CN110876154B

CN110876154B - Method, apparatus and storage medium for implementing NF proximity selection

Info

Publication number: CN110876154B
Application number: CN201811026565.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 蒋栋栋; 丁学新; 刘俊羿; 夏云
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2018-09-04
Filing date: 2018-09-04
Publication date: 2023-04-25
Anticipated expiration: 2038-09-04
Also published as: CN110876154A

Abstract

The invention discloses a method, equipment and a storage medium for realizing NF nearby selection, belonging to the technical field of mobile communication. The method comprises the following steps: the receiving service NF carries the DC information of the data center to register with the corresponding network function storage NRF; and receiving the consumer NF to send an NF discovery request to the corresponding NRF, and selecting a service NF for the consumer NF nearby through DC information matching. According to the technical scheme, NF discovery can be carried out according to the DC information of the NF, the flow among the DCs can be reduced while NF disaster recovery backup is ensured, and interaction time delay is reduced.

Description

Method, apparatus and storage medium for implementing NF proximity selection

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of mobile communications technologies, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, and a storage medium for implementing NF proximity selection.

Background

The service architecture is an architecture of a control plane NF (Network Function) newly introduced in a 5G system by 3GPP (3 rd Generation Partnership Project, third generation partnership project), and under this architecture, selection between NFs is usually implemented through NRF. The 3GPP defines an nrrf_nfdiscovery (i.e. NF discovery) service for NRF in TS (Technical Specification ) 23.502 protocol to provide a discovery service of NF, the procedure of which is as follows: the consumer NF initiates an Nnrf_NFdiscovery_request (namely NF discovery Request) to the NRF, wherein the carried parameters comprise a destination service name, a destination NF type and a local NF type, and parameters such as SUPI (Subscription Permanent Identifier, user permanent identification), a data set identification, S-NSSAI (Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information, single network slice selection auxiliary information), NSI (Network Slice instance Identifier, network slice instance identification) and the like can be optionally carried; the NRF performs authorization and matching based on locally stored or configured NF summary information, and after the authorization and the matching are successful, the NRF provides corresponding service NF for the consumer NF through the Nnrf_NFdiscovery_request Response (namely NF discovery Request Response).

However, in actual networking, as shown in fig. 1, in order to implement disaster recovery backup of NFs, NFs are typically deployed across different data centers, which has the advantage of ensuring that when an NF of a DC is out of service due to some anomaly, the NF in the backup DC can continue to provide services for users. Like the group POOL of AMF1 (i.e., consumer NF) and AMF2 (i.e., consumer NF) in fig. 1, the group POOL of SMF1 (i.e., service NF) and SMF2 (i.e., service NF), NRF1 and NRF2 are mutually prepared and grouped POOL, NF information registered in NRF1 needs to be synchronized to NRF2. The deployment mode of the remote disaster recovery can improve the reliability of the system, but the prior technical scheme cannot realize near selection of NF, namely cannot ensure that the nearest service NF is selected for the consumer NF, so that when the service NF under different DCs is selected for the consumer NF, the following defects can occur: cross DC interaction, resulting in a larger flow between DCs; the inter-place DC interaction increases the interaction time delay and influences the user experience.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention mainly aims to provide a method, equipment and a storage medium for realizing NF nearby selection, and aims to solve the technical problem that the prior scheme cannot realize NF nearby selection.

To achieve the above object, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for implementing NF proximity selection, including the steps of: the receiving service NF carries the DC information of the data center to register with the corresponding network function storage NRF; and receiving the consumer NF to send an NF discovery request to the corresponding NRF, and selecting a service NF for the consumer NF nearby through DC information matching.

To achieve the above object, an embodiment of the present invention also proposes an apparatus for implementing NF proximity selection, the apparatus including a memory, a processor, a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, and a data bus for implementing connection communication between the processor and the memory, the program implementing the steps of the aforementioned method when executed by the processor.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a storage medium for computer-readable storage, the storage medium storing one or more programs executable by one or more processors to implement the steps of the foregoing method.

