource
   reservations are freed up again after detachment and opened up for
   other connections.

3.5.6. Idle-mode and paging

   Power saving methods are working transparent to the ILA mobility
   concept such as described in ([23401], [23402]). The device toggles
   from active to inactive mode in idle-mode in order to reduce the
   communication interval between device and antenna. Resource
   reservations in the network are kept alive in order to allow a fast
   weak-up and connection re-establishment caused by paging of the BS
   towards the device.

4. Discussion, Evaluation and Summary

   New low-delay services are appearing with AR/VR, drone communication,
   self-driving cars and robotic control that have new requirements on
   the network, which cannot be fulfilled by today's network and cloud
   architectures. New ultra-low latency is a key requirement on
   connectivity that is enabling a new services. One way of improving
   the End-to-End (E2E) connectivity is to substitute the underlying
   technology with a new generation and to improve the performance. Part
   of this improvement is described in Moore's-law, which highlights
   that the number of components per integrated circuit is doubling
   every 18 month. Another approach is to reduce the E2E latency by
   reducing the physical distance between device and service measured in
   number of hops and at the same time provide a backwards compatible
   solution for WiFi and 4G networks.

   This draft is addressing the above mentioned challenges and provides
   a solution in form of a new mobile network architecture based on
   Identifier-Location Addressing (ILA) mobility. ILA decouples the
 


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   identity from locator within an IPv6 address. Therefore mobility can
   be achieved by preserving the same ID at the endpoint and only
   adapting the locator used routing in case of mobility. The
   implications are improved mobility with less control signaling and a
   more efficient tunnel-free core network architecture. 

   ILA applied on mobile networks and the gained improved mobility
   enables multiple new and innovative use cases compared to legacy
   telecommunication networks. Summarizing, the above presented
   Communication Scenarios for data transport for an End-to-End session
   outlines ways to improve connectivity, optimize routing and enable a
   new type of service: Mobile Edge Cloud services. Firstly, the
   improved data path requires less hops to traverse between UE <-> AF
   enabled by Mobile Edge Computing or locally between UE_1 <-> UE_2 due
   to the flatter architecture. Secondly, less overhead is created due
   to the reduction of GTP tunnels between network elements. Thirdly,
   the presented approach of ILA mobility is backwards compatible with
   today's IPv6 based fixed and mobile telecommunication networks.


5. References

5.1. Normative References

   [rfc6741] Identifier-Locator Network Protocol (ILNP) Engineering
   Considerations, Jan 2013, https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6741

   [nvo3ila] Identifier-locator addressing for network virtualization,
   draft-herbert-nvo3-ila-02, Tom Herbert, Mar 2016,
   https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-herbert-nvo3-ila-02#page-17

5.2. Informative References

   [rfc6830] The Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP), D. Farinacci,
   Jan 2013

   [MIPv6], Mobility Support in IPv6, C. Perkins, Ed. et al., Jul 2011,
   https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6275

   [PMIPv6] S. Gundavelli, Ed. et al., Aug 2008,
   https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5213

   [23401] 3GPP TS 23.401 V13.7.0 (2016-06), General Packet Radio
   Service (GPRS) enhancements for Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio
   Access Network (E-UTRAN) access (Release 13)

   [23402] 3GPP TS 23.402 V14.0.0 (2016-06), Architecture enhancements
   for non-3GPP accesses (Release 14)
 


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   [23203] 3GPP TS 23.203 V14.0.0 (2016-06), Policy and charging control
   architecture (Release 14)

   [29212] 3GPP TS 29.212 V14.0.0 (2016-06), Policy and Charging Control
   (PCC); Reference points (Release 14)

Authors' Addresses


      Dr.-Ing. Julius Mueller
      260 Homer Ave
      Palo Alto, CA 94301
      US

      EMail: jmu@att.com
   and
      Tom Herbert
      Facebook
      1 Hacker Way
      Menlo Park, CA 94052
      US

      Email: tom@herbertland.com




























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