CN113938771B

CN113938771B - Service distribution method of passive optical network

Info

Publication number: CN113938771B
Application number: CN202010607384.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张波; 郑刚
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-29
Filing date: 2020-06-29
Publication date: 2023-03-31
Anticipated expiration: 2040-06-29
Also published as: WO2022001840A1; CN113938771A

Abstract

A virtual network unit is deployed on the OLT by utilizing a virtualization technology, and one or more ONUs corresponding to the same signed service are managed through the virtual network unit. The virtual network element on the OLT may be considered as a proxy or gateway for the ONU, which communicates with the network side network element through the virtual network element. For the ONU, the ONU does not need to carry out address conversion of a local area network and a wide area network, and the processing of the ONU is simplified. Meanwhile, the virtual network unit is deployed on the OLT, and the virtual network unit is actually a functional unit of the OLT, so that the method provided by the application does not need to add new active equipment in a PON system architecture, and can fully exert the advantage of convenient deployment of the passive optical network.

Description

Service distribution method of passive optical network

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of Optical communications, and in particular, to a service distribution method for a Passive Optical Network (PON).

Background

Passive Optical Network (PON) technology is a point-to-multipoint Optical fiber access technology. The PON system may include an Optical Line Terminal (OLT), an Optical Distribution Network (ODN), and at least one Optical Network Unit (ONU). The OLT is connected with a plurality of ONUs through the ODN.

With the development of home broadband access technology, home terminals generally have WiFi access capability, and WiFi becomes a main access mode for networking electronic devices (such as personal computers, mobile phones, tablet devices, smart televisions, smart speakers, smart home appliances, and the like) in homes. But the method is limited by wall shielding in the home environment, and the home networking scheme with single WiFi hot spot has WiFi coverage blind spots, so that the home broadband access requirements cannot be met. Therefore, multiple technologies of multi-WiFi hotspot networking appear in the market, for example, an ethernet line, a power line, a coaxial cable, a WiFi relay and the like are used as transmission media to perform multi-WiFi hotspot networking.

However, as the demand for home access bandwidth increases, the transmission medium cannot meet the demand for higher and higher bandwidth (such as gigabit bandwidth demand), and the introduction of optical fiber access technology is required to support the demand for high bandwidth, multipoint access.

Similarly, in other service scenarios sensitive to communication delay and communication rate, such as industrial internet, smart building, etc., with the increasing demand of communication bandwidth, the increasing of broadband access devices also requires the introduction of optical fiber access technology to support high bandwidth and multi-point access.

Disclosure of Invention

With the continuous improvement of the requirement of access bandwidth, more and more terminal devices can access the network through the optical fiber, and the density and the number of the ONUs can be gradually increased. Specifically, a virtual network unit is deployed on the OLT by using a virtualization technology, and one or more ONUs corresponding to the same subscription service are managed by the virtual network unit. The virtual network unit on the OLT may be regarded as a proxy or gateway of the ONU, and the ONU communicates with the network side network element through the virtual network unit. For the ONU, the ONU does not need to carry out address conversion of a local area network and a wide area network, and the processing of the ONU is simplified. Meanwhile, the virtual network unit is deployed on the OLT, and the virtual network unit is actually a functional unit of the OLT, so that no active device is added in a PON system architecture, and the advantage of convenient deployment of the passive optical network can be fully exerted. It should be noted that, in this application, an ONU corresponding to a subscription service or an ONU used for the same subscription service refers to one or more ONUs that are required to be used by the same subscription service or the same type of subscription service of a user, and a virtual network unit corresponding to the subscription service refers to a virtual network unit created by the OLT for the subscription service of the user. If a certain user signs a home broadband service, in order to improve broadband access experience, one ONU is deployed in each room of the home, and 4 ONUs are provided in total, so that the home broadband service signed by the user corresponds to 4 ONUs; in addition, the operator network (such as the operation support system and the element management system) also instructs the OLT to create a virtual network element to manage or control the 4 ONUs.

Based on the inventive concept, the application provides a service issuing method for an ONU, and a device and a system corresponding to the method.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a service provisioning method applied to a PON. Firstly, an OLT (optical line terminal) receives a first message from a network element management system, wherein the first message comprises a registration identifier of a virtual network unit and a registration identifier of at least one ONU (optical network unit), the virtual network unit is a function unit which is established or to be established in the OLT, and the virtual network unit and the at least one ONU correspond to the same signed service; when the OLT receives a registration request of a first ONU, the OLT authenticates the first ONU according to a registration identifier of the first ONU, which is included in the registration request, and if the registration identifier of at least one ONU issued by a network element management system before includes the registration identifier of the first ONU, the authentication is passed; then, the OLT sends a service registration request to the configuration server, the service registration request comprises a registration identifier of the virtual network unit, and the configuration server returns a service parameter corresponding to the registration identifier of the virtual network unit to the OLT. It should be noted that, in the method, after the operation support system signs a service for the user, the operation support system sends the registration identifier of one virtual network unit and the registration identifier of at least one ONU corresponding to the service, and the operation support system also sends the registration identifier of the virtual network unit and the corresponding service parameters to the configuration server.

