A Subscription Method for Cumulants

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application disclose a service processing method and related products, which are applied to the charging field under the network architecture of a slice instance. The charging method can be executed by a policy control device. Among them, the policy control device sends a subscription request to the charging processing device, and the subscription request carries the identifier of the first slice instance and the user equipment identifier. Then, the policy control device receives a subscription response returned by the charging processing device, and the subscription response includes a subscription identifier and first information of a first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance. Through the present invention, under the network architecture for slice instances, the policy control device can subscribe to the cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance through a subscription request carrying the identifier of the first slice instance. So that the policy control device can formulate policy control related to slice instances.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a subscription method, system, and related devices for implementing cumulative amounts in a policy control device and a charging system. Background Art

[0002] The 5G (5th Generation) network defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) supports multiple usage scenarios and applications. These include services that require ultra-reliable and ultra-low latency communication, such as wireless control of industrial manufacturing or production processes, remote surgery, smart grid distribution automation, and transportation safety.

[0003] To meet the diverse network requirements of a large number of industrial applications, the 5G network uses network slicing technology. Network slicing essentially involves running multiple virtual networks on a shared physical network infrastructure, with each virtual network being divided according to different service requirements, such as latency, bandwidth, security, and reliability, to flexibly handle different network application scenarios.

[0004] Currently, the 5G network can include network slice types such as enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), Massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), and Vehicle to Everything (V2X). Each type of network slice can have one or more network slice instances. A user equipment can access one or more network slice instances to use services.

[0005] In the network slice scenario of the 5G network, a user equipment can simultaneously access multiple network slice instances, and a charging processing device can provide charging for user equipment on multiple network slice instances.

[0006] A policy control device is used to provide control policies (including QoS and / or charging policies) for user services to a session management function device. The policy control device can be a Policy Control Function (PCF) device defined by 3GPP standard specifications.

[0007] When generating a control policy for user services, the policy control device may need to be based on information about the counters of the user equipment (such as the status of the counters). To obtain information about the counters of the user equipment, the policy control device needs to obtain the current information of the counters from the charging processing device and subscribe to the changes in the information of the counters of the user equipment from the charging processing device, so that when the charging processing device determines the change in the subscribed counter information, it sends a notification to the policy control device.

[0008] Under the current 5G network architecture, the policy control device requests the charging processing device to create a subscription resource for the user equipment at the granularity of the user equipment. In the case of multiple network slice instances, a user equipment may be connected to multiple network slice instances. Therefore, the existing methods for obtaining subscription resources and subscribing to the information of the counters of the user equipment cannot support the scenario of multiple network slice instances, cannot create subscription resources for multiple network slice instances (such as when the policy control device is deployed on a network slice instance), or cannot configure effective counters (such as when the policy control device is deployed on a network slice instance and the network slice instance is dynamically created and allocated), which cannot support the refined operation of the operator based on the slice granularity. Summary of the Invention

[0009] In view of this, it is necessary to provide a method for subscribing to counters to achieve subscribing to the counters corresponding to the slice instance in the network architecture of the slice instance.

[0010] In a first aspect provided by an embodiment of the present application, a method for subscribing to the status of counters executed by a policy control device is provided. Among them, the policy control device sends a subscription request to the charging processing device, and the subscription request carries the identifier of the first slice instance and the user equipment identifier. Then, the policy control device receives a subscription response returned by the charging processing device, and the subscription response includes a subscription identifier and first information of the first counter corresponding to the first slice instance. The subscription request is used to request to subscribe to the information of the counter corresponding to the slice instance. Through the present invention, in the network architecture for the slice instance, the policy control device can achieve subscribing to the counter corresponding to the first slice instance through the subscription request carrying the identifier of the first slice instance. Further, it can facilitate the policy control device to formulate policy control related to the slice instance.

[0011] In a possible implementation, before sending the subscription request, the policy control device receives the identifier of the first slice instance accessed by the user equipment. Then, the policy control device determines the information of the first counter corresponding to the first slice instance of the user equipment that needs to be subscribed according to the subscription information of the user equipment. In this method, the information of the counter to be subscribed corresponding to the first slice instance is determined through the subscription information, so that the subscription of the information of the counter can be refined to the level of the slice instance, and thus the subscription is more accurate.

[0012] In a possible implementation, the identifier of the first slice instance can be used to obtain subscription information. The policy control device can determine, based on the user's subscription information, that the policy decision for the user equipment depends on the status of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance to which the user equipment is connected.

[0013] In a possible implementation, the policy control device receives a protocol data unit session policy request of the user equipment on the first slice instance sent by the session management function device, and the identifier of the first slice instance indicated in the policy request. Thus, the policy control device obtains the subscription information related to the first slice instance of the user according to the identifier of the first slice instance.

[0014] In a possible implementation, the subscription request may carry the identifier of the first cumulative amount. Therefore, the policy control device determines the identifier of the first cumulative amount to be subscribed according to the subscription information, which can avoid the charging processing device from determining the identifier of the first cumulative amount, thus simplifying the processing of the charging processing device.

[0015] In a possible implementation, the subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance. The subscription request is used to request to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance carried in the subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance is used to indicate that the first subscription resource is a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance. The first subscription request also carries a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance. The policy device instructs the charging processing device to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance. This makes the subscription resource bound to the slice instance, thus enabling more accurate management of the subscription resource.

[0016] In a possible implementation, the policy control device receives a first notification message sent by the charging processing device through the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance. The first notification message carries the identifier of the first slice instance, the second information of the first cumulative amount, or an end subscription indication of the first subscription. Then, the policy control device generates an update control policy for the user equipment based on the second information of the first cumulative amount, or the policy control device requests to delete the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance based on the end subscription indication of the first subscription. The first subscription corresponds to the first subscription resource. By receiving the notification message through the notification address, the policy for the first slice instance can be updated or the subscription can be ended.

[0017] In a possible implementation, the policy control device determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance. Then, the policy control device sends an unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource to the charging processing device. By unsubscribing from the first subscription resource of the first slice instance, the management of the first subscription resource related to the first slice instance becomes more complete.

[0018] In a possible implementation, the subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the user equipment. The subscription request corresponding to the user equipment is used to request to create a fourth subscription resource for the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance carried in the subscription request corresponding to the user equipment is the slice instance identifier corresponding to the first cumulative amount of the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance is used to indicate the first cumulative amount information corresponding to the first slice instance for subscribing to the user equipment. The subscription request corresponding to the user equipment also carries a notification address corresponding to the user equipment. The first information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance includes the first state of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the corresponding first slice instance. The policy device instructs the charging processing device to create a fourth subscription resource for the user equipment. The fourth subscription resource is a subscription resource shared by at least two slice instances. In the relevant information of the fourth subscription resource, the first accumulation is bound to the first slice instance, so that the management of the subscription resource is simpler.

[0019] In a possible implementation, the policy control device receives a first notification message sent by the charging processing device through the notification address corresponding to the user equipment. The first notification message carries second information of the first cumulative amount. The second information includes the second state of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the first slice instance. The policy control device generates an update control policy for the user equipment based on the second information of the first cumulative amount. The second information includes the second state of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the first slice instance, so that the control of the session of the protocol data unit of the user equipment on the first slice instance is more accurate.

[0020] In a possible implementation, the subscription request further includes the identifier of the policy control device. The identifier of the policy control device is used to instruct the charging processing device to determine different subscription requests when receiving subscription requests sent by different policy control devices. Through this application, regardless of whether the policy control device is deployed on the slice instance or outside the slice instance, different subscription requests can be determined through the identifier of the policy control device, so as to manage the subscription of the cumulative amounts of different slice instances.

[0021] In a possible implementation, the policy control device determines the information of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance. The policy control device sends a first update request for the fourth subscription resource to the charging processing device. The first update request includes the fourth subscription identifier, the identifier of the second cumulative amount, and the identifier of the second slice instance corresponding to the second cumulative amount. The first slice instance and the second slice instance share the fourth subscription resource, which simplifies the management of the subscription resource.

[0022] In a possible implementation, the policy control device determines that it is necessary to subscribe to the information of the second cumulative quantity corresponding to the second slice instance. The policy control device generates a second update request for the fourth subscription resource, and the second update request includes the cumulative quantity identifier after deleting the second cumulative quantity identifier corresponding to the second slice instance from the set of currently subscribed cumulative quantities of the user. The policy control device sends the second update request for the fourth subscription resource to the charging processing device. By unsubscribing from the cumulative quantity corresponding to the first slice instance, when multiple slice instances correspond to the same subscription resource, the subscription of the cumulative quantity corresponding to the first slice instance is more complete and accurate.

[0023] In a possible implementation, the policy control device determines to unsubscribe from the first subscription resource of the user equipment. The policy control device sends an unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource to the charging processing device. When multiple slice instances correspond to the same subscription resource, the entire subscription resource is unsubscribed, thereby canceling the subscription of the cumulative quantity for all slice instances accessed by the user equipment. This makes the subscription of the cumulative quantity for each slice instance more complete.

[0024] The second aspect provided by the embodiments of the present application is a method for subscribing to cumulative quantity information. In this method, the charging processing device receives a subscription request, and the subscription request includes the identifier of the first slice instance and the user equipment identifier. The charging processing device returns a subscription response, and the subscription response includes a subscription identifier and the first information of the first cumulative quantity corresponding to the first slice instance, and the subscription identifier is used to identify the subscription resource. Through this method, in the network architecture for slice instances, the subscription of the cumulative quantity corresponding to the slice instance can be realized, so that the policy control related to the slice instance can be formulated.

[0025] In a possible implementation, the subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance. The first slice instance information is used to request to create a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance, and the first subscription request also carries a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance. The charging processing device creates a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance and stores the relevant information of the first subscription resource. The relevant information of the first subscription resource includes: the identifier of the first slice instance, the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, and the identifier of the first cumulative quantity. Through this method, the first subscription resource is bound to the slice instance, so that the management of the subscription resource is more accurate.

[0026] In a possible implementation, the charging processing device receives an unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource, and the first subscription identifier is carried in the unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource. According to the first subscription identifier, the charging processing device deletes the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance. By unsubscribing from the first subscription resource of the first slice instance, the management of the first subscription resource related to the first slice instance is more complete.

[0027] In a possible implementation, the charging processing device receives a subscription request corresponding to a second slice instance. The subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier. The charging processing device determines the first subscription resource of the user equipment according to the user equipment identifier, and updates the relevant information of the first subscription resource. The charging processing device returns a subscription response to the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance. The subscription response to the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance includes the first subscription identifier and the first information of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance. By this method, both the first slice instance and the second slice instance correspond to the first subscription resource, thereby simplifying the processing of the charging processing device.

[0028] In a possible implementation, the charging processing device receives an unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource. The unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the first subscription identifier. The charging processing device determines that the first subscription resource is only associated with the second slice instance and deletes the first subscription resource. Or the charging processing device determines that the first subscription resource is associated with at least two slice instances and updates the relevant information of the first subscription resource. By this method, both the first slice instance and the second slice instance correspond to the first subscription resource, and the unsubscribe of the first slice instance and / or the unsubscribe of the second slice instance can be realized. Thus, when multiple slice instances correspond to the same subscription resource, the management of the subscription resource is more complete.

[0029] In a possible implementation, the charging processing device receives a subscription request corresponding to a second slice instance. The subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier. The charging processing device creates a second subscription resource corresponding to the second slice instance for the user equipment according to the identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier, and stores the relevant information of the second subscription resource. The charging processing device returns a subscription response to the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance. The subscription response includes the second subscription identifier and the first information of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance. The second subscription identifier is used to identify the second subscription resource. By this method, subscription resources (the first subscription resource and the second subscription resource) are created for the first slice instance and the second slice instance respectively, thereby simplifying the processing of the charging processing device.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the charging processing device determines that the information of the first cumulative amount or the second cumulative amount changes. The charging processing device sends a first notification message through the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance or the notification address corresponding to the second slice instance. The first notification message carries the second information of the first cumulative amount or the second cumulative amount, the identifier of the first slice instance or the identifier of the second slice instance.

[0031] In a possible implementation, the subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the user device. The subscription request corresponding to the user device is used to request to create a fourth subscription resource corresponding to the user device for the user device. The identifier of the first slice instance carried in the subscription request corresponding to the user device is the slice instance identifier corresponding to the first cumulative amount of the user device. The charging processing device creates a fourth subscription resource corresponding to the user device according to the user device identifier; the first information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance includes the first state of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the corresponding first slice instance. Creating shared subscription resources for different slice instances accessed by the user device makes the management of subscription resources for different slice instances more accurate.

