Communications Software

A Software Strategy for the Evolved Packet Core Virtualize the Core with the Intel® Platform for Communications Infrastructure

By Simon Stanley, Roving Reporter, Intel® Intelligent Systems Alliance

he rollout of LTE networks is cre- As a result, carriers can quickly scale and enhance their wireless infra- ating major new challenges and structure to meet customer demand. opportunities for telecom equip- ment manufacturers (TEMs). The This article will examine the Intel platform and show how members of rapid deployment of these net- the Intel® Intelligent Systems Alliance are supporting it with middleware works, the explosion in mobile that unlocks the performance potential of the platform and speeds devel- data,T and the increasing diversity of network opment. From applications software to market-ready communications traffic are all creating demand for core networks platforms, Intel and the 250+ global member companies of the Alliance that are flexible and can be easily scaled to meet provide the components developers need to create intelligent communi- customer needs. cations systems.

Traditional wireless infrastructure net- works have difficulty meeting these needs because they employ dedicated Evolved Packet Core (EPC) systems for each major function in LTE S1-u S5 the packet core. New services often SGW PGW require additional hardware, increasing HLR/HSS network complexity, capital cost, and S1-MME eNodeB operating expense. Just as important, S6a SGi MME the hardware complexity makes soft- Internet

ware development difficult, slowing S4 2G Gr S3 deployment. S7 IuB PCEF Rx NodeB PCRF The Intel® Platform for Communications IuPS Gn RNC SGSN GGSN Gi Infrastructure solves the problem 3G by providing a unified platform for IuB applications, control, and packet pro- cessing. Consolidating these functions on a single architecture enables a vir- Radio Access Network Packet Core IMS/Internet tualized packet core, where different workloads can be deployed flexibly on a common set of hardware. What’s 2G/3G and LTE networks use combined Packet Core and Radio Access Network. more, the use of a consistent architec- Figure 1. ture simplifies software development. (Source: Earlswood Marketing)

intel.com/go/embeddedinnovator | Embedded Innovator 7 th Edition | 2013 | 33 Communications Software

The Virtualized Packet Core Opportunity For example, some cores can be dedicated to control plane pro- The combined 2G/3G and LTE wireless infrastructure is shown in cessing under Linux*, while others perform bare-metal packet pro- Figure 1 (page 33). The heart of the LTE infrastructure is the Evolved cessing without an OS. In addition, flexible power management on Packet Core (EPC). The EPC is an all-IP Network (AIPN) that is well Intel® Xeon® processors allows individual cores to be powered down suited for implementation using commodity server hardware. The when not in use, minimizing power consumption. This is particularly main elements of the EPC are: important when cores are allocated to different applications.

U Mobility Management Entity (MME) for applications and control Consolidating applications, control, and data plane results in a simpler U Serving Gateway (SGW) and Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) target platform with enormous flexibility. Consider a large bladed sys- for control and data plane tems with many processors spread across multiple racks. As shown in U Policy and Charging Enforcement Function/Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCEF/PCRF) for policy management, which often requires deep packet inspection (DPI) SGW SGW A virtualized packet core can be Blade A Blade B Calls on Blade A Blade B achieved by consolidating all these Blade B functions onto a single platform. The CPU 1 CPU 1 CPU 1 opportunity for carriers and equipment 29% 29% 59% -- providers is to deliver a cost-effective, CPU 2 CPU 2 CPU 2 virtualized packet core that can be 31% 31% Migrate to 63% scaled to meet growing demands. This Blade A being addressed by develop- Powered ments to support network functions Down virtualization (NFV). Live Sessions Live Sessions (Video Streaming or VoIP) Key Technologies Intel has developed several technolo- Figure 2. A unified architecture enables load migration and increased power efficiency. gies that are key to enabling the virtu- alized packet core, starting with the Intel Platform for Communications Infrastructure. This platform combines Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2400 and Linux E5-2600 family for high-speed packet processing with Intel® Communications Chipset 89xx Series with built-in encryp- LTE tion and compression acceleration. 6WINDGate The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 6WINDGate 6WINDGate 6WINDGate 6WINDGate 6WINDGate and E5-2600 family offer up to Control Fast Fast Fast Fast Fast 16 cores in a dual-socket configura- Plane Path Path Path Path Path tion for packet processing throughput of up to 160 Gbps. Large Layer 2 Network ® ® ® ® ® Stack Intel Intel Intel Intel Intel and Layer 3 caches, and high-per- DPDK DPDK DPDK DPDK DPDK formance DDR3 memory controllers deliver fast memory access for DPI and other tasks. These processors also integrate up to 40 PCI Express* Gen 3 lanes supporting a total I/O bandwidth significantly in excess of 100 Gbps. Intel® Xeon Processor E5-2400/2600 The raw performance is complimented by Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT), which enables flexible 6WINDGate* Packet Processing Software accelerates fast path and control plane Figure 3. combinations of operating systems processing. and workloads on the same hardware.

