A computing power-aware session management method and communication device

Abstract

A computing power-aware session management method and communication device, the method comprising: a second computing-aware user plane function sends computing service information to a first computing-aware user plane function to indicate that its associated edge computing node supports a first computing service, so that the first computing-aware user plane function can send a service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function according to the computing service information received from the second computing-aware user plane function to request the first computing service, and then the second computing user plane function sends a service request message to the edge computing node. The above technical solution can realize access to computing services deployed in edge computing nodes and improve the resource utilization of the system.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and in particular to a computing power-aware session management method and communication device. Background Art

[0002] As computing technology changes and develops towards lightweight, dynamic, and application decomposition into services or functions, the network architecture that enables edge applications will shift from the traditional client-server model to the serverless model. In the serverless model, edge applications are no longer single applications deployed on the server side, but can be decomposed into multiple microservices or stateless functions, which are deployed on edge servers of different edge computing nodes. In addition, microservices and stateless functions can be deployed in multiple copies on edge servers of multiple edge computing nodes, so that the same services can be accessed nearby in different areas to obtain a consistent experience.

[0003] In the distributed edge computing scenario, in order to adapt to business needs, how to achieve interconnection and collaboration between edge computing nodes and terminal devices and improve resource utilization is a problem that 3GPP networks need to solve to enable edge applications. Summary of the invention

[0004] A computing power-aware session management method and communication device in an embodiment of the present application are used to forward the service request of a terminal device to a suitable edge computing node based on the computing service information of the edge computing node, thereby enabling access to the computing services deployed in the edge computing node and improving the resource utilization of the system.

[0005] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computing power-aware session management method, which can be executed by a second computing power-aware user plane function, or by a component (such as a chip or circuit) configured in the second computing power-aware user plane function.

[0006] The method includes: the second computing-aware user plane function sends computing service information to the first computing-aware user plane function, and the computing service information indicates that the edge computing node associated with the second computing-aware user plane function supports the first computing service; the second computing-aware user plane function receives a service request message from the first computing-aware user plane function, and the service request message is used to request the first computing service; the second computing user plane function sends a service request message to the edge computing node.

[0007] In the above technical solution, the second computing-aware user plane function can send computing service information to the first computing-aware user plane function to indicate that its associated edge computing node supports the first computing service, so that the first computing-aware user plane function can forward the service request message of the terminal device requesting the first computing service to the second computing-aware user plane function based on the computing service information received from the second computing-aware user plane function, thereby achieving the optimal selection and access to the computing services deployed in the edge computing nodes based on a network-assisted manner.

[0008] In a possible design of the first aspect, the second computing-aware user plane function receives an announcement neighbor list from a session management function, wherein the announcement neighbor list includes K entry computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function, where K is a positive integer, and the K entry computing-aware user plane functions include the first computing-aware user plane function.

[0009] In a possible design of the first aspect, the second computing-aware user plane function sending computing service information to the first computing-aware user plane function may include: the second computing-aware user plane function sending computing service information to the first entry computing-aware user plane function according to the announced neighbor list.

[0010] In a possible design of the first aspect, the second computing-aware user plane function and the first computing-aware user plane function are located in a computing-aware virtual network.

[0011] In a possible design of the first aspect, the method also includes: a second computing-aware user plane function receives a service identifier of a first computing service from the edge computing node and a first server IP address corresponding to the service identifier of the first computing service, wherein the first server IP address is the IP address of a server running the first computing service in the edge computing node; the second computing-aware user plane function sends a service request message to the edge computing node, which may include: the second computing-aware user plane function replaces the service identifier of the first computing service carried in the service request message with the first server IP address; and the second computing-aware user plane function sends the service request message carrying the first server IP address to the edge computing node.

[0012] In a possible design of the first aspect, the method also includes: a second computing-aware user plane function receives a service response message carrying the first server IP address from the edge computing node; the second computing-aware user plane function replaces the first server IP address in the service response message with a service identifier of the first computing service; and the second computing-aware user plane function sends the service response message carrying the service identifier of the first computing service to the first computing-aware user plane function.

[0013] In the above technical solution, the second computing-aware user plane function can receive the service identifier of the first computing service and the corresponding first server IP address from its associated edge computing node, and record the mapping relationship between the two so as to convert them to each other when sending and receiving messages to the edge computing node. In this way, the client of the terminal device only needs to care about which computing service to send a request to, without having to perceive the deployment details of the computing service (for example, on which edge computing node's server the computing service is running, what is the server IP address, etc.), thereby effectively improving the access efficiency and user experience of the edge computing service.

[0014] In a possible design of the first aspect, the method also includes: a second computing-aware user plane function receives computing service information from an edge computing node.

[0015] In a possible design of the first aspect, the computing service information includes a service identifier of the first computing service, a service attribute of the first computing service, an operating state of the first computing service, and computing resource information.

[0016] In a possible design of the first aspect, the method also includes: the second computing-aware user plane function receives load information from the edge computing node; and the second computing-aware user plane function sends the load information to the first computing-aware user plane function.

[0017] In the above technical solution, the second computing-aware user plane function can also send the load information of its associated edge computing node to the first computing-aware user plane function. The first computing-aware user plane function decides whether to forward the service request message of the terminal device to the second computing-aware user plane function based on the load information, thereby achieving system load balancing and improving resource utilization.

[0018] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computing power-aware session management method, which can be executed by a first computing power-aware user plane function, or by a component (such as a chip or circuit) configured in the first computing power-aware user plane function.

[0019] The method includes: a first computing-aware user plane function receives computing service information from a second computing-aware user plane, and the computing service information indicates that an edge computing node associated with the second computing-aware user plane function supports a first computing service; the first computing-aware user plane function sends a service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function based on the computing service information, and the service request message is used to request the first computing service.

[0020] In a possible design of the second aspect, the method also includes: the first computing-aware user plane function receives a forwarding neighbor list from a session management function, the forwarding neighbor list includes L egress computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function, L is a positive integer, and the L egress computing-aware user plane functions include a second computing-aware user plane function.

[0021] In a possible design of the second aspect, the first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function are located in a computing-aware virtual network.

[0022] In a possible design of the second aspect, the method also includes: the first computing-aware user plane function receives the service request message from the terminal device.

[0023] In a possible design of the second aspect, the method also includes: the first computing-aware user plane function receives load information from the second computing-aware user plane function.

[0024] In a possible design of the second aspect, the method also includes: the first computing-aware user plane function determines, based on the computing service information and the load information, to send the service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function.

[0025] In a possible design of the second aspect, the method also includes: the first computing-aware user plane function sends the service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function according to a message matching forwarding rule corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function.

[0026] In a possible design of the second aspect, the computing service information includes a service identifier of the first computing service, a service attribute of the first computing service, an operating state of the first computing service, and computing resource information.

[0027] The beneficial effects of the second aspect and various possible designs of the second aspect can be referred to the corresponding description in the first aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0028] On the third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computing power-aware session management method, which can be executed by a computing management function or by a component (such as a chip or circuit) configured in the computing management function.

[0029] The method includes: a computing management function receives a first request message, the first request message is used to create a computing-aware virtual network, the computing-aware virtual network includes N computing-aware user plane functions, the first request message includes a member list of the computing-aware virtual network, and the member list includes identification information of the N computing-aware user plane functions; the computing management function generates a forwarding neighbor list for the first computing-aware user plane function, the first computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, the forwarding neighbor list includes identification information of L exit computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function, N and L are positive integers; the computing management function sends a second request message to a session management function, the second request message is used to request the creation of a forwarding path in the computing-aware virtual network, the second request message includes the member list of the computing-aware virtual network and the forwarding neighbor list of the first computing-aware user plane function.

[0030] In the above technical solution, the computing management function can establish a computing-aware virtual network through the session management function, configure a group of computing-aware user plane functions as members of the computing-aware virtual network, configure a neighbor relationship for each computing-aware user plane function in the computing-aware virtual network, and establish a forwarding path between computing-aware user plane functions in the computing-aware virtual network, such as a forwarding tunnel between an ingress computing-aware user plane function and an egress computing-aware user plane function. In this way, the computing-aware user plane function can perform information announcements and user plane message forwarding based on the neighbor relationship configured for it, thereby realizing the interconnection and collaboration between edge computing nodes and improving the resource utilization of the system.

[0031] In a possible design of the third aspect, the first request message includes identification information of the computing-aware virtual network, and the identification information includes one or more of an identity of the computing-aware virtual network, a data network name, network slice information, or an application descriptor.

[0032] In a possible design of the third aspect, the method also includes: a computing management function generates an announcement neighbor list for a second computing-aware user plane function, where the second computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, and the announcement neighbor list includes identification information of K entry computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function, where K is a positive integer; the second request message also includes the announcement neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function.

[0033] In the above technical solution, the neighbor relationship of the computing-aware user plane function may include a forwarding neighbor relationship and an announcement neighbor relationship. The computing management network element may configure a forwarding neighbor relationship for a computing-aware user plane function by generating a forwarding neighbor list for the computing-aware user plane function, and may also configure an announcement neighbor relationship for the computing-aware user plane function by generating an announcement neighbor list for the computing-aware user plane function. In this way, the ingress computing-aware user plane function in the computing-aware virtual network can forward user plane messages according to the corresponding forwarding neighbor list, and the egress computing-aware user plane function can announce information according to the corresponding announcement neighbor list.

[0034] In a possible design of the third aspect, the method also includes: the computing management function receives a fifth request message, the fifth request message is used to request an update of the computing-aware virtual network, the fifth request message includes a list of added members of the computing-aware virtual network, and the list of added members includes identification information of one or more computing-aware user-plane functions that need to be added in the computing-aware virtual network; the computing management function determines, based on the newly added member list, the M computing-aware user-plane functions and the affected member list included in the updated computing-aware virtual network, the affected member list includes identification information of one or more computing-aware user-plane functions whose forwarding neighbor list or announcement neighbor list needs to be updated, M is a positive integer; the computing management function updates the forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list for the third computing-aware user-plane function in the affected member list; the computing management function sends a sixth request message to the session management function, the sixth request message is used to request an update of the forwarding path in the computing-aware virtual network, the sixth request message includes the affected member list and the updated forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list of the third computing-aware user-plane function.

[0035] In a possible design of the third aspect, the method also includes: the computing management function receives a fifth request message, the fifth request message is used to request an update of the computing-aware virtual network, the fifth request message includes a deleted member list of the computing-aware virtual network, and the deleted member list includes identification information of one or more computing-aware user plane functions that need to be deleted from the computing-aware virtual network; the computing management function determines, based on the deleted member list, the M computing-aware user plane functions and the affected member list included in the updated computing-aware virtual network, the affected member list includes identification information of one or more computing-aware user plane functions that need to update the forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list, where M is a positive integer; the computing management function updates the forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list for the third computing-aware user plane function in the affected member list; the computing management function sends a sixth request message to the session management function, the sixth request message is used to request an update of the forwarding path in the computing-aware virtual network, and the sixth request message includes the affected member list and the updated forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list of the third computing-aware user plane function.

[0036] In the above technical solution, the computing management function can update the computing-aware virtual network through the session management function according to the changes in the edge computing service deployment, thereby improving the scalability of the computing-aware virtual network.

[0037] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computing power-aware session management method, which can be executed by a session management network element or by a component (such as a chip or circuit) configured in the session management network element.

[0038] The method includes: a session management function receives a second request message from a computing management function, the second request message is used to request the creation of a forwarding path in a computing-aware virtual network, the computing-aware virtual network includes N computing-aware user plane functions, the second request message includes a member list of the computing-aware virtual network and a forwarding neighbor list of a first computing-aware user plane function, the member list includes identification information of the N computing-aware user plane functions, the first computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, the forwarding neighbor list includes identification information of L exit computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function, N and L are positive integers; the session management function sends a third request message to the first computing-aware user plane function according to the member list, the third request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network-level session of the first computing-aware user plane function, the third request message includes the identification information of the computing-aware virtual network and the forwarding neighbor list of the first computing-aware user plane function.

[0039] In a possible design of the fourth aspect, the method also includes: a session management function generates forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function according to the forwarding neighbor list of the first computing-aware user plane function, and the forwarding tunnel information is used to establish a forwarding tunnel between the first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function, and the L exit computing-aware user plane functions include the second computing-aware user plane function; the third request message also includes the forwarding tunnel information.

[0040] In a possible design of the fourth aspect, the second request message also includes an announcement neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function, the second computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, and the announcement neighbor list includes identification information of K entry computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function, where K is a positive integer; the method also includes: the session management function sends a fourth request message to the second computing-aware user plane function, the fourth request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network-level session for the second computing-aware user plane function, and the fourth request message includes the announcement neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function.

[0041] In a possible design of the fourth aspect, the method also includes: a session management function generates forwarding tunnel information based on the announcement neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function, and the forwarding tunnel information is used to establish a forwarding tunnel between the second computing-aware user plane function and the first computing-aware user plane function, and the K entry computing-aware user plane functions include the first computing-aware user plane function; the fourth request message also includes the forwarding tunnel information.

[0042] In a possible design of the fourth aspect, the method also includes: a session management function receives a sixth request message from a computing management function, the sixth request message being used to request an update of a forwarding path in a computing-aware virtual network, the sixth request message including a list of affected members of the computing-aware virtual network, and a forwarding neighbor list or an announcement neighbor list updated by a third computing-aware user plane function in the list of affected members; the session management function sends a seventh request message to the third computing-aware user plane function, the seventh request message being used to request an update of a virtual network-level session of the third computing-aware user plane function, the seventh request message including a forwarding neighbor list or an announcement neighbor list updated by the third computing-aware user plane function.

[0043] The beneficial effects of the fourth aspect and various possible designs of the fourth aspect can be referred to the corresponding description in the third aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0044] In the fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computing power-aware session management method, which can be executed by a first computing power-aware user plane function, or by a component (such as a chip or circuit) configured in the first computing power-aware user plane function.

[0045] The method includes: a first computing-aware user plane function receives a third request message from a session management function, the third request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network-level session of the first computing-aware user plane function, the third request message includes identification information of the computing-aware virtual network and a forwarding neighbor list of the first computing-aware user plane function, the computing-aware virtual network includes N computing-aware user plane functions, the first computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, and is an ingress computing-aware user plane function in the computing-aware virtual network, the forwarding neighbor list includes identification information of L egress computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function in the computing-aware virtual network, N and L are positive integers; the first computing-aware user plane function establishes a forwarding tunnel between the first computing-aware user plane function and the corresponding L egress computing-aware user plane functions according to the forwarding neighbor list.

[0046] In a possible design of the fifth aspect, the third request message also includes forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function, and the L egress computing-aware user plane functions include the second computing-aware user plane function;

[0047] The first computing-aware user plane function establishes a forwarding tunnel between the first computing-aware user plane function and the L egress computing-aware user plane functions according to the forwarding neighbor list, including:

[0048] The first computing-aware user plane function establishes a forwarding tunnel between the first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function according to the forwarding tunnel information.

[0049] The beneficial effects of the fifth aspect and various possible designs of the fifth aspect can be referred to the corresponding description in the third aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0050] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computing power-aware session management method, which can be executed by a second computing power-aware user plane function, or by a component (such as a chip or circuit) configured in the second computing power-aware user plane function.

[0051] The method includes: a second computing-aware user plane function receives a fourth request message from a session management function, the fourth request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network-level session of the second computing-aware user plane function, the fourth request message includes identification information of the computing-aware virtual network and an announcement neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function, the computing-aware virtual network includes N computing-aware user plane functions, the second computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, the announcement neighbor list includes identification information of K entry computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function, N and K are positive integers; the second computing-aware user plane function establishes an announcement forwarding relationship between the second computing-aware user plane function and the corresponding K entry computing-aware user plane functions according to the announcement neighbor list.

