CN113973058A

CN113973058A - Link management method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN113973058A
Application number: CN202010717287.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘云; 汪大勇; 梁波
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-07-23
Filing date: 2020-07-23
Publication date: 2022-01-25
Also published as: WO2022017336A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a link management method and a communication device, relates to the field of communication, and can perform automatic and dynamic management on a physical link aggregation group to maximize the utilization of bandwidth. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that first equipment obtains transmission time delay of a first link in a physical link aggregation group; the first device communicates with a second device over the first link; and the first equipment activates the first link or deactivates the first link according to the transmission delay.

Description

Link management method and communication device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a link management method and a communication apparatus.

Background

At present, the amount of data that can be transmitted by a single physical link between the two parties is limited, and in order to increase the amount of data transmission, multiple physical links may be aggregated (bundled) to provide a larger information transmission channel. When the service message is transmitted through the aggregated link, the sending end needs to slice the service message and then distribute the service message to each link for transmission. The receiving end needs to cache the received slice messages, and reorganizes the service messages according to all the slice messages after all the slice messages of one service message arrive.

Currently, the aggregation of links is planned manually according to published link information (e.g., transmission delay of the links), and is planned according to the worst scenario, so that the binding range is limited, and the bandwidth cannot be utilized to the maximum.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a link management method and a communication device, which can perform automatic and dynamic management on a physical link aggregation group according to the real-time transmission delay of a link so as to maximally utilize bandwidth.

In a first aspect, a link management method is provided, including: the method comprises the steps that first equipment obtains transmission time delay of a first link in a physical link aggregation group; the first device communicates with a second device over the first link; and the first equipment activates the first link or deactivates the first link according to the transmission delay.

In this application, the first device may obtain a transmission delay of a first link in the physical link aggregation group, and may further activate or deactivate the first link according to the transmission delay to dynamically manage members of the physical link aggregation group. The transmission delay of the link is dynamically changed along with the bandwidth of the link, and the physical aggregation group is planned manually according to the issued link transmission delay in the prior art, so that the prior art cannot timely activate or deactivate members aggregated by the physical link according to the real-time transmission delay of the link when the link transmission delay is changed. The method provided by the application can ensure the normal work of the physical link aggregation group, and meanwhile, the physical link aggregation group is automatically and dynamically managed by referring to the real-time transmission delay of the link, for example, when the bandwidth of the physical link becomes smaller and the transmission delay becomes larger, the normal work of the physical link group is possibly influenced, the link can be removed (deactivated), and the bandwidth is maximally utilized.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the acquiring, by the first device, the transmission delay of the first link in the physical link aggregation group includes: the first device receives a first message sent by the second device through the first link, wherein the first message comprises first time information, and the first time information is used for indicating the time for the second device to send the first message; and the first equipment determines the transmission delay of the first link according to the first time information and the time of receiving the first message by the first equipment.

In this application, the first packet may be a DMM. If the time of the first device is synchronized with the time of the second device, the transmission delay of the first link may be calculated according to the time of the second device sending the DMM and the time of the first device receiving the DMM.

With reference to the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the acquiring, by the first device, the transmission delay of the first link in the physical link aggregation group includes: the first device sends a second message to the second device through the first link, wherein the second message comprises second time information, and the second time information is used for indicating the time for sending the second message by the first device; the first device receives a third message sent by the second device through the first link, wherein the third message comprises third time information and fourth time information; the third time information is used for indicating the time when the second device receives the second message, and the fourth time information is used for indicating the time when the second device sends the third message; and the first device determines the transmission delay of the first link according to the second time information, the third time information, the fourth time information and the time for the first device to receive the third message.

In this application, the second message may be a DMM, and the third message may be a DMR. If the time of the first device is not synchronized with the time of the second device, the transmission delay of the first link may be calculated according to the time of the first device sending the DMM, the time of the second device receiving the DMM, the time of the second device sending the DMR, and the time of the first device receiving the DMR.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the activating, by the first device, the first link or deactivating the first link according to the delay information includes: the first equipment determines that the difference value between the transmission delay of the first link and the transmission delay of the second link is greater than or equal to a threshold value, and then the first link is deactivated; the second link is a link with the minimum transmission delay in the physical link aggregation group; and the first equipment determines that the difference value between the transmission delay of the first link and the transmission delay of the second link is smaller than the threshold value, and then activates the first link. The threshold is a maximum inter-member transmission delay difference that can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group, and the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference refers to a transmission delay difference between any two physical links.

In the present application, after the link is activated or deactivated according to the real-time transmission delay of the physical link, it is further required to ensure that the physical link aggregation group can normally operate. Assuming that the transmission delay of the second link in the physical link aggregation group is the minimum, the condition that needs to be satisfied for the normal operation of the physical link aggregation group is as follows: the difference value between the transmission delay of any physical link in the physical link aggregation group and the transmission delay of the second link is smaller than the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference which can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group. Therefore, when the difference value of the transmission delays of the first link and the second link is larger than or equal to the threshold value, the first link is deactivated, and when the difference value of the transmission delays of the first link and the second link is smaller than the threshold value, the first link is activated. The dynamic management of the physical link aggregation group is realized based on the real-time transmission delay of the physical link, and the bandwidth is utilized to the maximum extent while the normal work of the physical link aggregation group is ensured.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the activating, by the first device, the first link according to the delay information includes: activating a receive function of the first link at the first device; sending a first message to the second device, wherein the first message represents that the receiving function of the first link at the first device is activated; receiving a second message from the second device, the second message characterizing that the first link is activated at a receive function of the second device; and activating the sending function of the first link at the first equipment according to the second message.

