CN113271253B

CN113271253B - Path determining method and related equipment thereof

Info

Publication number: CN113271253B
Application number: CN202010093222.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李�浩; 常悦; 曾峰; 夏斌; 李粤琛
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-02-14
Filing date: 2020-02-14
Publication date: 2022-11-25
Anticipated expiration: 2040-02-14
Also published as: CN113271253A

Abstract

The application discloses a path determining method and related equipment thereof, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the first network device receives the first traffic, and determines at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to a destination address of the first traffic and a second address of the first network device, so that the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path according to network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current moment. Therefore, when the first network equipment determines the first transmission path from the at least one first candidate path, the first network equipment only needs to refer to the network state information with smaller data volume and does not need to refer to the network state information with larger data volume, so that the network resources consumed by path determination are effectively reduced, and the path determination efficiency is improved.

Description

Path determining method and related equipment thereof

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a path determining method and a related device.

Background

In a network, a data transmission process generally needs to be implemented by a controller, which specifically includes: after the controller receives a path calculation request sent by the network device, the controller needs to determine a transmission path of a service flow received by the network device at the current time according to the network state information of the whole network at the current time, and send the transmission path to the network device, so that the service flow received by the network device at the current time can be transmitted according to the transmission path received by the network device. In this case, since the controller needs to determine the path by referring to the network state information of the entire network, the path determination process needs to consume a long time, which results in low path determination efficiency.

Disclosure of Invention

Based on this, the embodiment of the application provides a path determining method and related equipment thereof, which can improve the determining efficiency of the path.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a path, where the method specifically includes: the first network device receives the first traffic, and determines at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to a destination address of the first traffic and a second address of the first network device, so that the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path according to network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current time. Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, at least one first candidate path is determined for the first traffic, and since the data volume of the network state information of the at least one first candidate path is far smaller than that of the network state information of the whole network, when the first network device determines the first transmission path from the at least one first candidate path, only the network state information with a smaller data volume needs to be referred, and the network state information with a larger data volume does not need to be referred, so that the network resources consumed by path determination are effectively reduced, and the path determination efficiency is improved. In addition, the first transmission path is determined by the first network device, and the determination is not needed by the controller, so that the communication process between the network device and the controller is omitted in the path determination process, and the path determination efficiency is improved. In addition, the time consumption for determining the first transmission path is short, so that the network state used by the first network device when determining the transmission path is almost close to the network state when the first traffic is transmitted according to the first transmission path, and thus the normal transmission of the service flow can be guaranteed.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the first network device obtains, according to the first address and the second address of the first network device, at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic, and a specific process implemented by the first network device may be: and the first network equipment determines at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic from the first mapping relation according to the first address and the second address. The first mapping relationship at least includes a corresponding relationship between the second address, the first address and the at least one first candidate path, and the first mapping relationship may be generated by the first network device in advance or received by the first network device from the network management device. As can be seen, since the first mapping relationship is obtained in advance, the first network device can directly query the first candidate paths using the first mapping relationship at the current time, so that the first network device can quickly determine each first candidate path at the current time, which is beneficial to improving the path determination efficiency.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the path determination method further includes: the first network device generates a first mapping relation according to the second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, so that the first mapping relation can at least accurately record at least one candidate path between the first network device and other network devices in the network, and the first network device can accurately find out at least one candidate path corresponding to the first traffic from the first mapping relation after receiving the first traffic, thereby being beneficial to improving the determination efficiency of the path.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the path determination method further includes: the network management equipment generates a first mapping relation according to second traffic received by each network equipment in the network at least one historical time, and sends the first mapping relation to the first network equipment, so that the first network equipment can accurately find out at least one candidate path corresponding to the first traffic from the received first mapping relation after the first network equipment receives the first traffic, and the path determining efficiency is improved.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the first network device generates the first mapping relationship according to the second traffic received by each network device in the network at the at least one historical time, and a specific implementation process may include: the first network equipment calculates a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow according to the second flow received by each network equipment in the network at least one historical time; then, according to a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow, counting the occurrence frequency of each second transmission path; and finally, generating a first mapping relation according to the second transmission path with the occurrence frequency meeting the first condition, the start address of the second transmission path and the end address of the second transmission path. The frequency condition may be that the occurrence frequency of the second transmission path exceeds a frequency threshold, or may be that after the second transmission paths with the same starting point and end point are sequenced from high to low according to the occurrence frequency, the sequencing position of the second transmission path is located before the R-th sequencing position, where R is a positive integer. As can be seen, since the first mapping relationship is constructed based on the second transmission path with a higher frequency of occurrence, the candidate paths between different devices recorded in the first mapping relationship are all reasonable and effective, and thus at least one candidate path corresponding to the first traffic determined by using the first mapping relationship is also reasonable and effective.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the first network device calculates, according to second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic, and a specific process implemented by the first network device may include: first network equipment generates a constraint condition of a Path Computation Element (PCE) according to a transmission requirement carried by second traffic received by each network equipment in a network at least one historical time; and determining a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow according to the second flow received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, the PCE and the constraint conditions of the PCE. As can be seen, because the constraint condition of the PCE is based on the transmission requirement of the second traffic, the PCE can satisfy the data transmission requirement carried by the second traffic according to the second transmission path corresponding to the second traffic calculated by the PCE according to the constraint condition of the PCE.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the first network device obtains, according to the first address and the second address of the first network device, at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic, and a specific implementation process may be: the first network device sends the first address and the second address to the network management device, so that the network management device can determine at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first flow from the second mapping relation according to the first address and the second address, and feed back the determined at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first flow to the first network device. The second mapping relationship at least comprises a corresponding relationship among the second address, the first address and at least one first candidate path. Therefore, the second mapping relationship is obtained in advance, so that the network management device can directly query the first candidate paths by using the second mapping relationship and feed back the query result to the first network device after receiving the first address and the second address, and thus the first network device can quickly obtain each first candidate path at the current moment, which is beneficial to improving the path determination efficiency.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the first network device determines, according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current time, a first transmission path of the first traffic from at least one first candidate path, and a specific process implemented by the first network device may be: the first network equipment determines a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to a preset path decision model and network state information of links in each first candidate path at the current moment. In some possible embodiments, the preset path decision model may be a reinforcement learning model. Therefore, the preset path decision model is obtained by utilizing the simulation network training, so that the preset path decision model can determine a better first transmission path, and the transmission effect of the first flow is favorably improved.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the path determination method further includes: the first network equipment acquires execution feedback information of the first transmission path; the first network device updates the preset path decision model based on the execution feedback information of the first transmission path. The execution feedback information of the first transmission path is used for describing the network state of the first traffic in the transmission process according to the first transmission path. Therefore, the preset path decision model can be updated by referring to the execution feedback information in the transmission process of each service flow, so that the transmission path determined by the preset path decision model is more consistent with the network at the current moment, and the transmission performance of the network is favorably improved.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the first network device determines, according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current time, a first transmission path of the first traffic from at least one first candidate path, and a specific process implemented by the first network device may be: the first network device determines a first transmission path of a first flow from at least one first candidate path according to network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current moment and service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the link at the current moment, the second network device corresponding to the link is a network device serving as a starting point of a second candidate path passing through the link, the second candidate path is recorded in a third mapping relation, and the third mapping relation is used for recording at least one second candidate path between different network devices in a network.

Therefore, because the network state of the link and the service flow of the second network device corresponding to the link are both important factors influencing the transmission performance of the link, the first transmission path determined based on the network state information of the link and the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to the link is more favorable for optimizing the whole network transmission performance of the network. In addition, when determining the first transmission path, the first network device refers to the service flow information of other second network devices corresponding to the link in the first candidate path, so that the first network device can determine the transmission path by combining the traffic transmission information of other network devices in the network, and the transmission path determined by the network device is prevented from belonging to a local optimal path, so that the first transmission path determined by the first network device can achieve a global optimal target.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, when at least one first candidate path includes N first candidate paths, where N is a positive integer, the first network device determines, according to network state information of a link in each first candidate path at a current time and traffic flow information of a second network device corresponding to the link at the current time, a first transmission path of a first traffic from the at least one first candidate path, where a specific process implemented may be: the method comprises the steps that a first network device respectively generates link information of each link in an ith first candidate path at the current moment according to network state information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current moment, service flow information of a second network device corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path at the current moment and a flow load threshold value corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path, wherein i is a positive integer and is not more than N; the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first flow from the N first candidate paths according to the link information of each link in the 1 st first candidate path at the current time to the link information of each link in the N first candidate paths at the current time.

In some possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the first network device generates, according to the network state information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, the traffic flow information of the second network device corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, and the traffic load threshold corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path, link information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, respectively, where a specific process implemented may be: if the link traffic load value of the target link at the current moment exceeds the traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link, the first network device determines link information of the target link at the current moment according to the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to the target link at the current moment and the network state information of the target link at the current moment; and if the link traffic load value of the target link at the current moment does not exceed the traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link, the first network device determines the link information of the target link at the current moment according to the network state information of the target link at the current moment, wherein the target link is any link in the ith first candidate path. Wherein the network state information at least comprises a link traffic load value.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the obtaining process of the second network device corresponding to the link is: and the first network equipment determines each second candidate path passing through the link according to each second candidate path and the link in the third mapping relation, and determines the network equipment corresponding to the starting point in each second candidate path passing through the link as the second network equipment corresponding to the link, wherein the link is any link in each first candidate path. Wherein the third mapping relationship is generated by the first network device in advance or received by the first network device from the network management device. Therefore, the third mapping relationship is obtained in advance, so that the first network device can directly determine the second network device corresponding to the link by using the third mapping relationship at the current moment, which is beneficial to improving the determination efficiency of the path.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the obtaining process of the second network device corresponding to the link is: and the first network equipment receives equipment association information sent by the network management equipment, wherein the equipment association information is used for representing second network equipment corresponding to links in each first candidate path, the equipment association information is that the network management equipment determines each second candidate path passing through the links according to each second candidate path and link in the third mapping relation, and determines the network equipment corresponding to the starting point in each second candidate path passing through the links as the second network equipment corresponding to the links, and the links are any links in each first candidate path. As can be seen, since the third mapping relationship is obtained in advance, the network management device can directly determine the second network device corresponding to the link using the third mapping relationship at the current time and feed back the second network device to the first network device, which is beneficial to improving the determination efficiency of the path.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the path determination method further includes: the first network device predicts a predicted flow value of the first flow in a first time period according to the first flow, so that the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period and network state information of links in each first candidate path at the current time. Therefore, the predicted traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period can accurately represent the bandwidth requirement of the first traffic in the network transmission process, so that the first transmission path determined based on the predicted traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period can meet the bandwidth requirement of the first traffic in the network transmission process, and the service flow can be smoothly transmitted in the first time period in the future, thereby being beneficial to improving the transmission effect of the first traffic.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the first network device predicts, according to the first traffic, a predicted traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period, and a specific process implemented by the first network device may be: the first network device determines the service type of the first flow according to the first flow, and predicts a predicted flow value of the first flow in a first time period according to the first flow and the service type of the first flow. Therefore, the predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period is more accurate because the predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period is predicted based on the service type of the first flow and the first flow.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the first network device determines, according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current time, the first transmission path of the first traffic from at least one first candidate path, and a specific process implemented may be: the first network device may determine, according to the transmission requirement of the first traffic and the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current time, a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path, so that the first transmission path meets the transmission requirement of the first traffic. The first traffic carries a transmission requirement of the first traffic, and the transmission requirement includes at least one of a transmission delay requirement, a transmission packet loss rate requirement, and a transmission bandwidth requirement.

