CN107566437B

CN107566437B - Information transmission method and device

Info

Publication number: CN107566437B
Application number: CN201610515991.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王高亮; 段江海
Original assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-07-01
Filing date: 2016-07-01
Publication date: 2020-04-14
Anticipated expiration: 2036-07-01
Also published as: CN107566437A

Abstract

The application discloses an information transmission method and device, which are used for enabling information subscribers such as an MEC server to more efficiently and reliably acquire subscription information such as bearing information of UE through a preset information sharing platform, so that subsequent related operations are completed. The application provides an information transmission method, which comprises the following steps: an information subscriber sends an information subscription request to a preset information sharing platform through a preset information subscription interface; and the information subscriber receives the information which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface and is requested to subscribe by the information subscriber.

Description

Information transmission method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to an information transmission method and apparatus.

Background

In the existing network architecture, a service platform is deployed behind a core network (S/P-GW). With the introduction of 5G network concept and service requirements, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) technology has come into play. Through MEC technology, a service platform may be deployed near a mobile edge. As shown in fig. 1, the MEC server is connected to an evolved Node B (e-NB) and a local service server, and is deployed in the same network level (near the mobile edge); the MEC server is connected with an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) through a transmission network (e.g. PTN); the EPC is deployed with the remote service servers thereafter at a higher network level (e.g., core room).

It should be noted that, as shown in fig. 1, the service server is divided into a local service server and a remote service server according to the actual deployment location of the service platform, where, the remote service means non-local deployment relative to the local service.

In fig. 1, an MEC server is connected in series to an S1 interface between an e-NB and an EPC, and based on detection of a data packet, a local breakout function is implemented, which specifically includes an OM configuring local service template information (such as a local service server IP address, an IP address prefix, and the like) for the MEC server; the MEC server monitors signaling and service plane data of an S1 interface to obtain a corresponding relation between a UE IP address and UE bearer (GTP-U (general packet radio service) tunnel) information, and the MEC server simultaneously supports the following two modes for processing data messages.

(1) A through mode: for a terminal uplink user plane message, if the destination address accessed by the terminal is the address of a remote service server in a PDN network, the MEC server transparently transmits the message to a public network service gateway (S-GW) or a packet data network gateway (P-GW); and for the user plane message from the public network S/P-GW, the MEC server transmits the user plane message to the e-NB and then sends the user plane message to the terminal.

(2) Shunting mode: for the uplink user plane message of the terminal, if the accessed server is a local service server, the MEC server identifies the user plane message and sends the user plane message to the local service server; and the MEC server puts the terminal user interface message from the local service server into a terminal GTP-U tunnel according to the terminal address, forwards the terminal user interface message to the e-NB and then sends the terminal user interface message to the terminal.

For the split mode, the split mode can be further divided into two data forwarding modes, namely an End-point (i.e. a service End node) and a Pass-through (i.e. a service passes through an MEC local service unit), wherein the former terminates split data after being processed by a relevant application of a local service platform, and the latter transmits the split data to a remote service platform for processing after being processed by a relevant application of the local service platform.

The MEC server is deployed in a mobile network, so that the bandwidth consumption of a transmission network can be reduced, the service delay is reduced, and the user perception is improved.

However, in the prior art, the MEC server acquires the UE bearer (GTP-U tunnel) information by monitoring signaling and traffic plane data of the S1 interface according to the S1 interface convention between the e-NB and the EPC by the 3 GPP. Therefore, there are problems as follows:

the MEC server needs to monitor and analyze all signaling processes related to an S1 interface, terminal access (terminal GTP-U tunnel information distribution), terminal handover (terminal GTP-U tunnel information change), and terminal release (GTP-U terminal tunnel information recovery), which results in large processing overhead and processing delay; in addition, the occasion that the internal abnormal recovery of the MEC equipment misses the acquisition of the signaling between the e-NB and the EPC exists, so that the GTP-U tunnel information of the terminal cannot be learned.

Under the condition that a security protocol (such as IPSec) is started between the e-NB and the EPC, because S1 interface signaling data are encrypted, the MEC server cannot monitor and analyze S1 interface signaling, so that the corresponding relation between a UE IP address and UE bearing (GTP-U tunnel) information cannot be obtained, and the local service shunting function cannot be realized;

in case of multi-bearer, the UE may have one or more dedicated bearers in addition to the default bearer, i.e. corresponding to multiple GTP-U tunnel information. The MEC server cannot acquire the Traffic Flow Template (TFT) information of the UE through the S1 interface monitoring process, that is, the corresponding relationship between the Service packet type (quintuple information) and the UE bearer (GTP-U tunnel), so that the locally provided Service plane data is difficult to be matched to a proper bearer for forwarding, and the Quality of Service (QoS) of the Service is affected.

