CN113810968A

CN113810968A - UPF switching method, device and equipment for user plane network element

Info

Publication number: CN113810968A
Application number: CN202111152734.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 沈得州; 宋潇宁
Original assignee: New H3C Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: New H3C Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-09-29
Filing date: 2021-09-29
Publication date: 2021-12-17
Anticipated expiration: 2041-09-29
Also published as: CN113810968B

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a UPF switching method, a UPF switching device and UPF switching equipment for a user plane network element. According to the UPF switching method and device, when the fact that UPFs need to be switched for the target terminal is detected, the fact that UPFs which meet UPF switching requirements exist, and the UPFs which meet session connection with the target terminal exist currently is detected, one UPF is directly selected from the UPFs which meet the UPF switching requirements and have session connection with the target terminal to be switched, the established session connection between the target UPF and the target terminal is delayed, new session connection does not need to be established on the target UPF, and waste of network resources is reduced.

Description

UPF switching method, device and equipment for user plane network element

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, and a device for switching a user plane network element UPF.

Background

After the terminal accesses the 5G (Fifth Generation) mobile communication network, since a service area of a UPF (User Plane Function) network element used when the terminal accesses an external data network is wide, if a location of the terminal changes, the UPF network element may need to be switched. When the UPF network element used by the terminal is switched, the switching of the UPF network element involves interaction among a plurality of network element nodes, the switching is complex and time-consuming, if the direct switching causes the service on the terminal to be discontinuous, the service quality is lost, and the problems of voice call drop and the like occur in the terminal moving process.

Therefore, a related art proposes a UPF switching method capable of realizing service continuity: SSC Mode 3(Session and Service Continuity Mode 3 ). However, in this mode, when it is detected that the service area of the UPF in which the terminal is located changes, the UPF is reselected for the terminal, and a new PFCP (Packet switching Control Protocol) session connection is established between the reselected UPF and the terminal, but when the terminal moves frequently, there may be a previously established PFCP session connection between the reselected UPF and the terminal, and the established new PFCP session connection is actually a waste of network resources.

Disclosure of Invention

The application discloses a UPF switching method, a UPF switching device and UPF switching equipment for a user plane network element, which are used for reducing resource waste caused by UPF switching.

According to a first aspect of the embodiments of the present application, a method for switching a user plane network element UPF is provided, where the method is applied to a session management network element SMF, and includes:

when detecting that a user plane network element UPF needs to be switched for a target terminal, detecting whether UPFs meeting specified conditions exist in the UPFs currently managed by the SMF, and if so, selecting one UPF from the UPFs meeting the specified conditions as a target UPF; wherein the specified conditions refer to: the UPF switching requirement is met, and session connection exists between the current UPF switching requirement and the target terminal;

and switching the UPF providing service for the target terminal into the target UPF, and taking the established session connection between the target UPF and the target terminal as the target session connection so as to enable the target terminal to use the target session connection for data transmission.

Optionally, the detecting whether a UPF meeting a specified condition exists in the UPFs currently managed by the SMF includes:

determining UPF meeting UPF switching requirements from the UPF which is recorded in the SMF and belongs to the same type as the UPF needing to be switched for the target terminal;

detecting whether a UPF with session connection between the current UPF and the target terminal exists in the UPFs;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

acquiring the recorded UPFs which have session connection with the target terminal currently and belong to the same type as the UPF needing to be switched for the target terminal,

and detecting whether the UPF meeting the UPF switching requirement exists in the UPFs.

Optionally, determining that the target UPF meets the UPF handover requirement through the following steps:

and judging that the current position information is in the service area of the target UPF according to the acquired current position information of the target terminal, and determining that the target UPF meets the UPF switching requirement.

Optionally, the UPF to be switched for the target terminal is an anchor UPF;

the session connection is established based on an IP address allocated to the target terminal, and the IP address allocated to the target terminal is configured with a corresponding valid duration;

the switching the UPF providing the service for the target terminal to the target UPF includes:

and informing the target terminal to modify the effective duration of the IP address corresponding to the target session connection so as to enable the effective duration of the IP address to be greater than the effective duration of other IP addresses which are currently allocated by the target terminal and used for establishing other session connections.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

informing the target terminal to modify the effective duration of the IP address corresponding to the session connection established between the other UPF and the target terminal, so that the effective duration of the modified IP address is less than the effective duration of the IP address corresponding to the target session connection; wherein the other UPF refers to the UPF which has session connection with the target terminal and does not belong to the target UPF.

