CN110324284B - Method and communication device for accessing IMS - Google Patents

Abstract

The application provides a method for accessing an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS), which comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment acquires an access strategy, and the access strategy records the mapping relation among an application identifier, a service type identifier and a network slice identifier; the terminal equipment accesses a first service of a first application to the IMS through a first network slice according to an access strategy, wherein the first service is one of a plurality of services of different service types corresponding to the first application.

Description

Method and communication device for accessing IMS

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of internet protocol multimedia subsystem IMS networks, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for accessing an IMS network.

Background

With the continuous evolution of communication technology, the real-time communication service of users will be more and more abundant. For example, not only the conventional voice communication but also communication services such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) sensitive to delay and real-time performance may be available. In the Fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) specification, different real-time communication services of one user depend on differentiated network slices. That is, different real-time communication services of a user need to access the same Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) through different network slices.

However, currently, there is no mechanism for supporting different real-time communication services to access the same IMS through different network slices.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and a device for accessing an IMS network, and provides a mechanism for accessing different real-time communication services to the same IMS through different network slices.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a method for accessing an IMS, the method including: the terminal equipment acquires an access strategy, and the access strategy records the mapping relation among an application identifier, a service type identifier and a network slice identifier; and the terminal equipment accesses a first service of the first application into the IMS through the first network slice according to the access strategy, wherein the first service is one of a plurality of services with different service types corresponding to the first application.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application provides a mechanism for accessing services of different service types of one application to the same IMS through different network slices. For example, a service of a signaling service type and a service of a media service type of an application access the IMS through different network slices, respectively. It can be understood that with the continuous evolution of communication technology, the communication services of users will be richer, for example, including not only the traditional voice services requiring higher reliability, but also services such as AR and VR sensitive to delay. In the prior art, although different applications are proposed to access the IMS through different network slices, different service types of one application are not differentiated, which may cause that some service types may be supported and other service types may be blocked, and thus, the requirement of more and more diversified communication services of a user cannot be met. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, different service types of a single application are respectively accessed to the IMS through different network slices, and different network slices have differentiated characteristics, so that various different communication services of a user can be supported, thereby providing richer service experience for the user.

As an example, the traffic type includes a signaling traffic type and a media traffic type. Since the services of different service types are accessed to the IMS through different network slices, the separation of the signaling service and the media service can be realized.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: and the terminal equipment accesses a second service of the first application into the IMS through a second network slice according to the access strategy, wherein the second service is a service different from the first service in the services of a plurality of service types corresponding to the first application, and the service type of the second service is different from that of the first service.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementation manners of the first aspect, the accessing, by the terminal device, the first service of the first application to the IMS through the first network slice includes: the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment obtains a signaling address distributed by the terminal equipment in a first network slice; the terminal equipment sends a registration message to the IMS, wherein the registration message carries the application identifier and the signaling address of the first application.

The network device of the IMS records the binding relationship between the application identifier of the first application and the signaling address of the terminal device, so that a message (e.g., an invite message for initiating a called procedure) to be sent to the terminal device is routed to the terminal device through the first network slice in the subsequent process according to the binding relationship.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the terminal equipment determines an application identifier of at least one application except the first application corresponding to the first network slice according to the access strategy; and the registration message also carries an application identifier of at least one application corresponding to the first network slice, except the application identifier of the first application.

In this embodiment, the registration message may carry application identifiers of multiple applications corresponding to the first network slice, so that all available applications corresponding to the first network slice may be registered in the IMS through one-time registration without performing registration separately for each application, which may save signaling overhead.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the access policy further includes protocol data unit PDU session allocation indication information, where the PDU session allocation indication information is used to indicate an allocation policy of a PDU session, where the allocation policy of the PDU session includes early allocation or late allocation, where the early allocation indicates that a media address is allocated to the terminal device before the terminal device initiates a service of a media service type, the late allocation indicates that a media address is allocated to the terminal device when the terminal device initiates a service of the media service type, and the media service type is one of a plurality of different service types corresponding to the first application.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, in a case that the PDU session assignment indication information indicates early assignment, after accessing the first service of the first application to the IMS through the first network slice, the method further includes: the terminal equipment determines a second network slice corresponding to the media service type of the first application according to the access strategy; and the terminal equipment acquires and stores the media address distributed by the terminal equipment in the second network slice.

After the terminal device completes the registration process, it may query PDU session allocation indication information, and if the PDU session allocation indication information indicates that the media address is allocated early, the terminal device may obtain the media address allocated by the 5GC for the terminal device. By the method, the terminal device already acquires the media address before initiating the media service, and can directly initiate the media service subsequently without executing a related flow for distributing the media address when initiating the media service, so that the time delay can be reduced.

From the PDU session resource occupation perspective, the late allocation of the media address is temporarily allocated (or also called dynamic allocation) when the terminal device initiates the media service, mainly to reduce the occupation of the PDU session resource by the service of the media service type.

As an alternative example, the default configuration of the PDU session indication information is late allocation.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device sends a first invitation message to the IMS through the first network slice, wherein the first invitation message is used for initiating a calling process of the media service type of the first application, and the first invitation message carries an application identifier and a media address of the first application.

