WO2025145654A1 - Network cloud deployment method and apparatus, storage medium and electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

A network cloud deployment method, comprising: on the basis of a user plane editing and management function entity of a user plane, receiving a session creation request for a target service and issued by an SMF of a control plane, wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in a same virtual cloud (S601); on the basis of the session creation request for the target service, determining forwarding path information from a routing topology (S602); and sending service data of the target service to a data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information for data forwarding, so that the data forwarding device transmits the service data (S603).The present application can improve the utilization rate of network resources and the flexibility of cloud deployment.

Description

Network cloud deployment method, device, storage medium and electronic device

This application claims priority to a Chinese patent application filed on January 3, 2024, with application number 202410011228.4 and entitled “Network Cloud Deployment Method, Apparatus, Storage Medium and Electronic Device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of computer technology, and in particular to a network cloud deployment method, a network cloud deployment device, a computer storage medium, and an electronic device.

Background Art

In the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) network architecture defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the cloudification and virtualization of the 5G network user plane are realized, so that it can be deployed in the public cloud or enterprise cloud.

Currently, the User Plane Function (UPF) devices have not yet entered the cloud, but are connected to other devices through the N3/N4 interface using dedicated lines. In view of the above-mentioned related technical solutions, UPF devices are not deployed in the cloud, resulting in the inability to dynamically deploy UPF resources on demand, which in turn makes the utilization efficiency of network resources low and the flexibility poor.

Summary of the invention

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a network cloud deployment method is provided, the method comprising: a user plane editing management function entity based on the user plane receives a session creation request for a target service issued by a session management function entity SMF of the control plane; wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud; according to the session creation request, forwarding path information corresponding to the target service is determined from the routing topology; and the forwarding path information is sent to a corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits the service data.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, forwarding path information corresponding to the target service is determined from the routing topology according to a session creation request, including: obtaining service perception information of the target service, and determining a service quality policy for the target service based on the service perception information; determining forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from the routing topology according to the session creation request and the service quality policy.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the session establishment request also includes network quality parameters required for transmitting business data of the target business; wherein, before determining the forwarding path information corresponding to the target business from the routing topology according to the session creation request, the method also includes: obtaining resource information of each general routing device in the general resource pool, the resource information including at least one of communication resources and computing resources; determining the data forwarding device for transmitting the business data according to the network quality parameters required for the business data of the target business and the resource information of each general routing device; generating forwarding path information based on the data forwarding device, and adding the forwarding path information to the routing topology.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving a registration request initiated by the data forwarding device, the registration request being a request initiated when the data forwarding function of the data forwarding device is initially started; if the registration is successful, The forwarding device sends a registration success response and adds the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device to the routing topology; or, receives a deregistration request initiated by the data forwarding device, which is a request initiated when the data forwarding function of the data forwarding device is offline; if the deregistration is successful, a deregistration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is removed from the routing topology.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, forwarding path information is sent to a corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits business data, including: sending forwarding path information to the corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits business data based on the target communication protocol; wherein the target communication protocol includes the Fast UDP Internet Connection QUIC protocol and the Segment Routing SRv6 protocol based on the IPv6 forwarding plane.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the session establishment request also includes network quality parameters required for transmitting service data of the target service, and the network quality parameters required for the service data of the target service are added to an extension header of the SRv6 protocol.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, after sending the forwarding path information to the corresponding data forwarding device, the method further includes: sending the address of the data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information to the SMF of the control plane.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a network cloud deployment device is provided, which includes: a request receiving module, which is used to receive a session creation request for a target service issued by a session management function entity SMF of a control plane based on a user plane editing management function entity of a user plane; wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud; a path determination module, which is used to determine forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from a routing topology according to the session creation request; and an information sending module, which is used to send the forwarding path information to a corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits the service data.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, a path determination module is used to obtain service perception information of a target service and determine a service quality policy of the target service based on the service perception information; and determine forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from a routing topology according to a session creation request and a service quality policy.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the session establishment request also includes network quality parameters required for transmitting business data of the target business; the device also includes an information acquisition module, which is specifically used to obtain resource information of each general routing device in the general resource pool, and the resource information includes at least one of communication resources and computing resources; a path determination module is used to determine the data forwarding device for transmitting the business data based on the network quality parameters required for the business data of the target business and the resource information of each general routing device; forwarding path information is generated based on the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information is added to the routing topology.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the path determination module is used to receive a registration request initiated by a data forwarding device, where the registration request is a request initiated when the data forwarding function of the data forwarding device is initially started; if the registration is successful, a registration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is added to the routing topology; or, the information receiving module is used to receive a deregistration request initiated by the data forwarding device, where the deregistration request is a request initiated when the data forwarding function of the data forwarding device is offline; if the deregistration is successful, a deregistration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is removed from the routing topology.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the information sending module is used to send the forwarding path information to the corresponding data A forwarding device is provided to enable the data forwarding device to transmit business data based on the target communication protocol; wherein the target communication protocol includes the fast UDP Internet connection QUIC protocol and the segment routing SRv6 protocol based on the IPv6 forwarding plane.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the device also includes a data adding module, which is used to include network quality parameters required for transmitting service data of the target service in the session establishment request, and add the network quality parameters required for the service data of the target service to the extension header of the SRv6 protocol.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the information sending module is used to send the address of the data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information to the SMF of the control plane.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a computer program is stored. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the network cloud deployment method as described above is implemented.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided, comprising: a processor; and a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to execute the above network cloud deployment method by executing the executable instructions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1 schematically shows a schematic diagram of a 5G standard network architecture defined by 3GPP in this exemplary embodiment;

