A multi-network element signaling data processing method and system

Abstract

The present invention provides a multi-network element signaling data processing method and system, comprising: receiving signaling data from multiple network elements; converting and processing the signaling data to obtain a plurality of unified network element signaling data; and merging the plurality of unified network element signaling data to output a signaling data file to be processed. The present invention utilizes a network management maintenance system to uniformly process and merge the signaling data from multiple network elements in a communication system, making it easier for maintenance personnel to access and view the data, effectively saving operation and maintenance time, and improving maintenance efficiency.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of network maintenance, and in particular to a multi-network element signaling data processing method and system. Background Art

[0002] With the development of communication technology, network configuration is becoming more and more complex. Daily network maintenance is often completed by a dedicated Operation and Maintenance Center (OMC). Therefore, the OMC needs to read and process a large amount of network element operation data.

[0003] In the 5th Generation Mobile Communication Technology (5G) network, especially the 5G Network Functions (NF) core network, numerous functional modules are included. Each module has numerous interfaces between them. During system operation, a large amount of signaling interaction data is generated. The existing maintenance model is that each module sends a maintenance interface to the OMC, which then performs signaling analysis on each module to determine its real-time operating status. Obviously, this maintenance model places very high demands on the OMC's performance, as a large amount of signaling data is similar or even duplicated. On the other hand, operation and maintenance personnel also need to expend a lot of energy on reading and processing this signaling maintenance data.

[0004] Therefore, a new method for processing multi-network element signaling data needs to be proposed to reduce the maintenance pressure of the OMC and improve the overall maintenance efficiency. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The present invention provides a multi-network element signaling data processing method and system, which are used to solve the defect in the prior art that an operation and maintenance system needs to perform maintenance processing on the multi-network element signaling data separately, resulting in low maintenance efficiency.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present invention provides a multi-network element signaling data processing method, comprising:

[0007] Receive signaling data from multiple network elements;

[0008] Converting and processing the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of unified network element signaling data;

[0009] The plurality of unified network element signaling data are merged and a signaling data file to be processed is output.

[0010] According to a method for processing multi-network element signaling data provided by the present invention, before receiving the plurality of network element signaling data, the method further includes:

[0011] Send signaling collection task instructions to multiple network elements.

[0012] According to a multi-network element signaling data processing method provided by the present invention, the receiving of multiple network element signaling data includes:

[0013] Capture service data of multiple network elements separately to obtain captured data;

[0014] Acquire the signaling flow in the captured packet data to obtain the multiple network element signaling data.

[0015] According to a multi-network element signaling data processing method provided by the present invention, the converting and processing the multiple network element signaling data to obtain multiple unified network element signaling data includes:

[0016] Sorting the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of reordered network element signaling data;

[0017] Deduplication is performed on the reordered plurality of network element signaling data to obtain the plurality of unified network element signaling data.

[0018] According to a method for processing multi-network element signaling data provided by the present invention, the method of sorting the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain re-sorted plurality of network element signaling data includes:

[0019] Obtain the reporting time of each network element signaling data;

[0020] Each network element signaling data is sorted in reverse order based on the reporting time to obtain the re-sorted plurality of network element signaling data.

[0021] According to a multi-network element signaling data processing method provided by the present invention, deduplication of the reordered multiple network element signaling data to obtain the multiple unified network element signaling data includes:

[0022] Extracting signaling data corresponding to adjacent ports of two network elements from the reordered plurality of network element signaling data;

[0023] Determining signaling data having the same content among the reordered plurality of network element signaling data;

[0024] The signaling data corresponding to the sending port in the reordered plurality of network element signaling data is retained, and the signaling data corresponding to the receiving port in the reordered plurality of network element signaling data is deleted.

[0025] According to a multi-network element signaling data processing method provided by the present invention, the merging of the plurality of unified network element signaling data and outputting a signaling data file to be processed includes:

[0026] The multiple binary files corresponding to the multiple unified network element signaling data are merged to obtain the signaling data file to be processed.