In this embodiment, the calling process of the media service type of the user may access the IMS through the second network slice, and the service (e.g., the registration process) of the media service type of the user may access the IMS through a different network slice from the service of the signaling service type, so as to improve the service experience of the user.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the terminal equipment receives a second invitation message from the IMS, wherein the second invitation message is used for initiating a called flow of the media service type of the first application, and the second invitation message carries an application identifier of the first application; the terminal equipment determines a second network slice corresponding to a called flow of the media service type of the first application according to the access strategy; and the terminal equipment acquires the media address distributed by the terminal equipment in the second network slice according to the PDU session distribution indication information.

In this embodiment, the called flow of the media service type of the user may access the IMS through the second network slice, and the service (e.g., the registration flow) of the media service type of the user may access the IMS through a different network slice from the service (e.g., the registration flow) of the signaling service type, so as to improve the service experience of the user.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a method for accessing an IMS, the method including: receiving, by a network device of the IMS, a first invite message sent by a terminal device through a first network slice, where the first invite message is used to trigger a calling process of a media service type of a first application, and the first invite message carries an application identifier of the first application, where the media service type is one of multiple different service types corresponding to the first application; and the network equipment allocates the media resources communicated with the second network slice corresponding to the media service type of the first application to the terminal equipment according to the application identifier of the first application.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, before the network device receives the first invite message sent by the terminal device through the second network slice, the method further includes: the network equipment receives a registration message sent by the terminal equipment through the first network slice, wherein the registration message carries a signaling address distributed by the terminal equipment in the first network slice and an application identifier of a first application; the network equipment records the binding relationship between the signaling address of the terminal equipment and the application identifier of the first application.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementation manners of the second aspect, the registration message further carries an application identifier of at least one application corresponding to the first network slice, except for the application identifier of the first application, and the method further includes: the network device records the binding relationship between the signaling address and the application identifier of the at least one application.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the network equipment receives a third invitation message through the first network slice, the third invitation message is used for initiating a called process of the media service type of the first application, a called party in the called process is terminal equipment, and the third invitation message carries an application identifier of the first application; and the network equipment distributes the media resource intercommunicated with the second network slice according to the application identifier of the first application.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect. In particular, the communication device comprises means for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect. In particular, the communication device comprises means for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising a processor and a memory. The memory is used to store computer program instructions (or code). The processor is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory, which when executed, cause the communication apparatus to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the apparatus includes a terminal or a chip within the terminal.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, a processor and a memory of the communication device. The memory is used to store computer program instructions (or code). The processor is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory, which when executed, cause the communication apparatus to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions, which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the first aspect and any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the second aspect described above and any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a chip system comprising a processor for implementing the functions referred to in the terminal device in the above aspects, such as for example receiving or processing data and/or information referred to in the above methods. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the terminal device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor for implementing the functions referred to in the terminal device in the above aspects, such as receiving or processing data and/or information referred to in the above methods. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the terminal device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application provides a mechanism for accessing different service types of the application to the same IMS through different network slices for the user. For example, a service of a signaling service type and a service of a media service type of an application access the IMS through different network slices, respectively. It can be understood that with the continuous evolution of communication technology, the communication services of users will be richer, for example, including not only the traditional voice services requiring higher reliability, but also services such as AR and VR sensitive to delay. In the prior art, although different applications are proposed to access the IMS through different network slices, different service types of one application are not differentiated, which may cause that some service types may be supported and other service types may be blocked, and thus, the requirement of more and more diversified communication services of a user cannot be met. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, different service types of a single application are respectively accessed to the IMS through different network slices, and different network slices have differentiated characteristics, so that various different communication services of a user can be supported, thereby providing richer service experience for the user.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an application scenario applicable to the embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a method 200 for accessing IMS according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram of service access to IMS for signaling service types.

Fig. 4 is an example of service access to IMS for media service types.

Fig. 5 is another example of service access to IMS for media service types.

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 600 according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 800 according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 900 according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, a brief description will be given of related concepts related to the embodiments of the present application.

An Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) is a network architecture that provides multimedia services to users over IP-based networks. IMS is a new multimedia service format, and has a core characteristic of using a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and independence of access. The IMS uses the SIP protocol to perform end-to-end call control, and the IMS based on the SIP can provide quality of service (QoS) at the carrier level, efficiently and flexibly charge the service, and has a strong capability of fusing various network integrated services by reusing the internet technology and protocol to the maximum extent, inheriting the specific network technology of the cellular mobile communication system, and fully using the soft switching network technology. Meanwhile, IMS uses a soft switching network technology, and adopts a gateway-based interworking scheme, which includes network elements such as a Signaling Gateway (SG), a Media Gateway Control Function (MGCF), a Media Gateway Controller (MGC), and the like, and also adopts an h.248 protocol commonly established by an Internet engineering task force (IEIF) and an international telecommunication union telecommunication standardization sector (ITU-T) at the MGCF and the MGC, so that an IMS terminal device may be a mobile terminal, a fixed telephone terminal, a multimedia terminal, a Personal Computer (PC) machine, and an access mode is not limited to a cellular radio frequency interface, which may be a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a wired Local Area Network (LAN), or a digital subscriber Line (LAN), and an access mode is not limited to a cellular radio frequency interface, DSL), etc.

