Flow control method, network device and communication system

Abstract

The embodiment of the present application provides a flow control method, network equipment and communication system, wherein the PCF can obtain the actual flow rate of the target network area in the target network slice, and the actual flow rate is used to indicate the sum of the flow rates occupied by all sessions that have been connected to the network slice in the target network area, thereby determining the authorized flow rate of the first session according to the upper limit flow rate and the actual flow rate of the target network area, and the authorized flow rate is used to indicate the maximum flow rate allowed for the first session, and then the authorized flow rate is sent to the control network element of the first session. Therefore, the technical solution provided by the present application can control the authorized flow rate of the first session based on the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate of the target network area in the network slice, avoid the flow of the target network area exceeding its maximum allowed flow rate after joining the first session, and ensure the security and stability of the target network area.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a flow control method, network equipment and communication system. Background Art

[0002] A network slice is a logical network with specific network characteristics divided out of an operator's communication network. It is a key technology to meet the network differentiation requirements of the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication technology proposed by the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP). The physical network can be abstractly divided into multiple network slices, each of which constitutes an end-to-end logical network and is logically isolated from each other.

[0003] Network slice resources are not unlimited. Therefore, during the operation of network slices, it is necessary to limit and control the network bandwidth used by each Packet Data Unit Session (PDU Session) in the network slice to ensure the normal operation of the network slice. How to achieve flow control of network slices has become an important technical problem faced by technicians in this field. Summary of the invention

[0004] The present application provides a flow control method, a network device and a communication system for limiting the authorized flow rate of a newly accessed first session, so as to achieve flow rate control of a network slice, reduce the risk of overload operation of the network slice, and help improve the security and stability of the network slice.

[0005] In the first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a flow control method, which is applied to a policy control network element and includes: obtaining the actual flow rate of a target network area in a target network slice, the actual flow rate being used to indicate the sum of the flow rates occupied by all sessions that have been connected to the network slice in the target network area; determining the authorized flow rate of a first session according to the upper limit flow rate of the target network area and the actual flow rate, the authorized flow rate being used to indicate the maximum flow rate allowed for the first session; and sending the authorized flow rate to the control network element of the first session. In this way, this scheme determines the authorized flow rate of the first session by obtaining the actual flow rate of the target network area and combining it with the upper limit flow rate, so that the control network element can respectively implement flow control for each type of service of the first session based on the authorized flow rate of the first session, and also controls the flow usage of the entire target network area as a whole, which can reduce the risk of overload operation of the network slice and is conducive to improving the security and stability of the network slice.

[0006] In a possible embodiment of the first aspect, before determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session, the method further includes: receiving a first message, where the first message is used to request to establish the first session or to request to modify the first session.

[0007] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service.

[0008] The first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service. The authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services and non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session.

[0009] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session includes: when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate, determining the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than or equal to the first traffic rate, determining the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate, wherein the first traffic rate is less than the message upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than the first traffic rate, determining the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than or equal to a preset first threshold, determining the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate, wherein the first threshold is less than 1; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than the first threshold, determining the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate.

[0010] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session includes: when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate, determining the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, determining the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate, and the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate , determine the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than a preset first threshold, and the ratio is less than 1, determine the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to the preset first threshold, and the ratio is less than 1, determine the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate.

[0011] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session includes: when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, determining the contracted minimum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate, or determining the minimum value of the maximum bit rate of the contracted terminal set of the target network slice as the authorized terminal set maximum bit rate.

[0012] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, the method also includes: receiving a second subscribed traffic rate from an application function network element, the second subscribed traffic rate being used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area, the second subscribed traffic rate indicating the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that may be generated by the service; the second subscribed traffic rate is determined based on the first subscribed traffic rate and the actual traffic rate.

[0013] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the method also includes one or more of the following: refusing to allocate the authorized traffic rate for the first session; releasing the service quality data flow of non-guaranteed bit rate services in the target network area; releasing low priority sessions in the target network area; modifying the service quality parameters of the first session, the service quality parameters including: one or more of priority, preemption capability and willingness to be preempted.

[0014] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, the method also includes: sending the authorized traffic rate to a control network element of a second session; wherein the service of the second session is the same as the service of the first session, and / or the application to which the second session belongs is the same as the application to which the first session belongs.

[0015] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, the target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein, the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

[0016] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0017] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to performance statistics of an average bandwidth used by terminals and the number of terminals in the target network area.

[0018] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to an actual traffic bandwidth of an access network device in the target network area in the target network area.

[0019] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, obtaining the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice includes: receiving a second message from a data analysis network element, the second message carrying the actual traffic rate of the target network area and the upper limit traffic rate; or, receiving a third message from a data storage network element, the third message carrying the actual traffic rate of the target network area and the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, receiving a fourth message from each policy control network element in the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, the fourth message carrying the actual traffic rate of the policy control network element in its own service area; and summarizing the actual traffic rates in each service area to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area; or, when the target network area is a local area in the target network slice, receiving a fifth message from each access and mobility management network element in the local area of ​​the target network slice, the fifth message carrying the actual traffic bandwidth of each access network device in the target network slice in the access and mobility management network element in its own service area; and summarizing the actual traffic bandwidth in each fifth message to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area.

[0020] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, sending the authorized traffic rate to the control network element of the first session includes: sending the authorized session set maximum bit rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate service in the first session and the authorized maximum bit rate of the guaranteed bit rate service in the first session to the session management network element corresponding to the first session; sending the authorized session set maximum bit rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate service in the first session to the terminal corresponding to the first session.

[0021] In another possible embodiment of the first aspect, the authorized traffic rate is used to control the uplink traffic and / or downlink traffic of the target network area.

[0022] In the second aspect, the present application provides a flow control method, which is executed in a control network element, including: receiving an authorized flow rate from a policy control network element; wherein the authorized flow rate is used to indicate the maximum flow rate allowed for the first session, and the authorized flow rate is determined based on the actual flow rate of the target network area in the target network slice and the upper limit flow rate; the actual flow rate is used to indicate the sum of the flow rates occupied by all sessions that have been connected to the network slice in the target network area; based on the authorized flow rate, flow control is performed on the first session. In this way, the control network element performs flow control on each type of service of the first session according to the authorized flow rate determined by the policy control network element, which is conducive to reducing the risk of overload operation of the network slice and improving the security and stability of the network slice.

[0023] In a possible embodiment of the second aspect, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service. The first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service. The authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services and non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session.

[0024] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than or equal to the first traffic rate, wherein the first traffic rate is less than the message upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than the first traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than or equal to a preset first threshold, wherein the first threshold is less than 1; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than the first threshold, the authorized traffic rate is the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session.

[0025] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than a preset first threshold and the ratio is less than 1; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to a preset first threshold and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein, the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate.

[0026] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the authorized traffic rate is: the minimum value of the subscribed minimum traffic rate of the first session or the maximum bit rate of the subscribed terminal set of the target network slice.

[0027] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, the second subscribed traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area, and the second subscribed traffic rate indicates the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that the service may generate; the second subscribed traffic rate comes from the application function network element, and the second subscribed traffic rate is determined based on the first subscribed traffic rate and the actual traffic rate.

[0028] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, the target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein, the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

[0029] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0030] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to performance statistics of an average bandwidth used by terminals and the number of terminals in the target network area.

[0031] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to the actual traffic bandwidth of the access network device in the target network area in the target network slice.

[0032] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, the authorized traffic rate is used to control the uplink traffic and / or downlink traffic of the target network area.

[0033] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, the control network element is a session management network element, and the flow control of the first session based on the authorized flow rate includes: controlling the user plane network element to allocate a quality service flow to the first session; determining the maximum flow rate of the first session based on the maximum flow rate of the quality service flow already allocated to the first session; when the maximum flow rate of the first session is greater than the authorized flow rate, modifying the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated quality service flow, and / or modifying the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated quality service flow of the first session.

[0034] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate quality service flow and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate quality service flow; the flow control of the first session based on the authorized traffic rate includes one or more of the following: modifying the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow; modifying the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session; modifying the maximum flow rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session.

[0035] In another possible embodiment of the second aspect, the control network element is a terminal corresponding to the first session, and the performing flow control on the first session based on the authorized flow rate includes: performing flow control on the uplink flow rate of the first session based on the authorized flow rate.

[0036] On the third aspect, the present application provides a traffic control method, which is applied to an application function network element, including: obtaining the actual traffic rate of a target network area in a target network slice, the actual traffic rate being used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been connected to the network slice in the target network area; determining a second application information parameter based on the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area and the actual traffic rate; the second application information parameter is used to describe the bandwidth requirements and service priority of a first application providing a service; and sending the adjusted application information parameter to a policy control network element. In this way, the application function network element can determine the bandwidth requirements and service priority of the first application based on the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area, so that the network side network element can also determine the contracted traffic rate or authorized traffic rate of the target network area based on this, and further, can also achieve traffic control of the target network area.

[0037] In a possible embodiment of the third aspect, the second application information parameter includes: one or more of: a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application session, a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application service flow, a service priority, and a preemption order parameter under the same priority; wherein the bandwidth requirement parameter of the application service flow includes: a second contracted traffic rate, the second contracted traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area, the second contracted traffic rate indicates the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that the service may generate.

[0038] In another possible embodiment of the third aspect, the second application information parameter is determined based on the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area and the actual traffic rate, including: when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the first application information parameter is adjusted to obtain the second application information parameter.

[0039] In another possible embodiment of the third aspect, the adjusting the first application information parameter includes one or more of the following: reducing a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application session; reducing a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application service flow; reducing a service priority of an application;

[0040] Adjust the preemption order of multiple application services at the same priority level; modify the preemption willingness of some application sessions.

[0041] In another possible embodiment of the third aspect, the target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein, the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

[0042] In another possible embodiment of the third aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0043] In another possible embodiment of the third aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined based on performance statistics of an average bandwidth used by terminals and the number of terminals in the target network area.

[0044] In another possible embodiment of the third aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to the actual traffic bandwidth of the access network device in the target network area in the target network slice.

[0045] In another possible embodiment of the third aspect, obtaining the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice includes: sending a sixth message to the policy control network element; receiving a seventh message from the policy control network element, and the seventh message carries the actual traffic rate.

[0046] In another possible embodiment of the third aspect, the sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to feedback the actual traffic rate of the target network area, or the sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to periodically feedback the actual traffic rate of the target network area, or the sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to feedback the actual traffic rate of the target network area when a preset condition is met.

[0047] In another possible embodiment of the third aspect, the seventh message also carries the upper limit traffic rate.

[0048] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a network device, comprising: a processing module and a transceiver module; wherein the transceiver module is used to obtain the actual flow rate of the target network area in the target network slice, and the actual flow rate is used to indicate the sum of the flow rates occupied by all sessions that the network slice has accessed in the target network area; the processing module is used to determine the authorized flow rate of the first session according to the upper limit flow rate of the target network area and the actual flow rate, and the authorized flow rate is used to indicate the maximum flow rate allowed by the first session; the transceiver module is also used to send the authorized flow rate to the control network element of the first session. In this way, this solution determines the authorized flow rate of the first session by obtaining the actual flow rate of the target network area and combining it with the upper limit flow rate, so that the control network element can respectively implement flow control for each type of service of the first session based on the authorized flow rate of the first session, and also control the flow usage of the entire target network area as a whole, which can reduce the risk of overload operation of the network slice and is conducive to improving the security and stability of the network slice.

[0049] In a possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the processing module is further used to: receive a first message, where the first message is used to request to establish the first session or to request to modify the first session.

[0050] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service.

[0051] The first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service. The authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services and non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session.

[0052] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the processing module is specifically used to: when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate, determine the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than or equal to the first traffic rate, determine the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate, wherein the first traffic rate is less than the message upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than the first traffic rate, determine the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than or equal to a preset first threshold, determine the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate, wherein the first threshold is less than 1; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than the first threshold, determine the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate.

[0053] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the processing module is specifically used to: when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate, determine the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, determine the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate, and the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, determine the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session. The authorized traffic rate is determined according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than a preset first threshold, and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to the preset first threshold, and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate.

[0054] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the processing module is specifically used to: when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, determine the contracted minimum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate, or determine the minimum value of the maximum bit rate of the contracted terminal set of the target network slice as the maximum bit rate of the authorized terminal set.

[0055] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the transceiver module is also used to: receive a second subscribed traffic rate from an application function network element, the second subscribed traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area, the second subscribed traffic rate indicates the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that may be generated by the service; the second subscribed traffic rate is determined based on the first subscribed traffic rate and the actual traffic rate.

[0056] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the processing module is also used for one or more of the following: refusing to allocate the authorized traffic rate for the first session; releasing the service quality data flow of non-guaranteed bit rate services in the target network area; releasing low-priority sessions in the target network area; modifying the service quality parameters of the first session, the service quality parameters including: one or more of priority, preemption capability and willingness to be preempted.

[0057] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the transceiver module is also used to: send the authorized traffic rate to a control network element of a second session; wherein the service of the second session is the same as the service of the first session, and / or the application to which the second session belongs is the same as the application to which the first session belongs.

[0058] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein, the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

[0059] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0060] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined based on performance statistics of average bandwidth usage and the number of terminals in the target network area.

[0061] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to an actual traffic bandwidth of an access network device in the target network area in the target network area.

[0062] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the transceiver module is specifically used to: receive a second message from a data analysis network element, the second message carrying the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area; or, receive a third message from a data storage network element, the third message carrying the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area; or, when the target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, receive a fourth message from each policy control network element in the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, the fourth message carrying the actual traffic rate of the policy control network element in its own service area; and summarize the actual traffic rates in each service area to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area; or, when the target network area is a local area in the target network slice, receive a fifth message from each access and mobility management network element in the local area of ​​the target network slice, the fifth message carrying the actual traffic bandwidth of each access network device in the target network slice in the access and mobility management network element in its own service area; and summarize the actual traffic bandwidth in each fifth message to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area.

[0063] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the transceiver module is specifically used to: send the authorized session set maximum bit rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate service in the first session and the authorized maximum bit rate of the guaranteed bit rate service in the first session to the session management network element corresponding to the first session; send the authorized session set maximum bit rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate service in the first session to the terminal corresponding to the first session.

[0064] In another possible embodiment of the fourth aspect, the authorized traffic rate is used to control the uplink traffic and / or downlink traffic of the target network area.

[0065] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a network device, comprising: a transceiver module and a processing module; wherein the receiving module is used to receive an authorized traffic rate from a policy control network element; wherein the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate the maximum traffic rate allowed for the first session, and the authorized traffic rate is determined based on the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice and the upper limit traffic rate; the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been connected to the network slice in the target network area; the processing module is used to perform traffic control on the first session based on the authorized traffic rate. In this way, the control network element performs traffic control on each type of service of the first session according to the authorized traffic rate determined by the policy control network element, which is conducive to reducing the risk of overload operation of the network slice and improving the security and stability of the network slice.

[0066] In a possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service. The first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service. The authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of the traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services and non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of the traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of the traffic rates of all non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session.

[0067] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than or equal to the first traffic rate, wherein the first traffic rate is less than the message upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than the first traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than or equal to a preset first threshold, wherein the first threshold is less than 1; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than the first threshold, the authorized traffic rate is the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session.

[0068] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than a preset first threshold and the ratio is less than 1; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to a preset first threshold and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein, the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate.

[0069] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the authorized traffic rate is: the minimum value of the subscribed minimum traffic rate of the first session or the maximum bit rate of the subscribed terminal set of the target network slice.

[0070] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the second contracted traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area, and the second contracted traffic rate indicates the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that the service may generate; the second contracted traffic rate comes from the application function network element, the second contracted traffic rate is determined based on the first contracted traffic rate and the actual traffic rate, and the first contracted traffic rate comes from the data management network element or the data storage network element.

[0071] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein, the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

[0072] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to the actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0073] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined based on performance statistics of an average bandwidth used by terminals and the number of terminals in the target network area.

[0074] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined based on the actual traffic bandwidth of the access network device in the target network area in the target network slice.

[0075] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the authorized traffic rate is used to control the uplink traffic and / or downlink traffic of the target network area.

[0076] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the processing module is specifically used to: control the user plane network element to allocate quality service flow to the first session; determine the maximum flow rate of the first session based on the maximum flow rate of the quality service flow already allocated to the first session; when the maximum flow rate of the first session is greater than the authorized flow rate, modify the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated quality service flow, and / or modify the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated quality service flow of the first session.

[0077] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate quality service flow and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate quality service flow; the processing module is specifically used for one or more of the following: modifying the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow; modifying the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session; modifying the maximum flow rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session.

[0078] In another possible embodiment of the fifth aspect, the control network element is a terminal corresponding to the first session, and the processing module is specifically used to: perform flow control on the uplink flow rate of the first session based on the authorized flow rate.

[0079] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a network device, comprising: a processing module and a transceiver module; wherein the processing module is used to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice, and the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been connected to the network slice in the target network area; the processing module is also used to determine the second application information parameter according to the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area and the actual traffic rate; the second application information parameter is used to describe the bandwidth requirement and service priority of the first application providing the service; the transceiver module is used to send the adjusted application information parameter to the policy control network element. In this way, the application function network element can determine the bandwidth requirement and service priority of the first application based on the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area, so that the network side network element can also determine the contracted traffic rate or authorized traffic rate of the target network area based on this, and then, it can also realize the traffic control of the target network area.

[0080] In a possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, the second application information parameters include: one or more of: a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application session, a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application service flow, a service priority, and a preemption order parameter under the same priority; wherein the bandwidth requirement parameter of the application service flow includes: a second subscribed traffic rate, the second subscribed traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area, the second subscribed traffic rate indicates the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that the service may generate.

[0081] In another possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, the processing module is specifically used to: when the ratio between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, adjust the first application information parameter to obtain the second application information parameter.

