WO2023213132A1

WO2023213132A1 - Network slicing-based communication method, communication apparatus, access network device, and terminal device

Info

Publication number: WO2023213132A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/080118
Authority: WO
Inventors: 孙海洋; 朱方园; 许胜锋
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2022-05-06
Filing date: 2023-03-07
Publication date: 2023-11-09
Also published as: CN117062179A

Abstract

A network slicing-based communication method, a communication apparatus, an access network device, and a terminal device. The method comprises: a policy control function network element obtaining information of a network slice, wherein the information of the network slice comprises identification information of the network slice, and further comprises first time indication information and/or first position indication information of the network slice, the first time indication information is used for indicating available time for the network slice, and the first position indication information is used for indicating an available position area for the network slice; the policy control function network element generating user route selection policy information according to the information of the network slice; and sending the user route selection policy information to a terminal device by means of an access and mobility management function network element.

Description

A network slicing communication method, communication device, access network equipment and terminal equipment

This application is required to be submitted to the Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on May 6, 2022. The application number is 202210488329.1 and the invention title is "A communication method, communication device, access network equipment and terminal equipment for network slicing". priority, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more specifically, to a network slicing communication method, communication device, access network equipment, and terminal equipment.

Background technique

Network slicing uses slicing technology to virtualize multiple end-to-end networks based on a common hardware. Each network has different network functions and adapts to different types of service requirements. Network slicing technology allows operators to split multiple virtual networks on a hardware infrastructure, allocate resources on demand, and flexibly combine capabilities to meet the different needs of various services. Existing network slices are deployed at Tracking Area (TA) granularity, and the existing network slices are updated slowly. With the emergence of diversified services, more flexible deployment of network slices is required. For example, network slices allow network slices to be deployed at a certain time. Segment use, for example, network slicing allows use in a certain location area. The service area of the network slice may match the existing TA, but it may also be different.

Therefore, when a network slice is deployed in a certain time period and a certain location area, how to communicate under the network slice is an urgent problem that needs to be solved.

Contents of the invention

This application provides a communication method, communication device, access network equipment and terminal equipment for network slicing, which can realize that when a network slice is deployed on the network side that limits the use time and/or use location, different network element devices can be configured in the network slice. communicate below.

In the first aspect, a network slice communication method is provided (for example, refer to the method executed by PCF in Figure 13), including: the policy control function network element obtains network slice information (refer to the description of step S210), wherein, The network slice information includes identification information of the network slice, and the network slice information also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, where the first time indication information is used to indicate the The available time of the network slice, the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice, and the policy control function network element generates user routing policy information based on the information of the network slice (refer to the description of step S220); The policy control function network element sends the user routing policy information to the terminal device through the access and mobility management function network element (please refer to the description of step S230).

Therefore, in this application, the policy control function network element obtains the information of the network slice and generates user routing policy information according to the information of the network slice. The information of the network slice includes the first time indication information and/or the third time indication information. A location indication information. The policy control function network element sends the user routing policy information to the terminal device through the access and mobility management function network element. When the terminal device receives the user routing policy information, it can based on the user route. The network slice is added based on the definition of the selection policy information (such as the first time indication information and/or the first location indication information). This enables flexible deployment of network slicing and the use of network slicing in specific areas at specific times.

With reference to the first aspect, in a possible implementation of the first aspect, the user routing policy information includes a first user routing policy rule, and the first user routing policy rule includes identification information of the network slice, the The identification information of the application program of the network slice service. The first user routing policy rule also includes the first time window and/or the first location range corresponding to the network slice. The first time window is less than or equal to the first time indication. The available time indicated by the information, the first location range is less than or equal to the available location area indicated by the first location indication information.

In this application, the first user routing policy rule associates the network slice and the application program of the network slice service through the identification information of the network slice and the identification information of the application program of the network slice service, and the terminal device is configured according to the first user routing policy rule. A user routing policy rule, when the terminal device uses the application, the terminal device chooses to apply for access to the network slice. At the same time, the first time window is less than or equal to the available time indicated by the first time indication information, and the first location range is less than or equal to the available location area indicated by the first location indication information, thereby preventing the terminal device from being When the network slice is close to the end time or the edge location area is available, the network delay and freeze caused by the instability of the network slice can improve the user experience.

Optionally, the first user routing policy includes a first route selection descriptor, and the first route selection descriptor includes the first time window and/or the first location range.

Combined with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the policy control function network element obtains network slicing information, including:

The policy control function network element receives information about the network slice from the network slice management function network element; or,

The policy control function network element receives the information of the network slice from the access and mobility management function network element; or,

The policy control function network element receives information from the unified data repository for the network slice.

In addition, the policy control function network element can also perform other actions performed by the PCF in Figure 13, which will not be described again here.

In the second aspect, a network slicing communication method is provided (for example, please refer to the method performed by the AMF in Figure 14), including: access and mobility management function network elements obtain network slice information (please refer to steps S310 and S510 description), the network slice information includes identification information of the network slice, and the network slice information also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, where the first time indication information is In order to indicate the available time of the network slice, the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice;

The access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice (please refer to the description of step S320).

In this application, the network element with access and mobility management functions obtains and processes the information of the network slice, which can improve the flexibility of the network side in processing the information of the network slice.

Combined with the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice, including: the access and mobility management function network element reports to the policy control function network element sends information about this network slice.

In conjunction with the second aspect, in a possible implementation of the second aspect, the access and mobility management function network element processes information of the network slice, including: the access and mobility management function network element processes information of the network slice according to The information generates local data network information (please refer to the description of step S320). The local data network information includes the name of the local data network. The local data network information also includes second time indication information and/or second location indication information. The third The second time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the local data network, and the second location indication information is used to indicate the local data network. Available cells of the network, wherein the available time indicated by the second time indication information is less than or equal to the available time indicated by the first time indication information, and the available cell indicated by the second location indication information is less than or equal to the first The available location area indicated by the location indication information; the access and mobility management function network element sends the local data network information to the terminal device.

The access and mobility management function network element generates local data network information from the network slice information, and then sends the local data network information to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can determine whether it can apply to join based on the current time and/or current location. This local data network information has little impact on existing communication processes.

Optionally, the second location indication information is used to indicate available cells and/or available tracking areas of the local data network.

In conjunction with the second aspect, in a possible implementation of the second aspect, the communication method further includes: the access and mobility management function network element sending the local data network corresponding to the network slice to the policy control function network element. Name (please refer to the description of step S340).

In conjunction with the second aspect, in a possible implementation of the second aspect, the communication method further includes: the access and mobility management function network element sending the second time indication information and/or the policy control function network element to the policy control function network element. Second location indication information (please refer to the description of step S340).

In conjunction with the second aspect, in a possible implementation of the second aspect, the access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice, including: in the access and mobility management function network element according to the network slice When the information determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the access and mobility management function network element sends the first timing information to the terminal device (refer to the description of step S530). The first timing information Used to instruct the terminal device to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice or the local data network established by the terminal device before the time indicated by the first timing information expires, wherein the terminal device is not eligible to access the The requirement of a network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

By sending the first timing information to the terminal device, the first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to release the protocol data unit associated with the network slice established by the terminal device before the time indicated by the first timing information expires. Sessions can prevent the terminal device's business from being cut off instantly, thus improving the user experience.

In conjunction with the second aspect, in a possible implementation of the second aspect, the access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice, including: in the access and mobility management function network element according to the network slice If the information determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the access and mobility management function network element sends a reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice to the terminal device (please refer to step S550 Description), wherein when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate to the terminal The current time of the device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice and the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the terminal device is denied access to the network slice. The cause value of a network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the end device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

By sending the cause value to the terminal device, the terminal device releases the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device when receiving the cause value, so that the service of the terminal device will not be cut off instantly. , thereby improving user experience.

In conjunction with the second aspect, in a possible implementation of the second aspect, the access and mobility management function network element processes information of the network slice, including: the access and mobility management function network element processes information of the network slice according to information confirmation terminal If the device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the access and mobility management function network element determines the second timing information (please refer to the description of step S580), where the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice. The requirement means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice; when the time of the second timing information times out, the access and mobility The management function network element sends a request to release the protocol data unit session established by the terminal device and associated with the network slice or the local data network to the session management function network element.

Specifically, when the time of the second timing information times out and the access and mobility management function network element does not receive the message sent by the terminal device to release the network slice established by the terminal device and associated with the network slice or the local data network. When requesting a protocol data unit session, the access and mobility management function network element sends a request to release the protocol data unit session established by the terminal device and associated with the network slice or the local data network to the session management function network element.

When the time of the second timing information times out, the session management function network element releases the request of the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, thereby avoiding the problem that the terminal device fails to successfully release the protocol data unit session established with the terminal device. There is a waste of resources during the session of the protocol data unit associated with the network slice. At the same time, the second timing information can prevent the service of the terminal device from being cut off instantly, thereby improving user experience.

Optionally, the first timing information is less than or equal to the second timing information.

Combined with the second aspect, in a possible implementation of the second aspect, the access and mobility management function network element obtains network slice information, including: the access and mobility management function network element receives information from the network slice management function The network element's information about the network slice; or, the access and mobility management function network element receives the network slice information from the unified data management network element; or, the access and mobility management function network element receives the network slice selection from Information about the network slice of functional network elements.

In addition, the access and mobility management function network element AMF can also perform other actions performed by the AMF in Figure 14 or Figure 16, which will not be described again here.

In the third aspect, a network slice communication method is provided (for example, refer to the method executed by SMF in Figure 15), including: the session management function network element obtains network slice information (refer to the description of step S410), the network The slice information includes identification information of the network slice, and the network slice information also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, where the first time indication information is used to indicate the location of the network slice. Available time, the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice; when the session management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice, the The session management function network element determines the release of the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device (please refer to the description of step S420), where the fact that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice. The current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

When the session management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the network slice information, the session management function network element determines the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device. The release of network slicing enables flexible deployment of network slicing, allowing network slicing to be used in specific areas at specific times.

In conjunction with the third aspect, in a possible implementation of the third aspect, the communication method further includes: the session management function network element sending first timing information to the terminal device (please refer to the description of step S430), the third timing information being sent to the terminal device. A certain timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to release the connection established with the terminal device before the time indicated by the first timing information expires. The protocol data unit session associated with this network slice.

In conjunction with the third aspect, in a possible implementation of the third aspect, the communication method further includes: determining, in the session management function network element, that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice. In the case of , the session management function network element sends the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice to the terminal device (please refer to the description of step S450)

Wherein, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate the current time of the terminal device. The time exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice and the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the terminal device is denied access to the network slice. The cause value is used to indicate that the current location of the end device is outside the available location area of the network slice.

In conjunction with the third aspect, in a possible implementation of the third aspect, the communication method further includes: the session management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice. In this case, the session management function network element determines the second timing information (please refer to the description of step S480), where the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the time limit of the network slice. The available time and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice; when the time of the second timing information times out, the session management function network element releases the session established by the terminal device and associated with the network slice. Request for protocol data unit session.

Combined with the third aspect, in a possible implementation of the third aspect, the session management function network element obtains network slice information, including: the session management function network element receives the network slice from the network slice management function network element. information; or, the session management function network element receives the information of the network slice from the unified data management network element; or,

The session management function network element receives the information of the network slice from the network slice selection function network element.

In addition, the session management function network element SMF can also perform other actions performed by the SMF in Figure 15, which will not be described again here.

In the fourth aspect, a network slicing communication method is provided, for example (please refer to the method performed by the RAN in Figure 17), including: the access network device receives the network slicing information sent by the access and mobility management function network element (please refer to Description of step S620), the network slice information includes identification information of the network slice, and the network slice information also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, wherein the first time indication The information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice; in the When the access network device determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice, the access network device determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device. (Refer to the description of step S650), where the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the network slice. The available location area for slices.

When the access network device determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the network slice information, the access network device determines the release of the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device. , realizes the flexible deployment of network slices, and achieves the effect of using network slices at specific times and specific areas.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the access network device determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, including: the access network device passes The broadcast message or unicast message instructs the terminal device to initiate the release of the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice before the time indicated by the first timing information times out (please refer to the description of step S660).

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the access network device determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, including: the access network device The terminal device sends a reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice, where, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the terminal device is refused to access the network slice. The reason value for the device to access the network slice is used to indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice. The available location area of the network slice. The reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice (refer to the description of step S670).

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the access network device determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, further including: the access network device When the second timing information times out, the access network device notifies the access and mobility management function network element that the network slice is unavailable in the tracking area, and the tracking area is a cell covered by the access network device (refer to Description of step S680).

Specifically, when the time of the second timing information times out and the access network device does not receive the message sent by the terminal device to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice or the local data network established by the terminal device Upon request, the access network device notifies the access and mobility management function network element that the network slice is unavailable in the tracking area, and then the access and mobility management function network element initiates the release of the network slice established by the terminal device. The associated protocol data unit session. This avoids waste of resources when the terminal device fails to successfully release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device. At the same time, the second timing information can prevent the service of the terminal device from being cut off instantly, thereby improving User feelings.

In addition, the access network equipment RAN can also perform other actions performed by the RAN in Figure 17, which will not be described again here.

In the fifth aspect, a network slicing communication method is provided (please refer to the method executed by the terminal device in Figure 15, Figure 16 or Figure 17), including: the terminal device receives the first timing information sent by the network device, and the first The timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to release the network slice established by the terminal device within the time indicated by the first timing information. The associated protocol data unit session (refer to the description of step S460, step S540 or step S670); the terminal device releases the protocol data unit session before the time indicated by the timing information times out (refer to step S470, step S570 or step S670 description of).

The terminal device receives the timing information sent by the network device, and the terminal device releases the protocol data unit session before the time indicated by the timing information times out, thereby realizing flexible deployment of network slicing and achieving the effect of network slicing being used at a specific time and in a specific area.

In conjunction with the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation of the fifth aspect, when the network device is an access network device, the terminal device receives the first timing information through a broadcast message or a unicast message (please refer to step S660 description of).

In conjunction with the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation of the fifth aspect, when the network device is a core network device, the terminal device receives the first timing information through a configuration update message of the terminal device (please refer to step S440 or the description of step S540).

In conjunction with the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the terminal device receives a reason value sent by the network device for denying the terminal device access to the network slice (please refer to the description of step S670), Wherein, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used Indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location of the network slice. area, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, when the network device is an access network device, the terminal device receives the cause value through a broadcast message or a unicast message.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, when the network device is a core network device, the terminal device receives the cause value through a configuration update message of the terminal device.

In conjunction with the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation of the fifth aspect, the communication method further includes: the terminal device deleting the identification information of the network slice from a locally stored list of allowed network slice selection auxiliary information.

In conjunction with the fifth aspect, in a possible implementation of the fifth aspect, the communication method further includes: the terminal device receiving configuration information sent by the network side device, where the configuration information includes the rejected identification information of the network slice; The terminal device deletes the identification information of the network slice from the locally stored list of allowed network slice selection auxiliary information.

In addition, the terminal device can also perform other actions performed by the terminal device in Figure 15, Figure 16 or Figure 17, which will not be described again here.

In the sixth aspect, a network slicing communication method is provided (please refer to the method executed by the terminal device in Figure 14), including: the terminal device receives local data network information sent by the access and mobility management function network element (please refer to the steps Description of S330), wherein the local data network information includes the name of the local data network, the local data network information also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information, and the first time indication information is used to indicate the The available time of the local data network, the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the local data network, and the available location area indicated by the first location indication information is cell granularity; the terminal device according to the local data network information, Determine whether the terminal device can access the local data network (refer to the description of step S330).

In conjunction with the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation of the sixth aspect, the terminal device determines whether the terminal device can use the local data network based on the local data network information, including: when the current time of the terminal device When the available time indicated by the first time indication information is exceeded, the terminal device does not access the local data network; or,

When the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area indicated by the first location indication information, the terminal device does not access the local data network.

In addition, the terminal device can also perform other actions performed by the terminal device in Figure 14, which will not be described again here.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, including a processor, a transceiver and a memory. The memory is used to store instructions. The processor is used to execute the instructions stored in the memory to control the transceiver to receive or send signals; the transceiver The processor is configured to obtain network slice information, wherein the network slice information includes identification information of the network slice, and the network slice information also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, wherein, The first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice, and the processor is used to generate user routing policy information according to the information of the network slice; The transceiver is also used to send the user routing policy information to the terminal device through the access and mobility management function network element.

In conjunction with the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation of the seventh aspect, the user routing policy information includes a first user routing policy rule, and the first user routing policy rule includes identification information of the network slice, the The identification information of the application program of the network slice service. The first user routing policy rule also includes the first time window and/or the first location range corresponding to the network slice. The first time window is less than or equal to the first time indication. The available time indicated by the information, the first location range is less than or equal to the available location area indicated by the first location indication information.

