CN115175117A

CN115175117A - Data redundancy transmission method under multi-access and related equipment thereof

Info

Publication number: CN115175117A
Application number: CN202210774920.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘玉冰; 龙彪
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2022-07-01
Filing date: 2022-07-01
Publication date: 2022-10-11

Abstract

The disclosure provides a data redundancy transmission method under multi-access and related equipment thereof, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method comprises the steps of receiving a policy control and charging PCC rule issued by a policy control function PCF network element; analyzing the PCC rule to obtain an access service switching splitting ATSSS rule and an N4 rule, wherein the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used for triggering redundant transmission of a data flow; and respectively sending the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule to User Equipment (UE) and a User Plane Function (UPF) network element so as to enable the UE or the UPF network element to initiate redundant transmission of a data stream, wherein a plurality of communication links are established between the UE and the UPF network element, and the redundant transmission comprises the transmission of the data stream through the plurality of communication links. The present disclosure enables the reliability of data stream transmission to be greatly improved by using a plurality of communication links for simultaneous transmission.

Description

Data redundancy transmission method under multi-access and related equipment thereof

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a data redundancy transmission method under multiple accesses and a related device thereof.

Background

A multiple access Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session is a User plane resource that supports User Equipment (UE) to establish a third Generation Partnership project (3 rd Generation Partnership project,3 GPP) link and non-3GPP access simultaneously, i.e., supports PDU sessions to be established through 3GPP access and non-3GPP access simultaneously, where the PDU session IDs of the two are the same.

Currently, in a multi-access PDU session, there are four guiding modes for determining to which link a data stream is guided to transmit, which are minimum delay, load balancing, active-standby, and priority-based. However, none of these four modes support redundant transmission of a data stream, i.e., a data stream is copied to another link in a certain state and transmitted at the same time. The prior art cannot guarantee reliable transmission of packet loss rate sensitive services, such as reliable transmission of an internet protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) stream and a video stream.

It is to be noted that the information disclosed in the above background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and thus may include information that does not constitute prior art known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure provides a data redundancy transmission method under multiple accesses and a related device thereof, which at least to some extent overcome the problem that the reliability of data stream transmission cannot be guaranteed in the multiple access PDU session in the related art.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the detailed description which follows, or in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method for transmitting data redundancy under multiple accesses is provided, including:

receiving policy control and charging PCC rules issued by a policy control function PCF network element;

analyzing the PCC rule to obtain an access service switching splitting ATSSS rule and an N4 rule, wherein the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used for triggering redundant transmission of a data flow;

and respectively sending the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule to User Equipment (UE) and a User Plane Function (UPF) network element so as to enable the UE or the UPF network element to initiate redundant transmission of a data stream, wherein a plurality of communication links are established between the UE and the UPF network element, and the redundant transmission comprises the transmission of the data stream through the plurality of communication links.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the sending the sss rule and the N4 rule to a user equipment UE and a user plane function UPF network element to enable the UE or the UPF network element to initiate redundant transmission of a data stream specifically includes:

transmitting the ATSSS rule to the UE through a multi-access Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session modification request so that the UE initiates redundant transmission of an uplink data stream according to the ATSSS rule; and issuing the N4 rule to the UPF network element through an N4 session modification request so that the UPF network element initiates the redundant transmission of the downlink data stream according to the N4 rule.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the UE is further configured to initiate a multiple access PDU session establishment request to establish a plurality of communication links between the UE and the UPF network element.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCC rule is generated by the PCF network element based on QoS parameter information.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the QoS parameter information is sent to the PCF network element by the AF network element, or is sent to the PCF network element by the AF network element through the NEF network element.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the QoS parameter information includes at least one of:

bandwidth requirement information, time delay requirement information and packet loss rate requirement information.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a data redundancy transmission apparatus under multiple accesses, which is applied to an SMF network element side, and includes:

the rule receiving module is used for receiving the policy control and charging PCC rule issued by the PCF network element;

