CN117479112A - Group management and control method, device, system, storage medium and electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

The disclosure provides a group management and control method, a group management and control device, a group management and control system, a storage medium and electronic equipment, and relates to the technical field of wireless communication. The group management and control method is applied to a group session management functional entity and comprises the following steps: acquiring information of a target group, and acquiring expenditure of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group; calculating a sum of the costs of the target group based on the costs of the users in the target group; if the sum of the expenditure of each user in the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, rejecting the session request initiated by each user, or determining whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user. The present disclosure may enhance operator group management and billing capabilities.

Description

Group management and control method, device, system, storage medium and electronic equipment

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to the technical field of wireless communication, in particular to a group management and control method, a group management and control device, a group management and control system, a storage medium and electronic equipment.

Background

The local area network (Local Area Network, LAN) added to the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5th Generation Mobile Communication Technology,5G) can enable the user equipment in the 5G LAN group to realize mutual communication and resource sharing, so that the method is widely applied to different fields of houses, offices, enterprises, factories and the like to meet the application demands of users in the vertical industry.

Since the user equipments in each 5G LAN group use different session management functions (Session Management Function, SMF) when initiating a protocol data unit (Protocol Data Unit, PDU) session for transmitting service requests, the operator can only control the payout limit of individual users, and cannot manage and charge the payout of the group.

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

Disclosure of Invention

The disclosure aims to provide a group management and control method, a group management and control device, a group management and control system, a storage medium and an electronic device, so that the problems that an operator can only limit the expenditure of a single user and cannot manage and charge the expenditure of a group due to the limitations and defects of related technologies are overcome at least to a certain extent.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a group management and control method, including: acquiring information of a target group, and acquiring expenditure of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group; calculating a sum of the costs of the target group based on the costs of the users in the target group; if the sum of the expenditure of each user in the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, rejecting the session request initiated by each user, or determining whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user.

Optionally, obtaining the expenditure of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group includes determining the user information of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group; and sending the information of each user in the target group to a charging functional unit so as to acquire the expenditure of each user in the target group.

Optionally, before the information of the target group is acquired, the group management and control method further includes receiving a group update request sent by the session management functional entity; acquiring information of a target group according to the update group request; wherein the update group request includes information of the target group determined from the user-initiated session request.

Optionally, after calculating the sum of the costs of the target group, if the sum of the costs of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the cost limit threshold, sending prompt information to the target user, where the prompt information is used to determine whether the target user updates the cost limit threshold; and responding to the operation of the target user on the prompt information, and determining the operation of the session request initiated by the target group.

Optionally, the operation of determining the session request initiated by the target group in response to the operation of the target user on the prompt information includes allowing each user in the target group to initiate the session request in response to the operation of allowing the target user to update the payout limit threshold.

Optionally, in response to the target user refusing to update the payout limit threshold, refusing the session request initiated by each user in the target group.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a group management and control apparatus comprising: the information acquisition module is used for acquiring information of the target group and acquiring expenditure of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group; the expense calculation module is used for calculating the expense sum of the target group based on the expense of each user in the target group; and the result judging module is used for rejecting the session initiated by each user if the sum of the expenditure of each user in the group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, or determining whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user.

Optionally, the information obtaining module may be configured to determine user information of each user in the target group according to information of the target group; and sending the information of each user in the target group to a charging functional unit so as to acquire the expenditure of each user in the target group.

Optionally, the group management and control method further includes an information receiving module, where the information receiving module may be configured to receive an update group request sent by the session management functional entity; acquiring information of a target group according to the update group request; wherein the update group request includes information of the target group determined from the user-initiated session request.

Optionally, the information sending module may be configured to send a prompt message to the target user if the sum of the costs of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the cost limit threshold, where the prompt message is used to determine whether the target user updates the cost limit threshold; the result judging module can be used for responding to the operation of the target user on the prompt information and determining the operation of initiating the session request to the target group.

Optionally, the result judging module may be configured to allow the session request initiated by each user in the target group in response to the operation that the target user allows updating the payout limit threshold;

optionally, the result judging module may be configured to reject the session request initiated by each user in the target group in response to the target user rejecting the operation of updating the payout limit threshold.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a group management and control system, including a session management functional entity for sending information of a target group to the group session management functional entity; a charging function unit, configured to send expenditure of each user in the target group to the group session management function entity according to the information of the target group; the group session management functional entity is used for acquiring the expenditure of each user in the target group, calculating the expenditure sum of the target group based on the expenditure of each user in the target group, and rejecting the session initiated by each user if the expenditure sum of each user in the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, or determining whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements a group management method of any of the above.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device comprising: a processor; and a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to perform any of the group management methods described above via execution of the executable instructions.

