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Checking references for intended status: Informational ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- == Unused Reference: 'I-D.li-apn-framework' is defined on line 478, but no explicit reference was found in the text == Unused Reference: 'I-D.li-apn-problem-statement-usecases' is defined on line 486, but no explicit reference was found in the text == Outdated reference: A later version (-05) exists of draft-li-apn-framework-04 == Outdated reference: A later version (-06) exists of draft-li-apn-problem-statement-usecases-04 Summary: 1 error (**), 0 flaws (~~), 6 warnings (==), 1 comment (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Network Working Group P. Liu 3 Internet-Draft Z. Du 4 Intended status: Informational China Mobile 5 Expires: 16 June 2022 S. Peng 6 Z. Li 7 Huawei 8 13 December 2021 10 Use cases of Application-aware Networking (APN) in Edge Computing 11 draft-liu-apn-edge-usecase-04 13 Abstract 15 The ever-emerging new services are imposing more and more highly 16 demanding requirements on the network. However, the current 17 deployments could not fully accommodate those requirements due to 18 limited capabilities. For example, it is difficult to utilize the 19 traditional centralized deployment mode to meet the low-latency 20 demand of some latency-sensitive applications. Moreover, the total 21 amount of centralized service data is growing exponentially, which 22 brings great pressure on the network bandwidth. There has been a 23 clear trend that decentralized sites comprising of computing and 24 storage resources are deployed at various locations to provide 25 services. In particular, when the sites are deployed at the network 26 edge, i.e. the Edge Computing, it can better handle the business 27 needs of the users nearby, which provides the possibilities to 28 provide differentiated network and computing services. In order to 29 achieve the full benefits of the edge computing, it actually implies 30 a precondition that the network should be aware of the applications' 31 requirements in order to steer their traffic to the network paths 32 that can satisfy their requirements. Application-aware networking 33 (APN) aims to accommodate the edge services' needs, fully releasing 34 the benefits of the edge computing. 36 This document describes the various application scenarios in edge 37 computing to which the APN can be beneficial, including augmented 38 reality, cloud gaming and remote control, which empowers the video 39 business, users interaction business and user-device interaction 40 business. In those scenarios, APN can identify the specific 41 requirements of edge computing applications on the network, process 42 close to the users, provide SLA guaranteed network services such as 43 low latency and high reliability. 45 Requirements Language 46 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 47 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 48 document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. 50 Status of This Memo 52 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 53 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 55 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 56 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute 57 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- 58 Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 60 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 61 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 62 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 63 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 65 This Internet-Draft will expire on 16 June 2022. 67 Copyright Notice 69 Copyright (c) 2021 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 70 document authors. All rights reserved. 72 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 73 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/ 74 license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. 75 Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights 76 and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components 77 extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as 78 described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are 79 provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License. 81 Table of Contents 83 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 84 2. Edge Computing and APN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 85 3. Usage Scenarios of APN in edge computing . . . . . . . . . . 4 86 3.1. Augmented Reality (AR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 87 3.1.1. Use Case Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 88 3.1.2. Augmented Reality Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 89 3.1.3. Augmented Reality with Edge Computing and APN . . . . 5 90 3.2. Cloud Gaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 91 3.2.1. Use Case Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 92 3.2.2. Cloud Gaming Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 93 3.2.3. Cloud Gaming with Edge Computing and APN . . . . . . 7 95 3.3. Remote control of industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 96 3.3.1. Use Case Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 97 3.3.2. Remote control of industry Today . . . . . . . . . . 8 98 3.3.3. Remote control of industry with Edge Computing and 99 APN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 100 4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 101 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 102 6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 103 7. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 104 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 106 1. Introduction 108 Edge computing is to deploy service sites near the user side to 109 provide users with better network and computing services. The 110 services of edge computing can not only be implemented in the edge 111 data center, but also be integrated in the network equipment, which 112 brings the possibility for the convergence of network and computing, 113 and also puts forward the requirements for the technology combining 114 of different industries. On the one hand, the demand of different 115 applications for the network need to be exposed; on the other hand, 116 the network needs to be aware of computing power and steers the 117 traffic along the appropriate path towards the suitable sites. 119 The existing network can only identify the application demands in a 120 coarse granularity. When the application demand is high causing the 121 heavy network load, it usually fails to guarantee the latency and 122 reliability of the applications especially the mission-critical 123 applications. Application-aware networking (APN) faciliates service 124 provisioning in a fine granularity, and then either steer the 125 corresponding traffic onto the appropriate network path (if exist) 126 that can satisfy these requirements or establish an exclusive network 127 path which wouldn't be influenced by other applications' traffic 128 flow. 130 2. Edge Computing and APN 132 In a whole edge computing network, there are user terminal, edge 133 gateway and edge data center. The edge gateway can be the UPF In 5G 134 network. Edge data center is usually close to users and serves a 135 limited group of users, the network and computing tasks performed by 136 edge computing are more specific and customized. Both computing 137 resources and network resources need to be able to provide fine- 138 grained service guarantee. The goal of APN is to provide fine- 139 grained network service, including latency, jitter, reliability and 140 others, which can be well matched with edge computing. 142 Appilication-aware networking includes the app-aware edge (APN-Edge), 143 app-aware process head-end (APN-Head), app-aware process mid-point 144 (APN-Midpoint) and app-aware process end-point (APN-Endpoint). A 145 user's request is sent from the client, and then passes through all 146 the nodes of the APN network to the server. The function of APN-Edge 147 can be deployed in the edge gateway, so the request traffic of client 148 can be distinguished by the edge gateway/APN-Edge and sent to the 149 edge data center through the APN. In some cases, the reply of the 150 edge data center will not return to the original client, and may be 151 sent to another client through the APN. The APN network can use the 152 exsiting technologies such as deterministic network, network slicing, 153 SR policy, etc. which could coordinate well with the APN-Edge to 154 garantee the network service by encapsulating the requirement 155 information in the packets. 157 +------+ +----------------+ +-------------+ +---------+ 158 | | | Edge Gateway/ | | APN | | Edge | 159 |Client|<-->| |<-->| |<-->| Data | 160 | | | APN-Edge | | Network | | Center | 161 +------+ +----------------+ +-------------+ +---------+ 163 Figure 1: Edge Computing and APN 165 3. Usage Scenarios of APN in edge computing 167 This section presents several typical scenarios which require edge 168 computing to interconnect and to co-ordinate with APN to meet the 169 service requirements and ensure user experience. 171 3.1. Augmented Reality (AR) 173 3.1.1. Use Case Description 175 Augmented reality is a relatively new application that promotes the 176 integration of real world information and virtual world information 177 content. It includes several technologies, such as track 178 registration, display, virtual object generation, interaction and 179 merging. 181 3.1.2. Augmented Reality Today 183 AR gives users an immersive experience. It is widely used in the 184 consumer industry presently, and may also be applied in industrial 185 fields such as health care and education in the future. The general 186 process of AR / VR is as follows: 188 * Image acquisition equipment (such as camera) collects image or 189 video information and sends it to data center. 191 * Data center carries out identification, feature extraction and 192 template rendering, and sends them to AR terminal. 194 * The AR terminal plays the synthesized information. 196 Considering the user experience, AR usually needs a high bandwidth of 197 100mbps due to multi-channel acquisition of image or video data, and 198 a low end-to-end latency less than 60ms. With centralized 199 deployment, the network transmission distance is too long, so the 200 latency demand can't be met; the large volume of traffic load also 201 imposes high challenge on the network bandwidth. 203 3.1.3. Augmented Reality with Edge Computing and APN 205 If the deployment mode of edge computing is adopted, the following 206 functions can be realized: 208 * The collected image or video information can be encoded/decode and 209 compressed by the edge equipment to reduce the bandwidth requirements 210 of data transmission. 212 * The edge data center can process the collected image or video data 213 nearby and send it to the AR terminal equipment, which reduces the 214 distance of network transmission and greatly reduces the latency. 216 Although edge computing can reduce the overall latency of services 217 and reduce the demand for network bandwidth, it still needs 218 differentiated network services to provide the ultimate guarantee for 219 application with high SLA requirements. APN can achieve: 221 * Edge device obtains and encapsulates AR application feature 222 information and sends it to the headend node. 224 * Headend node in the APN identifies the AR data flow and steers it 225 into a specific transmission path according to the demanded 226 bandwidth, latency and reliability. 