According to a second aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is provided a device for switching a user plane network element UPF, where the device is applied to a session management network element SMF, and the device includes:

a target UPF determining unit, configured to detect whether a UPF meeting a specified condition exists in UPFs currently managed by the SMF when it is detected that a user plane network element UPF needs to be switched for a target terminal, and if so, select a UPF from the UPFs meeting the specified condition as a target UPF; wherein the specified conditions refer to: the UPF switching requirement is met, and session connection exists between the current UPF switching requirement and the target terminal;

and the UPF switching unit is used for switching the UPF providing services for the target terminal into the target UPF and taking the session connection established between the target UPF and the target terminal as the target session connection so as to enable the target terminal to use the target session connection for data transmission.

Optionally, the determining, by the target UPF determining unit, that the target UPF meets the UPF handover requirement includes:

Optionally, the UPF to be switched for the target terminal is an anchor UPF; the session connection is established based on an IP address allocated to the target terminal, and the IP address allocated to the target terminal is configured with a corresponding valid duration;

the step of switching the UPF providing the service for the target terminal to the target UPF by the UPF switching unit includes:

Optionally, the UPF switching unit is further configured to:

According to a third aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is provided an electronic apparatus including: a processor and a memory;

the memory for storing machine executable instructions;

the processor is configured to read and execute the machine executable instructions stored in the memory, so as to implement the user plane network element UPF handover method as described above.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application can have the following beneficial effects:

according to the technical scheme, when the UPF which needs to be switched for the target terminal is detected, the UPF which meets the UPF switching requirement exists, and the UPF which meets the UPF switching requirement and has the session connection with the target terminal currently exists, one UPF is directly selected from the UPFs which meet the UPF switching requirement and have the session connection with the target terminal currently to be switched, the established session connection between the target UPF and the target terminal is delayed, a new session connection does not need to be established on the target UPF, and the waste of network resources is reduced.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the application.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the present specification and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the specification.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a UPF service area provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method for switching a user plane network element UPF according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for switching a user plane network element UPF according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, like numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with the present application. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with certain aspects of the present application, as detailed in the appended claims.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used in this application and the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

It is to be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various information, such information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one type of information from another. For example, first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope of the present application. The word "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at … …" or "when … …" or "in response to a determination", depending on the context.

In order to make those skilled in the art better understand the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application and make the above objects, features and advantages of the embodiments of the present application more obvious and understandable, a switching process of a UPF in an SSC Mode 3 Mode in the related art is described below with reference to fig. 1:

first, it should be noted that, in this embodiment, each UPF corresponds to one service area, and the service area corresponding to each UPF is scoped, and the UPF can provide network services with better quality to terminals within the service area scope thereof, as shown in fig. 1, the scope of the service areas of three UPF network elements, i.e., UPF1, UPF2, and UPF3, is shown in fig. 1.

In the related art, after determining that the UPF is switched for the terminal, a session Management function network element SMF (session Management function) determines candidate anchor UPFs from UPFs managed by the SMF according to current location information of the terminal, a service area of the candidate anchor UPFs covers the current location information of the terminal, and then a UPF with a highest priority among the candidate anchor UPFs is used as the anchor UPF. The anchor UPF is a UPF providing services to the terminal and having a data processing function.

Illustratively, based on the service area ranges of the UPFs 1, 2, and 3 shown in fig. 1, when the terminal is at location a in fig. 1, the network service will be provided to the terminal by the UPF1 since location a is within the service area range of the UPF 1; when the terminal moves from the location a to the location B in fig. 1, since the location B is at an intersection of service areas of the UPF1 and the UPF3, it is possible to provide a network service to the terminal by selecting a UPF3 having a higher priority by comparing priorities between the UPF1 and the UPF 3; when the terminal moves from the location B to the location C in fig. 1, since the location C is within the service area of the UPF2, the network service will be provided to the terminal by the UPF 2.

