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Simple Measurement of eUPF(eBPF/XDP UPF) Performance

This describes simple performance measurements of eUPF(eBPF/XDP UPF) by using the traffic generator TRex as the performance measurement tool and Aether pfcpsim as the PFCP simulator. This was measured on the VMs on Proxmox VE. For other measurement results, please see Performance Measurement.

Note. Performance measurement results are highly dependent on the measurement conditions. These results are only examples of results under certain measurement conditions. And this is a very simple measurement, and according to this comment, it doesn't seem to make much sense to measure between VMs. I hope it will serve as a reference for a simple configuration when measuring on real devices.

Sample Configurations and Miscellaneous for Mobile Network

<a id="toc"></a>

Table of Contents

• Simple Overview of eUPF Performance Measurements
• Changes in configuration files of TRex and eUPF
  • Changes in configuration files of TRex
  • Changes in configuration files of eUPF
• Network settings of TRex and eUPF
  • Network settings of TRex
  • Network settings of eUPF
• Build Aether pfcpsim, TRex and eUPF
• Run Aether pfcpsim, TRex and eUPF
  • Run eUPF
  • Run Aether pfcpsim
  • Run TRex
• Results
• Changelog (summary)

<a id="overview"></a>

Simple Overview of eUPF Performance Measurements

I will easily measure the performance of eUPF by using TRex as the traffic generator and Aether pfcpsim as the PFCP simulator. Note that this configuration is implemented with Proxmox VE VMs.

The following minimum configuration was set as a condition.

• One Aether pfcpsim (as a part of SMF), TRex (as RAN&UE) and eUPF

The built simulation environment is as follows.

<img src="./images/network-overview.png" title="./images/network-overview.png" width=700px></img>

The Aether pfcpsim, TRex and eUPF used are as follows.

• Aether pfcpsim v1.2.0 (2024.10.24) - https://github.com/omec-project/pfcpsim
• TRex v3.06 (2024.09.17) - https://github.com/cisco-system-traffic-generator/trex-core
• eUPF v0.6.4 (2024.05.01) - https://github.com/edgecomllc/eupf

Each VMs are as follows.

The network interfaces of each VM are as follows.

Linux Bridges of Proxmox VE are as follows.

UE IP address and TEID are as follows.

<a id="changes"></a>

Changes in configuration files of TRex and eUPF

Please refer to the following for building TRex and eUPF respectively.

• TRex v3.06 (2024.09.17) - https://github.com/s5uishida/install_trex
• eUPF v0.6.4 (2024.05.01) - https://github.com/s5uishida/install_eupf

<a id="changes_trex"></a>

Changes in configuration files of TRex

See here for the original file.

• /etc/trex_cfg.yaml
  There is no change.

See here for the original file.

• /opt/trex/stl/gtp_1pkt_simple.py
  There is no change.

<a id="changes_eupf"></a>

Changes in configuration files of eUPF

See here for the original file.

• eupf/config.yml
  There is no change.

<a id="network_settings"></a>

Network settings of TRex and eUPF

<a id="network_settings_trex"></a>

Network settings of TRex

Set the OS kernel parameter according to this.

<a id="network_settings_eupf"></a>

Network settings of eUPF

First, uncomment the next line in the /etc/sysctl.conf file and reflect it in the OS.

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

# sysctl -p

Next, down the interface ens18 of the VM-DUT and set the VM-TG IP address to default GW on the N6 interfaceens22.

# ip link set dev ens18 down
# ip route add default via 192.168.16.152 dev ens22

<a id="build"></a>

Build Aether pfcpsim, TRex and eUPF

Please refer to the following for building Aether pfcpsim, TRex and eUPF respectively.

• Aether pfcpsim v1.2.0 (2024.10.24) - https://github.com/omec-project/pfcpsim
• TRex v3.06 (2024.09.17) - https://github.com/s5uishida/install_trex
• eUPF v0.6.4 (2024.05.01) - https://github.com/s5uishida/install_eupf

<a id="run"></a>

Run Aether pfcpsim, TRex and eUPF

First run eUPF, then Aether pfcpsim and TRex last.

<a id="run_eupf"></a>

Run eUPF

See this.

<a id="run_pfcpsim"></a>

Run Aether pfcpsim

First, start server(pfcpsim).

# cd pfcpsim
# ./server -i ens20
2024-11-03T21:48:42.376+0900    INFO    pfcpsim/main.go:41      server listening on port 54321  {"component": "LIB", "category": "Pfcpsim"}

Then, open another console and send PFCP messages from client(pfcpctl) to server(pfcpsim).

1. Use client(pfcpctl) to configure server's remote peer address (192.168.14.151) and N3 interface address (192.168.13.151). The other parameters are default values.

   # cd pfcpsim
   # ./client service configure -r 192.168.14.151 -n 192.168.13.151
   2024-11-03T21:49:21.666+0900    INFO    commands/services.go:49 Server is configured. Remote peer address: 192.168.14.151, N3 interface address: 192.168.13.151         {"component": "LIB", "category": "Pfcpsim"}
   

2. Use associate command to connect to remote peer set in the previous configuration step and perform an association. The other parameters are default values.