Based on the method of the first aspect, the virtual network unit in the OLT serves as an agent or management node of one or more ONUs, the virtual network unit manages a plurality of virtual network units under the same group of signed services, the virtual network unit performs service registration to the configuration server in a unified manner, and the ONUs do not need to perform service registration to the configuration server respectively, thereby simplifying the flow and functions of the ONUs.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the OLT further obtains a Service Virtual Local Area Network Tag (S-VLAN-T) and a user Virtual Local Area Network Tag (C-VLAN-T) corresponding to the subscribed Service from the Network element management system; the OLT establishes a service communication channel with a Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) according to the S-VLAN-T and the C-VLAN-T, and acquires a Wide Area Network (WAN) IP address distributed by the BRAS for the virtual Network unit. Subsequently, the virtual network unit communicates with a network element in the wide area network based on the WAN IP address, for example, in a service registration request sent by the OLT to the configuration server, the source address is the WAN IP address. Therefore, in the method provided by the application, the OLT replaces one or more ONUs corresponding to the same signed service to establish a service communication channel with the BRAS, so that the processing of the ONUs and the BRAS is simplified.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, after the OLT authenticates the first ONU, the OLT further allocates a Local Area Network (LAN) IP address to the user equipment connected to the first ONU; in addition, after the OLT passes the authentication of the first ONU, the OLT also allocates a Private Virtual Local Area Network Tag (P-VLAN-T) corresponding to the S-VLAN-T and the C-VLAN-T, and sends the P-VLAN-T to the first ONU. The virtual network unit may be used as a communication gateway having a Network Address Translation (NAT) function, and may implement routing and forwarding of the ONU and other network elements. When the OLT receives a first message from a first ONU, the message header of the first message comprises P-VLAN-T, the LAN IP address of the user equipment and the MAC address of the virtual network unit; the OLT packages the data part of the first message into a second message and sends the second message to a Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS), wherein the second message carries S-VLAN-T, C-VLAN-T and WAN IP addresses; the second message also includes service parameters, such as at least one of information of account number, user name and password. And when the OLT receives the third message from the BRAS, the OLT encapsulates the data part of the third message into a fourth message and sends the fourth message to the first ONU, wherein the fourth message comprises the P-VLAN-T and the LAN IP address of the user equipment.

In a local area network consisting of the OLT and a plurality of ONUs, the OLT can route and forward messages in the local area network according to the P-VLAN-T and the MAC address of a message destination party; assuming that the OLT manages a plurality of ONUs, the second ONU corresponds to the same signed service as the first ONU, and if the message from the first ONU is received by the OLT and carries the MAC address corresponding to the second ONU, the OLT forwards the message of the first ONU to the second ONU. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the MAC address corresponding to the second ONU is the MAC address of the second ONU, or the MAC address of the user equipment to which the second ONU is connected.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the registration identifier is a logical registration identifier allocated by the operation support system for the virtual network unit and the ONU corresponding to the same subscription service; the first message comprises S-VLAN-T and C-VLAN-T, and after receiving the first message, the OLT creates the virtual network unit on the OLT by using virtualization technology. In the implementation mode, the operation support system takes a virtual network unit in the OLT as an agent or a gateway of the ONU, manages the virtual network unit and the ONU which is connected with the virtual network unit and corresponds to the same subscription service as a group, distributes logic registration identifiers for the virtual network unit and the ONU which is connected with the virtual network unit and corresponds to the same subscription service in a unified way, and sends the logic registration identifiers to the OLT; the OLT creates a virtual network unit, authenticates the ONU according to the logic registration identifier, and establishes a communication channel with other network elements as an agent of the ONU.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the registration identifier is an equipment serial number of the ONU; before the OLT receives the first message, the OLT creates a virtual network unit according to a second message sent by the network management system, allocates an equipment serial number for the virtual network unit, and sends the equipment serial number of the virtual network unit to the network element management system. In the implementation mode, the OLT firstly creates a virtual network unit according to the indication of the network management system, allocates an equipment serial number for the virtual network unit, and then reports the equipment serial number of the virtual network unit to the operation support system; in addition, the user side equipment (such as a mobile terminal of operation and maintenance personnel) also sends the equipment serial number of the ONU to the operation support system; and the operation support system sends the equipment serial number of the ONU corresponding to the same subscription service to the OLT, and the OLT authenticates the ONU according to the equipment serial number of the ONU and establishes a communication channel with other network elements as an agent of the ONU.

In a second aspect, the present application provides an OLT apparatus. The apparatus includes a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. The transceiver is used for receiving and transmitting signals and data; a memory for storing program instructions; a processor for executing a program stored in the memory, the OLT performing the method as described in the first aspect when said program is executed.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a PON system comprising an OLT and at least one optical network unit as described above.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a PON system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a PON service distribution method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a method for establishing a communication channel between a virtual network element and a BRAS according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a PON service distribution method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of another PON service distribution method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a PON system architecture for performing ONU management based on services according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a functional diagram of a virtual network unit according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of an OLT device according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may be applied to various passive optical network systems, for example, a next-generation PON (NG-PON), an NG-PON1, an NG-PON2, a gigabit-capable PON (GPON), a 10 gigabit-per-second PON (10 gigabit-per-second PON, xg-PON), a symmetric 10 gigabit-per-passive optical network (10-gigabit-symmetric passive optical network, XGS-PON), an Ethernet PON (Ethernet PON, EPON), a 10 gigabit-per-second (10 gigabit-per-second PON,10 g-EPON), a next-generation EPON (next-generation EPON, NG-EPON), a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) PON, a time-division multiplexing (time-division-multiplexing) PON, TWDM) PON, point-to-Point (P2P) WDM PON (P2P-WDM PON), asynchronous transfer mode PON (APON), broadband PON (broadband PON), and the like, as well as 25gigabit per second PON (25gigabit per second PON, 25G-PON), 50gigabit per second PON (50gigabit per second PON, 50G-PON), 100gigabit per second PON (100gigabit per second PON, 100G-PON), 25gigabit per second PON (25gigabit per second EPON, 25G-EPON), 50gigabit per second EPON (50gigabit per second EPON, 50G-EPON), 100gigabit per second EPON (50gigabit per second EPON, 50G-EPON-N), 100gigabit per second EPON (100EPON, 100G-EPON), and other rates.

Fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a PON system according to the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the PON system 100 includes at least one OLT 101, at least one ODN 102, and at least one ONU. The OLT 101 provides a network side interface for the PON system 100, and connects various network side network elements or entities, such as a network element management system 106, a configuration Server 107, a Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) 105, and the like. ONU 103-1, ONU 103-2 and ONU 103-3 are connected to OLT 101 through ODN 105, the ONU provides the user side interface for PON system 100, and the ONU is the optical access device closest to the terminal; an ONU may also be referred to as an Optical Network Terminal (ONT), and for convenience of description, the ONT and the ONU are hereinafter collectively referred to as an ONU; in fig. 1, 3 ONUs are taken as an example, and there may be more ONUs or only one ONU in actual networking; for convenience of description, ONU103 is used hereinafter to refer to any of ONU 103-1, ONU 103-2, and ONU 103-3; in fig. 1, the ONU 103-2, and the ONU 103-3 may specifically be optical modems distributed in different rooms in a home, optical access devices distributed in different areas (e.g. different floors) in a building, or optical access devices distributed in different production lines or production workshops in a factory. The ODN 104 is a network composed of optical fibers and passive optical splitting devices, and is used for connecting the OLT 101 device and the ONU103 device, and distributing data signals between the OLT 101 and the ONU 103. The network element management system 106 is a system for managing a network, a network internal device, or a network element. The configuration server 107 is responsible for configuring and managing the client terminal devices. A Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) 105 is a bridge between a Broadband Access network and a backbone network, and provides functions of Access, authentication, charging, control, management, and the like for Broadband network users.

The PON system shown in fig. 1 can be applied to various scenes requiring broadband access, such as homes, buildings, and industries. As in a home, by distributing and deploying ONUs 103 in each room, a user can obtain a faster and more stable broadband access experience. With the increase of the density and the number of the ONUs, how to perform concise management on the ONUs, how to optimize service distribution and service intercommunication flows, and the like become technical problems to be solved urgently.

In the PON system architecture 100 provided by the present application, a virtual network unit 102 is deployed on an OLT by using a virtualization technology, and group management and control are performed on ONUs 103, for example, based on a subscription service of a user, one or more ONUs 103 corresponding to the same group or the same subscription service are uniformly managed and controlled by one virtual network unit 102; the virtual network unit 102 can be regarded as a proxy or gateway of the ONU103, and the ONU103 communicates with the network-side network element through the virtual network unit 102; each ONU103 does not need to establish a communication channel with a network side network element, which simplifies the processing of the ONU 103. Meanwhile, since the virtual network unit 102 is deployed in the OLT 101 and is actually a functional unit of the OLT 101, no active device is newly added in the PON system architecture.

It should be noted that the virtualization technology described in the present application is a resource management technology in the field of computers, and various physical resources of a computer, such as a server, a network, a memory, a storage, and the like, are abstracted and converted to present the resources, so that an uncleavable barrier between physical structures is broken, and a user can apply the resources in a better manner than an original configuration. The present application does not limit the specific type of virtualization technology, and the virtual network unit 102 may be deployed in the OLT using container technology or other virtualization technologies.

Based on the PON system 100 shown in fig. 1, the method and apparatus proposed in the present application will be described below with reference to specific embodiments. In the following embodiments, for convenience of understanding, the method and apparatus proposed in the present application will be mainly described in the context of a home broadband access scenario. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the methods and apparatus described herein are equally applicable to other industries and application scenarios, such as broadband access for industrial internet, broadband access for intelligent building management, broadband access for intelligent transportation, etc.; that is, when an application scenario is compared with a home broadband access service, the main difference is the difference between the service type and the deployment location of the ONU103, and the method, apparatus and system provided by the present application can also be applied to the broadband access scenario.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a service delivery method proposed in the present application. Before the service distribution process shown in fig. 2, it is assumed that the user has signed a contract with the operator, and the contract service may include one or more services, such as broadband Internet access (broadband over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and Voice over IP (Voice over Internet Protocol), and the contract service corresponds to one or more ONUs 103. An Operation Support System (OSS) determines a virtual network unit bound with or corresponding to a service signed by a user and a registration identifier of an ONU; the registration identification of the ONU is used for uniquely identifying one ONU, and in the process of registering the ONU to the OLT, the registration identification of the ONU is used for identifying the identity of the ONU; the registration mark of the virtual network unit is used for marking the virtual network unit, and in the process of service registration of the virtual network unit, the registration mark of the virtual network unit is used for marking the identity of the virtual network unit. The OSS also generates signing service data, and the signing service data comprises service parameters; the service parameters include service opening states of the broadband access services, account numbers and passwords of the broadband access services, such as broadband internet access account numbers and passwords, voIP account numbers and passwords. And the OSS sends the registration identification of the virtual network unit and the corresponding service parameter to the configuration server. And the OSS sends the registration identifiers of the virtual network unit and the ONU to the network element management system.

