CN108632055B

CN108632055B - Network control method and device and communication system

Info

Publication number: CN108632055B
Application number: CN201710159839.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李卓明
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-03-17
Filing date: 2017-03-17
Publication date: 2020-10-09
Anticipated expiration: 2037-03-17
Also published as: WO2018166379A1; CN108632055A

Abstract

A method and a device for network control and a communication system can adjust the deployment of a network function entity according to the deployment strategy of the network function entity required by a session, and are beneficial to ensuring that the deployment of the network function entity is globally optimal for the service session. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that a policy control function entity determines a first network function entity required by a first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity; the policy control function entity determining whether the current deployment condition of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy; if it is determined that the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy, the policy control functional entity sends a network functional deployment adjustment indication to a policy enforcement functional entity, where the network functional deployment adjustment indication is used to indicate that a first instance of the first network functional entity is deployed at a target location.

Description

Network control method and device and communication system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for network control and a communication system.

Background

Future communication systems may support a variety of different service types, such as enhanced mobile Broadband (eMBB), ultra-high Reliability ultra-low latency Connection (urrllc), and massive Machine type Connection (mtc), among others. Different service types have different characteristics and network requirements, for example, applications such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) of the eMBB have extremely high requirements on bandwidth, applications such as autopilot of the urrllc are sensitive to time delay, and connection density of the mtc is extremely high. Therefore, in order to better meet the service requirements, different service types have unique requirements on the deployment positions of the network functional entities.

Currently, a Policy Control Function (PCF) is used as a Policy decision point, and selects a User Plane (UP) Function through which a service session flows from network Function entities deployed at fixed locations according to Application session information, operator configuration, user subscription information, and the like provided by an Application Function (AF), and correspondingly provides different Control rules for a Next Generation Control Plane (NG-CP) to ensure service quality of a network for different service types. However, this mechanism does not meet the requirements of different service types on the quality of service well, and the user experience is poor.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a network control method and device and a communication system, which can meet the requirements of different service types on service quality.

In a first aspect, a method for network control is provided, including: the method comprises the steps that a policy control function entity determines a first network function entity required by a first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity; the policy control function entity determining whether the current deployment condition of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy; if it is determined that the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy, the policy control functional entity sends a network functional deployment adjustment indication to a policy enforcement functional entity, where the network functional deployment adjustment indication is used to indicate that a first instance of the first network functional entity is deployed at a target location.

Optionally, the current deployment status of the first network function entity may refer to a current instance deployment status of the first network function entity, and may include, for example, a status of an instance that the first network function entity has been currently deployed.

Optionally, the network function deployment adjustment indication may be used to indicate that a deployment adjustment of the first network function entity is performed at a target location.

Optionally, the policy enforcement function entity is a session management function entity or a network control function entity.

The network control method provided by the embodiment of the invention can adjust the deployment of the network function entity according to the deployment strategy of the network function entity required by the session, and is beneficial to ensuring that the deployment of the network function entity is globally optimal for the service session, thereby improving the network performance and the user experience.

Optionally, the first deployment policy includes at least one of: deployment location, deployment mode, occupied resources, required UP capabilities. Alternatively, the deployment may be the same data center or across data centers.

Optionally, the resources may include physical resources and/or network resources. The physical resources may include physical infrastructure resources and the like, and the network resources may include resources such as bandwidth and the like.

Optionally, the network function entity deployment adjustment indication is specifically configured to indicate that an instance of the first network function entity deployed at a first location is to be migrated to the target location; or the network function entity deployment adjustment indication is specifically configured to indicate that the first instance of the first network function entity is created at the target location; or the first network functional entity is specifically a first user plane functional entity, and the network functional entity deployment adjustment indication is specifically used for indicating to start the first processing capability of the instance of the first user plane functional entity deployed at the target location.

In a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, by the policy control function entity, a first network function entity required for the first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity includes: the policy control function entity determines a first network function entity required by the first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity according to the information of the first session, wherein the information of the first session includes information of a service type of the first session.

Optionally, the information of the first session may further include user information corresponding to the first session, for example, user identity information.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, by the policy control functional entity, the first network functional entity required by the first session and the first deployment policy of the first network functional entity according to the information of the first session includes: the policy control functional entity determines the first network functional entity required by the first session according to the information of the service type of the first session and the user information corresponding to the first session; the policy control function entity determines the first deployment policy according to the information of the traffic type of the first session and the first network function entity.

Optionally, the policy control function entity is configured to store at least one deployment policy of the first network function entity, where the at least one deployment policy includes the first deployment policy.

Optionally, the data storage function entity is configured to store at least one deployment policy of each of at least one network function entity, where the at least one network function entity includes the first network function entity.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, by the policy control functional entity, the first deployment policy of the first network functional entity according to the information of the first session includes: the policy control function entity sends a deployment policy request to a data storage function entity, wherein the deployment policy request carries the information of the first session; and the policy control functional entity receives third indication information which is sent by the data storage functional entity according to the deployment policy request and is used for indicating the first deployment policy.

Optionally, the policy control function entity may further receive indication information sent by the data storage function entity for indicating the first network function entity, and determine the first network function entity required for the first session according to the indication information.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, by the policy control functional entity, whether the current deployment status of the first network functional entity meets the first deployment policy includes: the policy control function entity obtains information of at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity; the policy control function entity determines whether a deployed instance meeting the first deployment policy exists in the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity according to the first deployment policy and information of the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity; correspondingly, if the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the deployment policy of the first network functional entity, the policy control functional entity sends a network function deployment adjustment instruction to the policy enforcement functional entity, including: if at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity does not have a deployed instance satisfying the first deployment policy, the policy control function entity sends a network function deployment adjustment indication to a policy enforcement function entity.

A deployed instance of a first network function entity may refer to an instance of the first network function entity that is currently deployed. Optionally, the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity may be specifically a part or all of the instances that the first network function entity has currently deployed.

Optionally, if there is no deployed instance of the at least one deployed instance of the first network functional entity that satisfies the first deployment policy, the policy control functional entity may determine that the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy.

Optionally, if there is a deployed instance that satisfies the first deployment policy in the at least one deployed instance of the first network functional entity, the policy control functional entity may determine that the current deployment condition of the first network functional entity satisfies the first deployment policy.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, by the policy control functional entity, whether the current deployment status of the first network functional entity meets the first deployment policy includes: the policy control function entity determining the target location that satisfies the first deployment policy; the policy control function entity determining whether an instance of the first network function entity satisfying the first deployment policy is deployed at the target location; correspondingly, if the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the deployment policy of the first network functional entity, the policy control functional entity sends a network function deployment adjustment instruction to the policy enforcement functional entity, including: if the instance of the first network function entity meeting the first deployment policy is not deployed in the target location, the policy control function entity sends a network function deployment adjustment indication to a policy enforcement function entity.

Optionally, if an instance of the first network function entity satisfying the first deployment policy is deployed at the target location, that is, there is a deployed instance of the first network function entity satisfying the first deployment policy at the target location, the policy control function entity may determine that the current deployment condition of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy.

Optionally, if the instance of the first network function entity satisfying the first deployment policy is not deployed at the target location, that is, the deployed instance of the first network function entity satisfying the first deployment policy does not exist at the target location, the policy control function entity may determine that the current deployment status of the first network function entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, before the policy control function entity determines the first network function entity required for the first session, the method further includes: the policy control function entity receives a flow policy request of the first session sent by a session management function entity; the policy control function entity determining a first network function entity required for the first session, comprising: the policy control function entity determines a first network function entity required for the first session according to the flow policy request.

Optionally, the flow policy request of the first session may carry information of the first session.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, after the policy control function entity sends a network function deployment adjustment instruction to the policy execution function entity, the method further includes: if it is determined that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, the policy control function entity sends a flow policy response to the session management function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location.

Therefore, the deployment of the network function entity can be adjusted according to the service level agreement requirement of the service and the deployment strategy, so that the quality requirement of the service can be better guaranteed.

Optionally, the policy control functional entity may receive indication information, which is sent by the policy enforcement functional entity and used to indicate that the deployment adjustment of the first network functional entity is performed completely, and determine that the deployment adjustment of the first network functional entity is performed completely according to the indication information, that is, determine that the first instance of the first network functional entity is successfully deployed at the target location.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, after the policy control function entity determines the first network function entity required for the first session, the method further includes: the policy control function entity determining a second instance of the first network function entity from the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity; the policy control function entity sends a flow policy response to the session management function entity, wherein the flow policy response carries first indication information for indicating a second instance of the first network function entity; after the policy control function entity sends a network function deployment adjustment indication to the policy enforcement function entity, the method further includes: if it is determined that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, the policy control function entity sends a first flow policy update indication to the session management function entity, where the first flow policy update indication is used to indicate that the first session is migrated from the second instance of the first network function entity to the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location.

Therefore, the deployed network function entity instance is selected to establish the session, and then whether the selected instance meets the deployment strategy or not is judged, so that the deployment adjustment of the network function entity and the session establishment process can be realized in parallel, once the deployment adjustment is in place, the session can be directly adjusted, and the response time of session establishment is reduced.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes: the policy control functional entity receives a first deployment failure indication sent by the policy execution functional entity, wherein the first deployment failure indication is used for indicating that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity; the policy control function entity determines a second service type from the service types of at least one session carried by at least one network function entity instance at the target location according to the received first deployment failure indication, wherein the second service type is different from the first service type of the first session; and the policy control function entity sends a service migration indication to a session management function entity, wherein the service migration indication is used for indicating that the session of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance at the target position is migrated to a second position.

The target location may be deployed with multiple network function entity instances, that is, instances of network function entities, each network function entity instance may carry zero, one, or multiple sessions, where the sessions carried by the network function entity instances in the target location may have different service types. The policy control function entity may determine the second traffic type from a plurality of traffic types.

Optionally, the second service type supports routing reselection and the priority of the service corresponding to the second service type is lower than the priority of the service corresponding to the first service type.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, after the policy control function entity sends the service migration instruction to the session management function entity, the method further includes: if it is determined that the session of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance at the target location is successfully migrated to the second location, the policy control function entity sends second indication information to the policy enforcement function entity, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the available resources at the target location have met the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

In a second aspect, another network control method is provided, including: the method comprises the steps that a strategy execution functional entity receives a network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction sent by a strategy control functional entity, wherein the network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction is used for indicating that a first instance of a first network functional entity is deployed at a target position; the policy enforcement function entity performs a process of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location according to the network function entity deployment adjustment indication.

The policy enforcement function entity may perform a deployment adjustment of the first network function entity at a target location based on the network function entity deployment adjustment indication.

