WO2022063051A1 - Network slice selection method and apparatus, computer device and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a network slice selection method, comprising: receiving a slice selection request sent by an AMF; obtaining slice information of a current location and slice information of a home location that are carried by the request, the slice information of the current location at least comprising region information of the current location, and the slice information of the home location at least comprising information indicating the service quality of the home location; according to the region information of the current location, the information indicating the service quality of the home location, and a mapping relationship, determining a network slice for the current location, wherein said mapping relationship is a mapping relationship between the service quality information, the region information, and the network slice; and sending the network slice of the current location to the AMF. The present disclosure further provides a network slice selection apparatus, a computer device, and a computer readable storage medium.

Description

Network slice selection method and device, computer equipment and storage medium

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority of Chinese patent application No. 202011000685.1 filed on September 22, 2020, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

technical field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a network slice selection method, a network slice selection apparatus, a computer device, and a storage medium.

Background technique

5GC (5G core network) NSSF (Network Slice Selection Function, network slice selection functional entity) network element selects available network slices (Network Slice) for users through the Nnssf_NSSelection (Network Slice Selection) service. The 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3rd Generation Partnership Project) specification only defines the network slice selection method when the user is not roaming or roaming across a PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network, Public Land Mobile Network).

China has a large land area and a limited number of communication operators. Network slicing is usually deployed according to regional planning. For example, a province is divided into a region. The same operator and the same PLMN have different network slicing for each region in the same PLMN. When a user roams across regions, the NSSF will not be able to select the correct network slice available for the user in the roaming location.

public content

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network slice selection method, including:

Receive a slice selection request sent by the core access and mobility management function entity AMF;

Acquire the slice information of the location and the slice information of the home location carried in the slice selection request, the slice information of the location includes at least the area information of the location, and the slice information of the home location at least includes the information used to indicate the quality of service of the home location. information;

Determine the network slice of the location according to the area information of the location, the information used to represent the quality of service of the home location and the preset quality of service information, and the mapping relationship between the area information and the network slice; and

Send the local network slice to the AMF.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a network slice selection device, including: a receiving module, an obtaining module, a processing module, and a sending module,

The receiving module is configured to receive a slice selection request sent by the core access and mobility management function entity AMF;

The obtaining module is configured to obtain the slice information of the location and the slice information of the home place carried in the slice selection request, where the slice information of the location at least includes the area information of the location, and the slice information of the home place at least includes Information indicating the quality of service at home;

The processing module is configured to determine the network slice of the location according to the area information of the location, the information used to represent the quality of service of the home location and the preset quality of service information, and the mapping relationship between the area information and the network slice; and

The sending module is configured to send the local network slice to the AMF.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a computer device, including:

one or more processors; and

a storage device on which one or more programs are stored;

The one or more programs, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement the aforementioned network slice selection method.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a computer-readable storage medium on which a computer program is stored, and when the program is executed by a processor, implements the foregoing network slice selection method.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a network slice selection process according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a network slice selection process according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

4 is a schematic diagram of the S-NSSAI format of the related art;

5 is a schematic diagram of an S-NSSAI format provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a network slice selection apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a computer device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

detailed description

Example embodiments are described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, but which may be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

The terminology used herein is used to describe particular embodiments only and is not intended to limit the present disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms "a" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. It will also be understood that when the terms "comprising" and/or "made of" are used in this specification, it is specified that particular features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components are present, but not excluding the presence or possibility of Add one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Embodiments described herein may be described with reference to plan and/or cross-sectional views with the aid of idealized schematic representations of the present disclosure. Accordingly, example illustrations may be modified according to manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances. Therefore, the embodiments are not limited to the embodiments shown in the drawings, but include modifications of configurations formed based on manufacturing processes. Accordingly, the regions illustrated in the figures are of schematic nature and the shapes of the regions illustrated in the figures are illustrative of the specific shapes of the regions of the elements, and are not limiting.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. It will also be understood that terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be construed as having meanings consistent with their meanings in the context of the related art and this disclosure, and will not be construed as having idealized or over-formal meanings unless This document expressly so limited.