In conjunction with the seventh aspect, in a possible implementation of the seventh aspect, the transceiver is specifically configured to: receive information about the network slice from the network slice management function network element; or, receive information from the access and mobility management Information about the network slice of the functional network element; or, receiving information about the network slice from the unified data repository.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided, including: a processor, a transceiver and a memory, the memory is used to store instructions, the processor is used to execute the instructions stored in the memory to control the transceiver to receive or send signals; The transceiver is configured to obtain network slice information. The network slice information includes identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, wherein the first time indication information and/or first location indication information A time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice; the processor is used to process the information of the network slice.

In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to: send the network slice information to the policy control function network element.

In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation of the eighth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: generate local data network information according to the information of the network slice, where the local data network information includes the name of the local data network, the The local data network information also includes second time indication information and/or second location indication information. The second time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the local data network. The second location indication information is used to indicate the local data network. available cells, wherein the available time indicated by the second time indication information is less than or equal to the available time indicated by the first time indication information, and the available cell indicated by the second location indication information is less than or equal to the first location Indicates the available location area indicated by the information; the transceiver is also used to send the local data network information to the terminal device.

In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, the transceiver is further configured to: send the name of the local data network corresponding to the network slice to the policy control function network element.

In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, the transceiver is further configured to: send the second time indication information and/or the second location indication information to the policy control function network element.

In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation of the eighth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: determine according to the information of the network slice that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, and the transceiver is specifically configured to: : When it is determined that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice according to the information of the network slice, the first timing information is sent to the terminal device, and the first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to wait at the first timing. Release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice or the local data network established by the terminal device before the time indicated by the information times out, where the fact that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice refers to the current status of the terminal device. The time exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation of the eighth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: determine according to the information of the network slice that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, and the transceiver is specifically configured to: : When it is determined that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice, send the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice to the terminal device, where, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements The requirement for accessing the network slice is that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice. ; Or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate to the terminal device 's current location is outside the available location area for this network slice.

In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation of the eighth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: when it is determined based on the information of the network slice that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, determine 2. Timing information,

Wherein, the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice; the transceiver unit It is also configured to: when the time of the second timing information times out, send a request to the session management function network element to release the protocol data unit session established by the terminal device and associated with the network slice or the local data network.

In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation of the eighth aspect, the transceiver is specifically configured to: receive information about the network slice from the network slice management function network element; or, receive information from the unified data management network element. Information about the network slice; or, receiving information about the network slice from the network slice selection function network element.

In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided, including: a processor, a transceiver and a memory, the memory is used to store instructions, the processor is used to execute the instructions stored in the memory to control the transceiver to receive or send signals; The transceiver is configured to obtain network slice information. The network slice information includes identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, wherein the first time indication information and/or first location indication information A time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice; the processor is used to determine that the terminal device is not eligible to access the network based on the information of the network slice. In the case of slicing requirements, determine the release of the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, where the fact that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds The available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

In conjunction with the ninth aspect, in a possible implementation of the ninth aspect, the transceiver is further configured to: send first timing information to the terminal device, where the first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device in the first The protocol data unit session established by the terminal device and associated with the network slice is released before the time indicated by the timing information expires.

In conjunction with the ninth aspect, in a possible implementation of the ninth aspect, the processor is further configured to: determine based on the information of the network slice that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice; the transceiver is also configured to: When the session management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is sent to the terminal device, where , when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate the current time of the terminal device. Exceeding the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice and the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the reason why the terminal device is denied access to the network slice Value used to indicate that the end device's current location is outside the available location area for this network slice.

In conjunction with the ninth aspect, in a possible implementation of the ninth aspect, the processor is further configured to: when the information of the network slice determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, determine 2. Timing information, wherein the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice ; When the time of the second timing information times out, the session management function network element releases the request of the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device.

In conjunction with the ninth aspect, in a possible implementation of the ninth aspect, the transceiver is specifically configured to: receive information about the network slice from the network slice management function network element; or, receive information from the unified data management network element. Information about the network slice; or, receiving information about the network slice from the network slice selection function network element.

In a tenth aspect, an access network device is provided, including: a processor, a transceiver and a memory. The memory is used to store instructions. The processor is used to execute instructions stored in the memory to control the transceiver to receive or send signals. : The transceiver is used to receive the network slice information sent by the access and mobility management function network element. The network slice information includes the identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes the first time indication information of the network slice and /or first location indication information, wherein the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice; the processor is configured to When the network access device determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice, it determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, wherein the terminal device Failure to meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

In conjunction with the tenth aspect, in a possible implementation of the tenth aspect, the transceiver is further configured to: instruct the terminal device to initiate a protocol associated with the network slice before timeout indicated by the first timing information through a broadcast message. Release of data unit session.

In conjunction with the tenth aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the tenth aspect, the transceiver is further configured to: when the time of the second timing information times out, notify the access and mobility management function network element that the network slice is tracking area is unavailable, the tracking area is a cell covered by the access network equipment.

In an eleventh aspect, a terminal device is provided, including: a processor, a transceiver and a memory, the memory is used to store instructions, and the processor is used to execute instructions stored in the memory to control the transceiver to receive or send signals; The transceiver is used to receive timing information sent by the network device, and the timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to respond to the timing information. Release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device within the indicated time, and the identification information of the network slice is the identification information of the network slice; the processor is configured to release the protocol before the time indicated by the timing information times out. Data unit session.

In conjunction with the eleventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, when the network device is an access network device, the transceiver receives the timing information through a broadcast message.

In conjunction with the eleventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, when the network device is a core network device, the transceiver receives the timing information through a configuration update message of the terminal device.

In conjunction with the eleventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, the transceiver receives a reason value sent by a network device for denying the terminal device access to the network slice, wherein when the terminal The device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the terminal device The current time exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the terminal is rejected The reason value for the device to access the network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

In conjunction with the eleventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, when the network device is an access network device, the transceiver receives the cause value through a unicast message.

In conjunction with the eleventh aspect, in a possible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, when the network device is a core network device, the transceiver receives the cause value through a configuration update message of the terminal device.

In conjunction with the eleventh aspect, in a possible implementation of the eleventh aspect, the processor is further configured to: delete the identification information of the network slice from a locally stored list of allowed network slice selection auxiliary information.

In a twelfth aspect, a terminal device is provided, including: a processor, a transceiver and a memory, the memory is used to store instructions, and the processor is used to execute the instructions stored in the memory to control the transceiver to receive or send signals; The transceiver is used to receive local data network information sent by the access and mobility management function network element, where the local data network information includes the name of the local data network, and the local data network information also includes first time indication information and/or third time indication information. A location indication information, the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the local data network, the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the local data network, the available location indicated by the first location indication information The area is a cell granularity; the processor is used to determine whether the terminal device can access the local data network based on the local data network information.

In conjunction with the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation of the twelfth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: when the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time indicated by the first time indication information, the terminal The device does not access the local data network; or, when the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area indicated by the first location indication information, the terminal device does not access the local data network.

A thirteenth aspect provides a computer program product, which includes instructions that, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or Perform the method in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect, or perform the method in the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect, or perform the fourth aspect or any possible implementation of the fourth aspect. The method in the implementation manner, or performs the fifth aspect or the method in any possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, or performs the sixth aspect or the method in any possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect.

In a fourteenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, the computer-readable storage medium stores computer A program, when the computer program is executed, for performing a method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or performing a method in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect, or Perform the method in the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect, or perform the method in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation of the fourth aspect, or perform the fifth aspect or any possible implementation of the fifth aspect. The method in the implementation, or the method in any possible implementation of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect.

In a fifteenth aspect, a chip system is provided. The chip system includes a processor for the communication device to implement the functions involved in the above aspects, such as generating, receiving, sending, or processing data involved in the above methods. and/or information. In a possible design, the chip system also includes a memory, which is used to store necessary program instructions and data of the communication device. The chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

In a sixteenth aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes a device having the functions of implementing the methods and various possible designs of the above-mentioned first aspect, and a device having the functions of implementing the methods and various possible designs of the above-mentioned fourth aspect. Functional devices or devices with functions that implement the methods and various possible designs of the above-mentioned fifth aspect and devices with functions that implement the methods and various possible designs of the above-mentioned sixth aspect; or, the communication system includes a device with functions that implement The methods of the second aspect and devices with various possible designs, the devices with the functions of the fourth aspect and the devices with the functions of the sixth aspect, and the devices with the functions of the sixth aspect A device with functions; or, the communication system includes a device with functions that implement the methods of the third aspect and various possible designs, a device with functions that implements the methods of the fourth aspect and various possible designs, and a device with Devices that implement the methods of the sixth aspect and various possible designed functions.

Description of the drawings

Figure 1 shows a schematic scene diagram of a 5G supported eMBB scenario provided by this application;

Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of a 5G network slicing architecture provided by this application;

Figure 3 shows a schematic block diagram of the types of network slicing corresponding to the three typical scenarios supported by 5G provided by this application;

Figure 4 shows a schematic flow chart of a method for UE slice selection in the registration process provided by this application;

Figure 5 shows a schematic structural diagram of the NSSP provided by this application;

Figure 6 shows a schematic flow chart of routing data packets to PDU sessions provided by this application;

Figure 7 shows a schematic diagram of a network architecture applied in this application;

Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application;

Figure 9 shows a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application;

Figure 10 shows a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application;

Figure 11 shows a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application;

Figure 12 shows a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application;

Figure 13 shows a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method according to the present application;

Figure 14 shows a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method according to the present application;

Figure 15 shows a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method according to the present application;

Figure 16 shows a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method according to the present application;

Figure 17 shows a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method according to the present application;

Figure 18 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication device according to the present application;

Figure 19 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication device of the present application;

Figure 20 shows a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device of the present application;

Figure 21 shows a schematic structural diagram of an access network device according to the present application.

Detailed ways

The technical solutions in this application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical solution of this application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: global system for mobile communications (GSM) system, code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex time division duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), global interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) system or New radio (new radio, NR), in addition, can also be applied to the use of subsequent evolutionary systems, such as the sixth-generation 6G communication system, and even the more advanced seventh-generation 7G communication system.

The terminal equipment in this application can also be called: user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station , mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile equipment, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication equipment, user agent or user device, etc.

The terminal device may be a wireless terminal or a wired terminal. The wireless terminal may be a device that provides voice and/or other service data connectivity to the user, a handheld device with a wireless connection function, or other processing equipment connected to a wireless modem. Wireless terminals can communicate with one or more core networks via a Radio Access Network (RAN). The wireless terminals can be mobile terminals, such as mobile phones (or "cellular" phones) and computers with mobile terminals. , for example, may be portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer-built-in, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices that exchange voice and/or data with the wireless access network. For example, Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA) and other equipment. Wireless terminals can also be called systems, Subscriber Units, Subscriber Stations, Mobile Stations, Mobile stations, Remote Stations, Remote Terminals, and Connectors. Access Terminal, User Terminal, User Agent, User Device or User Equipment, mobile internet device (MID), wearable device, virtual reality reality, VR) equipment, augmented reality (AR) equipment, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical surgery , wireless terminals in smart grid, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart city, wireless terminals in smart home, vehicle-mounted equipment, wearables Equipment, terminal equipment in the 5G network or terminal equipment in the future evolved public land mobile communication network (public land mobile network, PLMN), etc. This application is not limited to this.

As an example and not a limitation, in this application, a wearable device may also be called a wearable smart device, which is an application wearable device. Wearable technology is a general term for intelligently designing and developing wearable devices for daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothing or accessories. Wearable devices are not just hardware devices, but also achieve powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly defined wearable smart devices include full-featured, large-sized devices that can achieve complete or partial functions without relying on smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, and those that only focus on a certain type of application function and need to cooperate with other devices such as smartphones. Use, such as various types of smart bracelets, smart jewelry, etc. for physical sign monitoring.

In addition, in this application, the terminal device can also be a terminal device in the Internet of things (IoT) system. IoT is an important part of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect items with the network through communication technology. Connect, thereby realizing an intelligent network of human-computer interconnection and physical-object interconnection.

The various terminal devices introduced above can be considered as vehicle-mounted terminal equipment if they are located on the vehicle (for example, placed or installed in the vehicle). The vehicle-mounted terminal equipment is also called an on-board unit (OBU), for example. ).

In this application, the terminal device may also include a relay. Or it can be understood that anything that can perform data communication with the base station can be regarded as a terminal device.

The access network device in this application may be a device used to communicate with a terminal device, and may be a base station, an access point, or a network device, or may refer to a device in the access network that communicates with a terminal device through one or more sectors on the air interface. A device for communicating with wireless terminals. The network equipment may be used to convert received air frames to and from IP packets and act as a router between the wireless terminal and the remainder of the access network, which may include an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Network devices also coordinate attribute management of the air interface. For example, the access network equipment can be a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), or it can be a broadband code division The base station (NodeB, NB) in the multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) can also be the evolved base station (evolved NodeB, eNB or eNodeB) in the LTE system, or it can be the cloud wireless access network (cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario, or the access device can be a relay station, access point, vehicle-mounted device, wearable device, access device in the 5G network or network equipment in the future evolved PLMN network, etc. , it can be an access point (AP) in WLAN, or it can be a gNB in a new wireless system (new radio, NR) system. This application is not limited.

In addition, in this application, the access network device is a device in the access network (radio access network, RAN), or in other words, a RAN node that connects the terminal device to the wireless network. For example, as an example but not a limitation, as access network equipment, you can enumerate: gNB, transmission reception point (TRP), evolved Node B (evolved Node B, eNB), radio network controller (radio network controller) , RNC), Node B (Node B, NB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (BTS), home base station (for example, home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB ), baseband unit (base band unit, BBU), or wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, Wifi) access point (access point, AP), etc.

The access network equipment provides services for the cell, and the terminal equipment communicates with the access network equipment through the transmission resources (for example, frequency domain resources, or spectrum resources) used by the cell. The cell may be an access network equipment (for example, a base station). ). The cell may belong to a macro base station or a base station corresponding to a small cell. The small cell here may include: metro cell, micro cell, or pico cell. ), femto cells, etc. These small cells have the characteristics of small coverage and low transmit power, and are suitable for providing High-speed data transmission service.

In order to clearly understand this application, some of the prior art involved in this application will be introduced first.

First, we introduce the concept of network slicing. 5G will usher in an era of Internet of Everything. 5G supports Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) and High-Reliable Low Latency Communications (uRLLC). ) three major scenes. The three major scenarios include diverse and differentiated applications.

eMBB is based on breakthroughs in spectrum utilization and spectrum bandwidth technology on the wireless side. 5G can provide a transmission rate that is more than 10 times faster than 4G. For augmented reality technology (Augmented Reality, AR)/virtual reality technology (Virtual Reality, VR), and high-definition video live broadcast, only the ultra-high speed of 5G can meet the demand, and the transmission rate of 4G cannot be supported. Now when using VR to watch high-definition or large-scale interactive games, you must drag the network cable to obtain data. In the future, through wireless connection through 5G network, VR/AR can obtain a fast experience, as shown in Figure 1, Figure 1 is the application A schematic scene diagram of an eMBB scenario supported by 5G is provided.

MIoT uses technologies such as multi-user shared access and ultra-dense heterogeneous networks. 5G can support access to 1 million devices per square kilometer, which is 10 times that of 4G, for example. With the recent rapid development of smart cities, public facilities such as street lights, manhole covers, and water meters already have network connection capabilities and can be managed remotely, but 5G will bring greater innovation. Based on the powerful connection capabilities of the 5G network, public equipment in various industries in the city can be connected to the intelligent management platform. These public facilities work together through the 5G network and can be managed uniformly with only a small number of maintenance personnel, greatly improving the city's operational efficiency.

The most typical application of uRRLC in 5G scenarios is autonomous driving. The most common scenarios for autonomous driving include sudden braking, vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-person, vehicle-to-infrastructure and other multi-channel communications at the same time, which requires instantaneous processing of a large amount of data and decision making. Therefore, the network needs to have large bandwidth, low latency and high reliability at the same time. 5G network has the ability to cope with this scenario.

In the 4G era, one network is used to meet all application scenarios and customer groups. For example, if the network wants to provide NB-IoT capabilities, it must enable NB-related features on the network elements. To build network reliability, it must add redundant backup at the device level of the network elements. , by continuously adding features to meet the constant demands of the mass market.

However, various services in vertical industries have very different and unpredictable requirements in terms of latency, number of connections, reliability, security, etc. For example, AR services require ultra-high network bandwidth of >1600Mbps, and energy meter reading services require The network provides massive connections. Autonomous driving requires the network to ensure end-to-end low latency of a few milliseconds and high reliability of more than 99.999%. If you want to use one network to meet all current needs and possible future needs, it is simply impossible to achieve it. .