FIG2 schematically shows a schematic diagram of a network virtualization deployment in this exemplary embodiment;

FIG3 schematically shows a mobile network architecture diagram corresponding to one type of network cloud deployment in this exemplary embodiment;

FIG4 schematically shows a schematic diagram of an application scenario of a network cloud deployment in this exemplary embodiment;

FIG5 schematically shows another application scenario of network cloud deployment in this exemplary embodiment;

FIG6 schematically shows a flow chart of a network cloud deployment method according to this exemplary embodiment;

FIG7 schematically shows a schematic diagram of an N3 interface protocol stack between UPFs in this exemplary embodiment;

FIG8 schematically shows a schematic diagram of a user plane protocol stack in this exemplary embodiment;

FIG9 schematically shows a schematic diagram of an SRv6 protocol in this exemplary embodiment;

FIG10 schematically shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a network cloud deployment device in this exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 11 schematically shows a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to this exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the exemplary embodiments can be implemented in many forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; on the contrary, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be more comprehensive and complete, and the concepts of the exemplary embodiments will be fully conveyed to those skilled in the art. The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in one or more embodiments in any suitable manner. In the following description, many specific details are provided to give a full understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the technical solutions of the present disclosure may be practiced while omitting one or more of the specific details, or other methods, components, devices, steps, etc. may be adopted. In other cases, well-known technical solutions are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscurity. It takes away the main point and makes various aspects of the disclosure obscure.

In addition, the accompanying drawings are only schematic illustrations of the present disclosure and are not necessarily drawn to scale. The same reference numerals in the figures represent the same or similar parts, and their repeated description will be omitted. Some of the block diagrams shown in the accompanying drawings are functional entities and do not necessarily correspond to physically or logically independent entities. These functional entities can be implemented in software form, or implemented in one or more hardware modules or integrated circuits, or implemented in different networks and/or processor devices and/or microcontroller devices.

The flowcharts shown in the accompanying drawings are only exemplary and do not necessarily include all the steps. For example, some steps may be decomposed, while some steps may be combined or partially combined, so the actual execution order may change according to the actual situation.

In order to help those skilled in the art better understand the technical solution of the present disclosure, the relevant contents involved in the technical solution of the present disclosure are introduced below.

1) Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6): It is a new generation of Internet Protocol address (IP), which adopts the existing IPv6 forwarding technology and realizes network programmability through flexible IPv6 extension header. SRv6 technology has the advantages of being more flexible, scalable, secure, reliable, rich and multifunctional.

2) Quality of Service (QoS): refers to the ability of a network to use various basic technologies to provide better service capabilities for designated network communications. It is a network security mechanism and a technology used to solve problems such as network delay and congestion.

3) User Plane Function (UPF): It is an important part of the 3GPP 5G core network system architecture, and is mainly responsible for the routing and forwarding of user plane data packets in the 5G core network, data and service identification, action and policy execution and other related functions. UPF is the connection anchor between the 5G network and multi-access edge computing. All core network data must be forwarded by UPF before it can flow to the external network. UPF can interact with SMF through the N4 interface, and is directly controlled and managed by SMF, and performs service flow processing according to various policies issued by SMF (such as path planning policy, QoS management policy, etc.).

In order to facilitate those skilled in the art to understand the relevant technical solutions, the existing technical solutions will be described below in conjunction with FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 .

Figure 1 schematically shows a schematic diagram of a 5G standard network architecture defined by 3GPP in this exemplary implementation. The 5G standard network architecture defined by 3GPP is shown in Figure 1. The user plane UPF device has not yet entered the cloud (i.e., it has not been virtualized and deployed), but uses a dedicated line connection through the N3 or N4 interface.

