CN114302463B

CN114302463B - Network switching method, system, equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN114302463B
Application number: CN202111624086.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王恒; 侯佳; 夏旭; 齐文
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2021-12-28
Filing date: 2021-12-28
Publication date: 2024-05-24
Anticipated expiration: 2041-12-28
Also published as: CN114302463A

Abstract

The application provides a network switching method, a system, equipment and a storage medium, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the first converged network element builds a QoS flow forwarding mapping table; the QoS flow forwarding mapping table comprises forwarding modes corresponding to different QoS flows; the forwarding mode is direct forwarding or indirect forwarding; the first converged network element sends a session update message to an AMF network element according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table; the AMF network element sends a switching confirmation message to the first network base station based on the received switching request and the session update message; the switching confirmation message comprises a first forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow in the PDU session; the first network base station forwards each QoS flow in the PDU session to a second network base station in the corresponding first forwarding mode based on the switching confirmation message; the application plays a role in differential QoS flow scheduling and preferentially guaranteeing key service flows; and the communication smoothness in the network switching process is guaranteed.

Description

Network switching method, system, equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of mobile communications technologies, and in particular, to a network switching method, system, device, and storage medium.

Background

The granularity of 5G to 4G switching in the current 5G standard is larger, and the current 5G standard is generally based on PDU session granularity and does not have the capability of using fine scheduling management. Traffic transfer between base stations is generally divided into direct forwarding and indirect forwarding. The direct forwarding mode is that the 5G base station (NG-RAN) directly transmits data to the 4G base station (E-UTRAN), the indirect forwarding mode is that the 5G base station firstly transmits the data to a fusion network element PDW-U+UPF which is combined by the 4G and the 5G, then transmits the data to an SGW network element of the 4G, and finally transmits the data to the 4G base station.

The handoff approach cannot distinguish between critical QoS (Quality of Service ) flows and non-critical QoS flows scheduled within the same session. For some critical QoS flows such as control type and delay sensitive type services, and for non-critical QoS flows such as large bandwidth video type, if the scheduling is performed by direct forwarding, network blocking and packet dropping may occur, and transmission of critical traffic flows cannot be guaranteed.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the problems in the prior art, the invention aims to provide a network switching method, a system, equipment and a storage medium, which solve the problem that the prior art cannot ensure the communication smoothness during network switching.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a network switching method, which includes the following steps:

The first converged network element builds a QoS flow forwarding mapping table; the QoS flow forwarding mapping table comprises forwarding modes corresponding to different QoS flows; the forwarding mode is direct forwarding or indirect forwarding;

The first converged network element sends a session update message to an AMF network element according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table;

The AMF network element sends a switching confirmation message to the first network base station based on the received switching request and the session update message; the switching confirmation message comprises a first forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow in the PDU session; and

And the first network base station forwards each QoS flow in the PDU session to the second network base station in the corresponding first forwarding mode based on the switching confirmation message.

Optionally, the sending, by the first converged network element, a session update message to an AMF network element according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table includes:

the first network base station sends a switching request to an AMF network element;

the AMF network element forwards the switching request to a first fusion network element;

And the first converged network element sends a session update message to an AMF network element according to the switching request and the QoS flow forwarding mapping table.

Optionally, the method comprises:

The first network base station sends a switching request to an AMF network element; the switching request comprises availability of a direct forwarding path; the direct forwarding path availability is used to characterize whether the first network base station can forward directly to the second network base station.

Optionally, the session update message includes a second forwarding manner corresponding to each QoS flow in the PDU session;

The AMF network element sends a switching confirmation message to the first network base station based on the received switching request and the session update message, and the AMF network element comprises:

And the AMF network element modifies the second forwarding mode based on the availability of the direct forwarding path in the received switching request to obtain a first forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow.

Optionally, each QoS flow corresponds to a preset priority; in the QoS flow forwarding mapping table, when the preset priority of the QoS flow is greater than a first preset threshold, the corresponding forwarding mode is direct forwarding; when the preset priority of the QoS flow is smaller than a second preset threshold, the corresponding forwarding mode is indirect forwarding; the second preset threshold is smaller than the first preset threshold.

Optionally, the indirect forwarding is that the first network base station sends the network traffic to a second converged network element, the second converged network element forwards the network traffic to an SGW network element, and the SGW network element forwards the network traffic to the second network base station; the direct forwarding is the first network base station sending network traffic to the second network base station.