In the embodiments of the present application, a terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal device may be a mobile terminal, or may be a fixed telephone terminal, a multimedia terminal, a Personal Computer (PC) machine, a Station (ST) in a WLAN, and may be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a SIP phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device, a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, and a next-generation communication system, for example, a terminal device in a 5G network or a terminal device in a future-evolution Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) network, and the like.

It should be noted that the numbers "first", "second", and the like appearing in the embodiment of the present application are only for distinguishing different description objects, for example, for distinguishing different network slices, messages, and the like, and the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application should not be limited.

The method for accessing to the IMS according to the embodiment of the present application is described in detail below.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is an application scenario applicable to the embodiment of the present application. The application scenario shown in fig. 1 includes IMS 101, terminal device 102, and terminal device 103. Wherein, services of different service types of a single application of the terminal device 102 and the terminal device 103 can access to the IMS through different network slices. For example, traffic belonging to traffic type a may access IMS 101 via network slice # 1. Traffic belonging to traffic type B may access IMS 101 via network slice # 2. Traffic belonging to traffic type C may access IMS 101 via network slice # 3.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a method 200 for accessing IMS according to an embodiment of the present application.

210. The terminal equipment acquires an access strategy.

Specifically, the access policy may be that the terminal device is issued by a Packet Control Function (PCF) of a 5G Core Network (5G Core Network, 5GC) after successfully registering in the 5G Core Network.

The access strategy records a mapping relation among an application identifier, a service type identifier and a network slice identifier. And, a combination of an application identifier and a service type identifier may correspond to a network slice identifier.

It will be appreciated that an application identification is used to identify an application, a service type identification is used to identify a service type, and a network slice identification is used to identify a network slice.

In 5G, each network Slice has a unique single network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI) identification. Thus, the network slice identifier referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be an S-NSSAI identifier.

As an example, in the embodiment of the present application, the application identifier may include two types: IMS communication service Identifiers (ICS) and IMS application identifiers (IARI).

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the service type may include a plurality of division forms. For example, the single traffic type may be a signaling traffic type or a media traffic type. In other words, the traffic of the terminal device may belong to a traffic of the signaling traffic type or a traffic of the media traffic type.

Optionally, the media types may be further subdivided into various service types such as video, audio, picture, and text. Alternatively, the media service types may be divided into a general voice communication service type and a VR communication service type.

The access policy in the embodiment of the present application may be obtained by expanding an existing user equipment routing policy (URSP). It is easy to understand that the extended URSP means that the mapping relationship between the application identifier, the service type identifier and the network slice identifier described above is added on the basis of the existing URSP.

220. And the terminal equipment accesses the first service of the first application to the IMS through the first network slice according to the access strategy.

The first application may be any application loaded on the terminal device. Any one of the applications may include a plurality of different service types that the terminal device can handle, and each service type may include a plurality of different services. Thus, any one of the services of the first application (e.g., the first service) may be attributed to a certain service type of the first application.

As mentioned above, the access policy records the mapping relationship between the application identifier, the service type identifier and the network slice identifier. Therefore, the terminal device can determine the application identifier of the first application and the network slice corresponding to the service type of the first service by querying the access policy.

For simplicity of description, in the following, we will refer to an application identifier of a first application as a first application identifier, a service type to which a first service belongs as a first service type, and a network slice selected according to the first application identifier and the first service type as a first network slice.

After the first network slice corresponding to the first service of the first application is selected, the terminal device accesses the first service of the first application to the IMS through the first network slice.

The method for accessing the IMS of the embodiment of the application provides a mechanism for accessing the same IMS by different communication applications through different network slices,

the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application provides a mechanism for accessing different service types of the application to the same IMS through different network slices for the user. It can be understood that with the continuous evolution of communication technology, the communication services of users will be richer, for example, including not only the traditional voice services requiring higher reliability, but also services such as AR and VR sensitive to delay. In the prior art, although different applications are proposed to access the IMS through different network slices, different service types of one application are not differentiated, which may cause that some service types may be supported and other service types may be blocked, and thus, the requirement of more and more diversified communication services of a user cannot be met. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, different service types of a single application are respectively accessed to the IMS through different network slices, and different network slices have differentiated characteristics, so that various different communication services of a user can be supported, thereby providing richer service experience for the user.

Optionally, in this embodiment, the service types may be divided into a signaling service type and a media service type. Therefore, the technical scheme of the application enables the service supporting the signaling service type and the service supporting the media service type to be accessed into the same IMS through different network slices, so that the service supporting the signaling service type and the service supporting the media service type are separated.

The following describes an example of the procedure for accessing the IMS by the service belonging to the signaling service type and the service belonging to the media service type.

