CN114554504A

CN114554504A - Method for network slice planning and related equipment

Info

Publication number: CN114554504A
Application number: CN202011332093.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 支炳立; 武绍芸; 李耕
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-11-24
Filing date: 2020-11-24
Publication date: 2022-05-27
Also published as: WO2022110944A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a method for network slicing planning and related equipment, which are used for automatically generating slicing plan configuration information required by core network slicing subnet instance deployment on line through slicing configuration information, so that the online speed of a service based on slicing operation is increased, and the flexibility of slicing service deployment of an operator is greatly improved. The method in the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps: the first network equipment receives a topology planning request from the second network equipment, determines slice plan configuration information according to the slice configuration information carried in the topology planning request, and sends the slice plan configuration information to the second network equipment through a topology planning response.

Description

Method for network slice planning and related equipment

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the field of communication, in particular to a method for network slice planning and related equipment.

Background

The fifth generation mobile communication network (5G) slicing technology refers to flexibly allocating network resources, networking on demand, virtualizing a plurality of mutually isolated logic subnets with different characteristics based on a 5G network, and meeting the differentiated requirements of different applications on the network. Each network slice is formed by combining a wireless network, a transmission network and a core network slice subnet, and is uniformly managed through a slice management system.

The planning result of the core network slicing subnetwork comprises the creation and verification of a network slicing template, the online of the template, the necessary network environment and other required contents. In the actual planning method for the core network sliced subnet, a manual investigation mode is adopted to determine the planning result of the core network sliced subnet, so that a large amount of manpower and time are consumed, the service on-line time based on the operation of the core network sliced subnet is longer, and the high cost reduces the flexibility of service deployment of an operator.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a method and related equipment for network slicing planning, which can enable the slicing planning of a core network slicing subnet to be automatically completed on line through slicing configuration information, save a large amount of manpower and time, accelerate the online speed of a service based on slicing operation, and greatly improve the flexibility of slicing service deployment of an operator.

A first aspect of an embodiment of the present application provides a method for network slice planning:

in the 5G core network architecture, a first network device is connected to a second network device, the first network device may also be installed inside the second network device, the first network device receives a topology planning request from the second network device, the topology planning request carries slice configuration information, and the slice configuration information includes information required to create a slice subnet instance of the core network.

After the first network device receives the topology planning request sent by the second network device, the first network device determines slice plan configuration information which can be used for actual deployment in the process of creating a core network slice subnet instance according to slice configuration information which represents requirements and is carried in the topology planning request.

After the first network device generates the slice plan configuration information, the first network device sends a topology planning response to the second network device according to the received topology planning request, and the topology planning response carries the slice plan configuration information which can be used for core network slice subnet deployment.

It can be understood that, the first network device generates slicing plan configuration information for actually deploying the slicing subnets of the core network according to slicing configuration information representing the deployment requirement of the slicing subnets of the core network, which is carried in the topology planning request from the second network device, and sends the slicing plan configuration information to the second network device through the topology planning response, and then deploys the example of the slicing subnets of the core network. Slicing planning of the core network slicing subnet can be automatically completed on line through slicing configuration information, a large amount of labor and time are saved, the online speed of slicing operation-based services is increased, and the flexibility of slicing service deployment of operators is greatly improved.

Based on the first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a first implementation manner of the first aspect:

when the slicing plan configuration information includes a target Network Function (NF) set or a target Data Center (DC) set, the first network device determines, according to the slicing configuration information indicating requirements of the slicing subnet instances, service requirement information that each NF or DC included in the slicing subnet instances can provide services, where the service requirement information includes at least one of geographic range requirement information, geographic hierarchy requirement information, NF performance requirement information, new capacity requirement information, new Data Center Gateway (DCGW) bandwidth requirement information, and an NF requirement amount.

And the first network equipment screens a target NF set or a target DC set meeting the service requirement from the deployed NF set or the deployed DC set according to the requirement that each NF or DC indicated by the service requirement information can provide the service.

It can be understood that the first network device can automatically screen a target NF set or a target DC set for deployment of the core network slice subnet instance, which meets the service requirement, on line according to the service requirement information, so that the screening accuracy and the effectiveness of resource utilization are improved, and the screening convenience is improved in the automatic screening process.

Based on the first aspect and the first implementation manner of the first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a second implementation manner of the first aspect:

the slice configuration information representing the slice subnet instance creation requirement may include multiple kinds of requirement information, and when the slice configuration information includes slice service area information and the service requirement information includes the geographical range requirement information, the first network device determines the geographical range requirement information representing the requirement for NF or DC coverage in the slice subnet instance according to the geographical range in which the slice subnet instance needs to provide the service indicated by the slice service area information.

It can be understood that the first network device can automatically generate the geographic range requirement information for screening the target NF set or the target DC set in the example deployment of the core network sliced subnet on line according to the sliced service area information, so that the screening accuracy is improved, and the screening convenience is improved through the automatic screening process.

In accordance with an example of this application, in any one of the first to the second embodiments of the first aspect, there is provided a third embodiment of the first aspect:

the slice configuration information representing the slice subnet instance creation requirement may include multiple kinds of requirement information, and when the slice configuration information includes an NF deployment location and the service requirement information includes the geographic hierarchy requirement information, the first network device determines the geographic hierarchy requirement information where the NF or the DC corresponding to the NF is located according to the geographic hierarchy where the NF is located indicated by the NF deployment location.

It can be understood that the first network device can automatically generate geographic hierarchy requirement information for screening a target NF set or a target DC set in the core network slice subnet instance deployment on line according to the NF deployment position, so that the screening accuracy is improved, and the screening convenience is improved in an automatic screening process.

In accordance with an example of the present application, in any one of the first to third embodiments of the first aspect, there is provided a fourth embodiment of the first aspect:

the slice configuration information representing the creation requirement of the slice subnet instance may include multiple kinds of requirement information, and when the slice configuration information includes slice performance requirement information and the service requirement information includes NF performance requirement information, the first network device determines NF performance requirement information for deploying each NF in a target NF set of the slice subnet instance according to the performance requirement of the slice subnet instance indicated by the slice performance requirement information.

It can be understood that the first network device may automatically generate NF performance requirement information for screening a target NF set or a target DC set in the deployment of the core network sliced subnet instances on line according to the sliced performance requirement information, thereby improving the accuracy of screening and the effectiveness of resource utilization.

Based on any one of the first aspect to the fourth embodiment of the first aspect, the present application provides in an example the fifth embodiment of the first aspect:

the slice configuration information representing the slice subnet instance creation requirement may include multiple requirement information, and when the slice configuration information includes service availability information, reliability information, and capacity requirement information, and the service requirement information includes newly added capacity requirement information and NF requirement number, the first network device determines an NF having a fixed networking collocation relationship according to a transmission performance requirement between NFs indicated by the service availability information, a networking redundancy relationship, and a failure index of a single NF indicated by the reliability information, and determines the NF requirement number.

And the first network equipment determines the newly added capacity requirement information of each NF in the NF group with fixed networking collocation relationship, the number of which is the NF requirement number, according to the total static capacity requirement of the slice subnet instance indicated by the capacity requirement information and the NF requirement number.

It can be understood that the first network device may determine a fixed networking collocation relationship of the discrete NFs according to the service availability information and the reliability information, determine a required number of the NFs having the fixed networking collocation relationship, determine new capacity required information of the NFs having the fixed networking collocation relationship according to the capacity required information and the required number of the NFs, where the new capacity required information is used to generate slice plan configuration information required for slice subnet instance deployment, complete online automatic planning of the slice subnet instances, improve the screening accuracy and the resource utilization effectiveness, and improve the screening convenience in an automated screening process.

Based on the fifth implementation manner of the first aspect, the present application provides a sixth implementation manner of the first aspect:

and the first network equipment determines the newly increased virtual resource requirement information and the newly increased DCGW bandwidth requirement information according to the newly increased capacity requirement information.

