CN108965147B

CN108965147B - Network control method, device and network equipment

Info

Publication number: CN108965147B
Application number: CN201710352698.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 纪孟迪
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-05-18
Filing date: 2017-05-18
Publication date: 2020-04-28
Anticipated expiration: 2037-05-18
Also published as: WO2018210075A1; CN108965147A

Abstract

The application discloses a network control method, a network control device and network equipment, and belongs to the field of communication. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring bandwidth information of at least one service flow; controlling the network according to the bandwidth information of the at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first network function NF; wherein the at least one traffic flow is a traffic flow passing through or destined to pass through the first NF at transmission. By the method and the device, the problem that operation and maintenance personnel manually analyze how to solve the network congestion, the automation degree and efficiency of the network congestion are low is solved, and the efficiency of the mobile communication network in solving the network congestion is improved, so that the transmission efficiency of the mobile communication network is improved.

Description

Network control method, device and network equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a network control method, apparatus, and network device.

Background

In a conventional mobile communication network, a dedicated network device is used to implement different network functions, such as a router, a switch, and the like. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a method of virtualizing network functions on a standard general-purpose computing device on a dedicated network device in the past by means of a virtualization technology. The NFV can realize the decoupling and function abstraction of software and hardware, so that the network function is not dependent on special hardware equipment.

As shown in fig. 1, a typical NFV system at least includes: network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) 120, Virtual Network Function (VNF) 140, Element Management (EM) 160, and VNF manager (VNFManager, VNFM) 180.

NFVI120 is a general name for hardware and software that build a deployment environment of VNFs 140, and VNFs 140 are virtual machines running on NFVI120 that provide specific network functions, each VNF140 being used to implement one or several network functions.

VNF140 running on NFVI120 is typically managed by VNFM 180, such as: resources are added by VNFM 180 for virtual containers of VNF 140.

The EM160 is configured to manage failure, Configuration, charging, Performance, and Security (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security, FCAPS) of the VNF140, and collect alarm information of the VNF 140.

The number of VNFs 140 in the NFV system is at least one. Each service in the mobile communication network runs on at least one VNF140, forming one service flow. If there is a sudden increase in the traffic volume of a traffic flow, at least one VNF140 for carrying the traffic flow may cause a problem that the VNF140 is congested due to limited resources. The services include a call service, a multimedia service, an Application (APP) service, and the like.

In order to ensure the transmission performance of the network, when the VNF140 is congested, an operation and maintenance person analyzes the bandwidth resource occupation of the congested VNF140 according to the current bandwidth resource occupation of the VNF140 monitored by the VNFM 180 and/or according to the alarm information reported by the EM160, and switches the traffic flow being transmitted by the VNF140 to another VNF140, or expands the maximum bandwidth resource provided by the VNF 140.

Because the traffic flow carried by the VNF140 in the mobile communication network may increase instantaneously, the operation and maintenance personnel have long time consumption and low traffic recovery efficiency by manually analyzing the offloading policy or the capacity expansion policy of the VNF140, which makes the mobile communication system solve the problem of low network congestion efficiency, thereby causing low transmission efficiency of the mobile communication network.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the problem that in the prior art, when network congestion occurs, operation and maintenance personnel manually solve the problem of low efficiency of network congestion, the application provides a network control method, a network control device and network equipment.

In a first aspect, a network control method is provided, where the method includes: acquiring bandwidth information of at least one service flow; controlling the network according to the bandwidth information of at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF; wherein the at least one traffic flow is a traffic flow passing or destined to pass the first NF when transmitted.

Obtaining bandwidth information of at least one service flow; controlling the network according to the bandwidth information of at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF; the method and the device realize that whether the first NF has the risk of network congestion before the network congestion occurs, and automatically control the network when the risk exists; when network congestion occurs, operation and maintenance personnel do not need to manually analyze how to solve the network congestion; the occurrence of network congestion is prevented, and the transmission efficiency of the mobile communication network is improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first implementation of the first aspect, the at least one traffic flow comprises a first traffic flow that passes through or is scheduled to pass through a first NF; acquiring bandwidth information of at least one service flow, including: control plane information of the first traffic flow is obtained, and the control plane information comprises bandwidth information of the first traffic flow.

The bandwidth information is acquired by acquiring the control plane information of the first service flow, so that an implementation mode is provided for controlling the network according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF.

With reference to the first aspect, in a second implementation of the first aspect, the controlling the network according to the bandwidth information of the at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information of the first NF includes: determining a transmission path of the first service flow according to the control plane information of the first service flow; and modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF in the transmission path.

Modifying a transmission path of the first service flow or expanding the capacity of the first NF before the first NF transmits the first service flow; the method and the device realize that the network congestion of the first NF is predicted to possibly occur before the transmission of the first service flow, solve the problem of poor network transmission effect caused by analyzing the solution of the network congestion when the network congestion really occurs, and prevent the occurrence of the network congestion before the first NF transmits the first service flow.

With reference to the second implementation of the first aspect, in a third implementation of the first aspect, modifying the transmission path according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resource on the first NF in the transmission path includes: replacing the first NF in the transmission path by a second NF in other NFs according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF; the other NFs refer to NFs except for the NF belonging to the transmission path among the n NFs controlled by the NF controller, the n NFs controlled by the NF controller include the first NF, the remaining bandwidth resource on the second NF is greater than or equal to the bandwidth information, and n is an integer greater than 1.

Determining a transmission path of the first service flow according to the control plane information of the first service flow; replacing the first NF in the transmission path by a second NF in other NFs according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF in the transmission path; before the first NF transmits the first service flow, the first NF determines whether the first NF has the risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth information of the first service flow; the first NF is replaced by a second NF when there is a risk of network congestion occurring. Because the second NF can not have network congestion when transmitting the first service flow, the occurrence of network congestion is prevented.

With reference to the third implementation of the first aspect, in a fourth implementation of the first aspect, replacing the first NF in the transmission path by a second NF of the other NFs includes: sending a first switching instruction to a third NF in the transmission path, wherein the first switching instruction is used for indicating the third NF to set a next hop NF of the first service flow as a second NF, and the third NF is a previous hop NF positioned in the first NF in the transmission path; and sending a second switching instruction to the second NF, wherein the second switching instruction is used for indicating the second NF to set the next hop NF of the first service flow as a fourth NF in the transmission path, and the fourth NF is the next hop NF positioned in the first NF in the transmission path.

With reference to the second implementation of the first aspect, in a fifth implementation of the first aspect, the expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resource on the first NF in the transmission path includes: sending a first capacity expansion request to an infrastructure controller according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on a first NF in the transmission path, wherein the first capacity expansion request is used for indicating the infrastructure controller to expand the capacity of the bandwidth resources of the first NF according to a first target bandwidth; wherein the first target bandwidth is determined according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF.

Determining a transmission path of the first service flow according to the control plane information of the first service flow; according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF in the transmission path, carrying out capacity expansion on the first NF; before the first service flow is transmitted on the first NF, whether the first NF has the risk of network congestion is determined according to the bandwidth information of the first service flow; the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF are increased when there is a risk of network congestion occurring. Because the first NF after capacity expansion does not generate network congestion when transmitting the first service flow, the occurrence of network congestion is prevented.

With reference to the fifth implementation of the first aspect, in a sixth implementation of the first aspect, the first capacity expansion request carries a first target bandwidth; or, the first capacity expansion request carries bandwidth information and remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF.