Network slicing uses slicing technology to virtualize multiple end-to-end networks based on a common hardware. Each network has different network functions and adapts to different types of service requirements. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a 5G network slicing architecture provided by this application. After the operator purchases physical resources, it uses the physical resources to virtualize an eMBB slicing network for mass Internet services, and then targets the smart meter reading needs of certain manufacturers in vertical industries. , using physical resources to virtualize a mMTC slice network, and the two slice networks provide services for different business scenarios. Network slicing technology allows operators to split multiple virtual networks on a hardware infrastructure, allocate resources on demand, and flexibly combine capabilities to meet the different needs of various businesses. When new demands are raised and the current network cannot meet the requirements, operators only need to virtualize a new slice network for this demand without affecting the existing slice network, so as to launch services as quickly as possible.

It should be understood that mMTC can also be called Massive Internet of Things (MIoT).

The types of network slicing corresponding to the three typical scenarios supported by 5G are eMBB slicing, mMTC slicing, and uRLLC slicing. Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram of a type of network slicing corresponding to three typical scenarios supported by 5G provided by this application. eMBB services such as Internet access, cloud games, high-definition video and voice require a transmission rate of 10Gbps. The type of network slice corresponding to eMBB services is eMBB slicing; mMTC services such as smart homes, smart meter reading and safe cities require a connection density of millions square kilometers and low power consumption, the corresponding network slicing type is mmTC slice; uRLLC services such as autonomous driving, telemedicine and other high-reliability services require millisecond-level latency, and the corresponding network slicing type is uRLLC slice.

The three major characteristics of network slicing are isolation, on-demand customization and end-to-end. Among them, on-demand customization includes providing slice life cycle on demand, distributed deployment on demand, capacity on demand, and network services on demand. Isolation includes resource isolation, security isolation, and OAM isolation. Different domains can use different isolation technologies. End-to-end network slicing is an end-to-end network, including access network, transmission network and core network, and requires a cross-domain slicing management system.

The following introduces some terms used in network slicing.

The identification information of the network slice (Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information, S-NSSAI) is used to identify a network slice. According to the operator's operation or deployment needs, one S-NSSAI can be associated with one or more network slicing instances, and one network slicing instance can be associated with one or more S-NSSAI. S-NSSAI includes two parts: slice service type (Slice/ServiceType, SST) and slice difference (Slice Differentiator, SD):

SST, refers to the expected behavior of network slicing in terms of features and services. For example, the standard value range of SST is 1, 2, and 3. The value 1 represents eMBB, 2 represents URLLC, and 3 represents mMTC.

SD is optional information used to supplement SST to distinguish multiple network slices of the same slice/service type.

The two parts SST and SD are combined to represent the slice type and multiple slices of the same slice type, as shown in Table 1. For example, the S-NSSAI values are 0x01000000, 0x02000000, and 0x03000000, which respectively represent eMBB type slices, uRLLC type slices, and MIoT type slices. The S-NSSAI values 0x01000001 and 0x01000002 represent eMBB type slices, serving user group 1 and user group 2 respectively.

Table 1 S-NSSAI structure

Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) is a collection of S-NSSNI.

The NSSAI used in 5G networks include Requested NSSAI, Allowed NSSAI, Configured NSSAI, and Subscribed S-NSSAI(s). Their specific definitions are shown in Table 2. .

Table 2 NSSAI definition

After understanding the related concepts of network slicing, the following describes how the UE applies to join the network slicing. Figure 4 is a schematic flow chart of a method 100 for UE slice selection in the registration process provided by this application.

S110: When the UE registers on a public land mobile network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN) through an access type, it sends a registration request message to the RAN. If the Configured NSSAI of this PLMN or the Allowed NSSAI of this access type of this PLMN is stored on the UE, then the UE will register the request message in the non-access stratum (NAS) and the access stratum (AS) The message carries Requested NSSAI information, and Requested NSSAI contains the S-NSSAI of the slice that the UE requests access to.

S120, RAN selects the original Initial AMF based on the Globally Unique AMF Identifier (GUAMI) or Requested NSSAI, and sends a registration request message to the Initial AMF. If the UE does not provide the Requested NSSAI and GUAMI in the access layer message, the RAN shall send the registration request message from the UE to the default AMF (default AMF).

S130, Initial AMF queries Unified Data Management (UDM) to obtain UE subscription information including Subscribed S-NSSAIs. Initial AMF determines whether it can provide services to the UE based on the received Requested NSSAI, Subscribed S-NSSAI and local configuration. If the AMF can serve the UE, the Initial AMF is still the serving AMF of the UE, and then the AMF constructs the Allowed NSSAI based on the Subscribed S-NSSAI and the Requested NSSAI and returns it to the UE through the registration acceptance message. If the Initial AMF cannot serve the UE or cannot make a judgment, the AMF queries the Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF). The S-NSSAI supported by each relevant TA will be configured in AMF. This information is reported by the RAN when establishing a connection with the AMF.

S140, AMF sends the Requested NSSAI, Subscribed S-NSSAI, PLMN of the User Permanent Identifier (Subscription Permanent Identifier, SUPI), Tracking Area Identity (TAI) and other information to NSSF for query.

S150, NSSF selects the AMF Set or candidate AMF list that can serve the UE based on the received information and local configuration, the Allowed NSSAI applicable to this access type, and may also select network slice instances and instances that serve the UE. It is used to select the network storage function (NF Repository Function, NRF) of the network function (Network Function, NF) and send this information to the Initial AMF.

S160, if the Initial AMF is not in the AMF Set and the AMF address information is not stored locally, the Initial AMF obtains the candidate AMF list by querying the NRF. NRF returns a set of available AMF lists, including AMF Pointer (pointer) and address information. Initial AMF selects one as the target AMF.

S170a, if the Initial AMF cannot obtain the candidate AMF list by querying the NRF, the Initial AMF needs to send the UE's registration request message to the RAN. The message sent by the Initial AMF to the RAN contains AMF Set and Allowed NSSAI.

S170b, the RAN determines the target AMF based on the AMF Set, Allowed NSSAI and local configuration, and the RAN sends the UE's registration request message to the target AMF, which contains the AMF Set and Allowed NSSAI.

S180, if the Initial AMF decides to send the NAS message directly to the target AMF based on the local policy and subscription information, then the Initial AMF sends the UE registration request message and other information obtained from the NSSF except the AMF set to the target AMF.

If the initial AMF decides to forward the NAS message to the target AMF through the RAN based on the local policy and subscription information, the initial AMF sends a Reroute NAS message to the RAN. Reroute NAS message includes target AMF Set information and registration request message, as well as related information obtained from NSSF.

It should be understood that if the Initial AMF cannot obtain the candidate AMF list by querying the NRF, S170a and S170b will be executed, and S180 does not need to be executed.

S190a, after the target AMF receives the registration request message sent in S180 or S170b, the target AMF continues to execute the relevant steps of the registration process. The target AMF sends a registration acceptance message to the RAN, which carries information such as Allowed NSSAI and NSSP.

S190b, RAN sends a registration acceptance message to the UE, which carries information such as Allowed NSSAI and NSSP.

When the UE joins the network slice, the UE needs to select an appropriate protocol data unit (PDU) session for the uplink service flow. The PDU associates a user terminal UE with the data network DN, and the PDU session provides a PDU connection service. The PDU session established between the terminal device and the network device has attributes such as network slicing, DNN and session service continuity (session service continuity, SSC) mode. The 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) defines user URSP to determine the correspondence between application (APP) and slice, DNN and SSC modes. The association between the identification information of the application service and the network slice is determined by the Network Slice Selection Policy (NSSP). Figure 5 is a schematic structure diagram of the NSSP provided by this application. The UE associates the APP id and S-NSSAI through the NSSP. NSSP is part of the URSP (UE Route Selection Policy, UE routing policy) rule. URSP is issued to the terminal device by the PCF through the AMF.

URSP includes one or more URSP rules. A URSP rule mainly includes two parts: Traffic Descriptor and Route Selection Descriptor. Among them, Traffic descriptor includes the names or logos of multiple APPs, etc. Route Selection Descriptor includes network slice selection information corresponding to each APP, as well as wildcard network slice selection information, that is, APPs not included in Traffic descriptor can use it. Network slice selection information and more. Among them, the form of the URSP information can be seen in Table 3, the content of the URSP information can be seen in Table 4, and the Route Selection Descriptor can be seen in Table 5.

Table 3 Form list of URSP information

Table 4 Content list of URSP information

Table 5 Route Selection Descriptor List

After receiving the URSP rule, the UE may trigger the establishment or modification of the PDU session. For example, if it does not meet the requirements When a PDU session is requested, the UE will initiate the PDU session establishment process; when there is a session that meets the requirements, the existing PDU session may be directly used, and the UE will route the data packet to the PDU session that meets the requirements (if multiple UEs are configured, the Wait to pick one). Each time the UE detects a new application, the UE evaluates whether the application matches the traffic descriptor in the rule in the order of rule precedence.

When matching is possible, the UE selects the route selection descriptor (Route Selection Descriptor, RSD) in the rule in the order of route selection descriptor priority (Route Selection Descriptor Precedence). When the RSD is invalid (valid, or no longer valid), jump to the next RSD, otherwise select the RSD.

A routing descriptor for a URSP rule should be considered valid only if all of the following conditions are met:

If present, S-NSSAI(s) are included in the allowed NSSAI(s) in the non-roaming case, or included in the mapping of allowed NSSAI to HPLMN S-NSSAI(s) in the roaming case.

If the existing DNN is a Local Area Data Network (LADN) DNN, and the UE is in the availability area of this LADN.

If a time window exists and the time matches the time indicated in the time window.

If location criteria exist and the UE location matches what is indicated in the location criteria.

The time window and location standards in RSD are determined by the corresponding services. For example, the background traffic service stipulates specific service time and location. Background traffic services include software update services on terminal devices.

Figure 6 is a schematic flowchart of routing data packets to a PDU session provided by this application. The UE selects an appropriate PDU session for the uplink service flow according to the URSP. The UE routes data packets of different uplink services to different PDU sessions according to the URSP. For example, data packet A can be routed to the session of DNN1, S-NSSAI-a, SSC1; data packet B can be routed to the session of DNN1, S-NSSAI-a, SSC2, or to the session of DNN1, S-NSSAI-a, SSC1. On the session; Data packet C can be routed to the sessions of DNN2, S-NSSAI-a, SSC3; Data packet D can be routed to the sessions of DNN1, S-NSSAI-b, SSC1; Data packet E can be routed to DNN2, S -NSSAI-a, SSC3 session; packet F can be routed to DNN2, S-NSSAI-c, SSC3 session.

The above network slices are deployed at TA granularity. That is, when the RAN reports the supported S-NSSAI to the AMF, it reports the TA and the corresponding S-NSSAI. The network side will consider the TA to be homogeneous, that is, any area within a TA supports the same network slice. Network slicing is deployed for services in service areas. As network slicing deployment increases, the service area of the network slicing may match the existing TA, but it may also be different. For example, the service area of a network slice is not the entire TA, but a part of the TA. In addition, within the service area of the network slice, the network slice may not always be able to provide services, and may only be able to provide services within a specified time. When network slices that can only serve within a certain time interval are deployed, UE and network configurations may be affected. For example, the Configured NSSAI may change when this network slice becomes available, which may affect the Allowed NSSAI and other parameters. In addition, when this network slice is discontinued, that is, when this network slice is no longer available, the UE and network configuration may also be affected by the above.

An application scenario of this application is introduced below. Figure 7 shows a schematic diagram of a network architecture applied in this application. The network architecture is, for example, a service-oriented architecture of a 5G network. As shown in Figure 11, the network architecture mainly includes terminal equipment (User Equipment, UE), access network (Access Network, AN) equipment, access and mobility management function (AMF), session management Function (Session Management Function, SMF), User Plane Function (UPF), Policy Control function (PCF), Unified Data Management (UDM), System 1. Data warehousing function (Unified Data Repository, UDR), data network (Data Network, DN), network slice selection function (Network Slice Selection Function, NSSF) and network slice management function network element (Network Slice Management Function, NSMF).

In this network architecture, AMF provides mobility management functions in the core network and is mainly responsible for access and mobility control, such as user location update, user registration network, user switching, etc., including registration management (RM) and connection management. (connection management, CM), access authentication and access authorization, reachability management and mobility management, etc.

SMF is the session management function in the core network and is mainly responsible for session management in the mobile network, such as session establishment, modification, and release. Specific functions include assigning IP addresses to users and selecting UPFs that provide message forwarding functions. In addition to mobility management of the UE, the AMF is also responsible for forwarding session management related messages between the UE and the SMF.

UPF is the user plane function in the core network. It mainly provides user plane support and is responsible for forwarding and receiving user data in terminal devices. It can receive user data from the data network and transmit it to the terminal device through the access network device; the UPF network element can also receive user data from the terminal device through the access network device and forward it to the data network. The transmission resources and scheduling functions in the UPF network element that provide services for terminal equipment are managed and controlled by the SMF network element.

PCF is the policy management function in the core network. It mainly supports the provision of a unified policy framework to control network behavior, provides policy rules to the control layer network functions, and is responsible for obtaining user subscription information related to policy decisions. Responsible for formulating policies related to UE mobility management, session management, and charging.

UDM is the contract database in the core network. It stores user contract data in the 5G network and is responsible for user authentication and authentication-related functions. Specifically, it includes: authentication credential processing, user identity processing, contract information management, access authorization, etc.

UDR is a unified data warehousing function in the core network. It is used by UDM to store or retrieve subscription data of user devices, and for PCF to store or read policy data.

DN is a service network that provides users with data transmission services, such as IMS (IP Multi-media Service, IP Multimedia Service), Internet, etc. The UE accesses the data network through the PDU session established between the UE and the DN.

NSMF is a newly introduced network element in this application. It is used by operators to deploy network slicing and can notify other network elements of the information about deploying network slicing.

In this network architecture, the UE communicates with the (R)AN device through the Uu interface for access layer connection to exchange access layer messages and wireless data transmission. The UE communicates with the AMF through the N1 interface for non-access layer (Non-Access Stratum, NAS) connection to exchange NAS messages; the AN device is connected to the AMF through the N2 interface, and the AN device is connected to the UPF through the N3 interface; multiple UPFs are connected through the N9 interface, and the UPF is connected to the DN through the N6 interface. At the same time, the UPF The N4 interface is connected to SMF; SMF is connected to PCF through N7 interface, SMF is connected to UDM through N10 interface, SMF controls UPF through N4 interface, and at the same time, SMF is connected to AMF through N11 interface; multiple AMFs are connected through N14 interface, AMF It connects to UDM through N8 interface, AMF connects to PCF through N15 interface; UDM connects to UDR through N35 interface, PCF connects to UDR through N36 interface; NSMF connects to PCF through N90 interface; NSMF connects to UDM through N91 interface; NSMF connects through N92 The interface is connected to NSSF; NSMF is connected to AMF through N93 interface; NSMF is connected to SMF through N94 interface.

It should be understood that the names of the interfaces between network elements in this application are only exemplary. The interfaces between network elements can also have other names, and this application does not limit the names of the interfaces.

It should be understood that FIG. 7 is only an exemplary architecture diagram. In addition to the functional units shown in FIG. 7 , the network architecture may also include other functional units or functional network elements, which is not limited in this application.

It should also be understood that the above-mentioned functional units of the core network can work independently or can be combined together to implement certain control functions. For example, AMF, SMF and PCF can be combined together as management equipment to complete access authentication of terminal equipment. , security encryption, location registration and other access control and mobility management functions, as well as session management functions such as recording, releasing and changing user plane transmission paths, as well as analyzing some slice-related data (such as congestion), terminal device-related As a gateway device, UPF mainly completes functions such as routing and forwarding of user plane data, such as: responsible for data packet filtering, data transmission/forwarding, rate control, and generation of accounting information for terminal devices.

It should be understood that the application scenario shown in Figure 7 can also include more network nodes, such as other AMFs, and the access network equipment or terminal equipment included in the application scenario shown in Figure 7 can be the various forms of access networks mentioned above. equipment or terminal equipment. This application is no longer shown one by one in the drawings.

Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application. The network architecture is, for example, a service-oriented architecture of a 5G network. As shown in Figure 8, control plane functions such as AMF, SMF, UPF, PCF, UDR, UDM, NSSF, and NSMF use service-based interfaces to interact.

AMF provides external service interface Namf, SMF provides external service interface Nsmf, PCF provides external service interface Npcf, UDM provides external service interface Nudm, NSSF provides external service interface Nnssf, and UDR provides external services. interface Nudr, the service-oriented interface Nudm provided by UDM to the outside world, and the service-oriented interface Nnsmf provided by NSMF to the outside world.

It should be understood that the specific functions of the network elements of the network architecture shown in FIG. 8 may refer to the description of the network architecture shown in FIG. 7 , and the remaining interfaces may also refer to the description of FIG. 7 . To avoid duplication, they will not be described again here.

