JP2015061155A - Communication device, communication system, and communication control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To execute cooperative processing among different packet kinds.SOLUTION: When a selection device IF6 selects suitable communication device GW2 for every packet, following requirements are fulfilled: uniformity of a processing load on each GW2; selection of same communication device GW2 on a packet belonging to a same user or a same session; and limitation in the number of entries of a transfer table which the selecting device IF6 may hold. Moreover, cooperative processing among different packet kinds is achieved.

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication device, a communication system, and a communication control method, and more particularly to a technique for selecting a processing device for a packet transmitted and received between a terminal and a service providing server.

  In recent years, research and standardization activities for the 3.9th generation mobile communication system and the 4th generation mobile communication system have been promoted as a method for realizing higher speed and higher quality of mobile radio communication. 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), a standardization organization that formulates LTE (Long Term Evolution), one of the 3.9th generation mobile communication systems, and LTE Advanced, which is one of the 4th generation mobile communication systems. ) Formulates TS (Technical Specification) as a specification of the above-mentioned standard.

  One of the gateways in 3GPP TS, P-GW (PDN Gateway, PDN is an abbreviation of Packet Data Network) can have an interface with a plurality of devices, and C-Plane (Control Plane) Control packet reception and transmission, and U-Plane (User Plane) data packet reception and transmission are performed. A U-Plane data packet is transmitted from a service providing server belonging to an IP (Internet Protocol) network to a terminal in a downlink (DL) direction (hereinafter referred to as a DL packet), and transmitted from the terminal to the service providing server. Can be classified into packets in the uplink (UL) direction (hereinafter referred to as UL packets). In 3GPP TS, the P-GW identifies the terminal, session, bearer, etc. to which each packet belongs for each of the received DL packet and UL packet, and based on the result, a transmission byte for charging and statistics Specifications for counting the number of packets, the number of transmission packets, etc., and assigning an appropriate sequence number to the transmission packets are defined.

In Non-Patent Document 1, requirements regarding the operation of the P-GW and specifications regarding connection and disconnection of a new call are defined.
Further, in Patent Document 1, when there are a plurality of AGWs (Access Gateways) that analyze U-Plane reception packets and generate U-Plane transmission packets, an appropriate AGW is used as a transfer destination of received U-Plane packets. A technique for selecting is disclosed.

JP 2009-253678 A

3GPP TS 23.401 V11.1.0, (2012-3), Technical Specification

  In recent years, in a communication network, with a rapid increase in traffic, communication performance degradation or communication failure may occur due to congestion of communication devices such as 3GPP TS and P-GW similar to Patent Document 1 described above. Assumed, there is an increasing demand for higher packet transfer throughput of communication devices. For this reason, in a conventional communication apparatus in which each processing performance of U-Plane / C-Plane is fixed, there is a concern that the operation cost of the operator will increase due to the introduction of equipment in consideration of the margin of processing performance.

  In addition, the types of terminals connected to the communication network and the types of services provided are diversified year by year. For example, M2M (Machine-To-Machine) terminals with a large number of terminals but a small amount of individual data traffic, and video viewing In a smartphone that requires a large amount of data traffic processing such as the U-Plane / C-Plane processing requirements required for a communication apparatus are greatly different.

  Therefore, the communication device is required to have a degree of freedom for performance adjustment that can flexibly change the U-Plane / C-Plane processing performance in accordance with changes in the network environment such as the traffic volume and the number of terminals.

  One or more GWs (Gateways), which are hardware cards that analyze the received packets and generate the transmitted packets of the communication device, as a method for improving the degree of freedom in adjusting the U-Plane / C-Plane processing performance of the communication device It is possible to meet the performance requirements with the minimum operation cost by installing and inserting the hardware cards as many as the performance required by the mobile operator. The GW is a CGW (C-Plane Gateway) which is hardware for analyzing a C-Plane reception packet and generating a C-Plane transmission packet, and analyzing a U-Plane reception packet and generating a U-Plane transmission packet. UGW (U-plane Gateway), which is hardware for performing the above, may be realized by individual hardware cards, and a plurality of them may be installed. In this configuration, an IF (Interface) that is a packet transmission / reception unit of the communication device selects, for each packet, a GW that processes a U-Plane / C-Plane packet received by the communication device from a plurality of GWs, A function to transfer a packet to an appropriate GW is required. The communication device such as P-GW described in Non-Patent Document 1 described above is only a logical entity, and may be physically configured as an aggregate of a plurality of hardware. A configuration composed of GW and IF is also allowed.

When the communication device is composed of a plurality of GWs and IFs, the IF satisfies the following three requirements as a transfer destination GW selection function for selecting a GW as a transfer destination of a received packet from the plurality of GWs. Is required.
As a first requirement, it is necessary to consider the processing load uniformity in each GW.
When there are two or more GWs constituting the communication device, the selection result may be biased to some GWs depending on the IF GW selection method. At this time, there is a concern that a delay due to congestion occurs in some GWs where selection results are concentrated, and the performance according to the number of GWs as a whole communication apparatus cannot be achieved. Therefore, the IF requires that the GW be selected so that the processing load of each GW is evenly distributed.

As a second requirement, it is necessary to consider selection of the same GW for packets belonging to the same user or the same session.
When there are two or more GWs constituting the communication apparatus, different GWs may be selected for packets belonging to the same user or the same session depending on the IF GW selection method. At this time, for example, it is necessary to perform processing such as assignment of a sequence number for each session, QoS control such as bandwidth limitation, accounting count, etc., among a plurality of GWs, and transfer processing performance such as delay is reduced. Concerned. Therefore, the IF is required to select the same GW in principle for received packets belonging to the same user or the same session. In particular, in order to eliminate the influence on the external device such as resetting of the routing table due to resetting of the address such as the MAC address and IP address due to the increase / decrease of the GW, the address that each GW shows to the external device is made common. In this case, since the IF cannot determine the transfer destination GW only by using the destination address information of the received packet, it is necessary to select the transfer destination GW in consideration of the user identifier or the session identifier set in the received packet.

As a third requirement, it is necessary to consider the limit on the number of entries in the transfer table that can be held by the IF.
As with P-GW in Non-Patent Document 1, the IF of a communication device that performs high-speed and large-capacity packet transfer is difficult to meet the required performance with software transfer, and is optimized for high-speed packet transfer processing Hardware transfer using a hardware chip that has been made is desirable. However, in the hardware transfer using the hardware chip, generally, the time required for the search tends to become very long as the number of entries in the transfer table indicating the packet transfer condition in the IF increases. Therefore, in order to satisfy the transfer performance required for the IF, it is required to minimize the number of entries in the transfer table held by the IF. If the transfer table indicating the transfer destination GW corresponding to each user identifier or session identifier set in the packet is held in the IF, the number of entries equal to the number of users or sessions is required in the transfer table. Considering a general communication operator, the number of users or sessions to be accommodated per communication device greatly exceeds the number of transfer table entries that can satisfy the transfer performance required for the IF. Unless a method that can reduce the number of entries in the transfer table is devised, it is assumed that the IF transfer performance requirement cannot be satisfied.

As a method for simultaneously satisfying the above first to third requests, a hash-based GW selection method that selects a transfer destination GW based on a hash calculation using a user identifier or a session identifier as an input value can be considered.
In the hash-based GW selection method, the IF specifies the type of user identifier or session identifier of a packet received from an external device, and the user identifier set in the packet (eg, IMSI (International Mobile described in Non-Patent Document 1). Subscriber Identity)) or session identifier (example: TEID (Tunnel Endpoint Identifier) in GTP (General Packet Radio Switching Tunneling Protocol) described in Non-Patent Document 1) is used as a hash calculation with each packet as a hash calculation with a hold IF as an input value. The transfer destination GW is selected based on the table indicating the GW corresponding to each output value of the hash calculation being performed.

In this hash-based GW selection method, the probability that each GW is selected based on the output value of the hash calculation is set in a GW association table corresponding to the output value of the hash calculation so that the processing load of each GW becomes equal. As a result, the bias of the processing load of the GW can be reduced, so that the first requirement is satisfied.
Further, in the hash-based GW selection method, for the packet having the same type of user identifier or session identifier set in the packet, the same output value is always returned for the same input value in the hash calculation. The same GW can be selected for packets belonging to. Thereby, the second requirement is satisfied.

Further, in the hash-based GW selection method, since the IF can determine the transfer destination GW for each packet only by specifying the transfer destination GW for each output result of the hash, the number of entries in the transfer table to be held in the IF is calculated by hash calculation. It is sufficient to hold only the number of output result patterns. Therefore, for example, when “CRC16 + Mod256” is adopted as the hash calculation, the number of entries in the IF transfer table can be reduced to only 256 entries for each packet type, and the third request is satisfied.
However, when performing GW selection in IF using the hash-based GW selection method, there are the following problems.

  There are cases where the type of user identifier or session identifier set in a packet differs depending on the protocol used for packet communication and the type of message. Here, the difference in the type of user identifier or session identifier set in a packet is referred to as a packet type. In particular, in mobile communication, there are many packet types for the same user or session.

  For example, in the P-GW in the 3GPP standard described in Non-Patent Document 1, a U-Plane packet in the UL (Up Link) direction addressed to a server includes a “GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) Key” for each transfer protocol. A session identifier such as “TEID-U (TEID for U-Plane)” is set, but only a “terminal IP address” is set as a user identifier in a DL (Down Link) direction U-Plane packet addressed to the terminal. . As for C-Plane packets, “Session-Id” is used for packets received by the Diameter protocol from the Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) that manages information such as QoS control, and AAA (which manages accounting and authentication information). The type of user identifier or session identifier set in the received packet varies depending on the protocol, such as "Acct-Session-ID" for packets received using RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service) protocol from Authentication, Authorization and Accounting. There is a case. Also, there are cases where different identifiers are set for each message type even for packets received by the same protocol. For example, in principle, a session identifier “TEID-C (TEID for C-Plane)” is set in a C-Plane packet received from the S-GW (Serving Gateway) using the GTPv2-C protocol. Since “TEID-C” is not set in some packets such as the C-Plane packet “Create Session Request” requesting a new connection and the GTPv2-C alive monitoring packet “Echo Request” not linked to a specific session, For example, it is necessary to use different identifiers depending on message types, such as “IMSI” for “Create Session Request” and “IP address of opposite S-GW” for “Echo Request”.

  On the other hand, in the GW of the communication apparatus, there are cases where information associated with each packet type must be processed in cooperation. For example, in the billing function, billing count information such as the number of transmitted bytes of the U-Plane packet in the UL direction and the U-Plane packet in the DL direction is held by the GW, and designated by the C-Plane packet of AAA protocol from AAA Based on the charging setting information held by the GW such as the UL / DL threshold for the number of transmitted bytes, specified by AAA when the count result of the U-Plane packet in the UL or DL direction reaches the threshold. On the basis of the charging setting information, a RADIUS protocol C-Plane packet including charging information such as both count results is generated and transmitted to the designated AAA.

  Here, in the above hash-based GW selection method, even if the packets belong to the same user or the same session, the value of the user or session identifier that becomes the input value differs for each packet type. Does not necessarily match. Therefore, there is a possibility that packets may be transferred to different GWs for each packet type, and each GW does not know which GW is transferred to a packet of a different packet type. However, the problem is that cooperation processing between different packet types cannot be performed.

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication device, a communication system, and a communication control method capable of realizing cooperative processing between different packet types in a wireless or wired communication system.

According to the first solution of the present invention,
A communication device,
A storage unit and a processing unit, receiving the packet from a selection device that forwards the packet;
The storage unit
Storing the first information associated with the transfer destination identifier and the transfer destination communication device corresponding to the transfer destination communication device of the packet used when transferring the packet stored in the selection device;
The processor is
The selection device belongs to the same terminal as the transmission terminal of the first packet to be transferred using the first information and the transfer destination identifier of the first packet, or to the same session as the session of the first packet When transferring the second packet, if the transfer destination identifier is not assigned to the second packet,
Assigning a transfer destination identifier of the second packet using the first information stored in the storage unit so that the transfer destination of the first packet and the second packet is the same communication device. ,
Is provided.

According to the second solution of the present invention,
A communication system,
A communication device that receives the packet from a selection device that forwards the packet;
The communication device
A storage unit and a processing unit;
The storage unit
Storing the first information associated with the transfer destination identifier and the transfer destination communication device corresponding to the transfer destination communication device of the packet used when transferring the packet stored in the selection device;
The processor is
The selection device belongs to the same terminal as the transmission terminal of the first packet to be transferred using the first information and the transfer destination identifier of the first packet, or to the same session as the session of the first packet When transferring the second packet, if the transfer destination identifier is not assigned to the second packet,
Assigning a transfer destination identifier of the second packet using the first information stored in the storage unit so that the transfer destination of the first packet and the second packet is the same communication device. ,
A communication system is provided.

According to the third solution of the present invention,
A communication control method in a communication device,
The communication device
A storage unit and a processing unit, receiving the packet from a selection device that forwards the packet;
The storage unit
Storing the first information associated with the transfer destination identifier and the transfer destination communication device corresponding to the transfer destination communication device of the packet used when transferring the packet stored in the selection device;
The processor is
The selection device belongs to the same terminal as the transmission terminal of the first packet to be transferred using the first information and the transfer destination identifier of the first packet, or to the same session as the session of the first packet When transferring the second packet, if the transfer destination identifier is not assigned to the second packet,
Assigning a transfer destination identifier of the second packet using the first information stored in the storage unit so that the transfer destination of the first packet and the second packet is the same communication device. ,
A communication control method is provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a communication device, a communication system, and a communication control method capable of realizing cooperation processing between different packet types in a wireless or wired communication system.