228 * Mid point in the APN forwards the data stream along the specific 229 path. 231 * End point in the APN receives AR data stream and forwards it either 232 to Data Centre for processing or to the AR player for playing. 234 In the whole process, because APN identifies the traffic of AR 235 application, it can provide corresponding network services to provide 236 customized high reliability, low latency and other SLA guarantee. 238 +------+ Camera +------+ 239 |Source| ->| AR | 240 |data |-\ / |Player| 241 +------+| +-----+ +-------+ +---------+ +-------+ / +------+ 242 \->|APN | | APN | | Edge | | APN |-/ 243 |- |-->| |-->| Data |-->| | 244 /->|Edge | |Network| | Center | |Network|-\ 245 +------+ | +-----+ +-------+ +---------+ +-------+ \ +------+ 246 |Source|-/ \ | AR | 247 |data | ->|Player| 248 +------+ Camera +------+ 250 Figure 2: Augmented Reality with Edge Computing and APN 252 3.2. Cloud Gaming 254 3.2.1. Use Case Description 256 Cloud gaming is to deploy the game application in the data center, 257 and realize the functions includes the logical process of game 258 command control, as well as the tasks of game acceleration, video 259 rendering and other tasks with high requirements for chips. In this 260 way, the terminal is a video player. Users can get a good game 261 experience without the support of high-end system and chips. 263 Compared with the traditional game mode, there are several advantages 264 of cloud game, such as no installation, no upgrade, no repair, quick 265 to play and reduce the terminal cost, so it will have stronger 266 promotion. 268 3.2.2. Cloud Gaming Today 270 The biggest feature of cloud games is that users interact with each 271 other through the network. The general process is as follows: 273 * The data center sends game video streaming information to the 274 terminal, including game background picture, characters, etc. 276 * The user makes corresponding operation instructions according to 277 the received game video stream information and sends them to the data 278 center. 280 * The data center constantly updates the video stream and other data 281 of the game according to the user's operation instructions. 283 Game users usually pursue consumption experience. Currently, most 284 users are willing to spend extra money in order to obtain better user 285 experience. Generally speaking, the network latency of game is 286 required to be less than 30ms. For competitive game, the latency 287 will be required to be less than 10ms, because professional players 288 usually can feel the millisecond level latency difference. With 289 centralized deployment, the network transmission distance is too 290 long, which is a huge challenge to the network load, so the latency 291 demand can't be met; the large volume of traffic load also imposes 292 high challenge on the network bandwidth. 294 3.2.3. Cloud Gaming with Edge Computing and APN 296 If the deployment of edge computing is adopted, the following 297 functions can be realized with the deployment of edge data center: 299 * The edge data center sends the game video stream information to the 300 terminal, and receives the user's control instruction information for 301 processing. 303 * users can make corresponding operation instructions according to 304 the received video stream information, and get quick response. 306 Edge computing can reduce the latency of game data transmission as a 307 whole, but it should be noted that cloud games usually have multiple 308 players playing a game together, which requires the deterministic 309 latency of multi-party network path, which needs to be realized with 310 APN: 312 * Multiple edge devices obtain and encapsulate cloud game application 313 feature information and send it to the head end node. 315 * Headend node in the APN identifies the data flow of cloud games 316 (maybe the same game), and steers it into a specific transmission 317 path according to its requirements for bandwidth, delay, reliability, 318 etc., which needs to ensure that the latency of multi-user control 319 instructions arriving at the edge data center is consistent. 321 * Midpoint in the APN forwards game data stream according to the 322 predetermined path. 324 * The endpoint in the APN receives the cloud game data stream and 325 steers it either to the data center for processing the users' control 326 instruction or to the user for playing. 328 The whole process requires APN not only to identify the cloud game 329 traffic and provide customized network forwarding services for it, 330 but also to ensure the deterministic latency of multi-user in the 331 same game and provide better game experience. 333 Client A 334 +---------+ 335 |Game data| 336 +---------+-\ +----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+ 337 |<->| APN- |-A-| APN |-A-| | 338 | Edge A | | Network A | | | 339 +----------+ +-----------+ | Edge Data | 340 +----------+ +-----------+ | Center | 341 | APN- | | APN | | | 342 |<->| Edge B |-B-| Network B |-B-| | 343 +---------+-/ +----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+ 344 |Game data| 345 +---------+ 346 Client B 348 Figure 3: Cloud Gaming with Edge Computing and APN 350 3.3. Remote control of industry 352 3.3.1. Use Case Description 354 Industrial remote control refers to the remote control of field 355 equipment in areas that are not convenient for manual field control, 356 such as high-temperature and high-risk areas. In the past, signaling 357 was usually transmitted through industrial private networks and 358 protocols. With the development of industrial Internet, the industry 359 also gradually has the demand of network interconnection. Its 360 network tends to adopt L3 protocol and flat architecture, which makes 361 it possible for cross distance remote control service. 