In the technical schemes provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, by acquiring information of a target group, expenditure of each user in the target group is acquired according to the information of the target group; calculating a sum of the costs of the target group based on the costs of the users in the target group; if the sum of the expenditure of each user in the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, rejecting the session request initiated by each user, or determining whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user. In the technical scheme, the group session management functional entity acquires information of a target group, acquires the expenditure condition of each user in the target group, and further calculates the expenditure sum of the target group, so that when the expenditure sum of the target group exceeds the expenditure limit threshold value signed by the group, service requests initiated by all users in the target group are refused, or whether the session requests initiated by all users are refused is determined according to payment information triggered by the target user. The scheme avoids that operators can only limit the expenditure condition of a single user in some technologies, but cannot manage and charge expenditure of groups, and further improves the efficiency of managing and controlling the expenditure of the users.

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

Drawings

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

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a group management and control system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a flow diagram of a group management and control method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a flow chart of updating a payout limit threshold according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an overall control process schematic of a group control method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a group management and control device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates a block diagram of another group management and control device according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 schematically illustrates a block diagram of an electronic device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the exemplary embodiments may be embodied in many forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that the aspects of the present disclosure may be practiced with one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, devices, steps, etc. In other instances, well-known technical solutions have not been shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the present disclosure.

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

The flow diagrams depicted in the figures are exemplary only and not necessarily all steps are included. For example, some steps may be decomposed, and some steps may be combined or partially combined, so that the order of actual execution may be changed according to actual situations.

The group management and control method provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can be applied to an application scenario in which an operator manages User Equipment (UE) using a 5G LAN group, and particularly to an application scenario in which an operator manages a UE using a 5G LAN group with a spending limit. For example, the UEs used by each employee in an enterprise are in a LAN group, and an operator may sign up with the enterprise to provide network services to each UE in the LAN group by charging the enterprise a fee. In the above procedure, the operator can manage and charge for the expenditure of the group.

Currently, when each UE in each 5G LAN group initiates a PDU session for transmitting a service request to an SMF, a plurality of different SMFs are typically used, and a plurality of policy control function entities (Policy Control Function, PCF) corresponding to the SMFs are used for charging. However, with the above method, the operator can only manage the spending of a single user, and cannot manage the group spending consisting of a plurality of users.

In view of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure provide a group management and control method. The method adds a group session management function entity (Group Session Management Function, GSMF) for groups of different SMFs. The GSMF can acquire information of the target group, acquire the expenditure conditions of all users in the target group, calculate the expenditure sum of all users to obtain the expenditure sum of the target group, reject the session request sent by all users in the target group if the expenditure sum of the target group exceeds the expenditure limiting threshold signed by an operator, or determine whether to reject the session request initiated by all users according to the payment information triggered by the target user, thereby realizing management and charging of the expenditure of the group and further improving the management and control efficiency of the operator.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a group management and control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 1, the group management and control system includes a session management function entity 10, a charging function unit 12, and a group session management function entity 14.

Specifically, the session management function 10 sends the information of the target group to the group session management function 14, and the group session management function 14 determines all the user information in the target group according to the obtained target group information, and obtains the expenditure conditions of each user in the target group from the charging function 12. Then, the group session management function 14 calculates the sum of the costs of the target group according to the costs of the users in the target group. Finally, the group session management functional entity 14 compares the payout sum of the target group with the payout limit threshold signed by the target group, and rejects the session request initiated by each user in the target group when the payout sum of the target group is greater than or equal to the payout limit threshold, or determines whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user, thereby realizing management and control of the payout condition of the group by the operator and further improving management and control efficiency of the operator.

It should be noted that, the session management function entity 10, the charging function unit 12, and the group session management function entity 14 may be one server, or may be a server cluster formed by a plurality of servers.

Having knowledge of the system architecture of the present disclosure, a scheme of the group management method of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of a group management and control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, where the method may be performed by any device that performs the group management and control method, and the device may be implemented by software and/or hardware. As shown in fig. 2, the group management and control method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure may include the following steps:

s20, acquiring information of a target group, and acquiring expenditure of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group.

