CN112187643A

CN112187643A - Message forwarding method, control plane gateway and user plane gateway

Info

Publication number: CN112187643A
Application number: CN202010897518.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 沈智敏; 岡廻隆生; 张亮
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd; SoftBank Group Corp
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd; SoftBank Group Corp
Priority date: 2017-11-28
Filing date: 2017-11-28
Publication date: 2021-01-05
Anticipated expiration: 2037-11-28
Also published as: WO2019104858A1; JP7065034B2; CN112187650A; CN112187643B; JP2021504983A; CN109842558A; CN109842558B

Abstract

The application provides a method for message forwarding, a control plane gateway and a user plane gateway, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the control plane gateway acquires registration information of first User Equipment (UE) and registration information of second UE, wherein the registration information of the first UE comprises a UE identifier communicated with the first UE, and the registration information of the second UE comprises a UE identifier communicated with the second UE; generating forwarding routing tables of the first UE and the second UE according to the registration information, wherein the forwarding routing tables comprise information required by paths for message transmission of the first UE and the second UE; and sending the forwarding routing table to a first user plane gateway and a second user plane gateway, wherein the forwarding routing table is used for the user plane gateway to determine a message forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE. The method for forwarding the message, the control plane gateway and the user plane gateway in the embodiment of the application can effectively optimize the forwarding path so as to meet the requirement of low-delay service.

Description

Message forwarding method, control plane gateway and user plane gateway

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method for forwarding a packet, a control plane gateway, and a user plane gateway.

Background

In vehicle-to-vehicle communication, due to the mobility of vehicles, both the continuity of service and low time delay need to be considered as much as possible. One of the manifestations of service continuity is that the endpoint information (such as the user communication IP address) of the vehicle user communication is kept unchanged, so that the two communication parties can quickly contact with each other without exchanging the endpoint information after the other party changes through other technologies. To achieve lower latency, the gateways are typically sunk, i.e., more gateways are deployed near the vehicle users. Thus, vehicle-to-vehicle communication may be performed in a scenario across sinking gateways.

After the user plane gateway sinks, if the message forwarding scheme in the prior art is still adopted, a path will be circuitous, and the forwarding delay is increased. Therefore, a scheme is needed to be found, which can effectively optimize the forwarding path to meet the requirement of low-latency services.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method for forwarding a message, a control plane gateway and a user plane gateway, which can effectively optimize a forwarding path to meet the requirement of low-delay service.

In a first aspect, a method for forwarding a packet is provided, including:

a control plane gateway acquires registration information of first User Equipment (UE) and registration information of second UE, wherein the registration information of the first UE comprises a UE identifier communicated with the first UE, and the registration information of the second UE comprises a UE identifier communicated with the second UE;

the control plane gateway generates forwarding routing tables of the first UE and the second UE according to the registration information of the first UE and the registration information of the second UE, wherein the forwarding routing tables comprise information required by paths for message transmission of the first UE and the second UE;

and the control plane gateway transmits the forwarding routing table to a first user plane gateway and a second user plane gateway, wherein the forwarding routing table is used for the user plane gateway to determine a message forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE, the first user plane gateway is a gateway where the first UE is located, and the second user plane gateway is a gateway where the second UE is located.

In the embodiment of the application, the control plane gateway determines the forwarding routing table and issues the forwarding routing table to the first user plane gateway, so that the first user plane gateway determines the message forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE according to the forwarding routing table, and the message forwarding path can be optimized, thereby meeting the requirement of low-delay service.

In this embodiment of the application, the first UE and the second UE may be under a single user plane gateway or may be across user plane gateways. That is, the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway may be the same or different.

In some possible implementations, the first user plane gateway is the same as the second user plane gateway, wherein,

generating forwarding routing tables for the first UE and the second UE, including:

and the control plane gateway generates the forwarding routing table according to the registration information and the identifier of the first user plane gateway, wherein the forwarding routing table comprises a route from the first user plane gateway to the first UE and a route from the first user plane gateway to the second UE, and the message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE is directly sent through the first user plane gateway.

Therefore, the message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE can be directly forwarded through the first user plane gateway, and the message forwarding does not need to be carried out in a roundabout way from the first user plane gateway through a transmission network and a central gateway, so that the forwarding path is optimized, the forwarding delay is reduced, and the requirement of low-delay service can be met.

In some possible implementations, the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway are different user plane gateways, wherein,

and the control plane gateway generates the forwarding routing table according to the registration information, the identifier of the first user plane gateway and the identifier of the second user plane gateway, wherein the forwarding routing table comprises a route from the first user plane gateway to the second UE through the second user plane gateway and a route from the second user plane gateway to the first UE through the first user plane gateway.

Optionally, the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway are different user plane gateways under the same central gateway.

Here, the forwarding of the packets of the first UE and the second UE may be directly forwarded through the tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway, and the packets do not need to be forwarded from the user plane gateway through the transmission network and the central gateway in a roundabout manner, so that a forwarding path is optimized, the forwarding delay is reduced, and the requirement of the low-delay service can be met. And the IP address of the first UE and the IP address of the second UE are allocated by the central gateway, and because the central gateway is kept unchanged, even if the UE is switched from the local UP1 to the local UPF2, the IP address of the UE is not changed, thereby ensuring the continuity of upper layer application and avoiding service interruption caused by gateway reconnection.

In some possible implementations, before generating the forwarding routing table, the method further includes:

the control plane gateway updates the registration information to obtain the updated registration information;

and the control plane gateway updates the forwarding routing table according to the updated registration information.

Here, when the control plane gateway performs updating, it may only update the table entry of the UE whose user plane gateway changes, and does not need to update all the registered table entries of the UE, thereby reducing the updating range and saving the overhead.

