CN116017769A

CN116017769A - Communication method, device and gateway equipment

Info

Publication number: CN116017769A
Application number: CN202111226651.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 韦安妮; 郑成龙; 杨博涵
Original assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Current assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Priority date: 2021-10-21
Filing date: 2021-10-21
Publication date: 2023-04-25

Abstract

The invention provides a communication method, a device and gateway equipment, wherein the communication method comprises the following steps: receiving first data sent by first equipment of a first local network; selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information; establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module; and transmitting the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network through the at least one session connection. The scheme can realize the simplification of an end-to-end communication mechanism, further simplifies a communication networking architecture, optimizes the networking architecture, improves the reliability of data transmission in a wireless network, reduces the data transmission delay, and well solves the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art.

Description

Communication method, device and gateway equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communications method, an apparatus, and a gateway device.

Background

Communication has begun to use 5G network architecture, which involves a protocol data unit PDU layer in the 5G user plane protocol stack: this layer corresponds to the PDUs carried between the terminal UE and the data network DN in the PDU session. When the PDU session type is IPv (version of network protocol) 4 or IPv6 or IPv4v6, it corresponds to either IPv4 data packet or IPv6 data packet or both; when the PDU session type is Ethernet, it corresponds to an Ethernet frame. In current network applications, ethernet type sessions have not been supported, only IP (network protocol) data type sessions are supported.

In addition, when carrying out IP data transmission, each industry terminal is accessed to a 5G network through a 5G CPE (Customer Premise Equipment, customer terminal equipment), and the industry terminal can be connected with the 5G CPE through the existing WIFI (wireless fidelity), wire and other modes, and the 5G CPE is accessed to the 5G system through a SIM (subscriber identity module) card so that end-to-end communication can be completed. In the networking architecture, the terminal side does not need to be changed, and the introduction of the 5G system in the peer-to-peer architecture can be imperceptible. But this architecture is limited in that IP communication is required between the terminal side and the server side of the Internet (Internet).

In some industrial scenarios, such as the port scenario shown in fig. 1, it is assumed that the communication networking architecture itself adopts L (layer) 2 wired communication, and when the wireless transformation is performed, if the configuration of the device itself is not changed, an L2 communication scheme (i.e. layer 2 data transmission) is required. Besides needing to deploy 5G CPE, the CPE is connected to the CPE through an AR (access router) 1 and is accessed to a 5G network; AR2 connects to the back-end switch or firewall of MEC (Mobile edge computation), opening the route between AR1 and AR 2; the tunneling protocol between AR1 and AR2 is more commonly L2TP (Layer Two Tunneling Protocol, layer 2 tunneling protocol), so that AR1 to AR2 appear to the outside as a layer 2 network. N in fig. 1 is an integer greater than 0.

Where L2TP is a link layer based tunneling protocol that is carried over TCP (transmission control protocol) or IP over the 1701 port of UDP (user datagram protocol). When the tunnel is established, several sessions may be established in the tunnel, which sessions are independent of each other. Whereas L2TP messages fall into two categories: control messages and data messages. Wherein control messages are responsible for setting up, tearing down and maintaining channels and sessions and data messages are responsible for communicating PPP (point-to-point protocol) data.

As can be seen from the above, when the existing layer 2 communication scheme terminal accesses the 5G network, at least three devices including a switch, an AR router and a 5G CPE are deployed and configured, and the 5G network can be accessed through multi-hop routing forwarding. Such networking architecture introduces not only network deployment complexity, but also increased data transmission delay.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a communication method, a device and gateway equipment, which are used for solving the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides a communication method applied to a first gateway device in a first local network, where the communication method includes:

Receiving first data sent by first equipment of a first local network;

selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information;

establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module;

and transmitting the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network through the at least one session connection.

Optionally, the forwarding policy information may be preconfigured or generated in real time according to the first information;

wherein the first information includes: at least one of network state parameter information and data parameter information;

the network state parameter information is determined according to the real-time monitoring condition of the data transmission state;

the data parameter information includes: at least one of a data type, a traffic characteristic, and a performance requirement of the transmitted data.

Optionally, the gateway function module includes: at least one of a data interface function module, a multipath function module, a tunnel module and a communication access module.

Optionally, at least one tunnel is established between the first gateway device and the second gateway device;

the establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module comprises:

At least one session connection for transmitting the first data is established in at least one tunnel according to the selected gateway function module.

Optionally, the selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information includes:

selecting a gateway function module according to forwarding strategy information and path reference information corresponding to the first data;

wherein the path reference information includes: inputting at least one of data port information of the first data and service flow type information corresponding to the first data; the forwarding policy information includes: the path reference information corresponds to the session connection.

Optionally, before selecting the gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information, the method further includes:

determining the number of transmission paths corresponding to the first data;

the selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information includes:

selecting a gateway function module according to the number of the transmission paths and the forwarding strategy information;

and establishing session connection for transmitting the first data, wherein the number of the session connection corresponds to the number of the transmission paths, according to the selected gateway function module.

Optionally, the sending the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network through the at least one session connection includes:

under the condition that the number of the transmission paths is at least 2, constructing a data frame according to the data frame identification information and the first data;

transmitting the data frame to a second gateway device in a second local network over the at least one session connection;

the data frame identification information is identification information in a reserved bit of a tunnel protocol or identification information in a newly-added protocol encapsulation packet header.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a communication method applied to the second gateway equipment in the second local network, comprising the following steps:

receiving first data sent by a first gateway device in a first local network through at least one session connection;

and transmitting the first data to a second device of a second local network.

the at least one session connection is established in at least one tunnel, and one of the sessions belongs to one of the tunnels.

