CN117202281A

CN117202281A - Management method, device and storage medium for protocol data unit PDU session

Info

Publication number: CN117202281A
Application number: CN202210609027.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李芸; 刘强
Original assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-05-31
Filing date: 2022-05-31
Publication date: 2023-12-08
Also published as: WO2023231974A1

Abstract

The disclosure provides a method, a device and a storage medium for managing a protocol data unit PDU session, wherein the method comprises the following steps: receiving a PDU session establishment request sent by a first terminal device, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA of the first PDU session, determining a second PSA in a virtual network group where the first terminal device is located, and initiating an N4 session modification procedure to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification procedure is used for replacing tunnel information of a third PSA reserved in the second PSA and a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to tunnel information of the first PSA. By the method and the device, the protocol data unit PDU session management flow can be optimally defined, the continuity of the protocol data unit PDU session is guaranteed, the resource consumption in the PDU session establishment process is reduced, and the PDU session switching efficiency of the terminal equipment is effectively improved.

Description

Management method, device and storage medium for protocol data unit PDU session

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, and a storage medium for managing a protocol data unit PDU session.

Background

Currently, in the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5th Generation Mobile Communication Technology,5G), session continuity needs to be maintained based on the transmission scenario of N19 of the 5G local area network (Local Area Network, LAN).

In the related art, in the 23501 protocol of 5G, how to support session and service continuation modes (Session and Service Continuity Mode, SSC) in the N19 scenario has not been defined.

In this way, the SSC mode2 implementation of the transmission scenario based on N19 of the 5G LAN is not defined yet, if the N19 tunnel is established according to the scenario of the non-5G LAN, the session management function (Session Management Function, SMF) is easy to interact frequently with the protocol data unit PDU session anchor point (Protocol Data Unit Session Anchor, PSA), so that resource waste is caused, continuity of the protocol data unit PDU session is affected, and PDU session switching efficiency is affected.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure aims to solve, at least to some extent, one of the technical problems in the related art.

Therefore, the present disclosure aims to provide a method, an apparatus and a storage medium for managing a protocol data unit PDU session, which can optimize and define a protocol data unit PDU session management flow, ensure continuity of the protocol data unit PDU session, reduce resource consumption in a PDU session establishment process, and effectively improve PDU session switching efficiency of a terminal device.

The protocol data unit PDU session management method provided by the embodiment of the first aspect of the present disclosure is applied to a session management function SMF, and includes: receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request sent by a first terminal device, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA (pressure swing adsorption) of the first PDU session; determining a second PSA in a virtual network group where the first terminal equipment is located; and initiating an N4 session modification flow to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification flow is used for replacing the tunnel information of the third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment according to the tunnel information of the first PSA.

In one embodiment, before the receiving the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal device, the method further includes: and initiating a PDU session release request to the third PSA, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises: determining a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal equipment belongs; the second PSA is determined from the plurality of PSAs.

In one embodiment, the determining the second PSA from the plurality of PSAs includes: reserving tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA; and taking the PSA which retains the tunnel information as the second PSA.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises: determining a PSA of the plurality of PSAs that is connected to the third PSA based on an N19 tunnel; and reserving matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the connected PSA.

In one embodiment, the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the method further comprises: if the first PSA identification is different from the PSA identification, initiating an N4 establishment flow to the first PSA, wherein the N4 establishment flow is used for requesting to distribute tunnel information corresponding to the first PSA; initiating a group level N4 modification procedure to the first PSA, wherein the group level N4 modification procedure is used to send tunnel information of an N19 tunnel of the PSA to the first PSA.

In one embodiment, the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the method further comprises: and if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification, initiating a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA, wherein the group level N4 modification flow is used for updating a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the first PSA.

In one embodiment, the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the method further comprises: if the first PSA identification is different from the PSA identification and the third PSA is connected with a second terminal device, tunnel information of the first PSA is respectively sent to the second PSA and the third PSA; updating a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the second PSA and updating a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA, wherein the tunnel information and the matching and forwarding rule are used for establishing an N19 tunnel between the first PSA, the second PSA and the third PSA.

In one embodiment, the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the method further comprises: if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification and the third PSA is connected with a second terminal device, transmitting a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA; the group level N4 modification procedure is used to update the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA.

In one embodiment, the number of the plurality of PSAs is two, and then two of the PSAs each have a corresponding PSA identification; wherein the method further comprises: initiating a release group level N4 procedure to a first PSA if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification; the release group level N4 process is configured to delete a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA, and delete tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the first PSA.

An apparatus for managing a protocol data unit PDU session according to an embodiment of a second aspect of the present disclosure includes: a receiving unit, configured to receive a PDU session establishment request sent by a first terminal device, where the PDU session establishment request is used to establish a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor PSA of the first PDU session; a first determining unit, configured to determine a second PSA in a virtual network group where the first terminal device is located; the first processing unit is configured to initiate an N4 session modification procedure to the second PSA, where the N4 session modification procedure is configured to replace tunnel information of a third PSA retained in the second PSA and a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to tunnel information of the first PSA.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises: and the second processing unit is used for initiating a PDU session release request to the third PSA before receiving the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal equipment, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the third PSA.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises: a second determining unit, configured to determine a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs; a third determination unit configured to determine the second PSA from among the plurality of PSAs;

In one embodiment, the third determining unit is specifically configured to: reserving tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA; and taking the PSA which retains the tunnel information as the second PSA.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises: a fourth determination unit configured to determine a PSA of the plurality of PSAs that is connected to the third PSA based on an N19 tunnel; and the third processing unit is used for reserving matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the connected PSA.

In one embodiment, the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the apparatus further comprises: a fourth processing unit, configured to initiate an N4 setup procedure to a first PSA when a first PSA identifier is different from the PSA identifier, where the N4 setup procedure is used to request allocation of tunnel information corresponding to the first PSA; and a fifth processing unit, configured to initiate a group level N4 modification procedure to the first PSA, where the group level N4 modification procedure is configured to send tunnel information of an N19 tunnel of the PSA to the first PSA.

In one embodiment, the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the apparatus further comprises: and the sixth processing unit is used for initiating a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA when the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification, wherein the group level N4 modification flow is used for updating the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the first PSA.

In one embodiment, the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the apparatus further comprises: the first sending unit is used for respectively sending tunnel information of the first PSA to the second PSA and the third PSA when the first PSA identifier is different from the PSA identifier and the third PSA is connected with the second terminal equipment; the updating unit is used for updating the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the second PSA and updating the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the third PSA, wherein the tunnel information and the matching and forwarding rule are used for establishing an N19 tunnel between the first PSA, the second PSA and the third PSA.

An apparatus for managing a protocol data unit PDU session according to an embodiment of a third aspect of the present disclosure includes: memory, transceiver, processor: a memory for storing a computer program; a transceiver for transceiving data under control of the processor; a processor for reading the computer program in the memory and performing the following operations: receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request sent by a first terminal device, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA (pressure swing adsorption) of the first PDU session; determining a second PSA in a virtual network group where the first terminal equipment is located; and initiating an N4 session modification flow to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification flow is used for replacing the tunnel information of the third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment according to the tunnel information of the first PSA.

A fourth aspect of the present disclosure provides a processor-readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing the processor to perform: an embodiment of the first aspect of the present disclosure provides a method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session.

The advantages or beneficial effects in the technical scheme at least comprise: the method comprises the steps of releasing an original PDU session, reserving matching and forwarding rules of a first terminal device in other PSAs in the release process, receiving a PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal device, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing the first PDU session, the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor PSA of the first PDU session, determining a second PSA in a virtual network group where the first terminal device is located, and initiating an N4 session modification flow to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification flow is used for replacing tunnel information of a third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device according to tunnel information of the first PSA, so that protocol data unit PDU session management flow can be optimally defined, the continuity of the protocol data unit PDU session is ensured, the interaction times of a session management function SMF and the PSAs in the session reconstruction process are reduced, thereby saving communication signaling resources, effectively reducing resource consumption in the PDU session establishment process, and effectively improving PDU session switching efficiency of the terminal device.

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

Drawings

The foregoing and/or additional aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent and readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method for managing a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a user plane connection in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of session timing in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a user plane connection diagram in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of session timing in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 9 is a user plane connection diagram in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of session timing in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 12 is a user plane connection diagram in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of session timing in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 15 is a user plane connection diagram in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of session timing in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a management apparatus for a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of a management apparatus for a PDU session according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a management apparatus for a protocol data unit PDU session according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The term "and/or" in the embodiments of the present disclosure describes an association relationship of association objects, which indicates that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may indicate: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship.

The term "plurality" in the embodiments of the present disclosure means two or more, and other adjectives are similar.

The following description of the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments in this disclosure, all other embodiments that a person of ordinary skill in the art would obtain without making any inventive effort are within the scope of protection of this disclosure.

The disclosure provides a management method for a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session, and the management method for the PDU session is provided to solve the technical problems that in the related art, the SSC mode2 implementation of a transmission scene based on N19 of a 5G LAN is not defined, if an N19 tunnel is established according to a scene other than the 5G LAN, a session management function (Session Management Function, SMF) is easy to interact frequently with a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session anchor point (Protocol Data Unit Session Anchor, PSA), thereby causing resource waste, affecting continuity of the PDU session and affecting PDU session switching efficiency; determining a second PDU (protocol data unit) session anchor (PSA) identifier in a virtual network group where the first terminal equipment is located, wherein the second PSA identifier is used for identifying the second PSA; and initiating an N4 session modification flow to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification flow is used for replacing tunnel information of a third PSA reserved in the second PSA and matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment according to tunnel information of the first PSA, so that the protocol data unit PDU session management flow can be optimally defined, the continuity of a protocol data unit PDU session is ensured, the resource consumption in the PDU session establishment process is reduced, and the PDU session switching efficiency of the terminal equipment is effectively improved.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can be suitable for various systems, in particular to a 5G system. For example, suitable systems may be global system for mobile communications (global system of mobile communication, GSM), code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA), wideband code division multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) universal packet Radio service (general packet Radio service, GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE), LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD), LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), long term evolution-advanced (long term evolution advanced, LTE-a), universal mobile system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX), 5G New air interface (New Radio, NR), and the like. Terminal devices and network devices are included in these various systems. Core network parts such as evolved packet system (Evolved Packet System, EPS), 5G system (5 GS) etc. may also be included in the system.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that, the execution body of the protocol data unit PDU session management method in this embodiment is a protocol data unit PDU session management device, which may be implemented in a software and/or hardware manner, and the device may be configured in a terminal device. Wherein the terminal device refers to a communication device that can be used for forwarding and receiving digital signals, and the terminal device can send signals to the network device through a channel.

The terminal device according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user, a handheld device with wireless connection functionality, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, etc. The names of the terminal devices may also be different in different systems.

In a 5G system, for example, a terminal device may be referred to as a User Equipment (UE). The wireless terminal device may communicate with one or more Core Networks (CNs) via a radio access Network (Radio Access Network, RAN), which may be mobile terminal devices such as mobile phones (or "cellular" phones) and computers with mobile terminal devices, e.g., portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built-in or vehicle-mounted mobile devices that exchange voice and/or data with the radio access Network.

Such as personal communication services (Personal Communication Service, PCS) phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (Session Initiated Protocol, SIP) phones, wireless local loop (Wireless Local Loop, WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (Personal Digital Assistant, PDAs), and the like. The wireless terminal device may also be referred to as a system, subscriber unit (subscriber unit), subscriber station (subscriber station), mobile station (mobile), remote station (remote station), access point (access point), remote terminal device (remote terminal), access terminal device (access terminal), user terminal device (user terminal), user agent (user agent), user equipment (user device), and embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited.

The network device may be operable to exchange received air frames with internet protocol (Internet Protocol, IP) packets as a router between the wireless terminal device and the rest of the access network, which may include an Internet Protocol (IP) communication network. The network device may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface.

For example, the network device according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be a network device (Base Transceiver Station, BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (Global System for Mobile communications, GSM) or code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA), a network device (NodeB) in a wideband code division multiple access (Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA), an evolved network device (evolutional Node B, eNB or e-NodeB) in a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a 5G base station (gNB) in a 5G network architecture (next generation system), a home evolved base station (Home evolved Node B, heNB), a relay node (relay node), a home base station (femto), a pico base station (pico), and the like, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present disclosure. In some network structures, the network device may include a Centralized Unit (CU) node and a Distributed Unit (DU) node, which may also be geographically separated.

Multiple-input Multiple-output (Multi Input Multi Output, MIMO) transmissions may each be made between a network device and a terminal device using one or more antennas, and the MIMO transmissions may be Single User MIMO (SU-MIMO) or Multiple User MIMO (MU-MIMO). The MIMO transmission may be 2D-MIMO, 3D-MIMO, FD-MIMO, or massive-MIMO, or may be diversity transmission, precoding transmission, beamforming transmission, or the like, depending on the form and number of the root antenna combinations.

As shown in fig. 1, the method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session includes:

the disclosed embodiments apply to a session management function (Session Management Function, SMF) that is responsible for protocol data unit, PDU, session management related functions including establishing a session, modifying a session, releasing a session, etc.

S101: and receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request sent by the first terminal equipment, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA of the first PDU session.

The protocol Data unit (Protocol Data Unit, PDU) session refers to a process of communication between a terminal device (UE) and a Data Network (DN), and establishes a PDU session, that is, a Data transmission channel of the terminal device UE and the Data Network DN.

The first terminal device refers to one terminal device in the virtual network, and the first terminal device may send a PDU session establishment request to the session management function SMF for establishing a PDU session.

Wherein the PDU session establishment request may be used to establish a first PDU session, which may be a newly established PDU session, the first PDU session corresponding to an anchor point (PDU Session Anchor, PSA) for the first PDU session.

The anchor PSA of the first PDU session may be used to provide mobility during wireless access, the first PDU session may be a newly established PDU session, and the anchor PSA of the first PDU session may be a new PSA corresponding to the newly established PDU session.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, when receiving a PDU session establishment request sent by a first terminal device, a session management function SMF may release a current PDU session of the first terminal device, and then the first terminal device may send the PDU session establishment request to the session management function SMF, the session management function SMF may receive the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal device, and the PDU session establishment request may be used to establish a new PDU session as a first PDU session, and may select a new PSA as the first PSA according to the PDU session establishment request to establish the first PDU session, where the session management function SMF may assign a new matching and forwarding rule to the first terminal device.

S102: a second PSA in the virtual network group in which the first terminal device is located is determined.

The second PSA refers to other PSAs in the network group where the first terminal device is located, except for the first PSA and the PSA connected to the first terminal device before the first PDU session is established, where the second PSA may correspond to a second PSA identifier, and the PSA identifier refers to a communication identifier that may be used to uniquely identify identity information of the second PSA, where the second PSA identifier is used to identify the second PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, when determining the second PSA in the virtual network group where the first terminal device is located, the session management function SMF may analyze and identify the virtual network group where the first terminal device is located, analyze and determine, according to the virtual network group where the first terminal device is located, other PSAs in the virtual network group except the first PSA and the PSA connected to the first terminal device before the first PDU session is established, take the PSA obtained by the analysis and determination as the second PSA, and may determine the communication identity of the second PSA as the second PSA identity.

S103: and initiating an N4 session modification flow to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification flow is used for replacing the tunnel information of the third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment according to the tunnel information of the first PSA.

The third PSA is a PSA connected to the first terminal device before the new PDU session is established as the first PDU session, and the PSA may be a PSA corresponding to the released PDU session.

The N4 session modification procedure may be used to replace tunnel information of a third PSA retained in the second PSA and a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to tunnel information of the first PSA.

The matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device may be used to instruct the first terminal device to perform uplink/downlink data transmission.

After receiving the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal device and determining the second PSA in the virtual network group where the first terminal device is located, the embodiment of the disclosure may initiate an N4 session modification procedure to the second PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, after a new PDU session is established as a first PDU session, the session management function SMF may allocate a new matching and forwarding rule to the first terminal device, and the session management function SMF may initiate an N4 session modification procedure to the second PSA, so as to replace tunnel information of a third PSA retained in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to tunnel information of the first PSA by using the N4 session modification procedure.

In this embodiment, by receiving a PDU session establishment request sent by a first terminal device, where the PDU session establishment request is used to establish a first PDU session, the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor PSA of the first PDU session, determining a second PSA in a virtual network group where the first terminal device is located, and initiating an N4 session modification procedure to the second PSA, where the N4 session modification procedure is used to replace tunnel information of a third PSA reserved in the second PSA and a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to tunnel information of the first PSA, so that an optimal definition can be performed on a protocol data unit PDU session management procedure, continuity of the protocol data unit PDU session is ensured, resource consumption in the PDU session establishment process is reduced, and PDU session switching efficiency of the terminal device is effectively improved.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method for managing a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 2, the method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session includes:

s201: and initiating a PDU (protocol data unit) session release request to the third PSA, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

The second PDU session refers to an old PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device to be released.

The PDU session release request may be used to release a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

Before receiving the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal device, the embodiment of the disclosure may initiate a PDU session release request to the third PSA to release a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

In the implementation of the disclosure, in a virtual network group where a first terminal device is located, the first terminal device is connected with a PSA corresponding to an ongoing PDU session, where the PSA is a third PSA, and the third PSA includes a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device, etc., so that a PDU session release request can be initiated to the third PSA to release a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA, and the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device on the third PSA can be deleted according to the PDU session release request, so as to implement that the PDU session release request is initiated to the third PSA to release the second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

S202: a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs is determined.

The virtual network group to which the first terminal equipment belongs comprises a plurality of PSAs, and any two PSAs are connected based on an N19 tunnel.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, when determining a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which a first terminal device belongs, the session management function SMF may analyze and identify the virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs, analyze and obtain a plurality of PSAs included in the virtual network group according to the virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs, and use the identified plurality of PSAs as a plurality of PSAs in the virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs.

S203: a PSA of the plurality of PSAs is determined that is connected to a third PSA based on the N19 tunnel.

The multiple PSAs in the virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs respectively correspond to multiple PSA identifiers, and the PSA identifiers respectively corresponding to the PSAs can uniquely identify the identity information of the PSAs.

After determining the plurality of PSAs in the virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs, the embodiment of the disclosure may determine a PSA connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel in the plurality of PSAs, and the session management function SMF may record other PSAs connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel in the plurality of PSAs, and use the other PSAs connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel recorded by the SMF as the PSA connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel in the plurality of PSAs, where the PSA connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel includes a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device.

S204: and reserving matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the connected PSA.

The matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device may be used to instruct the forwarding mode and the data transmission destination address when the first terminal device forwards the data packet.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, after determining the PSA connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel in the plurality of PSAs, the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device in the PSA connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel in the plurality of PSAs may not be deleted, the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device in the PSA connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel in the plurality of PSAs may not be released, and the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device in the connected PSA may be reserved.

S205: and receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request sent by the first terminal equipment, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA of the first PDU session.

The description of S205 may be specifically referred to the above embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

S206: if the first PSA identification is different from the PSA identification, an N4 establishment procedure is initiated to the first PSA, wherein the N4 establishment procedure is used for requesting to allocate tunnel information corresponding to the first PSA.

Wherein the first PSA identification can uniquely identify the first PSA.

The N4 establishment flow is used for requesting to distribute tunnel information corresponding to the first PSA.

After receiving the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal device and selecting a new PSA as the first PSA according to the PDU session establishment request to establish the first PDU session, the session management function SMF may determine whether the selected first PSA is within the PSA range of the virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, when determining whether the selected first PSA is within the PSA range of the virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs, the first PSA identifier of the first PSA may be compared with the PSA identifier, and if the first PSA identifier is different from the PSA identifier, an N4 setup procedure may be initiated to the first PSA, so as to allocate tunnel information corresponding to the first PSA according to the N4 setup procedure request.

S207: a group level N4 modification procedure is initiated to the first PSA, wherein the group level N4 modification procedure is used to send tunnel information of the N19 tunnel of the PSA to the first PSA.

Wherein the group level N4 modification procedure is used to send the tunnel information of the N19 tunnel of the PSA to the first PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, after the first PSA is selected according to the PDU session establishment request to establish the first PDU session, a group level N4 modification procedure may be initiated to the first PSA, and tunnel information of an N19 tunnel of the PSA may be sent to the first PSA according to the group level N4 modification procedure.

S208: and if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification, initiating a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA, wherein the group level N4 modification flow is used for updating the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the first PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the first PSA identifier of the first PSA may be compared with the PSA identifier, and if the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier, a group level N4 modification procedure is initiated to the first PSA, so as to update the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA according to the group level N4 modification procedure.

S209: a second PSA in the virtual network group in which the first terminal device is located is determined.

The description of S209 may be specifically referred to the above embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

S210: and initiating an N4 session modification flow to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification flow is used for replacing the tunnel information of the third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment according to the tunnel information of the first PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, after receiving the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal device, establishing a first PDU session according to the PDU session establishment request, and determining the second PSA in the virtual network group where the first terminal device is located, the session management function SMF may initiate an N4 session modification procedure to the second PSA, and use tunnel information for replacing the third PSA retained in the second PSA and a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to the N4 session modification procedure.

For example, as shown in fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a user plane connection in an embodiment of the disclosure, where UE1 is a first terminal device, old PSA is a third PSA corresponding to a second PDU session released by a PDU session release request, new PSA is a first PSA corresponding to a newly established first PDU session, the second PDU session may be released by using the PDU session release request, and new PSA is selected to newly establish the first PDU session.

For example, as shown in fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic session timing diagram in the embodiment of the disclosure, in the process of performing uplink/downlink data transmission by a first terminal device, the SMF may decide to perform PSA reselection, and then may release an Old PDU session by using a PDU session release request, where the Old PSA corresponding to the Old PDU session is determined by a session management function SMF whether there are other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, if there are no other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, the session management function SMF sends a group level N4 modification procedure to the Old PSA to release a forwarding rule of the first terminal device on the Old PSA and tunnel information of N19 on the Old PSA, if there are other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, the Old PSA is modified by the session management function SMF to the Old PSA level N4 to release a forwarding rule of the first terminal device on the Old PSA level on the Old PSA, then may be initiated by the session management function SMF to record a new PSA device in the new PSA level N19 through a new PSA device in the new PSA level range, if there is a new PSA device in the new PSA level is not selected to be set in the new PSA level 1, if there is a new PSA device in the new PSA level is not selected range in the new PSA level is selected to be set in the new PSA level 1, the session management function SMF initiates an N4 setup procedure to the newly selected New PSA to request the newly selected New PSA to allocate tunnel information of the N19 tunnel, sends the tunnel information of the N19 tunnel of the PSA already existing in the group (that is, sends the tunnel information of PSA2 and PSA3 in fig. 4) to the newly selected New PSA through the group-level N4 modification procedure, and sends the N4 modification procedure to the other PSAs (PSA 2 and PSA 3) in the virtual network group respectively by the session management function SMF to replace the tunnel information of the Old PSA before the first terminal device releases and the forwarding rule of the first terminal device.

In this embodiment, by determining the PSA connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel in the multiple PSAs, and reserving the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device in the connected PSA, the tunnel information in the old PSA and the forwarding rules of the first terminal device can be directly replaced, so that the situation that other PSAs in the virtual network group release and then add new tunnel information and forwarding rules of the first terminal device in the related art can be avoided, the number of communication interactions between the SMF and the PSA is reduced, signaling resources are effectively saved, and PDU session switching efficiency is improved.

In this embodiment, by determining the PSA connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel in the multiple PSAs, the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device in the connected PSA are reserved, so that the tunnel information in the Old PSA and the forwarding rules of the first terminal device can be directly replaced, the situation that other PSAs in the virtual network group release and then add new tunnel information and forwarding rules of the first terminal device in the related art can be avoided, the number of communication interactions between the SMF and the PSA is reduced, signaling resources are effectively saved, and PDU session switching efficiency is improved.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 5, the method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session includes:

s501: and initiating a PDU (protocol data unit) session release request to the third PSA, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

S502: a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs is determined.

The descriptions of S501-S502 may be specifically referred to the above embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

S503: from the plurality of PSAs, a second PSA is determined.

The second PSA refers to other PSAs except the first PSA and the third PSA in the network group where the first terminal device is located.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, when the second PSA is determined from the plurality of PSAs, PSAs other than the first PSA and the third PSA of the plurality of PSAs may be determined, and the determined plurality of PSAs may be taken as the second PSA.

Optionally, in some embodiments, when determining the second PSA from the multiple PSAs, tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA may be reserved, and the PSA with the reserved tunnel information is used as the second PSA, so that tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the second PSA may be temporarily reserved, release deletion and request allocation of the tunnel information in the second PSA are avoided, and the number of interactions between the session management function SMF and the PSA is reduced, so that consumption of communication resources may be effectively reduced, and communication efficiency is improved.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, when determining the second PSA from the plurality of PSAs, after a PDU session release request is initiated to the third PSA to release the second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA, tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA may be reserved, tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA is not released, the PSA that retains the tunnel information is recorded by the session management function SMF, and the PSA that retains the tunnel information is regarded as the second PSA.

S504: a PSA of the plurality of PSAs is determined that is connected to a third PSA based on the N19 tunnel.

S505: and reserving matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the connected PSA.

S506: and receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request sent by the first terminal equipment, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA of the first PDU session.

The descriptions of S504-S506 may be specifically referred to the above embodiments, and are not repeated here.

S507: and if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification, initiating a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA, wherein the group level N4 modification flow is used for updating forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the first PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the first PSA identifier of the first PSA may be compared with the PSA identifier, if the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier, which indicates that when a new PSA is selected to establish the first PDU session, the new PSA selected by the session management function SMF is the PSA for which the PDU session has already been established with other terminal devices in the virtual network group, and then a group level N4 modification procedure is initiated to the first PSA, so that the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA is updated by using the group level N4 modification procedure.

S508: and initiating an N4 session modification flow to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification flow is used for replacing the tunnel information of the third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment according to the tunnel information of the first PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, when the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier, after the group level N4 modification procedure is initiated to the first PSA, an N4 session modification procedure may be initiated to the second PSA, where the N4 session modification procedure is used to replace tunnel information of a third PSA retained in the second PSA and a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to tunnel information of the first PSA.

For example, as shown in fig. 6, fig. 6 is a user plane connection schematic diagram in the embodiment of the present disclosure, where UE1 is a first terminal device, old PSA is a third PSA corresponding to a second PDU session released by a PDU session release request, PSA3 (new PSA of the first terminal device UE 1) is a first PSA corresponding to a newly established first PDU session, the second PDU session may be released by using the PDU session release request, the first PDU session is selected, and PSA3 (new PSA) is newly established, where the new PSA selected in the embodiment of the present disclosure is the PSA that has established the PDU session with other terminal devices (UEy) in the virtual network group where the first terminal device UE1 is located.

For example, as shown in fig. 7, fig. 7 is a session timing diagram in the embodiment of the disclosure, in the process of performing uplink/downlink data transmission by the first terminal device, the SMF may decide to perform PSA reselection, and then may release an Old PDU session by using a PDU session release request, where the Old PDU session corresponds to the Old PSA, the session management function SMF determines whether there are other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, if there are no other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, the session management function SMF sends a group level N4 to the Old PSA to modify the flow, so as to release forwarding rules related to the first terminal device on the Old PSA and tunnel information of the N19 tunnel on the Old PSA, if there are other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, the session management function SMF may modify the flow to the Old PSA, to release the forwarding rule of the first terminal device related to the Old PSA, then the session management function SMF may record other PSAs connected to the Old PSA through the N19 tunnel, record that the forwarding rule related to the first terminal device on these PSAs has not been modified yet, then the session management function SMF may select a new PSA to perform the establishment of a new PDU session, where the new PSA selected by the session management function SMF is the PSA in the group that has been established by other UEs in the group, i.e. PSA3 in fig. 6, then the session management function SMF may determine whether the newly selected PSA is within the PSA range in the virtual network group in which the first terminal device is located, if the newly selected PSA is within the PSA range in the virtual network group in which the first terminal device is located, initiate a group level N4 modification procedure to the first PSA (PSA 3 in fig. 6), to update the forwarding rules in the first PSA (PSA 3 in fig. 6) corresponding to the first terminal device, and then initiate an N4 session modification procedure to the second PSA to use the N4 session modification procedure to update the forwarding rules in the second PSA corresponding to the first terminal device.

In this embodiment, by reserving tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA, the PSA that reserves the tunnel information is used as the second PSA, so that the tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the second PSA can be temporarily reserved, the tunnel information in the second PSA is prevented from being released and deleted once and requested to be allocated once, the number of interactions between the session management function SMF and the PSA is reduced, so that the consumption of communication resources can be effectively reduced, and the communication efficiency is improved.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 8, the method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session includes:

s801: and initiating a PDU (protocol data unit) session release request to the third PSA, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

S802: a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs is determined.

S803: a PSA of the plurality of PSAs is determined that is connected to a third PSA based on the N19 tunnel.

S804: and reserving matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the connected PSA.

S805: and receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request sent by the first terminal equipment, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA of the first PDU session.

The descriptions of S801 to S805 may be specifically referred to the above embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

S806: and if the first PSA identification is different from the PSA identification and the third PSA is connected with the second terminal equipment, tunnel information of the first PSA is respectively sent to the second PSA and the third PSA.

The second terminal device refers to other terminal devices except the first terminal device in the virtual network group where the first terminal device is located.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the first PSA identifier of the first PSA may be matched with the PSA identifier, if the first PSA identifier is different from the PSA identifier, it may be determined whether the third PSA is connected with the second terminal device, and if the third PSA is connected with the second terminal device, the tunnel information of the first PSA is sent to the second PSA and the third PSA respectively.

S807: updating a forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the second PSA, and updating a forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the third PSA, wherein the tunnel information and the forwarding rule are used for establishing an N19 tunnel between the first PSA, the second PSA and the third PSA.

The tunnel information and forwarding rules are used for establishing an N19 tunnel among the first PSA, the second PSA and the third PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, when the first PSA identifier is different from the PSA identifier and the third PSA is connected to the second terminal device, after tunnel information of the first PSA is sent to the second PSA and the third PSA, respectively, a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the second PSA may be updated, a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA may be updated, and then an N19 tunnel between the first PSA, the second PSA, and the third PSA may be established according to the tunnel information and the forwarding rule.

For example, as shown in fig. 9, fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of user plane connection in the embodiment of the present disclosure, where UE1 is a first terminal device, old PSA is a third PSA corresponding to a second PDU session released by a PDU session release request, the Old PSA is further connected to a terminal device UEx other than the first terminal device, new PSA is a first PSA corresponding to a newly established first PDU session, and the second PDU session may be released by using the PDU session release request, and the first PDU session is newly established, where the new PSA selected in the embodiment of the present disclosure is a new PSA that has not established a PDU session with other terminal devices.

For example, as shown in fig. 10, fig. 10 is a session timing diagram in the embodiment of the disclosure, during uplink/downlink data transmission of a first terminal device, the SMF may decide to perform PSA reselection, and then may release a second PDU session by using a PDU session release request, where the second PDU session corresponds to an Old PSA, and the session management function SMF determines whether there are other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, if there are no other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, the session management function SMF sends a group level N4 modification procedure to the Old PSA to release forwarding rules related to the first terminal device on the Old PSA and tunnel information of N19 tunnels on the Old PSA, if there are other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, the session management function SMF may send the group level N4 modification procedure to the Old PSA to release the forwarding rule of the first terminal device related to the Old PSA, then the session management function SMF may record other PSAs connected to the Old PSA through the N19 tunnel to record that the forwarding rule related to the first terminal device on these PSAs has not been modified, then the session management function SMF may select a new PSA to perform the establishment of a new PDU session, where the new PSA selected by the session management function SMF is a new PSA that has not established a PDU session with other terminal devices, and if the new PSA identifier selected by the session management function SMF is different from the PSA identifier, and the Old PSA is connected to other terminal devices in the virtual network group, then the group level N4 modification procedure may be respectively performed to tunnel information of other PSAs in the same virtual network group as the new PSA, and the session management function SMF sends the tunnel information of the new PSA and the forwarding rule of the first terminal equipment to the PSA2 and the old PSA through the group level N4 modification flow so as to establish an N19 tunnel between the new PSA and the existing PSA in the same group.

In this embodiment, the forwarding rule of the UE1 on each PSA is not released first, and the replacement is directly modified during session establishment, and during session release in the related art, the forwarding rule of the Old PSA on the first terminal device is released first, and during session reestablishment, the new PSA establishes N19 tunnels to each PSA in turn, and informs the forwarding rule of each PSA and the UE1, and compared with the implementation manner in the related art, the implementation manner in the implementation of the present disclosure reduces the interaction times, and effectively improves PDU session switching efficiency.

In this embodiment, when releasing the second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA, the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the PSA connected with the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel is reserved, and when establishing the first PDU session, the tunnel information of the third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device are replaced by using the N4 session modification procedure according to the tunnel information of the first PSA, so that the number of interactions between the session management function SMF and the PSA can be effectively reduced, the consumption of communication signaling resources is reduced, the resource consumption in the PDU session establishment process is reduced, the PDU session switching efficiency of the terminal device is effectively improved, and meanwhile, the protocol data unit PDU session management procedure can be optimally defined, and the continuity of the protocol data unit PDU session is ensured.

Fig. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 11, the method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session includes:

s1101: and initiating a PDU (protocol data unit) session release request to the third PSA, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

S1102: a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs is determined.

S1103: a PSA of the plurality of PSAs is determined that is connected to a third PSA based on the N19 tunnel.

S1104: and reserving matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the connected PSA.

S1105: and receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request sent by the first terminal equipment, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA of the first PDU session.

The descriptions of S1101 to S1105 may be specifically referred to the above embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

S1106: if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification and the third PSA is connected to the second end device, the group level N4 modification procedure is sent to the first PSA.

The group level N4 modification flow is used to update a forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the first PSA identifier may be subjected to matching processing with the PSA identifier, and if the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier, when the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier and the third PSA is connected to the second terminal device, the group level N4 modification procedure may be sent to the first PSA, and the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA may be updated by using the group level N4 modification procedure.

S1107: a second PSA in the virtual network group in which the first terminal device is located is determined.

The description of S1107 may be specifically referred to the above embodiment, and will not be repeated here.

S1108: and initiating an N4 session modification flow to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification flow is used for replacing the tunnel information of the third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment according to the tunnel information of the first PSA.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, when the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier and the third PSA is connected to the second terminal device, the group level N4 modification procedure is sent to the first PSA to update the forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA, and then the N4 session modification procedure may be initiated to the second PSA, where the N4 session modification procedure is used to replace the tunnel information of the third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to the tunnel information of the first PSA.

For example, as shown in fig. 12, fig. 12 is a user plane connection schematic diagram in an embodiment of the present disclosure, where UE1 is a first terminal device, old PSA is a third PSA corresponding to a second PDU session released by a PDU session release request, PSA3 (new PSA of the first terminal device UE 1) is a first PSA corresponding to a newly established first PDU session, the second PDU session may be released by using the PDU session release request, PSA3 (new PSA) is selected to newly establish the first PDU session, where the Old PSA is further connected to other terminal devices in a virtual network group, and the new PSA selected in the embodiment of the present disclosure is an existing PSA in the virtual network group where the first terminal device UE1 is located.

For example, as shown in fig. 13, fig. 13 is a session timing diagram in the embodiment of the disclosure, during uplink/downlink data transmission of a first terminal device, the SMF may decide to perform PSA reselection, and then may release a second PDU session by using a PDU session release request, where the second PDU session corresponds to an Old PSA, and the session management function SMF determines whether there are other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, if there are no other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, the session management function SMF sends a group level N4 modification procedure to the Old PSA to release forwarding rules related to the first terminal device on the Old PSA and tunnel information of N19 tunnels on the Old PSA, if there are other terminal devices in the same group as the first terminal device on the Old PSA, the session management function SMF may send a group level N4 modification procedure to the Old PSA to release the forwarding rules of the first terminal device related to the Old PSA, then the session management function SMF may record other PSAs connected to the Old PSA through the N19 tunnel to record that the forwarding rules related to the first terminal device on these PSAs have not been modified, then the session management function SMF may select a new PSA to perform the establishment of a new PDU session, where the new PSA selected by the session management function SMF is a PSA existing in the virtual network group, determines that the new PSA belongs to a PSA in another group member (i.e., PSA3 in fig. 12), and then the session management function SMF may modify the forwarding rules related to the first terminal device UE1 on PSA2 and PSA3 through the group level N4 modification procedure.

Fig. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method for managing a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 14, the method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session includes:

s1401: and initiating a PDU (protocol data unit) session release request to the third PSA, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

S1402: a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs is determined.

S1403: a PSA of the plurality of PSAs is determined that is connected to a third PSA based on the N19 tunnel.

S1404: and reserving matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the connected PSA.

The descriptions of S1401-S1403 may be specifically referred to the above embodiments, and are not repeated here.

S1405: and receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request sent by the first terminal equipment, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA of the first PDU session.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, a PDU session establishment request sent by a first terminal device may be received, and a first PSA may be selected to establish a first PDU session using the PDU session establishment request, and then an N4 session establishment procedure may be initiated to the first PSA to establish the first PDU session on the first PSA using the N4 session establishment procedure.

S1406: if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification, a release group level N4 procedure is initiated to the first PSA.

Wherein the number of the plurality of PSAs is two, the two PSAs respectively have corresponding PSA identifications.

The group level N4 releasing process is used for deleting the forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA and deleting the tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the first PSA.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the first PSA identifier may be subjected to a matching process with the PSA identifier, if the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier, a release group level N4 procedure is initiated to the first PSA, a forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA is deleted by using the release group level N4 procedure, and tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the first PSA is deleted, where it is to be noted that a time sequence of initiating the N4 session establishment procedure to the first PSA and initiating the release group level N4 procedure to the first PSA is not limited.

For example, as shown in fig. 15, fig. 15 is a schematic diagram of user plane connection in the embodiment of the disclosure, where UE1 is a first terminal device, old PSA is a third PSA corresponding to a second PDU session released by a PDU session release request, PSA2 is a PSA corresponding to a newly established PDU session, the number of PSAs in a virtual network group where the first terminal device UE1 is located is two, and the two PSAs have corresponding PSA identifiers respectively.

For example, as shown in fig. 16, fig. 16 is a session timing diagram in the embodiment of the disclosure, in the process of performing uplink/downlink data transmission by a first terminal device, the SMF may decide to perform PSA reselection, and then may release a second PDU session by using a PDU session release request, where the second PDU session corresponds to an Old PSA, the session management function SMF determines whether there are other terminal devices in the Old PSA that are in the same group with the first terminal device, if there are no other terminal devices in the Old PSA that are in the same group with the first terminal device, the session management function SMF sends a group level N4 to the Old PSA to modify the flow, so as to release forwarding rules on the Old PSA related to the first terminal device and tunnel information of an N19 tunnel on the Old PSA, if there are other terminal devices in the same group with the first terminal device on the Old PSA, the session management function SMF may modify the flow to the Old PSA by a group level N4, to release the forwarding rule of the first terminal device related to the Old PSA, then the session management function SMF may record other PSAs connected to the Old PSA through the N19 tunnel, to record that the forwarding rule related to the first terminal device on these PSAs has not been modified yet, then the session management function SMF may select a new PSA to establish a new PDU session, determine that the new PSA belongs to other PSAs in the virtual network group, namely PSA2, and only one PSA is currently sent to PSA2 by the session management function SMF, delete the forwarding rule related to UE1 and tunnel information related to the Old PSA on PSA2, select PSA2 in the UE1 session establishment process, only one PSA in the virtual network group is needed no longer, that is, no N19 tunnel is needed, i.e. no group level N4 session is needed, the normal N4 session establishment procedure may then be initiated towards PSA2 by the session management function SMF.

In this embodiment, when the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier, a release group level N4 process is initiated to the first PSA, where the number of the multiple PSAs is two, and then the two PSAs have corresponding PSA identifiers, so that a communication scenario in which the two PSAs change into one PSA can be defined in a complementary manner, thereby implementing perfection of a PDU session establishment scenario, guaranteeing PDU session continuity, and effectively guaranteeing a communication effect.

Fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a management apparatus for a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 17, the management apparatus 170 for a protocol data unit PDU session includes:

a receiving unit 1701, configured to receive a PDU session establishment request sent by a first terminal device, where the PDU session establishment request is used to establish a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor PSA of the first PDU session;

A first determining unit 1702 configured to determine a second PSA in a virtual network group where the first terminal device is located;

the first processing unit 1703 is configured to initiate an N4 session modification procedure to the second PSA, where the N4 session modification procedure is configured to replace tunnel information of a third PSA retained in the second PSA and a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to tunnel information of the first PSA.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in fig. 18, fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of a management device for a PDU session according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, and further includes:

the second processing unit 1704 is configured to initiate a PDU session release request to the third PSA before receiving the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal device, where the PDU session release request is used to release a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, further comprising:

a second determining unit 1705, configured to determine a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs;

a third determination unit 1706 for determining a second PSA from the plurality of PSAs;

in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the third determining unit 1706 is specifically configured to:

The tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA is reserved;

the PSA that retains the tunnel information is referred to as a second PSA.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, further comprising:

a fourth determination unit 1707 for determining a PSA connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel among the plurality of PSAs;

a third processing unit 1708, configured to retain matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device in the connected PSA.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the plurality of PSAs correspond to the plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the apparatus further comprises:

a fourth processing unit 1709, configured to initiate an N4 setup procedure to the first PSA when the first PSA identifier is different from the PSA identifier, where the N4 setup procedure is used to request allocation of tunnel information corresponding to the first PSA;

a fifth processing unit 1710 is configured to initiate a group level N4 modification procedure to the first PSA, where the group level N4 modification procedure is configured to send tunnel information of the N19 tunnel of the PSA to the first PSA.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the plurality of PSAs correspond to the plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein, still include:

the sixth processing unit 1711 is configured to initiate a group level N4 modification procedure to the first PSA when the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier, where the group level N4 modification procedure is used to update a forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA.

A first sending unit 1712, configured to send tunnel information of the first PSA to the second PSA and the third PSA when the first PSA identifier is different from the PSA identifier and the third PSA is connected to the second terminal device;

updating unit 1713, configured to update a forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the second PSA, and update a forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA, where the tunnel information and the forwarding rule are used to establish an N19 tunnel between the first PSA, the second PSA, and the third PSA.

a second sending unit 1714, configured to send a group level N4 modification procedure to the first PSA when the first PSA identifier is the same as the PSA identifier and the third PSA is connected to the second terminal device;

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the number of the plurality of PSAs is two, and then the two PSAs each have a corresponding PSA identification; wherein, still include:

a seventh processing unit 1715 for initiating a release group level N4 procedure to the first PSA when the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification;

Referring to fig. 19, the management device 190 for a PDU session includes a memory 1901, a transceiver 1902, a processor 1903 and a user interface 1904: a memory 1901 for storing a computer program; a transceiver 1902 for transceiving data under the control of the processor 1903; a processor 1903 for reading the computer program in the memory 1901 and performing the following operations:

Receiving a PDU (protocol data unit) session establishment request sent by a first terminal device, wherein the PDU session establishment request is used for establishing a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor point PSA (pressure swing adsorption) of the first PDU session;

determining a second PSA in a virtual network group where the first terminal equipment is located;

and initiating an N4 session modification flow to the second PSA, wherein the N4 session modification flow is used for replacing the tunnel information of the third PSA reserved in the second PSA and the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment according to the tunnel information of the first PSA.

Wherein in fig. 19, a bus architecture may comprise any number of interconnected buses and bridges, and in particular one or more processors represented by the processor 1903 and various circuits of the memory represented by the memory 1901, linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripheral devices, voltage regulators, power management circuits, etc., which are well known in the art and, therefore, will not be described further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 1902 may be a number of elements, i.e., including a transmitter and a receiver, providing a means for communicating with various other apparatus over transmission media, including transmission media such as wireless channels, wired channels, optical cables, etc. The user interface 1904 may also be an interface capable of interfacing with an inscribed desired device, including but not limited to a keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick, etc., for different user devices.

The processor 1903 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1901 may store data used by the processor 1903 in performing operations.

Alternatively, the processor 1903 may be a CPU (central processing unit), ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit ), FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array, field programmable gate array) or CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device ), and the processor may also employ a multi-core architecture.

The processor is operable to perform any of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure in accordance with the obtained executable instructions by invoking a computer program stored in a memory. The processor and the memory may also be physically separate.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the processor 1903 is specifically configured to:

and initiating a PDU (protocol data unit) session release request to the third PSA, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

determining a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which a first terminal device belongs;

from the plurality of PSAs, a second PSA is determined.

The tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA is reserved;

the PSA that retains the tunnel information is referred to as a second PSA.

determining a PSA of the plurality of PSAs that is connected to the third PSA based on the N19 tunnel;

and reserving matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the connected PSA.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the plurality of PSAs correspond to the plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; the processor 1903 is specifically configured to:

if the first PSA identification is different from the PSA identification, initiating an N4 establishment flow to the first PSA, wherein the N4 establishment flow is used for requesting to distribute tunnel information corresponding to the first PSA;

a group level N4 modification procedure is initiated to the first PSA, wherein the group level N4 modification procedure is used to send tunnel information of the N19 tunnel of the PSA to the first PSA.

and if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification, initiating a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA, wherein the group level N4 modification flow is used for updating the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the first PSA.

If the first PSA identification is different from the PSA identification and the third PSA is connected with the second terminal equipment, tunnel information of the first PSA is respectively sent to the second PSA and the third PSA;

updating the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the second PSA, and updating the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the third PSA, wherein the tunnel information and the matching and forwarding rule are used for establishing an N19 tunnel between the first PSA, the second PSA and the third PSA.

if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification and the third PSA is connected with the second terminal equipment, transmitting a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA;

the group level N4 modification flow is used to update the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the number is two, then the two PSAs each have a corresponding PSA identification; the processor 1903 is specifically configured to:

if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification, initiating a release group level N4 procedure to the first PSA;

the group level N4 releasing process is used to delete the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA, and delete the tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the first PSA.

It should be noted that, the above device provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure can implement all the method steps implemented in the embodiment of the method, and can achieve the same technical effects, and detailed descriptions of the same parts and beneficial effects as those in the embodiment of the method are omitted herein.

To achieve the above embodiments, the embodiments of the present disclosure propose a processor-readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing the processor to execute a method of managing a protocol data unit PDU session.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present disclosure may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present disclosure may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, magnetic disk storage, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present disclosure is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer-executable instructions. These computer-executable instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These processor-executable instructions may also be stored in a processor-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the processor-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These processor-executable instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present disclosure without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is intended to include such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

It should be noted that in the description of the present disclosure, the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance. Furthermore, in the description of the present disclosure, unless otherwise indicated, the meaning of "a plurality" is two or more.

Any process or method descriptions in flow charts or otherwise described herein may be understood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps of the process, and further implementations are included within the scope of the preferred embodiment of the present disclosure in which functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those reasonably skilled in the art of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

It should be understood that portions of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. In the above-described embodiments, the various steps or methods may be implemented in software or firmware stored in a memory and executed by a suitable instruction execution system. For example, if implemented in hardware, as in another embodiment, may be implemented using any one or combination of the following techniques, as is well known in the art: discrete logic circuits having logic gates for implementing logic functions on data signals, application specific integrated circuits having suitable combinational logic gates, programmable Gate Arrays (PGAs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and the like.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that all or a portion of the steps carried out in the method of the above-described embodiments may be implemented by a program to instruct related hardware, where the program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and where the program, when executed, includes one or a combination of the steps of the method embodiments.

Furthermore, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be integrated in one processing module, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. The integrated modules may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as a stand-alone product.

The above-mentioned storage medium may be a read-only memory, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, or the like.

In the description of the present specification, a description referring to terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "examples," "specific examples," or "some examples," etc., means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present disclosure. In this specification, schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiments or examples. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

Although embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown and described above, it will be understood that the above embodiments are illustrative and not to be construed as limiting the present disclosure, and that variations, modifications, alternatives, and variations may be made to the above embodiments by one of ordinary skill in the art within the scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A method for managing a protocol data unit PDU session, applied to a session management function SMF, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to said receiving the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal device:

And initiating a PDU session release request to the third PSA, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising:

determining a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal equipment belongs;

the second PSA is determined from the plurality of PSAs.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said determining said second PSA from said plurality of PSAs comprises:

reserving tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA;

and taking the PSA which retains the tunnel information as the second PSA.

5. A method as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

determining a PSA of the plurality of PSAs that is connected to the third PSA based on an N19 tunnel;

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the plurality of PSAs each correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications; wherein the method further comprises:

Initiating a group level N4 modification procedure to the first PSA, wherein the group level N4 modification procedure is used to send tunnel information of an N19 tunnel of the PSA to the first PSA.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the plurality of PSAs each correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications; wherein the method further comprises:

and if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification, initiating a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA, wherein the group level N4 modification flow is used for updating a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the first PSA.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the plurality of PSAs each correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications; wherein the method further comprises:

if the first PSA identification is different from the PSA identification and the third PSA is connected with a second terminal device, tunnel information of the first PSA is respectively sent to the second PSA and the third PSA;

updating a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the second PSA and updating a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the third PSA, wherein the tunnel information and the matching and forwarding rule are used for establishing an N19 tunnel between the first PSA, the second PSA and the third PSA.

9. The method of claim 3 wherein the plurality of PSAs each correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications; wherein the method further comprises:

if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification and the third PSA is connected with a second terminal device, transmitting a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA;

the group level N4 modification procedure is used to update the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA.

10. The method of claim 3 wherein the number of said plurality of PSAs is two, then two of said PSAs each have a corresponding PSA identification; wherein the method further comprises:

initiating a release group level N4 procedure to a first PSA if the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification;

the release group level N4 process is configured to delete a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device in the first PSA, and delete tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the first PSA.

11. A management device for a protocol data unit PDU session, characterized by being applied to a session management function SMF, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a PDU session establishment request sent by a first terminal device, where the PDU session establishment request is used to establish a first PDU session, and the first PDU session corresponds to an anchor PSA of the first PDU session;

A first determining unit, configured to determine a second PSA in a virtual network group where the first terminal device is located;

the first processing unit is configured to initiate an N4 session modification procedure to the second PSA, where the N4 session modification procedure is configured to replace tunnel information of a third PSA retained in the second PSA and a matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal device according to tunnel information of the first PSA.

12. The apparatus as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

and the second processing unit is used for initiating a PDU session release request to the third PSA before receiving the PDU session establishment request sent by the first terminal equipment, wherein the PDU session release request is used for releasing a second PDU session corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the third PSA.

13. The apparatus as recited in claim 12, further comprising:

a second determining unit, configured to determine a plurality of PSAs in a virtual network group to which the first terminal device belongs;

and a third determination unit configured to determine the second PSA from among the plurality of PSAs.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the third determining unit is specifically configured to:

Reserving tunnel information corresponding to the third PSA in the PSA;

and taking the PSA which retains the tunnel information as the second PSA.

15. The apparatus as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

a fourth determination unit configured to determine a PSA of the plurality of PSAs that is connected to the third PSA based on an N19 tunnel;

and the third processing unit is used for reserving matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the connected PSA.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the apparatus further comprises:

a fourth processing unit, configured to initiate an N4 setup procedure to a first PSA when a first PSA identifier is different from the PSA identifier, where the N4 setup procedure is used to request allocation of tunnel information corresponding to the first PSA;

and a fifth processing unit, configured to initiate a group level N4 modification procedure to the first PSA, where the group level N4 modification procedure is configured to send tunnel information of an N19 tunnel of the PSA to the first PSA.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the apparatus further comprises:

And the sixth processing unit is used for initiating a group level N4 modification flow to the first PSA when the first PSA identification is the same as the PSA identification, wherein the group level N4 modification flow is used for updating the matching and forwarding rules corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the first PSA.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the plurality of PSAs correspond to a plurality of PSA identifications, respectively; wherein the apparatus further comprises:

the first sending unit is used for respectively sending tunnel information of the first PSA to the second PSA and the third PSA when the first PSA identifier is different from the PSA identifier and the third PSA is connected with the second terminal equipment;

the updating unit is used for updating the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the second PSA and updating the matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first terminal equipment in the third PSA, wherein the tunnel information and the matching and forwarding rule are used for establishing an N19 tunnel between the first PSA, the second PSA and the third PSA.

19. A management device for a protocol data unit PDU session, comprising a memory, a transceiver, and a processor: a memory for storing a computer program; a transceiver for transceiving data under control of the processor; a processor for reading the computer program in the memory and performing the following operations:

20. A processor-readable storage medium, characterized in that the processor-readable storage medium stores a computer program for causing the processor to execute the method of managing a protocol data unit PDU session according to any one of claims 1 to 10.