Method and device for managing UE identifier in edge computing service

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for providing edge computing services to a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for managing an identifier of a wireless communication UE so as to provide edge computing services to the UE. The method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is a method for managing an identifier of a UE in an edge enabling server of an edge computing system, and the method may include the following operations: receiving a first message from a UE of a mobile communication system via a mobile communication network, wherein the first message includes a universal public subscription identifier (GPSI) of the UE, and the received UE identifier identifies validity based on a previously received UE profile; if the UE identifier is valid, binding and storing the UE identifier and UE IP address based on the received first message; and if the UE identifier is valid, sending a first response message to the UE.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for providing edge computing services to UEs in a communication system, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for managing UE identifiers to provide edge computing services to wireless communication UEs. Background Art

[0002] In order to meet the demand for wireless data traffic since the deployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made to develop improved 5G or pre-5G communication systems. Therefore, 5G or pre-5G communication systems are also referred to as "beyond 4G networks" or "post-LTE systems."

[0003] 5G communication systems are considered to be implemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands (e.g., 60 GHz bands) in order to achieve higher data rates. In order to reduce the propagation loss of radio waves and increase the transmission distance, beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full-dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, analog beamforming, and massive antenna technology are discussed in 5G communication systems.

[0004] In addition, in the 5G communication system, system network improvement development based on advanced small cells, cloud radio access network (RAN), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, mobile networks, collaborative communications, coordinated multi-point (CoMP), and receiving-end interference elimination is underway.

[0005] In the 5G system, hybrid FSK (frequency shift keying) and QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as advanced coding modulation (ACM) have also been developed, as well as filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as advanced access technologies.

[0006] An edge computing technology for sending data through an edge server has recently been discussed. Edge computing technologies may include, for example, multi-access edge computing (MEC) or fog computing. Edge computing technology may be a technology for providing data to electronic devices through a separate server (hereinafter referred to as an edge server or MEC server) installed in a geographically close location to the electronic device (e.g., in or near a base station). For example, an application that requires low latency in at least one application installed in an electronic device can send and receive data through an edge server installed in a geographically close location, without passing through a server located in an external data network (DN) (e.g., the Internet). Summary of the invention

[0007] Technical issues

[0008] However, the discussion of applying edge computing technology to user equipment (UE) in mobile communication systems is ongoing. Therefore, when providing edge computing services to UE in a mobile communication system, a method and apparatus for managing an identifier of the UE and a signaling method thereof are required.

[0009] The present disclosure provides a method and apparatus for managing an identifier of a UE in a mobile communication system, and a signaling method for managing an identifier of a UE in an edge computing system.

[0010] Technical Solution

[0011] The method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is a method for managing an identifier of a UE by an edge enabling server in an edge computing system, the method comprising: receiving a first message from a UE of a mobile communication system through a mobile communication network, the first message comprising a Generic Public Subscription Identifier (GPSI) of the UE; identifying the validity of the received UE identifier based on a previously received UE profile; when the UE identifier is valid, binding and storing the UE IP address and the UE identifier based on the received first message; and sending a first response message to the UE when the UE identifier is valid.

[0012] The device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is a device of an edge enabling server in an edge computing system, and the device includes: an interface, configured to communicate with a mobile communication network; a memory, configured to store an identifier of a UE in the mobile communication network; and at least one processor, and at least one processor executes control to receive a first message from a UE in the mobile communication system through the interface, the first message including a universal public subscription identifier (GPSI) of the UE, identifying the validity of the received UE identifier based on a previously received UE profile, binding the UE's IP address and the UE's identifier based on the received first message when the UE's identifier is valid, and storing the binding information in the memory, and sending a first response message to the UE when the UE's identifier is valid.

[0013] Beneficial Effects

[0014] According to the present disclosure, a method and apparatus for managing an identifier of a UE in a mobile communication system and a signaling method thereof can be provided in an edge computing system. Therefore, an edge computing service can be provided to a UE in a mobile communication system.

[0015] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge computing platform may provide a capability opening application program interface (API) for edge computing services to a third application server operating in the infrastructure of an edge data network to which the edge computing platform belongs.

[0016] According to the present disclosure, the edge computing platform can manage the ID of the UE through the method proposed in the embodiment of the present disclosure, and provide the required information by using the network capability exposure API of the mobile communication system (for example, the 3GPP system), and the third application server exposes the API based on the function of the ID request.

[0017] In addition, the capability disclosure API provided by the edge computing platform to the third application server has the following effects. First, the third application server can use useful capability disclosure functions in the corresponding edge data network. For example, an API for identifying the location of the UE, an API for identifying the connection status of the UE, and the like can be used. They can be used by the third application server to provide better services. Second, the third application server can use the capability exposure function only by signing a contract with the edge computing platform provider, without any service level agreement, to perform network capability exposure through direct negotiation with the mobile communication system (e.g., 3GPP system). Therefore, the edge computing platform provider can provide capability disclosure functions without any additional efforts from the third application server, and therefore has the resulting business benefits.

[0018] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge computing platform can directly allocate an identifier of a UE used when providing a capability open application program interface (API) for edge computing services to a third application server operating in the infrastructure of an edge data network to which the edge computing platform belongs. The edge computing platform can be a platform function of a system to which an edge server included in an edge network is connected. Therefore, the edge computing platform can be an edge enabling server connected to an edge server, or a server for implementing a platform in which an edge server operates.

[0019] At this time, when allocating UE identifiers, the edge computing platform can allocate different UE identifiers to respective third applications, and accordingly, the UE identifiers are not shared between the third applications. Therefore, when the "capability exposure application program interface (API)" for obtaining information about the UE is provided to the third application, the privacy of the UE identifier can be protected, so that the corresponding information can be prevented from being misused or tracked by the third application. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] Figure 1A The structure of the MEC platform that can communicate with the 3GPP mobile communication system and the connection between the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0021] Figure 1B The deployment of the user plane of the 3GPP network and the edge data network in a service provider network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0022] Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 3 is a signal flow chart illustrating a process in which a UE accesses an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 4 is a signal flow chart illustrating a process of providing edge application services to mobile communication UEs through an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figure 5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process of providing edge computing services using an identifier assigned to a UE in an MEC network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0026] Figure 6 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process of providing an edge computing service by using an identifier of a UE identified in an edge computing platform according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0027] Fig. 7A and Figure 7Bis a control flow diagram illustrating a process in which an edge enabling server manages identifiers of UEs capable of receiving MEC services according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0028] Figure 8 is a control flow chart illustrating a process in which an edge enablement server provides information about a UE to an edge application server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0029] Fig.9A Detailed description is a control flow chart showing a process in which an edge management server allocates an identifier to a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0030] Fig. 9B Detailed description is a control flow diagram illustrating a process in which an edge enabling server provides an edge service API from an edge application according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0031] FIG. 10A to FIG. 10C is a control flow diagram illustrating a process in which an edge enabling server manages an identifier to allow a mobile communication UE to receive an MEC service according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0032] Fig.11 is a block diagram of an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0033] Fig.12 is an internal block diagram of a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that in the accompanying drawings, identical or similar elements are designated by identical or similar reference symbols as much as possible. In addition, detailed descriptions of known functions or configurations that may make the subject matter of the present disclosure unclear will be omitted.

[0035] When describing the embodiments of the present disclosure, descriptions related to technical contents that are well known in the art and not directly related to the present disclosure will be omitted. Such omission of unnecessary descriptions is intended to prevent the main idea of ​​the present disclosure from being obscured and to shift the main idea more clearly.

[0036] For the same reason, in the accompanying drawings, some elements may be exaggerated, omitted or schematically illustrated. In addition, the size of each element does not fully reflect the actual size. In the accompanying drawings, the same or corresponding elements have the same reference numerals.

[0037] By referring to the embodiments described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the advantages and features of the present disclosure and the methods for achieving these advantages and features will be apparent. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described below, but can be implemented in various different forms. The following embodiments are provided only to fully disclose the present disclosure and inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the present disclosure, and the present disclosure is limited only by the scope of the attached claims. Throughout the specification, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar elements.

[0038] Here, it should be understood that each block of the flowchart diagram and the combination of blocks in the flowchart diagram can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device create a device for implementing the specified functions in the flowchart block. These computer program instructions can also be stored in a computer-usable or computer-readable memory, which can instruct the computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of instruction device including the functions specified in the flowchart (multiple) blocks. The computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operating steps are performed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, so that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device provide steps to implement the specified functions in the flowchart (multiple) blocks.

[0039] In addition, each block of the flowchart diagram may represent a module, segment or portion of code, which includes one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function. It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions recorded in the blocks may appear out of order. For example, two blocks shown in succession may actually be executed substantially simultaneously, or may sometimes be executed in reverse order, depending on the functions involved.

[0040] As used herein, "unit" refers to a software element or hardware element that performs a predetermined function, such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). However, the meaning of "unit" is not always limited to software or hardware. "Unit" can be constructed to be stored in an addressable storage medium or to execute one or more processors. Therefore, "unit" includes, for example, software elements, object-oriented software elements, class elements or task elements, processes, functions, attributes, procedures, subroutines, program code segments, drivers, firmware, microcodes, circuits, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays and parameters. The elements and functions that "unit" provides can be combined into a smaller number of elements or "units", or divided into a larger number of elements or "units". In addition, these elements and "units" may be implemented as reproducing one or more CPUs in a device or a secure multimedia card.

[0041] The present disclosure discloses a UE establishing a data connection to an edge data network close to the UE in order to use a low-latency or broadband service in a communication system. In addition, the present disclosure discloses a technology for accessing a third application server operating on an edge computing platform managed in a corresponding edge data network to use a data service. The present disclosure discloses content for mobile edge computing.

[0042] The present disclosure discloses a method of managing an identifier of a UE to support an edge computing service, and a method of providing the method to a third application server operating on an edge computing platform.

[0043] The UE accesses a third application server (hereinafter referred to as the edge application server) operating on the edge computing platform to use the edge computing service. According to an embodiment, the edge application server may obtain the information required by the UE through a capability exposure application interface (hereinafter referred to as "capability exposure API") provided by the edge computing platform. According to another embodiment, the edge application server may send a request to the UE to the edge computing platform by using the capability exposure API provided by the edge computing platform.

[0044] According to an embodiment, in order to provide a capability exposure API, the edge computing platform can be connected to the 3GPP system and use the external network capability exposure API provided by the 3GPP system. In addition, the edge computing platform should use the external network capability exposure API of the 3GPP system corresponding to the capability exposure API requested by the edge application server. However, since the edge application server cannot know the identifier (ID) used by the UE in the 3GPP system, the edge application server cannot request the capability exposure API from the edge computing platform based on the ID of the UE that the 3GPP system can identify. Therefore, the edge computing platform cannot determine which UE ID must be used for the external network capability exposure API provided by the 3GPP system. Therefore, the capability exposure function cannot be supported. In order to solve this problem, the edge computing platform should provide a method for identifying the UE between the edge application server and the 3GPP system to support capability exposure.

[0045] In the 3GPP next-generation communication system, the architecture for implementing edge computing services is being continuously discussed. Edge computing technology may be referred to as mobile edge computing or multi-access edge computing, and is referred to as "MEC" in this disclosure for convenience. MEC may install a wireless base station or a gateway (or UPF) near a wireless base station. In addition, MEC may apply distributed cloud computing technology to a gateway (or UPF) to provide various services and cache content near a user terminal. Therefore, congestion in the mobile core network may be alleviated and low-latency communication may be achieved in data communication with the UE. In addition, new services may be created based on the network. The MEC system may provide cloud computing capabilities and an IT service environment to application developers or content providers at the edge of the mobile network. In particular, a method may be provided to provide ultra-low latency and large bandwidth to applications and approach network information in real time. Therefore, when using a 5G network system in a mobile communication network, an application providing MEC services may provide faster services to the UE. In addition, the 5G network system may provide a function for UEs using MEC services to access the MEC system. Not only may the 5G network system provide MEC service functions, but the 4G network system may also provide MEC service functions.

[0046] For ease of description, the present disclosure uses terms and names defined in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE). However, the present disclosure is not limited to the terms and names and may be equally applicable to systems that comply with other standards.

[0047] Figure 1A The structure of the MEC platform that can communicate with the 3GPP mobile communication system and the connection between the electronic device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0048] refer to Figure 1AA network entity or a network node according to the present disclosure is described. According to the present disclosure, a network structure for providing an MEC service to a mobile communication UE may have the following configuration.

[0049] For example, electronic devices 110 and 120 that are capable of accessing a mobile communication network (eg, a 3GPP network, a 3GPP network 130 and an edge computing platform 200 for providing MEC services, and an edge management server 140).

