CN116321103A

CN116321103A - Communication method, device, server and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN116321103A
Application number: CN202211091174.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 邢天齐; 任驰; 马瑞涛
Original assignee: China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd
Current assignee: China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-09-07
Filing date: 2022-09-07
Publication date: 2023-06-23

Abstract

The invention provides a communication method, a device, a server and a storage medium, relates to the technical field of communication, and solves the technical problems that in the related art, the selection process of home UPF (unified power flow) based on the data interaction between UE (user equipment) and a data network in a home network is possibly unreasonable, the receiving and transmitting efficiency of service data can be influenced, and the communication experience of a user is reduced. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request of UE (user equipment) sent by a visiting place SMF (SMF), wherein the PDU session establishment request comprises an identifier of a visiting place PLMN (public land mobile network), and the PDU establishment request is used for requesting to establish a home PDU session; determining a target ULCL from a plurality of home ULCLs based on the identity of the visited PLMN; and sending a splitting strategy to the target ULCL, wherein the splitting strategy is used for instructing the target ULCL to split the target uplink data packet to the home EHE under the condition that the target uplink data packet is received.

Description

Communication method, device, server and storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communications method, an apparatus, a server, and a storage medium.

Background

Currently, when a User Equipment (UE) roams into a visited network, the UE may interact with a data network in the home network via some home user plane function (user plane function, UPF). Specifically, the UE may send service data to a visited UPF through a base station, where after receiving the service data, the visited UPF may send the service data to a home UPF, and then the home UPF may send the service data to the data network.

However, in the above method, the home UPF may be arbitrarily selected by the home session management function (session management function, SMF) from among a plurality of UPFs included in the home network. The selection of the home UPF may be unreasonable, e.g. the UE is further away from the home UPF, i.e. the UE needs to reach the home UPF over a further distance to reach the data network. Therefore, the receiving and transmitting efficiency of the service data can be affected, and the communication experience of the user is reduced.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a communication method, a device, a server and a storage medium, which solve the technical problems that in the related art, the selection process of a home location UPF (unified power flow) based on the data interaction between UE (user equipment) and a data network in the home location network is possibly unreasonable, the receiving and transmitting efficiency of service data can be influenced, and the communication experience of a user is reduced.

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a communication method comprising: receiving a protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session establishment request of the UE sent by the visited SMF, the PDU session establishment request including an identity of a visited public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), the PDU establishment request being for requesting establishment of a home PDU session; determining a target ULCL from a plurality of home uplink classifiers (uplink classifier, ULCL) based on the identity of the visited PLMN; and sending a offloading policy to the target ULCL, the offloading policy including an internet protocol (internet protocol, IP) address of a target edge application server (edge application server, EAS), the offloading policy being for instructing the target ULCL to offload, upon receipt of a target upstream data packet, the target upstream data packet to a home edge home environment (edge home environment, EHE), the destination address included in the target upstream data packet being the IP address of the target EAS, the target EAS being the server included in the home EHE.

Optionally, the communication method further includes: determining a target UPF from a plurality of home UPFs based on the identity of the visited PLMN; the IP address of the target UPF is sent to the target ULCL to cause the target ULCL to establish a communication connection with the target UPF.

Optionally, the PDU session establishment request further includes a name of a home data network and an identifier of a target network slice, and the communication method further includes: sending a subscription information query request to a home unified data manager (unified data management, UDM), the subscription information query request including an identity of the UE, a name of the home data network, and an identity of the target network slice, the subscription information query request being for requesting a query for subscription information of the UE; determining the target ULCL from a plurality of home ULCLs based on the identity of the visited PLMN specifically includes: in the case where the name of the home data network and the identification of the target network slice are included in the subscription information of the UE, the target ULCL is determined from the plurality of home ULCLs based on the identification of the visited PLMN.

Optionally, the communication method further includes: and sending a PDU session establishment response to the visiting place SMF, wherein the PDU session establishment response comprises the IP address of the target ULCL and the IP address of a target edge application server discovery function (edge application server discovery function, EASDF), and the target EASDF is used for analyzing the domain name of the target EAS to obtain the IP address of the target EAS.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a communication method comprising: receiving a shunting strategy sent by a home SMF, wherein the shunting strategy comprises an IP address of a target EAS; and when receiving the target uplink data packet sent by the visiting place UPF, shunting the target uplink data packet to the home place EHE, wherein the destination address included in the target uplink data packet is the IP address of the target EAS, and the target EAS is a server included in the home place EHE.

Optionally, the communication method further includes: receiving an IP address of a target UPF sent by a home SMF; and under the condition that other uplink data packets are received, the other uplink data packets are sent to the target UPF, so that the target UPF sends the other uplink data packets to the home data network, and the destination address included in the other uplink data packets is not the IP address of the target EAS.