In some possible implementations of the first aspect, the path determination method further includes: if the first transmission path includes multiple paths, the first network device may determine, according to the network state information of the link in the at least one first candidate path at the current time, split information of the first traffic on each first transmission path, so that the subsequent first traffic can be transmitted on the first transmission path according to the split information corresponding to each first transmission path, which is favorable for improving the transmission effect of the first traffic.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a network device, where the network device includes: a first receiving unit, configured to receive a first traffic, where the first traffic carries a first address, and the first address is a destination address of the first traffic; a first obtaining unit, configured to obtain at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first address and a second address of the first network device, where a start address of the first candidate path is the second address and a destination address of the first candidate path is the first address; and the first determining unit is used for determining a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, the first obtaining unit is specifically configured to: and determining at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first mapping relation, the first address and the second address, wherein the first mapping relation at least comprises the corresponding relation among the second address, the first address and the at least one first candidate path.

In some possible embodiments of the second aspect, the network device further comprises: and the generating unit is used for generating a first mapping relation according to the second flow received by each network device in the network at least one historical time.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, the network device further comprises: the second receiving unit is configured to receive a first mapping relationship sent by the network management device, where the first mapping relationship is generated by the network management device according to a second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time.

In some possible embodiments of the second aspect, the generating unit comprises: the computing subunit is configured to compute, according to second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic; the counting subunit is configured to count occurrence frequency of each second transmission path according to the second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic; and the first generation subunit is used for generating a first mapping relation according to the second transmission path with the occurrence frequency meeting the first condition, the start address of the second transmission path and the end address of the second transmission path.

In some possible embodiments of the second aspect, the calculation subunit includes: a second generation subunit, configured to generate a constraint condition of the path computation element PCE according to a transmission requirement carried by a second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time; the first determining subunit is configured to determine, according to the second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, the PCE, and constraint conditions of the PCE, a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic.

In some possible embodiments of the second aspect, the first obtaining unit includes: a transmission subunit configured to transmit the first address and the second address to the network management apparatus; the receiving subunit is configured to receive at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic sent by the network management device, where the at least one first candidate path is determined by the network management device according to a second mapping relationship, the first address, and the second mapping relationship at least includes a correspondence relationship between the second address, the first address, and the at least one first candidate path.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, the first determining unit is specifically configured to: and determining a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to a preset path decision model and the network state information of the links in each first candidate path at the current moment.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, the network device further comprises: the second obtaining unit is used for obtaining execution feedback information of the first transmission path, wherein the execution feedback information of the first transmission path is used for describing a network state of the first traffic in a transmission process according to the first transmission path; and the updating unit is used for updating the preset path decision model based on the execution feedback information of the first transmission path.

In some possible embodiments of the second aspect, the predetermined path decision model is a reinforcement learning model.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, the first determining unit is specifically configured to: and determining a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment and the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to the link at the current moment, wherein the second network device corresponding to the link is the network device serving as the starting point of the second candidate path passing through the link, the second candidate path is recorded in a third mapping relation, and the third mapping relation is used for recording at least one second candidate path between different network devices in the network.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, when the at least one first candidate path includes N first candidate paths, where N is a positive integer, the first determining unit includes: a third generating subunit, configured to generate link information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time according to network state information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, service flow information of a second network device corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, and a traffic load threshold corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path, where i is a positive integer and is not greater than N; and the second determining subunit is configured to determine, according to the link information of each link in the 1 st first candidate path at the current time to the link information of each link in the nth first candidate path at the current time, a first transmission path of the first traffic from the N first candidate paths.

In some possible embodiments of the second aspect, the network state information comprises at least a link traffic load value; a third generating subunit comprising: a third determining subunit, configured to, if a link traffic load value of the target link at the current time exceeds a traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link, determine, by the first network device, link information of the target link at the current time according to service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the target link at the current time and network state information of the target link at the current time; and the fourth determining subunit is configured to, if the link traffic load value of the target link at the current time does not exceed the traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link, determine, by the first network device, link information of the target link at the current time according to the network state information of the target link at the current time, where the target link is any one of the ith first candidate paths.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, the obtaining process of the second network device corresponding to the link is: and the first network equipment determines each second candidate path passing through the link according to each second candidate path and the link in the third mapping relation, and determines the network equipment corresponding to the starting point in each second candidate path passing through the link as the second network equipment corresponding to the link, wherein the link is any link in each first candidate path.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, the obtaining process of the second network device corresponding to the link is: and the first network equipment receives equipment association information sent by the network management equipment, wherein the equipment association information is used for representing second network equipment corresponding to links in each first candidate path, the equipment association information is that the network management equipment determines each second candidate path passing through the links according to each second candidate path and link in the third mapping relation, and determines the network equipment corresponding to the starting point in each second candidate path passing through the links as the second network equipment corresponding to the links, and the links are any one of the first candidate paths.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, the network device further comprises: the prediction unit is used for predicting a predicted flow value of the first flow in a first time period according to the first flow; the first determining unit is specifically configured to: and determining a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period and the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment.

In some possible embodiments of the second aspect, the prediction unit comprises: a fifth determining subunit, configured to determine, according to the first traffic, a service type of the first traffic; and the predicting subunit is used for predicting a predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period according to the first flow and the service type of the first flow.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, the first traffic carries a transmission requirement of the first traffic, and the transmission requirement includes at least one of a transmission delay requirement, a transmission packet loss rate requirement, and a transmission bandwidth requirement; the first determining unit is specifically configured to: the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first traffic from at least one first candidate path according to the transmission requirement of the first traffic and the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment, so that the first transmission path meets the transmission requirement of the first traffic.

In some possible implementations of the second aspect, if the first transmission path includes a plurality of paths, the network device further includes: and a second determining unit, configured to determine, according to network state information of a link in the at least one first candidate path at the current time, split information of the first traffic on each first transmission path.

It should be noted that, for various possible implementation manners and achieved technical effects of the network device provided by the second aspect, reference may be made to the description of the method provided by the first aspect.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a network device, where the network device includes a processor and a communication interface; wherein, the processor is configured to execute any implementation manner of the path determining method provided by the first aspect; and the communication interface is used for realizing the communication between the network equipment and other external equipment.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, where instructions are stored, and when the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is caused to execute any implementation of the path determining method provided in the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, which when run on a computer, causes the computer to execute any implementation of the path determination method provided in the first aspect.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments described in the present application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art according to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating a network scenario provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a path determining method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a first exemplary diagram of a first mapping relationship provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a second exemplary diagram of a first mapping relationship provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of a path determining method applied to the network of fig. 1 according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of another network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

At present, the data transmission process in the network may be implemented by means of a controller, and the data transmission process may specifically be: after the controller receives a path calculation request sent by the network device, the controller may determine, according to the network-wide state information at the current time, a transmission path of a service flow received by the network device at the current time, and send the transmission path to the network device, so that the service flow received by the network device at the current time can be transmitted according to the transmission path received by the network device. To facilitate understanding of the transmission process, the following description is made with reference to a scenario example shown in fig. 1.

As an example, 1 controller and M network devices are included in the network shown in fig. 1, and the controller may communicate with each network device. In addition, the data transmission process in the network may be: when the jth network device receives the jth service flow, the jth network device may generate a path computation request according to the jth service flow, and send the path computation request to the controller, so that the controller may compute a transmission path of the jth service flow according to the state information of the entire network at the current time, and feed back the transmission path of the jth service flow to the jth network device, so that the jth service flow may be transmitted according to the transmission path of the jth service flow received by the jth network device. Wherein j is a positive integer and is less than or equal to M; m is a positive integer.

It can be seen that the above data transmission process has the following disadvantages: the data volume of the network state information of the whole network is large, so that the controller needs to consume a long time to collect the network state information of the whole network, the controller needs to consume a long time when calculating a transmission path based on the network state information of the whole network, the controller needs to consume a long time to determine the transmission path of each service flow, the determination efficiency of the path is low, the network state used when the controller determines the transmission path is far lagged behind the network state when the service flow is transmitted according to the transmission path, the transmission path determined by the controller is not suitable for the network state changing in real time, and the transmission path cannot guarantee the normal transmission of the service flow.

Based on this, in order to remedy the above defect, an embodiment of the present application provides a path determining method, including: after receiving the first traffic, the first network device may first obtain at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to a destination address of the first traffic and a second address of the first network device, and then determine a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path based on network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current time. For ease of understanding, the following description is made in conjunction with the scenario example shown in fig. 1.

As an example, it is assumed that an application scenario of the embodiment of the present application may be the network shown in fig. 1, the first network device may be a jth network device, the first traffic may be a jth traffic flow, j is a positive integer, and j is less than or equal to M, and M is a positive integer. Based on this assumption, the path determination process may be: after the jth network device receives the jth service flow, the jth network device may determine, according to a destination address of the jth service flow and a network address of the jth network device, N first candidate paths corresponding to the jth service flow, so that each first candidate path uses the address of the jth network device as a starting point and uses the destination address of the jth service flow as an end point; and the jth network equipment determines the transmission path of the jth service flow from the N first candidate paths according to the network state information of the links in the N first candidate paths at the current moment. Wherein N is a positive integer.

Therefore, according to the embodiment of the application, the N first candidate paths can be determined for the first traffic, and since the data volume of the network state information of the N first candidate paths is far smaller than that of the network state information of the whole network, when the first network device determines the first transmission path from the N first candidate paths, only the network state information with a smaller data volume needs to be referred, and the network state information with a larger data volume does not need to be referred, so that the network resources consumed by path determination are effectively reduced, and the path determination efficiency is improved. In addition, the first transmission path is determined by the first network device, and the determination is not needed by the controller, so that the communication process between the network device and the controller is omitted in the path determination process, and the path determination efficiency is improved. In addition, the time consumption for determining the first transmission path is short, so that the network state used by the first network device when determining the transmission path is almost close to the network state when the first traffic is transmitted according to the first transmission path, and the normal transmission of the service flow can be guaranteed.

It should be noted that an application scenario corresponding to the embodiment of the present application may include a controller (as shown in fig. 1), or may not include the controller, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

It is to be understood that the above scenario is only one example of a scenario provided in the embodiment of the present application, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this scenario.

