CN102870395B

CN102870395B - Address distribution method, device and system

Info

Publication number: CN102870395B
Application number: CN201080001639.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 戚彩霞; 王珊珊; 胡颖
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2010-02-08
Filing date: 2010-02-08
Publication date: 2015-09-30
Anticipated expiration: 2030-02-08
Also published as: WO2011094956A1; CN102870395A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses a kind of address distribution method, Apparatus and system, relate to wireless communication technology, in order to solve gateway or cannot normally set up or upgrade the problem of binding between access node and interworking agent network element.A kind of address distribution method, comprising: interworking agent network element sends a request message to data gateway, to ask the IPv4 address of user terminal; Receive the response message that described data gateway sends; Proxy binding acknowledgment messages is sent to gateway or access node, carry IPv4 address in described proxy binding acknowledgment messages, this IPv4 address is carried at the IPv4 address of the described user terminal in described response message by described data gateway or this IPv4 address is distributed by described interworking agent network element temporarily.

Description

Address allocation method, device and system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications technologies, and in particular, to an address allocation method, apparatus, and system.

Background

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a logical architecture of a next generation mobile communication network. The user terminal accesses a mobile communication network through a local wireless access network, and an access node is a convergent point of the access network and is responsible for functions of position management, connection management, security authentication, gateway selection and the like of the mobile user terminal; the service gateway is a local access gateway of the user terminal and is responsible for connection management and data forwarding related to the access technology; the data gateway is a gateway of the user terminal accessing an external data network, is responsible for data connection management and data forwarding of the user terminal accessing a message data network, and is also an anchor point for providing mobile services for mobile users.

The interface Protocol between the serving gateway and the data gateway may be a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Tunneling Protocol (GTP for short), or a Proxy Mobile IPv6 Protocol (Proxy Mobile IPv6, PMIP for short).

When the user terminal roams, the access node of the visiting place and the service gateway are connected to the data gateway of the home place. If the type of the interface protocol supported by the service gateway in the Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) of the visited place is different from the type of the interface protocol supported by the data gateway in the PLMN of the home location, for example, the service gateway of the visited place supports the GTP protocol and the data gateway of the home location supports the PMIP protocol, or the service gateway of the visited place supports the PMIP protocol and the data gateway of the home location supports the GTP protocol, the user terminal cannot pass through the data gateway of the home location associated with the visited place service Network in the roaming place, and cannot access the communication Network.

In order to solve the above problem, an interworking Proxy network element (IWP) is introduced between a serving gateway and a data gateway supporting different protocols, and the interworking Proxy network element is used for performing interconversion between the PMIP protocol and the GTP protocol, so as to ensure that a user terminal can normally access a communication network to perform a telecommunication service when roaming.

The interworking proxy gateway may also enable translation of different protocols between the access node and the data gateway for some networks where no serving gateway exists.

In the process of implementing the network access through the interworking agent network element, the inventor finds that at least the following problems exist in the prior art:

in a Network with an interworking agent Network element, if a home PLMN only supports a GTP Protocol and a visited PLMN only supports a PMIP Protocol, during an attach, PDP (Packet Data Protocol) context activation, PDN (Packet Data Network) connection establishment, or PDN connection IPv4 (internet Protocol version 4) address allocation process, a situation occurs in which the interworking agent Network element cannot normally obtain an IPv 52 address 4 assigned to a user terminal by a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server or a Data gateway; thus, the interworking agent network element cannot send the IPv4 address of the user terminal to the serving gateway or the access node, which in turn causes that the binding between the serving gateway or the access node and the interworking agent network element cannot be established or updated, and the user terminal cannot attach to the roaming network, activate a PDP context, or establish a PDN connection for performing a service.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide an address allocation method, apparatus, and system, so as to solve the problem that a binding cannot be normally established or updated between a serving gateway or an access node and an interworking agent network element.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

an address allocation method, comprising:

the interworking agent network element sends a request message to the data gateway to request the IPv4 address of the user terminal;

receiving a response message sent by the data gateway;

and sending a proxy binding acknowledgement message to a service gateway or an access node, wherein the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries an IPv4 address, and the IPv4 address is the IPv4 address of the user terminal carried by the data gateway in the response message or the IPv4 address is temporarily allocated by the interworking proxy network element.

An address assignment device, comprising:

a request unit for sending a request message to the data gateway to request an IPv4 address of the user terminal;

a receiving unit, configured to receive a response message sent by the data gateway;

a sending unit, configured to send a proxy binding acknowledgement message to a serving gateway or an access node, where the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries an IPv4 address, and the IPv4 address is an IPv4 address of the user terminal carried in the response message by the data gateway or the IPv4 address is temporarily allocated by the address allocation apparatus.

An address allocation system comprises an interworking agent network element, an access node and a data gateway; wherein,

the interworking agent network element is used for sending a request message to the data gateway so as to request the IPv4 address of the user terminal;

the data gateway is configured to provide an IPv4 address to the interworking agent network element according to the request message, where the IPv4 address is an IPv4 address of the user terminal or an IPv4 address of all 0 s, and send the IPv4 address to the interworking agent network element through a response message;

the interworking proxy network element is further configured to send a proxy binding acknowledgement message to the access node, where the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries an IPv4 address, and the IPv4 address is an IPv4 address of the user terminal provided by the data gateway and carried in the response message, or the IPv4 address is an IPv4 address temporarily allocated by the interworking proxy network element.

The address allocation method, device and system provided by the embodiment of the invention firstly initiate a request for acquiring the IPv4 address of the user terminal to the data gateway through the intercommunication proxy network element, or the intercommunication proxy network element autonomously and temporarily allocates a non-0 IPv4 address, and then the IPv4 address of the user terminal acquired from the data gateway or the temporarily allocated IPv4 address is sent to the service gateway or the access node, so that the binding between the service gateway or the access node and the intercommunication proxy network element is normally established, and the user terminal can finish attaching, establishing PDN connection or activating PDP context at a roaming place/visiting place to perform corresponding services.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without inventive labor.

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating a logical architecture of a next generation mobile communication network in the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an address allocation method according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an address allocation apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a signaling flowchart of an address assignment method according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a signaling flowchart of an address assignment method according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a signaling flowchart of an address allocation method according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a signaling flowchart of an address assignment method according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a signaling flowchart of an address assignment method according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a signaling flowchart of an address assignment method according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an address allocation apparatus according to an eighth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an address allocation system in the ninth embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The following describes an address allocation method, an address allocation device, and an address allocation system according to embodiments of the present invention in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The first embodiment is as follows:

as shown in fig. 2, the address allocation method provided in this embodiment includes:

201. the interworking agent network element sends a request message to the data gateway requesting the IPv4 address of the user terminal.

