Proof of Concept: SDN Enabled Virtual EPC Gateway

Introduction

This PoC video demonstrates the capabilities of an SDN-enabled virtual EPC gateway that splits the control and user plane of the Serving and Packet Gateway elements. The user plane implementation is based on a programmable SDN fabric that interfaces with EPC Gateway VNFs through an API. By splitting the gateway in this manner it is possible to scale these components of the EPC independently and it also enables a range of deployment options. The SDN fabric that is used in the PoC can be deployed in a distributed fashion and supports a very high number of rules that can be manipulated at a considerably high OpenFlow transaction rate without loss of throughput. By extending this switch fabric and OpenFlow to support GTP and deploying it at both edge and central locations it is possible to implement a next gen 3GPP standards compliant EPC gateway that can selectively break out traffic as needed. The PoC shows that traffic flows associated with an endpoint that can be serviced from a CDN node can be identified and delivered closer to the edge while all the other traffic for the same endpoint is served from a centralized Gi facility. This allows the carriers to reduce backhaul costs for bandwidth-intensive applications as well as improve the quality of experience.

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Documentation
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Get in touch

Ajay Sahai, Product & Technical Marketing, HP ConteXtream
Ajay.sahai@hpe.com