The following describes in detail a specific implementation of the path determining method provided in the embodiments of the present application, by way of embodiments, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 2, the figure is a flowchart of a path determination method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The path determining method shown in fig. 2 may be applied to a first network device, and the first network device may be any network device in a network. As shown in fig. 2, the method for determining a path provided in the embodiment of the present application may include steps S201 to S203:

s201: the first network equipment receives a first flow, wherein the first flow carries a first address, and the first address is a destination address of the first flow.

The first flow is used for representing a service flow received by the first network equipment at the current time; also, the first traffic carries a destination address (i.e., a first address) of the first traffic.

In some possible embodiments, the first traffic may also carry a transmission requirement of the first traffic. The transmission requirement of the first flow is used for representing a transmission condition which should be achieved when the first flow is transmitted; also, the transmission requirements may include at least one of transmission delay requirements, transmission packet loss rate requirements, and transmission bandwidth requirements.

It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present application, a carrying manner of a transmission requirement is not limited. In addition, for different carrying modes, the first network device may obtain the transmission requirement of the first traffic in different modes. For ease of understanding, the following description will be made in conjunction with two carrying modes.

As a first carrying manner, the first traffic may include a transmission demand of the first traffic.

As can be seen, in the first carrying manner, the process of the first network device acquiring the transmission requirement of the first traffic may be: when the first network device receives the first traffic, the first network device may directly extract a transmission requirement of the first traffic from the first traffic.

As a second carrying manner, the first traffic includes a first identifier, and the first identifier corresponds to a transmission requirement of the first traffic. In addition, the first identifier is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the first identifier may be a value of an SLA.

As can be seen, in the second carrying manner, the process of the first network device acquiring the transmission requirement of the first traffic may be: when the first network device receives the first traffic, the first network device may extract the first identifier from the first traffic, and then determine, according to a mapping relationship between the requirement identifier and the transmission requirement, a transmission requirement corresponding to the first identifier as the transmission requirement of the first traffic. For example, assume that the 1 st requirement identification corresponds to the 1 st transmission requirement, the 2 nd requirement identification corresponds to the 2 nd transmission requirement, and the 3 rd requirement identification corresponds to the 3 rd transmission requirement. Based on this assumption, when the first identifier is the 2 nd requirement identifier, the process of the first network device acquiring the transmission requirement of the first traffic may be: when the first network device receives the first traffic, the first network device may extract the 2 nd requirement identifier from the first traffic, determine the 2 nd transmission requirement corresponding to the 2 nd requirement identifier from a mapping relationship between the requirement identifier and the transmission requirement, and determine the 2 nd transmission requirement as the transmission requirement of the first traffic.

It should be noted that the mapping relationship between the requirement identifier and the transmission requirement may be preset, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the expression manner of the mapping relationship between the requirement identifier and the transmission requirement. In addition, the requirement identifier is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the requirement identifier may be a value of an SLA.

Based on the two carrying manners, when the first traffic carries the transmission requirement of the first traffic according to the preset carrying manner, the first network device may obtain the transmission requirement of the first traffic from the first traffic by using a requirement obtaining manner corresponding to the preset carrying manner. The preset carrying mode can be set according to an application scene, and the corresponding relation between the preset carrying mode and the demand obtaining mode can also be preset.

Based on the foregoing, in this embodiment of the application, the first network device may receive the first traffic in real time, so that the first network device can determine, in real time, the first transmission path corresponding to the first traffic by using subsequent steps. As an example, when the first network device is the jth network device in fig. 1 and the jth network device receives the jth service flow at the current time, S201 may specifically be: and the jth network equipment receives the jth service flow, and the jth service flow carries the destination address of the jth service flow. Wherein j is a positive integer and is less than or equal to M; and M is the total number of network devices in the network.

It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the type of the first network device, and for example, the first network device may be a network device such as a router or a switch. In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the position of the first network device in the transmission process of the first traffic, for example, the first network device may be a source node of the first traffic, and may also be any intermediate node of the first traffic.

S202: the first network equipment acquires at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first address and the second address of the first network equipment.

The second address is used to characterize a network address of the first network device.

The first candidate path is used for characterizing a transmission path which can be selected when the first flow is transmitted; and the start address of the first candidate path is the second address and the end address of the first candidate path is the first address (i.e., the first candidate path starts at the second address and ends at the first address).

Based on the above, in this embodiment of the present application, after the first network device receives the first traffic, the first network device may determine, according to a destination address of the first traffic and a network address of the first network device, at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic, so that the subsequent first network device can determine a transmission path of the first traffic from the first candidate paths. As an example, based on the related content in the foregoing S201, S202 may specifically be: and the jth network equipment acquires N first candidate paths corresponding to the jth service flow according to the destination address of the jth service flow and the network address of the jth network equipment. Wherein N is a positive integer.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application also provides two possible implementations of obtaining at least one first candidate path (i.e., S202), and please refer to the following text for technical details.

S203: and the first network equipment determines a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment.

The network state information is used to represent data transmission state information of a link in a network, and the network state information may include at least one of transmission delay information, transmission packet loss rate information, remaining bandwidth information, link traffic load value, and the like. And the link traffic load value is used for representing the traffic load information of the link. It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the manner of acquiring the network status information, for example, the network status information may be acquired by using any network measurement technology (e.g., iFit).

The first transmission path is used for characterizing a transmission path used when the first traffic is transmitted in the network; the first transmission path starts at the second address and ends at the first address.

Based on the above, in this embodiment of the application, after the first network device determines N first candidate paths, the first network device may determine, according to network state information of links in the N first candidate paths at the current time, a first transmission path of the first traffic from the N first candidate paths, where N is a positive integer. As an example, assume N =3, the 1 st first candidate path includes link 1 to link 3, the 2 nd first candidate path includes link 4 to link 7, and the 3 rd first candidate path includes link 8 to link 12; and the network state information of the link k at the current moment is the kth network state information, k is a positive integer, and k is less than or equal to 12. Based on this assumption, S203 may specifically be: the first network device determines a first transmission path from the 1 st first candidate path to the 3 rd first candidate path according to the 1 st to 12 th network state information.

In addition, the embodiments of the present application also provide five possible implementations of determining the first transmission path (i.e., S203), and please refer to the following for technical details.

Based on the contents of S201 to S203, in this embodiment of the application, the first network device may determine N first candidate paths for the first traffic first, and since the data volume of the network state information of the N first candidate paths is much smaller than the data volume of the network state information of the entire network, when the first network device determines the first transmission path from the N first candidate paths, only the network state information with a smaller data volume needs to be referred to, and the network state information with a larger data volume does not need to be referred to, so that network resources consumed by determining the path are effectively reduced, and the determination efficiency of the path is improved. In addition, the first transmission path is determined by the first network device, and the determination is not needed by the controller, so that the communication process between the network device and the controller is omitted in the path determination process, and the path determination efficiency is improved. In addition, the time consumption for determining the first transmission path is short, so that the network state used by the first network device when determining the transmission path is almost close to the network state when the first traffic is transmitted according to the first transmission path, and thus the normal transmission of the service flow can be guaranteed.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application also provides two possible implementations of obtaining at least one first candidate path (i.e., S202), which are sequentially described below.

In the first possible implementation manner of S202, the first network device may search the first candidate path from the first mapping relationship, where S202 may specifically be: the first network device determines at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first mapping relation, the first address and the second address.

The first mapping relation is at least used for recording at least one transmission path between the first network equipment and other network equipment in the network; moreover, the first mapping relationship may include at least a correspondence between the second address, the first address, and the at least one first candidate path.

In addition, the embodiments of the present application provide two possible implementation manners of the first mapping relationship, which are sequentially described below.

In a first possible implementation, the first mapping relation is only used for recording at least one transmission path between the first network device and other network devices in the network (as shown in fig. 3). At this time, the first mapping relationship may include a correspondence relationship between the second address, network addresses of other network devices in the network except the first network device, and the at least one first candidate path. As an example, in the first mapping relationship shown in fig. 3, the 1 st to 4 th first candidate paths are transmission paths between the first network device and the network device corresponding to the first address; the 5 th to 8 th first candidate paths are transmission paths between the first network device and the network device corresponding to the address P; \8230; (and so on in turn). The network device corresponding to the address P is other network devices in the network except the first network device and the network device corresponding to the first address.

In a second possible implementation, the first mapping relationship is used to record at least one transmission path between different network devices in the network (as shown in fig. 4). At this time, the first mapping relationship includes a correspondence relationship between an address of one network device in the network, an address of another network device in the network, and the at least one candidate path, and the one network device in the network is different from the another network device in the network. For example, in the first mapping relationship shown in fig. 4, each of the candidate path 1 to the candidate path 4 is a transmission path between the network device corresponding to the address 1 and the network device corresponding to the address 2; the candidate paths 5 to 7 are transmission paths between the network device corresponding to the address 3 and the network device corresponding to the address 4; \8230; (and so on).

It should be noted that the provided first mapping relationship is obtained by the first network device in advance, and the embodiment of the present application further provides an implementation manner for the first network device to obtain the first mapping relationship, and please refer to S204 or S205 for technical details below.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the expression form of the first mapping relationship, for example, the first mapping relationship may be expressed in a table form (for example, a "candidate path table" hereinafter).

Based on the related contents of the first possible implementation manner of the above S202, after the first network device receives the first traffic, the first network device may find, according to the first address and the second address, at least one first candidate route with the second address as a starting point and the first address as an ending point from the first mapping relationship. Because the first mapping relation is obtained in advance, the first network device can directly query the first candidate paths by using the first mapping relation at the current moment, so that the first network device can quickly determine each first candidate path at the current moment, and the path determination efficiency is improved.

In a second possible implementation manner of S202, the first network device may receive the at least one first candidate path from the network management device, where S202 may specifically be: the first network equipment sends the first address and the second address to network management equipment and receives at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic sent by the network management equipment; the at least one first candidate path is determined by the network management device according to a second mapping relation, the first address and the second address, and the second mapping relation at least comprises a corresponding relation among the second address, the first address and the at least one first candidate path.

The network management device may communicate with the first network device, and the network device may determine at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first address and the second address. In addition, the network management device may be a controller, or may be any other network device in the network except the first network device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. As an example, as shown in fig. 1, when the 1 st network device is the first network device, the network management device may be a controller, or may be any one of the 2 nd network device to the M th network device.

The second mapping relation is at least used for recording at least one transmission path between the first network equipment and other network equipment in the network; moreover, the second mapping relationship may include at least a correspondence between the second address, the first address, and the at least one first candidate path. In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the expression form of the second mapping relationship, for example, the second mapping relationship may be expressed in a table form (for example, a "candidate path table" hereinafter). It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the second mapping relationship may be the same as the first mapping relationship, or may be different from the first mapping relationship; moreover, the second mapping relationship is generated in a manner similar to that of the first mapping relationship, and please refer to S204 or S205 below for technical details.