The group is a 5G virtual local area network (Virtual Local Area Network, VLAN) group, abbreviated as VN group, or may be a VN group. The VN group contains a plurality of UEs subscribed to the operator. The information of the target group may be identification information of the 5G VN group, for example, an identification number (Identity document, ID). The expense of each user, namely the expense of each UE, wherein the expense can be the expense of the UE using the charging resource, and can also be the charging resource provided by an operator for the UE.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the GSMF receives an update group request transmitted by a session management function entity so as to acquire information of a target group, the update group request including information of the target group determined according to a session request initiated by a user.

Wherein, if a new UE is added in the VN group, when the UE initiates a protocol data unit (Protocol Data Unit, PDU) session, the SMF may determine group information in which the UE is located, and then send an update group request to the GSMF to add the initially registered UE information in the VN group stored in the GSMF. If the registered UE in the VN group initiates PDU conversation, the SMF can directly determine the group information of the UE, and then send an update group request to the GSMF.

Taking a new UE joining a group as an example, when adding a new UE in VN group a, a user may initiate a PDU session using the UE for transmission of service data, and the radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) may select an appropriate core network access and mobility management function (Core Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF) for the UE initiating the PDU session, wherein the AMF is responsible for UE access to the core network and mobility management. Meanwhile, the AMF may forward the session request sent by the UE to the SMF. The SMF may determine the VN group in which the UE is located as a target group, and determine information of the target group, i.e., an ID of the target group. Meanwhile, the SMF sends an update group request to the GSMF, wherein the update group request contains information of the target group.

And receiving an update group request sent by the SMF, so that the GSMF determines the information of the target group where the UE is located, and the GSMF manages the target group.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, after the GSMF obtains the information of the target group, user information of each user in the target group may be determined according to the information of the target group; and sending the information of each user in the target group to a charging functional unit so as to acquire the expenditure of each user in the target group.

Specifically, the GSMF stores group information of each 5G VN group in advance, UE information contained in each VN group, SMF information related to the UE, PDU session information initiated by each UE, and the like. When the GSMF obtains the information of the target group sent by the SMF, first, all user information contained in the target group may be determined, where the user information may be the ID of the user.

All user information in the target group is sent to a charging function unit (Charging Function, CHF), and CHF can feed back the expenditure situation of each user to the GSMF, so that the GSMF can obtain the expenditure situation of all users in the target group.

The expenditure situation of each user is acquired from the CHF through the newly added GSMF network element, so that the problem that in some technologies, single users cannot be controlled due to different SMFs used when each user initiates PDU session in a target group can be avoided. Meanwhile, aiming at the existing communication standard, the process newly adds a service interface between GSMF and CHF, thereby acquiring the expenditure conditions of all the current users in the 5G VN group, but not the expenditure conditions of a single user. The management and control and charging capacity of the operators to the groups are enhanced, and the management and control efficiency of the operators is further improved.

S22, calculating the sum of the expenditure of the target group based on the expenditure of each user in the target group.

Specifically, the GSMF obtains the expenditure situation of each user in the target group, so that the expenditure sum of all the users can be calculated, and further the expenditure sum of the target group is obtained.

S24, if the sum of the expenditure of all the users in the target group is larger than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, rejecting the session request initiated by all the users, or determining whether to reject the session request initiated by all the users according to the payment information triggered by the target users.

The payout limit threshold is a maximum payout limit of the target group signed with the operator, for example, if an enterprise using the target group purchases 100G network traffic of 100 yuan, the payout limit threshold may be a maximum payout of 100 yuan, or may be a maximum resource payout of 100G network traffic. The target user is a user that determines whether to update the payout limit threshold, and the target user may be a user within the target group.

Illustratively, in step S22, after the GSMF calculates the sum of the costs of the target group based on the costs of the users in the target group, the corresponding policy or rule may be modified according to the configuration of the operator.

Wherein, is configured as a decision or rule that GSMF manages the group. For example, the decision or rule for managing the group may be that the GSMF directly refuses the update group request sent by the session management function entity when determining that the sum of the costs of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the cost limit threshold, so as to reject the session request initiated by the user; or, if the sum of the spending of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the spending limit threshold, the GSMF inquires whether the user needs to increase the spending limit threshold, and makes a decision according to the inquired result.

Specifically, if the sum of the spending of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the spending limit threshold, the GSMF sends a prompt message to the target user in the target group to ask the target user whether the spending limit threshold needs to be updated. The GSMF can determine whether to allow the service request initiated by each user in the target group or reject the service request initiated by each user in the target group according to the selection result of the target user.