34 | 2013 | 7th Edition | Embedded Innovator | intel.com/go/embeddedinnovator Figure 2, different cores, blades, and racks can be assigned to different 6WINDGate also integrates seamlessly with standard cloud orches- roles as needed, enabling: trators (such as OpenStack*) and Layer 2-3 controller software (such as OpenFlow*). U Load balancing across cores, blades, and racks U Migration of workloads across cores, blades, and racks The solution is designed for scalability across processors, blades, U The ability to power down unused cores, blades, and racks for and racks, helping meet the performance needs of the EPC. substantial power savings This scalability is aided by support for popular hypervisors, like Citrix* XEN*, Red Hat* KVM, and VMware* ESX*, which can all run The platform is supported by the Intel® Data Plane Development Kit 6WINDGate without any change to the hypervisor. Thanks to sup- (Intel® DPDK), a set of libraries that implement basic packet processing port for Intel VT, virtualized deployments of 6WINDGate are able to functions. The libraries are optimized to make maximum use of the maintain near-native performance. 6WIND has also extended the Layer 2 and Layer 3 caches and the direct memory access (DMA) engines Intel DPDK with the support of virtual network interface cards (NICs) in the memory control blocks. Similarly, Intel® QuickAssist Technology such as VMXNET3, Virtio, and e1000. defines a unified set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that take advantage of the encryption and compression hardware accelera- Consolidated Management and Data Plane tion included in the Intel Communications Chipset 89xx Series. The Wind River* Intelligent Network Platform (INP) also demonstrates the sophistication of the middleware available for the Intel platform. By using Intel DPDK and Intel QuickAssist Technology, system devel- INP is a full set of control plane and data plane components for rapid opers can quickly implement high-performance packet processing func- deployment of consolidated systems (Figure 4). The INP platform inte- tions. In fact, several members of the Intel Intelligent Systems Alliance grates the Wind River Application Acceleration Engine for fast Layer 3 have already put these technologies to work in middleware packages and Layer 4 network protocols and the Wind River Content Inspection that target the EPC. Engine for high-speed pattern matching.

High-Performance Data Plane The Wind River Application Acceleration Engine works in conjunction with One good example is 6WINDGate* from 6WIND* (Figure 3). Linux in the data plane. It leverages the performance of the Intel DPDK 6WINDGate builds on Intel DPDK with a full suite of Layer 2 libraries to accelerate networking applications, protocols, and secu- through Layer 4 protocols, providing a single-source networking rity components such as DPI and virtual private network (VPN) tech- solution. It is fully compatible with standard Linux distribu- nologies. The Wind River Content Inspection Engine is a high-speed tions and application APIs providing seamless integration with pattern-matching DPI solution that can match large groups of reg- Layer 2/3 management software for faster time-to-market. ular expressions against blocks or streams of data. It is designed for