In the application, the first device activates the receiving function of the home terminal first, so that the home terminal can not lose the message from the opposite terminal in the process of activating the link, and lossless activation is realized.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the deactivating, by the first device, the first link according to the delay information includes: deactivating a transmit function of the first link at the first device; sending a third message to the second device, wherein the third message represents that the sending function of the first link at the first device is deactivated; receiving a fourth message from the second device, the fourth message indicating that the first link has been deactivated at the sending function of the second device; and deactivating the receiving function of the first link at the first equipment according to the fourth message.

In the method and the device, the sending function of the local terminal is deactivated first, and then the receiving function of the opposite terminal is deactivated, so that the opposite terminal can not lose the message from the local terminal in the link deactivation process, and lossless deactivation is realized.

In a second aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a first device or a component in a first device. The method comprises the following steps: the processing unit is used for acquiring the transmission delay of a first link in a physical link aggregation group; the first device communicates with a second device over the first link; the processing unit is further configured to activate the first link or deactivate the first link according to the transmission delay.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the communication apparatus further includes a communication unit, where the communication unit is configured to receive, through the first link, a first packet sent by the second device, where the first packet includes first time information, and the first time information is used to indicate a time when the second device sends the first packet; the processing unit is specifically configured to determine a transmission delay of the first link according to the first time information and the time when the first device receives the first packet.

With reference to the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the communication apparatus further includes a communication unit, where the communication unit is configured to send a second packet to the second device through the first link, where the second packet includes second time information, and the second time information is used to indicate a time for the first device to send the second packet; the communication unit is further configured to receive, through the first link, a third packet sent by the second device, where the third packet includes third time information and fourth time information; the third time information is used for indicating the time when the second device receives the second message, and the fourth time information is used for indicating the time when the second device sends the third message; the processing unit is specifically configured to determine a transmission delay of the first link according to the second time information, the third time information, the fourth time information, and the time when the first device receives the third packet.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the processing unit is specifically configured to determine that a difference between a transmission delay of the first link and a transmission delay of the second link is greater than or equal to a threshold value, and deactivate the first link; the second link is a link with the minimum transmission delay in the physical link aggregation group; and if the difference value between the transmission delay of the first link and the transmission delay of the second link is determined to be smaller than the threshold value, activating the first link.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the foregoing possible implementations of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation of the second aspect, the processing unit is configured to activate a receiving function of the first link at the first device; the communication unit is used for sending a first message to the second equipment and receiving a second message from the second equipment; the first message is used for indicating that the receiving function of the first link at the first equipment is activated, and the second message is used for indicating that the receiving function of the first link at the second equipment is activated; the processing unit is further configured to activate a sending function of the first link at the first device according to the second message.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the foregoing possible implementations of the second aspect, in a fifth possible implementation of the second aspect, the processing unit is configured to deactivate a sending function of the first link at the first device; the communication unit is used for sending a third message to the second equipment and receiving a fourth message from the second equipment; the third message represents that the sending function of the first link at the first device is deactivated, and the fourth message represents that the sending function of the first link at the second device is deactivated; the processing unit is further configured to deactivate a receiving function of the first link at the first device according to the fourth message.

In a third aspect, a communications apparatus is provided that includes at least one processor and a memory, the at least one processor coupled with the memory; the memory for storing a computer program;

the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory to cause the apparatus to perform the method according to any one of the implementations of the first aspect and the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, comprising: the computer readable storage medium has instructions stored therein; when the computer readable storage medium is run on the communication apparatus according to any one of the above-mentioned second aspect and second aspect implementation manners, the communication apparatus is caused to perform the communication method according to any one of the above-mentioned first aspect and first aspect implementation manners.

In a fifth aspect, a wireless communication device is provided, the communication device comprising a processor, for example, and being applied to a communication device, for example, a system on chip, to implement the method according to the first aspect and any one of the implementation manners of the first aspect. In a possible implementation, the chip system further comprises a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for implementing the functions of the method according to the first aspect.

The system-on-chip in the above aspect may be a system-on-chip (SOC), a baseband chip, and the like, where the baseband chip may include a processor, a channel encoder, a digital signal processor, a modem, an interface module, and the like.

