A comprehensive PFCP implementation in the Go programming language.

PFCP (Packet Forwarding Control Protocol) is a signaling protocol used in mobile core network, such as EPC and 5GC, to implement the CUPS architecture (Control and User Plane Separation, not a printing system). The architecture and the protocol detail is defined in 3GPP TS 29.244.

Are you also searching for a GTP implementation in Go? If so, go-gtp is the perfect choice for you! :p

This project is EXPERIMENTAL.
Implementation of most of the messages and IEs defined in TS 29.244 V16.7.0 (2021-04) has been done, but the exported APIs may still be updated in the future (we add a new tag in that case).

This library does not include the networking functionalities such as association setup, message delivery, and session management. We noticed that there are many ways to implement those functionalities depending on the use cases, so we decided to leave them to the users. louisroyer/go-pfcp-networking is a good example of how to implement those functionalities.

go-pfcp supports Go Modules. Run go mod tidy in your project's directory to collect the required packages automatically. See Features for how to handle messages and IEs, and what is supported.

Small heartbeat client and server examples are available under examples/heartheat. The client sends a Heartbeat Request, and the server responds to it with a Heartbeat Response.

go-pfcp/examples/heartbeat/hb-server$ go run main.go
2019/12/22 20:03:31 waiting for messages to come on: 127.0.0.2:8805

go-pfcp/examples/heartbeat/hb-client$ go run main.go
2019/12/22 20:03:36 sent Heartbeat Request to: 127.0.0.2:8805
2019/12/22 20:03:36 got Heartbeat Response with TS: 2019-12-22 20:03:36 +0900 JST, from: 127.0.0.2:8805
go-pfcp/examples/heartbeat/hb-client$
go-pfcp/examples/heartbeat/hb-client$ go run main.go
2019/12/22 20:03:40 sent Heartbeat Request to: 127.0.0.2:8805
2019/12/22 20:03:40 got Heartbeat Response with TS: 2019-12-22 20:03:40 +0900 JST, from: 127.0.0.2:8805

go-pfcp/examples/heartbeat/hb-server$ go run main.go
2019/12/22 20:03:31 waiting for messages to come on: 127.0.0.2:8805
2019/12/22 20:03:36 got Heartbeat Request with TS: 2019-12-22 20:03:36 +0900 JST, from: 127.0.0.1:47305
2019/12/22 20:03:36 sent Heartbeat Response to: 127.0.0.1:47305
2019/12/22 20:03:36 waiting for messages to come on: 127.0.0.2:8805
2019/12/22 20:03:40 got Heartbeat Request with TS: 2019-12-22 20:03:40 +0900 JST, from: 127.0.0.1:55395
2019/12/22 20:03:40 sent Heartbeat Response to: 127.0.0.1:55395
2019/12/22 20:03:40 waiting for messages to come on: 127.0.0.2:8805
^Csignal: interrupt

All the messages implements the same interface: message.Message, and have their own structs named <MessageName>.

To create a message and encode it into binary, use New<MessageName>() function, which returns a *<MessageName> struct. The parameters for each constructor varies depending on the message type, but in general the first parameter is the sequence number, the second parameter is a SEID the message is session-related one, and the rest are the IEs contained in the message. See the godoc for the details.

Handling of IEs is described in the Information Elements section.