Optionally, the receiving the first data sent by the first gateway device in the first local network through at least one session connection includes:

Receiving a data frame carrying first data sent by first gateway equipment in a first local network through at least one session connection;

the second device for transmitting the first data to a second local network includes:

according to the data frame identification information corresponding to the data frame, the first data received for the first time is sent to second equipment of a second local network, and the first data received after the first time is deleted;

The embodiment of the invention also provides a communication device, which is applied to the first gateway equipment in the first local network, and comprises:

the first receiving module is used for receiving first data sent by first equipment of a first local network;

the first selection module is used for selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information;

the first establishing module is used for establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module;

and the first sending module is used for sending the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network through the at least one session connection.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

the first determining module is used for determining the number of transmission paths corresponding to the first data before selecting the gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information;

The embodiment of the invention also provides a communication device, which is applied to a second gateway device in a second local network, and comprises:

a second receiving module, configured to receive first data sent by a first gateway device in a first local network through at least one session connection;

and the second sending module is used for sending the first data to second equipment of a second local network.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a gateway device, which is a first gateway device in a first local network, and comprises: a processor and a transceiver;

the processor is configured to receive, via the transceiver, first data sent by a first device of a first local network;

and transmitting the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network through the at least one session connection using the transceiver.

Optionally, the processor is further configured to:

before selecting a gateway function module according to forwarding strategy information, determining the number of transmission paths corresponding to the first data;

The embodiment of the invention also provides a gateway device, which is a second gateway device in a second local network, and comprises: a processor and a transceiver;

the processor is configured to receive, through the transceiver, first data sent by a first gateway device in a first local network through at least one session connection;

and transmitting the first data to a second device of a second local network.

The embodiment of the invention also provides gateway equipment, which comprises a memory, a processor and a program which is stored in the memory and can run on the processor; the processor executes the program to realize the communication method of the first gateway equipment side; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

and the processor realizes the communication method of the second gateway equipment side when executing the program.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a readable storage medium, on which a program is stored, which when executed by a processor, implements the steps in the communication method of the first gateway device side; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

the program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps in the communication method on the second gateway apparatus side described above.

The technical scheme of the invention has the following beneficial effects:

in the above scheme, the communication method receives first data sent by a first device of a first local network; selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information; establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module; transmitting the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network over the at least one session connection; the method can realize the simplification of an end-to-end communication mechanism, further simplify a communication networking architecture, optimize the networking architecture, improve the reliability of data transmission in a wireless network, reduce the data transmission delay, and well solve the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a layer 2 transmission schematic diagram in the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a second schematic diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a networking architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a second schematic diagram of a networking architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a module architecture of a multi-path routing device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a configuration of a multi-path routing device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a second module architecture of a multipath routing device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a second schematic diagram of a configuration of a multi-path routing device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a gateway device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a gateway device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical problems, technical solutions and advantages to be solved more apparent, the following detailed description will be given with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

The invention provides a communication method for a first gateway device in a first local network, which aims at the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art, as shown in fig. 2, and comprises the following steps:

Step 21: receiving first data sent by first equipment of a first local network;

step 22: selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information;

step 23: establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module;

step 24: and transmitting the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network through the at least one session connection.

Wherein "forwarding policy information" may configure different path selection policies (i.e., policy information) for data incoming from different data interfaces; or, setting different path selection strategies for data of different service flow types; and are not limited thereto. Step 24 can be understood as: data is transmitted over multiple paths (session connections).

The selection modes of the gateway function module can be specifically two modes: firstly, each gateway function module can receive a corresponding forwarding strategy, and the gateway function module to be connected in the next step is determined according to the strategy; second, the forwarding policy is only sent to a certain functional module, such as a multipath functional module; the tunnel module and the communication access module which are connected at the back of the multipath functional module are fixedly connected with the multipath functional module, and policy selection is not needed; but is not limited thereto.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the invention is characterized by receiving first data sent by first equipment of a first local network; selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information; establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module; transmitting the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network over the at least one session connection; the method can realize the simplification of an end-to-end communication mechanism, further simplify a communication networking architecture, optimize the networking architecture, improve the reliability of data transmission in a wireless network, reduce the data transmission delay, and well solve the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art.

The forwarding policy information may be preconfigured or generated in real time according to the first information; wherein the first information includes: at least one of network state parameter information and data parameter information; the network state parameter information is determined according to the real-time monitoring condition of the data transmission state; the data parameter information includes: at least one of a data type, a traffic characteristic, and a performance requirement of the transmitted data.

Thus, the forwarding strategy information can be obtained more flexibly.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the gateway function module includes: at least one of a data interface function module, a multipath function module, a tunnel module and a communication access module. The modules can communicate in sequence; further, the gateway function module may further include: and the data type identification module is arranged between the data interface functional module and the multi-path functional module, and can identify the service flow type information corresponding to the data. Still further, the gateway function module may further include: a management and configuration function module; the forwarding strategy information is managed by a management and configuration function module; the management and configuration function module can manage the data processing logic of the above modules to realize different types or data access devices from different interfaces, and then select and switch one or more paths (namely, select the gateway function module) according to the policy information set by the management and configuration function module.

In the embodiment of the invention, at least one tunnel is established between the first gateway device and the second gateway device; the establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module comprises: at least one session connection for transmitting the first data is established in at least one tunnel according to the selected gateway function module.

This ensures normal transmission of data that needs tunneling. Wherein "establishing at least one session connection for transmitting said first data in at least one tunnel" may specifically comprise: establishing a plurality of channels or a plurality of session connections in the 1 channels through 1 or more tunnel modules; it can be understood that: at least one tunnel module establishes at least one session connection, which may be a plurality of connections belonging to different channels (i.e. different tunnels) respectively, or belonging to the same tunnel. The multi-channel establishment is the target, and is equivalent to the multi-path establishment, wherein the multi-path establishment can be realized through a plurality of tunnels, and also can be realized through a plurality of sessions in one tunnel, so that different granularity is realized. I.e. multipath (i.e. multiple connections) may be multiple tunnels, or one tunnel.