With reference to any one implementation of the first aspect, in a seventh implementation of the first aspect, the bandwidth information is used to indicate a bandwidth resource requested by the first service flow; or, the bandwidth information is used to indicate a bandwidth requirement corresponding to the first service flow, and the bandwidth requirement is determined according to a Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) requirement of the first service flow.

With reference to any one of the second implementation to the seventh implementation of the first aspect, in an eighth implementation of the first aspect, modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resource on the first NF in the transmission path includes: when the difference between the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF and the bandwidth information is smaller than a preset difference, modifying a transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF; or when the ratio between the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF and the bandwidth information is smaller than a preset ratio, modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF.

With reference to the first aspect, in a ninth implementation of the first aspect, the obtaining bandwidth information of at least one service flow includes: acquiring control plane information of all service flows passing through the first NF; acquiring the bandwidth requirement sum of all service flows passing through the first NF according to the control plane information; and/or receiving the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, wherein the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is reported by the first NF.

The bandwidth information is acquired by acquiring the bandwidth requirement sum of all the service flows passing through the first NF according to the control plane information and/or receiving the bandwidth resource sum occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF reported by the first NF, and another implementation mode is provided for controlling the network according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF.

With reference to the tenth implementation of the first aspect, in an eleventh implementation of the first aspect, the bandwidth resource information on the first NF is used to indicate a bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, and the controlling the network according to the bandwidth information of the at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF includes: and expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF.

Monitoring the resource occupation condition of the first NF in the process of transmitting each service flow by the first NF, and expanding the capacity of the first NF; when the first NF is possibly congested, the first NF is expanded; the problem that the network transmission effect is poor due to the fact that the solution of the network congestion is analyzed when the network congestion really occurs is solved; the method and the device realize the prevention of network congestion in the process of service flow transmission.

With reference to the eleventh implementation of the first aspect, in a twelfth implementation of the first aspect, the bandwidth information includes: expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF by the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, comprising: when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF meet the approaching condition, expanding the capacity of the first NF; wherein, the approaching condition is that the difference value between the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is less than a first preset threshold value; and/or the approaching condition is that the ratio of the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF to the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is less than a second preset threshold.

With reference to the eleventh implementation of the first aspect, in a thirteenth implementation of the first aspect, the bandwidth information includes: the expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF by the bandwidth requirement sum of all the service flows of the first NF comprises the following steps: and when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is less than the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF, expanding the capacity of the first NF.

With reference to the eleventh implementation of the first aspect, in a fourteenth implementation of the first aspect, the bandwidth information includes: the sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF and the sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all service flows passing through the first NF; according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, expanding the capacity of the first NF comprises the following steps: when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is smaller than the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF meet the approaching condition, expanding the capacity of the first NF; wherein, the approaching condition is that the difference value between the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is less than a first preset threshold value; and/or the approaching condition is that the ratio of the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF to the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is less than a second preset threshold.

With reference to any one of the eleventh implementation to the fourteenth implementation of the first aspect, in a fifteenth implementation of the first aspect, the bandwidth information includes: the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF; expanding the capacity of the first NF comprises the following steps: sending a second capacity expansion request to the infrastructure controller according to the sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF, wherein the second capacity expansion request is used for indicating the infrastructure controller to expand the capacity of the bandwidth resources of the first NF according to a second target bandwidth; the second target bandwidth is determined according to a sum of bandwidth requirements of all traffic flows passing through the first NF and bandwidth resources provided by the first NF.

In a second aspect, a network control apparatus is provided, where the apparatus includes at least one unit, and the at least one unit is configured to implement the network control method provided in any implementation manner of the first aspect or the first aspect.

In a third aspect, a network device is provided, which includes: the network control method comprises a processor and a memory, wherein at least one instruction is stored in the memory, and the instruction is loaded by the processor and executes the network control method provided by the first aspect or any one implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, where instructions are stored, and when the instructions are executed on a network device, the instructions are loaded by the network device and execute the network control method provided by the foregoing first aspect or any implementation manner of the first aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an NFV system according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of an NFV system according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of at least one NF provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a network control method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a network control method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart of a network control method according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart of a network control method according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a flowchart of a network control method according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a flowchart of a network control method according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 is a flowchart of a network control method according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 12 is a block diagram of a network control apparatus according to another embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

To make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more clear, embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

NFV: network functions of the conventional special network equipment are simulated on the standard general computing equipment by virtue of a virtualization technology. The NFV can realize the decoupling and function abstraction of software and hardware, so that the network function does not depend on special hardware equipment any more, and greater flexibility is provided for a mobile communication network.

Please refer to fig. 2, which illustrates a schematic structural diagram of an NFV system according to an embodiment of the present application. The NFV system may be implemented using various networks, such as a data center Network, a service provider Network, and/or a Local Area Network (LAN). The NFV system includes at least NFV management and orchestration system 220, NFVI240, VNF260, EM 280.

NFV management and orchestration system 220 is used to monitor and manage VNF260 and NFVI 240. NFV management and orchestration system 220 includes at least one VNF Manager (VNF Manager, VNFM)224 and one or more Virtualized Infrastructure Managers (VIMs) 226.

VNFM224 may communicate with VNF260 and EM280 to implement lifecycle management for VNF260, including: creating, starting, upgrading, expanding, shrinking, terminating, restarting and the like.

VNF260 refers to a virtualized NF executed by a physical network device. Optionally, each VNF260 corresponds to a set of NFs in at least one physical device. VNF260 may be a user plane VNF, such as: a Serving Gateway (SGW) and/or a Packet-Data Network Gateway (P-GW); VNF260 may also be a VNF of a control plane, such as: mobility Management Entity (MME).

Optionally, VNF260 is a virtualized operator Edge (PE) node for providing network functions within a PE device; alternatively, VNF260 is a component (e.g., an Operation, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) component) in a non-virtualized PE device.

Optionally, each VNF260 runs in a virtual container, which may host a single VNF260 or may host multiple VNFs 260.

Each EM280 is used to manage a corresponding one of VNFs 260, such as: in fig. 2, EM1 is used to manage VNF1, EM2 is used to manage VNF2, and EM3 is used to manage VNF 3. The EM280 is configured to manage failure, Configuration, charging, Performance, and Security (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security, FCAPS) of a corresponding VNF260, and collect alarm information of the corresponding VNF 260.

In embodiments of the present invention, EM280 and VNFM224 may be abstracted as NF controllers. The NF controller is configured to control at least one VNF in the network.

Alternatively, the functionality of VNFM224 for lifecycle management of VNF260 may be abstracted as an infrastructure controller. The infrastructure controller is configured to configure virtual resources corresponding to VNF 260. The virtual resources corresponding to the VNF260 include, but are not limited to: bandwidth resources.

Optionally, in this embodiment, when the NF controller and the infrastructure controller are arranged across domains or at a long distance, the NFV system further includes an orchestrator 222, and the orchestrator 222 is used for communication between the NF controller and the infrastructure controller.

NFVI240 includes hardware components, software components, or a combination of both, and deploys, manages, and executes VNF260 by establishing a virtualized environment with the hardware components, the software components, or a combination of both. That is, both the hardware resources and the virtualization layer in NFVI240 are used to provide virtualized resources for VNF 260.

Optionally, the hardware resources in NFVI240 include: computing hardware 241, storage hardware 242, and network hardware 243.

Optionally, the computing hardware 241 is Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) hardware and/or customer hardware for providing processing and computing resources. Optionally, the computing hardware 241 is one or more processors, such as a cascaded array of processors.

The storage hardware 242 is used to provide storage capacity. Optionally, the storage hardware 242 is one or more memories, such as a disk array.

Alternatively, the resources of the computing hardware 241 and the storage hardware 242 are pooled.

