CN107615872B

CN107615872B - Method, device and system for releasing connection

Info

Publication number: CN107615872B
Application number: CN201580080506.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 季莉; 周彦
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Honor Device Co Ltd
Priority date: 2015-06-12
Filing date: 2015-06-12
Publication date: 2020-06-26
Anticipated expiration: 2035-06-12
Also published as: CN107615872A; WO2016197395A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a method, a device and a system for releasing connection, relates to the technical field of communication, and can enable a node to reasonably release connection established with other nodes. The method comprises the following steps: the first node determines a second node which is allowed to release the connection from a plurality of second nodes, and deletes the information of the second node which is allowed to release the connection and is stored in the first node, wherein the plurality of second nodes are the nodes which have established the connection with the first node. The method is applied to the NFV system.

Description

Method, device and system for releasing connection

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, and a system for releasing a connection.

Background

With the rapid development of virtualization technology, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) systems, which implement functions of network element devices dedicated to networks, are gaining attention on general physical devices.

In the NFV system, there are function nodes such as a network function virtualization scheduling Node (NFVO), a virtual machine infrastructure management node (VIM), a virtual network function management node (VNFM), and a Virtual Network Function (VNF). The VIM is responsible for managing virtual resources required by the VNF, the VNFM is responsible for managing the VNF, and the NFVO is responsible for scheduling resources managed by all the VIMs. When the VNFM needs to request the VIM specified by the NFVO to allocate resources to the VNF managed by the VNFM, if a connection between the VNFM and the VIM is not established yet, the VNFM needs to establish a connection with the VIM first, so that the VIM allocates resources to the VNF.

However, in the process that the VNFM requests the VIM specified by the NFVO to allocate resources to the VNF managed by the VNFM, since the number of VIMs that can establish connections with the VNFM is limited, when the number of VIMs that have already established connections with the VNFM reaches the threshold value of the number of VIMs that can establish connections with the VNFM, if the VNFM has not established connections with the VIM specified by the NFVO, the VNFM cannot establish connections with the VIM specified by the NFVO because there are no free connection resources, so that the VNFM cannot request the VIM specified by the NFVO to allocate resources to the VNF.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a method, a device and a system for releasing connection, which ensure that a node establishes new connection by reasonably releasing the established connection with other nodes to ensure that the node has idle connection resources.

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

in a first aspect, the present invention provides a method of releasing a connection, comprising:

a first node determines a second node which allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, wherein the plurality of second nodes are nodes which establish connection with the first node;

and the first node deletes the information of the second node which allows the connection to be released and is stored in the first node.

In a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, by the first node, a second node that allows connection release from among a plurality of second nodes includes:

the first node receives a first connection release notification message sent by a management node, wherein the first connection release notification message carries the identifier of the second node which allows the connection release;

and the first node determines the second node allowing the connection to be released according to the identification of the second node allowing the connection to be released.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner, before the first node receives a first connection release notification message sent by a management node, the method further includes:

the first node sends a connection release request message to the management node, wherein the connection release request message is used for requesting the management node to determine the second node which allows the connection release.

With reference to the first aspect or any one implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner,

the first node is a virtual network function management node (VNFM), and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of virtual machine infrastructure management nodes (VIM); or,

the first node is a VIM and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VNFMs.

With reference to the foregoing first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, the first node is a VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs,

if a VIM which has no resource management relationship with the VNFM exists in the plurality of VIMs, the second node which allows connection release is the VIM which has no resource management relationship with the VNFM in the plurality of VIMs; or,

if there is no VIM having no resource management relationship with the VNFM in the plurality of VIMs, the second node allowing connection release is a first VIM satisfying a first condition,

wherein the first condition is that a first VIM of the plurality of VIMs allocates resources for a virtual network function VNF managed by the VNFM, and that allocation of the VNF by another VIM of the plurality of VIMs is allowed.

With reference to the first aspect or any implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner, after the first node determines a second node that allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, before the first node deletes, by the first node, the information of the second node that allows connection release, which is stored in the first node, the method further includes:

and the first node sends a second connection release notification message to the second node which allows the connection release, wherein the second connection release notification message carries the identifier of the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used for notifying the second node which allows the connection release and deleting the information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node, which is stored in the second node which allows the connection release.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of releasing a connection, comprising:

the management node determines a second node which allows the connection to be released from a plurality of second nodes, wherein the plurality of second nodes are nodes which establish connection with the first node;

the management node sends a first connection release notification message to the first node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection, and the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node and delete the information of the second node that is allowed to release the connection and is stored in the first node.

In a first possible implementation form of the second aspect,

and if a second node which has no resource management relationship with the first node exists in the plurality of second nodes, the second node which allows the connection release is the second node which has no resource management relationship with the first node in the plurality of second nodes.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner, before the determining, by the management node, a second node that allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, the method further includes:

the management node receives a connection release request message sent by the first node, wherein the connection release request message is used for requesting the management node to determine the second node which allows the connection release;

the management node determining a second node from a plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release a connection, comprising:

and the management node determines the second node which allows the connection to be released from the plurality of second nodes according to the connection release request message.

With reference to the second aspect or any implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect to the second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation manner,

the first node is a VNFM and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs; or,

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, the first node is a VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs,

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner, the first node is a VIM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VNFMs,

if no VNFM which has no resource management relationship with the VIM exists in the plurality of VNFMs, the second node which allows connection release is the first VNFM which meets a second condition,

wherein the second condition is that the VIM allocates resources for a VNF managed by a first VNFM of the plurality of VNFMs, and the VNF is allowed to be allocated by another VIM that has established a connection with the first VNFM.

With reference to the second aspect or any implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect to the fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner, after the management node determines, from a plurality of second nodes, a second node that allows a connection to be released, the method further includes:

the management node sends a second connection release notification message to the second node allowing connection release, where the second connection release notification message carries the identifier of the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used to notify the second node allowing connection release, and delete the information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node stored in the second node allowing connection release.

In a third aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus for releasing a connection, comprising:

a determining unit configured to determine a second node that allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, the plurality of second nodes being nodes that have established a connection with the first node;

and the deleting unit is used for deleting the information of the second node which is allowed to release the connection and is determined by the determining unit and stored in the first node.

In a first possible implementation form of the third aspect,

the determining unit is specifically configured to receive a first connection release notification message sent by a management node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that is allowed to release a connection;

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the second node permitted to release the connection according to the identifier of the second node permitted to release the connection.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a second possible implementation manner, the apparatus for releasing a connection further includes a sending unit,

the sending unit is configured to send a connection release request message to the management node before the determining unit receives the first connection release notification message sent by the management node, where the connection release request message is used to request the management node to determine the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

With reference to the third aspect or any implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect to the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a third possible implementation manner,

With reference to the foregoing third aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, the first node is a VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs,

if a VIM which has no resource management relationship with the VNFM exists in the plurality of VIMs, the second node which is determined by the determination unit and allowed to release the connection is the VIM which has no resource management relationship with the VNFM in the plurality of VIMs; or,

if there is no VIM having no resource management relationship with the VNFM in the plurality of VIMs, the second node allowing connection release determined by the determination unit is a first VIM satisfying a first condition,

wherein the first condition is that a first VIM of the plurality of VIMs allocates resources for a VNF managed by the VNFM, and that allocation of the VNF by another VIM of the plurality of VIMs is allowed.

With reference to any one implementation manner of the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner,

the sending unit is further configured to send a second connection release notification message to the second node allowing connection release after the determining unit determines the second node allowing connection release from the plurality of second nodes, where the second connection release notification message carries an identifier of the first node, and before the deleting unit deletes the information of the second node allowing connection release, which is stored in the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used to notify the second node allowing connection release, and delete the information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node, which is stored in the second node allowing connection release.

In a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a device for releasing a connection, comprising:

a sending unit, configured to send a first connection release notification message to the first node, where the first connection release notification message carries the identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection and is determined by the determining unit, and the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node and delete the information of the second node that is allowed to release the connection and is stored in the first node.

In a first possible implementation form of the fourth aspect,

if there is a second node having no resource management relationship with the first node in the plurality of second nodes, the second node that is determined by the determination unit and allows connection release is the second node having no resource management relationship with the first node in the plurality of second nodes.

With reference to the fourth aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner, the connection releasing apparatus further includes a receiving unit,

the receiving unit is configured to receive a connection release request message sent by the first node before the determining unit determines a second node that allows the connection to be released from the plurality of second nodes, where the connection release request message is used to request the determining unit to determine the second node that allows the connection to be released;

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine, according to the connection release request message received by the receiving unit, a second node that is allowed to release a connection from the plurality of second nodes.

With reference to the fourth aspect or any one implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect to the second possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner,

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, the first node is a VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs,

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner, the first node is a VIM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VNFMs,

if no VNFM having no resource management relationship with the VIM exists in the plurality of VNFMs, the second node allowing connection release determined by the determination unit is a first VNFM satisfying a second condition,

With reference to the fourth aspect or any one implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect to the fifth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner,

the sending unit is further configured to send, after the determining unit determines, from the plurality of second nodes, a second node that allows the connection to be released, a second connection release notification message to the second node that allows the connection to be released, where the second connection release notification message carries an identifier of the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used to notify the second node that allows the connection to be released, and delete the information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node stored in the second node that allows the connection to be released.

In a fifth aspect, the present invention provides an apparatus for releasing a connection, comprising:

a processor configured to determine a second node that is allowed to release a connection from a plurality of second nodes, the plurality of second nodes being nodes that have established a connection with the first node;

the processor is further configured to delete the information of the second node that allows the connection to be released, which is stored in the first node.