Optionally, the method comprises:

And the first converged network element expands the content of the first initial cell according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table to generate a session updating message.

Optionally, the method comprises:

And the AMF network element expands the content of the second initial cell according to the first forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow to generate a switching confirmation message.

Optionally, the first network base station is a 5G base station and the second network base station is a 4G base station.

The invention also provides a network switching system for realizing the network switching method, which comprises the following steps:

The QoS flow forwarding mapping table building module is used for building a QoS flow forwarding mapping table by the first converged network element; the QoS flow forwarding mapping table comprises forwarding modes corresponding to different QoS flows; the forwarding mode is direct forwarding or indirect forwarding;

The session update message sending module is used for sending a session update message to the AMF network element according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table by the first converged network element;

The AMF network element sends a switching confirmation message to the first network base station based on the received switching request and the session updating message; the switching confirmation message comprises a first forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow in the PDU session; and

And the buffer flow sending module is used for forwarding each QoS flow in the PDU session to the second network base station in the corresponding first forwarding mode based on the switching confirmation message.

The invention also provides a network switching device, comprising:

A processor;

a memory in which an executable program of the processor is stored;

Wherein the processor is configured to perform the steps of any of the above network handover methods via execution of the executable program.

The present invention also provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a program which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of any one of the network handover methods described above.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages and outstanding effects:

The network switching method, the system, the equipment and the storage medium realize the switching granularity based on QoS Flow for the Flow transmission between the base stations in network switching, and the 5G base station can forward the QoS Flow to the 4G base station in a direct or indirect mode based on the QoS Flow granularity, and schedule part of key QoS flows in a direct mode; non-critical QoS flows are scheduled in an indirect mode, differential QoS flow scheduling is achieved, and the effect of guaranteeing critical service flows is guaranteed preferentially; and the communication smoothness in the network switching process is guaranteed.

Drawings

Other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon reading of the detailed description of non-limiting embodiments, made with reference to the following drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network switching method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of two forwarding modes of network traffic between 4G/5G base stations during network switching;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a network switching method according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a network switching system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a session update message sending module in a network switching system according to another embodiment of the present invention;

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

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a computer readable storage medium according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the example embodiments may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar structures, and thus a repetitive description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in fig. 1, an embodiment of the present invention discloses a network switching method, which includes the following steps:

S110, the first converged network element builds a QoS flow forwarding mapping table. The QoS (Quality of Service ) flow forwarding mapping table includes forwarding modes corresponding to different QoS flows. The forwarding mode is direct forwarding or indirect forwarding.

Each QoS flow corresponds to a preset priority, which is also an attribute of the QoS flow. In the QoS flow forwarding mapping table, when the preset priority of the QoS flow is greater than the first preset threshold, the corresponding forwarding mode is direct forwarding. When the preset priority of the QoS flow is smaller than a second preset threshold, the corresponding forwarding mode is indirect forwarding; the second preset threshold is smaller than the first preset threshold. Therefore, the QoS Flow (namely QoS Flow) with high priority can be guaranteed preferentially, and operators can avoid network blockage caused by that large and low-priority traffic among base stations is transmitted in a direct forwarding mode when switching from 5G to 4G. The problem that the QoS flows with different QoS index guarantees in the same session can not be differentiated and guaranteed in the prior art is avoided, the differentiated requirements of user services are met, meanwhile, services such as slicing services are guaranteed in a bottoming mode, and win-win of operators and users is achieved.

Referring to fig. 2, in the present embodiment, when the terminal 11 initiates a network switch, the network communication with the first network base station 12 is switched to the network communication with the second network base station 13. In order to ensure smooth communication in the network handover process, the first network base station 12 needs to send the buffered traffic to the second network base station 13, that is, by directly forwarding or indirectly forwarding. The indirect forwarding manner is that the first network base station 12 sends the network traffic to a second converged network element, the second converged network element forwards the network traffic to an SGW network element, and the SGW network element forwards the network traffic to the second network base station 13. The above-mentioned direct forwarding is that the first network base station 12 sends the network traffic to the second network base station 13.

In this embodiment, the first converged network element and the second converged network element are both network elements supporting 5G communication and 4G communication simultaneously. The first converged network element is a converged network element including SMF (Session Management Function ) +pgw-C (PDN GATEWAY Control plane function, PDN gateway control plane). The second converged network element is a converged network element comprising a UPF (User Plane Function ) +PGW-U (PDN GATEWAY User plane function, PDN gateway user plane).

