CN114554538A

CN114554538A - Flow statistical method and device, electronic equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN114554538A
Application number: CN202210287793.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 何峣; 贾聿庸; 欧亮; 彭宁
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-22
Filing date: 2022-03-22
Publication date: 2022-05-27
Anticipated expiration: 2042-03-22
Also published as: CN114554538B

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a traffic statistic method, device, electronic device and storage medium, which relate to the technical field of communications, and include: receiving a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network flow identifier, the private network flow identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network flow, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network flow; and counting public network traffic information according to the public network PDR, and counting private network traffic information and private network access information according to the private network PDR. The method can judge the target enterprise or service type accessed by the private network flow according to different private network flow identifiers, and realizes refined distinguishing statistics of the private network flow.

Description

Flow statistical method and device, electronic equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a traffic statistic method and apparatus, an electronic device, and a storage medium.

Background

Currently, there are two main implementation manners for the 5G private network, one is that an operator uses a User Plane Function (UPF) to shunt through a network slicing technology, and directly transmits data of a User to an intranet of the User, and the other is that an industry User establishes a 5G private network by using a dedicated 5G frequency band. In a first implementation manner, the statistical manner for the user traffic in the enterprise campus is to use the traffic passing through the N6 port or the N6 sub-interface of the edge UPF as private network traffic, and use the traffic passing through the N9 port of the edge UPF as public network traffic, thereby implementing the distinction between the public network traffic and the private network traffic.

However, since one N6 port or N6 sub-interface may correspond to private network traffic of multiple enterprises or multiple service types, the above traffic statistical method is difficult to implement flexible classification statistics on private network traffic of different enterprises or different service types, and an enterprise is difficult to know specific private network usage, thereby limiting the traffic charging method.

It is to be noted that the information disclosed in the above background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and thus may include information that does not constitute prior art known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure provides a traffic statistical method, an apparatus, an electronic device, and a storage medium, which at least to some extent overcome the problem that the traffic of the enterprise private network in the related art cannot be flexibly classified and counted.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the detailed description which follows, or in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a traffic statistic method is provided, where the method is applied to a user plane function UPF network element, and includes:

receiving a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network flow identifier, the private network flow identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network flow, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network flow;

and counting public network traffic information according to the public network PDR, and counting private network traffic information and private network access information according to the private network PDR.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, after receiving a packet forwarding control protocol, PFCP, session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a SMF network element, the method further includes:

establishing a mapping relation between private network flow identification and private network access information;

and when the user flow is detected to comprise the specified private network flow identifier, determining the user flow as the flow for accessing the specified private network.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the private network traffic identifier includes at least one of: a designated data network name DNN, a designated virtual routing table identification VRF ID, a designated N6 interface identification, and a designated N6 subinterface identification.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PFCP session establishment request or PFCP session modification request further includes: a usage reporting rule URR, the method further comprising:

and sending a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element according to the URR, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying public network traffic information counted by the public network PDR or private network traffic information counted by the private network PDR.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the public network PDR and the private network PDR are respectively associated with different URRs, the sending a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element according to the URRs specifically includes:

writing the public network traffic information into a first PFCP session reporting request according to the URR associated with the public network PDR, and then sending the first PFCP session reporting request written with the public network traffic information to the SMF network element; or

And writing the private network traffic volume information into a second PFCP session reporting request according to the URR associated with the private network PDR, and then sending the second PFCP session reporting request written with the private network traffic volume information to the SMF network element.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the public network PDR and the private network PDR are associated to the same URR, the sending, according to the URR, the PFCP session report request to the SMF network element specifically includes:

writing the public network traffic information or the private network traffic information into a third PFCP session reporting request according to the public network PDR and the URR associated with the private network PDR;

and sending a third PFCP session report request written with the public network traffic information or the private network traffic information to the SMF network element.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a traffic statistic method, which is applied to a session management function, SMF, network element, and includes:

sending a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request to a User Plane Function (UPF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network flow identifier, the private network flow identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network flow, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network flow;

the public network PDR is used for counting public network traffic information, and the private network PDR is used for counting private network traffic information and private network access information.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:

