CN112865936B

CN112865936B - Signaling forwarding method and system

Info

Publication number: CN112865936B
Application number: CN201911194085.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王高亮
Original assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-11-28
Filing date: 2019-11-28
Publication date: 2022-04-05
Anticipated expiration: 2039-11-28
Also published as: CN112865936A

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a signaling forwarding method and a signaling forwarding system. Wherein the method comprises the following steps: establishing a signaling link AS; the AS comprises a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA and a service processing node SP which are sequentially connected, and a signaling control access management unit SCAM connected with the SCA and the SP; the SCA determines the mapping relation between the AP and the AS and generates an AP-AS mapping relation table; the SCAM determines the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relation table received from the SCA, and generates an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table; the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table; and the SCA sends the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table. The method avoids the problem that the signaling forwarding service cannot be provided when a single point of failure occurs in the signaling link, thereby improving the processing efficiency of the user service and ensuring the normal operation of the user service processing process.

Description

Signaling forwarding method and system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a signaling forwarding method and a signaling forwarding system.

Background

In the daily user service control process, a core network element such as amf (access and Mobility Management function) needs to establish a signaling link with an access network base station (such as a gNB) in order to complete functions such as terminal access and Mobility Management. According to the 3GPP standard, an SCTP association needs to be established between the AMF and the gNB to carry signaling messages between network elements required for an upper layer signaling process.

In the existing AMF network element, in order to improve the availability of the network signaling link, a method of using a multihoming (multiaddress) link between the network element and the interworking network element is generally adopted to carry the signaling. IF the SCTP association between the two network elements is configured in a multihoming manner, that is, more than one address is configured on the two network elements, for example, IP1 is configured on the AMF network element at interface node IF1, and IP2 is configured on interface node IF2, and these two addresses serve as SCTP association protocol processing entities to establish a channel end node address coupled with the remote gNB network element. When one address is not available, the SCTP association can select another address to be used as a signaling transmission address.

Typically these addresses are configured based on different interfaces, but such links typically have only one protocol processing end point (EndPoint). During traffic communication, all user traffic control processes need to handle the end point through the protocol. When the protocol processing end point is in fault, the corresponding link can not provide signaling forwarding service, so that the normal operation of the user service control process is influenced, and the user service processing efficiency is reduced.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above problems, embodiments of the present application are proposed to provide a signaling forwarding method and a signaling forwarding system that overcome or at least partially solve the above problems.

In order to solve the above problem, an embodiment of the present application discloses a signaling forwarding method, including:

establishing a signaling link AS; the AS comprises a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA and a service processing node SP which are sequentially connected, and a signaling control access management unit SCAM connected with the SCA and the SP;

the SCA determines the mapping relation between the AP and the AS and generates an AP-AS mapping relation table;

the SCAM determines the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relation table received from the SCA, and generates an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table;

the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table;

and the SCA sends the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

Preferably, the AS further comprises a coupling management unit ASM, and the ASM and the SCA comprise a SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs; wherein, the said scan configuration table to which the ASM belongs includes the corresponding relation between the coupling management unit identifier ASMID and the signaling control access unit identifier SCAID, and the said step of establishing the signaling link AS includes:

the ASM receives a signaling link establishment request submitted by the AP;

the ASM dynamically generates link state information ASLINK according to the signaling link establishment request; the ASLINK comprises a unique link local identification ASID, a remote network element address APIP and a coupling management unit address LocalIP;

the ASM dynamically generates an ASM-AS mapping relation table according to the ASLINK; wherein, the ASM-AS mapping relation table comprises a corresponding relation of a global link identification GASID, the ASMID and the ASID;

determining SCAID corresponding to the ASMID according to the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs, and sending the ASLINK to the SCA;

the SCA receives and records the ASLINK and the ASM-AS mapping relation table, determines the ASMID corresponding to the GASID according to the ASM-AS mapping relation table, generates ASLINK confirmation information and sends the ASMID confirmation information to the ASM;

the ASM determines an APIP corresponding to the ASID according to the ASLINK confirmation information, and sends the ASLINK confirmation information to the AP from the LocalIP;

and the AP receives the ASLINK confirmation information and establishes a signaling link AS.

Preferably, the AP-AS mapping relationship table includes a corresponding relationship between a global link identifier GASID of the AS and a remote network element identifier APID of the AP; the signaling control access unit SCA determines the mapping relationship between the AP and the AS, and the step of generating the AP-AS mapping relationship table comprises the following steps:

the AP sends the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA receives the APID and the GASID;

and determining the mapping relation between the AP and the AS according to the APID and the GASID, and generating an AP-AS mapping relation table.

Preferably, before the step of determining, by the SCAM, the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to the report information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, and generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table, the method further includes:

the SCAM receives reported information sent by the SP according to the working mode type; the SP working mode category comprises a stateless working mode or a stateful working mode, and the reported information comprises the SPID and the SP working mode category;

the SCAM receives the AP-AS mapping relation table reported by the SCA;

presetting an SP and SCA affinity table; wherein the SP and SCA affinity table comprises a correspondence of the SPID to the SCAID.

Preferably, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes a corresponding relationship between a global link identifier GASID of the AS, a remote network element identifier APID of the AP, and a processing node identifier SPID of the SP, and the step of determining, by the SCAM, a mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to report information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, and generating the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes:

when the working mode type of the SP is a stateless working mode, the SCAM directly selects any SP, determines the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the corresponding relation between the GASID and the APID in the AP-AS mapping relation table and generates a corresponding ASLINK-SP mapping relation table;

and when the working mode of the SP is a stateful working mode, the SCAM selects the SP according to the corresponding relation between the SCAID and the SPID in the SP and SCA affinity table, determines the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the corresponding relation between the GASID and the APID in the AP-AS mapping relation table, and generates an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

Preferably, the ASM further includes an ASM-AS mapping table, the ASM-AS mapping table includes a corresponding relationship between the GASID, the ASMID, and the ASID, and the step of receiving, by the SCA, the signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping table includes:

the ASM receives a signaling message sent by the AP according to the corresponding relation between the ASID, the APIP and the localIP;

the ASM determines the GASID corresponding to the ASID according to the corresponding relation among the GASID, the ASMID and the ASID in the ASM-AS mapping relation table;

determining the SCAID corresponding to the ASMID according to the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs, and sending the signaling message and the GASID to the SCA;

judging whether the APID corresponding to the GASID is correct or not according to an AP-AS mapping relation table;

and if the APID is correct, the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the AP.