In summary, in the prior art, the mobile edge computing device is deployed in the backhaul network as a device that is transparent to the e-NB and EPC. The terminal service message is transmitted on the backhaul network after being encapsulated based on the GTP-U protocol, but the prior art cannot efficiently and reliably obtain the bearer information of the UE, and cannot correctly perform GTP-U encapsulation on the UE related service message from the MEC local application.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides an information transmission method and an information transmission device, which are used for enabling an information subscriber such as an MEC server to more efficiently and reliably acquire subscription information such as bearing information of UE through a preset information sharing platform, so that subsequent related operations are completed.

In an information subscriber, an information transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

an information subscriber sends an information subscription request to a preset information sharing platform through a preset information subscription interface;

and the information subscriber receives the information which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface and is requested to subscribe by the information subscriber.

By the method, an information subscriber can send an information subscription request to a preset information sharing platform through a preset information subscription interface, so that the information subscriber can receive information which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface and is requested to subscribe by the information subscriber, and the information subscriber such as an MEC server can more efficiently and reliably obtain subscription information such as bearing information of UE through the preset information sharing platform, thereby completing subsequent related operations.

Preferably, the information subscription request includes the following information:

an identity of the information subscriber;

an identifier of the information publisher;

the type of information;

a keep-alive period for the information subscriber.

Preferably, the receiving, by the information subscriber, the information requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber, which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface, specifically includes:

the information subscriber receives an information subscription notification sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface, wherein the information subscription notification comprises: information subscriber identification, information type and information content.

Preferably, after the information subscriber receives the information, which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface and to which the information subscriber requests to subscribe, the method further includes:

the information subscriber returns a confirmation message aiming at the information subscription notification to the information sharing platform through the information notification interface, wherein the confirmation message comprises: information subscriber identification, information identification, and information receiving success or failure result.

Preferably, the information subscriber is a mobile edge computing MEC server.

Preferably, the information subscribed by the information subscriber includes one or a combination of the following information: international mobile subscriber identity IMSI of user equipment UE, UE IP address, UE bearer information, traffic flow template TFT information.

Preferably, the method further comprises: and the information subscriber encapsulates and sends the GTP-U tunnel message according to the subscribed information.

At an information issuing party, an information transmission method provided by an embodiment of the present application includes:

an information publisher publishes information on a preset information sharing platform through a preset information publishing interface, so that an information subscriber can acquire information subscribed by the information subscriber and published by the information publisher from the information sharing platform;

and the information issuing party receives the notification whether the information issuing party successfully issues the information replied by the information sharing platform through the information issuing interface.

Preferably, the information publisher is an access network element or a core network element.

Preferably, the information issuing party issues the information on the preset information sharing platform through a preset information issuing interface, and the method specifically includes:

the information issuing party sends an information issuing request to the information sharing platform through a preset information issuing interface, wherein the information issuing request comprises: the information issuing system comprises an information issuing party identifier, an operation mark for indicating issuing or releasing, an information identifier, an information type, information content and an information issuing party keep-alive period.

In an information sharing platform, an information transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

the information sharing platform receives and records information issued by an information issuing party through a preset information issuing interface;

the information sharing platform receives an information subscription request sent by an information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface;

and when the preset conditions are met, the information sharing platform sends the recorded information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface.

Preferably, the information sharing platform receives and records information issued by an information issuing party through a preset information issuing interface, and specifically includes:

when receiving information issued by the information issuing party through a preset information issuing interface, an information issuing party management unit in the information sharing platform records the identification and the keep-alive period of the information issuing party and records an information issuing table comprising the following information in an issuing information database: the table index value, the identifier of the information publisher, the information identifier of the information published by the information publisher, the information type and the information content.

Preferably, the receiving, by the information sharing platform, the information subscription request sent by the information subscriber through the preset information subscription interface specifically includes:

when receiving an information subscription request sent by an information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface, an information subscriber management unit of the information sharing platform records an identifier and a keep-alive period of the information subscriber, and records an information subscription table comprising the following information in a published information database: the table index value, the identifier of the information subscriber, the identifier of the information publisher, the information type of the information subscribed by the information subscriber, and the address of the information subscriber.

Preferably, when a preset condition is met, the information sharing platform sends, through a preset information notification interface, the previously recorded information that is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber, and specifically includes:

when a dynamic information table used for recording the incidence relation between an information publisher and an information subscriber in a published information database of the information sharing platform changes, an information subscriber management unit of the information sharing platform sends previously recorded information published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface.

Preferably, the dynamic information table includes the following information: the index value of the information subscription table, the index value of the information publishing table, the state of the information notification and the number of times the information notification has been tried.

