CN112188514A

CN112188514A - Service processing method, network device and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN112188514A
Application number: CN201910605829.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨帆
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2019-07-05
Filing date: 2019-07-05
Publication date: 2021-01-05
Also published as: WO2021004175A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a service processing method, network equipment and a storage medium, based on the concept of a service range, when a service NF finds a target service processing NF, an NRF can take the target service range as a basis so as to inquire a main NF capable of processing the target service range and a standby NF capable of disaster tolerance for processing the service in the target service range, and the relationship between the main NF and the standby NF does not directly bind the two equipment strictly one to one, but only exists the main/standby relationship when corresponding to the target service range, so that the scheme solves the rigid binding relationship between the NF, and naturally, a disaster tolerance mechanism also becomes more flexible, thereby being beneficial to improving the performance of a service processing system and optimizing resource configuration.

Description

Service processing method, network device and storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a service processing method, a network device, and a storage medium.

Background

3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) has introduced 5G (5 th Generation) networks. At present, a network architecture based on a service interface proposed by 3GPP has been provided with commercial conditions, and as the deployment process of 5G network test business is continuously accelerated, the disaster recovery mechanism is considered in the industry.

In the related art, a "1 + 1" disaster recovery backup scheme is mainly proposed, that is, a standby service processing NF is configured for an active service processing NF (Network Function), for example, a UDM (Unified Data Management), so that when the active service processing NF is not suitable to be continuously used as an active device, the standby service processing NF is used as the active device. However, the disaster recovery mechanism has poor flexibility and may affect the resource utilization level of the service processing system.

Disclosure of Invention

The service processing method, the network device and the storage medium provided by the embodiment of the invention mainly solve the technical problem that the disaster recovery backup scheme in the related technology is not high in flexibility.

To solve the foregoing technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides a service processing method, including:

a service processing network function NF sends a registration request carrying attribute information to a network storage function NRF for registration, wherein the attribute information comprises a range indication and a priority indication, the range indication is used for indicating the services in at least two service ranges which can be processed by the service processing NF, and the priority indication is used for indicating the processing priority of the service processing NF relative to other service processing NF on the services in each service range indicated by the range indication;

the service processing NF receives the service in a target service range assigned by the service NF, wherein the target service range is the service range to which the service to be processed on the service NF belongs, and the target service range is one of at least two service ranges;

and the service processing NF processes the service in the target service range.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a service processing method, which comprises the following steps:

the NRF receives a discovery request which is sent by a service NF and carries a target service range, wherein the target service range is a service range to which a service to be processed on the service NF belongs;

the NRF selects at least two target service processing NFs capable of processing the services in the target service range from the service processing NFs according to the attribute information of the service processing NFs stored by the NRF, wherein the target service processing NFs comprise a main NF and a standby NF, the processing priority of the services in the target service range is lower than that of the main NF, and the main NF can process the services in at least two service ranges; the attribute information comprises a range indication and a priority indication, wherein the range indication is used for indicating a service range which can be processed by the service processing NF, and the priority indication is used for indicating the processing priority of the service in each service range indicated by the range indication relative to other service processing NFs;

the NRF sends NF indication information to the service NF, wherein the NF indication information is used for indicating the target service processing NF and the processing priority of each target service processing NF to the service in the target service range.

the service NF sends a discovery request carrying a target service range to the NRF, wherein the target service range is a service range to which a service to be processed on the service NF belongs;

the service NF receives NF indication information sent by the NRF, wherein the NF indication information is used for indicating at least two target service processing NFs capable of processing the services in the target service range and the processing priority of each target service processing NF on the services in the target service range, the target service processing NF comprises a main NF and a standby NF, the processing priority of the service in the target service range is lower than that of the main NF, and the main NF can process the services in the two service ranges at least at the same time; the target service processing NF is selected from all service processing NF by NRF according to the stored attribute information of all service processing NF; the attribute information comprises a range indication and a priority indication, wherein the range indication is used for indicating a service range which can be processed by the service processing NF, and the priority indication is used for indicating the processing priority of the service in each service range indicated by the range indication relative to other service processing NFs;

and the service NF distributes the service in the target service range to the main NF, and the main NF processes the distributed service.