In a first possible implementation form of the fifth aspect,

the processor is specifically configured to receive a first connection release notification message sent by a management node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that is allowed to release a connection;

the processor is specifically configured to determine the second node permitted to release the connection according to the identifier of the second node permitted to release the connection.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner,

the processor is further configured to send a connection release request message to the management node before receiving a first connection release notification message sent by the management node, where the connection release request message is used to request the management node to determine the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

With reference to the fifth aspect or any implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect to the second possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner,

With reference to the foregoing fifth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, the first node is a VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs,

if a VIM which has no resource management relationship with the VNFM exists in the plurality of VIMs, the second node which is determined by the processor and allowed to release the connection is the VIM which has no resource management relationship with the VNFM in the plurality of VIMs; or,

if there is no VIM of the plurality of VIMs that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM, the second node that allows the connection to be released is the first VIM that satisfies a first condition,

With reference to the fifth aspect or any implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner,

the processor is further configured to send a second connection release notification message to the second node allowing connection release after determining a second node allowing connection release from the plurality of second nodes and before deleting the information of the second node allowing connection release stored in the first node, where the second connection release notification message carries an identifier of the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used to notify the second node allowing connection release and delete the information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node stored in the second node allowing connection release.

In a sixth aspect, the present invention provides a device for releasing a connection, comprising:

the processor is further configured to send a first connection release notification message to the first node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection, and the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node and delete the information of the second node that is allowed to release the connection and is stored in the first node.

In a first possible implementation form of the sixth aspect,

if a second node having no resource management relationship with the first node exists in the plurality of second nodes, the second node that allows connection release determined by the processor is the second node having no resource management relationship with the first node in the plurality of second nodes.

With reference to the sixth aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner,

the processor is further configured to receive a connection release request message sent by the first node before the determining unit determines the second node that is allowed to release the connection from the plurality of second nodes, where the connection release request message is used to request the determining unit to determine the second node that is allowed to release the connection;

the processor is specifically configured to determine, according to the connection release request message, a second node that is allowed to release a connection from the plurality of second nodes.

With reference to the sixth aspect or any implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect to the second possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner, the first node is a VNFM, and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs; or,

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner, the first node is a VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs,

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner, the first node is a VIM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VNFMs,

if no VNFM having no resource management relationship with the VIM exists in the plurality of VNFMs, the second node allowing connection release determined by the processor is a first VNFM meeting a second condition,

With reference to the sixth aspect or any implementation manner of the first possible implementation manner to the fifth possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner,

the processor is further configured to send a second connection release notification message to the second node that allows connection release after determining a second node that allows connection release from the plurality of second nodes, where the second connection release notification message carries an identifier of the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used to notify the second node that allows connection release, and delete the information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node stored in the second node that allows connection release.

In a seventh aspect, the present invention provides a communication system, including:

means for releasing a connection as described in any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect or the third aspect above, and means for releasing a connection as described in any one of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect or the fourth aspect above; alternatively, the device for releasing a connection may be as described in any one of the possible implementations of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect, and the device for releasing a connection may be as described in any one of the possible implementations of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect.

The invention provides a method, a device and a system for releasing connection, which comprises a first node determining a second node allowing the connection to be released from a plurality of second nodes, and deleting the information of the second node allowing the connection to be released, which is stored in the first node, wherein the plurality of second nodes are nodes which are already connected with the first node. By the method for releasing the connection, the first node can release the connection with the second node which is allowed to release the connection so as to save the connection resource of the first node, so that the first node has the idle connection resource to establish the new connection with other second nodes, and further the first node can communicate with other second nodes.

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 only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a prior art NFV system;

fig. 2 is a first flowchart of a method for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a first interaction diagram of a method for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is an interaction diagram ii of a method for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is an interaction diagram three of a method for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is an interaction diagram four of a method for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is an interaction diagram five of a method for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is an interaction diagram six of a method for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is an interaction diagram seven of a method for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a first schematic structural diagram of a device for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a second schematic structural diagram of a device for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a third schematic structural view of a device for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a fourth schematic structural view of a device for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 15 is a first hardware structure diagram of a device for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 16 is a second hardware structure diagram of a device for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 17 is a block diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments.

Fig. 1 shows an architecture diagram of an NFV system. The NFV system includes: NFVO, VNFM, VIM, operation support system (abbreviated as OSS) or service support system (abbreviated as BSS), network element management node (abbreviated as EM), VNF node, virtual network function infrastructure (abbreviated as NFVI), and other functional nodes, wherein the OSS/BSS or the user operation interface of the OSS/BSS may be referred to as network management node (abbreviated as NM).

In the NFV system, NFVO, VNFM, and VIM form a management orchestration (NFV-MANO) domain of the NFV system, wherein NFVO may also be referred to as a network function virtualization orchestrator.

The NFVO may operate, manage, and coordinate the VIMs in the NFV system, that is, the NFVO is responsible for scheduling resources managed by all VIMs in the NFV system. The NFVO is connected to all VIMs and VNFMs in the NFV system.

The VIM is a management entry of infrastructure and resources, and provides resource management for the VNF, specifically, provides NFVI resource management for the VNF, and includes providing functions of configuration maintenance, resource monitoring, alarming, performance management, and the like of infrastructure-related hardware and virtualized resources for the VNF.

The VNFM is responsible for lifecycle management of the VNF, and specifically, lifecycle management of the VNF is implemented by applying for resources to the NFVO or releasing the resources, including instantiation, capacity expansion/contraction, query, update, termination, and the like of the VNF.

In the prior art, when a VNFM needs to request a VIM specified by a NFVO to allocate resources to a VNF managed by the VNFM, if a connection between the VNFM and the VIM is not established, the VNFM needs to establish a connection with the VIM first, so that the VIM allocates resources to the VNF.

However, in the NFV system, the number of VIMs that can establish a connection with a VNFM is limited, and the number of VNFMs that can establish a connection with a VIM is also limited.

Then, in a process that a certain VNFM requests the VIM specified by the NFVO to allocate resources to the VNF managed by the VNFM, on one hand, when the number of VIMs that have already established a connection with the VNFM reaches a threshold value, if the VNFM has not established a connection with the VIM specified by the NFVO yet, the VNFM cannot establish a connection with the VIM specified by the NFVO because there is no idle connection resource, so that the VNFM cannot request the VIM specified by the NFVO to allocate resources to the VNF.

On the other hand, when the number of VNFMs that have already established a connection with a certain VIM reaches a threshold value, if the VIM has not established a connection with a new VNFM that requests resource allocation to the VIM, the VIM may not establish a connection with the VNFM because the VIM has no free connection resources, and thus even if the remaining resources of the VIM can satisfy the resources requested by the VNFM as the VNF, the VIM may not allocate resources to the VNF.

The method, the device and the system for releasing the connection enable the node to reasonably release the established connection with other nodes so as to ensure that the node has idle connection resources to establish new connection.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, any one of the functional nodes in the NFV system may be implemented by one entity device, or may be implemented by a plurality of entity devices together, and the plurality of functional nodes in the NFV system may be implemented by different entity devices, or may be implemented by the same entity device. It is to be understood that any functional node in the NFV system may be a logical functional module in an entity device, or may be a logical functional module composed of a plurality of entity devices.

Therefore, in the following embodiments of the present invention, one entity device may perform each step in the method provided in the embodiments of the present invention, and a plurality of entity devices may cooperate to perform each step in the method provided in the embodiments of the present invention, which is not limited to this invention.

Further, in order to more clearly describe the method for releasing connection provided by the present invention, the logic function module (i.e. the function node in the NFV system) is used as an execution subject in the following description, and it can be understood by those skilled in the art that the logic function module needs to depend on the hardware resource on the entity device where it is located when it is implemented specifically.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the NFV system may be applied to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication system, and may also be applied to an LTE evolution communication system, such as an LTE-a (long term evolution advanced) system, and may also be applied to a third Generation mobile communication (3 rd-Generation, abbreviated as 3G) system, such as WCDMA, and the like, which are not limited in the present invention.

Example one

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for releasing a connection, as shown in fig. 2, the method includes:

s101, the first node determines a second node which allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, wherein the plurality of second nodes are nodes which are already connected with the first node.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the first node may be a VNFM or a VIM. Specifically, when the first node is the VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs, and the plurality of VIMs have all established a connection with the VNFM; when the first node is a VIM, the second nodes are VNFMs, and the VNFMs have all established a connection with the VIM.

Further, the first node may determine, from the plurality of second nodes, a second node that is allowed to release the connection according to the indication of the management node. For example, when the management node determines that there is a second node that allows connection release in the plurality of second nodes, the management node may carry an identifier of the second node that allows connection release in the first connection release notification message and send the first connection release notification message to the first node, so that the first node may determine the second node that allows connection release from the plurality of second nodes according to the identifier of the second node that allows connection release after receiving the first connection release notification message.

Optionally, when the first node is specifically a VNFM and the plurality of second nodes are specifically VIMs, the VNFM may also determine, by itself, a VIM from the plurality of VIMs that allows the connection to be released.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the second node that allows releasing the connection may be a second node that has no resource management relationship with the first node, or a second node that satisfies a preset condition. The preset condition may be set according to an actual network maintenance requirement, so that the first node can select a suitable second node to release the connection with the second node.

S102, the first node deletes the information of the second node which allows the connection to be released and is stored in the first node.

Wherein the information of the second node allowed to release the connection comprises an identification of the second node allowed to release the connection and the connection information. The connection information of the second node allowing the connection to be released may include at least an IP address, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a user name, an authentication password, and the like of the second node allowing the connection to be released.

It should be noted that, after the first node deletes the information of the second node that allows connection release, which is stored by the first node, it represents that the first node successfully releases the connection with the second node that allows connection release.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for releasing connection, which comprises the steps that a first node determines a second node which is allowed to release connection from a plurality of second nodes, and deletes the information of the second node which is stored in the first node and is allowed to release connection, wherein the plurality of second nodes are nodes which are already connected with the first node. By the method, the first node can release the connection with the second node which is allowed to release the connection so as to save the connection resource of the first node, so that the first node has the idle connection resource to establish the new connection with other second nodes, and the first node can communicate with other second nodes.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for releasing a connection, as shown in fig. 3, the method includes:

s201, the management node determines a second node that allows to release a connection from a plurality of second nodes, where the plurality of second nodes are nodes that have established a connection with the first node.

The first node may be a VNFM or a VIM. Specifically, when the first node is the VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs, and the plurality of VIMs have all established a connection with the VNFM; when the first node is a VIM, the second nodes are VNFMs, and the VNFMs have all established a connection with the VIM.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the management node may be an NFVO in an NFV system where the first node and the multiple second nodes are located, or may also be another functional node having a function of the NFVO in the NFV system, that is, the management node may be a functional node capable of scheduling resources managed by all VIMs in the NFV system, which is not limited to this invention.