In this embodiment, the request message may be a session establishment request message in an attach procedure, a PDP context activation procedure, or a PDN connection establishment procedure, or may be a DHCPv4 discovery message in an IP address allocation procedure in a DHCPv4 manner.

202. And receiving a response message sent by the data gateway.

The response message in this step may be a setup session response message, or a DHCPv4offer message, corresponding to the different request message types in step 201.

203. A proxy binding acknowledgement message is sent to the serving gateway or access node.

Wherein, the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries an IPv4 address, and the IPv4 address is the IPv4 address of the user terminal carried in the response message by the data gateway, or the IPv4 address is temporarily allocated by an interworking proxy network element.

Generally, an interworking proxy network element sends a proxy binding acknowledgement report to a serving gateway; however, in some non-3 GPP access scenarios, the network may not have a serving gateway, and then the interworking agent network element directly sends an agent binding acknowledgement report to the access node.

The execution subject of the above steps may be an interworking agent network element for interconversion of different protocols.

The embodiment also provides an address distribution device which can realize the steps; as shown in fig. 3, the address assigning apparatus includes:

a request unit 31 for sending a request message to the data gateway to request an IPv4 address of the user terminal;

a receiving unit 32, configured to receive a response message sent by the data gateway;

a sending unit 33, configured to send a proxy binding acknowledgement message to a serving gateway or an access node, where the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries an IPv4 address, and the IPv4 address is an IPv4 address of the user terminal carried in the response message by the data gateway or the IPv4 address is temporarily allocated by the address allocation apparatus.

The address allocation apparatus in this embodiment may be an interworking proxy network element that is responsible for interconversion between different protocols.

The method and apparatus for address allocation provided in this embodiment, first initiate a request for acquiring an IPv4 address of a user terminal to a data gateway through an interworking agent network element, or autonomously and temporarily allocate a non-0 IPv4 address by the interworking agent network element, and then send the IPv4 address of the user terminal acquired from the data gateway or the temporarily allocated IPv4 address to a service gateway or an access node, thereby normally establishing a binding between the service gateway or the access node and the interworking agent network element, so that the user terminal can complete procedures such as attaching, establishing a PDN connection, or activating a PDP context in a roaming place or a visiting place to perform a corresponding service.

Example two:

in the present embodiment, the following scenario is first set: the Access Network of the visited place where the mobile terminal is currently located is accessed through 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), which may be UTRAN (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network) or E-UTRAN (Evolved-Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network) or GERAN (GSM EDGE Radio Access Network, GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network); in this embodiment, the access Node may be a Mobility Management element, and specifically may be an MME (Mobility Management Entity) or an SGSN (Service GPRS Support Node); in addition, the service Gateway may be SGw (Serving Gateway), the interworking Proxy Network element may be IWP (Inter Working Proxy Network element), and the Data Gateway may be PGW (Packet Data Network Gateway).

Specifically, as shown in fig. 4, the address allocation method provided in this embodiment includes the following steps:

401. the user terminal initiates an Attach flow and sends an Attach Request (Attach Request) message to the mobility management network element.

The message may carry a Protocol Configuration Option (PCO) for indicating the user terminal to request to acquire the IPv4 address of the user terminal in a DHCPv4 manner to the data gateway; of course, the data gateway may not carry the PCO, and then selects the address allocation method according to its own configuration:

for example, the configuration on the data gateway is: address assignment corresponding to the Access Point Name (APN) can only use the DHCPv4 mode, and then the data gateway assigns the IPv4 address by using the DHCPv4 mode.

In this embodiment, the attach procedure is taken as an example; of course, the application scope of the present solution is not limited to this, and may also be a PDP context activation procedure or a PDN connection establishment procedure.

402. A mobile management network element sends a Session establishment Request (Create Session Request) message to a service gateway, wherein the Session establishment Request message carries a PDN type used for requesting the data gateway to allocate an IP address type to a user terminal; and PCO may be carried in the message.

403. The service gateway sends a Proxy Binding Update (Proxy Binding Update) message to the interworking Proxy network element, wherein the message carries a request for allocating an IP address; the request message may carry a PCO.

The service gateway sends IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) home network prefix option and/or IPv4 home address request option carried in the proxy binding update message to the interworking proxy network element according to the PDN type carried in the session establishment request message by the mobile management network element to represent the corresponding IP address request; in particular, the amount of the solvent to be used,

if the proxy binding update message only carries the IPv4 home address request option and does not carry the IPv6 home network prefix option, the PDN type is represented as IPv 4;

if the proxy binding update message carries an IPv4 home address request option and an IPv6 home network prefix option, the PDN type is represented as IPv4 and IPv 6;

and if the proxy binding update message only carries the IPv6 home network prefix option and does not carry the IPv4 home address request option, the PDN type is represented as IPv 6.

404. The interworking agent network element sends a session establishment request to the data gateway, wherein the PDN type is carried and the message may carry a PCO cell.

405. And the data gateway replies a Create Session Response (Create Session Response) message to the interworking agent network element, wherein the Response message carries the PDN type and the PDN address selected by the data gateway.

Specifically, the data gateway selects the PDN type according to the PDN type and the operator policy and other factors carried in the received session establishment request message;

for example, if the PDN types carried in the received session establishment request message are IPv4 and IPv6, and the policy configured by the operator allows the APN to establish a connection between IPv4 and IPv6, the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv 6;

if the user terminal indicates in the PCO cell that the request is obtained by means of DHCPv4 at IPv4 address and the data gateway agrees, or the operator configures that the PDN address related to the request APN can only be allocated by DHCPv4, when the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4, the IPv4 address is all 0 in the PDN address in the session establishment response message sent by the data gateway to the interworking agent network element; and when the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, the PDN address carries the IPv6 prefix of the local network, the interface identification and the IPv4 address of all 0.

406. After the interworking agent network element receives the session establishment response message sent by the data gateway, if the IPv4 address in the PDN address carried by the interworking agent network element is all 0 and the PDN type is IPv4, or IPv4 and IPv6, the interworking agent network element can know that the data gateway allocates an IPv4 address to the user terminal in the form of DHCPv 4; at this time, the interworking agent network element, as a DHCP client, sends a DHCPv4Discover (DHCPv4Discover) message to the data gateway to request an IPv4 address of the user terminal.

