CN111436029B

CN111436029B - Method, system and related equipment for carrying out charging processing on network slice example

Info

Publication number: CN111436029B
Application number: CN201910028389.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 柴晓前
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-01-11
Filing date: 2019-01-11
Publication date: 2022-03-29
Anticipated expiration: 2039-01-11
Also published as: CN111436029A; WO2020143502A1

Abstract

A method for charging network resources comprises: determining a reporting parameter set (RPC), wherein the reporting parameter is used for describing the operation content of a performance index reporting operation (PPRO), and the PPRO comprises the step of reporting data corresponding to the network slice performance index of a Network Slice Instance (NSI) to a Network Slice Charging Function (NSCF) device; and sending the NSI identifier and the RPC to a network slice management function NSMF device to instruct the NSMF device to execute the PPRO according to the NSI identifier and the RPC, so that the NSCF device can perform charging processing on the NSI. The method matches the result of charging the client with the investment of the operator for the network slicing example, is beneficial to improving the use efficiency of network resources and meets the diversified network service requirements of the industrial clients.

Description

Method, system and related equipment for carrying out charging processing on network slice example

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method, a system, and a related device for performing charging processing on a network slice instance.

Background

The main application scenarios of the 5G (5th Generation) network include enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), ultra High-Reliability and Low-Latency Communication (urlcl), mtc (large connectivity Machine Type Communication), and the like. These scenarios have widely varying demands on network characteristics, such as: there are very many devices in an mtc scenario, but the throughput of each device may be very low, and the required bandwidth is very small; the eMBB scenario requires almost the opposite characteristics, since it will have far fewer devices, but each device will send or receive a large amount of data, requiring a large bandwidth; the uRLLC scenario has high end-to-end delay requirements, such as automatic driving, and the delay requirement is less than 3 milliseconds. In order to meet the requirements of different application scenarios, a physical Network can be divided on an end-to-end level to form a Network Slice (Network Slice), so that traffic grouping, isolation of tenants and resource configuration on a macro level are realized. The essence of Network slicing is a virtual Network running on a shared physical Network infrastructure, and an operator can create a virtual Network (corresponding to a Network Slice Instance, NSI) meeting corresponding service requirements on the basis of a physical Network according to different service requirements (such as time delay, bandwidth, security, reliability, and the like) so as to be used by customers with different Network characteristic requirements, thereby improving the utilization rate of Network resources and the service quality of Network services.

In the prior art, a scheme for performing charging processing on network resources is that a service system triggers a charging system to perform charging according to service events such as start and end of a service, and the service system counts accurate service information (such as traffic used by the service, service use duration, and the like) and reports the service information to the charging system, so that the charging system performs rating and deduction accordingly.

If the network slice instance is still charged according to the charging processing scheme, the charging result is not matched with the investment of the operator for the corresponding network slice instance, which is not beneficial to implementing the diversified application scenarios, and further reduces the use efficiency of network resources or reduces the service quality of network services.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, it is necessary to provide a method for performing charging processing on a network slice instance, so as to perform charging processing according to the service level satisfaction degree of the network slice instance, which is helpful for improving the utilization rate of network resources of an operator, and can better meet diversified network requirements of different customers.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a system for performing charging processing on a network slice instance, where the system includes: a network slice charging control function NSCCF device, a network slice management function NSMF device, and a network slice charging function NSCF device, wherein the NSCCF device is configured to: determining performance index reporting indication information and sending the performance index reporting indication information to the NSMF equipment, wherein the performance index reporting indication information is used for indicating the NSMF equipment to execute a performance index reporting operation PPRO, and the PPRO comprises data corresponding to a network slice performance index of a network slice instance NSI and reports the data to the NSCF equipment; the NSMF device is used for: receiving the performance index reporting indication information from the NSCCF equipment, acquiring data corresponding to the network slice performance index of the NSI according to the performance index reporting indication information, and reporting the data to the NSCF equipment; the NSCF device is used for: and receiving data corresponding to the network slice performance index of the NSI from the NSMF equipment, and performing charging processing on the NSI based on the data.

Compared with the traditional linear charging method based on terminal service data (such as flow or duration), the method can perform charging processing on the network slice example based on the data corresponding to the network slice performance index, and the data corresponding to the network slice performance index is not only the data concerned by the client, but also can better reflect the investment of an operator, so that the method is beneficial to improving the matching degree of the charging result and the network resource investment, is beneficial to implementing the diversified application scenes, and is further beneficial to improving the use efficiency of the network resource or improving the service quality of the network service.

In a possible scheme, the performance indicator reporting indication information includes an identifier of the NSI and a reporting parameter set RPC, where a reporting parameter in the RPC is used to describe content of the PPRO.

In one possible approach, the RPC contains any one or more of the following, or information for obtaining any one or more of the following: reporting indexes, which refer to network slice performance indexes of the NSI, and data corresponding to the network slice performance indexes are reported to the NSCF equipment; the acquisition mode refers to an acquisition mode of data corresponding to the reporting index; a reporting mode, which is a mode adopted for reporting the data corresponding to the reporting index to the NSCF equipment, wherein the reporting mode includes session-based reporting or independent reporting; a start condition under which the NSMF device starts executing the PPRO; reporting conditions, wherein the NSMF equipment reports data corresponding to the reporting indexes to the NSCF equipment under the condition that the reporting conditions are met; an end condition that, if satisfied, the NSMF device ends execution of the PPRO; the reporting address is an address used for receiving data corresponding to the reporting index.

In a possible solution, the data corresponding to the network slice performance indicator includes any one of the following items: sampling values of the network slice performance indicators; a statistical value of the network slice performance indicator; a storage address of a sampling value of the network slice performance index; a storage address of a statistical value of the network slice performance indicator.

In one possible approach, the NSCCF device is further configured to: sending a PPRO management request to the NSMF device; the NSMF device is further configured to: receiving the PPRO management request from the NSCCF device, and managing execution of the PPRO based on the PPRO management request.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for performing charging processing on a network slice instance, where the method is applied to a network slice charging control function NSCCF device, and the method includes: determining performance index reporting indication information, wherein the performance index reporting indication information is used for indicating to execute a performance index reporting operation PPRO, and the PPRO comprises data corresponding to a network slice performance index of a network slice instance NSI and reports the data to a network slice charging function NSCF device; and sending the performance index reporting indication information to a network slice management function NSMF device.

In one possible scheme, the performance indicator reporting indication information includes an identifier of the NSI and a reporting parameter set RPC, where a reporting parameter in the RPC is used to describe content of the PPRO, and the determining the performance indicator reporting indication information includes: and determining the RPC.

In a possible scheme, the RPC is a first parameter set, and the first parameter set includes any one or more of the reporting indicator, the obtaining mode, the reporting mode, the starting condition, the reporting condition, the ending condition, and the reporting address.

In a possible solution, the RPC includes an identifier of a second parameter set and a third parameter set, the second parameter set includes any one or more of the reporting indicator, the obtaining mode, the reporting condition, and the reporting address, the third parameter set includes the starting condition and/or the ending condition, and the identifier of the second parameter set is used for obtaining the second parameter set.

In one possible approach, prior to determining the RPC, the method further comprises any one or more of: sending the second parameter set to the NSMF device to instruct the NSMF device to store the second parameter set, and receiving an identification of the second parameter set from the NSMF device; sending, to the NSMF device, an identifier of the second parameter set and parameter set update information to instruct the NSMF device to update the second parameter set using the parameter set update information, where the parameter set update information includes information used to update a reporting parameter in the second parameter set.

In one possible approach, the method further comprises: sending, to the NSMF device, an identification of the second parameter set and a deletion indication to instruct the NSMF device to delete the second parameter set.

In a possible scheme, the determining the RPC specifically includes: acquiring order information of the NSI; and determining the RPC according to the order information of the NSI.

In one possible approach, the method further comprises: determining that an operation process in the PPRO needs to be changed; and sending a first PPRO management request to the NSMF device, where the first PPRO management request includes a change instruction and any one of a PPRO identifier, an identifier of the nsci, and a charging session identifier, where the PPRO identifier is used to uniquely identify the PPRO, and the charging session identifier is used to uniquely identify a charging session between the NSMF device and the NSCF device, where the charging session corresponds to the NSI.

In one possible scheme, the change indication includes RPC update information, and the RPC update information includes information for updating the reporting parameters in the RPC.

In one possible scheme, the change indication includes a reporting indication.

In one possible approach, the method further comprises: determining that the operation process in the PPRO needs to be ended; and sending a second PPRO management request to the NSMF device, where the second PPRO management request includes any one of the PPRO identifier, the NSI identifier, and a charging session identifier, and an end indication, where the PPRO identifier is used to uniquely identify the PPRO, and the charging session identifier is used to uniquely identify a charging session between the NSMF device and the NSCF device, where the charging session corresponds to the NSI.

In one possible approach, before sending the first PPRO management request to the NSMF device or before sending the second PPRO management request to the NSMF device, the method further includes: receiving the PPRO identification and/or the charging session identification from the NSMF device.

The method enables the NSCCF device to issue a reporting operation facing a single NSI (reporting data corresponding to the performance index of one NSI in one PPRO), or to issue a reporting operation facing a plurality of NSIs (reporting data corresponding to the performance indexes of a plurality of NSIs in one PPRO) to the NSMF device for execution, and can manage part of the PPROs (aiming at the reporting process of a certain NSI) by taking the PPROs as granularity, or taking the NSIs or charging sessions as granularity, thereby improving the control of the NSCCF device in charging the network slice instances.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for performing charging processing on a network slice instance, where the method is applied to a network slice management function NSMF device, and the method includes: receiving performance index reporting indication information from a network slice charging control function NSCCF device; and executing a performance index reporting operation PPRO according to the performance index reporting indication information, wherein the PPRO comprises data corresponding to the network slice performance index of the network slice instance NSI and reports the data to a network slice charging function NSCF device.

In a possible scheme, the performance indicator reporting indication information includes an identifier of the NSI and a reporting parameter set RPC, where a reporting parameter in the RPC is used to describe content of the PPRO, and the performing a performance indicator reporting operation PPRO according to the performance indicator reporting indication information specifically includes: and executing the PPRO according to the NSI identification and the RPC.

In a possible scheme, the RPC includes an identifier of a second parameter set and a third parameter set, where the second parameter set includes any one or more of the reporting indicator, the obtaining manner, the reporting condition, and the reporting address, the third parameter set includes the starting condition and/or the ending condition, and before the PPRO is executed, the method further includes: acquiring the second parameter set according to the identifier of the second parameter set; and forming the RPC according to the second parameter set and the third parameter set.

In one possible approach, prior to receiving the identification of the NSI and the RPC, the method further comprises any one or more of: receiving the second parameter set from the NSCCF device, storing the second parameter set, generating an identification of the second parameter set, and returning the identification of the second parameter set to the NSCCF device; receiving, from the NSCCF device, an identification of the second parameter set and the parameter set update information, updating the second parameter set using the parameter set update information, the parameter set update information including information for updating parameters in the second parameter set.

In one possible approach, the method further comprises: receiving, from the NSCCF device, an identification and a deletion indication of the second parameter set, deleting the second parameter set.

In a possible scheme, the executing the PPRO according to the NSI identifier and the RPC specifically includes: determining that data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC needs to be reported to the NSCF equipment; and acquiring data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC and reporting the data to the NSCF equipment.

In a possible scheme, the obtaining data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC and reporting the data to the NSCF device specifically includes: and sending a first charging request to the NSCF equipment, wherein the first charging request comprises a charging session identifier, one of the identifiers of the NSI and data corresponding to a reporting index in the RPC, and the charging session identifier is used for uniquely identifying a charging session between the NSMF equipment and the NSCF equipment, and the charging session corresponds to the NSI.

In one possible solution, before the sending the first charging request to the NSCF device, the method further includes: sending a second charging request to the NSCF device, the second charging request including an identification of the NSI and an indication to create a charging session; receiving the charging session identification from the NSCF device.

In one possible solution, after receiving the charging session identifier from the NSCF device, the method further includes: and returning the charging session identification to the NSCCF equipment.

In a possible solution, the second charging request further includes a reporting reason.

In a possible scheme, the determining that the data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC needs to be reported to the NSCF device specifically includes: receiving a third PPRO management request from the NSCCF device, wherein the third PPRO management request comprises a reporting instruction; determining that data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC needs to be reported to the NSCF equipment according to the reporting indication; or specifically comprises the following steps: and reporting the data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC to the NSCF equipment according to the condition that the reporting condition in the RPC meets the requirement.

In one possible approach, before executing the PPRO according to the identity of the NSI and the RPC, the method further includes: determining that a starting condition in the RPC is satisfied.

In a possible scheme, the executing the PPRO according to the NSI identifier and the RPC specifically further includes: determining that the execution of the PPRO needs to be finished; and finishing executing the PPRO.

In a possible scheme, the determining that the execution of the PPRO needs to be finished specifically includes: receiving a fourth PPRO management request from the NSCCF device, the fourth PPRO management request including an end indication; determining that the execution of the PPRO needs to be finished according to the finishing instruction; or specifically comprises the following steps: and determining that the execution of the PPRO needs to be finished according to the satisfaction of the finishing condition in the RPC.

In a possible scheme, the ending of executing the PPRO specifically includes: and sending a third charging request to the NSCF equipment and stopping acquiring data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC, wherein the third charging request comprises the identifier of the charging session, one of the identifiers of the NSI and the data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC.

In one possible approach, the method further comprises: receiving a fifth PPRO management request from the NSCCF device, wherein the fifth PPRO management request comprises a PPRO identification, any one of an identification of the NSI and a charging session identification, and RPC update information, the PPRO identification is used for uniquely identifying the PPRO, and the charging session identification is used for uniquely identifying a charging session between the NSMF device and the NSCF device, the charging session corresponding to the NSI; and updating the reporting parameters in the RPC corresponding to any one of the PPRO identification, the NSI identification and the charging session identification according to any one of the PPRO identification, the NSI identification and the charging session identification and the RPC change information.

In a possible solution, the data corresponding to the network slice performance indicator includes any one of the following items: the sampling value of the network slice performance index, the statistical value of the network slice performance index, the storage address of the sampling value of the network slice performance index, and the storage address of the statistical value of the network slice performance index.