assocSetupReq := message.NewAssociationSetupRequest(
	sequenceNumber,
	ie.NewNodeID("", "", "go-pfcp.epc.3gppnetwork.org"),
	ie.NewRecoveryTimeStamp(time.Date(2019, time.January, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)),
	ie.NewUPFunctionFeatures(0x01, 0x02),
	ie.NewCPFunctionFeatures(0x3f),
	ie.NewAlternativeSMFIPAddress(net.ParseIP("127.0.0.1"), net.ParseIP("2001::1")),
	ie.NewSMFSetID("go-pfcp.epc.3gppnetwork.org"),
	ie.NewPFCPSessionRetentionInformation(
		ie.NewCPPFCPEntityIPAddress(net.ParseIP("127.0.0.1"), nil),
	),
	ie.NewUEIPAddressPoolInformation(
		ie.NewUEIPAddressPoolIdentity("go-pfcp"),
		ie.NewNetworkInstance("some.instance.example"),
	),
	ie.NewGTPUPathQoSControlInformation(
		ie.NewRemoteGTPUPeer(0x0e, "127.0.0.1", "", ie.DstInterfaceAccess, "some.instance.example"),
		ie.NewGTPUPathInterfaceType(1, 1),
		ie.NewQoSReportTrigger(1, 1, 1),
		ie.NewTransportLevelMarking(0x1111),
		ie.NewMeasurementMethod(1, 1, 1),
		ie.NewAveragePacketDelay(10*time.Second),
		ie.NewMinimumPacketDelay(10*time.Second),
		ie.NewMaximumPacketDelay(10*time.Second),
		ie.NewTimer(20*time.Hour),
	),
	ie.NewClockDriftControlInformation(
		ie.NewRequestedClockDriftInformation(1, 1),
		ie.NewTSNTimeDomainNumber(255),
		ie.NewTimeOffsetThreshold(10*time.Second),
		ie.NewCumulativeRateRatioThreshold(0xffffffff),
	),
	ie.NewNFInstanceID([]byte{0x11, 0x11, 0x11, 0x11, 0x22, 0x22, 0x22, 0x22, 0x33, 0x33, 0x33, 0x33, 0x44, 0x44, 0x44, 0x44}),
)

This will create a *AssociationSetupRequest struct with the given sequence number and IEs. The fields of the struct vary depending on the message type, but in general it has a common *Header at the top, and the list of IEs that have no explicit field at the bottom. This means that you can add any type of IEs to any type of messages, even if it is not supported in this library.

type AssociationSetupRequest struct {
	*Header
	NodeID                          *ie.IE
	RecoveryTimeStamp               *ie.IE
	UPFunctionFeatures              *ie.IE
	CPFunctionFeatures              *ie.IE
	UserPlaneIPResourceInformation  []*ie.IE
	AlternativeSMFIPAddress         []*ie.IE
	SMFSetID                        *ie.IE
	PFCPSessionRetentionInformation *ie.IE
	UEIPAddressPoolInformation      []*ie.IE
	GTPUPathQoSControlInformation   []*ie.IE
	ClockDriftControlInformation    []*ie.IE
	UPFInstanceID                   *ie.IE
	PFCPASReqFlags                  *ie.IE
	IEs                             []*ie.IE
}

All the <MessageName> struct, or the message.Message interface, has the Marshal() method which returns the binary in []byte. This can be used to send the message to the peer on top of any transport protocol (typically UDP) using the Go's standard net library.

// serialize the message
b, err := assocSetupReq.Marshal()
if err != nil {
	// handle error
}

// send `b` to "127.0.0.1:8805"
raddr, err := net.ResolveUDPAddr("udp", "127.0.0.1:8805")
if err != nil {
	// handle error
}

conn, err := net.DialUDP("udp", nil, raddr)
if err != nil {
	// handle error
}

if _, err := conn.Write(b); err != nil {
	// handle error
}

log.Printf("sent %s to %s", assocSetupReq.MessageTypeName(), raddr)

Is the message type you want to create not supported in this library? No problem. You can still create a message of any type by using NewGeneric() function. This function takes the message type as the first parameter, and the rest are the same as the New<MessageName>() function.

// create a message of type 0x64
yourMessage := message.NewGeneric(
	0x64,
	sequenceNumber,
	seid,
	ie.NewNodeID("", "", "go-pfcp.epc.3gppnetwork.org"),
	ie.NewRecoveryTimeStamp(time.Date(2019, time.January, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)),
	// ...
)

The created yourMessage is of type *message.Generic, which is a struct that implements the message.Message interface and has the common *Header and the list of IEs. You can still call the Marshal() method on this struct to get the binary.