Optionally, the network hardware 243 is a switch (e.g., a commercial switch), a router, and/or any other network device that performs switching functions, and the various network hardware 243 are interconnected by wired and/or wireless links.

Optionally, the network hardware 243 spans multiple domains and includes at least one interconnected transport network.

A virtualization layer in the NFVI240 is configured to extract hardware resources and separate the VNF260 from the underlying physical network layer, so as to provide virtualized resources for the VNF 260.

Optionally, virtualized resources include virtual compute 244, virtual storage 245, and virtual network 246.

Virtual compute 244 and virtual storage 245 may be provided to VNF260 in the form of a virtual machine monitor, virtual machine (virtualmanfacturing vm), and/or other virtual container. For example, one or more VNFs 260 are deployed on a VM. The virtualization layer abstracts the network hardware 243 to form a virtual network 246. Virtual network 246 may include virtual switches (vswitches) that provide connections between VMs and/or between other virtual containers hosting VNF 260. The extraction of hardware resources may be accomplished using a variety of techniques, including but not limited to: virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), Virtual Private Lan Service (VPLS), Virtual Extensible Lan (VxLAN), and Network Virtualization (NVGRE) using Generic Routing Encapsulation protocol. Further, transport networks within network hardware 243 may be virtualized using a centralized control plane and an independent forwarding plane (e.g., Software Defined Network (SDN)).

Optionally, VIM226 is also used to control and manage VNF260 interactions with computing hardware 241, storage hardware 242, network hardware 243, virtual compute 244, virtual storage 245, and virtual network 246. For example, VIM226 may perform resource management functions to add resources to the virtual container. Communication may be performed between VNFM224 and VIM226 to enable configuration of hardware resources.

Optionally, the NFV system 200 also includes other components, such as: operation Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS) (OSS/BSS), which are not described in detail herein.

It should be added that the NF controller and the infrastructure controller mentioned in this application may be implemented by hardware, software or a combination of the two, and this embodiment is not limited to this. In addition, the names of the NF controller and the infrastructure controller are not limited in this embodiment, for example: the NF controller may also be referred to as an NF layer control plane signaling collection and analysis component; the infrastructure controller may also be referred to as an I-layer controller, and the names of NF controller and infrastructure controller are not limited in this application.

The NF controller is hereinafter described as being implemented in software.

Referring to fig. 3, a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The network device may be the NF controller shown in fig. 2. Network device 300 includes at least one processor 31, a communication bus 32, a memory 33, and at least one communication interface 34.

The processor 31 may be a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of programs in accordance with the inventive arrangements.

The communication bus 32 may include a path to transfer information between the aforementioned components. The communication interface 34 may be any device, such as a transceiver, for communicating with other devices or communication Networks, such as ethernet, Radio Access Network (RAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), etc.

The Memory 33 may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, an electrically erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), a Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) or other optical Disc storage, optical Disc storage (including Compact Disc, laser Disc, optical Disc, digital versatile Disc, blu-ray Disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program instructions in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to such. The memory may be self-contained and coupled to the processor via a bus. The memory may also be integral to the processor.

Wherein the memory 33 is used for storing program instructions for executing the inventive solution and is controlled by the processor 31 for execution. The processor 31 is configured to execute program instructions stored in the memory 33.

In the present embodiment, the memory 33 stores program instructions, and the processor 31 executes the program instructions to implement the function of the NF controller.

Such as: the processor 31 executes program instructions to implement the NF controller to control the network.

Optionally, processor 31 includes one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 of FIG. 3.

Optionally, network device 300 includes multiple processors, such as processor 31 and processor 38 in FIG. 3. Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

The network device 300 may be a general-purpose network device or a special-purpose network device. In a specific implementation, the network device 300 may be an evolved node b (eNodeB, eNB) in Long-Term Evolution (Long-Term Evolution, LTE), a gNB in a New air interface (New pilot, NR) system, or a device with a similar structure in fig. 3. The embodiment of the present invention does not limit the type of the network device 300.

Optionally, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, where at least one program instruction is stored, and when the program instruction is executed by a processor, the program instruction causes a network device to execute a network control method provided in each of the following embodiments.

The NF controller described in fig. 2 and 3 will be briefly described below.

The NF controller is configured to obtain control plane information on each VNF, and/or obtain a sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all traffic flows on each VNF.

The control plane information means: the VNF sends or receives information in the control plane signaling negotiation process. In an exemplary example, VNF1 corresponds to eNodeB (english: eNodeB, abbreviated as eNB), VNF2 corresponds to SGW, VNF3 corresponds to P-GW, and VNF4 corresponds to MME. When a transmission path VNF1 → VNF2 → VNF3 needs to be negotiated, VNF1, VNF2 and VNF3 all perform a control plane signaling negotiation process with VNF4, in which VNF1, VNF2 and VNF3 all negotiate with VNF4 through control plane information.

Optionally, the NF controller obtains control plane information on each VNF, including but not limited to the following ways:

in the first mode, when the NF controller creates the VNF, it subscribes to control plane information on the VNF; when the VNF sends and/or receives the control plane information, the same piece of control plane information is sent to the NF controller at the same time, and accordingly, the NF controller acquires the control plane information.

In the second mode, the NF controller sends an information acquisition request to the VNF; when the VNF sends and/or receives the control plane information, the same control plane information is sent to the NF controller according to the information acquisition request; accordingly, the NF controller acquires the control plane information.

In the third mode, the NF controller sends an information reporting instruction to the VNF; after receiving the information reporting instruction, the VNF sends the same control plane information to the NF controller when sending and/or receiving the control plane information; accordingly, the NF controller acquires the control plane information.

The NF controller may determine bandwidth requirement information for each traffic flow according to the control plane information. The NF controller determines the bandwidth demand information of each service flow according to the control plane information, and the method comprises the following steps: when a new traffic flow is triggered on the VNF, control plane information on the VNF is acquired, where the control plane information includes bandwidth requirement information of the traffic flow.

Optionally, the bandwidth requirement information is used to indicate a maximum bandwidth that may be occupied by the service flow; or, the bandwidth requirement information is used to indicate a bandwidth requirement corresponding to the first traffic flow, and the bandwidth requirement is determined according to the GBR requirement of the traffic flow.

GBR refers to a guaranteed bit rate type of traffic, such as: streaming media is a requirement to guarantee a certain rate of real-time traffic.

Optionally, the NF controller may determine, according to bandwidth requirement information in the control plane information, a sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows on any VNF. The sum of the bandwidth requirements is determined according to the bandwidth requirement information of each traffic flow currently being transmitted by the VNF. Such as: the bandwidth requirement information of the service flow a is 10Mbps, and the bandwidth requirement information of the service flow B is 20Mbps, so that the sum of the bandwidth requirements of the service flow a and the service flow B is 30 Mbps.

Optionally, the NF controller may further determine a transmission path of each traffic flow according to the control plane information. The NF controller determines the transmission path of each service flow according to the control plane information, and the method comprises the following steps: in a control plane signaling negotiation process of the VNF, control plane information sent and/or received by the VNF is obtained; and determining a transmission path of the service flow according to the control plane information. Wherein the transmission path comprises at least one VNF.

Optionally, in this application, the transmission path of the service flow determined by the NF controller according to the control plane information is a path where the service flow is scheduled to pass through each VNF, and during actual transmission, the service flow may not be transmitted according to the transmission path.

Optionally, the control plane information further includes a service type corresponding to the service flow.