The method enables the NSMF equipment to execute the PPRO based on the management instruction/management message of the NSCCF equipment so as to support the charging processing service of the NSCF equipment, the adopted independent reporting mode is favorable for releasing the computing resources of the reporting party and the receiving party in time, and the adopted session reporting mode is favorable for improving the reporting efficiency or performance.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a network slice charging control function NSCCF device, including a processor and a memory, where: the memory to store program instructions; the processor is configured to call and execute the program instructions stored in the memory, so that the network slice charging control function device executes the method for performing charging processing on the network slice instance in the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which includes instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to execute the method for performing charging processing on a network slice instance in the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a network slice management function NSMF device, including a processor and a memory, where: the memory to store program instructions; the processor is configured to call and execute the program instructions stored in the memory, so that the network slice management device executes the method for performing charging processing on the network slice instance in the third aspect.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which includes instructions, when executed on a computer, causing the computer to execute the method for performing charging processing on a network slice instance in the third aspect.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip, where the chip includes a programmable logic circuit and/or program instructions, and when the chip runs, the chip is configured to implement the second aspect, the third aspect, any possible implementation manner of the second aspect, or a method of any possible implementation manner of the third aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a diagram of a billing system architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method for performing charging processing on network resources according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3A is a flowchart of another method for performing charging processing on network resources according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3B is a flowchart of another method for performing charging processing on network resources according to the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method for managing reporting parameter set templates according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of another method for performing charging processing on network resources according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating another billing system architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a flowchart of another method for performing charging processing on network resources according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a hardware structure diagram of a network slice charging control function NSCCF device or a network slice management function NSMF device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a network slice charging control function NSCCF device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an NSMF device having a network slice management function according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 1 is an architecture diagram of a Charging system according to an embodiment of the present application, where the architecture diagram includes a Network Slice Charging Control Function (NSCCF) device 101, a Network Slice Charging Function (NSCF) device 102, a Network Slice Management Function (NSMF) device 103, and the like. For convenience of description, in the embodiment of the present application, "network slice charging control function device" is simply referred to as "NSCCF device", and "network slice management function device" is simply referred to as "NSMF device", which are respectively described as follows:

NSCCF device 101: the apparatus is configured to determine performance indicator Reporting indication information and send the performance indicator Reporting indication information to the NSMF device, where the performance indicator Reporting indication information is used to indicate the NSMF device to perform a performance indicator Reporting Operation (PPRO), and the PPRO includes data corresponding to a network slice performance indicator of a network slice instance NSI and reports the data to the NSCF device; specifically, the performance indicator Reporting indication information includes an identifier of the NSI and a Reporting Parameter set (RPC), and the NSCCF device 101 is further configured to determine an RPC of a PPRO that needs to be executed by the NSMF device 103, and send the identifier of the NSI and the RPC to the NSMF device 103, so that the nscf executes the PPRO according to the identifier of the NSI and the RPC; the "reporting" may be sending a message, or transmitting the message through File Transfer Protocol (FTP), or transmitting the message in other data transmission manners, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application; optionally, in order to further improve the capability of the NSCCF device 101 in managing and controlling the charging process of the network slice instance and meet the personalized requirements of the client on the charging process of the network slice instance, the NSCCF device 101 may be further configured to send a PPRO management message to the nsf device 103 to manage the PPRO executed on the nsf device 103, for example, change the execution of the PPRO, end the execution of the PPRO, and the like; optionally, in order to share RPCs between different network slice instances to improve management efficiency, the NSCCF device 101 may also be configured to send a management message of RPCs to the nsff device 103, such as creating RPCs, updating RPCs, deleting RPCs, and the like. The RPC includes a reporting index, a reporting condition, an ending condition, and the like, and the NSCCF device 101 may determine the RPC according to the subscription information of the client and the information of the network slice instance, which will be described in detail further in the following embodiments of the present application.

In addition, in order to better meet the service requirement and improve the management efficiency, the performance index reporting indication information may further include identifiers of multiple NSIs and multiple corresponding RPCs, so that the NSMF device 102 may report data corresponding to the network slice performance indexes of the multiple NSIs in one PPRO.

It should be understood that the function of the NSCCF device 101 may be deployed in a single physical device, or may be deployed in an existing charging device, which is not limited in this embodiment.

The NSCF device 102: the nscf is an exemplary interface identifier, and is configured to receive, from the NSMF device 103, data corresponding to the reported performance index of the network slice instance through a service interface (nscf is an exemplary interface identifier) provided by the nscf, perform charging processing on the corresponding network slice instance based on the data, or further calculate a usage cost of the corresponding network slice instance based on a corresponding charging rule. Optionally, the NSCF device 102 may also be configured to send the billing processing results to a billing system (not shown in fig. 1) to enable the billing system to generate a billing bill for the client. Optionally, the NSCF device 102 may also obtain the charging rule from the NSCCF device or the subscription entity.

It should be understood that the functions of the NSCF device 102 may be deployed in a single physical device, or may be deployed in an existing charging device, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In one possible implementation, the functionality of the NSCF device 102 and the functionality of the NSCCF device 101 may also be deployed on the same physical device.

NSMF device 103: in addition to the example for creating and managing the network slice, the NSCCF apparatus is further configured to receive the RPCs sent by the NSCCF apparatus 101 through a service interface (nsmf is an exemplary interface identifier) provided by the NSCCF apparatus, obtain data corresponding to the performance index of the network slice example according to the RPCs, and report the data to the NSCF apparatus 102, so that the NSCF apparatus 102 can perform charging processing on the network slice example; optionally, the NSCCF device 103 may be further configured to receive a PPRO management message from the NSCCF device 101, so as to perform a corresponding PPRO management operation under the control of the NSCCF device 101; optionally, the NSMF device 103 may also be configured to receive management messages from the NSCCF device 101 or other management clients to maintain RPCs locally and to share them in the PPRO for different network slice instances to improve management efficiency.

The NSMF device 103 may be a cross-domain network slice manager or a network slice manager of a core network sub-domain, or other functional entity or device capable of providing data corresponding to a performance index of a network slice instance. The cross-domain network slice manager is used for managing a plurality of sub-domains, wherein the sub-domains comprise an access network sub-domain, a transmission network sub-domain, a core network sub-domain and the like. It should be understood that the functions of the NSMF device 103 may be deployed in a single physical device, or may be deployed in other existing management devices, which is not limited in this embodiment.

To facilitate understanding of the examples in this application, several concepts related to network slice performance indicators are further explained below:

(1) network Slice Performance indicator (NSPP): is a parameter or set of parameters used to describe the network performance of the network slice instance, which may include, but is not limited to, one or more of the following parameters:

end-to-end latency: the transmission time delay of the data packet in an access domain, a transmission domain and a core network domain of a network slice example is indicated;

-PDU (protocol data unit) session number: refers to the number of PDU sessions established on a network slice instance (i.e., the number of PDU sessions established between the user equipment using the network slice instance and the data gateway on the network slice);

-bandwidth: the sum of the bandwidths used by all concurrent PDU sessions of a network slice instance is referred to;

-number of users: the number of users who actually use or concurrently use the network slice instance or the number of users registered on the network slice instance;

for convenience of description, the network slice performance index is also referred to as "index" in the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that one network slice instance may have one or more network slice performance indicators, and the number of network slice performance indicators of the network slice instance is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In contrast to the service-related index (e.g., traffic), the network slice performance index may represent both the point of interest of the customer or user in using the network slice instance and the investment of the operator in the network slice instance, so that charging based on the data corresponding to the network slice performance index may take both the benefits of both parties into account. For example, the operator and the client may agree to an SLA (Service Level Agreement) for a network slice instance, may agree to a constraint condition of a network slice performance index, for example, "the number of times of time delay exceeding 5ms should be within 10", "the cumulative time of bandwidth below 100G does not exceed 30 hours", and so on, and agree to a charging method or a charging rate under different satisfaction degrees of the SLA.

In a specific implementation, the network slice performance indicator transmitted through the message may be represented by a parameter name or a parameter identifier of the indicator, for example, the network slice performance indicator of "latency" is represented by "E2 EDelay" or "101". The embodiment of the present application does not limit the manner of representing the network slice performance index. For convenience of description, the embodiments of the present application are described by taking parameter names as examples.

(2) Value of network slice performance index: according to the difference of the performance indexes, the value of the performance index may refer to a specific value obtained by detecting, sampling or in other ways by the NSMF device or other devices for the network slice performance index at a certain time, a certain time slot or a certain time period (e.g., within a certain minute); for convenience of description, the embodiments of the present application are also referred to as a sampling value, an instantaneous value of a network slice performance index, or even directly referred to as a sampling value or an instantaneous value.

(3) Time of network slice performance index: the method comprises the steps of detecting, sampling or obtaining a time point, a time slot or a time period of a specific value of a network slice performance index in other modes; for convenience of description, the embodiment of the present application is also referred to as sampling time of a network slice performance index or acquisition time of the network slice performance index, and even directly referred to as sampling time or acquisition time; it should be understood that the time/sampling time/acquisition time of the network slice performance indicator may be a specific time point or a specific time period (e.g. a minute); for example, the sample time of "number of concurrent sessions" may be "2018-10-2623: 58: 52", and the sample time of "delay" may be "2018-09-2613: 46: 00/2018-09-2613: 47: 00" or "2018-09-2613: 46", etc.

(4) Constraint conditions of network slice performance indexes: the quantization constraint or the quantization requirement for the value of the network slice performance index within a certain statistical time range is usually represented by a numerical range, and can also be represented by a specific numerical value. For example, the constraint condition of the index "bandwidth" may be that "average bandwidth per month is 100M", or "the accumulated duration of bandwidth less than 100M does not exceed 30 hours", or the constraint condition of the index "delay" may be that "the number of times that the delay exceeds 50ms is less than 10", or the like; the constraints of the network slice performance indicators are typically the result of agreement with the operator during the customer subscription to the network slice instance.

(5) The statistic value of the network slice performance index is as follows: the method is a result obtained by counting the values of the performance indexes of the network slices of which the sampling time or the acquisition time falls within a certain statistical time range according to a certain statistical method. The statistical method may be a statistical method unrelated to the constraint condition, such as averaging, weighted averaging, or the like, or a statistical method related to the constraint condition, that is, a statistical method determined according to a parameter in the constraint condition. The following description is given by referring to the case shown in table 1, in which several types of statistics of the network slice performance index are respectively illustrated. It should be understood that the type of statistics of the network slice performance indicator is not limited to the scenarios listed in table 1.

TABLE 1

Based on the concept, the performance index reporting refers to the reporting of data corresponding to the performance index of the network slice example, the data corresponding to the performance index of the network slice example may include a statistical value of the performance index of the network slice, may also include a sampling value of the performance index of the network slice, may also include a combination of the sampling value and a corresponding sampling time, or a combination of the value of the network slice performance index and the time of the network slice performance index, and may further include a storage address of a statistical value, a sampling value, a combination of the sampling value and the sampling time, and the like of the network slice performance index (so that a network slice charging processing device, such as an NSCF device, acquires the sampling value, the statistical value, the combination of the sampling value and the sampling time, and the like corresponding to the network slice performance index based on the storage address). According to the difference of the PPRO or the difference of the RPCs determined by the NSCCF device 101, the statistical value may be sent to the NSCF device 102 after being counted by the NSMF device 103, or the NSMF device 103 may send a combination of sampling values and sampling times at a plurality of times or in a plurality of time periods within a statistical time range to the NSCF device 102, and then the NSCF device 102 performs statistics or calculation to obtain the statistical value.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method for performing charging processing on a network resource according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method is implemented based on the architecture shown in fig. 1, where an NSCCF device corresponds to NSCCF device 101 in fig. 1, an NSCCF device corresponds to nsf device 103 in fig. 1, and an NSCCF device corresponds to NSCF device 102 in fig. 1. In the method, after the NSCCF device determines a reporting parameter RPC of a PPRO for a performance index reporting operation of a network slice instance NSI, the NSCCF device executes the operation based on the RPC, so that the NSCF device can perform charging processing on the NSI, which specifically includes the following steps:

step 201: the NSCCF equipment determines a reporting parameter set RPC of a PPRO aiming at the performance index reporting operation of the NSI.

Specifically, the NSCCF device may determine, according to information related to a network slice instance NSI, that the NSI needs to be charged based on data corresponding to a performance index of the NSI, and further determine that a reporting parameter set RPC of a PPRO needs to be reported for the performance index of the NSI. The PPRO acquires data corresponding to the network slice performance index of the NSI and reports the data to the NSCF equipment; the relevant information of the NSI includes, but is not limited to, subscription information of a customer on the NSI, information of the NSI itself (such as an identification of the NSI, a network slice type of the NSI, etc.); the RPC includes at least one reporting parameter RP (reporting parameter), which is used to describe the contents of the PPRO (what to report, how to acquire, how to report, etc.). Specifically, the RPC contains any one or more of the following, or contains information for obtaining any one or more of the following:

(1) reporting indexes: the network slice performance index of the NSI refers to a network slice performance index of the NSI, and data corresponding to the network slice performance index of the NSI is reported to the NSCF device, for example: bandwidth, time delay, number of online users, etc. It should be understood that the reported index is a subset or a full set of network slice performance indexes for the NSI.

According to different relevant information (such as ordering information) of the NSI, reporting indexes corresponding to the NSI are different, including the number of the reporting indexes and the content of the reporting indexes which are possibly different; for example, the reporting index of one NSI includes bandwidth and delay, and the reporting index of another NSI includes delay, number of online users, and bandwidth. The number of reporting indexes contained in the RPC is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, but for convenience of description, the embodiment of the present application will be described by taking the example of containing one reporting index; optionally, the NSCCF device may determine the reporting index according to a slice type and/or a constraint condition included in the subscription information.

In one RPC, the reporting index is optional, and in a case that the parameter does not appear or the value of the parameter is null, the NSMF device may adopt a default reporting index, for example, according to the network slice type of the NSI, select a default reporting index corresponding to the network slice type.

(2) The acquisition mode comprises the following steps: the reporting index is the acquisition mode of data corresponding to the reporting index; if the data corresponding to the reporting index is the sampling value of the reporting index, the obtaining mode may include a sampling time interval (e.g., every 5 minutes), and if the data corresponding to the reporting index is the statistical value of the reporting index, the obtaining mode may include not only the sampling time interval but also a statistical method; for example, one acquisition mode may be expressed as "sampling every 5 minutes", another acquisition mode may be expressed as "statistical monthly average", yet another acquisition mode may be expressed as "duration with cumulative bandwidth less than 100M/s", etc.

Optionally, the NSCCF device may determine the obtaining manner according to the subscription information.

