KR101998625B1 - Load balancing method of session cluster - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for balancing a session cluster load by extending and removing a mobility management entity (MME) which dynamically processes packets using virtualization, comprising: an MME generation step of generating the MME processing the packets according to a preset policy; an identification code assignment step of assigning different IDs to a pre-generated MME and a newly generated MME; and a packet transmission step of allowing a packet analysis switch to analyze the packets before transmitting the packets to the MME and transmitting the analyzed packets to at least one MME among MMEs to which different IDs are assigned. The present invention can generate and remove the MMEs as necessary for dynamically managing sessions.

Description

[0001] LOAD BALANCING METHOD OF SESSION CLUSTER [0002]

The present technique relates to a session cluster load balancing method.

And more particularly, to a session cluster load balancing method capable of session management and load balancing using a VNF (Virtual Network Function) dynamically created or deleted in a virtualization platform.

Currently, hardware-based communication systems are used. Demand is expected to increase sharply with the commercialization of 5G in the future. Current communication systems use expensive hardware-based session switches and boards, and it is pointed out that the way they are used is very inefficient.

1 is a simplified illustration of a conventional communication system.

Currently, a communication system transmits a packet to a system (MME (Mobility Management Entity)) in which a signal is physically hardware through a base station. The base station analyzes the information of the packet transmitted from the terminal and transmits the packet to the pre-allocated system. Currently, the hardware-based communication system estimates subscribers in advance, purchases and installs hardware corresponding to the subscribers, and pre-distributes the subscribers based on the hardware.

For example, if one system can cover 1 million users, 10 million users are expected. If 10 operators are purchased by the operator, if there are actually 5 million users, 200,000 are assigned to each system. It is a fact that it is used.

In this case, it is very inefficient in terms of monetary and resource utilization. The hardware used in the communication system is very expensive. To cover 5 million users, only 5 systems are required, so the damage is as much as the purchase of 5 systems.

From the standpoint of the system, one million users can be covered, but only 200,000 users are using it, so it is wasting as much as the resources available to the remaining 800,000 users.

However, if you choose to increase the system according to the number of users from the beginning, this also has a new problem. For example, if five users are purchased with five million users, and then the number of users is increased to install five additional systems, the base station receives the user's packets and transmits them to the previously allocated system You need to change the set matching paths one by one (this is called station data operation).

Since a large number of base stations are installed in the whole country, data of a large number of base stations must be corrected in the case of station data work, so time is wasted and service may be temporarily stopped during the work.

Therefore, there is a growing demand for a system for improving the current communication system.

A method and system for controlling message overload in heterogeneous network handover, which is disclosed in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1682395 (published on November 29, 2016) Registered Patent Registration No. 10-1632187, Method of Combining Stateless Server Load Balancing and Stateful and Unstable Server Load Balancing

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a session cluster load balancing method capable of reducing CAPEX and OPEX of a communication carrier through a dynamic communication system by improving a rigid conventional communication system.

The technical object of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned technical objects and other technical objects which are not mentioned can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description will be.

The session cluster load balancing method uses virtualization to expand and delete MME (Mobility Management Entity) that processes packets dynamically to prevent session load.

A session cluster load balancing method according to the present invention includes: a Mobility Management Entity (MME) generation step of generating a Mobility Management Entity (MME) for processing a packet according to a predetermined policy; An identification code providing step of assigning different IDs to the created MME (Mobility Management Entity) and newly created MME (Mobility Management Entity); And an MME (Mobility Management Entity), which is analyzed by a packet analysis switch before the packet is transmitted to the MME (Mobility Management Entity), and an MME (Mobility Management Entity) And a packet transmission step of transmitting the packet.

Here, the MME (Mobility Management Entity) that processes the packet in the generation step is scaled out according to a predetermined policy.

Here, the packet analysis switch is characterized by including a packet analysis unit for analyzing a packet and a session cluster management unit for transmitting the analyzed packet to one of a plurality of MMEs (Mobility Management Entities) .

Here, the packet analyzing unit includes a protocol analyzing unit for analyzing a protocol of a packet, and a flow analyzing unit for analyzing a flow of information by receiving the packet analyzed by the protocol analyzing unit.

