CN111818577B

CN111818577B - User access method and access network equipment

Info

Publication number: CN111818577B
Application number: CN202010753483.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨艳; 冯毅; 张涛; 张忠皓
Original assignee: China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd
Current assignee: China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-07-30
Filing date: 2020-07-30
Publication date: 2023-05-12
Anticipated expiration: 2040-07-30
Also published as: CN111818577A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a user access method and access network equipment, relates to the technical field of communication, and can meet access requirements of user terminals corresponding to different services as much as possible based on capacity. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring reserved flow of each service carried by access network equipment in the current unit time; when it is determined that the target service exists in all the services carried by the access network device and is a public network service, prohibiting access of a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time; the reserved flow of the target service is larger than a first preset percentage of the preset unit flow of the target service; when the target service exists and is the private network service, determining a target bandwidth required by the target service in the current unit time and a first residual bandwidth of a target carrier corresponding to the target service according to the reserved flow of the target service, and determining whether a new user terminal corresponding to the target service is allowed to be accessed in the current unit time according to the target bandwidth of the target service.

Description

User access method and access network equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a user access method and an access network device.

Background

As networks continue to evolve, the needs of diverse industry applications have exploded tremendously. Network requirements for industry users have become an important deployment requirement for 5G. Fifth generation mobile communication technology (5 th-generation, 5G) networks provide multiple slicing modes that can meet both consumer (customer to customer, 2C) and enterprise (business to business, 2B) needs. However, the 5G device (5G base station) adopts multiple multi-array antenna devices such as 192 array elements, and the frequency band adopted by the 5G device is 3.5GHz, and the coverage range is obviously smaller than that of the devices with the frequency band of 2GHz or below, which results in a multiple increase of the number of stations (the number of base stations) in a unit area, so that the high base station cost and the intensive station building number will cause an exponential increase of the network building cost. Therefore, operators begin to seek a scheme of co-building base stations by multiple operators and performing network deployment by using the co-built base stations. Co-building a base station means that one base station can meet the requirements of multiple operators, and does not concentrate the equipment of multiple operators on the same base station for deployment.

How to meet the access requirements of 2B (which can be understood as private network) users and 2C (which can be understood as public network) users of different operators as far as possible under the condition of limited resources of the co-established shared base station becomes a problem to be solved urgently.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a user access method and access network equipment, which are used for processing access requirements of user terminals corresponding to private network services and public network services carried by shared base stations co-established by different operators based on capacity, and ensuring the resource utilization rate of the shared base stations.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the present invention adopts the following technical scheme:

in a first aspect, a method for accessing a user is provided, where the method is applied to an access network device, where the access network device provides carrier waves corresponding to multiple operators one to one, and each carrier wave provides support for public network service and private network service of its corresponding operator, and the method includes: acquiring reserved flow of each service carried by access network equipment in the current unit time; when determining that the target service exists in all the services borne by the access network equipment, determining the type of the target service; the reserved flow of the target service is larger than a first preset percentage of the preset unit flow of the target service, and the preset unit flow is the preset flow in unit time; when the type of the target service is determined to be the public network service, prohibiting the access of a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time; when the type of the target service is determined to be private network service, determining a target bandwidth required by the target service in the current unit time and a first residual bandwidth of a target carrier corresponding to the target service according to the reserved flow of the target service, and determining whether a new user terminal corresponding to the target service is allowed to be accessed in the current unit time according to the target bandwidth of the target service.

In the technical solution provided in the foregoing embodiments, after obtaining the reserved traffic of each service carried by the access network device in the current unit time (i.e., the traffic required to be used in the current unit time), the access network device first determines whether there is a target service with a preset traffic greater than a first preset percentage of the preset unit traffic of the access network device, because the traffic required by the target service is about to exceed the traffic preset for the target service device in advance, if it is not determined whether to allow access of the corresponding new user terminal, all access or prohibition is directly performed, which may cause unreasonable allocation of the corresponding resources of the entire shared base station (for example, a majority of resources are allocated to a certain service of a certain operator, resulting in that some users of other operators cannot normally use the service), the utilization rate of the resources is low, and the experience of the user is also reduced, so that it needs to determine in time whether the corresponding new user terminal can also access the corresponding resource of the entire shared base station to be fully utilized. The specific judgment mode is as follows: if the target service is a public network service, because the priority of the target service is lower than that of the private network service, the carrier wave of the operator where the target service is located needs to be guaranteed to be normal, the sudden increase of the resource demand of the subsequent private network service needs to be considered, and therefore, once the public network service exceeds a preset value, the corresponding new user terminal is not allowed to be accessed. If the target service is private network service, because of its higher priority, it is necessary to determine whether to allow access to its corresponding new user terminal according to the target bandwidth required by the target service and the first remaining bandwidth of its corresponding target carrier (i.e. considering whether the target carrier has sufficient resources for the new user terminal corresponding to the target service). In summary, according to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, access requirements corresponding to all users borne by the shared base station co-established by a plurality of operators can be processed (access is allowed or not allowed) based on capacity, whether new user terminals corresponding to the superfluid service (the reserved flow is larger than the first preset percentage of the preset unit flow) can be accessed or not is timely judged, and reasonable allocation of resources of the shared base station is ensured.