Wherein, selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information includes: selecting a gateway function module according to forwarding strategy information and path reference information corresponding to the first data; wherein the path reference information includes: inputting at least one of data port information of the first data and service flow type information corresponding to the first data; the forwarding policy information includes: the path reference information corresponds to the session connection.

Thus, after the data access devices of different types or from different interfaces are realized, one or more paths are selected and switched according to the forwarding strategy information.

Further, before selecting the gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information, the method further includes: determining the number of transmission paths corresponding to the first data; the selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information includes: selecting a gateway function module according to the number of the transmission paths and the forwarding strategy information; the establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module comprises: and establishing session connection for transmitting the first data, wherein the number of the session connection corresponds to the number of the transmission paths, according to the selected gateway function module.

This ensures that redundant transmission of data can be achieved. In the embodiment of the present invention, after determining the number of transmission paths corresponding to the first data, the method may further include: and copying the first data according to the number of the transmission paths.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the sending, through the at least one session connection, the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network includes: under the condition that the number of the transmission paths is at least 2, constructing a data frame according to the data frame identification information and the first data; transmitting the data frame to a second gateway device in a second local network over the at least one session connection; the data frame identification information is identification information in a reserved bit of a tunnel protocol or identification information in a newly-added protocol encapsulation packet header.

Thus, redundant transmission of data can be accurately realized. Wherein the data frame identification information for the same data may be the same. The "identification information in the tunneling protocol reserved bit" may be a number allocated to the data to be transmitted in the tunnel, and the same packet may be allocated with the same number; the "data frame identification information" may be a number of data in a reserved bit of a tunneling protocol or a packet header of a newly added protocol when the data is copied.

The "constructing a data frame from the data frame identification information and the first data" may include: and constructing a data frame of corresponding data according to the original data packet of the first data, the data packet obtained by copying the first data and the data frame identification information.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a communication method applied to the second gateway device in the second local network, as shown in fig. 3, comprising the following steps:

step 31: receiving first data sent by a first gateway device in a first local network through at least one session connection;

step 32: and transmitting the first data to a second device of a second local network.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the invention is characterized in that first data sent by first gateway equipment in a first local network through at least one session connection is received; transmitting the first data to a second device of a second local network; the system can support and realize the simplification of an end-to-end communication mechanism, further simplify a communication networking architecture, optimize the networking architecture, improve the reliability of data transmission in a wireless network, reduce the data transmission delay, and well solve the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art.

In the embodiment of the invention, at least one tunnel is established between the first gateway device and the second gateway device; the at least one session connection is established in at least one tunnel, and one of the sessions belongs to one of the tunnels.

This ensures normal transmission of data that needs tunneling. Wherein "the at least one session connection is established in the at least one tunnel" corresponding to the above "at least one session connection for transmitting the first data is established in the at least one tunnel", and "the at least one session connection for transmitting the first data is established in the at least one tunnel" may specifically include: establishing a plurality of channels or a plurality of session connections in the 1 channels through 1 or more tunnel modules; it can be understood that: at least one tunnel module establishes at least one session connection, which may be a plurality of connections belonging to different channels (i.e. different tunnels) respectively, or belonging to the same tunnel. The multi-channel establishment is the target, and is equivalent to the multi-path establishment, wherein the multi-path establishment can be realized through a plurality of tunnels, and also can be realized through a plurality of sessions in one tunnel, so that different granularity is realized. I.e. multipath (i.e. multiple connections) may be multiple tunnels, or one tunnel.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the receiving, by a first gateway device in a first local network, first data sent by at least one session connection includes: receiving a data frame carrying first data sent by first gateway equipment in a first local network through at least one session connection; the second device for transmitting the first data to a second local network includes: according to the data frame identification information corresponding to the data frame, the first data received for the first time is sent to second equipment of a second local network, and the first data received after the first time is deleted; the data frame identification information is identification information in a reserved bit of a tunnel protocol or identification information in a newly-added protocol encapsulation packet header.

Therefore, redundant transmission of data can be accurately realized, and the space occupied by data redundancy is saved. The "data frame identification information corresponding to the data frame" may be understood as "data frame identification information corresponding to the first data"; in the embodiment of the invention, the data frame identification information for the same data can be the same. The "identification information in the tunneling protocol reserved bit" may be a number allocated to the data to be transmitted in the tunnel, and the same packet may be allocated with the same number; the "data frame identification information" may be a number of data in a reserved bit of a tunneling protocol or a packet header of a newly added protocol when the data is copied.

The following illustrates the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present invention.

Aiming at the technical problems, the embodiment of the invention provides a communication method, which can concretely realize a scheme and a communication mechanism for simplifying the 5G+ industrial Internet end-to-end communication networking architecture, optimize the networking architecture, improve the reliability of data transmission in a wireless network and reduce the data transmission delay. In view of this, the embodiment of the present invention specifically proposes a functional architecture of a multipath gateway device and a communication manner thereof in wireless network environments such as 4G, 5G, etc.; by deploying data interface function modules, multipath function modules, tunnel modules, communication access modules (such as 4G or 5G access modules and other access modules (such as wired, wireless fidelity WIFI, etc.)) in the multipath gateway device (or multipath controller device), and using the management and configuration function modules to manage the data processing logic of each module: after the data from different interfaces or different types of data are accessed into the equipment, one or more paths are selected and transmitted according to the strategy information (corresponding to the forwarding strategy information) set by the management and configuration functional module, so that the purposes of improving the reliability of data transmission and the speed of data transmission on the basis of convenient wireless transmission of the data are achieved.

Two examples of networking architecture are given below for the schemes provided by the embodiments of the present invention.

