Load sharing method, ONU and system

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a load sharing method, an ONU and a system, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method comprises the steps that a main ONU located in a first FTTR network judges that the uplink flow of the main ONU exceeds a preset threshold value and sends a load sharing request to a server; the main ONU receives a flow forwarding instruction from the server, the flow forwarding instruction comprises a source ONU identifier and a destination ONU identifier and is used for indicating the source ONU to send a received service flow to the destination ONU, the source ONU is located in a first FTTR network, the destination ONU is located in a neighbor FTTR network, and the neighbor FTTR network is connected with the server; and the master ONU issues the target ONU identifier to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU identifier according to the source ONU identifier in the flow forwarding instruction, so that the slave ONU establishes connection with the target ONU. According to the method, the problem of flow load imbalance between FTTR networking can be solved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a method for load sharing, an ONU, and a system. Background Art

[0002] The FTTR (Fiber To The Room) system replaces network cables with optical fibers, enabling the optical fibers to extend from "to the household" to "to the room", which can extend high-quality networks to every corner of the indoor area, effectively improving the user experience. Figure 1 For the architecture schematic diagram of FTTR networking, as Figure 1 shown, in the FTTR networking system, the ONU (Optical Network Unit) is divided into a main ONU (or main gateway) and a slave ONU (or slave gateway) according to its location. The main ONU is networked under the OLT (Optical Line Termination). The main ONU can provide a downlink optical interface and connect to at least one slave ONU to form a slave gateway. A WiFi connection is established between the slave ONU and the user equipment for the transmission of service data.

[0003] As FTTR is gradually deployed in clustering markets such as small and micro enterprises, such as schools, hospitals, etc., due to problems such as network construction costs, Wi-Fi adjacent frequency and co-frequency interference, the deployment of FTTR cannot be too dense. Therefore, there will be a situation where some FTTR networkings have a large number of access users, while some FTTR networkings have a relatively small number of access users. In the FTTR networking with a large number of access users, the service traffic of the slave ONUs converges to the main ONU, resulting in a peak in the uplink traffic of the main ONU. In the FTTR networking with a small number of access users, the uplink traffic of the main ONU is relatively low and not well utilized, leading to resource waste. Summary of the Invention

[0004] Therefore, embodiments of the present application provide a method, an ONU, and a system for realizing load sharing between FTTRs, which solve the problem of unbalanced traffic between FTTRs, realize service determinacy, and ensure the user experience.

[0005] In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a method for load sharing, including:

[0006] In the first step, the main ONU located in the first FTTR networking determines that its uplink traffic exceeds a predetermined threshold and sends a load sharing request to the server.

[0007] Wherein, at least one slave ONU is connected under the main ONU; the predetermined threshold is a certain value or ratio preset by the main ONU.

[0008] In the second step, the master ONU receives a traffic forwarding instruction from the server. The traffic forwarding instruction includes the source ONU identifier and the destination ONU identifier, and is used to instruct the source ONU to send the received traffic flow to the destination ONU. The source ONU is located within the first FTTR network, and the destination ONU is located within a neighboring FTTR network, and the neighboring FTTR network is connected to the server.

[0009] Among them, the first FTTR network has one or more neighboring FTTR networks.

[0010] In the third step, the master ONU, according to the source ONU identifier in the traffic forwarding instruction, sends the destination ONU identifier to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU identifier, so that the slave ONU establishes a connection with the destination ONU.

[0011] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, before receiving the traffic forwarding instruction from the server, the master ONU reports to the server the ONUs within the neighboring FTTR network that can be covered by the signal strength of the first FTTR network.

[0012] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, before receiving the traffic forwarding instruction from the server, the master ONU reports the uplink traffic data of itself and the subordinate slave ONUs to the server according to the real-time instruction or subscription instruction of the server.

[0013] Specifically, in some examples, the server sends a traffic collection instruction to the master ONU at any time, and the master ONU reports the uplink traffic data of itself and the subordinate slave ONUs, and one real-time traffic collection is completed; when the server sends a traffic collection instruction to the master ONU again, the master ONU reports the traffic data again. In other examples, the server sends only one traffic subscription instruction to the master ONU, and the master ONU reports the uplink traffic data of itself and the subordinate slave ONUs at regular intervals according to the requirements of the subscription instruction.

[0014] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the source ONU identifier indicates the master ONU itself, and the master ONU directly establishes a connection with the destination ONU.

[0015] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the destination ONU identifier in the traffic forwarding instruction received by the master ONU includes the MAC address and WiFi frequency band of the destination ONU, so that the master ONU or slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

[0016] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, after the source ONU establishes a connection with the destination ONU, after the destination ONU shares a part of the traffic flow of the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU, the master ONU still receives another part of the traffic flow from the slave ONU.