receiving a PFCP session reporting request sent by the UPF network element, wherein the PFCP session reporting request is used for carrying public network traffic information counted by the public network PDR or private network traffic information counted by the private network PDR;

and reporting the public network traffic information or the private network traffic information to a CHF network element with a charging function.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a traffic statistic apparatus, which is applied to a user plane function UPF network element, including:

a rule receiving module, configured to receive a Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, where the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request includes a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR includes a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR includes a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used to provide private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network visited by the private network traffic;

and the usage statistic module is used for counting public network traffic information according to the public network PDR and counting private network traffic information and private network access information according to the private network PDR.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request further includes a usage reporting rule URR, and the apparatus further includes:

and the usage reporting module is used for sending a PFCP session reporting request to the SMF network element according to the URR, wherein the PFCP session reporting request is used for carrying public network traffic information counted by the public network PDR or private network traffic information counted by the private network PDR.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a traffic statistic apparatus, where the apparatus is applied to a session management function, SMF, network element, and includes:

the system comprises a rule sending module, a user plane function UPF network element and a service layer function UPF network element, wherein the rule sending module is used for sending a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request to the user plane function UPF network element, the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network flow identifier, the private network flow identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network flow, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network flow;

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus further comprises:

a usage receiving module, configured to receive a PFCP session report request sent by the UPF network element, where the PFCP session report request is used to carry public network traffic usage information counted by the public network PDR or private network traffic usage information counted by the private network PDR;

and the usage charging module is used for reporting the public network traffic usage information or the private network traffic usage information to a CHF network element with a charging function.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device including:

a processor; and

a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to perform the above described traffic statistics method via execution of the executable instructions.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a computer program is stored, which computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the above-mentioned flow statistics method.

According to the traffic statistical method, the traffic statistical device, the electronic equipment and the storage medium, the private network traffic identifier used for representing the private network traffic target information is added into the packet detection rule of the private network traffic, so that the target enterprise or service type accessed by the private network traffic is judged according to different private network traffic identifiers, and refined differentiated statistics of the private network traffic is realized.

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

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the present disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is to be understood that the drawings in the following description are merely exemplary of the disclosure, and that other drawings may be derived from those drawings by one of ordinary skill in the art without the exercise of inventive faculty.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a traffic statistic method in the related art;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a traffic statistics method in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of another flow statistics method in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of another traffic statistic method in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a further method for traffic statistics in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a traffic statistics method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a flow statistic apparatus in an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of another flow statistics apparatus in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 10 shows a block diagram of an electronic device in an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

Furthermore, the drawings are merely schematic illustrations of the present disclosure and are not necessarily drawn to scale. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar parts, and thus their repetitive description will be omitted. Some of the block diagrams shown in the figures are functional entities and do not necessarily correspond to physically or logically separate entities. These functional entities may be implemented in the form of software, or in one or more hardware modules or integrated circuits, or in different networks and/or processor devices and/or microcontroller devices.

For convenience of understanding, the network architecture applied to the present disclosure is first described, and the present disclosure is mainly implemented by issuing a PDR with specified traffic characteristics to a User Plane Function (UPF) of a 5G edge network.

As shown in fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture according to an example of the present disclosure. The 5G network performs a certain splitting of some functional network elements (e.g. Mobility Management Entity (MME), etc.) of the 4G network, and defines a service-based architecture. In the network architecture shown in fig. 1, functions similar to those of the MME in the 4G network are split into an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), and the like.

Some other relevant network elements/entities are described below.

A User Equipment (UE) accesses a Data Network (DN) or the like by accessing an operator Network, and uses a service provided by an operator or a third party on the DN.

An access and mobility management function (AMF) is a control plane network element in a 3GPP network, and is mainly responsible for access control and mobility management of UE accessing to an operator network. The Security Anchor Function (SEAF) may be deployed in the AMF, or the SEAF may also be deployed in another device different from the AMF, and fig. 1 illustrates an example in which the SEAF is deployed in the AMF. When the SEAF is deployed in the AMF, the SEAF and AMF may collectively be referred to as the AMF.

A Session Management Function (SMF) is a control plane network element in a 3GPP network, where the SMF is mainly used for managing a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session of a UE. The PDU session is a channel for transmitting PDUs, and the UE can transmit the PDUs to each other through the PDU session and the DN. The SMF is responsible for management work such as establishment, maintenance and deletion of PDU sessions.

