NF Repository Response Pruning for 5G Service Discovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing 5G service discovery response in a service-based architecture includes a large amount of unnecessary information, leading to high signaling overheads and waste of network and storage resources, particularly in inter-public land mobile network scenarios.
Innovation Solution
A communication method and apparatus that optimizes the service discovery response by determining conditions for optimization, such as indication information or network affiliation, to reduce unnecessary information transmission and improve resource utilization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If the service discovery response includes complete NF profile information as defined by 3GPP protocol, then the information completeness is improved, but the signaling overhead increases and network resources are wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and returns only the necessary service instance information from the complete NF profile, excluding unnecessary fields. The NRF identifies and returns only the subset of information required for service discovery, rather than transmitting the entire NF profile structure defined by 3GPP protocol.
Solution Approach 2:
The NF profile information is segmented into essential service instance details and non-essential complete profile data. The service discovery response contains only the segmented essential portion needed for service discovery operations, separating necessary information from redundant information.
2Loss of information
If the service discovery response includes complete NF profile information, then the information completeness is improved, but the network resource utilization deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and returns only the necessary service instance information from the complete NF profile, excluding unnecessary fields. The NRF identifies and returns only the subset of information required for service discovery, rather than transmitting the entire NF profile structure defined by 3GPP protocol.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of transmitting the complete NF profile (excessive action), the patent transmits only the partial information necessary for service discovery. This partial action approach avoids the waste of network resources while providing sufficient information for the service discovery function.
3Loss of information
If the service discovery response includes complete NF profile information, then the information completeness is improved, but the storage resource consumption of NF client increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and returns only the necessary service instance information from the complete NF profile, excluding unnecessary fields. The NRF identifies and returns only the subset of information required for service discovery, rather than transmitting the entire NF profile structure defined by 3GPP protocol.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by providing different information quantities to different clients based on their specific needs. The service discovery response contains locally optimized information tailored for service discovery operations, rather than uniformly providing complete NF profiles to all clients.
Data Source
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AI summary
A communication method and apparatus are provided, to optimize a service discovery response. After receiving a service discovery request that is from a network function client, a first network function repository network element determines that the service discovery request meets a first condition, and determines to optimize a service discovery response; and further, the first network function repository network element sends an optimized service discovery response to the network function client. In this way, the service discovery response is optimized, reducing signaling overheads of the service discovery response and a waste of network resources, and saving storage resources of the NF client.