CN110505318B

CN110505318B - Uniform resource locator addressing method and device, and network system

Info

Publication number: CN110505318B
Application number: CN201810475448.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴鹏程; 赵臻
Original assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-05-17
Filing date: 2018-05-17
Publication date: 2020-10-30
Anticipated expiration: 2038-05-17
Also published as: CN110505318A

Abstract

The application discloses a uniform resource locator addressing method, a uniform resource locator addressing device and a network system, which are used for addressing appropriate network function units for service visitors in a 5G service network and providing a reliable technical scheme for service access addressing. The URL addressing method provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps: the addressing unit receives the service request message, acquires a URL from the service request message, and generates a service discovery request message through the analysis of the URL; the addressing unit sends the service discovery request message to a network storage function (NRF) entity and receives a service global unit address determined by the NRF entity; the addressing unit forwards the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address; and the service global unit searches a service provider according to the service request message.

Description

Uniform resource locator addressing method and device, and network system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a uniform resource locator (url) addressing method and apparatus, and a network system.

Background

There are many types of service providers currently defined by 5G networks, each in a different role in the network and offering a variety of different services. Within a network, there may also be a plurality of network function devices of the same function, such as: a plurality of Session Management Functions (SMFs), access and Mobility Management functions (AMFs), and User Plane Functions (UPFs). Under the 5G service architecture, the services provided are various, and when a visitor wishes to invoke a certain service, the visitor cannot accurately know the name or network address of the network functional unit providing the service, and in a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) message received by a network, the content of the visit may be only a service name, and the network addresses a suitable service provider. This may cause the 5G network to fail to resolve to a specific network function unit, resulting in a failure of service access.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a uniform resource locator addressing method, a uniform resource locator addressing device and a network system, which are used for addressing appropriate network function units for service visitors in a 5G service network and providing a reliable technical scheme for service access addressing.

The URL addressing method provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps:

the addressing unit receives the service request message, acquires a URL from the service request message, and generates a service discovery request message through the analysis of the URL;

the addressing unit sends the service discovery request message to a network storage function (NRF) entity and receives a service global unit address determined by the NRF entity;

the addressing unit forwards the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address;

and the service global unit searches a service provider according to the service request message.

According to the method, an addressing unit receives a service request message, acquires a URL from the service request message, and generates a service discovery request message through the analysis of the URL; the addressing unit sends the service discovery request message to a network storage function (NRF) entity and receives a service global unit address determined by the NRF entity; the addressing unit forwards the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address; the service global unit searches for a service provider according to the service request message, so that the service provider address meeting the condition is found by deploying the newly added addressing unit and the service global unit and carrying out proxy service discovery on the service request message of the user, the problem of how to analyze the service request message under a service architecture is solved, the purpose of addressing a proper network function unit for a service visitor in a 5G service network is achieved, and a reliable technical scheme is provided for service access addressing.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

the service global unit periodically sends a service registration message to the NRF, the service registration message including information of the service provider in an active state.

Therefore, the NRF can periodically acquire the information of the service provider in the activated state connected with the service global unit, and then the NRF can provide the latest and accurate address of the service global unit capable of meeting the service requirement for the addressing unit.

Optionally, the information of the service provider includes an address and a service name of the service provider;

the URL includes a service name.

Optionally, the URL further includes a user identifier;

the searching, by the service global unit, a service provider according to the service request message specifically includes: and the service global unit determines the address of the service provider corresponding to the user identifier in the URL according to the corresponding relation between the preset user identifier and the address of the service provider.

Therefore, the service global unit can determine the address of the service provider corresponding to the user identifier in the URL according to the preset corresponding relation between the user identifier and the address of the service provider.

Optionally, the URL further includes one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

and carrying out heartbeat detection of a preset time interval between the service global unit and the connected service provider to determine whether the connected service provider is in an activated state.

Thus, the service global unit may determine whether the connected service provider is active by performing heartbeat detection with the connected service provider for a preset time interval.

Optionally, the service global unit searches for a service provider in an activated state according to the service request message, and sends the service request message to the service provider in the activated state.