1. Traffic of signalling traffic type

As is well known to those skilled in the art, signaling is a control signal required for a wireless communication system to operate the entire network in order to ensure normal communication, in addition to transmitting user information. The signaling traffic type may specifically include a number of services, such as registration, subscription, notification, and so on.

The following describes an example of a procedure for accessing the IMS by a service of a signaling service type, taking a registration service of a terminal device as an example.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is an exemplary flow diagram of a registration service for signaling service types to access IMS.

301. The terminal equipment acquires the extended URSP.

After the terminal device successfully registers to the 5GC, the network element PCF in the 5GC synchronizes the extended URSP to the terminal device. For the procedure of terminal device accessing 5GC and the procedure of network element PCF synchronizing URSP, reference is made to the prior art, and details are not described here.

302. And the terminal equipment inquires the URSP strategy according to the first application identifier and the signaling service type and determines a signaling address registered to the IMS.

As described above, the mapping relationship between the application identifier, the service type identifier, and the network slice identifier is recorded in the extended URSP. A network slice may be uniquely determined based on a combination of the first application identification and the first traffic type identification.

Therefore, after the first application on the terminal device is started, if it is found that the first application is not registered in the IMS, the terminal device queries the extended URSP according to the application identifier of the first application and the signaling service type before initiating IMS registration, and obtains a corresponding network slice (hereinafter referred to as a first network slice). Further, if the 5GC has not allocated the protocol data unit Session (PDU Session) address corresponding to the terminal in the first network slice, the terminal device and the 5GC complete the allocation of the signaling address of the terminal device in the first network slice through a PDU Session (i.e., PDU Session) address allocation flow (e.g., a registration flow). If the 5GC has allocated the PDU Session address corresponding to the terminal device in the first network slice, the terminal device uses the allocated PDU Session address as the signaling address.

It should be noted that, the service in 5G is carried on a PDU Session, and any service of the terminal device is established by allocating a corresponding PDU Session by the 5GC to complete address allocation. In the embodiment of the present application, since the signaling service and the media service are separated, in the registration process, the terminal device obtains the signaling address of the terminal device in the first network slice, which is allocated by the 5 GC.

303. The terminal equipment sends a registration message to the IMS through the first network slice, and the network equipment of the IMS receives the registration message sent by the terminal equipment through the first network slice.

The registration message carries the first application identifier and the signaling address of the terminal device.

304. The network equipment of the IMS records the binding relation between the signaling address of the terminal equipment and the first application identifier.

The network device of the IMS records the binding relationship between the signaling address of the terminal device and the first application identifier, which means that the first application is successfully registered in the IMS.

Optionally, the registration message may carry, in addition to the application identifier of the first application, application identifiers of more other applications corresponding to the first network slice.

Specifically, in step 302, the terminal device queries the extended URSP according to the application identifier of the first application and the signaling service type, and after obtaining the corresponding first network slice, may further obtain the application identifiers of all available applications corresponding to the first network slice. In step 304, the terminal device may send all available application identifiers corresponding to the first network slice to the IMS, carried in a registration message. In this way, the network device of the IMS records the binding relationship between the signaling address of the terminal device and all available application identifiers corresponding to the first network slice. In this way, the terminal device registers all available applications corresponding to the first network slice on the IMS through one registration process. If the terminal equipment subsequently starts one of the applications, the terminal equipment does not need to independently register, or the terminal equipment does not need to register once when starting one application, so that the signaling overhead can be saved, and the registration process can be simplified.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present application, the extended URSP may further include PDU session allocation indication information. The PDU session allocation indication information is used for indicating the allocation strategy of the PDU session, wherein the allocation strategy of the PDU session comprises early allocation or late allocation. Early allocation means that a media address is allocated to the terminal device before the terminal device initiates the media service, and late allocation means that the media address is allocated to the terminal device when the terminal device initiates the media service. The default configuration of PDU session assignment indication information may be set to late assignment.

305. And the terminal equipment inquires PDU session allocation indication information, and acquires and stores the media address of the terminal equipment in the first network slice under the condition that the PDU session allocation indication information indicates early allocation.

After the terminal device completes the registration process, it may query PDU session allocation indication information, and if the PDU session allocation indication information indicates early allocation, the terminal device may obtain a media address allocated by the 5GC for the terminal device. (see step 305 in FIG. 5, wherein the dashed box of step 305 indicates that in the case that the PDU session allocation indication information indicates early allocation, the terminal equipment can obtain the media address after completing the registration process without temporary allocation at the time of initiating the media service type.)

It can be understood that, in this way, the terminal device already acquires the media address before initiating the media service, and then can directly initiate the media service without executing the related flow of allocating the media address, so that the time delay can be reduced.

And the late allocation of the media address is mainly to reduce the occupation of PDU session resources by the services of the media service type.

2. A media service type of service.

As the signaling service type includes a plurality of services, the media service type also includes a plurality of services. And a caller (MO) and a callee (MT) are the most common services in the media service class. The following describes a procedure for accessing the IMS by a service of a media service type, taking an MO flow and an MT flow as examples.