It can be understood that the first network device may generate new virtual resource demand information and new DCGW bandwidth demand information for screening the target NF set or the target DC set according to the new capacity demand information, complete online automatic planning of the sliced subnet instance, and implement resource evaluation with high accuracy and high utilization efficiency.

Based on any one of the first aspect to the sixth implementation manner of the first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide the seventh implementation manner of the first aspect:

when the target NF set or the target DC set is determined, the first network device distributes the requirement of the service requirement information on each NF to each NF or DC in the target NF set or the target DC set to generate slice plan configuration information, wherein the slice plan configuration information may include multiple kinds of information, and when the slice plan configuration information includes the planned newly-increased capacity information, the first network device determines the planned newly-increased capacity information according to the newly-increased capacity requirement information and the target NF set or the target DC set.

It can be understood that the first network device may generate planned additional capacity information for deployment of the sliced subnet instances according to the additional capacity requirement information, and complete online automatic planning of the sliced subnet instances.

Based on the seventh implementation manner of the first aspect, the present application provides an eighth implementation manner of the first aspect:

and the first network equipment determines the planned newly added virtual resource information according to the newly added virtual resource demand information and the target NF set or the target DC set.

And the first network equipment determines the planned newly added DCGW information according to the newly added DCGW bandwidth demand information and the target NF set or the target DC set.

It can be understood that the first network device may generate the planned new virtual resource information and the planned new DCGW information for deployment of the sliced subnet instance according to the new virtual resource requirement information and the new DCGW bandwidth requirement information, and complete the online automatic planning of the sliced subnet instance.

Based on any one of the first aspect to the eighth implementation manner of the first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide the ninth implementation manner of the first aspect:

the target NF set includes any one of an access and mobility management Function (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), a Policy Control Function (PCF), a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF), a charging Function (CHF), a Network data analysis Function (NWDAF), an authentication server Function (AUSF), an AUSF, a Unified Data Management (UDM), a Network service presentation Function (NEF), and a User Plane Function (UPF).

A second aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a method for network slice planning, where:

the second network device sends a topology planning request to the first network device, the topology planning request indicates that the second network device needs to acquire a topology structure of the NF required by the deployment of the slice subnet instance, the topology planning request carries slice configuration information indicating the deployment requirement of the slice subnet instance, and the slice configuration information includes at least one of slice service area information, NF deployment position, slice performance requirement information, service availability information, reliability information and capacity requirement information.

After the second network device sends the topology planning request, the second network device receives a topology planning response sent by the first network device, the topology planning response carries slice plan configuration information which includes a topology planning result and a resource evaluation result required by the slice subnet instance deployment, and the slice plan configuration information includes at least one of a target NF set or a target DC set, and plan new capacity information, plan new virtual resource information and plan new DCGW information.

It can be understood that the second network device sends a topology planning request representing the deployment requirement of the sliced subnet example to the first network device, and receives the sliced plan configuration information representing the topology planning result and the resource evaluation result sent by the first network device and used for the sliced subnet example deployment, so as to complete the online automatic planning of the sliced subnet example, improve the accuracy of screening and the effectiveness of resource utilization, and improve the convenience of screening through the automatic screening process.

A third aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a first network device, where the first network device has a function of implementing the first network device in the foregoing first aspect. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software, where the hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

A fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a second network device, where the second network device has a function of implementing the second network device in the foregoing second aspect. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software, where the hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

A fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a first network device, including a processor, a memory, an input/output device, and a bus;

the processor, the memory and the input and output equipment are connected with the bus;

the processor is configured to perform the method of the first aspect.

A sixth aspect of the present embodiment provides a second network device, including a processor, a memory, an input/output device, and a bus;

the processor is configured to perform the method of the second aspect.

A seventh aspect of embodiments of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a program that, when executed by a computer, performs a process of any one of the methods in the first to second aspects.

An eighth aspect of embodiments of the present application provides a computer program product, which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform the procedures in the method according to any one of the first to second aspects.

A ninth aspect of an embodiment of the present application provides a system for network slice planning, where the system includes the first network device described in any one of the first aspect, the third aspect, and the fifth aspect, and the second network device described in any one of the second aspect, the fourth aspect, and the sixth aspect.

A tenth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a method for network slice planning, where the method is applied to a system for network slice planning, and the system for network slice planning includes a first network device and a second network device;

the first network equipment receives a topology planning request from the second network equipment, the topology planning request carries slice configuration information, and the slice configuration information comprises requirement information for creating a core network slice subnet instance.

After the first network device generates the slicing plan configuration information, the first network device sends a topology planning response to the second network device according to the received topology planning request, and the topology planning response carries the slicing plan configuration information which can be used for deployment of the core network slicing subnet.

According to the technical scheme, the embodiment of the application has the following advantages:

the method comprises the steps that a first network device receives a topology planning request from a second network device, slice plan configuration information used for actually deploying a core network slice subnet is determined according to slice configuration information representing core network slice subnet deployment requirements carried in the topology planning request, and the first network device sends a topology planning response to the second network device, wherein the slice plan configuration information is carried in the topology planning response. The slice plan configuration information comprises topology planning information and resource evaluation information required by the deployment of the core network slice subnet, so that the slice planning of the core network slice subnet can be automatically completed on line through the slice configuration information, a large amount of manpower and time are saved, the online speed of the slice operation-based service is increased, and the flexibility of the operator in slice service deployment is greatly improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a 5G core network architecture diagram;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a method for network slice planning according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for network slice planning according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for network slice planning according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for network slice planning according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for network slice planning according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a method for network slice planning according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a first network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a second network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is another schematic structural diagram of a first network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is another schematic structural diagram of a second network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The embodiment of the application provides a method for network slicing planning, which can automatically complete the slicing planning of a core network slicing subnet on line, generate the plan configuration information of a target NF, save a large amount of manpower and time, accelerate the online speed of a service based on slicing operation, and greatly improve the flexibility of slicing service deployment of an operator.

Under the requirement of digital transformation, various rich applications generated by various industries present new challenges to network performance, and the network is required to have ultra-low time delay, ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-large connection, agility, reliability, automated operation and maintenance capability and openness:

(1) network capability: the 5G network needs to provide ultra-low time delay, ultra-high bandwidth and ultra-large connection;

(2) agility: the 5G network needs to be more agile, and differentiated network capacity is provided according to the service requirement;

(3) network isolation: the 5G network needs to provide network isolation capability, and the networks are independent;

(4) reliability: 5G networks need to provide higher reliability and security to meet the application requirements at the industrial level;

(5) operation and maintenance capacity: the 5G network needs to have automatic life cycle management and automatic operation and maintenance capabilities;

(6) opening property: the 5G network needs to be more open, open network capability, provide an excellent experience and richer services with the application.

However, it is necessary to construct a network that can satisfy all performance requirements, and the requirements of different applications on network performance are different, and it is a waste of resources that a high performance network cannot fully perform its function.

In order to satisfy the balance between 5G network service and cost effectiveness, the 5G network slicing technology flexibly allocates network resources through a unified cloud infrastructure, networks the network as required, virtualizes a plurality of logic subnets which have different characteristics and are isolated from each other based on the 5G network, and can satisfy the differentiation requirements of different applications on the network. Each network slice is formed by combining a wireless network, a transmission network and a core network slice subnet, and is managed uniformly by a slice management system, so that the network construction cost is reduced. Through flexible resource scheduling combination, differentiated Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantee is provided for different tenants, and through the independent operation and maintenance capacity of slices, the tenants are helped to realize independent management of services.

The 5G core network is a separated architecture, the traditional network element is divided into a plurality of NF, and the network is constructed in a software, modularization and service mode. Because of the conformance with the SBA service architecture, each NF is independent and autonomous, and no matter whether it is newly added, upgraded or modified, it will not interfere with other NFs.