That is, in this embodiment, the PGW-c+smf network element may determine a unique QoS Flow according to a PDU (PACKET DATA Unit ) session ID, QFI (i.e. an ID corresponding to each QoS Flow). Each QoS Flow has different QoS attributes including, but not limited to, priority. The PGW-c+smf network element may generate a QoS Flow forwarding mapping table according to various manners, including but not limited to local configuration, PCF (Policy Control Function ) issue, NWDAF prediction modification, third party capability open call, etc., to implement a forwarding manner of configuring each QoS Flow switching Flow. Table 1 exemplarily shows a QoS flow forwarding mapping table.

Table 1QoS flow forwarding mapping table

Sequence number	SUPI	PDU session ID	QFI	Switching transmission modes
					1	46003123	1	1	direct
2	46003123	1	2	indirect
					3	46003123	2	1	indirect
…

SUPI (subscriber permanent identifier) in table 1 is a 5G globally unique subscriber permanent identifier assigned to each subscriber. The switching transmission mode is direct, which means that it is a direct forwarding mode. The switch transmission mode is direct, which indicates that it is indirect forwarding mode. QFI represents an ID corresponding to each QoS Flow.

S120, the first converged network element sends a session update message to the AMF network element according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table. The session update message includes a second forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow in the PDU session.

That is, when the terminal 11 initiates a network handover, the first converged network element may acquire all QoS flows included in each PDU session, including QFI corresponding to each QoS flow. And then, according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table, the corresponding switching transmission mode (namely the second forwarding mode) can be uniquely determined according to the PDU session ID and QFI, and is packed in the session update message for transmission. That is, when the terminal initiates the handover, the SMF network element carries not only the QFI in all sessions but also the second forwarding mode corresponding to each QFI when returning to the session update message of the AMF network element. The second forwarding mode is direct forwarding or indirect forwarding.

In this embodiment, the first converged network element expands the first initial cell content of the standard message flow in the prior art according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table, so as to generate a session update message. That is, the first initial cell content is the standard cell content returned to the AMF (ACCESS AND Mobility Management Founction, access and mobility management function) network element by the first converged network element in the prior art, and because the first initial cell content of the existing standard message flow does not carry the forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow, after the application expands the first initial cell content, the session update message carries not only the QFI in all sessions but also the second forwarding mode corresponding to each QFI. The second forwarding mode is direct forwarding or indirect forwarding.

Therefore, the Flow forwarding control based on the fine granularity of the QoS Flow can be realized, the Flow forwarding control based on the coarse granularity of the PDU session is not realized, the differential QoS Flow scheduling is realized, and the effect of ensuring the key service Flow is preferentially realized; and the communication smoothness in the network switching process is guaranteed.

It should be noted that, regarding the message flow in the prior art when switching from 5G to 4G, that is, the above-mentioned standard message flow in the prior art, the present application is not repeated. The specific implementation can be implemented with reference to the prior art.

The PDU session of the present application refers to a session on the core network side. The PDU session is a session between the second converged network element and the first network base station; and/or a session between the second converged network element and the SGW network element; and/or a session between the SGW network element and the second network base station.

As shown in fig. 3, in the present embodiment, the step S120 includes:

S121, the first network base station sends a switching request to the AMF network element. The switch request includes availability of a direct forwarding path (i.e., direct Forwarding Path Availability). The above-described direct forwarding path availability is used to characterize whether a first network base station can forward directly to a second network base station. The value of the availability of the direct forwarding path is of the enumerated type. Illustratively, when the value is DIRECT PATH available, the PDU session indicates that the direct forwarding mode is supported; otherwise, the PDU session is only supported in an indirect forwarding mode.

S122, the AMF network element forwards the switching request to a first converged network element.

S123, the first converged network element sends a session update message to the AMF network element according to the switching request and the QoS flow forwarding mapping table.

That is, after the first converged network element receives the handover request of the terminal, a session update message is generated according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table, and the session update message is sent to the AMF network element.

And S130, the AMF network element sends a switching confirmation message to the first network base station based on the received switching request and the session update message. The handover confirmation message includes a first forwarding manner corresponding to each QoS flow in the PDU session. Specifically, step S130 includes:

s131, the AMF network element modifies the second forwarding mode based on the availability of the direct forwarding path in the received switching request to obtain a first forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow.

