CN113056038B - Method, network element and system for deleting user plane tunnel - Google Patents

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a method, a network element and a system for deleting a user plane tunnel, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method is applied to a communication system, the communication system comprises a control plane network element and a user plane network element, at least one user plane tunnel is arranged between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, and the method comprises the following steps: the control surface network element determines that a target user surface tunnel which accords with a preset condition exists in at least one user surface tunnel; the control plane network element sends request information to the user plane network element, wherein the request information is used for indicating the user plane network element to delete the target user plane tunnel; and the user plane network element deletes the target user plane tunnel according to the request message. In the scheme of the embodiment of the invention, for the scene of separating the control plane from the user plane, the technical scheme of deleting the user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element is provided, so that the user plane tunnel can be deleted when not needed, thereby saving resources.

Description

Method, network element and system for deleting user plane tunnel

technical field

The invention relates to the field of communication technology, in particular to a method, network element and system for deleting a user plane tunnel.

Background technique

Control and User Plane Separation (CUPS) is a development trend of the core network network architecture. The functions of the control plane (Control Plane, CP) and the user plane (User Plane, UP) are performed by different functional entities, so that the control plane and the user plane can use different software or hardware resources, and be deployed to different locations according to requirements , to achieve higher flexibility.

Taking the core network of the fourth generation (4th Generation, 4G) system as an example, the third generation partnership project (the3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP) proposed to combine the Serving Gateway (SGW) and the packet data gateway (Packet Data Network Gateway) , PDN-GW or PGW) are divided into a control plane functional entity and a user plane functional entity, and an interface between the control plane functional entity and the user plane functional entity is added. Among them, the SGW is divided into the control plane (serving gateway control plane) network element of the SGW and the user plane (serving gateway user plane) network element of the SGW, and the PGW is divided into the control plane (PDN gateway control plane) network element of the PGW and the network element of the PGW User plane (PDN gateway user plane) network element. Wherein, the control plane network elements and user plane network elements of the SGW can be described as SGW-C and SGW-U respectively, and the control plane network elements and user plane network elements of the PGW can be described as PGW-C and PGW-U respectively. SGW-C and PGW-C can be deployed on the same physical device, and the combined SGW-C and PGW-C can be called a unified gateway control plane network element, for example, it can be described as SGW/PGW-C; SGW- U and PGW-U can also be deployed on the same physical device, and the combined SGW-U and PGW-U can be called a unified gateway user plane network element, for example, it can be described as SGW/PGW-C. The above-mentioned SGW-C, PGW-C, and SGW/PGW-C belong to control plane network elements, and SGW-U, PGW-U, and SGW/PGW-U belong to user plane network elements. A control plane tunnel (control plane tunnel) and a user plane tunnel (userplane tunnel) are established between the control plane NE and the user plane NE. The control plane tunnel is mainly used to transmit control plane signaling, and the user plane tunnel is mainly used to transmit user surface data.

At present, in the scenario where the control plane and the user plane are separated, the user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element is always reserved even when there is no data transmission, resulting in waste of resources.

Contents of the invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, network element and system for deleting user plane tunnels, so as to avoid resource waste in existing solutions.

On the one hand, the embodiment of the present invention provides a method for deleting a user plane tunnel, which is applied in a communication system, the communication system includes a control plane network element and a user plane network element, and there is a network element between the control plane network element and the user plane network element At least one user plane tunnel. The method includes: the control plane network element determines that there is a target user plane tunnel meeting preset conditions in at least one user plane tunnel; the control plane network element sends request information to the user plane network element, and the request information is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete the target User plane tunnel: The user plane network element deletes the target user plane tunnel according to the request information.

In the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the control plane network element determines that there is a target user plane tunnel that meets the preset conditions in at least one user plane tunnel, and requests the user plane network element to delete the target user plane tunnel, so that the control plane and In the scenario where the user plane is separated, a technical solution is provided to delete the user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, so that the user plane tunnel is deleted when it is not in use, so as to avoid the long-term existence of the user plane tunnel, thereby saving resources .

Optionally, for user plane tunnels with different granularities, the preset conditions may be different. Wherein, the granularity corresponding to the user plane tunnel may be terminal granularity, session granularity, bearer granularity or device granularity.

In a possible design, the user plane tunnel corresponds to the terminal granularity. Each of the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a terminal. The target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target terminal. The preset conditions include one of the following situations: (1) All sessions related to the target terminal need to be deleted; (2) The cached data related to the target terminal in the network element of the control plane has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal; (3) All data related to the target terminal cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; (4) The control plane network element receives an instruction from the legal interception system, which is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor and Data related to the target terminal.

In another possible design, the user plane tunnel corresponds to session granularity. Each of the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a session. The target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target session. The preset conditions include one of the following situations: (1) the target session needs to be deleted; (2) the target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and the cached data related to the target terminal in the control plane network element (3) The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and all the data related to the target terminal buffered in the control plane network element has been sent To the user plane network element; (4) the target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and the control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor and target Terminal related data.

In another possible design, user plane tunnels correspond to bearer granularity. Each of the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a bearer. The target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target bearer. The preset conditions include one of the following situations: (1) the target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target session, and the target session needs to be deleted; (2) the target bearer is used to transmit data related to the target terminal at least one bearer, and the cached data related to the target terminal in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal; (3) the target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target terminal , and all the data related to the target terminal cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; (4) The target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target terminal, and the control plane network element receives An indication to the lawful interception system that it is no longer necessary to intercept data related to the target terminal.

In another possible design, user plane tunnels correspond to device granularity. The above at least one user plane tunnel includes one user plane tunnel, and the target user plane tunnel is this user plane tunnel. The target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to all terminals served by both the control plane network element and the user plane network element. The preset conditions include one of the following situations: (1) All sessions transmitted through this user plane tunnel need to be deleted; (2) The data cached in the control plane network element related to each terminal in all terminals has reached The maximum buffer allocated by the terminal; (3) The data related to each terminal in all terminals cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; (4) The control plane network element receives the instruction of the legal interception system, The indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to any terminal among all terminals.

The embodiment of the present invention provides corresponding preset conditions for different granularities corresponding to user plane tunnels, and four different application scenarios such as session deletion, data caching, data forwarding, and legal interception, so as to implement The user plane tunnel needs to be deleted. The deletion of the user plane tunnel may not be completely determined by the service status between the terminal and the network elements of the data network. It may also be determined whether to delete the user plane tunnel according to the actual data transmission requirements. When it is determined that there is no data to be transmitted on a certain user plane tunnel That is, the user plane tunnel can be deleted, so as to release the resources occupied by the user plane tunnel, and achieve the purpose of saving resources.

In yet another possible design, for a data caching scenario, the maximum cache size may also correspond to user plane tunnel allocation. Correspondingly, the preset condition may be: the data transmitted from the user plane network element to the control plane network element through the target user plane tunnel has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target user plane tunnel. In this case, the granularity corresponding to the user plane tunnel may be device granularity, terminal granularity, session granularity or bearer granularity.

In a possible design, after the user plane network element deletes the target user plane tunnel, it may also send response information to the control plane network element, where the response information is used to indicate that the target user plane tunnel has been successfully deleted. Correspondingly, the control plane network element receives the response information from the user plane network element. Through the foregoing manner, the control plane network element can confirm whether the target user plane tunnel has been successfully deleted.

In a possible design, before or after the control plane network element sends the request information to the user plane network element, it may also determine that a new user plane tunnel needs to be created, and send a creation request to the user plane network element, and the creation request is used to indicate The user plane network element creates a new user plane tunnel. Correspondingly, the user plane network element can create a new user plane tunnel according to the creation request. The embodiment of the present invention also provides a technical solution for creating a user plane tunnel between a control plane network element and a user plane network element, so that the user plane tunnel can be created when necessary.

On the other hand, an embodiment of the present invention provides a control plane network element, where the control plane network element has a function of implementing the behavior of the control plane network element in the foregoing method example. The functions described above may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by executing corresponding software on the hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

In a possible design, the structure of the control plane network element includes a processor and a communication interface, and the processor is configured to support the control plane network element to perform corresponding functions in the foregoing method. The communication interface is used to support communication between network elements of the control plane and network elements of the user plane or other devices. Further, the control plane network element may further include a memory, the memory is used to be coupled with the processor, and stores necessary program instructions and data of the control plane network element.

In yet another aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a user plane network element, where the user plane network element has a function of implementing the behavior of the user plane network element in the above method example. The functions described above may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by executing corresponding software on the hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

In a possible design, the structure of the user plane network element includes a processor and a communication interface, and the processor is configured to support the user plane network element to perform corresponding functions in the above method. The communication interface is used to support communication between network elements of the user plane and network elements of the control plane or other devices. Further, the user plane network element may further include a memory, the memory is used to be coupled with the processor, and stores necessary program instructions and data of the user plane network element.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a communication system, and the system includes the control plane network element and the user plane network element described in the above aspect.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer storage medium for storing the above computer software instructions used for the control plane network element, which includes a program designed for executing the above aspects.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer storage medium for storing the above computer software instructions for use by the user plane network element, which includes a program designed for executing the above aspects.

