Cable: A framework for accelerating 5G UPF based on eBPF

An increasing number of 5G core network modules are being implemented in the X86 cloud environment. Improving the modules’ packet processing ability can accelerate the 5G data plane. EBPF is a promising way to reduce the packet processing consumption in the Linux kernel. In this paper, we propose Cable, a framework to accelerate the 5G data plane by using eBPF. Cable can not only reduce the packet processing time in a single UPF, but also schedule PDU sessions to suitable UPFs by the monitoring information. We implemented Cable in the open source 5G core project Free5GC and made it publicly available. Evaluation in a simulation environment shows that Cable can reduce packet processing time in a single UPF by over 30% and improve the whole system’s UPF usage by 25%.