[0027] In a second aspect, the present invention further provides a multi-network element signaling data processing system, comprising:

[0028] A receiving module, configured to receive signaling data from multiple network elements;

[0029] a conversion module, configured to convert the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of unified network element signaling data;

[0030] The merging module is used to merge the multiple unified network element signaling data and output a signaling data file to be processed.

[0031] In a third aspect, the present invention also provides an electronic device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein when the processor executes the program, the multi-network element signaling data processing method as described above is implemented.

[0032] In a fourth aspect, the present invention further provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implements any of the multi-network element signaling data processing methods described above.

[0033] In a fifth aspect, the present invention further provides a computer program product, comprising a computer program, which, when executed by a processor, implements any of the multi-network element signaling data processing methods described above.

[0034] The multi-network element signaling data processing method and system provided by the present invention uniformly processes and merges the signaling data of multiple network elements in a communication system through a network management maintenance system, making it easier for maintenance personnel to call and view, effectively saving operation and maintenance time and improving maintenance efficiency. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the present invention or the prior art, a brief introduction is given below to the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

[0036] Figure 1 This is one of the flow charts of the multi-network element signaling data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0037] Figure 2 This is the second flow chart of the multi-network element signaling data processing method provided by the present invention;

[0038] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of multi-network element signaling data processing provided by the present invention;

[0039] Figure 4 It is a structural diagram of the multi-network element signaling data processing system provided by the present invention;

[0040] Figure 5 It is a structural schematic diagram of the electronic device provided by the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the present invention more clear, the technical solutions of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the embodiments described are only some of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of them. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts shall fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0042] In view of the maintenance pressure brought by the operation and maintenance of the entire network, which is commonly achieved by adopting OMC in existing communication networks to independently obtain signaling data for each network element, the present invention proposes a new multi-network element signaling data processing method, which processes the massive signaling data to a certain extent, converts and merges the signaling data generated by the network elements through operations such as merging and deduplication, and outputs a unified data file to facilitate subsequent data reading and processing.

[0043] Figure 1 This is one of the flow charts of the multi-network element signaling data processing method provided by the present invention, such as Figure 1 As shown, including:

[0044] Step 100: Receive multiple network element signaling data;

[0045] Step 200: converting the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of unified network element signaling data;

[0046] Step 300: Merge the plurality of unified network element signaling data and output a signaling data file to be processed.

[0047] This invention collects signaling data from multiple network elements and combines it in an orderly and reasonable manner using dedicated network data collection and analysis tools to generate a complete data file, making it easy for maintenance personnel to view and analyze it using network packet analysis software. Network element signaling tracing captures service data, analyzes the packet files to troubleshoot service issues, initiates signaling tracing and collection for individual network elements, and analyzes the captured data.

[0048] Specifically, after receiving multiple network element signaling data, the OMC performs unified conversion processing on the multiple network element signaling data, including but not limited to sorting, deduplication and other operations, to obtain uniformly processed network element signaling data. At this time, the processed network element signaling data will also be presented to the outside in a unified file format. Finally, the data in the unified format will be merged to obtain the signaling data file to be processed.

[0049] Take three network elements A, B and C as an example. Figure 2 As shown in the figure, after the signaling task is issued, network elements A, B and C respectively receive the signaling task and report the running signaling data respectively. The reported data stream format is usually binary data format. The OMC collects the signaling data of A, B and C, then sorts and deduplicates the collected signaling data, and finally merges multiple signaling data into one data file for maintenance personnel to read and process.

[0050] The present invention uniformly processes and merges the signaling data of multiple network elements in a communication system through a network management maintenance system, making it easier for maintenance personnel to call and view, effectively saving operation and maintenance time and improving maintenance efficiency.

[0051] Based on the above embodiment, before receiving multiple network element signaling data, the method further includes:

[0052] Send signaling collection task instructions to multiple network elements.