Compared with the prior art, in the solution of the embodiment of the present invention, the control plane network element determines that there is a target user plane tunnel that meets the preset conditions in at least one user plane tunnel, and requests the user plane network element to delete the target user plane tunnel , so that for the scenario where the control plane and the user plane are separated, a technical solution for deleting the user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element is provided, so that the user plane tunnel is deleted when it is not needed to avoid the user plane tunnel Long-term existence, thereby saving resources.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of a possible application scenario provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of a possible network architecture provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a communication schematic diagram of a method for deleting a user plane tunnel provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a communication schematic diagram of another method for deleting a user plane tunnel provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a communication schematic diagram of another method for deleting a user plane tunnel provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a communication schematic diagram of another method for deleting a user plane tunnel provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a communication schematic diagram of another method for deleting a user plane tunnel provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7A is a schematic block diagram of a control plane network element provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7B is a schematic structural diagram of a control plane network element provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8A is a schematic block diagram of a user plane network element provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8B is a schematic structural diagram of a user plane network element provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention more clear, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

The network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of the present invention are for more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, and do not constitute limitations on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention. The evolution of technology and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention are also applicable to similar technical problems.

Some possible application scenarios and network architectures applicable to the embodiments of the present invention are firstly introduced below with reference to FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B .

FIG. 1A shows an application scenario to which the embodiment of the present invention may be applicable. As shown in Figure 1A, the terminal accesses the operator's Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol, IP) service network through the wireless access network and the core network, such as the multimedia subsystem (IP Multimedia System, IMS) network, packet switched stream service (Packet Switched StreamingService, Jane PSS) network, etc. The technical solutions described in the present invention can be applied to Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, or other wireless communication systems using various wireless access technologies, such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (Frequency Division Multiple Access, FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (Time Division Multiple Access, TDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SingleCarrier Frequency Division Multiple Access , SC-FDMA) and other access technology systems. In addition, it can also be applied to a subsequent evolution system of the LTE system, such as a next-generation network system, that is, a fifth generation (5th Generation, 5G) system, and the like. For the sake of clarity, only the LTE system is taken as an example for description here. In the LTE system, the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) is used as the radio access network, and the Evolved Packet Core network (EPC) is used as the core network. The terminal accesses the IMS network through E-UTRAN and EPC.

Based on the above application scenario, FIG. 1B shows a possible network architecture provided by an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1B , the network architecture includes: a control plane network element 110 and a user plane network element 120 .

The control plane network element 110 is a network device for implementing control plane functions. For example, the functions of the control plane include management of radio resources, establishment of radio connections, service quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS) guarantee, and the like. The user plane network element 120 is a network device for implementing user plane functions. User plane functions mainly include sending and receiving service data.

One control plane network element 110 may control one or more user plane network elements 120 , and one user plane network element 120 may also be controlled by one or more control plane network elements 110 . There is at least one user plane tunnel (user plane tunnel) between the control plane network element 110 and the user plane network element 120. The user plane tunnel is used to transmit user plane data, that is, service data. In addition, there is at least one control plane tunnel (controlplane tunnel) between the control plane network element 110 and the user plane network element 120. The control plane tunnel is used to transmit control plane signaling.

Optionally, the control plane network element 110 and the user plane network element 120 are devices in the core network of the communication system. As shown in FIG. 1B , the network architecture further includes: an access network device 130 and a terminal 140 .

The access network device 130 may be a base station (Base Station, BS), and the base station is a device deployed in a radio access network to provide a wireless communication function for a terminal. The base station may include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations, relay stations, access points and so on. In systems using different wireless access technologies, the names of equipment with base station functions may be different. For example, in LTE systems, it is called evolved NodeB (evolved NodeB, eNB or eNodeB), and in 3G communication systems , called Node B (Node B) and so on. For convenience of description, in the embodiments of the present invention, the above-mentioned apparatuses for providing wireless communication functions for terminals are collectively referred to as access network equipment.

The terminal 140 may include various handheld devices, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable devices, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, as well as various forms of user equipment (User Equipment, UE), mobile station (Mobile Station, MS), terminal device (terminal device) and so on. For convenience of description, the devices mentioned above are collectively referred to as terminals.

The access network device 130 and the terminal 140 communicate with each other through a certain air interface technology, for example, they may communicate with each other through a cellular technology. In addition, the access network device 130, the control plane network element 110 and the user plane network element 120 can also communicate with each other through the air interface technology, and the terminal 140 and the control plane network element 110 can also realize mutual communication through the air interface technology. The user plane network element 120 may also be connected to a data network (Data Network), such as a public data network (Public Data Network, PDN).

In the embodiments of the present invention, the terms "network" and "system" are often used interchangeably, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. In the embodiment of the present invention, the control plane network element 110 and the user plane network element 120 may have multiple possible implementation forms. For example, in an LTE system, the control plane network element 110 may be: the control plane network element of SGW-C, PGW-C, and traffic detection function (TrafficDetection Function, TDF) entity, SGW/PGW-C; the user plane network element 120 It can be: SGW-U, PGW-U, user plane network element of TDF entity, SGW/PGW-U, wherein, the control plane network element and user plane network element of TDF entity can be described as TDF-C and TDF-U respectively . For another example, in a next generation network, the control plane network element 110 may be a control plane network element of a next generation network (Next Generation, NG), and the user plane network element 120 may be a user plane network element of a next generation network, wherein the following The control plane network elements and user plane network elements of the first generation network can be described as NG-CP and NG-UP respectively. It should be noted that when the solution of the embodiment of the present invention is applied to the 5G system or other systems that may appear in the future, the names of the control plane network elements, user plane network elements, access network equipment, terminals, etc. may change, but this It does not affect the implementation of the embodiments of the present invention.

At present, in the scenario where the control plane and the user plane are separated, the user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element is always reserved even when there is no data transmission, resulting in waste of resources. In view of this, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for deleting a user plane tunnel, and a control plane network element, a user plane network element, and a system based on this method. The method is applied to a communication system, and the communication system includes a control plane network There is at least one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element. The core idea of the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present invention is to set a preset condition for triggering deletion of a user plane tunnel, and delete the user plane tunnel when a certain user plane tunnel meets the preset condition.

The embodiments of the present invention will be further described in detail below based on the common aspects involved in the above-mentioned embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a communication schematic diagram of a method for deleting a user plane tunnel provided by an embodiment of the present invention. The method may include the following parts.

In part 201, the control plane network element determines that there is a target user plane tunnel meeting a preset condition in at least one user plane tunnel.

Specifically, there is at least one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element. For different granularities corresponding to user plane tunnels, the number of user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element may be different. For example, when the user plane tunnel corresponds to the device granularity, there is one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element. For another example, when the user plane tunnel corresponds to the terminal granularity, there is at least one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, and each user plane tunnel in the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit information related to a terminal. The data. For another example, when the user plane tunnel corresponds to the session granularity, there is at least one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, and each user plane tunnel in the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit information related to a session. The data. For another example, when the user plane tunnel corresponds to the bearer granularity, there is at least one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, and each user plane tunnel in the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit information related to a bearer. The data.

The following is an exemplary introduction to the session (session), bearer (bearer), preset condition, target user plane tunnel, etc. involved in the above.

A session can refer to a communication interaction between two devices during a specific operation time without interruption. During a session, all messages transmitted between two devices belong to this session. In this embodiment of the present invention, a session refers to a communication interaction between a terminal and a network element in a data network for transmitting service data. Data related to one terminal can be transmitted through at least one session.

A bearer may refer to a data path for transmitting wireless service data. The bearer involved in the embodiment of the present invention may also be referred to as a wireless bearer, which refers to a data path for transmitting service data between a terminal and a network element in a data network. Data related to one terminal can be transmitted through at least one session, and data related to one session can be transmitted through at least one bearer.

The preset condition may refer to a preset determination condition for determining whether the user plane tunnel needs to be deleted. In different application scenarios, the preset conditions are different. In addition, for user plane tunnels with different granularities, the preset conditions are also different. See below for a detailed description of the preset conditions.

The target user plane tunnel may be any one or more user plane tunnels in the above at least one user plane tunnel.

In part 202, the control plane network element sends request information to the user plane network element, and the request information is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete the target user plane tunnel.

Correspondingly, the user plane network element receives the request information from the control plane network element.

In an example, the request information may carry at least one of the following items: indication information for instructing to delete the user plane tunnel, an identifier of the target user plane tunnel, a packet forwarding rule corresponding to the target user plane tunnel, or a Packet matching rules.

In a possible implementation manner, the request information carries the identifier of the target user plane tunnel, so as to notify the user plane network element of the target user plane tunnel that needs to be deleted. For example, when the granularity corresponding to the user plane tunnel is terminal granularity, session granularity or bearer granularity, since multiple user plane tunnels can be established between the control plane NE and the user plane NE, the request information carries the above indication information In addition, the target user plane tunnel to be deleted needs to be identified in the request information. For another example, when the granularity corresponding to the user plane tunnel is the device granularity, since there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, the request information only needs to carry the above indication information, and it is not necessary to The request information carries the identifier of this user plane tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the request information carries the packet forwarding rule and/or packet matching rule corresponding to the target user plane tunnel, so that the user plane network element can delete the packet forwarding rule corresponding to the target user plane tunnel. Rules and/or packet matching rules and other contextual information.

In part 203, the user plane network element deletes the target user plane tunnel according to the request information.

Specifically, after receiving the request information, the user plane network element may determine the target user plane tunnel to be deleted, and then delete the target user plane tunnel. For example, deleting the target user plane tunnel by the user plane network element may be implemented in the following ways: releasing resources occupied by the target user plane tunnel, deleting context information corresponding to the target user plane tunnel, and so on.

