Architecture

The "smf-udp-proxy" POD is placed in the worker nodes in the K8s cluster.

  1. Each of the K8s worker node contains one instance of the "smf-udp-proxy" POD. However, only one of the K8s worker node owns the virtual IP at any time. The worker node that owns the virtual IP remains in the active mode while all the other worker nodes remain in the standby mode.

  2. The active "smf-udp-proxy" POD binds to the virtual IP and the designated ports for listening to the UDP messages from the peer nodes (UPF and SGW).

  3. The UDP payload received from the peer nodes are forwarded to one instance of the smf-protocol, gtp-ep, or radius-ep pods. The payload is forwarded either on the same node or different node for further processing.

  4. The response message from the smf-protocol, gtp-ep, or radius-ep pods is forwarded back to the active instance of the "smf-udp-proxy" POD. The "smf-udp-proxy" POD sends the response message back to the corresponding peer nodes.

  5. The SMF-initiated messages are encoded at the smf-protocol, gtp-ep, or radius-ep pods. In addition, the UDP payload is sent to the "smf-udp-proxy" POD. Eventually, the "smf-udp-proxy" POD comprises of the complete IP payload and sends the message to the peer. When the response from the peer is received, the UDP payload is sent back to the same smf-protocol, gtp-ep, or radius-ep POD from which the message originated.

UDP Proxy Architecture