The network architecture shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8 is the system architecture in the non-roaming scenario. The following is a schematic diagram of the network architecture in the roaming scenario.

Figure 9 shows a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application. The network architecture is, for example, a service-oriented architecture of a 5G network. Moreover, the network architecture is a roaming network architecture, such as a local breakout (LBO) roaming scenario. The 5G network includes the home public land mobile network (HPLMN) and the visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). HPLMN is the home network of the UE, and VPLMN is the roaming network of the UE. In this scenario, services need to be offloaded at the VPLMN, that is, the UE's services need to be routed to the DN of the VPLMN. Among them, VPLMN and HPLMN communicate through the visited security edge protection proxy (vSEPP) and the home security edge protection proxy (hSEPP).

Among them, as shown in Figure 9, in VPLMN, the UE accesses the 5G network through the (R)AN, and the UE communicates with the AMF through the N1 interface (referred to as N1); the (R)AN network element communicates with the AMF through the N2 interface (referred to as N2) ; The (R)AN network element communicates with the UPF through the N3 interface (referred to as N3); the SMF communicates with the UPF through the N4 interface (referred to as N4), and the UPF accesses the DN through the N6 interface (referred to as N6).

In addition, the VPLMN control plane functions such as NSSF, AMF, SMF, and PCF shown in Figure 9 use service-based interfaces for interaction. HPLMN's UDM, PCF, NSSF and other control plane functions shown in Figure 9 also use service-based interfaces for interaction.

Figure 10 shows a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application, and the network architecture is a roaming network architecture, such as an LBO roaming scenario. The 5G network includes HPLMN and VPLMN. In this network architecture, NSSF, UE, (R)AN, SMF in the VPLMN, and UDM and NSMF in the HPLMN can communicate with the AMF in the VPLMN. The SMF in the VPLMN can also be combined with the UPF, PCF (also called vPCF) and HPLMN in the VPLMN. UDM communication within. The PCF within the VPLMN can also communicate with the PCF within the HPLMN (also known as hPCF). The UPF in the VPLMN can also communicate with the (R)AN and DN in the VPLMN. In Figure 14, "Nxx" between two network elements indicates the interface between the two network elements.

Figure 11 shows a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application. The network architecture is, for example, a service-oriented architecture of a 5G network. The network architecture is a roaming network architecture, such as a home routed (HR) roaming scenario. The 5G network includes HPLMN and VPLMN. HPLMN is the home network of the UE, and VPLMN is the roaming network of the UE. The VPLMN and HPLMN communicate through vSEPP and hSEPP. Different from the network architecture shown in Figure 9, in the scenario shown in Figure 11, services need to be offloaded at the HPLMN, that is, the UE's services need to be routed to the DN of the HPLMN.

Among them, as shown in Figure 11, the UPF in the VPLMN communicates with the UPF in the HPLMN through the N9 interface (referred to as N9). In addition, control plane functions such as NSSF, AMF, SMF, or PCF of VPLMN shown in Figure 11 use service-based interfaces for interaction. HPLMN's UDM, PCF, NSSF and other control plane functions shown in Figure 11 also use service-based interfaces for interaction.

Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of another network architecture applied in this application, and the network architecture is a roaming network architecture, such as an HR roaming scenario. The 5G network includes HPLMN and VPLMN. In this network architecture, NSSF, UE, (R)AN, SMF, PCF in the VPLMN, and AUSF and UDM in the HPLMN can communicate with the AMF in the VPLMN. The SMF in the VPLMN can also communicate with the UPF in the VPLMN and the SMF in the HPLMN. The PCF in the VPLMN can also communicate with the PCF in the HPLMN. The UPF in the VPLMN can also communicate with the (R)AN in the VPLMN and the UPF in the HPLMN. The NSSF in the VPLMN can also communicate with the NSSF in the HPLMN. The SMF in the HPLMN can also communicate with the UPF, UDM and PCF in the HPLMN. The UPF in the HPLMN can also access the DN in the VPLMN. In Figure 12, "Nxx" between two network elements indicates the interface between the two network elements.

A network slicing communication method provided by this application will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 13. Figure 13 is a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method 200 of this application. This method 200 can be applied in the above application scenarios, and of course also It can be applied in other communication scenarios and is not limited in this application.

As shown in FIG. 13 , the method 200 shown in FIG. 13 may include S210 to S250. Each step in the method 200 is described in detail below with reference to FIG. 13 .

S210. The PCF obtains network slice information. The network slice information includes the identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes the first time indication information and/or the first location indication information of the network slice, wherein the The first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice.

For example, the identification information of the network slice may be the identification information of the network slice (Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information, S-NSSAI).

Optionally, the first time indication information includes a set of start time and end time, or multiple sets of start time and end time. For example, the start time included in the first time indication information is March 6, 2022, and the end time is March 7, 2022. Also, if the first set of start time included in the first time indication information is March 6, 2022, , the end time is March 7, 2022, the second group starts on April 6, 2022, and ends on April 7, 2022.

Optionally, the start time and end time units included in the first time indication information may be days, hours, etc. For example, the first time indication information contains a start time of 00:00:00 on March 6, 2022, and an end time of 2022 March 7, 23:59:59.

Optionally, the start time or end time included in the first time indication information can be an absolute time, or an offset relative to a certain time. For example, the initial time can be set to 00, January 1, 1970: 00:00, the offset of the start time is 8 hours (or 28,800 seconds), that is, the start time is 08:00:00 on January 1, 1970, and the offset of the end time is 10 hours (or 36, 000 seconds), that is, the end time is 10:00:00 on January 1, 1970.

Optionally, the first location indication information may include one or more of the following information: cell identification (list), global RAN node identification list, tracking area identification (list). For example, the cell identifier (list) may specifically be the cell identifier or identifier list of Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network, E-UTRAN) E-UTRAN or New Radio (New Radio, NR). This can mean that the network slice can provide services only within the service range of the corresponding cell, RAN node, or tracking area. When the network slice information only includes the first location indication information, the tracking area identifier (list) contained in the first location indication information will be appended with the cell identifier (list). In this way, the location where the network slice indicated by the first location indication information is available The area may be at cell granularity, which is smaller than the location area available in prior art network slicing.

That is to say, if the network slice information includes the first time indication information, through the network slice information, PCF can know which network slice can only provide services within a specific time, and the available time of the network slice can be determined through the first time Instructions are reflected.

If the network slice information includes the first location indication information, through the network slice information, PCF can know which network slice can only provide services within a specific location range, and the available location range of the network slice can be determined through the first location indication information. to reflect.

Optionally, the PCF may obtain information about the network slice in the following ways.

In the first possible implementation manner, NSMF configures the network slice information on the PCF.

In a second possible implementation manner, the NSMF sends the network slice information to the PCF. Correspondingly, the PCF receives the network slice information sent by the NSMF.

Optionally, the NSMF can be a network management (Operation Administration and Maintenance, OAM), or a newly introduced functional network element. The newly introduced functional network element can be used by operators to deploy network slicing.

In a third possible implementation manner, the NSMF can send the network slice information to the UDR, and then introduce the network slice information into the UDR, and the PCF accesses the UDR to obtain the network slice information.

In a fourth possible implementation manner, the NSMF sends the network slice information to the PCF through UDM/NSSF and AMF.

For example, the NSMF sends the network slice information to the UDM/NSSF. Correspondingly, the UDM/NSSF receives and sends the network slice information to the AMF. The AMF receives and sends the network slice information to the PCF.

In a fifth possible implementation manner, the NSMF can also directly send the network slice information to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives and sends the network slice information to the PCF.

For example, when the NSSF network element is not configured in the network, the NSMF directly sends the network slice information to the AMF. The AMF forwards the network slice information to the PCF.

In a sixth possible implementation manner, the OAM directly configures the network slice information locally in the AMF, and the AMF sends the configured network slice information to the PCF.

For example, when the NSSF network element is not configured in the network, the operator directly configures the network slice information locally in the AMF through OAM, and the AMF sends the configured network slice information to the PCF.

Optionally, the AMF may send the network slice information to the PCF in the following two ways.

In a first possible implementation manner, when the AMF receives the network slice information, it can actively send the network slice information to the PCF.

In a second possible implementation, the PCF can subscribe to the AMF when the AMF obtains the network slice information or the network slice information changes (as indicated by the first time indication information of the network slice). When the available time and/or the available location area indicated by the first location indication information changes), the AMF sends the network slice information to the PCF.

It should be understood that the AMF may or may not support the network slice. When the UE sends a message requesting access to the network slice to the AMF, the AMF does not support the network slice and cannot provide services to the UE. The AMF can query the NSSF, and the NSSF selects an AMF Set or candidate that can serve the UE. AMF list, you can refer to method 100 here.

In a seventh possible implementation manner, the PCF can directly obtain the network slice information from the NSSF.

For example, the PCF can request network slice information from the NSSF, and the NSSF receives the request and sends the network slice information to the PCF; or, the AMF can send the identification information of the PCF to the NSSF, and the NSSF The identification information of the PCF sends the information of the network slice to the PCF.

The above S210 describes various forms in which the PCF obtains the information of the network slice. In S210, if the fourth possible implementation method mentioned above is adopted, after obtaining the information of the network slice, the UDM can update the Subscribed S-NSSAI of the terminal device.

For example, when the UDM obtains the information of the network slice, the UDM can add the identification information of the network slice to the Subscribed S-NSSAI signed by the UE, indicating that the UE can use the network slice. As for the available time and/or available location limited by the network slice, it can be controlled through other network elements, such as PCF. Or the UDM can also add the first time indication information and/or the first location indication information of the network slice to the UE Subscribed S-NSSAI, so as to limit the UE to only use the available time indicated by the first time indication information. and/or the available location indicated by the first location indication information uses the network slice. When the UE's Subscribed S-NSSAI is updated in the UDM, the network side will update the Configured NSSAI stored by the UE according to the UE's Subscribed S-NSSAI, and add the network slice information to the Configured NSSAI stored by the UE. The UE can update the Configured NSSAI stored in the UE according to the Configured NSSAI The network slice information is used to determine whether the UE can use the network slice at the current time and/or current location.

For another example, if the fourth, fifth or sixth possible implementation method is adopted, after the AMF obtains the information of the network slice, it can update the Configured NSSAI of the terminal device. For example, AMF adds the network slice information to the Configured NSSAI stored by the UE, and the UE can determine whether the UE can use the network slice at the current time and/or current location based on the network slice information in the Configured NSSAI.

S220: The PCF generates URSP information based on the network slice information.

For example, the URSP information includes a first user routing policy rule, the first URSP rule includes identification information of the network slice and identification information of an application served by the network slice, and the first URSP rule also includes the network slice corresponding to A first time window and/or a first position range. The PCF sets the first time window and/or the first location range corresponding to the network slice according to the received network slice information. For example, when the network slice information includes the first time indication information, the PCF may set the first time window to be less than or equal to the possible time window indicated by the first time indication information. use time. When the network slice information includes the first location indication information, the PCF may set the first location range to be less than or equal to the available location area indicated by the first location indication information. That is to say, compared with the solution in the prior art, the setting of the first time window in the URSP rule takes into account the available time of the network slice, and/or the setting of the first location range in the URSP rule takes into account the network slice. of available location areas.

For example, the first URSP rule includes a first routing descriptor RSD including the first time window and/or the first location range.

S230: The PCF sends the URSP information to the AMF.

Correspondingly, the AMF receives the URSP information.

S240: The AMF sends the URSP information to the UE.

Correspondingly, the UE receives the URSP information.

S250: The UE executes the URSP information.

When the application of the network slice service is triggered on the UE, the UE determines the network slice according to the first URSP rule in the URSP information. After determining the network slice, the UE can perform the following two operations.

In a possible implementation, the UE has already accessed the network slice at this time. For example, when the UE receives the above-mentioned updated Configure NSSAI, the UE may initiate a message to the network side to access the network slice and successfully access the network slice. This network slice. If the UE has accessed the network slice at this time, the UE can select an appropriate PDU session based on the URSP information. If there is no PDU session that conforms to the first URSP rule, the UE will initiate a PDU session establishment process; if there is a session that conforms to the first URSP rule, the UE can directly use the existing PDU session.

In a possible implementation manner, the UE has not accessed the network slice at this time, and the UE may initiate a message to the network side to access the network slice. When the UE applies to access the network slice, the AMF, the NSSF or the UDM on the network side stores the information of the network slice. The NSSF, the AMF or the UDM uses the first time indication information of the network slice and the /Or the first location indication information determines whether the UE can use the network slice.

For example, when the AMF determines whether the UE can use the network slice based on the first location indication information of the network slice, the AMF can subscribe to (or obtain) the location information of the UE from the RAN based on the network slice. A reporting area (Presence Reporting Area, PRA) can be set according to the first location indication information of the network slice, and the PRA is sent to the RAN, and the RAN reports whether the UE is within the PRA range. Of course, the AMF can also use other methods to subscribe to the RAN for the location of the UE. When the current location of the UE is located in the available location area of the network slice and/or the current time is within the available time of the network slice, the AMF determines that the UE can currently use the network slice and continues the access process. After the UE accesses the network slice, the UE can select an appropriate PDU session based on the URSP information. When the current location of the UE exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the AMF determines that the UE cannot currently use the network slice.

When the AMF determines whether the UE can use the network slice based on the first time indication information of the network slice, if the current time exceeds the available time of the network slice, the AMF determines that the UE cannot currently use the network slice.

After the AMF determines that the UE cannot currently use the network slice, it can perform one or more of the following actions:

1) AMF sets the network slice as a rejected network slice.

2) The AMF triggers the SMF to release the PDU session associated with the network slice. The PDU session may be established by the UE when it meets the available location area of the network slice and/or checks the available time.

In the method 200, the UE obtains the first time indication information and/or the first location indication of the network slice. Information to determine whether the UE can use the network slice, achieving the effect of using the network slice at a specific time and in a specific area. If the UE determines incorrectly, for example, the current time has exceeded the available time indicated by the first time indication information and/or the current location of the UE has exceeded the available location area indicated by the first location indication information, but the UE does determine that it can access the Network slicing, the network side can also perform verification again at this time. At the same time, the UE determines a suitable PDU session according to the URSP information. The URSP information includes the first time window and/or the first location range. The first time window setting takes into account the available time of the network slice. The first location range The setting takes into account the available location area of the network slice. The PDU session determined by the UE based on the URSP information satisfies the available time and/or available location area of the network slice, thereby achieving the effect of using the network slice at a specific time and in a specific area. As a result, network slicing can be deployed flexibly on the network side.

In method 200, the PCF may also send first session indication information to the UE, where the first session indication information includes the limited usage time of the network slice, and the first session indication information is used to indicate when the limited usage time of the network slice Upon expiration, the UE releases the PDU session (or re-evaluates the validity of the URSP rule (or RSD)), and the PDU session is associated with the network slice established by the UE.

Optionally, the limited usage time may be less than or equal to the time indicated by the first time window in the URSP information. For example, the time indicated by the first time window is from ten o'clock to twelve o'clock on a certain day, and the limited usage time is From ten to eleven fifty on a certain day. The limited usage time is less than the time indicated by the first time window in the URSP information. The UE can release the PDU session in advance, which can avoid the impact of network instability in the later stages of the network slicing and improve user experience.

In method 200, the PCF may also send second session indication information to the UE. The second session indication information is used to indicate that when the UE detects that the routing verification conditions are not met, the UE should immediately release the PDU session. The PDU session is a session established by the UE and associated with the network slice.

In a first implementation manner, the first session indication information and the second session indication information may be included in the URSP information, for example, the first session indication information and the second session indication information are included in the RSD in the URSP information. Instructions.

In the second implementation manner, the PCF may send the first session indication information, the second session indication information and the URSP information to the UE through one message.

In a third implementation manner, the PCF may send the first session indication information, the second session indication information and the URSP information to the UE through different messages.

In method 200, NSSF or AMF can update its allowed network slice list according to the information of the network slice. For example, at the current moment, within the time indicated by the first time indication information of the network slice, NSSF or AMF is within the allowed network slice. Add the identifier of the network slice to the list; if the current time is not within the time indicated by the first time indication information of the network slice, NSSF or AMF deletes the identifier of the network slice from the allowed network slice list.

In particular, when the operator deletes the network slice, if the network slice is in the allowed network slice of the UE through the end device configuration update (User equipment configuration update, UCU) process, the AMF should set the network slice to a denied network. Slicing, if the UE does not release the PDU session in time, the AMF triggers the PDU session release. For the process of the AMF triggering the PDU session release, please refer to the steps in method 500.

In addition, the AMF can also configure the available location area of the network slice (or the NSSF sends the available location area of the network slice to the AMF) and subscribe to the location of the UE. When the UE is in connected mode, if the UE is not in the available location area of the network slice and the PDU session is not released in time, if the operator wants to strictly control, the AMF should trigger Send PDU session release. If the operator wants to wait for the UE to enter the connection management idle state (connection management-IDLE, CM-IDLE) and let the UE release it by itself, no other action is required.

