CN117354372A

CN117354372A - Network element access method, device, network element and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN117354372A
Application number: CN202210758875.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 周爱东; 周晟; 黄正刚; 徐阳
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2022-06-29
Filing date: 2022-06-29
Publication date: 2024-01-05
Also published as: WO2024001566A1

Abstract

The application relates to a network element access method, a network element access device, a network element and a storage medium. The method comprises the steps of obtaining an access request of a park user; forwarding the access request to a management UPF that matches the edge UPF, such that the management UPF generates an access response corresponding to the access request; receiving an access response from the management UPF; the access response is processed based on the type of access request. The embodiment realizes extremely simple deployment of the park UPF through the edge UPF by adopting a mode of collaborative deployment of the edge UPF and the management UPF, and ensures the reliability of the UPF telecommunication level through the management UPF.

Description

Network element access method, device, network element and storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a network element access method, device, network element, and storage medium.

Background

UPF (User Plane Function ) is an important component of the 3GPP (3 rd Generation Partnership Project, third generation partnership project) core network system architecture, mainly responsible for routing and forwarding of 5G core network user plane packets, data and traffic identification, and action and policy enforcement. UPF, as a core function for 5G data processing and forwarding, has gradually become the bridgehead of the carrier's services vertical industry, gradually going from the "core" to the enterprise user's campus.

Because the UPF is required to meet the characteristic function required by the 3GPP architecture, and also is required to meet the basic requirements of enterprise users on performance, operation and maintenance, networking and the like, the cost, deployment and the like of the UPF are heavy, and particularly in the application of an edge park, the requirement is more obvious. Therefore, a UPF with low cost, rapid deployment and convenient operation and maintenance is urgently needed, and the UPF is also required to be complete in function and reliable in carrier level, so that the 5G characteristic application of an enterprise park is satisfied.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a network element access method, a network element access device, a network element and a storage medium, which are used for solving the problem that UPF in the related technology is thicker.

In a first aspect, a network element access method is provided, applied to an edge UPF, including:

acquiring an access request of a park user;

forwarding the access request to a management UPF that matches the edge UPF, such that the management UPF generates an access response corresponding to the access request;

receiving the access response from the management UPF;

and processing the access response based on the type of the access request.

Optionally, before forwarding the access request to the management UPF, the method further includes:

when the type of the access request is determined to indicate that the access request is a service type message, acquiring the service type of the access request;

Determining that a message forwarding strategy corresponding to the service type is not stored;

after forwarding the access request to the management UPF, further comprising:

receiving and storing the message forwarding policy from the management UPF;

processing the access response based on the type of the access request includes:

and forwarding the service class message according to the message forwarding strategy.

Optionally, determining that the message forwarding policy corresponding to the service type is not stored includes:

acquiring the message characteristics of the access request;

when determining that the message forwarding strategies matched with the message characteristics are not stored in the PFU module and the DPI-D module, determining that the message forwarding strategies corresponding to the service types are not stored;

forwarding the access request to a management UPF, comprising:

sending the access request to the management UPF through a client proxy unit;

receiving and storing the message forwarding policy from the management UPF, including:

receiving the message forwarding strategy from the server-side proxy unit for managing UPF;

creating a corresponding relation between the message service characteristics and the message forwarding strategy through the DPI-D module;

And storing the corresponding relation through the PFU module.

Optionally, before obtaining the access request of the campus user, the method further includes:

sending the route release request to the management UPF;

receiving address parameters of the park user returned by the management UPF in response to the route release request;

generating routing information of the park user and the edge UPF based on the address parameter, wherein the routing information indicates that the park user is matched with the edge UPF;

and issuing the routing information to the switch.

Optionally, the access request includes one or more of:

a session establishment request;

a session update request;

a session deletion request;

an uplink classification request;

and reporting the flow information to the request.

In a second aspect, a network element access method is provided, which is applied to managing UPF, and includes:

receiving an access request from an edge UPF;

generating an access response corresponding to the access request;

and sending the access response to the edge UPF.

Optionally, the type of the access request indicates that the access request is a service type message;

generating an access response corresponding to the access request, including:

acquiring the message characteristics of the access request;

Determining a message forwarding strategy matched with the message characteristics;

and taking the message forwarding strategy as the access response.

Optionally, before receiving the access request from the edge UPF, the method further includes:

receiving a route release request from the edge UPF;

and responding to the route release request, and returning the address parameters of the park user to the edge UPF.