In an example, after deleting the target user plane tunnel, the user plane network element may send response information to the control plane network element, where the response information is used to indicate that the target user plane tunnel has been successfully deleted. Correspondingly, after the control plane network element receives the response information from the user plane network element, it can confirm that the target user plane tunnel has been deleted.

It should be noted that, as mentioned above, besides at least one user plane tunnel, there may be at least one control plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element. Request information and response information can be sent and received between the control plane network element and the user plane network element through the control plane tunnel.

In the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the control plane network element determines that there is a target user plane tunnel that meets the preset conditions in at least one user plane tunnel, and requests the user plane network element to delete the target user plane tunnel, so that the control plane and In the scenario where the user plane is separated, a technical solution for deleting the user plane tunnel between the control plane NE and the user plane NE is provided, so that the user plane tunnel can be deleted when it is not in use, so as to avoid the long-term existence of the user plane tunnel, thereby saving resource.

In the following, the preset conditions involved in the embodiments of the present invention will be further described for different granularities corresponding to user plane tunnels.

1. User plane tunnel corresponds to terminal granularity

When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the terminal granularity, each of the at least one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element is used to transmit data related to one terminal. The target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target terminal, and the target terminal is any terminal among all terminals served by the control plane network element and the user plane network element. Preconditions may include one of the following situations:

(a) All sessions related to the target terminal need to be deleted.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in a session deletion scenario.

The number of sessions related to the target terminal may be one or multiple. These target terminal-related sessions are used to transfer data related to the target terminal. For example, the data related to the target terminal includes: uplink service data sent by the target terminal to network elements in the data network, and downlink service data sent by network elements in the data network to the target terminal. When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the terminal granularity, assuming that the target terminal corresponds to the target user plane tunnel, data of all sessions related to the target terminal are transmitted on the target user plane tunnel. When all sessions related to the target terminal need to be deleted, it means that no data related to the target terminal needs to be transmitted through the target user plane tunnel, and at this time, deletion of the target user plane tunnel is triggered.

In an example, it is assumed that there are three user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, and user plane tunnel 3. Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to terminal 1 , user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to terminal 2 , and user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to terminal 3 . Taking terminal 1 as an example, assuming that there are two sessions established between terminal 1 and network elements in the data network, when all the two sessions need to be deleted, the control plane network element determines to delete the user plane tunnel 1 corresponding to terminal 1, and the control plane The network element of the user plane sends the request information carrying the identifier of the user plane tunnel 1 to the network element of the user plane, and the network element of the user plane deletes the tunnel 1 of the user plane after receiving the request information.

In addition, the reason why all sessions related to the target terminal need to be deleted may include one of the following situations: service interruption between the target terminal and network elements in the data network; target terminal detachment process; The previous unreasonable detachment caused the active context in the network element of the control plane; the update location of the target terminal was rejected during the tracking area update or routing area update process, and so on.

(b) The cached data related to the target terminal in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the data caching scenario.

Specifically, when the target terminal is in the idle state, after the user plane network element receives data related to the target terminal (for example, the downlink service data sent by the network element in the data network to the target terminal), it will communicate with the target terminal through the target user plane tunnel The data related to the target terminal is forwarded to the control plane network element, and the control plane network element caches the data. Subsequently, when the target terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the cached data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element sends these data to the target terminal.

The maximum buffer allocated for each terminal is configured in the control plane network element. The maximum buffer size corresponding to each terminal may be allocated by the control plane network element, or may be allocated by other devices and notified to the control plane network element. For example, when the control plane network element is the SGW-C, the maximum buffer size corresponding to each terminal may be allocated by a mobility management entity (Mobility Management Entity, MME) and notified to the SGW-C. The maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal refers to the maximum amount of data related to the target terminal that can be buffered by the control plane network element. The maximum buffer size allocated to different terminals may be the same or different, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. Optionally, the maximum buffering amount is a suggested count of downlink buffering (downlink buffering suggested count). Taking the target terminal as an example, when the cached data related to the target terminal in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal, the control plane network element can no longer store the data related to the target terminal. The user plane network element does not need to forward the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element for caching through the target user plane tunnel, and the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are three user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, and user plane tunnel 3. Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to terminal 1 , user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to terminal 2 , and user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to terminal 3 . Taking terminal 1 as an example, assume that the maximum buffer size allocated to terminal 1 is a. When terminal 1 is in the idle state, after receiving the data related to terminal 1, the user plane network element forwards the data related to terminal 1 to the control plane network element through user plane tunnel 1, and the control plane network element caches these data . When the cached data related to terminal 1 in the control plane network element reaches the maximum buffer size a, the control plane network element determines to delete the user plane tunnel 1 corresponding to terminal 1, and the control plane network element sends a message carrying user The user plane network element deletes the user plane tunnel 1 after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the data caching scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is SGW/PGW-C And the user plane network element is SGW/PGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is NG-CP and the user plane network element is NG-UP.

(c) All the data related to the target terminal cached in the network element of the control plane has been sent to the network element of the user plane.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the data forwarding scenario.

As mentioned above, when the target terminal is in the idle state, after the user plane network element receives the data related to the target terminal, it forwards the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element through the target user plane tunnel, and the control plane network element These data are cached by the plane network elements. Subsequently, when the target terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the cached data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element sends these data to the target terminal.

Taking the target terminal as an example, when all the data related to the target terminal buffered in the control plane NE has been sent to the user plane NE, there is no data related to the target terminal in the control plane NE that needs to be transmitted through the target user plane tunnel , at this point the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are three user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, and user plane tunnel 3. Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to terminal 1 , user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to terminal 2 , and user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to terminal 3 . Taking terminal 1 as an example, when terminal 1 recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the cached data related to terminal 1 to the user plane network element through the user plane tunnel 1, and the user plane network element sends the terminal 1 to send these data. When all the data related to terminal 1 cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element, the control plane network element determines to delete the user plane tunnel 1 corresponding to terminal 1, and the control plane network element sends the carried There is request information with the identifier of the user plane tunnel 1, and the user plane network element deletes the user plane tunnel 1 after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the data forwarding scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is SGW/PGW-C And the user plane network element is SGW/PGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is NG-CP and the user plane network element is NG-UP.

(d) The control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to the target terminal.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the lawful interception scenario.

In the lawful interception scenario, if the lawful interception system needs to monitor the data related to the target terminal, the user plane network element will send the data related to the target terminal to the controller through the target user plane tunnel after receiving the data related to the target terminal. The network elements on the control plane forward the data to the lawful interception system. The data sent by the user plane network element to the control plane network element may be a data copy generated by the user plane network element, and may also include other data type information. The data forwarded by the control plane network element to the lawful interception system may be data processed by the control plane network element or other information.

If the lawful interception system no longer needs to monitor data related to the target terminal, the lawful interception system can send a lawful interception deactivation message to the control plane network element, and the lawful interception deactivation message is used to instruct deactivation of lawful interception related to the target terminal function, the subsequent user plane network element does not need to send the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element and then forward it to the lawful interception system. At this time, the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are three user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, and user plane tunnel 3. Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to terminal 1 , user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to terminal 2 , and user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to terminal 3 . Taking terminal 1 as an example, after the lawful interception system activates the lawful interception function related to terminal 1, the user plane network element sends the data related to terminal 1 to the control plane network element through user plane tunnel 1, and the control plane network element transmits the data related to terminal 1 to the control plane network element. This data is forwarded to lawful interception systems. After receiving the lawful interception deactivation message sent by the lawful interception system for instructing to deactivate the lawful interception function related to terminal 1, the control plane network element determines to delete the user plane tunnel 1 corresponding to terminal 1, and the control plane network element sends a message to the user The network element of the user plane sends request information carrying the identifier of the user plane tunnel 1, and the network element of the user plane deletes the user plane tunnel 1 after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the lawful interception scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is PGW-C and the user The NE on the control plane is PGW-U, or the NE on the control plane is SGW/PGW-C and the NE on the user plane is SGW/PGW-U, or the NE on the control plane is NG-CP and the NE on the user plane is NG-UP.

It should be added that when the user plane tunnel corresponds to the terminal granularity, one terminal can correspond to one user plane tunnel. In this case, the target user plane tunnel corresponding to the target terminal is one user plane tunnel; or, one terminal can also It may correspond to at least two user plane tunnels. In this case, the target user plane tunnel corresponding to the target terminal may include at least two user plane tunnels.

2. The user plane tunnel corresponds to the session granularity

When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the session granularity, each of the at least one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element is used to transmit data related to a session. The target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target session. Preconditions may include one of the following situations:

(a) The target session needs to be deleted.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in a session deletion scenario.

When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the session granularity, assuming that the target session corresponds to the target user plane tunnel, data related to the target session is transmitted on the target user plane tunnel. When the target session needs to be deleted, it means that no data related to the target session needs to be transmitted through the target user plane tunnel, and at this time, deletion of the target user plane tunnel is triggered.

In an example, it is assumed that there are three user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, and user plane tunnel 3. Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to session 1, user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to session 2, and user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to session 3. Taking session 1 as an example, when session 1 needs to be deleted, the control plane network element determines to delete the user plane tunnel 1 corresponding to session 1, and the control plane network element sends request information carrying the identifier of user plane tunnel 1 to the user plane network element, After receiving the request information, the user plane network element deletes the user plane tunnel 1.

