Integration of BMv2 and eBPF/XDP for Dynamic Forwarding in 5G Transport Networks

• Jefferson M. O. das Mercês IFPB / UFPB
• José S. da S. Galvão IFPB / UFPB
• Ruan D. Gomes IFPB / UFPB
• Marcelo P. Sousa IFPB
• Moacy Pereira da Silva IFPB
• Waslon Terllizzie A. Lopes UFPB

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/wpeif.2026.23167

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact on end-to-end latency of 5G applications by integrating eBPF/XDP-based observability mechanisms with programmable switches in the transport network. This proposal uses eBPF to monitor the UPF and identify UE traffic encapsulated in GTP-U tunnels. An orchestrator processes events related to end-to-end delay variation per-flow and dynamically updates the tables of the switches, enabling real-time route switching according to network conditions. The results indicate that the proposed dynamic forwarding mechanism significantly reduces latency under degraded conditions, achieving up to 78% improvement depending on the duration of the degradation period.

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