5G NSA GTP-C/GTP-U Extraction and Correlation

Means capturing, decoding, and mapping control-plane signaling (GTP-C) to corresponding user-plane traffic (GTP-U) to analyze or troubleshoot subscriber sessions in the 5G Non-Standalone network..

Extraction means capturing and decoding GTP-C and GTP-U packets from live traffic or PCAP traces.

Correlation is the process of linking GTP-C (control-plane) messages with their corresponding GTP-U (user-plane) flows.The correlation between GTP-C and GTP-U is essential for ensuring seamless communication and data integrity in a 5G NSA architecture. By analyzing both control and user plane packets, it becomes possible to troubleshoot issues related to session management and data flow effectively.

GTP-C Handling

• GTP-C Handling refers to how a network element (NE) — such as an MME, SGW, PGW, SMF, or UPF — processes, manages, and responds to GTP-C (GPRS Tunneling Protocol–Control) messages.

GTP-U Handling

• GTP-U Handling refers to how a network element (NE) — such as SGW, PGW, or eNodeB processes, encapsulates, forwards, and decapsulates GTP-U packets in the user plane.

  Essentially, it’s the end-to-end management of data flow through GTP tunnels.

S11S1U Extraction and Correlation

• Control Plane - GTP-C processing is done on S11 Interface between MME(Mobile Management Entity) and SGW (Service Gateway)

• User Plane - GTP-U processing is done on S1-U Interface between SGW and eNodeB (Base Station)

• Metadata extraction is done on both GTP-C and GTP-U Packets.

• Correlation is done between GTP-C(S11) and GTP-U (S1-U) packets.

S5S8 Extraction and Correlation

• Control Plane - processing is done on S5/S8-C Interface between SGW-C and PGW–C

• User Plane - GTP-U processing is done on S5/S8-U Interface between SGW-U and PGW-U

• Metadata extraction is done on both GTP-C and GTP-U Packets.

• Correlation is done between S5/S8-GTP-C and S5/S8-GTP-U packets.

• Extract TEID from GTP-U packet

• Correlate the TEID info with the existing GTP-C Data stored and get the corresponding User details

• Prepare the Correlated Metadata and convert the metadata to JSON

• Export the JSON metadata to Kafka.