CN104125608B

CN104125608B - A kind of method and system and its network equipment of network control shunting

Info

Publication number: CN104125608B
Application number: CN201310147804.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张兴新; 陈小锋
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2013-04-25
Filing date: 2013-04-25
Publication date: 2018-01-02
Anticipated expiration: 2033-04-25
Also published as: WO2014173103A1; CN104125608A

Abstract

The invention discloses a kind of method of network control shunting, including：Shunt decision element and obtain carrying shunting attribute information, the carrying shunting attribute information is used for the attribute for representing the carrying of terminal；The shunting decision element shunts attribute information generation carrying switching command according to the carrying；The shunting decision element sends the carrying switching command to terminal, makes the terminal that carrying is switched to WAP.The method and system and its network equipment of network control shunting described in the embodiment of the present invention, decision-making is carried out according to carrying shunting attribute information, obtain carrying switching command, then according to carrying switching command, make terminal that carrying is switched to WAP, terminal is set to carry out data distribution by WLAN, the shunting decision-making for solving access network elements in the prior art may mutually conflict with business routing property, the problem of causing Consumer's Experience to reduce.

Description

Method and system for network control shunting and network equipment thereof

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and a system for network control offloading and a network device thereof.

Background

As the demand for wireless communication services has grown, more and more wireless communication networks have stepped into or are stepping into practical stages, including: network systems such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), General Packet Radio System (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and Long Term Evolution (LTE) are already widely used. With the popularization of intelligent terminals, the demand of people for data communication is increased, and the load of cellular networks including the system is increased.

In a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a terminal establishes a connection with an Access Point (AP) through a WIFI module (Wireless Fidelity), thereby obtaining a corresponding communication service; the wireless access point can be accessed to the core network of the cellular network system and can also be directly connected to the Internet (Internet), namely the service of the terminal does not need to pass through the core network of the cellular network system; this manner of routing data directly to the internet is commonly referred to as Local breakout; the wireless local area network is used for carrying out service data distribution on the terminal, and partial data on the cellular network is distributed to the wireless local area network for transmission, so that the load of the cellular network system can be reduced, the service data routing selection of the terminal is optimized, and the user experience is improved. The convergence of cellular systems and wireless local area networks has become a trend of network expansion and network establishment for vast cellular operators.

Currently, User Equipment (UE) based wireless local area network offloading is widely used, i.e. the UE determines which services are transmitted in the wireless local area network and which services are transmitted in the cellular network. Due to the fact that the splitting decision of the user equipment, namely the terminal, has large randomness, the splitting effect is uncontrollable. To control the offloading of the terminals, the offloading of the terminals may be guided by A Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF). And the network side issues a shunting strategy to the terminal, and the terminal shunts the corresponding service to a proper network for transmission according to the shunting strategy. The shunting strategy can guide the shunting of the terminal to a certain extent, but because of the time-varying property and diversity of the wireless environment, the promotion of the shunting effect only depending on the shunting strategy is limited.

Compared with a terminal, a Radio Access Network (RAN) can know the quality of an air interface link and the state of a Network more comprehensively, and can be a better shunt decision point. In a cellular network, bearers are used to transmit services with different Quality of service (QoS), and services with the same QoS requirements or the same type are placed on the same bearer for transmission. Taking an LTE network as an example, a Bearer from a terminal to a packet data gateway is identified by an evolved packet system Bearer Identity (EPS Bearer Identity), a network element of the LTE access network, evolved node B (eNB), allocates a Radio Bearer Identity (Radio Bearer id) corresponding to the evolved packet system Bearer Identity one to one, and configures an air interface resource corresponding to the Radio Bearer Identity according to a service quality corresponding to the evolved packet system Bearer Identity, thereby implementing end-to-end service quality guarantee from the network to the terminal. However, in the LTE network, the enodeb can only know the quality of service corresponding to the bearer, but does not recognize a specific service, and it is unclear about information related to offloading of the service, which may cause conflicts between offloading decisions of the enodeb and service routing attributes, for example, some self-operated services of operators, although the requirement for quality of service is not high, the service is provided only through the cellular core network, but many wireless local area networks in the network system in the prior art are directly forwarded locally without passing through the cellular core network, so even if air interface transmission of the wireless local area network can meet the quality of service of the service, the bearer to which the service belongs should not be switched to wireless local area network transmission, otherwise, service interruption will be caused, and user experience will be affected.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for controlling distribution by a network, which is used for solving the problem that the distribution decision of an access network element possibly conflicts with the service routing attribute in the prior art, so that the user experience is reduced.

Correspondingly, the embodiment of the invention also provides a system for controlling the distribution by the network and network equipment thereof, which are used for solving the problem that the distribution decision of the access network element possibly conflicts with the service routing attribute in the prior art, so that the user experience is reduced.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention is as follows:

in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for controlling offloading in a network, including:

the method comprises the steps that a distribution decision network element obtains bearing distribution attribute information, wherein the bearing distribution attribute information is used for representing the bearing attribute of a terminal;

the distribution decision network element generates a bearing switching command according to the bearing distribution attribute information;

and the shunting decision network element sends the bearing switching command to a terminal, so that the terminal switches the bearing to the wireless access point.

In a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the bearer offload attribute information includes at least one of:

the bearer offload determination information refers to information that allows bearer offload or disallows bearer offload;

the bearer distribution level information refers to priority information when the bearer is distributed;

the bearer routing characteristic information refers to information that the bearer passes through a core network path or a local forwarding path.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the specific step of the offloading decision network element generating the bearer switching command according to the bearer offloading attribute information includes:

when the bearer offload attribute information includes the bearer offload determination information and the bearer offload determination information is information allowing bearer offload, the offload decision network element generates a bearer switching command;

when the bearer distribution attribute information includes the bearer distribution level information, the distribution decision network element generates a bearer switching command according to a priority order when the bearers are distributed;

and when the bearer distribution attribute information comprises the bearer routing characteristic information, the distribution decision network element generates a bearer switching command according to the bearer routing characteristic information and the routing configuration information of the wireless access point.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the step of generating, by the offloading decision network element, a bearer switching command according to the bearer routing characteristic information and routing configuration information of a wireless access point specifically includes:

the shunting decision network element acquires the routing configuration information of a wireless access point;

when the route configuration information of the wireless access point is information of a core network path, or when the route configuration information of the wireless access point and the bearer route characteristic information are both information of a local forwarding path, the offloading decision network element generates a bearer switching command for switching a bearer to the wireless access point.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the specific step of the offloading decision network element generating the bearer switching command according to the bearer offloading attribute information further includes:

the offloading decision network element sends the bearer offloading attribute information to a wireless access point, so that the wireless access point combines the bearer offloading level information with its own network state information, or the wireless access point combines its own routing configuration information with its own routing characteristic information, confirms a bearer that can be received, and feeds back a confirmation message;

and the shunting decision network element receives the confirmation message fed back by the wireless access point and generates a bearing switching command according to the confirmation message.