The management node may directly select a second node having no resource management relationship with the first node from the plurality of second nodes as the second node allowing the connection to be released. The management node may also select a second node satisfying a preset condition from the plurality of second nodes as a second node that allows the connection to be released. The preset condition may be set according to an actual network maintenance requirement, so that the management node can select a suitable second node as the second node that allows the connection to be released according to the preset condition.

S202, the management node sends a first connection release notification message to the first node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection, and the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node and delete the information of the second node that is allowed to release the connection and is stored in the first node.

After the management node determines the second node permitted to release the connection from the plurality of second nodes, the management node may carry the identifier of the second node permitted to release the connection in the first connection release notification message, and send the first node to the first node, so that after the first node receives the first connection release notification message, the first node deletes the information of the second node permitted to release the connection, which is stored in the first node, that is, notifies the first node to automatically release the connection with the second node permitted to release the connection.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for releasing connection, which comprises the steps that a management node determines a second node which is allowed to release connection from a plurality of second nodes, and sends a first connection release notification message to a first node, wherein the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node which is allowed to release connection, the first connection release notification message is used for notifying the first node, information of the second node which is stored in the first node and is allowed to release connection is deleted, and the plurality of second nodes are nodes which are already connected with the first node.

By the method, the management node can select a proper second node from a plurality of second nodes which are connected with the first node, and timely inform the first node of releasing the connection with the second node, so that the connection resource of the first node is saved, the first node has an idle connection resource to establish a new connection with other second nodes, and the first node can communicate with the other second nodes.

Example two

The method for releasing connection provided by the embodiment of the present invention may be used in various application scenarios, and the following three possible application scenarios are described as an example.

In a first possible application scenario, a connection release procedure is initiated by a management node. The management node may be an NFVO in the NFV system, or may be another functional node having a function of the NFVO, that is, the management node may be a functional node capable of scheduling resources managed by all VIMs in the NFV system, which is not limited in this disclosure.

In the management node, a resource mapping table is set, and the resource mapping table records resource application conditions of each VNFM, resource allocation conditions of each VIM, connection conditions between VNFM and VIM, and the like in the NFV system. For example, a certain VNFM establishes a connection with which VIMs, and the VIMs respectively allocate resource amount and resource type to the VNF managed by the VNFM. Therefore, the management node can learn that each VNFM in the NFV system is connected with which VIMs respectively by querying the resource mapping table, each VIM is connected with which VNFMs respectively, and whether a resource management relationship exists between the connected VIMs and the VNFMs or not, and the like.

It should be noted that there is a resource management relationship between a certain VNFM and a certain VIM that have established a connection, which means that the VIM reserves or allocates resources for at least one VNF managed by the VNFM; there is no resource management relationship between a certain VNFM and a certain VIM that have established a connection, meaning that the VIM does not reserve or allocate resources for any VNF managed by the VNFM.

It can be understood that, since the number of the VIMs capable of establishing a connection with the VNFM is limited, and the VNFM capable of establishing a connection with the VIM is also limited, if there is no resource management relationship between a certain VNFM and a certain VIM that have already established a connection, the connection between the VNFM and the VIM may be released, so as to save connection resources of the VNFM and the VIM. In a first possible application scenario, when the management node finds, through querying the resource mapping table, that there is a second node that has no resource management relationship with a certain first node among a plurality of second nodes that have established a connection with the certain first node, the management node needs to initiate a connection release procedure.

In a first possible application scenario, the first node may be a VNFM or a VIM. Specifically, when the first node is the VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs, and the plurality of VIMs have all established a connection with the VNFM; when the first node is a VIM, the second nodes are VNFMs, and the VNFMs have all established a connection with the VIM.

Further, in a first possible manner of the first possible application scenario, as shown in fig. 4, the method may include:

s301, the management node determines a second node that allows releasing the connection from a plurality of second nodes, where the plurality of second nodes are nodes that have established a connection with the first node.

Specifically, in a first possible application scenario, the second node that is determined by the management node and allowed to release the connection is specifically a second node that has no resource management relationship with the first node in the plurality of second nodes.

It is understood that, when the management node finds, by querying the resource mapping table, that there is a second node in the plurality of second nodes that has no resource management relationship with the first node, the management node may determine that the connection between the first node and the second node that has no resource management relationship with the first node is allowed to be released.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the management node may determine, in the process of performing lifecycle management on the VNF, whether a second node having no resource management relationship with the first node exists in the plurality of second nodes.

For example, when capacity expansion of a certain VNF is required, the management node queries the resource mapping table to select an appropriate VIM to allocate resources to the VNF. In this process, when the management node queries the resource mapping table, the management node may query a plurality of VIMs that have established connections with the VNFM that manages the VNF, and determine whether a VIM that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM exists in the plurality of VIMs.

Optionally, the management node may also query the resource mapping table periodically. Specifically, if the first node is a VNFM and the second node is a VIM, the management node may periodically query, in the resource mapping table, related information of each VNFM in the NFV system, and determine whether a VIM that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM exists in a plurality of VIMs that have established a connection with a certain VNFM; if the first node is a VIM and the second node is a VNFM, the management node may periodically query the resource mapping table for related information of each VIM in the NFV system, and determine whether a VNFM that has no resource management relationship with the VIM exists in a plurality of VNFMs that have established a connection with a VIM, at this time.

S302, the management node sends a first connection release notification message to the first node, wherein the first connection release notification message carries the identifier of the second node which allows the connection release.

In the embodiment of the present invention, after the management node determines the second node that allows releasing the connection from the plurality of second nodes, the management node may notify the first node that the connection with the second node that allows releasing the connection may be released, that is, the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node to delete the information of the second node that allows releasing the connection and is stored by the first node.

S303, after receiving the first connection release notification message, the first node determines the second node allowed to release the connection according to the identifier of the second node allowed to release the connection.

It can be understood that, after receiving the first connection release notification message, the first node may determine, according to the identifier of the second node that allows connection release and is carried in the first connection release notification message, that the connection between the first node and the second node that allows connection release is allowed to be released, that is, the first node determines that the second node information that allows connection release and is stored in the first node may be deleted.

S304, the first node sends a second connection release notification message to the second node which allows the connection release, wherein the second connection release notification message carries the identification of the first node.

In the embodiment of the present invention, after the first node determines that the information of the second node that allows releasing connection and is stored by the first node can be deleted, the first node first needs to send a second connection release notification message to the second node that allows releasing connection through the connection with the second node that allows releasing connection, so as to notify the second node that allows releasing connection also deletes the information of the first node that is stored by the second node.

S305, the first node deletes the information of the second node which allows the connection release and is stored in the first node.

The information of the second node that allows releasing the connection has the same meaning as the information of the second node that allows releasing the connection in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and is not described herein again.

To this end, the first node successfully releases the connection between the first node and the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

S306, after the second node allowing to release the connection receives the second connection release notification message, the first node is determined according to the identifier of the first node.

It can be understood that, after receiving the second connection release notification message, the second node that allows releasing the connection may determine that the connection with the first node is allowed to be released according to the identifier of the first node carried in the second connection release notification message.

S307, the second node allowing connection release deletes the information of the first node stored in the second node allowing connection release.

Wherein the information of the first node comprises an identification and connection information of the first node. The connection information of the first node may include at least an IP address, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a user name, an authentication password, and the like of the first node.

The second node that is allowed to release the connection also successfully releases the connection with the first node so far.

It should be noted that the execution sequence between the above S305 and the above S306 and S307 is not limited in the embodiments of the present invention.

In a second possible manner of the first possible application scenario, as shown in fig. 5, the method may include:

s401, the management node determines a second node that allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, where the plurality of second nodes are nodes that have established a connection with the first node.

S402, the management node sends a first connection release notification message to the first node, wherein the first connection release notification message carries the identifier of the second node which allows the connection release.

S403, after receiving the first connection release notification message, the first node determines the second node allowed to release the connection according to the identifier of the second node allowed to release the connection.

The specific implementation manners of S401 to S403 are the same as the specific implementation manners of S301 to S303 in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, and the specific implementation manners of S401 to S403 may refer to the related descriptions in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, and are not described herein again.

S404, the first node deletes the information of the second node which allows the connection release and is stored in the first node.

To this end, the first node successfully releases the connection with the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

S405, the management node sends a second connection release notification message to the second node allowing the connection release, wherein the second connection release notification message carries the identifier of the first node.

It should be noted that, in a second possible implementation manner of the first possible application scenario, after the management node determines a second node that allows connection release from the plurality of second nodes, the management node may directly send a second connection release notification message to the second node that allows connection release, so as to notify the second node that allows connection release to delete the information that stores the first node.

S406, after the second node allowing connection release receives the second connection release notification message, the first node is determined according to the identifier of the first node.

S407, the second node allowing connection release deletes the information of the first node stored in the second node allowing connection release.

The specific implementation manner of S406-S407 is the same as the specific implementation manner of S306-S307 in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, and the specific implementation manner of S406-S407 may refer to the related description in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, and is not described herein again.

It should be noted that, the execution sequence of the above S402 to S404 and the above S405 to S407 is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, after the first node and the second node that allows releasing the connection both successfully release the connection therebetween, the first node and the second node that allows releasing the connection may further send an acknowledgement message to the management node, so that the management node determines that the connection between the first node and the second node that allows releasing the connection has been successfully released, and the management node may update the resource mapping table.

In a first possible application scenario, with the method for releasing connection provided in the embodiment of the present invention, after determining that there is a second node that has no resource management relationship with the first node in a plurality of second nodes that have established connection with the first node, the management node can timely notify the first node and the second node that has no resource management relationship with the first node, and release the connection between the first node and the second node that has no resource management relationship with the first node, thereby avoiding connection between the first node and the second node that has no resource management relationship with the first node, and continuing to occupy connection resources of the first node and the second node that has no resource management relationship with the first node, and thus saving connection resources of the first node and the second node that has no resource management relationship with the first node.