Preferably, the step of sending the signaling message to the SP by the SCA according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes:

and the SCA determines the SP comprising the SPID corresponding to the APID and the GASID according to the corresponding relation of the APID, the GASID and the SPID, and sends the signaling message to the SP.

Preferably, the AS further comprises a user equipment UE, the UE being connected to the AP;

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

when the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the UE, determining an APID corresponding to the UE ID;

the SCA determines ASLINK corresponding to the APID according to the AP-AS mapping relation table;

The embodiment of the application also discloses a signaling forwarding method, which comprises the following steps:

establishing a signaling link AS; establishing a signaling link AS; the AS comprises a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA and a service processing node SP which are sequentially connected, and a signaling control access management unit SCAM connected with the SCA and the SP;

the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table;

and the SCA sends the signaling message to the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table.

Preferably, the first and second electrodes are formed of a metal,

the AS further comprises a coupling management unit (ASM), wherein the ASM and the SCA comprise a SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs; wherein the ASM includes a coupling management unit identifier ASMID, the AS further includes a coupling management unit ASM, and the step of establishing a signaling link AS includes:

the ASM receives a signaling link establishment request submitted by the AP;

the ASM determines an APIP corresponding to the ASID according to the ASLINK confirmation information, and sends ASLINK established information to the AP from the LocalIP;

and the AP receives the established ASLINK information and establishes a signaling link AS.

Preferably, the AP-AS mapping relationship table includes a corresponding relationship between a global link identifier GASID of the AS and a remote network element identifier APID of the AP, the signaling control access unit SCA determines the mapping relationship between the AP and the AS, and the step of generating the AP-AS mapping relationship table includes:

the AP sends the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA receives the APID and the GASID;

the SP sends report information to the SCAM; the reported information comprises a service processing node identifier (SPID);

the SCAM receives the AP-AS mapping relation table reported by the SCA;

Preferably, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes a correspondence relationship between a signaling control access unit identifier SCAID of the SCA, a global link identifier GASID of the AS, a remote network element identifier APID of the AP, and a service processing node identifier SPID of the SP; the step that the SCAM determines the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the report information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relation table received from the SCA, and generates an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table comprises the following steps:

the SCAM selects the SCA according to the correspondence between the SPID and the SCAID in the SP and SCA affinity table;

and determining the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the corresponding relation between the GASID and the APID in the AP-AS mapping relation table and the SCAID, and generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

Preferably, the step of receiving, by the SCA, the signaling message sent by the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes:

and the SCA determines an SP comprising the SPID corresponding to the SCAID according to the corresponding relation among the SCAID, the APID, the GASID and the SPID, and receives a signaling message sent by the SP.

Preferably, the ASM further includes an ASM-AS mapping table, the ASM-AS mapping table includes a correspondence between the GASID, the ASMID, and the ASID, and the step of sending the signaling message to the AP by the SCA according to the AP-AS mapping table includes:

the SCA determines the GASID corresponding to the APID according to an AP-AS mapping relation table;

determining the ASMID corresponding to the SCAID according to the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs, and sending the signaling message and the GASID to the ASM;

the ASM determines the ASID corresponding to the GASID according to the ASM-AS mapping relation table;

and the ASM sends the signaling message to the AP according to the corresponding relation between the ASID, the APIP and the localIP.

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

when the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the SP, the SCA determines the APID and the UEID according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table;

the SCA sends the signaling message to the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table;

and the AP sends the signaling message to the UE according to the UE ID.

The embodiment of the present application further discloses a signaling forwarding system, including:

a signaling link establishing module, configured to establish a signaling link AS; the AS comprises a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA and a service processing node SP which are sequentially connected, and a signaling control access management unit SCAM connected with the SCA and the SP;

wherein the SCA comprises:

the AP-AS mapping relation table generating module is used for determining the mapping relation between the AP and the AS and generating an AP-AS mapping relation table;

an AP signaling receiving module, configured to receive a signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relationship table;

an AP signaling sending module, configured to send the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table;

the SCAM includes:

and the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table generating module is used for determining the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the report information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relation table received from the SCA and generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

Preferably, the AS further comprises a coupling management unit ASM, and the ASM and the SCA comprise a SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs; wherein, the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs includes a corresponding relationship between a coupling management unit identifier ASMID and a signaling control access unit identifier SCAID, and the signaling link establishing module is used for the SCA, the ASM, and the AP, wherein the ASM includes the following modules:

a signaling link establishment request receiving module, configured to receive a signaling link establishment request submitted by the AP;

an ASLINK information generation module, configured to dynamically generate link state information ASLINK according to the signaling link establishment request; the ASLINK comprises a unique link local identification ASID, a remote network element address APIP and a coupling management unit address LocalIP;

the ASM-AS mapping relation table generating module is used for dynamically generating an ASM-AS mapping relation table according to the ASLINK; wherein, the ASM-AS mapping relation table comprises a corresponding relation of a global link identification GASID, the ASMID and the ASID;

the SCAID confirmation module is used for determining the SCAID corresponding to the ASMID according to the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs and sending the ASLINK to the SCA;

an ASLINK confirmation information forwarding module, configured to determine, according to the ASLINK confirmation information, an APIP corresponding to the ASID, and send, from the locaipip, ASLINK confirmation information to the AP;

the SCA further comprises:

an ASLINK confirmation information generation module, configured to receive and record the ASLINK and the ASM-AS mapping table, determine, according to the ASM-AS mapping table, an ASMID corresponding to the GASID, generate ASLINK confirmation information, and send the aslid confirmation information to the ASM;

the AP further comprises:

and the ASLINK confirmation information receiving module is used for receiving the ASLINK confirmation information and establishing a signaling link AS.

Preferably, the AP-AS mapping relationship table includes a corresponding relationship between a global link identifier GASID of the AS and a remote network element identifier APID of the AP; the AP-AS mapping relation table generation module is applied to the AP and the SCA, wherein the AP comprises:

an APID sending module, configured to send the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA further comprises:

an ID receiving submodule, configured to receive the APID and the GASID;

and the AP-AS mapping relation table generating submodule is used for determining the mapping relation between the AP and the AS according to the APID and the GASID and generating an AP-AS mapping relation table.