In some possible implementation manners, before the control plane gateway issues the forwarding routing table to the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway, the method further includes:

the control plane gateway sends a tunnel creating request to the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway, wherein the tunnel creating request is used for requesting to create a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway;

the control plane gateway receives a first tunnel creating request response sent by the first user plane gateway, wherein the first tunnel creating request response is used for the first user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel creating request;

and the control plane gateway receives a second tunnel creating request response sent by the second user plane gateway, wherein the second tunnel creating request response is used for the second user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel creating request.

Here, the control plane gateway may request establishment of a tunnel connection between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway in order to enable communication across the user plane gateways, thereby optimizing the forwarding path.

In a second aspect, a method for forwarding a packet is provided, including:

a first user plane gateway receives a forwarding routing table sent by a control plane gateway, wherein the forwarding routing table comprises information required by a path for message transmission of first User Equipment (UE) and second UE;

and the first user plane gateway determines a message forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE according to the forwarding routing table, wherein the first user plane gateway is a gateway where the first UE is located, and the second user plane gateway is a gateway where the second UE is located.

In the embodiment of the application, the first user plane gateway receives the forwarding routing table sent by the control plane gateway, and determines the message forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE according to the forwarding routing table, so that the message forwarding path can be optimized, and thus the requirement of low-delay service is met.

In some possible implementations, the first user plane gateway is the same as the second user plane gateway, where the forwarding routing table includes a route from the first user plane gateway to the first UE and a route from the first user plane gateway to the second UE;

the determining, by the first user plane gateway, the packet forwarding paths of the first UE and the second UE according to the forwarding routing table includes:

and the first user plane gateway determines that the message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE is directly sent through the first user plane gateway according to the forwarding routing table.

In some possible implementations, the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway are different user plane gateways, and the forwarding routing table includes a route from the first user plane gateway to the second UE through the second user plane gateway, and a route from the second user plane gateway to the first UE through the first user plane gateway;

wherein, the determining, by the first user plane gateway according to the forwarding routing table, the packet forwarding paths of the first UE and the second UE includes:

and the first user plane gateway determines that the message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE is sent through a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway according to the forwarding routing table.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes:

the first user plane gateway receives a tunnel creating request sent by the control plane gateway, wherein the first tunnel creating request is used for requesting to create a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway;

and the first user plane gateway sends a first tunnel creating request response to the control plane gateway, wherein the first tunnel creating request response is used for the first user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel creating request.

Here, the first user plane gateway may respond to the control plane gateway tunneling creation request and establish a tunneling connection with the second user plane gateway, so as to implement communication between the cross-user plane gateways, thereby optimizing the forwarding path.

In a third aspect, a control plane gateway is provided, configured to perform the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect. In particular, the control plane gateway comprises means for performing the method of the first aspect described above or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a user plane gateway for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect. In particular, the user plane gateway comprises means for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a control plane gateway is provided that includes a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. The processor is coupled to the memory and the transceiver. The memory is for storing instructions, the processor is for executing the instructions, and the transceiver is for communicating with other network elements under control of the processor. The processor, when executing the instructions stored by the memory, causes the processor to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, a user plane gateway is provided that includes a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. The processor is coupled to the memory and the transceiver. The memory is for storing instructions, the processor is for executing the instructions, and the transceiver is for communicating with other network elements under control of the processor. The processor, when executing the instructions stored by the memory, causes the processor to perform the second aspect or the method of any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a program, where the program enables a control plane gateway to perform the method for forwarding a packet in the first aspect and any of its various implementations.

In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a program, where the program enables a user plane gateway to execute the method for forwarding a packet in the second aspect and any of its various implementations.

A ninth aspect provides a communication chip having instructions stored thereon, which when run on a control plane gateway, cause the communication chip to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

A tenth aspect provides a communication chip having instructions stored therein, which when run on a user plane gateway, cause the communication chip to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof or the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a diagram of a CUPS network architecture with control plane separated from user plane.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a scenario to which an embodiment of the present application is applied.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a control plane gateway according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a user plane gateway according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic interaction diagram of a method for message forwarding according to an embodiment of the application.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an example to which embodiments of the present application are applied.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of another example according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is an interaction diagram of a specific process according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a control plane gateway according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a user plane gateway according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a user plane gateway according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) System, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) System, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) System, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), a Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) System, an LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) System, an LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication System, a future fifth Generation (5G) System, or a New Radio Network (NR), etc.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to a network architecture with Control and User Plane Separation (CUPS). The control plane is separated from the user plane, that is, some or all of the network elements having the functions of the control plane and the user plane are separated into two individuals, namely, a control plane network element and a user plane network element. CUPS is also called CU separation. In the CU-separated network architecture, the control plane network element has a control plane function, and mainly includes signaling connection with other network elements, processing mobility management and session management requests of the user equipment, managing a context of the user equipment, and establishing a channel for transmitting data. The user plane network element has a user plane function, and mainly includes sending uplink and downlink data packets of the user equipment, executing Quality of Service (QoS) control and traffic statistics for the data packets, and the like. Among them, a channel may also be referred to as a tunnel (tunnel), such as a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tunneling Protocol (GTP) tunnel, etc.

Fig. 1 shows a CUPS network architecture diagram. As shown in fig. 1, the network architecture mainly includes a UE, a base station, a control plane gateway, and a server. The dashed lines in fig. 1 indicate the transmission of messages over the control plane and the solid lines indicate the transmission of messages or data packets over the user plane.

A UE may refer to a terminal device, access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user equipment. The terminal device may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with Wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a Wireless modem, a Vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G Network or a terminal device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) for future evolution, a Vehicle-to-all (Vehicle to X, V2X) device, a Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) device, and the like, which are not limited by the embodiment of the present application. The UE may communicate with the control plane gateway through signaling messages, or may transmit data packets with the user plane gateway.

