A 5G service cell handover information opening method and device based on edge computing

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing, which offloads the sensing task of the user equipment to switch base stations to an edge server, multiplexes the data packet header of the user equipment to the application server based on RawSocket, enables the reserved bit to indicate the handover event by using the same data packet header as the general data packet, directly opens the sensing result to the application server, can be sensed by both the network transport layer and the application layer at the same time, realizes a low-overhead network information reporting mechanism based on the middle box and cross-layer information sharing, and enables the application server transport layer and the application layer to quickly react to the user equipment switching base stations.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing. Background Art

[0002] Although 5G is still in its early stage, it has already shown great influence. Its ultra-high bit rate at the Gbps level and ultra-low latency at the millisecond level are stimulating various innovative applications such as virtual / augmented reality and massive video streaming, and will change many vertical industries. However, the benefits of 5G are mainly for static or low-mobility scenarios. When the client user moves, such as walking, driving, taking a train, or a high-speed train, the network gain of 5G will significantly decrease, which is caused by the frequent handover of the 5G service cell by the user.

[0003] During the entire three-step handover process including triggering, decision-making, and execution, the handover involves complex signal exchange and coordination among the user equipment (UE), the current base station, the target base station, and the cellular core. Therefore, the handover usually causes a large delay in the physical layer, data interruption, and even access failure, which will cause the transport layer and application layer that are unaware of the underlying handover to fail to respond correctly in a timely manner, resulting in a serious decline in service QoE.

[0004] Existing 5G gains more in the lower layer of the network (physical layer), and does not give special adaptation or improvement to relevant protocols / standards in the upper layer of the network (transport layer, application layer) (such as TCP congestion control, DASH protocol video stream bitrate adaptation, etc.). In a mobile scenario, as the user equipment frequently switches base stations during the process of changing the user's location, it causes a drastic change in its underlying physical channel. Therefore, the current 5G communication scenario has the following defects: (1) Due to the unique hierarchical structure of the computer network, each layer of the network is independent, and the upper-layer applications are unaware of the underlying physical information. While enhancing the physical layer, the existing 5G network ignores the inter-layer coordination, and the upper layer can only passively and slowly perceive the change of the underlying capabilities and then take actions. (2) The current 5G is a non-standalone networking architecture (NSA), and 4G and 5G are co-located for deployment. 5G needs to rely on the 4G core network for handover scheduling between base stations. The user equipment needs to maintain connections with both the 4G base station and the 5G base station at the same time, which brings more frequent handover events and greater handover latency, and its handover overhead even exceeds that of the 4G network. For future 5G with a standalone networking architecture (SA), its more dense cell coverage will also bring extremely large mobile handover overhead from another perspective. (3) The impact of the handover on the network physical layer will gradually expand to the transport layer and application layer. Because the upper layer of the network makes decisions on its subsequent behaviors based on the feedback of the same layer, the network feedback delay between the upper and lower layers leads to a delayed perception of the change of the lower-layer network capabilities by the upper-layer applications, resulting in incorrect decision-making of application behaviors, and this negative impact gradually expands upward. Summary of the Invention

[0005] In view of this, embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing to eliminate or improve one or more defects existing in the prior art and solve the problem that the server perception delay is caused by the user equipment frequently changing the accessed 5G base station during the movement process and the influence on the upper-layer application is gradually expanded.

[0006] On the one hand, the present invention provides a method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing. The method is used to run on an edge mobile computing server. The edge server is connected to multiple base stations within a first set range. The base stations access 5G user equipment. The edge server is also connected to an application server. The edge mobile computing server, the base stations, and the application server constitute a 5G communication network. The method includes the following steps:

[0007] Obtain the wireless network information of multiple base stations accessed by 5G in real time;

[0008] Using the unique identifier of each user equipment as an index, find the latest wireless network information corresponding to each user equipment, and establish a mapping table between the unique identifier of each user equipment and the physical cell identifier of the currently connected base station;

[0009] When the physical cell identifier corresponding to the unique identifier in the mapping table changes, it is prompted that the base station accessed by the first user equipment corresponding to the unique identifier changes. Then, the edge server multiplexes the data packet sent by the user equipment to the application server based on RawSocket, and sets a reserved bit in the header of the data packet to indicate the handover event; the header includes the IP and transmission path of the first user equipment in the communication protocol, and the ID used by the data packet in the application layer and the transport layer is the same;

[0010] Send the data packet after adding the reserved bit to the 5G communication network to prompt the physical layer, transport layer, and application layer of the application server that the base station accessed by the first user equipment has changed.