S132, the AMF network element expands the second initial cell content of the existing standard message flow according to the first forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow, and generates a switching confirmation message.

Specifically, the AMF network element needs to modify the QoS Flow forwarding mode in the session update message sent from the SMF network element according to the supporting situation of the 4G/5G base station switching forwarding direct mode, and finally sends the QoS Flow forwarding mode to the 5G base station. When the availability of the direct forwarding path indicates that direct forwarding is supported, the second forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow in the session update message remains unchanged. When the switching request does not contain the availability of the direct forwarding path or the carried availability of the direct forwarding path indicates that only indirect forwarding is supported, all forwarding modes corresponding to all QoS flows in the session updating message are modified to be indirect forwarding modes (i.e. directors), and a first forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS flow is obtained.

The second initial cell content is the standard cell content returned by the AMF network element to the first network base station in the prior art. Because the second initial cell content of the existing standard message Flow does not carry the forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS Flow, after the application is expanded, the obtained switching confirmation message contains the first forwarding mode corresponding to each QoS Flow, thus realizing the Flow forwarding control of fine granularity based on QoS Flow, but not the coarse granularity forwarding control based on PDU session, playing the roles of differential QoS Flow scheduling and preferentially guaranteeing the key service Flow; and the communication smoothness in the network switching process is guaranteed.

And S140, the first network base station forwards each QoS flow in the PDU session to the second network base station in the corresponding first forwarding mode based on the switching confirmation message. The second network base station then forwards to the terminal. That is, a QoS Flow can be uniquely determined according to the PDU session ID and the QoS Flow ID, so that each QoS Flow can be forwarded in a forwarding manner corresponding to the QoS Flow, and thus, flow forwarding can be achieved when each QoS Flow in all PDU sessions is switched through the method of the present application.

In this embodiment, the first network base station is a 5G base station, and the second network base station is a 4G base station. The application is not limited thereto. In other embodiments, the first network base station may be a 6G base station, and the second network base station may be a 5G base station.

The workflow of the network switching method proposed by the present application is specifically illustrated in two embodiments.

Example 1

S201, the 5G base station initiates a handover request, where the cell Direct Forwarding Path Availability in the handover request is DIRECT PATH available. At this time, both the direct forwarding mode and the indirect forwarding mode are described as being supported. In addition, the rest steps are the same as the standard message flow of the prior art.

S202, the PGW-C+SMF network element expands the first initial cell content sent to the AMF network element by the PGW-C+SMF network element in the standard message flow of the prior art according to the forwarding mode in the QoS flow forwarding mapping table, namely, for each QFI, the switching forwarding mode Forwarding Path Mode is added. For example, the message should carry PDU Session id=1, [ (qfi= 1,Forwarding Path Mode =direct), (qfi= 2,Forwarding Path Mode =direct) ].

S203, the AMF network element sends a switching control message to the 5G base station. Wherein Data forwarding tunnel info (data forwarding tunnel information) contains N3 tunnel information of the Session with PDU Session id=1. QoS Flow to be Forwarded List (QoS flow list to be forwarded) are added one cell Forwarding Path Mode for each QFI, such as [ (qfi= 1,Forwarding Path Mode =direct), (qfi= 2,Forwarding Path Mode =direct) ].

S204, the 5G base station uses a direct or indirect method to forward the downlink traffic based on Forwarding Path Mode of each QoS Flow. The remaining steps are the same as the standard message flow of the prior art.

S205, according to the above steps S201 to S204 in this embodiment, all QoS flows in the session with PDU session ID 2 are switched.

Example two

S301, a 5G base station initiates a switching request, wherein the switching request does not carry a cell Direct Forwarding Path Availability. At this time, only the indirect forwarding mode is supported between the 5G base station and the 4G base station. In addition, the rest steps are the same as the standard message flow of the prior art.

S302, the PGW-C+SMF network element expands the first initial cell content sent by the PGW-C+SMF network element to the AMF network element in the standard message flow of the prior art according to the forwarding mode in the QoS flow forwarding mapping table, namely, for each QFI, the switching forwarding mode Forwarding Path Mode is added. For example, the message should carry PDU Session id=1, [ (qfi= 1,Forwarding Path Mode =direct), (qfi= 2,Forwarding Path Mode =direct) ].