In a third aspect, the present invention provides a communication apparatus comprising: the device comprises a receiving module, a determining module and a sending module; the receiving module is used for receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request of the UE sent by the SMF (visited subscriber identity module) at a visiting place, wherein the PDU session establishment request comprises an identifier of a PLMN (public land mobile network), and the PDU establishment request is used for requesting to establish a PDU session at a home place; the determining module is used for determining a target ULCL from a plurality of attribution ULCLs based on the identification of the visiting PLMN; the sending module is configured to send a splitting policy to a target ULCL, where the splitting policy includes an IP address of a target EAS, and the splitting policy is configured to instruct the target ULCL to split, when receiving a target upstream data packet, the target upstream data packet to a home EHE, where a destination address included in the target upstream data packet is an IP address of the target EAS, and where the target EAS is a server included in the home EHE.

Optionally, the determining module is further configured to determine a target UPF from a plurality of home UPFs based on the identity of the visited PLMN; the sending module is further configured to send the IP address of the target UPF to the target ULCL, so that the target ULCL establishes a communication connection with the target UPF.

Optionally, the PDU session establishment request further includes a name of the home data network and an identifier of the target network slice; the sending module is further configured to send a subscription information query request to a home UDM, where the subscription information query request includes an identifier of the UE, a name of the home data network, and an identifier of the target network slice, and the subscription information query request is used for requesting to query subscription information of the UE; the determining module is specifically configured to determine, when the subscription information of the UE includes the name of the home data network and the identifier of the target network slice, the target ULCL from the plurality of home ULCLs based on the identifier of the visited PLMN.

Optionally, the sending module is further configured to send a PDU session establishment response to the visited SMF, where the PDU session establishment response includes an IP address of the target ULCL and an IP address of a target EASDF, where the target EASDF is configured to parse a domain name of the target EAS to obtain the IP address of the target EAS.

In a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a communication apparatus comprising: a receiving module and a transmitting module;

the receiving module is used for receiving a shunting strategy sent by the home SMF, wherein the shunting strategy comprises an IP address of a target EAS; the sending module is configured to, when receiving a destination uplink data packet sent by the visitor area UPF, shunt the destination uplink data packet to the home area EHE, where a destination address included in the destination uplink data packet is an IP address of a destination EAS, and the destination EAS is a server included in the home area EHE.

Optionally, the receiving module is further configured to receive an IP address of a target UPF sent by the home SMF; the sending module is further configured to send, when receiving another uplink data packet, the other uplink data packet to the target UPF, so that the target UPF sends the other uplink data packet to the home data network, where a destination address included in the other uplink data packet is not an IP address of the target EAS.

In a fifth aspect, the present invention provides a server comprising: a processor and a memory configured to store processor-executable instructions; wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions to implement any of the alternative communication methods of the first aspect described above, or to implement any of the alternative communication methods of the second aspect described above.

In a sixth aspect, the present invention provides a computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a server, enable the server to perform any one of the alternative communication methods of the first aspect or any one of the alternative communication methods of the second aspect.

The communication method, the device, the server and the storage medium provided by the invention have the advantages that the attribution SMF can receive the PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request of the UE (user equipment) sent by the visit SMF, and the target ULCL is determined from a plurality of attribution ULCLs based on the identification of the visit PLMN included in the PDU session establishment request; the home SMF may then send a offload policy to the target ULCL that instructs the target ULCL to offload the target upstream data packet to the home EHE upon receiving the target upstream data packet (the destination address included in the target data packet is the IP address of the target EAS). In the invention, because the target ULCL is the attribution ULCL which is closer to the visiting place network, namely the attribution SMF can determine the attribution ULCL which is closer to the visiting place network for the UE, and the uplink data packet of the UE is shunted (or sent) based on the target ULCL, the receiving and transmitting efficiency of service data can be improved, and the communication experience is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

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

Detailed Description

The communication method, the device, the server and the storage medium provided by the embodiment of the invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The terms "first" and "second" and the like in the description and in the drawings are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular sequential order of objects.

Furthermore, references to the terms "comprising" and "having" and any variations thereof in the description of the present application are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to only those listed but may optionally include other steps or elements not listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present invention, words such as "exemplary" or "such as" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "e.g." in an embodiment of the present invention is not to be taken as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete fashion.

The term "and/or" as used herein includes the use of either or both of these methods.

In the description of the present application, unless otherwise indicated, the meaning of "a plurality" means two or more.