In one RPC, the obtaining manner is optional, and in a case that the parameter does not appear or the value of the parameter is null, the NSMF device may adopt a default obtaining manner, for example, select the default obtaining manner according to the name of the reported index.

(3) The reporting mode is as follows: the reporting mode refers to a mode adopted for reporting data corresponding to the reporting index to the NSCF device, and includes, but is not limited to, session-based reporting or independent reporting.

The session-based reporting, which is sometimes referred to as "session reporting" for short, means that a session is established between a reporting entity (the NSMF device) and a receiving entity (the NSCF device), where the reporting entity and the receiving entity may respectively create corresponding computing resources for the session, and an identifier generated or allocated by the receiving entity for the created computing resources may be used as an identifier of the session, and then the reporting entity reports data corresponding to a reporting index of the same NSI or data corresponding to a reporting index of an NSI belonging to the same client to the receiving entity multiple times or periodically based on the session, that is, the multiple reports are associated with each other by the session identifier, that is, request messages corresponding to the multiple reports all carry the session identifier; in this embodiment, a session between the NSMF device and the NSCF device is sometimes referred to as a charging session.

The independent reporting, which is sometimes referred to as "no session reporting" or "event reporting", refers to that a session is not established between a reporting entity and a receiving entity, and multiple reports of data corresponding to a reporting index of the same NSI or data corresponding to a performance index of an NSI belonging to the same client are not associated with each other by a session or a session identifier.

It can be understood that under the condition of needing to report frequently, a session reporting mode can be adopted, so that the created computing resources can be reused, and the reporting performance is improved; when the reporting interval is long and the reporting is not frequent, an independent reporting mode can be adopted, so that the computing resources can be released in time, and the availability of the system or the equipment is improved.

Optionally, the NSCCF device may determine the reporting manner according to the subscription information, for example, determine a reporting frequency or period according to the subscription information, and further determine the reporting manner according to the reporting frequency or period, for example, select session reporting when it is determined that the reporting is more frequent, and select independent reporting when the reporting interval is longer or the reporting times are less.

In one RPC, the reporting mode is optional, and when the parameter does not appear or the value of the parameter is null, the NSMF device may adopt a default reporting mode (such as session reporting), for example, select the default reporting mode according to the name of the reporting index.

(4) Starting conditions were as follows: when the starting condition is met, the NSMF equipment starts to execute the PPRO, wherein the PPRO comprises the steps of acquiring data corresponding to a corresponding reporting index and reporting the data to NSCF equipment and the like; by means of the "start condition" in the RPC, the NSCCF device may send a PPRO execution instruction (such as a PPRO creation request) to the NSMF device in advance, so that the NSMF device executes the PPRO when the start condition is met or the start time arrives or after the start time arrives, thereby effectively avoiding the phenomenon that the NSMF device generates a surge request during a peak period. For example, a start condition may be "start from 20190101-00:00: 00", assuming that the time point at which the start condition (or RPC) is received is earlier than "20190101-00: 00: 00", the start condition indicates that the NSMF device does not need to start executing the PPRO immediately upon receiving the start condition (or RPC), but may wait until the time reaches "20190101-00: 00: 00"; as another example, when the NSMF device is required to start executing the PPRO upon receiving the RPC, the start condition may also be set to "start immediately".

Optionally, the NSCCF device may determine the start condition according to the subscription information.

In an RPC, the start condition is optional, and in case that the parameter does not appear or the value of the parameter is null, the NSMF device may adopt a default start condition (e.g. start when the RPC is received or select the default start condition according to the name of the reported indicator).

(5) Reporting conditions, wherein the NSMF equipment reports data corresponding to the reporting indexes to the NSCF equipment under the condition that the reporting conditions are met; reporting conditions include, but are not limited to, periodic reporting, reporting at a specified time, and reporting of events (critical charging events, such as network slice modification and serious failure):

if the reporting condition is periodic reporting (the reporting condition includes a reporting period), the NSMF device sends data corresponding to the reporting index to the NSCF device periodically (the interval time is the reporting period);

if the reporting condition is a specified time for reporting (the reporting condition includes a specified reporting time), the NSMF device reports data corresponding to the reporting index to the NSCF device at the specified time;

if the reporting condition is the critical event reporting (the reporting condition includes the definition of the reporting event), the NSMF device reports the data corresponding to the reporting index to the NSCF device when the event occurs or appears.

Optionally, the NSCCF device may determine the reporting condition according to the subscription information.

It is understood that the reporting condition has a correlation with the reporting mode, for example, when the reporting condition is a periodic reporting, the reporting mode may be set as a session reporting.

In an RPC, the reporting condition is optional, and the NSMF device may adopt a default reporting condition (e.g., periodic reporting) when the parameter does not appear or the value of the parameter is null.

(6) An end condition, in which the NSMF device ends the execution of the PPRO if the end condition is satisfied, for example, one end condition may be: "end at 20190131-23:59: 59". By means of the "end condition" in RPC, the NSCCF device may not have to send an end indication to the nsff device, thereby improving management efficiency.

Optionally, the NSCCF device may determine the termination condition according to the subscription information or account information of the corresponding customer.

(7) The reporting address is an address used for receiving data corresponding to the reporting index, for example, an address where the NSCF device provides a charging service, and is used for receiving the reported data corresponding to the reporting index from the NSMF device; the address may be a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Optionally, the NSCCF device may determine the reporting address according to preset configuration information.

In the above reporting parameters, some parameters may be the same or common for different NSIs, for example: reporting indexes, acquiring modes, reporting conditions, reporting addresses and the like, wherein some parameters may be different due to different NSIs, different clients or different subscription information, for example: a start condition and an end condition.

Step 202: and the NSCCF equipment sends the NSIId and the RPC of the NSI to the NSMF equipment.

Specifically, the NSCCF device may send a request message to the nsff device (the name of the request message is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, and may be, for example, "create PPRO request" or "execute PPRO request"), the request message carries the identifier of the NSI and the RPC, and the identifier of the NSI and the RPC serve as performance index reporting indication information to indicate the nsff device to perform a corresponding performance index reporting operation.

Optionally, the NSCCF device may manage or maintain a Reporting Parameter set Template (RPCT) on the nscmf device in advance, where the RPCT includes a sharable or shared Reporting Parameter, so that the NSCCF device and the nscmf device may share when managing PPROs corresponding to different NSIs, for example, the NSCCF device may include an identifier of the RPCT and a specific Reporting Parameter (e.g., a start time and/or an end time of the PPRO) related to subscription information of the NSI in the request message to the nsff device, and the nsff device may obtain the corresponding RPCT from a local location according to the identifier of the RPCT and form the Reporting Parameter set RPC of the PPRO by combining with the specific Reporting Parameter. For another example, the NSCCF device and the NSMF device may preset a default RPCT (for example, preset a default RPCT for different network slice types), the NSCCF device may only send the specific reporting parameter of the NSI without sending an identifier of the RPCT, and the NSMF device forms the reporting parameter set RPC of the PPRO based on the preset default RPCT and the specific reporting parameter.

The procedures for NSCCF device management, maintenance and use of RPCT on NSMF devices will be further detailed in the following embodiments of the present application.

Step 203: the NSMF device returns a PPRO identification PPROId to the NSCCF device.

Specifically, after receiving the request message in step 202 and parsing out the identity of the NSI and the RPC from the request message, the NSMF device creates or allocates a computing resource for executing the PPRO, allocates a unique identity (i.e., the PPRO identity PPROId) for the PPRO, and returns a response message (corresponding to step 202, the message name may be "create PPRO response" or "execute PPRO response") to the NSCCF device, where the response message includes the PPRO identity PPROId.

It should be understood that the unique identifier of the PPRO may be assigned or generated by the nsff device, and then returned to the NSCCF device via the response message, so that it can manage the PPRO in the subsequent steps (e.g., change or end the PPRO); or after being allocated or generated by the NSCCF device, the request message in step 202 may be sent to the NSMF device, so that the response message in this step may not carry the PPRO identifier PPROId.

Alternatively, the NSCCF device and the NSMF device may also use the identity of the NSI as the PPRO identity, so that the above-described operation of "assigning unique identities" need not be performed.

Optionally, the NSMF device may store the RPC to continue executing the PPRO in accordance with the RPC after the NSMF device restarts or fails over.

Step 204: and the NSMF equipment acquires and reports the data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC to the NSCF equipment according to the NSIId of the NSI and the RPC.

Specifically, the NSMF device obtains, according to the nsid identifier and the RPC, for example, according to the reporting index and the obtaining mode in the RPC, data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC, and sends a request message to the NSCF device (the name of the request message is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, and may be, for example, "network slice charging request" or "network slice performance index reporting request"), where the request message includes data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC. The NSIId is configured to determine an NSI, each reporting parameter in the RPC is configured to determine how to obtain data corresponding to a reporting indicator therein and report the data to the NSCF device, for example, the nsff device is configured to determine whether the reporting condition in the RPC is satisfied (depending on the reporting condition, data corresponding to the reporting indicator in the RPC may be obtained in a process of determining whether the reporting condition is satisfied, or data corresponding to the reporting indicator in the RPC may also be obtained after determining that the reporting condition is satisfied), and report the data corresponding to the reporting indicator in the RPC to the NSCF device, where this is described in further detail in subsequent embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that this step may be executed multiple times, that is, the nsff device may report data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC to the NSCF device multiple times, so as to meet the requirement of the NSCF device side for performing charging processing on the NSI.

It should be understood that, before performing this step, a Session may be established between the nsff device and the NSCF device, which is referred to as a Charging Session, and the nsff device and the NSCF device respectively create computing resources for this Session, and in order to facilitate a reporting operation or a management operation between the subsequent nsff device and the NSCF device, the same unique Identifier may be allocated to each computing resource by the nsff device or the NSCF device as a Charging Session Identifier (CSId), so that the request message of this step may further include a CSId, so that the NSCF device determines a corresponding computing resource according to the CSId, and processes reported data through the CSId. Subsequent embodiments of this application will be further described.

Step 205: and the NSCF equipment performs charging processing.

After receiving the data corresponding to the performance index of the NSI from the NSMF device, the NSCF device may perform charging processing on the network slice instance based on the data. Specifically, the charging process may include: generating a network slice charging ticket based on the data, or calculating the usage charge of the network slice instance based on the data, wherein the method for calculating the usage charge of the network slice instance based on the data may include: and acquiring a charging rule related to the network slice example, and calculating the use cost of the network slice example based on the data and the charging rule. Further reference may be made in particular to the subsequent examples in this application.

Step 206: the NSCCF device determines that the operational procedure of the PPRO needs to be changed.

Specifically, the NSCCF device determines that an operation procedure of the PPRO needs to be changed according to a change of subscription information on the NSI or a change of other billing factors.

For example, after the client proposes to extend the subscription period, it may be determined that the end condition in the RPC needs to be changed to delay the time point at which the report is ended; for another example, when the client temporarily requires (during the non-billing period) to query the bill, it may be determined that the data corresponding to the performance index that is not reported currently needs to be reported to the NSCF device for charging or outputting the bill.

Step 207: the NSCCF device sends the PPRO identity PPROId and a change instruction to the nsff device.

Specifically, the NSCCF device sends a request message (the name of the request message is not limited in the embodiments of the present application, and may be, for example, "change PPRO request" or "update PPRO request") to the nsff device, where the request message includes the PPRO identifier PPROId and a change instruction, and the change instruction is used to instruct the nsff device to change an operation process of the PPRO.

For example, when the end condition in the RPC needs to be changed, the change instruction may be an instruction of "change end condition" to instruct the NSMF device to end the reporting time point in advance or in a delayed manner; for another example, when the NSMF device needs to report the data corresponding to the performance index immediately after receiving the change instruction, the change instruction may be an instruction of "reporting immediately", so that the NSMF device reports the data corresponding to the performance index that is not reported currently to the NSCF device for charging or outputting a bill.

Optionally, the PPROId may be replaced by the NSIId, the NSIId may be used as the PPRO identifier by the NSMF device, or a mapping relationship between the NSIId and the PPROId may be locally established, and the corresponding PPROId is determined by the NSIId through the mapping relationship, so that the calculation resource of the corresponding PPRO may be determined according to the PPROId, and then the calculation resource may be changed.

Step 208: the NSMF device changes the operation process of the PPRO based on the change instruction.

Specifically, the NSMF device receives the request message in step 207, parses the PPRO identifier PPROId and the change instruction from the request message, and performs a change operation corresponding to the change instruction on the PPRO based on the PPRO identifier and the change instruction, for example: for the instruction of "change end condition", executing an operation of changing the end condition; for the indication of 'immediate reporting', executing the operation of immediately reporting the data corresponding to the reporting index; and for the indication of changing the reporting period, executing the operation of adjusting the reporting period.

It should be noted that steps 206-208 may be performed before, during, or after steps 204-205, that is, the change to the PPRO may occur before the PPRO starts, during the execution, or after the execution, and the sequence shown in fig. 2 is merely exemplary and not limiting the execution sequence of these steps. Step 206-.

Step 209: the NSCCF device determines that the PPRO needs to be ended.

Specifically, the NSCCF device determines that the PPRO needs to be ended according to a change in subscription information on the NSI or a change in other billing factors.

For example, when the customer proposes to end the subscription before the end of the subscription period, or the balance on the customer's account is insufficient before the end of the subscription period, it may be determined that the execution of the PPRO needs to be ended.

Step 210: the NSCCF device sends a PPRO identity PPROId and an end indication to the nsff device.

Specifically, the NSCCF device sends a request message (the name of the request message is not limited in the embodiments of the present application, and may be, for example, "end PPRO request" or "delete PPRO request") to the nsff device, where the request message includes the PPRO identifier PPROId and an end indication, where the end indication is used to instruct the nsff device to end the PPRO.

Step 211: the NSMF device determines that the PPRO needs to be ended.

If the nscmf device receives the end instruction from the NSCCF device through step 210, the step may not be executed, otherwise, specifically, the NSMF device determines that the execution of the PPRO needs to be ended according to the end condition in the RPC. That is, there are at least two triggers for the NSMF device to end the PPRO, one is to receive an end instruction sent by the NSCCF device, and the other is to determine that the end condition in the RPC is satisfied (e.g. the end time point is reached).

Step 212: and the NSMF equipment sends the report ending indication and the data corresponding to the report index in the RPC to the NSCF equipment.