[0053] Specifically, before the OMC collects signaling data from each NE, it must issue a unified signaling collection task instruction to multiple NEs. This instruction notifies each NE that the OMC needs to collect the signaling data generated by each NE. This instruction can be understood as a start instruction for data collection from multiple NEs. The OMC collects synchronously sent signaling data within a certain time range to facilitate subsequent processing.

[0054] In the present invention, the OMC uniformly sends collection task instructions to multiple network elements that need to collect data, so that signaling tracking tasks can be initiated simultaneously, the collected data has time synchronization, and subsequent conversion processing is convenient.

[0055] Based on any of the foregoing embodiments, the receiving of multiple network element signaling data includes:

[0056] Capture service data of multiple network elements separately to obtain captured data;

[0057] Acquire the signaling flow in the captured packet data to obtain the multiple network element signaling data.

[0058] It should be noted that the network element signaling tracking in the present invention is to capture the service data, analyze the packet files to check the service problems, initiate signaling tracking and collection for a single network element, and analyze the captured data to obtain the signaling flow in the captured data, thereby obtaining multiple network element signaling data.

[0059] For example, the TCPDump tool can completely intercept and analyze network packets. It supports filtering by network layer, protocol, host, network, or port, and uses logical statements such as "and," "or," and "not" to eliminate unnecessary information. With its powerful functionality and flexible interception strategies, TCPDump has become an essential tool for advanced system administrators to analyze and troubleshoot network issues. TCPDump supports a wide range of parameters, such as the -i parameter to specify the network interface on which TCPDump monitors, which is particularly useful when a computer has multiple network interfaces; the -c parameter to specify the number of packets to monitor; and the -w parameter to write the monitored packets to a file. However, more complex TCPDump parameters are used for filtering. Given the high volume of network traffic, if all packets are intercepted without discrimination, the sheer volume of data makes it difficult to identify the desired packets. Using these parameters, you can define filtering rules to intercept specific packets, narrowing down your target and enabling better analysis of network issues. TCPDump uses parameters to specify the type, address, and port of the packets to monitor. By leveraging these filtering rules based on specific network issues, you can quickly locate the problem.

[0060] The present invention adopts a dedicated network packet capture tool, which can obtain the required signaling data more efficiently and conveniently.

[0061] Based on any of the foregoing embodiments, the converting and processing the multiple network element signaling data to obtain multiple unified network element signaling data includes:

[0062] Sorting the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of reordered network element signaling data;

[0063] Deduplication is performed on the reordered plurality of network element signaling data to obtain the plurality of unified network element signaling data.

[0064] The step of sorting the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain re-sorted plurality of network element signaling data includes:

[0065] Obtain the reporting time of each network element signaling data;

[0066] Each network element signaling data is sorted in reverse order based on the reporting time to obtain the re-sorted plurality of network element signaling data.

[0067] The deduplication of the reordered plurality of network element signaling data to obtain the plurality of unified network element signaling data includes:

[0068] Extracting signaling data corresponding to adjacent ports of two network elements from the reordered plurality of network element signaling data;

[0069] Determining signaling data having the same content among the reordered plurality of network element signaling data;

[0070] The signaling data corresponding to the sending port in the reordered plurality of network element signaling data is retained, and the signaling data corresponding to the receiving port in the reordered plurality of network element signaling data is deleted.

[0071] Optionally, the present invention performs a series of conversion processes on the collected multiple signaling data, including:

[0072] The collected signaling data is sorted, usually by the reporting time of the signaling data, and the sorting rule is to arrange in reverse order.

[0073] After sorting, the signaling data is deduplicated. The deduplication rules applied in the present invention are as follows:

[0074] (1) It must be signaling data from two adjacent ports of network elements;

[0075] (2) The signaling data content is the same;

[0076] (3) Keep the signaling data of the sending port and delete the signaling data of the receiving port.

[0077] by Figure 3 In the example shown, there is signaling flow transmission between two NF servers. The signaling flow enters from the NF server on the left and flows out from the NF server on the right. The NF server on the left includes an AMF network element, and the NF server on the right includes an SMF network element. It can be understood that AMF includes an outgoing port and SMF includes a receiving port. The TCPDump tool is used to capture signaling data packets from the outgoing port and the receiving port respectively to form a signaling file.