Preferably, after the information sharing platform sends the previously recorded information, which is published by the information publisher and to which the information subscriber requests subscription, to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface, the method further includes:

and under the condition that the information sharing platform does not receive the confirmation message replied by the information subscriber and the state of the information subscriber is normal, the information sharing platform periodically and repeatedly sends the previously recorded information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through the information notification interface according to the timing duration of the preset information notification timer until the number of attempted times of information notification reaches a preset value.

In an information subscriber, an information transmission apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

the subscription unit is used for sending an information subscription request to a preset information sharing platform through a preset information subscription interface;

and the subscription information receiving unit is used for receiving the information which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface and is requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber.

an identity of the information subscriber;

an identifier of the information publisher;

the type of information;

a keep-alive period for the information subscriber.

Preferably, the subscription information receiving unit is specifically configured to:

receiving an information subscription notification sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface, wherein the information subscription notification comprises: information subscriber identification, information type and information content.

Preferably, the receiving subscription information unit is further configured to:

returning a confirmation message aiming at the information subscription notification to the information sharing platform through the information notification interface, wherein the confirmation message comprises: information subscriber identification, information identification, and information receiving success or failure result.

Preferably, the information subscriber is a mobile edge computing MEC server.

Preferably, the receiving subscription information unit is further configured to: and packaging and sending the GTP-U tunnel message according to the subscribed information.

At an information issuing party, an information transmission apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

the information publishing unit is used for publishing information on a preset information sharing platform through a preset information publishing interface, so that an information subscriber can acquire the information subscribed by the information subscriber and published by the information publishing party from the information sharing platform;

and the receiving feedback unit is used for receiving the notification whether the information issuing party successfully issues the information or not replied by the information sharing platform through the information issuing interface.

Preferably, the device is an access network element or a core network element.

Preferably, the information issuing unit is specifically configured to: sending an information publishing request to the information sharing platform through a preset information publishing interface, wherein the information publishing request comprises: the information issuing system comprises an information issuing party identifier, an operation mark for indicating issuing or releasing, an information identifier, an information type, information content and an information issuing party keep-alive period.

In an information sharing platform, an information transmission apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

the information issuing party management unit is used for receiving and recording information issued by the information issuing party through a preset information issuing interface;

the information subscriber management unit is used for receiving an information subscription request sent by an information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface; and when the preset conditions are met, the information sharing platform sends the recorded information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface.

Preferably, the device further comprises a release information database;

the information issuer management unit is specifically configured to: when receiving the information issued by the information issuing party through a preset information issuing interface, recording the identification and the keep-alive period of the information issuing party, and recording an information issuing table comprising the following information in an issuing information database: the table index value, the identifier of the information publisher, the information identifier of the information published by the information publisher, the information type and the information content.

Preferably, the device further comprises a release information database;

the information subscriber management unit receives an information subscription request sent by an information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface, and specifically includes: when an information subscription request sent by the information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface is received, recording the identification and the keep-alive period of the information subscriber, and recording an information subscription table comprising the following information in the published information database: the table index value, the identifier of the information subscriber, the identifier of the information publisher, the information type of the information subscribed by the information subscriber, and the address of the information subscriber.

Preferably, the device further comprises a release information database;

when the information subscriber management unit meets the preset condition, the information sharing platform sends the previously recorded information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface, and the information subscription management unit specifically comprises:

when a dynamic information table for recording the association relationship between the information publisher and the information subscriber in the published information database changes, the information subscriber management unit sends the previously recorded information published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface.

Preferably, the apparatus further comprises: an information notification timer;

the information subscriber management unit is further configured to, after sending the previously recorded information, which is issued by the information publisher and to which the information subscriber requests subscription, to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface: and under the condition that the confirmation message replied by the information subscriber is not received and the state of the information subscriber is normal, periodically and repeatedly sending the previously recorded information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through the information notification interface according to the timing duration of the information notification timer until the number of attempted times of information notification reaches a preset value.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an MEC networking structure and a service data flow in the prior art;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an information sharing platform architecture and an implementation mechanism thereof according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of an information transmission method of an information subscriber according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart of an information transmission method of an information issuer according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic flowchart of an information transmission method of an information sharing platform according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an MEC networking structure and a service data flow direction of an information sharing platform provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of an information transmission apparatus of an information subscriber according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of an information transmission apparatus of an information distributor according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of an information transmission apparatus of an information sharing platform according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

In the embodiment of the application, an Information Sharing Platform (ISP) is constructed, and the ISP exists in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network as a network basic function entity; meanwhile, a set of open Application Programming Interfaces (API) is normalized, and the interfaces are used by network elements such as e-NB, EPC (MME, S/P-GW) and the like; e-NB, EPC and the like use an open API interface to distribute information which can be provided by the server, such as UE bearer (GTP-U tunnel) information and the like to the ISP, and the MEC server uses the open API interface to acquire the UE bearer (GTP-U tunnel) information and the like from the ISP; the API interface form may be representational state transfer (RESTful) or other type.