The method for creating the 5G core network slice subnet example comprises a NF sharing mode or a new NF building mode, wherein the NF sharing mode refers to selecting NF meeting requirements from deployed NF, and resources are divided on each NF and used for creating a new core network slice subnet example; the new NF mode is that a new NF is created on a data center according to requirements, and the new NF is used for creating a new core network slice subnet instance.

To facilitate an understanding of the present application, definitions of some terms referred to herein are provided below:

1. network Function (NF):

the 5G core network constructs a network in a software, modular, and service manner, wherein a conventional network element is split into a plurality of network functions. The network function refers to a single communication network function obtained by splitting the function of a traditional network element in a communication network, and each network function is independent and autonomous, so that other network functions cannot be interfered by newly adding, upgrading or modifying the network function.

2. Access and mobility management function (AMF):

the functions of registration management, connectivity management, mobility management and the like of the terminal are mainly supported.

3. Session Management Function (SMF):

the method mainly supports the functions of session establishment, modification, release and the like, and is also responsible for the functions of UE IP address allocation and management, UPF selection and control, tunnel maintenance between UPF and AN nodes and the like.

4. User Plane Function (UPF):

the method is mainly responsible for packet routing and forwarding of data messages.

5. Authentication server function (AUSF):

and supporting the access authentication of the user.

6. Unified Data Management (UDM):

the functions of subscription management of a user, NF registration management of UE, certificate processing of 3GPP AKA authentication and the like are mainly supported.

7. Policy Control Function (PCF):

a unified policy framework is supported to manage network behavior.

8. Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF):

the following functions may be provided: (1) selecting a set of network slice instances serving the UE; (2) determining allowed NSSAI, and if necessary, a mapping to S-NSSAI for contracted reads; (3) determining configured NSSAI, and if necessary, a mapping to subscribed S-NSSAI; (4) determine a set of AMFs that may be used to query the UE, or determine a list of candidate AMFs based on the configuration (possibly by querying the NRFs).

9. Authentication server function (AUSF):

is responsible for the processing related to the user authentication data.

10. Charging function (CHF):

CHF supports online charging, offline charging, and converged charging.

11. Network data analysis function (NWDAF):

the operator managed network analyzes the logic function, providing load level analysis.

12. Network service exposure function (NEF):

is responsible for opening network data to the outside.

The embodiment of the present application may apply the 5G core network architecture shown in fig. 1:

the 5G core network architecture comprises a network warehousing function 101, a network function virtualization orchestrator 102, a communication service management function 103, a network slice management function 104, a network planning and design function 105, a network slice subnet management function 106, a network function management function 107, and a virtualized network function manager 108.

The following describes the functions of each network element in the core network architecture in embodiment 5G of the present application:

a Network Repository Function (NRF) 101 supports a service discovery function, receives an NF discovery request from an NF instance, and provides information of a discovered NF instance (discovered) to the NF instance; NF profiles are maintained for available NF instances and their supported services.

A Network Function Virtualization Orchestrator (NFVO) 102 is responsible for overall management of network services, VNFs, and resources, and is a control core of the entire NFV architecture.

A Communication Service Management Function (CSMF) 103 is responsible for a slice management logic function that translates communication service requirements into network slice requirements.

A Network Slice Management Function (NSMF) 104 is responsible for managing and organizing network slice instances, and a slice management logic function for resolving network slice subnet requirements.

A Network Planning and Design Function (NPDF) 105 provides the functions of NSSI planning and network and business parameter design, and the NSSI planning function of the NPDF is embedded in the slice creation process. Wherein the NSSI planning function comprises an NSSI topology planning function and an NSSI resource evaluation function. The NSSI planning function takes the requirement of the instance of the sub-network of the slice as input, combines NF and DC information collected by the current network, and gives the planning result of the NSSI, namely the NSSI topology definition, the deployability evaluation result, the resource requirement and the like through the automatic planning process.

A Network Slice Subnet Management Function (NSSMF) 106 is responsible for managing and orchestrating slice management logic functions of network slice subnet instances.

A Network Function Management Function (NFMF) 107 is responsible for fault management, configuration management, charging management, performance management, and security management of network functions.

A Virtualized Network Function Manager (VNFM) 108 is responsible for related management of resources and life cycles of the VNF, such as functions of instantiating, expanding, and contracting network elements.

Based on the above description of the network element functions in the 5G core network architecture, the following description is made of the interaction process between the network elements:

(1) the NPDF105 acquires a deployed NF set and deployed NF configuration information from the NRF101 in advance;

(2) the NPDF105 acquires a deployed DC set and deployed DC configuration information from the NFVO102 in advance;

(3) the CSMF103 sends a Network Slice Instance (NSI) request for creating a logical network to the NSMF104, and creates an NSI request carrying service configuration information ServiceProfile;

(4) after receiving the NSI creating request, the NSMF104 analyzes the serviceProfile parameter of the service configuration information and obtains the requirement of NSSI, and initiates a NSSI creating request carrying the SliceProfile parameter of the slice configuration information;

(5) the NSSMF106 initiates a network function sub network instance (NSSI) planning request of a logical network subnet to the NPDF105, where the NSSI request may carry a network and service parameter design request;

(6) the NPDF105 generates an NSSI planning result, and generates the topological structure of the slice and the related service parameter configuration based on the NSSI planning result;

(7) NSSMF106 sends schedule configuration information of shared NF to NFMF107, and the schedule configuration information is managed by NFMF 107;

(8) the NSSMF106 sends an NS creation request to the NFVO102, carrying NSD/VNFD;

(9) if the NF sharing mode is adopted, NSSMF106 initiates a slice configuration request to NFMF107, and completes the slice opening process;

(10) if the NF mode is newly created, the NFVO102 initiates a VNF instantiation request to the VNFM108, and completes the slice provisioning process.

Based on the above 5G core network architecture, first, an internal processing method of the NPDF logical unit in the embodiment of the present application is introduced:

in the embodiment of the present application, after determining the service requirement information, the NPDF needs to select a target NF or a target DC according to different requirements, and determine slice plan configuration information according to the target NF and the target DC.

It should be noted that, when the resource sharing level information in the service requirement information indicates that the slice creation mode is the shared NF, the NPDF filters a target NF set satisfying the requirement from the deployed NF sets, and when the resource sharing level information in the service requirement information indicates that the slice creation mode is the new NF, the NPDF filters a target DC set satisfying the requirement from the deployed DC set, and creates a target NF set on the target DC set, which is described below:

when the slice creation mode is the sharing NF, the NPDF determines a target NF set from the deployed NF sets:

in this embodiment, the NPDF filters a target NF set meeting requirements from deployed NF sets according to the service requirement information, and then determines slice plan configuration information of the target NF set according to the service requirement information and the target NF set.

It should be noted that the target NF set includes a control plane NF set, and may also include other types of NF sets, such as a user plane NF set, which is not limited herein.

In practical application, the target NF sets include a control plane NF set and a user plane NF set, and the control plane NF set and the user plane NF set that satisfy the requirements are screened in the deployed NF sets in different manners, which are described below:

1. the NPDF determines a control plane NF aggregation from the deployed NF aggregation and determines the slicing plan configuration information:

in this embodiment, the NPDF determines, according to the slicing service area information and the NF actual load information, a target NF set belonging to the control plane and generates plan configuration information of the slicing subnet based on the target NF set.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the target NF set is a control plane NF set.

Referring to fig. 2, an embodiment of a method for network slice planning in the embodiment of the present application includes:

201. and receiving a topology planning request, wherein the topology planning request carries slice configuration information, and the slice configuration information comprises slice service area information, resource sharing level information and slice capacity demand information.

The NPDF receives topology planning requests sent by other network devices, wherein the topology planning requests carry slice configuration information, and the slice configuration information comprises slice service area information, resource sharing level information and slice capacity demand information. The slice service area information, the resource sharing level information, and the slice capacity demand information are defined as shown in table 1 below:

TABLE 1

Properties	Definition of
		Slicing service area	Geographical extent to which sliced subnet instances can provide services
Slice capacity demand information	Total demand for static capacity by sliced subnet instances
		Resource sharing level information	The isolation of the NF, i.e. the resources of the NF are shared by several slice subnet instances.

