WO2020083051A1

WO2020083051A1 - Network element load balancing method and network device

Info

Publication number: WO2020083051A1
Application number: PCT/CN2019/110760
Authority: WO
Inventors: 王兵
Original assignee: 中国移动通信有限公司研究院; 中国移动通信集团有限公司
Priority date: 2018-10-22
Filing date: 2019-10-12
Publication date: 2020-04-30
Also published as: CN111082954A; CN111082954B

Abstract

Provided in the present disclosure are a network element load balancing method and a network device, the method comprising: receiving a notification message sent by a virtualisation network function VNF, the notification message being used for indicating capacity change information of a network element in a network element pool; the network element pool comprises at least two virtualisation network elements or the network element pool comprises at least one virtualisation network element and at least one physical network element; and, on the basis of the notification message, determining a weighting factor of the network element in the network element pool.

Description

Network element load balancing method and network equipment

Cross-reference of related applications

This application claims the priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 201811229086.X filed in China on October 22, 2018, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

Technical field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular, to a network element load balancing method and network equipment.

Background technique

In the operator's network, the control plane network elements often provide services by using several pools of the same type of network element. The network elements in the pool are load-sharing. When one or more network elements in the pool are returned due to failure In other situations, other networks in the pool can bear the original traffic carried by these network elements, which can solve the problem of unbalanced traffic carried by each network element without pools.

Among them, in the case of the core network group pool, there are the following two situations for load balancing in the pool:

1. Choose by locally configuring the weighting factors in the pool. Taking the 2/3 / 4G wireless access network element selecting the core network element as an example, in the mobile switching center (Mobile Switching Centre, MSC) / service General Packet Radio Service (General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) support node (Serving GPRS In the case of Support Node, SGSN) / Mobile Management Entity (Mobile Management Entity, MME) group pool, the Radio Network Controller (RNC) selects the MSC / SGSN / MME serving it in the pool. Taking the MSC group pool as an example, when a terminal enters the coverage area of a certain MSC pool, the radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) node will randomly allocate the terminal location update request to the pool in accordance with the principle of load balancing For a certain MSC, this MSC completes the location update process and subsequent traffic services. When the RNC first selects the MSC in the pool, the load balancing mechanism adopted is achieved through manual configuration. The load balancing strategy is mainly related to the processing capacity (that is, the nominal capacity) of each MSC in the pool, and is manually configured in the RNC The data pre-sets the capacity factor of each MSC in the pool. For example, the capacity of three MSCs is 400,000 users, 500,000 users, and 600,000 users. The capacity factor is 4: 5: 6. The RNC selects the capacity of each MSC in the pool. The probability is calculated based on this capacity factor. Correspondingly, in the fifth generation (5th Generation, 5G) mobile communication system, when the access network (Access) (AN) chooses to access the AMF in the pool of the mobile management function (Core Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF), The selection is based on the weighting factor of the AMF. The weighting factor of the AMF is related to the capacity of each AMF in the pool. The method of load balancing in the pool of the AMF can refer to the method of load balancing in the pool of the MSC above, so it will not be repeated here. When the pool runs for a period of time, due to various principles, such as unreasonable initial planning and the addition of new MSCs, the load among the MSCs in the pool will be uneven. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate procedures to clarify the monitoring and adjustment mechanism of the load status.

2. Load balancing with the help of the information of the third-party network element configuration. Taking the Call Session Control Function (CSCF) group pool as an example, in a pool composed of physical CSCFs, all CSCFs share a domain name. When the Session Border Controller (SBC) selects the next hop CSCF, SBC uses the domain name to query the Domain Name System (DNS). DNS returns a list of CSCF IP addresses. SBC selects the IP address with the highest priority and forwards the message to the CSCF for processing. Among them, the IP address list returned by DNS is generated by the static weight data configured in the DNS by the element management system (Element) Management / Operation & Maintenance Center (Operation & Maintenance Center, OMC). After the deployment of network elements in the pool is completed, EMS / OMC configures the weight ratio of network elements in the DNS according to the capacity of the network elements in the pool. According to the weight setting, each time SBC queries DNS, it returns an IP address list, and the order of the returned address list is consistent with the weight configured in DNS. After the SBC obtains the IP address list, it may be cached locally for a period of time (such as minutes). After the cache period expires, query DNS to obtain the latest IP address list. The above mechanism can make the load of network elements in the pool tend to balance as soon as possible after the network has been running for a period of time. However, after the NE is virtualized, in the case of a pool of virtualized NEs (or a pool of virtualized NEs and physical NEs), because the virtualized NEs support elastic scaling, once the virtualized NEs elastically scale There is no corresponding mechanism for timely notification of the need for data adaptation, and the pool still maintains the initial static data. In this case, even if the virtualized network element supports elastic scaling, after the network has been running for a period of time, the capacity of the virtualized network element after elastic scaling still cannot handle the matching business volume, resulting in the network element in the pool unable to reach the load Balanced state.

Summary of the invention

The present disclosure provides a network element load balancing method and network equipment, which solves the problem that the network element load in the network element pool cannot be automatically balanced.

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network element load balancing method, which is applied to a first network element, and the method includes:

Receive a notification message sent by a virtualized network function (Virtualized Network Function, VNF), where the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool, and the message includes the identifier of the network element pool; wherein the network element pool includes at least Virtualized network elements, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element;

According to the notification message, the weighting factors of the network elements in the network element pool are determined.

Before the step of receiving the notification message sent by the virtualized network function VNF, the method further includes:

Send a subscription request message to the VNF. The subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool. The message includes the identifier of the network element pool;

Receive the subscription response message fed back by the VNF according to the subscription request message, the message containing the identifier of the network element pool.

Obtain the initial weight factor and capacity information of the network elements in the network element pool.

Among them, the capacity change information includes: changed capacity information;

The step of determining the weighting factors of the network elements in the network element pool according to the notification message includes:

According to the changed capacity information indicated by the notification message, calculate the weighting factors of different network elements in the network element pool.

An embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a method for load balancing a network element, which is applied to a virtualized network function VNF. The method includes:

Send a notification message to the first network element, where the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool, and the message includes the identifier of the network element pool; wherein, the network element pool includes at least two virtualized network elements, or, The network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element.

Before the step of sending the notification message to the first network element, the method further includes:

Receiving a subscription request message sent by the first network element, the subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool, and the message includes the identifier of the network element pool;

According to the subscription request message, a subscription response message is sent to the first network element, and the message includes the identifier of the network element pool.

Expand capacity according to the operating data of virtualized network elements;

Based on the expanded capacity information, a notification message is generated.

Among them, the steps for expanding the capacity based on the operation data of the virtualized network element include:

Obtain the CPU usage of virtualized network elements in the network element pool;

If the CPU usage of the virtualized network element exceeds the preset threshold, the capacity expansion is performed according to the preset elasticity policy.

Among them, after generating the notification message according to the expanded capacity information, it also includes:

Query subscription list;

If the subscription list includes the first network element, the step of sending a notification message to the first network element is performed.

An embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a network device, where the network device is the first network element and includes: a processor; a memory and a transceiver connected to the processor; wherein,

The transceiver is used to: receive a notification message sent by a virtualized network function VNF, wherein the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool, and the message includes the identifier of the network element pool; wherein, the network element pool includes at least two A virtualized network element, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element;

The processor is used to: according to the notification message, determine the weighting factors of the network elements in the network element pool.

Among them, the transceiver is also used for:

Among them, the processor is also used for:

The processor is also used to:

An embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a network device, where the network device is the first network element, and the network device includes:

The first receiving module is configured to receive a notification message sent by a virtualized network function VNF, wherein the notification message is used to indicate capacity change information of a network element in a network element pool, and the message includes an identifier of the network element pool; wherein, the network element pool includes at least Two virtualized network elements, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element;

The first processing module is used to determine the weighting factor of the network elements in the network element pool according to the notification message.

An embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a network device, which is a virtualized network function VNF, including: a processor; a memory and a transceiver connected to the processor; wherein,

The transceiver is used to: send a notification message to the first network element, where the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool, and the message includes the identifier of the network element pool; The network element, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element.

Among them, the transceiver is also used for:

Among them, the processor is also used for:

Query subscription list;

An embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a network device. The network device is a virtualized network function VNF, including:

The second sending module is used to send a notification message to the first network element, where the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool, and the message includes the identifier of the network element pool; wherein, the network element pool includes at least two The virtualized network element, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the steps of the foregoing network element load balancing method are implemented.

The beneficial effects of the above technical solutions of the present disclosure are: after receiving the notification message sent by the VNF, the first network element determines the weighting factor of the network element in the network element pool according to the capacity change information indicated by the notification message, so that when the network element pool After the capacity of the element is updated, the first network element can determine the latest weighting factor of each network element in the network element pool, and allocate network elements to the user to process the request for processing, so that the network elements in the network element pool achieve load balancing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a schematic flowchart of a network element load balancing method on a first network element side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a network element load balancing method on a VNF side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

3a and 3b show schematic diagrams of interaction between network element entities according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

4 is a schematic structural diagram of a module of a network device on a first network element side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows a schematic structural diagram of a module of a network device on a VNF side of an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows a structural block diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

detailed description

To make the technical problems, technical solutions, and advantages to be solved by the present disclosure clearer, the following will describe in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. In the following description, specific details such as specific configurations and components are provided only to assist in a comprehensive understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. Therefore, it should be clear to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to the embodiments described herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.

It should be understood that “one embodiment” or “one embodiment” mentioned throughout the specification means that a specific feature, structure, or characteristic related to the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Therefore, “in one embodiment” or “in one embodiment” appearing throughout the specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. In addition, these specific features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in one or more embodiments in any suitable manner.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure, it should be understood that the size of the sequence numbers of the following processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not be implemented by the present disclosure The implementation process of the examples constitutes no limitation.

In addition, the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein.

In the embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that “B corresponding to A” means that B is associated with A, and B can be determined according to A. However, it should also be understood that determining B based on A does not mean determining B based on A alone, and B may also be determined based on A and / or other information.

As shown in FIG. 1, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network element load balancing method, which is applied to a first network element. The first network element is an extranet element that supports group pool network elements, which may include but is not limited to wireless The network control RNC / Domain Name System DNS or access network AN includes the following steps:

Step 11: Receive a notification message sent by the virtualized network function VNF, where the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool.

Wherein, the notification message may be sent to the extranet element after the VNF periodically or after the network element capacity in the network element pool changes. The extranet element is a third-party network element that stores weight information, such as RNC / VNF or AN. The network element pool includes at least two virtualized network elements, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element. When the network element pool includes at least two virtualized network elements, or at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element in the network element pool, if the virtual network element is expanded, the VNF will send an indication network to the first network element Notification message for meta-capacity changes. Among them, when a large number of users try to access the network element in the network element pool (such as burst assembly in the network service area), because the virtualized network element in the network element pool supports the elastic scaling of the capacity, the network element pool EMS / OMC can instruct the virtualized network function manager (Virtualized Network Function Manager, VNFM) to perform the expansion operation of the virtualized network element.

Step 12: Determine the weighting factors of the network elements in the network element pool according to the notification message.

After receiving the notification message, the first network element updates the weight configuration of each network element according to the latest capacity of each network element in the network element pool indicated by the notification message.

Specifically, the capacity change information includes: changed capacity information; Step 12 includes: calculating weighting factors of different network elements in the network element pool according to the changed capacity information indicated by the notification message. For the virtualized network element, the latest capacity may refer to the expanded capacity of the virtualized network element. The first network element actively obtains available capacity information of each network element in the current network element pool, and determines a new weighting factor according to the available capacity information.

Wherein, after step 11, it may further include: feeding back a notification response message to the VNF to notify the first network element (such as RNC / VNF or AN) of successfully receiving the capacity change information of the network element. The timing of this step and step 12 is not required, and it can occur before step 12 or after step 12.

The physical network element may be: a mobile switching center MSC, a mobile management entity MME or a call session control function CSCF entity, etc. Correspondingly, the virtualized network element may be: a virtualized MSC or a virtualized CSCF. Taking MSC as an example, when a terminal enters the coverage area of a pool of an MSC, the radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) node will randomly allocate the terminal location update request to one of the pools according to the principle of load balancing MSC, this MSC completes the location update process and assigns a temporary network identification code (Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity, TMSI) to the terminal. This TMSI carries a network resource identification (Network Resource Identity, NRI) field to identify the terminal service MSC number. When the terminal moves in the MSC's Pool service area, it will be served by the MSC until it leaves the MSC's Pool service area. During this period, if the terminal has a service request, the RAN node will directly distribute the traffic to the corresponding MSC for processing according to the NRI information in the TMSI carried in the request message.

Among them, when the extranet element continues to pay attention to the capacity information of the network element in the network element pool, the extranet element can subscribe to the capacity information of the network element, so that the VNF can periodically or when the capacity of the network element in the network element pool changes, outward The networking element sends the capacity change information of the network element. Specifically, before step 11, it further includes: sending a subscription request message to the VNF. The subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool; receiving a subscription response message fed back by the VNF according to the subscription request message to determine the successful subscription . In this way, the extranet elements outside the pool can subscribe to changes in the capacity of the network elements inside the pool through a subscription mechanism.

Among them, before step 11, the method further includes: acquiring initial weighting factors and capacity information of the network elements in the network element pool. Specifically, the first network element (RNC / VNF or AN) can obtain the initial weight factor of the pool and the capacity information of each network element in the pool through local configuration.

As shown in FIG. 2, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network element load balancing method, which is applied to a virtualized network function VNF and includes the following steps:

Step 21: Send a notification message to the first network element, where the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool.

Wherein, the network element pool includes at least two virtualized network elements, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element. When the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element, if the virtual network element is expanded, the VNF will send a message indicating the capacity change of the network element to the first network element (such as RNC / VNF or AN) Notification message. Among them, when a large number of users try to access the network element in the network element pool (such as burst assembly in the network service area), because the virtualized network element in the network element pool supports the elastic scaling of the capacity, the network element pool EMS / OMC can instruct VNFM to perform the expansion operation of the virtualized network element.

Among them, when the extranet element continues to pay attention to the capacity information of the network element in the network element pool, the extranet element can subscribe to the capacity information of the network element, so that the VNF can periodically or when the capacity of the network element in the network element pool changes, outward The networking element sends the capacity change information of the network element. Specifically, before step 21, the method further includes: receiving a subscription request message sent by the first network element (such as RNC / DNS or AN). The subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool; The first network element (RNC / DNS or AN) sends a subscription response message to notify the first network element (RNC / DNS or AN) that the subscription is successful. In this way, the extranet elements outside the pool can subscribe to changes in the capacity of the network elements inside the pool through a subscription mechanism.

Before step 21, the method further includes: performing expansion according to the operation data of the virtualized network element; and generating a notification message according to the expanded capacity information. Specifically, the step of performing capacity expansion according to the operation data of the virtualized network element includes: obtaining the CPU utilization rate of the virtualized network element in the network element pool; if the CPU utilization rate of the virtualized network element exceeds a preset threshold, the Set up an elastic strategy for expansion. For example: when a large number of users try to access the NE in the NE pool (such as burst assembly in the network service area), the CPU usage of the virtualized NE in the pool reaches the threshold, due to the support of the virtualized NE in the NE pool Flexible expansion of capacity. At this time, the EMS / OMC in the network element pool can instruct VNFM to perform the expansion operation of the virtualized network element. After completing the expansion operation according to the instructions, VNFM notifies the VNF that the expansion is successful.

According to the expanded capacity information, after the step of generating the notification message, it also includes: querying the subscription list; if the subscription list includes the first network element (RNC / DNS or AN), then execute the first network element (RNC / DNS or AN) The step of sending a notification message, step 21. The VNF whose capacity has changed checks the subscription list. If RNC / DNS or AN is found in the subscription list, that is, the capacity change information has been subscribed, the VNF can carry the capacity change information through the notification message to notify the RNC / outside the previously subscribed pool DNS or AN.

In a set of end-to-end network (such as 2/3 / 4G network) system, in the case of virtualized network element pool or virtualized network element and physical network element mixed pool, the system includes: VNFM, RNC / DNS, VNF and VNFM entities. Assuming a network element pool composed of a set of virtualized MSC (vMSC1) and two sets of physical MSC (MSC2 and MSC3), the initial deployment capacity of vMSC1, MSC2, and MSC3 in the network element pool is the same, then three MSCs are configured in DNS The weight ratio is 1: 1: 1. After the network has been running for a period of time, if a large number of users suddenly try to access (such as a sudden assembly in the network service area), because the virtualized network element supports elastic scaling, vMSC1 may be elastically scaled to ensure the capacity after elastic scaling Matching with the amount of traffic it handles, the state of network element load balancing in the network element pool can be achieved through the interaction process between network elements as shown in FIG. 3a.

Step 31: The RNC / DNS sends a subscription request message to the VNF (such as a virtualized MSC or MME, etc.), and the subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool.

Step 32: The VNF feeds back the subscription response message to the RNC / DNS to notify the RNC / DNS that the subscription is successful.

Step 33: The EMS / OMC detects that the CPU usage of the virtualized network element (such as vMSC1) reaches the preset threshold, the EMS / OMC receives the real-time data of the network element operation, and according to the preset elasticity strategy, the EMS / OMC sends the expansion to the VNFM Request to instruct VNFM to initiate the expansion operation of the virtualized network element, and the capacity of the virtualized network element changes.

Step 34: The VNFM sends capacity change information to the VNF to notify the capacity change. The capacity change information may be the new capacity after the change.

Step 35: The VNF queries the subscription list.

Step 36: If the subscription list includes RNC / DNS, the VNF sends a notification message to the RNC / DNS. The notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool.

Step 37: The RNC / DNS feeds back a notification response message to the VNF to notify the VNF that the capacity change information of the network element is successfully received.

In the 5G SA network, the core network already has a service-based subscription notification message, and plans to extend the service-oriented message to the N2 interface where the wireless network element selects AMF. That is, a subscription notification message can be defined on the N2 interface to carry new capacity information after the capacity changes. The process is shown in Figure 3b. The load balancing method of the network element includes:

Step 310: (R) AN sends a subscription request message to VNF through the N2 interface of AMF. The subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool.

Step 320: The VNF feeds a subscription response message to the (R) AN through the N2 interface of the AMF to notify the RNC / DNS that the subscription is successful.

Step 330: The EMS / OMC detects that the CPU usage of the virtualized network element (such as vMSC1) reaches a preset threshold, the EMS / OMC receives the real-time data of the network element operation, and according to the preset elasticity policy, the EMS / OMC sends the expansion to the VNFM Request to instruct VNFM to initiate the capacity expansion operation of vMSC1, and the capacity of vMSC1 changes.

Step 340: The VNFM sends capacity change information to the VNF to notify the capacity change. The capacity change information may be the new capacity after the change.

Step 350: The VNF queries the subscription list.

Step 360: If the subscription list includes (R) AN, the VNF sends a notification message to the (R) AN through the AMF N2 interface. The notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool.

Step 370: (R) The AN feeds back a notification response message to the VNF through the AMF's N2 interface to notify the VNF that it has successfully received the capacity change information of the network element.

Among them, it is worth noting that the above embodiments only use RNC / DNS or AN as the first network element for description. The first network element may also be another extranet element that supports group pool network elements, and its subscription notification and processing mechanism may be See the above embodiment, so it will not be repeated here.

In the network element load balancing method of the embodiment of the present disclosure, after receiving the notification message sent by the VNF, the first network element determines the weighting factor of the network element in the network element pool according to the capacity change information indicated by the notification message, so that when the network element pool After the capacity of the network element is updated, the first network element may determine the latest weighting factor of each network element in the network element pool, allocate network elements to the user to process the request for processing, so that the network elements in the network element pool achieve load balancing.

The above embodiments respectively introduce the network element load balancing method of the present disclosure, and the following embodiments will further describe their corresponding network devices with reference to the drawings.

Specifically, the network device in the embodiment of the present disclosure may be the first network element. As shown in FIG. 4, the network device 400 includes:

The first receiving module 410 is configured to receive a notification message sent by a virtualized network function VNF, where the notification message is used to indicate capacity change information of a network element in a network element pool; wherein the network element pool includes at least two virtualized network elements, Or, the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element;

The first processing module 420 is configured to determine the weighting factor of the network element in the network element pool according to the notification message.

The network device 400 also includes:

The first sending module is used to send a subscription request message to the VNF, and the subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool;

The second receiving module is configured to receive a subscription response message fed back by the VNF according to the subscription request message.

Among them, the network device 400 further includes:

The obtaining module is used to obtain the initial weighting factor and capacity information of the network elements in the network element pool.

The first processing module 420 includes:

The processing submodule is used to calculate the weighting factors of different network elements in the network element pool according to the changed capacity information indicated by the notification message.

The network device in the embodiment of the present disclosure may also be a virtualized network function VNF. As shown in FIG. 5, the network device 500 includes:

The second sending module 510 is configured to send a notification message to the first network element, where the notification message is used to indicate capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool; wherein the network element pool includes at least two virtualized network elements, or, The network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element.

The network device 500 also includes:

The third receiving module is used to receive the subscription request message sent by the first network element, and the subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool;

The third sending module is configured to send a subscription response message to the first network element according to the subscription request message.

Among them, the network device 500 also includes:

The capacity expansion module is used to expand the capacity according to the operating data of the virtualized network element;

The generation module is used for generating a notification message according to the expanded capacity information.

Among them, the expansion module includes:

Obtaining submodule, used to obtain the CPU usage of virtualized network elements in the network element pool;

The capacity expansion sub-module is used to expand capacity according to a preset elasticity policy if the CPU usage of the virtualized network element exceeds a preset threshold.

The network device 500 also includes:

Query module for querying the subscription list;

The control module is configured to execute the step of sending a notification message to the first network element if the subscription list includes the first network element.

The embodiment of the network device of the present disclosure corresponds to the embodiment of the above method. All the implementation means in the above method embodiment are applicable to the embodiment of the network device, and the same technical effect can also be achieved. After receiving the notification message sent by the VNF, the first network element determines the weighting factor of the network element in the network element pool according to the capacity change information indicated by the notification message, so that when the capacity of the network element in the network element pool is updated, the first network element The latest weighting factor of each network element in the network element pool can be determined, and the network element can be allocated for processing the user's processing request, so that the network elements in the network element pool can achieve load balancing.

In order to better achieve the above object, as shown in FIG. 6, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a network device, the network device includes: a processor 600; a memory 620 connected to the processor 600 through a bus interface, And a transceiver 610 connected to the processor 600 through a bus interface; the memory 620 is used to store programs and data used by the processor when performing operations; and send data information or pilots through the transceiver 610, It also receives the uplink control channel through the transceiver 610; when the processor 600 calls and executes the programs and data stored in the memory 620, the following functions are realized:

The processor 600 is used to read the program in the memory 620 and execute the corresponding process.

The transceiver 610 is used to receive and send data under the control of the processor 600.

When the network device is the first network element, the transceiver 610 is used to: receive a notification message sent by the virtualized network function VNF, where the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool; wherein, the network element pool At least two virtualized network elements are included, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element;

The processor 600 is configured to: according to the notification message, determine the weighting factor of the network elements in the network element pool.

Among them, the transceiver 610 is also used for:

Send a subscription request message to the VNF. The subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool;

Receive the subscription response message fed back by the VNF according to the subscription request message.

Among them, the processor 600 is also used for:

The processor 600 is also used to:

When the network device is a virtualized network function VNF, the transceiver 610 is used to: send a notification message to the first network element, where the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool; where the network element pool includes At least two virtualized network elements, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element.

Among them, the transceiver 610 is also used for:

Receiving a subscription request message sent by the first network element, where the subscription request message is used to subscribe to the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool;

According to the subscription request message, send a subscription response message to the first network element.

Among them, the processor 600 is also used for:

Query subscription list;

In FIG. 6, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges. Specifically, one or more processors represented by the processor 600 and various circuits of the memory represented by the memory 620 are linked together. The bus architecture can also link various other circuits such as peripheral devices, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, etc., which are well known in the art, and therefore, they will not be further described in this article. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 610 may be a plurality of elements, including a transmitter and a transceiver, and provides a unit for communicating with various other devices on a transmission medium. The processor 600 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 620 may store data used by the processor 600 when performing operations.

Those skilled in the art can understand that all or part of the steps of the above embodiments can be completed by hardware, or can be completed by instructing related hardware through a computer program, and the computer program includes instructions to perform some or all steps of the above method ; And the computer program may be stored in a readable storage medium, the storage medium may be any form of storage medium.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer-readable storage medium that stores a computer program on the computer-readable storage medium. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the processes of the foregoing network element load balancing method embodiments are implemented, and the same In order to avoid repetition, we will not repeat them here. Wherein, the computer-readable storage medium, such as read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM for short), random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM for short), magnetic disk or optical disk, etc.

In addition, it should be pointed out that, in the device and method of the present disclosure, obviously, each component or each step can be decomposed and / or recombined. These decompositions and / or recombinations should be regarded as equivalent solutions of the present disclosure. In addition, the steps for performing the above-mentioned series of processing may naturally be executed in chronological order in the order described, but it does not necessarily need to be executed in chronological order, and some steps may be executed in parallel or independently of each other. For those of ordinary skill in the art, all or any steps or components of the methods and devices of the present disclosure can be understood, and can be implemented in hardware, firmware in any computing device (including a processor, a storage medium, etc.) or a network of computing devices , Software, or a combination thereof, which can be achieved by those of ordinary skill in the art using their basic programming skills after reading the description of the present disclosure.

Therefore, the object of the present disclosure can also be achieved by running a program or a group of programs on any computing device. The computing device may be a well-known general-purpose device. Therefore, the object of the present disclosure can also be achieved only by providing a program product containing program code for implementing the method or device. That is, such a program product also constitutes the subject of this application, and a storage medium storing such a program product also constitutes the subject of this application. Obviously, the storage medium may be any known storage medium or any storage medium developed in the future. It should also be noted that, in the device and method of the present disclosure, obviously, each component or each step can be decomposed and / or recombined. These decompositions and / or recombinations should be regarded as equivalent solutions of the present disclosure. Moreover, the steps for performing the above-mentioned series of processing can naturally be performed in chronological order in the order described, but it does not necessarily need to be performed in chronological order. Certain steps can be performed in parallel or independently of each other.

Those of ordinary skill in the art may realize that the units and algorithm steps of the examples described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented by electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are executed in hardware or software depends on the specific application of the technical solution and design constraints. A person skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the present disclosure.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that for the convenience and conciseness of the description, the specific working process of the system, device and unit described above can refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

In the embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed device and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only a division of logical functions. In actual implementation, there may be other divisions, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or Can be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored, or not implemented. In addition, the displayed or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place, or may be distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present disclosure may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

If the function is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such an understanding, the technical solution of the present disclosure essentially or part of the contribution to the related technology or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including several The instructions are used to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present disclosure. The foregoing storage media include various media that can store program codes, such as a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

A person of ordinary skill in the art may understand that all or part of the processes in the method of the foregoing embodiments may be completed by controlling related hardware through a computer program, and the program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. During execution, the process of the embodiments of the above methods may be included. Wherein, the storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, ROM, RAM, or the like.

It can be understood that the embodiments described in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or a combination thereof. For hardware implementation, the processing unit can be implemented in one or more application specific integrated circuits (Application Specific Integrated Circuits, ASIC), digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processing, DSP), digital signal processing device (DSP Device, DSPD), programmable Logic Device (Programmable Logic Device, PLD), Field Programmable Gate Array (Field-Programmable Gate Array, FPGA), general-purpose processor, controller, microcontroller, microprocessor, others for performing the functions described in this disclosure Electronic unit or its combination.

For software implementation, the technology described in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented through modules (eg, procedures, functions, etc.) that perform the functions described in the embodiments of the present disclosure. The software codes can be stored in the memory and executed by the processor. The memory may be implemented in the processor or external to the processor.

The above is an optional embodiment of the present disclosure. It should be noted that those of ordinary skill in the art can make several improvements and retouching without departing from the principles described in the present disclosure. These improvements and retouching It should also be regarded as the scope of protection of this disclosure.

Claims

A network element load balancing method, applied to the first network element, includes:

Receiving a notification message sent by a virtualized network function VNF, where the notification message is used to indicate capacity change information of a network element in a network element pool; wherein, the network element pool includes at least two virtualized network elements, or, the The network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element;

According to the notification message, determine the weighting factor of the network elements in the network element pool.
The network element load balancing method according to claim 1, wherein before the step of receiving the notification message sent by the virtualized network function VNF, the method further comprises:

Sending a subscription request message to the VNF, where the subscription request message is used to subscribe to capacity change information of network elements in the network element pool;

Receiving a subscription response message fed back by the VNF according to the subscription request message.
The network element load balancing method according to claim 2, wherein both the subscription request message and the subscription response message include an identifier of the network element pool.
The network element load balancing method according to claim 1, wherein before the step of receiving the notification message sent by the virtualized network function VNF, the method further comprises:

Obtain the initial weight factor and capacity information of the network elements in the network element pool.
The network element load balancing method according to claim 1, wherein the capacity change information includes: changed capacity information;

The step of determining the weighting factors of the network elements in the network element pool according to the notification message includes:

Calculate the weighting factors of different network elements in the network element pool according to the changed capacity information indicated by the notification message.
The network element load balancing method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the notification message includes an identifier of the network element pool.
A network element load balancing method, applied to virtualized network function VNF, including:

Sending a notification message to the first network element, where the notification message is used to indicate capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool; wherein, the network element pool includes at least two virtualized network elements, or, the network element The pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element.
The network element load balancing method according to claim 7, wherein before the step of sending a notification message to the first network element, the method further comprises:

Receiving a subscription request message sent by the first network element, where the subscription request message is used to subscribe to capacity change information of network elements in the network element pool;

Sending a subscription response message to the first network element according to the subscription request message.
The network element load balancing method according to claim 8, wherein both the subscription request message and the subscription response message include an identifier of the network element pool.
The network element load balancing method according to claim 7, wherein before the step of sending a notification message to the first network element, the method further comprises:

Expand capacity according to the operating data of virtualized network elements;

The notification message is generated according to the expanded capacity information.
The network element load balancing method according to claim 10, wherein the step of expanding capacity according to the operation data of the virtualized network element includes:

Obtain the CPU usage of virtualized network elements in the network element pool;

If the CPU usage of the virtualized network element exceeds a preset threshold, the capacity expansion is performed according to a preset elasticity strategy.
The network element load balancing method according to claim 10, wherein after the step of generating the notification message according to the expanded capacity information, further comprising:

Query subscription list;

If the first network element is included in the subscription list, the step of sending a notification message to the first network element is performed.
The network element load balancing method according to any one of claims 7 to 12, wherein the notification message includes an identifier of the network element pool.
A network device, the network device is a first network element, including: a processor; a memory and a transceiver connected to the processor; wherein,

The transceiver is used to: receive a notification message sent by a virtualized network function VNF, wherein the notification message is used to indicate capacity change information of a network element in a network element pool; A network element, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element;

The processor is configured to determine the weighting factor of the network elements in the network element pool according to the notification message.
The network device according to claim 14, wherein the transceiver is further used to:

Sending a subscription request message to the VNF, where the subscription request message is used to subscribe to capacity change information of network elements in the network element pool;

Receiving a subscription response message fed back by the VNF according to the subscription request message.
The network device according to claim 15, wherein both the subscription request message and the subscription response message include an identifier of the network element pool.
The network device according to claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to:

Obtain the initial weight factor and capacity information of the network elements in the network element pool.
The network device according to claim 14, wherein the capacity change information includes: changed capacity information;

The processor is also used to:

Calculate the weighting factors of different network elements in the network element pool according to the changed capacity information indicated by the notification message.
The network device according to any one of claims 14 to 18, wherein the notification message includes an identifier of the network element pool.
A network device, the network device is a first network element, including:

A first receiving module, configured to receive a notification message sent by a virtualized network function VNF, wherein the notification message is used to indicate capacity change information of network elements in a network element pool; A network element, or the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element;

The first processing module is configured to determine the weighting factor of the network elements in the network element pool according to the notification message.
The network device according to claim 20, wherein the notification message includes an identifier of the network element pool.
A network device, the network device is a virtualized network function VNF, including: a processor; a memory and a transceiver connected to the processor; wherein,

The transceiver is used to: send a notification message to the first network element, wherein the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool; wherein, the network element pool includes at least two virtualized network elements, or , The network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element.
The network device according to claim 22, wherein the transceiver is further used to:

Receiving a subscription request message sent by the first network element, where the subscription request message is used to subscribe to capacity change information of network elements in the network element pool;

Sending a subscription response message to the first network element according to the subscription request message.
The network device according to claim 23, wherein both the subscription request message and the subscription response message include an identifier of the network element pool.
The network device according to claim 22, wherein the processor is further configured to:

Expand capacity according to the operating data of virtualized network elements;

The notification message is generated according to the expanded capacity information.
The network device according to claim 25, wherein the processor is further configured to:

Obtain the CPU usage of virtualized network elements in the network element pool;

If the CPU usage of the virtualized network element exceeds a preset threshold, the capacity expansion is performed according to a preset elasticity strategy.
The network device according to claim 25, wherein the processor is further configured to:

Query subscription list;

If the first network element is included in the subscription list, the step of sending a notification message to the first network element is performed.
The network device according to any one of claims 22 to 27, wherein the notification message includes an identifier of the network element pool.
A network device, the network device is a virtualized network function VNF, including:

A second sending module, configured to send a notification message to the first network element, wherein the notification message is used to indicate the capacity change information of the network element in the network element pool; Or, the network element pool includes at least one virtualized network element and at least one physical network element.
The network device according to claim 29, wherein the notification message includes an identifier of the network element pool.
A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the network element according to any one of claims 1 to 6, 7 to 13 is realized The steps of the load balancing method.