a rule parsing module, configured to parse the PCC rule to obtain an access service steering switching splitting ATSSS rule and an N4 rule, where the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used to trigger redundant transmission of a data flow; and

a transmission control module, configured to send the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule to a user equipment UE and a user plane function UPF network element, respectively, so that the UE or the UPF network element initiates redundant transmission of a data stream, where multiple communication links are established between the UE and the UPF network element, and the redundant transmission includes transmission of the data stream through the multiple communication links.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a data redundancy transmission system under multiple accesses, comprising: SMF network element, UPF network element and UE;

a plurality of communication links are established between the UPF network element and the UE;

the SMF network element is configured to: receiving Policy Control and Charging (PCC) rules issued by a PCF network element; analyzing the PCC rule to obtain an access service switching splitting ATSSS rule and an N4 rule, wherein the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used for triggering redundant transmission of a data flow; and respectively sending the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule to UE and a UPF network element so as to enable the UE or the UPF network element to initiate redundant transmission of data streams, wherein a plurality of communication links are established between the UE and the UPF network element, and the redundant transmission comprises the transmission of the data streams through the plurality of communication links.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device including:

a processor; and

a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to execute the executable instructions to perform the above-mentioned data redundancy transmission method under multiple accesses.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the method of data redundancy transmission under multiple accesses described above.

In the data redundancy transmission method under multiple accesses and the related device thereof provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, after a session of a multi-Access PDU is established, an (Access Traffic Steering, switching, splitting) rule and an N4 rule acquired by an SMF network element are respectively sent to a UE and an UPF network element, so that the UE and the UPF network element can initiate redundancy transmission for a data stream according to the respective received rules, that is, a corresponding data stream (for example, a data stream whose packet loss rate exceeds a threshold) is copied from one communication link (for example, 3GPP Access) to another communication link (for example, non-3GPP Access), and the reliability of data stream transmission is greatly improved by using multiple communication links for simultaneous transmission.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is to be understood that the drawings in the following description are merely exemplary of the disclosure, and that other drawings may be derived from those drawings by one of ordinary skill in the art without the exercise of inventive faculty.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of a multiple access PDU session in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for transmitting data redundancy under multiple accesses in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a data redundancy transmission process under multiple accesses in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a data redundancy transmission apparatus under multiple accesses in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a data redundancy transmission system under multiple accesses in an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

fig. 7 shows a block diagram of an electronic device in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

Furthermore, the drawings are merely schematic illustrations of the present disclosure and are not necessarily drawn to scale. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar parts, and thus their repetitive description will be omitted. Some of the block diagrams shown in the figures are functional entities and do not necessarily correspond to physically or logically separate entities. These functional entities may be implemented in the form of software, or in one or more hardware modules or integrated circuits, or in different networks and/or processor devices and/or microcontroller devices.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of one application scenario of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 1, communication system 100 may include a terminal device 110 and a network device 120. Network device 120 may communicate with terminal device 110 over the air. Multi-service transport is supported between terminal device 110 and network device 120.

It should be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the communication system 100, and the claimed embodiments are not limited thereto. That is to say, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: a Long Term Evolution (LTE) System, a Time Division Duplex (TDD) System, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a 5G communication System (also referred to as a New Radio (NR) communication System), a future communication System, or the like.

In communication system 100 shown in fig. 1, network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with terminal device 110. An access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and may communicate with terminal devices 110 (e.g., UEs) located within the coverage area.

In some embodiments, the Network device 120 may be an evolved Node B (eNB or eNodeB) in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, or a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG RAN) device, or a base station (gNB) in an NR system, or a wireless controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN), or the Network device 120 may be a relay station, an Access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a hub, a switch, a bridge, a router, or a Network device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) for future Evolution, or the like.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be any terminal device, including but not limited to: terminal devices that employ wired or wireless connections with network device 120 or other terminal devices. A terminal Equipment may refer to an access terminal, user Equipment (UE), subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or User Equipment. An access terminal may be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device having Wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a Wireless modem, a vehicle mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a 5G network, or a terminal device in a future evolution network, etc.