The embodiment of the invention also provides network equipment, which comprises a processor, a memory and a communication bus;

the communication bus is used for realizing connection communication between the processor and the memory;

the processor is used for executing a first service processing program stored in the memory so as to realize the steps of the first service processing method;

or, the processor is used for executing a second service processing program stored in the memory to implement the steps of the second service processing method;

or, the processor is configured to execute a third service processing program stored in the memory to implement the steps of the third service processing method.

The embodiment of the present invention further provides a storage medium, where at least one of a first service processing program, a second service processing program, and a third service processing program is stored in the storage medium, and the first service processing program may be executed by one or more processors to implement the steps of the first service processing method; the second service processing program can be executed by one or more processors to implement the steps of the second service processing method; the third business process program can be executed by one or more processors to implement the steps of the third business process method described above.

The invention has the beneficial effects that:

in the service processing method, the network device, and the storage medium provided in the embodiments of the present invention, the NRF stores the range indication and the priority indication attribute information of each service processing NF, and these attribute information may represent at least two service ranges that the service processing NF can handle, and the processing priority of the service processing NF on services in each service range relative to other service processing NFs. When the service NF discovers the service processing NFs, the NRF may select a target service processing NF capable of processing the service in the target service range for the service NF according to the target service range carried by the service NF in the discovery request and the attribute information of each service processing NF stored by the NRF, and indicate the target service processing NF and the processing priority of each target service processing NF on the service in the target service range to the service NF through the NF indication information. The target service processing NF indicated by the NRF includes a master NF with a high priority for service processing in the target service range, and the service NF may assign a service within the target service range to the master NF according to the NF indication information, so that the master NF processes the assigned service. Meanwhile, the target service processing NF also comprises a standby NF, and the standby NF also has the capability of processing the service in the target service range, but has a relatively lower processing priority on the service in the target service range compared with the primary NF, so that the standby NF can be used as standby equipment to carry out disaster tolerance on the target service range while the primary NF processes the service. The object of the standby NF disaster tolerance is the service in the target service range, so the standby NF is not required to have the processing capability completely consistent with that of the main NF, and therefore, the disaster tolerance scheme has stronger flexibility, which is beneficial to improving the performance of a service processing system and optimizing the resource configuration.

Additional features and corresponding advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an interaction flowchart of a service processing method according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is an interaction flowchart of replacing the active NF in the service processing method according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a first schematic diagram of a disaster recovery scheme according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a second schematic diagram of a disaster recovery scheme according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a third schematic diagram of a disaster recovery scheme according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a fourth schematic diagram of a disaster recovery scheme according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is an interaction flowchart of a service processing method according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of a network device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

The first embodiment is as follows:

in order to solve the problem that the flexibility of the disaster recovery scheme is poor due to the service processing scheme in the related art, this embodiment provides a service processing method, please refer to the interaction flow diagram in the service processing scheme shown in fig. 1:

s102: and the service processing NF sends a registration request carrying the attribute information to the NRF for registration.

In this embodiment, a service NF refers to an NF that has services that need to be processed by another NF, and a service processing NF refers to an NF that can process the services of the service NF. In some examples, the service NF may refer to an AMF (Access And Mobility Management Function), And correspondingly, the service processing NF may be a UDM (Unified Data Management); in other examples, the AMF may also be a service processing NF, in which case the service NF may be an SMF (Session Management Function). Of course, it can be understood by those skilled in the art that the service NF may be other network functional network elements besides SMF or AMF, and the service processing NF may also have other embodiments besides AMF and UDM.