In addition, the reason why the target session needs to be deleted may include one of the following situations: service interruption between the target terminal and network elements in the data network; target terminal detach process; Attachment results in an active context in the control plane network element; the update location of the target terminal is rejected during the tracking area update or routing area update process, the session deletion process initiated by the target terminal or the network, etc. Wherein, the target session is a session between the target terminal and a network element of the data network.

(b) The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and the data related to the target terminal cached in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the data caching scenario.

Specifically, when the target terminal is in the idle state, after the user plane network element receives data related to the target terminal (for example, the downlink service data sent by the network element in the data network to the target terminal), it will communicate with the target terminal through the target user plane tunnel The data related to the target terminal is forwarded to the control plane network element, and the control plane network element caches the data. Subsequently, when the target terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the cached data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element sends these data to the target terminal.

The maximum buffer allocated for each terminal is configured in the control plane network element. The maximum buffer size corresponding to each terminal may be allocated by the control plane network element, or may be allocated by other devices and notified to the control plane network element. For example, when the control plane network element is the SGW-C, the maximum buffer size corresponding to each terminal may be allocated by the MME and notified to the SGW-C. The maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal refers to the maximum amount of data related to the target terminal that can be buffered by the control plane network element. The maximum buffer size allocated to different terminals may be the same or different, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. Optionally, the maximum buffering amount is a suggested count of downlink buffering (downlink buffering suggested count). Taking the target terminal as an example, when the cached data related to the target terminal in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal, the control plane network element can no longer store the data related to the target terminal. The user plane network element does not need to forward the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element for caching through the target user plane tunnel, and the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are five user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, user plane tunnel 3, user plane tunnel 4, and user plane tunnel 5 . Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to session 1, user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to session 2, user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to session 3, and user plane tunnel 4 is used to transmit data related to session 2. Data related to session 4 is transmitted, and user plane tunnel 5 is used to transmit data related to session 5. Assume that session 1, session 2, and session 3 are used to transmit data related to terminal 1, and session 4 and session 5 are used to transmit data related to terminal 2. Taking terminal 1 as an example, assume that the maximum buffer size allocated to terminal 1 is a. When terminal 1 is in the idle state, after receiving the data related to terminal 1, the user plane network element forwards the data related to terminal 1 to The control plane network element caches the data. When the cached data related to terminal 1 in the control plane network element reaches the maximum buffer size a, the control plane network element determines to delete the user plane tunnels 1, 2, and 3 corresponding to terminal 1, and the control plane network element sends a message to the user plane network element The request information carrying the identifiers of the user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 is sent, and the user plane network element deletes the user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the data caching scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is SGW/PGW-C And the user plane network element is SGW/PGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is NG-CP and the user plane network element is NG-UP.

(c) The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and all the data related to the target terminal buffered in the network element of the control plane has been sent to the network element of the user plane.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the data forwarding scenario.

As mentioned above, when the target terminal is in the idle state, after the user plane network element receives the data related to the target terminal, it forwards the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element through the target user plane tunnel, and the control plane network element These data are cached by the plane network elements. Subsequently, when the target terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the cached data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element sends these data to the target terminal.

Taking the target terminal as an example, when all the data related to the target terminal buffered in the control plane NE has been sent to the user plane NE, there is no data related to the target terminal in the control plane NE that needs to be transmitted through the target user plane tunnel , at this point the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are five user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, user plane tunnel 3, user plane tunnel 4, and user plane tunnel 5 . Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to session 1, user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to session 2, user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to session 3, and user plane tunnel 4 is used to transmit data related to session 2. Data related to session 4 is transmitted, and user plane tunnel 5 is used to transmit data related to session 5. Assume that session 1, session 2, and session 3 are used to transmit data related to terminal 1, and session 4 and session 5 are used to transmit data related to terminal 2. Taking terminal 1 as an example, when terminal 1 recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the cached data related to terminal 1 through one or more user plane tunnels among user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 To the user plane network element, the user plane network element sends these data to the terminal 1. When all the data related to Terminal 1 cached in the control plane NE has been sent to the user plane NE, the control plane NE determines to delete the user plane tunnels 1, 2, and 3 corresponding to Terminal 1, and the control plane NE sends a message to the user plane. The network element sends request information carrying the identifiers of user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3, and the user plane network element deletes user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the data forwarding scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is SGW/PGW-C And the user plane network element is SGW/PGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is NG-CP and the user plane network element is NG-UP.

(d) The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and the control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to the target terminal.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the lawful interception scenario.

In the lawful interception scenario, if the lawful interception system needs to monitor the data related to the target terminal, the user plane network element will send the data related to the target terminal to the controller through the target user plane tunnel after receiving the data related to the target terminal. The network elements on the control plane forward the data to the lawful interception system. The data sent by the user plane network element to the control plane network element may be a data copy generated by the user plane network element, and may also include other data type information. The data forwarded by the control plane network element to the lawful interception system may be data processed by the control plane network element or other information.

If the lawful interception system no longer needs to monitor data related to the target terminal, the lawful interception system can send a lawful interception deactivation message to the control plane network element, and the lawful interception deactivation message is used to instruct deactivation of lawful interception related to the target terminal function, the subsequent user plane network element does not need to send the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element and then forward it to the lawful interception system. At this time, the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are five user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, user plane tunnel 3, user plane tunnel 4, and user plane tunnel 5 . Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to session 1, user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to session 2, user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to session 3, and user plane tunnel 4 is used to transmit data related to session 2. Data related to session 4 is transmitted, and user plane tunnel 5 is used to transmit data related to session 5. Assume that session 1, session 2, and session 3 are used to transmit data related to terminal 1, and session 4 and session 5 are used to transmit data related to terminal 2. Taking terminal 1 as an example, after the lawful interception system activates the lawful interception function related to terminal 1, the user plane network element transmits the data related to terminal 1 through one or more user plane tunnels of user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 The data is sent to the network element of the control plane, and the network element of the control plane forwards the data to the lawful interception system. After the control plane network element receives the lawful interception deactivation message sent by the lawful interception system for instructing to deactivate the lawful interception function related to terminal 1, it determines to delete the user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 corresponding to terminal 1, and the control plane The network element sends request information carrying the identifiers of user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element deletes user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the lawful interception scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is PGW-C and the user The NE on the control plane is PGW-U, or the NE on the control plane is SGW/PGW-C and the NE on the user plane is SGW/PGW-U, or the NE on the control plane is NG-CP and the NE on the user plane is NG-UP.

3. User plane tunnel corresponding bearer granularity

When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the bearer granularity, each of the at least one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element is used to transmit data related to one bearer. The target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target bearer. Preconditions include one of the following situations:

(a) The target bearer is at least one bearer for transmitting data related to the target session, and the target session needs to be deleted.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in a session deletion scenario.

When the target session needs to be deleted, it means that no data related to the target session needs to be transmitted through the target user plane tunnel, and at this time, deletion of the target user plane tunnel is triggered.

In an example, it is assumed that there are three user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, and user plane tunnel 3. Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to bearer 1, user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to bearer 2, and user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to bearer 3. Assume that bearer 1 and bearer 2 are used to transmit data related to session 1, and bearer 3 is used to transmit data related to session 2. Taking session 1 as an example, when session 1 needs to be deleted, the control plane network element determines to delete the user plane tunnels 1 and 2 corresponding to session 1, and the control plane network element sends the identifiers carrying user plane tunnels 1 and 2 to the user plane network element After receiving the request information, the user plane network element deletes user plane tunnels 1 and 2.

In addition, the reason why the target session needs to be deleted may include one of the following situations: service interruption between the target terminal and network elements in the data network; target terminal detach process; There is still an active context in the network element of the control plane; the update location of the target terminal is rejected during the tracking area update or routing area update process, the session deletion process initiated by the target terminal or the network, etc. Wherein, the target session is a session between the target terminal and a network element of the data network.

(b) The target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target terminal, and the data related to the target terminal that has been buffered in the network element of the control plane has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the data caching scenario.

When the target terminal is in the idle state, after the user plane network element receives the data related to the target terminal (for example, the downlink service data sent by the network element in the data network to the target terminal), it transmits the data related to the target terminal through the target user plane tunnel. The data is forwarded to the control plane network element, and the control plane network element caches the data. Subsequently, when the target terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the cached data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element sends these data to the target terminal.

The maximum buffer allocated for each terminal is configured in the control plane network element. The maximum buffer size corresponding to each terminal may be allocated by the control plane network element, or may be allocated by other devices and notified to the control plane network element. For example, when the control plane network element is the SGW-C, the maximum buffer size corresponding to each terminal may be allocated by the MME and notified to the SGW-C. The maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal refers to the maximum amount of data related to the target terminal that can be buffered by the control plane network element. The maximum buffer size allocated to different terminals may be the same or different, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. Optionally, the maximum buffering amount is a suggested count of downlink buffering (downlink buffering suggested count). Taking the target terminal as an example, when the cached data related to the target terminal in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal, the control plane network element can no longer store the data related to the target terminal. The user plane network element does not need to forward the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element for caching through the target user plane tunnel, and the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are five user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, user plane tunnel 3, user plane tunnel 4, and user plane tunnel 5 . Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to bearer 1, user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to bearer 2, user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to bearer 3, and user plane tunnel 4 is used to transmit data related to bearer 2. Data related to bearer 4 is transmitted, and user plane tunnel 5 is used to transmit data related to bearer 5 . Assume that Bearer 1, Bearer 2, and Bearer 3 are used to transmit data related to Terminal 1, and Bearer 4 and Bearer 5 are used to transmit data related to Terminal 2. Taking terminal 1 as an example, assume that the maximum buffer size allocated to terminal 1 is a. When terminal 1 is in the idle state, after receiving the data related to terminal 1, the user plane network element forwards the data related to terminal 1 to The control plane network element caches the data. When the cached data related to terminal 1 in the control plane network element reaches the maximum buffer size a, the control plane network element determines to delete the user plane tunnels 1, 2, and 3 corresponding to terminal 1, and the control plane network element sends a message to the user plane network element The request information carrying the identifiers of the user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 is sent, and the user plane network element deletes the user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the data caching scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is SGW/PGW-C And the user plane network element is SGW/PGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is NG-CP and the user plane network element is NG-UP.

