High-level architecture of a 5G System (5GS)
Initial attach or registration by UE
Initial attach or registration by UE
• At the high level, this is what happened when a UE is powered on in a
5G cell or tracking area. The UE will perform the Registration
Procedure with 5GS for AMF to authenticate the UE’s SIM card with
help from UDM and AUSF to make sure that the UE has a valid
subscription in the 5GS. The whole Registration Procedure comprises
many messages exchange among UE, AMF, and UDM including using
UDM’s pre-defined encryption keys for the UE to decrypt a UE’s
SUCI that the UE sends over the air for UE identity verification.
PDU SESSION OR DEFAULT QOS FLOW
ESTABLISHMENT
• When the UE’s Registration Procedure is successfully completed, the
UE will initiate a PDU Session Establishment request to the AMF via
the gNB over the N1 interface. The objective of the UE’s PDU Session
Establishment is to establish a default QoS Flow between the UE and
the Data Network (DN) via gNB. The UE can then use the default QoS
Flow inside the established PDU Session to exchange traffic with the
DN (e.g., Internet). In 5G, QoS Flow is the lowest granularity of a
traffic flow where QoS and charging can be applied. It is similar to a
4G’s EPS Bearer.
PDU SESSION OR
DEFAULT QOS
FLOW
ESTABLISHMENT
• The following shows three
UEs that have successfully
established PDU sessions to a
DN for traffic exchange.
PDU SESSION OR DEFAULT QOS FLOW ESTABLISHMENT
PDU SESSION OR DEFAULT QOS FLOW ESTABLISHMENT
PDU SESSION OR DEFAULT QOS FLOW ESTABLISHMENT
• After successful PDU Session Establishment, a default QoS Flow is created for the
UE to exchange traffic with the DN. A Data Radio Bearer (DRB)(BY SDAP
PROTOCOL LAYER) is established by the gNB to the UE to extend the UPF’s N3
GTP-U tunnel to the UE.
• The default QoS Flow is usually a non-GBR (non-Guaranteed Bit Rate)
QoS Flow without any Packet Filter. Also, it has the lowest Precedence in
term of traffic mapping. In other words, if uplink (UL) or downlink (DL)
traffic do not match any Packet Filters in the other QoS Flows within a UE’s
PDU Session, the default QoS Flow will be used to forward the UE traffic to
the DN and vice versa. The default QoS Flow can also be used by a UE to
signal an AF (Application Function) such as voice or video servers to
establish GBR QoS Flows to support more QoS demanding network
applications such as video conferencing or real-time robotic traffic.
GBR QOS FLOW(QOS RULE,QOS PROFILE,SDF
TEMPLATE)
• Beside the default QoS Flow, UE1 may also
need a GBR (Guaranteed Bit Rate) QoS
Flow to carry its, say video conference
traffic. Therefore, UE1 signals a separate
GBR QoS Flow using its default QoS Flow
to the video conference server or AF
(Application Function) where the AF will
initiate a QoS Flow setup to the PCF for it
to generate a PCC Rule to the SMF.
This PCC Rule triggers the SMF to perform
a PDU Session Modification procedure to
either modify an existing or create a new
QoS Flow suitable for the video conference
traffic or SDF. Since UE1 does not yet have
any GBR QoS Flow, a new GBR QoS Flow
among UE1, gNB, and UPF for carrying the
video conference traffic is signaled and
established by the SMF.
QOS RULE,QOS PROFILE,SDF TEMPLATE
• When a PCF sends a PCC Rule to SMF,
SMF will formulate different QoS
constructs and send them to each processing
entities along the QoS Flow as follows:
• SDF Template to UPF over N4 PFCP
(Packet Forwarding Control Protocol)
interface
• QoS Profile to gNB via AMF over the N2
interface
• QoS Rule to UE via AMF and gNB over the
N1 interface
• The following shows the various QoS
constructs(information elements) that are
sent to UE, gNB and UPF for establishing a
QoS Flow:
If the UE, gNB and UPF can satisfy the QoS constructs sent from SMF,
the QFI (QoS Flow Identifier) that is sent along with the SDF Template, QoS
Profile and QoS Rule now represents the QoS characteristic of the QoS Flow
5G NR QOS PARAMETERS
Standardized 5QI to QoS characteristics mapping
3GPP’s TS 23.502 version 16.4.0
PDU Session Establishment message sequence.
Wireshark traces to illustrate a few key messages to check regarding 5GC entities relationship,
IEs(information elements) for UE traffic QoS processing and enforcement, PDU Session and default
QoS Flow establishment.
• In order for a PDU session and a default QoS Flow to be established along the UE, gNB to UPF to carry
SDFs (Service Data Flows) or traffic, a lot of IEs (Information Elements) are exchanged among AMF, SMF,
UE, gNB and UPF as shown in the Figure :
3GPP’s TS 23.502 version 16.4.0
PDU Session Establishment message sequence.