With reference to the first aspect or any one possible implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner to the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the step of obtaining, by the offloading decision network element, bearer offloading attribute information specifically includes:

the shunting decision network element acquires bearing shunting attribute information generated by a core network element, wherein the bearing shunting attribute information is generated by the core network element according to a self bearing attribute strategy and bearing corresponding service attribute information;

or, the offloading decision network element obtains bearer offloading attribute information generated by the terminal, where the bearer offloading attribute information is generated by the terminal according to a bearer attribute policy of the terminal and service attribute information corresponding to a bearer.

With reference to the first aspect or any one possible implementation manner of the first to fourth possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the step of the offloading decision network element sending the bearer switching command to the terminal specifically includes:

the shunting decision network element directly sends the bearer switching command to the terminal, and the bearer switching command is carried in a radio resource control message or an IP data packet;

or, the offloading decision network element sends the bearer switching command to the terminal through a core network, where the bearer switching command is carried in a non-access stratum message.

With reference to any one possible implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner or the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the step of the offloading decision network element sending the bearer switching command to the terminal specifically further includes:

the bearer switching command carries bearer distribution attribute information, so that the terminal sends the bearer distribution attribute information to a wireless access point, the wireless access point combines the network state information of the wireless access point according to the bearer distribution grade information, or the wireless access point combines the routing configuration information of the wireless access point according to the bearer routing characteristic information, confirms the bearers which can be received, and feeds back confirmation information;

and the terminal switches the load bearing to the wireless access point according to the confirmation message.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a method for controlling offloading in a network, where the method includes:

the wireless access point receives bearer distribution attribute information, wherein the bearer distribution attribute information comprises at least one of the following: carrying distribution grade information and carrying routing characteristic information;

and the wireless access point confirms the received load according to the load distribution grade information in combination with the network state information of the wireless access point or according to the load routing characteristic information in combination with the routing configuration information of the wireless access point, and feeds back a confirmation message.

In a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the specific step of the wireless access point receiving bearer offload attribute information includes:

the bearer splitting attribute information is sent by any one of: a shunt decision network element, a core network and a terminal.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the step of the wireless access point determining, according to the bearer offloading level information and in combination with network state information of the wireless access point, a bearer that can be received specifically includes:

the network state information comprises network load information, and when the network load information is lower than a preset threshold value, the wireless access point confirms to receive the load with high priority according to the priority when the load is shunted.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the step of the wireless access point confirming the bearer that can be received according to the bearer routing characteristic information and the routing configuration information of the wireless access point, specifically includes:

when the routing configuration information of the wireless access point is information of a core network path, or when the routing configuration information of the wireless access point and the bearer routing characteristic information are both information of a local forwarding path, the wireless access point confirms to receive the bearer.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a shunt decision network element, including:

a bearer split attribute information obtaining module, configured to obtain bearer split attribute information, where the bearer split attribute information obtaining module sends the bearer split attribute information to the bearer switching decision module;

a bearer switching decision module, configured to generate a bearer switching command according to the bearer splitting attribute information, where the bearer switching decision module sends the bearer switching command to the splitting decision network element communication module;

and the shunting decision network element communication module is used for sending the bearing switching command to the terminal so that the terminal switches the bearing to the wireless access point.

In a first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the bearer offload attribute information includes at least one of:

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the bearer switching decision module includes:

the bearer split determination information decision module is used for generating a bearer switching command according to the bearer split determination information;

the bearer distribution grade information decision module is used for generating a bearer switching command according to the priority sequence when the bearer is distributed;

and the bearing routing characteristic information decision module is used for generating a bearing switching command according to the bearing routing characteristic information and the routing configuration information of the wireless access point.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the bearer routing characteristic information decision module includes:

and the wireless access point routing configuration information acquisition decision module is used for acquiring the routing configuration information of the wireless access point and generating a bearer switching command for switching the bearer to the wireless access point according to the routing configuration information of the wireless access point and the bearer routing characteristic information.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the bearer switching decision module further includes:

based on a wireless access point confirmation message decision module, sending the bearer distribution attribute information to a wireless access point, enabling the wireless access point to combine the network state information of the wireless access point according to the bearer distribution grade information, or enabling the wireless access point to combine the routing configuration information of the wireless access point according to the bearer routing characteristic information, confirming the receivable bearer, and feeding back a confirmation message; and the decision module based on the wireless access point confirmation message generates a bearing switching command according to the confirmation message.

In a fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the bearer offload attribute information obtaining module includes:

a core network side bearer split attribute information acquisition module, configured to acquire bearer split attribute information generated by a core network element, where the bearer split attribute information is generated by the core network element according to a bearer attribute policy of the core network element and service attribute information corresponding to a bearer;

and the terminal side bearer distribution attribute information acquisition module is used for acquiring the bearer distribution attribute information generated by the terminal, and the bearer distribution attribute information is generated by the terminal according to a bearer attribute strategy of the terminal and the service attribute information corresponding to the bearer.

In a sixth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the offloading decision network element communication module includes:

a first bearer switching command sending module, configured to directly send the bearer switching command to the terminal, where the bearer switching command is carried in a radio resource control message or an IP data packet;

a second bearer switching command sending module, configured to send the bearer switching command to the terminal through a core network, where the bearer switching command is carried in a non-access stratum message.

In a seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the offloading decision network element communication module further includes:

and a third bearer switching command sending module, configured to enable the bearer switching command to carry bearer offload attribute information, so that the terminal sends the bearer offload attribute information to the wireless access point.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a wireless access point, where the wireless access point receives bearer offload attribute information, where the bearer offload attribute information includes at least one of the following: carrying distribution grade information and carrying routing characteristic information; and the wireless access point confirms the received load according to the load distribution grade information in combination with the network state information of the wireless access point or according to the load routing characteristic information in combination with the routing configuration information of the wireless access point, and feeds back a confirmation message.

In a first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the bearer offload attribute information received by the wireless access point is sent by any one of: a shunt decision network element, a core network and a terminal.

In a second possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the wireless access point includes:

the wireless access point bearing and shunting level information decision module is used for confirming a bearing which can be received according to the bearing and shunting level information and the network state information of the wireless access point, wherein the network state information comprises network load information, and the wireless access point bearing and shunting level information decision module confirms a bearing with high receiving priority according to the network load information and a preset threshold value and the priority when the bearing is shunted.

In a third possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the wireless access point further includes:

and the wireless access point bearing routing characteristic information decision module is used for confirming the bearing capable of being received according to the bearing routing characteristic information and the routing configuration information of the wireless access point.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a system for network control offloading, including an offloading decision network element in any one of possible implementations of the third aspect or the first possible implementation to the seventh possible implementation of the third aspect, and a wireless access point in any one of possible implementations of the fourth aspect or the first possible implementation to the third possible implementation of the fourth aspect in the embodiment of the present invention.