In the embodiment of the present application, the definition of the API interface is introduced as follows:

regarding Information Publishing Interface (IPI):

the IPI interface caller is a device or network element (e.g., e-NB, EPC) that needs to provide information to other network elements or devices, and the information input by the IPI interface caller and the information returned by the ISP to it are described in tables 1 and 2 below, respectively.

TABLE 1

It should be noted that, when the value of the information type (InfoType) in the IPI is 0, it indicates that the information publisher is keep alive (keepalive), and the keep-alive period defaults to 3 seconds.

TABLE 2

It should be noted that the IPI keep-alive call is regarded as successful, that is, when the value of the information type sent by the information publisher is 0, the ISP returns a successful response to the information publisher.

The Information Subscription Interface (ISI) is introduced as follows:

the ISI interface caller is a device or network element (e.g., MEC) that needs to obtain information of other network elements or devices, and the input information and the information returned thereto by the ISP are respectively described in table 3 and table 4 below.

TABLE 3

When the InfoType in the ISI takes a value of 0, it indicates that information sent by the information subscriber is used for keep-alive (keep alive) of the information subscriber, and the keep-alive period is defaulted to 3 seconds.

TABLE 4

It should be noted that the ISI keep-alive call is considered to be successful, that is, when the information type sent by the information subscriber takes a value of 0, the ISP returns a successful response to the information subscriber.

The Information Notification Interface (INI) is described as follows:

the interface caller is the ISP itself, which reports the information of interest to the information subscriber (e.g. MEC server), and the input information and the information returned by the information subscriber to the ISP are shown in tables 5 and 6 below, respectively:

TABLE 5

TABLE 6

The following is introduced with respect to ISP architecture and implementation mechanisms:

as shown in fig. 2, in the embodiment of the present application, an ISP mainly includes an information publisher management unit (publisher Manager), an information Subscriber management unit (Subscriber Manager), a published information database (published information DB), and an information Notification Timer (Notification Timer). APPp represents an information publisher application, such as a Mobility Management Entity (MME) or the like; APPs represent information subscriber applications, such as MEC servers.

Firstly, the APPP calls an IPI interface provided by the ISP to inform the ISP of the current specific information, such as UE bearing (GTP-U tunnel) information according to the information situation provided by the APPP and the information of the ISP access point (such as the IP address of the ISP) planned in advance;

the Publisher Manager in the ISP is responsible for managing application release information;

first, the Publisher Manager records information Publisher attribute information (Publisher Property), including:

pubEntityID, homonymous input information from IPI;

PubKeepalive, homonymous input information from IPI;

next, the Publisher Manager is triggered by an InfoLog event (i.e., Information Published by the Information Publisher is received), updates an Information publishing table (InfoPubTable) in a Published Information database (Published Information DB), and records an Information data entry (InfoPubEntry) in the Published Information DB according to the PubEntityID and the InfoID of the Information Publisher. The specific table entries of InfoPubTable are as follows:

pubIndex, the only index value of the whole table;

pubEntityID, homonymous input information from IPI;

InfoID, homonymous input information from IPI;

InfoType, homonymous input information from IPI;

info, homonymous input information from IPI.

And thirdly, the APPs call an ISI interface provided by the ISP to inform the ISP of the information requirement expected to be obtained according to the information situation required by the APPs and the information of the ISP access point planned in advance, such as the IP address of the ISP.

And fourthly, managing the application subscription information by a Subscriber Manager in the ISP.

First, the Subscriber Manager records information Subscriber Property information (Subscriber Property), including:

subentyid, homonymous input information from ISI;

subweepalive, homonymous input information from ISI.

Secondly, the Subscriber Manager updates an Information subscription table (infosublable) in a Published Information database (Published Information DB) by triggering through an InfoMark event (i.e. receiving a message of Information requirement expected to be obtained sent by an Information Subscriber), and records an Information subscription data entry (infosublity) in the Published Information DB according to the subenttyid and InfoType of the Information Subscriber. The specific table entries of infosutable are as follows:

SubIndex, the only index value of the whole table;

subentyid, homonymous input information from ISI;

PubEntityID, homonymous input information from ISI (optional);

InfoType, homonymous input information from ISI;

subentyladdr, the information subscriber address, is obtained from the ISI interface information, i.e. from the message sent by the information subscriber desiring the information requirements obtained.