For example, in the networking architecture (architecture of device-to-device communication) shown in fig. 4, the multipath gateway devices of the transmitting end and the receiving end may both pass through the wireless access network. The transmitting end (i.e. the transmitting end) transmits the ethernet data of the data type 1 to the receiving end (i.e. the receiving end), specifically, the data enters a multipath splitting function module (also simply referred to as a multipath function module or even simply referred to as a multipath module) of the multipath gateway device (corresponding to the first gateway device) through a corresponding interface of the data type 1, when the data is layer 2 data, the multipath function module copies the data according to policy information and establishes multiple channels or multiple session connections (such as PPP Connection) in the 1 channels through 1 or multiple tunnel (function) modules, and sends the data to the opposite multipath gateway device (corresponding to the second gateway device) in the 5G network.

If the data does not need to pass through the 5G network, the multipath functional module can copy the data according to the strategy information and then send the data to other access modules (such as WIFI, wires and the like).

If the data sent by the device (i.e., the controller in fig. 4, corresponding to the first device) to the multipath gateway device is IP data, the multipath function module copies the data according to the policy information, and then directly sends the data to the 4G/5G (i.e., 4G or 5G) access module or other access modules for multipath transmission without sending the data to the tunnel module. FIG. 4 may illustrate 5G+ industrial Internet networking architecture optimization schemes-devices and apparatus; the controlled device in fig. 4 corresponds to the second device, TCP/UDP represents a transmission control protocol or a user datagram protocol, L2TP represents a layer 2 tunneling protocol, payload represents a payload (L2 TP payload may represent L2TP information), that is, ethernet data on the left side in fig. 4, and data between the 4G/5G access modules may be transmitted using an existing tunneling data structure, but is not limited thereto.

In addition, in the networking architecture (architecture of communication between a server and a device) shown in fig. 5, the controller may access the 5G network through a wire, and the controlled device may access the network through a wireless; the multipath gateway device on the controller (corresponding to the first device) side does not need a 4G/5G access module. FIG. 5 may illustrate a 5G+ industrial Internet networking architecture optimization scheme-servers and devices; the meaning of the relevant components or parameters can be seen in the relevant context of fig. 4.

The multipath gateway device provided in the embodiment of the present invention is specifically illustrated below.

Example one:

the schematic functional block diagram of the multi-path gateway device is shown in fig. 6, and the management and configuration functional block configures different path selection and switching policies (corresponding to the policy information) for the incoming data from different data interfaces according to the information such as the data type, service characteristics, performance requirements or real-time monitoring condition of the service transmission state of the transmitted data, determines the access module (i.e. the communication access module) that needs to be selected for the data and the tunnel condition that needs to be established, and performs policy configuration (i.e. configures the forwarding policy of the data flow) in the interface functional block, the multi-path functional block, the tunnel module, the 4G/5G access module and other access modules (such as wire, WIFI and the like). And selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information. The multipath strategy in fig. 6 is the strategy for multipath transmission. Each multipath functional module may correspond to n+1 paths (n is the total number of tunnel modules), and four paths are shown in fig. 6, for example: the multi-path function module 1 may correspond to the path of the tunnel module 1, the path of the tunnel module 2, the path of the tunnel module n, and the paths of other access modules.

The connection relations among the interface function module, the multipath function module, the tunnel module, the 4G/5G access module and other access modules can be fixedly configured or flexibly transformed according to strategies.

For example, in a multi-path gateway device at one end, each data interface corresponds to one multi-path functional module, each multi-path module selectively connects multiple tunnel modules according to policy configuration information (corresponding to policy information), and each tunnel module corresponds to one 4G/5G access module or other access modules (such as cable, WIFI, etc.). The multipath function module determines that data needs to be sent to 1 or more tunnel modules or other access modules according to policy information obtained from the management and configuration function module. Each tunnel module and a corresponding tunnel module in the opposite multipath gateway device establish a channel or a session in a tunnel.

Alternatively, each data interface (corresponding to an interface function module) corresponds to one or more path function modules according to policy configuration information, and each path function module fixes a corresponding one or more tunnel modules.

In this example, the "management and configuration function module" configures different policies for traffic flows of different ports (the same configuration policy applies to traffic flows entering the same port); and according to different requirements (such as transmission channel requirements, redundant path number requirements, packet loss rate, time delay and the like) of different data interfaces on the redundant paths, the multipath functional module drives the copied multiple service flows into different tunnels or different sessions. For example, the "management and configuration function module" configures the interface data 3 to implement dual-path redundancy transmission, and the multi-path function module may take a copy operation on the data of the interface data 3, and then drives two identical traffic flows into the tunnel module 1 (tunnel-WIFI connection) and the tunnel module 2 (tunnel-5G connection). Before data transmission, the 'receiving end' and the 'sending end' need to synchronously configure strategies in advance, and the tunnel module of the 'receiving end' can integrate service flows into the same multi-path functional module according to the pre-configuration so as to realize the deletion of redundant frames.

The implementation of the modules involved in this example is described below.

1. The data interface module realizes:

the data interface module is used for inputting data, including identification and encapsulation of the data possibly involved after the input. Different types of traffic data may be input into the multipath gateway apparatus through different data interfaces. The implementation of the plurality of data interface modules may be different implementations of physical interfaces or different implementations of logical interfaces, and the scheme is not limited.

2. The multipath function module realizes the functions:

the multi-path function module can realize multi-path forwarding of the data frame by performing copy and delete operations on the data frame. The multi-path gateway devices at the two ends of the tunnel can be used as a sending end and a receiving end at the same time, so that bidirectional forwarding of data is realized. The "transmitting end" copies the data frame into two or more copies according to the configuration in the "management and configuration function module" (if there is no configuration of multipath forwarding, the "transmitting end" will not copy the corresponding data frame). In the replication process, the "transmitting end" may perform data frame marking (identification of redundant data frames is achieved by using data frame numbers) by the following two methods. The "receiving end" receives the first arriving packet by identifying the tag (number) of the data frame and discards the later arriving packet. The multipath gateway device can realize the multipath redundancy forwarding function through the duplication and deletion operations of the sending end and the receiving end. The data frame number here corresponds to the above-described data frame identification information.