The method, the system and the network equipment for controlling the distribution of the network, which are provided by the embodiment of the invention, make a decision according to the attribute information of the bearer distribution to obtain a bearer switching command, and then make the terminal switch the bearer to the wireless access point according to the bearer switching command to make the terminal perform information distribution through the wireless local area network, so that the problem that the distribution decision of the access network element possibly conflicts with the service routing attribute in the prior art to cause the reduction of user experience is solved, and a feasible scheme is provided for the cellular network to further effectively assist or control the multimode terminal to access the proper wireless local area network, and the user experience is improved.

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 or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings according to the drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method for network control offloading according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 1 of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 2 of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 3 of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 4 of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 5 of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 6 of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 7 of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a offloading decision network element according to embodiment 8 of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a wireless access point according to embodiment 9 of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a network control offloading system according to embodiment 11 of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In the prior art, when the bearer of the terminal is switched to the wireless access point, the bearer is generally switched through a offloading policy set by the terminal itself, or the terminal is switched through an offloading policy issued by a network side; if the switching is performed through the shunting strategy set by the terminal, the terminal side cannot know the network use condition of the network side, so that the terminal shunting strategy has high randomness, and the problem of uncontrollable shunting result of bearer switching can be caused; if the method of issuing the shunting strategy to the terminal by the network side is adopted, the problem of limited improvement of shunting effect caused by time-varying property or diversity of the wireless environment can be caused;

the embodiment of the invention provides a method and a system for controlling distribution of a network and network equipment thereof, and provides a feasible solution for distributing service data through a wireless local area network according to the attribute of a load.

The main implementation principle, the specific implementation mode and the corresponding beneficial effects of the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention are explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method for network control offloading according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 1, a main implementation principle flow of the embodiment of the present invention is as follows:

step S100, a distribution decision network element acquires bearer distribution attribute information, wherein the bearer distribution attribute information is used for representing the bearer attribute of a terminal;

step S200, the distribution decision network element generates a bearing switching command according to the bearing distribution attribute information;

step S300, the offloading decision network element sends the bearer switching command to the terminal, so that the terminal switches the bearer to the wireless access point.

In the following, an embodiment will be described in detail to illustrate and explain the main implementation principles of the method according to the present invention.

The first write request and the second write request do not represent a sequential relationship, but are used to distinguish different write requests, and the first write request, the second write request, and the like mentioned in the following documents are also used to distinguish different information, data, requests, messages, and the like.

In the embodiment of the invention, the method for controlling the distribution by the network is applied to a wireless network system, such as a GSM (global system for mobile communications), a UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system), an LTE (long term evolution) and other cellular network systems.

The cellular network system described above can be generally divided into three parts: a core network, an access network and a terminal;

the core network is mainly responsible for the exchange and routing of services; a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) in GSM, a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) in UMTS, a Policy and Charging control Function Entity (PCRF) in LTE, a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a Packet data network Gateway (P-GW), and the like, all of which are components of a core network;

the access network is mainly responsible for forwarding of services and scheduling of air interfaces; a Base Station (BTS) and a Base Station Controller (BSC) in GSM, a Node B and a Radio Network Controller (RNC) in UMTS, and an evolved Node B (eNB) in LTE, all being components of an access Network; the shunting decision network element in the invention refers to the network element of the access network in the cellular network system;

although network elements involved in GSM, UMTS and LTE are different, the basic functions assumed by the network elements are basically similar, and the method according to the embodiment of the present invention can be applied to cellular network systems such as GSM, UMTS and LTE;

in this embodiment of the present invention, the core network element mainly refers to a core network element capable of generating bearer offload attribute information, and includes: a mobile switching center in GSM, a serving general packet radio service support node and a gateway general packet radio service support node in UMTS, a mobility management entity, a serving gateway and a packet data gateway in LTE; for an LTE system, a mobile management entity is used for enabling a core network to carry out information interaction with the outside, and a packet data gateway is used for generating bearing distribution attribute information;

the shunting decision network element comprises: base stations and base station controllers in GSM, node Bs and radio network controllers in UMTS, and evolved node Bs in LTE; the offloading decision network element may be a network element in the access network of the cellular network system, such as an evolved node B in LTE; or, the offloading decision network element may also be a plurality of network elements in the access network of the cellular network system, such as a base station and a base station controller in GSM, a node B and a radio network controller in UMTS; for UMTS, the wireless network controller makes a shunting decision and interacts with the terminal through the node B; in addition, the offloading decision network element may also be another newly added network element associated with the access network of the cellular network system.

For convenience of description, the embodiment of the present invention is only introduced by taking LTE as an example, and accordingly, the offloading decision network element is an evolved node B in LTE, and the core network element refers to a packet data gateway for generating bearer offloading attribute information, but those skilled in the art should understand that the protection scope of the technical solution of the present invention is by no means limited to the LTE system, and the core network element may also be another core network component capable of generating bearer offloading attribute information.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for controlling distribution by a network, which comprises the following steps:

In order to guarantee the service quality of the service, the concept of bearer is introduced in the wireless communication network technology. The bearer is a concept of a virtual path, multiple bearers can be established between a terminal and a network, each bearer corresponds to a set of quality of service parameters, such as time delay, jitter and the like, and services with the same or similar quality of service parameters are transmitted on the same bearer. Different bearers may be distinguished by a bearer identity. Generally, each bearer corresponds to one or more Traffic Flow Templates (TFTs), the Traffic flow templates may be divided into an uplink Traffic flow template and a downlink Traffic flow template, the Traffic flow templates include IP quintuple information of the services with the same or similar qos parameters, the Traffic flow templates are issued to the terminals by the core network during the bearer establishment or modification process, and the terminals filter the services according to the Traffic flow templates and place the services on the corresponding bearers for transmission. In the embodiment of the present invention, the attribute of the bearer mainly refers to whether the bearer can be split, the priority of the bearer during splitting, and what routing path the bearer can transmit through.

In the prior art, when a terminal is switched to a wireless local area network for service distribution, the terminal generally performs switching through a distribution strategy set by the terminal itself, or performs switching according to a distribution strategy issued by a network side; if the switching is performed through the shunting strategy set by the terminal, the terminal side cannot know the network use condition of the network side, so that the terminal shunting strategy has high randomness, and the shunting result is uncontrollable; and if the method of issuing the shunting strategy to the terminal by the network side is adopted, the problem of limited improvement of the shunting effect caused by time-varying property or diversity of the wireless environment can be caused. Therefore, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for controlling offloading in a network, where according to bearer offloading attribute information carried by a terminal side, in combination with other offloading related information obtained by an evolved node B in LTE, a offloading decision, that is, a bearer switching decision is made, and then a bearer switching decision command is used to perform bearer switching on the terminal, so that a bearer that needs to be switched into a wireless local area network is switched to a wireless access point, a corresponding service flow template is mapped to the wireless local area network, and a wireless local area network transmission module of the terminal is used to perform transmission of a corresponding service. According to the method provided by the embodiment of the invention, because the bearing distribution attribute information is introduced, the network terminal does not make a bearing switching decision according to the simple network state of the access network, such as the load of the access network and an air interface link, but makes a decision by combining the bearing attribute, so that the bearing switching of the terminal is more reasonable and efficient, the cellular network can effectively assist or control the terminal to access a proper wireless access point, and the user experience is improved. The terminal in the embodiment of the invention refers to terminal equipment supporting access to a cellular network and a WLAN.

