{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T02:45:48Z","timestamp":1782873948420,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782777600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Network"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The deployment of 5G technology represents a significant advancement in telecommunications, offering unprecedented speed, connectivity, and innovation opportunities. However, this progress comes at a significant cost for Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) operators, who face challenges in meeting high Quality of Service (QoS) standards for optimal user experience while ensuring appropriate levels of security. This paper addresses the joint optimization of latency and resource consumption under security constraints within 5G networks, focusing on the Packet Data Unit (PDU) session path to ensure compliance with security and latency requirements. We propose an innovative approach in which access control rules are distributed across User Plane Functions (UPFs) in the network. The optimization problem has been formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem that aims to minimize round-trip latency and operational costs for PLMN operators. We evaluate the performance of our model using a discrete event network simulator (NS3). The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, particularly in scenarios with stringent latency requirements. Latency is reduced, and a lower session drop rate is maintained, especially in conditions of network congestion. These findings emphasize the importance of considering both QoS and security in the design of next-generation 5G networks.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/network6030044","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T00:50:37Z","timestamp":1782867037000},"page":"44","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Improving 5G User Plane Function Performance via Access Control Rule Distribution"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-5554-9597","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anne-Ga\u00eblle","family":"Calandre","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Ernst and Young Advisory, EY, La D\u00e9fense FR, Tour First, 1 Pl. des Saisons, 92400 Courbevoie, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3445-947X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David","family":"Espes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire des Sciences et Techniques de L\u2019Information de la Communication et de la Connaissance, Universit\u00e9 de Bretagne Occidentale, Technopole Brest-Iroise, Cedex 3, 29238 Brest, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4021-3495","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Johanne","family":"Vincent","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire des Sciences et Techniques de L\u2019Information de la Communication et de la Connaissance, Institut Mines-T\u00e9l\u00e9com Atlantique, du Technop\u00f4le, 29280 Plouzan\u00e9, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"299","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comcom.2022.05.009","article-title":"A QoS-aware and channel-aware radio resource management framework for multi-numerology systems","volume":"191","author":"Miuccio","year":"2022","journal-title":"Comput. Commun."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2083","DOI":"10.3390\/app12042083","article-title":"A fog computing model for VANET to reduce latency and delay using 5G network in smart city transportation","volume":"12","author":"Farooqi","year":"2022","journal-title":"Appl. Sci."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"99","DOI":"10.1515\/pjbr-2022-0101","article-title":"Optimization technique based on cluster head selection algorithm for 5G-enabled IoMT smart healthcare framework for industry","volume":"13","author":"Jaaz","year":"2022","journal-title":"Paladyn J. Behav. Robot."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106871","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2019.106871","article-title":"Towards secure 5G networks: A survey","volume":"162","author":"Zhang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e271","DOI":"10.1002\/spy2.271","article-title":"Security in 5G and beyond: Recent advances and future challenges","volume":"6","author":"Salahdine","year":"2023","journal-title":"Secur. Priv."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"170","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2019.2951818","article-title":"A survey on security aspects for 3GPP 5G networks","volume":"22","author":"Cao","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wu, T., Guo, X., Chen, Y., Kumari, S., and Chen, C. (2021). Amassing the security: An enhanced authentication protocol for drone communications over 5G networks. Drones, 6.","DOI":"10.3390\/drones6010010"},{"key":"ref_8","first-page":"397","article-title":"Network anomaly detection in 5G networks","volume":"9","author":"Rahman","year":"2022","journal-title":"Math. Model. Eng. Probl."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gallenm\u00fcller, S., Naab, J., Adam, I., and Carle, G. (2020). 