Enabling 5G QoS configuration capabilities for IoT applications on container orchestration platform

TL;DR

The paper addresses enabling 5G QoS configuration for IoT applications running on container orchestration platforms by bridging overlay pod networks and underlay 5G networks. It proposes a Kubernetes-native, CNI plugin–based solution that uses the Linux fwmark mechanism to map per-pod QoS requirements to 5G QoS flows, without modifying packet headers. Key contributions include a detailed architecture, analysis of fwmark visibility and availability, and a demonstrative CNI plugin interfacing with a 5G emulator, validated on a multi-architecture SLAM workload. The approach offers a non-intrusive, scalable path to extend access-network QoS capabilities into Kubernetes deployments, enabling QoS-aware IoT applications across device, edge, and cloud while remaining compatible with existing 5G infrastructure.

Abstract

Container orchestration platform is the foundation of modern cloud infrastructure. In recent years, container orchestration platform has been evolving to cross the boundary of device, edge, and cloud. More and more IoT applications such as robotics and XR have been deployed across the device-cloud continuum through the container orchestration platform, e.g., the Kubernetes (K8s) framework. Meanwhile, the rapid expansion of advanced communication technologies like 5G has endorsed the revolution in IoT applications as more network resource is available for critical IoT use cases. This paper aims to integrate network configuration capabilities provided by a 5G Network Exposure Function (NEF) into the K8s framework which is used to simplify application deployment in an orchestration in the device-cloud continuum. Specifically, a Linux fwmark-based network Quality of Service (QoS) configuration method is proposed to expose the QoS information from an overlay network that is used by the container orchestration platform to the underlay network. A Container Network Interface (CNI) plugin-based implementation is demonstrated to perform QoS configuration for the 5G network. The proposed solution is validated with an existing localization and mapping application to verify the feasibility. The proposed solution has the following benefits: (1) The solution is a Kubernetes-native approach which adopts the CNI plugin mechanism. (2) The solution can expose the QoS information from an overlay network to an underlay network in a non-intrusive manner. (3) No packet manipulation is required to greatly reduce the overhead for packet processing. (4) It extends the K8s bandwidth limit feature from on-node to the access network. (5) It is compatible with the 5G infrastructure without any alteration or adding extra complexity.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: Anatomy of VXLAN network packet. Source: https://projectcalico.docs.tigera.io/about/about-networking
• Figure 2: Architecture of the proposed solution. It depicts a UE application running on a K8s pod is communicating with an edge/cloud service through the 5G network. A traffic priority CNI plugin is implemented in the UE to interact with the 5G network through either AMF or NEF to configure the application pod's QoS. Note that the network interface may represent a physical interface or a 5G network modem stack or modem manager.
• Figure 3: Linux packet fwmark visibility in a typical Kubernetes networking stack.
• Figure 4: CNI plugin based configuration. A traffic priority CNI plugin is invoked by kubelet in the CNI plugin chain. It interacts with the external access network, e.g., 5G network through a daemon to configure the QoS demanded by an application pod.
• Figure 5: An example of the TC qdisc, class, and filter configurations after the requirement is enforced by the 5G network emulator.