The SSC Mode 3 Mode is a method for guaranteeing service continuity by using Multi-home Multi-Homing feature of IPv6 itself, and how to switch the UPF providing service to the terminal in the SSC Mode 3 Mode is briefly described as follows, taking the switching from anchor UPF1 to anchor UPF3 as an example:

step a, when the terminal moves from the position a to the position B in fig. 1, the SMF determines that the UPF needs to be switched for the terminal according to the current position information of the terminal reported by the AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function).

In step b, after determining to switch the UPF for the terminal, the SMF first needs to determine a target anchor UPF (i.e. UPF3) and a branch node BP UPF (referred to as BP UPF0), where the BP UPF is a UPF with a forking function.

The method for determining the anchor UPF and the branch node UPF may refer to related technologies, for example, a target anchor UPF and a branch node BP UPF may be determined from the corresponding anchor UPF pool and branch node BP UPF according to the service areas and priorities of the anchor UPF and the branch node BP UPF, which is not described herein again.

Step c, allocating a new IP address (denoted as IP3) to the terminal, and initiating a PFCP session creation based on IP3 to the UPF3 and BP UPF0, respectively, thereby establishing a data link (denoted as a first data link) from the terminal to the data network according to the PFCP session created based on IP 3: terminal-base station-BP UPF0-UPF 3-data network.

Step d, modifying the PFCP session setup in UPF1 based on the IP address assigned to the terminal (denoted as IP1) to establish another data link from the terminal to the data network (denoted as second data link): terminal-base station-BP UPF0-UPF 1-data network to ensure that traffic currently handled by UPF1 is not interrupted by incomplete transfer to UPF3 handling.

And e, configuring corresponding effective duration for the IP1 and the IP3 respectively, informing the UPF3 to send the effective duration of the IP3 to the terminal, and informing the UPF1 to send the effective duration of the IP1 to the terminal, wherein the effective duration of the IP3 is greater than the effective duration of the IP 1.

Calculating the usage duration of the IP1 from the time when the IP1 is allocated a valid duration, when the IP1 is determined to be used for exceeding the valid duration of the IP1, the second data link is torn down, and the first data link is modified to: terminal-base station-UPF 3-data network to complete the handover of the anchor UPF.

In the process of switching the UPF1 to the UPF3, if the terminal moves frequently, the anchor UPF may need to be switched again for the terminal when the second data link is not yet torn down. At this time, if the target anchor UPF determined by the SMF is the UPF1, an IP address (denoted as IP4) is reassigned to the terminal, a PFCP session creation based on IP4 is initiated to the UPF1, and a data link (denoted as a third data link) from the terminal to the data network is established according to the PFCP session based on IP 4: terminal-base station-BP UPF0-UPF 1-data network.

There are two sessions in the UPF1 at this time: the IP 1-based PFCP session and the IP 4-based PFCP session, and the paths of the third data link and the fourth data link constructed based on these two sessions are practically identical. It can be seen that, in practice, the PFCP session existing in the UPF1 is redundant at this time, and a large amount of signaling interaction is required to construct the third data link, which is very wasteful of network resources.

Moreover, in the process of switching the UPF1 to the UPF3, if the second data link is not yet removed, the BP UPF switching for the terminal may also be triggered, but the terminal may actually be still in the service area of the BP UPF0 to be switched away, and a large amount of signaling interaction is also required to switch the BP UPF0 to another BP UPF, which is also very wasteful of network resources.

In view of the foregoing problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for switching a user plane network element UPF. The technical solution in the embodiments of the present application is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method for switching a user plane network element UPF according to an embodiment of the present application. As an embodiment, the flow shown in fig. 2 may be applied to a session management network element SMF.

As shown in fig. 2, the process may include the following steps:

step 201, when it is detected that a user plane network element UPF needs to be switched for a target terminal, detecting whether a UPF meeting a specified condition exists in the UPFs currently managed by the SMF, and if so, selecting one UPF from the UPFs meeting the specified condition as a target UPF; wherein the specified conditions refer to: and the UPF switching requirement is met, and a session connection currently exists between the UPF switching requirement and the target terminal.

