CN114051003A - Method, equipment and system for flow control - Google Patents

Method, equipment and system for flow control Download PDF

Info

Publication number
CN114051003A
CN114051003A CN202010724094.2A CN202010724094A CN114051003A CN 114051003 A CN114051003 A CN 114051003A CN 202010724094 A CN202010724094 A CN 202010724094A CN 114051003 A CN114051003 A CN 114051003A
Authority
CN
China
Prior art keywords
user plane
network controller
terminal device
plane device
rule
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Pending
Application number
CN202010724094.2A
Other languages
Chinese (zh)
Inventor
张银叶
彭涛
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Original Assignee
Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Huawei Technologies Co Ltd filed Critical Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority to CN202010724094.2A priority Critical patent/CN114051003A/en
Publication of CN114051003A publication Critical patent/CN114051003A/en
Pending legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
    • H04L47/10—Flow control; Congestion control
    • H04L47/12—Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion
    • H04L47/125—Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
    • H04L47/10—Flow control; Congestion control
    • H04L47/20—Traffic policing
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L47/00—Traffic control in data switching networks
    • H04L47/10—Flow control; Congestion control
    • H04L47/24—Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
    • H04L47/2425—Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS for supporting services specification, e.g. SLA

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods, devices, and systems for determining user plane devices. The method proposed herein comprises: the control plane equipment receives access information of the terminal equipment from initial user plane equipment accessed by the terminal equipment, wherein the access information at least indicates the service level of the terminal equipment; the control plane equipment acquires a user plane determination rule based on the service level of the terminal equipment; and the control plane equipment determines target user plane equipment for bearing the flow of the terminal equipment according to the user plane determination rule. According to the flow control method, the control surface equipment is matched with the user surface equipment suitable for the terminal equipment through configuring the rules generated based on the network service regularity, the operator strategy or the load balancing scheme to the control surface equipment, so that the online speed and the user experience of a user are remarkably improved.

