A Microsoft Company

Solution Brief

IntroductionWith the arrival of 5G, mobile operators will have an unprecedented opportunity to deliver new value-added services, from self-driving vehicles to smart factories. Yet it will still take years before most subscribers are using 5G devices, which means that mobile operators need a way to monetize their existing networks and reduce costs today while delivering 5G RAN services to early adopters.

With Affirmed’s virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC), mobile operators can modernize their mobile services networks and build toward 5G with a fully virtualized mobile core platform that leverages the cloud, microservices, automation, and service orchestration for “any G” efficiencies and innovation.

Affirmed’s vEPC solution delivers the advanced network capabilities that mobile operators need to deploy a complete 5G non-standalone architecture (NSA) network: control and user plane separation (CUPS), network slicing, service automation, and fully virtualized, cloud-native network functions. Yet the Affirmed vEPC can also deliver many of the benefits of 5G (e.g., enhanced mobile broadband, ultra-reliable low latency communications) without requiring a wholesale infrastructure upgrade. Whether deployed in a 4G or 5G NSA environment, the Affirmed vEPC can help mobile operators reduce costs and time to market while delivering new revenue-generating services right now including IoT services, private LTE services, edge computing, 5G services, and more.

Virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC)The intelligent Foundation for Mobile Communications

POWERING THE WORLD WIDE WIRELESS WEBTM

1

1. Virtualization

Affirmed introduced the industry’s first fully virtualized, cloud-native mobile core platform and today we continue that tradition of innovation with our vEPC solution.

Affirmed vEPC delivers significant benefits to mobile operators today, including:

1. Lower operating and capital expenses through seamless support for privateNumbered List/public/hybrid cloud environments and bare-metal infrastructure

2. Rapid, on-demand scaling of network resources based on dynamic consumption—something that operators cannot do with purpose-built appliances

3. Faster time-to-market for new revenue-generating ser-vices through service automation and orchestration

A Mobile Network Platform Built on Four Pillars of InnovationThe Affirmed vEPC is built on four pillars of innovation that allow mobile operators to create new services faster, scale network capacity more gracefully, generate analytics-driven insights, and leverage edge computing efficiencies.

Virtual Evolved Packet Core Solution Brief Affirmed Networks

A Microsoft Company 2

2. Personalization

Unlike traditional service frameworks, the vEPC’s service orchestration framework allows mobile operators to quickly spin up unique and personalized services through features that include:

1. Flexible controls for managing subscriber policies

2. Service customization based on subscriber settings and content provider policies

3. Tools for creating dynamic, event-driven services

4. New revenue opportunities by partnering with third-party content providers

3. Disaggregation

Control and User Plane Separation (CUPS) is the recommended path to cost-effectively scale network bandwidth and reduce network latency, while minimizing the complexity of the control plane. CUPS is also a critical component of 5G networks and multi-access edge computing (MEC).

Affirmed’s vEPC platform supports CUPS by centralizing the control plane functions in the mobile core and pushing the user plane functions to the network edge, thus enabling mobile operators to scale resources as needed.

4. Operational Insight

Network analytics play an increasingly important role in mobile networks, particularly as operators look to their data for insights into new service opportunities and better subscriber experiences.

Affirmed’s vEPC platform has solved the problem of network analytics at scale with the industry’s only virtual probe to be embedded right at the source of the network function. Affirmed’s virtual probe (vProbe) solution eliminates the cost and complexity of traditional appliance-based probes and allows operators to get real-time insights across their network more easily than ever before.

Virtual Evolved Packet Core Solution Brief

A Microsoft Company 3

Affirmed Networks

Figure 1. Affirmed Virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) Components

A Mobile Platform Built for Tier-One CarriersAffirmed’s vEPC platform is designed to support the world’s most demanding mobile network environments, with features that accelerate new revenue opportunities while strengthening existing revenue streams, including:

3GPP standards compliance The vEPC platform delivers a full stack of 4G/5G gateway and mobility functions. These virtualized network functions are interoperable with any standards-based components to avoid vendor lock-in and allow for mobile operators to build best-of-breed networks.

Affirmed’s vEPC platform has built-in, value-added services that include deep packet inspection (DPI), GiLAN services, and virtual network probes, enabling mobile operators to easily spin up new services such as application-based charging, proxy services, TCP and video optimization, security services, and parental controls.