A Data Network (DN), also called a Packet Data Network (PDN), is a Network located outside the 3GPP Network. The 3GPP network can access a plurality of DNs, and a plurality of services provided by operators or third parties can be deployed on the DNs. For example, a DN is a private network of a smart factory, and sensors installed in a plant of the smart factory play the role of UEs, and control servers of the sensors are deployed in the DN. The UE communicates with the control server, and after acquiring the instruction of the control server, the UE can transmit the acquired data to the control server according to the instruction. For another example, the DN is an internal office network of a company, and the terminals used by employees of the company may play the role of a UE that has access to information and other resources within the company.

The User Plane Function (UPF) is a gateway for the 3GPP network to communicate with the DN. In the application scenario of forking, the UPF has two forms, namely, forking UPF (UPF UL cl) and anchor UPF (UPF psa). The traffic statistical method provided by the present disclosure is applied to a offload UPF, and is inserted into a user session by an SMF when offloading is activated. The shunting UPF is connected with the anchor point UPF through an N9 interface, and for the uplink flow, after being identified according to a shunting rule, the messages which need to be sent to the main anchor point UPF and the auxiliary anchor point UPF are distinguished and forwarded. For downlink traffic, the messages from the anchor UPF are aggregated and forwarded to the base station over the N3 interface.

A Charging Function (CHF) is used to perform rate processing for online Charging for various services of a user and complete real-time settlement of user charges. Specifically, a Call Detail Record (CDR) is generated by the CHF to collect PDU sessions and charging data information related to service flows in the sessions, and the CDR of the CHF records the charging information of a plurality of service flows in a PDU session and stores the charging information in a service flow container manner. After receiving the charging data request message of the SMF, the CHF opens a CDR. Under certain trigger conditions, the SMF should send a charging data request update message to the CHF, and when the CHF accepts the charging data request update message, add charging information in the open CDR. When CHF receives charging data request update message, charging information is added into current CDR according to trigger condition, and the CDR is closed, and a new CDR is opened at the same time. When CHF receives the charging data request termination message, CHF accesses the charging information to CDR, then closes the CDR.

A Tracking Area (TA) is used to manage the location of the UE. When the UE is in the idle state, the core network can know the tracking area where the UE is located, and when the UE in the idle state needs to be paged, paging must be performed in all cells of the tracking area where the UE is registered. The TA is a configuration at a cell level, multiple cells may configure the same TA, and one cell may belong to only one TA.

Further, the 3GPP network refers to a network conforming to the 3GPP standard. Here, the parts except for the UE and the DN in fig. 1 may be regarded as a 3GPP network, and the 3GPP network is typically operated by an operator.

It should be noted that the network architecture applied to the embodiment of the present disclosure is only an example, and according to actual needs, a person skilled in the art can arbitrarily adjust the network architecture, and any network architecture capable of implementing the functions of the network elements is applicable to the embodiment of the present disclosure, for example, the present disclosure is also applicable to a network element having the same function in a 4G core network. The embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto.

The problems in the related art will be further described with reference to the specific application scenario in fig. 2.

As shown in fig. 2, when an outsourcing user or a local user in the province moves from a TA area of a public network to a TA area of a private network, an SMF network element selects an edge UPF network element for the user according to the TA information, creates a Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) session through an N4 port, sends a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), a Forwarding Action Rule (FAR), a Usage Reporting Rule (URR), and other rules to the edge UPF network element, and the traffic of the user terminal accessing the public network goes from an N9 interface to the UPF network element of the public network from an ULCL function of the edge UPF network element, and the traffic of the private network accesses from an N6 interface or an N6 subinterface of the edge UPF network element.

In the related technology, the edge UPF network element counts the traffic of the public network and the private network accessed by the user according to the difference of the access interfaces, and reports the traffic of the two traffic to the SMF network element according to the URR.