[0082] In another possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, the processing module is specifically used for one or more of the following: reducing the bandwidth requirement parameters of the application session; reducing the bandwidth requirement parameters of the application service flow; reducing the service priority of the application; adjusting the preemption order of multiple application services at the same priority; modifying the willingness to be preempted of some application sessions.

[0083] In another possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, the target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein, the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

[0084] In another possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined according to the actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0085] In another possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined based on performance statistics of average bandwidth usage and the number of terminals in the target network area.

[0086] In another possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, the actual traffic rate is determined based on the actual traffic bandwidth of the access network device in the target network area in the target network slice.

[0087] In another possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, it is specifically used to: send a sixth message to the policy control network element; receive a seventh message from the policy control network element, wherein the seventh message carries the actual traffic rate.

[0088] In another possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, the sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to feedback the actual traffic rate of the target network area, or the sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to periodically feedback the actual traffic rate of the target network area, or the sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to feedback the actual traffic rate of the target network area when a preset condition is met.

[0089] In another possible embodiment of the sixth aspect, the seventh message also carries the upper limit traffic rate.

[0090] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a network device, comprising: at least one processor and a memory;

[0091] The memory stores computer-executable instructions;

[0092] The at least one processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, so that the at least one processor performs the method as described in any one of the embodiments of the first aspect, the second aspect or the third aspect.

[0093] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a computer, the computer executes the method described in any one of the embodiments of the first aspect, the second aspect or the third aspect.

[0094] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer program, which, when executed by a computer, is used to execute the method described in any one of the embodiments of the first aspect, the second aspect or the third aspect.

[0095] In one possible design, the program in the ninth aspect may be stored in whole or in part on a storage medium packaged together with the processor, or may be stored in whole or in part on a memory not packaged together with the processor.

[0096] In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, including:

[0097] A policy control network element, configured to execute the method according to any one of the embodiments of the first aspect;

[0098] A control network element is used to execute the method described in any embodiment of the second aspect.

[0099] In one possible design, the communication system also includes: an application function network element, used to execute the method described in any embodiment of the third aspect.

[0100] In another possible design, the control network element is a session management network element; or, the control network element is the session management network element or the terminal corresponding to the first session.

[0101] In summary, the embodiments of the present application provide a flow control method, a network device, and a communication system, which can control the authorized flow rate of the first session based on the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate of the target network area in the network slice, thereby preventing the flow of the target network area from exceeding its maximum allowed flow rate after joining the first session, thereby ensuring the security and stability of the target network area. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0102] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0103] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0104] Figure 3 It is a flow chart of a flow rate control method in the prior art;

[0105] Figure 4 A flow chart of a flow control method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0106] Figure 5 A flow chart of another flow control method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0107] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of information interaction of a flow control method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0108] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of information interaction of another flow control method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0109] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of information interaction of another flow control method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0110] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of the physical structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0111] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0112] Fig.11 A schematic diagram of the structure of another network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0113] Fig.12 A schematic diagram of the structure of another network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0114] The following is a detailed description of the implementation of this embodiment in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the description of the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified, " / " means or, for example, A / B can mean A or B; "and / or" in this article is only a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, in the description of the embodiments of the present application, "multiple" means two or more than two.

[0115] First, the communication system used in the embodiments of the present application is described.

[0116] The embodiment of the present application is applied to a wireless communication system including multiple network slices. Figure 1 The schematic diagram of the communication system 100 is shown in FIG. Figure 1 As shown, the wireless network communication system 100 is abstractly divided into a plurality of network slices logically. Figure 1 Three network slices are shown, namely: Network Slice 1 to Network Slice 3. It should be understood that network slicing is obtained by a logical division, and there may be overlapping areas between multiple network slices, for example, Figure 1 There is regional overlap between the three network slices.

[0117] for Figure 1 Any network slice in the network constitutes an end-to-end logical network, and the logics between different network slices are isolated from each other. Each network slice can provide one or more network services to the terminal, and the network services provided by different network slices do not interfere with or affect each other. Generally, the network characteristics and performance requirements of different network slices are different.

[0118] Currently, there are several types of network slicing: Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication (URLLC), and Massive Internet of Things (MIoT). It should be understood that with the advancement of technology, this solution can also be applied to other types of network slicing that may emerge as technology develops.

[0119] Please refer to Figure 2 , Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the architecture of the communication system is shown. Figure 2Only one network slice 1 is shown. Specifically, Figure 2 As shown, the communication system includes: a terminal (or terminal equipment), an access network (AN) device, an access management network element, a session management network element, a user plane network element, a policy control network element, a network slice selection network element, a network warehouse function network element, a network data analysis network element, a unified data management network element, a unified data storage network element, and a data network (DN) network element connected to the operator's network.

[0120] Among these network elements, network slice selection network elements, network warehouse function network elements, network data analysis network elements, unified data management network elements, unified data storage network elements, and access management network elements are shared among multiple network slices. Session management network elements and user plane network elements generally belong to specific network slices. Policy control network elements can be shared among multiple network slices, or they can also belong to specific network slices. Access network equipment is generally shared among multiple network slices.

[0121] exist Figure 2 In the communication system 100 shown, dotted lines are used to identify user plane connections between network elements (or devices), and solid lines are used to identify control plane connections between network elements (or devices).

[0122] Now Figure 2 Specific description is given for each network element in the following sections.

[0123] Terminal: It can also be called user equipment (UE), mobile station and remote station, etc. It is a network device with wireless transceiver function. The terminal can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld, wearable or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water (such as ships, etc.); it can also be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons and satellites, etc.). In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in self driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in smart city, a wireless terminal in smart home, etc., not to be exhaustive. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology, device form and name adopted by the terminal.

[0124] Access network equipment: used for wireless access of terminals, providing access services for terminals to access wireless networks. Possible deployment forms of access network equipment include: separation scenarios of centralized units (CU) and distributed units (DU) and single-site scenarios.

[0125] Among them, in the separation scenario, CU supports protocols such as radio resource control (RRC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and service data adaptation protocol (SDAP); DU mainly supports radio link control layer (RLC), media access control layer (MAC) and physical layer protocols.

[0126] In a single-site scenario, a single site may include one or more of a wireless base station (new radio Node, gNB), an evolved Node B (evolved Node B, eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (NodeB, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiverstation, BTS), a home base station, and a base band unit (base band unit, BBU).

[0127] exist Figure 2 In the communication system 100 shown, two access network devices are specifically shown: gNB-A and gNB-B. In actual communication scenarios, there may be one or more gNBs (usually multiple) in the entire service area of ​​a network slice. Each gNB has a certain coverage area, and within its coverage area, there may be one or more cells (Cell), and each cell has a unique global cell identifier GCI (Global Cell Identifier).

[0128] Access management network element: It is mainly used for the attachment, mobility management and tracking area update process of terminals in mobile networks. The access management network element terminates the non-access stratum (NAS) message, completes registration management, connection management and reachability management, allocates the tracking area list (TA list) and mobility management, and transparently routes the session management (SM) message to the session management network element.

[0129] In a 5th generation (5G) communication system, the access management network element may be an access and mobility management function (AMF) network element. For ease of explanation, AMF is used to refer to the access management network element.

[0130] Session management network element: mainly used for session management in mobile networks, such as session establishment, modification, and release. Specific functions include allocating Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to terminals, selecting user plane network elements that provide message forwarding functions, etc. In 5G communication systems, the session management network element can be a session management function (SMF). For ease of explanation, SMF will be used to refer to the session management network element.

[0131] User plane network element: It can also be called protocol data unit (PDU) and session anchor (PSA). It is mainly responsible for processing user messages, such as forwarding, billing, and legal monitoring. In the 5G communication system, the user plane network element can be a user plane function (UPF). For the convenience of explanation, UPF will be used to refer to the user plane network element.

[0132] Policy control network element: includes user subscription data management function, policy control function, billing policy control function, quality of service (QoS) control, etc. In the 5G communication system, the policy control network element can be a policy control function (PCF). For the convenience of explanation, PCF will be used to refer to the policy control network element.

[0133] It should be noted that in an actual communication network, PCF can also be divided into multiple entities according to hierarchy or function. For example, in a communication system, it can include: a global PCF and multiple PCFs within a slice, and each PCF within a slice is used to implement policy control functions within the network slice to which it belongs. For another example, according to functional division, PCF can also be composed of a session management PCF (Session Management PCF, SM-PCF) and an access management PCF (Access Management PCF, AM-PCF). In this case, PCF includes 2 entities.

[0134] Network slice selection network element: mainly used to select a suitable network slice for the terminal service. In the 5G communication system, the network slice selection network element can be a network slice selection function (NSSF) network element. For the convenience of explanation, NSSF will be used to refer to the network slice selection network element.

[0135] Data network element: used to provide data transmission services for terminals. Specifically, DN can be a network element of a public data network (PDN), such as the Internet, or a network element of a local access data network (LADN), such as a network of mobile edge computing (MEC) nodes.

[0136] Network data analysis network element: can be used to collect data from various network functions (NF), such as policy control network element, session management network element, user plane network element, access management network element, application function network element (through network capability exposure function network element), and perform analysis and prediction. In the 5G communication system, the network data analysis network element can be a network data analysis function (NWDAF). For the convenience of explanation, NWDAF will be used to refer to the network data analysis network element.

[0137] Unified data management network element: used to manage the contract information of the terminal. In the 5G communication system, the unified data management network element can be unified data management (UDM). For the convenience of explanation, UDM is directly used to refer to the unified data management network element (or simply referred to as data management network element).

[0138] Unified data storage network element: used to store structured data information, including contract information, policy information, and network data or service data defined in a standard format. In the 5G communication system, the unified data storage network element can be a unified data repository (UDR). For the sake of convenience, the unified data storage network element (or simply referred to as data storage network element) is directly referred to as UDR.

[0139] In an actual network scenario, UDM and UDR may be implemented by the same network entity, that is, the two may be the same network entity.

[0140] Network repository function network element: In the 5G communication system, the network repository function network element can be a network repository function (NRF).

[0141] In such Figure 1 or Figure 2 In the communication system shown, a network slice can be selected for the service based on the network slice identifier carried in the terminal service request, and the service data can be transmitted using the selected network slice.

[0142] The identification of a network slice (or referred to as: identification information) may include but is not limited to: Network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI). Specifically, a single network slice can be identified using single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI), and NSSAI can be used to identify a group of network slices (or referred to as: network slice group). Among them, a network slice group may include one or more network slices.

[0143] For example, operators or other users can order and create network slices based on business needs, and network slices also need to meet certain service level agreements (SLA). SLA contains the service level specification (SLS) of the network slice, which can be used to determine the scale of the network slice. The SLS of different network slices can be different.

[0144] The maximum traffic rate of a network slice can be used to characterize the scale of a network slice. The maximum traffic rate of a network slice is the sum of the maximum traffic rates allowed for all services transmitted through the network slice, that is, the maximum value of the sum of the network rates used by services transmitted by all PDU sessions (Packet Data Unit Sessions) connected to this network slice.

[0145] The maximum traffic rate of a network slice is generally divided into two directions: uplink (UL) and downlink (DL). UL refers to the transmission direction from the terminal side to the network side, and DL refers to the transmission direction from the network side to the terminal side.

[0146] Due to the limitation of the maximum traffic rate of the network slice, during the operation of the network slice, it is generally necessary to manage the network resources of the network slice to avoid exceeding the maximum traffic rate of the network slice.

[0147] At present, the UE-aggregate maximum bit rate (UE-AMBR) in the network slice is generally controlled to achieve resource management of the network slice.

[0148] Among them, UE-AMBR is used to limit the sum of the traffic rates that can be used by all non-Guaranteed Bit Rate (non-GBR) type services of certain terminals. In other words, the sum of the traffic rates that can be used by all non-GBR type services of these terminals cannot exceed the UE-AMBR of the terminal. The Radio Access Network (RAN) also manages and controls the rate of the terminal in the uplink and / or downlink direction based on UE-AMBR.

[0149] The terminal can have multiple types of services. According to the requirements of different services on traffic rate, the services of the terminal can be divided into two categories: non-GBR type services and guaranteed bit rate (Guaranteed Bit Rate, GBR) type services.

[0150] It can be understood that GBR type services have a minimum guarantee requirement for traffic rate. In other words, GBR type services have a minimum traffic rate requirement, namely GBR (hereinafter referred to as: GBR value for the convenience of distinguishing from service types). Non-GBR type services have no minimum guarantee requirement. In other words, there is no minimum traffic rate requirement. For example, the video session service has a minimum requirement for the traffic rate. If the traffic rate is lower than the minimum requirement, the video session cannot be realized. In this case, the video session service is a GBR type service, and its minimum requirement for the traffic rate is used as the GBR value of the video session service; while the system notification service has no minimum requirement for the traffic rate, the system notification service is a non-GBR type service.

[0151] The GBR values ​​of different GBR type services may be different. For example, video session services and information session services are both GBR type services, but the minimum traffic rate requirements of video session services and information session services are different, so the GBR value of video session services is different from the GBR value of information session services.

[0152] Specifically, for GBR type services, the network can control the data flow of GBR type services to pass all when the actual bit rate does not exceed the GBR value by reserving resources, etc. However, when the actual bit rate exceeds the GBR value, if the network resources are insufficient (or called network congestion), the data flow exceeding the GBR value will be discarded; if the network resources are sufficient (or called: the network is not congested), the data flow less than or equal to the maximum bit rate (Maximum Bit Rate, MBR) can also pass.

[0153] For non-GBR type services, as mentioned above, the total rate that the terminal can use for all non-GBR type services is limited by UE-AMBR. Figure 3 A method for controlling the flow rate is shown. Figure 3 As shown in the figure, when the flow of non-GBR type services in the network slice is controlled, the network elements on the network side can exchange information according to the following steps:

[0154] S302: When receiving the registration request of the terminal, AMF requests UDM to obtain the contract data of the terminal.

[0155] In a specific scenario, the terminal can register with one or more network slices, and AMF can be shared in multiple network slices. Therefore, the registration request received by AMF can be a request from the terminal to register with one or more network slices.

[0156] The registration request carries the identification information of the terminal, so that the AMF can request the UDM to obtain the contract data of the terminal based on the identification information of the terminal. As mentioned above, the contract data of the terminal can be stored in the UDR, and the UDM can extract the data from the UDR without repeating it.

[0157] The subscription data may include, but is not limited to: identification information (S-NSSAI or NSSAI) of all network slices subscribed by the terminal, and the subscription UE-AMBR corresponding to each S-NSSAI. It can be understood that the subscription UE-AMBR corresponding to an S-NSSAI is used to limit the sum of the traffic rates that can be used by the terminal for all non-GBR type services in the network slice indicated by the S-NSSAI.

[0158] S304, UDM sends the terminal's contract data to AMF.

[0159] Based on the terminal's identification information, UDM can extract the terminal's contract data from UDR and send it to AMF. Figure 3 This part of the processing is not shown in detail.

[0160] S306, AMF requests PCF to create access management policy control information, which carries the subscribed UE-AMBR.

[0161] S308, PCF creates access management policy control and sends a response message to AMF, which carries the authorized UE-AMBR.

[0162] It should be noted that the authorized UE-AMBR is generally determined based on the subscribed UE-AMBR. For example, the authorized UE-AMBR is generally less than or equal to the subscribed UE-AMBR.

[0163] In addition, the authorized UE-AMBR generally corresponds to the contracted UE-AMBR one by one. In other words, each S-NSSAI (corresponding network slice) can correspond to an authorized UE-AMBR. Alternatively, there may be a situation where the authorized UE-AMBRs of multiple network slices are the same, which will not be described in detail.

[0164] There is no restriction here on how the PCF decides and determines the authorized UE-AMBR.

[0165] S310, AMF sends an authorized UE-AMBR to RAN.

[0166] Specifically, the AMF may carry the authorized UE-AMBR in a message sent to the RAN to send the UE-AMBR to the RAN. For example, the AMF may carry the authorized UE-AMBR in any one or more messages such as a session resource establishment request, an initial context establishment request, a UE context modification request or a handover request.

[0167] Alternatively, the AMF may also send the authorized UE-AMBR to the RAN alone.

[0168] S312: RAN controls the total traffic rate of all non-GBR type services accessing the network slice based on the authorized UE-AMBR.

[0169] For one of the network slices to which the terminal has subscribed, RAN can control the total traffic rate of all non-GBR type services in the network slice so that the total traffic rate of all non-GBR type services does not exceed the authorized UE-AMBR.

[0170] It should be noted that the aforementioned GBR value, MBR, and UE-AMBR can distinguish uplink or downlink. It can be understood that when these data are used for control, the GBR value, MBR, or UE-AMBR in the UL direction is used for control; if the DL direction is controlled, the GBR value, MBR, or UE-AMBR in the DL direction is used. This will not be described in detail later.

[0171] In summary, Figure 3 In the traffic rate control method shown, GBR type services and non-GBR type services are controlled separately. For GBR type services, the network side controls the traffic rate used by GBR type services not to exceed MBR through the GBR value and MBR of each service; for non-GBR type services, the overall control is achieved through UE-AMBR.

[0172] However, the maximum traffic rate of a network slice actually limits the sum of the traffic rates that can be used by all services (including GBR services and non-GBR services) accessing the network slice. If the aforementioned traffic control is performed separately for GBR services and non-GBR services, the traffic rate control within the network slice will be unreasonable.

[0173] In an exemplary scenario, for each terminal, the actual traffic rate of each GBR type service does not exceed the MBR, and the sum of the actual traffic rates of all non-GBR type services does not exceed the authorized UE-AMBR. The network side can control the number of terminals that access the network slice to initiate a PDU session based on the MBR and authorized UE-AMBR of each terminal. Then, when a new terminal (a terminal that has not accessed the network slice) requests access to a non-GBR type service, even if the actual traffic rate of the entire network slice has not reached the maximum traffic rate, resources will not be allocated for the new non-GBR type service, resulting in the new terminal and the non-GBR type service of the new terminal being restricted or waiting. In other words, the existing type-based traffic control method will be restricted when the total rate actually used has not reached the maximum traffic rate, and network resource allocation is unreasonable.