The bearer switching command in the embodiment of the present invention includes a bearer identifier, where the bearer identifier includes: a radio bearer identification and/or a packet system bearer identification. In this embodiment of the present invention, when the enodeb controls the terminal to perform bearer handover, the bearer identifier of the sent bearer handover information needs to include at least one of the following: radio Bearer identification (Radio Bearer ID), evolved packet system Bearer identification (EPS Bearer ID); the evolved packet system bearer identifier is one of the packet system bearer identifiers, the evolved packet system bearer identifier is adopted in the LTE system, and in other cellular network systems, the packet system bearer identifier corresponding to a specific cellular network system can be adopted, so that the bearer switching command can distinguish bearers to be switched in the corresponding cellular network; the radio bearing mark and the evolution grouping system bearing mark are used for distinguishing and identifying the bearing to be switched, so that the bearing switching command can accurately act on the corresponding bearing.

Specifically, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bearer offload attribute information includes at least one of the following:

The core network path refers to an information transmission path passing through a cellular network; the local forwarding path refers to an information transmission path directly connected with the internet without passing through a cellular network.

By the above bearer offloading determination information, bearer offloading level information, and routing characteristic information, the attributes of the bearer, such as whether the bearer can be offloaded, the priority of the bearer during offloading, and what routing path the bearer can transmit, can be effectively determined.

Specifically, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the specific step of generating the bearer switching command by the offloading decision network element according to the bearer offloading attribute information includes:

Since some wireless access points can access the core network of the cellular network system and some wireless access points can be directly connected to the internet, the routing configuration information of the wireless access points can be obtained, and if the wireless access points can access the core network of the cellular network system, the routing configuration information of the wireless access points is set as the information of the core network path; if the wireless access point is directly connected to the internet, the routing configuration information of the wireless access point is set as the information of the local forwarding path.

When the offloading decision network element generates a bearer switching command according to the bearer offloading attribute information, the following three conditions are adopted:

in case one, for the bearer offloading determination information, if the bearer offloading determination information is information allowing bearer offloading, the offloading decision network element offloads the bearer;

in case two, aiming at the bearer distribution level information, the distribution decision network element distributes the bearers according to the bearer distribution switching sequence contained in the bearer distribution level information; or the shunting decision network element sends the bearing shunting grade information to the wireless access point, the wireless access point judges according to the network condition of the wireless access point, if the network load of the wireless access point is heavy and the network load information is lower than a preset threshold value, the wireless access point receives and feeds back the confirmation message only for the bearing confirmation with high priority according to the bearing shunting grade information, so that the burden of the wireless access point is prevented from being increased, and the user experience is prevented from being influenced; if the network load of the wireless access point is too heavy and the network load information is lower than a preset second threshold value, the wireless access point does not confirm the reception of any bearer, so that the influence on the user experience is avoided;

in the third case, aiming at the bearing route characteristic information, the shunt decision network element needs to acquire the route configuration information of the wireless access point, and then generates a bearing switching command by combining the bearing route characteristic information;

or, the shunting decision network element sends bearer routing characteristic information to the wireless access point, the wireless access point confirms the bearers that can be received by combining with the routing configuration information of the wireless access point, and sends a confirmation message to the shunting decision network element, and the shunting decision network element generates a bearer switching command according to the confirmation message;

or, the terminal sends the bearer routing characteristic information to the wireless access point, the wireless access point confirms the bearer which can be received by combining with the routing configuration information of the wireless access point, and sends a confirmation message to the terminal, the terminal carries out bearer switching according to the confirmation message, feeds back a bearer switching completion message to the shunting decision network element, and informs the shunting decision network element of the bearer switching condition; if the bearer routing characteristic information is from a core network test, the bearer routing characteristic information is sent to a terminal by a shunt decision network element; if the bearer routing characteristic information is generated by the terminal, the bearer routing characteristic information is sent to the terminal without the need of a shunt decision network element.

When the wireless access point confirms the receivable bearer according to the bearer routing characteristic information and the routing configuration information of the wireless access point, if the routing configuration of the wireless access point is a core network path, the wireless access point can confirm that the bearer is switched for the bearer of the core network path or a local forwarding path and sends a confirmation message; if the route configuration of the wireless access point is a local forwarding path, switching can be carried out only on the bearing confirmation of the local forwarding path, and a confirmation message is sent; the routing configuration of the wireless access point is represented by the routing configuration information, and the carried routing path is represented by the carried routing characteristic information;

the shunting decision network element acquires the routing configuration information of the wireless access point, and then generates a judgment standard for bearing the switching command by combining the bearing routing characteristic information, wherein the judgment standard is the same as the judgment standard for confirming the receiving bearing of the wireless access point.

Specifically, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the step of generating the bearer switching command by the offloading decision network element according to the bearer routing characteristic information in combination with the routing configuration information of the wireless access point specifically includes:

Optionally, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the specific step of generating the bearer switching command by the offloading decision network element according to the bearer offloading attribute information further includes:

The specific steps of enabling the wireless access point to confirm the receivable bearer according to the bearer offloading level information in combination with the network state information of the wireless access point and feeding back a confirmation message include: the network state information comprises network load information, when the network load information is lower than a preset threshold value, the wireless access point confirms a bearer with a high receiving priority according to the priority when the bearer is shunted, wherein the network state information also can comprise other information capable of reflecting the network condition of the wireless access point, and then confirms the bearer capable of being received by combining the bearer shunting level information according to the information; the network condition of the wireless access point is represented by network state information, and the load condition in the network condition is represented by network load information;

the specific steps of enabling the wireless access point to confirm the bearer which can be received according to the bearer routing characteristic information in combination with the routing configuration information of the wireless access point and feeding back a confirmation message include: when the routing configuration information of the wireless access point is information of a core network path, or when the routing configuration information of the wireless access point and the bearer routing characteristic information are both information of a local forwarding path, the wireless access point confirms to receive the bearer;

the method for sending the bearer splitting attribute information to the wireless access point by the splitting decision network element may include the following two ways:

the shunting decision network element sends the bearing shunting attribute information to a wireless access point through a core network;

the shunting decision network element directly sends the bearing shunting attribute information to the wireless access point;

correspondingly, there are two ways for the wireless access point to feed back the acknowledgement message to the offloading decision network element:

the wireless access point feeds back a confirmation message to the shunting decision network element through a core network;

and the wireless access point directly feeds back a confirmation message to the shunting decision network element.