201: the network element management system 106 sends the registration identification of the virtual network element and the registration identification of the at least one ONU to the OLT 101. Wherein, the registration identifier of the virtual network element is the registration identifier of the virtual network element 102; the ONU is an ONU103 which is deployed in the home of a user and provides broadband access for the terminal equipment of the user; the ONUs 103 corresponding to the registration identifier of at least one ONU correspond to the same subscription service, that is, the same broadband access service can be provided for the user terminal. The virtual network unit 102 records the registration identifier of the ONU as a credential for subsequent ONU registration authentication. It should be noted that, when OLT 101 receives 201 the message, virtual network element 102 may or may not have been created. If the virtual network element 102 has not been created, the OLT 101, after receiving the 201 message, creates the virtual network element 102 using virtualization technology.

202: the ONU103 sends a registration request to the OLT 101, which carries the registration identifier of the ONU. After the user signs up for the broadband service, the ONU103 will be installed and enabled at home. ONU103 powers on and sends a registration request to OLT 101. The ONU registration identifier may be of various types, and may be a serial number of the ONU103 device, or a logical number (also referred to as a logical registration identifier) assigned by the OSS to the ONU 103. When the registration identifier is a logical registration identifier assigned by the OSS, a user or an operation and maintenance person is required to import the logical registration identifier into the ONU103, for example, the logical registration identifier is input through a network page or an application client for ONU maintenance.

203: the OLT 101 receives the registration request of the ONU103, authenticates the ONU103, and if the registration identifier of the ONU received in the message 201 includes the registration identifier carried in the message 202, the authentication is passed. If the user signs up and enables a plurality of ONUs, the OLT 101 receives registration requests of the ONUs 103, and the OLT 101 associates the ONUs 103 with the virtual network unit 102 and belongs the ONUs 103 to the same home virtual network for management. Associating ONU103 with virtual network element 102 means recording the correspondence between ONU103 and virtual network element 102.

204: a virtual network unit 102 in the OLT 101 sends a service registration request to the provisioning server 107 on behalf of the ONU103, and acquires service parameters corresponding to the subscribed service. An OLT 101 sends a service registration request to a configuration server 107, where the service registration request carries a registration identifier of a virtual network element 102; the configuration server 107 authenticates the virtual network unit 102 according to the registration identifier of the virtual network unit 102, and sends the service parameter corresponding to the registration identifier of the virtual network unit 102 to the OLT 101. The subsequent virtual network unit 102 carries the service parameters in the message sent to the BRAS or the service server, and the BRAS or the service server authenticates the user according to the service parameters. It should be noted that, the virtual network unit 102 in the OLT 101 only needs to perform service registration once; if the virtual network unit 102 receives the registration request of other ONUs 103 corresponding to the same subscription service after completing the service registration and acquiring the service parameters, the virtual network unit 102 does not need to perform service registration again after authenticating the ONU 103.

A brief idea of service delivery in a PON system 100 is presented in fig. 2. A virtual network unit 102 in the OLT 101 serves as a proxy or a summary node of one or more ONUs 103 in a user home network, the virtual network unit 102 manages multiple virtual network units 102 under the same subscription service, and the virtual network unit 102 performs service registration to a configuration server 107 in a unified manner; the ONU103 does not need to perform service registration with the configuration server 107, which simplifies the flow and functions of the ONU 103.

It should be further noted that, since the virtual network unit 102 is a virtual function unit or a virtual function module in the OLT 101, there is no absolutely obvious boundary between the functions implemented by the virtual network unit 102 and the functions implemented by other components of the OLT 101, and some functions may be implemented by the virtual network unit 102 or other components of the OLT 101; for example, the registration identifier of the virtual network element and the registration identifier of at least one ONU transmitted by the network element management system 106 may be stored in a memory common to the OLT 101, or may be stored in a memory dedicated to the virtual network element 102; for another example, the authentication of the ONU103 in step 203 may be implemented by another part in the OLT except the virtual network unit 102, or may be implemented by the virtual network unit 102; the virtual network unit 102 sends a message to an external network element, which can be realized only by the cooperation of a communication board or a communication interface of the OLT 101; therefore, in fig. 2 and the following description of the embodiments, if the functions or methods that need to be performed by the virtual network unit 102 are not explicitly described, the method performed by the OLT 101 may be performed by the virtual network unit 102, or may be implemented by other components.

Based on the flow shown in fig. 2, fig. 3 further describes how the virtual network unit 102 establishes a communication channel with the BRAS, and how to allocate a local area network IP to the ONU103 in a home virtual network. Fig. 3 uses the same messages or steps as fig. 2, with the same message or step numbers as fig. 2.

301: the element management system 106 also sends the channel parameters of the broadband access to the OLT 101. The Service data introduced in fig. 2 includes, in addition to Service parameters, channel parameters, where the channel parameters refer to parameters required for establishing a communication channel with the BRAS, such as Service Virtual Local Area Network tags (S-VLAN-T), customer Virtual Local Area Network tags (C-VLAN-T), and the like. The channel parameter may be issued by the OSS to the element management server 107, or may be allocated by the element management server 107. The element management server 107 sends the channel parameters to the OLT 101. It should be noted that, the content sent by the element management system 106 in the messages 301 and 201 may be specifically sent by one message, or may be sent by different messages; when 301 and 201 are two different messages, there is no restriction on the order of precedence between 301 and 201.

