CN110149603B

CN110149603B - Policy control method, device and system

Info

Publication number: CN110149603B
Application number: CN201810150431.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 丁辉; 时书锋
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-02-13
Filing date: 2018-02-13
Publication date: 2020-07-07
Anticipated expiration: 2038-02-13
Also published as: WO2019158033A1; CN110149603A

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a policy control method, a device and a system, which relate to the technical field of communication and aim to realize the usage monitoring of the same usage monitoring instance on a plurality of PSA. The method comprises the following steps: a PDU session managed by the session management network element comprises a first PSA and a second PSA, and after the session management network element sends a first URR corresponding to a first monitoring key to the first PSA, the session management network element receives policy control information from the policy control network element; the policy control information includes a PCC rule, where the PCC rule carries a first monitoring key and an indication for indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is executed on a second PSA, and the session management network element sends, to the second PSA, a first PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key.

Description

Policy control method, device and system

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a policy control method, device and system.

Background

In the fifth generation (5)^thGeneration, 5G) mobile communication system (5G system for short), a usage monitoring mechanism may be used to manage and control the real-time network resource usage. The usage monitoring may be performed for one or a group of service Data flows, or may be performed for a service Data flow on a whole Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session, without limitation. For example, in the 5G system, after the user access network establishes the PDU Session, the service data flow may be monitored or the PDU Session may be monitored at a PDU Session Anchor (PSA) included in the PDU Session.

However, for a traffic monitoring instance, existing 5G systems only support performing traffic monitoring for the traffic monitoring instance on one PSA included in the PDU session, and do not support performing traffic monitoring for the traffic monitoring instance on multiple PSAs included in the PDU session simultaneously.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a policy control method, a device and a system, so as to realize the usage monitoring of the same usage monitoring instance on a plurality of PSA.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the following technical solutions are adopted in the embodiments of the present application.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a policy control method, where the method is performed by a session management network element, a PDU session managed by the session management network element includes a first PSA and a second PSA, and the session management network element sends a first Usage Report Rule (URR) corresponding to a first monitoring key (monitoring key) to the first PSA, where the method may include: receiving Policy control information including Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rules from a Policy control network element, wherein the PCC rules carry a first monitoring key and information indicating that a Policy corresponding to the PCC rules is executed on a second PSA; and sending a first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA. Based on the policy control method provided in the embodiment of the present application, when a PDU session includes multiple PSAs, and a session management network element has sent a URR corresponding to a monitoring key to a certain PSA included in the PDU session, the session management network element receives policy control information carrying a PCC rule sent by the policy control network element, and sends a PDR and the URR corresponding to the monitoring key to other PSAs of the PDU session according to the monitoring key carried by the PCC rule and information carried by the PCC rule and used for instructing to execute a policy corresponding to the PCC rule on the other PSAs, so that the other PSAs perform usage monitoring according to the PDR and the URR, thereby implementing usage monitoring on the same usage monitoring instance corresponding to the same monitoring key by multiple PSAs.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a policy control method, where the method is performed by a session management network element, a PDU session managed by the session management network element includes a first PSA and a second PSA, and the session management network element sends a first URR corresponding to a first monitoring key to the first PSA, where the method may include: the session management network element receives policy control information which comprises a PCC rule and information used for indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is executed on a second PSA from the policy control network element, wherein the PCC rule carries a first monitoring key; and the session management network element sends a first PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA. Based on the policy control method provided in the embodiment of the present application, when a PDU session includes multiple PSAs, and a session management network element has sent a URR corresponding to a monitoringkey to a certain PSA included in the PDU session, the session management network element receives policy control information, which is sent by a policy control network element and carries a PCC rule and information for instructing to execute a policy corresponding to the PCC rule on another PSA included in the PDU session, and sends a PDR and the URR corresponding to the monitoring key to the other PSA of the PDU session according to the monitoring key carried by the PCC rule and the information for instructing to execute the policy corresponding to the PCC rule on the other PSA included in the policy control information, so that the other PSAs perform usage monitoring according to the PDR and the URR, thereby implementing the usage monitoring of the same usage monitoring instance corresponding to the same monitoring key performed on multiple PSAs.

In a first possible design, with reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, before the session management network element sends, to the second PSA, the first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key, the method further includes: the session management network element determines the packet detection information of the first PDR according to the service data flow template in the PCC rule, and determines a second URR for the first monitoring key; wherein the first PDR includes an identification of the second URR. In this way, before the session management network element sends the PDR and the URR to the second PSA, the PDR may be determined according to the PCC rule, and the URR may be determined for the first monitoring key, so that the PDR is associated with the URR.

In a second possible design, in combination with the first aspect or the second aspect or the first possible design, the first traffic monitoring instance is a traffic data flow level usage monitoring instance, and thus, the usage monitoring for the same traffic data flow level usage monitoring instance may be performed on multiple PSAs by the above-described scheme.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a policy control method, where the method is performed by a session management network element, a PDU session managed by the session management network element includes a first PSA and a second PSA, the session management network element sends a first URR corresponding to a first monitoring key to the first PSA, and the first monitoring key corresponds to a session-level usage monitoring instance; the method can comprise the following steps: the session management network element receives policy control information from the policy control network element, the policy control information indicating that session level usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA or indicating that session level usage monitoring is performed on all PSAs included in the PDU session; and the session management network element sends a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, wherein the second URR is associated with at least one Packet Detection Rule (PDR) executed by the second PSA, and the service data matched with each PDR is included in the session-level usage monitoring. Based on the policy control method provided by the embodiment of the application, the PDU session comprises a plurality of PSAs, and the session management network element has sent the URR corresponding to the monitoring key corresponding to the session level usage monitoring instance to a PSA included in the PDU session, the session management network element receives the policy control information sent by the policy control network element for instructing to perform session level usage monitoring on other PSAs included in the PDU session or for instructing to perform session level usage monitoring on all PSAs included in the PDU session, according to the indication of the strategy control information, sending a new URR corresponding to the monitoring key corresponding to the session-level usage monitoring instance to other PSAs of the PDU session, such that other PSAs perform usage monitoring based on the URR and at least one PDR associated with the URR, in this manner, it is achieved that usage monitoring is performed on the same session level usage monitoring instance at multiple PSAs.

In a third possible design, with reference to the third aspect, before the session management network element sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, the method further includes: the session management network element determines a second URR for the first monitorengkey. In this way, the session management network element may determine the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key before the session management network element sends the second URR corresponding to the second monitoring key to the second PSA.

In a fourth possible design, with reference to the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or any one of the foregoing possible designs, the policy control information sent by the policy control network element further includes: a first quantity threshold for the first monitorating key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override a previously received first monitorating key usage threshold by the session management network element; the session management network element determines a second URR for the first monitoring key, and specifically includes: and the session management network element determines a usage threshold of the second URR according to the first usage threshold. In this way, the policy control network element may reallocate the usage threshold of the first monitoring key to the second PSA through the policy control information, so that after receiving the policy control information, the session management network element determines the second URR of the first monitoring key according to the usage threshold of the first monitoring key newly issued by the policy control network element.

In a fifth possible design, with reference to the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or any one of the foregoing possible designs, the session management network element determines a second URR for the first monitoring key, specifically: the session management network element requests the first PSA to report the accumulated usage of the first URR; the session management network element receives the accumulated usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA; the session management network element determines an available usage threshold according to the accumulated usage of the first URR; and the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the available usage threshold. In this way, the session management network element may determine the usage threshold of the second URR according to the available usage threshold corresponding to the first monitorngkey, and issue the second URR to the second PSA.

In a sixth possible design, with reference to the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or any one of the foregoing possible designs, the session management network element determines a second URR for the first monitoring key, specifically: the session management network element judges whether a residual usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key exists; under the condition that the residual usage threshold exists, the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the residual usage threshold; or; under the condition that no residual usage threshold value exists, the session management network element requests the first PSA to report the accumulated usage of the first URR; the session management network element receives the accumulated usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA; and the session management network element determines an available usage threshold according to the accumulated usage of the first URR, and determines a usage threshold of a second URR according to the available usage threshold. In this way, the session management network element may determine the usage threshold of the second URR according to the remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key, and issue the second URR to the second PSA, or determine the usage threshold of the second URR according to the available usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key and issue the second URR to the second PSA under the condition that there is no remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key.

In a seventh possible design, in combination with the fifth possible design or the sixth possible design, the method further includes: the session management network element updates the usage threshold of the first URR according to the available usage threshold; the session management network element sends the updated first URR to the first PSA. In this way, the session management network element may readjust the usage threshold of the first URR according to the available usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key.

In an eighth possible design, in combination with any one of the fifth possible design to the seventh possible design, the available usage threshold is a difference between the usage threshold of the first monitongkey received by the session management network element from the policy management network element and the cumulative usage of the first URR received by the session management network element.

In a ninth possible design, with reference to the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or any one of the above possible designs, the policy control information further includes a second amount threshold of the first monitoring key; the session management network element determines a second URR for the first monitoring key, and specifically includes: and the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the second usage threshold. In this way, the policy control network element may re-issue the usage threshold of the first monitoring key, so that the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the usage threshold of the issued first monitoring key, and issues the usage threshold to the second PSA. It should be noted that, in a ninth possible design, the session management network element may further update the usage threshold of the first URR according to the second usage threshold, and issue the updated first URR to the first PSA.

In a tenth possible design, in combination with the ninth possible design, before the session management network element receives the policy control information from the policy control network element, the method further includes: the session management network element requests the first PSA to report the accumulated usage of the first URR, and receives the accumulated usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA; and the session management network element sends a message to the policy control network element, wherein the message carries an indication of adding the second PSA and information of the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key, and the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key comprises the cumulative usage of the first URR. Therefore, the policy control network element can conveniently re-issue the usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key according to the usage quota contracted by usage and the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key.

In an eleventh possible design, with reference to the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or any one of the foregoing possible designs, after the session management network element sends, to the second PSA, the first PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and the second URR corresponding to the first monitorangey, the method further includes: the session management network element receives the cumulative usage of the URR reported by any PSA included in the PDU session, and reports the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element; wherein the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key comprises the cumulative amount of the URR reported by any PSA; or the session management network element receives the cumulative usage of the URRs reported by any PSA included in the PDU session, and determines whether there is a remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key; under the condition that the residual usage threshold exists, the session management network element updates the usage threshold of the URR reported by any PSA according to the residual usage threshold; under the condition that no residual usage threshold value exists, the session management network element reports the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element; wherein the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key comprises a cumulative amount of the URR reported by any PSA, either the first PSA or the second PSA. Thus, after receiving the cumulative usage of the URR reported by the PSA, the session management element may send the cumulative usage of the monitoring key corresponding to the URR to the policy control element, so that the policy control element re-issues the usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key; or adjusting the usage threshold of the URR according to the remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key stored in the URR, and re-issuing the adjusted URR to the PSA without reporting the accumulated usage of the monitoring key corresponding to the URR to the policy control network element, so as to reduce the power consumption of the policy control network element; or sending the accumulated usage of the monitoring key corresponding to the URR to the policy control network element only when the remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key does not exist, so that the policy control network element re-issues the usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key.

In a twelfth possible design, in combination with the eleventh possible design, when the session management network element reports the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element, the method further includes: the session management network element sends the identifier of any PSA to the policy control network element; the identifier of the PSA is used to identify the PSA, so that the policy control network element knows which PSA has reported the accumulated usage, and provides a reference basis for the policy control network element to subsequently formulate a monitoring policy.