407. The data gateway, as a DHCP server, replies a DHCPv4Offer (DHCPv4Offer) message to the interworking agent network element, where the message carries the IPv4 address and other settings allocated to the user terminal.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the IPv4 address of the user terminal is allocated by the data gateway, but is not limited thereto; of course, it may be assigned by a DHCP server other than the data gateway. When the IPv4 address is allocated by a DHCP server other than the data gateway, the data gateway acts as a DHCP server for the interworking agent network element, and also acts as a DHCP client for the DHCP server that allocates the IPv4 address.

408. The interworking Proxy network element sends a Proxy Binding Acknowledgement (Proxy Binding Acknowledgement) message to the serving gateway.

If the PDN type in the session establishment response returned by the data gateway is IPv4, the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries the IPv4 address obtained by the interworking proxy network element in step 407 and an indication of the DHCPv4 address allocation procedure; thus, after acquiring the IPv4 address of the user terminal, the serving gateway may establish a binding between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element;

and if the PDN types are IPv4 and IPv6, carrying the IPv6 prefix obtained in step 405 and an address allocation flow indication of DHCPv4 in the proxy binding acknowledgement message.

409. And the service gateway sends a session establishing response message to the mobile management network element, wherein the session establishing response message carries the PDN address.

If the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4 and the proxy binding acknowledgement message in step 408 carries the DHCPv4 address allocation procedure indication, the PDN address carried in the establish session response message is an IPv4 address of all 0 s;

if the PDN types are IPv4 and IPv6, and the proxy binding acknowledgement message in step 408 carries the DHCPv4 address allocation procedure indication, the PDN address carried in the session establishment response message includes all 0 IPv4 addresses and the IPv6 prefix obtained in step 408.

410. And the mobile management network element sends an attachment receiving message to the user terminal, wherein the attachment receiving message carries the PDN address.

Similarly, if the user terminal sends a PDP Context Activation Request (PDP Context Activation Request) message or a PDN connection establishment Request (PDN Connectivity Request) message to the mobility management element in step 401, the mobility management element correspondingly feeds back a PDP Context Activation acceptance message or a PDN connection establishment acceptance message to the user terminal in this step, and the PDP Context Activation acceptance message or the PDN connection establishment acceptance message carries a PDN address.

411. The user terminal broadcasts a DHCPv4 discovery message.

If the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4, then a binding between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element has been established after step 408; at this time, after step 411 is completed, step 414 and the subsequent steps thereof may be directly performed;

if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, steps 412, 413 and subsequent steps are required to update the binding between the serving gateway and the data gateway.

412. And after receiving the DHCPv4 discovery message, the service gateway sends a proxy binding update message to the interworking proxy network element, wherein the proxy binding update message carries all 0 IPv4 addresses.

413. The interworking agent network element replies an agent binding confirmation message to the service gateway, the message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal acquired in step 407, and the service gateway updates the binding with the interworking agent network element.

414. The service gateway acts as a DHCP relay and forwards the DHCPv4 discovery message sent by the user terminal to the interworking agent network element.

415. The interworking agent network element serves as a DHCP server of the user terminal, and sends a DHCPv4 providing message to the service gateway, where the DHCPv4 providing message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal obtained in step 407 and other settings. The service gateway forwards the message to the user terminal, so that the user terminal acquires the IPv4 address.

After that, the user terminal initiates a DHCPv4 request flow and confirms the received IPv4 address to the DHCP server.

In the subsequent process, the intercommunication proxy network element is used as a DHCP server of the user terminal and is also used as a DHCP client of the data gateway to process the DHCP related flow.

In this embodiment, if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, the execution order of steps 406 and 407 may be arranged after step 412; i.e. the original steps 406 and 407 are ignored and between step 412 and step 413:

412-1, after receiving the agent binding update message sent by the service gateway, the interworking agent network element, as a DHCP client of the data gateway, sends a DHCPv4 discovery message to the data gateway to request an IPv4 address of the user terminal;

412-2, the data gateway replies DHCPv4 providing message to the interworking agent network element, and the message carries IPv4 address and other settings allocated to the user terminal. The IPv4 address may be assigned by the data gateway or by a DHCP server other than the data gateway.

Then the IPv4 addresses involved in step 413, step 415 may also be obtained in step 412-2.

The address allocation method provided in this embodiment first initiates a DHCPv4 discovery message to a data gateway of a user terminal through an interworking agent network element to request to acquire an IPv4 address of the user terminal, and then sends the IPv4 address of the user terminal acquired from the data gateway to a service gateway, thereby normally establishing a binding between the service gateway and the interworking agent network element, so that the user terminal can attach to, establish a PDN connection, or activate a PDP context in a roaming/visiting place to perform a corresponding service.

Example three:

the scheme described in the second embodiment is implemented by a scenario that an access network based on a visited place where a mobile terminal is located is accessed by 3 GPP; however, the implementation of the scheme provided by the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is also applicable to a scenario in which a visited access network accesses through non-3 GPP.

Specifically, in this embodiment, the non-3 GPP Access Network may be a Wireless Access Network such as WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), or the like; the Access node may be an Access Gateway/Evolved Packet Data Gateway, i.e., an a-GW (Access Gateway) or an ePDG (Evolved Packet Data Gateway); the serving gateway may be an SGW, the interworking agent network element may be an IWP, and the data gateway may be a PGW.

The address allocation method provided in this embodiment can be seen from fig. 5; steps 501 to 510 are substantially the same as steps 401 to 410 in the second embodiment, and will not be described in detail here; the following are described only with respect to their differences:

the access node in the second embodiment is a mobility management network element, and in this embodiment, an access gateway or an evolved packet data gateway (hereinafter, abbreviated as: access gateway/evolved packet data gateway) undertakes the functions of the access node and corresponding services;

in step 501, a user terminal initiates an attach procedure or a PDN connection establishment procedure;

in step 502, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway sends an agent binding update message to the serving gateway, where the agent binding update message carries a request for allocating an IP address;

in step 509, the serving gateway forwards the received proxy binding response message to the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway;

in step 510, the attach procedure or PDN connection establishment procedure ends.

The flow after step 510 is generally as follows:

511. the user terminal broadcasts a DHCPv4 discovery message.

If the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4, then after step 508, bindings between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the serving gateway, and between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element have been established; at this time, after step 511 is completed, step 514 and the subsequent steps thereof may be directly performed;

if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, steps 512 and 513 and the following steps are required to update the binding between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the serving gateway, and between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element.

