Control-plane protocol interactions in cellular networks

Guan Hua Tu; Yuanjie Li; Chunyi Peng; Chi-Yu Li; Hongyi Wang; Songwu Lu

doi:10.1145/2619239.2626302

Control-plane protocol interactions in cellular networks

Guan Hua Tu
, Yuanjie Li
, Chunyi Peng^*
, Chi-Yu Li
, Hongyi Wang
, Songwu Lu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Institute of Computer Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › peer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

Control-plane protocols are complex in cellular networks. They communicate with one another along three dimensions of cross layers, cross (circuit-switched and packet-switched) domains, and cross (3G and 4G) systems. In this work, we propose signaling diagnosis tools and uncover six instances of problematic interactions. Such control-plane issues span both design defects in the 3GPP standards and operational slips by carriers. They are more damaging than data-plane failures. In the worst-case scenario, users may be out of service in 4G, or get stuck in 3G. We deduce root causes, propose solutions, and summarize learned lessons.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	223-234
Number of pages	12
Journal	Computer Communication Review
Volume	44
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2619239.2626302
State	Published - 25 Feb 2015
Event	ACM SIGCOMM 2014 Conference - Chicago, United States Duration: 17 Aug 2014 → 22 Aug 2014

Keywords

Cellular networks
Control-plane
Protocol verification

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10.1145/2619239.2626302

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title = "Control-plane protocol interactions in cellular networks",

abstract = "Control-plane protocols are complex in cellular networks. They communicate with one another along three dimensions of cross layers, cross (circuit-switched and packet-switched) domains, and cross (3G and 4G) systems. In this work, we propose signaling diagnosis tools and uncover six instances of problematic interactions. Such control-plane issues span both design defects in the 3GPP standards and operational slips by carriers. They are more damaging than data-plane failures. In the worst-case scenario, users may be out of service in 4G, or get stuck in 3G. We deduce root causes, propose solutions, and summarize learned lessons.",

keywords = "Cellular networks, Control-plane, Protocol verification",

author = "Tu, \{Guan Hua\} and Yuanjie Li and Chunyi Peng and Chi-Yu Li and Hongyi Wang and Songwu Lu",

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doi = "10.1145/2619239.2626302",

language = "English",

volume = "44",

pages = "223--234",

journal = "Computer Communication Review",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Control-plane protocol interactions in cellular networks

AU - Tu, Guan Hua

AU - Li, Yuanjie

AU - Peng, Chunyi

AU - Li, Chi-Yu

AU - Wang, Hongyi

AU - Lu, Songwu

PY - 2015/2/25

Y1 - 2015/2/25

N2 - Control-plane protocols are complex in cellular networks. They communicate with one another along three dimensions of cross layers, cross (circuit-switched and packet-switched) domains, and cross (3G and 4G) systems. In this work, we propose signaling diagnosis tools and uncover six instances of problematic interactions. Such control-plane issues span both design defects in the 3GPP standards and operational slips by carriers. They are more damaging than data-plane failures. In the worst-case scenario, users may be out of service in 4G, or get stuck in 3G. We deduce root causes, propose solutions, and summarize learned lessons.

AB - Control-plane protocols are complex in cellular networks. They communicate with one another along three dimensions of cross layers, cross (circuit-switched and packet-switched) domains, and cross (3G and 4G) systems. In this work, we propose signaling diagnosis tools and uncover six instances of problematic interactions. Such control-plane issues span both design defects in the 3GPP standards and operational slips by carriers. They are more damaging than data-plane failures. In the worst-case scenario, users may be out of service in 4G, or get stuck in 3G. We deduce root causes, propose solutions, and summarize learned lessons.

KW - Cellular networks

KW - Control-plane

KW - Protocol verification

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84924410666

U2 - 10.1145/2619239.2626302

DO - 10.1145/2619239.2626302

M3 - Conference article

AN - SCOPUS:84924410666

SN - 0146-4833

VL - 44

SP - 223

EP - 234

JO - Computer Communication Review

JF - Computer Communication Review

IS - 4

T2 - ACM SIGCOMM 2014 Conference

Y2 - 17 August 2014 through 22 August 2014

ER -

Control-plane protocol interactions in cellular networks

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Keywords

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