In a thirteenth possible design, in combination with the sixth possible design, the eleventh possible design, or the twelfth possible design, the remaining usage threshold is a usage threshold that has not been allocated to the URR among the usage thresholds corresponding to the first monitoring key received by the session management network element from the policy management network element.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a policy control method, where the policy control method is performed by a policy control network element, the policy control network element determines that a PDU session includes a first PSA and a second PSA, and the policy control network element determines that usage monitoring of a first usage monitoring instance corresponding to a first monitoring key is performed on the first PSA; the method further comprises the following steps: determining to perform usage monitoring of the first instance of usage monitoring on the second PSA; sending policy control information including a PCC rule to a session management network element; wherein the PCC rule carries the first monitoring key and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed on the second PSA. Based on the policy control method provided in the embodiment of the present application, when a PDU session includes multiple PSAs, and a certain PSA included in the PDU session performs usage monitoring on a usage monitoring instance corresponding to a monitoring key, a policy control network element determines that other PSAs included in the PDU session also perform usage monitoring on the usage monitoring instance, and sends policy control information carrying a PCC rule to a session management network element, so that the session management network element sends a PDR and a URR corresponding to the monitoring key to other PSAs of the PDU session according to the monitoring key carried by the PCC rule and information, carried by the PCC rule, indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is performed on the other PSAs, and thus, the other PSAs perform usage monitoring according to the PDR and the URR, and thus, the usage monitoring performed on the same usage monitoring instance corresponding to the same monitoring key by multiple PSAs is achieved.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a policy control method, where the policy control method is performed by a policy control network element, the policy control network element determines that a PDU session includes a first PSA and a second PSA, and the policy control network element determines that usage monitoring of a first usage monitoring instance corresponding to a first monitoring key is performed on the first PSA; the method further comprises the following steps: determining to perform usage monitoring of the first instance of usage monitoring on the second PSA; sending policy control information including the PCC rule and information indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is to be executed on the second PSA to a session management network element; wherein the PCC rule carries a first monitering key. Based on the policy control method provided by the embodiment of the application, the PDU session comprises a plurality of PSAs, and a certain PSA included in the PDU session performs usage monitoring of the usage monitoring instance corresponding to the monitoring key, the policy control network element determines that other PSAs included in the PDU session also perform the usage monitoring on the usage monitoring instance, sends policy control information carrying the PCC rule and information indicating that the policy corresponding to the PCC rule is performed on the other PSAs to the session management network element, so that the session management network element sends the PDR and the URR corresponding to the monitoring key to other PSAs of the PDU session according to the monitoring key carried by the PCC rule and the information indicating that the policy corresponding to the PCC rule is executed on other PSAs, in this way, the usage monitoring of the other PSAs according to the PDR and the URR is performed, and the usage monitoring of the same usage monitoring instance corresponding to the same monitoring key is performed on a plurality of PSAs.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a policy control method, where the method is performed by a policy control network element, the policy control network element determines that a PDU session includes a first PDU session anchor PSA and a second PSA, and the policy control network element determines that usage monitoring of a session-level usage monitoring instance corresponding to a first monitoring key is performed on the first PSA; the method comprises the following steps: determining to perform session level usage monitoring on the second PSA; policy control information is sent to the session management network element indicating that session level usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA, or indicating that session level usage monitoring is performed on all PSAs included in the PDU session. Based on the policy control method provided by the embodiment of the application, the PDU session comprises a plurality of PSAs, and a certain PSA included in the PDU session performs usage monitoring of the usage monitoring instance corresponding to the monitoring key, the policy control network element determines that other PSAs included in the PDU session also perform usage monitoring for the usage monitoring instance, sends policy control information to the session management network element indicating that session level usage monitoring is performed on the other PSAs included in the PDU session or indicating that session level usage monitoring is performed on all PSAs included in the PDU session, so that the session management network element sends a new URR corresponding to the monitoring key corresponding to the session level usage monitoring instance to other PSAs of the PDU session according to the indication of the policy control information, in this manner, enabling other PSAs to perform usage monitoring based on the URR and at least one PDR with which the URR is associated enables usage monitoring of the same session level usage monitoring instance to be performed at multiple PSAs.

In a fourteenth possible design, with reference to the fourth aspect, the policy control information further includes: a first quantity threshold for the first monitoring key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override the first monitoring key usage threshold previously provided to the session management network element by the policy control network element. In this way, the policy control network element may reallocate the usage threshold of the first monitoring key to the second PSA through the policy control information, so that after receiving the policy control information, the session management network element determines the second URR of the first monitoring key according to the usage threshold of the first monitoring key newly issued by the policy control network element.

In a fifteenth possible design, in combination with the fourteenth possible design, the first quantity threshold is determined according to the usage quota of the first quantity monitoring instance signed by the user, the accumulated usage of the first quantity monitoring instance, and the usage threshold of the first verifying key issued by the policy control network element.

In a sixteenth possible design, with reference to the fourth aspect, the policy control information further includes: the policy control information further includes a second amount threshold for a second monitoring key; before the policy control network element sends the policy control information to the session management network element, the method further includes: and the policy control network element receives a message sent by the session management network element, wherein the message carries an indication of adding the second PSA and information of the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key, and the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key comprises the cumulative usage of the URR reported by the first PSA. In this way, the policy control network element may reissue the usage threshold of the first monitoring key according to the usage quota of the usage contract and the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key, so that the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the delivered usage threshold of the first monitoring key, and delivers the usage threshold to the second PSA.

In a seventeenth possible design, with reference to any one of the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, the sixth aspect, the fourteenth possible design, to the sixteenth possible design, after the policy control network element sends the policy control information to the session management network element, the method further includes: the method comprises the steps that a policy control network element receives the accumulated usage of a first monitoring key reported by a session management network element, wherein the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key comprises the accumulated usage of URRs reported by any PSA included in a PDU session; either PSA is the first PSA or the second PSA. In this way, the policy control network element may reissue the usage threshold of the first monitoring key according to the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key reported by the session management network element.

In an eighteenth possible design, in combination with the seventeenth possible design, the method further includes: the policy control network element receives an identification of any PSA. The identifier of the PSA is used to identify the PSA, so that the policy control network element knows which PSA has reported the accumulated usage, and provides a reference basis for the policy control network element to subsequently formulate a monitoring policy.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a session management network element, where a PDU session managed by the session management network element includes a first PSA and a second PSA, and the session management network element sends a first URR corresponding to a first monitoring key to the first PSA, and the session management network element may implement the functions executed by the session management network element in the above aspects or in various possible designs, and the functions may be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions. Such as: the session management network element may include: a receiving unit and a transmitting unit.

In one possible design, the receiving unit is configured to receive policy control information from a policy control network element; wherein the policy control information comprises a PCC rule; the PCC rule carries a first verifying key and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed on a second PSA; and a sending unit, configured to send, to the second PSA, the first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key.

In another possible design, the receiving unit is configured to receive policy control information from a policy control network element; wherein the policy control information includes the PCC rule and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed at the second PSA; the PCC rule carries a first monitering key; and a sending unit, configured to send, to the second PSA, the first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key.

In yet another possible design, the first monitoring key corresponds to a session level usage monitoring instance, and the receiving unit is configured to receive policy control information from the policy control network element for instructing to perform session level usage monitoring on the second PSA or for instructing to perform session level usage monitoring on all PSAs included in the PDU session; and a sending unit, configured to send a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, where the second URR is associated with at least one packet detection rule PDR executed by the second PSA, and traffic data matched with each PDR is included in session level usage monitoring.

For a specific implementation manner of the session management network element, reference may be made to the behavior function of the session management network element in the policy control method provided by any one of the possible designs in the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the first possible design to the thirteenth possible design, and details are not repeated here. Therefore, the provided session management network element may achieve the same beneficial effects as any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the first possible design to the thirteenth possible design.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a session management network element, comprising: a processor and a memory; the memory is configured to store computer-executable instructions, and when the session management network element is running, the processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored by the memory to cause the session management network element to perform the policy control method according to any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the first possible design to the thirteenth possible design.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the policy control method of any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the first possible design to the thirteenth possible design.

A tenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of policy control according to any one of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the first possible design to the thirteenth possible design.

In an eleventh aspect, a chip system is provided, where the chip system includes a processor and a communication interface, and is configured to enable a session management network element to implement the functions related in the foregoing aspects, for example, the session management network element is enabled to receive policy control information including a PCC rule or policy control information including the PCC rule and information indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is executed on a second PSA, and send a first PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to a first verifying key to the second PSA through the communication interface; or the session management network element receives and receives policy control information from the policy control network element for instructing to perform session level usage monitoring on the second PSA, or for instructing to perform session level usage monitoring on all PSAs included in the PDU session; and send a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA via the communication interface. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the session management network element. The chip system may be constituted by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

For technical effects brought by any one of the design manners of the seventh aspect to the eleventh aspect, reference may be made to technical effects brought by different design manners of the first aspect, the second aspect, or the third aspect, and details are not repeated here.

In a twelfth aspect, a policy control network element is provided, where the policy control network element determines that one PDU session includes a first PSA and a second PSA, and the policy control network element determines that usage monitoring is performed on the first PSA for a first usage monitoring instance corresponding to a first monitoring key, and the policy control network element has a function of implementing the policy control network element in the method according to the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect. The function can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above. Such as: the policy control network element may include: a determining unit, a transmitting unit;

in one possible design, the determining unit is configured to determine that usage monitoring of the first instance of usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA; the sending unit is used for sending the policy control information including the PCC rule to the session management network element; wherein the PCC rule carries the first monitoring key and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed on the second PSA.

In a further possible design, the determining unit is configured to determine that usage monitoring of the first instance of usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA; the sending unit is configured to send, to the session management network element, policy control information including the PCC rule and information indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is executed on the second PSA; wherein the PCC rule carries a first monitorngkey.

In yet another possible design, the determining unit is to determine to perform session level usage monitoring on the second PSA; the sending unit is configured to send, to the session management network element, policy control information for instructing to perform session-level usage monitoring on the second PSA, or for instructing to perform session-level usage monitoring on all PSAs included in the PDU session.

For a specific implementation manner of the policy control network element, reference may be made to a behavior function of the policy control network element in the policy control method provided in the possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect, and details are not repeated here. Therefore, the policy control network element provided can achieve the same beneficial effects as the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect or the sixth aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, a policy control network element is provided, including: a processor and a memory; the memory is configured to store computer executable instructions, and when the policy control network element is running, the processor executes the computer executable instructions stored in the memory to cause the policy control network element to perform the policy control method according to the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect or the sixth aspect.

In a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the policy control method of the fourth or fifth or sixth aspect.

In a fifteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product containing instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the policy control method of any one of the fourth or fifth or sixth aspects above.

A sixteenth aspect provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and a communication interface, and is configured to support a policy control network element to implement the functions related in the foregoing aspects, for example, the policy control network element determines to perform usage monitoring on a first usage monitoring instance on a second PSA, and sends policy control information including a PCC rule or policy control information including the PCC rule and information indicating to perform a policy corresponding to the PCC rule on the second PSA to a session management network element through the communication interface; or the support policy control network element determines to perform session level usage monitoring on the second PSA and sends policy control information to the session management network element over the communication interface indicating to perform session level usage monitoring on the second PSA or indicating to perform session level usage monitoring on all PSAs comprised by the PDU session. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the policy control network element. The chip system may be constituted by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

For technical effects brought by any one of the design manners in the twelfth aspect to the sixteenth aspect, reference may be made to technical effects brought by different design manners in the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect, and details are not described herein again.

A seventeenth aspect provides a policy control system comprising the session management network element of any one of the seventh to eleventh aspects, the policy control network element of any one of the twelfth to sixteenth aspects, and at least two PSAs.

These and other aspects of the present application will be more readily apparent from the following description of the embodiments.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a 5G system architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of a policy control method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4a is a flowchart of reporting cumulative usage by PSA according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of another policy control method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of another policy control method provided in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of another policy control method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of another policy control method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a structural diagram of a session management network element according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a structural diagram of a policy control network element according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

First, in order to facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, some technical terms related to the embodiments of the present application are described:

monitoring the usage amount: monitoring the usage of network resources, such as: the traffic monitoring method can monitor one service data stream data flow, can also monitor the usage of one group of service data flows, and even can monitor the usage of all service data flows on one PDU session without limitation. A user may subscribe to a traffic monitoring protocol with an operator, where the traffic monitoring protocol subscribed to by the user specifies the type of service data stream to be monitored and a subscribed traffic limit (volume limit or timelimit), such as: when a user signs an agreement with an operator, the operator can be selected to perform independent usage monitoring on network resources when the operator accesses the search fox video, and 1G flow is signed for the access of the search fox video. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the usage may refer to a flow (Volumn) or may refer to a Time, which is not limited. In the embodiment of the present application, the usage monitoring may be divided into two types of usage monitoring, namely, service data stream level usage monitoring and session level usage monitoring, according to different network resources monitored by the usage monitoring.

Example of monitoring of amount (monitering control entity): the method comprises the requirements signed by a user for carrying out usage monitoring on a service data stream independently, or a group of service data streams, or even all service data streams on a PDU session, and subscription information signed for the requirements, wherein the subscription information specifies the range of the monitored service data streams and the corresponding subscription information, such as usage quota and the like. For example, the user's access to the fox video and the traffic of 1G signed for accessing the fox video may be used as one usage monitoring instance, and the user's access to the green wave video and the fox video and the traffic of 1.5G signed for accessing the green wave video and the fox video may be used as one usage monitoring instance. In the embodiment of the present application, the usage monitoring instances may be divided into two levels of usage monitoring instances, namely, a service data stream level usage monitoring instance and a session level usage monitoring instance.

Generally, the same usage monitoring instance may be assigned a monitoring key, i.e., one usage monitoring instance corresponds to one monitoring key. The Policy Control Function (PCF) may formulate corresponding Policy Control information according to subscription information corresponding to one usage monitoring instance, and use the Policy Control information to monitor usage of service access of a user.

PCC rules: the service data flow template may include control information for service data flow detection, and may further include control information for service data flow charging, traffic steering, and the like, without limitation. The PCF may issue a PCC Rule to a Session Management Function (SMF), and the SMF determines rules such as a PDR, a quality of service Enforcement Rule (QER), a Forwarding Enforcement Rule (FAR) and the like according to the PCC Rule.

Usage Monitoring Information (Usage Monitoring Information): the PCF may specify, for example, a monitoring key, a level indication for the usage monitoring instance for the monitoring key, and a usage threshold for the monitoring key. The PCF may issue Usage monitoring information to the SMF, and the SMF determines a Usage Reporting Rule (URR) or other Rule corresponding to the monitoring key according to the Usage monitoring information. In the embodiment of the present application, the PCF may carry the PCC rule and the usage monitoring information together in the policy control information and issue the policy control information to the SMF.