If the UE re-evaluates the RSD in the URSP causing the application to change the association with the PDU session, the UE may perform such changes based on the implementation. For example, the UE releases the PDU session immediately, or when the UE enters the CM-IDLE state, the UE releases the PDU session.

A network slicing communication method provided by the present application will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 13. Figure 13 is a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method 300 of the present application. The method 300 can be applied in the above application scenarios, and of course can also be applied in other communication scenarios, which is not limited in this application.

As shown in FIG. 14 , the method 300 shown in FIG. 14 may include S310 to S370. Each step in the method 300 will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 14.

S310. The AMF obtains network slice information. The network slice information includes the identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes the first time indication information and/or the first location indication information of the network slice, where the The first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice.

For the identification information, first time indication information and first location indication information of the network slice, reference can be made to the relevant description of Figure 12 above, which will not be described again here.

Optionally, the AMF may obtain information about the network slice in the following ways.

In a first possible implementation manner, the NSMF sends the network slice information to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the information of the network slice sent by the NSMF.

In a second possible implementation manner, the OAM configures the network slice information locally in the AMF.

In a third possible implementation manner, the NSMF sends the network slice information to the AMF through the UDM/NSSF.

For example, the NSMF sends the network slice information to the UDM/NSSF. Correspondingly, the UDM/NSSF receives and sends the network slice information to the AMF.

For another example, the NSMF configures the network slice information on the UDM/NSSF. The UDM/NSSF sends the network slice information to the AMF.

The above S310 describes various forms in which the AMF obtains information about the network slice. In S310, after obtaining the network slice information, the UDM can update the Subscribed S-NSSAI of the terminal device. The specific process of UDM updating the Subscribed S-NSSAI of the terminal device can be referred to the relevant description in Figure 12, and will not be described again here.

S320: The AMF generates local data network (Local Area Data Network, LADN) information according to the information of the network slice.

The AMF generates the LADN information according to the information of the network slice (such as the identification information of the network slice, the first time indication information and/or the first location indication information).

For example, the AMF may convert the identification information of the network slice into the name DNN of the local data network.

For example, the AMF locally stores multiple network slice identification information and multiple DNN correspondence tables, and the AMF determines the DNN corresponding to the network slice identification information based on the network slice identification information and the correspondence table. For another example, if the correspondence table does not include the identification information of the network slice, AMF can allocate a DNN to the network slice based on the operator's policy.

For another example, while the AMF converts the identification information of the network slice into a DNN, the AMF may determine the second time indication information and/or the second time indication information and/or the first location indication information based on the first time indication information and/or the first location indication information of the network slice. 2. Position indication information. The second time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the local data network, and the available time indicated by the second time indication information is less than or equal to the available time indicated by the first time indication information. The second location indication information is used to indicate available cells of the local data network, and the available cells indicated by the second location indication information are smaller than or equal to the available location area indicated by the first location indication information.

Optionally, the LADN information includes DNN.

Optionally, the LADN information includes DNN and second time indication information.

Optionally, the LADN information includes the name DNN of the local data network and the second location indication information.

Optionally, the LADN information includes the name DNN of the local data network, second time indication information, and second location indication information. The available location area may be a cell granularity area or a TA granularity area.

Optionally, the form of the second time indication information may refer to the form of the first time indication information, which will not be described again here.

Optionally, the second time indication information may be the time length of the LADN service.

Optionally, the second location indication information may include a cell identifier (list), that is, the LADN information may be cell granularity, that is, the LADN service area corresponding to the LADN DNN may include cell granularity information.

Optionally, the second location indication information may include a tracking area identifier (list) and a cell identifier (list).

Optionally, the network (such as OAM) can also directly configure the above LADN information on AMF (for example, it can be configured based on network slice information; of course, it can also be configured based on other information, such as OAM directly configured on AMF to limit the usage time. and/or cell-granular LADN information in the AMF, etc., which can enable flexible configuration of information on the AMF).

Optionally, the AMF does not need to generate the LADN information based on the network slice information, but the UDM generates the LADN information based on the network slice information and sends the LADN to the AMF.

Optionally, when AMF obtains the information of the network slice, after converting the identification information of the network slice into a DNN, it can update the UE's subscription information in the UDM (that is, add the DNN to the DNN subscribed by the UE), indicating that the UE can Use this DNN. Optionally, the second time indication information and/or the second location indication information of the DNN can also be added to the subscription information of the UE, so as to limit the UE to only use the available time and/or indicated by the second time indication information. Or the available location indicated by the second location indication information uses the DNN.

S330: The AMF sends the LADN information to the UE.

Optionally, the LADN information includes the name DNN of the local data network. When the LADN information only includes the name of the local data network, DNN, the UE can determine whether the UE can access the DNN based on the configured URSP information or the URSP re-issued by the PCF.

Optionally, the LADN information includes the name DNN of the local data network, and the LADN information also includes the second time indication information and/or the second location indication information. After receiving the LADN information, the UE may determine whether the UE can request access to the LADN based on the second time indication information and/or the second location indication information included in the LADN. Alternatively, when the UE receives the LADN information and the first application is triggered, the UE may determine that the network served by the first application is the DNN according to the configured URSP, and the UE may determine according to the third network information included in the LADN information. Second time indication information and/or the second location indication information, determine whether the UE can request access to the DNN.

When the current time of the UE exceeds the available time indicated by the second time indication information, the UE does not request access to the local data network; or when the current location of the UE exceeds the available time indicated by the second location indication information When in the location area, the UE does not request access to the local data network.

For example, when the UE is not in the LADN available location area, the UE:

Do not request activation of the User Plane (UP) connection for the PDU session of this LADN DNN;

Do not establish/modify PDU sessions for this LADN DNN (except for data shutdown status change reports of established PDU sessions);

In addition, if the UE receives a PDU session release request from the network side, the UE can also release the existing PDU session of this LADN DNN.

It should be understood that the UE may have accessed the LADN DNN before, but the current location of the UE is not in the LADN available location area.

For example, when the UE is not available during the LADN availability time, the UE:

Do not request an UP connection to activate the PDU session of this LADN DNN;

It should be understood that the UE may have accessed the LADN DNN before, but the current time exceeds the available time of the LADN DNN.

For example, when the UE is in the LADN available location area and/or available time (when the LADN has both available location area and available time, the UE must meet the conditions of being in the LADN available location area and available time at the same time), the UE:

You can request PDU session establishment/modification of this LADN DNN;

It is possible to request activation of an UP connection for an existing PDU session of this LADN DNN.

The LADN information sent by the AMF to the UE indicates the available time of the LADN DNN. The available time of the LADN DNN is determined based on the available time of the network slice, thus achieving the effect of using the network slice at a specific time.

The LADN information sent to the UE by the AMF also indicates the available location area of the LADN DNN. The available location area of the LADN DNN is determined based on the available location area of the network slice, thus achieving the effect of using the network slice in a specific location area.

S340: The AMF sends the DNN of the local data network corresponding to the network slice to the PCF.

Optionally, the AMF may also send the second time indication information and/or the second location indication information to the PCF.

Optionally, the AMF can also send the identification information of the network slice corresponding to the LADN DNN to the PCF.

S350: The PCF receives the DNN, and the PCF generates URSP information based on the DNN.

Optionally, the PCF generates URSP information according to the DNN, the second time indication information and/or the second location indication information.

For example, the URSP information includes a first URSP rule, and the first URSP rule includes identification information of the DNN and the application program served by the DNN; or, the first URSP rule includes the DNN and the application program served by the DNN. Using the identification information of the program, the first URSP rule also includes a first time window and/or a first location range corresponding to the DNN. The first time window is less than or equal to the available time indicated by the second time indication information. The first location range is smaller than or equal to the available location area indicated by the second location indication information.

The first URSP rule includes a first routing descriptor RSD, and the first RSD includes a first time window and/or a first location range corresponding to the network slice.

Optionally, the PCF can determine the corresponding relationship between the application and the DNN based on the corresponding relationship between the application and the identification information of the network slice and the identification information of the network slice corresponding to the LADN DNN (that is, determine the TD and the corresponding RSD).

S360: The PCF sends the URSP information to the UE through the AMF.

S370: The UE executes the URSP information.

Steps S350 to S370 are optional steps. Because the URSP may have been configured on the UE, and the URSP includes the LADN DNN, at this time, the PCF side does not need to send URSP information. This can reduce signaling overhead and save network resources.

Of course, if the PCF side issues URSP information, and the URSP information includes the first time window and/or the first location range corresponding to the DNN, because the first time window is less than or equal to the second time indication of the DNN, The available time indicated by the information, the first location range is less than or equal to the available location area indicated by the second location indication information of the DNN, the UE can determine the appropriate PDU session based on the URSP information, so as to avoid the end of the DNN. Time or the edge area of the DNN available location, network delays and freezes caused by instability of the DNN network (such as sudden interruptions) can improve user experience.

It should be understood that in S330, when the UE receives the LADN information, the UE may initiate a message to the network side to access the DNN included in the LADN information; or, when the UE is triggered by the first application, the UE may The configured URSP or the URSP information received through S360 determines that the network served by the first application is the DNN. The UE can initiate a message to the network side to access the DNN, and the first application is an application served by the DNN. , the URSP information includes the identification information of the first application. When the UE accesses the DNN, when the UE is triggered by the first application, the UE determines the PDU session mapped by the first application based on the configured URSP or the URSP information received through S360.

The UE determines whether the UE can use the network slice based on obtaining the LADN information, thereby achieving the effect of using the network slice in a specific time and in a specific area. If the UE determines incorrectly, for example, the current time has exceeded the available time indicated by the second time indication information and/or the current location of the UE has exceeded the available location area indicated by the second location indication information, but the UE determines that it can access the DNN, at this time the network side such as AMF and SMF can be verified again. At the same time, when the UE determines a suitable PDU session based on the URSP information issued by the PCF, the URSP information includes the first time window and/or the first location range. The first time window setting takes into account the available time of the DNN. The setting of the first location range takes into account the available location area of the DNN. The PDU session determined by the UE based on the URSP information satisfies the available time and/or available location area of the DNN, thereby achieving the goal of using the network slice in a specific time and area. Effect. As a result, network slicing can be deployed flexibly on the network side.

When the UE initiates a message to the network side to access the DNN, the network side will verify whether the UE is allowed to access the DNN. Therefore, method 300 may also include the AMF subscribing the location of the UE to the RAN.

For example, the AMF sends the LADN information to the RAN, and the RAN reports the current actual location of the UE according to the second location indication information included in the LADN information or reports whether the UE is within the location range indicated by the second location indication information.

For example, the AMF subscribes to the RAN for the location of the UE based on the LADN information. The AMF can subscribe (or obtain) the location information of the UE to the RAN based on the LADN information. For example, the AMF sets a reporting area (Presence Reporting Area, PRA) based on the location indication information of the LADN information, and sends the PRA to the access The network equipment RAN reports whether the UE is within the PRA range, and the AMF determines whether the UE can use the DNN based on the UE's current location.

The SMF on the network side will also verify whether the UE can access the DNN when the UE initiates a message to access the DNN.

For example, when the SMF receives a request from the UE to establish a PDU session with the LADN DNN, it can subscribe to the "UE mobility event notification" and/or "UE service time notification" to the AMF, so that the AMF reports to the SMF whether the UE In available location area and/or available time. Specifically include the following situations:

In the first case, when the SMF is informed by the AMF that the UE exists in the LADN available location area and/or available time as OUT (that is, the UE is not in the LADN available location area and/or available time), the SMF should:

Immediately release the PDU session, which is a session established by the UE, and the PDU session service network is the LADN DNN; or while maintaining the PDU session, close the data notification of the user plane connection of the PDU session. If the SMF is in a period After time without being informed that the UE has moved to the LADN available location area, the SMF can release the PDU session.

In the second case, when the SMF is informed by the AMF that the UE exists in the LADN available location area and/or the available time is IN (that is, the UE is in the LADN available location area and/or available time), the SMF should: enable data notification. When the SMF receives downlink data or data notifications from the UPF, the network triggering the LADN PDU session triggers the service request process to activate the UP connection.

In the third case, when the SMF is informed that the presence of the UE in the LADN available location area and/or available time is unknown, the SMF can: enable data notification, SMF subscribes to the UPF for events of received downlink data packets, and the UPF The SMF will be notified when the first downlink data packet (of a certain quality of service flow) is received. In this way, when the SMF receives downlink data or data notifications from the UPF, the network that triggers the LADN PDU session triggers the service request process. to activate the UP connection.

Optionally, the SMF can also obtain (from AMF or UDM) the available location area and/or available time corresponding to the LADN DNN. For example, the AMF or UDM sends the available location area and/or available time corresponding to the LADN DNN to the SMF. . The SMF determines whether the UE is in the LADN available location area and/or available time based on the available location area and/or available time corresponding to the LADN DNN and the location of the UE. in particular:

When the SMF determines that the UE exists in the LADN available location area and/or available time, it is OUT (that is, the UE is not in the LADN service area or service time window), or when the SMF determines that the UE exists in the LADN available location area and/or available time. /or the available time is IN (that is, the UE is in the LADN service area or service time window), or when the SMF determines that the UE is unknown in the LADN available location area and/or available time, the SMF can perform corresponding operations. Refer to the previous description and will not go into details here.

When the SMF receives the session management (SM) request corresponding to the LADN sent by the AMF, the SMF determines whether the UE is in the available location area and/or available time of the LADN based on the indication received from the AMF. Available location areas and/or available times for this LADN. In the case where the DNN is the LAND DNN, if the SMF does not receive the indication sent by the AMF, the SMF considers that the UE is not in the available location area and/or available time of the LADN. If the UE is not in the available location area and/or available time of the LADN, the SMF rejects the session management request corresponding to the LADN.

In method 300, the PCF may also send first session indication information to the UE, where the first session indication information includes the limited usage time of the network slice, and the first session indication information is used to indicate when the limited usage time of the network slice Upon expiration, the UE releases the PDU session (or re-evaluates the validity of the URSP rule (or RSD)), and the PDU session is associated with the network slice established by the UE.

In method 300, the PCF may also send second session indication information to the UE. The second session indication information is used to indicate that when the UE detects that the routing verification conditions are not met, the UE should immediately release the PDU session. The PDU session is a session established by the UE and associated with the network slice.

For the first session indication information and the second session indication information, reference may be made to the relevant description in the method 200, which will not be described again here.

Optionally, when the usage time of the network slice changes, the AMF can determine whether the UE meets the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the network slice information, the usage time of the network slice, and the UE location. If the UE does not meet the requirements, When, for example, the current location of the UE exceeds the available location area of the network slice and/or the current time exceeds the available time of the network slice. The AMF sends timing information to the UE. The timing information is used to instruct the UE to release the PDU session before the time indicated by the timing information expires. The service network of the PDU session is the network slice. For details, please refer to the relevant description of method 500 below.

A network slicing communication method provided by this application will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 15. Figure 15 is a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method 400 of this application. The method 400 can be applied in the above application scenarios, and of course can also be applied in other communication scenarios, which is not limited in this application.

As shown in FIG. 15 , the method 400 shown in FIG. 15 may include S410 to S480. Each step in the method 400 will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 15.

S410. The SMF obtains network slice information. The network slice information includes the identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes the first time indication information and/or the first location indication information of the network slice, where, the The first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice.

It should be understood that the description of the identification information of the network slice, the first time indication information and the first location indication information may refer to the relevant description in the above method 200, and will not be described again here.

Optionally, the SMF may obtain information about the network slice in the following ways.

In a first possible implementation manner, the NSMF sends the network slice information to the SMF. Correspondingly, the SMF receives the information of the network slice sent by the NSMF.

In a second possible implementation manner, the NSMF configures the network slice information on the SMF.

In a third possible implementation manner, the NSMF sends the network slice information to the SMF through UDM/NSSF.

For example, the NSMF sends the network slice information to the UDM/NSSF. Correspondingly, the UDM/NSSF receives and sends the network slice information to the SMF.

For another example, the NSMF configures the network slice information on the UDM/NSSF. The UDM/NSSF sends the network slice information to the SMF.

Optionally, the SMF may also send the network slice information to the AMF, so that the network slice information is stored in the AMF. The AMF, the NSSF or the UDM stores the information of the network slice, so that when the UE applies to join the network slice, the NSSF, the AMF or the UDM will be based on the first time of the network slice. The interval indication information and the first location indication information are used to determine whether the UE can use the network slice. When the UE applies to join the network slice, the network side determines whether the UE can use the network slice based on the information of the network slice. Refer to the relevant description in S250 in method 200.

