CN107959970B

CN107959970B - Method, system and related equipment for acquiring position information of VoWiFi user

Info

Publication number: CN107959970B
Application number: CN201610901825.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 沈骁; 邵震; 钮颖彬; 黄国瑾; 刘琛
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2016-10-17
Filing date: 2016-10-17
Publication date: 2020-08-18
Anticipated expiration: 2036-10-17
Also published as: CN107959970A

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and a system for acquiring position information of a VoWiFi user and an evolution packet data gateway, and relates to the technical field of wireless communication. The invention adopts the network equipment virtualization technology to configure a plurality of virtual machines on the evolution packet data gateway to realize the virtualized evolution packet data gateway (vePDG), different virtual machines correspond to VoWiFi data of different area networks, and when the edge network element of the IMS core network inquires the position information of a user, the information of the corresponding area network can be determined by acquiring the identification of the virtual machine, so that the position information of the user is acquired and added into the subsequent call signaling, thereby solving the problem that the position information of the VoWiFi user cannot be acquired and improving the user experience.

Description

Method, system and related equipment for acquiring position information of VoWiFi user

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a method and a system for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user, and an evolved packet data gateway.

Background

LTE (Long Term Evolution ) provides voice services through IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), and it is difficult to provide continuous coverage at the initial stage of deployment, and in order to accelerate voice service deployment, some operators consider accessing an IMS network through WLAN, thereby extending LTE coverage and further achieving the purpose of enhancing IMS voice service coverage. The WLAN can access the IMS network through three modes, i.e., S2a mode, S2b mode, and S2c mode. Among them, the S2b access method is based on non-trusted WLAN access, has no requirement for the WLAN network itself, and can maximally utilize various existing WLAN hotspots, and thus is widely used for VoWiFi (voice service based on WiFi).

In the current VoWiFi technical solution, a user can only report a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a current AP (Access Point, wireless Access Point) in a calling process, and the MAC address of the AP is different from a CELL ID (CELL identifier) of an LTE base station, but is not planned by an operator, so that location information of the user cannot be obtained, which easily causes a problem that a charging error is caused by a lack of a calling area, or some calling services (e.g., emergency calls) based on the area information cannot be routed correctly.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to solve the technical problems that: how to obtain the location information of the VoWiFi user.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user is provided, which includes: an evolution packet data gateway ePDG receives voice over WiFi (Voice over WiFi) data of a WiFi-based language service of a regional network; the ePDG allocates the VoWiFi data of different area networks to different virtual machines and transmits the VoWiFi data to an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core network, so that an edge network element of the IMS core network acquires the identifier of the virtual machine and acquires the area network information of a user according to the identifier of the virtual machine.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an evolved packet data gateway, comprising: the data receiving module is used for receiving VoWiFi data of the WiFi-based language-based service of the area network; and the access control module is used for distributing the VoWiFi data of different area networks to different virtual machines and transmitting the VoWiFi data to an IMS core network of the IP multimedia subsystem, so that the edge network element of the IMS core network can acquire the identifier of the virtual machine and acquire the area network information of the user according to the identifier of the virtual machine.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user, including: the evolved packet data gateway of the foregoing embodiment further includes an IP multimedia subsystem IMS core network edge network element; and the IMS core network edge network element is used for acquiring the identifier of the virtual machine on the evolution packet data gateway ePDG corresponding to the VoWiFi data of the user and acquiring the information of the area network where the user is located according to the identifier of the virtual machine.

The invention adopts the network equipment virtualization technology to configure a plurality of virtual machines on the evolution packet data gateway to realize the virtualized evolution packet data gateway (vePDG), different virtual machines correspond to VoWiFi data of different area networks, and when the edge network element of the IMS core network inquires the position information of a user, the information of the corresponding area network can be determined by acquiring the identification of the virtual machine, so that the position information of the user is acquired and added into the subsequent call signaling, thereby solving the problem that the position information of the VoWiFi user cannot be acquired and improving the user experience.

Other features of the present invention and advantages thereof will become apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

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, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 shows a flowchart of a method for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic system architecture diagram illustrating a method for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic structure of an evolved packet data gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a system for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user 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. The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The scheme is provided for solving the problems that in the prior art, the position information of a user cannot be acquired, so that charging errors are easily caused due to the lack of a calling area, or some calling services (such as emergency calls) based on the area information cannot be routed correctly and the like.

The method for acquiring the location information of the VoWiFi user of the present invention is described below with reference to fig. 1.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user according to the present invention. As shown in fig. 1, the method of this embodiment includes:

step S102, the evolution packet data gateway receives VoWiFi data of the area network.