The method, the device and the storage medium for realizing the proximate selection of the NF are used for registering the DC information of the data center where the service NF is carried to the corresponding network function storage NRF by receiving the service NF, so that when the consumer NF sends an NF discovery request to the corresponding NRF, one service NF can be selected for the consumer NF in the proximate manner through DC information matching, thereby ensuring the disaster recovery backup of the NF, and ensuring that the consumer NF selects the nearest service NF, namely ensuring that the consumer NF and the service NF are under the same DC as much as possible, so as to avoid the problems of larger flow among the DCs and increased interaction time delay due to the inter-DC interaction. Therefore, according to the technical scheme, NF discovery can be carried out according to the DC information of the NF, the flow among the DCs can be reduced while NF disaster recovery backup is ensured, and interaction time delay is reduced.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a prior art POOL networking diagram across DCs.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method for implementing NF proximity selection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a specific flowchart of a method step S120 of implementing NF proximity selection shown in fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a further specific flowchart of method step S120 of fig. 2 for implementing NF proximity selection.

Fig. 5 is an interactive schematic diagram of an NRF selecting an SMF for an AMF based on carried individual DC information in the PDU establishment procedure according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is an interaction schematic diagram of an NRF selecting an SMF for an AMF based on carried DC information implicit in domain name FQDN information in a PDU establishment procedure according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is an interactive schematic diagram of "in PDU establishment procedure, NRF returns matching SMF, AMF selects SMF nearby" provided in the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a block diagram of a device for implementing NF proximity selection according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

The achievement of the objects, functional features and advantages of the present invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in conjunction with the embodiments.

Detailed Description

It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

In the following description, suffixes such as "module", "part" or "unit" for representing elements are used only for facilitating the description of the present invention, and have no particular meaning in themselves. Thus, "module," "component," or "unit" may be used in combination.

Embodiment one.

As shown in fig. 2, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for implementing NF proximity selection, including the following steps:

step S110: the receiving service NF carries the DC information of the data center to register with the corresponding network function warehouse NRF.

In particular, to implement disaster-tolerant backup of NFs, it is often necessary to deploy NFs across different data centers, which has the advantage of ensuring that when the NF of one DC is out of service due to some anomaly, the NF in the backup DC can continue to provide service to the user. Before this step, the following steps are also performed: and networking the service NF under two different DCs through the POOL POOL so that the two service NF are in a backup relationship with each other. The NRFs under two different DCs are networked through a POOL POOL so that the two NRFs are in a backup relationship, and the NF summary information stored by each NRFs is synchronized to the other through a UDSF (Unstructured Data Storage Function ).

Like the group POOL of AMF1 (i.e., consumer NF) and AMF2 (i.e., consumer NF) in fig. 1, the group POOL of SMF1 (i.e., service NF) and SMF2 (i.e., service NF), NRF1 and NRF2 are mutually prepared and grouped POOL, NF information registered in NRF1 needs to be synchronized to NRF2.

When the service NF carries the data center DC information to register with the corresponding NRF (Network Function Repository ), NF summary information is carried, where the NF summary information includes any combination of a destination service name, a destination NF type, a home terminal NF type, a user permanent identifier SUPI, a data set identifier, single network slice selection auxiliary information S-nsai, and a network slice instance identifier NSI.

The DC information of the service NF to the corresponding NRF registration may be a separate field of NF summary information or may be a part of FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name, domain name) information of the service NF. The specific implementation process of the step is that the receiving service NF registers the data center DC information which is carried by the NF summary information through a separate field of the NF summary information to the corresponding network function storage NRF, or the receiving service NF registers the data center DC information which is carried by the NF summary information and is extracted through the domain name FQDN information to the corresponding network function storage NRF.

Step S120: and the receiving consumer NF sends out an NF discovery request to the corresponding NRF, and a service NF is selected for the consumer NF nearby through DC information matching.