Specifically, the nsff device determines, through step 210 or step 211, that execution of the PPRO needs to be ended, and may send a request message to the NSCF device (the name of the request message is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, and for example, the request message may be "network slice charging end request" or "network slice performance index report end request"), where the request message includes an end report instruction, so that the NSCF device performs corresponding charging processing, such as outputting a bill. Optionally, the request message may further include data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC, so as to report the data corresponding to the reporting index that is not reported yet to the NSCF device.

It should be noted that step 209 to step 212 may be performed during or after the execution of step 204 to step 205. The order shown in fig. 2 is merely exemplary and does not limit the order in which the steps are performed. Step 209-step 210 passively determine that the PPRO needs to be ended for the NSMF device (NSCCF device triggered end), and step 211 autonomously determines that the PPRO needs to be ended for the NSMF device, which may be either one of them.

For convenience of description, one NSI is described as an example corresponding to one RPC in the above method flow, but the embodiment of the present application does not limit the number of NSIs and the number of corresponding RPCs in the above method flow, for example, when one client subscribes to multiple network slice examples, the request message in step 202 may include multiple nsilds and multiple corresponding RPCs, or include multiple nsilds and common RPCs (that is, the nsilds and the RPCs may correspond to one another, or may correspond to multiple RPCs), the request message in step 204 may report data corresponding to respective reporting indicators for different NSIs, the request message in step 207 or step 210 may replace the pproids with the nsilds or other information identifying reporting operations corresponding to the NSIs, so as to manage or end the obtaining and reporting operations of data corresponding to the reporting indicators corresponding to each NSI, or, if the pproids are still used, it may indicate that corresponding management operations are performed on the multiple NSIs, for example, if the request message in step 210 includes the PPROId and the end instruction, it indicates that the operations of acquiring and reporting the data corresponding to the reporting indexes corresponding to the multiple NSIs are stopped, and if the request message includes one NSIId and the end instruction, it indicates that the operations of acquiring and reporting the data corresponding to the reporting indexes of the NSI corresponding to the NSIId are stopped, and the operations of acquiring and reporting the data corresponding to the reporting indexes of other NSIs are not affected.

Compared with the traditional charging method based on the linear mode of terminal service data (such as flow or duration), the method for charging the network slice example corresponding to fig. 2 can perform charging processing on the network slice example based on the data corresponding to the network slice performance index, and because the data corresponding to the network slice performance index is not only the data concerned by the client, but also can better reflect the investment of the operator, the method is beneficial to improving the matching degree of the charging result and the network resource investment, is beneficial to implementing the diversified application scenes, and is further beneficial to improving the use efficiency of the network resource or improving the service quality of the network service.

Fig. 3A is a flowchart of another method for performing charging processing on a network resource according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method is implemented based on the architecture shown in fig. 1, where an NSCCF device corresponds to NSCCF device 101 in fig. 1, an nsf device corresponds to nsf device 103 in fig. 1, and an NSCF device corresponds to NSCF device 102 in fig. 1. The method flow explains, by a more specific example, how the NSCCF device determines the RPC of the PPRO, and how the NSMF device executes the PPRO accordingly to implement the charging processing on the network slice instance, and specifically includes the following steps:

step 301: the NSCCF device determines a reporting parameter set RPC01 of a performance index reporting operation PPRO for the NSI.

Specifically, for a given NSI (which is identified as NSIId01), the NSCCF device may determine, according to any one or any combination of subscription information of the NSI, information preconfigured by an operator, and customer account balance information, a reporting parameter set RPC of a performance index reporting operation PPRO for the NSI as follows:

it should be understood that each reporting parameter in RPC01 is optional, and when it does not appear in the RPC data structure or takes a null value, it may be regarded as a default value agreed between the NSCCF device and the NSCCF device, for example, the "reporting address" may adopt a default address and port of the NSCCF device that are commonly used by the NSCCF device and the NSCCF device.

It should be understood that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the representation form of reporting the parameter set, for example, the parameter set may also be represented in the form of script or pseudo code, and RPC01 is represented as follows:

other representation forms of the RPC are not repeated in this embodiment.

Step 302: the NSCCF device sends a create PPRO request to the NSMF device, wherein the request comprises NSIId01 and RPC 01.

Step 303: the NSMF device returns a Create PPRO response to the NSCCF device, which contains PPROId 01.

This step is optional and the NSMF device may again respond to the create PPRO request at step 309.

Specifically, after the NSMF device receives the NSIId01 and the RPC01, it determines the PPRO that needs to be executed, assigns a unique identifier PPROId01 to the PPRO, and returns a create PPRO response to the NSCCF device, where the response includes the PPROId 01.

It should be understood that the PPROId01 may be assigned by the NSCCF device and returned to the NSCCF device by the PPRO response created in this step, or may be assigned by the NSCCF device or obtained by other means, and sent to the NSCCF device by the PPRO creation request of step 302, that is, the PPRO creation request of step 302 may include the PPROId01 assigned by the NSCCF device in addition to the nsid 01 and the RPC 01. The PPROId01 included in the created PPRO response may be used to manage (change, end, etc.) the corresponding PPRO subsequently, or may be used to indicate to the NSCCF device that the created PPRO request was successfully processed.

Step 304: the NSMF device determines that the start condition is met.

Specifically, the NSMF device determines that the current time is "20190101: 00:00: 00", and the start condition in RPC01 is satisfied.

In RPC01, the start condition is not limited to "reaching a certain time point", but may be other conditions, for example, "the network slice instance starts to be used" or "the user equipment accesses the network slice instance", the NSMF device may monitor the operation status of the network slice instance, and determine that the start condition is satisfied once the user equipment accesses the network slice instance. The determination that the start condition is satisfied by the NSMF device will be different depending on different start conditions in the RPC, and this embodiment of the present application is not described in detail herein.

Step 305: and the NSMF equipment starts to acquire data corresponding to the reported index.

Specifically, the NSMF device starts to acquire bandwidth data of the network slice instance corresponding to the NSIId01 according to the reported index (i.e., "bandwidth") in the RPC 01.

Step 306: the NSMF device sends a network slice NS charging initial request to the NSCF device, wherein the NS charging initial request comprises NSIId 01.

Specifically, the NSMF device determines that a charging session needs to be established between the NSMF device and the NSCF device according to the session reporting mode in the RPC01, so that data corresponding to a reporting index in the RPC01 can be reported based on the charging session, and further initiates an NS charging initial request to the NSCF device according to a reporting address 'http:// NSCF-ip: port' in the RPC01, wherein the NS initial request comprises NSIId01, so as to establish the charging session with the NSCF device. Optionally, the NS charging initiation request may further include "create session" indication information, which is used to instruct the NSCF device to create the charging session and assign a unique identifier of the charging session.

It should be understood that the "NS charging initiation request" is an exemplary message name, and that the message may be other names, such as "create charging session request," and the like.

Step 307: the NSCF device creates a charging session CS 01.

Specifically, the NSCF device receives the NS Charging initiation request and parses the NSIId01 therefrom, and creates a Charging Session (CS), such as CS01, and assigns a unique identity CSId01 to CS 01. Optionally, the NSCF device may further parse the indication information of "create session" from the NS charging initiation request, and create the CS01 according to the indication information. In case the NS charging initiation request does not contain indication information of "create session", the NSCF device may take the NS charging initiation request message name as a basis for creating the CS01, i.e. the NSCF device, upon receiving this message, establishes the charging session by default, assigns a charging session identity and returns the charging session identity in a response message. The NSCF device may also obtain information of a corresponding NSI from the NSMF device or another device according to the NSIId01, and determine that the charging session CS01 needs to be created according to the information of the NSI, such as the type of the NSI (e.g., an eMBB type). The embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

Step 308: the NSCF equipment returns an NS charging initial response to the NSMF equipment, wherein the NS charging initial response comprises the CSId 01.

The CSId01 may be used for the nsff device to report data corresponding to the reporting index to the NSCF device subsequently, or may be used for distinguishing reporting procedures or reporting operations corresponding to different NSIs in the nsff device, and is applicable to a case where one client has multiple NSIs or one PPRO needs to report data corresponding to the reporting indexes of multiple NSIs. In addition, CSId01 may also be used to indicate that the NS billing initiation request was successfully processed.

It should be understood that the CSId01 may be allocated by the NSCF device in step 307 and then returned to the nsff device via the NS charging initiation response of step 308, or may be allocated by the nsff device before step 306 and then sent to the NSCF device via the NS charging initiation request of step 306, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

It should be understood that step 305 may instead be performed after step 308, i.e.: the NSMF device may start to acquire data corresponding to the reporting index before establishing the charging session with the NSCF device, or may start to acquire data corresponding to the reporting index after establishing the charging session. The sequence of steps shown in fig. 3A is merely an example and not a time-sequential limitation.

Step 309: the NSMF device returns a PPRO creating response to the NSCCF device, wherein the PPRO creating response comprises the PPRO identification PPROId01 and the charging session identification CSId 01.

If the NSMF device responds to the Create PPRO request in step 303, this step may be omitted.

The NSMF device may include the PPROId01 and the CSId01 in the created PPRO response by two parameters, respectively, or may include one parameter in the created PPRO response. For example, a parameter or information that contains both a PPROId01 and a CSId01 may be referred to as "PPROId 01_ CSId01," where "comprising" means that the PPROId01 and the CSId01 may be parsed or read from the parameter or information. For example, assuming that a parameter is a string containing 64 characters, the first 32 characters correspond to the PPROId01 for uniquely identifying the PPRO itself, and the last 32 characters correspond to the CSId01 for uniquely identifying the charging session CS01 corresponding to the NSI, the nsff device may include the string of length 64 in the create PPRO response, and the NSCCF device may parse or read the first 32 characters from the string as the PPROId01 and the last 32 characters as the CSId 01.

Similar to step 303, the PPROId01 is used for subsequent management (change, end, etc.) of the corresponding PPRO, and may also be used to indicate that the request to create the PPRO was successfully processed. Since the create PPRO response also includes CSId01, the subsequent NSCCF device may initiate a management (change, end, etc.) instruction or a management message to the nsf device based on PPROId01 or based on CSId 01.

It should be understood that, in the case that only data corresponding to the performance index of an NSI (that is, the NSI corresponding to NSIId01) is reported to the NSCF device in the PPRO, the created PPRO response may not include CSId01, the NSCCF device may subsequently send a management instruction to the nsff device based on the PPROId01, and the nsff device may locally maintain the correspondence relationship between the PPROId and the CSId in advance, find the corresponding CSId01 from the PPROId01 according to the correspondence relationship, and initiate various charging messages to the NSCF device based on the CSId 01.

It should be understood that, when the PPRO reports data corresponding to performance indicators of multiple NSIs to the NSCF device, the created PPRO response may include a correspondence between the PPROId01 and multiple groups of NSIId and CSId (before that, the nsff device may initiate an NS charging initial request to the NSCF device for each NSI, so that the NSCF device creates a charging session for each NSI), for example, one created PPRO response may be:

therefore, when the NSCCF device needs to manage the reporting operation of a certain NSI, a management instruction or a management message may be initiated to the nsff device based on the corresponding CSId.

It should be understood that, when the PPRO reports data corresponding to the performance indicators of multiple NSIs to the NSCF device, the created PPRO response may not include the charging session identity CSId corresponding to each NSI. The NSCCF device may subsequently send a management instruction to the NSCCF device based on the identity NSIId of the network slice instance, and the NSCCF device may locally maintain a correspondence relationship between the NSIId and the CSId in advance, find a corresponding CSId from the NSIId according to the correspondence relationship, and initiate various charging messages to the NSCF device based on the CSId.

For the use of PPROId and CSId, refer to the description of steps 319, 322 and 327 and their related steps.

Step 310: and the NSMF equipment determines that the reporting condition is met.

The determination that the data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC needs to be reported to the NSCF device according to the reporting condition being satisfied by the NSMF device is one of implementation manners for determining that the data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC needs to be reported to the NSCF device (the other manner is determined according to a reporting instruction received from the NSCCF device, specifically refer to step 322, step 323, and the like).

Since the reporting condition in RPC01 is "reporting once every 5 minutes", the NSMF device may determine that the reporting condition is satisfied every 5 minutes. Therefore, the NSMF device can be a cycle timer with a reporting starting period of 5 minutes, and the reporting condition is met when the timing time is over.

In RPC01, the reporting condition is not limited to "periodic reporting", but may also be other conditions, for example, "delay exceeds 100 ms" (assuming that the reporting index in RPC01 is "delay"), the NSMF device needs to monitor the end-to-end delay of the NSI, and when the end-to-end delay exceeds 100ms, it is determined that the reporting condition is satisfied. The method for the NSMF device to determine that the reporting condition is satisfied will be different depending on the reporting condition in RPC01, which is not described in detail in this embodiment of the present application.

Step 311: the NSMF equipment sends an NS charging updating request to the NSCF equipment, wherein the NS charging updating request comprises CSId01, data pfmData 01 corresponding to a reporting index and a reporting reason rptRsn 01.

Specifically, the NSMF device obtains a sampling value pfmParData01 of a reporting index "bandwidth" according to an obtaining mode (that is, "obtain sampling value") in RPC01, and sends an NS charging update request to the NSCF device, where the NS charging update request includes CSId01, pfmParData01, and a reporting reason rptRsn01, and a value of rptRsn01 is "report condition is satisfied", which indicates that the NSMF device reports the sampling value of the bandwidth to the NSCF device when it is determined that the reporting condition is satisfied.

It should be appreciated that if the NS charging initial response in step 308 does not include the CSId01, the NS charging update request in this step may replace the CSId01 with NSIId01, and the NSCF device may use NSIId01 as the identity of the charging session CS 01. In the subsequent steps, CSId01 can be replaced by NSIId01, which will not be described in detail.

Optionally, the NSCF device may store the data corresponding to the reported indicator, and take the value of pfmParData01 as the storage address of the data corresponding to the reported indicator, or include the storage address of the data corresponding to the reported indicator in pfmParData01, and then send the data to the NSCF device according to the above process in this step.

Step 312: and the NSCF equipment performs charging processing.

Specifically, the NSCF device receives the NS charging update request, parses the CSId01, pfmParData01, and rptRsn01 from the NS charging update request, and performs charging processing based on the CSId01, pfmParData01, and rptRsn01, which may specifically be: and generating a charging ticket of the network slice example based on pfmPardata01, or calculating the use cost of the network slice example based on pfmPardata01 and the charging rule corresponding to the NSI. In this step, pfmParData01 is the sampling value (sampling value of bandwidth) corresponding to the reported index, but if the above-mentioned obtaining method takes other values, pfmParData01 may also be the statistical value corresponding to the reported index, or the sampling value of the reported index or the combination of the sampling value and the sampling time.