[0017] The load sharing method provided by the embodiments of the present application completes the forwarding of service traffic between ONUs in different FTTR networks, overcomes the dependence on FTTR networks and user equipment in the prior art, can achieve effective traffic sharing, solves the problem of unbalanced traffic between FTTR networks, and guarantees the user experience.

[0018] In a second aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a load sharing ONU, which is located at the position of the master ONU in the first FTTR network, is connected to the server in the uplink, and is connected to at least one slave ONU in the downlink, and includes:

[0019] A transceiver unit, configured to communicate with the server and other ONU devices, including sending a load sharing request to the server, receiving a traffic forwarding instruction from the server, and sending a destination ONU identifier to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU;

[0020] A storage unit, configured to store a predetermined threshold of uplink traffic and the information received by the transceiver unit;

[0021] A processing unit, configured to determine whether its own uplink traffic exceeds the predetermined threshold, and execute the instructions stored in the storage unit.

[0022] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the transceiver unit collects the uplink traffic data of the subordinate slave ONUs, and uploads the uplink traffic data of the ONU itself and the subordinate ONUs to the server in real time or in a subscription manner.

[0023] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the transceiver unit collects the ONU information within the neighbor FTTR network that can be covered by the signal strength of the first FTTR network and uploads it to the server.

[0024] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, when the processing unit determines that the uplink traffic of the ONU itself exceeds the predetermined threshold, it triggers the transceiver unit to send a load sharing request to the server.

[0025] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the transceiver unit receives a traffic forwarding instruction from the server, identifies the source ONU identifier and the destination ONU identifier, and sends the destination ONU identifier to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU, so that the slave ONU establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

[0026] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the source ONU identifier indicates the ONU itself provided by the embodiments of the present application, and the ONU directly establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

[0027] When the traffic of the load - sharing ONU provided by the embodiment of the present application exceeds a predetermined threshold, by interacting with the server and other ONU devices, the source ONU service traffic exceeding the predetermined threshold within the first FTTR network is forwarded to the destination ONU within the neighboring FTTR network, realizing the equalization of traffic load between FTTR networks and ensuring the user experience.

[0028] In a third aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a load - sharing system, including:

[0029] A first FTTR network, including a source ONU. The source ONU is the master ONU or the slave ONU within the first FTTR network, and the master ONU is the ONU described in any item of the second aspect;

[0030] A destination ONU, which is the master ONU or the slave ONU within the neighboring FTTR network, and the first FTTR network has one or more neighboring FTTR networks;

[0031] A server, configured to receive the load - sharing request of the master ONU, generate a traffic forwarding instruction, and send it to the master ONU.

[0032] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the server generates network topology information according to the ONU information within the neighboring FTTR network that can be covered by the signal strength of the first FTTR network reported by the master ONU, and generates a traffic forwarding instruction according to the network topology information and the uplink traffic data.

[0033] Specifically, the server includes a transceiver unit, a storage unit, and a calculation unit. The transceiver unit is configured to receive the load - sharing request of the master ONU and send the traffic forwarding instruction to the master ONU. The storage unit stores the network topology information and the uplink traffic data, and the processing unit calculates and generates a traffic forwarding instruction according to the information stored in the storage unit.

[0034] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the source ONU is the slave ONU of the first FTTR network. After receiving the destination ONU identifier sent by the master ONU, the source ONU establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

[0035] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the source ONU is the master ONU of the first FTTR network. The source ONU directly reads the destination ONU identifier and establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

[0036] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, after the source ONU establishes a connection with the destination ONU, the source ONU sends a part of the service traffic to the destination ONU.

[0037] In the load - sharing system provided by the embodiments of this application, when the uplink traffic load in the first FTTR network exceeds a predetermined threshold, the source ONU in the first FTTR network establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the neighboring FTTR network to forward the cross - network service traffic, effectively solving the problem of unbalanced load between FTTR networks. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0038] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the FTTR network;

[0039] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of unbalanced load in the FTTR network;

[0040] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of load sharing for user equipment roaming;

[0041] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the load - sharing system according to the embodiments of this application;

[0042] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the interaction between the network element management system and the FTTR network;

[0043] Figure 6 is a flowchart of the load - sharing method according to the embodiments of this application;

[0044] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the load - sharing ONU according to the embodiments of this application; DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0045] Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the present application and examples shown in the drawings. Although these embodiments will be described in conjunction with them, it can be understood that they are not intended to limit the present invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, the present application disclosure is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents that may be included within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. Additionally, in the following detailed description of the present application, many specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it can be understood that in practical applications, these specific details of the present application may not be included. In other embodiments, well - known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure various aspects of the present application.