The service processing NF may send a registration request to the NRF when registering with the NRF. In the registration request, the service processing NF carries its own attribute information, and indicates to the NRF each service range that it can process and its own processing priority for the services in each service range relative to other service processing NFs by using the attribute information. The attribute information referred to in this embodiment includes a range indication and a priority indication, where the range indication is used to indicate the services in at least two service ranges that can be processed by the service processing NF, and the priority indication is used to indicate the processing priority of the service processing NF relative to the other service processing NFs for the services in each service range indicated by the range indication.

In some examples of the embodiment, the range indication may indicate a service range that the service process NF can handle by any one of a user number segment, a user group, a network slice, and a context. For example, in a service processing system, a service range is divided by a user number segment, and a range indication carried by a service processing NF in a registration request indicates that the service range that the service processing NF can process is a user number segment a and a service number segment b.

The priority indication can represent the processing priority of the service processing NF on the service in a service range to other service processing NFs first, for example, the processing priority of the service processing NF-a may be 1 (assuming that 1 is the highest level), and the processing priority of the service processing NF-B may be 5, so that the processing priority of the service processing NF-a on the service in the user number segment a is relative to the processing priority of the service processing NF-B on the service in the user number segment a. It is needless to say that in other examples of the present embodiment, the priority indication may directly represent its own processing priority for the traffic in the traffic range in "high", "medium", "low", and the like.

S104: the NRF receives a discovery request carrying a target service range sent by a service NF.

The service of the service NF needs to be processed by the service processing NF, so the service NF needs to query the service processing NF capable of processing its own service to be processed. The NRF stores attribute information of the service processing NF, so that when the service NF needs to perform service processing NF discovery, it may send a discovery request to the NRF.

In this embodiment, in the proposed disaster recovery mechanism, the standby device is disaster-recovered in units of service ranges, and therefore, the service NF needs to provide its own service range at the stage of discovering the service processing NF. Therefore, in the discovery request sent by the service NF to the NRF, the service range to which the service NF needs to process belongs is carried, and in this embodiment, the service range is referred to as a "target service range". After the NRF receives the discovery request sent by the service NF, the target service range of the high service NF may be obtained from the discovery request.

S106: and the NRF selects at least two target service processing NFs capable of processing the service in the target service range from the service processing NFs according to the attribute information of the service processing NFs stored by the NRF.

The NRF stores attribute information of each service processing NF, and the attribute information stored in the NRF is normally acquired when the service processing NF is registered, for example, in this embodiment, when the service processing NF is registered, the service processing NF carries the attribute information to the NRF through a registration request, and after receiving the registration request, the NRF can store the attribute information in the registration request. However, in other embodiments, the attribute information stored in the NRF may also be obtained by configuration of network management personnel, for example, after knowing the service scope of the processing supported by each service processing NF and the processing priority of the service in each service scope in the network, the network management personnel may configure the information into the NRF.

After the NRF obtains the target service range from the discovery request of the service NFs, it may select at least two target service processing NFs from the plurality of service processing NFs according to the target service range and the attribute information stored in itself, where the target service processing NF is a service processing NF capable of processing the service in the target service range. It can be understood that, according to the target service range and the service ranges of the processing supported by the service processing NFs stored by the NRF, the NRF can screen all the service processing NFs capable of processing the services in the target service range from the service processing NFs. In some examples of the present embodiment, the NRF may select all the traffic processes NFs capable of processing the traffic in the target traffic range as the target traffic processes NF. However, in some other examples of this embodiment, the NRF may also select some of the service processes NFs supporting the service process in the target service scope as the target service process NF, for example, the NRF may select some service processes NFs having higher priority for the service process in the target service scope as the target service process NF.

