Service Boost: Towards On-demand QoS Enhancements for OTT Apps in LTE Konstantinos Samdanis, Faisal G. Mir, Dirk Kutscher, Tarik Taleb NEC Europe, Heidelberg Contact: < samdanis@neclab.eu> Capacity Sharing Workshop (CSWS'13), Göttingen, 7 October 2013
Outlook Motivation Service Boost Principles and Concepts QoS Enhacments in LTE: State of the Art Service Boost Architecture for LTE Service Boost ConEx-based Deployment Conclusions 2
Motivation Many different types of mobile devices - services increased Apps types - QoS diversity, compete for same resources increased user resource demand while operator revenue remains constant Increasing OTT Apps via operator s networks mis-using flat rates contracts, with a significant fraction of the revenue outside operator s network without QoS guarantees, over the default best-effort bearer 3
Service Boost Priciples and Concepts Service Boost enables users to request a time bound on-demand service enhancement specify differentiate and prioritize important Apps for QoS guarantees Service Boost enables Mobile Network Operators to use resources efficiently and profitably charging users and/or content providers, can create additional revenue sources for operators control forwarding for services according to user preferences and effectively act as a QoS broker avoid traffic detection functions and DPI Service Boost enables Application Content Providers to ensure that access to particular service is accompanied with the appropriate QoS 4
Service Charging Options Evolved Packet System UE enb MME PCRF HSS Application Content Provider HeNB S-GW P-GW Mobile Operator s Network Service Boost may be realized by the following charging models: Token-based: on-demand to provide specific QoS enhancement Service-based: preserve QoS in relation with a particular service Contract-based: preserving QoE of important customers by assigning special boosting quota with their subscription profiles Roaming-based: offer selected QoS services on visited networks 5
QoS Enhancements in LTE - State of the Art LTE QoS: Bearer QoS class association offering Service Boost by Dedicated Bearers user initiated via vendor specific API-based (Rel.5) network/app-based via the Application Function (AF) that provides the PCRF rules associated with App QoS Service Boost for default Bearer with DPI to offload traffic on operator s network rate limit certain subscribers or Apps (UPCON) SDN-based Open API enables Operators to expose network capabilities to App developers and users customize services considering QoS, location, mobility etc. ConEx based Service Boost for LTE a default bearer deployment considering an end-to-end perspective 6
Applying Service Boost in LTE Service Boost Depolyment Architecture introduce a server entity to keep Service Boost info related user profiles and charging network enablers and monitoring global user plane traffic introduce a user API for requesting Service Boost employ ConEx to enable a token-based Service Boost considering an e2e service perspective Boost Server builds a global view of user data plane utilizing observation points at the radio, backhaul and core network considering aggregate flow monitoring gaining knowledge of the effect of Service Boost inside operator domain beyond operator domain across peering domains 7
A Simple Example of a Service Boost Request Create channel for quering Service Boost HSS authenticates UE UE queries the congestion state of a specific PDN connection Assuming that the request is accepted Charge user and updates records Inform PCRF for establishing the necessary policy rules 8
Service Boost Server Service Boost server architecture is composed by Network management: monitor resources and conveys Service Boost user state info and network policies Boost controller: applies Service Boost and holds network state Service Boost client API: facilitates user - Boost Server interaction maintain best-effort resource account for Service Boost use maintains user profiles explore path diversity and load balancing for applying Service Boost analyze App QoS (BW, delay, jitter), upon a Service Boost request for Service Boost requests offers on the fly boost tokens and purchasing identify boosted flows and provide QoS state to network 9
ConEx Deployment in LTE Networks S6a HSS DL Traffic S1-MME MME S11 User ConEx Profile Gx Operator ConEx Policies PCRF ConEx functions Configuration Rx DL Audit function rate limit DL Policer rate limit UE enb P-GW ConEx ConEx S-GW Uu DL Audit F. & S1-U S5/S8 DL Policer & SGi UL Policer UL Audit F. Operator IP Services (IMS, PSS, etc) UL Policer rate limit UL Audit function rate limit UL Traffic User Plane Traffic Flow UL & DL ConEx operation and enablers in LTE 10 User specific ConEx profile and operator specific ConEx policies PCRF instantiates a user Policer configuration for incoming UE Flexibility for rate limiting congestion/traffic in either or both UL and DL DL Audit Function/UL Policer @ enb and DL Policer /UL Audit Function @ the P-GW
A ConEx-based Service Boost Solution Service Boost deployment via a differentiated bucket Boost Server to validate requests and install necessary rules in the PCRF to modify Policer s configuration switches boosted flows from conventional path to service specific bucket that offers a desired differentiated forwarding behavior using DSCP fields for differentiating normal and boosted traffic separate queues (typical/boosted traffic) policed by a different service bucket 11
End-to-End Service Boost via ConEx @ P-GW Enabling ConEx between mobile operator and external domains provides a finer control for Service Boost requests observes congestion in peer networks applies traffic engineering to shift traffic to another uplink peer domain if congestion exceeds max threshold allows fair charging for Service Boost request Peer Domain A UE P-GW P-GW Operator s Network Peer Domain B Application Content Provider 12
Conclusions Service Boost provides the means for enhancing user QoE / App delivery / QoS of content operators to profit from OTT Apps Key features for deploying Service Boost mobile operator s network user API to communicate Service Boost request with Server a Boost Server for maintaining user profile and network state ConEx enhancements and contributions adopt ConEx for LTE mobile network (Policer/Audit function@enb/p-gw) differentiated buckets to treat separately Service Boost traffic e2e view to provide admission control and traffic engineering for Service Boost requests Further work steps include an evaluate our ConEx based Service Boost exploration of standardization for conveying Service Boost requests 13
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