302: at the time the OLT 101 receives the 301 message, the virtual network element 102 may or may not have been created. If no virtual network element 102 has been created, OLT 101 creates a virtual network element 102 using virtualization technology after receiving 301 the message. After the OLT 101 obtains the channel parameters from the element management system 106 and creates the virtual network element 102, it establishes a communication channel with the BRAS 105 based on the channel parameters and obtains the wide area network IP address allocated by the BRAS 105 to the virtual network element 102. The subsequent virtual network element 102 uses this wide area network IP address to communicate with other network elements in the wide area network, and in step 204, the OLT 101 uses the wide area network IP address of the virtual network element 102 as a source address to communicate with the configuration server 107. It should be noted that the sequence of steps 302 and 202 is not limited.

303: as described in the embodiment corresponding to fig. 2, after a certain ONU103 is successfully registered, the virtual network unit 102 belongs to the same home virtual network with other ONUs 103 corresponding to the same subscription service, and manages the home virtual network, where the home virtual network is a local network formed by at least one ONU103 and the virtual network unit. Specifically, the Virtual Network unit 102 needs to assign Local Area Network parameters in the home Virtual Network to the ONU103 that has successfully registered, where the Local Area Network parameters include one or more of the following parameters, such as a Local Area Network IP address and a Private Virtual Local Area Network Tag (P-VLAN-T). It is understood that the virtual network unit 102 supports a function of a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, and allocates an internal IP of the home virtual network to the ONU103 managed by it. When the ONU103 needs to communicate with a network element other than the local area network, the virtual network unit 102 needs to forward a packet of the local area network (which may also be referred to as an internal network or a private network) and a wide area network (which may also be referred to as an external network or a public network), and the virtual network unit 102 also needs to have a Network Address Translation (NAT) function to perform IP address translation of the local area network and the wide area network. It should be noted that, the present application does not limit the order of steps 303 and 204.

Fig. 2 and fig. 3 illustrate a basic concept of a service delivery method, which is applied to the PON system 100 proposed in the present application. For ease of understanding, fig. 4 illustrates an example of service issuance in which registration identifiers are assigned by OSS on the basis of fig. 2 and fig. 3.

401: the OSS distributes logic registration identification for the virtual network unit and ONU bound with or corresponding to the user signing service; the OSS generates signing service data, and the signing service data comprises service parameters and channel parameters.

402: the OSS sends the logical registration identity of the virtual network element and the corresponding service parameters to the configuration server 107.

403: the OSS sends the logical registration identities of the virtual network elements and the ONUs, as well as the corresponding channel parameters, to the element management system 106.

404: the network element management system 106 sends the logical registration identifiers of the virtual network elements and the ONUs, and the corresponding channel parameters to the OLT 101. For a detailed explanation of this step, reference may be made to step 201 and step 301, which are not described herein again.

405: the OLT 101 obtains the wide area network IP address assigned by the BRAS 105 for the virtual network element 102. For a detailed explanation see step 302.

406-407: ONU103 sends a registration request to OLT 101, and OLT 101 authenticates ONU 103. See in particular steps 202 and 203.

408: the virtual network unit 102 allocates local network parameters in the home virtual network to the ONU103 that has successfully registered. See step 303 for details.

409: the virtual network element 102 communicates with the configuration server 107 and obtains service parameters corresponding to the logical registration identifier of the virtual network element 102. See step 204 for details.

In the flow shown in fig. 4, the OSS assigns registration identifiers to the virtual network element 102 and the ONU 103. In another implementation, the device serial number of the ONU may also be used as the registration identifier. Fig. 5 describes a service delivery process using the device serial number as the registration identifier.

501: the user signs a contract with the operator, and the OSS generates signing service data, wherein the signing service data comprises service parameters and channel parameters.

502: the OSS sends the channel parameters to the element management system 106.

503: the element management system 106 sends the channel parameters to the OLT 101.

504: the OLT 101 records the channel parameters, creates the virtual network element 102, assigns a device serial number to the virtual network element 102, and returns the device serial number of the virtual network element 102 to the element management system 106. It should be noted that, since the virtual network unit 102 is a virtual optical network unit created by the OLT 101, the device serial number of the virtual network unit 102 is not a serial number of a certain real device, but an identifier assigned by the OLT 101 to the virtual network unit 102.

505: the element management system 106 returns the device sequence number of the virtual network element 102 to the OSS.

506: the OSS sends the device serial number of the virtual network element 102 and the corresponding traffic parameters to the configuration server 107.

507: the OSS issues the device serial number of the virtual network element 102 to a subscriber or an operation and maintenance worker. Such as OSS sends the device serial number of the virtual network element 102 to the mobile terminal of the subscriber or the operation and maintenance staff.

508: when one or more ONUs 103 need to be installed and enabled, the device serial numbers of the one or more ONUs 103 and the device serial number of the virtual network element 102 are sent to the OSS through the mobile terminal. There are many ways for the mobile terminal to obtain the ONU103 device serial number, and the ONU103 device serial number may be manually input or scanned by the mobile terminal application client. The mobile terminal may report the device serial numbers of the ONUs 103 in one report message, or report the device serial numbers of the ONUs 103 one by one.

509-510: the OSS issues the device serial numbers of the virtual network element 102 and the ONU103 to the network element management system 106, and the network element management system 106 issues the device serial numbers of the virtual network element 102 and the ONU103 to the OLT 101.

