WO2011085614A1

WO2011085614A1 - Method for controlling resources in full service converged network and system therefor

Info

Publication number: WO2011085614A1
Application number: PCT/CN2010/078874
Authority: WO
Inventors: 孙默; 芮通; 吴锦花; 李勉
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2010-01-15
Filing date: 2010-11-18
Publication date: 2011-07-21
Also published as: CN102131296A

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for controlling resources in full service converged network and system therefor. Said method includes the following steps: a Resource Control Function (RCF) receives a resource request message of a service stream from a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF); and said RCF executes resource allocation according to said resource request message. The Quality of Service (QoS) of the admitted service stream is guaranteed, and the united QoS policy control of the fixed network and the mobile network is realized.

Description

Method and system for controlling resources in a full service convergence network

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method and system for controlling resources in a full service convergence network.

Background technique

As shown in FIG. 1 , an evolved packet system (EPS) proposed by 3GPP is composed of an evolved universal mobile communication system (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network, E-UTRAN), and a mobility management unit (Mobility). Management Entity, MME), Serving Gateway (S-GW), Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW or PDN GW), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), 3GPP Certification Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) server, Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) entity and other supporting nodes.

In the EPS system, the mobility management entity is responsible for the control planes such as mobility management, non-access stratum signaling processing, and user mobility management context management; S-GW is the access gateway connected to E-UTRAN. The device forwards data between the E-UTRAN and the P-GW, and is responsible for buffering the paging waiting data; the P-GW is a border gateway of the EPS and the Packet Data Network (PDN), and is responsible for accessing the PDN. And forwarding data between the EPS and the PDN; the S-GW and the P-GW are both core network gateways; the PCRF is a functional entity of the policy and charging rules, and is connected to the service network protocol (Internet Protocol, IP) service network through the interface Rx. The service information is obtained. In addition, the Gx/Gxa/Gxc interface is connected to the gateway device in the network, which is responsible for initiating the establishment of the IP bearer, guaranteeing the QoS of the service data, and performing charging control.

The EPS system supports interworking with non-3GPP systems, and is implemented through the S2a/S2b/S2c interface, where

The P-GW in the EPS system acts as an anchor between the 3GPP and the non-3GPP system. In the EPS system, non-3GPP access is divided into trusted non-3GPP IP access and untrusted non-3GPP IP access.

The following describes the manner in which the non-3GPP system accesses the P-GW: Trusted non-3GPP IP access can be directly connected to the P-GW through the S2a interface; untrusted non-3GPP IP access is connected to the P-GW through an evolved Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG), where ePDG and P - The interface between the GWs is S2b; the User Equipment (UE) is connected to the P-GW through the interface S2c, wherein the S2c can implement user plane related control and mobility support, and the supported mobility management protocol supports the dual stack. Mobile IPv6 Support for Dual Stack Hosts and Routers (DSMIPv6).

In the EPS system, the PCRF communicates with other network elements through the following interfaces:

When the Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) entity resides in the P-GW, the PCRF exchanges information with the P-GW through the Gx interface.

When the interface between the P-GW and the S-GW is in the PMIPv6, the S-GW has the function of performing Bearer Binding and Event Report Function (BBERF) entity to perform QoS control on the service data flow. , the PCRF exchanges information with the S-GW through the Gxc interface;

When a user accesses the EPS system through a trusted non-3GPP access system that resides in BBERF, the PCRF exchanges information with the trusted non-3GPP access gateway through the Gxa interface;

When the UE roams, the visited PCRF and the home PCRF communicate through the S9 interface, and the PCRF obtains the service information for formulating the PCC policy from the application function (AF) of the service through the Rx interface.

In 3GPP, the corresponding PDN network can be found by Access Point Name (APN). A connection from a UE to a PDN network is usually referred to as an IP Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. During the establishment of the IP-CAN session, the BBERF and the PCEF respectively establish a Diameter session with the PCRF, and through these Diameter sessions, the policy charging information for controlling the IP-CAN session and the service information for formulating the policy are transmitted.

In the EPS system, network elements and functions such as policy and charging control and execution with PCRF as the core are usually PCC systems. In the PCC system, the PCRF can dynamically send a PCC policy to the PCEF, which includes QoS and charging information. The PCC policy is the service related information provided by the PCRF according to the AF, the bearer related information reported by the PCEF, and the subscription of the user in the SPR. Information is formulated. The PCC system is shown in Figure 2:

The PCRF is responsible for the formulation of the policy and the charging rules. The PCC policy and the charging rules are sent to the PCEF through the Gx interface. The PCEF installs and executes the PCC policy, and reports related events, and exchanges accounting information with the charging system.

