CN117176688A

CN117176688A - Addressing method, addressing device, electronic equipment and computer readable storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN117176688A
Application number: CN202210591968.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘洁; 朱红梅; 林奕琳; 龙彪
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2022-05-27
Filing date: 2022-05-27
Publication date: 2023-12-05

Abstract

The disclosure provides an addressing method, an addressing device, electronic equipment and a computer readable storage medium, and relates to the technical field of internet communication. The method is applied to an edge application server discovery function EASDF, and comprises the following steps: receiving a Domain Name System (DNS) context generation request message sent by a Session Management Function (SMF), wherein the DNS context generation request message comprises a slice identifier of a slice in which a corresponding session is located; receiving a DNS request message sent by User Equipment (UE) corresponding to a session; acquiring a slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier; inserting the slice external identifier into the DNS request message; and sending the DNS request message inserted with the external slice identifier to a DNS server, so that the DNS server determines the IP address of the Internet protocol under the slice, which corresponds to the domain name included in the DNS request message, according to the external slice identifier. In this way, an addressing scheme is provided that looks for the IP address of the application instance under the slice.

Description

Addressing method, addressing device, electronic equipment and computer readable storage medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of internet communications technologies, and in particular, to an addressing method, an addressing device, an electronic device, and a computer readable storage medium.

Background

Along with the development of internet communication technology, the demands of users for network resources are more and more diversified, and different service guarantees can be provided for users with different demands through 5G (5 th Generation Mobile Communication Technology, fifth-generation mobile communication technology) network slicing, so that the diversified demands of users for network resources are met.

However, since the mobile network does not carry slice information after the interface of the exit N6 (an interface type), when accessing the application, the user equipment under different slices cannot access the instance of the same application under different slices, that is, the user equipment under different slices cannot acquire the IP (Internet Protocol ) address of the application instance under the corresponding slice, so that the service guarantee provided by the 5G slice is limited to the inside of the mobile network, and the end-to-end provision guarantee cannot be achieved. Therefore, a method capable of finding the IP address of the application instance corresponding to the slice is needed.

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

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure provides an addressing method, apparatus, electronic device, and computer readable storage medium, at least providing a method capable of finding an application instance IP address corresponding to a slice.

Other features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from the following detailed description, or may be learned in part by the practice of the disclosure.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an addressing method applied to an edge application server discovery function EASDF, including:

receiving a Domain Name System (DNS) context generation request message sent by a Session Management Function (SMF), wherein the DNS context generation request message comprises a slice identifier of a slice where a corresponding session is located;

receiving a DNS request message sent by User Equipment (UE) corresponding to the session;

acquiring a slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier;

inserting the slice external identifier into the DNS request message;

and sending a DNS request message inserted with the external slice identifier to a DNS server, so that the DNS server determines an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the application under the slice, which corresponds to the domain name included in the DNS request message, according to the external slice identifier.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the EASDF is configured with a DNS message detection template; the obtaining the slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier includes: and acquiring the slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier under the condition that the DNS request message is matched with the DNS message detection template.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the EASDF is configured with an internal and external identifier mapping table of a slice, and the obtaining the external identifier of the slice corresponding to the slice identifier includes: and inquiring the internal and external identification mapping table according to the slice identification to obtain the slice external identification.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the inserting the slice external identifier into the DNS request message includes: performing DNS expansion mechanism eDNS processing on the DNS request message so that the processed DNS request message comprises a pseudo resource record OPT, wherein the OPT comprises a first variable part RDATA field; inserting the slice external identifier into the first RDATA field.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the DNS server is a central DNS server; before the DNS request message with the slice external identifier inserted is sent to the DNS server, the method further includes: acquiring the position information of the UE through a network; mapping the position information of the UE into a position identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located; inserting the location identifier into the first RDATA field; the sending, to a DNS server, a DNS request message with the slice external identifier inserted therein, including: and sending a DNS request message inserted with the slice external identifier and the position identifier to the central DNS server.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the OPT further comprises a second RDATA field, the DNS server being a central DNS server; before the DNS request message with the slice external identifier inserted is sent to the DNS server, the method further includes: acquiring the position information of the UE through a network; mapping the position information of the UE into a position identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located; inserting the location identifier into the second RDATA field; the sending, to a DNS server, a DNS request message with the slice external identifier inserted therein, including: and sending a DNS request message inserted with the slice external identifier and the position identifier to the central DNS server.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an addressing method applied to a domain name system DNS server, including:

receiving a DNS request message sent by an Edge Application Server Discovery Function (EASDF), wherein the DNS request message comprises an external slice identifier;