Based on the related contents of the second possible implementation manner of the foregoing S202, after the first network device receives the first traffic, the first network device may first send the first address and the second address to the network management device, so that the network management device may find, according to the first address and the second address, at least one first candidate path with the second address as a starting point and the first address as an ending point from the second mapping relationship, and feed back the at least one first candidate path to the first network device. The second mapping relation is obtained in advance, so that the network management device can directly use the second mapping relation to query the first candidate paths and feed back query results to the first network device after receiving the first address and the second address, and thus the first network device can quickly obtain each first candidate path at the current moment, which is beneficial to improving the path determination efficiency.

In addition, before the first network device acquires the first candidate path according to the first possible implementation manner of S202, the first network device further needs to acquire the first mapping relationship in advance. The first network device may generate the first mapping relationship in advance, or may receive the first mapping relationship from another device. Two ways of obtaining the first mapping relationship will be described in turn.

As a first obtaining manner of the first mapping relationship, the first network device may generate the first mapping relationship based on historical traffic flows received by each network device in the network. Based on this, the path determining method provided in the embodiment of the present application, in addition to including S201 to S203, further includes S204:

s204: the first network device generates a first mapping relation according to the second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time.

The second traffic is used to characterize the traffic flow received by the network device at a historical time. For example, the second traffic may be a traffic flow received by the jth network device in fig. 1 at the mth historical time. Wherein j is a positive integer and is less than or equal to M; m is the total number of network equipment in the network; m is a positive integer, m is less than or equal to L, and L is the total number of the historical moments of at least one historical moment.

In addition, an embodiment of the present application further provides a possible implementation manner of S204, and in this implementation manner, S204 may specifically include S2041 to S2043:

s2041: and the first network equipment calculates a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow according to the second flow received by each network equipment in the network at least one historical time.

The second transmission path is used for characterizing the transmission path of the calculated second flow when the second flow is transmitted in the network.

In this embodiment of the application, the first network device may respectively calculate, according to the second traffic received by each network device at each historical time in the network, a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic. For example, when the network includes a 1 st network device and a 2 nd network device, and the at least one historical time includes a 1 st historical time and a 2 nd historical time, S2041 may specifically be: according to second traffic received by each network device at each historical time in the network, the first network device respectively calculates and obtains a second transmission path corresponding to the second traffic received by the 1 st network device at the 1 st historical time, a second transmission path corresponding to the second traffic received by the 1 st network device at the 2 nd historical time, a second transmission path corresponding to the second traffic received by the 2 nd network device at the 1 st historical time, and a second transmission path corresponding to the second traffic received by the 2 nd network device at the 2 nd historical time. The first network device is a 1 st network device or a 2 nd network device.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application is not limited to the Path calculation method adopted when the first network device calculates the second transmission Path, and for example, the first network device may calculate the second transmission Path by using a Path Calculation Element (PCE). For ease of understanding S2041, the calculation of the second transmission path by using the PCE will be described as an example.

In some possible embodiments, the S2041 may calculate the second transmission path by using the PCE, which may specifically include S20411-S20412:

s20411: and the first network equipment generates constraint conditions of the PCE according to the transmission requirements carried by the second traffic received by each network equipment in the network at least one historical time.

The transmission requirements carried by the second traffic are used to characterize the transmission conditions that the second traffic should achieve when transmitting in the network.

For example, in a possible implementation manner, a transmission requirement (for example, at least one of a transmission delay requirement, a transmission packet loss rate requirement, and a transmission bandwidth requirement) carried by the second traffic may be used as the constraint condition of the PCE, and specifically: if the second traffic includes the transmission requirement of the second traffic, the first network device may directly use the transmission requirement of the second traffic as a constraint condition of the PCE; if the second traffic includes the second identifier and the second identifier corresponds to the transmission requirement of the second traffic, the first network device may extract the second identifier from the second traffic, determine the transmission requirement corresponding to the second identifier (i.e., the transmission requirement of the second traffic) according to the mapping relationship between the requirement identifier and the transmission requirement, and use the transmission requirement corresponding to the second identifier as the constraint condition of the PCE.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present application also provide two possible implementations of S20411,

in a first embodiment of S20411, S20411 specifically is: if the second traffic includes a transmission requirement of the second traffic, the first network device uses a second traffic requirement in the second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time as a constraint condition of the path computation element PCE.

In a second embodiment of S20411, S20411 is specifically: if the second traffic includes the second identifier and the second identifier corresponds to a transmission requirement of the second traffic, the first network device first extracts the second identifier from the second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, then determines a transmission requirement corresponding to the second identifier according to a mapping relationship between the requirement identifier and the transmission requirement, and uses the transmission requirement corresponding to the second identifier as a constraint condition of the PCE.

S20412: and the first network equipment determines a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow according to the second flow received by each network equipment in the network at least one historical time, the PCE and the constraint conditions of the PCE.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first network device may input, to the PCE, the second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, so that the PCE may calculate, according to a constraint condition of the PCE, a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic, and obtain a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic output by the PCE, so that the second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic can respectively meet a data transmission requirement carried by each second traffic.

It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the optimization objective of the PCE, for example, the optimization objective of the PCE may be to reduce the congested area or minimize the maximum link utilization. In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the solving process of the optimal path in the PCE, for example, the PCE may solve the optimal path by using a linear programming algorithm.

In some possible embodiments, S20412 may specifically be: the first network equipment determines a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow at the mth historical time according to the second flow received by each network equipment in the network at the mth historical time, the PCE and the constraint conditions of the PCE; wherein m is a positive integer, m is less than or equal to L, and L is the total number of the historical moments of at least one historical moment.

As an example, in the network shown in fig. 1, S20412 may specifically be: the first network equipment determines a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic at the 1 st historical time according to the second traffic received from the 1 st network equipment to the Mth network equipment at the 1 st historical time, the PCE and the constraint conditions of the PCE; the first network equipment determines a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow at the 2 nd historical time according to the second flows received from the 1 st network equipment to the Mth network equipment at the 2 nd historical time, the PCE and constraint conditions of the PCE; 823060, 8230, and so on; and the first network equipment determines a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow at the L-th historical time according to the second flows received from the 1 st network equipment to the M-th network equipment at the L-th historical time, the PCE and the constraint conditions of the PCE. In this way, the first network device can obtain the second transmission paths corresponding to all the second traffic at the L historical times.

S2042: and the first network equipment counts the occurrence frequency of each second transmission path according to the second transmission path corresponding to each second flow.

The frequency of occurrence may be used to characterize the likelihood that the second transmission path is a candidate path; the greater the frequency of occurrence of the second transmission path, the more likely the second transmission path is to become a candidate path corresponding between the network device corresponding to the start point of the second transmission path and the network device corresponding to the end point of the second transmission path.

In this embodiment of the application, after the first network device acquires the second transmission paths corresponding to the second traffic flows by using S2041, the first network device may perform statistical analysis on all the acquired second transmission paths, so as to determine the occurrence frequency of each second transmission path. As an example, assume that the 1 st second flow corresponds to path 1, the 2 nd second flow corresponds to path 3, the 3 rd second flow corresponds to path 1, the 4 th second flow corresponds to path 2, the 5 th second flow corresponds to path 1, and the 6 th second flow corresponds to path 3. Based on this assumption, the first network device may statistically derive: the frequency of occurrence of path 1 is 3, and the frequency of occurrence of path 2 is 1; path 3 occurs with a frequency of 2.

S2043: the first network device generates a first mapping relation according to the second transmission path with the occurrence frequency meeting the first condition, the starting address of the second transmission path and the end address of the second transmission path.

Based on the related contents of the first possible implementation manner of the above S202, there are two possible implementation manners for the first mapping relationship, so that each possible first mapping relationship corresponds to a different first condition. The first condition corresponding to each possible first mapping relationship is described in turn below.

If the first mapping relationship is only used for recording at least one transmission path between the first network device and other network devices in the network (as shown in fig. 3), the relevant content of the first condition corresponding to the first mapping relationship is: the first condition is used for characterizing a frequency condition which should be met by candidate paths between the first network equipment and other network equipment in the network; furthermore, the first condition may include a frequency condition that should be satisfied for becoming a candidate path between the first network device and one of the other network devices in the network, respectively. For example, in the network shown in fig. 1, when the first network device is the 1 st network device, the first condition may include: the candidate path with the 1 st network device as the starting point and the jth network device as the end point is a frequency condition to be satisfied. Wherein j is a positive integer, and j is more than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to M; m is the total number of network devices in the network, and M is a positive integer.

If the first mapping relationship is used to record at least one transmission path between different network devices in the network (as shown in fig. 4), the related content of the first condition corresponding to the first mapping relationship is: the first condition is used for representing the frequency condition which should be met by the candidate paths among different network devices; moreover, the first condition may include a frequency condition that should be satisfied for a candidate path between at least a pair of network devices in the network. For example, in a network such as that shown in fig. 1, the first condition may include: the candidate path with the jth network device as a starting point and the r-th network device as an ending point is a frequency condition to be satisfied. Wherein j is a positive integer and is less than or equal to M; r is a positive integer, and r is less than or equal to M, and r is not equal to j; m is the total number of network devices in the network, and M is a positive integer.

It should be noted that, the frequency condition is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the frequency condition may mean that the frequency of occurrence of the candidate path exceeds a frequency threshold, or may mean that after the second transmission paths having the same start point and end point are ranked from high to low according to the frequency of occurrence, the ranking position of the candidate path is located before the R-th ranking position, where R is a positive integer.

In addition, "the frequency of occurrence satisfies the first condition" means that the frequency of occurrence satisfies at least one of the first conditions. For example, when the first condition includes the 1 st frequency condition to the 10 th frequency condition, if the occurrence frequency of a second transmission path satisfies the 3 rd frequency condition in the first condition, it is determined that the second transmission path satisfies the first condition.

Based on the foregoing, in this embodiment, after the first network device calculates the occurrence frequency of each second transmission path, the first network device may perform candidate paths according to the first condition and the occurrence frequency of each second transmission path, and determine the second transmission path whose occurrence frequency meets the first condition as a candidate path, so that the first network device may generate a first mapping relationship according to each candidate path and the start address and the end address of each candidate path, so that at least one candidate path may be corresponding between each pair of start address and end address in the first mapping relationship (as shown in fig. 3 or 4).

Based on the related content of S204, in this embodiment of the application, before the first network device determines the first candidate path by using the first mapping relationship, the first network device may generate the first mapping relationship according to the second traffic received by each network device in the network at least at one historical time, so that the first mapping relationship at least can accurately record at least one candidate path between the first network device and other network devices in the network, and thus after receiving the first traffic, the first network device can accurately find the at least one candidate path corresponding to the first traffic from the first mapping relationship.