Based on the 5G standard network architecture shown in Figure 1, Figure 2 is schematically explained from the perspective of cloud deployment. Figure 2 schematically shows a schematic diagram of a network virtualization deployment in this exemplary embodiment. As shown in Figure 2, the mobile network architecture includes user equipment (User Equipment, referred to as UE), access network (Access Network, referred to as AN), user plane, and control plane. Among them, the control plane functional entities are all deployed in the control cloud, and the user plane UPF is deployed in the forwarding cloud, so as to better realize the separation of the control plane and the user plane (wherein, the user plane UPF can be virtualized and deployed in the forwarding cloud, or the device can be independently deployed in a non-cloud state). Among them, the control plane functional entity example For example, it may be: Session Management Function (SMF), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Network Repository Function (NRF), Policy Control Function (PCF) and other functional entities, etc., which are not exhaustively listed in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that since the user plane UPF in 5G is a traditional device form, the user plane UPF can be virtualized and deployed in a public cloud or enterprise cloud; UPF may also be deployed independently in a non-clouded device state and connected to the clouded control plane functional entity through a dedicated line to forward data.

In the mobile network architecture shown in Figure 2, SMF is responsible for configuring the traffic control of UPF to route the traffic to the destination, that is, SMF is responsible for planning the forwarding path and determining the routing plan, and sending the routing plan to UPF so that UPF can implement packet forwarding and routing of data packets on the user plane according to the sent routing plan. This method requires the control plane and the user plane to be deployed in different virtual clouds. For example, the user plane UPF shown in Figure 2 is deployed in the forwarding cloud, while the control plane is deployed in the control cloud.

In this regard, the above technical solution has at least the following technical problems:

First, the UPF solution that is not deployed in the cloud means that UPF resources cannot be dynamically deployed on demand, resulting in low network resource utilization efficiency and poor flexibility. In addition, the location where UPF is deployed is far away from business resources, affecting the efficiency of network forwarding. In addition, UPF does not support general network equipment, which makes the cost of network deployment high.

Secondly, the virtualized user plane UPF and control plane functional entities do not share the same cloud, and cross-cloud processing is required between the forwarding plane and the control plane, and between different devices on the forwarding plane, which leads to high complexity and high latency in network deployment, and in turn leads to low network forwarding efficiency.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure proposes a network cloud deployment method, wherein a user plane editing management function entity based on a user plane receives a session creation request for a target service issued by a session management function entity SMF of a control plane, wherein the session establishment request at least includes service data of the target service; forwarding path information is determined from a routing topology according to the session creation request of the target service; the service data of the target service is sent to a data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information for data forwarding; wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud.

In this method, it is not the technical solution that the SMF functional entity of the control plane after cloudification needs to plan the forwarding path and allocate the routing scheme, and the UPF of the user plane performs data forwarding according to the received routing scheme in the traditional 5G network structure, but only the SMF of the control plane sends a session creation request to the user plane. After the user plane receives the session creation request, it uniformly allocates each data forwarding device based on the newly added user plane editing and management functional entity to realize the planning of data forwarding path and the management of forwarding route. In the mobile network architecture provided by this solution, the UPF dedicated device of the user plane in the traditional 5G network structure is updated to the user plane editing and management functional entity that supports the unified management of routing information, and a general data forwarding device is used for data forwarding function, so that the control plane and the user plane can be deployed in the same virtual cloud, thereby improving the efficiency of data forwarding and the utilization efficiency of network resources, and because of the use of general data forwarding equipment, the deployment cost of the equipment is reduced.

In order to solve the above problems, the present disclosure proposes a network cloud deployment method and device, which can be applied to the mobile network architecture of the exemplary application environment shown in FIG3. The mobile network architecture can support the forwarding plane Devices are connected to the cloud, thus realizing a fully cloud-based mobile network architecture.

FIG3 schematically shows a mobile network architecture diagram corresponding to a network cloud deployment in this exemplary embodiment. As shown in FIG3, the mobile network architecture includes: UE, base station, AN access network, control plane (used to carry signaling or control messages) and user plane (also referred to as forwarding plane or data plane, used to carry data traffic). The user plane includes a newly added user plane editing management function entity (hereinafter also referred to as user plane editing manager). The user plane editing manager includes multiple functional modules such as path planning and editing, data routing management, service perception and measurement, service forwarding quality management, and computing network resource perception and management. Among them, the path planning and editing function module: is used to plan the forwarding path according to the forwarding requirements of the SMF in the control plane, and send the generated path forwarding rules to the data forwarding module for execution. Among them, the data forwarding module is a data forwarding device composed of a resource pool composed of general hardware, which is used to realize the forwarding function of service data. Data routing management function module: is used to realize the registration of the data forwarding module, the maintenance of the forwarding routing table and other functions. Service forwarding quality management function module: used to generate data message forwarding strategies according to service forwarding quality requirements and network monitoring conditions, and send the forwarding strategies along with path forwarding rules to the data forwarding module for execution, thereby ensuring the quality of corresponding data forwarding. Computing network resource perception and management function module: used to perceive and manage communication resources and computing resources in the resource pool composed of general hardware, so as to form corresponding data forwarding modules as needed.