In some embodiments, device-to-Device (D2D) communication may be conducted between end devices 110.

With continued reference to fig. 1, the wireless communication system 100 may further include a core network device 130 in communication with the base station, where the core network device 130 may be a 5G core network (5G core,5 gc) device, such as an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), such as an Authentication Server Function (AUSF), such as a User Plane Function (UPF), such as a Session Management Function (SMF), such as a Policy Control Function (PCF). Alternatively, the Core network device 130 may also be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) device of the LTE network, for example, a Session Management Function + Core Packet Gateway (SMF + PGW-C) device of the Core network. It is understood that SMF + PGW-C may perform the functions that SMF and PGW-C can perform simultaneously. In the network evolution process, the core network device may also be called by other names, or a new network entity is formed by dividing the functions of the core network, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 1 exemplarily shows one base station, one core network device, and two terminal devices, but the application is not limited thereto.

For example, in some embodiments of the present application, the communication system 100 may include a plurality of base station devices and each base station may include other numbers of terminal devices within the coverage area, which is not limited in this embodiment.

Also for example, in some embodiments of the present application, the communication system 100 may further include a Data Network (DN). The data network may correspond to a plurality of different service domains, such as an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the Internet (Internet), an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), other operator service domains, and the like, and is mainly used for providing a plurality of data service services for the terminal device, and may include network devices such as a server (including a server providing multicast service), a router, a gateway, and the like.

Further, the communication system 100 may support a single Protocol Data Unit (PDU) connection service, which refers to a service of exchanging PDU packets between the UE and the DN. The terminal equipment realizes the transmission of the PDU connection service by initiating the establishment of the PDU session, and can establish a plurality of communication links between the UE and the DN by initiating a plurality of PDU sessions.

In the network architecture described in fig. 1, a PDU session may use multiple access technologies to transfer data. That is, a PDU session may use multiple access types to transfer data. Or, the PDU session may transmit data on access channels corresponding to multiple access types.

For example, the plurality of access types may include a third Generation Partnership project (3 GPP) access type and a Non-3GPP (Non-3 GPP, N3 GPP) access type. The 3GPP access type may include a Long Term Evolution (LTE) access type and a New Radio (NR) access type. The non-3GPP access type may include a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access type. For example, in this embodiment of the present application, such a PDU session established using multiple Access types is referred to as a multiple-Access (MA) PDU session. Through multi-access PDU conversation, the terminal equipment can obtain higher transmission rate, and more expenses can be saved; the network can more efficiently utilize the wireless resources of the non-3GPP, and improve the transmission rate and the spectrum utilization rate.

It should be understood that the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein.

Fig. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a multiple access PDU session of an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 2, a multiple access PDU session is established between the UE and the DN. The multi-access PDU session may use both 3GPP and non-3GPP access types for data transfer.

Specifically, the UE is connected to a same User Plane Function (UPF) network element through an access network device corresponding to a 3GPP access type and an access network device corresponding to a non-3GPP access type, respectively, where the UPF network element may be used to manage access network devices of different access types, and the UPF network element is directly connected to the DN.

More specifically, when the UE is connected to the UPF network element through the access network device corresponding to the Non-3GPP access type, the UE may be connected to the UPF network element through a Non-3GPP InterWorking function (n-3 GPP InterWorking function, n3 iwf).

Therefore, the UE can send data to the UPF network element on the access network corresponding to the 3GPP access type and/or the access network corresponding to the non-3GPP access type through the multi-PDU session.

In some embodiments, a Path Management Function (PMF) network element may be further included in the UPF network element. The PMF network element may manage the user plane (e.g., select and reselect UPF network elements) to support communication for the UEs and, in some embodiments, may ensure that traffic data between UEs in different groups are isolated from each other.

In some embodiments, when a multi-PDU session is established or modified, a Service Management Function (SMF) network element provides an Access Traffic Switching Splitting (Access Traffic Switching) rule and an N4 rule to the UE and the UPF network element, respectively, so that the UE and the UPF network element can select an Access path that data needs to use. It should be understood that an access path may also be referred to as an access technology, which is not limited by the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Further, an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) network element is further disposed between the SMF network element and the UE, and is configured to establish a communication connection between the SMF network element and the UE.