A sixth aspect provides a communication system, where the communication system includes the first device in any one of the second aspect and possible implementation manners of the second aspect, and the second device in any one of the implementation manners of the second aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an architecture diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of link aggregation provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a link management method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a delay measurement process according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is another schematic diagram of a delay measurement process according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a delay bandwidth provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of link activation provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of link deactivation according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is another schematic flowchart of a link management method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is another block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 12 is another block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system to which the technical solution provided by the present application is applicable, where the communication system may include a plurality of communication devices (a communication device 100 and a communication device 200 are shown in the figure). Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram, and does not limit the application scenarios of the technical solutions provided in the present application. Communication between communication device 100 and communication device 200 may be via link 1, link 2 …, link N. The link between the communication device 100 and the communication device 200 may be an ethernet link, a microwave link, an Optical Transport Network (OTN) link, or the like, and an operating frequency BAND of the link may be a conventional frequency BAND or an enhanced (E-BAND) frequency BAND. The conventional frequency band may be a frequency band with a frequency greater than or equal to 7G and a frequency less than or equal to 38G; the enhanced frequency band may be a frequency band having a frequency greater than or equal to 71G and a frequency less than or equal to 86G.

The data size transmitted by a single link is limited, and in order to improve the communication performance, the links between the communication devices can be aggregated (or bundled) to provide a larger transmission channel. It is understood that the aggregation of physical links is synchronized at the transmitting end and the receiving end. For example, referring to fig. 2, the communication device 100 aggregates link 1, link 2 … link N, and the communication device 200 also aggregates link 1, link 2 … link N.

Under a physical link aggregation scene, a sending end slices a service message, the sliced message is transmitted through a link participating in aggregation, and a receiving end recombines the received sliced message to obtain the service message. For example, referring to fig. 2, the communication device 100 slices the service packet to obtain a slice packet 1 and a slice packet 2 … slice packet N, and then transmits the slice packet 1 and the slice packet 2 … slice packet N through the link 1 and the link 2 … link N, respectively. The communication device 200 sorts the received slice messages and reassembles the service messages according to the slice messages.

In the embodiment of the present application, the aggregated link is referred to as a physical link aggregation group. Links included in the physical link aggregation group are all conventional frequency band links; or, the physical link aggregation group includes a conventional frequency band link and an enhanced frequency band link; or, the links included in the physical link aggregation group are all enhanced frequency band links.

The

communication devices

100 and 200 may be any devices having a wireless transmission/reception function. For example, the ue may be an evolved node b (E-UTRAN NodeB or E-NodeB or eNB) in LTE, a base station (gnnodeb or gNB) or a transmission/reception point (TRP) in 5G or New Radio (NR) access technology, a base station for 3GPP subsequent evolution, an access node in WiFi system, a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, and the like. The base station may be: macro base stations, micro base stations, pico base stations, small stations, relay stations, or balloon stations, etc. Or may be a terminal device. The terminal equipment can be deployed on land and comprises indoor or outdoor, handheld, wearable or vehicle-mounted equipment; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); and may also be deployed in the air (e.g., airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc.). The terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a vehicle-mounted terminal device, a wireless terminal in self-driving (self-driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), a wearable terminal device, and the like. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios. A terminal may also be referred to as a terminal device, User Equipment (UE), access terminal device, in-vehicle terminal, industrial control terminal, UE unit, UE station, mobile station, remote terminal device, mobile device, UE terminal device, wireless communication device, UE agent, or UE device, among others. The terminals may also be fixed or mobile. The terminal device of the present application may also be an on-board module, an on-board component, an on-board chip, or an on-board unit built into the vehicle as one or more components or units, and the vehicle may implement the method of the present application through the built-in on-board module, on-board component, on-board chip, or on-board unit.

First, terms related to embodiments of the present application are explained:

(1) transmission delay of link

In this embodiment of the present application, the transmission delay of the link refers to a transmission duration of a message from a sending end to a receiving end. For example, the transmitter and the receiver are time-synchronized, the transmitter transmits the message at time T1, and the receiver receives the message at time T2. The transmission delay of the link is (T2-T1).

(2) Status of a link

In the embodiment of the present application, the state of the link includes activation and deactivation. When the link is activated, the link is in a working state, and the link can bear the slice messages of the service messages; when the link is deactivated, the link is in a non-working state, and the link cannot bear the slice message of the service message.

(3) Physical link aggregation group

In the embodiment of the application, a plurality of individual links are aggregated together to form a physical link aggregation group. And transmitting the slice message of the service message through the link of the physical link aggregation group, thereby improving the data transmission efficiency.

(4) Maximum inter-member transmission delay difference tolerable by physical link aggregation group

In this embodiment of the present application, the transmission delay difference between members refers to a difference between transmission delays of any two links in a physical link aggregation group.

It can be understood that the buffering capacity of the device is limited, and the receiving end needs to receive all slice messages before recombining the service messages. If the transmission delay difference between members is too large, the delay difference of different slice messages reaching the receiving end is too large, and when some slice messages reach the receiving end, the receiving end cannot cache the slice messages, which may result in failure of receiving end reassembly. Therefore, to ensure that the receiving end is successfully recombined, it is necessary that the transmission delay difference between the members is not too large, in the embodiment of the present application, an upper limit of the transmission delay difference between the members is referred to as a maximum inter-member transmission delay difference that can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group, the transmission delay difference between the members exceeds the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference that can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group, and the physical link aggregation group cannot normally operate, and the problem of recombination failure occurs.