512. And after receiving the DHCPv4 discovery message, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway sends a proxy binding update message to the serving gateway, wherein the proxy binding update message carries all 0 IPv4 addresses. And the service gateway forwards the proxy binding update message to an interworking proxy network element.

513. The interworking agent network element replies a proxy binding acknowledgement message to the service gateway, the message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal, and the IPv4 address is obtained in step 507 to update the binding between the service gateway and the interworking agent network element. And the service gateway forwards the proxy binding confirmation message to the access gateway/the evolved packet data gateway.

514. The access gateway/evolved packet data gateway acts as a DHCP relay forwarding DHCPv4 discovery messages to the serving gateway. And the service gateway forwards the DHCPv4 discovery message to the interworking agent network element.

515. The interworking agent network element sends a DHCPv4 providing message to the service gateway, and the DHCPv4 providing message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal obtained in step 507 and other settings. The service gateway forwards the message to the access gateway/the evolved packet data gateway, and the access gateway/the evolved packet data gateway forwards the message provided by the DHCPv4 to the user terminal, so that the user terminal acquires the IPv4 address.

Since the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway may act as a DHCP server on the subscriber terminal side in some cases, the above step 514 may be omitted when the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway acts as a DHCP server, and the step 515 is replaced by the step 515-1:

515-1, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway sends a DHCPv4 providing message to the user terminal, and the DHCPv4 providing message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal obtained in step 509 or step 513, and other settings.

As in the second embodiment, in this embodiment, if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, the execution order of steps 506 and 507 may be arranged after step 512; i.e. the original steps 506 and 507 are ignored and between step 512 and step 513:

512-1, after receiving the agent binding update message sent by the service gateway, the interworking agent network element, as a DHCP client of the data gateway, sends a DHCPv4 discovery message to the data gateway to request an IPv4 address of the user terminal;

512-2, the data gateway replies DHCPv4 providing message to the interworking agent network element, and the message carries IPv4 address and other settings allocated to the user terminal. The IPv4 address may be assigned by the data gateway or by a DHCP server other than the data gateway.

Then the IPv4 addresses referred to in step 513, step 515 may also be obtained in step 512-2.

In addition, since there may be no serving gateway in the network under the condition of non-3 GPP access, in this embodiment, signaling transmission between the interworking agent network element and the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway does not need to be forwarded through the serving gateway; for example, step 502 and step 503 may be combined into the same procedure, and step 508 and step 509 may be combined into the same procedure, so that a binding is directly established between the interworking proxy network element and the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway.

The address allocation method provided in this embodiment first initiates a DHCPv4 discovery message to the data gateway through the interworking agent network element to request to acquire an IPv4 address of the terminal, and then sends the IPv4 address acquired from the data gateway to the access node, thereby normally establishing a binding between the access node and the interworking agent network element, so that the user terminal can attach, establish a PDN connection or activate a PDP context in a roaming/visiting location to perform a corresponding service.

Example four:

in the present embodiment, the following scenario is first set: the access network of the visited place where the mobile terminal is now located is accessed through 3GPP, which can be UTRAN/E-UTRAN/GERAN; in this embodiment, the access node may be a mobility management element, specifically, an MME or an SGSN; in addition, the serving gateway may be an SGW, the interworking agent network element may be an IWP, and the data gateway may be a PGW.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 6, the address allocation method provided in this embodiment includes the following steps:

601. the user terminal initiates an attachment flow and sends an attachment request message to the mobility management network element.

The message carries a protocol configuration option PCO cell, which is used for indicating the user terminal to request to acquire the IPv4 address of the user terminal in a DHCPv4 mode to the data gateway.

602. The mobile management network element sends a session establishment request message to a service gateway, wherein the session establishment request message carries an IP address type used for requesting to be allocated to a user terminal and a PDN type; and the message carries a PCO cell.

603. The service gateway sends an agent binding update message to the interworking agent network element, wherein the message carries a request for allocating an IP address; the request message carries the PCO.

After acquiring the PDN type carried in the session establishment request message by the mobile management network element, the service gateway sends an IPv6 home network prefix option and/or an IPv4 home address request option carried in a proxy binding update message to the interworking proxy network element according to the PDN type to express a corresponding IP address request; in particular, the amount of the solvent to be used,

604. If the type of the IP address request carried in the binding update message received by the interworking agent network element is IPv4, or IPv4 and IPv6, and the PCO cell indicates that the user terminal requests to acquire an IPv4 address in a DHCPv4 manner, the interworking agent network element changes the content of the PCO cell to indicate that the user terminal requests to allocate an IP address through NAS (Non-Access-Stratum) signaling, and carries the modified PCO cell in a session establishment request message which also carries a PDN type and sends the modified PCO cell to the data gateway.

605. And the data gateway replies a session establishing response message to the interworking agent network element, wherein the response message carries the PDN type and the PDN address selected by the data gateway.

if the PDN type carried in the session establishment response message is IPv4 and the PCO information element indicates that the request is to allocate an IP address through NAS signaling, the PDN address carries an allocated IPv4 address;

and if the PDN type carried in the session establishment response message is IPv4 and IPv6, and the PCO information element indicates that the IP address is requested to be allocated through NAS signaling, the PDN address carries the allocated IPv4 address, the allocated IPv6 prefix and the allocated interface identifier.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the IPv4 address of the user terminal is allocated by the data gateway, but is not limited thereto; but may of course also be allocated by a network element other than the data gateway.

606. The interworking agent network element sends an agent binding acknowledgement message to the serving gateway.

If the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4, the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user equipment obtained in step 605, and at the same time, the message may carry an address allocation procedure indication of DHCPv4, or may not carry an address allocation procedure indication of DHCPv 4; after the service gateway acquires the IPv4 address of the user terminal, the service gateway can establish the binding between the service gateway and the interworking agent network element;

if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, carrying, in the proxy binding acknowledgement message, an IPv6 prefix and an indication of DHCPv4 address allocation procedure in the case of a subsequent DHCPv4 address allocation procedure being required; under the condition that the DHCPv4 address allocation flow is not required, the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries the IPv4 address and IPv6 prefix allocated to the user terminal obtained in step 605.

The IPv4 address and IPv6 prefix of the user terminal are both obtained by the establish session response message in step 605.

607. And the service gateway sends a session establishing response message to the mobile management network element, wherein the session establishing response message carries the PDN address.