In some embodiments, the UE is a UE supporting the ATSSS rule, and after the UE establishes the multi-PDU session, the UE selects one access link (e.g., 3GPP access) to transmit data streams according to the steering mode in the initial ATSSS rule.

In some embodiments, an Application Function (AF) Network element sends a Quality of Service (QoS) parameter to a Policy Control Function (PCF) Network element through a Network open Function (NEF) Network element, where the QoS parameter includes performance parameters such as a packet loss rate required by the AF Network element.

In some embodiments, the PCF network element updates the policy rules for the multi-access PDU session based on the QoS parameters and sends the updated policy rules to the SMF network element.

Based on the above exemplary description for the multi-access PDU session, in the solution provided by the present disclosure, an access service steering switching splitting ATSSS rule and an N4 rule may be acquired by a policy control function PCF network element, where the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used to trigger redundant transmission of a data stream; and respectively sending the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule to User Equipment (UE) and a User Plane Function (UPF) network element so as to enable the UE or the UPF network element to initiate redundant transmission of the data stream, wherein a plurality of communication links are established between the UE and the UPF network element, and the redundant transmission comprises the transmission of the data stream through the plurality of communication links.

The present exemplary embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings and examples.

First, the embodiment of the present disclosure provides a data redundancy transmission method under multiple accesses, which may be executed by any electronic device with computing processing capability.

Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of a data redundancy transmission method under multiple accesses in an embodiment of the present disclosure, where the method is applied to an SMF network element, and as shown in fig. 3, the data redundancy transmission method under multiple accesses in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes the following steps:

s302, receiving policy control and charging PCC rules issued by PCF network element.

S304, the PCC rules are analyzed to obtain an ATSSS rule and an N4 rule for switching and splitting the access service, wherein the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used for triggering the redundant transmission of the data flow.

It should be noted that the ATSSS rule may be used to indicate whether the UE uses a 3GPP access or a non-3GPP access, and the N4 rule may be used to indicate whether the UPF network element uses a 3GPP access or a non-3GPP access.

In some embodiments, it may be implemented by the ATSSS rule to let the UE select an access network for new and existing data flows and to transmit data of one data flow over a different access network.

In some embodiments, after sending the N4 rule to the UPF network element, the UPF network element may be capable of determining the at least one access technology based on the N4 rule, and receiving data sent by the UE and/or sending data to the UE via the at least one access technology.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE and the UPF may also be instructed to initiate redundant transmission for a data flow by the sss rule and the N4 rule, respectively.

It should be noted that the SMF network element may generate the sss rule and the N4 rule according to the PCC rule received from the PCF network element. The SMF network element also has a function of correspondingly managing the PCC rule, the ATSSS rule, and the N4 rule.

Specifically, the PCC rule is used to specify a PDU session of the relay terminal device, and the SMF network element may determine the QoS configuration file according to a quality of service QoS parameter in the PCC rule.

Further, the PCC rule is established or updated by the PCF network element according to the received QoS parameter.

It should be noted that the QoS parameter is a main means for ensuring that the QoS can obtain a predictable service level in terms of packet loss, delay, jitter, bandwidth, and the like, and is generally used for controlling network performance indexes such as bandwidth, delay, jitter, packet loss rate, and the like. For example, voice requires a low bandwidth, low latency, low jitter network; the data flow needs a network with high bandwidth and low packet loss rate; video traffic requires high bandwidth, low latency, low jitter networks, etc.

When the AF network element and the PCF network element are in the same trusted domain, the QoS parameters are sent to the PCF network element by the AF network element; and when the AF network element and the PCF network element are in different trusted domains, the QoS parameters are sent to the PCF network element by the AF network element through the NEF network element.