To decode a received message, use message.Parse() function. This returns a message in the message.Message interface and an error.

// receive a message on a UDP connection
b := make([]byte, 1500)
n, raddr, err := conn.ReadFromUDP(b)
if err != nil {
	// handle error
}

// decode the message
// NOTE: when you do this in another goroutine, copy the `b` to another slice
// as the `b` will be overwritten by the next `ReadFromUDP()` call.
msg, err := message.Parse(b[:n])
if err != nil {
	// handle error
}

log.Printf("got %s from %s", msg.MessageTypeName(), raddr)

To access the fields of the message, you need to assert the type of the message to the corresponding struct. For example, to access IEs in the AssociationSetupResponse message, you need to assert the type of the message to *AssociationSetupResponse first.

// assert the type of the message
assocSetupRes, ok := msg.(*message.AssociationSetupResponse)
if !ok {
	// handle error
}

// get the value of NodeID IE
// see the Information Elements section for what `NodeID()` method does
nodeID, err := assocSetupRes.NodeID.NodeID()
if err != nil {
	// handle error
}

If the message type is not supported in this library, it can still be asserted to *Generic whose header and IEs are accessible through the Header and IEs fields.

// assert the type of the message
unknownMsg, ok := msg.(*message.Generic)
if !ok {
	// handle error
}

// iterate over the IEs to get the value of NodeID IE
for _, i := range unknownMsg.IEs {
	switch i.Type {
	case ie.NodeID:
		nodeID, err := i.NodeID()
		if err != nil {
			// handle error
		}
	case ie.SomeOtherIE:
		// ...
	}
}

So, what you will be likely to do is to check the type of the message and handle it accordingly using the switch statement.

switch m := msg.(type) {
case *message.AssociationSetupRequest:
	// handle AssociationSetupRequest
case *message.AssociationSetupResponse:
	// handle AssociationSetupResponse
case *message.SomeOtherMessage:
	// ...
}

// alternatively, you can use the `MessageType()` method
switch msg.MessageType() {
case message.MsgTypeAssociationSetupRequest:
	// handle AssociationSetupRequest
case message.MsgTypeAssociationSetupResponse:
	// handle AssociationSetupResponse
case message.MsgTypeSomeOtherMessage:
	// ...
}

// using a map containing the handlers for each message type may also be a good idea
// NOTE: use with care, as there may be a race condition when accessing the map
handlers := map[uint8]func(message.Message) error{
	message.MsgTypeAssociationSetupRequest: func(m message.Message) error {
		assocSetupReq := m.(*message.AssociationSetupRequest)
		// handle AssociationSetupRequest
	},
	message.MsgTypeAssociationSetupResponse: func(m message.Message) error {
		assocSetupRes := m.(*message.AssociationSetupResponse)
		// handle AssociationSetupResponse
	},
	// ...
}

handle, ok := handlers[msg.MessageType()]
if !ok {
	// handle unsupported message type
} else {
	if err := handle(msg); err != nil {
		// handle error
	}
}

Messages are implemented in conformance with TS 29.244 V16.7.0 (2021-04). The word "supported" in the table below means that the struct and the constructor for the message are implemented in this library. As described in the previous section, you can still create a message of any type eve if it is not supported or missing in the table.

All the IEs are of the same type: ie.IE.

Constructors are available for every type of supported IEs (see Supported IEs for which are supported).
To create a CreatePDR IE, use NewCreatePDR(). Parameters for those "named" constructors are implemented as friendly as possible for the built-in Go types.