[0046] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the FTTR network, as Figure 1As shown in the figure, in an FTTR network, the ONUs are divided into master ONUs (or master gateways) and slave ONUs (or slave gateways) according to their locations. The master ONUs are connected to the OLT to form a network, and different master ONUs are located in different rooms. The master ONU provides a downlink optical interface and is connected to at least one slave ONU. A WiFi connection is established between the slave ONU and the user device for the transmission of service data. Generally speaking, the difference between an ONT and an ONU is that the ONT is directly located at the user end, while there may be other networks between the ONU and the user. In the embodiments of this application, since the slave ONU is directly connected to the user device, it covers the concept of an ONT (Optical Network Terminal). Therefore, the slave ONU in the embodiments of this application can be referred to as an ONT. In addition, since a WiFi connection is established with the user device, the slave ONU in the embodiments of this application also covers the concept of an AP (Access Point, wireless access node). Therefore, in some technical solutions, the use of the terms ONT or AP can both refer to the slave ONU in the embodiments of this application.

[0047] In the existing network deployment, the FTTR networks are independent of each other and there is no communication in the east-west direction. When there is a traffic peak in a certain FTTR network, other FTTR networks cannot share the overloaded traffic of this network. Therefore, it is impossible to form a collaborative aggregation protection among FTTRs. Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of unbalanced load in an FTTR network, as Figure 2 shown, both the first FTTR network (referred to as "FTTR-1" in the figure, the same below) and the second FTTR network (referred to as "FTTR-2" in the figure, the same below) include master ONUs (referred to as "master" in the figure, the same below). The master ONUs are connected to the OLT upstream and are connected to at least one slave ONU (referred to as "slave" in the figure, the same below) downstream. The slave ONU communicates with the user device (referred to as "STA" in the figure, the same below) by establishing a WIFI connection. The upstream traffic of each master ONU is the sum of the upstream traffic of its subordinate slave ONUs, and the upstream traffic of each slave ONU is the sum of the upstream traffic of the user devices connected to the slave ONU. When the upstream service traffic of the user devices in the first FTTR network is relatively large, the upstream traffic of the master ONU in the first FTTR network is overloaded. At this time, packet loss is likely to occur, resulting in a reduction in the user experience. At the same time, the upstream traffic of the master ONU in the second FTTR network is relatively low and lightly loaded. Therefore, the ONU devices in the second FTTR network are not actually well utilized, resulting in a waste of resources.

[0048] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of load sharing achieved through user device roaming in the prior art, as Figure 3As shown, STA3 - STA300 in the first FTTR network are connected to the slave ONU. When the traffic on one or more user devices increases, the slave ONU will not be able to bear the load, the master ONU will be overloaded with traffic, and packet loss will occur. At this time, STA3 - STA300 are guided to connect to other slave ONUs connected to the master ONU in the first FTTR network to share the traffic. After STA3 - STA300 migrate to other slave ONUs, although the traffic load of the slave ONUs that obtain the shared traffic decreases, the traffic of the master ONU within the first FTTR network is still overloaded, and packet loss will still occur, and the user experience cannot be guaranteed. Since the user device must be within the coverage area of the switched FTTR network in order to be guided into the switched FTTR network, this method is highly dependent on the FTTR deployment. Usually, the user device can only switch the connected ONU device within the same FTTR network. Moreover, this method of user device roaming is also highly dependent on the user device itself. Some user devices (such as some iPhone models) may not be guided or the guidance is slow, which will also cause service packet loss and poor user experience.

[0049] In view of the above problems existing in the prior art, the present application provides a load sharing method, ONU and system, which can overcome the problems of strong dependence on the FTTR network and strong dependence on the user device in the prior art, complete the transfer of service traffic between FTTR networks, effectively solve the problem of unbalanced traffic load in the FTTR network, realize the service deterministic SLA (service - level agreement), and guarantee the user experience.

[0050] Embodiment 1 of the present application provides a load sharing system as Figure 4 shown, including a first FTTR network, a destination ONU and a server. A master ONU is set in the first FTTR network. The master ONU is connected to the server through an OLT upstream and is connected to one or more slave ONUs downstream. The slave ONUs and the user devices transmit service flows through WiFi connection. The destination ONU is located in the second FTTR network, and the second FTTR network is a neighbor FTTR network of the first FTTR network. It is easy to understand that the first FTTR network can have one or more neighbor FTTR networks, and all the neighbor FTTR networks are connected to the server.