511-513: the ONU103 sends a registration request to the OLT 101, and the OLT 101 authenticates the ONU103 and assigns local area network parameters in the home virtual network to the ONU103 that has successfully registered. This step is similar to steps 406 and 408 in fig. 4, except that the registration identifier of the ONU103 carried in step 511 is the device serial number of the ONU103, and the OLT 101 authenticates the ONU103 according to the device serial number.

514: the OLT 101 obtains the wide area network IP address assigned by the BRAS 105 for the virtual network element 102. For a detailed explanation see step 302. It should be noted that, after acquiring the channel parameters, the OLT 101 may acquire the wan IP address allocated by the BRAS 105 to the virtual network unit 102 at any time, that is, the step 514 may occur at any time after 503 and before 515.

515: the virtual network unit 102 sends a service registration request to the configuration server 107, and obtains service parameters corresponding to the signed service. This step is described in detail with reference to step 204. The registration identifier in step 204 is specifically the device serial number of the virtual network element 102 in this embodiment.

Based on the methods of fig. 2 and fig. 3, fig. 4 and fig. 5 respectively show two different service delivery examples. In the flow shown in fig. 5, the device serial number is used as the authentication identifier, and the OSS does not need to assign the authentication identifier. However, since the OSS needs to collect the device serial number of the ONU103 in the method shown in fig. 5, the OSS still needs to participate in the process of registering the ONU103 on line after step 501 (see steps 508 and 509). In the solution shown in fig. 4, after the OSS generates and issues the registration identifier and the subscription service data in step 401, it is no longer necessary to participate in the registration online process of the ONU 103. The two embodiments have the characteristics respectively and are suitable for different network operation and maintenance requirements.

Fig. 2 to 5 illustrate the concept and specific embodiments of service delivery in the PON system 100. Compared with the prior art, in the service issuing method provided by the application, the virtual network unit 102 located in the OLT 101 uniformly manages the plurality of ONUs 103 of the user, and each ONU103 does not need to establish a communication channel with the BRAS 105 to acquire a wide area network IP address, or needs not to initiate service registration with the configuration server 107 to acquire service parameters, so that the processing of the ONU103 is simplified, and the system performance is improved.

The PON system architecture proposed in fig. 1 is flexible and extensible, conforms to the trend of clouding and ONU simplification, and is beneficial for operators to rapidly develop and deploy new services. The architecture shown in fig. 1 may be extended to implement management of service-based ONUs. As shown in fig. 6, one virtual network unit 102 on the OLT corresponds to multiple ONUs 103 of the same class or group of services, and the virtual network unit 102 serves as a communication gateway between the ONUs 103 and other user devices or terminal devices connected to the ONUs 103, so that services are easy to deploy and a network is easy to maintain. As shown in fig. 6, ONUs 103 corresponding to different services are managed by different virtual network units 102 on the OLT, and the virtual network units 102 communicate with a server or a service platform providing the services. The home broadband service platform 111, the virtual reality service platform 112 and the IoT service platform 113 provide home broadband services, virtual reality services and IoT services, respectively. The service platforms 110 can be deployed in the cloud. The OLT 101 provides a home broadband service virtual network unit 102, a virtual reality service virtual network unit 102, an IoT service virtual network unit 102, and ONUs 103 corresponding to services respectively. It should be noted that fig. 6 is only an example of a network architecture, and does not include all network elements, such as the OLT 101 may need to communicate with the service platform through the BRAS 105. It should also be noted that when one ONU103 needs to support multiple service types, it may belong to different virtual network elements 102 for management.

As can be seen from the above description, in the service issuing process, the virtual network unit 102, as a virtual ONU, acquires the channel parameter and the service parameter corresponding to the subscribed service. In the following, how the virtual network element 102 routes and forwards messages based on the channel parameters and the service parameters in the service flow will be described. As shown in fig. 7, the virtual network unit 102 needs to have functions of a NAT 701 and a DHCP server 702. The network between the virtual network unit 102 and the ONU103 is a local area network (or referred to as an intranet or a private network), and the network between the virtual network unit 102 and the BRAS 105 is a wide area network (or referred to as an extranet or a public network). The Virtual Network unit 102 needs to support the function of the DHCP server 702, and allocates Local Area Network parameters in the home Virtual Network to the ONU103 that has successfully registered, where the Local Area Network parameters include one or more of the following parameters, such as a Local Area Network IP address and a Private Virtual Local Area Network Tag (P-VLAN-T). When the ONU103 needs to communicate with a network element outside the local area network, the virtual network unit 102 needs to forward messages of the internal network and the external network, and the virtual network unit 102 also needs to have the NAT 701 function to perform IP address translation of the internal network and the external network. It should be noted that NAT address translation may be performed in multiple ways, for example, the virtual network unit 102 may map LAN IPs of different ONUs 103 to the same WAN IP and different ports, or may map LAN IPs of different ONUs 103 to different WAN IPs; for convenience of description, the translation between WAN IP addresses and LAN IP addresses is collectively referred to in this application, and the concept of port numbers is not presented.

