CPC H04W 80/10 (2013.01) [H04L 69/22 (2013.01); H04L 69/327 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |
13. A method for providing a translating virtual network function by a network element, the method comprising:
providing by the network element a plurality of virtual user plane functions (UPFs), wherein each virtual UPF communicates via a different one of a plurality of IP addresses corresponding to a different Session Management Function (SMF) of a plurality of SMFs;
translating by the network element a first Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) message received at a first Internet Protocol (IP) address using a translation method into a function-based model representation of the first PFCP message, wherein the first IP address corresponds to a first SMF of the plurality of SMFs; and
configuring by the network element a network interface controller to implement, based on the representation of the first PFCP message, a protocol data unit (PDU) session.
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