Wireshark traces to illustrate a few key messages to check regarding 5GC entities relationship, IEs(information
elements) for UE traffic QoS processing and enforcement, PDU Session and default QoS Flow establishment.
• The SMF directly and indirectly (i.e., via the AMF and the gNB) sends the below QoS constructs for the PDU
Session and the default QoS Flow Establishment:
• SDF Template to UPF
• QoS Profile to gNB
• QoS Rule to UE
• Beside setting up the PDU Session and the default QoS Flow comprising a non-GBR Data Radio Bearer (DRB)
between the UE and the gNB and the N3 GTP-U tunnel between gNB and UPF, the above IEs in the Figure are
also used for QoS processing and enforcement of the UE’s traffic such as:
• Classification — Classify or detect the UE’s uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) traffic onto the appropriate QoS
Flows within the UE’s PDU session
• Queuing and Scheduling — Enforce GBR and non-GBR UE traffic such as UL/DL bandwidth, latency, traffic
priority etc…
• Marking/Remarking — Mark the mobile traffic when it leaves the 5GC to the DN so that the priority and QoS
of the traffic can be honored in the DN
The following shows the most basic PDU Session Establishment
message sequence
• Messages 1 to 7 — UE Subscription Verification and
Authorization
• The SMF retrieves the UE’s subscription info from the
UDM and optionally, if configured to invoke the PCF to
see whether the carrier has any policies implemented on
the PCF to augment the default UE’s subscription such as
to upgrade the UE’s DL speed from 100Mbps to
300Mbps for say.
• The UE forwards its PDU Session Establishment request
to the AMF via the gNB. Message 1 (Wireshark’s frames
612 and 614) shows the UE initiated PDU Session
Establishment request where the AMF invokes the
SMF’s nsm-pdusession_CreateSM-Context API (i.e.,
HTTP/2 method = Post) to trigger the SMF to initiate the
PDU Session Establishment procedures
Many UE’s supplied IEs to the gNB/AMF are included in the SMF’s nsm-
pdusession_CreateSM-Context message such as the:
•UE’s SUPI (Subscriber Permanent Identifier)
•target DNN (Data Network Name)
•anType (Access Network Type)
•sNssai (Single Network Slice Service Assistance Identifier)
• Messages 8 to 10 — PDU Session
Context Creation for UPF.
• The SMF obtains the UE
subscription details from the
UDM and PCF and formulates a
PFCP (Packet Forward Control
Packet) Session Establishment
request to program the UPF to
create a Session Management
(SM) context (i.e., PDU Session)
for the UE. Message shows the
SMF uses PFCP over N4 interface
to create a SM Context on the
UPF for the UE’s PDU Session
• The below IEs are included in the PFCP Session Establishment request message for UE traffic classification,
queuing, scheduling, and marking/remarking .
1 PDR (Packet Detection Rule)
•Include PDI (Packet Detection Information) to classify DL traffic using 5-tuple to map the DL traffic (i.e., SDF) to a QoS Flow (i.e., SDF Binding) within the PDU Session. The UL PDI is used
to verify the UL SDF to QoS Flow mapping before the UPF forward the UE’s traffic to the DN
•Pointers to FARs, QERs, URRs and BARs
•Precedence to determine when the PDR and its associated FARs, QERs, URRs and BARs will be used
2 FAR (Packet Forwarding Rule)
•Service chaining’s packet processing operations such as forward, duplicate, send to Control Plane etc…
•QoS marking (e.g., DSCP) to the DN
3 QER (QoS Enforcement Rule)
•Enforce traffic such as GBR and non-GBR bandwidth and latency. For example, if DL Session-AMBR is set to 30Mbps, the UPF will drop DL non-GBR SDF traffic above 30Mbps
4 URR (Usage Report Rule)
•Usage reporting from UPF to SMF. SMF can forward the info to PCF for any UE over-usage policies
5 BAR (Buffer Action Rule)
•Support buffering DL traffic for an idle UE before the UE is woke up by the SMF and ready to receive DL traffic
QFI (QoS Flow Identifier) is set to 9. Note that this SMF generated QFI value is being sent to UPF, gNB and UE for a given QoS Flow so that when all entities accept the PDU session setup,
QFI 9 represents the QoS behavior of the default QoS Flow setup for the PDU session.
Messages 11 to 14 — PDU Session Context Creation for gNB
and UE (First UL packet ready)
After the SM Context is created on the UPF, similar SM Context also needs to be
created on the gNB and the UE respectively for setting up the UE’s PDU Session
and the default QoS Flow (i.e., a PDU Session is end-to-end from UE, gNB to
UPF).