The following describes two ways in which the GSMF can determine to allow the service request initiated by each user in the target group or reject the service request initiated by each user in the target group according to the selection result of the target user.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the GSMF compares the sum of the costs of the target group calculated in step S22 with a cost limit threshold. And if the sum of the spending of the users in the target group is smaller than the spending limit threshold value, allowing the session request initiated by each user. And if the sum of the expenditure of all the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, rejecting the update group request sent by the GSMF so as to reject the session request initiated by the user.

Specifically, when the user a initiates a request for establishing a PDU session through a corresponding UE, the RAN may allocate an AMF to the UE, and send the session request to the SMF through the allocated AMF. After the SMF receives the PDU session establishment request, it may determine that the target group in which the UE is located is VN group a, and send an update group request to the GSMF to send the ID of the target group to the GSMF.

The GSMF can determine all user IDs in the target group according to the ID of the target group, acquire the expenditure conditions of all users, and calculate the expenditure sum of the target group. And if the sum of the expenditure of the target group is within the threshold range of the expenditure limit, allowing the SMF to send an updated group request, thereby allowing the PDU session request established by the user A to realize the transmission of the service request. If the sum of the costs of the target group exceeds the cost limit threshold, rejecting the update group request sent by the SMF to reject the PDU session request initiated by user A.

In the above process, the SMF may determine the group in which the UE initiating the PDU session establishment request is located as a target group, and initiate an update group request altogether, so that the GSMF makes a decision based on the group level judgment, and then sends the decision to a single user through the SMF.

According to other embodiments of the present disclosure, when the sum of the costs of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the cost limit threshold, the GSMF determines whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user.

Wherein the target user-triggered payment information is payment information triggered by whether the target user selects to update the payout limit threshold.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, when determining whether to reject a session request initiated by each user according to payment information triggered by a target user, sending prompt information to the target user, where the prompt information is used for the target user to determine whether to update a payout limit threshold; and responding to the operation of the target user on the prompt information, and determining the operation of the session request initiated by the target group.

Specifically, when the sum of the spending of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the spending limit threshold, the GSMF may send prompt information to the target user, so that the target user may automatically trigger payment information after receiving the prompt information. And then determining the PDU session request which is allowed to be initiated by each user in the target group or refusing the PDU session request initiated by each user in the target group according to the operation of the target user on the payment information.

For example, if the sum of the costs of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the cost limit threshold, a prompt message may be sent to each user in the target group. And then determining whether to update the payout limit threshold according to whether the payout limit threshold is actually updated by the payment information triggered by each user or whether to update the payout limit threshold by the target user of the management target group according to the selection of each user. For example, the target group includes 100 users, and 100 users can receive the prompt information to operate on the prompt information, and meanwhile, the user a is a target user for managing the target group, and when the user a determines that 88 users all need to update the payout limit threshold, the user a is allowed to determine to update the payout limit threshold, and jump to the corresponding payment page. The method is helpful for the manager to know the demands of each user on the network resources, so as to determine whether to update the expenditure limiting threshold according to the demands.

By pre-acquiring the configuration of the operator so that the GSMF makes decisions according to the configuration determination, the user experience can be improved, and meanwhile, the flexibility of the operator for group management and control is increased.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, in response to an operation of each user on the prompt information, determining an operation of a session request initiated on the target group, including allowing each user in the target group to initiate the session request in response to an operation of each user allowing updating of the payout limit threshold; and responding to the operation that each user refuses to update the expenditure limiting threshold value, refusing the session request initiated by each user in the target group.

Specifically, a prompt message is sent to each user in the target group, and if the user allows the operation of updating the expense limit threshold, the payment interface is jumped to sign up again with the operator so as to increase the expense limit threshold.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, in response to an operation of the target user on the prompt information, determining an operation of a session request initiated on the target group, including allowing each user in the target group to initiate a session request in response to an operation of the target user allowing updating of the payout limit threshold; and responding to the operation that the target user refuses to update the expenditure limiting threshold, refusing the session request initiated by each user in the target group.

Wherein the target user may be a user managing the target group.