Optionally, the NF controller obtains a sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all traffic flows on each VNF, including but not limited to: the VNF actively reports the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows to the NF controller; or after receiving the reporting instruction sent by the NF controller, the VNF reports the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows to the NF controller.

The sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows is determined according to the bandwidth resources actually occupied by each service flow. Such as: the bandwidth resource actually occupied by the service flow a is 5Mbps, and the bandwidth resource actually occupied by the service flow B is 10Mbps, so the sum of the bandwidth resources of the service flow a and the service flow B is 15 Mbps. It should be added that the bandwidth value indicated by the bandwidth resource occupied by each service flow is less than or equal to the bandwidth value indicated by the bandwidth requirement information of the service flow.

Optionally, the NF controller may determine whether the network may be congested according to a sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows reported by the VNF, at least one of bandwidth requirement information of each service flow, and a bandwidth resource provided by the VNF. Or, alternatively, determining whether the network is at risk of congestion.

Optionally, the bandwidth resource provided by the VNF refers to a maximum bandwidth resource currently provided on the VNF. The bandwidth resource provided by the VNF is determined by the NF controller when creating the VNF, or determined after capacity expansion or capacity reduction.

Optionally, the NF controller controls the network. Illustratively, the NF controller controls the network upon determining that the network is at risk of congestion.

Optionally, the NF controller controls the network including but not limited to: expanding the capacity of a certain VNF; alternatively, the transmission path of the first traffic flow destined to pass a certain VNF is modified.

Optionally, the NF controller generates a global view, where the global view includes all traffic flows passing through each VNF controlled by the NF controller and the bandwidth occupation of each VNF.

Optionally, the bandwidth occupation situation of the VNF includes a sum of occupied bandwidth resources of all traffic flows passing through the VNF, a sum of bandwidth resources provided by the VNF, and a sum of bandwidth requirements of all traffic flows passing through the VNF.

Alternatively, the "NF" mentioned below may be a virtual VNF, or may be an entity NF implemented by a physical entity, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of at least one NF controlled by an NF controller according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. Wherein, the NF controller is the NF controller shown in figure 2 or figure 3. Suppose the NF controller controls 8 NFs, which are: NF1, NF2, NF3, NF4, NF5, NF6, NF7 and NF 8.

Assuming that a first service flow is triggered on the NF5, and the NF controller 306 acquires control plane information of the first service flow in a process of negotiation performed by the NF5, the NF controller 306 determines a transmission path of the first service flow according to the control plane information. As shown in fig. 4, a second traffic flow has been transmitted on NF3, where the transmission path (indicated by a solid arrow) of the second traffic flow is NF1- > NF2- > NF3- > NF4, and assuming that the maximum bandwidth resource provided by NF3 is Q1, the maximum bandwidth resource corresponding to the second traffic flow is Q2, the NF controller 306 determines that the transmission path (indicated by a dashed arrow) of the first traffic flow is NF5- > NF6- > NF3- > NF4, and the maximum bandwidth resource corresponding to the first traffic flow is Q3, then when Q1 < (Q2+ Q3), there may be a risk of network congestion on NF 3.

If the operation and maintenance personnel have network congestion on the NF3, the operation and maintenance personnel manually analyze whether the service flow transmitted on the NF3 needs to be shunted, so that the automation degree is low, the time consumption for solving the congestion is long, and the problem of poor transmission effect of the network is caused because the network has already been congested. For the technical problems, the technical scheme is provided, so that the network is automatically controlled by the NF controller before the network congestion occurs, and the network congestion is prevented.

Referring to fig. 5, a flowchart of a network control method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The present embodiment is illustrated by the NF controller shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3 executing the network control method, which includes the following steps:

step 501, obtaining bandwidth information of at least one service flow.

Optionally, the bandwidth information is used to indicate a bandwidth requirement of the traffic flow, and/or the bandwidth information is used to indicate a bandwidth resource occupied by the traffic flow.

Optionally, the traffic flow is a traffic flow passing or destined to pass the first NF at transmission. Wherein the first NF refers to one NF controlled by the NF controller.

Step 502, controlling the network according to the bandwidth information of at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF.

The NF controller controls the network according to the bandwidth information of the at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF, including but not limited to: and controlling the network in advance before network congestion occurs according to the bandwidth information of at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF. In other words, the NF controller controls the first NF when predicting that the first NF has a risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth information of the at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF.

In a first case, the at least one traffic flow comprises a first traffic flow passing or scheduled to pass through a first NF, where the bandwidth information is used to indicate a bandwidth requirement of the traffic flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF is used to indicate remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF.

In this case, the NF controller controls the network according to the bandwidth information of the at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF, including: determining a transmission path of the first service flow according to control plane information of the first service flow, wherein the control plane information comprises bandwidth information of the first service flow; and modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information of the first service flow and the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF in the transmission path.

Because the first service flow may not yet pass through the first NF, the occurrence of network congestion is prevented before the first service flow is transmitted by modifying the transmission path of the first service flow in advance or expanding the capacity of the first NF in advance.

Optionally, the NF controller obtains control plane information from the NF that triggers the first traffic flow, where the control plane information includes bandwidth information of the first traffic flow.

Such as: in fig. 4, the first traffic flow is triggered at NF5, and the NF controller obtains the control plane information from NF 5.

Optionally, the NF controller determines the transmission path of the first service flow according to the control plane information of the first service flow.

Such as: in fig. 4, a first service flow is triggered on NF5, and in the control plane signaling negotiation process of NF5, the NF controller determines that the next hop of the first service flow is NF6 according to control plane information sent and/or received by NF 5; in the control plane signaling negotiation process of the NF6, the NF controller determines that the next hop of the first service flow is NF3 according to the control plane information sent and/or received by the NF 6; in the control plane signaling negotiation process of NF3, the NF controller determines that the next hop of the first traffic flow is NF4 according to the control plane information sent and/or received by NF3, thereby determining that the transmission path of the first traffic flow is NF5- > NF6- > NF3- > NF 4.

In a second case, at least one service flow comprises a first service flow passing through the first NF, and at this time, the bandwidth information comprises the sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all service flows passing through the first NF, and/or the sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF; the bandwidth resource information on the first NF is used to indicate the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF.

In this case, the NF controller controls the network according to the bandwidth information of the at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first NF, including: and expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF.

Because at least one service flow is transmitted on the first NF, the capacity of the first NF is expanded according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, thereby preventing the occurrence of network congestion in the process of transmitting the at least one service flow.

To sum up, the network control method provided in this embodiment obtains bandwidth information of at least one service flow; controlling the network according to the bandwidth information of at least one service flow and the bandwidth resource information on the first network function NF; the NF controller can automatically control the network, and operation and maintenance personnel do not need to manually analyze how to solve the network congestion, so that the automation degree and efficiency of the mobile communication network for solving the network congestion are improved, and the transmission efficiency of the mobile communication network is improved.

In the following, the two cases involved in step 502 are described in detail separately, and for the first case, the NF controller modifies the transmission path of the first traffic flow with reference to the embodiment shown in fig. 6; the NF controller expands the first NF-see the embodiment shown in fig. 8; for the second case, the NF controller expands the first NF-see the embodiment shown in fig. 10.

When a first service flow (new service flow) is triggered on a certain NF, the first NF on the transmission path of the first service flow may generate network congestion during the transmission of the first service flow, such as: in fig. 4, network congestion may occur at NF3, and at this time, the NF controller modifies the transmission path of the first traffic flow before the first traffic flow is transmitted, thereby preventing the occurrence of network congestion.

In this embodiment, the first NF is an NF except for the first hop NF and the last hop NF in the transmission path.