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for selecting a network slice. The method is applied to a network system as shown in FIG. 1 . The system includes an AMF (Core Access and Mobility Management Function, a core access and mobility management function entity) and NSSF and AMF are 5GC standard network elements, providing standard services such as user access; NSSF is 5GC standard network elements, providing standard services such as slice selection and slice availability management.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the network slice selection method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure includes the following steps S11 to S14.

In step S11, a slice selection request sent by the AMF is received.

In this step, when the user terminal moves from one area in the PLMN to another area, and the user terminal accesses the base station in the current area (that is, the location), or when the user terminal registers with the base station in the connected current area, The base station of the current area sends a notification message to the AMF of the current area, and correspondingly, the AMF sends a slice selection request to the NSSF to request the NSSF to provide slices of the current area.

Usually, in order to facilitate management, the same PLMN is divided into regions according to provinces, and one region corresponds to one province.

In step S12, obtain the slice information of the location and the slice information of the home place carried in the slice selection request, the slice information of the location at least includes the area information of the location, and the slice information of the home place at least includes the information used to indicate the quality of service of the home place .

The slice information of the location includes the area information of the location, and may also include information used to indicate the service quality of the location. The information used to represent the quality of service includes at least slice/service type, and the area information may be an area identifier. The attribution refers to the registration place of the user's communication number.

In step S13, the local network slice is determined according to the local area information, the information used to represent the home service quality and the preset service quality information, the mapping relationship between the area information and the network slice.

It should be noted that different QoS in the same area have different network slices, therefore, the NSSF is pre-configured with a mapping relationship between QoS information, area information and network slices. In this step, the NSSF queries the mapping relationship according to the area information of the location and the information used to represent the service quality of the home location, and obtains the network slice of the location.

In step S14, the local network slice is sent to the AMF.

In this step, the NSSF returns the determined network slice to the AMF.

The method for selecting a network slice provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: receiving a slice selection request sent by an AMF, and acquiring slice information of the location and slice information of the home location carried in the request, where the slice information of the location includes at least the area information of the location, and the slice information of the home location. The information includes at least information used to indicate the quality of service at the home location; the network at the location is determined according to the area information of the location, the information used to indicate the quality of service at the home location, and the mapping relationship between the preset quality of service information, area information and network slices. Slicing; sending the local network slice to the AMF; by defining the area information and the QoS information in the slice information, and configuring the mapping relationship between the QoS information, the area information and the network slice locally in the NSSF, In the cross-regional roaming scenario, the user selects the network slice where the user is roaming, so as to realize automatic switching of network slices in each region within the same PLMN of the same operator.

In some embodiments, the slice information of the home location may also include the area information of the home location, that is, the slice selection request sent by the AMF to the NSSF not only carries the area information of the location, but also can carry the area information of the home location. Correspondingly, as shown in FIG. 3 , the network slice ( That is, step S13), the following steps S21 and S22 may be included.

In step S21, if the area information of the home location is different from the area information of the location, step S13 is performed, and the area information of the home location is the same as the area information of the location, and step S22 is performed.

In this step, if the area information of the home location is different from the area information of the location, it means that the user is roaming, that is, the user is not currently located in the home location and needs to use the network slice of the current location. Therefore, the NSSF based on the area information of the location , The mapping relationship between the information used to represent the quality of service at the home location, the preset quality of service information, the area information and the network slice determines the network slice at the location.

If the area information of the home location is the same as the area information of the location, it means that the user is not roaming, that is, the user is currently in the home location and the network slice has not changed. Therefore, the NSSF can send the network slice of the home location to the AMF.