In a second aspect, an access network device is provided, where the access network device provides carrier waves corresponding to multiple operators one to one, and each carrier wave provides support for public network service and private network service of its corresponding operator, and the access network device includes an acquisition module and a processing module. The acquisition module is used for acquiring the reserved flow of each service carried by the access network equipment in the current unit time; the processing module is used for determining the type of the target service when determining that the target service exists in all the services borne by the access network equipment; the reserved flow of the target service is larger than a first preset percentage of the preset unit flow of the target service, and the preset unit flow is the preset flow in unit time; the processing module is also used for prohibiting the access of a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time when the type of the target service is determined to be the public network service; the processing module is further configured to determine, when the type of the target service is determined to be a private network service, a target bandwidth required by the target service in a current unit time according to the reserved traffic of the target service acquired by the acquiring module, and determine whether to allow the new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access in the current unit time according to the target bandwidth of the target service and a first residual bandwidth of a carrier of a target operator corresponding to the target service.

In a third aspect, an access network device is provided, where the access network device provides support for private network services of a plurality of operators through a private network carrier, and provides support for public network services of the plurality of operators through a public network carrier, where the access network device includes: memory, processor, bus and communication interface; the memory is used for storing computer execution instructions, and the processor is connected with the memory through a bus; when the access network device is running, the processor executes computer-executable instructions stored in the memory to cause the access network device to perform the user access method as provided in the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the user access method as provided in the first aspect.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned instructions may be stored in whole or in part on a computer-readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium may be packaged together with the processor of the access network device or separately, which is not limited by the present invention.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a computer program product which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the user access method as provided in the first aspect.

It will be appreciated that the solutions of the second aspect to the fifth aspect provided above are all used to perform the corresponding method provided in the first aspect, and therefore, the advantages achieved by the solutions may refer to the advantages in the corresponding method provided in the foregoing, and are not described herein.

It should be understood that in this application, the names of the access network devices described above do not constitute limitations on the devices or functional modules themselves, which may appear under other names in a practical implementation. Insofar as the function of each device or function module is similar to that of the present invention, it falls within the scope of the claims of the present invention and the equivalents thereof. Additionally, the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the application.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings that are required in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly described, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the invention, and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture to which a user access method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture to which another user access method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of a user access method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic preparation flow diagram of a user access method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a second flowchart of a user access method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a flowchart of a user access method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of another access network device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of still another access network device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a computer program product according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments of the present invention will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which it is apparent that the embodiments described are only some embodiments of the present invention, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.

It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present invention, words such as "exemplary" or "such as" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "e.g." in an embodiment should not be taken as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete fashion.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, "english: of", "corresponding" and "corresponding" may sometimes be used in combination, and it should be noted that the meaning to be expressed is consistent when the distinction is not emphasized.

In order to clearly describe the technical solution of the embodiments of the present invention, in the embodiments of the present invention, the terms "first", "second", etc. are used to distinguish the same item or similar items having substantially the same function and effect, and those skilled in the art will understand that the terms "first", "second", etc. are not limited in number and execution order.

Currently, because the single cost of the 5G base station is high, and because the coverage area of the 5G base station is small, the number of sites needing to be arranged in a unit area is large, and thus the cost of the 5G communication network needing to be deployed is high. Therefore, a shared base station is commonly built by a plurality of operators at present, and can bear the service demands of the operators. However, how to meet access requirements of users corresponding to private network services and users corresponding to public network services of different operators for co-established shared base stations is a problem to be solved.

In view of the above problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a user access method, which can satisfy access requirements of user terminals corresponding to different services carried by a shared base station (access network device) co-established by different operators based on capacity (traffic). The method is applied to the system architecture shown in fig. 1, and the system can comprise: a terminal 01, an access network device 02, and at least one core network device 03 (03-1, 03-2, 03-3, and 03-4), each core network device 03 corresponding to one operator core network (private network core network (supporting 2B services) or public network core network (supporting 2C services)); illustratively, referring to FIG. 1, 03-1 may correspond to a public network core network of operator A, 03-2 may correspond to a private network core network of operator A, 03-3 may correspond to a public network core network of operator B, and 03-4 may correspond to a private network core network of operator B. After the terminal 01 access network device 02 is connected with the access network device, the terminal can access the public network core network or the private network core network of the corresponding operator through different core network devices 03. Of course, only one core network device 03 may actually exist, and the functions of the plurality of core network devices may be completed.

In the embodiment of the present application, the access network device 02 may be an access network device (base transceiver station, BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communication, GSM), an access network device (base transceiver station, BTS) in a code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA), an access network device (Node B, NB) in a wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA), an access network device (evolutiond Node B, eNB) in a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE), an eNB in an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) or a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT), an access network device in a future 5G mobile communication network or a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), which is not limited in this way by the embodiment of the present invention.

By way of example, the terminal 01 in the embodiments of the present application may have different names, such as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a terminal unit, a terminal station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a wireless communication device, a vehicle user equipment, a terminal agent, or a terminal apparatus, etc. It may specifically be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a desktop, a laptop, a handheld computer, a notebook, an ultra-mobile personal computer (ultra-mobile personal computer, UMPC), a netbook, a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) \virtual reality (VR) device, or the like, which may communicate with a base station, and the specific form of the terminal is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In this application, an operator core network corresponds to a public network and a plurality of private networks, a public network service (2C service) refers to all services in a public network, and a private network service (2B service) refers to all services in a private network.

Illustratively, referring to fig. 2, the functional modules in the core network device 03 may include a service distribution requirement collection module 031, a service dependency analysis module 032, a critical capacity customization module 033, and an operator carrier bandwidth customization module 034. The service distribution requirement collection module 031 may collect network data of a private network service or a public network service of a corresponding operator of the access network device 02 (e.g., a base station) to which the service distribution requirement collection module is connected. The network data may include: traffic related data (average capacity/traffic per target unit time (e.g., hour), maximum capacity/traffic per target unit time (e.g., hour)), traffic or the number of users, etc. of traffic corresponding to the network.