Thus, the service global unit may find the service provider in the active state according to the service request message and send the service request message to the service provider in the active state.

Optionally, when there are multiple service providers in an active state, the service global unit further determines a service provider with the lightest load according to the load information of the multiple service providers in the active state, and sends the service request message to the service provider with the lightest load.

Therefore, the service global unit can determine the service provider with the lightest load according to the load information of a plurality of service providers in the activated state, and send the service request message to the service provider with the lightest load.

Correspondingly, on the side of the NRF entity, the method for addressing the URL provided in the embodiment of the present application includes:

a network storage function (NRF) entity receives a service discovery request message sent by an addressing unit, wherein the service discovery request message is generated by the addressing unit receiving the service discovery request message, acquiring a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from the service discovery request message and analyzing the URL;

the NRF entity determines a service global unit address according to the service discovery request message and sends the service global unit address to the addressing unit, and the NRF entity is used for indicating the addressing unit to forward the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address, so that the service global unit searches for a service provider according to the service request message.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

and the NRF entity periodically receives a service registration message sent by the service global unit, wherein the service registration message comprises the information of the service provider in the activated state.

the URL includes a service name.

Optionally, the URL further includes one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

The uniform resource locator URL addressing device provided in the embodiment of the present application includes:

the addressing unit is used for receiving the service request message, acquiring the URL from the service request message and generating a service discovery request message through the analysis of the URL; sending the service discovery request message to a network storage function (NRF) entity, and receiving a service global unit address determined by the NRF entity; forwarding the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address;

and the service global unit is used for searching a service provider according to the service request message.

Optionally, the service global unit is further configured to: periodically sending a service registration message to the NRF, the service registration message including information of the service provider in an active state.

the URL includes a service name.

Optionally, the URL further includes a user identifier;

Optionally, the URL further includes one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

Optionally, the service global unit is further configured to: and carrying out heartbeat detection with a preset time interval between the service provider and the connected service provider to determine whether the connected service provider is in an activated state.

Correspondingly, on the NRF side, an apparatus for addressing a uniform resource locator URL provided in an embodiment of the present application includes:

the first unit is used for receiving a service discovery request message sent by an addressing unit, wherein the service discovery request message is generated by the addressing unit after receiving the service discovery request message and acquiring a URL from the service discovery request message and analyzing the URL;

a second unit, configured to determine a service global unit address according to the service discovery request message, and send the service global unit address to the addressing unit, where the second unit is configured to instruct the addressing unit to forward the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address, so that the service global unit searches for a service provider according to the service request message.

Optionally, the first unit is further configured to:

and periodically receiving a service registration message sent by the service global unit, wherein the service registration message comprises the information of the service provider in the activated state.

the URL includes a service name.

Optionally, the URL further includes one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

Another embodiment of the present application provides a network system, including: URL addressing means with addressing units and serving global units, and/or URL addressing means on the NRF side.

Optionally, the network system further includes at least one service providing device connected to the service global unit.

Optionally, the network system further comprises at least one service consuming device connected to said addressing unit.

Another embodiment of the present application provides a URL addressing apparatus, which includes a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used for storing program instructions, and the processor is used for calling the program instructions stored in the memory, and executing any one of the above methods according to the obtained program.

Another embodiment of the present application provides a computer storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform any one of the methods described above.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a request-response type NF service provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an example of a subscription-notification type NF service provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an NF registration process provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an NF deregistration process according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a service update flow provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a service discovery process according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a network system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a URL addressing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 9 is a schematic flowchart of a URL addressing method at a URL addressing device side according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a URL addressing method on the NRF side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a URL addressing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of an NRF-side URL addressing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a URL addressing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The 5G core network adopts a service architecture, and the core network functions are divided into a plurality of network functions through reconfiguration. The network functions are presented externally in a service mode, a service interface is adopted among the network functions, the 5G core network flow is further divided into a plurality of service combinations, and a plurality of service entities with different functions jointly fulfill the requirements of users through certain service combinations. In order to be able to be called by other Network functions, after the Network Function completes initialization, it needs to register the services provided by the Network Function (NRF) entity with the NRF entity. Before a Network Function (NF) entity calls other network function entities, a service and resource descriptor provided by the other network function entities also needs to be queried through an NRF entity, where the resource descriptor includes an address to which the service is accessed, and at present, 3GPP does not agree on a setting mode of the address, and if the address is set to a fixed IP address, it is not favorable for service deployment or adjustment, but a mode of using a domain name needs to standardize a configuration and resolution mode of the domain name. The setting of the address directly affects the access and deployment of the service, and is a primary problem related to the implementation in the 5G service architecture.

The service architecture and the service interface realize decoupling between network elements, the flexibility of service access is enhanced, meanwhile, the security problem is brought, and third-party application can acquire the topological structure of the network through the information and the mutual relation of the service interface and further can carry out targeted attack on the network.

In the embodiment of the application, a method and a device for addressing by using a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) under a 5G service network architecture are provided, and by defining the URL of the RESTful HTTP, an addressing unit is added in a network to analyze and decompose the URL, and service mechanisms such as service discovery, service registration, load balancing and the like are combined, so that topology hiding is realized (by using an IP agent, network isolation is realized, and the topology condition cannot be seen from the outside). Where, REST (Representational State Transfer, abbreviated as REST) refers to a set of architectural constraints and principles. The application or design that satisfies these constraints and principles is RESTful.

The 5G network will adopt a servitization architecture as the only modality of the 5G network architecture. The network function is split into different modules by making a new modular design for the former network function, the different modules are decoupled with each other, and the signaling from the former network element to the network element is replaced by a service interface. In the whole process, attention is paid to the fact that the network behaviors are regarded as a single service or a combination of a plurality of services, and interaction between network elements is more efficient and direct. In the network architecture of the 5G core network, the control plane is reconfigured by network functions, and is divided into a plurality of network functions according to the difference of the realization functions: access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), session Management related Function (SMF), Policy Control related Function (PCF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Authentication service Function (AUSF), and terminal service packet forwarding related Function (User Plane Function, UPF), performing 5G service flow interaction with a service Interface, controlling flows such as registration and session establishment of a terminal, and opening 5G network capability to applications and services through an Application Programming Interface (API) Interface.

The functions of the control plane, such as AMF and SMF, are called in the form of services by other functional modules within the control plane. In the service architecture, the function of the control plane may be a producer (producer) of the service or a consumer (consumer) of the service. The functions of a plurality of consumers are designed in a service mode, so that the reusability of the functions can be improved, the design of a business process is simplified, the parameter transmission efficiency is optimized, and the overall flexibility of the network control function is improved.

The definition of the service interface is as follows:

NF services provide an ability to authorize consumers. The network functions may provide different capabilities to provide different NF services for different consumers. Each NF service provided by the network function should be independent and reusable. A business process may be built from a series of NF services.

The service interface contains two basic types of operations:

1) "request-response":

referring to fig. 1, one control plane NF _ a (NF service consumer) requires the control plane NF _ B (NF service producer) to provide certain NF services, which may include performing actions and/or providing information. The NF _ B provides NF service results in response to the information provided by the NF _ a in its request. To meet this requirement, NF _ B may consume NF services from other NFs. In the request-response mechanism, communication is one-to-one between two NFs (consumer and producer), and a one-time response from producer to consumer is expected to be generated for a certain time corresponding to a request.

2) "subscribe-notify":

referring to fig. 2, a control plane NF _ a (NF service consumer) subscribes to NF services provided by another control plane NF _ B (NF service producer). Multiple control planes NF may subscribe to the same control plane NF service. The NF _ B notifies the NF of interest subscribed to the NF service of the result of the NF service. Subscription requests from consumers may include periodic updates or notifications triggered by certain events (e.g., a change in information requested, reaching a certain threshold, etc.). This mechanism also covers the case where the NF (NF _ B) implicitly subscribes to certain notifications without an explicit subscription request (e.g. due to a successful registration procedure).

Each functional device of the 5G network needs to perform service interaction according to the way of the service interface. The method comprises the following specific steps:

referring to fig. 3, service registration:

the NRF provides NF discovery service, and the discovered NF instance information is provided through service registration.