At present, the physical link aggregation group is planned manually according to the data description, and is often planned according to the worst scene, so that the planning range is limited, and the bandwidth cannot be utilized to the maximum extent. For example, in order to ensure that the physical link aggregation group can still work normally in the worst scenario, the number of bound links is limited, or the bandwidth of the links is also limited. In addition, once planning is completed, the prior art cannot perform real-time and dynamic management on the physical link aggregation group. For example, when the transmission delay of a certain link in the physical link aggregation group becomes long, it may cause failure of the receiving end to reassemble the slice packet, and abnormal problems such as packet loss occur, and self-healing cannot be performed, and the above abnormal problems may persist.

The embodiment of the application provides a link management method, where a first device may obtain a transmission delay of a first link in a physical link aggregation group, and may activate the first link or deactivate the first link according to the transmission delay. Therefore, the physical link aggregation group can be automatically and dynamically managed by referring to the transmission delay of the link. The method provided by the application can ensure the normal work of the physical link aggregation group, and meanwhile, the physical link aggregation group is automatically and dynamically managed by referring to the real-time transmission delay of the physical link. For example, when the bandwidth of a physical link is smaller and the transmission delay is longer, which may affect the normal operation of the physical link group, the link may be removed (deactivated) to maximize the use of the bandwidth. Or the bandwidth of the physical link is increased, the transmission delay is reduced, and the link can be activated on the premise of ensuring the normal work of the physical link aggregation group, so that the bandwidth is utilized to the maximum extent.

The method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applicable to the apparatus 20 shown in fig. 3, where the apparatus may be the first device or the second device described in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the apparatus may be a network element integrating a first wireless controller, or a network element integrating a second wireless controller. Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of the apparatus 20. The apparatus 20 may be deployed on a computing device, or may be the computing device described in this application. Referring to fig. 3, the apparatus 20 includes a processor 201, a memory 202, and at least one network interface (which is illustrated in fig. 3 by way of example only as including the network interface 203). The processor 201, the memory 202 and the network interface 203 are connected to each other.

The processor 201 may be a general processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more ics for controlling the execution of programs in accordance with the present invention.

The network interface 203 is an interface of the apparatus 20, and is used for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as ethernet, Radio Access Network (RAN), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), and the like.

The memory 202 may be, but is not limited to, a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static data center that can store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM) or other type of dynamic data center that can store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage, optical disk storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic data center, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. The memory may be separate and coupled to the processor via a communication link. The memory may also be integral to the processor.

The memory 202 is used for storing computer-executable instructions for executing the scheme of the application, and is controlled by the processor 201 to execute. The processor 201 is used to execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 202, thereby implementing the intent processing methods provided by the embodiments described below in the present application.

Optionally, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application program codes, which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In particular implementations, processor 201 may include one or more CPUs such as CPU0 and CPU1 in fig. 3, for example, as one embodiment.

In particular implementations, apparatus 20 may include multiple processors, such as processor 201 and processor 204 in fig. 3, for example, as an embodiment. Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

The apparatus 20 may be a general-purpose device or a special-purpose device. In particular implementations, the apparatus 20 may be a desktop, network appliance, embedded device, or other device having a similar structure as in FIG. 3. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the type of the device 20.

An embodiment of the present application provides a link management method, as shown in fig. 4, the method includes the following steps:

401. the first device obtains the transmission delay of the first link in the physical link aggregation group.

It should be noted that the first device may communicate with the second device through multiple links, and in order to increase the transmission bandwidth, the multiple links may be aggregated into a physical link aggregation group. The first device may also slice the service packet, and transmit the sliced packet through each link in the physical link aggregation group.

In a specific implementation, the first device may send a measurement packet through each link of the physical link aggregation group, and measure the transmission delay of the link. In one possible implementation, the measurement packet is sent periodically.

In the embodiment of the present application, two different transmission delay measurement methods are provided, which are different from whether a first device and a second device perform time synchronization, specifically as follows:

the first device may determine the transmission delay of the physical link according to a time when the second device sends a Delay Measurement Message (DMM) and a time when the first device receives the delay measurement message.

Taking a first link as an example, the first device receives, through the first link, a first packet sent by the second device, where the first packet includes first time information, and the first time information is used to indicate a time when the second device sends the first packet. The first packet may be a DMM.

The first device may further determine a transmission delay of the first link according to the first time information and the time when the first device receives the first packet.

For example, referring to fig. 5, the first device sends a first DMM packet through the first link, where the first DMM packet includes a timestamp T1, and T1 is a time when the first device sends the first DMM packet;

the first device may further receive, through the first link, a second DMM packet sent by the second device, where the second DMM packet includes a timestamp T2, and T2 is a time when the second DMM packet is sent by the second device.

The first device may also determine the transmission delay of the first link according to the time T3 and T2 of receiving the second DMM packet. Specifically, the transmission delay is (T3-T2).

The second device may determine the transmission delay of the first link according to the time T4 and T1 of receiving the first DMM packet. Specifically, the transmission delay is (T4-T1).

