Comparative analysis of cellular networks with fine-grained state machine

Abstract

The control plane of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is an important operation that is performed before the user uses the mobile communication service. In addition, the speed of the control plane needs to be faster than before in the situation where 5G, a mobile communication network technology for ultra high-speed and ultra-low delay, is being serviced. Therefore, it is important to improve and optimize the performance of the control plane for the performance of the mobile communication network. However, due to the huge amount of mobile communication standards and the characteristics of the mobile communication market, the operation of the control plane is different depending on the carrier. Therefore, it is difficult to diagnose the performance of the control plane in a carrier. In this paper, we propose a new diagnostic method to solve these difficulties. The new diagnostic method finds the difference by comparing the control planes of several carriers using the fine-grained state machine. Through the above method, we analyzed the major control plane operations of Korean and US carriers and found 101 differences. The results demonstrate the efficiency and necessity of the diagnostic method presented in this paper and describe various applications of the comparative analysis method using state machines. Finally, we applied the above method to 5G and analyzed the difference of operation method according to the carrier.