CN117998312A

CN117998312A - Communication method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN117998312A
Application number: CN202211380617.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 龙思锐; 刘佳琦; 尤正刚
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-11-04
Filing date: 2022-11-04
Publication date: 2024-05-07
Also published as: WO2024093738A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the session management network element obtains first information of a first terminal device, the first information comprises usage amount of a first data stream of the first terminal device which is shunted to a second user plane function network element by the first user plane function network element, the first user plane function network element is used for shunting the data stream of the terminal device in a first area, the first area is a signing area of a private network signed by the first terminal device, and the second user plane network element is used for transmitting user plane data between the first terminal device and a data network; the session management network element sends a first charging request message to a charging function network element, wherein the first charging request message comprises first identification information and the first information, and the first identification information is used for associating the first area. By sending the identification information associated with the first area and the usage amount of the first data flow to the charging management network element, the flow-free charging of the first data flow can be realized.

Description

Communication method and communication device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communication, and more particularly, to a communication method and a communication apparatus.

Background

In an actual commercial scenario, the user accesses the campus (e.g., mall, hospital, travel) with a free/pay-for-traffic complaint, i.e., the traffic generated by the end user accessing the campus service in the campus is settled by the operator with the campus, who does not charge the end user. Traffic generated by the user's outbound access to the data network is normally charged.

In the existing charging method, service flows of different parks can be associated with different Rate Groups (RGs), and the flow-free flows and the normal charging flows of the different parks can be distinguished according to the different RGs. Since the RG is uniformly planned by the operator and the territories and number of parks of territories involved in the implementation are very large, the feasibility is low. Therefore, how to realize charging of the no-flow traffic in the park is a problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which can realize no-flow charging in a park.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which may be performed by a session management network element, or may also be performed by a component (e.g. a chip or a circuit) of the session management network element, which is not limited by the present application. For convenience of description, the following description will be given by way of example of execution.

The method may include: the session management network element obtains first information of a first terminal device, the first information comprises usage amount of a first data stream, the first data stream comprises a data stream of the first terminal device which is shunted to a second user plane function network element by a first user plane function network element, the first user plane function network element is used for shunting the data stream of the terminal device in a first area, the first area is a subscription area of a private network subscribed by the first terminal device, and the second user plane function network element is used for transmitting user plane data between the first terminal device and a data network; the session management network element sends a first charging request message to a charging function network element, wherein the first charging request message comprises first identification information and the first information, and the first identification information is used for associating the first area.

Based on the above scheme, the session management network element may obtain the usage amount of the first data flow of the terminal device, where the first data flow includes the data flow of the first terminal device that is shunted to the second user plane function network element by the first user plane function network element, and send the first identification information and the first information to the charging function network element, so that the charging function network element generates a ticket of the usage amount of the first data flow, thereby implementing charging for the first data flow.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the session management network element sends first indication information to the first user plane function network element, where the first indication information indicates statistics and reports a usage amount of the first data flow; the session management network element receives usage of the first data flow from the first user plane function network element.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the session management network element sends second indication information to the second user plane function network element, where the second indication information indicates that the usage of the first data flow is not counted.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, before the session management network element sends the first charging request message to the charging function network element, the session management network element receives second information from the second user plane function network element, where the second information includes a usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the session management network element sends the first charging request message to the charging function network element based on the second information, where the first charging request message further includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the session management network element determines the first charging request message and a second charging request message based on the first information and the second information, where the second charging request message includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information; the session management network element sends the second charging request message to the charging function network element.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first identification information includes at least one of the following information: the identification of the first user plane function network element, the location information of the first terminal device, and the rate group RG associated with the first area.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, before the session management network element obtains the first information of the first terminal device, the method further includes: the session management network element receives a charging rule from the policy control function network element, the charging rule indicating that the data stream type of the first terminal device is a free data stream.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the usage amount of a second data flow is obtained at the session management network element, where the second data flow is a data flow of the first terminal device that is split by the first user plane functional network element to a third user plane functional network element, and the third user plane functional network element is configured to transmit user plane data between the first terminal device and the private network; the session management network element sends a third charging request message to the charging management function, wherein the third charging request message comprises identification information of the third user plane function network element and the usage amount of the second data stream.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the first charging request message further includes identification information of the third user plane function network element and a usage amount of the second data flow.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the session management network element receives first information from a second user plane function network element, the first information comprises the usage amount of a first data stream, the first data stream comprises the data stream of the first terminal device which is shunted to the second user plane function network element by the first user plane function network element, the first user plane function network element is used for shunting the data stream of the terminal device in a first area, the first area is a signing area of a private network signed by the first terminal device, and the second user plane function network element is used for transmitting user plane data between the first terminal device and the data network; the session management network element sends a first charging request message to a charging function network element, the first charging request message comprising second identification information and the first information, the second identification information being associated with identification information of the first user plane function network element.

Based on the above scheme, the session management network element may receive the usage amount of the first data flow from the terminal device of the second user plane function network element, where the first data flow includes the data flow of the first terminal device that is shunted to the second user plane function network element by the first user plane function network element, and send the first identification information and the first information to the charging function network element, so that the charging function network element generates a ticket of the usage amount of the first data flow, thereby implementing charging for the first data flow.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, before the session management network element receives the first information from the second user plane function network element, the session management network element sends third indication information to the second user plane function network element, where the third indication information indicates statistics and reports the usage of the first data flow.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first information is associated with identification information of the second user plane function network element, and before the session management network element sends the first charging request message to the charging function network element, the session management network element modifies the identification information of the second user plane function network element into second identification information, where the second identification information is associated with the identification information of the first user plane function network element.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, before the session management network element sends the first charging request message to the charging function network element, the session management network element receives second information from the second user plane function network element, where the second information includes a usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the session management network element sends the first charging request message to the charging function network element based on the second information, where the first charging request message further includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the session management network element determines the first charging request message and a second charging request message based on the first information and the second information, where the second charging request message includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information; the session management network element sends the second charging request message to the charging function network element.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, before the session management network element obtains the first information of the first terminal device, the session management network element receives a charging rule from a policy control function network element, where the charging rule indicates that a data flow type of the first terminal device is a free data flow.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: the method comprises the steps that a charging function network element receives a first charging request message from a session management network element, wherein the first charging request message comprises first identification information and first information, the first information comprises the usage amount of a first data stream of first terminal equipment, and the first data stream comprises the data stream of the first terminal equipment which is shunted to a second user plane function network element by a first user plane function network element; the charging function network element generates a first ticket of the first terminal device based on the first identification information and the first information; the first user plane function network element is used for shunting the data flow of the terminal equipment in a first area, the first area is the signing area of the private network signed by the first terminal equipment, the second user plane function network element is used for transmitting data between the first terminal equipment and the data network, and the first identification information is used for associating the first area.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first charging request message further includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and second information, where the second information includes a usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, before the charging function network element generates the first ticket of the first terminal device based on the first identification information and the first information, the charging function network element tears down the first identification information and the first information from the first charging request message.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first charging request message further includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information indicates that the first data stream is a free data stream, and the charging function network element stores the first ticket of the first terminal device in a first ticket directory based on the fourth indication information, where the first ticket directory is a ticket directory storing the free data stream.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the charging function network element is configured with first configuration information, where the first configuration information is used for configuring ticket processing of free data flows, and the first configuration information includes at least one type of identification information as follows: identification information, position area information and rate group RG information of the user plane function network element; the identification information of the user plane function network element comprises an identification of at least one user plane function network element, the identification of the at least one user plane function network element comprises an identification of the first user plane network element, the location area information comprises location information of at least one area, the location information of the at least one area comprises location information of the first terminal device, the rate group information comprises information of at least one rate group, and the at least one rate group RG comprises rate groups RG associated with the first area.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the charging function network element stores a first ticket of the first terminal device in a first ticket directory based on the first configuration information, where the first ticket directory is a ticket directory storing free data flows.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the first identification information includes at least one of the following information: the identification of the first user plane function network element, the location information of the first terminal device, and the rate group RG associated with the first area.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the charging function network element receives a third charging request message from the session management network element, where the third charging request message includes identification information of the third user plane function network element and a usage amount of the second data flow, where the second data flow is a data flow of the first terminal device that is shunted to the third user plane function network element by the first user plane function network element, and the third user plane function network element is configured to transmit user plane data between the first terminal device and the private network; the third charging function network element generates a third ticket of the terminal device based on the third charging request message, and stores the third ticket in the first ticket directory.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first charging request message further includes identification information of the third user plane function network element and a usage amount of the second data flow, the charging function network element splits the identification information of the third user plane function network element and the usage amount of the second data flow from the first charging request message, and the third user plane function network element is configured to transmit user plane data between the first terminal device and the private network; the third charging function network element generates a third ticket of the terminal device based on the third charging request message, and stores the third ticket in the first ticket directory.

In a fourth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, where the apparatus includes a transceiver unit configured to obtain first information of a first terminal device, where the first information includes usage of a first data flow, where the first data flow includes a data flow of the first terminal device that is split by a first user plane function network element to a second user plane function network element, where the first user plane function network element is configured to split a data flow of a terminal device in a first area, where the first area is a subscription area of a private network subscribed by the first terminal device, and where the second user plane function network element is configured to transmit user plane data between the first terminal device and the data network; the transceiver unit is further configured to send a first charging request message to a charging function network element, where the first charging request message includes first identification information and the first information, and the first identification information is used to associate the first area.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to send first indication information to the first user plane functional network element, where the first indication information indicates statistics and reports a usage amount of the first data flow; the method includes receiving usage of the first data stream from the first user plane function network element.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to send second indication information to the second user plane function network element, where the second indication information indicates that the usage of the first data flow is not counted.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive second information from the second user plane function network element, where the second information includes a usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to send the first charging request message to the charging function network element based on the second information, where the first charging request message further includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the apparatus further includes a processing unit, where the processing unit is configured to determine, based on the first information and the second information, the first charging request message and a second charging request message, where the second charging request message includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information; the transceiver unit is further configured to send the second charging request message to the charging function network element.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the first identification information includes at least one of the following information: the identification of the first user plane function network element, the location information of the first terminal device, and the rate group RG associated with the first area.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive a charging rule from the policy control function network element, where the charging rule indicates that the data flow type of the first terminal device is a free data flow.

In a fifth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, the apparatus comprising a transceiver unit configured to receive first information from a second user plane functional network element, where the first information includes a usage amount of a first data flow, the first data flow includes a data flow of the first terminal device split by the first user plane functional network element to the second user plane functional network element, the first user plane functional network element is configured to split a data flow of a terminal device in a first area, the first area is a subscription area of a private network subscribed by the first terminal device, and the second user plane functional network element is configured to transmit user plane data between the first terminal device and a data network; the transceiver unit is further configured to send a first charging request message to a charging function network element, where the first charging request message includes second identification information and the first information, and the second identification information is associated with identification information of the first user plane function network element.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to send third indication information to the second user plane function network element, where the third indication information indicates statistics and reports a usage amount of the first data flow.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the first information is associated with identification information of the second user plane function network element, and the processing unit is further configured to modify the identification information of the second user plane function network element into second identification information, where the second identification information is associated with the identification information of the first user plane function network element.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive second information from the second user plane function network element, where the second information includes a usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to send the first charging request message to the charging function network element based on the second information, where the first charging request message further includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the processing unit is further configured to determine, based on the first information and the second information, the first charging request message and a second charging request message, where the second charging request message includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information; the transceiver unit is further configured to send the second charging request message to the charging function network element.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive a charging rule from the policy control function network element, where the charging rule indicates that the data flow type of the first terminal device is a free data flow.

In a sixth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, the apparatus comprising a transceiver unit and a processing unit, the transceiver unit being configured to receive a first charging request message from a session management network element, the first charging request message comprising first identification information and first information, the first information comprising a usage amount of a first data flow of a first terminal device, the first data flow comprising a data flow of the first terminal device split by a first user plane function network element to a second user plane function network element; the processing unit is used for generating a first ticket of the first terminal equipment based on the first identification information and the first information; the first user plane function network element is used for shunting the data flow of the terminal equipment in a first area, the first area is the signing area of the private network signed by the first terminal equipment, the second user plane function network element is used for transmitting data between the first terminal equipment and the data network, and the first identification information is used for associating the first area.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some implementations of the sixth aspect, the first charging request message further includes identification information of the second user plane function network element and second information, where the second information includes a usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some implementations of the sixth aspect, the processing unit is further configured to split the first identification information and the first information from the first charging request message.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some implementations of the sixth aspect, the first charging request message further includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information indicates that the first data stream is a free data stream, and the charging function network element stores the first ticket of the first terminal device in a first ticket directory based on the fourth indication information, where the first ticket directory is a ticket directory storing the free data stream.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in certain implementations of the sixth aspect, the apparatus is configured with first configuration information, where the first configuration information is used to configure ticket processing for free data streams, and the first configuration information includes at least one type of identification information as follows: identification information, position area information and rate group RG information of the user plane function network element; the identification information of the user plane function network element comprises an identification of at least one user plane function network element, the identification of the at least one user plane function network element comprises an identification of the first user plane network element, the location area information comprises location information of at least one area, the location information of the at least one area comprises location information of the first terminal device, the rate group information comprises information of at least one rate group, and the at least one rate group RG comprises rate groups RG associated with the first area.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some implementations of the sixth aspect, the apparatus further includes a storage unit, and the processing unit is further configured to store, based on the first configuration information, a first ticket of the first terminal device in a first ticket directory, where the first ticket directory is a ticket directory storing a free data stream.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in certain implementations of the sixth aspect, the first identification information includes at least one of the following information: the identification of the first user plane function network element, the location information of the first terminal device, and the rate group RG associated with the first area.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: at least one processor configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in a memory to perform the method according to any one of the possible implementations of the first to third aspects. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a memory for storing a computer program or instructions. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a communication interface through which the processor reads the computer program or instructions stored in the memory.

In one implementation, the apparatus is a session management network element or a charging function network element.

In another implementation, the apparatus is a chip, a system-on-chip or a circuit for a session management network element or a charging function network element.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a processor for performing the methods provided in the first to third aspects above.

The operations such as transmitting and acquiring/receiving, etc. related to the processor may be understood as operations such as outputting and receiving, inputting, etc. by the processor, and may be understood as operations such as transmitting and receiving by the radio frequency circuit and the antenna, if not specifically stated, or if not contradicted by actual function or inherent logic in the related description, which is not limited by the present application.

A ninth aspect provides a computer readable storage medium storing program code for execution by a device, the program code comprising instructions for performing the method of any one of the possible implementations of the first to third aspects.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of the possible implementations of the first to third aspects described above. .

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system suitable for use in the method provided by an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an inter-provincial roaming architecture to which the present application is applicable;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an upstream local shunt architecture to which the present application is applicable;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario to which the present application is applicable;

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 500 provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 600 provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 700 provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 800 provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a chip system according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical scheme of the application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) systems, frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) systems, time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD) systems, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication systems, fifth generation (5th generation,5G) systems or New Radio (NR), sixth generation (6th generation,6G) systems or future communication systems, and the like. The 5G mobile communication system described in the present application includes a non-independent networking (non-standalone, NSA) 5G mobile communication system or an independent networking (standalone, SA) 5G mobile communication system. The communication system may also be a public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) communication system, an internet of things (Internet of things, ioT) communication system, a universal vehicle (vehicle to everything, V2X) communication system, an unmanned aerial vehicle (uncrewed AERIAL VEHICLE, UAV) communication system, or other communication system.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 suitable for use in the method provided by an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 1, communication system 100 may include, but is not limited to, the following:

1. User Equipment (UE): may include various handheld devices, vehicle mount devices, wearable devices, computing devices, or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem, as well as various forms of terminals, mobile Stations (MSs), terminals, or soft terminals, etc. Such as water meters, electricity meters, sensors, etc.

Illustratively, the user equipment in the embodiments of the present application may refer to an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a relay station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal (user terminal), a terminal (terminal equipment), a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The user equipment may also be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal DIGITAL ASSISTANT, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a user equipment in a 5G network or a user equipment in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), or a user equipment in a future car network, etc., as embodiments of the present application are not limited in this regard.

As an example and not by way of limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the wearable device may also be referred to as a wearable intelligent device, which is a generic term for applying wearable technology to intelligently design daily wear and develop wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, apparel, shoes, and the like. The wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also can realize a powerful function through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable intelligent device includes full functionality, large size, and may not rely on the smart phone to implement complete or partial functionality, such as: smart watches or smart glasses, etc., and focus on only certain types of application functions, and need to be used in combination with other devices, such as smart phones, for example, various smart bracelets, smart jewelry, etc. for physical sign monitoring.

In addition, in the embodiment of the application, the user equipment can also be user equipment in an internet of things (internet of Things, ioT) system, and the IoT is an important component of the development of future information technology, and the main technical characteristics of the application are that the article is connected with the network through a communication technology, so that the man-machine interconnection and the intelligent network of the internet of things are realized. In the embodiment of the application, the IOT technology can achieve mass connection, deep coverage and terminal power saving through a Narrow Band (NB) technology, for example. In addition, in the embodiment of the application, the user equipment can also comprise sensors such as an intelligent printer, a train detector, a gas station and the like, and the main functions comprise collecting data (part of the user equipment), receiving control information and downlink data of the access network equipment, sending electromagnetic waves and transmitting the uplink data to the access network equipment.

2. (Radio) access network device (radio access network, (R) AN): the system is used for providing network access functions for authorized user equipment in a specific area and can use transmission tunnels with different qualities according to the level of the user equipment, the service requirements and the like.

The (R) AN can manage radio resources, provide access services for the ue, and further complete forwarding of control signals and ue data between the ue and the core network.

The access network device in the embodiment of the present application may be any communication device with a wireless transceiver function for communicating with the user equipment. The access network device includes, but is not limited to: an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home evolved Node B, heNB, or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (baseBand unit, BBU), an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, WIFI) system, a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission point (transmission point, TP), or a transmission reception point (transmission and reception point, TRP), etc., may also be 5G, e.g., NR, a gNB in a system, or a transmission point (TRP or TP), one or a group (including multiple antenna panels) of antenna panels of a base station in a 5G system, or may also be a network Node constituting a gNB or transmission point, e.g., baseband unit (BBU), or Distributed Unit (DU), etc.

In some deployments, the gNB may include a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) and DUs. The gNB may also include an active antenna unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA units, AAU). The CU implements part of the functionality of the gNB and the DU implements part of the functionality of the gNB. For example, the CU is responsible for handling non-real time protocols and services, implementing the functions of the radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer. The DU is responsible for handling physical layer protocols and real-time services, and implements functions of a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and a Physical (PHY) layer. The AAU realizes part of physical layer processing function, radio frequency processing and related functions of the active antenna. Since the information of the RRC layer may be eventually changed into or converted from the information of the PHY layer, under this architecture, higher layer signaling, such as RRC layer signaling, may also be considered to be transmitted by the DU or by the du+aau. It is understood that the access network device may be a device comprising one or more of a CU node, a DU node, an AAU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into access network devices in an access network (radio access network, RAN), or may be divided into access network devices in a Core Network (CN), which the present application is not limited to.

3. Access and mobility management function (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF) network element

The access and mobility management function network element may be used for mobility management, access management, etc., and may be used for implementing functions other than session management in a mobility management entity (mobility MANAGEMENT ENTITY, MME) function, for example, functions such as legal probing, or access authorization, etc., and further for transmitting a user policy between the terminal device and the policy control function (policy control function, PCF) network element. In the embodiment of the application, the access and mobility management function network element can be used for realizing the functions of the access and mobility management network element.

4. Session management function (session management function, SMF) network element

The session management function network element may be used for session management, network interconnection protocol (internet protocol, IP) address allocation and management of terminal devices, selection and management of user plane function (user plane function, UPF) network elements, termination points for policy control and charging function interfaces, downstream data notification, etc. In the embodiment of the application, the session management function network element can be used for realizing the function of the session management network element.

5. User plane functional network element

The user plane function network element may be used for packet routing and forwarding, or quality of service (quality of service, qoS) parameter handling of user plane data, etc. User data may be accessed to a Data Network (DN) through the network element.

In the embodiment of the application, the user plane function network element can be used for realizing the function of the user plane network element, for example, when the session is established on different user plane function network elements, the service experience of the terminal equipment is also different, so that the session management function network element is required to select a proper user plane function network element for the session of the terminal equipment.

6. Policy control network element

The policy control network element is used for guiding a unified policy framework of network behavior, and provides policy rule information for control plane function network elements (such as access and mobility management function network elements, session management function network elements, and the like). The method is mainly responsible for policy control functions such as charging, qoS bandwidth guarantee, mobility management, terminal equipment policy decision and the like aiming at session and service flow levels. The policy control network element may have the capability of both an access and mobility management policy control network element (policy control function for ACCESS AND mobility control, AM PCF) and a session management policy control network element (PCF for session management, SM PCF). Logically, an access and mobility management policy control network element and a session management policy control network element may be understood as different network elements each having different capabilities. In the actual deployment scenario, the access and mobility management policy control network element and the session management policy control network element may be the same policy control network element entity, i.e. deployed separately, or may be two different policy control network element entities, i.e. deployed in one.

For example, the access and mobility management policy control network element may be directly connected to the access and mobility management function network element, and the access and mobility management policy control network element may provide mobility, access selection related policies of the terminal device to the access and mobility management function network element. Wherein the mobility policy may include, for example, service area restriction management, radio access technology frequency selection priority (radio access technology frequency selection priority, RFSP) index (index) management, and session management function network element selection management; the access selection related policies of the terminal device may include an access network discovery and selection policy (access network discovery and selection policy, ANDSP) and a routing policy (route selection policy, URSP) of the terminal device.

For another example, the session management policy control element may be directly connected to the session management function element, and provide the session management function element with a protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session related policy. PDU session-related policies include, for example, gating policies, charging policies, qoS control policies, usage monitoring control policies, and the like.

It should be understood that, for a roaming scenario, the policy control network element of the visited place may logically include an access and mobility management policy control network element of the visited place and a session management policy control network element of the visited place; the home policy control network may logically include a home access and mobility management policy control network element and a home session management policy control network element. In actual deployment, the access and mobility management policy control network element of the visiting place and the session management policy control network element of the visiting place may be policy control network element entities of the same visiting place, or may be policy control network element entities of two different visiting places. Similarly, the access and mobility management policy control network element of the home location and the session management policy control network element of the home location may be the same policy control network element entity of the home location, or may be two policy control network element entities of different home locations.

7. Network capability open function (network exposure function, NEF) network element or application function (application function, AF)

The network capability opening function network element is used to open services and network capability information (such as a terminal location) provided by the 3GPP network function, etc., to the outside.

The application function is mainly used for sending the requirement of the application side on the network side, such as QoS requirement or user state event subscription. The AF may be a third party functional entity or may be an application service deployed by an operator, such as an IP multimedia subsystem (IP multimedia subsystem, IMS) voice call service.

8. Unified data management (unified DATA MANAGEMENT, UDM) network element

The unified data management network element can be used for unified data management, and supports authentication trust status processing in a 3GPP authentication and key negotiation mechanism, user identity processing, access authorization, registration and mobility management, subscription management, short message management and the like.

9. Unified data storage (unified data repository, UDR) network element

The unified data storage network element can be used for the access function of subscription data, policy data, application data and other types of data.

10. Data Network (DN)

A data network refers to a specific data service network to which a terminal device accesses, and typical data networks include the internet (internet), IMS, for example.

The network element may also be referred to as an entity, a device, an apparatus, a module, or the like, and the present application is not particularly limited. In the present application, for ease of understanding and description, the foregoing parts may be denoted by short abbreviations, for example, session management function network elements are simply referred to as SMFs, which should be understood as session management function network elements, or as network elements or devices having functions similar to those of the session management function network elements. The other similar matters are not repeated.

Other network elements, such as a unified data repository (unified data repository, UDR) or a billing function network element (charging function, CHF) may also be included in the network architecture referred to in fig. 1, and the network elements or devices are not particularly limited.

In addition, in the above architecture, each interface function is described as follows:

N7: and the interface between PCF and SMF is used for issuing PDU session granularity and service data flow granularity control strategy.

N15: and the interface between the PCF and the AMF is used for issuing UE strategies and access control related strategies.

N5: and the interface between the AF and the PCF is used for issuing application service requests and reporting network events.

N4: the interface between SMF and UPF is used for transmitting information between control plane and user plane, including control plane-oriented forwarding rule, qoS control rule, flow statistics rule, etc. issuing and user plane information reporting.

N11: an interface between the SMF and the AMF for transmitting PDU session tunnel information between the RAN and the UPF, control messages sent to the UE, radio resource control information sent to the RAN, etc.

N2: an interface between the AMF and the RAN is used for transmitting radio bearer control information from the core network side to the RAN, etc.

N1: the interface between the AMF and the UE, access independent, is used for transmitting QoS control rules etc. to the UE.

N36: and the interface between the PCF and the UDR is used for the PCF to acquire the policy related subscription data and the application data related information from the UDR.

In addition, the NEF has direct interfaces with the AMF and the SMF, respectively corresponding to an N29 interface and an N51 interface (for simplifying the illustration, not shown in the above figure), for opening the network capability of the operator to the third party application functional entity, where the former can be used for the NEF to subscribe to the AMF directly for corresponding network events and update user configuration information, and the latter can be used for updating application configuration data on the SMF/UPF, such as packet flow description information (packet flow description, PFD) corresponding to the application identifier (application identity).

It should be understood that the network architecture applied to the embodiments of the present application is merely an exemplary network architecture described from the perspective of a conventional point-to-point architecture and a service architecture, and the network architecture to which the embodiments of the present application are applicable is not limited thereto, and any network architecture capable of implementing the functions of the respective network elements described above is applicable to the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that the names of interfaces between the network elements in fig. 1 are only an example, and the names of interfaces in the specific implementation may be other names, which are not specifically limited by the present application. Furthermore, the names of the transmitted messages (or signaling) between the various network elements described above are also merely an example, and do not constitute any limitation on the function of the message itself.

It will be appreciated that the network elements or functions described above may be either network elements in a hardware device, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). Alternatively, the network element or the function may be implemented by one device, or may be implemented by a plurality of devices together, or may be a functional module in one device, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

It should also be understood that in the communication system shown in fig. 1, the functions of the respective constituent network elements are merely exemplary, and that not all the functions are necessary when the respective constituent network elements are applied in the embodiments of the present application.

In addition, the naming of each network element (e.g., PCF, AMF, etc.) as included in fig. 1 is merely a name, which does not limit the functionality of the network element itself. In 5G networks and other networks in the future, the above-mentioned network elements may also be named as other names, which the present application is not limited to in particular. For example, in a 6G network, some or all of the individual network elements described above may follow the terminology in 5G, as well as other designations.

It should be further noted that, in fig. 1, communication between network elements of the control plane function is described by taking a non-service interface as an example, but the protection scope of the embodiment of the present application is not limited. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that each network element of the control plane function in fig. 1 may also communicate through a service interface, for example, the service interface provided by the AMF externally may be Namf; the SMF may provide a server interface Nsmf; the servitization interface provided by CHF may be Nchf; the server interface provided by the PCF may be Npcf or the like.

The network elements in fig. 1 are architectures based on reference points, and are not limited to the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an inter-provincial roaming architecture to which the present application is applicable. In this roaming architecture, the UE is a roaming subscriber whose subscription information is in the home network, and currently accesses the DN of the visited place through the RAN and UPF of the visited place. The AMF and the SMF are both positioned at the visiting place (i.e. visiting province), and a PCF (home-PCF, H-PCF) of the home place (i.e. home province) issues corresponding policy rules to the SMF of the visiting place through an N7 interface, and can provide services for the UE according to the policy rules. The visited AMF may then obtain the corresponding access and mobility management policy via the visited PCF (visited-PCF, V-PCF) and provide services to the UE according to the access and mobility management policy.

In actual deployment, the H-PCF may be an SM-PCF of a home location deployed alone, or may be an SM-PCF and an AM-PCF of a home location deployed in combination; the V-PCF may be an AM-PCF of a single deployed visited site, or may be an SM-PCF and an AM-PCF of a single deployed visited site.

Fig. 3 shows a diagram of a UL CL local shunt architecture to which the present application is applicable. The architecture shown in fig. 3 is located at a visited place, and the UE may be a roaming user or a home user. To reduce traffic access latency, operators may deploy UPF nodes, i.e., UPF/UL CL, PDU session anchor (PDU session anchor, PSA) 1-UPF, PSA2-UPF, near the RAN so that users can access application services in close proximity.

As shown in fig. 3, the visited network uses UL CL to route the area related traffic directly to different data networks, such as a campus inter-service network and the internet, via ULCL/UPF, respectively. Illustratively, the DN interfacing with the PSA2-UPF through the N6 interface may be a campus intranet; the DN connected with the PSA1-UPF through the N6 interface is the Internet. The PSA1-UPF may be understood as the primary anchor UPF and the PSA2-UPF may be understood as the secondary anchor UPF. Further, the DN connected to the PSA2-UPF through the N6 interface may also be connected to the internet, i.e. the user may also access the internet traffic through the campus intranet.

In actual deployment, the UPF/UL CL, PSA1-UPF and PSA2-UPF in FIG. 3 can be deployed singly or in combination. For example, the UL CL/UPF may be deployed in-line with the PSA2-UPF, with the PSA1-UPF, or with both the PSA1-UPF and the PSA 2-UPF.

For a better understanding of embodiments of the present application, some terms that may be related to embodiments of the present application are described below.

1. Campus, internal service network of the campus, private network of the campus

A campus may also be referred to as a campus facility or commercial facility. For example, the campus may be a mall or business campus, a central business, or a cafe or restaurant.

In the application, a park of a visit place is mainly taken as an example to describe the method provided by the embodiment of the application. For example, the home location of the terminal device is Shanghai, the visit location is Beijing, and the park of the visit location may be a mall of Beijing.

An on-campus service network is a network that provides resources or services from the campus and services to on-campus users. It will be appreciated that networks having the same or similar functionality may also be considered as campus internal service networks in the present application, the names are not limiting. Illustratively, the service may be an office service, an AR, a VR, etc. of the enterprise. For example, the DN connected to the PSA2-UPF in FIG. 3 may be a campus network.

The campus private network, i.e., the campus operator network deployed in the campus area, may support the campus users to access the campus services via the network, and/or to access internet services, such as instant messaging, mail, web browsing, etc. The devices used to provide the campus network may be 5G devices such as UL CL/UPF, PSA2-UPF, and DN connected to PSA2-UPF in fig. 3, among others. When a user enters the area of the private network of the campus, the user can access the service network inside the campus.

In an actual commercial scenario, the customer accesses the campus for free/paid traffic, where traffic may include internet traffic and campus traffic. I.e. the user has no charge for accessing the park business in the park, and has no charge or charges for accessing the Internet business; the user normally charges for access to the internet when going out of the park. Where free/pay-through refers to a user's charge not being charged by the operator when accessing the on-campus service network or internet under certain conditions (e.g., on-campus), but being uniformly settled with the on-campus charge. For brevity, free/unified traffic will be referred to hereinafter as no-flow.

In the existing charging method, SMF respectively transmits charging rules to an auxiliary anchor point UPF and a main anchor point UPF so that the anchor point UPF (comprising the main anchor point UPF and the auxiliary anchor point UPF) counts the flow of a user; the anchor point UPF reports the traffic use condition of the user to the CHF of the present province through the SMF so as to enable the CHF to generate a ticket. The charging collection system of the operator collects the ticket from the CHF, and the ticket for the non-visiting place user is sent back to the home place through the collection system. And finally, the service operation support system of the operator processes the ticket and charges. In the process of processing the ticket, the flow-free and normal charging flow needs to be distinguished, the flow-free part and park settlement are carried out, and the normal charging part and end user settlement are carried out.

As shown in fig. 4, when the UE is out of the campus, the UE may transmit a data stream of a service in a data network, which may be the internet, through PSA1 (PSA 1-UPF); when the UE is on the campus, the UE may transmit a data stream of the private network service of the campus through ULCL +psa2 (which may be a network element deployed by UL CL/UPF and PSA2-UPF in combination), and may access Internet (Internet) service on the campus through ULCL +psa2 and PSA 1. In a campus, the Internet traffic of the UE is split to PSA1, and the no-flow Internet traffic may not be screened out without applying a Rating Group (RG) for the campus alone.

To distinguish between no-flow traffic and normal charge traffic for different parks, traffic for different parks may be associated with different RGs, i.e. traffic for different parks is distinguished from different RGs, traffic for free and normal charge is distinguished. Since the RG is uniformly planned by the operator and the implementation involves a very large number of home and park sites at home, the feasibility is low. Therefore, how to realize charging of the no-flow traffic in the park is a problem to be solved.

Therefore, the embodiment of the application provides a communication method for realizing charging of free traffic in a park.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic flow chart of a communication method 500 provided by the present application. The method may comprise the following steps.

S510, the session management network element obtains first information of the first terminal device.

The first information comprises a usage amount of the first data flow comprising a data flow of the first terminal device split by a first user plane function network element to a second user plane function network element.

The first user plane function network element may be configured to split a data flow of a terminal device in a first area, that is, the first user plane function network element may split the data flow of the terminal device in the first area to an anchor user plane function network element. The first area may be a subscription area of a private network subscribed to by the first terminal device. The first terminal device may be any terminal device in the first area.

The second user plane function network element may be configured to transmit user plane data between the first terminal device and the data network. The second user plane function network element may be a primary anchor point user plane function network element, which may not be changed in a session life cycle of the first terminal device; the data network may be the internet.

For example, the first area may be an area where the campus #1 is located, the first user plane function may be a user plane function network element deployed near the campus #1 for upstream offloading, and the second user plane function network element may be an anchor user plane function network element deployed in a place where the campus #1 is located; the first user plane functional network element may split the data flow of the first terminal device to the second user plane functional network element and/or the third user plane functional network element according to a splitting rule. The third user plane function network element may be an auxiliary anchor user plane function network element, configured to transmit user plane data between the first terminal device and the private network. The third user plane function network element may be deployed in-one with the first user plane function network element or may be deployed separately.

In a possible implementation manner, the session management network element sends first indication information to the first user plane function network element, where the first indication information indicates the first user plane function network element to count and report the usage amount of the first data flow; the session management network element receives first information from the first user plane function network element, wherein the first information comprises a statistical result of the first user plane function network element; the session management network element associates the usage amount of the first data flow with first identification information.

The first information may further include the first identification information, and the session management network element associates the first identification information with the usage amount of the first data flow according to the first information. Or the session management network element may obtain the first identification information and associate the first identification information with the usage amount of the first data flow. The association of the first identification information with the usage amount of the first data stream may be understood as that the usage amount of the first data stream may be known by querying the first identification information.

Wherein the first identification information includes at least one of the following information: the identification of the first user plane function network element, the location information of the first terminal device, and the Rate Group (RG) associated with the first area.

The location information of the first terminal device may be, for example, an identifier of a cell (cell) where the first terminal device is located, for example, an NR cell global identifier (NR cell global identifier, NCGI), a tracking area code (TRACKING AREA code, TAC) corresponding to a tracking area where the first terminal device is located, an identifier of an access network device where the first terminal device is accessed, an identifier of the geographic location where the first terminal device is located, and the range of the geographic location may be smaller than the range of TA, for example, the geographic location may be a county or a street, etc.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the session management network element sends second indication information to the second user plane function network element, where the second indication information may indicate that the second user plane function network element does not count the usage amount of the first data flow. That is, while the session management network element indicates the first user plane function network element to count the first data flow, the session management network element also indicates the second user plane function network element to not count the usage amount of the first data flow, thereby ensuring that the first data flow is not more or less charged.

Optionally, the session management network element may also obtain the second information. The second information includes the usage of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element. For example, in the case that the location of the first terminal device changes, the session management network element may actively query the second user plane functional network element for the data flow usage amount of the first terminal device; or when the session of the first terminal device is deleted, the second user plane function network element may report the data flow usage amount of the first terminal device. Or the second user plane functional network element periodically reports the counted usage amount of the data stream of the first terminal device.

In another possible implementation manner, the session management network element may receive the first information from the second user plane function network element, that is, the session management network element may receive the usage amount of the first data flow counted by the second user plane function network element.

The session management network element sends third indication information to the second user plane function network element, where the third indication information may indicate the second user plane function network element to count and report the usage amount of the first data flow; the session management network element receives a usage amount of the first data flow from the second user plane function network element, the usage amount of the first data flow being associated with an identity of the second user plane function network element. For example, the second user plane function network element may report the identification information of the second user plane function network element and the usage amount of the first data flow, or the session management network element may obtain the identification information of the second user plane function network element, and associate the identification information of the second user plane function network element with the usage amount of the first data flow.

Further, the session management network element modifies the identification information of the second user plane function network element to second identification information. The second identification information is associated with identification information of the first user plane network element. For example, the identification information of the second user plane function network element is a second character string, the identification of the first user plane function network element is a first character string, and the session management network element may modify the identification of the second user plane function network element into the first character string and the second character string.

That is, after receiving the usage amount of the first data flow from the second user plane function network element, the session management network element may modify the identifier of the second user plane network element associated with the usage amount of the first data flow to an identifier associated with the identifier of the first user plane network element.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the session management network element sends indication information to the third user plane function network element, wherein the indication information can indicate the third user plane function network element to count and report the usage amount of the second data stream. The second data stream is a data stream of the first terminal device split by the first user plane network element to the third user plane network element. The second data stream may be a data stream of a service in the private network.

Correspondingly, the third user plane function network element sends the usage amount of the second data flow to the session management network element. Optionally, the third user plane function network element may further send identification information of the third user plane function network element to the session management network element, so that the identification information of the third user plane function network element is associated with the usage amount of the second data flow.

It should be understood that, in the case where the first user plane functional network element and the third user plane functional network element are deployed in one, the identification information of the first user plane functional network element and the identification information of the third user plane functional network element may be the same; in the case where the first user plane functional network element and the third user plane functional network element are deployed independently, the identification information of the first user plane functional network element and the identification information of the third user plane functional network element may be different.

Optionally, before S510, the method further includes: the session management network element receives charging rules from the policy control function network element. The charging rule indicates that the first data stream is free traffic.

S520, the session management network element sends a first charging request message to the charging function network element.

Accordingly, the charging function network element receives the first charging request message from the session management network element.

The first charging request message may include the first identification information and a usage amount of the first data flow.

In case the session management network element obtains the second information (refer to the description in the first possible implementation manner in S510) and/or the session management network element receives the usage amount of the second data flow from the third user plane function network element, the first charging request message may further include the identification information of the second user plane function network element and the usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element, the identification information of the third user plane network element and the usage amount of the second data flow (third information).

Optionally, in this case, the method may further include: the session management network element determines the first charging request message based on at least one of the first information, the second information and the third information, or in other words, if the session management network element receives the first information, the second information and the third information from the first user plane function network element, the session management network element separates the first charging request message, the second charging request message and the third charging request message, so that the first charging request message includes the first identification information and the usage amount of the first data flow, the second charging request message includes the identification information of the second user plane function network element and the usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element, and the third charging request message includes the identification information of the third user plane function network element and the usage amount of the second data flow.

For example, the usage of the data stream of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element may be zero or null.

S530, the charging function network element generates a first ticket of the first terminal device based on the first identifier and the first information.

The first ticket may be used to charge for usage of the first data flow of the first terminal device.

In case the first charging request message includes the second identification information and the usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element, the method may further include: the charging function network element separates the first identification information and the usage amount of the first data flow from the first charging request message, and generates a first ticket of the first terminal equipment based on the first identification and the first information; optionally, the charging function network element splits the second identification information and the usage amount of the data stream of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element from the first charging request message, and generates a second ticket of the first terminal device; the charging function network element separates the identification information of the third user plane function network element and the usage amount of the second data stream from the first charging request message, and generates a third ticket of the first terminal device.

Optionally, the method further includes S540, where the charging function network element stores the first ticket of the first terminal device in a first ticket directory. The first ticket directory is used to store free ticket of the data stream.

Optionally, the charging function network element stores the third ticket of the first terminal device in the first ticket directory.

In a possible implementation manner, the charging function network element is configured with first configuration information, and the charging function network element stores the first ticket in a first ticket directory based on the first configuration information.

The first configuration information may include at least one of the following types of information: identification information, location area information, rate group information of the user plane function network element.

The identification information of the user plane function network element may include an identification of at least one flow-free user plane function network element, where the at least one flow-free user plane function network element includes the first user plane function network element. For example, the identification information of the user plane function network element may be an identification list of the user plane function network element, where the identification list includes an identification of the first user plane function network element. A streaming free user plane function network element may be understood as a user plane function network element transmitting a free data stream.

The location area information may include location information of at least one area, which is a stream free area. A streaming-free area is understood to mean that the data stream of the terminal device in this area can be free. The at least one area may be a cell, tracking area TA, geographic location, etc. The at least one region includes the first region. The at least one rate set may include a rate set corresponding to at least one no-flow user plane function network element or a rate set corresponding to at least one no-flow zone.

In an exemplary embodiment, after receiving the first charging request message, the charging function network element may query whether the first identification information belongs to an identification list of a no-flow user plane function network element configured by the first configuration information, or an identification list of a location area or a list of a rate group, and if yes, the charging function network element stores the first ticket in the first ticket directory.

In another possible implementation manner, the first charging request message carries fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information indicates that the first data flow is a free data volume, and the charging function network element stores the first ticket in the first ticket directory according to the fourth indication information.

Optionally, if the charging function network element is a visiting location charging function network element of the first terminal device, the operator charging system may not collect the first ticket back to the home location, so as to avoid the situation that in the prior art, the first ticket is collected back to the home location and processed by the home location, but the home location cannot identify the free data flow required by the visiting location.

According to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application, the session management network element can acquire the usage amount of the first data flow of the terminal equipment, the first data flow comprises the data flow of the first terminal equipment which is shunted to the second user plane function network element by the first user plane function network element, and the first identification information and the first information are sent to the charging function network element, so that the charging function network element generates a ticket of the usage amount of the first data flow, and charging of the first data flow is realized. The first user plane function network element is used for distributing data flow of terminal equipment in a first area, the first area is a signing area of a private network signed by the first terminal equipment, and the second user plane function network element is used for transmitting user plane data between the first terminal equipment and a data network.

It should be understood that, in the method shown in fig. 5, the sequence number of each process does not mean that the execution sequence of each process should be determined by the function and the internal logic, and should not limit the implementation process of the embodiment of the present application.

A communication method 600 provided by an embodiment of the present application is described below with reference to fig. 6. Ue#1 in fig. 6 is an example of the first terminal device in fig. 5, PCF is an example of the policy control element in fig. 5, ULCL +psa1 is an example of the first user plane element in fig. 5, SMF is an example of the session management element in fig. 5, and PSA2 is an example of the second user plane element in fig. 5.

Before S601, ue#1 registers a member with the campus member system.

It is also understood that ue#1 registers as a campus member.

Alternatively, the campus member system enters member information for ue#1 (e.g., information such as user identification) and may send the member information for ue#1 to the PCF. For example, the campus member system may send member information of ue#1 to PCF through the capability open platform.

Wherein the PCF may be an H-PCF or a V-PCF. In the case where the PCF is an H-PCF, the H-PCF may be an AM-PCF or an SM-PCF, or an integrated deployed AM-PCF and S-PCF; in the case where the PCF is a V-PCF, the V-PCF may be an AM-PCF, or a combination of deployed AM-PCF and S-PCF.

By way of example, a subscriber identity may also be understood as a subscriber number, such as a mobile station international integrated services digital network number (MSISDN), a general public subscriber identity (generic public subscription identifier, GPSI), an international mobile subscriber identity (International Mobile Subscriber Identity, IMSI) or a subscriber permanent identity (subscription PERMANENT IDENTIFIER, SUPI), etc.

S601, the PCF sends the campus policy to the SMF via the AMF. Accordingly, the SMF receives the campus policy from the PCF.

Illustratively, after the PCF receives the member information from the campus member system, the campus policy for the campus may be sent to the SMF via the AMF based on the member information.

The campus policy may include charging rules. The charging rules may indicate the handling and charging of different types of data flows, which may include normally charged data flows and free data flows.

The park policy may also include information such as offload rules, qoS parameters, etc. The splitting rule is used for indicating the UPF, such as ULCL UPF, to split the subscription service; qoS parameters may include aggregate maximum bit rate (AGGREGATE MAXIMUM BIT RATE, AMBR), allocation and retention priority (allocation and retention priority, ARP), guaranteed stream bit rate (guaranteed flow bit rate, GFBR), maximum stream bit rate (maximum flow bit rate, MFBR), 5G quality of service identification (5G QoS identifier,5QI), and so on.

Optionally, the PCF may also send an identification of the campus policy to the SMF, where at least one of the campus policies and an identification corresponding to the campus policy are configured. The SMF may match the corresponding campus policy by its identification.

S602a, the SMF sends a session management message to ULCL +psa 2.

Accordingly, ULCL +psa1 receives this session management message from the SMF.

The session management message is used for UPF management of PDU sessions of the UE. The session management message may be a PFCP session establishment request (PFCP Session Establishment Request) message or a PFCP session modification request (PFCP Session Modification Request) message, for example.

The session management message may carry charging rules. The charging rules may include packet detection rules (packet detection rule, PDR) and usage reporting rules (usage reporting rule, URR). Illustratively, the PDR, URR indication ULCL +psa2 detects and reports the data flow of this ue#1 forwarded locally, over the N6 interface, or over the N19 tunnel.

In the case where the park policy indicates that the charging rule is no-flow, the session management message carries indication information #1 (an example of the first indication information), and the indication information #1 indicates the usage amount of the data flow statistically shunted to PSA1 by ULCL UPF.

Specifically, in the case that the charging rule of the campus policy is no-flow, the SMF associates the URR with the PDR for shunting to PSA1, and sends the PDR and the associated URR to ULCL UPF to instruct ULCL UPF to statistically report the data flow (an example of the first data flow) shunted to PSA 1.

Optionally, the session management message may carry a offloading rule to cause ULCL UPF to offload the data flow of ue#1 to multiple anchor UPFs, e.g., PSA1 and PSA2. Illustratively, the data flow split to PSA2 may be a campus service subscribed to by UE #1, and the service split to PSA1 may be a data flow of internet service.

Optionally, S603a, ULCL +psa2 sends to the SMF the usage of the data stream split to PSA 1.

Illustratively, ULCL +psa2 may send the usage amount of the data flow offloaded to PSA1 to the SMF via a PFCP session report request (PFCP Session Report Request message). Optionally, the PFCP session report request message may also carry an identifier of ULCL +psa2, or an identifier of ULCL UPF.

Optionally, S602b, the SMF sends a session management message to PSA 1.

The session management request message may refer to the related description in S603 a. The session management message carries instruction information #2 (an example of second instruction information), and the instruction information #2 instructs the PSA1 not to statistically shunt the usage amount of the data stream to the PSA 1.

This step may be performed prior to S603a or this step may be performed concurrently with S602a, that is, the SMF may instruct the PSA1 not to count the data flow of the UE #1 split to the PSA1 while the SMF instruction ULCL UPF reports the usage amount of the first data flow.

Optionally, the SMF may also send a session management message to PSA 2.

The session management request message may refer to the related description in S602 a. The session management message may carry charging rules to instruct PSA2 to statistically report data flows offloaded to PSA 2.

Accordingly, PSA2 transmits the counted usage of the data stream of ue#1 to SMF. The usage of the data stream of UE #1 counted by PSA2 may be the data stream of the campus service.

Optionally, in S604, the SMF acquisition may also acquire the usage of the data stream of UE #1 counted by PSA 1.

For example, in the case where the location of ue#1 changes, the SMF may actively query PSA1 for the data flow usage of ue#1; or upon deletion of the session of ue#1, PSA1 may report the data flow usage of ue#1.

Optionally, at S605, the SMF sends a billing request message to the CHF based on the amount of usage of the data stream split to PSA1 sent by ULCL +psa2 and the amount of usage of the data stream of UE #1 counted by PSA 1.

Accordingly, CHF receives the billing request message from the SMF.

The charging Request message may be a data charging Request (CHARGING DATA Request) message, for example.

In one example, the charging request message may include an identification of ULCL +psa2 and a usage amount of the data flow sent by ULCL +psa2 and split to PSA1, an identification of PSA1 and a usage amount of the data flow of UE #1 reported by PSA 1. I.e., the SMF may include a plurality of UPF IDs and corresponding UPF statistics of the usage of the data stream of UE #1 in a charging request message sent to CHF.

In another example, SMF needs to split the ticket based on UPF ID, i.e., split the usage of the data streams counted by ULCL +psa2 and PSA1 into different messages to report to CHF.

S606, CHF generates a ticket of the ue#1 based on the charging request message, and stores a ticket corresponding to the usage of the data stream of the ue#1 counted by ULCL +psa2 in the ticket directory#1.

The ticket directory #1 is used for storing ticket corresponding to free data stream usage. The ticket directory #1 may be a newly added ticket directory in CHF.

If the charging request message includes a plurality of UPF IDs and a plurality of UPF statistics of usage of the data flow of ue#1, the CHF may split the ticket of ue#1 based on the charging request message. That is, CHF may generate a ticket based on each UPF ID and the usage of the data stream of UE #1 for UPF statistics corresponding to the UPF ID, respectively. Wherein the plurality of UPFs may include ULCL +PSA2 and PSA1.

Illustratively, the CHF may configure a list of UPF IDs for no-flow, and the CHF determines whether the data flow of UE #1 for the UPF statistic is no-flow based on the UPF ID in the charging request message. For example, if the billing request message includes an ID of ULCL +psa2, then CHF may determine to store the ticket corresponding to the ID of ULCL +psa2 in the ticket directory #1 by querying the UPF ID list.

Optionally, the charging request message may further carry indication information #4, where the indication information #4 indicates that the data stream counted by ULCL +psa2 is no-stream, and CHF may determine, through the indication information #4, to store a ticket corresponding to the ID of ULCL +psa2 in the ticket directory #1.

If the CHF is a visited CHF, then the operator billing system may not collect the ticket in the newly added no-flow directory (ticket directory # 1) back to the home location, and the billing of the home location may extract the no-flow ticket from the ticket directory #1 of the visited CHF, differentiate the campuses according to UPF ID, and settle accounts with the campuses.

Fig. 7 is an exemplary flowchart of another communication method 700 provided by an embodiment of the present application. Ue#1 in fig. 7 is an example of the first terminal device in fig. 5, PCF is an example of the policy control element in fig. 5, ULCL +psa1 is an example of the first user plane element in fig. 5, SMF is an example of the session management element in fig. 5, and PSA2 is an example of the second user plane element in fig. 5.

S701, the PCF sends the campus policy to the SMF via the AMF. Accordingly, the SMF receives the campus policy from the PCF.

S702a, the SMF sends a session management message to ULCL +psa 2.

Accordingly, ULCL +psa1 receives this session management message from the SMF.

Optionally, S703a, ULCL +psa2 sends to the SMF the usage of the data stream split to PSA 1.

Accordingly, the SMF receives the usage of the data stream from ULCL +psa2 split to PSA 1.

Optionally, S702b, the SMF sends a session management message to PSA 1.

That is, while SMF indicates ULCL +psa2 to report the usage of the first data stream, SMF may indicate that PSA1 does not make statistics on the data stream of UE #1 split to PSA 1.

Optionally, the SMF sends a session management message to PSA 2.

Optionally, at S704, the SMF acquisition may also acquire the usage of the data stream of UE #1 counted by PSA 1.

The steps S701 to S704 may refer to the descriptions in S601 to S604, and will not be repeated.

Optionally, S705, the SMF sends a billing request message to the CHF based on the usage of the data stream split to PSA1 sent by ULCL +psa2 and the usage of the data stream of UE #1 counted by PSA 1.

Accordingly, CHF receives the billing request message from the SMF.

In one example, the charging request message may include location information of ue#1 and usage amount of data streams sent by ULCL +psa2 that are split to PSA 1. The location information of UE #1 may refer to the description in S510.

In another example, the billing request message may include ULCL +psa2 associated RG (or campus associated RG) and ULCL +psa2 sent usage of the data stream split to PSA 1.

S707, CHF generates a ticket of the ue#1 based on the charging request message, and stores a ticket corresponding to the usage of the data stream of the ue#1 counted by ULCL +psa2 in the ticket directory#1.

The ticket directory #1 is used for storing ticket corresponding to free data stream usage.

Illustratively, the CHF may configure a flow-free location area information list, and the CHF determines whether the data flow of ue#1 is flow-free according to the location information of ue#1 in the billing request message. If so, CHF stores the ticket corresponding to the ID of ULCL +PSA2 in the ticket directory #1.

Or the CHF may configure a flow-free RG list, and the CHF determines whether the data flow of ue#1 is flow-free based on the RG associated with ULCL +psa2 in the billing request message. If so, CHF stores the ticket corresponding to the ID of ULCL +PSA2 in the ticket directory #1.

If the CHF is a visiting CHF, then the operator billing system may not collect the ticket in the newly added no-flow directory (ticket directory # 1) back to the home location, and the billing of the home location may extract the no-flow ticket from the ticket directory #1 of the visiting CHF, and may differentiate the campuses according to the location information of the UE #1 or the RG, and settle accounts with the campuses.

Fig. 8 is an exemplary flow chart of another communication method 800 provided by an embodiment of the application. Ue#1 in fig. 8 is an example of the first terminal device in fig. 5, PCF is an example of the policy control element in fig. 5, ULCL +psa1 is an example of the first user plane element in fig. 5, SMF is an example of the session management element in fig. 5, and PSA2 is an example of the second user plane element in fig. 5.

S801, the PCF sends a campus policy to the SMF via the AMF. Accordingly, the SMF receives the campus policy from the PCF.

S802a, the SMF sends a session management message to ULCL +psa 2.

Accordingly, ULCL +psa2 receives this session management message from the SMF.

The session management message carries a charging rule that instructs PSA2 to count and report the usage of the data flow for UE #1.

S803a, ULCL +psa2 sends to the SMF the usage of the data stream split to PSA 2.

Accordingly, the SMF receives the usage of the data stream from ULCL +psa2 split to PSA 2.

S802b, the SMF sends a session management message to PSA 1.

The session management message carries a charging rule that instructs PSA1 to count and report the usage of the data flow for UE #1.

S803b, PSA1 transmits the counted usage of the data stream of ue#1 to SMF. Illustratively, the data stream is a data stream split to the PSA 1.

Optionally, in S804, the SMF acquisition may also acquire the usage of the data stream of ue#1 counted by PSA 1.

This step can be described with reference to S704.

S805, the SMF sends a billing request message to CHF. Accordingly, CHF receives the billing request message from the SMF.

The accounting request message may carry ULCL + ID of PSA2 and usage of data flows split to PSA 1. Optionally, the charging request message may also carry PSA2 statistics of the usage of the data flow of the ue#1.

Illustratively, before the SMF sends the billing request message, the SMF modifies the ID of PSA1 to an ID associated with the ID of ULCL +PSA 2. For example, the ID of PSA1 is modified to be the ID of PSA1 plus ULCL +PSA 2.

S806, CHF generates a ticket for the ue#1 based on the charging request message and stores the ticket in the ticket directory#1.

This step may refer to the description in S606, and will not be described again.

The method provided by the embodiment of the application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 5 to 8. The following describes in detail the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application with reference to fig. 9 to 11. It should be understood that the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments and the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to each other, and thus, descriptions of details not described may be referred to the above method embodiments, which are not repeated herein for brevity.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1000 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the communication apparatus 1000 may include: a transceiver unit 1010 and a processing unit 1020.

In one possible design, the communication device 1000 may be a session management network element in the above method embodiment, or may be a chip for implementing the function of the session management network element in the above method embodiment.

It should be understood that the communication device 1000 may correspond to a session management network element in the method 500 of the embodiment of the present application, or to SMFs in the methods 600 to 800. The communication apparatus 1000 may include means for performing the method performed by the session management network element in the method 500 in fig. 5, or may include means for performing the methods performed by the SMFs in the methods 600 to 800. And, each unit in the communication device 1000 and the other operations and/or functions described above are respectively for implementing the corresponding flow of the method 500 in fig. 5, the method 600 in fig. 6, the method 700 in fig. 7, or the method 800 in fig. 8. It should be understood that the specific process of each unit performing the corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiments, and is not described herein for brevity.

In another possible design, the communication device 1000 may be a charging function network element in the above method embodiment, or may be a chip for implementing the function of the charging function network element in the above method embodiment.

It should be appreciated that the communication device 1000 may correspond to a billing function network element in method 500 of an embodiment of the present application, or to CHF in methods 600-800. The communication device 1000 may comprise means for performing the method performed by the charging function network element in method 500 in fig. 5, or may comprise means for performing the methods performed by the CHF in methods 600-800. And, each unit in the communication device 1000 and the other operations and/or functions described above are respectively for implementing the corresponding flow of the method 500 in fig. 5, the method 600 in fig. 6, the method 700 in fig. 7, or the method 800 in fig. 8. It should be understood that the specific process of each unit performing the corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiments, and is not described herein for brevity.

In another possible design, the communication device 1000 may be the first user plane function network element in the above method embodiment, or may be a chip for implementing the function of the first user plane function network element in the above method embodiment.

It should be understood that the communication device 1000 may correspond to the first user plane function network element in the method 500 of the embodiment of the present application, or to ULCL +psa2 in the methods 600 to 800. The communication apparatus 1000 may comprise means for performing the method performed by the first user plane functional network element in the method 500 in fig. 5 or may comprise means for performing the method performed by ULCL +psa2 in the methods 600 to 800. And, each unit in the communication device 1000 and the other operations and/or functions described above are respectively for implementing the corresponding flow of the method 500 in fig. 5, the method 600 in fig. 6, the method 700 in fig. 7, or the method 800 in fig. 8. It should be understood that the specific process of each unit performing the corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiments, and is not described herein for brevity.

It should also be appreciated that the transceiver 1010 in the communication apparatus 1000 may correspond to the transceiver 2020 in the communication device 2000 illustrated in fig. 9, and the processing unit 1020 in the communication apparatus 1000 may correspond to the processor 2010 in the communication device 2000 illustrated in fig. 9.

It should also be appreciated that when the communication device 1000 is a chip, the chip includes a transceiver unit. Optionally, the chip may further comprise a processing unit. The receiving and transmitting unit can be an input and output circuit or a communication interface; the processing unit may be an integrated processor or microprocessor or an integrated circuit on the chip.

The transceiver 1010 is configured to perform a transceiver operation of a signal of the communication apparatus 1000, and the processing unit 1020 is configured to perform a processing operation of a signal of the communication apparatus 1000. Alternatively, the transceiver unit 1010 constitutes an acquisition unit, or the transceiver unit 1010 may be referred to as an acquisition unit. Optionally, the transceiver unit 1010 and the processing unit 1020 constitute an acquisition unit.

Optionally, the communication device 1000 further includes a storage unit 1030, where the storage unit 1030 is configured to store instructions.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 2000 provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 10, the apparatus 2000 includes: at least one processor 2010. The processor 2010 is coupled to the memory for executing instructions stored in the memory to perform the methods described in fig. 5,6,7, or 8. Optionally, the apparatus 2000 further comprises a transceiver 2020, and the processor 2010 is coupled to the memory for executing instructions stored in the memory to control the transceiver 2020 to transmit signals and/or receive signals. Optionally, the apparatus 2000 further comprises a memory 2030 for storing instructions.

It should be appreciated that the processor 2010 and the memory 2030 may be combined into a single processing device, and that the processor 2010 is configured to execute program code stored in the memory 2030 to perform the functions described above. In particular implementations, the memory 2030 may also be integrated within the processor 2010 or separate from the processor 2010.

It is also to be understood that the transceiver 2020 may include a receiver (or receiver) and a transmitter (or transmitter). The transceiver 2020 may further include antennas, the number of which may be one or more. The transceiver 2020 may in turn be a communications interface or interface circuitry.

When the device 2000 is a chip, the chip includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The receiving and transmitting unit can be an input and output circuit or a communication interface; the processing unit may be an integrated processor or microprocessor or an integrated circuit on the chip.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a system-on-chip according to an embodiment of the present application. The chip system here can also be a system of circuits. The chip system 3000 shown in fig. 11 includes: logic 3010 for coupling to an input interface through which data (e.g., IP addresses) is transferred to perform the methods described in fig. 5, 6, 7, or 8, and an input/output interface 3020.

The embodiment of the application also provides a processing device which comprises a processor and an interface. The processor may be used to perform the methods of the method embodiments described above.

It should be understood that the processing means may be a chip. For example, the processing device may be a field programmable gate array (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGA), an Application Specific Integrated Chip (ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a central processing unit (central processor unit, CPU), a network processor (network processor, NP), a digital signal processing circuit (DIGITAL SIGNAL processor, DSP), a microcontroller (micro controller unit, MCU), a programmable controller (programmable logic device, PLD) or other integrated chip.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or by instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in a hardware processor for execution, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor for execution. The software modules may be located in random access registers, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory and, in combination with its hardware, performs the steps of the above method. To avoid repetition, a detailed description is not provided herein.

It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in software form. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, or discrete hardware components. The disclosed methods, steps, and logic blocks in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (erasable PROM), an electrically erasable programmable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as external cache memory.

According to a method provided by an embodiment of the present application, the present application also provides a computer program product, including: computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any of the embodiments shown in fig. 5 to 8.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the present application further provides a computer readable medium storing a program code, which when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 5 to 8.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the application also provides a system which comprises the session management network element and the charging function network element. Optionally, the system further includes the aforementioned first user plane function network element and second user plane function network element.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof, and when implemented in software, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable information medium to another computer-readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a high-density digital video disc (digital video disc, DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid-state disk (solid-state drive STATE DISC, SSD)), or the like.

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

The session management network element obtains first information of a first terminal device, wherein the first information comprises the usage amount of a first data stream, the first data stream comprises the data stream of the first terminal device which is shunted to a second user plane function network element by a first user plane function network element, the first user plane function network element is used for shunting the data stream of the terminal device in a first area, the first area is a signing area of a private network signed by the first terminal device, and the second user plane function network element is used for transmitting user plane data between the first terminal device and a data network;

The session management network element sends a first charging request message to a charging function network element, wherein the first charging request message comprises first identification information and first information, and the first identification information is used for associating the first area.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the session management network element obtains the first information of the first terminal device, comprising:

the session management network element sends first indication information to the first user plane function network element, wherein the first indication information indicates statistics and reports the usage amount of the first data flow;

The session management network element receives usage of the first data flow from the first user plane function network element.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the method further comprises:

And the session management network element sends second indication information to the second user plane function network element, wherein the second indication information indicates that the usage amount of the first data flow is not counted.

4. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that before the session management network element sends the first charging request message to a charging function network element, the method further comprises:

the session management network element receives second information from the second user plane function network element, wherein the second information comprises the usage amount of the data stream of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the session management network element sending a first charging request message to a charging function network element, comprising:

The session management network element sends the first charging request message to the charging function network element based on the second information, wherein the first charging request message further comprises identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

The session management network element determines the first charging request message and a second charging request message based on the first information and the second information, wherein the second charging request message comprises identification information of the second user plane function network element and the second information;

And the session management network element sends the second charging request message to the charging function network element.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first identification information comprises at least one of the following information:

And the identification of the first user plane function network element, the position information of the first terminal equipment and the rate group RG associated with the first area.

8. The method according to any of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that before the session management network element obtains the first information of the first terminal device, the method further comprises:

The session management network element receives a charging rule from a policy control function network element, the charging rule indicating that the data stream type of the first terminal device is free data stream.

9. A method of communication, comprising:

The session management network element receives first information from a second user plane function network element, wherein the first information comprises the usage amount of a first data flow, the first data flow comprises the data flow of the first terminal equipment which is shunted to the second user plane function network element by the first user plane function network element, the first user plane function network element is used for shunting the data flow of the terminal equipment in a first area, the first area is the signing area of a private network signed by the first terminal equipment, and the second user plane function network element is used for transmitting user plane data between the first terminal equipment and a data network;

The session management network element sends a first charging request message to a charging function network element, wherein the first charging request message comprises second identification information and the first information, and the second identification information is associated with the identification information of the first user plane function network element.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein before the session management network element receives the first information from the second user plane function network element, the method further comprises:

and the session management network element sends third indication information to the second user plane function network element, wherein the third indication information indicates statistics and reports the usage amount of the first data flow.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the first information is associated with identification information of the second user plane function network element, the method further comprising, before the session management network element sends the first charging request message to the charging function network element:

the session management network element modifies the identification information of the second user plane function network element into second identification information.

12. The method according to any of claims 9 to 11, characterized in that before the session management network element sends the first charging request message to a charging function network element, the method further comprises:

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the session management network element sending a first charging request message to a charging function network element, comprising:

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

15. The method according to any of the claims 9 to 14, characterized in that before the session management network element obtains the first information of the first terminal device, the method further comprises:

16.A method of communication, comprising:

The method comprises the steps that a charging function network element receives a first charging request message from a session management network element, wherein the first charging request message comprises first identification information and first information, the first information comprises the usage amount of a first data stream of first terminal equipment, and the first data stream comprises the data stream of the first terminal equipment which is shunted to a second user plane function network element by a first user plane function network element;

the charging function network element generates a first ticket of the first terminal device based on the first identification information and the first information;

The first user plane function network element is used for shunting data flow of terminal equipment in a first area, the first area is a signing area of a private network signed by the first terminal equipment, the second user plane function network element is used for transmitting data between the first terminal equipment and the data network, and the first identification information is used for associating the first area.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the first charging request message further comprises identification information of the second user plane function network element and second information, the second information comprising a usage amount of the data flow of the first terminal device counted by the second user plane function network element.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein before the charging function network element generates the first ticket for the first terminal device based on the first identification information and the first information, the method further comprises:

The charging function network element splits the first identification information and the first information from the first charging request message.

19. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 18, wherein the first charging request message further comprises fourth indication information indicating that the first data stream is a free data stream, the method further comprising:

And the charging function network element stores the first ticket of the first terminal equipment in a first ticket catalog based on the fourth indication information, wherein the first ticket catalog is a ticket catalog for storing free data streams.

20. The method according to any of the claims 16 to 18, characterized in that the charging function network element is configured with first configuration information for configuring ticket handling of free data streams, the first configuration information comprising at least one type of identification information:

identification information, position area information and rate group RG information of the user plane function network element;

The identification information of the user plane function network element comprises an identification of at least one user plane function network element, the identification of the at least one user plane function network element comprises an identification of the first user plane network element, the location area information comprises location information of at least one area, the location information of the at least one area comprises location information of the first terminal device, the rate group information comprises information of at least one rate group, and the at least one rate group RG comprises rate groups RG associated with the first area.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

and the charging function network element stores a first ticket of the first terminal equipment in a first ticket catalog based on the first configuration information, wherein the first ticket catalog is a ticket catalog for storing free data streams.

22. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 21, wherein the first identification information comprises at least one of the following information:

23. A communication device, characterized in that the device comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to any of claims 1 to 8, or the device comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to any of claims 9 to 15, or the device comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to any of claims 16 to 22.

24. A communications device, the device comprising a processor coupled to a memory, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 8, or to perform the method of any one of claims 9 to 15, or to perform the method of any one of claims 16 to 22.

25. A computer readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 8, or to perform the method of any one of claims 9 to 15, or to perform the method of any one of claims 16 to 22.

26. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising: computer program code implementing the method according to any of claims 1 to 8 or performing the method according to any of claims 9 to 15 or performing the method according to any of claims 16 to 22 when said computer program code is run.