Based on what is described in the background art, since in the related art, the home UPF may be arbitrarily selected by the home SMF from among a plurality of UPFs included in the home network. The choice of the home UPF may be unreasonable, e.g. the UE is far from the home UPF, i.e. the UE needs to reach the home UPF via a long distance to reach the data network. Therefore, the receiving and transmitting efficiency of the service data can be affected, and the communication experience of the user is reduced. Based on this, the embodiments of the present invention provide a communication method, apparatus, server, and storage medium, because the target ULCL is a home location ULCL that is closer to the visited network, that is, the home location SMF may determine a home location ULCL that is closer to the visited network for the UE, and shunt (or send) an uplink packet of the UE based on the target ULCL, so that the sending and receiving efficiency of service data can be improved, and the communication experience is improved.

The communication method, device, server and storage medium provided in the embodiments of the present invention may be applied to a communication system, as shown in fig. 1, where the communication system includes a visited PLMN 10 and a home PLMN 10. Among these, the visited PLMN 10 includes a UE 101, a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) device or Access Network (AN) device 102, a visited access and mobility management function (access and mobility management function, AMF) 103, a visited SMF 104, and a visited UPF 105. The home PLMN 20 includes a home SMF 106, a home ULCL 107, a home UPF 108, a home data network 109, a home EHE 110, a home UDM 111, and a home EASDF 112. In general, in practical applications, the connection between the above-mentioned devices or service functions may be a wireless connection, and for convenience and intuitiveness, the connection relationship between the devices is schematically shown by a solid line in fig. 1.

In particular, the UE 101 can send a PDU session establishment request to the (R) AN device 102, which can include the name of the home data network 109 and AN identification of the target network slice, the PDU session establishment request requesting establishment of the home PDU session.

(R) AN device 102 for UE 101 to access a network, (R) AN device 102 may include a base station, AN evolved base station (evolved node base station, eNB), a next generation base station (next generation node base station, gNB), a new radio base station (new radio eNB), a macro base station, a micro base station, a high frequency base station or transmission and reception point (transmission and reception point, TRP), a non-third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) access network (e.g., wiFi), and/or a non-3GPP interworking function (non-3GPP interworking function,N3IWF) among others.

AMF 103: for connection management, mobility relation, registration management, access authentication and authorization, reachability management, security context management, etc. In the embodiment of the present invention, the AMF 103 is further configured to determine the visited SMF 104 from the plurality of first SMFs, and determine the home SMF 106 from the plurality of second SMFs.

SMF (including visited SMF 104 and home SMF 106): for session management (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release), selection and control of UPF 103, selection of traffic and session continuity (service and session continuity) modes, roaming services, and so forth. In an embodiment of the present invention, the home SMF 106 may determine the target ULCL (i.e., the home ULCL 107) from a plurality of home ULCLs based on the identity of the visited PLMN 10.

UPF (including visitor UPF 105 and home UPF 108): for handling events related to the user plane such as transmitting or routing data packets, detecting data packets, reporting traffic, handling quality of service (quality of service, qoS), lawful interception, storing downstream data packets, etc.

Home UDM 111: the method is used for processing authentication information in a 3GPP authentication and key agreement mechanism, processing user identity information, access authorization, registration and mobility management, subscription management, short message management and the like. In the embodiment of the present invention, the home UDM 111 is further configured to receive a subscription information query request sent by the home SMF 106, where the subscription information query request includes an identifier of the UE 101, a name of the home data network, and an identifier of the target network slice, and the subscription information query request is used to request to query subscription information of the UE.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present invention is fully described below from the point of interaction of each device in the communication system in conjunction with the communication system shown in fig. 1, so as to illustrate the process of sending the PDU session establishment request from the visited SMF to the home SMF and the process of shunting the target uplink data packet to the home EHE by the target ul cl.

As shown in fig. 2, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present invention may include S101-S107.

S101, the UE sends a PDU session establishment request.

Wherein the PDU session establishment request includes a name of the home data network and an identification of the target network slice, the PDU session establishment request requesting establishment of the home PDU session.

It will be appreciated that the UE is one included in a visited network (or visited PLMN) to which the UE roams from a home network (or home PLMN).

It will be appreciated that the above-described home PDU session is used to characterize the data transmission path (or data transmission path) between the UE and the home data network. I.e. the UE may perform data transfer with the home data network in case the home PDU session establishment is successful. Specifically, the UE may perform data transmission with the home data network based on the target network slice.

It should be appreciated that the UE sends a PDU session establishment request, in particular to the (R) AN device. The (R) AN device, upon receiving the PDU session establishment request, sends the PDU session establishment request to the visited AMF.

In an alternative implementation, the PDU session establishment request may further include the identifier of the home PDU session, the type of the home PDU session, and the session and service continuity mode.

S102, the visiting place AMF receives a PDU session establishment request.