Optionally, the policy enforcement function may be a network control function or a session management function, where the network control function or the session management function may deploy the first instance of the first network function at the target location. Alternatively, the session management function entity may control the user plane controller to deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location.

In a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the executing, by the policy performing functional entity, the process of deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity at the target location according to the network functional entity deployment adjustment indication includes: the policy enforcement function entity determines whether the available resources of the target location meet requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, before the policy enforcement function entity determines whether the available resources of the target location meet requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, the method further includes: the strategy execution functional entity sends a resource information request to the data storage functional entity, wherein the resource information request is used for requesting the information of the current available resources of the target position; the strategy execution functional entity receives the information of the current available resource of the target position, which is sent by the data storage functional entity according to the resource information request; accordingly, the determining, by the policy enforcement functional entity, whether the available resources at the target location meet the requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity includes: the policy enforcement function entity determines whether the available resources at the target location meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity according to the information of the current available resources at the target location and the information of the resources that need to be occupied by the first instance of the first network function entity.

Optionally, if the policy enforcement function entity is a session management function entity, and the session management function entity sends, to the user plane controller, indication information for indicating that the first instance is deployed at the target location, the session management function entity may determine, according to the indication information sent by the user plane controller, whether the available resources at the target location meet a requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, if the policy performing functional entity is specifically a network control functional entity, the policy performing functional entity performs, according to the network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction, processing of deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity at the target location, further includes: if it is determined that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, the policy enforcement function entity sends a resource request message to the NFV MANO, the resource request message requesting resources for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity; the policy enforcement function entity receiving a resource allocation message sent by the NFV MANO according to the resource request message, the resource allocation message being used to indicate resources allocated for the target location for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity; the policy enforcement function entity deploys the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location based on the resource allocation message.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the policy execution functional entity is specifically a session management functional entity; the policy enforcement function entity performs, according to the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction, a process of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location, including: the policy enforcement function entity sends fourth indication information to the user plane controller at the target location according to the network function entity deployment adjustment indication, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the user plane controller to deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes: the policy enforcement function entity receives a second deployment failure indication sent by the user plane controller, where the second deployment failure indication indicates that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes: if it is determined that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity, the policy enforcement functional entity sends a first deployment failure indication to the policy control functional entity, where the first deployment failure indication is used to indicate that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, if the policy enforcement function entity is specifically a session management function entity, the method further includes: the session management functional entity receives a service migration instruction sent by the policy control functional entity according to the first deployment failure instruction, wherein the service migration instruction is used for instructing to migrate a session of a second service type carried by a network functional entity instance on the target position to a second position; the session management functional entity determines at least one second session of the second service type carried by the network functional entity instance at the target position according to the service migration indication; and the session management functional entity sends a routing reselection indication to the network functional entity instance which is used for bearing the second session and positioned on the target position, wherein the routing reselection indication is used for indicating that the second session borne by the network functional entity instance is migrated to the second position.

Optionally, after successfully migrating the second session to the second location, the policy control function entity may deploy the first instance at the target location, or the session management function entity may notify the user plane controller to deploy the first instance.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manners of the second aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes: the policy enforcement function entity receives second indication information sent by the policy control function entity, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the available resources at the target location have met the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, if the policy performing functional entity is specifically a session management functional entity, before the policy performing functional entity receives a network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction sent by a policy control functional entity, the method further includes: the session management functional entity sends a flow policy request to the policy control functional entity, wherein the flow policy request carries the information of the first session; the method further comprises the following steps: if the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, the session management function entity receives a flow policy response sent by the policy control function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location.

With reference to the foregoing possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, if the policy performing functional entity is specifically a session management functional entity, before the policy performing functional entity receives a network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction sent by a policy control functional entity, the method further includes: the session management functional entity sends a flow policy request to the policy control functional entity, wherein the flow policy request carries the information of the first session; the session management functional entity receives a flow policy response sent by the policy control functional entity, wherein the flow policy response carries first indication information used for indicating a second instance of the first network functional entity; the method further comprises the following steps: if the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, the session management function entity receives a first flow policy update indication sent by the policy control function entity, where the first flow policy update indication is used to indicate that the first session is migrated from the second instance of the first network function entity to the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location.

The session management function entity may migrate the first session to the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location based on the first flow policy update indication.

In a third aspect, a network-controlled apparatus is provided for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In particular, the apparatus comprises means for performing the method of the first aspect described above or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided another network-controlled apparatus for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In particular, the apparatus comprises means for performing the method of the second aspect described above or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, another network-controlled apparatus is provided, including: a memory for storing instructions and a processor for executing the instructions stored by the memory, and when the processor executes the instructions stored by the memory, the execution causes the processor to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, another network controlled apparatus is provided, including: a memory for storing instructions and a processor for executing the instructions stored by the memory and which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to carry out the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes a policy control function entity and a policy enforcement function entity.

Optionally, the policy control function entity may be the apparatus in the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect, and the policy enforcement function entity may be the apparatus in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect.

Alternatively, the policy control function entity may be a device in the fifth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, and the policy enforcement function entity may be a device in the sixth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect.

Optionally, the communication system further comprises a data storage function entity, the data storage function entity is configured to store at least one of the following information: information of at least one deployed instance of each of the one or more network function entities, information of each of at least one physical location where the network function entity may be deployed.

Optionally, the information of the deployed instance may include at least one of the following information: deployment location information, occupied resource information, information of processing capacity to be started, and capacity utilization information.

Optionally, the information of the physical location includes location information and/or available resource information of the physical location.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium for storing a computer program comprising instructions for carrying out the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium for storing a computer program comprising instructions for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an example of an architecture of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of another example of the architecture of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

Fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a method for network control according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of another network control method provided by the embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of another network control method provided by the embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 7 is a schematic flow chart of another network control method provided by the embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of another network control method provided by the embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a network-controlled apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of another network-controlled apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of another network-controlled apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 12 is a schematic block diagram of another network-controlled apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention can be applied to various communication systems, such as: a global System for Mobile communications (GSM) System, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) System, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) System, a General Packet Radio Service (PRS), a Long term evolution (Long term evolution, LTE) System, an LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) System, an LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication System, a future evolution Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), or a future Mobile Network G5 System.

Fig. 1 illustrates a communication system 100 to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. The communication system 100 may comprise a policy control function 110 and at least one policy enforcement function 120, wherein the policy control function 110 may be used for network level policy control in addition to user level policy control. Optionally, the user-level policy control may include session and flow policy control, and the network-level policy control may include network function entity policy control, for example, deployment control or adjustment of the network function entity. As an example, the policy control function entity 110 may determine a deployment policy of the network function entity required by the session, and determine to deploy the instance of the network function entity at the target location according to the deployment policy, for example, to create a new instance at the target location, migrate the deployed instance to the target location, or turn on or off the processing capability of the instance deployed at the target location, and so on, but the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto. The policy enforcement function 120 may be configured to enforce the network-level control policies determined by the policy control function 110, such as to adjust the deployment of the network function.

In particular, policy control function 110 may determine whether a deployed instance of a network function entity required for the session, which may be a control plane function entity or a user plane function entity, is capable of satisfying a Quality of Service (QoS) requirement of the session. Alternatively, if there is no deployed instance of the network function that can meet the qos requirement of the session, the policy control function 110 may determine to make deployment adjustments to the network function to guarantee the qos requirement of the session. Wherein the deployment adjustment of the network function entity may include migrating a deployed instance of the network function entity and/or deploying a new instance of the network function entity at a network location. Optionally, if the network functional entity is specifically an UP functional entity, an instance of the UP functional entity deployed at a certain network location may support a certain processing capability, but the processing capability is not currently turned on, at this time, the deployment adjustment of the UP functional entity may also include turning on a specific processing capability of the instance of the UP functional entity deployed at the network location; alternatively, the adjustment of the deployment of the UP functional entity may also include turning off a specific processing capability of an instance of the UP functional entity deployed at a certain network location, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto. Optionally, the processing capability herein may refer to capabilities of traffic detection, charging monitoring, IP address allocation, terminal identifier allocation, forwarding control, packet encapsulation, encryption/decryption, or data caching, and may even include a processing capability possessed by a network function entity of a third-party application, such as content acceleration and rendering, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

As an alternative example, policy control function 110 may be a PCF, although embodiments of the invention are not limited thereto.

The policy enforcement function 120 may be configured to perform the deployment adjustment of the network function, i.e., the policy control function 110 may implement the deployment adjustment of the network function by instructing the policy enforcement function 120.

Fig. 1 exemplarily shows one policy control function entity 110 and one policy enforcement function entity 120, and optionally, the communication system 100 may include a plurality of policy control function entities 110 and/or a plurality of policy enforcement function entities 120, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

As an optional example, policy control function 110 may also store data for performing policy control at the user and/or network level. For example, the policy control function 110 may be configured to store deployment information of one or more network functions, such as information of deployed instances and/or deployment policies, and so on. As another optional example, the communication system 100 may further include a data storage function 130 that stores data for user and/or network level policy control. For example, the data storage function 130 may store user-level session and flow policies, including one or more of user-level QoS control policies, flow-based charging control policies, user subscription information-based authorization control policies, and the like. For another example, the data storage function entity 130 may store a deployment policy of the network function entity, including one or more of a target location where the network function entity needs to be deployed, whether the network function entity needs to be deployed in the same data center or across data centers, and resources that need to be occupied. Optionally, data storage functional entity 130 may store multiple deployment policies of the same network functional entity, where different deployment policies may correspond to different traffic types, but the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto. For another example, the data storage function entity 130 may further store information indicating which physical locations have resources available for deploying the network function entity, where the resources may include physical resources and/or network resources, where the physical resources may be resources such as infrastructure, and the network resources may be resources such as network bandwidth, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. For another example, the data storage Function entity 130 may further store current deployment information of the Network Function entity, where the current deployment information includes topology information and/or physical location information of an instance that the Network Function entity has deployed, where the topology information of the Network Function entity instance may represent a physical link connection relationship between physical devices where the Network Function entity instance is located, and the physical location information of the Network Function entity instance may represent a location of the physical device where the Network Function entity instance is located, for example, if the Network Function entity is a Virtual Network Function (VNF), the physical location information may include a physical location of an infrastructure used by a Virtual machine or a container of the VNF, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