In a second possible application scenario, the VNFM initiates a connection release procedure. In the NFV system, since the number of VIMs that can establish a connection with the VNFM is limited, when the VNFM determines that the number of VIMs with which a connection has been established reaches a threshold value, the VNFM needs to initiate a connection release procedure. Then, in a second possible application scenario, the first node is a VNFM, the plurality of second nodes are VIMs, and all of the VIMs are VIMs that have established a connection with the VNFM.

Specifically, in a first possible manner of the second possible application scenario, as shown in fig. 6, the method may include:

s501, the VNFM determines that the number of the VIMs reaches a preset threshold value.

The preset threshold may be the maximum number of VIMs that can establish a connection with the VNFM, or a threshold that is smaller than the maximum number and is set according to a requirement of network maintenance in practice.

Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, the VNFM may periodically determine whether the number of VIMs that have established connections with the VNFM reaches a preset threshold. The VNFM may also determine whether the number of VIMs with which a connection has been established reaches a preset threshold after each connection with a new VIM is established.

S502, the VNFM sends a connection release request message to the management node, where the connection release request message is used to request the management node to determine a VIM that allows releasing the connection.

Specifically, when the VNFM determines that the number of the plurality of VIMs reaches the threshold value, the VNFM may send a connection release request message to the management node to request the management node to determine, from the plurality of VIMs, a VIM that is allowed to release the connection.

S503, the management node determines, according to the connection release request message, a VIM that allows the release of the connection from the plurality of VIMs.

In the embodiment of the present invention, after receiving the connection release request message sent by the VNFM, the management node determines that it is necessary to determine a VIM that is allowed to release a connection from a plurality of VIMs that have already established a connection with the VNFM.

Specifically, the management node may first determine whether a VIM that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM exists in the plurality of VIMs by querying a resource mapping table set in the management node.

If the management node determines that a VIM which has no resource management relationship with the VNFM exists in the plurality of VIMs, the management node determines the VIM which has no resource management relationship with the VNFM in the plurality of VIMs as a VIM which allows the connection to be released.

If the management node determines that there is no VIM in the plurality of VIMs that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM, the management node determines a first VIM in the plurality of VIMs that satisfies a first condition as a VIM that is allowed to release the connection.

Wherein the first condition is that a first VIM of the plurality of VIMs allocates resources for the VNF managed by the VNFM, and that another VIM of the plurality of VIMs is allowed to allocate to the VNF.

To better illustrate that the management node determines the first VIM of the plurality of VIMs that satisfies the first condition as the VIM that allows the connection to be released, an exemplary description will be given below by taking VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3 as examples.

Assuming that the plurality of VIMs that have established a connection with the VNFM include VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3, when the management node determines that there is no VIM having no resource management relationship with the VNFM in VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3, the management node may determine a VIM that allows the connection to be released from VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3 in at least two ways.

In the first mode, the management node respectively obtains information of the remaining resources of VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3 and information of the resources allocated to the VNF managed by the VNFM.

Wherein, the information of the residual resource of the VIM at least comprises the residual resource amount and the type of the residual resource of the VIM. The information of the resources allocated by the VIM for the VNF managed by the VNFM at least includes an amount of resources allocated by the VIM for the VNF managed by the VNFM, and a type of resources allocated by the VIM for the VNF managed by the VNFM.

Illustratively, the information of the remaining resources of VIM1 is: 2 VMs of type a, 1 VM of type B; the information of the resources allocated by the VIM1 for the VNFM includes: 1 VM of type A.

The information of the remaining resources of VIM2 is: 1 VM of type a, 2 VMs of type C; the information of the resources allocated by the VIM2 for the VNFM includes: 2C-type VMs.

The information of the remaining resources of VIM3 is: 2 VMs of type a, 2 VMs of type C; the information of the resources allocated by the VIM3 for the VNFM includes: 2 VMs of type B.

Specifically, taking VIM1 as an example, the management node may directly obtain information of the remaining resources of VIM1 and information of the resources allocated by VIM1 for the VNFM from the resource mapping table.

The management node may also obtain information of the remaining resources of the VIM1 by querying the VIM 1. Specifically, the management node sends a remaining resource query message to the VIM1, and when receiving the remaining resource query message, the VIM1 carries information of the remaining resources of the VIM1 in a response message and sends the response message to the management node, so that the management node obtains the information of the remaining resources of the VIM1 according to the response message.

Further, after acquiring the information of the remaining resources of the VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3 and the information of the resources allocated to the VNF managed by the VNFM, the management node determines whether a first VIM that satisfies the first condition exists in the VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3 according to the information of the remaining resources of the VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3 and the information of the resources allocated to the VNF managed by the VNFM.

Specifically, the management node may first compare the information of the resource allocated by the VIM1 to the VNF managed by the VNFM with the information of the remaining resources of the VIM2 and the VIM3, and if at least one of the VIM2 and the VIM3 has the information of the remaining resource of the VIM that can satisfy the information of the resource allocated by the VIM1 to the VNF managed by the VNFM, the management node determines that the VIM1 is the first VIM that satisfies the first condition.

For example, the VIM1 allocates 1 a-type VM to the VNF1 managed by the VNFM, and since the remaining resources of the VIM2 include 1 a-type VM and the remaining resources of the VIM3 include 2 a-type VMs, the information of the remaining resources of the VIM2 and the VIM3 can both satisfy the information of the resource allocated by the VIM1 to the VNF1, that is, the resource allocated by the VIM1 to the VNF1 can be allocated to the VNF1 by the VIM2 or the VIM 3. The management node may thus determine VIM1 as the first VIM that satisfies the first condition.

Further, the management node determines, by using the above-described manner of determining whether the VIM1 is the first VIM that satisfies the first condition, the VIM2 and the VIM3 one by one, and determines that the VIM2 is also the first VIM that satisfies the first condition, that is, the resource allocated by the VIM2 for the VNF2 and the VNF3 managed by the VNFM may be allocated by the VIM3 for the VNF2 and the VNF 3.

It should be noted that, if only one VIM that allows connection release needs to be determined is set in the management node, after the management node determines that VIM1 is the first VIM, the management node may directly determine VIM1 as the VIM that allows connection release, without further determining VIM2 and VIM 3; or when the management node determines that VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3 are the first VIM, the management node may randomly select one of VIM1 and VIM2 as the VIM allowing the connection to be released, or may select one of VIM1 and VIM3 as the VIM allowing the connection to be released, where the VIM1 and VIM2 are the first VIM, which is not limited by the present invention.

If a plurality of VIMs that can determine that connection release is allowed are set in the management node, the management node may determine both VIM1 and VIM2 as VIMs that allow connection release because VIM3 can allocate resources allocated by VIM2 for VNF2 and VNF3 for VNF2 and VNF3 in the case that VNF1 can be allocated with resources allocated by VIM1 for VNF 1.

It is to be appreciated that if the VIM3 cannot simultaneously allocate resources allocated by the VIM1 and VIM2 for VNFs managed by the VNFM, the management node may select one of the VIMs 1 and VIM2 as the VIM that allows the connection to be released.

In a second mode, in order to ensure the data transmission quality between the VIM and the VNFM, a screening condition may be set in the management node. The management node may first select a VIM that satisfies the screening condition from VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3, and then determine whether the VIM that satisfies the screening condition is the first VIM that satisfies the first condition.

Among these, screening conditions may include, but are not limited to: one or more conditions of the VIM with the least resource amount, the VIM with the largest time delay, the VIM with the highest failure rate and the like are allocated to the VNF managed by the VNFM.

For example, it is assumed that the screening condition set in the management node includes a VIM that allocates the least amount of resources to the VNF managed by the VNFM.

The management node firstly obtains information of resources allocated by the VIM1, the VIM2 and the VIM3 for VNFs managed by the VNFM respectively by querying the resource mapping table, and compares resource amounts allocated by the VIM1, the VIM2 and the VIM3 for VNFs managed by the VNFM to determine a VIM with the minimum resource amount allocated for the VNF managed by the VNFM.

For example, VIM1 allocates 1 VM to VNF1, VIM2 allocates 1 VM to VNF2 and VNF3, and VIM3 allocates 2 VMs to VNF4 managed by the VNFM, and thus VIM1 is the VIM with the least amount of resources allocated to the VNF managed by the VNFM among VIM1, VIM2, and VIM 3.

Further, the management node acquires the remaining resource information of the VIM2 and the VIM3, and determines whether the VIM1 is the first VIM meeting the first condition according to the information of the resource allocated by the VIM1 to the VNF1 and the remaining resource information of the VIM2 and the VIM 3.

The way for the management node to determine whether VIM1 is the first VIM satisfying the first condition is the same as the way for the management node in the first mode to determine whether VIM1 is the first VIM satisfying the first condition, and details thereof are not repeated here.

It is appreciated that in mode two, if VIM1 is the first node, the management node may determine VIM1 as the VIM that allows the link to be released. If the VIM1 is not the first node, the management node may determine that none of the VIMs 1, VIM2, and VIM3 allow releasing the link, and the management node may not respond to the connection release request message sent by the VNFM.

S504, the management node sends a first connection release notification message to the VNFM, where the first connection release notification message carries the identifier of the VIM that is allowed to release the connection.

S505, after receiving the first connection release notification message, the VNFM determines the VIM allowing to release the connection according to the identifier of the VIM allowing to release the connection.

It can be understood that, after receiving the first connection release notification message, the VNFM may determine that the connection between the VNFM and the VIM allowing connection release is allowed to be released according to the identifier of the VIM allowing connection release, which is carried in the first connection release notification message, that is, the first connection release notification message is used to notify the VNFM to delete the information of the VIM allowing connection release, which is stored in the VNFM.

S506, the VNFM sends a second connection release notification message to the VIM that allows releasing the connection, where the second connection release notification message carries the identifier of the VNFM.

In this embodiment of the present invention, after the VNFM determines that the information of the connection release allowed VIM stored by the VNFM can be deleted, the VNFM first needs to send a second connection release notification message to the connection release allowed VIM through the connection with the connection release allowed VIM to notify the connection release allowed VIM that the information of the VNFM stored by the VNFM is also deleted.

S507, the VNFM deletes the information of the VIM allowing to release the connection, which is stored in the VNFM.