[0032] In a possible implementation, the charging processing device receives a first update request for the fourth subscription resource. The first update request carries the identifier of the second cumulative amount and the identifier of the second slice instance corresponding to the second cumulative amount. The identifier of the second cumulative amount and the identifier of the second slice instance corresponding to the second cumulative amount are saved in the relevant information of the fourth subscription resource. Creating shared subscription resources for different slice instances accessed by the user device makes the management of subscription resources for different slice instances more accurate.

[0033] In a possible implementation, the charging processing device determines a change in the information of the first cumulative amount or the second cumulative amount. The charging processing device sends a notification message. The notification message carries the second information of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the first slice instance corresponding to the first cumulative amount, or the notification message carries the second information of the second cumulative amount and the identifier of the second slice instance corresponding to the second cumulative amount.

[0034] In a possible implementation, the subscription request is a subscription request sent by the first policy control device, and the subscription request also carries the identifier of the first policy control device. The charging processing device receives an eighth subscription request sent by the second policy control device. The eighth subscription request carries the identifier of the user device and the identifier of the second policy control device. If it is determined according to the user device identifier and the identifier of the second policy control device that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the second policy control device for the user device, the charging processing device creates a fourth subscription resource for the user device; or, if it is determined according to the user device identifier and the identifier of the second policy control device that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the second policy control device for the user device, the charging processing device updates the relevant information of the existing subscription resource of the user device. Creating subscription resources for the user device and binding the cumulative amounts of different slice instances. Thus, the diversification of the management of subscription resources is realized.

[0035] The third aspect of the embodiments of this application provides a method for subscribing to cumulant information. The charging processing device receives a first update request for a subscribed resource. The first update request carries a subscription identifier, an identifier of a first slice instance, and an identifier of a first cumulant that the first slice instance needs to subscribe to. The identifier of the first cumulant and the identifier of the first slice instance are saved in the relevant information of the subscribed resource. According to this method, after a subscribed resource has been created for a user equipment, the first cumulant information subscribed by the slice instance can still be saved in the relevant information of the subscribed resource when the user equipment accesses the slice instance. This makes the first cumulant correspond to the first slice instance, thus satisfying the subscription achieved after the user equipment accesses the slice instance.

[0036] In a possible implementation, the charging processing device further receives a second update request for the subscribed resource. The update request carries the identifier of the first cumulant and the identifier of the first slice instance corresponding to the first cumulant. The update request is used to remove the subscription to the cumulant corresponding to the second slice instance. The charging processing device updates the relevant information of the first subscribed resource according to the second update request.

[0037] The fourth aspect of the embodiments of this application provides a method for subscribing to cumulant information. The policy control device sends a first update request for a subscribed resource. The first update request carries a subscription identifier, an identifier of a first slice instance, and an identifier of a first cumulant that the first slice instance needs to subscribe to. The policy control device receives an update response for the subscribed resource. According to this method, after a subscribed resource has been created for a user equipment, the first subscribed resource can still be requested to be updated when the user equipment accesses the slice instance, so that the first cumulant corresponds to the first slice instance, thus satisfying the subscription achieved after the user equipment accesses the slice instance.

[0038] In a possible implementation, after determining that the user equipment already has a first subscribed resource, the policy control device sends an update request for the first subscribed resource to the charging processing device.

[0039] The fifth aspect of the embodiments of this application provides a method for subscribing to cumulant information.

[0040] The fourth aspect of the embodiments of this application provides a method for subscribing to cumulant information. The policy control device sends a first subscription request to the charging processing device. The first subscription request carries the identifier of the first slice instance, the user equipment identifier, and a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance. The charging processing device sends a first subscription response to the policy control device. The first subscription response includes a first subscription identifier and a first status of the first cumulant corresponding to the first slice instance.

[0041] In a sixth aspect, a policy control device is provided. The device has functions of implementing the policy control device in the above first aspect or fourth aspect. These functions can be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0042] In a seventh aspect, a charging processing device is provided. The device has functions of implementing the charging processing device in the above second aspect or third aspect. These functions can be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0043] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a system for subscribing to cumulative quantity information, including a policy control device and a charging processing device. The policy control device can execute the method executed by the policy control device in the above first aspect or any possible solution in the first aspect. The charging processing device can execute the method executed by the charging processing device in the above second aspect or any possible solution in the second aspect.

[0044] In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a system for subscribing to cumulative quantity information, including a policy control device and a charging processing device. The policy control device can execute the method executed by the policy control device in the above fourth aspect or any possible solution in the fourth aspect. The charging processing device can execute the method executed by the charging processing device in the above third aspect or any possible solution in the third aspect.

[0045] In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a charging processing device, including a processor and a memory, where:

[0046] The memory is used for storing program instructions;

[0047] The processor is used for calling and executing the program instructions stored in the memory, so that the charging processing device executes the method in the second aspect or any possible solution in the second aspect, or the third aspect or any possible solution in the third aspect.

[0048] In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, including instructions, which when running on a computer, cause the computer to execute the method in the second aspect or any possible solution in the second aspect, or the third aspect or any possible solution in the third aspect.

[0049] In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a policy control device, including a processor and a memory, where:

[0050] The memory is used for storing program instructions;

[0051] A processor is configured to call and execute program instructions stored in a memory, so that a session management function device (102) executes the method in the first aspect or any possible solution in the first aspect, or the method in the fourth aspect or any possible solution in the fourth aspect.

[0052] In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, including instructions that, when running on a computer, cause the computer to execute the method of subscribing based on the cumulative amount of a slice instance in the first aspect or any possible solution in the first aspect.

[0053] In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip that, when running, is configured to implement the method in the above-mentioned first aspect, second aspect, third aspect, fourth aspect, any possible implementation solution of the first aspect, or any possible implementation solution of the second aspect, any possible implementation solution of the third aspect, or any possible implementation solution of the fourth aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0054] Figure 1A is a schematic diagram of a system architecture applying an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] Figure 1B is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a 5G system applying the present application;

[0056] Figure 2A is a schematic diagram of a system architecture in which a policy control device is deployed on a network slice instance in the system architecture applying the present application;

[0057] Figure 2B is a schematic diagram of a system architecture in which a policy control device is deployed outside a network slice instance in the system architecture applying the present application;

[0058] Figure 3A is a flowchart of the method for subscribing cumulative amount information provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0059] Figure 3B is another flowchart of the method for subscribing cumulative amount information provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0060] Figure 4 is provided by an embodiment of the present application based on Figure 2A a flowchart of the method for a policy control device to subscribe cumulative amount information in the system architecture;

[0061] Figure 5 is provided by an embodiment of the present application based on Figure 2B a flowchart of the method for a policy control device to subscribe cumulative amount information in the system architecture;

[0062] Figure 6 is provided by an embodiment of the present application based on Figure 2AFlowchart of the method for a policy control device to subscribe to cumulative quantity information in the system architecture;

[0063] Figure 7A This is for the embodiment of the present application based on Figure 2B Flowchart of the method for a policy control device to subscribe to cumulative quantity information in the system architecture;

[0064] Figure 7B This is for the embodiment of the present application based on Figure 2B Flowchart of the method for a policy control device to subscribe to cumulative quantity information in the system architecture;

[0065] Figure 8 Schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a session management function device, a charging processing device, or a policy control device provided for the embodiment of the present application;

[0066] Figure 9 Schematic diagram of the logical structure of the charging processing device provided for the embodiment of the present application;

[0067] Figure 10 Schematic diagram of the logical structure of the policy control device provided for the embodiment of the present application. Detailed implementation manners

[0068] Next, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Among them, in the description of the present application, unless otherwise specified, " / " means that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship. For example, A / B may represent A or B; "and / or" in the present application is an association relationship describing associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B may represent: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. Here, A and B may be singular or plural. And, in the description of the present application, unless otherwise specified, "a plurality of" means two or more than two. In addition, in order to clearly describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, terms such as "first" and "second" are used to identify the same items or similar items with basically the same functions and effects. Those skilled in the art can understand that the terms "first", "second", etc. do not limit the quantity and execution order, and the terms "first", "second", etc. do not necessarily limit to be different.

[0069] Figure 1A This is a system architecture diagram for policy control and charging provided for the embodiment of the present application, used to control a session management function device to process user services, including a charging processing device 101, a session management function device 102, a user device 103, and a policy control device 104. The main functions of these devices are described as follows.

[0070] Charging Processing Device 101: It is communicatively connected to the Session Management Function Device 102 and the Policy Control Device 104. The Charging Processing Device 101 is used to receive the subscription request sent by the Policy Control Device, and return the information of the cumulative amount (such as the status of the cumulative amount, the value of the cumulative amount, etc.) to the Policy Control Device, and send a notification message to the Policy Control Device after determining that the information of the user equipment's cumulative amount changes (such as detecting that the status of the cumulative amount changes from Status 1 below the usage limit to Status 2 exceeding the usage limit, or will change from Status 1 to Status 2 at a certain future time point). In addition, the Charging Processing Device 101 is also used to receive the update request for the subscribed resources sent by the Policy Control Device, and update the subscribed resources of the user equipment (such as updating the relevant information of the subscribed resources (cumulative amount list and / or slice instance identifier, etc.)). The Charging Processing Device 101 is also used to receive the unsubscribe request for the subscribed resources sent by the Policy Control Device, and cancel the subscription to the cumulative amount.

[0071] The Charging Processing Device 101 can be a CHF (Charging Function) device defined by the 3GPP standard specification, or a CCS (Converged Charging System) device defined by the 3GPP standard specification, which includes the functions of the CHF device.

[0072] It should be understood that in practical applications, Figure 1A As shown in the charging system, there can be more Charging Processing Devices 101. For example, a cluster can be constructed, which includes multiple Charging Processing Devices 101 that are backed up with each other, so as to improve the disaster tolerance ability and achieve high availability.

[0073] For the convenience of description, in the embodiments of the present application, sometimes the Charging Processing Device 101 is also directly referred to as the CHF device.

[0074] Session Management Function Device 102: It is communicatively connected to the Charging Processing Device 101, the Policy Control Device 104, and the User Equipment 103. This device can be used for:

[0075] (1) Receive the start request of the user service from the User Equipment 103 (that is, the request message for requesting the Session Management Function Device to start the user service), start the user service according to the start request, and perform charging operations such as quota management and usage reporting on the user service;

[0076] (2) Send a charging request to the Charging Processing Device 101 so that the Charging Processing Device 101 can update the information of the cumulative amount according to the charging request;

[0077] (3) Request the policy of the user service from the Policy Device 104, and according to the policy or updated policy sent by the Policy Device 104.

[0078] It should be understood that in practical applications, Figure 1A the shown charging system may have more session management function devices. They can be communicatively connected to the same charging processing device 101 (such as the charging processing device 101), or can be communicatively connected to different charging processing devices 101. Multiple service start requests initiated by the same user equipment for the same user service may be processed by the same or different session management function devices.

[0079] User equipment 103: It is used to select one or more network slice instances to access and send a protocol data unit session (PDU session) establishment request to the session management function device on the selected network slice instance.

[0080] The user equipment 103 can be a user equipment (UE) defined by the 3GPP standard specification, can be a wireless access device with wireless communication function or a wired access device without wireless communication function, including handheld devices, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices or computing devices; exemplarily, it can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer or other wireless terminal devices with wireless transceiver function.

[0081] It should be understood that in practical applications, Figure 1A the shown system may have more user equipment.

[0082] Policy control device 104: It is communicatively connected to the session management function device 102 and the charging processing device 101, and is used to obtain and subscribe to relevant information on the accumulated amount of the user from the charging processing device, and provide a control policy for the user service for the session management function device 102. The policy control device can also store or obtain subscription-related information, such as subscription identifier, identifier of the subscribed accumulated amount, identifier of the slice instance corresponding to the identifier of the accumulated amount, etc.

[0083] The policy control device 104 can be a policy control function (PCF) device defined by the 3GPP standard specification, or other devices that need to obtain charging and information change of this device from the charging processing device.

[0084] The policy control device can be dedicated to a certain network slice instance (i.e., this PCF only generates control policies for user services on this network slice instance, and is also called deployed on the network slice instance in this application), or the policy control device can be shared by multiple network slice instances (i.e., this PCF can simultaneously generate control policies for user services on multiple network slice instances, and is also called deployed outside the network slice instance in this application).

[0085] To obtain and subscribe to information on the cumulative amount of the user equipment, the policy control device requests the charging processing device to create a subscription resource for the user equipment, which is used by the policy control device to obtain and subscribe to the status information of the user's counter.

[0086] It should be noted that the above "connected" or "linked" includes direct connection or communication connection through one or more intermediate network devices.

[0087] Figure 1B The schematic diagram of the architecture of a basic 5G system is shown. As Figure 1B shown, the system includes: Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Radio Access Network (RAN), Unified Data Management (UDM), Policy Control Function (PCF), Data Network (DN), User Plane Function (UPF), UE, Application Function (AF), Unified Data Repository (UDR), and Charging Function (CHF). Optionally, Figure 1B it may also include the following functions ( Figure 1B not shown in the figure): Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Network Exposure Function (NEF), NF Repository Function (NRF).

