CN113132897A

CN113132897A - Method, device and system for determining application example

Info

Publication number: CN113132897A
Application number: CN202010670950.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 冯江平
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-31
Filing date: 2020-07-13
Publication date: 2021-07-16

Abstract

The application provides a method, a device and a system for determining an application instance, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the first network element acquires the position information of the terminal, determines at least one first MEC application instance according to the position information of the terminal, and sends the address information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal, so that the message transmission delay between the MEC application instance and the terminal is reduced, and the service quality is improved.

Description

Method, device and system for determining application example

The present application claims priority of the application of the national intellectual property office, application number 201911413716.3, application name "method, device and system for application case determination" filed on 31.12.2019 and the application of the chinese patent application, application number 202010011314.7, application name "method, device and system for application case determination" filed on 06.01.2020, which are all incorporated by reference in the present application.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, and a system for determining an application instance.

Background

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) is a capability to provide cloud-based Computing to users at the Edge of an operator network close to a mobile user, which the users can use to deploy applications at the network Edge. After the cloud computing capability is deployed to the edge of the network, the telecommunication service has the advantages of high performance, low delay and high bandwidth, distribution and downloading of various contents, services and applications in the network can be accelerated, and consumers can enjoy high-quality network experience.

The European Telecommunications standardization organization (ETSI) defines the reference architecture of MECs in its specification ETSI GS MEC 003, which, as shown in fig. 1, is mainly composed of two parts: an MEC Host (MEC Host) and an MEC management system. The MEC host includes an MEC Platform (MEC Platform), a virtualization infrastructure (virtualization infrastructure) and an MEC application (MEC app), the virtualization infrastructure provides virtualized computing, storage and network resources for the MEC application, and the MEC application is deployed on the MEC host in the form of a virtual machine or a container. The MEC platform mainly includes a service registration and discovery function, and also includes some public services, such as a Domain Name System (DNS) server or a DNS proxy service. The MEC management system includes a Multi-access edge organizer (Multi-access edge manager), a MEC platform manager (MEC platform manager), a Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM) and the like. The multi-access edge orchestrator maintains an overall view of all mobile edge hosts, available resources, available MEC services in the MEC system, triggering the instantiation and termination of applications. The MEC platform manager is used to manage the MEC platform, manage the lifecycle of mobile MEC applications, manage flow rules and DNS rules of the applications. The VIM manages the virtualized resources needed by the MEC application. A user application lifecycle management agent (useapp LCM proxy) allows a Device application (Device app) to request the MEC system to instantiate, terminate the MEC application.

How to provide the optimal MEC application example for the terminal is a problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a method, a device and a system for determining an application instance, which are used for determining an optimal MEC application instance for a terminal.

In a first aspect, a method for determining an application instance is provided, including: a first network element acquires position information of a terminal; the first network element determines at least one first MEC application instance according to the position information of the terminal; and the first network element sends the address information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

Based on the above scheme, when the terminal requests the MEC application instance, the first network element determines the MEC application instance with the best distance to the terminal according to the obtained terminal location information through the corresponding relationship between the maintained location information and the MEC application instance, so as to reduce the message transmission delay between the MEC application instance and the terminal and improve the service quality.

In a possible implementation method, the first network element receives a first message sent by the terminal, where the first message includes location information of the terminal.

In a possible implementation method, the first network element receives a second message sent by a core network control plane function network element, where the second message includes location information of the terminal.

In a possible implementation method, the first network element stores address information of at least one MEC application instance and location information of the at least one MEC application instance, and the determining, by the first network element, at least one first MEC application instance according to the location information of the terminal includes: and the first network element determines the at least one first MEC application instance from the at least one MEC application instance according to the position information of the terminal and the position information of the at least one MEC application instance.

In a second aspect, a method for determining an application instance is provided, including: a control plane function network element sends first notification information to a first network element, wherein the first notification information is used for notifying that a user plane path of a first network element terminal is changed; the first network element acquires the position information of the terminal; the first network element determines at least one first MEC application instance according to the position information of the terminal; and the first network element sends the address information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

Based on the above scheme, when the terminal changes due to UPF, the current MEC application instance may no longer be optimal, and the first network element determines the optimal application instance after switching to the new UPF according to the location information (destination user plane location) of the terminal, thereby reducing the message transmission delay between the MEC application instance and the terminal and improving the service quality.

In a possible implementation method, the acquiring, by the first network element, the location information of the terminal includes: and the first network element receives the first notification information, wherein the first notification information comprises the position information of the terminal, and the position information of the terminal is the position information of a target User Plane Function (UPF).

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and the first network element receives an MEC application instance change subscription request message sent by the terminal.

In a third aspect, a method for determining an application instance is provided, including: the method comprises the steps that a first network element obtains information of at least one first EDN from a session management network element, and the at least one first EDN is determined according to position information of a terminal; the first network element determines at least one first MEC application instance in the at least one first EDN; and the first network element sends the address information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal. In the method provided in the third aspect, when the terminal requests the MEC application instance, the first network element requests the SMF for information of at least one first EDN, and further determines at least one first MEC application instance, thereby reducing a packet transmission delay between the MEC application instance and the terminal, and improving service quality.

In a possible implementation method, the obtaining, by the first network element, information of at least one first EDN from a session management network element includes: the first network element sends a third message to the session management network element, wherein the third message is used for requesting at least one EDN, and the at least one EDN is deployed with an MEC application instance requested by the terminal; the first network element receives information of the at least one first EDN from the session management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the third message includes information of an alternative EDN, where the alternative EDN is determined by the first network element according to the location information of the terminal and the information of the EDN stored in the first network element.

In a possible implementation method, the third message includes location information of the terminal.

In one possible implementation, the information of the first EDN includes: the data network application of the first EDN identifies a DNAI.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and the first network element sends address information of the EES associated with the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal, wherein the EES associated with the at least one first MEC application instance is deployed in the at least one first EDN.

In one possible implementation method, the information of the first EDN is used to indicate communication performance of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

In one possible implementation, the information of the first EDN further includes at least one of the following information: the number of user plane network elements between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and the first network element sends the priority information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

In a fourth aspect, a method of EES determination is provided, comprising: the method comprises the steps that a first network element obtains information of at least one first EDN from a session management network element, and the at least one first EDN is determined according to position information of a terminal; the first network element determining at least one first EES in the at least one first EDN; and the first network element sends the address information of the at least one first EES to the terminal. In the method provided in the fourth aspect, when the terminal requests the EES, the first network element requests the SMF for information of at least one first EDN, and further determines the at least one first EES, thereby reducing a packet transmission delay between an MEC application instance managed by the EES and the terminal, and improving service quality.

In a possible implementation method, the obtaining, by the first network element, information of at least one first EDN from a session management network element includes: the first network element sends a third message to the session management network element, wherein the third message is used for requesting at least one EDN, and the at least one EDN is deployed with an EES requested by the terminal; the first network element receives information of the at least one first EDN from the session management network element.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the first network element sends the priority information of the at least one first EES to the terminal.

In a fifth aspect, a communication method is provided, including: receiving, by the session management network element, a third message from the first network element, the third message requesting at least one EDN; the at least one EDN is deployed with an MEC application instance requested by a terminal, or the at least one EDN is deployed with an EES requested by the terminal; the session management network element sends information of at least one first EDN to the first network element according to the third message; in the case that the at least one EDN is deployed with the MEC application instance requested by the terminal, the first EDN is the EDN deployed with the MEC application instance requested by the terminal; and under the condition that the at least one EDN is deployed with the EES requested by the terminal, the first EDN is the EDN deployed with the EES requested by the terminal. In the communication method provided in the fifth aspect, when the terminal requests the MEC application instance, the first network element requests the SMF for information of at least one first EDN, and further determines at least one first MEC application instance, thereby reducing a packet transmission delay between the MEC application instance and the terminal, and improving service quality. When the terminal requests the EES, the first network element requests the SMF for the information of at least one first EDN, and then determines at least one first EES, so that the message transmission delay between an MEC application example managed by the EES and the terminal is reduced, and the service quality is improved.

In a possible implementation method, the at least one first EDN is determined according to the location information of the terminal and the information of the at least one EDN obtained by the session management network element.

In a possible implementation method, the at least one first EDN is determined according to the location information of the terminal and information of an alternative EDN, and the information of the alternative EDN is carried in the third message.

In a possible implementation method, the location information of the terminal is carried in the third message.

In a sixth aspect, a signal transmitting method is provided, including: a terminal sends a first message, wherein the first message comprises the position information of the terminal; or the terminal sends an MEC application instance change subscription request.

In a seventh aspect, a method for EES determination is provided, including: a first network element acquires information of at least one first EDN from a second network element, wherein the at least one first EDN is determined according to at least one of position information of a terminal or service information of the terminal, and the second network element is a first session management network element or NEF; the first network element determines at least one first EES according to the information of the at least one first EDN; and the first network element sends the address information of the at least one first EES to the terminal.

In a possible implementation method, the obtaining, by the first network element, information of at least one first EDN from the second network element includes: the first network element sends a third message to the second network element, where the third message includes at least one of information for determining the location of the terminal or service information of the terminal; and the first network element receives the information of the at least one first EDN from the second network element, wherein the first EDN is matched with at least one of the position information of the terminal or the service information of the terminal.

In one possible implementation, the information of the first EDN includes: at least one DNAI of the first EDN.

In an eighth aspect, a communication method is provided, including: a second network element receives a third message from a first network element, wherein the third message includes at least one of information for determining a position of the terminal or service information of the terminal, and the second network element is a first session management network element or a NEF; and the second network element sends at least one piece of information of a first EDN to the first network element according to the third message, wherein the first EDN is matched with at least one of the position information of the terminal or the service information of the terminal.

In a possible implementation method, the sending, by the second network element, the information of at least one first EDN to the first network element according to the third message includes: the second network element determines a second session management network element according to the position information of the terminal; the second network element sends a request message to the second session management network element, where the request message includes at least one of location information and service information, the location information includes location information of the terminal, and the service information includes service information of the terminal; the second network element receiving information of the at least one first EDN from the second session management network element; and the second network element sends the information of the at least one first EDN to the first network element.

In a possible implementation method, the second network element is the NEF, and the sending, by the second network element, the information of at least one first EDN to the first network element according to the third message includes: the second network element determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the position information of the terminal and a first corresponding relation, wherein the first corresponding relation comprises a corresponding relation between the position area information and the information of the EDN; or, the second network element determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the service information of the terminal and a second corresponding relationship, where the second corresponding relationship includes a corresponding relationship between the service information and the information of the EDN; or, the second network element determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the location information and the service information of the terminal and a third corresponding relationship, where the third corresponding relationship includes a corresponding relationship between location area information, information of an EDN, and service information; and the second network element sends the information of the at least one first EDN to the first network element.

A second session management network element receives a request message from a second network element, wherein the request message comprises at least one of position information and service information, the position information comprises position information of a terminal, the service information comprises service information of the terminal, and the second network element is a first session management network element or a NEF; under the condition that the request message comprises the position information, the second session management network element determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the position information and a first corresponding relation, wherein the first corresponding relation comprises a corresponding relation between position area information and information of the EDN; or, in a case that the request message includes the service information, the second session management network element determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the service information and a second correspondence, where the second correspondence includes a correspondence between the service information and the information of the EDN; or, in a case that the request message includes the location information and the service information, the second session management network element determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the location information, the service information, and a third correspondence, where the third correspondence includes a correspondence between location area information, information of EDNs, and service information; and the second session management network element sends the information of the at least one first EDN to the second network element.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: functional units for performing any of the methods provided by any of the first to ninth aspects described above, wherein the actions performed by the functional units are implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software.

In an eleventh aspect, a communications apparatus is provided that includes a processor and a memory; the memory is configured to store computer executable instructions, and when the apparatus is operated, the processor executes the computer executable instructions stored in the memory to cause the apparatus to perform any one of the methods as provided in any one of the first to ninth aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, a terminal device is provided, configured to send a first message, where the first message includes the location information; or for sending a MEC application instance change subscription request.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising means or means (means) for performing the steps of any one of the methods provided in any one of the first to ninth aspects.

In a fourteenth aspect, a communication device is provided, which includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the processor is configured to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and perform any one of the methods provided in any one of the first to ninth aspects. The processor includes one or more.

A fifteenth aspect provides a communications device, comprising a processor, coupled to a memory, for invoking a program stored in the memory to perform any one of the methods provided in any one of the first to ninth aspects. The memory may be located within the device or external to the device. And the processor includes one or more.

In a sixteenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, having stored therein instructions, which, when run on a computer, cause the processor to perform any of the methods provided in any of the first to ninth aspects above.

A seventeenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform any one of the methods provided in any one of the first to ninth aspects above.