(1) Data frame marking method 1: the data frame number is marked by "idle bits" in the tunneling protocol (corresponding to the above data frame identification information being the identification information in the reserved bits of the tunneling protocol). Taking the L2TP (v 2) tunneling protocol as an example, the 2 nd, 3 rd and 8 th to 11 th bits (i.e. reserved bits) of the header of the message structure (i.e. the L2TP (v 2) tunneling protocol header) can be marked with a data frame ID (the number of numbers that can be represented by 6 bits is 64), all sent data frames are allocated a unique data frame number (0-64, which can be recycled) by the "sender", and the copied data frame numbers are the same. The "receiving end" maintains a record table of received data frame numbers of variable length, the first received data frame number is used to overwrite the old record according to the FIFO (first in first out) principle, and when a certain data frame number is already present in the record table, it indicates that the data frame has been received, and the subsequently received data frame needs to be discarded (corresponding to the deletion of the first data received after the first time). With respect to "overwrite old record" is the way in which a data frame is stored in the record table, when the record table is full, the record in the record table that is the longest is overwritten.

Taking a GRE (generic routing encapsulation) tunnel as an example, the data frame ID may be optionally marked in the flags field of the GRE frame header.

(2) Data frame marking method 2: the multi-path gateway device can add a special header to the common data frame for data frame numbering (the identification information corresponding to the data frame is the identification information in the newly added protocol encapsulation packet header); all sent data frames are allocated a unique data frame number (the number can be recycled) by a sending end, and the copied data frame numbers are the same. The "receiving end" maintains a record table of received data frame numbers of variable length, the first received data frame numbers are used to cover the old record according to the FIFO (first in first out) principle, and when a certain data frame number is already present in the record table, it indicates that the data frame has been received, and the subsequently received data frame needs to be discarded. With respect to "overwrite old record" is the way in which a data frame is stored in the record table, when the record table is full, the record in the record table that is the longest is overwritten.

3. Realization of a tunnel module:

the multi-path gateway equipment at the two ends is responsible for establishing a communication tunnel, taking an L2TP tunnel as an example, interfaces of the equipment at the two ends of the tunnel establish L2TP connection in an 'LAC (L2 TP access concentrator) automatic dialing tunnel and session' mode, the multi-path gateway equipment at the mobile end (corresponding to the first equipment) is used as the LAC end of the L2TP tunnel, and the multi-path gateway equipment at the server end (corresponding to the second equipment) is used as the LNS (L2 TP network server) end. The LAC terminal actively initiates a tunnel establishment application to the LNS terminal according to the regulation of the tunnel quantity and the session quantity in the tunnel (namely configuration of the LAC) in the management and configuration function module, and meanwhile, the LAC and the LNS participate in the maintenance and the cleaning of the tunnel together, and the two-side multipath gateway equipment is accessed in the south direction (namely local access) without participating in the establishment, maintenance or cleaning of the tunnel.

4.4G/5G implementation of the Access Module:

the 4G/5G access module can realize access schemes of multiple access technologies (or multiple frequency bands of the same access technology) among the same operator or different operators in modes of multimode, multiple frequency bands, multiple SIM cards (subscriber identity Module) and the like.

5. Implementation of other access modules:

other access modules may include other non-3 GPP access technologies besides 4G/5G, such as Wifi, wire, etc.

6. The management and configuration function module realizes:

the management and configuration function module may implement functions through YANG (data modeling language), netcon f (network configuration protocol), and Python (computer programming language) logic scripts, and the overall functions may be divided into two service modules, as shown in fig. 7: the basic Configuration service is responsible for the startup initialization (Day 0 Configuration) of the multipath gateway device and the tunnel establishment (including the parameter Configuration of both ends, the establishment of the tunnel and the session) of the client and the server, and the port multipath policy service is responsible for the multipath policy of each interface and the selection of the communication access module. After the multipath gateway device is successfully started and the tunnel is established, each data interface needs to call a port multipath policy service once to realize the mapping of the traffic flow from the input port multipath function module to the tunnel module (when the communication access module is other access module, the tunnel module is omitted). All service strategies support synchronous issuing on two sides, and the problem that the configuration of a server side and a client side is asynchronous is solved theoretically. For a specific logic framework, see fig. 7, where main.py represents a logic script and CLI represents a control line interface; dependency represents dependency, servicepoint represents service point, and Actionpoint represents action point.

Example two:

the framework of the second example is basically consistent with that of the first example (such as a multipath functional module, a tunnel module, a communication access module and the like are unchanged), and the second example adds a data type identification module between a data interface (namely a data interface functional module) and the multipath functional module based on the first example. The data type identification module can distinguish the service flows from the same data interface (i.e. determine the service flow type information of the data) according to certain characteristics (such as MAC (media access control) address, IP address, protocol type, etc.), and the support management and configuration function module realizes the independent allocation of scheduling policies to different service flows of the same interface (the scheduling granularity is improved from the data interface level to the service flow level based on certain characteristics). The path reference information corresponding to the above includes: and the service flow type information corresponding to the first data.

The schematic diagram of the functional module of the multi-path gateway device is shown in fig. 8, and the management and configuration functional module configures different path selection and switching strategies for different traffic flow data coming from the same or different data interfaces according to the information of the data type, service characteristics, performance requirements or real-time monitoring conditions of the service transmission state of the transmitted data, determines the access module to be selected and the tunnel condition to be established of the data, and performs strategy configuration on the interface functional module, the multi-path functional module, the tunnel module, the 4G/5G access module and other access modules (such as wires, WIFI and the like). And selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information. The multipath strategy in fig. 8 is the strategy for multipath transmission. Each multipath functional module may correspond to n+1 paths (n is the total number of tunnel modules), and four paths are shown in fig. 8, for example: the multi-path function module 1 may correspond to the path of the tunnel module 1, the path of the tunnel module 2, the path of the tunnel module n, and the paths of other access modules. In the embodiment of the present invention, different data types may correspond to the same or different communication modes, for example, data type 1 and data type 2 in fig. 8 may all be transmitted to the data type identification module by using an ethernet communication mode. The data interface functional blocks are not illustrated in fig. 8, but are present, see the relevant contents in fig. 6.