And fifthly, besides the information publishing information table and the information subscribing information table, the publishing information database needs to maintain a dynamic information table (pubSubAssTable) associated with the information publishing information table and the information subscribing information table for managing information notification. That is, when this table record changes, the Subscriber Manager is triggered by the InfoInd event (i.e., the dynamic information table changes), which informs APPs via the INI interface. The specific table entries of PubSubAssTable are as follows:

SubIndex, index value of information subscription table;

pubIndex, index value of information release table;

InfoNtfStatus, the state of the information notification, and the value 0 represents that the information is not notified; 1 indicates announced;

InfoNtfAttempts, the number of times the information announces has been attempted.

It should be noted that the table is dynamically generated according to the InfoPubTable publishing information change and the infosubltable subscription information change, that is, only when the information publisher publishes the information and at the same time, the information subscriber requests to subscribe the information published by the information publisher, an entry (PubSubAssEntry) exists in the table, that is, an association relationship exists between the information publisher and the information subscriber. When the published and subscribed information is published, the corresponding entries in the table are cleared.

And sixthly, setting a Notification Timer in the ISP for the ISP to retransmit the Notification information after the ISP informs the information subscriber of the information response timeout. The retransmission process is triggered and completed by an InfoReInd event (i.e., Notification Timer timeout), so as to improve the reliability of information Notification. It should be noted that the retransmission is periodically (for example, the timing duration of the Notification Timer is set to 3s) before the information subscriber status is normal (i.e., the heartbeat is normal) but the information Notification acknowledgement is not received. And when receiving the confirmation response of the information subscriber, or detecting that the information subscriber is not reachable (namely, the heartbeat is abnormal), or reaching the maximum retransmission times, stopping the timer and clearing the related notification information of the information subscriber.

As can be seen from the above, in an information subscriber, referring to fig. 3, an embodiment of the present application provides an information transmission method, including:

s101, an information subscriber sends an information subscription request to a preset Information Sharing Platform (ISP) through a preset information subscription interface (namely, the ISI);

s102, the information subscriber receives the information, which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface (i.e. the INI described above), and which the information subscriber requests to subscribe.

an identity of the information subscriber (SubEntityID);

an identification of the information issuer (PubEntityID);

information type (InfoType);

keep alive period (SubKeepactive) of the information subscriber.

the information subscriber receives an information subscription notification sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface, wherein the information subscription notification comprises: information subscriber identification (SubEntityID), information identification (InfoID), information type (InfoType), and information content (Info).

the information subscriber returns a confirmation message aiming at the information subscription notification to the information sharing platform through the information notification interface, wherein the confirmation message comprises: information subscriber identification (SubEntityID), information identification (InfoID), and result of success or failure of information reception (NtfRst).

Preferably, the information subscriber is a mobile edge computing MEC server.

Correspondingly, on the information issuing side, referring to fig. 4, an information transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

s201, an information publisher publishes information on a preset information sharing platform through a preset information publishing interface (i.e. the IPI mentioned above), so that an information subscriber can obtain, from the information sharing platform, information subscribed by the information subscriber and published by the information publisher;

s202, the information issuing party receives the information successful or not issued by the information issuing party replied by the information sharing platform through the information issuing interface.

The access network element may be, for example, an e-NB; the core network element may be, for example, an MME.

the information issuing party sends an information issuing request to the information sharing platform through a preset information issuing interface, wherein the information issuing request comprises: the information publishing system comprises an information publisher identification (PubEntityID), an operation flag (OperFlag) for indicating publication or de-publication, an information identification (InfoID), an information type (InfoType), information content (Info) and an information publisher keep-alive period (PubKeepactive).

Correspondingly, in the information sharing platform, referring to fig. 5, an information transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

s301, the information sharing platform receives and records information issued by an information issuing party through a preset information issuing interface;

s302, the information sharing platform receives an information subscription request sent by an information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface;

and S303, when the preset condition is met, the information sharing platform sends the previously recorded information which is issued by the information issuing party and the information subscription party requests to subscribe to the information subscribing party through a preset information notification interface.

The information issuing party issues the information and the information subscribing party requests to subscribe the information.

when receiving information issued by the information issuing party through a preset information issuing interface, an information issuing party management unit in the information sharing platform records the identification and the keep-alive period of the information issuing party and records an information issuing table comprising the following information in an issuing information database: the table index value (pubIndex), the identifier (pubEntityID) of the information publisher, the information identifier (InfoID) of the information published by the information publisher, the information type (InfoType) and the information content (Info).

when receiving an information subscription request sent by an information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface, an information subscriber management unit of the information sharing platform records an identifier and a keep-alive period of the information subscriber, and records an information subscription table comprising the following information in a published information database: the table index value (SubIndex), the identification of the information subscriber (SubEntityID), the identification of the information publisher (PubEntityID), the information type of the information subscribed by the information subscriber (InfoType), and the address of the information subscriber (SubEntityAddr).