Referring to fig. 6, a flowchart of a network control method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The present embodiment is illustrated by the NF controller shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3 executing the network control method, which includes the following steps:

step 601, determining a transmission path of the first service flow according to the control plane information of the first service flow.

The control plane information includes bandwidth information of the first traffic flow, and the bandwidth information is used for indicating bandwidth requirement information of the first traffic flow. The bandwidth demand information of the first service flow is the bandwidth resource requested by the first service flow; or, the bandwidth requirement corresponding to the first traffic flow is determined according to the GBR requirement of the first traffic flow.

In this step, the NF controller determines the relevant description of the transmission path of the first service flow with reference to step 502, which is not described herein again in this embodiment.

And step 602, replacing the first NF in the transmission path by a second NF in other NFs according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF.

The NF controller determines whether the first NF has the risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF; and if the first NF exists, determining a second NF from other NFs according to the bandwidth information of the first service flow, and replacing the first NF by the second NF so as to modify the transmission path of the first service flow.

The other NFs refer to NFs other than the NFs belonging to the transmission path among the n NFs controlled by the NF controller, the n NFs controlled by the NF controller include the first NF, and n is an integer greater than 1.

Such as: in fig. 4, the NF controller controls 8 NFs, where the 8 NFs are NF1, NF2, NF3, NF4, NF5, NF6, NF7, and NF8, respectively, the NFs in the transmission path of the first traffic flow include NF3, NF4, NF5, and NF6, and then the other NFs are NF1, NF2, NF7, and NF 8.

And the NF controller determines that the residual bandwidth resource of the second NF is greater than or equal to the bandwidth information of the first service flow. Therefore, the network congestion can not occur when the first service flow is switched to the second NF for transmission.

In a first manner, the determining, by the NF controller, whether the first NF is at risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF includes: the NF controller calculates the difference between the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF and the bandwidth information; if the bandwidth value indicated by the bandwidth information subtracted from the bandwidth value indicated by the residual bandwidth resource is smaller than a preset difference value, the first NF has the risk of network congestion; and if the bandwidth value indicated by the bandwidth information subtracted from the bandwidth value indicated by the residual bandwidth resource is greater than or equal to the preset difference, the first NF has no risk of network congestion.

The present embodiment does not limit the value of the preset difference, for example: the preset difference is 0.

In a second manner, the determining, by the NF controller, whether the first NF has a risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF includes: the NF controller calculates the ratio between the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF and the bandwidth information; if the bandwidth numerical value indicated by the residual bandwidth resource divided by the bandwidth numerical value indicated by the bandwidth information is smaller than a preset ratio, the first NF has the risk of network congestion; and if the bandwidth value indicated by the residual bandwidth resource is divided by the bandwidth value indicated by the bandwidth information and is greater than or equal to the preset ratio, the first NF has no risk of network congestion.

The present embodiment does not limit the value of the preset ratio, for example: the predetermined ratio is 1.

In this step, the NF controller replaces the first NF in the transmission path by the second NF in the other NFs, including: sending a first switching instruction to a third NF in the transmission path, wherein the first switching instruction is used for indicating the third NF to set a next hop NF of the first service flow as a second NF, and the third NF is a previous hop NF positioned in the first NF in the transmission path; and sending a second switching instruction to the second NF, wherein the second switching instruction is used for indicating the second NF to set the next hop NF of the first service flow as a fourth NF in the transmission path, and the fourth NF is the next hop NF positioned in the first NF in the transmission path.

Such as: in fig. 4, a transmission path of a first service flow is NF5- > NF6- > NF3- > NF4, a first NF is NF3, a second NF used to replace NF3 is NF7, a third NF is NF6, and a fourth NF is NF 4. Replacement of NF3 by NF7 by the NF controller includes: sending a first switch instruction to the NF6, instructing the NF6 to set the next hop NF of the transmission path to NF 7; a second switch instruction is sent to NF7 instructing NF7 to set the next hop NF of the transmission path to NF4, so that the modified transmission path is NF5- > NF6- > NF7- > NF 4.

Optionally, in the transmission path of the first traffic flow, the first NF, which may include consecutive multi-hops, is at risk of network congestion, such as: the method includes that network congestion occurs from the ith hop NF to the jth hop NF in a transmission path, and at the moment, the NF controller replaces the first NF in the transmission path through the second NF in other NFs: if the risk of network congestion exists on the first transmission path, determining the ith 'to jth' hop NF corresponding to the ith to jth hop NF from other NFs; sending a third switching instruction to a j ' hop NF corresponding to the j ' hop NF, wherein the third switching instruction is used for indicating the j ' hop NF to set the next hop NF of the first service flow as a j +1 hop NF; sending a fourth switching instruction to a k ' hop NF corresponding to a k hop NF in the first transmission path, wherein the fourth switching instruction is used for indicating the k ' hop NF to switch a next hop of the first service flow to a (k +1) ' hop NF corresponding to a k +1 hop NF, and k is an integer which is greater than or equal to i and less than j; sending a fifth switching instruction to the i-1 th hop NF, wherein the fifth switching instruction is used for indicating the i-1 th hop NF and switching the next hop of the first service flow to the i' th hop NF corresponding to the i-1 th hop NF; the (j +1) th hop NF, the (k +1) th hop NF and the (i-1) th hop NF are the NF on a transmission path, and the (j' th hop NF is used for replacing the (j) th hop NF; the (k + 1)' hop NF is used to replace the k +1 hop NF; the ith' hop NF is used to replace the ith hop NF.

In this embodiment, i is an integer greater than 1, j is an integer greater than i, and the ith hop NF to the jth hop NF are NFs except for the first hop NF and the last hop NF in the transmission path.

Such as: in fig. 4, the transmission path of the first traffic flow is NF5- > NF6- > NF3- > NF4, where both NF6 and NF3 risk network congestion. If the second NF for replacing NF3 is NF7 and the second NF for replacing NF6 is NF8, the NF controller replaces the first NF in the transmission path with the second NF, comprising: sending a fifth switching instruction to the NF5, instructing the NF5 to set the next hop NF of the first traffic flow to NF 8; sending a fourth switching instruction to the NF8, instructing the NF8 to set the next hop NF of the first traffic flow to NF 7; a third switch instruction is sent to NF7 instructing NF7 to set the next hop NF of the first traffic flow to NF4, so that the modified transmission path is NF5- > NF8- > NF7- > NF 4.

Optionally, in this embodiment, the first switching instruction, the second switching instruction, the third switching instruction, the fourth switching instruction, and the fifth switching instruction are implemented by a NETCONF command, where the NETCONF command is used to configure a network, for example, to configure a route.

In summary, in the network control method provided in this embodiment, a transmission path of a first service flow is determined according to control plane information of the first service flow; replacing the first NF in the transmission path by a second NF in other NFs according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF in the transmission path; before the first NF transmits the first service flow, the NF controller can determine whether the first NF has the risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth information of the first service flow; when the risk of network congestion exists, the first NF is replaced by the second NF, and the second NF does not have network congestion when transmitting the first service flow, so that the occurrence of network congestion is prevented.

Optionally, in this embodiment, the first NF is taken as a VNF for explanation, and in actual implementation, the first NF may also be an NF on a dedicated network device, which is not limited in this embodiment.

For a clearer understanding of the network control method provided in fig. 6, the following description will be made, in connection with an example, of a manner in which the NF controller prevents network congestion by modifying the transmission path of the first traffic flow.

Referring to fig. 7, a flowchart of a network control method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. This embodiment will be described by taking a schematic diagram of NF shown in fig. 4 as an example. The method comprises the following steps:

at step 701, a first traffic flow is triggered at NF 5.