If the PDN type is IPv4 and the proxy binding confirmation message received by the service gateway carries the DHCPv4 address allocation flow indication, the IPv4 address in the PDN address is all 0; if the proxy binding acknowledgement message received by the serving gateway does not carry the DHCPv4 address allocation procedure indication, the PDN address is the IPv4 address of the user terminal obtained in step 605.

If the PDN types are IPv4 and IPv6, and the proxy binding acknowledgement message received by the serving gateway carries an address allocation flow indication of DHCPv4, the PDN address includes an IPv6 prefix, an interface identifier, and an IPv4 address of all 0; if the proxy binding acknowledgement message does not carry the DHCPv4 allocation flow indication, the PDN address includes the IPv4 address, IPv6 prefix, and interface identifier of the user equipment obtained in step 605.

608. And the mobility management network element sends an attach accept message to the user terminal, wherein the attach accept message carries the PDN address obtained in step 607.

Similarly, if the user terminal sends a PDP context activation request message or a PDN connection establishment request message to the mobility management element in step 601, the mobility management element correspondingly feeds back a PDP context activation acceptance message or a PDN connection establishment acceptance message to the user terminal in this step, and the PDP context activation acceptance message or the PDN connection establishment acceptance message carries a PDN address.

The following step 609 and the following process only occur when the IPv4 address is all 0 in the PDN addresses received by the ue.

609. The user terminal broadcasts a DHCPv4 discovery message.

If the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4, then a binding between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element has been established after step 606; at this time, after step 609 is completed, step 612 and the subsequent steps thereof may be directly performed;

if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, steps 610 and 611 and subsequent steps are required to update the binding between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element.

610. And after receiving the DHCPv4 discovery message, the service gateway sends a proxy binding update message to the interworking proxy network element, wherein the proxy binding update message carries all 0 IPv4 addresses.

611. The interworking agent network element replies a proxy binding acknowledgement message to the service gateway, wherein the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal, and the IPv4 address is obtained in step 605 to update the binding between the service gateway and the interworking agent network element.

612. The service gateway acts as a DHCP relay and forwards the DHCPv4 discovery message sent by the user terminal to the interworking agent network element.

613. The interworking agent network element serves as a DHCP server of the user terminal, and sends a DHCPv4 providing message to the service gateway, where the DHCPv4 providing message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal obtained in step 605 and other settings. The service gateway forwards the message to the user terminal, so that the user terminal acquires the IPv4 address.

In the subsequent process, the interworking agent network element will be used as the DHCP server of the user terminal to process the procedure related to DHCP.

The address allocation method provided in this embodiment first initiates a session establishment request message to the data gateway through the interworking agent network element to request an IPv4 address of the user terminal, and then sends the IPv4 address obtained from the data gateway to the service gateway, thereby normally establishing binding between the service gateway and the interworking agent network element, so that the user terminal can complete attachment, establishment of PDN connection, or activation of a PDP context at a roaming/visiting location to perform a corresponding service.

Example five:

the scheme described in the fourth embodiment is implemented by a scenario that an access network based on a visited place where a mobile terminal is located is accessed by 3 GPP; however, the implementation of the scheme provided by the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is also applicable to a scenario in which a visited access network accesses through non-3 GPP.

Specifically, in this embodiment, the non-3 GPP access network may be a wireless access network such as WiMax/CDMA/WLAN; the access node may be an access gateway/evolved packet data gateway, and may be an a-GW/ePDG when specifically implemented; the serving gateway may be an SGW, the interworking agent network element may be an IWP, and the data gateway may be a PGW.

The address allocation method provided in this embodiment can be seen from fig. 7: steps 701 to 708 are substantially the same as steps 601 to 608 in the fourth embodiment, and detailed description thereof is omitted here; the following are described only with respect to their differences:

the access node in the fourth embodiment is a mobility management network element, and in the present embodiment, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway undertakes the functions of the access node and corresponding services;

in step 701, the user terminal initiates an attach procedure or a PDN connection establishment procedure;

in step 702, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway sends an agent binding update message to the serving gateway, where the agent binding update message carries a request for allocating an IP address;

in step 707, the serving gateway forwards the received proxy binding response message to the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway;

in step 708, the attach or PDN connection establishment procedure ends.

As in the fourth embodiment, step 709 and the following processes occur only when the IPv4 address is all 0 in the PDN address received by the user terminal; the specific process is as follows:

709. the user terminal broadcasts a DHCPv4 discovery message.

If the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4, then after step 706, bindings between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the serving gateway, the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element have been established; at this time, after step 709 is completed, step 712 and its subsequent steps may be directly performed;

if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, steps 710 and 711 and subsequent steps are required to update the binding between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the serving gateway, serving gateway and interworking proxy network element.

710. And after receiving the DHCPv4 discovery message, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway sends a proxy binding update message to the serving gateway, wherein the proxy binding update message carries all 0 IPv4 addresses. And the service gateway forwards the proxy binding update message to an interworking proxy network element.

711. The interworking agent network element replies an agent binding confirmation message to the service gateway, and the service gateway forwards the agent binding confirmation message to the access gateway/the evolved packet data gateway; the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user equipment, and the IPv4 address is obtained in step 705 to update the binding between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the serving gateway, and the interworking proxy network element.

712. The access gateway/evolved packet data gateway acts as a DHCP relay forwarding DHCPv4 discovery messages sent by the user terminal to the serving gateway. And the service gateway forwards the DHCPv4 discovery message to the interworking agent network element.

713. The interworking agent network element, as a DHCP server on the user terminal side, sends a DHCPv4 provisioning message to the service gateway, where the DHCPv4 provisioning message carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal obtained in step 705, and other settings. The service gateway forwards the message to the access gateway/the evolved packet data gateway, and the access gateway/the evolved packet data gateway forwards the message provided by the DHCPv4 to the user terminal, so that the user terminal acquires the IPv4 address.

Since the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway may act as a DHCP server on the subscriber terminal side in some cases; when the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway is used as the DHCP server, step 712 may be omitted, and step 713 is replaced by step 713-1:

713-1, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway sends DHCPv4 providing message to the user terminal, and the DHCPv4 providing message carries the IPv4 address assigned to the user terminal carried in step 705 and other settings.

In the subsequent process, if the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway is used as a DHCP relay, the interworking agent network element will be used as a DHCP server at the user terminal side to process a DHCP related procedure.

In addition, since there may be no serving gateway in the network in the case of non-3 GPP access, in this embodiment, the signal transmission between the interworking agent network element and the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway does not need to be forwarded through the serving gateway; for example, step 702 and step 703 in fig. 7 may be combined into the same procedure, and step 706 and step 707 may be combined into the same procedure, so as to directly establish the binding between the interworking agent network element and the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway.