The base station is a possible component in a Network architecture of CP separation used in this embodiment, and may be a base station device G-NB, a small base station device, an eNB in a future 5G Network, or a wireless controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) scenario, or a Mobility Management Element (MME), or the base station may be a relay station, an Access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a Network device in the future 5G Network, or a Network device in a future evolved PLMN Network, or the like. The UE communicates with the control plane gateway and the user plane gateway through the base station, and certainly, the UE may also communicate with the control plane gateway and the user plane gateway directly, that is, the network architecture with the CP separated may not have the base station, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

A Core Network (CN) in a 5G Network includes Network Functions (NFs) of a control plane and Network functions of a user plane. The core Network is connected to a 5G Access Network (RAN).

A Control Plane (CP) Gateway (Gateway) has an interface of a Control Plane, and is mainly used for performing signaling connection with other network elements, processing a mobility management and session management request of a user, managing a context of the user, and establishing a channel for transmitting data. The control plane gateway can be used for gateway autonomous allocation in static IP address allocation or dynamic IP address allocation. The Control plane GateWay may be a Control GateWay (CGW) having a Control plane function after a Public Data Network GateWay (PGW) is separated.

Alternatively, the network Function of the control plane may be a Session Management Function (SMF), an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF).

The User Plane (UP) Gateway has an interface of the User Plane, and is mainly used for sending uplink and downlink data packets of a User, executing QoS control and flow statistics for the data packets, and the like. The user plane gateway can be used for gateway autonomous allocation during dynamic IP address allocation and external network allocation during dynamic IP address allocation. The Server (Server) can distribute IP address, and can receive and transmit data message by connecting with the user plane gateway. The User plane GateWay may be a User plane GateWay (UGW) having a User plane function after PGW separation.

Further, for a scenario where the User Plane gateway is sunk, the User Plane gateway may be separated into a central gateway (e.g., Anchor Plane Function (UPF)) and an edge gateway (e.g., Local UPF), where the Anchor UPF serves as a User Plane Anchor, and the Local UPF pulls away the User Plane to provide near forwarding for low latency services. One Anchor UPF may correspond to multiple Local UPFs. As the UE moves, a scenario across Local UPFs may occur.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a scenario to which an embodiment of the present application is applied. As shown in fig. 2, the network architecture mainly includes a control plane gateway, a transport network, a user plane gateway, and vehicles (including vehicle 1 and vehicle 2). Wherein, the user plane gateway is separated into an Anchor (Anchor) UPF and a Local (Local) UPF (including Local UPF1 and Local UPF 2). Alternatively, vehicle 1 and vehicle 2 may communicate under the same Local UPF (vehicle 1 and vehicle 2 as shown in lane T1 in fig. 2) or across Local UPF (vehicle 1 and vehicle 2 as shown in lane T2 in fig. 2).

It should be understood that the above description is only given by way of example in fig. 2, and does not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

In the existing scheme, if the vehicle 1 and the vehicle 2 are both in the Local UPF1, the vehicle 1 and the vehicle 2 perform message forwarding through the path 1; if the vehicle 2 moves to the Local UPF2, the vehicle 1 and the vehicle 2 perform message forwarding through the path 2. However, whether the path 1 or the path 2 is, the path for forwarding the message by the vehicle 1 and the vehicle 2 is lengthened, the time delay is large, and the requirement of low-delay service cannot be met.

Based on this, the embodiment of the present application proposes a new solution, which optimizes a path to meet the requirement of low-latency services.

Fig. 3 shows a block diagram of a control plane gateway 300 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the illustrated control plane gateway 300 includes: a processor 301, a memory 302, and a transceiver 303.

The processor 301, memory 302, and transceiver 303 communicate with each other, passing control and/or data signals, through internal connection paths. In one possible design, processor 301, memory 302, and transceiver 303 may be implemented by chips. The memory 302 may store program code, and the processor 301 calls the program code stored in the memory 302 to implement the corresponding function of the control plane gateway.

The processor 301 is configured to:

acquiring registration information of a first UE and registration information of a second UE through the transceiver 303, wherein the registration information of the first UE comprises a UE identifier communicated with the first UE, and the registration information of the second UE comprises a UE identifier communicated with the second UE;

and sending the forwarding routing table to a first user plane gateway and a second user plane gateway through the transceiver 303, where the forwarding routing table is used by the user plane gateway to determine a packet forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE, where the first user plane gateway is a gateway where the first UE is located, and the second user plane gateway is a gateway where the second UE is located.

It is understood that, although not shown, the control plane gateway 300 may also include other devices, such as input devices, output devices, batteries, etc.

In one possible design, the memory 302 may store instructions for executing a method performed by a control plane gateway in the method for packet forwarding according to the embodiment of the present application. The processor 301 may execute the instructions stored in the memory 302 to complete the steps performed by the control plane gateway in the following method in combination with other hardware (e.g. the transceiver 303), and specific working procedures and beneficial effects may be referred to the description in the following method embodiments.

Fig. 4 shows a block diagram of a user plane gateway 400 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the user plane gateway 400 shown includes: a processor 401, a memory 402, and a transceiver 403.

The processor 401, memory 402 and transceiver 403 communicate with each other, passing control and/or data signals, through internal connection paths. In one possible design, processor 401, memory 402, and transceiver 403 may be implemented by chips. The memory 402 may store program code, and the processor 401 calls the program code stored by the memory 402 to implement the corresponding function of the user plane gateway.

The processor 401 is configured to:

receiving, by the transceiver 403, a forwarding routing table sent by a control plane gateway, where the forwarding routing table includes information required by a path where the first UE and the second UE perform packet transmission;

and determining a message forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE according to the forwarding routing table.

It is understood that although not shown, the user plane gateway 400 may also include other devices, such as input devices, output devices, batteries, etc.