When the OLT 101 receives a message from a certain registered ONU103, the message header of the message includes a P-VLAN-T allocated by the virtual network unit 102, the LAN IP address allocated by the virtual network unit 102 for the user equipment and a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the virtual network unit 102, the virtual network unit 102 converts the LAN IP address in the message into a WAN IP address, converts the P-VLAN-T in the message into an S-VLAN-T and a C-VLAN-T, carries a service parameter in the message, and then forwards the message to the BRAS 105 through the WAN interface 703. The BRAS 105 authenticates the virtual network element 102 according to the S-VLAN-T and the C-VLAN-T; when the OLT 101 receives a message from a registered ONU103, where a message header of the message includes a P-VLAN-T allocated by the virtual network element 102 and a Media Access Control (MAC) address corresponding to another ONU103, the virtual network element 102 directly forwards the message to another ONU103 through the LAN interface 704. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the MAC address corresponding to the another ONU103 is the MAC address of the another ONU103 or the MAC address of the user equipment to which the another ONU103 is connected.

When the OLT 101 receives a message from the BRAS, where the message includes an S-VLAN-T, a C-VLAN-T, and a WAN IP address, the virtual network unit 102 needs to convert the S-VLAN-T and the C-VLAN-T in the message into a P-VLAN-T, convert the WAN IP address into a LAN IP address of a corresponding ONU103, and then send the message to the corresponding ONU103 through the LAN interface 704.

As can be seen from the above example, in the local area network formed by the virtual network unit 102 and the ONU103, message forwarding and intercommunication in the local area network can be realized through the P-VLAN-T and the MAC address, and when communication with devices other than the virtual network unit 102 and the ONU103 is required, the virtual network unit 102 serves as a communication gateway to realize message routing and forwarding between the ONU103 and a network element other than the local area network.

In addition to the NAT and DHCP server functions, for a specific service, the virtual network element 102 needs to have a specific function corresponding to the service, for example, in a broadband internet service, the virtual network element 102 needs to have a dialing function of a Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPOE).

It should be noted that the WAN interface 703 and the LAN interface 704 in fig. 7 are logical interfaces, and may be specifically implemented by software codes or programs; the dashed line shown in fig. 7 represents a logical connection, such as a message that needs to be sent or received through the LAN interface 704 of the virtual network unit 102, and may specifically need to be implemented through a PON interface board of the OLT 101, that is, the virtual network unit 102 communicates with the ONU103 through the PON interface board of the OLT 101; the messages that need to be sent or received through the WAN interface 703 of the virtual network unit 102 may specifically need to be implemented through the network side interface of the OLT 101, for example, the virtual network unit 102 communicates with the BRAS 105 through the network side interface of the OLT 101.

The present application also provides an OLT 101 device 800. As shown in fig. 8, the apparatus includes a processor 801, a memory 802, and a transceiver 803, and the processor 801, the memory 802, and the transceiver 803 are connected to each other by a line.

The processor 801 may be a general Central Processing Unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit ASIC, or at least one integrated circuit, and is configured to execute related programs to implement the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present invention. The processor may independently have a function of PON related protocol Media Access Control (MAC), or may implement the PON MAC function by using an external chip to implement communication with the ONU 103. The processor may independently have the function of the ethernet MAC, and may also implement the function of the ethernet MAC through an external chip, so as to implement communication with other network elements except the ONU 103. The device 800 may include multiple processors, each of which may include one or more CPUs. The processor 801 is specifically responsible for performing the methods related to the OLT 101 in the present application, and communicates with other network elements or devices through the transceiver 803.

The memory 802 is used to store program instructions and data. The Memory may be a Read Only Memory (ROM), a static Memory device, a dynamic Memory device, or a Random Access Memory (RAM). When the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention is implemented by software or firmware, a program code for implementing the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention is stored in the memory 802 and executed by the processor 801. The memory 802 may be configured to store and record a corresponding relationship between the ONU103 and the virtual network element 102, a registration identifier of the ONU103, and a registration identifier of the virtual network element 102. Processor 801 executes program instructions in memory 802 to perform the functions of OLT 101 described herein, such as creating virtual network element 102, implementing NAT 701 and DHCP server 702.

In an embodiment, the processor 801 may include memory 802 internally. In another embodiment, the processor 801 and the memory 802 are two separate structures.

The transceiver 803 is configured to perform operations of the OLT for transmitting and receiving signals or data in the above embodiments. The transceiver 803 includes an optical transmitter and/or an optical receiver. The optical transmitter may be used to transmit optical signals and the optical receiver may be used to receive optical signals. The light emitter may be implemented by a light emitting device such as a gas laser, a solid laser, a liquid laser, a semiconductor laser, a direct modulation laser, or the like. The optical receiver may be implemented by a photodetector, such as a photodetector or a photodiode (e.g., an avalanche diode), etc. The transceiver 803 may also include a digital-to-analog converter and an analog-to-digital converter. The transceiver 803 may also include a wavelength division multiplexer for multiplexing and demultiplexing optical signals of different wavelengths.