It should be understood that the target service processing NF selected by the NRF should be at least two, including the active NF and the standby NF, where the active NF has a higher priority for processing the service in the target service range than the standby NF. In some examples of this embodiment, the NRF may select one active NF and one standby NF for the service NF; in some other examples of this embodiment, the target service processing NFs selected by the NRF for the service NFs include a plurality of target service processing NFs, where each target service processing NF includes one active NF and the remaining target service processing NFs are standby NFs. It is understood that the standby NFs may have the same processing priority for the traffic in the target traffic range, for example, the active NF has a priority of 1, the standby NF-a has a priority of 2, and the standby NF-b has a priority of 2. In other examples, the standby NFs may have different processing priorities for traffic in the target range, e.g., standby NF-a may have a priority of 2 and standby NF-b may have a priority of 3. In other examples of this embodiment, there may be more than one active NF and more than one standby NF. In this case, the multiple active NFs may process the service of the service NF at the same time, which is somewhat similar to a distributed service processing device.

S108: the NRF transmits NF indication information to the traffic NF.

After the NRF selects the target service processing NF, it may indicate the target service processing NF to the service NF, and also indicate the processing priority of each target service processing on the service in the target service range to the service NF. In this embodiment, the NRF may indicate the above to the service NF through the NF indication information.

S110: the service NF distributes the service in the target service range to the main NF, and the service processing NF processes the service in the target service range.

After the service NF receives the NF indication information sent by the NRF, the primary NF may be determined according to the NF indication information, and then the service NF sends a primary NF assignment service to the primary NF.

For a service processing NF, if it is selected by the service NF as the active NF, it will receive the service assigned by the service NF, and then the service processing NF will process the received service. For example, if the service processing NF is UDM, the service NF is AMF, and the UDM as the primary device receives the services assigned by the AMF, and processes the services.

For some other service processing NFs, it may also process the service in the target service range of the service NF, however, these service processing NFs may only be used as standby NFs currently, and therefore, when the other service processing NFs process the service in the target service range, these standby NFs may not process the service in the target service range until the active NF is not suitable to continue to be the active device corresponding to the target service range because of a failure or because of other reasons.

However, it is understood that one service process NF may simultaneously support processing services of two or more service ranges, for example, in some examples of the present embodiment, one service process NF may simultaneously support processing services in the subscriber number segment a and may also be capable of processing services in the subscriber number segment b. In this case, according to the service processing method provided in this embodiment, for the services in the two service ranges, the NRFs may be different for the selected standby NFs, for example, for the user number segment a, the corresponding used NF is the standby NF-b, and the standby NF corresponding to the user number segment b is not the standby NF-c. Therefore, according to the scheme provided by this embodiment, there is no one-to-one correspondence between the active NF and the standby NF.

Because the service processing method provided in this embodiment provides the concept of the service range, when the service NF finds the target service processing NF, the target service range is used as a basis to find the primary NF capable of processing within the target service range and the backup NF capable of disaster tolerance for processing the service within the target service range, and the relationship between the primary NF and the backup NF does not directly bind the two devices strictly one to one, but only exists in the primary/backup relationship when corresponding to the target service range, so the scheme solves the rigid binding relationship between NFs, and naturally, the disaster tolerance mechanism becomes more flexible accordingly.

Example two:

in this embodiment, a service processing method is described on the basis of the first embodiment:

it should be understood that, in the process that the primary NF processes the target service range, the primary NF may have a fault, or the primary NF may process services in other service ranges while processing services in the target service range, and the processing resources of the primary NF are not enough, under these circumstances, the original primary NF is no longer suitable to continue to be the primary NF corresponding to the target service range, and therefore can reflect to the NRF, so that the service NF can select a new primary NF in time, and avoid affecting the processing of the services in the target service range, the following description is provided on the flow of the primary NF change in the service processing method, please refer to the interaction flow diagram of a service processing method shown in fig. 2:

s202: and the primary NF determines that the primary NF is not suitable for being continuously used as the primary NF corresponding to the target service range.

In this embodiment, during the process that one service processing NF is used as the current active NF to process the service in the target service range of the service NF, it may be found that the service processing NF is not suitable to continue to be used as the active NF corresponding to the target service range because of some abnormalities.