The information of the VIM allowing the connection to be released comprises an identifier of the VIM allowing the connection to be released and connection information, wherein the connection information comprises information such as an IP address, a URL, a user name, an authentication password and the like of the VIM allowing the connection to be released.

To this end, the VNFM successfully releases the connection of the VNFM to the VIM that allows the connection to be released.

S508, after the VIM allowing connection release receives the second connection release notification message, determining the VNFM according to the identifier of the VNFM.

It can be understood that, after receiving the second connection release notification message, the VIM allowing connection release may determine that the connection between the VIM and the VNFM is allowed to be released according to the identifier of the VNFM carried in the second connection release notification message, that is, the VIM allowing connection release may delete the information of the VNFM stored in the VIM allowing connection release.

S509, the VIM allowing connection release deletes the information of the VNFM saved in the VIM allowing connection release.

The information of the VNFM includes an identifier and connection information of the VNFM, and the connection information of the VNFM includes information such as an IP address, a URL, a user name, and an authentication password of the VNFM.

The release-allowed VIM also successfully releases the connection with the VNFM to this point.

It should be noted that the execution sequence between the above S507 and the above S508 and S509 is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

In a second possible manner of the second possible application scenario, as shown in fig. 7, the method may include:

s601, the VNFM determines that the number of the VIMs reaches a preset threshold value.

S602, the VNFM sends a connection release request message to the management node, where the connection release request message is used to request the management node to determine a VIM that allows releasing the connection.

S603, the management node determines, according to the connection release request message, a VIM that is allowed to release the connection from the plurality of VIMs.

S604, the management node sends a first connection release notification message to the VNFM, where the first connection release notification message carries the identifier of the VIM that is allowed to release the connection.

S605, after receiving the first connection release notification message, the VNFM determines the VIM allowing to release the connection according to the identifier of the VIM allowing to release the connection.

Specifically, the specific implementation manners of S601 to S605 are the same as the specific implementation manners of S501 to S505 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and the specific implementation manners of S601 to S605 may refer to the related descriptions in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and are not described herein again.

S606, the VNFM deletes the information of the VIM allowed to release the connection, which is stored in the VNFM.

To this end, the VNFM successfully releases the connection between the VNFM and the VIM that allows the connection to be released.

S607, the management node sends a second connection release notification message to the VIM that allows releasing the connection, where the second connection release notification message carries the identifier of the VNFM.

It should be noted that, in a second possible implementation manner of the second possible application scenario, after the management node determines a VIM that allows connection release from the multiple VIMs, the management node may directly send a second connection release notification message to the VIM that allows connection release, so as to notify the VIM that allows connection release to also delete the information that stores the VNFM.

S608, after the VIM allowing connection release receives the second connection release notification message, determining the VNFM according to the identifier of the VNFM.

S609, the VIM allowing connection release deletes the information of the VNFM saved in the VIM allowing connection release.

The specific implementation manners of S608 to S609 are the same as the specific implementation manners of S508 to S509 in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, and the specific implementation manners of S608 to S609 may refer to the related descriptions in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and are not described herein again.

It should be noted that, the execution sequence of the above S604 to S606 and the above S607 to S609 is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, after the VNFM and the connection release allowed VIM both successfully release the connection therebetween, the VNFM and the connection release allowed VIM may further send an acknowledgement message to the management node, so that the management node determines that the connection between the VNFM and the connection release allowed VIM has been successfully released, and the management node may update the resource mapping table.

In a second possible application scenario, with the method for releasing connection provided in the embodiment of the present invention, after determining that the number of the plurality of VIMs with which connection has been established reaches a preset threshold, the VNFM sends a connection release request message to the management node in time to request the management node to determine, from the plurality of VIMs, a VIM that allows connection release. When the management node determines the VIM allowing the connection to be released from the plurality of VIMs, the management node may notify the VNFM and the VIM allowing the connection to be released to release the connection between the VNFM and the VIM allowing the connection to be released, so as to save connection resources of the VNFM and the VIM allowing the connection to be released, and further when the VNFM needs to request another VIM with which the connection has not been established to allocate resources to the VNF managed by the VNFM, the VNFM has free connection resources to establish a connection with the other VIM, so that the VNFM can request the other VIM to allocate resources to the VNF.

In a third possible approach of the second possible application scenario, the VNFM can determine from the plurality of VIMs itself the VIM that is allowed to release the connection. Specifically, as shown in fig. 8, the method may include:

s701, the VNFM determines that the number of the VIMs reaches a preset threshold value.

S702, the VNFM determines a VIM from the plurality of VIMs that is allowed to release the connection.

Specifically, the VNFM records a resource application situation of the VNFM and a connection establishment situation with the VIM, so that the VNFM can first determine whether a VIM that has no resource management relationship with the VIM exists in the VIMs.

If the VNFM determines that a VIM without a resource management relationship exists in the plurality of VIMs, the VNFM determines the VIM without the resource management relationship as the VIM allowing the connection to be released.

If the VNFM determines that there is no VIM of the plurality of VIMs with which there is no resource management relationship, the VNFM determines a first VIM of the plurality of VIMs that satisfies a first condition as a VIM that is allowed to release the connection.

Specifically, the specific implementation manner of the VNFM determining the first VIM, which satisfies the first condition, of the VIMs as the VIM allowing the connection to be released is similar to the specific implementation manner of the management node determining the first VIM, which satisfies the first condition, of the VIMs as the VIM allowing the connection to be released in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and the specific implementation manner of the VNFM determining the first VIM, which satisfies the first condition, of the VIMs as the VIM allowing the connection to be released may join in the relevant description in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and is not described herein again.

It should be noted that, in the process of determining, by the VNFM, a first VIM that satisfies the first condition among the VIMs as a VIM that allows the release of the connection, the VNFM needs to acquire information of remaining resources of the VIMs and information of resources allocated to the VNF managed by the VNFM. In the embodiment of the present invention, since the VNFM records the situation that the VNFM requests the resources from the plurality of VIMs, the VNFM can directly obtain the information of the resources allocated by the plurality of VIMs to the VNF managed by the VNFM.

Further, the VNFM needs to obtain the remaining resource information of the VIMs by sending a remaining resource query message to the VIMs. Specifically, the VNFM acquires the remaining resource information of the VIMs by sending the remaining resource query message to the VIMs in the same manner as that in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, where the management node sends the remaining resource query message to the VIM1 to acquire the remaining resource information of the VIM1, and reference may be specifically made to the related description in the embodiment shown in fig. 6.

S703, the VNFM sends a second connection release notification message to the VIM that allows releasing the connection, where the second connection release notification message carries the identifier of the VNFM.

S704, the VNFM deletes the information of the VIM allowing to release the connection, which is stored in the VNFM.

S705, after the VIM allowing connection release receives the second connection release notification message, determining the VNFM according to the identifier of the VNFM.

S706, the VIM allowing connection release deletes the information of the VNFM saved in the VIM allowing connection release.

Specifically, the specific implementation manner of S703-S706 is the same as the implementation manner of S506-S509 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and the specific implementation manner of S703-S706 may refer to the related description in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and is not described herein again.

In a second possible application scenario, by the method for releasing connection provided in the embodiment of the present invention, after determining that the number of the VIMs with which the VNFM has established connection reaches a preset threshold, the VNFM automatically determines the VIMs, selects a VIM that allows connection release from the VIMs, and releases the connection with the VIM that allows connection release, so as to save connection resources of the VNFM, and further, when the VNFM needs to request other VIMs with which connection has not been established to allocate resources to a VNF managed by the VNFM, the VNFM has idle connection resources to establish connection with the other VIMs, so that the VNFM can request the other VIMs to allocate resources to the VNF.

On the other hand, before the VNFM releases the connection with the connection release allowed VIM, the connection release allowed VIM is also notified to release the connection between the VNFM and the connection release allowed VIM, so that connection resources of the connection release allowed VIM are saved.

In a third possible application scenario, the VIM initiates the connection release procedure. In the NFV system, since the number of VNFMs that can establish a connection with the VIM is limited, when the VIM determines that the number of VNFMs with which a connection has been established reaches a threshold value, a connection release procedure needs to be initiated. Then, in a second possible application scenario, the first node is a VIM, the second nodes are VNFMs, and all of the VNFMs are VNFMs that have established a connection with the VIM.

Specifically, in a first possible manner of the third possible application scenario, as shown in fig. 9, the method may include:

s801, the VIM determines that the number of the VNFMs reaches a preset threshold value.

The preset threshold may be the maximum number of VNFMs that can establish a connection with the VIM, or a threshold that is smaller than the maximum number and is set according to a requirement of network maintenance in practice.

Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, the VIM may periodically determine whether the number of VNFMs establishing connection with the VIM reaches a preset threshold. The VIM may also determine whether the number of VNFMs with which a connection has been established reaches a preset threshold after each connection with a new VNFM is established.

S802, the VIM sends a connection release request message to the management node, where the connection release request message is used to request the management node to determine a VNFM allowed to release the connection.

Specifically, when the VIM determines that the number of the VNFMs reaches the threshold value, the VIM may send a connection release request message to the management node to request the management node to determine, from the VNFMs, a VNFM allowing to release the connection.

S803, the management node determines, according to the connection release request message, a VNFM allowed to release the connection from the plurality of VNFMs.

In this embodiment of the present invention, after the management node receives the connection release request message sent by the VIM, the management node determines that it is necessary to determine a VNFM allowed to release a connection from among multiple VNFMs that have already established a connection with the VIM.

Specifically, the management node may first determine whether a VNFM that has no resource management relationship with the VIM exists in the plurality of VNFMs by querying a resource mapping table set in the management node.

If the management node determines that a VNFM which has no resource management relationship with the VIM exists in the plurality of VNFMs, the management node determines a VNFM which has no resource management relationship with the VIM in the plurality of VNFMs as a VNFM which allows the connection to be released.

If the management node determines that no VNFM having no resource management relationship with the VIM exists in the plurality of VNFMs, the management node determines a first VNFM of the plurality of VNFMs that meets a second condition as a VNFM allowing connection release.