It is a conceptual diagram for demonstrating the function structure of the 1st function of the communication system based on the Example of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram for demonstrating the function structure of the 2nd function of the communication system based on the Example of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows one structural example of the communication system based on 1st Example. It is a functional block diagram which shows an example of the selection apparatus (IF) based on a 1st Example. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an IF memory unit according to the first embodiment. It is a functional block diagram which shows an example of the packet processing apparatus (GW) based on 1st Example. It is a block diagram of the memory part of GW based on a 1st Example. It is a functional block diagram which shows an example of the maintenance management apparatus (EM) based on a 1st Example. It is a block diagram of the memory part of EM based on a 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information for determining GW used as the transfer destination of the packet which IF received based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information for resolving the address of each GW used as the transfer destination of the packet which IF received based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information whether each value of the identifier of MS or a session has already been allocated to other MS or a session based on a 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information of the value of the identifier of MS or session in which a self GW is selected as a transfer destination of the packet which IF received in a certain GW based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information of the value of the identifier of MS or session in which a self GW is selected as a transfer destination of the packet which IF received in a certain GW based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information whether each value of the identifier of MS or a session has already been allocated to other MS or a session based on a 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information of the value of the identifier of MS or session in which a self GW is selected as a transfer destination of the packet which IF received in a certain GW based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information whether each value of the identifier of MS or a session has already been allocated to other MS or a session based on a 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information of the value of the identifier for every packet type in each MS or each session based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information for determining GW used as the transfer destination of the communication packet between GW based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information for resolving the address of each GW used as the transfer destination of the communication packet between GW based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information of the value of the identifier for every packet type in each MS or each session based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information of the processing throughput of each GW based on a 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the information which concerns on 1st Example whether each GW is working now. It is a figure which shows an example of the selection process of the transfer destination GW of the received packet in IF based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the assignment process of the identifier of MS or session in GW based on 1st Example. According to the first embodiment, the MS or session identifier assigned flag table 241 (FIG. 12) is created based on the MS or session identifier value table 242 (FIG. 13) from which the GW is selected in the GW. It is a figure which shows an example. It is a figure which shows an example of the determination process of the transfer destination GW of the transfer between GW in GW based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the transmission process of the update request packet of the table 243 (FIG. 18) in GW based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the reception process of the update request packet of the table 243 (FIG. 18) in GW based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the process of preparation of the value table 334 (FIG. 13) of MS or session identifier from which self GW in EM is selected based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the process of preparation of the GW transfer destination determination table 335 (FIG. 19) in EM based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the process of preparation of the GW transfer destination address table 337 (FIG. 20) in EM based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the process of the initial setting of the transfer table of IF and GW in this system based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the process of a setting update of the transfer table of IF and GW in this system based on 1st Example.

A. Overview

Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Before describing various embodiments, an outline thereof will be described.
A typical embodiment of the present invention will be described as follows. That is, a server device connected to a network, a terminal device connected to the network and communicating packets with the server device, and a packet processing device / packet processing unit (GW) that relays communication of the packets , A communication system including a selection device / selection unit (IF) for selecting an appropriate packet processing device and transferring the packet, and a control method thereof, wherein the selection device includes a plurality of packet processing devices. When selecting an appropriate packet processing apparatus for each packet, the first to third requirements are satisfied, and cooperative processing between different packet types is realized.

According to the first solution of the present invention,
There is provided a communication system, a communication control method, and a communication control apparatus, characterized in that the IF and the GW have a common transfer destination determination logic, and the IF and the GW perform different processes.
According to the second solution of the present invention,
When assigning an identifier of a certain user or session by the GW, the transfer destination determination logic of the IF has a feature of the first solving means, and a transfer destination of a packet of another packet type in the user or the session Provided are a communication system, a communication control method, and a communication control apparatus, in which a GW assigns an identifier of a user or a session so that a GW common to the GW selected as the GW is selected.
According to the third solution of the present invention,
When the transfer destination GW is different for each packet type with respect to a certain user or session, the identifier value of another packet type in the user or the session is common to the IF. A communication system, a communication control method, and a communication control apparatus are provided in which the GW can specify a transfer destination GW of a packet of another packet type in the user or the session based on the transfer destination determination logic of the user.

  FIG. 1 is a functional configuration diagram for explaining an overview of a first function of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, the first function is, for example, a case where the packet processing device (GateWay, hereinafter referred to as GW) 2 performs assignment of the MS5 or session identifier in a certain packet type (“packet type B” in the following example). Applied in

  In FIG. 1, a selection device (InterFace, hereinafter referred to as IF) 6 includes a service providing server (Service Server, hereinafter referred to as SS) 1, or a GW 2, or a maintenance management device (Equipment Manager, hereinafter referred to as EM) 3, or a base station (hereinafter referred to as EM) 3. A C-Plane or U-Plane packet is received from a Base Station (hereinafter, BS) 4, a terminal (Mobile Station, hereinafter, MS) 5, or another external communication device (External Entity, hereinafter, EE) 7. In this case, as shown in (1) of FIG. 1, the IF 6 receives, for example, a packet of type A from SS1, BS4, MS5, or EE7. For example, the processing example shown in FIG. 24 (details will be described later) 1 is selected according to the packet type determination result of the received packet and the MS5 or session identifier (“A” and “1” in this example) set in the packet, As shown in (2), the packet is transferred to the selected GW 2 (in this example, “GW 2 # 1”). At this time, the information used to select the transfer destination GW2 for the packet of the packet type A is created in the EM3 according to, for example, a table creation process (details will be described later) of the transfer destination GW2 in the EM3. Alternatively, information distributed from the EM 3 is used according to the processing example shown in FIG. 34 (details will be described later). Here, for example, a case is assumed in which the packet type A packet transferred from the IF 6 to the GW 2 is a packet indicating an assignment request for an identifier of the packet type B of a certain MS 5 or a certain session. Here, the packet type A and the value of the MS5 or session identifier are included in this request or are known by the GW2. GW2 is a packet for selecting its own GW2 distributed from EM3 according to the processing example shown in FIG. 25 (details will be described later), for example, according to the processing example shown in FIG. 33 or FIG. 34 (details will be described later). Based on the information on the value of the identifier of type B and the information indicating whether or not the value of each identifier has been assigned, which is created by the GW 2 according to the processing example shown in FIG. 26 (details will be described later), for example, The assigned value of the identifier of B is determined (in this example, “B” and “1”), and a packet indicating the notification of the assignment result of the identifier of the MS 5 of the packet type B or a certain session including the determined value is created. The packet is transmitted to the IF 6 as shown in (3) of FIG. At this time, the information on the value of the identifier of the packet type B for which the own GW2 is selected is based on the information used for selecting the GW2 of the transfer destination for the packet of the packet type B in IF6, for example, in FIG. It is created by EM3 according to the processing example shown (details will be described later), and for example, according to the processing example (details will be described later) shown in FIG. Managed. For example, when receiving a packet from the GW 2, the IF 6 determines the packet type of the received packet. For example, when the IF 6 receives a packet including information on the assigned value of the identifier of the packet type B from the GW 2, for example, according to the processing example shown in FIG. According to the set MS5 or session identifier, the destination SS1 or BS4 or MS5 or EE7 is selected, and the packet is transferred to SS1 or BS4 or MS5 or EE7 as shown in (4) of FIG. For example, when SS1 or BS4 or MS5 or EE7 receives a packet including information on an assigned value of an identifier of packet type B from IF 6, when transmitting the packet of packet type B to GW2, the identifier included in the packet 1 is set to the value assigned from GW2, and the packet is transmitted to IF6 as shown in (5) of FIG. For example, when the packet of packet type B is received from SS1, BS4, MS5, or EE7, IF6 is set in the packet type determination result and the packet according to the processing example shown in FIG. 24 (details will be described later). In accordance with the MS5 or session identifier (in this example, “B” and “1”), the transfer destination GW2 is selected, and the packet is transferred to the selected GW2 as shown in (6) of FIG. Then, GW2 # 1).

  FIG. 2 is a functional configuration diagram for explaining an outline of a second function of the communication system according to the embodiment of this invention. Here, the second function, for example, assigns an MS5 or session identifier in a certain packet type (“packet type A” and “packet type C” in the following example) to a device other than GW2 (for example, SS1, BS4). , MS5, EE7, etc.), the first function cannot be applied, so for packets belonging to the same MS5 or session, the GW2 selected as the transfer destination by the IF6 is set for each packet type. Applied in cases where different cases occur.

  In FIG. 2, IF 6 receives a C-Plane or U-Plane packet from SS 1, GW 2, EM 3, BS 4, MS 5, or EE 7. In this case, for example, when the packet of packet type A is received from SS1, BS4, MS5, or EE7, IF 6 determines the packet type of the received packet according to the processing example shown in FIG. 24 (details will be described later). According to the result and the MS5 or session identifier (in this example, “A” and “1”) set in the packet, the transfer destination GW2 is selected, and the selected GW2 is selected as shown in (1) of FIG. Transfer the packet (in this example, “GW2 # 1”). At this time, the information used for selecting the transfer destination GW2 is created in EM3 according to, for example, a table creation process (details will be described later) of the transfer destination GW2 in EM3, for example, the process shown in FIG. 33 or FIG. Information distributed from EM3 is used according to an example (details will be described later). Further, when the IF 6 receives a packet type C identifier assigned packet from SS1, BS4, MS5, or EE7, for example, according to the processing example shown in FIG. 24 (details will be described later), the packet type of the received packet 2 and the identifier of the MS 5 or session (in this example, “C” and “101”) set in the packet, the transfer destination GW 2 is selected and selected as shown in FIG. 2 (2). The packet is transferred to GW2 (in this example, GW2 # 2). At this time, the information used for selecting the transfer destination GW2 is created in EM3 according to, for example, a table creation process (details will be described later) of the transfer destination GW2 in EM3, for example, the process shown in FIG. 33 or FIG. Information distributed from EM3 is used according to an example (details will be described later).

  Under such conditions, in GW2, for example, as shown in (3) of FIG. 2, for a certain MS5 or session, the association between the related information necessary for packet type A processing and the information of packet type C is linked. A case is assumed where a communication request such as a request with the GW 2 holding the information of the packet type C is generated or received. Here, the packet type A and the value of the MS5 or session identifier are included in this request or are known by the GW2. GW2 is based on identifier association information between packet types created according to the processing example shown in FIG. 27 (details will be described later), for example, according to the processing example shown in FIG. 28 or FIG. 29 (details will be described later). The related information necessary for processing the packet type C of the MS 5 or the session is searched. As a result of the search, when the related information necessary for the processing of the packet type C is not held, the GW 2 responds to the packet of the packet type C according to the processing example shown in FIG. 27 (details will be described later). Based on the information for determining the transfer destination GW2, the GW2 as the transfer destination of the packet of the packet type C of the MS5 or the session is determined, and the packet type C of the packet type C of the MS5 or session including the determined GW2 as the destination A packet indicating a communication request with the GW 2 holding related information necessary for processing is created, and the packet is transmitted to the GW 2 as shown in (4) of FIG. 2 (in this example, “C” and “ 101 "to" GW2 # 2 "). At this time, the information for determining the transfer destination GW2 for the packet of the packet type C is based on the information used for selecting the transfer destination GW2 of the packet of the packet type C by IF6, for example, in FIG. It is created by EM3 according to the processing example shown (details will be described later), and for example, according to the processing example (details will be described later) shown in FIG. Managed. GW2 ("GW2 # 2" in this example) is, for example, a GW2 that holds related information necessary for processing of a certain MS5 or packet type C of a session from GW2 ("GW2 # 1" in this example) When a packet indicating a communication request is received, for example, for processing of the packet type C of the MS 5 or session according to the determination result of the packet type of the received packet according to the processing example (details will be described later) shown in FIG. The necessary related information is searched and processing corresponding to the communication request is executed.

With this communication system, when multiple GWs 2 exist, when the IF 6 selects an appropriate GW 2 for each packet, the above-mentioned first to third requirements are satisfied and cooperation processing between different packet types is performed. can do.

B. Embodiment

Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be sequentially described with reference to the drawings.

1. System and equipment

<System configuration>
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the communication system according to the first embodiment. The communication system of the first embodiment includes an MS 5 that performs wireless or wired communication with the BS 4, an IF 6 that communicates with the MS 5 via the BS 4, one or more GWs 2 that communicate with the IF 6, and an SS 1 that communicates with the IF 6. EM3 that communicates with one or a plurality of GWs 2 and IF6, and EE7 that communicates with IF6.

  Here, EM3 and one or more GW2 and IF6, or one or more GW2 and IF6 may be mounted on the same device, or may be mounted on different devices. BS4 can be omitted. In this case, MS5 communicates with IF6 without going through BS4, and IF6 communicates with MS5 without going through BS4. Further, one or a plurality of GWs 2 and EMs 3 may communicate with each other via IF 6 or may communicate with each other without passing through IF 6. Further, a different GW2 from a certain GW2 may communicate via the IF6, or may communicate via the IF6.