Description

Method, equipment and system for flow control
Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of communications technologies, and more particularly, to a method, device, and system for flow control.
Background
With the continuous development of network technology and the proliferation of the number of users of broadband services, a network architecture that separates a Control Plane (CP) from a forwarding plane (UP) (also referred to as "user plane") (also referred to as "steering separation") has appeared. The architecture adopts a mode of fully interconnecting two layers of access networks, wherein a plurality of UP for realizing the forwarding of user data messages are dispersedly deployed in the network, and CP for controlling and managing a plurality of UP devices is centrally deployed in the network. The network architecture breaks the close coupling of the forwarding plane and the control plane, is favorable for realizing flexible network expansion, and simplifies network operation and maintenance.
A key network element for implementing transfer control separation in the framework is a Software Defined Network (SDN) controller. The SDN controller may centrally manage underlying network switching devices, perform state monitoring on UP devices in a network, perform forwarding decisions, schedule and migrate traffic of terminal devices among a plurality of UP devices according to a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of a user, and so on. In the scene of user online, the terminal device of the user accesses the network through the initial UP and sends the user access message to the CP. And the CP reports the user access message to an AAA server for authentication and obtains SLA information of the user. The CP then uploads the SLA information to the SDN controller. And the SDN controller selects a proper UP device for the terminal device from a group of UP devices managed by the SDN controller according to the SLA information, then returns the selected UP device information to the CP device, and the CP device completes the migration from the terminal device to another UP device. In practice, one or more CPs tend to manage UP to thousands of UP devices. The process is repeated in each user online or user migration process, so that the problem of slow online perception of the user is caused, and the user experience is reduced.
Disclosure of Invention
In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure propose procedures for flow control in a network system in which a control plane is separated from a user plane.
According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a flow control method is presented. In the method, a control plane device receives access information of a terminal device from an initial user plane device to which the terminal device has access. In the context of the present disclosure, the access information indicates at least a service level of the terminal device. The method also includes the control plane device determining a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device according to the user plane determination rule based on the access information. In a specific embodiment, the control plane device may determine, from a set of user plane determination rules, a user plane determination rule that matches the service level of the terminal device, where each user plane determination rule specifies a correspondence between the service level of the terminal device and the user plane device. The control plane device then determines a target user plane device for carrying traffic for the terminal device based on the determined matching user plane determination rule.
According to the flow control method provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, the control plane device can match the user plane device suitable for the terminal device by configuring the rule generated based on the network service regularity, the operator policy or the load balancing scheme to the control plane device, and the service level of the terminal device does not need to be reported to the network controller, so that the online rate and the user experience of the user are remarkably improved.
In the method, prior to obtaining the user plane determination rule, the control plane device may determine whether there is a user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device from a set of user plane determination rules based on the service level of the terminal device. If it is determined that there is no user plane determination rule in the set of user plane determination rules that matches the service level of the terminal device, the control plane device sends a user plane determination request to the network controller. The user plane determination request includes a service level of the terminal device. The method also includes receiving a user plane determination response from the network controller, the user plane determination response indicating a target user plane device for carrying traffic for the terminal device.
Thus, under the condition that no matched user plane determination rule exists, the control plane equipment can send the service level of the terminal equipment to the network controller, the network controller determines the target user plane equipment, and then the user online process is completed.
In the method, the control plane device receives a user plane determination rule from the network controller, wherein the user plane determination rule is generated by the network controller based on state information of the at least one user plane device. The control plane device may then store the user plane determination rule.
In this way, the user plane determination rules may be dynamically generated based on network real-time conditions, such as the number of sessions and total traffic on each user plane device. Therefore, network resources can be flexibly adjusted, and network load balancing is realized.
In the method, the control plane device may further receive a user plane determination rule input by a network administrator through a command line or a user interface, and store the user plane determination rule.
In the method, the control plane device may further send an access report to the network controller, where the access report indicates a bearer of traffic of the terminal device by the target user plane device.
In this way, the network controller may then further generate, modify or delete user plane determination rules based on the access reports to better adapt to current network conditions.
In the method, the access report may also indicate the initial user plane device if the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, such that the network controller migrates traffic from the initial user plane device to the target user plane device based on the access report.
In the method, a control plane device sends a revocation indication to an initial user plane device, so that the initial user plane device deletes a user entry associated with a terminal device, wherein the user entry is used for guiding a bearer of traffic of the terminal device. The control plane device may also send a user entry associated with the terminal device to the target user plane device.
In the method, the control plane device receives at least one user plane determination rule from the network controller that is updated based on the access report. The control plane device may also update the user plane determination rule with the updated at least one user plane determination rule.
In the method, the control plane device may determine a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the other terminal device according to the updated user plane determination rule and the received access information of the other terminal device.
In the method, the control plane device deletes the user plane determination rule according to a rule deletion instruction input by a network administrator through a command line or a user interface. The control plane device may also delete the user plane determination rule in accordance with a rule deletion indication received from the network controller.
In the method, the access information may further indicate at least one of an identifier of the terminal device, location information and an access domain name, and the control plane device may select at least one candidate user plane determination rule satisfying the service level from a set of user plane determination rules. The control plane device may then determine a target user plane determination rule from the at least one candidate user plane determination rule based on at least one of the identifier of the terminal device, the location information, the access domain name, and the access interface.
According to embodiments of the present disclosure, regularity and similarity of network traffic may be utilized to generate user plane determination rules. In case there is more than one user plane determination rule that complies with the service level of the terminal device, the control plane device may further select the target user plane determination rule using access information reflecting regularity and similarity of network traffic. Such target user plane determination rules help to determine user plane devices that are more suitable for carrying traffic of the terminal device.
In particular embodiments, the control plane device may be a server device and the user plane device may be a router device.
According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, a flow control method is provided. In the method, a network controller obtains status information of at least one user plane device for carrying traffic of a terminal device. The status information indicates at least the number and traffic of terminal devices carried by the at least one user plane device. The method also comprises the step that the network controller generates a group of user plane determination rules based on the state information and the corresponding relation between the service level of the terminal equipment and the user plane equipment, wherein each user plane determination rule in the group of user plane determination rules is used for determining the user plane equipment carrying the flow of the corresponding terminal equipment. The method also includes the network controller sending a set of user plane determination rules to a control plane device of the at least one user plane device.
According to the traffic control method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, the network controller generates a rule for determining the user plane device based on network traffic regularity, operator policy, or load balancing scheme, and configures such rule at the control plane device. Therefore, after receiving the access message of the terminal equipment, the control plane equipment can directly determine the user plane equipment suitable for the terminal equipment without reporting the service level of the terminal equipment to the network controller, and the online rate and the user experience of the user are obviously improved.
In the method, a network controller receives an access report from a control plane device. In the context of the present disclosure, the access report indicates that a target user plane device of the at least one user plane device is to carry traffic of the first terminal device. The method further comprises the network controller updating at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the access report. The network controller then sends the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device.
In this way, the network controller may dynamically adjust the user plane determination rules according to the bearer of the traffic of the terminal device by the user plane device in the network. Thereby, the user plane determination rules configured at the control plane device are adapted to the network real-time conditions.
In the method, the access report further indicates an initial user plane device of the terminal device that is different from the target user plane device. The method further includes the network controller sending a bearer change indication to the migration device based on the access report, so that the migration device migrates traffic of the first terminal device from an initial user plane device of the first terminal device to the target user plane device.
In the method, the network controller determines bearer change information for the at least one user plane device based on the obtained status information and historical status information for the at least one user plane device. The bearer change information indicates a change in the number of terminal devices or a change in traffic borne by each user plane device. The method also includes the network controller updating at least one user plane determination rule of a set of user plane determination rules based on the bearer change information. The network controller then sends the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device.
In the method, the correspondence of the service level of the terminal device and the user plane device is pre-configured at the network controller.
In the method, a network controller receives a user plane determination request from a control plane device. The user plane determination request includes a service level of the terminal device. The method also includes the network controller determining a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device based at least on the service level, and the network controller sending a user plane determination response to the control plane device. The user plane determination response is used to indicate the target user plane device.
In this way, when there is no user plane determination rule available for determining the user plane device at the control plane device, the control plane device sends the service level of the terminal device to the network controller, and then the network controller determines the target user plane device, thereby completing the user on-line process of the terminal device.
In the method, a network controller acquires additional information including at least one of regularity of a network service, priority of the network service, operator policy, an identifier of a terminal device, location information, an access domain name, and an access interface. The network controller may then generate a set of user plane determination rules based on the state information, the correspondence, and the additional information.
According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the network controller may utilize regularity and similarity of network traffic to generate user plane determination rules. The user plane determining rule is beneficial to determining the user plane equipment which is more suitable for bearing the flow of the terminal equipment, and the user experience is improved.
In particular embodiments, the network controller may include at least one of a software defined network control and user plane migration function device.
According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, a control plane apparatus is provided. The control plane device comprises a communication module, a rule acquisition module and a device determination module. The communication module may receive access information for the terminal device from an initial user plane device to which the terminal user has access, the access information indicating at least a service level of the terminal device. The rule acquisition module may acquire the user plane determination rule based on a service level of the terminal device. The device determination module may determine a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device according to the user plane determination rule.
According to the control plane device provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, the user plane device suitable for the terminal device can be directly matched by pre-configuring the rule generated based on the network service regularity, the operator policy or the load balancing scheme, and the service level of the terminal device does not need to be reported to the network controller, so that the online rate and the user experience of the user are remarkably improved.
In a specific embodiment, the rule obtaining module of the control plane device may further determine, from a set of user plane determination rules, a user plane determination rule that matches the service level of the terminal device based on the service level of the terminal device.
In a specific embodiment, the control plane device further includes a processing module. Before obtaining the user plane determination rule, the processing module may determine whether there is a user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device from a set of user plane determination rules based on the service level of the terminal device. And if the user plane determination rule matched with the service level of the terminal equipment is determined not to exist, enabling a user plane determination request to be sent to the network controller through the communication module, wherein the user plane determination request comprises the service level of the terminal equipment. The communication module of the control plane device may also be configured to receive a user plane determination response from the network controller, the user plane determination response indicating a target user plane device for carrying traffic for the terminal device.
Thus, under the condition that no matched user plane determination rule exists, the control plane equipment can send the service level of the terminal equipment to the network controller, the network controller determines the target user plane equipment, and then the user online process is completed.
In a specific embodiment, the rule obtaining module of the control plane device may further receive a user plane determination rule from the network controller through the communication module, where the user plane determination rule is generated by the network controller based on the state information of the at least one user plane device.
In this way, the user plane determination rules may be dynamically generated based on network real-time conditions, such as the number of sessions and total traffic on each user plane device. Therefore, network resources can be flexibly adjusted, and network load balancing is realized.
In a specific embodiment, the rule obtaining module of the control plane device may further receive a user plane determination rule from a network administrator.
In a specific embodiment, the communication module of the control plane device may further send an access report to the network controller, where the access report indicates a bearer of traffic of the terminal device by the target user plane device. The access report further indicates the initial user plane device if the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, such that the network controller migrates traffic from the initial user plane device to the target user plane device based on the access report.
In this way, the network controller may then further generate, modify or delete user plane determination rules based on the access reports to better adapt to current network conditions.
In particular embodiments, the communication module of the control plane device may also receive at least one user plane determination rule from the network controller that is updated based on the access report. The device determination module of the control plane device may further determine a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the other terminal device based on the updated at least one user plane determination rule and the received access information of the other terminal device.