5G QoS: Impact of security functions on latency. NOMS 2020\u20132020 IEEE\/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/NOMS47738.2020.9110422"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3098","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2018.2841349","article-title":"A survey on low latency towards 5G: RAN, core network and caching solutions","volume":"20","author":"Parvez","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"110051","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2023.110051","article-title":"Novel modeling and optimization for joint cybersecurity-vs-QoS intrusion detection mechanisms in 5G networks","volume":"237","author":"Bozorgchenani","year":"2023","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3039","DOI":"10.1109\/TNSE.2024.3358170","article-title":"Intrusion response systems for the 5G networks and beyond: A new joint security-vs-QoS optimization approach","volume":"11","author":"Bozorgchenani","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Netw. Sci. Eng."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1037","DOI":"10.1109\/TWC.2016.2636186","article-title":"GT-QoSec: A game-theoretic joint optimization of QoS and security for differentiated services in next generation heterogeneous networks","volume":"16","author":"Fadlullah","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Iordache-Sica, M.M., Anagnostopoulos, C., and Pezaros, D.P. (2021). Towards QoS-aware provisioning of chained virtual security services in edge networks. 2021 IFIP\/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management (IM), IEEE."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2978","DOI":"10.1109\/TMC.2020.3046968","article-title":"QoS and resource-aware security orchestration and life cycle management","volume":"21","author":"Bagaa","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"key":"ref_16","first-page":"294","article-title":"Dynamic and application-aware provisioning of chained virtual security network functions","volume":"17","author":"Siracusa","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Netw. Serv. Manag."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Miskeen, G., Kouvatsos, D.D., and Akhlaq, M. (2010). Performance and security trade-off for routers in high speed networks. 26th UK Performance Engineering Workshop (UKPEW 2010), University of Bradford."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"109200","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2022.109200","article-title":"Dynamic UPF placement and chaining reconfiguration in 5G networks","volume":"215","author":"Anagnostopoulos","year":"2022","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"86","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comcom.2023.12.029","article-title":"Joint optimization of UPF placement and traffic routing for 5G core network user plane","volume":"216","author":"Chen","year":"2024","journal-title":"Comput. Commun."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16370","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2021.3095236","article-title":"Joint placement of UPF and edge server for 6G network","volume":"8","author":"Li","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"534","DOI":"10.1109\/TSC.2016.2616867","article-title":"Efficient provisioning of security service function chaining using network security defense patterns","volume":"12","author":"Jarraya","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Serv. Comput."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"53944","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2024.3387083","article-title":"Security-aware service function chaining and embedding with asymmetric dedicated protection","volume":"12","author":"Wang","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tamim, I., Jammal, M., Hawilo, H., and Shami, A. (2020). Introducing virtual security functions into latency-aware placement for NFV applications. ICC 2020\u20132020 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICC40277.2020.9149288"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5640134","DOI":"10.1155\/2019\/5640134","article-title":"Virtual network embedding based on security level with VNF placement","volume":"2019","author":"Dwiardhika","year":"2019","journal-title":"Secur. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"111002","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2024.111002","article-title":"Towards cost optimization in security-aware service function chaining and embedding over multi-vendor edge networks","volume":"257","author":"Wang","year":"2025","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"151327","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2025.3603213","article-title":"LAVP: A latency-aware virtual network function placement strategy for service function chain in network function virtualization","volume":"13","author":"Hoang","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"3rd Generation Partnership Project (2026, June 15). System architecture for the 5G System (5GS) (Technical Specification No. TS 23.501V18.6.0). 3GPP. Available online: https:\/\/www.3gpp.org\/ftp\/Specs\/archive\/23_series\/23.501\/."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"3rd Generation Partnership Project (2026, June 15). Procedures for the 5G System (5GS) (Technical Specification No. TS 23.502 V18.6.0). 3GPP. Available online: https:\/\/www.3gpp.org\/ftp\/Specs\/archive\/23_series\/23.502\/."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"3rd Generation Partnership Project (2026, June 15). Interface between the Control Plane and the User Plane nodes (Technical Specification No. TS 29.244 V18.6.0). 3GPP. Available online: https:\/\/www.3gpp.org\/ftp\/Specs\/archive\/29_series\/29.244\/."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"3rd Generation Partnership Project (2026, June 15). Security architecture and procedures for 5G System (Technical Specification No. TS 33.501 V18.9.0). 3GPP. Available online: https:\/\/www.3gpp.org\/ftp\/Specs\/archive\/33_series\/33.501\/."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Michaelides, S., Mucke, J., and Henze, M. (2025). Assessing the latency of network layer security in 5G networks. 