Gateway arrangements for wireless communication networks

1. A network controller computing system, comprising:

serving gateway (SGW) control plane circuitry to virtualize control plane functions of an SGW in a wireless communication network;

packet data network gateway (PGW) control plane circuitry to virtualize control plane functions of a PGW in the wireless communication network;

first communication circuitry to establish a first secure communication link between the SGW control plane circuitry and an SGW user plane computing system that is to perform user plane functions of an SGW, wherein the SGW user plane computing system is different from the network controller computing system; and

second communication circuitry to establish a second secure communication link between the PGW control plane circuitry and a PGW user plane computing system that is to perform user plane functions of a PGW, wherein the PGW user plane computing system is different from the network controller computing system,

wherein:

the first communication circuitry is to further transmit, following a first stage of an attach procedure, an update message to the SGW user plane computing system to update a user data general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP-U) tunnel endpoint identifier assigned to the SGW user plane computing system; and

the network controller computing system is to further transmit in an attach accept message or an initial context setup message, the GTP-U tunnel endpoint identifier assigned to the SGW user plane computing system to an access node.

2. The network controller computing system of claim 1 , wherein the network controller computing system is an evolved packet core controller.

3. The network controller computing system of claim 1 , wherein communication between a mobility management entity of the wireless communication network and the SGW user plane computing system is via the SGW control plane circuitry of the network controller computing system.

4. The network controller computing system of claim 1 , wherein the PGW user plane computing system is a first PGW user plane computing system, and further comprising a third secure communication link between the PGW control plane circuitry and a second PGW user plane computing system that is to perform user plane functions of a PGW, wherein the second PGW user plane computing system is different from the network controller computing system and from the first PGW user plane computing system.

5. The network controller computing system of claim 1 , wherein the first communication circuitry is to establish a GTP tunnel between the SGW control plane circuitry and the PGW control plane circuitry.

6. The network controller computing system of claim 1 , further comprising a display device.

7. One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processing devices of a network controller, cause the network controller to:

virtualize control plane functions of a serving gateway (SGW) in a wireless communication network or control plane functions of a packet data network gateway (PGW) in the wireless communication network;

establish a first secure communication link between the network controller and an SGW user plane computing system that is to perform user plane functions of a SGW, wherein the SGW user plane computing system is different from the network controller;

establish a second secure communication link between the network controller and a PGW user plane computing system that is to perform user plane functions of a PGW, wherein the PGW user plane computing system is different from the network controller;

transmit, following a first stage of an attach procedure, an update message to the SGW user plane computing system to update a user data general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP-U) tunnel endpoint identifier assigned to the SGW user plane computing system; and

transmit, in an attach accept message or an initial context setup message, the GTP-U tunnel endpoint identifier assigned to the SGW user plane computing system to an access node.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 7 , further having instructions thereon that, in response to execution by the one or more processing devices of the network controller, cause the network controller to:

receive a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID) for the PGW user plane computing system generated by the PGW user plane computing system; and

provide the TEID for the PGW user plane computing system for transmission to the SGW user plane computing system.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 7 , wherein the SGW user plane computing system is a first SGW user plane computing system, and further having instructions thereon that, in response to execution by the one or more processing devices of the network controller, cause the network controller to:

during a handover of a UE, establish a third secure communication link between the network controller and a second SGW user plane computing system that is to perform user plane functions of an SGW, wherein the second SGW user plane computing system is different from the network controller and different from the first SGW user plane computing system.