// returned type and parameters in NewCreatePDR() are all *ie.IE.
createPDR := ie.NewCreatePDR(
	ie.NewPDRID(0xffff),
	ie.NewPrecedence(0x11111111),
	ie.NewPDI(
		ie.NewSourceInterface(ie.SrcInterfaceAccess),
		ie.NewFTEID(0x01, 0x11111111, net.ParseIP("127.0.0.1"), nil, 0),
		ie.NewNetworkInstance("some.instance.example"),
		ie.NewRedundantTransmissionParametersInPDI(
			ie.NewFTEID(0x01, 0x11111111, net.ParseIP("127.0.0.1"), nil, 0),
			ie.NewNetworkInstance("some.instance.example"),
		),
		ie.NewUEIPAddress(0x02, "127.0.0.1", "", 0),
		ie.NewTrafficEndpointID(0x01),
		ie.NewSDFFilter("aaaaaaaa", "bb", "cccc", "ddd", 0xffffffff),
		ie.NewApplicationID("https://github.com/wmnsk/go-pfcp/"),
		ie.NewEthernetPDUSessionInformation(0x01),
		ie.NewEthernetPacketFilter(
			ie.NewEthernetFilterID(0xffffffff),
			ie.NewEthernetFilterProperties(0x01),
			ie.NewMACAddress(mac1, mac2, mac3, mac4),
			ie.NewEthertype(0xffff),
			ie.NewCTAG(0x07, 1, 1, 4095),
			ie.NewSTAG(0x07, 1, 1, 4095),
			ie.NewSDFFilter("aaaaaaaa", "bb", "cccc", "ddd", 0xffffffff),
		),
	),
	ie.NewOuterHeaderRemoval(0x01, 0x02),
	ie.NewFARID(0xffffffff),
	ie.NewURRID(0xffffffff),
	ie.NewQERID(0xffffffff),
	ie.NewActivatePredefinedRules("go-pfcp"),
	ie.NewActivationTime(time.Date(2019, time.January, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)),
	ie.NewDeactivationTime(time.Date(2019, time.January, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)),
	ie.NewMARID(0x1111),
	ie.NewPacketReplicationAndDetectionCarryOnInformation(0x0f),
	ie.NewIPMulticastAddressingInfo(
		ie.NewIPMulticastAddress(net.ParseIP("127.0.0.1"), nil, net.ParseIP("127.0.0.1"), nil),
		ie.NewSourceIPAddress(net.ParseIP("127.0.0.1"), nil, 24),
	),
	ie.NewUEIPAddressPoolIdentity("go-pfcp"),
)

Instead of using the named constructors, you can also create an arbitrary IE of any type with the SomeType value where SomeType is any of the Uint8, Uint16, Uint32, Uint64, String, or FQDN. This is useful when you don't want to use the named constructors which require the specific type of parameters, or when you want to create an IE that is not supported in this library.

For example, the following two codes will create the same *ie.IE instance.

qvTime := ie.NewQuotaValidityTime(10 * time.Second)

qvTime := ie.NewUint32(ie.QuotaValidityTime, 0x0000000a)

Sometimes you may have a value that is already in uint32 format. In that case, the latter way of creating an IE is preferable, as converting the uint32 value to time.Duration is not very efficient (compiler optimization possibly helps in the former case? I don't know, but it doesn't look good for humans anyway).

Alternatively, you may want to create an IE with the undecoded or already encoded binary (in []byte), which can be done using ie.New().

qvTime := ie.New(ie.QuotaValidityTime, []byte{0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x0a})

When you want to create an unsupported IE whose IE type is 999 and the value is of uint16 type, you can do like below. If it is vendor-specific, you can also specify the enterprise ID.

ie999 := ie.NewUint16(999, 0x0102)
ie999.EnterpriseID = 0x1234

This can instead be done using ie.NewUint16VendorSpecific(). There are no type-specific constructors for vendor-specific IEs.

ie999 := ie.NewVendorSpecificIE(999, 0x1234, []byte{0x01, 0x02})

To retrieve values from an IE, you can call helper methods that have the same name as the IE itself on an *ie.IE. For example, you can get the value of a NetworkInstance IE by calling the NetworkInstance() method.

ni := ie.NewNetworkInstance("some.instance.example")
v, err := ni.NetworkInstance()

In the example above, calling the NetworkInstance() method returns "some.instance.example", nil. However, if ni is not of type ie.NetworkInstance or the payload is not in right format, it returns "", SomeError. It's important to always check the returned error, as the value may be empty as expected.