It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the execution time of S204, and S204 only needs to be executed before S202 is executed; moreover, the first network device does not need to execute S204 in each execution of the path determination process, which specifically includes: s204 is performed when the first network device determines that the network topology is changed (e.g., a change such as adding or deleting a network device is made), so that the first network device can perform S202 by using the generated new first mapping relationship; however, S204 does not need to be executed when the first network device determines that the network topology is not changed, and at this time, the first network device may execute S202 by using the existing first mapping relationship whose generation time is closest to the current time.

In addition, in this embodiment, in addition to the first network device generating the first mapping relationship according to S204, the first network device may also obtain the first mapping relationship from other devices (for example, a network device or a controller, etc.) of the network.

As can be seen, as a second obtaining manner of the first mapping relationship, the first network device receives the first mapping relationship from other devices in the network. Based on this, the path determining method provided in the embodiment of the present application, in addition to including S201 to S203, further includes S205:

s205: the first network device receives a first mapping relation sent by the network management device, wherein the first mapping relation is generated by the network management device according to second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time.

The network management device may generate a first mapping relationship according to second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time; moreover, the network management device may adopt any embodiment of S204 to generate the first mapping relationship, and only needs to replace the "first network device" in any embodiment of S204 with the "network management device", and please refer to S204 above for technical details.

Based on the related content of S205, in this embodiment of the application, before the first network device determines the first candidate path by using the first mapping relationship, the first network device may obtain the first mapping relationship from the network management device.

It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the execution time of S205, and S205 only needs to be executed before S202 is executed; moreover, the first network device does not need to execute S205 in each execution of the path determination process, which specifically includes: when the network management device determines that the network topology changes (for example, changes such as adding or deleting network devices), the network management device may generate a new first mapping relationship, and send the new first mapping relationship to the first network device, so that the first network device sequentially executes S205 and S202; however, when the network management device determines that the network topology is not changed, the first network device does not need to perform S205, and the first network device may perform S202 by using the existing first mapping relationship whose receiving time is closest to the current time.

Based on the above-mentioned related contents of S204 and S205, in the embodiment of the present application, the first network device may obtain the first mapping relationship in advance, so that the first network device can quickly find the first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic from the first mapping relationship, which is favorable for improving the determination efficiency of the first transmission path.

In addition, in order to better determine the first transmission path, the embodiment of the present application further provides five possible implementations of determining the first transmission path (i.e., S203), which are described in sequence below.

In some cases, when the second network device is used to characterize any network device in the network except the first network device, and the target link is used to characterize any link in the at least one first candidate path, if a candidate path passing through the target link exists in the candidate path corresponding to the second network device, the traffic flow received by the second network device is most likely to also use the target link for data transmission, so that the traffic flow information of the second network device at the current time most likely affects the transmission performance of the target link at the current time.

It can be seen that, in some cases, the transmission performance of the link in the first candidate path at the current time is affected not only by the network state of the link at the current time, but also by the traffic flow information of other network devices in the network where the corresponding candidate path passes through the link at the current time. Therefore, in order to determine a better first transmission path, the first network device may further refer to traffic flow information of other network devices in the network, where the corresponding candidate path passes through any link in the first candidate path, at the current time when determining the first transmission path.

Based on this, the present application provides a first possible implementation manner of S203, which specifically includes: and the first network equipment determines a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment and the service flow information of the second network equipment corresponding to the link at the current moment.

The second network device corresponding to the link refers to a network device that is a starting point of a second candidate path passing through the link, and the second network device may be any network device in the network. For example, if the 1 st second candidate path to the 3 rd second candidate path all pass through the link t, and the network device 1 is the starting point of the 1 st second candidate path, the network device 2 is the starting point of the 2 nd second candidate path, and the network device 1 is the starting point of the 3 rd second candidate path, then the network device 1 and the network device 2 are both second network devices corresponding to the link t. Wherein the link t is any link in the at least one first candidate path.

The second candidate path is recorded in a third mapping relation, and the third mapping relation is used for recording at least one second candidate path between different network devices in the network. In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the expression form of the third mapping relationship, for example, the third mapping relationship may be expressed in a table form (for example, a "candidate path table" hereinafter). It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the third mapping relationship may be the same as the first mapping relationship, or may be different from the first mapping relationship; moreover, the third mapping relationship is generated in a manner similar to that of the first mapping relationship, and please refer to S204 or S205 above for technical details.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application further provides two possible implementation manners for obtaining the second network device corresponding to the link t, which will be sequentially described below.

As a first possible implementation manner, the process of acquiring the second network device corresponding to the link t may specifically be: and the first network equipment determines each second candidate path passing through the link t according to each second candidate path and the link t in the third mapping relation, and determines the network equipment corresponding to the starting point in each second candidate path passing through the link t as the second network equipment corresponding to the link t, wherein the link t is any link in each first candidate path.

As a second possible implementation manner, the first network device receives device-related information sent by the network management device, where the device-related information is used to characterize the second network device corresponding to the link in each first candidate path. The device association information is that the network management device determines, according to each second candidate path and the link t in the third mapping relationship, each second candidate path passing through the link t, and determines, as the second network device corresponding to the link t, the network device corresponding to the starting point in each second candidate path passing through the link t, where the link t is any link in each first candidate path.

Based on the above, in the first possible implementation manner of S203, the first network device may determine the first transmission path comprehensively according to the network state information of the link in the first candidate path at the current time and the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to the link at the current time. As an example, when the at least one first candidate path includes N first candidate paths, where N is a positive integer, S203 may specifically include the following S2031-S2032:

s2031: the first network device respectively generates link information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current moment according to the network state information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current moment, the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path at the current moment and the traffic load threshold value corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path, wherein i is a positive integer and is not more than N.

The traffic load threshold is used for describing a boundary between an idle state and a busy state of a link, and if the traffic flow data volume loaded on the link does not exceed the traffic load threshold, the link is in the idle state; if the traffic flow data amount loaded on the link exceeds the traffic load threshold, the link is in a busy state. In addition, the traffic load thresholds corresponding to different links may be the same or different. In addition, the traffic load threshold may be set in advance.

The link information is used for representing link-related information which needs to be referred to when judging the data transmission performance of the link.

In addition, an embodiment of the present application further provides a possible implementation manner of obtaining link information (that is, S2031), where in the implementation manner, when the network state information at least includes a link traffic load value, and the target link is any link in the ith first candidate path, S2031 may specifically include: (1) And if the link traffic load value of the target link at the current moment exceeds the traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link, the first network device determines the link information of the target link at the current moment according to the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to the target link at the current moment and the network state information of the target link at the current moment. (2) And if the link traffic load value of the target link at the current moment does not exceed the traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link, the first network equipment determines the link information of the target link at the current moment according to the network state information of the target link at the current moment.

Based on the above, in this embodiment of the present application, the first network device may determine, according to the network state information of the link at the current time, the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to the link at the current time, and the traffic load threshold corresponding to the link, link information of the link at the current time, so that the link information can accurately represent information that needs to be referred to when determining the data transmission performance of the link, where a process of the information specifically may be: the first network device respectively generates link information of a ythh link in an ith first candidate path at the current moment according to the network state information of the ythh link in the ith first candidate path at the current moment, the service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the ythh link at the current moment and the flow load threshold corresponding to the ythh link. Wherein i is a positive integer, i is not more than N, and N is the total number of the first candidate paths; y is a positive integer, Y is less than or equal to Y, and Y is the total number of links in the ith first candidate path.

S2032: the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first flow from the N first candidate paths according to the link information of each link in the 1 st first candidate path at the current time to the link information of each link in the N first candidate paths at the current time.

Based on the related content of the first possible implementation manner of the foregoing S203, in this embodiment of the application, the first network device may determine, by comprehensively referring to the network state information of the link at the current time and the traffic flow information of the second network device corresponding to the link at the current time, the first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path. Because the network state of the link and the service flow of the second network device corresponding to the link are important factors influencing the transmission performance of the link, the first transmission path determined based on the network state information of the link and the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to the link is more favorable for optimizing the whole network transmission performance of the network. In addition, when determining the first transmission path, the first network device refers to the service flow information of other second network devices corresponding to the link in the first candidate path, so that the first network device can determine the transmission path by combining the traffic transmission information of other network devices in the network, and the transmission path determined by the network device is prevented from belonging to a local optimal path, so that the first transmission path determined by the first network device can achieve a global optimal target.

In some cases, in addition to referring to the above information, the first network device may also consider a traffic value of the first traffic in the future first time period when determining the first transmission path, so as to enable the determined first transmission path to meet a bandwidth requirement of the first traffic in the future first time period. Based on this, the present application provides a second possible implementation manner of S203 and S206, which are as follows:

s206: the first network equipment predicts a predicted flow value of the first flow in a first time period according to the first flow.

The first time period is a preset time period after the current time. For example, the first time period may be within 3 seconds after the current time. In addition, the first time period may be preset, and especially, the time difference setting of S203 may be executed twice by the first network device. For example, when the average time difference between two adjacent times of performing S203 by the first network device is 2.5 seconds, the first time period may be set to be 2.5 seconds after the current time.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the prediction manner of the predicted flow value, for example, the predicted flow value may be predicted by using a pre-constructed prediction model. Wherein the predictive model may be a machine learning model.

In addition, in order to improve the accuracy of traffic prediction, different prediction models can be adopted for predicting the traffic flow of different service types. Based on this, the present application also provides a possible implementation manner of S206, which may specifically include S2061 to S2062:

s2061: the first network equipment determines the service type of the first flow according to the first flow.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the identification process of the service type, for example, the identification process of the service type may use a Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology, may also use a Deep Flow Inspection (DFI) technology, and may also be a machine learning model.

S2062: and the first network equipment predicts a predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period according to the first flow and the service type of the first flow.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first network device may predict, according to the first traffic and the service type of the first traffic, a predicted traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period, which may specifically be: when the first network device predicts the predicted traffic value by using the prediction model, the first network device may determine, according to the service type of the first traffic, a prediction model corresponding to the first traffic from the at least one prediction model, and then predict the predicted traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period by using the prediction model corresponding to the first traffic. The prediction models correspond to the service types one by one.

Based on the above related content of S206, in this embodiment of the application, before the first network device determines the first transmission path from the at least one first candidate path, the first network device may predict, according to the first traffic, a traffic value of the first traffic in a first time period in the future, so that the subsequent first network device may determine the first transmission path by referring to the predicted traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period in the future.

Based on this, the second possible implementation manner of S203 is specifically: and the first network equipment determines a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period and the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment.

Based on the related contents of the second possible implementation manners of S206 and S203, in this embodiment of the application, the first network device may predict, according to the first traffic, a predicted traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period, and then determine the first transmission path according to the predicted traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period and the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current time. The predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period can accurately represent the bandwidth requirement of the first flow in the network transmission process, so that the first transmission path determined based on the predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period can meet the bandwidth requirement of the first flow in the network transmission process, the service flow can be smoothly transmitted in the first time period in the future, and the transmission effect of the first flow is improved.