[0174] Based on the above problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a flow control method, which can be implemented by a PCF on the network side. As before, the PCF can be shared among multiple network slices or belong to a specific network slice. Therefore, the PCF can implement flow control for one or more network slices according to the following method. Below, for the sake of convenience, the implementation method of the present application is specifically described by taking the flow control scenario of a network slice as an example.

[0175] For example, after the terminal accesses the network slice through the registration process, the terminal can initiate a PDU session to the network slice as needed to achieve communication. Correspondingly, the PCF on the network side can execute the flow control method based on the received PDU session request.

[0176] For example, please refer to Figure 4 , PCF can implement traffic control for network slices in the following way, including the following steps:

[0177] S402, obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice, where the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been connected to the network slice in the target network area.

[0178] In an embodiment of the present application, the target network slice may be one or more network slices managed by the PCF. For any target network slice, the target network area may be the entire coverage area or a partial coverage area of ​​the target network slice.

[0179] For example, in Figure 1In the scenario shown, PCF can be used to perform policy control on network slices 1 to 3, and the target network slice can be one or more of network slices 1 to 3. For another example, if the target network slice is network slice 1, and network slice 1 can cover 4 network areas, then the target network area can be all of the 4 network areas (the entire network slice 1) or one or more (not equal to 4) network areas (part of the network area of ​​network slice 1).

[0180] In a specific implementation scenario, the target network area is specifically the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice, which can be preset based on the actual scenario. There is no special limitation on this in the embodiments of the present application.

[0181] S404: Determine an authorized traffic rate of the first session according to the upper limit traffic rate and the actual traffic rate of the target network area, where the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate a maximum traffic rate allowed for the first session.

[0182] Exemplarily, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service. The authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services and non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session.

[0183] The actual traffic rate is used to indicate the maximum traffic rate allowed in the target network area.

[0184] Specifically, when the target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area is the maximum traffic rate of the target network slice, that is, the sum of the network rates used for services transmitted by all PDU sessions accessing the target network slice.

[0185] Alternatively, when the target network area is a local area of ​​the target network slice, the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area is the sum of the network rates used by the services transmitted by all PDU sessions in the target network area accessing the target network slice. The local area of ​​the network slice may be the tracking area TA (Tracking Area) or TA list, cell (Cell) or cell list where the terminal is located, etc.; or, the area of ​​the network slice may also be divided according to different data networks DN (Data Network) connected to the network slice. The target connection of the PDU session to different DNs will be divided into different network slice areas, i.e., the DN area of ​​the network slice. For example, a local area may also be called a partial area.

[0186] The first session is a PDU session initiated by the terminal to the network side. The present application has no special restrictions on the session type, service type, etc. of the first session. For example, no matter what service the first session is, traffic control can be performed according to this solution. In other words, the first session can be any PDU session initiated by the terminal to the target network area in the target network slice. For example, if the first session initiated by the terminal to the network side is a video service PDU session, the authorized traffic rate of the video service PDU session is determined according to this solution; for another example, if the first session initiated by the terminal to the network side is a game service PDU session, the authorized traffic rate of the game service PDU session is determined according to this solution.

[0187] Specifically, the first session is a PDU session initiated by the terminal to the target network slice. In other words, the target network slice may include the network slice that the first session requests to access. Alternatively, in a possible embodiment, the target network slice is the network slice that the first session requests to access.

[0188] S406: Send the authorized traffic rate to the control network element of the first session.

[0189] For example, in this step, the PCF is not used to assume a specific flow control function. The PCF sends an authorized flow rate to the control network element, so that the control network element performs flow control according to the authorized flow rate. The control network element of the first session may include: the initiating terminal of the first session, SMF, etc. The processing of the control network element will be described later and will not be repeated here.

[0190] In summary, Figure 4 In the illustrated embodiment, the PCF obtains the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed in the target network area to obtain the actual traffic rate. For example, the actual traffic rate comprehensively considers the traffic rates occupied by GBR type services and non-GBR type services. In this way, the PCF determines the authorized traffic rate of the first session based on the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate, thereby achieving traffic control over the target network area. Compared with the prior art, in which the number of UEs accessing the network slice is controlled according to the authorized UE-AMBR and MBR respectively, so as to achieve the overall traffic control of the network slice, as shown in FIG. Figure 4 The illustrated embodiment controls the traffic rate of the target network area, thereby achieving a reasonable allocation of network resources in the target network area and ensuring the security and stability of the target network area.

[0191] For example, when a new non-GBR type service requests to access the target network area, if the sum of the authorized UE-AMBR and the authorized MBR of all terminals in the target network area reaches the upper limit of the traffic rate of the target network area, but the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice has not yet reached the upper limit of the traffic rate of the target network area. Figure 3 When the traffic control is performed in the manner shown, the PCF will not allocate network resources for the new non-GBR type service, and the new non-GBR type service cannot successfully establish a session. Figure 4 When performing traffic control in the manner shown, the PCF can allocate network resources for the PDU session of the new non-GBR type service and determine its authorized traffic rate, so that the new non-GBR type service can successfully establish a session and access the target network area. Figure 3 As shown, Figure 4 The flow control method shown can allocate network resources more reasonably.

[0192] It should be noted that in Figure 4 In the illustrated embodiment, S404 may be triggered by the PCF based on a received first message of the first session, wherein the first message is used to request to establish the first session or to request to modify the first session. Specifically, the first message may come from the SMF, which will be described in detail later in conjunction with a specific embodiment.

[0193] Exemplarily, the first message may be specifically a session policy request (or may be referred to as: session management policy request, session policy request) message. The session policy request message may be sent by the SMF based on the received eighth message.

[0194] The eighth message may be a context request message for requesting the creation of the first session sent by AMF to SMF, wherein the eighth message is sent by AMF to SMF in response to receiving the session establishment request. The session establishment request may come from the terminal and be forwarded by the access network device to AMF. It can be understood that the session establishment request (or referred to as: session creation request, session request, message for establishing the first session, etc., with no special restrictions on the name) is used to request the establishment of the first session. For details, please refer to the subsequent embodiments. Figure 6 , which will not be described in detail here.

[0195] Alternatively, the eighth message may be a context request message sent by AMF to SMF to request modification of the first session, wherein the eighth message is sent by AMF to SMF in response to receiving the session modification request. The session modification request may come from the terminal and reach AMF through forwarding by the access network device. It can be understood that the session modification request (or referred to as: session modification request, message for modifying the first session, etc., service request, session activation request, user plane message for activating the first session, etc., with no special restrictions on the name) is used to request modification of the first session.

[0196] That is, in a possible scenario, the PCF may receive the first message, and trigger execution of S404 in response to receiving the first message.

[0197] It should be noted that S402 is not limited by the first message. For example, S402 can be executed before, at the same time, or after the PCF receives the first message of the first session.

[0198] In an exemplary embodiment, the PCF may perform S402 at a fixed time, that is, the PCF may obtain the actual flow rate of the target network area in the target network slice according to a preset fixed time or fixed duration. In this way, when the PCF receives the first message of the first session, it directly obtains the actual flow rate of the target network area obtained the most recently, which is conducive to improving the efficiency of obtaining the actual flow rate of the target network area, thereby helping to reduce the waiting time on the terminal side.

[0199] In an exemplary embodiment, the PCF may periodically execute S402, that is, the PCF periodically obtains the actual flow rate of the target network area in the target network slice. In this way, when the PCF receives the first message of the first session, it directly obtains the actual flow rate of the target network area obtained in the most recent period, which is conducive to improving the efficiency of obtaining the actual flow rate of the target network area, thereby helping to reduce the waiting time on the terminal side.

[0200] In another exemplary embodiment, the PCF may execute S402 upon receiving the first message of the first session. In this way, the actual flow rate of the target network area acquired by the PCF is more accurate, which is conducive to achieving accurate flow control of the target network area.

[0201] It can be understood that the PCF can execute S402 based on any one or more of the aforementioned embodiments.

[0202] Let me give you an example. Figure 1In the scenario shown, PCF can be shared between network slices 1 to 3, so PCF can regularly (or periodically) obtain the actual traffic rate of each local area in network slices 1 to 3 and each of their network slices. In this case, PCF can have the following processing methods:

[0203] The first one is that when the PCF receives the first message of the first session, if the identifier of the network slice carried in the first message of the first session is S-NSSAI1, where the network slice corresponding to S-NSSAI1 is network slice 1, the PCF can determine that the target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​network slice 1. As before, the PCF can periodically obtain the actual traffic rate of each local area in network slices 1 to 3 and each of their network slices. At this time, when the PCF receives the first message of the first session, the PCF can determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session based on the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 most recently obtained and the upper limit traffic rate of network slice 1, and then the PCF sends the authorized traffic rate to the control network element of the first session. In this way, it is beneficial to improve the traffic control efficiency on the network side and reduce the waiting time on the terminal side.

[0204] The second type, when the PCF receives the first message of the first session, if the identifier of the network slice carried in the establishment request or modification request of the first session is S-NSSAI1, and the identifier of the local area 1 of the network slice (for example, the identifier of the tracking area where the terminal is currently located, and the name of the data network Data NetworkName of the session connection), where the network slice corresponding to S-NSSAI1 is network slice 1. Then the PCF can determine that the target network area is the local area 1 in the network slice 1. Therefore, the PCF can determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session based on the actual traffic rate of the local area 1 in the network slice 1 obtained most recently, and the upper limit traffic rate of the local area 1 of the network slice 1, and then the PCF sends the authorized traffic rate to the control network element of the first session.

[0205] Compared with the first implementation method, in this implementation method, PCF obtains the actual traffic rate of local area 1 in network slice 1. In this way, PCF actually implements subsequent traffic rate control based on the local area of ​​the target network slice.

[0206] The third type, when PCF receives the first message of the first session, if the identifier of the network slice carried in the establishment request or modification request of the first session is S-NSSAI1, where the network slice corresponding to S-NSSAI1 is network slice 1, then PCF can determine that the target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​network slice 1. In this embodiment, although PCF has regularly obtained the data of each network slice and its local area managed by itself, after receiving the first message of the first session, PCF can also obtain the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 at the current moment, and the acquisition method will be described later. Furthermore, based on the latest acquired actual traffic rate of network slice 1 and the upper limit traffic rate of network slice 1, the authorized traffic rate of the first session is determined, and then PCF sends the authorized traffic rate to the control network element of the first session.

[0207] Compared with the first implementation method, in this implementation method, PCF can not only obtain the actual traffic rate of each network area managed by itself at regular intervals, but also obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area in response to receiving the first message, which is conducive to improving the accuracy of the actual traffic rate and realizing precise traffic control of the target network area.

[0208] The following describes how PCF obtains the actual traffic rate of the target network area.

[0209] In the embodiment of the present application, the actual traffic rate of the target network area may be obtained in any of the following ways:

[0210] First, the actual traffic rate of the target network area can be determined according to the actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0211] Among them, the N6 interface is the exit from the UPF to the DN or the local access DN in the network slice. Therefore, the actual traffic rate at each N6 interface in the target network area can be summarized to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area. That is, the sum of the actual traffic rates at each N6 interface in the target network area is obtained to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area.

[0212] The aggregation involved in the embodiment of the present application refers to summing up the data (data related to the actual traffic rate or bandwidth usage) reported by all subordinate network elements (for example, AMF can be a subordinate network element of PCF) in the service area, that is, obtaining the total sum of the data reported by each subordinate network element in the service area. The implementation method of aggregation in the subsequent implementation is the same as here, and will not be repeated later.

[0213] For example, the actual uplink traffic rate of the target network area may be determined based on the actual uplink traffic rate at the N6 interface, and the actual downlink traffic rate of the target network area may also be determined based on the actual downlink traffic rate at the N6 interface.

[0214] Still Figure 1 Take the communication system shown as an example. If network slice 1 contains a total of 5 N6 interfaces, the uplink actual traffic rates of the 5 N6 interfaces can be summarized to obtain the uplink actual traffic rate of network slice 1. The downlink actual traffic rates of the 5 N6 interfaces can be summarized to obtain the downlink actual traffic rate of network slice 1. For another example, if network slice 1 contains two local areas, where local area 1 contains N6 interfaces 1 to N6 interfaces 3, and local area 2 contains N6 interfaces 4 and N6 interfaces 5, the uplink actual traffic rates of N6 interfaces 1 to N6 interfaces 3 can be summarized to obtain the uplink actual traffic rate of local area 1, and the downlink actual traffic rates of N6 interfaces 1 to N6 interfaces 3 can be summarized to obtain the downlink actual traffic rate of local area 1; the uplink actual traffic rates of N6 interfaces 4 and N6 interfaces 5 can be summarized to obtain the uplink actual traffic rate of local area 2, and the downlink actual traffic rates of N6 interfaces 4 and N6 interfaces 5 can be summarized to obtain the downlink actual traffic rate of local area 2.

[0215] Second, the actual traffic rate of the target network area is determined based on the bandwidth usage of each terminal in the target network area.

[0216] Specifically, when determining the actual traffic rate of the target network area based on bandwidth usage, the essence is to obtain the sum of the bandwidth used by all terminals in the target network area. That is, the actual traffic rate of the target network area can be obtained by obtaining the bandwidth used by each terminal in the target network area and the sum of the bandwidth used by all terminals in the target network area.

[0217] In addition, in a possible scenario, the bandwidth used by each terminal in the target network area is the same, which is recorded as the average bandwidth used by the terminal. Therefore, the actual traffic rate of the target network area can be determined by simply obtaining the product of the average bandwidth used by the terminal and the number of terminals. The number of terminals can be: the number of terminals that have currently accessed the target network area.

[0218] For example, the actual uplink traffic rate of the target network area can be determined based on the product of the average uplink bandwidth used by the terminals currently accessing the target network area and the number of terminals (recorded as the first number); the actual downlink traffic rate of the target network area can be determined based on the product of the average downlink bandwidth used by the terminals currently accessing the target network area and the number of terminals (recorded as the second number). The first number and the second number can be the same or different.

[0219] Third, the actual traffic rate of the target network area is determined based on the actual traffic bandwidth of the access network equipment in the target network area in the target network slice.

[0220] exist Figure 1 or Figure 2 In the communication system shown, the terminal accesses the network slice through the access network device (AN), so that the AN can record the traffic rate of the network slice accessed through itself. Therefore, when S402 is implemented, the actual traffic bandwidth of each AN in the target network area in the target network slice can be summarized (summed), so that the actual traffic rate of the target network area can be determined.

[0221] It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the actual traffic rate of the target network area can be executed by the PCF itself, or it can be determined by other network elements and sent to the PCF.

[0222] The specific instructions are as follows.

[0223] In one embodiment of the present application, the actual flow rate of the target network area can be determined by the data analysis network element NWDAF. In this embodiment, when the PCF executes S402, it can receive a second message from the NWDAF, and the second message carries the actual flow rate of the target network area and optionally carries the upper limit flow rate.

[0224] In one implementation of this embodiment, UPF or SMF can collect the actual uplink and / or downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the target network area, and then, UPF or SMF can send the collected actual traffic rates of the N6 interfaces to NWDAF. NWDAF can summarize the actual traffic rates of each N6 interface to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area, and send a second message to PCF.

[0225] In another implementation of this embodiment, the management plane network element OAM can obtain the average bandwidth used by the terminals and the number of terminals in the target network area reported by the RAN, and then OAM sends the average bandwidth used by the terminals and the number of terminals to NWDAF, and NWDAF obtains the product of the two to obtain the actual flow rate of the target network slice, and sends a second message to PCF. Alternatively, after obtaining the average bandwidth used by the terminals and the number of terminals, OAM can obtain the product of the two to obtain the actual flow rate of the target network slice, and then OAM sends the actual flow rate of the target network slice to NWDAF, and NWDAF can send a second message to PCF.

[0226] In another implementation of this embodiment, UPF or SMF can collect the actual uplink and / or downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the target network area, and then UPF or SMF can send the collected actual traffic rates of the N6 interface to the PCF of its own service area, and then each PCF sends the actual traffic rate of the N6 interface to NWDAF, and then NWDAF can summarize the actual traffic rates of each N6 interface to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area, and send a second message to the PCF that receives the first message of the first session.

[0227] In another implementation of this embodiment, each AN in the target network area can measure the uplink and / or downlink traffic bandwidth of the target network area (or target network slice), and each AN accesses the network slice through the AMF, and each AMF can collect the bandwidth measurement results reported by each AN in its own service area. After that, the AMF can send the collected bandwidth measurement results obtained by each AN to the PCF in its own service area, so that each PCF sends the bandwidth measurement results obtained by each AN to the NWDAF, and the NWDAF summarizes the bandwidth measurement results to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area, and the NWDAF can send a second message to the PCF.

[0228] In this implementation, the NWDAF can directly perform the aggregation. In addition, the AMF can also aggregate the data reported by each AN in its own service area, and send the aggregated data (that is, the actual traffic rate of the AMF's own service area) to the PCF, and then the PCF aggregates the data reported by all AMFs in its own service area, and sends the actual traffic rate in the PCF service area to the NWDAF. Alternatively, the PCF can also directly send the data reported by all AMFs in the PCF service area to the NWDAF, and then the NWDAF will aggregate it. In addition, the AMF can directly send the collected bandwidth measurement results reported by each AN to the PCF, and then the PCF will aggregate the data reported by each AN in its own service area and send the aggregated data to the NWDAF.

[0229] In another embodiment of the present application, the actual flow rate of the target network area can be determined by the data storage network element UDR. In this embodiment, when the PCF executes S402, it can receive a third message from the UDR, and the third message carries the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate of the target network area.

[0230] In one implementation of this embodiment, UPF or SMF can collect the actual uplink and / or downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the target network area. Then, UPF or SMF can send the collected actual traffic rates of the N6 interfaces to UDR. UDR can summarize the actual traffic rates of each N6 interface to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area and send a third message to PCF.