363 3.3.2. Remote control of industry Today 365 In the process of remote control, workers constantly make control 366 instructions according to the received image or video information of 367 field equipment, which requires interaction between personnel and 368 equipment through the network. Because the field environment that 369 needs remote control is generally poor, it is also a challenge for 370 the security of the operation equipment. If the latency is too large 371 or the reliability is not enough, it may cause the operation failure, 372 equipment damage and other serious consequences. Therefore, the 373 remote control service requires low latency and high reliability. 374 The general process of remote control is as follows: 376 * Field equipment (such as camera) collects image or video 377 information and sends it to data center. 379 * The data center receives the field information of the equipment and 380 sends it to the workers in the office. 382 * Workers send control instructions and control equipment according 383 to the received field information. 385 Many industrial enterprises rent public cloud resources to construct 386 their own data center, but the long distance of network transmission 387 is not conducive to the timely transmission of image / video data 388 stream, which will cause large latency and packet loss. 390 3.3.3. Remote control of industry with Edge Computing and APN 392 If the deployment mode of edge computing is adopted, and the data 393 center and edge computing access equipment (such as gateway) are 394 deployed in a location or enterprise park close to the business site, 395 the following functions can be realized: 397 * The collected image or video information can be encoded/ decoded 398 and compressed by edge access equipment to reduce the bandwidth 399 requirements. 401 * The control instruction information can be identified by the edge 402 equipment, so as to provide exclusive network transmission service. 404 * The forwarding path of image / video and control information is 405 shortened, which can greatly reduce the latency. 407 Although edge computing can reduce the overall delay of services and 408 reduce the demand of network bandwidth, it still needs to achieve 409 differentiated network services through APN to provide the ultimate 410 network guarantee for the services with the highest network 411 requirements. 413 For users, APN can realize those functions. 415 * Edge device obtains and encapsulates the image or video information 416 of the remote field device, then sends it to the headend node. 418 * Headend in the APN identifies the information and steers the flow 419 into a specific transmission path according to its requirements for 420 bandwidth, delay, reliability, etc.. 422 * Midpoint in the APN forwards along the specific path. 424 * Endpoint receives image or video data stream of field equipment and 425 forwards it to users. 427 For field equipment, APN can realize those functions. 429 * Edge device obtains and encapsulates the control instruction 430 information and sends it to the head end node. 432 * Headend in the APN identifies the control data flow and steers into 433 a specific transmission path according to the demand for bandwidth, 434 latency and reliability. 436 * Midpoint in the APN forwards along the specific path. 438 * Endpoint receives control information and forwards to the field 439 equipment. 441 In the whole process, APN identifies the traffic of remote control 442 service, which can provide customized high reliability, low latency 443 and other network guarantee. 445 Worker 446 +------------+ 447 |Control data| 448 +------------+-\ +----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+ 449 |<->| APN- |-W->| APN |-W->| | 450 | Edge A |<-C-| Network A |<-C-| | 451 +----------+ +-----------+ | Edge Data | 452 +----------+ +-----------+ | Center | 453 | APN- |-C->| APN |-C->| | 454 Camera |<->| Edge B |<-W-| Network B |<-W-| | 455 +------------+-/ +----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+ 456 | Video data | 457 +------------+ 458 On-site Device 460 Figure 4: Remote control of industry with Edge Computing and APN 462 4. Conclusion 464 APN enables low latency and high reliability network services in 465 various edge computing scenarios such as AR, cloud gaming, remote 466 industrial control, etc. 468 5. Security Considerations 470 TBD. 472 6. IANA Considerations 474 TBD. 476 7. Normative References 478 [I-D.li-apn-framework] 479 Li, Z., Peng, S., Voyer, D., Li, C., Liu, P., Cao, C., 480 Mishra, G., Ebisawa, K., Previdi, S., and J. N. Guichard, 481 "Application-aware Networking (APN) Framework", Work in 482 Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-li-apn-framework-04, 25 483 October 2021, . 486 [I-D.li-apn-problem-statement-usecases] 487 Li, Z., Peng, S., Voyer, D., Xie, C., Liu, P., Qin, Z., 488 Mishra, G., Ebisawa, K., Previdi, S., and J. N. Guichard, 489 "Problem Statement and Use Cases of Application-aware 490 Networking (APN)", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, 491 draft-li-apn-problem-statement-usecases-04, 16 June 2021, 492 . 495 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 496 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, 497 DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997, 498 . 500 Authors' Addresses 502 Peng Liu 503 China Mobile 504 Beijing 505 100053 506 China 508 Email: liupengyjy@chinamobile.com 510 Zongpeng Du 511 China Mobile 512 Beijing 513 100053 514 China 516 Email: duzongpeng@chinamobile.com 518 Shuping Peng 519 Huawei 520 Beijing 521 100053 522 China 523 Email: pengshuping@huawei.com 525 Zhenbin Li 526 Huawei 527 Beijing 528 100053 529 China 531 Email: lizhenbin@huawei.com