Wherein the second condition is that the resource allocated by the VIM to the VNF managed by a first VNFM of the plurality of VNFMs is allowed to be allocated to the VNF by another VIM that has established a connection with the first VNFM.

To better explain that the management node determines the first VNFM of the plurality of VNFMs, which satisfies the second condition, as the VNFM allowing to release the connection, the example explanation will be given below by taking VIM4, VNFM1, VNFM2, and VNFM3 as examples.

Assuming that the plurality of VNFMs that have established connection with the VIM4 include VNFM1, VNFM2, and VNFM3, when the management node determines that no VNFM that has no resource management relationship with the VIM4 exists in VNFM1, VNFM2, and VNFM3, the management node may determine a VNFM that allows connection release from VNFM1, VNFM2, and VNFM3 in the following two ways.

In the first mode, the management node first determines whether VNFM1 is the first VNFM that satisfies the second condition, assuming that, in addition to VIM4, VNFM1 establishes a connection with VIM5 and VIM 6.

The management node obtains information of resources allocated by the VIM4 for the VNFs managed by the VNFM1, and information of remaining resources of the VIM5 and VIM 6.

Specifically, the way in which the management node obtains the information of the resources allocated by the VIM4 for the VNF managed by the VNFM1 may be, as shown in fig. 6, the way in which the management node obtains the information of the resources allocated by the VIM1 for the VNF managed by the VNFM respectively; the way for the management node to obtain the information of the remaining resources of VIM5 and VIM6 may refer to the way for the management node to obtain the information of the remaining resources of VIM1, respectively, in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and is not described herein again.

The management node may first compare the information of the resources allocated by the VIM4 to the VNF managed by the VNFM1 with the information of the remaining resources of the VIM5 and the VIM6, respectively, and if at least one of the VIM5 and the VIM6 has the information of the remaining resources of the VIM4 that can satisfy the information of the resources allocated by the VNF managed by the VNFM1, the management node determines that the VNFM1 is the first VNFM that satisfies the second condition.

For example, it is assumed that the VIM4 allocates 1 a-type VM to the VNF5 managed by the VNFM1, the remaining resources of the VIM5 include 1 a-type VM, and the remaining resources of the VIM6 include 2 a-type VMs. Since the information of the remaining resources of the VIM5 and the VIM6 can both satisfy the information of the resource allocated by the VIM4 to the VNF5, that is, the resource allocated by the VIM4 to the VNF5 can be allocated by the VIM5 or the VIM6 to the VNF5, the management node may determine the VNFM1 as the first VNFM satisfying the second condition.

Further, the management node determines, by using the above-described manner of determining whether the VNFM1 is the first VNFM meeting the second condition, the VNFM2 and the VNFM3 one by one, and determines that the VIM4 allocates resources to the VNF managed by the VNFM2, or may determine that the VNFM2 is also the first VNFM meeting the second condition, because another VIM that has established a connection with the VNFM2 is allocated to the VNF managed by the VNFM 2.

It should be noted that, when there is no VNFM that has no resource management relationship with the VIM in the multiple VNFMs, if it is set in the management node that only one VNFM allowing connection release is to be determined, after the management node determines that VNFM1 is the first VNFM, the management node may directly determine VNFM1 as the VNFM allowing connection release, without further determining VNFM2 and VNFM 3; or when the management node determines that VNFM1, VNFM2, and VNFM3 are the first VNFM one by one, after determining that VNFM1 and VNFM2 are the first VNFM, the management node may randomly select one of VNFM1 or VNFM2 as the VNFM allowing the connection to be released, or may select one of VNFM1 or VNFM2 as the VNFM allowing the connection to be released, where the VNFM has a poor data transmission quality with VIM4, which is not limited by the present invention.

If a plurality of VNFMs that can determine that connection release is allowed are set in the management node, the management node may determine both VNFM1 and VNFM2 as VNFMs that allow connection release.

In a second mode, in order to ensure the data transmission quality between the VIM and the VNFM, a screening condition may be set in the management node. The management node may first select a VNFM that satisfies the screening condition from VNFM1, VNFM2, and VNFM3, and then determine whether the VNFM that satisfies the screening condition is the first VNFM that satisfies the second condition.

Among these, screening conditions may include, but are not limited to: the VNFM occupying the least amount of resources, the VNFM with the largest time delay and the like.

For example, it is assumed that the screening condition set in the management node includes a VNFM that occupies the least amount of resources.

The management node firstly queries the resource mapping table to obtain information of resources allocated by the VIM4 to VNFs managed by the VNFM1, the VNFM2, and the VNFM3, and determines the amount of resources occupied by the VNFM1, the VNFM2, and the VNFM3, that is, determines the amount of resources allocated to VNFs managed by the VIM4 to VNFM1, VNFM2, and VNFM 3. The management node compares the occupied resource amounts of the VNFM1, the VNFM2 and the VNFM3 to determine the VNFM with the minimum occupied resource amount.

For example, the VIM4 allocates 1 VM to the VNF managed by the VNFM1, and allocates 2 VMs to the VNFs managed by the VNFM2 and the VNFM3, and therefore, the management node determines that the VNFM1 is the VNFM that occupies the least amount of resources.

Further, the management node obtains information of remaining resources of the VIM5 and the VIM6 that have established a connection with the VNFM1, and compares the information of the resources allocated by the VIM4 for the VNF managed by the VNFM1 with information of remaining resources of the VIM5 and the VIM6, respectively, and if there is at least one of the VIM5 and the VIM6 whose remaining resource information can satisfy the information of the resources allocated by the VIM4 for the VNF managed by the VNFM1, the management node determines that the VNFM1 is the first VNFM that satisfies the second condition.

It should be noted that, if the VNFM1 is the first VNFM that satisfies the second condition, the management node determines that the VNFM1 is the VNFM that allows the connection to be released; if the VNFM1 is not the first VNFM that satisfies the second condition, the management node determines that none of the VNFMs 1, VNFM2, and VNFM3 allows the connection to be released, and the management node may not respond to the connection release request message sent by the VIM 4.

Further, in the second mode, there may be a plurality of VNFMs that satisfy the screening condition, and there may also be a plurality of first VNFMs in the plurality of VNFMs that satisfy the screening condition, and the management node may use all of the plurality of first VNFMs as VNFMs that allow releasing the connection, or may randomly select one first VNFM as a VNFM that allows releasing the connection, which is not limited to the embodiment of the present invention.

S804, the management node sends a first connection release notification message to the VIM, where the first connection release notification message carries the identifier of the VNFM allowed to release the connection.

In this embodiment of the present invention, after the management node determines, from the plurality of VNFMs, a VNFM allowing connection release, the management node may notify the VIM that the connection with the VNFM allowing connection release may be released, that is, the first connection release notification message is used to notify the VIM to delete the information of the VNFM allowing connection release, which is stored by the VIM.

S805, after receiving the first connection release notification message, the VIM determines the VNFM allowed to release the connection according to the identifier of the VNFM allowed to release the connection.

It can be understood that, after receiving the first connection release notification message, the VIM may determine that the connection between the VIM and the VNFM allowing the release of the connection is allowed to be released according to the identifier of the VNFM allowing the release of the connection, which is carried in the first connection release notification message, that is, the VIM determines that the information of the VNFM allowing the release of the connection, which is stored by the VIM, may be deleted.

S806, the VIM sends a second connection release notification message to the VNFM allowing connection release, where the second connection release notification message carries an identifier of the VIM.

In this embodiment of the present invention, after the VIM determines that the information of the VNFM allowing connection release that it stores can be deleted, the VIM first needs to send a second connection release notification message to the VNFM allowing connection release through a connection with the VNFM allowing connection release to notify the VNFM allowing connection release, and also delete the information of the VNFM allowing connection release that it stores.

S807, the VIM deletes the information of the VNFM allowing the connection to be released, which is stored in the VIM.

To this end, the VIM successfully releases the connection of the VIM to the VNFM that allows the connection to be released.

And S808, after receiving the second connection release notification message, determining the VIM according to the identifier of the VIM.

It can be understood that, after receiving the second connection release notification message, the VNFM allowed to release the connection may determine that the connection between the VNFM allowed to release the connection and the VIM is allowed to be released according to the identifier of the VIM carried in the second connection release notification message, that is, the VNFM allowed to release the connection may delete the information of the VIM stored in the VNFM allowed to release the connection.

S809, the release-allowed VNFM deletes the VIM information stored in the release-allowed VNFM.

The VNFM that allows the connection to be released has also succeeded in releasing the connection with the VIM so far.

It should be noted that, the execution sequence between the above S807 and the above S808 and S809 is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

In a second possible manner of the third possible application scenario, as shown in fig. 10, the method may include:

s901, the VIM determines that the number of the VNFMs reaches a preset threshold value.

S902, the VIM sends a connection release request message to the management node, where the connection release request message is used to request the management node to determine a VNFM allowed to release the connection.

S903, the management node determines, according to the connection release request message, a VNFM allowed to release the connection from the plurality of VNFMs.

S904, the management node sends a first connection release notification message to the VIM, where the first connection release notification message carries the identifier of the VNFM allowed to release the connection.

S905, after receiving the first connection release notification message, the VIM determines the VNFM allowed to release the connection according to the identifier of the VNFM allowed to release the connection.

Specifically, the specific implementation manners of the above S901 to S905 are the same as the specific implementation manners of S801 to S805 in the embodiment shown in fig. 9, and the specific implementation manners of the above S901 to S905 may refer to the related descriptions in the embodiment shown in fig. 9, and are not described again here.

S906, the VIM deletes the information of the VNFM allowing to release the connection, which is stored in the VIM.

S907, the management node sends a second connection release notification message to the VNFM allowing to release the connection, where the second connection release notification message carries the identifier of the VIM.

It should be noted that, in a second possible implementation manner of the third possible application scenario, after the management node determines a VNFM allowing connection release from the multiple VNFMs, the management node may directly send a second connection release notification message to the VNFM allowing connection release, so as to notify the VNFM allowing connection release that also deletes information of the VNFM storing the VIM.

S908, after the VNFM allowing to release the connection receives the second connection release notification message, determining the VIM according to the identifier of the VIM.

S909, the release-allowed VNFM deletes the VIM information stored in the release-allowed VNFM.