Further, in practical applications, the private network traffic and the public network traffic usually adopt different charging modes, and since the traffic accessing the private network does not occupy the network resources of the public network, the operator usually performs charging-free processing on the private network. At this time, in the traffic statistical method in the related art, after the traffic of the public network and the private network is completely reported, new charging Group (RG) values are configured for the service identifiers (domain names and IPs) of the specified private network in the charging systems of provinces in the country, and the rate corresponding to the new RG values is made to be zero, thereby realizing the directional traffic free of the private network. When the service identifier of the private network changes, the national RG value settings are changed accordingly, which also has the problems of long implementation period, large related scope, etc.

According to the scheme provided by the disclosure, the private network flow identifier used for representing the private network flow target information is added into a Packet Detection Rule (PDR) of the private network flow, so that the target enterprise or service type accessed by the private network flow is judged according to different private network flow identifiers, and refined differentiated statistics of the private network flow is realized.

Further, because the flow is finely distinguished before the flow is reported by the edge UPF network element, when the specified private network flow needs to be subjected to charging-free processing, only the specified private network flow needs to be accurately removed from the reported flow (that is, only the flow needing to be charged is reported). And by setting different URRs for private network flows accessing different enterprises and services, the method can also realize the respective reporting and flexible charging of the private network flows of different enterprises and services, and can realize the flexible adjustment of the private network flow reporting mode and the charging mode only by correspondingly adding or modifying the private network flow identifier of one enterprise or service in the edge UPF network element even if the private network of the one enterprise or service changes.

The present exemplary embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings and examples.

First, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a traffic statistic method, which may be executed by a UPF network element having a offloading function.

Fig. 3 shows a flow chart of a traffic statistic method in the embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 3, the traffic statistic method provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes the following steps:

s302, receiving a PFCP Session Establishment Request (PFCP Session Establishment Request) or a PFCP Session Modification Request (PFCP Session Modification Request) sent by an SMF network element, wherein the PFCP Session Establishment Request or the PFCP Session Modification Request comprises a packet detection rule PDR, the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network flow identifier, the private network flow identifier is used for indicating private network access information of private network flow, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network flow.

It should be noted that the PFCP session establishment request and the PFCP session modification request mainly exist at an N4 interface, and are mainly used for the SMF element to issue information to the UPF element, for example, the SMF element may carry a PDR and/or a URR.

Specifically, the SMF element issues a PFCP session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request to the edge UPF element through an N4 interface, where the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request may include a public network PDR and a private network PDR, and the public network PDR and the private network PDR are respectively used to perform statistics on public network traffic and private network traffic according to respective defined detection rules.

It should be noted that the PDRs are issued through an N4 interface and used for informing the UPF network element how to detect and classify the data packets, and each PDR must include a Packet Detection Information (PDI) parameter, and the PDI defines detailed rules for Packet Detection.

In some embodiments, the number of the public network PDRs and the private network PDRs issued by the SMF network element each time is not unique, for example, the same UPF network element may access a plurality of different private networks, and different private networks are allocated with different private network traffic identifiers and correspond to different private network PDRs, and for brevity, the following contents will not be described again.

When the UPF network element receives the PDR sent from the SMF network element, a PFCP Session Establishment Response (PFCP Session Establishment Response) or a PFCP Session Modification Response (PFCP Session Modification Response) may be sent to the SMF network element, so as to notify the SMF network element of the receipt of the PDR.

More specifically, the private network PDR may include private network traffic identifiers such that the UPF network elements may differentiate statistical private network traffic usage based on the private network PDR detecting a particular private network traffic identifier.

Further, in order to enable the UPF to perform fine classification on private network traffic according to the private network traffic identifier, before receiving the PDR sent by the SMF network element, a mapping relationship between the private network traffic identifier and the private network access information may be established in advance; and when the user flow is detected to comprise the specified private network flow identifier, determining the user flow as the flow for accessing the specified private network.

It should be noted that the private network access information may be understood as attribution information of a target private network accessed by private network traffic, for example, an enterprise to which the target private network accessed by private network traffic belongs, a service to which the target private network accessed by private network traffic belongs, and the like. It should be understood that the private network access information may be set according to the traffic statistical requirement or the traffic charging requirement of the enterprise or the operator, and the private network traffic with the same private network access information has the same private network traffic identifier.

It should be noted that the private Network traffic identifier may be any one or more of a designated Data Network Name (DNN), a designated Virtual Routing table identifier (VRF ID), a designated N6 interface identifier, and a designated N6 subinterface identifier.

