Next generation of microservices for the 5G Service-Based Architecture

The architecture for 5G core includes a Service-Based Architecture for the diverse network functions (NFs), which relies on HTTP/2 for the SBI and TCP as the underlying transport protocol. The specifications of the HTTP family is moving towards more efficient and secure protocols, which are based on UDP to assure enhanced transport but using TLS to secure the communication channel. The next generation of microservices needs to be more secure, performant and easily manageable, where HTTP/3 and containers orchestration platforms (like Kubernetes) can provide significative contributions towards such goals. Different deployment approaches can be followed for services implemented in compliance to the 5G SBA. This paper contributes with the assessment of deployment models for services in 5G networks, where NFs are implemented following traditional architectures (all the functions in a VM) or as serverless architectures (with functions distributed in containers). The performance of microservices in Kubernetes is also evaluated. The evaluation conducted also considers the employment of different versions of HTTPs to empower the service-based interfaces of 5G services. Results demonstrate performance benefits of employing HTTP/3, based on QUIC protocol, in scenarios with networks characterised by losses or delay conditions. Despite such gain, deployment in 5G networks needs to carefully consider aspects related with connection tracking mechanisms to support high volumes of requests.