PDR: the rules formulated by the SMF for execution in the User Plane Function (UPF) may include packet inspection information for inspecting traffic data streams, and QER, FAR, URR, etc. rules associated therewith.

URR: the rules enacted by the SMF for performing usage monitoring at the UPF may include a usage threshold. The URR may be associated with the PDR, and the UPF may accumulate the usage amount of the detected service data stream and the URR associated with the PDR after detecting the service data stream according to the packet detection information in the PDR, and report the URR identifier and the accumulated usage amount to the SMF when the accumulated usage amount reaches a usage amount threshold carried by the URR. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the URR and PDR association may refer to: the PDR includes an identification of the URR.

Embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The policy control method provided in this embodiment of the application may be applied to the Network system shown in fig. 1, where the Network system may be a 5G system supporting a PDU session with multiple PSAs, and may also be a 4th generation (4G) (e.g., Evolved Packet System (EPS) mobile communication system, and may also be other mobile communication systems supporting user plane transmission paths with multiple anchors, without limitation, as shown in fig. 1, the Network system may include a terminal, an access Network device, a session management Network element, a policy control Network element, a splitter/combiner, a gateway Network element, and a Data Network (DN), where the terminal in fig. 1 may be used to connect to an access Network device deployed by an operator through a wireless air interface, and then the access Network device is accessed DN. through the splitter/combiner and the gateway Network element, and is mainly used to implement a wireless physical layer function, Resource scheduling and radio resource management, radio access control, mobility management, and the like. The session management network element may manage one or more gateway network elements, and is mainly used to implement session management functions such as establishment, release, and modification of a user plane transmission path. The policy control network element is mainly used for making information for service data flow detection and control information such as policy, charging, flow guiding and the like. The splitter/combiner is mainly used for distributing the service data streams uploaded by the terminal through the user plane transmission path to different gateway network elements under the condition that the same user plane transmission path comprises multiple anchor points, or combining the service data streams issued by different gateway network elements on the user plane transmission path and then sending the combined service data streams to the terminal. The gateway network element may be used as an anchor point on a user plane transmission path, and is mainly used for completing functions such as routing forwarding of user plane data, for example: a channel (i.e. a user plane transmission path) is established with the terminal, and a data packet between the terminal and the DN is forwarded on the channel, and the channel is responsible for filtering data messages of the terminal, transmitting/forwarding data, controlling rate, generating charging information and the like. The DN may comprise network devices (e.g., servers, routers, etc.), and is primarily used to provide various data traffic services to the terminal. It should be noted that fig. 1 is only an exemplary architecture diagram, and besides the functional units shown in fig. 1, the network architecture may also include other network elements, such as: a mobility management network element for managing movement of the terminal, a data management network element for managing subscription information of the user, and the like, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

For example, assuming that the network system is a 5G system supporting a PDU session with multiple PSAs (as shown in fig. 2), the terminal in the network system may be a User Equipment (UE), such as: cell phones, computers, and may also be cellular phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, smart phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), computers, laptops, handheld communication devices, handheld computing devices, satellite radios, wireless modem cards, Set Top Boxes (STBs), Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), and/or other devices used to communicate over a wireless system. The access network device may be AN Access Network (AN)/Radio Access Network (RAN) device, and the network may be composed of a plurality of 5G-AN/5G-RAN nodes, where the 5G-AN/5G-RAN nodes may be: an access node (AP), a next generation base station (NR nodeB, gNB), a Transmission Receive Point (TRP), a Transmission Point (TP), or some other access node. The session management network element may be an SMF. The policy control network element may be a PCF. The gateway network element may be a UPF. The splitter/combiner may be a Branching Point (BP) or an upstream Classifier (ULCL), such as: the splitter/combiner may be BP when a PDU session for Multi-PSA is established in a Multi-Homing (Multi-Homing) manner, and may be UL CL when a PDU session for Multi-PSA is established in a non-Multi-Homing manner. The mobility management network element may be an access & mobility function (AMF). The Data Management network element may be Unified Data Management (UDM). In the 5G system shown in fig. 2, different network elements may establish a connection through a Next Generation Network (NG) interface to implement communication.

In the system shown in fig. 1, when the session management network element sends the URR corresponding to the monitoring key to the PSA included in the PDU session managed by the session management network element, and the PSA performs usage monitoring on the usage monitoring instance corresponding to the monitoring key according to the URR, if it is determined that the PSA added to the PDU session also needs to perform usage monitoring on the usage monitoring instance, the policy control network element may allocate the same monitoring key to the newly added PSA, and send policy control information to the session management network element for the newly added PSA, so that the session management network element determines the URR corresponding to the monitoring key for the newly added PSA, and sends the URR corresponding to the monitoring key to the newly added PSA, thereby implementing the usage monitoring. Specifically, this implementation can be seen with reference to fig. 4 to 8 described below.

In order to implement the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the session management network element and the policy control network element in fig. 1 may be implemented in the manner of the communication device in fig. 3. As shown in fig. 3, the communication device 200 includes at least one processor 201, communication lines 202, memory 203, and at least one communication interface 204.

The processor 201 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present application, such as: one or more microprocessors (DSPs), or one or more Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).

The communication link 202 may include a path for transmitting information between the aforementioned components.

The communication interface 204 may be any device, such as a transceiver, for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as an ethernet, a Radio Access Network (RAN), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), etc.

The memory 203 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 disk storage, optical disk 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 code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to these. The memory may be separate and coupled to the processor via communication line 202. The memory may also be integral to the processor.

The memory 203 is used for storing computer execution instructions for executing the scheme of the application, and is controlled by the processor 201 to execute. The processor 201 is configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 203, so as to implement the policy control method provided by the following embodiments of the present application. Optionally, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application program codes, which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In particular implementations, processor 201 may include one or more CPUs such as CPU0 and CPU1 in fig. 3, for example, as one embodiment.

In particular implementations, communication device 200 may include multiple processors, such as processor 201 and processor 207 in fig. 3, for example, as an example. Each of these processors may be a single core processor or a 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).

In particular implementations, communication device 200 may also include an output device 205 and an input device 206, as one embodiment. The output device 205 is in communication with the processor 201 and may display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 205 may be a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a Light Emitting Diode (LED) display device, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, a projector (projector), or the like. The input device 206 is in communication with the processor 201 and may receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 206 may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, or a sensing device, among others.

It should be noted that the communication device 200 may be a general-purpose device or a special-purpose device. In particular implementations, the communication device 200 may be a desktop, laptop, web server, PDA, mobile phone, tablet, wireless terminal, embedded device, or a device with a similar structure as in fig. 3. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the type of the communication device 200.

With reference to fig. 1, the following specifically explains a technical solution provided in an embodiment of the present application by taking a session management network element as the session management network element shown in fig. 1, a policy control network element as the policy control network element shown in fig. 1, and a PSA as a gateway network element shown in fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a policy control method according to an embodiment of the present application, which is used to implement usage monitoring on multiple PSAs included in a PDU session for a first usage monitoring instance (e.g., a traffic data flow level usage monitoring instance). An application scenario of the method is that a session management network element manages a PDU session, where the PDU session may include multiple PSAs, such as a first PSA and a second PSA, and the session management network element sends a first URR corresponding to a first monitoring key to the first PSA. In this application scenario, steps 401 to 403 shown in fig. 4 may be performed to implement the usage monitoring on the same traffic data stream level usage monitoring instance performed on multiple PSAs of a PDU session.

Step 401: the policy control network element determines to perform usage monitoring of the first usage monitoring instance at the second PSA.

Wherein the second PSA may be a PSA newly added on the PDU session.

In particular, the policy control network element may determine, at the second PSA, to perform usage monitoring of the first traffic monitoring instance according to a preset configuration, which may be used to specify which gateway network elements are allowed to access traffic monitored by the first traffic monitoring instance. And if the policy control network element inquires the preset configuration and determines that the second PSA is included in the gateway network element specified by the preset configuration, determining to execute the usage monitoring of the first usage monitoring instance on the second PSA. Such as: if the preset configuration specifies that the user is allowed to access the service on the search website on the UPF2, and the service on the search website is within the service range monitored by the usage monitoring instance 1, it is determined that the UPF2 performs usage monitoring on the usage monitoring instance 1.

The preset configuration may be configured in the policy control network element in advance by an operator, or may be obtained by the policy control network element from other network functional entities when step 401 is executed, which is not limited.

It can be understood that before the policy control network element determines to perform the usage monitoring on the first volume monitoring instance on the second PSA, the policy control network element will first know that the PDU session adds the second PSA, and then determine whether to perform the usage monitoring on the first volume monitoring instance on the second PSA. Specifically, the step of acquiring, by the policy control network element, that the PDU session has the newly added second PSA includes: and the session management network element sends an indication message carrying the newly-added second PSA to the policy control network element, and after receiving the message, the policy control network element determines the PDU session newly-added second PSA according to the indication of the newly-added second PSA carried by the message. The indication of adding the second PSA may be used to indicate the second PSA, and may include, but is not limited to, an identifier of the second PSA, where the identifier of the second PSA may include a Network Function identifier (NF ID) of the second PSA, or a Data Network Access Identifier (DNAI) of the second PSA, or an Internet Protocol Version 6 Prefix (Internet Protocol Version 6 Prefix, IPV6 Prefix) corresponding to the second PSA, without limitation.

Step 402: and the policy control network element sends policy control information to the session management network element, and the session management network element receives the policy control information sent by the policy control network element.

In one possible design, the policy control information includes, but is not limited to, a PCC rule carrying a first monitoring key, information indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is to be executed on the second PSA. In yet another possible design, the policy control information includes, but is not limited to, a PCC rule, which may carry the first monitoring key, and information indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is to be executed on the second PSA.

In any of the above possible designs, the information indicating that the policy corresponding to the PCC rule is executed on the second PSA may be an identifier of the second PSA, and the description of the identifier of the second PSA may refer to step 401 and is not repeated herein.

Step 403: and the session management network element sends a first PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to the first monitoralkey to the second PSA.

Wherein, the first PDR may comprise detection information for detecting the traffic data stream packet; the second URR may include a usage threshold, the second URR identified by an identification of the second URR. The first PDR and the second URR may be determined by the session management network element before step 403, such as: before step 403, the session management network element may determine, according to the information indicating that the policy corresponding to the PCC rule is executed on the second PSA, to execute the policy corresponding to the PCC rule on the second PSA, trigger the session management network element to determine packet detection information of the first PDR according to the traffic data flow template in the PCC rule, and determine the second URR for the first monitoring key, where the first PDR includes an identifier of the second URR, and the first PDR is associated with the second URR.

Specifically, the determining, by the session management network element, the packet detection information of the first PDR according to the service data flow template in the PCC rule may include: control information for service data flow detection in a service data flow template in the PCC rule is added (or matched) to the first PDR as packet detection information.

Specifically, the determining, by the session management network element, the second URR for the first monitoring key may refer to: the session management network element allocates a usage threshold to the first monitoring key, and includes the usage threshold in the second URR, that is, determines a usage threshold of the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key; meanwhile, the session management network element may also allocate an identifier for the second URR. The identifier of the second URR may be the same as or different from that of the first URR, and is not limited.

In addition, in this embodiment of the present application, after the session management network element determines a URR for a certain monitoring key, the session management network element may further store a corresponding relationship between the monitoring key and the URR, where the corresponding relationship is as follows: after the session management network element determines the second URR for the first monitoring key, the session management network element may store a corresponding relationship between the first monitoring key and the second URR, where the comparison relationship between the monitoring key and the URR stored by the session management network element includes: the corresponding relation between the first monitoring key and the first URR and the second URR.

As can be seen from the above, in the scenario shown in fig. 4, when the policy control network element determines to execute the traffic data flow level usage monitoring instance on the new PSA of the PDU session, and the traffic data flow usage monitoring instance is the same as the usage monitoring instances performed by other PSAs included in the PDU session, the policy control network element sends the PCC rule and information indicating that the traffic monitoring of the traffic data flow traffic monitoring instance is performed on the newly added PSA to the session management network element, and after receiving the PCC rule and the information indicating that the traffic monitoring of the traffic data flow traffic monitoring instance is performed on the newly added PSA, sending the PDR and the URR corresponding to the monitoring key to the newly added PSA, so that the newly added PSA performs usage monitoring based on the PDR and the URR corresponding to monitorngkey, thereby enabling usage monitoring to be performed at multiple PSAs for the same traffic data stream level usage monitoring instance.

Specifically, in the scheme shown in fig. 4, determining, by the session management network element, the second URR for the first monitoring key may include any one of the following implementable manners (1) to (4):

(1) the policy control information further includes a first quantity threshold of the first monitoring key and a first indication, where the first indication is used to indicate that the first quantity threshold is not used to override a previously received first monitoring key quantity threshold of the session management network element; and the session management network element determines a usage threshold of the second URR according to the first usage threshold.