In an eighteenth aspect, there is provided a chip system comprising: a processor configured to perform any one of the methods provided by any one of the first to ninth aspects.

In a nineteenth aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising: a control plane function network element and a first network element; the control plane functional network element is configured to send first notification information to the first network element, where the first notification information is used to notify that a user plane path of the first network element terminal changes; the first network element is configured to acquire location information of the terminal, and determine at least one first MEC application instance according to the location information of the terminal; the first network element is further configured to send address information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

In a twentieth aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising: any one or more network elements recited in the first to ninth aspects.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an MEC system;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture based on a service-oriented architecture;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an MEC system;

FIG. 3A is a schematic block diagram of another MEC system;

FIG. 3B is a schematic diagram of an alternative architecture of an MEC system;

FIG. 3C is an architectural diagram of another MEC system;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a relationship between a terminal location and an MEC application instance location;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining an application example according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic flowchart of another method for determining an application example according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6A is a schematic flowchart of another method for determining an application example according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6B is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining an EES according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6C is a schematic diagram of the locations of an EES and an EDN CS according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6D is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining an EES according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6E is a schematic flowchart of a method for acquiring information of an EDN according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6F is a schematic flowchart of another method for acquiring information of an EDN according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6G is a schematic diagram illustrating a correspondence relationship between DNAI and EDN provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of another communication device provided in the embodiments of the present application;

fig. 8A is a schematic diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8B is a schematic diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The particular methods of operation in the method embodiments may also be applied to apparatus embodiments or system embodiments. In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the term "plurality" means two or more unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a fifth generation (5G) network architecture based on a service-oriented architecture. The 5G network architecture shown in fig. 2 may include three parts, namely a terminal part (i.e., the UE in fig. 2), a Data Network (DN), and an operator network part. The functions of some of the network elements will be briefly described below.

Wherein the operator network may comprise one or more of the following network elements: an authentication server function (AUSF) network element, a network open function (NEF) network element, a Policy Control Function (PCF) network element, a Unified Data Management (UDM) network element, a Unified Data Repository (UDR), a network storage function (NRF) network element, an Application Function (AF) network element, an access and mobility management function (AMF) network element, a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, a Radio Access Network (RAN), a user plane function (user function, UPF) network element, and the like. In the operator network described above, the parts other than the radio access network part may be referred to as core network parts.

The terminal is a device with a wireless transceiving function, can be deployed on land, and comprises an indoor or outdoor terminal, a handheld terminal or a vehicle-mounted terminal; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); and may also be deployed in the air (e.g., airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc.). A terminal can also be called a User Equipment (UE), a terminal equipment (terminal device), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in telemedicine (remote), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and the like.

The terminal may establish a connection with the carrier network through an interface (e.g., N1, etc.) provided by the carrier network, and use data and/or voice services provided by the carrier network. The terminal may also access the DN through the operator network, use operator services deployed on the DN, and/or services provided by third parties. The third party may be a service party other than the operator network and the terminal, and may provide other services such as data and/or voice for the terminal. The specific expression form of the third party may be determined according to an actual application scenario, and is not limited herein.

The RAN is a sub-network of the operator network, and is an implementation system between a service node and a terminal in the operator network. The terminal is to access the operator network, first via the RAN, and then may be connected to a service node of the operator network via the RAN. A RAN device is a device that provides a terminal with a wireless communication function, and is also called an access network device. RAN equipment includes, but is not limited to: next generation base station (G node B, gNB), evolved node B (eNB), Radio Network Controller (RNC), Node B (NB), Base Station Controller (BSC), Base Transceiver Station (BTS), home base station (e.g., home node B, or home node B, HNB), Base Band Unit (BBU), transmission point (TRP), Transmission Point (TP), mobile switching center, etc. in 5G.

The AMF network element is responsible for mobility management of users, including mobility state management, user temporary identity distribution, user authentication and authorization and the like.

The SMF network element has the functions of session management, execution of control strategies issued by PCF, UPF selection, terminal Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation, bearer establishment, modification and release, Quality of Service (QoS) control and the like.

The UPF network element supports functions of interconnecting a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session with a data network, routing and forwarding packets, detecting data packets and the like.

And the UDM network element is mainly responsible for functions of managing subscription data, user access authorization and the like.

UDR, storing and retrieving subscription data, policy data, public architecture data, and the like. For UDM, PCF and NEF to obtain relevant data. The UDR is to have different data access authentication mechanisms for different types of data, such as subscription data and policy data, so as to ensure the security of data access. The UDR is to be able to return a failure response carrying a suitable cause value for an illegal servicing operation or data access request.

The NEF network element mainly supports the network capability opening function and opens the network capability and service to the outside. Third generation partnership project (3 GPP) Network Functions (NFs) publish functions and events to other NFs through the NEF. The capability and events of NF openness can be securely opened to third party applications. NEF stores/retrieves structured data using the standardized interface (nurr) of the Unified Data Repository (UDR). And translating the exchange information of the AF and the exchange information of the internal network function.

The AF network element is used for providing a certain application layer service to the terminal, and when the AF provides the service to the terminal, the AF has requirements on the QoS policy and the charging policy and needs to inform the network. Meanwhile, the AF also needs application-related information fed back by the core network.

The PCF network element is mainly responsible for performing policy control functions such as charging, QoS bandwidth guarantee, mobility management, terminal policy decision, etc. for the session and service stream levels. In the framework, PCFs connected to the AMF and SMF correspond to AM PCF (PCF for Access and Mobility Control) and SM PCF (PCF for Session Management), respectively, and may not be the same PCF entity in an actual deployment scenario.

The NRF network element can be used for providing a network element discovery function and providing network element information corresponding to the network element type based on the request of other network elements. NRF also provides network element management services such as network element registration, update, de-registration, and network element status subscription and push.

AUSF network element: it is primarily responsible for authenticating a user to determine whether the user or device is allowed to access the network.

The DN is a network outside the operator network, the operator network can access a plurality of DNs, and the DN can deploy a plurality of services and provide services such as data and/or voice for the terminal. For example, the DN is a private network of a certain intelligent factory, a sensor installed in a workshop of the intelligent factory can be a terminal, a control server of the sensor is deployed in the DN, and the control server can provide services for the sensor. The sensor can communicate with the control server, obtain the instruction of the control server, transmit the sensor data gathered to the control server, etc. according to the instruction. For another example, the DN is an internal office network of a company, the mobile phone or computer of the employee of the company may be a terminal, and the mobile phone or computer of the employee may access information, data resources, and the like on the internal office network of the company.

In fig. 2, Nausf, Nnef, Npcf, Nudm, Naf, Namf, Nsmf, N1, N2, N3, N4, and N6 are interface serial numbers. The meaning of these interface sequence numbers can be referred to as that defined in the 3GPP standard protocol, and is not limited herein.

It is to be understood that the above network elements or functions may be network elements in a hardware device, or may be software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). Optionally, the network element or the function may be implemented by one device, or may be implemented by multiple devices together, or may be a functional module in one device, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application.

The mobility management network element, the session management network element, the policy control network element, the application function network element, the access network device, the network open function network element, and the user plane network element in the embodiment of the present application may be AMF, SMF, PCF, AF, RAN, NEF, and UPF in fig. 2, or may be network elements having the functions of the AMF, SMF, PCF, AF, RAN, NEF, and UPF in a future communication, for example, a 6th generation (6G) network, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. For convenience of description, in the embodiments of the present application, a mobility management network element, a session management network element, a policy control network element, an application function network element, an access network device, a network open function network element, and a user plane network element are respectively exemplified by the AMF, SMF, PCF, AF, RAN, NEF, and UPF.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an MEC system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Wherein the MEC server is deployed between the radio access network and the core network. The MEC server is a server which deploys the MEC platform and receives the management of the MEC platform. Also, the MEC server may connect to cloud data centers and other networks, such as an enterprise network. Therefore, the MEC server provides service and cloud computing functions for the terminal by using the wireless access network. In an embodiment of the present application, the MEC server may be established by an operator, an enterprise, a virtual operator, or a service provider. The MEC server may also integrate the UPF in fig. 2.

The method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to the following 2 MEC architectures.

The first method comprises the following steps: the reference architecture of MEC defined by ETSI in its specification ETSI GS MEC 003 can be specifically referred to in fig. 1, and for the specific description of fig. 1, reference is made to the background art section, which is not repeated herein.

And the second method comprises the following steps: reference architecture of MEC as shown in fig. 3A or fig. 3B as defined by the working group of 3GPP SA 6. Fig. 3B is different from fig. 3A only in that, in fig. 3B, functions of an Edge Enable Client (EEC) and an edge data network configuration client (EDN CC) are integrated together to form an enable client (denoted as an enable client in fig. 3B) having the functions of the EDN CC and the EEC. The functional modules and interfaces between the functional modules in fig. 3A and 3B are briefly described below.

EDN is used for providing edge computing service for terminals, and can comprise functions of computing, storing, networking, communication, routing and the like. An edge computing management platform (e.g., Edge Enable Server (EES) hereinafter) and an edge application instance (e.g., Edge Application Server (EAS)) may be generally included. In one understanding, the EDN may be a local data network (local DN) representing an access point of a data network that is physically closest to a user attachment point, i.e., an access network device (e.g., a base station) to which the terminal is accessing. A data network may have a plurality of local data networks, the local data networks may be identified using a Data Network Name (DNN) and/or a Data Network Application Identification (DNAI), and the DNAI may identify a location of the local data networks. In another understanding, the EDN is a peer-to-peer concept of a central cloud, i.e., the EDN may be understood as one local data center, may support multiple local data networks, and the data center may also be identified using DNAI.

EAS: EAS is used to provide application services with edge computing features to application clients, specifically to deploy an instance (instance) running on EDN by a server application (e.g., social media software, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR)). An MEC application may deploy one or more EAS in one or more EDNs, and the EAS deployed to run in different EDNs may be considered different EAS, they may share a domain name, may use the same IP address, or may use different IP addresses. EAS may also be referred to as edge application, application instance, edge application instance, MEC application instance, EAS function, and the like.

The application client side: the application client is used for an application user (user) to obtain application services from the application server. The application client is a client program of the MEC application on the terminal side, and the application client can be connected to an application server on the cloud to acquire the application service, and can also be connected to an EAS deployed and run in one or more EDNs to acquire the application service.

EES: the EES is used for providing some edge calculation enabling services for the EAS and the EEC so as to better support the deployment of the MEC application at the edge, and the EES can support the registration of the EAS, the authentication and authorization of the terminal, the DNS function for providing the IP address information of the application server for the terminal, and the like. The EES is deployed in the EDN. Generally, an EAS is registered to an EES, or information of the EAS is configured on an EES through a management system, the EES is called an EES associated with the EAS, and the EES controls (or manages) the EAS registered (or configured) on the EES.

EEC: the EEC is a peer entity of the EES at the terminal side, and the EEC is used for registering information of the EEC and information of the application client to the EES, performing security authentication and authorization, acquiring an IP address of the EAS from the EES, and providing an edge computing enabling capability to the application client, for example, returning the IP address of the EAS to the application client in an EAS discovery service. The EEC may also invoke the provisioned service interface of the EDN CC.

Edge data network configuration server (EDN CS): the EDNCS is used for configuring the EDN information for the terminal, for example, the EDN CS provides the EDN information for the terminal, further, the EDN CS can have the function of DNS, has the information of an EAS domain name, an IP address of the EAS and the EES registered by the EAS, can also directly provide the EAS information for the terminal, and can interactively acquire the information of the application server with the DNS server applied by the MEC. The EDN CS can receive an EES query or an EAS query of the EDN CC and provide a corresponding query result, the EDN CS can receive registration of the EES so as to obtain information of an EAS domain name, an IP address of the EAS and the EES of the EAS registration, and the information can also be obtained through configuration.

EDN CC: the EDN CC is the peer entity of the EDN CS on the terminal side. The EDN CC may obtain information for the EES from the EDN CS. EAS information may further be obtained from the EDN CS. The EDN CC may also be used to provide an edge compute enabled service interface to the EEC or application client.

The application user signs a service agreement with a provider of the MEC application so as to provide services for the application user, and the application user communicates with the EAS through the connection of the application client by logging in the application client on the terminal. The enabled clients (e.g., EEC, EDN CC) are middleware layers, typically located in the operating system, or located in middleware (middleware) between the application clients and the operating system. The application client may obtain the edge-enabled service from the enabling client in the form of an Application Programming Interface (API).

EDGE-1 (EDGE-1) interface: the interface between the EEC and the EES can realize the registration of the EEC, the security authentication, the discovery of EAS and the migration support of application context.