Preferably, the SCAM includes the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table generating module, and further includes:

a reported information receiving submodule used for receiving reported information sent by the SP according to the working mode category; the SP working mode category comprises a stateless working mode or a stateful working mode, and the reported information comprises the SPID and the SP working mode category;

an AP-AS mapping relation table receiving submodule for receiving the AP-AS mapping relation table reported by the SCA;

the SP and SCA affinity table presetting submodule is used for presetting an SP and SCA affinity table; wherein the SP and SCA affinity table comprises a correspondence of the SPID to the SCAID.

Preferably, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes a correspondence relationship between a global link identifier GASID of the AS, a remote network element identifier APID of the AP, and a processing node identifier SPID of the SP, and the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table generating module includes:

a first ASLINK-SP mapping relation table generation submodule, configured to directly select any SP when the SP operating mode type is a stateless operating mode, determine, according to a correspondence between a GASID and an APID in the AP-AS mapping relation table, a mapping relation between the AS and the SP, and generate a corresponding ASLINK-SP mapping relation table;

and the second ASLINK-SP mapping relation table generation submodule is used for selecting the SP according to the corresponding relation between the SPID and the SCAID in the SP and SCA affinity table when the working mode of the SP is a stateful working mode, determining the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the corresponding relation between the GASID and the APID in the AP-AS mapping relation table, and generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

Preferably, the ASM further includes an ASM-AS mapping table, the ASM-AS mapping table includes a correspondence relationship between the GASID, the ASMID, and the ASID, the AP signaling receiving module is configured to use the ASM and the SCA, and the ASM further includes:

an AP signaling message receiving module, configured to receive a signaling message sent by the AP according to the correspondence between the ASID, the APIP, and the locaipip;

a GASID determining module, configured to determine a GASID corresponding to the ASID according to a correspondence relationship between the GASID, the ASMID, and the ASID in the ASM-AS mapping relationship table;

an AP signaling message sending module, configured to determine, according to an SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs, an SCAID corresponding to the ASMID, and send the signaling message and the GASID to the SCA;

the SCA further comprises:

the APIP judging module is used for judging whether the APID corresponding to the GASID is correct or not according to an AP-AS mapping relation table;

and the AP signaling receiving module is used for receiving the signaling message sent by the AP by the SCA if the APID is correct.

Preferably, the AP signaling sending module includes:

and the AP signaling sending submodule is used for determining the SP comprising the SPID corresponding to the APID and the GASID according to the corresponding relation of the APID, the GASID and the SPID, and sending the signaling message to the SP.

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

the SCA further comprises the following modules:

an APID determining module, configured to determine an APID corresponding to the UE id when the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the UE;

an ASLINK determining module, configured to determine, according to the AP-AS mapping relationship table, an ASLINK corresponding to the APID;

and the UE signaling sending module is used for sending the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

a signaling link establishing module, configured to establish a signaling link AS; establishing a signaling link AS; the AS comprises a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA and a service processing node SP which are sequentially connected, and a signaling control access management unit SCAM connected with the SCA and the SP;

wherein the SCA comprises:

the SP signaling receiving module is used for receiving the signaling message sent by the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table;

the SP signaling sending module is used for sending the signaling message to the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table;

the SCAM includes:

the SCA further comprises:

the AP further comprises:

an APID sending module, configured to send the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA further comprises:

an ID receiving submodule, configured to receive the APID and the GASID;

a reported information receiving submodule, configured to receive reported information sent by the SP; the reported information comprises a service processing node identifier (SPID);

Preferably, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes a correspondence relationship between a signaling control access unit identifier SCAID of the SCA, a global link identifier GASID of the AS, a remote network element identifier APID of the AP, and a service processing node identifier SPID of the SP; the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table generating module comprises:

an SCA selection submodule for selecting the SCA according to the correspondence between the SPID and the SCAID in the SP and SCA affinity table;

and the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table generation submodule is used for determining the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the corresponding relation between the GASID and the APID in the AP-AS mapping relation table and the SCAID, and generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

Preferably, the SP signaling receiving module is configured to the SCA, and includes:

and the SP signaling receiving submodule is used for determining the SP comprising the SPID corresponding to the SCAID according to the corresponding relation among the SCAID, the APID, the GASID and the SPID and receiving the signaling message sent by the SP.

Preferably, the ASM further includes an ASM-AS mapping relation table, the ASM-AS mapping relation table includes a correspondence relation between the GASID, the ASMID, and the ASID, the SP signaling sending module is configured to send the SCA and the ASM, and the SCA further includes:

the GASID determining submodule is used for determining the GASID corresponding to the APID according to the AP-AS mapping relation table;

an ASMID determining submodule, configured to determine an ASMID corresponding to the SCAID according to an SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs, and send the signaling message and the GASID to the ASM;

the ASM further comprises:

the ASID determining submodule is used for determining the ASID corresponding to the GASID according to the ASM-AS mapping relation table;

and the SP signaling sending submodule is used for sending the signaling message to the AP according to the corresponding relation between the ASID, the APIP and the LocalIP.

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

the SCA further comprises:

an ID determining module, configured to determine, when the SCA receives the signaling message sent by the SP, the APID and the UEID according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table;

a UE signaling sending module, configured to send the signaling message to the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table;

the AP further comprises:

and the UE signaling forwarding module is used for sending the signaling message to the UE according to the UE ID.

The embodiment of the application has the following advantages:

in the embodiment of the application, a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA and a service processing node SP can be connected in sequence to establish a signaling link AS for sending signaling messages and providing a flexible signaling forwarding process; the SCA can determine the mapping relation between the AP and the AS and generate an AP-AS mapping relation table; the signaling control access unit SCA and the service processing node SP are also connected to the signaling control access management unit SCAM, and an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table is generated by the SCAM according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relation table; and the SCA receives the signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table, and sends the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table. The method avoids the problem that the signaling forwarding service cannot be provided when a single point of failure occurs in the signaling link, thereby improving the processing efficiency of the user service and ensuring the processing process of the user service.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating steps of a first embodiment of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application;

fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating steps of a second embodiment of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating steps of a third embodiment of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application;

fig. 4 is a block diagram of a fourth embodiment of a signaling forwarding system according to the present application;

fig. 5 is a block diagram of a fifth embodiment of a signaling forwarding system according to the present application;

fig. 6 is a signaling link establishment diagram of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating signaling link identification of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process of reporting information to an SCAM by an SP according to a signaling forwarding method of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an AP signaling transmission process of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of an SP signaling transmission process of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the aforementioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in further detail below.