[0052] In a possible design of the sixth aspect, the fourth request message also includes forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function and the first computing-aware user plane function, and the K entry computing-aware user plane functions include the first computing-aware user plane function; the method also includes: the second computing-aware user plane function establishes a forwarding tunnel between the second computing-aware user plane function and the first computing-aware user plane function according to the forwarding tunnel information.

[0053] The beneficial effects of the sixth aspect and various possible designs of the sixth aspect can be referred to the corresponding description in the third aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0054] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which has the function of implementing the second computing-aware user plane function in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, and may also have the function of implementing the first computing-aware user plane function in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect, and may also have the function of implementing the computing management function in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect, and may also have the function of implementing the session management function in the fourth aspect or any possible design of the fourth aspect, and may also have the function of implementing the first computing-aware user plane function in the fifth aspect or any possible design of the fifth aspect, and may also have the function of implementing the second computing-aware user plane function in the sixth aspect or any possible design of the sixth aspect. The device may be a network device, or a chip included in the network device.

[0055] The functions of the above-mentioned communication device can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software, and the hardware or software includes one or more modules or units or means corresponding to the above-mentioned functions.

[0056] In one possible design, the structure of the device includes a processing module and a transceiver module, wherein the processing module is configured to support the device to perform the function corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function in the first aspect or any one of the designs of the first aspect, or to perform the function corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function in the second aspect or any one of the designs of the second aspect, or to perform the function corresponding to the computing management function in the third aspect or any one of the designs of the third aspect, or to perform the function corresponding to the session management function in the fourth aspect or any one of the designs of the fourth aspect, or to perform the function corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function in the fifth aspect or any one of the designs of the fifth aspect, or to perform the function corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function in the sixth aspect or any one of the designs of the sixth aspect. The transceiver module is used to support communication between the device and other communication devices, for example, when the device is the second computing-aware user plane function, it can receive computing service information from the edge computing node, and send computing service information to the first computing-aware user plane function. The communication device may also include a storage module, which is coupled to the processing module and stores program instructions and data necessary for the device. As an example, the processing module may be a processor, the communication module may be a transceiver, and the storage module may be a memory. The memory may be integrated with the processor or may be provided separately from the processor.

[0057] In another possible design, the structure of the device includes a processor and may also include a memory. The processor is coupled to the memory and can be used to execute computer program instructions stored in the memory so that the device executes the method in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, or executes the method in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect, or executes the method in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect, or executes the method in the fourth aspect or any possible design of the fourth aspect, or executes the method in the fifth aspect or any possible design of the fifth aspect, or executes the method in the sixth aspect or any possible design of the sixth aspect. Optionally, the device also includes a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface. When the device is a network device, the communication interface can be a transceiver or an input / output interface; when the device is a chip included in the network device, the communication interface can be an input / output interface of the chip. Optionally, the transceiver can be a transceiver circuit, and the input / output interface can be an input / output circuit.

[0058] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, comprising: a processor, the processor being coupled to a memory, the memory being used to store programs or instructions, and when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the chip system implements the method of the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, or implements the method of the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect, or implements the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect, or implements the fourth aspect or any possible design of the fourth aspect, or implements the fifth aspect or any possible design of the fifth aspect, or implements the sixth aspect or any possible design of the sixth aspect.

[0059] Optionally, the chip system also includes an interface circuit, which is used to interact with code instructions to the processor.

[0060] Optionally, there may be one or more processors in the chip system, and the processor may be implemented by hardware or software. When implemented by hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, etc. When implemented by software, the processor may be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

[0061] Optionally, the memory in the chip system may be one or more. The memory may be integrated with the processor or may be separately provided with the processor. Exemplarily, the memory may be a non-transient processor, such as a read-only memory ROM, which may be integrated with the processor on the same chip or may be provided on different chips.

[0062] In the ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program or instructions stored thereon. When the computer program or instructions are executed, the computer executes the method of the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, or executes the method of the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect, or executes the method of the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect, or executes the method of the fourth aspect or any possible design of the fourth aspect, or executes the method of the fifth aspect or any possible design of the fifth aspect, or executes the method of the sixth aspect or any possible design of the sixth aspect.

[0063] In the tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product. When a computer reads and executes the computer program product, the computer executes the method in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, or executes the method in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect, or executes the method in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect, or executes the method in the fourth aspect or any possible design of the fourth aspect, or executes the method in the fifth aspect or any possible design of the fifth aspect, or executes the method in the sixth aspect or any possible design of the sixth aspect.

[0064] In the eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which includes a computing management function, a session management function and N computing-aware user plane functions, and the N computing-aware user plane functions constitute a computing-aware virtual network. Optionally, the communication system may also include a terminal device, and the terminal device can be connected to at least one of the N computing-aware user plane functions. Optionally, the communication system may also include at least one edge computing node, and the at least one edge computing node may constitute a regional computing power group, and one or more of the N computing-aware user plane functions may be connected to the edge computing node. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0065] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

[0066] Figure 2 A flowchart of a method for creating a computing-aware virtual network provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0067] Figure 3 A flowchart of a method for updating a computing-aware virtual network provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0068] Figure 4 A flowchart of a computing power-aware session management method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0069] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of a first CA-UPF establishing a computing power routing information base through information interaction with a second CA-UPF in an embodiment of the present application;

[0070] Figure 6 A possible implementation method of the second CA-UPF sending an announcement message to the first CA-UPF in the embodiment of the present application;

[0071] Figure 7Another possible implementation of the second CA-UPF sending an announcement message to the first CA-UPF in the embodiment of the present application;

[0072] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of establishing an association between a second CA-UPF and a first computing service in an embodiment of the present application;

[0073] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of the second CA-UPF releasing the association with the first computing service in an embodiment of the present application;

[0074] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of a user plane message forwarding process in an embodiment of the present application;

[0075] Fig.11 A schematic diagram of a process of performing an inlet CA-UPF switching of a terminal device in an embodiment of the present application;

[0076] Fig.12 A schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0077] Fig.13 Another structural schematic diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0078] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0079] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as long term evolution (LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD) system, fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system or new radio (NR) system, or to future communication systems or other similar communication systems.

[0080] Below, some terms in this application are explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0081] 1) Terminal equipment is a device with wireless transceiver functions. The terminal equipment can communicate with the core network or the Internet via a radio access network (such as a radio access network, RAN) and exchange voice and / or data with the RAN.

[0082] The terminal device may include user equipment (UE), wireless terminal device, mobile terminal device, D2D terminal device, vehicle to everything (V2X) terminal device, machine-to-machine / machine-type communications (M2M / MTC) terminal device, Internet of Things (IoT) terminal device, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote station, access point (AP), remote terminal, access terminal, user terminal, user agent or user device, etc. For example, the terminal device may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a portable, pocket-sized, handheld, or computer-built-in mobile device, etc. For another example, the terminal device may also be a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in self driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical surgery, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a wireless terminal in a smart home, a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN), or a vehicle device in V2X, a customer premises equipment (CPE), and the like.For another example, the terminal device may also be a personal communication service (PCS) phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form used by the terminal device.

[0083] As an example but not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be referred to as wearable smart devices or smart wearable devices, etc., which are a general term for the intelligent design of daily wearables using wearable technology and the development of wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing and shoes, etc. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. Wearable devices are not only hardware devices, but also powerful functions achieved through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include full-featured, large-size, and fully or partially independent of smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, etc., as well as devices that only focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used in conjunction with other devices such as smartphones, such as various types of smart bracelets, smart helmets, and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring. The various terminal devices introduced above, if located on a vehicle (for example, placed in a vehicle or installed in a vehicle), can be considered as vehicle-mounted terminal devices, which are also called on-board units (OBUs).

[0084] 2) Radio access network equipment is a device used in a communication system to connect terminal devices to a wireless network. Radio access network equipment can generally be connected to the core network through a wired link (such as an optical fiber cable). Radio access network equipment can be a node in the RAN, which can also be called a base station or a RAN node (or device).

[0085] The wireless access network equipment may include a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) in an LTE system or an evolved LTE system (LTE-Advanced, LTE-A), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a 5G communication system, a transmission reception point (TRP), a base band unit (BBU), an access point (AP) in a wireless local area network (WLAN), an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system. The wireless access network equipment may also be a module or unit that performs some functions of a base station, such as a centralized unit (CU) or a distributed unit (DU). The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific equipment form adopted by the wireless access network equipment.

[0086] For example, in a network structure, the wireless access network device may be a CU node, or a DU node, or a wireless access network device including a CU node and a DU node. The CU node is used to support protocols such as radio resource control (RRC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and service data adaptation protocol (SDAP); the DU node is used to support radio link control (RLC) layer protocols, media access control (MAC) layer protocols, and physical layer protocols.

[0087] In the embodiments of the present application, the wireless access network equipment and the terminal can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on the water surface; they can also be deployed on aircraft, balloons and satellites in the air. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios of the wireless access network equipment and terminal equipment. In the embodiments of the present application, the wireless access network equipment can be referred to as the access network equipment for short. Unless otherwise specified, the access network equipment hereinafter refers to the wireless access network equipment.

[0088] 3) Core network equipment refers to the equipment in the core network (CN) that provides service support for terminal equipment. Core network equipment may include access and mobility management function (AMF), session management function (SMF), user plane function (UPF), network exposure function (NEF), unified data management (UDM), application function (AF) and other entities.

[0089] Among them, AMF is mainly used for access management and mobility management of terminal equipment, such as user location update, network registration, cell switching, etc.; SMF is mainly used for session management, such as user session establishment, modification, and release; UPF is a functional entity on the user plane, which is mainly responsible for connecting to the external network and processing user messages; NEF is used to expose some functions of the network to applications in a controlled manner; UDM is used to manage the contract information of terminal equipment; AF is used to provide service data of various applications to the control plane network elements of the operator's communication network, or to obtain network data information and control information from the control plane network elements of the communication network.

[0090] It should be noted that the core network device may also include an entity related to edge computing newly introduced in the embodiment of the present application, which will be described in detail below. Optionally, the core network device may also include other entities, which are not involved in the embodiment of the present application and are not described one by one.

[0091] It should be noted that the entities in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as network elements or functional entities. For example, the AMF entity may also be referred to as an AMF network element or an AMF functional entity, and the SMF entity may also be referred to as an SMF network element or an SMF functional entity. The above network elements or functional entities may be network elements in hardware devices, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). Optionally, the above network elements or functional entities may be implemented by one device, or by multiple devices, or may be a functional module within a device, and the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this.

[0092] Please refer to Figure 1, which is a network architecture diagram of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application. The communication system includes a terminal device, a wireless access network device, an AMF, an SMF, a computing management function (CMF), a NEF, a multi-access edge computing (MEC) manager, at least one computing aware-user plane function (CA-UPF) and an edge data network, and the edge data network may include at least one edge computing node.

[0093] It should be noted that, for the sake of simplicity, the following embodiments take CMF, CA-VN, SMF, and CA-UPF as examples, among which CMF can be replaced by a computing management function, CA-VN can be replaced by a computing-aware virtual network, SMF can be replaced by a session management function, and CA-UPF can be replaced by a computing-aware user plane function.

[0094] Among them, a client is deployed in the terminal device, and the client may include an application client and an edge enabler client (EEC).

[0095] CMF can create a computing aware–virtual network (CA-VN) between CA-UPFs through SMF, establish neighbor relationships for adjacent CA-UPFs in CA-VN, and perform dynamic session management for these CA-UPFs that form neighbor relationships based on computing awareness. In this way, a regional computing power group is formed between the edge computing nodes associated with these adjacent CA-UPFs, computing services can be dynamically deployed in the regional computing power group, and the service capability information of the edge computing nodes can be quickly announced between CA-UPFs to ensure that the service requests of terminal devices can be quickly responded to, and can be forwarded to the best edge computing node based on dynamic service capability information and network cost information, so as to achieve overall system resource load balancing and optimal user experience.

[0096] CA-VN refers to a network composed of multiple CA-UPFs that can perform dynamic session management based on the service identifier of the computing service, and dynamically deploy adaptive computing services and adaptively optimize computing resources. CA-VN exists in the form of an internal virtual interface in CA-UPF, and there can be multiple instances. Each CA-VN corresponds to a different network slice instance (Network Slice Instance, NSI) and / or data network name (data network name, DNN). The CA-UPF members contained in different CA-VNs can be completely different, partially overlapping, or completely the same, and this application is not limited.

[0097] A regional computing power group refers to a computing group composed of multiple adjacent edge computing nodes in CA-VN. It breaks through the resource bottleneck of a single site through load balancing, thereby increasing the scale of applications that edge computing can serve. It should be noted that the regions and neighbors here are divided based on the network delay between edge computing nodes. Only edge computing nodes within the specified delay can form a regional computing power group, otherwise it is meaningless.

[0098] Each edge computing node can be associated with a CA-UPF in the CA-VN as the last hop before the service request message of the terminal device is forwarded to the edge computing node to ensure that the end-to-end data forwarding path is controlled by the mobile network. The interface between the edge computing node and the CA-UPF is the N6 interface defined by 3GPP, and the interface between CA-UPF and CA-UPF is the N19 interface defined by 3GPP. It can be understood that the CA-UPFs associated with each edge computing node in the regional computing power group are neighbors.

[0099] An edge computing platform is deployed in the edge computing node. The edge computing platform can also be called an MEC platform, which is responsible for the scheduling of local computing, storage, and network resources. The edge computing platform may include one or more edge application servers (EAS) for deploying or running computing services. The physical form of the EAS can be a physical bare metal, a virtual machine, a container, etc., which is not limited by this application. Each EAS is assigned a different server IP address (i.e., server IP address).

[0100] By interacting with the edge computing platform, the edge computing manager can realize the dynamic deployment, orchestration and lifecycle management of resources of different granularities such as virtual machines, microservices and function instances on multiple edge computing nodes.

[0101] It should be noted that the computing services mentioned in the embodiments of the present application, also called edge applications or edge services, are not single applications in the traditional client-server model, but relatively lightweight services, such as microservices or function instances. These lightweight computing services are deployed and run on the EAS in the edge computing nodes. Optionally, the computing service can be a stateless, short-life microservice or function instance.

[0102] Each type of computing service corresponds to a unique service ID in the operator network management domain. The same computing service can run multiple service instances on the EAS of different edge computing nodes, but still have the same service ID, that is, the computing service name and the service ID are one-to-one corresponding.

[0103] In order to reuse the existing IP protocol stack as much as possible, the service identifier of the computing service can be an IP anycast address. In this way, the computing service name in the service request issued by the terminal device can be translated into a service identifier, and the service identifier is used as the destination IP address of its IP message. The user of the terminal device only needs to care about which computing service to issue the service request to, and does not need to care about which server the service instance of the computing service is running on, and what the server IP address (server IP address) of the server is. CA-UPF can route and forward service request messages based on the service identifier of the computing service, and convert between the service identifier and the server IP address when sending and receiving messages to EAS.

[0104] In CA-VN, the business roles of CA-UPF are divided into two types, one is the ingress CA-UPF and the other is the egress CA-UPF. Among them, the ingress CA-UPF refers to the CA-UPF selected by the terminal device as the access anchor point, and the egress CA-UPF refers to other CA-UPFs that have a neighbor relationship with the ingress CA-UPF. The ingress CA-UPF can receive service requests from terminal devices, and the egress CA-UPF can announce the service capability information of its associated edge computing node to the corresponding ingress CA-UPF, so that the ingress CA-UPF can route the service requests received from the terminal device, and dynamically forward the service requests from the terminal device to the best egress CA-UPF based on the current service capability information and network cost information.

[0105] Since any CA-UPF in the CA-VN may be selected by the terminal device as an access anchor point, a CA-UPF in the CA-VN may exist only as an ingress CA-UPF, only as an egress CA-UPF, or both as an ingress CA-UPF and an egress CA-UPF. That is, the service role of a CA-UPF is relative to its neighbor CA-UPF and may change according to changes in its neighbor relationship.