EDGE-2 (EDGE-2) interface: the interface between the EES and the 3GPP network is used for interaction with a network element of a 3GPP core network, and may interface with a network element such as a network open function (NEF), a Policy Control Function (PCF), and the like.

EDGE-3 (EDGE-3) interface: the interface between the EAS and the EES is mainly used for the EAS to invoke services provided by the EES, such as event subscription and notification, and the EAS is registered to the EES.

EDGE-4 (EDGE-4) interface: the interface between the EDN CS and the EDN CC is mainly used for providing EES information, EAS discovery, security authorization and the like for the EDN CS to the EDN CC.

EDGE-5 (EDGE-5) interface: and the interface between the application client and the EEC is used for calling services provided by the EEC, such as EAS discovery, event subscription and notification, context migration and the like, by the application client.

EDGE-6 (EDGE-6) interface: the interface between the EES and the EDN CS is mainly used for registering the information of the EES to the EDN CS by the EES, and further includes the information of the EAS registered on the EES.

EDGE-7 (EDGE-7) interface: the interface between the EAS and the 3GPP network is used for interaction with the network elements of the 3GPP core network, and may interface with network elements such as NEF, PCF, and the like.

EDGE-X (EDGE-X) interface: the interface between the EEC and the EDN CC may be used for the EDN CC to provide information (e.g., identification, address information) of the EES to the EEC.

It should be noted that the functional modules and the interfaces between the functional modules in fig. 3A and 3B may also have other names, and the present application is not limited thereto.

Referring to fig. 3C, in a practical application scenario, a terminal may communicate with one or more EDNs through a mobile communication network connection. One or more EES are deployed in one EDN, where one EES may manage one or more EAS, for example in fig. 3C, EES1 deployed in EDN1 may manage EAS11, EAS12, and EAS13, EES2 deployed in EDN2 may manage EAS21 and EAS22, and EES3 deployed in EDN3 may manage EAS31, EAS32, and EAS 33. The EES may have stored therein information about each EAS it manages, including an EAS identifier such as a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), and EAS address information such as a URL or IP address.

An EES deployed in multiple EDNs may be connected to the same EDN CS, and the EDN CS may store therein address information of each EES connected thereto and information of EAS managed by each EES, such as an identifier of managed EAS, and further includes address information of managed EAS. For example, in fig. 3C, the EDN CS may store address information of the EES1, EES2, and EES3, and further store the identification and address information of the EAS managed by the EES1, EES2, and EES 3.

EAS of the same MEC application may be deployed in different EDNs, for example in fig. 3C, EAS of MEC application 1 may be EAS11, EAS21 and EAS31, EAS of MEC application 2 may be EAS12, EAS22 and EAS32, EAS of MEC application 3 may be EAS13 and EAS 33. The determination of whether multiple EAS are different EAS for the same MEC may be made by EAS.

In one understanding, EAS registered on the EES may be considered a capability of the EES, e.g., EAS of MEC application 1 registered on the EES may be considered a capability of the EES to include support for MEC application 1. Since an EAS will typically be registered with an EES located in the same EDN as the EAS, it will be appreciated that the EDN that is optimal (physically closest, closest to the network connection path, or optimal) to the terminal may provide the EES and EAS closest to the terminal.

In the embodiment of the present application, for convenience of description, the MEC application instance in the architecture shown in fig. 1 and the EAS in fig. 3A to 3C are collectively referred to as a MEC application instance, and the MEC application instance (application instance) is a copy of the same MEC application. The MEC application instance is deployed at an edge node (e.g., EDN). The same edge node may also deploy multiple MEC application instances to achieve load balancing. The MEC application installed on the terminal provides service for the MEC application by a certain MEC application instance corresponding to the MEC application of a certain edge node at a certain moment. Generally, the closer the edge node to which the MEC application instance belongs is to the terminal, the smaller the packet transmission delay between the MEC application instance and the terminal is, and the higher the service quality is. As shown in fig. 4, when the terminal is at location 1, the MEC application instance 1 located at the edge node 1 may be considered as the optimal MEC application instance. When the terminal moves to location 2, the MEC application instance 2 located at the edge node 2 may be considered as the optimal MEC application instance. There is currently no method for providing an optimal MEC application instance for the MEC application of the terminal.

Based on the network architecture shown in fig. 2 and the MEC architectures shown in fig. 1, fig. 3A, fig. 3B, and fig. 3C, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a communication method (which may also be referred to as a method for determining an MEC application instance) provided in the embodiment of the present application. The embodiment shown in fig. 5 takes the discovery process of the MEC application instance as an example, and includes:

s501, the terminal sends a first message to the first network element, where the first message may be an MEC application instance discovery request message. Accordingly, the first network element receives a first message from the terminal.

In the MEC architecture shown in fig. 1, the first network element may be an MEC system management plane functional network element, and the specific step S501 may be executed by a terminal application.

In the MEC architecture shown in fig. 3A, 3B and 3C, the first network element may be an EES or an EDN CS. The step S501 may be specifically executed as the EEC in the terminal when the first network element is the EES, and the step S501 may be specifically executed as the EDN CC or the EEC in the terminal when the first network element is the EDN CS.

Wherein the MEC application instance discovery request message reaches the first network element from the terminal through the access network device (e.g., gNB), the user plane gateway (e.g., UPF), and the like.

The MEC application instance discovery request message includes one or more of the following information:

(1) terminal identification

The terminal identifier may be a permanent subscription identifier (SUPI), a general public identifier (GPSI), a Media Access Control (MAC) address, an IP address, a mobile station international ISDN number (MSISDN), or other identifier. The terminal identity may be used to determine the location of the terminal.

(2) MEC application name

(3) MEC application provider name

(4) MEC application version

(5) Identification of MEC applications

The identification information element (information element) of the MEC application may comprise an identification of one or more MEC applications. The identification of one MEC application may be the FQDN of the MEC application, the URL of the MEC application, etc. Wherein, the identifier of the MEC application is used for indicating the request to acquire the address information of the corresponding EAS. For example, if the identifier of the MEC application is the identifier of MEC application 1, it indicates that the address information of the EAS of MEC application 1 is acquired. If there is no identification of the MEC application in the first message, it may indicate that the address information of the EAS of all MEC applications is acquired.

(6) Information of application client

The information of the application client may be information for an EAS identification terminal. The information of the application client can be GPSI, IP address or identification formed by other character combination. The information of the application clients may be used to indicate a request to support EAS corresponding to the application clients.

(7) Identification of EEC

The identification of the EEC is used to identify the EEC. The identity of the EEC may be a GPSI, an IP address, or other character combination used to identify the EEC. The identity of the EEC may be used to authenticate and authorize the terminal and obtain the location information of the terminal (e.g., determine the SUPI, GPSI, etc. of the terminal through the identity of the EEC, and further determine the location of the terminal).

(8) Location information of terminal

The location information of the terminal may be coordinates of a location of the terminal, information of a cell in which the terminal is located (e.g., an identifier of the cell), tracking area information of a tracking area in which the terminal is located (e.g., an identifier of the tracking area), an identifier of a data network access point of the terminal, and any other information that may indicate a location of the terminal. The location information of the terminal may be used to determine the location of the terminal.

S502, the first network element determines at least one first MEC application instance.

In step S502, when implementing specifically, the first network element needs to first obtain the location information of the terminal, and then determine at least one first MEC application instance according to the location information of the terminal.

Optionally, if the MEC application instance discovery request message received by the first network element includes the location information of the terminal, the first network element is considered to acquire the location information of the terminal by receiving the MEC application instance discovery request message. If the MEC application instance finds that the request message does not include the location information of the terminal, another optional method is that the first network element obtains the location information of the terminal according to the terminal identifier from a network function of the telecommunications carrier, such as a 5G core network control plane function network element (e.g., NEF). NEF provides an API, the ability to open up a telecommunications network. The first network element sends a position query request including a terminal identifier to the NEF, after receiving the position query request, the NEF calls a network function of the core network, such as AMF, to obtain position information, the AMF sends the queried position information of the terminal to a calling party, namely the NEF, and the NEF sends a second message to the first network element, wherein the second message includes the position information of the terminal.

S503, the first network element sends the address information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives address information of at least one first MEC application instance from the first network element.

For example, if the terminal requests an MEC application instance of MEC application 1, the first MEC application instance may be an MEC application instance of MEC application 1.

Wherein the address information of the at least one first MEC application instance may be carried in the MEC application instance discovery reply message.

The address information of an MEC application instance may be an IP address, a URL, an identifier, a port number, or other address connection information that may be uniquely connected to the MEC application instance.

If at least one first MEC application instance is a first MEC application instance, the first MEC application instance may be an optimal MEC application instance determined by the first network element. In this case, the terminal may take the first MEC application instance as the MEC application instance providing the service.

If the at least one first MEC application instance is a plurality of first MEC application instances, the plurality of first MEC application instances may be an optimal plurality of MEC application instances determined for the first network element. In this case, the terminal may select an optimal MEC application instance as the MEC application instance providing the service. The method for the terminal to determine which MEC application instance is the best MEC application instance is not limited in the present application.

Optionally, in a case that the at least one first MEC application instance is a plurality of first MEC application instances, the method further includes: and the first network element sends the priority information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal. In this case, the terminal may select an MEC application instance with the highest priority as the MEC application instance providing the service. Of course, the terminal may also select another MEC application instance as the MEC application instance providing the service.

In the embodiment of the application, when the terminal requests the MEC application instance, the first network element determines the MEC application instance providing service for the terminal according to the obtained position information of the terminal, so that the message transmission delay between the MEC application instance and the terminal is reduced, and the service quality is improved.

Specifically, the first network element is responsible for lifecycle management of the MEC application, including selection of a deployment location of an MEC application instance. The first network element stores information of each MEC application instance, wherein the information comprises an MEC application instance identifier, an MEC application instance address, an MEC application instance deployment position and a corresponding relation between the information. The first network element determines at least one first MEC application instance from the MEC application instances according to the position information of the terminal and the position information of the MEC application instances, namely the first network element determines one or more MEC application instances which are closest to the position identified by the position information as the first MEC application instances according to the position information of the terminal. The number of the first MEC application instances to be determined by the first network element may be predefined or preset or specified by a protocol, and the application is not limited.

Illustratively, if the terminal requests the MEC application instance of the MEC application 1, there are 5 MEC application instances of the MEC application 1 that the terminal can access, which are denoted as MEC application instance 1, MEC application instance 2, MEC application instance 3, MEC application instance 4, and MEC application instance 5, and the distances between them and the terminal are respectively from near to far: MEC application instance 3, MEC application instance 2, MEC application instance 1, MEC application instance 4, and MEC application instance 5. If the at least one first MEC application instance is a first MEC application instance, the first network element may determine that MEC application instance 3 is the at least one first MEC application instance, and if the at least one first MEC application instance is 3 first MEC application instances, the first network element may determine that MEC application instance 3, MEC application instance 2, and MEC application instance 1 are the at least one first MEC application instance.

Based on the network architecture shown in fig. 2 and the MEC architectures shown in fig. 1, fig. 3A, fig. 3B, and fig. 3C, fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of another communication method (which may also be referred to as another method for determining an application instance of the MEC) provided in the embodiment of the present application. The embodiment shown in fig. 6 takes a change flow of the MEC application instance as an example, and the method of the embodiment may also be executed when the MEC application instance needs to be changed after the MEC application instance shown in fig. 5 is determined. The display of fig. 6 includes:

s601, the first network element subscribes a user plane path change notification event to a core network control plane functional network element, such as NEF, PCF, or SMF. The first network element may subscribe to the user plane path change notification event by sending a user plane path change subscription request message. And after the first network element finishes sending, receiving response information sent by the core network control plane functional network element.

In the MEC architecture shown in fig. 1, the first network element may be an MEC system management plane function network element. In the MEC architecture shown in fig. 3A, 3B and 3C, the first network element may be an EES or an EDN CS.

Wherein the terminal accesses the application network (e.g., EDN) through the UPF, and different UPFs access application networks in different locations. When the terminal moves at different positions, the core network switches the user plane path and selects the optimal UPF, so that the access delay between the terminal and the application network is reduced, the user experience is improved, and the user plane path change can occur in the process of switching to the new UPF.

S602, the terminal sends an MEC application instance change subscription request message to the first network element. The MEC application instance change subscription request message includes at least one of information such as a terminal identifier, a MEC application name, a MEC application provider name, and a MEC application version. And after the sending is finished, the terminal receives the response information sent by the first network element.

In the case that the first network element is a first network element, the specific step S602 may be executed as a terminal application. The step S602 may be specifically executed to be an EEC in the terminal when the first network element is an EES, and the step S602 may be specifically executed to be an EDN CC in the terminal when the first network element is an EDN CS.