S103, the visited AMF determines a visited SMF from the plurality of first SMFs, and determines a home SMF from the plurality of second SMFs.

The plurality of first SMFs are SMFs included in the visited network and corresponding to names of the home data networks (and/or identifiers of the target network slices), and the plurality of second SMFs are SMFs included in the home network and corresponding to names of the home data networks (and/or identifiers of the target network slices).

In an alternative implementation, the visited AMF may determine an SMF of the plurality of first SMFs capable of serving the home PDU session as the visited SMF and the plurality of second SMFs capable of serving the home PDU session as the home SMF.

S104, the visited AMF adds the location information of the UE and the IP address of the home SMF to the PDU session establishment request, and sends the PDU session establishment request to the visited SMF.

It should be understood that the visited AMF may obtain the location information of the UE from the (R) AN device.

S105, the visiting place SMF receives a PDU session establishment request sent by the visiting place AMF.

In connection with the description of the above embodiments, it should be understood that the PDU session establishment request includes the name of the home data network, the identification of the target network slice, the location information of the UE, and the IP address of the home SMF, which is used to request establishment of the home PDU session.

S106, the visiting place SMF determines the visiting place UPF from a plurality of UPFs.

Wherein, the plurality of UPFs are UPFs included in the visited network.

In an alternative implementation, the visited SMF may obtain location information of each UPF of the plurality of UPFs, and determine a distance between the location information of each UPF and the location information of the UE. The visited SMF may then determine, as the visited UPF, a UPF having a smallest distance between the location information and the location information of the UE, of the plurality of UPFs.

In another alternative implementation manner, the visited place SMF may further acquire load information of each UPF of the plurality of UPFs, and determine a UPF with the smallest load of the plurality of UPFs as the visited place UPF.

It will be appreciated that after the visited place SMF has determined the visited place UPF, the visited place SMF may establish an N4 session with the visited place UPF, in particular a communication connection with the visited place UPF.

S107, the visited SMF adds the identity of the visited PLMN and the IP address of the visited UPF to the PDU session establishment request, and sends the PDU session establishment request to the home SMF.

As shown in fig. 3, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present invention may include S201 to S205.

S201, the home SMF receives a PDU session establishment request of the UE sent by the visiting SMF.

Wherein the PDU session establishment request includes an identification of the visited PLMN, the PDU session establishment request being for requesting establishment of a home PDU session.

In connection with the description of the above embodiments, it should be understood that the home PDU session is used to characterize the data transmission path (or data transmission path) between the UE and the home data network.

Optionally, the PDU session establishment request may further include an identifier of the home PDU session, a type of the home PDU session, a session and service continuity mode, and the like.

S202, the home SMF determines a target ULCL from a plurality of home ULCLs based on the identity of the visited PLMN.

It should be appreciated that the plurality of home ULCLs are the ULCLs included in the home network (or home PLMN) described above.

In an alternative implementation, the home SMF may determine a home ULCL of the plurality of home ULCLs that corresponds to the identity of the visited PLMN as the target ULCL.

It should be appreciated that when a home ULCL of the plurality of home ULCLs corresponds to the identity of the visited PLMN, the home SMF may determine the home ULCL as the target ULCL, that is, the home SMF may determine the home ULCL of the plurality of home ULCLs that is closer to the visited network as the target ULCL.

In another optional implementation manner, the PDU session establishment request may further include location information of the UE. When the number of home location ULCLs corresponding to the identifier of the visited PLMN is at least two, the home location SMF may acquire respective location information of the at least two home location ULCLs, and determine a distance between the respective location information of the at least two home location ULCLs and the location information of the UE; the home SMF may then determine the smallest distance home ULCL as the target ULCL.

In another alternative implementation, when the number of home ULCLs corresponding to the identifier of the visited PLMN is at least two, the home SMF may further obtain load information of each home ULCL in the at least two home ULCLs, and then determine the home ULCL with the smallest load as the target ULCL.

S203, the home SMF sends the split policy to the target ULCL.

The offloading policy includes an IP address of a target EAS, where the offloading policy is used to instruct the target ULCL to offload the target upstream data packet to a home EHE when the target upstream data packet is received, and a destination address included in the target upstream data packet is the IP address of the target EAS, and the gas target EAS is a server included in the home EHE.

It will be appreciated that after the home SMF determines the target ULCL, the home SMF may establish an N4 session with the target ULCL, i.e., establish a communication connection with the target ULCL.

Alternatively, the home data network may be divided into a central portion and a local portion, and the home EHE may be understood as an environment (or system) generated based on the local portion.

S204, the target ULCL receives the shunt strategy sent by the home SMF.

Wherein the offloading policy includes the IP address of the target EAS.