In a specific embodiment, the control plane device further comprises a processing module. If the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, the processing module sends a revocation indication to the initial user plane device through the communication module, so that the initial user plane device deletes a user entry associated with the terminal device, wherein the user entry comprises information related to the bearer of the traffic of the terminal device. The processing module may send the user entry associated with the terminal device to the target user plane device via the communication module.
In particular embodiments, the communication module of the control plane device may also receive a rule deletion instruction from at least one of a network administrator and a network controller. The control plane device also includes a processing module, and the processing module may delete the user plane determination rule according to the rule deletion instruction.
In a specific embodiment, the access information further indicates at least one of an identifier, location information, and an access domain name of the terminal device, and the rule obtaining module of the control plane device may further select at least one candidate user plane determination rule satisfying a service level from a set of user plane determination rules, and determine the target user plane determination rule from the at least one candidate user plane determination rule based on at least one of the identifier, the location information, the access domain name, and the access interface of the terminal device.
According to embodiments of the present disclosure, regularity and similarity of network traffic may be utilized to generate user plane determination rules. In case there is more than one user plane determination rule that complies with the service level of the terminal device, the control plane device may further select the target user plane determination rule using access information reflecting regularity and similarity of network traffic. Such target user plane determination rules help to determine user plane devices that are more suitable for carrying traffic of the terminal device.
In particular embodiments, the control plane device may be a server device and the user plane device comprises a router device.
According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a network controller is provided. The network controller comprises a state acquisition module, a rule generation module and a communication module. The status obtaining module may obtain status information of the at least one user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device, where the status information indicates at least the number of the terminal devices and the traffic carried by the at least one user plane device. The rule generating module may generate a set of user plane determination rules based on the state information and a correspondence between the service level of the terminal device and the user plane device, where each user plane determination rule in the set of user plane determination rules is used to determine the user plane device carrying traffic of the corresponding terminal device. The communication module may send a set of user plane determination rules to a control plane device of the at least one user plane device.
According to the network controller provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, the rule for determining the user plane device may be generated based on network traffic regularity, operator policy or load balancing scheme, and such rule may be configured at the control plane device. Therefore, after receiving the access message of the terminal equipment, the control plane equipment can directly determine the user plane equipment suitable for the terminal equipment without reporting the service level of the terminal equipment to the network controller, and the online rate and the user experience of the user are obviously improved.
In a specific embodiment, the communication module of the network controller may further receive an access report from the control plane device, where the access report indicates that a target user plane device of the at least one user plane device is to carry traffic of the first terminal device. In this embodiment, the network controller further comprises a processing module that may update at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the access report, and send the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device through the communication module.
In this way, the network controller may dynamically adjust the user plane determination rules according to the bearer of the traffic of the terminal device by the user plane device in the network. Thereby, the user plane determination rules configured at the control plane device are adapted to the network real-time conditions.
In a specific embodiment, the access report further indicates an initial user plane device of the terminal device, which is different from the target user plane device. The processing module may further send a bearer change indication to the migration device through the communication module based on the access report, so that the migration device migrates traffic of the first terminal device from the initial user plane device of the first terminal device to the target user plane device.
In a specific embodiment, the network controller further includes a processing module, and the processing module may determine bearer change information of the at least one user plane device based on the obtained status information and historical status information of the at least one user plane device. The bearer change information indicates a change in the number of terminal devices or a change in traffic borne by each user plane device. The processing module may also update at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the bearer change information. In this embodiment, the communication module may also send the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device.
In a specific embodiment, the correspondence between the service level of the terminal device and the user plane device is configured in advance at the network controller.
In a specific embodiment, the communication module may further receive a user plane determination request from the control plane device, where the user plane determination request includes a service level of the terminal device. In this embodiment, the network controller further comprises a processing module that can determine a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device based at least on the service level, and send a user plane determination response to the control plane device through the communication module, the user plane determination response indicating the target user plane device.
In this way, when there is no user plane determination rule available for determining the user plane device at the control plane device, the control plane device sends the service level of the terminal device to the network controller, and then the network controller determines the target user plane device, thereby completing the user on-line process of the terminal device.
In a specific embodiment, the rule generating module may further obtain additional information, where the additional information includes at least one of regularity of the network service, priority of the network service, operator policy, identifier of the terminal device, location information, access domain name, and access interface. The rule generation module then generates a set of user plane determination rules based on the state information, the correspondence, and the additional information.
According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the network controller may utilize regularity and similarity of network traffic to generate user plane determination rules. The user plane determining rule is beneficial to determining the user plane equipment which is more suitable for bearing the flow of the terminal equipment, and the user experience is improved.
In particular embodiments, the network controller includes at least one of a software defined network control and user plane migration function device.
According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a control plane apparatus is provided. The control plane apparatus includes at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code may, with the at least one processor, cause the control plane apparatus to perform the method according to the first aspect.
According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, a network controller is provided. The network controller includes at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code may, with the at least one processor, cause the network controller to perform a method according to the second aspect.
According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a network system in which a control plane is separated from a user plane. The network system includes: at least one user plane device, where the at least one user plane device can bear traffic of a terminal device; a control plane device according to the third aspect; and a network controller according to the fourth aspect.
Drawings
The above and other features, advantages and aspects of various embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent by referring to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like or similar reference characters designate like or similar elements, and wherein:
fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a network architecture based on broadband access server (BRAS) relocation separation;
FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of the architecture of a two-tier network interconnect;
FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example network environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;
fig. 4 shows a signaling interaction diagram in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure;
FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a control plane apparatus according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure;
fig. 6 shows a flow diagram of a method for a control plane device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure;
fig. 7 shows a block diagram of a network controller according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure;
fig. 8 shows a flow chart of a method for a network controller according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure;
fig. 9 shows a block diagram of an electronic device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure.
Detailed Description
Some example embodiments will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While example embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it is to be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein, but rather are provided for a more thorough and complete understanding of the present disclosure. It should be understood that the drawings and embodiments of the disclosure are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.
The terms "control plane separated from user plane", "diversion separated", and "CU separated" as used herein refer to a gateway in a communication system architecture further physically or logically separated into two separate planes, control plane and user plane. In the context of the present disclosure, the terms "control plane," "control plane device," and | "CP device" refer to a logical or physical entity in a communication system that implements protocol interaction, protocol packet forwarding, protocol table entry computation, maintaining routing tables, and the like. As used herein, the terms "forwarding plane," "user plane device," or "UP device" refer to a logical or physical entity in a communication system that performs the receiving, decapsulating, encapsulating, forwarding, etc. of data packets. After the routing table entry is established, the control plane device generates a plurality of table entries such as a forwarding information table and a fast forwarding table, and issues the table entries to the user plane to guide the user plane to forward the message.
As used herein, the terms "end device," "user device" refer to any suitable device that can access a broadband network through AN access gateway, Access Node (AN), etc. to access a desired service, including, but not limited to, personal computers, tablet computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, virtual machines, etc.
The term "include" and variations thereof as used herein is meant to be inclusive in an open-ended manner, i.e., "including but not limited to". Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "or" means "and/or". The term "based on" means "based at least in part on". The terms "example embodiment" and "certain embodiments" mean "at least one example embodiment". Other explicit and implicit definitions are also possible below.
In the traditional transfer control separation network architecture, control plane messages are uploaded to CP equipment for processing, and a forwarding plane still uses entity equipment in networking, so that centralized control and management can be realized, and the existing network environment does not need to be greatly changed. However, in the network architecture, for each online terminal device, the CP device needs to acquire SLA information of the terminal device through AAA authentication and upload the SLA information to the SDN controller to determine an UP device for carrying traffic of the terminal device. Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a network architecture 100 based on Broadband Access Server (BRAS) relocation separation according to a conventional scheme. As shown in fig. 1, a single physical device is split into a BRAS CP device 110 and a BRAS UP device 120 in a BRAS diversion split architecture, where the BRAS CP device supports BRAS control plane functionality and the BRAS UP device supports BRAS forwarding plane functionality. The network architecture 100 includes end User terminal devices 101-1, 101-2 (also referred to collectively as 101), access devices 102-1, 102-2 (also referred to collectively as 102), a convergence switch 103, a BRAS CP device 110, a BRAS UP device 120, a RADIUS (RADIUS) server 104, a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server 105, a core layer device 106, and a backbone network 107. The end users may be, for example, home users, business users, and the like.
The network architecture 100 has the architecture of a two-tier network interconnect as shown in fig. 2. As shown in fig. 2, terminal devices 101, e.g., terminal devices 101-1, 101-2, are connected to a BRAS UP device 120 and to a BRAS CP device 110, respectively, through an access device 102 of the access stratum.
As mentioned above, in a separate network architecture, for each user to go online or migrate, the CP device needs to upload SLA information associated with the user to the SDN controller to request the SDN controller to determine the UP device ultimately used to carry user traffic. Requesting the SDN controller from SLA information to determine that operation of the UP device will result in slow on-line perception for the user, which is intolerable for critical users (e.g., VIP users handling banking).
To alleviate the above-mentioned problems and other potential problems, embodiments of the present disclosure propose a scheme for matching UP devices by CP devices based on dynamic rules. The scheme generates a set of rules based on the regularity of network traffic, operator policy, load balancing, or other schemes. The control plane device determines a target UP device suitable for carrying the traffic of the terminal device from a group of UP devices by using the set of preconfigured rules. Therefore, under the condition of not carrying out SLA information report and requesting the network controller to assign the UP device, the CP device determines the UP device conforming to the SLA information and finishes the on-line process of the user to the network. Therefore, the processing speed of the online message can be accelerated, and the online efficiency of the user is greatly improved, so that the user experience is improved.
Example procedures for flow control under a steered split network architecture according to embodiments of the present disclosure are discussed below in conjunction with fig. 3-9.
Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown a schematic diagram of an example network environment 300 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. Network environment 300 may be a broadband network, such as a metropolitan area network, or any other suitable network. It should be understood that network environment 300 is for exemplary purposes only and does not imply any limitation as to the scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments of the present disclosure may also be embodied in other network environments. In addition, it should also be understood that network environment 300 may also include other elements or entities for purposes of control, forwarding, etc., which are not shown for ease of description, but are not meant to exclude embodiments of the present disclosure.
As shown in fig. 3, network environment 300 includes terminal device 301, access gateway 302, access node 303, migration function (SF) device 304, control plane device 310, user plane devices 320-1 to 320-4, SDN controller 330, UP migration function (USF) device 340, and RADIUS server 350, and core network 305.
The terminal device 301 is connected to the user plane device 320 through an access gateway 302, an access node 303 and via an SF device 304. In some example embodiments, in the case of initial access to network 300, terminal device 301 is first connected to an initial user plane device, e.g., user plane device 320-1, via SF device 304. In the context of the present disclosure, the target user plane device 320 carrying traffic of the terminal device 301 may be the same as or different from the initial user plane device 320-1 after the terminal device 301 finally completes the access procedure. For example, the target user plane device may be user plane device 320-2.
Access gateway 302 may be a home gateway, router, etc. based on PPPoE, DHCP, etc. protocols. The access node 303 may be an Optical Line Terminal (OLT), a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM), a switch, or any other suitable device for transparently transmitting packets, traffic, from the end device 301 to the SF device 304. In order to distinguish between different users or terminal devices and their requested services, the access node 303 may tag the accessed terminal devices with CVLAN and SVLAN tags using QinQ techniques. For example, the access node 303 may indicate the location of the terminal device by tagging the packets of the terminal device 301 with a CVLAN tag.
SF device 304 may act as an anchor point for migrating traffic from access node 303 to target user plane device 320. For example, SF device 304 may communicate packets from end device 301 that include a layer two header to a corresponding user plane device 320 via a forwarding technique such as VLAN, VLL, virtual private local area network service (VPLS), VxLAN, or SRv 6.