[0011] In some embodiments, obtaining the wireless network information of multiple base stations accessed by 5G in real time includes: obtaining the wireless network information of multiple base stations accessed by 5G within a second set range.

[0012] In some embodiments, obtaining the wireless network information of multiple base stations accessed by 5G in real time includes:

[0013] Obtain the subscription requests of one or more user equipments, and obtain the wireless network information of the corresponding user equipments accessed by 5G from multiple base stations within a third set range according to the unique identifiers of the user equipments that issue the subscription requests.

[0014] In some embodiments, the method further includes: obtaining an unsubscribe request of the user equipment, and stopping obtaining the wireless network information of the corresponding user equipment's 5G access from multiple base stations within the third set range according to the unique identifier of the user equipment that issues the unsubscribe request.

[0015] In some embodiments, after sending the data packet with the reserved bit added to the 5G communication network, it further includes: the application server executing a TCP congestion control algorithm and / or optimizing the ABR policy of the DASH video stream.

[0016] In some embodiments, in the 5G communication network, the application uses a socket to establish a transport layer data stream and perform data transmission, and sets the application layer stream to use the same socket ID as the transport layer stream.

[0017] In some embodiments, the mapping table is refreshed at a set time interval, and the set time interval is less than or equal to 1 ms.

[0018] In some embodiments, in the method, the user equipment and the application server perform data transmission using TCP data packets, and the edge server uses TCP data packets to generate the data packet carrying the mobile handover information;

[0019] Or, the user equipment and the application server perform data transmission using DUP data packets, and the edge server uses DUP data packets to generate the data packet carrying the mobile handover information.

[0020] On the other hand, the present invention also provides an edge computing-based 5G service cell handover information opening system, including:

[0021] Multiple user equipments;

[0022] Multiple base stations for providing 5G network access to the user equipment;

[0023] An edge server connected to multiple base stations within a first set range and executing the above-mentioned edge computing-based 5G service cell handover information opening method;

[0024] An application server connected to the base station and the edge server to provide application services and perform congestion control according to the handover events reported by the edge server.

[0025] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, and when the program is executed by a processor, the steps of the above method are implemented.

[0026] The beneficial effects of the present invention at least include:

[0027] In the method and device for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to the present invention, the perception task of the user equipment for handover to the base station is offloaded to the edge server, and the data packet header of the user equipment to the application server is multiplexed based on RawSocket. The reserved bit is used to indicate the handover event in the data packet header identical to the general data packet, and the perception result is directly opened to the application server, which can be perceived by both the network transport layer and the application layer simultaneously, realizing a low-overhead network information reporting mechanism based on the middle box and cross-layer information sharing, enabling the transport layer and the application layer of the application server to quickly respond to the handover of the user equipment to the base station.

[0028] Additional advantages, objects, and features of the present invention will be partially described below, and will become partially apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art after studying the following, or can be learned from the practice of the present invention. The objects and other advantages of the present invention can be realized and obtained by the structure specifically pointed out in the specification and the drawings.

[0029] Those skilled in the art will understand that the objects and advantages that can be achieved by the present invention are not limited to the above specifically described, and the above and other objects that the present invention can achieve will be more clearly understood according to the following detailed description. Brief Description of the Drawings

[0030] The drawings described herein are used to provide a further understanding of the present invention, form a part of this application, and do not limit the present invention. In the drawings:

[0031] Figure 1 It is a schematic flowchart of the method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0032] Figure 2 It is a 5G network service framework diagram provided by the method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0033] Figure 3 It is a flowchart of Octopus in the method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0034] Figure 4 It is a flowchart of the handover reporting mechanism of Octopus in the method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Description of the Embodiment

[0035] To make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more clearly understood, the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the embodiments and the accompanying drawings. Herein, the illustrative embodiments of the present invention and their descriptions are used to explain the present invention, but not to limit the present invention.