The type of returned values are determined as friendly as possible for the built-in Go types. For example, QuotaValidityTime() returns the value as time.Duration. In the cases that this is undesirable, such as when you need to pass the raw value to another node, you can use ValueAsUint32() method instead, which returns the value as uint32. This could also be useful for handling vendor-specific IEs whose value retrieval methods are not available in this library. Available ValueAs-methods are ValueAsUin8(), ValueAsUint16(), ValueAsUint32(), ValueAsUint64(), ValueAsString(), and ValueAsFQDN().

qvTime := ie.NewQuotaValidityTime(10 * time.Second)

vDuration, err := qvTime.QuotaValidityTime()
vUint32, err := qvTime.ValueAsUint32()

For IEs with more complex payloads, such as F-TEID, calling the <IE-name> method returns a <IE-name>Fields struct containing the values in its fields.

fteid := ie.NewFTEID(0x01, 0x11111111, net.ParseIP("127.0.0.1"), nil, nil)
fteidFields, err := fteid.FTEID() // `FTEIDFields` struct

teid := fteidFields.TEID      // TEID as uint32
v4 := fteidFields.IPv4Address // IPv4 address as net.IP

For grouped IEs, accesing the ChildIEs field is the best way to retrieve the list of IEs contained. If you are not sure that the IE is already parsed, you can use ValueAsGrouped() method instead, which parses the payload into []*IE and returns it if the ChildIEs field is empty.

cpdrIE := ie.NewCreatePDR(
	ie.NewPDRID(0xffff),
	// ...
)

// most efficient way
cpdrChildren := cpdrIE.ChildIEs
// or use this if you are not sure that the IE is already parsed
cpdrChildren, err := cpdrIE.ValueAsGrouped()

NOTE: if you have called ie.Parse, the child IEs are already parsed.

To determine if an IE is grouped or not, this library uses the defaultGroupedIEMap in ie_grouped.go, which contains the list of grouped IEs. You can add your own IE type to this map using ie.AddGroupedIEType() function, or you can change the entire logic to determine if an IE is grouped or not by setting your own function to ie.SetIsGroupedFun function.

<IE-name> method is also available for consistency with non-grouped IEs, but it is not recommended to use it as it always parses the payload into []*IE and returns it though the ChildIEs field is already populated. In the rare case that the payload can be modified after the IE is created or parsed, this method could be useful.

cpdrChildren, err := cpdrIE.CreatePDR()

For convenience, helper methods of the child IEs can be called directly on the grouped IE, or you can call FindByType() method to get the child IE of the specified type.

pdrID, err := cpdrIE.PDRID()

// or
pdrID, err := cpdrIE.FindByType(ie.PDRID)

This is useful when you only need a small number of IEs within a grouped IE. Since it iterates over all child IEs internally, retrieving everything using these method is very inefficient. When you need to retrieve the value of multiple IEs, it is recommended to iterate over the list of child IEs in your own code.

var (
	pdrID uint16
	farID uint32
	// ...
)

for _, i := range cpdrIE.ChildIEs {
	switch i.Type {
	case ie.PDRID:
		v, err = i.PDRID()
		if err != nil {
			// handle error
		}
		pdrID = v
	case ie.FARID:
		v, err = i.FARID()
		if err != nil {
			// handle error
		}
		farID = v
	case ie.SomeOtherIE:
		// ...
	}
}

IEs are implemented in conformance with TS 29.244 V16.7.0 (2021-04). The word "supported" in the table below means that the constructor and helper method for the IE are implemented in this library. As described in the previous section, you can still create an IE of any type even if it is not supported or missing in the table.

Yoshiyuki Kurauchi and contributors.

I'm always open to welcome co-authors! Please feel free to talk to me.

MIT