S603, the core network control plane functional network element sends first notification information to the first network element, and the first notification information is used for notifying that the user plane path of the first network element terminal is changed; the first notification information may be user plane path change notification information. Specifically, the terminal triggers the core network control plane functional network element to select the optimal UPF for the terminal moving to the new position due to movement, and when the terminal is switched to the new UPF, the user plane switching is performed. And the core network control plane functional network element sends the user plane path change notification information to the first network element. The user plane path change notification message includes a terminal identifier (e.g., an IP address of a terminal or a common public user identity), source user plane location information, and destination user plane location information. The user plane position information can be DNAI, and the DNAI and the cell have corresponding relation.

S604, the first network element determines the information of the source MEC application instance according to the terminal identifier and the source user plane location information, determines the destination MEC application instance according to the terminal identifier and the destination user plane location, and determines a new MEC application instance according to the destination user plane location, referring to step S502 in the embodiment shown in fig. 5. The first network element may obtain the location information of the destination UPF by receiving the user plane path change notification information. If there are multiple destination MEC application instances, then one MEC application instance is selected from them, and the selected policy may be random selection or selection of the least loaded instance. After determining the new MEC application instance, the first network element indicates the source MEC application instance and the destination MEC application instance to complete the migration of the terminal context. The determined MEC application instance is a first MEC application instance.

And the first network element sends response information of the user plane path change notification to the core network control plane network element, so that the core network control plane network function controls the user plane to complete the path switching.

In this embodiment, the destination UPF location information may also be considered as the current location of the terminal, and is a form of location information of the terminal.

S605, the first network element sends MEC application instance change notification information to the terminal. The MEC application instance change notification information includes destination MEC application instance information, such as at least one of an MEC application name, an MEC application provider name, an MEC application version, an MEC application instance identifier, and an MEC application instance address. The terminal may send a response message to the first network element after receiving the MEC application instance change notification message.

The terminal subsequently switches to use the new MEC application instance, i.e. the destination MEC application instance.

In this embodiment, when the terminal changes due to the UPF, the current MEC application instance may no longer be the best, and the first network element determines the best MEC application instance switched to the new UPF according to the location information (the destination user plane location) of the terminal, so that the packet transmission delay between the MEC application instance and the terminal is reduced, and the service quality is improved.

Based on the network architecture shown in fig. 2 and the MEC architecture shown in fig. 3, fig. 3A, fig. 3B, and fig. 3C, fig. 6A is a schematic diagram of a communication method (which may also be referred to as an application example determination method) provided in the embodiment of the present application. The embodiment shown in fig. 6A takes the discovery process of the MEC application instance as an example, and includes:

S601A, the terminal sends a first message to the first network element. Accordingly, the first network element receives a first message from the terminal.

The first message is used for requesting address information of the MEC application instance, and the address information of the MEC application instance is used for connecting the terminal to the MEC application instance. The first message may be an MEC application instance discovery request message.

In the MEC architecture shown in fig. 3A, 3B and 3C, the first network element may be an EES or an EDN CS. The step S601A may be specifically executed as the EEC in the terminal when the first network element is the EES, and the step S601A may be specifically executed as the EDN CC or the EEC in the terminal when the first network element is the EDN CS.

The information included in the MEC application instance discovery request message in the embodiment shown in fig. 6A is similar to the information included in the MEC application instance discovery request message in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and is not described again.

S602A, the first network element obtains information of at least one first EDN from the SMF, where the at least one first EDN is determined according to the location information of the terminal.

S603A, the first network element determines at least one first MEC application instance in the at least one first EDN.

S604A, the first network element sends address information of at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

The address information of an MEC application instance may be an IP address, a URL of the MEC application instance, or other address connection information that may be uniquely connected to the MEC application instance.

Optionally, in a case that the at least one first MEC application instance is a plurality of first MEC application instances, the method further includes: the first network element sends priority information of at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal. In this case, the terminal may select an MEC application instance with the highest priority as the MEC application instance providing the service. Of course, the terminal may also select another MEC application instance as the MEC application instance providing the service.

In the embodiment of the application, when the terminal requests the MEC application instance, the first network element requests the SMF for information of at least one first EDN, and then determines the at least one first MEC application instance, so that message transmission delay between the MEC application instance and the terminal is reduced, and service quality is improved.

Optionally, when the step S602A is implemented specifically, the method includes:

11) and the first network element sends a third message to the SMF, wherein the third message is used for requesting to deploy at least one EDN of the MEC application instance requested by the terminal. Accordingly, the SMF receives the third message from the first network element.

12) And the SMF sends the information of at least one first EDN to the first network element according to the third message, wherein the first EDN is the EDN of the MEC application example deployed with the terminal request. Accordingly, the first network element receives a response message to the third message from the SMF.

Wherein the information of the at least one first EDN may be carried in a response message of the third message.

For example, the third message may be a user plane management event notification message subscribed to the SMF by the first network element, and the response message of the third message may be a user plane management event notification sent to the first network element by the SMF. The response message of the third message may be a notification message sent by the SMF to the first network element immediately after receiving the subscription message, where the notification message includes information of the EDN corresponding to the current location of the terminal, such as current user plane location information DNAI of the terminal.

Wherein the third message is used to request at least one EDN deployed with the MEC application instance requested by the terminal, it may be understood that the third request message is used to request an EDN satisfying a specific filtering condition, where the specific filtering condition describes a condition that the MEC application instance requested by the terminal needs to satisfy. The specific filtering condition may be sent by the terminal to the first network element in the first message or generated independently by the first network element. For example, a filter (filter) may be further carried in the third request message to indicate that EDN information of the filter is requested to be satisfied. For example, a filter may be an MEC application instance that has MEC application X deployed, and then represents an EDN requesting the MEC application instance that has MEC application X deployed.

Optionally, the information of the first EDN is used to indicate performance of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN. Wherein, since the EES and MEC application instances are deployed in the EDN, it can also be considered that the information of the first EDN can be further used to indicate: performance of a communication path between the terminal and the EES in the first EDN, and/or performance of a communication path between the terminal and the MEC application instance in the first EDN.

The performance of the communication path may include performance indicators such as a network topology distance of the communication path, a time delay of the communication path, and a bandwidth of the communication path.

Wherein, the information of the at least one first EDN and the at least one EDN may be any one of the following:

the 1 st: at least one first EDN is all EDNs with MEC application instances requested by terminals deployed, and the information of the first EDN (marked as first information of the first EDN) comprises any one or more of the following information: the number of UPFs between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

Specifically, the first information of the first EDN may also be considered to include any one or more of the following information: the number of UPFs between the terminal and the EES in the first EDN, the mobile network internal communication time delay between the terminal and the EES in the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the EES in the first EDN, the mobile network internal communication bandwidth between the terminal and the EES in the first EDN, and the priority information of the communication path between the terminal and the EES in the first EDN. Alternatively, the first information of the first EDN may also be considered to include any one or more of the following information: the number of UPFs between the terminal and the MEC application instance in the first EDN, the mobile network internal communication time delay between the terminal and the MEC application instance in the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the MEC application instance in the first EDN, the mobile network internal communication bandwidth between the terminal and the MEC application instance in the first EDN, and the priority information of the communication path between the terminal and the MEC application instance in the first EDN.

For convenience of description, the EDN of the MEC application instance deployed with the terminal request is hereinafter referred to as a target EDN. Optionally, the third message includes information (for example, an identifier of the MEC application) indicating the MEC application corresponding to the MEC application instance requested by the terminal. The SMF may determine, according to the information, the MEC application corresponding to the MEC application instance requested by the terminal, and further determine that the EDN of the MEC application instance in which the MEC application is deployed is the target EDN.

In category 1, the SMF does not need to select among all the target EDNs, but only needs to use all the target EDNs as at least one first EDN.

In the first alternative, in the response message of the third message sent by the SMF to the first network element, the response message includes the priority information of the at least one first EDN.

The 2 nd: at least one first EDN is all target EDNs, and the information (marked as the second information of the first EDN) of one first EDN is DNAI of the first EDN.

In category 2, the SMF does not need to select among all the target EDNs, but only needs to use all the target EDNs as at least one first EDN.

In the case of the second category 2, optionally, the response message of the third message sent by the SMF to the first network element includes priority information of the second EDN.

And (3) type: at least one first EDN is all target EDNs, and information of one first EDN is the identification of the first EDN and the priority information of the first EDN.

In category 3, the SMF does not need to select among all target EDNs, but only needs to determine the priority of all target EDNs.

And 4, the method comprises the following steps: at least one first EDN is a partial target EDN. The information of a first EDN is the first information of the first EDN.

In category 4, the SMF may select a portion of the target EDNs among all of the target EDNs as the at least one first EDN.

In the 4 th scenario, optionally, the response message of the third message sent by the SMF to the first network element includes the priority information of the at least one first EDN.

And (5) the following steps: at least one EDN is a partial target EDN, and information of a first EDN is DNAI of the first EDN.

In category 5, the SMF may select a portion of the target EDNs among all of the target EDNs as at least one first EDN.

In the 5th scenario, optionally, the response message of the third message sent by the SMF to the first network element includes the priority information of the at least one first EDN.

The 6 th: at least one first EDN is a partial target EDN, and information of one first EDN is the identification of the first EDN and the priority information of the first EDN.

In category 6, the SMF may select a portion of the target EDNs among all of the target EDNs as at least one first EDN.

Among them, in the 4 th to 6th modes, the SMF may specifically select a part of the target EDNs as the at least one first EDN among all the target EDNs by any one of the following modes 1 to 3.

Mode 1

The SMF can determine one or more target EDNs closest to the terminal position in all the target EDNs as at least one first EDN according to the terminal position information and the target EDN position information. Wherein, the closer to the location of the terminal, the better the communication performance with the terminal is considered.

The location information of the terminal may be carried in the third message or the SMF determines the location information of the terminal according to the identifier of the terminal. The location information of the EDN may be determined from the DNAI of the EDN. The closest position of the target EDN and the terminal means that the network connection distance between the target EDN and the terminal is the closest.

Illustratively, based on the example shown in fig. 3C, if the terminal requests the MEC application instance of MEC application 1, all target EDNs may be EDN1, EDN2, and EDN3, and if at least one first EDN is 2 EDNs and the distances between the 3 EDNs and the terminal are from near to far EDN2, EDN1, and EDN3, the SMF may determine EDN2 and EDN1 as at least one first EDN.

Mode 2

The SMF can determine one or more target EDNs with the best communication performance with the terminal in all the target EDNs as at least one first EDN according to the first information of the target EDN.

The communication performance between an EDN and a terminal can be characterized by one or more parameters of the number of UPFs between the terminal and the EDN, the internal communication time delay of a mobile network between the terminal and the EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the EDN and performance indexes of other communication paths.

The at least one first EDN determined by the SMF may also differ according to the parameters characterizing the communication performance between the EDN and the terminal. For example, if the communication performance between the EDN and the terminal is characterized by the end-to-end communication delay between the terminal and the EDN, if the at least one first EDN is 3 first EDNs, the SMF may use, as the at least one first EDN, 3 target EDNs of all the target EDNs with the smallest end-to-end communication delay between the terminal and the target EDN.

Mode 3

The SMF can determine at least one first EDN according to the position information of the terminal and the information of the alternative EDNs.

Specifically, the SMF may determine at least one first EDN according to the location information of the terminal, the information of the alternative EDN, and the first information of the alternative or all EDNs. The candidate EDN may be the target EDN, or may not be the target EDN, and the application is not limited.

For example, if the candidate EDN is the candidate target EDN, the SMF may determine one or more target EDNs with the best communication performance with the terminal among the candidate target EDNs as the at least one first EDN. For another example, the SMF may determine one or more target EDNs with the best communication performance with the terminal among the candidate target EDNs and one or more target EDNs with the best communication performance with the terminal among the non-candidate target EDNs as the at least one first EDN.

Optionally, the information of the alternative EDN is carried in the third message, and the alternative EDN is determined by the first network element according to the location information of the terminal and the information of the EDN stored in the first network element. Among them, there may be one or more of the alternative EDNs. The first network element may determine one or more EDNs (or target EDNs) closest to the terminal as candidate EDNs (or target EDNs) according to the location information of the terminal. In this case, the first network element may be an EDN CS. Optionally, the SMF may determine, according to information (for example, an identifier of the MEC application) indicating the MEC application corresponding to the MEC application instance requested by the terminal in the first message, the MEC application corresponding to the MEC application instance requested by the terminal, and further determine that the EDN of the MEC application instance deployed with the MEC application is the target EDN.

In the categories 1 to 6, optionally, the priority of the at least one first EDN may be determined according to a distance between the at least one first EDN and the terminal, or according to a communication performance between the at least one first EDN and the terminal. For example, the SMF may set the first EDN closer to the terminal with higher priority, or set the first EDN with better communication performance with the terminal with higher priority.