(1) MO call flow

The MO flow refers to a process in which a terminal device initiates a call actively.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is an example of service access to IMS for media service types.

401. When the terminal device initiates an MO call flow, the expanded URSP is inquired according to the application identifier of the first application and the media service type, the network slice accessed to the IMS is selected, and the media address of the terminal device is obtained.

In order to distinguish from the first network slice selected by the registration service of the above signaling service type, the network slice selected when the terminal device initiates the MO call flow of the media service type is hereinafter referred to as a second network slice.

In step 401, the terminal device queries the extended URSP according to the application identifier of the first application (i.e., the first application identifier) and the media service type, so as to obtain a second network slice. And interacting with the 5GC, and distributing and obtaining the media address of the terminal equipment in the second network slice through a PDU session distribution process.

It should be appreciated that step 401 is actually the case where the PDU session allocation indication information indicates a late allocation of media. In other words, in the case that the PDU session allocation indication information indicates that the media address is allocated late, the media address of the terminal device is allocated to the terminal device only when the media service is initiated.

As described above, if the PDU session allocation indication information indicates that the media address is allocated early, the terminal device has already acquired the media address of the terminal device in advance after successfully registering to the IMS. Therefore, when the terminal device initiates the MO call flow, the process of acquiring the temporarily allocated media address described in step 401 may be omitted. But may directly obtain the media address saved in step 305 and initiate a service of the media service type.

402. The terminal device sends an invite message #1 to the IMS through the first network slice. The network device of the IMS receives the invite message #1 sent by the terminal device through the first network slice.

The invite message #1 carries a first application identifier and Session Description Protocol (SDP) exchange (SDP offer). The SDP offer includes the media address and port number assigned by the terminal device in the second network slice.

It should be understood that the IMS can support various types of media services including voice and video, and terminals with different access modes support different types of media codec modes. In the case of a two-party session, the session parameters are typically determined by the creator of the session, and what the other party participating in the session can do is simply to join the session (or optionally not join it) based on these session parameters. However, in general, due to the difference in the capabilities of the terminal devices, any party cannot assume that the other party supports a certain session parameter, so that the session parameters need to be agreed through negotiation between the two parties before the session is established, and a codec mode supported by both parties is selected for each media. SDP is a session description format that accurately describes the parameters of a session. But because SDP lacks the semantic and operational details of how both parties form the final consistent session description from the respectively provided session description.

Thus, the industry proposes a proposal/response model. A party to the session (the offeror) generates an SDP message to describe the session it desires, which constitutes an offer (offer). The offer mainly includes session parameters that the offeror wants to use, and the IP address and port that the offeror uses to receive media. The offer is passed to the other party, who, based on the received offer and its capabilities, generates an SDP message describing the media streams it can accept, called an answer. The Answer includes the IP address and port that the responder expects to use to receive media to complete the media negotiation.

Therefore, it is easy to understand that in the MO service, the terminal device serves as an initiator of the session, and in step 402, the invite message #1 carries its own media address and port number, so that the network device of the IMS can forward the media stream from the called party in the MO service to the terminal device through the media address and port in the subsequent media service. Carries its own media address and port number, is used for subsequent interaction with the network equipment of the IMS,

it should be appreciated that the transmission of invite message #1 is of a type of signaling traffic and is therefore transmitted through the first network slice.

403. The network device of the IMS selects a media resource interworking with the second network slice according to the first application identity in the invite message # 1.

The media resource here mainly includes an IP address and a port number of a gateway device that can support the second network slice.

And the network equipment distributes the media resources intercommunicated with the second network slice according to the first application identifier, and ensures that the media resources intercommunicated with the terminal equipment can be realized.

The network device and the terminal device realize the intercommunication of the media plane, which means that data packets sent by the network device and the terminal device can be received mutually.

404. And the network equipment of the IMS triggers the calling process processing according to the first application identifier.

405. And the network equipment of the IMS sends a response message to the terminal equipment through the first network slice.

Here, the network device of the IMS routes the response message to the terminal device according to the signaling address of the terminal device, and transmits the response message to the terminal device through the first network slice.

The response message carries an SDP answer, where the SDP answer includes an Internet Protocol (IP) address and a port number of an access gateway device (access gateway, GW, AWG).

The reply message in step 405 may be an 18x message, depending on the definition of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) reply message status code.

It is understood that step 402 and 405 are actually the end device and the network device of the IMS completing the media negotiation. Then the MO service can be carried out.

(2) MT call flow

MT procedure refers to the procedure by which a terminal device is called.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is another example of service access to IMS for media service types.

501. The network device of the IMS receives an invite message #2 through the first network slice, where the invite message #2 is used to initiate an MT service of a media service type, and the invite message #2 carries the first application identifier and the public identifier of the terminal device.

It should be understood that the called party in the MT service is the terminal device shown in fig. 5. The calling party in the called flow is not shown in fig. 5.

502. And the network equipment of the IMS acquires the signaling address of the terminal equipment according to the first application identifier.