[0050] The electronic devices 110 and 120 capable of accessing the 3GPP network are generally referred to as user equipment (UE), and may correspond to any type of electronic device capable of accessing the 3GP network 130. Hereinafter, for ease of description, the electronic devices 110 and 120 are referred to as UE. The UEs 110 and 120 may be directly connected to the 3GPP network 130, or may be connected to the 3GPP network 130 through a wireless WiFi network. Figure 1A In the example of FIG. 1 , a first UE 110 and a second UE 120 are described.

[0051] A first application (App1) 111 and a second application (App2) 112 capable of receiving NEC services using an edge computing platform may be installed in the first UE 110. The UEs 110 and 120 supporting MEC system services may include edge enabling layers 113 and 123 within the UE. Therefore, the edge enabling layer 113 within the first UE 110 may be a layer that intercommunicates with the edge enabling server 210 of the edge computing platform 200. The 3GPP communication layer 114 within the first UE 110 may be a layer for communicating with the 3GPP network 130. Each of the first application (App1) 111 and the second application (App2) 112 included in the first UE 110 may be an application client.

[0052] In order to use the MEC service within the first UE 110, the edge enabling layer 113 can identify which application can use the MEC service. The edge enabling layer 113 can perform operations connected to the network interface so that the data of the UE client application data can be sent to the application server 201, 202 or 203 providing the MEC service. In addition, in order to establish a data connection for using the MEC service, the edge enabling layer 113 can enable communication through the 3GPP communication layer 114. The 3GPP communication layer 114 may include a modem for using a mobile communication system and logic for processing wireless signals. The 3GPP communication layer 114 can be used to establish a wireless connection for data communication, register the UE in the mobile communication system, establish a connection for data transmission to the mobile communication system, and send and receive data. The edge enabling layer 113 performs operations for providing edge services through the edge enabling server 210, and can therefore be referred to as an edge enabling client.

[0053] The first UE 110 may further include a wireless WiFi layer (not shown). When the first UE 110 has the wireless WiFi layer, the first UE may access the 3GPP network 130 through the wireless WiFi layer.

[0054] In the first UE 110, only applications, an edge enabling layer 113 for enabling MEC services, and a communication layer 114 for accessing a mobile communication system are shown. The first UE 110 may also include other elements.

[0055] The applications (App) 111 and 112 of the first UE 110 refer to applications provided by a third party. That is, they may represent client applications executed within the first UE 110 for a specific application service. Therefore, multiple applications may be executed within the first UE 110. Among these applications, one or more applications may use MEC services. The first UE 110 may include an edge enabling layer.

[0056] The second UE 120 may have the same or similar configuration as the first UE 110. Figure 1A In the example of , the first application (App1) 121 and the third application (App3) 122 are installed in the second UE 120. The first application (App1) 111 in the first UE 110 and the first application (App1) 121 in the second UE 120 may be the same application. Their different reference numerals are used to identify that they are installed in the first UE 110 and the second UE 120. The edge enabling layer 123 in the second UE 120 may be a layer that communicates with the edge enabling server 210 of the edge computing platform 200. The 3GPP communication layer 124 in the second UE 120 may be a layer for communicating with the 3GPP network 130. The 3GPP communication layer 124 may be a layer that performs a process for accessing the 3GPP network 130 by the second UE 110, a process for sending and receiving data packets, etc. The second UE 120 may further include a wireless WiFi layer (not shown). When the second UE 120 has a wireless WiFi layer, the second UE can access the 3GPP network 130 through the wireless WiFi layer.

[0057] Subsequently, the 3GPP mobile communication network 130 may include the following network entities (functions).

[0058] 5G-RAN 131 may be a base station that provides wireless communication functions to UEs. Figure 1B An example of 5G-RAN 131 is described in more detail.

[0059] The non-3GPP interworking function (N3IWF) 138 may be an interworking entity for allowing the UE to access a mobile communication network, such as a 5G network, when accessing using a wireless function (such as WiFi, etc.) of a non-mobile communication network (non-3GPP). For example, UEs 110 and 120 may access N3IWF 138 through a WiFi AP (not shown), and UEs 110 and 120 and N3IWF 138 may establish an IP security tunnel connection. Thereafter, all signals between UEs 110 and 120 and N3IWF 138 may be connected to the AMF 133 of the mobile communication network (e.g., 5G network) through N3IWF 138. In addition, N3IWF 138 may establish a user plane connection with UPF 132. Therefore, packets or data sent by UEs 110 and 120 may be sent to UPF 132 via N3IWF 138 through WiFi AP (not shown). Therefore, UPF 132 may send packets to a data network.

[0060] The user plane function (UPF) 132 may be used as a gateway for transmitting packets sent and received by the UE 110 or 120. The UPF 132 may be located near the edge server to support MEC. By using the UPF 132, data packets sent by the UE 110 or 120 may be sent directly to the edge network, thereby achieving low-latency transmission. The UPF 132 may be connected to a data network connected via the Internet. Therefore, the UPF 132 may route data that should be sent via the Internet to the Internet data network between packets sent by the UE 110 and 120.

[0061] Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 133 may be a network entity for managing the mobility of UE 110 or 120 .

[0062] The network exposure function (NEF) 134 can access the information used to manage the UE in the 5G network, and can subscribe to the mobility management events of the corresponding UE, subscribe to the session management events of the corresponding UE, request session-related information, configure the charging information of the corresponding UE, request to change the PDU session policy of the corresponding UE, and send small data for the corresponding UE. Here, NEF 134 is indicated as a function, but it can be a network entity for performing the same function. For example, NEF 134 can be a network entity for the connection between a 3GPP network and another network. In the following, NEF134 is described for ease of description, but a specific server or network device can be implemented in the implementation. Therefore, NEF134 can be understood as a network device.

[0063] Policy and Charging Function (PCF) 135 may be a network entity that applies a service policy, a charging policy, and a PDU session policy of a mobile communication service provider to UEs 110 and 120. Here, PCF 135 is indicated as one function, but may be one network entity for performing the same function. Hereinafter, PCF 135 is described for ease of description, but a specific server or network device may be implemented in implementation. Therefore, PCF 135 may be understood as one network device.

[0064] Session Management Function (SMF) 136 may be a network entity that manages a connection of a packet data network to provide packet data to UEs 110 and 120. The connection between UEs 110 and 120 and SMF 136 may be a PDU session. Hereinafter, SMF 136 is described for ease of description, but a specific server or network device may be implemented in implementation. Therefore, SMF 136 may be understood as a network device.

[0065] Unified Data Management (UDM) 137 may be a network entity that stores subscriber information. Here, UDM 137 is indicated as a function, but may be a network entity for performing the same function. Hereinafter, UDM 137 is described for ease of description, but a specific server or network device may be implemented in implementation. Therefore, UDM 137 may be understood as a network device.

[0066] Subsequently, network entities for providing edge computing services are described.

[0067] The MEC system structure may include UEs 110 and 120, an edge enabling server 210, and an edge management server 140. The edge enabling server 210 may be a server of an edge computing platform 200 that configures an edge data network. The edge enabling server 210 may be a server that the UE accesses to use MEC services, and may know in advance which third application server 201, 202, or 203 is operating within the corresponding edge computing platform 200. The edge enabling server 210 may perform operations of connecting the third application client of the UEs 110 and 120 and the third application servers 201, 202, and 203 within the edge computing platform 200 by negotiating with the UEs 110 and 120. The edge enabling server 210 may be referred to as edge enabling or an edge enabling server.

[0068] The edge management server 140 performs a function for sending configuration information for using MEC services to the UEs 110 and 120. The edge management server is used to configure the information required by the UEs 110 and 120, and thus may be referred to as an edge configuration server or an edge data network configuration server. In the following description, unless otherwise specifically mentioned, the edge management server, edge configuration server, or edge data network configuration server may be used as the same meaning.

[0069] The edge management server 140 may know the deployment information of the edge enabling server 210 in advance. Before using the MEC service, the UE 110 and 120 may access the edge management server 140 to receive the configuration information required to use the MEC service, for example, information about the edge enabling server 210 that should be accessed at a specific location. In addition, there may be a DNS server for the MEC service. When there is a DNS server for the MEC service, the DNS server may be used to resolve the IP address of the edge enabling server 210 or resolve the IP address of the application server 201, 202, or 203 on the edge enabling server 210. The DNS server may be a network entity that may know information about the edge enabling server 210 or information about the application servers 201, 202, and 203 operating on the edge enabling server 210. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the DNS server may exist in each edge enabling network covering a specific area. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there can only be one DNS server in the entire MEC system. The edge management server 140 may configure information for each location in the UE on the DNS server.

[0070] Edge application servers (hereinafter referred to as edge applications) 201, 202, and 203 are third application servers operating within the MEC system. In other words, the edge application server may be a third application server operating on an infrastructure provided by the edge computing platform 200. The third application server may provide services at a location close to the UE 110 or 120, thereby providing ultra-low latency services. The edge applications 201, 202, and 203 may obtain the information required to provide services to the UE by using the capability exposure API provided by the edge computing platform 200, or provide it to the edge computing platform 200. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, although the edge enabling server 210 is shown to provide a capability exposure API to the edge applications 201, 202, and 203, another function within the edge computing platform 200 may provide a corresponding API. Figure 1AIn the embodiment of FIG. 2 , for convenience, the edge enabling server 210 provides a capability exposure API to the edge applications 201, 202, and 203. However, another function (or entity) within the edge computing platform 200 may provide a capability exposure API to the edge applications 201, 202, and 203. In this case, the edge enabling server 210 may be replaced with a name that performs another function and used as the name.

[0071] The edge management server 140 may be connected to the edge enabling server 210 and transmit information or policies required to provide MEC services to the UEs 110 and 120. In addition, the edge management server 140 may provide the edge enabling server 210 with information about the UEs 110 and 120 so that the enabling server 201 may use the information when providing MEC services to the UEs 110 and 120. For example, authentication / authorization information of the UEs 110 and 120, information about services subscribed by the UEs, an ID of the UEs, etc. may be transmitted to the edge enabling server 210.

[0072] Figure 1B Deployment of a 3GPP network and a user plane of an edge data network in a service provider network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0073] refer to Figure 1B , a service area 160 of a mobile network operator (MNO) includes a first edge data network 161 and a second edge data network 162 .

[0074] First, the configuration of the first edge data network 161 is described. In the first edge data network 161, the first UE 110 and the second UE 120 can perform wireless communication through different base stations 151 and 152. The corresponding base stations 151 and 152 can access different UPFs 132a and 132b. However, one edge data network can have one edge enabling server 210a, and the UPFs 132a and 132b can access the edge computing infrastructure 161a through one edge enabling server 210a located in the first edge data network 161. In addition, the third application servers 201 and 202 can operate on the edge computing infrastructure 161a, and can be as shown in FIG. Figure 1A Do this as shown.

[0075] Subsequently, in the second edge data network 162, the third UE 111 can communicate within the network. The base station 153 included in the second edge data network 162 can be connected to the edge enabling server 210b through the UPF 132c, and can be connected to the edge computing infrastructure (infra) 162b. The third application servers 2101 and 202 operating on the edge computing infrastructure 162b can provide MEC services to the UE 111 located in the second edge data network 162.

[0076] The edge computing infrastructures 161a and 162b may reduce latency and load by placing UE access points nearby to provide efficient services, and may be servers that provide an environment to provide functions required for the operation of edge applications.

[0077] UE 110 and 120 can communicate with each other through a base station of a mobile communication network, such as a 5G base station ( Figure 1A 132 ), accesses a mobile communication system, such as a 5G system, and establishes a data connection. In the following description, it is assumed that the mobile communication network is a 5G network or a 5G system. The 5G system can allocate UPF 132, and UPF 132 can access the corresponding edge network to provide MEC services to UEs 110 and 120. UEs 110 and 120 can communicate with an edge enabling server 210 through UPF 132. In addition, UEs 110 and 120 can obtain predetermined information, such as available edge application information, from the edge enabling server 210. Therefore, UEs 110 and 120 can perform data communication based on the received available edge application information. The edge enabling server 210 can perform the function of managing information of edge application servers 201, 202, and 203, and provide information to UEs 110 and 120 about which edge application is being executed in the current edge network. In addition, the edge enabling server 210 may manage a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or an IP address required to transmit data to a corresponding edge application server. As described above, the information managed by the edge enabling server 210 may be sent to the edge enabling layer of the corresponding UE.

[0078] The edge enabling server 210 may communicate with the PCF 135 or NEF 134 of the 3GPP network and exchange predetermined information during the communication. Such information exchange is referred to as negotiation hereinafter. The edge enabling server 210 may provide the 5G mobile communication system with the information required when the UE 110 and 120 use the MEC service via the PCF 135 or NEF 134 by negotiating with the PCF 135 or NEF 134 of the 3GPP network. According to another embodiment, the edge enabling server 210 may use the NEF 134 of the 5G mobile communication system to provide public functions to an external server through negotiation with the PCF 135 or NEF 134 of the 3GPP network, such as UE location reporting, UE session-related event reporting, etc.