In this embodiment of the present application, the UPF to be switched for the target terminal is an anchor UPF or a BP UPF, where the anchor UPF is a UPF that provides services for the terminal and has a data processing function, the BP UPF is a UPF that has a offloading function, and the type identifiers corresponding to the anchor UPF and the BP UPF are different.

As an embodiment, the detection of the need to switch the user plane network element UPF for the target terminal in the present application means: receiving current position information of the terminal reported by the AMF, acquiring a service area range corresponding to a UPF (unified Power flow) providing service for the terminal at present, and determining whether the UPF needs to be switched for the target terminal according to an algorithm formulated by a manufacturer aiming at the SSC Mode 3 Mode. The SMF is a network element for managing UPF, and records UPFs managed by the SMF, ranges of service areas corresponding to the UPFs, information of session connection between the UPFs and the terminal and the like; optionally, the current location information of the terminal is triggered and reported to the SMF when the terminal initiates a service request process.

Optionally, in this embodiment, detecting whether a UPF meeting a specified condition exists in the UPFs managed by the SMF currently may be performed in the following two ways:

the first mode is as follows: firstly, determining UPFs which meet UPF switching requirements from UPFs which are recorded in the SMF and belong to the same type as the UPFs which need to be switched for the target terminal, and then detecting whether UPFs which have session connection with the target terminal exist in the UPFs.

The second mode is as follows: and acquiring the recorded UPFs which have session connection with the target terminal and belong to the same type as the UPFs which need to be switched for the target terminal, and then detecting whether the UPFs meet the UPF switching requirements or not.

As an example, if a plurality of UPFs satisfying the specified condition are detected in this embodiment, one UPF may be selected as the target UPF from the plurality of UPFs satisfying the specified condition according to the priority, the load, and the like.

In this embodiment, the above-mentioned UPF meeting the UPF switching requirement refers to: the current position of the target terminal belongs to the service area range corresponding to the UPF; the current UPF with session connection to the target terminal means: the UPF creates a PFCP session based on the IP address previously assigned to the target terminal.

As an embodiment, detecting that the anchor point UPF needs to be switched for the target terminal may include the following steps: receiving current position information of the terminal reported by the AMF, acquiring a service area range corresponding to an anchor point UPF providing service for the terminal at present, judging whether the current position information of the terminal is in the service area range, if not, determining that the anchor point UPF needs to be switched for the target terminal, and if so, determining that the anchor point UPF does not need to be switched for the target terminal.

In this embodiment, since it is determined that the anchor UPF required to be switched for the target terminal is triggered when the current location of the target terminal is outside the service area range of the anchor UPF (denoted as New UPF) to be switched, the New UPF does not meet the UPF switching requirement, and thus the target UPF determined in this embodiment is different from the New UPF.

As another example, if it is determined whether the UPF needs to be switched for the target terminal according to the algorithm established by the manufacturer for the SSC Mode 3 Mode, in this embodiment, the New UPF and the target UPF may be the same anchor UPF, and the target UPF and the session connection established between the target UPF and the target terminal may be continuously used as the target session connection.

Step 202, switching the UPF providing service for the target terminal to the target UPF, and using the session connection established between the target UPF and the target terminal as the target session connection, so that the target terminal uses the target session connection for data transmission.

Illustratively, if there are at least three UPFs currently in session connection with the target terminal: new UPF, Old UPF and BP UPF, wherein when the Old UPF target terminal switches the UPF to the New UPF, the anchor UPF is switched, if the current target terminal moves from the service area of the New UPF back to the service area of the Old UPF and detects that the anchor UPF needs to be switched for the target terminal, the target UPF can be determined to be the Old UPF by the method shown in the embodiment.

It should be noted that the network where the current target terminal is located includes at least two data links, where one data link (denoted as L1) is: terminal-base station-BP UPF-New UPF-data network, the other data link is (denoted as L2): terminal-base station-BP UPF-Old UPF-data network, then in this embodiment, after determining that Old UPF is the target UPF, the data link L2 described above will continue to be used. The BP UPF is used for aggregating downlink data transmitted by the New UPF and the Old UPF, and shunting the downlink data transmitted from the base station to the New UPF and the Old UPF.