The control plane device 310 is a device for implementing control plane functions including, but not limited to, user and session management, user access control, user authentication authorization accounting, address management, configuration management, and the like. In some embodiments, the control plane device 310 may communicate with the user plane device 320 through the core network 305, e.g., receive user access packets (e.g., PPPoE/IPoE access packets) associated with the terminal device 301 from the user plane device 320, sense an access status of the user plane device 320, establish, delete, keep alive access protocol channels, control channels, configuration channels between CUs, and so forth. In addition, after the target user plane device 320 is selected, the control plane device 310 downloads the session to the target user plane device 320 for traffic forwarding.
User plane devices 320-1 through 320-4 (also referred to collectively herein as user plane devices 320) are physical or virtual devices used to implement forwarding plane functions, including but not limited to traffic forwarding, quality of service (QoS), traffic statistics, and the like. Each user plane device 320 may connect to at least one terminal device 301, such as a virtual machine, personal computer, mobile phone, host, etc., and provide physical resources for carrying traffic for the terminal devices 301 accessing the network. To provide support for various broadband access types, the user plane device 320 may provide multiple interface types such as an ATM interface, a DSLAM interface, a fast ethernet interface, a frame relay interface, and so on. In some example embodiments, the user plane device 320 receives the session table from the control plane device 310 and forwards the data packets for the end devices, implementing traffic policies such as QoS and Access Control Lists (ACLs).
There may be three interfaces between the CP device 310 and the UP device 320, i.e., an Is service interface, an Im management interface, and an Ic control interface. When the terminal device 301 accesses the internet, a user access protocol message (e.g., PPPoE and IPoE dial-UP protocol message) Is received from the terminal device 301 by a default initial UP device (e.g., UP device 320-1) and transmitted to the CP device 310 through the Is interface for further processing. The CP device 310 issues a network configuration (e.g., Netconf protocol) to the UP device 320 through the Im interface, and the UP device 320 reports its operation status to the CP device 310 through the Im interface. The CP device processes the user access packet and determines a target UP device suitable for carrying the service of the terminal device according to the load conditions of multiple UP devices in the network, which may be different from the initial UP device 320-1. Then, the user on-line process is completed, the CP device 310 issues a user table entry including information related to the traffic bearer of the terminal device to the target UP device 320 through the Ic interface, and the UP device 320 reports a service event (for example, openflow protocol) through the Ic interface.
SDN controller 330 may act as a network controller that monitors state information of user plane devices 320 in network 300, including but not limited to total traffic per user plane device 320, number of sessions for a user, and so forth. Based on the state information and the SLA information of the terminal device 301 obtained from the CP device 310, the SDN controller 330 may determine a target user plane device, e.g., the user plane device 320-2, matching the terminal device 301 according to a load balancing policy, an operator policy, a network state, and the like, and establish a layer 2 tunnel between the SF device 304 and the UP device 320 to migrate traffic of the terminal device 301 from the initial user plane device 320-1 to the target user plane device 320-2.
In some example embodiments, the SDN controller may generate a set of user plane determination rules based on the state information of the user plane device 320 and send the set of user plane determination rules to the control plane device 310 for matching the target user plane device 320 locally at the control plane device 310. Each user plane determination rule specifies a correspondence between the SLA of the terminal device 301 and the user plane device 320. This will be described in detail below. In other example embodiments, the SDN controller may act as the only enabler for traffic migration operations and the issuer of the user plane determination rules, with the USF device 340 acting as a network controller to generate the user plane determination rules and determine the target user plane device 320.
RADIUS server 350 may store an SLA database associated with end-point device 301. In addition, the Radius server 350 may also implement functions such as authentication, authorization, and accounting for the terminal device.
It should be understood that the number of devices shown in environment 300 is merely an example and not a limitation. For example, environment 300 may include any suitable number of terminal devices, user plane devices, control plane devices, and the like.
According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the network controller may generate a set of user plane determination rules based on one or more of a load balancing policy, an operator policy, a regularity of traffic, a network state, and historical data thereof, and configure the set of rules at the control plane device. Thus, in the process of user online, the control plane device firstly finds out the matching rule locally based on the access information provided by the user. If the matched rule exists, the control plane equipment can directly determine the user plane equipment for bearing the flow of the terminal equipment based on the corresponding relation specified by the rule without reporting SLA information to the network controller. In addition, the scheme identifies the user plane equipment on line of the user based on the regularity of the network service, so that the control plane equipment and the network controller can guide the user to access in advance, the on-line rate of the user is obviously improved, and the user experience is improved.
Fig. 4 shows a timing diagram of a flow control process 400 according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. For discussion purposes, an example interaction process 400 will be described with reference to FIG. 3. The process 400 may involve the SF device 304, the control plane device 310, the initial user plane device 320-1, the target user plane device 320-2, the network controller 330, and the RADIUS server 350 as shown in fig. 3. It should be appreciated that although process 400 is described with respect to communication system 300 of fig. 3, process 400 illustrated in fig. 4 is equally applicable to other communication scenarios.
In process 400, network controller 330 obtains (402, 404) status information for at least one user plane device 320-1 and 320-2 carrying traffic for end device 301. In particular embodiments, the status information may indicate at least the number of sessions and the total traffic of the terminal devices carried by the corresponding user plane device 320.
The network controller 330 generates (406) a set of user plane determination rules based on the status information and the correspondence of the service level SLA of the terminal device to the user plane device. Each user plane device may be configured to carry traffic from end devices having a particular SLA. The network controller 330 may determine the correspondence of the service level SLA of the end device to the respective user plane device by monitoring the status information of at least one user plane device 320-1 and 320-2. In a particular embodiment, each user plane determination rule specifies at least a correspondence between a service level SLA of the terminal device 301 and the user plane device 320 in the network 300. In some example embodiments, network controller 330 may also generate the user plane determination rule further based on a load balancing scheme, operator policy, or traffic regularity. In some example embodiments, the network controller 330 may store state information of the user plane devices 320 and determine bearer change information for at least one user plane device 320 based on the current state information and the stored historical state information. The bearer change information may indicate a change in the number of sessions or a change in traffic of the terminal device carried by each user plane device 320. The network controller 330 may then update at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the bearer change information. This will be further described below with reference to fig. 5 to 8.
The network controller 330 sends (408) the set of user plane determination rules to a control plane device 310 of the at least one user plane device. In other embodiments, the user plane determination rules may also be pre-configured at the control plane device 310 by the network operator.
In case the terminal device 301 requests access to the network, the terminal device 301 sends an access message, such as based on PPPoE, DHCP protocol, to the SF device 304 through the access gateway 302 and the access node 303. The SF device 304 sends (410) the access message to the initial user plane device 320-1 via the layer 2 tunnel. After receiving the access packet from the SF device 304, the initial user plane device 320-1 sends (412) the access packet to the control plane device 310. The control plane device 310 performs AAA authentication on the terminal device 301 according to the received access packet, and acquires access information of the terminal device 301. In the context of the present disclosure, the access information indicates at least a service level SLA with the terminal device 301.
The control plane device 310 acquires the user plane determination rule based on the service level SLA included in the access information. As an exemplary implementation, the control plane device 310 may determine at least one user plane determination rule matching the service level SLA of the terminal device 301 from the set of pre-configured user plane determination rules. Since each user plane determination rule specifies a correspondence between the service level SLA of the terminal device and the user plane device 320, the control plane device 310 may determine the target user plane device based on the rule if there is a matching user plane determination rule in the set of user plane determination rules. Control plane device 310 determines (414) that the traffic target user plane device for carrying terminal device 301 is user plane device 320-2.
After determining that the target user plane device is user plane device 320-2, control plane device 310 issues (416) a user entry (e.g., CGN flow table) to target user plane device 320-2 that includes information related to the traffic bearer for terminal device 301. The control plane device 310 may also send 320-1 an indication to the initial user plane device to revoke the session entry.
The control plane device 310 sends (418) an access report to the network controller 330. The access report is used to indicate the bearer of the traffic of the terminal device 301 by the target user plane device 320-2. In this example, the target user plane device 320-2 is different from the initial user plane device 320-1, and the access report may also indicate that the initial user plane device is the user plane device 320-1. In other examples, the target user plane device may also be the same as the initial user plane device.
The network controller 330 may update (420) at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the access report, or generate a new user plane determination rule and send the updated or most recently generated user plane determination rule to the control plane device 310. In addition, the network controller 330 may also instruct the control plane device 310 to delete the invalid user plane determination rule.
Network controller 330 sends (422) a bearer change indication to SF device 304 based on the access report. Based on the bearer change indication, the SF device 304 migrates (424) the traffic of the terminal device 301 from the initial user plane device 320-1 to the target user plane device 320-2, so as to complete the procedures of user online and traffic migration.
The process of completing user access by the network controller 330 in case there is no matching user plane determination rule in the set of user plane determination rules is shown within the dashed box of fig. 4. As shown, SF device 304 sends (426) an access message from end device 301 to the original user plane device. For the sake of distinction only from the foregoing example, in this example, the initial user plane device is given as user plane device 320-2.
The initial user plane device 320-2 sends 428 the access packet to the control plane device 310. As described earlier, the control plane device 310 may determine access information of the terminal device 301 based on the access packet and acquire a service level SLA of the terminal device 301. The control plane device 310 determines whether there is a user plane determination rule matching the service level SLA of the terminal device 301 in a set of user plane determination rules based on the service level SLA of the terminal device 301. In this example, the control plane device 310 determines (430) that there is no matching user plane determination rule in the preconfigured set of user plane determination rules.
Since the target user plane device cannot be determined locally at the control plane device 310, the control plane device 310 needs to request the network controller 330 to determine the target user plane device for the terminal device 301. The control plane device 310 reports (432) the SLA of the terminal device to the network controller 330 requesting the network controller 330 to determine a target user plane device for the terminal device. For example, the control plane device 310 may send a user plane determination request including the SLA of the terminal device 301 to the network controller 330. Network controller 330 receives the user plane determination request and determines (434) the target user plane device for end device 301 as user plane device 320-1 based on the SLA of end device 301. As an exemplary embodiment, in determining the target user plane device, the network controller 330 may also determine the target user plane device based on operator policy, network traffic regularity or load balancing scheme, etc. After determining the target user plane device, the network controller 330 returns (436) a response result to the control plane device 310 indicating the target user plane device. For example, the network controller 330 may send a user plane determination response to the control plane device 310 indicating the target user plane device 320-1.
After receiving the response result, the control plane device 310 issues 438 the session table entry (e.g., CGN flow table) associated with the terminal device to the indicated target user plane device 320-1, similar to 416. The control plane device 310 may also send 320-2 an indication to the initial user plane device to revoke the session entry.
Since, in this example, the user plane device 320-2 that the end device 301 ultimately accesses is different from its initially dialed user plane device 320-1, the network controller 330 sends (440) a bearer change indication to the SF device 304 to cause the SF device 304 to migrate traffic for the end device 301 from the initial user plane device 320-1 to the target user plane device 320-2. The SF device 304 migrates 442 the traffic of the terminal device 301 from the initial user plane device 320-2 to the target user plane device 320-1 based on the bearer change indication, and the user on-line and migration process is completed. If the user plane device that the terminal device 301 finally accesses is the same as its initial user plane device, the network controller 330 does not need to instruct the SF device 304 to perform traffic migration.
In some example embodiments, network controller 330 may be an SDN controller. In other example embodiments, for example, in a network architecture in which the SDN controller is separate from the USF device, the functionality of the network controller 330 may be implemented by the SDN controller in conjunction with the USF device, wherein the USF device acts as a network node for formulating user plane determination rules and the SDN controller acts as an executing node for the set of user plane determination rules.
Although the various steps in the above-described interaction process 400 are described in a particular order, this order is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to be limiting. Unless explicitly noted, it should not be understood that such interaction processes are required to be completed in the particular order shown or in sequential order. By way of example, operations 402 and 404 may be performed in parallel, operation 408 may be performed before operation 402 or 404, operation 418 may be performed before operation 416, and so on, for example. In some cases, multitasking or parallel processing may be beneficial. Additionally, the interaction process 400 may also include additional operations not shown and/or may omit one or more of the operations shown.
Fig. 5 shows a block diagram of a control plane apparatus 500 according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The control plane device 500 may be implemented at the control plane device 310 shown in fig. 3, or may be implemented using other suitable devices. It should be understood that the control plane device 500 is for exemplary purposes only and does not imply any limitation as to the scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments of the present disclosure may also be embodied in different control plane devices.
As shown in fig. 5, the control plane device 500 includes a communication module 502, a rule acquisition module 504, and a device determination module 506. It should be understood that the control plane apparatus 500 may also include other elements, modules or entities that are not shown for clarity, but are not meant to exclude embodiments of the present disclosure.
The communication module 502 is configured to receive access information of the end device from the initial user plane device that the end user 301 has accessed. The access information indicates at least the service level SLA of the terminal device 301. The detailed description of steps 412 and 428 in the embodiment shown in fig. 4 may be referred to for a specific implementation manner, or the detailed description about step 601 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 is described below, which is not described herein again.
The rule retrieving module 504 is configured to retrieve the user plane determination rule based on the service level SLA of the terminal device 301. In some example embodiments, rule acquisition module 504 may determine, from a set of user plane determination rules, a user plane determination rule that matches the service level SLA of terminal device 301 based on the service level SLA. Each user plane determination rule specifies a correspondence between a service level SLA of the terminal device and the user plane device 320. For a specific implementation, please refer to the following detailed description about step 602 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, which is not repeated herein.