(c) The target bearer is at least one bearer for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and all the data related to the target terminal buffered in the network element of the control plane has been sent to the network element of the user plane.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the data forwarding scenario.

As mentioned above, when the target terminal is in the idle state, after the user plane network element receives the data related to the target terminal, it forwards the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element through the target user plane tunnel, and the control plane network element These data are cached by the plane network elements. Subsequently, when the target terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the cached data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element sends these data to the target terminal.

Taking the target terminal as an example, when all the data related to the target terminal buffered in the control plane NE has been sent to the user plane NE, there is no data related to the target terminal in the control plane NE that needs to be transmitted through the target user plane tunnel , at this point the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are five user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, user plane tunnel 3, user plane tunnel 4, and user plane tunnel 5 . Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to bearer 1, user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to bearer 2, user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to bearer 3, and user plane tunnel 4 is used to transmit data related to bearer 2. Data related to bearer 4 is transmitted, and user plane tunnel 5 is used to transmit data related to bearer 5 . Assume that Bearer 1, Bearer 2, and Bearer 3 are used to transmit data related to Terminal 1, and Bearer 4 and Bearer 5 are used to transmit data related to Terminal 2. Taking terminal 1 as an example, when terminal 1 recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the cached data related to terminal 1 through one or more user plane tunnels among user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 To the user plane network element, the user plane network element sends these data to the terminal 1. When all the data related to Terminal 1 cached in the control plane NE has been sent to the user plane NE, the control plane NE determines to delete the user plane tunnels 1, 2, and 3 corresponding to Terminal 1, and the control plane NE sends a message to the user plane. The network element sends request information carrying the identifiers of user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3, and the user plane network element deletes user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the data forwarding scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is SGW/PGW-C And the user plane network element is SGW/PGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is NG-CP and the user plane network element is NG-UP.

(d) The target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target terminal, and the control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to the target terminal.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the lawful interception scenario.

In the lawful interception scenario, if the lawful interception system needs to monitor the data related to the target terminal, the user plane network element will send the data related to the target terminal to the controller through the target user plane tunnel after receiving the data related to the target terminal. The network elements on the control plane forward the data to the lawful interception system. The data sent by the user plane network element to the control plane network element may be a data copy generated by the user plane network element, and may also include other data type information. The data forwarded by the control plane network element to the lawful interception system may be data processed by the control plane network element or other information.

If the lawful interception system no longer needs to monitor data related to the target terminal, the lawful interception system can send a lawful interception deactivation message to the control plane network element, and the lawful interception deactivation message is used to instruct deactivation of lawful interception related to the target terminal function, the subsequent user plane network element does not need to send the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element and then forward it to the lawful interception system. At this time, the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are five user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, user plane tunnel 3, user plane tunnel 4, and user plane tunnel 5 . Among them, user plane tunnel 1 is used to transmit data related to bearer 1, user plane tunnel 2 is used to transmit data related to bearer 2, user plane tunnel 3 is used to transmit data related to bearer 3, and user plane tunnel 4 is used to transmit data related to bearer 2. Data related to bearer 4 is transmitted, and user plane tunnel 5 is used to transmit data related to bearer 5 . Assume that Bearer 1, Bearer 2, and Bearer 3 are used to transmit data related to Terminal 1, and Bearer 4 and Bearer 5 are used to transmit data related to Terminal 2. Taking terminal 1 as an example, after the lawful interception system activates the lawful interception function related to terminal 1, the user plane network element transmits the data related to terminal 1 through one or more user plane tunnels of user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 The data is sent to the network element of the control plane, and the network element of the control plane forwards the data to the lawful interception system. After the control plane network element receives the lawful interception deactivation message sent by the lawful interception system for instructing to deactivate the lawful interception function related to terminal 1, it determines to delete the user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 corresponding to terminal 1, and the control plane The network element sends request information carrying the identifiers of user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element deletes user plane tunnels 1, 2 and 3 after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the lawful interception scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is PGW-C and the user The NE on the control plane is PGW-U, or the NE on the control plane is SGW/PGW-C and the NE on the user plane is SGW/PGW-U, or the NE on the control plane is NG-CP and the NE on the user plane is NG-UP.

4. User plane tunnel corresponding device granularity

When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the device granularity, at least one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element includes one user plane tunnel, and the target user plane tunnel is the user plane tunnel. The target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to all terminals served by both the control plane network element and the user plane network element. Preconditions may include one of the following situations:

(a) All sessions transmitted through the user plane tunnel need to be deleted.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in a session deletion scenario.

Since there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, all sessions between each terminal and the network elements of the data network are transmitted on this user plane tunnel. If only some sessions need to be deleted, this user plane tunnel cannot be deleted, so as to transmit data related to other undeleted sessions. When all sessions need to be deleted, it means that there is no session to be transmitted on this user plane tunnel, and at this time, the deletion of this user plane tunnel is triggered.

In an example, assuming that there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, there are a total of three tunnels between all terminals served by the control plane network element and the user plane network element and the network elements of the data network. Sessions are Session 1, Session 2, and Session 3 respectively. The data related to these three sessions are all transmitted through this user plane tunnel. When all three sessions need to be deleted, the control plane NE determines to delete the user plane tunnel, the control plane NE sends a request message to the user plane NE, and the user plane NE deletes the user plane tunnel after receiving the request message. tunnel.

(b) The cached data related to each terminal among all terminals in the network element of the control plane has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for each terminal.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the data caching scenario.

For any terminal served by both the control plane NE and the user plane NE (take the target terminal as an example), when the target terminal is in the idle state, the user plane NE receives data related to the target terminal (for example, in the data network) After the downlink service data sent by the network element of the network element to the target terminal), the data related to the target terminal is forwarded to the control plane network element through the above-mentioned user plane tunnel, and the control plane network element caches these data. Subsequently, when the target terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the buffered data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element through this user plane tunnel, and the user plane network element sends these data to the target terminal data.

The maximum buffer allocated for each terminal is configured in the control plane network element. The maximum buffer size corresponding to each terminal may be allocated by the control plane network element, or may be allocated by other devices and notified to the control plane network element. For example, when the control plane network element is the SGW-C, the maximum buffer size corresponding to each terminal may be allocated by the MME and notified to the SGW-C. The maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal refers to the maximum amount of data related to the target terminal that can be buffered by the control plane network element. The maximum buffer size allocated to different terminals may be the same or different, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. Optionally, the maximum buffering amount is a suggested count of downlink buffering (downlink buffering suggested count). Taking the target terminal as an example, when the cached data related to the target terminal in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal, the control plane network element cannot continue to store the data related to the target terminal. Since there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, data related to each terminal is transmitted through this user plane tunnel. If the data cached by only some terminals in the control plane network element has reached their corresponding maximum cache volume, this user plane tunnel cannot be deleted to transmit data related to other terminals that have not yet reached the maximum cache volume. data. When the cached data of all terminals in the network elements of the control plane has reached their respective maximum cache volumes, the deletion of this user plane tunnel is triggered.

In an example, assuming that there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, all terminals served by the control plane network element and the user plane network element include Terminal 1, Terminal 2, and Terminal 3. Assuming that the maximum buffer size allocated to each terminal is a, when the cached data related to each terminal in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size a, the control plane network element determines to delete this user plane tunnel, and the control plane network element determines to delete this user plane tunnel. The network element on the user plane sends request information to the network element on the user plane, and the network element on the user plane deletes this user plane tunnel after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the data caching scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is SGW/PGW-C And the user plane network element is SGW/PGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is NG-CP and the user plane network element is NG-UP.

(c) All the data related to each terminal among all the terminals buffered in the network element of the control plane has been sent to the network element of the user plane.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the data forwarding scenario.

As mentioned above, when the target terminal is in the idle state, after receiving the data related to the target terminal, the user plane network element forwards the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element through the above-mentioned user plane tunnel , these data are cached by the control plane network element. Subsequently, when the target terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the buffered data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element through this user plane tunnel, and the user plane network element sends these data to the target terminal data.

Since there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, data related to each terminal is transmitted through this user plane tunnel. If all the data cached by some terminals in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element, this user plane tunnel cannot be deleted, because the data used for transmission and cached in the control plane network element is not all Data related to other terminals sent to the user plane network element. When all the data buffered by all terminals in the control plane network elements have been sent to the user plane network elements, trigger deletion of this user plane tunnel.