One of the core concepts of the embodiment of the present application is that a remote network element (AP, Access Point), a Signaling Control Access unit (SCA, Signaling Control Access) and a service processing node (SP, Signal Process) are sequentially connected to establish a Signaling link (AS), and a Signaling Control Access Association unit SCAM (SCAM, SCA Management), the SCA and the SP are connected to each other; determining the mapping relation between the AP and the AS through the SCA to generate an AP-AS mapping relation table, determining the mapping relation between the SP and the AS through the SCAM to generate an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table; and after receiving the signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table by the SCA, sending the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

Referring to fig. 1, a flowchart of a first embodiment of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application is shown. In fig. 1, the scenario that the remote network element AP sends a signaling message to the service processing node SP may specifically include the following steps:

step 101, establishing a signaling link AS; the AS comprises a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA and a service processing node SP which are sequentially connected, and a signaling control access management unit SCAM connected with the SCA and the SP;

step 102, the SCA determines the mapping relation between the AP and the AS and generates an AP-AS mapping relation table;

103, the SCAM determines the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, and generates an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table;

104, the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table;

and 105, the SCA sends the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

The remote network element (AP, Access Point) is an initiator for forwarding the signaling message, and is responsible for initiating the signaling link establishment request and the service processing request, where the service processing request may be an AP service processing request or a UE service processing request, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

A Signaling Control Access unit (SCA) is an executor of forwarding Signaling messages of an Access network element, and is responsible for generating and maintaining a mapping relationship between a Signaling link AS (association link) and an Access point (Access point), and generating an AS-AP mapping relationship table.

A signaling control access association unit (SCAM, SCA Management) is an executor associated with a service processing node (SP) and a signaling link (AS), dynamically collects an AP and AS mapping relation list maintained by each SCA, and generates an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table; and receives the announcement of the SCA when the SCA establishes or updates the AP-to-AS mapping relationship list it maintains.

The service processing node (SP, Signal Process) is a processing unit of the AP service or the UE service, and processes a signaling message from the SCA, which may be a signaling message forwarded by the SCA assigned by the SCAM in this embodiment of the present application.

In the embodiment of the application, a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA and a service processing node SP can be connected in sequence to establish a signaling link AS for sending signaling messages and providing a flexible signaling forwarding process; the SCA can determine the mapping relation between the AP and the AS and generate an AP-AS mapping relation table; the signaling control access unit SCA and the service processing node SP are also connected to the signaling control access management unit SCAM, and an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table is generated by the SCAM according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relation table; and the SCA receives the signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table, and sends the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table. The method avoids the problem that the signaling forwarding service cannot be provided when a single point of failure occurs in the signaling link, thereby improving the processing efficiency of the user service and ensuring the normal processing process of the user service.

Referring to fig. 2, a flowchart of steps of a second embodiment of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application is shown, and is applied to a scenario in which a service processing node SP sends a signaling message to a remote network element AP, where the method may include the following steps:

step 201, establishing a signaling link AS; establishing a signaling link AS; the AS comprises a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA and a service processing node SP which are sequentially connected, and a signaling control access management unit SCAM connected with the SCA and the SP;

step 202, the SCA determines the mapping relation between the remote network element AP and the AS, and generates an AP-AS mapping relation table;

step 203, the SCAM determines the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, and generates an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table;

in this embodiment of the present application, after receiving the report information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table of the SCA, the SCAM may determine the mapping relationship between the SCA and the SP, and generate an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table. And when the SP needs to send the signaling to the SCA, the SCAM uniformly allocates the SCA and the SP, and the SP does not need to judge the sent SCA address, so that the signaling transmission efficiency is improved.

Step 204, the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table;

in this embodiment of the present application, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes an SCAID, an APID/UEID, a GASID, and a corresponding SPID, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table advertises the SCA after being generated by the SCAM, and the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the SP according to a corresponding relationship in the above table, so as to facilitate signaling transmission.

Step 205, the SCA sends the signaling message to the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table.

In the embodiment of the present application, a process of sending the signaling message to the AP by the SCA according to the AP-AS mapping relationship table is similar to a process of receiving the AP by the SCA according to the AP-AS mapping relationship table, and is not described herein again.

In this embodiment of the application, when the SP needs to send a signaling message to the AP, the signaling message sent by the SP may be received and forwarded to the AP by the SCA according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table and the AP-AS mapping relationship table. When the SCA is damaged, the SCA can be redistributed through the SCAM, so that the inconvenience brought to user service processing by single-point failure of a signaling link is avoided, and the reliability of signaling forwarding is improved.

The signaling forwarding method according to the embodiment of the present application is described below with reference to an AP signaling forwarding process and an SP signaling forwarding process.

Referring to fig. 3, a flowchart illustrating a third step of an embodiment of a signaling forwarding method according to the present application is shown, where the method may include the following steps:

step 301, establishing a signaling link AS; the AS may include a remote network element AP, a signaling control access unit SCA, a service processing node SP, and a signaling control access management unit SCAM connected to the SCA and the SP;

optionally, the AS further includes a coupling management unit ASM, where the ASM and the SCA include a SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs; wherein, the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs includes a correspondence between a coupling management unit identifier ASMID and a signaling control access unit identifier SCAID, and step 301 may further include the following sub-steps:

substep 3011, the ASM receives a signaling link establishment request submitted by the AP;

in this embodiment of the present application, the AS further includes the coupling management unit ASM, where the coupling management unit ASM is a protocol processing entity of a signaling link between the remote network element AP and the AS, and is responsible for performing processing such AS creating, releasing, state management, and querying on the AS, and providing an AS link data transceiving service for the SCA. Sending out the signaling message from the SCA according to the designated link; and sending the signaling message received from the AS to the pre-configured SCA.

Optionally, a unique link-local identification ASID is generated by the ASM.

Substep 3012, the ASM dynamically generates link state information ASLINK according to the signaling link establishment request; the ASLINK comprises a unique link local identification ASID, a remote network element address APIP and a coupling management unit address LocalIP;

optionally, the ASLINK may further include a port number appport of the AP and a port number localcoort of the corresponding ASM.

In a specific implementation, the port numbers of the AP and the ASM may be configured by a user in the system. For example, setting the address may set an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. The port number selection range is 1-65535, and port numbers which do not conflict with other applications can be selected in the range, and the application does not limit the port numbers.