The service dependency analysis module 032 may determine, through a certain calculation, whether the service in the actual scenario corresponding to the network data is mainly dependent on the capacity (traffic) by using the network data acquired by the corresponding service distribution demand collection module 031 in cooperation with the service dependency analysis module 032 in the other core network device corresponding to the access network device 02 connected to the service dependency analysis module. Of course, if all the core networks correspond to the same core network device, the service dependency analysis module included in the core network device independently completes the calculation process.

The critical capacity customizing module 033 may calculate, through cooperation of the critical capacity customizing modules 033 in other core network devices corresponding to the access network devices 02 connected thereto, the contracted capacities (preset unit flows) per unit time recommended for the public network service and the private network service of different operators according to the network data acquired by the corresponding service distribution demand collecting module 031. Of course, if all the core networks correspond to the same core network device, the key capacity customization module included in the core network device independently completes the calculation process. For example, taking 1 second per unit time and 1 hour per unit time as an example, the preset unit flow of the public network service can be calculated by the following formula:

Wherein T is ^PU _Y For the preset unit flow of the public network service, T ^PU _Max T is the maximum flow of the public network service per hour ^PU _mean Is the average flow per hour of the public network service.

The preset unit flow of private network service can be calculated by the following formula:

wherein T is ^Pr _Y For the preset unit flow of the private network service, T ^Pr _Max T is the maximum flow of the private network service per hour ^Pr _mean Is the average flow per hour of the public network service.

The carrier bandwidth customizing module 034 of the operator may calculate the preset total bandwidth (initial bandwidth) of each carrier according to the network data (capacity requirement situation) obtained by the corresponding service distribution requirement collecting module 031 by matching with the critical capacity customizing module 033 in the other core network devices corresponding to the access network device 02 connected with the carrier bandwidth customizing module. Of course, if all the core networks correspond to the same core network device, the carrier bandwidth customizing module of the operator included in the core network device independently completes the calculation process.

For example, when the access network device corresponding to the core network device provides a corresponding carrier for each operator to carry the corresponding public network service and private network service, the preset total bandwidth of any carrier may be calculated according to the following formula:

Wherein W is _NTi For a preset total bandwidth of carrier i of the operator, T ^PU _Yi For the preset unit flow of public network service in carrier i of an operator, T ^Pr _Yij The preset unit flow of the jth private network service in the carrier i of the operator is T ^PU _Yn Preset unit flow, T, of nth public network service carried by access network equipment ^Pr _Ym And (3) setting floor as a downward rounding unit for the preset unit flow of the mth private network service carried by the access network equipment, and W as the total bandwidth of the access network equipment.

As shown in fig. 2, the access network device 02 includes a traffic real-time monitoring module 021, a traffic discriminating module 022, and a network load balancing module 023. The traffic real-time monitoring module 021 can collect reserved traffic of private network traffic and public network traffic of each operator according to time granularity of unit time (1 second). The flow judgment module 022 may determine whether the subsequent network load balancing module 023 is required to reject or allow the access request of the user terminal of each service according to the flow of each service and the reserved flow corresponding to each service collected by the flow real-time monitoring module 021.

By way of example, and taking a 5G communication network as an example, referring to fig. 3, the actual means in the access network device 02 may comprise a radio frequency unit and a baseband processing unit. The radio frequency unit is connected with the baseband processing unit through a common public radio interface (common public radio interface, CPRI (eCRPI)), and the public network core network (5 GC 1) of the operator a, the public network core network (5 GC 2) of the operator B, the private network core network (5 GC 3) of the operator a, and the private network core network (5 GC 4) of the operator B are all connected with the baseband processing unit of the access network device 2 through NG interfaces.

The 5G baseband processing unit includes a Control Plane (CP) and a User Plane (UP). The control plane has identification modules (specifically, can be judged by PLMN (public land mobile network, public land mobile network), APN (access point name ), DNN (Data network name, data network name) and the like) for private network core networks and public network core networks of different operators, so that the public network core networks and the private network core networks of different operators are distinguished. The flow real-time monitoring module 021, the flow discriminating module 022 and the network load balancing module 023 may be all arranged in the CP.

The 5G radio frequency unit comprises an antenna unit, a switch and a transceiver. The transceiver includes, among other things, digital up-conversion (digital up conversion, DUC), digital-to-analog converter (digital to analog converter, DAC), transmit antenna (TX), receive antenna (RX), analog-to-digital converter (analog to digital converter, ADC), and digital down-conversion (digital down conversion, DDC).

Specifically, in the technical solution provided in the present invention, the access network device 02 configures an operator carrier for each operator, and each operator carrier provides support for public network services and private network services of its corresponding operator. Each carrier of the operators comprises an uplink carrier and a downlink carrier, the communication link corresponding to the uplink carrier is composed of an antenna unit, a switch, RX (RX 1 and RX 2), ADC (ADC 1 and ADC 2), DDC (DDC 1 and DDC 2) and 5G baseband processing units in figure 3, and the communication link corresponding to the downlink carrier is composed of an antenna unit, a switch, TX (TX 1 and TX 2), DAC (DAC 1 and DAC 2), DUC (DUC 1 and DUC 2) and 5G baseband processing units in figure 3.