The device determining module 506 is configured to determine a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device 301 according to the user plane determination rule. The control plane apparatus 500 may further include a memory for storing the user plane determination rule. For a specific implementation, please refer to the following detailed description about step 603 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, which is not repeated here.
In some example embodiments, the communication module 502 is further configured to receive a set of user plane determination rules for matching the user plane device 320 from the network controller 330, the set of user plane determination rules being generated by the network controller 330 based on the status information of the at least one user plane device. In other example embodiments, the rule obtaining module 504 may receive a User plane determination rule input by a network administrator, such as a User plane determination rule input by a network operator or network administrator through a command line, a Graphical User Interface (GUI), or a voice command.
In such an embodiment, rule retrieving module 504 is further configured to determine, from the set of user plane determination rules, a user plane determination rule matching the service level SLA of terminal device 301, based on the service level SLA of terminal device 301. The set of user plane determination rules may be generated by the network controller 330 based on one or more of status information of user plane devices in the network, operator policies, regularity of network traffic, load balancing schemes. As an example, the network controller 330 may determine a set of user plane determination rules based on the correspondence of user name (e.g., terminal device identifier) access interfaces, VLANs, location information, access domain names, etc. of terminal devices that have come online to the user plane devices that ultimately carry those terminal devices. The set of user plane determination rules may include one or more of the following:
i) for the first SLA, the terminal device with the access position information of Option a may access the user plane device 320-1;
ii) for the second SLA, the end device with device identifier B may access the user plane device 320-2;
iii) for the third SLA, the end device accessed from interface C and having domain name D and VLAN E may access the user plane device 320-3;
iv) for the third SLA, the terminal device with access location information Option a may access the user plane device 320-4, and so on.
In some example embodiments, the control plane device 500 may also include a processing module (not shown). Prior to retrieving the user plane determination rule, the processing module is configured to determine, based on the service level SLA of the terminal device 301, from a set of user plane determination rules, whether there is a user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device. If it is determined that there is no user plane determination rule matching the service level SLA of the terminal device 301, the control plane device 500 sends a user plane determination request including the service level SLA of the terminal device 301 to the network controller 330 through the communication module 502 to request the network controller 330 to determine a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device 301. The communication module 502 may then receive a user plane determination response from the network controller 330 indicating the target user plane device.
In some example embodiments, the control plane device 500 brings the terminal device 301 online through the target user plane device according to the determined target user plane device, and the target user plane device carries traffic of the terminal device 301. In this embodiment, the communication module 502 is further configured to send an access report to the network controller 330 indicating bearers of the target user plane device to the traffic of the terminal device 301. The network controller 330 may update the user plane determination rule based on the access report. The access report also indicates the initial user plane device if the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, such that the network controller 330 can migrate traffic from the initial user plane device to the target user plane device based on the access report, as will be discussed in detail below.
In some example embodiments, the communication module 502 is further configured to receive at least one user plane determination rule from the network controller 330 that is updated based on the access report. In this example embodiment, the processing module of the control plane device 500 is further configured to update the set of user plane determination rules with the updated at least one user plane determination rule. In such embodiments, the device determination module 506 may determine the target user plane device for carrying traffic of the other terminal device based on the updated at least one user plane determination rule and the received access information of the other terminal device.
In the case that the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, the control plane device 500 may instruct the initial user plane device to cancel the user entry storing thereon the information related to the traffic of the bearer terminal device, and issue the user entry to the target user plane device. In such an embodiment, the processing module of the control plane device 500 sends a revocation indication to the initial user plane device via the communication module 502 to cause the initial user plane device to delete the user entry associated with the terminal device 301. The communication module 502 is further configured to send the user entry associated with the terminal device 301 to the target user plane device.
In some example embodiments, the communication module 502 is further configured to receive a rule deletion instruction from at least one of the network controller 330 and a network administrator for deleting the particular one or more user plane determination rules. In response to the rule deletion instruction, the processing module of the control plane device 500 may delete the stored one or more user plane determination rules.
In some example embodiments, the access information received by the communication module 502 may further indicate at least one of an identifier, location information, an access domain name, and an access interface of the terminal device 301. In this embodiment, the rule fetch module 504 is further configured to select at least one candidate user plane determination rule from a set of user plane determination rules that satisfies a service level SLA. Referring to the above example, assuming that the SLA of the first terminal device requesting to go online is the third SLA, the rule obtaining module 504 may select candidate user plane determination rules (iii) and (iv) satisfying the SLA. The rule acquisition module 504 may further determine the target user plane determination rule from the candidate user plane determination rules (iii) and (iv) based on at least one of an identifier of the first terminal device, location information, an access domain name, and an access interface. For example, the access information of the first terminal device also indicates that the location information of the first terminal device is Option a, the rule acquisition module 504 may determine that the user plane determination rule (iv) is the target user plane determination rule.
In some example embodiments, the device determination module 506 determines the target user plane device 320-4 for carrying traffic for the first terminal device based on the user plane determination rule (iv) determined by the rule acquisition module 504.
As previously described, after determining the target user plane device 320-4, the communication module 502 sends an access report to the network controller 330. The access report indicates the bearer of the traffic of the terminal device 301 by the target user plane device 320-4. In some example embodiments, the access report may indicate that the terminal device 301 accessed at the user plane device 320-1 and completed going online at the user plane device 320-4 based on the target user plane device 320-4 determined by the matching user plane determination rule being different from the initial user plane device, e.g., user plane device 320-1, to which the terminal device initially dialed in.
It should be understood that the operations and features described above in connection with fig. 3-4 are equally applicable to the control surface apparatus 500 and have the same effect, and detailed description is omitted.
A specific implementation of the control plane device 500 includes a server device, for example, a virtual machine configured on a server for implementing the CP function, and a specific implementation of the user plane device includes a router device. The modules included in the control plane device 500 may be implemented in a variety of ways including software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, one or more modules may be implemented using software and/or firmware, such as machine-executable instructions stored on a storage medium. In addition to, or in the alternative to, machine-executable instructions, some or all of the modules in apparatus 500 may be implemented at least in part by one or more hardware logic components. By way of example, and not limitation, exemplary types of hardware logic components that may be used include Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Application Specific Standards (ASSPs), systems on a chip (SOCs), Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs), and so forth.
Fig. 6 shows a flow diagram of a method 600 for a control plane device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The method 600 may be implemented at the control plane device 310 shown in fig. 3 and the control plane device 500 shown in fig. 5, and for ease of discussion, the method 600 will be described below in conjunction with fig. 3.
As shown in fig. 6, at block 601, control plane device 310 receives access information for terminal device 301 from initial user plane device 320-1 to which terminal device 301 has access. The access information indicates at least the service level SLA of the terminal device 301.
The control plane device 310 may be preconfigured with a set of user plane determination rules, wherein each specifies a correspondence between a service level of the terminal device and the user plane device. In some example embodiments, the set of user plane determination rules may be generated by the network controller 330 based on status information of the plurality of user plane devices 320-1 through 320-4 in the network 300. As an example, the network controller 330 may generate the user plane determination rule based on one or more of status information of user plane devices in the network, operator policies, regularity of network traffic, load balancing schemes. For example, the network controller 330 may determine a set of user plane determination rules based on the correspondence between the user name (e.g., terminal device identifier) access interface, VLAN, location information, access domain name, etc. of the terminal devices that have come online and the user plane devices that ultimately carry these terminal devices. The set of user plane determination rules may include one or more of the following:
i) for the first SLA, the terminal device with the access position information of Option a may access the user plane device 320-1;
ii) for the second SLA, the end device with device identifier B may access the user plane device 320-2;
iii) for the third SLA, the end device accessed from interface C and having domain name D and VLAN E may access the user plane device 320-3;
iv) for the third SLA, the terminal device with access location information Option a may access the user plane device 320-4, and so on.
In other example embodiments, the network operator may enter, modify, and delete user plane determination rules stored by the control plane device 310 via instructions. Specific implementations may include the entry, configuration, and deletion of User plane determination rules by a network operator or network administrator through a command line, Graphical User Interface (GUI), or voice command.
In some example embodiments, prior to retrieving the user plane determination rule, the control plane device 310 may determine from the set of user plane determination rules whether there is a user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device 301 based on the service level SLA of the terminal device 301. If it is determined that there is no user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device 301, the control plane device 310 may report the service level SLA of the terminal device 301 to the network controller 330 to request the network controller 330 to determine a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device 301. In this case, the control plane device 310 may send a user plane determination request including the service level SLA of the terminal device 301 to the network controller 330. Network controller 330 may determine a target user plane device for carrying traffic for end device 301 based on the service level SLA of end device 301. Then, the network controller 330 transmits a user plane determination response indicating the target user plane device to the control plane device 310. The control plane device 310 completes the on-line process of the terminal device 301 according to the target user plane device indicated in the user plane determination response.
With continued reference to fig. 6, at block 602, the control plane device 310 obtains user plane determination rules based on the service level SLA of the terminal device 301. In some example embodiments, the control plane device 310 may determine a user plane determination rule from the set of user plane determination rules that matches the service level SLA of the terminal device 301. In case there are multiple candidate user plane determination rules in the set of user plane determination rules that match the SLA, the control plane device 310 may further determine the target user plane determination rule from the candidate rules based on at least one of the identifier of the terminal device, the location information, the access domain name, and the access interface indicated by the access information.
At block 603, the control plane device 310 determines a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device 301 according to the obtained user plane determination rule. After determining the target user plane device, the control plane device 310 sends an access report to the network controller 330 to indicate that the target user plane device carries traffic of the terminal device, i.e. the terminal device will complete on-line at the user plane device 320-2.
In some example embodiments, the determined target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device accessed by the terminal device 301. The control plane device 310 may send an access report to the network controller 330 to indicate that the terminal device 301 is accessed from the initial user plane device, will be brought up from the target user plane device, and has its traffic carried by the target user plane device. In this embodiment, the access report may cause the network controller 330 to migrate traffic for the end device from the initial user plane device to the target user plane device.
In some example embodiments, the network controller 330 may dynamically adjust and update the set of user plane determination rules based on the received access reports, changes in status information of the user plane device, changes in operator policy. In addition, the network controller 330 may instruct the control plane device 310 to delete user plane determination rules that have failed or are not applicable. In this way, the control plane device 310 may update and adjust the set of user plane determination rules based on the network controller 330 indication to ensure that the set of user plane determination rules stored by the control plane device 310 are compatible with network states, operator policies, and load balancing schemes. In other example embodiments, the control plane device 310 may delete the user plane determination rule according to a rule deletion instruction received from a network administrator.
In embodiments where the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, the control plane device 310 may send a revocation indication to the initial user plane device to cause the initial user plane device to delete the user table entries associated with terminal device 301 that include information related to the traffic bearer of terminal device 301. Control plane device 310 may also send the user entry associated with terminal device 301 to the target user plane device. It should be understood that the operations and features described above in connection with fig. 2 through 5 are equally applicable to the method 600 and have the same effect, and detailed description is omitted.
Fig. 7 shows a block diagram of a network controller 700 according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. Network controller 700 may be implemented at SDN controller 330 or USF device 340 shown in fig. 3, or may be implemented using other suitable devices. It should be understood that network controller 700 is used for exemplary purposes only and does not imply any limitation as to the scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments of the present disclosure may also be embodied in different network controllers. It should also be understood that the network controller 700 may also include other elements or entities that are not shown for ease of description, but are not meant to exclude embodiments of the present disclosure.
As shown in fig. 7, the network controller 700 includes a status acquisition module 702, a rule generation module 704, and a communication module 706.
The status acquisition module 702 is configured to acquire status information of at least one user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device 301. In the context of the present disclosure, the state information indicates at least the number of sessions and the total traffic of the terminal devices carried by the at least one user plane device 320. As an example, the specific implementation may refer to the description about step 801 in method 800, which will be discussed in detail below.
The rule generating module 704 is configured to generate a set of user plane determination rules based on the state information and the correspondence between the service levels of the terminal devices and the user plane devices, where each user plane determination rule is used to determine the user plane device carrying traffic of the corresponding terminal device. In some example embodiments, the correspondence of the service level of the terminal device to the user plane device is pre-configured at the network controller 330. As an example, the specific implementation may refer to the description of step 802 in method 800, which will be discussed in detail below.
The communication module 706 is configured to send the set of user plane determination rules to a control plane device 310 of the at least one user plane device. As an example, the specific implementation may refer to the description of step 803 in method 800, which will be discussed in detail below.