[0078] The present invention processes the captured signaling data through a series of rules, removes duplicate signaling data, and integrates multiple similar signaling data, which greatly reduces the amount and capacity of signaling data, alleviates the pressure on OMC in signaling data processing, and effectively improves processing efficiency.

[0079] Based on any of the foregoing embodiments, the merging of the plurality of unified network element signaling data and outputting a signaling data file to be processed includes:

[0080] The multiple binary files corresponding to the multiple unified network element signaling data are merged to obtain the signaling data file to be processed.

[0081] It is understandable that the present invention merges the signaling files outputted through unified processing. At this time, the outputted signaling files are all binary files, which are merged into a signaling data file to be processed, and the OMC performs subsequent operation and maintenance.

[0082] Here, the network packet analysis software Wireshark is used to merge multiple binary files. The function of the network packet analysis software used here is to intercept network packets and display the most detailed network packet information as possible. Wireshark uses WinPCAP as an interface to directly exchange data packets with the network card. Here we need to explain the working process of Wireshark:

[0083] (1) Determine the location of Wireshark: If the location is not correct, it will take a long time to capture data that is not relevant to you after starting Wireshark.

[0084] (2) Select the capture interface: Generally, you should select the interface connected to the Internet so that you can capture network-related data; otherwise, the other captured data will be of no help to you;

[0085] (3) Use capture filters: By setting capture filters, you can avoid generating large capture files; this way, users will not be disturbed by other data when analyzing data, and it can also save users a lot of time;

[0086] (4) Use display filters: The data filtered by capture filters is often still very complex. In order to make the filtered data packets more detailed, use display filters to filter them.

[0087] (5) Use coloring rules: Usually, the data filtered by the display filter are useful data packets. If you want to display a session more prominently, you can use coloring rules to highlight it;

[0088] (6) Build charts: If users want to see the changes in data in a network more clearly, using charts can easily show the data distribution;

[0089] (7) Reassembly: Wireshark's reassembly function can reassemble information from different data packets in a session, or reassemble a complete image or file. Since the transmitted files are often large, the information is distributed in multiple data packets. In order to view the entire image or file, it is necessary to use the method of reassembling data.

[0090] The present invention adopts the Wireshark tool to merge the signaling files after packet capture and encapsulate them into files that adapt to the OMC processing mechanism, so that the OMC can efficiently analyze the signaling files and improve the overall processing efficiency.

[0091] The multi-network element signaling data processing system provided by the present invention is described below. The multi-network element signaling data processing system described below and the multi-network element signaling data processing method described above can refer to each other.

[0092] Figure 4 This is a structural diagram of the multi-network element signaling data processing system provided by the present invention. Figure 4 As shown, it includes: a receiving module 41, a conversion module 42 and a merging module 43, wherein:

[0093] The receiving module 41 is used to receive multiple network element signaling data; the conversion module 42 is used to convert and process the multiple network element signaling data to obtain multiple unified network element signaling data; the merging module 43 is used to merge the multiple unified network element signaling data and output the signaling data file to be processed.

[0094] The present invention uniformly processes and merges the signaling data of multiple network elements in a communication system through a network management maintenance system, making it easier for maintenance personnel to call and view, effectively saving operation and maintenance time and improving maintenance efficiency.

[0095] Figure 5 An example of a physical structure diagram of an electronic device is shown below. Figure 5 As shown, the electronic device may include: a processor 510, a communication interface 520, a memory 530, and a communication bus 540, wherein the processor 510, the communication interface 520, and the memory 530 communicate with each other via the communication bus 540. The processor 510 may call logic instructions in the memory 530 to execute a multi-network element signaling data processing method, which includes: receiving a plurality of network element signaling data; converting and processing the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of unified network element signaling data; and merging the plurality of unified network element signaling data to output a signaling data file to be processed.