The process of updating the payout limit threshold will be described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 3, fig. 3 schematically showing a flowchart of updating the payout limit threshold according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 3, in step S30, the GSMF determines that the sum of costs of the target group is greater than the cost limit threshold. A prompt is sent to the UE to select whether the target user needs to increase the payout limit threshold. The policy of the GSMF is configured, i.e. step S32 is performed, whether the target user updates the contracted payout limit threshold. Wherein the target user can determine whether to update the contracted payout limit threshold, i.e. increase the payout limit threshold, through the triggered payment information.

If the target user selects to increase the payout limit threshold, step S34 is executed to update the payout limit threshold of the subscription, and to determine the payout limit threshold after updating the subscription. The updated payout limit threshold value can be determined according to the payout result of the target user, and the network traffic with 100G in the target group is also used for description, wherein the payout limit threshold value is 100G at this time, when the GSMF determines that the payout sum of the target group is 120G, a prompt message is sent to the UE used by the target user, and if the target group chooses to pay 100G traffic, the payout sum of the target group is 120G at this time, and the updated payout limit threshold value is 200G.

After determining the updated payout limit threshold, step S38 is performed to allow the session requests of the users in the target group. Each user in the target group can establish a PDU session for transmission of service data.

If the target user chooses not to increase the payout limit threshold, step S36 is performed, rejecting the session request for each user within the target group.

The method can be that GSMF makes decisions through a user-defined method, so that user experience can be improved, and meanwhile, the flexibility of an operator for group management and control is improved.

In the technical schemes provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, by acquiring information of a target group, expenditure of each user in the target group is acquired according to the information of the target group; calculating a sum of the costs of the target group based on the costs of the users in the target group; if the sum of the expenditure of each user in the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, rejecting the session request initiated by each user, or determining whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user. In the technical scheme, the group session management functional entity acquires the information of the target group, acquires the expenditure condition of each user in the target group, and further calculates the expenditure sum of the target group, so that when the expenditure sum of the target group exceeds the expenditure limit threshold value contracted by the group, the service request initiated by each user in the target group is refused. The scheme avoids that operators can only limit the expenditure condition of a single user in some technologies, but cannot manage and charge expenditure of groups, thereby improving management and control efficiency of the operators.

The overall control process of the group control method according to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to fig. 4.

Firstly, the UE is connected into a 5G VN group, and the transmission of service data and the resource sharing are carried out through a local area network. The UE may be unregistered in the group or may be a registered UE.

In step S401, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a request to establish a session is initiated. And when the UE needs to transmit service data, the UE initiates a PDU session request for establishing the 5G LAN.

When the UE initiates the session establishment request, the RAN may allocate an AMF to the UE, so that the session request is sent to the SMF through the allocated AMF, thereby implementing data interaction between the UE and the SMF.

In step S403, an update group request is transmitted. After receiving the PDU session request established by the UE, the SMF can take the group in which the UE is located as a target group and send an update group request to the GSMF, wherein the update group request contains ID information of the target group.

After receiving the group update request sent by the SMF, the GSMF executes step S405 to determine information of each user in the target group. The GSMF stores group information of each 5G VN group, wherein the VN group contains user information, SMF information related to the establishment of PDU session by the user and PDU session information initiated by each user. Accordingly, the GSMF, upon receiving the ID information of the target group, can determine the ID information of all users included in the target group.

Subsequently, step S407 is performed to transmit a subscription message. After the GSMF determines the information of each user in the target group, a subscription message is sent to the CHF to acquire the expenditure situation of each user in the target group. In step S409, the payout condition of each user is returned. CHF determines the payout status of each user and feeds back to the GSMF.

Finally, after receiving the expenditure conditions of each user, the GSMF executes step S411 to calculate the sum of the expenditure of the target group and make a policy decision. The policy decision may include directly rejecting the update group request of the SMF or the update group request of the allowed SMF, or may preferentially determine whether the target user needs to increase the payout limit threshold, and then determine to reject the update group request of the SMF or the update group request of the allowed SMF according to the determination result.

It will be appreciated that policy decisions may be set by the operator or by the user.

In one exemplary implementation, the operator pre-takes as default policy the update group request that directly rejects the SMF. When the GSMF determines that the sum of the expenditure of the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, preferentially configuring whether to carry out customization by a user, and if the user selects customization, making a decision by the GSMF according to a user customization strategy; if the user does not select the custom, the GSMF makes a decision according to a default policy.

In the case where the policy decision is to directly reject the update group request of the SMF, in step S413, an update group request response is transmitted. I.e. the GSMF sends the decision result to the SMF. Specifically, if the sum of the costs of the users in the target group is less than the cost limit threshold, the group update request of the SMF is allowed. And if the sum of the expenditure of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, rejecting the update group request sent by the session management functional entity.

Then step S415 is performed to return a session request response of the UE. The corresponding decision result can be forwarded to the UE through the AMF and the RAN, namely if the update group request sent by the session management function entity is refused, the UE receives the refused session establishment request; if the SMF group update request is allowed, the UE receives the request for allowing the session to be established, thereby realizing the service transmission of the UE.

Under the condition that the policy decision is to judge whether the user needs to increase the expenditure limit threshold value preferentially, and then to determine whether to reject the SMF update group request or allow the SMF update group request according to the judging result, the GSMF judges that if the expenditure sum of all users in the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limit threshold value, prompt information is sent to the UE where the target user is located, so as to determine whether the target user needs to increase the expenditure limit threshold value, for example: taking the example of spending as network traffic, the prompt may be what is the need to purchase traffic?

If the target user chooses to increase the expenditure limiting threshold, the GSMF updates the stored expenditure limiting threshold after the target user successfully pays based on the triggered payment information, so that the expenditure sum of the target group at each user is smaller than the expenditure limiting threshold, and the SMF is allowed to update the group request, and UE in the target group is allowed to establish PDU session for service transmission; if the target user does not choose to increase the expense limit threshold to update the contracted expense limit threshold, the GSMF refuses the SMF update group request, and then refuses the UE in the target group to establish the PDU session for service transmission.

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

Further, in this example embodiment, a group management and control device is also provided.

Fig. 5 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a group management and control device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to fig. 5, the group management and control device 5 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may include an information acquisition module 51, a payout calculation module 53, and a result judgment module 55, where the information acquisition module 51 may be configured to acquire information of a target group, and acquire a payout of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group; the payout calculation module 53 may be configured to calculate a payout sum of the target group based on a payout of each user within the target group; the result determining module 55 may be configured to reject the session initiated by each user if the sum of the costs of each user in the group is greater than or equal to the cost limit threshold, or determine whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user.

The group management and control device 5 provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure may execute the technical scheme of the group management and control method in any of the embodiments, and the implementation principle and beneficial effects of the group management and control method are similar, and may refer to the implementation principle and beneficial effects of the group management and control method, which are not described herein.

Further, another group management and control device is also provided in the present exemplary embodiment.

Fig. 6 schematically illustrates a block diagram of another group management and control device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to fig. 6, the group management and control device 6 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may include an information acquisition module 61, an information reception module 63, a result judgment module 65, and an information transmission module 67.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the information obtaining module 61 may be configured to determine, according to information of the target group, user information of each user in the target group; and sending the information of each user in the target group to a charging functional unit so as to acquire the expenditure of each user in the target group.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the information receiving module 63 receives an update group request sent by a session management function entity; acquiring information of a target group according to the update group request; wherein the update group request includes information of the target group determined from the user-initiated session request.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the information sending module 67 may be configured to send, to each target user, a prompt message if the sum of the costs of each user in the target group is greater than or equal to the cost limit threshold, where the prompt message is used by each user to determine whether to update the cost limit threshold; the result judging module can be used for responding to the operation of each user on the prompt information and determining the operation of the session request initiated by the target group.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the result judging module 65 may be configured to allow each user in the target group to initiate a session request in response to an operation that the target user allows updating the payout limit threshold.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the result judging module 65 may be configured to reject the session request initiated by each user in the target group in response to the target user rejecting the operation of updating the payout limit threshold.

Since each functional module of the program execution performance analysis device according to the embodiment of the present invention is the same as that of the above-described method embodiment of the present invention, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program product capable of implementing the method described above in the present specification is also provided. In some possible embodiments, the aspects of the invention may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps according to the various exemplary embodiments of the invention as described in the "exemplary method" section of this specification, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

A program product for implementing the above-described method according to an embodiment of the present invention may employ a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) and include program code, and may be run on a terminal device, such as a personal computer. However, the program product of the present invention is not limited thereto, and in this document, a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program product may employ any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. The readable storage medium can be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or a combination of any of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, random Access Memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

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

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

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

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic device capable of implementing the above method is also provided.

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

An electronic device 700 according to this embodiment of the invention is described below with reference to fig. 7. The electronic device 700 shown in fig. 7 is merely an example, and should not be construed as limiting the functionality and scope of use of embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 7, the electronic device 700 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. Components of electronic device 700 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 710, the at least one storage unit 720, a bus 730 connecting the different system components (including the storage unit 720 and the processing unit 710), and a display unit 740.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 710 such that the processing unit 710 performs steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention described in the above-described "exemplary methods" section of the present specification. For example, the processing unit 710 may perform steps S20 to S24 as shown in fig. 2.

The memory unit 720 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory units, such as Random Access Memory (RAM) 7201 and/or cache memory 7202, and may further include Read Only Memory (ROM) 7203.

The storage unit 720 may also include a program/utility 7204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 7205, such program modules 7205 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each or some combination of which may include an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 730 may be a bus representing one or more of several types of bus structures including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 700 may also communicate with one or more external devices 800 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 700, and/or any device (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enables the electronic device 700 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through an input/output (I/O) interface 750. Also, electronic device 700 may communicate with one or more networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN) and/or a public network, such as the Internet, through network adapter 760. As shown, network adapter 760 communicates with other modules of electronic device 700 over bus 730. It should be appreciated that although not shown, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in connection with electronic device 700, including, but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, data backup storage systems, and the like.

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

Furthermore, the above-described drawings are only schematic illustrations of processes included in the method according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and are not intended to be limiting. It will be readily appreciated that the processes shown in the above figures do not indicate or limit the temporal order of these processes. In addition, it is also readily understood that these processes may be performed synchronously or asynchronously, for example, among a plurality of modules.

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

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

It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown in the drawings, and that various modifications and changes may be effected without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims (10)

1. The group management and control method is characterized by being applied to a group session management functional entity and comprising the following steps:

acquiring information of a target group, and acquiring expenditure of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group;

calculating the sum of the expenditure of the target group based on the expenditure of each user in the target group;

and if the sum of the expenditure of the users in the target group is greater than or equal to a expenditure limiting threshold value, rejecting the session request initiated by each user, or determining whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user.

2. The group management and control method according to claim 1, wherein obtaining the expenditure of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group includes:

determining user information of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group;

and sending the information of each user in the target group to a charging functional unit so as to acquire the expenditure of each user in the target group.

3. The group management method according to claim 1, wherein before acquiring the information of the target group, the group management method further comprises:

receiving an update group request sent by a session management functional entity;

acquiring information of a target group according to the update group request;

wherein the update group request includes information of the target group determined from a user initiated session request.

4. The group management method according to claim 1, wherein after calculating the sum of costs of the target group, the group management method further comprises:

if the sum of the expenditure of all the users in the target group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold, sending prompt information to the target user, wherein the prompt information is used for determining whether the target user updates the expenditure limiting threshold;

And responding to the operation of the target user on the prompt information, and determining the operation of initiating a session request to the target group.

5. The group management method as set forth in claim 4, wherein determining an operation to initiate a session request for the target group in response to the operation of the target user on the hint information includes:

and responding to the operation that the target user allows updating the expenditure limiting threshold value, and allowing each user initiated session request in the target group.

6. The group management method as recited in claim 4, wherein determining an operation for a session request initiated by the target group in response to the operation of the prompt message by the target user comprises:

and responding to the operation of refusing to update the expenditure limiting threshold value by the target user, refusing the session request initiated by each user in the target group.

7. A group management and control system, comprising:

a session management functional entity for sending the information of the target group to the group session management functional entity;

a charging function unit, configured to send expenditure of each user in the target group to the group session management function entity according to the information of the target group;

The group session management functional entity is configured to obtain a payout of each user in the target group, calculate a payout sum of the target group based on the payout of each user in the target group, and reject each session initiated by each user if the payout sum of each user in the target group is greater than or equal to a payout limit threshold, or determine whether to reject each session request initiated by each user according to payment information triggered by the target user.

8. A group management and control device, comprising:

the information acquisition module is used for acquiring information of a target group and acquiring expenditure of each user in the target group according to the information of the target group;

the expense calculation module is used for calculating the expense sum of the target group based on the expense of each user in the target group;

and the result judging module is used for rejecting the session initiated by each user if the sum of the expenditure of each user in the group is greater than or equal to the expenditure limiting threshold value, or determining whether to reject the session request initiated by each user according to the payment information triggered by the target user.

9. A storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, which when executed by a processor implements the group management method of any of claims 1 to 6.

10. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor;

wherein the processor is configured to perform the group management method of any one of claims 1 to 6 via execution of the executable instructions.