And secondly, the time of the first device and the time of the second device are not synchronized, and the first device may determine the transmission delay of the physical link according to the time of the first device sending the Delay Measurement Message (DMM), the time of the second device receiving the delay measurement message, the time of the second device sending the Delay Measurement Response (DMR), and the time of the first device receiving the DMR.

Taking a first link as an example, the first device sends a second message to the second device through the first link, where the second message includes second time information, and the second time information is used to indicate a time for the first device to send the second message; the second message may be a DMM.

After the second device receives the second message through the first link, the second device may also send a third message to the first device through the first link. The third message comprises third time information and fourth time information; the third time information is used for indicating the time when the second device receives the second message, and the fourth time information is used for indicating the time when the second device sends the third message; wherein, the third message may be a DMR.

And the first equipment receives a third message sent by the second equipment through the first link, and acquires third time information and fourth time information from the third message.

The first device may further determine the transmission delay of the first link according to the second time information, the third time information, the fourth time information, and the time when the first device receives the third packet.

For example, referring to fig. 6, a first device sends a DMM packet to a second device through a first link, where the DMM packet includes a timestamp T1, and T1 is the time when the first device sends the DMM packet;

the first device receives a DMR message sent by the second device through the first link, where the DMR message includes a timestamp T2 and a timestamp T3. T2 is the time when the second device receives the DMM packet, and T3 is the time when the second device sends the DMR packet.

The first device may determine the transmission delay of the first link according to T1, T2, T3, and the time T4 when the first device receives the DMR message. Specifically, the transmission delay of the first link is [ ((T4-T1) - (T3-T2))/2 ].

402. And the first equipment activates the first link or deactivates the first link according to the transmission delay.

Referring to fig. 7, the smaller the bandwidth of the link, the larger the transmission delay of the link; conversely, the larger the bandwidth of the link is, the smaller the transmission delay of the link is. In order to maximize the utilization of the bandwidth, the link with small bandwidth, that is, the link with large transmission delay can be deactivated; or, a link with a large bandwidth, that is, a link with a small transmission delay is activated.

Specifically, each link in the physical link aggregation group may be traversed to determine the inter-member transmission delay difference. In a possible implementation manner, a link with the minimum transmission delay in the physical link aggregation group is used as a reference, and a difference between the transmission delay of the other links and the transmission delay of the link is calculated. For example, the transmission delay of the second link in the physical link aggregation group is the smallest, and based on the transmission delay of the second link, the transmission delay difference between members corresponding to other physical links in the physical link aggregation group is calculated.

If the difference between the transmission delay of a certain link and the transmission delay of the second link is greater than the threshold value, it indicates that the transmission delay of the link is too large, and correspondingly, the bandwidth of the link is small, and in order to maximize the utilization of the bandwidth, the link can be deactivated. On the contrary, if the difference between the transmission delay of a certain link and the transmission delay of the second link is smaller than the threshold, it indicates that the transmission delay of the link is smaller and the bandwidth of the link is larger, and the link can be activated in order to maximally utilize the bandwidth.

If the difference between the transmission delay of the link and the transmission delay of the second link is equal to the threshold, the link may be deactivated or activated, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that the threshold may be the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference that the physical link aggregation group can tolerate. The buffer capacity of each device is limited, and in order to support the normal operation of the physical link aggregation group, the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference D that the physical link aggregation group can tolerate satisfies the following relationship: b A > C D. Wherein, C is the capacity of the physical link aggregation group, that is, the sum of bandwidths of the links included in the physical link aggregation group; b is the buffer memory size of the equipment; and A is the cache utilization rate of the device.

Taking the first link as an example, the first device determines that the difference between the transmission delay of the first link and the transmission delay of the second link is greater than or equal to a threshold value, which indicates that the transmission delay of the first link is larger and the bandwidth of the first link is smaller, and may deactivate the first link, so as to maximize the utilization of the bandwidth.

If the first device determines that the difference between the transmission delay of the first link and the transmission delay of the second link is smaller than the threshold, it indicates that the transmission delay of the first link is smaller and the bandwidth of the first link is larger, and the first link may be activated to maximize the utilization of the bandwidth.

In a possible implementation manner, the first link is activated by activating a receiving function and a sending function of the first link, so that the first link can carry a slice packet of service packet division of the first device. The first link is deactivated by deactivating the receiving function and the sending function of the first link, and after the first link is deactivated, the first link cannot bear the slice messages divided by the service messages of the first device.

Specifically, in the process of activating and deactivating the link, in order to ensure that the system is lossless in the link state updating process and avoid packet loss, the following two ways are provided:

first, lossless activation.

Referring to fig. 8, a first device first activates a receiving function of the first link at the first device;

the first device may further send a first message to the second device, the first message indicating that the receiving function of the first link at the first device is activated;

after the second device receives the first message, activating a sending function of the first link at the second device, and also activating a receiving function of the first link at the second device;

the second device may also send a second message to the first device, the second message indicating that the receiving function of the first link at the second device is activated;

and the first equipment receives a second message from the second equipment, and activates the sending function of the first link at the first equipment according to the second message.