It should be noted that, in step 502, the invite message #2 received by the network device of the IMS carries the public identifier of the called terminal device (that is, the terminal device shown in fig. 5), and the network device can know which called terminal device is according to the public identifier of the terminal device. Then, according to the recorded binding relationship between the signaling address of the terminal device and the application identifier, a signaling address (a private address of the terminal device) corresponding to the first application identifier may be determined, so as to obtain the signaling address of the called party (i.e., the terminal device shown in fig. 5), so as to forward (or route) the invite message #2 to the terminal device.

In the IMS, the identity of a terminal device is classified into a private identity and a public identity. Wherein, the private identification is distributed by the operator of the home network and has global uniqueness. It is typically used for registration, authentication, charging, etc. of a user for accessing the IMS. A public identity is an identity used in communication with other users, as opposed to a private identity, and is typically used for addressing and routing calls, etc. For example, a mobile phone number is a public identity that can be perceived by a user, while a private identity is not perceived by the user. The user a makes a call to the user B, the mobile phone number displayed on the mobile phone of the user B (i.e., the mobile phone number of the user a) is a public identifier, and when the base station transfers the call of the user B to the user a, the base station needs to know the private address of the user a to transfer the call of the user B to the user a.

Therefore, in step 502, the invite message #2 carries the public identity of the terminal device, and the network device of the IMS can know which terminal device the public identity is used to identify (for convenience of description, it is assumed that the public identity is used to identify the terminal device a). The network device of the IMS records the binding relationship between the signaling address of each terminal device accessing the IMS and some application identifiers, so that the network device of the IMS can determine the private address of the terminal device a, that is, the signaling address, by querying the binding relationship recorded for the terminal device a according to the first application identifier.

503. And the network equipment of the IMS selects the media resource intercommunicated with the second network slice according to the first application identifier.

Similar to the MO service, the network device of the IMS needs to allocate a media resource that is interworking with the second network slice, so as to ensure interworking with the media plane of the terminal device.

504. The network device of the IMS sends an invite message #3 to the terminal device through the first network slice according to the signaling address of the terminal device. The terminal device receives the invitation message #3 forwarded by the network device through the first network slice.

The invite message #3 carries the first application identifier and SDP offer, which carries the IP address and port number of the access gateway AGW.

505. And the terminal equipment queries the expanded URSP according to the first application identifier and the media service type carried in the invitation message B to obtain a corresponding second network slice, and obtains a media address distributed in the second network slice by the terminal equipment.

The process of acquiring the media address by the terminal device is the same as the description above, and is not described herein again.

506. And the terminal equipment sends a response message to the network equipment of the IMS through the first network slice.

The SDP answer in the answer message carries the media address (i.e., the UE media address shown in fig. 5, which may also be referred to as the UE IP address) and the port number of the terminal device. Likewise, the reply message may be one of 18x messages.

The method for accessing the IMS according to the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above. According to the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application, services of different service types (such as a signaling service type and a media service type) supporting single application enter the same IMS through different network slices respectively.

The communication device in the embodiment of the present application is described below with reference to fig. 6 to 9.

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 600 according to an embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 6, a communication apparatus 600 includes:

an obtaining unit 610, configured to obtain an access policy, where the access policy records a mapping relationship between an application identifier, a service type identifier, and a network slice identifier;

a processing unit 620, configured to access, according to an access policy, a first service of a first application to an internet protocol multimedia subsystem IMS through a first network slice, where the first service is one of services of multiple different service types corresponding to the first application.

Each unit and the other operations or functions in the communication apparatus 600 provided in the embodiment of the present application are respectively for implementing a corresponding flow executed by a terminal device in the method 200 for accessing to an IMS provided in the embodiment of the present application. For brevity, no further description is provided herein.

It should be understood that when the communication apparatus 600 includes a transmitting unit, the transmitting unit for transmitting different information may be the same or different (e.g., the first transmitting unit and the second transmitting unit). The receiving unit and the processing unit are similar.

Alternatively, the communication device 600 may be a chip.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 according to an embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 7, a communication apparatus 700 includes:

a receiving unit 710, configured to receive, through a second network slice, a first invite message sent by a terminal device, where the first invite message is used to trigger a calling process of a media service type of a first application, and the first invite message carries an application identifier of the first application, where the media service type is one of multiple services of different service types corresponding to the first application;

a processing unit 720, configured to allocate, according to the application identifier of the first application, a media resource that is interworking with the second network slice for the terminal device.

Each unit and the other operations or functions in the communication apparatus 700 provided in the embodiment of the present application are respectively for implementing the corresponding flow executed by the network device of the IMS in the method 200 for accessing the IMS provided in the embodiment of the present application. For brevity, no further description is provided herein.

Alternatively, the communication device 700 may be a chip.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device 800 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the terminal apparatus 800 includes: one or more processors 801, one or more memories 802, one or more transceivers (each transceiver comprising a transmitter 803 and a receiver 804). The transmitter 803 or the receiver 804 is connected to one or more antennas 805 and transmits and receives signals through the antennas. The memory 802 stores computer program instructions (or code). The processor 801 executes computer program instructions stored in the memory 802 to implement corresponding procedures and/or operations executed by the terminal device in the method 200 for accessing IMS according to the embodiment of the present application. For brevity, no further description is provided herein.