It should be noted that, in the case that the response message of the third message includes the priority of at least one first EDN, in step 12), in specific implementation, the first network element may determine, as the at least one first MEC application instance, an MEC application instance requested by a terminal in a target EDN of part or all of the at least one first EDN. In the above-mentioned 1 st, 2 nd, 4 th and 5th, if the response message of the third message does not include the priority of the at least one first EDN, step 12) may, in specific implementation, determine the priority of the at least one first EDN according to the information of the at least one first EDN, and then determine, as the at least one first MEC application instance, the MEC application instance requested by the terminal in part or all of the at least one first EDN.

The method for determining the priority of the at least one first EDN by the first network element is the same as the SMF, and may be referred to above and is not described again.

Of course, the first network element may also determine the at least one first MEC application instance by using other methods, for example, after receiving the information of the at least one first EDN, the first network element determines, in combination with the load of the at least one first EDN, one or more first EDNs with smaller load, and determines the MEC application instance requested by the terminal in the one or more first EDNs with smaller load as the at least one first MEC application instance.

In this embodiment, if the first network element is an EDN CS, after determining the at least one first MEC application instance, the first network element may further determine an EES associated with the at least one first MEC application instance, and the EES associated with the at least one first MEC application instance is deployed in the at least one first EDN. In this case, optionally, the method further includes: the first network element sends address information of the EES associated with the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal. After receiving the information, the terminal may first access the EES, and then access the first MEC application instance managed by the EES.

Based on the network architecture shown in fig. 2 and the MEC architectures shown in fig. 3, fig. 3A, fig. 3B, and fig. 3C, fig. 6B is a schematic diagram of a communication method (which may also be referred to as an EES determination method) provided in the embodiment of the present application. The embodiment shown in fig. 6B takes the discovery process of the EES as an example, and includes:

S601B, the terminal sends a first message to the first network element. Accordingly, the first network element receives a first message from the terminal.

Wherein the first message may be used to request address information of an EES for connecting to the EES. The first message may be an EES discovery request message.

The first network element may be an EDN CS, and the step S601B may be specifically executed as an EDN CC or an EEC in the terminal.

Wherein the EES discovery request message arrives from the terminal to the first network element through the access network equipment (e.g., gNB), the user plane gateway (e.g., UPF), etc.

The information included in the EES discovery request message is similar to the MEC application instance discovery request message in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, except that the information of the MEC application instance in the MEC application instance discovery request message is used in the EES discovery request message to indicate the address information of the EES of the MEC application instance indicated by the information for managing the MEC application instance.

S602B, the first network element obtains information of at least one first EDN from the SMF, where the at least one first EDN is determined according to the location information of the terminal.

S603B, the first network element determines at least one first EES in the at least one first EDN.

S604B, the first network element sends address information of at least one first EES to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives address information of the at least one first EES from the first network element.

For example, if the terminal requests to manage the EES of the MEC application instance of MEC application 1, the first EES may be the EES of the MEC application instance of MEC application 1.

The address information of the at least one first EES may be carried in a response message of the first message, and the response message of the first message may be an EES discovery response message.

The address information of an EES may be an IP address of the EES, a URL or other address connection information that can be uniquely connected to the EES, etc.

Optionally, in a case that the at least one first EES is a plurality of first EES, the method further includes: the first network element sends priority information of at least one first EES to the terminal. In this case, the terminal may select an EES with the highest priority as an EES providing the service. Of course, the terminal may also select another EES as the EES providing the service.

In the embodiment of the application, when the terminal requests the EES, the first network element requests the SMF for information of at least one first EDN, and further determines the at least one first EES, thereby reducing a message transmission delay between an MEC application instance managed by the EES and the terminal, and improving service quality.

Optionally, the step S602B includes, in specific implementation:

21) the first network element sends a third message to the SMF, the third message requesting deployment of at least one EDN with the EES requested by the terminal. Accordingly, the SMF receives the third message from the first network element.

22) And the SMF sends information of at least one first EDN to the first network element according to the third message, wherein the first EDN is the EDN with the EES requested by the terminal. Accordingly, the first network element receives a response message to the third message from the SMF.

Wherein the third message is used to request at least one EDN deployed with an EES requested by the terminal, it may be understood that the third request message is used to request an EDN satisfying a specific filtering condition, where the specific filtering condition describes a condition that the EES requested by the terminal needs to satisfy. The specific filtering condition may be sent by the terminal to the first network element in the first message or generated independently by the first network element. For example, a filter (filter) may be further carried in the third request message to indicate that EDN information of the filter is requested to be satisfied. For example, a filter may be an EES of an MEC application instance that manages MEC application X, and then represents an EDN requesting deployment of an EES of an MEC application instance that manages MEC application X.

Optionally, the information of the first EDN is used to indicate the communication performance of the communication path between the terminal and the first EDN. Wherein, since the EES and MEC application instances are deployed in the EDN, the information of the first EDN may also be considered to indicate: communication performance of a communication path between the terminal and the EES in the first EDN, and/or communication performance of a communication path between the terminal and the MEC application instance in the first EDN.

the 1 st: at least one first EDN is all EDNs with EESs requested by terminals deployed, and the information of the first EDN (marked as first information of the first EDN) comprises any one or more of the following information: the number of UPFs between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

For convenience of description, the EDN with the EES requested by the terminal deployed will be referred to as a target EDN hereinafter. Optionally, the third message includes information indicating an EES requested by the terminal. The SMF may determine the EES requested by the terminal according to the information, and further determine the EDN in which the EES is deployed as the target EDN.

Mode 1

Illustratively, based on the example shown in fig. 3C, if the terminal requests to manage the EES of the MEC application instance of the MEC application 1, all of the target EDNs may be the EDN1, the EDN2, and the EDN3, and if the at least one first EDN is 2 EDNs and the distances between the 3 EDNs and the terminal are from near to far the EDN2, the EDN1, and the EDN3, the SMF may determine the EDN2 and the EDN1 to be the at least one first EDN.

Mode 2

Mode 3

Optionally, the information of the alternative EDN is carried in the third message, and the alternative EDN is determined by the first network element according to the location information of the terminal and the information of the EDN stored in the first network element. Among them, there may be one or more of the alternative EDNs. The first network element may determine one or more EDNs (or target EDNs) closest to the terminal as candidate EDNs (or target EDNs) according to the location information of the terminal. In this case, the first network element may be an EDN CS. Optionally, the SMF may determine, according to information (for example, an identifier of the MEC application) indicating the MEC application corresponding to the MEC application instance requested by the terminal in the first message, the MEC application corresponding to the MEC application instance requested by the terminal, and further determine that the EDN in which the EES managing the MEC application instance of the MEC application is deployed is the target EDN.

It should be noted that, in the case that the response message of the third message includes the priority of the at least one first EDN, in step 22), in implementation, the first network element may determine the EES requested by the terminal in some or all of the at least one first EDN as the at least one first EES. In the above-mentioned type 1, type 2, type 4 and type 5, if the response message of the third message does not include the priority of the at least one first EDN, step 22) may, in implementation, determine the priority of the at least one first EDN according to the information of the at least one first EDN, and then determine the EES requested by the terminal in some or all of the at least one first EDN as the at least one first EES.

Of course, the first network element may also determine the at least one first EES by other methods, for example, after receiving the information of the at least one first EDN, the first network element determines, in combination with the load of the at least one first EDN, one or more first EDNs with smaller load, and determines the EES requested by the terminal in the one or more first EDNs with smaller load as the at least one first EES.

In the embodiments shown in fig. 6A and fig. 6B, the actions performed by the SMF may also be performed by the network manager, and the application is not limited thereto.

It should be noted that, as shown in fig. 6G, a PLMN # a may have local egress points DNAI # a1, DNAI # a2, DNAI # A3 at its network edge, and a PLMN # B may have local egress points DNAI # B1, DNAI # B2, DNAI # B3 at its network edge. Where DNAI # a1 corresponds to DNAI # a2 for EDN #1 and DNAI # A3 corresponds to EDN #2, it is also understood that the (best) service area corresponding to EDN #1 is the area identified by DNAI # a1 and DNAI # a2, and the (best) service area corresponding to EDN #2 is the area identified by DNAI # A3. Where DNAI # B1 corresponds to EDN #3, DNAI # B2 corresponds to DNAI # B3 to EDN #4, it is also understood that the (best) service area corresponding to EDN #3 is the area identified by DNAI # B1, and the (best) service area corresponding to EDN #4 is the areas identified by DNAI # B2 and DNAI # B3.

It should be noted that an EDN may correspond to one or more DNAIs, and the one or more DNAIs may all be used for the terminal to access the EDN (specifically, may be an EES or an EAS in the EDN, etc.). The DNAI of a first EDN in the above embodiments may include at least one DNAI corresponding to the first EDN.

In the solution shown in fig. 6B, the first network element may be an EES that manages other EES, besides the EDN CS.

Referring to (a) in fig. 6C or (b) in fig. 6C, the EDN CS and the EES may be located in the same DN, and in this case, the EDN CS and the EES may be associated with the same SMF (see (a) in fig. 6C) or may be associated with different SMFs (see (b) in fig. 6C). The EDN CS and the EES may also be located in different DNs (see (C) in FIG. 6C), in which case the EDN CS and the EES are associated with different SMFs.

The terminal can establish a PDU session for accessing the DN to which the EES belongs, and can also establish a PDU session for accessing the DN to which the EDN CS belongs, and when the EES and the EDN CS are located in the same DN, the terminal can establish a PDU session for accessing the EES and the EDN CS; the terminal may also establish two PDU sessions, one for access to the EDN CS and one for access to the EES, respectively. An SMF management terminal associated with the EDN CS manages sessions used to access the EDN CS. The SMF associated with the EDN CS is typically a centralized (or remote) SMF, or it is understood that the SMF associated with the EDN CS is an SMF close to the EDN CS, or it is understood that the SMF associated with the EDN CS is independent of the current location of the terminal. The SMF associated with the EES manages sessions that the terminal uses to access the EES. The SMF associated with an EES is typically the SMF closest to the EES or understood to be close to the current location of the terminal. As in fig. 6C (b) or fig. 6C (C), SMF1 is the SMF associated with the EDN CS and SMF2 is the SMF associated with the EES. Typically, the EES or EDN CS may communicate with the SMF with which it is associated.

Based on (a) in fig. 6C, (b) in fig. 6C, or (C) in fig. 6C, the present application provides the following communication method (which may also be referred to as a method of EES determination), as shown in fig. 6D, including: S601D, the first network element obtains information of at least one first EDN from the second network element. Wherein the at least one first EDN is determined according to at least one of location information of the terminal or service information of the terminal.

Wherein, the second network element is the first SMF or NEF. The first network element may be an EDN CS or an EES that manages other EES. The first SMF may be an SMF associated with the first network element, or may be another SMF capable of communicating with the first network element.

In one case, optionally, before the step S601D, the method further includes the step S601B, and the related description of the step S601B is referred to above and is not repeated. In another case, optionally, the source EES sends a request of the target EES to the first network element before step S601D. Of course, step S601D may be triggered in other situations or events.

S602D, the first network element determines at least one first EES according to the information of the at least one first EDN. The related description of step S602D refers to step S602B, and is not repeated.

S603D, the first network element sends address information of at least one first EES to the terminal. The related description of step S603D refers to step S603B, and is not repeated.

The description about the first EES and the address information of the first EES can be referred to above, and is not repeated.

Optionally, in a case that the at least one first EES is a plurality of first EES, the method further includes: the first network element sends priority information of at least one first EES to the terminal. For the description of the optional method, reference may be made to the related description in the scheme shown in fig. 6B, and details are not repeated.

In the embodiment of the application, when the terminal requests the EES, the first network element requests the second network element for the information of the at least one first EDN, and then determines the at least one first EES, so that the message transmission delay between the MEC application example managed by the EES and the terminal is reduced, and the service quality is improved.

Optionally, the step S601D includes, when implemented specifically:

31) and the first network element sends a third message to the second network element, wherein the third message comprises at least one of information for determining the position of the terminal or service information of the terminal. The third message is used for requesting information of at least one EDN, and the at least one EDN is deployed with an EES matched with the terminal request. In particular, it is also understood that the third message is used to request DNAI of EDNs that match at least one of the information in the third message. The second network element receives the third message from the first network element.

32) And the second network element sends the information of at least one first EDN to the first network element according to the third message. Accordingly, the first network element receives information of at least one first EDN from the second network element. Wherein the information of the at least one first EDN may be carried in a response message of the third message.