[0051] The server includes a transceiver unit, a storage unit, and a computing unit. The transceiver unit is used to receive the load sharing request from the master ONU and send a traffic forwarding instruction to the master ONU. The storage unit stores network topology information and uplink traffic data. The processing unit calculates and generates a traffic forwarding instruction based on the information stored in the storage unit. Optionally, the server includes a network element management system (EMS) for managing the devices within the FTTR network and allocating and coordinating resources among FTTR networks. Common network element management systems include the Automatic Configuration Service (ACS) or the Intelligent Terminal Management System (ITMS). The network element management system communicates with the ONU devices within the FTTR network through the MQTT protocol (RFC9431). The MQTT protocol is a client-server based message publishing / subscribing transport protocol, which is lightweight, simple, open, and easy to implement. These characteristics make it widely applicable. Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the network element management system managing FTTR devices through the MQTT protocol, as Figure 5 shown. The network element management system collects the ONU service data within each FTTR network through the MQTT protocol, including data such as uplink traffic, WiFi channels, and bandwidth. Generally speaking, in the MQTT protocol, the Notification messages reported by the ONUs within the FTTR network include the following fields:

[0052] APMac: The MAC address of the ONU;

[0053] RadioType: The WLAN frequency band of the ONU, "2.4G" / "5G";

[0054] SSIDName: The WLAN name of the ONU.

[0055] In the load sharing system provided in the first embodiment of this application, the master ONU of the first FTTR network collects the uplink traffic data of the current subordinate slave ONUs and determines whether the uplink traffic aggregated by the current master ONU is higher than a predetermined threshold. If so, a message for a load sharing request is generated and sent to the server. Among them, the predetermined threshold is a certain value or ratio preset by the ONU, which can be the value of the ONU uplink traffic or the ratio of the ONU uplink traffic to the uplink bandwidth. The uplink traffic of the master ONU is the sum of the uplink traffic of the subordinate slave ONUs. In some examples, the master ONU is only connected to one slave ONU, and the uplink traffic of the master ONU is only the uplink traffic of this one slave ONU; in other examples, the master ONU is connected to multiple slave ONUs, and the uplink traffic of the master ONU is the sum of the uplink traffic of these multiple slave ONUs. As Figure 4 shown, the traffic of the slave ONU in the first FTTR network exceeds the predetermined threshold, resulting in the uplink traffic of the master ONU exceeding the predetermined threshold, and the master ONU sends a load sharing request to the server.

[0056] Before the server generates a traffic forwarding instruction, the master ONU in the first FTTR network reports to the server the ONUs within the coverage of the first FTTR network signal strength and located within the neighboring FTTR network. Specifically, each ONU in the first FTTR network sends a ranging signal to the ONUs in the neighboring FTTR network, and determines the information of the ONUs in the neighboring FTTR network that can establish a connection based on the ranging results, including MAC address, WLAN channel, network type, WIFI mode, working bandwidth, signal strength, etc., which is uniformly reported to the server by the master ONU. In the embodiments of the present application, the MQTT protocol is extended, and a neighboring FTTR network field is added to the Notification message, including the following fields:

[0057] NeighborMac: The MAC address of the ONU in the neighboring FTTR network;

[0058] Channel: The WLAN channel of the ONU in the neighboring FTTR network;

[0059] NetworkType: The network type of the ONU in the neighboring FTTR network, "Ad-Hoc" / "AP";

[0060] SSIDStandard: The WIFI mode of the ONU in the neighboring FTTR network, using the 802.11 standard, with values 11a / 11b / 11g / 11n / 11acd / …

[0061] ChannelWidth: The WIFI working bandwidth of the ONU in the neighboring FTTR network, 0:HT20 / 40 1:HT20 2:HT40 3:HT80 4:HT160 5:HT80+80;

[0062] SignalStrength: The signal strength of the ONU in the neighboring FTTR network detected, in dBm.

[0063] After the master ONU in the first FTTR network uploads the neighboring FTTR network field to the server, the server generates network topology information based on the content of the field. It can be understood that the master ONU in the neighboring FTTR network reports the Notification message to the server in the same way, and the server obtains its neighboring FTTR network field in the same way, and generates the network topology information of the neighboring FTTR network accordingly.