The address allocation method provided in this embodiment first initiates a session establishment request message to the data gateway through the interworking agent network element to request to acquire an IPv4 address of the user terminal, and then sends the IPv4 address acquired from the data gateway to the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway, thereby normally establishing a binding between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the interworking agent network element, so that the user terminal can attach to, establish a PDN connection in a roaming/visiting place, or activate a PDP context to perform a corresponding service.

Example six:

Specifically, as shown in fig. 8, the address allocation method provided in this embodiment includes the following steps:

801. the user terminal initiates an attachment flow and sends an attachment request message to the mobility management network element.

The message may carry a protocol configuration option PCO cell, which is used to indicate to the data gateway that the user terminal requests to acquire the IPv4 address of the user terminal in a DHCPv4 manner.

802. The mobile management network element sends a session establishment request message to a service gateway, wherein the session establishment request message carries a PDN type used for requesting an IP address type allocated for a user terminal; and the message may carry a PCO cell.

803. The service gateway sends an agent binding update message to the interworking agent network element, wherein the message carries a request for allocating an IP address; the request message carries a PCO cell.

The service gateway carries an IPv6 home network prefix option and/or an IPv4 home address request option in a proxy binding update message according to the PDN type carried by the mobile management network element in the session establishment request message and sends the message to the interworking proxy network element to express a corresponding IP address request; in particular, the amount of the solvent to be used,

804. The interworking agent network element sends a session establishment request to the data gateway, wherein the PDN type is carried and the message may carry a PCO cell.

805. And the data gateway replies a session establishing response message to the interworking agent network element, wherein the session establishing response message carries the PDN type and the PDN address selected by the data gateway.

for example, if the PDN types carried in the received session establishment request message are IPv4 and IPv6, the policy configured by the operator allows the APN to establish a connection between IPv4 and IPv6, and the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv 6;

806. The interworking agent network element sends an agent binding acknowledgement message to the serving gateway.

If the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4, the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries a non-0 IPv4 address and DHCPv4 address allocation flow indication, where the IPv4 address is temporarily allocated by the interworking proxy network element, and may be randomly generated or generated according to a specific algorithm; thus, after acquiring the non-0 IPv4 address, the serving gateway may establish a binding between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element;

if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, the message carries an IPv6 prefix and an indication of DHCPv4 address allocation procedure, where the IPv6 prefix is obtained through the establish session response message in step 805.

807. And the service gateway sends a session establishing response message to the mobile management network element, wherein the session establishing response message carries the PDN address.

If the PDN type is IPv4 and the proxy binding confirmation message received by the service gateway carries the DHCPv4 address allocation flow indication, the IPv4 address in the PDN address is all 0;

if the PDN types are IPv4 and IPv6, and the proxy binding acknowledgement message received by the serving gateway carries the DHCPv4 address allocation flow indication, the PDN address includes an IPv6 prefix and an interface identifier, and an IPv4 address of all 0.

808. And the mobile management network element sends an attachment receiving message to the user terminal, wherein the attachment receiving message carries the PDN address.

Similarly, if the user terminal sends a PDP context activation request message or a PDN connection establishment request message to the mobility management element in step 801, the mobility management element correspondingly feeds back a PDP context activation acceptance message or a PDN connection establishment acceptance message to the user terminal in this step, and the PDP context activation acceptance message or the PDN connection establishment acceptance message carries a PDN address.

809. The user terminal broadcasts a DHCPv4 discovery message.

If the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4, then a binding between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element has been established after step 806; at this time, after step 809 is completed, step 812 and its subsequent steps may be directly performed;

if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, steps 810 and 811 and subsequent steps are required to update the binding between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element.

810. And after receiving the DHCPv4 discovery message, the service gateway sends a proxy binding update message to the interworking proxy network element, wherein the proxy binding update message carries all 0 IPv4 addresses.

811. The interworking agent network element replies an agent binding confirmation message to the service gateway, wherein the agent binding confirmation message carries a non-0 IPv4 address so as to update the binding between the service gateway and the interworking agent network element; the non-0 IPv4 address is temporarily allocated by the interworking agent network element, and may be randomly generated or generated according to a specific algorithm.

812. The service gateway acts as a DHCP relay and forwards the DHCPv4 discovery message sent by the user terminal to the interworking agent network element.

813. The interworking agent network element is used as a DHCP relay, and forwards a DHCPv4 discovery message sent by the interworking agent network element to the data gateway, wherein the DHCPv4 message carries all 0 address request options.

814. The data gateway is used as a DHCP server and sends a DHCPv4 providing message to the interworking agent network element, and the DHCPv4 providing message carries the IPv4 address and other settings distributed for the user terminal. The interworking agent network element forwards the DHCPv4 provided message to the service gateway; after receiving the message, if finding that the IPv4 address carried in the DHCPv4 providing message is different from the IPv4 address carried in the message sent by the interworking agent network element in step 806 or step 811, the service gateway stores the IPv4 address carried in the DHCPv4 providing message, and updates the binding. The service gateway forwards the DHCPv4 providing message to the user terminal, so that the user terminal obtains the IPv4 address.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the IPv4 address of the user terminal is allocated by the data gateway, but is not limited thereto; of course, it may be assigned by a DHCP server other than the data gateway. When an IPv4 address is assigned by a DHCP server other than the data gateway, the data gateway serves as a DHCP server for the user terminal and also as a DHCP client for the DHCP server assigned the IPv4 address.

In the subsequent process, the interworking agent network element will be used as a DHCP relay to process the DHCP related flow.

In the address allocation method provided in this embodiment, the IPv4 address that is not 0 and is temporarily allocated by the interworking agent network element is sent to the serving gateway, so as to establish a binding between the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element, and enable the user terminal to attach to, establish a PDN connection, or activate a PDP context in a roaming/visiting location to perform a corresponding service; and then acquiring the IPv4 address distributed for the user terminal through a normal flow.

Example seven:

the scheme described in the sixth embodiment is implemented by a scenario that an access network based on a visited place where a mobile terminal is located is accessed by 3 GPP; however, the implementation of the scheme provided by the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is also applicable to a scenario in which a visited access network accesses through non-3 GPP.