In a specific implementation, the established session connection in this step is established based on the IP address allocated to the target terminal, and the IP address allocated to the target terminal is configured with a corresponding validity duration. Based on the SSC Mode 3 Mode described above, it can be known that the target UPF in this embodiment actually establishes a data link from the terminal to the data network based on the established session connection, and controls the data link by the effective duration of the IP address used by the session connection.

In this embodiment of the present application, if the UPF that needs to be switched for the target terminal is an anchor UPF, and session connections exist between the current target terminal and the New UPF and the target UPF, and different IP addresses are allocated to the target terminal for different UPFs (here, the IP address to be allocated may be carried in an instruction and allocated to the target terminal by an SMF, or the SMF notifies the UPF to select the IP address to be allocated and allocates the IP address to the target terminal by the UPF), and corresponding effective durations are configured for the allocated IP addresses, the present embodiment further needs to perform the following steps:

as an embodiment, since the IP address allocated to the target terminal for the New UPF and the target UPF is performed in the process of performing the last switching of the anchor UPF (such as the Old UPF in the above example) to the New UPF for the target terminal, the effective duration configured for the IP address allocated to the target terminal for the New UPF is greater than the effective duration configured for the IP address allocated to the target terminal for the target UPF.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the target terminal needs to be further notified to modify the effective duration of the IP address corresponding to the target session connection, so that the effective duration of the IP address is greater than the effective duration of other IP addresses currently allocated by the target terminal to establish other session connections.

Further, if the effective duration of the IP address corresponding to the session connection on the New UPF is permanently valid, the target terminal needs to be notified to modify the effective duration of the IP address corresponding to the session connection in the New UPF, so that the modified effective duration of the IP address is smaller than the effective duration of the IP address corresponding to the target session connection.

Preferably, in order to reduce the time required for completing the handover to the target UPF, another UPF that has a session connection with the target terminal and does not belong to the target UPF may be further determined, and the target terminal is notified to modify the valid duration of the IP address corresponding to the session connection established between the other UPF and the target terminal, so that the valid duration of the modified IP address is smaller than the valid duration of the IP address corresponding to the target session connection.

For example, the notifying the target terminal to modify the effective duration of the IP address may be implemented by issuing, by the SMF, the effective duration of the newly configured corresponding IP address to the target UPF or another UPF, and then carrying, by the target UPF or another UPF, the effective duration of the newly configured IP address in an RA (Router Advertisement) message and sending the message to the target terminal.

As an embodiment, in this embodiment, after configuring an effective duration for an IP address, the usage duration of the IP address is started to be calculated, and when it is detected that the usage duration of the IP address exceeds the effective duration of the IP address, it is determined that the IP address is invalid, and a session connection corresponding to the invalid IP address is removed.

After the effective duration of the IP address allocated to the target terminal is configured, since the effective duration of the IP address corresponding to the target session connection is the largest, other IP addresses allocated to the target terminal will sequentially fail before the IP address corresponding to the target session connection fails, and session connections corresponding to the failed other IP addresses will also be sequentially removed.

Further, when detecting that there is only one UPF (i.e. the target UPF) currently in session connection with the target terminal, the target UPF, the base station, and other devices may be further notified to modify the data link via the target UPF as follows: terminal-base station-target UPF-data network. The specific modification process is as follows:

initiating session modification to a target UPF to instruct the target UPF to forward downlink data received from a data network to a base station and receive uplink data from the base station;

initiating resource updating to a base station, and indicating the base station to forward uplink data to a target UPF;

and sending a session deletion instruction to the BP UPF to delete the session connection between the BP UPF, the target UPF and the base station.

Therefore, the New UPF serving the target terminal network is successfully switched to the target UPF, the IP address does not need to be redistributed to the target terminal in the switching process, and New session connection does not need to be established on the target UPF based on the redistributed IP address, so that the signaling is saved, and the waste of network resources is reduced.

Thus, the flow shown in fig. 2 is completed.