As an example, the data storage function entity 130 may be embodied as a Unified Data Management (UDM), but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Alternatively, in the embodiment of the present invention, the policy enforcement function entity 120 may be implemented by an existing network element. For example, in the example of communication system 200 shown in fig. 2, Session Management Function (SMF) 220 may implement the policy enforcement function 120. At this point, SMF 220 may perform deployment adjustments to the network functional entity, such as creation and/or migration of the network functional entity, or turning on or off of particular processing capabilities of the network functional entity. Alternatively, the SMF 220 may also implement the deployment adjustment on the User Plane Function entity (User Plane Function, UPF)240 by controlling the User Plane Function entity, for example, if the UPF 240 further includes a UP controller on the basis of the UP Function entity, optionally, the SMF 220 may control the UP controller to perform the deployment adjustment on the UPF 240 by interacting with the UP controller in the UPF 240, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the policy performing function entity 120 may also be implemented by adding a new network element. For example, in the communication system 300 shown in fig. 3, a newly added Network Control Function (NCF) 320 may be used to implement the policy enforcement function 120. At this time, not only the deployment adjustment of the User Plane (UP) functional entity but also the deployment adjustment of the Control Plane (CP) functional entity may be implemented, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

In addition, in the examples shown in fig. 2 and fig. 3, the communication system may further optionally include an Access Management Function (AMF) or a Slice Selection Function (SSF) entity, which may be used to perform processing of terminal Access signaling and Selection of a network Slice, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Optionally, the communication system applied in the embodiment of the present invention may further include other network elements and/or functional entities, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

It should be noted that, in the above communication system, the network function entity, the policy control function entity, the policy execution function entity, the data storage function entity, the network control function entity, the session management function entity, and the like are only names, and the names do not limit the device itself. In a future 5G network and other networks in the future, network elements or entities corresponding to a network function entity, a policy control function entity, a policy enforcement function entity, a data storage function entity, a network control function entity, a session management function entity, and the like may also have other names, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application. For example, a network function entity may be referred to as a network function; alternatively, the UP functional entity may be referred to as UP, and the CP functional entity may be referred to as CP; the policy control function entity may be referred to as a policy control function, etc., and is described herein in a unified manner and will not be described further.

It should be noted that, in addition to the functions described in the embodiment of the present application, each network element and/or functional entity in the foregoing communication system may also have other functions, for example, the SMF may also be used to control the UPF to implement processing and/or forwarding of a service flow, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, each network element and/or functional entity may be implemented by one entity device, or may be implemented by multiple entity devices together, and this is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application. That is, it can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the network function entity, the policy control function entity, the data storage function entity, the network control function entity, the session management function entity, and the like may be one logic function module in the entity device, or may be one logic function module composed of a plurality of entity devices, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present invention, the same network element and/or the same functional entity are identified by the same or similar reference numerals, unless specifically stated or clear from context, the functions and/or actions of the same or similar network element and/or functional entity are the same or similar, and the respective embodiments may be mutually referred to, and are not repeated in the interest of brevity.

Fig. 4 illustrates a method 400 for network control provided by an embodiment of the present invention. The method 400 may be applied to the communication system described above, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

S410, the policy control function entity determines a first network function entity required for the first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity.

The first network functional entity may be embodied as one or more network functional entities and may include a user plane functional entity and/or a control plane functional entity, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto. Optionally, the policy control function entity may determine at least one network function entity required for the first session and determine a deployment policy for each of the at least one network function entity corresponding to the first session.

Optionally, the policy control function entity may obtain information of the first session, and determine, according to the information of the first session, a first network function entity required for the first session and a deployment policy (i.e., the first deployment policy) of the first network function entity corresponding to the first session. Optionally, the information of the first session may include information of a service type of the first session, or may further include user information (for example, user identification information and/or user subscription information, and the like) corresponding to the first session and/or priority information of a service to which the first session belongs, or may further include other information, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

As an example, the information of the first session may include information of a service type of the first session and user information corresponding to the first session. At this time, the policy control functional entity may determine the first network functional entity required by the first session according to the information of the service type of the first session and the user information corresponding to the first session, and then, the policy control functional entity may determine the first deployment policy according to the information of the service type of the first session and the first network functional entity.

As an alternative embodiment, the policy control function may store data for performing network-level policy control, e.g., at least one deployment policy for each of the one or more network functions. At this time, the policy control function entity may determine the first network function entity required for the first session and the first deployment policy of the first network function entity by querying its own stored data for network-level policy control using the information of the first session. For example, the policy control function entity may determine the first network function entity required for the first session according to the information of the service type of the first session and the user information corresponding to the first session. And, the policy control function entity may determine a first deployment policy from the stored at least one deployment policy of the first network function entity according to the information of the traffic type of the first session.

As another alternative, the data for network level policy control may also be stored in a data storage function, for example in the UDM. At this time, the policy control function entity may send information of the first session to the data storage function entity, and the data storage function entity may determine the first deployment policy according to the information of the first session and send indication information indicating the first deployment policy to the policy control function entity. Or, the data storage function entity may further determine, according to the information of the first session, a first network function entity required for the first session, and send indication information indicating the first network function entity to the policy control function entity. At this time, the policy control function entity may determine the first network function entity required for the first session according to the indication information indicating the first network function entity sent by the data storage function entity. The data storage functional entity may carry, in the same message, indication information for indicating the first network functional entity and indication information for indicating the first deployment policy, or may send, in sequence, the indication information for indicating the first network functional entity and the indication information for indicating the first deployment policy.

For example, the policy control function entity may send information of a service type of the first session and user information corresponding to the first session to the data storage function entity, and the data storage function entity may determine a first network function entity required by the first session according to the information of the service type of the first session and the user information corresponding to the first session, and send indication information indicating the first network function entity to the policy control function entity. After receiving the indication information, sent by the data storage function entity, for indicating the first network function entity, the policy control function entity may send a deployment policy request to the data storage function entity, where the deployment policy request may carry the identification information of the first network function entity and the information of the service type of the first session. The data storage function entity may determine a first deployment policy of the first network function entity according to the received identification information of the first network function entity and the information of the service type of the first session, and send indication information indicating the first deployment policy to the policy control function entity.

For another example, the policy control function entity may send a deployment policy request to the data storage function entity, where the deployment policy request carries information of the service type of the first session and user information corresponding to the first session, and the data storage function entity may determine, according to the deployment policy request, a first network function entity and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity that are required by the first session, and send indication information indicating the first network function entity and the first deployment policy to the policy control function entity, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the policy control function entity may acquire the information of the first session in a variety of ways. As an alternative embodiment, the policy control function entity may receive a flow policy request for the first session sent by the SMF. The policy control function entity may obtain information of the first session according to the flow policy request. For example, the flow policy request may carry all information of the first session, which is required by the network functional entity and the deployment policy thereof, for determining the first session, such as information of a service type of the first session and optionally user information corresponding to the first session. For another example, the flow policy request may carry partial information of the first session, which is required by the network functional entity and the deployment policy thereof, and at this time, the policy control functional entity may obtain all information of the first session, which is required by the network functional entity and the deployment policy thereof, according to the partial information of the first session carried by the flow policy request, where the information is required by the network functional entity and the deployment policy thereof, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

In the embodiment of the present invention, optionally, the first deployment policy may include at least one of the following: deployment location, deployment mode, and occupied resources. Alternatively, the deployment location may refer to a physical location, such as at which data center the deployment is. The deployment may include the same data center deployment or a cross data center deployment. The occupied resources may include occupied or required physical resources and/or network resources, where the physical resources may include resources such as infrastructure, and the network resources may include resources such as bandwidth, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S420, the policy control function entity determines whether the current deployment status of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy.

Optionally, the current deployment status of the first network function entity may specifically refer to a state of at least one instance that the first network function entity has currently deployed.

As an alternative embodiment, the policy control function entity may obtain information of at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity, wherein the term "deployed instance" may refer to an instance that is currently deployed or an instance that currently exists in the network. The policy control function entity may determine whether a deployed instance satisfying the first deployment policy exists in the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity according to the first deployment policy and information of the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity. Optionally, if there is a deployed instance that satisfies the first deployment policy in the at least one deployed instance of the first network function, the policy control function entity may determine that the current deployment condition of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy. Otherwise, if there is no deployed instance of the at least one deployed instance of the first network function that satisfies the first deployment policy, the policy control functional entity may determine that the current deployment status of the first network function entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy, but the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto.

Optionally, the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity may be all instances of the first network function entity that are currently deployed. Alternatively, the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity may also be a partial instance of the first network function entity that is currently deployed. As an example, the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity may be specifically a second instance determined by the policy control function entity from all deployed instances of the first network function entity, where optionally, the manner in which the policy control function entity determines the second instance may refer to the prior art, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

As another alternative embodiment, the policy control function may determine a target location that satisfies the first deployment policy, and determine whether a deployed instance of the first network function that satisfies the first deployment policy exists at the target location, i.e., determine whether an instance of the first network function that satisfies the first deployment policy is deployed at the target location. Optionally, if an instance of the first network function entity satisfying the first deployment policy is deployed on the target location, the policy control function entity may determine that the current deployment condition of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy. Otherwise, if there is no deployed instance of the first network functional entity that satisfies the first deployment policy at the target location, the policy control functional entity may determine that the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy, but the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto.

S430, if it is determined that the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy, the policy control functional entity sends a network function deployment adjustment instruction to the policy enforcement functional entity, where the network function deployment adjustment instruction is used to instruct to perform deployment adjustment on the first network functional entity and to instruct a target location of the deployment adjustment.

The network function deployment adjustment indication may be used to indicate an adjustment to be made to the deployment of the first network function entity, which may include creation of an instance, migration of a deployed instance, or turning on or off of processing capabilities of a deployed instance.

As an alternative embodiment, the network function entity deployment adjustment indication may be specifically used for indicating that the first instance of the first network function entity is deployed at the target location. For example, the network function entity deployment adjustment indication is specifically used to indicate that an instance of the first network function entity deployed at a first location is to be migrated to the target location. Alternatively, the network function entity deployment adjustment indication may be specifically used to indicate that the first instance of the first network function entity is created at the target location, i.e. that a new instance of the first network function entity is deployed at the target location. Alternatively, if the first network functional entity is specifically a first user plane functional entity, the target location has already deployed an instance of the first user plane functional entity, which supports but does not turn on one or more specific processing capabilities, the network functional entity deployment adjustment indication may be specifically used to indicate that the one or more processing capabilities of the first user plane functional entity deployed at the target location are turned on, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

S440, after receiving the network function deployment adjustment instruction sent by the policy control function entity, the policy enforcement function entity may perform deployment adjustment on the first network function entity at the target location according to the network function deployment adjustment instruction.