It should be noted that, if the second device determines that the activation condition is not satisfied after receiving the first message, a response is replied to the first device to indicate that the first link is not activated. Wherein the activation condition may be that the link quality is good.

In the flow shown in fig. 8, the first device activates the receiving function of the home terminal first, so that the home terminal cannot lose the packet from the opposite terminal in the process of activating the link, and lossless activation is achieved.

Second, lossless deactivation.

Referring to fig. 9, a first device deactivates a transmit function of the first link at the first device;

the first device may further send a third message to the second device, where the third message indicates that the sending function of the first link at the first device is deactivated;

after the second device receives the third message, the receiving function of the first link at the second device may also deactivate the sending function of the first link at the second link;

the second device may further send a fourth message to the first device, where the fourth message indicates that the sending function of the first link at the second device is deactivated;

and the first equipment receives a fourth message from the second equipment, and the receiving function of the first link at the first equipment is deactivated according to the fourth message.

It should be noted that, after receiving the third message, the second device unconditionally performs the deactivation operation, which is not limited by other factors.

In the flow shown in fig. 9, the sending function of the local terminal is deactivated first, and then the receiving function of the opposite terminal is deactivated, so that it can be ensured that the opposite terminal does not lose the packet from the local terminal in the link deactivation process, and lossless deactivation is achieved.

In the embodiment of the present application, the measurement packet is different from a slice packet of a service packet, and the packet length of the measurement packet is small, for example, the measurement packet may be a 64-byte measurement packet. The measurement packet carries a timestamp (e.g., the time the packet is received or the time the packet is sent) so that the device can determine the transmission delay of the link according to the timestamp. In addition, the header difference of the measurement packet is different from the slice packet of the service packet. Specifically, the fields included in the measurement packet are shown in table 1:

TABLE 1

The embodiment of the application provides a link management method, which can dynamically manage a physical link aggregation group based on the transmission delay of a link, and ensure that the physical link aggregation group is transmitted with a maximized bandwidth. As shown in fig. 10, the method comprises the steps of:

1001. a physical link aggregation group is configured comprising link 1, link 2 …, link N.

Link 1, link 2 …, and link N are links for performing communication between the transmission and reception pairs. For example, the first device and the second device communicate over link 1, link 2 …, link N. In addition, link 1, link 2 …, link N, may be physical links of the same company, or link 1, link 2 …, link N, may be physical links of different companies. The physical link may be a microwave link, an OTN link, or another type of link, which is not limited in this embodiment.

It should be noted that, when configuring the physical link aggregation group, the physical link aggregation group may be formed by referring to the maximum bandwidth and the minimum bandwidth bonding link in which the links operate, without considering the transmission delay of each link, so as to maximally utilize the air interface bandwidth.

After configuring the determination of the physical link aggregation group, the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference that can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group can be determined. The specific implementation manner is as described above, and is not described herein again.

1002. And acquiring the transmission delay of each link.

Specifically, the sending end may send a measurement packet on each link periodically, and determine the transmission delay of the link according to a timestamp in a packet returned by the receiving end and the time for the sending end to receive the packet. Specifically, refer to the flows shown in fig. 5 and fig. 6, which are not described herein again.

Of course, the transmission delay of the link may also be obtained in other manners, for example, the transmission delay of the link is manually measured, and it is only necessary to ensure that the transmission delay of the link is accurate.

1003. And determining the minimum transmission delay of the members, and calculating the delay difference between the transmission delay of each link and the minimum transmission delay.

The minimum transmission delay of the member may be the minimum transmission delay among the transmission delays of the links in the physical link aggregation group, and is denoted as min delay.

And deciding the state of each link according to the difference value between the transmission delay of the link in the physical link aggregation group and the minimum transmission delay of the members. Wherein, the state of the link is activated or deactivated. After the transmission delay of each link is obtained, a difference (denoted as delay gap) between the transmission delay of the link and min delay can be calculated according to the transmission delay of each link, and the link in the physical link aggregation group is activated or deactivated according to the size relationship between the delay gap corresponding to the link and the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference (max delay gap) that can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group, so that the bandwidth can be maximally utilized while the physical link aggregation group is kept in normal operation. Specifically,

step

1004 or 1005 is executed.

1004. And if the difference value between the transmission delay of the link and the min delay exceeds max delay gap, deactivating the link.

It will be appreciated that if the delay difference between the transmission delay of a link and the minimum member transmission delay exceeds the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference that the physical link aggregation group can tolerate, indicating that the transmission delay of the link is large, i.e., the bandwidth of the link is small, deactivating the link can reduce the utilization of the low-bandwidth link and increase the bandwidth utilization.

It should be noted that, if it is detected that the transmission delay of the deactivated link becomes smaller subsequently, and the delay difference from the minimum transmission delay of the member does not exceed the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference that can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group, the link may be activated, and the bandwidth utilization rate is improved.

In addition, link deactivation refers to the flow shown in fig. 9, which is not described herein again.

1005. And if the difference between the transmission delay and the min delay of the link does not exceed the max delay gap which can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group, activating the link.