[0231] In another implementation of this embodiment, the management plane network element OAM can obtain the average bandwidth used by the terminals and the number of terminals in the target network area reported by the RAN, and then OAM sends the average bandwidth used by the terminals and the number of terminals to the UDR, and the UDR obtains the product of the two to obtain the actual flow rate of the target network slice, and sends a third message to the PCF. Alternatively, after obtaining the average bandwidth used by the terminals and the number of terminals, OAM can obtain the product of the two to obtain the actual flow rate of the target network slice, and then OAM sends the actual flow rate of the target network slice to NWDAF, and NWDAF can send a third message to the PCF.

[0232] In another implementation of this embodiment, UPF or SMF can collect the actual uplink and / or downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the target network area, and then, UPF or SMF can send the collected actual traffic rates of the N6 interface to the PCF of its own service area, and then, each PCF sends the actual traffic rate of the N6 interface to the UDR, and then, the UDR can summarize the actual traffic rates of each N6 interface to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area, and send a third message to the PCF that receives the first message of the first session.

[0233] In another embodiment of the present application, when the target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, multiple PCFs in the target network slice can respectively determine the actual traffic rate within their own service areas. Thus, the PCF can aggregate the actual traffic rates of multiple PCFs to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network slice.

[0234] In other words, when the fourth message is received from each PCF in the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, the fourth message carries the policy to control the actual traffic rate of the network element within its own service area; and the actual traffic rate in each service area is summarized to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area.

[0235] In this embodiment, each PCF can collect statistics on the actual traffic rate in its own service area, and the PCF that receives the first message of the first session can summarize the statistics to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area. Exemplarily, the UPF or SMF can collect the actual uplink and / or downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the target network area, and then the UPF or SMF can send the collected actual traffic rates of the N6 interface to the PCF of its own service area, and then each PCF in the target network area can send a fourth message to the PCF that receives the first message of the first session.

[0236] In another embodiment of the present application, when the target network area is a local area in the target network slice, the actual traffic bandwidth of each AN in the target network slice can be determined by each access and mobility management network element AMF in the local area in its own service area. Thus, the actual traffic bandwidth of each AN in the local area in the target network slice is summarized by PCF to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network slice.

[0237] In other words, when the target network area is a local area in the target network slice, a fifth message is received from each access and mobility management network element in the local area in the target network slice, and the fifth message carries the access and mobility management network element in its own service area and the actual traffic bandwidth of each access network device in the target network slice; and the actual traffic bandwidth in each fifth message is summarized to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area.

[0238] In this embodiment, each AN in the target network area can measure the uplink and / or downlink traffic bandwidth of the target network area (or target network slice), and each AN accesses the network slice through the AMF, and each AMF can collect the bandwidth measurement results reported by each AN in its own service area. Afterwards, the AMF can send the collected bandwidth measurement results obtained by each AN to the PCF in its own service area (that is, the PCF that receives the first message of the first session).

[0239] It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the PCF may obtain the upper limit flow rate and the actual flow rate in different ways. For example, the PCF may obtain the actual flow rate through the NWDAF and obtain the upper limit flow rate through the UDR.

[0240] The method for obtaining PCF will be described later in conjunction with specific embodiments.

[0241] Based on the above processing, the PCF can obtain the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area, and then determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session based on the relationship between the two.

[0242] For example, the authorized traffic rate of the first session may be determined in one or more of the following ways: Way 1: comparing the actual traffic rate with the upper limit traffic rate (or a value determined based on the upper limit traffic rate), and determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session based on the comparison result; Way 2: obtaining a ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate, and comparing the ratio with a preset threshold to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0243] The first session may include GBR type services and / or non-GBR type services. Based on this, the authorized traffic rate of the first session may include at least the following two aspects:

[0244] For the GBR type service of the first session, it is necessary to determine the authorized MBR of the GBR type service in the first session, which is related to the contracted MBR (ie, contracted maximum traffic rate) or contracted GBR (ie, contracted minimum traffic rate) of the GBR type service.

[0245] For the non-GBR type service of the first session, it is necessary to determine the authorized set maximum bit rate of the first session, that is, the authorized Session-AMBR, where the authorized Session-AMBR is related to the subscribed Session-AMBR.

[0246] In addition, the subsequent third process also involves the authorized terminal aggregate maximum bit rate, that is, the authorized UE-AMBR, wherein the authorized UE-AMBR is related to the subscribed UE-AMBR of the terminal.

[0247] Among them, the contracted MBR, contracted GBR, contracted Session-AMBR, and contracted UE-AMBR can come from the contract data, and the contract data will be described in detail later.

[0248] The following describes the method for determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session in combination with the relationship between the actual traffic rate of the target network area and the upper limit traffic rate. Specifically, there may be at least the following three situations:

[0249] The first case: when the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area meet the first condition, the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session is determined as the authorized traffic rate (hereinafter referred to as the first process for ease of explanation).

[0250] The first condition indicates that the available traffic rate of the target network area is relatively large. In this case, there is no need to limit the authorized traffic rate of the first session, and the authorized maximum traffic rate of the first session can be directly determined as the authorized traffic rate.

[0251] In other words, when the first condition is met, the subscribed MBR of the first session may be determined as the authorized MBR (GBR type service), and / or the subscribed Session-AMBR of the first session may be determined as the authorized Session-AMBR.

[0252] In the embodiment of the present application, when the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area meet any of the following conditions, it can be considered that the first condition is met. That is, the first condition can be any of the following:

[0253] Condition 1.1: The actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than the upper limit traffic rate.

[0254] Condition 1.2: The actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than or equal to the first traffic rate, where the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate.

[0255] Condition 1.3: The actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than the first traffic rate, wherein the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate.

[0256] Condition 1.4: The ratio of the actual traffic rate of the target network area to the upper limit traffic rate is less than or equal to a preset first threshold; wherein the first threshold is less than 1.

[0257] Condition 1.5: The ratio of the actual traffic rate of the target network area to the upper limit traffic rate is less than a preset first threshold; wherein the first threshold is less than 1.

[0258] It can be understood that in conditions 1.2 and 1.3, for the case where the actual traffic rate of the target network area is equal to the first traffic rate, the judgment results of whether the first condition is met are different, and the PCF also adopts different processing methods when determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session. For example, according to condition 1.2, if the actual traffic rate of the target network area is equal to the first traffic rate, the PCF executes the first processing; however, according to condition 1.3, if the actual traffic rate of the target network area is equal to the first traffic rate, the PCF does not execute the first processing, but executes the second processing, which will be explained later. Conditions 1.4 and 1.5 are also similar situations and will not be repeated.

[0259] It should be noted that, in the above-mentioned manner, condition 1.2 (or condition 1.3) and condition 1.4 (or condition 1.5) are two different implementations, and the first flow rate has nothing to do with the first threshold. For example, the first flow rate and the actual flow rate corresponding to the first threshold may be the same, or they may be different (such as the case where the first flow rate is 70 and the first threshold is 0.75 in the subsequent example, which will be described in detail later).

[0260] In addition to using any one of conditions 1.1 to 1.5 to determine whether the first condition is satisfied, multiple (two or more) non-conflicting conditions among conditions 1.1 to 1.5 may also be used to determine whether the PCF executes the first process.

[0261] Among them, condition 1.1 conflicts with any one of conditions 1.2 to 1.5; condition 1.2 conflicts with condition 1.3, and condition 1.4 conflicts with condition 1.5. Therefore, it is possible to determine whether the first condition is satisfied by combining condition 1.2 with condition 1.4, condition 1.2 with condition 1.5, condition 1.3 with condition 1.4, and condition 1.3 with condition 1.5.

[0262] When two or more conditions are used to determine whether the first condition is satisfied, if any one of the conditions is satisfied, it is determined that the first condition is satisfied. For example, when determining whether the first condition is satisfied by combining condition 1.3 and condition 1.5, as long as any one of condition 1.3 or condition 1.5 is satisfied, it is determined that the first condition is satisfied, and the first process is executed.

[0263] In another embodiment, when two or more conditions are used to determine whether the first condition is satisfied, when all conditions are satisfied, it is determined that the first condition is satisfied. For example, when determining whether the first condition is satisfied in combination with condition 1.3 and condition 1.5, when both condition 1.3 and condition 1.5 are satisfied, it is determined that the first condition is satisfied, and then the first process is performed.

[0264] Below, with Figure 1 The communication system shown is used as an example for explanation. Assume that the target network area is network slice 1, the upper limit flow rate of network slice 1 is 100 (units are omitted in the subsequent description), the first flow rate is 70, and the first threshold is 0.75.

[0265] When implementing this solution, it can be determined according to condition 1.1 whether the first condition is met. At this time, when the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is within 100 (not equal to 100), the first condition is met, and PCF can perform the first processing. However, if this condition is not met, the first processing is not performed. The specific processing to be performed will be described later.

[0266] Alternatively, when implementing this solution, it can be determined whether the first condition is met according to condition 1.2. At this time, when the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is less than or equal to 70, the first condition is met, and the PCF performs the first processing. However, if the condition is not met, the first processing is not performed. The specific processing to be performed will be described later.

[0267] Alternatively, when implementing this solution, it can be determined according to condition 1.4 whether the first condition is met. At this time, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 and the upper limit traffic rate is less than or equal to 0.75, that is, when the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is less than or equal to 75, the first condition is met, and the PCF performs the first processing. However, if this condition is not met, the first processing is not performed. The specific processing to be performed will be described later.

[0268] Alternatively, when implementing this solution, it can be determined whether the first condition is met according to conditions 1.2 and 1.4, and the first condition is met when at least one of the conditions is met. In this case, when the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is 72, condition 1.4 is met, but condition 1.2 is not met. At this time, the first condition is met, and the PCF performs the first processing. When the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is greater than 75, the PCF does not perform the first processing. The specific processing to be performed will be described later.

[0269] Alternatively, when implementing this solution, it can be determined whether the first condition is met according to condition 1.2 and condition 1.4, and when both condition 1.2 and condition 1.4 are met, the first condition is met. In this case, when the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is 72, condition 1.4 is met, but condition 1.2 is not met. At this time, the first condition is not met, and the PCF does not perform the first processing. The specific processing to be performed will be described later. When the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is less than or equal to 70, the PCF performs the first processing.

[0270] The second situation: when the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area meet the second condition, the authorized traffic rate of the first session is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session, and the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session (for ease of explanation, it is referred to as the second processing below).

[0271] The second condition indicates that the available traffic rate of the target network area is small. In this case, the authorized traffic rate of the first session needs to be limited so that the authorized traffic rate of the first session is less than its contracted maximum traffic rate to avoid exceeding the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area.

[0272] In this embodiment, when the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area meet any of the following conditions, the second condition can be considered to be met. That is, the second condition can be any of the following:

[0273] Condition 2.1: The actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than the upper limit traffic rate.

[0274] It should be noted that condition 2.1 conflicts with conditions 1.1 to 1.5 and should not be used simultaneously. For example, when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than the upper limit traffic rate, the PCF may perform the first process or the second process.

[0275] Condition 2.2: The actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate.

[0276] For example, condition 2.2 can be used in conjunction with any one of the above conditions 1.2, 1.4 or 1.5. For example, if used in conjunction with condition 1.2, then when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than or equal to the first traffic rate, the PCF determines the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session as its authorized traffic rate; when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, the authorized traffic rate of the first session determined by the PCF is less than its contracted maximum traffic rate.

[0277] Condition 2.3: The actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than or equal to the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate.

[0278] For example, condition 2.3 can be used in combination with any one of the aforementioned conditions 1.3, 1.4 or 1.5.

[0279] Condition 2.4: The ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area is greater than a preset first threshold, and the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate.

[0280] For example, condition 2.4 can be used in combination with any one of the aforementioned conditions 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4.

[0281] Condition 2.5: The ratio of the actual traffic rate to the upper limit traffic rate in the target network area is greater than or equal to a preset first threshold, and the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate.

[0282] For example, condition 2.5 can be used in combination with any one of the aforementioned conditions 1.2, 1.3 or 1.5.

[0283] Among them, in conditions 2.4 and 2.5, "the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate" can also be replaced by: the ratio between the actual traffic rate of the target network area and the upper limit traffic rate is less than 1, which is not repeated here.

[0284] Based on any one of the above conditions 2.1 to 2.5, it can be determined whether the second condition is currently met. In the above embodiment, the second condition can be regarded as: the actual traffic rate of the target network area does not reach the upper limit traffic rate and does not meet the first condition.

[0285] Based on this, when the first condition is two non-conflicting conditions among conditions 1.1 to 1.5, if the actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than the upper limit traffic rate (or, the ratio between the actual traffic rate of the target network area and the upper limit traffic rate is less than 1), and the first condition is not met, it can be determined that the second condition is met, and PCF performs the second processing.

[0286] The above example is still used for illustrative explanation. As before, the upper limit flow rate of network slice 1 is 100 (units are omitted in the subsequent description), the first flow rate is 70, and the first threshold is 0.75.

[0287] Therefore, if it is determined whether the first condition is met according to conditions 1.2 and 1.4, and at least one of the conditions is met, the first condition is met. In this case, when the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is 72, condition 1.4 is met, but condition 1.2 is not met. At this time, the first condition is met, and PCF performs the first process. At this time, when the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is greater than 75 and less than 100, PCF performs the second process.

[0288] Alternatively, when implementing this solution, it can be determined whether the first condition is met according to condition 1.2 and condition 1.4, and when both condition 1.2 and condition 1.4 are met, the first condition is met. In this case, when the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is 72, condition 1.4 is met, but condition 1.2 is not met. At this time, the first condition is not met, and the PCF does not perform the first processing. The specific processing to be performed will be described later. When the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is less than or equal to 70, the PCF performs the first processing. Alternatively, when the actual traffic rate of network slice 1 is greater than 70 and less than 100, the PCF performs the second processing.

[0289] When the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area meet the second condition, the PCF can use at least one of the following processing methods when determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session. That is, the second processing can be any of the following:

[0290] Processing method 2.1, reducing the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session according to a preset ratio to obtain the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0291] Specifically, when the first session only includes GBR type services, the contracted MBR may be reduced according to a preset first ratio to obtain the authorized MBR.

[0292] When the first session includes only non-GBR type services, the subscribed Session-AMBR may be reduced according to a preset second ratio to obtain the authorized Session-AMBR.

[0293] When the first session includes both non-GBR type services and GBR type services, the PCF reduces the contracted MBR according to a preset first ratio to obtain an authorized MBR (for the GBR type services of the first session); and / or the PCF reduces the contracted Session-AMBR according to a preset second ratio to obtain an authorized Session-AMBR (for the non-GBR type services of the first session).

[0294] The first ratio and the second ratio may be the same or different. The embodiment of the present application has no particular restrictions on the specific values ​​of the preset ratios (first ratio, second ratio). For example, if the contracted Session-AMBR of the first session is 10, the authorized Session-AMBR of the first session may be determined to be 8 according to the second ratio of 0.8. For another example, if the contracted maximum MBR of the first session is 12, the authorized MBR of the first session may be determined to be 5 according to the first ratio of 0.5. This is not exhaustive.

[0295] Processing method 2.2: reducing the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session by a preset value to obtain the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0296] Specifically, when the first session only includes GBR type services, the contracted MBR may be reduced according to a preset first preset value to obtain the authorized MBR.

[0297] When the first session only includes non-GBR type services, the signed Session-AMBR can be reduced according to the preset second preset value to obtain the authorized Session-AMBR.

[0298] When the first session includes both non-GBR type services and GBR type services, the PCF reduces the contracted MBR according to a preset first preset value to obtain an authorized MBR (for the GBR type services of the first session); and / or the PCF reduces the contracted Session-AMBR according to a preset second preset value to obtain an authorized Session-AMBR (for the non-GBR type services of the first session).

[0299] The first preset value and the second preset value may be the same or different. The embodiment of the present application has no special restrictions on the specific values ​​of the preset values ​​(first preset value, second preset value). For example, if the contracted MBR of the first session is 12, the authorized MBR of the first session may be determined to be 9 according to the preset value of 1. For another example, if the contracted Session-AMBR of the first session is 10, the authorized Session-AMBR of the first session may be determined to be 7 according to the preset value of 3. This is not exhaustive.

[0300] The third case: when the actual flow rate of the target network area and the upper limit flow rate meet the third condition, the third process is performed, which will be described in detail later. The third condition indicates that the target network area has no available flow rate.

[0301] In the embodiment of the present application, when the actual flow rate of the target network area is greater than or equal to the upper limit flow rate, the third condition is met. At this time, there is no remaining flow in the target network area. This processing method can be used in combination with any of the first condition and / or the second condition mentioned above.

[0302] In an exemplary embodiment, when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than the upper limit traffic rate (satisfying condition 1.1 or condition 2.1), the PCF may perform the aforementioned first processing or second processing to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session; when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the PCF may perform the third processing to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0303] In another exemplary embodiment, when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than or equal to the first traffic rate, condition 1.2 is met, and the PCF performs the aforementioned first processing to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session; when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, condition 2.2 is met, and the PCF performs any of the aforementioned second processing to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session; when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than the upper limit traffic rate, the third condition is met, and the PCF performs the third processing to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0304] In another exemplary embodiment, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate of the target network area and the upper limit traffic rate is less than a preset first threshold, condition 1.5 is met, and the PCF performs the aforementioned first processing to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session; when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than the first traffic rate and less than 1, condition 2.5 is met, and the PCF performs any of the aforementioned second processing to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session; when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than the upper limit traffic rate, the third condition is met, and the PCF performs the third processing to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0305] No more enumeration.

[0306] The following describes the implementation of the third processing performed by the PCF. In the embodiment of the present application, the third processing may include but is not limited to one or a combination of the following methods:

[0307] Processing method 3.1: determine the contracted minimum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate.

[0308] Specifically, when the first session only includes GBR type services, the PCF may determine the contracted minimum traffic rate of the first session, that is, the contracted GBR, as the authorized MBR of the first session.