  FIG. 3 shows one component of the communication system of this embodiment one by one, but in practice, the number of these components is arbitrary. For example, the communication system of the present embodiment may include a plurality of MSs 5 communicating with one BS 4, may further include a plurality of BSs 4, may further include a plurality of EMs 3, and may further include a plurality of SS 1s. Further, a plurality of IFs 6 may be included, and a plurality of EEs 7 may be further included. Further, only one GW 2 may be provided.

<Apparatus configuration: IF6>
FIG. 4 shows a functional block of a configuration example of the IF 6 used in this embodiment. The IF 6 includes, for example, an SS interface unit 61, a BS interface unit 62, an EM interface unit 63, a GW interface unit 64, an EE interface unit 65, a memory unit 66, and a processing unit 67.
The SS interface unit 61 is an interface with SS1. Using the SS interface unit 61, the IF 6 transmits and receives packets to and from SS1.
The BS interface unit 62 is an interface with the BS 4. Using the BS interface unit 62, the IF 6 transmits and receives packets to and from the BS 4. In the case of a communication system in which the BS 4 is omitted, the IF 6 directly transmits / receives a packet to / from the MS 5 without using the BS 4 using the BS interface unit 62.
The EM interface unit 63 is an interface with the EM 3. Using the EM interface unit 63, the IF 6 transmits and receives packets to and from the EM 3.
The GW interface unit 64 is an interface with the GW 2. Using the GW interface unit 64, the IF 6 transmits and receives packets to and from the GW 2.
The EE interface unit 65 is an interface with the EE 7. Using the EE interface unit 65, the IF 6 transmits and receives packets to and from the EE 7.

Note that the interface units 61-65 in the IF 6 described above may be collectively referred to as an IF 6 interface unit or a network interface unit. These interface units are connected to the memory unit 66 and the processing unit 67 by an internal bus or the like.
The memory unit 66 stores / manages information such as packets to be transmitted / received and addresses of SS1, GW2, EM3, BS4, and EE7 to be connected as necessary.
The processing unit 67 is configured by, for example, a central processing unit (CPU). The processing unit 67 manages information stored in the memory unit 66, and further executes various programs stored in the memory unit 66, thereby performing various processes such as packet transmission / reception such as packet construction or analysis. Processing, determination of packet type, selection of packet transfer destination GW2, etc. are performed.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a configuration example of the memory unit of the IF 6 of this embodiment.
For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the memory unit 66 holds a table 661 to a table 662.
A table 661 is a transfer destination GW2 table, and shows information for determining GW2 that is a transfer destination of a packet received by the IF6. By using the table 661, it is possible to manage information such as the packet type, the MS5 or session identifier value, and the transfer destination GW2 identifier. Details of the table 661 will be described later (see FIG. 10).

  A table 662 is a transfer destination GW2 address table, and indicates information for resolving the address of each GW2 that is a transfer destination of a packet received by the IF6. By using the table 662, information such as the identifier of the transfer destination GW2, the MAC address of the transfer destination GW2, and the IP address of the transfer destination GW2 can be managed. Details of the table 662 will be described later (see FIG. 11).

<Details of each table held in the memory unit 66 of the IF 6>
FIG. 10 shows a table 661 as an example of information held in the memory unit 66 of the IF 6 of this embodiment. The table 661 shows information for determining the GW 2 that is the transfer destination of the packet received by the IF 6.
The table 661 stores, for example, the packet type, the MS5 or session identifier value (identifier value), and the transfer destination GW2 identifier (transfer destination GW2).
The packet type is a parameter indicating the type of parameter for identifying the MS 5 or session set in the packet. The packet type may be set for each communication protocol of packets such as GTPv2-C, GTPv1-C, GTPv1-U, PMIP (Proxy Mobile Internet Protocol) v6, GRE, etc., or “Create Session of GTPv2-C It may be set for each message type in the same protocol such as “Request”, “Echo Request”, and “Modify Bearer Request”.

The value of the MS5 or session identifier is a parameter for identifying the MS5 or session. The value of the identifier of MS5 or session may be, for example, one or both of an IPv4 address and IPv6 Prefix assigned to MS5, an identifier for each user such as IMSI, or an identifier for each session such as TEID in GTP. Alternatively, it may be a bearer unit identifier such as EPS Bearer ID (EPS is an abbreviation of Evolved Packet System), or may be indicated by a plurality of combinations thereof.
The identifier of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter for uniquely identifying each GW2. For example, the identifier of the transfer destination GW2 may be managed as a numerical value or may be managed as an arbitrary character string.

  The initial value of information included in the table 661 may be set in advance in IF6, or set by a packet received by IF6 from EM3, GW2, BS4, MS5, SS1, or EE7, or a command input by an operator. May be. These pieces of information may be updated by a packet received by the IF 6 from the EM 3, GW 2, BS 4, MS 5, SS 1, or EE 7, or a command input by the operator.

FIG. 11 shows a table 662 as an example of information held in the memory unit 66 of the IF 6 of this embodiment. The table 662 shows information for resolving the address of GW2 selected as the transfer destination GW2 of the packet received by IF6.
The table 662 stores, for example, the identifier (GW2 ID) of the transfer destination GW2, the MAC address (GW2 MAC) of the transfer destination GW2, the IP address (GW2 IP) of the transfer destination GW2, and the like.

The identifier of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter for uniquely identifying each GW2, and may be managed by the same method as the “identifier of the transfer destination GW2” in the table 661, for example.
The MAC address of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter indicating a MAC address for transferring each GW2 as a destination.
The IP address of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter indicating a MAC address for transferring each GW2 as a destination. For example, the IP address of the transfer destination GW2 may be managed with an IPv4 address, may be managed with an IPv6 Prefix, or may be managed with an IPv6 full address. When IPv4 and IPv6 addresses coexist, a parameter indicating the IP version may be separately set in this table for distinction.

  Note that the initial value of the information included in the table 662 may be set in advance in IF6, or set by a packet received by IF6 from EM3, GW2, BS4, MS5, SS1, or EE7, or a command input by an operator. May be. These pieces of information may be updated by a packet received by the IF 6 from the EM 3, GW 2, BS 4, MS 5, SS 1, or EE 7, or a command input by the operator.

<Apparatus configuration: GW2>
FIG. 6 shows functional blocks of a configuration example of the GW 2 used in this embodiment. The GW 2 includes, for example, an IF interface unit 21, a GW interface unit 22, an EM interface unit 23, a memory unit 24, and a processing unit 25.
The IF interface unit 21 is an interface with the IF 6. The GW 2 transmits and receives packets to and from the IF 6 using the IF interface unit 21.
The GW interface unit 22 is an interface with the GW 2. Using the GW interface unit 22, the GW 2 transmits / receives a packet to / from another different GW 2. In the case of a communication system in which communication between a certain GW 2 and another GW 2 is always performed via the IF 6, this interface unit can be omitted.
The EM interface unit 23 is an interface with the EM 3. Using the EM interface unit 33, the GW 2 transmits / receives a packet to / from the EM 3. In the case of a communication system in which communication between the GW 2 and the EM 3 is always performed via the IF 6, this interface unit can be omitted.

Note that the interface unit 21-23 in the GW 2 described above may be collectively referred to as an EM3 interface unit or a network interface unit. These interface units are connected to the memory unit 24 and the processing unit 25 by an internal bus or the like.
The memory unit 24 stores and manages information such as packets to be transmitted / received and addresses of IF6, GW2 and EM3 to be connected as necessary.
The processing unit 25 is configured by, for example, a central processing unit (CPU). The processing unit 25 manages information held in the memory unit 24, and further executes various programs stored in the memory unit 24, thereby performing various processes, for example, packet transmission / reception such as packet construction or analysis. Processing, packet type determination, etc. are performed.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of a configuration example of the memory unit of the GW 2 of the present embodiment.
For example, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the memory unit 24 holds tables 241 to 245.
The table 241 is an assigned flag table of the MS5 or session identifier, and determines whether or not each value of the MS5 or session identifier that the GW2 has the authority to assign is already assigned to the existing MS5 or session. The information to do is shown. By using the table 241, it is possible to manage information such as the packet type, the MS5 or session identifier value, and the assigned flag of the MS5 or session identifier value. Details of the table 241 will be described later (see FIG. 12).
The table 242 is an MS5 or session identifier value table for which the own GW2 is selected. In the transfer destination GW2 determination logic in the IF6, information on the MS5 or session identifier value for which the own GW2 is selected as the transfer destination GW2 is stored. Show. By using the table 242, it is possible to manage information such as the packet type and the MS5 or session identifier value. Details of the table 242 will be described later (see FIG. 13).
The table 243 is an MS5 or session identifier linking table between packet types, and indicates information on identifier values for each packet type for a certain MS5 or session. By using the table 243, it is possible to manage information such as entry IDs, packet types, and identifier values. Details of the table 243 will be described later (see FIG. 18).
The table 244 is an inter-GW2 transfer destination determination table, and shows information for determining the GW2 that is the transfer destination of the inter-GW2 transfer packet. By using the table 244, information such as the packet type, the MS5 or session identifier value, and the transfer destination GW2 identifier can be managed. Details of the table 244 will be described later (see FIG. 19).
The table 245 is an inter-GW2 transfer destination address table, and indicates information for resolving the address of each GW2 that is a transfer destination of the inter-GW2 transfer packet. By using the table 245, information such as the identifier of the transfer destination GW2, the MAC address of the transfer destination GW2, and the IP address of the transfer destination GW2 can be managed. Details of the table 245 will be described later (see FIG. 20).

<Details of each table held by the memory unit 24 of the GW 2>
FIG. 12 shows a table 241 as an example of information held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 of this embodiment. The table 241 shows information for determining whether or not each value of the identifier of the MS 5 or session having the authority assigned by the own GW 2 is a value already assigned to the existing MS 5 or session.
The table 241 stores, for example, a packet type, an MS5 or session identifier value (identifier value), an assigned flag (assigned flag) of an MS5 or session identifier value, and the like.
The packet type is a parameter indicating the type of parameter for identifying the MS 5 or session set in the packet, and may be managed by the same method as the “packet type” in the table 661, for example.
The MS5 or session identifier value is a parameter for identifying the MS5 or session, and may be managed in the same manner as the “MS5 or session identifier value” in the table 661, for example.
The assigned flag of the MS5 or session identifier value is a parameter for identifying whether each value of the MS5 or session identifier is a value already assigned to the existing MS5 or session. The assigned flag of the MS5 or session identifier value may be managed by a binary variable such as “Yes / No” or “True / False”, for example.
The initial value of the information included in the table 241 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by GW2 from IF6, GW2, or EM3, or a command input by an operator. Further, these pieces of information may be updated by a packet received by the GW 2 from the IF 6, GW 2, or EM 3, or a command input by an operator.

FIG. 13 shows a table 242 as an example of information held by the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 of this embodiment. The table 242 shows information on the value of the identifier of the MS 5 or the session in which the own GW 2 is selected as the transfer destination GW 2 in the transfer destination GW 2 determination logic in the IF 6.
The table 242 stores, for example, the packet type and the MS5 or session identifier value.
The packet type is a parameter indicating the type of parameter for identifying the MS 5 or session set in the packet, and may be managed by the same method as the “packet type” in the table 661, for example.
The MS5 or session identifier value is a parameter for identifying the MS5 or session, and may be managed in the same manner as the “MS5 or session identifier value” in the table 661, for example.
Note that the initial values of the information included in the table 242 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by GW2 from IF6, GW2, or EM3, or a command input by an operator. Further, these pieces of information may be updated by a packet received by the GW 2 from the IF 6, GW 2, or EM 3, or a command input by an operator.
The table 242 stores data extracted from the table 661 and the entry whose forwarding destination GW is the own GW, and stores the MS or session identifier for the packet type (see FIG. 30 described later).

FIG. 18 shows a table 243 as an example of information held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 of this embodiment. The table 243 shows information on the identifier value for each packet type for a certain MS 5 or session.
The table 243 stores, for example, an entry ID, a packet type, and an identifier value thereof.
The entry ID is a parameter for uniquely identifying each entry in the table 243. For example, the entry ID may be managed as a numerical value or may be managed as an arbitrary character string.
The packet type and the identifier value are parameters for indicating the identifier value assigned to each packet type for a certain MS 5 or session corresponding to each entry. When an identifier of a certain packet type is unassigned, for example, it may be identified because a specific character string indicating unassigned such as “−” is set in the corresponding location, It may be identified that a specific numerical value to be set is set, or may be identified because there is no set value in the corresponding part.
The initial value of the information included in the table 243 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by GW2 from IF6, GW2, or EM3, or a command input by an operator. Further, these pieces of information may be updated by a packet received by the GW 2 from the IF 6, GW 2, or EM 3, or a command input by an operator.

FIG. 19 shows a table 244 as an example of information held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 of this embodiment. The table 244 shows information for determining the GW 2 that is the transfer destination of the inter-GW 2 transfer packet.
The table 244 stores, for example, the packet type, the MS5 or session identifier value (identifier value), and the transfer destination GW2 identifier (transfer destination GW2).
The packet type is a parameter indicating the type of parameter for identifying the MS 5 or session set in the packet, and may be managed by the same method as the “packet type” in the table 661, for example.
The MS5 or session identifier value is a parameter for identifying the MS5 or session, and may be managed in the same manner as the “MS5 or session identifier value” in the table 661, for example.
The identifier of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter for uniquely identifying each GW2, and may be managed by the same method as the “identifier of the transfer destination GW2” in the table 661, for example.