The first quantity threshold may be determined according to the usage limit of the first quantity monitoring instance signed by the user, the cumulative usage of the first quantity monitoring instance, and the usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control unit, such as: the difference between the usage quota of the first volume monitoring instance signed by the user, the accumulated usage of the first volume monitoring instance, and the usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control unit may be calculated, and a part of or all of the usage thresholds in the difference may be used as the second volume threshold.

The usage limit of the first volume monitoring instance signed by the user and the accumulated usage of the first volume monitoring instance may be included in subscription information of the user, the subscription information of the user may be acquired from the UDM by the policy control network element after the PDU session is established, and the subscription information of the user may be used to describe the usage limit signed by the user for the first volume monitoring instance and the accumulated usage of the first volume monitoring instance.

Specifically, the determining, by the session management network element, the usage threshold of the second URR according to the first usage threshold may include: and the session management network element takes a part of the received first quantity threshold or the received whole quantity threshold as a quantity threshold of the second URR.

For example, if the first usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control network element is 500M, the usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control network element received by the session management network element before is 200M, and the session management network element has determined URR1(200M) according to the 200M usage threshold of the first monitoring key, in this implementation, after receiving the 500M usage threshold of the first monitoring key, the session management network element does not replace 200M with 500M, but uses a usage threshold (e.g., 300M) smaller than or equal to 500M as a new URR2 usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key.

In addition, in step 402, the policy control network element may further store a corresponding relationship between the second PSA and the first quantity threshold of the first quantity monitoring key, so as to indicate that the policy control network element is the first quantity threshold of the first quantity monitoring key issued when determining that the second PSA performs the quantity monitoring of the first quantity monitoring instance.

(2) The session management network element requests the first PSA to report the accumulated usage of the first URR, receives the accumulated usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA, determines an available usage threshold according to the accumulated usage of the first URR, and determines a second URR usage threshold according to the available usage threshold.

The available usage threshold may be a difference between the usage threshold of the first monitoring key received by the session management network element from the policy management network element and the accumulated usage of the first URR received by the session management network element. Optionally, the first PSA also carries an identifier of the first URR when reporting the cumulative usage of the first URR, after receiving the cumulative usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA, the session management network element determines that the first URR corresponds to the first monitoring key according to the stored correspondence between the monitoring key and the URR, calculates a difference between the usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control network element and the cumulative usage of the first URR, and uses the difference as the available usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key.

Wherein, the determining, by the session management network element, the usage threshold of the second URR according to the available usage threshold may include: and the session management network element takes a part of the available usage threshold or the whole usage threshold as the usage threshold of the second URR.

In addition, in this implementation, the session management network element may further update the first URR according to the available usage threshold, and send the updated first URR to the first PSA.

It should be noted that, in this implementation manner, the session management network element has a threshold fragmentation function, that is, the session management network element has a function of allocating part of the usage threshold of the monitoring key issued by the policy control network element to the URR.

For example, if the usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control network element is 500M, and the session management network element receives that the cumulative usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA is 200M, the available usage threshold is 500M-200M-300M, and the session management network element may issue the usage threshold (e.g., 200M) less than or equal to 300M as the usage threshold of the second URR to the second PSA, update the usage threshold of the first URR with the remaining 100M of 300M, and reallocate the updated first URR to the first PSA.

(3) The session management network element judges whether a residual usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key exists;

under the condition that the residual usage threshold exists, the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the residual usage threshold; or under the condition that no residual usage threshold exists, the session management network element requests the first PSA to report the accumulated usage of the first URR; the session management network element receives the accumulated usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA; and the session management network element determines an available usage threshold according to the accumulated usage of the first URR, and determines a usage threshold of a second URR according to the available usage threshold.

The remaining usage threshold may be a usage threshold that has not been allocated to the URR in the usage thresholds corresponding to the first verifying key received by the session management network element from the policy management network element, and if the session management network element allocates all usage thresholds in the usage thresholds corresponding to the first verifying key received from the policy management network element to the URR, the remaining usage threshold does not exist, otherwise, the remaining usage threshold exists.

The available usage threshold is as described in the manner (2), and is not described again.

In addition, in this implementation, the session management network element may also update the usage threshold of the first URR according to the available usage threshold, and send the updated first URR to the first PSA.

For example, if the usage threshold of the first monitoring key previously issued to the session management network element by the policy control network element is 500M, and the usage threshold of the URR issued to the first PSA by the session management network element is 300M, the remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key is 200M at this time, and the session management network element may use all of the 200M usage thresholds as the usage threshold of the second URR, or may use a part of the 200M thresholds as the usage threshold of the second URR. If the usage threshold of the first monitoring key previously issued by the policy control network element to the session management network element is 500M, and the usage threshold of the URR issued by the session management network element to the first PSA is 500M, at this time, the first monitoring key has no remaining usage threshold, the session management network element may request the first PSA to report the cumulative usage of the first URR, at this time, if the reported cumulative usage of the first URR is 200M, the available usage threshold is 500M-200M-300M, the session management network element may issue the usage threshold (for example, 200M) smaller than or equal to 300M as the usage threshold of the second URR to the second PSA, update the usage threshold of the first URR with 100M of 300M, and reallocate the updated first URR to the first PSA.

(4) The policy control information further includes a second amount threshold for the first monitoring key; and the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the second usage threshold.

The second usage threshold may be determined according to a usage limit of the first usage monitoring instance signed by the user, an accumulated usage of the first usage monitoring instance, and a usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control unit; the cumulative usage of the first quantity monitoring instance may include the cumulative usage of the first quantity monitoring instance in the subscription information of the user and the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key, for example, the cumulative usage of the quantity monitoring instance 1 in the subscription information of the usage is 300M, the quantity monitoring instance 1 corresponds to the quantity monitoring key1, and the cumulative usage of the quantity monitoring key1 reported by the session management network element is 100M, where the cumulative usage of the first quantity monitoring instance is 300M +100M — 400M.

Specifically, a difference between the usage limit of the first volume monitoring instance signed by the user, the cumulative usage of the first volume monitoring instance, and the usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control unit may be calculated, and a part of or all of the usage thresholds in the difference may be used as the second volume threshold.

In this manner, the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key may include the cumulative amount of the first URR reported by the first PSA. Such as: the session management network element may request the first PSA to report the cumulative amount of the first URR, receive the cumulative amount of the first URR reported by the first PSA, and send the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element after determining that the second PSA is newly added and before receiving the policy control information from the policy control network element. Optionally, the session management network element may send, when sending the message carrying the indication of the newly added second PSA to the policy control network element, the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element, where the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key may be carried in the same message as the indication of the newly added second PSA, or may be carried in a different message, which is not limited.

Specifically, the determining, by the session management network element, the usage threshold of the second URR according to the second usage threshold may include: and the session management network element determines a usage threshold value smaller than or equal to the second usage threshold value as the usage threshold value of the second URR.

In addition, in this implementation, the session management network element may also update the usage threshold of the first URR according to the second threshold, and send the updated first URR to the first PSA.

Further, in the scheme shown in fig. 4, after any PSA (first PSA or second PSA) included in the PDU session receives the PDR and the URR and performs the usage monitoring according to the PDR and the URR, the PSA may also actively report the cumulative usage of the URR to the session management network element, so that after the session management network element receives the cumulative usage of the URR, the usage reporting process shown in fig. 4a is executed; or step 404 and steps 408-415 are performed. As shown in fig. 4a, the usage reporting process may include:

step 404: the PSA comprised by the PDU session reports the cumulative usage of URRs to the session management network element.

The PSA in step 404 is any PSA included in the PDU session, and may be the first PSA or the second PSA. Specifically, when the PDR associated with the URR detects that the cumulative usage of the traffic data stream approaches or reaches the threshold of the URR usage, the PSA may report the cumulative usage of the URR to the session management network element.

Step 405, the session management network element receives the cumulative usage of the URRs reported by the PSA, and determines whether there is a remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key; if the remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key exists, executing step 406 to step 407; otherwise, step 408 is performed.

Wherein, the remaining usage threshold may refer to: the session management network element does not have the usage threshold value allocated to the URR from the usage threshold value corresponding to the first monitoring key received by the policy management network element.

Specifically, the PSA may also carry an identifier of the URR when reporting the cumulative usage of the URR to the session management network element, and the session management network element may determine, according to the correspondence between the monitoring key and the URR stored by the PSA and the identifier of the URR, which monitoring key the URR reported by the PSA corresponds to, if the URR corresponds to the first monitoring key, calculate a difference between the usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control network element and the cumulative usage of the URR, if the difference is zero, determine that there is no remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key, otherwise, there is a remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key.

Step 406: and the session management network element updates the usage threshold of the URR reported by the PSA according to the remaining usage threshold and sends the updated URR to the PSA.

Specifically, the session management network element updating the usage threshold of the URR reported by the PSA according to the remaining usage threshold may include the session management network element using a part of the remaining usage threshold or the entire usage threshold as a new usage threshold of the URR.

Step 407: the PSA performs usage monitoring based on the updated URR.

Step 408: the session management network element reports the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element.

The cumulative amount of the first monitoring key may include a cumulative amount of URRs corresponding to the first monitoring key, such as: in the scenario illustrated in fig. 4, the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key may include the cumulative amount of URR reported by the PSA.

For example, if the monitoring key1 corresponds to URR1 and URR3, where the cumulative amount of URR1 is 100M and the cumulative amount of URR3 is 200M, the cumulative amount of monitoring key1 is 300M.

Further, in step 408, the session management network element may also send an identification of the PSA to the policy control network element. The PSA identifier can refer to the above description of the identifier of the second PSA, and is not repeated here.

Step 409: the policy control network element receives the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key reported by the session management network element, and judges whether an allowed usage threshold corresponding to the first usage monitoring instance exists; in the case that the allowed usage threshold corresponding to the first usage monitoring instance exists, executing step 410-step 412; otherwise, steps 413-415 are performed.

The allowed usage threshold corresponding to the first quantity monitoring instance may be based on a usage quota of the first quantity monitoring instance signed by the user, an accumulated usage of the first quantity monitoring instance, and a usage threshold that the policy control network element has allocated to the first monitoring key (but has not received response information about the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key), where the accumulated usage of the first quantity monitoring instance may include the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key. Such as: a difference between the usage quota of the first volume monitoring instance subscribed by the user and the cumulative usage of the first volume monitoring instance and the usage threshold that the policy control network element has allocated to the first monitoring key (but has not received the cumulative usage response information about the first monitoring key) may be determined, and if the difference is zero, it is determined that there is no allowed usage threshold corresponding to the first volume monitoring instance, otherwise, there is an allowed usage threshold corresponding to the first volume monitoring instance. The cumulative usage response information may include a cumulative usage of the first monitoring key.

For example, assuming that the usage limit contracted by the user for the usage monitoring instance 1 is 500M and the cumulative usage is 200M, taking the usage monitoring instance 1 corresponding to the monitoring key1 as an example, the policy control network element determines that the PSA1 performs the usage monitoring for the usage monitoring instance 1, and issued a monitoring key1 threshold of 100M for PSA1, determined that PSA2 performed level monitoring for level monitoring example 1, and a threshold of 200M for the amount of monitoring key1 issued by the PSA2, when the policy control network element receives the cumulative usage 50M of the monitoring key1 reported by the session management network element and the identifier of the PSA1, it is determined that PSA1 reported the cumulative amount of URR and that the threshold amount 200M of monitoring key1 assigned to PSA2 falls within the threshold amount of accumulated amount response messages that have been assigned by the policy control network element but not received, and, at this point, the usage monitoring example 1 corresponds to an allowable usage threshold of 500M-200M-100M.

Step 410: and the policy control network element determines a new usage threshold of the first monitoring key according to the allowed usage threshold, and issues the new usage threshold of the first monitoring key to the session management network element.

Step 411: and the session management network element receives the new usage threshold of the first monitoring key, updates the usage threshold of the URR according to the new usage threshold of the first monitoring key, and sends the updated URR to the PSA.

Step 412: the PSA performs usage monitoring based on the updated URR.

Step 413: and the policy control network element determines to stop monitoring the usage of the first monitoring key and sends a stop notification to the session management network element.

Wherein the stop notification is used to notify the session management network element to stop monitoring the usage of the first monitoring key.

Step 414: the session management network element receives the stop notification and sends a delete request or a stop request to the PSA.

The delete request may be used to request the PSA to delete the URR corresponding to the first monitoring key, and the stop request may be used to request the PSA to stop monitoring the usage of the URR corresponding to the first monitoring key.

Step 415: the PSA receives a deletion request, and deletes the URR corresponding to the first verifying key according to the deletion request; or receiving a stopping request, and stopping monitoring the usage of the URR corresponding to the first monitoring key according to the stopping request.

Wherein, deleting the URR corresponding to the first verifying key may refer to: the URR is deleted from its associated PDR. Specifically, the identity of the URR may be deleted from the PDR associated with the URR.

Thus, after receiving the cumulative usage of the URR reported by the PSA, the session management element may reallocate the available usage threshold to the PSA, and may also send the cumulative usage of the monitoring key corresponding to the URR to the policy control element, so that the policy control element reissues the usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key.