In some embodiments, the private network traffic id of an enterprise (or service) may be specified as a specified DNN for the enterprise, and according to the private network PDR, when the UPF network element detects that the specified DNN exists in the traffic accessing the private network, the private network traffic is determined to be the private network traffic accessing the enterprise (or service).

In other embodiments, a specific N6 interface may be reserved for a private network of an enterprise (or service), the specific N6 interface identifier may be used as a private network traffic identifier, and according to a private network PDR, when a UPF network element detects that traffic accessing the private network passes through the specific N6 interface, the private network traffic is considered as private network traffic accessing the enterprise (or service).

Of course, based on the principle similar to the foregoing embodiment, any traffic feature identifier capable of achieving the same effect may be used as the private network traffic identifier, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present disclosure.

And S304, counting the traffic information of the public network according to the public network PDR, and counting the traffic information of the private network and the access information of the private network according to the traffic information of the private network and the access information of the private network.

Specifically, after the UPF network element receives the user traffic in the TA region of the private network, it may preliminarily determine whether the user traffic is the traffic for accessing the private network or the traffic for accessing the public network according to the traffic through the N6 interface or the N9 interface, and then perform identification statistics on the private network access information that needs to be counted by the enterprise or the operator according to the private network traffic identifier in the private network PDR.

Optionally, the UPF network element may provide a network management interface or an API interface for an administrator or an upper layer system to query the usage information of various private network flows of the user according to conditions such as an MSISDN (Mobile Station International ISDN Number) of the user, an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), a Subscription Permanent Identifier (SUPI), an Internet Protocol (IP) address, and the like.

Based on the same inventive concept, another flow statistical method is also provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure, as described in the following embodiments. Because the principle of the method embodiment for solving the problem is similar to that of the method embodiment, the implementation of the method embodiment may refer to the implementation of the method embodiment, and repeated details are not described again. As can be seen from comparison, the difference between the embodiment of the method and the traffic statistic method shown in fig. 3 is that the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request in the embodiment of the method further includes the URR, so that the embodiment of the method can selectively report the public network traffic volume information or the private network traffic volume information that needs to be reported according to the URR.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another traffic statistical method in this embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 4, the method may be executed by a UPF network element with a offloading function, and includes:

s402, receiving a PFCP session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by an SMF network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a PDR and a URR, the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network flow identifier, the private network flow identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network flow, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network flow.

It should be noted that the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes a PDR and a URR.

Specific technical details of the PDR are similar to those of the embodiment of the traffic statistic method shown in fig. 3, and can achieve corresponding technical effects, which are not described in detail in this disclosure.

It should be noted that the URR is issued through the N4 interface, and the number of the URRs may be one or multiple. The UPF network element can report the usage statistic information of the services identified by the PDR according to the URR, each URR must be associated with one PDR, packet detection and classification are carried out by looking at the PDR, and then the usage is counted and reported according to different service classifications.

S404, the traffic information of the public network is counted according to the public network PDR, and the traffic information of the private network and the access information of the private network are counted according to the private network PDR.

It should be noted that, since S404 is similar to S303 in the foregoing embodiment and can achieve corresponding technical effects, further description of this embodiment of the disclosure is omitted.

And S406, sending a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element according to the URR, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying public network traffic information counted by the public network PDR or private network traffic information counted by the private network PDR.

It should be noted that the PDR and the URR have an association relationship, and when the associated URR is triggered according to the traffic volume counted by the PDR, a PFCP session report request is sent to the SMF, thereby completing traffic report.

In some embodiments, when a packet enters the UPF, a matching PFCP session (i.e., N4 interface session) is first found; if the matched PFCP session exists, all related PDRs in the session are found, and the data packets are matched according to the priority; if the matching is successful, the reporting operation of the usage amount is completed according to the URR associated with the PDR matched with the data packet, and according to the situation, FAR forwarding operation associated with the PDR and QER associated with the PDR can be searched to complete the operation related to the Qos.

Specifically, the triggering condition of the URR may be triggered according to time or according to an event, and the like, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the UPF may automatically report the traffic volume counted according to the associated PDR after a preset time interval according to the URR.