The above-described communication apparatus 600 shown in fig. 6 can be implemented by the terminal device 800 shown in fig. 8. For example, the obtaining unit 610 shown in fig. 6 may be implemented by a transceiver, and the processing unit 620 may be implemented by the processor 801.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device 900 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the network device 900 includes: one or more processors 901, one or more memories 902, one or more transceivers (each transceiver comprising a transmitter 903 and a receiver 904). The transmitter 903 or the receiver 904 is connected to one or more antennas 905 and transmits and receives signals through the antennas. The memory 902 stores computer program instructions (or code). The processor 901 executes computer program instructions stored in the memory 902 to implement corresponding procedures and/or operations executed by the network device of the IMS in the method 200 for uplink communication provided by the embodiment of the present application. For brevity, no further description is provided herein.

The above-described communication apparatus 700 shown in fig. 7 can be implemented by the terminal device 900 shown in fig. 9. For example, the receiving unit 710 shown in fig. 7 may be implemented by a transceiver (specifically, the receiver 904). The processing unit 720 may be implemented by the processor 901.

In the above embodiments, the processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more Integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program in the present Application. For example, a processor may be comprised of a digital signal processor device, a microprocessor device, an analog to digital converter, a digital to analog converter, and so forth. The processor may distribute the control and signal processing functions of the mobile device between these devices according to their respective functions. Further, the processor may include functionality to operate one or more software programs, which may be stored in the memory.

The Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that may store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device that may store information and instructions. But is not limited to, electrically erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage, optical disk storage (including Compact Disc, laser disk, optical disk, digital versatile disk, blu-ray disk, 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. The memory may be separate or integrated with the processor.

The transceiver may include, for example, an infrared transceiver, a usage transceiver, a wireless Universal Serial Bus (USB) transceiver, a bluetooth transceiver, etc. Although not shown, the terminal device and the network device may transmit information (or signals) through a transmitter and/or receive information (signals) through a receiver using corresponding communication techniques.

Furthermore, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the respective procedures and/or operations performed by the terminal device in the method embodiments of the present application.

Furthermore, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the respective procedures and/or operations performed by the network device in the method embodiments of the present application.

Furthermore, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor, and is configured to implement the functions related to the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application, for example, to receive or process signals and/or information related to the method embodiments. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing necessary program instructions and data for the terminal device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

Furthermore, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor, and is used to implement the functions related to the network device in the embodiments of the present application, for example, to receive or process signals and/or information related to the method embodiments. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing necessary program instructions and data for the terminal device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. 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.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

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

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

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

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

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

Claims (22)

1. A method for accessing an internet protocol multimedia subsystem, IMS, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment obtains an access strategy, and the access strategy records mapping relations among application identifications, service type identifications and network slice identifications;

and the terminal equipment accesses a first service of a first application into an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) through a first network slice according to the access strategy, wherein the first service is one of a plurality of services with different service types corresponding to the first application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first service is a registration service of a signaling service type, and the terminal device accesses the first service of the first application to the IMS through the first network slice, comprising:

the terminal equipment acquires a signaling address distributed by the terminal equipment in the first network slice;

and the terminal equipment sends a registration message to the IMS, wherein the registration message carries the application identifier of the first application and the signaling address.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

the terminal equipment determines an application identifier of at least one application corresponding to the first network slice except the first application according to the access strategy;

and the registration message also carries an application identifier of at least one application corresponding to the first network slice, except the application identifier of the first application.

4. The method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the access policy further comprises protocol data unit, PDU, session allocation indication information indicating an allocation policy for a PDU session, wherein the allocation policy for a PDU session comprises an early allocation or a late allocation, the early allocation indicating that a media address is allocated to a terminal device before the terminal device initiates a service of a media service type, the late allocation indicating that a media address is allocated to a terminal device when the terminal device initiates a service of a media service type, and the media service type is one of a plurality of different service types corresponding to the first application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein in case the PDU session assignment indication information indicates early assignment, after accessing the first service of the first application to IMS through a first network slice, the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment determines a second network slice corresponding to the media service type of the first application according to the access strategy;

and the terminal equipment acquires and stores the media address distributed by the terminal equipment in the second network slice.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

and the terminal equipment sends a first invitation message to the IMS through the first network slice, wherein the first invitation message is used for triggering a calling process of the media service type of the first application, and the first invitation message carries the application identifier and the media address of the first application.

7. The method of claim 5 or 6, further comprising:

the terminal equipment receives a second invitation message from the IMS, wherein the second invitation message is used for triggering a called flow of the media service type of the first application, and the second invitation message carries an application identifier of the first application;

the terminal equipment determines the second network slice corresponding to the called process of the media service type of the first application according to the access strategy;

and the terminal equipment acquires the media address distributed by the terminal equipment in the second network slice according to the PDU session distribution indication information.