Optionally, the first traffic flow triggered on the NF5 is a traffic flow sent by the user equipment; or traffic flows sent by other network devices.

At step 702, the NF controller obtains control plane information on the NF 5.

Optionally, in this embodiment, the NF controller subscribes to control plane information on the NF5 in advance. When the NF5 sends and/or receives the control plane information, the NF5 simultaneously sends the same piece of control plane information to the NF controller, and accordingly, the NF controller acquires the control plane information.

Step 703, the NF controller determines whether the first NF has a risk of network congestion; if so, go to step 704; if not, the process ends.

And the NF controller determines whether the first NF has the risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth demand information of the first service flow and the residual bandwidth resource of the first NF in the transmission path.

In this embodiment, the NF controller determines whether the first NF has a risk of network congestion according to a ratio or a difference between the bandwidth demand information and the remaining bandwidth resources. The related description of this step is shown in step 602, and this implementation is not described herein.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the NF controller determines that the NF3 is at risk of network congestion.

In step 704, the NF controller selects a second NF to replace the NF3 from the other NFs.

The NF controller selects a second NF from the other NFs to replace NF3 based on the remaining bandwidth resources of the other NFs. The remaining bandwidth resource of the second NF is greater than or equal to the bandwidth requirement information of the first traffic flow.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the NF controller determines that the second NF is NF 7.

In step 705, the NF controller instructs the NF6 to set the next hop for the first traffic flow to NF 7.

The NF controller sends a NETCONF command to the NF6 instructing the NF6 to set the next hop for the first traffic flow to NF 7.

At step 706, the NF controller instructs the NF7 to set the next hop for the first traffic flow to NF 4.

The NF controller sends a NETCONF command to the NF7 instructing the NF7 to set the next hop for the first traffic flow to NF 4.

In summary, in the network control method provided in this embodiment, a transmission path of a first service flow is determined according to control plane information of the first service flow; replacing NF3 in the transmission path by NF7 according to the bandwidth requirement information of the first service flow and the residual bandwidth resource of NF3 on the transmission path; before the NF3 transmits the first service flow, the NF controller can determine whether the NF3 has the risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth information of the first service flow; when there is a risk of network congestion occurring, the NF3 is replaced by NF7, and since the NF7 does not have network congestion while transmitting the first traffic flow, the occurrence of network congestion is prevented.

When a first service flow (new service flow) is triggered on a certain NF, a first NF in a transmission path of the first service flow has a risk of network congestion sending, and the NF controller determines that a second NF capable of replacing the first NF does not exist in at least one controlled NF, in order to ensure that the NF controller can still prevent the occurrence of network congestion, the NF controller performs capacity expansion on the first NF in advance.

Referring to fig. 8, a flowchart of a network control method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The present embodiment is illustrated by the NF controller shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3 executing the network control method, which includes the following steps:

step 801, determining a transmission path of the first service flow according to the control plane information of the first service flow.

For the related description of this step, refer to step 601, which is not described herein again.

Step 802, sending a first capacity expansion request to the infrastructure controller according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF in the transmission path.

The NF controller determines whether the first NF has the risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF; if so, a first capacity expansion request is sent to the infrastructure controller, thereby increasing the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF.

The NF controller determines whether the first NF has a relevant description of the risk of network congestion, see step 602, which is not described herein again in this embodiment.

Optionally, when determining that the first NF is at risk of network congestion, the NF controller determines whether a proximity condition is satisfied between bandwidth resources provided by the first NF and a sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all service flows passing through the first NF; and when the approaching condition is met, expanding the capacity of the first NF.

In this application, the approaching condition means that a difference between bandwidth resources provided by the first NF and a sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all service flows passing through the first NF is smaller than a first preset threshold; and/or the approaching condition is that the ratio of the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF to the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is less than a second preset threshold.

The first capacity expansion request is used for instructing the infrastructure controller to expand the capacity of the bandwidth resource of the first NF according to the first target bandwidth. Wherein the first target bandwidth is determined according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF.

In one mode, the first capacity expansion request sent by the NF controller carries the first target bandwidth. At this time, the first target bandwidth is determined by the NF controller based on the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF.

In another mode, the first capacity expansion request sent by the NF controller carries bandwidth information and remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF. At this time, the first target bandwidth is determined by the infrastructure controller based on the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF.

Optionally, the determining, by the NF controller or the infrastructure controller, the first target bandwidth according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resource on the first NF includes: calculating a difference value between the bandwidth value indicated by the bandwidth information and the bandwidth value indicated by the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF; and adding the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF to the difference value to obtain a first target bandwidth.

Optionally, the first target bandwidth may also be a preset fixed value, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In summary, in the network control method provided in this embodiment, a transmission path of a first service flow is determined according to control plane information of the first service flow; according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF in the transmission path, carrying out capacity expansion on the first NF; before the first service flow is transmitted on the first NF, the NF controller can determine whether the first NF has the risk of network congestion according to the bandwidth information of the first service flow; when the risk of network congestion exists, the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is increased, so that the first NF cannot generate network congestion when transmitting the first service flow, and the occurrence of the network congestion is prevented.

Optionally, in this embodiment, the first NF is a VNF, that is, the first NF is a virtualized network function.

For a clearer understanding of the network control method provided in fig. 8, the manner in which the NF controller prevents network congestion by extending the first NF will be described below in connection with an example.

Referring to fig. 9, a flowchart of a network control method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. This embodiment will be described by taking a schematic diagram of NF shown in fig. 4 as an example. The method comprises the following steps:

at step 901, a first traffic flow is triggered on NF 5.

The related description of this step refers to step 701, and this embodiment is not described herein again.

At step 902, the NF controller obtains control plane information on the NF 5.

For the related description of this step, refer to step 702, which is not described herein again.

Step 903, the NF controller determines whether the first NF has a risk of network congestion; if so, go to step 904; if not, the process ends.

And the NF controller is used for controlling the NF according to the bandwidth demand information of the first service flow and the residual bandwidth resource of the first NF in the transmission path.

For the related description of this step, refer to step 703, which is not described herein again.

At step 904, the NF controller sends a first capacity expansion request to the infrastructure controller.

The first capacity expansion request requests the infrastructure controller to expand NF3 based on the first target bandwidth.

At step 905, the infrastructure controller expands the NF 3.

The infrastructure controller sends a first capacity expansion instruction to the VIM, the first capacity expansion instruction being used to instruct the VIM to expand the capacity of the NF3 according to the first target bandwidth.

In summary, in the network control method provided in this embodiment, a transmission path of a first service flow is determined according to control plane information of the first service flow; according to the bandwidth demand information of the first service flow and the residual bandwidth resource of NF3 on the transmission path, carrying out capacity expansion on NF 3; before the first service flow is transmitted on the NF3, the NF controller can determine whether the NF3 risks network congestion according to the bandwidth information of the first service flow; when the risk of network congestion exists, the bandwidth resource provided by the NF3 is increased, so that the NF3 does not generate network congestion when transmitting the first service flow, and the occurrence of the network congestion is prevented.

Optionally, when the first NF has a risk of network congestion, but the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is much larger than the bandwidth resource occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, that is, the sum of the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the bandwidth resource occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF does not satisfy the proximity condition, the NF controller may not expand the first NF, and in order to avoid a problem of network congestion occurring subsequently in the first NF, the NF controller needs to monitor the bandwidth occupation situation of the first NF, thereby preventing occurrence of network congestion. The bandwidth occupation condition of the first NF includes a sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, a sum of bandwidth resources provided by the first NF, and a sum of bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF.