In connection with the description of the above embodiments, it should be understood that the offloading policy is used to instruct the target ULCL to offload the target upstream data packet to the home EHE if the target upstream data packet is received.

S205, when receiving the target uplink data packet sent by the visitor area UPF, the target ULCL shunts the target uplink data packet to the home area EHE.

The destination address included in the destination upstream data packet is an IP address of a destination EAS, which is a server included in the home EHE.

It should be understood that the target uplink packet is an uplink packet of the UE. Specifically, the UE sends the target uplink data packet to the visited UPF through the (R) AN device, and the visited UPF may send the target uplink data packet to the target ul cl after receiving the target uplink data packet.

It will be appreciated that the target ULCL shunts (or transmits) the target upstream data packet to the home EHE, and in particular to the target EAS included in the home EHE.

In an alternative implementation, the target uplink data packet may be traffic data sent by the UE, i.e., the target ul cl may offload (or send) the traffic data sent by the UE to the home EHE.

In another alternative implementation, the target uplink packet may also be a service data acquisition request sent by the UE, where the service data acquisition request is used to request acquisition of service data stored in the target EAS. I.e., the target ULCL may offload (or send) the traffic data acquisition request sent by the UE to the home EHE.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment at least has the following beneficial effects: from S201 to S205, it is known that: the home SMF may receive a PDU session establishment request of the UE sent by the visited SMF, and determine a target ULCL from a plurality of home ULCLs based on an identity of the visited PLMN included in the PDU session establishment request; the home SMF may then send a offload policy to the target ULCL that instructs the target ULCL to offload the target upstream data packet to the home EHE upon receiving the target upstream data packet (the destination address included in the target data packet is the IP address of the target EAS). In the embodiment of the invention, the target ULCL is the attribution ULCL which is closer to the visiting place network, namely the attribution SMF can determine the attribution ULCL which is closer to the visiting place network for the UE, and the uplink data packet of the UE is shunted (or sent) based on the target ULCL, so that the receiving and transmitting efficiency of service data can be improved, and the communication experience is improved.

Further, the target ULCL may receive the splitting policy sent by the home SMF, and in the case of receiving the target uplink data packet sent by the visited UPF, split the target uplink data packet to the home EHE, where the home EHE includes the target EAS. In the embodiment of the invention, the target ULCL can execute the splitting strategy after receiving the splitting strategy, specifically, the target uplink data packet is split (or sent) to the target EAS, specifically, the target uplink data packet is sent to the target EAS, so that the receiving and sending efficiency of service data can be improved, and the communication experience is improved.

Referring to fig. 3, as shown in fig. 4, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present invention further includes: S206-S209.

S206, the home SMF determines a target UPF from a plurality of home UPFs based on the identification of the visiting PLMN.

It should be appreciated that the plurality of home UPFs are UPFs included in the home network (or home PLMN) described above.

It will be appreciated that the description of the determination of the target UPF from the plurality of home UPFs by the home SMF based on the identity of the visited PLMN is the same or similar to the description of the determination of the target ULCL from the plurality of home ULCLs by the home SMF based on the identity of the visited PLMN, and will not be repeated here.

It should be noted that the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the execution sequence of S202 and S206. For example, S202 may be performed first and then S206 may be performed, S206 may be performed first and then S202 may be performed, or S202 and S206 may be performed simultaneously. An example is illustrated in fig. 4 with S202 performed before S206 performed.

S207, the home SMF sends the IP address of the target UPF to the target ULCL, so that the target ULCL establishes a communication connection with the target UPF.

S208, the target ULCL receives the IP address of the target UPF sent by the home SMF.

It should be appreciated that after the target ULCL receives the IP address of the target UPF sent by the home SMF, the target ULCL may establish a communication connection with the target UPF.

Optionally, the target ULCL may be connected to the target UPF and the above-mentioned visitor UPF through an N9 interface.

And S209, under the condition that other uplink data packets are received, the target ULCL sends the other uplink data packets to the target UPF so that the target UPF sends the other uplink data packets to the home data network.

Wherein the destination address included in the other upstream data packet is not the IP address of the target EAS.

It will be appreciated that, in the case where the target ULCL receives the other upstream data packet, the target ULCL may send the other upstream data packet to the target UPF, and the target UPF may send the other upstream data packet to the home data network after receiving the other upstream data packet, and thus the home data network may receive the other upstream data packet.

In one implementation of the embodiment of the present invention, the PDU session establishment request further includes a name of the home data network and an identifier of the target network slice. Referring to fig. 3, as shown in fig. 5, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present invention may further include S210.

S210, the home SMF sends a subscription information query request to the home UDM.

The subscription information query request includes the identifier of the UE, the name of the home data network and the identifier of the target network slice, and is used for requesting to query subscription information of the UE.