When pfmParData01 is a combination of a sampling value and sampling time of a reported index, the NSCF device may write each combination of the sampling value and the sampling time into an index sampling value charging ticket corresponding to NSIId01, and then perform cost calculation based on the index sampling value ticket; the NSCF equipment can also further determine a corresponding statistical time range and a statistical method, and perform statistics on the combination of a plurality of groups of sampling values and sampling time in the index sampling value charging ticket according to the statistical method to obtain a statistical value of the reported index, and then calculate the use cost of the network slice example corresponding to the NSIId01 by using the statistical value.

When the pfmParData01 is a statistical value of the reported index, the NSCF device may write the statistical value into an index statistical value ticket corresponding to the NSIId01, and then perform cost calculation based on the index statistical value ticket; the NSCF device may also use the statistical value to directly calculate the usage cost of the network slice instance corresponding to NSIId 01.

Table-2 shows the above-described billing process and corresponding exemplary applicable scenarios.

TABLE-2

Alternatively, the NSCF device may first obtain the relevant charging rule, and then calculate the usage cost of the network slice instance based on the charging rule and the statistical value. For example, if the charging rule configured by the operator for the network slice template is "cumulative end-to-end delay exceeds 50ms and is reduced by half for more than 10 monthly rents", the reporting index is "delay", and the statistical value is "11 times", the usage of the network slice instance is charged at a rate of 50%. Alternatively, the NSCF device may obtain the charging rules from the customer subscription information.

For the reporting reason, rptRsn01 indicates that the reporting condition is satisfied, and the billing system may not be triggered to output the corresponding billing bill.

It should be understood that the charging processing manner is different according to the difference between pfmParData01 and rptRsn01, which are reported, and the embodiments of the present application are not described herein again.

Optionally, when the storage address of the data corresponding to the reported index is included in pfmParData01 or the value of pfmParData01 is the storage address of the data corresponding to the reported index, the NSCF device may first obtain the data corresponding to the reported index according to the storage address, and then perform charging according to the above process in this step.

Step 313: the NSCF device returns an NS charging update response to the NSMF device.

Optionally, the NS charging update response may include information indicating that the NS charging update request is successfully processed, for example: "200 OK".

It should be understood that step 313 may be performed before step 312, and the order of steps shown in fig. 3A is merely an example and not a time-sequential limitation.

The process of step 310-step 313 is that the NSMF device autonomously reports the data corresponding to the performance index according to the reporting parameter in the RPC, and may be executed for multiple times; the NSMF device may determine the specific execution times according to the reporting parameters such as the start condition, the end condition, and the obtaining manner in the RPC01, for example, may determine the total execution times according to the start time in the start condition, the end time in the end condition, and the reporting period in the obtaining manner. Since the NSCCF device may manage (change or end) the PPRO during its execution, the determined execution times are not fixed, which may be specifically described in the following steps 319, 322, and 327 and their related steps.

Step 314: the NSMF device determines that an end condition is satisfied.

Specifically, the NSMF device may determine that the end condition is satisfied when the end condition is "20190331: 23:59:59 end" in RPC01, 31/3/2019, and 23:59: 59/31.

In RPC01, the reporting condition is not limited to "reaching a certain time point," and may be other conditions, for example, "a certain event occurs" (assuming that the reporting index in RPC01 is "time delay"), the method for the NSMF device to determine that the reporting condition is satisfied will be different, and this embodiment of the present application is not repeated herein.

In RPC01, the starting condition is not limited to "reaching a certain time point," but may be other conditions, for example, "a certain event occurs," and the method for the NSMF device to determine that the starting condition is satisfied is different, which is not described in detail in this embodiment of the present application.

Step 315: and the NSMF equipment sends an NS charging ending request to the NSCF equipment, wherein the NS charging ending request comprises CSId01 and data pfmData 02 corresponding to the reported index.

Specifically, the NSMF device determines that the PPRO needs to be ended according to the satisfaction of the end condition determined in step 314, where the determining includes sending an NS charging end request to the NSCF device, and stopping acquiring data corresponding to the reporting indicator in RPC01, where the NS charging end request includes CSId 01. When the NSMF device determines that data corresponding to the reporting index in RPC01 has not been reported, the data may be reported to the NSCF device before the PPRO is ended, and for this reason, pfmParData02 may be further included in the NS charging end request, and thus pfmParData02 is optional in the NS charging end request.

When data corresponding to reporting indexes corresponding to multiple NSIs in one PPRO needs to be reported, in order to ensure that charging of different NSIs is correct, the acquisition and reporting operations corresponding to different NSIs may be separately completed, that is: for multiple NSIs, the NSMF device may determine that the corresponding termination condition is met one by one, and then send an NS charging termination request to the NSCF device, where the NS charging termination request includes the corresponding CSId/NSIId, and stop obtaining data corresponding to the reporting index of the corresponding NSI.

The NSMF device determines that the PPRO needs to be ended according to the satisfaction of the ending condition in RPC01, which is one of the implementation manners of determining that the PPRO needs to be ended (the other manner is according to the request for deleting the PPRO or the ending instruction received from the NSCCF device, see steps 327 and 328, for details).

Step 316: the NSCF device performs the charging process and releases the charging session CS 01.

Specifically, the NSCF device receives the NS charging termination request in step 315, parses the charging session identifier CSId01 and the data pfmParData02 corresponding to the reported indicator from the NS charging termination request, and performs charging processing based on pfmParData02, specifically, referring to step 312, further determines a corresponding charging session CS01 according to the CSId01, and releases or recovers the computing resource corresponding to the CS 01.

It should be appreciated that since pfmParData02 is optional in the NS accounting end request in step 315, the accounting process performed by the NSCF device based on pfmParData02 will also be omitted when it does not occur in the NS accounting end request.

Since the NSCF device may simultaneously receive data corresponding to the performance indexes of multiple NSIs and perform charging processing in parallel, the CSId 01-based method specifically releases or recovers the computing resource, which is helpful for maintaining the stability of the charging processing transaction on the NSCF device and improving the availability and stability of the entire NSCF device.

Step 317: the NSCF equipment returns an NS charging ending response to the NSMF equipment.

Optionally, the NS accounting end response includes information indicating that the NS accounting end request is successfully processed, for example: "200 OK".

Step 318: and the NSMF equipment stops acquiring the data corresponding to the reported index.

Specifically, the NSMF device stops acquiring bandwidth data of the network slice instance corresponding to the NSIId 01.

It is understood that step 316 may also be performed after step 317 and step 318 may also be performed before step 315. The sequence of steps shown in fig. 3A is merely an example and not a time-sequential limitation.

The process of step 314-step 318 is that the NSCCF autonomously finishes reporting the data corresponding to the performance index according to the reporting parameter in the RPC, and the autonomous finishing mechanism can reduce the number of interactions between the NSCCF device and the nscmf device.

Step 319: the NSCCF device sends a change PPRO request to the NSMF device, wherein the change PPRO request comprises PPROId01 or CSId01 and RPC 011.

If only data corresponding to the performance index of one NSI is reported in the PPRO, the request for changing the PPRO may include the PPROId01 and the RPC011, or may include the CSId01 and the RPC011, which both indicate that the reporting parameter set of the reporting operation corresponding to the NSI is to be updated to RPC011, and the RPC011 is a reporting parameter set different from RPC 01;

if the PPRO reports data corresponding to performance indicators of multiple NSIs, the request for changing the PPRO may include the PPROId01 and the RPC011, which indicate that the reporting parameter sets of the reporting operations of the multiple NSIs need to be updated (assuming that the reporting operations of the multiple NSIs share the same reporting parameter set), or may include a correspondence between multiple sets of csids and RPCs or a correspondence between NSIId and RPC, which indicates that the reporting parameter sets need to be updated for the multiple NSIs, respectively. For example, one change PPRO request may be:

or the following steps:

it should be understood that the NSCCF device may determine that the RPC in the PPRO needs to be changed before this step, for example, the NSCCF device may determine that the RPC in the PPRO needs to be changed based on a change in the customer subscription information, a change in the operator charging policy, and the like.

Step 320: the NSMF device updates the RPC and executes the PPRO based on the new RPC.

Specifically, the NSMF device receives the request for changing the PPRO, parses the PPROId01/CSId01 and RPC011 from the request, updates the RPC corresponding to the reporting operation corresponding to the PPROId01 or CSId01 with the RPC011, and executes the reporting operation based on the updated RPC, where the specific reporting operation may refer to the processes of step 310 to step 318.

Step 321: the NSMF device returns a Change PPRO response to the NSCCF device.

Optionally, the response to change PPRO may include information indicating that the request to change PPRO was successfully processed, for example: "200 OK".

It is understood that step 321 may be performed before step 321.

The process of step 319 to step 321 is an optional process, and is a process in which the NSMF device passively changes the PPRO, and will affect or change the reporting process determined according to RPC01, for example, the number of reporting times, time interval, and the like will be changed.

Step 322: the NSCCF equipment sends a PPRO changing request to the NSMF equipment, wherein the PPRO changing request comprises PPROId01 or CSId01, and an immediate reporting indication rptImd.

If only data corresponding to the performance index of one NSI is reported in the PPRO, the request for changing the PPRO may include the PPROId01 and the rptImd, or may include the CSId01 and the rptImd, both of which indicate that the data corresponding to the performance index of the NSI needs to be reported to the NSCF device;

if the PPRO reports data corresponding to the performance indexes of the NSIs, the request for changing the PPRO may include the PPROId01 and the rptImd indicating that the data corresponding to the performance indexes of the NSIs needs to be reported to the NSCF device, or may include the csids and the rptImd or the nsilds and the rptImd indicating that the data corresponding to the performance indexes of the NSIs corresponding to the csids or the nsilds needs to be reported to the NSCF device. For example, one change PPRO request may be:

the method is used for reporting data corresponding to NSI reporting indexes of which charging session identifications are csid01, csid02 and csid03 to NSCF equipment, wherein csid01, csid02 and csid03 correspond to NSI respectively.

Or the following steps:

the method is used for reporting data corresponding to the reporting indexes corresponding to all NSIs in the PPRO corresponding to the PPROId01 to the NSCF equipment.

Or the following steps:

and the data corresponding to the reporting indexes of the NSI with the network slice instance identifiers of nsid 01, nsid 02 and nsid 03 are reported to the NSCF equipment.

It should be understood that the NSCCF device may determine that the nsf device is required to report the data corresponding to the performance index of the NSI to the NSCF device before this step, for example, the NSCCF device may make the above determination based on the demand of the query bill temporarily made by the client, the demand of the output bill temporarily made by the operator, and the like.

It should be understood that the immediate reporting indication rptImd may also be embodied by a message name, that is, if the request message name in this step is changed to another name, so that an indication to be immediately reported (or an indication to be immediately reported is embodied by default), the request message may not carry the rptImd.

Step 323: the NSMF device sends an NS charging update request to the NSCF device, wherein the NS charging update request comprises CSId01, pfmData 03 and rptRsn 02.

Specifically, the NSMF device determines that data corresponding to the reporting index in the RPC needs to be reported to the NSCF device according to a reporting instruction (rptImd) sent by the NSCCF device, and sends the NS charging update request to the NSCF device, wherein the NS charging update request includes CSId01 and pfmProData 03he rptRn 02. The procedure is similar to step 311, but pfmParData03 is different from pfmParData01 (data corresponding to the performance index of the NSI at different times), and the reporting reason rptRsn02 is different from rptRsn01, which is "NSCCF device triggering".

The NSMF determines that the data corresponding to the RPC reporting index needs to be reported to the NSCF device according to the rptImd received from the NSCCF device, which is one implementation manner for determining that the data corresponding to the RPC reporting index needs to be reported to the NSCF device (the other manner is to determine that the reporting condition in the RPC is met, specifically refer to step 310 and the like).

It should be understood that the NS charging update request in this step has the same message name as the NS charging update request in step 311, so that the NSCF device can distinguish the reason for triggering reporting of the data corresponding to the reported indicator (referred to as reporting reason for short), and perform different charging processes according to the different reporting reasons (for example, when the reporting reason is "met by the reporting condition", the charging process performed by the NSCF device is to write the data corresponding to the reported indicator into the charging ticket, and when the reporting reason is "triggered by the NSCCF device", the charging process performed by the NSCF device is to write the data corresponding to the reported indicator into the charging ticket and trigger the system to output a bill), and the two bill messages carry rptRsn01 and rptrn 02, respectively; however, if the two messages use different names, so that the reason for triggering reporting can be distinguished by the message names, rptsn 01 and rptsn 02 may not be carried in the two messages.

Step 324: and the NSCF equipment performs charging processing.

Specifically, the NSCF device receives the NS charging update request, parses the CSId01, pfmParData03, and rptRsn02 from the NS charging update request, and performs charging processing based on the CSId01, pfmParData03, and rptRsn02, for example, the pfmParData03 (bandwidth sampling value) is recorded in a charging ticket corresponding to the CSId01, and the rptRsn02 is "NSCCF device triggered" for reporting reason, which means that a corresponding bill charging needs to be output, so the NSCF device may trigger the charging system to output a charging bill. The NSCF device may also further calculate the cost of the corresponding network slice instance by combining with a charging rule (including data corresponding to the network slice performance index, such as a statistical value thereof, and a corresponding relationship with a charging method) determined between the client and the operator when subscribing. The NSCF device may obtain the charging rule corresponding to the corresponding network slice instance from the subscription entity or the NSCCF device. The NSCF device may also store the charging rules in a persistent storage medium to continue using the charging rules after a reboot or failure recovery.

According to the difference between the reported pfmParData03 and rptRsn02, the charging processing manner is different, and the embodiment of the present application is not described in detail herein.

Step 325: the NSCF device returns an NS charging update response to the NSMF device.

It is understood that step 324 may be performed after step 325.

Step 326: the NSMF device returns a Change PPRO response to the NSCCF device.

The process of step 322 to step 326 is an optional process, and is a process in which the NSMF device passively reports data corresponding to the performance index of the NSI.

Step 327: the NSCCF device sends a PPRO delete request to the NSMF device, wherein the PPRO delete request comprises the PPROId01 or the CSId 01.