The policy enforcement function entity may adjust the deployment of the first network function entity according to the network function deployment adjustment indication, that is, perform the process of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location. Optionally, the policy enforcement function may be a network control function or a session management function, where the network control function or the session management function may deploy the first instance of the first network function at the target location. Or, the session management function entity may control the user plane controller to deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location, at this time, optionally, the session management function entity may send fourth indication information to the user plane controller at the target location, where the fourth indication information may be used to indicate the user plane controller to deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location. The user plane controller may deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location according to the fourth indication information after receiving the fourth indication information, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

As an alternative embodiment, the policy enforcement function may determine whether the available resources of the target location meet the requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function. In particular, the available resources of the target location may include available physical resources and/or available network resources of the target location, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

As an example, the policy enforcement function entity may obtain information of currently available resources of the target location and information of resources that need to be occupied by the first instance of the first network function entity. The policy enforcement function entity may obtain the information in various ways. For example, the policy enforcement function may obtain the available resource information of the target location and/or the occupied resource information of the first instance of the first network function from the data storage function, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto. The policy enforcement function entity may determine whether the available resources of the target location meet a requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity according to the available resources information of the target location and the occupied resources information of the first instance of the first network function entity, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

As another example, if the policy enforcement function is specifically a session management function, and the session management function controls the user plane controller to perform deployment adjustment on the first network function, it may optionally be determined by the user plane controller at the target location whether the available resources at the target location meet the requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function. Specifically, after receiving the fourth indication information sent by the session management function entity, the user plane controller may determine whether the available resources of the target location meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity according to the fourth indication information. For example, the user plane controller may determine whether the available resources of the target location meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity according to the information of the currently available resources of the target location and the information of the resources that the first instance of the first network function entity needs to occupy, which are acquired from the data storage function entity, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto. Optionally, if the user plane controller determines that the available resources of the target location meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, the user plane controller may deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location. Optionally, if the user plane controller determines that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, the user plane controller may send a second deployment failure indication to the session management function entity, where the second deployment failure indication indicates that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity. At this time, the session management functional entity may determine, according to the second deployment failure indication, that the available resources of the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

As an alternative embodiment, if the policy enforcement function entity determines that the available resources of the target location meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, the first instance of the first network function entity may be deployed at the target location, or the session management function entity may instruct the user plane controller to deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

As another alternative embodiment, if it is determined that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, the policy enforcement function (e.g., the session management function or the network control function) may send a first deployment failure indication to the policy control function, the first deployment failure indication indicating that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirements for deploying the first instance of the first user plane function entity. The policy control function entity, after receiving the first deployment failure indication, may determine a second traffic type from the traffic types of the at least one session carried by the at least one network function entity instance at the target location, wherein the second traffic type is different from the first traffic type of the first session. For example, the policy control function entity may determine a set of traffic types for all sessions carried by the network function entity instance at the target location, wherein the set of traffic types may include one or more traffic types, and determine the second traffic type from the set of traffic types. Optionally, the second service type may be a service type that supports route reselection and has a lower priority of a corresponding service than a priority of a service corresponding to the first service type, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

In a specific implementation, the policy control function entity may send a service migration instruction to the session management function entity, where the service migration instruction is used to instruct to migrate the session of the second service type, which is carried by the network function entity instance at the target location, to the second location. After receiving the service migration indication, the session management functional entity may determine, according to the service migration indication, at least one second session of the second service type carried by the network functional entity instance at the target location. Optionally, the at least one second session may be all sessions of the second traffic type carried by the network function entity instance at the target location, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto. The session management functional entity may send a route reselection indication to the user plane functional entity instance in the target location for carrying the second session, where the route reselection indication is used to indicate that the second session carried by the user plane functional entity instance is to be migrated to the second location. Accordingly, the user plane function entity instance for carrying the second session may migrate the carried second session to the corresponding user plane function entity instance of the second location according to the route reselection indication, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Optionally, when determining that the session of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance at the target location is successfully migrated to the second location, the session management function entity may send a service migration success indication for indicating that the session of the second service type is successfully migrated to the policy control function entity, and accordingly, the policy control function entity may determine that the session of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance at the target location is successfully migrated according to the service migration success indication, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Optionally, if the policy control function entity determines that the session migration of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance at the target location is successful, the policy control function entity may send fifth indication information to a policy enforcement function entity (e.g., a network control function entity or a session management function entity), where the fifth indication information may be used to indicate that the available resources at the target location have satisfied a requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity. The policy enforcement function entity may deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location according to the fifth indication information; alternatively, the session management function entity may send, to the user plane controller of the target location, indication information for indicating that the available resources at the target location have met the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, so that the user plane controller deploys the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location according to the indication information, which is not limited thereto.

As another optional embodiment, if the policy enforcement function entity is specifically a Network control function entity, if the Network control function entity determines that the available resource at the target location does not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first Network function entity, a resource request message may be sent to Network Function Virtualization (NFV) management and orchestration (MANO), where the resource request message requests a resource for deploying the first instance of the first Network function entity. After receiving the resource request message sent by the network control function entity, the NFV MANO may allocate a resource for the target location according to the resource request message, and send a resource allocation message to the network control function entity, where the resource allocation message is used to indicate the resource allocated for the target location for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity. The network control function entity may deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location according to the resource allocation message after receiving the resource allocation message, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Optionally, if the policy enforcement function entity determines that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, information of the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location, such as deployment location information, occupied resource information, and the like, may be sent to the data storage function entity and/or the policy control function entity. Furthermore, optionally, the first instance of the first network function entity or the specific processing capability of the first instance may be registered with the user plane controller of the target location after being started, and the user plane controller may send information of the first instance of the first network function entity, such as topology information, to the data storage function entity after receiving registration information of the first instance of the first network function entity. Optionally, after receiving the information of the first instance of the first network functional entity, the data storage functional entity may send, to a policy control functional entity, indication information for indicating that the first instance of the first network functional entity is successfully deployed. The policy control function entity may determine that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location according to indication information sent by the policy enforcement function entity and/or the data storage function entity, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

As an optional embodiment, if the policy control function entity determines that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, or determines that the deployment adjustment of the first network function entity is successful, a flow policy response may be sent to the session management function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location. After receiving the first indication information, the session management functional entity may establish the first session according to the first indication information, so that the first session is carried on the first instance of the first network functional entity deployed at the target location, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

As another optional embodiment, before S420, the policy control function entity may first determine a second instance from at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity, and send a flow policy response to the session management function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information indicating the second instance of the first network function entity. The session management function entity may establish the first session according to the first indication information after receiving the first indication information, so that the first session is carried on the second instance of the first network function entity. The policy control function entity may then perform S420, i.e., determine whether the second instance satisfies the first deployment policy. If the second instance does not satisfy the first deployment policy, optionally, the policy control functional entity may determine that the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy, or may further determine whether there is an instance satisfying the first deployment policy in other deployed instances of the first network functional entity, and determine that the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy when there is no instance satisfying the first deployment policy in other deployed instances. Alternatively, if the policy control function entity determines that the current deployment status of the first network function entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy, S430 and S440 may be proceeded, and when the policy control function entity determines that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, a first flow policy update indication may be sent to a session management function entity, where the first flow policy update indication is used to indicate that the first session is migrated from the second instance of the first network function entity to the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location. After receiving the first flow policy update indication, the session management functional entity may migrate the first session from the second instance of the first network functional entity to the first instance of the first network functional entity according to the first flow policy update indication, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Therefore, the network control method provided by the embodiment of the invention can adjust the deployment of the network function entity according to the deployment strategy of the network function entity required by the session, and is beneficial to ensuring that the deployment of the network function entity is globally optimal for the service session, thereby improving the network performance and the user experience.

In addition, the deployment strategy of the network function entity required by the session can be determined according to the service type of the session, which is beneficial to meeting the service quality requirements of different service types.

In the following example, it is assumed that the deployment policy of the network functional entity required by the session is stored in the data storage functional entity, and the data storage functional entity is specifically a UDM, and the first network functional entity is specifically an UP functional entity, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the UDM may be configured to store a Network-level policy and topology information and physical location information of the Network Function entity, where the topology information may include a physical link connection relationship between physical devices where the Network Function entity is located, and the physical location information may include a specific location of the physical device where the Network Function entity is located, for example, if the Network Function entity is a Virtual Network Function (VNF), its physical location is a physical location of an infrastructure used by a Virtual machine or a container of the VNF, such as a data center in which the Network Function entity is deployed, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

As an example, the UDM stored data may logically include the following:

(1) session and flow policies: storing dynamic QoS control strategy and dynamic flow-based charging control strategy, and storing authorization control strategy based on user subscription information.

(2) Network function entity deployment strategy: for storing deployment policies of each network functional entity within a network or network slice. The deployment strategy may include one or more information such as a data center where the network functional entity needs to be deployed, whether the network functional entity needs to be deployed in the same data center or across data centers, how much resources the network functional entity needs to occupy under various conditions, and the like.

(3) UP functional entity topology database: the method is used for storing one or more information of UP capability and service address of the user plane network functional entity, topological connection relation between the user plane network functional entities, network routing, network outlet and the like.

(4) The network functional entity deploys a state database: for storing one or more of the following information: information of the deployed instance of each network function entity within a network or network slice (e.g., physical location, etc.), which physical locations have resources of the network function virtualization infrastructure available for deployment.

Optionally, the UDM may also store other data, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 illustrates another network control method 500 provided by an embodiment of the present invention. In the method 500, it is assumed that the policy enforcement function entity is specifically a network control function entity, NCF.

S512, the UE initiates a request for establishing the service session and sends the session establishment request to the AMF/SSF.

S514, after receiving the service request, the AMF/SSF sends a slice selection policy request to the PCF.

The service request may be specifically a session establishment request, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

S516, after receiving the slice selection policy request, the PCF may obtain the user subscription information and the slice selection policy from the UDM. Here, the user subscription information may be subscription information of the user for slice selection.

S518, the PCF may determine an SMF for processing the session according to the user subscription information and the slice selection policy obtained from the UDM, and send a slice selection policy response to the AMF/SSF, where the SMF for processing the session may be an SMF of a common control plane or an SMF within a certain network slice.

S522, after receiving the slice selection policy response sent by the PCF, the AMF/SSF may send a session setup request of the UE to the SMF for processing the session according to the slice selection policy response.

After receiving the session establishment request, the SMF may send a flow policy request to the PCF S524.

The flow policy request may be used to request QoS and charging policies for the session. Optionally, the flow policy request may carry information of the UE and information of a service type of the session, or may also carry other information, and optionally, the information of the UE may include user identity information of the UE, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

S526, the PCF, after receiving the flow policy request, may obtain the user subscription information, which may be information of the user for determining QoS and charging policy, and the QoS control and charging policy of the session from the session and flow database of the UDM.