Regulatory compliance Mobile networks must meet stringent requirements for regulatory compliance, so Affirmed’s vEPC supports compliance measures including lawful intercept, subscriber privacy, and data sovereignty.

Flexible architecture Given the expected growth and range of 5G communications, mobile operators need a flexible network architecture that can be deployed and scaled quickly. The Affirmed vEPC can support a variety of deployment models

including in public, private, hybrid, and edge clouds in either consolidated or CUPS configurations, allowing mobile operators to optimally place network resources for the best scale, economics, and customer experience.

High availability All Affirmed virtualized network functions can be deployed in highly available, geo-redundant configurations to provide superior disaster recovery.

Cost-effective scale Affirmed’s vEPC platform can be deployed on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) servers and common hypervisors (e.g., VMware, OpenStack) and public clouds to cost-effectively scale mobile networks. Affirmed’s solutions are validated and integrated with industry-leading servers from Intel and others to provide the highest levels of performance out of the box.

Broad interoperability Affirmed’s wide partner ecosystem and adherence to industry standards mean that mobile operators can take advantage of solutions from a variety of third-party solution providers including policy and management tools, online and offline charging systems, home subscriber services, and much more.

Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

TWAG

vSSF

ASAP

EMS

MSF

PCRF (3PP) AAA (3PP)

HSS (3PP) NFVI (3PP)

SGW-C/U

IMS Network

Edge Network

Trusted Wi-Fi

Untrusted Wi-Fi

ePDG

PGW-C/U

3G/4G/NR RAN Internet

MME

GiGW/VAS

SGWEA-U

Virtual Evolved Packet Core Solution Brief Affirmed Networks

A Mobile Platform Built for GrowthAffirmed’s vEPC is helping some of the world’s leading mobile carriers deliver advanced 5G services and grow their revenue right now. In February 2014, AT&T named Affirmed Networks as one of its first Domain 2.0 vendors support-ing a new software-defined architecture for deploying new hardware, software, and services. In Finland, DNA uses Affirmed’s vEPC to deliver super-fast 5G connectivity to its residential subscribers and 5G IoT services to its enterprise subscribers.

Around the world, Affirmed’s vEPC is at the core of the world’s most successful and forward-looking mobile operators. Whether you’re looking to build a 5G standalone or non-standalone, Affirmed puts you on firm footing for the future.

To learn more, visit us at www.affirmednetworks.com.

A Microsoft Company

TM

POWERING THEWORLD WIDEWIRELESS WEB

Affirmed Networks | 35 Nagog Park, Acton, Massachusetts 01720 | +1 978-268-0800 | www.affirmednetworks.com

© 2021 Affirmed Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Affirmed® is a registered trademark and “Powering the World Wide Wireless Web” is a trademark of Affirmed Networks, Inc.

A Complete 5G NSA Core SolutionAffirmed’s vEPC platform includes a complete set of 5G virtualized network functions (VNFs) to deliver robust, best-in-class 4G/5G services (see Figure 1).

1. 3GPP core network functions include Serving Gateway (SGW) for handoff between the RAN and core network; Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) for interconnect between the core and external IP networks; and the mo-bility management entity (MME) for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

2. Network slicing via Affirmed’s virtual Slice Selection Function (vSSF) delivers fine-grained slicing of network traffic to deliver differentiated, customized experiences.

3. Mobile edge breakout capabilities, featuring Af-firmed’s Serving Gateway Edge Anchor (SGWEA) func-tion, break out targeted traffic to local IP networks for lower latencies in high-bandwidth applications.

4. GiLAN services help mobile operators add value to the service chain and include content filtering, TCP/video

optimization, deep packet inspection, and more. These services can be integrated with the Affirmed PGW or delivered via a standalone Gi-LAN Gateway (GiGW).

5. Wi-Fi access is delivered via the evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG) and Trusted Wireless Access Gateway (TWAG) functions. The TWAG provides secure, value-add-ed services over trusted Wi-Fi networks, while the ePDG provides secure communications over non-trusted Wi-Fi networks.

6. Network management is handled by the Acuitas Element Management System (EMS), which enhances traditional EMS functionality with a powerful workflow engine and service orchestration tools for better control. Affirmed’s vProbe provides additional network insights to improve network performance.