In an example, assuming that there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, all terminals served by the control plane network element and the user plane network element include Terminal 1, Terminal 2, and Terminal 3. When all the data related to each terminal cached in the control plane NE has been sent to the user plane NE, the control plane NE determines to delete this user plane tunnel, and the control plane NE sends request information to the user plane NE, and the user The plane network element deletes the user plane tunnel after receiving the request information.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the data forwarding scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is SGW/PGW-C And the user plane network element is SGW/PGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is NG-CP and the user plane network element is NG-UP.

(d) The control plane network element receives an instruction from the lawful interception system, and the instruction is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor the data related to any terminal among all the above-mentioned terminals.

In this case, the user plane tunnel can be deleted in the lawful interception scenario.

In the lawful interception scenario, if the lawful interception system needs to monitor data related to any terminal (take the target terminal as an example), after receiving the data related to the target terminal, the user plane network element passes the above-mentioned one target user The tunnel on the plane sends the data related to the target terminal to the network element on the control plane, and the network element on the control plane forwards the data to the lawful interception system. The data sent by the user plane network element to the control plane network element may be a data copy generated by the user plane network element, and may also include other data type information. The data forwarded by the control plane network element to the lawful interception system may be data processed by the control plane network element or other information.

If the lawful interception system no longer needs to monitor data related to the target terminal, the lawful interception system can send a lawful interception deactivation message to the control plane network element, and the lawful interception deactivation message is used to instruct deactivation of lawful interception related to the target terminal function, the subsequent user plane network elements do not need to send data related to the target terminal to the control plane network elements and then forward them to the lawful interception system. Since there is only one user-plane tunnel between the control plane NE and the user-plane NE, if the lawful interception system still needs to monitor data related to at least one terminal, this user-plane tunnel cannot be deleted in order to transmit data related to these Terminal related data. When the lawful interception system no longer needs to monitor data related to any terminal, it triggers deletion of this user plane tunnel.

In an example, assuming that there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, all terminals served by the control plane network element and the user plane network element include Terminal 1, Terminal 2, and Terminal 3. When the lawful interception system no longer needs to monitor data related to any terminal, the control plane network element determines to delete this user plane tunnel, the control plane network element sends a request message to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element receives the request This user plane tunnel is deleted after the message is sent.

Exemplarily, for the situation of deleting the user plane tunnel in the lawful interception scenario, the involved control plane network element is SGW-C and the user plane network element is SGW-U, or the involved control plane network element is PGW-C and the user The NE on the control plane is PGW-U, or the NE on the control plane is SGW/PGW-C and the NE on the user plane is SGW/PGW-U, or the NE on the control plane is NG-CP and the NE on the user plane is NG-UP.

The above describes the preset conditions for different granularities corresponding to user plane tunnels. In addition, the preset conditions are introduced and explained from four different application scenarios including session deletion, data caching, data forwarding and lawful interception. For the data cache scenario, the above only takes the terminal allocation corresponding to the maximum cache amount as an example. In other possible implementation manners, the maximum cache size may also correspond to user plane tunnel allocation. That is, the control plane network element is configured with a maximum buffer size allocated for each user plane tunnel. The maximum buffer size corresponding to each user plane tunnel may be allocated by the control plane network element, or may be allocated by other devices and notified to the control plane network element. For example, when the control plane network element is the SGW-C, the maximum buffer size corresponding to each user plane tunnel may be allocated by the MME and notified to the SGW-C. The maximum buffer size allocated for the target user plane tunnel refers to the maximum amount of data received from the user plane network element through the target user plane tunnel that can be buffered by the control plane network element. When there are multiple user plane tunnels, the maximum buffer size allocated to different user plane tunnels may be the same or different, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. In this case, the preset condition is: the data transmitted from the user plane network element to the control plane network element through the target user plane tunnel has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target user plane tunnel. When the cached data transmitted through the target user plane tunnel in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target user plane tunnel, the control plane network element can no longer store the data received through the target user plane tunnel. At this time, the user plane network element does not need to forward the data to the control plane network element for caching through the target user plane tunnel, and the target user plane tunnel can be deleted.

In an example, it is assumed that there are three user plane tunnels between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, namely, user plane tunnel 1, user plane tunnel 2, and user plane tunnel 3. Assuming that the maximum buffer size allocated to each user plane tunnel is a, taking user plane tunnel 1 as an example, when the data transmitted from the user plane NE to the control plane NE through user plane tunnel 1 has reached the maximum buffer size a , the control plane network element determines to delete the user plane tunnel 1, the control plane network element sends a request message carrying the identifier of the user plane tunnel 1 to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element deletes the user plane tunnel 1 after receiving the request message.

In addition, in the case that the maximum buffer size corresponds to user plane tunnel allocation, the granularity corresponding to the user plane tunnel may be device granularity, terminal granularity, session granularity, or bearer granularity, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

In an optional embodiment provided based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , as shown in FIG. 3 , before or after the control plane network element sends the request information to the user plane network element, that is, before or after part 202, the The method can also include the following parts:

In part 204, the control plane network element determines that a new user plane tunnel needs to be created.

Specifically, the control plane network element may determine that a new user plane tunnel needs to be created when detecting that a creation condition is met. For different granularities and different application scenarios corresponding to user plane tunnels, the above creation conditions may be different. The creation conditions are described below.

1. User plane tunnel corresponds to terminal granularity

When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the terminal granularity, each user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to one terminal. The new user plane tunnel requested to be created is used to transmit data related to the service terminal. The service terminal is a terminal served by both the control plane NE and the user plane NE, and no user plane tunnel corresponding to this terminal has been created yet. The creation conditions may include one of the following situations: (a) a session related to the service terminal needs to be created; (b) the service terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, and the control plane network element needs to send the cached data related to the service terminal To the user plane network element, the user plane network element sends these data to the service terminal; (c) the service terminal switches from the connected state to the idle state, and the control plane network element needs to receive and cache the data related to the service terminal from the user plane network element data; (d) the control plane network element receives an instruction from the lawful interception system and needs to monitor the data related to the service terminal.

2. The user plane tunnel corresponds to the session granularity

When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the session granularity, each user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a session. The new user plane tunnel requested to be created is used to transmit data related to a new session, and a new session refers to a session that has not been created yet. The creation condition may include one of the following situations: (a) a new session needs to be created; (b) the new session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the service terminal, and the service terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, The control plane network element needs to send the cached data related to the service terminal to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element sends these data to the service terminal; (c) the new session includes the data used to transmit the service terminal related At least one session of data, and the service terminal transitions from the connected state to the idle state, the control plane network element needs to receive and cache the data related to the service terminal from the user plane network element; (d) the new session includes At least one session of related data, and the control plane network element receives an instruction from the lawful interception system that it needs to monitor the data related to the service terminal.

For the above scenarios (b), (c), and (d), the service terminal is a terminal that is served by both the control plane network element and the user plane network element.

3. User plane tunnel corresponding bearer granularity

When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the bearer granularity, each user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to one bearer. The new user plane tunnel requested to be created is used to transmit data related to the new bearer, and the new bearer refers to a bearer that has not been created yet. The creation condition may include one of the following situations: (a) the new bearer includes at least one bearer for transmitting data related to the new session, and the new session needs to be created, and the new session refers to a session that has not yet been created; ( b) The new bearer includes at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the service terminal, and the service terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, and the control plane network element needs to send the cached data related to the service terminal to the user plane The network element, the user plane network element sends these data to the service terminal; (c) the new bearer includes at least one bearer for transmitting data related to the service terminal, and the service terminal is converted from the connected state to the idle state, and the control plane The network element needs to receive and cache data related to the service terminal from the user plane network element; (d) the new bearer includes at least one bearer for transmitting data related to the service terminal, and the control plane network element receives the legal interception system's Indicates that data related to the service terminal needs to be monitored.

For the above scenarios (b), (c), and (d), the service terminal is a terminal that is served by both the control plane network element and the user plane network element.

4. User plane tunnel corresponding device granularity

When the user plane tunnel corresponds to the device granularity, since there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane network element and the user plane network element, the new user plane tunnel requested to be created is this user plane tunnel. This user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to all terminals served by the control plane network element and the user plane network element. The creation conditions may include one of the following situations: (a) the session transmitted through this user plane tunnel needs to be created, and the session may be a session that any terminal among the above-mentioned terminals needs to create; (b) any terminal among the above-mentioned terminals needs to create a session; When a terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element needs to send the cached data related to the terminal to the user plane network element, and the user plane network element sends these data to the terminal; (c) all of the above Any terminal in the terminal transitions from the connected state to the idle state, and the control plane network element needs to receive and cache the data related to the terminal from the user plane network element; (d) the control plane network element receives an instruction from the legal interception system and needs to monitor Data related to any of the above terminals.

In part 205, the control plane network element sends a creation request to the user plane network element, and the creation request is used to instruct the user plane network element to create a new user plane tunnel.

Correspondingly, the user plane network element receives the creation request from the control plane network element.

In an example, the creation request may carry at least one of the following items: instruction information for instructing to create a user plane tunnel, an identifier of a new user plane tunnel, a packet forwarding rule corresponding to a new user plane tunnel, or a new user plane tunnel Packet matching rules corresponding to the tunnel.

In a possible implementation manner, the creation request carries an identifier of the new user plane tunnel requested to be created, so as to notify the user plane network element of the new user plane tunnel that needs to be created. For example, when the granularity corresponding to the user plane tunnel is terminal granularity, session granularity or bearer granularity, since multiple user plane tunnels can be established between the control plane NE and the user plane NE, the creation request carries the above indication information In addition, the new user plane tunnel requested to be created needs to be identified in the creation request. For another example, when the granularity corresponding to the user plane tunnel is the device granularity, since there is only one user plane tunnel between the control plane NE and the user plane NE, the creation request only needs to carry the above indication information, and it is not necessary to The ID of this user plane tunnel is carried in the creation request.

In a possible implementation manner, the request information carries the packet forwarding rules and/or packet matching rules corresponding to the new user plane tunnel requested to be created, so that the user plane network element can configure the created new user plane tunnel accordingly. Packet forwarding rules and/or packet matching rules and other context information corresponding to the tunnel.

In part 206, the user plane network element creates a new user plane tunnel according to the creation request.

Specifically, after receiving the creation request, the user plane network element may determine a new user plane tunnel that needs to be created, and then create the new user plane tunnel. For example, creating a new user plane tunnel by a user plane network element may be implemented in the following ways: allocating resources for the new user plane tunnel, configuring corresponding context information for the new user plane tunnel, and so on.

In an example, after creating the new user plane tunnel, the user plane network element may send a creation response to the control plane network element, where the creation response is used to indicate that the new user plane tunnel has been successfully created. Correspondingly, after the control plane network element receives the creation response from the user plane network element, it can confirm that the new user plane tunnel has been created.

In addition, the creation request and creation response can be sent and received between the control plane network element and the user plane network element through the control plane tunnel.

It can be known from the above that the embodiment of the present invention also provides a technical solution for creating a user plane tunnel between a control plane network element and a user plane network element, so that a user plane tunnel can be created when required.

On the basis of the method shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 , and in conjunction with FIG. 4 to FIG. 6 , the solution of the embodiment of the present invention will be further described. Wherein, in the methods shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 6 , for content that is the same as or similar to the method shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 , reference may be made to the detailed description in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 , and details will not be described later.

FIG. 4 is a communication schematic diagram of another method for deleting a user plane tunnel provided by an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4 , the user plane tunnel corresponds to the terminal granularity, and the application scenario is a data caching scenario as an example for illustration. The method may include the following parts.

In part 401, when the target terminal is in an idle state, the user plane network element sends data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element through the target user plane tunnel corresponding to the target terminal.

In part 402, the control plane network element caches the data related to the target terminal.

In part 403, the control plane network element determines whether the cached data related to the target terminal has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal.

In part 404, if the cached data related to the target terminal has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal, the control plane network element sends a request message to the user plane network element, and the request message is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete the target terminal User plane tunnel, the request information carries the identifier of the target user plane tunnel.

In part 405, the user plane network element deletes the target user plane tunnel according to the request information.

In part 406, the user plane network element sends response information to the control plane network element.

In part 407, when the target terminal returns from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element determines that a new user plane tunnel needs to be created, and the new user plane tunnel is used to transmit the cached information related to the target terminal to the user plane network element. The data.

In part 408, the control plane network element sends a creation request to the user plane network element, and the creation request is used to instruct the user plane network element to create a new user plane tunnel.

In part 409, the user plane network element creates a new user plane tunnel according to the creation request.

In part 410, the user plane network element sends a creation response to the control plane network element.

Afterwards, the control plane network element can send the buffered data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element through the new user plane tunnel.

In part 411, the control plane network element sends a session termination request to the user plane network element, and the session termination request is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete the session related to the target terminal.

In part 412, the user plane network element deletes the session related to the target terminal, and deletes the user plane tunnel related to the target terminal.

In part 413, the user plane network element sends a session termination response to the control plane network element.

FIG. 5 is a communication schematic diagram of another method for deleting a user plane tunnel provided by an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5 , the user plane tunnel corresponds to the terminal granularity, and the application scenario is a data forwarding scenario as an example for illustration. The method may include the following parts.

In part 501, when the target terminal recovers from the idle state to the connected state, the control plane network element sends the buffered data related to the target terminal to the user plane network element through the target user plane tunnel corresponding to the target terminal.

In part 502, the control plane network element determines whether all cached data related to the target terminal has been sent to the user plane network element.

In part 503, if all the data related to the target terminal cached by the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element, the control plane network element sends a request message to the user plane network element, and the request message is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete The target user plane tunnel, the request information carries the identifier of the target user plane tunnel.

In part 504, the user plane network element deletes the target user plane tunnel according to the request information.

In part 505, the user plane network element sends response information to the control plane network element.

In part 506, when the target terminal transitions from the connected state to the idle state, the control plane network element determines that a new user plane tunnel needs to be created, and the new user plane tunnel is used to receive data related to the target terminal from the user plane network element, In order to cache the data related to the target terminal in the network element of the control plane.

In part 507, the control plane network element sends a creation request to the user plane network element, and the creation request is used to instruct the user plane network element to create a new user plane tunnel.

In part 508, the user plane network element creates a new user plane tunnel according to the creation request.

In part 509, the user plane network element sends a creation response to the control plane network element.

Afterwards, the user plane network element can send the data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element through the new user plane tunnel, and the control plane network element receives and caches the data related to the target terminal.

In part 510, the control plane network element sends a session termination request to the user plane network element, and the session termination request is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete the session related to the target terminal.

In part 511, the user plane network element deletes the session related to the target terminal, and deletes the user plane tunnel related to the target terminal.

In part 512, the user plane network element sends a session termination response to the control plane network element.

FIG. 6 is a communication schematic diagram of another method for deleting a user plane tunnel provided by an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 6 , the user plane tunnel corresponds to the terminal granularity, and the application scenario is a lawful interception scenario as an example for illustration. The method may include the following parts.

In part 601, when the lawful interception function corresponding to the target terminal is activated, the user plane network element sends data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element through the target user plane tunnel corresponding to the target terminal.

In part 602, the control plane network element forwards the data related to the target terminal to the lawful interception system.

In part 603, the control plane network element receives a lawful interception deactivation message from the lawful interception system, and the lawful interception deactivation message is used to instruct to deactivate the lawful interception function related to the target terminal.

In part 604, the control plane network element sends request information to the user plane network element, the request information is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete the target user plane tunnel, and the request information carries the identifier of the target user plane tunnel.

In part 605, the user plane network element deletes the target user plane tunnel according to the request information.

In part 606, the user plane network element sends response information to the control plane network element.

In part 607, the control plane network element receives a lawful interception activation message from the lawful interception system, where the lawful interception activation message is used to indicate activation of a lawful interception function related to the target terminal.

In part 608, the control plane network element sends a creation request to the user plane network element, and the creation request is used to instruct the user plane network element to create a new user plane tunnel, and the new user plane tunnel is used to receive and communicate with the target terminal from the user plane network element. related data.

In part 609, the user plane network element creates a new user plane tunnel according to the creation request.

In part 610, the user plane network element sends a creation response to the control plane network element.

After that, the user plane network element can send data related to the target terminal to the control plane network element through the new user plane tunnel, and the control plane network element receives and forwards the data related to the target terminal to the lawful interception system.

In part 611, the control plane network element sends a session termination request to the user plane network element, and the session termination request is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete the session related to the target terminal.

In part 612, the user plane network element deletes the session related to the target terminal, and deletes the user plane tunnel related to the target terminal.

In part 613, the user plane network element sends a session termination response to the control plane network element.

The foregoing mainly introduces the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention from the perspective of interaction between the control plane network element and the user plane network element. It can be understood that, in order to realize the above-mentioned functions, the network elements of the control plane and the network elements of the user plane include corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing respective functions. Combining the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in the present invention, the embodiments of the present invention can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is executed by hardware or computer software drives hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be regarded as exceeding the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

The embodiment of the present invention can divide the control plane network element or the user plane network element into functional units according to the above method example, for example, each functional unit can be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing unit. The above-mentioned integrated units can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional units. It should be noted that the division of the units in the embodiment of the present invention is schematic, and is only a logical function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

In the case of using an integrated unit, FIG. 7A shows a possible structural diagram of the control plane network element involved in the above embodiment. The control plane network element 700 includes: a processing unit 702 and a communication unit 703 . The processing unit 702 is used to control and manage the actions of the control plane network elements. For example, the processing unit 702 is used to support the control plane network elements to execute the processes 201 and 202 in FIG. 2, the processes 204 and 205 in FIG. Processes 402-404, 407, 408, and 411 of , processes 501-503, 506, 507, and 510 in FIG. 5 , processes 602-604, 607, 608, and 611 in FIG. other processes of the technology. The communication unit 703 is used to support the communication between the control plane network element and the user plane network element or other network entities. The control plane network element 700 may further include a storage unit 701 for storing program codes and data of the control plane network element 700 .

Wherein, the processing unit 702 may be a processor or a controller, such as a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), a general processor, a digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), Field Programmable Gate Array (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. It can implement or execute the various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with the present disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, for example, a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of DSP and a microprocessor, and so on. The communication unit 703 may be a communication interface, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, etc., where a communication interface is a general term and may include one or more interfaces, such as an interface between a control plane network element and a user plane network element. The storage unit 701 may be a memory.

When the processing unit 702 is a processor, the communication unit 703 is a communication interface, and the storage unit 701 is a memory, the control plane network element involved in this embodiment of the present invention may be the control plane network element shown in FIG. 7B .

Referring to FIG. 7B , the control plane network element 710 includes: a processor 712 , a communication interface 713 , and a memory 711 . Optionally, the control plane network element 710 may further include a bus 714 . Wherein, the communication interface 713, the processor 712 and the memory 711 can be connected to each other through the bus 714; the bus 714 can be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus or an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus etc. The bus 714 can be divided into address bus, data bus, control bus and so on. For ease of representation, only one thick line is used in FIG. 7B , but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

The control plane network element shown in FIG. 7A or FIG. 7B may be SGW-C, PGW-C, TDF-C, SGW/PGW-C or NG-CP.

In the case of using an integrated unit, FIG. 8A shows a possible structural diagram of the user plane network element involved in the above embodiment. The user plane network element 800 includes: a processing unit 802 and a communication unit 803 . The processing unit 802 is used to control and manage the actions of the user plane network element. For example, the processing unit 802 is used to support the user plane network element to execute the process 203 in FIG. 2, the process 206 in FIG. 3, the process 401 in FIG. and/or Or other procedures for the techniques described herein. The communication unit 803 is used to support the communication between the user plane network element and the control plane network element or other network entities. The user plane network element 800 may further include a storage unit 801 for storing program codes and data of the user plane network element 800 .

Wherein, the processing unit 802 may be a processor or a controller, such as a CPU, a general processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. It can implement or execute the various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with the present disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, for example, a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of DSP and a microprocessor, and so on. The communication unit 803 may be a communication interface, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, etc., where a communication interface is a general term and may include one or more interfaces, such as an interface between a user plane network element and a control plane network element. The storage unit 801 may be a memory.

When the processing unit 802 is a processor, the communication unit 803 is a communication interface, and the storage unit 801 is a memory, the user plane network element involved in this embodiment of the present invention may be the user plane network element shown in FIG. 8B .

Referring to FIG. 8B , the user plane network element 810 includes: a processor 812 , a communication interface 813 , and a memory 811 . Optionally, the user plane network element 810 may further include a bus 814 . Wherein, the communication interface 813, the processor 812, and the memory 811 may be connected to each other through a bus 814; the bus 814 may be a PCI bus or an EISA bus. The bus 814 can be divided into address bus, data bus, control bus and so on. For ease of representation, only one thick line is used in FIG. 8B , but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

The user plane network element shown in FIG. 8A or FIG. 8B may be SGW-U, PGW-U, TDF-U, SGW/PGW-U or NG-UP.

The steps of the methods or algorithms described in connection with the disclosure of the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in the form of hardware, or may be implemented in the form of a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (Read Only Memory, ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory ( Erasable Programmable ROM, EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM), registers, hard disk, removable hard disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium may also be a component of the processor. The processor and storage medium can be located in the ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may be located in a control plane network element or a user plane network element. Certainly, the processor and the storage medium may also exist in the control plane network element or the user plane network element as discrete components.

Those skilled in the art should be aware that, in the above one or more examples, the functions described in the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

The specific implementation methods described above further describe the purpose, technical solutions and beneficial effects of the embodiments of the present invention in detail. It should be understood that the above descriptions are only specific implementation methods of the embodiments of the present invention and are not intended To limit the protection scope of the embodiments of the present invention, any modifications, equivalent replacements, improvements, etc. made on the basis of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention shall be included in the protection scope of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims (24)

1. A method for deleting a user plane tunnel, characterized in that the method comprises: The control plane network element determines that there is a target user plane tunnel that meets preset conditions in at least one user plane tunnel between itself and the user plane network element; wherein, the target user plane tunnel is one of the at least one user plane tunnel or multiple user plane tunnels; The control plane network element sends request information to the user plane network element, where the request information is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete the target user plane tunnel. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each user plane tunnel in the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a terminal, and the target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target user plane tunnel. Terminal-related data, the preset condition includes one of the following situations: All sessions related to the target terminal need to be deleted; The data related to the target terminal that has been cached in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal; All data related to the target terminal cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; The control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to the target terminal. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the reason why all sessions related to the target terminal need to be deleted includes one of the following situations: service interruption between the target terminal and network elements in the data network; The target terminal initiates a detach process; or The location update of the target terminal in the Tracking Area Update or Routing Area Update process is rejected. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein each user plane tunnel in the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a session, and the target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target user plane tunnel. For session-related data, the preset conditions include one of the following situations: said target session needs to be deleted; The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and the data related to the target terminal that has been cached in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal ; The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and all data related to the target terminal cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and the control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to the target terminal. The data. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a bearer, and the target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a target Carrying relevant data, the preset conditions include one of the following situations: The target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target session, and the target session needs to be deleted; The target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target terminal, and the data related to the target terminal that has been buffered in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal ; The target bearer is at least one bearer for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and all data related to the target terminal cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; The target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target terminal, and the control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to the target terminal. The data. 6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the reason why the target session needs to be deleted includes one of the following situations: Service interruption between the target terminal and network elements in the data network; The target terminal detach process; The target terminal update location is rejected during the tracking area update or routing area update process; The target terminal or network initiates a session deletion process for the target session; Wherein, the target session is a session between the target terminal and a network element of the data network. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one user plane tunnel comprises a user plane tunnel, the target user plane tunnel is the one user plane tunnel, and the target user plane tunnel is used for transmitting data related to all terminals served by the control plane network element and the user plane network element, the preset condition includes one of the following situations: All sessions transmitted through the one user plane tunnel need to be deleted; The cached data related to each of the terminals in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for each terminal; All data related to each of the terminals cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; The control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to any terminal in the all terminals. 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the preset condition is: the data transmitted from the user plane network element to the control plane network element through the target user plane tunnel has reached the Specifies the maximum buffer size allocated by the target user plane tunnel. 9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein before or after the control plane network element sends the request information to the user plane network element, the method further comprises: The control plane network element determines that a new user plane tunnel needs to be created; The control plane network element sends a creation request to the user plane network element, where the creation request is used to instruct the user plane network element to create the new user plane tunnel. 10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the request information may carry at least one of the following: indication information for instructing deletion of the user plane tunnel, an identifier of the target user plane tunnel, A packet forwarding rule corresponding to the target user plane tunnel or a packet matching rule corresponding to the target user plane tunnel. 11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein at least one control plane tunnel is included between the control plane network element and the user plane network element; The control plane network element sends the request information through the at least one control plane tunnel. 12. A method for deleting a user plane tunnel, characterized in that the method comprises: The user plane network element receives request information from the control plane network element, and the request information is used to instruct the user plane network element to delete the target that meets the preset condition in at least one user plane tunnel between itself and the control plane network element user plane tunnel; The user plane network element deletes the target user plane tunnel according to the request information. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein each of the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a terminal, and the target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target Terminal-related data, the preset condition includes one of the following situations: All sessions related to the target terminal need to be deleted; The data related to the target terminal that has been cached in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal; All data related to the target terminal cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; The control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to the target terminal. 14. The method according to claim 12, wherein each of the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a session, and the target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to the target user plane tunnel. For session-related data, the preset conditions include one of the following situations: said target session needs to be deleted; The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and the data related to the target terminal that has been cached in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal ; The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and all data related to the target terminal cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; The target session includes at least one session for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and the control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to the target terminal. The data. 15. The method according to claim 12, wherein each of the at least one user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a bearer, and the target user plane tunnel is used to transmit data related to a target Carrying relevant data, the preset conditions include one of the following situations: The target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target session, and the target session needs to be deleted; The target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target terminal, and the data related to the target terminal that has been buffered in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for the target terminal ; The target bearer is at least one bearer for transmitting data related to the target terminal, and all data related to the target terminal cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; The target bearer is at least one bearer used to transmit data related to the target terminal, and the control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to the target terminal. The data. 16. The method according to claim 12, wherein the at least one user plane tunnel comprises a user plane tunnel, the target user plane tunnel is the one user plane tunnel, and the target user plane tunnel is used for transmitting data related to all terminals served by the control plane network element and the user plane network element, the preset condition includes one of the following situations: All sessions transmitted through the one user plane tunnel need to be deleted; The cached data related to each of the terminals in the control plane network element has reached the maximum buffer size allocated for each terminal; All data related to each of the terminals cached in the control plane network element has been sent to the user plane network element; The control plane network element receives an indication from the lawful interception system, and the indication is used to indicate that it is no longer necessary to monitor data related to any terminal in the all terminals. 17. The method according to claim 12, wherein the preset condition is: the data transmitted from the user plane network element to the control plane network element through the target user plane tunnel has reached the Specifies the maximum buffer size allocated by the target user plane tunnel. 18. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 17, wherein before or after the user plane network element receives the request information from the control plane network element, the method further comprises: The user plane network element receives a creation request from the control plane network element, where the creation request is used to instruct the user plane network element to create a new user plane tunnel; The user plane network element creates the new user plane tunnel according to the creation request. 19. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 17, wherein the deleting the target user plane tunnel comprises: Release the resource occupied by the target user plane tunnel or delete the context information corresponding to the target user plane tunnel. 20. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 17, wherein at least one control plane tunnel is included between the user plane network element and the control plane network element; The user plane network element receives the request information through the at least one control plane tunnel. 21. A control plane network element, comprising a unit for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1-11. 22. A user plane network element, comprising a unit for implementing the method according to any one of claims 12-20. 23. A communication device, characterized in that it includes a memory and a processor, characterized in that, The memory is used to store programs, and the processor is used to execute the programs stored in the memory to implement the method according to any one of claims 1-20. 24. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising instructions to implement the method according to any one of claims 1-20 when executed by a processor.

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