With the evolution of next generation mobile architectures, the attention seems to be shifting to 5G New Radio. Actually, most people are focusing on how faster the network will be than today’s 4G access and what kind of bandwidth-intensive services that it can support. But looking into this newest mobile network, you can easily tell it will introduce radical changes in how mobile networks are designed.
To understand better how the 5G Core network will be different from today’s EPC, it is important to acquaint yourself with some of the 5G network functions it offers. Fortunately, that’s what this simple guide will help you figure out today. Keep reading to find out more!
User Plane Function (UPF)
The User Plane Function (UPF) emerges from Control and User Plane Separation (CUPS) strategies defined within non-standalone 5G New Radio Specifications. It represents the evolution of the data plane function of the Packet Gateway (PGW). The separation is aimed at allowing for data forwarding to be deployed and scaled independently. Through this action, it will prove quite easy for the packet processing and traffic aggregation to be distributed to the network edge.
Session Management Function (SMF)
Session Management Function (SMF) is undeniably one of the most fundamental 5g network functions, and for good reasons. In a nutshell, it is responsible for interacting with the decoupled data planes. This is possible as it creates, updates, and removes Protocol Data Unit (PDU) sessions while at the same time managing session content within the UPF. The Session Management Function also takes up the role of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server and IP Address Management (IPAM) system.
The Bottom Line
These are just some of the new 5g network functions you ought to know about before you can finally make the shift. As you can see, the changes are quite radical when compared to today’s 4G EPC. Actually, this is one of the most important factors that will enable the new Service-Based Architecture to be truly cloud native design and deployment methodologies. This makes 5g network functions massively scalable.