S420: If the SMF determines that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice according to the information of the network slice, the SMF determines the release of the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE. Wherein, the fact that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the UE exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the UE exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

Optionally, the SMF may determine whether the UE meets the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the UE's location information. For example, the SMF can subscribe to the AMF for the location information of the UE. For example, the SMF can send the identification information of the terminal device to the AMF, instructing the AMF to report the location information of the UE, and the AMF reports to the SMF whether the UE is in the available location area of the network slice. The SMF determines whether the UE meets the requirements for accessing the network slice based on whether the UE is in the available location area of the network slice reported by the AMF. Of course, the SMF can also use other methods to subscribe to the AMF for the UE's location.

Optionally, the SMF may determine whether the UE meets the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the current time. If the current time exceeds the available time of the network slice, the SMF determines that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice.

After the SMF determines the release of the PDU session, it can trigger the UE to release the PDU session, or it can directly release the PDU session itself, or it can perform both methods. For SMF to trigger the UE to release the PDU session, please refer to the description of steps S430-S570 below. SMF itself can directly release the PDU session by referring to the description of step S480 below.

S430: The SMF sends first timing information to the UE. The first timing information is used to instruct the UE to initiate the release of the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE before the time indicated by the first timing information expires. ask.

S440: The UE receives the first timing information sent by the SMF.

S450: The SMF sends the reason value for denying the UE access to the network slice to the UE.

Wherein, when the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current time of the UE exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the UE access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current time of the UE exceeds the available time of the network slice. The available time of the slice; or, when the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the UE's current location exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the reason value for denying the UE access to the network slice is used to indicate to the UE 's current location is outside the available location area for this network slice.

Optionally, step S430 and step S450 may be the same message, and the SMF may simultaneously send the first timing information and the cause value to the UE.

Optionally, the SMF can send the first timing information and/or the reason value through the terminal equipment update (User Equipment Configuration update, UCU) process.

Optionally, only one of steps S430 and S450 may be performed.

S460: The UE receives the reason value sent by the SMF for denying the UE access to the network slice.

S470: The UE initiates a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE according to the first timing information and/or the cause value, and releases the PDU session.

For example, when the UE only receives the first timing information, the UE times out within the time indicated by the first timing information. A request was previously initiated to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE, and the PDU session is released.

For another example, when the UE only receives the reason value, the UE can immediately initiate a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE and release the PDU session; or, the UE can choose to release the PDU session based on its actual situation. Initiate a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE at a certain time, and release the PDU session.

For another example, the UE receives the first timing information and the cause value at the same time, and the UE initiates a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE before the time indicated by the first timing information times out, and releases the PDU session established by the UE. PDU session.

Optionally, the UE may update the network slice to be an unavailable network slice. For example, the UE deletes the identification information of the network slice from the locally stored identification information list of allowed network slices. The UE re-evaluates the URSP rules related to the corresponding network slice, and the RSD (or URSP) including the corresponding network slice is illegal.

Optionally, the UE receives the configuration information sent by the network side device, and the configuration information includes the identification information of the rejected network slice; the UE removes the identification information of the network slice from the locally stored identification information list of allowed network slices. delete.

Optionally, the UE can initiate a new PDU session, such as re-evaluating the URSP, judging whether it can be associated with a new network slice based on the new URSP, and initiating a new PDU session.

S480: The SMF does not receive a request sent by the UE to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE, and the SMF determines the release of the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE.

For example, the SMF immediately releases the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE.

For another example, the SMF determines the second timing information, and when the time of the second timing information times out, the SMF releases the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE.

Optionally, the first timing information may be less than or equal to the second timing information. The first timing information is the time used by the UE to release the PDU session associated with the network slice, and the second timing information is the time used by the SMF to release the PDU session associated with the network slice. The first timing information and the second timing information may be timers. For example, the first timing information is timed to 1 second, and the second timing information is timed to 2 seconds. The UE releases the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE within 1 second, and the SMF releases the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE within 2 seconds.

The SMF sets the first timing information and the second timing information so that the UE side will not immediately stop the ongoing service, and the first timing information is smaller than the second timing information, leaving more sufficient time for the UE side. , which can improve user experience.

It should be understood that step S480 is an optional step. When the UE does not release the PDU session, the SMF can actively release the PDU session.

In the method 400, the SMF instructs the UE to release the PDU session according to the network slice information, or when the UE fails to successfully release the PDU session, the SMF actively releases the PDU session, thereby realizing flexible deployment of network slices and reaching the network The effect of slicing in a specific area at a specific time. At the same time, the SMF can set timing information to instruct the UE to release the PDU session or actively release the PDU session. The timing information can prevent the UE's services from being cut off instantly, thus improving the user experience.

A network slicing communication method provided by the present application will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 16. Figure 16 is a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method 500 of the present application. This method 500 can be applied in the above application scenarios, of course It can also be applied in other communication scenarios, and this application is not limited here.

As shown in FIG. 16, the method 500 shown in FIG. 16 may include S510 to S580. Each step in the method 500 will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 16 .

S510. The AMF obtains network slice information. The network slice information includes the identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes the first time indication information and/or the second location indication information of the network slice, where the The first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice.

For the specific process of the AMF obtaining the information of the network slice, reference can be made to the description of the above step S310, which will not be described again here.

Optionally, in the process of obtaining the network slice information, the AMF may store the network slice information in the NSSF or UDM. The AMF, the NSSF or the UDM stores the network slice information, so that the UE can When applying to join the network slice, the NSSF or the AMF or the UDM determines whether the UE can use the network slice based on the first time indication information and the first location indication information of the network slice. When the UE applies to join the network slice, the network side determines whether the UE can use the network slice based on the information of the network slice. Refer to the relevant description in step S250 above, which will not be described again here.

S520: If the AMF determines that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice according to the information of the network slice, the AMF determines the release of the PDU session associated with the network slice or the local data network established by the UE. Wherein, the fact that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the UE exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the UE exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

Optionally, the AMF may determine whether the UE meets the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the UE's location information. The AMF can subscribe to (or obtain) the location information of the UE from the RAN based on the information of the network slice, and the AMF can set a reporting area (Presence Reporting Area, PRA) based on the first location indication information of the network slice, and The PRA is sent to the RAN, and the RAN reports the actual location of the UE. The AMF can determine whether the UE meets the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the current actual location information of the UE. Of course, the AMF can also use other methods to subscribe to the RAN for the location of the UE.

Optionally, the AMF may determine whether the UE meets the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the current time. If the current time exceeds the available time of the network slice, the AMF determines that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice.

After the AMF determines the release of the PDU session, it can trigger the UE to release the PDU session, or it can trigger the SMF to release the PDU session, or both of these methods can be performed. For AMF to trigger the UE to release the PDU session, please refer to the description of steps S530-S570 below. For AMF to trigger SMF to release the PDU session, please refer to the description of step S580 below.

S530: The AMF sends the first timing information to the UE. The first timing information is used to instruct the UE to initiate the release of the network slice or the local data network established by the UE before the time indicated by the first timing information expires. Request for associated PDU session.

S540: The UE receives the first timing information sent by the AMF.

S550: The AMF sends the reason value for denying the UE access to the network slice to the UE.

Optionally, step S530 and step S550 may be the same message, and the AMF may simultaneously send the first timing information and the cause value to the UE.

Optionally, the AMF can send the first timing information and/or cause value through the UCU process.

Optionally, only one of step S530 and step S550 may be performed.

S560: The UE receives the reason value sent by the AMF for denying the UE access to the network slice.

S570: The UE initiates a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE according to the first timing information and/or the cause value, and releases the PDU session.

For the operation of the UE, please refer to the description of S470, which will not be described again here.

S580: The AMF does not receive a request sent by the UE to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE, and the AMF determines the release of the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE.

For example, the AMF immediately sends a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE to the SMF.

For another example, the AMF determines the second timing information, and when the time of the second timing information times out, the AMF sends a request to the SMF to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE.

Optionally, the first timing information may be less than or equal to the second timing information. The first timing information is the time used by the UE to release the PDU session associated with the network slice, and the second timing information is the time used by the AMF to release the PDU session associated with the network slice. The first timing information and the second timing information may be timers. For example, the first timing information is timed to 1 second, and the second timing information is timed to 2 seconds. The UE releases the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE within 1 second, and the AMF sends a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE to the SMF within 2 seconds.

The AMF sets the first timing information and the second timing information so that the UE side will not stop the ongoing service immediately, and the first timing information is smaller than the second timing information, leaving more sufficient time for the UE side. , which can improve user experience.

It should be understood that step S580 is an optional step. When the UE does not release the PDU session, the AMF may send a request to the SMF to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE.

In the method 500, the AMF instructs the UE to release the PDU session according to the network slice information, or when the UE fails to successfully release the PDU session, the AMF can send a release message to the SMF that is associated with the network slice established by the UE. PDU session request, thereby realizing flexible deployment of network slices and achieving the effect of using network slices at specific times and in specific areas. At the same time, the SMF can set timing information to instruct the UE to release the PDU session or actively release the PDU session. The timing information can prevent the UE's services from being cut off instantly, thus improving the user experience.

A network slicing communication method provided by the present application will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 17. Figure 17 is a schematic flow chart of a network slicing communication method 600 of the present application. This method 600 can be applied in the above application scenarios, and of course can also be applied in other communication scenarios, which is not limited in this application.

As shown in FIG. 17 , the method 600 shown in FIG. 17 may include S610 to S690. Each step in the method 600 will be described in detail below with reference to Figure 17.

S610, AMF obtains network slice information. The network slice information includes the S-NSSAI of the network slice. The network slice information also includes the first time indication information and/or the first location indication information of the network slice, where, The first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice.

Optionally, the specific process for the AMF to obtain the information of the network slice may refer to the description of the above step S310, which will not be described again here.

Optionally, during the process of obtaining network slice information, the AMF, NSSF or UDM may store the network slice information. The AMF, NSSF or UDM stores the network slice information, so that the UE When applying to join the network slice, the NSSF or the AMF or the UDM determines whether the UE can use the network slice based on the first time indication information and the first location indication information of the network slice. When the UE applies to join the network slice, the network side determines whether the UE can use the network slice based on the information of the network slice. Refer to the relevant description in S250 in method 200.

S620: The AMF sends the network slice information to the access network device RAN.

Optionally, the AMF may send the network slice information to the RAN through a registration acceptance message.

Optionally, the AMF may send the network slice information to the RAN through a UE update configuration message.

S630: The RAN receives the network slice information sent by the AMF.

S640: The RAN broadcasts the supported identification information of the network slice in the corresponding cell.

Optionally, when the information of the network slice includes the identification information of the network slice and the first time indication information, the RAN broadcasts the supported identification information and the first time indication information of the network slice within the time indicated by the first time indication information of the network slice. This first time indication information. When the UE receives the identification information of the network slice and the first time indication information, if the PDU session associated with the network slice is ongoing on the UE, the UE may, according to the first time indication information, indicate at the first time Before the time indicated by the information times out, initiate a request to release the PDU session.

Optionally, when the information of the network slice includes the identification information and the first location indication information of the network slice, the RAN broadcasts the supported identification information and the first location indication information of the network slice in the cell indicated by the first location indication information of the network slice. the first location indication information. When the UE receives the identification information of the network slice and the first location indication information, if the PDU session associated with the network slice is ongoing on the UE, the UE may move to the UE according to the first location indication information. When outside the location area indicated by the first location indication information, the UE initiates a request to release the PDU session.

Optionally, when the information of the network slice includes the identification information of the network slice, the first location indication information and the first time indication information, the RAN is within the time indicated by the first time indication information of the network slice. The information of the supported network slice is broadcast in the cell indicated by the location indication information. When the UE receives the identification information of the network slice, the first location indication information and the first time indication information, if a PDU session associated with the network slice is being performed on the UE, the UE may use the first time indication information according to the and the first location indication information, initiate a request to release the PDU session, such as before the time indicated by the first time indication information times out and/or when the UE moves outside the location area indicated by the first location indication information. A request to release this PDU session.

When the RAN receives information about the network slice that includes the first location indication information, the RAN broadcasts the supported information about the network slice in the cell indicated by the first location indication information of the network slice and does not broadcast it in other cells. It can save signaling overhead and save network resources.

S650: When the RAN determines that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice, the RAN determines the release of the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE. Wherein, the fact that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the UE exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the UE exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

After the RAN determines the release of the PDU session, it can trigger the UE to release the PDU session, or it can trigger the SMF to release the PDU session, or both methods can be performed. For the RAN to trigger the UE to release the PDU session, please refer to the description of steps S660-S670 below. For the RAN to trigger SMF to release the PDU session, please refer to the description of steps S680 and S690 below.

S660: The RAN sends first timing information, where the first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to initiate a release request for the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice before the time indicated by the first timing information times out.

For example, the RAN may send the first timing information to the UE in a broadcast or unicast manner.

For example, if the RAN determines that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the first time indication information, it means that the current available time of the network slice has expired. That is to say, other UEs served by the network slice are also not eligible for access. The network slice is required. Therefore, the RAN may broadcast the first timing information, and each UE that receives the broadcast first timing information may initiate protocol data associated with the network slice before the time indicated by the first timing information expires. Release request for unit session.

For another example, if the RAN determines based on the first location indication information that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, which means that the current location of the UE exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the RAN may unicast the first timing information to the UE, The UE that receives the timing information may initiate a release request for the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice before the time indicated by the first timing information expires.

Optionally, the RAN can also broadcast messages according to the instructions of AMF and SMF. For example, when the AMF or the SMF determines that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the indication information may be sent to the RAN. The indication information includes the first timing information, and the indication information is used to instruct the RAN. The first timing message is broadcast, the RAN receives the indication information, and the RAN broadcasts a message, and the broadcast message includes the first timing information.

S670: The UE receives the first timing information.

Optionally, the RAN sends a reason value for denying the UE access to the network slice to the UE.

The reason value for denying the UE access to the network slice can be referred to the previous description in Figure 12, and will not be described again this time.

Optionally, the RAN may simultaneously send the first timing information and the cause value to the UE.

Optionally, the RAN sends the first timing information to the UE, and the RAN may only perform one of the steps by sending the cause value to the UE.

Optionally, the way in which the RAN sends the cause value to the UE may refer to the way in which the RAN sends the first timing information to the UE, which will not be described again here.

When the UE receives the first timing information and/or the cause value, it initiates a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE, and releases the PDU session.

Optionally, the UE initiates a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE. Release The process of this PDU session can be referred to the description in Figure 12 and will not be described again this time.

It should be understood that when the UE initiates a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE, and at the same time releasing the PDU session, it can update the local configuration and other operations. For the specific method, please refer to the relevant description in Figure 14, which will not be discussed this time. Repeat.

S680: If the RAN determines that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the network slice information, the RAN determines to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE. Wherein, the fact that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the UE exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the UE exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

For example, if the RAN determines that the UE does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the RAN immediately notifies the AMF that the network slice is unavailable in the tracking area, and the tracking area is a cell covered by the RAN.

For another example, the RAN determines the second timing information, and when the time of the second timing information times out, the RAN notifies the AMF that the network slice is unavailable in the tracking area, and the tracking area is a cell covered by the RAN.

Specifically, when the second timing information times out, the RAN sends an interface configuration update (NG configuration update) message to the AMF. The interface configuration update message is used to notify the AMF that the current network slice is unavailable in the current TA. The current TA is a cell covered by the RAN.

Optionally, the first timing information may be less than or equal to the second timing information. The first timing information is the time used by the UE to release the PDU session associated with the network slice. The second timing information is the time used by the RAN to release the PDU session associated with the network slice. The first timing information and the third timing information are used by the RAN to release the PDU session associated with the network slice. The second timing information may be a timer, for example, the first timing information is timed to 1 second, and the second timing information is timed to 2 seconds. The UE releases the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE within 1 second, and the RAN notifies the AMF that the network slice is unavailable in the tracking area within 2 seconds.

The RAN sets the first timing information and the second timing information so that the UE side will not immediately stop the ongoing service, and the first timing information is smaller than the second timing information, leaving more sufficient time for the UE side. , which can improve user experience.

S690: The AMF receives the interface configuration update message and triggers a request to release the PDU session associated with the network slice established by the UE.

It should be understood that step S680 and step S690 are optional steps. When the UE does not release the PDU session, the RAN may actively initiate the release of the PDU session.

In the method 600, the RAN generates first timing information according to the network slice information. The first timing information is used to instruct the UE to release the PDU session before the time expires indicated by the first timing information, or the RAN releases the PDU session before the time expires indicated by the first timing information. Before the time indicated by the second timing information times out, the RAN sends an interface configuration update message to the AMF. The interface configuration update message is used to notify the AMF that the network slice is unavailable in the tracking area TA, thereby realizing flexible deployment of network slices and reaching the network The effect of slicing in a specific area at a specific time. At the same time, timing information can prevent UE services from being cut off instantly, thereby improving user experience.

It should also be understood that method 400, method 500 and method 600 can be used in conjunction with method 200. Method 200 describes how the UE accesses the network slice. Method 400, method 500 and method 600 describe how when the information of the network slice is updated, the connected How does a UE entering a network slice release a PDU session whose serving network is the network slice?