[0064] Before the server generates a traffic forwarding instruction, the master ONU reports the uplink traffic data of itself and its subordinate slave ONUs to the server according to the real-time instruction or subscription instruction of the server. In the embodiment of the present application, the MQTT protocol is extended, and a traffic information field is added to the Notification message to upload the uplink traffic data of the master ONU and its subordinate slave ONUs in the first FTTR network to the server. After receiving the uplink traffic data, the server updates the stored traffic information. The traffic information field is:

[0065] Traffic: The uplink traffic data of the ONU.

[0066] In an alternative implementation manner of the embodiment of the present application, the server sends a traffic collection instruction at any time, and the master ONU reports the uplink traffic data of itself and its subordinate slave ONUs, and one real-time traffic collection is completed; when the server sends a traffic collection instruction again, the traffic data of the master ONU and its subordinate slave ONUs is reported again. Alternatively, the server only sends a traffic subscription instruction once, and the master ONU reports the uplink traffic data of itself and its subordinate slave ONUs at regular intervals according to the requirements of the subscription instruction.

[0067] The server receives a load sharing request sent by the master ONU in the first FTTR network and generates a traffic forwarding instruction. The server calculates the load sharing path according to the network topology information and uplink traffic data of the first FTTR network. The load sharing path includes the source ONU and the destination ONU. Specifically, the slave ONU in the first FTTR network with uplink traffic exceeding a preset threshold is selected as the source ONU. It can be understood that in the case where the traffic of the master ONU exceeds the preset threshold, there may be no subordinate slave ONU with traffic exceeding the threshold. In this case, only the master ONU is subject to traffic load sharing. It is also possible that the traffic of more than one slave ONU exceeds the preset threshold. In this case, multiple slave ONUs need to be subject to traffic load sharing, and a traffic sharing destination ONU is assigned to each slave ONU to generate multiple load sharing paths.

[0068] Further, the ONUs within the WIFI signal coverage range of the source ONU and located in the neighboring FTTR network are screened out, the real-time traffic and historical traffic of the ONUs are analyzed, and the ONUs that continuously have the load sharing ability during traffic forwarding are selected as the destination ONUs. If there are multiple ONUs with continuous load sharing ability within the signal coverage range, the ONU with the highest signal strength is selected as the destination ONU. It can be understood that the destination ONU can be the master ONU in the neighboring FTTR network or the slave ONU in the neighboring FTTR network. As Figure 4 shown, the slave ONU in the second FTTR network is selected as the destination ONU.

[0069] After determining the load sharing path of the source ONU and the destination ONU, the server packages the MAC address of the source ONU, the MAC address of the destination ONU, and the WIFI band of the destination ONU into a traffic forwarding instruction and sends it to the master ONU in the first FTTR network. Correspondingly, in the embodiment of the present application, the MQTT protocol is extended, and the traffic forwarding instruction sent by the server includes the following fields:

[0070] APMac: The MAC address of the source ONU in the first FTTR network;

[0071] DstMac: The MAC address of the destination ONU in the second FTTR network;

[0072] DstRFBand: The WiFi band of the destination ONU in the second FTTR network, "2.4G" / "5G" / "6G".

[0073] The master ONU in the first FTTR network receives the traffic forwarding instruction from the server, identifies the slave ONU identifier corresponding to the source ONU therein, and sends the MAC address and WiFi band of the destination ONU to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU. After receiving the destination ONU identifier, the source ONU establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU accordingly. Optionally, if the master ONU identifies that the one corresponding to the source ONU identifier is the master ONU itself, the master ONU reads the MAC address and WiFi band of the destination ONU and directly establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU.

[0074] In the FTTR clustering scenario, the usernames and passwords of the WLANs in different FTTR networks are the same, that is, the SSIDs and passwords of the source ONU in the first FTTR network and the destination ONU in the second FTTR network are the same. Therefore, after obtaining the MAC address and WIFI band of the destination ONU, the source ONU can automatically connect to the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

[0075] Further, the source ONU classifies the service data uploaded by the user according to the IP packet five-tuple (source IP, destination IP, source port, destination port, and protocol type), and guides a part of the service flow from the user device to the destination ONU in the second FTTR network, so as to achieve the load sharing of traffic between FTTR networks.

[0076] In an alternative embodiment of the present application, the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU calculates a hash value based on the five-tuple of the IP packet sent by the user, and distributes the service data according to the calculation result of the hash value, and sends the user data that meets the preset conditions to the destination ONU. It can be understood that after the source ONU and the destination ONU are connected, according to the classification of the five-tuple of the IP packet, a part of the service flow of the source ONU is guided to the destination ONU, and the other part of the service flow is still sent to the master ONU in the first FTTR network.