It should be noted that fig. 4a only illustrates the reporting process of the usage amount of one PSA. In the embodiment of the present application, a scheme of reporting the usage amount of two or more PSAs at the same time is also supported, and when two or more PSAs report the usage amount at the same time, an execution process of the scheme may be described with reference to fig. 4a, which is not described again.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a policy control method according to an embodiment of the present application, which is used to implement usage monitoring on multiple PSAs included in a PDU session for the same session level usage monitoring instance. An application scenario of the method is that a session management network element manages a PDU session, where the PDU session may include multiple PSAs, such as a first PSA and a second PSA, where the first PSA performs usage monitoring of a first usage monitoring instance corresponding to a first monitoring key, and the first usage monitoring instance is a session-level usage monitoring instance. In this application scenario, steps 501 to 503 shown in fig. 5 may be performed to implement the usage monitoring of the same session level usage monitoring instance performed on multiple PSAs included in a PDU session.

Step 501: the policy control network element determines to perform session level usage monitoring on the second PSA.

Step 501 may refer to step 401, and is not described again.

Step 502: and the policy control network element sends policy control information to the session management network element, and the session management network element receives the policy control information sent by the policy control network element.

Wherein the policy control information may be used to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA or on all PSAs comprised by said PDU session. The policy control information may include an identification of the second PSA, or a PDU session identification for identifying the PDU session, for instructing session level usage monitoring to be performed at the second PSA when the policy control information includes the identification of the second PSA; when the policy control information includes an identification of a PDU session, for performing session level usage monitoring on all PSAs included in the PDU session.

The identification of the second PSA can refer to the related description in fig. 4, and is not repeated.

Step 503: and the session management network element sends a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA.

Wherein the second URR is associated with all PDRs executing on the second PSA, and the second URR is not associated with a PDR unless it is indicated that traffic data matching that PDR is not included in session-level usage monitoring, i.e., the second URR may be associated with all PDRs executing on the second PSA and whose matching traffic data is included in session-level usage monitoring. The second URR may include a usage threshold, the second URR identified by an identification of the second URR. The second URR may be determined by the session management network element before step 503. Such as: prior to step 503, the session management network element may determine that session level usage monitoring is also performed at the second PSA and determine a second URR for the first monitoring key based on policy control information indicating that session level usage monitoring is performed at the second PSA or for all PSAs included in the PDU session.

Specifically, the session management network element may determine the second URR for the first monitoring key by using any one of the manners (1) to (4) shown in fig. 4, which is not described again.

As can be seen from the above, in the scheme shown in fig. 5, when the policy control network element determines to perform session level usage monitoring on the new PSA in the PDU session, and the session level usage monitoring is also performed on other PSAs included in the PDU session, the policy control network element sends, to the session management network element, information indicating that the session level usage monitoring is performed on the new PSA or that the session level usage monitoring is performed on all PSAs included in the PDU session, and after receiving the information, the session management network element sends, to the new PSA, the URR corresponding to the monitering key, so that the new PSA performs usage monitoring according to the URR corresponding to the monitering key, thereby implementing the usage monitoring on the same session level usage monitoring instance performed on multiple PSAs.

Further, in the scheme shown in fig. 5, after any PSA (first PSA or second PSA) included in the PDU session receives the PDR and the URR and performs the usage monitoring according to the PDR and the URR, the PSA may also actively report the cumulative usage of the URR to the session management network element, so as to perform the usage reporting process shown in fig. 4 a; or step 404 and steps 408-415 are executed, which will not be described again.

It should be noted that, fig. 4 and fig. 5 only describe the implementation of the first PSA and the second PSA that are included in the PDU session at the same time in the service data stream level usage monitoring instance or the session level usage monitoring instance, and it is understood that, for the same usage monitoring instance, the process that is implemented in two or more PSAs included in the PDU session at the same time may also refer to the above-mentioned scheme, and details are not repeated. In addition, the above fig. 4 and fig. 5 are respectively explained for traffic data flow level usage monitoring and session level usage monitoring, and in practical applications, it may also be implemented by combining the schemes in fig. 4 and fig. 5 to execute a traffic data flow usage monitoring instance and a session level usage monitoring instance on multiple PSAs included in a PDU session.

The following describes the above technical solution in detail by taking the session management network element as the SMF in fig. 2, the policy control network element as the PCF in fig. 2, and the traffic data flow monitoring instance and the session level usage monitoring instance are executed on two PSAs, namely UPF1 and UPF2, included in the PDU session at the same time, where the traffic data flow monitoring instance corresponds to monitoring key1 and the session level usage monitoring instance corresponds to monitoring key 2. Specifically, reference may be made to fig. 6 to 8.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a policy control method provided in an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 6, the method includes:

step 601: the user establishes a PDU session through the UPF1, and the PCF determines to perform usage monitoring of the usage monitoring instance 1 and usage monitoring of the usage monitoring instance 2 at the UPF1 according to preset configuration.

The usage monitoring instance 1 is a service data stream level usage monitoring instance, and the usage monitoring instance 2 corresponds to a session level usage monitoring instance. The PCF determines, according to the preset configuration, that the usage monitoring of the usage monitoring instance 1 and the usage monitoring of the usage monitoring instance 2 are performed in the UPF1, referring to step 401 and step 501, which is not described again.

Step 602: the PCF formulates PCC rule 1, PCC rule 2, and traffic monitoring information 1 and traffic monitoring information 2 based on the subscription information of the user and sends PCC rule 1, PCC rule 2, traffic monitoring information 1 and traffic monitoring information 2 to the SMF, with an indication to perform PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4 at UPF2 and session level traffic monitoring at all PSAs of the PDU session or at UPF 1.

The subscription information of the user may be obtained from the UDM by the PCF when step 601 is executed, where the subscription information of the user may include subscription information of a service data stream Level and subscription information of a PDU session Level, and the subscription information of the service data stream Level includes monitoring key _ a, a service data stream Level Indication (SDF Level Indication), and a usage limit (volume limit and/or Time limit); the PDU Session level information includes a PDU Session level indication (Session level indication), and a usage limit (Voume limit and/or Time limit). The accumulated usage monitoring information comprises the usage information of the service data flow level and the usage information of the PDU session level; the usage information of the service data flow level includes monitoring key _ a, a service data flow level indication, and a cumulative usage (Voume usage and/or Time usage), and the usage information of the PDU session level includes a PDU session level indication, and a cumulative usage (Voume usage and/or Time usage).

Wherein, the monitoring key _ a corresponds to the usage monitoring instance; the service data stream level indication is used for indicating that the usage monitoring instance corresponding to the monitoring key _ a is a service data stream level usage monitoring instance, and the PDU session level indication is used for indicating that the PDU session level information corresponds to the session level usage monitoring instance.

Wherein, PCC rule 1 includes monitering key1, and PCC rule 2 includes monitering key 2. Neither PCC rule 1 nor PCC rule 2 sets an indication to exclude the usage detected by the PCC rule from the session level usage, i.e. the PCF decides that the usage of both PCC rule 1 and PCC rule 2 should be accumulated on the session level usage monitoring. Usage monitoring information 1 corresponds to usage monitoring instance 1, including monitoring key1, PCC rule directive, usage threshold 1. The usage monitoring information 2 corresponds to the corresponding usage monitoring instance 2, including monitoring key2, session level indication, and usage threshold 2. The PCC rule indication may be a service data flow level indication, which is used to indicate that the monitoring key1 corresponds to a service data flow level usage monitoring instance.

The indication of PCC rule 3 and PCC rule 4 executed on UPF2 may be identification of UPF1, and the indication of session level usage monitoring executed on all PSAs or UPF1 of a PDU session may be identification of a PDU session.

It should be noted that when the SMF is configured with a policy for performing session level usage monitoring at all PSAs, no indication of performing session level usage monitoring at all PSAs of the PDU session or at UPF1 may be issued in step 602. The policy configured on the SMF to perform session-level usage monitoring at all PSAs may be issued by the PCF to the SMF prior to step 602.

Step 603: SMF receives PCC rule 1, PCC rule 2, traffic monitoring information 1, and traffic monitoring information 2, and an indication to perform PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4 at UPF2, and an indication to perform session level traffic monitoring on all PSAs of a PDU session or on UPF 1.

Step 604: the SMF makes a PDR1 according to a PCC rule 1, a PDR2 according to a PCC rule 2, a URR1 according to the usage monitoring information 1, and a URR2 according to the usage monitoring information 2.

The PDR1 includes packet detection information corresponding to the service data flow template of the PCC rule 1. The PDR2 includes packet detection information corresponding to the service data flow template in the PCC rule 2. The monitoring key1 corresponds to URR1, and the threshold value threshold1 of URR1 is less than or equal to threshold 1; monitering key2 corresponds to URR2, the threshold of use of URR2 is less than or equal to threshold2, URR1 is associated with PDR1, and URR2 is associated with PDR1 and PDR 2.

Specifically, the SMF may determine the monitoring policy corresponding to PCC rule 1 and PCC rule 4 to be executed on UPF1 and execute session-level usage monitoring on UPF1 according to the indication of PCC rule 3 and PCC rule 4 executed on UPF2 and the indication of session-level usage monitoring executed on all PSAs of the PDU session or on UPF1, triggering SMF execution step 604.

Step 605: the SMF sends PDR1, PDR2, URR1, and URR2 to UPF 1.

Step 606: UPF1 performs dosage monitoring based on PDR1 and URR1 associated with PDR1, and based on PDR2, PDR1 and URR2 associated with PDR1 and PDR 2.

Further, after the UPF1 performs usage monitoring according to PDR1 and URR1 associated with PDR1, and performs usage monitoring according to PDR2, PDR1, PDR1, and URR2 associated with PDR2, the UPF1 may also report the cumulative usage to the SMF, and the process shown in fig. 4a is executed, which is not described again.

Step 607: the SMF adds a new PSA (e.g., UPF2) for the PDU session.

The PDU session is a session established on the UPF1, and the UPFs 1 and 2 are different UPFs, both managed by the SMF.

Specifically, the process of adding a PSA for the PDU session by the SMF is the prior art, and is not described in detail, and after the SMF adds a PSA for the PDU session, the SMF may store the correspondence between the PDU session and the UPF on the PDU session.

Step 608: the SMF sends an event notification to the PCF informing the PCF of the new addition of a PSA to the PDU session.

The event notification may include, among other things, an identification of the UPF2, and an identification of the PDU session.

The identifier of the UPF2 is used to identify the UPF2, and the identifier of the UPF2 may be NF ID of the UPF2 or DNAI of the UPF2, or IPV6 Prefix corresponding to the UPF2, without limitation.

Step 609, the PCF receives the event notification, and determines to perform usage monitoring on the usage monitoring instances 1 and 2 at the UPF2 according to the preset configuration.

Specifically, the PCF determines, according to the preset configuration, that the usage monitoring of the usage monitoring instance 1 and the usage monitoring of the usage monitoring instance 2 are performed in the UPF2, referring to step 401 and step 501, which is not described again.

Step 610: and the PCF formulates a PCC rule 3, a PCC rule 4, usage monitoring information 3 and usage monitoring information 4 according to the subscription information of the user.

Wherein, the PCC rule 3 detects that the controlled service belongs to the service monitored by the usage monitoring instance 1, and herein, the PCF still allocates a monitoring key1 to the usage monitoring instance 1, and the PCC rule 3 includes (monitoring key1), that is, it indicates that the service monitored by the PCC rule 3 belongs to the service monitored by the monitoring key 1.

The services monitored by the PCC rule 3 and the PCC rule 4 all belong to the services monitored by the usage monitoring instance 2, and the PCF determines that the usage of the PCC rule 3 and the PCC rule 4 needs to be accumulated to the session level, and does not set an indication for the PCC rule 3 and the PCC rule 4 to exclude the usage detected by the PCC rule 3 and the PCC rule 4 from the session level usage.

Wherein, the usage monitoring information 3 includes [ monitoring key1, PCC rule indication, execution indication 1, and new usage threshold1 ]; the usage monitoring information 4 includes [ monitoring key2, session level indication, execution indication 2, and new usage threshold2 ].

The execution instruction 1 may be used to indicate that the new usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key1 is the usage threshold newly allocated to the monitoring key1, and cannot override the old usage threshold, that is, the usage threshold corresponding to the previous monitoring key1 is not replaced. Similarly, the execution indication 2 may be used to indicate that the new usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key2 is the usage threshold newly allocated to the monitoring key2, and cannot override the old usage threshold, that is, the usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key2 issued before is not replaced.

The new usage threshold value threshold1 may be calculated according to the usage quota in the subscription information of the service data flow level, the accumulated usage in the usage information of the service data flow level, and the issued usage threshold value threshold1, such as: threshold1 may be less than or equal to the usage limit-cumulative usage-threshold 1.

Similarly, the new threshold2 may be calculated according to the usage limit in the subscription information of the session level, the accumulated usage in the usage information of the session level, and the issued usage threshold2, such as: threshold2 may be less than or equal to the usage limit-cumulative usage-threshold 2. Such as: assuming that the usage limit is 1000M, the cumulative usage is 500M, and the usage threshold of the issued monitoring key1 corresponding to the usage monitoring instance 1 is 100M, the new threshold2 may be smaller than or equal to 1000M-500M-100M-400M, such as 200M.