   # ./client service associate
   2024-11-03T21:49:21.671+0900    INFO    commands/services.go:64 Association established {"component": "LIB", "category": "Pfcpsim"}
   

3. Send a PFCP Session Establishment Request with the UE pool address=10.45.0.0/24 and QFI=5. The other parameters are default values.

   # ./client session create -u 10.45.0.0/24 -q 5
   2024-11-03T21:49:21.677+0900    INFO    commands/sessions.go:94 1 sessions were established using 1 as baseID   {"component": "LIB", "category": "Pfcpsim"}
   

4. Send a PFCP Session Modification Request with the UE pool address=10.45.0.0/24, QFI=5, the buffer flag=true of the downlink FAR, and true of downlink FARs notifying CP. The other parameters are default values.

   # ./client session modify -u 10.45.0.0/24 -q 5 -b -n
   2024-11-03T21:49:21.682+0900    INFO    commands/sessions.go:119        1 sessions were modified        {"component": "LIB", "category": "Pfcpsim"}
   

As a result of these command operations, the following logs will be output to server.

2024-11-03T21:49:21.671+0900    INFO    pfcpsim/server.go:101   Association established {"component": "LIB", "category": "Pfcpsim"}
2024-11-03T21:49:21.676+0900    INFO    pfcpsim/server.go:188   successfully parsed application filter. SDF Filter: permit out ip from any to assigned  {"component": "LIB", "category": "Pfcpsim"}
2024-11-03T21:49:21.677+0900    INFO    pfcpsim/server.go:305   1 sessions were established using 1 as baseID   {"component": "LIB", "category": "Pfcpsim"}
2024-11-03T21:49:21.682+0900    INFO    pfcpsim/server.go:396   1 sessions were modified        {"component": "LIB", "category": "Pfcpsim"}

<a id="run_trex"></a>

Run TRex

Please refer to this to run TRex.

<a id="results"></a>

Results

The measurements below show that 481.94 Mbps of 1.77 Gbps was dropped and 1.29 Gbps was received.

Global Statistics

connection   : localhost, Port 4501                       total_tx_L2  : 1.77 Gbps  
version      : STL @ v3.06                                total_tx_L1  : 1.8 Gbps   
cpu_util.    : 1.24% @ 1 cores (1 per dual port)          total_rx     : 1.29 Gbps  
rx_cpu_util. : 0.23% / 111.63 Kpps                        total_pps    : 149.57 Kpps
async_util.  : 0% / 9.35 bps                              drop_rate    : 481.94 Mbps
total_cps.   : 0 cps                                      queue_full   : 14,021 pkts

Port Statistics

   port    |         0         |         1         |       total       
-----------+-------------------+-------------------+------------------
owner      |              root |              root |                   
link       |                UP |                UP |                   
state      |      TRANSMITTING |              IDLE |                   
speed      |          200 Gb/s |          200 Gb/s |                   
CPU util.  |             1.24% |              0.0% |                   
--         |                   |                   |                   
Tx bps L2  |         1.77 Gbps |             0 bps |         1.77 Gbps 
Tx bps L1  |          1.8 Gbps |             0 bps |          1.8 Gbps 
Tx pps     |       149.57 Kpps |             0 pps |       149.57 Kpps 
Line Util. |             0.9 % |               0 % |                   
---        |                   |                   |                   
Rx bps     |             0 bps |         1.29 Gbps |         1.29 Gbps 
Rx pps     |             0 pps |       111.63 Kpps |       111.63 Kpps 
----       |                   |                   |                   
opackets   |           2069401 |                 0 |           2069401 
ipackets   |                 0 |           1545552 |           1545552 
obytes     |        3066852282 |                 0 |        3066852282 
ibytes     |                 0 |        2234868192 |        2234868192 
tx-pkts    |        2.07 Mpkts |            0 pkts |        2.07 Mpkts 
rx-pkts    |            0 pkts |        1.55 Mpkts |        1.55 Mpkts 
tx-bytes   |           3.07 GB |               0 B |           3.07 GB 
rx-bytes   |               0 B |           2.23 GB |           2.23 GB 
-----      |                   |                   |                   
oerrors    |                 0 |                 0 |                 0 
ierrors    |                 0 |                 0 |                 0 

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tui>

If measuring using virtual machines, it would be better to measure on VMs on a hypervisor such as Proxmox VE. Also, it is good to select VirtIO as the network interface to ensure that the network does not become a bottleneck in the measurement.

It is very simple mesurement and may not be very meaningful when measuring between virtual machines, but I would appreciate it if you could use this as a reference as a configuration example when measuring with real devices.

I would like to thank all the excellent developers and contributors who developed Aether pfcpsim, TRex, eUPF, these great systems and tools.

<a id="changelog"></a>

Changelog (summary)

• [2024.11.03] Initial release.