[0079] The edge enabling server 210 may provide capability disclosure services to edge applications being executed in the edge computing platform 200 based on functions. For example, services that identify the location of the UE, services that identify the connection status of the UE, etc. may be included. In addition, the edge enabling server 210 may perform a proxy role to use the disclosure functions provided by the 3GPP network 130 (e.g., the NEF 134 of the 5G mobile communication system) to the edge application servers 201, 202, and 203. According to various embodiments, the disclosure functions provided by the NEF 134 may be UE mobility-related events, session-related events, UE service path change events, etc.

[0080] According to the request from the edge application server, the edge enabling server 210 can call the public service or the required network public function provided by the NEF 134 of the 5G mobile communication system. In addition, the platform services provided by the 5G system, such as the report of the network status, the request for changing the UE service path, the report of the UE location information, etc., can be provided to the edge application servers 201, 202 and 203.

[0081] Figure 1A The edge enabling server 210 shown may be a network function (entity) that provides the above functions. Therefore, it may be referred to as an edge enabling function. In the present disclosure, the edge enabling server is not limited to the name, and it is obvious that the edge enabling server may be a logical device, a network entity, or a network function that exists for the MEC service that performs the functions of the logical processing in the present disclosure.

[0082] Platform functions (functions) Figure 1AIt is not shown in the figure, but it may be a platform function of the system to which the edge enabling server 210 included in the edge network is connected, and may correspond to an orchestration function. The platform function or the orchestration function may include a middleware application or infrastructure service for configuring the MEC system structure. That is, operations for deploying and distributing the edge enabling server 210 included in the edge network, installing or injecting edge application packets in the edge enabling server 210, or operating the edge application server in the edge enabling server 210, and information about the edge application server (e.g., IP address and FQDN) can be configured in the edge enabling server.

[0083] Figure 1B The scenario of deploying the user plane of a 3GPP network and an edge data network in a service provider network according to the present disclosure is shown.

[0084] refer to Figure 1B A case where a user plane of a 3GPP network and an edge data network according to the present disclosure is deployed in one service provider network and operations of an MEC service according to the case are described in more detail.

[0085] As shown in the first edge data network 161, multiple UPFs 132a and 132b of the 3GPP network can be deployed in an edge computing data network. Therefore, a UPF close to the UE can be selected according to the location of the UE in an edge computing data network. That is, for UEs accessing the same edge computer data network to use MEC services, the UPF serving the corresponding UE can be changed. The change in the UPF can mean a change in the IP address of the UE.

[0086] As shown in the second edge data network 162, one UPF 132c of the 3GPP network can be deployed in one edge computing data network. Therefore, for one edge computing data network, one UPF can be selected. That is, in the case of the second edge data network 162, the UE accesses the second edge data network 162 to use the MEC service only to the UPF, so when using the corresponding edge computing data network, the IP address can be used without change.

[0087] The UE can establish a PDU session through the 3GPP network, and the PDU session can be connected to the base station and the UPF via the UE. The UPF is connected to the edge data network, so that data can be transmitted to the application server (edge ​​application server) operating in the edge data network. Therefore, the UE can send data to or receive data from at least one edge application server operating in the edge computing network.

[0088] The UE can negotiate with the edge enabling server and receive (acquire) information about the edge application server operating in the edge data network. At this time, the data about the negotiation between the UE and the edge enabling server can be transmitted through the user plane of the 3GPP system (i.e., via the PDU session of the base station and UPF). The edge enabling server can obtain information about the edge application server, expose network functions to the edge application server, or expose services for edge computing.

[0089] Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0090] refer to Figure 2 , the edge enabling server 210 may include an internal communication interface 211, a controller 212, an external interface 213, and a memory 214. In addition, the edge enabling server 210 may include a separate device or access device through which an operator or a network manager controls the edge enabling server 210. In addition, the edge enabling server 210 may also have other network and additional interfaces and Figure 2 The interface shown in . Figure 2 Only interfaces for performing operations according to the present disclosure are shown.

[0091] The internal communication interface 211 can interface with one or more edge application servers based on the control of the controller 212. For example, the internal communication interface 211 can process data or signaling required for communication between the first edge application server 201 and the edge enabling server. In another example, the internal communication interface 211 can process data or signaling required for communication between the second edge application server 202 and / or the third edge application server 203 and the edge enabling server 210 based on the control of the controller 212.

[0092] The controller 212 may control the overall operations performed by the edge enabling server 210 and may include one or more processors. The controller 212 may send data to / receive data from a specific edge application server via the internal communication interface 211. In addition, the controller 212 may communicate with the UE and / or the 3GPP network via the external communication interface 213 and provide or obtain predetermined information. In addition, the controller 212 may control the operations performed by the edge enabling server 210 described in the present disclosure.

[0093] The external interface 213 may include a first interface 213a, a second interface 213b, and a third interface 213c. The first interface 213a may communicate with at least one of the control plane nodes of the 3GPP network based on the control of the controller 212. The control plane node of the 3GPP network may be Figure 1AAt least one of the AMF 133, NEF 134, PCF 135, SMF 136 and UDM 137 in the first interface 213a can communicate with at least one control plane node.

[0094] The second interface 213b can communicate with at least one user plane node of the 3GPP network based on the control of the controller 212. Figure 1B As shown, the second interface can communicate with UPFs 132a, 132b, and 132c corresponding to user plane nodes. In addition, the second interface can communicate with a UPF corresponding to a case where a UE moves within the same edge data network and the UPF changes. In another example, the second interface can communicate with a UPF corresponding to a case where a UE moves to another edge data network (for example, a case where the UE moves from a first edge data network 161 to a second edge data network 162 or from a second edge data network 162 to a first edge data network 161).

[0095] The memory 214 may temporarily store operations required to control the edge enabling server 210 and data generated by the control based on the control of the controller 212. In addition, the memory 214 may receive data from the edge enabling server 210 described in the present disclosure, or store data required for transmission based on the control of the controller 212. In addition, the memory 214 may store only the identifier information of the UE, or map the identifier information to other specific information and store the mapped information based on the control of the controller 212.

[0096] Figure 3 is a signal flow chart illustrating a process in which a UE accesses an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0097] refer to Figure 3 UE 110 includes Figure 1A and Figure 1B The UE 110 is a UE capable of accessing the 3GPP network 130 as a mobile communication network, and it is assumed that at least one application capable of receiving MEC services according to the present disclosure is installed.

[0098] In the present disclosure, a general public subscription identifier (GPSI) may be used as an identifier of UE 110, which may be an identifier of UE 110 used in a 5G system defined in 3GPP. GPSI may correspond to an external identifier (ID) used in a 3GPP system or a mobile station international ISDN number (MSISDN) corresponding to a telephone number. An external identifier is an identifier defined for identifying an identifier (ID) assigned to UE 110 by a third service provider within a 3GPP mobile communication network. In the present disclosure, an ID assigned to UE 110 by an edge computing service provider may be used as an external ID within a 3GPP system. Alternatively, the edge computing service provider may sign a contract with a 3GPP mobile communication service provider to preconfigure an external ID for a specific UE to be used. As described above, when a contract is signed in advance with a 3GPP mobile communication service provider, the information may be stored in a subscriber information server (not shown) or the edge computing service provider may use the MSISDN of the UE as an ID for identifying the UE.

[0099] Based on the above description, refer to Figure 3 A method of managing an identifier of a UE 110 is described.

[0100] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to use the MEC service, the UE 110 may perform a registration process in the edge enabling server 210 to use the edge computing service in operation 300. The registration process may be performed by generating a message by the edge enabling layer 113 of the UE 110 and sending the message to the 3GPP network 130 through the 3GPP communication layer 114. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the 3GPP network 130 may send the message sent from the UE 110 in the registration process to the edge enabling server 210, and send the message sent from the edge enabling server 210 to the UE 110 through a radio channel.

[0101] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE 110 may perform a service discovery process with the edge enabling server 210 to identify a third application that can be used in the edge computing platform 200 that the UE accesses to use the MEC service. At this time, the UE 110 may send a message including the GPSI assigned to the UE to the edge enabling server 210. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the 3GPP network 130 may send a message sent from the UE 110 in the registration process to the edge enabling server 210, and send the message sent from the edge enabling server 210 to the UE 110 through a radio channel.

[0102] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the GPSI of UE 110 may be information preconfigured in SIM information of UE 110, or information configured in edge enabling layer 113 of UE 110. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the GPSI may be a value received from the 3GPP network when UE 110 initially accesses the 3GPP network.

[0103] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may identify the ID of the UE, for example, the GPSI included in the request message received from the UE 110 in operation 302 .

[0104] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may be configured to: Figure 3 10. For example, in the case where the user profile can be received, the authentication / authorization operation of the UE can be performed in advance. Therefore, the edge enabling server 210 can identify whether the GPSI identified in operation 302 is included in the profile of the UE obtained in the authentication / authorization process previously performed by the UE 110. The profile can be information received by the edge enabling server 210 from the edge management server 140.

[0105] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may determine whether the identified GPSI is a valid GPSI in operation 302. Figure 3 The GPSI of the profile of the UE 110 received in the authentication / authorization process previously performed in the flowchart of FIG. 300 may be compared with the GPSI included in the message received in operation 300, and the validity may be determined. For example, when the previously received GPSI is the same as the GPSI included in the message received in operation 300, the edge enabling server 210 may recognize that the GPSI is valid. On the other hand, when the previously received GPSI is different from the GPSI included in operation 300, the edge enabling server 210 may recognize that the GPSI is invalid.

[0106] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 receives the configuration file of the UE 110 during the authentication / authorization process or does not receive the configuration file from the edge management server 140 , operation 302 may not be performed.

[0107] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may bind the IP address of the UE 110 and the GPSI information of the UE 110 based on the message received in operation 300, and store the information in the memory 214 in operation 304. The information may be used in the future to determine the GPSI information of the UE 110 by the edge enabling server 210 based on the IP address of the UE 110.

[0108] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may send a response to the message received in operation 300 to the UE 110 in operation 306. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the GPSI information is valid and corresponds to the registration request message, the response message may be a registration approval response. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the GPSI information is valid and corresponds to the service discovery message, the response message may be a service-type response message. For example, when the UE 110 performs registration, a response to the registration may be sent to the UE 110. In another example, when the UE 110 performs service discovery, information about a third application that the UE 110 may use through the edge computing service and information for accessing a third application server (e.g., FQDN or IP address) may be sent as a response message.

[0109] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when UE 110 performs registration, operation 306 may be performed after the registration process. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when UE 110 performs service discovery, information about the third application and information for accessing the third application server (e.g., FQDN or IP address) may be sent together with the response signal.

[0110] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when there is no information about GPSI in the message received from the UE 110 or no pre-stored GPSI information, the edge enabling server 210 may operate in operation 308. That is, when it is not possible to determine whether the GPSI information received from the UE 110 is valid information, the edge enabling server 210 may operate. Therefore, when it is not possible to determine whether the GPSI information received from the UE 110 is valid information, the edge enabling server 210 may not perform operations 308 to 314.

[0111] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to identify the validity of GPSI information included in the message received from the UE 110 in operation 308, the edge enabling server 210 may determine whether to send a request to acquire user information from the 3GPP network 130 or determine validity information of the user information.

[0112] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 determines to identify the validity of the GPSI transmitted by the UE 110 or determines to acquire a configuration file of the GPSI transmitted by the UE 110 from the 3GPP network 130 , the edge enabling server may perform operation 310 .

[0113] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 310, the edge enabling server 210 may send a query message for acquiring information about the UE 110 to the 3GPP network 130. For example, in operation 310, the edge enabling server 210 may send a request message for identifying the GPSI of the UE 110 or acquiring a configuration file of the GPSI of the UE 110 to connect to the NEF 134 or PCF 135 of the 3GPP network. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may insert the IP address of the UE 110 into the request message and send the request message. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may also insert a service provider ID for identifying an edge computing service provider into the request message and send the request message.

[0114] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 can directly access the PCF 135, the edge enabling server 210 can send a request message to the PCF 135 through the Npcf service. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 cannot directly access the PCF 135, the edge enabling server can send a request via the NEF 134.

[0115] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF 135 of the 3GPP network 130 may have information about the session currently being used by the UE 110. For example, the PCF 135 may have information about the session currently being used by the UE 110 by accessing the edge computing data network. In this case, the PCF 135 may know the IP address being used by the UE 110 and also store the corresponding GPSI of the UE 110.

[0116] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the case where PCF 135 has the corresponding information may be the case where PCF 135 receives information about the corresponding UE from SMF 136 and stores the information when establishing a PDU session for the corresponding UE. In addition, PCF 135 may store policy information and service parameters of MEC services.

[0117] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 sends a request message through the NEF 134, the NEF 134 may obtain the PCF 135 serving the IP address of the UE 110 received in operation 312 through a Binding Support Function (BSF) or using a local configuration. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF 134 may configure the request received from the edge enabling server 210 according to the Npcf service operation and send it to the PCF 135.