It should be noted that step 610 may be performed throughout the lifetime of the PDU session containing both PSAs UPF1 and UPF 2.

Step 611: PCF sends PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4, traffic monitoring information 3, and traffic monitoring information 4 to SMF and executes an indication of PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4 at UPF 2.

It should be noted that if the PCF did not issue an indication to perform session level usage monitoring at all PSAs of the PDU session or if the SMF did not configure a policy to perform session level usage monitoring at all PSAs in step 602, the PCF also issues an indication to perform session level usage monitoring at UPF2 or at all PSAs included in the PDU session in step 611.

Step 612: SMF receives PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4, traffic monitoring information 3, traffic monitoring policy 4, an indication that PCC rule 3 and PCC rule 4 are executed on UPF 2.

Step 613: the SMF formulates a PDR3 according to a PCC rule 3, formulates a PDR4 according to a PCC rule 4, formulates a URR3 according to the usage monitoring information 3, formulates a URR4 according to the usage monitoring information 4, and sends a PDR3, a PDR4 and the associated URR3 and URR4 to the UPF 2.

The PDR3 includes packet detection information corresponding to the service data flow template in the PCC rule 3. The PDR4 includes packet detection information corresponding to the service data flow template in the PCC rule 4. monitering key1 corresponds to URR3 and monitering key2 corresponds to URR 4. PDRs 3 are associated with URR3 and PDRs 3, 4 are associated with URR4, i.e., URR3 is to associate all PDRs performing at UPF2 unless the PDR matched traffic data needs to be deducted from session level usage monitoring.

Wherein the SMF determines that the PCF newly issued the usage threshold for monitorangekey 1 based on the performance indication 1 in the usage monitoring information 3, determines the usage threshold1 for URR3 based on the new usage threshold1 for monitoraging key1, and assigns an identifier to URR3, wherein the threshold1 may be less than or equal to threshold 1. Similarly, the SMF determines that the PCF has newly issued the usage threshold for monitoring key2 based on the performance indication 2 in the usage monitoring information 4, determines the usage threshold2 of URR4 based on the new usage threshold2 of monitoring key2, and assigns an identifier to URR4, where threshold2 may be less than or equal to threshold 2.

Specifically, the SMF determines to monitor usage of the monitoring key1 on the UPF2 according to the monitoring key1 in the PCC rule 3 and the instruction of the PCC rule 3 on the UPF2, and triggers the SMF to execute step 613 after determining to monitor usage of the monitoring key2 on the UPF2 according to the instruction of performing session level usage monitoring on all PSAs included in the PDU session, which is issued in step 602.

It should be noted that when threshold1 is less than threshold1, SMF may save the remaining amount after threshold 1-threshold 1; when threshold2 is less than threshold1, SMF may conserve the amount remaining after threshold 2-threshold 2.

In addition, in step 613, the SMF also stores the correspondence between URR and monitoring key. So far, the correspondence between URR and monitoring key stored in SMF includes: monitering key1 corresponds to URR1, URR3, monitering key2 corresponds to URR2, URR 4. The values of UUR ID1 and UUR ID3 may be the same or different, and UUR ID2 and UUR ID4 may be the same or different.

Step 614, UPF2 performs usage monitoring based on PDR3 and URR3 associated with PDR3, and based on PDR3, PDR4 and URR4 associated with PDR3 and PDR 4.

Further, after step 614, the UPF2 may also report the accumulated usage to the SMF, and execute the process shown in fig. 4a, which is not described again.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart of a policy control method according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 7, the method includes:

step 701-step 709.

Wherein, step 701 is the same as step 601, step 702 is the same as step 602, step 703 is the same as step 603, step 704 is the same as step 604, step 705 is the same as step 605, step 706 is the same as step 606, step 707 is the same as step 607, step 708 is the same as step 608, step 709 is the same as step 609, and details are not repeated.

Step 710: and the PCF formulates a PCC rule 3 and a PCC rule 4 according to the subscription information of the user.

Wherein, the PCC rule 3 detects that the controlled traffic belongs to the traffic monitored by the usage monitoring instance 1, and herein, the PCF still allocates a monitoring key1 to the usage monitoring instance 1, wherein, the PCC rule 3 includes (monitoring key1), that is, it means that the traffic monitored by the PCC rule 3 belongs to the traffic monitored by the monitoring key 1. The services monitored by the PCC rule 3 and the PCC rule 4 all belong to the services monitored by the usage monitoring instance 2, and the PCF determines that the usage of the PCC rule 3 and the PCC rule 4 needs to be accumulated to the session level, and does not set an indication for the PCC rule 3 and the PCC rule 4 to exclude the usage detected by the PCC rule 3 and the PCC rule 4 from the session level usage.

It should be noted that step 710 may be performed during the entire lifetime of the PDU session including both PSAs UPF1 and UPF 2.

Step 711: PCF sends PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4 to SMF, and executes an indication of PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4 at UPF 2.

It should be noted that if the PCF does not issue an indication that session level usage monitoring is performed at all PSAs of the PDU session or no policy is configured on the SMF to perform session level usage monitoring at all PSAs in step 702, the PCF also issues an indication that session level usage monitoring is performed at UPF2 or session level usage monitoring is performed at all PSAs in step 711.

Step 712: SMF receives PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4, and an indication that PCC rule 3 and PCC rule 4 execute on UPF 2.

Step 713: if the SMF has the threshold fragmentation capability, the SMF determines whether a remaining usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key1 and a remaining usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key2 exist, if the remaining usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key1 and the remaining usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key2 exist, step 715 is executed, otherwise, the SMF acquires the cumulative usage of the URR1 and the cumulative usage of the URR2 from the UPF1, and step 714 is executed; if the SMF does not have threshold fragmentation capability, then the SMF obtains a usage report from UPF1 and proceeds to step 714.

The remaining usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key1 is the difference between the usage threshold of the monitoring key1 received from the PCF before the SMF and the usage threshold that the SMF has allocated to the URR 1; the remaining usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key2 is the difference between the usage threshold of the monitoring key2 previously received by the SMF from the PCF and the usage threshold that the SMF has allocated for URR 2.

Specifically, the SMF obtaining the cumulative amount of URR1 and the cumulative amount of URR2 from the UPF1 may include: the SMF sends a usage request to the UPF1, and requests to acquire the accumulated usage corresponding to the URR1 and the accumulated usage corresponding to the URR2, wherein the request may include the identifier of the URR1 and the identifier of the URR 2; upon receiving the request, the UPF1 sends the cumulative usage of URR1 and the cumulative usage of URR2 to the SMF.

Step 714, the SMF determines an available usage threshold value threshold1 corresponding to the monitoring key1, and determines URR3 according to threshold 1; determining an available usage threshold value threshold2 corresponding to the monitoring key2, and determining URR4 according to threshold 2; PDR3 is determined according to PCC rule 3 and PDR4 is determined according to PCC rule 4.

The available usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key1 is the difference between the usage threshold of the monitoring key1 received from the PCF before the SMF and the cumulative total of the usage reported by the URR1 so far, or the difference between the usage threshold last allocated to the URR1 by the SMF and the usage threshold reported by the URR1 this time. The available usage threshold corresponding to the monitoring key2 is the difference between the usage threshold of the monitoring key2 previously received by the SMF from the PCF and the cumulative total of usage reported by the URR2 so far, or the difference between the usage threshold last allocated by the SMF to the URR2 and the usage threshold reported by the URR2 this time. Such as: the usage threshold value in the URR1 previously issued by the PCF to the SMF is threshold1, the cumulative usage Uasge _ Volume1 corresponding to the URR1 reported by the UPF1, and the available usage threshold value corresponding to the monitoring key1 is threshold1-Uasge _ Volume 1.

The URR3 may include an identifier of the URR3 and a usage threshold value threshold1 corresponding to the monitoring key1, where the threshold value 1 may be less than or equal to the threshold value 1, that is, a part or all of the available usage threshold value corresponding to the monitoring key1 is used as the usage threshold value of the URR 3. Similarly, URR4 may include an identifier of URR4 and a threshold value threshold2 corresponding to monitoring key2, where threshold1 may be less than or equal to threshold1, i.e., a portion or all of the available threshold value corresponding to monitoring key2 may be used as the threshold value of URR 4.

The PDR3 carries packet detection information corresponding to the service data flow template in the PCC rule 3; the PDR4 carries packet detection information corresponding to the service data flow template in the PCC rule 4. PDRs 3 are associated with URR3 and PDRs 3, 4 are associated with URR4 (i.e., URR3 is to associate all PDRs performed at UPF2 unless the PDR matched traffic data needs to be deducted from session level usage monitoring).

Step 715: the SMF formulates a PDR3 according to a PCC rule 3 issued by the PCF, formulates a PDR4 according to a PCC rule 4, determines a URR3 according to a residual usage threshold corresponding to a monitoring key1, and determines a URR4 according to a residual usage threshold corresponding to a monitoring key 2.

Wherein PDR3 is associated with URR3 and PDRs 3, 4 are associated with URR4 (i.e., URR3 is to associate all PDRs performed at UPF2 unless the PDR matched traffic data needs to be deducted from session level usage monitoring).

In addition, in step 715, the SMF also stores the correspondence between URR and monitoring key. So far, the correspondence between URR and monitoring key stored in SMF includes: monitering key1 corresponds to URR1, URR3, monitering key2 corresponds to URR2, URR 4. The values of UUR ID1 and UUR ID3 may be the same or different, and UUR ID2 and UUR ID4 may be the same or different.

Step 716: the SMF sends PDR3, PDR4 and their associated URRs 3, URRs 4 to UPF 2.

Step 717: UPF2 performs dosage monitoring based on PDR3 and URR3 associated with PDR3, and based on PDR3, PDR4 and URR4 associated with PDR3 and PDR 4.

Further, after step 717, the UPF2 may also report the accumulated usage to the SMF, and execute the process shown in fig. 4a, which is not described again.

It should be noted that, in step 714, the SMF may further update the usage threshold corresponding to the URR1 and the usage threshold corresponding to the URR2, and send the updated URR1 and URR2 to the UPF1, such as: the threshold value threshold1, which is less than or equal to the available threshold value threshold 1-URR 3 for the monitering key1, may be used as the updated threshold value threshold1 of URR1, and similarly, the threshold value 2-threshold 2 may be used as the updated threshold value threshold2 of URR 2. For example, if the usage threshold of the URR1 previously issued by the SMF to the UPF1 is 200M, and the cumulative usage of the URR1 in the usage report returned by the UPF1 is 50M, the SMF may use 100M of the available 150M as the usage threshold of the URR3, and 50 of the 150M as the usage threshold of the URR1, and resend the usage threshold to the UPF 1.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart of a policy control method according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 8, the method includes:

step 801-step 807.

Step 801 is the same as step 601, step 802 is the same as step 602, step 803 is the same as step 603, step 804 is the same as step 604, step 805 is the same as step 605, step 806 is the same as step 606, step 807 is the same as step 607, and details are not repeated.

Step 808: SMF sends event notice to PCF to inform PCF that a new PSA is added to PDU session, and sends PCF cumulative usage corresponding to URR1 and cumulative usage corresponding to URR 2.

Wherein the event notification includes an identification of the UPF2 and an identification of the PDU session.

The identifier of the UPF2 is as described in fig. 6, and is not described again.

Step 809: the PCF receives the event notification and determines to perform usage monitoring for both the usage monitoring instances 1 and 2 at UPF2 based on the predetermined configuration

Step 810: and the PCF formulates a PCC rule 3, a PCC rule 4, usage monitoring information 3 and usage monitoring information 4 according to the subscription information of the user.

Wherein, the usage monitoring information 3 includes [ monitoring key1, PCC rule indication, new usage threshold1 ]; the usage monitoring information 4 includes [ monitoring key2, session level indication, and new usage threshold value threshold2 ].

Wherein, the new usage threshold value threshold1 may be calculated according to the usage limit in the subscription information of the service data flow level, the cumulative usage in the usage information of the service data flow level, and the cumulative usage of the URR1, such as: threshold1 may be less than or equal to the usage limit-cumulative usage of URR 1.

Similarly, the new threshold2 may be calculated according to the usage quota in the subscription information of the session level, the accumulated usage in the usage information of the session level, and the accumulated usage of URR2, such as: threshold2 may be calculated as the cumulative amount less than or equal to the amount limit-cumulative amount-URR 2. Such as: assuming a usage limit of 1000M, a cumulative usage of 500M, and a cumulative usage of 100M for URR1, the new usage threshold may be less than or equal to 1000M-500M-100M — 400M, such as 200M. The PCF may also record the correspondence between the monitoring key _ a and the monitoring key 1.

It should be noted that step 810 may be performed throughout the lifetime of the PDU session containing both PSAs UPF1 and UPF 2.