The initial value of the information included in the table 244 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by GW2 from IF6, GW2, or EM3, or a command input by an operator. Further, these pieces of information may be updated by a packet received by the GW 2 from the IF 6, GW 2, or EM 3, or a command input by an operator.
The table 244 includes data from which the entry having the transfer destination GW as its own GW is deleted from the table 661, and the identifier of the MS or session, the identifier of the transfer destination GW of the inter-GW transfer packet, Is stored (see FIG. 31 described later).

FIG. 20 shows a table 245 as an example of information held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 of this embodiment. The table 245 shows information for resolving the address of each GW2 that is the transfer destination of the transfer packet between GW2.
The table 245 stores, for example, an identifier (GW2 ID) of the transfer destination GW2, a MAC address (GW2 MAC) of the transfer destination GW2, an IP address (GW2 IP) of the transfer destination GW2, and the like.
The identifier of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter for uniquely identifying each GW2, and may be managed by the same method as the “identifier of the transfer destination GW2” in the table 661, for example.
The MAC address of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter indicating a MAC address for transferring each GW2 as a destination.
The IP address of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter indicating a MAC address for transferring each GW2 as a destination, and may be managed by the same method as the “IP address of the transfer destination GW2” in the table 662, for example.
The initial value of the information included in the table 245 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by GW2 from IF6, GW2, or EM3, or a command input by an operator. Further, these pieces of information may be updated by a packet received by the GW 2 from the IF 6, GW 2, or EM 3, or a command input by an operator.

<Apparatus configuration: EM3>
FIG. 8 shows functional blocks of one configuration example of the EM 3 used in this embodiment. The EM 3 includes, for example, an IF interface unit 31, a GW interface unit 32, a memory unit 33, and a processing unit 34.
The IF interface unit 31 is an interface with the IF 6. Using the IF interface unit 31, the EM 3 transmits and receives packets to and from the IF 6.
The GW interface unit 32 is an interface with the GW 2. Using the GW interface unit 32, the EM 3 transmits and receives packets to and from the GW 2.
Note that the interface units 31-32 in the EM3 described above may be collectively referred to as an interface unit of the EM3 or a network interface unit. These interface units are connected to the memory unit 33 and the processing unit 34 by an internal bus or the like.
The memory unit 33 stores and manages information such as a packet to be transmitted and received, an IF 6 to be connected, and an address of the GW 2 as necessary.
The processing unit 34 is configured by, for example, a central processing unit (CPU). The processing unit 34 manages information held in the memory unit 33, and further executes various programs stored in the memory unit 33, thereby performing various processes such as packet transmission / reception such as packet construction or analysis. Perform processing.
Although a detailed description of the internal configuration is omitted, SS1, BS4, MS5, and EE7 other than IF6, GW2, and EM3 that constitute the communication system of the present embodiment are similarly provided with a network interface therein. Unit, a memory unit, and a processing unit. These processing units are also realized by the CPU in the same manner as the processing unit 67 of the IF 6, and execute and process a function program set for each apparatus.

FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of a configuration example of the memory unit of the EM 3 according to the present embodiment.
For example, as illustrated in FIG. 9, the memory unit 33 holds tables 331 to 337.
A table 331 is a transfer destination GW2 table, and indicates information for determining GW2 that is a transfer destination of a packet received by IF6. By using the table 331, information such as the packet type, the MS5 or session identifier value, and the transfer destination GW2 identifier can be managed. The table 331 may be managed in the same manner as the table 661 (see FIG. 10).
A table 332 is a GW2 unit processing throughput table, and indicates information on the processing throughput of each GW2 that is a transfer destination of a packet received by the IF6. By using the table 332, information such as the identifier of the transfer destination GW2 and the processing throughput of the transfer destination GW2 can be managed. Details of the table 332 will be described later (see FIG. 22).
The table 333 is an operating GW2 identification table, and indicates information on whether or not each GW2 that is a transfer destination of a packet received by the IF 6 is currently operating. By using the table 333, information such as an identifier of the transfer destination GW2 and a flag indicating whether or not each GW2 is currently operating can be managed. Details of the table 333 will be described later (see FIG. 23).
The table 334 is an MS5 or session identifier value table for which the own GW2 is selected. In the transfer destination GW2 determination logic in the IF6, information on the MS5 or session identifier value for which the own GW2 is selected as the transfer destination GW2 is stored. Show. By using the table 334, information such as the packet type and the value of the MS5 or session identifier can be managed. The table 334 may be managed in the same manner as the table 242 (see FIG. 13).
The table 335 is an inter-GW2 transfer destination determination table, and shows information for determining the GW2 that is the transfer destination of the inter-GW2 transfer packet. By using the table 244, information such as the packet type, the MS5 or session identifier value, and the transfer destination GW2 identifier can be managed. The table 335 may be managed in the same manner as the table 244 (see FIG. 19).
A table 336 is a transfer destination GW2 address table, and shows information for resolving the address of each GW2 that is a transfer destination of a packet received by the IF6. By using the table 336, information such as the identifier of the transfer destination GW2, the MAC address of the transfer destination GW2, and the IP address of the transfer destination GW2 can be managed. The table 336 may be managed in the same manner as the table 662 (see FIG. 11).
The table 337 is an inter-GW2 transfer destination address table, and shows information for resolving the address of each GW2 that is the transfer destination of the inter-GW2 transfer packet. By using the table 245, information such as the identifier of the transfer destination GW2, the MAC address of the transfer destination GW2, and the IP address of the transfer destination GW2 can be managed. The table 337 may be managed in the same manner as the table 245 (see FIG. 20).

<Details of each table held in memory unit 33 of EM3>
FIG. 10 shows a table 331 as an example of information held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 of this embodiment. The table 331 may be managed in the same manner as the table 661.
Note that the initial value of the information included in the table 331 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by EM3 from IF6 or GW2 or a command input by an operator. These pieces of information can be updated by a packet received by the EM 3 from the IF 6 or GW 2 or a command input by the operator.

FIG. 22 shows a table 332 as an example of information held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 of this embodiment. The table 332 shows information on the processing throughput of each GW 2 that is a transfer destination of the packet received by the IF 6.
The table 332 stores, for example, an identifier (GW2 ID) of the transfer destination GW2, a processing throughput (Throughput) of the transfer destination GW2, and the like.
The identifier of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter for uniquely identifying each GW2, and may be managed by the same method as the “identifier of the transfer destination GW2” in the table 661, for example.
The processing throughput of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter for indicating the processing throughput performance of the transfer destination GW2. The processing throughput performance of the transfer destination GW2 may be, for example, a static value based on the hardware performance of the GW2, or information such as the CPU usage rate and the peak value or average value of the transmission throughput acquired as the current processing load of the GW2. It may be a dynamic value based on. Further, the EM 3 may directly acquire a parameter indicating the processing throughput performance of the GW 2 from the GW 2, or may calculate it based on statistical information acquired by the EM 3.
The initial value of the information included in the table 332 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by EM3 from IF6 or GW2 or a command input by an operator. These pieces of information can be updated by a packet received by the EM 3 from the IF 6 or GW 2 or a command input by the operator.

FIG. 23 shows a table 333 as an example of information held by the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 of this embodiment. The table 333 is an operating GW2 identification table, and indicates information on whether or not each GW2 that is a transfer destination of a packet received by the IF 6 is currently operating.
The table 333 stores, for example, an identifier (GW2 ID) of the transfer destination GW2, a flag indicating whether each GW2 is currently operating (Working Flag), and the like.
The identifier of the transfer destination GW2 is a parameter for uniquely identifying each GW2, and may be managed by the same method as the “identifier of the transfer destination GW2” in the table 661, for example.
The flag indicating whether or not each GW2 is currently operating is a parameter for indicating whether or not each GW2 that is a transfer destination of the packet received by the IF 6 is operating. For example, when EM3 is notified of information indicating a failure of GW2, a setting value corresponding to GW2 of this flag is set to “NO”, and information indicating recovery from the failure of GW2 with EM3 is notified. If the information indicating that the GW 2 having the EM 3 is normal is notified, the setting value of the flag corresponding to the GW 2 is set to “YES”.
Note that the initial value of the information included in the table 333 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by EM3 from IF6 or GW2 or a command input by an operator. These pieces of information can be updated by a packet received by the EM 3 from the IF 6 or GW 2 or a command input by the operator.

FIG. 13 shows a table 334 as an example of information held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 of this embodiment. The table 334 may be managed in the same manner as the table 242.
Note that the initial value of the information included in the table 334 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by EM3 from IF6 or GW2 or a command input by an operator. These pieces of information can be updated by a packet received by the EM 3 from the IF 6 or GW 2 or a command input by the operator.

FIG. 19 shows a table 335 as an example of information held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 of this embodiment. The table 335 may be managed in the same manner as the table 244.
Note that the initial value of the information included in the table 335 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by EM3 from IF6 or GW2 or a command input by an operator. These pieces of information can be updated by a packet received by the EM 3 from the IF 6 or GW 2 or a command input by the operator.

FIG. 11 shows a table 336 as an example of information held by the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 of this embodiment. The table 336 may be managed in the same manner as the table 662.
The initial value of the information included in the table 336 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by EM3 from IF6 or GW2 or a command input by an operator. These pieces of information can be updated by a packet received by the EM 3 from the IF 6 or GW 2 or a command input by the operator.

FIG. 20 shows a table 337 as an example of information held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 of this embodiment. The table 337 may be managed in the same manner as the table 245.
The initial value of the information included in the table 337 may be set in advance in EM3, or may be set by a packet received by EM3 from IF6 or GW2 or a command input by an operator. These pieces of information can be updated by a packet received by the EM 3 from the IF 6 or GW 2 or a command input by the operator.

Above, description about an example of the apparatus structure of a present Example is complete | finished.

2. Processing Next, an example of the operation processing of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.
<Operation processing: Selection of transfer destination GW2 of received packet in IF6>
FIG. 24 shows an example of the selection process of the transfer destination GW2 of the received packet in the IF 6 of the present embodiment.
When the processing unit 67 of the IF 6 receives the packet at the SS interface unit 61, the BS interface unit 62, the EM interface unit 63, the GW interface unit 64, or the EE interface unit 65, in step S601, the received packet Based on the result of header analysis, etc., it is determined whether or not the packet needs to be transferred to GW 2 from the C-Plane or U-Plane of the packet, the packet type, and the type of the opposite device that is the transmission source of the packet. judge.
When it is determined that there is no need to transfer the packet to GW2, in step S602N, the processing unit 67 of IF6 selects an appropriate transfer destination of the packet based on the type and setting contents of the received packet and selects The packet is transferred to the transfer destination and the process is terminated. At this time, the processing unit 67 of the IF 6 may transfer the packet received in step S601 to the GW 2 as it is, or transfer the format to the GW 2 after performing format conversion such as insertion / deletion of a header or rewriting of a specific field. May be. For example, when the processing unit 67 of the IF 6 determines that the received packet is a packet indicating an assignment result of the identifier of the packet of the packet type B from the type and setting contents of the received packet, the destination IP address or the destination MAC of the packet The packet may be transferred from the address to the corresponding SS1 or BS4 or MS5 or EE7 (SS1 or BS4 or MS5 or EE7 that transmitted a packet indicating an assignment request for an identifier of packet type B of a certain MS or session).

  When it is determined that the packet needs to be transferred to GW2, in step S603Y, the processing unit 67 of IF6 determines the packet type determination result of the received packet in step S601 and the MS5 or session identifier set in the packet. Based on the value, the table 661 held in the memory unit 66 is searched to determine the GW 2 that is the packet transfer destination. For example, when the table 661 held in the memory unit 66 of the IF 6 is managed as shown in FIG. 10, the processing unit 67 of the IF 6 sets the packet based on the packet type determination result of the received packet in step S601. The type of MS5 or session identifier and the setting position are specified, the MS5 or session identifier value set in the packet is extracted, and the table is based on the packet type of the packet and the identifier value extracted above. The corresponding entry of 661 is searched, and the identifier of the corresponding transfer destination GW2 is extracted from the table 661.

  In step S604, the processing unit 67 of the IF 6 transmits a packet addressed to GW 2 serving as the transfer destination of the packet determined in step S603Y from the GW interface unit 64. At this time, the processing unit 67 of the IF 6 may transfer the packet received in step S601 as it is, or may transfer it after performing format conversion such as insertion / deletion of a header or rewriting of a specific field. . For example, when the table 662 held in the memory unit 66 of IF6 is managed as shown in FIG. 11, the processing unit 67 of IF6 corresponds to the identifier of GW2 corresponding to the identifier of GW2 determined as the transfer destination in step S603Y. The MAC address and the IP address may be searched from the table 662, and the MAC address of the GW2 extracted from the table 662 may be set as the destination MAC address of the Ether header of the packet received in step S601. Further, the IP address of GW2 extracted from the table 662 is set in the IP header of the packet received in step S601, or the GW2 extracted from the table 662 is inserted between the Ether header and the IP header of the packet received in step S601. An Outer IP header in which the IP address is set as the destination may be set, and the value of a field such as a checksum may be updated to an appropriate value. Then, the packet may be transferred to GW2.