S303, since the AMF network element obtains the message according to the handover request, it can obtain: the 5G base station does not support a direct forwarding mode, so an indirect forwarding mode is adopted. The AMF sends a handover control message to the 5G base station, wherein Data forwarding tunnel info includes N3 tunnel information of the Session with PDU Session id=1; each QFI in QoS Flow to be Forwarded List is correspondingly increased by one cell Forwarding Path Mode, such as [ (qfi= 1,Forwarding Path Mode =direct), (qfi= 2,Forwarding Path Mode =direct) ].

And S304, the 5G base station uses an indirect mode to forward the downlink traffic based on Forwarding Path Mode of each QoS Flow. The remaining steps are the same as the standard message flow of the prior art.

S305, according to the steps S301 to S304 in this embodiment, all QoS flows in the session with PDU session ID 2 are switched.

It should be noted that, all the embodiments disclosed in the present application may be freely combined, and the combined technical solution is also within the protection scope of the present application.

As shown in fig. 4, an embodiment of the present invention further discloses a network switching system 4, which includes:

the QoS flow forwarding mapping table establishment module 41, the first converged network element builds a QoS flow forwarding mapping table. The QoS flow forwarding mapping table comprises forwarding modes corresponding to different QoS flows; the forwarding mode is direct forwarding or indirect forwarding.

And a session update message sending module 42, where the first converged network element sends a session update message to the AMF network element according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table.

And a handover confirmation message sending module 43, wherein the AMF network element sends a handover confirmation message to the first network base station based on the received handover request and the session update message. The handover confirmation message includes a first forwarding manner corresponding to each QoS flow in the PDU session. And

The buffer traffic sending module 44 forwards each QoS flow in the PDU session to the second network base station in the corresponding first forwarding manner based on the handover confirmation message.

It will be appreciated that the network switching system of the present invention also includes other existing functional modules that support the operation of the network switching system. The network switching system shown in fig. 4 is only an example, and should not be construed as limiting the functionality and scope of use of the embodiments of the present invention.

The network switching system in this embodiment is used to implement the above-mentioned network switching method, so for the specific implementation steps of the network switching system, reference may be made to the above description of the network switching method, which is not repeated here.

As shown in fig. 5, in another embodiment of the present application, based on the embodiment of fig. 4 described above, the session update message sending module 42 includes:

The handover request initiating unit 421, the first network base station sends a handover request to the AMF network element. The handover request includes availability of a direct forwarding path. The above-described direct forwarding path availability is used to characterize whether a first network base station can forward directly to a second network base station. The value of the availability of the direct forwarding path is of the enumerated type. Illustratively, when the value is DIRECT PATH available, the PDU session indicates that the direct forwarding mode is supported; otherwise, the PDU session is only supported in an indirect forwarding mode.

And a handover request forwarding unit 422, where the AMF network element forwards the handover request to the first converged network element.

And an update message generating unit 423, where the first converged network element sends a session update message to the AMF network element according to the handover request and the QoS flow forwarding mapping table.

The embodiment of the invention also discloses a network switching device, which comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores an executable program of the processor; the processor is configured to perform the steps in the network handover method described above via execution of an executable program. Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a network switching device disclosed in the present invention. An electronic device 600 according to this embodiment of the invention is described below with reference to fig. 6. The electronic device 600 shown in fig. 6 is merely an example, and should not be construed as limiting the functionality and scope of use of embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 6, the electronic device 600 is in the form of a general purpose computing device. Components of electronic device 600 may include, but are not limited to: at least one processing unit 610, at least one memory unit 620, a bus 630 connecting the different platform components (including memory unit 620 and processing unit 610), a display unit 640, etc.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that can be executed by the processing unit 610, such that the processing unit 610 performs the steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention described in the above-described network handover method section of the present specification. For example, the processing unit 610 may perform the steps as shown in fig. 1.

The storage unit 620 may include readable media in the form of volatile storage units, such as Random Access Memory (RAM) 6201 and/or cache memory unit 6202, and may further include Read Only Memory (ROM) 6203.