Here, in the generating step, the MME (Mobility Management Entity) management unit transfers information of the generated MME (Mobility Management Entity) to the packet analysis switch.

Here, the packet analysis switch includes a load management unit that receives information from the MME (Mobility Management Entity) management unit, calculates a load, and modifies a preset policy according to the calculated load.

The session cluster load balancing method according to the present invention can create / delete an MME (Mobility Management Entity) as needed through a virtualization platform, thereby dynamically managing sessions.

Also, the session cluster load balancing method of the present invention enables intelligent session management load balancing through a real time distribution policy.

In addition, the session cluster load balancing method of the present invention is based on a virtualization platform, and it is possible to reflect new demands without stopping the service when the scale is changed. That is, it can provide scalability for a new protocol.

1 is a simplified illustration of a conventional communication system.
Figure 2 illustrates a virtualization platform capable of performing the session cluster load balancing method of the present invention.
Figure 3 illustrates packet movement to a virtualization platform that implements the session cluster load balancing method of the present invention.
FIG. 4 illustrates the migration of a session according to the session cluster load balancing method of the present invention.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to exemplary drawings. However, this is not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

It should be noted that, in adding reference numerals to the constituent elements of the drawings, the same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference symbols as possible even if they are shown in different drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

In addition, the size and shape of the components shown in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity and convenience of explanation. In addition, terms specifically defined in consideration of the constitution and operation of the present invention are only for explaining the embodiments of the present invention, and do not limit the scope of the present invention.

Throughout the specification, when an element is referred to as "comprising ", it means that it can include other elements as well, without excluding other elements unless specifically stated otherwise. It should be noted that the terms such as " part, "" module, " .

Figure 2 illustrates a virtualization platform capable of performing the session cluster load balancing method of the present invention.

Disclosed herein is at least one method or system for virtualizing at least a portion of a physical network device utilizing Network Function Virtualization (NFV)

NFV virtualization can virtualize this physical network device by dividing the physical network device into multiple NFs (Network Functions). Each NF is configured to perform a network function that is typically implemented by a physical network device.

A virtual container may host one or more NFs to handle network scalability, expansion, and migration associated with physical network devices.

The NFV 100 may group the NFs using any one of an absolute decomposition method, a network function decomposition method, and / or a service separation method to implement the network function performed by the physical network device.

By virtualizing physical network devices into one or more NFs, the NF can distribute and align virtual containers and / or hardware resources to maximize resource utilization.

The session cluster load balancing method of the present invention is implemented through the creation or deletion of a VNF, that is, an operation of a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 110, which dynamically processes a packet using a virtualization platform.

Each step of the session cluster load balancing method of the present invention can be implemented through a virtualization platform including an NFV MANO 400, an OVS-DPDK-based session cluster load balancing platform 200, and a virtualized infrastructure 300.

 The NFV MANO 400 may be implemented to perform supervisory and management functions for the virtualized infrastructure 300 and the NFV 100 (Mobility Management Entity (MME) 110 is of course included). The orchestrator 410 comprises the virtualized infrastructure 300 as a virtualized resource. The orchestrator 410 can realize the network service.

The orchestrator 410 may communicate with the VNF manager 420 to collect requests, implement associated resources, transfer information, and status information of the Mobility Management Entity (MME) 110. The orchestrator 410 may also communicate with the Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) 430 to implement resource allocation and / or reserve and exchange virtualized hardware resource configuration and state information.

The VNF manager 420 is configured to manage one or more NFVs 100. The VNF manager 420 may perform various management functions such as instantiating, updating, querying, scaling, and / or terminating the NFV 100 .

The VIM 430 may be configured to perform management functions used to control and manage the interaction of the NFV 100 with computing hardware, storage hardware, network hardware, virtual computing, virtual storage, and virtual networks.

For example, the VIM 430 may include resource management functions such as managing resources and allocations of virtualized infrastructure 300 (e.g., increasing resources in a virtual container), and managing virtualized infrastructure 300, Such as collecting fault information of the system.