Since the OLT needs to communicate with not only the ONU but also other network side network elements (such as a BRAS, a network element management system, a configuration server, etc.) besides the ONU103, the signal transceiving functions performed by the transceiver 803 may be performed by different transceivers, respectively. As shown in fig. 9, the transceivers 803 of the OLT 101 equipment 900 include a user-side transceiver 8031 and a network-side transceiver 8032. The user-side transceiver 8031 may be specifically located on a PON interface board of the OLT, so as to implement the function of the user-side interface described in the foregoing embodiment, where the user-side transceiver 8031 is configured to perform transceiving of a communication signal with the ONU103, for example, the OLT 101 receives a message from the ONU103 through the user-side transceiver 8031 (step 202, step 406, step 511), and sends the message to the ONU103 (step 303, step 408, step 513). The network-side transceiver 8032 is configured to perform transceiving of communication signals with a network-side network element, so as to implement the function of the network-side interface in the foregoing embodiment, for example, the OLT 101 sends a message to the network-side network element through the network-side transceiver 8032 (e.g., step 204, step 302, step 405, step 409, step 504, step 514, step 515), or receives a message from the network-side network element (e.g., step 201, step 204, step 301, step 302, step 404, step 405, step 409, step 503, step 510, step 514, step 515). The structure of the network-side transceiver 8032 and the user-side transceiver 8031 is similar to the transceiver 803, and thus, the description thereof is omitted here.

The embodiments of the present invention also have various beneficial effects described in the above embodiments of the method, and are not described herein again.

The invention also provides a PON system, which comprises the optical line terminal OLT 101 and one or more optical network units ONU 103.

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

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

Claims

1. A Passive Optical Network (PON) service distribution method is characterized in that,

an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) receives a first message from a Network element management system, where the first message includes a registration identifier of a virtual Network Unit and a registration identifier of at least one Optical Network Unit (ONU), where the virtual Network Unit is a functional Unit created or to be created in the OLT, and the virtual Network Unit and the at least one ONU correspond to the same subscription service;

the OLT receives a registration request of a first ONU, wherein the registration request of the first ONU comprises a registration identifier of the first ONU;

the OLT authenticates the first ONU according to the registration identifier of the first ONU, and if the registration identifier of the at least one ONU comprises the registration identifier of the first ONU, the authentication is passed;

the OLT sends a service registration request to a configuration server to acquire service parameters corresponding to the signed service, wherein the service registration request comprises a registration identifier of the virtual network unit;

the OLT obtains a Service Virtual Local Area Network Tag (S-VLAN-T) and a user Virtual Local Area Network Tag (C-VLAN-T) corresponding to the signed Service from the Network element management system;

and the OLT establishes a data channel with a Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) according to the S-VLAN-T and the C-VLAN-T, and acquires a Wide Area Network (WAN) IP address distributed by the BRAS for the virtual Network unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the OLT sends a service registration request to the configuration server after acquiring the WAN IP address, wherein the service registration request includes the WAN IP address.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein after the OLT authenticates the first ONU, the method further comprises the OLT assigning a Local Area Network (LAN) IP address to a user device, wherein the user device is a user device communicating with the OLT through the first ONU.

4. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein after the OLT authenticates the first ONU, the method further comprises the OLT assigning a Private Virtual Local Area Network Tag (P-VLAN-T) corresponding to the S-VLAN-T and C-VLAN-T, and sending the P-VLAN-T to the first ONU after receiving a registration request from the first ONU.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising,

the OLT receives a first message from the first ONU, and a message header of the first message comprises the P-VLAN-T, a LAN IP address of user equipment and a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the virtual network unit;

and the OLT sends a second message to a Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS), wherein the second message comprises a data part of the first message, and the second message also comprises the S-VLAN-T, the C-VLAN-T and the WAN IP address.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the service parameter includes at least one of information such as an account number, a user name, and a password, and the service parameter is included in a message sent by the OLT to the BRAS.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising,

the OLT receives a third message from the BRAS, wherein the third message comprises the S-VLAN-T, the C-VLAN-T and the WAN IP address;

and the OLT sends a fourth message to the first ONU, wherein the fourth message comprises the data part of the third message, the P-VLAN-T and the LAN IP address of the user equipment.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the registration identification of the at least one ONU further comprises a registration identification of a second ONU, and wherein the OLT receives a registration request from the second ONU and sends the P-VLAN-T to the second ONU.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising,

the OLT receives a fifth message from the first ONU, and a message header of the fifth message comprises the P-VLAN-T and a Media Access Control (MAC) address corresponding to the second ONU;

and the OLT forwards the fifth message to the second ONU.

10. A method according to any of claims 5-9, wherein said registration identifier is a logical registration identifier, wherein said S-VLAN-T and C-VLAN-T are included in said first message, and wherein said OLT creates said virtual network element on said OLT using a virtualization technique after receiving said first message.

11. The method according to any of claims 5-9, wherein the registration identifier is a device serial number, wherein the OLT prior to receiving the first message, further comprises,

the OLT receives a second message from the network element management system, wherein the second message comprises the S-VLAN-T and the C-VLAN-T;

and after receiving the second message, the OLT creates the virtual network unit on the OLT by using a virtualization technology.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein after the OLT receives the second message, the method further comprises the OLT assigning a device serial number to the virtual network element and sending the device serial number of the virtual network element to the element management system.

13. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the OLT comprises a plurality of the virtual network elements, each virtual network element corresponding to a group of ONUs.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first virtual network element and its ONU correspond to a first subscription service, and wherein the second virtual network element and its ONU correspond to a second subscription service.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein one ONU of the first virtual network element is the same ONU as one ONU of the second virtual network element.

16. An optical line terminal comprising a processor, a memory, and a transceiver, wherein,

the transceiver is used for transmitting and receiving signals or data;

the memory to store program instructions;

the processor configured to execute program instructions stored in the memory, the program instructions when executed causing the olt to perform the method of any of claims 1-15.

17. A PON system characterized in that the PON system comprises the optical line terminal according to claim 16 and at least one optical network unit.