In a third aspect, a network element access device is provided, including:

the acquisition module is used for acquiring the access request of the park user;

a forwarding module, configured to forward the access request to a management UPF that matches the edge UPF, so that the management UPF generates an access response corresponding to the access request;

a first receiving module configured to receive the access response from the management UPF;

and the processing module is used for processing the access response based on the type of the access request.

In a fourth aspect, a network element access device is provided, including:

the second receiving module is used for receiving an access request from the edge UPF;

the generation module is used for generating an access response corresponding to the access request;

and the sending module is used for sending the access response to the edge UPF.

In a fifth aspect, a network element access system is provided, including:

managing UPF and edge UPF;

the edge UPF is used for acquiring an access request of a park user; forwarding the access request to a management UPF that matches the edge UPF, such that the management UPF generates an access response corresponding to the access request; receiving the access response from the management UPF; processing the access response based on the type of the access request;

the management UPF is used for receiving an access request from the edge UPF; generating an access response corresponding to the access request; and sending the access response to the edge UPF.

In a sixth aspect, a network element is provided, including: the device comprises a processor, a memory and a communication bus, wherein the processor and the memory are communicated with each other through the communication bus;

the memory is used for storing a computer program;

the processor is configured to execute the program stored in the memory, to implement the network element access method according to the first aspect or the network element access method according to the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium storing a computer program which when executed by a processor implements the network element access method of the first aspect or the network element access method of the second aspect.

Compared with the prior art, the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application has the following advantages: according to the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the access request of the park user is obtained; forwarding the access request to a management UPF that matches the edge UPF, such that the management UPF generates an access response corresponding to the access request; receiving an access response from the management UPF; the access response is processed based on the type of access request. The embodiment realizes extremely simple deployment of the park UPF through the edge UPF by adopting a mode of collaborative deployment of the edge UPF and the management UPF, and ensures the reliability of the UPF telecommunication level through the management UPF.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the invention or the technical solutions of the prior art, the drawings which are used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described, and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained from these drawings without inventive effort.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a network element access method in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a network element access method in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the edge UPF and the management UPF in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a network architecture of edge UPF and management UPF in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an Nx media message interface of an edge UPF and a management CoUPF according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a signaling diagram of session establishment of an edge UPF in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a signaling diagram of session update of an edge UPF in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a signaling diagram of session deletion of an edge UPF in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a signaling diagram of the ULCL flow of the edge UPF in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a signaling diagram of a high performance forwarding of edge UPFs without local policy in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a signaling diagram of a local policy for high performance forwarding of edge UPFs in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a signaling diagram of traffic reporting for high performance forwarding of edge UPF in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 13 is a signaling diagram of route distribution for high performance forwarding of edge UPF in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a signaling diagram of QoS traffic of an edge UPF in an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 15 is a signaling diagram of service packet forwarding of edge UPF in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 16 (a) is a signaling diagram of an alarm for an edge UPF in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 (b) is a signaling diagram of services such as performance statistics of edge UPF in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a network element access device in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 18 is a schematic flowchart of another network element access device in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a network element in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

For the purposes of making the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application more clear, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are some embodiments of the present application, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without undue burden from the present disclosure, are within the scope of the present application based on the embodiments herein.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of the present application and the above figures are used for distinguishing between similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used may be interchanged where appropriate such that embodiments of the present application described herein may be implemented in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

For convenience of reading, the following table will be used to simply describe the technical terms related to the scheme of the present application.

List one

For ease of understanding, the functions and interfaces supported by the UPF are briefly described below.

Current UPFs need to be able to implement the following functions:

an anchor point for intra-RAT/inter-RAT mobility; session points where external PDUs are interconnected with the data network; packet routing and forwarding to route traffic to instances of the data network, supporting branch points (Branching Point UPF) to support multi-host PDU sessions; checking a data packet; user plane part policy rule enforcement, comprising: gating, redirection, traffic steering, rate control, etc.); lawful interception (UP collection); a traffic usage report; qoS treatment of user plane, such as UL/DL rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in DL; uplink traffic verification (SDF to QoS traffic mapping); a transport layer packet signature in uplink and downlink; downlink data packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering; address assignment, networking and route distribution, ACLs associated therewith, and the like.

To achieve the above functions, interfaces supported by the UPF mainly include:

and N3: the interface between RAN and I-UPF/UPF is used for transferring uplink and downlink user plane data between 5G (R) AN and UPF. N4: an interface between the SMF and the UPF is used for transmitting control plane information between the SMF and the UPF. N6: an interface between the DN and the UPF is used for transmitting uplink and downlink user data streams between the UPF and the DN, and the interface is communicated with the DN network based on IP and routing protocols. N9: and the interface between the UPFs is used for transmitting uplink and downlink user data streams between the UPFs. For single session, multiple anchor points. The connection is also through N9 while roaming.

In order to solve the problems in the related art, the method and the device set an edge UPF (hereinafter collectively referred to as SmartUPF) and a management UPF (hereinafter collectively referred to as CoUPF) in a cooperative mode, so that extremely simple deployment and convenient operation and maintenance of the park UPF are realized; smartUPF completes all characteristic functions required by 3GPP specification architecture, has unified interfaces for central SMF, management UPF, and other I-UPF and ULCL main anchor UPF, and presents independent UPF office to EMS; coUPF cooperates with SmartUPF to process business, which can realize one-to-many management and is invisible to network elements in 3GPP architecture such as SMF, EMS, etc.

The following description of the solution of the present application is made in terms of edge UPF and management UPF, respectively.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network element access method according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method may be applied to edge UPF; the method comprises the following steps:

step 101, obtaining an access request of a park user.

In this embodiment, the edge UPF is deployed separately from the management UPF, and the edge UPF has previously established a connection with the management UPF before receiving the access request from the campus user.

It should be appreciated that the connection between the edge UPF and the management UPF may be Nx connection supported by the above-mentioned UPF. After the Nx connection is established between the edge UPF and the management UPF, the management UPF configures information such as an IP address pool of the edge UPF, a TEIDU and the like, and the information is issued to the management UPF through the Nx connection; the management UPF issues the newly added UPF service configuration to the edge UPF through the Nx connection.

In this embodiment, the signaling messages between the management UPF and the edge UPF are interacted by using the PFCP protocol; the media messages between the management UPF and the edge UPF are tunneled. Tunnel types include, but are not limited to, custom udp tunnels, GTP tunnels, GRE tunnels, and the like. It should be understood that the media packets between the management UPF and the edge UPF may also be communicated in a custom manner, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In this embodiment, the access request of the campus user includes two types of control type messages and service type messages. In particular applications, the access request may include one or more of the following: a session establishment request; a session update request; a session deletion request; an uplink classification request; and reporting the flow information to the request.

It should be understood that, here, the session establishment request, the session update request, and the session deletion request belong to control class messages, while the uplink classification request and the traffic information reporting request belong to traffic class messages.

Step 102, forwarding the access request to the management UPF matched with the edge UPF, so that the management UPF generates an access response corresponding to the access request.

In this embodiment, the edge UPF implements mobility management, session management, and data transmission, manages the session and message information of the edge UPF received by the UPF, and processes the message information.

Step 103, receiving an access response from the management UPF.

Step 104, processing the access response based on the type of the access request.

In this embodiment, when the type of the access request is a control type message, the edge UPF returns the access response to the campus user; when the type of the access request is a service type message, the access response is a message forwarding policy, and the edge UPF forwards the access request based on the message forwarding policy. Wherein the message forwarding policy indicates a forwarding path for the access request.

In the application, when the access response is a message forwarding policy, after the edge UPF receives the message forwarding policy, the message forwarding policy is stored locally, so that when other access requests with the same service as the service requested by the access request appear later, the other access requests can be directly processed according to the message forwarding policy. Correspondingly, for the access request of the service type message, after the edge UPF acquires the access request of the park user and before forwarding the access request to the management UPF, the edge UPF can also acquire the service type of the access request, judge whether the message forwarding strategy corresponding to the service type is stored or not, and forward the access request to the management UPF when determining that the message forwarding strategy corresponding to the service type is not stored.

It should be understood that the edge UPF may locally establish a correspondence between a service type and a packet forwarding policy, so when the service type of the access request is obtained, the service type may be used to query the correspondence to determine whether the corresponding packet forwarding policy is locally stored.

In this embodiment, the service type of the access request may be indicated by using a message feature of the access request, so when it is determined that the edge UPF does not store a message forwarding policy corresponding to the service type, the message feature of the access request is obtained, and when it is determined that the edge UPF message processing unit (PFU) and the deep packet resolution unit (DPI-D) do not store a forwarding policy corresponding to the message feature, it is determined that the edge UPF does not store a message forwarding policy corresponding to the service type message.

In this embodiment, a client Proxy unit (Proxy-C) is configured in the edge UPF, and a server Proxy unit (Proxy-S) is configured in the management UPF, so that interaction between the edge UPF and the management UPF is realized through connection between the Proxy-C and the Proxy-S. Accordingly, when the edge UPF receives the message forwarding policy from the management UPF, the client proxy unit receives the message forwarding policy from the server proxy unit that manages the UPF.

In this embodiment, before the access request of the park user is obtained, the park user establishes a session connection with the edge UPF and the management UPF, and in the process of establishing the session connection, the management UPF allocates address parameters to the park user, so that the park user uses the address parameters to perform service access. To enable park users to make business accesses based on the address parameters, edge UPF will make route releases based on the address parameters.

In a specific implementation, in an alternative embodiment, a route publishing request is sent to a management UPF; receiving address parameters of park users returned by the management UPF in response to the route release request; generating routing information of the park user and the edge UPF based on the address parameters, wherein the routing information indicates that the park user is matched with the edge UPF; and issuing the route information to the switch.

In application, address parameters of the campus users include, but are not limited to, IP addresses.

In the technical scheme provided by the embodiment, the access request of the park user is obtained; forwarding the access request to a management UPF that matches the edge UPF, such that the management UPF generates an access response corresponding to the access request; receiving an access response from the management UPF; the access response is processed based on the type of access request. The embodiment realizes extremely simple deployment of the park UPF through the edge UPF by adopting a mode of collaborative deployment of the edge UPF and the management UPF, and ensures the reliability of the UPF telecommunication level through the management UPF.

Based on the above description, the edge UPF in the present application will be briefly described.

(1) The edge UPF and the management UPF are cooperatively deployed to realize extremely simple deployment and convenient operation and maintenance of the park UPF; the edge UPF completes all characteristic functions required by the 3GPP specification architecture, has unified interfaces for the central SMF, the management UPF, other I-UPF and ULCL main anchor UPF, and presents an independent UPF office for EMS; coUPF cooperates with SmartUPF to process business, which can realize one-to-many management and is invisible to network elements in 3GPP architecture such as SMF, EMS, etc.

(2) The edge UPF realizes mobile management, session management and data transmission, interfaces N3, N4, N6 and N9 are butted to SMF, UPF, UE and the like, and service distribution of the park UPF is realized, wherein the service distribution comprises 3GPP standard service flows such as ULCL uplink distribution, IPv6 multi-homing distribution, LADN local data network and the like.

(3) The edge UPF architecture is provided with an IPU unit (Interface Process Unit) for completing the signaling processing of an N4 interface, including the services of session establishment, deletion, modification and the like issued by SMF and ULCL flow; the PFU unit (Packet Forward Unit) completes the CE butt joint of the exchanger to realize the user message service processing of N3, N6 and N9; the OAM element ((Operation, administration, maintenance) completes the operations, administration and maintenance of the SmartUPF network element.

(4) And the Proxy-C in the edge UPF architecture realizes the connection with (the transparent transmission of N4 signaling session information and control management information in N3/N6/N9 messages in CoUPF, and realizes the business flow through CoUPF.

(5) The PFU, DPI-D (Deep Packet Inspection Cache) and Flow-D (Session Flow Cache) units of the edge UPF can be realized by hardware, including intelligent network card modes such as FPGA and DPU.

(6) The management of UPF receives the session and message information of edge UPF through Proxy-S, which is completed through PFU, GSU (General Service Unit), LDU (Local Data Unit), LIG (Lawful Interception Gateway), OMU (Operation Maintain Unit), RMU (Resource Management Unit), and NFF (Network Forwarding Framework network forwarding framework) protocol between Proxy-S and Proxy-C.

(7) Under the cooperation of CoUPF and hardware acceleration, the edge SmartUPF realizes extremely simple deployment, and under the scene below the park 20G, the deployment can be completed by adding an FPGA (Xilinx 7P model) to the computing resource 2Core (corresponding to Intel 6230CPU 20 Core). When the park requires a 100G scene, the computing resources are increased to 4Core, the intelligent network card does not need to be expanded, and when the capacity exceeds 100G, the intelligent network card is increased as required. In the scenario without intelligent network card hardware cooperation, the SmartUPF needs to calculate 16Core (corresponding to Intel 6230 CPU) resources of 12Core when 20G is added.

(8) The edge UPF and the session management unit, the business processing unit, the data storage unit and the like for managing the UPF are realized in a distributed mode, so that the flexible management of the volume shrinkage and expansion is facilitated.

Based on the above functions of the edge UPF, the application has the following beneficial effects:

(1) The edge UPF is realized according to the 3GPP specification, the protocol function and the service capability are completely realized, and SMF, UPF, UE and the like are butted in a split anchor UPF mode; the peripheral network elements such as SMF/UPF/EMS have no special or nonstandard perception.

(2) The edge UPF realizes the localization processing of the service, and is safe and reliable; smartUPF and CoUPF cooperate to achieve carrier-level reliability.

(3) Compared with the common UPF, the edge UPF greatly reduces the deployment cost and the deployment requirement of the park UPF, and realizes low energy consumption and quick deployment, plug and play; as for the 20G campus UPF deployment scenario, smartUPF costs and power consumption are only 50% of the average UPF.

(4) The edge UPF realizes service localization, and user flow information is processed locally, so that high performance and low time delay are realized; under the hardware acceleration mode, the message delay of the network element is less than 100us, and the maximum single user rate can meet 100G.

(5) The edge UPF service capability is comprehensive, and the capability opening is realized.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a network element access method according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method may be applied to managing UPF; the method comprises the following steps:

Step 201, receiving an access request from an edge UPF;

step 202, generating an access response corresponding to the access request;

step 203, sending an access response to the edge UPF.

When the type of the access request indicates that the access request is a service type message, the edge UPF reports the access request to the management UPF so as to obtain a message forwarding strategy of a service corresponding to the access request.

In an alternative embodiment, the message characteristics of the access request are obtained when the access response is generated; determining a message forwarding strategy matched with the message characteristics; and taking the message forwarding strategy as an access response.

In this embodiment, the management UPF may further send address parameters allocated to the campus users during the session to the edge UPF, so that the edge UPF generates routing information and issues parallel routes.

In specific implementation, the management UPF receives a route release request from the edge UPF; in response to the route publication request, address parameters of the campus subscribers are returned to the edge UPF.

Based on the above detailed description of the edge UPF and the management UPF, interactions of the edge UPF and the management UPF are described in specific scene embodiments.

Example 1: deployment and communication of SmartUPF and CoUPF are implemented, and fig. 3 is an internal architecture diagram of SmartUPF and CoUPF provided by the present embodiment.

Step 1, the coupf is deployed separately from SmartUPF, as shown in fig. 4;

step 2, establishing Nx connection between CoUPF and SmartUPF, as shown in FIG. 5;

step 3, configuring an IP address pool of SmartUPF on the CoUPF, TEIDU and other information, and transmitting the information to the SmartUPF through Nx connection;

step 4, the CoUPF issues the newly added UPF service configuration to SmartUPF through Nx connection;

step 5, the signaling message between CoUPF and SmartUPF uses PFCP protocol to interact, as shown in figure 4;

step 6, the media message between CoUPF and SmartUPF adopts tunnel mode communication. Tunnel types include, but are not limited to, custom udp tunnels, GTP tunnels, GRE tunnels, and the like. The protocol stack layering is given below as shown in fig. 5, taking a custom udp tunnel as an example.

Wherein the internal header (InnerHead) in FIG. 4 is in a 16 byte structure, as shown in diagram two, it should be understood that Table one is merely used as an example schematic, and that adjustments may be made specifically.

Watch II

InnerType is used to characterize the message type, which is shown with reference to Table II, it being understood that Table III is used as an example only, and that modifications are specifically contemplated.

Watch III

Embodiment two: the session establishment for SmartUPF is shown in fig. 6.

Step 1, SMF triggers and establishes N4 conversation flow;

step 2, smart-UPF receives N4 Session Establishment Request (session establishment request) sent by SMF;

Step 3, smart-UPF sends N4 Session Establishment Request message to CoUPF;

step 4, coUPF finishes the operations of IP address allocation, business tunnel resource allocation and the like;

step 5, the coupf sends N4 Session Establishment Response (session setup response) to SmartUPF;

step 6, smartupf creates N4 session, establishes traffic tunnel, and sends N4 Session Establishment Response message to SMF.

Embodiment III: session update for edge SmartUPF as shown in fig. 7.

Step 1, SMF triggers and updates the N4 session flow;

step 2, smartupf receives N4 Session Modification Request (session change request) sent by SMF;

step 3, smartupf sends N4 Session Modification Request message to CoUPF;

step 4, coUPF completes the operation of updating the business tunnel resources and the like;

step 5, the coupf sends N4 Session Modification Response (session change response) to SmartUPF;

step 6, smartupf updates the N4 session, creates/updates the traffic tunnel, and sends an N4 Session Modification Response message to the SMF.

Embodiment four: the session deletion of SmartUPF is shown in fig. 8.

Step 1, SMF triggers and releases N4 conversation flow;

step 2, smartupf receives N4 Session Release Request (session release request) sent by SMF;

Step 3, smartupf sends N4 Session Release Request message to management UPF;

step 4, coUPF releases the operation such as the business tunnel resource;

step 5, the coupf sends N4 Session Release Response (session release response) to SmartUPF;

step 6, smartupf releases the N4 session and sends an N4 Session Release Response message to the SMF.

Fifth embodiment: the ULCL scheme for SmartUPF is shown in fig. 9.

Step 1, establishing PDU session, the anchor point is UPF1;

step 2, the SMF performs UPF reselection according to the service routing information, and the selected result is: smartUPF is Uplink Classifier, UPF2 is an anchor point of service App2 data, and UPF1 is an anchor point of service App1 data; smartUPF receives N4 Session Establishment Request message sent by SMF;

step 3, smartUPF sends N4 Session Establishment Request to the management UPF;

step 5, the CoUPF sends N4 Session Establishment Response to Smart-UPF;

step 6, smartUPF establishes N4 session, establishes service tunnel, and sends N4 Session Establishment Response message to SMF;

step 7, the SMF sends an N4 Session Modification Request message to the UPF1 to update the N4 session;

Step 8, the upf1 completes the session update and sends an N4 Session Modification Response message to the SMF.

Example six: smartUPF high performance forwarding has no local policy flow as shown in fig. 10.

Step 1, according to the result of route release, the message is drained to SmartUPF;

step 2, the SmartUPF does not have a fast conversion table and has no local strategy, the CoUPF to which the message belongs is identified according to the characteristics of the message, and the message is sent through the identification of pfu carrying the SmartUPF;

step 3, the CoUPF receives the message to perform operations such as conversation, strategy, deep message identification and the like, issues a required Qos strategy to SmartUPF, completes the processing of the message and sends SmartUPF to the outside;

and step 4, after the SmartUPF receives Qos strategy information sent by the CoUPF, the Qos strategy information is stored locally, and a fast forwarding strategy is generated according to the characteristics of the message. And finishing the message outgoing according to the fast forwarding table.

Embodiment seven: smartUPF high performance forwarding has a local policy flow as shown in FIG. 11.

Step 1, according to the result of route release, the message is led to SmartUPF.

Step 2, smartUPF has a fast forwarding table, and the message hits the fast forwarding table and is directly forwarded.

Example eight: the flow of traffic reporting for SmartUPF high performance forwarding is shown in fig. 12.

Step 1, collecting flow information according to a local session;

step 2, reporting the collected flow information to CoUPF;

and 3, reporting the CoUPF to the SMF.

Example nine: the SmartUPF high-performance forwarding route distribution flow is shown in fig. 13.

Step 1, after SmartUPF is powered on, reporting an interface to CoUPF, and finally reporting information to a protocol stack center (Rosng) by the CoUPF, wherein the protocol stack center forms an external logic interface;

step 2, reading the configured address pool and service address on CoUPF to generate a to-be-issued route queue;

step 3, the CoUPF packages the routing information and sends the routing information to SmartUPF;

step 4, smartUPF sends out the route through the outgoing port.

Example ten: the QoS traffic flow for SmartUPF is shown in fig. 14.

Step 1, a user service first request message reaches a PFU module of SmartUPF, service QoS strategy matching is carried out according to the five-tuple characteristics of the message, and any QoS strategy is found to be not hit;

step 2, the message is forwarded to a DPI-D module to carry out QoS strategy request; the DPI-D module performs local policy matching according to the service message characteristics and still does not hit, so that the service characteristic data and QoS policy cache are not locally provided;

and 3, smartUPF sends the service request message to CoUPF through Proxy-C module. The CoUPF carries out the deep analysis of the message according to the user information, the five-tuple characteristics of the message, the characteristics of the service message and other data, and comprehensively decides the QoS strategy of the message;

Step 4, the CoUPF issues the QoS strategy of the service message to SmartUPF through a Proxy-S module;

step 5, the DPI-D module creates an index cache strategy according to the message service characteristics after receiving the QoS strategy, and issues the strategy to the PFU;

step 6, the PFU caches the strategy according to the five-tuple information of the message, and simultaneously executes the strategy and forwards the message;

step 7, after the message of the same service flow reaches the PFU, the PFU can directly match and hit QoS strategy according to five-tuple characteristics, execute the strategy and forward the message;

step 8, after the same service initiates new service flow to reach PFU, PFU can not hit the strategy according to five-tuple information;

step 9, the service request message is forwarded to the DPI-D module, and the DPI-D module hits the cached strategy information according to the service characteristic information;

and step 10, directly transmitting the strategy information to the PFU by the DPI-D, caching the strategy according to the five-tuple information of the message after the strategy is received by the PFU, executing the strategy and forwarding the message.

It should be appreciated that in fig. 14, the two smartupfs are actually the same UPF, and for the sake of more clarity in describing the trend of the signal flow, the same SmartUPF is described as being split into two modules. And, numerals in fig. 14 represent steps in the present embodiment.

Example eleven: the SmartUPF service message forwarding flow is shown in fig. 15.

The forwarding flow of the service message can be mainly divided into the following categories:

step 1, after obtaining the buffer strategy from DPI-D, the packet can be directly forwarded on PFU through packet five-tuple identification

Step 2, the message processing policy includes value added service, and the service request message needs to be sent to DPI-D for message modification, for example: head enhancement, redirection, etc. services; after finishing the modification, the message is sent out through an external interface of the PFU, and the non-service request message can be directly forwarded at the PFU;

step 3, the message needs to be deeply parsed, and the policy of the DPI-D cache cannot accurately identify the message, for example: fraud messages, etc., at which time the messages are all sent to the CoUPF for deep recognition. And issuing the forwarding strategy until the service strategy which can be identified by the DPI-D can be resolved.

It should be appreciated that in fig. 15, three smartupfs are actually the same UPF, and for purposes of more clearly describing the trend of the signal flow, the same SmartUPF is described in terms of three modules. And, numerals in fig. 15 represent steps in the present embodiment.

Embodiment twelve: smartUPF SmartUPF, as shown in fig. 16 (a).

The corresponding examples of SmartUPF and CoUPF on the operation and maintenance externally embody a UPF whole, and the alarm unification can be presented by SmartUPF to an upper network manager.

Step 1, a module on SmartUPF generates an alarm (taking a PFU/DPU module as an example) to report SmartUPF-OAM, the SmartUPF-OAM directly reports to an upper network manager, and UPF service module alarm is presented to the outside;

step 2, the module on the CoUPF generates an alarm (taking a PFU module as an example) to report the CoUPF-OAM and carry instance information; the CoUPF-OAM inquires a corresponding SmartUPF according to the instance information and forwards an alarm to the SmartUPF-OAM; after SmartUPF-OAM receives alarming information of CoUPF, reporting to upper network manager, and giving out alarming of UPF management module.

As shown in fig. 16 (b), the performance statistics mechanism:

step 1, creating a performance statistics task on an upper network manager of SmartUPF, and issuing the task to SmartUPF-OAM by the upper network manager;

step 2, after the SmartUPF-OAM receives the performance statistics task, the SmartUPF-OAM forwards the task to the CoUPF-OAM at the same time;

step 3, coUPF-OAM issues performance statistics task to CoUPF-PFU;

step 4, the PFU/DPU module on SmartUPF pushes the service flow to the PFU module of CoUPF at fixed time or fixed quantity;

step 5, after receiving the reported flow, the CoUPF-PFU generates original performance statistics data according to the complete information of the user, reports the original performance statistics data to the CoUPF-OAM, and generates a performance statistics data file by the CoUPF-OAM;

Step 6, the CoUPF-OAM transmits the performance statistics data generation file to SmartUPF-OAM;

and 7, the SmartUPF-OAM storage file is inquired and used by an upper network manager.

Based on the same conception, the embodiment of the present application provides a network element access device, and the specific implementation of the device may be referred to the description of the embodiment of the method, and the repetition is omitted, as shown in fig. 17, where the device mainly includes:

an obtaining module 1701, configured to obtain an access request of a campus user;

a forwarding module 1702 configured to forward the access request to a management UPF that matches the edge UPF, so that the management UPF generates an access response corresponding to the access request;

a first receiving module 1703 for receiving an access response from the managing UPF;

a processing module 1704 for processing the access response based on the type of access request.

The device is also used for:

before forwarding an access request to a management UPF, when determining that the type of the access request indicates that the access request is a service type message, acquiring the service type of the access request;

after forwarding the access request to the management UPF, receiving and storing a message forwarding strategy from the management UPF;

The processing module 1704 is configured to:

The device is used for:

acquiring the message characteristics of an access request;

when the message forwarding strategies matched with the message characteristics are not stored in the PFU module and the DPI-D module, determining that the message forwarding strategies corresponding to the service types are not stored;

the forwarding module 1702 is configured to:

sending an access request to a management UPF through a client agent unit;

the device is used for:

receiving a message forwarding strategy from a server-side proxy unit for managing UPF;

creating a corresponding relation between the message service characteristics and a message forwarding strategy through a DPI-D module;

and storing the corresponding relation through the PFU module.

The device is also used for:

before an access request of a park user is obtained, a route release request is sent to a management UPF;

receiving address parameters of park users returned by the management UPF in response to the route release request;

generating routing information of the park user and the edge UPF based on the address parameters, wherein the routing information indicates that the park user is matched with the edge UPF;

and issuing the route information to the switch.

