Utilizing OpenFlow, SDN and NFV in GPRS Core Network

Abstract

Since GPRS introduction, mobile networks had gone a long way, however GPRS with its EDGE enhancement is still widely used, but the architecture proves to be outdated, complex and often hard to integrate with other technologies. With the introduction of new networking approaches such as SDN and NFV, many problems regarding GPRS emerge. In this paper we present a new architecture for delivery of GPRS service which uses modern approaches such as SDN and NFV. This architecture simplifies the whole network by moving mobile network intelligence to the SDN controller, while removing old, complex nodes such as SGSN and GGSN and mobile protocols such as GTP. This brings the network flexibility, programmability, service elasticity and vendor independency. No changes on the radio access network or the mobile terminal are required to deploy our simplified GPRS architecture, so backward compatibility and interoperability is ensured. Proposed architecture was implemented and tested with real radio access network and mobile terminal.