Service registration may include two ways:

static configuration: is provided to the NRF by an operation, maintenance and management system (OAM) in a configured manner.

Dynamic registration: after the NF to be registered is instantiated, it registers with the NRF through the NRF "service registration" service interface.

The following describes a reference scheme for implementing service dynamic registration management:

in order for the NRF to maintain the information of the deployed network function instance, the information of the network function instance needs to be provided to the NRF through service registration when the network function instance is deployed. When the network function instance is uninstalled, the NRF needs to be notified through service deregistration to delete the saved network function instance information. The network function instance information includes information such as a network function type (e.g., AMF, SMF, etc.) corresponding to the network function instance, an address of the network function instance, and a service supported by the network function.

The NRF should support a service interface for service registration and deregistration, so that a NF service registration requester (e.g. a network management system) can request registration and deregistration of a network function service through the service interface.

When a certain network function instance is deployed, a service requester, such as a network management system, sends a NF Registration Request (Registration Request) message to an NRF to Request execution of NF service Registration, where the Request message includes information of the corresponding network function instance.

The NRF stores information of deployed network function instances.

The NRF notifies the NF service that Registration has been completed through a NF Registration Response (Registration Response) message.

When a certain network function instance is unloaded, referring to fig. 4, a service requester, such as a network management system, sends a NF Deregistration Request (Deregistration Request) message to an NRF to Request execution of NF service Deregistration, where the Request message includes an identifier of the corresponding network function instance, and the like.

The NRF deletes the information it holds for the corresponding network function instance.

The NRF notifies the NF service that the Deregistration has been completed through a NF Deregistration Response (registration Response) message.

The service update procedure is as follows:

referring to fig. 5, after the NF service is upgraded, it is necessary to initiate an interaction flow to the NRF and update NF service information.

The scenario may be caused by the NF service upgrade version and the function configuration, and after the upgrade is successful, the NF actively sends a service update request to the NRF, and transmits the information of the NF to the NRF.

The NRF stores the latest NF information and returns the latest NF information to the NF upgrading response.

Service authentication:

NF service authorization will authorize a service requester NF to access NF services provided by a service provider NF, depending on the NF's policies, policies from the service operator, inter-operator agreements.

The service authorization information is part of a profile for the NF that includes NF types that are allowed to connect to the NF, as well as corresponding NF services that are accessible by those NF types.

Service authorization includes two steps:

it is checked whether the requestor NF is allowed to discover the requested NF instance during the NF service discovery process. This is of NF particle size.

It is checked whether the requestor NF is allowed to access the requested NF to use its NF service.

Service discovery:

network Functions (NFs) within the core network may expose the capabilities of the NFs in a service-wise manner via service-based interfaces and may be reused by other NFs.

NF service discovery enables a NF of the control plane to discover a particular target NF instance that provides a desired NF service. NF service discovery is achieved through NF discovery. NF discovery enables a service requester NF to discover service provider NF instances and access NF services provided by the service provider NF.

Referring to fig. 6, in order to make a service provided by a NF discoverable and usable by other NFs, a service registry, which is an NRF, is required to coordinate and complete the first discovery of the service (including service instances). In connection with NRF, a possible way of interaction between services is as follows. Take the acquisition of subscription information between the AMF and the UDM as an example.

The deployment of the servitization is very flexible. The service consumer can realize the position information of the service provider through the processes of service discovery and the like, and realize the access of the service process through RESTful HTTP service information. Therefore, the embodiment of the application provides a method and a device for addressing by using RESTful HTTP under a 5G service network architecture, which define the URL of the RESTful HTTP, and add an addressing unit and a service global unit in a network, so as to solve the problem that a service visitor addresses a proper network function NF unit according to an HTTP message.