The connection relationship among the interface function module (the data interface in this example may be used only for accessing data), the multi-path function module, the tunnel module, the 4G/5G access module, and other access modules may be fixedly configured or flexibly transformed according to policies.

For example, in a multi-path gateway device at one end, each data interface corresponds to one multi-path functional module, each multi-path functional module selectively connects multiple tunnel modules according to policy configuration information (corresponding to policy information), and each tunnel module corresponds to one 4G/5G access module or other access modules (such as cable, WIFI, etc.). The multipath function module determines that data needs to be sent to 1 or more tunnel modules or other access modules according to policy information obtained from the management and configuration function module. Each tunnel module and a corresponding tunnel module in the opposite multipath gateway device establish a channel or a session in a tunnel.

Alternatively, each data interface (corresponding to an interface function module) selects a corresponding one or more path function modules according to the policy configuration information, and each multipath function module fixes a corresponding one or pair of tunnel modules.

In this example, the "management and configuration function module" configures different policies for different traffic flows (the data type identification module is responsible for identifying different traffic flows, and the same type of traffic configuration policies for different ports are the same); and according to different requirements (such as transmission channel requirements, redundant path quantity requirements, packet loss rate, time delay and the like) of different service flows on redundant paths, the multipath functional module drives the copied multiple service flows into different tunnels or different sessions. For example, the "management and configuration function module" configures the traffic flow a in the interface data 3 to implement dual-path redundancy transmission, and the multi-path function module may take a copy operation for the data frame (i.e., data) in the traffic flow a, and then drives two identical traffic flows into the tunnel module 1 (tunnel-WIFI connection) and the tunnel module 2 (tunnel-5G connection). Before data transmission, the 'receiving end' and the 'sending end' need to synchronously configure strategies in advance, and the tunnel module of the 'receiving end' can integrate service flows into the same multi-path functional module according to the pre-configuration so as to realize the deletion of redundant frames.

The implementation of the modules involved in this example is described below.

1. Realization of the data type identification module:

The data type identification module may identify different traffic flows, and the parameters for identifying the traffic flows may include: protocol type (bus, ethernet, etc.), data packet type (control data or user data), destination address or source address (IP or MAC). In this scheme, the data frames divided into the same class by the predefined feature recognition rule belong to the same service flow (i.e. the service flow type information is the same). For example, the destination MAC address of the ethernet frame incoming from the port a is X1, while the destination MAC address of the ethernet frame incoming from the port a is X2, and the data frames with different destination MAC addresses can be divided into different traffic flows: traffic 1, traffic 2 (based on destination MAC address difference). The subsequent management and configuration function module may assign different scheduling policies (i.e., match different policy information) to different traffic flows.

2. The multipath function module realizes the functions:

(1) Data frame marking method one: the data frame number is marked by "idle bits" in the tunneling protocol (corresponding to the above data frame identification information being the identification information in the reserved bits of the tunneling protocol). Taking the L2TP (v 2) tunneling protocol as an example, the 2 nd, 3 rd and 8 th to 11 th bits (i.e. reserved bits) of the header of the message structure (i.e. the L2TP (v 2) tunneling protocol header) can be marked with a data frame ID (the number of numbers that can be represented by 6 bits is 64), all sent data frames are allocated a unique data frame number (0-64, which can be recycled) by the "sender", and the copied data frame numbers are the same. The "receiving end" maintains a record table of received data frame numbers of variable length, the first received data frame number is used to overwrite the old record according to the FIFO (first in first out) principle, and when a certain data frame number is already present in the record table, it indicates that the data frame has been received, and the subsequently received data frame needs to be discarded (corresponding to the deletion of the first data received after the first time). With respect to "overwrite old record" is the way in which a data frame is stored in the record table, when the record table is full, the record in the record table that is the longest is overwritten.

Taking the GRE tunnel as an example, the data frame ID may be marked in the flags field of the GRE frame header.

(2) And a second data frame marking method: the multi-path gateway device can add a special header to the common data frame for data frame numbering (the identification information corresponding to the data frame is the identification information in the newly added protocol encapsulation packet header); all sent data frames are allocated a unique data frame number (the number can be recycled) by a sending end, and the copied data frame numbers are the same. The "receiving end" maintains a record table of received data frame numbers of variable length, the first received data frame numbers are used to cover the old record according to the FIFO (first in first out) principle, and when a certain data frame number is already present in the record table, it indicates that the data frame has been received, and the subsequently received data frame needs to be discarded. With respect to "overwrite old record" is the way in which a data frame is stored in the record table, when the record table is full, the record in the record table that is the longest is overwritten.

3. Realization of a tunnel module:

the multi-path gateway equipment at the two ends is responsible for establishing a communication tunnel, taking an L2TP tunnel as an example, interfaces of the equipment at the two ends of the tunnel establish L2TP connection in a mode of 'LAC automatic dialing tunnel and session', the multi-path gateway equipment at the mobile end (corresponding to the first equipment) is used as the LAC end of the L2TP tunnel, and the multi-path gateway equipment at the server end (corresponding to the second equipment) is used as the LNS end. The LAC terminal actively initiates application of tunnel establishment to the LNS terminal according to the regulations of the tunnel number and the session number in the tunnel in the management and configuration function module, and simultaneously the LAC terminal and the LNS participate in maintenance and cleaning of the tunnel together, and the two-side multipath gateway equipment is accessed in the south direction (namely, local access) without participating in establishment, maintenance or cleaning of the tunnel.