Step 811: the PCF sends PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4, traffic monitoring information 3, and traffic monitoring information 4 to the SMF, along with an indication to perform PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4, and an indication to perform session-level traffic monitoring on UPF2 at UPF 2.

It should be noted that if the PCF did not issue an indication that session level usage monitoring was performed at all PSAs of the PDU session or no policy was configured on the SMF to perform session level usage monitoring at all PSAs in step 802, the PCF also issues an indication that session level usage monitoring was performed at UPF2 or session level usage monitoring was performed at all PSAs in step 811.

Step 812: SMF receives PCC rule 3, PCC rule 4, traffic monitoring information 3, traffic monitoring policy 4, an indication that PCC rule 3 and PCC rule 4 are to be performed on UPF2, and an indication that session-level traffic monitoring is to be performed on UPF 2.

Specifically, the SMF determines to monitor usage of the monitoring key1 on the UPF2, to monitor usage of the monitoring key2 on the UPF2 according to the monitoring key1 in the PCC rule 3 and the indication that the PCC rule 3 executes on the UPF2, according to the indication that session-level usage monitoring is executed on the UPF2, or according to the indication or configuration that session-level usage monitoring is executed on all PSAs. To this end, SMF determined that both UPF1 and UPF2 monitored the amount of usage of the monitoring key1 and 2.

Step 813: the SMF formulates a PDR3 according to PCC rule 3, a PDR4 according to PCC rule 4, a URR3 according to usage monitoring information 3 and a URR4 according to usage monitoring information 4, and updates URR1 and URR 2.

The PDR3 formulated by the SMF according to the PCC rule 3 is used for filtering the traffic monitored by the monitoring key 1; the PDR3 formulated by the SMF according to the PCC3 rule and the PDR4 formulated by the PCC rule 4 are used for filtering the traffic monitored by the monitoring key 2. The PDR3 carries packet detection information corresponding to the service data flow template in the PCC rule 3; the PDR4 carries packet detection information corresponding to the service data flow template in the PCC rule 4.

Wherein, URR3 may include an identifier of URR3 and a usage threshold value threshold1 corresponding to monitoring key1, URR4 may include an identifier of URR4 and a usage threshold value threshold2 corresponding to monitoring key2, threshold1 is less than threshold1, and threshold2 is less than threshold 2.

Since the traffic monitoring information of the traffic data stream level only indicates that the new threshold value threshold1 is established for monitongkey 1, and does not indicate which UPF this threshold1 is used, the new threshold value threshold1 can be shared by the UPFs performing the traffic monitoring on monitongkey 1, so that the SMF uses a part of the new threshold value threshold1 as the traffic threshold value of URR3 and the other part as the updated traffic threshold value of URR 1. Similarly, a part of the new usage threshold value threshold2 is used as the usage threshold value of URR4, and the other part is used as the updated usage threshold value of URR 2.

Wherein PDR3 is associated with URR3 and PDRs 3, 4 are associated with URR4, i.e., URR3 is to associate all PDRs performed at UPF2 unless the PDR matched traffic data needs to be deducted from session level usage monitoring.

Step 814: the SMF sends PDR3, PDR4 and their associated URR3, URR4 to UPF 2; the updated URRs 1 and URRs 2 are sent to the UPF 1.

Step 815: the UPF2 performs usage monitoring based on PDR3 and its associated URR3, as well as PDR3, PDR4 and URR 4. The UPF1 performs usage monitoring based on PDR1, updated URR1, and PDR1, PDR2, and updated URR 2.

Further, after step 815, the UPF1 and the UPF2 may also report the cumulative usage to the SMF, and execute the process shown in fig. 4a, which is not described again.

The above-mentioned scheme provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced mainly from the perspective of interaction between network elements. It is to be understood that the session management network element and the policy control network element described above include hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions in order to implement the functions described above. Those of skill in the art would readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the functional modules may be divided according to the above method example for the session management network element and the policy control network element, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the module is schematic, and is only one logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

In the case of dividing the functional modules by corresponding functions, fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a possible composition of the session management network element related in the foregoing embodiment, where one PDU session managed by the session management network element includes a first PSA and a second PSA, and the session management network element sends a first URR corresponding to a first monitoring key to the first PSA. As shown in fig. 9, the session management network element may include: a receiving unit 91, a transmitting unit 92, and a determining unit 93.

A receiving unit 91, configured to receive policy control information from a policy control network element; wherein the policy control information comprises a PCC rule; the PCC rule carries a first verifying key and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed on a second PSA; a sending unit 92, configured to send, to the second PSA, the first PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key.

Or, the receiving unit 91 is configured to receive policy control information from the policy control network element, where the policy control information includes the PCC rule and information indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is executed on the second PSA; a sending unit 92, configured to send, to the second PSA, the first PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key.

Or, the first monitoring key corresponds to a session level usage monitoring instance, the receiving unit 91 is configured to receive policy control information from the policy control network element, where the policy control information is used to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA, or instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on all PSAs included in the PDU session; and a sending unit 92, configured to send the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA.

A determining unit 93, configured to determine, according to a service data flow template in the PCC rule, packet detection information of the first PDR and determine a second URR for the first monitoring key before the sending unit 92 sends, to the second PSA, the first PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key; wherein the first PDR includes an identification of the second URR. Alternatively, the determining unit 93 is configured to determine the second URR for the first monitoring key before the sending unit 92 sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA.

In one possible design, the policy control information sent by the policy control network element further includes: the first quantity threshold of the first monitoraging key and the first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used for covering the previously received first monitoraging key usage threshold of the session management network element, and the determining unit 93 is configured to determine the usage threshold of the second URR according to the first quantity threshold.

In yet another possible design, the determining unit 93 is configured to determine an available usage threshold according to the accumulated usage of the first URR; and the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the available usage threshold.

In a further possible embodiment, the determining unit 93 is configured to determine the usage threshold of the second URR according to the remaining usage threshold if there is a remaining usage threshold.

It should be noted that all relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described again. The session management network element provided by the embodiment of the application is used for executing the policy control method, so that the same effect as the policy control method can be achieved.

In case of an integrated unit, the session management network element may comprise a processing module and a communication module, and the processing module is configured to control and manage the actions of the session management network element. The communication module is configured to support communication between the session management network element and other network entities, for example, the functional module or the network entity shown in fig. 1. The session management network element may further comprise a storage module for storing program code and data of the server. The processing module may be a processor or a controller. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. A processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a DSP and a microprocessor, or the like. The communication module may be a transceiver, a transceiving circuit or a communication interface, etc. The storage module may be a memory.

When the processing module is a processor, the communication module is a communication interface, and the storage module is a memory, the session management network element according to the embodiment of the present application may be the communication device shown in fig. 3.

In the case of dividing the functional modules according to the respective functions, fig. 10 shows a possible composition diagram of the policy control network element involved in the above embodiment, where the policy control network element determines that one PDU session includes the first PSA and the second PSA, and the policy control network element determines that the usage monitoring of the first usage monitoring instance corresponding to the first monitoring key is performed on the first PSA. As shown in fig. 10, the policy control network element may include: determination unit 100, transmission unit 101, and reception unit 102.

The determination unit 100 is for determining that usage monitoring of the first instance of usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA; the sending unit 101 is configured to send policy control information including a PCC rule to a session management network element; wherein the PCC rule carries the first monitoring key and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed on the second PSA.

Alternatively, the determination unit 100 is configured to determine that usage monitoring of the first instance of usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA; the sending unit 101 is configured to send, to the session management network element, policy control information including a PCC rule and information indicating that a policy corresponding to the PCC rule is executed on the second PSA; wherein the PCC rule carries a first monitering key.

Alternatively, the determination unit 100 is for determining to perform session level usage monitoring on the second PSA; the sending unit 101 is configured to send, to the session management network element, policy control information for instructing to perform session-level usage monitoring on the second PSA, or for instructing to perform session-level usage monitoring on all PSAs included in the PDU session.

A receiving unit 102, configured to receive, before the sending unit 101 sends the policy control information to the session management network element, a message that is sent by the session management network element and carries an indication of a newly added second PSA and information of the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key.

The receiving unit 102 is further configured to receive, after the sending unit 101 sends the policy control information to the session management network element, the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key reported by the session management network element and including the accumulated usage of the URR reported by the first PSA or the second PSA included in the PDU session.

It should be noted that all relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described again. The policy control network element provided in the embodiment of the present application is configured to execute the policy control method, so that the same effect as that of the policy control method can be achieved.

In case of an integrated unit, the policy control network element may include a processing module and a communication module, where the processing module is configured to perform control management on actions of the policy control network element. The communication module is configured to support communication between the policy control network element and other network entities, for example, the functional module or the network entity shown in fig. 1. The policy controlling network element may further comprise a storage module for storing program codes and data of the policy controlling network element. The processing module may be a processor or a controller. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. A processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a DSP and a microprocessor, or the like. The communication module may be a transceiver, a transceiving circuit or a communication interface, etc. The storage module may be a memory.

When the processing module is a processor, the communication module is a communication interface, and the storage module is a memory, the policy control network element according to the embodiment of the present application may be the communication device shown in fig. 3.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. The procedures or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are all or partially generated upon loading and execution of computer program instructions on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or can comprise one or more data storage devices, such as a server, a data center, etc., that can be integrated with the medium. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

While the present application has been described in connection with various embodiments, other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed application, from a review of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the word "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

Although the present application has been described in conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be evident that various modifications and combinations can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and figures are merely exemplary of the present application as defined in the appended claims and are intended to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents within the scope of the present application. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as well.

Claims

1. A strategy control method, a protocol data unit PDU conversation managed by a conversation management network element comprises a first PDU conversation anchor point PSA and a second PSA, the conversation management network element sends a first quantity report rule URR corresponding to a first monitoring key to the first PSA; characterized in that the method comprises:

the session management network element receives the policy control information from the policy control network element; wherein the policy control information comprises Policy Charging Control (PCC) rules; the PCC rule carries the first monitoring key and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed on the second PSA;

and the session management network element sends a first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the session management network element sends, to the second PSA, a first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key, the method further comprises:

the session management network element determines the packet detection information of the first PDR according to a service data flow template in the PCC rule, and determines a second URR for the first monitoring key; wherein the first PDR includes an identification of the second URR.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the policy control information further comprises: a first quantity threshold for the first monitoring key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override a previously received quantity threshold for the first monitoring key by the session management network element;

the determining, by the session management network element, a second URR for the first monitoring key specifically includes: and the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the first usage threshold.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the determining, by the session management network element, a second URR for the first monitongkey specifically is:

the session management network element requests the first PSA to report the accumulated usage of the first URR;

receiving, by the session management network element, the cumulative amount of the first URR reported by the first PSA;

the session management network element determines an available usage threshold according to the accumulated usage of the first URR;

and the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the available usage threshold.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the determining, by the session management network element, a second URR for the first monitongkey specifically is:

the session management network element judges whether a residual usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key exists;

under the condition that the residual usage threshold exists, the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the residual usage threshold; or;

under the condition that the residual usage threshold value does not exist, the session management network element requests the first PSA to report the accumulated usage of the first URR; receiving, by the session management network element, the cumulative amount of the first URR reported by the first PSA; and the session management network element determines an available usage threshold according to the accumulated usage of the first URR, and determines a usage threshold of the second URR according to the available usage threshold.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the session management network element updates the usage threshold of the first URR according to the available usage threshold;

the session management network element sends the updated first URR to the first PSA.

7. The method of claim 6,

the available usage threshold is a difference between the usage threshold of the first monitoring key received by the session management network element from the policy management network element and the cumulative usage of the first URR received by the session management network element.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the policy control information further comprises a second quantity threshold for the first monitoring key; the determining, by the session management network element, a second URR for the first monitoring key specifically includes:

and the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the second usage threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein before the session management network element receives the policy control information from the policy control network element, the method further comprises:

the session management network element requests the first PSA to report the accumulated usage of the first URR, and receives the accumulated usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA;

the session management network element sends a message to the policy control network element, where the message carries an indication of newly adding the second PSA and information of the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key, and the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key includes the cumulative usage of the first URR.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 and 7 to 9, wherein after the session management network element sends the first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, the method further comprises:

the session management network element receives the cumulative usage of the URR reported by any PSA included in the PDU session, and the session management network element reports the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element; wherein the cumulative amount of the first monitering key comprises the cumulative amount of the URR reported by either PSA; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the session management network element receives the cumulative usage of the URRs reported by any PSA included in the PDU session, and determines whether there is a remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key; in the case that the remaining usage threshold exists, the session management network element updates the usage threshold of the URR reported by any PSA according to the remaining usage threshold; in the absence of the remaining usage threshold, the session management network element reporting, to the policy control network element, the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key; wherein the cumulative amount of the first monitering key comprises the cumulative amount of the URR reported by either PSA;

wherein either the PSA is the first PSA or the second PSA.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein when the session management network element reports the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element, the method further comprises:

and the session management network element sends the identifier of any PSA to the policy control network element.

12. The method according to claim 5 or 11,

the remaining usage threshold is a usage threshold that has not been allocated to the URR in the usage thresholds corresponding to the first monitoring key received by the session management network element from the policy management network element.