Specifically, when NF discovery is performed, the consumer NF carries its own DC information in the nnrf_nfdiscovery_request (i.e., NF discovery Request), and the NRF preferentially selects the server NF under the same DC for the consumer NF according to the current DC information provided by the consumer NF, or the consumer NF may not provide its own DC information, and when the NRF returns NF information satisfying the condition, the consumer NF performs secondary matching, and selects the server NF at the same DC as the consumer NF.

Thus, the specific implementation of this step may include, as shown in fig. 3:

step S121A: the consumer NF sends NF discovery request to the corresponding NRF with the DC information.

Step S122A: DC information matching by the NRF selects a service NF for the consumer NF nearby.

As shown in fig. 4, the method also includes:

step S121B: the receiving consumer NF sends NF discovery requests to the corresponding NRF according to the demand,

step S122B: and returning a service NF information set meeting the requirement through the NRF, performing DC information matching on the service NF information set through the consumer NF, and selecting a service NF for the consumer NF nearby.

By the method disclosed by the embodiment of the invention, on one hand, the advantages of POOL networking are kept, and when the NF in the DC1 fails, the NF in the standby DC2 can continue to provide service. On the other hand, the NF providing service of the same DC is guaranteed to be selected through the NRF, so that the flow of the cross DC can be reduced, and the interaction time delay among the NF is reduced.

Example two

As shown in fig. 5, in the packet data unit PDU establishment procedure, the NRF selects an SMF for the AMF based on the carried individual DC information according to the embodiment of the present invention, which specifically includes the following steps:

nodes 101-102: SMF1 and SMF2 are cross-DC mutual backup services NF, and are automatically and respectively registered with NRFs under the configured respective data centers DC when power is on, and independent DC information is carried in NF summary information requested by the Nnrf_NFmanagement_NFRegister. DC information is generally planned by operation unification, and administrative region information can be carried in general, such as JS.NJ and JS.WX respectively represent numbers of two DCs of Jiangsu mobile in Nanjing and tin-free respectively; DC information that two SMFs like nanjing and tin-free register with NRF, respectively, may be nj.js and wx.js.

Node 103: after receiving the registration information of the SMF, the NRF stores the registered NF Profile in a local database, and synchronizes the respectively stored NF summary information to the other party through an unstructured data storage function UDSF according to the mutual backup relationship between the configured NRF1 and NRF2.

Nodes 104-106: the UE (User equipment) triggers a registration and PDU establishment flow, wherein AMF1 inquires SMF from NRF1 in the PDU establishment flow, and DC information nj.js where AMF1 is located is carried during inquiry; after the authorization of the NRF1 is successful, matching is carried out according to the queried target NF type of the SMF and the DC information nj.js of the request AMF, and finally, after the matching is carried out on the SMF1, the address and FQDN information of the SMF1 are returned to the AMF.

Node 107: AMF1 initiates Nsmf_PDUSation_CreateStockcontext (namely PDU establishment) flow to SMF1 according to the returned SMF1 information of NRF 1.

Example III

As shown in fig. 6, in the packet data unit PDU establishment procedure, the NRF selects an SMF for the AMF based on the carried DC information implicit in the domain name FQDN information, and the specific procedure is as follows:

nodes 201-202: SMF1 and SMF2 are cross-DC mutually-backup NF, and are automatically registered with NRFs under the configured respective DCs when power is on, and FQDN in NF Profile requested by Nnrf_NFmanagement_NFregister carries the DC information. The DC information is generally planned by the unified operation, and may generally carry administrative area information, such as js.nj and js.wx, respectively indicate numbers of two DCs that are moved by Jiangsu in Nanjing and tin-free, respectively. FQDNs registered with NRF by two SMFs, such as south kyo and tin-free, respectively, may be nj.js.smf.5g.3gpp networks.org and wx.js.smf.5g.3gpp networks.org.

Node 203: after receiving the registration information of the SMF, the NRF stores the registered NF summary information in a local database, and synchronizes the stored NF summary information to the other party through the UDSF according to the mutual backup relation between the configured NRF1 and NRF2.