For example, as shown in fig. 3, when 2 operators (respectively, an operator a and an operator B) are accessed in the access network device, the operator a performs data transmission through a first operator carrier when initiating a public network service or a private network service, and the user terminal of the operator B performs data transmission through a second operator carrier when initiating the private network service. Wherein the first carrier comprises a first transceiver (DUC 1, DAC1, TX1, DDC1, ADC1, RX 1), a first combiner, a switch and an antenna unit; the second carrier includes a second transceiver (DUC 2, DAC2, TX2, DDC2, ADC2, RX 2), a second combiner, a switch, and an antenna unit.

Based on the content shown in fig. 1-3, the embodiment of the present application provides a user access method, which is applied to the access network device 02. Referring to fig. 4, the method includes 401-407:

401. and acquiring the reserved flow of each service carried by the access network equipment in the current unit time.

Illustratively, to ensure timely handling of access requests of user terminals on a capacity basis, the unit time here may be one second. Of course, the unit time may be smaller as the technology allows in practice, and there is no specific limitation here.

For example, the step 401 may be performed by the foregoing flow real-time monitoring module, and the record after the data is collected is as follows in table 1:

TABLE 1

Wherein YY represents year, MM represents month, DD represents day of MM month, HH: SS stands for time minutes and seconds.

Optionally, referring to fig. 5, because the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application determines whether the user terminal of each service is accessible based on the traffic, and if the traffic required by each service is not large, and does not affect the performance of the co-established and shared base station, the technical solution does not need to be executed, so before step 401, the core network device 03 further needs to execute the following steps:

s1, acquiring average flow of each service carried by access network equipment in each target unit time in busy hours in a preset time period before the current unit time.

Illustratively, the target unit time may be 1 hour; in order to save computing resources and ensure that the collected data can reflect traffic usage conditions of services carried by the access network device, the preset time period can be two consecutive weeks (all weekdays) and sundays (all holidays). The busy hour can be determined by the operator according to the traffic use condition of the corresponding user, for example, the busy hour can be 9:00-11:00 and 14:00-17:00 on the working day, and the busy hour can be 10:00-17:00 on the non-working day.

Illustratively, the step S1 is mainly performed by the traffic distribution requirement collection module 031 in the core network device 03 shown in fig. 2.

S2, determining the large-flow target unit time according to the average flow of all the businesses in each target unit time in busy hours in a preset time period.

For example, when the sum of average flows of all services in a preset time period and in a target unit time in busy hours is larger than a third preset duty ratio, determining that the target unit time is a large-flow target unit time.

S3, judging whether the number of the large-flow target unit time is larger than a second preset percentage or not according to the ratio of the number of the large-flow target unit time to the total target unit time corresponding to busy hours in the preset time period.

When the number of the large-flow target unit time is larger than the second preset percentage, executing S4; and when the number of the large-flow target unit time is not larger than the second preset percentage, executing S1.

The second preset percentage may be, for example, 30%, or any other feasible number, and is not particularly limited herein.

S4, sending a corresponding instruction to the access network equipment so as to enable the access network equipment to acquire the reserved flow of each service carried by the access network equipment in the current unit time.

Because the flow used by each service is more in the time of the large-flow target unit time, the large-flow target unit time can be considered as very dependent on the flow, and if the duty ratio of the total target unit time number in the busy hour exceeds a certain ratio, the fact that each service carried by the access network equipment is relatively dependent on the flow is indicated, and a corresponding instruction needs to be sent to the access network equipment to enable the access network equipment to execute the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application.

Illustratively, the steps S2-S4 described above are performed by the service dependency analysis module 032 in the core network device 03 shown in fig. 2.

In practice, the core network device may not execute the step S3, and after the step S2, directly determine whether to execute the step S1 or send a corresponding instruction to the core network device according to the ratio of the number of large-flow target unit times to the total number of target unit times corresponding to the busy time in the preset time period, so that the step 401 may be executed. In addition, the ratio of the number of the large-flow target unit times to the total target unit times corresponding to all busy hours is equal to the second preset percentage, which may be attributed to the case where the ratio of the number of the large-flow target unit times to the total target unit times corresponding to all busy hours is greater than the second preset percentage, or the case where the ratio of the number of the large-flow target unit times to the total target unit times corresponding to all busy hours is less than the second preset percentage, which is taken as an example in the example corresponding to fig. 5, but the present application is not limited to this.

402. And judging whether target services exist in all the services carried by the access network equipment.

The reserved flow of the target service is greater than a first preset percentage of a preset unit flow of the target service, and the preset unit flow is a preset flow in unit time, that is, data obtained by calculation of the key capacity customization module in the embodiment. Illustratively, the first preset percentage may be 95% (by way of example only, and may be any other feasible value in practice) because it is actually necessary to set aside a portion of the emergency-capable bearer capacity for the base station.

Executing 403 when it is determined that the target service exists; when it is determined that the target traffic does not exist, 407 is performed.

It should be noted that, in practice, the step 402 may not exist, and after the step 401, the step 403 may be executed when it is determined that the target service exists in all the services carried by the access network device, and the step 407 may be executed when it is determined that the target service does not exist in all the services carried by the access network device.

403. The type of the target service is determined.

The type of the target service may be public network service or private network service.

404. And when the type of the target service is determined to be the public network service, prohibiting the access of a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time.

Because public network service has lower priority than private network service, for the carrier wave of the operator where the target service is located, the normal operation of the private network service needs to be guaranteed preferentially, the sudden increase of the resource demand of the subsequent private network service needs to be considered, and once the public network service exceeds a preset value, the corresponding new user terminal is not allowed to be accessed.