The regional network is, for example, a city level communication network, the ePDG (evolved Packet Data Gateway) is, for example, a provincial ePDG, and the VoWiFi Data of each city level communication network is accessed to the core network through the ePDG. Specifically, a convergence BRAS (Broadband Remote Access Server) is arranged on a regional Network side, the VoWiFi data of the same regional Network are converged, the VoWiFi data of the regional Network are sent to the ePDG through a VxLAN (virtual Local Area Network) established between the convergence BRAS and the ePDG, different regional networks correspond to different convergence BRASs, and different VxLAN transmission data are set for the different convergence BRASs and the ePDG. The VoWiFi data is, for example, registration data of the VoWiFi user or data generated when the VoWiFi user calls.

Step S104, the evolution packet data gateway distributes the VoWiFi data of different area networks to different virtual machines and transmits the VoWiFi data to the IMS core network.

The virtual ePDG can realize the virtualized ePDG, namely vePDG (virtual evolved Packet Data Gateway), by setting a plurality of virtual machines on an ePDG side by applying a network equipment virtualization technology, and different virtual machines can converge the VoWiFi Data sent by the BRAS through the VxLAN. The ePDG stores the corresponding relation between the VxLAN identification (such as VxLAN port number) and the virtual machine identification, and distributes the VoWiFi data of each area network to the corresponding virtual machine according to the corresponding relation between the VxLAN identification and the virtual machine identification.

Further, the VoWiFi Data is transmitted to a PGW (Public Data network gateway) through a corresponding virtual machine, and enters an IMS core network. At this time, the PGW records an identifier of the virtual machine corresponding to the VoWiFi data of the area network, specifically, the VoWiFi data of each user carries an identifier of the user, for example, IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber identity), and the PGW may record a corresponding relationship between the identifier of each user and the identifier of the virtual machine.

Step S106, the IMS core network edge network element inquires the position information of the user and obtains the identification of the virtual machine.

The edge network element of the core network is, for example, a BAC (Border Access Controller) or a P-CSCF (Proxy Call Session Control entity)

Specifically, the IMS core network edge network element responds to a call of a user and the like, needs to acquire location information of the user to perform subsequent call connection, charging, and the like, queries the location information of the user to the PGW, carries an identifier of the user in a query request sent to the PGW, queries a correspondence between the stored identifier of the user and the identifier of the virtual machine by the PGW, and returns an identifier of the virtual machine corresponding to the user to the core network edge network element.

Step S108, the IMS core network edge network element obtains the area network information of the user according to the virtual machine identification.

The area network information indicates location information of the user, for example, an area code established by an existing operator according to the division of the administrative area, or a number of the area according to another rule, for example, 010 in beijing. The method comprises the steps of obtaining the information of the area network where a user is located at present, and directly connecting the number of the area where the user is located when the user calls the number of the area where the user is located or dials an emergency call without additionally dialing an area code and the like. The IMS core network edge network element stores the corresponding relation between the identification of the virtual machine and the area network information, and the information of the area network where the user is currently located can be directly obtained according to the identification of the virtual machine.

Further, the IMS core network edge network element writes, for example, the area network information where the user is located into an access-domain field of a PANI (access network information header) message, and sends the area network information to other network elements of the core network, so that the other network elements of the core network obtain the area network information where the user is located, and perform call connection or charging and the like.

In the method of the embodiment, multiple virtual machines are configured on the evolved packet data gateway by applying a network device virtualization technology, so that virtualized evolved packet data gateway vePDG is realized, different virtual machines correspond to VoWiFi data of different area networks, and when an edge network element of an IMS core network queries the location information of a user, the information of the corresponding area network can be determined by acquiring the identifier of the virtual machine, so that the location information of the user is acquired and added into subsequent call signaling, thereby solving the problem that the location information of the VoWiFi user cannot be acquired, and improving user experience.

Another embodiment of the method for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user of the present invention is described below with reference to fig. 2 and 3.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating another embodiment of the method for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user according to the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a system architecture diagram of another embodiment of the method for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user according to the present invention.

As shown in fig. 2, the method of this embodiment includes:

step S202, the terminal initiates a VoWiFi call through the local area network.

As shown in fig. 3, a terminal initiates a call request through an Access Point (AP) connected to the terminal, where the call request carries an identifier of a user. And the AP sends the call request of the terminal to a BRAS corresponding to the local area network.

And step S204, the BRAS sends the VoWiFi call data of the terminal to the ePDG through the corresponding VxLAN.

As shown in fig. 3, each BRAS is responsible for aggregating the VoWiFi data of the corresponding area network, and a corresponding VxLAN tunnel is arranged between each BRAS and the ePDG, through which the VoWiFi data of the area network is sent to the ePDG.

And step S206, the ePDG receives the VoWiFi call data of the terminal sent by the BRAS through the VxLAN, and distributes the VoWiFi call data of the terminal to the corresponding virtual machine according to the VxLAN port number.