Optionally, when the above method 200, method 300, method 400, method 500 and method 600 are applied to the network architecture of the LBO roaming scenario, the SMF is vSMF, the AMF is vAMF, and the PCF is hPCF. The NSMF It can be vNSMF or hNSMF. When the UE obtains the S-NSSAI, the UE will query the allowed NSSAI and the mapping from the allowed NSSAI to the subscribed S-NSSAI. If the S-NSSA is an allowed NSSAI, and there is a allowed NSSAI to the subscribed S-NSSAI Only after NSSAI mapping, the UE can perform the steps in the above method 200, method 300, method 400, method 500 and method 600.

Optionally, when the above method 200, method 300, method 400, method 500 and method 600 are applied to the network architecture of the HR roaming scenario, the SMF is vSMF, the AMF is vAMF, and the PCF is hPCF. The NSMF may be vNSMF or hNSMF. When the UE obtains the S-NSSAI, the UE will query the allowed NSSAI and the mapping from the allowed NSSAI to the subscribed S-NSSAI. If the S-NSSA is an allowed NSSAI, and there is a allowed NSSAI to the subscribed S-NSSAI Only after NSSAI mapping, the UE can perform the steps in the above method 200, method 300, method 400, method 500 and method 600.

Optionally, network slicing information can also be configured on the RAN (which can be configured by the operator), and the RAN reports it to the AMF through the N2 interface (for example, when the link is established), and the AMF further reports it to the NSSF or other network elements. This implementation can be applied in the above-mentioned method 200, method 300, method 400, method 500 and method 600.

Optionally, the above-mentioned information about the network slice may also include service information, where the service information is used to indicate a service, and the service network for the service is the network slice.

Optionally, the business information may include one or more of the following information:

Such as the application identification of the service, the IP 3-tuple of the service, other service information in TD, etc.

It should be understood that the network slice can also be expressed as: the services in the slice can only be used in the corresponding location or time window.

It should be understood that the above is only to help those skilled in the art better understand the present application, but is not intended to limit the scope of the present application. Those skilled in the art can obviously make various equivalent modifications or changes based on the above examples given. For example, some steps in the above method may not be necessary, or some new steps may be added, etc. Or a combination of any two or more of the above embodiments. Such modified, changed or combined solutions also fall within the scope of this application.

It should also be understood that the size of the serial numbers of the above processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its functions and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of this application.

The above describes a network slicing communication method of the present application in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 17 . Next, the communication device of the present application will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 18 to 21 .

Figure 18 shows a schematic block diagram of the communication device 700 of the present application.

In some embodiments, the communication device 700 may be a terminal device, or may be a chip or circuit, such as a chip or circuit that may be provided in the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the communication device 700 may be an access network device, or may be a chip or circuit, such as a chip or circuit that may be provided in the access network device.

In some embodiments, the communication device 700 can be a core network device (such as a policy control function network element, a session management function network element, an access and mobility management function network element), or a chip or a circuit, for example, it can be provided in the core Chips or circuits of network equipment.

In one possible manner, the communication device 700 may include a processing unit 710 (ie, an example of a processor) and a transceiver unit 730. In some possible implementations, the processing unit 710 may also be called a determining unit. In some possible implementations, the transceiver unit 730 may include a receiving unit and a sending unit.

In one implementation, the transceiver unit 730 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit or an interface circuit.

In one implementation, the communication device may further include a storage unit 720. In one possible way, the storage unit 720 is used to store instructions. In one implementation, the storage unit can also be used to store data or information. The storage unit 720 may be implemented by a memory.

In some possible designs, the processing unit 710 is used to execute instructions stored in the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the policy control function network element in the above method. Alternatively, the processing unit 710 may be used to call the data of the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the policy control function network element in the above method.

In some possible designs, the processing unit 710 is used to execute instructions stored in the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the access and mobility management function network element in the above method. Alternatively, the processing unit 710 can be used to call the data of the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the access and mobility management function network element in the above method.

In some possible designs, the processing unit 710 is used to execute instructions stored in the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the session management function network element in the above method. Alternatively, the processing unit 710 may be used to call the data of the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the session management function network element in the above method.

In some possible designs, the processing unit 710 is used to execute instructions stored in the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the terminal device in the above method. Alternatively, the processing unit 710 can be used to call the data of the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the terminal device in the above method.

In some possible designs, the processing unit 710 is used to execute instructions stored in the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the access network device in the above method. Alternatively, the processing unit 710 may be used to call the data of the storage unit 720, so that the communication device 700 implements the steps performed by the access network device in the above method.

For example, the processing unit 710, the storage unit 720, and the transceiver unit 730 can communicate with each other through internal connection paths to transmit control and/or data signals. For example, the storage unit 720 is used to store a computer program, and the processing unit 710 can be used to call and run the computer program from the storage unit 720 to control the transceiver unit 730 to receive signals and/or send signals to complete the above method. Steps for session management function network element, policy control function network element, access and mobility management function network element, terminal equipment or access network equipment. The storage unit 720 may be integrated in the processing unit 710 , or may be provided separately from the processing unit 710 .

Optionally, if the communication device 700 is a communication device (for example, a terminal device, or an access network device), the transceiver unit 730 includes a receiver and a transmitter. The receiver and transmitter may be the same or different physical entities. When they are the same physical entity, they can be collectively called transceivers.

When the communication device 700 is a terminal device or the communication device is an access network device or a core network device, the transceiver unit 730 may be a sending unit or a transmitter when sending information, and the transceiver unit 730 may be a receiving unit or a transmitter when receiving information. Receiver, the transceiver unit can be a transceiver, and the transceiver, transmitter or receiver can be a radio frequency circuit. When the communication device includes a storage unit, the storage unit is used to store computer instructions, and the processor is communicatively connected to the memory, The processor executes computer instructions stored in the memory, so that the communication device can execute any one of methods 300 to 700. Among them, the processor can be a general central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, or an application specific integrated circuit (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC).

Optionally, if the communication device 700 is a chip or a circuit, the transceiver unit 730 includes an input interface and an output interface.

When the communication device 700 is a chip, the transceiver unit 730 may be an input and/or output interface, a pin or a circuit. wait. The processing unit 710 can execute computer execution instructions stored in the storage unit, so that the communication device can execute method 200, method 500 or method 600. Optionally, the storage unit is a storage unit within the chip, such as a register, cache, etc. The storage unit may also be a storage unit located outside the chip in the terminal, such as a read-only memory (Read Only Memory). Only Memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, Random Access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), etc.

As an implementation manner, the function of the transceiver unit 730 may be implemented by a transceiver circuit or a dedicated chip for transceiver. The processing unit 710 may be implemented by a dedicated processing chip, a processing circuit, a processing unit or a general-purpose chip.

As another implementation manner, it may be considered to use a general-purpose computer to implement the communication equipment (such as terminal equipment, core network equipment, or access network equipment) provided in the embodiments of the present application. That is, the program codes that implement the functions of the processing unit 710 and the transceiver unit 730 are stored in the storage unit 720 , and the general processing unit implements the functions of the processing unit 710 and the transceiver unit 730 by executing the codes in the storage unit 720 .

In some embodiments, the communication device 700 may be a policy control function network element, or a chip or circuit provided in the policy control function network element. When the communication device 700 is a policy control function network element, or a chip or circuit provided in the policy control function network element, the transceiver unit 730 is used to obtain network slice information, where the network slice information includes an identifier of the network slice. Information, the information of the network slice also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, wherein the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication The information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice. The processing unit 710 is used to generate user routing policy information according to the information of the network slice; the transceiver unit 730 is also used to provide the terminal device with access and mobility management function network elements. Send the user routing policy information.

In one implementation, the user routing policy information includes first user routing policy rules, and the first user routing policy rules include identification information of the network slice and identification information of the application program served by the network slice. The first user routing policy rule also includes a first time window and/or a first location range corresponding to the network slice. The first time window is less than or equal to the available time indicated by the first time indication information. The first location The range is smaller than or equal to the available location area indicated by the first location indication information.

In one implementation, the transceiver unit 730 is specifically configured to: receive information about the network slice from the network slice management function network element; or, receive information about the network slice from the access and mobility management function network element; Or, receive information for that network slice from the unified data repository.

When the communication device 700 is configured in or is a policy control function network element, each module or unit in the communication device 700 can be used to perform each action or processing process performed by the policy control function network element in the above method. Here, in order to Avoid redundancy and omit detailed descriptions.

In some embodiments, the communication device 700 may be an access and mobility management function network element, or a chip or circuit provided in the access and mobility management function network element. When the communication device 700 is an access and mobility management function network element, or a chip or circuit provided in the access and mobility management function network element, the transceiver unit 730 is used to obtain network slice information. The network slice information includes network The identification information of the network slice, the information of the network slice also includes the first time indication information and/or the first location indication information of the network slice, wherein the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the third time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice. A location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice; the processing unit 710 is used to process the information of the network slice.

In one implementation, the transceiver unit 730 is specifically configured to send the network slice information to the policy control function network element.

In one implementation, the processing unit 710 is specifically configured to: generate local data network information according to the information of the network slice, where the local data network information includes the name of the local data network, and the local data network information also includes a second time indication. information and/or second location indication information, the second time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the local data network, the second location indication information is used to indicate the available cells of the local data network, wherein the second time The available time indicated by the indication information is less than or equal to the available time indicated by the first time indication information, and the available cell indicated by the second location indication information is less than or equal to the available location area indicated by the first location indication information; The transceiver unit is also used to send the local data network information to the terminal device.

In one implementation, the transceiver unit 730 is further configured to: send the name of the local data network corresponding to the network slice to the policy control function network element.

In one implementation, the transceiver unit 730 is further configured to: send the second time indication information and/or the second location indication information to the policy control function network element.

In one implementation, the processing unit 710 is specifically configured to: determine according to the information of the network slice that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, and the transceiver unit 730 is specifically configured to: determine based on the information of the network slice If the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the first timing information is sent to the terminal device. The first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to release the terminal before the time indicated by the first timing information expires. The protocol data unit session associated with the network slice or the local data network established by the device, where the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and /Or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

In one implementation, the processing unit 710 is specifically configured to: determine according to the information of the network slice that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, and the transceiver unit 730 is specifically configured to: determine based on the information of the network slice When the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, a reason value for refusing the terminal device to access the network slice is sent to the terminal device, where, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, The current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the The requirement for accessing the network slice is that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice. location area.

In one implementation, the processing unit 710 is specifically configured to: determine the second timing information when it is determined according to the information of the network slice that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, wherein the terminal device does not Complying with the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice; the transceiver unit 730 is also used to: When the time of the second timing information times out, a request to release the protocol data unit session established by the terminal device and associated with the network slice or the local data network is sent to the session management function network element.

In an implementation manner, the first timing information is less than or equal to the second timing information.

In one implementation, the transceiver unit 730 is specifically configured to: receive information about the network slice from the network slice management function network element; or, receive information about the network slice from the unified data management network element; or, receive information from the network slice management function network element. Information about the network slice of the network slice selection function network element.

When the communication device 700 is configured in or is itself an access and mobility management function network element, each module or unit in the communication device 700 can be used to perform each action performed by the access and mobility management function network element in the above method or The detailed description of the processing process is omitted here to avoid redundancy.

In some embodiments, the communication device 700 may be a session management function network element, or a chip or circuit provided in the session management function network element. When the communication device 700 is a session management function network element, or a chip or circuit provided in a session management function network element, the transceiver unit 730 is used to obtain network slice information. The network slice information includes network slice identification information. , the information of the network slice also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, where the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information used to indicate the available location area of the network slice; the processing unit 710 is used to determine, according to the information of the network slice, that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, determine the network slice established by the terminal device and related to the network slice Release of the associated protocol data unit session, where the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the network slice The available location area for slices.

In one implementation, the transceiver unit 730 is further configured to: send first timing information to the terminal device, where the first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to release the terminal before the time indicated by the first timing information expires. The protocol data unit session associated with this network slice established by the device.

In one implementation, the processing unit 710 is also configured to: determine that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice according to the information of the network slice; the transceiver unit is also configured to: When the network slice information determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, a reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is sent to the terminal device, where, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, The requirement of network slicing is that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, When the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate the current location of the terminal device. Exceeds the available location area for this network slice.

In one implementation, the processing unit 710 is also configured to: determine second timing information when the information of the network slice determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, wherein the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice. Complying with the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice; when the time of the second timing information exceeds From time to time, the session management function network element releases the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device.

When the communication device 700 is configured in or is a session management function network element, each module or unit in the communication device 700 can be used to perform each action or processing process performed by the session management function network element in the above method. Here, in order to Avoid redundancy and omit detailed descriptions.

In some embodiments, the communication device 700 may be an access network device, or a chip or circuit provided in the access network device. When the communication device 700 is an access network device, or a chip or circuit provided in the access network device, the transceiver unit 730 is used to receive network slice information sent by the access and mobility management function network element. The network slice information Including identification information of the network slice, the information of the network slice also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information of the network slice, wherein the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, The first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice; the processing unit 710 is used to configure the access network device according to the network slice. When the slice information determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, it is determined to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, wherein the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network. The requirement of a slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

In one implementation, the access network device determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, including: the access network device instructs the terminal device through a broadcast message or a unicast message. Initiate release of the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice before a time indicated by the first timing information expires.

In one implementation, the access network device determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, including: the access network device sends a message to the terminal device denying the terminal device access to the network slice. The reason value of the network slice. When the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice. The reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used. Indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice and the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice, reject the terminal device The reason value for accessing the network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

In one implementation, the access network device determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, which further includes: when the access network device times out in the second timing information, the access network device The access network device notifies the access and mobility management function network element that the network slice is unavailable in the tracking area, and the tracking area is a cell covered by the access network device.

When the communication device 700 is configured in or is itself an access network device, each module or unit in the communication device 700 can be used to perform each action or processing process performed by the access network device in the above method. Here, in order to avoid redundancy, , its detailed description is omitted.

In some embodiments, the communication device 700 may be a terminal device, or a chip or circuit provided in the terminal device. When the communication device 700 is a terminal device, or a chip or circuit provided in the terminal device, the transceiver unit 730 is used to receive the first timing information sent by the network device, and the first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device in the first step. Release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device within the time indicated by the timing information, and the identification information of the network slice is the identification information of the network slice; the processing unit 710 is configured to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice within the time indicated by the first timing information. The protocol data unit session is released before the time expires.

In one implementation, when the network device is an access network device, the transceiver unit 730 receives the first timing information through a broadcast message or a unicast message.

In one implementation, when the network device is a core network device, the transceiver unit 730 receives the first timing information through a configuration update message of the terminal device.

In an implementation manner, the terminal device receives a reason value sent by the network device for denying the terminal device access to the network slice, wherein when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the terminal device is The current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, and the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, When the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate The current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.

In an implementation manner, when the network device is an access network device, the terminal device transmits a broadcast message or Unicast messages receive the cause value.

In an implementation manner, when the network device is a core network device, the terminal device receives the cause value through a configuration update message of the terminal device.

In one implementation, the processing unit 710 is further configured to delete the identification information of the network slice from a locally stored list of allowed network slice selection auxiliary information.

When the communication device 700 is configured in or is a terminal device itself, each module or unit in the communication device 700 can be used to perform each action or process performed by the terminal device in the above method. Here, in order to avoid redundancy, the details are omitted. illustrate.

In some embodiments, the communication device 700 may be a terminal device, or a chip or circuit provided in the terminal device. When the communication device 700 is a terminal device, or a chip or circuit provided in the terminal device, the transceiver unit 730 is used to receive local data network information sent by the access and mobility management function network element, where the local data network information includes local data network information. The name of the data network. The local data network information also includes first time indication information and/or first location indication information. The first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the local data network. The first location indication information is used To indicate the available location area of the local data network, the available location area indicated by the first location indication information is at cell granularity; the processing unit 710 is configured to determine whether the terminal device can access the local data according to the local data network information. network.

In one implementation, the processing unit 710 is specifically configured to: when the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time indicated by the first time indication information, the terminal device does not access the local data network; or, when When the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area indicated by the first location indication information, the terminal device does not access the local data network.

For the concepts, explanations, detailed descriptions and other steps involved in the configuration of the communication device 700 related to the technical solutions provided in this application, please refer to the descriptions of these contents in the foregoing methods or other embodiments, and will not be described again here.

It should be noted that in this application, the processing unit 710 can be implemented by a processor, the storage unit 720 can be implemented by a memory, and the transceiver unit 730 can be implemented by a transceiver, as shown in Figure 19. Figure 19 is a communication device provided by this application. Schematic diagram of the structure of 800. Communication device 800 may include a processor 810, a memory 820, and a transceiver 830. The processor 810, the memory 820 and the transceiver 830 are respectively used to implement the functions of the processing unit 710, the storage unit 720 and the transceiver unit 730.

Figure 20 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device 900 provided by this application. The terminal device 900 can perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

For convenience of explanation, FIG. 20 shows only the main components of the terminal device. As shown in FIG. 20 , the terminal device 900 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input and output device.

The processor is mainly used to process communication protocols and communication data, and to control the entire terminal device, execute software programs, and process data of the software programs. For example, it is used to support the terminal device to execute the above instruction method of the transmission precoding matrix in the embodiment. the action described. The memory is mainly used to store software programs and data, such as the codebook described in the above embodiment. The control circuit is mainly used for conversion of baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing of radio frequency signals. The control circuit and the antenna together can also be called a transceiver, which is mainly used to send and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. enter Output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used to receive data input by users and output data to users.

When the terminal device is turned on, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent, and then outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then sends the radio frequency signal out in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal device, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor. The processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

Those skilled in the art can understand that, for convenience of explanation, FIG. 20 only shows one memory and processor. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be called a storage medium or a storage device, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

For example, the processor may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit. The baseband processor is mainly used to process communication protocols and communication data. The central processing unit is mainly used to control the entire terminal device, execute software programs, and process software programs. data. The processor in Figure 20 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processor. Those skilled in the art can understand that the baseband processor and the central processor can also be independent processors and are interconnected through technologies such as buses. Those skilled in the art can understand that the terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to adapt to different network standards, the terminal device may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capabilities, and various components of the terminal device may be connected through various buses. The baseband processor can also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit can also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing communication protocols and communication data can be built into the processor, or can be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the processor executes the software program to implement the baseband processing function.

For example, in the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the control circuit with the transceiver function can be regarded as the transceiver unit 910 of the terminal device 900 , and the processor with the processing function can be regarded as the processing unit 920 of the terminal device 900 . As shown in Figure 20, the terminal device 900 includes a transceiver unit 910 and a processing unit 920. The transceiver unit may also be called a transceiver, a transceiver, a transceiver device, etc. Optionally, the devices used to implement the receiving function in the transceiver unit 910 can be regarded as a receiving unit, and the devices used in the transceiver unit 910 used to implement the transmitting function can be regarded as a sending unit, that is, the transceiving unit includes a receiving unit and a sending unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be called a receiver, a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the sending unit may be called a transmitter, a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc.

Figure 21 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device 1000 provided by this application, which can be used to implement the functions of the access network device in the above method. The access network equipment 1000 includes one or more radio frequency units, such as a remote radio unit (RRU) 1010 and one or more baseband units (BBU) (also called a digital unit, DU)1020. The RRU 1010 may be called a transceiver unit, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, etc., and may include at least one antenna 1011 and a radio frequency unit 1012. The RRU 1010 part is mainly used for transmitting and receiving radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for sending the signaling messages described in the above embodiment to the terminal equipment. The BBU1120 part is mainly used for baseband processing, base station control, etc. The RRU 1110 and the BBU 1120 may be physically installed together or physically separated, that is, a distributed base station.

The BBU1020 is the control center of the base station, which can also be called a processing unit. It is mainly used to complete baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spread spectrum, etc. For example, the BBU (processing unit) 1020 can be used to control The access network device executes the operation process of the access network device in the above method embodiment.

In one example, the BBU 1020 may be composed of one or more single boards. Multiple single boards may jointly support a wireless access network of a single access standard (such as an LTE system or a 5G system), or may support different access networks respectively. standard wireless access network. The BBU 1020 also includes a memory 1021 and a processor 1022. The memory 1021 is used to store necessary instructions and data. For example, the memory 1021 stores the codebook etc. in the above embodiment. The processor 1022 is used to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the operation process of the network equipment in the above method embodiment. The memory 1021 and processor 1022 may serve one or more single boards. In other words, the memory and processor can be set independently on each board. It is also possible for multiple boards to share the same memory and processor. In addition, necessary circuits can also be installed on each board.

In a possible implementation, with the development of system-on-chip (SoC) technology, all or part of the functions of part 1020 and part 1010 can be implemented by SoC technology, for example, by a base station function chip Implementation, the base station function chip integrates processor, memory, antenna interface and other devices. The program of the base station related functions is stored in the memory, and the processor executes the program to realize the related functions of the base station. Optionally, the base station function chip can also read the memory external to the chip to implement related functions of the base station.

It should be understood that the structure of the access network equipment illustrated in Figure 21 is only one possible form, and should not constitute any limitation on the embodiment of the present application. This application does not exclude the possibility of other forms of base station structures that may appear in the future.

It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a central processing unit (CPU). The processor may also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), or dedicated integrated processors. Circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), off-the-shelf programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor, etc.

It should also be understood that the memory in the embodiments of the present application may be volatile memory or non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memory. Among them, non-volatile memory can be read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (erasable PROM, EPROM), electrically removable memory. Erase electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM, EEPROM) or flash memory. Volatile memory can be random access memory (RAM), which is used as an external cache. By way of illustration, but not limitation, many forms of random access memory (RAM) are available, such as static random access memory (static RAM (SRAM)), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (RAM) Access memory (synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double data rate SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchronous connection dynamic random access memory access memory (synchlink DRAM, SLDRAM) and direct memory bus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, DR RAM).

The above embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any other combination. When implemented using software, the above-described embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions or computer programs. When the computer instructions or computer programs are loaded or executed on the computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable devices. The computer instructions may To be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website, computer, server or data center via a wireline (e.g. Infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method to transmit to another website, computer, server or data center. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access, or a data storage device such as a server or a data center that contains one or more sets of available media. The usable media may be magnetic media (eg, floppy disk, hard disk, tape), optical media (eg, DVD), or semiconductor media. The semiconductor medium may be a solid state drive.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable medium for storing computer program code. The computer program includes instructions for executing the network slicing method of the present application in the above-mentioned methods 200 to 600. The readable medium can be read-only memory (ROM) or random access memory (RAM), which is not limited in this application.

The present application also provides a computer program product. The computer program product includes instructions. When the instructions are executed, the core network equipment, terminal equipment, and access network equipment can execute core steps corresponding to the above methods. network equipment, terminal equipment, access network equipment or terminal equipment.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a communication system, which includes the above-mentioned communication device, access network equipment, and terminal equipment provided by the present application. The communication system can complete a network slicing communication method provided by the present application.

An embodiment of the present application also provides a system chip. The system chip includes: a processing unit and a communication unit. The processing unit may be, for example, a processor. The communication unit may be, for example, an input/output interface, a pin, or a circuit. The processing unit can execute computer instructions to cause the chip in the communication device to execute the network slicing communication method provided by the present application.

Optionally, the computer instructions are stored in a storage unit.

Optionally, the storage unit is a storage unit within the chip, such as a register, cache, etc. The storage unit may also be a storage unit located outside the chip within the terminal, such as ROM or other storage unit that can store static information and instructions. Type of static storage device, RAM, etc. The processor mentioned in any of the above places may be a CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for executing programs that control the communication method of the network slice.

It should be understood that the terms "and/or" and "at least one of A or B" in this article are only an association relationship describing related objects, indicating that there can be three relationships, for example, A and/or B can It means: A alone exists, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" in this article generally indicates that the related objects are an "or" relationship.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented with 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 specific application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that for the convenience and simplicity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and units described above can be referred to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and will not be described again here.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or groups. The software can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be omitted, or not implemented. On the other hand, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection between each other shown or discussed may be through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection of the devices or units may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

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

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

If the functions are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially or the part that contributes to the existing technology or the part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including Several 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 this application. The aforementioned storage media include: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk and other media that can store program code. .

The above are only specific embodiments of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto. Any person familiar with the technical field can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present application. should be covered by the protection scope of this application. Therefore, the protection scope of this application should be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

A network slicing communication method, characterized by including:

The access and mobility management function network element obtains network slice information. The network slice information includes the identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes the first time indication information of the network slice and/or First location indication information, wherein the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice;

The access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice.
The communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that the access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice, including:

The access and mobility management function network element sends the network slice information to the policy control function network element.
The communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that the access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice, including:

The access and mobility management function network element generates local data network information based on the information of the network slice, where the local data network information includes the name of the local data network,

The local data network information also includes second time indication information and/or second location indication information, the second time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the local data network, and the second location indication information indicates the Describe the available cells of the local data network,

Wherein, the available time indicated by the second time indication information is less than or equal to the available time indicated by the first time indication information, and the available cell indicated by the second location indication information is less than or equal to the first location The available location area indicated by the indication information;

The access and mobility management function network element sends the local data network information to the terminal device.
The communication method according to claim 3, characterized in that the communication method further includes:

The access and mobility management function network element sends the name of the local data network corresponding to the network slice to the policy control function network element.
The communication method according to claim 4, characterized in that the communication method further includes:

The access and mobility management function network element sends the second time indication information and/or the second location indication information to the policy control function network element.
The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice, including:

When the access and mobility management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice according to the information of the network slice, the access and mobility management function network element provides the information to the terminal device. Send first timing information, the first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to initiate the establishment of the network slice or the local data network related to the network slice or the local data network by the terminal device before the time indicated by the first timing information times out. Release request for the associated protocol data unit session,

Wherein, the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice. location area.
The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice, including:

When the access and mobility management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice according to the information of the network slice, the access and mobility management function network element provides the information to the terminal device. sending a reason value for denying access to the network slice by the terminal device,

Wherein, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used Indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location of the network slice. area, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.
The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the access and mobility management function network element processes the information of the network slice, including:

When the access and mobility management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the network slice information, the access and mobility management function network element determines the second timing information,

Wherein, the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice. location area;

When the time of the second timing information times out, the access and mobility management function network element sends to the session management function network element a release associated with the network slice or the local data network established by the terminal device. Request for protocol data unit session.
The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the access and mobility management function network element obtains network slice information, including:

The access and mobility management function network element receives the information of the network slice from the network slice management function network element; or,

The access and mobility management function network element receives the information of the network slice from the unified data management network element; or,

The access and mobility management function network element receives the information of the network slice from the network slice selection function network element.
A network slicing communication method, characterized by including:

The session management function network element obtains network slice information. The network slice information includes the identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes the first time indication information and/or the first location of the network slice. Indication information, wherein the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice;

When the session management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice, the session management function network element determines that the terminal device establishes a connection with the network. Release of the protocol data unit session associated with the slice,

Wherein, the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice. location area.
The communication method according to claim 10, characterized in that the communication method further includes:

The session management function network element sends first timing information to the terminal device. The first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to initiate release of the terminal device establishment before the time indicated by the first timing information times out. A request for a protocol data unit session associated with the network slice.
The communication method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that the communication method further includes:

When the session management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the information of the network slice, the session management function network element sends a rejection message to the terminal device. The reason value for the terminal device to access the network slice,

Wherein, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used Indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location of the network slice. area, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.
The communication method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that the communication method further includes:

When the session management function network element determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the network slice information, the session management function network element determines the second timing information,

Wherein, the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice. location area;

When the time of the second timing information times out, the session management function network element releases the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device.
The communication method according to any one of claims 10 to 13, characterized in that the session management function network element obtains network slice information, including:

The session management function network element receives the information of the network slice from the network slice management function network element; or,

The session management function network element receives the information of the network slice from the unified data management network element; or,

The session management function network element receives the information of the network slice from the network slice selection function network element.
A network slicing communication method, characterized by including:

The access network device receives the network slice information sent by the access and mobility management function network element. The network slice information includes the identification information of the network slice. The network slice information also includes the first parameter of the network slice. Time indication information and/or first location indication information, wherein the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice ;

When the access network device determines that the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice based on the network slice information, the access network device determines to release the connection established with the terminal device and the network slice. The protocol data unit session associated with the network slice,

Wherein, the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice means that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice and/or the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice. location area.
The communication method according to claim 15, characterized in that the access network device determines to release the terminal The protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the end device includes:

The access network device sends first timing information to the terminal device, where the first timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to initiate a release of the network slice association before the time indicated by the first timing information times out. Request for protocol data unit session.
The communication method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the access network device determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, including:

The access network device sends a reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice to the terminal device,

Wherein, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used Indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location of the network slice. area, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.
The communication method according to any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein the access network device determines to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device, and further includes:

When the time of the second timing information times out, the access network device notifies the access and mobility management function network element that the network slice is unavailable in the tracking area, and the tracking area is the Cells covered by access network equipment.
A network slicing communication method, characterized by including:

The terminal device receives the first timing information sent by the network device, the timing information is used to instruct the terminal device to release the protocol data unit session associated with the network slice established by the terminal device within the time indicated by the timing information;

The terminal device releases the protocol data unit session before the time indicated by the first timing information times out.
The communication method according to claim 19, characterized in that when the network device is an access network device, the terminal device receives the first timing information through a broadcast message or a unicast message.
The communication method according to claim 19, characterized in that when the network device is a core network device, the terminal device receives the first timing information through a configuration update message of the terminal device.
The communication method according to any one of claims 19 to 21, characterized in that the method further includes:

The terminal device receives the reason value sent by the network device for denying the terminal device access to the network slice,

Wherein, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice because the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used Indicate that the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time of the network slice; or, when the terminal device does not meet the requirements for accessing the network slice, the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location of the network slice. area, the reason value for denying the terminal device access to the network slice is used to indicate that the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area of the network slice.
The communication method according to claim 22, characterized in that when the network device is an access network device, the terminal device receives the cause value through a broadcast message or a unicast message.
The communication method according to claim 22, characterized in that when the network device is a core network device, the terminal device receives the cause value through a configuration update message of the terminal device.
The communication method according to any one of claims 19 to 24, characterized in that the communication method further includes:

The terminal device deletes the identification information of the network slice from a locally stored list of allowed network slice selection auxiliary information.
A network slicing communication method, characterized by including:

The terminal device receives the local data network information sent by the access and mobility management function network element, where the local data network information includes the name of the local data network, and the local data network information also includes the first time indication information and/or the third time indication information. A location indication information, the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the local data network, the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the local data network, the first location indication The available location area indicated by the information is at cell granularity;

The terminal device determines whether the terminal device can access the local data network based on the local data network information.
The communication method according to claim 26, wherein the terminal device determines whether the terminal device can use the local data network based on the local data network information, including:

When the current time of the terminal device exceeds the available time indicated by the first time indication information, the terminal device does not access the local data network; or,

When the current location of the terminal device exceeds the available location area indicated by the first location indication information, the terminal device does not access the local data network.
A network slicing communication method, characterized by including:

The policy control function network element obtains network slice information, wherein the network slice information includes identification information of the network slice, and the network slice information also includes the first time indication information and/or the first time indication information of the network slice. a location indication information, wherein the first time indication information is used to indicate the available time of the network slice, and the first location indication information is used to indicate the available location area of the network slice,

The policy control function network element generates user routing policy information based on the network slice information;

The policy control function network element sends the user routing policy information to the terminal device through the access and mobility management function network element.
The communication method according to claim 28, wherein the user routing policy information includes first user routing policy rules, and the first user routing policy rules include identification information of the network slice, the The identification information of the application program of the network slicing service. The first user routing policy rule also includes the first time window and/or the first location range corresponding to the network slicing. The first time window is less than or equal to the The first time indicates the available time indicated by the information, and the first location range is less than or equal to the available location area indicated by the first location indication information.
The communication method according to claim 28 or 29, characterized in that the policy control function network element obtains network slice information, including:

The policy control function network element receives the network slice information from the network slice management function network element; or,

The policy control function network element receives information from the network slice of the access and mobility management function network element; or,

The policy control function network element receives the information of the network slice from the unified data repository.
A communication device, characterized by including:

At least one processor, memory and transceiver, the memory is used to store instructions, the transceiver is used to communicate between the management device and other devices, the stored instructions are directly or indirectly executed by the at least one processor, The communication device is caused to perform the operation of the communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or the operation of the communication method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, or the operation of any one of claims 28 to 30. operation of the communication method.
An access network device, characterized by including:

At least one processor, memory and transceiver, the memory is used to store instructions, the transceiver is used to communicate between the management device and other devices, the stored instructions are directly or indirectly executed by the at least one processor, The access network device is caused to perform the operation of the communication method according to any one of claims 15 to 18.
A terminal device, characterized by including:

At least one processor, memory and transceiver, the memory is used to store instructions, the transceiver is used to communicate between the management device and other devices, the stored instructions are directly or indirectly executed by the at least one processor, The terminal device is caused to perform the operation of the communication method described in any one of claims 19 to 25, or the operation of the communication method described in claim 26 or 27.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is run, the communication method as described in any one of claims 1 to 9 is implemented, Or the communication method described in any one of 10 to 14, or the communication method described in any one of 15 to 18, or the communication method described in any one of 19 to 25, or the communication described in 26 or 27 method, or the communication method described in any one of 28 to 30.