As can be seen from Figure 3, the above-mentioned AN access network, control plane, and user plane are all deployed in the same virtual cloud (for example, all deployed in a public cloud or an enterprise cloud), thereby realizing one-point access on the wireless side and overall network virtualization. It should be understood that the SMF, AMF, NRF, and PCF included in the control plane in Figure 3 are only schematic. Other control plane functional entities may also be included according to the functional requirements to be implemented, and the embodiments of the present disclosure do not impose any special restrictions on this. The DN in Figure 3 refers to the data network.

For example, in an exemplary embodiment, a user initiates a service subscription request for a target service through a UE, and a session creation request for the target service is issued by the SMF in the control plane. The user plane receives the session creation request issued by the SMF in the control plane based on the user plane editing management function entity, and the session establishment request includes at least the service data of the target service; the forwarding path information is determined from the routing topology according to the session creation request of the target service; the service data of the target service is sent to the data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information for data forwarding; wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud.

The network cloud deployment method and device provided by the present disclosure and the mobile network system architecture shown in FIG3 can be applied to the following exemplary application scenarios, for example, network deployment and user plane creation in hotspot areas as shown in FIG4 and network deployment and user plane creation in edge areas as shown in FIG5. As can be seen from FIG4 and FIG5, wireless signals are accessed to the cloud through the access network, while the control plane function, user plane editing manager and data forwarding device are all in a resource pool, making the allocation of network resources more flexible and data forwarding more efficient.

However, it is easy for those skilled in the art to understand that the above application scenarios are only used as examples and are not limited to this in the present exemplary embodiment.

The following uses the user plane editing management function entity of the user plane as the execution subject and applies the network cloud deployment method to the user plane editing management function entity as an example for illustration. The flowchart of a network cloud deployment method is shown in FIG6 . The network cloud deployment method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure includes the following steps S601-S603:

S601. A user plane editing management function entity based on a user plane receives a session creation request for a target service sent by a session management function entity SMF of a control plane; wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud.

S602: Determine forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from the routing topology according to the session creation request of the target service.

S603: Send the forwarding path information to the corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits the service data of the target service.

In the technical solutions provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, a user plane editing management function entity based on the user plane receives a session creation request for a target service issued by a session management function entity SMF of the control plane; wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud; the forwarding path information corresponding to the target service is determined from the routing topology according to the session creation request; and the forwarding path information is sent to the corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits the service data. This method enables the SMF to only send a session creation request to the user plane, and the user plane can confirm the forwarding path information based on the received session creation request, thereby avoiding the technical problems that the user plane and the control plane cannot be deployed in the same cloud after cloud deployment due to the SMF of the control plane issuing a forwarding routing solution and the user plane only performing data forwarding work, thereby achieving the technical effect of improving data forwarding efficiency and network resource utilization. At the same time, this method does not require the use of UPF equipment, but uses general equipment, thereby improving the flexibility of deployment.

The specific implementation of each step in the embodiment shown in FIG6 will be described in detail below in conjunction with specific embodiments:

In S601, a user plane editing management function entity based on a user plane receives a session creation request for a target service sent by a session management function entity SMF of a control plane; wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud.

For example, in a traditional 5G mobile network architecture, the SMF on the control plane is required to confirm the routing plan and send it to the UPF on the user plane so that the UPF can forward data according to the sent routing plan.

However, the above traditional method results in that the user plane and the control plane do not share the same cloud when deployed in the cloud. To this end, the embodiment of the present disclosure adds a user plane editing and management function entity in the user plane, through which the SMF of the control plane only needs to send a session creation request, and the user plane editing and management function entity of the user plane performs the forwarding path planning.

In S602, forwarding path information corresponding to the target service is determined from the routing topology according to the session creation request.

The routing topology includes multiple forwarding path information, and the forwarding path information refers to the routing devices through which the service data is forwarded. For example, for: sending device—A1—B1—B2—C1—destination device, the forwarding path information in the network process is A1—B1—B2—C1.

Exemplarily, when the user plane editing management function entity receives a session creation request sent by the SMF of the control plane, it can select forwarding path information that meets the target service requirements from the network topology according to the session creation request.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, when executing step S602, the service perception information of the target service can also be obtained, and the service quality policy of the target service can be determined based on the service perception information; The quality policy determines the forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from the routing topology.

The service perception information refers to information used to detect the service quality required by the service in order to formulate a corresponding QoS strategy (ie, service quality strategy).