After receiving the signaling link establishment request, the ASM may dynamically generate link state information ASLINK, which may only include the address of the AP and the ASM address, or may also include the port number;

optionally, the ASLINK may also include only the port number appport of the AP and the port number localcoort of the corresponding ASM.

The link state information ASLINK may be specifically shown in table 1 below:

TABLE 1

Step 3013, the ASM dynamically generates an ASM-AS mapping table according to the ASLINK; wherein the ASM-AS mapping relation table comprises a corresponding relation of a global link identification GASID, the ASMID and the ASID

In this embodiment of the application, the ASM may further include an ASM-AS mapping relationship table, which is specifically shown in table 2 below:

TABLE 2

Wherein the ASM-AS mapping relation table includes a correspondence relation of the GASID, the ASMID, and the ASID.

The ASM-AS mapping relation table may be dynamically generated by an ASM, in this embodiment of the present application, the ASM includes an ASMID, and when a signaling link is established, the AP may send a signaling link establishment request to the ASM, and the ASM may determine an APID of the AP according to information in the signaling link establishment request; dynamically generating an ASID and a corresponding global signaling link identifier GASID based on the APID; based on the ASMID, ASID, and corresponding GASID, a corresponding ASM-AS mapping table may be established.

Substep 3014, determining SCAID corresponding to ASMID according to SCA configuration table to which ASM belongs, and sending ASLINK to SCA;

in the embodiment of the present application, the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs may be as shown in table 3 below:

TABLE 3

Because there may be a plurality of signaling links AS, there may be a plurality of SCAs corresponding to the ASMs, and there may also be a plurality of ASMs corresponding to the SCAs, it is further avoided that signaling messages can be forwarded by replacing an ASM or an SCA in the case of a single point of failure.

Substep 3015, the SCA receives and records the ASLINK and the ASM-AS mapping relation table, determines ASMID corresponding to the GASID according to the ASM-AS mapping relation table, generates ASLINK confirmation information, and sends the aslid confirmation information to the ASM;

as shown in fig. 6, the process of establishing the signaling link can be obtained by combining the correspondence between the GASID and the ASMID in table 2. If the GAS1 corresponds to the ASM1, the sender is the SCA1, and the SCA1 sends ASLINK acknowledgement information to the ASM1 via the communication link identified by the GAS 1. The ASLINK confirmation information is information that the SCA receives a signaling link initiation request of the AP and confirms establishment of a signaling link.

Substep 3016, the ASM determines an APIP corresponding to the ASID according to the ASLINK confirmation information, and sends ASLINK established information to the AP from the locaipip;

in a specific implementation, referring to fig. 6 and table 1, since the ASID is unique in the ASM, when the ASM receives the ASLINK confirmation message, the ASLINK established message may be sent from the ASM with address 10.0.0.2 through port 2 to the AP with address 192.168.0.2 through AP port 2, and further, the AP may be notified that the signaling link is established.

Optionally, the address and the port number of the AP may be obtained from the core network AMF through local configuration, or after a connection relationship is established between the remote network element AP and the core network element.

In another embodiment of the present application, a signaling link establishment procedure of the SP signaling forwarding procedure is similar to the AP signaling forwarding procedure, and is not described herein again.

Substep 3016, the AP receives the established ASLINK information and establishes a signaling link AS.

In this embodiment of the present application, when the AP receives the ASLINK established information, it may be regarded AS a flag indicating that the signaling link AS is completely established.

Optionally, the SCA determines a mapping relationship between the AP and the AS, and generates an AP-AS mapping relationship table. Wherein, the AP-AS mapping relation table includes a corresponding relation between the global link identifier GASID of the AS and the remote network element identifier APID of the AP.

Step 302, the AP sends the APID to the SCA through the AS;

step 303, the SCA receives the APID and the GASID;

and 304, determining the mapping relation between the AP and the AS according to the APID and the GASID, and generating an AP-AS mapping relation table.

In the embodiment of the present application, referring to fig. 7, the AP sends the APID to the SCA on the AS. And the SCA determines the corresponding relation between the signaling link corresponding to the GAS1 and the AP1 and the remote network element according to the received APID information, and generates an AP-AS mapping relation table by taking the corresponding relation AS a reference.

Specifically, it can be shown in the following table 4:

TABLE 4

In a specific implementation, the remote network element AP may send, through a signaling link identified as GAS1, information that the APID is AP1 to the SCA, and after the SCA receives the APID sent by the AP, record the APID corresponding to the GASID in table 3.

The link load (LinkLoad) may be obtained by counting the number of signaling messages forwarded by the signaling link through the SCA, and the specific statistical method may be to count the number of signaling messages in a certain time period, and obtain the link load by dividing the number of signaling messages by time, where the link load is 2Msg/s if the number of signaling messages received by the SCA within 60 seconds is 130.

In another embodiment of the present application, a process of generating an AP-AS mapping table in the SP signaling forwarding process is similar to the AP signaling forwarding process, and is not described herein again.

305, the SCAM determines the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, and generates an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table;

before step 305, referring to fig. 8, step S1 may be further included, and step S1 may specifically include the following sub-steps:

s11, the SCAM receives the report information sent by the SP according to the working mode type; the SP working mode category comprises a stateless working mode or a stateful working mode, and the reported information comprises the SPID and the SP working mode category;

the stateless operating mode means that under the SP multi-instance deployment, different SPs can process the signaling message from the AP, no matter which UE/AP the signaling message is. The signaling message of the AP may also come from the user equipment UE.

The stateful operating mode means that, in the SP multi-instance deployment, ranges of UE/AP signaling processed by different SP instances are different, that is, different SPs are responsible for processing signaling of different UE/APs.

Optionally, the following table 5 may specifically represent the reported information of the SP:

TABLE 5

In a specific implementation, the working mode of the service processing node SP may be a stateless working mode, or may be a stateful working mode, and specifically, which mode may be determined by user configuration in the system.

S12, the SCAM receives the AP-AS mapping relation table reported by the SCA;

in this embodiment of the present application, the SCAM needs to allocate a corresponding SCA to the SP to receive a corresponding service request according to the AP-AS mapping relationship table reported by the SCA. Therefore, after the SCA reports the AP-AS mapping table to the SCAM, and the SCAM receives the AP-AS mapping table, optionally, the SCAM may assign the SP to execute a service request sent by the AP according to a load balancing policy, and send an assignment result (i.e., a correspondence between the GASID, the APID, the SCAID, and the SPID) to a corresponding SCA.

