CN117580110A - Data packet processing method, system, user plane function and application function network element - Google Patents

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method, a system, a user plane function and an application function network element for processing a data packet, and relates to the technical field of communication, where the method includes: the user plane function UPF network element receives indication information from the application function AF network element; the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet in a plurality of downlink data packets according to the indication information; and the UPF network element maps the downlink data packets into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the downlink data packets, wherein the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different.

Description

Data packet processing method, system, user plane function and application function network element

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and a system for processing a data packet, a user plane function, and an application function network element.

Background

The media data stream is the main bearer form of service data in the fifth generation (5th generation,5G) mobile network, and the user media experience largely determines the mobile user experience for the overall service in the mobile network.

Disclosure of Invention

However, the inventor notes that, in the related art, in the transmission process of the media data stream, due to the limited wireless link resources, the bandwidth requirement of the media data stream transmission cannot be met, so that some critical data packets are difficult to be timely and reliably transmitted, and thus the user experience is poor.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the embodiments of the present disclosure propose the following solutions.

According to an aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for processing a data packet, including: the user plane function UPF network element receives indication information from the application function AF network element; the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet in a plurality of downlink data packets according to the indication information; and the UPF network element maps the downlink data packets into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the downlink data packets, wherein the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different.

In some embodiments, the indication information includes first indication information for indicating a determining method of a priority of a downlink data packet, and the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets includes: and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets according to the first indication information.

In some embodiments, the first indication information includes at least one of reference information including protocol information of the plurality of downlink data packets and auxiliary information including priority information corresponding to different frame types.

In some embodiments, the reference information further includes field information corresponding to the protocol information, the field information including a correspondence of a priority to a value of a field.

In some embodiments, the protocol information comprises a transmission protocol.

In some embodiments, the transmission protocol is a real-time transmission protocol RTP, and the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets according to the first indication information includes: and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet according to the values of the I field and the D field in the RTP-based extension header in each downlink data packet.

In some embodiments, the protocol information comprises an encoded protocol.

In some embodiments, the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets according to the first indication information includes: and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet according to the value of a preset field in the NAL unit header of the network abstraction layer based on the coding protocol.

In some embodiments, the encoding protocol is H264 protocol, and the preset field is a NAL reference indication NRI field.

In some embodiments, the encoding protocol is H265 protocol, and the preset field is a Type field.

In some embodiments, the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets according to the first indication information includes: and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet according to the auxiliary information and the frame type corresponding to each downlink data packet.

In some embodiments, the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets according to the first indication information includes: and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet according to the total number of the downlink data packets in the frame to which the downlink data packet belongs.

In some embodiments, the greater the total number of downstream packets within a frame to which each downstream packet belongs, the higher the priority of that downstream packet.

In some embodiments, the indication information includes second indication information for indicating a mapping method of QOS flows, and the mapping, by the UPF network element, the plurality of downlink data packets into QOS flows according to priorities of each of the plurality of downlink data packets includes: and the UPF network element maps the plurality of downlink data packets into one or more QOS flows according to the second indication information and the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: and the UPF network element sends the QOS stream and the QOS characteristic of each downlink data packet in the QOS stream to AN access network AN according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, so that the AN processes each downlink data packet according to the QOS characteristic of each downlink data packet.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for processing a data packet, including: the AF network element sends indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the UPF network element to determine the priority of each downlink data packet in a plurality of downlink data packets, and the plurality of downlink data packets are mapped into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, and the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: the policy control function PCF network element obtains the indication information from the AF network element; the session management function SMF network element obtains the indication information from the PCF network element; and the SMF network element sends the indication information to the UPF network element.

In some embodiments, the PCF network element obtains the indication information from the AF network element via a network opening function, NEF, network element.

In some embodiments, the SMF network element obtaining the indication information from the PCF network element comprises: the SMF network element acquires policy and charging control PCC rules from the PCF network element; and the SMF network element extracts the indication information from the PCC rule.

In some embodiments, the SMF network element sends an N4 interface rule carrying the indication information to the UPF network element.

In some embodiments, the plurality of downstream data packets are downstream data packets in an augmented reality XR service.

According to yet another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a user plane function network element, including: the receiving module is configured to receive indication information from the AF network element of the application function; the determining module is configured to determine the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets according to the indication information; and the mapping module is configured to map the plurality of downlink data packets into a quality of service QOS stream according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, wherein the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS stream are different.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a user plane function network element, including: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to perform the method of any of the embodiments described above based on instructions stored in the memory.

According to a further aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided an application function network element, including: the sending module is configured to send indication information, the indication information is used for indicating the UPF network element to determine the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, and the plurality of downlink data packets are mapped into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, wherein the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different.

According to a further aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided an application function network element, including: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to perform the method of any of the embodiments described above based on instructions stored in the memory.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a processing system for a data packet, including: the user plane function UPF network element of any one of the above embodiments; and the application function AF network element in any one of the embodiments.

In some embodiments, the system further comprises: the PCF network element is configured to acquire the indication information from the AF network element; and the SMF network element is configured to acquire the indication information from the PCF network element and send the indication information to the UPF network element.

In some embodiments, the PCF network element is configured to obtain the indication information from the AF network element via a NEF network element.

In some embodiments, the SMF network element is configured to obtain a PCC rule from the PCF network element, and extract the indication information from the PCC rule.

In some embodiments, the SMF network element is configured to send an N4 interface rule carrying the indication information to the UPF network element.

According to a further aspect of the disclosed embodiments, a computer readable storage medium is provided, comprising computer program instructions, wherein the computer program instructions, when executed by a processor, implement the method according to any of the embodiments described above.

According to a further aspect of the disclosed embodiments, a computer program product is provided, comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the method according to any of the above embodiments.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, a UPF network element determines a priority of each downlink data packet in a plurality of downlink data packets according to indication information from an AF network element, and maps the plurality of downlink data packets into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet, where QOS characteristics of downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different. In this way, in the transmission process of the subsequent QOS flow, the differentiation processing can be performed on each downlink data packet according to the respective priority of each downlink data packet, which is conducive to enabling the data packet with higher priority (i.e. more important) to be reliably transmitted, thereby improving the user experience.

The technical scheme of the present disclosure is described in further detail below through the accompanying drawings and examples.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings that are required in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a method of processing a data packet according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method of processing a data packet according to further embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method of processing a data packet according to further embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a UPF network element according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an AF network element according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a packet processing system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The following description of the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments in this disclosure without inventive faculty, are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure.

The relative arrangement of the components and steps, numerical expressions and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present disclosure unless it is specifically stated otherwise.

Meanwhile, it should be understood that the sizes of the respective parts shown in the drawings are not drawn in actual scale for convenience of description.

Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail, but are intended to be part of the specification where appropriate.

In all examples shown and discussed herein, any specific values should be construed as merely illustrative, and not a limitation. Thus, other examples of the exemplary embodiments may have different values.

It should be noted that: like reference numerals and letters denote like items in the following figures, and thus once an item is defined in one figure, no further discussion thereof is necessary in subsequent figures.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method for processing a data packet is provided.

Fig. 1 is a flow diagram of a method of processing a data packet according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 1, the processing method of the data packet may include at least one of steps 102 to 106 shown in fig. 1.

In step 102, a user plane function (User Plane Function, UPF) network element receives indication information from an application function (Application Function, AF) network element.

In some embodiments, the UPF network element may receive the indication information from the AF network element via other network elements in the core network, such as session management function (Session Management Function, SMF) network elements and policy control function (Policy Control Function, PCF) network elements. This will be further described later.

In step 104, the upf network element determines, according to the indication information, a priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets.

In some embodiments, the plurality of downstream data packets may be downstream data packets in a media data stream of a same service, which may be a data stream sent by an application server (Application Server) to a User Equipment (UE).

In some embodiments, the indication information from the AF network element may include first indication information for indicating a determination method of priority of the downlink data packet. The UPF network element may determine, according to the first indication information, a priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets. In other embodiments, the indication information from the AF network element may also include other indication information. This will be further described later.

In some embodiments, the determining means for indicating the priority of the downstream data packet may comprise one or more determining means. The UPF network element may determine a priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets according to one or more methods indicated by the first indication information.

In step 106, the upf network element maps the plurality of downstream packets to a quality of service (Quality of Service, QOS) flow based on the priority of each of the plurality of downstream packets.

Here, QOS characteristics of downstream packets having different priorities in QOS flows are different.

In some embodiments, the UPF network element may classify the plurality of downstream packets according to a priority of each downstream packet in the plurality of downstream packets, and use a QOS flow identifier (QOS Flow Identifier, QFI) to perform user plane tagging on the classified packets to implement mapping of the downstream packets to QOS flows.

In some embodiments, QOS characteristics of each downstream packet in the QOS flow correspond to the priority of the downstream packet and may be used to indicate how the downstream packet is to be processed. For example, QOS characteristics of a higher priority downstream packet may be used to indicate that resources are preferentially allocated to the downstream packet during transmission and to preferentially guarantee transmission of the downstream packet.

In the above embodiment, the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets according to the indication information from the AF network element, and maps the plurality of downlink data packets into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet, where QOS characteristics of downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different. In this way, in the transmission process of the subsequent QOS flow, the differentiation processing can be performed on each downlink data packet according to the respective priority of each downlink data packet, which is conducive to enabling the data packet with higher priority (i.e. more important) to be reliably transmitted, thereby improving the user experience.

In some embodiments, the plurality of downstream data packets are downstream data packets in Extended real (XR) traffic. Therefore, considering that the XR service has high throughput flow characteristics, the media data stream is generally composed of a plurality of data packets with different importance, and the processing method of the data packets is adopted to process a plurality of downlink data packets in the media data stream of the XR service, so that the experience of a user on the XR service can be effectively improved.

Some implementations of step 104 (i.e., different methods for the UPF network element to determine the priority of each downstream packet according to the first indication information) are described below in connection with some embodiments.

In some embodiments, the first indication information may include information for indicating a determination method of the priority of the downlink data packet. In this case, the UPF network element may determine the priority of each downlink packet by using the method for determining the priority indicated by the first indication information.

For example, the first indication information may include at least one of reference information and auxiliary information, so that the UPF network element determines a priority of each downlink data packet according to the at least one of reference information and auxiliary information. The reference information may include protocol information of a plurality of downlink data packets, and the auxiliary information may include priority information corresponding to different frame types.

In some embodiments, the first indication information may include reference information. In these embodiments, after receiving the first indication information and the plurality of downstream packets, the UPF network element identifies a header or a field in a payload after the header in each downstream packet to determine the priority of each downstream packet.

In some embodiments, the reference information may include protocol information for a plurality of downstream data packets. In these embodiments, the UPF network element only needs to know the protocol information of the plurality of downlink data packets, so that the priority of each downlink data packet can be reliably determined according to the field for identifying the priority in the header or the payload after the header of the protocol in each downlink data packet.

In other embodiments, the reference information may include protocol information of a plurality of downlink data packets and field information corresponding to the protocol information, where the field information may include a correspondence between a priority and a value of a field. In these embodiments, the UPF network element can accurately determine the priority of each downlink data packet according to the protocol information of the plurality of downlink data packets and the field information corresponding to the protocol information.

In some embodiments, the protocol information may include a transport protocol or an encoding protocol. The following describes the various embodiments separately.

In some embodiments, in the case where the protocol information includes a transport protocol, if the transport protocol is Real-time transport protocol (Real-time Transport Protocol, RTP), the UPF network element may determine the priority of each downstream packet based on the values of the I and D fields in the RTP-based extension header of each downstream packet.

Table 1 shows an RTP-based header and an extension header of some embodiments of the present disclosure.

TABLE 1

As shown in table 1, the RTP based header (RTP header) includes: version Number (V), padding bit (P), extension bit (X), special offer source (also called "contribution source") (Contributing Source, CSRC) Counter (CC), flag bit (M), payload Type (PT), sequence Number (SN), timestamp (timestamp), synchronization source (Synchronization Source, SSRC) identifier (SSRC identifier), and special offer source identifier (CSRC identifier), wherein if extension bit (X) is set, it indicates that the RTP-based header is followed by an extension header (RTP header Extension).

The RTP based extension header (RTP header Extension) includes: extension header length (length of header extension), defined by configuration file (defined by profile), local Identifier (ID), L field, S field, E field, I field, and D field.

For example, the value of the I field may indicate whether a frame is a stand-alone frame (i.e., whether other frames need to be relied upon to decode) and the value of the D field may indicate whether a frame is a discardable frame. If a frame is an independent frame, it is important to specify the frame; if a frame is a discardable frame, it is not important to say that the frame. It can be seen that the values of the I field and the D field in the RTP-based extension header in one downstream packet are not 1 at the same time, i.e. the frame to which one downstream packet belongs is not an independent frame but a discardable frame.

Therefore, in this case, the plurality of downstream packets may be divided into downstream packets of three different priorities (e.g., a first priority, a second priority, and a third priority, which are sequentially lowered in priority level) according to the values of the I field and the D field in the RTP-based extension header in each downstream packet.

For example, for a downlink packet, if the value of the I field in the RTP-based extension header is 1 and the value of the D field is 0, the UPF network element may determine that the frame to which the downlink packet belongs is an independent frame (e.g., an I frame), and may further determine that the priority of the downlink packet is the first priority; if the value of the I field in the RTP-based extension header is 0 and the value of the D field is 1, the UPF network element may determine that the frame to which the downstream packet belongs is a discardable frame (e.g., a B frame), and may further determine that the priority of the downstream packet is a third priority; if the value of the I field in the RTP-based extension header is 0 and the value of the D field is 0, the UPF network element may determine that the frame to which the downstream packet belongs is neither an independent frame nor a discardable frame (e.g., a P frame), and may further determine that the priority of the downstream packet is the second priority.

In some embodiments, where the protocol information includes a coded protocol, the UPF network element may determine the priority of each downstream packet based on a value of a preset field in a network abstraction layer (Network Abstraction Layer, NAL) unit header of the coded protocol in each downstream packet. For example, the encoding protocol may be the H264 protocol or the H265 protocol.

Table 2 shows H264-based NAL unit headers of some embodiments of the present disclosure.

TABLE 2

As shown in table 2, the RTP based header (RTP header) may be followed by an H264 based NAL Unit header (NALU header) which may be located in the RTP based header payload (RTP payload).

The H264-based NAL unit header may include: a Type (Type) field, a NAL Reference Indicator (NRI) field, and a Forbidden bit (F bit).

The detailed description of relevant fields in the RTP-based header in table 2 can be found in the relevant description in table 1, and will not be repeated here.

In case the encoding protocol is the H264 protocol, the preset field may be an NRI field. The priorities are arranged from high to low as indicated by the values of the NRI field, which are 11, 10, 01 and 00, respectively. In this case, the plurality of downstream packets may be divided into downstream packets of four different priorities (e.g., a first priority, a second priority, a third priority, and a fourth priority, which are sequentially lowered in priority level) according to the value of the NRI field in each downstream packet.

For example, for a downlink packet, if the NRI field has a value of 11, the UPF network element may determine that the priority of the downlink packet is the first priority; if the value of the NRI field is 10, the UPF network element may determine that the priority of the downlink packet is the second priority; if the value of the NRI field is 01, the UPF network element may determine that the priority of the downlink packet is a third priority; if the NRI field has a value of 00, the UPF network element may determine that the priority of the downstream packet is the fourth priority.

Table 3 shows H265-based NAL unit headers of some embodiments of the present disclosure.

TABLE 3 Table 3

As shown in table 3, the RTP based header (RTP header) may be followed by an H265 based NAL Unit header (NALU header) which may be located in the RTP based header payload (RTP payload).

The H265-based NAL unit header may include: a disable bit (F bit), a Type field, a layer identifier (LayerID), and a Time Identifier (TID).

In some embodiments, a fragmentation header (FU header) in the fragmentation transmission mode may also be included in the payload after the RTP based header (RTP payload). The fragmentation header may include an FUType field for indicating a NALU payload type, an S field for indicating the start of a fragmentation NALU, and an E field for indicating the end of a fragmentation NALU.

The detailed description of the relevant fields in the RTP-based header in table 3 can be found in the relevant description in table 1, and will not be repeated here.

In case the encoding protocol is the H265 protocol, the preset field may be a Type (Type) field in the NAL unit header. The value of the Type field may represent a frame Type. In this case, the UPF network element may determine, according to the value of the Type field in each downlink data packet, a frame Type of a frame to which each downlink data packet belongs, and may further determine, according to the frame Type, a priority of each downlink data packet.

For example, the UPF network element may determine, according to the value of the Type field in a downlink data packet being 19, that the Type of the frame to which the downlink data packet belongs is a key frame (i.e., an I frame, for example, a CRA frame, an IDR frame, or a BLA frame, etc.), and may further determine that the priority of the downlink data packet is a high priority. For another example, the UPF network element may determine, according to the value of the Type field in a certain downlink data packet being 1, that the Type of the frame to which the downlink data packet belongs is a predicted frame (i.e., a P frame), and then may determine that the priority of the downlink data packet is the next highest priority.

In the above embodiment, the UPF network element can accurately and reliably identify the priority of each downlink data packet by identifying the value of the field in each downlink data packet, so as to ensure that the data packet with higher priority (i.e. more important) can be reliably transmitted, thereby further improving the user experience.

In some embodiments, the first indication information may include auxiliary information. In these embodiments, the AF network element may directly inform the UPF network element that the plurality of downlink data packets include downlink data packets with different priorities through the first indication information, and the UPF network element may identify a frame type corresponding to each downlink data packet and combine the first indication information to determine the priority of each downlink data packet. For example, the auxiliary information may include priorities corresponding to five different frame types (i.e., the plurality of downlink data packets may be divided into five downlink data packets with different priorities), and the UPF network element may determine, according to the auxiliary information and the frame type corresponding to each downlink data packet, which of the five different priorities the priority of each downlink data packet is.

In some embodiments, the first indication information may include reference information and auxiliary information. In these embodiments, after receiving the first indication information and the plurality of downlink data packets, the UPF network element identifies a frame type corresponding to each downlink data packet and a field in a header or a payload after the header in the downlink data packet, so as to determine a priority of each downlink data packet.

For example, in the case where the plurality of downstream data packets includes a plurality of (e.g., seven) downstream data packets having different priorities, assuming that the protocol information in the reference information includes an RTP protocol, the UPF network element may determine the plurality of downstream data packets as three sets of downstream data packets having different priorities (e.g., a first set of downstream data packets belonging to a first priority, a second set of downstream data packets belonging to a second priority, and a third set of downstream data packets belonging to a third priority, which are arranged from high to low in priority) according to values of an I field and a D field in an RTP-based extension header in each downstream data packet.

In this case, if the first indication information further includes auxiliary information, the UPF network element may further determine the sub-priority of each downlink packet in each set of downlink packets by combining the auxiliary information with the frame type corresponding to each downlink packet in each set of downlink packets, so that each downlink packet has at least two different priorities. For example, the sub-priority of each downlink data packet in the second set of downlink data packets may be further determined, where the sub-priority may include a first sub-priority, a second sub-priority, a third sub-priority, and a fourth sub-priority with sequentially decreasing sub-priority levels, so that each downlink data packet in the second set of downlink data packets may have two priorities, namely, the second priority and the sub-priority, thereby implementing finer and more complete differentiation of priorities of the plurality of downlink data packets.

Therefore, the UPF network element can perfectly and reliably identify the priority of the downlink data packets according to the reference information and the auxiliary information, so as to further ensure that the data packets with higher priority (namely more important) can be reliably transmitted, and further improve the user experience.

In some embodiments, the first indication information may be used to instruct the UPF network element to determine the priority of each downlink data packet according to the total number of downlink data packets in the frame to which each downlink data packet belongs.

In some embodiments, the greater the total number of downstream packets within a frame to which each downstream packet belongs, the higher the priority of that downstream packet. For example, the total number of the intra-frame downlink packets of the I frame is generally 2-3 times that of the P frame, and the I frame is transmitted with more network resources and traffic than the P frame, so that the priority of the intra-frame downlink packets of the I frame is higher than that of the intra-frame downlink packets of the P frame.

In some embodiments, the determining method for indicating the priority of the downlink data packet may include one or more of the foregoing manner of determining the priority of the downlink data packet based on the total number of downlink data packets in the frame to which the downlink data packet belongs, the manner of determining the priority of the downlink data packet based on the reference information, and the manner of determining the priority of the downlink data packet based on the auxiliary information.

In some embodiments, the indication information from the AF network element may further include second indication information for indicating a mapping method of QOS flows. In these embodiments, the UPF network element may map the plurality of downstream packets into one or more QOS flows according to the second indication information and the priority of each of the plurality of downstream packets.

For example, the UPF network element may divide the plurality of downlink packets into a plurality of sets of downlink packets with different priorities according to the priority of each of the plurality of downlink packets. Under the condition that the second indication information indicates the UPF network element to map a plurality of downlink data packets into a plurality of QOS flows, the UPF network element maps a plurality of groups of downlink data packets with different priorities into a plurality of QOS flows in a one-to-one correspondence manner according to the second indication information, the QOS flow identifiers of each QOS flow are different, and the QOS flow characteristics corresponding to each QOS flow are different; under the condition that the second indication information indicates the UPF network element to map a plurality of downlink data packets into one QOS stream, the UPF network element maps a plurality of groups of downlink data packets with different priorities into one QOS stream with unique QOS stream identification according to the second indication information, wherein the one QOS stream comprises a plurality of QOS subflows which are in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of groups of downlink data packets with different priorities, and the QOS stream characteristics corresponding to each QOS subflow are different from each other.

In some embodiments, the UPF Network element may send the QOS flow and QOS characteristics of each downstream packet in the QOS flow to AN Access Network (AN) according to the priority of each downstream packet in the plurality of downstream packets, so that the AN processes each downstream packet according to the QOS characteristics of each downstream packet.

In some embodiments, the AN may be a Radio Access Network (RAN).

For example, the UPF network element forwards QOS characteristics of each downlink data packet in the QOS flow and QOS flow to the AN according to the above priority, and since QOS characteristics of each downlink data packet correspond to the priority thereof, the AN can allocate resources to transmission of the downlink data packet with higher priority preferentially according to QOS characteristics of each downlink data packet, and can ensure that the downlink data packet with higher priority can be sent to the UE preferentially.

Therefore, the AN can be ensured to perform differentiated processing on each downlink data packet according to the QOS characteristic of each downlink data packet, so that the downlink data packet with higher priority can be ensured to be transmitted to the UE, and further, the data packet with higher priority (namely more important) can be ensured to be reliably transmitted, thereby further improving the user experience.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method of processing a data packet is provided.

The processing method of the data packet may include the following steps: the AF network element sends indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the UPF network element to determine the priority of each downlink data packet in the downlink data packets, and the downlink data packets are mapped into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the downlink data packets, and the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different.

A specific description of the method for processing a data packet according to another aspect of the present disclosure may be referred to the description in the related embodiment of the method for processing a data packet shown in fig. 1, which is not repeated herein.

The method for processing the data packet provided in the present disclosure is further described below with reference to some embodiments.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of a method of processing a data packet according to further embodiments of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 2, the core network may include PCF network elements, SMF network elements, and UPF network elements. In these embodiments, the method of processing the data packet may include at least one of steps 202 through 208. For example, the processing method of the data packet may include steps 202 to 206; for another example, the processing method of the data packet may include steps 202 to 208.

In step 202, the pcf network element obtains indication information.

In some embodiments, the indication information may include at least one of first indication information indicating a determination method of a priority of the downlink data packet and second indication information indicating a mapping method of the QOS flow.

In some embodiments, the PCF network element may obtain the indication information from the AF network element.

As some implementations, the PCF network element may obtain the indication information directly from the AF network element. For example, the AF network element is in the trusted domain of the core network, and the PCF network element may directly obtain the indication information from the AF network element.

As other implementations, the PCF network element may obtain the indication information from the AF network element via other network elements in the core network. For example, the AF network element is outside the trusted domain of the core network, and the PCF network element may obtain the indication information from the AF network element via a network opening function (Network Exposure Function, NEF) network element in the core network.

In step 204, the smf network element obtains indication information from the PCF network element.

In some embodiments, the SMF network element obtains policy and charging control (Policy and Charging Control, PCC) rules carrying the indication information from the PCF network element and extracts the indication information from the PCC rules.

In step 206, the smf network element sends indication information to the UPF network element.

In some embodiments, the SMF network element generates and sends an N4 interface rule carrying indication information to the UPF network element. For example, the SMF network element may initiate an N4 interface session modification procedure to send the above-described N4 interface rules to the UPF network element.

In step 208, the upf network element determines a priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets according to the indication information, and maps the plurality of downlink packets into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets.

Here, QOS characteristics of downstream packets having different priorities in QOS flows are different.

Thus, the indication information can be sent to the UPF network element without adding additional network elements or interfaces among the network elements in the core network, so as to indicate the UPF network element to process a plurality of downlink data packets according to the indication information.

In some embodiments, the method of processing a data packet shown in fig. 2 may further include at least one of the following steps 210 to 212.

In step 210, the upf network element sends QOS flows and QOS characteristics of each downstream packet in the QOS flows to the AN according to the priority of each downstream packet in the plurality of downstream packets.

In step 212, the an processes each downstream packet according to its QOS characteristics.

The specific descriptions of steps 208 to 212 can be referred to the description of the related embodiments of the processing method of the data packet shown in fig. 1, and are not repeated here.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a method of processing a data packet according to further embodiments of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 3, the core network includes PCF network elements, SMF network elements, UPF network elements, and NEF network elements. In these embodiments, the method of processing the data packet may include at least one of steps 302 through 328.

In step 302, the AF network element creates an AF request, which carries indication information.

In some embodiments, the indication information may include at least one of first indication information indicating a determination method of a priority of the downlink data packet and second indication information indicating a mapping method of the QOS flow.

In some embodiments, the AF network element may create an AF request carrying indication information in response to a protocol data unit (Protocol Data Unit, PDU) session after the PDU session is established.

It should be appreciated that the AF request may further include other information than the indication information, for example, an address of the target UE, an AF transaction identifier, a flow description of the data flow, etc., which are not described in detail herein.

In step 304, the nef network element obtains an AF request from the AF network element.

In step 306, the nef authenticates the request information from the AF and performs access authorization after authentication.

In step 308, the pcf network element obtains an authorized AF request from the NEF network element.

In step 310, the pcf network element extracts the indication information from the AF request and generates PCC rules carrying the indication information.

QOS characteristics information corresponding to different priorities may be included in PCC rules in some embodiments.

In step 312, the pcf network element sends a response to the NEF network element that the PCC rule creation was successful.

In step 314, the nef network element sends a response to the AF network element that the PCC rule creation was successful.

In step 316, the smf network element obtains PCC rules from the PCF network element.

In step 318, the smf network element extracts the indication information from the obtained PCC rule.

In step 320, the smf network element sends an SM policy association modification response to the PCF network element.

In step 324, the smf network element sends an N4 interface session modification request carrying an N4 interface rule to the UPF network element, where the N4 interface rule carries indication information.

In step 326, the upf network element sends an N4 interface session modification response to the SMF network element.

In step 328, the upf network element determines a priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets according to the N4 interface rule, and maps the plurality of downlink packets into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink packet in the plurality of downlink packets.

In some embodiments, the method of processing a data packet shown in fig. 3 may further include at least one of the following steps 330 to 332.

In step 330, the upf network element sends QOS flows and QOS characteristics of each downstream packet in the QOS flows to the AN according to the priority of each downstream packet in the plurality of downstream packets.

In step 332, the an processes each downstream packet according to its QOS characteristics.

The specific descriptions of steps 316 to 332 can be referred to the description of the related embodiments of the processing method of the data packet shown in fig. 2, and are not repeated herein.

In this specification, each embodiment is described in a progressive manner, and each embodiment is mainly described in a different manner from other embodiments, so that the same or similar parts between the embodiments are mutually referred to. For the network element embodiments, the description is relatively simple, since it basically corresponds to the method embodiments, and the relevant points are referred to in the description of the method embodiments.

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a UPF network element according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 4, the UPF network element 400 includes a receiving module 401, a determining module 402, and a mapping module 403.

The receiving module 401 may be configured to receive indication information from an application function AF network element.

The determining module 402 may be configured to determine a priority of each of the plurality of downstream data packets according to the indication information.

The mapping module 403 may be configured to map the plurality of downstream data packets into a quality of service QOS flow according to a priority of each of the plurality of downstream data packets, where QOS characteristics of downstream data packets with different priorities in the QOS flow are different.

In some embodiments, the UPF network element 400 may also include other modules that perform other operations in any of the embodiments described above.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an AF network element according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 5, the AF network element 500 includes a transmitting module 501.

The transmitting module 501 may be configured to transmit the indication information. The indication information is used for indicating the UPF network element to determine the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, and map the plurality of downlink data packets into a QOS stream according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, wherein the QOS characteristics of downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS stream are different.

In some embodiments, the AF network element 500 may also include other modules that perform other operations in any of the embodiments described above.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 6, the electronic device 600 comprises a memory 601 and a processor 602 coupled to the memory 601, the processor 602 being configured to perform the method of any of the preceding embodiments based on instructions stored in the memory 601.

The memory 601 may include, for example, a system memory, a fixed nonvolatile storage medium, and the like. The system memory may store, for example, an operating system, application programs, boot Loader (Boot Loader), and other programs.

The electronic device 600 may also include an input-output interface 603, a network interface 604, a storage interface 605, and the like. These interfaces 603, 604, 605 and the memory 601 and the processor 602 may be connected by a bus 606, for example. The input output interface 603 provides a connection interface for input output devices such as a display, mouse, keyboard, touch screen, etc. The network interface 604 provides a connection interface for various networking devices. The storage interface 605 provides a connection interface for external storage devices such as SD cards, U-discs, and the like.

In some embodiments, the electronic device 600 may be a UPF network element or an AF network element.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a packet processing system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 7, the processing system 700 of the data packet may include the UPF network element 701 of any of the embodiments described above (e.g., the UPF network element 701 is the UPF network element 400/600) and the AF network element 702 of any of the embodiments described above (e.g., the AF network element 702 is the AF network element 500/600).

In some embodiments, packet processing system 700 may also include PCF network element 703 and SMF network element 704.

PCF network element 703 may be configured to obtain indication information from AF network element 702; the SMF network element 704 may be configured to obtain the indication information from the PCF network element 703 and send the indication information to the UPF network element 701.

In some embodiments, the AF network element 702 may be located within a core network. In these embodiments, PCF network element 703 may be configured to obtain the indication information directly from AF network element 702.

In other embodiments, the AF network element 702 may be located outside the core network. In these embodiments, the packet processing system 700 may further include a NEF network element 705.PCF network element 703 may be configured to obtain the indication information from AF network element 702 outside the core network via NEF network element 705 inside the core network.

In some embodiments, SMF network element 704 may be configured to obtain PCC rules from PCF network element 703 and extract indication information from the PCC rules.

In some embodiments, the SMF network element 704 may be configured to send an N4 interface rule carrying indication information to the UPF network element 701.

In some embodiments, the packet processing system 700 may also include AN 706 (e.g., RAN 706). In these embodiments, the UPF network element 701 may be further configured to send QOS flows and QOS characteristics of each downstream packet in the QOS flows to the AN 706 according to the priority of each downstream packet in the plurality of downstream packets, and the AN 706 may be configured to process each downstream packet according to the QOS characteristics of each downstream packet.

It should be appreciated that the communication system 700 of the data packet may also include various other network elements and devices, which are not described in detail herein.

The disclosed embodiments also provide a computer readable storage medium comprising computer program instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement the method of any of the above embodiments.

The disclosed embodiments also provide a computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the method of any of the above embodiments.

Thus, various embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail. In order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the present disclosure, some details known in the art are not described. How to implement the solutions disclosed herein will be fully apparent to those skilled in the art from the above description.

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

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

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

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

Although some specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail by way of example, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the above examples are for illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing embodiments may be modified and equivalents substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims.

Claims (32)

1. A method of processing a data packet, comprising:

the user plane function UPF network element receives indication information from the application function AF network element;

the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet in a plurality of downlink data packets according to the indication information;

and the UPF network element maps the downlink data packets into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the downlink data packets, wherein the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication information includes first indication information for indicating a determination method of a priority of the downlink data packet, and the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets according to the indication information includes:

and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets according to the first indication information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first indication information includes at least one of reference information including protocol information of the plurality of downlink data packets and auxiliary information including priority information corresponding to different frame types.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the reference information further includes field information corresponding to the protocol information, the field information including a correspondence of a priority to a value of a field.

5. A method according to claim 3, wherein the protocol information comprises a transmission protocol.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the transport protocol is a real-time transport protocol RTP, and the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downstream data packet of the plurality of downstream data packets according to the first indication information comprises:

and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet according to the values of the I field and the D field in the RTP-based extension header in each downlink data packet.

7. A method according to claim 3, wherein the protocol information comprises an encoding protocol.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downstream packet of the plurality of downstream packets according to the first indication information comprises:

and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet according to the value of a preset field in the NAL unit header of the network abstraction layer based on the coding protocol.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the encoding protocol is an H264 protocol, and the preset field is a NAL reference indication NRI field.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the encoding protocol is H265 protocol and the preset field is a Type field.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downstream packet of the plurality of downstream packets according to the first indication information comprises:

and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet according to the auxiliary information and the frame type corresponding to each downlink data packet.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining, by the UPF network element, the priority of each downstream packet of the plurality of downstream packets according to the first indication information comprises:

and the UPF network element determines the priority of each downlink data packet according to the total number of the downlink data packets in the frame to which the downlink data packet belongs.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the greater the total number of downstream packets within a frame to which each downstream packet belongs, the higher the priority of the downstream packet.

14. The method of any one of claims 1-13, wherein the indication information includes second indication information for indicating a mapping method of QOS flows, and the mapping, by the UPF network element, the plurality of downstream data packets into QOS flows according to priorities of each of the plurality of downstream data packets includes:

and the UPF network element maps the plurality of downlink data packets into one or more QOS flows according to the second indication information and the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets.

15. The method of any of claims 1-13, further comprising:

and the UPF network element sends the QOS stream and the QOS characteristic of each downlink data packet in the QOS stream to AN access network AN according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, so that the AN processes each downlink data packet according to the QOS characteristic of each downlink data packet.

16. A method of processing a data packet, comprising:

the AF network element sends indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the UPF network element to determine the priority of each downlink data packet in a plurality of downlink data packets, and the plurality of downlink data packets are mapped into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, and the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different.

17. The method of claim 1 or 16, further comprising:

the policy control function PCF network element obtains the indication information from the AF network element;

the session management function SMF network element obtains the indication information from the PCF network element;

and the SMF network element sends the indication information to the UPF network element.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the PCF network element obtains the indication information from the AF network element via a network opening function, NEF, network element.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the SMF network element obtaining the indication information from the PCF network element comprises:

the SMF network element acquires policy and charging control PCC rules from the PCF network element;

and the SMF network element extracts the indication information from the PCC rule.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the SMF network element sends an N4 interface rule carrying the indication information to the UPF network element.

21. The method of any of claims 1-13, 16, wherein the plurality of downstream data packets are downstream data packets in an augmented reality XR service.

22. A user plane functional network element comprising:

the receiving module is configured to receive indication information from the AF network element of the application function;

The determining module is configured to determine the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets according to the indication information;

and the mapping module is configured to map the plurality of downlink data packets into a quality of service QOS stream according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, wherein the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS stream are different.

23. A user plane functional network element comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to perform the method of any of claims 1-15 based on instructions stored in the memory.

24. An application function network element comprising:

the sending module is configured to send indication information, the indication information is used for indicating the UPF network element to determine the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, and the plurality of downlink data packets are mapped into QOS flows according to the priority of each downlink data packet in the plurality of downlink data packets, wherein the QOS characteristics of the downlink data packets with different priorities in the QOS flows are different.

25. An application function network element comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to perform the method of claim 16 based on instructions stored in the memory.

26. A system for processing data packets, comprising:

the user plane function, UPF, network element of claim 22 or 23; and

the application function AF network element of claim 24 or 25.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

the PCF network element is configured to acquire the indication information from the AF network element;

and the SMF network element is configured to acquire the indication information from the PCF network element and send the indication information to the UPF network element.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the PCF network element is configured to obtain the indication information from the AF network element via a NEF network element.

29. The system of claim 27 wherein the SMF network element is configured to obtain PCC rules from the PCF network element and extract the indication information from the PCC rules.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein the SMF network element is configured to send an N4 interface rule carrying the indication information to the UPF network element.

31. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer program instructions, wherein the computer program instructions, when executed by a processor, implement the method of any of claims 1-21.

32. A computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the method of any of claims 1-21.