As shown in fig. 3, the ePDG sets up a plurality of virtual machines, each virtual machine corresponds to one VxLAN and one BRAS, and further corresponds to one area network.

In step S208, the virtual machine sends the VoWiFi call data of the terminal to the PGW.

Step S210, the PGW receives the VoWiFi call data of the terminal, records the identifier of the virtual machine that sends the VoWiFi call data of the terminal, and generates a corresponding relationship between the identifier of the user and the identifier of the virtual machine.

The identifier of the virtual machine is, for example, a number of the virtual machine, and is used to uniquely identify the virtual machine.

In step S212, the PGW sends the VoWiFi call data of the terminal to the core network.

As shown in fig. 3, the PGW sends the VoWiFi call data of the terminal to the BAC or P-CSCF, and then to other network elements of the core network.

In step S214, the BAC or P-CSCF rechecks the location information of the terminal to the PGW in response to the VoWiFi call of the terminal.

The BAC or the P-CSCF sends a terminal position query request to the PGW, wherein the terminal position query request carries the user identification.

Step S216, the PGW returns the identifier of the virtual machine to the BAC or the P-CSCF.

And the PGW inquires the corresponding relation between the recorded user identification and the virtual machine identification to obtain the virtual machine identification.

The PGW may also directly store, and return the area network information where the terminal is located to the core network edge network element, based on the correspondence between the user identifier, the virtual machine identifier, and the area network information.

And step S218, the BAC or the P-CSCF acquires the area network information of the terminal according to the identifier of the virtual machine.

Step S220, the BAC or the P-CSCF writes the information of the area network where the terminal is located into the access-domain field of the PANI message, and sends the information to the IMS core network.

The present invention also provides an evolved packet data gateway, which is described below with reference to fig. 4.

Figure 4 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an evolved packet data gateway of the present invention. As shown in fig. 4, the ePDG40 includes:

a data receiving module 402, configured to receive VoWiFi data of an area network.

The data receiving module 402 is configured to receive, through different virtual extensible local area networks (VxLAN), VoWiFi data of corresponding area networks aggregated by different aggregation Broadband Remote Access Servers (BRAS).

The access control module 404 is configured to allocate the VoWiFi data of different area networks to different virtual machines, and transmit the VoWiFi data to the IMS core network, so that an edge network element of the IMS core network obtains an identifier of the virtual machine, and obtains information of the area network where the user is located according to the identifier of the virtual machine.

The access control module 404 is configured to acquire an identifier of a virtual extensible local area network (VxLAN) that transmits the VoWiFi data of the area network, and allocate the VoWiFi data of each area network to a corresponding virtual machine according to a correspondence between the identifier of the virtual local area network (VxLAN) and the virtual machine.

The present invention also provides a system for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user, which is described below with reference to fig. 5.

Fig. 5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the system for acquiring location information of a VoWiFi user according to the present invention. As shown in fig. 5, the system 50 includes the evolved packet data gateway (ePDG)40 of any of the foregoing embodiments, and further includes:

the IMS core network edge network element 502 is configured to obtain an identifier of a virtual machine on an evolved packet data gateway (ePDG)40 corresponding to the VoWiFi data of the user, and obtain information of an area network where the user is located according to the identifier of the virtual machine.

The core network edge network element 502 is, for example, a BAC or a P-CSCF.

Further, as shown in fig. 5, the method further includes: a public data network gateway (PGW)504 or a Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) 506.

The public data network gateway (PGW)504 is configured to receive VoWiFi data of the area network sent by a virtual machine on the evolved packet data gateway (ePDG)40, record an identifier of the virtual machine corresponding to the VoWiFi data of the area network, and forward the VoWiFi data of the area network to the IMS core network.

And a Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS)506, configured to aggregate the VoWiFi data of the corresponding area network, and send the VoWiFi data of the corresponding area network to an evolved packet data gateway (ePDG)40 through a corresponding virtual local extensible area network (VxLAN).

Further, the IMS core network edge network element 502 is configured to query the public data network gateway (PGW) for user location information, receive an identifier of a virtual machine corresponding to the VoWiFi data of the user, which is returned by the public data network gateway (PGW), and obtain the area network information where the user is located according to a correspondence between the identifier of the virtual machine and the area network.

Further, the IMS core network edge network element 502 is further configured to write the area network information where the user is located into an access-domain (access-domain) field of an access network information header domain (PANI), and send the area network information to the IMS core network, so that the IMS core network obtains the area network information where the user is located.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps for implementing the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by a program instructing relevant hardware, where the program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and the above-mentioned storage medium may be a read-only memory, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, etc.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like that fall within the spirit and principle of the present invention are intended to be included therein.