The information for determining the location of the terminal may be location information of the terminal directly, and may be a network location, for example, cell information (e.g., a cell identifier (cell ID)) of a cell in which the terminal is located, TA information (e.g., a Tracking Area Identifier (TAI)) of a Tracking Area (TA) in which the terminal is located, or other geographical or administrative location information. The information for determining the location of the terminal may also be an identifier of the terminal (UE ID), an identifier of the EEC, or an identifier of the application user, and the location information of the terminal may be determined according to the identifiers. The location information of the terminal may indicate a location where the terminal is currently located.

The service information may include network information and/or application information, where the network information may be a Data Network Name (DNN), or a DNN and slice information, where the slice information may be, for example, single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI) for a single network slice, and the application information includes an identifier of an application or an identifier of an application client, and the identifier of the application may be an application identifier, application triplet information, and the like. The DNN and the slice information may be different from the DNN and the slice information of the EDN CS corresponding to the session in which the terminal is currently connected to the EDN CS, that is, the information may be the DNN and the slice information corresponding to the EES, such as the DNN of an Edge-dedicated (Edge-dedicated) DN. The service information of the terminal may be service information corresponding to an application installed on the terminal, service information corresponding to an application that the terminal is starting to operate, service information of an application that the terminal is about to access, service information of an application that the terminal is interested in, and the like, and the application may be a mobile APP or a Web application.

Illustratively, the third message may be a terminal network location request (UE network location request) or a DNAI request (DNAI request). The response message of the third message may be a terminal network location response (UE network location response) or a DNAI response (DNAI response), and the third message and its response may be a serviced API. For other descriptions of the third message, reference may be made to the related description in the scheme shown in fig. 6B, which is not repeated.

And if the third message comprises the position information of the terminal, the second network element directly determines the position information of the terminal according to the third message, and if the third message comprises the identifier of the terminal, the identifier of the EEC, the identifier of the application user and the like, the second network element determines the position information of the terminal according to the identifiers.

Optionally, the information of the first EDN includes: at least one DNAI corresponding to the first EDN. Optionally, the information of the first EDN further includes at least one of the following information: the number of user plane network elements between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN. Other descriptions of the information about the first EDN may refer to the description related to the scheme shown in fig. 6B, and are not repeated.

For the description of determining the at least one first EES, reference may be made to the related description in the scheme shown in fig. 6B, and details are not repeated.

In the first case, the SMF may include a correspondence of at least two of location area (e.g., cell, TA) information, EDN information (e.g., DNAI), and service information, for example, the SMF includes a mapping of a cell (or TA) and a DNAI, and a correspondence of a DNAI and a service. At this time, the second network element may determine, according to the location information of the terminal, an SMF whose service area matches a location area (e.g., a cell, TA) where the terminal is located, and request the SMF to acquire information of at least one first EDN.

In the first case, optionally, the step 32) includes, when implemented specifically:

41) and the second network element determines a second SMF according to the position information of the terminal. For example, the second network element may determine, according to the location information of the terminal, a location area (e.g., a cell, TA) where the terminal is located, determine an SMF whose service area matches the location area where the terminal is located as the second SMF, for example, the second network element requests, to an NRF, an SMF whose service area matches the location area where the terminal is located, the NRF determines an SMF whose service area matches the location area where the terminal is located, the NRF returns, to the second network element, information of an SMF whose service area matches the location area where the terminal is located, the second network element acquires, from the NRF, information of an SMF whose service area matches the location area where the terminal is located, and determines the second SMF according to the information.

42) And the second network element sends a request message to the second SMF, wherein the request message comprises at least one of position information or service information, the position information comprises the position information of the terminal, and the service information comprises the service information of the terminal. Accordingly, the second SMF receives the request message from the second network element. The request message is used to acquire information of the EDN matching at least one of the location information or the service information.

43) Under the condition that the request message comprises the position information, the second SMF determines the information of at least one first EDN according to the position information and a first corresponding relation, wherein the first corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation between the position area information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

under the condition that the request message comprises service information, the second SMF determines the information of at least one first EDN according to the service information and a second corresponding relation, wherein the second corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation between the service information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and under the condition that the request message comprises the position information and the service information, the second SMF determines the information of at least one first EDN according to the position information, the service information and a third corresponding relation, wherein the third corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation among the position area information, the information of the EDN and the service information.

44) The second SMF sends information of the at least one first EDN to the second network element. Accordingly, the second network element receives information of the at least one first EDN from the second SMF.

45) The second network element sends information of at least one first EDN to the first network element.

The location area information in the correspondence (the first correspondence or the third correspondence) stored in the second SMF may be information of a location area served by the second SMF.

Step 43) in a specific implementation, in case the request message includes location information, the second SMF takes information of the EDN corresponding to the location information as information of at least one first EDN. For example, assuming the first correspondence relationship is shown in table 1, if the location information is cell 1, the second SMF may determine that the DNAI1 is information of at least one first EDN. If the location information is cell 2, the second SMF may determine DNAI2 and DNAI3 to be information of at least one first EDN.

TABLE 1

Step 43), in concrete implementation, in case that the request message includes service information, the second SMF takes information of the EDN corresponding to the service information as information of at least one first EDN. For example, assuming that the second corresponding relationship is shown in table 2, if the service information is DNN1, the second SMF may determine that DNAI1 is information of at least one first EDN. If the service information is DNN2, the second SMF may determine DNAI2 and DNAI3 to be information of at least one first EDN.

TABLE 2

Step 43) in the specific implementation, in case that the request message includes the location information and the service information, the second SMF takes the information of the EDN corresponding to both the location information and the service information as the information of at least one first EDN. For example, assuming that the third corresponding relationship is shown in table 3, if the location area is cell 2 and the service information is DNN1, the second SMF may determine that DNAI2 is information of at least one first EDN.

TABLE 3

In the second case, the NEF may include a correspondence relationship between at least two of location area (e.g., cell, TA) information, EDN information (e.g., DNAI), and service information, and in this case, the second network element may be the NEF, and the second network element may determine the information of at least one first EDN according to at least one of the location information or the service information of the terminal.

In the second case, optionally, the step 32) includes, when implemented specifically:

51) the second network element determines at least one piece of information of a first EDN according to the position information of the terminal and a first corresponding relation, wherein the first corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation between the position area information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the second network element determines at least one piece of information of the first EDN according to the service information of the terminal and a second corresponding relation, wherein the second corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation between the service information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and the second network element determines the information of at least one first EDN according to the position information and the service information of the terminal and a third corresponding relation, wherein the third corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation among the position area information, the information of the EDN and the service information.

52) The second network element sends information of at least one first EDN to the first network element.

At least one of the first correspondence, the second correspondence, and the third correspondence may be stored in the NEF. The location area information in the correspondence relationship stored in the NEF may be information of all location areas. The specific implementation of step 51) is similar to step 43) described above, except that it is here performed by the second network element.

In the specific implementation of step 32), if the information of at least one first EDN is determined according to the location information of the terminal and the first corresponding relationship, the determined information of the first EDN may be optimal (closest to the terminal, closest to the network connection path, or optimal to the network connection path), and fast transmission of data of the terminal is ensured. If the information of at least one first EDN is determined according to the service information of the terminal and the second corresponding relation, the determined information of the first EDN can meet the service requirement of the terminal. If the information of at least one first EDN is determined according to the position information, the service information and the third corresponding relation of the terminal, the determined information of the first EDN can be optimal and can meet the service requirement of the terminal, and the rapid transmission of the data of the terminal is ensured.

Referring to fig. 6C, in (a) of fig. 6C, the EES and the EDN CS are located in the same DN, and if the EDN CS provides service information to the SMF, the SMF may determine which DNAI should be fed back to the EDN CS according to the service information. In (b) of fig. 6C, where the EES and the EDN CS are located in the same DN and use different sessions, and the different sessions are managed by different SMFs, when the EDN CS requests the corresponding DNAI from the SMF1 for the terminal, the DNAI2 should be the optimal DNAI, but the SMF1 may not be able to provide the DNAI 2. In (C) of fig. 6C, the EES and the EDN CS are located in different DNs and use different sessions, the different sessions being managed by different SMFs, when the EDN CS requests the DNAI for the terminal from the SMF1, the DNAI2 should be the optimal DNAI, but the SMF1 may not be able to provide the DNAI 2. In the above specific implementation of step 32), the NEF or the first SMF may send the optimal DNAI to the NEF or the first SMF by sending the request message to the second SMF, so that the first network element obtains the optimal DNAI. Or, the NEF may determine the optimal DNAI by storing the correspondence, so that the first network element obtains the optimal DNAI.

In addition, if no specific service exists when the terminal requests to acquire the EES, at this time, no session corresponding to the EES or EAS managed by the EES exists, and the corresponding DNAI cannot be acquired through a mechanism of subscribing a user plane path management event (UP path management event NOTI) by using an existing AF request (AF request). The application provides a method for determining DNAI for a terminal irrelevant to a session, a platform corresponding to the DNAI supports a service to be accessed by the terminal, and the optimal DNAI corresponding to the service accessed by the terminal can be obtained.

In order to make the method shown in fig. 6D more clear, a process of the first network element obtaining information of the at least one first EDN in the method shown in fig. 6D in the first case and the second case is exemplarily illustrated in fig. 6E and fig. 6F.

In the first case, referring to fig. 6E, the flow of the method shown in fig. 6E includes:

S601E, the first network element sends a third message to the second network element, where the third message includes at least one of information for determining a location of the terminal or service information of the terminal. Accordingly, the second network element receives the third message from the first network element.

After receiving the third message, the second network element may determine the location information of the terminal according to the information for determining the location of the terminal in the third message, which may specifically refer to the description above and is not described again.

Wherein, the third message may be a UE network location request or a DNAI request.

S602E, the second network element determines the second SMF according to the location information of the terminal.

In step S602E, in a specific implementation, if the second network element includes topology information of an SMF, the second network element determines, according to the location information of the terminal, that the SMF whose service area matches the location area where the terminal is located is the second SMF.

And if the second network element does not comprise the topology information of the SMF, the second network element and the NRF interact to determine a second SMF. Specifically, the second network element sends an SMF request message (e.g., NF request) to the NRF, where the SMF request message is used to request information of an SMF whose service area matches the location area where the terminal is located, and the SMF request message includes location information of the terminal and optionally includes an NF type (type), which is an SMF type. The NRF looks up the information of the second SMF for the NEF based on the information in the SMF request message and the network information (DNN and slice information) and returns the information of the second SMF to the NEF. The information of the second SMF may be carried in a SMF request response (e.g., NF response).

S603E, the second network element sends a request message to the second SMF, where the request message includes at least one of location information or service information. Accordingly, the second SMF receives the request message from the second network element.

Illustratively, the request message may be a UE network location request or a DNAI request.

S604E, the second SMF determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the information and the corresponding relationship (the first corresponding relationship, the second corresponding relationship, or the third corresponding relationship) in the request message.

The description of step S604E can be referred to above, and is not repeated.

S605E, the second SMF sends information of the at least one first EDN to the second network element.

For example, the information of the at least one first EDN may be carried in a UE network location response or a DNAI response sent by the second SMF to the second network element.

S606E, the second network element sends information of the at least one first EDN to the first network element.

For example, the information of the at least one first EDN may be carried in a terminal network location response (UE network location response) or a DNAI response sent by the second network element to the first network element.

In the second case, referring to fig. 6F, the second network element is a NEF, and the flow of the method shown in fig. 6F includes:

S601F is the same as step S601E.

S602F, the second network element determines information of at least one EDN according to at least one of the location information or the service information of the terminal and the corresponding relationship (the first corresponding relationship, the second corresponding relationship, or the third corresponding relationship).

The implementation process of step S602F can be referred to above, and is not described in detail.

S603F, the second network element sends information of the at least one first EDN to the first network element.

For example, the information of the at least one first EDN may be carried in a UE network location response or a DNAI response sent by the second network element to the first network element. The actions performed by NEF in the schemes shown in fig. 6D, 6E, and 6F described above may also be performed by NRF, UDR, or the like, and the present application is not limited thereto.

In the above embodiments, the EDN CS may also be referred to as an Edge Configuration Server (ECS).

The above-mentioned scheme provided by the present application is mainly introduced from the perspective of interaction between network elements. It is to be understood that the above-described implementation of each network element includes, in order to implement the above-described functions, a corresponding hardware structure and/or software module for performing each function. Those of skill in the art would readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It is to be understood that, in the above embodiments of the methods, the steps or operations implemented by the terminal, the first network element, and the SMF may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) configured at the terminal, the first network element, and the SMF.

The present embodiments also provide an apparatus for implementing any one of the above methods, for example, an apparatus is provided that includes a unit (or means) for implementing each step performed by the first network element in any one of the above methods.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus is configured to implement the steps performed by the corresponding first network element in the above method embodiment, as shown in fig. 7, the apparatus 700 includes a sending unit 710, a receiving unit 720, and a processing unit 730.