In an LTE system, a shunting decision network element is an evolution node B, and a core network is communicated with the outside through a mobile management entity;

the offloading decision network element sends the bearer offloading attribute information to the wireless access point through the core network, and the step of the wireless access point feeding back a confirmation message to the offloading decision network element through the core network specifically includes:

an evolved node B sends a first bearer switching instruction to a mobility management entity, wherein the first bearer switching instruction carries an identifier of a bearer to be switched, such as an evolved packet system bearer identifier, and the first bearer switching instruction also carries bearer distribution attribute information corresponding to the identifier of the bearer to be switched;

after receiving a first bearer switching instruction, the mobility management entity sends bearer shunting attribute information to be switched to a wireless access point through a first bearer switching request;

the wireless access point judges whether to accept the switching of the load bearing according to the load bearing distribution attribute information and informs the mobile management entity through a first load bearing switching response message;

after receiving the first bearer switching response message, the mobility management entity feeds back a first bearer switching confirmation message to the evolved node B, wherein the first bearer switching confirmation message carries a confirmation message of whether the bearer is received by the wireless access point.

The step of directly sending the bearer splitting attribute information to the wireless access point by the splitting decision network element, where the step of directly feeding back an acknowledgement message to the splitting decision network element by the wireless access point specifically includes:

an evolution node B sends a second bearing switching request to a wireless access point, wherein the second bearing switching request carries bearing distribution attribute information;

the wireless access point judges whether to accept the bearing switching according to the bearing distribution attribute information and informs the evolution node B through a second bearing switching response message.

Specifically, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the step of acquiring bearer offload attribute information by the offload decision network element specifically includes:

The bearer offload attribute information may be from a network side, i.e., a core network element, or from the terminal itself.

If the bearer offload attribute information comes from the network side, the bearer offload attribute information may be generated at a packet data gateway of a core network, and then sequentially passes through a serving gateway and a mobility management entity, and the mobility management entity sends the bearer offload attribute information to an evolved node B; the load distribution attribute information comes from the network side, so that the operation burden of the terminal can be reduced, the controllability of load switching can be higher, and the network side can conveniently perform coordination control on network resources;

if the bearer offload attribute information is from the terminal side, the terminal generates the bearer offload attribute information and sends the bearer offload attribute information to an evolved node B, where the bearer offload attribute information may be carried in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message or an IP data packet; when carrying the bearer split attribute information in the form of an IP data packet, an application client needs to be installed on the terminal, and an application server is installed on the enodeb, so that the enodeb can obtain the bearer split attribute information of the terminal through the application server and the application client; the bearer split attribute information is from the terminal side, so that the terminal can judge the attribute of the bearer of the terminal.

The detailed process of the bearer split attribute information generated by the core network element according to the bearer attribute policy of the core network element and the service attribute information corresponding to the bearer is as follows:

the load bearing attribute strategy is generated by the core network according to the self service condition; the service attribute information includes at least one of: traffic Flow Template (TFT), quality of service (QoS); the packet data gateway may configure the bearer offload attribute according to a source IP address, a source port number, a destination IP address, a destination port number, and a Differential Service Class (DSCP) in a service flow template corresponding to the bearer, generate bearer offload attribute information, and then send the bearer offload attribute information to the enodeb;

the bearer offload determination information or the routing characteristic information of the bearer offload attribute information may be generated according to a source IP address, a source port number, a destination IP address, and a destination port number included in the service flow template;

for example, when the source IP address belongs to a certain number segment, the bearer attribute policy of the core network defines that the corresponding bearer can only be transmitted through the cellular network, that is, the bearer cannot be switched to the wireless local area network, and the bearer split determination information is correspondingly generated;

or when the source IP address belongs to a certain number segment, the bearer corresponding to the bearer attribute policy definition of the core network can be locally forwarded through the wireless local area network, that is, the bearer routing characteristic is locally forwarded, and routing characteristic information is correspondingly generated;

or, generating bearer distribution level information of the bearer distribution attribute information according to the differential service level included in the service flow template; for example, the bearer attribute policy definition determines the bearer split level according to the differential service level by establishing mapping between the differential service level and the bearer split level, and correspondingly generates bearer split level information;

the specific generation process of the bearer offload attribute information needs to be defined by the core network element or the terminal in combination with the characteristics of the service corresponding to its own bearer.

Similar to the generation of the bearer splitting attribute information by the network side, the terminal may configure the bearer splitting attribute information according to a specific rule by using the service flow template information corresponding to the bearer, where the specific rule may be self-defined by the terminal or configured by the network side.

Specifically, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the step of sending the bearer switching command to the terminal by the offloading decision network element specifically includes:

Wherein, the step that the offloading decision network element sends the bearer switching command to the terminal through a core network specifically includes: the evolved node B sends a bearing switching command to a mobility management entity, the mobility management entity encapsulates the bearing switching command in a non-access layer message and issues the non-access layer message to the evolved node B, and then the evolved node B encapsulates the non-access layer message in a radio resource control message and issues the radio resource control message to a terminal;

the non-access stratum message is in a message format of a higher layer relative to the radio resource control message; the non-access layer message is transparent to the evolution node B, and the mobility management entity and the terminal can carry out safe communication through the non-access layer message; meanwhile, when a new characteristic is added to the network, only the updating and upgrading are needed to be carried out on the mobile management entity and the terminal side, and the evolution node B does not need to be updated, so that the network upgrading cost can be saved.

Optionally, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the step of sending, by the offloading decision network element, the bearer switching command to the terminal further includes:

When the offloading decision network element does not send the bearer offloading attribute information to the wireless access point, or when the offloading decision network element does not obtain the network state information and the routing configuration information of the wireless access point, the offloading decision network element may carry the bearer offloading attribute information in the bearer switching command and send the bearer offloading attribute information to the terminal; the terminal receives the bearing distribution attribute information and sends the bearing distribution attribute information to the wireless access point; the bearer switching command is generated by the offloading decision network element according to the bearer offloading attribute information and in combination with the network state information of the offloading decision network element;

in addition, when the terminal device generates the bearer splitting attribute information by itself, the splitting decision network element does not need to carry the bearer splitting attribute information in the bearer switching command, and the terminal can directly send the bearer splitting attribute information generated by itself to the wireless access point.

Correspondingly, the embodiment of the invention also discloses a method for controlling the distribution by the network, which comprises the following steps:

Specifically, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the specific step of receiving bearer offload attribute information by the wireless access point includes:

Specifically, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the step of determining, by the wireless access point, the bearer that can be received according to the bearer offloading level information in combination with the network state information of the wireless access point includes:

Specifically, in the method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the step of the wireless access point determining the bearer that can be received according to the bearer routing characteristic information in combination with the routing configuration information of the wireless access point includes:

Example 1

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 1 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 2, an LTE network is taken as an example, embodiment 1 of the present invention provides a method for network control offloading, where a offloading decision network element obtains bearer offloading attribute information sent by a core network element, where the bearer offloading attribute information is carried in a bearer creation message;

the shunting decision network element receives a confirmation message fed back by the wireless access point and generates a bearing switching command according to the confirmation message;

the shunting decision network element sends the bearing switching command to a terminal, so that the terminal switches the bearing to a wireless access point;

the core network element generates load distribution attribute information according to a load attribute strategy of the core network element and load corresponding service attribute information, and sends the load distribution attribute information to a distribution decision network element;

the method specifically comprises the following steps:

step 1, a policy and charging control function entity establishes a session and sends a bearer establishment message to a packet data gateway; the bearer creation occurs during a session establishment procedure;

step 2, the packet data gateway generates bearer distribution attribute information, and then the bearer distribution attribute information is sent to an evolved node B through a serving gateway and a mobility management entity; wherein the bearer offload attribute information is carried in a bearer creation message;

step 3, the evolution node B carries out bearing switching decision according to the bearing distribution attribute information and sends a bearing switching instruction to the mobility management entity, wherein the bearing switching instruction carries the identifier of the wireless access point and the identifier of the bearing which needs to be switched to the wireless access point;

here, the bearer switching decision made by the enodeb according to the bearer distribution attribute information is a bearer switching decision made by the enodeb according to the bearer distribution determination information, the bearer distribution level information, and the network state information of the enodeb itself; in addition, the bearer switching decision herein may also be made in combination with other information of the network and the terminal, such as the load of the cellular network, whether the terminal is in the coverage of the wireless lan, the load of the wireless lan, and so on;

step 4, the mobility management entity sends a bearing switching request to the wireless access point;

the bearer switching request comprises: carrying shunting attribute information, a packet data gateway address (PDN GWAddress), a Tunnel endpoint identifier (PDN GW TEID, PDN GW Tunnel endpoint identifier) of a packet data gateway, the quality of service of the bearer and the like; the bearer offload attribute information is already generated by the packet data gateway and sent to the mobility management entity in step 2, so the enodeb does not need to send the bearer offload attribute information to the core network in step 3;

step 5, the wireless access point feeds back a bearing switching response message to the mobile management entity;

the wireless access point judges which bearers are received according to the self condition, reserves corresponding resources and feeds back a bearer switching response message to the mobility management entity;

step 6, the mobility management entity sends a bearing switching confirmation message to the evolved node B;

step 7, the evolution node B sends a bearing switching command to the terminal; the bearer switching command comprises a bearer identifier, and the bearer identifier comprises a radio bearer identifier and an evolved packet system identifier; moreover, the bearer switching command can further carry bearer distribution attribute information, so that the terminal negotiates with a wireless access point according to the bearer distribution attribute information to perform more accurate bearer switching;

when the terminal is not associated to the wireless access point, the bearing switching command carries the identification information of the wireless access point, and the terminal carries out association and authentication to the wireless access point and switches the bearing to the wireless access point;

or, when the terminal itself is already associated with the wireless access point, the bearer switching command may directly switch the bearer to the wireless access point without carrying the identification information of the wireless access point;

step 8, the terminal switches the corresponding load to the wireless access point and sends a load switching completion message to the evolved node B, and the load switching is finished;

the terminal switches the corresponding load to the wireless access point according to the load switching command, and the terminal maps the service flow template corresponding to the load to the wireless local area network to complete the load switching.

In addition, the above flow takes the bearer establishment process of the LTE system as an example, and is also applicable to the bearer modification process, and the specific messages have some differences; the bearer modification procedure may further be used for bearer modification of the offload attribute information.

In addition, the method of the invention is also applicable to other cellular network systems.

Example 2

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 2 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 3, embodiment 2 is basically the same as the method described in embodiment 1, except that: the offloading decision network element directly sends the bearer offloading attribute information to a wireless access point, and the different steps specifically include:

step 4, the mobility management entity feeds back a bearing switching confirmation message to the evolved node B, and sends the information of the corresponding bearing to the evolved node B in the bearing switching confirmation message;

the bearer switching confirmation message includes: a packet data gateway address, a tunnel endpoint identifier of a packet data gateway, etc.;

step 5, the evolution node B sends a bearing switching request to an access point, wherein the bearing switching request carries bearing distribution attribute information generated by the packet data gateway;

and 6, the access point feeds back a bearing switching response message to the evolved node B.

In example 2 of the present invention, the steps other than the above steps are the same as those of the method described in example 1.

Example 3

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 3 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 4, embodiment 3 is basically the same as the method described in embodiment 1, except that: after the load-bearing switching decision is carried out by the shunt decision network element according to the load-bearing shunt attribute information and by combining the network state information of the shunt decision network element with the network state information of the shunt decision network element, the load-bearing shunt attribute information is not sent to the wireless access point, or the shunt decision network element does not acquire the network state information and the routing configuration information of the wireless access point; when the load switch command is negotiated with the terminal according to the load switch command, the load switch command carries load shunt attribute information, so that the terminal sends the load shunt attribute information to the wireless access point, the wireless access point combines the network state information of the wireless access point according to the load shunt level information, or the wireless access point combines the routing configuration information of the wireless access point according to the load routing characteristic information, confirms the load which can be received, and feeds back a confirmation message; the terminal switches the load bearing to the wireless access point according to the confirmation message; the different steps specifically include:

step 3, the evolution node B sends a bearing switching command to the terminal;

the bearer switching command comprises a radio bearer identifier, an evolution grouping system identifier and bearer distribution attribute information;

when the terminal is not associated to the wireless access point, the bearing switching command carries the identification information of the wireless access point, and the terminal associates and authenticates with the wireless access point to connect to the wireless access point;

or, when the terminal itself is already associated to the wireless access point, the bearer switching command may not carry the identification information of the wireless access point, and is directly connected to the wireless access point;

step 4, the terminal sends a bearing switching request to the wireless access point;

the bearer switching request carries: and carrying information such as shunting attribute information, a packet data gateway address, a tunnel endpoint identifier of the packet data gateway, the quality of service of the bearer and the like.

Step 5, the wireless access point sends a bearing switching response message to the terminal;

step 6, the terminal switches the corresponding load to the wireless access point and sends the information of completing the load switch to the evolution node B, and the load switch is finished;

In example 3 of the present invention, only step 1 and step 2 are the same as the steps of the method described in example 1, and the other steps are the steps specific to example 3.

Example 4

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 4 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 5, embodiment 4 is basically the same as the method described in embodiment 3, except that: the shunting decision network element sends the bearer switching command to the terminal through a core network, wherein the bearer switching command is carried in a non-access stratum message; the different steps specifically include:

step 4, after the mobile management entity receives the bearing switching instruction sent by the evolution node B, the mobile management entity sends a bearing switching command to the evolution node B; the bearing switching command is a non-access stratum message, and the bearing switching command carries bearing distribution attribute information; the non-access stratum message is transparent to the terminal;

step 5, the evolved node B sends the bearing switching command to a terminal; the bearer switching command is a non-access stratum message;

step 6, the terminal sends a bearing switching request to the wireless access point;

step 7, the wireless access point feeds back a bearing switching response message to the terminal;

step 8, the terminal switches the corresponding load to the wireless access point and sends a load switching completion message to the evolved node B; the bearer switching completion message is a non-access stratum message;

step 9, the evolution node B sends a bearing switching completion message to the mobile management entity; the bearer switching completion message is a non-access stratum message;

step 10, the mobility management entity sends a bearer switching confirmation message to the evolved node B, and the bearer switching is finished.