[0077] Optionally, the server determines that the traffic forwarding is completed according to the uplink traffic data uploaded by the master ONU, and sends a traffic forwarding termination instruction to the master ONU. The traffic forwarding termination instruction includes the slave ONU identifier corresponding to the source ONU. The master ONU sends the traffic forwarding termination instruction to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU according to the identifier, and the slave ONU terminates the connection with the destination ONU according to the instruction, and the traffic forwarding ends. Or, if the master ONU itself corresponds to the source ONU, the master ONU directly disconnects the connection with the destination ONU and terminates the traffic forwarding. Correspondingly, in the embodiment of the present application, the MQTT protocol is extended, and the traffic forwarding termination instruction sent by the server to the master ONU in the first FTTR network includes the fields:

[0078] APMac: The MAC address of the source ONU.

[0079] Based on the above load sharing system, Embodiment 2 of the present application provides a load sharing method, as Figure 6 shown.

[0080] The first step is that the master ONU of the first FTTR network determines that its uplink traffic exceeds a predetermined threshold and sends a load sharing request to the server.

[0081] Specifically, the predetermined threshold is a certain value or ratio preset in the master ONU. The master ONU of the first FTTR network determines that its uplink traffic exceeds the predetermined threshold, that is, the total overhead of all received uplink Ethernet packets after removing the GEM frames exceeds the predetermined threshold, and sends a load sharing request to the server. Or, the master ONU of the first FTTR network determines that its load ratio exceeds the predetermined threshold, that is, the ratio of the uplink traffic to the uplink bandwidth exceeds the predetermined threshold, and sends a load sharing application to the server.

[0082] The second step is that the master ONU receives a traffic forwarding instruction from the server. The traffic forwarding instruction includes the source ONU identifier and the destination ONU identifier, and is used to instruct the source ONU to forward the received service flow to the destination ONU. Among them, the source ONU is located in the first FTTR network, and the destination ONU is located in the neighbor FTTR network, and the neighbor FTTR network is connected to the server.

[0083] Specifically, before the server generates a traffic forwarding instruction, the master ONU of the first FTTR network uploads the uplink traffic data of itself and its subordinate slave ONUs to the server in real time or in a subscription manner, and the server updates the stored uplink traffic data accordingly. Among them, the uplink traffic data uploaded by the master ONU to the server includes the uplink traffic of the master ONU itself and the uplink traffic of each subordinate slave ONU. It can be understood that the uplink traffic of the master ONU is the sum of the uplink traffic of the subordinate slave ONUs. In some examples, the master ONU is only connected to one slave ONU, and the uplink traffic of the master ONU is only the uplink traffic of this one slave ONU; in other examples, the master ONU is connected to multiple slave ONUs, and the uplink traffic of the master ONU is the sum of the uplink traffic of these multiple slave ONUs.

[0084] Specifically, before the server generates a traffic forwarding instruction, the master ONU uploads the ONU information within the neighbor FTTR network that can be covered by the first FTTR network signal strength to the server, and the server generates network topology information accordingly. The ONU information of the neighbor FTTR network includes information such as the MAC address, WLAN channel, network type, WIFI mode, working bandwidth, signal strength, etc. of the ONU. The network topology information and uplink traffic data uploaded by the master ONU enable the server to calculate the source ONU and the destination ONU and generate a traffic forwarding instruction.

[0085] In the third step, according to the source ONU identifier in the traffic forwarding instruction, the master ONU distributes the destination ONU identifier to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU identifier, so that the slave ONU establishes a connection with the destination ONU.

[0086] It can be understood that the source ONU can be a slave ONU subordinate to the master ONU or the master ONU itself. Optionally, when the master ONU identifies that the source ONU identifier corresponds to its subordinate slave ONU, it sends the MAC address and WiFi frequency band of the destination ONU to the slave ONU, so that the slave ONU establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode; when the master ONU identifies that the source ONU identifier corresponds to the master ONU itself, the master ONU reads the MAC address and WiFi frequency band of the destination ONU and establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

[0087] Optionally, after the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU, a part of the uplink service flow of the slave ONU is guided to the destination ONU, and the other part is still received by the master ONU within the first FTTR network.

[0088] Based on the above method, Embodiment 3 of the present application provides a load-sharing ONU, which is located at the position of the master ONU in the first FTTR network, is connected to the server uplink, and is connected to at least one slave ONU downlink, as Figure 7As shown in the figure, the ONU provided in the third embodiment of the present application includes three units:

[0089] A transceiver unit, which is used to communicate with the server and other ONU devices, including sending a load sharing request to the server, receiving a traffic forwarding instruction from the server, and sending the destination ONU identifier to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU identifier;

[0090] A storage unit, which is used to store the predetermined threshold of the upstream traffic and the information received by the transceiver unit;

[0091] A processing unit, which is used to judge whether its own upstream traffic exceeds the predetermined threshold and execute the instructions stored in the storage unit.