[0096] In addition, the logic instructions in the above-mentioned memory 530 can be implemented in the form of a software functional unit and can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium when sold or used as an independent product. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, 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. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as a USB flash drive, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

[0097] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program, and the computer program can be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer can execute the multi-network element signaling data processing method provided by the above methods, and the method includes: receiving multiple network element signaling data; converting and processing the multiple network element signaling data to obtain multiple unified network element signaling data; merging the multiple unified network element signaling data, and outputting the signaling data file to be processed.

[0098] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon. When the computer program is executed by a processor, it is implemented to execute the multi-network element signaling data processing method provided by the above-mentioned methods. The method includes: receiving multiple network element signaling data; converting and processing the multiple network element signaling data to obtain multiple unified network element signaling data; merging the multiple unified network element signaling data and outputting a signaling data file to be processed.

[0099] The device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, i.e., they may be located in one location or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected based on actual needs to achieve the objectives of the present embodiment. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will be able to understand and implement the present invention without inventive effort.

[0100] Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that each embodiment can be implemented by means of software plus a necessary general hardware platform, or of course, by hardware. Based on this understanding, the essence of the above technical solution or the part that contributes to the existing technology can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, such as ROM / RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc., and includes a number of instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in each embodiment or certain parts of the embodiments.

[0101] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than to limit it. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments, or make equivalent replacements for some of the technical features therein. However, these modifications or replacements do not deviate the essence of the corresponding technical solutions from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the various embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A multi-network element signaling data processing method, characterized in that: include: Receive signaling data from multiple network elements; Converting and processing the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of unified network element signaling data; Merging the plurality of unified network element signaling data and outputting a signaling data file to be processed; The converting and processing the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of unified network element signaling data includes: Sorting the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of reordered network element signaling data; Extracting signaling data corresponding to adjacent ports of two network elements from the reordered plurality of network element signaling data; Determining signaling data having the same content among the reordered plurality of network element signaling data; The signaling data corresponding to the sending port in the reordered plurality of network element signaling data is retained, and the signaling data corresponding to the receiving port in the reordered plurality of network element signaling data is deleted.

2. The multi-network element signaling data processing method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Before receiving the plurality of network element signaling data, the method further includes: Send signaling collection task instructions to multiple network elements.

3. The multi-network element signaling data processing method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The receiving of multiple network element signaling data includes: Capture service data of multiple network elements separately to obtain captured data; Acquire the signaling flow in the captured packet data to obtain the multiple network element signaling data.

4. The multi-network element signaling data processing method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The sorting of the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain re-sorted plurality of network element signaling data includes: Obtain the reporting time of each network element signaling data; Each network element signaling data is sorted in reverse order based on the reporting time to obtain the re-sorted plurality of network element signaling data.

5. The multi-network element signaling data processing method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The merging of the plurality of unified network element signaling data and outputting a signaling data file to be processed includes: The multiple binary files corresponding to the multiple unified network element signaling data are merged to obtain the signaling data file to be processed.

6. A multi-network element signaling data processing system, characterized in that: include: A receiving module, configured to receive signaling data from multiple network elements; a conversion module, configured to convert the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of unified network element signaling data; A merging module, configured to merge the plurality of unified network element signaling data and output a signaling data file to be processed; The converting and processing the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of unified network element signaling data includes: Sorting the plurality of network element signaling data to obtain a plurality of reordered network element signaling data; Extracting signaling data corresponding to adjacent ports of two network elements from the reordered plurality of network element signaling data; Determining signaling data having the same content among the reordered plurality of network element signaling data; The signaling data corresponding to the sending port in the reordered plurality of network element signaling data is retained, and the signaling data corresponding to the receiving port in the reordered plurality of network element signaling data is deleted.

7. An electronic device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein: When the processor executes the program, the multi-network element signaling data processing method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is implemented.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, characterized in that: When the computer program is executed by a processor, the multi-network element signaling data processing method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is implemented.

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