[0309] When the first session only includes non-GBR type services, the PCF may determine the authorized Session-AMBR to be the basic communication that can only guarantee non-GBR type services, that is, the authorized Session-AMBR is the minimum value of the subscribed Session-AMBR.

[0310] When the first session includes both non-GBR type services and GBR type services, the PCF determines the subscribed GBR of the first session as the authorized MBR of the first session (for the GBR type services of the first session); and / or, the PCF determines the minimum traffic rate that can only guarantee non-GBR type services as the authorized Session-AMBR of the first session (for the non-GBR type services of the first session), that is, the authorized Session-AMBR is the minimum value of the subscribed Session-AMBR.

[0311] In this processing mode, the network side provides the terminal with a contracted minimum traffic rate that can meet the most basic communication requirements of the first session, and the first session can be successfully established.

[0312] Processing method 3.2, determines the minimum value of the maximum bit rate of the contracted terminal set of the target network slice as the maximum bit rate of the authorized terminal set.

[0313] In this processing method, PCF can determine the minimum traffic rate that the terminal (the initiator of the first session) can only guarantee for service communication as the authorized UE-AMBR of the terminal. In this way, the terminal can access the network slice based on the minimum UE-AMBR, that is, the authorized UE-AMBR is the minimum value of the contracted UE-AMBR.

[0314] Processing method 3.3: Refuse to allocate the authorized traffic rate for the first session.

[0315] It is understandable that processing method 3.3 and processing method 3.1 cannot be used at the same time. When there is no available traffic rate in the target network area, the first session can be denied access to the network, so that the actual traffic rate of the target network area can be controlled not to exceed or exceed the upper limit traffic rate too much, and the normal communication use of other sessions that have accessed the target network slice can be guaranteed as much as possible.

[0316] In a possible embodiment of the processing method, when the aforementioned third condition is met, the PCF may send a notification message to the terminal (through other network elements), and the notification message is used to instruct the network side to deny the first session access to the target network slice. Alternatively, in another possible embodiment of the processing method, when the aforementioned third condition is met, the PCF may not feedback the first message of the first session. Alternatively, in another possible embodiment of the processing method, when the aforementioned third condition is met, the PCF may feedback to the terminal that its authorized traffic rate is 0.

[0317] Processing method 3.4: in the target network area, the service quality data flow (QoS Flow) of the non-guaranteed bit rate service (non-GBR type service) is released.

[0318] When network slicing resources are limited, in order to ensure high-priority service experience, resources can be allocated to high-priority services first through the Quality of Service (QoS) mechanism.

[0319] In the QoS mechanism, a PDU session can contain one or more QoS Flows. The service quality data flow can also be called: service data flow, user service data flow or QoS flow. This application has no special restrictions on this. QoS flows can be identified by using a service quality class indicator (QoS Class Identifier, QCI) or a fifth-generation network service quality indicator (5G QoS Identifier, 5QI).

[0320] Each QoS flow has QoS parameters, including Allocation and Retention Priority (ARP) parameters. ARP parameters mainly include three elements: priority level, preemption capability, and preemption vulnerability. The QoS parameters of different QoS flows are generally different. The QoS parameters of QoS flows can be stored in the contract data of the terminal, which will be described in detail later.

[0321] Among them, the priority is used to prioritize the QoS flow to successfully establish a session when resources are tight. Generally, the priority is an integer, and the smaller the value of the priority, the higher the priority. Alternatively, there may be a situation where the larger the value, the higher the priority, and there is no special restriction on this. The preemption capability is used to identify whether the Qos flow can preempt the resources of other low-priority bearers when resources are insufficient. The willingness to be preempted is used to identify whether the Qos flow can release the bearer resources when resources are insufficient.

[0322] In processing method 3.4, when the third condition is met and the target network area has no available traffic rate, the QoS flow of non-GBR type services can be released. Since non-GBR type services have no minimum guaranteed traffic rate, temporarily releasing them has little impact on the target network area. In this way, part of the available traffic rate can be released for the target network area to avoid the actual traffic rate of the target network area exceeding or exceeding its upper limit traffic rate too much, ensuring that the sessions that have accessed the target network slice can enjoy network services.

[0323] For example, PCF can release the QoS flows of all non-GBR type services; or, it can release the QoS flows of some non-GBR type services. For example, PCF can randomly release the QoS flows of some non-GBR type services until the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate. For another example, PCF can release a preset proportion (for example, 50%, 80%, etc.) of the QoS flows of non-GBR type services of all PDU sessions currently connected. For another example, PCF can release the QoS flows of non-GBR type services that are accessed first according to the access order of the PDU sessions to which each non-GBR type service belongs to access the target network slice. For another example, PCF can release the QoS flows of non-GBR type services with lower priorities according to the priorities of the QoS flows of each non-GBR type service. The methods and processes for releasing QoS flows are not exhaustive.

[0324] Processing method 3.5: release the low-priority session in the target network area.

[0325] In this processing method, based on the priority in the QoS parameters of the QoS flow, some PDU sessions (QoS flows) with lower priority can be released to release the traffic rate of the target network area and strive for traffic bandwidth for the first session or other PDU sessions that have been connected to the target network slice.

[0326] In a possible embodiment of this processing method, a priority threshold may be preset so that the PCF may release the PDU session to which the QoS flow having a priority lower than the priority threshold belongs.

[0327] In another possible embodiment of the processing method, the PCF may release the PDU sessions to which each QoS flow belongs in sequence, based on the priority order of the QoS flows of each PDU session, in order from low to high priority. In this embodiment, the termination conditions for releasing the PDU session may include but are not limited to: the priorities of the QoS flows of the remaining PDU sessions are greater than or equal to the preset priority threshold, there are no remaining PDU sessions (all PDU sessions are released), and the actual traffic rate of the target network area is less than the upper limit traffic rate.

[0328] Processing method 3.6, modifying the service quality parameters (QoS parameters) of the first session, where the service quality parameters include: one or more of priority, preemption capability, and willingness to be preempted.

[0329] In this processing method, the QoS parameters of one or more QoS flows of the first session can be adjusted, specifically including: increasing the priority of the QoS flow of the first session, increasing the preemption capability of the QoS flow of the first session, and reducing the willingness of the QoS flow of the first session to be preempted.

[0330] Processing method 3.7: Request to readjust the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area.

[0331] In other words, when there is no more available traffic rate in the target network area, the UDM or UDR can be requested to reallocate the upper limit traffic rate to the target network area.

[0332] Taking a network slice as an example, a network slice can be composed of M (M is an integer greater than 1) network areas. Therefore, the upper limit flow rate of the network slice can also be divided into M parts. A network area has an upper limit flow rate, and its upper limit flow rate can also be regarded as the quota of the network area. It can be understood that the sum of the upper limit flow rates of M network areas is the upper limit flow rate of the network slice. UDM or UDR can be used to configure the upper limit flow rate of each network area.

[0333] Therefore, when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than or equal to its upper limit traffic rate, there is no more available traffic rate in the target network area. At this time, the PCF can also send a request message to the UDM or UDR to request to reallocate the upper limit traffic rate for the target network area. Specifically, the request message is used to request to increase the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area.

[0334] Accordingly, the UDM or UDR that receives the request message can readjust the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area based on the traffic usage of other network areas (the relationship between the actual traffic rate and its upper limit traffic rate). Other network areas may include, but are not limited to: other local network areas in the network slice to which the target network area belongs, or other network slices within a preset range from the target network area, or other network slices that the terminal can access through the current AN and the current AMF, without exhausting them.

[0335] The embodiments of the present application have no particular restrictions on how UDM or UDR adjusts the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area. The embodiments of the present application provide the following embodiments for illustration.

[0336] In an exemplary embodiment, the UDM (or UDR) can determine whether there are other network areas where the ratio of the actual traffic rate to the upper limit traffic rate is less than the preset second threshold. If there is a first network area where the ratio of the actual traffic rate to the upper limit traffic rate is less than the preset second threshold, the UDM (or UDR) can reduce the upper limit traffic rate of the first network area and increase the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area. For example, reduce the upper limit traffic rate of the first network area by 30, and increase the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area by 30.

[0337] In another exemplary embodiment, the UDM (or UDR) may be based on the second network area in which the difference between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate in each network area is greater than the third threshold value, and the number of the second network area may be one or more. Thus, the UDM (or UDR) may reduce the upper limit flow rate of multiple second network areas and increase the upper limit flow rate of the target network area. For example, the upper limit flow rate of the second network area 1 is reduced by 15, the upper limit flow rate of the second network area 2 is reduced by 10, and the upper limit flow rate of the target network area is increased by 25.

[0338] Based on the above adjustment, UDM (or UDR) can send a response message to PCF, and the response information indicates the adjusted upper limit traffic rate of the target network area. Accordingly, after receiving the response message, PCF can redetermine the authorized traffic rate of the first session (one or more of authorized UE-AMBR, authorized Session-AMBR and authorized MBR) based on the adjusted upper limit traffic rate. The redetermining method is the same as before and will not be repeated.

[0339] In addition, in processing method 3.7, there may be a situation where it is impossible to apply for additional quota for the target network area, that is, the response message indicates that the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area remains unchanged, or indicates that there is no adjustable quota. For example, after the above judgment, UDM (or UDR) does not exist in the first network area or the second network area, and cannot allocate additional quota to the target network area. At this time, UDM can refuse to adjust the upper limit traffic rate for the target network area. In this case, when the PCF receives the response message, it can combine the above processing methods 3.1 to 3.6 to implement the adjustment. For example, when the PCF fails to apply for adjustment of the upper limit traffic rate for the target network area, the PCF can refuse to allocate an authorized traffic rate for the first session.

[0340] In an embodiment of the present application, when the aforementioned third condition is met, PCF can implement traffic control for the target network area according to one or more of the aforementioned processing methods 3.1 to 3.7, except that 3.1 and 3.3 cannot be used at the same time.

[0341] The above-mentioned processing methods 3.1 to 3.7 are not described in detail. When two or more processing methods are combined to implement this solution, processing method 3.1 can be used in combination with other processing methods (one or more of 3.2, 3.4 to 3.7) except processing method 3.3. And processing method 3.3 can be used in combination with other processing methods (one or more of 3.2, 3.4 to 3.7) except processing method 3.1.

[0342] Exemplarily, processing method 3.1 and processing method 3.2 can be used in combination. That is, when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the PCF can determine the contracted minimum traffic rate of the first session (the minimum value of the GBR and / or the contracted Session-AMBR) as the authorized traffic rate, and the PCF can also determine the minimum value of the contracted UE-AMBR of the target network slice as the authorized UE-AMBR.

[0343] Exemplarily, processing methods 3.1 to 3.2 and 3.4 to 3.7 can be used in combination. That is, when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the PCF can determine the contracted minimum traffic rate of the first session (the minimum value of the GBR and / or the contracted Session-AMBR) as the authorized traffic rate; and, the PCF can also determine the minimum value of the contracted UE-AMBR of the target network slice as the authorized UE-AMBR; and, the PCF can also release the QoS Flow of non-GBR type services in the target network area; and, the PCF can also release the PDU session to which the QoS flow with a priority lower than the preset priority threshold belongs; and, the PCF can also modify the QoS parameters of one or more QoS Flows in the first session.

[0344] Exemplarily, processing methods 3.2 to 3.7 can be used in combination. That is, when the actual traffic rate of the target network area is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the PCF can refuse to allocate the authorized traffic rate for the first session; and the PCF can also determine the minimum value of the contracted UE-AMBR of the target network slice as the authorized UE-AMBR; and the PCF can also release the QoS Flow of non-GBR type services in the target network area; and the PCF can also release the PDU session to which the QoS flow with a priority lower than the preset priority threshold belongs; and the PCF can also modify the QoS parameters of one or more QoS Flows in the first session; and the PCF can also request the UDR or UDM to adjust the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area.

[0345] In the above embodiment, the subscribed MBR, subscribed GBR, subscribed Session-AMBR, subscribed UE-AMBR, and the default 5QI (5G QoS Identifier) ​​and ARP and other QoS parameters can all be saved in the subscription data of the terminal.

[0346] The contract data of the terminal can also be called: session management contract information, and the present application embodiment has no special restrictions on its naming. The contract data of the terminal can be determined when the terminal signs in to the network (registration process). Alternatively, the contract data of the terminal may also be modified or edited by other network elements, such as application function (AF) network elements. The process will be described later and will not be repeated here.

[0347] In such Figure 2 In the 5G communication system shown, the contract data of the terminal can generally be stored in the UDR, and the UDM (or other network elements) can retrieve the contract data from the UDR and further modify or apply the contract data by itself or other network elements.

[0348] Exemplarily, SMF may receive the eighth message, and thus, SMF may request the UDM for the contract data of the terminal based on the terminal identifier carried in the eighth message. Accordingly, UDM may retrieve the contract data of the terminal from UDR and send the contract data of the terminal to SMF. Thus, SMF may send a session policy request message for creating the first session to PCF based on the contract data, and PCF may then request the PCF to create the first session based on the contract data. Figure 4 The process shown determines the authorized traffic rate for the first session.

[0349] Exemplarily, UDM can retrieve the terminal's contract data from UDR and send it to PCF or SMF, and PCF can specify QoS parameters for the dedicated QoS flow according to the needs of the applicable service (equivalent to configuring or modifying the QoS parameters for the dedicated QoS flow), and pass the specified QoS parameters to SMF.

[0350] Exemplarily, SMF can obtain the terminal's contract data from UDM or UDR, or can receive specified QoS parameters configured from PCF. Based on these data, SMF can determine (configure or modify) the QoS parameters (including ARP parameters) of the QoS flow currently being processed (created or modified), and pass the determined QoS parameters to the Radio Access Network (RAN) through AMF. Accordingly, RAN can determine whether the current QoS flow can preempt the resources carried by other low-priority QoS flows based on the received QoS parameters. This will not be elaborated.

[0351] Based on the aforementioned differentiation processing, PCF can determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session, and then send it to the control network element of the first reply. The control network element implements traffic control on the first session based on the authorized traffic rate, and can also implement traffic control on the target network area.

[0352] For example, the PCF may directly send the authorized traffic rate of the first session to its control network element alone, or the PCF may carry the authorized traffic rate of the first session in other messages and send them together with the messages to the control network element.

[0353] In an exemplary embodiment, the PCF may send a Policy & Charging Control Rule (PCC rule) message to the control network element, where the PCC rule carries the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0354] It can be understood that the PCF and the control network element of the first session can interact directly or indirectly through forwarding by other network elements, and there is no limitation on this.

[0355] Accordingly, the control network element side can be as follows Figure 5 The method shown in FIG. 1 performs flow control on the first session. Figure 5 As shown, the method includes:

[0356] S502, receiving an authorized traffic rate from a policy control network element, wherein the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate the maximum traffic rate allowed for the first session, and the authorized traffic rate is determined based on an actual traffic rate of a target network area in a target network slice and an upper limit traffic rate.

[0357] Specifically, the method for determining the authorized traffic rate on the PCF side can be referred to in the previous article. Figure 4 The specific implementation of S404 in the above and the method for the PCF side to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area can also be referred to in the previous article. Figure 4 The specific implementation of S402 in the embodiment will not be repeated here.

[0358] It can be understood that the authorized traffic rate received by the control network element is determined by the PCF. For example, the control network element can receive the authorized traffic rate sent directly by the PCF, or indirectly receive (through forwarding by other network elements) the authorized traffic rate from the PCF.

[0359] S504: Perform flow control on the first session based on the authorized flow rate.

[0360] In the embodiment of the present application, the control network element of the first session may include SMF.

[0361] Alternatively, in some possible implementation scenarios, the initiating terminal of the first session may also serve as a control network element of the first session to control the uplink traffic rate of the first session. In this case, the control network element of the first session includes: SMF and terminal.

[0362] For SMF, after receiving the authorized traffic rate of the first session, the traffic control method for the first session may be:

[0363] Control the user plane network element (UPF) to allocate a quality service flow (QoS Flow) to the first session, thereby determining the maximum flow rate of the first session based on the maximum flow rate of the quality service flow that has been allocated to the first session. When the maximum flow rate of the first session is greater than the authorized flow rate, modify the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated quality service flow, and / or modify the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated quality service flow of the first session.

[0364] That is, after UPF assigns a new QoS Flow to the first session, if the sum of the MFBRs of all QoS Flows of the first session is greater than the authorized traffic rate of the first session, the SMF can modify the MFBR of the newly assigned QoS Flow of the first session, and / or modify the MFBR of the original QoS Flow, so that the sum of the MFBRs of all QoS Flows of the first session does not exceed the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0365] Take the GBR type service of the first session as an example. The first session may include multiple QoS Flows. Assume that the QoS Flows currently allocated by UPF to the first session are: QoS Flow1~QoS Flow5, and the latest QoS Flow currently allocated by UPF to the first session is QoS Flow6. Then, when the sum of the MFBRs of QoS Flow1~QoS Flow6 exceeds the authorized MBR of the first session, SMF can modify the MFBR of QoS Flow6, and / or, SMF can also modify the MFBR of one or more of QoS Flow1~QoS Flow5, so that the sum of the MFBRs of QoS Flow1~QoS Flow6 does not exceed the authorized MBR of the first session.

[0366] For example, the first session may include GBR QoS Flow and / or non-GBR QoS Flow, so when the SMF performs flow control on the first session, it may be controlled in the following manner:

[0367] Modify the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow (GBR QoS Flow), for example, modify the MFBR of QoS Flow6 as described in the above example.

[0368] Modify the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow (GBR QoS Flow) of the first session. For example, in the above example, the SMF can modify the MFBR of one or more of QoS Flow1 to QoS Flow5.

[0369] The maximum flow rate of the non-GBR QoS Flow of the first session is modified, that is, the Session-AMBR is modified.

[0370] In addition, when SMF controls UPF to allocate QoS Flow for the first session, UPF can also assume part of the flow control function when allocating QoS Flow for the first session.

[0371] On the one hand, for the non-GBR type service in the first session, SMF can send the authorized Session-AMBR of the first session to UPF through the N4 interface. In this way, in the subsequent data transmission process for the non-GBR type service of the first session, UPF controls the uplink traffic rate of the non-GBR type service of the first session according to the received UL Session-AMBR, and controls the downlink traffic rate of the non-GBR type service of the first session according to the received DL Session-AMBR.

[0372] On the other hand, for the GBR type service in the first session, the SMF can determine the following information based on the received PCC rule: the detection rule of the QoS flow, the QoS flow identifier, and the uplink and downlink guaranteed flow rate (Guaranteed Flow Bit Rate, GFBR) and the maximum flow rate (Maximum Flow Bit Rate, MFBR) of each QoS flow. In addition, the SMF can send this information to the UPF through the N4 interface to request the UPF to allocate the QoSFlow for the first call back. Then, for the uplink flow rate of each QoS Flow in the GBR type service of the first session, the UPF can control it according to the uplink MFBR (also known as the UL MFBR), and for the downlink flow rate of each QoS Flow in the GBR type service of the first session, the UPF can control it according to the downlink MFBR (also known as the DL MFBR).

[0373] It can be understood that the SMF can control the uplink and downlink traffic rates of the first session respectively based on the received authorized traffic rate.

[0374] In addition, the terminal that initiates the creation or modification request of the first session to the network side can also serve as the control network element of the first session. At this time, in addition to sending the authorized traffic rate of the first session to the SMF to control the uplink and downlink traffic rates through the SMF, the PCF can also send the authorized traffic rate of the first session to the terminal.

[0375] At this time, the terminal also serves as a control network element of the first session and can perform flow control on the uplink flow rate of the first session based on the received authorized flow rate.

[0376] It can be understood that the terminal has no right to control the downlink traffic rate. Therefore, using the terminal as the control network element of the first session can cooperate with the uplink and downlink traffic control methods on the SMF side to achieve traffic control.

[0377] Specifically, the terminal can control the uplink traffic rate of the non-GBR type service of the first session not to exceed the authorized UL Session-AMBR; and can control the uplink traffic rate of the GBR type service of the first session not to exceed the authorized UL MBR.

[0378] For example, Figure 6 FIG. 2 shows an information interaction diagram of a flow control method provided by an embodiment of the present application. Figure 6 As shown, the method includes:

[0379] S602: The PCF sends a rate analysis request for the candidate network area to the NWDAF.

[0380] Among them, the candidate network area can be the entire coverage area or local area of ​​the candidate network slice; the number of candidate network slices can be one or more; the candidate network slice is a network slice managed by PCF.

[0381] For example, in Figure 1 In the scenario shown, PCF has management authority over network slices 1 to 3, so PCF can send a rate analysis request for network slices 1 to 3 to NWDAF.

[0382] S604, NWDAF interacts with UDR to obtain the upper limit traffic rate of the candidate network area.

[0383] For example, the NWDAF may send a request to obtain the upper limit traffic rate to the UDR, and receive a response message from the UDR, where the response message carries the upper limit traffic rate of the candidate network area.

[0384] Alternatively, the UDR can also send the upper limit traffic rate of each network slice that each PCF has management authority to the NWDAF on a regular or periodic basis, and the NWDAF can receive the data from the UDR and obtain the upper limit traffic rate of the candidate network area from it.

[0385] In the embodiments of the present application, when two network elements interact to obtain certain information (or data), network element A may send a request message to network element B, and network element A may receive a response message from network element B to obtain the information; or network element B may send a message to network element A regularly or periodically, and network element A may directly receive the message to obtain the information. In the subsequent embodiments involving interaction between two network elements, no further description will be given, and this method may be used.

[0386] In this embodiment, the UDR can obtain data from the UDM. In addition, the NWDAF can also directly interact with the UDM to obtain the upper limit flow rate of the candidate network area, which will not be described in detail.

[0387] S606, NWDAF interacts with SMF to obtain the actual traffic rate of each N6 interface in the candidate network area.

[0388] S608, NWDAF sends an analysis result notification to PCF.

[0389] The analysis result notification carries the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the candidate network area.

[0390] In one embodiment, the actual traffic rate of the candidate network area may be obtained by summarizing the NWDAF. That is, the SMF may collect the actual traffic rate at each N6 interface in the candidate network area and report it to the NWDAF; then, the NWDAF sums the actual traffic rate at each N6 interface in the candidate network area to obtain the actual traffic rate of the candidate network area.

[0391] In another embodiment, the actual flow rate of the candidate network area may be obtained by summarizing the SMF. That is, the SMF may collect the actual flow rate at each N6 interface in the candidate network area, and then the SMF summarizes the collected actual flow rates at each N6 interface to obtain the actual flow rate of the candidate network area, and sends the actual flow rate of the candidate network area to the NWDAF.

[0392] S610, the UE sends a request message for the first session to the AMF through the AN.

[0393] exist Figure 6 In the illustrated embodiment, the request message of the first session may specifically be: a session establishment request message of the first session, as described above, the message is used to request the creation of the first session. In addition, the request message of the first session may also be a session modification message of the first session, which will not be described in detail here.

[0394] Exemplarily, the message may carry identification information of the target network area, which is used to request access to the target network area and establish a PDU session. Exemplarily, the request message of the first session may carry the S-NSSAI of the target network slice.

[0395] Among them, the target network area belongs to the candidate network area.

[0396] Furthermore, the target network area may be a local area in the candidate network area. For example, the candidate network slices are multiple network slices, and the target network area is one of the multiple network slices, or a local area of ​​one of the network slices.

[0397] For another example, in the above example of S602, the candidate network areas are network slices 1 to 3, and PCF can obtain the actual traffic rates of network slices 1 to 3 based on NWDAF. In this case, if the request message of the first session carries S-NSSAI1, the network slice 1 identified by S-NSSAI1 is the target network slice. At this time, network slice 1 (target network slice) belongs to the candidate network slices (network slices 1 to 3).

[0398] Alternatively, the target network area is the entire coverage area in the candidate network area. For example, the candidate network slice is network slice 1, and the target network area is also network slice 1.

[0399] S612, AMF sends a context request message for creating a first session to SMF.

[0400] The context request message for creating the first session (PDU session) carries identification information of the target network area.

[0401] As before, the context request message for creating the first session is the eighth message mentioned above, and AMF sends the eighth message to SMF based on the received session establishment request message of the first session.

[0402] S614, SMF interacts with UDR to obtain the UE's subscription data.

[0403] As before, the UE's subscription data may include but is not limited to: subscription Session-AMBR, subscription MBR, default 5QI, ARP and other QoS parameters, which will not be elaborated on here.

[0404] In addition to the method shown in S614, SMF can also interact directly with UDM to obtain the UE's subscription data, which is not described in detail.

[0405] S616, SMF sends a session policy request message for creating a first session to PCF.

[0406] That is, the SMF sends a first message to the PCF, and the first message carries the subscription data of the UE.

[0407] Exemplarily, in addition to the UE's subscription data, the session policy request message may also carry the following information: terminal identification, terminal user group identification, session type, data network name, terminal IPv4 address or IPv6 network prefix, S-NSSAI of the target network slice (or further carrying the identification of one or more local areas in the network slice), subscribed Session-AMBR, subscribed MBR, and default QoS parameters such as 5QI and ARP.

[0408] S618, PCF interacts with UDR to obtain policy data related to the first session.

[0409] In addition, PCF can also interact directly with UDM to obtain policy data related to the first session.

[0410] The policy data of the first session includes: application-related information from AF, indication information on whether to perform traffic control on the target network area, and one or more of the upper and lower limit traffic rates of the target network slice.

[0411] The application related information comes from the AF, and may be sent by the AF through the N5 interface or the Rx interface. Exemplarily, the application related information may include: detection rules for uplink and downlink data flows of the application, the minimum bandwidth required by the application service, the maximum bandwidth that the application service may use, etc.

[0412] In addition, when the policy data indicates that traffic control is to be performed on the target network area, this solution is executed; the embodiment of the present application does not discuss the situation where the policy data indicates that traffic control is not required on the target network area.

[0413] In addition, in this embodiment, the aforementioned step S604 can be omitted, and the PCF can obtain the upper limit flow rate of the target network area in this step. In other words, there is no specific correlation between the execution order and method of the PCF obtaining the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate, and the PCF can obtain the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate by any of the aforementioned methods.

[0414] S620: The PCF determines an authorized traffic rate for the first session.

[0415] In this step, the PCF can determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session based on the actual traffic rate of the target network area and the upper limit traffic rate. There are many ways to implement this, which can be found in the previous text for details and will not be repeated here.

[0416] Specifically, the authorized traffic rate of the first session may include: the authorized Session-AMBR and / or the authorized MBR of the first session.

[0417] S622, PCF sends a create session management policy control response message to SMF.

[0418] The message carries the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0419] In other words, the Create Session Management Policy Control Response message may carry the authorized Session-AMBR and / or authorized MBR of the first session.

[0420] Exemplarily, the create session management policy control response message may be carried in a PPC rule message.

[0421] S624, SMF sends a create first session context response message to AMF.

[0422] This message carries the authorization Session-AMBR of the first session.

[0423] S626, AMF sends an N2 interface session establishment request message to AN.

[0424] This message is used to request the AN to establish an N2 interface session, and the message carries the authorization Session-AMBR of the first session.

[0425] S628: The AN creates an N2 interface session for the first session and sends a session establishment accept message to the UE.

[0426] S630, SMF controls the uplink and downlink traffic of the first session based on the authorized traffic rate of the first session.

[0427] Exemplarily, the flow control of the first session by the SMF may include one or more of the following: flow control of the uplink flow of non-GBR services based on the authorized UL Session-AMBR; flow control of the downlink flow of non-GBR services based on the authorized DL Session-AMBR; flow control of the uplink flow of GBR services based on the authorized UL MBR; or flow control of the downlink flow of GBR services based on the authorized DL MBR. For details on the specific control methods, see the aforementioned Figure 5 And related embodiments thereof are not described in detail.

[0428] S632: The UE controls the uplink traffic of the first session based on the authorized Session-AMBR of the first session.

[0429] In this way, the terminal side can perform flow control on the uplink flow of the non-GBR type service of the first session.

[0430] In summary, Figure 6 In the illustrated embodiment, the PCF can obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network slice based on the interaction with the NWDAF, and the PCF can obtain the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area through the interaction with the UDR. Then, the PCF determines the authorized Session-AMBR and authorized MBR of the first session based on this, and implements the traffic management of the first session and the target network area based on this.

[0431] In addition, as mentioned above, in one embodiment of the present application, there may be multiple PCFs in the target network slice (or target network area), and each PCF may collect the actual traffic rate of each N6 interface collected by each SMF in its own service area. In this way, each PCF in the target network slice (or target network area) may report the collected data to UDM, UDR or a certain PCF, and these network elements may summarize the data to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network slice (or target network area).

[0432] For example, Figure 7 For the sake of convenience, PCF1 is used as the execution subject of this solution for illustration. Figure 7 shows an SMF in the service area of ​​PCF1, namely Figure 7 SMF1 in; and, illustratively, Figure 7 Also shown are PCF2 in the target network area and SMF2 in the PCF2 service area.

[0433] It can be understood that in the target network area, PCF1 may be included but is not limited to PCF2, which is only exemplary, and there is no special limit on the number of PCFs included in the target network area. And each PCF includes one or more SMFs. Figure 7 Only one SMF in a PCF service area is shown by way of example, and there is no particular limitation on the number of SMFs included in the PCF service area.

[0434] like Figure 7 As shown, the method comprises the following steps:

[0435] S702, PCF1 sends a service area slice bandwidth measurement request to SMF1.

[0436] Exemplarily, the request may carry the identifier of the network slice within the SMF service area (S-NSSAI).

[0437] S704, SMF1 sends a request to report the traffic bandwidth measurement result to UPF.

[0438] Exemplarily, the reporting request is used to instruct the UPF to report the traffic bandwidth measurement result. The reporting request can be sent through the N4 interface.

[0439] S706, UPF sends traffic bandwidth measurement result 1 to SMF1.

[0440] Exemplarily, UPF may monitor and measure the uplink and downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface within the service area of ​​SMF1, and report the traffic bandwidth measurement result 1 to SMF1.

[0441] The data included in the traffic bandwidth measurement result 1 is: the uplink and downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the service area of ​​SMF1.

[0442] In actual on-site scenarios, UPF can periodically report the traffic bandwidth measurement result 1; or, UPF can periodically report the traffic bandwidth measurement result 1; or, UPF can also report the traffic bandwidth measurement result 1 when the change in the actual traffic rate exceeds a preset change threshold.

[0443] The change in the actual flow rate refers to the difference between the actual flow rate collected in the current unit time interval and the actual flow rate collected in the previous unit time interval, or the absolute value of the difference. The unit time interval can be preset based on the actual scenario, for example, the unit time interval can be 1s, or can be 10s, 1min, etc., without exhaustive enumeration and without other restrictions.

[0444] S708, SMF1 determines the uplink and downlink traffic rates of the SMF1 service area.

[0445] That is, SMF1 summarizes the uplink and downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the service area to obtain the uplink and downlink traffic rates of the SMF1 service area. That is, SMF1 summarizes the uplink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the service area to obtain the uplink traffic rate of the SMF1 service area; and, SMF1 summarizes the downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the service area to obtain the downlink traffic rate of the SMF1 service area.

[0446] It should be noted that in other possible embodiments, this step can be omitted, and SMF1 can directly send the uplink and downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in its own service area to PCF1, which will directly perform aggregation processing.

[0447] S710, SMF1 sends traffic bandwidth measurement result 2 to PCF1.

[0448] Different from the traffic bandwidth measurement result 1, the data carried by the traffic bandwidth measurement result 2 is: the uplink and downlink traffic rates of the service area of ​​SMF1.

[0449] S712, PCF2 interacts with SMF2 to obtain traffic bandwidth measurement result 3.

[0450] The data carried by the traffic bandwidth measurement result 3 is: the uplink and downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the service area of ​​SMF2 itself. The processing process of this part is similar to the process of S702 to S706. SMF2 can interact with the PCF in its service area to obtain the uplink and downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in the service area of ​​SMF2 itself.

[0451] or,

[0452] The data carried by traffic bandwidth measurement result 3 is: the uplink and downlink traffic rates of the service area of ​​SMF2. The processing process of this part is similar to the process of S702 to S710. SMF2 can interact with the PCF in its own service area to obtain the uplink and downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in its own service area. Then, SMF2 can also summarize the uplink and downlink traffic rates of each N6 interface in its own service area to obtain the uplink and downlink traffic rates of the service area of ​​SMF2.

[0453] It should be noted that if Figure 7 As shown, there is no restriction on the execution order between S702 to S710 and S712. For example, S712 can be earlier than S702 or later than S702, or can be implemented at any step in the execution process of S702 to S710. The step marking symbol (for example, S712) has no special restriction on the execution order of the steps.

[0454] S714, PCF2 sends the traffic bandwidth measurement result 3 to PCF1.

[0455] S716, PCF1 summarizes the traffic bandwidth measurement result 2 and the traffic bandwidth measurement result 3 to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area.

[0456] S718, PCF1 interacts with UDM to obtain the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area.

[0457] Afterwards, PCF1, UDM, NWDAF, UPF, SMF1, AMF1, CN and UE execute S720 to S742. The specific interaction process is as follows: Figure 7 For the specific implementation of these steps, please refer to Figure 6 The description of S610 to S632 in the illustrated embodiment. Compared with SMF and PCF in S610 to S632, Figure 7 In the process of executing S720 to S742, SMF1 and PCF1 are used to realize the interaction, which will not be described again.

[0458] It should be noted that the traffic control method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applicable to the case where the UE is in a home network or roaming to a visited network.

[0459] Among them, the home network, also known as the home public land mobile network (HPLMN), is the home network provided by the network operator to the terminal. The visited network, also known as the visit public land mobile network (VPLMN), is the network accessed by the terminal when it "visits" another area after leaving the home area. For example, if the home network of the terminal is A, the network slice accessed by the terminal in A is the home network; when the terminal roams to B, it needs to be provided with services by the network in B. At this time, the network slice accessed by the terminal in B is the visited network.

[0460] In the present application, when the terminal is in the home network, the PCF in the aforementioned embodiment is the PCF in the home network. When the terminal roams to a visited network, the session type of the PDU session (first session) also needs to be considered. When the terminal roams to a visited network and the first session is of the Local Breakout type, the PCF for determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session is the PCF in the current visited network; or, when the terminal roams to a visited network and the first session is of the Home Routed type, the PCF for determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session is the PCF in the home network of the terminal.

[0461] In any of the foregoing embodiments, the PCF may determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session based on the subscription data of the terminal. As mentioned above, the subscription data of the terminal may come from the process of the terminal signing in to the network and may also be controlled by the AF.

[0462] For example, Figure 8 FIG. 2 shows an information interaction diagram of a flow control method provided by an embodiment of the present application. Figure 8 In the embodiment shown, Figure 8 As shown, the method comprises the following steps:

[0463] S802, AF sends a sixth message to PCF1.

[0464] The sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to feedback the actual traffic rate of the target network area, or the sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to periodically feedback the actual traffic rate of the target network area, or the sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to feedback the actual traffic rate of the target network area when preset conditions are met.

[0465] Among them, the preset conditions may include but are not limited to: the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate satisfy the first condition, the second condition or the third condition; or, the difference between the upper limit traffic rate and the world traffic rate is less than a preset fourth threshold; etc., not to be exhaustive.

[0466] The target network area bandwidth data includes: the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate of the target network area.

[0467] For example, the sixth message may carry identification information of the target network area, such as the S-NSSAI carrying the target network slice.

[0468] Afterwards, data is exchanged between PCF1, SMF1, UPF, SMF2, PCF2, and UDM, as shown below: Figure 8 The specific interaction process of these steps and the specific implementation methods of these steps can be referred to Figure 7 The description of S702 to S718 in FIG.

[0469] S822, PCF1 sends the seventh message to AF, where the seventh message carries the actual traffic rate.

[0470] For example, the seventh message may also carry an upper limit flow rate. Figure 8 As shown, step S822 can be executed after step S820.

[0471] In addition, if the seventh message does not carry the upper limit traffic rate, the AF can also obtain the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area through interaction with the UDM or UDR. In this case, step S822 can be executed after step S818.

[0472] S824, AF determines the second application information parameter according to the upper limit traffic rate and the actual traffic rate of the target network area.

[0473] Among them, the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been connected to the network slice in the target network area. The determination method can refer to the previous text and can be implemented using any of the aforementioned implementation methods, which will not be repeated here.

[0474] In the embodiment of the present application, the second application information parameter is used to describe the bandwidth requirement and service priority of the first application providing the service, which will be described in detail later.

[0475] S826, AF sends the second application information parameter to PCF1.

[0476] In this way, PCF1 can obtain the subscription data of the terminal based on the second application information parameter, and thereby implement traffic rate control on the target network area.

[0477] For example, Figure 8 As shown, the method further includes: steps S828 to S848. Figure 8 As shown, in S828 to S848, PCF1, UDM, NWDAF, UPF, SMF1, AMF1, CN and UE interact with each other. The specific interaction process and the specific implementation methods of these steps can be referred to. Figure 6 The description of S610 to S632 in the illustrated embodiment. Compared with SMF and PCF in S610 to S632, Figure 8 In the process of executing S828 to S848, SMF1 and PCF1 are used to realize the interaction, which will not be described again.

[0478] The flow control method performed by the AF side is now described.

[0479] like Figure 8 As shown, AF can obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice. AF also determines the second application information parameters based on the upper limit traffic rate and the actual traffic rate of the target network area, and AF sends the second application information parameters to PCF.

[0480] As mentioned above, the second application information parameter is used to describe the bandwidth requirement and service priority of the first application providing the service. The first application is the application providing the service to the AF.

[0481] Specifically, the second application information parameter may include, but is not limited to: one or more of: bandwidth requirement parameters of application sessions, bandwidth requirement parameters of application service flows, service priorities, and preemption order parameters under the same priority. Among them, the bandwidth requirement parameters of application service flows include: a second contracted traffic rate, the second contracted traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area, and the second contracted traffic rate indicates the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that may be generated by the service.

[0482] Specifically, when executing the aforementioned step S808, AF can adjust the first application information parameter when the ratio between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate is greater than or equal to the preset target threshold, so as to obtain the second application information parameter.

[0483] Specifically, when the ratio of the actual flow rate in the uplink direction to the upper limit flow rate in the uplink direction is greater than or equal to the preset first target threshold, the AF can adjust the uplink-related parameters in the first application information parameters to obtain the adjusted second application information parameters. In addition, when the ratio of the actual flow rate in the uplink direction to the upper limit flow rate is greater than or equal to the first target threshold, the AF can also adjust the first application information parameters (including uplink-related parameters and downlink-related parameters) to obtain the second application information parameters.

[0484] Alternatively, when the ratio of the actual flow rate in the downlink direction to the upper limit flow rate in the downlink direction is greater than or equal to the preset second target threshold, the AF may adjust the downlink-related parameters in the first application information parameters to obtain the adjusted second application information parameters. In addition, when the ratio of the actual flow rate in the uplink direction to the upper limit flow rate is greater than or equal to the first target threshold, the AF may also adjust the first application information parameters (including uplink-related parameters and downlink-related parameters) to obtain the second application information parameters. The first target threshold and the second target threshold may be the same or different.

[0485] In addition, if the ratio between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate is less than the preset target threshold, the AF does not need to adjust the first target threshold. In other words, the AF can determine the first application information parameter as the second application information parameter. In this case, the first application information parameter is already stored in the network side (such as UDM), and the AF does not need to send the determined second application information parameter (that is, the first application information parameter) to the PCF. Alternatively, the AF may send the determined second application information parameter to the PCF.

[0486] The first application information parameter involved in the above steps may be determined when the AF signs a contract with the network side (for example, orders a network slice). The first application information parameter may come from the UDM or UDR. Alternatively, the first application information parameter may also be recorded in a storage location readable by the AF.

[0487] Exemplarily, the AF may adjust the first application information parameter in one or more of the following ways:

[0488] Reduce the bandwidth requirement parameters of application sessions;

[0489] Reduce the bandwidth requirement parameters of application business flows;

[0490] Lower the business priority of the application;

[0491] Adjust the preemption order of multiple application services with the same priority;

[0492] Modify the preemption willingness of some application sessions.

[0493] In an exemplary embodiment, when the ratio of the actual traffic rate of the target network area to the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to 70%, the AF can adjust the first application information, specifically including: lowering the session bandwidth requirement of the application service or the bandwidth requirement of the application service flow, modifying the attributes of some non-urgent and important application sessions to allow preemption, lowering the default resource preemption and retention priority of the application session, and modifying the preemption order under the same priority. For example, the preemption order under the same priority can be modified from: changing from giving priority to preempting the first established service flow to giving priority to preempting the service flow with the largest bandwidth. In this way, the second application information parameters can be determined and sent to the PCF.

[0494] In an exemplary embodiment, when the ratio of the actual traffic rate of the target network area to the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to 70%, the AF may reduce the first contracted traffic rate to obtain the second contracted traffic rate. For example, a fixed value may be reduced based on the first contracted traffic rate, or the first contracted traffic rate may be reduced by a preset third ratio to obtain the second contracted traffic rate, etc., without exhaustive enumeration.

[0495] like Figure 8 As shown, the PCF can determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session based on the second contracted traffic rate in the second application information parameter. That is, the contract data of the terminal involved in any of the aforementioned embodiments can come from the contract data in the UDM, or can also be determined by the PCF based on the second application information parameter.

[0496] In summary, through any of the aforementioned embodiments, the PCF can determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session, and implement traffic control on the target network area accordingly.

[0497] In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the PCF may also send the authorized traffic rate of the first session to the control network element of the second session. The service of the second session is the same as the service of the first session, and / or the application to which the second session belongs is the same as the application to which the first session belongs. In this way, the traffic control of sessions of the same type of service or the traffic control of multiple sessions of the same application can be implemented through the aforementioned process.

[0498] For example, when the first session is a session of a video service of APP1, the authorized traffic rate of the first session can be determined according to any of the above methods, so that the authorized traffic rate can be sent to the initiating terminal of the first session and the SMF of the first session.

[0499] In another embodiment, a session of the same type of video service, such as a session of the same type of video service of APP2, can be used as a second session. In this case, the PCF also sends the authorized traffic rate to the initiating terminal of the second session and the SMF of the second session.

[0500] In another embodiment, the session of other services of APP1, such as the session of audio service of APP1, can be used as the second session. In this way, PCF also sends the authorized traffic rate to the initiating terminal of the second session and the SMF of the second session.

[0501] It should be noted that the second session can be a newly accessed session, or can also be a session that has already accessed the target network area. In other words, the flow control method provided in the embodiment of the present application can achieve flow control of the entire target network area by performing flow control on both the newly accessed session and the already accessed session.

[0502] It is to be understood that some or all of the steps or operations in the above embodiments are merely examples, and the present application embodiments may also perform other operations or variations of various operations. In addition, the various steps may be performed in different orders presented in the above embodiments, and it is possible that not all of the operations in the above embodiments need to be performed.

[0503] It can be understood that in each of the above embodiments, the operations or steps implemented by the terminal can also be implemented by components that can be used for the terminal (such as chips or circuits), the operations or steps implemented by the core network node (for example, AMF, PCF, etc.) can also be implemented by components that can be used for the core network node (such as chips or circuits), and the operations or steps implemented by the access network device can also be implemented by components that can be used for the access network device (such as chips or circuits).

[0504] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of the physical structure of a network device is given. The network device can be used to implement the methods corresponding to the PCF side, the control network element side or the AF side described in the above method embodiments, and the details are shown in the above method embodiments.

[0505] The network device 900 may include one or more processors 910, which may also be referred to as processing units, and may implement certain control functions. The processor 910 may be a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processor.

[0506] In an optional design, the processor 910 may also store instructions, which can be executed by the processor so that the network device 900 executes the method corresponding to the terminal or network device or core network node described in the above method embodiment.

[0507] In yet another possible design, the network device 900 may include a circuit that can implement the functions of sending, receiving, or communicating in the aforementioned method embodiments.

[0508] Optionally, the network device 900 may include one or more memories 920, on which instructions or intermediate data are stored, and the instructions can be executed on the processor 910, so that the network device 900 performs the method described in the above method embodiment. Optionally, other relevant data may also be stored in the memory. Optionally, instructions and / or data may also be stored in the processor 910. The processor 910 and the memory 920 may be set separately or integrated together.

[0509] Optionally, the network device 900 may further include a transceiver 930. The transceiver 930 may be called a transceiver unit, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, etc., and is used to implement the transceiver function of the network device.

[0510] If the network device is PCF, it is used to implement the corresponding Figure 4 In the illustrated embodiment, when the control network element of the first session of the PCF sends the operation of authorizing the flow rate, for example, the transceiver 930 in the PCF may send the authorized flow rate to the SMF. The transceiver 930 may further perform other corresponding communication functions. The processor is used to perform the corresponding determination or control operation, and optionally, the corresponding instructions may be stored in the memory. The specific processing methods of each component may refer to the relevant description of the aforementioned embodiment.

[0511] If the network device is SMF and is used to implement the corresponding Figure 5 When the SMF receives the authorized flow rate from the PCF in step S502, for example, the authorized flow rate from the PCF can be received by the transceiver 930 in the SMF. The transceiver 930 can also further perform other corresponding communication functions. The processor is used to perform the corresponding determination or control operation, and optionally, the corresponding instructions can be stored in the memory. The specific processing method of each component can refer to the relevant description of the above embodiment.

[0512] If the network device is AF and is used to implement the corresponding Figure 8 In the operation of AF sending the sixth message to PCF1 in step S802 of the illustrated embodiment, for example, the transceiver 930 in AF can send the sixth message to PCF1. Optionally, the transceiver 930 can also be used to complete other related communication operations, and the processor can also be used to complete other corresponding determination or control operations. Optionally, corresponding instructions can also be stored in the memory. The specific processing methods of each component can refer to the relevant description of the aforementioned embodiment.

[0513] The processor and transceiver described in the present application can be implemented in an integrated circuit (IC), an analog IC, a radio frequency integrated circuit RFIC, a mixed signal IC, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a printed circuit board (PCB), an electronic device, etc. The processor and transceiver can also be manufactured using various IC process technologies, such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), N-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), P-type metal oxide semiconductor (positive channel metal oxide semiconductor, PMOS), bipolar junction transistor (BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

[0514] Optionally, the network device may be an independent device or may be part of a larger device. For example, the device may be: (1) an independent integrated circuit IC, or a chip, or a chip system or subsystem; (2) a collection of one or more ICs, optionally, the IC collection may also include a storage component for storing data and / or instructions; (3) an ASIC, such as a modem (MSM); (4) a module that can be embedded in other devices; (5) a receiver, a terminal, a cellular phone, a wireless device, a handset, a mobile unit, a network device, etc.; (6) others, etc.

[0515] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig.10 As shown, the network device 1000 may include: a processing module 1020 and a transceiver module 1040;

[0516] Among them, the transceiver module 1040 is used to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice, and the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed by the network slice in the target network area;

[0517] A processing module 1020 is used to determine an authorized traffic rate of the first session according to an upper limit traffic rate and an actual traffic rate of the target network area, where the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate a maximum traffic rate allowed for the first session;

[0518] The transceiver module 1040 is further configured to send the authorized traffic rate to the control network element of the first session.

[0519] In a possible embodiment, the processing module 1020 is further configured to:

[0520] A first message is received, where the first message is used to request to establish a first session or to request to modify the first session.

[0521] In another possible embodiment, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service.

[0522] The first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service. The authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services and non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session.

[0523] In another possible embodiment, the processing module 1020 is specifically configured to:

[0524] When the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate, the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session is determined as the authorized traffic rate; or,

[0525] When the actual traffic rate is less than or equal to the first traffic rate, determining the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate, wherein the first traffic rate is less than the message upper limit traffic rate; or,

[0526] When the actual traffic rate is less than the first traffic rate, determining the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session as the authorized traffic rate; or,

[0527] When the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than or equal to a preset first threshold, the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session is determined as the authorized traffic rate, wherein the first threshold is less than 1; or

[0528] When the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is less than the first threshold, the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session is determined as the authorized traffic rate.

[0529] In another possible embodiment, the processing module 1020 is specifically configured to:

[0530] When the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate, determining the authorized traffic rate according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate; or,

[0531] When the actual traffic rate is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate, and the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or,

[0532] When the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, determining the authorized traffic rate according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate; or,

[0533] When the ratio between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate is greater than a preset first threshold value and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized flow rate is determined according to the contracted maximum flow rate of the first session; wherein the authorized flow rate is less than the contracted maximum flow rate; or,

[0534] When the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to the preset first threshold, and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate.

[0535] In another possible embodiment, the processing module 1020 is specifically configured to:

[0536] When the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the contracted minimum traffic rate of the first session is determined as the authorized traffic rate, or the minimum value of the maximum bit rate of the contracted terminal set of the target network slice is determined as the authorized terminal set maximum bit rate.

[0537] In another possible embodiment, the transceiver module 1040 is further configured to:

[0538] Receive a second subscribed traffic rate from an application function network element, where the second subscribed traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of a first session related to a first application in a target network area, and the second subscribed traffic rate indicates the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that may be generated by the service; the second subscribed traffic rate is determined based on the first subscribed traffic rate and the actual traffic rate.

[0539] In another possible embodiment, when the actual flow rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit flow rate, the processing module 1020 is further configured to:

[0540] refusing to allocate an authorized traffic rate for the first session;

[0541] In the target network area, releasing the service quality data flow of the non-guaranteed bit rate service;

[0542] Release low-priority sessions in the target network area;

[0543] The service quality parameters of the first session are modified, where the service quality parameters include: one or more of priority, preemption capability, and willingness to be preempted.

[0544] In another possible embodiment, the transceiver module 1040 is further configured to:

[0545] Sending an authorized traffic rate to a control network element of a second session; wherein the service of the second session is the same as the service of the first session, and / or the application to which the second session belongs is the same as the application to which the first session belongs.

[0546] In another possible embodiment, the target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

[0547] In another possible embodiment, the actual traffic rate is determined according to the actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0548] In another possible embodiment, the actual traffic rate is determined according to performance statistics of average bandwidth usage of terminals and the number of terminals in the target network area.

[0549] In another possible embodiment, the actual traffic rate is determined according to the actual traffic bandwidth of the access network device in the target network area in the target network area.

[0550] In another possible embodiment, the transceiver module 1040 is specifically configured to:

[0551] receiving a second message from the data analysis network element, the second message carrying an actual flow rate and an upper limit flow rate of the target network area; or,

[0552] receiving a third message from a data storage network element, the third message carrying an actual flow rate and an upper limit flow rate of a target network area; or,

[0553] When the target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, a fourth message is received from each policy control network element in the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, and the fourth message carries the actual flow rate of the policy control network element in its own service area; and the actual flow rate in each service area is summarized to obtain the actual flow rate of the target network area; or,

[0554] When the target network area is a local area in the target network slice, a fifth message is received from each access and mobility management network element in the local area in the target network slice, and the fifth message carries the access and mobility management network element in its own service area and the actual traffic bandwidth of each access network device in the target network slice; and the actual traffic bandwidth in each fifth message is summarized to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area.

[0555] In another possible embodiment, the transceiver module 1040 is specifically configured to:

[0556] Sending, to the session management network element corresponding to the first session, the authorized session set maximum bit rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate service in the first session and the authorized maximum bit rate of the guaranteed bit rate service in the first session;

[0557] The authorized session set maximum bit rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate service in the first session is sent to the terminal corresponding to the first session.

[0558] In another possible embodiment, the authorized traffic rate is used to control the uplink traffic and / or downlink traffic of the target network area.

[0559] Fig.10 The network device of the illustrated embodiment can be used to execute the technical solution executed by the PCF in the above method embodiment. Its implementation principle and technical effects can be further referred to the relevant description in the method embodiment. Optionally, the network device can be a PCF or a component of a PCF (such as a chip or a circuit).

[0560] Fig.11 A schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig.11 As shown, the network device 1100 may include: a processing module 1120 and a transceiver module 1140;

[0561] The transceiver module 1140 is used to receive an authorized traffic rate from a policy control network element; wherein the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate the maximum traffic rate allowed by the first session, and the authorized traffic rate is determined based on the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice; the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed by the network slice in the target network area;

[0562] The processing module 1120 is configured to perform flow control on the first session based on the authorized flow rate.

[0563] In a possible embodiment, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service.

[0564] The first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service. The authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services and non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session, or the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate an upper limit of the sum of traffic rates of all non-guaranteed bit rate services included in the first session.

[0565] In another possible embodiment, when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than or equal to the first traffic rate, wherein the first traffic rate is less than the message upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is less than the first traffic rate; or, when the ratio of the actual traffic rate to the upper limit traffic rate is less than or equal to a preset first threshold, wherein the first threshold is less than 1; or, when the ratio of the actual traffic rate to the upper limit traffic rate is less than the first threshold, the authorized traffic rate is the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session.

[0566] In another possible embodiment, when the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than a preset first threshold and the ratio is less than 1; or, when the ratio between the actual traffic rate and the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to the preset first threshold and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein, the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate.

[0567] In another possible embodiment, when the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the authorized traffic rate is: the minimum value of the subscribed minimum traffic rate of the first session or the maximum bit rate of the subscribed terminal set of the target network slice.

[0568] In another possible embodiment, the second subscribed traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or the maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area, and the second subscribed traffic rate indicates the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that may be generated by the service;

[0569] The second contracted traffic rate comes from an application function network element, the second contracted traffic rate is determined according to the first contracted traffic rate and the actual traffic rate, and the first contracted traffic rate comes from a data management network element or a data storage network element.

[0570] In another possible embodiment, the target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein, the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

[0571] In another possible embodiment, the actual traffic rate is determined according to actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0572] In another possible embodiment, the actual traffic rate is determined according to performance statistics of average bandwidth usage of terminals and the number of terminals in the target network area.

[0573] In another possible embodiment, the actual traffic rate is determined based on the actual traffic bandwidth of the access network equipment in the target network area in the target network slice.

[0574] In another possible embodiment, the authorized traffic rate is used to control the uplink traffic and / or downlink traffic of the target network area.

[0575] In another possible embodiment, the processing module 1120 is specifically configured to:

[0576] Controlling the user plane network element to allocate a quality service flow to the first session;

[0577] determining a maximum flow rate of the first session based on a maximum flow rate of the already allocated quality service flow of the first session;

[0578] When the maximum flow rate of the first session is greater than the authorized flow rate, the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated quality service flow is modified, and / or the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated quality service flow of the first session is modified.

[0579] In another possible embodiment, the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate quality service flow and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate quality service flow; the processing module 1120 is specifically used for one or more of the following:

[0580] Modify the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow;

[0581] Modifying the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session;

[0582] Modify the maximum flow rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session.

[0583] In another possible embodiment, the control network element is a terminal corresponding to the first session, and the processing module 1120 is specifically configured to:

[0584] Based on the authorized traffic rate, flow control is performed on the uplink traffic rate of the first session.

[0585] Fig.11 The network device of the illustrated embodiment can be used to execute the technical solution executed by the control network element (terminal or SMF) in the above method embodiment, and its implementation principle and technical effect can be further referred to the relevant description in the method embodiment. Optionally, the network device can be an SMF, or a component of the SMF (such as a chip or circuit). Alternatively, optionally, the network device can be a UE, or a component of the UE (such as a chip or circuit).

[0586] Fig.12 A schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig.12 As shown, the network device 1200 may include: a processing module 1220 and a transceiver module 1240;

[0587] Among them, the processing module 1220 is used to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice, and the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed by the network slice in the target network area;

[0588] The processing module 1220 is further used to determine a second application information parameter according to the upper limit flow rate of the target network area and the actual flow rate; the second application information parameter is used to describe the bandwidth requirement and service priority of the first application providing the service;

[0589] The transceiver module 1240 is used to send the adjusted application information parameters to the policy control network element.

[0590] In a possible embodiment, the second application information parameter includes: one or more of a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application session, a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application service flow, a service priority, and a preemption order parameter under the same priority;

[0591] Among them, the bandwidth requirement parameters of the application service flow include: a second contracted traffic rate, which is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area, and the second contracted traffic rate indicates the minimum traffic rate required for the first session related to the first application to ensure service quality, and / or the maximum traffic rate that the service may generate.

[0592] In another possible embodiment, the processing module 1220 is specifically configured to:

[0593] When the ratio between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the first application information parameter is adjusted to obtain the second application information parameter.

[0594] In another possible embodiment, the processing module 1220 is specifically used for one or more of the following:

[0595] Reduce the bandwidth requirement parameters of application sessions;

[0596] Reduce the bandwidth requirement parameters of application business flows;

[0597] Lower the business priority of the application;

[0598] Adjust the preemption order of multiple application services with the same priority;

[0599] Modify the preemption willingness of some application sessions.

[0600] In another possible embodiment, the target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein, the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

[0601] In another possible embodiment, the actual traffic rate is determined according to actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

[0602] In another possible embodiment, the actual traffic rate is determined according to performance statistics of average bandwidth usage of terminals and the number of terminals in the target network area.

[0603] In another possible embodiment, the actual traffic rate is determined based on the actual traffic bandwidth of the access network equipment in the target network area in the target network slice.

[0604] In another possible embodiment, the transceiver module 1240 is specifically configured to:

[0605] Sending a sixth message to the policy control network element;

[0606] A seventh message is received from the policy control network element, where the seventh message carries the actual traffic rate.

[0607] In another possible embodiment, the sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to feed back the actual traffic rate of the target network area, or,

[0608] The sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to periodically feed back the actual traffic rate of the target network area, or,

[0609] The sixth message is used to request the policy control network element to feed back the actual traffic rate of the target network area when a preset condition is met.

[0610] In another possible embodiment, the seventh message also carries the upper limit traffic rate.

[0611] Fig.12 The network device of the illustrated embodiment can be used to execute the technical solution executed by the AF in the above method embodiment. Its implementation principle and technical effects can be further referred to the relevant description in the method embodiment. Optionally, the network device can be the AF or a component of the AF (such as a chip or circuit).

[0612] It should be understood that the above Figure 10 to Figure 12 The division of each module in the network device shown is only a division of logical functions. In actual implementation, all or part of them can be integrated into one physical entity, or they can be physically separated. And these modules can all be implemented in the form of software calling through processing elements; they can also be implemented in the form of hardware; some modules can also be implemented in the form of software calling through processing elements, and some modules can be implemented in the form of hardware. For example, the processing module can be a separately established processing element, or it can be integrated in a network device, such as a chip of PCF, and can also be stored in the memory of the network device in the form of a program, and called and executed by a processing element of the network device. The implementation of other modules is similar. In addition, all or part of these modules can be integrated together, or they can be implemented independently. The processing element described here can be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities. In the implementation process, each step of the above method or each module above can be completed by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in the processor element or instructions in the form of software.

[0613] For example, the above modules may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, such as one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), or one or more digital singnal processors (DSP), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). For another example, when a certain module above is implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler, the processing element may be a general-purpose processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU) or other processor that can call a program. For another example, these modules may be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

[0614] An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a computer, the computer executes the communication method described in the above embodiment.

[0615] In addition, an embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program. When the computer program is run on a computer, the computer executes the communication method described in the above embodiment.

[0616] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in this application is generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from a website site, computer, server or data center to another website site, computer, server or data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) mode. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integration. The available medium can be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid-state hard disk Solid State Disk), etc.

Claims

1. A flow control method, characterized in that: Applied to policy control network elements, including: Obtain an actual traffic rate of a target network area in a target network slice, where the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed by the target network slice in the target network area; Determine, according to the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area and the actual traffic rate, an authorized traffic rate of the first session, wherein the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate a maximum traffic rate allowed for the first session; the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service; Send the authorized traffic rate to a control network element of the first session.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first session includes the guaranteed bit rate service, and the authorized traffic rate includes an authorized maximum bit rate of the guaranteed bit rate service.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The first session includes the non-guaranteed bit rate service, and the authorized traffic rate includes an authorized set maximum bit rate of the first session.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session includes: When the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate, determining the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, When the actual traffic rate is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate, and the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, When the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, When the ratio between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate is greater than a preset first threshold value, and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized flow rate is determined according to the subscribed maximum flow rate of the first session; wherein the authorized flow rate is less than the subscribed maximum flow rate; or, When the ratio of the actual traffic rate to the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to a preset first threshold, and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The determining the authorized traffic rate of the first session includes: When the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the subscribed minimum traffic rate of the first session is determined as the authorized traffic rate, or the minimum value of the maximum bit rate of the subscribed terminal set of the target network slice is determined as the authorized terminal set maximum bit rate.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Receive a second subscribed traffic rate from an application function network element, where the second subscribed traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of a first session related to a first application in the target network area; the second subscribed traffic rate is determined based on the first subscribed traffic rate and the actual traffic rate.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1-2, 4-5, characterized in that: When the actual flow rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit flow rate, the method further includes one or more of the following: refusing to allocate the authorized traffic rate for the first session; In the target network area, releasing a service quality data flow of a non-guaranteed bit rate service; Releasing low priority sessions in the target network area; Modify the service quality parameters of the first session, where the service quality parameters include: one or more of priority, preemption capability, and willingness to be preempted.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1-2, 4-5, characterized in that: The target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

9. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that: The target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

10. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area is the maximum traffic rate of the target network slice.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1-2, 4-5, 9-10, characterized in that: The control network element is a session management network element.

12. A flow control method, characterized in that: Executed in the control network element, including: Receive an authorized traffic rate from a policy control network element; wherein the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate the maximum traffic rate allowed for a first session, and the authorized traffic rate is determined based on the actual traffic rate of a target network area in a target network slice and an upper limit traffic rate; the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed by the target network slice in the target network area; the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service; Based on the authorized traffic rate, flow control is performed on the first session.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that The first session includes the guaranteed bit rate service, and the authorized traffic rate includes an authorized maximum bit rate of the guaranteed bit rate service.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that The first session includes the non-guaranteed bit rate service, and the authorized traffic rate includes an authorized set maximum bit rate of the first session.

15. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that The target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

16. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

17. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that The target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area is the maximum traffic rate of the target network slice.

18. The method according to any one of claims 12-13, 16-17, characterized in that: The control network element is a session management network element.

19. The method according to any one of claims 12-13 and 17, characterized in that: The actual traffic rate is determined according to the actual traffic of the N6 interface in the target network area.

20. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that The performing flow control on the first session based on the authorized flow rate includes: Controlling the user plane network element to allocate a quality service flow to the first session; determining a maximum flow rate of the first session based on a maximum flow rate of the already allocated quality service flow of the first session; When the maximum flow rate of the first session is greater than the authorized flow rate, the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated quality service flow is modified, and / or the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated quality service flow of the first session is modified.

21. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that The performing flow control on the first session based on the authorized flow rate includes one or more of the following: Modify the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow; Modifying the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session; Modify the maximum flow rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session.

22. A flow control method, characterized in that: Applied to application function network elements, including: Obtain an actual traffic rate of a target network area in a target network slice, where the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed by the target network slice in the target network area; Determining a second application information parameter according to the upper limit flow rate of the target network area and the actual flow rate; the second application information parameter is used to describe the bandwidth requirement and service priority of the first application providing the service; the first session related to the first application includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service; Send the adjusted application information parameters to the policy control network element.

23. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that The second application information parameter includes: one or more of a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application session, a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application service flow, a service priority, and a preemption order parameter under the same priority; Among them, the bandwidth requirement parameters of the application service flow include: a second contracted traffic rate, and the second contracted traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area.

24. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that The target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area is the maximum traffic rate of the target network slice.

25. The method according to any one of claims 22 to 24, characterized in that: The control network element is a session management network element.

26. The method according to any one of claims 22 to 24, characterized in that: The determining the second application information parameter according to the upper limit flow rate of the target network area and the actual flow rate includes: When the ratio between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the first application information parameter is adjusted to obtain the second application information parameter.

27. The method according to claim 26, characterized in that The adjusting of the first application information parameter includes one or more of the following: Reduce the bandwidth requirement parameters of application sessions; Reduce the bandwidth requirement parameters of application business flows; Lower the business priority of the application; Adjust the preemption order of multiple application services with the same priority; Modify the preemption willingness of some application sessions.

28. A network device, characterized in that: include: Processing module and transceiver module; wherein, The transceiver module is used to obtain the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice, and the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed by the target network slice in the target network area; The processing module is used to determine the authorized traffic rate of the first session according to the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area and the actual traffic rate, wherein the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate the maximum traffic rate allowed by the first session; the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service; The transceiver module is further configured to send the authorized traffic rate to the control network element of the first session.

29. The network device according to claim 28, characterized in that: The first session includes the guaranteed bit rate service, and the authorized traffic rate includes an authorized maximum bit rate of the guaranteed bit rate service.

30. The network device according to claim 28 or 29, characterized in that: The first session includes the non-guaranteed bit rate service, and the authorized traffic rate includes an authorized set maximum bit rate of the first session.

31. The network device according to claim 28 or 29, characterized in that: The target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

32. The network device according to claim 30, characterized in that: The target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

33. The network device according to claim 28, characterized in that: The processing module is specifically used for: When the actual traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate, determining the authorized traffic rate according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, When the actual traffic rate is greater than the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate, and the first traffic rate is less than the upper limit traffic rate; or, When the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the first traffic rate and less than the upper limit traffic rate, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the subscribed maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the subscribed maximum traffic rate; or, When the ratio between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate is greater than a preset first threshold value, and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized flow rate is determined according to the subscribed maximum flow rate of the first session; wherein the authorized flow rate is less than the subscribed maximum flow rate; or, When the ratio of the actual traffic rate to the upper limit traffic rate is greater than or equal to a preset first threshold, and the ratio is less than 1, the authorized traffic rate is determined according to the contracted maximum traffic rate of the first session; wherein the authorized traffic rate is less than the contracted maximum traffic rate.

34. The network device according to claim 28, characterized in that The processing module is specifically used for: When the actual traffic rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit traffic rate, the subscribed minimum traffic rate of the first session is determined as the authorized traffic rate, or the minimum value of the maximum bit rate of the subscribed terminal set of the target network slice is determined as the authorized terminal set maximum bit rate.

35. The network device according to claim 33 or 34, characterized in that: The transceiver module is also used for: receiving a second subscribed traffic rate from an application function network element, where the second subscribed traffic rate is used to limit a minimum traffic rate and / or a maximum traffic rate of a first session related to a first application in the target network area; The second contracted traffic rate is determined according to the first contracted traffic rate and the actual traffic rate.

36. The network device according to any one of claims 28-29, 32-34, characterized in that: When the actual flow rate is greater than or equal to the upper limit flow rate, the processing module is further configured to: refusing to allocate the authorized traffic rate for the first session; In the target network area, releasing a service quality data flow of a non-guaranteed bit rate service; Releasing low priority sessions in the target network area; Modify the service quality parameters of the first session, where the service quality parameters include: one or more of priority, preemption capability, and willingness to be preempted.

37. The network device according to claim 28, characterized in that The target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area is the maximum traffic rate of the target network slice.

38. The network device according to any one of claims 28-29, 32-34, and 37, characterized in that: The control network element is a session management network element.

39. A network device, characterized in that: include: Processing module and transceiver module; wherein, The transceiver module is used to receive an authorized traffic rate from a policy control network element; wherein the authorized traffic rate is used to indicate the maximum traffic rate allowed by the first session, and the authorized traffic rate is determined based on the actual traffic rate of the target network area in the target network slice and the upper limit traffic rate; the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of the traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed by the target network slice in the target network area; the first session includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service; The processing module is used to perform flow control on the first session based on the authorized flow rate.

40. The network device according to claim 39, characterized in that: The first session includes the guaranteed bit rate service, and the authorized traffic rate includes an authorized maximum bit rate of the guaranteed bit rate service.

41. The network device according to claim 39, characterized in that: The first session includes the non-guaranteed bit rate service, and the authorized traffic rate includes an authorized set maximum bit rate of the first session.

42. The network device according to claim 39, characterized in that The target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area is the maximum traffic rate of the target network slice.

43. The network device according to any one of claims 39 to 42, characterized in that: The control network element is a session management network element.

44. The network device according to claim 39, characterized in that The processing module is specifically used for: Controlling the user plane network element to allocate a quality service flow to the first session; determining a maximum flow rate of the first session based on a maximum flow rate of the already allocated quality service flow of the first session; When the maximum flow rate of the first session is greater than the authorized flow rate, the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated quality service flow is modified, and / or the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated quality service flow of the first session is modified.

45. The network device according to claim 44, characterized in that The first session includes a guaranteed bit rate quality service flow and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate quality service flow; the processing module is specifically used for one or more of the following: Modify the maximum flow rate of the newly allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow; Modifying the maximum flow rate of the currently allocated guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session; Modify the maximum flow rate of the non-guaranteed bit rate quality service flow of the first session.

46. ​​A network device, characterized in that: include: Processing module and transceiver module; wherein, The processing module is used to obtain an actual traffic rate of a target network area in a target network slice, where the actual traffic rate is used to indicate the sum of traffic rates occupied by all sessions that have been accessed by the target network slice in the target network area; The processing module is further used to determine a second application information parameter according to the upper limit flow rate of the target network area and the actual flow rate; the second application information parameter is used to describe the bandwidth requirement and service priority of the first application providing the service; the first session related to the first application includes a guaranteed bit rate service and / or a non-guaranteed bit rate service; The transceiver module is used to send the adjusted application information parameters to the policy control network element.

47. The network device according to claim 46, characterized in that The second application information parameter includes: one or more of a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application session, a bandwidth requirement parameter of an application service flow, a service priority, and a preemption order parameter under the same priority; Among them, the bandwidth requirement parameters of the application service flow include: a second contracted traffic rate, and the second contracted traffic rate is used to limit the minimum traffic rate and / or maximum traffic rate of the first session related to the first application in the target network area.

48. The network device according to claim 46 or 47, characterized in that: The target network area is the entire coverage area or a local area of ​​the target network slice; wherein the target network slice is the network slice to which the first session requests access.

49. The network device according to claim 46, characterized in that The target network area is the entire coverage area of ​​the target network slice, and the upper limit traffic rate of the target network area is the maximum traffic rate of the target network slice.

50. The network device according to claim 46 or 47, characterized in that: The network device is a session management network element.

51. The network device according to claim 46 or 47, characterized in that: The processing module is specifically used for: When the ratio between the actual flow rate and the upper limit flow rate is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the first application information parameter is adjusted to obtain the second application information parameter.

52. The network device according to claim 51, characterized in that The processing module is specifically used for one or more of the following: Reduce the bandwidth requirement parameters of application sessions; Reduce the bandwidth requirement parameters of application business flows; Lower the business priority of the application; Adjust the preemption order of multiple application services with the same priority; Modify the preemption willingness of some application sessions.

53. A communication system, characterized in that: include: A policy control network element, configured to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11; A control network element, used to execute the method as described in any one of claims 12-21.

54. The communication system according to claim 53, characterized in that The communication system further comprises: An application function network element, used to execute the method as described in any one of claims 22-27.

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