The storage unit 620 may also include a program/utility 6204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 6205, such program modules 6205 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each or some combination of which may include an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 630 may be a local bus representing one or more of several types of bus structures including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 600 may also communicate with one or more external devices 700 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 600, and/or any device (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enables the electronic device 600 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through an input/output (I/O) interface 650. Also, electronic device 600 may communicate with one or more networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the Internet, through network adapter 660. The network adapter 660 may communicate with other modules of the electronic device 600 over the bus 630. It should be appreciated that although not shown, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in connection with electronic device 600, including, but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, data backup storage platforms, and the like.

The invention also discloses a computer readable storage medium for storing a program which when executed implements the steps in the above network switching method. In some possible embodiments, the aspects of the present invention may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps according to the various exemplary embodiments of the invention as described in the above description of the network handover method, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

As described above, when the program of the computer readable storage medium of this embodiment is executed, the 5G base station may directly or indirectly forward the traffic Flow between the base stations in network handover to the 4G base station based on the QoS Flow granularity, and schedule part of the critical QoS flows in a direct manner; non-critical QoS flows are scheduled in an indirect mode, differential QoS flow scheduling is achieved, and the effect of guaranteeing critical service flows is guaranteed preferentially; and the communication smoothness in the network switching process is guaranteed.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural view of a computer-readable storage medium of the present invention. Referring to fig. 7, a program product 800 for implementing the above-described method according to an embodiment of the present invention is described, which may employ a portable compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) and include program code, and may be run on a terminal device, such as a personal computer. However, the program product of the present invention is not limited thereto, and in this document, a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program product may employ any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. The readable storage medium can be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or a combination of any of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, random Access Memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

The computer readable storage medium may include a data signal propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave, with readable program code embodied therein. Such a propagated data signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A readable storage medium may also be any readable medium that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. Program code embodied on a readable storage medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device, partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of remote computing devices, the remote computing device may be connected to the user computing device through any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computing device (e.g., connected via the Internet using an Internet service provider).

The network switching method, the system, the equipment and the storage medium provided by the embodiment of the invention realize the switching granularity based on QoS Flow for the Flow transmission between the base stations in network switching, and the 5G base station can forward the QoS Flow to the 4G base station in a direct or indirect mode based on the QoS Flow granularity, and schedule part of the key QoS Flow in a direct mode; non-critical QoS flows are scheduled in an indirect mode, differential QoS flow scheduling is achieved, and the effect of guaranteeing critical service flows is guaranteed preferentially; and the communication smoothness in the network switching process is guaranteed.

The foregoing is a further detailed description of the invention in connection with the preferred embodiments, and it is not intended that the invention be limited to the specific embodiments described. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that several simple deductions or substitutions may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, and these should be considered to be within the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A network switching method, comprising the steps of:

The first converged network element builds a QoS flow forwarding mapping table; the QoS flow forwarding mapping table comprises forwarding modes corresponding to different QoS flows; the forwarding mode is direct forwarding or indirect forwarding, and each QoS flow corresponds to a preset priority; in the QoS flow forwarding mapping table, when the preset priority of the QoS flow is greater than a first preset threshold, the corresponding forwarding mode is direct forwarding; when the preset priority of the QoS flow is smaller than a second preset threshold, the corresponding forwarding mode is indirect forwarding; the second preset threshold value is smaller than the first preset threshold value;

2. The network switching method according to claim 1, wherein the first converged network element sends a session update message to an AMF network element according to the QoS flow forwarding mapping table, including:

3. The network switching method of claim 1, wherein the method comprises:

4. The network switching method according to claim 3, wherein the session update message includes a second forwarding manner corresponding to each QoS flow in the PDU session;

5. The network switching method of claim 1, wherein the indirect forwarding is that a first network base station sends network traffic to a second converged network element, the second converged network element forwards the network traffic to an SGW network element, the SGW network element forwards the network traffic to a second network base station; the direct forwarding is the first network base station sending network traffic to the second network base station.

6. The network switching method of claim 1, wherein the method comprises:

7. The network switching method of claim 4, wherein the method comprises:

8. The network switching method of claim 1, wherein the first network base station is a 5G base station and the second network base station is a 4G base station.

9. A network switching system for implementing the network switching method of claim 1, the system comprising:

10. A network switching device, comprising:

A processor;

a memory in which an executable program of the processor is stored;

Wherein the processor is configured to perform the steps of the network handover method of any one of claims 1 to 8 via execution of the executable program.

11. A computer readable storage medium storing a program, wherein the program when executed by a processor implements the steps of the network handover method of any one of claims 1 to 8.