In some cases, the first network device may determine the first transmission path by considering, in addition to the above information, a transmission requirement of the first traffic, so as to enable the determined first transmission path to meet the transmission requirement of the first traffic. Based on this, the embodiment of the present application further provides a third possible implementation manner of S203, which specifically includes: when the first traffic carries the transmission requirement of the first traffic, the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first traffic from at least one first candidate path according to the transmission requirement of the first traffic and network state information of links in each first candidate path at the current moment, so that the first transmission path meets the transmission requirement of the first traffic.

The transmission requirement is used for representing that the link should reach a transmission condition when the service flow is transmitted on the link; also, the transmission requirements may include at least one of transmission delay requirements, transmission packet loss rate requirements, and transmission bandwidth requirements. In addition, the first network device obtains the relevant content of the transmission requirement of the first traffic from the first traffic, please refer to S201 above.

Based on the related content of the third possible implementation manner of S203, in this embodiment of the application, the first network device may determine the first transmission path by referring to the transmission requirement of the first traffic and the network state information of each first candidate path, so that the first transmission path can meet the transmission requirement of the first traffic, which is beneficial to improving the transmission effect of the first traffic.

In some cases, when determining the first transmission path, the first network device may refer to, in addition to the network state information of the first candidate path, service flow information of the second network device corresponding to each link in the first candidate path, a flow value of the first flow in a future first time period, a transmission requirement of the first flow, and other information that may affect the path selection. Based on this, the embodiment of the present application further provides a fourth possible implementation manner of S203, which specifically includes: the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first traffic from at least one first candidate path according to the network state information and the alternative information of the link in the first candidate path at the current time.

The alternative information is used for representing other information which can influence the selection of the first transmission path except the network state information of the link in the first candidate path at the current moment; moreover, the candidate information may include at least two of traffic flow information of the second network device corresponding to each link in each first candidate path, a traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period, and a transmission requirement of the first traffic.

Based on the related content of the fourth possible implementation manner of S203, in this embodiment of the application, the first network device may refer to the network state information of the first candidate path and other information that can affect the path selection (for example, at least two of the traffic flow information of the second network device corresponding to each link in the first candidate path, the flow value of the first traffic in the first time period, and the transmission requirement of the first traffic), and comprehensively determine the first transmission path, which is favorable for improving the transmission effect of the first traffic.

In some cases, the embodiment of the present application may further determine the first transmission path from the at least one first candidate path by using a preset path decision model. Based on this, the embodiment of the present application further provides a fifth possible implementation manner of S203, which may specifically be: and the first network equipment determines a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the path reference information corresponding to the first flow and a preset path decision model.

The path reference information corresponding to the first traffic is used to characterize related information affecting the selection of the first transmission path, that is, information that needs to be referred to when the first network device determines the first transmission path from the at least one first candidate path; in addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the path reference information corresponding to the first flow rate, and the following description is made with reference to two examples.

Example 1, the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic may include network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current time.

Example 2, the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic may include: the traffic flow information of the second network device corresponding to each link in each first candidate path, at least one of the traffic value of the first traffic in the first time period and the transmission requirement of the first traffic, and the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current time.

The preset path decision model is used for determining a first transmission path according to path reference information corresponding to the first flow; also, the present embodiment does not limit the type of the preset path decision model, for example, the preset path decision model may be a reinforcement learning model (e.g., deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) or Actor-critical algorithm).

In addition, the preset path decision model can be trained in advance; moreover, the preset path decision model can be trained by utilizing a simulation network in advance. Wherein, the simulation network is obtained by simulating a real network by a simulation platform. It should be noted that, in some cases, the preset path decision model may be trained by referring to the first mapping relationship and/or the second network device corresponding to the link in the network.

Based on the related content of the fifth possible implementation manner of the S203, in this embodiment of the application, after the first network device acquires the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic, the first network device may input the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic to the preset path decision model, so that the preset path decision model determines the first transmission path from the at least one first candidate path according to the path reference information. The preset path decision model is obtained by utilizing simulation network training, so that the preset path decision model can determine a better first transmission path, and the transmission effect of the first flow is favorably improved.

In addition, when the first network device determines the first transmission path by using the preset path decision model, the preset path decision model may be updated in real time in order to improve the decision capability of the preset path decision model. Based on this, an embodiment of the present application further provides another implementation of the path determining method, where in this implementation, the path determining method may include, in addition to all or part of the above steps, S207-S208:

s207: the first network equipment acquires execution feedback information of the first transmission path, wherein the execution feedback information of the first transmission path is used for describing a network state of the first traffic in a transmission process according to the first transmission path.

It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the manner of obtaining the execution feedback information, for example, the execution feedback information may be collected from the network by a preset collection device. The preset acquisition equipment can be installed in the first network equipment or can be independent of the first network equipment.

In this embodiment, after the first network device acquires the first transmission path, the first traffic may be transmitted in the network according to the first transmission path, and at this time, the first network device may acquire a network state of the first traffic in a transmission process according to the first transmission path, that is, execution feedback information of the first transmission path, so that the subsequent first network device may update the preset path decision model by referring to the execution feedback information.

S208: the first network device updates the preset path decision model based on the execution feedback information of the first transmission path.

The embodiment of the application does not limit the updating process of the preset path decision model. For example, when the preset path decision model is a reinforcement learning model, the first network device needs to update the preset path decision model by referring to information such as execution feedback information of the first transmission path and related information (for example, path reference information corresponding to the first traffic) when the first network device determines the first transmission path.

Based on the above related contents of S207 and S208, in this embodiment of the application, when the first network device determines the first transmission path by using the preset path decision model, the first network device may update the preset path decision model according to the execution feedback information of the first transmission path after the first traffic completes transmission according to the first transmission path, so that the first network device may determine the transmission path of the next received traffic flow by using the updated preset path decision model. The preset path decision model can refer to execution feedback information generated during transmission of each service flow for updating, so that a transmission path determined by the preset path decision model is more consistent with a network at the current moment, and the transmission performance of the network is improved.

In some cases, the first traffic may be split-transmitted according to multiple transmission paths, and at this time, the first network device needs to determine not only a transmission path corresponding to the first traffic but also split information of the first traffic on each transmission path. Based on this, an embodiment of the present application further provides a possible implementation manner of the path determining method, in this implementation manner, the first transmission path includes at least one path, and the path determining method may further include, in addition to some or all of the above steps, S209:

s209: and the first network equipment determines the distribution information of the first flow on each first transmission path according to the path reference information corresponding to the first flow.

For the relevant content of the "path reference information corresponding to the first traffic", refer to the relevant content in the fifth possible implementation manner of the above S203.

The flow distribution information is used for representing the flow information transmitted by each transmission path when the service flow is transmitted in the network according to a plurality of transmission paths; furthermore, the splitting information is not limited in the embodiments of the present application, for example, the splitting information may include a splitting ratio.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the execution order of S203 and S209. As an example, S203 and S209 may be performed sequentially, or S203 and S209 may be performed simultaneously.

In some cases, the above predetermined path decision model may be used to determine a plurality of first transmission paths and split information of the first traffic on each first transmission path. At this time, the embodiment of the present application further provides a possible implementation manner of simultaneously executing S203 and S209, which may specifically be: the first network device determines at least one first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path according to the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic and a preset path decision model, and determines distribution information of the first traffic on each first transmission path.

Based on the related content of S209, in this embodiment of the application, the first network device may further determine, according to the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic, a plurality of first transmission paths and split information corresponding to each first transmission path, so that the subsequent first traffic can be transmitted on the first transmission path according to the split information corresponding to each first transmission path, which is favorable for improving the transmission effect of the first traffic.

In some cases, the first network device may determine a queue priority of the first traffic in addition to the first transmission path (the forking information corresponding to the first transmission path). Based on this, the present application provides a possible implementation manner of the path determining method, in which the path determining method may further include, in addition to some or all of the above steps, S210:

s210: and the first network equipment determines the queue priority of the first traffic according to the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic.

The content of the "path reference information corresponding to the first traffic" refers to the content in the fifth possible implementation manner of the above S203.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the execution order of S203 and S210. As an example, S203 and S210 may be performed sequentially, or S203 and S210 may be performed simultaneously.

In some cases, the above pre-set path decision model may be used to determine the queue priority of the first transmission path and the first traffic. At this time, the embodiment of the present application further provides a possible implementation manner of simultaneously performing S203 and S210, which may specifically be: the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path according to the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic and a preset path decision model, and determines a queue priority of the first traffic.

In some cases, the above predetermined path decision model may be used to determine a plurality of first transmission paths, splitting information of the first traffic on each first transmission path, and a queue priority of the first traffic. At this time, the embodiment of the present application further provides a possible implementation manner of simultaneously executing S203, S209, and S210, which may specifically be: the first network device determines at least one first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path according to the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic and a preset path decision model, and determines the distribution information of the first traffic on each first transmission path and the queue priority of the first traffic.

Based on the related content of S210, in the embodiment of the present application, the first network device may determine the first transmission path and the queue priority of the first traffic according to the path reference information corresponding to the first traffic, so as to enable the first traffic to be transmitted on the first transmission path according to the queue priority of the first traffic, which is beneficial to improving the transmission effect of the first traffic.

To facilitate understanding of the above path determination method, the following description will be made with reference to a scenario example shown in fig. 1.

As an example, it is assumed that the first device is the jth network device in fig. 1, and the network management device is the controller in fig. 1. Based on this assumption, as shown in fig. 5, the method for determining a path provided in the embodiment of the present application may include S501 to S511:

s501: and the controller generates a candidate path table according to the second flow received by each network device in the network at least one historical time. The candidate path table is used for recording the related contents from the first mapping relation to the third mapping relation.

S502: and the controller determines second network equipment corresponding to each link in the network by using the candidate path table.

S503: and the controller sends the candidate path table and the second network equipment corresponding to each link in the network to the 1 st network equipment to the Mth network equipment in the network.

S504: when the jth network device receives the jth service flow at the current time, the jth network device determines the service type of the jth service flow according to the jth service flow.

S505: and the jth network equipment predicts the predicted flow value of the jth service flow in the first time period according to the service type of the jth service flow.

S506: and the jth network device searches a plurality of candidate paths corresponding to the jth service flow in the candidate path table according to the destination address of the jth service flow and the address of the jth network device.

S507: and the jth network equipment acquires the network state information of the links in the multiple candidate paths corresponding to the jth service flow at the current moment.

S508: when the jth network device determines that the link traffic load value of the link t exceeds the traffic load threshold corresponding to the link t according to the network state information of the link t at the current moment, the jth network device generates the traffic flow information of the jth traffic flow according to the jth traffic flow, and sends the traffic flow information of the jth traffic flow to other second network devices corresponding to the link t except the jth network device; and the jth network device receives the service flow information sent by each second network device except the jth network device corresponding to the link t. Wherein, the link t is any link in a plurality of candidate paths corresponding to the jth service flow.