In other embodiments, the UPF may automatically report the traffic volume counted by a PDR after the traffic volume counted by the PDR reaches a preset threshold according to the URR.

It should be noted that the PFCP session Report request is mainly used for reporting information, for example, a portable Usage Report (Usage Report), from the UPF network element to the SMF network element, so as to Report the traffic Usage information to the SMF network element, and after receiving the traffic Usage information, the SMF network element may further forward the traffic Usage information to the CHF network element, so as to implement traffic charging.

In addition, the embodiment of the disclosure can also realize the charging-free processing of the specified part of the traffic. In light of the foregoing, since the PDR and the URR have an association relationship, and one URR may associate one or more PDRs, in order to describe in detail the technical means for achieving the traffic charging-free effect, the following two cases will be separately described.

When the public network PDR and the private network PDR are respectively associated with different URRs, the UPF network element can only trigger the URR associated with the public network PDR or the URR associated with the private network PDR, so that the public network traffic volume is reported only through the PFCP session report request or the private network traffic volume is reported only, and the traffic volume which is not reported can be free from charging.

When the public network PDR and the private network PDR are associated to the same URR, the PFCP session report request only carries the public network traffic Volume or the private network traffic Volume which needs to be charged by modifying the Volume Measurement (Volume Measurement) attribute in the traffic Volume report, so that the traffic Volume which is not reported can be free from charging.

It should be understood that specific technical details that are not described in the embodiment of the present disclosure are all similar to those of the embodiment of the traffic statistical method shown in fig. 3, and can achieve corresponding technical effects, so that details of the embodiment of the present disclosure are not described herein again.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present disclosure further provides another flow statistical method, as described in the following embodiments. Because the principle of solving the problem of the method embodiment is similar to that of the method embodiment, reference may be made to the implementation of the method embodiment for implementation of the method embodiment, and repeated details are not described herein.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a flow statistics method in another embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 5, the method is applied to an SMF network element, and includes:

s502, a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request is sent to a User Plane Function (UPF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network flow identifier, the private network flow identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network flow, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network flow.

It should be noted that the public network PDR is used to count public network traffic information, and the private network PDR is used to count private network traffic information and private network access information.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present disclosure further provides another flow statistical method, as described in the following embodiments. Because the principle of the method embodiment for solving the problem is similar to that of the method embodiment, the implementation of the method embodiment may refer to the implementation of the method embodiment, and repeated details are not described again. By comparison, it can be seen that the embodiment of the method is different from the traffic statistical method shown in fig. 5 in that the embodiment of the method further includes S604 and S606, thereby achieving the effect of exempting from charging for the specified traffic.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow statistics method in another embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 6, the method is applied to an SMF network element, and includes:

s602, a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request is sent to a User Plane Function (UPF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network flow identifier, the private network flow identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network flow, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network flow.

S604, receiving a PFCP session report request sent by a UPF network element, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying public network traffic volume information counted by a public network PDR or private network traffic volume information counted by a private network PDR;

and S606, reporting the public network traffic information or the private network traffic information to a CHF network element with a charging function.

It should be noted that, by controlling the traffic usage information reported by the UPF, the effect of exempting from charging for the specified traffic can be achieved, and specific implementation means and technical details thereof may refer to the foregoing embodiments, which are not described herein again.

To facilitate further understanding of the traffic statistics methods provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, the following portions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in their entirety with an example.

It is to be noted that, in the following embodiments, the UPF only reports the public network traffic, so that the charging-free effect for the private network traffic is achieved.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a traffic statistic method in an embodiment of the disclosure, and as shown in fig. 7, the traffic statistic method may include the following steps.

S701, a network administrator can set the flow of the designated private network to be free of charging through a network management interface of the edge UPF network element or an upper network management system through the network management interface of the edge UPF network element, and can designate a specific private network based on conditions such as DNN, VRF ID, N6 interface, N6 subinterface and the like.

S702, the SMF network element sends a PFCP session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request to the edge UPF network element according to the standard flow, the session carries PDR shunted to the public network, PDR shunted to the private network and URR, the public network PDR and the private network PDR can have respective corresponding URR, or can share one URR.