The definition of uniform resource locator URL of RESTful HTTP is as follows:

the URL is composed of a service name, an NF function name, a network interface name, a standard version number, and a user identifier, for example, as follows:

for an access to AMF, the RESTful HTTP URL format is as follows:

/communication/namf/n11/r15/{supi}

for access to UDM, RESTful HTTP URL format is as follows:

/subscriber/nudm/n8/r15/{supi}

wherein, communication and subscribe are both service names; and the namf and the nudm respectively represent the categories of corresponding network function NF entities AMF and UDM, and other network function NF entities comprise nsmf, nausf, nudm, npcf and the like.

Wherein, N (Next) represents interface name of 5G;

SMF: session management function, session management function;

AUSF is Authentication Server Function, Authentication service Function;

udm, Unified Data management;

pcf is Policy Control Function, Policy Control Function;

n11 represents the interface of access; r15 denotes a standard version number; supi is a specific user identifier.

The URL may include one or a combination of the following: service name, NF function name, network interface name, standard version number, user identification.

(2) Referring to fig. 7, a network system under a 5G service architecture includes: NRF entity (NRF for short), URL addressing device, service providing apparatus (i.e. the above service provider), and service consuming apparatus (i.e. the above service consumer), wherein the URL addressing device includes addressing unit and service global unit, and the positions and connection modes of the addressing unit and the service global unit in the network are shown in fig. 7.

An addressing unit: and service discovery is carried out according to the URL of RESTful, and the service discovery is forwarded to a corresponding service global unit, and the service global unit is connected with the NRF and the service global unit by using a service interface. A Service-based architecture (SBA) is the infrastructure of a 5G network. The nature of the SBA is to define the network function as a plurality of service modules which can be flexibly called according to three principles of self-contained, reusable and independent management. Based on the method, the operator can flexibly customize the networking according to the service requirement. In the SBA, the interaction among the network functions is realized by service call, and each network function presents a universal service interface to the outside and can be called by authorized network functions or services.

The addressing unit has the following functions:

HTTP domain name URL resolution;

HTTP forwarding;

service discovery;

the service global unit connects a plurality of network function units having the same function, such as a plurality of AMFs, a plurality of SMFs, and a plurality of UDMs.

The service global unit has the following functions:

recording the corresponding relation between the user identification and the address of the corresponding service provider;

addressing;

heartbeat maintenance;

randomly distributing service in an initial state;

local load balancing control, specifically, for example, comparing load conditions of a plurality of service providers, finding out the equipment with the lightest load, and returning the result to the addressing unit;

proxy service registration, specifically, multiple services such as service global unit access, initiate a service registration procedure towards the NRF. The service global unit keeps contact with each service provider by using heartbeat, and registers the information of the connected service provider in an activated state with the NRF for proxy service.

And the service consumer combines the information such as the content of the service to be accessed into a RESTful HTTP message and accesses the service to be accessed by using the URL. The message is first sent to an addressing unit, which performs URL parsing, converts the service name and NF function name of the URL information into a format of a service discovery request (i.e., a format defined by a service request flow, a JSON message format), and initiates a service discovery flow (a service discovery process, such as the service discovery flow described in fig. 6 and the above contents) to the NRF, that is, sends a service discovery request message to the NRF, where the message carries the name of the service to be discovered. The NRF queries NF information meeting the conditions, including IP, port, version number information and the like according to the service name and the NF function name in the service discovery. The service name is included in the service discovery request message, the NRF returns all network function NF information capable of providing the service to the addressing unit.

The addressing unit finds out a service global unit meeting the requirement according to the service discovery process, forwards the RESTful HTTP service request message to the service global unit, the service global unit inquires the address of a service provider NF (service provider) serving the user according to the user information Subscription Permanent Identifier (SUPI) in the URL, and forwards the message to a specific service provider to provide the service. If the context of the user does not exist in the service global unit, the service global unit provides the service provider with the lightest load for the user by using a local load balancing mechanism. If the user has a process to pass through the serving global unit, some information of the user and temporary data, called user context (which can also be described as user information), are recorded.

When using a certain service, the service consumer inputs information such as a corresponding service name at the URL of the RESTful HTTP and sends the information to the addressing unit. The network may provide the service consumer with access to the appropriate network function NF unit. The method for quickly and accurately accessing the HTTP API of the third party and the routing in the network is provided, and the ordered management of the service provider and the accuracy of the service access are realized. The HTTP API refers to an API interface in the form of an HTTP message. Routing within the network routes messages to the final processing unit according to the addressing mode within the network.