The resource sharing level information is used to indicate that the creation mode of the core network slice subnet is the sharing NF mode or the newly-built NF mode.

202. A deployed NF set and deployed NF set configuration information are received.

The NPDF receives the deployed NF aggregation and the deployed NF aggregation configuration information sent by other network equipment, wherein the deployed NF aggregation configuration information comprises NF service area information and NF actual load information. The definitions of the NF service area information and NF actual load information are shown in table 2 below:

TABLE 2

Properties	Definition of
		NF service area information	Geographic extent to which deployed NF can provide service
NF actual load information	Actual load of each NF in deployed NF

203. A first NF set is determined from the slice service area information.

The NPDF determines the geographic range requirement information of the service provided by the slice to be created according to the slice service area information, and selects a first NF set meeting the geographic range requirement from the deployed NF sets according to the geographic range requirement information.

204. And determining a first control plane NF set from the first NF set according to the NF type.

The deployed NF set configuration information comprises NF type identification, and the NF type identification represents the specific type of each NF in the deployed NF set. And the NPDF screens the first NF aggregation belonging to the control plane in the first NF aggregation according to the NF type identification.

It should be noted that the control plane NF includes the AMF, and may also include other control planes NF, such as SMF, PCF, NSSF, CHF, NWDAF, AUSF, UDM, or NEF, which is not limited herein.

205. And determining a target NF set from the first control plane NF set according to the actual load information of the NF.

A fixed networking relationship is set between the control planes NF in the deployment process to form fixed collocation, and the control planes NF having a fixed collocation relationship are actually in the first control plane NF set by taking a group as a unit.

The NF actual load information indicates the actual load of each NF, the total actual load of each group of control planes NF in the fixed connection relationship can also be obtained through calculation, and after the NPDF determines the total actual load information of each group of control planes NF in the first control plane NF set, a group of light-load control planes NF is screened as a target NF set.

206. And determining the planned newly added capacity information, the planned newly added virtual resource information and the planned newly added DCGW bandwidth information of the target NF set according to the capacity demand information.

The definition of the newly-added capacity information, the newly-added virtual resource information, and the newly-added DCGW bandwidth information is shown in table 3 below:

TABLE 3

Properties	Definition of
		Projected added capacity information	Each NF in the target NF project new static capacity
Plan new virtualResource information	Virtual resource newly added by slice subnet instance plan based on target NF set
		Planning to add DCGW bandwidth information	DCGW bandwidth newly added by slice subnet instance plan based on target NF set

And the NPDF decomposes the total static capacity requirement of the slice subnet example indicated by the capacity requirement information to each NF in the target NF set, and obtains the planned new capacity information of the target NF set by considering a certain proportion of redundant capacity.

The NPDF performs a blinding test on a large number of service flows generated by each terminal user during the operation process to obtain the atomic resource overhead of the service flows, i.e., the capacity, virtual resources and DCGW bandwidth required by each service flow.

And the NPDF determines a service flow corresponding to the capacity according to the capacity indicated by the newly-increased capacity planning information, and then determines the newly-increased virtual resource planning information and the newly-increased DCGW bandwidth planning information of the target NF set through the service flow.

It should be noted that the splitting of the slice capacity requirement to each NF in the control plane NF set may be performed in an average splitting manner, or in other splitting manners, such as weight splitting, which is not limited herein.

207. And determining the NF instance identifier, the DC identifier and the DCGW identifier of the target NF set according to the deployed NF set configuration information.

The deployed NF set configuration information includes an NF instance identifier, a DC identifier, and a DCGW identifier corresponding to each NF, and after the NPDF filters the target NF set from the deployed NF set, the NF instance identifier, the DC identifier, and the DCGW identifier corresponding to the target NF set need to be determined.

208. And sending a topology planning response carrying slice plan configuration information.

The NPDF sends a topology planning response to other network equipment, wherein the topology planning response carries slice plan configuration information, and the slice plan configuration information comprises a target NF set, an NF instance identifier, a DC identifier, a DCGW identifier, plan newly-increased capacity information, plan newly-increased virtual resource information and plan newly-increased DCGW bandwidth information.

In this embodiment, the NPDF determines, through the slicing service area information and the NF actual load information, a target NF set belonging to the control plane, and generates plan configuration information of the slicing subnet based on the target NF set, thereby completing online automatic planning of the plan configuration information required by the slicing subnet instance.

2. The NPDF determines the user plane NF set from the deployed NF sets and determines the slice plan configuration information:

in this embodiment, the NPDF determines, according to the slicing service area information, the slicing capacity demand information, the NF deployment location, the service availability information, the reliability information, and the NF actual load information, a target NF set belonging to the user plane and generates plan configuration information of a slicing subnet based on the target NF set.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the target NF set is a user plane NF set.

Referring to fig. 3, an embodiment of a method for network slice planning in the embodiment of the present application includes:

301. and receiving a topology planning request, wherein the topology planning request carries slice service area information, slice capacity demand information, NF deployment position, slice performance demand information, service availability information, reliability information and resource sharing level information.

The NPDF receives topology planning requests sent by other network devices, wherein the topology planning requests carry slice configuration information, and the slice configuration information comprises slice service area information, resource sharing level information, slice capacity requirement information, NF deployment position, slice performance requirement information, service availability information and reliability information. The slice service area information, the resource sharing level information and the slice capacity demand information are defined in table 1; the definitions of NF deployment location, slice performance requirement information, service availability information, and reliability information are shown in table 4 below:

TABLE 4

The information included in the network performance indicated by the slice performance requirement information is shown in table 5 below, it should be noted that table 4 below is only an example of the information included in the network performance, and in practical applications, the network performance also includes other information, for example, end-to-end delay or jitter does not exist, and the specific details are not limited herein:

TABLE 5

Properties	Definition of
		e2eLatency	End-to-end delay (ms)
jitter	Shaking (us)
		expDataRate	User experience Rate (Kbps)

In this embodiment, the resource sharing level information indicates that the creation mode of the core network slice subnet is the sharing NF mode.

302. A deployed NF set and deployed NF set configuration information are received.

The NPDF receives the deployed NF aggregation and the deployed NF aggregation configuration information sent by other network equipment, wherein the deployed NF aggregation configuration information comprises NF service area information, NF geographical level information, NF measurement performance information, NF specification information and NF actual load information. Wherein, the definition of the NF service area information and the NF actual load information is shown in a table 2; the definitions of NF geographical level information, NF measurement performance information, and NF specification information are shown in table 6 below:

TABLE 6

303. A first NF set is determined from the slice service area information.

Step 303 in this embodiment is similar to step 203 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and is not described here again.

304. And determining a first user plane NF set from the first NF set according to the NF type.

And the NPDF screens the first user plane NF aggregation belonging to the user plane in the first NF aggregation according to the NF type identification.

It should be noted that the user plane NF includes a UPF, and may also include a new user plane NF that appears in the future, which is not limited herein.

305. And determining a second user plane NF set from the first user plane NF set according to the NF deployment position.

And the NPDF determines the geographical hierarchy to which the deployment position of the user plane NF belongs according to the deployment position of the user plane NF indicated by the NF deployment position, and screens out a second user plane NF set meeting the requirement of the geographical hierarchy from the first user plane NF set according to the requirement of the geographical hierarchy.

306. And determining a third user plane NF set from the second user plane NF set according to the slice performance requirement information.

And the NPDF determines the network performance requirement of each NF in the sliced sub-network example according to the network performance requirement of the sliced sub-network example indicated by the sliced performance requirement information, and screens a third user plane NF set meeting the network performance requirement from the second user plane NF set according to the NF performance requirement information.

307. And determining the NF demand quantity according to the service availability information and the reliability information.