[0118] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 directly sends a request to the PCF 135, the edge enabling server 210 can discover the PCF 135 serving the corresponding IP address through the BSF. In this case, in operation 312, the edge enabling server 210 can directly configure the request message according to the Npcf service operation and send the request message to the PCF 135.

[0119] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 312, when the edge enabling server 210 sends a request message to the PCF 135 through the NEF 134 or directly sends the request message to the PCF 135, the message sent may be a message including information requesting identification of the GPSI of the UE 110 or sending policy information or a user profile for the UE 110 used for the MEC service by the UE 110 of the IP address of the corresponding UE 110. Therefore, in operation 312, the PCF 135 receiving the request message may search for the GPSI corresponding to the UE IP address. In addition, the PCF 135 may configure the policy information and / or parameters of the MEC service as a response message of the corresponding GPSI in operation 312. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the request message received by the PCF 135 in operation 312 includes the service provider ID information, the PCF 135 may configure the information in consideration of the policy information and / or parameters corresponding to the service provider ID information or the profile of the UE 110.

[0120] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF 135 may directly send the message configured in operation 314 as a response message to the edge enabling server 210. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 314, the PCF 135 may send the response message to the edge enabling server 210 through the NEF 134.

[0121] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, it may be assumed that the PCF 135 knows the mapping between the external UE IP address and the internal UE IP address. This assumption may be established because the IP address used by the UE 110 within the 3GPP network 130 and the IP address used by the UE 110 outside the 3GPP network are different from each other. This may mean that a Network Address Translation (NAT) function (entity) exists in the data connection between the inside and outside of the 3GPP network 130.

[0122] One embodiment of the present disclosure may include a method in which the PCF 135 negotiates with a server performing a NAT function to resolve an internal IP address of the UE 110. Therefore, although the IP address of the UE 110 included in the request received by the PCF 135 is an external IP address, the PCF 135 may acquire the internal IP address of the UE 110 through negotiation with the NAT function server (not shown). In addition, the PCF 135 may acquire information about the UE 110, such as GPSI, policy information, or parameters.

[0123] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, NEF 134 may obtain profile information of UE 110 from UDM 137 or UDR (not shown). In this case, NEF 134 may request PCF 135 to be notified of the GPSI corresponding to the UE IP address, and PCF 135 may replay the GPSI value mapped to the UE IP address and stored in NEF 134.

[0124] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 312, the NEF 134 may request a user profile or a UE profile of a corresponding GPSI from the UDM 137 or the UDR by using the GPSI value received from the PCF 135. At this time, the NEF 134 may insert a service provider ID for identifying an edge computing service provider received from the edge enabling server 210 into the request and send the request to the UDN 137 or the UDR.

[0125] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UDM 137 or UDR receiving the request may search for a profile of the UE 110 corresponding to the received GPSI, generate a message to be replied to the NEF 134 based on the found information, and send the message to the NEF 134 .

[0126] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the UDM 137 or the UDR may search for a configuration file of the UE 110 corresponding to the service provider ID included in the request from the NEF 134 , configure a response message, and then reply the response message to the NEF 134 .

[0127] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 314, the NEF 134 that receives the response message according to the above method may send the response message to the edge enabling server 210. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the response message may include the GPSI of the corresponding UE 110 or the profile information required for the corresponding UE 110 to use the MEC service.

[0128] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 receiving the response in operation 314 may identify whether the GPSI received from the corresponding UE 110 in operation 300 is the same as the GPSI received from the 3GPP network 130. When the two GPSIs are identical to each other, the edge enabling server 210 may determine that the received GPSI received from the UE 110 in operation 300 is a valid GPSI, and store the GPSI in the memory 214. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may map the valid GPSI to the IP address, and store the mapped information in the memory 214.

[0129] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may receive a configuration file, policy information, or service parameters of the corresponding GPSI from the 3GPP network 130. In this case, the edge enabling server 210 may apply it to the service of the UE 110. For example, a premium subscriber may be identified to use all services of the MEC service, and the corresponding information may be stored in the memory 214. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the premium service may be a service that is not applied to general subscribers.

[0130] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, through the above operations, in operation 320, the edge application server 201 and the UE 110 may send / receive data services.

[0131] Hereinafter, the edge application server is described using the first edge application server 210 , and for convenience of description, serial numbers such as first, second, etc. for distinguishing application servers or identifying applications installed in the UE 110 are not used.

[0132] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 322, the edge application server 201 may call an edge service API provided by the edge enabling server 210 to the edge enabling server 210. In the specification according to the present disclosure, the edge service API may be an API for providing a capability disclosure function of an edge computing service to a third application server 201 operating in an edge computing infrastructure of an edge data network to which the edge enabling server 210 belongs. For example, there may be a location API for detecting the location of the UE 110, a management API for managing resources of the UE 110, and a traffic steering API for modifying a data path of the UE 110.

[0133] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server 201 may detect the edge service API provided by the edge enabling server 210 through an API discovery process or a Common API Framework (CAPIF) function. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when requesting the edge service API from the edge enabling server 210, the edge application server 201 may include the IP address of the UE 110 that has accessed itself, because the edge application server cannot know the identifier of the UE 110.

[0134] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 324, the edge enabling server 210 may obtain an identifier of the UE 110 corresponding to the IP address of the UE 110 received from the edge application server 201, that is, the GPSI from the mapping table. The mapping information described in the specification of the present disclosure may be information obtained through operations 302 to 314 and stored in the memory 214 of the edge enabling server 210.

[0135] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after acquiring the GPSI based on the mapping information, the edge enabling server 210 may call the 3GPP network capability disclosure API based on the ID of the UE 110 in operation 326 to support the edge service API requested by the edge application server 201. In addition, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 326, the edge enabling server 210 may send a request to the NEF 134.

[0136] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may configure the GPSI as the ID of the UE 110 and send a service operation request message to the NEF 134. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 is a reliable network entity in the 3GPP network, the service operation request message may be sent directly to the AMF 133, the SMF 136 or the PCF 135.

[0137] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, it may be determined whether the edge enabling server 210 sends the service operation request message to the AMF 133, the SMF 136, or the PCF 135 according to the type of 3GPP network capability exposure to be used by the edge enabling server 210. For example, when information about the location of the UE 110 is required, it may be determined to send the service operation request message to the AMF 133. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the service operation request message is directly sent to the AMF 133, the SMF 136, or the PCF 135, the edge enabling server 210 may use the acquired GPSI information as the ID of the UE 110 in operation 324.

[0138] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF 134, AMF 133, SMF 136 or PCF 135 that receives the service operation request message may perform a capability opening operation on the corresponding UE 110 according to the request. In operation 328, the NEF 134, AMF 133, SMF 136 or PCF 135 may send the result to the edge enabling server 210.

[0139] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 328, the edge enabling server 210 receiving the message may generate an edge service API response message based on the result according to the API requested by the edge application server 201 in operation 322. Therefore, in operation 330, the edge enabling server 210 may send the generated edge service API response message to the edge application server 201.

[0140] according to Figure 3 As described above, when accessing the edge enabling server 210, the UE 110 can use and register the GPSI used in the 3GPP network as its own ID, and the edge enabling server 210 can use the network capability disclosure provided by the system of the 3GPP network 130 to support the capability disclosure API in the edge application server.

[0141] Figure 4 is a signal flow chart illustrating a process of providing edge application services to mobile communication UEs through an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0142] exist Figure 4 In a brief description of the overall operation of , when UE 110 accesses edge enabling server 210, edge enabling server 210 can obtain the GPSI of the corresponding UE based on the IP of the UE through signaling with 3GPP network 130. Thereafter, edge enabling server 210 can support capability disclosure API to edge application server 201 by using network capability disclosure provided by 3GPP network 130 based on the acquired information.

[0143] In the present disclosure, a general public subscription identifier (GPSI) may be used as an identifier of a UE, which may be an identifier of a UE used in a 5G system defined in 3GPP. The GPSI may correspond to an external identifier (ID) used in a 3GPP system or a mobile station international ISDN number (MSISDN) corresponding to a telephone number. An external identifier is an identifier defined to identify an identifier (ID) assigned to a UE 110 by a third service provider within a 3GPP mobile communication network. In the present disclosure, an ID assigned to a UE 110 by an edge computing service provider may be used as an external ID within a 3GPP system. Alternatively, the edge computing service provider may sign a contract with a 3GPP mobile communication service provider to preconfigure an external ID for a specific UE to be used. As described above, when a contract is signed with a 3GPP mobile communication service provider in advance, the information may be stored in a subscriber information server (not shown) of the 3GPP mobile communication service provider. Alternatively, the edge computing service provider may use the MSISDN of the UE as an ID to identify the UE.

[0144] Hereinafter, the edge application server is described using the first edge application server 210 , and for convenience of description, serial numbers such as first, second, etc. for distinguishing application servers or identifying applications installed in the UE 110 are not used.

[0145] Hereinafter, the edge application server is described using the first edge application server 210 , and for convenience of description, a sequence number such as first, second, etc. for distinguishing application servers or identifying applications installed in the UE 110 is not used.

[0146] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to use the MEC service, in operation 400, the UE 110 may perform a registration process in the edge enabling server 210 to use the edge computing service. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE 110 may perform a service discovery process with the edge enabling server 210 to identify a third application that can be used in the edge computing platform 200 that the UE accesses to use the MEC service.

[0147] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 402, the edge enabling server 210 may store the IP address of the UE 110 that sends the message of operation 400. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the information about the IP address of the UE 110 may be used by the edge enabling server 210 to acquire and store the GPSI information of the UE 110 based on the IP address of the UE 110 in the future.

[0148] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 404, the edge enabling server 210 may send a response to the message of operation 400 to the UE 110. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the UE 110 performs registration, a response thereto may be sent. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the UE 110 performs service discovery, the edge enabling server 210 may insert information of a third application server that the UE 110 can use through an edge computing service and information for accessing the third application server 201 (e.g., FQDN or IP address) into a response message and send the response message.

[0149] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, for the IP address sent by the UE 110 in operation 400, the edge enabling server 210 can determine whether to send a request to the 3GPP network 130 to obtain user information corresponding to the corresponding IP address, for example, in operation 406, the corresponding GPSI and profile information.

[0150] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 406, the edge enabling server 210 may send a request message for identifying the GPSI of the UE 110 or obtaining a configuration file of the GPSI of the UE 110 to the NEF 134 or the PCF 135. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may insert the IP address of the UE 110 into the request message. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may include a service provider ID for identifying an edge computing service provider.

[0151] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 can directly access the PCF 135, the edge enabling server 210 can send a request message to the PCF 135 through the Npcf service. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 cannot directly access the PCF 135, the edge enabling server can send a request message through the NEF 134.

[0152] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, PCF 135 may have information about a session currently being used by UE 110. For example, PCF 135 may have information about a session currently being used by UE 110 by accessing an edge computing data network. Therefore, PCF 135 may know the IP address used by UE 110. In addition, PCF 135 may store the GPSI of the corresponding UE 110. PCF 135 may receive information from SMF 136 and store the information when a PDU session is established. In addition, PCF 135 may store policy information and service parameters for MEC services.

[0153] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 sends a request message through the NEF 134, the NEF 134 may acquire the PCF 135 that provides services for the IP address of the UE 110 received in operation 408 through a Binding Support Function (BSF) or using a local configuration. As a result, the NEF 134 may discover the PCF 135 that serves the UE 110. Therefore, the NEF 134 may generate a response message to the request received from the edge enabling server 210 according to the service operation of the NPCF 135, and send the response message to the PCF 135.

[0154] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 directly sends a request to the PCF 135, the edge enabling server 210 can obtain information about the PCF 135 serving the corresponding IP address through the BSF. The edge enabling server 210 can directly configure the request message and send it to the PCF 135 according to the Npcf service operation.

[0155] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the request message sent by the edge enabling server 210 to the PCF 135 through the NEF 134 or the request message sent by the edge enabling server 210 directly to the PCF 135 may be a request for identifying the GPSI of the UE 110 or a request message for sending policy information or a user profile that can be used by the UE 110 for the MEC service for the IP address of the corresponding UE.

[0156] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF 135 receiving the request may obtain the GPSI corresponding to the IP address of the UE. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF 135 may configure the policy information or parameters of the MEC service for the corresponding GPSI. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the request message received by the PCF 135 includes the service provider ID information, the PCF 135 may configure the response message through the policy information, parameters or configuration files of the UE 110 corresponding to the service provider ID.

[0157] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF 135 may configure the information as a response message and send the response message to the edge enablement server 210 in operation 410 .

[0158] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the message cannot be directly transmitted to the edge enabling server 210 , in operation 410 , the PCF 135 may transmit a response message to the edge enabling server 210 through the NEF 134 .

[0159] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, it may be assumed that the PCF 135 knows the mapping between the external UE IP address and the internal UE IP address. This is because the IP address used by the UE 110 inside the 3GPP network 130 and the IP address used by the UE 110 outside the 3GPP network 130 may be different. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a Network Address Translation (NAT) function (or entity) may exist in the data connection between the inside and outside of the 3GPP network 130.

[0160] One embodiment of the present disclosure may include a method in which the PCF 135 negotiates with a server performing a NAT function to resolve an external IP address of the UE 110. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the IP address of the UE 110 included in the request message received from the edge enabling server 210 is an external IP address, but the PCF 135 may acquire the internal IP address of the UE 110 by negotiating with the NAT function server. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF 135 may further identify information about the UE 110 (GPSI, policy information, or parameters).

[0161] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 408, the NEF 134 may receive a message from the UDM 137 or the UDR ( Figure 1A and Figure 1B 134 may obtain the profile information of UE 110 by using the PCF 135 (not shown). In this case, NEF 134 may request PCF 135 to be notified of the GPSI corresponding to the UE IP address, and PCF 135 may replay the GPSI value stored for the UE corresponding to the UE IP address to NEF 134. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, NEF 134 may request UDM 137 or UDR for a user profile or UE profile corresponding to the GPSI by using the GPSI value received from PCF 135. At this time, NEF 134 may insert the service provider ID for identifying the edge computing service provider received from edge enabling server 210 into the request message, and send the request message to UDN 137 or UDR.

[0162] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, UDM 137 or UDR receiving the request message from NEF 134 may acquire a profile of UE 110 corresponding to the received GPSI, generate information including the profile as a response message, and send the response message to NEF 134.

[0163] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the UDM 137 or the UDR may acquire a profile of the UE 110 corresponding to the service provider ID included in the request from the NEF 134, configure information including the profile as a response message, and then send (reply) the response message to the NEF 134. Therefore, in operation 410, the NEF 134 receiving the response message from the UDM 137 or the UDR may send the response message to the edge enabling server 210. As described above, the response message may include the GPSI of the corresponding UE 110 or profile information required when the corresponding UE 110 uses the MEC service.

[0164] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 412, the edge enabling server 210 receiving the response message may map the IP address of the corresponding UE 110 sent in operation 400 and the GPSI received from the 3GPP system, and store the mapped information in the memory 214. The mapping information may configure and store a mapping table for each application server or each UE.

[0165] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when receiving a profile, policy information, or service parameter of the GPSI of the corresponding UE from the 3GPP network 130, the edge enabling server 210 may apply it to the service of the UE 110. For example, the edge enabling server 210 may configure a premium subscriber to use all services of the MEC service. Premium services may be services that are not applicable to ordinary subscribers.

[0166] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as described above, when the UE 110 completes the registration process through the edge enabling server 210 or completes the search for the edge application server, the UE may perform data communication with the edge application server 201 in operation 420 .

[0167] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server 201 may call an edge service API provided by the edge enabling server 210 to the edge enabling server 210. In the specification according to the present disclosure, the edge service API may be an API that provides a capability disclosure function of providing edge computing services to a third application server 201 operating in an infrastructure of an edge data network to which the edge enabling server 210 belongs. For example, there may be a location API for detecting the location of the UE 110, a management API for managing resources of the UE 110, and a traffic orientation API for modifying a data path of the UE 110.

[0168] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server 201 can detect the edge service API provided by the edge enabling server 210 through an API discovery process or a common API framework (CAPIF) function. When requesting the edge service API from the edge enabling server 210, the edge application server 201 can include the IP address of the UE 110 that has accessed itself, because the edge application server cannot know the identifier of the UE 110.

[0169] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 424, the edge enabling server 210 receiving the request can obtain (search) the IP address of UE 110 and the ID of UE 110 included in the previously received request message, that is, determine the GPSI corresponding thereto based on the mapping information stored in operation 412.

[0170] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may call the 3GPP network capability disclosure API to support the edge service API requested by the edge application server 201 in operation 422 by using the mapped GPSI information as the ID of the UE 110 in operation 426. For example, the edge enabling server 210 may send a request message to the NEF 134. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may configure the GPSI as the ID of the UE 110 in the request message and send the request message. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 is a reliable device in the 3GPP network 130, the request may be sent directly to the AMF 133, the SMF 136, or the PCF 135.

[0171] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, whether the edge enabling server 210 sends the service operation request message to AMF 133, SMF 136, or PCF 135 may be determined according to the type of 3GPP network capability exposure to be used by the edge enabling server 210. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the request message to be sent by the edge enabling server 210 requires information about the location of the UE 110, the edge enabling server 210 may determine to send the request message to the AMF 133. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the request is sent directly to the AMF 133, the SMF 136, or the PCF 135, the edge enabling server 210 may use the acquired GPSI information as the ID of the UE 110 in operation 424.

[0172] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF 134, AMF, SMF 136, or PCF 135 that receives the request message in operation 426 may perform a capability opening operation on the corresponding UE 110 according to the request message. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF 134, AMF, SMF 136, or PCF 135 that performs the capability opening operation of the corresponding UE 110 according to the request message may generate a result as a response message, and send the response message to the edge enabling server 210 in operation 428.

[0173] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 receiving the response message may generate a result according to the API requested by the edge application server 201 in operation 422 as a response message sent to the edge application server 201 in operation 430. Thereafter, the edge enabling server 210 may send the response message generated in operation 430 to the edge application server 201.

[0174] Through the above operations, the edge application server 201 can obtain the edge service API information provided by the edge enablement server 210 .

[0175] Figure 5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process of providing edge computing services using an identifier assigned to a UE in an MEC network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0176] exist Figure 5 In a brief description of the overall operation of , when the UE performs a registration process in the edge management server 140 operated in the edge computing platform 200, an identifier (ID) of the UE 110 may be assigned. Thereafter, the edge management server 140 may register the ID as a GPSI used in the 3GPP network 130. Based on this, the edge enabling server 210 may support capability disclosure APIs to the edge application server 201 by using network capability disclosure provided by the 3GPP network 130.

[0177] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge UE ID may be used as the ID of the UE. This may be an ID for identifying the UE in the edge computing platform 200 that the UE accesses, and may be an ID assigned to the UE by the edge management server 140 of the edge computing platform 200. When the ID is provided to the 3GPP network 130, it may be provided in the form of a general public subscription identifier (GPSI).

[0178] The ID may be an identifier of a UE used in a 5G system defined in 3GPP. The GPSI may correspond to an external identifier (ID) used in the 3GPP system or a mobile station international ISDN number (MSISDN) corresponding to a telephone number. The external identifier is an identifier defined to identify an identifier (ID) assigned to UE 110 by a third service provider within the 3GPP mobile communication network. In the present disclosure, the ID assigned to UE 110 by the edge computing service provider may be used as an external ID within the 3GPP system. Alternatively, the edge computing service provider may sign a contract with the 3GPP mobile communication service provider to preconfigure an external ID for a specific UE to be used. As described above, when a contract is signed with a 3GPP mobile communication service provider in advance, the information may be stored in a subscriber information server (not shown) of the 3GPP mobile communication service provider. Alternatively, the edge computing service provider may use the MSISDN of the UE as an ID to identify the UE.

[0179] Hereinafter, the edge application server is described using the first edge application server 210 , and for convenience of description, serial numbers such as first, second, etc. for distinguishing application servers or identifying applications installed in the UE 110 are not used.

[0180] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to use the MEC service, the UE 110 may perform a registration procedure in the edge enabling server 140 to use the edge computing service in operation 500 .

[0181] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 receiving the registration request message from the UE 110 may allocate an edge UE ID that can be used for the edge computing platform 200 that the UE 110 currently accesses in operation 502 .

[0182] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 may store the allocated edge UE ID in an internal memory in operation 504. The edge management server 140 may bind the information and IP address of the UE 110 that sent the message in operation 500 and store the information in a memory.

[0183] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 may send a response message to the registration request sent by the UE 110 to the UE 110. At this time, the response message may include the edge UE ID assigned to the UE 110. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling layer 113 of the UE 110 may determine that the ID is the ID that the edge enabling layer should use for the corresponding edge computing service, and the ID may be stored in the internal memory or the edge enabling layer 113. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling layer 113 of the UE 110 may use this information as its own ID for an API request message sent to the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 in the future.

[0184] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 508, the edge management server 140 may send the edge UE ID successfully assigned to the UE 110 to the edge enabling server 210 within the same edge computing platform 200. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, since the UE 110 may select and access the edge enabling server 210 according to its own location, the ID of the UE 110 may be sent to the edge enabling server 210 belonging to the area managed by the edge computing platform 200, so that when the UE 110 accesses the edge enabling server 210 by using the corresponding ID in the future, the UE 110 may be identified. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when sending the edge UE ID to the edge enabling server 210, the edge management server 140 may also send a service profile or configuration information to be applied to the corresponding UE 110.

[0185] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 510, the edge management server 140 may perform an operation for configuring the edge UE ID assigned to the UE 110 as an external ID of the 3GPP network 130 or the GPSI. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 may send a request message for inserting the edge UE ID assigned by the edge management server into the subscription information of the UE 110 through the NEF 134. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF 134 may insert the edge UE ID assigned by the edge management server 140 into the subscription information of the UE 110, and store the subscription information in the UDR 137.

[0186] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, for the IP address of UE 110 acquired in operation 500, edge management server 140 may use the corresponding IP address to send information indicating the use of edge UE ID assigned by edge management server 140 as GPSI to PCF 135. Therefore, PCF 135 may configure and store edge UE ID as GPSI corresponding to IP address of UE 110, and configure the received edge UE ID as GPSI of UE 110 identified by the corresponding IP address. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, PCF 135 may store the edge UE ID received as GPSI of UE 110 in UDR 137.

[0187] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 510, the edge management server 140 may register the edge UE ID of the UE 110 assigned to the subscriber server or policy server of the 3GPP network 130 as the GPSI of the UE 110. Now, the 3GPP network 130 may identify the value corresponding to the edge UE ID as the GPSI and recognize the UE 110.

[0188] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE 110 may perform a service discovery process in the edge server 210 to receive information about applications that the UE can use MEC services. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE 110 may perform a service management (on-boarding) process in the edge enabling server 210 to send information about applications that the UE will use for MEC services in operation 512. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE 110 may use the edge UE ID assigned as its own ID in operation 506 in a message sent to the edge enabling server 210.

[0189] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 514, the edge enabling server 210 may bind the edge UE ID included in the request message sent by the UE 110 and the ID address of the UE 110 acquired in the IP packet sent by the UE 110, and store the information in the memory 214. Therefore, when the IP address of the UE 110 is aware, the edge enabling server 210 may identify the edge UE ID corresponding thereto.

[0190] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may generate a response message corresponding to the request message sent by the UE 110 in operation 512, and send the response message to the UE 110 in operation 516. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the UE 110 requests service discovery, the edge enabling server 210 may send information that can be used by the UE 110 on the edge application server 201. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the information of the edge application server may be configured in a list form, and may include at least one of an ID of an application that the UE 110 can use, an FQDN for accessing a corresponding application server, an IP address, or other information for identifying the UE.

[0191] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when UE 110 requests a management service, edge enabling server 210 may provide information about edge application server 201 requested by UE 110. The information of edge application server 201 may include at least one of an IP address, FQDN, and DNS server information that can resolve the FQDN of edge application server 201.

[0192] Through the above operations, UE 110 can obtain information about edge application servers from edge enabling server 210 and register identifier information to be used by UE. UE 110 can perform transmission and reception of data traffic with edge application server 201 by using the information in operation 520.

[0193] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 522, the edge application server 201 may call the edge service API provided by the edge enabling server 210 to the edge enabling server 210. In the specification of the present disclosure, the edge service API may be an API that provides a capability disclosure function of an edge computing service to a third application server operating in an infrastructure of an edge data network to which the edge enabling server 210 belongs. For example, there may be a location API for detecting the location of the UE 110, a management API for managing the resources of the UE 110, and a traffic directional API for modifying the data path of the UE 110. The edge application server 201 may detect the edge service API provided by the edge enabling server 210 through an API discovery process or a public API framework (CAPIF) function. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, since the edge application server 201 does not know the ID of the UE 110 when sending the edge service API request message to the edge enabling server 210, the edge application server 201 may send an edge service API request message including the IP address of the UE 110 used when the UE 110 accesses the edge application server 201.

[0194] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 that receives the edge service API request message including the IP address of UE 110 can obtain the IP address of UE 110 included in the edge service API request message including the IP address of UE 110 received in operation 524 and the ID of UE 110 corresponding thereto, that is, the edge UE ID is based on the mapping information stored in operation 514.

[0195] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 526, the edge enabling server 210 may use the mapped edge UEID as the ID of the UE 110 to call the 3GPP network capability disclosure API in the form of GPSI to support the edge service API requested by the edge application server 201 in operation 522. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may send a request message for calling the 3GPP network capability disclosure API to the NEF 134 of the 3GPP network 13. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may insert the GPSI into the request message to call the 3GPP network capability disclosure API as the ID of the UE 110 and send the request message. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 is a reliable device in the 3GPP network 130, the request message for calling the 3GPP network capability disclosure API may be directly sent to the AMF 133, the SMF 136 or the PCF 135.

[0196] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, whether the edge enabling server 210 sends a request message for calling the 3GPP network capability disclosure API to AMF 133, SMF 136, or PCF 135 may be determined according to the type of 3GPP network capability disclosure to be used by the edge enabling server 210. For example, when information related to the location of UE 110 is required, it may be determined to send the request message to AMF. When directly sending the request message to AMF 133, SMF 136, or PCF 135, the edge enabling server 210 may use the GPSI information stored as the ID of UE 110 in operation 514.

[0197] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF 134, AMF 133, SMF 136 or PCF 135 that receives the request message for calling the 3GPP network capability exposure API may perform a capability exposure operation on the corresponding UE 110 according to the request. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 528, the NEF 134, AMF, SMF or PCF 135 may send a capability exposure operation result message to the edge enabling server 210. The edge enabling server 210 that receives the capability exposure operation result message in operation 528 may generate a result as an edge service API response message according to the API requested by the edge application server 201, and send the edge service API response message to the edge application server 201.

[0198] Figure 6 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process of providing an edge computing service by using an identifier of a UE identified in an edge computing platform according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0199] exist Figure 6 In a brief description of the overall operation of , an ID identified as being used for UE 110 in edge computing platform 200 may be provided to edge application server 201, and edge application server 201 may use the ID for a capability exposure API.

[0200] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, multiple user plane functions (UPF) 132 of a 3GPP network may be connected to an edge computing data network (or edge data network). Figure 1B The edge data networks 161 and 162 shown. Therefore, the UPF 132 close to the UE 110 can be selected according to the location of the UE 110 for an edge computing data network. For example, referring to Figure 1B Describes the case where UE 110 accesses the same edge computing data network to use MEC services. Figure 1B , the first UE 110 can receive edge computing services through the UPF 132a closest to the first UE. At this time, when the first UE 110 moves to the location of the second UE 120, even if the first UE 110 is located in the same edge data network 161, the service UPF of the first UE 110 can also be changed from the first UPF 132a to the second UPF 132b.

[0201] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UPF 32 serving the UE 110 may change, which means that the IP address of the UE 110 may change. Therefore, when the edge enabling server 210 or the edge management server 140 manages the UE 110 based on the IP address of the UE 110, whenever the UPF 132 serving the UE 110 changes, that is, whenever the IP address of the UE 110 changes, an operation of updating the information for newly identifying the UE 110 needs to be performed. For example, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, whenever the IP address of the UE 110 changes, an operation of updating the information for newly identifying the UE 110 needs to be performed. Figure 3 and Figure 4 This is because, if UE 110 accesses through a changed IP address, the edge enabling server 210 cannot know whether the corresponding UE 110 is the previously accessed UE 110. In addition, if the IP address of UE 110 is used as the identifier of UE 110 when edge application server 201 uses the edge service API, whenever the IP address of UE 110 changes, edge enabling server 210 can use the capability disclosure service of 3GPP network 130 by updating the binding of the identifier corresponding to the GPSI of the corresponding UE 110.

[0202] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after allocating the ID of UE 110, it is necessary to notify the edge application server 201 of the ID of UE 110. According to the present disclosure, a method for using the UE ID allocated to the corresponding UE as the identifier of UE 110 when the edge application server 201 uses the edge service API for the corresponding UE 110 can be provided.

[0203] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the above method is used, whenever the IP address of UE 110 changes, based on the Figure 3 and Figure 4 The operation of updating the GPSI information of the IP address of UE 110 proposed in the embodiment may not be performed.

[0204] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to use the MEC service, in operation 600, the UE 110 may perform a registration process in the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 to use the edge computing service. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 600, the UE 110 may perform a service discovery process using the edge enabling server 210 to identify a third application that can be used in the edge computing platform 200 that the UE accesses to use the MEC service. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 600, the UE 110 may perform a service management process in the edge enabling server 210 to send information about the application to be used by the UE for the MEC service. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE 110 may notify the application used by the UE through the service discovery process of the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210. The UE 110 may obtain information about the application to be used (e.g., the FQDN of the application server, the IP address of the application server, the DNS server address for discovering the corresponding application server, etc.) from the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 as a result thereof.

[0205] As described above, UE 110 may use the GPSI information possessed by UE 110 when transmitting the message of operation 600 to edge management server 140 or edge enabling server 210. As described above, the use of the GPSI information possessed by UE 110 may be performed by controlling edge enabling layer 113 of UE 110.

[0206] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 may allocate an edge UE ID that the UE 110 should use through at least one of the above processes. Figure 5 According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 may assign the GPSI information transmitted in operation 600 to the edge UE ID of the UE 110 .

[0207] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 may Figure 3 , Figure 4 and Figure 5 In an embodiment, the GPSI of UE 110 is identified by 3GPP network 130, or the GPSI of UE 110 is stored in 3GPP network 130. Alternatively, Figure 4 According to the method of the embodiment of the present invention, after acquiring the GPSI of the corresponding UE 110 based on the IP address sent by the UE 110 in operation 600, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 may use the GPSI as the edge UE ID of the UE 110.

[0208] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 may send a response message to the UE 110 that sent the request message of operation 600, assign the edge UE ID that the UE 110 should use to the response message, and send the response message. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 may store the edge UE ID that is included in the response message and should be used by the UE 110 in a memory.

[0209] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge UE ID may be a GPSI sent by the UE 110 using the request message in operation 600, a GPSI recognized by the 3GPP network 130, or a value assigned by the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210. The edge management server 140 may send the ID of the UE 110 assigned by the edge management server to the edge enabling server 210.

[0210] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when allocating edge UE IDs, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 may consider the following matters.

[0211] First, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 can assign an edge UE ID for identifying the UE 110 to each third application that the UE 110 reports to use. For example, the identifier of the UE 110 used by the first edge application (edge ​​application 1) 201 and the second edge application (edge ​​application 2) 202 is independently assigned to edge application 1 and edge application 2, so different values ​​can be assigned. In a specific case, even if the same value is assigned to edge application 1 and edge application 2, edge application 1 and edge application 2 cannot recognize that the identifiers of the UE 110 are the same as each other. As a result, each edge application can be prevented from knowing the identifier of the UE used by another edge application. In order to assign different identifiers of the UE to each edge application, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 can use a randomly generated value, which can be mapped to the ID of the edge application and stored. When the edge application requests the identifier of the UE 110 required to use the edge service API, the value can be used by the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210. For example, when an edge application requests an identifier of UE 110 required to use an edge service API, edge management server 140 or edge enabling server 210 may use the identifier value of UE 110 allocated to the corresponding edge application as a response.

[0212] Secondly, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 may allocate an edge UE ID for identifying the UE, a value used between the UE 110 and the edge management server 140 or between the UE 110 and the edge enabling server 210. In other words, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 may allocate an edge UE ID for identifying the UE 110, and send the UE ID through a response message. However, the allocated edge UE ID cannot be used for an API between the edge management server 140 and the edge application or an API between the edge enabling server 210 and the edge application. When the identifier of the UE 110 to be used by the edge application is allocated to the edge service API, the edge enabling server 210 may allocate different identifiers to each edge application, and send the identifier to the edge application based on the allocated edge UE ID. That is, the identifier used between the UE 110 and the edge management server 140 or the UE 110 and the edge enabling server 210 and the identifier used between the edge enabling server 210 and the edge application may be separately allocated and managed. This is to protect the privacy of the identifier of the UE 110.

[0213] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 502 , the edge enabling server 210 may identify the edge application server 201 that the UE 110 wishes to use based on a service discovery or service management request performed by the UE 110 .

[0214] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, operation 610, operation 620 or operation 630 may be performed independently, and only operation 610, operation 620 or operation 630 may be performed as needed. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, operation 610, operation 620 or operation 630 may be performed sequentially or selectively.

[0215] First, operation 610 is described.

[0216] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 612 , the edge enablement server 210 may identify whether there is an edge application server 201 requesting a subscription operation to learn the ID of the UE 110 .

[0217] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge application server 201 has been instantiated in the edge computing platform 200 and starts operation in operation 612, the edge enabling server 210 may perform a registration process (enablement) therein. At this time, the edge enabling server 210 may also configure a notification indicating that an ID for the UE 110 has been received.

[0218] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when it is determined that there is an operation in which the edge application server 201 requests to subscribe to notify the ID of the UE 110, or there is an information set for notifying the edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE 110, the edge enabling server 210 may send a message for notifying the corresponding edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE 110. This may be operated according to an API.

[0219] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 614, the edge enabling server 210 that determines to notify the edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE 110 may send an API-based message for notifying the corresponding edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE 110. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the message is referred to as a UE identification notification message. However, when the message is a message for notifying the edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE by the edge enabling server 201, the message may be similarly understood even if a name different from the name described in the present disclosure is used. The edge enabling server 210 may include the ID of the UE 110 in the UE identification notification message, that is, the edge UE ID according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may include the IP address of the UE 110 so as to indicate the IP address of the UE 110 using the corresponding edge UE ID. The IP address may be the IP address obtained from the UE 110 in operation 600.

[0220] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 616, the edge application server 201 that receives the UE identification notification message may bind and store the edge UE ID applied to the IP of the corresponding UE 110. Although the IP address of the UE 110 is changed and the UE accesses the edge application server through it in the future, the edge application server 201 may identify the UE 110 using the corresponding TCP session or application session based on the edge UE ID, and accordingly may newly bind the changed IP address of the UE 110 with the edge UE ID of the UE 110 and store the information. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server 201 may perform edge service API operations with the edge enabling server 210 using the edge UE ID. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may identify the UE 110 based on the edge UE ID included in the edge service API message.

[0221] Subsequently, operation 620 is described.

[0222] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 622, when using the edge service API, the edge application server 201 may send a UE identifier request message to the edge enabling server 210, which requests the identifier of the UE 110 to identify the UE 110. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server 201 may use the edge service API through the IP address of the UE 110. However, when the IP address of the UE 110 changes, if the edge enabling server 210 does not know the changed IP address of the UE 110, the edge enabling server 210 receives the edge service API requested using the IP address of the UE 110, and then cannot identify which UE 110 has issued the request. Therefore, the edge application server 201 needs to obtain the identifier of the UE 110 to be used, regardless of the IP address of the UE 110. To this end, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server 201 may send information for identifying the UE 110, that is, an API message for obtaining the ID of the UE 110, to the edge enabling server 210.

[0223] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server 201 may include the IP address of the UE 110 accessing the edge application server in the UE identifier request message. The identifier used to initially identify the UE 110 is only the IP address of the UE 110. After accessing the edge enabling server 210 to acquire information of the edge application server 201, the UE 110 may access the edge application server 201 to perform data communication, and when the edge application server 201 starts data communication with the corresponding UE 110, operation 622 is performed to acquire the ID of the UE 110 of the IP address of the corresponding UE 110.

[0224] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 receiving the UE identifier request message in operation 622 may identify the UE for the IP address of the UE 110 included in the message in operation 624. This may be based on the information acquired as a result in operation 600. When the UE of the IP address of the UE 110 included in the UE identifier request message of operation 622 cannot be found, the edge enabling server 210 may determine that the corresponding UE 110 is not the UE 110 accessing the edge computing platform 200. In this case, the edge enabling server 210 may send fault information indicating that the ID of the corresponding UE 110 cannot be notified to the edge application server 201.

[0225] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after accessing the edge enabling server 210, the UE 110 may receive information of the edge application server 201 and start data communication with the corresponding edge application server 201. In such a case, the possibility of a change in the IP address due to a change in the location of the UE 110 is significantly low. Therefore, when the edge enabling server 210 cannot identify the UE 110 by the IP address of the UE 110 received from the edge application server 201, the UE is likely to be a UE 110 that has not yet accessed the corresponding edge computing platform 200. Therefore, the edge UE ID cannot be assigned to the corresponding UE 110.

[0226] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, even if the edge enabling server 210 cannot recognize the IP address of the UE 110 received in operation 622, the edge enabling server 210 may temporarily store the corresponding IP address, and the edge application server 201 requests the corresponding IP address. When the UE 110 performs a new process in the edge enabling server 210 due to a change in the IP address in the future, the edge enabling server 210 may compare the IP address of the UE 110 received in the new process with the temporarily stored IP address according to the operation. Therefore, when the two IP addresses are identical to each other, the edge application server 210 may bind and store the edge UE ID for the UE 110 having the IP address. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, since the edge enabling server 210 also stores information about the edge application server 201 that has requested the temporarily stored IP address, the edge enabling server may determine to send the newly bound edge UE ID to the corresponding edge application server 201. Therefore, in operation 626 or 614, the edge enabling server 210 may notify the edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE 110.

[0227] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, after searching for the edge UE ID of the IP address of the UE 110 included in the message of operation 622, the edge enabling server 210 may insert the information into the response message in operation 626, and send the response message to the edge application server 201 in operation 626. The edge application server 201 receiving the response message may use the received edge UE ID information as an identifier of the UE 110 when requesting an edge service API for the UE 110 in the future. Therefore, even if the IP address of the UE 110 accessing the edge application server 201 is changed, the edge application server 201 may call the edge service API by using the edge UE ID, and the edge enabling server 210 may perform the edge service API operation based on the received edge UE ID.

[0228] In another example, after searching for the identifier of the UE of the IP address of the UE 110 included in the message in operation 622, the edge enabling server 210 may allocate the identifier of the UE to be sent to the edge application server 201 in operation 626. This case may correspond to a state in which an edge UE ID for identifying the UE (i.e., an edge UDID allocated to the UE in operation 600) has been allocated and there is no identifier of the UE to be used between the edge application server 201 and the edge enabling server 210. That is, as described above, the UE identifier used between the UE 110 and the edge enabling server 210 is different from the identifier used between the edge enabling server 210 and the edge application server 201. For example, the UE identifier used between the UE 110 and the edge enabling server 210 is configured as "AAA", while the identifier used between the edge enabling server 210 and the second edge application server 202 is not configured. In such a case, the edge enabling server 210 may configure the identifier to be used between the edge enabling server 210 and the second edge application server 202 as "ABC".

[0229] In another example, the situation may correspond to a situation where the UE identifier used between the UE 110 and the edge enabling server 210 is configured as "AAA", and the identifier used between the edge enabling server 210 and the second edge application server 202 is configured as "ABC", but the identifier to be used with the first edge application server 201 is not configured. In such a case, the edge enabling server 210 may configure the identifier to be used between the edge enabling server 210 and the first edge application server 201 as "CDAB". "AAA", "ABC", "CDAB", etc. may be used to indicate a specific identifier value, but the value according to each system or standard may be configured in an actual system. At this time, the edge enabling server 210 may separately allocate an edge UE ID for identifying the UE 110 for each third application. For example, by allocating different identifiers of the UE to be used for edge application 1 and edge application 2, each edge application may be prevented from being aware of the identifier of the UE used by other edge applications. In order to allocate different identifiers of the UE 110 to each edge application, the edge enabling server 210 may use a randomly generated value, which may be mapped to the ID of the edge application and stored. In addition, the edge enabling server 210 may bind the edge UE ID assigned to each edge application to the identifier of the corresponding UE 110 (e.g., GPSI or an identifier mutually identified between the edge enabling server 210 and the UE) and store the binding information. Therefore, the edge enabling server 210 can identify the UE indicated by the corresponding ID of the edge UE ID assigned to the edge application based on the binding information. In other words, the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 can internally store the UE ID for identifying the UE 110, but may not use the edge UE ID in the edge application to the API. When the identifier of the UE to be used by the edge application is assigned to the edge service API, the edge enabling server 210 can assign different identifiers to each edge application and send the identifier to the edge application based on the assigned edge UE ID. That is, the identifier used between the UE 110 and the edge management server 140 or the edge enabling server 210 and the identifier used between the edge enabling server 210 and the edge application can be separately allocated and managed. This is to protect the privacy of the identifier of the UE 11. In the present disclosure, the UE identifier used between the edge application and the edge enabling server 210 is also referred to as an edge UE ID, but the value may be different between the UE 110 and the edge enabling server 210 and between the edge enabling server 210 and the edge application 201. The mapping or binding information may be stored in the edge enabling server 210.After performing the allocation process, the edge enabling server 210 can insert the identifier of the UE allocated to each edge application (edge ​​UE ID in the figure) into the response message and send the response message to the edge application server 201. The edge application server 201 that receives the response message can use the received edge UE ID information as the identifier of UE 110 when requesting the edge service API for UE 110 in the future.

[0230] Finally, operation 630 is described.

[0231] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may determine in operation 632 whether the mapping of the edge UE ID and the IP address information of the UE 110 has been changed. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may change the edge UE ID of the UE 110, in which case it may determine that the mapping of the edge UE ID and the IP address information has been changed. When the IP address is changed, the edge enabling server 210 may identify the change through a new process. For example, when the edge enabling server 210 performs a registration process, a service discovery process, or a service management process with the UE 110, the UE 110 may include an edge UE ID (which may be the same as a GPSI value) allocated or used by the UE in a message sent to the edge enabling server 210 to perform the process. Therefore, the edge enabling server 210 may identify whether the IP address of the UE 110 has changed based on the IP address of the UE 110 that sends the corresponding message and the edge UE ID included in the UE 110.

[0232] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the IP address of UE 110 changes, edge enabling server 210 may bind the changed IP address of UE 110 to the edge UE ID and store the information in memory 214. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, edge enabling server 210 may allocate a new edge UE ID to UE 110 and store the newly allocated edge UE ID in memory 214. This may be due to security issues, for example, the ID is exposed to the outside, or the new ID is allocated due to authentication failure of UE 110.

[0233] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, due to the change of the IP address of UE 110, the edge enabling server 210 can allocate a new edge UE ID for the changed IP address. The edge enabling server 210 can allocate a new edge UE ID, bind the edge UE ID to the IP address of UE 110, and store the binding information in the memory 214.

[0234] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the binding information of the edge UE ID and the IP address of the UE 110 is updated, the edge enabling server 210 may notify the edge application server 201 of the update in operation 634. The UE identifier notification message to be sent to the edge application server 201 may include the edge UE ID of the UE 110 or the IP address of the UE 110. The edge application server 201 that receives the UE identifier notification message may determine to use the received edge UE ID for the IP address of the UE 110 included in the message and store it. Therefore, when the UE 110 accesses the edge application server 201 to perform data communication, if the data communication is performed using the IP address of the UE 110 included in the message, then in operation 636, the edge application server 201 may determine the edge UE ID of the corresponding IP address and call the edge service API through the edge UE ID.

[0235] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may change the identifier of the UE 110 assigned to the edge application server 201 in operation 632. For example, the edge enabling server 210 may update the identifier of the UE 110 assigned to each edge application to a new value. The assignment of the new value may be performed to maintain the security of the identifier of the corresponding UE, or, when the identifier for identifying the UE 110 is changed or the IP address of the UE 110 is changed, the new identifier of the UE corresponding thereto is provided to the edge application server 201. When the information of the identifier of the UE that the edge application server 201 should use is updated, the edge enabling server 210 may notify the edge application server 201 of the update. The UE identifier notification message to be sent to the edge application server 201 may include the updated edge UE ID of the UE 110, the IP address of the UE 110, or user information that can be identified by the edge application server 201 (e.g., an identifier of a user using an edge application, a user ID, user information for identifying a corresponding user, such as a user's email address, a user's ID, or a reference value of an application client assigned to the UE by the application server). The edge application server 201 receiving the UE identifier notification message can know which UE is identified based on the user information included in the message, determine to use the updated edge UE ID included in the message for the UE, and store the edge UE ID. Thereafter, the edge application server 201 can call the edge service API provided by the edge enabling server 210 based on the updated edge UE ID.

[0236] When the identifier of the UE assigned to each edge application is updated, the edge enabling server 210 can update the new identifier for each of all edge applications, or only for some edge applications. The edge enabling server 210 can send the identifier update message of the UE 110 to the corresponding edge application server 201 for updating the edge application of the identifier in operation 634.

[0237] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 identifies an edge application that is no longer used by the UE, the edge enabling server may notify the edge application server 201 corresponding to the corresponding edge application that the edge service API can no longer be used. After receiving a request such as application discovery requested by the UE 110 (or the edge enabling layer 113), the edge enabling server 210 may know the edge application that the corresponding UE 110 expects to use and the edge application that the UE 110 no longer uses. The application that the UE 110 (or the edge enabling layer 113 of the UE 110) includes in the previous request but is not included in the application discovery request message sent by the UE (or the edge enabling layer 113 of the UE 110) to the edge enabling server 210 may be identified, and it may be determined that the corresponding application is no longer used by the UE 110. Alternatively, the UE 110 (or the edge enabling layer 113 of the UE 110) may specify the application that is no longer used by the UE in the application discovery request message, and send the application discovery request message to the edge enabling server 210. The edge enabling server 210 receiving the application discovery request message may determine that the corresponding UE 110 no longer uses the edge application. After determining the application determined not to be used by the UE 110, the edge enabling server 210 may send a message to the edge application server 201 executing the corresponding edge application to prevent the use of the edge service API for the corresponding UE 110. The edge enabling server 210 receiving the message may include the identifier of the UE 110 previously sent to the edge application server 201 and an indicator indicating that it is no longer possible to use the edge service API for the corresponding UE 110. The edge application server 201 receiving the message may identify the identifier of the UE included in the message and identify the indicator indicating that it is no longer possible to use the edge service API for the corresponding UE 110 in the message. Therefore, the edge application server 201 may determine that it is impossible to use the edge service API for the corresponding UE 110, and may no longer request the edge service API for the corresponding UE from the edge enabling server 210.

[0238] In another method, the edge enabling server 210 may insert the identifier of the UE previously sent to the edge application server 201 into the message and include an indicator indicating that the identifier of the corresponding UE 110 is no longer valid. The edge application server 201 receiving the message may identify the identifier of the UE included in the message and identify the indicator indicating that the identifier of the corresponding UE in the message is no longer valid. Therefore, the edge application server 201 may determine that it is impossible to use the edge service API for the corresponding UE 110, and may no longer request the edge service API for the corresponding UE from the edge enabling server 210.

[0239] Fig. 7A and Figure 7B is a control flow diagram illustrating a process in which an edge enabling server manages identifiers of UEs capable of receiving MEC services according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0240] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may receive an edge service registration message or an edge service discovery message from the UE 110. At this time, the edge service registration message or the edge service discovery message may include the GPSI of the UE 110. Therefore, in operation 702, the edge enabling server 210 may check whether the validity can be identified based on the GPSI included in the message. For example, the edge enabling server 210 may receive a user profile of the UE 110 in advance. When the authentication / authorization operation of the UE 110 is performed in advance, the user profile may be received. Therefore, the edge enabling server 210 may determine whether the validity of the GPSI can be identified by checking whether the profile information corresponding to the GPSI received in operation 700 is pre-stored. When there is pre-stored profile information, the edge enabling server 210 may perform operation 704, and when there is no pre-stored profile information, perform operation 720.

[0241] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, it can be determined that even when the profile of UE 110 is not received in the authentication / authorization operation and only the GPSI of the corresponding UE is received, the validity check of the GPSI is performed. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the GPSI received in operation 700 is the same as the pre-stored GPSI, it can be recognized that the GPSI is valid in the validity check.

[0242] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may bind the valid GPSI to the IP of the UE received in operation 700 , and store the binding information in the memory 214 in operation 704 .

[0243] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may identify in operation 706 whether the message received in operation 700 is a registration message or a service discovery message. When the message received in operation 700 is a registration message, the edge enabling server 210 may generate a response message to be sent to the UE 110 and send the response message to the UE in operation 708. On the other hand, when the message received in operation 700 is a service discovery message, the edge enabling server 210 may generate information about a third application that can be used through the edge computing service and information for accessing the third application server (e.g., FQDN or IP address) as a response message in operation 710 and send the response message to the UE.

[0244] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 720, the edge enabling server 210 may send a message requesting GPSI information (or profile information) to the 3GPP network 130. The edge enabling server 210 may be reliable in the 3GPP network 130 or may be unreliable.

[0245] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 is reliable in the 3GPP network 130, the edge enabling server may directly send a request message to an entity for managing information in the 3GPP network 130. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 is unreliable in the 3GPP network 130, the edge enabling server may request to send a message through the NEF 134 of the 3GPP network 130.

[0246] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 722, the edge enabling server 210 may receive a response message directly from a specific entity of the 3GPP network 130 or through the NEF 134. The response message may include GPSI information of the UE or profile information of the UE.

[0247] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may identify whether the GPSI information of the UE is valid information based on the GPSI information received in operation 700 and the information received when being included in the response message in operation 722 .

[0248] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the GPSI information of the UE is valid based on the identification result of operation 724, the edge enabling server 210 may store the GPSI in the memory 214 in operation 726. On the other hand, when the GPSI information of the UE is invalid based on the identification result of operation 724, the edge enabling server 210 may generate an error message and send the error message to the UE in operation 728. If unnecessary, the error message transmission may be omitted.

[0249] Figure 8is a control flow chart illustrating a process in which an edge enablement server provides information about a UE to an edge application server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0250] exist Figure 8 As described above, the edge enabling server 210 may receive, obtain, and store the UE identifier information as shown in FIG. 7 above, and may obtain the UE identifier information from the 3GPP network 130 if necessary.

[0251] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 800, the edge enabling server 210 may receive an edge service API request message of a specific UE from the edge application server 201. At this time, the edge service API request message may include the IP information of the UE. Therefore, the edge enabling server 210 may obtain GPSI information based on the pre-acquired IP address of the UE.

[0252] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may send a service operation request message (3GPP network capability opening API) including GPSI to the 3GPP network.

[0253] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 is reliable in the 3GPP network 130, the edge enabling server may directly send a request message to an entity for managing information in the 3GPP network 130. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 is unreliable in the 3GPP network 130, the edge enabling server may request to send a message through the NEF 134 of the 3GPP network 130.

[0254] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 820, the edge enabling server 210 may receive a service operation response message through the NEF 134 of the 3GPP network 130 or directly from an entity having corresponding information. As described above, in operation 830, when receiving the service operation response message from the GPP network 130, the edge enabling server 210 may generate an edge service API response message and send it to the edge application server 201.

[0255] Fig.9A Detailed description is a control flow chart showing a process in which an edge management server allocates an identifier to a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0256] refer to Fig.9AIn operation 900, the edge management server 140 may receive a registration request message from a specific UE. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 may allocate an edge UE ID that can be used in the edge computing platform 200 currently accessed by the UE 110. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 may bind the IP address of the UE received from the UE in operation 900 to the allocated edge UE ID, and store the found information in a memory in operation 902. In addition, in operation 902, the edge management server 140 may insert the allocated edge UE ID into a response message and send the response message to the corresponding UE. Therefore, the edge UE ID may be allocated to the UE.

[0257] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 904 , the edge management server 140 may send a message to the edge enablement server 210 within the edge computing platform 200 .

[0258] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 906, the edge management server 140 may perform an operation for configuring the edge UE ID assigned to the UE as an external ID of the 3GPP network 130 or GPSI. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server 140 may send a request message for inserting the edge UE ID assigned by the edge management server into the subscription information of the UE 110 through the NEF 134.

[0259] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, for the IP address of the UE 110 acquired in operation 900, the edge management server 140 may send information indicating to use the edge UE ID assigned by the edge management server 140 as the GPSI to the PCF 135 using the corresponding IP address.

[0260] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 906, the edge management server 140 may request the subscriber server or policy server of the 3GPP network 130 to register the edge UE ID assigned to the UE as the GPSI of the UE. Therefore, the 3GPP network 130 may identify the value corresponding to the edge UE ID as the GPSI, so that the UE can be identified based on the GPSI.

[0261] Fig. 9B Detailed description is a control flow diagram illustrating a process in which an edge enabling server provides an edge service API from an edge application according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0262] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 910, the edge enabling server 210 may receive an edge service API request message from the edge application server 201. In the specification of the present disclosure, the edge service API request message may be an API that provides a capability disclosure function of an edge computing service to a third application server operating in an infrastructure of an edge data network to which the edge enabling server 210 belongs. For example, there may be a location API for detecting the location of the UE 110, a management API for managing resources of the UE 110, and a traffic orientation API for modifying a data path of the UE 110.

[0263] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 912, the edge enabling server 210 may search and obtain the UE identifier, namely, GPSI, by using the UE's IP. The GPSI may be received from the application management server 140 and pre-stored as described above. Fig.9A .

[0264] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 914, the edge enabling server 210 may use the mapped edge UEID information as the ID of the UE 110 in the form of GPSI to send a service operation request (Nnef service operation request) message to a specific entity of the 3GPP network 130. At this time, the GPSI may be inserted into the request message as the ID of the UE and sent.

[0265] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when sending a service operation request (Nnef Service Operation Request) message to the 3GPP network 130 in operation 914 , the edge enabling server 210 may be reliable or unreliable in the 3GPP network 130 .

[0266] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 is reliable in the 3GPP network 130, the edge enabling server may directly send a request message to an entity for managing information in the 3GPP network 130. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 is unreliable in the 3GPP network 130, the edge enabling server may request to send a message through the NEF 134 of the 3GPP network 130.

[0267] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 916 , the edge enabling server 210 may receive an Nnef service operation response message from the 3GPP network 130 .

[0268] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enablement server 210 may generate an edge service API response message based on the message received in operation 916 , and send the edge service API response message to the edge application server 201 in operation 918 .

[0269] FIG. 10A to FIG. 10C is a control flow diagram illustrating a process in which an edge enabling server manages an identifier to allow a mobile communication UE to receive an MEC service according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0270] refer to Fig. 10A In operation 1000, the edge enabling server 210 may perform a registration process to use edge computing services from a UE, perform a service discovery process to identify a third application that can be used in the edge computing platform 200 that the edge enabling server accesses to use MEC services, or perform a service management procedure to send application information for MEC services.

[0271] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in such a case, in operation 1002 , the edge enabling server 210 may identify an edge application server that the UE wishes to use by using information included in a previously received message.

[0272] Thereafter, in operation 1004 , the edge enabling server 210 may identify whether an edge application server requests a UE identifier.

[0273] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge application server 201 has been instantiated and started operating in the edge computing platform 200, the edge enabling server 210 may perform a registration process (enablement) therein. At this time, the edge enabling server 210 may also be configured to indicate that a notification for the ID of the UE has been received. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server 210 determines that there is a subscription operation in which the edge application server 201 requests notification of the ID of the UE, or there is information configured to notify the edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE, operation 1006 may be performed.

[0274] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 1006, the edge enabling server 210 may send a message for notifying the corresponding edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE 110. This may be operated according to an API.

[0275] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 1006, the edge enabling server 210 that determines to notify the edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE may send an API-based message for notifying the ID of the UE 110 to the corresponding edge application server 201. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the message is referred to as a UE identification notification message. However, when the message is a message for notifying the edge application server 201 of the ID of the UE by the edge enabling server 210, the message may be similarly understood even if a name different from the name described in the present disclosure is used. The edge enabling server 210 may include the ID of the UE in the UE identification notification message, that is, the edge UE ID according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may include the IP address of the UE so as to indicate the IP address of the UE using the corresponding edge UE ID. This may be the IP address obtained from the UE in operation 1000.

[0276] refer to Fig. 10B , Fig. 10B Operation 1000 and operation 1002 may be the same as those in the above reference. Fig. 10A The same operation is described in Fig. 10B Additional description is omitted in the embodiments.

[0277] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 1010, the edge enabling server 210 may receive a UE identifier request message for identifying a UE to use an edge service API from the edge application server 201. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE identifier request message may use an edge service API using an IP address of the UE.

[0278] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE identifier request message may include the IP address of the UE accessing the edge application server 201. The identifier used to initially identify the UE 110 is only the IP address of the UE 110.

[0279] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 1012 , the edge enabling server 210 may search for and acquire an edge UE ID corresponding to the IP address of the UE included in the information acquired in operation 1000 and the message received in operation 1010 .

[0280] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 1014 , the edge enablement server 210 may generate a response message including the acquired edge UE ID, and send the response message to the edge application server 201 .

[0281] refer to Fig. 10C As described above, operations 1000 and 1002 may be referenced to Fig. 10ATherefore, the description of the same operation is omitted.

[0282] The edge enabling server 210 may determine in operation 1020 that the mapping of the edge UE ID and the IP address information of the UE is changed. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server 210 may change the edge UE ID of the UE, and determine that the mapping of the edge UE ID and the IP address information of the UE is changed. When the IP address is changed, the edge enabling server 210 may identify the change through a new process. For example, when the edge enabling server 210 performs a registration process, a service discovery process, or a service management process with the UE, the UE may include an edge UE ID (which may be the same as a GPSI value) assigned or used by the UE in a message sent to the edge enabling server 210 to perform the process. Therefore, the edge enabling server 210 may identify whether the IP address of the UE has changed based on the IP address of the UE that sends the corresponding message and the edge UE ID included in the UE.

[0283] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, since the UE identifier is changed in operation 1022 , the edge enabling server 210 may send the changed edge UE ID and / or the IP address of the UE to the application server 201 in operation 1022 .

[0284] Fig.11 is an internal schematic diagram of an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0285] refer to Fig.11 , the edge enabling server 120 may include an edge enabling server controller 1110, an edge enabling server memory 1120 and an edge enabling server communication unit 1130. Fig.11 In the case of the edge enabling server 120 shown in FIG. Figure 2 Operate on separate servers.

[0286] The edge enabling server controller 1110 may be implemented by at least one processor and may perform the above control operations. For example, the edge enabling server controller may perform control to allocate an identifier of a UE, authenticate an identifier of a UE through a 3GPP network, or send and receive messages to and from an edge application server 201 within an edge platform.

[0287] The edge enabling server memory 1120 may store mapping or binding information between control information controlled by the edge enabling server 120 and identifier information of a specific UE.

[0288] The edge enabling server communication unit 1130 may send and receive signals and / or messages between the edge enabling server 120 and other nodes within the network (eg, UE, specific nodes of the 3GPP network, and various servers within the edge platform).

[0289] Fig.12 is an internal block diagram of a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0290] refer to Fig.12 , the UE may include a UE controller 1210, a UE transceiver 1220, and a UE memory 1230. In addition, the UE may include a display (not shown), keys (not shown), and a touch screen for a user interface therein.

[0291] The UE controller 1210 may be implemented by at least one processor and may perform control to perform all operations described in the present disclosure. Specifically, the UE controller may control the execution of the application. In addition, the UE controller may control the operation of the edge enabling layers 113 and 123 of the present disclosure.

[0292] The UE transceiver 1220 may include a wireless processor capable of accessing a mobile communication network and at least one communication processor for performing control required by the mobile communication network. Figure 1A 3GPP communication layers 114 and 124 in.

[0293] The UE memory 1230 may store a program for operation of the UE, a program stored by a user, an application according to the present disclosure, and control data for operation of an edge enabling layer.

[0294] In addition, the embodiments of the present disclosure described and shown in the specification and the drawings are intended to facilitate the explanation of the technical content of the present disclosure and to help understand the present disclosure, rather than to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure should be interpreted as including, in addition to the embodiments disclosed herein, all changes and modifications derived from the technical concept of the present disclosure.

[0295] Industrial Applicability

[0296] The present disclosure can be used when applying a MEC system.

Claims

1. A method performed by an edge enabling server (EES) in an edge computing system, the method comprising: receiving a request message for a user equipment UE identifier to be used in the edge computing system from an edge application server EAS; obtaining a UE identifier based on at least one of a network protocol IP address of the UE or interaction with a 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP network; as well as A response message including the UE identifier is sent to the EAS.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: In case the UE identifier changes due to privacy reasons, the updated UE identifier is sent to the EAS to be used in the edge computing system.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The UE identifier uniquely identifies the UE.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The UE identifier is used by the EAS to further request capability exposure application programming interface API to the EES.

5. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: assigning the updated UE identifier to the UE; Binding information about the updated IP address and the updated UE identifier; as well as Send binding information to EAS.

6. A method performed by an edge application server EAS in an edge computing system, the method comprising: Sending a request message for a user equipment UE identifier to be used in the edge computing system to an edge enabling server EES; and receiving a response message including a UE identifier from the EES, in, The UE identifier is obtained based on at least one of a network protocol IP address of the UE or an interaction with a 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP network.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising: In the event that the UE identifier changes due to privacy reasons, an updated UE identifier is received from the EES to be used in the edge computing system.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The UE identifier uniquely identifies the UE.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein: The UE identifier is used by the EAS to further request capability exposure application programming interface API to the EES.

10. An edge enabling server EES in an edge computing system, the EES comprising: transceiver, and The controller is configured as: receiving a request message for a user equipment UE identifier to be used in the edge computing system from an edge application server EAS; Obtaining the UE identifier based on at least one of a network protocol IP address of the UE or interaction with a 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP network; as well as A response message including the UE identifier is sent to the EAS.

11. The EES according to claim 10, wherein: The controller is also configured to: In case the UE identifier changes due to privacy reasons, the updated UE identifier is sent to the EAS to be used in the edge computing system.

12. The EES of claim 10, wherein: The UE identifier uniquely identifies the UE, and The UE identifier is used by the EAS to further request the capability exposure application programming interface API from the EES.

13. The EES of claim 11, wherein: The controller is also configured to: assigning an updated UE identifier to the UE; binding information about the updated IP address and the updated UE identifier; as well as Send binding information to EAS.

14. An edge application server EAS in an edge computing system, the EAS comprising: transceiver, and The controller is configured as: Sending a request message for a user equipment UE identifier to be used in the edge computing system to an edge enabling server EES; and receiving a response message including a UE identifier from the EES, in, The UE identifier is obtained based on at least one of a network protocol IP address of the UE or an interaction with a 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP network.

15. The EAS of claim 14, wherein: The controller is also configured to: In the event that the UE identifier changes due to privacy reasons, receiving an updated UE identifier from the EES to be used in the edge computing system, wherein the UE identifier uniquely identifies the UE, and The UE identifier is used by the EAS to further request the capability exposure application programming interface API from the EES.

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