A receiving unit 720, configured to receive a first message sent by the terminal to the first network element, where the first message may be an MEC application instance discovery request message.

The processing unit 730 is configured to determine at least one first MEC application instance, specifically, to obtain location information of a terminal, and then determine at least one first MEC application instance according to the location information.

In a possible implementation method, if an MEC application instance discovery request message received by a first network element contains location information of a terminal, the first network element is considered to acquire the location information of the terminal by receiving the MEC application instance discovery request message; if the MEC application instance finds that the request message does not contain the location information of the terminal, then, optionally, the first network element obtains the location information of the terminal according to the terminal identifier from a network function of the telecommunications carrier, such as a 5G core network control plane network function (e.g., NEF). NEF provides an API, the ability to open up a telecommunications network. The first network element sends a position query request including a terminal identifier to the NEF, after receiving the position query request, the NEF calls a network function of the core network, such as AMF, to obtain position information, the AMF sends the queried position information of the terminal to a calling party, namely the NEF, and the NEF sends a second message to the first network element, wherein the second message includes the position information of the terminal.

A sending unit 710, configured to send an MEC application instance discovery response message to the terminal. The MEC application instance discovery response message includes information of the determined at least one first MEC application instance.

It is to be understood that the above units may also be referred to as modules, circuits, etc., and the above units may be provided independently or may be integrated wholly or partially.

In some possible implementations, the sending unit 710 and the receiving unit 720 may also be implemented by a transceiver, or the sending unit 710 and the receiving unit 720 may also be collectively referred to as a transceiver, and may be implemented by a communication interface. The processing unit 730 may be implemented by a processor.

Optionally, the communication device 700 may further include a storage unit, which is used for storing data or instructions (also referred to as codes or programs), and the above units may interact with or be coupled to the storage unit to implement corresponding methods or functions. For example, the processing unit may read data or instructions in the storage unit, so that the communication device implements the method in the above-described embodiments.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus is configured to implement each step performed by a corresponding control plane function network element or a terminal apparatus in the foregoing method embodiments, as shown in fig. 8, the apparatus 800 includes a sending unit 810, a receiving unit 820, and optionally further includes a processing unit 830. The sending unit 810 may be configured to execute steps related to sending information, a message, or a request by a corresponding control plane function network element or a terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, and the receiving unit 820 may be configured to execute steps related to receiving information, a message, or a response by a corresponding control plane function network element or a terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment. Optionally, the processing unit 830 is configured to process information or related information or messages.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, where the communication system may include the first network element and the control plane function network element in the foregoing method embodiment. The method can further comprise an edge node installed with the MEC application instance, or further comprise a terminal device.

In the case of using an integrated unit, fig. 8A shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of the communication device (denoted as a communication device 80A) in the above embodiment, where the communication device 80A includes a processing unit 801A and a communication unit 802A, and may further include a storage unit 803A. The schematic structure diagram shown in fig. 8A may be used to illustrate the structure of the first network element or SMF involved in the above embodiments.

When the schematic structure diagram shown in fig. 8A is used to illustrate the structure of the first network element involved in the above embodiments, in one implementation:

a communication unit 802A, configured to obtain information of at least one first EDN from the SMF, where the at least one first EDN is determined according to location information of the terminal;

a processing unit 801A for determining at least one first MEC application instance in the at least one first EDN;

the communication unit 802A is further configured to send address information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

Optionally, the communication unit 802A is specifically configured to: sending a third message to the SMF, wherein the third message is used for requesting at least one EDN, and the at least one EDN is deployed with an MEC application instance requested by the terminal; receiving a response message to the third message from the SMF, the response message including information of the at least one first EDN.

Optionally, the third message includes information of an alternative EDN, where the alternative EDN is determined by the first network element according to the location information of the terminal and the information of the EDN stored in the first network element.

Optionally, the third message includes location information of the terminal.

Optionally, the information of the first EDN includes: DNAI of the first EDN.

Optionally, the communication unit 802A is further configured to send address information of the EES associated with the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

Optionally, the information of the first EDN is used to indicate the communication performance of the communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

Optionally, the information of the first EDN further includes at least one of the following information: the number of user plane network elements between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

Optionally, the communication unit 802A is further configured to send priority information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

In another implementation:

a processing unit 801A for determining at least one first EES in the at least one first EDN;

the communication unit 802A is further configured to send address information of the at least one first EES to the terminal.

Optionally, the communication unit 802A is specifically configured to: sending a third message to the SMF, wherein the third message is used for requesting at least one EDN, and the at least one EDN is deployed with the EES requested by the terminal; receiving a response message to the third message from the SMF, the response message including information of the at least one first EDN.

Optionally, the third message includes location information of the terminal.

Optionally, the information of the first EDN includes: DNAI of the first EDN.

Optionally, the communication unit 802A is further configured to send the priority information of the at least one first EES to the terminal.

When the schematic configuration diagram shown in fig. 8A is used to illustrate the configuration of the SMF involved in the above embodiment:

a processing unit 801A, configured to receive a third message from the first network element through the communication unit 802A, where the third message is used to request at least one EDN; the at least one EDN is deployed with an MEC application instance requested by a terminal, or the at least one EDN is deployed with an EES requested by the terminal;

the processing unit 801A is further configured to send, by using the communication unit 802A, a response message of the third message to the first network element according to the third message, where the response message includes information of at least one first EDN;

in the case that the at least one EDN is deployed with the MEC application instance requested by the terminal, the first EDN is the EDN deployed with the MEC application instance requested by the terminal; and under the condition that the at least one EDN is deployed with the EES requested by the terminal, the first EDN is the EDN deployed with the EES requested by the terminal.

Optionally, the at least one first EDN is determined according to the location information of the terminal and the information of the at least one EDN obtained by the SMF.

Optionally, the at least one first EDN is determined according to the location information of the terminal and information of an alternative EDN, where the information of the alternative EDN is carried in the third message.

Optionally, the location information of the terminal is carried in the third message.

Optionally, the information of the first EDN includes: DNAI of the first EDN.

The communication unit may also be referred to as a transceiver unit. The antenna and the control circuit having a transmitting and receiving function in the communication apparatus 80A can be regarded as the communication unit 802A of the communication apparatus 80A, and the processor having a processing function can be regarded as the processing unit 801A of the communication apparatus 80A. Alternatively, a device in the communication unit 802A for implementing the receiving function may be regarded as a receiving unit, where the receiving unit is configured to perform the receiving step in the embodiment of the present application, and the receiving unit may be a receiver, a receiving circuit, and the like. The device for realizing the transmission function in the communication unit 802A may be regarded as a transmission unit for performing the steps of transmission in the embodiment of the present application, and the transmission unit may be a transmitter, a transmission circuit, or the like.

In the case of using an integrated unit, fig. 8B shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of the communication device (denoted as the communication device 80B) in the above embodiment, where the communication device 80B includes a processing unit 801B, a communication unit 802B, and a storage unit 803B. The schematic structural diagram shown in fig. 8B may be used to illustrate the structures of the first network element, the second network element, or the second SMF involved in the foregoing embodiments.

When the schematic structure diagram shown in fig. 8B is used to illustrate the structure of the first network element involved in the above embodiments:

the communication unit 802B is configured to obtain information of at least one first EDN from a second network element, where the at least one first EDN is determined according to at least one of location information of a terminal or service information of the terminal, and the second network element is a first session management network element or an NEF;

the processing unit 801B is configured to determine at least one first EES according to the information of the at least one first EDN;

the communication unit 802B is further configured to send address information of the at least one first EES to the terminal.

Optionally, the communication unit 802B is specifically configured to:

sending a third message to the second network element, where the third message includes at least one of information for determining a location of the terminal or service information of the terminal;

and receiving the information of the at least one first EDN from the second network element, wherein the first EDN is matched with at least one of the position information of the terminal or the service information of the terminal.

Optionally, the information of the first EDN includes: at least one DNAI of the first EDN.

Optionally, the communication unit 802B is further configured to send the priority information of the at least one first EES to the terminal.

When the schematic structure diagram shown in fig. 8B is used to illustrate the structure of the second network element involved in the above embodiments:

the processing unit 801B is configured to receive a third message from the first network element through the communication unit 802B, where the third message includes at least one of information for determining a location of the terminal or service information of the terminal, and the second network element is a first session management network element or a NEF;

the processing unit 801B is further configured to send, according to the third message, information of at least one first EDN to the first network element through the communication unit 802B, where the first EDN is matched with at least one of the location information of the terminal or the service information of the terminal.

Optionally, the processing unit 801B is specifically configured to:

determining a second session management network element according to the position information of the terminal;

sending a request message to the second session management network element through the communication unit 802B, where the request message includes at least one of location information and service information, the location information includes location information of the terminal, and the service information includes service information of the terminal;

receiving information of the at least one first EDN from the second session management network element through the communication unit 802B;

sending information of the at least one first EDN to the first network element through the communication unit 802B.

Optionally, the second network element is the NEF, and the processing unit 801B is specifically configured to:

determining the information of the at least one first EDN according to the position information of the terminal and a first corresponding relation, wherein the first corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation between the position area information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

determining the information of the at least one first EDN according to the service information of the terminal and a second corresponding relation, wherein the second corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation between the service information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

determining the information of the at least one first EDN according to the position information and the service information of the terminal and a third corresponding relation, wherein the third corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation among the position area information, the information of the EDN and the service information;

When the schematic configuration diagram shown in fig. 8B is used to illustrate the configuration of the second SMF involved in the above embodiment:

the communication unit 802B is configured to receive a request message from a second network element, where the request message includes at least one of location information and service information, the location information includes location information of a terminal, the service information includes service information of the terminal, and the second network element is a first session management network element or NEF;

in a case that the request message includes the location information, the processing unit 801B is configured to determine information of the at least one first EDN according to the location information and a first corresponding relationship, where the first corresponding relationship includes a corresponding relationship between location area information and information of an EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

in a case that the request message includes the service information, the processing unit 801B is configured to determine information of the at least one first EDN according to the service information and a second correspondence relationship, where the second correspondence relationship includes a correspondence relationship between the service information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

in a case that the request message includes the location information and the service information, the processing unit 801B is configured to determine information of the at least one first EDN according to the location information, the service information, and a third correspondence relationship, where the third correspondence relationship includes a correspondence relationship between location area information, information of an EDN, and service information;

the communication unit 802B is further configured to send information of the at least one first EDN to the second network element.

The communication unit may also be referred to as a transceiver unit. The antenna and the control circuit having a transmitting and receiving function in the communication apparatus 80B can be regarded as the communication unit 802B of the communication apparatus 80B, and the processor having a processing function can be regarded as the processing unit 801B of the communication apparatus 80B. Optionally, a device in the communication unit 802B for implementing a receiving function may be regarded as a receiving unit, where the receiving unit is configured to perform the receiving step in the embodiment of the present application, and the receiving unit may be a receiver, a receiving circuit, and the like. The device for realizing the transmission function in the communication unit 802B may be regarded as a transmission unit for performing the steps of transmission in the embodiment of the present application, and the transmission unit may be a transmitter, a transmission circuit, or the like.

It should be understood that the division of the units in the above apparatus is only a division of logical functions, and the actual implementation may be wholly or partially integrated into one physical entity or may be physically separated. And the units in the device can be realized in the form of software called by the processing element; or may be implemented entirely in hardware; part of the units can also be realized in the form of software called by a processing element, and part of the units can be realized in the form of hardware. For example, each unit may be a processing element separately set up, or may be implemented by being integrated into a chip of the apparatus, or may be stored in a memory in the form of a program, and a function of the unit may be called and executed by a processing element of the apparatus. In addition, all or part of the units can be integrated together or can be independently realized. The processing element described herein may in turn be a processor, which may be an integrated circuit having signal processing capabilities. In the implementation process, the steps of the method or the units above may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor element or in a form called by software through the processor element.

In one example, the units in any of the above apparatuses may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, such as: one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or one or more microprocessors (DSPs), or one or more Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), or a combination of at least two of these Integrated Circuit formats. As another example, when a Unit in a device may be implemented in the form of a Processing element scheduler, the Processing element may be a general-purpose processor, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU) or other processor capable of invoking programs. As another example, these units may be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

The above unit for receiving (e.g., receiving unit) is an interface circuit of the apparatus for receiving a signal from other apparatus. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the receiving unit is an interface circuit for the chip to receive signals from other chips or devices. The above unit for transmitting (e.g., the transmitting unit) is an interface circuit of the apparatus for transmitting a signal to other apparatuses. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the transmitting unit is an interface circuit for the chip to transmit signals to other chips or devices.