4.4G/5G implementation of the Access Module:

the 4G/5G access module can realize access schemes of multiple access technologies (or multiple bands of the same access technology) among the same operator or different operators in modes of multimode, multiple bands, multiple SIM cards and the like.

5. Implementation of other access modules:

6. The management and configuration function module realizes:

the management and Configuration function module can realize functions through YANG, netcon f and Python logic scripts, the overall functions can be divided into two service modules, as shown in fig. 9, "basic Configuration service" is responsible for startup initialization (Day 0 Configuration) of the multi-path gateway device and tunnel establishment (including parameter Configuration of two ends, tunnel and session establishment) of the client and the server, and "port multi-path policy service" is responsible for multi-path policy of each service flow and selection of communication access modules. After the multipath gateway device is successfully started and the tunnel is established, each service flow needs to call a port multipath policy service once to realize the mapping of the specific service flow from an input port multipath function module to a tunnel module (when the communication access module is other access modules, the tunnel module is omitted). All service strategies support synchronous issuing on two sides, and the problem that the configuration of a server side and a client side is asynchronous is solved theoretically. A specific logic framework can be seen in fig. 9, where main.py represents a logic script and CLI represents a control line interface; dependency represents dependency, servicepoint represents service point, and Actionpoint represents action point.

As can be seen from the above, the multi-path gateway device provided by the embodiment of the present invention mainly relates to the following:

1. the multi-path gateway device may be configured with a data interface function module, a multi-path function module, a tunnel module, a 4G/5G access module, and other access modules (such as wired, WIFI, etc.), and may use the management and configuration function module to manage the data processing logic (i.e. setting policy information) of each module to implement: after accessing the device, data from different ports or different types is selected and switched according to policy information (corresponding to the forwarding policy information described above) set by the management and configuration function module.

2. The management and configuration function module can configure different path selection strategies for the incoming data from different data interfaces according to the data type, service characteristics, performance requirements or real-time monitoring conditions of service transmission states and the like of the transmitted data, determine the communication access module to be selected and the tunnel condition to be established of the data, and perform strategy configuration on the interface function module, the multi-path function module, the tunnel module, the 4G/5G access module and other access modules (such as wires, WIFI and the like).

3. Correspondence configuration (corresponding to forwarding policy for configuring data flows) of interface function modules, multi-path function modules, tunnel modules, 4G/5G access modules and other access modules (such as wired, WIFI, etc.) in the multi-path gateway device.

4. Numbering the data frames by a tunneling protocol reserved bit (corresponding to the idle bit) or adding a protocol encapsulation packet header (corresponding to adding a special header to the common data frame); and further realize the redundant transmission carried by multiple tunnels.

In summary, the scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention can realize the purposes of improving the data transmission reliability and improving the data transmission rate on the basis of adopting 4G, 5G, WIFI and other convenient wireless or wired transmission of various industrial data under the multi-network fusion scene. Specifically, the networking architecture required by the scheme has few parts and is convenient to deploy; and the number of hops involved in data transmission is small, so that the transmission delay can be well reduced.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a communication device, which is applied to a first gateway device in a first local network, as shown in fig. 10, and includes:

a first receiving module 101, configured to receive first data sent by a first device of a first local network;

A first selecting module 102, configured to select a gateway function module according to forwarding policy information;

a first establishing module 103, configured to establish at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module;

a first sending module 104, configured to send the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network through the at least one session connection.

The first receiving module may be configured to receive, by using the data interface function module, first data sent by a first device of the first local network.

The communication device provided by the embodiment of the invention receives the first data sent by the first equipment of the first local network; selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information; establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module; transmitting the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network over the at least one session connection; the method can realize the simplification of an end-to-end communication mechanism, further simplify a communication networking architecture, optimize the networking architecture, improve the reliability of data transmission in a wireless network, reduce the data transmission delay, and well solve the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the forwarding policy information may be preconfigured or generated in real time according to the first information; wherein the first information includes: at least one of network state parameter information and data parameter information; the network state parameter information is determined according to the real-time monitoring condition of the data transmission state; the data parameter information includes: at least one of a data type, a traffic characteristic, and a performance requirement of the transmitted data.

Wherein, the gateway function module includes: at least one of a data interface function module, a multipath function module, a tunnel module and a communication access module.

Further, the communication device further includes: the first determining module is used for determining the number of transmission paths corresponding to the first data before selecting the gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information; the selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information includes: selecting a gateway function module according to the number of the transmission paths and the forwarding strategy information; the establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module comprises: and establishing session connection for transmitting the first data, wherein the number of the session connection corresponds to the number of the transmission paths, according to the selected gateway function module.

The above embodiments of the communication method on the second gateway device side are applicable to the embodiments of the communication apparatus, and the same technical effects can be achieved.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a communication device, which is applied to a second gateway device in a second local network, as shown in fig. 11, and includes:

a second receiving module 111, configured to receive first data sent by a first gateway device in a first local network through at least one session connection;

a second sending module 112, configured to send the first data to a second device of a second local network.

The communication device provided by the embodiment of the invention receives the first data sent by the first gateway equipment in the first local network through at least one session connection; transmitting the first data to a second device of a second local network; the system can support and realize the simplification of an end-to-end communication mechanism, further simplify a communication networking architecture, optimize the networking architecture, improve the reliability of data transmission in a wireless network, reduce the data transmission delay, and well solve the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art.

At least one tunnel is established between the first gateway device and the second gateway device; the at least one session connection is established in at least one tunnel, and one of the sessions belongs to one of the tunnels.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a gateway device, which is a first gateway device in a first local network, as shown in fig. 12, and includes: a processor 121 and a transceiver 122;

the processor 121 is configured to receive, through the transceiver 122, first data sent by a first device of a first local network;

the first data is transmitted to a second gateway device in a second local network via the at least one session connection using the transceiver 122.