The BBERF receives the QoS rules of the service from the PCRF through the Gxx interface, and does not exchange accounting information with the charging system. It is only responsible for the bearer binding and reporting of related events.

The AF provides service information to the PCRF through the Rx interface;

The SPR saves the service information subscribed by the user. The PCRF can query the SPR for the service information subscribed by the user through the Sp interface. The PCEF sends the online charging information to the online charging system through the Gy interface.

System, OSC), for online charging statistics, the offline charging information is sent to the Offline Charging System (OFCS) through the Gz interface.

In a 3GPP mobile network, multiple bearers with different QoS priorities can be established between the UE and the GW. The service QoS is guaranteed by transmitting traffic of different QoS on the bearer corresponding to the Qos priority. When the AF initiates a policy control request to the PCRF based on the QoS negotiated by the service layer, the PCRF performs the authorization according to the user subscription information (obtained from the SPR) and the operator policy to generate a PCC policy, which is sent to the PCEF function in the GW. The PCC policy includes the following information: a traffic flow quintuple, QoS information (such as QCI, uplink and downlink bandwidth, etc.), and charging information (such as Charging Key, etc.). The UE and the GW establish a bearer according to the QoS of the service or modify the QoS attribute of the existing bearer, and perform bearer binding of the uplink service traffic on the UE side, that is, record which bearer the service flow should be transmitted from; The bearer binding of the service traffic, and the corresponding QoS priority label (such as DSCP) is used for the uplink traffic to ensure the QoS priority of the uplink traffic in the backbone network, and the service flow is calculated according to the charging information in the PCC policy. Fee control.

In R8, the S-GW and the P-GW can communicate using either GTP or PMIP protocols. When the GTP protocol is used, the bearer is established between the UE and the P-GW. Therefore, only the PCEF needs to perform policy and charging control on the P-GW. When the PMIP protocol is used, the bearer is established in the UE and Between the S-GWs, it is necessary to perform bearer binding on the S-GW through the BBERF function, to ensure the QoS of the service flow between the S-GW and the UE, and to pass the PCEF function on the P-GW. Line QoS and charging control.

At present, with the merger and reorganization of the telecommunications industry, most operators have become full network operators with both fixed and mobile networks. The convergence of fixed and mobile networks and full-service operations have become important development directions for major operators. The full-service converged network will be based on IP bearers, providing rich multimedia services such as voice, video and data. At the same time, it will provide users with personalized, mobile, broadband and multimedia services using an open and standard architecture. Therefore, unified deployment and management of user resources and quality of service (QoS) policies are implemented, and at the same time, refined control and QoS of individual users/services are the direction of full-service operation development.

The Policy and Charging Control (PCC) system is located between the service control layer and the bearer layer of the network. It can provide QoS support and charging control for the service layer. It is the operator's refined control and QoS guarantee. An important operational support system.

The PCC system was established for the wireless access method of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). For the entire network operator, the access mode of the user also includes the fixed network access. In the prior art, there is no method for uniformly controlling the charging of the fixed network and the mobile network based on the QoS policy, so that the service cannot be based on the QoS. Perform billing control.

Summary of the invention

The invention provides a method and system for controlling resources in a full service convergence network, and implements unified QoS policy control for fixed networks and mobile networks.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following technical solutions:

A method of controlling resources in a full service convergence network, including:

a resource control function (RCF) receives a resource request message of a service flow from a policy and charging rule function (PCRF);

The RCF performs resource allocation according to the resource request message.

In the above method, the step of the RCF performing resource allocation according to the resource request message may include: determining whether there are sufficient resources available; and, when determining that the available resources are sufficient, accepting the resource request of the service flow; rejecting when determining that the available resources are insufficient Resource request for a business flow. The method may further include: the PCRF transmitting a resource request message of the service flow under any of the following conditions: an authorization application function (AF) After the policy request; when the quality of service policy changes. Among them, the quality of service strategy can be

When the PCRF is triggered by internal or external triggering, the change of the quality of service policy may mean: the user's subscription information changes, and/or the carrier configuration changes.

The method may further include: after accepting the resource request of the service flow, the RCF sends a policy of the service flow to the policy enforcement function (PEF). The PEF may reside on a transport layer network element of the fixed network, and the transport layer network element may include one or more of the following network elements: a home gateway (CNG), an access node (AN), and a broadband network gateway ( BNG). The policies of the traffic flow may include a quality of service (QoS) policy and/or a charging policy.

The RCF may receive a resource request message of the service flow from the PCRF through the R1 interface; the RCF may send a policy of the service flow to the PEF through the R2 interface; the method may further include: the RCF communicates with the authentication server through the e4 interface.

A system for controlling resources in a full service convergence network, including a resource control function (RCF) and a policy and charging rule function (PCRF), wherein

The PCRF is configured to send a resource request message of a service flow to the RCF;

The RCF is configured to receive the resource request message from the PCRF and perform resource allocation according to the received resource request message. In the above system, the RCF may include: a judging module, which may be configured to determine whether the available resources on the path through which the service flow passes is sufficient; and a processing module, which may be configured to: when the judging module determines that the available resources are sufficient, accept the service flow a resource request; and, when the determining module determines that the available resources are insufficient, rejects the resource request of the service flow. The PCRF may be configured to send a resource request message for the traffic flow under any of the following conditions: after the policy request authorizing the application function (AF); and when the quality of service policy changes. The quality of service policy can change when the PCRF is triggered internally or externally; changes in the quality of service policy can mean: changes in the subscriber's subscription information, and/or changes in the carrier's configuration.

The RCF may also be configured to: send a policy of the service flow to the PEF after receiving the resource request of the service flow; where the policy of the service flow includes: a QoS policy and/or a charging policy. The PEF may reside on a transport layer network element, which may include one or more of the following network elements: a home gateway (CNG), an access node (AN), and a broadband network gateway (BNG). The RCF may be configured to: receive a resource request message from the PCRF through the R1 interface, and send a policy of the service flow to the PEF through the R2 interface; the RCF may also be configured to: communicate with the authentication server through the e4 interface.

The technical solution provided by the present invention guarantees the QoS of the accepted service flow by performing admission control on the resource request in the fixed network, and implements unified QoS policy control for the fixed network and the mobile network.

BRIEF abstract

1 is a schematic structural view of an EPS system in the prior art;

2 is a schematic structural view of a PCC system in the prior art;

3 is a schematic structural diagram of a fixed network in the prior art;

4 is a schematic structural diagram of a PCC system provided by the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a full service convergence network provided by the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for admission control in a full service convergence network according to Embodiment 1; FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method for admission control in a full service convergence network according to Embodiment 2.

Preferred embodiment of the invention

The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention are further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 3, a broadband access network (such as DSL) in a fixed network includes a user terminal UE (such as a PC, etc.), an access node AN (such as a DSLAM), and an access server AS (such as BRAS, BNG, etc.). The AN accesses the AS through multiple Ethernet switches that are converged. The AS accesses the metropolitan area network and the metropolitan area network accesses the backbone network. The AS is a key node for the service provider. The AS is connected to the authentication server (AAA or NASS). When the UE accesses, the user name and password of the UE are sent to the authentication server for authentication, and the UE is assigned an IP address.

Different from the mobile network, the UE and the access server do not distinguish different priority service flows by establishing different bearers. Therefore, implementing dynamic QoS control based on services on a fixed network requires a network element to maintain network topology and resource status, provide admission control based on network resource status for the service, and determine a policy enforcement point, and distribute the QoS policy to the determined Execution point, for For ease of description, we refer to this network element as a Resource Control Function (RCF) entity.

As shown in FIG. 4, the present invention provides a resource control system for fixed mobile convergence. An RCF entity is added to the original PCC system to maintain the network topology of the fixed network and the resource status of the network.

In the PCC system provided by the present invention, the RCF communicates with other entities in the following manner, including:

Obtaining policies and resource requests from the PCRF entity through the R1 interface;

Information exchange with the authentication server through the e4 interface;

The policy is sent to the policy enforcement function (Policy Enforcement Function) through the R2 interface.

The PEF entity, where the PEF entity resides on the fixed network transport layer network element, and is used to perform the policy of receiving and transmitting from the RCF.

The solution of the present invention is further described below with reference to a specific networking diagram, as shown in FIG. 5: The fixed network user terminal accesses the carrier network through a Customer Network Gateway (CNG), and is connected to an AN entity (such as a DSLAM, etc.); The AN entity accesses the Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) entity through the access network aggregation layer; the BNG uplink accesses the metro backbone network, and the IP backbone server provided by the operator is deployed in the metro backbone network. It should be noted that if the carrier is small, the BNG entity will access the backbone network.

In the present invention, the RCF is connected to the PCRF to maintain the fixed network topology and resource status, and provide admission control for the service policy request, and according to the service situation and the actual capacity of the transport layer network element, to the corresponding transport layer network element. The delivery policy, where the transport layer network element includes one or more of the following network elements: CNG, AN, and BNG.

The technical solution provided by the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings:

Embodiment 1

This example is described by using an application scenario in which a user equipment requests to transmit a service flow. The specific process is shown in Figure 7.

Step 601: Perform service negotiation between the UE and the AF, including determining a QoS parameter of the service flow. Step 602: The AF initiates policy control to the PCRF according to the negotiated QoS parameter.

Step 603: The PCRF formulates a policy according to the service subscription information of the user and the policy of the operator, and the service information in the request message sent by the AF, where the service subscription information is obtained from the SPR, where the policy includes a QoS policy and / or billing strategy;

Step 604: If the user accesses from the fixed network, the PCRF sends the policy to the RCF.

Step 605: After receiving the policy, the RCF performs a resource availability check, that is, determines whether there are enough available resources on the path through which the service flow passes, and if yes, accepts the resource request initiated by the user, and performs step 606; if not, rejects The resource request, the process ends;

Step 606: The RCF sends a policy to the transport layer network element.

Step 607: The transport layer network element executes the policy, and manages the service flow according to the policy content, including marking a QoS priority, limiting a bandwidth, and the like.

Embodiment 2

The common application of the QoS policy changes is taken as an example in the embodiment of the present invention. The specific process is as shown in FIG. 7:

Step 701: During the session, the PCRF is internally or externally triggered (for example, the subscription information of the user changes; the configuration of the carrier changes), and the QoS policy of the user is modified. Step 702: If the user is from the fixed network After access, the PCRF notifies the RCF of the updated QoS policy;

Step 703: The RCF performs a resource availability check on the resource update, determines whether there is sufficient resources on the path that the user's service flow passes to ensure the execution of the update, and if yes, accepts the update request, and performs step 704; if not, rejects the The resource update request is described, and the process ends.

Step 704: The RCF sends an updated policy to the corresponding transport layer network element, where the policy includes a QoS policy and/or a charging policy.

Step 705: The transport layer network element performs an update policy, and manages the service flow according to the policy content, including marking a QoS priority, limiting a bandwidth, and the like.

The following takes the fixed network shown in Figure 3 as an example:

The RCF maintenance record has a list of network topologies and resource conditions, where paths al, a2, a3, a4 Both the uplink and downlink of the bandwidth are 10M, and the uplink and downlink bandwidths of the paths bl and b2 are 15M.

In the fixed network, UE1 initiates a service that requires QoS guarantee to a server in the metropolitan area network, and needs 10M uplink and downlink bandwidth. The RCF performs resource availability check, accepts the resource request, and allocates path a1 for UE1. At this time, the RCF maintains the path. The topology and resource status need to be updated. The remaining up and down behavior of the path a1 is 0M, and the remaining uplink and downlink bandwidth of the path bl is 5M.

Further, in order to ensure that the traffic of the service can be preferentially forwarded in the passing device, it is not affected by other traffic. The RCF needs to deliver a QoS policy to other network elements, where the QoS policy delivered to the AN point is marked with a high priority QoS flag for the upstream traffic of the service flow; and is sent to the egress router of the server in the metropolitan area network. In the QoS policy, the downstream traffic of the traffic flow is marked with a high priority QoS.

Further, the RCF may also send the charging policy of the UE1 to the AN/AS point, and the AN/AS point performs charging information statistics on the service flow according to the measurement.

If the UE2 in the fixed network initiates a QoS-guaranteed service with an uplink and downlink bandwidth of 10M, the RCF determines that the available bandwidth on the path a2 is 10M according to the locally maintained network topology and resource status list, but the path bl The remaining available bandwidth is only 5M, and there is not enough resources for the transmission of the UE2 service flow. Then, the RCF rejects the resource request of the UE2, and ensures that the transmission of the admitted service flow (ie, the service flow of the UE1) is not affected.

After detecting that the UE1 releases the occupied bandwidth, the RCF updates the locally maintained network topology and resource status list. After the update, the available bandwidth of the path bl is 15M, and the RCF accepts the resource request of the UE2.

The present invention provides a system for controlling resources in a full service convergence network, including a resource control function (RCF) and a policy and charging rule function (PCRF).

In the system, the PCRF sends a resource request of the service flow to the RCF, and after receiving the resource request of the service flow, the RCF performs admission control on the resource request of the service flow. And if the RCF accepts the resource request of the service flow, sending a policy of the service flow to a Policy Execution Function (PEF), including a Quality of Service (QoS) policy and/or a charging policy. The PEF resides on a fixed network transport layer network element, where the transport layer network element includes one or more of the following network elements: a home gateway (CNG), an access node (AN), and a broadband network gateway (BNG). ). The PCF includes a judgment module and a processing module. The determining module determines whether the available resources on the path through which the service flow passes is sufficient; when determining that the available resources are sufficient, the processing module accepts the resource request of the service flow, and if the available resources are insufficient, the processing module rejects The resource request of the service flow.

The resource request of the service flow in the present invention is sent by the PCRF after the policy request of the authorized AF and/or the change of the service quality policy. The change of the quality of service policy occurs when the PCRF is triggered internally or externally, including one or more of the following changes: the subscription information of the user changes, and the configuration of the operator changes.

The system of the present invention further includes an authentication server, the RCF being configured to communicate with other network elements other than the RCF in the system by one or more of the following: through the R1 interface and the PCRF Communicate

Communicating with the PEF through an R2 interface;

Communicate with the authentication server through the e4 interface.

The technical solution provided by the invention ensures admission of the QoS of the service flow transmission by performing admission control on the resource request in the fixed network, and implements unified QoS policy control for the fixed network and the mobile network.

A person skilled in the art can understand that all or part of the steps of implementing the above embodiments can be completed by a program to instruct related hardware, and the program can be stored in a computer readable storage medium, when executed, including One or a combination of the steps of the method embodiments.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in the form of hardware, or may be implemented in the form of a software functional module. The integrated modules, if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as separate products, may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium.

The above-mentioned storage medium may be a read only memory, a magnetic disk or an optical disk or the like.

The above is only the specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention. It should be covered by the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined by the scope of the claims. Industrial applicability

Compared with the prior art, the present invention guarantees the QoS of the admitted service flow by performing admission control on the resource request in the fixed network, and implements unified QoS policy control for the fixed network and the mobile network.

Claims

Claim

1. A method of controlling resources in a full service convergence network, comprising:

Resource Control Function RCF receives the resource request message of the service flow from the policy and charging rule function PCRF;

The RCF performs resource allocation according to the resource request message.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of the RCF performing resource allocation according to the resource request message comprises:

Determine if there are enough resources available;

When it is determined that the available resources are sufficient, the resource request of the service flow is accepted; when it is determined that the available resources are insufficient, the resource request of the service flow is rejected.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: the PCRF transmitting a resource request message of the service flow under any of the following conditions:

Authorized application function AF policy request after;

When the quality of service strategy changes.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the quality of service policy changes when the PCRF is triggered internally or externally;

A change in the quality of service policy means that the user's subscription information changes, and/or the carrier's configuration changes.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising:

After receiving the resource request of the service flow, the RCF sends the policy of the service flow to the policy execution function PEF.

The method according to claim 5, wherein the PEF resides on a transport layer network element of a fixed network, and the transport layer network element includes one or more of the following network elements: a home gateway CNG, Incoming node AN and broadband network gateway BNG.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the policy of the service flow comprises a quality of service QoS policy and/or a charging policy.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein In the step of the RCF receiving the resource request message of the service flow from the PCRF, the RCF is a resource request message for receiving a service flow from the PCRF by using an R1 interface;

In the step of the RCF sending the service flow policy to the PEF, the RCF is a policy for sending the service flow to the PEF through an R2 interface;

The method further includes: the RCF communicating with the authentication server via the e4 interface.

9. A system for controlling resources in a full service convergence network, comprising a resource control function RCF and a policy and charging rule function PCRF, wherein

The RCF is configured to receive the resource request message from the PCRF and perform resource allocation based on the received resource request message.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the RCF comprises:

a judging module, configured to determine whether the available resources on the path through which the service flow passes is sufficient; the processing module is configured to: when the judging module determines that the available resources are sufficient, accept the resource request of the service flow; and, determine, that the When the resource is insufficient, the resource request of the service flow is rejected.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the PCRF is a resource request message set to transmit a service flow under any of the following conditions:

Authorized application function AF policy request;

After the quality of service strategy has changed.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the quality of service policy changes when the PCRF is internally or externally triggered;

Changes in the quality of service policy are: changes in the subscriber's subscription information and/or changes in the carrier's configuration.

13. The system according to any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein

The RCF is further configured to: after receiving the resource request of the service flow, send the policy of the service flow to a policy execution function PEF; the policy of the service flow includes a quality of service QoS policy and/or a charging policy.

The system according to claim 13, wherein the PEF resides on a transport layer network element, and the transport layer network element includes one or more of the following network elements: a home gateway CNG, an access node AN And broadband network gateway BNG.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the RCF is configured to: receive the resource request message from the PCRF through an R1 interface, and

Transmitting, by the R2 interface, a policy of the service flow to the PEF;

The RCF is further configured to: communicate with the authentication server via the e4 interface.