WO2020034827A1

WO2020034827A1 - Method for creating network slice, device, equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: WO2020034827A1
Application number: PCT/CN2019/098081
Authority: WO
Inventors: 梅波; 张进
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2018-08-16
Filing date: 2019-07-29
Publication date: 2020-02-20
Also published as: CN110536359A; CN110536359B

Abstract

Disclosed herein are a method for creating a network slice, a device, network slice management function equipment and a storage medium, the method comprising: when a network slice management function (NSMF) determines that it is necessary to create a transmission network slice sub-network according to a slice creation request, creating the transmission network slice sub-network on the basis of pre-stored external network connection information between slice sub-networks in a network slice.

Description

Network slice creation method, device, equipment and storage medium

This application claims priority from a Chinese patent application filed with the Chinese Patent Office on August 16, 2018, with an application number of 201810934218.2, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical field

The present application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a method, a device, a device, and a storage medium for creating a network slice.

Background technique

The industry has begun 5G research, and network slices are an important part of 5G.

The so-called network slice refers to a set of orchestrated and configured network functions and resources. This set constitutes a complete logical network that can provide specific network capabilities and network characteristics. The network features here include ultra-low latency and enhanced bandwidth.

Network slicing usually spans multiple technology domains, including access network (AN), transmission network (TN) and core network (CN). A network slice subnet is a subset of a network slice. The access network, transmission network, or core network in a network slice can form a network slice subnet separately. Refer to Figure 1 for an example of network slicing.

According to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) agreement, the slice management entity consists of CSMF (Communication Service Management Function, Communication Service Management Function), NSMF (Network Slice Management Function, Network Slice Management Function) and NSSMF (Network Slice Management Function) Slice Subnet (Management Function) consists of three parts. As shown in Figure 2, the three main functions are as follows:

Users can order communication services in the CSMF portal interface. CSMF is responsible for converting service order requests into slice creation requests and notifying NSMF.

NSMF is responsible for the management and orchestration of network slices. NSMF deduces the network slice subnet creation request from the network slice creation request parameter analysis, and notifies NSSMF.

NSSMF is responsible for the management and orchestration of the network slice subnet. NSSMF obtains the network service (Network) Service resource model and business configuration corresponding to the network slice subnet according to the network slice subnet creation request, and issues them to the Network Functions Virtualization Orchestrator (NFVO) and network element management. System (Element Management, EM), completes the deployment of resources and the opening of services.

The life cycle management of network slicing includes four phases: preparation, service, operation, and retirement. The preparation phase mainly includes the blueprint design, verification, and release of network slicing. The service phase mainly refers to the creation of network slice instances. The operation phase mainly includes operations such as activation, deactivation, update, and monitoring of network slice instances. The retirement phase mainly refers to the termination of network slice instances.

In the network slicing creation process, according to the description of the 3GPP 28.531 protocol, the creation process of the wireless slicing subnet and the core network slicing subnet, and the creation of the transmission network slicing subnet are two serial processes. The reason is set as a serial process , Because when creating a transmission network slice subnet, you need to obtain the external network connection information between the wireless slice subnet and the core network slice subnet. However, the external network connection information between the wireless slice subnet and the core network slice subnet is The creation response of the wireless slicing subnet and the core network slicing subnet is returned, which will result in a reduction in the speed of creating the transmission network slicing subnet.

Summary of the Invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a network slice creation method, device, network slice management function device, and storage medium, which are used to solve the problem that the slice creation process in the related art takes a long time.

According to a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for creating a network slice. The method includes: when the network slice management function NSMF determines that a transmission network slice subnet needs to be created according to a slice creation request, based on a pre-stored slice in the network slice. External network connection information between the networks to create the transmission network slice subnet.

Optionally, the slicing subnet within the network slice includes a wireless slicing subnet and a core network slicing subnet.

Optionally, the step of creating the transmission network slice subnet based on the external network connection information between slice subnets in the network slice stored in advance includes:

The transmission network slice subnet is created based on the external network connection information between slice subnets in the network slice stored in the NSMF during the network slice preparation phase.

Optionally, the storage location of the external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice includes a network slice template (Network Slice Template, NST).

Optionally, the external network connection information between the slicing subnets in the network slice includes one or more of the following information: Service Access Point (SAP), Internet Protocol (IP) Address, network plane, and port.

Optionally, the method further includes: when the NSMF determines that a wireless slice subnet and / or core network slice subnet needs to be created according to the slice creation request, executing the creating of the wireless slice subnet and / or core network The operation of slicing subnets.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a network slice creation device, including: a determining module and a first creating module;

The determining module is configured to trigger the first creating module when it is determined that a transmission network slice subnet needs to be created according to a slice creation request;

The first creating module is configured to create the transmission network slice subnet based on the pre-stored external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice.