S703, after receiving the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request sent by the SMF network element, the edge UPF network element returns a PFCP session establishment response or a PFCP session modification response to the SMF network element, which is used to confirm that the PDR and the URR carried in the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request are received.

S704, after confirming that the PDR and the URR sent by the SMF network element are received, the edge UPF network element can count the traffic information of the public network and the private network of the user level and store the traffic information of the private network for subsequent inquiry.

S705, the edge UPF network element sends a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element according to the URR (e.g., time trigger or event trigger), reports the usage information, and according to the previous non-charging private network setting, the edge UPF network element does not report the usage of the user accessing the specified private network, but only reports the usage of the user accessing the public network. The specific reporting method comprises the following steps: if the public network PDR and the private network PDR are respectively in different URR scenes, the edge UPF network element only reports the usage report of the public network and does not report the usage report of the private network; if the public network PDR and the private network PDR share the URR, the edge UPF network element only reports the usage value of the public network in the usage measurement of the usage report, but does not report the usage value of the private network.

S706, after receiving the PFCP session report request sent by the edge UPF network element, the SMF network element returns a PFCP session report response to the edge UPF network element, where the PFCP session report response is used to confirm that the usage report carried in the PFCP session report request is received.

And S707, after confirming that the usage report reported by the UPF is received, the SMF network element reports the charging information with the private network usage removed to the CHF.

S708, the edge UPF can provide a network management interface or an API interface for an administrator or an upper system to query the usage information of private network traffic according to the MSISDN, IMSI/SUPI, IP and other conditions of the user.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a flow rate statistic device, as described in the following embodiments. Because the principle of the embodiment of the apparatus for solving the problem is similar to that of the embodiment of the method, the embodiment of the apparatus can be implemented by referring to the implementation of the embodiment of the method, and repeated details are not described again.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a flow statistic device in an embodiment of the disclosure, and as shown in fig. 8, the device 800 includes:

the rule receiving module 801 is configured to receive a Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a SMF network element, where the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request includes a packet detection rule PDR, the PDR includes a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR includes a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used to provide private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic.

And the usage amount counting module 802 is configured to count public network traffic amount information according to the public network PDR, and count private network traffic amount information and private network access information according to the private network PDR.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 800 further comprises:

and the usage reporting module is used for sending a PFCP session reporting request to the SMF network element according to the URR, wherein the PFCP session reporting request is used for carrying public network traffic usage information counted by the public network PDR or private network traffic usage information counted by the private network PDR.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied as a system, method or program product. Accordingly, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, microcode, etc.) or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present disclosure further provides another flow rate statistic device, as described in the following embodiments. Because the principle of the embodiment of the apparatus for solving the problem is similar to that of the embodiment of the method, the embodiment of the apparatus can be implemented by referring to the implementation of the embodiment of the method, and repeated details are not described again.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of another flow statistic apparatus in the embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 9, the apparatus 900 includes:

a rule sending module 901, configured to send a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request to a User Plane Function (UPF) network element, where the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request includes a packet detection rule PDR, the PDR includes a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR includes a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used to provide private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic;

In some embodiments, the apparatus 900 further comprises:

the traffic receiving module is used for receiving a PFCP session reporting request sent by the UPF network element, wherein the PFCP session reporting request is used for carrying public network traffic information counted by a public network PDR or private network traffic information counted by a private network PDR;

An electronic device 1000 according to this embodiment of the disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 10. The electronic device 1000 shown in fig. 10 is only an example and should not bring any limitation to the functions and the scope of use of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 10, the electronic device 1000 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. The components of the electronic device 1000 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 1010, the at least one memory unit 1020, and a bus 1030 that couples various system components including the memory unit 1020 and the processing unit 1010.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 1010 to cause the processing unit 1010 to perform steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure described in the above section "exemplary methods" of the present specification. For example, the processing unit 1010 may perform the following steps of the above method embodiments: receiving a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network flow identifier, and the private network flow identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network flow; and counting public network traffic information according to the public network PDR, and counting private network traffic information and private network access information according to the private network PDR, wherein the private network access information is used for representing target private network information accessed by private network traffic, and the private network access information is attribution information of the target private network accessed by the private network traffic.