As can be seen from the flow shown in fig. 2, in the embodiment of the present application, when it is detected that it is necessary to switch a UPF for a target terminal, and it is detected that there is a UPF that meets a UPF switching requirement and that there is a session connection between the target terminal and the current UPF, a UPF is directly selected from the UPFs that meet the UPF switching requirement and that there is a session connection between the target terminal and the current UPF for switching, and the session connection that has been established between the target UPF and the target terminal is carried out, and it is not necessary to establish a new session connection on the target UPF, which reduces network resource waste.

The above examples are merely for convenience of understanding, and the embodiments of the present application are not particularly limited.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a device for switching a user plane network element UPF according to an embodiment of the present application, where the embodiment of the device is applied to a session management network element SMF. The device includes:

a target UPF determining unit 301, configured to, when it is detected that a user plane network element UPF needs to be switched for a target terminal, detect whether a UPF meeting a specified condition exists in the UPFs currently managed by the SMF, and if the UPF meeting the specified condition exists, select a UPF from the UPFs meeting the specified condition as a target UPF; wherein the specified conditions refer to: and the UPF switching requirement is met, and a session connection currently exists between the UPF switching requirement and the target terminal.

A UPF switching unit 302, configured to switch a UPF providing a service for a target terminal to the target UPF, and use an established session connection between the target UPF and the target terminal as a target session connection, so that the target terminal uses the target session connection to perform data transmission.

Optionally, the detecting, by the target UPF determining unit 301, whether there is a UPF meeting a specified condition in the UPFs currently managed by the SMF includes:

determining UPF meeting UPF switching requirements from the UPF which is recorded in the SMF and belongs to the same type as the UPF needing to be switched for the target terminal; and detecting whether the UPF with the session connection between the current UPF and the target terminal exists in the UPFs.

Or, acquiring the recorded UPFs which have session connection with the target terminal and belong to the same type as the UPF which needs to be switched for the target terminal, and detecting whether the UPF meeting the UPF switching requirement exists in the UPFs.

Optionally, the determining, by the target UPF determining unit 301, that the target UPF meets the UPF handover requirement includes:

the step of switching the UPF providing the service for the target terminal to the target UPF by the UPF switching unit 302 includes:

Optionally, the UPF switching unit 302 is further configured to:

Thus, the structure of the embodiment of the apparatus shown in FIG. 3 is completed.

Correspondingly, an embodiment of the present application further provides a hardware structure diagram of an electronic device, and specifically, as shown in fig. 4, the electronic device may be the device for implementing the method for switching the UPF of the user plane network element. As shown in fig. 4, the hardware structure includes: a processor and a memory.

Wherein the memory is to store machine executable instructions;

the processor is configured to read and execute the machine executable instructions stored in the memory, so as to implement the corresponding method embodiment for user plane network element UPF handover as shown above.

For one embodiment, the memory may be any electronic, magnetic, optical, or other physical storage device that may contain or store information such as executable instructions, data, and the like. For example, the memory may be: volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or similar storage media. In particular, the Memory may be a RAM (random Access Memory), a flash Memory, a storage drive (e.g., a hard disk drive), a solid state disk, any type of storage disk (e.g., an optical disk, a DVD, etc.), or similar storage medium, or a combination thereof.

So far, the description of the electronic apparatus shown in fig. 4 is completed.

The above description is only exemplary of the present application and should not be taken as limiting the present application, as any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present application should be included in the scope of protection of the present application.

Claims

1. A UPF switching method for user plane network element is characterized in that the method is applied to a session management network element SMF, and comprises the following steps:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting whether there is a UPF that meets a specified condition among the UPFs currently managed by the SMF comprises:

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the target UPF is determined to comply with UPF handover requirements by:

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the UPF to be handed over for the target terminal is an anchor UPF;

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

6. A UPF switching device for a user plane network element is applied to a SMF, and comprises:

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the target UPF determination unit determining that the target UPF meets UPF handover requirements comprises:

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the UPF to be handed over for the target terminal is an anchor UPF;

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the UPF switching unit is further configured to:

10. An electronic device, comprising: a processor and a memory;

the memory for storing machine executable instructions;

the processor is configured to read and execute the machine executable instructions stored by the memory to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 5.