Exemplarily, taking the mobile network architecture shown in FIG3 as an example, after the user plane editing management function entity receives the session creation request sent by the SMF, it can send a service management policy request to the service forwarding quality management function module based on the path planning and editing function module, so that the service forwarding quality management function module obtains service perception information from the service perception and measurement function module, and determines the Qos policy (i.e., service quality policy) for the target service based on the service perception information, and sends it to the path planning and editing function module. In this regard, the path planning and editing function module can select the corresponding data forwarding device (i.e., the corresponding data forwarding module shown in FIG3) based on the Qos policy, and then obtain the forwarding path information.

In this embodiment, since the user plane editing management function entity and the data forwarding device are in a resource pool, the user plane editing management function entity can flexibly allocate network resources, thereby improving the efficiency of service data forwarding. In addition, the user plane editing management function entity can also formulate a QoS strategy based on the service perception information obtained in real time, and then determine the forwarding path planning based on the QoS strategy, thereby ensuring the reliability of service transmission and forwarding quality.

In one embodiment, the user plane editing management function entity provided by the present disclosure can determine the forwarding path (ie, forwarding path information) according to the session creation request sent by the SMF, which is mainly divided into two embodiments:

In an optional embodiment, if it is determined that the forwarding path information corresponding to the target task is included in the network topology for data forwarding, the user plane editing management function entity can transmit the service data based on the forwarding path information existing in the existing network topology.

In another optional embodiment, if it is determined that the forwarding path information corresponding to the target task is not included in the network topology for data forwarding, the user plane editing management function entity needs to construct new forwarding path information and add it to the current network topology to update the network topology.

When the user-side editing management function entity constructs new forwarding path information, it can obtain the resource information of each general routing device in the general resource pool; determine the data forwarding device for transmitting the service data based on the network quality parameters required by the service data of the target service and the resource information of each general routing device; generate forwarding path information based on the data forwarding device, and add the forwarding path information to the routing topology.

The general resource pool is a resource pool composed of general hardware, each general hardware can be used as a routing device for forwarding, and the resource information of each general resource includes at least one of a communication resource and a computing resource.

Exemplarily, in the mobile network architecture shown in Figure 3, the user plane editing management functional entity can perceive and manage the communication resources and computing resources of each routing device in the common resource pool through the computing network resource perception and management functional module shown in Figure 3, so as to screen out data forwarding devices that meet the network quality parameters required for the business data of the target business from the common resource pool based on the network quality parameters required for the business data of the target business, thereby forming forwarding path information.

In this embodiment, according to the network quality parameters required by the service data of the target service and the resource information of each general routing device, the forwarding path is planned according to the needs of the target service. This process not only ensures the forwarding quality of the data, It can also realize the function of executing path planning on the user plane, thereby facilitating the co-clouding of the user plane and the control plane after cloudification, so as to reduce data forwarding delay and thus improve forwarding efficiency.

In the above embodiment, after the newly added forwarding path information is successfully created, it is necessary to add the newly added forwarding path information to the routing topology. At the same time, in order to reduce the complexity of the network topology and improve the availability, it is also necessary to remove the forwarding path information that is no longer used to continuously update the existing network topology.

1) For the case where newly added forwarding path information is added to the routing topology:

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, a registration request initiated by a data forwarding device is received; if the registration is successful, a registration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is added to the routing topology.

Exemplarily, the registration request is a request initiated when the data forwarding function of the data forwarding device is first started. That is, the user plane editing management function entity builds a new forwarding path information according to the session creation request sent by the SMF, and the data forwarding device in the forwarding path information needs to send a registration request to the user plane editing management function entity to apply for inclusion in the network topology of data forwarding.

Exemplarily, when the user plane editing management function entity receives a registration request initiated by the data forwarding device in the forwarding path information, it sends a registration response to the data forwarding device.

If a registration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, the forwarding path information formed by the data forwarding device is synchronously added to the routing topology to update the network topology. Otherwise, if the registration fails, a registration failure response message is sent to the data forwarding device.

In this embodiment, a registration request initiated by a data forwarding device is received at the first startup so that the network topology can be updated if the registration is successful, so that the newly added forwarding path information can be quickly found in the network topology and data can be transmitted when used later, thereby improving the efficiency of data forwarding.

2) Regarding the forwarding path information of offline functions:

In another optional embodiment of the present disclosure, a deregistration request initiated by a data forwarding device is received, and the deregistration request is a request initiated when the data forwarding function of the data forwarding device is offline; if the deregistration is successful, a deregistration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is removed from the routing topology.

The deregistration request is a request to remove the forwarding path information in the network topology.

Exemplarily, for the forwarding path information of the offline data forwarding function, it will no longer be selected subsequently. In order to simplify the network topology, the forwarding path information of the offline data forwarding function can be removed. When removing, the data forwarding device of the forwarding path information sends a deregistration request to the user plane editing management function entity. If the deregistration is successful, a deregistration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is removed from the routing topology; on the contrary, if the deregistration fails, a deregistration failure response is sent to the data forwarding device for subsequent operations.