And the load balancing strategy is to allocate a proper AP service request or a proper UE service request to the SP according to the SP link load information.

S13, presetting an SP and SCA affinity table; wherein the SP and SCA affinity table comprises a correspondence of the SPID to the SCAID.

In actual deployment, different SCAs and different SPs are respectively deployed nearby, for example, deployed with hardware resources, so that when an SP forwards a signaling, the locally deployed SCA is preferentially used, the number of forwarding paths of an underlying network is reduced, and forwarding efficiency is improved.

Based on this, the SP and SCA affinity tables can be pre-set. The correspondence between the SPID and the SCAID is included, the correspondence between the SPID and the SCAID is configurable by a user, the system configures SP and SCA Affinity table (SP-SCA Affinity) entries, and SP and SCA Affinity weights (SP-SCA Affinity Weight) need to be configured, which may be specifically shown in table 6 below:

TABLE 6

In another embodiment of the present application, a process of reporting SP information and a process of presetting an SP and SCA affinity table in the SP signaling forwarding process are similar to the AP signaling forwarding process, and are not described herein again.

In this embodiment of the present application, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes a corresponding relationship between a global link identifier GASID of the AS, a remote network element identifier APID of the AP, and a processing node identifier SPID of the SP.

The GASID and the APID may be obtained from an AP-AS mapping relation table reported from the SCA to the SCAM, and the SPID may be obtained from reported information of the SP.

In the embodiment of the present application, the step 305 of the AP signaling forwarding process may include the following sub-steps:

sub-step 3051, when the working mode category of the SP is a stateless working mode, the SCAM directly selects any SP, determines the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to the correspondence between the GASID and the APID in the AP-AS mapping relationship table, and generates a corresponding ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table;

in a specific implementation, the working mode of the SP may be a stateless working mode, at this time, any SP may be directly selected by the SCAM according to the load balancing policy, a corresponding SPID is allocated to the AS according to the AP-AS mapping relationship table (that is, shown in table 5), and a corresponding ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table is generated.

Substep 3052, when the working mode of the SP is a stateful working mode, the SCAM selects the SP according to the correspondence between the SPID and the SCAID in the SP and SCA affinity table, and determines the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to the correspondence between the GASID and the APID in the AP-AS mapping relationship table, so AS to generate an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table.

Specifically, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table may be as shown in table 7 below:

TABLE 7

It should be noted that, if the SCA entity only accesses one signaling link of the same remote network element (e.g., the gNB), the global link id GASID may be omitted.

In a specific implementation, when the working mode of the SP is a stateful working mode, the SCAM may determine a corresponding relationship between the SPID and the SCAID according to an SP and SCA affinity table (i.e., table 6), so AS to select the SP, and after determining a mapping relationship between the AS and the SP, generate an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table.

In another embodiment of the present application, in a process of forwarding an SP signaling, determining, by the SCAM, a mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to report information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, and generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table, the method may specifically include the following sub-steps:

substep S1: the SCAM selects the SCA according to the correspondence between the SPID and the SCAID in the SP and SCA affinity table;

substep S2: and determining the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the corresponding relation between the GASID and the APID in the AP-AS mapping relation table and the SCAID, and generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

In the embodiment of the application, the SP sends a signaling message to the AP, and the AP includes a corresponding APID; the SCAM may determine the SCA corresponding to the SCAID according to the correspondence between the SPID and the SCAID in the SP and SCA affinity table, and the SPID in the information reported by the SP. However, not every SCA can send the signaling information to the AP, so the SCAM needs to determine the GASID and the APID corresponding to SCA according to the AP-AS mapping table (i.e. table 4). The AP-AS mapping relationship table is reported by the corresponding SCA, so the SCAM also has the SCAID corresponding to the AP-AS mapping relationship table, and further the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP can be determined, and an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table is generated.

The same SPID may correspond to multiple SCAIDs simultaneously, and there may be multiple corresponding SCAs.

Alternatively, if each SCA entity only accesses one signaling link of the same remote network element, the global link identification GASID may not be considered.

Optionally, the remote network element AP may be replaced with a user terminal UE, and when the remote network element AP is replaced with the user terminal UE, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table may further include a user terminal identifier UEID.

The ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table may be specifically shown in table 8 below:

TABLE 8

In the AP signaling forwarding process in this embodiment of the present application, referring to fig. 9, the method further includes:

and step 306, the SCA receives the signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping relation table.

Specifically, step 306 may further include the following sub-steps:

substep 3061, the ASM receives the signaling message sent by the AP according to the correspondence between the ASID, the APIP, and the locaipip;

referring to table 1, in the embodiment of the present application, the ASID is dynamically generated by the ASM and is unique on the ASM, so that the ASM may determine a corresponding signaling link AS according to the ASID; the relationship between the remote network element AP and the signaling link AS is determined when the signaling link is established, so that the remote network element AP corresponding to the AS can be determined, and thus the APIP of the AP is known, and the ASM can receive the signaling message from the APIP from the locaipip.

In sub-step 3062, the ASM determines the GASID corresponding to the ASID according to the correspondence among the GASID, the ASMID, and the ASID in the ASM-AS mapping table.

In the embodiment of the present application, the ASM may determine the corresponding GASID according to the ASID and ASMID in the ASM-AS mapping table (i.e., table 8), for example, the ASID is AS2, the ASMID is ASM2, and further determine the corresponding GASID is GAS2 according to the ASM-AS mapping table.

Substep 3063, determining SCAID corresponding to ASMID according to SCA configuration table of ASM, and sending the signaling message and the GASID to the SCA.

In this embodiment, the ASM stores a SCA configuration table (i.e. table 3) to which the ASM belongs, and when the signaling message is sent from the AP to the ASM, the ASM may determine a next receiving end SCAID of the signaling message according to the ASMID and information on the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs. For example, when the ASMID is ASM1, the SCAID is SCA1 as known by traversing the SCA configuration table to which ASM belongs, thereby sending the signaling message to the SCA with SCAID of SCA 1.

Alternatively, as shown in table 3, when the SCAID of SCA1 is not available, the SCA with SCAID of SCA2 may be used as the next receiver according to the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs, and the ASM sends the signaling message to the SCA with SCA id of SCA 2.

