The AMF may request PDU Session Release towards an alternative V/I-SMF in the same SMF Set when it detects the V/I-SMF has failed and if the V/I-SMF supports the DLSET feature while the (H-)SMF doesn't support the PSETR feature as specified in clause 6.8.2 of TS 23.527. When the AMF sends an Update SM Context Request, the requirements specified in clause 5.2.2.3.1 shall apply with the following modifications.
The NF Service Consumer (e.g. AMF) shall request the SMF to apply CN based MT communication handling as specified in clauses 4.8.1.1a and 4.8.2.2b of TS 23.502 when the AMF is notified by the NG-RAN that the NG-RAN has transited the UE using eDRX to RRC_INACTIVE state and the SMF supports the UPCSMT feature (see clause 6.1.8).
The NF Service Consumer shall request the SMF to suspend the user plane connection of the PDU session by sending a POST request, as specified in clause 5.2.2.3.1, with the following information:
Upon receipt of such a request, the SMF shall keep the NG-RAN N3 DL F-TEID and set the upCnxState attribute to SUSPENDED and return a 200 OK response including the upCnxState attribute set to SUSPENDED. The SMF will request the UPF to buffer any subsequent downlink data and report the receiving DL data to the SMF. Upon receiving DL data report, the SMF will invoke the Namf_MT_EnableUEReachability service operation when the upCnxState of the PDU session is set to SUSPENDED, to trigger a NG-RAN paging.
Upon receiving a notification from NG-RAN that the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode or when receiving from NG-RAN a MT Communication Handling request indicating the UE is now reachable for downlink data and/or signalling as specified in clause 4.8.2.2 of TS 23.502, the NF Service Consumer (e.g. AMF) shall request the SMF to resume the User Plane connection of an existing PDU session, i.e. establish the N3 tunnel between the 5G-AN and UPF, as follows.
The NF Service Consumer shall request the SMF to resume the user plane connection of the PDU session by sending a POST request, as specified in clause 5.2.2.3.1, with the following information:
the upCnxState attribute set to ACTIVATING;
user location and user location timestamp;
cause attribute set to "PDU_SESSION_RESUMED";
N2 SM information received from the 5G-AN if the accessed 5G-AN is able to retrieve the UE Context and the accessed 5G-AN node initiates N2 Path Switch procedure, i.e. the Path Switch Request Transfer including the new transport layer address and tunnel endpoint of the downlink termination point for the user data for this PDU session (i.e. 5G-AN's GTP-U F-TEID for downlink traffic);
additional N2 SM information received from the 5G-AN, if any;
If the SMF can proceed with resuming the user plane connection of the PDU session, i.e. request the UPF to forward any received DL data to the NG-RAN DL F-TEID which is stored in the SMF when the SMF is requested to apply CN based MT handling, the SMF shall return a 200 OK response including the following information:
the upCnxState attribute set to ACTIVATED;
N2 SM information to 5G-AN if N2 SM information with Path Switch Request Transfer is received in the request, i.e. Path Switch Response Transfer including the transport layer address and tunnel endpoint of the uplink termination point for the user data for this PDU session (i.e. UPF's GTP-U F-TEID for uplink traffic).
If the SMF cannot proceed with resuming the user plane connection of the PDU session, the SMF shall return an error response, as specified for step 2b of Figure 5.2.2.3.1-1, including:
the upCnxState attribute representing the final state of the user plane connection (e.g. DEACTIVATED);
N2 SM information, including the cause of the failure.