The user plane NF has no fixed networking collocation relationship and is discrete, and a user plane NF set with a fixed collocation relationship in units of groups, which can form a logical network, needs to be determined from a stack of discrete user plane NF sets.

The NPDF determines a fixed networking collocation relationship among the NF in the third user plane NF set according to the service availability information and the reliability information, and determines a group of NF demand quantity which accords with the fixed networking collocation relationship while determining the fixed networking collocation relationship.

308. And determining newly added capacity demand information according to the capacity demand information and the NF demand quantity.

And the NPDF determines the newly added capacity requirement information of each NF when the number of the NF in the slicing sub-network example is the NF requirement number according to the total static capacity requirement and the NF requirement number of the slicing sub-network example indicated by the capacity requirement information.

309. And determining a fourth user plane NF set from the third user plane NF set according to the NF demand quantity and the newly added capacity demand information.

And the NPDF screens out a fourth user plane NF set with the NF specification meeting the newly added capacity requirement from the third user plane NF set according to the NF requirement quantity and the newly added capacity requirement information.

310. And determining the newly increased virtual resource demand information and the newly increased DCGW bandwidth demand information according to the newly increased capacity demand information.

Step 310 in this embodiment is similar to step 206 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and is not described here again.

311. And determining a fifth user plane NF set from the fourth user plane NF set according to the newly added virtual resource demand information and the newly added DCGW bandwidth demand information.

And the NPDF screens a fifth user plane NF set meeting the virtual resource requirement from a fourth user plane NF set according to the virtual resource required by the DC corresponding to each NF indicated by the newly added virtual resource requirement information.

312. And determining a target NF set according to the actual load information of the NF.

313. And determining the planned newly added capacity information, the planned newly added virtual resource information and the planned newly added DCGW bandwidth information of the target NF set according to the newly added capacity requirement information, the newly added virtual resource requirement information and the newly added DCGW bandwidth requirement information.

314. And determining the NF instance identifier, the DC identifier and the DCGW identifier of the target NF set according to the deployed NF set configuration information.

315. And sending a topology planning response carrying slice plan configuration information.

Steps 312 to 315 in this embodiment are similar to steps 205 to 208 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and are not repeated here.

In this embodiment, the NPDF determines, according to the slicing service area information, the slicing capacity demand information, the NF deployment location, the service availability information, the reliability information, and the NF actual load information, a target NF set belonging to the user plane and generates planning configuration information of the slicing subnet based on the target NF set, thereby completing online automatic planning of the planning configuration information required by the slicing subnet instance.

Secondly, when the slice creation mode is a new NF, the NPDF determines a target DC set from the deployed DC set, and determines the target NF set according to the target DC set:

in this embodiment, the NPDF screens a target DC set satisfying the requirements from the deployed DC sets according to the service requirement information, and then determines a target NF set and slice plan configuration information according to the service requirement information.

It should be noted that the target DC set includes a central region DC set, and may also include other types of DC sets, such as an edge region DC set, which is not limited herein.

In practical application, the target DC set includes a central area DC set and an edge area DC set, and the screening of the central area DC set and the edge area DC set that meet the requirement in the deployed DC set may be performed in different manners, which are described below:

1. the NPDF determines a central area DC set from the deployed DC sets and determines a control plane NF set and slicing plan configuration information corresponding to the central area DC set:

in this embodiment, the NPDF determines, according to the slicing service area information, the capacity demand information, the service availability information, and the reliability information, a target DC set belonging to the central area, generates, according to the target DC set, a target NF set belonging to the control plane, and generates plan configuration information of the slicing subnet based on the target NF set.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the target NF set is a control plane NF set, and the target DC set is a central area DC set.

Referring to fig. 4, an embodiment of a method for network slice planning in the embodiment of the present application includes:

401. and receiving a topology planning request, wherein the topology planning request carries slice service area information, slice capacity demand information, service availability information, reliability information and resource sharing level information.

Step 401 in this embodiment is similar to step 301 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and is not described here again.

In this embodiment, the resource sharing level information indicates that the creation mode of the core network slice subnet is a new NF mode.

402. Deployed DC sets and deployed DC set configuration information are received.

The NPDF receives the deployed DC set and the deployed DC set configuration information sent by other network equipment, wherein the deployed DC set configuration information comprises DC service area information, DC resource use information, DC specification capability information, inverse affinity requirement information and DC geographical hierarchy information. The definition of the DC service area information, the DC resource usage information, and the DC geographical level information is as shown in table 7 below:

TABLE 7

403. A first set of DCs is determined from the slicing service area information.

Step 403 in this embodiment is similar to step 303 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and is not described here again.

404. A first center region DC set is determined from the first DC set according to the DC geographic hierarchy information.

Each DC has a geographical hierarchy, the DCs at different geographical hierarchies have different levels of capabilities, generally, the DC at provincial level or urban level is called a central area DC, and the DC at county level or customer room is called an edge area DC, but the division of the central area DC and the edge area DC is not absolute and needs to be defined according to actual needs.

A first central region DC set is determined from the first DC set according to the geographical hierarchy at which the DC indicated by the DC geographical hierarchy information is located.

405. And determining the NF demand quantity according to the service availability information and the reliability information.

406. And determining newly added capacity demand information according to the capacity demand information and the NF demand quantity.

407. And determining a second central area DC set from the first central area DC set according to the NF demand quantity and the newly added capacity demand information.

408. And determining the newly increased virtual resource demand information and the newly increased DCGW bandwidth demand information according to the newly increased capacity demand information.

409. And determining a third central area DC set from the second central area DC set according to the newly increased virtual resource demand information and the newly increased DCGW bandwidth demand information.

Steps 405 to 409 in this embodiment are similar to steps 307 to 311 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and are not described again here.

410. And determining a target DC set according to the DC resource use information and the inverse affinity requirement information.

The NPDF screens a group of lightly loaded DCs from the third central region DC set according to the capacity allocated on each DC indicated by the DC resource utilization information, and determines a target DC set with higher safety from the lightly loaded DCs by combining the anti-affinity requirements between the DCs.

411. And determining a target NF set and planned newly added capacity information according to the newly added capacity demand information and the target DC set.

After the NPDF determines the target DC set, the capacity required to be established by each DC set in the target DC set is determined according to the capacity requirement of each NF indicated by the newly increased capacity requirement, and the information of the planned newly increased capacity requirement of each NF in the target NF set and the target NF set is obtained.

412. And determining the planned new virtual resource information and the planned new DCGW bandwidth information of the target NF set according to the new virtual resource requirement information and the new DCGW bandwidth requirement information.

413. And determining the NF instance identifier, the DC identifier and the DCGW identifier of the target NF set according to the deployed NF set configuration information.

414. And sending a topology planning response carrying slice plan configuration information.

Steps 412 to 414 in this embodiment are similar to steps 313 to 315 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and are not described again here.

In this embodiment, the NPDF screens a target DC set satisfying the requirements from the deployed DC sets according to the service requirement information, and then determines a target NF set and slice plan configuration information according to the service requirement information, thereby completing online automatic planning of the plan configuration information required by the slice subnet instance.

2. The NPDF determines an edge zone DC set from the deployed DC sets and determines a user plane NF set and slice plan configuration information corresponding to the edge zone DC set:

in this embodiment, the NPDF determines a target DC set belonging to the edge area according to the slice service area information, the slice capacity demand information, the NF deployment location, the slice performance demand information, the service availability information, and the reliability information, generates a target NF set belonging to the user plane according to the target DC set, and generates plan configuration information of the slice subnet based on the target NF set.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the target NF set is a user plane NF set, and the target DC set is an edge region DC set.

Referring to fig. 5, an embodiment of a method for network slice planning in the embodiment of the present application includes:

501. and receiving a topology planning request, wherein the topology planning request carries slice service area information, slice capacity demand information, NF deployment position, slice performance demand information, service availability information, reliability information and resource sharing level information.

Step 501 in this embodiment is similar to step 301 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and is not described herein again.