and according to the external slice identifier, determining an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the domain name included in the DNS request message, which is applied under the slice corresponding to the external slice identifier.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the DNS server is a central DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table, the enhanced resolution including domain name information, and a location identifier, a slice external identifier, and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information, the DNS request message further including a location identifier; the determining, according to the external slice identifier, an internet protocol IP address of the application corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message under the slice corresponding to the external slice identifier includes: and inquiring the enhanced resolution table according to the position identifier, the slice external identifier and the domain name included in the DNS request message to obtain the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the DNS server is a local DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table, the enhanced resolution table including domain name information and a slice external identifier and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information; the determining, according to the external slice identifier, an internet protocol IP address of the application corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message under the slice corresponding to the external slice identifier includes: and inquiring the enhancement resolution table according to the external slice identifier and the domain name included in the DNS request message to obtain the IP address applied under the slice and corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an addressing apparatus applied to an edge application server discovery function EASDF, including:

the receiving module is used for receiving a Domain Name System (DNS) context generation request message sent by a Session Management Function (SMF), wherein the DNS context generation request message comprises a slice identifier of a slice where a corresponding session is located;

the receiving module is further configured to receive a DNS request message sent by the user equipment UE corresponding to the session;

The acquisition module is used for acquiring the external slice identifier corresponding to the slice identifier;

a processing module, configured to insert the slice external identifier into the DNS request message;

and the sending module is used for sending the DNS request message inserted with the external slice identifier to a DNS server so that the DNS server can determine the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message according to the external slice identifier.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the EASDF is configured with a DNS message detection template; the obtaining module is configured to obtain the slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier when the DNS request message is matched with the DNS message detection template.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the EASDF is configured with an internal and external identification mapping table of a slice, and the obtaining module is configured to query the internal and external identification mapping table according to the slice identifier to obtain the slice external identifier.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the processing module is configured to perform DNS extension mechanism eDNS processing on the DNS request message, so that the processed DNS request message includes a pseudo resource record OPT, where the OPT includes a first variable part RDATA field; inserting the slice external identifier into the first RDATA field.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the DNS server is a central DNS server; the processing module is further used for acquiring the position information of the UE through a network; mapping the position information of the UE into a position identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located; inserting the location identifier into the first RDATA field; the sending module is configured to send a DNS request message with the external slice identifier and the location identifier inserted to the central DNS server.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the OPT further comprises a second RDATA field, the DNS server being a central DNS server; the processing module is further used for acquiring the position information of the UE through a network; mapping the position information of the UE into a position identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located; inserting the location identifier into the second RDATA field; the sending module is configured to send a DNS request message with the external slice identifier and the location identifier inserted to the central DNS server.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an addressing device applied to a domain name system DNS server, including:

the receiving module is used for receiving a DNS request message sent by an edge application server discovery function EASDF, wherein the DNS request message comprises a slice external identifier;

And the determining module is used for determining the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the application corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message under the slice corresponding to the slice external identifier according to the slice external identifier.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the DNS server is a central DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table, the enhanced resolution including domain name information, and a location identifier, a slice external identifier, and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information, the DNS request message further including a location identifier; and the determining module is used for inquiring the enhanced resolution table according to the position identifier, the slice external identifier and the domain name included in the DNS request message to obtain the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the DNS server is a local DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table, the enhanced resolution table including domain name information and a slice external identifier and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information; and the determining module is used for inquiring the enhanced resolution table according to the external slice identifier and the domain name included in the DNS request message to obtain the IP address applied under the slice and corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic apparatus including: a processor; and a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to perform the addressing method described above via execution of the executable instructions.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the addressing method described above.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, after the EASDF receives the DNS context generation request message which is sent by the SMF and carries the slice identifier, the EASDF obtains the corresponding slice external identifier according to the slice identifier, then inserts the slice external identifier into the DNS request message sent by the UE, and carries the slice external identifier to the DNS server through the DNS request message, so that the DNS server can determine the IP address of the application under the slice, which corresponds to the domain name included in the DNS request message, according to the slice external identifier. In this way, an addressing manner is provided for finding the IP address of the application instance under the slice without the need to construct dedicated channels and configure channel mappings.

Further, the user equipment can directly acquire and access the IP address of the application instance under the slice, so that the need of continuous analysis and identification of the slice service in the service access process of the user equipment is avoided, the end-to-end service performance is improved, and the slice can provide service guarantee for the user end-to-end.

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

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the drawings in the following description are merely examples of the disclosure and that other drawings may be derived from them without undue effort.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an addressing system architecture in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of an addressing method of one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a first RDATA field before and after insertion of an external identifier of a slice in one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a first RDATA field after insertion of a slice external identifier and a location identifier according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a first RDATA field and a second RDATA field after insertion of a slice external identifier and a location identifier, respectively, in another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of an addressing method of another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 illustrates a signaling diagram of a UE accessing an example of an application under slice in one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates a schematic diagram of an addressing mechanism in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of an addressing mechanism in another embodiment of the present disclosure;

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

Detailed Description

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

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

For ease of understanding, the following first explains the several terms involved in this disclosure as follows:

SMF: session Management Function, session management function;

EASDF: edge Application Server Discovery function, edge application server discovery function;

gNB: a 5G base station;

DNS: domain Name System, domain name system;

UPF: user Plane Function, user plane functions;

EDN: edge Data Network, an edge data network;

MEC: multi-access Computing, multi-access edge Computing;

EAS: edge Application Server, edge application server.

In the technical field of internet communication, the development and application of slicing technology enable users with different demands on network resources to obtain the service guarantee required by the users under the corresponding slicing. In the related art, when the user equipment under different slices accesses the same application, the user equipment accesses the same instance of the application, that is, before the user equipment accesses the application, the IP address sent by the DNS server to the user equipment under different slices is the same IP address without distinguishing the slices. However, since the IP address obtained by the user equipment is an IP address which does not distinguish the slice, when the user equipment accesses an application instance corresponding to the IP address, the service guarantee provided by the slice for the access is limited to the inside of the mobile network, and cannot achieve end-to-end coverage.

In this regard, the embodiments of the present disclosure provide an addressing method that can find an application instance IP address corresponding to a slice without building a dedicated channel and configuring a channel map. Further, the user equipment can access the application instance directly through the IP address of the application instance under the slice, so that the need of continuous analysis and identification of the slice service in the process of accessing the service by the user equipment is avoided, the end-to-end service performance is improved, and the slice can provide service guarantee for the user end-to-end.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an exemplary system architecture to which the addressing method or addressing device of embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied.

As shown in fig. 1, the system architecture comprises a user equipment 101, a user equipment 102, a gNB base station 103, an SMF network element 104, an EASDF network element 105, a DNS server 106, a UPF network element 107, an EDN/EMC node 108, an application first instance 109 and an application second instance 110.

Wherein both the user equipment 101 and the user equipment 102 may initiate a slice session establishment request to the SMF network element 104, the gNB base station 103 may forward the slice session establishment request. The SMF network element 104 is capable of receiving the slice session establishment request and sending a corresponding DNS context generating request to the EASDF network element 105 according to the slice session establishment request, where the DNS context generating request includes a slice identifier (Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information, S-NSSAI) of a slice corresponding to the session. The EASDF network element 105 is capable of generating a corresponding DNS context from information included in the DNS context generating request sent by the SMF network element 104.

The user equipment 101 and the user equipment 102 may also initiate a DNS request message to the EASDF network element 105 for resolving the domain name IP address, which the UPF network element 107 may forward. The EASDF network element 105 is capable of receiving DNS request messages and processing the received DNS request messages according to DNS message processing rules in the DNS context, and then sending the processed DNS request messages to the DNS server 106.DNS server 106 may address to the corresponding IP address based on the domain name in the DNS request message and may feed back the IP address to EASDF network element 105. The EASDF network element 105 may forward the IP sent by the DNS server 106 to the corresponding user device.

Both the user equipment 101 and the user equipment 102 may send a request message to the corresponding application instance according to the IP address, and the EDN/EMC node 108 may forward and process the request message.

The application instance to which the IP address corresponds may be the application first instance 109 or the application second instance 110. Wherein, the application first instance 109 and the application second instance 110 are different instances of the same application under different slices, and respectively correspond to different IP addresses.

In one embodiment, when the slice in which the user device 101 is located is the same as the slice in which the first application instance 109 is located, the user device 101 accesses the application first instance 109, and when the slice in which the user device 102 is located is the same as the slice in which the second application instance 110 is located, the user device 102 accesses the application second instance 110.

Communication connection is realized between the user equipment 101 or 102, the gNB base station 103, the SMF network element 104, the EASDF network element 105, the DNS server 106, the UPF network element 107, the EDN/EMC node 108, the application first instance 109 or the application second instance 110 based on a network, and the network may be a wired network or a wireless network.

In some embodiments, the wireless network or wired network described above uses standard communication techniques and/or protocols. The network is typically the Internet, but may be any network including, but not limited to, a local area network (Local Area Network, LAN), metropolitan area network (Metropolitan Area Network, MAN), wide area network (Wide Area Network, WAN), mobile, wired or wireless network, private network, or any combination of virtual private networks. In some embodiments, data exchanged over a network is represented using techniques and/or formats including HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML), extensible markup Language (Extensible MarkupLanguage, XML), and the like. All or some of the links may also be encrypted using conventional encryption techniques such as secure sockets layer (Secure Socket Layer, SSL), transport layer security (Transport Layer Security, TLS), virtual private network (Virtual Private Network, VPN), internet protocol security (Internet ProtocolSecurity, IPsec), etc. In other embodiments, custom and/or dedicated data communication techniques may also be used in place of or in addition to the data communication techniques described above.

User device 101 and user device 102 may be a variety of electronic devices including, but not limited to, smartphones, tablets, laptop portable computers, desktop computers, wearable devices, augmented reality devices, virtual reality devices, and the like. The application first instance 109 and the application second instance 110 may be two instances of either application under different slices, which are not limited by the disclosed embodiments.

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

In an embodiment of the disclosure, an addressing method is provided, which may be performed by any electronic device with computing processing capability, for example, the electronic device may be an EASDF network element.

Fig. 2 shows a flowchart of an addressing method in an embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 2, the addressing method provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes steps S201 to S205.

In step S201, the EASDF element receives a DNS context generation request message of the domain name system sent by the session management function SMF, where the DNS context generation request message includes a slice identifier of a slice in which the corresponding session is located.

Before explaining step S201, it is necessary to explain when the SMF network element transmits a DNS context generating request message to the EASDF network element. In the 5G core network, a session needs to be established before a User Equipment (UE) accesses a certain application instance. The process of establishing the session includes: the UE initiates a slice session establishment request to the SMF network element; the slice session establishment request is received by a 5G base station where the UE is located, and the 5G base station forwards the slice session establishment request to an SMF network element after receiving the slice session establishment request; after receiving the request for establishing slice session, SMF network element establishes corresponding session, and sends response message indicating successful session establishment to UE. And then, the SMF network element sends a DNS context generation request message corresponding to the session to the EASDF network element. Step S201 is also correspondingly completed after the EASDF network element receives the DNS context generating request message sent by the SMF.

The slice session establishment request sent by the user equipment to the SMF network element includes a slice identifier (Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information, S-nsai) of a slice where the user equipment is located, where the S-nsai is the same as the slice identifier included in the DNS context generation request message received by the EASDF network element. The response message sent by the SMF network element to the UE, which indicates that the session establishment is successful, carries the IP address of the EASDF network element, so that the UE can send a DNS request message for domain name resolution to the EASDF network element indicated by the IP address.

In step S202, the EASDF element receives a DNS request message sent by a UE corresponding to a session.

Continuing the description of the session establishment procedure in step S201, the SMF network element sends a response message indicating that the session establishment is successful to the UE, and after the UE receives the response message, generates a DNS request message with a destination address being the IP address according to the IP address of the EASDF network element included in the response message. The DNS request message includes a domain name that the UE needs to access.

Since the DNS destination address is the IP address of the EASDF element, the DNS request message is forwarded to the EASDF element by the UPF element, and accordingly the EASDF element completes step S202.

Step S203, the EASDF network element obtains the external slice identifier corresponding to the slice identifier.

Wherein, the slice mark is S-NSSAI carried in the DNS context generation request message. The slice external identifier may be a field specified by the edge system that uniquely identifies the slice, which is not limited by the disclosed embodiments and may be determined according to the convention of the EASDF network element with the DNS server. In some embodiments, the external identifier of the slice agreed by the EASDF Network element and the DNS server is an enterprise code, or a DN (Delivery Network) environment corresponding to the slice is numbered, or is another readable field.

In one embodiment, the EASDF network element is configured with a DNS message detection template for detecting whether a DNS request message needs to be processed, if the DNS request message matches the DNS message detection template, processing the DNS request message, and if not, forwarding the DNS request message to a DNS server.

In one embodiment, the EASDF network element obtains an external slice identifier corresponding to the slice identifier, including: and under the condition that the DNS request message is matched with the DNS message detection template, acquiring the external slice identifier corresponding to the slice identifier. In some embodiments, the DNS message detection template may be a template that detects a domain name, in which case the DNS request message matches the DNS message detection template, including: the domain name included in the DNS request message belongs to the domain name in the DNS message detection template.

In one embodiment, the EASDF network element is configured with an internal and external identifier mapping table of a slice, the internal and external identifier mapping table records a slice identifier and a corresponding slice external identifier, and the EASDF network element obtains the slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier, including: and inquiring an internal and external identification mapping table according to the slice identification to obtain the slice external identification.

For example, as shown in table 1, the external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier 1 is a first enterprise code, and the external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier 2 is a second enterprise code.

TABLE 1

SlicingIdentification (S-NSSAI)	Slice external identifier
		Slice label 1	First enterprise code
Slice identifier 2	Second enterprise code

If the slice identifier included in the DNS context generating request message is the slice identifier 1, the EASDF network element queries the internal and external identifier mapping table to obtain a first enterprise code corresponding to the slice identifier 1. It should be noted that, the external slice identifier in table 1 adopts an enterprise code, and likewise, other representations may be used to represent the external slice identifier, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present disclosure and may be determined according to the external slice identifier agreed by the EASDF network element and the DNS server.

In step S204, the EASDF network element inserts the slice external identifier into the DNS request message.

In one embodiment, the EASDF network element inserts a slice external identifier into the DNS request message, including: performing an eDNS (Extension mechanisms for DNS, DNS extension mechanism) process on the DNS request message such that the processed DNS request message includes an OPT (pseudo resource record) comprising a first variable part RDATA field; the slice external identifier is inserted into the first RDATA field. Illustratively, the structure of the first RDATA field is shown in (1) of fig. 3, and the structure of the first RDATA field after inserting the slice external identifier is shown in (2) of fig. 3.

The processing of DNS messages by EASDF network elements is based on DNS message processing rules that exist in the DNS context. Wherein, the information required for generating the DNS context is provided by a DNS context generation request message, and the information provided by the DNS context generation request message comprises a DNS message processing rule.

The EASDF network element further includes, before proceeding to step S204: and generating a corresponding DNS context according to the DNS context generation request message received from the SMF network element. For example, the generated DNS context includes a part of the content as shown in table 2. Wherein, IPv4 is (Internet Protocol version 4) the fourth version of the internet communication protocol, IPv6 (Internet Protocol version) is the sixth version of the internet communication protocol, PDU (Protocol Data Unit) is a protocol data unit, DNN (Data Network Name) is a data network name, necessity C represents a condition optional, and necessity M represents a necessity optional.

TABLE 2

Feature name	Data type	Necessity of	Quantity of	Description of the invention
					ueIpv4Addr	Ipv4Addr	C	0..1	IPv4 address of UE
ueIpv6Addr	Ipv6Addr	C	0..1	IPv6 address of UE
					dnn	Dnn	M	1	DNN of PDU session
S-NSSAI	S-NSSAI	M	1	Slice identification for PDU sessions
					dnsRules	map(DnsRule)	M	1..N	DNS message handling rules
notifyUri	Uri	C	0..1	Callback address of subscribe message
					supportedFeatures	SupportedFeatures	C	0..1	Capability negotiation

dnsRules in Table 2 are DNS message handling rules, and dnsRules specify what processing the DNS request message received by the EASDF network element should be done after the DNS request message. In one embodiment, the ecspoptioninfo field included by dnsRules defines that the eDNS field carries an external slice identifier, e.g., the ecspoptioninfo field definition carries a slice external identifier in the first RDATA field. In one embodiment, the ForwardingParameter field included in dnsrues defines an operation to add a slice external identifier to the eDNS field, e.g., the ForwardingParameter field defines that the slice external identifier is inserted into the first RDATA field. In this case, inserting the slice external identifier into the first RDATA field includes: the EASDF network element inserts the slice external identifier into the first RDATA field according to the operations defined by the ecsOpationInfo field and the Forward parameter field included in the dnsRules.

In step S205, the EASDF element sends a DNS request message with an external slice identifier inserted into the DNS server, so that the DNS server determines, according to the external slice identifier, an internet protocol IP address under the slice, where the application corresponds to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

In one embodiment, the DNS server is a local DNS server, after the local DNS server receives the DNS request message with the external identifier of the slice inserted therein, the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name to be resolved in the DNS request message may be determined according to the external identifier of the slice inserted in the DNS request message, where the IP address is an IP address mapped by the application corresponding to the domain name in the edge network where the UE is located. The UE may receive the response message packet faster when the UE accesses the IP address mapped by the local edge network.

In another embodiment, the DNS server receiving the DNS request message is a central DNS server, and the central DNS server cannot directly resolve the IP address of the domain name at the UE location from the external slice identifier and the domain name. In this regard, the EASDF network element, before sending the DNS request message with the inserted slice external identifier to the DNS server, further includes: acquiring the position information of the UE through a network; mapping the position information of the UE into a position identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located; the location identity is inserted into the first RDATA field.

The embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited as to how the EASDF network element obtains location information of the UE through the network, for example, the location information of the UE may be obtained from the SMF network element by subscription. In one embodiment, the location information of the UE is a base station identity of the UE's location. The base station identifier may be any information that may indicate the location of the base station, and the embodiment of the disclosure is not limited thereto, for example, the base station identifier is a number of the base station.

In one embodiment, mapping the location information of the UE to a location identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located includes: and mapping the position information of the UE into the position identification of the edge network where the UE is contracted by the EASDF network element and the central DNS server. Regarding what the location identifier of the edge network where the UE is located, which is agreed by the EASDF network element and the central DNS server, the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited, and in some embodiments, the agreed location identifier may be an IP address, or may directly use location information of the UE as the location identifier of the edge network where the UE is located.

The manner of inserting the location identifier into the first RDATA field is the same as that of inserting the slice external identifier into the first RDATA field in step S204, and will not be described herein. In one embodiment, the structure after inserting the slice external identifier and the location identifier in the first RDATA field is shown in fig. 4.

In another embodiment, the DNS server that receives the DNS request message is a central DNS server, and the OPT field of the DNS request message after the eDNS processing further includes a second RDATA field, and before the EASDF network element sends the DNS request message with the slice external identifier inserted into the DNS server, the method further includes: acquiring the position information of the UE through a network; mapping the position information of the UE into a position identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located; the location identity is inserted into the second RDATA field.

The manner of inserting the location identifier into the second RDATA field is the same as that of inserting the slice external identifier into the first RDATA field in step S204, and will not be described herein. Illustratively, the structure of the first RDATA field and the second RDATA field after inserting the slice external identifier and the location identifier, respectively, is shown in fig. 5.

It should be noted that, in the case that the DNS server is a central DNS server, the DNS message handling rules may support that the EASDF network element inserts a location identifier into the first RDATA field or inserts a location identifier into the second RDATA field.

In one embodiment, in the case that the DNS server is a central DNS server, the EASDF network element sends a DNS request message with an inserted slice external identifier to the DNS server, including: and sending the DNS request message inserted with the external slice identifier and the position identifier to the central DNS server, so that the central DNS server determines the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name to be resolved in the DNS request message according to the external slice identifier and the position identifier.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, after the EASDF receives the DNS context generation request message which is sent by the SMF and carries the slice identifier, the EASDF acquires the corresponding slice external identifier according to the slice identifier, then inserts the slice external identifier into the DNS request message sent by the UE, and carries the slice external identifier to the DNS server through the DNS request message, so that the DNS server can determine the IP address of the application under the slice, which corresponds to the domain name included in the DNS request message, according to the slice external identifier. In this way, an addressing mode for finding the IP address of the application instance corresponding to the slice under the condition that a special channel and a configuration channel mapping are not required to be built is provided.

Another addressing method is provided in embodiments of the present disclosure, which may be performed by any electronic device having computing processing capabilities, such as a DNS server.

Fig. 6 shows a flowchart of another addressing method in an embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 6, the addressing method provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes step S601 and step S602.

In step S601, the DNS server receives a DNS request message sent by the edge application server discovery function EASDF, where the DNS request message includes an external slice identifier.

After the EASDF network element inserts the slice external identifier into the DNS request message, the DNS request message is sent to the DNS server. After receiving the DNS request message, the DNS server completes step S601 accordingly.

In step S602, the DNS server determines, according to the external identifier of the slice, an internet protocol IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the external identifier of the slice, where the domain name is included in the DNS request message.

In one embodiment, the DNS server is a central DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table, where the enhanced resolution includes domain name information, and a location identifier, a slice external identifier, and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information, and the DNS request message further includes the location identifier; the DNS server determines an Internet Protocol (IP) address of an application under a slice corresponding to the slice external identifier, which corresponds to a domain name included in the DNS request message, according to the slice external identifier, and the method comprises the following steps: and inquiring the enhancement analysis table according to the position identifier, the slice external identifier and the domain name included in the DNS request message to obtain the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

For example, the portion of the enhanced resolution table is shown in table 3.

TABLE 3 Table 3

As can be seen from table 3, the same domain name has different IP addresses at different slices at the same location. For example, if the domain name included in the DNS request message is domain name 1, the location identifier is location identifier 1, and the slice external identifier is identifier 2, the central DNS server queries the enhanced resolution table, and the obtained IP address is the second IP address.

In another embodiment, the DNS server is a local DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table, the enhanced resolution including domain name information and a slice external identifier and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information; the DNS server determines an Internet Protocol (IP) address of an application under a slice corresponding to the slice external identifier, which corresponds to a domain name included in the DNS request message, according to the slice external identifier, and the method comprises the following steps: and inquiring the enhancement analysis table according to the external slice identifier and the domain name included in the DNS request message to obtain the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

For example, the portion of the enhanced resolution table is shown in table 4.

TABLE 4 Table 4

Domain name	Slice external identifier	IP address
			Domain name A	Sign A	Fifth IP address
Domain name A	Sign B	Sixth IP Address
			Domain name B	Sign A	Seventh IP Address
Domain name B	Sign B	Eighth IP address

For example, if the domain name included in the DNS request message is the domain name B and the slice external identifier is the identifier a, the local DNS server queries the enhanced resolution table, and the obtained IP address is the seventh IP address.

In one embodiment, after determining the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message, the DSN server sends the IP address to the UE, so that the UE may access the corresponding application instance according to the IP address.

For ease of understanding, the technical solution of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below in conjunction with the addressing method corresponding to fig. 2 and the addressing method corresponding to fig. 6.

As shown in fig. 7, the process of the UE accessing the under-slice application instance includes S701 to S711.

S701: establishing a PDU slice session;

s702: the SMF network element selects an EASDF network element;

s703: the SMF network element sends a DNS context generation request containing a slice identifier to the EASDF network element;

s704: the EASDF network element sends a DNS context generation response message to the SMF network element;

S705: the UE sends a DNS request message to an EASDF network element;

s706: the EASDF network element performs eDNS processing on the DNS request message, and adds a slice external identifier in an eDNS field;

s707: the EASDF network element sends a processed DNS request message to a DNS server;

s708: the DNS server processes the DNS request message to obtain the IP address under the slice;

s709: the DNS server sends a response message comprising the IP address to the EASDF network element;

s710: the EASDF network element sends a response message comprising the IP address to the UE;

s711: the UE accesses the application instance corresponding to the IP address through the slicing session.

Addressing means are also provided in embodiments of the present disclosure based on the same inventive concept, as described in the following embodiments. Since the principle of solving the problem of the embodiment of the device is similar to that of the embodiment of the method, the implementation of the embodiment of the device can be referred to the implementation of the embodiment of the method, and the repetition is omitted.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of an addressing device in an embodiment of the disclosure, the device being applied to an EASDF, as shown in fig. 8, the device comprising:

a receiving module 801, configured to receive a domain name system DNS context generation request message sent by a session management function SMF, where the DNS context generation request message includes a slice identifier of a slice where a corresponding session is located;

The receiving module 801 is further configured to receive a DNS request message sent by a user equipment UE corresponding to a session;

an obtaining module 802, configured to obtain a slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier;

a processing module 803, configured to insert the slice external identifier into a DNS request message;

a sending module 804, configured to send, to the DNS server, a DNS request message with an external identifier of the slice inserted therein, so that the DNS server determines, according to the external identifier of the slice, an internet protocol IP address under the slice, where the domain name included in the DNS request message corresponds to the application.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the EASDF is configured with a DNS message detection template; and an obtaining module 802, configured to obtain the slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier when the DNS request message is matched with the DNS message detection template.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the EASDF is configured with an internal and external identification mapping table of a slice, and the obtaining module 802 is configured to query the internal and external identification mapping table according to the slice identifier to obtain the slice external identifier.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the processing module 803 is configured to perform DNS extension mechanism eDNS processing on the DNS request message, so that the processed DNS request message includes a pseudo resource record OPT, where the OPT includes a first variable portion RDATA field; the slice external identifier is inserted into the first RDATA field.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the DNS server is a central DNS server; the processing module 803 is further configured to obtain location information of the UE through a network; mapping the position information of the UE into a position identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located; inserting a location identifier into a first RDATA field; a sending module 804, configured to send, to the central DNS server, a DNS request message with the slice external identifier and the location identifier inserted.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the OPT further comprises a second RDATA field, the DNS server being a central DNS server; the processing module 803 is further configured to obtain location information of the UE through a network; mapping the position information of the UE into a position identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located; inserting a location identifier into the second RDATA field; a sending module 804, configured to send, to the central DNS server, a DNS request message with the slice external identifier and the location identifier inserted.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of another addressing device in an embodiment of the disclosure, where the device is applied to a DNS server, as shown in fig. 9, and the device includes:

a receiving module 901, configured to receive a DNS request message sent by an EASDF, where the DNS request message includes an external identifier of a slice;

and the determining module 902 is configured to determine, according to the external identifier of the slice, an IP address of an application corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message under the slice corresponding to the external identifier of the slice.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the DNS server is a central DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table, the enhanced resolution including domain name information and a location identifier, a slice external identifier, and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information, the DNS request message further including the location identifier; and the determining module 902 is configured to query the enhanced resolution table according to the location identifier, the external identifier of the slice, and the domain name included in the DNS request message, so as to obtain the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the DNS server is a local DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table, the enhanced resolution table including domain name information and a slice external identifier and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information; and the determining module 902 is configured to query the enhancement resolution table according to the external identifier of the slice and the domain name included in the DNS request message, and obtain the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented as a system, method, or program product. Accordingly, various aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in the following forms, namely: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects may be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.

An electronic device 1000 according to such an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 10. The electronic device 1000 shown in fig. 10 is merely an example and should not be construed as limiting the functionality and scope of use of the disclosed embodiments.

As shown in fig. 10, the electronic device 1000 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. Components of electronic device 800 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 1010, the at least one memory unit 1020, and a bus 1030 that connects the various system components, including the memory unit 1020 and the processing unit 1010.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 1010 such that the processing unit 1010 performs steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure described in the section "detailed description of the invention" above.

The memory unit 1020 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory units such as Random Access Memory (RAM) 1021 and/or cache memory unit 1022, and may further include Read Only Memory (ROM) 1023.

Storage unit 1020 may also include a program/utility 1024 having a set (at least one) of program modules 1025, such program modules 1025 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each or some combination of which may include an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 1030 may be representing one or more of several types of bus structures including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 1000 can also communicate with one or more external devices 1040 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 1000, and/or with any device (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enables the electronic device 1000 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through an input/output (I/O) interface 1050. Also, electronic device 1000 can communicate with one or more networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the Internet, through network adapter 1060. As shown in fig. 10, the network adapter 1060 communicates with other modules of the electronic device 1000 over the bus 1030. It should be appreciated that although not shown, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in connection with the electronic device 1000, including, but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, data backup storage systems, and the like.

From the above description of embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the example embodiments described herein may be implemented in software, or may be implemented in software in combination with the necessary hardware. Thus, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (may be a CD-ROM, a U-disk, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, including several instructions to cause a computing device (may be a personal computer, a server, a terminal device, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium, which may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium, is also provided. On which a program product is stored which enables the implementation of the method described above of the present disclosure. In some possible implementations, various aspects of the disclosure may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps according to the various exemplary embodiments of the disclosure as described in the section "detailed description" above of the disclosure, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

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

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

Alternatively, the program code embodied on a computer readable storage medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

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

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

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

From the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the example embodiments described herein may be implemented in software, or may be implemented in software in combination with the necessary hardware. Thus, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (may be a CD-ROM, a U-disk, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, including several instructions to cause a computing device (may be a personal computer, a server, a mobile terminal, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

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

Claims

1. An addressing method, applied to an edge application server discovery function EASDF, comprising:

acquiring a slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier;

inserting the slice external identifier into the DNS request message;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the EASDF is configured with a DNS message detection template; the obtaining the slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier includes:

and acquiring the slice external identifier corresponding to the slice identifier under the condition that the DNS request message is matched with the DNS message detection template.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the EASDF is configured with an internal-external identification mapping table of slices, and the obtaining the slice external identification corresponding to the slice identification includes:

And inquiring the internal and external identification mapping table according to the slice identification to obtain the slice external identification.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the extraslice identifier into the DNS request message comprises:

performing DNS expansion mechanism eDNS processing on the DNS request message so that the processed DNS request message comprises a pseudo resource record OPT, wherein the OPT comprises a first variable part RDATA field;

inserting the slice external identifier into the first RDATA field.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the DNS server is a central DNS server; before the DNS request message with the slice external identifier inserted is sent to the DNS server, the method further includes:

acquiring the position information of the UE through a network; mapping the position information of the UE into a position identifier corresponding to an edge network where the UE is located;

inserting the location identifier into the first RDATA field;

the sending, to a DNS server, a DNS request message with the slice external identifier inserted therein, including:

and sending a DNS request message inserted with the slice external identifier and the position identifier to the central DNS server.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the OPT further comprises a second RDATA field, the DNS server being a central DNS server; before the DNS request message with the slice external identifier inserted is sent to the DNS server, the method further includes:

inserting the location identifier into the second RDATA field;

7. An addressing method, applied to a domain name system DNS server, comprising:

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the DNS server is a central DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table including domain name information and a location identifier, a slice external identifier, and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information, the DNS request message further including a location identifier;

The determining, according to the external slice identifier, an internet protocol IP address of the application corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message under the slice corresponding to the external slice identifier includes:

and inquiring the enhanced resolution table according to the position identifier, the slice external identifier and the domain name included in the DNS request message to obtain the IP address of the application under the slice corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the DNS server is a local DNS server configured with an enhanced resolution table including domain name information and an external slice identifier and an IP address corresponding to the domain name information;

and inquiring the enhancement resolution table according to the external slice identifier and the domain name included in the DNS request message to obtain the IP address applied under the slice and corresponding to the domain name included in the DNS request message.

10. An addressing device for use in an edge application server discovery function EASDF, comprising:

11. An addressing device for application to a domain name system DNS server, comprising:

12. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor;

wherein the processor is configured to perform the addressing method of any one of claims 1 to 6, or to perform the addressing method of any one of claims 7 to 9, via execution of the executable instructions.

13. A computer readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, characterized in that the computer program, when being executed by a processor, implements the addressing method of any one of claims 1 to 6 or implements the addressing method of any one of claims 7 to 9.