Substep 3064, the SCA receives the signaling message sent by the ASM, and determines whether the APID corresponding to the GASID is correct according to an AP-AS mapping relation table;

in this embodiment of the present application, the ASM sends the signaling message to the SCA through the signaling link AS identified by the GASID, and when the SCA receives the signaling message sent by the ASM, the SCA can know the GASID; according to the AP-AS mapping relationship table established by the SCA and the AP, that is, from the corresponding relationship in table 5, the APID corresponding to the GASID can be known, for example, the GASID is GAS2, if the corresponding APID is AP1, it is determined that the sending address is incorrect; if the corresponding APID is AP2, the transmission address is determined to be correct.

Substep 3065, if the APID is correct, the SCA receives the signaling message sent by the AP.

In a specific implementation, when the SCA determines that the APID is correct according to the AP-AS mapping relationship table, the SCA receives a signaling message sent by the AP.

Optionally, referring to fig. 10, in an SP signaling forwarding process according to another embodiment of the present application, the step of receiving, by the SCA according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table, a signaling message sent by the SP may include the following sub-steps:

s1, the SCA determines the SP including the SPID corresponding to the SCAID according to the corresponding relation among the SCAID, the APID, the GASID and the SPID, and receives the signaling message sent by the SP.

In the embodiment of the application, the SCA is notified when the SCAM generates the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table; because the correspondence between the SPID and the SCAID is indicated in the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table, after the SCA queries the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table, it may be determined whether the APID to which the SP is going is reachable by the SCA; and if so, receiving the signaling message sent by the SP.

Optionally, when the SP does not acquire the SCA destined for the APID/UEID from the SCAM, the SP initiates a SCA Lookup procedure, and a specific procedure may be:

and sending an SCA Lookup request to the SCAM by the SP, assigning the SCA destined to the APID/UEID for the SP after the SCAM receives the SCA Lookup request, and returning SCA Lookup confirmation information. Wherein the SCA Lookup confirmation information comprises SCAID.

In the AP signaling forwarding process in this embodiment of the present application, the method further includes:

step 307, the SCA sends the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table.

Step 307 may also include the sub-steps of:

step 3071, the SCA determines an SP including an SPID corresponding to the APID and the GASID according to the correspondence between the APID, the GASID and a processing node identification SPID, and sends the signaling message to the SP.

In this embodiment of the application, the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table (i.e., table 6) includes a corresponding relationship between the APID, the GASID, and the processing node identifier SPID, specifically, it may be determined that the APID is AP3, the GASID is GAS2, and the SPID is SP3 after table lookup. Based on the SPID being PS3, the SCA sends the signaling message to the SP with SPID SP3 to complete the AP signaling forwarding process.

Optionally, when the SCA first obtains the SPID destined for the SP from the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table of the SCAM, the SCA initiates an SP Lookup procedure, and a specific procedure may be:

and sending an SP Lookup request to the SCAM by the SCA, assigning an SPID (shortest Path identifier) destined to the SP for the SCA after the SCAM receives the SP Lookup request, and returning SP Lookup confirmation information. Wherein the SP Lookup confirmation information includes the SPID.

In an SP signaling forwarding process according to another embodiment of the present application, the ASM further includes an ASM-AS mapping table (i.e. table 7), where the ASM-AS mapping table includes a corresponding relationship between the GASID, the ASMID and the ASID, and the SCA sends the signaling message to the AP according to the AP-AS mapping table, where the method may further include the following sub-steps:

and S1, the SCA determines the GASID corresponding to the APID according to the AP-AS mapping relation table.

S2, according to the SCA configuration table of the ASM, determining the ASMID corresponding to the SCAID, and sending the signaling message and the GASID to the ASM.

And S3, the ASM determines the ASID corresponding to the GASID according to the ASM-AS mapping relation table.

S4, the ASM sends the signaling message to the AP according to the corresponding relation between the ASID, the APIP and the LocalIP.

In a specific implementation, a process of sending the signaling message to the AP by the SCA is similar to a process of receiving the signaling message of the AP by the SCA, and is not described herein again.

Optionally, the AP is a replaceable unit; and when the AP is replaced by the user terminal UE, the signaling message also comprises a user terminal identification (UEID).

In the embodiment of the present application, because the AP only uses the functions of sending and receiving signaling messages to transmit a service request, the AP may be a remote network element or a user equipment UE; in the specific implementation, the UE may also receive and send a signaling message transfer service request, and when the AP is replaced by the UE, all tables including the APID may be modified correspondingly, thereby ensuring normal operation of the signaling message forwarding process.

It should be noted that, for simplicity of description, the method embodiments are described as a series of acts or combination of acts, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments are not limited by the order of acts described, as some steps may occur in other orders or concurrently depending on the embodiments. Further, those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the embodiments described in the specification are presently preferred and that no particular act is required of the embodiments of the application.

Referring to fig. 4, a block diagram of a signaling forwarding system according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown, and specifically includes the following modules:

wherein the SCA comprises:

the SCAM includes:

the SCA further comprises:

the AP further comprises:

an APID sending module, configured to send the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA further comprises:

an ID receiving submodule, configured to receive the APID and the GASID;

the SCA further comprises:

Preferably, the AP signaling sending module includes:

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

the SCA further comprises the following modules:

wherein the SCA comprises:

the SCAM includes:

the SCA further comprises:

the AP further comprises:

an APID sending module, configured to send the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA further comprises:

an ID receiving submodule, configured to receive the APID and the GASID;

the ASM further comprises:

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

the SCA further comprises:

the AP further comprises:

For the device embodiment, since it is basically similar to the method embodiment, the description is simple, and for the relevant points, refer to the partial description of the method embodiment.

The embodiments in the present specification are described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments are referred to each other.

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

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

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

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

While preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, additional variations and modifications of these embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including the preferred embodiment and all such alterations and modifications as fall within the true scope of the embodiments of the application.

Finally, it should also be noted that, herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or terminal that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or terminal. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or terminal that comprises the element.