502. Deployed DC sets and deployed DC set configuration information are received.

The NPDF receives the deployed DC set and the deployed DC set configuration information sent by other network equipment, wherein the deployed DC set configuration information comprises DC service area information, DC resource use information, DC specification capability information, inverse affinity requirement information, DC measurement performance information and DC geographical hierarchy information. The definition of the DC service area information, the DC resource use information, the DC specification capability information, the inverse affinity requirement information and the DC geographical hierarchy information is shown in a table 7; the definition of the DC measurement performance information is shown in table 8 below:

TABLE 8

503. A first set of DCs is determined from the slice service area information.

504. A first set of edge zone DCs is determined from the first set of DCs based on the geographic hierarchy information.

Steps 503 to 504 in this embodiment are similar to steps 403 to 404 in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, and are not described again here.

505. And determining a second edge zone DC set from the first edge zone DC set according to the NF deployment position.

506. And determining a third edge region DC set from the second edge region DC set according to the slice performance requirement information.

Steps 505 to 506 in this embodiment are similar to steps 305 to 306 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and are not described again here.

507. And determining the NF demand quantity according to the service availability information and the reliability information.

508. And determining newly added capacity demand information according to the capacity demand information and the NF demand quantity.

509. And determining a fourth edge area DC set from the third edge area DC set according to the NF demand quantity and the newly increased capacity demand information.

510. And determining the newly increased virtual resource demand information and the newly increased DCGW bandwidth demand information according to the newly increased capacity demand information.

511. And determining a fifth edge region DC set from the fourth edge region DC set according to the newly added virtual resource demand information and the newly added DCGW bandwidth demand information.

512. A target DC set is determined from the DC resource usage information.

513. And determining a target NF set and planned newly added capacity information according to the newly added capacity demand information and the target DC set.

514. And determining the planned new virtual resource information and the planned new DCGW bandwidth information of the target NF set according to the new virtual resource requirement information and the new DCGW bandwidth requirement information.

515. And determining the NF instance identifier, the DC identifier and the DCGW identifier of the target NF set according to the deployed NF set configuration information.

516. And sending a topology planning response carrying slice plan configuration information.

Steps 507 to 516 in this embodiment are similar to steps 405 to 414 in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, and are not described again here.

In this embodiment, the NPDF determines a target DC set belonging to the edge area according to the slicing service area information, the slicing capacity demand information, the NF deployment location, the slicing performance demand information, the service availability information, and the reliability information, generates a target NF set belonging to the user plane according to the target DC set, and generates plan configuration information of the slicing subnet based on the target NF set, thereby completing online automatic planning of the plan configuration information required by the slicing subnet instance.

Based on the above 5G core network architecture and the internal implementation method of the NPDF logical unit, the following introduces an interaction process between network elements in the embodiment of the present application, please refer to fig. 6:

in this embodiment, the NPDF may be configured as a network element alone, or may be configured in other manners, for example, the NPDF is configured in NSSMF, and is not limited herein. The present embodiment is described only by taking the case that NPDF is configured as a network element alone:

601. the NPDF receives the deployed NF list sent by the NRF.

The NPDF receives a deployed NF list sent by the NRF, wherein the deployed NF list comprises a deployed NF set and deployed NF configuration information, and the information included in the deployed NF configuration information is shown in the following table 9:

it should be noted that table 9 below is only an example of information included in the deployed NF list, and in practical applications, the deployed NF list also includes other information, for example, NF geographical level information or NF status information does not exist, and is not limited herein.

TABLE 9

The information included in the NSSI information to which the NF belongs is shown in table 10 below:

watch 10

Parameter Chinese name	English name	Definition of
			NSSI identification	nSSIId	Unique identification of NSSI requested to be created
NF static Capacity information	sliceCapacity	NF static capacity value allocated for slicing subnet example

602. The NPDF receives the deployed DC list sent by the NFVO.

The NPDF receives a deployed DC list sent by the NFVO, wherein the deployed DC list comprises a deployed DC set and a deployed DC list

The DC configuration information, information included in the deployed DC configuration information, is shown in table 11 below:

it should be noted that table 11 below is only an example of information included in the deployed DC list, and in an actual application, the deployed DC list also includes other information, for example, the first DC identifier or the DC service area information does not exist, and is not limited herein.

TABLE 11

It should be noted that step 602 may be executed after step 601, or may be executed before step 601, which is not limited herein.

603. The NSMF sends a NSSI creation request to the NSSMF.

The NSMF initiates a NSSI establishment request to the NSSMF, and the NSMF carries the slice subnet instance identification, slice configuration information and slice service area information. The information included in the slice configuration information is shown in table 12 below:

it should be noted that table 12 below is only an example of information included in the slice configuration information, and in practical applications, the slice configuration information also includes other information, for example, coverage tracking area list information or NF deployment locations do not exist, and this is not limited herein.

TABLE 12

604. NSSMF sends a topology planning request to NPDF.

NSSMF initiates a slice topology planning request to NPDF, carrying slice configuration information and slice service area information.

It should be noted that the slice service area may be configured alone, or may be configured in other manners, for example, configured in the slice configuration information, and is not limited herein.

605. The NPDF determines the deployment type.

606. The NPDF performs NF selection or DC selection according to the deployment type.

607. And the NPDF carries out capacity decomposition according to the slice capacity demand information.

608. And the topology planning unit of the NPDF sends a resource evaluation request to the resource evaluation unit of the NPDF.

609. And the NPDF carries out resource assessment according to the information of the newly added capacity requirement.

610. And the resource evaluation unit of the NPDF sends the resource evaluation result to the topology planning unit of the NPDF.

In this embodiment, the details in steps 605 to 610 are similar to those in the embodiment shown in fig. 2 to 4, and are not repeated here.

611. The NPDF sends a topology planning response to the NSSMF.

After the NPDF completes topology planning and resource evaluation according to the slice configuration information, the NPDF sends a topology planning response to the NSSMF, and the topology planning response carries slice plan configuration information for slice subnet instance deployment. The information included in the slice plan configuration information is shown in table 13 below:

watch 13

612. NSSMF, NPDF, NFVO, and NRF for NSSI deployment.

NSSMF, NPDF, NFVO and NRF perform NSSI deployment based on plan configuration information carried in the topology planning response.

613. NSSMF sends NSSI create response to NSMF.

The NSSMF sends a NSSI creating response to the NSMF, and the NSSI creating response carries the configuration information of the newly created NSSI.

In conjunction with the above description, an application scenario of the embodiment of the present application is described below, please refer to fig. 7:

based on the above introduction of the NPDF to select the control plane NF, the user plane NF, the center region DC, and the edge region DC in the NF sharing mode and the new NF mode, in practical applications, the above modes may be combined to achieve an optimal effect. Referring to fig. 7, an application scenario of the method for network slice planning according to the embodiment of the present application is described as follows:

701. and determining a deployment mode according to the isolation.

The NPDF judges the deployment mode of the network subnet of the slice according to the resource sharing level information contained in the slice configuration information, the resource sharing level information is used for indicating that the created NSSI needs to monopolize the NF, or share the NF with other NSSIs.

702. And judging whether the creation mode of the slicing subnet example is a sharing NF mode or a newly-built NF mode.

The NPDF judges whether the creation mode of the sliced subnet instance is the shared NF mode or the newly-built NF mode, and executes step 603 when the creation mode of the sliced subnet instance is the shared NF mode; when the creation mode of the sliced subnet instance is the new NF mode, step 612 is executed.

703. NF/NF Set was matched according to TAILIst.

The NPDF receives the list information of the tracking area of the coverage area sent by the network equipment, matches according to the list information of the tracking area of the coverage area, if the matching is successful, the step 605 is executed; if the match fails, step 604 is performed.