If only the data corresponding to the performance index of one NSI is reported in the PPRO, the request for deleting the PPRO may include the PPROId01 or the CSId01, which both indicate that the reporting operation of the NSI is to be ended;

if the PPRO reports data corresponding to the performance indicators of the multiple NSIs, the request for deleting the PPRO may include the PPROId01 indicating that the reporting operation of the multiple NSIs is to be ended, or may include multiple csids or nsidd indicating that the reporting operation of the NSIs corresponding to the csids or nsidd needs to be ended. For example, a delete PPRO request may be:

DeletePPRORequest{

"CSIIdList":"csid01|csid02|csid03"

}

the identifiers used for indicating the ending of the charging session are respectively csid01, csid02 and csid03 in the reporting process (including the acquisition and reporting of data corresponding to the reporting indexes), and csid01, csid02 and csid03 respectively correspond to an NSI.

Or the following steps:

DeletePPRORequest{

"PPROId":"PPROId01"

}

and the method is used for finishing the acquisition and reporting operations of the data corresponding to the reporting indexes corresponding to all the NSIs in the PPRO corresponding to the PPROId 01.

Or the following steps:

DeletePPRORequest{

"NSIIdList":"nsiid01|nsiid02|nsiid03"

}

which is used to indicate that the reporting process (including the acquisition and reporting of data corresponding to the reporting index) corresponding to the NSI with network slice instance identifiers nsid 01, nsid 02, and nsid 03 is finished.

It should be understood that the NSCCF device may determine that the nsf device is required to end the NSI reporting operation before this step, for example, the NSCCF device may make the above determination based on the account balance of the customer and subscription change.

Step 328: and the NSMF equipment sends an NS charging ending request to the NSCF equipment, wherein the NS charging ending request comprises the CSId01 and data pfmData 04 corresponding to the reported index.

This step is similar to step 315, with pfmParData04 also being optional. The NSMF device determines that the PPRO needs to be terminated according to the PPRO deletion request in step 327 (or may include indication information of "terminate PPRO" in the message, so that the determination may be made according to the indication information).

When data corresponding to a reporting index corresponding to a plurality of NSIs in a PPRO needs to be reported, in order to improve the control strength of the NSCCF device on the NSMF device with respect to the PPRO, the NSMF device may perform the following processing:

in step 327, in case that the request for deleting the PPRO includes an identifier of the PPRO (e.g., the PPROId01), the nsff device may end the acquiring and reporting operations corresponding to the multiple NSIs, that is, send multiple NS charging end requests to the NSCF device, where each NS charging end request includes a corresponding CSId/NSIId, and stop acquiring data corresponding to the reporting indexes of the multiple NSIs;

in step 327, the request to delete the PPRO includes a single charging session identifier (e.g., CSId01) or a single network slice instance identifier (e.g., NSIId01), the nsff device may end the acquiring and reporting operation corresponding to the NSI corresponding to the single charging session identifier or the single network slice instance identifier, that is, send an NS charging end request to the NSCF device, where the NS charging end request includes the corresponding CSId/NSIId, and stop acquiring data corresponding to the reporting indicator of the corresponding NSI, where the acquiring and reporting operations corresponding to other NSIs in the PPRO are not affected. If multiple charging session identifications or multiple network slice instance identifications are contained in the request for deleting the PPRO in step 327, the above operations are respectively performed on the charging session identifications or the network slice instance identifications one by one.

The NSMF device determines that the PPRO needs to be ended according to the PPRO deletion request or the "PPRO end" instruction information sent by the NSCCF device, which is one implementation manner of determining that the PPRO needs to be ended (another manner is that an end condition in RPC01 is satisfied, specifically, refer to steps 314 and 315).

Step 329: the NSCF device performs the charging process and releases the charging session CS 01.

This step is similar to step 316, and the charging process based on pfmParData04 is also optional.

Step 330: the NSCF device sends an NS charging end response to the NSMF device.

This step is similar to step 317

Step 331: and the NSMF equipment stops acquiring the data corresponding to the reported index.

This step is similar to step 318.

It is to be understood that step 331 may be performed before step 328 and step 329 may be performed after step 330.

Step 332: the NSMF device returns a delete PPRO response to the NSCCF device.

Optionally, the delete PPRO response may include information indicating that the delete PPRO request was successfully processed, for example: "200 OK".

It should be understood that the names of the above-mentioned messages, such as create PPRO request/response, update PPRO request/response, delete PPRO request/response, NS charging initial request/response, NS charging update request/response, NS charging end request/response, etc., are exemplary message names, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit the names of these messages. For example, the "create PPRO request/response" and the "update PPRO request/response" … … may be replaced with the "first PPRO management request/response" and the "second PPRO management request/response" … …, and the "NS charging initial request/response" and the "NS charging update request/response" … … may be replaced with the "first charging request/response" and the "second charging request/response" … ….

The method for charging network resources corresponding to fig. 3A enables the NSCCF device to issue a reporting operation for a single NSI (reporting data corresponding to a performance index of one NSI in one PPRO), or to issue a reporting operation for multiple NSIs (reporting data corresponding to performance indexes of multiple NSIs in one PPRO) to the nsff device for execution, and may manage a part of the PPRO (for a reporting process of one NSI) by using the PPRO as a granularity, or by using the NSI or a charging session as a granularity, thereby improving the control of the NSCCF device in charging a network slice instance. In addition, the NSMF device and the NSCF device report (receive) based on the session, and the NSMF device and/or the NSCF device (any one or both of the NSMF device and the NSCF device) can reuse computing resources among different reporting operations, so that the time for creating corresponding computing resources is saved, and the operation efficiency of the NSMF device and/or the NSCF device is improved.

In addition to the session reporting mode, an independent reporting mode may also be adopted, which may be specifically referred to in fig. 3B.

Fig. 3B is a flowchart of another method for performing charging processing on network resources according to the embodiment of the present application, and compared with the method flowchart in fig. 3A, in the method flowchart, an independent reporting manner is adopted between the nsff device and the NSCF device for reporting, which specifically includes the following steps:

step 350-step 354: similar to steps 301-305, are not described in detail. The reporting mode value in the RPC02 determined in step 350 is "independent reporting".

Step 355-step 358: compared with the process of step 310-step 313, the difference is that the NS charging request of step 356 replaces the charging session identifier CSId01 in the NS charging update request of step 311 with the identifier NSIId02 of the network slice instance, the NSMF device sends the NS charging request to the NSCF device each time, the NSCF device creates or allocates a new computing resource for charging processing and the like, and accordingly, after the charging processing is performed by the NSCF, the newly created or allocated computing resource is also released or recycled in time after the charging processing is completed.

Step 359-step 361: the difference compared to the procedure of step 319-step 321 is that the charging session identity CSId01 in the change PPRO request of step 319 is replaced by the identity NSIId02 of the network slice instance in the change PPRO request of step 359.

Step 362-step 366: compared to the procedure of step 322-step 326, the difference is that in the change PPRO request of step 356, the charging session identity CSId01 in the change PPRO request of step 322 is replaced by the identity NSIId02 of the network slice instance; in the NS charging request of step 363, the charging session identity CSId01 in the NS charging update request of step 323 is replaced with the identity NSIId02 of the network slice instance; and accordingly, the NSCF device creates new computing resources for receiving the NS charging request and performing charging processing (rather than reusing previously created or allocated computing resources).

Step 367 to step 372: compared with the process from step 327 to step 332, the difference is that: in the request for deleting the PPRO of step 367, the charging session identifier CSId01 in the request for deleting the PPRO of step 327 is replaced by the identifier NSIId02 of the network slice instance; in the NS charging request of step 368, the charging session identity CSId01 in the NS charging update request of step 328 is replaced with the identity NSIId02 of the network slice instance; and accordingly, the NSCF device need not perform the operation of releasing the charging session. Optionally, step 368 may further include reporting a reason rptRsn05, which is "report end", to instruct the NSCF device to perform a charging process for response, such as triggering a billing system to output a bill.

The method for performing charging processing on network resources corresponding to fig. 3B enables reporting (receiving) to be performed between the NSMF device and the NSCF device in an independent reporting manner, and the NSMF device and/or the NSCF device can release or recover computing resources in time after each reporting is completed, so that occupation of excessive computing resources in the NSMF device and/or the NSCF device when there are many network slice instances is avoided, and improvement of availability and stability of the NSMF device and/or the NSCF device is facilitated.

In order to improve the management efficiency, the RPC may be shared among reporting operations corresponding to multiple network slice instances, and therefore, a reporting parameter set template RPCT may be maintained between the NSCCF device and the nsff device for subsequent reuse. Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method for managing a reporting parameter set template according to an embodiment of the present application, where an RPCT management client may be the NSCCF device 101 in fig. 1 or another device, and an RPCT management server may be the nsf device 103 in fig. 1 or another device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. The method specifically comprises the following steps:

step 401: the RPCT management client sends a RPCT creation request to the RPCT management server, wherein the RPCT to be created is carried.

It is understood that RPCT is also an RPC in nature.

Step 402: the RPCT management server stores the RPCT.

Specifically, the RPCT management server receives a plurality of RPCT creation requests, analyzes the RPCT to be created from the RPCT, assigns a unique identifier RPCTId to the RPCT, and stores the RPCT to be created.

Step 403: and the RPCT management server returns a RPCT creating response to the RPCT management client, wherein the RPCT creating response comprises the RPCTId.

The subsequent RPCT management client, for example, the NSCCF device may only send the RPCTId to the nsff device, instead of sending the entire RPCT corresponding to the RPCTId, which may improve the efficiency of information transmission between the NSCCF device and the nsff device.

The RPCTId may also be configured to indicate to an RPCT management client that the create RPCT request was successfully processed, the RPCT having been validated at the RPCT management server.

Step 404: and the RPCT management client sends an RPCT updating request to the RPCT management server, wherein the RPCT updating request carries RPCTId and RPCTUpdtInfo.

Wherein, RPCTId is used for determining the existing RPCT, and RPCTUpdtInfo is used for updating the reporting parameters in the existing RPCT.

It should be understood that, before this step, the RPCT management client may determine that the RPCT needs to be updated, for example, the RPCT management client may make the above determination according to the change of the billing policy uniformly established by the operator. For example, as the network bandwidth capability provided by an operator increases, the bandwidth constraint in the RPCT for the eMBB type NSI may be adjusted upward, so that the NSMF device performs the reporting operation for the type NSI, and the adjusted bandwidth constraint is uniformly used.

Step 405: the RPCT management server updates the RPCT.

Specifically, the RPCT management server receives the RPCT updating request, analyzes the RPCTId and the RPCTUpdtInfo from the RPCT updating request, and updates the reporting parameters in the RPCT corresponding to the RPCTId according to the RPCTUpdtInfo.

Step 406: and the RPCT management server returns an RPCT updating response to the RPCT management client.

Optionally, the update RPCT response may include information indicating that the update RPCT request is successfully processed, for example: "200 OK".

It should be understood that the updating of the RPCT may not affect the reporting operation that has been performed based on the RPCT before the updating.

To ensure that the RPCT content on different RPCT management clients is consistent, an RPCT management client or an RPCT management server may broadcast a message to other RPCT management clients that the RPCT has been updated.

Step 407: and the RPCT management client sends an RPCT deletion request to the RPCT management server, wherein the RPCT deletion request carries RPCTId.

It should be understood that, before this, the RPCT management client may determine that the RPCT needs to be deleted, for example, according to the unified planning of the operator, when a certain charging rule is no longer applicable to any network slice, its corresponding RPCT may be deleted.

Here, the name of the delete RPCT request message may be regarded as a delete instruction for instructing the RPCT management server to delete the RPCT corresponding to the RPCTId. If the deletion request RPCT request message is changed to another name, the RPCT management client may also include a deletion indication in the request message.

Step 408: the RPCT management server deletes the RPCT.

Specifically, the RPCT management server receives the RPCT deletion request, parses the RPCTId from the request, and searches and deletes the RPCT corresponding to the RPCTId according to the deletion request.

To ensure that the RPCT is no longer used, an RPCT management client or an RPCT management server may broadcast a message to other RPCT management clients that the RPCT has been deleted.

Step 409: and the RPCT management server returns a RPC deletion response to the RPCT management client.

Optionally, the delete RPCT response may include information indicating that the delete RPCT request is successfully processed, for example: "200 OK".

The corresponding method flow of fig. 4 enables the NSCCF device and the nsff device to have a commonly understood and identified RPCT, which is convenient for use when the NSCCF device issues the PPRO.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of another method for performing charging processing on network resources according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method is implemented based on the architecture shown in fig. 1, where an NSCCF device corresponds to NSCCF device 101 in fig. 1 (including a function of an RPCT management client shown in fig. 4), an NSMF device corresponds to NSMF device 103 in fig. 1 (including a function of an RPCT management server shown in fig. 4), and an NSCF device corresponds to NSCF device 102 in fig. 1. The method flow explains how NSCCF equipment and NSMF equipment use the RPCT which is maintained in advance to establish and execute PPRO by a more specific example, and specifically comprises the following steps:

step 501: and the NSCCF equipment determines the identification RPCTId of the RPCT corresponding to the NSI and the special reporting parameter specRP of the NSI.

Specifically, the NSCCF device may determine the RPCT or corresponding RPCTId applicable to the NSI according to the network slice type of the NSI or other charging factors. For example, the NSCCF device may locally store a table of network slice types to rpctids, as shown in table 2, to determine the corresponding RPCTId according to the network slice type corresponding to the NSI.

TABLE 2

Network slice type	RPCT
		eMBB	RPCTId01
uRLLC	RPCTId02
		mMTC	RPCTId03

Specifically, the NSCCF device may determine, according to the subscription information of the client, a specRP, which is a reporting parameter specific to the NSI and includes, but is not limited to, the start condition and/or the end condition in the RPC.

Step 502: and the NSCCF equipment sends a PPRO creating request to the NSMF equipment, wherein the PPRO creating request comprises the NSIId, the RPCTId and the specRP.

Step 503: and the NSMF equipment forms RPC corresponding to the PPRO according to the RPCTId and the specRP.

Specifically, the NSMF equipment receives the PPRO creating request, parses the NSIId, the RPCTId and the specRP from the PPRO creating request, and forms an RPC corresponding to the PPRO to be created or executed based on the RPCTId and the specRP. For example, the NSMF device retrieves a locally stored corresponding RPCT according to the RPCTId, and combines the specRP with the RPCT to form the RPC. Examples are as follows:

one RPCT is:

the value is a to-be-determined reporting parameter, and the value needs to be determined by combining with a special reporting parameter specRP of the NSI.