S204: the primary NF sends change information to the NRF.

After the original master NF determines that the original master NF is not suitable for being continuously used as the master NF corresponding to the target service range, the original master NF may send change information to the NRF so as to notify the NRF. It can be understood that, in the change information, the priority indication of the original NF to the target service range may be carried. For example, in an example, when the service processing NF is registered, the priority carried in the registration request indicates that the processing priority of the service processing NF on the service in the target service range is 1, and in the change information, the priority carried by the service processing NF on the NRF indicates that the processing priority of the service processing NF on the service in the target service range is 5.

S206: the NRF indicates the service NF to determine a new primary NF for replacing the original primary NF from the standby NF through the NF change notification.

After receiving the change information sent by one service processing NF, the NRF may determine whether the service processing NF has been selected by itself as the target service processing NF to indicate to the service NF, and thus, the NRF may notify the service NF of the information that the service processing NF changes the processing priority of the service in the target service range. For example, in some examples of the present embodiment, the NRF may send an NF change notification to the service NF, so that the service NF may reselect a new active NF according to the NF change notification.

It can be understood that, after the NRF receives the change information sent by the service processing NF, the NRF may update the attribute information of the service processing NF stored by itself according to the priority indication in the change information, so that when a subsequent service NF performs service processing NF discovery, it can select a target service processing NF for the subsequent service NF according to the latest attribute information.

S208: and the service NF determines a new primary NF for replacing the primary NF from the standby NF according to the NF change notice.

After the service NF receives the NF change notification sent by the NRF, a new primary NF for referring to the original primary NF can be determined from the standby NFs. In some examples of this embodiment, because the NRF originally determines only two target service processing NFs for the service NF in the service processing NF discovery phase, in this case, there is only one standby NF in the target service processing NF, and therefore, after the service NF receives the NF change notification, the original standby NF can be directly selected as the new active NF. In some other examples of this embodiment, the NRF selects a plurality of target service processing NFs for the service NF at the service processing NF stage, and among the target service NFs, only one active NF is provided, and the rest are standby NFs, so when the service NF needs to determine a new active NF from the original standby NFs, it needs to select a new active NF from at least two standby NFs.

In some examples of this embodiment, the processing priorities of the standby NFs for the services in the target service range are different, and therefore, the service NF may select, according to the processing priority of each standby NF for the services in the target service range, one with the highest priority as the new primary NF; in other examples of this embodiment, the processing priorities of the standby NFs for the services in the target service range are the same, and then the service NFs may randomly select one of the standby NFs as the new primary NF.

S210: and the service NF allocates the service in the target service range to the new main NF, and the new main NF processes the allocated service.

After the new master NF is selected, the service NF will assign a service to the new master NF, and the new master NF processes the assigned service.

It can be understood that the new primary NF is similar to the original primary NF, and may not be suitable to continue to be the primary NF due to a failure or the like, and in this case, the new primary NF may also notify the NRF through the change information, so that the NRF notifies the service NF to change the primary NF, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, one service processing NF may support processing of services in multiple service ranges, for example, for a service processing NF serving as a current active NF, the service processing NF may be capable of processing not only services in a target service range, but also services in other service ranges. When the primary NF is not suitable to be continuously used as the primary NF corresponding to the target service range, the service processing NF is not necessarily characterized and is not suitable to be continuously used for processing services in other service ranges. Therefore, in this embodiment, when the service NF migrates the service in the target service range from the original master NF to the new master NF, the services in other service ranges on the original master NF are not migrated to the new master NF. In this embodiment, the active NF and the standby NF have the active-standby correspondence only in the target service range, and the binding relationship does not exist in other service ranges outside the target service range. Therefore, even if the original NF completely fails and cannot process any service, all services are not necessarily migrated to the same standby NF.

