Service-tailored User-Plane Design Framework and Architecture Considerations in 5G Radio Access Networks

This paper presents a novel user plane framework, tailored for different 5G services with diverse and conflicting key performance indicators (KPIs). Initially this paper identifies the major challenges in the legacy user-plane approaches and highlights the up-to-date 5G standardization activities in this area. It further analyses new functional requirements related to service-oriented design and the introduction of new mechanisms to address them. Subsequently, the paper discusses how various user plane design decisions related to the control / user plane split options, network slicing and Radio Access Network (RAN)-Core Network (CN) interfacing can potentially impact the overall 5G architecture. For the latter, some key RAN/CN interface considerations and the interactions with CN given different protocols and QoS models is investigated.