The access request includes one or more of the following:

a session establishment request;

a session update request;

A session deletion request;

an uplink classification request;

and reporting the flow information to the request.

Based on the same concept, the embodiment of the present application provides a network element access device, and the specific implementation of the device may be referred to the description of the embodiment of the method, and the repetition is omitted, as shown in fig. 18, where the device mainly includes:

a second receiving module 1801, configured to receive an access request from an edge UPF;

a generating module 1802, configured to generate an access response corresponding to the access request;

a sending module 1803, configured to send an access response to the edge UPF.

The type of the access request indicates that the access request is a service type message;

the generating module 1802 is configured to:

acquiring the message characteristics of an access request;

and taking the message forwarding strategy as an access response.

The device is also used for:

before receiving an access request from an edge UPF, receiving a route release request from the edge UPF;

in response to the route publication request, address parameters of the campus subscribers are returned to the edge UPF.

Based on the same concept, the embodiment of the present application further provides a network element, as shown in fig. 19, where the network element mainly includes: a processor 1901, a memory 1902, and a communication bus 1903, wherein the processor 1901 and the memory 1902 communicate with each other via the communication bus 1903. The memory 1902 stores a program executable by the processor 1901, and the processor 1901 executes the program stored in the memory 1902 to implement the following steps:

Acquiring an access request of a park user; forwarding the access request to a management UPF that matches the edge UPF, such that the management UPF generates an access response corresponding to the access request; receiving an access response from the management UPF; processing the access response based on the type of the access request;

or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

receiving an access request from an edge UPF; generating an access response corresponding to the access request; an access response is sent to the edge UPF.

The communication bus 1903 mentioned in the above network element may be a peripheral component interconnect standard (Peripheral Component Interconnect, abbreviated to PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (Extended Industry Standard Architecture, abbreviated to EISA) bus, or the like. The communication bus 1903 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in fig. 19, but not only one bus or one type of bus.

The memory 1902 may include random access memory (Random Access Memory, simply RAM) or may include non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as at least one disk memory. Optionally, the memory may also be at least one memory device located remotely from the aforementioned processor 1901.

The processor 1901 may be a general-purpose processor including a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), a network processor (Network Processor, NP), etc., a digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processing, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), a Field programmable gate array (Field-Programmable Gate Array, FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components.

In a further embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the network element access method described in the above embodiments.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wireless (e.g., infrared, microwave, etc.) means from one website, computer, server, or data center to another. The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, etc.), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., solid state disk), etc.

It should be noted that in this document, relational terms such as "first" and "second" and the like are used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

The foregoing is only a specific embodiment of the invention to enable those skilled in the art to understand or practice the invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A network element access method, applied to an edge UPF, comprising:

acquiring an access request of a park user;

receiving the access response from the management UPF;

and processing the access response based on the type of the access request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to forwarding the access request to a management UPF:

after forwarding the access request to the management UPF, further comprising:

receiving and storing the message forwarding policy from the management UPF;

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining that no message forwarding policy corresponding to the traffic type is stored comprises:

Acquiring the message characteristics of the access request;

forwarding the access request to a management UPF, comprising:

sending the access request to the management UPF through a client proxy unit;

and storing the corresponding relation through the PFU module.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to obtaining the access request from the campus subscriber:

sending the route release request to the management UPF;

And issuing the routing information to the switch.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the access request comprises one or more of:

a session establishment request;

a session update request;

a session deletion request;

an uplink classification request;

and reporting the flow information to the request.

6. A network element access method, applied to managing UPF, comprising:

receiving an access request from an edge UPF;

generating an access response corresponding to the access request;

and sending the access response to the edge UPF.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the type of the access request indicates that the access request is a traffic class message;

generating an access response corresponding to the access request, including:

acquiring the message characteristics of the access request;

and taking the message forwarding strategy as the access response.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising, prior to receiving the access request from the edge UPF:

receiving a route release request from the edge UPF;

9. A network element access device, comprising:

10. A network element access device, comprising:

and the sending module is used for sending the access response to the edge UPF.

11. A network element access system, comprising:

managing UPF and edge UPF;

12. A network element, comprising: the device comprises a processor, a memory and a communication bus, wherein the processor and the memory are communicated with each other through the communication bus;

the memory is used for storing a computer program;

the processor is configured to execute the program stored in the memory, and implement the network element access method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 or the network element access method according to any one of claims 6 to 8.

13. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the computer program when executed by a processor implements the network element access method of any one of claims 1-5 or the network element access method of any one of claims 6-8.