OpenEPC AAA Routing

With the increase distribution of components with the same functionality in EPC deployments, the importance of discovery and connection to the appropriate control serving nodes increases. Additionally, with the current network architecture, the HSS and PCRF selected for a specific subscriber can not be modified during the connectivity time, thus anchoring the control and subscription information to specific network nodes, not supporting the flexibility levels required.

OpenEPC features a Fraunhofer implementation of a DIAMETER routing entity, generically named Service Locator Function (SLF) which mitigates the control distribution gap. Inspired by the application level routing, the OpenEPC SLF proxies the DIAMETER sessions between the requester which may be a data path entity such as a PDN GW selecting the PCRF or a control entity such as the MME, SGSN or PCRF selecting an HSS as illustrated underneath.

web-epc-slf

Additionally this functionality enables the dynamic selection and reselection of the appropriate serving entity which further support features such as dynamic localization of control, energy efficiency core network reconfiguration, failover mitigation or seamless scheduled maintenance procedures.

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