<Operation Processing: Assignment of MS5 or Session Identifier in GW2>
FIG. 25 shows an example of MS5 or session identifier assignment processing in the GW 2 of this embodiment. This process is triggered by, for example, GTPv2-C protocol TEID assignment at the time of establishing a new IP-CAN session using the GTPv2-C protocol in the 3GPP standard P-GW, or handover between networks with different wireless standards. This may be implemented in cases such as new assignment of MS5 or session identifiers set in packets transmitted and received in the network to which MS5 has moved.
When the IF interface unit 21 receives the packet, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 transmits the C-Plane or U-Plane of the packet, the packet type, and the packet transmission based on the header analysis result of the received packet in step S201. It is determined whether the packet is a packet indicating an MS5 or session identifier assignment request from the original type of the opposite device.
If it is determined in step S201 that the packet is not a packet indicating an MS5 or session identifier assignment request, in step S202N, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 performs individual processing based on the type and setting contents of the received packet. To implement.
When it is determined in step S201 that the packet is a packet indicating an MS5 or session identifier assignment request, in step S203Y, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 is based on the table 241 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW2. Thus, an entry indicating an identifier value that has not been assigned to another MS 5 or session is searched for in the entries of the table 241. For example, when the table 241 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 12 and it is determined in step S201 that the packet is an assignment notification of the packet type B packet identifier, The processing unit 25 of the GW 2 searches for an entry corresponding to the packet type B in the table 241 on the condition that the assigned flag is “No”. Here, for example, the table 241 may be created by the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 based on the table 242 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2. An example of processing for creating the table 241 based on the table 242 in the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 will be described later with reference to FIG.

If no entry matching the condition is hit in step S203Y, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 performs processing corresponding to the case in step S204N. For example, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 may create a packet indicating that there is no identifier that can be assigned, and transmit the packet from the IF interface unit 21.
When an entry that matches the condition is hit in step S203Y, in step S205Y, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 selects one of the entries that meets the condition, and uses the value of the identifier corresponding to the entry as the assigned value. decide. For example, when the table 241 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 12, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 sets the entry that first hits the search among the entries that meet the conditions. A corresponding identifier value may be extracted, and an identifier value corresponding to the entry may be determined as an assigned value. For example, the identifier value corresponding to the entry that is determined to be a packet indicating the identifier assignment notification of the packet type B packet in step S201 and that first hits the search among the entries that meet the condition is the following. When it is “1”, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 may assign “1” as the identifier value of the packet type B to the MS 5 or the session for which the identifier assignment request is indicated by the packet.
In step S206, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 creates a packet indicating an identifier assignment notification including the identifier assignment value determined in step S205Y, and transmits the packet from the IF interface unit 21. For example, when the processing unit 25 of GW2 assigns “1” as the value of the identifier of the packet type B for the MS5 or session for which the identifier assignment request is indicated by the packet in step S205Y, the identifier assignment notification is sent. A packet indicating the identifier assignment notification by setting “1” in the field indicating the identifier assignment value of the packet type B of the indicated packet, extracting the source IP address or source MAC address of the packet received in step S201 The destination interface IP address or the destination MAC address may be set to transmit the packet from the IF interface unit 21. At this time, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 may transmit, from the GW interface unit 22 or the EM interface unit 23, a packet indicating an identifier allocation notification including the identifier allocation value determined in step S205Y. The packet only needs to include the identifier assignment value determined in step S205Y, and the format of the packet may be the same as the packet indicating the identifier assignment notification transmitted to the IF interface unit 21. , May be different. An example of determining the transfer destination GW2 when the packet is transmitted to the GW2 will be described later with reference to FIG.

<Operation Processing: Creation of Assigned Flag Table of MS5 or Session Identifier Based on MS5 or Session Identifier Value Table in Which GW2 is Selected>
FIG. 26 shows an example of a process for creating the MS5 or session identifier assigned flag table 241 based on the MS5 or session identifier value table 242 in which the GW2 is selected.
When the GW interface unit 22 or the EM interface unit 23 receives a packet, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 determines the C-Plane or U-Plane of the packet based on the header analysis result of the received packet in step S211. Based on the packet type and the type of the opposite device that is the transmission source of the packet, it is determined whether or not the packet indicates a request for updating the table 242 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2.
If it is determined in step S211 that the packet is a packet indicating an update request for 242 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW2, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 uses the table 242 indicated by the packet in step S212Y. It is determined whether or not the content of the update request includes a request for adding an entry to the table 242.
If it is determined in step S212Y that the content of the update request of the table 242 indicated by the packet received in step S211 does not include a request for adding an entry to the table 242, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 proceeds to step S214. .

  If it is determined in step S212Y that the content of the update request of the table 242 indicated by the packet received in step S211 includes a request for adding an entry to the table 242, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 performs the process in step S213Y. Based on the contents of the packet update request, the requested entry is added to the table 242 held in the memory unit 24, and the entry related to the table 241 is added, and the process proceeds to step S214. For example, the table 241 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 12, and the table 242 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. If the content of the update request in the table 242 indicated by the packet received in step S211 includes a request to add entries “301 to 400” as candidate assignment values for the packet type B identifier, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 For example, as an entry corresponding to the packet type B in the table 242, an entry with an allocation candidate value “301 to 400” is added and the table 242 is updated as shown in FIG. 14 to correspond to the packet type B in the table 241. As entries to be added, entries having allocation candidate values “301 to 400” are added, and the table 241 is changed to FIG. Updated to. Here, for example, the value of the assigned flag of each entry whose assignment candidate value added to the table 241 is “301 to 400” may be set to the value included in the request content of the packet received in step S211. Alternatively, it may be set to “No” uniformly.

In step S214, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 determines whether or not the content of the update request of the table 242 indicated by the packet received in step S211 includes the entry deletion request to the table 242.
If it is determined in step S214 that the update request of the table 242 indicated by the packet received in step S211 does not include the entry deletion request to the table 242, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 proceeds to step S216. .
In step S214, when it is determined that the content of the update request of the table 242 indicated by the packet received in step S211 includes the entry deletion request to the table 242, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 performs the step S215Y. Based on the content of the packet update request, the requested entry is deleted from the table 242 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 and the content of the entry to be deleted from the table 241 is notified to the EM 3 or GW 2 A notification packet is created, the packet is transmitted from the GW interface unit 22 or the EM interface unit 23, the related entry in the table 241 is deleted, and the process proceeds to step S216. For example, the table 241 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 15, and the table 242 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. If the content of the update request in the table 242 indicated by the packet received in step S211 includes a request to delete the entry “1-100” as an assignment candidate value for the identifier of the packet type B, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 For example, as an entry corresponding to the packet type B in the table 242, the entry with the assignment candidate value “1 to 100” is deleted, and the table 242 is updated as shown in FIG. As an entry to be deleted, the entry with the allocation candidate value “1 to 100” is deleted and the table 242 is updated as shown in FIG. That. Here, for example, the value of the assigned flag of each entry whose assignment candidate value to be deleted in the table 241 is “1 to 100” is set in the notification packet for notifying the EM 3 or GW 2, and the GW interface unit 22. Alternatively, the GW 2 or EM 3 is notified by transmitting the packet from the EM interface unit 23. An example of the process for determining the transfer destination GW2 when the notification packet is transmitted to the GW2 will be described later with reference to FIG.

If it is determined in step S211 that the packet is not a packet indicating an update request for the table 242, in step S217N, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 determines the C− of the packet based on the header analysis result of the received packet. Whether the packet is a packet indicating an update request for the table 241 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is determined from the Plane or U-Plane, the packet type, the type of the opposite device that is the transmission source of the packet, and the like.
If it is determined in step S217N that the packet is not a packet indicating an update request for the table 241, in step S218N, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 performs individual processing based on the type and setting contents of the received packet. .
If it is determined in step S217N that the packet is a packet indicating an update request for the table 241, in step S219Y, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 updates the assigned flag table 241 of the MS5 or session identifier indicated by the packet. It is determined whether the request content includes a request for adding an entry to the table 241.
If it is determined in step S219Y that the content of the update request of the table 241 indicated by the packet received in step S211 does not include a request for adding an entry to the table 241, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 proceeds to step S221. .

If it is determined in step S219Y that the content of the update request of the table 241 indicated by the packet received in step S211 includes a request for adding an entry to the table 241, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 Based on the content of the packet update request, the requested entry is added to the table 241 held in the memory unit 24, and the process proceeds to step S221. For example, the table 241 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 12, and the identifier of the packet type B is assigned to the content of the update request in the table 241 indicated by the packet received in step S211. When a request for adding entries “301 to 400” as candidate values is included, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2, for example, assigns candidate values “301 to 400” as entries corresponding to the packet type B in the table 241. The table 242 is updated as shown in FIG. Here, for example, the value of the assigned flag of each entry whose assignment candidate value added to the table 241 is “301 to 400” may be set to the value included in the request content of the packet received in step S211. Alternatively, it may be set to “No” uniformly.
In step S221, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 determines whether or not the content of the update request of the table 241 indicated by the packet received in step S211 includes an entry deletion request to the table 241.
When it is determined in step S221 that the content of the update request of the table 241 indicated by the packet received in step S211 does not include the entry deletion request to the table 241, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 proceeds to step S216. .

When it is determined in step S221 that the content of the update request of the table 241 indicated by the packet received in step S211 includes the entry deletion request to the table 241, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 performs the step S222Y in step S222Y. Based on the content of the packet update request, a notification packet for notifying the content of the entry to be deleted from the table 241 to the EM 3 or GW 2 is created, and the packet is transmitted from the GW interface unit 22 or the EM interface unit 23 Then, the related entry in the table 241 held in the memory unit 24 is deleted, and the process proceeds to step S216. For example, the table 241 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 15, and the identifier of the packet type B is assigned to the contents of the update request of the table 241 indicated by the packet received in step S211. When a request for deleting an entry “1 to 100” as a candidate value is included, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 has, for example, an assignment candidate value “1 to 100 as an entry corresponding to the packet type B in the table 241. And the table 242 is updated as shown in FIG. Here, for example, the value of the assigned flag of each entry whose assignment candidate value to be deleted in the table 241 is “1 to 100” is set in the notification packet for notifying the EM 3 or GW 2, and the GW interface unit 22. Alternatively, the GW 2 or EM 3 is notified by transmitting the packet from the EM interface unit 23. An example of the process for determining the transfer destination GW2 when the notification packet is transmitted to the GW2 will be described later with reference to FIG.
In step S216, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 ends this process. Here, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 creates a packet indicating the update result of one or both of the table 241 and the table 242 in this processing, and transmits the packet from the GW interface unit 22 or the EM interface unit 23. Good.

<Operation processing: Determination of transfer destination GW2 for inter-GW2 transfer in GW2>
FIG. 27 shows an example of a process for determining the transfer destination GW2 for the transfer between GW2 in the GW2. This process is performed, for example, when the network before the MS 5 moves and the MS 5 that is the destination network of the MS 5 or the transfer destination GW 2 of a packet belonging to the session changes when the handover is performed between networks of different wireless standards. This may be implemented in the case of inter-GW2 communication between the network GW2 and the moved network GW2.
Assume that a request for transfer between GWs 2 occurs. In step S231, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 sets the packet type used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the requested transfer between GW2 and the MS5 or session identifier value used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the packet type. Get information. Here, the packet type A and the value of the MS5 or session identifier are included in this request or are known by the GW2.
Here, as the trigger for the generation of the inter-GW 2 transfer request, for example, the processing required for the GW 2 based on the header analysis result of the packet received by the IF interface unit 21, the GW interface unit 22, or the EM interface unit 23. It may be triggered by the fact that the inter-GW2 transfer is included in the process, or in the processing required in response to an over-threshold of a certain counter managed by the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 or the expiration of a certain timer. The inter-GW2 transfer may be included as a trigger, the packet indicating the identifier assignment notification in the process example of FIG. 25 may be generated, or the table in the process example of FIG. It may be triggered by the fact that a notification packet of assigned flag information of each entry 241 is created.

  The packet type used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the inter-GW2 transfer requested in step S231 and the MS5 or session identifier value information used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the packet type are, for example, IF You may acquire from the result etc. of the header analysis of the packet received by the interface part 21, the GW interface part 22, or the EM interface part 23. As another example of the information acquisition, when the packet indicating the identifier assignment notification in the processing example of FIG. 25 is created, the IF6 of step S601 in the processing example of FIG. 24 is compared with the packet received in step S201. By performing the packet type determination similar to the packet type determination of GW2 in the processing unit 25 of GW2, the packet type for determining the transfer destination GW2 by IF6 and the MS5 used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the packet type or Information obtained as a value of a session identifier may be used. As another example of the information acquisition, the packet type and the packet corresponding to the deleted entry in the table 241 at the time of creating the notification packet of the assigned flag information of each entry in the table 241 in the processing example of FIG. It is good also as the information which acquired the value of MS5 or the identifier of a session in classification. In addition, as another example of the information acquisition, in order to perform cooperation processing between different packet types, in the inter-GW2 transfer requested in step S231 based on the table 243 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW2. The packet type used for determining the transfer destination GW2, and the information obtained by acquiring the MS5 or session identifier value used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the packet type may be used. For example, the table 243 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 18, and the inter-GW 2 transfer requested in step S231 is “the packet type A identifier“ 1 ”is assigned. If the packet type C packet in the session is “transfer between GW2 to GW2 selected as a transfer destination from IF6”, the processing unit 25 of GW2 has the identifier assigned to the packet type A as “1”. The table 243 is searched on the condition that it is “”, and the assigned value of the identifier of the packet type C of the hit entry (entry whose entry ID is “# 1” in the example of FIG. 18) is extracted. The packet type for determining the transfer destination GW2 for the inter-transfer is “C”, and the assignment of the identifier in the packet type The value is to get the information of the "101". Note that an example of processing for creating the table 243 in the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 will be described later with reference to FIG.