S528, the PCF may obtain the processing capability information and topology information of the currently available UP function entity instance from the network function entity topology database of the UDM, and determine the UP function entity instance that the session needs to pass through according to the QoS control and charging policy of the session and the processing capability information and topology information of the currently available UP function entity instance. For example, a session of VR traffic type needs to go through instance a of the charging monitoring UP function and instance B of the rendering UP function.

Optionally, the processing capability information of the UP function entity instance may include one or more of the following capabilities: the method comprises the steps of flow detection, charging monitoring, IP address allocation, terminal identification allocation, forwarding control, message encapsulation, encryption and decryption, data caching and the like, or can also comprise the processing capacity of a UP functional entity of third-party application such as content acceleration, rendering and the like. The topology information of the UP functional entity instance may indicate that a logical connection relationship exists between the UP functional entity instance and which UP functional entity instances, for example, a logical connection exists between a certain IP address assignment functional entity instance and which forwarding control functional entity instances, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S532, the PCF may find the deployment policy of the UP functional entity determined in S528 in the network functional entity deployment policy database of the UDM according to the information of the service type of the session. For example, if the service type of the session is VR, the UP rendering functional entity needs to be deployed at a position close to an edge computing node of the terminal device access network, so as to ensure a low delay.

S534, the PCF may determine that the UP functional entity instance determined in S528 cannot meet the service requirement of the session, and needs to adjust the deployment of the UP functional entity, for example, the instance B of the rendered UP functional entity does not meet the deployment policy of the VR service on the rendered UP functional entity, and needs to deploy the instance of the UP functional entity at the MEC location. The PCF may issue a network function entity deployment adjustment instruction to the NCF, for example, instruct to deploy an instance of the rendering UP function entity at a certain MEC location, and start the network adjustment to connect the newly deployed instance of the rendering UP function entity with an instance of another already deployed network function entity, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Specifically, the PCF may determine, according to the deployment policy of the UP functional entity required for the current session obtained in S532, in combination with the information of the deployed instance of the UP functional entity obtained from the network functional entity deployment state database of the UDM, whether the deployed instance of the UP functional entity conforms to the deployment policy of the UP functional entity. Optionally, the UP function may have multiple deployed instances in the network, and at this time, in S528, the PCF may select one of the multiple deployed instances of the UP function. Optionally, if the selected instance does not satisfy the deployment policy of the UP functional entity, another instance needs to be reselected and it is determined whether the reselected instance satisfies the deployment policy of the UP functional entity until an instance satisfying the deployment policy of the UP functional entity is found, where the reselection may be a random selection or may be performed according to a certain priority order, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto. Alternatively, if an instance satisfying the deployment policy of the UP functional entity is found from the deployed instances of the UP functional entity, the method can proceed to S552. Alternatively, if all deployed instances of the UP functional entity do not satisfy the deployment policy of the UP functional entity, the PCF determines that an adjustment to the deployment of the UP functional entity is needed. The specific adjustment method may be to migrate a deployed instance of the UP functional entity to a target location that meets the deployment policy, or to newly deploy an instance of the UP functional entity at the target location that meets the deployment policy, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S536, after receiving the network function entity deployment adjustment indication, the NCF may obtain the available resource information of the target location from the network function entity deployment status database of the UDM, or further obtain information of the network function entity instance already deployed in the target location. Such as how many infrastructure resources are available at a given MEC location that currently has deployed an instance of what network function entity. The NCF can determine whether the available resources of the target location are sufficient to deploy an instance of the UP function entity (e.g., render the UP function entity) based on the available resources information of the target location. Alternatively, if sufficient, the method 500 may proceed to S538. Optionally, if not enough, it may be determined whether to migrate the instance of the other network function entity already deployed in the target location to another location or migrate the service session carried by the instance of the certain deployed network function entity to another location according to the deployment policy of the UP function entity, so as to free UP more resources.

S538, the NCF deploys the instance of the UP function entity at the target location, and the specific deployment manner may use a technical manner such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) to complete the instance deployment by starting the UP function entity at the target location through programmable control. Alternatively, instance deployment may also be accomplished by launching a software image of UP functional entity B within an infrastructure-provided container using NFV's technology approach.

Optionally, the NCF may also directly perform S538 without performing S536, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S542, after the NCF completes the network adjustment, the NCF may update the information of the newly deployed instance of the UP functional entity on the target location to the network functional entity deployment state database of the UDM.

S544, the instance of the UP functional entity deployed at the target location registers with the UP controller after the target location is started.

S546, after the UP controller obtains the registration information of the instance of the UP functional entity deployed at the target location, the network address and topology information of the instance of the UP functional entity may be updated to the UP functional entity topology database of the UDM.

S548, the PCF subscribes to the topology change information of the UP function entity because it has initiated network regulation. Once the relevant logical functions and topology of the instance of the UP function entity deployed at the target location are flushed into the UP function entity topology database, the PCF can be notified and can then select the instance of the UP function entity deployed at the target location for the session.

S552, the PCF sends a flow policy response to the SMF, where the flow policy response carries an instance of the UP functional entity selected by the PCF for the session, where the flow policy response includes an instance of the UP functional entity deployed at the target location.

S554, SMF establishes the session and commands the UP controller to prepare a bearer for the session.

S556, the UP controller creates a session and controls the instance of the selected UP functional entity to establish a bearer. After the user plane bearer of the session is established, the service data of the user can be processed and forwarded in the network.

The network control method provided by the embodiment of the invention can adjust the deployment of the network function entity according to the Service Level Agreement (SLA) requirement of the service and the deployment strategy, thereby better ensuring the quality requirement of the service.

Fig. 6 illustrates another method 600 for network control according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the method 600, the policy enforcement function entity is specifically NCF. After the session is established, the PCF determines whether a deployment adjustment of the network function entity is needed, i.e. determines whether an instance of the network function entity for carrying the session satisfies a deployment policy of the network function entity.

S624-S628 are the same as S524-S528, and for brevity, are not described again.

S632, the PCF sends a flow policy response to the SMF, where the flow policy response carries information of the deployed instance selected by the PCF from the deployed instances of the UP functional entity required by the session, where the information includes an instance B of the rendering UP functional entity deployed in location 1.

S634, SMF establishes a session and commands the UP controller to prepare a bearer for the session.

S636, the UP controller creates a session and controls the deployed instance of the selected UP functional entity to establish a bearer. After the user plane bearer of the session is established, the service data of the user can be processed and forwarded in the network.

S638, the PCF obtains the deployment policy of the network function entity (e.g. rendering UP function entity) required by the current session from the deployment policy database of the network function entity of the UDM according to the service type of the current session.

S642, the PCF determines whether the instance of the UP function entity deployed at location 1 satisfies the deployment policy of the UP function entity, e.g., determines whether the instance B of the rendering UP function entity satisfies the deployment policy of the rendering UP function entity.

If the deployment policy is satisfied, the PCF may continue to use the instance of the UP functional entity deployed in location 1 that has been selected to establish the user plane bearer. Alternatively, if the deployment policy is not satisfied, the PCF may send a network function deployment adjustment indication to the NCF indicating that the instance of the UP function is deployed at location 2. Alternatively, if it is determined that the instance of the UP functional entity deployed at location 1 does not satisfy the deployment policy, the PCF may determine whether other deployed instances of the UP functional entity satisfy the deployment policy, and send a network functional entity deployment adjustment indication to the NCF after determining that all deployed instances do not satisfy the deployment policy, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S644, the NCF obtains the available resource information of location 2 from the UDM. The NCF can determine from the available resource information whether the available resources of location 2 meet the requirements for deploying the instance of the UP functional entity.

Alternatively, if the demand is not met, then proceed to S646, i.e., the NCF requests allocation of more resources from the NFV MANO, and then the NCF may execute S648. Alternatively, the NCF may directly perform S648 if the requirement is met.

S646, the NCF sends a resource request to the NFV MANO to request the resource, and the NFV MANO allocates the resource for position 2 according to the NCF request.

S648, NCF performs network adjustment, deploying an instance of UP functional entity in location 2.

S652, the NCF updates, to the physical location database of the network functional entity of the UDM, the instance of the UP functional entity deployed at location 2, that is, updates the physical location information of the UP functional entity.

S654, NCF informs PCF network that the adjustment is completed. Optionally, S654 may not be executed, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S656, the PCF determines that the UP functional entity is successfully deployed in location 2, and issues an updated flow policy to the SMF, indicating the UP functional entity deployed in location 2.

Optionally, the PCF may determine, according to the notification sent by the NCF, an instance in which the UP functional entity is successfully deployed in the location 2, or may determine, according to the notification sent by the UDM, an instance in which the UP functional entity is successfully deployed in the location 2, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S658, the SMF initiates a route reselection, and carries the user plane of the session with the instance of the UP functional entity using location 2.

S662, the UP controller controls an example of the UP functional entity of location 2 to be a session setup bearer.

Compared with the method 500, the method 600 selects the deployed UP functional entity instance and establishes the session, and then judges whether the selected instance meets the deployment policy, so that the deployment adjustment of the network functional entity and the establishment process of the session can be realized in parallel, once the deployment adjustment is in place, the session is directly adjusted, and the response time for establishing the session is shorter.

Fig. 7 illustrates another network-controlled method 700 provided by an embodiment of the present invention. Wherein, the policy enforcement function entity is specifically NCF. Assuming here that the UE1 has established a session bearer at location 2, the UE2 initiates a service request.

S724S 736 is the same as S524S 536, and for brevity, the description thereof is omitted.

Specifically, if the NCF determines in S736 that position 2 is not sufficient for deploying an instance of the UP functional entity, the method 700 proceeds to S738.

S738, the NCF sends a deployment resource insufficiency indication or a deployment failure indication to the PCF indicating that the resources of location 2 are insufficient.

S742, after receiving the resource insufficiency indication or the deployment failure indication sent by the NCF, the PCF may determine all network function entity instances deployed in location 2 according to the information of the network function entity instances deployed in location 2, which is acquired from the UDM. And, the PCF may determine that traffic type 2 allows for route reselection and that the priority of its corresponding traffic is lower than the priority of the traffic corresponding to the traffic type of the session request initiated by the UE2, wherein the established session of the UE1 belongs to traffic type 2. The PCF may determine, according to the deployment policy of the network function entity for carrying the service type 2 at the location 2 acquired from the UDM and the information of the currently available instance of the network function entity, to migrate the service of the service type 2 to the instance of the network function entity at the less preferred location 3 (e.g., a border cloud), so that the resource at the location 2 is free for deploying the instance of the UP function entity required for the UE2 session request. At this time, the PCF may send to the SMF a flow policy update indication for all sessions of traffic type 2 carried by location 2, which may carry information of the reselected instance of the network function entity at location 3.