In this embodiment, the deployed NF data stored in the NRF includes tracking area list information configured by each NF, and is used to indicate user equipment of each NF service. And the NSMF receives service configuration information carried in the request for creating the slice network sent by the CSMF, wherein the service configuration information comprises coverage range information. After the NSMF analyzes the coverage information, the coverage information and the tracking area list information are deduced to obtain the coverage tracking area list information. The method for NSMF to derive the tracking area list information of the coverage area is divided into two methods, one is that NSMF multiplexes the tracking area list information already allocated by the current network to derive the tracking area list information, and the other is that NSMF superimposes the tracking area list information on the current network. If the current network is multiplexed, the obtained list information of the tracking areas in the coverage area is called as the current network multiplexing coverage area tracking area list information, and if the current network is multiplexed, the list information of the tracking areas in the coverage area obtained by overlaying the list information of the tracking areas on the current network is called as the current network overlaying coverage area tracking area list information. The current network multiplexing coverage tracking area list information is used for matching to a first NF set in the deployed NF set, and matching by using the current network overlapping coverage tracking area list information can cause matching failure.

704. Matching NF/NF Set according to the service area.

Step 604 in this embodiment is similar to step 204 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and is not described here again.

705. It is determined whether the control plane NF or the user plane NF.

706. And preferably selecting NF groups with fixed networking relation according to resource balance.

707. Decomposing the specification according to NF Set.

The details of steps 605 to 607 in this embodiment are similar to those in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and are not repeated here.

708. And screening the UPF according to the UPF deployment position.

709. UPF was screened according to perfReq.

710. And determining the number and the specification of the UPF according to the reliability.

711. And preferably selecting the UPF group with the fixed networking relationship according to the resource balance.

The details of steps 608 to 611 in this embodiment are similar to those in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and are not repeated here.

It should be noted that steps 608 to 611 are an iterative process in practical application, that is, the optimal selection can be achieved by multiple screening from different angles according to different requirements. For example, the loop screening may be performed according to the NF number, the NF added capacity information, the added capacity demand information, and the NF actual load information.

712. The DC set is matched according to the service area.

713. It is determined whether the control plane NF or the user plane NF.

714. The NF number and specification are determined from the reliability.

715. The DC set is preferred according to resource balancing.

The details of steps 712 to 715 in this embodiment are similar to those in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, and are not repeated here.

It should be noted that 714 to 715 are in practical application an iterative loop process, i.e., the optimal selection can be achieved by multiple screening from different angles according to different requirements. For example, the cyclic screening may be performed according to the anti-affinity requirement information, the NF number, the new capacity requirement information, and the DC resource usage information.

716. The DC set is screened according to the UPF deployment location.

717. UPF was screened according to perfReq.

718. The NF number and specification are determined from the reliability.

719. The DC set is preferred according to resource balancing.

The details of steps 716-719 in this embodiment are similar to those in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and are not repeated herein.

It should be noted that 716 to 719 are an iterative process in practical application, i.e. multiple screens from different angles may be performed according to different requirements to achieve the optimal selection. For example, the cyclic screening may be performed according to the anti-affinity requirement information, the NF number, the new capacity requirement information, and the DC resource usage information.

720. Slice plan configuration information is determined.

The details of step 720 in this embodiment are similar to those in the embodiments shown in fig. 2 to fig. 4, and are not repeated here.

Referring to fig. 8, a first network device in this embodiment of the present application is described below, where the first network device in this embodiment of the present application includes a receiving unit 801, a determining unit 802, and a sending unit 803.

A receiving unit 801, configured to receive a topology planning request from a second network device, where the topology planning request carries slice configuration information;

a determining unit 802, configured to determine slice plan configuration information according to the slice configuration information;

a sending unit 803, configured to send a topology planning response to the second network device, where the topology planning response carries the slice plan configuration information.

On the basis of the first network device shown in figure 8 described above,

a determining unit 802, configured to determine service requirement information according to the slice configuration information when the slice plan configuration information includes a target NF set or a target DC set, where the service requirement information includes at least one of geographic range requirement information, geographic hierarchy requirement information, NF performance requirement information, newly added capacity requirement information, newly added data center gateway DCGW bandwidth requirement information, and NF requirement number;

the determining unit 802 is further configured to determine a target NF set or a target DC set according to the service demand information.

The determining unit 802 is specifically configured to determine, when the slice configuration information includes slice service area information and the service requirement information includes geographic range requirement information, the geographic range requirement information according to the slice service area information.

The determining unit 802 is specifically configured to determine, when the slice configuration information includes an NF deployment location and the service requirement information includes geographic hierarchy requirement information, the geographic hierarchy requirement information according to the NF deployment location.

The determining unit 802 is specifically configured to determine, when the slice configuration information includes slice performance requirement information and the service requirement information includes NF performance requirement information, the NF performance requirement information according to the slice performance requirement information.

A determining unit 802, configured to determine, when the slice configuration information includes service availability information, reliability information, and capacity requirement information, and the service requirement information includes newly added capacity requirement information and NF requirement number, the NF requirement number according to the service availability information and the reliability information;

the determining unit 802 is further configured to determine newly added capacity requirement information according to the capacity requirement information and the NF requirement number.

The determining unit 802 is specifically configured to determine, when the slice configuration information includes service availability information, reliability information, and capacity requirement information, and the service requirement information includes new capacity requirement information, new virtual resource requirement information, and new DCGW bandwidth requirement information, new virtual resource requirement information and new DCGW bandwidth requirement information according to the new capacity requirement information.

The determining unit 802 is specifically configured to determine, when the slice plan configuration information includes plan additional capacity information, plan additional capacity information according to additional capacity requirement information and a target NF set or a target DC set.

A determining unit 802, configured to determine, when the slice plan configuration information includes plan new capacity information, plan new virtual resource information, and plan new DCGW information, plan new virtual resource information according to new virtual resource requirement information and a target NF set or a target DC set;

the determining unit 802 is further configured to determine planned additional DCGW information according to the additional DCGW bandwidth requirement information and the target NF set or the target DC set.

Referring to fig. 9, a second network device in this embodiment of the present application is described below, where the second network device in this embodiment of the present application includes a sending unit 901 and a receiving unit 902.

A sending unit 901, configured to send a topology planning request to a first network device, where the topology planning request carries slice configuration information, and the slice configuration information includes at least one of slice service area information, NF deployment location, slice performance requirement information, service availability information, reliability information, and capacity requirement information;

a receiving unit 902, configured to receive a topology planning response sent by the first network device, where the topology planning response carries slice plan configuration information, and the slice plan configuration information includes at least one of a target NF set or a target DC set, and plan new capacity information, plan new virtual resource information, and plan new DCGW information.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a first network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, where the first network device 1000 may include one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs) 1001 and a memory 1005, and the memory 1005 stores one or more application programs or data.

The memory 1005 may be volatile memory or persistent storage, among others. The program stored in the memory 1005 may include one or more modules, each of which may include a series of instructions for the server to operate on. Still further, the central processor 1001 may be configured to communicate with the memory 1005 to execute a series of instruction operations in the memory 1005 on the first network device 1000.

The first network device 1000 may also include one or more power supplies 1002, one or more wired or wireless network interfaces 1003, one or more input-output interfaces 1004, and/or one or more operating systems, such as Windows Server, Mac OS XTM, UnixTM, LinuxTM, FreeBSDTM, etc.

The central processing unit 1001 may perform the operations performed by the first network device in the embodiments shown in fig. 2 to fig. 7, which are not described herein again.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a second network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, where the first network device 1100 may include one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs) 1101 and a memory 1105, where the memory 1105 stores one or more application programs or data.

Memory 1105 may be volatile storage or persistent storage, among other things. The program stored in the memory 1105 may include one or more modules, each of which may include a sequence of instruction operations for a server. Still further, the central processor 1101 may be configured to communicate with the memory 1105 to perform a series of instructional operations on the second network device 1100 in the memory 1105.

The second network device 1100 may also include one or more power supplies 1102, one or more wired or wireless network interfaces 1103, one or more input-output interfaces 1104, and/or one or more operating systems, such as Windows ServerTM, Mac OS XTM, UnixTM, LinuxTM, FreeBSDTM, etc.