It can be understood that if the delay difference between the transmission delay of a link and the minimum transmission delay of a member does not exceed the maximum inter-member transmission delay difference that can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group, indicating that the transmission delay of the link is small, i.e. the bandwidth of the link is large, activating the link can reduce and improve the bandwidth utilization rate.

The link activation refers to the flow shown in fig. 8, and is not described herein again.

In one possible implementation, if there are multiple links satisfying the activation condition, the link with larger bandwidth (i.e. smaller transmission delay) may be activated preferentially.

It should be noted that, the alarm is preferentially reported for the link with small bandwidth and large transmission delay, the transmission delay of the link is indicated to be too large, and the link can be deactivated according to the alarm.

Furthermore, if the decision based on the transmission delay of a link results in the activation of the link but is preceded by an alarm for the link, the alarm is not processed (or discarded).

In the method shown in fig. 10, the real-time transmission delay of the link is dynamically obtained, and the link is activated or deactivated based on the transmission delay of the link. When the bandwidth of the link is reduced, the transmission delay of the link is too large, and the difference value between the transmission delay and the min delay exceeds the delay difference which can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group, the link can be deactivated, packet loss is avoided, normal work of the physical link aggregation group is guaranteed, and lossless self-healing is realized. When the bandwidth of the link becomes larger, and the transmission delay difference corresponding to the link meets the requirement (for example, the difference from min delay is smaller than the delay difference that can be tolerated by the physical link aggregation group), the link may be activated, so that the physical link aggregation group can always work at the maximum bandwidth.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of the communication device according to the above-described embodiment, in a case where each functional module is divided according to each function. The communication apparatus shown in fig. 11 may be a device (e.g., a first device or a second device) described in this embodiment, may also be a component of the device that implements the above method, or may also be a chip applied to the device. The chip may be an SOC or a baseband chip having a communication function, or the like. As shown in fig. 11, the communication apparatus includes a processing unit 1101 and a communication unit 1102. The processing unit may be one or more processors and the communication unit may be a transceiver or a communication interface.

The processing unit 1101, for example, may be configured to support the first device to perform

steps

401 and 402, and also support the first device to calculate a transmission delay of a link, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein, such as the method flow shown in fig. 10.

A communication unit 1102 configured to support communication between the first device and other communication apparatuses, for example, support interaction between the first device and a second device, support the second device to transmit or receive a DMM, further support the first device to receive a DMR, and the like, and/or other processes for the technologies described herein.

It should be noted that all relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again.

As shown in fig. 12, the communication device may further include a storage unit 1103, and the storage unit 1103 is used to store program codes and/or data of the communication device.

The processing unit 1101 may include at least one processor, the communication unit 1102 may be a transceiver or a communication interface, and the storage unit 1103 may include a memory.

In the above embodiments of the communication device, each unit may be referred to as a module, a component, a circuit, or the like.

The embodiment of the application provides a computer-readable storage medium, wherein instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium; the instructions are used to perform the methods shown in fig. 4-12.

Embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising instructions, which when run on a communication apparatus, cause the communication apparatus to perform the method as shown in fig. 4 to 12.

It is clear to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description of the embodiments that, for convenience and simplicity of description, the above-mentioned division of the functional modules is merely used as an example, and in practical applications, the above-mentioned function distribution may be completed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the communication device may be divided into different functional modules to complete all or part of the above-mentioned functions.

The processor in the embodiment of the present application may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: various computing devices that run software, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Microcontroller (MCU), or an artificial intelligence processor, may each include one or more cores for executing software instructions to perform operations or processing. The processor may be a single semiconductor chip or integrated with other circuits to form a semiconductor chip, for example, an SoC (system on chip) with other circuits (such as a codec circuit, a hardware acceleration circuit, or various buses and interface circuits), or may be integrated in the ASIC as a built-in processor of the ASIC, which may be packaged separately or together with other circuits. The processor may further include necessary hardware accelerators such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), PLDs (programmable logic devices), or logic circuits implementing dedicated logic operations, in addition to cores for executing software instructions to perform operations or processes.

The memory in the embodiment of the present application may include at least one of the following types: read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static memory devices that may store static information and instructions, Random Access Memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic memory devices that may store information and instructions, and may also be electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). In some scenarios, the memory may also be, but is not limited to, a compact disk-read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage, optical disk storage (including compact disk, laser disk, optical disk, digital versatile disk, blu-ray disk, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more. "plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple. In addition, in order to facilitate clear description of technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, terms such as "first" and "second" are used to distinguish the same items or similar items having substantially the same functions and actions. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terms "first," "second," etc. do not denote any order or quantity, nor do the terms "first," "second," etc. denote any order or importance.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed database access apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described database access device embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules or units is only one logical division, and there may be other divisions when actually implemented, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another device, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed coupling or direct coupling or communication connection between each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, database access devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may be one physical unit or a plurality of physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be distributed in a plurality of different places. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application may be essentially or partially contributed to by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solutions may be embodied in the form of a software product, where the software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to enable a device (which may be a single chip microcomputer, a chip, or the like) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