The storage unit 1020 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory units, such as a random access memory unit (RAM)10201 and/or a cache memory unit 10202, and may further include a read-only memory unit (ROM) 10203.

The memory unit 1020 may also include a program/utility 10204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 10205, such program modules 10205 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each of which, or some combination thereof, may comprise an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 1030 may be any 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, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 1000 may also communicate with one or more external devices 1040 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 1000, and/or with any devices (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enable the electronic device 1000 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through input/output (I/O) interfaces 1050. Also, the electronic device 1000 may communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network such as the internet) via the network adapter 1060. As shown, the network adapter 1060 communicates with the other modules of the electronic device 1000 over the bus 1030. It should be appreciated that although not shown, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in conjunction with the electronic device 1000, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems, among others.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily understand that the exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented by software, or by software in combination with necessary hardware. Therefore, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (which may be a CD-ROM, a usb disk, a removable hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to enable a computing device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a terminal device, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, there is also provided a computer-readable storage medium, which may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. On which a program product capable of implementing the above-described method of the present disclosure is stored. In some possible embodiments, various aspects of the disclosure may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to perform the steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the disclosure described in the "exemplary methods" section above of this specification, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

More specific examples of the computer-readable storage medium in the present disclosure may include, but are not limited to: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

In the present disclosure, a computer readable storage medium may include a propagated data signal with readable program code embodied therein, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take many forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A readable signal medium may also be any readable medium that is not a readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Alternatively, program code embodied on a computer 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.

In particular implementations, program code for carrying out operations of the present disclosure 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, as well as 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 and partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of a remote computing device, 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., through the internet using an internet service provider).

It should be noted that although in the above detailed description several modules or units of the device for action execution are mentioned, such a division is not mandatory. Indeed, the features and functionality of two or more modules or units described above may be embodied in one module or unit, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Conversely, the features and functions of one module or unit described above may be further divided into embodiments by a plurality of modules or units.

Moreover, although the steps of the methods of the present disclosure are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this does not require or imply that the steps must be performed in this particular order, or that all of the depicted steps must be performed, to achieve desirable results. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step execution, and/or one step broken down into multiple step executions, etc.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily understand that the exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented by software, or by software in combination with necessary hardware. Therefore, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (which may be a CD-ROM, a usb disk, a removable hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to enable a computing device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a mobile terminal, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. This disclosure is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure following, in general, the principles of the disclosure and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the disclosure pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

1. A traffic statistic method, applied to a User Plane Function (UPF) network element, includes:

2. The traffic statistic method according to claim 1, wherein after receiving a packet forwarding control protocol, PFCP, session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a SMF network element, the method further comprises:

3. The traffic statistic method according to claim 2, wherein said private network traffic identifier comprises at least one of: a designated data network name DNN, a designated virtual routing table identification VRFID, a designated N6 interface identification, and a designated N6 subinterface identification.

4. The traffic statistic method according to claim 1, wherein said PFCP session establishment request or PFCP session modification request further comprises: a usage reporting rule URR, the method further comprising:

and sending a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element according to the URR, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying the public network traffic volume information counted by the public network PDR or the private network traffic volume information counted by the private network PDR.

5. The traffic statistic method according to claim 4, wherein when the public network PDR and the private network PDR are respectively associated with different URRs, the sending a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element according to the URRs specifically includes:

6. The traffic statistic method according to claim 4, wherein when the public network PDR and the private network PDR are associated to the same URR, the sending a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element according to the URR specifically includes:

7. A traffic statistic method is applied to a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, and comprises the following steps:

8. The flow statistics method of claim 7, characterized in that the method further comprises:

9. A traffic statistic device, wherein the device is applied to a user plane function UPF network element, and comprises:

10. The traffic statistic device according to claim 9, wherein said PFCP session establishment request or PFCP session modification request further includes a usage reporting rule URR, said device further comprising:

11. A traffic statistic device, applied to a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, includes:

12. The flow statistic device according to claim 11, further comprising:

13. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor;

wherein the processor is configured to perform the traffic statistic method of any of claims 1-6 via execution of the executable instructions.

14. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which, when being executed by a processor, carries out a method for flow statistics according to any one of claims 1 to 6.