[0036] Herein, it should also be noted that in order to avoid obscuring the present invention with unnecessary details, only the structures and / or processing steps closely related to the solution according to the present invention are shown in the drawings, while other details less relevant to the present invention are omitted.

[0037] It should be emphasized that the term "comprising / including" when used herein refers to the presence of features, elements, steps or components, but does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, steps or components.

[0038] Herein, it should also be noted that if not otherwise specified, the term "connection" in this document can refer not only to direct connection, but also to indirect connection with an intermediate.

[0039] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numerals represent the same or similar components, or the same or similar steps.

[0040] The handover problem of user equipment accessing the base station is not a unique mobility feature of 5G. It can be traced back to the 3G / 4G era. However, in the 5G era, due to two influencing factors, the handover problem has become particularly severe: First, the 5G cellular coverage is getting smaller and smaller. For Sub-6GHz 5G deployed in China and the EU, its cellular coverage rate is only 19.6% of that of 4G; for millimeter 5G mainly adopted in the United States, it is further reduced to only 2%. Second, fast-moving application scenarios have become common. With the rapid construction of high-speed railways and the gradual maturity of autonomous driving vehicles, mobile work (such as video calls / holographic conferences), entertainment (such as Internet video on demand, games) and online education experiences in cars / high-speed trains are rapidly filling our daily lives. In this context, the handover of mobile users is often very frequent. When moving at a speed of 100 - 350 Km / h, the average interval is only 4.1 - 14.4 seconds. Worse still, about 10% of the handovers will result in network failures. A low-overhead and easy-to-large-scale-deploy 5G mobility management solution is urgently needed for the current development of 5G networks.

[0041] The present invention provides a method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing. The method is used to run on an edge mobile computing server. The edge server is connected to multiple base stations within a first set range. The base stations access 5G user equipment. The edge server is also connected to an application server. The edge mobile computing server, the base stations and the application server constitute a 5G communication network, as Figure 1As shown, the method includes the following steps S101 to S104:

[0042] Step S101: Real-time obtain the wireless network information of multiple base stations accessing 5G.

[0043] Step S102: Use the unique identifier of each user equipment as an index to find the latest wireless network information corresponding to each user equipment, and establish a mapping table between the unique identifier of each user equipment and the physical cell identifier of the currently connected base station.

[0044] Step S103: When the physical cell identifier corresponding to the unique identifier in the mapping table changes, prompt that the base station accessed by the first user equipment corresponding to the unique identifier has changed. Then, the edge server multiplexes the data packet sent by the user equipment to the application server based on RawSocket, and sets a reserved bit in the header of the data packet to indicate the handover event; the header includes the IP and transmission path of the first user equipment in the communication protocol, and the IDs used by the data packet in the application layer and the transport layer are the same.

[0045] Step S104: Send the data packet after enabling the reserved bit to the 5G communication network to prompt the physical layer, transport layer, and application layer of the application server that the base station accessed by the first user equipment has changed.

[0046] In this embodiment, in a general 5G communication network, an edge server is accessed to offload the base station handover perception task of the user equipment to the edge server for processing. In step S101, the edge server connects to multiple base stations within a first set range to obtain the wireless network information (RNI) of the 5G access network in real time. The first set range can be divided according to spatial blocks or set according to the range of the base stations served as needed. Specifically, the wireless network information may include the International Mobile Subscriber Identification Number (IMSI), Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), etc. The wireless network information can be used to identify the user equipment accessing each base station.

[0047] In some embodiments, in step S101, real-time obtain the wireless network information of multiple base stations accessing 5G, including: obtain the wireless network information of multiple base stations accessing 5G within a second set range.

[0048] In this embodiment, a specific service range, that is, a second set range, is set for the edge server. For multiple base stations within this range, obtain the wireless network information for subsequent processing. The second set range is subordinate to the first set range.