The following shows the N2 message from the SMF to the AMF for the AMF to
formulate the QoS Profile to the gNB
Me
Namssage
Com f- 11 (N2
eTr mun for
an s i c at gNB
fer ion )
from _N1
SM N2_M
F to e
AM ssag
F
SMF sends N2 message to AMF for gNB
• For the above message, the SMF advises the gNB over the N2 HTTP/2 interface all the necessary
QoS IEs for the UE’s PDU Session Establishment. This is designed for the gNB to make an
independent QoS decision to establish a wireless transport to extend the CN_Tunnel of the UE’s
N3 GTP-U tunnel to the gNB. This separation of QoS control between the access and the core
networks enables 5GC to support different wireless and wireline access networks with very
different QoS capabilities and characteristics.
• The following summarizes the important IEs in the N2 message to the gNB:
• The gTPTunnel (or CN_Tunnel) on the UPF is at IP 10.70.15.1 and the gTP-TEID (or TEID_cn,
Tunnel Endpoint ID Core Node) for the UE is at 0x40090115. This information is important for
the gNB to forward UE’s UL traffic to the UPF for the DN
• The same QFI = 9 is used to identify the default QoS Flow from the UE to the DN
• 5QI = 9 describes the QoS characteristic (e.g., best-effort non-GBR) of the default QoS Flow in
the UE’s PDU Session
• The UL and DL UE-AMBRs (Aggregated Maximum Bit Rate) are 20Mbps and 30Mbps
respectively. In other words, the gNB will drop any non-GBR AMBR traffic for the UE that are
above 20Mbps for UL and 30Mbps for DL
Messages 11 to 14 — PDU Session
Context Creation for gNB and UE (First UL
packet ready)
• The same Namf-
Communication_N1N2_MessageTrans
fer API in Message 11 (Frame 737 of
the Wireshark trace) contains also the
N1 HTTP/2 message for the SMF to
advise the AMF to formulate a QoS
Rule for setting up the UE’s PDU
Session
• The following highlights some key info included in the N1 HTTP/2 message for the AMF to formulate the QoS
Rule for the UE. Note that the N1 message is sent by the AMF via the gNB to the UE.
• The SMF advises the UE to over the N1 HTTP/2 interface to setup Packet Filters to classify UL traffic to the DN.
Since this is the default QoS Flow setup in the PDU Session Establishment, Packet Filter 1 has the
lowest Precedence value of 255 without any 5-tuple settings and thus it matches any UE’s UL traffic if there is no
other higher Precedence QoS Flows in the PDU Session of the UE
• The same QFI = 9 is used to identify the default QoS Flow of the PDU Session from UE to DN
• UL/DL Session AMBRs are 20Mbps and 30Mbps respectively. UE will enforce its SDF UL traffic to 20Mbps and
drop any traffic over this limit
• The UE’s IP address is 50.90.127.0 and it is assigned by the SMF
• The SST (Slice/Service Type) is 11, which is a reserved SST. The first four SSTs are standard and are defined as:
001 — eMBB (enhanced Mobile Broadband)
002 — URLLC (ultra-reliable low latency communication
003 — MIoT (Massive IoT)
004 — V2X (Vehicle to Vehicle communication)
• The UE can now send its first UL packet to the DN
Messages 15 to 16 — Update
UPF with gNB’s AN Tunnel for UE
(First DL Packet Ready)
• While the UE can now send UL traffic to
the DN via the gNB and the UPF, the
UPF still does not yet know the
AN_Tunnel (i.e., gNB’s IP address and
UE’s TEID_an) on the gNB. Message 16a
shows that the SMF uses the gNB’s
provided AN_Tunnel info in Message 15
to update the AN_Tunnel info for the SM
Context on the UPF so that the UPF can
start sending DL traffic to the UE via the
gNB.
• The following shows the AMF invokes
the SMF’s Nsmf-
PDU_Session_UpdateSMContext service
call over SBA HTTP/2 transport in
Message 15 so that the SMF can update
the SM context on the UPF for the
AN_Tunnel for the UE
• From Message 15, the following important IEs are presented so that the SMF can use sufficient information
to formulate Message 16a to update the SM context of the UE in the UPF:
• The AN_Tunnel on the gNB is at the IP address 6.6.9.1 and the TEID_an (Access Node Tunnel Endpoint ID)
of the UE is 0x100000001. This info is important for the UPF to start sending DL UE traffic to the gNB for
the UE
• The same QFI = 9 is used to identify the default QoS Flow of the PDU Session
• The UPF can now send the first DL packet from the DN to the gNB for the UE as it knows the IP address of
the gNB and the UE’s TEID_an. The QFI on the N3 Tunnel header allows the gNB to map the DL traffic to
the corresponding DRB to the UE
• After the above message sequence, the PDU Session and the default QoS Flow among the UE, gNB, and UPF
are setup and the UE can now exchange traffic with the DN (e.g., the Internet).