In practice, there is more traffic required by a certain ue in the current unit time than in the previous unit time, and in this case, the new ue may refer to a specific service corresponding to the newly added traffic; in practice, there is a case that a user terminal corresponding to a public network service or a private network service in a previous unit time is not connected to the network any more in the current unit time, and in this case, the new user terminal may refer to an optional part of the user terminals in the current unit time as a new user terminal, and the number of the remaining user terminals after the selection is the same as the number of the user terminals in the previous unit time. Of course, in reality, there may be any other possible situations (for example, the priorities corresponding to the user terminals belonging to the same service (public network service or private network service) are different, and a "new user terminal" needs to be selected from a part of user terminals with low priorities according to the priority, so that a new user terminal is specifically selected according to the specific situation.

Illustratively, the prohibiting may be that the access network device refuses the service request of the user terminal; but may be any other feasible way.

405. When the type of the target service is determined to be private network service, determining the target bandwidth required by the target service in the current unit time according to the reserved flow of the target service.

By way of example, the target bandwidth may be calculated according to the following equation:

wherein W is ^w _NTadd For a target bandwidth of a target service,

reserved traffic for target traffic, +.>

For the reserved flow of the kth public network service in the public network carrier, the traffic is +.>

And W is the total bandwidth of the access network equipment, wherein the reserved flow is the reserved flow of the mth private network service in the private network carrier.

406. And determining whether to allow the new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access in the current unit time according to the target bandwidth of the target service and the first residual bandwidth of the target carrier corresponding to the target service.

Optionally, referring to fig. 6, step 406 may be preceded by 406A1-406A2:

406A1, calculating a first total bandwidth required by other services in a target carrier according to reserved traffic of the other services except the target service, which are carried on the target carrier; the carrier of the target operator is the carrier of the operator corresponding to the target service.

Illustratively, the first total bandwidth may be calculated according to the following formula:

wherein W is ^l _NT For the first total bandwidth to be used,

reserved traffic for public network traffic in the target carrier i +.>

The reserved flow of the x-th private network service in all private network services except the target service in the carrier wave of the target operator is +.>

Reserved flow of kth public network service for all public network services carried by access network equipment,/->

And W is the total bandwidth of the access network equipment, wherein the reserved flow is reserved for the mth private network service in all private network services borne by the access network equipment.

406A2, calculating a first residual bandwidth of the target carrier according to the first total bandwidth and a preset total bandwidth of the target carrier.

Specifically, the first residual bandwidth is a difference obtained by subtracting the first total bandwidth from the preset total bandwidth.

Illustratively, referring to FIG. 6, step 406 includes 4061-4066:

4061. and judging whether the target bandwidth is larger than the first residual bandwidth.

When it is determined that the target bandwidth is less than or equal to the first remaining bandwidth, 4062 is performed; when it is determined that the target bandwidth is greater than the first remaining bandwidth, 4063 is performed.

It should be noted that, the case where the target bandwidth is equal to the first residual bandwidth may be classified into the case where the target bandwidth is greater than the first residual bandwidth and the case where the target bandwidth is less than the first residual bandwidth, and the case where the target bandwidth is classified into the second preset percentage where the target bandwidth is less than the first residual bandwidth in the above embodiment is merely an example, and the application is not limited specifically.

In practice, the step 4061 may not be present, and the step 4063 may be performed directly when the target bandwidth is determined to be greater than the first residual bandwidth, and the step 4062 may be performed when the target bandwidth is determined to be less than or equal to the first residual bandwidth.

4062. And allowing the new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access in the current unit time.

The permission here may be that the access network device allows the service request of the user terminal, establishes a corresponding connection and issues a corresponding configuration; but may be any other feasible way.

4063. And calculating the second residual bandwidth of each other carrier according to the reserved traffic of all the services carried in the other carrier except the target carrier and the preset total bandwidth of each other carrier provided by the access network equipment.

For example, the second remaining bandwidth of any other carrier may be obtained by subtracting the second total bandwidth required by all services in the other carrier from the preset total bandwidth of the other carrier, where the preset total bandwidth is obtained by the foregoing carrier bandwidth customization module, and the second total bandwidth may be calculated according to the following formula:

Wherein W is ^o _NT For the second total bandwidth of carrier o (any of the other carrier),

for the reserved flow of the x-th private network service in carrier o of the operator,/the method comprises the following steps of>

Reserved flow of kth public network service in all public network services carried by access network equipment,/-for the public network services>

4064. It is determined whether there are available carrier waves among all other carrier waves.

Wherein the target bandwidth is less than or equal to the second remaining bandwidth of the available carrier.

When it is determined that there are available carrier waves among all other carrier waves, 4065 is performed; when it is determined that there is no available carrier among all the other carrier carriers, 4066 is performed.

In practice, the step 4064 may not exist, and the step 4065 may be performed directly when it is determined that there are available carrier waves in all other carrier waves, and the step 4066 may be performed when it is determined that there are not available carrier waves in all other carrier waves.

4065. And in the current unit time, allocating the resources corresponding to the second residual bandwidth of the available carrier to the target carrier, and allowing the new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access.

The allocating resources means that the access network device allocates the second residual bandwidth of the available carrier to the target carrier, so that the bandwidth resources of the target carrier are increased on the original basis, and the bandwidth resources of the corresponding available carrier are reduced on the original basis.

In one implementation manner, the access network device sets different priorities for each operator (such as operator a, operator B, and operator C), so that when a specific network service of operator a and a specific network service of operator B both need to call resources from available operator carriers for use, if the priority of operator a is greater than that of operator B, the allocated resources are preferentially allocated to the carrier where the specific network service of operator a is located, so as to allow access of a new user terminal corresponding to the specific network service. In addition, if there are multiple available carrier carriers, it is preferred to allocate resources from the lower priority available carrier of the corresponding carrier.