In some example embodiments, the rule generation module 704 is configured to obtain additional information through the communication module 706. The additional information may comprise at least one of regularity of the network traffic, priority of the network traffic, operator policy, identifier of the terminal device, location information, access domain name and access interface. The rule generation module 704 may generate a set of user plane determination rules based on the state information, the correspondence, and the additional information.
In some example embodiments, the status acquisition module 702 is configured to determine bearer change information for the at least one user plane device based on the acquired status information and historical status information of the at least one user plane device. The bearer change information may indicate a change in the number of terminal devices or a change in traffic carried by each user plane device. In this embodiment, the network controller 700 further comprises a processing module (not shown) and the processing module is configured to update at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on one of a change in the total traffic and a change in the number.
As an example, network controller 330 may dynamically generate, adjust user plane determination rules based on a load balancing policy, and the load balancing policy specifies that the total traffic for individual user plane devices does not exceed 80% of the threshold traffic. Assume that the set of rules generated by the rule generating module 704 includes the rule "for the first SLA, the terminal device with access location information of Option a can access the user plane device 320-1", and the status acquiring module 702 determines that the total traffic of the user plane device 320-1 has reached 80% of the threshold traffic and the total traffic of the remaining user plane devices is lower than 80% of the threshold traffic by acquiring and monitoring the status information of the user plane devices 320-1 to 320-4 in the network. In this case, the processing module may update the user plane determination rule based on a change in the total traffic of the user plane device 320-1. For example, the above rule is updated to "the terminal device with the access location information of Option a can access the user plane device 320-2 for the first SLA". Alternatively, the processing module may remove the above-described rule for the user plane device 320-1 from the set of user plane determination rules. The processing module may also send, via the communication module, a rule deletion indication to the control plane device based on the deletion of the particular rule to instruct the control plane device to delete a corresponding rule in the set of user plane determination rules. It should be appreciated that the above examples are for illustrative purposes only, and that various additions, modifications, updates, adjustments, and deletions may be made by network controller 330 to the user plane determination rules depending on network conditions, operating policies, and the like, as the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this respect.
In some example embodiments, the communication module 706 is further configured to receive an access report from the control plane device 310. The access report may indicate that a target user plane device of the at least one user plane device is to carry traffic for the first terminal device. In this embodiment, the processing module may be configured to update at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the access report. In embodiments where the user plane determination rules are dynamically updated or deleted, the processing module may send the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device 310 via the communication module 706, or send a rule deletion instruction to delete the user plane determination rule that has failed.
In some example embodiments, the access report may further indicate that the initial user plane device and the target user plane device of the terminal device and the traffic of the terminal device needs to be migrated from the initial user plane device to the target user plane device, when the user plane device initially accessed by the terminal device is different from the target user plane device that ultimately carries the traffic of the terminal device. In other example embodiments, for an accessed terminal device, due to a change in one or more of the SLA of the terminal device, the state of the user plane device carrying the traffic of the terminal device, and the operation policy, the traffic of the terminal device may also need to be migrated from the current user plane device to another user plane device. In such embodiments, the processing module of the network controller 700 is further configured to send a bearer change indication to the migrating device 304 in the network 300 via the communication module 706 based on the initial user plane device being different from the target user plane device, to cause the migrating device 304 to migrate traffic of the first terminal device from the initial user plane device to the target user plane device of the first terminal device.
As discussed previously, in case the control plane device 310 cannot determine the target user plane device according to the configured user plane determination rules, the communication module 706 of the network controller 700 is further configured to receive a service level user plane determination request comprising the terminal device from the control plane device 310. The processing module of the network controller 700 determines a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device based on at least the service level and sends a user plane determination response indicating the target user plane device to the control plane device 310 through the communication module 706.
It should be understood that the operations and features described above in connection with fig. 2 to 6 are equally applicable to the network controller 700 and have the same effect, and detailed description is omitted.
Particular implementations of the network controller 700 include at least one of software defined network control and user plane migration functionality. The modules included in network controller 700 may be implemented in a variety of ways including software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, one or more modules may be implemented using software and/or firmware, such as machine-executable instructions stored on a storage medium. In addition to, or in the alternative to, machine-executable instructions, some or all of the modules in network controller 700 may be implemented at least in part by one or more hardware logic components. By way of example, and not limitation, exemplary types of hardware logic components that may be used include Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Application Specific Standards (ASSPs), systems on a chip (SOCs), Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs), and so forth.
Fig. 8 shows a flow chart of a method for a network controller according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. Method 800 may be implemented at SDN controller 330 or both SDN controller 330 and USF device 340 shown in fig. 3, or may also be implemented at network controller 700 shown in fig. 7. For ease of discussion, the method 800 will be described below in conjunction with FIG. 3.
At 801, the network controller 330 obtains status information for at least one user plane device 320 in the network for carrying traffic for the terminal device. The status information indicates at least the number of sessions and the traffic of the terminal device carried by the at least one user plane device. For a specific implementation, reference may be made to the detailed description about the state obtaining module 702 in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and details are not described here.
The services provided by operators are often regular and common. For example, for critical services such as banking services or some important users, it is usually allocated to a separate user plane device that ensures the SLA. As another example, for ease of management, ordinary broadband users from the same cell will be largely assigned to the same user plane device. Accordingly, upon satisfying the SLA of the terminal device, the network controller 330 may further generate the user plane determination rule based on one or more of a load balancing policy, regularity of network traffic, operator policy, and historical data of the network.
At 802, network controller 330 generates a set of user plane determination rules based on the status information and the correspondence of the service level of the terminal device to the user plane device, where each user plane determination rule in the set of user plane determination rules may be used to determine the user plane device carrying traffic for the respective terminal device. In some example embodiments, the correspondence of the service level of the terminal device to the user plane device may be preconfigured at the network controller 330. For a specific implementation, reference may be made to the detailed description about the rule generating module 704 in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and details are not described here.
In some example embodiments, the network controller 330 may obtain additional information including, but not limited to, regularity of network traffic, priority of network traffic, operator policy, identifier of the terminal device, location information, access domain name, and access interface, etc. The network controller may generate the set of user plane determination rules based on the state information, the correspondence, and the additional information.
At 803, the network controller 330 sends the set of user plane determination rules to a control plane device of the at least one user plane device. Based on the set of user plane determination rules, the control plane device 310 may determine, for the accessed first terminal device, a target user plane device suitable for carrying its traffic. For a specific implementation, reference may be made to the detailed description about the communication module 706 in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, which is not described herein again. In other example embodiments, the network controller 330 may send the user plane determination rule in response to a request by the control plane device 310 for the user plane determination rule.
In some example embodiments, after the control plane device 310 determines the target user plane device based on the user plane determination rule, the network controller 330 receives an access report from the control plane device 310. The access report indicates a target user plane device that will carry traffic for the first terminal device. The network controller 330 may update at least one of the user plane determination rules it generates based on the access report and send the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device 310.
In some example embodiments, the target user plane device for the first terminal device determined by the control plane device 310 may be different from the initial user plane device of the first terminal device. In this embodiment, the access report received by the network controller 330 also indicates an initial user plane device of the first terminal device that is different from the target user plane device. The network controller 330 sends a bearer change indication to the migrating device 304 in the network 300 based on the access report to cause the migrating device 304 to migrate traffic of the first terminal device from the initial user plane device to the target user plane device.
In some example embodiments, the network controller 330 determines bearer change information for the at least one user plane device based on the obtained status information and historical status information of the at least one user plane device. The bearer change information indicates a change in the number of terminal devices or a change in traffic borne by each user plane device. The network controller 330 updates at least one of the generated user plane determination rules based on the bearer change information.
In case the control plane device 310 cannot determine the target user plane device according to the configured user plane determination rules, the network controller 330 may receive a user plane determination request from the control plane device comprising the service level SLA of the terminal device. Network controller 330 may determine a target user plane device for carrying traffic for the end device based at least on the service level SLA. The network controller 330 may then send a user plane determination response to the control plane device 310 indicating the target user plane device.
In further example embodiments, the network controller 330 may send the updated user plane determination rule in response to the user plane determination request, such that the control plane device 310 may determine the target user plane device based on the updated user plane determination rule.
In some example embodiments, after determining that one or more rules of the set of user plane determination rules have failed, the network controller 330 may send an indication to the control plane device 310 to delete the failed user plane determination rules.
Fig. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a device 900 in which certain embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The apparatus 900 can be used to implement the control plane apparatus 310 shown in fig. 4, the control plane apparatus 500 shown in fig. 5, the network controller 330 shown in fig. 4, or the network controller 700 in fig. 7. It should be understood that device 900 is for exemplary purposes only and does not imply any limitation as to the scope of the present disclosure. Embodiments of the present disclosure may also be embodied in different devices. It should also be understood that device 900 may also include other elements or entities that are not shown for ease of description, but are not meant to exclude embodiments of the present disclosure.
As shown in fig. 9, the device 900 includes a processor 910, the processor 910 controlling the operation and functions of the device 900. For example, in some example embodiments, the processor 910 may perform various operations by way of instructions 930 stored in a memory 920 coupled thereto. The memory 920 may be of any suitable type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, including but not limited to semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems. Although only a single memory unit is illustrated in FIG. 9, there may be multiple physically distinct memory units within device 900.
The processor 910 may be of any suitable type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include, but is not limited to, one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microcontrollers, digital signal controllers (DSPs), and controller-based multi-core controller architectures. The device 900 may also include multiple processors 910. The processor 910 is coupled with a communication unit 940. The communication unit 940 may enable the reception and transmission of information by radio signals or by way of optical fibers, cables, and/or other components.
When the device 900 functions as a control plane device 500 or 310, the processor 910 may implement the operations and actions described above with reference to fig. 3 through 8 by executing the instructions. All of the features described above with reference to fig. 3-8 apply to the device 900 and are not described in detail herein.
Furthermore, in the case where the modules of the communication module 502, the rule matching module 504, and the device determination module 506 in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 are implemented by software, the modules may be stored in the memory 920 in the form of computer program codes or instructions 930, and the processor executes the program codes or instructions in the memory 920 to cause the device 900 to perform the processes implemented by the control plane device 310 in fig. 4 and the processes implemented by the control plane device in fig. 6.
When device 900 is acting as network controller 700 or 330, processor 910 may implement the operations and actions described above with reference to fig. 3-8 by executing instructions. All of the features described above with reference to fig. 3-8 apply to the device 900 and are not described in detail herein.
Furthermore, in the case where the modules of the state acquisition module 702, the rule generation module 704, and the communication module 706 in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 are implemented by software, these modules may be stored in the memory 920 in the form of computer program codes or instructions 930, and the processor executes the program codes or instructions in the memory 920 to cause the apparatus 900 to perform the processing procedures implemented by the control plane apparatus 330 in fig. 4 and the processing procedures implemented by the control plane apparatus in fig. 8.
In general, the various example embodiments of this disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Certain aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While aspects of example embodiments of the present disclosure have been illustrated and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is well understood that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.
By way of example, example embodiments of the present disclosure may be described in the context of machine or computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in devices on target real or virtual processors. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. In example embodiments, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or divided between program modules as described. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within local or distributed devices. In a distributed facility, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage media.
Computer program code for implementing the methods of the present disclosure may be written in one or more programming languages. These computer program codes may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, cause the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks to be performed. The program code may execute entirely on the computer, partly on the computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server.
In the context of this disclosure, a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine-readable medium may be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. A machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination thereof. More detailed examples of a machine-readable storage medium include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination thereof.
Additionally, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In some cases, multitasking or parallel processing may be beneficial. Likewise, while the above discussion contains certain specific implementation details, this should not be construed as limiting the scope of any invention or claims, but rather as a description of specific example embodiments that may be directed to a particular invention. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate example embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single example embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single example embodiment can also be implemented in multiple example embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims (43)

