A Software-Defined Networking Solution for Transparent Session and Service Continuity in Dynamic Multi-Access Edge Computing

TL;DR

This paper presents an SDN-based solution for seamless session and service continuity in dynamic Multi-Access Edge Computing environments, enabling real-time application relocation in 4G and 5G networks.

Contribution

It introduces a novel SDN approach for dynamic IP anchor point creation and context replication to ensure uninterrupted service during application migration.

Findings

Effective context replication strategies demonstrated

Seamless session continuity achieved in simulated environments

Applicable to both 4G and 5G network architectures

Abstract

Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) will allow implementing low-latency services that have been unfeasible so far. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) are working towards the standardization of MEC in 5G networks and the corresponding solutions for routing user traffic to applications in local area networks. Nevertheless, there are neither practical implementations for dynamically relocating applications from the core to a MEC host nor from one MEC host to another ensuring service continuity. In this paper we propose a solution based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to create a new instance of the IP anchor point to dynamically redirect User Equipment (UE) traffic to a new physical location (e.g. an edge infrastructure). We also present a novel approach that leverages SDN to replicate the previous context of the connection in the new instance of the IP anchor point, thus guaranteeing Session and Service Continuity (SSC), and compare it with alternative state replication strategies. This approach can be used to implement edge services in 4G or 5G networks.