Referring to fig. 10, a flowchart of a network control method according to another embodiment of the present application is shown. The present embodiment is illustrated by the NF controller shown in fig. 2 or fig. 3 executing the network control method, which includes the following steps:

step 1001, obtaining bandwidth information of at least one service flow.

In this embodiment, the bandwidth information is used to indicate a sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, and/or a sum of bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF.

Optionally, the acquiring, by the NF controller, a sum of bandwidth requirements of all traffic flows passing through the first NF includes: acquiring control plane information of all service flows passing through the first NF; and acquiring the bandwidth requirement sum of all the service flows passing through the first NF according to the control plane information. The sum of the bandwidth requirements of all traffic flows passing through the first NF is determined based on the bandwidth requirement information of each traffic flow passing through the first NF.

Optionally, the acquiring, by the NF controller, a sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all service flows passing through the first NF includes: and receiving the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, wherein the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is reported by the first NF.

Step 1002, according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, performing capacity expansion on the first NF.

In a first mode, the NF controller expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, including: and when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is smaller than the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF meet the approaching condition, expanding the capacity of the first NF. At this time, the bandwidth information is used to indicate the sum of the occupied bandwidth resources of all the traffic flows passing through the first NF, and the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the traffic flows passing through the first NF.

Such as: the sum of the occupied bandwidth resources of all the service flows passing through the first NF is Q1, the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF are Q2, and the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF is Q3, so that when Q3 is greater than Q2 and the proximity condition between Q1 and Q2 is met, the capacity of the first NF is expanded; when Q3 is less than Q2, the first NF is not expanded; when Q3 > Q2 and the proximity condition between Q1 and Q2 is not satisfied, the first NF is not expanded.

In a second mode, the NF controller expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, including: and when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF meet the approaching condition, expanding the capacity of the first NF. At this time, the bandwidth information is used to indicate the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the traffic flows passing through the first NF.

Such as: the sum of the occupied bandwidth resources of all the service flows passing through the first NF is Q1, the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is Q2, and then when the Q1 and the Q2 meet the approaching condition, the first NF is subjected to capacity expansion; when the proximity condition is not satisfied between Q1 and Q2, the first NF is not expanded. At this time, the bandwidth information is used to indicate the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the traffic flows passing through the first NF.

In a third implementation manner, the expanding the capacity of the first NF by the NF controller according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF includes: and when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is less than the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF, expanding the capacity of the first NF. At this time, the bandwidth information is used to indicate the sum of bandwidth requirements of all traffic flows passing through the first NF.

Such as: the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is Q2, the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF is Q3, and then when Q3 is more than Q2, the first NF is expanded; when Q3 < Q2, the first NF was not expanded.

Optionally, in each of the foregoing implementation manners, the expanding the first NF by the NF controller includes: sending a second capacity expansion request to the infrastructure controller according to the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF; the second capacity expansion request is used for instructing the infrastructure controller to expand the capacity of the bandwidth resource of the first NF according to a second target bandwidth.

Wherein the second target bandwidth is determined according to the sum of bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF.

In one mode, the second capacity expansion request sent by the NF controller carries the second target bandwidth. At this time, the second target bandwidth is determined by the NF controller according to the sum of bandwidth requirements of all traffic flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF.

In another mode, the second capacity expansion request sent by the NF controller carries a sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF, and bandwidth resources provided by the first NF. At this time, the second target bandwidth is determined by the infrastructure controller according to the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the traffic flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF.

Optionally, the determining, by the NF controller or the infrastructure controller, the second target bandwidth according to a sum of bandwidth requirements of all traffic flows passing through the first NF and a bandwidth resource provided by the first NF includes: calculating a difference between a bandwidth value indicated by the sum of the bandwidth requirements and a bandwidth value indicated by the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF; and adding the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the difference value to obtain a second target bandwidth.

The NF controller determines the second target bandwidth according to the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF, so that the infrastructure controller can expand the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF to the bandwidth resources required to be reached at one time, thereby not only ensuring that the first NF cannot generate network congestion when transmitting all the service flows, but also avoiding the problem of resource waste caused by multiple expansion of the first NF by the infrastructure controller.

In summary, in the network control method provided in this embodiment, the first NF is expanded according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, so that the NF controller can monitor the bandwidth occupation condition of the first NF in real time in the process of transmitting the service flow by the first NF, thereby preventing the occurrence of network congestion.

Optionally, the first NF in this embodiment may be any NF controlled by the NF controller, which is not limited in this embodiment.

For a clearer understanding of the network control method provided in fig. 10, in connection with an example, a manner that the NF controller prevents network congestion by performing the capacity expansion on the first NF during the transmission of each traffic flow by the first NF will be described below.

Referring to fig. 11, a flowchart of a network control method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. This embodiment will be described by taking a schematic diagram of NF shown in fig. 4 as an example. The method comprises the following steps:

in step 1101, the NF controller obtains control plane information on each first NF.

1102, determining whether the first NF needs to be expanded by the NF controller; if so, go to step 1103; if not, the process ends.

And the NF controller determines whether the first NF needs to be expanded or not according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by each first NF.

In this embodiment, the bandwidth information is used to indicate a sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, and a sum of bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF.

Assuming that the sum of the occupied bandwidth resources of all the service flows passing through the first NF is Q1, the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is Q2, and the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF is Q3, then when Q3 is greater than Q2 and the proximity condition between Q1 and Q2 is satisfied, the NF controller determines that the capacity of the first NF needs to be expanded; when Q3 < Q2, the NF controller determines that expansion of the first NF is not required; when Q3 > Q2 and the proximity condition is not satisfied between Q1 and Q2, the NF controller determines that expansion of the first NF is not required.

At step 1103, the NF controller sends a second capacity expansion request to the infrastructure controller.

In this embodiment, the NF controller calculates a second target bandwidth according to the sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF and bandwidth resources provided by the first NF; and carrying the second target bandwidth in the second capacity expansion request.

At step 1104, the infrastructure controller expands the first NF.

The infrastructure controller sends a second capacity expansion instruction to the VIM, where the second capacity expansion instruction is used to instruct the VIM to expand the capacity of the VNF3 according to a second target bandwidth.

In summary, in the network control method provided in this embodiment, the first NF is expanded according to the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows that pass through the first NF, the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows that pass through the first NF, and the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF, so that the NF controller can monitor the bandwidth occupation condition of the first NF in real time in the process of transmitting the service flows by the first NF, thereby preventing network congestion.

Referring to fig. 12, a block diagram of a network control device according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The network control means may be implemented in software, hardware or a combination of both as all or part of the network device shown in fig. 3. The network control apparatus may include: an acquisition unit 1210 and a control unit 1220.

An obtaining unit 1210, configured to obtain bandwidth information of at least one service flow;

a control unit 1220, configured to control a network according to bandwidth information of at least one service flow and bandwidth resource information on the first NF; wherein the at least one traffic flow is a traffic flow passing or destined to pass the first NF when transmitted.

Optionally, the at least one traffic flow comprises a first traffic flow passing or destined to pass through a first NF;

an acquisition unit configured to:

control plane information of the first traffic flow is obtained, and the control plane information comprises bandwidth information of the first traffic flow.

Optionally, the bandwidth resource information on the first NF is used to indicate remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF,

a control unit for:

determining a transmission path of the first service flow according to the control plane information of the first service flow;

and modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resource on the first NF in the transmission path.