18th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec 2025), ACM Digital Library.","DOI":"10.1145\/3734477.3734722"},{"key":"ref_32","first-page":"2293","article-title":"An analytical latency model and evaluation of the capacity of 5G NR to support V2X services using V2N2V communications","volume":"72","author":"Shimizu","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Garey, M.R., Johnson, D.S., and Stockmeyer, L. Some simplified NP-complete problems. Sixth Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, ACM Digital Library."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Sallam, G., Gupta, G.R., Li, B., and Ji, B. (2026, June 15). Shortest Path and Maximum Flow Problems Under Service Function Chaining Constraints [Preprint]. arXiv, Available online: https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1801.05795."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1238","DOI":"10.1109\/TNET.2021.3058378","article-title":"Joint placement and allocation of VNF nodes with budget and capacity constraints","volume":"29","author":"Sallam","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE\/ACM Trans. Netw."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ma, C.S., and Miller, R.H. (2006). MILP optimal path planning for real-time applications. 2006 American Control Conference, IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/ACC.2006.1657504"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"258","DOI":"10.1287\/ijoc.13.4.258.9733","article-title":"Algorithms for hybrid MILP\/CP models for a class of optimization problems","volume":"13","author":"Jain","year":"2001","journal-title":"Inf. J. Comput."},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"3rd Generation Partnership Project (2026, June 15). Study on 3D Channel Model for LTE (Technical Report No. TR 36.873 V12.7.0). 3GPP. Available online: https:\/\/www.3gpp.org\/ftp\/Specs\/archive\/36_series\/36.873\/."},{"key":"ref_39","first-page":"71","article-title":"Throughput and latency performance evaluation of an optical fiber network","volume":"16","author":"Shabiluh","year":"2025","journal-title":"J. Adv. Inf. Technol."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"140","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2014.6736754","article-title":"5G: Personal mobile internet beyond what cellular did to telephony","volume":"52","author":"Fettweis","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1380","DOI":"10.1109\/TMC.2020.2965929","article-title":"Edge-enabled V2X service placement for intelligent transportation systems","volume":"20","author":"Moubayed","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"key":"ref_42","unstructured":"Lassagne, A. (2018). Retour Sensoriel du Toucher Dans les Environnements Virtuels. [Ph.D. Thesis, \u00c9cole Nationale Sup\u00e9rieure d\u2019arts et m\u00e9Tiers\u2013ENSAM]."},{"key":"ref_43","first-page":"245","article-title":"Next generation AI-based firewalls: A comparative study","volume":"49","author":"Ahmadi","year":"2023","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cereia, M., Bertolotti, I.C., Durante, L., and Valenzano, A. (2014). Latency evaluation of a firewall for industrial networks based on the Tofino industrial security solution. 2014 IEEE Emerging Technology and Factory Automation (ETFA), IEEE.","DOI":"10.1109\/ETFA.2014.7005177"},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lekidis, A., Anastasiadis, A.G., and Vokas, G.A. (2024). Anomaly detection mechanisms for in-vehicle and V2X systems. 9th ACM Cyber-Physical System Security Workshop (CPSS \u201924), ACM Digital Library.","DOI":"10.1145\/3664476.3671012"},{"key":"ref_46","first-page":"62","article-title":"Security of 5G-V2X: Technologies, standardization and research directions","volume":"33","author":"Sedjelmaci","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Netw."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alves, F., Ribeiro, R., Petiz, M., Abbasi, A., Carvalho, P., Faia, R., Faia, P., Zaia, R., and Rodrigues, R. (2024). Virtual power plant optimization service-benchmark of solvers. 2024 19th Conference on Computer Science and Intelligence Systems (FedCSIS), IEEE.","DOI":"10.15439\/2024F8403"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1923","DOI":"10.11118\/actaun201563061923","article-title":"Benchmarks for current linear and mixed integer optimization solvers","volume":"63","year":"2015","journal-title":"Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendel. Brun."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.1109\/MIC.2016.128","article-title":"Stringer: Balancing latency and resource usage in service function chain provisioning [Preprint]","volume":"20","author":"Kulkarni","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Comput."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1094","DOI":"10.1109\/OJCOMS.2021.3078081","article-title":"The roadmap to 6G security and privacy","volume":"2","author":"Porambage","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Open J. Commun. Soc."}],"container-title":["Network"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2673-8732\/6\/3\/44\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T02:13:36Z","timestamp":1782872016000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2673-8732\/6\/3\/44"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]]},"references-count":50,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9]]}},"alternative-id":["network6030044"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/network6030044","relation":{},"ISSN":["2673-8732"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2673-8732","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]]}}}