S744, the SMF may query for all sessions that meet the network adjustment target, and then send a route re-selection command to the UP controller indicating that all sessions of service type 2, including sessions already established by the UE1, carried by location 2 are route re-selected to location 3.

S746, the UP controller controls an instance of the network function entity of position 3 to create a UP session for the UE1 such that the session user plane bearer of the UE1 successfully adjusts to position 3.

S748, after determining that the service adjustment is completed, the PCF may send a resource sufficiency indication or a deployment adjustment command to the NCF, indicating that there are sufficient resources in the location 2 and indicating that the NCF deploys the instance of the UP functional entity in the location 2.

S752, after receiving the resource sufficiency indication or the deployment adjustment command, the NCF may deploy an instance of the UP function entity at the location 2, where a specific deployment manner may use a technical manner such as an SDN, start the UP function entity on the UP network function at the location 2 through programmable control, and may also use a technical manner of an NFV, start a software image of the UP function entity B in a container provided by an infrastructure, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

S754, after the NCF completes network adjustment, the instance of the UP functional entity deployed at location 2 is updated in the physical location database of the network functional entity of the UDM.

S756, the NCF informs the PCF that the adjustment is complete.

Alternatively, S756 may not be executed, and is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

S758, the PCF determines that the instance of the UP function entity was successfully deployed in location 2 and may send a flow policy response for the UE2 session to the SMF.

S762, the SMF, after receiving the flow policy response sent by the PCF, may establish a session for the UE2 and instruct the UP controller to prepare a bearer for the session.

S764, the UP controller creates a session for the UE2 and controls the instance of the selected UP functional entity to establish a bearer.

Fig. 8 illustrates another network-controlled method 800 provided by an embodiment of the present invention. The policy enforcement function entity is specifically an SMF, and the NCF function in the above embodiment may be implemented by the SMF and the UP controller together. Assuming here that the UE1 has established a session bearer at location 2, the UE2 initiates a service request.

S824-S832 are the same as S524-S532, and are not described herein for brevity.

S834, the PCF determines that the deployment of the UP functional entity B needs to be adjusted, and sends a network functional entity deployment adjustment indication to the SMF, indicating the UP capability of the UP functional entity instance B required for opening the UE2 session at the target location.

S836, after receiving the network function entity deployment adjustment indication sent by the PCF, the SMF may send a capability opening indication and a session establishment indication to the UP controller, instructing the UP controller to open a new UP capability for the UP function entity in location 2 and create a session for the UE 2.

S838, after the UP controller receives the SMF capability enabling indication, it may determine whether the available resources of position 2 are sufficient for enabling the UP capability of the UP functional entity instance B. If the resources are found to be insufficient, a capability turn-on failure indication may be sent to the SMF indicating that the resources for location 2 are insufficient.

Alternatively, if the resources are found to be sufficient, then a move can be made.

S842, after receiving the capability opening failure indication sent by the UP controller, the SMF may send a resource insufficiency indication or a deployment adjustment failure indication to the PCF, indicating that the resource at location 2 is insufficient.

S844, after receiving the indication of insufficient resources or the indication of failed deployment adjustment sent by the SMF, the PCF may determine all network function entity instances deployed in location 2 according to the information of the network function entity instances deployed in location 2, which is acquired from the UDM. And, the PCF may determine that traffic type 2 allows for route reselection and the priority of its corresponding traffic is lower than the priority of the traffic corresponding to traffic type 1 of the session request initiated by the UE2, wherein the established session of the UE1 belongs to traffic type 2. The PCF may determine, according to the deployment policy corresponding to the network function entity for carrying the service type 2 and the information of the currently available instance (i.e., the deployed instance) of the network function entity, which is obtained from the UDM, to migrate the service of the service type 2 to the network function entity instance C at the second preferred location 3 (e.g., a boundary cloud), so that the resource at the location 2 is idle, and is used to deploy the instance of the UP function entity required by the UE2 session request. At this time, the PCF may send to the SMF a flow policy update indication for all sessions of traffic type 2 carried by location 2, which may carry information of the reselected network function entity instance on location 3.

S846, the SMF may query for all sessions that meet the network adjustment target, and then send a route reselection command to the UP controller indicating to route reselect to location 3 all sessions of service type 2 carried by location 2, including sessions already established by the UE 1.

S848, the UP controller controls the network function entity instance of position 3 to create a UP session for the UE1 such that the session user plane bearer of the UE1 successfully adjusts to position 3.

S852, after determining that the service adjustment is completed, the PCF may send a resource sufficiency indication or a deployment adjustment command to the SMF, indicate that the location 2 has sufficient resources and indicate the SMF to open the UP capability for the instance of the UP functional entity deployed at the location 2.

S854, after receiving the resource sufficiency indication or the deployment adjustment command, the SMF may send the resource sufficiency indication to the UP controller, instructing the UP controller to turn on one or more UP capabilities of the UP functional entity.

S856, the UP controller may start one or more UP capabilities of the UP function entity at the position 2, and a specific deployment manner may use a technical manner such as an SDN, and the UP function entity is started on the UP network function at the position 2 through programmable control, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

S858, after the UP controller completes capability deployment, the UP capability of the instance of the UP functional entity deployed at location 2 can be updated to the physical location database of the network functional entity of the UDM.

S862, the UP controller creates a session for the UE2 and controls the instance of the selected UP functional entity to establish a bearer.

It should be understood that the above examples are for the purpose of facilitating a better understanding of the embodiments of the present invention by those skilled in the art, and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing examples that various equivalent modifications or changes may be made, and such modifications or changes are also within the scope of the embodiments of the present invention.

It should be understood that the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiment of the present invention.

The method for network control according to the embodiment of the present invention is described in detail above with reference to fig. 1 to 8, and the apparatus for network control according to the embodiment of the present invention is described in detail below with reference to fig. 9 to 12.

Fig. 9 shows a network-controlled apparatus 900 provided in an embodiment of the present invention, which includes:

a processing unit 910, configured to determine a first network functional entity required for a first session and a first deployment policy of the first network functional entity, and determine whether a current deployment status of the first network functional entity meets the first deployment policy;

a transceiver 920, configured to send a network function deployment adjustment indication to a policy enforcement function entity if the processing unit 910 determines that the current deployment status of the first network function entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy, where the network function deployment adjustment indication is used to indicate that a first instance of the first network function entity is deployed at a target location.

As an alternative embodiment, the apparatus 900 further comprises: a storage unit, configured to store at least one deployment policy of the first network function entity, where the at least one deployment policy includes the first deployment policy.

At this time, the processing unit 910 may be specifically configured to determine the first network function entity required by the first session according to the information of the service type of the first session and the user information corresponding to the first session, and determine the first deployment policy stored in the storage unit according to the information of the service type of the first session and the first network function entity.

The processing unit may retrieve the first deployment policy from the storage unit.

It should be appreciated that the apparatus 900 herein is embodied in the form of a functional unit. In an optional example, it may be understood by those skilled in the art that the apparatus 900 may be specifically a policy control function entity in the foregoing embodiment, and the apparatus 900 may be configured to execute each procedure and/or step corresponding to the policy control function entity in the foregoing method embodiment, and in order to avoid repetition, details are not described here again.

Fig. 10 shows a network-controlled apparatus 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention, which includes:

a transceiving unit 1010, configured to receive a network function entity deployment adjustment indication sent by a policy control function entity, where the network function entity deployment adjustment indication is used to indicate that a first instance of a first network function entity is deployed at a target location;

a policy executing unit 1020, configured to execute a process of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location according to the network function entity deployment adjustment indication received by the transceiving unit 1010.

It should be appreciated that the apparatus 1000 herein is embodied in the form of a functional unit. In an optional example, it may be understood by those skilled in the art that the apparatus 1000 may be specifically a policy performing function entity in the foregoing embodiment, and the apparatus 1000 may be configured to perform each procedure and/or step corresponding to the policy performing function entity in the foregoing method embodiment, and details are not described herein again to avoid repetition.

It should also be appreciated that, in embodiments of the invention, the term "unit" may refer to an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic Circuit, a processor (e.g., a shared, dedicated, or group processor) and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic Circuit, and/or other suitable components that support the described functionality.

Fig. 11 shows another network-controlled apparatus 1100 provided in an embodiment of the present invention, including: a processor 1110 and a memory 1120, wherein the memory 1120 is configured to store instructions and the processor 1110 is configured to execute the memory-stored instructions, wherein execution of the instructions causes the processor 1110 to:

determining a first network functional entity required by a first session and a first deployment policy of the first network functional entity;

determining whether the current deployment condition of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy;

if the current deployment state of the first network function entity is determined not to meet the first deployment strategy, a network function deployment adjustment instruction is sent to a strategy execution function entity, and the network function deployment adjustment instruction is used for indicating that the first instance of the first network function entity is deployed at a target position.

In an optional example, it may be understood by those skilled in the art that the apparatus 1100 may be embodied as a policy control function entity in the foregoing embodiment, and the apparatus 1100 may be configured to execute each procedure and/or step corresponding to the policy control function entity in the foregoing method embodiment, and in order to avoid repetition, details are not described here again.

Fig. 12 shows another network-controlled apparatus 1200 provided in an embodiment of the present invention, which includes: a processor 1210 and a memory 1220, wherein the memory 1220 is configured to store instructions, and the processor 1210 is configured to execute the instructions stored by the memory 1220, wherein execution of the instructions causes the processor 1210 to:

receiving a network function entity deployment adjustment instruction sent by a policy control function entity, wherein the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction is used for instructing the deployment of a first instance of a first network function entity at a target position;

and executing the process of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target position according to the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction.

In an optional example, it may be understood by those skilled in the art that the apparatus 1200 may be embodied as a policy performing function entity in the foregoing embodiment, and the apparatus 1200 may be configured to perform each procedure and/or step corresponding to the policy performing function entity in the foregoing method embodiment, and in order to avoid repetition, details are not described here again.

It should be understood that, in the embodiments of the present invention, the processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the processor may also be other general processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and so on. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The memory may include both read-only memory and random access memory, and provides instructions and data to the processor. The portion of memory may also include non-volatile random access memory. For example, the memory may also store device type information. The processor may be configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory, and when the processor executes the instructions, the processor may perform the steps corresponding to the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor executes instructions in the memory, in combination with hardware thereof, to perform the steps of the above-described method. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a communication system, and the system may include any policy control functional entity in the foregoing embodiment and any policy execution functional entity in the foregoing embodiment.