The central processor 1101 may perform the operations performed by the second network device in the embodiments shown in fig. 2 to fig. 7, which are not described herein again.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one position, or may be distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

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

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and the like.

Claims

1. A method of network slice planning, comprising:

a first network device receives a topology planning request from a second network device, wherein the topology planning request carries slice configuration information;

the first network equipment determines slice plan configuration information according to the slice configuration information;

and the first network equipment sends a topology planning response to the second network equipment, wherein the topology planning response carries the slice planning configuration information.

2. The method of network slicing planning of claim 1 wherein said slicing plan configuration information comprises a target set of network functions, NFs, or a target set of data centers, DCs;

the first network device determines slice plan configuration information according to the slice configuration information, and the slice plan configuration information includes:

the first network equipment determines service requirement information according to the slice configuration information, wherein the service requirement information comprises at least one of geographical range requirement information, geographical hierarchy requirement information, NF performance requirement information, newly-increased capacity requirement information, newly-increased data center gateway DCGW bandwidth requirement information and NF requirement quantity;

and the first network equipment determines the target NF set or the target DC set according to the service demand information.

3. The method of network slice planning of claim 2 wherein the slice configuration information comprises slice service area information and the service requirement information comprises the geographic scope requirement information;

the first network device determines service requirement information according to the slice configuration information, and the determining includes:

and the first network equipment determines the geographical range requirement information according to the slice service area information.

4. The method of network slice planning of claim 2 wherein the slice configuration information comprises NF deployment locations, the service requirement information comprises the geographic hierarchy requirement information;

and the first network equipment determines the geographic hierarchy requirement information according to the NF deployment position.

5. The method of network slice planning of claim 2 wherein the slice configuration information comprises slice performance requirement information and the service requirement information comprises the NF performance requirement information;

and the first network equipment determines the NF performance requirement information according to the slice performance requirement information.

6. The method of network slice planning as claimed in claim 2, wherein the slice configuration information includes service availability information, reliability information and capacity requirement information, and the service requirement information includes the newly added capacity requirement information and the NF requirement number;

the first network equipment determines the NF demand quantity according to the service availability information and the reliability information;

and the first network equipment determines the newly added capacity demand information according to the capacity demand information and the NF demand quantity.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the slice configuration information includes service availability information, reliability information, and capacity requirement information, and the service requirement information includes the newly added capacity requirement information, the newly added virtual resource requirement information, and the newly added DCGW bandwidth requirement information, the method further comprising:

and the first network equipment determines the newly-increased virtual resource demand information and the newly-increased DCGW bandwidth demand information according to the newly-increased capacity demand information.

8. The method of network slice planning according to claim 2, 6 or 7, wherein the slice planning configuration information comprises planned capacity addition information;

the method further comprises the following steps:

and the first network equipment determines the planned newly-added capacity information according to the newly-added capacity demand information and the target NF set or the target DC set.

9. The method for network slice planning according to claim 2 or 7, wherein the slice plan configuration information includes plan additional capacity information, plan additional virtual resource information, and plan additional DCGW information;

the method further comprises the following steps:

the first network equipment determines the planned newly added virtual resource information according to the newly added virtual resource demand information and the target NF set or the target DC set;

10. A method of network slice planning, comprising:

the second network equipment sends a topology planning request to the first network equipment, wherein the topology planning request carries slice configuration information, and the slice configuration information comprises at least one of slice service area information, NF deployment position, slice performance requirement information, service availability information, reliability information and capacity requirement information;

and the second network equipment receives a topology planning response sent by the first network equipment, wherein the topology planning response carries slice plan configuration information, and the slice plan configuration information comprises at least one of a target NF (potential noise filter) set or a target DC (direct current) set, and plan newly added capacity information, plan newly added virtual resource information and plan newly added DCGW (data center gateway) information.

11. A first network device, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a topology planning request from a second network device, where the topology planning request carries slice configuration information;

a determining unit configured to determine slice plan configuration information according to the slice configuration information;

and a sending unit, configured to send a topology planning response to the second network device, where the topology planning response carries the slice plan configuration information.

12. The first network device of claim 11, wherein the slicing plan configuration information comprises a target set of Network Functions (NF) or a target set of Data Centers (DC);

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine service requirement information according to the slice configuration information, where the service requirement information includes at least one of geographic range requirement information, geographic hierarchy requirement information, NF performance requirement information, newly added capacity requirement information, newly added data center gateway DCGW bandwidth requirement information, and NF requirement number;

the determining unit is further configured to determine the target NF set or the target DC set according to the service demand information.

13. The first network device of claim 12, wherein the slice configuration information comprises slice service area information, and wherein the service requirement information comprises the geographic range requirement information;

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the geographic range requirement information according to the slice service area information.

14. The first network device of claim 12, wherein the slice configuration information comprises an NF deployment location, and the service requirement information comprises the geographic hierarchy requirement information;

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the geographic hierarchy requirement information according to the NF deployment location.

15. The first network device of claim 12, wherein the slice configuration information comprises slice performance requirement information, and wherein the service requirement information comprises the NF performance requirement information;

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the NF performance requirement information according to the slice performance requirement information.

16. The first network device of claim 12, wherein the slice configuration information includes service availability information, reliability information, and capacity requirement information, and the service requirement information includes the newly added capacity requirement information and the NF requirement number;

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the NF requirement number according to the service availability information and the reliability information;

the determining unit is further configured to determine the newly added capacity demand information according to the capacity demand information and the NF demand amount.

17. The first network device of claim 16, wherein the slice configuration information includes service availability information, reliability information, and capacity requirement information, wherein the service requirement information includes the added capacity requirement information, the added virtual resource requirement information, and the added DCGW bandwidth requirement information,

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine, according to the newly added capacity requirement information, the newly added virtual resource requirement information and the newly added DCGW bandwidth requirement information.

18. The first network device of claim 12, 16 or 17, wherein the slice plan configuration information comprises planned addition capacity information;

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the planned newly-added capacity information according to the newly-added capacity demand information and the target NF set or the target DC set.

19. The first network device according to claim 12 or 17, wherein the slice plan configuration information includes plan addition capacity information, plan addition virtual resource information, and plan addition DCGW information;

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the planned new virtual resource information according to the new virtual resource demand information and the target NF set or the target DC set;

the determining unit is further configured to determine the planned new DCGW information according to the new DCGW bandwidth requirement information and the target NF set or the target DC set.

20. A second network device, comprising:

a sending unit, configured to send a topology planning request to a first network device, where the topology planning request carries slice configuration information, and the slice configuration information includes at least one of slice service area information, NF deployment location, slice performance requirement information, service availability information, reliability information, and capacity requirement information;

a receiving unit, configured to receive a topology planning response sent by the first network device, where the topology planning response carries slice plan configuration information, and the slice plan configuration information includes at least one of a target NF set or a target DC set, and plan new capacity information, plan new virtual resource information, and plan new DCGW information.

21. A first network device, comprising:

a processor, a memory, an input-output device, and a bus;

the processor is configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9.

22. A second network device, comprising:

a processor, a memory, an input-output device, and a bus;

the processor is configured to perform the method of claim 10.

23. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a program is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, which, when executed by the computer, performs the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

24. A computer program product, characterized in that when the computer program product is executed on a computer, the computer performs the method according to any of claims 1 to 10.

25. A system for network slice planning, the system comprising a first network device and a second network device;

the first network device is configured to perform the method of any of the preceding claims 1 to 9, and the second network device is configured to perform the method of the preceding claim 10.

26. The method for network slice planning is applied to a system for network slice planning, and the system for network slice planning comprises a first network device and a second network device;

the first network device is configured to receive a topology planning request from a second network device, where the topology planning request carries slice configuration information;

the first network device is used for determining slice plan configuration information according to the slice configuration information;

the first network device is configured to send a topology planning response to the second network device, where the topology planning response carries the slice planning configuration information.