In connection with the description of the above embodiments, it should be understood that the home data network is a data network included in the above home network (or home PLMN), and the UE may perform data transmission with the home data network based on the target network slice.

In the embodiment of the present invention, after receiving the subscription information query request, the home UDM may acquire (or determine) the subscription information of the UE based on the identifier of the UE, and send (or return) the target ULCL to the home SMF.

As further shown in fig. 5, the foregoing home SMF determines, from among the plurality of home ULCLs, that the target ULCL specifically includes S2021, based on the identity of the visited PLMN.

S2021, in a case where the subscription information of the UE includes the name of the home data network and the identifier of the target network slice, the home SMF determines the target ULCL from the plurality of home ULCLs based on the identifier of the visited PLMN.

It should be understood that, in the case that the subscription information of the UE includes the name of the home data network and the identifier of the target network slice, it is explained that the UE has the right to perform data transmission with the home data network based on the target network slice, and the home SMF may determine the target ULCL from the plurality of home ULCLs based on the identifier of the visited PLMN.

Referring to fig. 3, as shown in fig. 6, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present invention further includes S211.

S211, the home SMF sends a PDU session establishment response to the visiting SMF.

The PDU session establishment response includes the IP address of the target ULCL and the IP address of the target EASDF, which is used for resolving the domain name of the target EAS to obtain the IP address of the target EAS.

It will be appreciated that the visited SMF, upon receiving the PDU session establishment response, may obtain the IP address of the target ULCL and the IP address of the target EASDF.

It will be appreciated that the visited place SMF may send the IP address of the target ULCL to the above-mentioned visited place UPF after having acquired the IP address of the target ULCL. And the visited place UPF may establish a communication connection with the target ULCL.

In the embodiment of the present invention, after the visited SMF acquires the IP address of the target EASDF, the IP address of the target EASDF may be sent to the UE via the (R) AN device. In this way, the UE may obtain the IP address of the target EASDF.

In one implementation manner of the embodiment of the present invention, after acquiring the IP address of the target EASDF, the UE may send a domain name resolution request, where the domain name resolution request includes the domain name of the target EAS, and the domain name resolution request is used to request to acquire the IP address of the target EAS.

Specifically, the UE may send the domain name resolution request to the visited place UPF through the (R) AN device, where after receiving the domain name resolution request, the visited place UPF may send the domain name resolution request to the visited place SMF, and further the visited place SMF may send the domain name resolution request to the home place SMF. The home SMF may send the domain name resolution request to the target EASDF after receiving the domain name resolution request.

It can be appreciated that after receiving the domain name resolution request, the target EASDF may perform resolution processing on the domain name of the target EAS to obtain the IP address of the target EAS; the target EASDF may then send or return a domain name resolution response that includes the IP address of the target EAS. Further, the UE may obtain the IP address of the target EAS.

In the embodiment of the invention, after the UE acquires the IP address of the target EAS, the UE may generate and send the target uplink data packet, that is, generate and send a data packet including the IP address of the target EAS.

The embodiment of the invention can divide the functional modules of the home SMF, the target ULCL and the like according to the method example, for example, each functional module can be divided corresponding to each function, and two or more functions can be integrated in one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation.

In the case of dividing the respective functional modules with the respective functions, fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of one possible configuration of the communication apparatus involved in the above-described embodiment, and as shown in fig. 7, the communication apparatus 20 may include: a receiving module 201, a determining module 202 and a transmitting module 203.

A receiving module 201, configured to receive a PDU session establishment request of a UE sent by a visited SMF, where the PDU session establishment request includes an identifier of a visited PLMN, and the PDU establishment request is used to request to establish a home PDU session.

A determining module 202 is configured to determine a target ULCL from a plurality of home ULCLs based on the identity of the visited PLMN.

A sending module 203, configured to send a splitting policy to the target ULCL, where the splitting policy includes an IP address of a target EAS, and the splitting policy is configured to instruct the target ULCL to split, when receiving a target upstream data packet, the target upstream data packet to a home EHE, where a destination address included in the target upstream data packet is an IP address of the target EAS, and the target EAS is a server included in the home EHE.

Optionally, the determining module 202 is further configured to determine the target UPF from the plurality of home UPFs based on the identity of the visited PLMN.

The sending module 203 is further configured to send the IP address of the target UPF to the target ULCL, so that the target ULCL establishes a communication connection with the target UPF.

Optionally, the PDU session establishment request further includes a name of the home data network and an identification of the target network slice.

The sending module 203 is further configured to send a subscription information query request to a home UDM, where the subscription information query request includes an identifier of the UE, a name of the home data network, and an identifier of the target network slice, and the subscription information query request is used to request to query subscription information of the UE.

The determining module 202 is specifically configured to determine, in a case where the subscription information of the UE includes the name of the home data network and the identifier of the target network slice, the target ULCL from the plurality of home ULCLs based on the identifier of the visited PLMN.

Optionally, the sending module 203 is further configured to send a PDU session establishment response to the visited SMF, where the PDU session establishment response includes an IP address of the target ULCL and an IP address of a target EASDF, where the target EASDF is configured to parse a domain name of the target EAS to obtain the IP address of the target EAS.

In the case of an integrated unit, fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of one possible configuration of the communication device involved in the above-described embodiment. As shown in fig. 8, the communication device 30 may include: a processing module 301 and a communication module 302. The processing module 301 may be used to control and manage the actions of the communication device 30. The communication module 302 may be used to support communication of the communication device 30 with other entities. Optionally, as shown in fig. 8, the communication device 30 may further comprise a storage module 303 for storing program code and data of the communication device 30.

Wherein the processing module 301 may be a processor or a controller. The communication module 302 may be a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, a communication interface, or the like. The storage module 303 may be a memory.

When the processing module 301 is a processor, the communication module 302 is a transceiver, and the storage module 303 is a memory, the processor, the transceiver, and the memory may be connected through a bus. The bus may be a peripheral component interconnect standard (peripheral component interconnect, PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (extended industry standard architecture, EISA) bus, or the like. The buses may be divided into address buses, data buses, control buses, etc.

In the case of dividing the respective functional modules with the respective functions, fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of one possible configuration of the communication apparatus involved in the above-described embodiment, and as shown in fig. 9, the communication apparatus 40 may include: a receiving module 401 and a transmitting module 402.

A receiving module 401, configured to receive a offloading policy sent by the home SMF, where the offloading policy includes an IP address of the target EAS.

The sending module 402 is configured to, when receiving a destination uplink data packet sent by the visitor area UPF, shunt the destination uplink data packet to the home area EHE, where a destination address included in the destination uplink data packet is an IP address of a destination EAS, and the destination EAS is a server included in the home area EHE.

Optionally, the receiving module 401 is further configured to receive an IP address of the target UPF sent by the home SMF.

The sending module 402 is further configured to send, when receiving another uplink data packet, the other uplink data packet to the target UPF, so that the target UPF sends the other uplink data packet to the home data network, where a destination address included in the other uplink data packet is not an IP address of the target EAS.

In the case of an integrated unit, fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of one possible configuration of the communication device involved in the above-described embodiment. As shown in fig. 10, the communication device 50 may include: a processing module 501 and a communication module 502. The processing module 501 may be used to control and manage the operation of the communication device 50. The communication module 502 may be used to support communication of the communication device 50 with other entities. Optionally, as shown in fig. 10, the communication device 50 may further comprise a storage module 503 for storing program code and data of the communication device 50.

Wherein the processing module 501 may be a processor or a controller. The communication module 502 may be a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, a communication interface, or the like. The storage module 503 may be a memory.

Where the processing module 501 is a processor, the communication module 502 is a transceiver, and the storage module 503 is a memory, the processor, the transceiver, and the memory may be connected by a bus. The bus may be a PCI bus or an EISA bus, etc. The buses may be divided into address buses, data buses, control buses, etc.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present invention, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present invention.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present invention are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber terminal line (Digital Subscriber Line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device including one or more servers, data centers, etc. that can be integrated with the medium. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy Disk, a hard Disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method applied to a home session management function, SMF, the method comprising:

receiving a protocol data unit PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request of User Equipment (UE) sent by a visiting place SMF, wherein the PDU session establishment request comprises an identifier of a visiting place Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), and the PDU establishment request is used for requesting to establish a home PDU session;

determining a target ULCL from a plurality of home uplink classifiers ULCL based on the identity of the visited PLMN;

and sending a splitting strategy to the target ULCL, where the splitting strategy includes an internet protocol IP address of a target edge application server EAS, and the splitting strategy is used to instruct the target ULCL to split the target uplink data packet to a home edge home environment EHE when receiving the target uplink data packet, where a destination address included in the target uplink data packet is an IP address of the target EAS, and the target EAS is a server included in the home EHE.

2. The communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that the method further comprises:

determining a target UPF from a plurality of home user plane functions UPFs based on the identity of the visited PLMN;

and sending the IP address of the target UPF to the target ULCL so that the target ULCL establishes communication connection with the target UPF.