In one possible design, the memory 402 may store instructions for performing the method performed by the user plane gateway in the method for packet forwarding according to the embodiment of the present application. The processor 401 may execute the instructions stored in the memory 402 to complete the steps performed by the user plane gateway (the first user plane gateway or the second user plane gateway) in the following method in combination with other hardware (for example, the transceiver 403), and the specific working process and beneficial effects may be referred to the description in the following method embodiment.

The method disclosed by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a processor or realized by the processor. The processor may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the following method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, a discrete hardware component, a system on chip (SoC), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Microcontroller (MCU), a programmable logic controller (PLD), or other integrated chip. The various methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software modules may be located in a Random Access Memory (RAM), a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM, an electrically erasable programmable memory, a register, or other storage media that are well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads instructions in the memory and performs the steps of the method described below in conjunction with its hardware.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic interaction diagram of a method 500 for message forwarding according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 5, the method 500 includes:

s501, a control plane gateway acquires registration information of first User Equipment (UE) and registration information of second UE, wherein the registration information of the first UE comprises a UE identifier communicated with the first UE, and the registration information of the second UE comprises a UE identifier communicated with the second UE.

Optionally, the control plane gateway may be an AMF/SMF node or device, or may be an MME, which is not limited to this.

Optionally, the registration information of the first UE may include a user entry of the first UE and a UE identity communicated with the first UE. The registration information of the second UE may include a user entry of the second UE and a UE identity communicated with the second UE.

Optionally, the control plane gateway may obtain a message forwarding relationship between the first UE and the second UE according to the registration information.

Specifically, the first UE and the second UE both register with the V2X server and join a queuing group. Then, the control plane gateway may obtain the registration information through the V2X controller, so as to know that the first UE and the second UE are a communication group, and then issue a forwarding routing table.

Optionally, in a specific implementation, the registration information may be actively acquired by the control plane gateway through a server (e.g., a V2X server), or may be sent to the control plane gateway by the server through a Network Exposure Function (NEF), or may be configured in advance to the control plane gateway, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

It should be understood that the first UE and the second UE are exemplified here. Optionally, the control plane gateway may obtain registration information of multiple UEs with communication requirements, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

S502, the control plane gateway generates forwarding routing tables of the first UE and the second UE according to the registration information of the first UE and the registration information of the second UE, wherein the forwarding routing tables comprise information required by paths for message transmission of the first UE and the second UE.

Specifically, the control plane gateway associates to the user context according to the registration information of the first UE and the registration information of the second UE, and generates a forwarding routing table on the forwarding plane.

Optionally, the control plane gateway may maintain a forwarding routing table, which may include information required for a communication path between the first UE and the second UE. For example, the forwarding routing table may include information such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the first UE, an IP address of the second UE, an Identifier (ID) of a user plane gateway where the first UE and the second UE are located, an address of a next-hop device of the first UE, and an address of a next-hop device of the second UE.

It should be understood that the path for forwarding the packet by the first UE and the second UE may be a communication from the first UE to the second UE, or a communication from the second UE to the first UE, which is not particularly limited. Correspondingly, the forwarding routing table may include routing information of a unidirectional path when the first UE communicates with the second UE, or may include routing information of a bidirectional path, which is not limited herein.

And S503, the control plane gateway issues a forwarding routing table to the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway, wherein the forwarding routing table is used for the user plane gateway to determine a message forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE.

Optionally, the first user plane gateway or the second user plane gateway is a Local UPF. Optionally, if the first UE and the second UE are under the same user plane gateway (e.g. the first user plane gateway), the control plane gateway issues the forwarding routing table to the first user plane gateway.

Correspondingly, the first user plane gateway receives the forwarding routing table issued by the control plane gateway.

S504, the first user plane gateway determines a message forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE according to the forwarding routing table.

Correspondingly, the second user plane gateway receives the forwarding routing table issued by the control plane gateway.

And S505, the second user plane gateway determines a message forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE according to the forwarding routing table.

Optionally, there is an IP address for both parties to communicate in the forwarding packet of the UE, and the UE may query the forwarding routing table based on the IP address.

It should be understood that step S505 may not be performed if the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway are the same, wherein the control plane gateway may send the forwarding routing table to the first user plane gateway only in step S503.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the first UE and the second UE may be under a single user plane gateway or may be across user plane gateways. That is, the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway may be the same or different. Of course, in any case, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are applicable. These situations will be described in detail below.

Optionally, the first user plane gateway is the same as the second UE user plane gateway, where generating the forwarding routing tables of the first UE and the second UE includes:

Specifically, if the first UE and the second UE are under the same user plane gateway (e.g., the first user plane gateway), the control plane gateway may generate the forwarding routing table based on the registration information of the first UE and the second UE and the identifier of the first user plane gateway, and send the forwarding routing table to the first user plane gateway. And the forwarding routing table comprises a route from the first user plane gateway to the first UE and a route from the first user plane gateway to the second UE. That is, the message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE is performed locally through the first user plane gateway.

Correspondingly, the first user plane gateway determines that the message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE is directly sent through the first user plane gateway according to the forwarding routing table.

In this way, the packet forwarding of the first UE and the second UE may be directly forwarded through the first user plane gateway (e.g., UPF1 in fig. 2), and does not need to be forwarded from the first user plane gateway through the transmission network and the central gateway (e.g., anchor point UPF in fig. 2) in a roundabout manner, so that the forwarding path is optimized, the forwarding delay is reduced, and the requirement of the low-delay service can be met.

Optionally, the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway are different user plane gateways, wherein,

the generating the forwarding routing tables of the first UE and the second UE includes:

Specifically, if the first UE and the second UE are not under the same user plane gateway, the control plane gateway may generate the forwarding routing table based on the registration information of the first UE and the second UE, the identifier of the first user plane gateway, and the identifier of the second user plane gateway, and issue the forwarding routing table to the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway. The forwarding routing table comprises a route from the first user plane gateway to the first UE through the second user plane gateway, and a route from the second user plane gateway to the second UE through the first user plane gateway. The message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE can be carried out through a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway.