Example 5

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 5 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 6, embodiment 5 is basically the same as the method described in embodiment 1, except that: the offloading decision network element obtains bearer offloading attribute information sent by the terminal, where the bearer offloading attribute information is carried in a radio resource control message, and the terminal generates bearer offloading attribute information according to its own bearer attribute policy and bearer corresponding service attribute information; the different steps specifically include:

step 2, the packet data gateway sends the bearer creation message to an evolved node B through a serving gateway and a mobility management entity; wherein the bearer creation message does not carry bearer split attribute information;

step 3, the evolution node B sends the connection reconfiguration message controlled by the wireless resource to the terminal; the connection reconfiguration message controlled by the wireless resource carries a service flow template corresponding to the load;

step 4, the terminal generates the bearer distribution attribute information according to the configured bearer attribute strategy and the service flow template corresponding to the bearer, carries the bearer distribution attribute information in a connection reconfiguration completion message controlled by a wireless resource and sends the bearer distribution attribute information to an evolution node B in the process of establishing the bearer;

step 5, the evolution node B carries out bearing switching decision according to the bearing distribution attribute information and sends a bearing switching instruction to the mobility management entity;

step 6, the mobility management entity issues the information corresponding to the bearer to the wireless access point in the bearer switching confirmation message;

wherein, the bearer switching confirmation message comprises: carrying distribution attribute information, a packet data gateway address, a tunnel endpoint identifier of the packet data gateway, the quality of service of the carrying and the like;

step 7, the wireless access point sends a bearing switching response message to the mobile management entity;

step 8, the mobility management entity sends a bearer switching confirmation message to the evolved node B;

step 9, the evolution node B sends a bearing switching command to the terminal;

and step 10, the terminal switches the corresponding load to the wireless access point and sends a load switching completion message to the evolved node B to confirm with the evolved node B.

Example 6

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 6 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 7, the embodiment 6 is basically the same as the method described in embodiment 2, except that: the offloading decision network element obtains bearer offloading attribute information sent by the terminal, where the bearer offloading attribute information is carried in a radio resource control message, and the terminal generates bearer offloading attribute information according to its own bearer attribute policy and bearer corresponding service attribute information; the different steps specifically include:

step 6, the mobility management entity issues the information corresponding to the bearer to the evolved node B in the bearer switching confirmation message;

the bearer switching confirmation message includes: carrying distribution attribute information, a packet data gateway address, a tunnel endpoint identifier of the packet data gateway, the quality of service of the carrying and the like;

step 7, the evolution node B sends a bearing switching request to the wireless access point;

step 8, the access point feeds back a bearing switching response message to the evolved node B;

step 9, the evolution node B sends a bearing switching command to the terminal;

the bearer switching command comprises bearer switching information, and the bearer identifier included in the bearer switching information comprises a radio bearer identifier, an evolved packet system identifier and bearer split attribute information;

moreover, the bearing switching command carries the identification information of the wireless access point, and the terminal associates and authenticates with the wireless access point so as to be connected to the wireless access point; or,

if the terminal itself is already associated with the wireless access point, the bearer switching command may not carry the identification information of the wireless access point, and is directly connected to the wireless access point;

step 10, the terminal switches the corresponding load to the wireless access point and sends load switching completion information to the evolved node B, and the load switching is finished;

Example 7

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a method for network control offloading according to embodiment 7 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 8, the embodiment 7 is basically the same as the method described in embodiment 3, except that: the distribution decision network element acquires bearer distribution attribute information sent by the terminal, wherein the bearer distribution attribute information is carried in an IP data packet; the terminal generates bearer split attribute information according to a bearer attribute strategy of the terminal and bearer corresponding service attribute information; the offloading decision network element requests the terminal to send the bearer offloading attribute information to the wireless access point, the bearer offloading attribute information is generated by the terminal itself, and the offloading decision network element does not need to repeatedly send the offloading attribute information; the different steps specifically include:

step 4, the terminal generates the load distribution attribute information according to the configured load attribute strategy and the service flow template corresponding to the load, carries the load distribution attribute information in an IP data packet, and sends the IP data packet to the evolution node B;

step 5, the evolution node B carries out bearing switching decision according to the bearing distribution attribute information and sends a bearing switching command to the terminal, wherein the bearing switching command is carried in an IP data packet;

the bearer switching request carries: carrying information such as distribution attribute information, a packet data gateway address, a tunnel endpoint identifier of the packet data gateway, the quality of service of the bearer and the like;

step 7, the wireless access point sends a bearing switching response message to the terminal;

step 8, the terminal switches the corresponding load to the wireless access point and sends the information of completing the load switch to the evolution node B, and the load switch is finished;

Example 8

Correspondingly, embodiment 8 of the present invention further provides an offloading decision network element, and fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of an offloading decision network element described in embodiment 8 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 9, the offloading decision network element includes:

Specifically, in the offloading decision network element according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bearer offloading attribute information includes at least one of the following:

Specifically, in the offloading decision network element according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bearer switching decision module includes:

a bearing route characteristic information decision module for generating bearing switch command according to the bearing route characteristic information and the route configuration information of the wireless access point

Specifically, in the offloading decision network element according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bearer routing characteristic information decision module includes:

Optionally, in the offloading decision network element according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bearer switching decision module further includes:

Specifically, in the offloading decision network element according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bearer offloading attribute information obtaining module includes:

Specifically, in the offloading decision network element according to the embodiment of the present invention, the offloading decision network element communication module includes:

Optionally, in the offloading decision network element according to the embodiment of the present invention, the offloading decision network element communication module further includes:

The offloading decision network element is a core of the system part of the embodiment of the present invention, and performs a bearer handover decision according to the bearer offloading attribute information through the offloading decision network element, and sends a bearer handover command, so that the terminal can handover a bearer to the wireless local area network. In the LTE system, the offloading decision network element is an enodeb, and in other cellular network systems, the offloading decision network element may be an access network element of a corresponding cellular network system.

Example 9

Correspondingly, embodiment 9 of the present invention further provides a wireless access point, and fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of the wireless access point according to embodiment 9 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 10, the wireless access point receives bearer offload attribute information, where the bearer offload attribute information includes at least one of the following: carrying distribution grade information and carrying routing characteristic information; the wireless access point combines the network state information of the wireless access point according to the bearing distribution grade information or combines the routing configuration information of the wireless access point according to the bearing routing characteristic information to confirm the bearing which can be received and feed back a confirmation message

Specifically, in the wireless access point according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bearer offload attribute information received by the wireless access point is sent by any one of: a shunt decision network element, a core network and a terminal.

Specifically, the wireless access point according to the embodiment of the present invention includes:

Optionally, in the wireless access point according to the embodiment of the present invention, the wireless access point includes:

The wireless access point in the embodiment of the present invention mainly corresponds to a wireless access point acknowledgement message decision module of a offloading decision network element, and after receiving bearer offloading attribute information, the wireless access point determines which bearers are received in combination with its own network load information and routing configuration information, and sends an acknowledgement message to the offloading decision network element to inform the offloading decision network element of which bearers can be switched, and the offloading decision network element makes a bearer switching decision based on the acknowledgement message, and generates and sends a bearer switching command to a terminal. And under the condition that the shunting decision network element does not acquire the network condition information of the wireless access point, the bearer shunting attribute information can be sent to the wireless access point, and the wireless access point side judges which bearers can be received, so that the situation that the shunting decision network element blindly makes a bearer switching command due to the fact that the network load condition of the wireless access point is not known is avoided, and the bearers are switched to the wireless access point with network load or which can not perform core network routing.