One specRP is:

wherein, the value is the field of the reference template, and the value needs to be determined by combining the reporting parameters in the corresponding RPCT.

The NSMF device can combine the two to form an RPC as follows:

the NSMF device may store RPC03 to continue to execute PPRO according to RPC03 after the NSMF device reboots or fails over, and to enable execution of the PPRO to be unaffected by RPCT changes (see fig. 4 for changes to the method flow).

Step 504: and the NSMF equipment acquires and reports data corresponding to the performance index of the NSI according to the RPC.

This step can be seen in the process of steps 304-318.

Step 505: the NSCCF device changes or ends execution of the PPRO.

This step may be referred to as the process of step 319-322.

The method flow corresponding to fig. 5 enables the NSCCF device to send the RPCTId to the nscmf device without sending the entire RPCT corresponding to the RPCTId, so that the efficiency of information transmission between the NSCCF device and the nscmf device can be improved, and the improvement of the unified management and control capability of the NSCCF device in RPC use is facilitated.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of another charging system architecture provided in this embodiment of the present application, in order to add a subscription entity 604 (other devices correspond to the devices with the same numbers in fig. 1) on the basis of the charging system architecture diagram shown in fig. 1, the functions of the schematic diagram are described as follows:

the subscribing entity 604: the network slice subscription method includes receiving a network slice subscription request from a client, notifying the nscmf device 103 of opening a network slice instance, and sending subscription information and information of the network slice instance to the NSCCF device 101, so that it may determine a reporting parameter set RPC of a performance index reporting operation PPRO for the network slice instance NSI. The ordering entity 604 is a functional module, and may be deployed in a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) server, or may be deployed in other devices.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart of another method for performing charging processing on network resources according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method is implemented based on the architecture shown in fig. 6, where: the NSCCF device corresponds to NSCCF device 101 in fig. 6, the NSCCF device corresponds to nsf device 103 in fig. 6, and the subscription entity corresponds to subscription entity 604 in fig. 6. In the process of the method, NSCCF equipment is responsible for determining a reporting parameter set (RPC) of a PPRO according to information provided by an ordering entity, NSMF equipment is responsible for executing the PPRO according to the RPC to report data corresponding to a network slice performance index to NSCF equipment so that the NSCF equipment performs charging processing based on the data, and the method specifically comprises the following steps:

step 701: a subscription entity receives a network slice subscription request from a client.

Specifically, a customer (assumed to be identified as "1381234567") may submit a network slice ordering request to an ordering entity through a terminal (such as a mobile phone terminal, a laptop, etc., through a browser, or through other channels), where the ordering request includes information about the customer's requirement for network performance of a network slice, and the information may include a type of the network slice, a requirement for a network slice performance index, and the like.

The subscribing entity may provide a variety of network slice types for display on the client terminal for selection by the client, for example, the subscribing entity may provide: three types, namely an eMBB type (few devices but large bandwidth requirement), a uRLLC type (requiring extremely small end-to-end delay), and an mMTC type (small bandwidth but large number of devices) are selected by a client.

When a customer orders a network slice instance, a constraint of the network slice performance indicator (the value may be a specific value or a range value) may be further specified. For example: the client selects an eMBB type network slice, and may further specify that the bandwidth of the network slice instance is higher than 1000G; the client selects a network slice of the urrllc type, and may further specify that the maximum latency of the network slice instance is below 5 milliseconds; the client selects an eMTC type network slice, and may further specify that the number of concurrent PDU sessions for that network slice instance is above 100 ten thousand. The "bandwidth", "maximum delay" and "number of concurrent PDU sessions" are all network slice performance indicators.

It should be understood that when the network performance of a network slice needs to be described by multiple indexes, the client may specify the constraint condition corresponding to each network slice performance index. For convenience of description, the embodiments of the present application take an index as an example for illustration.

Optionally, to enhance the customer experience, the ordering entity may also provide a network slice template for selection by the customer or as a basis for customer modification. A certain network slice type can have a plurality of network slice templates, and each network slice template has a preset constraint condition of a network slice performance index. For example, one network slice template may be:

the client may select the template, and modify the network slicing requirements matching the services developed by the client based on the template, for example, the modification is:

further, the client confirms the charging rule corresponding to the network slice instance. The charging rule comprises a charging method corresponding to the statistic value of the network slice performance index. For different statistical values, the following are given as examples:

(1) the statistical value is the condition of the standard reaching degree: for example, regarding the network slice performance index of "bandwidth", the constraint specified by the client is that "average monthly bandwidth reaches 100M/s", and its actual average value is "88M/s", then the compliance level is 88/100 ═ 0.88, then 0.88 is the compliance level of the index of "bandwidth"; table 3 shows exemplary correspondence between the degree of compliance and the charging method.

TABLE 3

In addition to the above form, the correspondence between the standard reaching degree and the charging method may be in the form of an expression, a formula, or a function, but it is also a mapping relationship or a correspondence in nature.

(2) The statistical value is the condition of time length which does not reach the standard: for example, regarding the end-to-end delay as a network slice performance index, the constraint condition specified by the client is "less than 5ms in the whole course", and the duration of the actually occurring end-to-end delay greater than 5ms (not meeting the standard) is accumulated to reach 100 hours, and then the 100 hours is the non-meeting time; the corresponding relationship between the substandard duration and the charging method may be as shown in table-4.

TABLE 4

Similarly, the corresponding relationship between the duration not meeting the standard and the charging method may also be in the form of an expression, a formula or a function.

(3) The statistical value is the situation of the number of times of non-standard accumulation: for example, regarding the end-to-end delay as a network slice performance index, the constraint condition specified by the client should be "less than 5ms in the whole course", and the occurrence frequency of the actual occurrence of the end-to-end delay greater than 5ms is accumulated to reach 60 times, and then the 60 times are the non-standard accumulation frequency; the corresponding relationship between the non-standard cumulative frequency and the charging method may be similar to the corresponding relationship between the standard degree and the charging method, and will not be described again.

The above charging rules are only schematic, and the embodiments of the present application do not exclude other charging rules for charging based on the value of the network slice performance index.

After the client confirms the charging rules, selects the subscription period (i.e. the usage time range or charging period of the network slice instance, typically a time period), the subscription entity may create and store network slice subscription information, such as:

the value of the "charging rule" field may be a text string obtained by converting the charging rule (for example, the content of table 3), and the text string may be in an XML (Extensible Markup Language) format, a JSON (JavaScript object notation) format, or other text format, or may be a computer executable script, or may be binary format data obtained by converting the charging rule. The present embodiment is not limited to this.

It should be understood that, the subsequent NSCF device may perform charging processing on the corresponding network slice instance according to the charging rule, and for this reason, the subscription entity may provide (e.g., send, file share, etc.) the charging rule to the NSCF device, or after the subscription entity provides the charging rule to the NSCCF device, the NSCCF device may provide (e.g., send, file share, etc.) the charging rule to the NSCF device; due to the different network slice instances, whose charging rules may be different, the subscription entity and/or the NSCCF device may provide a correspondence of the identity of the network slice instance to the charging rules.

It should be noted that the client described in the embodiment of the present application may be an industry client or an enterprise client having a plurality of user devices, such as a shared bicycle enterprise, a taxi company, or the like, or may be a natural person client, and for convenience of description, the embodiment of the present application is referred to as a client.

Step 702: the subscribing entity notifies the NSMF device to open the network slicing service.

Specifically, the subscription entity may send an open slice service notification to the NSMF device, where the open slice service notification may include the slice type and the constraint condition in the network slice subscription information, so that the NSMF device creates a network slice instance that meets the customer requirements.

Optionally, the provisioning slicing service notification may further include a client identifier, so that the NSMF device may subsequently establish a correspondence between the created network slice instance and the client identifier.

Step 703: the NSMF device creates a network slice instance for the customer.

Specifically, the NSMF device receives the above-mentioned notification of opening the network slice from the subscription entity, creates a corresponding network slice instance according to the network slice type and the constraint condition in the notification, and assigns a unique identifier, that is, a network slice instance identifier to the network slice instance.

Alternatively, the NSMF device may assign the newly created network slice instance to the client, that is, establish a correspondence between the network slice instance identifier and the client identifier.

It should be understood that the NSMF device may also check whether a network slice instance already exists in the network that can meet the customer's needs, and if it is determined that a network slice instance already exists and the network slice instance can be allocated to the customer, the NSMF device may directly allocate the already existing network slice instance to the customer directly, so that the process of creating a new network slice instance may be omitted.

Optionally, the NSMF device may obtain the client identifier from the network slice notification message.

Step 704: the NSMF device returns information of the network slice instance to the subscribing entity.

Specifically, the NSMF device may return a provisioning network slice response to the subscription entity, where the response may include information indicating that the creation of the network slice is successful and information of the network slice instance, where the information may include an identifier of the network slice instance, a creation time of the network slice instance, and a current state (e.g., created, activated, etc.) of the network slice instance.

Step 705: the subscription entity sends network slice subscription information and information of network slice instances to the NSCCF device.

Specifically, the subscription entity may send a subscription information notification to the NSCCF device, where the notification includes the network slice subscription information described in step 701 and the information of the network slice instance described in step 704.

The above steps 704 and 705 may be understood as that the nscmf device sends information of the network slice instance to the NSCCF device through the subscription entity. Optionally, the NSMF device may also directly send information of the network slice instance to the NSCCF device, such as: identification of the network slice instance, network slice instance creation time, current state of the network slice instance (e.g., created, activated, etc.), and so forth.

Step 706: the NSCCF equipment determines a reporting parameter set RPC of a PPRO aiming at the performance index reporting operation of the NSI.

Specifically, after receiving the network slice subscription information and the information of the network slice instance, the NSCCF device may determine, according to the network slice subscription information and the information of the network slice instance, a reporting parameter in a reporting parameter set RPC of the PPRO, for example: the reporting index in the RPC can be determined according to the slice type and/or the constraint condition in the network slice ordering information, the reporting condition and the obtaining mode in the RPC can be determined according to the constraint condition and/or the charging rule in the network slice ordering information, and the starting condition in the RPC can be determined according to the network slice instance creating time.

For example, if the subscription information is:

then RPC can be determined to be:

the reporting address can be a parameter configured in advance.

Step 707: the NSCCF device sends the identity of the NSI and the RPC to the nsff device.

This step is similar to step 302.

Step 708: the NSMF device executes PPRO for NSI according to RPC.

The content of this step is referred to the procedure from step 304 to step 332.

The method flow diagram shown in fig. 7 enables the NSCCF device to determine the RPC of the PPRO based on the subscription information of the client and/or the information of the network slice instance, so that the entire charging system (including the NSCCF device, the NSMF device, and the NSCF device, etc.) can better meet the personalized charging requirements of different clients and different NSIs.

Fig. 8 is a hardware structure diagram of an NSCCF device or an NSMF device according to an embodiment of the present application. All NSCCF devices (e.g., 101 in fig. 1 and 6), all NSCCF devices (e.g., 103 in fig. 1 and 6), and all NSCCF devices (e.g., 102 in fig. 1 and 6) in embodiments of the present application may employ the general-purpose computer hardware shown in fig. 8, which includes a processor 801, a memory 802, a bus 803, an input device 804, an output device 805, and a network interface 806, where the input device 804 and the output device 805 are optional.

In particular, the memory 802 may include computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory and/or random access memory. Memory 802 may store an operating system, application programs, other program modules, executable code, and program data.

The input device 804 may be used to input information, which is convenient for a system administrator to operate and manage the NSCCF device, the NSMF device, or the NSCF device, for example, to configure a default reporting parameter set RPC on the NSCCF device, configure an address of the default NSCF device on the NSMF device, and the like, and the input device 804 may be a keyboard or a pointing device, such as a mouse, a trackball, a touch pad, a microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a satellite tv antenna, a scanner, or the like. These input devices may be connected to the processor 801 by a bus 803.

Output device 805 may be used to output information to facilitate operation and management of the NSCCF, NSMF, or NSCCF devices by a system administrator, etc., and in addition to a monitor, output device 805 may provide other peripheral outputs such as speakers and/or printing devices, which may also be connected to processor 801 via bus 803.

The NSCCF device, the NSMF device, or the NSCF device may be connected to a Network, such as a Local Area Network (LAN), through a Network interface 806. In a networked environment, computer-executable instructions stored in the devices may be stored in remote memory storage devices, and are not limited to local storage.

For a NSCCF device, when the processor 801 therein executes an executable code or application stored in the memory 802, the NSCCF device may perform the method steps corresponding to the NSCCF device in all the above embodiments, such as steps 201, 202, 301, 351, 401, 501, and 706; for specific execution, reference is made to the above embodiments, which are not described herein again.

For the NSMF device, when the processor 801 executes the executable code or application stored in the memory 802, the NSMF device may perform the method steps corresponding to the NSMF device in all the above embodiments, such as steps 204, 208, 304, 353, 402, 503, and 708; for specific execution, reference is made to the above embodiments, which are not described herein again.

For an NSCF device, when the processor 801 therein executes the executable code or application stored in the memory 802, the NSCF device may perform the method steps corresponding to the NSCF device in all the above embodiments, such as steps 205, 307, 329, 364, 402, 504, etc.; for specific execution, reference is made to the above embodiments, which are not described herein again.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of an NSCCF device provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the NSCCF device includes:

a determining module 901, configured to determine a reporting parameter set RPC, where the RPC includes at least one reporting parameter, where the reporting parameter is used to describe content of a performance index reporting operation PPRO, where the PPRO includes obtaining data corresponding to a network slice performance index of a network slice instance NSI and reporting the data to a network slice charging function NSCF device, and a specific execution process refers to a description of steps at an NSCCF device side in the foregoing embodiment, such as steps 201, 301, 350, 401, 501, and 706.

A sending module 902, configured to send the identifier of the NSI and the RPC to an NSMF device, so as to instruct the NSMF device to execute the PPRO according to the identifier of the NSI and the RPC, where a specific execution process refers to a step specification at the NSCCF device side in the foregoing embodiment, such as steps 202, 302, 351, 502, and the like.