It should be noted that the ATSSS rule issues a session modification request to the UE through a multiple access protocol data unit PDU, so that the UE initiates redundant transmission on an uplink data stream according to the ATSSS rule, that is, the UE executes redundant transmission when transmitting a corresponding data stream (for example, a data stream whose packet loss rate exceeds a threshold).

It should be noted that the N4 rule is issued to the UPF network element through the N4 session modification request, so that the UPF initiates redundant transmission of the downlink data stream according to the N4 rule, that is, the UPF executes redundant transmission when transmitting a corresponding data stream (for example, a data stream whose delay exceeds a threshold).

It should be noted that the redundant transmission conditions carried in the N4 rule and the ATSSS rule may be the same or different, for example, if the delay exceeds the threshold value, the UPF network element may initiate redundant transmission for the corresponding data stream, which is specified by the N4 rule; and the ATSSS rule specifies that when the packet loss rate exceeds a threshold value, the UE initiates redundancy transmission for the corresponding data stream. The embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the redundant transmission may be to transmit the same data stream simultaneously through a plurality of different communication links (for example, 3GPP access and non-3GPP access), so as to improve the reliability of data transmission.

In some embodiments, the communication link of the 3GPP access and/or the communication link of the non-3GPP access may include multiple access systems or frequency bands, and may be used simultaneously. For example, a 3GPP access may include both 4G LTE and 5G NG-RAN access technologies simultaneously accessing a 5G core network. The non-3GPP access may also include WiFi simultaneous access in two frequency bands, for example, wiFi frequency bands of 5GHz and 2.4GHz are simultaneously accessed to the 5G core network.

Therefore, the UE can simultaneously access the architecture of the 5G core network through at least two of the four access modes (including four simultaneous uses). The redundant transmission in the embodiment of the present disclosure may also be implemented by simultaneously transmitting data streams in at least two (including four) of the above four access manners.

S306, respectively sending the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule to User Equipment (UE) and a User Plane Function (UPF) network element so as to enable the UE or the UPF network element to initiate redundant transmission of the data stream, wherein a plurality of communication links are established between the UE and the UPF network element, and the redundant transmission comprises the transmission of the data stream through the plurality of communication links.

It should be noted that, during establishment or modification of a multi-access PDU session, the SMF element provides an ATSSS rule and an N4 rule to the UE and the UPF element, respectively, where the ATSSS rule is used to indicate whether the UE uses a 3GPP access or a non-3GPP access, and the N4 rule is used to indicate whether the UPF element uses a 3GPP access or a non-3GPP access.

It should be noted that the UE in the embodiment of the present disclosure is a UE supporting the sss function, and ideally, the UE is capable of receiving and storing the control information transmitted from the core network side. It is noted that the UE in the embodiment of the present disclosure may have the following functions: it is determined whether to perform communication using a multi-access PDU session or communication using a single-access PDU session based on control information received from the core network side. Further, when performing communication using a multi-access PDU session, it is possible to determine whether to perform communication only via a 3GPP access, or to perform communication only via a non-3GPP access, or to perform communication simultaneously via a 3GPP access and a non-3GPP, and thus it is possible to select an appropriate scheme for performing communication.

For convenience of understanding, a specific application example will be provided below with reference to fig. 4 to illustrate the redundant transmission method under multiple accesses provided by the present disclosure, and the application example is only used to explain the present invention and is not used to limit the present invention.

Fig. 4 shows a flowchart of a method according to an application example of the present disclosure, in which the method may be implemented in a 5G communication system, and the method specifically includes the following steps:

s401, after the UE establishes the multi-access PDU session successfully, the UE transmits data on an access link (e.g. 3GPP access) according to the traffic steering mode in the initial sss rule.

S402, the AF network element sends a QoS request to the NEF network element through the Nnef _ AFSessionWithQoS Create signaling, and carries the performance indexes such as packet loss rate and the like required by the AF network element through the QoS parameter in the signaling.

S403, the NEF network element allocates Transaction Reference ID (Transaction Reference ID) to the QoS request, and authorizes the AF network element to request access.