Management Plane Data Plane Screen, nc, Telnet Applications Interactive Shell Sockets Config/Monitoring pktgen TCP UDP Netlink Proxy Interfaces – Routes – Examples Libraries – SA Sync – Exception Path Multi-Process EAL Mbuf – Interface – L3FWD/VF Timer Ether Mempool IKE Strongman PROCFS L2FWD/VF VMDQ_DCP Hash Net Tracing DPDK QAT Load Balancer LPM Ring + Exception Path Link Status IRQ Input Frag Malloc Timer Logging Profiling ICMP, ARP, IKE, etc. Flow Analysis CorrelationDPI Content Isp. Native Applications Socket Interceptor IPS/IDS IPsec QAT ARP ICMP LAG QoS NAT VLAN IGMP VRF User-Mode Drivers Legend: User I/O Module Intel DPDK } LinuxOS INP 3.1 Proxy0 Proxy1 Proxy2 ProxyN New in INP 3.2

The Wind River* Intelligent Network Platform integrates with the Intel® Data Plane Development Kit (Intel® DPDK) for Figure 4. networking acceleration.

intel.com/go/embeddedinnovator | Embedded Innovator 7 th Edition | 2013 | 35 Communications Software

applications that scan large amounts of data at line rate, such as intru- TCA (ATCA*) blade. This blade integrates the Intel Platform for sion prevention (IPS), antivirus (AV), unified threat management (UTM), Communications Infrastructure and dual 40 Gbps Ethernet fabric and other DPI systems. interfaces for maximum throughput. When deployed in a 14-slot ATCA chassis, the ATCA-XE100 can scale to 480 Gbps of throughput, The Wind River INP is optimized for Linux environments and enables readily handling demanding infrastructure workloads. equipment providers to build high-performance products that accel- erate, analyze, and secure network traffic and applications. The fast path Carrier Cloud Telecoms code runs outside the Linux scheduler, allowing the system to allocate The consolidation of control, management and data plane functions onto processor cores to control and data plane workloads at run-time. a single processor architecture can make the vision of a virtualized EPC a practical proposition. In this vision, all EPC functions are executed by a DPI and Metadata Extraction single pool of uniform computing resources. Instead of having dedicated The PCEF is a key element in the 3G and LTE packet core. The PCEF MME hardware, for example, MME functions are instantiated within a implements operator policies to manage network congestion and ensure data center on an as-needed basis. appropriate services are delivered to cus- tomers. As mobile bandwidth grows, the PCEF becomes a bottleneck requiring high-perfor- Online Charging PCRF mance DPI and support for 40 Gbps or greater System packet processing. The PCEF can be imple- mented as a separate system or as part a Gx Gy virtualized packet core. PCEF Device The Qosmos* ixEngine* shown in Figure 5 meets this need with real-time Layer 7 IP App. Ids Metadata flow analysis. This solution leverages the PCEF Function Intel DPDK to identify protocols and applica- tions based on flow passing and statistical Control analysis. The Qosmos ixEngine extracts over DPI Engine Plane/Mgt 6,000 types of information for up to 1,000 Flow Manager protocols. This metadata can be used to Qosmos implement application-specific policies. In addition, content extracted from the packet Packets Intel® DPDK stream can be used to analyze applica- tion-specific performance. The Qosmos ixEngine can be integrated with PCEF, control Core 1 Core 2 Core n Core plane, and other functions to implement a flexible policy management solution for the virtualized packet core. Figure 5. Qosmo* ixEngine* integrates DPI and metadata engine. Complete EPC Solution Radisys* Corporation also offers a complete solution for the EPC with its Trillium LTE software. The Radisys Trillium LTE wireless MIME/Serving Gateway Application software uses the Intel DPDK framework NAS Mobility Policy to support optimized fast path data plane Security Anchoring Enforcement protocol implementations with zero copy Idle State Aggregation SAE drivers and hardware accelerators including Stack Mobility Qos Managemanet Bearer Control Manager the Intel Communications Chipset 89xx S1-AP Diameter Proxy eMM/eSM eGTP GTP Series. As shown in Figure 6, it can be used SCTP (NAS) Mobile IP across EPC applications such as MME and SGW. Trillium software can also be deployed IP (IPsec) in all sizes of LTE base stations—from femto to macro—enabling easy interoper- Trillium Solution Trillium Reference Applications 3rd Party Solution ability between the edge and network core.