The gateway device provided by the embodiment of the invention receives the first data sent by the first device of the first local network; selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding strategy information; establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module; transmitting the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network over the at least one session connection; the method can realize the simplification of an end-to-end communication mechanism, further simplify a communication networking architecture, optimize the networking architecture, improve the reliability of data transmission in a wireless network, reduce the data transmission delay, and well solve the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art.

Further, the processor is further configured to: before selecting a gateway function module according to forwarding strategy information, determining the number of transmission paths corresponding to the first data; the selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information includes: selecting a gateway function module according to the number of the transmission paths and the forwarding strategy information; the establishing at least one session connection for transmitting the first data according to the selected gateway function module comprises: and establishing session connection for transmitting the first data, wherein the number of the session connection corresponds to the number of the transmission paths, according to the selected gateway function module.

The implementation embodiments of the communication method at the first gateway device side are applicable to the embodiments of the gateway device, and the same technical effects can be achieved.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a gateway device, where the gateway device is a second gateway device in a second local network, as shown in fig. 13, and the gateway device includes: a processor 131 and a transceiver 132;

the processor 131 is configured to receive, through the transceiver 132, first data sent by a first gateway device in a first local network through at least one session connection;

and transmitting the first data to a second device of a second local network.

The gateway device provided by the embodiment of the invention receives the first data sent by the first gateway device in the first local network through at least one session connection; transmitting the first data to a second device of a second local network; the system can support and realize the simplification of an end-to-end communication mechanism, further simplify a communication networking architecture, optimize the networking architecture, improve the reliability of data transmission in a wireless network, reduce the data transmission delay, and well solve the problems of complex communication networking architecture and increased data transmission delay in the prior art.

The implementation embodiments of the communication method at the second gateway device side are applicable to the embodiments of the gateway device, and the same technical effects can be achieved.

The embodiment of the invention also provides gateway equipment, which comprises a memory, a processor and a program which is stored in the memory and can run on the processor; the processor executes the program to realize the communication method of the first gateway equipment side; or the processor executes the program to implement the communication method of the second gateway device side.

The implementation embodiments of the communication method on the first gateway device side or the second gateway device side are applicable to the embodiments of the gateway device, and the same technical effects can be achieved.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a readable storage medium, on which a program is stored, which when executed by a processor, implements the steps in the communication method of the first gateway device side; alternatively, the program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps in the communication method on the second gateway apparatus side described above.

The implementation embodiments of the communication method on the first gateway device side or the second gateway device side are applicable to the embodiment of the readable storage medium, and the same technical effects can be achieved.

It should be noted that many of the functional components described in this specification have been referred to as modules, in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence.

In an embodiment of the invention, the modules may be implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified module of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions which may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified module need not be physically located together, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different bits which, when joined logically together, comprise the module and achieve the stated purpose for the module.

Indeed, a module of executable code may be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Likewise, operational data may be identified within modules and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices.

Where a module may be implemented in software, taking into account the level of existing hardware technology, a module may be implemented in software, and one skilled in the art may, without regard to cost, build corresponding hardware circuitry, including conventional Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, and existing semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components, to achieve the corresponding functions. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices or the like.

While the foregoing is directed to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the principles of the present invention, and such modifications and changes should also be considered as being within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A communication method applied to a first gateway device in a first local network, the communication method comprising:

receiving first data sent by first equipment of a first local network;

2. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein the forwarding policy information may be preconfigured or generated in real time according to the first information;

3. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein the gateway function module comprises: at least one of a data interface function module, a multipath function module, a tunnel module and a communication access module.

4. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein at least one tunnel is established between the first gateway device and the second gateway device;

5. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information comprises:

6. The communication method according to claim 1, further comprising, before selecting the gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information:

determining the number of transmission paths corresponding to the first data;

7. The communication method of claim 6, wherein the transmitting the first data to the second gateway device in the second local network via the at least one session connection comprises:

8. A communication method applied to a second gateway device in a second local network, the communication method comprising:

And transmitting the first data to a second device of a second local network.

9. The communication method according to claim 8, wherein at least one tunnel is established between the first gateway device and the second gateway device;

10. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving the first data sent by the first gateway device in the first local network over the at least one session connection comprises:

11. A communication apparatus for use with a first gateway device in a first local network, the communication apparatus comprising:

12. The communication apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the forwarding policy information may be preconfigured or generated in real time based on the first information;

13. The communication apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the gateway function module comprises: at least one of a data interface function module, a multipath function module, a tunnel module and a communication access module.

14. The communication apparatus according to claim 11, wherein at least one tunnel is established between the first gateway device and the second gateway device;

15. The communication apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the selecting a gateway function module according to the forwarding policy information comprises:

16. The communication apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

17. The communications apparatus of claim 16, wherein the transmitting the first data to a second gateway device in a second local network over the at least one session connection comprises:

18. A communication apparatus for use with a second gateway device in a second local network, the communication apparatus comprising:

19. The communication apparatus of claim 18, wherein at least one tunnel is established between the first gateway device and the second gateway device;

20. The communication apparatus of claim 18, wherein the receiving the first data sent by the first gateway device in the first local network over the at least one session connection comprises:

21. A gateway device, wherein the gateway device is a first gateway device in a first local network, the gateway device comprising: a processor and a transceiver;

22. A gateway device, wherein the gateway device is a second gateway device in a second local network, the gateway device comprising: a processor and a transceiver;

and transmitting the first data to a second device of a second local network.

23. A gateway device comprising a memory, a processor and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor; -wherein the processor, when executing the program, implements a communication method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

the processor, when executing the program, implements the communication method according to any one of claims 8 to 10.

24. A readable storage medium having stored thereon a program, which when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the communication method according to any of claims 1 to 7; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

the program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps in the communication method as claimed in any one of claims 8 to 10.