The signaling forwarding method and the signaling forwarding system provided by the present invention are introduced in detail, and a specific example is applied in the text to explain the principle and the implementation of the present invention, and the description of the above embodiment is only used to help understanding the method and the core idea of the present invention; meanwhile, for a person skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present invention, there may be variations in the specific embodiments and the application scope, and in summary, the content of the present specification should not be construed as a limitation to the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for signaling forwarding, comprising:

the SCA determines a mapping relation between the AP and the AS and generates an AP-AS mapping relation table, wherein the AP-AS mapping relation table comprises a corresponding relation between a global link identifier GASID of the AS and a remote network element identifier APID of the AP;

the SCAM determines the mapping relation between the AS and the SP according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relation table received from the SCA, and generates an ASLINK-SP mapping relation table, wherein the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table comprises the corresponding relation among the GASID, the APID and the processing node identification (SPID) of the SP;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the AS further comprises a coupling management unit (ASM), wherein the ASM and the SCA comprise a list of SCA configurations to which the ASM belongs; wherein, the said scan configuration table to which the ASM belongs includes the corresponding relation between the coupling management unit identifier ASMID and the signaling control access unit identifier SCAID, and the said step of establishing the signaling link AS includes:

the ASM receives a signaling link establishment request submitted by the AP;

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling control access unit (SCA) determines a mapping relationship between the AP and the AS, and wherein the step of generating the AP-AS mapping relationship table comprises:

the AP sends the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA receives the APID and the GASID;

4. The method AS claimed in claim 1, wherein before the step of determining, by the SCAM, the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, and generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table, the method further comprises:

the SCAM receives the AP-AS mapping relation table reported by the SCA;

5. The method AS claimed in claim 4, wherein the SCAM determines the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, and the step of generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table comprises:

6. The method AS claimed in claim 2, wherein the ASM further includes an ASM-AS mapping table, the ASM-AS mapping table includes a correspondence relationship between the GASID, the ASMID and the ASID, and the step of the SCA receiving the signaling message sent by the AP according to the AP-AS mapping table includes:

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of the SCA sending the signaling message to the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relation table comprises:

8. The method of claim 2,

the AS also comprises a user terminal UE, and the UE is connected with the AP;

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

9. A method for signaling forwarding, comprising:

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the AS further comprises a coupling management unit (ASM), wherein the ASM and the SCA comprise a list of SCA configurations to which the ASM belongs; wherein the ASM includes a coupling management unit identifier ASMID, the AS further includes a coupling management unit ASM, and the step of establishing a signaling link AS includes:

the ASM receives a signaling link establishment request submitted by the AP;

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the signaling control access unit SCA determines a mapping relationship between the AP and the AS, and wherein the step of generating an AP-AS mapping relationship table comprises:

the AP sends the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA receives the APID and the GASID;

12. The method AS claimed in claim 9, wherein before the step of determining the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP and generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table by the SCAM according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, the method further comprises:

the SCAM receives the AP-AS mapping relation table reported by the SCA;

13. The method AS claimed in claim 12, wherein the SCAM determines the mapping relationship between the AS and the SP according to the reported information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, and the step of generating an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table comprises:

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of receiving the signaling message sent by the SP according to the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table by the SCA comprises:

15. The method AS claimed in claim 10, wherein the ASM further includes an ASM-AS mapping table, the ASM-AS mapping table includes a correspondence of the GASID, the ASMID, and the ASID, and the step of the SCA sending the signaling message to the AP according to the AP-AS mapping table includes:

16. The method of claim 13,

the AS also comprises a user terminal UE, and the UE is connected with the AP;

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

and the AP sends the signaling message to the UE according to the UE ID.

17. A signaling forwarding system, comprising:

wherein the SCA comprises:

an AP-AS mapping table generating module, configured to determine a mapping relationship between an AP and the AS, and generate an AP-AS mapping table, where the AP-AS mapping table includes a correspondence between a global link identifier GASID of the AS and a remote network element identifier APID of the AP;

the SCAM includes:

an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table generating module, configured to determine, according to the report information of the SP and the AP-AS mapping relationship table received from the SCA, a mapping relationship between the AS and the SP, and generate an ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table, where the ASLINK-SP mapping relationship table includes a correspondence between the GASID, the APID, and a processing node identifier SPID of the SP.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the AS further comprises a coupling management unit (ASM), wherein the ASM and the SCA comprise a list of SCA configurations to which the ASM belongs; wherein, the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs includes a corresponding relationship between a coupling management unit identifier ASMID and a signaling control access unit identifier SCAID, and the signaling link establishing module is used for the SCA, the ASM, and the AP, wherein the ASM includes the following modules:

the SCA further comprises:

the AP further comprises:

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the AP-AS mapping table generation module is applied to the AP and the SCA, wherein the AP comprises:

an APID sending module, configured to send the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA further comprises:

an ID receiving submodule, configured to receive the APID and the GASID;

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the SCAM comprises the ASLINK-SP mapping table generating module, and further comprises:

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the ASLINK-SP mapping table generating module comprises:

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the ASM further comprises an ASM-AS mapping table comprising a correspondence of the GASID, ASMID, and ASID, wherein the AP signaling reception module is configured to the ASM and the SCA, and wherein the ASM further comprises:

the SCA further comprises:

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the AP signaling module comprises:

24. The system of claim 18,

the AS also comprises a user terminal UE, and the UE is connected with the AP;

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

the SCA further comprises the following modules:

25. A signaling forwarding system, comprising:

wherein the SCA comprises:

the SCAM includes:

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the AS further comprises a coupling management unit (ASM), wherein the ASM and the SCA comprise a list of SCA configurations to which the ASM belongs; wherein, the SCA configuration table to which the ASM belongs includes a corresponding relationship between a coupling management unit identifier ASMID and a signaling control access unit identifier SCAID, and the signaling link establishing module is used for the SCA, the ASM, and the AP, wherein the ASM includes the following modules:

the SCA further comprises:

the AP further comprises:

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the AP-AS mapping table generation module is applied to the AP and the SCA, wherein the AP comprises:

an APID sending module, configured to send the APID to the SCA through the AS;

the SCA further comprises:

an ID receiving submodule, configured to receive the APID and the GASID;

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the SCAM comprises the ASLINK-SP mapping table generating module, and further comprising:

an AP-AS mapping relation table receiving submodule for receiving the AP-AS mapping relation table reported by the SCA by the SCAM;

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the ASLINK-SP mapping table generating module comprises:

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the SP signaling receiving module is configured for the SCA and comprises:

31. The system of claim 26, wherein the ASM further comprises an ASM-AS mapping table comprising a correspondence of the GASID, ASMID, and ASID, wherein the SP signaling module is configured to the SCA and the ASM, and wherein the SCA further comprises:

the ASM further comprises:

32. The system of claim 29,

the AS also comprises a user terminal UE, and the UE is connected with the AP;

the signaling message further comprises a user terminal identification (UEID);

the SCA further comprises:

the AP further comprises: