CN117998669A

CN117998669A - NPN identification method and device, electronic equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN117998669A
Application number: CN202211379240.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陆伟; 刘海
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2022-11-04
Filing date: 2022-11-04
Publication date: 2024-05-07
Also published as: WO2024093534A1; WO2024093534A9

Abstract

The disclosure provides an NPN identification method, an NPN identification device, electronic equipment and a storage medium, and relates to the technical field of wireless communication. The method may be performed by an AMF network element, the method comprising: receiving a target request message sent by UE, wherein the target request message comprises first indication information; and determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the first indication information. Therefore, the embodiment of the disclosure can identify the information of the NPN service performed by the UE. Therefore, the embodiment of the disclosure can identify the information of the NPN service performed by the UE, so that an operator can effectively control the NPN service and accurately perform operations such as charging.

Description

NPN identification method and device, electronic equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to the technical field of wireless communication, and in particular relates to an NPN identification method, an NPN identification device, electronic equipment and a storage medium.

Background

With the development of wireless communication technology, NPN (Non-Public Network) is more widely used in various scenarios. For example, in the 3GPP (3 rd Generation Partnership Project, third generation partnership project) specifications, NPN may include a type of SNPN (Stand-alone Non-Public Network).

Taking SNPN as an example, a UE (User Equipment) may establish a PDU (Protocol Data Unit ) session with an N3IWF (Non-3 GPP InterWorking Function ) network element through a PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network, public land mobile network) to access SNPN.

However, the related art only recognizes that the UE establishes the PDU session, and cannot register or delete the PDU session related to the UE outside the effective time and place of the UE accessing the NPN, thereby losing control over the NPN and also cannot accurately perform operations such as charging. Therefore, a method for identifying NPN services for UEs is needed. Therefore, an operator can effectively control the NPN and accurately perform operations such as charging and the like.

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

Disclosure of Invention

The disclosure provides an NPN identification method, an apparatus, an electronic device and a storage medium, which at least overcome the problem that the related technology cannot identify NPN service for UE to a certain extent.

Other features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from the following detailed description, or may be learned in part by the practice of the disclosure.

According to an aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided an NPN identification method performed by an AMF (ACCESS AND Mobility Management Function ) network element, the method comprising: receiving a target request message sent by UE, wherein the target request message comprises first indication information; and determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the first indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, if the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the SNPN type, the first indication information includes network identification information of the NPN; if the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the PNI-NPN type, the first indication information comprises CAG (Closed Access Groups, closed access group) list information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the target request message is a first PDU session establishment request message sent by the UE, and the method further includes: determining second indication information according to the first indication information; and sending second indication information to an SMF (Session Management Function ) network element, and determining that the PDU session is used for NPN service according to the second indication information by the SMF network element.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the first indication information is contained in ePCO (Extended Protocol Configuration Options, extended protocol configuration option) cells, and determining the second indication information based on the first indication information includes: taking the received first indication information as second indication information; sending second indication information to the session management function SMF network element, including: and sending second indication information to the SMF network element, wherein the second indication information is contained in ePCO cells.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the target request message is a service request message sent by the UE, and the method further includes: determining second indication information according to the first indication information; and sending second indication information to the SMF network element, wherein the SMF network element is used for determining the UE to carry out NPN service according to the second indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, when a network type of an NPN service performed by a UE is of a PNI-NPN type, a target request message is sent through an initial UE message, the target request message is sent to a RAN (Radio Access Network ) for the UE, and sent by the RAN to an AMF network element, where the RAN is configured to add first indication information to the initial UE message, where the first indication information includes CAG list information.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an NPN identification method performed by an SMF network element, the method comprising: receiving second indication information, wherein the second indication information is sent to the SMF network element by the UE or the AMF network element; and determining that the UE performs NPN service according to the second indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, when the second indication information is sent by the UE to the AMF network element, the second indication information is included in ePCO cells.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises: determining third indication information according to the second indication information; and the charging functional entity is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the third indication information and charging the process of carrying out the NPN service on the UE.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises: determining third indication information according to the second indication information; and sending third indication information to a UPF (User Plane Function ) network element, wherein the UPF network element is used for determining that the UE performs NPN service according to the third indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the second indication information is included in a second PDU session establishment request message sent by the AMF network element during the PDU session establishment process; or the second indication information is contained in a PDU session update context request message sent by the AMF network element in the service request process.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an NPN identification method performed by a UPF network element, the method comprising: monitoring a data stream sent by UE; and when the data stream is the data stream belonging to the NPN service, sending a notification message to the SMF network element, wherein the notification message contains third indication information, and the SMF network element is used for determining that the UE performs the NPN service through the third indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, monitoring a data stream transmitted by a UE includes: acquiring network protocol IP address or domain name information of a data stream; and monitoring whether the data stream is the data stream of the NPN service according to the network protocol IP address or domain name information of the data stream.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an NPN identifying device applied to an AMF network element, the device comprising: the target request message receiving module is used for receiving a target request message sent by the UE, wherein the target request message comprises first indication information; and the NPN service identification module is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the first indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, if the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the SNPN type, the first indication information includes network identification information of the NPN; if the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the PNI-NPN type, the first indication information comprises Closed Access Group (CAG) list information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the target request message is a first PDU session establishment request message sent by the UE, and the apparatus further includes: the second indication information determining module is used for determining second indication information according to the first indication information; and the second instruction information sending module is used for sending second instruction information to the SMF network element, and the SMF network element determines that the PDU session is used for NPN service according to the second instruction information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the first indication information is included in ePCO cells, and the second indication information determining module is configured to use the received first indication information as second indication information; and the second instruction information sending module is used for sending second instruction information to the SMF network element, wherein the second instruction information is contained in ePCO cells.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the target request message is a service request message sent by the UE, and the second indication information determining module is configured to determine second indication information according to the first indication information; the second indication information sending module is used for sending second indication information to the SMF network element, and the SMF network element is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the second indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, when a network type of an NPN service performed by a UE belongs to a PNI-NPN type, a target request message is sent through an initial UE message, where the target request message is sent by the UE to a RAN, and is sent by the RAN to an AMF network element, where the RAN is configured to add first indication information to the initial UE message, where the first indication information includes CAG list information.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an NPN identifying apparatus applied to an SMF network element, the apparatus comprising: the second instruction information receiving module is used for receiving second instruction information, wherein the second instruction information is sent to the SMF network element by the UE or the AMF network element; and the NPN service identification module is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the second indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the apparatus further comprises: the third indication information determining module is used for determining third indication information according to the second indication information; the charging function entity is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the third indication information and charging the process of the UE carrying out the NPN service.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a third indication information determining module is configured to determine third indication information according to the second indication information; the third indication information sending module is used for sending third indication information to the UPF network element, and the UPF network element is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the third indication information.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an NPN identifying device for use in a UPF network element, the device comprising: the data flow monitoring module is used for monitoring the data flow sent by the UE; the notification message sending module is configured to send a notification message to the SMF network element when the data flow is a data flow belonging to the NPN service, where the notification message includes third indication information, and the SMF network element is configured to determine that the UE performs the NPN service through the third indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a data flow monitoring module is configured to obtain a network protocol IP address or domain name information of a data flow; and monitoring whether the data stream is the data stream of the NPN service according to the network protocol IP address or domain name information of the data stream.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic apparatus including: a processor; and a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to perform the NPN identification method described above via execution of the executable instructions.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the NPN identification method described above.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program product or computer program comprising computer instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium. The processor of the computer device reads the computer instructions from the computer-readable storage medium, and the processor executes the computer instructions to cause the computer device to perform the NPN identification method provided in the various alternatives in any of the embodiments of the disclosure.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, the AMF network element can identify the information of the NPN service of the UE through the first indication information sent by the UE to the AMF network element. In addition, the SMF network element may identify information of NPN service performed by the UE by using the second indication information. In addition, the data flow may be monitored by a UPF network element, and when the data flow is a data flow belonging to an NPN service, the UPF network element may send a notification message to the SMF network element. Thus, the SMF network element may identify information that the UE needs to perform NPN service.

Therefore, the embodiment of the disclosure can identify the information of the NPN service performed by the UE, so that an operator can effectively control the NPN service and accurately perform operations such as charging.

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

Drawings

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

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an implementation environment of an NPN identification method in an embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an implementation environment of another NPN identification method in an embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of an NPN identification method in an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates a process diagram of an initial registration or re-registration process in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a process diagram illustrating a PDU session establishment procedure in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows a process schematic of a service request process in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart of another NPN identification method in an embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a process diagram of another NPN identification method in an embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a schematic process diagram of an NPN identification method in an embodiment of this disclosure;

fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of an NPN recognition device in an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of another NPN identification device in an embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of another NPN identification device in an embodiment of this disclosure;

Fig. 13 shows a block diagram of an electronic device in an embodiment of the disclosure.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the exemplary embodiments may be embodied in many forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

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

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an implementation environment of an NPN identification method according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

As shown in fig. 1, an implementation environment of the NPN identification method may include a UE 101, an AMF network element 102, and an SMF network element 103.

Illustratively, the UE 101 may send the first indication information to the AMF network element 102. The AMF network element 102 may receive the first indication information sent by the UE 101, and determine that the UE 101 performs NPN service according to the first indication information. And, the AMF network element 102 may further send the second indication information to the SMF network element 103 according to the method provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure. The SMF network element 103 may determine, according to the second indication information, that the UE performs NPN service.

Or the environment in which the NPN identification method is implemented may be as shown in fig. 2. In fig. 2, the implementation environment of the NPN identification method may include a UE 101, an SMF network element 103, and a UPF network element 104.

Illustratively, the UE101 may transmit a data stream. The UPF network element 104 may monitor the data flow. And may determine that the data stream is a data stream sent by the UE101 to the NPN by a method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. The UPF network element 104 may then send a third indication information to the SMF network element 103. The SMF network element 103 is configured to determine, according to the third indication information, that the UE101 performs NPN service.

Wherein the UE 101 may be a variety of electronic devices including, but not limited to, smartphones, tablets, laptop portable computers, desktop computers, wearable devices, augmented reality devices, virtual reality devices, and the like.

Alternatively, the clients of the applications installed in different UEs 101 are the same, or clients of the same type of application based on different operating systems. The specific form of the application client may also be different based on the different terminal platforms, for example, the application client may be a mobile phone client, a PC client, etc.

Also, the embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit the types of the AMF network element 102, the SMF network element 103, and the UPF network element 104.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the number of UE 101, AMF network element 102, SMF network element 103 in fig. 1, and UE 101, SMF network element 103, and UPF network element 104 in fig. 2 is merely illustrative, and any number of UE 101, AMF network element 102, SMF network element 103, and UPF network element 104 may be provided according to actual needs, and the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited in this respect.

The present exemplary embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples.

First, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an NPN identification method, which may be performed by an AMF network element.

Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of an NPN identifying method in an embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 3, the NPN identifying method provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes the following steps S302 to S304.

S302, receiving a target request message sent by the UE, wherein the target request message comprises first indication information.

The embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit the target request message, which may be defined based on experience or application scenarios. The target request message may be, for example, an initial registration request message or a re-registration request message sent by the UE to the AMF network element. Or the target request message may be a first PDU session establishment request message for the UE to apply for establishment of a PDU session to the AMF network element. Or the target request message may be a service request message that the UE requests the AMF network element for a corresponding service.

The embodiment of the present disclosure does not limit the first indication information, and in some embodiments, the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to SNPN types, and the first indication information may include network identification information of the NPN. Illustratively, any SNPN may correspond to network identification information of one NPN. Or the first indication information may also include indication information of the UE executing the NPN network service, where the indication information of the NPN network service refers to that the UE accesses a service different from the PLMN network executing service. The embodiment of the disclosure does not limit the format of the first indication information, and the format of the first indication information can be determined according to experience or application scenes.

In other embodiments, if the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the PNI-NPN type, the first indication information includes CAG list information. Illustratively, the CAG list information may include one or more CAG information therein.

S304, determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the first indication information.

Illustratively, the UE performing NPN service may refer to the UE accessing the NPN network, and illustratively, the UE may directly access the NPN network. Or the UE may access the NPN network through the PLMN network, in which case an IPSEC (Internet Protocol Security ) tunnel is established between the UE and the N3IWF network element through a PDU session in the PLMN network, so as to access the NPN network. For convenience of description, access of the UE to the NPN network means the same. After the AMF network element determines that the UE performs the NPN service according to the first indication information, information of the UE performing the NPN service may be sent to the SMF network element, so that the SMF network element obtains information of the UE performing the NPN service.

In some embodiments, the target request message may be an initial registration request message or a re-registration request message sent by the UE to the AMF network element. In this case, after determining that the UE performs the NPN service according to the first indication information in the target request message, the AMF network element may send a PDU session update context request message to the SMF network element, where the PDU session update context request message may include the second indication information. The second indication information is used for indicating the SMF network element to determine that the UE carries out NPN service.

In some embodiments, when the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the SNPN type, the second indication information may include network identification information of the NPN. Illustratively, any SNPN may correspond to network identification information of one NPN. Or the second indication information may also include indication information of the UE executing the NPN network service, where the indication information of the UE executing the NPN network service indicates that the UE accesses a network different from the PLMN network to perform the service.