Nodes 204-206: the UE triggers a registration and PDU establishment flow, wherein AMF1 inquires SMF to NRF1 in the PDU establishment flow, and DC where AMF1 is located is carried when inquiring and is nj.js; after the authorization of the NRF1 is successful, matching is carried out according to the queried target NF type of the SMF and the DC information nj.js of the request AMF and FQDN information stored in a database, and finally, after the matching is carried out on the SMF1, the address of the SMF1 and the FQDN information are returned to the AMF.

Node 207: AMF1 initiates Nsmf_PDUSation_CreateSMContext (namely PDU establishment) flow to SMF1 according to the returned SMF1 information from NRF.

Example IV

As shown in fig. 7, in the packet data unit PDU establishment procedure, the NRF returns an example of matching SMF, and the AMF selects SMF nearby, which is specifically as follows:

s301-302: SMF1 and SMF2 are cross-DC mutually-backup NF, and are automatically registered with NRFs under the configured respective DCs when power is on, and FQDN in NF Profile requested by Nnrf_NFmanagement_NFregister carries the DC information. The DC information is generally planned by the unified operation, and may generally carry administrative area information, such as js.nj and js.wx, respectively indicate numbers of two DCs that are moved by Jiangsu in Nanjing and tin-free, respectively. FQDNs registered with NRF by two SMFs, such as south kyo and tin-free, respectively, may be nj.js.smf.5g.3gpp networks.org and wx.js.smf.5g.3gpp networks.org.

S303: after receiving the registration information of the SMF, the NRF stores the registered NF summary information in a local database, and synchronizes the stored NF summary information to the other party through the UDSF according to the mutual backup relation between the configured NRF1 and NRF2.

S304-306: the UE triggers a registration and PDU establishment flow, wherein AMF1 inquires SMF from NRF1 in the PDU establishment flow, and the type of carried target NF is SMF when inquiring; and after the NRF1 is successfully authorized, returning all addresses matching the SMF and FQDN information for the SMF according to the inquired destination NF type.

S307-308: AMF1 further selects according to all SMF information returned by NRF1, matches with FQDN of each SMF according to DC information nj.js where the AMF1 is located and finally matches to SMF1; AMF1 initiates Nsmf_PDUSion_CreateSMContext (i.e., PDU establishment) flow to SMF 1.

Remarks: the near selection of NFs by NRF may be applied, but not limited to, AMF discovery selection SMF, and discovery and selection among the remaining NFs may use the method.

Example five

As shown in fig. 8, a seventh embodiment of the present invention proposes an apparatus 20 for implementing NF proximity selection, the apparatus 20 including a memory 21, a processor 22, a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, and a data bus 23 for implementing connection communication between the processor 21 and the memory 22, the program being executed by the processor 21 to implement the steps of the above-described method for implementing NF proximity selection.

It should be noted that, the embodiment of the device 20 and the embodiment of the method for implementing NF proximity selection in the embodiment of the present invention belong to the same concept, the detailed implementation process of the embodiment of the method is shown in the first embodiment of the method, and the technical features in the first embodiment of the method are correspondingly applicable to the embodiment of the device 20 for implementing NF proximity selection, which is not described herein again.

Example six

An eighth embodiment of the present invention proposes a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs executable by one or more processors to implement specific steps of the method for implementing NF proximity selection in the above-described first embodiment.

It should be noted that the computer readable storage medium and the method embodiment belong to the same concept, the specific implementation process is detailed in the method embodiment one, and the technical features in the method embodiment one are correspondingly applicable in the computer readable storage medium embodiment, and are not repeated herein.

The method, the device and the storage medium for realizing the NF nearby selection are provided by the embodiment of the invention, register the DC information of the data center where the service NF is carried to the corresponding network function warehouse NRF by receiving the DC information of the data center where the service NF is carried, so that when the consumer NF sends an NF discovery request to the corresponding NRF by carrying the DC information where the consumer NF is carried, one service NF can be nearby selected for the consumer NF through DC information matching, thereby ensuring that the consumer NF can select the nearest service NF while ensuring the NF disaster recovery backup, namely ensuring that the consumer NF and the service NF are under the same DC as far as possible, and avoiding the problems that the inter-DC flow is larger and the inter-DC interaction increases the interaction time delay due to inter-DC interaction. Therefore, according to the technical scheme, NF discovery can be carried out according to the DC information of the NF, the flow among the DCs can be reduced while NF disaster recovery backup is ensured, and interaction time delay is reduced.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that all or some of the steps of the methods, systems, functional modules/units in the devices disclosed above may be implemented as software, firmware, hardware, and suitable combinations thereof.