A specific processing flow is shown in fig. 8, and includes, for example:

the service global unit needs to keep a heartbeat with each service provider for a certain time interval to perform survival detection on the service providers. And keeping the heartbeat message interaction in a certain time interval, setting the stored state of the service provider as an activated state, and otherwise, setting the state of the service provider as an inactivated state. The service provider sends the load condition of the service provider to the service global unit through the heartbeat message, and the service global unit stores the load condition.

And a service global unit periodically transmitting a service registration message to the NRF. The message contains information of the service provider in the active state, which includes, for example, IP, service name, service access method, and the like.

After the addressing unit receives RESTful HTTP service request information of a service consumer, the URL in the HTTP is analyzed, service discovery request information is generated according to information carried in the analyzed URL in an assembling mode, and the service discovery request information is sent to the NRF.

And after receiving the service discovery request message, the NRF retrieves the address of the service global unit meeting the condition according to the carried information and returns the address to the addressing unit.

The addressing unit forwards the service request message to the serving global unit based on the returned address.

The service global unit inquires the activation state of each service provider, selects one with the lightest load from the service providers in the activation state, and forwards the service request message to the service provider with the lightest load.

In summary, referring to fig. 9, on the URL addressing device side, the URL addressing method provided in the embodiment of the present application includes:

s101, an addressing unit receives a service request message, acquires a URL from the service request message, and generates a service discovery request message through the analysis of the URL;

s102, the addressing unit sends the service discovery request message to a network storage function (NRF) entity and receives a service global unit address determined by the NRF entity;

s103, the addressing unit forwards the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address;

s104, the service global unit searches a service provider according to the service request message.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

the URL includes a service name.

Optionally, the URL further includes a user identifier;

Optionally, the URL further includes one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

Correspondingly, on the NRF entity side of the network storage function, referring to fig. 10, an embodiment of the present application provides a URL addressing method, including:

s201, a network storage function (NRF) entity receives a service discovery request message sent by an addressing unit, wherein the service discovery request message is generated by the addressing unit receiving the service discovery request message, acquiring a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from the service discovery request message and analyzing the URL;

s202, the NRF entity determines a service global unit address according to the service discovery request message, and sends the service global unit address to the addressing unit, and the NRF entity is used for indicating the addressing unit to forward the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address, so that the service global unit searches for a service provider according to the service request message.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

the URL includes a service name.

Optionally, the URL further includes one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

Correspondingly, on the URL addressing device side, referring to fig. 11, an embodiment of the present application provides a uniform resource locator URL addressing apparatus, including:

an addressing unit 11, configured to receive a service request message, obtain a URL from the service request message, and generate a service discovery request message through parsing of the URL; sending the service discovery request message to a network storage function (NRF) entity, and receiving a service global unit address determined by the NRF entity; forwarding the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address;

the service global unit 12 is configured to find a service provider according to the service request message.

the URL includes a service name.

Optionally, the URL further includes a user identifier;

Optionally, the URL further includes one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

It should be noted that the addressing unit may be a physical device such as a computing device or a server, and may be implemented by a physical device such as a processor. Similarly, the service global unit may also be an entity apparatus such as a computing device or a server, and may be implemented by an entity device such as a processor.

Accordingly, on the NRF side, referring to fig. 12, an embodiment of the present application provides a uniform resource locator URL addressing apparatus, including:

a first unit 21, configured to receive a service discovery request message sent by an addressing unit, where the service discovery request message is a service discovery request message generated by the addressing unit receiving the service discovery request message, acquiring a URL from the service discovery request message, and analyzing the URL;

a second unit 22, configured to determine a service global unit address according to the service discovery request message, and send the service global unit address to the addressing unit, where the second unit is configured to instruct the addressing unit to forward the service request message to the service global unit according to the service global unit address, so that the service global unit searches for a service provider according to the service request message.

Optionally, the first unit is further configured to:

the URL includes a service name.