  In step S232, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 acquires the packet type used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the inter-GW2 transfer acquired in step S231, and the MS5 or session identifier used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the packet type The memory unit 24 is searched based on the value of the packet, and related information necessary for processing based on the request content for the MS 5 or session corresponding to the packet type and identifier value requested in step S231 is held in the own GW. Judge whether or not. Note that this step is performed as a process when there is no corresponding entry as a result of the search of the table 244 in step S234N, or when the own GW2 is selected as the transfer destination GW2, instead of performing after step S231. May be. For example, the table 243 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 18, and the inter-GW 2 transfer requested in step S231 is “the packet type A identifier“ 1 ”is assigned. The packet type C packet in the session is “transfer between GW2 to GW2 selected as a transfer destination from IF6”, the processing unit 25 of GW2 transfers the transfer between GW2 acquired in step S231 A search is performed to determine whether the MS 5 or session information corresponding to the packet type “C” for determining the destination GW 2 and the assigned value “101” of the identifier in the packet type is held in the memory unit 24 of the own GW.

  As a result of the search in step S232, when the relevant information necessary for the corresponding processing is held in the memory unit 24 of the own GW, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 determines in step S233Y that the inter-GW2 transfer processing is unnecessary. Then, processing based on the information hit in the search in step S232 and the request content in step S231 is performed. Here, the processing based on the request content in step S231 is, for example, the header of the packet received from the IF interface unit 21, the GW interface unit 22, or the EM interface unit 23 when the generation request for the inter-GW2 transfer request in step S231 occurs. When it is included in the processing required for the GW 2 from the analysis result, for example, based on the result of header analysis of the packet, the packet is created and transmitted according to the determination logic preset in the GW 2 Or the like. In addition, for example, the inter-GW2 transfer request is generated in response to the occurrence of the transfer request between the GW2 in step S231 in response to the threshold exceeding a certain counter managed by the processing unit 25 of the GW2 or the expiration of a certain timer. For example, based on the type of counter exceeding the threshold or the type of timer that has expired, the processing contents such as packet creation and transmission are determined according to the determination logic preset in GW2. You may decide.

  As a result of the search in step S232, when the related information necessary for the corresponding processing is not held in the memory unit 24 of the own GW, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 acquires the GW2 acquired in step S231 in step S234N. Search the table 244 held in the memory unit 24 based on the packet type used to determine the transfer destination GW2 in inter-transfer and the value of the MS5 or session identifier used to determine the transfer destination GW2 in the packet type Then, the GW 2 serving as the packet transfer destination is determined. For example, the table 244 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 19, and the inter-GW 2 transfer requested in step S231 is “the packet type A identifier“ 1 ”is assigned. If the packet type C packet in the session is “transfer between GW2 to GW2 selected as the transfer destination from IF6”, the processing unit 25 of GW2 transfers the transfer destination of the transfer between GW2 acquired in step S231. The table 244 is searched based on the packet type “C” for determining the GW 2 and the identifier assigned value “101” in the packet type, and the identifier “GW # 2” of the corresponding transfer destination GW 2 is retrieved from the table 244. Extract. Here, the inter-GW2 transfer requested in step S231 is “For the session in which“ 1 ”is assigned to the identifier of the packet type A, the packet of the packet type C in the session is selected as the transfer destination from IF6. For example, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 determines whether the transfer request between the GWs 2 is requested in step S231 as the IF interface unit 21, the GW interface unit 22, or the EM interface. If it is included in the processing required for the GW 2 from the result of the header analysis of the packet received from the unit 23, for example, the determination logic preset in the GW 2 based on the result of the header analysis of the packet, etc. You may determine according to. In addition, for example, the inter-GW2 transfer request is generated in response to the occurrence of the transfer request between the GW2 in step S231 in response to the threshold exceeding a certain counter managed by the processing unit 25 of the GW2 or the expiration of a certain timer. May be determined according to a determination logic preset in the GW 2 based on, for example, the type of counter exceeding the threshold value, the type of expired timer, or the like.

  In step S235, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 transmits, from the GW interface unit 22, a packet addressed to the GW 2 that is the transfer destination of the packet determined in step S234N. At this time, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 may transfer the packet received in step S231 as it is, or may transfer it after performing format conversion such as insertion / deletion of a header or rewriting of a specific field. Alternatively, a new packet may be created and transferred. For example, when the table 245 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 20, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 corresponds to the identifier of the GW 2 corresponding to the identifier of the GW 2 determined as the transfer destination in step S234N. The MAC address and IP address may be searched from the table 245, and the MAC address of the GW 2 extracted from the table 245 may be set as the destination MAC address of the Ether header of the packet to be transmitted. Further, the GW2 IP address extracted from the table 245 is set in the IP header of the packet to be transmitted, or the GW2 IP address extracted from the table 245 is set as the destination between the Ether header and the IP header of the packet to be transmitted. The Outer IP header may be set, and the value of a field such as a checksum may be updated to an appropriate value. Further, for example, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 uses the charging function to charge information such as the number of transmitted bytes of the U-plane packet in the UL direction held by itself as information to be processed in cooperation with information associated with each packet type. Information indicating that the count has reached the threshold value and information indicating the processing “notification of accounting count information to the accounting server” expected for the transfer destination GW2 are set in the packet addressed to GW2 serving as the transfer destination, and becomes the transfer destination The number of transmission bytes of the U-plane packet in the UL direction received by the GW 2 as the transfer destination in the inter-GW 2 transfer packet in cooperation with the accounting count information such as the number of transmission bytes of the DL-direction U-Plane packet held by the GW 2 And the charge count information such as the number of transmitted bytes of the U-Plane packet in the DL direction held by the GW 2 as the transfer destination It generates a transmission packet to the accounting server including who may be able to transmit to the billing server.

<Operation Processing: Creation of MS5 or Session Identifier Linkage Table Between Packet Types in GW2>
An example of a process for creating the MS5 or session identifier association table 243 between packet types in the GW 2 is shown below.

(Processing of transmission side GW2 of update request packet of table 243)
FIG. 28 shows an example of the transmission processing of the update request packet of the table 243 in GW2.
When a request for new assignment of the MS5 or session identifier value, or update of the existing assignment value, or release of the existing assignment value occurs, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 generates the MS5 that is the target of the change request in step S241. Alternatively, the session identifier and the entry corresponding to the same MS 5 or session are searched from the table 243, and the packet type to which the identifier is assigned and the identifier are extracted from the entry.
Here, as a trigger of a request for new assignment of MS5 or session identifier value, update of existing assignment value, release of existing assignment value, for example, IF interface unit 21, GW interface unit 22, or EM interface The processing required for the GW 2 based on the header analysis result of the packet received by the unit 23 includes the new assignment of the MS5 or session identifier value, the update of the existing assignment value, and the release of the existing assignment value. It may be triggered by this, or a new assignment of the MS5 or session identifier value is performed in the processing required in response to the threshold value exceeding a certain counter managed by the processing unit 25 of the GW2 or the expiration of a certain timer. Or an update of an existing assigned value or release of an existing assigned value It may be.

  The “packet type to which an identifier is assigned in the entry and its identifier” extracted in step S241 is the packet to be assigned if the request is a new assignment of the MS5 or session identifier value. If the request is an update of an existing assigned value of the MS5 or session identifier value, the packet type to be assigned and the updated identifier value are included. For example, the table 243 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 18, and “1” is assigned to the identifier of the packet type A in the GW 2 whose identifier is “GW2 # 1”. When a request for newly assigning “2” to the identifier of the packet type D is generated in step S241 for the session that has been assigned, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 assigns “1” to the identifier of the packet type A. An entry corresponding to the session is searched from the table 243, and the identifier (1) of the packet type A, the identifier “1” of the packet type B from the entry (in the example of FIG. 18, the entry ID is “# 1”), The packet type and its identifier value, such as the packet type C identifier “101”, are extracted. Because it is a new assignment of values of Besshi, as the value of the identifier of the packet type and its updated to be the assignment target, and extracts the identifier "2" in the packet type D from the request.

  In step S242, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 applies the packet type requested in step S241 to each packet type extracted in step S241 and its identifier in the same manner as in step S232 in the processing example of FIG. And the MS 5 or the session information corresponding to the identifier value is determined by the own GW, and as a result of the search, the corresponding information is held in the memory unit 24 of the own GW. In the same manner as in step S233Y in the processing example 27, processing based on the information hit in the search and the request content in step S241 is performed, and the corresponding information as a result of the search is stored in the memory unit 24 of the own GW. If not, step S2 is performed in the same manner as step S234N in the processing example of FIG. 1 is stored in the memory unit 24 based on the packet type used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the transfer between GWs 2 and the MS5 or session identifier value used for determining the transfer destination GW2 in the packet type. The table 244 is searched to determine the GW2 that is the transfer destination of the packet, and the GW2 that is the transfer destination of the determined packet from the GW interface unit 22 in the same manner as in step S235 in the processing example of FIG. Send the addressed packet. When a packet addressed to GW2 is transmitted, an update request for the table 243 including the packet type extracted in step S241 and information on the identifier thereof, and information on the packet type used to determine GW2 of the transfer destination between GW2 is sent. The packet shown is created and transmitted to the transfer destination GW2. For example, the table 243 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 18, and the table 244 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. The table 245 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 20, and “1” is assigned to the identifier of the packet type A in the GW 2 whose identifier is “GW2 # 1”. When a request for newly assigning “2” to the identifier of the packet type D is generated in step S241 for the existing session, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 adds each of the packet type extracted in step S241 and the value of the identifier. By applying the same processing as in steps S232 to S235 to the packet type A identifier “1” and the packet type B identification The information of “1” is held in the memory unit 24 of the own GW2, and the identifier “101” of the packet type C and the identifier “2” of the packet type D are obtained from the search result of the table 244. It is determined that the GW2 should be transferred to the GW2 having the identifier “GW # 2”, and the packet type extracted in step S241 and information about the identifier, and the GW2 having the identifier GW2 “GW # 2” between the GW2 A packet indicating an update request of the table 243 including the packet type information “C” or “D” used when determining as the transfer destination is created, and the GW2 identifier “GW # 2” is generated from the table 245 The MAC address and the IP address search result are set in a packet indicating an update request for the table 243, and the GW interface is sent to the corresponding transfer destination GW2. Transmitting a packet from the section 22.

  In step S243, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 stores the value in the memory unit 24 of the GW2 in accordance with the new assignment of the MS5 or session identifier value requested in step S241, the update of the existing assignment value, or the release of the existing assignment value. The table 243 being updated is updated. For example, the table 243 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 18, and the packet type A identifier “1” is added to the packet indicating the update request of the table 243 received in step S241. When the information of the identifier “1” of the packet type B, the identifier “101” of the packet type C, and the identifier “2” of the packet type D is set, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 sets “1” as the identifier of the packet type A. ”Is searched, and the location corresponding to the identifier of the packet type D of the entry is updated to“ 2 ”, whereby the table 243 is updated as shown in FIG.

(Processing of receiving side GW2 of update request packet of table 243)
FIG. 29 shows an example of reception processing of the update request packet of the table 243 in the GW2.
When the GW interface unit 22 or the EM interface unit 23 receives a packet, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 determines the C-Plane or U-Plane of the packet based on the header analysis result of the received packet in step S251. It is determined from the packet type and the type of the opposite device that is the transmission source of the packet, whether or not the packet indicates a request for updating the table 243.
If it is determined in step S251 that the packet is not a packet indicating an update request for the table 243, in step S252N, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 performs individual processing based on the type and setting contents of the received packet. .
When it is determined in step S251 that the packet is a packet indicating an update request for the table 243, in step S253Y, the processing unit 25 of the GW2 holds the memory unit 24 of the GW2 according to the request content of the packet. The table 243 is updated. For example, the table 243 held in the memory unit 24 of the GW 2 is managed as shown in FIG. 18, and the packet type A identifier “1” is added to the packet indicating the update request of the table 243 received in step S251. The packet type B identifier “1”, the packet type C identifier “101”, the packet type D identifier “2”, and the packet type “C” information used to determine the GW2 of the inter-GW2 transfer destination are included. In this case, the processing unit 25 of the GW 2 determines that the packet type used for determining the GW 2 as the inter-GW 2 transfer destination from the packet indicating the update request of the table 243 received in step S251 is “C”, and the packet type “ The fact that the value of the identifier of “C” is “101” is extracted from the packet, and the entry of the identifier “101” of the packet type C is stored in the table. 43, if there is a hit entry, the identifier value of each packet type of the entry is updated to the value included in the packet indicating the update request of the table 243, and if there is no hit entry, the table 243 A new entry is added, and the value included in the packet indicating the update request in the table 243 is set as the identifier value of each packet type of the entry.