The virtualized infrastructure 300 forms a virtualized environment for deploying, managing, and executing Mobility Management Entities (MMEs) 110, including hardware components, software components, or a combination thereof . In the virtualized environment, the hardware resources are abstracted and the virtualized resources are provided to the Mobility Management Entity (MME) 110.

The OVS-DPDK-based session cluster load balancing platform 200 includes an OpenStack 210, a hypervisor 220, and a packet analysis switch 230.

OpenStack (210) is open source software for building public and private cloud. It provides virtualization system on standard hardware through various modules as an essential component for building virtualization system. The OpenStack 210 may be composed of three systems: a Compute Node, a Controller Node, and a Network Node.

The hypervisor 220 is an engine capable of efficiently creating a virtualized environment. The hypervisor 220 may be used as a KVM in the OpenStack 210.

Figure 3 illustrates packet movement to a virtualization platform that implements the session cluster load balancing method of the present invention.

Based on this virtualization platform, the session cluster load balancing method according to the present invention dynamically changes the Mobility Management Entity (MME) 110 to give flexibility.

In addition, it can support various VNF through analysis of SIP / S1AP / Diameter protocol of LTE mobile communication system along with analysis of network protocol of L4 layer, and can perform high performance software packet processing on x86 server.

 The session cluster load balancing method of the present invention includes a generating step, an identifying code giving step, and a packet transmitting step.

The generating step is a step of generating an MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110 for processing a packet according to a predetermined policy. Here, the policy for creating and deleting an MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110 may be arbitrarily changed. For example, if one of the virtual mobility management entities (MMEs) 110 is auto-scaled so that the load factor is 70% or more, or if the CPU resource usage is 70% or more, Or more, and the like.

The MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110 thus generated must be differentiated in a virtualized environment, and thus must be given an identification code.

In the step of assigning an identification code, different IDs are assigned to distinguish the newly created MME 110 and the newly created MME 110. Here, the ID may be IP as an example. However, it should be noted that it is not construed as being limited thereto. The ID is distinguished from the newly created MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110 and the newly created MME 110. A separate Mobility Management Entity (MME) 110 can be distributed according to load.

When a packet is transmitted from a user terminal and transmitted to a virtualization platform according to the present invention through a base station, the packet transmission step analyzes the transmitted packet, and based on the analyzed information, a mobility management entity (MME) 110, To an MME (Mobility Management Entity) (110).

In other words, virtualization of a hardware-based system, which was a problem in the past, can be created and deleted in real time to give flexibility.

Meanwhile, it is possible through the packet analysis switch 230 to implement the packet transmission step as described above.

The NFV MANO 400 recognizes that the VNF 100 is integrated and can not divide the packets and transmit them to the newly created MME 110. [ This is because the NFV MANO 400 recognizes the generated MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110 as an entire system rather than individually recognizing it. For example, if there are three MMEs (Mobility Management Entities) 110, the MME 110 only recognizes the MMEs as being 300%. When the MMEs 110 are transmitted, the MME 110 transmits the packets to the MME 110.

The packet analysis switch 230 may be a network switch in a virtual environment and may be an OVS-DPDK using a DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) for speedup. DPDK technology is a technology that enables high-speed processing of packets by using a library API to provide a path to directly approach the network interface card without using the Linux kernel.

The packet analysis switch 230 includes a packet analysis unit 231 and a session cluster management unit 234. The packet analyzer 231 includes a protocol analyzer 232 and a flow analyzer 233. The packet analyzing unit 231 receives the packet, analyzes necessary information in the packet, and transmits the analyzed information to the session cluster managing unit 234. The session cluster management unit 234 transmits the MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110 to at least one MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110 based on the information analyzed by the packet analysis unit 231.

The packet analyzer 231 determines whether the packet received through the OVS-DPDK API includes 5 Tuple (MAC, IP, Port, Protocol) according to MAC information of the L2 layer, IP information of the L3 layer, TCP, UDP and SCTP protocols of the L4 layer. ) Information, and perform packet processing based on the information.

For example, if the session cluster management unit 234 analyzes the packet based on the MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110 of FIG. 4, the session cluster management unit 234 analyzes the packet and transmits it to the MME-1 (Mobility Management Entity- And if the session B exists, it transmits to the MME-2 (Mobility Management Entity).