S509: the jth network device inputs network state information of links in multiple candidate paths corresponding to the jth service flow at the current time, a predicted flow value of the jth service flow in a first time period, and service flow information of other network devices in the network received by the jth network device into a pre-trained reinforcement learning model, so as to obtain a queue priority of the jth service flow and a transmission path of the jth service flow (or multiple transmission paths of the jth service flow and a split ratio of the jth service flow on each transmission path) output by the reinforcement learning model.

S510: and the jth network equipment acquires network state information generated when the jth service flow is transmitted according to the transmission path of the jth service flow, and the network state information is used as execution feedback information corresponding to the jth service flow.

S511: and the j network equipment updates the reinforcement learning model based on the execution feedback information corresponding to the j service flow.

It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present application, S501-S503 are only executed when the controller determines that the network topology is changed (for example, changes such as adding or deleting network devices). In addition, the execution sequence between S504-S505 and S506-S508 is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

Based on the related contents of S501 to S511, in the embodiment of the present application, each network device in the network may determine the transmission path of the traffic flow received by itself by using the candidate path table and the reinforcement learning model. The network device refers to the predicted flow information of the service flow in the first time period in the future when determining the transmission path, so that the determined transmission path can meet the transmission requirement of the service flow in the first time period in the future, and the service flow can be smoothly transmitted in the first time period in the future. In addition, when the network device determines the transmission path, the network device refers to the service flow information of other second network devices corresponding to the link in the candidate path, so that the network device can determine the transmission path by combining the traffic transmission information of other network devices in the network, and the transmission path determined by the network device is prevented from belonging to a local optimal path, so that the transmission path determined by the network device can achieve the goal of global optimal. In addition, the network equipment only needs to refer to the information of the related network equipment when determining the transmission path, and does not need to refer to the information of the unrelated network equipment, so that the information interaction among the network equipment is reduced, and the path determination efficiency is improved. In addition, information interaction is not performed between the associated network devices when the link is lightly loaded, but information interaction is performed between the associated network devices when the link load exceeds the threshold, so that the information interaction between the network devices is further reduced, and the path determination efficiency is improved.

Based on the related content of the path determination method provided above, an embodiment of the present application further provides a network device, which is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 6, this figure is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, the network device 600 includes:

a first receiving unit 601, configured to receive a first traffic, where the first traffic carries a first address, and the first address is a destination address of the first traffic;

a first obtaining unit 602, configured to obtain at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first address and a second address of the first network device, where a start address of the first candidate path is the second address, and an end address of the first candidate path is the first address;

a first determining unit 603, configured to determine, according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current time, a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path.

It should be noted that the first receiving unit 601 is configured to execute any embodiment of S201, the first acquiring unit 602 is configured to execute any embodiment of S202, and the first determining unit 603 is configured to execute any embodiment of S203.

In some possible implementation manners, the first obtaining unit 602 is specifically configured to:

and determining at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first mapping relation, the first address and the second address, wherein the first mapping relation at least comprises the corresponding relation among the second address, the first address and the at least one first candidate path.

In some possible implementations, the network device 600 further includes:

a generating unit, configured to generate a first mapping relationship according to a second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time;

or the like, or, alternatively,

the second receiving unit is configured to receive a first mapping relationship sent by the network management device, where the first mapping relationship is generated by the network management device according to a second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time.

The generating unit is configured to execute any embodiment of S204, and the second receiving unit is configured to execute any embodiment of S205.

In some possible implementations, the generating unit includes:

the computing subunit is configured to compute, according to second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic;

the statistics subunit is configured to, according to the second transmission paths corresponding to the second traffic, perform statistics on occurrence frequencies of the second transmission paths;

and the first generation subunit is used for generating a first mapping relation according to the second transmission path with the occurrence frequency meeting the first condition, the start address of the second transmission path and the end address of the second transmission path.

In some possible implementations, the computing subunit includes:

a second generation subunit, configured to generate a constraint condition of the path computation element PCE according to a transmission requirement carried by a second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time;

the first determining subunit is configured to determine, according to the second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, the PCE, and constraint conditions of the PCE, a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic.

In some possible implementation manners, the first obtaining unit 602 includes:

a transmission subunit configured to transmit the first address and the second address to the network management apparatus;

the receiving subunit is configured to receive at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic sent by the network management device, where the at least one first candidate path is determined by the network management device according to a second mapping relationship, the first address, and the second mapping relationship at least includes a correspondence relationship between the second address, the first address, and the at least one first candidate path.

In some possible implementation manners, the first determining unit 603 is specifically configured to:

and determining a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to a preset path decision model and the network state information of the links in each first candidate path at the current moment.

In some possible implementations, the network device 600 further includes:

the second obtaining unit is used for obtaining execution feedback information of the first transmission path, wherein the execution feedback information of the first transmission path is used for describing a network state of the first traffic in a transmission process according to the first transmission path;

and the updating unit is used for updating the preset path decision model based on the execution feedback information of the first transmission path.

The second acquiring unit is configured to execute any embodiment of S207, and the updating unit is configured to execute any embodiment of S208.

In some possible implementations, the pre-set path decision model is a reinforcement learning model.

and determining a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment and the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to the link at the current moment, wherein the second network device corresponding to the link is the network device serving as the starting point of the second candidate path passing through the link, the second candidate path is recorded in a third mapping relation, and the third mapping relation is used for recording at least one second candidate path between different network devices in the network.

In some possible implementation manners, when the at least one first candidate path includes N first candidate paths, where N is a positive integer, the first determining unit 603 includes:

a third generating subunit, configured to generate link information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time according to network state information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, service flow information of a second network device corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, and a traffic load threshold corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path, where i is a positive integer and is not greater than N;

and the second determining subunit is configured to determine, according to the link information of each link in the 1 st first candidate path at the current time to the link information of each link in the nth first candidate path at the current time, a first transmission path of the first traffic from the N first candidate paths.

In some possible implementations, the network state information includes at least a link traffic load value;

a third generation subunit comprising:

a third determining subunit, configured to, if a link traffic load value of the target link at the current time exceeds a traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link, determine, by the first network device, link information of the target link at the current time according to service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the target link at the current time and network state information of the target link at the current time;

and the fourth determining subunit is configured to, if the link traffic load value of the target link at the current time does not exceed the traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link, determine, by the first network device, link information of the target link at the current time according to the network state information of the target link at the current time, where the target link is any one of the ith first candidate paths.

In some possible implementation manners, the obtaining process of the second network device corresponding to the link is as follows:

the first network device determines each second candidate path passing through the link according to each second candidate path and the link in the third mapping relation, and determines the network device corresponding to the starting point in each second candidate path passing through the link as the second network device corresponding to the link, wherein the link is any one link in each first candidate path;

or the like, or, alternatively,

and the first network equipment receives equipment association information sent by the network management equipment, wherein the equipment association information is used for representing second network equipment corresponding to links in each first candidate path, the equipment association information is that the network management equipment determines each second candidate path passing through the links according to each second candidate path and link in the third mapping relation, and determines the network equipment corresponding to the starting point in each second candidate path passing through the links as the second network equipment corresponding to the links, and the links are any links in each first candidate path.

In some possible implementations, the network device 600 further includes:

the prediction unit is used for predicting a predicted flow value of the first flow in a first time period according to the first flow;

the first determining unit 603 is specifically configured to: and determining a first transmission path of the first flow from at least one first candidate path according to the predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period and the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment.

In some possible implementations, the prediction unit includes:

a fifth determining subunit, configured to determine, according to the first traffic, a service type of the first traffic;

and the predicting subunit is used for predicting a predicted flow value of the first flow in the first time period according to the first flow and the service type of the first flow.

In some possible implementation manners, the first traffic carries a transmission requirement of the first traffic, where the transmission requirement includes at least one of a transmission delay requirement, a transmission packet loss rate requirement, and a transmission bandwidth requirement;

the first determining unit 603 is specifically configured to: the first network device determines a first transmission path of the first traffic from at least one first candidate path according to the transmission requirement of the first traffic and the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current moment, so that the first transmission path meets the transmission requirement of the first traffic.

In some possible implementation manners, if the first transmission path includes multiple paths, the network device 600 further includes:

and the second determining unit is used for determining the distribution information of the first traffic on each first transmission path according to the network state information of the link in the at least one first candidate path at the current moment.

It should be noted that the second determining unit may execute any embodiment of S209 described above.

It should be further noted that, for the relevant contents of various possible implementations of the network device 600 and the achieved technical effects, reference may be made to the relevant contents of the above-mentioned path determination method.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application further provides a network device 700, where the network device 700 includes a processor 701 and a communication interface 702; the processor 701 is configured to execute any embodiment of the path determination method; the communication interface 702 is used for implementing communication between the network device 700 and other external devices.

It should be noted that the network device 700 may execute the path determination method provided by the embodiment of the present application by reading the program code in the memory.

In addition, the present application also provides a computer program product, which when run on a computer, causes the computer to execute any implementation of the above-described path determination method.

In addition, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to execute any implementation of the above-mentioned path determination method.

In the names of "first flow", "first address", and the like, the "first" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application is used for name identification only, and does not represent the first in sequence. The same applies to "second" etc.

As can be seen from the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that all or part of the steps in the above embodiment methods can be implemented by software plus a general hardware platform. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a storage medium, such as a read-only memory (ROM)/RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc., and includes several instructions for enabling a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network communication device such as a router, etc.) to execute the method according to the embodiments or some parts of the embodiments of the present application.

The embodiments in the present specification are described in a progressive manner, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments are referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from the other embodiments. In particular, the apparatus embodiments and the apparatus embodiments are substantially similar to the method embodiments and therefore are described in a relatively simple manner, and reference may be made to some of the descriptions of the method embodiments for relevant points. The above-described embodiments of the apparatus and device are only schematic, where modules described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts shown as modules may or may not be physical modules, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment. One of ordinary skill in the art can understand and implement it without inventive effort.