Correspondingly, the first user plane gateway determines that the message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE is sent through a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway according to the forwarding routing table.

Here, the forwarding of the packets of the first UE and the second UE may be directly forwarded through a tunnel (for example, a tunnel of the local UPF1 and a tunnel of the local UPF2 in fig. 2) between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway, and does not need to be forwarded by the user plane gateway through a transmission network and a central gateway (for example, an Anchor UPF in fig. 2) in a detouring manner, so that a forwarding path is optimized, a forwarding delay is reduced, and a requirement of a low-delay service can be met. And the IP address of the first UE and the IP address of the second UE are allocated by the central gateway, and because the central gateway is kept unchanged, even if the UE is switched from the local UP1 to the local UPF2, the IP address of the UE is not changed, thereby ensuring the continuity of upper layer application and avoiding service interruption caused by gateway reconnection.

The above describes that the first UE and the second UE may use the tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway for packet forwarding. How to tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway will be described below.

Optionally, before the control plane gateway issues the forwarding routing table to the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway, the method further includes:

and the control plane gateway sends a tunnel creating request to the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway, wherein the tunnel creating request is used for requesting to create a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway.

Correspondingly, the first user plane gateway receives the request for establishing the tunnel; and the second user plane gateway receives the request for establishing the tunnel.

After a tunnel is established between a first user plane gateway and a second user plane gateway, the first user plane gateway sends a first tunnel establishing request response to the control plane gateway, and the first tunnel establishing request response is used for the first user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel establishing request.

Correspondingly, the control plane gateway receives a first tunnel creation request response sent by the first user plane gateway.

After the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway establish a tunnel, the second user plane gateway sends a second tunnel establishment request response to the control plane gateway, and the second tunnel establishment request response is used for the second user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel establishment request.

Correspondingly, the control plane gateway receives a second tunnel creation request response sent by the second user plane gateway.

That is, the control plane gateway may request that a tunnel connection be established between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway in order to facilitate communication across the user plane gateways, thereby optimizing the forwarding path.

In order to make the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application more clearly understood by those skilled in the art, the following description will be made with reference to fig. 6. Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of an example of application of an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, both vehicle 1 and vehicle 2 access the local UPF1, and vehicle 3 accesses the local UPF 2. Wherein the local UPF1 and the local UPF2 correspond to the same anchor UPF (i.e., local UPF 1). Alternatively, the vehicle 2 may also move under the local UPF 2. Among them, the vehicle (car) may be regarded as the UE.

If the vehicle 1 and the vehicle 2 need to communicate, if the prior art scheme is adopted, the vehicle 1 and the vehicle 2 use the path 1 to forward messages. After the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application is applied, the control surface gateway enables the vehicle 1 and the vehicle 2 to use the path 1' to forward the message by issuing the forwarding routing table to the local UPF1, so that the forwarding is directly completed at the local UPF1, the message does not need to be forwarded to the anchor point UPF through a transmission network, the forwarding path is optimized, and the forwarding time delay is reduced.

If the vehicles 2 and 3 need to communicate, the vehicles 2 and 3 use the path 2 to forward messages according to the prior art. After the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application is applied, the control plane gateway establishes a tunnel between the UPF1 and the UPF2 by sending the forwarding routing table to the local UPF1 and the local UPF2, so that the vehicle 2 and the vehicle 3 can use the path 2' to forward the message, and thus the message forwarding is completed through the tunnel between the UPF1 and the UPF2, and the message does not need to be forwarded to the anchor point UPF through a transmission network, thereby optimizing the forwarding path and reducing the forwarding delay.

It should be understood that in fig. 6, if the vehicle 2 moves under the local UPF2, communication with the vehicle 1 may also be achieved through a tunnel between the UPF1 and the UPF2, which will not be described herein for brevity.

In summary, it can be seen from fig. 6 that: the forwarding path obtained by applying the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application is obviously superior to the forwarding path in the prior art, and can realize quick forwarding.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the method 500 further includes:

In particular, if the UE moves or hands over to a different user plane gateway, the control plane gateway may update the registration information of the UE. The control plane gateway may update the forwarding routing table based on the updated registration information. Here, when the control plane gateway performs updating, it may only update the table entry of the UE whose user plane gateway changes, and does not need to update all the registered table entries of the UE, thereby reducing the updating range and saving the overhead.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, both parties of the UE that needs to communicate may join dynamically after initial subscription or later, which is not limited to this. In the embodiment of the application, a registration mechanism is introduced, and two or more parties needing communication are managed or maintained through an application layer.

To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application by those skilled in the art, the following description will be made in conjunction with the example in fig. 7.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of another example according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 7, vehicle 1, vehicle 2, and vehicle 3 are a formation of mobile vehicles in which the vehicles need to maintain continuous traffic. After establishing the bearer, the formation vehicle sends a formation communication request to a server (such as a V2X server) in sequence. The server queues the vehicle 1, the vehicle 2 and the vehicle 3 according to the received queuing communication request. The server sends the formation vehicle information (i.e., the registration information described above) to a control plane gateway (such as the AMF/SMF in fig. 7) via the NEF. And the control plane gateway generates a forwarding routing table according to the formation vehicle information and sends the forwarding routing table to the user plane gateway (comprising a local UPF1 and a local UPF 2). Formation between scattered vehicles is not required, and a formation request is not sent to a server. Illustratively, in fig. 7, when vehicle 2 moves from local UPF1 to local UPF2, the control plane gateway needs to update the route from local UPF1 to vehicle 2 and from local UPF2 to vehicle 1, ensuring that vehicle 1 and vehicle 2 communicate through the tunnel between local UPF1 and local UPF2 without requiring route updates for the scattered vehicles.

Therefore, if a certain vehicle in the formation vehicles moves across the UPF, the control plane gateway only updates the user table entries aiming at the formation vehicles, so that the number of updated user table entries is reduced, network fluctuation is reduced, and the network performance is improved.