In a hardware implementation, the division between the functional modules/units mentioned in the above description does not necessarily correspond to the division of physical components; for example, one physical component may have multiple functions, or one function or step may be performed cooperatively by several physical components. Some or all of the physical components may be implemented as software executed by a processor, such as a central processing unit, digital signal processor, or microprocessor, or as hardware, or as an integrated circuit, such as an application specific integrated circuit. Such software may be distributed on computer readable media, which may include computer storage media (or non-transitory media) and communication media (or transitory media). The term computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data, as known to those skilled in the art. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital Versatile Disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by a computer. Furthermore, as is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media.

The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, and thus do not limit the scope of the claims of the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions and improvements made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention shall fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for implementing network function NF proximity selection, the method comprising:

the receiving service NF carries the DC information of the data center to register with the corresponding network function storage NRF;

receiving a consumer NF to send an NF discovery request to a corresponding NRF, and selecting a service NF for the consumer NF nearby through DC information matching;

the service receiving NF registers the DC information of the data center with the corresponding network function repository NRF, and includes:

the receiving service NF registers the corresponding network function storage NRF through the DC information of the data center carried by the independent field of the NF summary information; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the receiving service NF carries the DC information of the data center extracted by the FQDN information of the domain name and registers the DC information of the data center with the corresponding network function storage NRF.

2. The method for implementing NF proximity selection according to claim 1, wherein before the step of registering the data center DC information in which the service NF is located with the corresponding network function repository NRF, the method further comprises:

and networking the service NF under two different DCs through a POOL POOL so that the two service NF are in a backup relationship with each other.

3. The method for implementing NF proximity selection according to claim 1, wherein before the step of registering the data center DC information in which the service NF is located with the corresponding network function repository NRF, the method further comprises:

and networking NRFs under two different DCs through a POOL POOL so that the two NRFs are in a backup relationship, and synchronizing the NF summary information stored by each NRF to the other side through an unstructured data storage function UDSF.

4. The method for implementing NF nearby selection according to claim 1, wherein the service NF carries NF summary information when the service NF registers with the corresponding network function repository NRF with the DC information of the data center, and the NF summary information includes any combination of a destination service name, a destination NF type, a home NF type, a user permanent identifier SUPI, a data set identifier, single network slice selection auxiliary information S-NSSAI, and a network slice instance identifier NSI.

5. The method for implementing NF proximity selection according to claim 1, wherein said step of receiving a NF discovery request from a consumer NF and selecting a service NF for said consumer NF proximity by DC information matching specifically comprises:

the receiving consumer NF sends out NF discovery request to the corresponding NRF with the DC information of the consumer NF,

DC information matching is carried out through the NRF, and a service NF is selected nearby for the consumer NF.

6. The method for implementing NF proximity selection according to claim 1, wherein said step of receiving a NF discovery request from a consumer NF and selecting a service NF for said consumer NF proximity by DC information matching specifically comprises:

the receiving consumer NF sends NF discovery requests to the corresponding NRF according to the demand,

and returning a service NF information set meeting the requirement through the NRF, performing DC information matching on the service NF information set through the consumer NF, and selecting one service NF nearby for the consumer NF.

7. An apparatus for enabling NF proximity selection, characterized in that the apparatus comprises a memory, a processor, a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, and a data bus for enabling a connection communication between the processor and the memory, which program, when being executed by the processor, implements the steps of the method for enabling NF proximity selection according to any of claims 1-6.

8. A storage medium for computer readable storage, wherein the storage medium stores one or more programs executable by one or more processors to implement the steps of the method of achieving NF proximity selection of any of claims 1 to 6.