The above description is only an embodiment of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present disclosure should be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of link management, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that first equipment obtains transmission time delay of a first link in a physical link aggregation group; the first device communicates with a second device over the first link;

and the first equipment activates the first link or deactivates the first link according to the transmission delay.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining, by the first device, the transmission delay of the first link in the physical link aggregation group comprises:

the first device receives a first message sent by the second device through the first link, wherein the first message comprises first time information, and the first time information is used for indicating the time for the second device to send the first message;

and the first equipment determines the transmission delay of the first link according to the first time information and the time of receiving the first message by the first equipment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining, by the first device, the transmission delay of the first link in the physical link aggregation group comprises:

the first device sends a second message to the second device through the first link, wherein the second message comprises second time information, and the second time information is used for indicating the time for sending the second message by the first device;

the first device receives a third message sent by the second device through the first link, wherein the third message comprises third time information and fourth time information; the third time information is used for indicating the time when the second device receives the second message, and the fourth time information is used for indicating the time when the second device sends the third message;

and the first device determines the transmission delay of the first link according to the second time information, the third time information, the fourth time information and the time for the first device to receive the third message.

4. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the first device activating the first link or deactivating the first link according to the transmission delay comprises:

the first equipment determines that the difference value between the transmission delay of the first link and the transmission delay of the second link is greater than or equal to a threshold value, and then the first link is deactivated; the second link is a link with the minimum transmission delay in the physical link aggregation group;

and the first equipment determines that the difference value between the transmission delay of the first link and the transmission delay of the second link is smaller than the threshold value, and then activates the first link.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first device activates the first link, comprising:

activating a receive function of the first link at the first device;

sending a first message to the second device, wherein the first message represents that the receiving function of the first link at the first device is activated;

receiving a second message from the second device, the second message characterizing that the first link is activated at a receive function of the second device;

and activating the sending function of the first link at the first equipment according to the second message.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first device deactivating the first link comprises:

deactivating a transmit function of the first link at the first device;

sending a third message to the second device, wherein the third message represents that the sending function of the first link at the first device is deactivated;

receiving a fourth message from the second device, the fourth message indicating that the first link has been deactivated at the sending function of the second device;

and deactivating the receiving function of the first link at the first equipment according to the fourth message.

7. A communications apparatus, comprising:

the processing unit is used for acquiring the transmission delay of a first link in a physical link aggregation group; the first device communicates with the second device through the first link;

the processing unit is further configured to activate the first link or deactivate the first link according to the transmission delay.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the communication apparatus further comprises a communication unit,

the communication unit is configured to receive, through the first link, a first packet sent by the second device, where the first packet includes first time information, and the first time information is used to indicate time for the second device to send the first packet;

the processing unit is specifically configured to determine a transmission delay of the first link according to the first time information and the time when the first device receives the first packet.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the communication apparatus further comprises a communication unit,

the communication unit is configured to send a second packet to the second device through the first link, where the second packet includes second time information, and the second time information is used to indicate a time for the first device to send the second packet;

the communication unit is further configured to receive, through the first link, a third packet sent by the second device, where the third packet includes third time information and fourth time information; the third time information is used for indicating the time when the second device receives the second message, and the fourth time information is used for indicating the time when the second device sends the third message;

the processing unit is specifically configured to determine a transmission delay of the first link according to the second time information, the third time information, the fourth time information, and the time when the first device receives the third packet.

10. The communications apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to deactivate the first link if it is determined that a difference between a transmission delay of the first link and a transmission delay of a second link is greater than or equal to a threshold value; the second link is a link with the minimum transmission delay in the physical link aggregation group;

and if the difference value between the transmission delay of the first link and the transmission delay of the second link is determined to be smaller than the threshold value, activating the first link.

11. The communication device of claim 9,

the processing unit is configured to activate a receiving function of the first link at the first device;

the communication unit is used for sending a first message to the second equipment and receiving a second message from the second equipment; the first message is used for indicating that the receiving function of the first link at the first equipment is activated, and the second message is used for indicating that the receiving function of the first link at the second equipment is activated;

the processing unit is further configured to activate a sending function of the first link at the first device according to the second message.

12. The communication device according to any one of claims 7 to 11,

the processing unit is configured to deactivate a sending function of the first link at the first device;

the communication unit is used for sending a third message to the second equipment and receiving a fourth message from the second equipment; the third message represents that the sending function of the first link at the first device is deactivated, and the fourth message represents that the sending function of the first link at the second device is deactivated;

the processing unit is further configured to deactivate a receiving function of the first link at the first device according to the fourth message.

13. A communications apparatus comprising a processor coupled with a memory;

a memory for storing a computer program;

a processor for executing a computer program stored in the memory to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 6.

14. A computer readable storage medium comprising a program or instructions which, when executed by a processor, performs the method of any of claims 1 to 6.

15. A computer program product, characterized in that it comprises instructions which, when executed, cause the method according to any of claims 1 to 6 to be performed.

16. A chip comprising a processor and interface circuitry, the interface circuitry being coupled to the processor, the processor being configured to execute a computer program or instructions such that the method of any of claims 1 to 6 is performed.