It should be noted that, the execution sequence of the above S904-S906 and the above S907-S909 is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, after both the VIM and the VNFM allowed to release the connection successfully release the connection therebetween, the VIM and the VNFM allowed to release the connection may further send an acknowledgement message to the management node, so that the management node determines that the connection between the VIM and the VNFM allowed to release the connection has been successfully released, and the management node may update the resource mapping table.

In a third possible application scenario, with the method for releasing connection provided in the embodiment of the present invention, after determining that the number of the multiple VNFMs with which connection has been established reaches a preset threshold, the VIM sends a connection release request message to the management node in time to request the management node to determine, from the multiple VNFMs, a VNFM allowing connection release. After the management node determines the VNFM allowing connection release from the plurality of VNFMs, the management node may notify the VIM and the VNFM allowing connection release to release the connection between the VIM and the VNFM allowing connection release, so as to save connection resources of the VIM and the VNFM allowing connection release, and further when other VNFMs that have not yet established connection with the VIM request the VIM to allocate resources for VNFs managed by the other VNFMs, the VIM has free connection resources to establish connection with the other VNFMs, so that the VIM can allocate resources for the VNFs.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for releasing connection, which comprises the steps that a first node determines a second node which is allowed to release connection from a plurality of second nodes, and deletes the information of the second node which is stored in the first node and is allowed to release connection, wherein the plurality of second nodes are nodes which are already connected with the first node. By the method, the first node releases the connection between the second nodes which are allowed to release the connection, so that the connection resources of the first node are saved, the first node has idle connection resources to establish new connection with other second nodes, and the first node can communicate with the other second nodes.

EXAMPLE III

As shown in fig. 11, an embodiment of the present invention provides a device for releasing a connection, where the device for releasing a connection may be an entity device of a first node as shown in fig. 2 or in an embodiment shown in any one of fig. 4 to fig. 10, or may be an entity device in which a logic function module capable of executing a method flow that can be executed by the first node in an NFV system is located, where the entity device may be independently installed in the entity device of the first node, or may be an entity device capable of communicating with the entity device of the first node. The apparatus may also be presented in the form of a chip, where an application program that can implement the method flow that can be executed by the first node is carried in the chip.

The means for releasing the connection may comprise:

a determining unit 10, configured to determine a second node that allows releasing a connection from a plurality of second nodes, where the plurality of second nodes are nodes that have established a connection with the first node.

A deleting unit 11, configured to delete the information of the second node allowing connection release, which is stored in the first node and determined by the determining unit 10.

Optionally, the determining unit 10 is specifically configured to receive a first connection release notification message sent by a management node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

The determining unit 10 is specifically configured to determine the second node allowing the connection to be released according to the identifier of the second node allowing the connection to be released.

Optionally, with reference to fig. 11, as shown in fig. 12, the connection releasing apparatus further includes a sending unit 12.

The sending unit 12 is configured to send a connection release request message to the management node before the determining unit 10 receives the first connection release notification message sent by the management node, where the connection release request message is used to request the management node to determine the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

Optionally, the first node is a VNFM, and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs; or the first node is a VIM and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VNFMs.

Optionally, the first node is a VNFM, and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VIMs.

If there is a VIM that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM in the plurality of VIMs, the second node that allows connection release determined by the determining unit 10 is the VIM that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM in the plurality of VIMs.

Alternatively, if there is no VIM having no resource management relationship with the VNFM from the plurality of VIMs, the second node allowing connection release determined by the determining unit 10 is the first VIM satisfying the first condition.

Optionally, the sending unit 12 is further configured to send, after the determining unit 10 determines a second node that allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, a second connection release notification message to the second node that allows connection release before the deleting unit 11 deletes information of the second node that allows connection release and is stored in the first node, where the second connection release notification message carries an identifier of the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used to notify the second node that allows connection release and delete information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node and stored in the second node that allows connection release.

Embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus for releasing a connection, which is capable of determining a second node that is allowed to release a connection from a plurality of second nodes, and deleting information of the second node that is stored in a first node and allowed to release the connection, where the plurality of second nodes are nodes that have established a connection with the first node. By the device provided by the embodiment of the invention, the first node can release the connection with the second node which is allowed to release the connection, so that the connection resource of the first node is saved, the first node has the idle connection resource to establish the new connection with other second nodes, and the first node can communicate with other second nodes.

As shown in fig. 13, an embodiment of the present invention provides a device for releasing a connection, where the device for releasing a connection may be an entity device of a management node in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to fig. 7 or in any one of fig. 9 to fig. 10, or may be an entity device in which a logic function module capable of executing a method flow that can be executed by the management node in an NFV system is located, and the entity device may be independently installed in the entity device of the management node, or may be an entity device capable of communicating with the entity device of the management node. The device may also be presented in the form of a chip, in which an application program that can implement the method flow that the management node can execute is carried.

The means for releasing the connection may comprise:

a determining unit 20, configured to determine a second node that allows releasing a connection from a plurality of second nodes, where the plurality of second nodes are nodes that have established a connection with the first node.

A sending unit 21, configured to send a first connection release notification message to the first node, where the first connection release notification message carries the identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection and is determined by the determining unit 20, and the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node to delete the information of the second node that is allowed to release the connection and is stored in the first node.

Optionally, if there is a second node having no resource management relationship with the first node in the plurality of second nodes, the second node determined by the determining unit 20, which allows to release the connection, is a second node having no resource management relationship with the first node in the plurality of second nodes.

Optionally, in conjunction with fig. 13, as shown in fig. 14, the connection releasing apparatus further includes a receiving unit 22.

The receiving unit 22 is configured to receive a connection release request message sent by the first node before the determining unit 20 determines the second node that is allowed to release the connection from the plurality of second nodes, where the connection release request message is used to request the determining unit to determine the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

The determining unit 20 is specifically configured to determine, according to the connection release request message received by the receiving unit 22, a second node that is allowed to release a connection from the plurality of second nodes.

If there is no VIM having no resource management relationship with the VNFM from the plurality of VIMs, the second node allowing connection release determined by the determining unit 20 is the first VIM satisfying the first condition.

Optionally, the first node is a VIM, and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VNFMs.

If there is no VNFM that has no resource management relationship with the VIM in the plurality of VNFMs, the second node that allows connection release determined by the determining unit 20 is the first VNFM that satisfies the second condition.

Optionally, the sending unit 21 is further configured to send, after the determining unit 20 determines a second node that allows connection release from the plurality of second nodes, a second connection release notification message to the second node that allows connection release, where the second connection release notification message carries an identifier of the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used to notify the second node that allows connection release, and delete the information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node stored in the second node that allows connection release.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a device for releasing a connection, which is capable of determining a second node that allows a connection to be released from a plurality of second nodes, and sending a first connection release notification message to a first node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that allows the connection to be released, the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node, and delete information of the second node that allows the connection to be released and is stored in the first node, and the plurality of second nodes are nodes that have established a connection with the first node.

By the device for releasing connection provided by the embodiment of the invention, the management node can select a proper second node from a plurality of second nodes which have already established connection with the first node, and timely inform the first node of releasing connection with the second node, so as to save connection resources of the first node, so that the first node has idle connection resources to establish new connection with other second nodes, and further, the first node can communicate with other second nodes.

Example four

As shown in fig. 15, an embodiment of the present invention provides a device for releasing a connection, where the device for releasing a connection may be the entity device where the first node is located in the foregoing embodiment, or may be an entity device capable of communicating with the entity device where the first node is located. The apparatus for releasing connection may be configured to execute a method flow that can be executed by the first node, and specifically, the apparatus for releasing connection may include: a processor 30, a memory 31, a communication interface 32, and a system bus 33. The processor 30, the memory 31 and the communication interface 32 are connected by the system bus 33 to complete mutual communication.

The processor 30 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present invention.

The memory 31 may include a volatile memory (RAM), such as a random-access memory (RAM); the memory 31 may also include a non-volatile memory (ROM), such as a read-only memory (read-only memory), a flash memory (flash memory), a hard disk (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD); the memory 31 may also comprise a combination of memories of the kind described above.

The communication interface 32 is used for interacting with other nodes, for example, with a second node, a management node, and other functional nodes.

When the apparatus for releasing connection is running, the processor 30 and the memory 31 may execute the method flow illustrated in fig. 2, or illustrated in any one of fig. 4 to fig. 10, specifically including:

the processor 30 is configured to determine a second node that is allowed to release a connection from a plurality of second nodes, and delete information of the second node that is allowed to release a connection and is stored in the first node, where the plurality of second nodes are nodes that have established a connection with the first node; the memory 31 is configured to store the code of the information of the second node that allows the connection to be released, and a software program that controls the processor 30 to complete the above process, so that the processor 30 completes the above process by executing the software program and calling the code of the information of the second node that allows the connection to be released.

Optionally, the processor 30 is specifically configured to receive a first connection release notification message sent by a management node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

The processor 30 is specifically configured to determine the second node allowing the connection to be released according to the identifier of the second node allowing the connection to be released.

Optionally, the processor 30 is further configured to send a connection release request message to the management node before receiving the first connection release notification message sent by the management node, where the connection release request message is used to request the management node to determine the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

Optionally, the first node is a VNFM, and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of virtual machine infrastructure management nodes VIM; or the first node is a VIM and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of VNFMs.

If there is a VIM in the plurality of VIMs that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM, the second node that allows the connection to be released determined by the processor 30 is the VIM in the plurality of VIMs that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM.

Alternatively, if there is no VIM in the plurality of VIMs that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM, the second node that allows releasing the connection determined by the processor 30 is the first VIM that satisfies the first condition.

Optionally, the processor 30 is further configured to send a second connection release notification message to the second node allowing connection release after determining a second node allowing connection release from the plurality of second nodes, where the second connection release notification message carries an identifier of the first node, and before deleting the information of the second node allowing connection release, which is stored in the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used to notify the second node allowing connection release, and delete the information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node, which is stored in the second node allowing connection release.