The above description is only an exemplary embodiment of the present application, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for path determination, the method comprising:

a first network device receives a first flow, wherein the first flow carries a first address, the first address is a destination address of the first flow, and the first flow is used for representing a service flow received by the first network device at the current time;

the first network device obtains at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first address and a second address of the first network device, where a start address of the first candidate path is the second address, an end address of the first candidate path is the first address, the second address is used to characterize a network address of the first network device, and the first candidate path is used to characterize a transmission path that can be selected when the first traffic is transmitted;

the first network device determines, according to network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current time, service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the link at the current time, and a traffic load threshold corresponding to the link, a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path, where the second network device corresponding to the link is a network device serving as a starting point of a second candidate path passing through the link, the second candidate path is recorded in a third mapping relationship, and the third mapping relationship is used to record at least one second candidate path between the second network device and another network device in the network.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining, by the first network device, at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first address and the second address of the first network device specifically includes:

the first network device determines at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to a first mapping relationship, the first address and the second address, where the first mapping relationship at least includes a correspondence relationship between the second address, the first address and the at least one first candidate path.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

the first network device generates the first mapping relation according to a second traffic received by each network device in the network, wherein the second traffic is used for representing a service flow received by the network device at a historical time;

or the like, or, alternatively,

the first network device receives the first mapping relationship sent by a network management device, where the first mapping relationship is generated by the network management device according to a second traffic received by each network device in the network, and the second traffic is used to characterize a service flow received by the network device at a historical time.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first network device generates the first mapping relationship according to the second traffic received by each network device in the network, and wherein the generating the first mapping relationship comprises:

the first network equipment calculates a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow according to the second flow received by each network equipment in the network at least one historical time;

the first network device counts occurrence frequency of each second transmission path according to the second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic;

and the first network equipment generates the first mapping relation according to the second transmission path with the occurrence frequency meeting a first condition, the start address of the second transmission path and the end address of the second transmission path.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the calculating, by the first network device, the second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic according to the second traffic received by each network device in the network at the at least one historical time includes:

the first network equipment generates constraint conditions of a Path Computation Element (PCE) according to transmission requirements carried by second traffic received by each network equipment in the network at least one historical time;

and the first network equipment determines a second transmission path corresponding to each second flow according to the second flow received by each network equipment in the network at least one historical time, the PCE and the constraint conditions of the PCE.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining, by the first network device, at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to the first address and a second address of the first network device, comprises:

the first network device sends the first address and the second address to a network management device;

the first network device receives at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic sent by the network management device, where the at least one first candidate path is determined by the network management device according to a second mapping relationship, the first address, and the second mapping relationship at least includes a correspondence relationship between the second address, the first address, and the at least one first candidate path.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining, by the first network device, the first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path according to the network state information of the link in each first candidate path at the current time, the traffic flow information of the second network device corresponding to the link at the current time, and the traffic load threshold corresponding to the link is specifically:

and the first network equipment determines a first transmission path of the first flow from the at least one first candidate path according to a preset path decision model, network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current moment, service flow information of second network equipment corresponding to the link at the current moment and a flow load threshold corresponding to the link.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

the first network device obtains execution feedback information of the first transmission path, wherein the execution feedback information of the first transmission path is used for describing a network state of the first traffic in a transmission process according to the first transmission path;

the first network device updates the preset path decision model based on execution feedback information of the first transmission path.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined path decision model is a reinforcement learning model.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein when the at least one first candidate path includes N first candidate paths, where N is a positive integer, the first network device determines, from the at least one first candidate path, a first transmission path of the first traffic according to network state information of a link in each first candidate path at a current time, traffic flow information of a second network device corresponding to the link at the current time, and a traffic load threshold corresponding to the link, including:

the first network device respectively generates link information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current moment according to the network state information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current moment, the service flow information of the second network device corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path at the current moment and the traffic load threshold value corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path, wherein i is a positive integer and is less than or equal to N;

and the first network equipment determines a first transmission path of the first flow from the N first candidate paths according to the link information of each link in the 1 st first candidate path at the current moment to the link information of each link in the N first candidate paths at the current moment.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the network state information comprises at least a link traffic load value;

the first network device respectively generates link information of each link in an ith first candidate path at the current time according to network state information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, service flow information of second network devices corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, and traffic load thresholds corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path, and the method includes:

and the link traffic load value of a target link at the current moment exceeds a traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link, and the first network device determines link information of the target link at the current moment according to service flow information of second network devices corresponding to the target link at the current moment and network state information of the target link at the current moment, wherein the target link is any link in the ith first candidate path.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the obtaining procedure of the second network device corresponding to the link is:

the first network device determines, according to each second candidate path in the third mapping relationship and the link, each second candidate path passing through the link, and determines, as a second network device corresponding to the link, a network device corresponding to a starting point in each second candidate path passing through the link, where the link is any one of the first candidate paths;

or the like, or, alternatively,

the first network device receives device association information sent by a network management device, where the device association information is used to characterize a second network device corresponding to a link in each first candidate path, the device association information is that the network management device determines, according to each second candidate path and the link in the third mapping relationship, each second candidate path passing through the link, and determines, as the second network device corresponding to the link, a network device corresponding to a starting point in each second candidate path passing through the link, where the link is any one of the first candidate paths.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the first network equipment predicts a predicted flow value of the first flow in a first time period according to the first flow;

the first network device determines, according to network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current time, service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the link at the current time, and a traffic load threshold corresponding to the link, a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path, which specifically includes:

and the first network equipment determines a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path according to a predicted traffic value of the first traffic in a first time period, network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current moment, a traffic load threshold corresponding to the link, and service flow information of second network equipment corresponding to the link at the current moment.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein predicting, by the first network device, a predicted traffic value for the first traffic over a first time period based on the first traffic comprises:

the first network equipment determines the service type of the first flow according to the first flow;

and the first network equipment predicts a predicted flow value of the first flow in a first time period according to the first flow and the service type of the first flow.

15. The method according to any of claims 1-14, wherein if the first transmission path comprises a plurality of paths, the method further comprises:

and the first network equipment determines the distribution information of the first flow on each first transmission path according to the network state information of the link in the at least one first candidate path at the current moment.

16. A network device, characterized in that the network device comprises:

a first receiving unit, configured to receive a first traffic, where the first traffic carries a first address, the first address is a destination address of the first traffic, and the first traffic is used to characterize a service flow received by a first network device at a current time;

a first obtaining unit, configured to obtain, according to the first address and a second address of the first network device, at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic, where a start address of the first candidate path is the second address, an end address of the first candidate path is the first address, the second address is used to characterize a network address of the first network device, and the first candidate path is used to characterize a transmission path that can be selected when the first traffic is transmitted;

a first determining unit, configured to determine, according to network state information of a link in each first candidate path at a current time, service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the link at the current time, and a traffic load threshold corresponding to the link, a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path, where the second network device corresponding to the link is a network device serving as a starting point of a second candidate path passing through the link, the second candidate path is recorded in a third mapping relationship, and the third mapping relationship is used to record at least one second candidate path between the second network device and another network device in the network.

17. The network device according to claim 16, wherein the first obtaining unit is specifically configured to:

determining at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic according to a first mapping relationship, the first address and the second address, where the first mapping relationship at least includes a correspondence relationship between the second address, the first address and the at least one first candidate path.

18. The network device of claim 17, wherein the network device further comprises:

a generating unit, configured to generate the first mapping relationship according to a second traffic received by each network device in a network, where the second traffic is used to represent a service flow received by the network device at a historical time;

or the like, or, alternatively,

a second receiving unit, configured to receive the first mapping relationship sent by a network management device, where the first mapping relationship is generated by the network management device according to a second traffic received by each network device in the network, and the second traffic is used to characterize a service flow received by the network device at a historical time.

19. The network device of claim 18, wherein the generating unit comprises:

a statistics subunit, configured to, according to a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic, count occurrence frequency of each second transmission path;

and the first generating subunit is configured to generate the first mapping relationship according to the second transmission path of which the occurrence frequency satisfies the first condition, the start address of the second transmission path, and the end address of the second transmission path.

20. The network device of claim 19, wherein the computational subunit comprises:

a first determining subunit, configured to determine, according to a second traffic received by each network device in the network at least one historical time, the PCE, and constraint conditions of the PCE, a second transmission path corresponding to each second traffic.

21. The network device of claim 16, wherein the first obtaining unit comprises:

a sending subunit, configured to send the first address and the second address to a network management device;

a receiving subunit, configured to receive at least one first candidate path corresponding to the first traffic sent by the network management device, where the at least one first candidate path is determined by the network management device according to a second mapping relationship, the first address, and the second mapping relationship at least includes a correspondence relationship between the second address, the first address, and the at least one first candidate path.

22. The network device according to claim 16, wherein the first determining unit is specifically configured to:

and determining a first transmission path of the first flow from the at least one first candidate path according to a preset path decision model, network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current moment, service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the link at the current moment and a flow load threshold corresponding to the link.

23. The network device of claim 22, wherein the network device further comprises:

a second obtaining unit, configured to obtain execution feedback information of the first transmission path, where the execution feedback information of the first transmission path is used to describe a network state of the first traffic in a transmission process according to the first transmission path;

an updating unit, configured to update the preset path decision model based on execution feedback information of the first transmission path.

24. The network device of claim 22, wherein the predetermined path decision model is a reinforcement learning model.

25. The network device according to claim 24, wherein when the at least one first candidate path includes N first candidate paths, where N is a positive integer, the first determining unit includes:

a third generating subunit, configured to generate link information of each link in an ith first candidate path at the current time according to network state information of each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, service flow information of a second network device corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path at the current time, and a traffic load threshold corresponding to each link in the ith first candidate path, where i is a positive integer and is not greater than N;

a second determining subunit, configured to determine, according to link information of each link in the 1 st first candidate path at the current time to link information of each link in the nth first candidate path at the current time, a first transmission path of the first traffic from the N first candidate paths.

26. The network device of claim 25, wherein the network state information comprises at least a link traffic load value;

the third generation subunit includes:

a third determining subunit, configured to determine, by the first network device, link information of a target link at a current time according to service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the target link at the current time and network state information of the target link at the current time, where the target link is any link in the ith first candidate path, where the link traffic load value of the target link at the current time exceeds a traffic load threshold corresponding to the target link.

27. The network device of claim 24, wherein the obtaining procedure of the second network device corresponding to the link is:

or the like, or, alternatively,

and the first network device receives device association information sent by a network management device, wherein the device association information is used for characterizing second network devices corresponding to links in the first candidate paths, the device association information is that the network management device determines each second candidate path passing through the links according to each second candidate path and the link in the third mapping relation, and determines a network device corresponding to a starting point in each second candidate path passing through the links as a second network device corresponding to the link, and the link is any one of the first candidate paths.

28. The network device of claim 16, wherein the network device further comprises:

the predicting unit is used for predicting a predicted flow value of the first flow in a first time period according to the first flow;

the first determining unit is specifically configured to: and determining a first transmission path of the first traffic from the at least one first candidate path according to the predicted traffic value of the first traffic in a first time period, the network state information of a link in each first candidate path at the current time, the service flow information of a second network device corresponding to the link at the current time, and a traffic load threshold corresponding to the link.

29. The network device of claim 28, wherein the prediction unit comprises:

and the predicting subunit is used for predicting a predicted flow value of the first flow in a first time period according to the first flow and the service type of the first flow.

30. The network device according to any of claims 16-29, wherein if the first transmission path comprises a plurality of paths, the network device further comprises:

a second determining unit, configured to determine, according to network state information of a link in the at least one first candidate path at the current time, offloading information of the first traffic on each first transmission path.

31. A network device, comprising a processor and a communication interface; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the processor is used for executing the path determination method of any one of the claims 1 to 15;

and the communication interface is used for realizing the communication between the network equipment and other external equipment.

32. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute the path determination method according to any one of claims 1 to 15.