[0092] Since the load sharing ONU provided in the third embodiment of the present application is located at the position of the master ONU in the FTTR network, the master ONU described below all refers to the ONU provided in the third embodiment.

[0093] After the master ONU accesses the first FTTR network, it communicates with the server through the transceiver unit using the MQTT protocol.

[0094] Specifically, the processing unit of the master ONU aggregates the upstream traffic of the subordinate slave ONUs, and reports the upstream traffic data of the subordinate slave ONUs and its own upstream traffic data to the server in real time or in a subscription manner through the transceiver unit.

[0095] In addition, after the master ONU accesses the first FTTR network, it reports the ONU information within the neighbor FTTR network that can be covered by the signal strength of the first FTTR network through the transceiver unit. Specifically, each ONU within the first FTTR network sends a ranging signal to the ONUs within the neighbor FTTR network, and collects the ONU information that can establish a connection within the neighbor FTTR network according to the ranging result, including MAC address, WLAN channel, network type, WIFI mode, working bandwidth, signal strength, etc., which is uniformly reported to the server by the master ONU.

[0096] After the master ONU accesses the first FTTR network, it sets the predetermined threshold of the master ONU's upstream traffic according to the number and bandwidth of the slave ONUs currently connected to the master ONU's downstream, and stores it in the storage unit. When performing load sharing between FTTRs, the processing unit of the master ONU analyzes the upstream traffic data of the master ONU, compares the size of the master ONU's current upstream traffic with the predetermined threshold. If the master ONU's current upstream traffic is greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold, a load sharing request message is generated and sent to the server by the transceiver unit.

[0097] The transceiver unit is further configured to receive a traffic forwarding instruction from a server and transfer the traffic forwarding instruction to the processing unit for analysis. The processing unit identifies the source ONU identifier and the destination ONU identifier in the traffic forwarding instruction, and sends the MAC address and WiFi frequency band of the destination ONU to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU identifier. Optionally, if the processing unit identifies that the source ONU identifier corresponds to the master ONU itself, the processing unit directly reads the destination ONU identifier, transfers the MAC address and WiFi frequency band of the destination ONU to the transceiver unit, and establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU through the transceiver unit.

[0098] It can be understood that when the transceiver unit of the master ONU receives multiple instructions at the same time, the multiple instructions to be processed are temporarily stored in the storage unit. After the previous instruction is executed, the next instruction to be processed is called into the processing unit according to the priority.

[0099] Optionally, after the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU establishes a WIFI connection with the destination ONU, the transceiver unit of the master ONU continues to receive a part of the traffic flow from the source ONU and sends the traffic flow to the OLT node.

[0100] In summary, the embodiments of the present invention provide a method, an ONU, and a system for traffic forwarding between FTTR networks, realizing the balance of traffic load between FTTR networks. It should be noted that although the above disclosure uses specific block diagrams, flowcharts, and examples to illustrate various embodiments, each block diagram component, flowchart step, operation, and / or component described and / or illustrated herein can be implemented individually and / or jointly by various hardware, software, or firmware (or any combination thereof) configurations. In addition, the disclosure of any component included among other components should be regarded as an example, because many other architectures can be implemented to achieve the same function.

[0101] The process parameters and step sequences described and / or illustrated herein are only for example and can be changed as needed. For example, although the steps illustrated and / or described herein can be shown or discussed in a specific order, these steps do not necessarily have to be executed in the order shown or discussed. The various example methods described and / or illustrated herein can also omit one or more steps described and / or illustrated herein or can further include additional steps other than those disclosed.

[0102] Although the different embodiments have been described and / or illustrated in the context of a fully functional computing system, one or more of these example embodiments can be distributed in a variety of ways as a program product, regardless of the specific form of the computer-readable medium used to actually effect such distribution. The embodiments disclosed herein can also be implemented by using software modules that perform some specific tasks. These software modules can include scripts, batch files, or other executable files, which can be stored on a computer-readable medium or in a computer system. These software modules can configure a computer system to perform one or more of the example embodiments disclosed herein. One or more of the software modules disclosed herein can be implemented in a cloud computing environment. A cloud computing environment can provide different services and applications over the Internet. These cloud-based services (e.g., software as a service, platform as a service, infrastructure as a service, etc.) can be accessed through a web browser or other remote interface. The various functions described herein can be provided through a remote desktop environment or any other cloud-based computing environment.