8. A method for accessing an internet protocol multimedia subsystem, IMS, comprising:

receiving, by a network device of an IMS, a first invite message sent by a terminal device through a first network slice, where the first invite message is used to trigger a calling process of a media service type of a first application, and the first invite message carries an application identifier of the first application, where the media service type is one of multiple different service types corresponding to the first application;

and the network equipment allocates media resources communicated with a second network slice corresponding to the media service type of the first application to the terminal equipment according to the application identifier of the first application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein before the network device receives the first invite message sent by the terminal device over the second network slice, the method further comprises:

the network device receives a registration message sent by the terminal device through the first network slice, wherein the registration message carries a signaling address allocated by the terminal device in the first network slice and an application identifier of the first application;

and the network equipment records the binding relationship between the signaling address and the application identifier of the first application.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the registration message further carries an application identifier of at least one application corresponding to the first network slice, except for the application identifier of the first application,

and, the method further comprises:

and the network equipment records the binding relationship between the signaling address and the application identifier of the at least one application.

11. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 10, further comprising:

the network device receives a third invitation message through the first network slice, wherein the third invitation message is used for triggering a called process of the media service type of the first application, a called party in the called process is the terminal device, and the third invitation message carries an application identifier of the first application;

and the network equipment distributes the media resource intercommunicated with the second network slice according to the application identifier of the first application.

12. A communications apparatus, comprising:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain an access policy, where the access policy records a mapping relationship between an application identifier, a service type identifier, and a network slice identifier;

and the processing unit is used for accessing a first service of a first application into an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) through a first network slice according to the access strategy, wherein the first service is one of a plurality of services with different service types corresponding to the first application.

13. The communications apparatus of claim 12, wherein the first service is a registration service of a signaling service type, and wherein,

the obtaining unit is specifically configured to obtain a signaling address allocated by the communication apparatus in the first network slice;

and, the communication device further comprises:

a first sending unit, configured to send a registration message to the IMS, where the registration message carries an application identifier of the first application and the signaling address.

14. The communications apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

determining an application identifier of at least one application except the first network slice corresponding to the first network slice according to the access policy;

and the registration message also carries an application identifier of at least one application corresponding to the first network slice, except the application identifier of the first application.

15. The communications device of any of claims 12 to 14, wherein the access policy further comprises protocol data unit, PDU, session allocation indication information indicating an allocation policy for a PDU session, wherein the allocation policy for a PDU session comprises an early allocation or a late allocation, wherein the early allocation indicates that the communications device is allocated a media address before the communications device initiates traffic of a media traffic type, wherein the late allocation indicates that the communications device is allocated a media address when the communications device initiates traffic of a media traffic type, and wherein the media traffic type is one of a plurality of different traffic types corresponding to the first application.

16. The communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein in the case that the PDU session assignment indication information indicates an early assignment, the processing unit is further configured to determine that the media traffic type of the first application corresponds to a second network slice after accessing a first traffic of the first application to the IMS through the first network slice;

the acquiring unit is further configured to acquire the media address allocated by the communication device in the second network slice acquired by the processing unit;

and, the communication device further comprises:

and the storage unit is used for storing the media address acquired by the acquisition unit.

17. The communications device of claim 16, further comprising:

a second sending unit, configured to send a first invite message to the IMS through the first network slice, where the first invite message is used to trigger a calling procedure of a media service type of the first application, and the first invite message carries an application identifier and the media address of the first application.

18. The communication apparatus according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that the communication apparatus further comprises:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a second invite message from the IMS, where the second invite message is used to trigger a called procedure of a media service type of the first application, and the second invite message carries an application identifier of the first application;

the processing unit is further configured to determine, according to the access policy, the second network slice corresponding to the called flow of the media service type of the first application;

and the obtaining unit is further configured to obtain the media address allocated by the communication apparatus in the second network slice according to the PDU session allocation indication information.

19. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive, through a first network slice, a first invite message sent by a terminal device, where the first invite message is used to trigger a calling process of a media service type of a first application, and the first invite message carries an application identifier of the first application, where the media service type is one of multiple different service types corresponding to the first application;

and the processing unit is used for allocating media resources communicated with the second network slice corresponding to the media service type of the first application to the terminal equipment according to the application identifier of the first application.

20. The communications apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to receive, before receiving the first invite message, a registration message sent by the terminal device through the first network slice, where the registration message carries a signaling address allocated by the terminal device in the first network slice and an application identifier of the first application;

the processing unit is further configured to record a binding relationship between the signaling address and the application identifier of the first application.

21. The communications apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the registration message further carries an application identifier of at least one application corresponding to the first network slice, except for the application identifier of the first application;

and the processing unit is further configured to record a binding relationship between the signaling address and the application identifier of the at least one application.

22. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 19 to 21, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to:

receiving a third invitation message through the first network slice, where the third invitation message is used to trigger a called flow of the media service type of the first application, a called party in the called flow is the terminal device, and the third invitation message carries an application identifier of the first application;

the processing unit is further configured to allocate a media resource interworking with the second network slice according to the application identifier of the first application.

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