In step S22, the home network slice is sent to the AMF.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, S-NSSAI (Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information, single network slice selection assistance information) is used to identify the slice information of the network slice. The format of S-NSSAI is defined in the 3GPP TS 23.003 standard. As shown in Figure 4, S-NSSAI may include SST (Slice/Service type, slice/service type) field and SD (Slice Differentiator, slice distinguishing identifier) field. The bit length of the SST field is 8 bits (bits), and the value ranges from 0 to 255. 0 to 127 is defined by the standard, and 128 to 255 is defined by the operator. SD is an optional field with a bit length of 24 bits and a value range of 0 to 16777215 (000000 to FFFFFF). The total bit length of S-NSSAI is 32 bits when the SD field is included, and 8 bits when the SD field is not included.

At present, 3GPP TS.23.501 has defined 4 SST types, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Slice/Business Type	SST value	Functional/Service Features
eMBB	1	5G enhances mobile broadband
uRLLC	2	High reliability and low latency communication
MIoT	3	Massive Internet of Things
V2X	4	V2X business

The SST field can represent the quality of service, that is, different slice/service types have different quality of service.

The SD field is a supplement to the SST field to distinguish multiple network slices of the same SST. 0 to 16777214 (000000 to FFFFFE) is defined by the operator; 16777215 (FFFFFF) is reserved, indicating that the S-NSSAI only contains the SST field and does not contain the SD field. When the S-NSSAI contains only the SST field, the value of the SD field is FFFFFF, and the actual effective bit length is only 8 bits of the SST; when the S-NSSAI contains both the SST field and the SD field, the value of the SD field is 000000 to FFFFFE, the total bit length of S-NSSAI is 32 bits.

S-NSSAI can be divided into two types: standard value and non-standard value. The standard value S-NSSAI only contains the SST field but not the SD field, and the value of the SST field belongs to the SST defined by the standard (see Table 1) ;S-NSSAI with non-standard values includes two types: S-NSSAI containing both the SST field and SD field, and the S-NSSAI containing only the SST field but not the SD field, and the value of the SST field does not belong to the SST defined by the standard (as in Table 1).

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, by defining the meaning of the SD field, the SD field is used to identify the area information of the network slice, so as to solve the problem of network slice selection during cross-area roaming in the PLMN.

In some embodiments, as shown in Figure 5, slice information (ie, S-NSSAI) includes an SST field and an SD field. The SD field includes an area identification field (excluding the service information field) for indicating area information, and in this case, the SST field is used to indicate the quality of service. The SST field is 8 bits and the SD field is 24 bits.

In some embodiments, the SD field may also include a service information field (ie, the SD field includes both a region identification field and a service information field), in which case, the SST field and the service information field are jointly used to represent the quality of service. In some embodiments, the SD field may also include a manufacturer identification field. The area identification field in the SD field is 8 bits long, the service information field is 12 bits long, and the manufacturer identification field is 4 bits long.

It should be noted that the area information represented by the area identifier field is the attribution area information of the network slice. Taking the division of provinces in China as an example, the area identifiers of each area are shown in Table 2.

Table 2

Regional information (attribution)	Region ID (binary)
National	0000 0000
Beijing	0000 0001
Tianjin	0000 0010
Hebei	0000 0011
Shanxi	0000 0100
Inner Mongolia	0000 0101
Liaoning	0000 0110
Jilin	0000 0111
Heilongjiang	0000 1000
Shanghai	0000 1001
Jiangsu	0000 1010
Zhejiang	0000 1011
Anhui	0000 1100
Fujian	0000 1101

Jiangxi	0000 1110
Shandong	0000 1111
Henan	0001 0000
Hubei	0001 0001
Hunan	0001 0010
Guangdong	0001 0011
Guangxi	0001 0100
Hainan	0001 0101
chongqing	0001 0110
Sichuan	0001 0111
Guizhou	0001 1000
Yunnan	0001 1001
Shaanxi	0001 1010
Gansu	0001 1011
Qinghai	0001 1100
Ningxia	0001 1101
Xinjiang	0001 1110
Tibet	0001 1111