[0088] Among them, the main functions of each network element are described as follows:

[0089] AF: It can be understood as the naming of the Application Function network element in the 5G architecture. Among them, the Application Function network element mainly transmits the requirements from the application side to the network side. For example, it can be requirements such as quality of service (QoS). AF can be a third-party functional entity or an application service deployed by the operator, such as the Voice Call service of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).

[0090] UDR: It can be understood as the naming of the Unified Data Repository network element in the 5G architecture. Among them, the Unified Data Repository network element mainly includes the following functions: the access function for various types of data such as subscription data, policy data, and application data.

[0091] PCF: It can be understood as the naming of the Policy Control Function network element in the 5G architecture. Among them, the Policy Control Function network element is mainly responsible for generating and distributing charging policies and QoS bandwidth control policies at the session and service flow levels.

[0092] SMF: It can be understood as the naming of the Session Management Function network element in the 5G architecture. Among them, the Session Management Function network element mainly performs functions such as session management, execution of the control policies distributed by the PCF, selection of the UPF, and allocation of UE IP addresses.

[0093] CHF: Charging Function. It is responsible for reporting charging status information to the PCF and interacting with the SMF to implement quota management and charging control.

[0094] Among them, the main interface functions related to this application are described as follows:

[0095] N7: The interface between the PCF and the SMF, used to request control policies for PDU sessions.

[0096] N28: The interface between the PCF and the CHF, used for the PCF to subscribe to charging status (Policy Counter) information from the UDR, such as user balance status, remaining traffic status, etc.

[0097] N40: The interface between the SMF and the CHF, used for the SMF to report charging information (Charging data) to the CHF and obtain quota (Credit) thresholds from the CHF.

[0098] Figure 2AIt is a schematic diagram of the system architecture in the system of the present application, where the policy control device is deployed on the network slice instance. This system architecture includes Network Slice Instance 1 (abbreviated as Slice Instance 1) and Network Slice Instance 2, as well as a charging processing device deployed outside Slice Instances 1 and 2. Each slice instance is deployed with a User Plane Function (UPF) device, a Session Management Function (SMF) device, and a Policy Control Function (PCF) policy control device.

[0099] Adopt Figure 2A For the embodiments implemented using the system architecture of the present application, refer to Table 1, and Figure 4 , Figure 6 as shown.

[0100]

[0101] Table 1

[0102] Figure 2B It is a schematic diagram of the system architecture in the system of the present application, where the policy control device is shared by multiple network slice instances (i.e., the policy control device is deployed outside the network slice instance). This system architecture includes Network Slice Instance 1 (abbreviated as Slice Instance 1) and Network Slice Instance 2, as well as a charging processing device and a policy control device deployed outside Slice Instances 1 and 2. Each slice instance is deployed with a User Plane Function (UPF) device and a Session Management Function (SMF) device. In addition, there can be one or more policy control devices deployed outside the network slice instances. The policy control device can communicate and connect with the session management devices on one or more slice instances. Different policy control devices deployed outside the network slice instances can connect to the session management devices on the same slice instance or different slice instances.

[0103] Adopt Figure 2B For the embodiments implemented using the system architecture of the present application, refer to Table 2, and Figure 5 , Figure 7A and Figure 7B as shown.

[0104]

[0105] Table 2

[0106] Figure 1A - Figure 2BThe system architecture shown enables the charging processing device 101 to create subscription resources related to the slice instance (such as subscription resources corresponding to the slice instance or subscription resources corresponding to the user equipment), so as to send information on the cumulative volume related to the slice instance to the policy control device. This enables the policy control device to perform policy control on services deployed in different slice instances.

[0107] For ease of understanding the embodiments of this application, some concepts are explained below.

[0108] User service refers to the data connection service accessed or used by the user equipment 103 through network devices (such as the session management function device 102 or the user plane device, etc. Figure 1A not shown in the figure). The user service can be a service in a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session. For example, one or more data streams corresponding to a certain Rating Group (RG) in a PDU session, or the data stream corresponding to a certain RG and service identifier in the PDU session, can be understood as the user service in the embodiments of this application; in the embodiments of this application, "user service in the PDU session" and "service in the PDU session" refer to multiple data streams corresponding to a certain RG in the PDU session, or can also be the data stream corresponding to a certain service identifier among the multiple data streams corresponding to a certain RG.

[0109] For the convenience of narration, in the embodiments of this application, sometimes the user service is also simply referred to as "service".

[0110] Counter, which is used to track the user consumption situation inside the CHF. The counter can be the cumulative volume of the traffic used by the service, or the cumulative volume of the usage duration, or the cumulative volume of the number of times called, etc. The counter can also be referred to as the policy counter.

[0111] Counter identifier: used to identify the counter.

[0112] Status of the counter: refers to the status of the recorded counter value relative to the usage limit. For example, if the usage limit is 50M, then the usage data of 30M and 60M respectively correspond to two statuses of the counter: above the usage limit and below the usage limit. In this application, the information of the counter includes one or more of the following information: the current status of the counter, the future status of the counter (including the effective time of this status), the expiration time of the status of the counter. If the counter corresponds to a network slice instance, the information of the counter can also include the identifier of the network slice instance corresponding to the counter.

[0113] In the embodiments of the present application, the consumption situation of a user on a certain network slice instance (i.e., the consumption volume of the user on a specific slice instance) is simply referred to as the slice-level cumulative volume. The values of the cumulative volumes corresponding to the user on different slice instances (different slice-level cumulative volumes) are different, but may have the same cumulative volume identifier. For example, the cumulative volume is "traffic accumulation within the billing cycle", identified by counter-1. If the user is simultaneously connected to two network slice instances S-NSSAI1 and S-NSSAI2, then the value of counter-1 corresponding to this user for S-NSSAI1 is 30M, and the value of counter-1 corresponding to this user for S-NSSAI2 is 60M, and thus the corresponding cumulative volume statuses are also different.

[0114] In the present application, the consumption situation of a user on all network slice instances (i.e., the total consumption volume of the user on all network slice instances) is simply referred to as the cumulative volume at the user equipment level (also known as the shared cumulative volume or the cross-slice-level cumulative volume).

[0115] Network Slice Instance (NSI): It is a logical network used to meet certain network characteristics or service requirements. A network slice instance may provide one or more services.

[0116] The subscribed resource is the resource created by the charging processing device for the policy control device to obtain the cumulative volume information and the notification after the change of the cumulative volume.

[0117] Subscription is the record of the policy control device requesting the charging processing device to detect the change of the cumulative volume information and notify the changed cumulative volume information when the cumulative volume information changes.

[0118] All network slice instances in the present application are the network slice instances accessed by the user equipment. Specifically, the user equipment accessing the network slice instance means that the user equipment is attached to the network slice instance or a PDU session of the user equipment is established on the network slice instance.

[0119] In the present application, the Xth cumulative volume corresponding to a certain network slice instance is a set of cumulative volumes corresponding to the network slice instance, specifically, it can be one or more cumulative volumes corresponding to the network slice instance.

[0120] In the present application, the user identifier and the user equipment identifier have the same meaning and can be identified by SUPI or GSPI.

[0121] The following further describes Figure 1A The example of the method flow that can be implemented based on the Figure 3A - Figure 7B system architecture shown. As shown in Figure 1AThe charging processing device 101 and the policy control device 104 in it all correspond Figure 1A to the policy control device 104 in it, which will not be elaborated in the subsequent description of these method flows.

[0122] Figure 3A The flowchart of the method for the policy control device 104 provided by the embodiment of the present application is for the cumulative amount information related to the slice instance. Figure 3A The shown flowchart is applicable to Figure 2A and Figure 2B two network architectures. The policy control device can send the first subscription request (or the second subscription request), the third subscription request (or the fourth subscription request), and the fifth subscription request (or the update request) as shown in Table 1 and the representation. Figure 3A It includes the following steps:

[0123] Step 302: The policy control device sends a subscription request, and the subscription request includes the identifier of the first slice instance and the user equipment identifier. The subscription request is used to request to subscribe to the cumulative amount information corresponding to the slice instance. In this embodiment, the subscription request is used to request to subscribe to the cumulative amount information corresponding to the first slice instance.

[0124] Before executing step 302, the policy control device receives the identifier of the first slice instance accessed by the user equipment, and determines the first cumulative amount information corresponding to the first slice instance of the user equipment that needs to be subscribed according to the subscription information of the user equipment.

[0125] The subscription request is used to request to subscribe to the cumulative amount information corresponding to the slice instance. In this embodiment, the subscription request is used to request to subscribe to the cumulative amount information corresponding to the first slice instance. When the subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance (such as the first subscription request or the third subscription request), the subscription request can realize the subscription to the cumulative amount information corresponding to the first slice instance by requesting to create the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance carried in the subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance is used to indicate that the first subscription resource is a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance, and the first subscription request also carries the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance.

[0126] When the subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the user equipment (such as the fifth subscription request), the subscription request corresponding to the user equipment is used to request to create a fourth subscription resource for the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance carried in the subscription request corresponding to the user equipment is the slice instance identifier corresponding to the first cumulative amount of the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance is used to indicate the first cumulative amount information corresponding to the first slice instance for subscribing to the user equipment. The first subscription request also carries a notification address corresponding to the user equipment; the first information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance includes the first state of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the corresponding first slice instance.

[0127] Step 304: The policy control device receives a subscription response, and the subscription response includes a subscription identifier and the first information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance.

[0128] If the subscription request is the fifth subscription request, the first information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance includes the first state of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the corresponding first slice instance. If the subscription request is the first subscription request or the third subscription request, the first information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance includes the first state of the first cumulative amount, but does not include the first slice instance identifier.

[0129] Furthermore, after the policy control device receives the subscription response, the policy control device may also receive a first notification message. The first notification message carries the identifier of the first slice instance, the second information of the first cumulative amount, or an end subscription indication for the first subscription. The policy control device generates an update control policy for the user equipment based on the second information of the first cumulative amount, or the policy control device deletes the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance based on the end subscription indication for the first subscription.

[0130] Furthermore, the policy control device determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance, and sends an unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource to the charging processing device.

[0131] While in the Figure 2B network architecture, when the subscription request is the fifth subscription request, the policy control device receives a notification message sent by the charging processing device through the notification address corresponding to the user equipment. The notification message carries the second information of the first cumulative amount, and the second information includes the second state of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the corresponding first slice instance. The policy control device generates an update control policy for the user equipment based on the second information of the first cumulative amount.

[0132] Further, if the subscribed resource is a third subscribed resource, the policy control device determines information on the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance. The policy control device sends a first update request for a fourth subscribed resource to the charging processing device, where the first update request includes a third subscription identifier, an identifier of the second cumulative amount, and an identifier of the second slice instance corresponding to the second cumulative amount.

[0133] Through the embodiments of the present application, the policy control device can subscribe to information on the cumulative amount corresponding to a slice instance. Thus, subscription to the cumulative amount is achieved under the network architecture of the slice instance.

[0134] Figure 3B FIG. is a flowchart of a method for the policy control device 104 provided in the embodiments of the present application to subscribe to cumulative amount information related to a slice instance for a user equipment. Figure 3B The shown flowchart is applicable to Figure 2A and Figure 2B two network architectures. In the Figure 3B embodiment provided, the policy control device can perform an update based on the existing subscribed resources of the user equipment (i.e., the subscribed resources may not be related to a slice instance), so as to subscribe to information on the cumulative amount related to the slice instance. Figure 3B It includes the following steps:

[0135] Step 352: The policy control device sends a first update request for the subscribed resource to the charging processing device. The first update request carries a subscription identifier, an identifier of the first slice instance, and an identifier of the first cumulative amount to be subscribed to by the first slice instance.

[0136] Before executing step 352, the policy control device determines to subscribe to information on the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance, and determines that the user equipment already has subscribed resources.

[0137] After receiving the first update request, the charging processing device saves the identifier of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the first slice instance in the relevant information of the subscribed resource.

[0138] Step 354: The policy control device receives a first update response returned by the charging processing device.

[0139] Further, the policy control device also sends a second update request for the subscribed resource to the charging processing device. The update request carries the identifier of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the first slice instance corresponding to the first cumulative amount. The update request is used to remove the subscription to the cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance; the charging processing device updates the relevant information of the first subscribed resource according to the second update request.

[0140] In an embodiment of this application, when the policy control device determines to subscribe to the information of the cumulative quantity corresponding to the slice instance and determines that the user equipment already has subscribed resources, it can send an update request to save the identifier of the cumulative quantity to be subscribed and the identifier of the slice instance corresponding to the cumulative quantity in the relevant information of the existing subscribed resources, thereby completing the subscription to the cumulative quantity corresponding to the slice instance.