The Trillium LTE software can be imple- Radisys* Trillium software provides complete wireless protocol software for Figure 6. mented on a variety of platforms such applications such as MME and SGW. as the Radisys ATCA-XE100 Advanced

36 | 2013 | 7th Edition | Embedded Innovator | intel.com/go/embeddedinnovator Tieto* and Intel recently cre- ated a Carrier Cloud Telecoms Cloud Controller proof-of-concept, shown in Figure 7, that explores the OCCI API key research and develop- Open Stack ment (R&D) challenges and GlanceKeystone Nova Nova API possible approaches cen- SGW/PGW tral to cloud realization in the telecoms domain. The TIP IP Stack BearerBearer TrafficTraffic FM6764* initiative includes a virtu- Traffic Simulators 10G/40G Switch ® alized implementation of Intel DPDK 3G core network and LTE SR-IOV EPC network functions in Open flow an open, scalable multi- Controller SGSN/GGSN KVM core environment based on Openvswitch Intel multi-core technology KVM Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 and software optimizations ® ® Open Flow 1.0 Intel Xeon E5-2600 ® ® developed by Intel and Tieto. Intel Xeon E5-2600 Intel® 82599 10G NIC The proof-of-concept shows Intel® 82599 10G NIC Intel® 82599 10G NIC the potential for opening the network to allow innovative OSS/BSS CIMI API service designs that promote Cloud Mgt ecosystem cooperation and * FM6764 = pre-production 10G/40G switch code-named "Alta" Suite best-of-breed solutions. A virtualized network archi- tecture can allow equipment providers and mobile net- Figure 7. Intel® architecture can implement virtual applications in the telecom cloud. work operators to:

U Efficiently operate, maintain, and upgrade network resources, A Common Platform for the Virtualized EPC while speeding up functional and service deployments The Intel Platform for Communications Infrastructure provides a flexible, U Lower capital expenditure (CapEx) by reducing the need for high-performance solution for the EPC. The software support from 6WIND, specialized equipment and tool chains Radisys, Tieto, Wind River, and Qosmos enable rapid development on U Deliver new and enhanced services and revenue streams, while the platform and add to its overall suitability for workload consolidation. also allowing existing investments to be re-used Together, the hardware and software provide an excellent platform for the virtualized EPC, giving TEMs valuable new options for equipment design The proof of concept uses traffic generators and server platforms and service providers important new options for service expansion. based on Intel® Xeon® processor E5-26xx, as well as an OpenFlow- enabled 10 GbE/40 GbE Intel® Ethernet Switch FM6764 for L2/L3/L4 For more information on solutions from Radisys, traffic and a 1 GbE switch for the management interfaces. Scenarios Wind River, 6WIND, Tieto, and Qosmos, see http:// implemented by the Carrier Cloud Telecoms proof of concept include: intelintelligentsystemsalliance.com/solutions-directory

U Dynamic provisioning of 4G/LTE traffic and resources in a For more on flexible, scalable, standards-based virtualized software defined network (SDN) environment communications visit intel.com/go/ U High-performance, energy-efficient packet processing and protocol embedded-communications distribution using the Intel® DPDK and the Tieto* IP stack (TIP) U 4G/LTE to 3G video stream handovers Contact Intel From modular components to market- The Carrier Cloud Telecoms proof of concept demonstrates the ready systems, Intel and the 250+ global potential for completely new network infrastructure models. For member companies of the Intel® Intelligent Systems Alliance example, network resources could be shared between multiple ten- (Intel.com/go/intelligentsystems-alliance) provide the connectivity, ants, much the way cloud computing resources are shared by mul- manageability, security, and performance developers need to create tiple IT customers. These shared resources could reduce costs by smart, connected systems. 6WIND (intel.com/go/ea-6wind), Radisys allowing service providers to lease capacity on an as-needed basis. (intel.com/go/ea-radisys), Tieto (intel.com/go/ea-tieto), and Wind They could also permit rapid scaling by allowing service providers to River (intel.com/go/ea-windriver) are Associate members of the replace time-consuming equipment installation with a nearly instan- Alliance. Qosmos (intel.com/go/ea-qosmos) is an Affiliate member of taneous purchase of cloud capacity. the Alliance.

intel.com/go/embeddedinnovator | Embedded Innovator 7 th Edition | 2013 | 37