Optionally, it further includes a saving module, which is applied in the NSMF and is configured to save external network connection information between slice subnets in the network slice.

Optionally, a second creation module is also included;

The determining module is further configured to trigger the second creating module when it is determined that a wireless slice subnet and / or a core network slice subnet needs to be created according to the slice creation request;

The second creating module is configured to perform an operation of creating the wireless slice subnet and / or the core network slice subnet.

According to a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a network slicing management function NSMF device, including a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor. The computer program is described by the When the processor executes, the steps of the method for creating a network slice according to any one of the above are implemented.

According to a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a storage medium, where a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, implements the steps of the network slice creation method according to any one of the foregoing.

This application uses the pre-stored external network connection information of the wireless slicing subnet / core network slicing subnet to directly create a transmission network slicing subnet, and does not need to return the wireless slicing subnet by creating a wireless slicing subnet / core network slicing subnet. The external network connection information of the network / core network slice subnet realizes the parallel processing of the network slice creation process and greatly speeds up the creation of network slices.

The above description is only an overview of the technical solution of this application. In order to understand the technical means of this application more clearly, it can be implemented in accordance with the content of the description, and in order to make the above and other purposes, features, and advantages of this application more obvious and understandable. The specific implementations of this application are listed below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the detailed description of the preferred embodiments below. The drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating preferred embodiments and are not to be considered as limiting the present application. Moreover, the same reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same parts. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an example diagram of network slicing in the related art;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of creating a network slice in the related art; FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a network slice creation method according to a second embodiment; FIG.

4 is a structural block diagram of a network slice creation device according to a third embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a network slice creation system according to a seventh embodiment.

detailed description

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present disclosure can be implemented in various forms and should not be limited by the embodiments set forth herein. These embodiments are provided to enable a thorough understanding of the present disclosure, and to fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art.

The first embodiment of the present application provides a method for creating a network slice, including:

When the network slice management function NSMF determines that a transmission network slice subnet needs to be created according to the slice creation request, the transmission network slice subnet is created based on the external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice stored in advance.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the external network connection information between the sliced subnets in the network slice is stored in advance. When the transmission network sliced subnet to be created is determined, the transmission network sliced subnet is immediately created without waiting for the wireless subnet slice / After the core network subnet slice creation is completed, the external network connection information between the slice subnets in the returned network slice is used to create the transmission network slice subnet, which speeds up the creation speed and saves the creation time.

The second embodiment of the present application provides a method for creating a network slice. As shown in FIG. 3, the method includes the following specific steps S101-S102.

S101: Store the external network connection information between the sliced subnets in the network slice in the NSMF during the network slice preparation stage.

S102: When the NSMF determines that a transmission network slice subnet needs to be created according to the slice creation request, the transmission network slice subnet is created based on pre-stored external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice.

In this embodiment, the sliced subnets in the network slice include: a wireless sliced subnet and a core network sliced subnet.

The storage location of the external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice includes the network slice template NST.

The external network connection information between the sliced subnets in the network slice includes one or more of the following information: service access point SAP, IP address, network plane, and port.

In the embodiment of the present invention, during the design stage of the network slice, the external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice is stored in the network slice template NST in the NSMF, so as to directly create a transmission network slice subnet in the future, and improve the creation speed .

In step S102 of this embodiment, when the transmission network slice subnet is created, the method further includes when the NSMF determines that a wireless slice subnet and / or a core network slice subnet needs to be created according to the slice creation request, Operation of the wireless slicing subnet and / or the core network slicing subnet. In this embodiment, a process of creating a wireless slice subnet and / or a core network slice subnet and a process of creating a transmission network slice subnet are parallel.

The third embodiment of the present application provides a network slice creation device. As shown in FIG. 4, the network slice creation device includes a determination module 101 and a first creation module 102. The determination module 101 is configured to determine to create a transmission network slice subnet according to a slice creation request. When the first creation module 102 is triggered; the first creation module 102 is configured to create the transmission network slice subnet based on the pre-stored external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the transmission network slice subnet to be created is determined by the determination module, the first creation module is directly started by using the external network connection information between the slice subnets stored in the network slice in advance to slice the transmission network. Network to create; speed up the creation speed and save the creation time.

A fourth embodiment of the present application provides a network slice creation device, including a determination module, a first creation module, and a save module; the determination module is configured to trigger the transmission network slice subnet when it is determined that a transmission network slice subnet needs to be created according to a slice creation request The first creation module; a save module, which is applied in the NSMF and is used to store external network connection information between slice subnets in the network slice during the network slice design phase. A first creating module is configured to create the transmission network slice subnet based on the pre-stored external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice.

A fifth embodiment of the present application provides a network slicing management function device, which includes a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor. The computer program is processed by the processor. When executed, the following steps are implemented: When the network slice management function NSMF determines that a transmission network slice subnet needs to be created according to the slice creation request, the transmission network slice is created based on the external network connection information between the slice subnets in the pre-stored network slice. Subnet.

For the specific implementation process of the foregoing method steps, reference may be made to the first and second embodiments, which are not repeatedly described in this embodiment.

A sixth embodiment of the present application provides a storage medium. A computer program is stored on the storage medium, and the computer program is executed by a processor to implement the following method: When the network slice management function NSMF determines that a transmission needs to be created according to a slice creation request When the network slicing the subnet, the transmission network slicing subnet is created based on the external network connection information between the slicing subnets in the network slice that is stored in advance.

The seventh embodiment of the present application provides a network slice creation system, in combination with FIG. 5, including: a communication service management function CSMF, a network slice management function NSMF, and a network slice subnet management function NSSMF; the NSMF is used to receive CSMF sending The slice creation request is determined according to the slice creation request, and multiple slice subnet creation requests are parsed and deduced from the slice creation request parameters to send the slice subnet creation request to NSSMF. At the same time, NSMF According to the pre-stored external network connection information and the Quality of Service (QOS) requirements of the transmission network slice subnet, a transmission network slice subnet located between the wireless slice subnet and the core network slice subnet is created.

In this embodiment, the NSMF is further configured to receive a response to the creation of a sliced subnet within the network slice sent by the NSSMF, and send a response to the creation of a sliced subnet within the network slice to the CSMF.

Specifically in the implementation process, the CSMF is used to receive a user's subscription service request, and convert the service subscription request into a slice creation request and send it to the NSMF.

In the slice creation process of this application, the wireless network slice subnet, the core network slice subnet, and the transmission network slice subnet are created in parallel, which speeds up the creation speed and saves the creation time.

The sequence numbers of the foregoing embodiments of the present invention are only for description, and do not represent the superiority or inferiority of the embodiments.

Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the methods in the above embodiments can be implemented by means of software plus a necessary universal hardware platform, and of course, can also be implemented by hardware, but in many cases the former is more Best implementation. Based on such an understanding, the technical solution of this application that is essentially or contributes to related technologies can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium (such as a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory) , ROM) / Random Access Memory (RAM), magnetic disks, compact discs, including a number of instructions for a terminal (can be a mobile phone, computer, server, air conditioner, or network device, etc.) to execute Methods described in various embodiments of the present application.

The embodiments of the present application have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present application is not limited to the specific implementations described above, and the specific implementations described above are only schematic and not restrictive. Those of ordinary skill in the art at Under the enlightenment of this application, many forms can be made without departing from the scope of this application and the scope of protection of the claims, and these all fall into the protection of this application.

Claims

A network slice creation method includes: when the network slice management function NSMF determines that a transmission network slice subnet needs to be created according to a slice creation request, based on external network connection information between slice subnets in a pre-stored network slice, The transmission network slices a subnet.
The method of claim 1, wherein slicing a subnet within the network slice comprises: a wireless slicing subnet and a core network slicing subnet.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the creating the transmission network slice subnet based on the pre-stored external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice comprises:

The transmission network slice subnet is created based on the external network connection information between slice subnets in the network slice stored in the NSMF during the network slice preparation phase.
The method according to claim 1 or 3, wherein the storage location of the external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice includes a network slice template NST.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the external network connection information between the sliced subnets in the network slice includes at least one of the following information: a service access point SAP, an Internet protocol address IP, a network plane, and a port .
The method of claim 1, further comprising one of the following:

If the NSMF determines that a wireless slice subnet needs to be created according to the slice creation request, creating the wireless slice subnet;

When the NSMF determines that a core network slice subnet needs to be created according to the slice creation request, creating the core network slice subnet;

When the NSMF determines that a wireless slice subnet and a core network slice subnet need to be created according to the slice creation request, creating the wireless slice subnet and the core network slice subnet.
A network slice creation device includes a determination module and a first creation module;

The determining module is configured to trigger the first creating module when it is determined that a transmission network slice subnet needs to be created according to a slice creation request;

The first creation module is configured to create the transmission network slice subnet based on the pre-stored external network connection information between the slice subnets in the network slice.
The device according to claim 7, further comprising a saving module, which is applied in the network slice management function NSMF and is configured to save external network connection information between slice subnets in the network slice.
The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a second creation module;

The determining module is further configured to trigger the second creating module when it is determined that at least one of a wireless slice subnet and a core network slice subnet needs to be created according to the slice creation request;

The second creation module is configured to perform an operation of creating at least one of the wireless slice subnet and the core network slice subnet.
A network slicing management function device includes a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory and operable on the processor. When the computer program is executed by the processor, the device is implemented as claimed in claim 1- The method for creating a network slice according to any one of 6.
A storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the network slice creation method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is implemented.