[0106] It can be understood that when a CA-UPF is used as an inlet CA-UPF, there can be one or more corresponding outlet CA-UPFs. Similarly, when a CA-UPF is used as an outlet CA-UPF, there can also be one or more corresponding inlet CA-UPFs, indicating that the CA-UPF can be the outlet CA-UPF corresponding to one or more inlet CA-UPFs.

[0107] According to the different business roles of CA-UPF, the neighbor relationship between CA-UPF can also be divided into two types, one is the forwarding neighbor relationship, and the other is the announcement neighbor relationship. Among them, the forwarding neighbor relationship is for the ingress CA-UPF, which is used to describe the neighbor relationship between the ingress CA-UPF and all its corresponding forwarding objects (i.e., the egress CA-UPF), indicating that the ingress CA-UPF can forward the service request from the terminal device to one of the multiple egress CA-UPFs with which it has a forwarding neighbor relationship; the announcement neighbor relationship is for the egress CA-UPF, which is used to describe the neighbor relationship between the egress CA-UPF and its corresponding announcement object (i.e., the ingress CA-UPF), indicating that the egress CA-UPF needs to announce the service capability information of the edge computing node associated with itself to each ingress CA-UPF with which it has an announcement neighbor relationship.

[0108] The forwarding neighbor relationship between CA-UPFs can be reflected through the forwarding neighbor list, and the announcement neighbor relationship can be reflected through the announcement neighbor list. In the CA-VN, each CA-UPF that can serve as an ingress CA-UPF can have a corresponding forwarding neighbor list. Similarly, each CA-UPF that can serve as an egress CA-UPF (i.e., a CA-UPF that has a neighbor relationship with a CA-UPF that can serve as an ingress CA-UPF) can have a corresponding announcement neighbor list.

[0109] For a CA-UPF in a CA-VN, the forwarding neighbor list of the CA-UPF may include one or more egress CA-UPFs corresponding to the CA-UPF as an ingress CA-UPF, that is, the CA-UPF may be used to forward all egress CA-UPFs of service requests from terminal devices; the announcement neighbor list of the CA-UPF may include one or more ingress CA-UPFs corresponding to the CA-UPF as an egress CA-UPF, that is, the CA-UPF may be used to announce all ingress CA-UPFs of the service capability information of its associated edge computing nodes.

[0110] In this way, CMF can also be used to manage the forwarding neighbor list and / or the announcement neighbor list of each CA-UPF, and the forwarding neighbor list and / or the announcement neighbor list of each CA-UPF can be added, modified and deleted as needed. However, it should be noted that since the forwarding neighbor relationship and the announcement neighbor relationship are relative, CMF must ensure that each egress CA-UPF in the forwarding neighbor list of each ingress CA-UPF includes the ingress CA-UPF in its announcement neighbor list.

[0111] Based on the protocol data unit (PDU) session processing of the existing user plane function (UPF), CA-UPF adds a computing power awareness processing unit, a regional dynamic session processing unit and a network address translation unit.

[0112] Specifically, for the computing power perception processing unit, the computing power perception processing unit located in the egress CA-UPF is responsible for obtaining service capability information from the edge computing node, storing the mapping relationship between the service identifier (Service ID) of the computing service and the server IP address (Server IP address), and forwarding the service capability information of the edge computing node to the inlet CA-UPF in the announcement neighbor list. Among them, the service capability information of the edge computing node may include the computing service information and / or load information of the edge computing node. The computing service information is used to indicate which computing services the edge computing node supports, and may specifically include information such as the service identifier, service attributes, operating status, and computing resource information of each computing service. The load information is used to characterize the current load status of the edge computing node.

[0113] The computing power-aware processing unit located in the inlet CA-UPF is responsible for receiving service capability information from the egress CA-UPF, and generating or updating the computing power routing information base between the inlet CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF. The computing power routing information base includes computing power routing information of one or more computing services. Among them, the computing power routing information of the computing service includes the service identifier of the computing service, the identification information of one or more egress CA-UPFs that can provide the computing service, the service capability information corresponding to each egress CA-UPF (including the computing service information and / or load information of the associated edge computing node) and the network cost information. The computing power-aware processing unit can select a suitable forwarding tunnel for the service request received by the regional dynamic session processing unit based on the computing power routing information of the computing service in the computing power routing information base, and generate corresponding message matching forwarding rules.

[0114] For the regional dynamic session processing unit, its main function is to establish a forwarding tunnel between the ingress CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF according to the forwarding tunnel information sent by the SMF, and to achieve real-time forwarding of messages based on the message matching forwarding rules generated by the computing power perception processing unit. After receiving a message from a terminal device, if there is no corresponding message matching forwarding rule to match the message to the corresponding forwarding tunnel, the computing power perception processing unit can select an egress CA-UPF for it based on the computing power routing information base and generate a corresponding message matching forwarding rule.

[0115] For the network address translation unit, its main function is to complete the mutual replacement between the service identifier of the computing service and the server IP address in the message based on the mapping relationship between the service identifier of the computing service provided by the computing power perception processing unit and the server IP address. The network address translation unit can replace the destination IP address in the uplink message sent to the EAS from the original service identifier of the computing service to the server IP address, and replace the source IP address in the downlink message returned to the terminal device from the original server IP address to the service identifier of the computing service.

[0116] It should be noted that the terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application can be used interchangeably. "Multiple" refers to two or more. In view of this, "multiple" can also be understood as "at least two" in the embodiments of the present application. "At least one" can be understood as one or more, for example, one, two or more. For example, including at least one means including one, two or more, and there is no restriction on which ones are included. For example, including at least one of A, B and C, then A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C can be included. Similarly, the understanding of descriptions such as "at least one" is similar. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, the character " / ", unless otherwise specified, generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0117] Unless otherwise specified, the embodiments of the present application mention ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" for distinguishing between multiple objects, and are not used to limit the order, timing, priority or importance of multiple objects, and the descriptions of "first" and "second" do not limit the objects to be different.

[0118] Please refer to Figure 2 , a method for creating a computing-aware virtual network provided in an embodiment of the present application, the method comprising:

[0119] Step S201: CMF receives a first request message, where the first request message is used to create a CA-VN, where the CA-VN includes N CA-UPFs, where N is a positive integer.

[0120] In an embodiment of the present application, the first request message includes a member list of the CA-VN, and the member list includes identification information of N CA-UPFs in the CA-VN. It can be understood that the CA-UPF included in the CA-VN can be referred to as a CA-UPF member of the CA-VN, or simply a member.

[0121] Optionally, the first request message also includes identification information of the CA-VN, and the identification information may include one or more of the CA-VN identity (ID), the DNN corresponding to the CA-VN, network slice information or application descriptor. It can be understood that different CA-VNs may correspond to different DNs, or to different network slice information, or to different application descriptors.

[0122] The first request message may also be referred to as a CA-VN creation request message or have other names, which are not limited. Similarly, the member list may also be referred to as CA-VN member information.

[0123] Optionally, the management plane network element (operation, administration and management, OAM) or UDM can send a first request message to the CMF, or the AF can also send a first request message to the CMF through the NEF. Correspondingly, the CMF can receive the first request message from the OAM, UDM or AF. It can be understood that the creation of CA-VN can also be triggered by the CMF itself or by other core network elements, which is not limited in this application.

[0124] Step S202-a: CMF generates a forwarding neighbor list for the first CA-UPF, where the first CA-UPF is one of the N CA-UPFs included in the CA-VN.

[0125] In the embodiment of the present application, the first CA-UPF is the entry CA-UPF in the CA-VN. It should be understood that the first CA-UPF is the entry CA-UPF in the CA-VN, indicating that the first CA-UPF can serve as the business role of the entry CA-UPF and perform corresponding functions, including receiving information announced by the corresponding egress CA-UPF (such as service capability information of the edge computing node associated with the egress CA-UPF), building a computing power routing information base, accepting terminal devices to attach to the first CA-UPF, receiving service requests from terminal devices, and forwarding service requests to a corresponding egress CA-UPF, or deciding to process the service request at the edge computing node associated with itself, etc.

[0126] The forwarding neighbor list includes the identification information of the L egress CA-UPFs corresponding to the first CA-UPF in the CA-VN, where L is a positive integer. It can be understood that the first CA-UPF and the corresponding L egress CA-UPFs belong to the same CA-VN, namely the CA-VN.

[0127] Specifically, the forwarding neighbor list is used to establish a forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the corresponding L egress CA-UPFs, and the forwarding tunnel refers to a bidirectional forwarding tunnel between the ingress CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF. The first CA-UPF can determine which CA-UPFs are corresponding to its egress CA-UPF based on the forwarding neighbor list, or the first CA-UPF determines which CA-UPFs the service request received from the terminal device can be forwarded to based on the forwarding neighbor list.

[0128] Step S202-b, CMF generates an announcement neighbor list for the second CA-UPF, where the second CA-UPF is another CA-UPF (different from the first CA-UPF) among the N CA-UPFs included in the CA-VN.

[0129] In the embodiment of the present application, the second CA-UPF is the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN. It should be understood that the second CA-UPF is the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, which means that the second CA-UPF can serve as the business role of the egress CA-UPF and perform corresponding functions, including receiving service capability information from its associated edge computing node, forwarding the service capability information of its associated edge computing node to the corresponding ingress CA-UPF, receiving service requests from the corresponding ingress CA-UPF, and forwarding the service requests to the associated edge computing node, etc.

[0130] The announced neighbor list includes the identification information of the K entry CA-UPFs corresponding to the second CA-UPF in the CA-VN, where K is a positive integer. It can be understood that the second CA-UPF and the corresponding K entry CA-UPFs belong to the same CA-VN, namely the CA-VN.

[0131] Specifically, the announcement neighbor list is used to establish an announcement forwarding relationship and forwarding tunnel between the second CA-UPF and the corresponding K ingress CA-UPFs, wherein the forwarding tunnel refers to a bidirectional forwarding tunnel between the egress CA-UPF and the ingress CA-UPF; the announcement forwarding relationship means that the egress CA-UPF needs to announce the service capability information (including computing service information and / or load information) of its associated edge computing nodes to its corresponding ingress CA-UPF, so that the ingress CA-UPF can decide whether to request to forward the service request of the terminal device to the egress CA-UPF and request certain computing services through the egress CA-UPF. The second CA-UPF can determine which CA-UPFs are its corresponding ingress CA-UPFs based on the announcement neighbor list, or the second CA-UPF determines which CA-UPFs need to announce the service capability information of its associated edge computing nodes based on the announcement neighbor list.

[0132] It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present application, for a CA-UPF in the CA-VN, its corresponding egress CA-UPF and ingress CA-UPF can be obtained by comprehensive calculation by the CMF based on factors such as the location, mutual distance, network status information, and computing resource information of the associated edge computing nodes of each CA-UPF in the CA-VN, and depends on the internal implementation of the CMF. The network status information may include network topology information and link status information (such as latency, bandwidth, etc.). Therefore, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific process of the CMF generating a forwarding neighbor list or an announcement neighbor list for the CA-UPF in the CA-VN.

[0133] As mentioned above, a CA-UPF in the CA-VN may exist only as an ingress CA-UPF, or only as an egress CA-UPF, or as both an ingress CA-UPF and an egress CA-UPF, and its service role in the CA-VN will change dynamically according to the neighbor relationship between CA-UPFs. Therefore, in an embodiment of the present application, the above-mentioned first CA-UPF may be only an ingress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, or it may be both an ingress CA-UPF and an egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN. However, the fact that the first CA-UPF is both an ingress CA-UPF and an egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN does not mean that the first CA-UPF is both an ingress CA-UPF and an egress CA-UPF at the same time, although this is also possible, but rather means that the first CA-UPF has two service roles, namely, an ingress CA-UPF and an egress CA-UPF. For this situation, when the first CA-UPF can also be the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the CMF can also generate an announcement neighbor list for the first CA-UPF, and the announcement neighbor list includes the identification information of K ingress CA-UPFs corresponding to the first CA-UPF in the CA-VN, where K is a positive integer.

[0134] Similarly, the above-mentioned second CA-UPF may also be only the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, or may also be both the egress CA-UPF and the ingress CA-UPF in the CA-VN. Similarly, the second CA-UPF being both the egress CA-UPF and the ingress CA-UPF in the CA-VN does not mean that the second CA-UPF is both the egress CA-UPF and the ingress CA-UPF at the same time, although this is also possible, but rather means that the second CA-UPF has two business roles, namely, the egress CA-UPF and the ingress CA-UPF. For this situation, when the second CA-UPF can also be the ingress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the CMF can also generate a forwarding neighbor list for the second CA-UPF, and the forwarding neighbor list includes the identification information of the L egress CA-UPFs corresponding to the second CA-UPF in the CA-VN, where L is a positive integer.

[0135] It should be noted that the embodiments of the present application take the first CA-UPF as the inlet CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF as the outlet CA-UPF as an example to illustrate the functions of the inlet CA-UPF and the outlet CA-UPF (or the actions or steps that can be performed). When the first CA-UPF can also be the outlet CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the functions of the first CA-UPF can refer to the relevant description of the second CA-UPF in the embodiments of the present application. When the second CA-UPF can also be the inlet CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the functions of the second CA-UPF can refer to the relevant description of the first CA-UPF in the embodiments of the present application, and will not be repeated here.

[0136] It should also be noted that, for ease of explanation, in the embodiment of the present application, L is used to indicate that there may be one or more egress CA-UPFs corresponding to an ingress CA-UPF, and K is used to indicate that there may also be one or more ingress CA-UPFs corresponding to an egress CA-UPF. However, this does not mean that the number of egress CA-UPFs corresponding to each CA-UPF in the CA-VN is the same, nor does it mean that the number of ingress CA-UPFs corresponding to each CA-UPF in the CA-VN is the same. In fact, the CMF independently configures the forwarding neighbor list and / or the announcement neighbor list for different CA-UPFs in the CA-VN. Therefore, the number of egress CA-UPFs included in the forwarding neighbor list of each CA-UPF in the CA-VN may be the same or different. Similarly, the number of ingress CA-UPFs included in the announcement neighbor list of each CA-UPF in the CA-VN may be the same or different, and there is no limitation on this.

[0137] Step S203: CMF sends a second request message to SMF, where the second request message is used to request the creation of a forwarding path in the CA-VN. The second request message includes a member list of the CA-VN and a forwarding neighbor list of the first CA-UPF.

[0138] Correspondingly, the SMF may receive a second request message from the CMF.

[0139] In an embodiment of the present application, the second request message may also include identification information of the CA-VN (e.g., the identity of the CA-VN) and the announcement neighbor list of the second CA-UPF. If the first CA-UPF is also the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the second request message may also include the announcement neighbor list of the first CA-UPF. If the second CA-UPF is also the ingress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the second request message may also include the forwarding neighbor list of the second CA-UPF.

[0140] The second request message may also be called a CA-VN session creation request message or have other names, without limitation.

[0141] Step S204-a, SMF sends a third request message to the first CA-UPF based on the member list of the CA-VN, and the third request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network level session of the first CA-UPF. The third request message includes the identification information of the CA-VN and the forwarding neighbor list of the first CA-UPF.

[0142] Correspondingly, the first CA-UPF may receive a third request message from the SMF.

[0143] The virtual network level session refers to a shared session for communication between CA-UPFs, which is used to forward session messages of all terminal devices connected to the CA-VN. The virtual network level session is different from the existing terminal device level session, which can only be used for message forwarding of the terminal device.

[0144] In the embodiment of the present application, before the SMF sends the third request message to the first CA-UPF, in a possible implementation, the SMF may also generate forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and each egress CA-UPF according to the forwarding neighbor list of the first CA-UPF, so as to establish a forwarding tunnel between the ingress CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF, and realize a forwarding path for bidirectional communication between the ingress CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF. Furthermore, the SMF may send the forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and each egress CA-UPF to the first CA-UPF through the third request message.