Referring to fig. 9, a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus (such as a terminal, a first network element, an SMF, a second network element, or a second SMF) provided in this embodiment is used to implement the operation of the communication apparatus in the above embodiment. As shown in fig. 9, the communication apparatus includes: a processor 910 and an interface 930, and optionally a memory 920. The interface 930 is used to enable communication with other devices.

The method performed by the communication device in the above embodiments may be implemented by the processor 910 calling a program stored in a memory (which may be the memory 920 in the communication device or an external memory). That is, the apparatus for the communication apparatus may include the processor 910, and the processor 910 executes the method executed by the communication apparatus in the above method embodiment by calling the program in the memory. The processor here may be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities, such as a CPU. The apparatus for a communication device may be implemented by one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above method. For example: one or more ASICs, or one or more microprocessors DSP, or one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. Alternatively, the above implementations may be combined.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device including one or more available media integrated servers, data centers, and the like. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

The various illustrative logical units and circuits described in this application may be implemented or operated upon by design of a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration.

In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination of the three. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media that facilitate transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. For example, such computer-readable media can include, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store program code in the form of instructions or data structures and which can be read by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Additionally, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium, and, thus, is included if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source over a coaxial cable, fiber optic computer, twisted pair, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wirelessly, e.g., infrared, radio, and microwave. The disk (disk) and Disc (Disc) include compact Disc, laser Disc, optical Disc, Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray Disc, where the disk usually reproduces data magnetically, and the Disc usually reproduces data optically with laser. Combinations of the above may also be included in the computer-readable medium.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: the various numbers of the first, second, etc. mentioned in this application are only used for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application, but also to indicate the sequence. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one" means one or more. At least two means two or more. "at least one," "any," or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one ) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple. "plurality" means two or more, and other terms are analogous.

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

The above-mentioned embodiments, objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application are further described in detail, it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only examples of the present application, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements and the like made on the basis of the technical solutions of the present application should be included in the scope of the present application. The foregoing description of the specification may enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the teachings of the present application, and any modifications based on the disclosed teachings should be considered as obvious in the art, and the general principles described herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the present application. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments and designs described, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Although the present application has been described in conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be evident that various modifications and combinations can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and figures are merely exemplary of the present application as defined in the appended claims and are intended to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents within the scope of the present application. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present application without departing from the scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method for application instance determination, comprising:

a first network element acquires position information of a terminal;

the first network element determines at least one first multi-access edge computing MEC application instance according to the position information of the terminal;

and the first network element sends the address information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining, by the first network element, the location information of the terminal comprises:

the first network element receives a first message sent by the terminal, wherein the first message comprises the position information of the terminal; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and the first network element receives a second message sent by a core network control plane function network element, wherein the second message includes the position information of the terminal.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first network element stores address information of at least one MEC application instance and location information of the at least one MEC application instance, and the determining, by the first network element, at least one first MEC application instance according to the location information of the terminal comprises:

and the first network element determines the at least one first MEC application instance from the at least one MEC application instance according to the position information of the terminal and the position information of the at least one MEC application instance.

4. A method for application instance determination, comprising:

a control plane function network element sends first notification information to a first network element, wherein the first notification information is used for notifying that a user plane path of a first network element terminal is changed;

the first network element acquires the position information of the terminal;

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the obtaining, by the first network element, the location information of the terminal comprises:

and the first network element receives the first notification information, wherein the first notification information comprises the position information of the terminal, and the position information of the terminal is the position information of a target User Plane Function (UPF).

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

and the first network element receives an MEC application instance change subscription request message sent by the terminal.

7. The method according to any of claims 4 to 6, wherein the first network element stores address information of at least one MEC application instance and location information of the at least one MEC application instance, and the determining, by the first network element, at least one first MEC application instance according to the location information of the terminal comprises:

8. A communication system, comprising: a control plane function network element and a first network element;

the control plane functional network element is configured to send first notification information to the first network element, where the first notification information is used to notify that a user plane path of the first network element terminal changes;

the first network element is configured to acquire location information of the terminal, and determine at least one first multi-access edge computing MEC application instance according to the location information of the terminal;

the first network element is further configured to send address information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

9. The system of claim 8,

the first network element is specifically configured to receive the first notification information, where the first notification information includes location information of the terminal, and the location information of the terminal is location information of a target user plane function UPF.

10. The system of claim 8 or 9,

the first network element is further configured to receive an MEC application instance change subscription request message sent by the terminal.

11. The system according to any of claims 8 to 10, wherein said first network element stores address information of at least one MEC application instance and location information of said at least one MEC application instance;

the first network element is specifically configured to determine the at least one first MEC application instance from the at least one MEC application instance according to the location information of the terminal and the location information of the at least one MEC application instance.

12. A method for application instance determination, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a first network element obtains information of at least one first Edge Data Network (EDN) from a session management network element, and the at least one first EDN is determined according to position information of a terminal;

the first network element determines at least one first multi-access edge computing, MEC, application instance in the at least one first EDN;

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first network element obtaining information of at least one first EDN from a session management network element comprises:

the first network element sends a third message to the session management network element, wherein the third message is used for requesting at least one EDN, and the at least one EDN is deployed with an MEC application instance requested by the terminal;

the first network element receives information of the at least one first EDN from the session management network element.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the third message includes information of an alternative EDN, and wherein the alternative EDN is determined by the first network element according to the location information of the terminal and the information of the EDN stored in the first network element.

15. The method according to any one of claims 12-14, wherein the information of the first EDN comprises: the data network application of the first EDN identifies a DNAI.

16. The method according to any one of claims 12-15, further comprising:

and the first network element sends address information of the EES of the edge enabling server associated with the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal, and the EES associated with the at least one first MEC application instance is deployed in the at least one first EDN.

17. The method according to any one of claims 12-16, wherein the information of the first EDN further comprises at least one of the following information: the number of user plane network elements between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

18. The method according to any one of claims 12-17, further comprising:

and the first network element sends the priority information of the at least one first MEC application instance to the terminal.

19. A method for edge-enabled server EES determination, comprising:

the first network element determining at least one first EES in the at least one first EDN;

and the first network element sends the address information of the at least one first EES to the terminal.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first network element obtaining information of at least one first EDN from a session management network element comprises:

the first network element sends a third message to the session management network element, wherein the third message is used for requesting at least one EDN, and the at least one EDN is deployed with an EES requested by the terminal;

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the third message includes information of an alternative EDN, and wherein the alternative EDN is determined by the first network element according to the location information of the terminal and the information of the EDN stored in the first network element.

22. The method of any one of claims 19-21, wherein the information of the first EDN comprises: the data network application of the first EDN identifies a DNAI.

23. The method of any one of claims 19-22, wherein the information of the first EDN further comprises at least one of: the number of user plane network elements between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

24. The method according to any one of claims 19-23, further comprising:

the first network element sends the priority information of the at least one first EES to the terminal.

25. A method of communication, comprising:

the session management network element receives a third message from the first network element, the third message being used to request at least one Edge Data Network (EDN); the at least one EDN is deployed with a multi-access edge computing MEC application instance requested by a terminal, or the at least one EDN is deployed with an Edge Enabling Server (EES) requested by the terminal;

the session management network element sends information of at least one first EDN to the first network element according to the third message;

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the at least one first EDN is determined according to the location information of the terminal and the information of the at least one EDN obtained by the session management network element.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one first EDN is determined according to location information of the terminal and information of an alternative EDN, and wherein the information of the alternative EDN is carried in the third message.

28. The method of any one of claims 25-27, wherein the information of the first EDN comprises: the data network application of the first EDN identifies a DNAI.

29. The method of any one of claims 25-28, wherein the information of the first EDN further comprises at least one of: the number of user plane network elements between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

30. A method for edge-enabled server EES determination, comprising:

a first network element acquires information of at least one first Edge Data Network (EDN) from a second network element, wherein the at least one first EDN is determined according to at least one of position information of a terminal or service information of the terminal, and the second network element is a first session management network element or a network open function (NEF);

the first network element determines at least one first EES according to the information of the at least one first EDN;

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the first network element obtaining information of at least one first EDN from a second network element comprises:

the first network element sends a third message to the second network element, where the third message includes at least one of information for determining the location of the terminal or service information of the terminal;

and the first network element receives the information of the at least one first EDN from the second network element, wherein the first EDN is matched with at least one of the position information of the terminal or the service information of the terminal.

32. The method of claim 30 or 31, wherein the information of the first EDN comprises: at least one data network application of the first EDN identifies a DNAI.

33. The method of any one of claims 30-32, wherein the information of the first EDN further comprises at least one of: the number of user plane network elements between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

34. The method according to any one of claims 30-33, further comprising:

35. A method of communication, comprising:

a second network element receives a third message from a first network element, wherein the third message comprises at least one of information for determining the position of a terminal or service information of the terminal, and the second network element is a first session management network element or a network open function (NEF);

and the second network element sends information of at least one first Edge Data Network (EDN) to the first network element according to the third message, wherein the first EDN is matched with at least one of the position information of the terminal or the service information of the terminal.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the sending, by the second network element, the information of the at least one first EDN to the first network element according to the third message comprises:

the second network element determines a second session management network element according to the position information of the terminal;

the second network element sends a request message to the second session management network element, where the request message includes at least one of location information and service information, the location information includes location information of the terminal, and the service information includes service information of the terminal;

the second network element receiving information of the at least one first EDN from the second session management network element;

and the second network element sends the information of the at least one first EDN to the first network element.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the second network element is the NEF, and wherein the sending, by the second network element, the information of the at least one first EDN to the first network element according to the third message comprises:

the second network element determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the position information of the terminal and a first corresponding relation, wherein the first corresponding relation comprises a corresponding relation between the position area information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the second network element determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the service information of the terminal and a second corresponding relation, wherein the second corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation between the service information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the second network element determines the information of the at least one first EDN according to the position information and the service information of the terminal and a third corresponding relation, wherein the third corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation among the position area information, the information of the EDN and the service information;

38. The method of any one of claims 35-37, wherein the information of the first EDN comprises: at least one data network application of the first EDN identifies a DNAI.

39. The method of any one of claims 35-38, wherein the information of the first EDN further comprises at least one of: the number of user plane network elements between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication time delay of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, the end-to-end communication time delay between the terminal and the first EDN, the internal communication bandwidth of the mobile network between the terminal and the first EDN, and the priority information of a communication path between the terminal and the first EDN.

40. A method of communication, comprising:

a second session management network element receives a request message from a second network element, wherein the request message comprises at least one of position information and service information, the position information comprises position information of a terminal, the service information comprises service information of the terminal, and the second network element is a first session management network element or a network open function (NEF);

under the condition that the request message comprises the position information, the second session management network element determines the information of at least one first Edge Data Network (EDN) according to the position information and a first corresponding relation, wherein the first corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation between the position area information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

under the condition that the request message comprises the service information, the second session management network element determines the information of at least one first EDN according to the service information and a second corresponding relation, wherein the second corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation between the service information and the information of the EDN; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

under the condition that the request message comprises the position information and the service information, the second session management network element determines the information of at least one first EDN according to the position information, the service information and a third corresponding relation, wherein the third corresponding relation comprises the corresponding relation among the position area information, the information of the EDN and the service information;

and the second session management network element sends the information of the at least one first EDN to the second network element.

41. A communications apparatus, comprising: functional unit for performing the method according to any of the claims 1-3, or for performing the method according to any of the claims 4-7, or for performing the method according to any of the claims 12-18, or for performing the method according to any of the claims 19-24, or for performing the method according to any of the claims 25-29, or for performing the method according to any of the claims 30-34, or for performing the method according to any of the claims 35-39, or for performing the method according to claim 40;

the actions executed by the functional units are realized by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software.

42. A communications apparatus, comprising: a processor;

the processor is connected to a memory for storing computer-executable instructions, the processor executing the computer-executable instructions stored by the memory to cause the communication device to implement the method of any one of claims 1-3, or to implement the method of any one of claims 4-7, or to implement the method of any one of claims 12-18, or to implement the method of any one of claims 19-24, or to implement the method of any one of claims 25-29, or to implement the method of any one of claims 30-34, or to implement the method of any one of claims 35-39, or to implement the method of claim 40.

43. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-3, or perform the method of any one of claims 4-7, or perform the method of any one of claims 12-18, or perform the method of any one of claims 19-24, or perform the method of any one of claims 25-29, or perform the method of any one of claims 30-34, or perform the method of any one of claims 35-39, or perform the method of claim 40.

44. A computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-3, or perform the method of any one of claims 4-7, or perform the method of any one of claims 12-18, or perform the method of any one of claims 19-24, or perform the method of any one of claims 25-29, or perform the method of any one of claims 30-34, or perform the method of any one of claims 35-39, or perform the method of claim 40.