Preferably, the dynamic information table includes the following information: information subscription table index value (SubIndex), information publication table index value (PubIndex), information advertisement status (InfoNtfStatus), number of times information advertisement has been attempted (InfoNtfAttempts).

For example, if there is an information publisher publishing information and an information subscriber subscribing to the information, record the index value of the information publishing table corresponding to the information publisher, the association relationship with the index value of the information subscription table corresponding to the information subscriber, and record the information notification status (InfoNtfStatus) of whether the ISP sends the information published by the information publisher to the information subscriber and the number of times the information published by the information publisher is sent to the information subscriber, i.e., the number of times the information notification has been tried (infontftattempts).

and under the condition that the information sharing platform does not receive the confirmation message replied by the information subscriber and the state of the information subscriber is normal, the information sharing platform periodically and repeatedly sends the previously recorded information which is issued by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through the information notification interface according to the timing duration of the preset information notification timer until the number of attempted times of information notification reaches a preset value, for example, if the number of times of retransmission reaches 3, the retransmission is abandoned.

An example of an information subscriber serving as an MEC server and an information publisher including an e-NB and an EPC is described below, where an MEC networking structure and a service data flow direction of an information sharing platform are added.

In fig. 6, traffic stream #1 corresponds to the application in pass-through mode (note: data is passed through via MEC); the service flow #2 corresponds to the application of an End-point data forwarding mode; the traffic flow #2+ the traffic flow #3 corresponds to application of a Pass-through data forwarding manner.

In FIG. 6, the EPC, e-NB primarily implements the information publishing (and information unpublishing) process. The following describes the information publishing (and information unpublishing) procedure by using MME as an example. The method specifically comprises the following steps:

(1) planning an ISP connection point (such as an access address of an ISP) at an MME associated with the MEC;

(2) when UE accesses, MME issues the information of IMSI, UE IP address, UE bearing (GTP-U tunnel) information, TFT and the like of the UE to ISP according to the IPI interface of the ISP except for finishing the existing processes of UE authentication, authentication and attachment;

(3) after the UE is detached, the MME detaches the previously issued configuration information (including the IMSI, the UE IP address, the UE bearer (GTP-U tunnel) information, the TFT and other information of the UE) of the UE according to the IPI interface of the ISP.

It should be noted that: the e-NB issues the UE information as optional. When the UE is attached to the MME, the MME interacts with the e-NB accessed by the UE and the assigned SGW to acquire TE ID information respectively allocated to the UE and configures the TE ID information to the e-NB and the assigned SGW (corresponding to the SGW/e-NB). Therefore, information such as UE bearers, TFTs, etc. required for the MEC can be obtained only from the MME. For the MME, it is only necessary to synchronously issue these information of the UE through the ISP interface when the user attach, bearer setup/delete, and detach processes are completed.

In fig. 6, the MEC mainly implements a subscription process for the UE to carry information and a process for receiving and processing the UE carrying information notified by the ISP.

A UE information management unit (UE Info Manager, UIM) is set in the MEC and is responsible for configuration and maintenance of UE bearer related information. The UIM configures the ISP attachment point (e.g., the access address of the ISP) according to network planning, optionally including associated MME network element or device ID information. The UIM subscribes to bearer information of the UE to the isc according to the ISI interface of the ISP when the MEC initializes. Optionally, when subscribing to the bearer information of the UE, a network element or a device concerned by the MEC may be specified. In addition, during the operation of the MEC device, a Heartbeat event is periodically sent to the ISP configured in advance to inform the ISP that the MEC is currently in a normal operation state, so as to clear the bearer information of the UE to which the MEC has subscribed after the MEC is abnormal. The information that the UIM may subscribe to includes, but is not limited to, the IMSI of the UE, the UE-IP, UE bearer (GTP-U tunnel) information, Traffic Flow Template (TFT) information (quintuple), etc.

After MME information is released, the ISP informs the UIM of the information concerned by the MEC through the received bearing information of the UE through the INI interface, namely, the UIM passively receives subscription information sent by the ISP in the running process of the MEC. And the UIM maintains the bearing information of one or more service messages for each UE according to the received subscription information. The method specifically comprises the following steps:

a UE Address (UE Address), wherein the EPC is a service IP Address distributed to the UE;

a Traffic Direction (Traffic Direction) taking the value Up Link/Down Link;

protocol Type (Protocol Type), i.e. IP packet Protocol encapsulated in GTP-U tunnel, the value 1 represents Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP); a value of 6 indicates Transmission Control Protocol (TCP); the value 17 represents a User Datagram Protocol (UDP), etc.;