S404, the NEF network element finds a corresponding PCF network element in a Service bearing Function (BSF) network element through the UE address, and sends an Npcf _ PolicyAuthorization _ Create request to the PCF network element, wherein the request includes the UE address, AF network element identification, qoS parameters and the like, and the performance indexes such as packet loss rate and the like required by the AF network element are carried by the QoS parameters.

S405, the PCF network element analyzes the QoS parameter from the received request and returns a response message to the AF network element through the NEF network element to confirm the reception.

S406, the PCF network element updates the policy rule (PCC rule) of the current PDU session according to the analyzed QoS parameter, and sends the updated rule to the SMF network element.

S407, the SMF network element parses the updated N4 rule for controlling downlink streaming from the received PCC rule, and transmits the updated N4 rule to the UPF network element through the N4 session modification procedure.

S408, the SMF network element analyzes the updated ATSSS rule for controlling the uplink flow transmission from the received PCC rule, and transmits the ATSSS rule to the UE through the multi-access PDU session modification flow.

S409, the UE and the UPF network element respectively trigger the redundant transmission of the corresponding data stream according to the received rule, that is, copy the corresponding data stream (for example, the data stream exceeding the packet loss threshold) on the initial access path (for example, 3GPP access) to another access path (for example, non-3GPP access) for transmission, so as to improve the reliability of data transmission.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the AF network element initiates the QoS request carrying the QoS parameter, so that the PCF updates the policy rule of the current multi-access session, that is, the ATSSS rule controlling the uplink transmission and the N4 rule controlling the downlink transmission, to indicate that the redundant transmission can be performed when certain specific data streams are transmitted (for example, data streams with a packet loss ratio exceeding a threshold value), thereby solving the problem of supporting the redundant transmission in the multi-access PDU session and improving the reliability of data transmission.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a data redundancy transmission apparatus under multiple accesses, as described in the following embodiments. Because the principle of the embodiment of the apparatus for solving the problem is similar to that of the embodiment of the method, the embodiment of the apparatus can be implemented by referring to the implementation of the embodiment of the method, and repeated details are not described again.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a data redundancy transmission apparatus under multiple accesses in an embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 5, the apparatus 500 includes:

and a rule receiving module 501, configured to receive the policy control and charging PCC rule issued by the PCF network element.

A rule parsing module 502, configured to parse the PCC rule to obtain an access service steering switching splitting ATSSS rule and an N4 rule, where the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used to trigger redundant transmission of a data flow.

A transmission control module 503, configured to send the sss rule and the N4 rule to the UE and the UPF network element, respectively, so that the UE or the UPF network element initiates redundant transmission of the data stream, where multiple communication links are established between the UE and the UPF network element, and the redundant transmission includes transmission of the data stream through the multiple communication links.

In some embodiments, the transmission control module 503 is specifically configured to:

transmitting the ATSSS rule to the UE through a multi-access protocol data unit PDU session modification request so that the UE initiates redundancy transmission on an uplink data stream according to the ATSSS rule; and transmitting the N4 rule to the UPF network element through the N4 session modification request so that the UPF network element initiates the redundant transmission of the downlink data stream according to the N4 rule.

In some embodiments, the PCC rule is generated by the PCF network element based on the QoS parameter information;

and the QoS parameter information is sent to the PCF network element by the AF network element or sent to the PCF network element by the AF network element through the NEF network element.

In some embodiments, the QoS parameter information includes at least one of:

In some embodiments, the UE is further configured to initiate a multiple access PDU session setup request to establish a plurality of communication links between the UE and the UPF network element.

It should be noted that, when the data redundancy transmission apparatus under multiple access provided in the foregoing embodiment is used for data redundancy transmission, only the division of the above functional modules is taken as an example, and in practical applications, the above function allocation may be completed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the apparatus is divided into different functional modules, so as to complete all or part of the functions described above. In addition, the data redundancy transmission apparatus under multiple accesses and the data redundancy transmission method under multiple accesses provided by the above embodiments belong to the same concept, and specific implementation processes thereof are detailed in the method embodiments and are not described herein again.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied as a system, method or program product. Accordingly, various aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in the form of: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, microcode, etc.), or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a data redundancy transmission system under multiple accesses, such as the following embodiments. Because the principle of the system embodiment for solving the problem is similar to that of the method embodiment, the implementation of the system embodiment may refer to the implementation of the method embodiment, and repeated details are not described again.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a data redundancy transmission system under multiple accesses in an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in fig. 6, the system 600 includes: SMF network element 601, UPF network element 602, and UE603.