Specifically, in this embodiment, the non-3 GPP access network may be a wireless access network such as WiMax/cdma wlan; the access node may be an access gateway/evolved packet data gateway, and may be an a-GW/ePDG when specifically implemented; the serving gateway may be an SGW, the interworking agent network element may be an IWP, and the data gateway may be a PGW.

The address allocation method provided in this embodiment can be seen from fig. 9: steps 901 to 908 are substantially the same as steps 801 to 808 in the sixth embodiment, and detailed description thereof is omitted here; the following are described only with respect to their differences:

in the sixth embodiment, the access node is a mobility management network element, and in the present embodiment, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway undertakes the functions of the access node and corresponding services;

in step 901, the user terminal initiates an attach procedure or a PDN connection establishment procedure;

in step 902, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway sends an agent binding update message to the serving gateway, where the agent binding update message carries a request for allocating an IP address;

in step 907, the serving gateway forwards the received proxy binding response message to the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway;

in step 908, the attach or PDN connection establishment procedure ends.

The flow after step 908 is substantially as follows:

909. the user terminal broadcasts a DHCPv4 discovery message.

If the PDN type selected by the data gateway is IPv4, then after step 906 bindings between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the serving gateway, the serving gateway and the interworking agent network element have been established; at this time, after step 909 is completed, step 912 and its subsequent steps may be directly performed;

if the PDN types selected by the data gateway are IPv4 and IPv6, steps 910 and 911 and subsequent steps are required to update the binding between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the serving gateway, serving gateway and interworking proxy network element.

910. And after receiving the DHCPv4 discovery message, the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway sends a proxy binding update message to the serving gateway, wherein the proxy binding update message carries all 0 IPv4 addresses. The service gateway forwards the DHCPv4 discovery message to the interworking agent network element.

911. The interworking agent network element replies a proxy binding confirmation message to the service gateway, and the service gateway forwards the proxy binding confirmation message to the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway, wherein the proxy binding confirmation message carries a non-0 IPv4 address so as to update the binding between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the service gateway, and between the service gateway and the interworking agent network element; the non-0 IPv4 address is temporarily allocated by the interworking agent network element, and may be randomly generated or generated according to a specific algorithm.

912. The access gateway/evolved packet data gateway acts as a DHCP relay forwarding DHCPv4 discovery messages sent by the user terminal to the serving gateway. The service gateway forwards the DHCPv4 discovery message to the interworking agent network element.

913. The interworking agent network element serves as a DHCP relay and forwards a DHCPv4 discovery message sent by the service gateway to the data gateway, wherein the DHCPv4 message carries all 0 address request options.

914. The data gateway is used as a DHCP server and sends a DHCPv4 providing message to the interworking agent network element, and the DHCPv4 providing message carries the IPv4 address and other settings distributed for the user terminal. The interworking agent network element forwards the DHCPv4 provided message to the service gateway; the service gateway forwards the packet data to the access gateway/the evolved packet data gateway; after receiving the DHCPv4 providing message, if the IPv4 address carried in the DHCPv4 providing message is found to be different from the IPv4 address carried in the message sent by the interworking agent network element in step 906, step 907, or step 911, the serving gateway/access gateway/evolved packet data gateway stores the IPv4 address carried in the DHCPv4 providing message, and updates the binding. The access gateway/evolved packet data gateway forwards the DHCPv4 providing message to the user terminal, so that the user terminal obtains the IPv4 address.

In addition, since there may be no serving gateway in the network under the condition of non-3 GPP access, in this embodiment, signaling transmission between the interworking agent network element and the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway does not need to be forwarded through the serving gateway; for example, step 902 and step 903 in fig. 9 may be combined into the same procedure, and step 906 and step 907 may be combined into the same procedure, so as to directly establish the binding between the interworking proxy network element and the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway.

In the address allocation method provided in this embodiment, the non-0 IPv4 address temporarily allocated by the interworking agent network element is sent to the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway, so as to establish a binding between the access gateway/evolved packet data gateway and the interworking agent network element, so that the user terminal can attach to, establish a PDN connection or activate a PDP context at a roaming location/visiting location to perform a corresponding service; and then acquiring the IPv4 address distributed for the user terminal through a normal flow.

Example eight:

corresponding to the second to seventh embodiments, the present embodiment provides an address assignment device. As shown in fig. 10, the address assigning apparatus includes:

a requesting unit 101, configured to send a request message to a data gateway to request an IPv4 address of a user terminal;

a receiving unit 102, configured to receive a response message sent by the data gateway;

a sending unit 103, configured to send a proxy binding acknowledgement message to a serving gateway or an access node, where the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries an IPv4 address, and the IPv4 address is the IPv4 address of the user terminal carried in the response message by the data gateway, or the IPv4 address is temporarily allocated by the address allocating apparatus.

For the above address allocation apparatus, the following three implementation manners are provided in this embodiment:

the first method is as follows:

in the address allocating apparatus, the requesting unit 101 is specifically configured to send a DHCPv4 discovery message to a data gateway;

the receiving unit 102 is specifically configured to receive a DHCPv4 providing message sent by the data gateway, where the DHCPv4 providing message carries an IPv4 address of the user terminal; furthermore, it is possible to provide a liquid crystal display device,

the proxy binding acknowledgement message sent by the sending unit 103 carries the IPv4 address of the user terminal.

The second method comprises the following steps:

in the address allocating apparatus, the request unit 101 is specifically configured to send a session establishment request message to the data gateway, where the session establishment request message carries a protocol configuration option to indicate that an IP address is allocated by a method other than DHCPv 4;

the receiving unit 102 is specifically configured to receive a session establishment response message sent by the data gateway, where the session establishment response message carries an IPv4 address of the user terminal; furthermore, it is possible to provide a liquid crystal display device,

The third method comprises the following steps:

in the address allocating apparatus, the requesting unit 101 is specifically configured to send a session establishment request message to a data gateway;

the receiving unit 102 is specifically configured to receive a session establishment response message sent by the data gateway, where the session establishment response message carries all 0 IPv4 addresses; furthermore, it is possible to provide a liquid crystal display device,

the proxy binding acknowledgement message sent by the sending unit 103 carries the non-0 IPv4 address temporarily allocated by the address allocation apparatus.

The address allocation apparatus provided in this embodiment may be the interworking agent network element mentioned in the foregoing method embodiment.

In this embodiment, first, a request for acquiring an IPv4 address of a user terminal is initiated to a data gateway through an interworking agent network element, or the interworking agent network element autonomously and temporarily allocates a non-0 IPv4 address, and then the IPv4 address of the user terminal acquired from the data gateway or the temporarily allocated IPv4 address is sent to a serving gateway or an access node, so as to normally establish a binding between the serving gateway or the access node and the interworking agent network element, so that the user terminal can complete attachment, establish PDN connection, or activate a PDP context in a roaming/visiting place to perform a corresponding service.