[0141] Figure 4 This application embodiment provides a method flowchart for the policy control device 104 to obtain and subscribe to the cumulative quantity information related to the slice instance for the user equipment. Figure 4 The corresponding method process corresponds to Figure 2A the system architecture. The policy control device 104 is deployed on the slice instance. The policy control device 104 sends a subscription request to instruct the charging processing device to create a first subscribed resource corresponding to the first slice instance. The charging processing device creates different subscribed resources for different slice instances accessed by the user equipment. The policy control device can obtain the Counter list (which may include slice-level counters and cross-slice-level counters) corresponding to the slice instance accessed by the user equipment from other network devices (such as UDR), or configure the Counter corresponding to the slice instance accessed by the user equipment on the policy control device. The method process mainly includes the following steps:

[0142] 400. The policy control device A determines the status of the first cumulative quantity corresponding to the first slice instance of the user to be subscribed.

[0143] The policy control device A receives the identifier of the first slice instance accessed by the user equipment and determines to obtain and subscribe to the status of the first cumulative quantity corresponding to the first slice instance according to the user's subscription information. Specifically, the policy control device A determines that the user's policy decision depends on the status of the first cumulative quantity corresponding to the first slice instance of the user according to the user's subscription information, so as to determine the need to subscribe to the status of the first cumulative quantity corresponding to the first slice instance.

[0144] The policy control device A receiving the identifier of the first slice instance accessed by the user equipment may be: the policy control device A receives the protocol data unit session policy request of the user equipment on the network slice instance accessed by the user equipment sent by the session management function device, and obtains the identifier of the network slice instance accessed by the user equipment from the policy request. For example, when the user equipment requests the session management function device A102 on the first slice instance it accesses to create a PDU session, it can send a policy request to the policy control device A. The session management function device 102 can carry the user identifier, the information of the PDU session (such as the type of the PDU session), the identifier of the first slice instance, etc. in the policy request sent to the policy control device A.

[0145] 401. The policy control device A sends a first subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance to the charging processing device.

[0146] The first subscription request is used to request the creation of a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment. The first subscription request carries the user equipment identifier (SUPI), the identifier of the first slice instance (slice1), and the notification address (NotifyURL1) corresponding to the first slice instance. Optionally, the first subscription request may also carry the cumulative amount identifier (counterID1) corresponding to the first slice instance or the identifier of the policy control device A. The SUPI may be a user identifier or a user equipment identifier. For the sake of narrative, the present application collectively refers to it as the user equipment identifier. The identifier of the first slice instance is used to indicate that the first subscription resource is a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance.

[0147] The subscription request for the first slice instance may refer to the following example:

[0148]

[0149] Among them, the value of the parameter sliceID is the identifier of the first slice instance, the value of the parameter counter ID is the identifier of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the user and the first slice instance, and the value of the parameter NotifyURL is the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance. The notification address corresponding to the first slice instance is used for the charging processing device to notify the policy control device A of the counter information corresponding to the first slice instance accessed by the user equipment, such as changes in the status information of the counter.

[0150] As an option, the first subscription request may also not carry the identifier of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance to be subscribed. After receiving the first subscription request, the charging processing device determines the identifier of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the user (or the user equipment) and the first slice instance.

[0151] Step 402. The charging processing device creates a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment, assigns a first subscription identifier Res-1 to the first subscription resource, and stores the relevant information of the first subscription resource.

[0152] Specifically, after receiving the first subscription request, the charging processing device creates a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment according to the identifier of the first slice instance in the first subscription request, and assigns a first subscription identifier Res-1 to the first subscription resource. The first subscription identifier is used to identify the first subscription resource.

[0153] The first subscribed resource is as follows: The policy control device A requests the charging processing device 101 to create a subscribed resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment. The first subscribed resource corresponding to the first slice instance may be: the first subscribed resource of the first slice instance to which the user equipment is connected. The first subscribed resource is used for the policy control device A to obtain the current information (such as the current status) and information changes (such as status changes) of the cumulative amount related to the first slice instance of the user equipment. In the embodiments of the present application, the cumulative amount related to the slice instance may also be the cumulative amount corresponding to the slice instance.

[0154] The relevant information of the first subscribed resource includes the relevant information of the first slice instance. The relevant information of the first slice instance includes: the identifier of the first slice instance, the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, and the identifier of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance. There is a corresponding relationship between the stored relevant information of the first slice instance. The relevant information of the first subscribed resource further includes: the first subscription identifier and the user equipment identifier. The first subscribed resource is used to manage the subscription of the policy control device A. The charging processing device may, after the status of the first cumulative amount changes, send the information (such as: the status of the first cumulative amount) of the first cumulative amount whose status has changed to the policy control device (such as the policy control device A) of the first slice instance.

[0155] The relevant information of the first subscribed resource is shown in Table 3:

[0156]

[0157] Table 3

[0158] Step 403: The charging processing device returns a subscription response (referred to as the first subscription response) for the first subscription request to the policy control device A. The first subscription response includes the first subscription identifier and the first information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance.

[0159] The first information includes the current status of the first cumulative amount.

[0160] Further, after receiving the first status of the first cumulative amount, the policy control device A may generate a control policy for the PDU session of the user equipment based on the first status of the first cumulative amount and send the control policy to the session management device.

[0161] Steps 404-406: The policy control device B sends a second subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance to the charging processing device. The charging processing device creates a second subscribed resource (referred to as the second subscribed resource) corresponding to the second slice instance for the user equipment, assigns a subscription identifier Res-2 corresponding to the second slice instance, and returns a subscription response (referred to as the second subscription response) for the second subscription request to the policy control device B.

[0162] For the descriptions of steps 404-406, reference can be made to the detailed descriptions of 401-403 above, and the embodiments of the present application will not elaborate herein.

[0163] 407. The charging processing device determines that a notification message for the first subscribed resource needs to be sent to the policy control device A, and generates a notification message for the first subscribed resource. The notification message for the first subscribed resource can be a first notification message or a second notification message.

[0164] Specifically, when the charging processing device determines that the information of the first cumulative amount (counter1) has changed, it determines that a notification message for the first subscribed resource needs to be sent. The notification message sent due to the change in the information of the cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance is called the first notification message. Here, the change in the information of the first cumulative amount mainly refers to the change in the state of the first cumulative amount, that is: the charging processing device determines that the first cumulative amount changes from the first state to the second state. The charging processing device generates the first notification message, and the first notification message includes the identifier of the first slice instance and the second information of the first cumulative amount (i.e., the second state).

[0165] Optionally, the charging processing device determines that a notification message for the first subscribed resource needs to be sent to the charging processing device, and it can also be that the charging processing device determines that the first subscription needs to end, and then determines that a notification message for the first subscribed resource needs to be sent. The notification message sent due to the need to end the first subscription corresponding to the first slice instance is called the second notification message. The charging processing device may determine that the first subscription needs to end in various situations, such as: the user account status changes, the user subscription information changes, the first subscribed resource is identified as a resource to be cleaned up, etc. The charging processing device generates the second notification message, and the second notification message includes the identifier of the first slice instance and the end subscription indication of the first subscription. Further, the charging processing device deletes the first subscribed resource according to the successful response of the second notification.

[0166] Further, the charging processing device determines the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance according to the stored subscription information as the address for sending the first notification message.

[0167] Step 408. The charging processing device sends a notification message for the first subscribed resource (such as the first notification message or the second notification message) to the policy control device A.

[0168] Specifically, the charging processing device sends the first notification message through the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance.

[0169] The first notification message can refer to the following example:

[0170]

[0171] Among them, the UserID value is the user identifier (SUPI), the SliceID value is the identifier of the slice instance, the CounterID value is the identifier of the cumulative amount, and the Status value is the status of the cumulative amount.

[0172] Furthermore, after receiving the first notification message, the policy control device A can generate an updated control policy for the PDU session of the user equipment based on the second information (i.e., the second status) of the first cumulative amount carried in the first notification message, and send the updated control policy to the session management device.

[0173] Furthermore, after receiving the second notification message, the policy control device A can delete the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance according to the end subscription indication of the first subscription carried in the second notification message.

[0174] Steps 409-410: The charging processing device determines that it is necessary to send a notification message for the second subscription resource to the policy control device B, generates a notification message for the second subscription resource, and sends the notification message for the second subscription resource to the policy control device B. The notification message for the second subscription resource can be the third notification message or the fourth notification message.

[0175] Specifically, when the charging processing device determines that the information (here is the status) of the second cumulative amount (counter2) has changed and determines that it is necessary to send a notification message (the third notification message). The charging processing device generates the third notification message, and the third notification message includes the identifier of the second slice instance and the second information (i.e., the second status) of the second cumulative amount.

[0176] After receiving the third notification message, the policy control device B generates an updated control policy for the PDU session of the UE based on the second information (i.e., the second status) of the second cumulative amount carried in the third notification message, and sends the updated control policy to the session management device.

[0177] Optionally, the charging processing device determines that it is necessary to send a notification message (the fourth notification message) for the second subscription resource to the charging processing device. Specifically, it can also be that the charging processing device determines that it is necessary to end the second subscription, and then determines that it is necessary to send the fourth notification message. The charging processing device generates the fourth notification message, and the fourth notification message includes the identifier of the second slice instance and the end subscription indication of the second subscription.

[0178] After receiving the fourth notification message, the policy control device B deletes the second subscription resource corresponding to the second slice instance according to the end subscription indication of the second subscription carried in the fourth notification message.

[0179] For the specific description of steps 409-410, reference can be made to 407-408 above, and the embodiments of the present application will not be elaborated here.

[0180] Step 411: The policy control device A determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance, and sends an unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource to the charging processing device. Among them, the first subscription corresponds to the first subscription request, and the first subscription also corresponds to the first subscription resource. Subscription represents the action, process, or result of the policy control device A's request to subscribe to the cumulative amount of information.

[0181] The first unsubscribe request carries the first subscription identifier Res-1. Optionally, the first unsubscribe request also carries the identifier of the first slice instance.

[0182] When the policy control device A determines that the policy decision of the user does not require the state of the first cumulative amount (for example, the policy control device A no longer needs to generate the control policy of the user), it determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance. For example: The policy control device A determines that there is no PDU session established for the user equipment on the first slice instance (all PDU sessions established for the user equipment on the first slice instance have been released), or there is a PDU session established for the user equipment on this slice instance, but according to the subscribed data or the operator's policy, the PDU session established for the user equipment does not require subscribing to the counter1 state.

[0183] Step 412: After receiving the first unsubscribe request, the charging processing device deletes the first subscription resource.

[0184] Step 413: The charging processing device returns a first unsubscribe response to the policy control device A. The first unsubscribe response is the first unsubscribe response for the first unsubscribe request.

[0185] Steps 414 - 416 are the unsubscription of the policy control device B from the second subscription resource corresponding to the second slice instance (which is also the unsubscription based on the second subscription corresponding to the second subscription request). For the specific description, refer to 411 - 413 above. This embodiment of the present application will not be elaborated here.

[0186] As an optional method, the first subscription request in step 401 may also carry the NFConsumerID identifier. The following are examples of the first subscription request carrying the NFConsumerID identifier:

[0187]

[0188] Among them, the NFConsumerID field represents the identifier of the policy control device A deployed on the slice instance.

[0189] In this embodiment, the subscription request may further include the identifier of the policy control device. The identifier of the policy control device is used to instruct the charging processing device to determine different subscription requests when receiving the subscription requests of the user equipment sent by different policy control devices. After receiving the request carrying the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, the charging processing device determines that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the user equipment for this policy control device, and then creates a new subscription resource for the user equipment. Or, if it is determined according to the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the user equipment for this policy control device, the charging processing device updates the relevant information of the existing subscription resource of the user equipment (adds the information corresponding to the subscription request of this policy control device to the stored information of the existing subscription resource, including: slice instance information, cumulative amount, and notification address). This method enables the charging processing device to regard the subscription requests for the same user equipment from different policy control devices as new subscription requests and perform correct processing, avoiding rejecting them as duplicate subscription requests.

[0190] Through the embodiments of the present application, the policy control device deployed on the slice instance sends a subscription request corresponding to the slice instance to the charging processing device, and the charging processing device creates a subscription resource corresponding to the slice instance for the user equipment. After the state of the cumulative amount changes, the charging processing device notifies the policy control device deployed on the slice instance of the state of the cumulative amount. Thus, the policy control device can generate a control device according to the information of the cumulative amount, so as to meet the policy control for the use of each service of the user equipment in the scenario of using the network slice instance.

[0191] As an alternative, the first subscription request in step 401 may further carry the NFConsumerID identifier, and indicate the slice instance identifier corresponding to each counterID in the CounterIDs field. The following is an example of the first subscription request carrying the NFConsumerID identifier:

[0192]

[0193]

[0194] Among them, the NFConsumerID field represents the identifier of the policy control device A deployed on the slice instance. The above example shows that the cumulative amount with the cumulative amount identifier of 1 is the slice-level cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance indicated by the slice instance identifier S-NSSAI1. The cumulative amount with the cumulative amount identifier of 2 is the cross-slice-level cumulative amount. That is to say, the cumulative amount with the cumulative amount identifier of 2 can correspond to all slice instances accessed by the user equipment.

[0195] Figure 5 This application provides a method flowchart for the policy control device 104 to obtain and subscribe to the cumulative amount information related to the slice instance for the user equipment. Figure 5 The corresponding method flow corresponds to Figure 2B the system architecture of. The policy control device 104 is deployed outside the slice instance. The policy control device 104 sends a subscription request, instructing the charging processing device to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance. The charging processing device creates different subscription resources for different slice instances accessed by the user equipment. The policy control device can obtain a Counter list (which may include slice-level counters and cross-slice-level counters) corresponding to the slice instance accessed by the user equipment from other network devices (such as UDR), or configure the Counter corresponding to the slice instance accessed by the user equipment on the policy control device. The method flow mainly includes the following steps:

[0196] Steps 500-503: The policy control device determines the status of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance of the user to be subscribed, and sends a third subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance to the charging processing device. The charging processing device creates a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment, and sends a subscription response (abbreviated as the third subscription response) for the third subscription request to the policy control device.

[0197] The policy control device is deployed outside the first slice instance. For the detailed description of steps 500-503, reference can be made to the detailed description of steps 400-403, which will not be elaborated in this application example.

[0198] Steps 504-506: The policy control device sends a fourth subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance to the charging processing device. The charging processing device creates a second subscription resource corresponding to the second slice instance for the user equipment, and sends a subscription response (abbreviated as the fourth subscription response) for the fourth subscription request to the policy control device.

[0199] The description of steps 504-506 can refer to the detailed description of 404-403 above, and will not be elaborated in this application example.

[0200] At this step, before implementing step 504, the policy control device also needs to determine the status of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance of the subscribed user. The determination of the status of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance of the subscribed user by the policy control device can refer to the description of step 400, which will not be elaborated in this application example.

[0201] Steps 507 - 508, the charging processing device determines that it is necessary to send a notification message for the first subscribed resource to the policy control device, generates a notification message for the first subscribed resource. The charging processing device sends the notification message for the first subscribed resource (such as the first notification message or the second notification message) to the policy control device.

[0202] For the description of steps 507 - 508, reference can be made to the detailed description of 407 - 408 above. This embodiment of the present application will not elaborate further here.

[0203] Steps 509 - 510, the charging processing device determines that it is necessary to send a notification message for the second subscribed resource to the policy control device, generates a notification message for the second subscribed resource. The charging processing device sends the notification message for the second subscribed resource (such as the third notification message or the fourth notification message) to the policy control device.

[0204] For the description of steps 509 - 510, reference can be made to the detailed description of 407 - 408 above. This embodiment of the present application will not elaborate further here.

[0205] Steps 511 - 513, the policy control device determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the first subscribed resource corresponding to the first slice instance, and sends a third unsubscribe request (abbreviated as the third unsubscribe request) for the first subscribed resource to the charging processing device. After receiving the third unsubscribe request, the charging processing device deletes the first subscribed resource and sends a third unsubscribe response to the policy control device. The third subscription corresponds to the first subscribed resource requested to be created by the third unsubscribe request.

[0206] For the description of steps 511 - 513, reference can be made to the detailed description of 411 - 413. This embodiment of the present application will not elaborate further here.

[0207] Steps 514 - 516, the policy control device determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the second subscribed resource corresponding to the second slice instance, and sends a fourth unsubscribe request (abbreviated as the fourth unsubscribe request) for the first subscribed resource to the charging processing device. After receiving the fourth unsubscribe request, the charging processing device deletes the second subscribed resource and sends a second unsubscribe response to the policy control device.

[0208] For the description of steps 514 - 516, reference can be made to the detailed description of 413 - 416. This embodiment of the present application will not elaborate further here.

[0209] As an optional method, in combination with Figure 4 and Figure 5In an example, the policy control device may also send a subscription resource update request to the charging processing device. The subscription resource update request may carry a subscription identifier, an identifier of the cumulative amount to be added to the subscription, or an identifier of the cumulative amount to be unsubscribed. Upon receiving the subscription resource update request, the charging processing device updates the relevant information of the subscription resource according to the information carried in the subscription resource update request.

[0210] For example, the update request for the subscription resource may be a resource subscription request for increasing the subscription cumulative amount. The resource subscription request for increasing the subscription cumulative amount may carry an identifier of the cumulative amount, an identifier of the created subscription, a slice instance identifier, and / or an identifier of the policy control device. After receiving the resource subscription request for increasing the subscription cumulative amount, the charging processing device adds the identifier of the cumulative amount to the relevant information of the corresponding slice instance according to the subscription identifier.

[0211] The update request for the subscription resource may be an update request for unsubscribing the cumulative amount. The update request for unsubscribing the cumulative amount may carry an identifier of the cumulative amount, an identifier of the created subscription, a slice instance identifier, and / or an identifier of the policy control device. After receiving the unsubscribe request, the charging processing device deletes the identifier of the cumulative amount from the relevant information of the corresponding slice instance according to the subscription identifier.

[0212] In this embodiment, the subscription request may further include an identifier of the policy control device, and the identifier of the policy control device is used to instruct the charging processing device to determine different subscription requests when receiving the subscription requests of the user equipment sent by different policy control devices. After receiving the request carrying the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, the charging processing device determines that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the user equipment and the policy control device according to the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, and then creates a new subscription resource for the user equipment, or determines that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the user equipment and the policy control device according to the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, and then updates the relevant information of the existing subscription resource of the user equipment (add the information corresponding to the subscription request of the policy control device to the stored information of the existing subscription resource, including: slice instance information, cumulative amount, and notification address). This method enables the charging processing device to consider the subscription requests for the same user equipment from different policy control devices as new subscription requests and perform correct processing, avoiding rejecting them as duplicate subscription requests.

[0213] Through the embodiments of the present application, the policy control device deployed outside each slice instance sends a subscription request corresponding to the slice instance to the charging processing device, so that the subscription resources created by the charging processing device for the user equipment are the subscription resources corresponding to the slice instance of the user equipment. After the status of the cumulative quantity changes, the charging processing device notifies the policy control device deployed outside the slice instance of the status of the cumulative quantity. Thus, the policy control device can generate a control device based on the information of the cumulative quantity, so as to meet the policy control for the use of each service of the user equipment in the scenario of using a network slice instance.

[0214] Figure 6 This application embodiment provides a flowchart of a method for the policy control device 104 to obtain and subscribe to the cumulative quantity related to the slice instance for the user equipment. Figure 6 The corresponding method flow corresponds to Figure 2A the system architecture of. The policy control device 104 is deployed on the slice instance. The policy control device 104 sends a subscription request, instructing the charging processing device to create a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance. Different from Figure 4 the corresponding process, the charging processing device creates a shared subscription resource for the subscription requests corresponding to different slice instances, and this subscription resource is shared by multiple slice instances within the charging system, and the policy control device cannot perceive that it is a shared subscription resource. The method flow mainly includes the following steps:

[0215] Steps 600-603: The policy control device A determines the status of the first cumulative quantity corresponding to the first slice instance of the user to be subscribed, and sends a first subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance to the charging processing device. The charging processing device creates a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment, and sends a subscription response (referred to as the first subscription response for short) for the first subscription request to the policy control device A.

[0216] For the detailed description of steps 600-603, please refer to the detailed description of steps 400-403. The embodiments of the present application will not elaborate here.

[0217] The relevant information of the first subscription resource saved by the charging processing device includes the correspondence between the identifier of the first slice instance, the identifier of the cumulative quantity corresponding to the first slice instance, and the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, as shown in Table 3.

[0218]

[0219] Table 3

[0220] Step 604: The policy control device B sends a second subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance to the charging processing device.

[0221] The policy control device B determines that it is necessary to subscribe to the information of the second cumulative quantity corresponding to the second slice instance, and sends a second subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance to the charging processing device. The second subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier. For the specific description of step 604, reference can be made to the detailed description of step 404 above, and the embodiments of the present application will not be elaborated herein.

[0222] Step 605: The charging processing device determines the first subscription resources of the user equipment according to the user equipment identifier, and updates the relevant information of the first subscription resources.

[0223] The charging processing device determines the first subscription resources of the user equipment (that is, the first subscription resources have been created for the user or the user equipment) according to the user identifier (or user equipment identifier) carried in the second subscription request. The charging processing device can update the relevant information of the first subscription resources as follows: adding the relevant information of the second slice instance carried in the second subscription request to the relevant information of the first subscription resources. The relevant information of the second slice instance includes: the identifier of the second slice instance, the notification address corresponding to the second slice instance, and / or the identifier of the second cumulative quantity corresponding to the second slice instance. The updated relevant information of the first subscription resources is shown in Table 4:

[0224]

[0225] Table 4

[0226] Step 606: The charging processing device returns a subscription response (second subscription response) to the policy control device B for the second subscription request. The second subscription response carries the first subscription identifier and the first information (first status) of the second cumulative quantity corresponding to the second slice instance. Further, the second subscription response can also carry the user identifier and the second slice instance identifier.

[0227] Steps 607-608: The charging processing device determines that it is necessary to send a notification related to the first subscription resources to the policy control device A, generates a notification message for the first subscription resources, and sends a notification message for the first subscription resources (such as the first notification message or the second notification message) to the policy control device A.

[0228] For the description of steps 607-608, reference can be made to the detailed description of steps 407-408 above, and the embodiments of the present application will not be elaborated herein.

[0229] Steps 609-610: The charging processing device determines that it is necessary to send a notification related to the second subscription resources to the policy control device B, generates a notification message for the second subscription resources, and sends a notification message for the second subscription resources to the policy control device B.

[0230] For the specific descriptions of steps 609-610, reference can be made to steps 409-410, and the embodiments of the present application will not elaborate herein.

[0231] Step 611: The policy control device A determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance, and sends an unsubscribe request (hereinafter referred to as the first unsubscribe request) for the first subscription resource to the charging processing device. The unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource carries the first subscription identifier Res-1 and the identifier of the first slice instance. The first subscription is the subscription corresponding to the first subscription request (such as the subscription resource).

[0232] For the specific description of step 611, reference can be made to step 411, and the embodiments of the present application will not elaborate herein.

[0233] Step 612: After receiving the unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource sent by the policy control device A, the charging processing device performs corresponding processing on the first subscription resource.

[0234] If the charging processing device determines according to the first subscription identifier that the first subscription resource is only associated with one slice instance, the first subscription resource is deleted. If the charging processing device determines according to the first subscription identifier that the first subscription resource is associated with at least two slice instances, the relevant information of the first subscription resource is updated. In this step, the determined result is that the first subscription resource is associated with two slice instances (the first slice instance and the second slice instance, and the information of the first subscription resource stored by the corresponding charging processing device is as shown in Table 4 above). The charging processing device updates the relevant information of the first subscription resource specifically as follows: deleting the relevant information of the first slice instance from the stored information of the first subscription resource. The relevant information of the first slice instance includes: the identifier of the first slice instance, the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, and the identifier of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance.

[0235] As an example, assume that the relevant information of the first subscription resource of the user equipment stored by the charging processing device is as shown in Table 4. The first subscription identifier carried in the first unsubscribe request is 1, and the slice instance identifier is slice1. The first subscription identifier is used to identify the first subscription resource. The charging processing device deletes the information related to the first slice instance from the information related to the subscription resource according to the information in the first unsubscribe request. After deleting the information in Table 4 according to the information in the first unsubscribe request, it is as shown in Table 5:

[0236]

[0237] Table 5

[0238] Step 613: The charging processing device returns a first unsubscribe response to the policy control device A. The first unsubscribe response is an unsubscribe response for the first unsubscribe request.

[0239] Step 614: The policy control device B determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the second subscription resource corresponding to the second slice instance, and sends a second unsubscribe request for the second subscription resource to the charging processing device. The second unsubscribe request for the second subscription resource carries the first subscription identifier Res-1 and the identifier of the second slice instance.

[0240] For the detailed description of step 614, reference can be made to the detailed description of step 611, which will not be elaborated herein in the embodiments of this application.

[0241] Step 615: After receiving the unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource sent by the policy control device B, the charging processing device performs corresponding processing on the first subscription resource.

[0242] If the charging processing device determines, based on the first subscription identifier, that the first subscription resource is associated with only one slice instance, the first subscription resource is deleted. If the charging processing device determines, based on the first subscription identifier, that the first subscription resource is associated with at least two slice instances, the relevant information of the first subscription resource is updated. In this step, it is determined that the first subscription resource is associated with only one slice instance (i.e., the second slice instance).

[0243] The charging processing device deletes the first subscription resource.

[0244] Step 616: The charging processing device returns a second unsubscribe response to the policy control device B.

[0245] As an optional method, the policy control device A or B may also send a subscription resource update request to the charging processing device. The subscription resource update request may carry the first subscription identifier and a set of identifiers of all the first cumulative amounts that need to be re-subscribed. After receiving the subscription resource update request, the charging processing device replaces the original first cumulative amounts with the set of identifiers of the first cumulative amounts carried in the subscription resource update request.

[0246] In this embodiment, the subscription request (the first subscription request or the second subscription request) may further include the identifier of the policy control device. The identifier of the policy control device is used to instruct the charging processing device to determine different subscription requests when receiving subscription requests sent by different policy control devices. After receiving the request carrying the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, the charging processing device determines that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the policy control device for the user equipment, and then creates a new subscription resource for the user equipment. Or, if the charging processing device determines that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the policy control device for the user equipment based on the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, it updates the relevant information of the existing subscription resource of the user equipment (adds the information corresponding to the subscription request of the policy control device to the stored information of the existing subscription resource, including: slice instance information, cumulative amount, and notification address). This method enables the charging processing device to regard the same subscription request from different policy control devices as a new subscription request and perform correct processing, avoiding rejecting it as a duplicate subscription request.

[0247] Through the embodiments of the present application, the policy control device deployed on each slice instance sends a subscription request corresponding to the slice instance to the charging processing device, and the charging processing device creates or allocates a subscription resource corresponding to the slice instance for the user equipment. After the state of the cumulative amount changes, the charging processing device notifies the policy control device deployed outside the slice instance of the state of the cumulative amount. Thus, the charging processing device can manage the subscriptions of the same user equipment accessing different slice instances through a single subscription resource.

[0248] Figure 7A The embodiment of the present application provides a flowchart of a method for the policy control device 104 to obtain and subscribe to cumulative amount information related to a slice instance for a user equipment. Figure 7A The corresponding method flow is the same as Figure 2B The system architecture where the policy control device 104 is deployed outside the slice instance. The policy control device 104 sends a subscription request, instructing the charging processing device to create a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance. Different from Figure 5 the corresponding process, the charging processing device creates a shared subscription resource for the subscription requests corresponding to different slice instances. This subscription resource is shared by multiple slice instances within the charging system, and the policy control device is unaware that it is a shared subscription resource. The main steps of this method flow include:

[0249] In steps 700 - 703, the policy control device determines the information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance for the user to be subscribed (such as the status, or it can also be the value of the cumulative amount), and sends a third subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance to the charging processing device. The charging processing device creates a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment, and sends a subscription response (referred to as the third subscription response for short) for the third subscription request to the policy control device.

[0250] The policy control device is deployed outside the first slice instance. For the detailed description of steps 700 - 703, reference can be made to the detailed description of steps 400 - 403, which will not be elaborated further in this application example.

[0251] The relevant information of the first subscription resource saved by the charging processing device includes the identifier of the user equipment, the subscription identifier, and the relevant information of the first slice instance. The relevant information of the first slice instance includes: the identifier of the first slice instance, the identifier of the cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance, and / or the corresponding relationship with the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, as shown in Table 3.

[0252]

[0253] Table 3

[0254] In step 704, the policy control device sends a fourth subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance to the charging processing device.

[0255] The policy control device determines the information of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance to be subscribed, and sends a fourth subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance to the charging processing device. The fourth subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the identifier of the user equipment.

[0256] The description of step 704 can refer to the detailed description of the above step 404, and will not be elaborated further in this application example.

[0257] In step 705, the charging processing device determines that there is a first subscription resource of the user equipment according to the user equipment identifier, and updates the relevant information of the first subscription resource.

[0258] The description of step 705 can refer to the detailed description of the above step 605, and will not be elaborated further in this application example.

[0259] The relevant information of the updated first subscription resource is shown in Table 4:

[0260]

[0261] Table 4

[0262] Step 706: The charging processing device returns a subscription response (the fourth subscription response) for the fourth subscription request to the policy control device. The fourth subscription response carries the first subscription identifier and the first information (the first status) of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance. Further, the second subscription response may also carry the user identifier and the second slice instance identifier.

[0263] Further, after receiving the first status of the first cumulative amount, the policy control device may generate a control policy for one or more PDU sessions of the user equipment on the second slice instance based on the first status of the second cumulative amount, and send the control policy to the session management device.

[0264] 707 - 708. The charging processing device determines that it is necessary to send a notification message for the first subscription resource to the policy control device and generates a notification message. The charging processing device sends the notification message (the first notification message or the second notification message) to the policy control device.

[0265] The description of steps 707 - 708 can refer to the detailed description of steps 407 - 408 above, and this embodiment of the present application will not elaborate here.

[0266] Steps 709 - 710: The charging processing device determines that it is necessary to send a notification message for the second subscription resource to the policy control device, generates a notification message, and sends the notification message (the third notification message or the fourth notification message) to the policy control device.

[0267] The specific description of steps 709 - 710 can refer to steps 409 - 410, and this embodiment of the present application will not elaborate here.

[0268] Step 711: The policy control device determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance, and sends a third unsubscribe request (abbreviated as the third unsubscribe request) for the first subscription resource to the charging processing device. The third unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource carries the first subscription identifier Res-1 and the identifier of the first slice instance.

[0269] The description of step 711 can refer to the detailed description of step 411 above, and this embodiment of the present application will not elaborate here.

[0270] Step 712: After receiving the third unsubscribe request for the first subscription resource sent by the policy control device, the charging processing device performs corresponding processing on the first subscription resource.

[0271] The description of step 712 can refer to the detailed description of step 612 above, and this embodiment of the present application will not elaborate here.

[0272] After processing the information in Table 4 according to the information in the third unsubscribe request, it is as shown in Table 5:

[0273]

[0274] Table Five

[0275] Step 713: The charging processing device sends a deregistration response for the third deregistration request to the policy control device.

[0276] Step 714: The policy control device determines that it is necessary to deregister the first subscription resource corresponding to the second slice instance, and sends a fourth deregistration request for the first subscription resource to the charging processing device. The fourth deregistration request for the first subscription resource carries the first subscription identifier Res-1 and the identifier of the second slice instance.

[0277] For the detailed description of Step 714, reference can be made to the detailed description of Step 611, which will not be elaborated in this embodiment of the present application.

[0278] Step 715: After receiving the fourth deregistration request for the first subscription resource corresponding to the second slice instance sent by the policy control device, the charging processing device performs corresponding processing on the first subscription resource.

[0279] For the detailed description of Step 715, reference can be made to the detailed description of Step 615, which will not be elaborated in this embodiment of the present application.

[0280] Step 716: The charging processing device sends a deregistration response to the policy control device.

[0281] As an optional method, the policy control device may also send a subscription resource update request to the charging processing device. The subscription resource update request may carry the first subscription identifier and a set of identifiers of all the first cumulative amounts that need to be re-subscribed. After receiving the subscription resource update request, the charging processing device replaces the original first cumulative amounts with the set of identifiers of the first cumulative amounts carried in the subscription resource update request.

[0282] In this embodiment, the subscription request (the third subscription request or the fourth subscription request) may further include the identifier of the policy control device. The identifier of the policy control device is used to instruct the charging processing device to determine different subscription requests when receiving subscription requests sent by different policy control devices. After receiving the request carrying the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, the charging processing device determines that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the policy control device for the user equipment, and creates a new subscription resource for the user equipment. Or the charging processing device determines that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the policy control device for the user equipment according to the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, and then updates the relevant information of the existing subscription resource of the user equipment (adds the information corresponding to the subscription request of the policy control device to the stored information of the existing subscription resource, including: slice instance information, cumulative amount, and notification address). This method enables the charging processing device to correctly process the same subscription request from different policy control devices as new subscription requests, and avoid rejecting them as duplicate subscription requests.

[0283] Through the embodiments of the present application, the policy control device deployed outside the slice instance sends a subscription request corresponding to the slice instance to the charging processing device, but the subscription resource created by the charging processing device is a subscription resource shared by one or more slice instances accessed by the user equipment. After the state of the cumulative amount changes, the charging processing device notifies the policy control device deployed on the slice instance of the state of the cumulative amount. Thus, the policy control device can generate a control device according to the information of the cumulative amount, so as to meet the policy control for the use of each service of the user equipment in the scenario of using a network slice instance.

[0284] Figure 7B The embodiment of the present application provides a method flowchart for the policy control device 104 to obtain and subscribe to the cumulative amount based on the slice instance for the user equipment. Figure 7B The corresponding method flow is the same as Figure 2B The system architecture in which the policy control device 104 is deployed outside the slice instance. The policy control device sends a subscription request, and the charging processing device creates a subscription resource shared by each slice instance accessed by the user equipment for the user equipment. The method flow mainly includes:

[0285] Steps 700'-701', the policy control device determines the state of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance of the user to be subscribed, and sends a fifth subscription request corresponding to the user equipment to the charging processing device.

[0286] Specifically, the policy control device determines the status of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance for the user to be subscribed, but there is currently no subscription resource available for this user, and sends a fifth subscription request to the charging processing device. The fifth subscription request corresponding to the user equipment is used to request the creation of a third subscription resource for the user equipment. The fifth subscription request corresponding to the user equipment carries: the user equipment identifier, the identifier of the first slice instance, and the notification address. The identifier of the first slice instance is used to indicate the first cumulative amount information corresponding to the subscribed user equipment, which corresponds to the identifier of the first cumulative amount. The notification address is the notification address corresponding to the user equipment.

[0287] The fifth subscription request corresponding to the user equipment can refer to the following example:

[0288]

[0289] Among them, the value of the parameter sliceID is the identifier of the first slice instance, and the parameter Counter ID indicates that the content included is the information of the first cumulative amount. The information of the first cumulative amount includes the first cumulative amount identifier parameter counterID (the value of the parameter counter ID is the identifier of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the user for the first slice instance, and the identifier of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the user equipment), and the value of the parameter NotifyURL is the notification address corresponding to the user equipment. The notification address corresponding to the user equipment is used for the charging processing device to notify the policy control device of the counter information of this user, such as changes in the status information of the counter.

[0290] The description of how the policy control device determines the status of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance for the user to be subscribed can refer to the description in step 400. This is not elaborated in this embodiment of the present application.

[0291] Step 702’, the charging processing device creates a third subscription resource for the user equipment, assigns a subscription identifier Res-3 to the third subscription resource, and stores the relevant information of the third subscription resource.

[0292] The detailed description of step 702’ refers to the description in step 402, which is not elaborated in this embodiment of the present application.

[0293] The relevant information of the stored third subscription resource is shown in Table VI:

[0294]

[0295] Table VI

[0296] Step 703’: The charging processing device returns a subscription response for the fifth subscription request (hereinafter referred to as the fifth subscription response) to the policy control device. The fifth subscription response includes a third subscription identifier and first information on a first cumulative amount. The first information includes a first status of the first cumulative amount and an identifier of a first slice instance corresponding to the first cumulative amount. The third subscription identifier is used to identify the third subscription resource. The identifier of the first slice instance corresponds to the first cumulative amount. Refer to the following example:

[0297]

[0298] Further, after receiving the first status of the first cumulative amount, the policy control device may generate a control policy for the PDU session of the user equipment based on the first status of the first cumulative amount and send the control policy to the session management device.

[0299] Step 704’: The policy control device determines that it is necessary to subscribe to information on a second cumulative amount corresponding to a second slice instance, and sends a first update request for the third subscription resource to the charging processing device. The first update request carries the third subscription identifier, the identifier of the second cumulative amount, and the identifier of the second slice instance corresponding to the second cumulative amount. The third subscription identifier is used to identify the third subscription resource.

[0300] Before sending the first update request for the third subscription resource, the policy control device also determines the status of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance of the user to be subscribed. For the specific description of how the policy control device determines the status of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance of the user to be subscribed, reference may be made to the description of step 400, which will not be elaborated in this application implementation.

[0301] Step 705’: After receiving the first update request, the charging processing device saves the information related to the second slice instance in the relevant information of the third subscription resource. The information related to the second slice instance includes the identifier of the second cumulative amount and the identifier of the second slice instance corresponding to the second cumulative amount.

[0302] Specifically, the charging processing device adds information related to the second slice instance to the relevant information of the third subscription resource according to the third subscription identifier. The information related to the second slice instance includes the identifier of the second slice instance and the identifier of the second cumulative amount.

[0303] The relevant information of the updated first subscription resource is shown in Table VII:

[0304]

[0305]

[0306] Table VII

[0307] Step 706’: The charging processing device returns a response to the first update request (simply referred to as the first update response) to the policy control device. The first update response carries the first information of the second cumulative amount. The first information includes the first status of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the second slice instance corresponding to the second cumulative amount.

[0308] Step 707’: The charging processing device determines that a notification message for the first subscribed resource needs to be sent to the charging processing device and generates a notification message. The notification message for the first subscribed resource carries the information corresponding to the first slice instance. The notification message for the third subscribed resource can be the first notification message for information change or the second notification message for ending the subscription.

[0309] For the detailed description of the notification message in step 707’, reference can be made to the description in step 407, and details are not elaborated in this embodiment of the present application.

[0310] Step 708’: The charging processing device sends the first notification message to the policy control device.

[0311] Among them, the first notification message carries the second information of the first cumulative amount. The second information includes the second status of the first cumulative amount and the identifier of the corresponding first slice instance.

[0312] Further, after receiving the first notification message, the policy control device can generate a control policy for the PDU session of the user equipment based on the second status of the first cumulative amount and send the generated control policy to the session management device.

[0313] For the detailed description of the first notification message in step 708’, reference can be made to the description in step 408, and details are not elaborated in this embodiment of the present application.

[0314] Step 709’: The charging processing device determines that a notification message for the third subscribed resource needs to be sent to the charging processing device and generates a notification message for the third subscribed resource. The notification message for this step for the second subscribed resource can be the third notification message for information change or the fourth notification message for ending the subscription.

[0315] For the detailed description of the notification message in step 709’, reference can be made to the description in step 407, and details are not elaborated in this embodiment of the present application.

[0316] Step 710’: The charging processing device sends the notification message for the third subscribed resource to the policy control device.

[0317] Among them, the notification message for the third subscribed resource carries the second information of the second cumulative amount. The second information includes the second status and the identifier of the second slice instance corresponding to the second cumulative amount.

[0318] Further, after receiving the third notification message, the policy control device may generate a control policy for the PDU session of the UE based on the second state of the second accumulation amount, and send the generated control policy to the session management device.

[0319] For a detailed description of the notification message of the third subscription resource for the second subscription resource in step 710', reference may be made to the description of step 410, which will not be described in detail in this embodiment of the present application.

[0320] For steps 707' to 710', if the billing processing device determines that the first accumulated state corresponding to the first slice instance and the second accumulated state corresponding to the second slice instance change at the same time, a notification message is sent to the policy control device, and the notification message carries the second information of the first accumulated amount and the second information of the second accumulated amount at the same time, wherein the second information of the first accumulated amount includes the second state of the first accumulated amount and the identifier of the corresponding first slice instance, and the second information of the second accumulated amount includes the second state of the second accumulated amount and the identifier of the corresponding second slice instance.

[0321] Step 711', the policy control device determines that it is necessary to subscribe to the information of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance, and sends a second update request for the third subscription resource to the billing processing device.

[0322] Specifically, the policy control device generates a second update request for the third subscription resource, and the second update request includes the cumulative quantity identifier after the second cumulative quantity identifier corresponding to the second slice instance is deleted from the user's currently subscribed cumulative quantity set, that is, the second update request carries the full set of cumulative quantities to be re-subscribed to replace the full set of cumulative quantities subscribed previously, so subscribing to the second cumulative quantity means deleting the identifier of the second cumulative quantity in the full set of cumulative quantities subscribed previously.

[0323] When the policy control device determines that the user's policy decision does not require the state of the second cumulative amount (such as the policy control device does not need to generate the user's control policy), it determines that it is necessary to subscribe to the information of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance. For example: the policy control device determines that there is no PDU session established for the user device on the second slice instance (all PDU sessions established for the user device on the second slice instance are released), or there is a PDU session established for the user device on the slice instance, but according to the contract data or operator policy, the PDUsession established for the user device does not need to subscribe to the counter2 state.

[0324] In an embodiment of the present application, the policy control device stores subscription-related information, such as subscription identifiers, identifiers of the accumulated amounts of the subscriptions, identifiers of the slice instances corresponding to the identifiers of the accumulated amounts, etc. The policy control device may generate a second update request according to the stored subscription-related information.

[0325] Step 712': After receiving the second update request for the third subscription resource, the charging processing device performs corresponding processing on the subscription resource according to the subscription resource identifier in the second update request.

[0326] Specifically, after receiving the second update request, the charging processing device uses the information carried in the second update request to replace the information of the third subscription resource. For example, the second update request carries the identifier of the first accumulated amount and the identifier of the first slice instance corresponding to the first accumulated amount. The charging processing device uses the correspondence between the identifier of the first accumulated amount and the first slice instance in the update request to replace the information related to the first slice instance and the information related to the second slice instance in the information related to the third subscription resource. Since the second update request does not carry the information related to the second slice instance, the information related to the updated third subscription resource does not include the information related to the first slice instance.

[0327] As an example, the information related to the third subscription resource of the user equipment stored by the charging processing device is shown in Table VII. The subscription identifier carried in the second update request is 3, the slice instance identifier is slice1, and the counter identifiers are C1 and C3. The charging processing device updates the information related to the slice instance of the stored third subscription resource according to the information in the second update request. The updated information of the third resource is shown in Table VIII:

[0328]

[0329] Table VIII

[0330] Step 713': The charging processing device returns a response to the second update request (abbreviated as the second update response) to the policy control device.

[0331] The second update response carries the identifier of the accumulated amount of the current subscription and the corresponding slice instance identifier. Corresponding to the table information, the second update response carries the information (here the status) of the first accumulated amount (the accumulated amount corresponding to the first slice instance), and the identifier of the first slice instance corresponding to the first accumulated amount.

[0332] Step 714': The policy control device determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the third subscription resource of the user equipment, and sends a fifth unsubscribe request for the third subscription resource to the charging processing device. The fifth unsubscribe request carries the subscription identifier Res-1. The third subscription resource corresponds to the subscription source created for the third subscription request.

[0333] Specifically, when the policy control device determines that the policy decision of the user does not require any accumulated amount (such as when the policy control device does not need to generate the control policy of the user), it determines that it is necessary to subscribe to the third subscription resource of the user.

[0334] Step 715’: After receiving the unsubscribe request, the charging processing device deletes the third subscription resource.

[0335] Step 716’: The charging processing device returns a response to the fifth unsubscribe request to the policy control device.

[0336] In this embodiment, the subscription request may further include the identifier of the policy control device. The identifier of the policy control device is used to instruct the charging processing device to determine different subscription requests when receiving subscription requests sent by different policy control devices. After receiving the request carrying the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, the charging processing device determines that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the policy control device of the user equipment according to the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, and then creates a new subscription resource for the user equipment, or determines that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the policy control device of the user equipment according to the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the policy control device, and then updates the relevant information of the existing subscription resource of the user equipment (adds the information corresponding to the subscription request of the policy control device to the stored information of the existing subscription resource, including: slice instance information, accumulated amount, and notification address). This method enables the charging processing device to regard the subscription requests from different policy control devices for the same subscription request as new subscription requests and perform correct processing, avoiding rejecting them as duplicate subscription requests.

[0337] Through the embodiments of the present application, the policy control device deployed outside the slice instance subscribes to the request from the charging processing device. The subscription resource created by the charging processing device is a subscription resource shared by one or more slice instances accessed by the user equipment, but the accumulated amount corresponds to the slice instance identifier, so that the charging processing device can determine the slice processing accumulated amount, and after the state of the accumulated amount changes, the charging processing device notifies the policy control device of the state of the accumulated amount related to the slice instance. Thus, the policy control device can generate a control device based on the information of the accumulated amount corresponding to the network slice instance, so as to meet the requirement that in the scenario of using the network slice instance, the policy control device generates corresponding control policies for the services of the user equipment on different slices.

[0338] Figure 8 This is the hardware structure diagram of the charging processing device 101 or the policy control device 104 provided by the embodiments of the present application. The charging processing device 101 in the embodiments of the present application (for example, Figure 1A 101), the policy control device 104 (for example, Figure 1AThe policy control device 104) can all be implemented using the general computer hardware structure shown in FIG. 7, which includes a processor 801, a memory 802, a bus 803, an input device 804, an output device 805, and a network interface 806. The input device 804 and the output device 805 are optional.

[0339] Specifically, the memory 802 can include computer storage media in the form of volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as read-only memory and / or random access memory. The memory 802 can store an operating system, application programs, other program modules, executable code, and program data.

[0340] The input device 804 can be used to input information to facilitate the system administrator to operate and manage the charging processing device 101 or the policy control device 104. For example, configure the user account risk threshold on the charging processing device 101, manage the storage space of the quota management mode indication information on the policy control device 104, etc.; the input device 804 can be a keyboard or a pointing device, such as a mouse, a trackball, a touchpad, a scanner, or similar devices, and can all be connected to the processor 801 through the bus 803.

[0341] The output device 805 can be used to output information to facilitate the system administrator to operate and manage the charging processing device 101 or the policy control device 104. For example, display the user account risk threshold on the charging processing device 101, display the remaining storage space on the policy control device 104, etc.; in addition to the monitor, the output device 805 can also be other peripheral output devices, and can all be connected to the processor 801 through the bus 803.

[0342] The session management function device 102, the charging processing device 101, or the policy control device 104 can all be connected to the network through the network interface 806, for example, connected to a local area network (LAN). In a networked environment, the computer-executable instructions stored in the charging processing device 101 or the policy control device 104 can be stored in a remote storage device, rather than being limited to local storage.

[0343] When the processor 801 in the charging processing device 101 executes the executable code or application program stored in the memory 802, the charging processing device 101 can execute the method steps corresponding to the charging processing device 101 in all the above embodiments, such as steps 401-416, 501-516, 601-616, 701-713, 701'-715'; the specific execution process is all described in the above embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0344] When the processor 801 in the policy control device 104 executes the executable code or application program stored in the memory 802, the policy control can perform the method steps corresponding to the policy control device 104 in all the above embodiments, such as steps 400-401, 403-404, 406, 408, 410-411, 413-414, 416, 500-501, 503-504, 506, 508, 510-511, 513-514, 516, 600-601, 603-604, 606, 608, 610-611, 613-614, 616, 700-701, 703-704, 706, 708, 710-711, 713-714, 716, 700'-701', 703'-704', 706', 708', 710'-711', 713'-714', 716'; for the specific execution process, please refer to the above embodiments and will not be elaborated here.

[0345] It should be noted that some of the above steps are executed by two devices because one device sends and the other device receives. For example, in step 401, the policy control device 104 sends a first subscription request, and the charging processing device 101 receives the first policy.

[0346] Figure 9 FIG. is a schematic logical structure diagram of the charging processing device 101 provided by the embodiments of the present application. The charging processing device 101 (101) is used to execute Figure 3A to Figure 7B the method executed by the charging processing device in []. The charging processing device 101 includes:

[0347] A receiving module, configured to receive a first subscription request, where the first subscription request carries an identifier of a first slice instance, a user equipment identifier, and a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance. The receiving module 901 is mainly used to execute any step of receiving on the side of the charging processing device 101 in the above embodiments, such as steps 401, 404, 411, 414, 501, 504, 511, 514, 601, 604, 611, 614, 701, 704, 711, 714, 701', 704', 711', or 714', etc.

[0348] A sending module, configured to return a first subscription response, where the first subscription response includes a first subscription identifier and a first status of a first cumulative quantity corresponding to a first slice instance. The sending module 903 is mainly configured to perform any step of sending on the side of the charging processing device 101 in the foregoing embodiments, such as steps 403, 406, 408, 410, 413, 416, 503, 506, 508, 510, 513, 516, 603, 606, 608, 610, 613, 616, 703, 706, 708, 710, 713, 716, 703’, 706’, 708’, 710’, 713’, or 716’, etc.

[0349] In addition, the charging processing device 101 further includes a processing module 902, configured to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment and store relevant information of the first subscription resource, where the relevant information of the first subscription resource includes: the correspondence between the identifier of the first slice instance, the notification address, and the identifier of the first cumulative quantity. The processing module 902 is mainly configured to perform any step of processing on the side of the charging processing device 101 in the foregoing embodiments, such as steps 402, 405, 407, 409, 412, 415, 502, 505, 507, 509, 512, 515, 602, 605, 607, 609, 612, 615, 702, 705, 707, 709, 712, 715, 702’, 705’, 707’, 709’, 712’, or 715’, etc.

[0350] Figure 9 The figure is a schematic logical structure diagram of a policy control device 104 provided for an embodiment of this application. The policy control device 104 is configured to determine a policy for a user service. The policy control device 104 includes:

[0351] A receiving module 1001, configured to receive a first subscription response, where the first subscription response includes a first subscription identifier and a first status of a first cumulative quantity corresponding to a first slice instance. The receiving module 1001 is mainly configured to perform any step of receiving in the policy control device 104 in the foregoing embodiments, such as steps 403, 406, 408, 410, 413, 416, 503, 506, 508, 510, 513, 516, 603, 606, 608, 610, 613, 616, 703, 706, 708, 710, 713, 716, 703’, 706’, 708’, 710’, 713’, or 716’, etc.

[0352] A processing module 1002 is configured to determine the status of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the user to be subscribed and the first slice instance. The processing module 1002 is mainly used to execute any steps of determining, processing, and generating policies by the policy control device 104 in the above instance, such as steps 400, 500, 600, 700, or 700', etc.

[0353] A sending module 1003 is configured to send a first subscription request, where the first subscription request carries the identifier of the first slice instance, the user equipment identifier, and the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance. The sending module 1003 is mainly used to execute any steps of sending by the policy control device 104 in the above instance, such as steps 401, 404, 411, 414, 501, 504, 511, 514, 601, 604, 611, 614, 701, 704, 711, 714, 701', 704', 711', 714', etc.

[0354] Figure 8 The shown charging processing device 101 and Figure 9 The shown policy control device 104 is presented in the form of functional modules. Here, the "module" may refer to an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a circuit, a processor and a memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and / or other devices that can provide the above functions. In a simple embodiment, those skilled in the art can conceive that these devices can also adopt Figure 6 The shown form. For example, the receiving module 901, the processing module 902, the sending module 903, the receiving module 1001, the processing module 902, and the sending module 1003 can all be implemented by Figure 6 The processor 801 and the memory 802 in. For example, it is implemented by the processor 801 executing the code stored in the memory 802.

[0355] Those of ordinary skill in the art can realize that the units and algorithm steps of the examples described in combination with the embodiments disclosed in this article can be implemented by electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of the two. To clearly illustrate the interchangeability of hardware and software, the components and steps of each example have been generally described according to functions in the above description. Whether these functions are executed in a hardware or software manner depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional technicians can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to exceed the scope of this application.

[0356] Those of ordinary skill in the art can clearly understand that for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices, and units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments and will not be elaborated herein.

[0357] In several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the division of units is only a logical functional division, and there can be other division methods in actual implementation. For example, multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Additionally, the displayed or discussed couplings or direct couplings or communication connections to each other can be indirect couplings or communication connections through some interfaces, devices, or units, or can be electrical, mechanical, or other forms of connection.

[0358] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they can be located in one place or distributed to multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiments of the present application.

[0359] In addition, the functional units in each embodiment of the present application can be integrated in a processing unit, or each unit can exist physically alone, or two or more units can be integrated in one unit. The above-mentioned integrated units can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional units.

[0360] If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods in the various embodiments of the present application. The foregoing storage medium includes: various media such as USB flash drives, mobile hard disks, read-only memories, random access memories, magnetic disks, or optical discs that can store program codes.

[0361] The above is only the specific implementation manner of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present application can easily think of various equivalent modifications or substitutions, and these modifications or substitutions should all be covered within the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for subscribing to cumulant information, characterized in that including: The policy control device sends a subscription request, and the subscription request includes the identifier of the first slice instance and the identifier of the user equipment; The policy control device receives a subscription response, and the subscription response includes a subscription identifier and first information of a first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance; The subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance, and the subscription request is used to request to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance carried in the subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance is used to indicate that the first subscription resource is a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The method further includes: The policy control device receives the identifier of the first slice instance accessed by the user equipment; The policy control device determines the information of the first cumulative amount that needs to be subscribed corresponding to the first slice instance according to the subscription information of the user equipment.

3. The method according to any one of claims 1-2, characterized in that The subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance further carries a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that The method further includes: The policy control device receives a notification message for the first subscription resource sent by the charging processing device through the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance. The notification message for the first subscription resource carries the identifier of the first slice instance, the second information of the first cumulative amount or an end subscription indication of the first subscription; The policy control device generates an update control policy for the user equipment based on the second information of the first cumulative amount, or the policy control device deletes the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance based on the end subscription indication of the first subscription.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein The method further includes: The policy control device determines that it is necessary to unsubscribe from the first subscription resource based on the first slice instance; The policy control device sends an unsubscribe request based on the subscription request to the charging processing device.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1-2, 4-5, characterized in that, The subscription request further includes the identifier of the policy control device, and the identifier of the policy control device is used to indicate that when the charging processing device receives the subscription requests sent by different policy control devices, it determines them as different subscription requests.

7. A method for subscribing to cumulant information, characterized in that, including: The charging processing device receives a subscription request, and the subscription request includes the identifier of the first slice instance and the user equipment identifier; The charging processing device returns a subscription response, and the subscription response includes a subscription identifier and first information of a first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance; The subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance, and the subscription request is used to request to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance carried in the subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance is used to indicate that the first subscription resource is a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein The subscription request further carries a first notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, and the method further includes: The charging processing device creates a first subscribed resource corresponding to the first slice instance and stores the relevant information of the first subscribed resource. The relevant information of the first subscribed resource includes: the identifier of the first slice instance, the first notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, and the identifier of the first cumulative amount.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that, The subscription response is a subscription response to the subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance, and the subscription identifier is the first subscription identifier. The method further includes: The charging processing device receives a subscription request corresponding to a second slice instance. The subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier. The charging processing device determines that there is a first subscribed resource of the user equipment according to the user equipment identifier, and updates the relevant information of the first subscribed resource. The charging processing device returns a subscription response to the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance. The subscription response to the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance includes the first subscription identifier and the first information of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that, The method further includes: The charging processing device receives an unsubscribe request for the first subscribed resource. The unsubscribe request for the first subscribed resource carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the first subscription identifier. The charging processing device determines that the first subscribed resource is only associated with the second slice instance and deletes the first subscribed resource, or the charging processing device determines that the first subscribed resource is associated with at least two slice instances and updates the relevant information of the first subscribed resource.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein The method further includes: The charging processing device receives a subscription request corresponding to a second slice instance. The subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier. The charging processing device creates a second subscribed resource corresponding to the second slice instance for the user equipment according to the identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier, and stores the relevant information of the second subscribed resource. The charging processing device returns a subscription response to the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance. The subscription response to the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance includes the second subscription identifier and the first information of the second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance.

12. The method according to any one of claims 9-11, characterized in that, The method further includes: When the charging processing device determines a change in the information of the first cumulative amount, the charging processing device sends a first notification message through the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, and the first notification message carries the identifier of the first slice instance and the second information of the first cumulative amount; or when the charging processing device determines that it is necessary to end the first subscription, the charging processing device sends a second notification message through the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, and the second notification message carries the identifier of the first slice instance and the end subscription indication of the first subscription; or when the charging processing device determines a change in the information of the second cumulative amount, the charging processing device sends a third notification message through the notification address corresponding to the second slice instance, and the third notification message carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the second information of the second cumulative amount; or when the charging processing device determines that it is necessary to end the second subscription, the charging processing device sends a fourth notification message through the notification address corresponding to the second slice instance, and the fourth notification message carries the identifier of the second slice instance and the end subscription indication of the second subscription.

13. The method according to any one of claims 7-11, characterized in that, The subscription request is a subscription request sent by a first policy control device, and the subscription request further carries the identifier of the first policy control device. The method further includes: The charging processing device receives a subscription request sent by a second policy control device, and the subscription request sent by the second policy control device carries the identifier of the user equipment and the identifier of the second policy control device; Determine that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the second policy control device of the user equipment according to the user equipment identifier and the identifier of the second policy control device, and create a fourth subscription resource for the user equipment; or, determine that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the second policy control device of the user equipment according to the user equipment identifier and the identifier of the second policy control device, and the charging processing device updates the relevant information of the existing subscription resources of the user equipment.

14. A policy control device, characterized in that, Includes: A sending module, configured to send a subscription request, where the subscription request includes the identifier of the first slice instance and the user equipment identifier; A receiving module, configured to receive a subscription response, where the subscription response includes a subscription identifier and the first information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance; The subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance, and the subscription request is used to request to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance carried in the subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance is used to indicate that the first subscription resource is a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance.

15. The device according to claim 14, characterized in that, The receiving module is further configured to receive the identifier of the first slice instance accessed by the user equipment; the device further includes: A processing module, configured to determine the information of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance of the user equipment that needs to be subscribed according to the subscription information of the user equipment.

16. The device according to claim 15, characterized in that, The subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance further carries a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance.

17. The device according to claim 16, wherein the receiving module is further configured to receive a first notification message sent by the charging processing device through the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, where the first notification message carries an identifier of the first slice instance, second information of the first cumulative amount, or an end subscription indication of the first subscription; the processing module is further configured to generate an update control policy for the user equipment based on the second information of the first cumulative amount, or the processing module deletes the first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance based on the end subscription indication of the first subscription.

18. The device according to claim 14 or 15 or 17, wherein the subscription request further includes an identifier of a policy control device, and the identifier of the policy control device is used to instruct the charging processing device to return a subscription response for different policy control devices to the user equipment when receiving subscription requests for the same user equipment sent by different policy control devices.

19. A billing processing device, characterized in that, including: a receiving module, configured to receive a subscription request, where the subscription request includes an identifier of a first slice instance and a user equipment identifier; a sending module, configured to return a subscription response, where the subscription response includes a subscription identifier and first information of a first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance; the subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to a first slice instance, and the subscription request is used to request to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment, and the identifier of the first slice instance carried in the subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance is used to indicate that the first subscription resource is a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance.

20. The device according to claim 19, characterized in that, the subscription request further carries a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, and the device further includes a processing module: the processing module is configured to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance and store relevant information of the first subscription resource, where the relevant information of the first subscription resource includes: an identifier of the first slice instance, a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, and an identifier of the first cumulative amount.

21. The device according to claim 20, characterized in that, the subscription response is a subscription response for the subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance, the subscription identifier is a first subscription identifier, the receiving module is further configured to receive a subscription request corresponding to a second slice instance, where the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance carries an identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier; the processing module is further configured to determine that there is a first subscription resource related to the user equipment according to the user equipment identifier, and update the relevant information of the first subscription resource; the sending module is further configured to return a subscription response for the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance, where the subscription response for the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance includes the first subscription identifier and first information of a second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance.

22. The device according to claim 21, wherein The receiving module is further configured to receive a subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance, where the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance carries an identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier; The processing module is further configured to create, for the user equipment, a second subscription resource corresponding to the second slice instance according to the identifier of the second slice instance and the user equipment identifier, and store information related to the second subscription resource; The sending module is further configured to return a subscription response for the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance, where the subscription response for the subscription request corresponding to the second slice instance includes the second subscription identifier and first information of a second cumulative amount corresponding to the second slice instance.

23. The apparatus according to any one of claims 21-22, wherein: The processing module is further configured to, when determining that the information of the first cumulative amount changes, send a first notification message through a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, where the first notification message carries the identifier of the first slice instance and second information of the first cumulative amount; or the processing module is further configured to, when determining that the first subscription needs to end, send a second notification message through a notification address corresponding to the first slice instance, where the second notification message carries the identifier of the first slice instance and an end subscription indication of the first subscription; or the processing module is further configured to, when determining that the information of the second cumulative amount changes, the charging processing device sends a third notification message through a notification address corresponding to the second slice instance, where the third notification message carries the identifier of the second slice instance and second information of the second cumulative amount; or the processing module is further configured to, when determining that the second subscription needs to end, the charging processing device sends a fourth notification message through a notification address corresponding to the second slice instance, where the fourth notification message carries the identifier of the second slice instance and an end subscription indication of the second subscription.

24. The device according to any one of claims 20-22, characterized in that, The subscription request is a subscription request sent by a first policy control device, and the subscription request further carries an identifier of the first policy control device, The receiving module is further configured to receive a subscription request sent by a second policy control device, where the subscription request sent by the second policy control device carries the user equipment identifier and the identifier of the second policy control device; The processing module is further configured to determine that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the second policy control device of the user equipment according to the user equipment identifier and the identifier of the second policy control device, and create a fourth subscription resource for the user equipment; or the processing module is further configured to determine that there is no subscription resource corresponding to the second policy control device of the user equipment according to the user equipment identifier and the identifier of the second policy control device, and update information related to the existing subscription resource of the user equipment.

25. A method for subscribing to cumulant information, characterized in that, Comprising: The policy control device sends a first subscription request to the charging processing device, where the first subscription request carries the identifier of the first slice instance, the user equipment identifier, and the notification address corresponding to the first slice instance; The charging processing device sends a first subscription response to the policy control device, and the first subscription response includes a first subscription identifier and the first status of the first cumulative amount corresponding to the first slice instance; The first subscription request is a subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance, and the first subscription request is used to request to create a first subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance for the user equipment. The identifier of the first slice instance carried in the first subscription request corresponding to the first slice instance is used to indicate that the first subscription resource is a subscription resource corresponding to the first slice instance.

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