It should be noted that, when the access network device allocates the resources of the available carrier to the target carrier for use in the practical application, the determination of the target service and the bandwidth requirement thereof in the foregoing embodiment may be performed again after a certain period of time is continued, and if the target carrier does not need additional resources, the resources are reallocated to the available carrier.

4066. And prohibiting the access of the new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time.

407. And allowing the user terminals corresponding to all the services to access in the current unit time.

It should be noted that, in the foregoing embodiments, all allowed accesses (allowed accesses by some new user terminals or allowed accesses by some user terminals) refer to a case where the current 5QI (5G QoS Identifier) (QoS (Quality of Service, quality of service) for identifying 5G) is maintained unchanged, and each corresponding user terminal is allowed to access.

Optionally, referring to fig. 7, when it is determined that there is a target service in all services carried by the access network device, the method includes, in addition to step 403, 408:

408. and allowing the user terminals corresponding to the services except the target service in all the services borne by the access network equipment to be accessed in the current unit time.

In the technical solution provided in this embodiment of the present application, after obtaining the reserved traffic (i.e., the traffic that needs to be used in the current unit time) of each service carried by the access network device in the current unit time, the access network device first determines whether there is a target service with a preset traffic greater than the first preset percentage of the preset unit traffic of the access network device, because the traffic required by the target service is about to exceed the traffic preset for the access network device in advance, if it is not determined in time whether to allow the access of the corresponding new user terminal, all the access or prohibition is directly performed, which may cause unreasonable allocation of the corresponding resources of the entire shared base station (for example, a certain service of a certain operator is allocated with most of the resources, resulting in that some users of other operators cannot use the service normally), the utilization rate of the resources is low, and the user experience is also reduced, so that it needs to determine in time whether the corresponding new user terminal can also access the entire shared base station corresponding resources can be fully utilized. The specific judgment mode is as follows: if the target service is a public network service, because the priority of the target service is lower than that of the private network service, the carrier wave of the operator where the target service is located needs to be guaranteed to be normal, the sudden increase of the resource demand of the subsequent private network service needs to be considered, and therefore, once the public network service exceeds a preset value, the corresponding new user terminal is not allowed to be accessed. If the target service is private network service, because of its higher priority, it is necessary to determine whether to allow access to its corresponding new user terminal according to the target bandwidth required by the target service and the first remaining bandwidth of its corresponding target carrier (i.e. considering whether the target carrier has sufficient resources for the new user terminal corresponding to the target service). In summary, according to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, access requirements corresponding to all users borne by the shared base station co-established by a plurality of operators can be processed (access is allowed or not allowed) based on capacity, whether new user terminals corresponding to the superfluid service (the reserved flow is larger than the first preset percentage of the preset unit flow) can be accessed or not is timely judged, and reasonable allocation of resources of the shared base station is ensured.

The foregoing description of the solution provided by the embodiments of the present invention has been mainly presented in terms of a method. To achieve the above functions, it includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules that perform the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

The embodiment of the invention can divide the functional modules of the access network equipment according to the method example, for example, each functional module can be divided corresponding to each function, and two or more functions can be integrated in one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation.

Referring to fig. 8, a schematic structural diagram of an access network device 02 according to an embodiment of the present application is shown, which specifically includes: an acquisition module 31 and a processing module 32. The acquisition module corresponds to the aforementioned flow real-time monitoring module 021, and the processing module corresponds to the aforementioned flow judgment module 022 and load balancing module 023. The acquisition module 31 may perform step 401 in the previous embodiment, and the processing module may perform steps 402-408 in the previous embodiment.

Specifically, the acquiring module 31 is configured to acquire a reserved traffic of each service carried by the access network device 02 in a current unit time;

a processing module 32, configured to determine a type of a target service when it is determined that the target service exists in all services carried by the access network device 02; the reserved flow of the target service is larger than a first preset percentage of the preset unit flow of the target service, and the preset unit flow is the preset flow in unit time;

the processing module 32 is further configured to prohibit access of a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time when the type of the target service is determined to be the public network service;

the processing module 32 is further configured to determine, when determining that the type of the target service is private network service, a target bandwidth required by the target service in a current unit time according to the reserved traffic of the target service acquired by the acquiring module 31, and determine whether to allow the new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access in the current unit time according to the target bandwidth of the target service and the first residual bandwidth of the carrier of the target operator corresponding to the target service.

Optionally, before determining whether to allow the access of the new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time according to the target bandwidth of the target service and the first residual bandwidth of the target carrier corresponding to the target service, the processing module 32 is further configured to:

calculating a first total bandwidth required by other services in the carrier of the target operator according to the reserved traffic of the other services except the target service carried on the carrier of the target operator and acquired by the acquisition module 31; the carrier wave of the target operator is the carrier wave of the operator corresponding to the target service;

and calculating the first residual bandwidth of the target carrier according to the first total bandwidth and the preset total bandwidth of the target carrier.