In this embodiment, the process of changing the active NF in the service processing method is described, and it can be seen from the above description that, in this embodiment, when the standby NF performs disaster tolerance on the active NF, the entire disaster tolerance is performed not in units of the service processing NFs, but in units of a certain service range corresponding to the service processing NFs. Therefore, when the active-standby switching is performed, all services on the active NF do not need to be migrated, which not only can improve the flexibility of the disaster recovery mechanism, but also can improve the efficiency of service migration during the active-standby switching, and reduce the user perception, thereby improving the service experience of the user.

Example three:

the following describes several typical disaster recovery schemes of the service processing method according to the present invention with reference to the foregoing embodiments:

in some examples of the present embodiment, referring to fig. 3, the service processing NF nail 31 supports both the processing of the service scope a and the processing of the service scope b, and has a high priority for processing the service in the service scope a and a high priority for processing the service in the service scope b. In fig. 3, the larger the graph area corresponding to the service scope is, the higher the processing priority of the service processing NF on the service in the service scope is. The service processing NF b 32 supports the processing of the service in the service range a, however, the processing priority of the service processing NF b 32 on the service in the service range a is lower than that of the service processing NF a 31. Meanwhile, the service processing NF 32 supports processing of the service in the service range b, but the processing priority of the service processing NF 33 on the service in the service range b is lower than that of the service processing NF 31. In fig. 3, for a service range a, a service processing NF a 31 is used as a primary NF, and a service processing NF b 32 is used as a standby NF; for the service range b, the service processing NF 31 serves as the primary NF, and the service processing NF 33 serves as the standby NF.

In the example corresponding to fig. 3, after the service processing NF a 31 determines that it is not suitable for being used as the active NF corresponding to the service range a, the corresponding service NF may migrate the service corresponding to the service range a to the service processing NF b 32, and the service processing NF a 31 continues to maintain processing the service in the service range b until the service in the service range b needs to be migrated to the service processing NF 33 due to a failure of the service processing NF a 31.

In some examples of the embodiment, referring to fig. 4, the service processing NF nail 41 supports both the processing of the service scope a and the processing of the service scope b, where the processing priority for the service in the service scope a is high, and the processing priority for the service in the service scope b is low. In fig. 4, the larger the graph area corresponding to the service scope is, the higher the processing priority of the service processing NF on the service in the service scope is. The service processing NF b 42 supports both processing of the service in the service range a and processing of the service range b, and has a low priority for processing the service in the service range a and a high priority for processing the service in the service range b. Therefore, in fig. 4, the service processing NF a 41 and the service processing NF b 42 are active and standby: for the service range a, the service processing NF A41 is used as a main NF, and the service processing NF B42 is used as a standby NF; for service scope b, service process NF b is used as the primary NF, and service process NF 41 is used as the standby NF.

In the example corresponding to fig. 4, after the service processing NF a 31 determines that it is not suitable for being used as the primary NF corresponding to the service range a, the corresponding service NF may migrate the service corresponding to the service range a to the service processing NF b 32; when the service processing NF b 42 determines that it is not suitable for being used as the primary NF corresponding to the service range b, the corresponding service NF may migrate the service corresponding to the service range b to the service processing NF a 41.

In some examples of the embodiment, referring to fig. 5, the service processing NF a 51 supports both the processing of the service scope a and the processing of the service scope b, where the processing priority for the service in the service scope a is high, and the processing priority for the service in the service scope b is low. In fig. 5, the larger the graph area corresponding to the service scope is, the higher the processing priority of the service processing NF on the service in the service scope is. The service processing NF b 52 supports both processing of the service in the service range a and processing of the service range c, and has a low priority for processing the service in the service range a and a high priority for processing the service in the service range c. The service processing NF 53 supports both processing of the service in the service range b and processing of the service range c, and has a high priority for processing the service in the service range b and a low priority for processing the service in the service range c.