Here, the information of the packet analyzed by the packet analyzing unit 231 may be a protocol analyzed by the protocol analyzing unit 232 and may be a flow of information analyzed by the flow analyzing unit 233. Here, the flow of information may be a call flow.

On the other hand, according to the predetermined policy in the above-described generation step, a load may be generated according to a plurality of MMEs (Mobility Management Entities) 110 or an excessive amount of packets to be transmitted. In order to control this, information on the MME 110 must be checked in real time.

The MME (Mobility Management Entity) management unit 120 transmits information about the MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110 to the load management unit 235 of the packet analysis switch 230. The load management unit 235 adjusts the load of the MME (Mobility Management Entity) The load management unit 235 can reset the policy based on the generation information of the MME (Mobility Management Entity) 110, and requests the session cluster management unit 234 to distribute packets to be transmitted.

In this way, the MME 110 is created and deleted, analyzed in advance, and transmitted to prevent a load, thereby changing the MME 110, Reflect the needs, and provide scalability for new protocols.

On the other hand, the predetermined policy may be creation, deletion (scale-out, in) and migration. To help understand the policy, we will explain the creation, deletion, and migration in Figure 4.

FIG. 4 illustrates the migration of a session according to the session cluster load balancing method of the present invention.

The packet analysis switch 230 analyzes packets to analyze that there are sessions A, B, C, and D. The session A is an MME-1 (Mobility Management Entity-1), the session B is a Mobility Management Entity- 3, MME-3 (Mobility Management Entity-3) is deleted according to a policy, and sessions C and D are distributed to MME-3 (Mobility Management Entity-3) (MME-2) and MME-1 (Mobility Management Entity-1), respectively.

Through this real-time session distribution, the present invention can perform load management.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art.

100: NFV
110: MME (Mobility Management Entity)
120: MME (Mobility Management Entity)
200: OVS-DPDK-based session cluster load balancing platform
210: OpenStack
220: Hypervisor
230: Packet Analysis Switch
231: Packet Analysis Unit
232: Protocol Analysis Section
233: Flow analysis unit
234: Session Cluster Management Section
235:
300: Virtualized Infrastructure
400: NFV MANO
410: Orchestrator
420: VNF manager
430: VIM

Claims (6)

In a session cluster load balancing method by expanding and deleting an MME (Mobility Management Entity) that dynamically processes packets using virtualization,
An MME (Mobility Management Entity) generation step of generating an MME (Mobility Management Entity) for processing the packet according to a predetermined policy;
An identification code providing step of assigning different IDs to the created MME (Mobility Management Entity) and newly created MME (Mobility Management Entity); And
The MME (Mobility Management Entity) and the newly created MME (Mobility Management Entity), which have been given different IDs, correspond to the session information that is the result of analyzing the packet before the packet is transmitted A packet transmission step of transmitting the packet to an MME (Mobility Management Entity)
A session cluster load balancing method. The method according to claim 1,
In the generating step
The MME (Mobility Management Entity) that processes the packet is a scale-out that is scaled according to a predetermined policy
And a session cluster load balancing method. The method according to claim 1,
The packet analysis switch
A packet analyzing unit for analyzing a packet and a session cluster managing unit for transmitting the analyzed packet to a MME (Mobility Management Entity) among a plurality of MMEs (Mobility Management Entities)
And a session cluster load balancing method. The method of claim 3,
The packet analyzing unit,
A protocol analyzing unit for analyzing a protocol of a packet and a flow analyzing unit for analyzing a flow of information by receiving the packet analyzed by the protocol analyzing unit
And a session cluster load balancing method. 5. The method of claim 4,
In the generating step
An MME (Mobility Management Entity) management unit transmits the generated MME (Mobility Management Entity) information to the packet analysis switch
And a session cluster load balancing method. 6. The method of claim 5,
The packet analysis switch
A load management unit for receiving information from the MME (Mobility Management Entity) management unit to calculate a load, and modifying a predetermined policy according to the calculated load,
A session cluster load balancing method.

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