In other embodiments, the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the PNI-NPN type, and the second indication information includes CAG list information. The second indication information may be determined by the first indication information. The embodiment of the present disclosure does not limit the format of the second indication information, and the format of the second indication information may be the same as or different from the form of the first indication information.

In this case, a process diagram of an initial registration or re-registration process may be as shown in fig. 4. In fig. 4, the UE may send a corresponding initial registration request message or re-registration request message to the RAN. The initial registration request message or the re-registration request message may include first indication information therein. The RAN may send the initial registration request message or the re-registration request message to the AMF network element.

Then, the AMF network element may determine that the UE performs NPN service according to the first indication information in the initial registration request message or the re-registration request message. Thereafter, the AMF network element may send a PDU session update context request message to the SMF network element, the PDU session update context request message including the second indication information.

And then, the SMF network element can determine that the UE carries out NPN service according to the second indication information. And, the SMF network element may return a PDU session update context response message to the AMF network element. The AMF network element may send a registration accept response message to the UE through the RAN.

In some embodiments, when the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE is of the PNI-NPN type, the UE sends a target request message, which may be sent by an initial UE message (Initial UE Message), the target request message being sent by the UE to the RAN and by the RAN to the AMF network element. Wherein the RAN may be configured to add first indication information to the initial UE message, where the first indication information may include CAG list information, where the CAG list information may include one or more CAG information supported by the RAN.

In some embodiments, the target request message may be a first PDU session establishment request message sent by the UE. Therefore, the NPN identification method provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure may further include: determining second indication information according to the first indication information; and sending second indication information to a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, and determining that the PDU session is used for NPN service by the SMF network element according to the second indication information.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first PDU session establishment request message may be PDU Session Establishment Request (PDU session establishment request). And the first PDU session establishment request message includes first indication information. Then, the AMF network element may determine the second indication information according to the first indication information. The AMF network element may then send second indication information to the SMF network element, where the SMF network element determines that the PDU session is for NPN service according to the second indication information.

In a possible implementation, the second indication information sent by the AMF network element to the SMF network element may be included in Nsmf _pdu session_ Create SMContext Request (a Session setup request message). The session establishment request message may be used to instruct the SMF network element to send an N4 session establishment request message to the UPF network element.

It should be noted that, taking an example that the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to SNPN types, the UE may establish a PDU session with the N3IWF network element through the PLMN, so as to access SNPN. Therefore, the first indication information may be used to indicate that the PDU session is used for establishing an IPSEC tunnel between the UE and the N3IWF network element, and in this manner, it may be determined that the PDU session is used for the UE to perform an NPN service, in which case, a specific form of the first indication information is not limited, such as the N3IWF indication information, or an indication information that the UE performs an NPN network service, for example, the UE may be accessed through the N3IWF network element SNPN, and thus the N3IWF indication information may be used to indicate that the UE accesses the N3IWF network element. Therefore, according to the N3IWF indication information, the UE can be determined to carry out NPN service.

The embodiment of the present disclosure does not limit the format of the second instruction information herein, and the format of the second instruction information may be determined according to experience or an application scenario. In addition, the second indication information may be the same as or different from the first indication information, which is not limited by the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the first indication information may be included in ePCO cells, and determining the second indication information based on the first indication information includes: and taking the received first indication information as second indication information. In this case, sending the second indication information to the SMF network element includes: and sending second indication information to the session management function SMF network element, wherein the second indication information is contained in ePCO cells. It should be noted that, when the first indication information is included in the ePCO cell, since the ePCO cell may be directly forwarded to the SMF network element by the AMF network element, it is equivalent to forwarding the received first indication information to the SMF network element. Therefore, the content and the form of the second instruction information at this time are the same as those of the first instruction information.

In this case, a procedure diagram of a PDU session establishment procedure may be as shown in fig. 5.

First, the UE may send a first PDU session establishment request message to the AMF network element. The first PDU session establishment request message is a target request message, and the target request message includes first indication information. The first instruction information may include, for example, NPN network identification information. Or the first indication information may also include indication information for the UE to execute NPN network services, where the indication information is used to instruct the UE to access a network different from the PLMN network to perform services. The first indication information may be included in ePCO cells, in which case the AMF network element obtains ePCO cells and forwards the cells to the SMF. That is, the AMF network element cannot directly acquire the first indication information.

The AMF network element may then send a session establishment request message to the SMF network element. The session establishment request message includes ePCO cells, if the first indication information is included in ePCO cells, when the SMF network element obtains the first indication information in the ePCO cells, the first indication information may be directly used as the second indication information for convenience of description. For example, the session establishment request message may include second indication information. The form of the second indication information may be the same as or different from the form of the first indication information included in the target request message.

The SMF network element may then return a session establishment response message to the AMF network element. And may send an N4 session setup request message to the UPF network element. For example, the N4 session establishment request message may include third indication information. Wherein the third indication information may be determined based on the second indication information, and the form of the third indication information may be the same as or different from the form of the second indication information. The UPF determines that the data flow of the PDU session is NPN service according to the third indication information, so that session management or charging and other operations can be executed.

The UPF network element may then return an N4 session setup response message to the SMF network element. The SMF network element may perform N1N2 transmission to the AMF network element. The embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to the specific content of the N1N2 transmission. The N1N2 transmission may be used for transmitting a transmission request generated by the SMF network element from a data notification message sent by the UPF network element, for example.

The AMF Network element may send AN N2 PDU session request message to AN (Access Network). Illustratively, the access network corresponding to the AN may be AN access network employing any access technology, which is not limited by the embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the radio access technology may be a 3GPP access technology, or may be a Non-3GPP (Non-third Generation partnership project) access technology. AN in which 3GPP access technology is employed may be referred to as a RAN.

The UE may then perform a specific resource establishment procedure with the AN. Embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to this particular resource establishment procedure, which may be determined based on the application scenario. And, the UE may return an N2 PDU session response message to the AMF network element.

Then, the AMF network element sends a PDU session update context request message to the SMF network element. In one possible implementation, the PDU session update context request message may include second indication information. The SMF network element may send an N4 session modification request message to the UPF network element. In a possible implementation manner, the N4 session modification request message may include third indication information. The UPF network element may then return an N4 session modification response message to the SMF network element. The N4 session modification response message may be N4 Session Modification Response, for example.

Finally, the SMF network element may return a PDU session update context response message to the AMF network element. Illustratively, the PDU Session update context response message may be Nsmf _pdu session_ Update SMContext Response.

In other embodiments, the target request message may be a service request message sent by the UE. In this case, the NPN identification method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure may further include: acquiring second indication information according to the first indication information; and sending second indication information to the SMF network element, wherein the SMF network element is used for determining the UE to carry out NPN service according to the second indication information.

Illustratively, the embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit the content of the corresponding service requested by the service request message, for example, the corresponding service may be for obtaining corresponding data, or may be for obtaining a corresponding calculation result for the corresponding calculation of the data, or the like.

In an exemplary embodiment, after receiving the service request message sent by the UE, the AMF network element may determine the second indication information through the first indication information included in the service request message. And transmitting a PDU session update context request message to the SMF network element, wherein the PDU session update context request message may include the second indication information. Embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit the form of the PDU Session update context request message, which may be Nsmf _pdu session_ Update SMContext Request, for example. The PDU session update context request message may be used to instruct the SMF network element to send a corresponding N4 session modification request message to the UPF network element. The form of the N4 session modification request message is not limited by the embodiments of the present disclosure.

By way of example, a process diagram of one possible service request procedure may be as shown in fig. 6. In fig. 6, the UE may send a target request message to the AMF network element. The target request message is illustratively used for the UE to request the corresponding service from the AMF network element. The target request message includes first indication information. Thereafter, the AMF network element may send a PDU session update context request message containing the second indication information to the SMF network element.

The SMF network element may then send an N4 session modification request message to the UPF network element. For example, the N4 session modification request message may include third indication information. The PDU network element may return an N4 session modification response message to the SMF network element. The form of the N4 session modification response message is not limited by the embodiments of the present disclosure.

The SMF network element may then return a PDU session update context response message to the AMF network element. Embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit the form of the PDU Session update context response message, which may be Nsmf _pdu session_ Update SMContext Response, for example.

The AMF network element may then send AN N2 request message to the AN. The AN may be, for example, a RAN. Finally, the UE may perform RRC (Radio Resource Control ) connection reconfiguration. The RRC connection reconfiguration may be used, for example, to establish bearers such as SRB1 (SIGNALING RADIO BEARER 1, radio signaling bearer 1).

As shown in fig. 7, an NPN identification method is provided in an embodiment of the disclosure, which may be performed by an SMF network element. In fig. 7, the NPN identifying method provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes the following steps S702 to S704.

S702, receiving second indication information, wherein the second indication information is sent to the SMF network element by the UE or the AMF network element.

The form of the second indication information may be referred to S304, and will not be described herein. And, the second indication information may be sent directly to the SMF network element by the UE, or may be sent to the SMF network element by the AMF network element. The embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited in this regard.

In some embodiments, the UE may send first indication information to the AMF, the first indication information being contained in ePCO cells. Thereafter, the AMF network element forwards ePCO the cell to the SMF network element, the AMF network element does not read or parse the information in ePCO, because the first indication information is included in the cell, the AMF network element may be considered to send the first indication information to the SMF network element, for convenience of description, in this disclosure, the information sent by the AMF network element to the SMF network element is referred to as second indication information, so in unified case, when the first indication information is included in the ePCO cell, the AMF network element forwards ePCO the cell to the SMF network element, where the first indication information is included therein is referred to as second indication information.

In some embodiments, the second indication information may be included in a second PDU session establishment request message sent by the AMF network element during the PDU session establishment procedure; or the second indication information may be included in a PDU session update context request message sent by the AMF network element during the service request procedure.

And S704, determining that the UE performs NPN service according to the second indication information.

In some embodiments, the NPN identification method provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure may further include: determining third indication information according to the second indication information; and the charging functional entity is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the third indication information and charging the process of carrying out the NPN service on the UE.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to the billing function entity, which may be CHF (CHarging Function, billing function), for example. In addition, the embodiment of the disclosure also does not limit the method for charging the charging function entity.

For example, when the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the SNPN type, the third indication information may include network identification information of the NPN. Illustratively, any SNPN may correspond to network identification information of one NPN. Or the third indication information may also include indication information for the UE to execute NPN network services, where the indication information is used to instruct the UE to access a network different from the PLMN network to perform services.

Or when the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the PNI-NPN type, the third indication information comprises CAG list information. The embodiment of the present disclosure does not limit the format of the third indication information, and the format of the third indication information may be the same as or different from the format of the second indication information.

In some embodiments, the NPN identification method provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure may further include: determining third indication information according to the second indication information; and sending third indication information to the UPF network element, wherein the UPF network element is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the third indication information.

As shown in fig. 8, an NPN identification method is provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be performed by a UPF network element, and in fig. 8, the NPN identification method provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes the following steps S802 to S804.

S802, monitoring a data stream sent by the UE.

The disclosed embodiments are not limited to the content and form of the data stream. And, the data stream may be a data stream sent by the UE to any network node.

In some embodiments, monitoring a data stream transmitted by a UE includes: acquiring network protocol IP address or domain name information of a data stream; and monitoring whether the data stream is the data stream of the NPN service according to the network protocol IP address or domain name information of the data stream.

In some embodiments, the UPF element may include information of a preconfigured N3IWF element. When a fully qualified domain name (FQDN, fully Qualified Domain Name) or network protocol (IP, internet Protocol) address included in the data flow corresponds to an N3IWF network element, the UPF network element may determine that the data flow is a data flow belonging to NPN traffic. Illustratively, a hostname (Host Name) and a Domain Name (Domain Name) may be included in the FQDN.

Therefore, the UPF network element may monitor the data flow and determine, based on the FQDN or the IP address of the data flow, that the data flow is a data flow sent by the UE to the NPN. So that the UPF network element can determine that the UE has accessed an NPN.

S804, when the data stream is the data stream belonging to NPN service, sending a notification message to the SMF network element, wherein the notification message contains third indication information, and the SMF network element is used for determining that the UE performs the NPN service through the third indication information.

For example, after the UPF network element determines that the data flow is a data flow belonging to the NPN service, the UPF network element may obtain session identification information of a PDU session corresponding to the data flow. And encapsulating the session identification information of the PDU session and the third indication information into a notification message, and sending the notification message to the SMF network element. The SMF network element may determine that the UE performs NPN service according to the third indication information, and notify the charging functional entity of information about the UE performing NPN service.

Illustratively, a process schematic of an NPN identification method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure may be shown in fig. 9. In fig. 9, the UPF network element monitors the data flow, and the FQDN or IP address included in the data flow corresponds to the N3IWF network element, so as to determine that the UE accesses the NPN.

And then, the UPF network element can send a notification message to the SMF network element, wherein third indication information included in the notification message can indicate that the UE needs to perform NPN service. In a possible implementation manner, the notification message may further include session identification information of the PDU session corresponding to the data stream.

Finally, the SMF network element may return a response message corresponding to the notification message.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the disclosure, the AMF network element can identify the information of the NPN service of the UE through the first indication information sent by the UE to the AMF network element. In addition, the SMF network element may identify information of NPN service performed by the UE by using the second indication information. In addition, the data flow may be monitored by a UPF network element, and when the data flow is a data flow belonging to an NPN service, the UPF network element may send a notification message to the SMF network element. The SMF network element can thus identify information that the UE needs to perform NPN services. Therefore, the embodiment of the disclosure can identify the information of the NPN service performed by the UE, so that an operator can effectively control the NPN service and accurately perform operations such as charging.

Based on the same inventive concept, an NPN identification device is also provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure, as follows. Since the principle of solving the problem of the embodiment of the device is similar to that of the embodiment of the method, the implementation of the embodiment of the device can be referred to the implementation of the embodiment of the method, and the repetition is omitted.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of an NPN identifying apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure, where the apparatus is applied to an AMF network element as shown in fig. 10, and includes:

a target request message receiving module 1001, configured to receive a target request message sent by a UE, where the target request message includes first indication information;

the NPN service identification module 1002 is configured to determine that the UE performs NPN service according to the first indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, when a network type of an NPN service performed by a UE belongs to a PNI-NPN type, a target request message is sent through an initial UE message, where the target request message is sent by the UE to a RAN, and is sent by the RAN to the AMF network element, where the RAN is configured to add first indication information in the initial UE message, where the first indication information includes CAG list information.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of an NPN identifying apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure, where, as shown in fig. 11, the apparatus is applied to an SMF network element, and the apparatus includes:

A second instruction information receiving module 1101, configured to receive second instruction information, where the second instruction information is sent to the SMF network element by the UE or the AMF network element;

And the NPN service identification module 1102 is configured to determine that the UE performs NPN service according to the second indication information.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of an NPN identifying device according to an embodiment of the disclosure, where the device is applied to a UPF network element as shown in fig. 12, and the device includes:

a data flow monitoring module 1201, configured to monitor a data flow sent by the UE;

a notification message sending module 1202, configured to send a notification message to an SMF network element when the data flow is a data flow belonging to an NPN service, where the notification message includes third indication information, and the SMF network element is configured to determine that the UE performs the NPN service through the third indication information.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the data flow monitoring module 1201 is configured to obtain a network protocol IP address or domain name information of a data flow; and monitoring whether the data stream is the data stream of the NPN service according to the network protocol IP address or domain name information of the data stream.

The device provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can enable the AMF network element to identify the information of the NPN service of the UE through the first indication information sent by the UE to the AMF network element. In addition, the SMF network element may identify information of NPN service performed by the UE by using the second indication information. In addition, the data flow may be monitored by a UPF network element, and when the data flow is a data flow belonging to an NPN service, the UPF network element may send a notification message to the SMF network element. The SMF network element can thus identify information that the UE needs to perform NPN services. Therefore, the embodiment of the disclosure can identify the information of the NPN service performed by the UE, so that an operator can effectively control the NPN service and accurately perform operations such as charging.

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

An electronic device 1300 according to such an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 13. The electronic device 1300 shown in fig. 13 is merely an example and should not be construed to limit the functionality and scope of use of embodiments of the present disclosure in any way.

As shown in fig. 13, the electronic device 1300 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. The components of the electronic device 1300 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 1310, the at least one memory unit 1320, and a bus 1330 connecting the different system components (including the memory unit 1320 and the processing unit 1310).

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 1310 such that the processing unit 1310 performs steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure described in the section "detailed description of the invention" above.

The storage unit 1320 may include readable media in the form of volatile storage units, such as Random Access Memory (RAM) 13201 and/or cache memory 13202, and may further include Read Only Memory (ROM) 13203.

The storage unit 1320 may also include a program/utility 13204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 13205, such program modules 13205 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each or some combination of which may include an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 1330 may be a local bus representing one or more of several types of bus structures including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 1300 may also communicate with one or more external devices 1340 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 1300, and/or any device (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enables the electronic device 1300 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through an input/output (I/O) interface 1350. Also, the electronic device 1300 may communicate with one or more networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN) and/or a public network, for example, the Internet, through a network adapter 1360. As shown, the network adapter 1360 communicates with other modules of the electronic device 1300 over the bus 1330. It should be appreciated that although not shown, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in connection with electronic device 1300, including, but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, data backup storage systems, and the like.

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

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium, which may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium, is also provided. On which a program product is stored which enables the implementation of the method described above of the present disclosure. In some possible implementations, various aspects of the disclosure may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps according to the various exemplary embodiments of the disclosure as described in the detailed description section of the disclosure, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium in the present disclosure may include, but are not limited to: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Claims

1. An NPN identification method performed by an access and mobility management function AMF network element, the method comprising:

Receiving a target request message sent by User Equipment (UE), wherein the target request message comprises first indication information;

And determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the first indication information.

2. The NPN identification method according to claim 1, wherein if the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to SNPN types, the first indication information includes network identification information of NPN; and if the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to the PNI-NPN type, the first indication information comprises Closed Access Group (CAG) list information.

3. The NPN identification method according to any one of claims 1 or 2, wherein the target request message is a first PDU session establishment request message sent by the UE, the method further comprising:

determining second indication information according to the first indication information;

and the second indication information is sent to a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, and the SMF network element determines that the PDU session is used for NPN service according to the second indication information.

4. The NPN identification method of claim 3, wherein the first indication information is contained in ePCO cells, and wherein the determining the second indication information based on the first indication information comprises:

taking the received first indication information as the second indication information;

the sending the second indication information to the session management function SMF network element includes:

and sending second indication information to the SMF network element, wherein the second indication information is contained in ePCO cells.

5. The NPN identification method according to any one of claims 1 or 2, wherein the target request message is a service request message sent by the UE, the method further comprising:

and sending the second indication information to an SMF network element, wherein the SMF network element is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the second indication information.

6. The NPN identification method according to claim 2, wherein when the network type of the NPN service performed by the UE belongs to a PNI-NPN type, the target request message is sent through an initial UE message, the target request message is sent to a RAN by the RAN, and is sent to the AMF network element by the RAN, wherein the RAN is configured to add the first indication information to the initial UE message, and the first indication information includes the CAG list information.

7. An NPN identification method performed by an SMF network element, the method comprising:

Receiving second indication information, wherein the second indication information is sent to an SMF network element by UE or an AMF network element;

And determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the second indication information.

8. The NPN identification method of claim 7, wherein the second indication information is included in ePCO cells when the second indication information is sent by the UE to an AMF network element.

9. The NPN identification method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

determining third indication information according to the second indication information;

And the third indication information is sent to a charging functional entity, and the charging functional entity is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the third indication information and charging the process of carrying out NPN service on the UE.

10. The NPN identification method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

and sending the third indication information to a user plane function UPF network element, wherein the UPF network element is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the third indication information.

11. The NPN identification method according to any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the second indication information is included in a second PDU session establishment request message sent by the AMF network element in a PDU session establishment procedure;

or the second indication information is contained in a PDU session update context request message sent by the AMF network element in the service request process.

12. A method of NPN identification performed by a UPF network element, the method comprising:

Monitoring a data stream sent by UE;

And when the data stream is the data stream belonging to the NPN service, sending a notification message to an SMF network element, wherein the notification message comprises third indication information, and the SMF network element is used for determining that the UE carries out the NPN service through the third indication information.

13. The NPN identification method of claim 12, wherein the monitoring the data stream sent by the UE comprises:

acquiring network protocol IP address or domain name information of the data stream;

and monitoring whether the data stream is of NPN service or not according to the network protocol IP address or domain name information of the data stream.

14. An NPN identification device, applied to an AMF network element, comprising:

The target request message receiving module is used for receiving a target request message sent by the UE, wherein the target request message comprises first indication information;

and the NPN service identification module is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the first indication information.

15. An NPN identifying device, applied to an SMF network element, comprising:

the second instruction information receiving module is used for receiving second instruction information, wherein the second instruction information is sent to the SMF network element by the UE or the AMF network element;

and the NPN service identification module is used for determining that the UE carries out NPN service according to the second indication information.

16. An NPN identifying device, for use in a UPF network element, comprising:

the data flow monitoring module is used for monitoring the data flow sent by the UE;

A notification message sending module, configured to send a notification message to an SMF network element when the data flow is a data flow belonging to an NPN service, where the notification message includes third indication information, and the SMF network element is configured to determine, by using the third indication information, that the UE performs the NPN service.

17. An electronic device, comprising:

A processor; and

A memory for storing executable instructions of the processor;

Wherein the processor is configured to perform the NPN identification method of any one of claims 1-13 via execution of the executable instructions.

18. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, characterized in that the computer program, when being executed by a processor, implements the NPN identification method of any one of claims 1-13.