Selective user plane monitoring multiple monitoring probes when a serving gateway has multiple IP addresses

Abstract

A system for selective user plane (UP) monitoring includes a service gateway (SGW) having a plurality of units. The system further includes a network packet broker (NPB) configured to receive packets including UP data from tunnels created to enable transmission of the UP packets from UE to the plurality of SGW units. The NPB is also configured to receive packets including control plane (CP) data from channels enabling transmission of the CP packets from a base transceiver station to the SGW. The system also includes a plurality of probes operatively coupled to the NPB. The probes are configured to generate first metrics associated with the received CP packets and to selectively generate second metrics associated with the received UP packets based on one or more identifiers. The NPB is configured to forward UP packets being processed by a particular SGW unit to a particular probe of the plurality of probes.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for selective user plane monitoring in a wireless network, the system comprising:
 a plurality of monitoring probes;    a service getaway (SGW) having a plurality of units, each unit having at least one processor, a memory and a unique IP address;   a network packet broker configured to receive operatively coupled to the plurality of monitoring probes and the plurality of SGW units, wherein the network packet broker receives a plurality of user plane packets comprising user plane data from one or more tunnels created to enable direct transmission of user plane packets from between user equipment to and the plurality of SGW units and configured to receive, wherein the network packet broker receives a plurality of control plane packets comprising control plane data from one or more channels created to enable transmission of control plane packets from between a base transceiver station to and the plurality of SGW ; and units, wherein the network packet broker forwards the plurality of user plane packets and the plurality of control plane packets to the plurality of monitoring probes,    awherein the plurality of monitoring probes operatively coupled to the network packet broker, the monitoring probes are configured to generategenerates a first plurality of metrics associated with the control plane packets and configured to, selectively generategenerates a second plurality of metrics associated with the user plane packets based on one or more subscriber identifiers, and selectively generategenerates a third plurality of user plane metrics for a subset of the subscriber identifiers, wherein the third plurality of user plane metrics is different than the second plurality of user plane metrics,   wherein the network packet broker is configured to forward a plurality of user plane packets being processed by a particular SGW unit to a particular monitoring probe of the plurality of probes.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the SGW comprises a blade server and wherein each of the plurality of SGW units comprises a blade. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more tunnels comprise encapsulated unidirectional tunnels and wherein each tunnel is associated with a particular user flow. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the network packet broker comprises a plurality of input ports having a collective throughput equal to or greater than collective throughput of the plurality of SGW units. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the network packet broker is operatively connected with each of the plurality of monitoring probes via at least two output ports having a collective throughput equal to or less than throughput of the corresponding monitoring probe. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein each of the at least two output ports of the plurality of monitoring probes has maximum throughput of approximately 40 Giga Bytes per Second (Gbps). 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more identifiers include at least one of subscriber identifiers, location identifiers, user equipment identifiers or application identifiers. 
     
     
         8 . The system of claim  7   1 , wherein the subscriber identifiers comprise at least one of an international mobile equipment identifier (IMEI) andor an international mobile subscriber identifier (IMSI). 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the received control plane packets include mappings between a plurality of subscriber identifiers and a plurality of tunnel identifiers and wherein the plurality of monitoring probes is further configured to correlate the received user plane packets with the received control plane packets using the mappings. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the network packet broker is configured to forward all offorwards the user plane packets received from the plurality of SGW units to each monitoring probe of the plurality of monitoring probes. 
     
     
       11. The system of  claim 1 , wherein the network packet forwards a plurality of user plane packets being processed by a particular SGW unit to a particular monitoring probe of the plurality of monitoring probes.  
     
     
       12. A method performed by a plurality of monitoring probes for selective user plane monitoring in a wireless network, the method comprising:
 generating a first plurality of metrics associated with control plane packets;   selectively generating a second plurality of metrics associated with user plane packets based on one or more subscriber identifiers; and   selectively generating a third plurality of user plane metrics for a subset of the subscriber identifiers, wherein the third plurality of user plane metrics is different than the second plurality of user plane metrics,   wherein a network packet broker receives the plurality of user plane packets from one or more tunnels between user equipment and the plurality of SGW units, wherein the network packet broker receives the plurality of control plane packets from one or more channels between a base station and the plurality of SGW units, wherein the network packet broker forwards the plurality of user plane packets and the plurality of control plane packets to the plurality of monitoring probes.    
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 12 , wherein the one or more tunnels comprise encapsulated unidirectional tunnels and wherein each tunnel is associated with a particular user flow.  
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 12 , wherein the subscriber identifiers comprise at least one of an international mobile equipment identifier (IMEI) or an international mobile subscriber identifier (IMSI).  
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 12 , wherein the received control plane packets include mappings between a plurality of subscriber identifiers and a plurality of tunnel identifiers and wherein the plurality of monitoring probes is further configured to correlate the received user plane packets with the received control plane packets using the mappings.  
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 12 , wherein the network packet forwards a plurality of user plane packets being processed by a particular SGW unit to a particular monitoring probe of the plurality of monitoring probes.  
     
     
       17. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
 generate a first plurality of metrics associated with control plane packets;   selectively generate a second plurality of metrics associated with user plane packets based on one or more subscriber identifiers; and   selectively generate a third plurality of user plane metrics for a subset of the subscriber identifiers, wherein the third plurality of user plane metrics is different than the second plurality of user plane metrics,   wherein a network packet broker receives the plurality of user plane packets from one or more tunnels between user equipment and the plurality of SGW units, wherein the network packet broker receives the plurality of control plane packets from one or more channels between a base station and the plurality of SGW units, wherein the network packet broker forwards the plurality of user plane packets and the plurality of control plane packets to the plurality of monitoring probes.    
     
     
       18. The medium of  claim 17 , wherein the one or more tunnels comprise encapsulated unidirectional tunnels and wherein each tunnel is associated with a particular user flow.  
     
     
       19. The medium of  claim 17 , wherein the subscriber identifiers comprise at least one of an international mobile equipment identifier (IMEI) or an international mobile subscriber identifier (IMSI).  
     
     
       20. The medium of  claim 17 , wherein the received control plane packets include mappings between a plurality of subscriber identifiers and a plurality of tunnel identifiers and wherein the plurality of monitoring probes is further configured to correlate the received user plane packets with the received control plane packets using the mappings.  
     
     
       21. The medium of  claim 17 , wherein the network packet forwards a plurality of user plane packets being processed by a particular SGW unit to a particular monitoring probe of the plurality of monitoring probes.