1. A method of flow control, comprising:
the method comprises the steps that a control plane device receives access information of a terminal device from an initial user plane device accessed by the terminal device, wherein the access information at least indicates the service level of the terminal device;
the control plane equipment acquires a user plane determination rule based on the service level of the terminal equipment; and
and the control plane equipment determines target user plane equipment for bearing the flow of the terminal equipment according to the user plane determination rule.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the user plane determination rule comprises:
the control plane device determines the user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device from a set of user plane determination rules based on the service level of the terminal device.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to obtaining the user plane determination rule, the method further comprises:
the control plane device determines whether a user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device exists from a group of user plane determination rules based on the service level of the terminal device;
if it is determined that there is no user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device, the control plane device sends a user plane determination request to a network controller, the user plane determination request including the service level of the terminal device; and
receiving a user plane determination response from the network controller, the user plane determination response indicating the target user plane device for carrying traffic for the terminal device.
4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the obtaining the user plane determination rule comprises:
the control plane device receives the user plane determination rule from a network controller, the user plane determination rule being generated by the network controller based on state information of at least one user plane device.
5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the obtaining the user plane determination rule comprises:
the control plane device receives the user plane determination rule from a network administrator.
6. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, further comprising:
and the control plane equipment sends an access report to a network controller, wherein the access report indicates the load of the target user plane equipment to the flow of the terminal equipment.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the access report further indicates the initial user plane device if the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, such that the network controller migrates the traffic from the initial user plane device to the target user plane device based on the access report.
8. The method of claim 6 or 7, further comprising:
the control plane device receiving at least one user plane determination rule updated based on the access report from the network controller; and
the control plane device determines a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the other terminal device based on the updated at least one user plane determination rule and the received access information of the other terminal device.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, the method further comprising:
the control plane device sends a revocation indication to the initial user plane device, so that the initial user plane device deletes a user table entry associated with the terminal device, wherein the user table entry comprises information related to the load of the traffic of the terminal device; and
and the control plane equipment sends the user table entry associated with the terminal equipment to the target user plane equipment.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:
the control plane equipment deletes the user plane determination rule according to a rule deletion instruction received from a network administrator; and
the control plane device deletes the user plane determination rule according to a rule deletion instruction received from a network controller.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the access information further indicates at least one of an identifier of the terminal device, location information, and an access domain name, and wherein the obtaining the user plane determination rule comprises:
the control plane device selecting at least one candidate user plane determination rule from a set of user plane determination rules that satisfies the service level; and
the control plane device determines the target user plane determination rule from the at least one candidate user plane determination rule based on at least one of an identifier of the terminal device, location information, an access domain name, and an access interface.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the control plane device comprises a server device and the user plane device comprises a router device.
13. A method of flow control, the method comprising:
the method comprises the steps that a network controller obtains state information of at least one user plane device for bearing the flow of a terminal device, wherein the state information at least indicates the number and the flow of the terminal device borne by the at least one user plane device;
the network controller generates a group of user plane determination rules based on the state information and the corresponding relation between the service level of the terminal equipment and the user plane equipment, wherein each user plane determination rule in the group of user plane determination rules is used for determining the user plane equipment carrying the flow of the corresponding terminal equipment; and
the network controller sends the set of user plane determination rules to a control plane device of the at least one user plane device.
14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:
the network controller receiving an access report from the control plane device, the access report indicating that a target user plane device of the at least one user plane device is to carry traffic of a first terminal device;
the network controller updating at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the access report; and
the network controller sends the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the access report further indicates an initial user plane device of the terminal device that is different from the target user plane device, and wherein the method further comprises:
the network controller sends a bearer change instruction to a migration device based on the access report, so that the migration device migrates the traffic of the first terminal device from the initial user plane device of the first terminal device to the target user plane device.
16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:
the network controller determines bearing change information of the at least one user plane device based on the acquired state information and historical state information of the at least one user plane device, wherein the bearing change information indicates the change of the number of terminal devices or the change of flow borne by each user plane device;
the network controller updating at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the bearer change information; and
the network controller sends the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device.
17. The method of claim 13, wherein the correspondence of the service level of the terminal device to the user plane device is pre-configured at the network controller.
18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:
the network controller receiving a user plane determination request from the control plane device, the user plane determination request including a service level of the terminal device;
the network controller determines the target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device based at least on the service level; and
the network controller sends a user plane determination response to the control plane device, wherein the user plane determination response is used for indicating the target user plane device.
19. The method of claim 13, wherein generating the set of user plane determination rules comprises:
the network controller obtains additional information, the additional information comprising at least one of: the regularity of the network service, the priority of the network service, the operator policy, the identifier of the terminal device, the location information, the access domain name and the access interface; and
the network controller generates the set of user plane determination rules based on the state information, the correspondence, and the additional information.
20. The method of claim 13, wherein the network controller comprises at least one of a software defined network control and user plane migration function device.
21. A control plane apparatus, comprising:
a communication module configured to receive access information of a terminal device from an initial user plane device to which the terminal user has access, the access information indicating at least a service level of the terminal device;
a rule obtaining module configured to obtain a user plane determination rule based on a service level of the terminal device; and
and the equipment determining module is configured to determine target user plane equipment for bearing the traffic of the terminal equipment according to the user plane determining rule.
22. The control plane device of claim 21, wherein the rule acquisition module is further configured to:
determining the user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device from a set of user plane determination rules based on the service level of the terminal device.
23. The control plane device of claim 21, further comprising a processing module configured to:
before obtaining the user plane determination rule, determining whether a user plane determination rule matched with the service level of the terminal equipment exists in a group of user plane determination rules based on the service level of the terminal equipment; and
if it is determined that there is no user plane determination rule matching the service level of the terminal device, causing a user plane determination request to be sent to a network controller through the communication module, the user plane determination request including the service level of the terminal device; and is
The communication module is further configured to:
receiving a user plane determination response from the network controller, the user plane determination response indicating the target user plane device for carrying traffic for the terminal device.
24. The control plane device of claim 21 or 22, wherein the rule acquisition module is further configured to:
receiving, by the communication module, the user plane determination rule from a network controller, the user plane determination rule generated by the network controller based on state information of at least one user plane device.
25. The control plane device of claim 21 or 22, wherein the rule acquisition module is further configured to:
receiving the user plane determination rule from a network administrator.
26. The control plane device of any of claims 21-25, wherein the communication module is further configured to:
and sending an access report to a network controller, wherein the access report indicates the load of the target user plane equipment to the flow of the terminal equipment.
27. The control plane device of claim 26, wherein the access report further indicates the initial user plane device if the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, such that the network controller migrates the traffic from the initial user plane device to the target user plane device based on the access report.
28. The control plane device of claim 26 or 27, wherein the communication module is further configured to:
receiving at least one user plane determination rule updated based on the access report from the network controller; and is
The device determination module is further configured to:
determining a target user plane device for carrying traffic of the other terminal device based on the updated at least one user plane determination rule and the received access information of the other terminal device.
29. The control plane device of claim 21, wherein the target user plane device is different from the initial user plane device, the control plane device further comprising a processing module configured to:
sending, by the communication module, a revocation indication to the initial user plane device, so that the initial user plane device deletes a user entry associated with the terminal device, where the user entry includes information about a bearer of traffic of the terminal device; and
and sending the user table entry associated with the terminal device to the target user plane device through the communication module.
30. The control plane device of claim 21, wherein the communication module is further configured to:
receiving a rule deletion instruction from at least one of a network administrator and a network controller; and is
The control plane device further comprises a processing module configured to:
and deleting the user plane determination rule according to the rule deletion instruction.
31. The control plane device of claim 21, wherein the access information further indicates at least one of an identifier, location information, and an access domain name of the terminal device, and wherein the rule acquisition module is further configured to:
selecting at least one candidate user plane determination rule satisfying the service level from a set of user plane determination rules; and
determining the target user plane determination rule from the at least one candidate user plane determination rule based on at least one of an identifier of the terminal device, location information, an access domain name, and an access interface.
32. The control plane device of claim 21, wherein the control plane device comprises a server device and the user plane device comprises a router device.
33. A network controller, comprising:
a state obtaining module configured to obtain state information of at least one user plane device for carrying traffic of a terminal device, where the state information at least indicates a number and traffic of the terminal device carried by the at least one user plane device;
a rule generating module configured to generate a set of user plane determination rules based on the state information and a corresponding relationship between a service level of the terminal device and the user plane device, where each user plane determination rule in the set of user plane determination rules is used for determining the user plane device carrying traffic of the corresponding terminal device; and
a communication module configured to send the set of user plane determination rules to a control plane device of the at least one user plane device.
34. The network controller of claim 33, wherein the communication module is further configured to:
receiving an access report from the control plane device, the access report indicating that a target user plane device of the at least one user plane device is to carry traffic of a first terminal device; and is
The network controller further comprises a processing module configured to:
updating at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the access report; and
sending, by the communication module, the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device.
35. The network controller of claim 34, wherein the access report further indicates an initial user plane device of the terminal device that is different from the target user plane device, and wherein the processing module is further configured to:
based on the access report, sending a bearer change instruction to a migration device through the communication module, so that the migration device migrates the traffic of the first terminal device from the initial user plane device of the first terminal device to the target user plane device.
36. The network controller of claim 33, further comprising a processing module configured to:
determining bearing change information of the at least one user plane device based on the obtained state information and historical state information of the at least one user plane device, wherein the bearing change information indicates the change of the number of terminal devices or the change of flow borne by each user plane device; and
updating at least one user plane determination rule of the set of user plane determination rules based on the bearer change information; and is
The communication module is further configured to send the updated at least one user plane determination rule to the control plane device.
37. The network controller of claim 33, wherein the correspondence between the service level of the terminal device and the user plane device is pre-configured at the network controller.
38. The network controller of claim 33, wherein the communication module is further configured to:
receiving a user plane determination request from the control plane device, the user plane determination request including a service level of the terminal device; and is
The network controller further comprises a processing module configured to:
determining the target user plane device for carrying traffic of the terminal device based at least on the service level; and
sending, by the communication module, a user plane determination response to the control plane device, where the user plane determination response is used to indicate the target user plane device.
39. The network controller of claim 33, wherein the rule generation module is further configured to:
obtaining additional information, the additional information comprising at least one of: the regularity of the network service, the priority of the network service, the operator policy, the identifier of the terminal device, the location information, the access domain name and the access interface; and
generating the set of user plane determination rules based on the state information, the correspondence, and the additional information.
40. The network controller of claim 33, wherein the network controller comprises at least one of a software defined network control and user plane migration function device.
41. A control plane device, comprising:
at least one processor;
at least one memory including computer program code,
the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the control plane apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1-12.
42. A network controller, comprising:
at least one processor;
at least one memory including computer program code,
the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the network controller to perform the method of any of claims 13 to 20.
43. A control plane and user plane separated network system comprising:
at least one user plane device configured to carry traffic of a terminal device;
a control surface arrangement as claimed in any of claims 21 to 32; and
a network controller according to any of claims 33 to 40.
CN202010724094.2A 2020-07-24 2020-07-24 Method, equipment and system for flow control Pending CN114051003A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202010724094.2A CN114051003A (en) 2020-07-24 2020-07-24 Method, equipment and system for flow control