As shown in fig. 16, an apparatus for releasing a connection according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided, where the apparatus for releasing a connection may be an entity apparatus where a management node is located in the foregoing embodiment, or may be an entity apparatus capable of communicating with the entity apparatus where the management node is located. The connection releasing apparatus may be capable of executing a method flow that can be executed by the management node, and specifically, the connection releasing apparatus may include: a processor 40, a memory 41, a communication interface 42, and a system bus 43. The processor 40, the memory 41 and the communication interface 42 are connected via the system bus 43 to complete communication therebetween.

The processor 40 may be a CPU, or ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present invention.

The memory 41 may include volatile memory, such as RAM; the memory 41 may also include a nonvolatile memory such as a ROM, a flash memory, an HDD, or an SSD; the memory 41 may also comprise a combination of memories of the kind described above.

The communication interface 42 is used for interacting with other nodes, for example with a functional node, such as the first node.

When the apparatus for releasing connection is running, the processor 40 and the memory 41 may execute the method flows illustrated in fig. 3 to 7 or illustrated in any one of fig. 9 to 10, which specifically includes:

a processor 40, configured to determine a second node that allows connection release from multiple second nodes, and send a first connection release notification message to the first node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that allows connection release, and the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node and delete information of the second node that allows connection release stored in the first node, and the multiple second nodes are nodes that have established connection with the first node; the memory 41 is configured to store the code of the first connection release notification message, the code of the identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection, and a software program that controls the processor 40 to complete the above process, so that the processor 40 completes the above process by executing the software program and calling the code of the first connection release notification message and the code of the identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

Optionally, if there is a second node having no resource management relationship with the first node in the plurality of second nodes, the second node determined by the processor 40 to allow the connection release is the second node having no resource management relationship with the first node in the plurality of second nodes.

Optionally, the processor 40 is further configured to receive a connection release request message sent by the first node before the determining unit determines the second node that is allowed to release the connection from the plurality of second nodes, where the connection release request message is used to request the determining unit to determine the second node that is allowed to release the connection.

The processor 40 is specifically configured to determine, according to the connection release request message, a second node that is allowed to release a connection from the plurality of second nodes.

If there is no VIM in the plurality of VIMs that has no resource management relationship with the VNFM, the second node that allows releasing the connection determined by the processor 40 is the first VIM that satisfies the first condition.

If no VNFM having no resource management relationship with the VIM exists in the plurality of VNFMs, the second node allowing connection release determined by the processor 40 is the first VNFM meeting a second condition.

Optionally, the processor 40 is further configured to send a second connection release notification message to the second node that allows connection release after determining the second node that allows connection release from the plurality of second nodes, where the second connection release notification message carries an identifier of the first node, and the second connection release notification message is used to notify the second node that allows connection release, and delete the information of the first node indicated by the identifier of the first node stored in the second node that allows connection release.

EXAMPLE five

As shown in fig. 17, an embodiment of the present invention provides a communication system, which may include an apparatus for releasing a connection as shown in fig. 11 or fig. 12, an apparatus for releasing a connection as shown in fig. 13 or fig. 14, and a second node; alternatively, the communication system may comprise means for releasing a connection as shown in fig. 15, means for releasing a connection as shown in fig. 16, and the second node.

Wherein, the means for releasing connection shown in fig. 11, the means for releasing connection shown in fig. 12, and the means for releasing connection shown in fig. 15 can be all referred to as a first node; the means for releasing a connection as shown in fig. 13, the means for releasing a connection as shown in fig. 14, and the means for releasing a connection as shown in fig. 16 may be referred to as management nodes.

The first node in the communication system provided by the embodiment of the invention can determine the second node which allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, and delete the information of the second node which allows connection release and is stored in the first node; the management node can determine a second node which allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, and send a first connection release notification message to the first node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node which allows connection release, and the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node and delete information of the second node which allows connection release and is stored in the first node. Wherein the plurality of second nodes are nodes that have established a connection with the first node.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the first node may be a VNFM or a VIM. Specifically, when the first node is the VNFM, the second node is the VIM, and the VIM has established a connection with the VNFM; when the first node is a VIM, the second node is a VNFM, and the VNFM has established a connection with the VIM.

It can be understood that, in the communication system provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the first node may be capable of executing the method for releasing connection as described in any one of fig. 2 to fig. 10, and the specific functions and the flow of the execution method of each module or device in the first node may refer to the description in the embodiment shown in any one of fig. 2 to fig. 10, and are not described herein again.

The management node in the communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention may be configured to execute the method for releasing connection as shown in any one of fig. 3 to fig. 7 or fig. 9 to fig. 10, and the specific functions of each module or device in the management node and the flow of the execution method may refer to the descriptions in the embodiments shown in any one of fig. 3 to fig. 7 or fig. 9 to fig. 10, which are not described herein again.

Through the communication system provided by the embodiment of the invention, the management node can select a proper second node from the plurality of second nodes which are connected with the first node, and timely inform the first node of releasing the connection with the second node, so that the connection resource of the first node is saved, the first node has an idle connection resource to establish a new connection with other second nodes, and the first node can communicate with other second nodes.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and simplicity of description, the foregoing division of the functional modules is merely used as an example, and in practical applications, the above function distribution may be performed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different functional modules to perform all or part of the above described functions. For the specific working processes of the system, the apparatus and the unit described above, reference may be made to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not described here again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules or units is only one logical division, and there may be other divisions when actually implemented, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for releasing connection, the method is applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) system, and the method comprises the following steps:

the first node deletes the information of the second node which allows the connection to be released and is stored in the first node;

wherein the first node is a virtual network function management node, VNFM, and the second nodes are virtual machine infrastructure management nodes, VIM,

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first node determining a second node from a plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release a connection, comprising:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein before the first node receives the first connection release notification message sent by the management node, the method further comprises:

4. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein after the first node determines a second node from a plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release the connection, before the first node deletes the information of the second node that is allowed to release the connection, which is stored in the first node, the method further comprises:

5. A method for releasing connection, the method is applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) system, and the method comprises the following steps:

wherein the first node is a virtual machine infrastructure management node, VIM, and the second nodes are virtual network function management nodes, VNFM,

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first node determining a second node from a plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release a connection, comprising:

7. The method of claim 6, wherein before the first node receives the first connection release notification message sent by the management node, the method further comprises:

8. The method according to any of claims 5-7, wherein after the first node determines a second node from a plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release the connection, before the first node deletes the information of the second node that is allowed to release the connection, which is stored in the first node, the method further comprises:

9. A method for releasing connection, the method is applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) system, and the method comprises the following steps:

the management node determines a second node which allows the connection to be released from a plurality of second nodes, wherein the plurality of second nodes are nodes which establish connection with the first node; wherein the first node is a virtual network function management node (VNFM) and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of virtual machine infrastructure management nodes (VIM);

the management node sends a first connection release notification message to the first node, wherein the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node which is allowed to release the connection, and the first connection release notification message is used for notifying the first node and deleting the information of the second node which is allowed to release the connection and is stored in the first node;

10. The method of claim 9,

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein before the managing node determines the second node from the plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release the connection, the method further comprises:

12. The method according to any of claims 9-10, wherein after the managing node determines a second node from the plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release the connection, the method further comprises:

13. The method of claim 11, wherein after the management node determines a second node from the plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release the connection, the method further comprises:

14. A method for releasing connection, the method is applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) system, and the method comprises the following steps:

the management node determines a second node which allows the connection to be released from a plurality of second nodes, wherein the plurality of second nodes are nodes which establish connection with the first node; the first node is a virtual machine infrastructure management node (VIM), and the second nodes are virtual network function management nodes (VNFM);

15. The method of claim 14,

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein before the managing node determines the second node from the plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release the connection, the method further comprises:

17. The method according to any of claims 14-15, wherein after the managing node determines a second node from the plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release the connection, the method further comprises:

18. The method of claim 16, wherein after the management node determines a second node from the plurality of second nodes that is allowed to release the connection, the method further comprises:

19. An apparatus for releasing connection, the apparatus being applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) system, the apparatus comprising:

a determining unit configured to determine a second node that allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, the plurality of second nodes being nodes that have established a connection with the first node; wherein the first node is a virtual network function management node (VNFM) and the plurality of second nodes are a plurality of virtual machine infrastructure management nodes (VIM);

a deleting unit configured to delete the information of the second node permitted to release the connection, which is determined by the determining unit and stored in the first node;

20. The device for releasing a connection according to claim 19,

21. The apparatus for releasing connection according to claim 20, further comprising a transmitting unit,

22. Device for releasing a connection according to any of claims 19 to 21,

23. An apparatus for releasing connection, the apparatus being applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) system, the apparatus comprising:

a determining unit configured to determine a second node that allows connection release from a plurality of second nodes, the plurality of second nodes being nodes that have established a connection with the first node; the first node is a virtual machine infrastructure management node (VIM), and the second nodes are virtual network function management nodes (VNFM);

24. The device for releasing a connection according to claim 23,

25. The apparatus for releasing connection according to claim 24, further comprising a transmitting unit,

26. The device for releasing a connection according to any one of claims 23 to 25,

27. An apparatus for releasing connection, the apparatus being applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) system, the apparatus comprising:

a sending unit, configured to send a first connection release notification message to the first node, where the first connection release notification message carries an identifier of the second node that is allowed to release the connection and is determined by the determining unit, and the first connection release notification message is used to notify the first node and delete information of the second node that is allowed to release the connection and is stored in the first node;

28. The device for releasing a connection according to claim 27,

29. The device for releasing a connection according to claim 27 or 28, further comprising a receiving unit,

30. The device for releasing a connection according to any one of claims 27 to 28,

31. The device for releasing a connection according to claim 29,

32. An apparatus for releasing connection, the apparatus being applied to a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) system, the apparatus comprising:

33. The device for releasing a connection according to claim 32,

34. The device for releasing a connection according to claim 32 or 33, further comprising a receiving unit,

35. The device for releasing a connection according to any one of claims 32 to 33,

36. The device for releasing a connection according to claim 34,

37. A communication system, comprising:

a device for releasing a connection according to any of claims 19 to 22 and a device for releasing a connection according to any of claims 27 to 31.

38. A communication system, comprising:

a device for releasing a connection according to any of claims 23-26 and a device for releasing a connection according to any of claims 32-36.