<Operation processing: Creation of transfer destination GW2 table in EM3>
Hereinafter, an example of processing for creating the transfer destination GW2 table 331 in EM3 will be described.
The processing unit 34 of the EM 3 registers the identifier of the transfer destination GW 2 corresponding to each MS 5 or each session in the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 based on the policy of the communication carrier. For example, the EM 3 may set the identifier of the transfer destination GW 2 so that the ratio between the processing throughput performance of the GW 2 and the number of MSs 5 or sessions is as uniform as possible with respect to the currently operating GW 2. Here, the processing throughput performance of GW2 may be a static value based on the hardware performance of GW2, or information such as the CPU usage rate and the peak value or average value of transmission throughput acquired as the current processing load of GW2. It may be a dynamic value based on. In addition, the EM 3 may directly acquire the parameter indicating the processing throughput performance of the GW 2 from the GW 2 or may calculate the parameter based on the statistical information acquired by the EM 3.

For example, the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM3 is managed as shown in FIG. 10, and the table 332 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM3 is managed as shown in FIG. When the table 333 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 23, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 extracts the identifier of the currently operating GW 2 from the table 333, and extracts the currently operating For each GW2, the sum of the value indicating the processing throughput performance of the GW2 in the table 332 and the value of the identifier of the MS5 or session in the table 331 with the GW2 as the transfer destination,
(Total number of identifier values with GW2 as the transfer destination) / (Processing throughput performance of GW2)
And the identifier of the transfer destination GW2 may be assigned so that the values are as uniform as possible in each GW2.

  Further, EM3 may add a new MS5 or session identifier condition or transfer destination GW2 information to the table 331 when the conditions set in EM3 are satisfied, etc. The registered MS5 or session identifier condition and transfer destination GW2 information may be updated, or the MS5 or session identifier condition and transfer destination GW2 information already registered in the table 331 may be deleted. Also good. For example, the EM 3 detects the occurrence or recovery of a failure or congestion of a certain GW 2, detects that the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the processing load of each GW 2 has reached a threshold value, GW 2 or IF 6 The information on the transfer destination GW2 that has already been registered in the table 331 may be updated when a packet indicating an update request for the table 331 is received from, for example.

<Operation processing: creation of a table holding the identifier value of the MS 5 or session for which the GW 2 is selected in the EM 3>
FIG. 30 shows an example of a process for creating the MS5 or session identifier value table 334 in which the own GW 2 is selected in the EM 3.
In step S301, the processing unit 34 of the EM3 sets, for a certain GW2, a combination of a packet type having the GW2 as a transfer destination and its identifier in an entry of the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM3. Extract. For example, when the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 10, the identifier of the GW 2 is “GW2 # 1” with respect to the GW2 having the identifier of “GW2 # 1”. The table 331 is searched under the condition that the packet type A contains an identifier value “1 to 10” of the packet type A and the identifier value of the packet type B as a set of the packet type and its identifier included in the entry that hits the condition. “1 to 100”, the identifier value “201 to 300” of the packet type B, the identifier value “1 to 100” of the packet type C, and the like are extracted.
In step S302, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 uses the identifier of the MS 5 or session in which the GW 2 is selected based on the packet type and the identifier combination of the GW 2 extracted in step S301 as the transfer destination. A table 334 that holds values is created. For example, when the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 10, the combination of the packet type extracted in step S301 and its identifier is set as an entry in the table 334, and FIG. A table 334 is created for the GW 2 whose identifier is “GW2 # 1”.

<Operation Processing: Creation of GW2 Inter-GW2 Transfer Destination Determination Table>
FIG. 31 shows an example of processing for creating the inter-GW2 transfer destination determination table 335 in EM3.
In step S311, the processing unit 34 of the EM3 extracts an entry having the GW2 as a transfer destination for a certain GW2 from the entries in the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM3. For example, when the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 10, the identifier of the GW 2 is “GW2 # 1” with respect to the GW2 having the identifier of “GW2 # 1”. The table 331 is searched on the condition that the condition is, and the identifier “1 to 10” of the identifier of the packet type A, the identifier value “1 to 100” of the identifier of the packet type B, the packet type B Entries such as identifier values “201 to 300” and packet type C identifier values “1 to 100” are extracted.
In step S312, the processing unit 34 of EM3 creates a table in which only the entry having GW2 extracted in step S311 as the transfer destination is deleted from all the entries in the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of EM3. A table 335 in the GW is used. For example, when the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as illustrated in FIG. 10, the identifier of the GW 2 illustrated in FIG. 19 is obtained as a table obtained by deleting the entry extracted in step S311 from the entry in the table 331. Creates a table 335 for GW2 with “GW2 # 1”.

<Operation Processing: Creation of GW2 Inter-GW2 Transfer Destination Address Table>
FIG. 32 shows an example of processing for creating the inter-GW2 transfer destination address table 337 in EM3.
In step S321, the processing unit 34 of the EM3 extracts an entry having the GW2 as a transfer destination for a certain GW2 from the entries in the table 336 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM3. For example, when the table 336 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 11, the identifier of the GW 2 is “GW2 # 1” with respect to the GW2 having the identifier of “GW2 # 1”. The table 336 is searched on the condition that it is, and entries such as the value “M # 1” of the MAC address of GW2 and the value “I # 1” of the IP address of GW2 are extracted as entries that hit the condition.
In step S322, the processing unit 34 of the EM3 creates a table in which only the entry having the GW2 extracted in step S321 as the transfer destination is deleted from all the entries of the table 336 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM3. The table is 337 in the GW. For example, when the table 336 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 11, the identifier of the GW 2 shown in FIG. 20 is obtained as a table obtained by deleting the entry extracted in step S321 from the entry of the table 336. Creates a table 337 for GW2 with “GW2 # 1”.

<Operation processing: Common transfer table settings for IF6 and GW2 in this system>
Below, an example of the process of sharing the transfer table settings of IF6 and GW2 in this system is shown.

(Initial setting of transfer table of IF6 and GW2)
FIG. 33 shows an example of the initial setting process of the transfer table of IF6 and GW2 in this system. This process is performed, for example, when the system is started.
In step S331, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 creates an initial setting notification packet of the table 331 including the table 331 and an initial setting notification packet of the table 336 including the table 336, and transmits them from the IF interface unit 31 to the IF 6.
Here, the table 331 may be created by the processing unit 34 of the EM3, for example, according to the creation processing example of the transfer destination GW2 table 331 in the EM3. The IF 6 that has received the packet sets the received table 331 as the table 661 of the memory unit 66, and applies the table 661 to the packet transfer process.

Here, the table 336 may be created by the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 according to the processing example of FIG. The IF 6 that has received the packet sets the received table 336 as the table 662 of the memory unit 66, and applies the table 662 to the packet transfer process. For example, when the table 336 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 11, the IF 6 that has received the initial setting notification packet of the table 336 changes the table 662 of the memory unit 66 as shown in FIG. And the table 662 is applied to the packet transfer process.
Note that the initial setting notification packet in the table 331 and the initial setting notification packet in the table 336 may be combined into one packet.
In step S332, for each GW 2, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 initializes the initial setting notification packet of the table 334 including the table 334, the initial setting notification packet of the table 335 including the table 335, and the initial setting of the table 337 including the table 337. A notification packet is created and transmitted from the GW interface unit 32 to the target GW 2 of the packet.

Here, the table 334 may be created by the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 in accordance with the processing example of FIG. Further, when the assigned flag information of each identifier related to the table 334 is held in the EM 3, the information may be set in the packet and notified to the GW 2. The GW 2 that has received the packet sets the received table 334 as the table 242 of the memory unit 24, and applies the table 242 to the packet transfer process. For example, when the table 334 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 13, the GW 2 receiving the initial setting notification packet of the table 334 changes the table 242 of the memory unit 24 as shown in FIG. And the table 242 is applied to the packet transfer process.
Here, the table 335 may be created by, for example, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 according to the processing example of FIG. The GW 2 that has received the packet sets the received table 335 as the table 244 of the memory unit 24, and applies the table 244 to packet transfer processing. For example, when the table 335 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 19, the GW 2 receiving the initial setting notification packet of the table 335 stores the table 244 of the memory unit 24 as shown in FIG. And the table 244 is applied to the packet transfer process. Note that the initial setting notification packet in the table 334, the initial setting notification packet in the table 335, and the initial setting notification packet in the table 337 may be combined into one packet.
Here, the table 337 may be created by, for example, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 according to the processing example of FIG. The GW 2 that has received the packet sets the received table 337 as the table 245 of the memory unit 24, and applies the table 245 to the packet transfer process. For example, when the table 337 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is managed as shown in FIG. 20, the GW 2 receiving the initial setting notification packet of the table 337 changes the table 245 of the memory unit 24 as shown in FIG. And the table 245 is applied to the packet transfer process.
Note that the initial setting notification packet in the table 334, the initial setting notification packet in the table 335, and the initial setting notification packet in the table 337 may be combined into one packet.
In addition, as another example of the initial setting process of the transfer table of IF6 and GW2 in this system, each step in the above processing example or the order of the processing in each step may be changed, or the processing in the above processing example may be performed. You may process each step or the process in each step in parallel.

(IF6 and GW2 transfer table setting update)
FIG. 34 shows an example of processing for updating the settings of the transfer tables of IF6 and GW2 in this system.
When the setting update request for the table 331 is generated, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 creates a table 334 and a table 335 for each GW 2 based on the updated setting contents of the table 331 in step S341. Here, the table 334 may be created by the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 in accordance with the processing example of FIG. Here, the table 335 may be created by the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 according to the processing example of FIG.
Here, as an opportunity of the setting update request of the table 331, for example, as described in the creation processing example of the transfer destination GW2 table 331 in the EM3, the EM3 satisfies the conditions set in the EM3. In some cases, a new MS5 or session identifier condition or transfer destination GW2 information may be added to the transfer destination GW2 table 331, or an MS5 or session already registered in the transfer destination GW2 table 331. The condition of the identifier and the information on the transfer destination GW2 may be updated, or the condition of the identifier of the MS5 or session already registered in the transfer destination GW2 table 331 and the information on the transfer destination GW2 may be deleted. For example, the EM 3 detects the occurrence or recovery of a failure or congestion of a certain GW 2, detects that the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the processing load of each GW 2 has reached a threshold value, GW 2 or IF 6 The information on the transfer destination GW2 that has already been registered in the transfer destination GW2 table 331 may be updated by receiving a packet indicating an update request for the transfer destination GW2 table 331 from, for example.

In step S341, the GW 2 that is the creation target of the table 334 and the table 335 may be only the GW 2 that is affected by the update of the table 331.
In step S341, when a setting update request for the table 336 is generated, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 creates a table 337 for each GW 2 based on the updated setting contents of the table 336. Here, the table 337 may be created by, for example, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 according to the processing example of FIG.
In step S341, the GW 2 that is the creation target of the table 337 may be only the GW 2 that is affected by the update of the table 336.
In step S342, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 creates a setting update notification packet of the table 331 including the setting update content of the table 331, and transmits the setting update notification packet from the IF interface unit 31 to the IF 6. The IF 6 that has received the packet updates the setting of the table 661 in the memory unit 66 based on the setting update contents of the table 331 included in the received packet, and applies the table 661 to the packet transfer process. For example, when the table 331 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is updated as shown in FIG. 10, the IF 6 that has received the setting update notification packet of the table 331 changes the table 661 of the memory unit 66 as shown in FIG. The table 661 is applied to the packet transfer process. This process may be omitted if the setting of the table 331 is not updated in step S341.

In step S342, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 creates a setting update notification packet of the table 336 including the setting update contents of the table 336, and transmits the packet to the IF 6 from the IF interface unit 31. The IF 6 that has received the packet updates the setting of the table 662 of the memory unit 66 based on the setting update contents of the table 336 included in the received packet, and applies the table 662 to the packet transfer process. For example, when the table 336 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is updated as shown in FIG. 11, the IF 6 that has received the setting update notification packet of the table 336 changes the table 662 of the memory unit 66 as shown in FIG. The table 662 is applied to the packet transfer process. This process may be omitted when the setting of the table 336 is not updated in step S341.
Note that the setting update notification packet in the table 331 and the setting update notification packet in the table 336 may be combined into one packet.

  In step S343, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 creates a setting update notification packet of the table 334 including the setting update contents of the table 334 for each GW 2 that is the update target of the table 334 in step S341, and transmits the setting update notification packet from the GW interface unit 32. It transmits to GW2 used as the object of a packet. Further, when the assigned flag information of each identifier related to the table 334 is held in the EM 3, the information may be set in the packet and notified to the GW 2. The GW 2 that has received the packet updates the setting of the table 242 of the memory unit 24 based on the setting update contents of the table 334 included in the received packet, and applies the table 242 to the packet transfer process. For example, when the table 334 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is updated as shown in FIG. 13, the GW 2 that has received the setting update notification packet of the table 334 changes the table 242 of the memory unit 24 as shown in FIG. The table 242 is applied to the packet transfer process. This process may be omitted when the setting of the table 334 is not updated in step S341.