In this embodiment, invalid forwarding path information in the network topology can be removed by deregistering the request, thereby simplifying the network topology, facilitating improving the efficiency of determining the forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from the network topology, and further improving data forwarding efficiency.

In S603, the forwarding path information is sent to the corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits the service data of the target service.

Exemplarily, after the forwarding path information is determined, the service data of the target service may be sent to a data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information for data forwarding.

In the related technical solutions, in the traditional 5G mobile network architecture, the UPF of the user plane does not support general network equipment, which makes the network deployment cost high. In the traditional 5G mobile architecture, the N3 interface protocol stack is usually used in the data forwarding process between UPFs, as shown in Figure 7. As shown in Figure 6, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and the GPRS Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GPR-U) protocol are used as data transmission protocols between UPFs.

It should be explained that GTP-U is a user data transmission protocol used in the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network. GTP-U is a protocol that establishes a tunnel on the user plane. It can transmit Internet Protocol (IP) data packets from one GPRS support node (SGSN) to another GPRS support node (GGSN), thereby realizing user data transmission in the GPRS network.

In order to overcome the above technical problems and adapt to the mobile network architecture shown in FIG. 3 , a new protocol stack between multiple data forwarding devices is provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, and specific reference may be made to FIG. 8 .

In some example embodiments of the present disclosure, forwarding path information is sent to a corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device can transmit business data based on a target communication protocol; wherein the target communication protocol includes a Quick UDP Internet Connection (QUIC) protocol and a segment routing (SRv6) protocol based on an IPv6 forwarding plane.

Exemplarily, the QUIC protocol and the SRv6 protocol are used at the TCP/IP layer to replace the N3 interface protocol defined by 3GPP.

This is because compared to the traditional UDP protocol, QUIC interweaves negotiation, encryption, and transmission handshakes to reduce connection establishment delays, has lower latency, can also be multiplexed to avoid blocking, and can better support mobility management and have better security management capabilities. The SRv6 protocol uses Segment ID to indicate the network path, making full use of the powerful header extension capabilities of IPv6 to directly identify the route of the data packet in the data packet header. In addition, the SRv6 protocol has been deployed in large quantities in the bearer network. The user plane of the mobile network uses the SRv6 protocol, which can share the network and equipment with the bearer network to achieve the universality of device hardware.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the session establishment request also includes network quality parameters required for transmitting service data of the target service, and the network quality parameters required for the service data of the target service are added to an extension header of the SRv6 protocol.

For example, since the SRv6 packet has strong scalability, the network quality parameters (also called service management QoS policy) required for the service data of the target service can be added to the extension header of the SRv6 protocol to ensure the data forwarding quality during the data forwarding process.

In this embodiment, reference may be made to FIG. 9 . As shown in FIG. 9 , the extensible header field in the SRv6 data packet supports carrying the QoS policy rules of the mobile network, thereby achieving end-to-end forwarding and delivery of the rules.

Finally, in some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, after executing S603, the data corresponding to the forwarding path information is forwarded to the The address of the forwarding device is sent to the SMF of the control plane.

Exemplarily, after determining the forwarding path information corresponding to the target service, session creation information may also be returned to the SMF. The session creation information includes the IP addresses of each data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information and may also include QoS policy rules.

In this embodiment, by sending the address of the data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information to the SMF of the control plane, the control plane can also grasp the routing plan, thereby achieving message synchronization between the user plane and the control plane, facilitating the co-cloud deployment of the user plane and the control plane.

In order to implement the above network cloud deployment method, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network cloud deployment device. Fig. 10 schematically shows a schematic architecture diagram of the network cloud deployment device.

Among them, the network cloud deployment device 1000 includes a request receiving module 1001, a path determination module 1002 and an information sending module 1003.

A request receiving module 1001 is used to receive a session creation request for a target service issued by a session management function entity SMF of a control plane based on a user plane editing management function entity of a user plane, wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud; a path determination module 1002 is used to determine the forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from the routing topology according to the session creation request; an information sending module 1003 is used to send the forwarding path information to a corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits the service data.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the path determination module 1002 is used to obtain service perception information of the target service and determine the service quality policy of the target service based on the service perception information; determine the forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from the routing topology according to the session creation request and the service quality policy.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the session establishment request also includes network quality parameters required for transmitting business data of the target business; the device also includes an information acquisition module, which is specifically used to obtain resource information of each general routing device in the general resource pool, and the resource information includes at least one of communication resources and computing resources; a path determination module 1002 is used to determine the data forwarding device for transmitting the business data based on the network quality parameters required for the business data of the target business and the resource information of each general routing device; generate forwarding path information based on the data forwarding device, and add the forwarding path information to the routing topology.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the path determination module 1002 is used to receive a registration request initiated by a data forwarding device, where the registration request is a request initiated when the data forwarding function of the data forwarding device is initially started; if the registration is successful, a registration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is added to the routing topology; or, the information receiving module is used to receive a deregistration request initiated by each data forwarding device, where the deregistration request is a request initiated when the data forwarding function of the data forwarding device is offline; if the deregistration is successful, a deregistration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is removed from the routing topology.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the information sending module is used to send forwarding path information to a corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device can transmit business data based on a target communication protocol; wherein the target communication protocol includes a fast UDP Internet connection QUIC protocol and a segment routing SRv6 protocol based on an IPv6 forwarding plane.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the device also includes a data adding module, which is used to include network quality parameters required for transmitting service data of the target service in the session establishment request, and add the network quality parameters required for the service data of the target service to the extension header of the SRv6 protocol.

In an optional embodiment of the present disclosure, the information sending module is used to send the address of the data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information to the SMF of the control plane.

The network cloud deployment device 1000 provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure can execute the technical solution of the network cloud deployment method in any of the above-mentioned embodiments. Its implementation principle and beneficial effects are similar to the implementation principle and beneficial effects of the network cloud deployment method. Please refer to the implementation principle and beneficial effects of the network cloud deployment method, and no further details will be given here.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is also provided, on which a program product capable of implementing the above method of the present specification is stored. In some possible implementations, various aspects of the present invention may also be implemented in the form of a program product, which includes a program code, and when the program product is run on a terminal device, the program code is used to enable the terminal device to execute the steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention described in the above "Exemplary Method" section of the present specification.

The program product for implementing the above method according to the embodiment of the present invention may adopt a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) and include program code, and may be run on a terminal device, such as a personal computer. However, the program product of the present invention is not limited thereto, and in this document, a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium containing or storing a program, which may be used by or in combination with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program product may adopt any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. The readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electrical, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, device or device, or any combination of the above. More specific examples of readable storage media (a non-exhaustive list) include: an electrical connection with one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the above.

Computer readable signal media may include data signals propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave, in which readable program code is carried. Such propagated data signals may take a variety of forms, including but not limited to electromagnetic signals, optical signals, or any suitable combination of the above. Readable signal media may also be any readable medium other than a readable storage medium, which may send, propagate, or transmit a program for use by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program code contained on the readable medium can be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wired, optical cable, radio frequency (RF), etc., or any suitable combination of the above.

Program code for performing the operations of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including object-oriented programming languages such as Java, C++, etc., as well as conventional procedural programming languages. Programming languages - such as "C" or similar programming languages. The program code may be executed entirely on the user's computing device, partially on the user's computing device, as a separate software package, partially on the user's computing device and partially on a remote computing device, or entirely on a remote computing device or server. In the case of a remote computing device, the remote computing device may be connected to the user's computing device through any type of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computing device (e.g., through the Internet using an Internet service provider).

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic device capable of implementing the above method is also provided.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various aspects of the present invention may be implemented as a system, method or program product. Therefore, various aspects of the present invention may be specifically implemented in the following forms, namely: a complete hardware implementation, a complete software implementation (including firmware, microcode, etc.), or a combination of hardware and software, which may be collectively referred to herein as a "circuit", "module" or "system".

The electronic device 1100 according to this embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to Fig. 11. The electronic device 1100 shown in Fig. 11 is only an example and should not bring any limitation to the functions and application scope of the embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG11 , the electronic device 1100 is presented in the form of a general-purpose computing device. The components of the electronic device 1100 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 1110, the at least one storage unit 1120, a bus 1130 connecting different system components (including the storage unit 1120 and the processing unit 1110), and a display unit 1140.

The storage unit stores program codes, which can be executed by the processing unit 1110, so that the processing unit 1110 performs the steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention described in the above “Exemplary Method” section of this specification. For example, the processing unit 1110 can perform S601 to S603 as shown in FIG6 .

The storage unit 1120 may include a readable medium in the form of a volatile storage unit, such as a random access storage unit (RAM) 11201 and/or a cache storage unit 11202 , and may further include a read-only storage unit (ROM) 11203 .

The storage unit 1120 may also include a program/utility 11204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 11205, such program modules 11205 including but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each of which or some combination may include an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 1130 may represent one or more of several types of bus structures, including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 1100 may also communicate with one or more external devices 2000 (e.g., keyboards, pointing devices, Bluetooth devices, etc.), may communicate with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 1100, and/or communicate with any device that enables the electronic device 1100 to communicate with one or more other computing devices (e.g., routers, modems, etc.). Such communication may be performed through an input/output (I/O) interface 1150. Furthermore, the electronic device 1100 may also communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the Internet) through a network adapter 1160. As shown, the network adapter 1160 communicates with other modules of the electronic device 1100 through the bus 1130. It should be understood that although not shown in the figure, the electronic device 1100 may be combined with a network adapter 1160. Use other hardware and/or software modules, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, disk arrays (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks, RAID) systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems.

Through the description of the above implementation, it is easy for those skilled in the art to understand that the example implementation described here can be implemented by software, or by software combined with necessary hardware. Therefore, the technical solution according to the implementation of the present disclosure can be embodied in the form of a software product, which can be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (which can be a CD-ROM, a USB flash drive, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, including several instructions to enable a computing device (which can be a personal computer, a server, a terminal device, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method according to the implementation of the present disclosure.

In addition, the above-mentioned figures are only schematic illustrations of the processes included in the method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and are not intended to be limiting. It is easy to understand that the processes shown in the above-mentioned figures do not indicate or limit the time sequence of these processes. In addition, it is also easy to understand that these processes can be performed synchronously or asynchronously, for example, in multiple modules.

It should be noted that, although several modules or units of the device for action execution are mentioned in the above detailed description, this division is not mandatory. In fact, according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the features and functions of two or more modules or units described above can be embodied in one module or unit. On the contrary, the features and functions of one module or unit described above can be further divided into multiple modules or units to be embodied.

Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate other embodiments of the present disclosure after considering the specification and practicing the invention disclosed herein. The present disclosure is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the present disclosure that follow the general principles of the present disclosure and include common knowledge or customary technical means in the art that are not disclosed in the present disclosure. The description and examples are to be considered exemplary only, and the true scope and spirit of the present disclosure are indicated by the claims.

It should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the exact structures that have been described above and shown in the drawings, and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims (10)

A network cloud deployment method, comprising: The user plane editing management function entity based on the user plane receives a session creation request for a target service issued by a session management function entity SMF of the control plane; wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud; Determining forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from a routing topology according to the session creation request; The forwarding path information is sent to a corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits the service data of the target service. The network cloud deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the determining, from the routing topology according to the session creation request, the forwarding path information corresponding to the target service comprises: Acquire service perception information of the target service, and determine a service quality strategy for the target service based on the service perception information; The forwarding path information corresponding to the target service is determined from a routing topology according to the session creation request and the quality of service policy. The network cloud deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the session establishment request includes a network quality parameter required for transmitting the service data of the target service; wherein, before determining the forwarding path information corresponding to the target service according to the session creation request, the method further includes: Acquire resource information of each general routing device in the general resource pool, wherein the resource information includes at least one of communication resources and computing resources; Determine a data forwarding device for transmitting the service data according to the network quality parameters required by the service data of the target service and the resource information of each general routing device; The forwarding path information of the target service is generated based on the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information is added to the routing topology. The network cloud deployment method according to claim 3, wherein the method further comprises: receiving a registration request initiated by the data forwarding device, wherein the registration request is a request initiated by the data forwarding device when performing a data forwarding function for the first time; If the registration is successful, a registration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is added to the routing topology; or, receiving a deregistration request initiated by the data forwarding device, where the deregistration request is a request initiated when a data forwarding function of the data forwarding device goes offline; If the deregistration is successful, a deregistration success response is sent to the data forwarding device, and the forwarding path information generated by the data forwarding device is removed from the routing topology. The network cloud deployment method according to claim 1, wherein the sending the forwarding path information to the corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device transmits the service data includes: The forwarding path information is sent to the corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device can transmit the service data based on the target communication protocol; wherein the target communication protocol includes fast UDP Internet Connect the QUIC protocol and the segment routing SRv6 protocol based on the IPv6 forwarding plane. According to the network cloud deployment method according to claim 5, the session establishment request also includes network quality parameters required for transmitting the service data of the target service, and the network quality parameters required for the service data of the target service are added to the extension header of the SRv6 protocol. The network cloud deployment method according to claim 1, wherein, after sending the forwarding path information to the corresponding data forwarding device, the method further comprises: The address of the data forwarding device corresponding to the forwarding path information is sent to the SMF of the control plane. A network cloud deployment device, the device comprising: A request receiving module, configured to receive a session creation request for a target service issued by a session management function entity SMF of a control plane based on a user plane editing management function entity of a user plane; wherein the user plane and the control plane are deployed in the same virtual cloud; A path determination module, used to determine the forwarding path information corresponding to the target service from the routing topology according to the session creation request; The information sending module is used to send the forwarding path information to the corresponding data forwarding device so that the data forwarding device can transmit the service data of the target service. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the network cloud deployment method described in any one of claims 1 to 7. An electronic device, comprising: Processor; and A memory, configured to store executable instructions of the processor; Wherein, the processor is configured to execute the network cloud deployment method described in any one of claims 1 to 7 by executing the executable instructions.