Example 10

Preferably, the functional modules in fig. 9 to fig. 10 may be combined with each other to obtain a network control offloading system with more comprehensive functions.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a system for network controlled offloading according to embodiment 11 of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 11, embodiment 11 of the present invention further provides a system for network controlled offloading, including an offloading decision network element and a wireless access point according to the embodiment of the present invention; wherein,

the offloading decision network element comprises:

the shunting decision network element communication module is used for sending the bearing switching command to a terminal so that the terminal switches the bearing to the wireless access point;

wherein the bearer switching decision module comprises:

the bearing route characteristic information decision module is used for generating a bearing switching command according to the bearing route characteristic information and the route configuration information of the wireless access point; wherein the bearer routing characteristic information decision module comprises: a wireless access point route configuration information obtaining decision module, configured to obtain the route configuration information of a wireless access point, and generate a bearer switching command for switching a bearer to the wireless access point according to the route configuration information of the wireless access point in combination with bearer route characteristic information;

a decision module for confirming information based on a wireless access point, a decision module for confirming information based on the wireless access point, and a wireless access point, wherein the decision module for sending the bearing distribution attribute information to the wireless access point enables the wireless access point to combine the network state information of the wireless access point according to the bearing distribution grade information, or enables the wireless access point to combine the routing configuration information of the wireless access point according to the bearing routing characteristic information, confirms the bearing which can be received, and feeds back a confirmation message; the wireless access point-based confirmation message decision module generates a bearing switching command according to the confirmation message; the wireless access point based confirmation message decision module carries out information interaction with a wireless access point bearing and distribution grade information decision module and a wireless access point bearing and routing characteristic information decision module of a wireless access point through a core network or directly; when information interaction is carried out through a core network, the wireless access point-based confirmation message decision module sends an instruction to the core network, the core network sends the bearing distribution attribute information to a wireless access point (corresponding to the condition that the bearing distribution attribute information comes from the core network) according to the instruction, or the wireless access point confirmation message decision module sends the bearing distribution attribute information to the core network, and the core network sends the bearing distribution attribute information to the wireless access point (corresponding to the condition that the bearing distribution attribute information comes from a terminal);

wherein, the bearer offload attribute information acquisition module includes:

a core network side bearer split attribute information acquisition module, configured to acquire bearer split attribute information generated by a core network element, where the bearer split attribute information is generated by the core network element according to a bearer attribute policy of the core network element and service attribute information corresponding to a bearer; the core network element is a packet data gateway, and the packet data gateway sends the bearer split attribute information to a mobility management entity, and the mobility management entity sends the bearer split attribute information to a core network side bearer split attribute information acquisition module;

a terminal side bearer split attribute information obtaining module, configured to obtain bearer split attribute information generated by the terminal, where the bearer split attribute information is generated by the terminal according to a bearer attribute policy of the terminal and service attribute information corresponding to a bearer;

wherein, the shunting decision network element communication module comprises:

a second bearer switching command sending module, configured to send the bearer switching command to the terminal through a core network, where the bearer switching command is carried in a non-access stratum message; a second bearer switching command sending module sends a non-access stratum message to a core network, the core network sends the non-access stratum message to a shunting decision network element, the shunting decision network element sends the non-access stratum message to a terminal, and the non-access stratum message carries a bearer switching command;

a third bearer switching command sending module, configured to enable the bearer switching command to carry bearer offload attribute information, and enable the terminal to send the bearer offload attribute information to a wireless access point;

the wireless access point receives bearer offload attribute information, where the bearer offload attribute information includes at least one of: carrying distribution grade information and carrying routing characteristic information; the wireless access point combines the network state information of the wireless access point according to the bearing distribution grade information or combines the routing configuration information of the wireless access point according to the bearing routing characteristic information to confirm the bearing which can be received and feed back a confirmation message; the method comprises the following steps:

the wireless access point bearing and shunting level information decision module is used for confirming a bearing which can be received according to the bearing and shunting level information and network state information of the wireless access point, wherein the network state information comprises network load information, and the wireless access point bearing and shunting level information decision module confirms a bearing with high receiving priority according to the network load information and a preset threshold value and the priority when the bearing is shunted;

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, various aspects of the invention, or possible implementations of various aspects, may be embodied as a system, method, or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention, or possible implementations of aspects, may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system. Furthermore, aspects of the invention, or possible implementations of aspects, may take the form of a computer program product, which refers to computer-readable program code stored in a computer-readable medium.

The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing, such as Random Access Memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, and portable read-only memory (CD-ROM).

A processor in the computer reads the computer-readable program code stored in the computer-readable medium, so that the processor can perform the functional actions specified in each step, or a combination of steps, in the flowcharts; and means for generating a block diagram that implements the functional operation specified in each block or a combination of blocks.

The computer readable program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the flowchart or block diagram block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two steps or two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method for network controlled offloading, comprising:

the bearer splitting attribute information includes: the bearer offload determination information refers to information that allows bearer offload or disallows bearer offload; and at least one of:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific step of the offloading decision network element generating the bearer switching command according to the bearer offloading attribute information comprises:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of the offloading decision network element generating the bearer switching command according to the bearer routing characteristic information in combination with the routing configuration information of the wireless access point specifically comprises:

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific step of the offloading decision network element generating the bearer switching command according to the bearer offloading attribute information further comprises:

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the step of obtaining bearer offload attribute information by the offload decision network element specifically includes:

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the step of the offloading decision network element sending the bearer switching command to the terminal specifically includes:

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the step of the offloading decision network element sending the bearer switching command to the terminal further comprises:

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step of the wireless access point confirming the bearer that can be received according to the bearer offload level information in combination with its own network state information specifically includes:

9. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step of the wireless access point confirming the bearers that can be received according to the bearer routing characteristic information in combination with its own routing configuration information specifically includes:

10. A offload decision network element, comprising:

the bearer splitting attribute information includes bearer splitting determination information, which refers to information that bearer splitting is allowed or not allowed; and at least one of:

11. The offloading decision network element of claim 10, wherein the bearer switch decision module comprises:

12. The offload decision network element of claim 11, wherein the bearer routing characteristic information decision module comprises:

13. The offloading decision network element of claim 10, wherein the bearer switch decision module further comprises:

14. The offloading decision network element of claim 10, wherein the bearer offload attribute information obtaining module comprises:

15. The offload decision network element of claim 10, wherein the offload decision network element communication module comprises:

16. The offloading decision network element of claim 10, wherein the offloading decision network element communication module further comprises:

17. A system for network controlled offloading, comprising: the offloading decision network element of any of claims 10-16 and the wireless access point.