  In step S343, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 creates a setting update notification packet of the table 335 including the setting update contents of the table 335 for each GW 2 that is the update target of the table 335 in step S341, and the GW interface unit 32 To the GW 2 that is the target of the packet. The GW 2 that has received the packet updates the setting of the table 244 in the memory unit 24 based on the setting update contents of the table 335 included in the received packet, and applies the table 244 to the packet transfer process. For example, when the table 335 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is updated as shown in FIG. 19, the GW 2 receiving the setting update notification packet of the table 335 changes the table 244 of the memory unit 24 as shown in FIG. And the table 244 is applied to the packet transfer process. This process may be omitted when the setting of the table 335 is not updated in step S341.

In step S343, the processing unit 34 of the EM 3 creates a setting update notification packet of the table 337 including the setting update contents of the table 337 for each GW 2 that is the update target of the table 337 in step S341, and the GW interface unit 32 To the GW 2 that is the target of the packet. The GW 2 that has received the packet updates the setting of the table 245 in the memory unit 24 based on the setting update contents of the table 337 included in the received packet, and applies the table 245 to the packet transfer process. For example, when the table 337 held in the memory unit 33 of the EM 3 is updated as shown in FIG. 20, the GW 2 receiving the setting update notification packet of the table 337 changes the table 245 of the memory unit 24 as shown in FIG. And the table 245 is applied to the packet transfer process. This process may be omitted if the setting of the table 337 is not updated in step S341.
Note that the setting update notification packet of the table 334, the setting update notification packet of the table 335, and the setting update notification packet of the table 337 may be combined into one packet.
In addition, as another example of the setting update processing of the transfer table of IF6 and GW2 in this system, the order of each step in the above processing example or the processing in each step may be interchanged, or the processing in the above processing example You may process each step or the process in each step in parallel.

3. Advantages of the Embodiment As is apparent from the above description, the communication system of the present embodiment is a packet processing device in which a selection device is appropriate for each packet when there are a plurality of packet processing devices in a wireless or wired communication system. Are selected by the first to third requirements (the uniformity of the processing load in each GW2, the selection of the same communication device GW2 for packets belonging to the same user or the same session, and the selection device IF6) It is possible to provide a communication system, a communication control method, and a communication control apparatus that satisfy the requirements for limiting the number of transfer table entries that can be performed) and that can realize cooperative processing between different packet types.

4). Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and includes various modifications. The above-described embodiments have been described in detail for easy understanding of the present invention, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the configurations described.
Each of the above-described configurations, functions, processing units, processing means, and the like may be realized by hardware by designing a part or all of them with, for example, an integrated circuit. Information such as programs, tables, and files for realizing each function can be stored in a storage device such as a memory, a hard disk, or an SSD (Solid State Drive), or a recording medium such as an IC card or a DVD. It is also possible to download the program via a network or the like and install it in various storage devices.
In addition, the present invention can be used for a communication system that performs congestion control on packets transmitted / received to / from wireless or wired terminals, for example, and various communications such as GW, EM, BS, MS, IF, EE, and SS. It can be applied to the device.

1 Service providing server (SS)
2 Packet processing equipment (GW)
21 IF interface unit 22 GW interface unit 23 EM interface unit 24 Memory units 241 to 245 Table 25 Processing unit 3 Maintenance management device (EM)
31 IF interface unit 32 GW interface unit 33 Memory units 331 to 337 Table 34 Processing unit 4 Base station (BS)
5 Terminal (MS)
6 Selection device (IF)
61 SS interface unit 62 BS interface unit 63 EM interface unit 64 GW interface unit 65 EE interface unit 66 Memory units 661 to 662 Table 67 Processing unit 7 External communication device (EE)

Claims (15)

A communication device,
A storage unit and a processing unit, receiving the packet from a selection device that forwards the packet;
The storage unit
Storing the first information associated with the transfer destination identifier and the transfer destination communication device corresponding to the transfer destination communication device of the packet used when transferring the packet stored in the selection device;
The processor is
The selection device belongs to the same terminal as the transmission terminal of the first packet to be transferred using the first information and the transfer destination identifier of the first packet, or to the same session as the session of the first packet When transferring the second packet, if the transfer destination identifier is not assigned to the second packet,
Assigning a transfer destination identifier of the second packet using the first information stored in the storage unit so that the transfer destination of the first packet and the second packet is the same communication device. ,
A communication device characterized by the above.
The communication device according to claim 1,
The processor is
When the transfer destination identifier is assigned to the second packet,
The communication device of the transfer destination of the second packet selected by the selection device using the first information stored in the selection device and the transfer destination identifier of the second packet is defined as the first communication device. To identify using information,
A communication device characterized by the above.
The communication device according to claim 1,
The storage unit
Storing the information extracted from the first information as the second information, the entry that the communication device of the transfer destination is the own communication device,
The processor is
When the transferred first packet is a packet indicating a request for assigning a transfer destination identifier of the second packet, referring to the second information, the transfer destination identifier of the assigned second packet A communication device, comprising: a third packet indicating a transfer destination identifier assignment result notification of the second packet, and transmitting the third packet to the selection device.
The communication device according to claim 2,
The storage unit
Stored as the third information is information in which an entry in which the communication device of the transfer destination is the own communication device among the first information is deleted,
4th information which memorize | stores the identifier of the terminal or session for every packet type with respect to a certain terminal or session, and links | links the identifier of the terminal or session between packet types for the process which cooperates with several packet types,
Further comprising
For a certain terminal or session, when a communication request with a second communication device holding related information necessary for processing of packet type C in cooperation with packet type A is generated or received,
The communication device refers to the fourth information, and based on the packet type A obtained from the communication request or already acquired and the transfer destination identifier of the terminal or session, the corresponding packet type C Find the transfer destination identifier of the terminal or session, and search whether the relevant information necessary for processing the identifier of the terminal or session of the packet type C is held,
As a result of the search, if the related information is not held, the second communication device is obtained by referring to the third information and obtaining a second communication device as a transfer destination of the packet of the packet type C. A packet indicating a communication request with the second communication device that holds information on the packet type C of the terminal or session, and the packet is transmitted to the second communication device. A communication device.
The communication device according to claim 1 or 2,
When a packet is received by the selection device, it is determined whether or not the packet needs to be transferred to the communication device based on a header analysis result of the received packet.
When it is determined that there is no need to transfer the packet to the communication device, the selection device selects an appropriate transfer destination of the packet based on the type and setting contents of the received packet, and sends the selected transfer destination to the selected transfer destination. The packet is transferred and the process is terminated.
On the other hand, when it is determined that the packet needs to be transferred to the communication device, the selection device determines the packet type of the received packet and the MS or session identifier value set in the packet. , The first information is searched, the communication device as the packet transfer destination is determined, the packet is transmitted to the communication device as the determined packet transfer destination,
The communication apparatus, wherein the communication apparatus receives the packet.
The communication device according to claim 1,
The communication device
A fifth type of information for storing the MS or session identifier and the assigned flag of the MS or session identifier value for the packet type;
When the communication device determines that the received packet is a packet indicating an MS or session identifier assignment request, the communication device indicates an identifier value not assigned to another MS or session in the fifth information entry. Search the entry, determine the value of the identifier corresponding to the entry as the assigned value,
The communication apparatus creates a packet indicating an identifier assignment notification including the determined identifier assignment value, and transmits the packet.
The communication device according to claim 2,
When the inter-communication device transfer request is generated, the communication device, based on the request, uses the packet type C used for determining the transfer destination communication device in the requested inter-communication device transfer, and the packet type C Information on the MS or session identifier used to determine the transfer destination communication device at
The communication device searches the memory unit of the communication device based on the acquired packet type C and the identifier, and processes the MS or session corresponding to the requested packet type C and the identifier value. To determine whether or not relevant information necessary for
When the corresponding related information is held in the memory unit of the own communication device, the communication device determines that the inter-communication device transfer processing is unnecessary, and performs processing based on the request,
On the other hand, if the corresponding related information is not held in the memory unit of the own communication device, the communication device searches for the third information based on the acquired packet type C and the identifier, A communication apparatus that determines the communication apparatus to be a packet transfer destination.
The communication device according to claim 2,
When a new assignment of an MS or session identifier value, or an update of an existing assignment value, a release of an existing assignment value, or other change request occurs, the communication apparatus identifies an MS or session subject to the change request Then, the entry corresponding to the same MS or session is searched from the fourth information, and the packet type to which the identifier is assigned and the identifier are extracted from the entry.
For each extracted packet type and its identifier, the communication device determines whether or not the own communication device holds MS or session information corresponding to the packet type and identifier value subject to the change request. If the corresponding information is held in the memory unit of the communication device as a result of the search, the information hit in the search and the processing based on the request content are performed.
On the other hand, when the corresponding information as a result of the search is not held in the memory unit of the own communication device, the acquired packet type used for determining the transfer destination communication device in the inter-communication device transfer, Based on the value of the MS or session identifier used to determine the transfer destination communication device in the packet type, the third information is searched to determine the communication device as the packet transfer destination, and the determined packet Send a packet addressed to the communication device as the transfer destination,
The communication apparatus updates fourth information according to the change request.
A communication system,
A communication device that receives the packet from a selection device that forwards the packet;
The communication device
A storage unit and a processing unit;
The storage unit
Storing the first information associated with the transfer destination identifier and the transfer destination communication device corresponding to the transfer destination communication device of the packet used when transferring the packet stored in the selection device;
The processor is
The selection device belongs to the same terminal as the transmission terminal of the first packet to be transferred using the first information and the transfer destination identifier of the first packet, or to the same session as the session of the first packet When transferring the second packet, if the transfer destination identifier is not assigned to the second packet,
Assigning a transfer destination identifier of the second packet using the first information stored in the storage unit so that the transfer destination of the first packet and the second packet is the same communication device. ,
A communication system characterized by the above.
The communication system according to claim 9, wherein
The processor is
When the transfer destination identifier is assigned to the second packet,
The communication device of the transfer destination of the second packet selected by the selection device using the first information stored in the selection device and the transfer destination identifier of the second packet is defined as the first communication device. To identify using information,
A communication system characterized by the above.
The communication system according to claim 9, wherein
First EM information storing data of the same item as the first information;
Maintenance management device (EM) having second EM information storing data of the same item as the second information, and providing the contents of each information to the selection device and / or the one or more communication devices )
Further comprising
The EM extracts, for a certain communication device # 1 from the entry of the first EM information, a set of a packet type and an identifier thereof with the communication device # 1 as a transfer destination,
The EM stores the identifier of the MS or session from which the communication device # 1 selects the own communication device based on the information of the set of the packet type and the identifier of the packet type with the communication device # 1 extracted as the transfer destination. A communication system characterized by creating second EM information.
The communication system according to claim 10,
First EM information storing data of the same item as the first information;
Maintenance management device (EM) having third EM information storing data of the same item as the third information, and providing contents of each information to the selection device and / or the one or more communication devices )
Further comprising
The EM extracts an entry having the communication device # 1 as a transfer destination for a certain communication device # 1 from the entries of the first EM information.
The EM creates information in which only the entry having the extracted communication device as the transfer destination is deleted from all the entries of the first EM information, and sets the information as third EM information in the communication device # 1. A featured communication system.
The communication system according to claim 9, wherein
First EM information storing data of the same item as the first information;
A maintenance management device having second information and second EM information storing data of the same item, and providing the content of the information to the selection device and / or the one or more communication devices ( EM)
Further comprising

When a request for setting update of the first EM information occurs, the EM creates second EM information for each communication device based on the setting content after the update of the first EM information.
The EM creates a setting update notification packet including the setting update content of the first EM information, transmits the packet to the selection device,
The selection device updates the setting of the first information based on the setting update content of the received first EM information,

The EM creates a setting update notification packet including the setting update content of the second EM information for each of the communication devices that are to be updated with the second EM information, and transmits the setting update notification packet to the communication device that is the target of the packet. ,
The said communication apparatus updates the setting of 2nd information based on the setting update content of the 2nd EM information contained in the received packet.
The communication system according to claim 10,
First EM information storing data of the same item as the first information;
Third EM information storing data of the same item as the third information,
A maintenance management device (EM) that provides the content of the information to the selection device and / or the one or more communication devices
Further comprising

EM, when a request to update the setting of the first EM information occurs, based on the setting content after the update of the first EM information, when creating the third EM information for each communication device,
The EM creates a setting update notification packet including the setting update content of the first EM information, transmits the packet to the selection device,
The selection device updates the setting of the first information based on the setting update content of the received first EM information,

The EM creates a setting update notification packet including the setting update content of the third EM information for each of the communication devices that are the update target of the third EM information, and transmits the setting update notification packet to the communication device that is the target of the packet. ,
The communication apparatus updates the setting of the third information based on the setting update content of the received third EM information.
A communication control method in a communication device,
The communication device
A storage unit and a processing unit, receiving the packet from a selection device that forwards the packet;
The storage unit
Storing the first information associated with the transfer destination identifier and the transfer destination communication device corresponding to the transfer destination communication device of the packet used when transferring the packet stored in the selection device;
The processor is
The selection device belongs to the same terminal as the transmission terminal of the first packet to be transferred using the first information and the transfer destination identifier of the first packet, or to the same session as the session of the first packet When transferring the second packet, if the transfer destination identifier is not assigned to the second packet,
Assigning a transfer destination identifier of the second packet using the first information stored in the storage unit so that the transfer destination of the first packet and the second packet is the same communication device. ,
A communication control method characterized by the above.

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