For the service range a, a service processing NF A51 is used as a main NF, and a service processing NF B52 is used as a standby NF; for the service range b, the service processing NF 53 is used as a main NF, and the service processing NF 51 is used as a standby NF; for service scope c, service process NF second 52 serves as the primary NF, and service process NF third 53 serves as the backup NF. Obviously, in fig. 5, the service processing NFs a, b, and c form a disaster recovery mechanism: the service processing NF A51 is used as a standby NF of a service range b in the service processing NF C53, the service processing NF C53 is used as a standby NF of a service range c in the service processing NF B52, and the service processing NF B52 is used as a standby NF of a service range a in the service processing NF A51.

In the example corresponding to fig. 5, after the service processing NF a 31 determines that it is not suitable for being used as the primary NF corresponding to the service range a, the corresponding service NF may migrate the service corresponding to the service range a to the service processing NF b 32; when the service processing NF 52 determines that it is not suitable for being used as the primary NF corresponding to the service range c, the corresponding service NF may migrate the service corresponding to the service range c to the service processing NF 53; when the service processing NF determines that it is not suitable as the primary NF corresponding to the service range b, the corresponding service NF may migrate the service corresponding to the service range b to the service processing NF a 51.

In other examples of the present embodiment, please refer to fig. 6, the service processing NF nail 61 supports both the processing of the service range a and the processing of the service range b, and the processing priority for the services in the service ranges a and b is high. In fig. 6, the larger the graph area corresponding to the service scope is, the higher the processing priority of the service processing NF on the service in the service scope is. The service processing NF b 62 supports processing of both the service scope c and the service scope d, and has high priority for processing services in both the service scopes c and d. The service processing NF 63 supports processing of the service ranges a, b, c, and d at the same time, but the service processing NF 63 has low priority for processing services in these service ranges. Therefore, the service process NF 63 is simultaneously used as a standby NF corresponding to the service process NF a 61 and the service process NF b 62.

Certainly, only a few typical disaster recovery mechanisms are provided here, and according to the service processing method provided in this embodiment, other disaster recovery schemes may also exist, which are not described here again.

Example four:

the present embodiment will describe the service processing method provided in the foregoing embodiment with reference to examples:

it is assumed that the traffic NF in the present embodiment is an AMF, and the traffic processing NF is a UDM, where the traffic to be processed on the AMF is traffic on the network slice S1. The UDM comprises UDM-1 and UDM-2, wherein the UDM-1 supports traffic processing on both the network slice S1 and the network slice S2. UDM-2 supports traffic handling on both network slice S1 and network slice S3. UDM-3 also supports traffic handling on network slice S1. The following proceeds to describe the service processing method with reference to the interaction flowchart shown in fig. 7:

s702: UDM-1 sends a registration request to the NRF.

In this embodiment, the registration request sent by UDM-1 to NRF indicates that the range of services that UDM-1 can handle includes network slice S1 and network slice S2. Meanwhile, the processing priority of the UDM-1 on the traffic in the network slice S1 is level 1, and the processing priority on the traffic in the network slice S2 is also level 1.

S704: UDM-2 sends a registration request to the NRF.

In this embodiment, the registration request sent by UDM-2 to NRF indicates that the range of services that UDM-2 can handle includes network slice S1 and network slice S3. Meanwhile, the processing priority of the UDM-2 on the traffic in the network slice S1 is level 2, and the processing priority on the traffic in the network slice S3 is level 1.

S706: UDM-3 sends a registration request to the NRF.

In this embodiment, the registration request sent by UDM-3 to NRF indicates that the range of services that UDM-3 can handle includes network slice S1. Meanwhile, the processing priority of the UDM-3 on the traffic in the network slice S1 is level 3.

In this embodiment, three UDMs UDM-1, UDM-2 and UDM-3 are sequentially registered, but those skilled in the art can understand that the timing of registering the three UDMs on the NRF may be changed, for example, in some other examples of this embodiment, the three UDMs may be registered simultaneously.

