Design of User Plane in 5G Core Network Based on SDN
Ping Wang, Zhan Wei Xu, Ming Zhao, Zhao Liu, Yi Gong · 2023
With the rapid increase in demand for the fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5G) in the BusinesstoBusiness (ToB) market, future factories, especially those involving a large number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, will prioritize deploying private networks to achieve prioritized scheduling, resource allocation, and security control over the entire network. The User Plane Function (UPF) is an important network element in the 5G core network. In practical deployments, UPF typically uses dedicated hardware devices, which are not only expensive but also have a tightly coupled architecture that imposes certain limitations on future network upgrades and scalability. To achieve flexible deployment of Network Private Network (NPN), we implemented the 5G core network architecture using Software Defined Networking (SDN) with Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processors (P4) programmable switch. Subsequently, we conducted the connectivity test of the core network and analyzed the maximum achievable user capacity. Considering that the introduction of SDN may bring new security risks to private networks, we have designed a solution to mitigate SDN data plane Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and have proven its effectiveness through practical experiments.