What about those LTE bearers? What exactly is a bearer?

Well, if we are to believe the 3GPP guys (3GPP TS 23.401 version 8.6.0 Release 8), an EPS bearer is a data structure (that appears on the UE, MME, SGW and PGW), a way of uniquely identifying a traffic flow between the UE and the PGW. We need to _uniquely_ identify these flows because of the QoS we want to use for that UE traffic.

When are these bearers created?

First of all, there are at most 11 bearers that can be created for a specific UE. 11 bearers TOPS – per UE. Why is this so important?

Because:

1. the first time an UE connects to an anchor point (PGW) – procedure called Initial Attach, simply by allowing that UE access on the PGW – a new (default) bearer is created – and, yes, those 11 bearers tops decrease once this happens!!!

2. an UE can be “attached” to more than 1 anchor point (PGW) – which means, an UE can have more than 1 “default”/”initial” bearers (of course, created via multiple Initial Attach procedures) – which means those 11 bearers tops decrease again

Leaving us with the rest of the bearers, those NOT created “by default” at the Initial Attach procedure, those which we call dedicated bearers.

***Note: there are not necessarily 11 bearers up and running all the time. The “11″ is just the max number that can be active at a certain moment.

How do I use the bearers for QoS?

Each bearer, once created, has assigned a certain TFT set. “TFT” stands for Traffic Flow Template, the set of all packet filters associated with that certain bearer (we’ll look later on soon at the wireshark capture to see exactly how these “bearer” and “tft” look like).

How do I use the TFT for QoS?

TFT, being a set of packet filters, resides as a database tuple in the PCRF – Policy Control and charging Rules Function, a separate cute device that tells the PGW how to route, where to route, and what QoS to use for traffic flowing to and from a certain UE.

! Moment of thinking 1:

HSS – Home Subscriber Server

PCRF – Policy Control and charging Rules Function

The HSS is a database that holds only information regarding the default bearer (which basically identifies the UE as belonging to this network), while the PCRF has the role of “traffic shaping”.

! Moment of thinking 2:

Although the default bearer is more or less automatically created when the UE attaches to this network, as a network confirmation that this UE belongs to it, the dedicated bearer is NEVER initiated by the MME/UE (even if it is, the PGW will gracefully ignore it ) – the dedicated bearer will ALWAYS be initiated by the PGW, in response to a certain traffic pattern matching a rule in PCRF, though triggering the creation a new and shiny TFT.

Tags: dedicated bearer, default bearer, eNodeB, HSS, LTE, MME, PCRF, PGW, SAE, SGW, techie, TFT, UE