The following describes the mapping relationship between the quality of service information, the area information and the network slice with reference to Table 2. For example, Jiangsu's eMBB network slice is SST=0000 0001, SD=0000 0000 1010 0000 0000 0000, defined as network slice 1; Jiangsu's uRLLC network slice is SST=0000 0002, SD=0000 0000 1010 0000 0000 0000, defined as Network slice 2; Anhui’s eMBB network slice is SST=0000 0001, SD=0000 0000 1100 0000 0000 0000, defined as network slice 3; Anhui’s uRLLC network slice is SST=0000 0002, SD=0000 0000 1100 0000 0000 0000, Defined as network slice 4. Network slice 1 in Jiangsu and network slice 3 in Anhui are network slices with the same quality of service, and network slice 2 in Jiangsu and network slice 4 in Anhui are network slices with the same quality of service.

The mapping relationship between QoS information, area information and network slices can be shown in Table 3.

table 3

When a Jiangsu user who has ordered an eMBB slice (ie, network slice 1) roams to Anhui, the AMF in Anhui sends a slice selection request to the NSSF, which carries slice information of Anhui (including the area ID of Anhui 0000 1100) and slice information of Jiangsu ( Including the value of the SST corresponding to the quality of service information eMBB 0000 0001), the NSSF queries the preset mapping relationship (that is, the above Table 3) according to the area identifier 0000 1100 of Anhui and the quality of service information 0000 0001 (that is, the above Table 3), and obtains the network slice 3 of Anhui, that is, SST = 0000 0001, SD = 0000 0000 1100 0000 0000 0000, and send the network slice 3 to AMF in Anhui. That is to say, when a Jiangsu user who subscribes to an eMBB slice (ie, network slice 1) roams to Anhui, the NSSF selects network slice 3 that is available in Anhui and has the same quality of service (ie, eMBB) as network slice 1, as the The user provides services, in this case, network slice 1 and network slice 3 are the corresponding mapping slices.

The embodiments of the present disclosure implement the function of slice selection when a user roams across regions within the same PLMN by customizing the meaning of the network slice information (S-NSSAI) field and cooperating with the slice mapping relationship locally configured by the NSSF.

Based on the same technical concept, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a network slice selection apparatus, and the network slice selection apparatus may be an NSSF. As shown in FIG. 6 , the network slice selection apparatus includes a receiving module 101, an obtaining module 102, The processing module 103 and the sending module 104.

The receiving module 101 is configured to receive a slice selection request sent by the core access and mobility management function entity AMF.

The obtaining module 102 is configured to obtain the slice information of the location and the slice information of the home place carried in the slice selection request, where the slice information of the location at least includes the area information of the location, and the slice information of the home place at least includes the slice information for indicating the location. Information on the quality of service at home.

The processing module 103 is configured to determine the network slice of the location according to the area information of the location, the information used to represent the quality of service of the home location and the preset quality of service information, the mapping relationship between the area information and the network slice.

The sending module 104 is configured to send the network slice of the location to the AMF.

In some embodiments, the slice information of the home place further includes the area information of the home place, and the processing module 103 is configured to, when the area information of the home place is different from the area information of the home place, according to the area information of the home place, The local network slice is determined by representing the mapping relationship between the home service quality and information and preset service quality information, area information and network slice.

In some embodiments, the sending module 104 is further configured to send the network slice of the home location to the AMF when the processing module 103 determines that the area information of the home location is the same as the area information of the location.

In some implementation manners, the slice information includes a slice/service type SST field and a slice distinction identification SD field, the SD field includes an area identification field used to indicate the area information, and the SST field is used to indicate the quality of service .

In some embodiments, the SD field further includes a service information field, and the SST field and the service information field are used to indicate service quality.

An embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a computer device. As shown in FIG. 7 , the computer device includes: one or more processors and a storage device; one or more programs are stored on the storage device, and when the above one or more programs are stored When the program is executed by the above-mentioned one or more processors, the above-mentioned one or more processors implement the network slice selection method provided by the foregoing embodiments.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer-readable storage medium on which a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, implements the network slice selection method provided by the foregoing embodiments.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can understand that all or some steps in the methods disclosed above, and functional modules/units in an apparatus can be implemented as software, firmware, hardware, and appropriate combinations thereof. In a hardware implementation, the division between functional modules/units mentioned in the above description does not necessarily correspond to the division of physical components; for example, one physical component may have multiple functions, or one function or step may be composed of several physical components Components execute cooperatively. Some or all physical components may be implemented as software executed by a processor such as a central processing unit, digital signal processor or microprocessor, or as hardware, or as an integrated circuit, such as an application-specific integrated circuit circuit. Such software may be distributed on computer-readable media, which may include computer storage media (or non-transitory media) and communication media (or transitory media). As known to those of ordinary skill in the art, the term computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data flexible, removable and non-removable media. Computer storage media include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cartridges, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or may Any other medium used to store desired information and which can be accessed by a computer. In addition, communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and can include any information delivery media, as is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art .

Example embodiments have been disclosed herein, and although specific terms are employed, they are used and should only be construed in a general descriptive sense and not for purposes of limitation. In some instances, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that features, characteristics and/or elements described in connection with a particular embodiment may be used alone or in combination with features, characteristics described in connection with other embodiments unless expressly stated otherwise and/or components used in combination. Accordingly, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims (10)

1. A network slice selection method, comprising:

   Receive the slice selection request sent by the core access and mobility management function entity, AMF;

   Obtain the slice information of the location and the slice information of the home place carried in the slice selection request, where the slice information of the location at least includes the area information of the location, and the slice information of the home place at least includes the information used to indicate the quality of service of the home location. information;

   Determine the network slice of the location according to the area information of the location, the information used to represent the quality of service of the home location and the preset quality of service information, and the mapping relationship between the area information and the network slice; and

   Send the local network slice to the AMF.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the slice information of the home location further includes the area information of the home location, the area information according to the location, the information used to indicate the quality of service of the home location, and the preset quality of service information , the mapping relationship between regional information and network slices to determine the network slice of the location, including:

   The area information of the home location is different from the area information of the location, according to the mapping relationship between the area information of the location, the information used to represent the quality of service of the home location and the preset quality of service information, area information and network slices Determine the network slice for the location.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

   If the area information of the home area is the same as the area information of the location, the network slice of the home area is sent to the AMF.
4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the slice information includes a slice/service type SST field and a slice distinction identification SD field, and the SD field includes an area identification for representing the area information field, the SST field is used to indicate the quality of service.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the SD field further includes a service information field, and the SST field and the service information field are used to represent quality of service.
6. A network slice selection device, comprising: a receiving module, an obtaining module, a processing module and a sending module,

   The receiving module is configured to receive the slice selection request sent by the core access and mobility management functional entity, the AMF;

   The obtaining module is configured to obtain the slice information of the location and the slice information of the home place carried in the slice selection request, where the slice information of the location at least includes the area information of the location, and the slice information of the home place at least includes Information indicating the quality of service at home;

   The processing module is configured to determine the network slice of the location according to the area information of the location, the information used to represent the quality of service of the home location and the preset quality of service information, and the mapping relationship between the area information and the network slice; and

   The sending module is configured to send the local network slice to the AMF.
7. The apparatus for network slice selection according to claim 6, wherein the slice information of the home place further includes the area information of the home place, and the processing module is configured to be configured when the area information of the home place and the area information of the location are At different times, the network slice of the location is determined according to the area information of the location, the information used to represent the quality of service of the home location and the preset service quality information, the area information and the mapping relationship between the network slices.
8. The network slice selection apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the sending module is further configured to, when the processing module determines that the area information of the home location is the same as the area information of the location, send the home location The network slice is sent to the AMF.
9. A computer device comprising:

   one or more processors;

   a storage device on which one or more programs are stored;

   The one or more programs, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement the network slice selection method of any one of claims 1 to 5.
10. A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program implementing the network slice selection method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 when the computer program is executed by a processor.

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