Managing 5G Converged Core With Access Traffic Steering, Switching, and Splitting

Abstract

This chapter discusses the ongoing work around hybrid access and network convergence, with particular emphasis on recent works on ATSSS in 3GPP. Three main aspects are analyzed: policy enforcement, integration with 5G QoS framework, interaction with underlying multi-path transport protocol. The chapter also provides some preliminary testbed results showing the benefits of ATSSS in the management of multiple accesses analyzing some primary performance indicators such as achievable data rates, link utilization for aggregated traffic, and session setup latency. The chapter also provides some results by considering two examples of realization of ATSSS policies to avoid inefficiency in link utilization and to allow the fulfillment of data rate requirements.