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202010724094.2A CN114051003A (en) 2020-07-24 2020-07-24 Method, equipment and system for flow control

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CN114051003A true CN114051003A (en) 2022-02-15

Family

ID=80204318

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CN202010724094.2A Pending CN114051003A (en) 2020-07-24 2020-07-24 Method, equipment and system for flow control

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CN (1) CN114051003A (en)

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US11895154B2 (en) Method and system for virtual machine aware policy management
US10003571B2 (en) Method and apparatus for implementing communication between virtual machines
EP2806601B1 (en) Tunnels between virtual machines
CN110896371B (en) Virtual network equipment and related method
US9628328B2 (en) Network controller with integrated resource management capability
WO2017036288A1 (en) Network element upgrading method and device
CN106031100B (en) The dispositions method and device of business chain
JP2015534320A (en) System and method for providing policy-based data center network automation
US10462048B2 (en) Virtual cluster establishment method and network device
KR20170114923A (en) Method and apparatus for communicating using network slice
US20150229523A1 (en) Virtual extensible local area network (vxlan) system of automatically configuring multicasting tunnel for segment of virtual extensible local area network according to life cycle of end system and operating method thereof
CN105763385A (en) Flow scheduling method and apparatus
EP3044911A1 (en) Method and apparatus for communicating with an access node
CN111741508B (en) Method, controller, forwarding device, device and medium for establishing communication connection
US9900804B2 (en) Method and device for processing to share network resources, and method, device and system for sharing network resources
US20220350637A1 (en) Virtual machine deployment method and related apparatus
CN116668511A (en) Data processing method, network element equipment and readable storage medium
CN107769973B (en) Message forwarding method and device
CN112671811B (en) Network access method and equipment
CN114051003A (en) Method, equipment and system for flow control
CN112565937B (en) Method, device and system for selecting BNG-UP device
CN111884863A (en) VPC service chain implementation method and system for cloud computing environment
KR101678850B1 (en) Method, apparatus and computer program for updating switch of software defined network
CN114765582B (en) Data transmission method, device and system
WO2023088411A1 (en) Method and apparatus for sending instruction, and method and apparatus for sending information

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PB01 Publication
PB01 Publication
SE01 Entry into force of request for substantive examination
SE01 Entry into force of request for substantive examination