a Source IP address (Source IP), namely an IP message Source address encapsulated in the GTP-U tunnel;

a destination IP address (Source IP), namely the destination address of the IP message encapsulated in the GTP-U tunnel;

source Port number (Source Port), i.e. the Source Port number of the IP packet encapsulated in the GTP-U tunnel;

destination Port number (Destination Port), namely the Destination Port number of the IP message encapsulated in the GTP-U tunnel;

an S-GW address (S-GW IP), namely a source address used by the S-GW to forward the downlink GTP-U message, or a destination address used by the e-NB to forward the uplink GTP-U message;

an S-GW tunnel identifier (S-GW GTU-U TE ID), namely a default or special bearer which is distributed by the S-GW and used for identifying a UE uplink service;

an e-NB address (e-NB IP), namely a source address used by the e-NB for forwarding the uplink GTP-U message, or a destination address used by the S-GW for forwarding the downlink GTP-U message;

an e-NB tunnel identifier (e-NB GTU-U TE ID), which is a default bearer or a dedicated bearer allocated by the e-NB and used for identifying a UE downlink service;

EPS Bearer identity (EPS Bearer ID, EBI), i.e. Bearer of different types used to distinguish UEs;

an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) for uniquely identifying a UE;

a default bearer flag, i.e. a bearer used by the service for which no dedicated bearer is established.

The TFT information, namely quintuple information, is divided into an uplink direction and a downlink direction, and the content of the TFT information comprises a protocol type, a source IP address, a destination IP address, a source port number and a destination port number.

After the MEC obtains the UE bearer information, it can find the corresponding downlink or uplink bearer information according to the destination address or source address of the data packet sent by the local service server to perform GTP-U tunnel packet encapsulation and send out. The specific process comprises the following steps:

comparing the destination IP of the received data message with the UE address in the UE bearing information list acquired by the ISP, and if the destination IP of the received data message is matched with the UE address in the UE bearing information list, determining that the message is a downlink service message;

comparing the received data message source IP with the UE address in the UE bearing information list acquired by the MEC through the ISP, and if the message is matched with the UE address, determining that the message is an uplink service message;

if the message is determined to be a downlink service message (namely, a message going to the e-NB), selecting corresponding bearing information to carry out GTP-U tunnel message encapsulation based on the downlink TFT information acquired in the process;

the downlink bearer selection mode is as follows: using quintuple information (protocol type, source ip address, destination ip address, source port number, destination port number) of the received data packet and the bearer information that is obtained by the MEC and is correspondingly matched with the quintuple information in one or more pieces of bearer information of the UE, that is, the received bearer information encapsulated by the packet of the UE.

If the service message is determined to be an uplink service message (namely, a message to the S-GW), selecting corresponding bearing information to carry out GTP-U tunnel message encapsulation based on the uplink TFT information acquired in the process;

the uplink bearer selection approach is similar to that of the downlink.

And the message which is not matched with the TFT uses a default bearer (namely the default bearer informed by the core network of the information publisher) to carry out GTP-U tunnel message encapsulation.

In correspondence with the above method, in an information subscriber, referring to fig. 7, an information transmission apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

the subscription unit 11 is configured to send an information subscription request to a preset information sharing platform through a preset information subscription interface;

a subscription information receiving unit 12, configured to receive information that the information subscriber requests subscription and is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface.

an identity of the information subscriber;

an identifier of the information publisher;

the type of information;

a keep-alive period for the information subscriber.

Preferably, the information subscriber is a mobile edge computing MEC server.

At an information issuing party, referring to fig. 8, an information transmission apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

the information publishing unit 21 is configured to publish information on a preset information sharing platform through a preset information publishing interface, so that an information subscriber can obtain, from the information sharing platform, information subscribed by the information subscriber and published by the information publisher;

a receiving feedback unit 22, configured to receive, through the information publishing interface, a notification that the information publishing party replied by the information sharing platform successfully or not publishes the information.

Preferably, the device is an access network element or a core network element.

In an information sharing platform, referring to fig. 9, an information transmission apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

the information issuing party management unit 31 is configured to receive and record information issued by an information issuing party through a preset information issuing interface;

an information subscriber management unit 32, configured to receive an information subscription request sent by an information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface; and when the preset conditions are met, the information sharing platform sends the recorded information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface.