Claims

1. A method for acquiring the position information of a VoWiFi user is characterized by comprising the following steps:

an evolution packet data gateway ePDG receives voice service VoWiFi data based on WiFi of a regional network;

the ePDG distributes VoWiFi data of different area networks to different virtual machines and transmits the VoWiFi data to an IP multimedia subsystem IMS core network, so that an IMS core network edge network element obtains a virtual machine identifier and obtains area network information of a user according to the virtual machine identifier.

2. The method of claim 1,

the VoWiFi data of the ePDG receiving area network comprises the following steps:

and the ePDG receives VoWiFi data of corresponding area networks aggregated by different aggregation broadband remote access servers BRAS through different virtual extensible local area networks VxLAN.

3. The method of claim 1,

the method for distributing the VoWiFi data of different area networks to different virtual machines by the ePDG includes the following steps:

the ePDG acquires the identifier of a VxLAN (virtual extensible local area network) of the VoWiFi data of the transmission area network;

and the ePDG distributes the VoWiFi data of each area network to the corresponding virtual machine according to the corresponding relation between the identifier of the VxLAN and the virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1,

the method for distributing the VoWiFi data of different area networks to different virtual machines and transmitting the VoWiFi data to the core network by the ePDG comprises the following steps:

the ePDG distributes VoWiFi data of different area networks to corresponding virtual machines;

the virtual machine forwards the VoWiFi data of the area network to a public data network gateway (PGW);

and the public data network gateway PGW records the identifier of the virtual machine corresponding to the VoWiFi data of the area network, and forwards the VoWiFi data of the area network to the core network.

5. The method of claim 4,

the method for acquiring the identifier of the virtual machine by the IMS core network edge network element and acquiring the regional network information of the user according to the identifier of the virtual machine comprises the following steps:

the IMS core network edge network element inquires user position information from a public data network gateway (PGW);

the IMS core network edge network element receives the identifier of the virtual machine corresponding to the VoWiFi data of the user, which is returned by the public data network gateway PGW;

and the IMS core network edge network element acquires the information of the area network where the user is located according to the corresponding relation between the virtual machine identifier and the area network.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

and the IMS core network edge network element writes the area network information of the user into an access domain field of an access network information header domain (PANI) and sends the area network information to the IMS core network so that the IMS core network can acquire the area network information of the user.

7. An evolved packet data gateway, comprising:

the data receiving module is used for receiving voice service VoWiFi data based on WiFi of the area network;

and the access control module is used for distributing the VoWiFi data of different area networks to different virtual machines and transmitting the VoWiFi data to an IMS core network of the IP multimedia subsystem, so that an edge network element of the IMS core network can acquire the identification of the virtual machine and acquire the area network information of the user according to the identification of the virtual machine.

8. The evolved packet data gateway of claim 7,

the data receiving module is used for receiving VoWiFi data of corresponding area networks converged by different converged broadband remote access servers BRAS through different virtual extensible local area networks VxLAN.

9. The evolved packet data gateway of claim 7,

the access control module is used for acquiring the identification of the VxLAN of the virtual extensible local area network for transmitting the VoWiFi data of the area network, and distributing the VoWiFi data of each area network to the corresponding virtual machine according to the corresponding relation between the identification of the VxLAN and the virtual machine.

10. A system for obtaining location information of a VoWiFi user, comprising the evolved packet data gateway of any of claims 7-9, further comprising an IP multimedia subsystem, IMS, core network edge network element;

the IMS core network edge network element is used for acquiring an identifier of a virtual machine on an evolved packet data gateway ePDG corresponding to VoWiFi data of a user and acquiring regional network information of the user according to the identifier of the virtual machine.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising: a public data network gateway PGW or a broadband remote access server BRAS;

the public data network gateway PGW is used for receiving VoWiFi data of an area network sent by a virtual machine on an evolution packet data gateway ePDG, recording an identifier of the virtual machine corresponding to the VoWiFi data of the area network, and forwarding the VoWiFi data of the area network to an IMS core network;

or the broadband remote access server BRAS is used for converging the VoWiFi data of the corresponding area network and sending the VoWiFi data of the area network to the ePDG through the corresponding virtual extensible local area network VxLAN.

12. The system of claim 11,

the IMS core network edge network element is used for inquiring user position information from a public data network gateway PGW, receiving an identifier of a virtual machine corresponding to VoWiFi data of a user, returned by the public data network gateway PGW, and acquiring regional network information of the user according to the corresponding relation between the identifier of the virtual machine and a regional network.

13. The system of claim 11,

the core network edge network element is further configured to write the area network information where the user is located into an access-domain field of an access network information header domain PANI, and send the area network information to the IMS core network, so that the IMS core network obtains the area network information where the user is located.