FIG. 8 shows an interaction diagram of a particular process according to an embodiment of the application. The solid lines in fig. 8 represent the interaction steps between the respective devices, and the dotted lines represent the packet forwarding path between the UE1 and the UE 2. As shown in fig. 8, the process includes:

801, the UE1 establishes a Packet Data Network (PDN) connection to the anchor UPF and the edge user plane is established at the local UPF 1.

802, the UE2 establishes a PDN connection to the anchor UPF and the edge user plane is established at the local UPF 1.

803, the UE1 registers with the V2X server (or controller) and joins the formation.

804, the UE2 registers with the V2X server (or controller) and joins the formation.

Here, the UE1 and the UE2 are registered with an Application Server (AS). Wherein, UE1 and UE2 are one formation of vehicles. Message forwarding is required between the UE1 and the UE 2.

Correspondingly, the V2X server may obtain the enqueue information for UE1 and UE 2.

805, the V2X server transmits the queuing information (or registration information) of the UE1 and the UE2 to the SMF.

Optionally, the queuing information may also be preconfigured to the SMF.

Correspondingly, the SMF acquires the queuing information of the UE1 and the UE 2. Further, the SMF generates a forwarding routing table according to the queuing information of the UE1 and the UE 2.

806, the SMF issues a user-level forwarding routing table to the local UPF 1.

Correspondingly, the local UPF1 may determine the message forwarding paths of UE1 and UE2 according to the forwarding routing table.

807, the message forwarding path from UE1 to UE2 is: UE1-RAN 1-local UPF1-RAN1-UE 2.

808, the UE2 is handed over. The UE2 is handed over from RAN1 to RAN2 and the corresponding UPF is handed over from local UPF1 to local UPF 2.

At this time, if the system supports a dual link scenario, the message forwarding between the UE1 and the UE2 may be implemented by the following paths: (1) and (3) original link: UE1-RAN 1-local UPF1-RAN1-UE 2; (2) and (4) new link: UE1-RAN 1-local UPF1-RAN2-UE 2. The new link here refers to a link that has not been optimized after the handover of the UE2 has occurred. Optionally, the messages between UE1 and UE2 may be V2V messages.

809, the RAN2 sends a path switch request to the AMF.

At 810, AMF initiates a create session request (create session request) to SMF. Wherein the create session request in step 810 is sent by the AMF to the SMF.

811, the SMF may send a create session request to the local UPF2 according to an algorithm. Wherein the create session request in step 811 is sent by the SMF to the local UPF 2.

812, the local UPF2 replies to the SMF with a create session response (create session response). The "create session response" here corresponds to the "create session request" in step 811.

813, the SMF sends a create inter-UPF tunnel request (GTP tunnel create request) to the local UPF 1.

Therein, the create inter-UPF tunnel request in step 813 is used to request the creation of a tunnel, such as a GTP tunnel, between the local UPF1 and the local UPF 2.

814, the local UPF1 replies to the SMF with a create inter-UPF tunnel response.

815, the SMF sends a create inter-UPF tunnel request to the local UPF 2. The request for creating an inter-UPF tunnel in step 815 is the same as the "request for creating an inter-UPF tunnel" in step 813, and is used to request the creation of a tunnel, such as a GTP tunnel, between the local UPF1 and the local UPF 2.

816, the local UPF2 replies to the SMF with a create inter-UPF tunnel response.

Here, a tunnel between the local UPF1 and the local UPF2 is established through the above-described steps 813-816.

817, the SMF sends a session modification request (session modification request) to the anchor UPF. Wherein, the session modification request in step 817 is sent by the SMF to the anchor UPF.

818, the anchor point UPF replies a session modification response (session modification response) to the SMF. Here, the "session modification response" corresponds to the "session modification request" in step 817.

Here, when the UE2 is handed over, the SMF needs to update the forwarding routing table and issue the updated forwarding routing table to the local UPF1 and the local UPF 2.

819, the SMF sends an update user-level forwarding route request (forward routing request) to the local UPF 2.

820, the local UPF2 replies with a user-level forward route response to the SMF. The user-level forward route response in step 820 is for the local UPF2 to respond to the updated user-level forward route request in step 819.

821, the SMF sends an updated user-level forwarding route request (forward routing request) to the local UPF 1.

822, the local UPF1 replies with a user-level forward route response to the SMF. The user-level forward route response in step 822 is for the UPF1 to respond to the updated user-level forward route request in step 821.

Here, the local UPF1 may determine a forwarding path for UE1 and UE2 according to the updated forwarding routing table. For UE1 to UE2, the packet forwarding path is: UE1-RAN 1-local UPF 1-local UPF2-RAN2-UE 2. Here, for UE2 to UE1, the packet forwarding path is not unified with the path from UE1 to UE2, and the packet forwarding path from UE2 to UE1 is: UE2-RAN 2-local UPF1-RAN1-UE 1.

823, the SMF replies to the AMF with a create session response (create session response). Wherein the create session response in step 823 is used in response to the create session request in step 810.

The AMF replies 824 with a path switch request response to the RAN 2.

At this time, the message forwarding path from UE2 to UE1 is updated as: the unified uplink and downlink paths are realized by the UE2-RAN 2-local UPF 2-local UPF1-RAN1-UE1, that is, the message forwarding path from the UE2 to the UE1 is unified with the message forwarding path from the UE1 to the UE 2.

825, the RAN2 sends a link release (path release) request, or a release resource (release resource) request, to the RAN 1.

826, the SMF sends a release resource request or a delete session request to the UPF 1.

In summary, the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application realizes path optimization, effectively reduces the message forwarding delay, and can meet the requirements of low-delay services.