13. A strategy control method, a strategy control network element determines that a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session comprises a first PDU session anchor Point (PSA) and a second PSA, and the strategy control network element determines that the first PSA executes the usage monitoring of a first usage monitoring instance corresponding to a first monitoring key monitorage; characterized in that the method comprises:

the policy control network element determining to perform usage monitoring of the first usage monitoring instance on the second PSA;

the policy control network element sends policy control information to a session management network element; wherein the policy control information comprises Policy Charging Control (PCC) rules; the PCC rule carries the first monitoring key and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed on the second PSA.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the policy control information further comprises: a first quantity threshold for the first monitoring key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override the usage threshold for the first monitoring key previously provided to the session management network element by the policy control network element.

15. The method of claim 14,

the first quantity threshold is determined according to the usage quota of the first quantity monitoring instance signed by the user, the accumulated usage of the first quantity monitoring instance, and the usage threshold of the first monitoring key issued by the policy control network element.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the policy control information further comprises a second quantity threshold for the second monitoring key; before the policy control network element sends policy control information to the session management network element, the method further includes:

the policy control network element receives a message sent by the session management network element, where the message carries an indication of newly adding the second PSA and information of the cumulative usage of the first monitoraging key, where the cumulative usage of the first monitoraging key includes the cumulative usage of the URR reported by the first PSA.

17. The method according to any of claims 13-15, wherein after the policy control network element sends policy control information to the session management network element, the method further comprises:

the policy control network element receives the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key reported by the session management network element, wherein the cumulative usage of the first monitoring key comprises the cumulative usage of the URRs reported by any PSA included in the PDU session;

wherein either PSA is the first PSA or the second PSA.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

the policy control network element receives an identification of the any PSA.

19. A conversation management network element, a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) conversation managed by the conversation management network element comprises a first PDU conversation anchor Point (PSA) and a second PSA, and the conversation management network element sends a first quantity report rule (URR) corresponding to a first monitoring key monitorangekey to the first PSA; characterized in that said session management network element comprises:

a receiving unit, configured to receive policy control information from a policy control network element; wherein the policy control information comprises Policy Charging Control (PCC) rules; the PCC rule carries the first monitoring key and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed on the second PSA;

a sending unit, configured to send, to the second PSA, a first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key.

20. The session management network element of claim 19, wherein the session management network element further comprises:

a determining unit, configured to determine, according to a traffic data flow template in the PCC rule, packet detection information of the first PDR and determine a second URR for the first monitoring key before the sending unit sends, to the second PSA, the first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key; wherein the first PDR includes an identification of the second URR.

21. The session management network element of claim 20, wherein the policy control information further comprises: a first quantity threshold for the first monitoring key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override a previously received quantity threshold for the first monitoring key by the session management network element;

the determining unit is specifically configured to determine the usage threshold of the second URR according to the first usage threshold.

22. The session management network element of claim 20, wherein the determining unit is specifically configured to:

requesting to report the accumulated usage of the first URR to the first PSA through the sending unit; receiving, by the receiving unit, a cumulative usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA; determining an available usage threshold based on the accumulated usage of the first URR; determining a usage threshold for the second URR based on the available usage threshold.

23. The session management network element of claim 20, wherein the determining unit is specifically configured to:

judging whether a residual usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key exists;

determining a usage threshold for the second URR based on the remaining usage threshold if the remaining usage threshold exists; or;

requesting, without the remaining usage threshold, reporting to the first PSA a cumulative usage of the first URR; receiving a cumulative usage of said first URR reported by said first PSA; determining an available usage threshold based on the accumulated usage of the first URR, and determining a usage threshold of the second URR based on the available usage threshold.

24. A session management network element according to claim 22 or 23,

the determining unit is further configured to update the usage threshold of the first URR according to the available usage threshold;

the sending unit is further configured to send the updated first URR to the first PSA.

25. The session management network element of claim 24,

26. The session management network element of claim 20, wherein the policy control information further comprises a second quantity threshold for the first monitoring key; the determining unit is specifically configured to:

and determining the usage threshold of the second URR according to the second usage threshold.

27. The session management network element of claim 26,

the sending unit is further configured to request the first PSA to report the cumulative amount of the first URR before the receiving unit receives the policy control information from the policy control network element;

the receiving unit is further configured to receive the cumulative amount of the first URR reported by the first PSA, and send a message to the policy control network element, where the message carries an indication of newly adding the second PSA and information of the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key, and the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key includes the cumulative amount of the first URR.

28. A session management network element according to any of claims 20 to 23, 25 to 26,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive, after the sending unit sends, to the second PSA, a first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key, an accumulated usage amount of URRs reported by any PSA included in the PDU session; the sending unit is further configured to report the accumulated usage amount of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element; wherein the cumulative amount of the first monitering key comprises the cumulative amount of the URR reported by either PSA; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive, after the sending unit sends, to the second PSA, a first packet detection rule PDR corresponding to the PCC rule and a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key, an accumulated usage amount of URRs reported by any PSA included in the PDU session; the determining unit is further configured to determine whether there is a remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key, and update the usage threshold of the URR reported by any PSA according to the remaining usage threshold if there is the remaining usage threshold; the sending unit is further configured to report, to the policy control network element, the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key when the remaining usage threshold does not exist; wherein the cumulative amount of the first monitering key comprises the cumulative amount of the URR reported by either PSA;

wherein either the PSA is the first PSA or the second PSA.

29. The session management network element of claim 28, wherein the session management network element further comprises:

30. A session management network element according to claim 23 or 29,

31. A strategy control network element determines that a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session comprises a first PDU session anchor Point (PSA) and a second PSA, and the strategy control network element determines that the first PSA executes usage monitoring of a first usage monitoring instance corresponding to a first monitoring key; wherein the policy control network element further comprises:

a determination unit to determine that usage monitoring of the first instance of usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA;

a sending unit, configured to send policy control information to a session management network element; wherein the policy control information comprises Policy Charging Control (PCC) rules; the PCC rule carries the first monitoring key and information indicating a policy corresponding to the PCC rule to be executed on the second PSA.

32. The policy control network element according to claim 31, wherein said policy control information further comprises: a first quantity threshold for the first monitoration key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override the first monitoration key usage threshold previously provided by the policy control network element to the session management network element.

33. The policy control network element according to claim 32,

34. The policy control network element according to claim 31, wherein said policy control information further comprises a second quantity threshold for a second monitoring key; the policy control network element further comprises:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a message sent by the session management network element before the sending unit sends the policy control information to the session management network element, where the message carries an indication of newly adding the second PSA and information of the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key, and the cumulative amount of the first monitoring key includes the cumulative amount of the URR reported by the first PSA.

35. The policy control network element according to any one of claims 31-33, wherein said policy control network element further comprises:

a receiving unit, configured to receive, after the sending unit sends the policy control information to the session management network element, the cumulative amount of the first monitoraging key reported by the session management network element, where the cumulative amount of the first monitoraging key includes a cumulative amount of URRs reported by any PSA included in the PDU session;

wherein either PSA is the first PSA or the second PSA.

36. The policy control network element according to claim 35,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive an identification of the any PSA.

37. A strategy control method, a protocol data unit PDU session managed by a session management network element comprises a first PDU session anchor point PSA and a second PSA, the session management network element sends a first quantity report rule URR corresponding to a first monitoring key to the first PSA, and the first monitoring key corresponds to a session level quantity monitoring instance; characterized in that the method comprises:

the session management network element receives the policy control information from the policy control network element; wherein the policy control information is used to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA, or to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on all PSAs comprised by the PDU session;

and the session management network element sends a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, wherein the second URR is associated with at least one packet detection rule PDR executed by the second PSA, and traffic data matched with each PDR is included in the session-level usage monitoring.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the policy control information further comprises: a first quantity threshold for the first monitoring key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override a previously received quantity threshold for the first monitoring key by the session management network element;

before the session management network element sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, the method further includes: and the session management network element determines the usage threshold of the second URR according to the first usage threshold.

39. The method as claimed in claim 37, wherein before the session management network element sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, the method further comprises:

40. The method as claimed in claim 37, wherein before the session management network element sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, the method further comprises:

41. The method of claim 37, wherein the policy control information further comprises a second quantity threshold for the first monitoring key; before the session management network element sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, the method further includes:

42. The method according to any of claims 37 to 39 and 41, wherein after the session management network element sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, the method further comprises:

wherein either the PSA is the first PSA or the second PSA.

43. A strategy control method, a strategy control network element determines that a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session comprises a first PDU session anchor Point (PSA) and a second PSA, and the strategy control network element determines that the first PSA executes usage monitoring of a session level usage monitoring instance corresponding to a first monitoring key monitorage; characterized in that the method comprises:

the policy control network element determining to perform session level usage monitoring on a second PSA;

the policy control network element sends policy control information to a session management network element; wherein the policy control information is used to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA, or to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on all PSAs comprised by the PDU session.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the policy control information further comprises: a first quantity threshold for the first monitoring key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override the usage threshold for the first monitoring key previously provided to the session management network element by the policy control network element.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the policy control information further comprises a second quantity threshold for a second monitoring key; before the policy control network element sends policy control information to the session management network element, the method further includes:

46. A session management network element, a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session managed by the session management network element comprises a first PDU session anchor Point (PSA) and a second PSA, the session management network element sends a first quantity reporting rule (URR) corresponding to a first monitoring key monitoring to the first PSA, and the first monitoring key corresponds to a session level quantity monitoring instance; characterized in that said session management network element comprises:

a receiving unit, configured to receive policy control information from a policy control network element; wherein the policy control information is used to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA, or to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on all PSAs comprised by the PDU session;

a sending unit, configured to send, to the second PSA, a second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key, where the second URR is associated with at least one packet detection rule PDR executed by the second PSA, and traffic data matched to each PDR is included in the session-level usage monitoring.

47. The session management network element of claim 46, wherein the policy control information further comprises: a first quantity threshold for the first monitoring key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override a previously received quantity threshold for the first monitoring key by the session management network element;

the session management network element further comprises:

a determining unit, configured to determine, before the sending unit sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, a usage threshold of the second URR according to the first usage threshold.

48. The session management network element of claim 46, wherein the session management network element further comprises:

a determining unit, configured to request, by the sending unit, to report the cumulative usage of the first URR to the first PSA before the sending unit sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA; receiving, by the receiving unit, a cumulative usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA; determining an available usage threshold based on the accumulated usage of the first URR; determining a usage threshold for the second URR based on the available usage threshold.

49. The session management network element of claim 46, wherein the session management network element further comprises:

a determining unit, configured to determine whether there is a remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key before the sending unit sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA; determining a usage threshold for the second URR based on the remaining usage threshold if the remaining usage threshold exists; or;

requesting, by the sending unit, reporting, to the first PSA, the accumulated usage of the first URR without the remaining usage threshold; receiving, by the receiving unit, a cumulative usage of the first URR reported by the first PSA; determining an available usage threshold based on the accumulated usage of the first URR, and determining a usage threshold of the second URR based on the available usage threshold.

50. The session management network element of claim 46, wherein the policy control information further comprises a second quantity threshold for the first monitoring key; the session management network element further comprises:

a determining unit, configured to determine, according to the second usage threshold, a usage threshold of the second URR before the sending unit sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA.

51. A session management network element according to any of claims 46 to 48, 50,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive, after the sending unit sends the second URR corresponding to the first monitoring key to the second PSA, the cumulative usage of URRs reported by any PSA included in the PDU session; the sending unit is further configured to report the accumulated usage amount of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element; wherein the cumulative amount of the first monitering key comprises the cumulative amount of the URR reported by either PSA; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive a cumulative usage of URRs reported by any PSA included in the PDU session, and the session management network element further includes: a determining unit, configured to determine whether there is a remaining usage threshold corresponding to the first monitoring key; in the presence of the remaining usage threshold, updating the usage threshold of the URR reported by either PSA based on the remaining usage threshold; reporting, by the sending unit, the accumulated usage of the first monitoring key to the policy control network element in the absence of the remaining usage threshold; wherein the cumulative amount of the first monitering key comprises the cumulative amount of the URR reported by either PSA;

wherein either the PSA is the first PSA or the second PSA.

52. A strategy control network element determines that a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session comprises a first PDU session anchor Point (PSA) and a second PSA, and the strategy control network element determines that the first PSA executes usage monitoring of a session level usage monitoring instance corresponding to a first monitoring key; wherein the policy control network element further comprises:

a determination unit for determining to perform session level usage monitoring on the second PSA;

a sending unit, configured to send policy control information to a session management network element; wherein the policy control information is used to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on the second PSA, or to instruct that session level usage monitoring is performed on all PSAs comprised by the PDU session.

53. The policy control network element according to claim 52, wherein said policy control information further comprises: a first quantity threshold for the first monitoration key and a first indication indicating that the first quantity threshold is not used to override the first monitoration key usage threshold previously provided by the policy control network element to the session management network element.

54. The policy control network element according to claim 52, wherein said policy control information further comprises a second quantity threshold for a second monitoring key; the policy control network element further comprises: