WO2022033340A1

WO2022033340A1 - Data processing method, user plane function, and device

Info

Publication number: WO2022033340A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/109883
Authority: WO
Inventors: 程志密; 胡渭琦
Original assignee: 大唐移动通信设备有限公司
Priority date: 2020-08-10
Filing date: 2021-07-30
Publication date: 2022-02-17
Also published as: CN114079674B; CN114079674A

Abstract

Disclosed are a data processing method, a user plane function, and a device. The data processing method comprises: a first UPF that communicates with an access network (AN) receives a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) data message and processes the GTP message, obtaining an IP data message; the first UPF transmits the IP data message.

Description

Data processing method, user plane function and device

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202010794975.1 filed in China on Aug. 10, 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

technical field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a data processing method, a user plane function, and a device.

Background technique

The main idea of software-defined networking (SDN) is the separation of control plane and forwarding plane; centralized control and scheduling of network resources; open programmability, allowing applications to program and schedule network resources, realizing seamless integration of applications and network resources.

As shown in Figure 1, which is a schematic diagram of the architecture of an SDN network, the network devices in the SDN network are usually Openflow switches. In a broader sense, the network devices may include all forwarding devices whose forwarding rules are controlled by the SDN controller.

As shown in Figure 2, the control plane and the forwarding plane are separated in the SDN network. The control plane node is the SDN Controller (SDN controller), which is responsible for network topology calculation, network status monitoring, path calculation, and path rule generation. The forwarding plane node is called an SDN switch, which is responsible for forwarding data according to the entries in the flow table. Currently, all SDN switches support the Openflow protocol. The communication between the controller and the switch relies on the Openflow protocol, mainly for reporting unknown packets, reporting network status and traffic statistics, and issuing flow rules.

The data forwarding mechanism in the SDN network is very different from the packet forwarding mechanism in the traditional IP network. When the SDN switch performs packet forwarding, it first matches the flow table according to the packet header information. The packet header information mainly consists of 11 fields.

If the SDN switch finds a match for the group, the SDN switch will perform the next action according to the action (action domain) entry in the match, such as drop, output, set queue, etc. When a data packet is forwarded, the SDN switch simply sends the packet out the corresponding port to complete the forwarding.

If the SDN switch does not find a matching table entry for the packet, the SDN switch needs to send the packet, or the packet header information of the packet to the SDN controller through the packet in message, and the SDN controller calculates the forwarding path and corresponding rules according to the packet header information.

The SDN controller searches the saved network topology and obtains the shortest path information according to the MAC address, IP address and other information of the parsed packets. The path information mainly includes switch identification, data receiving port and forwarding port. Then the SDN controller calculates the forwarding rule corresponding to each switch according to the path information, and sends it to the SDN switch through the FLOW_MOD message. After the SDN switch receives the flow forwarding rules, it updates the flow table, and then forwards it according to the flow table.

SDN switches that support the Openflow protocol can also support multi-flow table forwarding in the future, that is, multi-level flow table matching is required when querying flow tables.

In the 5G system, the core user plane uses the GTP-U protocol for data forwarding, that is, after the RAN receives the data packet, it adds a GTP-U data packet header to the data packet to become a GTP data packet. The header carries the GTP tunnel identifier TEID allocated by the UPF (if there is an intermediate UPF). After the UPF receives the data packet, it re-encapsulates it into a GTP data packet according to the IP address and TEID assigned by the PSA. After the GTP data packet arrives at the PSA, the PSA strips the GTP data packet header to obtain the IP data packet, and then forwards the IP data packet to the DN through the N6 interface. If the GTP-U protocol is still used in the SDN network, it will bring the following shortcomings:

1. All switches are required to process GTP protocol packets;

2. Perform tunnel encapsulation, increase packet headers, reduce transmission efficiency, and increase processing delay.

3. For scenarios that require data processing based on the header information of IP data packets, the IP data packets need to be extracted from GTP data packets and then processed, which increases processing delay and reduces transmission efficiency.

4. When the UPF connected to the RAN is replaced, the SMF also needs to update the tunnel information of the core network to the RAN, increasing signaling overhead.

5. For scenarios similar to flow detection, first strip GTP packets to obtain IP data packets, and then judge whether to report them according to the lack of information in the IP packet headers. If reported, it will be re-encapsulated into a GTP packet, and the SMF also needs to decapsulate and encapsulate the data packet for multiple times. In this way, in the SDN-based 5G network, the processing complexity of switches and controllers is increased to complete the re-encapsulation of IP data packets, as well as the processing complexity of SMF.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a data processing method, user plane function, and device. It can be solved that the packets transmitted on the links inside the core network are IP data packets, which reduces the complexity of data processing and transmission.

The present disclosure is a data processing method, which is applied to the user plane function UPF, and the method includes:

The first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, and processes the GTP message to obtain an IP data message;

The first UPF transmits the IP data packet.

Optionally, before the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GTP data message, it further includes:

The first UPF and the at least one second UPF receive a session establishment request sent by the session management function SMF, where the session establishment request carries: at least one of path information, flow forwarding rules, flow detection rules, and request tunnel information allocation; The second UPF is a packet data protocol PDU session anchor PSA;

After receiving the session establishment request, the second UPF allocates GTP tunnel information and configures flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and sends the session establishment response to the SMF, and the SMF sends the GTP tunnel information to the access network;

After receiving the session establishment request, the first UPF configures flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and sends the session establishment response to the SMF.

Optionally, the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GTP data message, and processes the GTP message to obtain an IP data message, including:

The first UPF receives the GTP data message sent by the access network, and decapsulates the GTP data message to obtain an IP data message;

Forward the IP data packet to at least one second UPF, and the second UPF forwards the IP data packet according to the IP header information of the IP data packet; the second UPF is the PDU session anchor Click PSA.

Optionally, if the first UPF is not an uplink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF receives a GTP data packet, and decapsulates the GTP data packet to obtain an IP data packet. ;include:

The first UPF receives the GTP datagram, and performs flow table matching according to the header information of the GTP datagram. If a match can be found, the action field of the match is to delete the header of the GTP datagram and obtain the IP address. data packets, and forward the IP data packets.

Optionally, if the first UPF is an uplink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF receives a GTP data packet, and decapsulates the GTP data packet to obtain an IP data packet. ,include:

The first UPF receives the GTP data packet, and performs flow table matching according to the header information of the GTP data packet. If a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is to delete the GTP data packet header and transfer it. to the next level flow entry;

The first UPF performs flow table matching according to the header information of the IP data packet obtained after deleting the GTP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is forwarding.

Optionally, the second UPF forwards the IP data packet according to the IP header information of the IP data packet, including:

After receiving the IP data packet, the second UPF performs flow table matching according to the header information of the IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is forwarding.

Optionally, the data processing method further includes:

For downlink data, the at least one second UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into a GTP data packet based on the IP header information of the IP data packet, and forwards it to the access network.

Optionally, if the first UPF is a downlink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into a GTP data packet and forwards it to the access network, including:

The at least one second UPF performs flow table matching based on the IP header information of the IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action domain of the matching item is forwarding;

After the first UPF receives the IP data packet, it performs flow table matching according to the header information of the received IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is encapsulated into a GTP data packet and Forward.

Optionally, when the first UPF performs flow detection, the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives a GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, and processes the GTP message to obtain an IP data message, including: :

The SDN switch of the first UPF receives the GTP data packet, decapsulates the received GTP data packet, and obtains the IP data packet.

Optionally, the SDN switch of the first UPF receives the GTP data packet, decapsulates the received GTP data packet, and obtains the IP data packet, including:

The SDN switch receives the GTP data message to be sent to the data network DN;

The SDN switch performs flow table matching according to the received GTP data packet header information, and if a matching item can be found, the action domain of the matching item is to delete the GTP data packet header and transfer to the next-level flow table entry;

The SDN switch performs flow table matching according to the destination port number in the header information of the IP data message obtained by deleting the GTP data message header. If a matching item can be found, then the action domain of the matching item is Packet in.

Optionally, the first UPF transmits the IP data packet, including:

The SDN switch reports the IP data packet to the SDN controller of the first UPF through a Packet in message, and the SDN controller calls the northbound interface to send the IP data packet to the SMF, and then the SMF sends the IP data packet to the SMF. The flow processing rule is determined according to the header information of the IP data packet.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a user plane function UPF, including: a transceiver, a processor, and a memory, where a program executable by the processor is stored in the memory; when the processor executes the program, the processor implements: The first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, processes the GTP message, obtains an IP data message, and transmits the IP data message.

Optionally, the user plane function UPF, also includes:

The first UPF and the at least one second UPF receive a session establishment request sent by the session management function SMF, where the session establishment request carries: at least one of path information, flow forwarding rules, flow detection rules, and request tunnel information allocation; the second UPF is the PDU session anchor PSA;

The first UPF receives the GTP data packet sent by the access network, and decapsulates the GTP data packet to obtain an IP data packet; forwards the IP data packet to at least one second UPF, and The IP data packet is forwarded by the second UPF according to the IP header information of the IP data packet; the second UPF is the PDU session anchor PSA.

Optionally, if the first UPF is not an uplink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF receives a GTP data packet, and decapsulates the GTP data packet to obtain an IP data packet. ,include:

Optionally, the user plane function UPF further includes: for downlink data, the at least one second UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into a GTP data packet based on the IP header information of the IP data packet, and forwards it to the GTP data packet. Access Network.

Optionally, if the first UPF is a downlink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF encapsulates the received IP data message into a GTP data message, and forwards it to the access network, including:

The SDN switch receives the GTP data message to be sent to the data network DN;

Optionally, the first UPF transmits the IP data packet, including:

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a data transmission processing apparatus, which is applied to the user plane function UPF, and the apparatus includes:

Processing module, for receiving GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, and described GTP message is processed, obtains IP data message;

A transceiver module, configured to transmit the IP data message.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a processor-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions for causing the processor to execute the above-mentioned Methods.

The beneficial effects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are:

In the above embodiments of the present disclosure, the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, processes the GTP message, obtains an IP data message, and transmits the IP data message Arts. The packets transmitted on the links within the core network are IP data packets, which reduces the complexity of data processing and transmission.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of an SDN network;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the separation of the control plane and the forwarding plane in the SDN network;

3 is a schematic diagram of a user plane protocol stack of a PDU session in a 5G network;

Fig. 4 is the format diagram of GTP data message;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the situation of inserting UL CL on the data path of the PDU session;

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a multi-homed PDU session used to support business continuity;

Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of local access of a multi-homed PDU session;

8 is a schematic diagram of a control plane protocol stack between a control plane and a user plane node;

9 is a schematic diagram of a user plane protocol stack between a control plane and a user plane node;

Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of the system architecture of an SDN-based 5G network;

Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of the system architecture of an SDN-based 5G network;

12 is a schematic flowchart of a data processing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

13 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of data forwarding according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

14 is a schematic diagram of inserting UL CL or data offload on a data path of a PDU session according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

15 is a schematic diagram of uplink transmission in a scenario where the UPF connected to the access network is a ULCL/BP node;

16 is a schematic diagram of an uplink transmission flow in a scenario where the UPF connected to the access network is a ULCL/BP node;

17 is a schematic diagram of a downlink transmission flow in a scenario where the UPF connected to the access network is a ULCL/BP node;

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of a transmission flow of a flow detection scenario according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

Figure 19 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of UPF;

FIG. 20 is a schematic block diagram of the data transmission processing apparatus of the present disclosure.

detailed description

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms and should not be limited by the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be more thoroughly understood, and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art.

As shown in Figure 3, the user plane protocol stack of the PDU session in the 5G network is as follows:

In the 5G system, UPF is usually implemented using a GTP tunnel. The GTP tunnel is bidirectional and is identified by a GTP quad (source IP address, source GTP TEID, destination IP address, and destination GTP TEID); GTP TEID (GPRS tunneling protocol , tunnel endpoint identifier) are assigned to the network elements at both ends of the tunnel. A session consists of multiple GTP tunnels, and each GTP tunnel corresponds to only one session. In the data forwarding process, the forwarding network element is determined according to the GTP packet header in the data packet. If so, the GTP packet header in the data packet is replaced with the GTP packet header of the next tunnel segment. and forward it.

As shown in Figure 4, it is the format of the GTP data packet.

Multi-PDU session anchor support for a single PDU session of the 5G network. In order to support selective traffic routing or support SSC mode 3, SMF can control the data path of the PDU session to ensure that the PDU session can go to multiple N6 interfaces at the same time. The UPF that terminates these interfaces is called the PDU Session Anchor.

1) PDU session using UL-CL: When the PDU session type is IPv4 or IPv6 or IPv4v6 or Ethernet, SMF may decide to insert a "UL CL" (Uplink classifier) in the data path of the PDU session. A UPF that supports the UL CL function will offload some traffic by matching the flow filter provided by the SMF. The insertion and deletion of UL CL is determined by SMF, and SMF is controlled by N4 interface and UPF capability. During or after the establishment of the PDU session, the SMF may decide to insert a UPF that supports the UL CL function on the data path of the PDU session; or delete the UPF that supports the UL CL function on the data path of the PDU session after the establishment of the PDU session. The SMF may contain multiple UPFs supporting the UL CL function on the PDU session data path. When the UL CL function is inserted into the data path of a PDU session, there are multiple PDU session anchors for the PDU session. These PDU session anchors provide different access to the same DN.

The UL CL provides the offloading of upstream traffic to different PDU session anchors and the aggregation of downstream traffic to the UE, that is, the aggregation of traffic sent from different PDU session anchors to the UE. The distribution and aggregation are implemented according to the flow detection and flow forwarding rules provided by SMF.

The UL CL uses flow filtering rules (such as checking the destination IP address/prefix of the uplink IP data packets sent by the UE) to decide how to route the data packets.

Figure 5 depicts the insertion of UL CL on the data path of a PDU session.

2) The PDU session uses IPv6 multi-homing: a PDU session may be associated with multiple IPv6 prefixes, which is a multi-homed PDU session. A multi-homed PDU session provides access to a DN through multiple PDU session anchors. Different user plane paths to different PDU session anchor points form branches in the "common" UPF, and the common UPF is called the UPF supporting the "Branching Point" function. Branching Point forwards upstream traffic to different PDU session anchors, and aggregates downstream traffic sent to the UE, that is, aggregates flows sent from different PDU session anchors to the UE.

SMF implements the splitting of uplink traffic between PDU session anchors based on the UE source prefix by configuring the UPF that supports the Branching Point function (the source prefix may be selected by the UE based on routing information and preferences received from the network).

The UE shall decide to use a multi-homed PDU session to support service continuity as shown in Figure 6 below, or to support local access as shown in Figure 7.

Interface between control plane and user plane nodes

1. The control plane protocol stack between the control plane and the user plane nodes is shown in Figure 8;

2. The user plane protocol stack between the control plane and the user plane nodes is shown in FIG. 9 .

As shown in Figure 10 and Figure 11, it is the system architecture of the SDN-based 5G network.

As shown in Figure 12, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a data processing method, applied to the user plane function UPF, the method includes:

Step 121, the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, and processes the GTP message to obtain an IP data message;

Step 122: Transmit the IP data packet.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the message transmitted on the link inside the core network where the first UPF is located is an IP data message, which reduces the complexity of data processing and transmission.

In specific implementation, as shown in Figure 13 and Figure 14, the message transmitted on the link between the (R)AN (Access Network) and the UPF (User Plane Function) in the core network is a GTP data message (the message The IP address carried in the text is the IP address of AN and PSA (for the ULCL/BP node, it is PSA1), the TEID assigned by AN (downlink) or PSA (uplink), and the UPF on the AN side is responsible for the encapsulation of GTP data packets (downlink) and decapsulation (uplink), the packets transmitted on the links within the core network are IP data packets (that is, IP data packets sent by the UE). The PSA here is the PDU session anchor, which is the PDU session anchor.

As shown in FIG. 11 , in the system architecture of the SDN-based 5G network, in an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, before the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GTP data message, it may further include:

After the second UPF receives the session establishment request, it allocates GTP tunnel information and configures flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and sends the session establishment response to the SMF, and the SMF sends the GTP tunnel information to the receiver. access the network;

In specific implementation, after receiving the session establishment request from the UE, the SMF sends an N4 session establishment request to all UPFs. The N4 session establishment request message carries path information, flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection and/or requests for core network tunnel information Allocated (sent to PSA only);

After PSA (UPF connected to DN) receives the N4 session establishment request, it allocates GTP tunnel information and configures flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and sends the allocated GTP tunnel information to SMF through the N4 session establishment response; other UPFs After receiving the N4 session establishment request, configure flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and send an N4 session establishment completion response to the SMF after the configuration is completed.

After the SMF receives the GTP tunnel information allocated by the PSA, it sends it to the RAN.

SMF sets flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules as follows:

4.1. For uplink data, the UPF on the AN side first strips the header of the received GTP data packet (that is, decapsulates the GTP data packet) to obtain an IP data packet and forwards it and/or according to the IP data packet header The department processes the data (forwards or reports it to SMF). Other UPFs perform data processing (forwarding or reporting to SMF) based on the IP header information of the data packet.

4.2. For downlink data, other UPFs except AN-side UPF (including PSA, etc.) forward data based on the IP header information of the data packet, and the AN-side UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into GTP Data packets are forwarded to the RAN.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives a GTP data packet, processes the GTP packet, obtains an IP data packet, and transmits the IP data packet text, including:

For uplink data, the first UPF receives the GTP data packet sent by the access network, decapsulates the GTP data packet to obtain an IP data packet; forwards the IP data packet to at least one first UPF Two UPFs, and the second UPF forwards the IP data packet according to the IP header information of the IP data packet; the second UPF is the PDU session anchor PSA.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, if the first UPF is not an uplink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF receives a GTP data packet and decapsulates the GTP data packet , get IP data packets, including:

The first UPF receives the GTP datagram, and performs flow table matching according to the header information of the GTP datagram. If a match can be found, the action field of the match is to delete the header of the GTP datagram and obtain the IP address. data message, and forward the IP data message;

The second UPF performs flow table matching according to the IP header information of the IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action domain of the matching item is forwarding.

In specific implementation, for uplink data of AN UPF that is not a ULCL/BP node:

After the UPF on the AN side receives the GTP data packet, it needs to match the flow table according to the received GTP data packet header information (IP address, UDP port number, all or part of the TEID (assigned by PSA)), if If a match is found, the action field of the match is to strip the GTP data packet header and forward it. The specific flow rules are as follows:

匹配(Match)Match	动作(Actions)Actions
GTP数据报文头信息GTP data packet header information	剥离(Delete)GTP头部，Output to port xStrip (Delete) GTP header, Output to port x

After receiving the IP data packet, other UPFs perform flow table matching according to the header information (IP5-tuples) (partial information or all information) of the received IP data packet. If a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item for forwarding. The specific flow rules are as follows:

MatchMatch	ActionsActions
IP报文头信息IP packet header information	Output to port xOutput to port x

And/or if there is a ULCL/BP node, the flow entry of this node is as follows

MatchMatch	ActionsActions
IP报文头信息1IP packet header information 1	Output to port xOutput to port x
IP报文头信息2IP header information 2	Output to port yOutput to port y

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, if the first UPF is an uplink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF receives a GTP data packet, and deciphers the GTP data packet Encapsulation to obtain IP data packets, including:

The first UPF performs flow table matching according to the header information of the IP data packet obtained after deleting the GTP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action domain of the matching item is forwarding;

In specific implementation, as shown in Figure 15 and Figure 16, after receiving the GTP data packet, the UPF on the AN side will, according to the received GTP data packet header information (IP address, UDP port number, TEID (assigned by PSA1)) All items or some items), flow table matching needs to be performed. If a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is to strip the GTP data packet header and transfer to the next-level flow table entry. According to the header information (IP 5-tuples) of the data packet obtained after stripping the GTP data packet (part of the information or all information, such as destination IP address or IP prefix or source IP prefix), the flow table is matched, if it can be found If there is a match, the action domain of the match is forwarding. The specific flow rules are as follows:

MatchMatch	ActionsActions
GTP数据报文包头信息GTP data packet header information	Delete GTP数据报文头部信息，·go to table nDelete GTP data packet header information, go to table n

Table (Table)n:

After other UPFs receive IP data packets, they perform flow table matching according to the header information (IP 5-tuples) of the received data packets (such as destination IP address or IP prefix or source IP prefix), if a match can be found , the action domain of the matching item is forwarding. The specific flow rules are as follows:

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the data processing method may further include:

In specific implementation, for downlink data: after receiving the IP data packet, the UPF on the AN side needs to perform flow table matching according to the header information of the received IP data packet. If a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is: It is encapsulated into GTP data packets and forwarded. The specific flow rules are as follows:

MatchMatch	ActionsActions
IP数据报文头信息IP datagram header information	Add GTP数据报文头部信息，·Output to port mAdd GTP data packet header information, Output to port m

MatchMatch	ActionsActions
IP报文头信息IP packet header information	Output to port mOutput to port m

And/or if there is a ULCL/BP node, the flow entry of this node is as follows

MatchMatch	ActionsActions
IP报文头信息1IP packet header information 1	Output to port wOutput to port w
IP报文头信息2IP header information 2	Output to port wOutput to port w

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, if the first UPF is a downlink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into a GTP data packet, and forwards it to the access network, including:

During specific implementation, as shown in Figure 17, for the downlink data of the ULCL/BP scenario (that is, the UPF on the AN side is the ULCL/BP node):

After the UPF on the AN side receives the IP data packet, it needs to match the flow table according to the header information of the received IP data packet. If a matching item is found, the action field of the matching item is encapsulated into a GTP data packet and forwarded. . The specific flow rules are as follows:

MatchMatch	ActionsActions
IP报文头信息1IP packet header information 1	Add GTP数据报文头部信息1，·Output to port wAdd GTP data packet header information 1, Output to port w
IP报文头信息2IP header information 2	Add GTP数据报文头部信息1，·Output to port wAdd GTP data packet header information 1, Output to port w

After receiving the IP data packet, other UPFs perform flow table matching according to the header information (IP5-tuples) of the received IP data packet (such as destination IP address or IP prefix or source IP prefix), if a match can be found , the action domain of the matching item is forwarding. The specific flow rules are as follows:

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, when the first UPF performs flow detection, the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives a GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, and processes the GTP message to obtain IP datagrams, including:

Correspondingly, the first UPF transmits the IP data packet, including:

The SDN switch receives the GTP data packet to be sent to the data network DN, and the SDN switch performs flow table matching according to the header information of the received GTP data packet. If a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is: Delete the GTP data packet header and go to the next level flow entry;

The SDN switch carries out flow table matching according to the destination port number in the header information of the IP data message obtained by deleting the GTP data message header, and if a matching item can be found, then the action domain of the matching item is Packet in;

After the SDN controller receives the Packet in message, it forwards the IP data packet carried by the Packet in message to the SMF, and the SMF performs data processing according to the header information of the IP data packet, and delivers stream processing The rule is sent to the SDN controller, and the SDN controller sends the flow entry to the SDN switch according to the flow processing rule.

In the specific implementation, as shown in Figure 18, for the flow detection scenario and when the AN side UPF is required to perform flow detection, when the SDN switch receives the data to be sent to the DN, if the received data packet is a GTP data packet, the According to the received GTP data packet header information (IP address, UDP port number, all or part of the items in TEID (assigned by PSA)), flow table matching needs to be performed. If a match can be found, the action of the match The field is to strip the GTP data packet header and go to the next-level flow entry. The flow table matching is performed according to the destination port number in the header information (IP 5-tuples) of the IP data packet obtained by stripping the GTP data packet header. If a matching item is found, the action field of the matching item is Packet in. The specific flow rules are as follows:

Table n:

MatchMatch	ActionsActions
IP数据报文的目的端口号Destination port number of IP datagrams	Packet inPacket in

When the controller receives the Packet in, it forwards the IP data packet carried by the Packet in message to the SMF. The SMF processes the data according to the header information of the IP data packet, and sends the flow processing rules to the controller, and then the controller according to The flow processing rules deliver appropriate flow entries to the switch. The switch configures the flow table entry after receiving it, and performs data processing according to the flow table entry.

Another specific implementation manner, for the flow detection scenario and when the core intermediate UPF is required to perform flow detection, when the SDN switch receives the data to be sent to the DN, if the received data packet is an IP data packet, according to the received data The destination port number in the header information (IP 5-tuples) of the IP data packet is matched with the flow table. If a match can be found, the action field of the match is Packet in. The specific flow rules are as follows:

When the controller receives the Packet in, it forwards the IP data packet carried by the Packet in message to the SMF. The SMF processes the data according to the header information of the IP data packet, and sends the flow processing rules to the controller, and then the controller according to The flow processing rules deliver appropriate flow entries to the switch. The switch configures the flow entry after receiving it, and performs data processing according to the flow entry.

In the 5G network architecture, the SDN controller itself provides the northbound interface. For scenarios similar to the above flow detection, the switch obtains IP data packets according to the above embodiment, and does not need to process the IP packets, such as re-encapsulating them into GTP data packets. The message includes this IP data packet and so on. After the SDN controller receives the IP data packet, it calls the general northbound interface provided by itself to send the data packet to the SMF. According to this data packet, the SMF delivers the correct flow processing rules to the SDN controller. Then, the SDN controller delivers flow entries to the switch according to the flow processing rules. The switch configures the flow entry and processes the data flow according to the flow entry, including forwarding, discarding, and so on.

The above embodiments of the present disclosure do not require all switches to process GTP protocol packets, reducing the processing complexity of the switches; do not require all switches to perform tunnel encapsulation and decapsulation, increase packet headers, improve transmission efficiency and reduce delay. For scenarios that require data processing based on the header information of IP data packets, it is not necessary to extract IP data packets from GTP data packets and then process them, which reduces processing delay and improves transmission efficiency. When the UPF connected to the RAN is replaced, the core network does not need to update the tunnel information of the core network to the RAN, which reduces signaling overhead. For scenarios similar to flow detection, in an SDN-based 5G network, the UPF that needs flow detection does not need to process packets, but can directly call the northbound interface provided by the SDN controller to send the packets to the SMF at the application layer. This reduces the processing complexity of the underlying switches and controllers. At the same time, the SMF does not need to decapsulate and encapsulate the data packet, which reduces the complexity of the SMF.

As shown in FIG. 19 , an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a user plane function UPF 190, including: a transceiver 191, a processor 192, and a memory 193, where a program executable by the processor 192 is stored on the memory 193; When the processor 192 executes the program, it realizes that: the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, processes the GTP message, obtains the IP data message, and transmits the data message. Describe the IP datagram.

Optionally, the first UPF and the at least one second UPF receive a session establishment request sent by the session management function SMF, where the session establishment request carries: path information, flow forwarding rules, flow detection rules, and request tunnel information allocation. At least one item; the second UPF is a PDU session anchor PSA;

Optionally, for downlink data, the at least one second UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into a GTP data packet based on the IP header information of the IP data packet, and forwards it to the access network.

The SDN switch receives the GTP data message to be sent to the data network DN;

The SDN switch carries out flow table matching according to the GTP data message header information received, and if a match can be found, the action domain of the match is to delete the GTP data message header and go to the next-level flow table entry;

Optionally, the first UPF transmits the IP data packet, including:

It should be noted that the UPF in this embodiment is a UPF corresponding to the method shown in FIG. 12 above, and the implementation manners in the above embodiments are all applicable to the embodiments of the UPF, and the same technical effect can also be achieved. In the UPF, the transceiver 191 and the memory 193, as well as the transceiver 191 and the processor 192 can be communicated and connected through a bus interface, the function of the processor 192 can also be realized by the transceiver 191, and the function of the transceiver 191 can also be realized by the processor 192 realized. It should be noted here that the above-mentioned terminal provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure can implement all the method steps implemented by the above-mentioned method embodiments, and can achieve the same technical effect, which is not the same as the method embodiments in this embodiment. The parts and beneficial effects will be described in detail.

As shown in FIG. 20 , an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a data transmission processing apparatus 200, which is applied to the user plane function UPF. The apparatus 200 includes:

The processing module 201 is used for receiving a GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, and processing the GTP message to obtain an IP data message;

The transceiver module 202 is configured to transmit the IP data packet.

After the second UPF receives the session establishment request, it allocates GTP tunnel information and configures flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and sends the session establishment response to the SMF, and the SMF sends the GTP tunnel information to the access network;

The SDN switch receives the GTP data message to be sent to the data network DN;

Optionally, the first UPF transmits the IP data packet, including:

It should be noted that the device in this embodiment is a device corresponding to the method shown in FIG. 12 above, and the implementation manners in the above embodiments are all applicable to the embodiments of the device, and the same technical effect can also be achieved. It should be noted here that the above-mentioned device provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure can realize all the method steps realized by the above-mentioned method embodiment, and can achieve the same technical effect, and the same as the method embodiment in this embodiment is not repeated here. The parts and beneficial effects will be described in detail.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a processor-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions for causing the processor to execute the above-mentioned Methods. All implementation manners in the foregoing method embodiment are applicable to this embodiment, and the same technical effect can also be achieved.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can realize that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this disclosure.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working process of the above-described systems, devices and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

In the embodiments provided in the present disclosure, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. 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. On the other hand, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of 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 components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution in 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 physically alone, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions of the present disclosure can be embodied in the form of software products in essence, or the parts that contribute to related technologies or the parts of the technical solutions. 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 execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present disclosure. The aforementioned storage medium includes: a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk and other mediums that can store program codes.

It will be appreciated that the embodiments described in this disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or a combination thereof. For hardware implementation, modules, units, sub-modules, sub-units, etc. can be implemented in one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), Digital Signal Processing (DSP), digital signal processing equipment ( 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, for in other electronic units or combinations thereof that perform the functions described herein.

In addition, it should be pointed out that, in the apparatus and method of the present disclosure, obviously, each component or each step can be decomposed and/or recombined. These disaggregations and/or recombinations should be considered equivalents of the present disclosure. Also, the steps of performing the above-mentioned series of processes can naturally be performed in chronological order in the order described, but need not necessarily be performed in chronological order, and some steps can be performed in parallel or independently of each other. Those of ordinary skill in the art can understand all or any steps or components of the method and device of the present disclosure. , software, or a combination thereof, which can be implemented by those of ordinary skill in the art using their basic programming skills after reading the description of the present disclosure.

Accordingly, the objects of the present disclosure can also be achieved by running a program or set of programs on any computing device. The computing device may be a known general purpose device. Therefore, the objects of the present disclosure can also be achieved merely by providing a program product containing program code for implementing the method or apparatus. That is, such a program product also constitutes the present disclosure, and a storage medium storing such a program product also constitutes the present disclosure. Obviously, the storage medium can be any known storage medium or any storage medium developed in the future. It should also be pointed out that, in the apparatus and method of the present disclosure, obviously, each component or each step can be decomposed and/or recombined. These disaggregations and/or recombinations should be considered equivalents of the present disclosure. Also, the steps of executing the above-described series of processes can naturally be executed in chronological order in the order described, but need not necessarily be executed in chronological order. Certain steps may be performed in parallel or independently of each other.

The above are optional embodiments of the present disclosure, and it should be pointed out that for those skilled in the art, several improvements and modifications can be made without departing from the principles described in the present disclosure, and these improvements and modifications are also within the scope of this disclosure.

Claims

A data processing method, applied to a user plane function UPF, the method comprising:

The first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, and processes the GTP message to obtain an IP data message;

The first UPF transmits the IP data packet.
The data processing method according to claim 1, wherein before the first UPF communicating with the access network AN receives the GTP data message, it further comprises:

The first UPF and the at least one second UPF receive a session establishment request sent by the session management function SMF, where the session establishment request carries: at least one of path information, flow forwarding rules, flow detection rules, and request tunnel information allocation; The second UPF is a packet data protocol PDU session anchor PSA;

After receiving the session establishment request, the second UPF allocates GTP tunnel information and configures flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and sends the session establishment response to the SMF, and the SMF sends the GTP tunnel information to the access network;

After receiving the session establishment request, the first UPF configures flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and sends the session establishment response to the SMF.
The data processing method according to claim 1, wherein the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives the GTP data message, and processes the GTP message to obtain the IP data message, comprising:

The first UPF receives the GTP data message sent by the access network, and decapsulates the GTP data message to obtain an IP data message;

Forward the IP data packet to at least one second UPF, and the second UPF forwards the IP data packet according to the IP header information of the IP data packet; the second UPF is the PDU session anchor Click PSA.
The data processing method according to claim 3, wherein, if the first UPF is not an uplink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF receives a GTP data packet, and converts the GTP data packet to the Perform decapsulation to obtain IP data packets; including:

The first UPF receives the GTP datagram, and performs flow table matching according to the header information of the GTP datagram. If a match can be found, the action field of the match is to delete the header of the GTP datagram and obtain the IP address. data packets, and forward the IP data packets.
The data processing method according to claim 3, wherein, if the first UPF is an uplink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF receives a GTP data packet, and converts the GTP data packet to the Perform decapsulation to obtain IP data packets, including:

The first UPF receives the GTP data packet, and performs flow table matching according to the header information of the GTP data packet. If a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is to delete the GTP data packet header and transfer it. to the next level flow entry;

The first UPF performs flow table matching according to the header information of the IP data packet obtained after deleting the GTP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is forwarding.
The data processing method according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the second UPF forwards the IP data packet according to the IP header information of the IP data packet, comprising:

After receiving the IP data packet, the second UPF performs flow table matching according to the header information of the IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is forwarding.
The data processing method according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising:

For downlink data, the at least one second UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into a GTP data packet based on the IP header information of the IP data packet, and forwards it to the access network.
The data processing method according to claim 7, wherein, if the first UPF is a downlink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into a GTP data packet, and forwarded to the access network, including:

The at least one second UPF performs flow table matching based on the IP header information of the IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action domain of the matching item is forwarding;

After the first UPF receives the IP data packet, it performs flow table matching according to the header information of the received IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is encapsulated into a GTP data packet and Forward.
The data processing method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when the first UPF performs flow detection, the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives a GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data packet, and reports to the GTP process to obtain IP data packets, including:

The SDN switch of the first UPF receives the GTP data packet, decapsulates the received GTP data packet, and obtains the IP data packet.
The data processing method according to claim 9, wherein the SDN switch of the first UPF receives the GTP data packet, decapsulates the received GTP data packet, and obtains the IP data packet, comprising:

The SDN switch receives the GTP data message to be sent to the data network DN;

The SDN switch performs flow table matching according to the received GTP data packet header information, and if a matching item can be found, the action domain of the matching item is to delete the GTP data packet header and transfer to the next-level flow table entry;

The SDN switch performs flow table matching according to the destination port number in the header information of the IP data message obtained by deleting the GTP data message header. If a matching item can be found, then the action domain of the matching item is Packet in.
The data processing method according to claim 9, wherein the first UPF transmits the IP data packet, comprising:

The SDN switch reports the IP data packet to the SDN controller of the first UPF through a Packet in message, and the SDN controller calls the northbound interface to send the IP data packet to the SMF, and then the SMF sends the IP data packet to the SMF. The flow processing rule is determined according to the header information of the IP data packet.
A user plane function UPF, comprising: a transceiver, a processor, and a memory, where a program executable by the processor is stored on the memory; when the processor executes the program, it realizes: a communication with an access network AN The first UPF receives a GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, processes the GTP message, obtains an IP data message, and transmits the IP data message.
The user plane function UPF of claim 12, further comprising:

The first UPF and the at least one second UPF receive a session establishment request sent by the session management function SMF, where the session establishment request carries: at least one of path information, flow forwarding rules, flow detection rules, and request tunnel information allocation; the second UPF is the PDU session anchor PSA;

After receiving the session establishment request, the second UPF allocates GTP tunnel information and configures flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and sends the session establishment response to the SMF, and the SMF sends the GTP tunnel information to the access network;

After receiving the session establishment request, the first UPF configures flow forwarding rules and/or flow detection rules, and sends the session establishment response to the SMF.
The user plane function UPF according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives a GTP data packet, and processes the GTP packet to obtain an IP data packet, including:

The first UPF receives the GTP data packet sent by the access network, and decapsulates the GTP data packet to obtain an IP data packet; forwards the IP data packet to at least one second UPF, and The IP data packet is forwarded by the second UPF according to the IP header information of the IP data packet; the second UPF is the PDU session anchor PSA.
The user plane function UPF according to claim 14, wherein, if the first UPF is not an uplink offload or a branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF receives a GTP data packet and sends the GTP data packet to the Decapsulate the IP datagram to obtain the IP datagram, including:

The first UPF receives the GTP datagram, and performs flow table matching according to the header information of the GTP datagram. If a match can be found, the action field of the match is to delete the header of the GTP datagram and obtain the IP address. data packets, and forward the IP data packets.
The user plane function UPF according to claim 13, wherein, if the first UPF is an uplink offload or a branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF receives a GTP data packet and sends the GTP data packet to the Decapsulate the IP datagram to obtain the IP datagram, including:

The first UPF receives the GTP data packet, and performs flow table matching according to the header information of the GTP data packet. If a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is to delete the GTP data packet header and transfer it. to the next level flow entry;

The first UPF performs flow table matching according to the header information of the IP data packet obtained after deleting the GTP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is forwarding.
The user plane function UPF according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the second UPF forwards the IP data packet according to the IP header information of the IP data packet, comprising:

After receiving the IP data packet, the second UPF performs flow table matching according to the header information of the IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is forwarding.
The user plane function UPF according to claim 12 or 13, further comprising:

For downlink data, the at least one second UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into a GTP data packet based on the IP header information of the IP data packet, and forwards it to the access network.
The user plane function UPF of claim 18, wherein,

If the first UPF is a downlink offload or branch ULCL/BP node, the first UPF encapsulates the received IP data packet into a GTP data packet and forwards it to the access network, including:

The at least one second UPF performs flow table matching based on the IP header information of the IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action domain of the matching item is forwarding;

After the first UPF receives the IP data packet, it performs flow table matching according to the header information of the received IP data packet, and if a matching item can be found, the action field of the matching item is encapsulated into a GTP data packet and Forward.
The user plane function UPF according to claim 12 or 13, wherein, when the first UPF performs flow detection, the first UPF that communicates with the access network AN receives a GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data message, and sends a response to the GTP The packets are processed to obtain IP data packets, including:

The SDN switch of the first UPF receives the GTP data packet, decapsulates the received GTP data packet, and obtains the IP data packet.
The user plane function UPF of claim 20, wherein,

The SDN switch of the first UPF receives the GTP data packet, decapsulates the received GTP data packet, and obtains the IP data packet, including:

The SDN switch receives the GTP data message to be sent to the data network DN;

The SDN switch performs flow table matching according to the received GTP data packet header information, and if a matching item can be found, the action domain of the matching item is to delete the GTP data packet header and transfer to the next-level flow table entry;

The SDN switch performs flow table matching according to the destination port number in the header information of the IP data message obtained by deleting the GTP data message header. If a matching item can be found, then the action domain of the matching item is Packet in.
The user plane function UPF according to claim 20, wherein the first UPF transmits the IP data packet, comprising:

The SDN switch reports the IP data packet to the SDN controller of the first UPF through a Packet in message, and the SDN controller calls the northbound interface to send the IP data packet to the SMF, and then the SMF sends the IP data packet to the SMF. The flow processing rule is determined according to the header information of the IP data packet.
A data transmission processing device, applied to a user plane function UPF, the device comprising:

a processing module for receiving GPRS tunneling protocol GTP data messages, and processing the GTP messages to obtain IP data messages;

A transceiver module, configured to transmit the IP data message.
A processor-readable storage medium, the processor-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions, the processor-executable instructions being used to cause the processor to execute any one of claims 1 to 11. Methods.
A computer program product, the program product being stored in a non-volatile storage medium, the program product being executed by at least one processor to implement the method of any one of claims 1-11.
A data transmission processing apparatus configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1-11.