Optionally, a control unit for:

replacing the first NF in the transmission path by a second NF in other NFs according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF;

the other NFs refer to NFs except for the NF belonging to the transmission path among the n NFs controlled by the NF controller, the n NFs controlled by the NF controller include the first NF, the remaining bandwidth resource on the second NF is greater than or equal to the bandwidth information, and n is an integer greater than 1.

Optionally, the control unit is further configured to:

sending a first switching instruction to a third NF in the transmission path, wherein the first switching instruction is used for indicating the third NF to set a next hop NF of the first service flow as a second NF, and the third NF is a previous hop NF positioned in the first NF in the transmission path;

and sending a second switching instruction to the second NF, wherein the second switching instruction is used for indicating the second NF to set the next hop NF of the first service flow as a fourth NF in the transmission path, and the fourth NF is the next hop NF positioned in the first NF in the transmission path.

Optionally, a control unit for:

sending a first capacity expansion request to an infrastructure controller according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on a first NF in the transmission path, wherein the first capacity expansion request is used for indicating the infrastructure controller to expand the capacity of the bandwidth resources of the first NF according to a first target bandwidth;

wherein the first target bandwidth is determined according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF.

Optionally, a control unit for:

when the difference between the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF and the bandwidth information is smaller than a preset difference, modifying a transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF;

or the like, or, alternatively,

and when the ratio of the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF to the bandwidth information is smaller than a preset ratio, modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF.

Optionally, the obtaining unit is configured to:

acquiring control plane information of all service flows passing through the first NF; acquiring the bandwidth requirement sum of all service flows passing through the first NF according to the control plane information;

and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

and receiving the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, wherein the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is reported by the first NF.

Optionally, the bandwidth resource information on the first NF is used to indicate the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF,

a control unit for:

and expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF.

Optionally, the bandwidth information includes: the total bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, and the control unit is used for:

when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF meet the approaching condition, expanding the capacity of the first NF;

wherein, the approaching condition is that the difference value between the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is less than a first preset threshold value; and/or the approaching condition is that the ratio of the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF to the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is less than a second preset threshold.

Optionally, the bandwidth information includes: a sum of bandwidth requirements of all traffic flows passing through the first NF, a control unit to:

and when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is less than the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF, expanding the capacity of the first NF.

Optionally, the bandwidth information includes: the sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF and the sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all service flows passing through the first NF; a control unit for:

when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is smaller than the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF meet the approaching condition, expanding the capacity of the first NF;

Optionally, the bandwidth information includes: the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF;

a control unit for:

sending a second capacity expansion request to the infrastructure controller according to the sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF, wherein the second capacity expansion request is used for indicating the infrastructure controller to expand the capacity of the bandwidth resources of the first NF according to a second target bandwidth;

the second target bandwidth is determined according to a sum of bandwidth requirements of all traffic flows passing through the first NF and bandwidth resources provided by the first NF.

It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the apparatuses and units described above may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units may be merely a logical division, and in actual implementation, there may be another division, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application 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 application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for network control, the method comprising:

acquiring control plane information of a first service flow, wherein the first service flow passes through or is scheduled to pass through a first NF during transmission, and the control plane information comprises bandwidth information of the first service flow;

and modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF in the transmission path.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the transmission path based on the bandwidth information and remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF in the transmission path comprises:

the other NFs refer to NFs except for the NFs on the transmission path in the n NFs controlled by the NF controller, the n NFs controlled by the NF controller include the first NF, the remaining bandwidth resources on the second NF are greater than or equal to the bandwidth information, and n is an integer greater than 1.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the replacing the first NF in the transmission path by a second NF of the other NFs comprises:

sending a first switching instruction to a third NF in the transmission path, wherein the first switching instruction is used for instructing the third NF to set a next hop NF of the first service flow as the second NF, and the third NF is a previous hop NF positioned in the first NF in the transmission path;

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF in the transmission path comprises:

sending a first capacity expansion request to an infrastructure controller according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF in the transmission path, wherein the first capacity expansion request is used for indicating the infrastructure controller to expand the capacity of the bandwidth resources of the first NF according to a first target bandwidth;

wherein the first target bandwidth is determined based on the bandwidth information and remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF.

5. The method of claim 4,

the first capacity expansion request carries the first target bandwidth;

or the like, or, alternatively,

the first capacity expansion request carries the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resources on the first NF.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5,

the bandwidth information is used for indicating the bandwidth resource requested by the first service flow;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the bandwidth information is used to indicate a bandwidth requirement corresponding to the first traffic flow, and the bandwidth requirement is determined according to a Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) requirement of the first traffic flow.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the remaining bandwidth resource on the first NF in the transmission path comprises:

when the difference between the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF and the bandwidth information is smaller than a preset difference, modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF;

or the like, or, alternatively,

8. A method for network control, the method comprising:

acquiring bandwidth information of at least one service flow, wherein the at least one service flow passes through or is scheduled to pass through a first NF during transmission;

expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF;

wherein, the obtaining the bandwidth information of at least one service flow includes:

and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the bandwidth information comprises: the expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, which is the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, includes:

when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all service flows passing through the first NF meet an approaching condition, expanding the capacity of the first NF;

wherein, the approaching condition is that the difference between the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is smaller than a first preset threshold; and/or the approaching condition is that the ratio of the bandwidth resources provided by the first NF to the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF is less than a second preset threshold.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the bandwidth information comprises: the expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, which is the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF, includes:

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the bandwidth information comprises: the sum of bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF and the sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF;

the expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF includes:

when the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF is smaller than the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF and the sum of the bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF meet an approaching condition, expanding the capacity of the first NF;

12. The method according to any of claims 8 to 11, wherein the bandwidth information comprises: the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF;

the expanding the capacity of the first NF comprises:

sending a second capacity expansion request to an infrastructure controller according to the sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF, wherein the second capacity expansion request is used for indicating the infrastructure controller to expand the bandwidth resource of the first NF according to a second target bandwidth;

the second target bandwidth is determined according to the sum of bandwidth requirements of all service flows passing through the first NF and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF.

13. A network control apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain control plane information of a first service flow, where the first service flow passes through or is scheduled to pass through a first NF when being transmitted, and the control plane information includes bandwidth information of the first service flow;

a control unit, configured to determine a transmission path of the first service flow according to control plane information of the first service flow; and modifying the transmission path or expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the residual bandwidth resources on the first NF in the transmission path.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the control unit is configured to:

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the control unit is further configured to:

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the control unit is configured to:

17. The apparatus of any one of claims 13 to 16,

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

18. The apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 16, wherein the control unit is configured to:

or the like, or, alternatively,

19. A network control apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain bandwidth information of at least one service flow, where the at least one service flow passes through or is scheduled to pass through a first NF when being transmitted;

the control unit is used for expanding the capacity of the first NF according to the bandwidth information and the bandwidth resource provided by the first NF;

the acquisition unit is further configured to:

and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the bandwidth information comprises: the total bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF, and the control unit is configured to:

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the bandwidth information comprises: the total bandwidth requirement of all the service flows passing through the first NF, and the control unit is configured to:

22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the bandwidth information comprises: the sum of bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF and the sum of bandwidth resources occupied by all the service flows passing through the first NF; the control unit is used for:

23. The apparatus according to any one of claims 19 to 22, wherein the bandwidth information comprises: the sum of the bandwidth requirements of all the service flows passing through the first NF;

the control unit is used for:

24. A network device, characterized in that the network device comprises: a processor and a memory, the memory having stored therein at least one instruction, the instruction being loaded by the processor and performing the network control method of any of claims 1 to 12.

25. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein at least one instruction for performing the network control method of any of claims 1-12.