Example nine:

in this embodiment, an address allocation system is provided, as shown in fig. 11, the address allocation system includes an access node 111, an interworking agent network element 112, and a data gateway 113; wherein the interworking agent network element 112 is responsible for protocol conversion between the access node 111 and the data gateway 113. In particular, the amount of the solvent to be used,

the interworking agent network element 112 is configured to send a request message to the data gateway 113 to request the IPv4 address of the user terminal;

the data gateway 113 is configured to provide an IPv4 address to the interworking agent network element 112 according to the request message, where the IPv4 address may be an IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal or an IPv4 address of all 0 s, and send the IPv4 address to the interworking agent network element 112 through a response message;

the interworking agent network element 112 is further configured to send a proxy binding acknowledgement message to the access node 111, where the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries an IPv4 address, and the IPv4 address is the IPv4 address of the user terminal carried in the response message by the data gateway 113, or the IPv4 address is an IPv4 address temporarily allocated by the interworking agent network element 112; specifically, if the IPv4 address received by the interworking agent network element 112 is an IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal, the interworking agent network element 112 carries the IPv4 address allocated to the user terminal in the proxy binding acknowledgement message and sends the proxy binding acknowledgement message to the access node 111; if the IPv4 address received by the interworking agent network element 112 is all 0, the interworking agent network element 112 temporarily allocates a non-0 IPv4 address to be carried in the proxy binding acknowledgement message and sends the proxy binding acknowledgement message to the access node 111.

In addition, in a network of a 3GPP access or in some scenarios of a non-3 GPP access, a service gateway 114 may be further included between the interworking agent network element and the access node;

the serving gateway 114 is configured to receive the proxy binding acknowledgement message sent by the interworking proxy network element 112, and then forward the proxy binding acknowledgement message to the access node 111, or send a session establishment response message to the access node 111.

In a 3 GPP-accessed network, the access node 111 may be a mobility management network element; in a non-3 GPP accessed network, the access node 111 may be an access gateway or an evolved packet data gateway.

The address allocation system provided in this embodiment first initiates a request for acquiring an IPv4 address of a terminal to a data gateway through an interworking agent network element, or the interworking agent network element autonomously and temporarily allocates a non-0 IPv4 address, and then sends the IPv4 address acquired from the data gateway or the temporarily allocated IPv4 address to a service gateway or an access node, thereby normally establishing a binding between the service gateway or the access node and the interworking agent network element, so that a user terminal can complete attachment, establishment of PDN connection, or activation of a PDP context in a roaming/visiting place to perform a corresponding service.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will clearly understand that the present invention may be implemented by software plus a necessary hardware platform, and may also be implemented by hardware entirely. With this understanding in mind, all or part of the technical solutions of the present invention that contribute to the background can be embodied in the form of a software product, which can be stored in a storage medium, such as a ROM/RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc., and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute the methods according to the embodiments or some parts of the embodiments of the present invention.

The above description is only for the specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present invention are included in the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. An address allocation method, comprising:

receiving a response message sent by the data gateway, wherein the response message carries the IPv4 address of the user terminal or the IPv4 addresses of all 0;

2. The address assignment method according to claim 1, wherein the request message is a dynamic host configuration protocol DHCPv4 discovery message; then the process of the first step is carried out,

the response message provides a message for DHCPv4, wherein the message carries the IPv4 address of the user terminal;

and the proxy binding confirmation message carries the IPv4 address of the user terminal.

3. The address assignment method of claim 1, wherein the request message is a session establishment request message, and the session establishment request message carries a protocol configuration option for indicating assignment of an IPv4 address by a method other than DHCPv 4;

the response message is a session establishment response message which carries the IPv4 address of the user terminal;

4. The address assignment method according to claim 1, wherein the request message is a session establishment request message;

the response message is a session establishment response message, wherein the session establishment response message carries all 0 IPv4 addresses;

and the agent binding confirmation message carries the non-0 IPv4 address temporarily allocated by the interworking agent network element.

5. The address assignment method according to claim 1, further comprising:

and after receiving the proxy binding confirmation message, the service gateway or the access node establishes or updates the binding between the service gateway or the access node and the interworking proxy network element according to the IPv4 address.

6. An address assignment device, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a response message sent by the data gateway, where the response message carries an IPv4 address of the user terminal or an IPv4 address of all 0 s;

7. The address assignment device of claim 6,

the request unit is specifically configured to send a DHCPv4 discovery message to the data gateway;

the receiving unit is specifically configured to receive a DHCPv4 provision message sent by the data gateway, where the DHCPv4 provision message carries an IPv4 address of the user terminal; and,

the proxy binding acknowledgement message sent by the sending unit carries the IPv4 address of the user terminal.

8. The address assignment device of claim 6,

the request unit is specifically configured to send a session establishment request message to the data gateway, where the session establishment request message carries a protocol configuration option to indicate that an IPv4 address is allocated by a method other than DHCPv 4;

the receiving unit is specifically configured to receive a session establishment response message sent by the data gateway, where the session establishment response message carries an IPv4 address of the user terminal; and,

9. The address assignment device of claim 6,

the request unit is specifically configured to send a session establishment request message to the data gateway;

the receiving unit is specifically configured to receive a session establishment response message sent by the data gateway, where the session establishment response message carries all 0 IPv4 addresses;

the proxy binding acknowledgement message sent by the sending unit carries the non-0 IPv4 address temporarily allocated by the address allocation apparatus.

10. An address allocation system, comprising an interworking agent network element, an access node, and a data gateway; wherein,

the interworking proxy network element is further configured to send a proxy binding acknowledgement message to the access node, where the proxy binding acknowledgement message carries an IPv4 address, and the IPv4 address is an IPv4 address of the user terminal carried in the response message by the data gateway, or the IPv4 address is an IPv4 address temporarily allocated by the interworking proxy network element.

11. The address assignment system of claim 10, further comprising a serving gateway between the interworking agent network element and the access node;

the service gateway is used for receiving the agent binding confirmation message sent by the intercommunication agent network element, and then forwarding the agent binding confirmation message to the access node, or sending a session establishment response message to the access node.

12. The address assignment system of claim 10 or 11, wherein the access node is an access gateway, or an evolved packet data gateway, or a mobility management network element.