Abstract

As mobile operators look to deploy Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Fifth Generation (5G) services (either standalone (SA) or non-standalone (NSA)) to their subscribers, the process of migrating from Fourth Generation (4G) Evolved Packet Core (EPC) deployments to 5G core (5GC) is going to take time. During such a migration process the principal focus will be on providing higher throughputs and lower data path latency. It is likely that operators will have both EPC and 5GC deployments in their network for some time as they deploy a converged core – ‘ AnyG’ – and roll out nation-wide 5G coverage. This implies that a substantial number of subscribers may still be using the Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) and operators will see a large number of 5G to 4G handovers. With dual cores deployed in the network, the total cost of ownership for the operators will be high. Techniques are presented herein to address these challenges by enabling an operator to use a common user plane for Control and User Plane Separation of EPC nodes (CUPS), 5G NSA, and 5G SA deployments thus helping to reduce capital expenditures and operating expenses.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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