Further optionally, the processing module 32 is specifically configured to: when the target bandwidth is determined to be smaller than or equal to the first residual bandwidth, allowing a new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access in the current unit time;

when the target bandwidth is determined to be greater than the first residual bandwidth, calculating a second residual bandwidth of each other carrier according to the reserved traffic of all the services carried in the other carrier except the target carrier and the preset total bandwidth of each other carrier, which are provided by the access network device 02 and are acquired by the acquisition module 31;

When the target bandwidth is determined to be smaller than or equal to the first residual bandwidth and available carrier waves exist in all other carrier waves, allocating resources corresponding to the second residual bandwidth of the available carrier waves to the target carrier waves in the current unit time, and allowing a new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access; the target bandwidth is less than or equal to a second remaining bandwidth of the available carrier;

and when the target bandwidth is determined to be smaller than or equal to the first residual bandwidth and no available carrier exists in all other carrier waves, prohibiting the access of a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time.

Optionally, the processing module 32 is further configured to allow, in the current unit time, access to a user terminal corresponding to a service other than the target service from all services carried by the access network device 02.

The access network device provided in the embodiment of the present application is mainly used for executing the user access method provided in the foregoing embodiment, so the corresponding beneficial effects thereof may be described with reference to the foregoing embodiment, and will not be described herein again.

In case of an integrated module, the access network device comprises: a storage unit, a processing unit and an interface unit. The processing unit is configured to control management, for example, the processing unit is configured to support the access network device to perform the steps performed by the processing module 32 in the foregoing embodiment; the interface unit is used for supporting information interaction between the access network equipment and other devices. Such as interactions with user terminals and core network devices. And the storage unit is used for program codes and data of access network equipment.

The processing unit is taken as a processor, the storage unit is a memory, and the interface unit is taken as a communication interface as an example. Referring to fig. 9, another access network device is provided according to an embodiment of the present invention, including a memory 41, a processor 42, a bus 43, and a communication interface 44; the memory 41 is used for storing computer-executable instructions, and the processor 42 is connected with the memory 41 through the bus 43; when the access network device is operating, the processor 42 executes computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 41 to cause the access network device to perform the user access method as provided by the above-described embodiments.

In a particular implementation, as one embodiment, the processor 42 (42-1 and 42-2) may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 shown in FIG. 9. And as one example the access network device may include a plurality of processors 42, such as processor 42-1 and processor 42-2 shown in fig. 9. Each of these processors 42 may be a Single-core processor (Single-CPU) or a Multi-core processor (Multi-CPU). The processor 42 herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

The Memory 41 may be, but is not limited to, a Read-Only Memory 41 (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access Memory (random access Memory, RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable Read-Only Memory (electrically erasable programmable Read-Only Memory, EEPROM), a compact disc Read-Only Memory (compact disc Read-Only Memory) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. The memory 41 may be stand alone and be coupled to the processor 42 via a bus 43. Memory 41 may also be integrated with processor 42.

In a specific implementation, the memory 41 is used for storing data in the application and computer-executable instructions corresponding to executing a software program of the application. The processor 42 may access various functions of the network device by running or executing software programs stored in the memory 41 and invoking data stored in the memory 41.

The communication interface 44 uses any transceiver-like device for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as a control system, a radio access network (radio access network, RAN), a wireless local area network (wireless local area networks, WLAN), etc. The communication interface 44 may include a receiving unit to implement a receiving function and a transmitting unit to implement a transmitting function.

Bus 43 may be an industry standard architecture (industry standard architecture, ISA) bus, an external device interconnect (peripheral component interconnect, PCI) bus, or an extended industry standard architecture (extended industry standard architecture, EISA) bus, among others. The bus 43 may be classified into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in fig. 9, but not only one bus or one type of bus.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a computer storage medium, which comprises computer execution instructions, when the computer execution instructions run on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the user access method provided in the embodiment.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a computer program product, which comprises a computer program for executing on a computer, the computer program can be directly loaded into a memory and contains software codes, and the computer program can realize the user access method provided by the embodiment after being loaded and executed by the computer.

Fig. 10 schematically illustrates a conceptual partial view of a computer program product provided by an embodiment of the invention, which in one embodiment is provided using a signal bearing medium 410. The signal bearing medium 410 may include one or more program instructions that when executed by one or more processors may provide the functionality or portions of the functionality described above with respect to fig. 10. Thus, for example, referring to the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, one or more features of 401-405 may be carried by one or more instructions associated with signal bearing medium 410. Further, the program instructions in fig. 10 also describe example instructions.

In some examples, signal bearing medium 410 may comprise a computer readable medium 411 such as, but not limited to, a hard disk drive, compact Disk (CD), digital Video Disk (DVD), digital tape, memory, read-only memory (ROM), or random access memory (random access memory, RAM), among others.

In some implementations, the signal bearing medium 410 may include a computer recordable medium 412 such as, but not limited to, memory, read/write (R/W) CD, R/W DVD, and the like.

In some implementations, the signal bearing medium 410 may include a communication medium 413 such as, but not limited to, a digital and/or analog communication medium (e.g., fiber optic cable, waveguide, wired communications link, wireless communications link, etc.).

The signal bearing medium 410 may be conveyed by a communication medium 413 in wireless form (e.g., a wireless communication medium conforming to the IEEE 802.41 standard or other transmission protocol). The one or more program instructions may be, for example, computer-executable instructions or logic-implemented instructions.