Optionally, the communication system may further comprise a data storage function entity, the data storage function entity being configured to store at least one of the following information: information of at least one deployed instance of each of the one or more network function entities, information of each of at least one physical location where the network function entity may be deployed, wherein the information of each deployed instance may include at least one of the following information: the method comprises the steps of deploying position information, occupied resource information, information of opened processing capacity and capacity utilization information, wherein the information of each physical position comprises the position information and/or available resource information of each physical position.

Alternatively, the communication system may be embodied as the communication system shown in fig. 1, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

It should be understood that the foregoing descriptions of the embodiments of the present invention focus on highlighting the differences between the various embodiments, and the same or similar parts that are not mentioned may be referred to each other, and thus, for brevity, will not be described again.

Further, the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein. The term "and/or" herein is merely an association describing an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B, may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter related objects are in an "or" relationship.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functional entities are implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technical solution. A person skilled in the art may use different methods for implementing the described functional entities for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered as exceeding the scope of the invention.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only a logical functional entity division, and there may be other divisions when actually implementing, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional entity units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

The functional entities, if implemented as software functional entity units and sold or used as separate products, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of network control, comprising:

a policy control function entity determines a first network function entity required for a first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity;

the policy control function entity determining whether a current deployment condition of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy;

if the current deployment condition of the first network functional entity is determined not to meet the first deployment strategy, the policy control functional entity sends a network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction to a policy execution functional entity, and the network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction is used for indicating that a first instance of the first network functional entity is deployed at a target position;

the policy control function entity determining a first network function entity required for the first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity, comprising:

the policy control function entity determines a first network function entity required by the first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity according to the information of the first session, wherein the information of the first session comprises information of a service type of the first session;

the policy control function entity receives a first deployment failure indication sent by the policy execution function entity, wherein the first deployment failure indication is used for indicating that available resources at the target position do not meet the requirement of deploying a first instance of the first network function entity;

the policy control function entity determines a second service type from the service types of at least one session carried by at least one network function entity instance at the target location according to the received first deployment failure indication, wherein the second service type is different from the first service type of the first session;

and the policy control function entity sends a service migration indication to a session management function entity, wherein the service migration indication is used for indicating that the session of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance at the target position is migrated to a second position.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first deployment policy comprises at least one of: the data center deployment method comprises deployment positions, deployment modes and occupied resources, wherein the deployment modes comprise the same data center deployment or the data center cross deployment, and the resources comprise physical facility resources and/or network resources.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the network function deployment adjustment indication is specifically configured to indicate that an instance of the first network function deployed at a first location is to be migrated to the target location; or

The network function entity deployment adjustment indication is specifically configured to indicate that a first instance of the first network function entity is created at the target location; or

The first network function entity is specifically a first user plane function entity, and the network function entity deployment adjustment indication is specifically configured to indicate to start a first processing capability of an instance of the first user plane function entity deployed at the target location.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the policy control function entity is configured to store at least one deployment policy of the first network function entity, the at least one deployment policy comprising the first deployment policy;

the policy control function entity determines, according to the information of the first session, a first network function entity required by the first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity, including:

the policy control functional entity determines the first network functional entity required by the first session according to the information of the service type of the first session and the user information corresponding to the first session;

and the policy control functional entity determines the first deployment policy according to the information of the service type of the first session and the first network functional entity.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the policy control function entity determines the first deployment policy of the first network function entity according to the information of the first session, and comprises:

the policy control function entity sends a deployment policy request to a data storage function entity, where the deployment policy request carries information of the first session, and the data storage function entity is configured to store at least one deployment policy of each network function entity in at least one network function entity, where the at least one network function entity includes the first network function entity;

and the policy control functional entity receives third indication information which is sent by the data storage functional entity according to the deployment policy request and is used for indicating the first deployment policy.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the policy control function entity determining whether the current deployment condition of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy comprises:

the policy control function entity obtains information of at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity;

the policy control function entity determines whether a deployed instance meeting the first deployment policy exists in at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity according to the first deployment policy and information of the at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity;

correspondingly, if the current deployment status of the first network functional entity does not satisfy the deployment policy of the first network functional entity, the policy control functional entity sends a network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction to a policy enforcement functional entity, including:

and if at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity does not have a deployed instance meeting the first deployment policy, the policy control function entity sends a network function entity deployment adjustment instruction to a policy execution function entity.

7. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the policy control function entity determining whether the current deployment condition of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy comprises:

the policy control function entity determining the target location that satisfies the first deployment policy;

the policy control function entity determining whether a deployed instance of the first network function entity that satisfies the first deployment policy exists at the target location;

if the target position does not have the deployed instance of the first network function entity meeting the first deployment strategy, the strategy control function entity sends a network function entity deployment adjustment instruction to a strategy execution function entity.

8. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein before the policy control function entity determines the first network function entity required for the first session, the method further comprises:

the policy control function entity receives a flow policy request of the first session sent by a session management function entity;

the policy control function entity determining a first network function entity required for the first session, comprising:

and the policy control functional entity determines a first network functional entity required by the first session according to the flow policy request.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein after the policy control function entity sends a network function entity deployment adjustment indication to a policy enforcement function entity, the method further comprises:

if it is determined that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, the policy control function entity sends a flow policy response to the session management function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein after the policy control function entity determines the first network function entity required for the first session, the method further comprises:

the policy control function entity determining a second instance of the first network function entity from at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity;

the policy control function entity sends a flow policy response to the session management function entity, wherein the flow policy response carries first indication information for indicating a second instance of the first network function entity;

after the policy control function entity sends a network function entity deployment adjustment indication to a policy enforcement function entity, the method further comprises:

if it is determined that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed in the target location, the policy control function entity sends a first flow policy update indication to the session management function entity, where the first flow policy update indication is used to indicate that the first session is migrated from the second instance of the first network function entity to the first instance of the first network function entity deployed in the target location.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the second traffic type supports route reselection and the priority of the traffic corresponding to the second traffic type is lower than the priority of the traffic corresponding to the first traffic type.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein after the policy control function entity sends the traffic migration indication to the session management function entity, the method further comprises:

if it is determined that the session of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance at the target location is successfully migrated to the second location, the policy control function entity sends second indication information to the policy enforcement function entity, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the available resources at the target location have met the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

13. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the policy enforcement function is a session management function or a network control function.

14. A method of network control, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a strategy execution functional entity receives a network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction sent by a strategy control functional entity, wherein the network functional entity deployment adjustment instruction is used for indicating that a first instance of a first network functional entity is deployed at a target position;

the policy enforcement function entity performs, according to the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction, processing of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location; the method for the policy enforcement function entity to receive the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction sent by the policy control function entity comprises the following steps: when determining that the current deployment condition of the first network functional entity does not satisfy a first deployment policy, the policy execution functional entity receiving a network functional entity deployment adjustment indication sent by the policy control functional entity, where the first network functional entity is a network functional entity required by a first session, and the first network functional entity and the first deployment policy are determined by the policy control functional entity according to information of the first session, where the information of the first session includes information of a service type of the first session;

if it is determined that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity, the policy enforcement functional entity sends a first deployment failure indication to the policy control functional entity, where the first deployment failure indication is used to indicate that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity;

if the policy enforcement function entity is specifically a session management function entity, the method further includes:

the session management functional entity receives a service migration indication sent by the policy control functional entity according to the first deployment failure indication, where the service migration indication is used to indicate that a session of a second service type carried by a network functional entity instance at the target location is migrated to a second location, where the second service type is different from the service type of the first session;

the session management functional entity determines at least one second session of the second service type carried by the network functional entity instance at the target position according to the service migration indication;

and the session management functional entity sends a routing reselection indication to a network functional entity instance used for bearing the second session in the target position, wherein the routing reselection indication is used for indicating that the second session borne by the network functional entity instance is migrated to the second position.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the network function deployment adjustment indication is specifically configured to indicate that an instance of the first network function deployed at a first location is to be migrated to the target location; or

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the policy enforcement function entity performs the process of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location according to the network function entity deployment adjustment indication, comprising:

the policy enforcement function entity determines whether the available resources of the target location meet requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein before the policy enforcement function entity determines whether the available resources of the target location meet the requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, the method further comprises:

the strategy execution functional entity sends a resource information request to a data storage functional entity, wherein the resource information request is used for requesting the information of the current available resources of the target position;

the strategy execution functional entity receives the information of the current available resources of the target position, which is sent by the data storage functional entity according to the resource information request;

accordingly, the determining, by the policy enforcement function entity, whether the available resources of the target location meet the requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity comprises:

and the policy execution functional entity determines whether the available resources of the target position meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity according to the information of the current available resources of the target position and the information of the resources required to be occupied by the first instance of the first network functional entity.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the policy enforcement function entity is specifically a network control function entity;

the policy enforcement function entity performs, according to the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction, processing of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location, and further includes:

if it is determined that the available resources of the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, the policy enforcement function entity sends a resource request message to a network function virtualization management and orchestration NFV MANO, the resource request message requesting resources for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity;

the policy enforcement function entity receiving a resource allocation message sent by the NFV MANO according to the resource request message, the resource allocation message being used to indicate resources allocated for the target location for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity;

the policy enforcement function entity deploys the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location according to the resource allocation message.

19. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the policy enforcement function entity is specifically a session management function entity;

the policy enforcement function entity performs, according to the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction, processing of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location, including:

and the policy execution functional entity sends fourth indication information to the user plane controller at the target position according to the network functional entity deployment adjustment indication, wherein the fourth indication information is used for indicating the user plane controller to deploy the first instance of the first network functional entity at the target position.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

and the policy execution functional entity receives a second deployment failure indication sent by the user plane controller, wherein the second deployment failure indication is used for indicating that the available resources of the target position do not meet the requirement of deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity.

21. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

and the policy execution functional entity receives second indication information sent by the policy control functional entity, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating that the available resources at the target position meet the requirement of deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity.

22. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein if the policy enforcement function entity is specifically a session management function entity, before the policy enforcement function entity receives a network function entity deployment adjustment indication sent by a policy control function entity, the method further comprises:

the session management functional entity sends a flow policy request to the policy control functional entity, wherein the flow policy request carries information of a first session;

the method further comprises the following steps:

if the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed in the target location, the session management function entity receives a flow policy response sent by the policy control function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the first instance of the first network function entity deployed in the target location.

23. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein if the policy enforcement function entity is specifically a session management function entity, before the policy enforcement function entity receives a network function entity deployment adjustment indication sent by a policy control function entity, the method further comprises:

the session management functional entity receives a flow policy response sent by the policy control functional entity, wherein the flow policy response carries first indication information used for indicating a second instance of the first network functional entity;

the method further comprises the following steps:

if the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed in the target location, the session management function entity receives a first flow policy update indication sent by the policy control function entity, where the first flow policy update indication is used to indicate that the first session is migrated from the second instance of the first network function entity to the first instance of the first network function entity deployed in the target location.

24. A network controlled apparatus, comprising:

the processing unit is used for determining a first network functional entity required by a first session and a first deployment strategy of the first network functional entity, and determining whether the current deployment condition of the first network functional entity meets the first deployment strategy;

a transceiver unit, configured to send a network function entity deployment adjustment indication to a policy enforcement function entity if the processing unit determines that the current deployment status of the first network function entity does not satisfy the first deployment policy, where the network function entity deployment adjustment indication is used to indicate that a first instance of the first network function entity is deployed at a target location;

the processing unit determines a first network function entity required for a first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity, including: the processing unit determines a first network function entity required by the first session and a first deployment policy of the first network function entity according to the information of the first session, wherein the information of the first session comprises information of a service type of the first session;

the transceiver unit is further configured to: receiving a first deployment failure indication sent by the policy enforcement functional entity, wherein the first deployment failure indication is used for indicating that available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement of deploying the first instance of the first network functional entity;

the processing unit is further to: determining a second service type from service types of at least one session carried by at least one network function entity instance at the target location according to the first deployment failure indication received by the transceiver unit, wherein the second service type is different from a first service type of the first session;

the transceiver unit is further configured to: and sending a service migration instruction to a session management function entity, wherein the service migration instruction is used for indicating that the session of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance on the target position is migrated to a second position.

25. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the network function entity deployment adjustment indication is specifically configured to indicate that an instance of the first network function entity deployed at a first location is to be migrated to the target location; or

26. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising:

a storage unit, configured to store at least one deployment policy of the first network function entity, where the at least one deployment policy includes the first deployment policy;

the processing unit determines, according to the information of the first session, a first network functional entity required by the first session and a first deployment policy of the first network functional entity, including:

the processing unit determines the first network function entity required by the first session according to the information of the service type of the first session and the user information corresponding to the first session, and determines the first deployment policy stored in the storage unit according to the information of the service type of the first session and the first network function entity.

27. The apparatus according to claim 24 or 25, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

sending a deployment policy request to a data storage function entity, where the deployment policy request carries information of the first session, and the data storage function entity is configured to store at least one deployment policy of each network function entity in at least one network function entity, where the at least one network function entity includes the first network function entity,

receiving third indication information which is sent by the data storage function entity according to the deployment strategy request and is used for indicating the first deployment strategy;

the processing unit determines a first deployment policy of the first network function entity according to the information of the first session, including:

the processing unit determines the first deployment strategy according to the third indication information received by the transceiver unit.

28. The apparatus according to claim 24 or 25, wherein the processing unit determines whether the current deployment status of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy, comprising:

the processing unit obtains information of at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity,

the processing unit determines whether a deployed instance meeting the first deployment policy exists in the at least one deployed instance of the first network functional entity according to the first deployment policy and information of the at least one deployed instance of the first network functional entity;

the transceiver unit is specifically configured to: if the processing unit determines that at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity does not have a deployed instance meeting the first deployment policy, a network function entity deployment adjustment instruction is sent to a policy enforcement function entity.

29. The apparatus according to claim 24 or 25, wherein the processing unit determines whether the current deployment status of the first network function entity satisfies the first deployment policy, comprising:

the processing unit determines the target location that satisfies the first deployment policy,

the processing unit determining whether a deployed instance of the first network function entity that satisfies the first deployment policy exists at the target location;

the transceiver unit is specifically configured to: if the processing unit determines that the deployed instance of the first network function entity meeting the first deployment policy does not exist in the target position, sending a network function entity deployment adjustment instruction to a policy enforcement function entity.

30. The apparatus according to claim 24 or 25, wherein the transceiving unit is further configured to receive a flow policy request of the first session sent by a session management function entity before the processing unit determines the first network function entity required for the first session;

the processing unit determines a first network function entity required for the first session, including:

and the processing unit determines a first network function entity required by the first session according to the flow policy request received by the transceiver unit.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to: after sending a network function entity deployment adjustment instruction to a policy enforcement function entity, if the processing unit determines that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, sending a flow policy response to the session management function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location.

32. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the processing unit is further configured to: after determining a first network function entity required for the first session, determining a second instance of the first network function entity from at least one deployed instance of the first network function entity;

the transceiver unit is further configured to:

sending a flow policy response to the session management function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information for indicating the second instance of the first network function entity determined by the processing unit,

after sending a network function entity deployment adjustment indication to a policy enforcement function entity, if the processing unit determines that the first instance of the first network function entity is successfully deployed at the target location, sending a first flow policy update indication to the session management function entity, where the first flow policy update indication is used to indicate that the first session is migrated from the second instance of the first network function entity to the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location.

33. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the second traffic type supports route reselection and the traffic corresponding to the second traffic type has a lower priority than the traffic corresponding to the first traffic type.

34. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to send, after sending a service migration indication to a session management function entity, second indication information to the policy enforcement function entity, if the processing unit determines that the session of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance in the target location is successfully migrated to the second location, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the available resources in the target location have met the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

35. The apparatus according to claim 24 or 25, wherein the policy enforcement function is a session management function or a network control function.

36. A network controlled apparatus, comprising:

a transceiving unit, configured to receive a network function entity deployment adjustment instruction sent by a policy control function entity, where the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction is used to instruct a first instance of a first network function entity to be deployed at a target location;

a policy executing unit, configured to execute, according to the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction received by the transceiver unit, processing of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location; wherein, the transceiver unit is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the current deployment condition of the first network functional entity does not satisfy a first deployment policy, receiving a network functional entity deployment adjustment indication sent by the policy control functional entity, where the first network functional entity is a network functional entity required by a first session, and the first network functional entity and the first deployment policy are determined by the policy control functional entity according to information of the first session, where the information of the first session includes information of a service type of the first session;

the transceiver unit is further configured to:

if the policy execution unit determines that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, sending a first deployment failure indication to the policy control function entity, where the first deployment failure indication is used to indicate that the available resources at the target location do not meet the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity;

if the device is specifically a session management function entity, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive a service migration instruction sent by the policy control function entity according to the first deployment failure instruction, where the service migration instruction is used to instruct to migrate a session of a second service type carried by a network function entity instance in the target location to a second location, where the second service type is different from the service type of the first session;

the policy executing unit is further configured to determine, according to the service migration indication received by the transceiving unit, at least one second session of the second service type carried by the network function entity instance at the target location;

the transceiver unit is further configured to send a route reselection indication to the network function entity instance in the target location for carrying the second session, where the route reselection indication is used to indicate that the second session carried by the network function entity instance is to be migrated to the second location.

37. The apparatus according to claim 36, wherein the network function entity deployment adjustment indication is specifically configured to indicate that an instance of the first network function entity deployed at a first location is to be migrated to the target location; or

38. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the policy enforcement unit is specifically configured to determine whether the available resources of the target location meet requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

sending a resource information request to a data storage function entity, the resource information request requesting information of currently available resources of the target location, before the policy enforcement unit determines whether the available resources of the target location meet requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity,

receiving the information of the current available resources of the target position, which is sent by the data storage functional entity according to the resource information request;

the policy enforcement unit determining whether the available resources of the target location meet requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity comprises:

the policy executing unit determines whether the available resource of the target location meets the requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity according to the information of the current available resource of the target location and the information of the resource required to be occupied by the first instance of the first network function entity, which are received by the transceiving unit.

40. The apparatus according to claim 36, wherein the apparatus is specifically a network control function entity;

the transceiver unit is further configured to:

sending a resource request message to a network function virtualization management and orchestration, NFV, MANO, if the policy execution unit determines that the available resources at the target location do not meet a requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity, the resource request message requesting resources for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity,

receiving a resource allocation message sent by the NFV MANO according to the resource request message, the resource allocation message being used to indicate resources allocated for the target location for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity;

the policy executing unit executes, according to the network function entity deployment adjustment instruction received by the transceiver unit, processing of deploying the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location, and further includes:

the policy execution unit deploys the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location according to the resource allocation message received by the transceiver unit.

41. The apparatus according to claim 36 or 37, wherein the apparatus is specifically a session management function entity;

the policy executing unit is specifically configured to send fourth indication information to the user plane controller at the target location according to the network function entity deployment adjustment indication, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the user plane controller to deploy the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to receive a second deployment failure indication sent by the user plane controller, wherein the second deployment failure indication indicates that the available resources of the target location do not meet requirements for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

43. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to receive second indication information sent by the policy control function entity, and wherein the second indication information is used to indicate that the available resources at the target location have met a requirement for deploying the first instance of the first network function entity.

44. The apparatus according to claim 36 or 37, wherein if the apparatus is specifically a session management function entity, the transceiver unit is further configured to:

before receiving a network function entity deployment adjustment instruction sent by a policy control function entity, sending a flow policy request to the policy control function entity, wherein the flow policy request carries information of a first session;

if the policy execution unit successfully deploys the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location, receiving a flow policy response sent by the policy control function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location.

45. The apparatus according to claim 36 or 37, wherein if the apparatus is specifically a session management function entity, the transceiver unit is further configured to:

receiving a flow policy response sent by the policy control function entity, where the flow policy response carries first indication information for indicating a second instance of the first network function entity;

if the policy execution unit successfully deploys the first instance of the first network function entity at the target location, receiving a first flow policy update indication sent by the policy control function entity, where the first flow policy update indication is used to indicate that the first session is migrated from the second instance of the first network function entity to the first instance of the first network function entity deployed at the target location.

46. A communication system, comprising:

a policy control function and a policy enforcement function, wherein the policy control function is an apparatus according to any one of claims 24 to 35, and the policy enforcement function is an apparatus according to any one of claims 36 to 45.

47. The communication system according to claim 46, further comprising a data storage function for storing at least one of the following information: information of at least one deployed instance of each of the one or more network function entities, information of each of at least one physical location where the network function entity may be deployed, wherein the information of each deployed instance may include at least one of the following information: the method comprises the steps of deploying position information, occupied resource information, information of started processing capacity and capacity utilization rate information, wherein the information of each physical position comprises the position information and/or available resource information of each physical position.