In this embodiment, the NSCCF device is presented in the form of a functional module. A "module" as used herein may refer to an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and/or other devices that provide the described functionality. In a simple embodiment, one skilled in the art will recognize that the NSCCF device may also take the form shown in fig. 8. The determining module 901 and the sending module 902 can be implemented by the processor 801 and the memory 802 in fig. 8. For example, the function of the determining module 901 to determine the reporting parameter set RPC of the performance indicator reporting operation PPRO for a network slice instance NSI may be implemented by the processor 801 executing code stored in the memory 802.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an NSMF device provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the NSMF device includes:

a receiving module 1001, configured to receive, from an NSCCF device, an identifier of a network slice instance NSI and a reporting parameter set RPC, where the RPC includes at least one reporting parameter, and the reporting parameter is used to describe operation content of a performance index reporting operation PPRO, where the PPRO includes obtaining data corresponding to a network slice performance index of the network slice instance NSI and reporting the data to a network slice charging function NSCF device, and a specific execution process refers to a description of steps at an NSMF device side in the foregoing embodiment, such as steps 203, 204, 303, 352, and 503.

A reporting module 1002, configured to execute the PPRO according to the identifier of the NSI and the RPC, where the step includes acquiring data corresponding to a network slice performance index of the NSI and reporting the data to the NSCF device, and a specific execution process refers to a description of steps at the NSMF device side in the foregoing embodiment, such as steps 204, 311, 356, and 504.

In the present embodiment, the NSMF device is presented in the form of a functional module. A "module" as used herein may refer to an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and/or other devices that provide the described functionality. In a simple embodiment, one skilled in the art will recognize that the form shown in fig. 8 may also be used for an NSMF device. Both the receiving module 1001 and the reporting module 1002 can be implemented by the processor 801 and the memory 802 in fig. 8. For example, the function of the reporting module 1002 reporting data corresponding to the performance index of the network slice may be implemented by the processor 801 executing codes stored in the memory 802.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements and algorithm steps of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied in electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both, and that the components and steps of the examples have been described in a functional general in the foregoing description for the purpose of illustrating clearly the interchangeability of hardware and software. 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 can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, apparatuses and units described above 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 division of the units is only one logical division, and the actual implementation may have another division, 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 also be an electric, mechanical or other form of connection.

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 embodiments of the present application.

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 integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit 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 may be substantially or partially contributed by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes 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: u disk, removable hard disk, read only memory, random access memory, magnetic or optical disk, etc. for storing program codes.

While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the scope of the invention is not limited thereto, and those skilled in the art can easily conceive various equivalent modifications or substitutions within the technical scope of the invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A system for performing charging processing on network slice instances, comprising: network slice charging control function equipment, network slice management function equipment and network slice charging function equipment, which is characterized in that:

the network slice charging control function device is configured to: determining performance index reporting indication information and sending the performance index reporting indication information to the network slice management function device, wherein the performance index reporting indication information is used for indicating the network slice management function device to execute performance index reporting operation, and the performance index reporting operation comprises acquiring data corresponding to network slice performance indexes of a network slice example and reporting the data to the network slice charging function device; the performance index reporting indication information comprises an identifier of the network slice example and a reporting parameter set, wherein reporting parameters in the reporting parameter set are used for describing the content of the performance index reporting operation;

the network slice management function device is configured to: receiving the performance index reporting indication information from the network slice charging control function device, acquiring data corresponding to the network slice performance index of the network slice example according to the performance index reporting indication information, and reporting the data to the network slice charging function device;

the network slice charging function device is configured to: and receiving data corresponding to the network slice performance indexes of the network slice examples from the network slice management function equipment, and carrying out charging processing on the network slice examples based on the data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the reporting parameter set comprises or information for obtaining any one or more of the following:

reporting indexes, which refer to network slice performance indexes of the network slice examples, and data corresponding to the network slice performance indexes are reported to the network slice charging function equipment;

the acquisition mode refers to an acquisition mode of data corresponding to the reporting index;

a reporting mode, which is a mode adopted for reporting the data corresponding to the reporting index to the network slice charging function device, wherein the reporting mode includes session-based reporting or independent reporting;

a starting condition, wherein the network slice management function device starts to execute the performance index reporting operation when the starting condition is met;

reporting conditions, wherein the network slice management function device reports data corresponding to the reporting index to the network slice charging function device when the reporting conditions are met;

an end condition, in which the network slice management function device ends the execution of the performance index reporting operation when the end condition is satisfied;

the reporting address is an address used for receiving data corresponding to the reporting index.

3. The system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the data corresponding to the network slice performance index comprises any one of the following items:

sampling values of the network slice performance indicators;

a statistical value of the network slice performance indicator;

a storage address of a sampling value of the network slice performance index;

a storage address of a statistical value of the network slice performance indicator.

4. The system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that:

the network slice charging control function device is further configured to: sending a performance index reporting operation management request to the network slice management function device;

the network slice management function device is further configured to: and receiving the performance index reporting operation management request from the network slice charging control function equipment, and managing the execution of the performance index reporting operation based on the performance index reporting operation management request.

5. A method for carrying out charging processing on network slice instances is applied to network slice charging control function equipment, and is characterized by comprising the following steps:

determining performance index reporting indication information, wherein the performance index reporting indication information is used for indicating to execute performance index reporting operation, and the performance index reporting operation comprises acquiring data corresponding to network slice performance indexes of network slice examples and reporting the data to network slice charging function equipment; the performance indicator reporting indication information includes an identifier of the network slice instance and a reporting parameter set, where a reporting parameter in the reporting parameter set is used to describe content of the performance indicator reporting operation, and the determining the performance indicator reporting indication information includes: determining the reporting parameter set;

and sending the performance index reporting indication information to network slice management function equipment.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the reporting parameter set comprises any one or more of the following, or information for obtaining any one or more of the following:

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the reporting parameter set is a first parameter set, and the first parameter set includes any one or more of the reporting indicator, the obtaining manner, the reporting manner, the starting condition, the reporting condition, the ending condition, and the reporting address.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the reporting parameter set includes an identifier of a second parameter set and a third parameter set, the second parameter set includes any one or more of the reporting indicator, the obtaining method, the reporting condition, and the reporting address, the third parameter set includes the starting condition and/or the ending condition, and the identifier of the second parameter set is used for obtaining the second parameter set.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein prior to determining the reporting parameter set, the method further comprises any one or more of:

sending the second set of parameters to the network slice management function device to instruct the network slice management function device to store the second set of parameters and to receive an identification of the second set of parameters from the network slice management function device;

sending, to the network slice management function device, an identifier of the second parameter set and parameter set update information to instruct the network slice management function device to update the second parameter set using the parameter set update information, where the parameter set update information includes information used to update a reporting parameter in the second parameter set.

10. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 9, wherein the determining the reporting parameter set specifically includes:

obtaining ordering information of the network slice example;

and determining the reporting parameter set according to the order information of the network slice example.

11. The method according to any one of claims 5-9, further comprising:

determining an operation process in the performance index reporting operation needing to be changed;

sending a first performance index reporting operation management request to the network slice management function device, where the first performance index reporting operation management request includes a performance index reporting operation identifier, any one of an identifier of the network slice example and a charging session identifier, and a change instruction, where the performance index reporting operation identifier is used to uniquely identify the performance index reporting operation, and the charging session identifier is used to uniquely identify a charging session between the network slice management function device and the network slice charging function device, where the charging session corresponds to the network slice example.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the change indication comprises reporting parameter set update information, and wherein the reporting parameter set update information comprises information for updating reporting parameters in the reporting parameter set.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the change indication comprises a reporting indication.

14. The method according to any one of claims 5-9, further comprising:

determining that the operation process in the performance index reporting operation needs to be ended;

sending a second performance index reporting operation management request to the network slice management function device, where the second performance index reporting operation management request includes any one of a performance index reporting operation identifier, an identifier of the network slice example, and a charging session identifier, and an end instruction, where the performance index reporting operation identifier is used to uniquely identify the performance index reporting operation, and the charging session identifier is used to uniquely identify a charging session between the network slice management function device and the network slice charging function device, where the charging session corresponds to the network slice example.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein before sending the first performance indicator reporting operation management request to the network slice management function device, the method further comprises:

and receiving the performance index reporting operation identifier and/or the charging session identifier from the network slice management function device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein before sending the second performance indicator reporting operation management request to the network slice management function device, the method further comprises:

17. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 9, wherein the data corresponding to the network slice performance index includes any one of:

sampling values of the network slice performance indicators;

a statistical value of the network slice performance indicator;

a storage address of a sampling value of the network slice performance index;

18. A method for carrying out charging processing on network slice instances is applied to network slice management function equipment, and is characterized by comprising the following steps:

receiving performance index reporting indication information from network slice charging control function equipment; the performance index reporting indication information comprises an identifier of the network slice example and a reporting parameter set, wherein reporting parameters in the reporting parameter set are used for describing the content of the performance index reporting operation;

and executing the performance index reporting operation according to the identifier of the network slice example and the reporting parameter set, wherein the performance index reporting operation comprises acquiring data corresponding to the network slice performance index of the network slice example and reporting the data to network slice charging function equipment.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the reporting parameter set comprises or information for obtaining any one or more of the following:

20. The method of claim 19, wherein:

the reporting parameter set is a first parameter set, and the first parameter set includes any one or more of the reporting indicator, the acquisition mode, the reporting mode, the starting condition, the reporting condition, the ending condition, and the reporting address.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein:

the reporting parameter set includes an identifier of a second parameter set and a third parameter set, where the second parameter set includes any one or more of the reporting indicator, the obtaining manner, the reporting condition, and the reporting address, and the third parameter set includes the starting condition and/or the ending condition, and before the performance indicator reporting operation is executed, the method further includes:

acquiring the second parameter set according to the identifier of the second parameter set;

and forming the reporting parameter set according to the second parameter set and the third parameter set.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein prior to receiving the identification of the network slice instance and the set of reporting parameters, the method further comprises any one or more of:

receiving the second parameter set from the network slice charging control function device, storing the second parameter set, generating an identification of the second parameter set, and returning the identification of the second parameter set to the network slice charging control function device;

receiving an identification of the second parameter set and the parameter set update information from the network slice charging control function device, updating the second parameter set using the parameter set update information, the parameter set update information containing information for updating parameters in the second parameter set.

23. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 22, wherein the performing the performance indicator reporting operation according to the identifier of the network slice instance and the reporting parameter set specifically includes:

determining that data corresponding to the reporting index in the reporting parameter set needs to be reported to the network slice charging function device;

and acquiring data corresponding to the reporting indexes in the reporting parameter set and reporting the data to the network slice charging function equipment.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the obtaining data corresponding to the reporting index in the reporting parameter set and reporting the data to the network slice charging function device specifically includes:

and sending a first charging request to the network slice charging function device, where the first charging request includes a charging session identifier, one of identifiers of the network slice instances, and data corresponding to the reporting index in the reporting parameter set, and the charging session identifier is used to uniquely identify a charging session between the network slice management function device and the network slice charging function device, the charging session corresponding to the network slice instance.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein prior to sending the first charging request to the network slice charging function device, the method further comprises:

sending a second charging request to the network slice charging function device, wherein the second charging request comprises an identifier of the network slice instance and an indication for creating a charging session;

receiving the charging session identification from the network slice charging function device.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein after receiving the charging session identification from the network slice charging function device, the method further comprises:

and returning the charging session identifier to the network slice charging control function device.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the second charging request further comprises a reporting reason.

28. The method according to claim 23, wherein the determining that the data corresponding to the reporting index in the reporting parameter set needs to be reported to the network slice charging function device specifically includes:

receiving a third performance index reporting operation management request from the network slice charging control function device, wherein the third performance index reporting operation management request comprises a reporting indication;

determining that data corresponding to the reporting indexes in the reporting parameter set need to be reported to the network slice charging function device according to the reporting instructions;

or specifically comprises the following steps:

and reporting data corresponding to the reporting index in the reporting parameter set to the network slice charging function equipment according to the requirement of determining the reporting condition in the reporting parameter set.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein before performing the performance metric reporting operation according to the identifier of the network slice instance and the reporting parameter set, the method further comprises:

and determining that the starting condition in the reporting parameter set is met.

30. The method according to claim 23, wherein the performing the performance indicator reporting operation according to the identifier of the network slice instance and the reporting parameter set further includes:

determining that the performance index reporting operation needs to be finished;

and finishing the performance index reporting operation.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the determining that the performance indicator reporting operation needs to be finished includes:

receiving a fourth performance index reporting operation management request from the network slice charging control function device, where the fourth performance index reporting operation management request includes an end instruction;

determining that the performance index reporting operation needs to be finished according to the finishing indication;

or specifically comprises the following steps:

and determining that the performance index reporting operation needs to be finished according to the completion condition in the reporting parameter set.

32. The method according to claim 30 or 31, wherein the ending of executing the performance indicator reporting operation specifically includes:

and sending a third charging request to the network slice charging function device and stopping acquiring data corresponding to the reporting index in the reporting parameter set, where the third charging request includes one of the identifier of the charging session and the identifier of the network slice example and data corresponding to the reporting index in the reporting parameter set.

33. The method according to any one of claims 18-22, further comprising:

receiving a fifth performance index reporting operation management request from the network slice charging control function device, where the fifth performance index reporting operation management request includes a performance index reporting operation identifier, any one of an identifier of the network slice example and a charging session identifier, and reporting parameter set update information, where the performance index reporting operation identifier is used to uniquely identify the performance index reporting operation, and the charging session identifier is used to uniquely identify a charging session between the network slice management function device and the network slice charging function device, where the charging session identifier corresponds to the network slice example;

updating the reporting parameters in the reporting parameter set corresponding to any one of the performance index reporting operation identifier, the identifier of the network slice example and the charging session identifier, and the reporting parameter set change information according to any one of the performance index reporting operation identifier, the identifier of the network slice example and the charging session identifier.

34. The method according to any of claims 18-22, wherein the data corresponding to the network slice performance indicator comprises any of:

the sampled value of the network slice performance indicator,

a statistical value of the network slice performance indicator,

a storage address of a sampled value of the network slice performance indicator,

35. A network slice charging control function device comprising a processor and a memory, wherein:

the memory to store program instructions;

the processor is configured to call and execute the program instructions stored in the memory, so as to cause the network slice charging control function device to execute the method for charging a network slice instance according to any one of claims 5 to 17.

36. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of accounting for network slice instances of any of claims 5 to 17.

37. A network slice management function device comprising a processor and a memory, wherein:

the memory to store program instructions;

the processor is configured to call and execute program instructions stored in the memory to cause the network slice management apparatus to perform the method for performing charging processing on a network slice instance according to any one of claims 18 to 34.

38. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of charging processing for network slice instances of any of claims 18 to 34.