It should be noted that the meaning, interpretation or action of each term (such as create session request, create session response) in fig. 8 may correspond to the corresponding sending and/or receiving body. The names of the terms used in the steps do not limit the steps to be executed. Alternatively, the nomenclature of the terms may be replaced with other nomenclature.

It should be understood that the examples in fig. 6 to 8 are only for facilitating the understanding of the embodiments of the present application by those skilled in the art, and are not intended to limit the embodiments of the present application to the specific scenarios illustrated. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various equivalent modifications or variations are possible in light of the examples shown in fig. 6-8, and such modifications or variations are within the scope of the embodiments of the invention.

The method for forwarding a packet according to the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 1 to 8, and the control plane gateway and the user plane gateway according to the embodiment of the present application are described in detail below with reference to fig. 9 and 10.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic block diagram of a control plane gateway 900 according to an embodiment of the application. The control plane gateway 900 is configured to perform the method or steps corresponding to the control plane gateway. Alternatively, the modules in the control plane gateway 900 may be implemented by software. The control plane gateway 900 may be installed in a general-purpose computer device. As shown in fig. 9, the control plane gateway 900 includes:

an obtaining module 910, configured to obtain registration information of a first user equipment UE and registration information of a second user equipment UE, where the registration information of the first UE includes a UE identity that communicates with the first UE, and the registration information of the second UE includes a UE identity that communicates with the second UE;

a processing module 920, configured to generate forwarding routing tables of the first UE and the second UE according to the registration information of the first UE and the registration information of the second UE, where the forwarding routing tables include information required by paths where the first UE and the second UE perform packet transmission;

a transceiving module 930, configured to send the forwarding routing table to a first user plane gateway and a second user plane gateway, where the forwarding routing table is used for the user plane gateway to determine a packet forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE, where the first user plane gateway is a gateway where the first UE is located, and the second user plane gateway is a gateway where the second UE is located.

Optionally, the first user plane gateway is the same as the second user plane gateway, wherein,

the processing module 920 is specifically configured to:

and generating the forwarding routing table according to the registration information and the identifier of the first user plane gateway, where the forwarding routing table includes a route from the first user plane gateway to the first UE and a route from the first user plane gateway to the second UE, and where packet forwarding of the first UE and the second UE is directly sent through the first user plane gateway.

the processing module 920 is specifically configured to:

Optionally, the processing module 920 is further configured to: updating the registration information to obtain the updated registration information; and updating the forwarding routing table according to the updated registration information.

Optionally, the transceiver module 930 is further configured to:

sending a tunnel creating request to the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway, wherein the tunnel creating request is used for requesting to create a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway;

receiving a first tunnel creating request response sent by the first user plane gateway, wherein the first tunnel creating request response is used for the first user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel creating request;

and receiving a second tunnel creating request response sent by the second user plane gateway, wherein the second tunnel creating request response is used for the second user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel creating request.

It should be understood that the control plane gateway 900 according to the embodiment of the present application may correspond to the control plane gateway in the packet forwarding in the foregoing method embodiment, and the above and other management operations and/or functions of each module in the control plane gateway 900 are respectively for implementing corresponding steps of each foregoing method, so that beneficial effects in the foregoing method embodiment may also be implemented, and for brevity, no further description is provided herein.

It should also be understood that the processing module 920 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor, and the transceiving module 930 and the obtaining module 910 may be implemented by a transceiver.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic block diagram of a user plane gateway 1000 according to an embodiment of the application. The user plane gateway 1000 is configured to execute the method or step corresponding to the first user plane gateway. Alternatively, each module in the user plane gateway 1000 may be implemented by software. The user plane gateway 1000 may be installed in a general purpose computer device. As shown in fig. 10, the user plane gateway 1000 includes:

a transceiver module 1010, configured to receive a forwarding routing table sent by a control plane gateway, where the forwarding routing table includes information required by a path where a first user equipment UE and a second user equipment UE perform packet transmission;

a processing module 1020, configured to determine a packet forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE according to the forwarding routing table, where the first user plane gateway is a gateway where the first UE is located, and the second user plane gateway is a gateway where the second UE is located.

Optionally, the first user plane gateway is the same as the second user plane gateway, where the forwarding routing table includes a route from the first user plane gateway to the first UE and a route from the first user plane gateway to the second UE;

the processing module 1020 is specifically configured to:

and determining that the message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE is directly sent through the first user plane gateway according to the forwarding routing table.

Optionally, the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway are different user plane gateways, and the forwarding routing table includes a route from the first user plane gateway to the second UE through the second user plane gateway, and a route from the second user plane gateway to the first UE through the first user plane gateway;

the processing module 1020 is specifically configured to:

and determining that the message forwarding of the first UE and the second UE is sent through a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway according to the forwarding routing table.

Optionally, the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to:

receiving a tunnel creating request sent by the control plane gateway, wherein the first tunnel creating request is used for requesting to create tunnels of the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway;

and sending a first tunnel creating request response to the control plane gateway, wherein the first tunnel creating request response is used for the first user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel creating request.

It should be understood that the user plane gateway 1000 according to the embodiment of the present application may correspond to the first user plane gateway in the packet forwarding in the foregoing method embodiment, and the above and other management operations and/or functions of each module in the user plane gateway 1000 are respectively for implementing corresponding steps of each foregoing method, so that beneficial effects in the foregoing method embodiment may also be implemented, and for brevity, no further description is provided here.

It should also be understood that the processing module 1020 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor, and the transceiver module 1010 may be implemented by a transceiver.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic block diagram of a user plane gateway 1100 according to an embodiment of the present application. The user plane gateway 1100 is configured to execute a method or a step corresponding to the aforementioned second user plane gateway. Alternatively, the modules in the user plane gateway 1100 may be implemented by software. The user plane gateway 1100 may be installed in a general purpose computer device. As shown in fig. 11, the user plane gateway 1100 includes:

a transceiver module 1110, configured to receive a forwarding routing table sent by a control plane gateway, where the forwarding routing table includes a route from a first user plane gateway to a second user equipment UE through the second user plane gateway, and a route from the second user plane gateway to the first UE through the first user plane gateway, where the first user plane gateway is a user plane gateway where the first UE is located, the second user plane gateway is a user plane gateway where the second UE is located, and the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway are different user plane gateways;

a processing module 1120, configured to determine a packet forwarding path between the first UE and the second UE according to the forwarding routing table.

