USER-PLANE CONGESTION MANAGEMENT
Methods, apparatuses and systems for user-plane congestion management are provided. Among these method, apparatuses and systems is a method, implementable by a base station (and/or a serving gateway), for mitigating user plane congestion. The method may include sending a congestion indication to a core network; receiving a general packet radio system (GPRS) tunneling protocol (GTP) packet including an first internet protocol (IP) packet associated with a first flow within a bearer; obtaining, from a header of the GTP packet, an indicator indicative of a priority of the IP packet, wherein the indicator was inserted into the header of the GTP packet by the core network responsive to the congestion indication; and dropping any of the GTP packet and the first IP packet on condition that a priority of a second IP packet associated with second flow within the bearer takes precedence over the priority of the first IP packet.
1 . A method implemented in a radio access network (RAN) element of a RAN having a plurality of RAN elements, the method comprising:
receiving, at the RAN element, a plurality of policies including a particular policy associated with reported user congestion information (RUCI);
receiving, at the RAN element, a user plane packet transported to the RAN via a single tunnel established between any of the plurality of RAN elements and a core network entity for a single packet data network connection, wherein the user plane packet comprises a header encapsulating a network layer packet associated to one particular traffic sub-class of the various traffic sub-classes mapped to the tunnel, and wherein the user plane packet is extracted from a transport level packet having a header including an indication of a transport level quality of service (QoS) classification;
obtaining, from the header of the user plane packet, an indicator indicative of the particular policy associated with the RUCI for handling the various differentiated traffic sub-classes mapped to the tunnel, wherein the indicator is based on any of subscription information and policy information; and
applying, at the RAN element, the particular policy associated with the RUCI on the received user plane packet based on the obtained indicator.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of policies is received from any of a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) and an access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF) that has received information indicating user plane congestion transmitted from any of the plurality of RAN elements.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, at the RAN element, information indicating user plane congestion transmitted from any other RAN element of the plurality of RAN elements.
4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: detecting, at the RAN element, user plane congestion.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting, via bearer traffic, information indicating user plane congestion, wherein the information is sent from the RAN element to a policy and charging rules function (PCRF), and wherein the information indicates that any of the plurality of RAN elements and/or the RAN is experiencing congestion.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the policies comprise one or more QoS enforcement policies specifying various traffic shaping rules.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the particular policy on the received user plane packet comprises:
(i) delaying scheduling of the network layer packet on condition that the indicator is indicative of the particular policy that specifies the particular traffic sub-class is subordinate to another of the various differentiated traffic sub-classes;
(ii) dropping any of the user plane packet and the network layer packet on condition that the indicator is indicative of the particular policy that specifies the particular traffic sub-class is subordinate to another of the various differentiated traffic sub-classes;
(iii) scheduling the network layer packet ahead of other traffic associated with another of the various differentiated traffic sub-classes on condition that the indicator is indicative of the particular policy that specifies the particular traffic sub-class is not subordinate to the other traffic sub-class;
(iv) performing queue management to de-queue traffic associated with another of the various differentiated traffic sub-classes on condition that the indicator is indicative of the particular policy that specifies the other traffic sub-class is subordinate to the particular traffic sub-class;
(v) performing queue management to en-queue the network layer packet on condition that the indicator is indicative of the particular policy that specifies the particular traffic sub-class is not subordinate to another of the various differentiated traffic sub-classes;
(vi) performing queue management to de-queue traffic associated with another of the various differentiated traffic sub-classes on condition that the indicator is indicative of the particular policy that specifies the other traffic sub-class is subordinate to the particular traffic sub-class; and
(vii) performing queue management to en-queue the network layer packet on condition that the indicator is indicative of the particular policy that specifies the particular traffic sub-class is subordinate to another of the various differentiated traffic sub-classes.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the network layer packet is part of network layer traffic from a single application, and wherein the network layer traffic is differentiated into the particular traffic sub-class and the various differentiated sub-classes.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the network layer traffic comprises first and second flows, wherein the first flow is differentiated into the particular traffic sub-class, and wherein the second flow is differentiated into respective the other traffic sub-class.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the user plane packet is received on a S1-U interface.