In some examples, a write data device for receiving external data and storing may also be included, which may be configured to provide various operations, functions, or actions in response to program instructions through one or more of computer readable medium 411, computer recordable medium 412, and/or communication medium 413.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in one or more of the examples described above, the functions described in the present invention may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, these functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer-readable storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

From the foregoing description of the embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, only the above-described division of functional modules is illustrated, and in practical application, the above-described functional allocation may be implemented by different functional modules according to needs, i.e. the internal structure of the apparatus is divided into different functional modules to implement all or part of the functions described above.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described embodiments of the apparatus are merely illustrative, and the division of modules or units, for example, is merely a logical function division, and other manners of division are possible when actually implemented. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another device, or some features may be omitted, or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form. The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and the parts shown as units may be one physical unit or a plurality of physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed in a plurality of different places. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units. The integrated units, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as stand-alone products, may be stored in a readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application may be essentially or a part contributing to the prior art or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a device (may be a single-chip microcomputer, a chip or the like) or a processor (processor) to perform all or part of the steps of the method described in the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, etc.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions easily contemplated by those skilled in the art within the scope of the present invention should be included in the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the invention is subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A user access method is applied to access network equipment, the access network equipment provides carrier waves corresponding to a plurality of operators one by one, each carrier wave provides support for public network service and private network service of the corresponding operator, and the method is characterized by comprising the following steps of

Acquiring reserved flow of each service carried by the access network equipment in the current unit time;

when determining that the target service exists in all the services borne by the access network equipment, determining the type of the target service; the reserved flow of the target service is larger than a first preset percentage of the preset unit flow of the target service, and the preset unit flow is preset flow in unit time;

when the type of the target service is determined to be public network service, prohibiting a new user terminal corresponding to the target service from accessing in the current unit time;

when the type of the target service is determined to be private network service, determining a target bandwidth required by the target service in a current unit time according to the reserved flow of the target service, and determining whether to allow a new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access in the current unit time according to the target bandwidth of the target service and a first residual bandwidth of a target carrier corresponding to the target service, wherein the method comprises the steps of: when the target bandwidth is determined to be smaller than or equal to the first residual bandwidth, allowing a new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access in the current unit time; when the target bandwidth is determined to be greater than the first residual bandwidth, calculating a second residual bandwidth of each other carrier according to reserved traffic of all services carried in the other carrier except the target carrier and preset total bandwidth of each other carrier, which are provided by the access network device; when the target bandwidth is determined to be greater than the first residual bandwidth and available carrier waves exist in all other carrier waves, allocating resources corresponding to second residual bandwidth of the available carrier waves to the target carrier waves in the current unit time, and allowing a new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access; the target bandwidth is less than or equal to a second remaining bandwidth of the available carrier; and when the target bandwidth is determined to be larger than the first residual bandwidth and no available carrier exists in all other carrier waves, prohibiting the access of a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time.

2. The method for accessing a user according to claim 1, wherein determining whether to allow the new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access within the current unit time according to the target bandwidth of the target service and the first residual bandwidth of the target carrier corresponding to the target service further comprises:

calculating a first total bandwidth required by other services except the target service according to reserved traffic of the other services carried on a carrier of the target operator; the target carrier wave is the carrier wave corresponding to the target service;

3. The user access method of claim 1, further comprising: and allowing the user terminals corresponding to the services except the target service in all the services borne by the access network equipment to be accessed in the current unit time.

4. An access network device that provides carrier carriers that are in one-to-one correspondence with a plurality of operators, each carrier providing support for public network traffic and private network traffic of its corresponding operator, comprising:

The acquisition module is used for acquiring the reserved flow of each service carried by the access network equipment in the current unit time;

the processing module is used for determining the type of the target service when determining that the target service exists in all the services borne by the access network equipment; the reserved flow of the target service is larger than a first preset percentage of the preset unit flow of the target service, and the preset unit flow is preset flow in unit time;

the processing module is further used for prohibiting the access of a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time when the type of the target service is determined to be the public network service;

the processing module is further configured to determine, when determining that the type of the target service is a private network service, a target bandwidth required by the target service in a current unit time according to the reserved traffic of the target service acquired by the acquiring module, and determine whether to allow a new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access in the current unit time according to the target bandwidth of the target service and a first residual bandwidth of a target carrier corresponding to the target service, where the determining includes: when the target bandwidth is determined to be smaller than or equal to the first residual bandwidth, allowing a new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access in the current unit time; when the target bandwidth is determined to be greater than the first residual bandwidth, calculating a second residual bandwidth of each other carrier according to reserved traffic of all services carried in the other carrier except the target carrier and preset total bandwidth of each other carrier, which are provided by the access network device; when the target bandwidth is determined to be greater than the first residual bandwidth and available carrier waves exist in all other carrier waves, allocating resources corresponding to second residual bandwidth of the available carrier waves to the target carrier waves in the current unit time, and allowing a new user terminal corresponding to the target service to access; the target bandwidth is less than or equal to a second remaining bandwidth of the available carrier; and when the target bandwidth is determined to be larger than the first residual bandwidth and no available carrier exists in all other carrier waves, prohibiting the access of a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in the current unit time.

5. The access network device of claim 4, wherein the processing module is further configured to, prior to determining whether to allow access to a new user terminal corresponding to the target service in a current unit time based on a target bandwidth of the target service and a first remaining bandwidth of a target carrier corresponding to the target service:

calculating a first total bandwidth required by other services in a target carrier according to reserved traffic of the other services except the target service, which is carried on the target carrier and acquired by the acquisition module; the target carrier wave is the carrier wave corresponding to the target service;

6. The access network device of claim 4, wherein the processing module is further configured to allow access to a user terminal corresponding to a service other than the target service from all services carried by the access network device in a current unit time.

7. An access network device comprising a memory, a processor, a bus, and a communication interface; the memory is used for storing computer execution instructions, and the processor is connected with the memory through the bus; the processor executing the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory when the access network device is operating, to cause the access network device to perform the user access method of any one of claims 1-3.

8. A computer storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the user access method of any of claims 1-3.