Optionally, the transceiver module 1110 is further configured to:

receiving a tunnel creating request sent by the control plane gateway, wherein the tunnel creating request is used for requesting to create a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway;

and sending a second tunnel creating request response to the control plane gateway, wherein the second tunnel creating request response is used for the second user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel creating request.

It should be understood that the user plane gateway 1100 according to the embodiment of the present application may correspond to a second user plane gateway in the packet forwarding in the foregoing method embodiment, and the foregoing and other management operations and/or functions of each module in the user plane gateway 1100 are respectively for implementing corresponding steps of each foregoing method, so that beneficial effects in the foregoing method embodiment may also be implemented, and for brevity, no further description is provided herein.

It is further understood that the processing module 1120 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor, and the transceiver module 1110 may be implemented by a transceiver.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Claims

1. A method for message forwarding, comprising:

the control plane gateway generates forwarding routing tables of the first UE and the second UE according to the registration information of the first UE and the registration information of the second UE; the forwarding routing table is used for indicating that the messages of the first UE and the second UE are forwarded locally through the first user plane gateway under the condition that the first UE and the second UE are both in the same first user plane gateway;

and the control plane gateway transmits the forwarding routing table to the first user plane gateway.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the forwarding of the packets of the first UE and the second UE is performed locally through the first user plane gateway, specifically: the message forwarding path of the first UE and the second UE is the first UE, the base station accessed by the first UE, the first user plane gateway, the base station accessed by the second UE, and the second UE.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein in case the second UE moves to a second user plane gateway, the method further comprises:

and the control plane gateway sends an updated routing forwarding table to the first user plane gateway, wherein the updated routing forwarding table is used for indicating that the messages of the first UE and the second UE are forwarded directly through a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the forwarding of the packets of the first UE and the second UE is directly forwarded through a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway, specifically: the message forwarding path of the first UE and the second UE is the first UE, the base station accessed by the first UE, the first user plane gateway, the second user plane gateway, the base station accessed by the second UE, and the second UE.

5. The method according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the control plane gateway updates the registration information of the second UE;

and the control plane gateway generates the updated route forwarding table based on the updated registration information of the second UE.

6. The method according to any one of claims 3-5, further comprising:

the control plane gateway sends a first tunnel creating request to the first user plane gateway, wherein the first tunnel creating request is used for requesting to create a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway;

the control plane gateway receives a first tunnel creating request response from the first user plane gateway, wherein the first tunnel creating request response is used for the first user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel creating request;

the control plane gateway sends a second tunnel creating request to the second user plane gateway, wherein the second tunnel creating request is used for requesting to create a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and the second user plane gateway; and the number of the first and second groups,

and the control plane gateway receives a second tunnel creating request response from the second user plane gateway, wherein the second tunnel creating request response is used for the second user plane gateway to respond to the tunnel creating request.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1-6, further comprising:

and the control plane gateway determines that the first UE and the second UE belong to the same communication group.

8. The method according to any of claims 1-7, wherein the control plane gateway is preconfigured with registration information of the first UE and registration information of the second UE.

9. The method according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the acquiring, by the control plane gateway, the registration information of the first user equipment UE and the registration information of the second user equipment UE comprises:

and the control plane gateway receives the registration information of the first UE and the registration information of the second UE from a server.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the control plane gateway receives the registration information of the first UE and the registration information of the second UE from a server, comprising:

and the control plane gateway receives the registration information of the first UE and the registration information of the second UE from a server through a network open function (NEF).

11. The method according to any of claims 1-10, wherein the control plane gateway is a session management function, SMF.

12. A method for message forwarding, comprising:

a first user plane gateway receives a forwarding routing table from a control plane gateway;

the first user plane gateway determines that the messages of the first UE and the second UE are forwarded through the first user plane gateway for local forwarding according to the forwarding routing table; the first user plane gateway is the first UE and a gateway accessed by the UE.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the forwarding of the packets of the first UE and the second UE is performed locally through the first user plane gateway, specifically: the message forwarding path of the first UE and the second UE is the first UE, the base station accessed by the first UE, the first user plane gateway, the base station accessed by the second UE, and the second UE.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the first user plane gateway receives a tunnel establishing request from the control plane gateway, wherein the tunnel establishing request is used for requesting the establishment of a tunnel between the first user plane gateway and a second user plane gateway; the second user plane gateway is accessed after the second UE moves;

and responding to the tunnel creating request, and sending a tunnel creating request response to the control plane gateway by the first user plane gateway.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

the first user plane gateway receives an updated route forwarding table from the control plane gateway;

and the first user plane gateway determines that the messages of the first UE and the second UE are directly forwarded through the tunnel according to the updated routing forwarding table.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the forwarding of the packets of the first UE and the second UE is directly forwarded through the tunnel, specifically: the message forwarding path of the first UE and the second UE is the first UE, the base station accessed by the first UE, the first user plane gateway, the second user plane gateway, the base station accessed by the second UE, and the second UE.

17. The method of any of claims 12-16, wherein the first UE and the second UE belong to a same communication group.

18. The method according to any of claims 12-17, wherein the control plane gateway is a session management function, SMF.

19. A control plane gateway characterized by means for performing any of the methods of 1-11.

20. A control plane gateway characterized by means for performing any of the methods of 12-18.

21. A computer-readable storage medium comprising a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 12.

22. A computer readable storage medium comprising a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any of claims 12 to 18.