Optionally, the URL further includes one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

Referring to fig. 13, another embodiment of the present application provides a URL addressing apparatus, which includes a memory 31 and a processor 32, wherein the memory is used for storing program instructions, and the processor is used for calling the program instructions stored in the memory, and executing any one of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application according to the obtained program.

Any of the devices, units, and the like provided in the embodiments of the present application may be a computing device, and the computing device may specifically be a desktop computer, a portable computer, a smart phone, a tablet computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and the like. The computing device may include a Central Processing Unit (CPU), memory, input/output devices, etc., the input devices may include a keyboard, mouse, touch screen, etc., and the output devices may include a Display device, such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), etc.

The memory may include Read Only Memory (ROM) and Random Access Memory (RAM), and provides the processor with program instructions and data stored in the memory. In the embodiments of the present application, the memory may be used for storing a program of any one of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application.

The processor is used for executing any one of the methods provided by the embodiment of the application according to the obtained program instructions by calling the program instructions stored in the memory.

Embodiments of the present application provide a computer storage medium for storing computer program instructions for an apparatus provided in the embodiments of the present application, which includes a program for executing any one of the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application.

The computer storage media may be any available media or data storage device that can be accessed by a computer, including, but not limited to, magnetic memory (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tape, magneto-optical disks (MOs), etc.), optical memory (e.g., CDs, DVDs, BDs, HVDs, etc.), and semiconductor memory (e.g., ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, non-volatile memory (NAND FLASH), Solid State Disks (SSDs)), etc.

To sum up, the embodiment of the present application provides a network system under a 5G service architecture, which includes a URL addressing device, and the embodiment of the present application defines a RESTful HTTP URL and deploys a newly added addressing unit and a service global unit, and finds a service provider address satisfying a condition by performing proxy service discovery on service request discovery of a user, thereby solving a problem how to resolve a service request under a service architecture. By solving the problem of addressing service access in a service network, a reliable technical scheme and a device are provided for 5G service commercial deployment.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

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 method for uniform resource locator, URL, addressing, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information of the service provider comprises an address and a service name of the service provider;

the URL includes a service name.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the URL further comprises a user identifier;

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the URL further comprises one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the service global unit finds the service provider in the active state according to the service request message, and sends the service request message to the service provider in the active state.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein when there are multiple active service providers, the service global unit further determines a least loaded service provider according to the load information of the multiple active service providers, and sends the service request message to the least loaded service provider.

9. A method for uniform resource locator, URL, addressing, the method comprising:

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the information of the service provider comprises an address and a service name of the service provider;

the URL includes a service name.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the URL further comprises one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

13. An apparatus for uniform resource locator, URL, addressing, comprising:

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the serving global unit is further configured to: periodically sending a service registration message to the NRF, the service registration message including information of the service provider in an active state.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the information of the service provider comprises an address and a service name of the service provider;

the URL includes a service name.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the URL further comprises a user identifier;

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the URL further comprises one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the serving global unit is further configured to: and carrying out heartbeat detection with a preset time interval between the service provider and the connected service provider to determine whether the connected service provider is in an activated state.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the service global unit finds the service provider in an active state according to the service request message, and sends the service request message to the service provider in the active state.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein when there are a plurality of activated service providers, the service global unit further determines a least loaded service provider according to the load information of the plurality of activated service providers, and sends the service request message to the least loaded service provider.

21. An apparatus for uniform resource locator, URL, addressing, comprising:

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the first unit is further configured to:

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the information of the service provider comprises an address and a service name of the service provider;

the URL includes a service name.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the URL further comprises one or a combination of the following:

application function NF name, network interface name, standard version number.

25. A network system, comprising: apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 13 to 20 and/or apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 24.

26. The system according to claim 25, further comprising at least one service providing device connected to said service global unit.

27. The system according to claim 25 or 26, further comprising at least one service consuming device connected to said addressing unit.

28. An apparatus for uniform resource locator, URL, addressing, comprising:

a memory for storing program instructions;

a processor for calling program instructions stored in said memory to execute the method of any one of claims 1 to 12 in accordance with the obtained program.

29. A computer storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 12.