[0103] Although the invention has been described in detail with respect to its advantages, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions, and alterations can be made to the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The selected and described embodiments are intended to better explain the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby enabling those skilled in the art to better utilize the invention in various embodiments and various changes suitable for the intended specific purposes.

[0104] Embodiments in accordance with the invention are described herein. Although the invention has been described in specific embodiments, it should be understood that the invention should not be construed as being limited to these embodiments.

Claims

1. A load sharing method, characterized in that, it includes the following steps: a. The master ONU in the first FTTR network determines that its upstream traffic exceeds a predetermined threshold and sends a load sharing request to the server; b. The master ONU receives the traffic forwarding instruction from the server. The traffic forwarding instruction includes the source ONU identifier and the destination ONU identifier, and is used to instruct the source ONU to send the received traffic flow to the destination ONU. The source ONU is within the first FTTR network, and the destination ONU is within a neighboring FTTR network, and the neighboring FTTR network is connected to the server; c. The master ONU distributes the destination ONU identifier to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU identifier according to the source ONU identifier in the traffic forwarding instruction, so that the slave ONU establishes a connection with the destination ONU.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, before receiving the traffic forwarding instruction from the server, the master ONU reports the ONU information within the neighboring FTTR network that can be covered by the signal strength of the first FTTR network to the server.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, before receiving the traffic forwarding instruction from the server, the master ONU reports the upstream traffic data of itself and its subordinate slave ONUs to the server according to the real-time instruction or subscription instruction of the server.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, when the source ONU identifier indicates the master ONU itself, the master ONU directly establishes a connection with the destination ONU.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 4, characterized in that, the destination ONU identifier in the traffic forwarding instruction received by the master ONU includes the MAC address and WiFi frequency band of the destination ONU, so that the master ONU or the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

6. A load sharing ONU, characterized in that, it is located at the position of the master ONU in the first FTTR network, is connected to the server upstream, and is connected to at least one slave ONU downstream, and includes: a transceiver unit for communicating with the server and other ONU devices, including sending a load sharing request to the server, receiving a traffic forwarding instruction from the server, and sending a destination ONU identifier to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU identifier; a storage unit for storing the predetermined threshold of the upstream traffic and the information received by the transceiver unit; a processing unit for judging whether its own upstream traffic exceeds the predetermined threshold and executing the instructions stored in the storage unit.

7. The ONU according to claim 6, characterized in that, the transceiver unit collects the upstream traffic data of the subordinate slave ONUs and uploads the upstream traffic data of the ONU itself and its subordinate ONUs to the server in real time or in a subscription manner.

8. The ONU according to claim 7, characterized in that, The transceiver unit collects ONU information within the neighboring FTTR network that can be covered by the signal strength of the first FTTR network and uploads it to the server.

9. The ONU according to claim 8, wherein, the processing unit determines that the uplink traffic of the ONU itself exceeds a predetermined threshold, and triggers the transceiver unit to send a load sharing request to the server.

10. The ONU according to claim 9, wherein, the transceiver unit receives a traffic forwarding instruction from the server, identifies the source ONU identifier and the destination ONU identifier, and sends the destination ONU identifier to the slave ONU corresponding to the source ONU, so that the slave ONU establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

11. The ONU according to claim 10, wherein, the source ONU identifier indicates the ONU itself, and the ONU directly establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

12. A load sharing system, wherein, comprising: a first FTTR network, including a source ONU, the source ONU being the master ONU or the slave ONU within the first FTTR network, and the master ONU being the ONU according to any one of claims 6-11; a destination ONU, the destination ONU being the master ONU or the slave ONU within the neighboring FTTR network of the first FTTR network, and the first FTTR network having one or more neighboring FTTR networks.

13. A server, configured to receive the load sharing request of the master ONU, generate a traffic forwarding instruction and send it to the master ONU. According to the system of claim 12, wherein, the server generates network topology information based on the ONU information within the neighboring FTTR network that can be covered by the signal strength of the first FTTR network reported by the master ONU, and generates the traffic forwarding instruction based on the network topology information and the uplink traffic data.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein, the source ONU is the slave ONU within the first FTTR network, and after receiving the destination ONU identifier sent by the master ONU, the source ONU establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein, the source ONU is the master ONU within the first FTTR network, and the source ONU directly reads the destination ONU identifier and establishes a WiFi connection with the destination ONU in the new STA mode.

16. The system according to claim 14 or 15, wherein, after the source ONU establishes a connection with the destination ONU, the source ONU sends a part of the traffic flow to the destination ONU.

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