5GS Enhanced support of Vertical and LAN Services

5GS Enhanced support of Vertical and LAN Services

  November 07, 2020    Mr. Standards

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The Vertical_LAN work item introduces support for three new and distinct features:

1)  Enablers for 5G System deployment in 5G LAN type environment.

2)  Time-sensitive communication with enablers for 5GS to seamlessly integrate with IEEE TSN, and for 5GS to enable support of time synchronization.

3)  Enablers for Standalone Non-Public Network and Public-Network-integrated Non-Public Network.

5G_LAN

The 5G System supports management of 5G VN Group identification and membership as well as 5G VN Group data. The 5G VN Group management can be configured by a network administrator or it can be managed dynamically by an AF. In order to support dynamic management of 5G VN Group identification and membership, the NEF exposes a set of services to manage (e.g. add/delete/modify) 5G VN group and 5G VN members. The NEF also exposes services to dynamically manage 5G VN group data. Furthermore, 5GS supports optimized routing by enabling support for local switching at the UPF without having to traverse the DN for UE-UE communication when the two UE(s) are served by the same UPF.

Integration with IEEE TSN

TSC is a communication service that supports deterministic and/or isochronous communication with high reliability and availability. It provides packet transport with Quality of Service (QoS) characteristics such as bounded latency and reliability, where end systems and relay/transmit nodes can be strictly synchronized. In Release 16, main focus was on integration with IEEE Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN).

The 5G System also enables support for TSN time synchronization. In order to support time synchronization, the entire E2E 5G system can be considered as an IEEE 802.1AS [104] "time-aware system". UE, gNB, UPF, NW-TT and DS- TTs are synchronized with the 5G GM (i.e. the 5G internal system clock), which keeps these network elements synchronized. The TTs located at the edge of 5G system provides all functions related to IEEE 802.1AS.

Furthermore, this feature has also introduced TSC assistance parameters were introduced to facilitate optimized QoS scheduling for time sensitive and deterministic traffic.

Non-Public Network

This work item also addressed the deployment of Non-Public Networks (NPNs). A Non-Public Network (NPN) is a 5GS deployed for non-public use, see TS 22.261 [2]. An NPN may be deployed as:

-    a Stand-alone Non-Public Network (SNPN), i.e. operated by an NPN operator and not relying on network functions provided by a PLMN, or

-    a Public network integrated NPN, i.e. a non-public network deployed with the support of a PLMN.

SNPN 5GS deployments are based on the architecture depicted in figure below, 

the architecture for 5GC with untrusted non-3GPP access for access to SNPN services via a PLMN (and vice versa) and the additional functionality covered in clause 5.30.2 of [1].

References

[1] 3GPP TS 23.501, System Architecture for 5G System; Stage 2

[2] 3GPP TS 23.502, Procedures for 5G System; Stage 2.

[3] 3GPP TS 23.503, Policy and Charging Control Framework for the 5G System; Stage 2 Service Enabler Architecture Layer for Verticals