Preferably, the apparatus further comprises a release information database 33;

Preferably, the apparatus further comprises: an information notification timer 34;

In summary, in the embodiment of the present application, an ISP entity is introduced for implementing a local service splitting function of an information subscriber such as an MEC server, and compared with the prior art, the MEC server does not need to monitor and analyze a signaling process of an S1 interface in real time, so that processing overhead and processing delay are reduced; in case of security protocol (such as IPSec) enabled between e-NB and EPC, the MEC server can still work normally; the MEC server can effectively and reliably acquire uplink and downlink bearing information and TFT information of the UE; therefore, the proper load bearing can be selected to transmit the local service, and the QoS of the service is ensured; in addition, the method has no influence on the essential functions of the existing network elements such as e-NB, EPC and the like, and only a necessary API (application programming interface) needs to be opened; the information opening is based on a service registration mechanism, and loose coupling of the MEC server and the existing e-NB, EPC and other network elements can be easily realized.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as well.

Claims

1. An information transmission method, comprising:

the information subscriber receives the information which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface and is requested to subscribe by the information subscriber;

wherein, the information subscribed by the information subscriber comprises one or a combination of the following information: international Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of User Equipment (UE), UE IP address, UE bearing information and service flow template (TFT) information; the information subscriber is a mobile edge computing, MEC, server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information subscription request comprises the following information:

an identity of the information subscriber;

an identifier of the information publisher;

the type of information;

a keep-alive period for the information subscriber.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the receiving, by the information subscriber, the information that the information subscriber requests subscription, which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface, specifically comprises:

4. The method of claim 3, wherein after the information subscriber receives the information that the information subscriber requests subscription and is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface, the method further comprises:

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: and the information subscriber encapsulates and sends the GTP-U tunnel message according to the subscribed information.

6. An information transmission method, comprising:

the information issuing party receives the notification whether the information issuing party issues the information successfully or not, wherein the notification is replied by the information sharing platform;

wherein the information which is requested to subscribe by the information subscriber and published by the information publisher comprises one or a combination of the following information: international Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of User Equipment (UE), UE IP address, UE bearing information and service flow template (TFT) information; the information subscriber is a mobile edge computing, MEC, server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the information publisher is an access network element or a core network element.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the information publisher publishes the information on a preset information sharing platform through a preset information publishing interface, specifically comprising:

9. An information transmission method, comprising:

when the preset conditions are met, the information sharing platform sends the previously recorded information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface, wherein the information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber comprises one or the combination of the following information: international Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of User Equipment (UE), UE IP address, UE bearing information and service flow template (TFT) information; the information subscriber is a mobile edge computing, MEC, server.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the information sharing platform receives and records information issued by an information issuer through a preset information issuing interface, and specifically includes:

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the receiving, by the information sharing platform, the information subscription request sent by the information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface specifically includes:

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein when a preset condition is met, the information sharing platform sends, through a preset information notification interface, previously recorded information published by an information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber, and specifically includes:

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the dynamic information table comprises the following information: the index value of the information subscription table, the index value of the information publishing table, the state of the information notification and the number of times the information notification has been tried.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein after the information sharing platform sends the previously recorded information, which is published by the information publisher and to which the information subscriber requests subscription, to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface, the method further comprises:

15. An information transmission apparatus, comprising:

a subscription information receiving unit, configured to receive information, which is sent by the information sharing platform through a preset information notification interface and is requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber;

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the information subscription request comprises the following information:

an identity of the information subscriber;

an identifier of the information publisher;

the type of information;

a keep-alive period for the information subscriber.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the receive subscription information element is specifically configured to:

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the receive subscription information unit is further configured to:

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the receive subscription information unit is further configured to: and packaging and sending the GTP-U tunnel message according to the subscribed information.

20. An information transmission apparatus, comprising:

a receiving feedback unit, configured to receive, through the information publishing interface, a notification that the information publishing party replied by the information sharing platform successfully published the information;

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the apparatus is an access network element or a core network element.

22. The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the information publishing unit is specifically configured to: sending an information publishing request to the information sharing platform through a preset information publishing interface, wherein the information publishing request comprises: the information issuing system comprises an information issuing party identifier, an operation mark for indicating issuing or releasing, an information identifier, an information type, information content and an information issuing party keep-alive period.

23. An information transmission apparatus, comprising:

the information subscriber management unit is used for receiving an information subscription request sent by an information subscriber through a preset information subscription interface; when the preset conditions are met, the information sharing platform sends the previously recorded information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber to the information subscriber through a preset information notification interface, wherein the information which is published by the information publisher and requested to be subscribed by the information subscriber comprises one or the combination of the following information: international Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of User Equipment (UE), UE IP address, UE bearing information and service flow template (TFT) information; the information subscriber is a mobile edge computing, MEC, server.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, further comprising a publication information database;

25. The apparatus of claim 23, further comprising a publication information database;

26. The apparatus of claim 23, further comprising a publication information database;

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the dynamic information table comprises the following information: the index value of the information subscription table, the index value of the information publishing table, the state of the information notification and the number of times the information notification has been tried.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising: an information notification timer;