3. The communication method of claim 1, wherein the PDU session establishment request further comprises a name of a home data network and an identification of a target network slice, the method further comprising:

sending a subscription information inquiry request to a home location Unified Data Management (UDM), wherein the subscription information inquiry request comprises an identifier of the UE, a name of a home location data network and an identifier of a target network slice, and the subscription information inquiry request is used for requesting to inquire subscription information of the UE;

determining the target ULCL from a plurality of home ULCLs based on the identity of the visited PLMN, comprising:

and in the case that the subscription information of the UE comprises the name of the home location data network and the identification of the target network slice, determining the target ULCL from the plurality of home location ULCLs based on the identification of the visiting PLMN.

4. A communication method according to any of claims 1-3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

and sending a PDU session establishment response to the visiting place SMF, wherein the PDU session establishment response comprises the IP address of the target ULCL and the IP address of a target edge application server discovery function EASDF, and the target EASDF is used for analyzing the domain name of the target EAS to obtain the IP address of the target EAS.

5. A communication method applied to a target uplink classifier, ULCL, the method comprising:

receiving a shunting strategy sent by a home Session Management Function (SMF), wherein the shunting strategy comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a target Edge Application Server (EAS);

and under the condition that a target uplink data packet sent by the visiting place user plane function UPF is received, the target uplink data packet is shunted to a home edge home environment EHE, a destination address included in the target uplink data packet is an IP address of a target EAS, and the target EAS is a server included in the home EHE.

6. The communication method according to claim 5, characterized in that the method further comprises:

receiving an IP address of a target UPF sent by a home SMF;

And under the condition that other uplink data packets are received, sending the other uplink data packets to the target UPF, so that the target UPF sends the other uplink data packets to a home data network, wherein a destination address included in the other uplink data packets is not the IP address of the target EAS.

7. A communication device for application to a home session management function, SMF, the device comprising: the device comprises a receiving module, a determining module and a sending module;

the receiving module is configured to receive a PDU session establishment request of a user equipment UE sent by a visited SMF, where the PDU session establishment request includes an identifier of a visited public land mobile network PLMN, and the PDU establishment request is used to request establishment of a home PDU session;

the determining module is used for determining a target ULCL from a plurality of home uplink classifiers ULCL based on the identification of the visiting PLMN;

the sending module is configured to send a splitting policy to a target ULCL, where the splitting policy includes an IP address of a target edge application server EAS, and the splitting policy is configured to instruct the target ULCL to split, when receiving a target upstream data packet, the target upstream data packet to a home edge home environment EHE, where a destination address included in the target upstream data packet is an IP address of the target EAS, and the target EAS is a server included in the home EHE.

8. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the communication device is configured to,

the determining module is further configured to determine a target UPF from a plurality of home user plane functions UPFs based on the identity of the visited PLMN;

the sending module is further configured to send the IP address of the target UPF to the target ULCL, so that the target ULCL establishes a communication connection with the target UPF.

9. The communication apparatus of claim 7, wherein the PDU session establishment request further comprises a name of a home data network and an identification of a target network slice;

the sending module is further configured to send a subscription information query request to a home location unified data management UDM, where the subscription information query request includes an identifier of the UE, a name of the home location data network, and an identifier of the target network slice, and the subscription information query request is used for requesting to query subscription information of the UE;

the determining module is specifically configured to determine, when the subscription information of the UE includes the name of the home location data network and the identifier of the target network slice, the target ULCL from the plurality of home location ULCLs based on the identifier of the visited PLMN.

10. A communication device according to any one of claims 7-9, characterized in that,

the sending module is further configured to send a PDU session establishment response to the visited SMF, where the PDU session establishment response includes an IP address of the target ULCL and an IP address of a target edge application server discovery function EASDF, where the target EASDF is configured to parse a domain name of the target EAS to obtain the IP address of the target EAS.

11. A communication device for application to a target upstream classifier, ULCL, the device comprising: a receiving module and a transmitting module;

the receiving module is configured to receive a offloading policy sent by a home session management function SMF, where the offloading policy includes an internet protocol IP address of a target edge application server EAS;

the sending module is configured to, when receiving a target uplink data packet sent by the visitor user plane function UPF, shunt the target uplink data packet to an home edge home environment EHE, where a destination address included in the target uplink data packet is an IP address of a target EAS, and the target EAS is a server included in the home EHE.

12. The communication device of claim 11, wherein the communication device is configured to,

The receiving module is further used for receiving the IP address of the target UPF sent by the home SMF;

and the sending module is further configured to send, when receiving another uplink data packet, the other uplink data packet to the target UPF, so that the target UPF sends the other uplink data packet to the home data network, where a destination address included in the other uplink data packet is not an IP address of the target EAS.

13. A server, the server comprising:

a processor;

a memory configured to store the processor-executable instructions;

wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions to implement the communication method of any one of claims 1-4 or to implement the communication method of claim 5 or 6.

14. A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a server, enable the server to perform the communication method of any one of claims 1-4 or the communication method of claim 5 or 6.