Wherein, a plurality of communication links are established between the UPF network element 602 and the UE603.

The SMF network element 601 is configured to: receiving policy control and charging PCC rules issued by PCF network elements; analyzing the PCC rule to obtain an ATSSS rule and an N4 rule for switching and splitting access service, wherein the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used for triggering redundant transmission of data flow; and sending the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule to the UE603 and the UPF network element 602 so that the UE603 or the UPF network element 602 initiates redundant transmission of the data stream, wherein a plurality of communication links are established between the UE603 and the UPF network element 602, and the redundant transmission comprises transmission of the data stream through the plurality of communication links.

In some embodiments, the system 600 further comprises: the AMF network element 604 is configured to provide a session management message transmission channel for the UE603 and the SMF network element 601.

In some embodiments, the UE603 is a UE supporting the ATSSS rule, and after the UE603 establishes the multi-PDU session, the UE603 selects one access link (e.g., 3GPP access) to transmit data flow according to the steering mode in the initial ATSSS rule.

In some embodiments, the SMF network element 601 may specifically implement:

the ATSSS rule is sent to the UE603 through a multi-access protocol data unit PDU session modification request, so that the UE initiates redundancy transmission on an uplink data stream according to the ATSSS rule; and issuing the N4 rule to the UPF network element 602 through the N4 session modification request, so that the UPF network element 602 initiates redundant transmission of the downlink data stream according to the N4 rule.

In some embodiments, the UE603 is further configured to initiate a multiple access PDU session setup request to establish a plurality of communication links between the UE603 and the UPF network element 602.

In some embodiments, the QoS parameter information includes at least one of:

In some embodiments, the communication link includes a communication link of a 3GPP access and/or a communication link of a non-3GPP access, where the communication link of the 3GPP access and/or the communication link of the non-3GPP access may include multiple access systems or frequency bands, and may be used simultaneously. For example, a 3GPP access may include both 4G LTE and 5G NG-RAN access technologies simultaneously accessing a 5G core network. The non-3GPP access may also include WiFi simultaneous access in two frequency bands, for example, wiFi frequency bands of 5GHz and 2.4GHz are simultaneously accessed to the 5G core network.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied as a system, method or program product. Accordingly, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, microcode, etc.), or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.

An electronic device 700 according to this embodiment of the disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 7. The electronic device 700 shown in fig. 7 is only an example and should not bring any limitation to the functions and the scope of use of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 7, electronic device 700 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. The components of the electronic device 700 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 710, the at least one memory unit 720, and a bus 730 that couples various system components including the memory unit 720 and the processing unit 710.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 710 to cause the processing unit 710 to perform steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure as described in the above section "exemplary methods" of this specification. For example, the processing unit 710 may perform the following steps of the above method embodiments: receiving Policy Control and Charging (PCC) rules issued by a PCF network element; analyzing the PCC rule to obtain an ATSSS rule and an N4 rule for switching and splitting access service, wherein the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used for triggering redundant transmission of data flow; and respectively sending the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule to User Equipment (UE) and a User Plane Function (UPF) network element so as to enable the UE or the UPF network element to initiate redundant transmission of the data stream, wherein a plurality of communication links are established between the UE and the UPF network element, and the redundant transmission comprises the transmission of the data stream through the plurality of communication links.

In some embodiments, the processing unit 710 may specifically perform:

In some embodiments, the QoS parameter information includes at least one of:

The memory unit 720 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory units, such as a random access memory unit (RAM) 7201 and/or a cache memory unit 7202, and may further include a read only memory unit (ROM) 7203.