[0145] This implementation can be understood as the SMF uniformly allocating and sending forwarding tunnel information. The forwarding tunnel information may include the device IP address of the CA-UPF at the other end of the forwarding tunnel and the identification information of the forwarding tunnel. The forwarding tunnel specifically refers to the uplink forwarding tunnel, that is, the forwarding tunnel between the ingress CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF, and the forwarding tunnel information specifically refers to the uplink forwarding tunnel information.

[0146] It can be understood that the first CA-UPF can establish uplink forwarding tunnels with the corresponding different egress CA-UPFs respectively, so the uplink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and different egress CA-UPFs is also different. For example, assuming that the second CA-UPF is an egress CA-UPF corresponding to the first CA-UPF, the uplink forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF is recorded as uplink forwarding tunnel 1, and the third CA-UPF is another egress CA-UPF corresponding to the first CA-UPF, and the uplink forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the third CA-UPF is recorded as uplink forwarding tunnel 2, then the uplink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF may include the device IP address of the second CA-UPF located at the opposite end of the uplink forwarding tunnel 1 and the identification information of the uplink forwarding tunnel 1, and the uplink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and the third CA-UPF may include the device IP address of the third CA-UPF located at the opposite end of the uplink forwarding tunnel 2 and the identification information of the uplink forwarding tunnel 2.

[0147] In this way, the SMF sends forwarding tunnel information to the first CA-UPF as follows: the SMF sends L uplink forwarding tunnel information to the first CA-UPF, and the L uplink forwarding tunnel information respectively correspond to the L egress CA-UPFs corresponding to the first CA-UPF. In other words, the third request message may include the uplink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and the L egress CA-UPFs respectively.

[0148] Optionally, in order to achieve bidirectional communication, the SMF may also send forwarding tunnel information between the egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF to each egress CA-UPF corresponding to the first CA-UPF, so as to establish a forwarding tunnel between the egress CA-UPF and the corresponding ingress CA-UPF, and the SMF may carry the forwarding tunnel information in a request message for creating a virtual network level session of the egress CA-UPF and send it to the egress CA-UPF. The forwarding tunnel specifically refers to a downlink forwarding tunnel, and the forwarding tunnel information specifically refers to downlink forwarding tunnel information.

[0149] It can be understood that each egress CA-UPF corresponding to the first CA-UPF can establish a downlink forwarding tunnel with the first CA-UPF respectively. Therefore, the downlink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to different egress CA-UPFs corresponding to the first CA-UPF is also different. The downlink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to each egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF may include the device IP address of the first CA-UPF and the identification information of the downlink forwarding tunnel between the egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF.

[0150] In another possible implementation, the uplink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF may also be allocated by the egress CA-UPF, then fed back to the SMF, and finally sent to the first CA-UPF by the SMF. Optionally, the egress CA-UPF may allocate the corresponding uplink forwarding tunnel information to the first CA-UPF by allocating the corresponding identification information, i.e., the uplink forwarding tunnel identification, to the uplink forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF.

[0151] Similarly, the downlink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF may also be allocated by the first CA-UPF, then fed back to the SMF, and finally sent by the SMF to the egress CA-UPF. Optionally, the first CA-UPF may allocate the corresponding downlink forwarding tunnel information to the egress CA-UPF by allocating corresponding identification information, i.e., the downlink forwarding tunnel identification, to the downlink forwarding tunnel between the egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF by the first CA-UPF.

[0152] In view of this, the third request message may not include the uplink tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and each egress CA-UPF, or the identification information of each uplink forwarding tunnel in the uplink tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and each egress CA-UPF included in the third request message may be empty. In this way, the SMF may receive from each corresponding egress CA-UPF the tunnel identifier assigned by each egress CA-UPF to the uplink forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF, and then send an (uplink) tunnel information update message to the first CA-UPF. Optionally, the indication information of the SMF requesting the egress CA-UPF to assign a tunnel identifier to the uplink forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF may be carried in the virtual network level session establishment request message of the egress CA-UPF.

[0153] Similarly, the third request message may include indication information for requesting the first CA-UPF to allocate corresponding identification information to the downlink forwarding tunnels between each egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF. The first CA-UPF may allocate corresponding identification information to the downlink forwarding tunnels between each egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF, and then feed back to the SMF. Furthermore, after receiving the identification information allocated by the first CA-UPF to the downlink forwarding tunnels between each egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF, the SMF may send a (downlink) tunnel information update message to each egress CA-UPF respectively.

[0154] If the first CA-UPF is also the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the third request message may also include the advertised neighbor list of the first CA-UPF. The third request message may also be called a virtual network level session establishment request message or have other names, which are not limited in this application.

[0155] Step S205-a: The first CA-UPF establishes a forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the corresponding L egress CA-UPFs according to the forwarding neighbor list, where the forwarding tunnel specifically refers to an uplink forwarding tunnel.

[0156] In the embodiment of the present application, the first CA-UPF may establish uplink forwarding tunnels between the first CA-UPF and each egress CA-UPF in the forwarding neighbor list according to the forwarding neighbor list.

[0157] Specifically, it is assumed that the second CA-UPF is an egress CA-UPF corresponding to the first CA-UPF, the identification information of the second CA-UPF is located in the forwarding neighbor list of the first CA-UPF, and the third request message includes the forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the second CA-UPF (i.e., the forwarding tunnel information between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF). The forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the second CA-UPF may include the device IP address of the second CA-UPF and the identification information of the forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF. In this way, after receiving the third request message or the uplink tunnel information update message from the SMF, the first CA-UPF can establish an uplink forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF according to the forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the second CA-UPF.

[0158] In a possible implementation, the regional dynamic session processing unit in the first CA-UPF can create an internal interface for the CA-VN according to the identification information of the CA-VN in the third request message, and then establish a forwarding relationship (or connection relationship) between the internal interface corresponding to the CA-VN and each external interface of the first CA-UPF (for example, the N19 interface between the first CA-UPF and each corresponding egress CA-UPF and the N6 interface between the first CA-UPF and each associated edge computing node) according to the forwarding neighbor list of the first CA-UPF and the forwarding tunnel information between the first CA-UPF and each corresponding egress CA-UPF. On this basis, the computing power perception processing unit in the first CA-UPF can dynamically add, modify or delete the message matching forwarding rules according to the computing power routing information, thereby realizing bidirectional data flow forwarding between the inlet CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF.

[0159] Among them, the internal interface corresponding to the CA-VN is an internal virtual interface (or internal logical interface) created by the first CA-UPF for the CA-VN. In an embodiment of the present application, if a CA-UPF belongs to multiple CA-VNs, different CA-VNs in the CA-UPF may correspond to different internal interfaces, which are used to distinguish information or messages in different CA-VNs within the CA-UPF.

[0160] The external interface of the first CA-UPF may include an interface between the first CA-UPF and the corresponding egress CA-UPF, and an interface between the first CA-UPF and an associated edge computing node. Exemplarily, the interface between the first CA-UPF and the corresponding egress CA-UPF may be an N19 interface defined in 3GPP, and the interface between the first CA-UPF and the associated edge computing node may be an N6 interface defined in 3GPP.

[0161] Optionally, if the first CA-UPF is also the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the first CA-UPF can also determine the announcement forwarding relationship between the first CA-UPF and the corresponding K ingress CA-UPFs based on the announcement neighbor list in the third request message, and establish a downlink forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and the corresponding K ingress CA-UPFs.

[0162] Step S206-a: The first CA-UPF sends a third response message to the SMF, where the third response message is used to indicate that the virtual network level session creation of the first CA-UPF is completed.

[0163] Correspondingly, the SMF may receive a third response message from the first CA-UPF.

[0164] The third response message may also be called a virtual network level session establishment response message, or a virtual network level session establishment completion message, or may have other names, which are not limited in the present application.

[0165] Step 204-b: The SMF sends a fourth request message to the second CA-UPF, where the fourth request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network level session of the second CA-UPF.

[0166] Correspondingly, the second CA-UPF may receive the fourth request message from the SMF. In the embodiment of the present application, after receiving the second request message from the CMF, the SMF may not only send a third request message to the first CA-UPF to request the creation of a virtual network-level session of the first CA-UPF, but may also send a fourth request message to the second CA-UPF to request the creation of a virtual network-level session of the second CA-UPF.

[0167] The fourth request message may include the identification information of the CA-VN and the advertised neighbor list of the second CA-UPF.

[0168] Step S205-b: The second CA-UPF determines the announcement forwarding relationship between the second CA-UPF and its corresponding K ingress CA-UPFs according to the announcement neighbor list.

[0169] In a possible implementation, the SMF may uniformly allocate and send forwarding tunnel information. That is, the fourth request message may also include the forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the second CA-UPF and each ingress CA-UPF. In this way, after receiving the fourth request message from the SMF, the second CA-UPF may establish a downlink forwarding tunnel between the egress CA-UPF and the corresponding ingress CA-UPF according to the forwarding tunnel information corresponding to each ingress CA-UPF, so as to realize the forwarding path of the two-way communication between the ingress CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF.

[0170] In another possible implementation, the downlink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the second CA-UPF and the ingress CA-UPF may also be allocated by the ingress CA-UPF, then fed back to the SMF, and finally sent by the SMF to the second CA-UPF. That is, the fourth request message may not include the downlink tunnel information corresponding to the second CA-UPF and each ingress CA-UPF, or the identification information of each downlink forwarding tunnel in the downlink tunnel information corresponding to the second CA-UPF and each ingress CA-UPF included in the fourth request message may be empty. In this way, the SMF may receive from each ingress CA-UPF the tunnel identifier allocated by each ingress CA-UPF for the downlink forwarding tunnel between the second CA-UPF and the ingress CA-UPF, and then send a (downlink) tunnel information update message to the second CA-UPF. Optionally, the indication information that the SMF requests the ingress CA-UPF to allocate a tunnel identifier for the downlink forwarding tunnel between the second CA-UPF and the ingress CA-UPF may be carried in the session establishment request message at the virtual network level of the ingress CA-UPF. For example, assuming that the above-mentioned first CA-UPF is the entry CA-UPF corresponding to the second CA-UPF, the third request message includes indication information for requesting the first CA-UPF to allocate corresponding identification information for the downlink forwarding tunnel between the second CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF.

[0171] Similarly, the fourth request message may include indication information for requesting the second CA-UPF to allocate corresponding identification information to the uplink forwarding tunnel between each ingress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF, and then the second CA-UPF may allocate corresponding identification information to the uplink forwarding tunnel between each ingress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF, and then feedback to the SMF. Furthermore, after receiving the identification information allocated by the second CA-UPF to the uplink forwarding tunnel between each ingress CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF, the SMF may send (uplink) tunnel information update messages to each ingress CA-UPF respectively.

[0172] In a possible implementation, the regional dynamic session processing unit in the second CA-UPF may create an internal interface for the CA-VN based on the identification information of the CA-VN in the fourth request message, and establish a forwarding relationship (or connection relationship) between the internal interface corresponding to the CA-VN and the various external interfaces of the second CA-UPF based on the announcement neighbor list of the second CA-UPF and the forwarding tunnel information between the second CA-UPF and the corresponding entry CA-UPFs.

[0173] Step S206-b, the second CA-UPF sends a fourth response message to the SMF, the fourth response message is used to indicate that the virtual network level session creation of the second CA-UPF is completed. Step S207, SMF sends a second response message to the CMF, the second response message is used to indicate that the forwarding path creation in the CA-VN is completed.

[0174] Correspondingly, CMF may receive a second response message from SMF.

[0175] In an embodiment of the present application, after receiving a third response message from the first CA-UPF and a fourth response message from the second CA-UPF, the SMF may send a second response message to the CMF to indicate that the forwarding path creation in the CA-VN is completed.

[0176] The second response message may also be called a CA-VN session establishment response message, a CA-VN session establishment completion message, or have other names without limitation.

[0177] Step S208: CMF sends a first response message, where the first response message is used to indicate that the CA-VN creation is completed.

[0178] Optionally, the CMF may send the first response message to the OAM or UDM or AF (through the NEF) after receiving the second response message from the SMF.

[0179] The first response message may also be called a CA-VN creation response message, or a CA-VN creation completion message, or have other names, without limitation.

[0180] It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the process of creating the CA-VN will involve each CA-UPF included in the CA-VN. Therefore, when the CMF determines that the CA-VN is to be created (or after the CMF receives a request message requesting the creation of the CA-VN), the CMF may configure neighbor relationships for each CA-UPF in the CA-VN, and generate a corresponding forwarding neighbor list and / or announcement neighbor list for each CA-UPF based on the neighbor relationship between each CA-UPF. It can be understood that if a CA-UPF is an inlet CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the CMF may generate a forwarding neighbor list for the CA-UPF; if a CA-UPF is an egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the CMF may generate an announcement neighbor list for the CA-UPF; if a CA-UPF is an inlet CA-UPF and an egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the CMF may generate a forwarding neighbor list and an announcement neighbor list for the CA-UPF.

[0181] Furthermore, CMF may send the member list of the CA-VN and the forwarding neighbor list and / or announcement neighbor list of each CA-UPF to SMF through a second request message to request SMF to create a forwarding path in the CA-VN. In an embodiment of the present application, the second request message is a request for the entire CA-VN. Therefore, when SMF receives the second request message from CMF, SMF may request each CA-UPF in the CA-VN to create a virtual network level session for the CA-UPF based on the member list of the CA-VN. That is, during the CA-VN creation process, SMF may send a virtual network level session establishment request message to each CA-UPF in the CA-VN to request the creation of a virtual network level session for the CA-UPF.

[0182] Depending on the different business roles of the CA-UPF, the process of CA-UPF creating its own virtual network-level session will also be different. For ease of explanation, the embodiments of the present application take the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF as examples to illustrate how the virtual network-level sessions of the ingress CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN are established during the CA-VN creation process. For other CA-UPFs in the CA-VN, if the other CA-UPF is the ingress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the other CA-UPF can establish the uplink forwarding tunnel required for the forwarding path between the other CA-UPF and each egress CA-UPF according to the forwarding neighbor list and the forwarding tunnel information corresponding to each egress CA-UPF in accordance with the relevant description above when the first CA-UPF is the ingress CA-UPF. Similarly, if the other CA-UPF is the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the other CA-UPF may determine the announcement forwarding relationship between the other CA-UPF and the corresponding ingress CA-UPF and the downlink forwarding tunnel required to implement the forwarding path according to the announcement neighbor list and the forwarding tunnel information corresponding to each ingress CA-UPF in accordance with the relevant description above when the second CA-UPF is the egress CA-UPF. After the virtual network-level session of the other CA-UPF is created, the other CA-UPF may send a virtual network-level session establishment response message to the SMF to indicate that the virtual network-level session of the other CA-UPF is created. It should be noted that the names of the virtual network-level session establishment request messages and session establishment response messages of the other CA-UPFs in the CA-VN except the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF may also be in the form of the Xth request message and the Xth response message, which is not limited in the present application.

[0183] Furthermore, after receiving the response message of the completion of the virtual network level session creation fed back by all CA-UPFs in the CA-VN, the SMF may send a second response message (ie, a CA-VN creation response message) to the CMF.

[0184] It should also be noted that the message used by CA-UPF to feed back tunnel information to SMF in the embodiment of the present application may be a response message in the session establishment process. Optionally, the name or function of the response message may be similar to the third response message or the fourth response message in the embodiment of the present application. Similarly, the tunnel information update message sent by SMF to CA-UPF may be a request message or an update message in the session establishment process. Optionally, the name or function of the message may be similar to the third request message or the fourth request message in the embodiment of the present application.

[0185] In a possible implementation scenario, taking the session establishment process of the first CA-UPF as an example, the SMF may send a third request message to the first CA-UPF, but the third request message does not include the uplink forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first CA-UPF and each egress CA-UPF, but includes instruction information requesting the first CA-UPF to generate downlink forwarding tunnel information for the downlink forwarding tunnels between each egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF. Therefore, the first CA-UPF may skip the tunnel establishment process shown in step S205-a and generate downlink forwarding tunnel information for the downlink forwarding tunnels between each egress CA-UPF and the first CA-UPF, and feed back the generated downlink forwarding tunnel information to the SMF through the third response message. Here, the third response message may not indicate that the virtual network level session of the first CA-UPF is actually created, but indicates that a session creation process is completed, although the session has not been actually created.

[0186] Subsequently, the SMF may send a third request message to the first CA-UPF again. The third request message includes the uplink forwarding tunnel information generated by each egress CA-UPF of the first CA-UPF for the uplink forwarding tunnel between the first CA-UPF and each egress CA-UPF. The third request message can be understood as the tunnel information update message mentioned above. The third request message can also be used to request the first CA-UPF to create a virtual network-level session. In this way, after receiving the third request message, the first CA-UPF can execute the tunnel establishment process shown in step S205-a, and then send a third response message to the SMF again, indicating that the virtual network-level session creation is completed. It can be seen that after two session creation processes in this process, the virtual network-level session of the first CA-UPF is truly created.

[0187] By adopting the above technical solution, CMF can configure a group of CA-UPFs as members of CA-VN through SMF, determine the corresponding forwarding neighbor list and / or announcement neighbor list, as well as forwarding tunnel information for each CA-UPF, and establish the forwarding tunnel required to implement the uplink and downlink forwarding paths between the ingress CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF.

[0188] In the embodiment of the present application, after the CA-VN is created, the CMF can also update the CA-VN through the SMF. Among them, updating the CA-VN includes changing the members of the CA-VN, such as adding a new CA-UPF to the CA-VN or deleting the original CA-UPF in the CA-VN, or not changing the members of the CA-VN but updating the neighbor relationship between each member, etc. It can be understood that in the case of changing the members of the CA-VN, the neighbor relationship between each member in the CA-VN will also change accordingly.

[0189] Figure 3 The example shows the process of CMF updating the CA-VN through SMF, and specifically involves the situation of changing the members of the CA-VN.

[0190] like Figure 3 As shown, in step S301, the CMF receives a fifth request message, where the fifth request message is used to request updating of the CA-VN, and the fifth request message includes identification information of the CA-VN.

[0191] The fifth request message may also be called a CA-VN update request message or have other names, without limitation.

[0192] Optionally, the CMF may receive a fifth request message from the OAM or UDM or AF (through the NEF).

[0193] In a possible implementation, the fifth request message may include the identification information of the CA-VN, a list of added members and / or a list of deleted members. The list of added members includes the identification information of one or more CA-UPFs that need to be added to the CA-VN, and the list of deleted members includes the identification information of one or more CA-UPFs that need to be deleted from the CA-VN. In this way, the CMF can determine the M CA-UPFs included in the updated CA-VN based on the list of added members and / or the list of deleted members, where M is a positive integer.

[0194] It can be understood that in this embodiment, when it is necessary to add new members to the CA-VN, the fifth request message will include a list of added members; when it is necessary to delete existing members in the CA-VN, the fifth request message will include a list of deleted members. Alternatively, it is also possible that the fifth request message may always include a list of added members and a list of deleted members, but when it is not necessary to add new members to the CA-VN, the list of added members in the fifth request message may be empty, and when it is not necessary to delete existing members in the CA-VN, the list of deleted members in the fifth request message may be empty.

[0195] In another possible implementation, the fifth request message may include the identification information of the CA-VN and an updated member list, and the updated member list includes the identification information of the M CA-UPFs included in the updated CA-VN, where M is a positive integer. In this way, the CMF can directly determine the M CA-UPFs included in the updated CA-VN based on the updated member list.

[0196] It should be noted that, since new members can be added to the CA-VN or existing members can be deleted when the CA-VN is updated, the number of CA-UPFs included in the CA-VN before and after the update is not necessarily different. For example, if the number of new CA-UPFs added to the CA-VN is equal to the number of original CA-UPFs deleted from the CA-VN, the number of CA-UPFs included in the CA-VN before and after the update is the same. In other words, before and after the CA-VN is updated, the number of CA-UPFs included in the CA-VN may be the same or different, or in other words, the values ​​of N and M may be the same or different, and are not limited.

[0197] In step S302, the CMF determines the M CA-UPFs and the affected member list included in the updated CA-VN, where the affected member list includes identification information of one or more CA-UPFs whose forwarding neighbor list and / or announcement neighbor list need to be updated.

[0198] In step S303, the CMF updates the forwarding neighbor list and / or the advertisement neighbor list for each CA-UPF in the impact member list.

[0199] Among them, the one or more CA-UPs that need to update the forwarding neighbor list and / or the announcement neighbor list may include: the CA-UPF added to the CA-VN, the CA-UPF deleted from the CA-VN, and other CA-UPFs that have a neighbor relationship with the added CA-UPF or the deleted CA-UPF.

[0200] Specifically, updating the forwarding neighbor list and / or the announcement neighbor list for the CA-UPF in the affected member list includes:

[0201] If a new CA-UPF needs to be added to the CA-VN, the CMF may generate a forwarding neighbor list and / or an announcement neighbor list for each newly added CA-UPF. If an existing CA-UPF in the CA-VN needs to be deleted, the CMF may delete or clear the forwarding neighbor list and / or announcement neighbor list of each CA-UPF that needs to be deleted.

[0202] Since the members of the CA-VN have changed, in addition to the newly added CA-UPF, the neighbor relationship of other CA-UPFs included in the updated CA-VN (i.e., the original CA-UPFs in the CA-VN that have not been deleted) may also change accordingly. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the forwarding neighbor list and / or the announcement neighbor list of these other CA-UPFs. For example, the CMF may add the newly added CA-UPF to the forwarding neighbor list and / or the announcement neighbor list of other CA-UPFs with which it has a neighbor relationship, specifically including adding the newly added CA-UPF to the forwarding neighbor list of its corresponding inlet CA-UPF, and adding the newly added CA-UPF to the announcement neighbor list of its corresponding outlet CA-UPF. For another example, the CMF may delete the CA-UPF that needs to be deleted from the forwarding neighbor list and / or the announcement neighbor list of other CA-UPFs with which it has a neighbor relationship, specifically including deleting the CA-UPF that needs to be deleted from the forwarding neighbor list of its corresponding inlet CA-UPF, and deleting the CA-UPF that needs to be deleted from the announcement neighbor list of its corresponding outlet CA-UPF.

[0203] It can be understood that for a CA-UPF in the affected member list, the CMF needs to update the forwarding neighbor list for the CA-UPF when and only when the forwarding neighbor of the CA-UPF changes; the CMF needs to update the announcement neighbor list for the CA-UPF when and only when the announcement neighbor of the CA-UPF changes. For example, if a newly added CA-UPF to the CA-VN can serve as an ingress CA-UPF, the CMF can configure the forwarding neighbor relationship for the CA-UPF and generate a forwarding neighbor list accordingly; if the CA-UPF can serve as an egress CA-UPF, the CMF can configure the announcement neighbor relationship for the CA-UPF and generate an announcement neighbor list accordingly; if the CA-UPF can serve as an ingress CA-UPF and an egress CA-UPF, the CMF can configure the forwarding neighbor relationship and the announcement neighbor relationship for the CA-UPF, and generate a forwarding neighbor list and an announcement neighbor list accordingly.

[0204] Optionally, the CMF may also proactively adjust the neighbor relationships between other CA-UPFs that have not been deleted in the CA-VN, update the forwarding neighbor list and / or announcement neighbor list accordingly, and include these CA-UPFs in the affected member list.

[0205] In step S304, CMF sends a sixth request message to SMF, where the sixth request message is used to request updating of the forwarding path in the CA-VN. The sixth request message includes identification information of the CA-VN, a list of affected members, and an updated forwarding neighbor list and / or announcement neighbor list of each CA-UPF in the list of affected members.

[0206] Correspondingly, SMF receives the sixth request message from CMF.

[0207] It should be noted that if only the forwarding neighbor list of a CA-UPF in the affected member list is updated, the sixth request message may include only the updated forwarding neighbor list of the CA-UPF, but not the announcement neighbor list. Similarly, if only the announcement neighbor list of the CA-UPF is updated, the sixth request message may include only the updated announcement neighbor list of the CA-UPF, but not the forwarding neighbor list.

[0208] Alternatively, it is also possible that the sixth request message may always include the forwarding neighbor list and the announcement neighbor list updated by the CA-UPF, but if the forwarding neighbor list of the CA-UPF has not been updated, the forwarding neighbor list updated by the CA-UPF included in the sixth request message may be the original forwarding neighbor list of the CA-UPF. Optionally, the forwarding neighbor list may be marked as not updated. Similarly, if the announcement neighbor list of the CA-UPF has not been updated, the announcement neighbor list updated by the CA-UPF included in the sixth request message may be the original announcement neighbor list of the CA-UPF. Optionally, the announcement neighbor list may be marked as not updated.

[0209] For example, if a newly added CA-UPF in the CA-VN can only serve as an entry CA-UPF, the sixth request message may include the forwarding neighbor list of the CA-UPF but not the announcement neighbor list, or the announcement neighbor list of the CA-UPF is empty or marked as not updated.

[0210] The sixth request message may also be called a CA-VN session update request message or have other names, without limitation.

[0211] In step S305, the SMF sends a seventh request message to the third CA-UPF. The sixth request message is used to request an update of the virtual network level session of the third CA-UPF. The seventh request message includes the identification information of the CA-VN, and the updated forwarding neighbor list and / or announcement neighbor list of the third CA-UPF.

[0212] Correspondingly, the third CA-UPF may receive the seventh request message from the SMF.

[0213] In the embodiment of the present application, the third CA-UPF is one of the CA-UPFs in the list of affected members. If the third CA-UPF is the ingress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, and the forwarding neighbor list of the third CA-UPF is updated, the seventh request message may include the updated forwarding neighbor list of the third CA-UPF. Optionally, the SMF may update the forwarding tunnel information between the third CA-UPF and each corresponding egress CA-UPF according to the updated forwarding neighbor list of the third CA-UPF, and send it to the third CA-UPF through the seventh request message, so that the third CA-UPF updates the uplink forwarding tunnel between it and each corresponding egress CA-UPF.

[0214] If the third CA-UPF is the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, and the neighbor list announced by the third CA-UPF is updated, the seventh request message may include the updated neighbor list announced by the third CA-UPF. Optionally, the SMF may update the announcement forwarding relationship and forwarding tunnel information between the third CA-UPF and each corresponding ingress CA-UPF according to the updated neighbor list announced by the third CA-UPF, and send it to the third CA-UPF through the seventh request message, so that the third CA-UPF updates the downlink forwarding tunnel between it and each corresponding ingress CA-UPF.

[0215] Alternatively, it is also possible that if the third CA-UPF is the ingress CA-UPF and the egress CA-UPF in the CA-VN, the seventh request message may include the forwarding neighbor list and the announcement neighbor list of the third CA-UPF. However, if the forwarding neighbor list of the third CA-UPF has not been updated, the forwarding neighbor list included in the seventh request message may be the original forwarding neighbor list of the third CA-UPF, and at this time, the seventh request message does not include the updated forwarding tunnel information between the third CA-UPF and each egress CA-UPF. Similarly, if the announcement neighbor list of the third CA-UPF has not been updated, the announcement neighbor list included in the seventh request message may be the original announcement neighbor list of the third CA-UPF, and at this time, the seventh request message does not include the updated forwarding tunnel information between the third CA-UPF and each ingress CA-UPF.

[0216] The seventh request message may also be called a virtual network-level session update request message or have other names, which are not limited.

[0217] In step S306, the third CA-UPF updates the forwarding tunnels between the third CA-UPF and each corresponding egress CA-UPF according to the updated forwarding neighbor list, where the forwarding tunnels specifically refer to uplink forwarding tunnels.

[0218] In a possible implementation, the regional dynamic session unit in the third CA-UPF can determine the internal interface corresponding to the CA-VN in the third CA-UPF based on the identification information of the CA-VN, and then update the forwarding relationship between the internal interface corresponding to the CA-VN and each external interface of the third CA-UPF (for example, the N19 interface between the third CA-UPF and each corresponding egress CA-UPF and the N6 interface between the third CA-UPF and each associated edge computing node) based on the updated forwarding neighbor list of the third CA-UPF and the forwarding tunnel information between the third CA-UPF and each updated egress CA-UPF.

[0219] The third CA-UPF may also update the announcement forwarding relationship and forwarding tunnel between the third CA-UPF and each corresponding entry CA-UPF according to the updated announcement neighbor list, where the forwarding tunnel specifically refers to the downlink forwarding tunnel.

[0220] In step S307, the third CA-UPF sends a seventh response message to the SMF, where the seventh response message is used to indicate that the virtual network level session update of the third CA-UPF is completed.

[0221] Correspondingly, the SMF receives the seventh response message from the third CA-UPF.

[0222] The seventh response message may also be called a virtual network-level session update response message, or a virtual network-level session update completion message, or have other names, which are not limited.

[0223] In step S308, the SMF sends a sixth response message to the CMF, where the sixth response message is used to indicate that the forwarding path update in the CA-VN is completed.

[0224] Correspondingly, CMF can receive the sixth response message from SMF.

[0225] The sixth response message may also be called a CA-VN session update response message, or a CA-VN session update completion response message, or have other names, without limitation.

[0226] In step S309, the CMF may send a fifth response message, where the fifth response message is used to indicate that the CA-VN update is completed.

[0227] Optionally, the CMF may send a fifth response message to the OAM or AF through the NEF.

[0228] The fifth response message may also be called a CA-VN update response message, or a CA-VN update completion message, or have other names, without limitation.

[0229] It should be noted that the above steps S305 to S307 take the third CA-UPF as an example to illustrate how the virtual network level sessions of each CA-UPF in the updated CA-VN are updated during the process of updating the CA-VN. Therefore, it can be understood that during the CA-VN creation process, the SMF can send a virtual network level session update request message to the original CA-UPF in each CA-VN in the affected member list to request an update of the virtual network level session of the CA-UPF. The original CA-UPF in each CA-VN in the affected member list may also be updated as described in steps S305 to S307. If its forwarding neighbor list is updated, then the uplink forwarding tunnel between the corresponding egress CA-UPF is updated according to its updated forwarding neighbor list and the forwarding tunnel information between the updated egress CA-UPF; if its announcement neighbor list is updated, then the announcement forwarding relationship and the downlink forwarding tunnel between the corresponding ingress CA-UPF are updated according to its updated announcement neighbor list and the forwarding tunnel information between the updated ingress CA-UPF, thereby completing the virtual network level session update, and sending a virtual network level session update response message to the SMF to indicate that the virtual network level session update of the CA-UPF is completed.

[0230] SMF can also send a virtual network level session establishment request message to each newly added CA-UPF in the impact member list to request the establishment of a virtual network level session of the CA-UPF. Each newly added CA-UPF can also, as described in step S206 and step S207, if it can be used as an ingress CA-UPF, establish an uplink forwarding tunnel with the corresponding egress CA-UPF based on the forwarding neighbor list and the forwarding tunnel information between each egress CA-UPF; if it can be used as an egress CA-UPF, determine the announcement forwarding relationship and downlink forwarding tunnel with the corresponding ingress CA-UPF based on the announcement neighbor list and the forwarding tunnel information between each ingress CA-UPF, thereby completing the creation of the virtual network level session, and sending a virtual network level session establishment response message to SMF to indicate that the virtual network level session creation of the CA-UPF is completed.

[0231] SMF can also send a virtual network-level session deletion request message to each CA-UPF that needs to be deleted in the affected member list to request the deletion of the virtual network-level session of the CA-UPF. Each CA-UPF that needs to be deleted can delete the forwarding tunnel (including the uplink forwarding tunnel and the downlink forwarding tunnel) corresponding to the CA-VN and the announcement forwarding relationship, and send a virtual network-level session deletion response message to SMF to indicate that the virtual network-level session of the CA-UPF has been deleted.

[0232] Compared to Figure 3 In the case of changing the members of the CA-VN as shown in , without changing the members of the CA-VN and only modifying the neighbor relationship between the members in the CA-VN, the CMF can decide on its own to update the CA-VN without being triggered by the fifth request message received from OAM or UDM or AF (through NEF). In this way, after determining to update the CA-VN, the CMF can update the forwarding neighbor list and / or announcement neighbor list of each affected CA-UPF, and then send a CA-VN session update request message to the SMF. Please refer to the relevant descriptions in steps S302 to S308 for the subsequent specific process, which will not be repeated here.

[0233] The following takes the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF as examples to illustrate the process of generating computing power routing information and user plane message forwarding in the CA-VN after the CA-VN is created or updated.

[0234] Assume that the first CA-UPF is one of the CA-UPFs in the CA-VN, the first CA-UPF may be an inlet CA-UPF in the CA-VN, and the first CA-UPF may correspond to L outlet CA-UPFs, and the second CA-UPF may be one of the L outlet CA-UPFs corresponding to the first CA-UPF. It can be understood that from the perspective of the second CA-UPF, the second CA-UPF may correspond to K inlet CA-UPFs, the first CA-UPF may be one of the K inlet CA-UPFs corresponding to the second CA-UPF, and L and K are positive integers.

[0235] Please refer to Figure 4 , a session management method between edge computing nodes provided in an embodiment of the present application, the method comprising:

[0236] Step S401: The second CA-UPF sends computing service information to the first CA-UPF, where the computing service information indicates that the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF supports the first computing service.

[0237] Accordingly, the first CA-UPF may receive the computing service information from the first CA-UPF.

[0238] In an embodiment of the present application, the second CA-UPF may receive the computing service information from the associated edge computing node before sending the computing service information to the first CA-UPF.

[0239] The computing service information may include the service identifier, service attributes, running status and computing resource information of the first computing service. Among them, the service identifier refers to the identity identifier of a computing service, which corresponds one-to-one with the computing service name. The service attribute refers to whether a computing service is stateful or stateless. If a computing service is a stateless service, each request for the computing service can select a service instance in a different location. If it is a stateful service, since multiple requests are related, it is necessary to ensure that each request for the computing service accesses the service instance in the same location. The running status refers to the status indication of a service instance of a computing service (such as a microservice or function instance) currently in the server of the edge computing node, including loaded, unloaded, running, suspended, available, unavailable, and other states. Computing resource information refers to the types and properties of computing resources currently used by a service instance of a computing service in the server of the edge computing node that specifically runs the service instance, including processor categories such as the central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), neural network processing unit (NPU), and overall memory occupancy, the number of service sessions used, the number of requests per second, computing latency, and other specific indicator information, or comprehensive indicator information calculated based on these specific indicator information.

[0240] Optionally, the second CA-UPF may send load information of its associated edge computing node to the first CA-UPF, where the load information is used to characterize the overall load status of the edge computing node. Similarly, before the second CA-UPF sends the load information to the first CA-UPF, it may receive the load information of the edge computing node from the associated edge computing node.

[0241] It should be noted that the computing service information and load information can be sent in the same message or in different messages, and this application does not limit this. Since both the computing service information and the load information can be used to characterize the ability of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF to provide computing services to the outside, in the embodiment of this application, the computing service information and load information of the edge computing node can be collectively referred to as the service capability information of the edge computing node.

[0242] Optionally, the second CA-UPF may also receive the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address corresponding to the service identifier of the first computing service from the edge computing node associated with it, and record the mapping relationship between the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address, so as to be used for the subsequent mutual replacement between the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address. The first server IP address is the IP address of the server running the first computing service in the edge computing node.

[0243] Step S402: The first CA-UPF sends a service request message to the second CA-UPF according to the computing service information received from the second CA-UPF.

[0244] Correspondingly, the second CA-UPF receives the service request message from the first CA-UPF.

[0245] Optionally, before sending the service request message to the second CA-UPF, the first CA-UPF may receive a service request message from the terminal device, where the service request message is used to request the first computing service. The service request message carries a service identifier of the first computing service, and optionally, the source IP address of the service request message is the IP address of the terminal device, and the destination IP address is the service identifier of the first computing service.

[0246] In an embodiment of the present application, the first CA-UPF can learn, based on the computing service information received from the second CA-UPF, that the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF can support the first computing service, and then decide to request the first computing service from the second CA-UPF, and determine to send the service request message to the second CA-UPF.

[0247] Alternatively, the first CA-UPF may also learn, based on the computing service information and load information received from the second CA-UPF, that the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF can support the first computing service and that the load status of the edge computing node can support the new computing service request, and then decide to request the first computing service from the second CA-UPF and determine to send the service request message to the second CA-UPF.

[0248] In a possible implementation, the first CA-UPF may generate or update the computing power routing information of the first computing service according to one or more of the computing service information, load information, and network cost information between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF received from the second CA-UPF. The computing power routing information of the first computing service may include the service identifier of the first computing service, the identifier information of the second CA-UPF, the computing service information corresponding to the second CA-UPF (specifically, the computing service information of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF), the load information corresponding to the second CA-UPF (specifically, the load information of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF), and the network cost information between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF. The network cost information between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF may be determined by the first CA-UPF according to one or more of the delay, bandwidth, or jitter between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF, and may include one or more specific indicators such as delay, bandwidth, and jitter, or may include a comprehensive indicator determined according to specific indicators such as delay, bandwidth, and jitter, without limitation.

[0249] It should be noted that if there are other CA-UPFs (such as the fourth CA-UPF) in addition to the second CA-UPF in each egress CA-UPF corresponding to the first CA-UPF that can also provide the first computing service, the first CA-UPF can also receive the computing service information and load information of the edge computing node associated with it from the fourth CA-UPF, and generate or update the computing power routing information of the first computing service according to one or more of the computing service information, load information and network cost information corresponding to the fourth CA-UPF. Correspondingly, the computing power routing information of the first computing service may also include the identification information of the fourth CA-UPF that can provide the first computing service, the computing service information corresponding to the fourth CA-UPF, the load information corresponding to the fourth CA-UPF, and the network cost information between the first CA-UPF and the fourth CA-UPF.

[0250] In other words, the computing power routing information of the first computing service may include the service identifier of the first computing service, the identification information of one or more egress CA-UPFs in each egress CA-UPF of the first CA-UPF that can provide the first computing service, and the computing service information, load information and network cost information corresponding to each egress CA-UPF. Moreover, the first CA-UPF may dynamically update the computing power routing information of the first computing service in real time according to the support of the edge computing nodes associated with each corresponding egress CA-UPF for the first computing service, the load status of the edge computing nodes, and the dynamic changes of the network connection status between the first CA-UPF and each corresponding egress CA-UPF.

[0251] Furthermore, when the first CA-UPF receives a service request message from a terminal device, it may select a second CA-UPF from one or more corresponding egress CA-UPFs that can provide the first computing service according to the computing power routing information of the first computing service to request the first computing service, and forward the service request message to the second CA-UPF. For example, when the load of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF is low, the computing resources are sufficient, or the network connection status is good, the first CA-UPF may choose to forward the service request message to the second CA-UPF to request the first computing service deployed on the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF.

[0252] Optionally, the first CA-UPF may send the service request message to the second CA-UPF according to the message matching forwarding rule corresponding to the second CA-UPF. The message matching forwarding rule corresponding to the second CA-UPF may be determined according to one or more of the computing service information, load information, network cost information, and forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the second CA-UPF.

[0253] Step S403: The second CA-UPF sends a service request message to the edge computing node.

[0254] Correspondingly, the edge computing node can receive the service request message from the second CA-UPF.

[0255] In the embodiment of the present application, the second CA-UPF may replace the service identifier of the first computing service carried in the service request message with the first server IP address according to the recorded mapping relationship between the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address, and then forward the service request message to the edge computing node. Optionally, the second CA-UPF may replace the destination IP address of the service request message from the original service identifier of the first computing service to the first server IP address according to the recorded mapping relationship between the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address, and then send the service request message after the destination IP address conversion to the edge computing node.

[0256] When the edge computing node completes the first computing service, the edge computing node may send a service response message to the second CA-UPF, wherein the source IP address of the service response message is the first server IP address, and the destination IP address is the IP address of the terminal device. After receiving the service response message from the edge computing node, the second CA-UPF may replace the first server IP address carried in the service response message with the service identifier of the first computing service according to the recorded mapping relationship between the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address, and then forward the service response message to the first CA-UPF. Optionally, the second CA-UPF may replace the source IP address of the service response message from the original first server IP address to the service identifier of the first computing service according to the recorded mapping relationship between the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address, and then send the service request message after the source IP address conversion to the first CA-UPF. Finally, after receiving the service response message from the second CA-UPF, the first CA-UPF may forward the service response message to the terminal device.

[0257] It can be seen from this that in the embodiments of the present application, by constructing a computing-aware virtual network, multiple edge computing nodes can form a regional computing power group, and the computing service information and load information of the edge computing nodes can be quickly announced between the computing-aware user plane functions in the computing-aware virtual network. The computing-aware user plane function can forward the service request message of the terminal device to the appropriate edge computing node based on the dynamically changing computing service information, thereby realizing the interconnection and collaboration between the edge computing nodes and improving the resource utilization of the system.

[0258] The following describes in detail the process of establishing a computing power routing information base by the entry CA-UPF in the CA-VN through a specific example.

[0259] Figure 5 The example shows the process of the first CA-UPF establishing a computing power routing information base through information interaction with the second CA-UPF. Figure 5 As shown, the process includes:

[0260] Step S501: The second CA-UPF sends an announcement message to the first CA-UPF according to the announcement neighbor list. The announcement message includes service capability information of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF. The service capability information may include computing service information and / or load information of the edge computing node.

[0261] Accordingly, the first CA-UPF may receive an announcement message from the second CA-UPF.

[0262] In an embodiment of the present application, the second CA-UPF can send the announcement message to each corresponding entry CA-UPF according to the announcement neighbor list. Other entry CA-UPFs corresponding to the second CA-UPF can refer to the relevant description of the first CA-UPF in the embodiment of the present application below to establish their own computing power routing information base, which will not be repeated in this application.

[0263] Specifically, the computing service information includes the service identification, service attributes, running status and computing resource information of one or more computing services deployed on the edge computing node, which is used to characterize which computing services the edge computing node supports. The load information of the edge computing node refers to the overall load information of the edge computing node, which is used to characterize the load status of the edge computing node.

[0264] It should be noted that in an embodiment of the present application, one or more computing services may be deployed in the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF. The computing service information of different computing services may be announced together (for example, the computing service information of multiple computing services may be announced through the same announcement message), or may be announced separately (for example, the computing service information of multiple computing services may be announced through a separate announcement message), which is not limited in the present application.

[0265] The computing service information and load information of the edge computing node can also be announced together or separately, and this application does not limit it. That is, an announcement message can include only the computing service information of the edge computing node, or only the load information of the edge computing node, or both the computing service information and the load information of the edge computing node.

[0266] In addition, the service capability information can be set to be announced periodically, or announced immediately after the second CA-UPF receives the service capability information from the associated edge computing node, or announced after determining that the service capability information received from the associated edge computing node meets the set conditions, such as the service status of certain computing services has changed, certain indicators in the computing service information have reached a set threshold, or the load status of the edge computing node has changed, etc.

[0267] It can be seen that by announcing the service capability information of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF to the first CA-UPF, the first CA-UPF can be informed of what computing services the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF can provide, what the computing service information of these computing services is, and what the load status of the edge computing node is.

[0268] Optionally, the announcement message may be implemented by extending the echo message defined in 3GPP. In a possible implementation, the second CA-UPF may actively send the announcement message to the first CA-UPF. For example, Figure 6 As shown, in step S601, the second CA-UPF may send an Echo request message to the first CA-UPF, and the Echo request message includes an information announcement indication and an information container. The information announcement indication is used to indicate that the message is an announcement message, and to inform the first CA-UPF to receive the content in the information container; the information container includes the service capability information of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF, such as computing service information of one or more computing services, load information of the edge computing node, etc. In step S602, after receiving the Echo request message, the first CA-UPF may send an Echo response message to the second CA-UPF.

[0269] In another possible implementation, the first CA-UPF may proactively request the service capability information from the second CA-UPF based on its forwarding neighbor list, and then the second CA-UPF sends the announcement message to the first CA-UPF in response to the request of the first CA-UPF. Figure 7 As shown, in step S701, the first CA-UPF may send an Echo request message to the second CA-UPF, and the Echo request message includes an information request indication. The information request indication is used to indicate that the message is a request message, specifically for requesting the service capability information of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF. Optionally, the Echo request message also includes an information container, and the information request indication is also used to inform the second CA-UPF to return the service capability information of the edge computing node through the information container. In step S702, after receiving the Echo request message, the second CA-UPF may send an Echo response message to the first CA-UPF, and the Echo response message includes an information container, and the information container includes the service capability information of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF, such as computing service information related to one or more computing services, load information of the edge computing node, etc.

[0270] Optionally, assuming that the first computing service is deployed in the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF, before the second CA-UPF announces computing service information related to the first computing service to the first CA-UPF through step S501, the second CA-UPF may Figure 8 The process shown establishes an association with the first computing service and records a mapping relationship between the service identifier of the first computing service and the IP address of the server where the service instance of the first computing service is located.

[0271] Specifically, Figure 8 As shown, in step S801, the edge computing node may load the first computing service. In step S802, the edge computing node may send an association request message to the second CA-UPF, the association request message is used to request to create or update the association between the second CA-UPF and the first computing service, the association request message includes the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address, the first server IP address refers to the IP address of the server running the service instance of the first computing service in the edge computing node. The association request message may also be called a service binding request message or have other names, which are not limited in this application. Correspondingly, the second CA-UPF may receive an association request message from the edge computing node. In step S803, the second CA-UPF may record the service identifier of the first computing service and the corresponding first server IP address, and establish a mapping relationship between the two, so as to be used for the subsequent mutual replacement between the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address. In step S804, the edge computing node may send a report message to the second CA-UPF, and the report message includes the service capability information of the edge computing node. The service capability information includes computing service information related to the first computing service, such as a service identifier, service attributes, operating status, computing resource information, etc. of the first computing service. Optionally, the service capability information may also include current load information of the edge computing node.

[0272] and Figure 8 Similar to the process shown in the figure, if the edge computing node uninstalls the first computing service later, the second CA-UPF can also Fig. 9 The process shown in FIG. 10 removes the association relationship with the first computing service. Specifically, Fig. 9 As shown, in step S901, the edge computing node may uninstall the first computing service. In step S902, the edge computing node may send an association release request message to the second CA-UPF, and the association release request message is used to request to release the association between the second CA-UPF and the first computing service, and the association release request message includes the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address. Accordingly, the second CA-UPF may receive an association release request message from the edge computing node. The association release request message may also be referred to as a service unbinding request message or have other names, which are not limited in this application. In step S903, the second CA-UPF may delete the recorded service identifier of the first computing service and the corresponding first server IP address, as well as the mapping relationship between the two.

[0273] It should be noted that in the specific implementation of the above process, the actions performed by the edge computing node in steps S801, S802, S901, and S902 can be specifically performed by the MEC platform in the edge computing node, and the actions performed by the second CA-UPF in steps S803, S804, and S903 can be specifically performed by the computing power perception processing unit in the second CA-UPF.

[0274] Step S502: The first CA-UPF generates or updates a computing power routing information base according to the service capability information received from the second CA-UPF, where the computing power routing information base includes computing power routing information of one or more computing services.

[0275] Optionally, the first CA-UPF may generate or update the computational routing information base according to the service capability information received from the second CA-UPF and the network cost information between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF. It should be noted that the present application does not specifically limit the method for obtaining the network cost information between the first CA-UPF and the second CA-UPF. In addition, in a specific implementation, step S502 may be performed by the computing power perception processing unit in the first CA-UPF.

[0276] The computing power routing information of a computing service may include the service identification of the computing service, the identification information of one or more egress CA-UPFs that can provide the computing service, the computing service information such as the service attributes, operation status, computing resource information of the computing service corresponding to each egress CA-UPF, the load information of the edge computing node, and the network cost information, etc. Among them, the network cost information is determined based on factors such as the delay, bandwidth, and jitter between the first CA-UPF and the corresponding egress CA-UPF, and may include one or more specific indicators such as delay, bandwidth, and jitter, and may also include a comprehensive indicator determined based on specific indicators such as delay, bandwidth, and jitter.

[0277] Exemplarily, taking the first computing service deployed in the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF as an example, when the first CA-UPF receives the computing service information of the first computing service and the load information of the edge computing node from the second CA-UPF, the first CA-UPF may generate or update the computing power routing information of the first computing service in the computing power routing information library. Among them, the computing power routing information of the first computing service may include the service identification of the first computing service, the identification information of the second CA-UPF, the computing service information such as the service attributes, running status, and computing resource information of the first computing service corresponding to the second CA-UPF, the load information of the edge computing node associated with the second CA-UPF, and the network cost information corresponding to the second CA-UPF.

[0278] If other egress CA-UPFs corresponding to the first CA-UPF can also provide the first computing service, the computing power routing information of the first computing service can also include a set of information corresponding to each other egress CA-UPF that can provide the first computing service, including computing service information of the first computing service corresponding to the other CA-UPF, load information of edge computing nodes associated with the other CA-UPF, and network cost information between the first CA-UPF and the other egress CA-UPF, etc. Of course, if the first CA-UPF can also serve as an egress CA-UPF, and the edge computing nodes associated with the first CA-UPF can also provide the first computing service, the computing power routing information of the first computing service can also include a set of information corresponding to the first CA-UPF itself, including computing service information of the first computing service, load information of edge computing nodes associated with the first CA-UPF, etc.

[0279] In this way, when the first CA-UPF receives a service request sent by the terminal device to request the first computing service, the first CA-UPF can decide to forward the service request to the corresponding exit CA-UPF based on the computing power routing information of the first computing service, or decide to handle the service request itself.

[0280] It can be understood that the computing power routing information of the first computing service can be one or more table items in the computing power routing information library indexed by the service identifier of the first computing service. Assuming that the second CA-UPF, the third CA-UPF and the fourth CA-UPF in the egress CA-UPF corresponding to the first CA-UPF can provide the first computing service, the computing power routing information of the first computing service in the computing power routing information library can be expressed in the form shown in Table 1 below.

[0281] Table 1

[0282]

[0283] Optionally, the first CA-UPF may also generate, modify or delete message forwarding rules for certain service flows according to the computing power routing information base. In a specific implementation, this step may be performed by the computing power perception processing unit in the first CA-UPF actively requesting the regional dynamic session processing unit, or may be triggered by the regional dynamic session processing unit after receiving a message in the service data flow from the terminal device, without limitation.

[0284] Step S503: The first CA-UPF may determine the service status of one or more computing services according to the computing power routing information base, and send the identification information of the first CA-UPF and the service identification and service status of the one or more computing services to the SMF.

[0285] Among them, the service status is used to indicate whether a computing service is available or unavailable in the regional computing power group. The service status is different from the running status in the computing service information. The running status refers to the status of the service instance of the computing service in the server of a specific edge computing node, while the service status refers to the status in the regional computing power group composed of multiple edge computing nodes.

[0286] Optionally, the SMF may send the identification information of the first CA-UPF and the service identification and service status of each computing service to the CMF, so that the CMF records the service status of each computing service in the regional computing power group with the first CA-UPF as the access anchor point. After the CMF records the service status of each computing service, it can be used by the terminal device to discover available computing services. That is, before initiating a service request, the terminal device can obtain the service status corresponding to the requested computing service from the CMF in order to determine whether the computing service is available in the regional computing power group with the first CA-UPF as the access anchor point.

[0287] Fig.10 The example shows the forwarding process of the user plane message in the embodiment of the present application. Fig.10 As shown, the process includes:

[0288] Step S1001: A terminal device sends a service request message to a first CA-UPF. The service request message carries a service request of the terminal device. The service request is used to request a first computing service. The service request includes a service identifier of the first computing service.

[0289] Correspondingly, the first CA-UPF receives a service request message from the terminal device.

[0290] The source IP address of the service request message is the IP address of the terminal device, and the destination IP address is the service identifier of the first computing service. The service identifier is an IP anycast address of a special address segment and has a one-to-one correspondence with the computing service name.

[0291] In a specific implementation, the terminal device may select the nearest entry CA-UPF (e.g., the first CA-UPF) and establish a PDU session connected to the DNN in accordance with the 3GPP standard process to access the CA-VN. The application layer of the terminal device may send the service request message to the first CA-UPF through the above-mentioned PDU session. Therefore, the service request message may also be referred to as an application layer service request message.

[0292] Step S1002: The first CA-UPF determines to request the first computing service from the second CA-UPF based on the computing power routing information of the first computing service, and sends the service request message to the second CA-UPF.

[0293] Correspondingly, the second CA-UPF can receive the service request message from the first CA-UPF.

[0294] In a specific implementation, the PDU session processing unit in the first CA-UPF can forward the service request message to the internal interface corresponding to the CA-VN, and hand it over to the regional dynamic session processing unit for processing. After receiving the service request message, the regional dynamic session processing unit first queries whether there is a corresponding rule matching the service request message from the existing message matching forwarding rules. If so, the service request message is directly tunnel-encapsulated according to the matching rule and forwarded to the corresponding external interface (such as the N19 interface), and finally sent to the second CA-UPF.

[0295] If not, the regional dynamic session processing unit may send a message forwarding rule request to the computing power awareness processing unit, and the message forwarding rule request includes the service identifier of the first computing service, the data flow information of the service request message (such as IP five-tuple), the source interface and other information. Furthermore, the computing power awareness processing unit may determine the computing power routing information of the first computing service from the computing power routing information library based on the service identifier and source interface of the first computing service in the message forwarding rule request, and select an egress CA-UPF for the first computing service based on the computing power routing information of the first computing service using a built-in algorithm or strategy, indicating that the first computing service is requested from the egress CA-UPF. Taking the selected egress CA-UPF as the second CA-UPF as an example, the computing power perception processing unit can generate a message matching forwarding rule according to the selected second CA-UPF and the data flow information of the service request message, and determine the timer duration corresponding to the message matching forwarding rule, and then send a message forwarding rule response to the regional dynamic session processing unit, the message forwarding rule response includes the service identifier of the first computing service, the identification information of the selected egress CA-UPF (i.e., the identification information of the second CA-UPF), the message matching forwarding rule, and the timer duration of the message matching forwarding rule. It should be noted that if the first CA-UPF can also serve as the egress CA-UPF, and the edge computing node associated with the first CA-UPF can also provide the first computing service, the egress CA-UPF determined by the computing power perception processing unit in the first CA-UPF can also be the first CA-UPF itself, indicating that the first computing service is requested from the edge computing node associated with itself. In this case, the computing power-aware processing unit in the first CA-UPF can forward the service request message to the local address translation unit for processing. For the specific process, please refer to the relevant description of the action performed by the address translation unit in the second CA-UPF below, which will not be repeated here.

[0296] Further, after receiving the message forwarding rule response, the regional dynamic session processing unit can add or update the message matching forwarding rule therein as the message matching forwarding rule corresponding to the second CA-UPF, and start the corresponding timer, which is used for the regional dynamic session processing unit to delete the rule from the message matching forwarding rule when no matching uplink data flow is detected within a specified time. Furthermore, the regional dynamic session processing unit can tunnel encapsulate the service request message according to the corresponding message matching forwarding rule, forward it to the external interface (such as the N19 interface), and finally send it to the second CA-UPF.

[0297] Step S1003: The second CA-UPF replaces the destination IP address of the service request message with the first server IP address.

[0298] Step S1004: The second CA-UPF sends the service request message after the destination IP address conversion to the associated edge computing node.

[0299] In a specific implementation, the regional dynamic session processing unit in the second CA-UPF can receive a service request message from the first CA-UPF, and then generate a message matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the downlink data flow based on the uplink data flow information, and add or update it to the message matching and forwarding rule corresponding to the first CA-UPF, and start a timer at the same time. The timer is used to delete the rule from the message forwarding rule when the regional dynamic session processing unit does not detect a matching downlink data flow within a specified time period.

[0300] Furthermore, the regional dynamic session processing unit may send the service request message to the address translation unit, which translates the destination IP address of the service request message. The address translation unit may query the computing power perception processing unit for the server IP address corresponding to the service identifier of the first computing service based on the service identifier of the first computing service in the service request message, or in other words, the address translation unit may obtain the mapping relationship between the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address from the computing power perception processing unit. In this way, the address translation unit may replace the destination IP address of the service request message from the original identifier of the first computing service to the first server IP address, and then send the service request message to the associated edge computing node.

[0301] Step S1005: After completing the first computing service, the edge computing node sends a service response message to the second CA-UPF. The source IP address of the service response message is the IP address of the first server, and the destination IP address is the IP address of the terminal device.

[0302] Correspondingly, the second CA-UPF can receive a service response message from the edge computing node.

[0303] Step S1006: The second CA-UPF replaces the source IP address of the service response message with the service identifier of the first computing service.

[0304] Step S1007: The second CA-UPF sends the service response message after the source IP address conversion to the first CA-UPF.

[0305] Correspondingly, the first CA-UPF can receive a service response message from the second CA-UPF.

[0306] In a specific implementation, the address translation unit in the second CA-UPF can receive a business response message from an associated edge computing node, and according to the mapping relationship between the service identifier of the first computing service and the IP address of the first server, replace the source IP address of the business response message from the original first server IP address to the service identifier of the first computing service, and then send the business response message after the source IP address conversion to the regional dynamic session processing unit, which sends the business response message to the first CA-UPF according to the corresponding message forwarding rules.

[0307] Step S1008: The first CA-UPF sends a service response message to the terminal device.

[0308] Optionally, the computing power-aware processing unit in the first CA-UPF may initiate a message forwarding rule update request to the local regional dynamic session processing unit according to changes in the operating status of the service instance of the first computing service, computing resource information, etc. The request may include the service identifier of the first computing service, the identification information of the egress CA-UPF, the data flow forwarding rules, and the corresponding timer to adjust the egress CA-UPF corresponding to the data flow forwarding rules, so as to better ensure service experience and load balancing.

[0309] In an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device may switch the entry CA-UPF due to mobility. Since the computing service in this application can be a stateless short-life microservice or edge application built by a function instance, and does not involve the migration of edge service instances and their state parameters, the switching process of the entry CA-UPF can be implemented using a session management process based on session and service continuity (SSC) mode 3.

[0310] The SSC mode 3 refers to the third mode of session and service continuity. The ingress CA-UPF switching based on the SSC mode 3 specifically means that the terminal device first establishes a new session connection to the ingress CA-UPF2 and obtains a new terminal device IP address, and then releases the old session with the ingress CA-UPF1 and the old terminal device IP address. In the edge service deployment scenario for stateless short-lifetime, the above-mentioned ingress CA-UPF switching process based on SSC mode 3 is adopted. As long as the response data flow of the service request associated with the terminal device and the old ingress CA-UPF1 is ensured to end, and then the PDU session between the terminal device and the ingress CA-UPF1 is released, the switching of the ingress CA-UPF will not affect the routing and service experience of the ingress CA-UPF1 and the ingress CA-UPF2 with their respective neighboring egress CA-UPFs.

[0311] like Fig.11 As shown, the ingress CA-UPF switching process based on SSC mode 3 may include: before triggering the UE to perform ingress CA-UPF switching, the UE exchanges uplink data / downlink data with the ingress CA-UPF1. In step S1101, SMF1 determines that ingress CA-UPF reselection is required. In step S1102, AMF and SMF1 perform N1N2 message transmission. In step S1103a, AMF sends a PDU session modification command to the UE. In step S1103b, the UE sends a PDU session modification command response to the AMF. In step S1103c, AMF sends a PDU session update session management (session management, SM) context request to SMF. In step S1103d, SMF1 sends a PDU session update SM context response to AMF. In step S1104, the PDU session establishment process for the ingress CA-UPF2 is executed. In step S1105, the UE exchanges uplink data / downlink data with the ingress CA-UPF2. In step S1106, the PDU session release process for the ingress CA-UPF1 is executed.

[0312] The present application also provides a communication device, please refer to Fig.12 , is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application, the communication device 1200 includes: a transceiver module 1210 and a processing module 1220. The communication device can be used to implement the functions related to the computing management function or the session management function or the computing-aware user plane function in any of the above method embodiments. For example, the communication device can be a network device or a chip included in the network device.

[0313] Exemplarily, when the communication device executes Figure 2When the operation or step of the corresponding computing management function in the method embodiment shown in the figure is performed, the transceiver module 1210 is used to receive a first request message, the first request message is used to create a computing-aware virtual network, the computing-aware virtual network includes N computing-aware user plane functions, the first request message includes a member list of the computing-aware virtual network, and the member list includes identification information of the N computing-aware user plane functions; the processing module 1220 is used to generate a forwarding neighbor list for the first computing-aware user plane function, the first computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, the forwarding neighbor list includes identification information of L exit computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function, and N and L are positive integers; the transceiver module 1210 is also used to send a second request message to the session management function, the second request message is used to request the creation of a forwarding path in the computing-aware virtual network, and the second request message includes a member list of the computing-aware virtual network and a forwarding neighbor list of the first computing-aware user plane function.

[0314] In one possible design, the first request message includes identification information of the computing-aware virtual network, and the identification information includes one or more of an identity identifier of the computing-aware virtual network, a data network name, network slice information, or an application descriptor.

[0315] In one possible design, the processing module 1220 is also used to generate an announcement neighbor list for a second computing-aware user plane function, where the second computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, and the announcement neighbor list includes the identifiers of K entry computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function, where K is a positive integer; the second request message also includes the announcement neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function.

[0316] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive a fifth request message, which is used to request an update of the computing-aware virtual network, and the fifth request message includes a list of added members of the computing-aware virtual network, and the list of added members includes identification information of one or more computing-aware user-plane functions that need to be added in the computing-aware virtual network; the processing module 1220 is also used to determine, based on the newly added member list, the M computing-aware user-plane functions and the affected member list included in the updated computing-aware virtual network, and the affected member list includes identification information of one or more computing-aware user-plane functions whose forwarding neighbor list or announcement neighbor list needs to be updated, where M is a positive integer; the processing module 1220 is also used to update the forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list for the third computing-aware user-plane function in the affected member list; the transceiver module 1210 is also used to send a sixth request message to the session management function, and the sixth request message is used to request an update of the forwarding path in the computing-aware virtual network, and the sixth request message includes the affected member list and the updated forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list of the third computing-aware user-plane function.

[0317] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive a fifth request message, which is used to request an update of the computing-aware virtual network, and the fifth request message includes a deleted member list of the computing-aware virtual network, and the deleted member list includes identification information of one or more computing-aware user plane functions that need to be deleted from the computing-aware virtual network; the processing module 1220 is also used to determine, based on the deleted member list, the M computing-aware user plane functions and the affected member list included in the updated computing-aware virtual network, and the affected member list includes identification information of one or more computing-aware user plane functions that need to update the forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list, where M is a positive integer; the processing module 1220 is also used to update the forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list for the third computing-aware user plane function in the affected member list; the transceiver module 1210 is also used to send a sixth request message to the session management function, and the sixth request message is used to request an update of the forwarding path in the computing-aware virtual network, and the sixth request message includes the affected member list and the updated forwarding neighbor list or the announcement neighbor list of the third computing-aware user plane function.

[0318] When the communication device executes Figure 2In the method embodiment shown in , when the operation or step of the session management function corresponds to the operation or step of the session management function, the transceiver module 1210 is used to receive a second request message from the computing management function, the second request message is used to request the creation of a forwarding path in the computing-aware virtual network, the computing-aware virtual network includes N computing-aware user plane functions, the second request message includes a member list of the computing-aware virtual network and a forwarding neighbor list of the first computing-aware user plane function, the member list includes identification information of the N computing-aware user plane functions, the first computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, the forwarding neighbor list includes identification information of L egress computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function, N and L are positive integers; the processing module 1220 is used to send a third request message to the first computing-aware user plane function through the transceiver module 1210 according to the member list, the third request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network-level session of the first computing-aware user plane function, the third request message includes the identification information of the computing-aware virtual network and the forwarding neighbor list of the first computing-aware user plane function.

[0319] In one possible design, the processing module 1220 is also used to generate forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function based on the forwarding neighbor list of the first computing-aware user plane function, and the forwarding tunnel information is used to establish a forwarding tunnel between the first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function, and the L exit computing-aware user plane functions include the second computing-aware user plane function; the third request message also includes the forwarding tunnel information.

[0320] In one possible design, the second request message also includes an announcement neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function, the second computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, and the announcement neighbor list includes identification information of K entry computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function, where K is a positive integer; the transceiver module 1210 is also used to send a fourth request message to the second computing-aware user plane function, and the fourth request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network-level session for the second computing-aware user plane function, and the fourth request message includes the announcement neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function.

[0321] In one possible design, the processing module 1220 is also used to generate forwarding tunnel information based on the announced neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function, and the forwarding tunnel information is used to establish a forwarding tunnel between the second computing-aware user plane function and the first computing-aware user plane function, and the K entry computing-aware user plane functions include the first computing-aware user plane function; the fourth request message also includes the forwarding tunnel information.

[0322] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive a sixth request message from the computing management function, where the sixth request message is used to request an update of a forwarding path in the computing-aware virtual network, where the sixth request message includes a list of affected members of the computing-aware virtual network, and an updated forwarding neighbor list or an announcement neighbor list of the third computing-aware user plane function in the list of affected members; the transceiver module 1210 is also used to send a seventh request message to the third computing-aware user plane function, where the seventh request message is used to request an update of a virtual network-level session of the third computing-aware user plane function, where the seventh request message includes an updated forwarding neighbor list or an announcement neighbor list of the third computing-aware user plane function.

[0323] When the communication device executes Figure 2 In the method embodiment shown in , when the operation or step corresponds to the first computing-aware user plane function, the transceiver module 1210 is used to receive a third request message from the session management function, the third request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network-level session of the first computing-aware user plane function, the third request message includes the identification information of the computing-aware virtual network and the forwarding neighbor list of the first computing-aware user plane function, the computing-aware virtual network includes N computing-aware user plane functions, the first computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, the forwarding neighbor list includes the identification information of L exit computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function, and N and L are positive integers; the processing module 1220 is used to establish a forwarding tunnel between the first computing-aware user plane function and the corresponding L exit computing-aware user plane functions according to the forwarding neighbor list.

[0324] In one possible design, the third request message also includes forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function, and the L exit computing-aware user plane functions include the second computing-aware user plane function; the processing module 1220 is specifically used to establish a forwarding tunnel between the first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function according to the forwarding tunnel information.

[0325] When the communication device executes Figure 2In the method embodiment shown in , when the operation or step corresponds to the second computing-aware user plane function, the transceiver module 1210 is used to receive a fourth request message from the session management function, the fourth request message is used to request the creation of a virtual network-level session of the second computing-aware user plane function, the fourth request message includes the identification information of the computing-aware virtual network and the announcement neighbor list of the second computing-aware user plane function, the computing-aware virtual network includes N computing-aware user plane functions, the second computing-aware user plane function is one of the N computing-aware user plane functions, the announcement neighbor list includes the identification information of K entry computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function, and N and K are positive integers; the processing module 1220 is used to establish an announcement forwarding relationship between the second computing-aware user plane function and the corresponding K entry computing-aware user plane functions according to the announcement neighbor list.

[0326] In one possible design, the fourth request message also includes forwarding tunnel information corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function and the first computing-aware user plane function, and the K entry computing-aware user plane functions include the first computing-aware user plane function; the processing module 1220 is also used to establish a forwarding tunnel between the second computing-aware user plane function and the first computing-aware user plane function based on the forwarding tunnel information.

[0327] When the communication device executes Figure 4 In the method embodiment shown in , when the operation or step corresponds to the second computing-aware user plane function, the transceiver module 1210 is used to send computing service information to the first computing-aware user plane function, and the computing service information indicates that the edge computing node associated with the second computing-aware user plane function supports the first computing service; the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive a service request message from the first computing-aware user plane function, and the service request message is used to request the first computing service; the processing module 1220 is used to send a service request message to the edge computing node through the transceiver module 1210.

[0328] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive an announcement neighbor list from a session management function, wherein the announcement neighbor list includes K entry computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function, where K is a positive integer, and the K entry computing-aware user plane functions include the first computing-aware user plane function.

[0329] In one possible design, the processing module 1220 is specifically used to send computing service information to the first entry computing-aware user plane function through the transceiver module 1210 according to the announced neighbor list.

[0330] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive a service identifier of a first computing service from the edge computing node and a first server IP address corresponding to the service identifier of the first computing service, where the first server IP address is the IP address of a server running the first computing service in the edge computing node; the processing module 1220 is specifically used to replace the service identifier of the first computing service carried in the service request message with the first server IP address, and then send the service request message carrying the first server IP address to the edge computing node through the transceiver module 1210.

[0331] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive a service response message carrying the first server IP address from the edge computing node; the processing module 1220 is also used to replace the first server IP address in the service response message with the service identifier of the first computing service, and then send the service response message carrying the service identifier of the first computing service to the first computing-aware user surface function through the transceiver module 1210.

[0332] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive computing service information from the edge computing node.

[0333] In one possible design, the computing service information includes a service identifier of the first computing service, service attributes of the first computing service, an operating state of the first computing service, and computing resource information.

[0334] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive load information from the edge computing node and send the load information to the first computing-aware user plane function.

[0335] When the communication device executes Figure 4 In the method embodiment shown in , when the operation or step corresponds to the first computing-aware user plane function, the transceiver module 1210 is used to receive computing service information from the second computing-aware user plane, and the computing service information indicates that the edge computing node associated with the second computing-aware user plane function supports the first computing service; the processing module 1220 is used to send a service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function through the transceiver module 1210 according to the computing service information, and the service request message is used to request the first computing service.

[0336] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive a forwarding neighbor list from a session management function, wherein the forwarding neighbor list includes L export computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function, where L is a positive integer, and the L export computing-aware user plane functions include a second computing-aware user plane function.

[0337] In one possible design, the method also includes: a first computing-aware user plane function receives the service request message from the terminal device.

[0338] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to receive load information from a second computing-aware user plane function.

[0339] In one possible design, the processing module 1220 is also used to determine, based on the computing service information and the load information, whether to send the service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function.

[0340] In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is also used to send the service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function according to a message matching forwarding rule corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function.

[0341] In one possible design, the computing service information includes a service identifier of the first computing service, service attributes of the first computing service, an operating state of the first computing service, and computing resource information.

[0342] The processing module 1220 involved in the communication device can be implemented by at least one processor or processor-related circuit components, and the transceiver module 1210 can be implemented by at least one transceiver or transceiver-related circuit components or communication interfaces. The operations and / or functions of each module in the communication device are respectively to implement Figures 2 to 11 For the sake of brevity, the corresponding process of the method shown in is not repeated here. Optionally, the communication device may also include a storage module, which can be used to store data and / or instructions, and the transceiver module 1210 and / or the processing module 1220 can read the data and / or instructions in the access module, so that the communication device implements the corresponding method. The storage module can be implemented by at least one memory, for example.

[0343] The above-mentioned storage module, processing module and transceiver module may exist separately, or all or part of the modules may be integrated, for example, the storage module and the processing module may be integrated, or the processing module and the transceiver module may be integrated.

[0344] Please refer to Fig.13 , is another structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device can be used to implement the functions corresponding to the computing management network element or the session management network element or the computing perception user plane function in the above method embodiment, and the communication device can be a network device or a device that can support the network device to implement the corresponding functions in the above method embodiment, etc.

[0345] The communication device may include a processor 1301, a communication interface 1302 and a memory 1303. The communication interface 1302 is used to communicate with other devices through a transmission medium. The communication interface 1302 may be a transceiver or an interface circuit such as a transceiver circuit, a transceiver chip, etc. The memory 1303 is used to store program instructions and / or data, and the processor 1301 is used to execute the program instructions stored in the memory 2503, thereby implementing the method in the above method embodiment. Optionally, the memory 1303 and the processor 1301 are coupled, and the coupling is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, which may be electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information interaction between devices, units or modules.

[0346] In one embodiment, the communication interface 1302 may be specifically used to execute the actions of the above-mentioned transceiver module 1210, and the processor 1301 may be specifically used to execute the actions of the above-mentioned processing module 1220, which will not be described in detail in this application.

[0347] The specific connection medium between the communication interface 1302, the processor 1301 and the memory 1303 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Fig.13 The memory 1303, the processor 1301 and the communication interface 1302 are connected via a bus 1304. Fig.13 The connections between the other components are shown in bold lines, which are only for illustration and are not intended to be limiting. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, Fig.13 Only one thick line is used in the diagram, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or only one type of bus.

[0348] An embodiment of the present application also provides a chip system, including: a processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, the memory is used to store programs or instructions, when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the chip system implements the method of the corresponding terminal device or the method of the corresponding network device in any of the above method embodiments.

[0349] Optionally, the processor in the chip system may be one or more. The processor may be implemented by hardware or by software. When implemented by hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, etc. When implemented by software, the processor may be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

[0350] Optionally, the memory in the chip system may be one or more. The memory may be integrated with the processor or may be separately provided with the processor, which is not limited in the present application. Exemplarily, the memory may be a non-transient processor, such as a read-only memory ROM, which may be integrated with the processor on the same chip or may be provided on different chips. The present application does not specifically limit the type of memory and the arrangement of the memory and the processor.

[0351] Exemplarily, the chip system can be a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a central processor unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller unit (MCU), a programmable logic device (PLD) or other integrated chips.

[0352] It should be understood that each step in the above method embodiment can be completed by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor or by instructions in the form of software. The method steps disclosed in the embodiments of the present application can be directly embodied as being executed by a hardware processor, or by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

[0353] An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer-readable instructions are stored. When a computer reads and executes the computer-readable instructions, the computer executes a method in any of the above method embodiments.

[0354] The embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product. When a computer reads and executes the computer program product, the computer executes the method in any of the above method embodiments.

[0355] An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, which includes a computing management function, a session management function and N computing-aware user plane functions, and the N computing-aware user plane functions constitute a computing-aware virtual network.

[0356] Optionally, the communication system further includes a terminal device, and the terminal device can be connected to at least one of the N computing-aware user plane functions. Optionally, the communication system can also include at least one edge computing node, and the at least one edge computing node can form a regional computing power group, and one or more of the N computing-aware user plane functions can be connected to the edge computing node.

[0357] It should be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a CPU, or other general-purpose processors, DSPs, ASICs, FPGAs or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor, etc.

[0358] It should also be understood that the memory mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memories. Among them, the non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (RAM), which is used as an external cache. By way of example and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM).

[0359] It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component, the memory (storage module) is integrated in the processor.

[0360] It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to include, but is not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0361] It should be understood that the various digital numbers involved in the various embodiments of the present application are only distinguished for the convenience of description, and the size of the serial numbers of the above-mentioned processes or steps does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process or step should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present invention.

[0362] Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of this application.

[0363] Those skilled 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 aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0364] In the 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 device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0365] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

[0366] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0367] If the functions are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as USB flash drives, mobile hard drives, ROM, RAM, magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0368] In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or provided for in any logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between the different embodiments are consistent and may be referenced to each other, and the technical features in the different embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

Claims

1. A computing power-aware session management method, characterized in that: The method comprises: The second computing-aware user plane function sends computing service information to the first computing-aware user plane function, where the computing service information indicates that the edge computing node associated with the second computing-aware user plane function supports the first computing service; The second computing-aware user plane function receives a service request message from the first computing-aware user plane function, where the service request message is used to request the first computing service; The second computing-aware user plane function sends the service request message to the edge computing node.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further comprises: The second computing-aware user plane function receives an announcement neighbor list from a session management function, and the announcement neighbor list includes K entry computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function, K is a positive integer, and the K entry computing-aware user plane functions include the first computing-aware user plane function.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The second computing-aware user plane function sends computing service information to the first computing-aware user plane function, including: The second computing-aware user plane function sends the computing service information to the first computing-aware user plane function according to the advertised neighbor list.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The second computing-aware user plane function and the first computing-aware user plane function are located in a computing-aware virtual network.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that The method further comprises: The second computing-aware user plane function receives the service identifier of the first computing service and the first server IP address corresponding to the service identifier of the first computing service from the edge computing node, where the first server IP address is the IP address of the server running the first computing service in the edge computing node; The second computing-aware user plane function sends the service request message to the edge computing node, including: The second computing-aware user plane function replaces the service identifier of the first computing service carried in the service request message with the first server IP address; The second computing-aware user plane function sends a service request message carrying the first server IP address to the edge computing node.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The method further comprises: The second computing-aware user plane function receives a service response message carrying the IP address of the first server from the edge computing node; The second computing-aware user plane function replaces the first server IP address with the service identifier of the first computing service; The second computing-aware user plane function sends the service response message carrying the service identifier of the first computing service to the first computing-aware user plane function.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further comprises: The second computing-aware user plane function receives the computing service information from the edge computing node.

8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The computing service information includes a service identifier of the first computing service, service attributes of the first computing service, a running state of the first computing service, and computing resource information.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The method further comprises: The second computing-aware user plane function receives load information from the edge computing node; The second computing-aware user plane function sends the load information to the first computing-aware user plane function.

10. A computing power-aware session management method, characterized in that: The method comprises: The first computing-aware user plane function receives computing service information from the second computing-aware user plane function, where the computing service information indicates that an edge computing node associated with the second computing-aware user plane function supports the first computing service; The first computing-aware user plane function sends a service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function according to the computing service information, where the service request message is used to request a first computing service.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first computing-aware user plane function receives a forwarding neighbor list from a session management function, wherein the forwarding neighbor list includes L egress computing-aware user plane functions corresponding to the first computing-aware user plane function, where L is a positive integer, and the L egress computing-aware user plane functions include the second computing-aware user plane function.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that: The first computing-aware user plane function and the second computing-aware user plane function are located in a computing-aware virtual network.

13. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first computing-aware user plane function receives the service request message from the terminal device.

14. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first computing-aware user plane function receives load information from the second computing-aware user plane function.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first computing-aware user plane function determines, according to the computing service information and the load information, to send a service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function.

16. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first computing-aware user plane function sends the service request message to the second computing-aware user plane function according to the message matching forwarding rule corresponding to the second computing-aware user plane function.

17. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The computing service information includes a service identifier of the first computing service, service attributes of the first computing service, a running state of the first computing service, and computing resource information.

18. A communication device, characterized in that: The apparatus comprises at least one processor coupled to at least one memory: The at least one processor is configured to execute a computer program or instruction stored in the at least one memory, so that the apparatus executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or the apparatus executes the method according to any one of claims 10 to 17.

19. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: Used to store instructions, when the instructions are executed, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is implemented, or the method according to any one of claims 10 to 17 is implemented.

20. A communication device, characterized in that: including a processor and an interface circuit; The interface circuit is used to exchange code instructions or data with the processor; The processor is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or the processor is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 10 to 17.

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