[0049] In some embodiments, in step S101, the wireless network information of 5G access of multiple base stations is obtained in real time, including: obtaining subscription requests of one or more user devices, and obtaining the wireless network information of 5G access of the corresponding user devices from multiple base stations within a third set range according to the unique identifiers of the user devices that issue the subscription requests.

[0050] To save overhead and computing power, it can be set to serve specific few user devices. First, the user devices actively subscribe to services from the edge server. Specifically, the user devices send their unique identifiers to the edge server to initiate a subscription, and the edge server obtains the wireless network information for the user devices that initiate the subscription requests to monitor the base stations accessed by the user devices.

[0051] In some embodiments, the method further includes: obtaining an unsubscribe request of a user device, and stopping obtaining the wireless network information of 5G access of the corresponding user device from multiple base stations within a third set range according to the unique identifier of the user device that issues the unsubscribe request. In this embodiment, for the service of monitoring the base stations accessed by the user devices subscribed by the edge device, certain termination conditions can be set. For example, after a set monitoring duration, the monitoring service can be stopped when there are no new subscription requests. This embodiment adopts continuous monitoring and terminates the service when an unsubscribe request is received.

[0052] In step S102, the unique identifier of the user device can be a mobile subscriber identification number or can be set separately according to certain coding rules according to actual needs. The mapping table records the correspondence between the user devices and the accessed base stations. The edge server continuously updates the mapping table to record the base stations accessed by the user devices, so as to check whether the accessed base stations have changed by comparison. In some embodiments, the mapping table is refreshed at a set time interval, and the set time interval is less than or equal to 1 ms.

[0053] In step S103, as long as there is a change in the physical cell identifier corresponding to a certain user equipment unique identifier in the mapping table, it indicates that there is a change in the access base station, which can be defined as a handover event (HO event). At this time, the edge server needs to report the handover event to prompt the application server to adjust the data transmission strategy. For example, in the mapping table, the unique identifier of the user equipment is recorded as ue id 1335, and the physical cell identifier of the corresponding base station changes from 135 to 27, indicating that a handover event has occurred. Specifically, during normal communication, the user equipment and the application server perform data communication based on the TCP or UDP protocol, and the headers of these data packets record information such as the IP and transmission path of the source and destination nodes. When a handover event occurs, the edge server multiplexes the data packet header of the corresponding user equipment through RawSocket, sets a reserved bit to indicate the occurrence of the handover event, or directly records the physical cell identifier of the base station accessed by the user equipment after the handover event occurs. In this embodiment, a data packet with the same general communication format as the user equipment is generated through RawSocket, and the content recorded in the header of this data packet is the same as that of the data packet during normal service communication. In the 5G communication network, it can be transmitted along the path of a general data packet and reach the application server. Due to the consistent format, the application server can receive and process it normally without any incompatibility problems.

[0054] Based on the form of edge computing, when the edge server detects a handover event, it directly sends the data packet multiplexed by RawSocket and added with a reserved bit to the normal communication network, without the need to establish an additional dedicated tunnel, greatly saving the overhead and reducing the latency, and can notify the application server to make a reaction at the bottom layer and adjust the transmission strategy within a very short time. At the same time, since the data packet multiplexed by RawSocket uses the same socket ID at the application layer and the transport layer, it can be directly read and recognized by the upper-layer application device and adjusted.

[0055] In some embodiments, in the method, the user equipment and the application server use TCP data packets for data transmission, and the edge server uses TCP data packets to generate data packets carrying mobile handover information.

[0056] Or, the user equipment and the application server use DUP data packets for data transmission, and the edge server uses DUP data packets to generate data packets carrying mobile handover information.

[0057] In this embodiment, based on the communication protocol between the user equipment and the application server, the corresponding data packet types are adapted to ensure that the data packets used to feedback handover events have the same format as the data packets in the general communication process. Only when the formats are the same can it be ensured that the data packets based on RawSocket multiplexing can be normally transmitted in the 5G communication network like general data packets without being affected in any way.

[0058] In step S104, the physical layer, transport layer, and application layer of the application server directly sense the handover event and make adjustments according to the corresponding policies. In some embodiments, after the data packet with the reserved bit enabled is sent to the 5G communication network in step S104, it further includes: the application server executes the TCP congestion control algorithm and / or optimizes the ABR policy of the DASH video stream.

[0059] In some embodiments, in the 5G communication network, the application uses sockets to establish a transport layer data stream and perform data transmission, and sets the application layer stream and the transport layer stream to use the same socket ID. Based on this setting, the data packets between the transport layer and the application layer between the user equipment and the application server have the same socket ID. Therefore, the data packets between the transport layer and the application layer of the data packet with the reserved bit indicating the handover time also have the same socket ID, so synchronous sensing can be achieved between the transport layer and the application layer. The application layer can directly react, adjust the decision-making application behavior, and ensure QoE (Quality of Experience).

[0060] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a 5G service cell handover information opening system based on edge computing, including:

[0061] Multiple user equipments; multiple base stations for providing 5G network access to the user equipments; an edge server connected to multiple base stations within a first set range and executing the above-mentioned 5G service cell handover information opening method based on edge computing; an application server connected to the base stations and the edge server to provide application services and perform congestion control according to the handover events reported by the edge server.

[0062] In this embodiment, the edge server can further be provided with three modules, including a subscription module, a monitoring module, and a reporting module, where the subscription module is used to receive and process the subscription requests sent by individual user equipments, and the monitoring module is used to obtain wireless network information and monitor handover events

[0063] On the other hand, the present invention also provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, and when the program is executed by a processor, the steps of the above method are implemented.

[0064] The present invention will be described below in conjunction with a specific embodiment:

[0065] In this embodiment, a 5G network service framework Octopus is provided to implement seamless mobile 5G access based on multi-access edge computing (MEC). Octopus includes three modules: a subscription module, a monitoring module, and a reporting module, which are deployed as a special network service on the MEC platform close to the local UE.

[0066] As Figure 2 shown, the edge server is connected to multiple base stations within a first set range. The base stations access 5G user equipment. The edge server is also connected to an application server. The edge mobile computing server, the base stations, and the application server constitute a 5G communication network.

[0067] The mobile UE within the MEC deployment range can subscribe to its service from Octopus in the form of an HTTP request. Then, Octopus will call its mobile handover monitoring module according to the UE's subscription request to detect the handover status of the UE in real time. When it detects a handover, it will deliver this information to the reporting module of Octopus. Finally, the reporting module of Octopus, which exists in the form of a network middlebox, sends a mobile handover information report to the remote server. After the subscription is completed, monitoring and reporting are executed cyclically until the UE cancels the subscription. As Figure 3 shows the overall design of Octopus.

[0068] Regarding the Octopus subscription module, if Octopus actively monitors all UEs, its resource overhead will be very large and its response ability will be affected. Given that most UEs are static or have low mobility, this embodiment sets up a subscription mechanism for Octopus, allowing UEs to subscribe to Octopus only when necessary to reduce its overhead. Under this mechanism, the UE can establish an HTTP connection with the reporting module (HONotifier) of Octopus to send a subscription request. The UE can send the unique identifier of the UE (i.e., UE_id) to HONotifier to subscribe to the mobile handover information reporting service of Octopus. Provide the TCP / UDP connection information between the UE application and the remote host for HONotifier to build a transport layer reporting channel, which will be used for the mobile handover information reporting process introduced later. It should be noted that the subscription mechanism is not necessary. Its existence is mainly to reduce the computational overhead of Octopus to a certain extent. Octopus has the ability to provide services to UEs without subscription.

[0069] For the Octopus monitoring module, the existing handover monitoring solution is to directly monitor the underlying status of the UE by moving some existing dedicated tools on the UE, such as software like XCAL, PCNET, MobileInsight, etc. through the debugging port of the UE. However, considering the security and stability of the UE, mobile phone manufacturers usually do not open the relevant interfaces of the device to disclose the underlying information of the UE (such as the RSRP of the base station, RRC messages), so these tools need to root the UE to obtain system access rights. And only 7.5% of global mobile devices can be rooted, and this proportion will further decrease with the replacement of smartphones. Therefore, this solution simply cannot be widely used in real scenarios.

[0070] In this embodiment, the solution of Octopus is essentially different from the above tools. Octopus aims to capture handover events from the base station side, rather than the UE side, accurately and efficiently, in order to maintain modularity and practicality. As Figure 3 shown, in this embodiment, the handover monitoring module of Octopus: HOMonitor (monitoring module) is a special MEC application based on Radio Network Information Service (RNIS). Generally speaking, the MEC framework includes "MEC applications" and "MEC services". The former represents the applications offloaded to the edge, such as virtual / augmented reality, vehicle-to-everything, etc.; the latter are multiple modules that provide relevant services for the applications in MEC (after registering the application on the MEC platform). For example, RNIS can directly obtain the radio network information (RNI) of the 5G access network from the base station side, such as the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), and disclose it to third-party applications running on the MEC platform. The operation of HOMonitor is as follows: First, since RNIS only serves internal MEC applications, HOMonitor is a special MEC application for registering services with RNIS. It communicates with RNIS using the standard Mp1 interface between "MEC applications" and "MEC services". Then, HOMonitor continuously uses the ue_id (IMSI, the unique identifier of the UE) as an index to obtain the latest RNI (radio network information) of the corresponding UE from RNIS. At the same time, HOMonitor establishes and maintains a mapping table between the ue_id and the PCI (Physical Cell Identifier) of the serving 5G cell. This table will be refreshed at a time granularity of 1 ms and is used to analyze the HO events of the UE. When the table changes, for example, the PCI corresponding to ue_id 1335 changes from 135 to 27, it will be regarded as an HO event and submitted to the Octopus feedback module.

[0071] It has been verified that compared with the handover monitoring solution using dedicated software on the UE side, the RNIS-based HONotifier is not only easy to deploy and has better practicability, but also will bring lower reporting latency in the subsequent handover reporting process. It has been verified that the reporting latency of this embodiment is 1.60 milliseconds, while the traditional method is 18.25 milliseconds. This will have non-negligible significance for some latency-sensitive applications, such as virtual reality and vehicle networking.

[0072] For the Octopus reporting module, the HONotifier is responsible for notifying the remote server of the UE's mobility handover information. Specifically, when the HONotifier receives a request from the UE (if monitoring subscriptions are applied) or detects any new UE association, it first extracts the ue_id, and then calls the HOMonitor to monitor the HO status of the corresponding UE. Once the HOMonitor detects a handover event, it reports to the HONotifier according to the subscription requirements, and the HONotifier then uses the middlebox or the socket-based cross-layer reporting channel to handle the notification process at the server transport layer or application layer. Figure 4 Shows its notification mechanism.

[0073] In the notification server transport layer, a simple way to report handover information traditionally is to establish a dedicated tunnel between Octopus and the remote server. However, this requires an additional TCP / UDP connection to be established between the MEC and the server, which not only causes resource overhead and latency but also undermines the transparency of Octopus to the terminal host and violates the end-to-end design principle. In this embodiment, an in-band feedback mechanism is adopted in HONotifier, which notifies events by reusing the existing TCP or UDP connection between the local UE and the server. A middlebox solution is provided. HONotifier first extracts the connection information (IP:port) from the subscription or association request of the UE application. Then, it generates a TCP or UDP packet based on RawSocket and enables a reserved bit in its header to indicate the mobile handover event. This special TCP packet is cached in HONotifier and will be injected into the network at the time of handover through the "MEC data plane" (a part of the MEC that carries user traffic between the MEC and the Internet). Since the IP:port of this pre-generated packet is exactly the same as that of an ordinary packet, it will be routed to the server to help improve its transport layer performance, such as BBR (a TCP congestion control algorithm), or the ABR policy optimization applicable to DASH video streaming. At the same time, it should be emphasized that: (1) When generating a TCP or UDP packet carrying mobile handover information, only a reserved bit already existing in its header is enabled, which will not damage its standard format or result in any incorrect checksum. (2) The packet injected into the network by Octopus will not interfere with the server's TCP state machine and will not be discarded by the Internet firewall, which has been verified in a real deployment.

[0074] For the notification server application layer, similar to the transport layer, to maintain the transparency of Octopus to the server while reducing its network overhead on the MEC. In this embodiment, a socket-based cross-layer information sharing method is designed for the server application layer instead of simply creating an HTTP connection to the server to complete the reporting. In a computer network, applications (such as HTTP, FTP streams) call sockets to establish transport layer data streams and perform data transmission, that is, the application layer stream and the corresponding transport layer stream share the same socket ID and will be affected by the same socket. Therefore, the socket ID can be used as an index to store the mobile handover information received by the server transport layer. Then, the server application can obtain the mobile handover information of the corresponding UE according to the socket ID for its customized mobile handover adaptation strategy.

[0075] Octopus enables seamless 5G mobility management by leveraging the emerging multi-access edge computing. This is a 5G-native mechanism that allows the upper layer of mobile UEs to quickly adapt to the underlying fluctuations caused by mobility handovers, thus ensuring the application QoE in mobile scenarios. More importantly, Octopus is standard-compliant, only involving changes on the MEC and the backend application server, and avoiding changes to the UE hardware / firmware / system permissions. It can be integrated into the 5G MEC framework as a general service. It verifies the emerging openness principles of 5G, such as MEC, open RAN, network capability exposure, etc., which can help the upper layer of the network fully explore the huge potential of 5G.

[0076] Therefore, for the open service mode of mobile information in a cellular network based on MEC and compatible with 5G standards, the solution Octopus proposed in this embodiment does not require any modification to the existing 5G protocol. Instead, it leverages the rapidly emerging multi-access edge computing technology to offload the UE mobility handover perception to the edge server MEC. Octopus constructs its three major modules inside the MEC platform: the subscription module, the monitoring module, and the reporting module, without any hardware or firmware modification to the UE, nor the need to obtain UE system kernel-level permissions, making it easy to deploy on a large scale.

[0077] A low-overhead network information reporting mechanism based on middlebox and cross-layer information sharing. The information reporting mechanism in this embodiment does not require establishing a dedicated reporting tunnel with the peer application server, which avoids additional network resource overhead and reporting latency. Octopus utilizes the existing data connection between the local UE and the remote server and uses in-band reporting. The reporting module of Octopus sends the mobility handover information to the server transport layer in the identity of the UE. Meanwhile, this embodiment designs a cross-layer reporting mechanism for the server, mapping the application layer data stream and the transport layer data stream based on socket, and sharing the received mobility handover information from the transport layer to the application layer. These open mobility handover information will support the application server to quickly and correctly respond to the physical layer changes of the UE.

[0078] In summary, in the method and device for open 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing described in the present invention, the task of perceiving the base station handover of the user equipment is offloaded to the edge server, and the packet header of the user equipment to the application server is reused based on RawSocket. The reserved bit in the packet header of the same packet as the general data packet is used to indicate the handover event, and the perception result is directly opened to the application server, which can be perceived by both the network transport layer and the application layer simultaneously, realizing a low-overhead network information reporting mechanism based on middlebox and cross-layer information sharing, enabling the application server transport layer and application layer to quickly respond to the base station handover of the user equipment.

[0079] Correspondingly to the above method, the present invention further provides a 5G service cell handover information opening system based on edge computing. The system includes a computer device, the computer device includes a processor and a memory, the memory stores computer instructions, and the processor is configured to execute the computer instructions stored in the memory. When the computer instructions are executed by the processor, the system implements the steps of the method described above.

[0080] An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored. When the computer program is executed by a processor, it implements the steps of the foregoing edge server deployment method. The computer-readable storage medium may be a tangible storage medium, such as a random access memory (RAM), memory, read-only memory (ROM), electrically programmable ROM, electrically erasable programmable ROM, register, floppy disk, hard disk, removable storage disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium well-known in the technical field.

[0081] Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that the various exemplary components, systems, and methods described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both. Specifically, whether to implement in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. A professional technician can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to exceed the scope of the present invention. When implemented in hardware, it can be, for example, an electronic circuit, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), appropriate firmware, a plug-in, a functional card, etc. When implemented in software, the elements of the present invention are programs or code segments used to perform the required tasks. The program or code segment can be stored in a machine-readable medium or transmitted through a data signal carried in a carrier wave on a transmission medium or a communication link.

[0082] It should be clear that the present invention is not limited to the specific configurations and processes described above and shown in the figures. For the sake of brevity, the detailed description of known methods is omitted here. In the above embodiments, several specific steps are described and shown as examples. However, the method process of the present invention is not limited to the specific steps described and shown. Those skilled in the art can make various changes, modifications, and additions, or change the order between steps after understanding the spirit of the present invention.

[0083] In the present invention, the features described and / or illustrated for one embodiment can be used in the same or a similar manner in one or more other embodiments, and / or combined with the features of other embodiments or replace the features of other embodiments.

[0084] The above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. For those skilled in the art, various modifications and variations can be made to the embodiments of the present invention. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention shall be included within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing, characterized in that The method is used to run on an edge mobile computing server, which is connected to multiple base stations within a first set range. The base stations are accessed by 5G user equipment. The edge server is also connected to an application server. The edge mobile computing server, the base stations, and the application server constitute a 5G communication network. The method includes the following steps: Obtain the wireless network information of 5G access of multiple base stations in real time; Using the unique identifier of each user equipment as an index, find the latest wireless network information corresponding to each user equipment, and establish a mapping table between the unique identifier of each user equipment and the physical cell identifier of the currently connected base station; When the physical cell identifier corresponding to the unique identifier in the mapping table changes, it is prompted that the base station accessed by the first user equipment corresponding to the unique identifier has changed. Then, the edge server multiplexes the data packet sent by the user equipment to the application server based on RawSocket, and sets a reserved bit in the header of the data packet to indicate the handover event; the header includes the IP and transmission path of the first user equipment in the communication protocol, and the ID adopted by the data packet at the application layer and the transport layer is the same; Send the data packet after adding the reserved bit to the 5G communication network to prompt the physical layer, transport layer, and application layer of the application server that the base station accessed by the first user equipment has changed.

2. The method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to claim 1, wherein, Obtaining the wireless network information of 5G access of multiple base stations in real time includes: Obtain the wireless network information of 5G access of multiple base stations within a second set range.

3. The method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to claim 1, wherein Obtaining the wireless network information of 5G access of multiple base stations in real time includes: Obtain the subscription requests of one or more user equipment, and obtain the wireless network information of 5G access of the corresponding user equipment from multiple base stations within a third set range according to the unique identifier of each user equipment that issues the subscription request.

4. The method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to claim 3, characterized in that, The method further includes: Obtain the unsubscribe request of the user equipment, and stop obtaining the wireless network information of 5G access of the corresponding user equipment from multiple base stations within the third set range according to the unique identifier of the user equipment that issues the unsubscribe request.

5. The method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to claim 1, wherein, After sending the data packet after adding the reserved bit to the 5G communication network, it further includes: the application server executes the TCP congestion control algorithm and / or optimizes the ABR policy of the DASH video stream.

6. The method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to claim 1, characterized in that, In the 5G communication network, the application uses a socket to establish a data stream at the transport layer and perform data transmission, and sets the application layer stream to use the same socket ID as the transport layer stream.

7. The method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to claim 1, wherein The mapping table is refreshed at a set time interval, and the set time interval is less than or equal to 1 ms.

8. The method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing according to claim 1, wherein In the method, the user equipment and the application server use TCP data packets for data transmission, and the edge server uses TCP data packets to generate the data packet carrying the mobile handover information; Or, the user equipment and the application server use DUP data packets for data transmission, and the edge server uses DUP data packets to generate the data packet carrying the mobile handover information.

9. A 5G service cell handover information opening system based on edge computing, characterized in that, Including: Multiple user equipment; Multiple base stations for providing 5G network access to the user equipment; An edge server, which connects to multiple base stations within a first set range and executes the method for opening 5G service cell handover information based on edge computing as described in any one of claims 1 to 8; An application server, which connects to the base station and the edge server to provide application services and perform congestion control according to handover events reported by the edge server.

10. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, characterized in that, When the program is executed by a processor, it implements the steps of the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 8.

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