The storage unit 720 may also include a program/utility 7204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 7205, such program modules 7205 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each of which, or some combination thereof, may comprise an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 730 may be any representation of one or more of several types of bus structures, including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 700 may also communicate with one or more external devices 740 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 700, and/or with any devices (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enable the electronic device 700 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur via an input/output (I/O) interface 750. Also, the electronic device 700 may communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network such as the internet) via the network adapter 760. As shown, the network adapter 760 communicates with the other modules of the electronic device 700 over the bus 730. It should be appreciated that although not shown in the figures, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in conjunction with the electronic device 700, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems, to name a few.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily understand that the exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented by software, or by software in combination with necessary hardware. Therefore, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (which may be a CD-ROM, a usb disk, a removable hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to enable a computing device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a terminal device, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, there is also provided a computer-readable storage medium, which may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. On which a program product capable of implementing the above-described method of the present disclosure is stored. In some possible embodiments, various aspects of the disclosure may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to perform the steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the disclosure described in the "exemplary methods" section above of this specification, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

More specific examples of the computer-readable storage medium in the present disclosure may include, but are not limited to: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

In the present disclosure, a computer readable storage medium may include a propagated data signal with readable program code embodied therein, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take many forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A readable signal medium may also be any readable medium that is not a readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Alternatively, program code embodied on a computer readable storage medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

In particular implementations, program code for carrying out operations of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C + +, or the like, as well as conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device and partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In situations involving remote computing devices, the remote computing devices may be connected to the user computing device through any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to external computing devices (e.g., through the internet using an internet service provider).

It should be noted that although in the above detailed description several modules or units of the device for action execution are mentioned, such a division is not mandatory. Indeed, the features and functionality of two or more modules or units described above may be embodied in one module or unit, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Conversely, the features and functions of one module or unit described above may be further divided into embodiments by a plurality of modules or units.

Moreover, although the steps of the methods of the present disclosure are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this does not require or imply that these steps must be performed in this particular order, or that all of the depicted steps must be performed, to achieve desirable results. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step execution, and/or one step broken down into multiple step executions, etc.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily understand that the exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented by software, or by software in combination with necessary hardware. Therefore, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (which may be a CD-ROM, a usb disk, a removable hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to enable a computing device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a mobile terminal, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. This disclosure is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure following, in general, the principles of the disclosure and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the disclosure pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

1. A data redundancy transmission method under multi-access is characterized in that the method is applied to SMF network elements and comprises the following steps:

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sss rule and the N4 rule are sent to a user equipment UE and a user plane function UPF network element, so that the UE or the UPF network element initiates redundant transmission of a data stream, specifically including:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to initiate a session establishment request of a multi-access PDU to establish a plurality of communication links between the UE and the UPF network element.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the PCC rule is generated by the PCF network element based on QoS parameter information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the QoS parameter information is sent to the PCF network element by an AF network element, or sent to the PCF network element by the AF network element through an NEF network element.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the QoS parameter information comprises at least one of the following:

7. A data redundancy transmission device under multi-access is characterized in that, applied to one side of SMF network element, it includes:

8. A system for redundant transmission of data under multiple accesses, comprising: SMF network element, UPF network element and UE;

the SMF network element is configured to: receiving policy control and charging PCC rules issued by PCF network elements; analyzing the PCC rule to obtain an access service switching (ATSSS) rule and an N4 rule, wherein the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule are used for triggering redundant transmission of a data flow; and respectively sending the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule to UE and a UPF network element so as to enable the UE or the UPF network element to initiate redundant transmission of data streams, wherein a plurality of communication links are established between the UE and the UPF network element, and the redundant transmission comprises the transmission of the data streams through the plurality of communication links.

9. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor;

wherein the processor is configured to execute the data redundancy transmission method under multiple access according to any one of claims 1 to 6 via executing the executable instructions.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which, when being executed by a processor, implements a method for data redundant transmission under multiple access according to any one of claims 1 to 6.