It should be understood that, for the NRF, it may receive registration of various service processing NFs, not only the three UDMs, but also registration procedures of other service processing NFs, which are not described herein again. When the NRF receives a registration request for a respective UDM, the range indication in the registration request may be stored in association with the priority indication. In an example of this embodiment, the NRF may store the attribute information of each service processing NF in a table or the like in an associated manner, as shown in table 1:

TABLE 1

S708: the AMF sends a discovery request to the NRF.

Information capable of indicating that the target traffic range is the network slice S1 is carried in the discovery request.

S710: the NRF determines the target UDM based on the target service range and the stored attribute information.

In this embodiment, because the target service scope network slice S1 corresponding to the request is found, the NRF can determine that the target UDM includes UDM-1, UDM-2, and UDM-3 by querying the stored attribute information of each service processing NF.

S712: the NRF sends NF indication information to the AMF.

The NF indication information can indicate to the AMF three UDMs that support processing of traffic in the network switch S1 and the processing priority of each UDM for traffic within the network switch S1.

S714: and the AMF allocates the service to the UDM-1 according to the NF indication information.

After receiving the NF indication information, the AMF can determine that the current primary UDM is the UDM-1 according to the NF indication information, and therefore, can allocate services to the UDM-1. After UDM-1 receives the traffic assigned by the AMF, the traffic in the network slice S1 may be processed.

It can be understood that, since the priority of the UDM-1 for processing the traffic in the network slice S2 is 1 level, the UDM-1 will also serve as the primary UDM corresponding to the network slice S2, and will process the traffic in the network slice S2 while processing the traffic in the network slice S1.

S716: UDM-1 determines that it cannot continue to be the primary UDM corresponding to network slice S1.

S718: UDM-1 sends change information to the NRF.

In the change information sent by UDM-1 to NRF, the latest processing priority of UDM-1 on the traffic on the network slice S1 may be carried, for example, the new priority is 4.

S720: the NRF updates the stored attribute information and sends NF change notifications to the AMF.

In this embodiment, the NRF may change the attribute information stored by itself to the one shown in table 2:

TABLE 2

S722: and the AMF reselects the new main UDM according to the NF change notice.

In the NF change notification, the original UDM may also be carried, that is, the latest processing priority of the UDM-1 on the service on the network slice S1. Thus, when receiving the NF change notification, the AMF may determine that the priority ratio of the current processing of the three UDMs UDM-1, UDM-2, and UDM-3 to the service in the network slice S1 is 4, 2, and 3, and therefore, the AMF selects the UDM-2 with the highest current priority as the new primary UDM.

S724: the AMF assigns traffic to UDM-2.

The AMF may assign traffic to the new primary UDM, i.e. UDM-2. After UDM-2 receives the traffic assigned by the AMF, the traffic in the network slice S1 may be processed.

It can be understood that, because the change information sent by the UDM-1 to the NRF does not indicate that the priority of the change information for processing the traffic in the network slice S2 has changed, although the traffic in the network slice S1 has migrated from the UDM-1, the UDM-1 will continue to process the traffic in the network slice S2 as the master UDM corresponding to the network slice S2.

In this embodiment, the processing priority attribute of the registrant (UDM) for the service in each service range is obtained through the NRF, and the corresponding attribute information is sent to the AMF in the NF discovery phase, so that the AMF can correctly assign the service to the new primary UDM after the primary UDM changes the processing priority of the service in one service range. The problem that partial switching of the service cannot be performed after the UDM is abnormal is solved, and a disaster recovery mechanism under a 5G network service architecture is enriched.

Example five:

in this embodiment, the storage medium may store at least one of a first service processing program, a second service processing program, and a third service processing program, where the first service processing program may be used by the one or more processors to execute a process of implementing the service processing method on the service processing NF side described in the foregoing embodiment. And the second service processing program can be used for one or more processors to execute the flow of implementing any service processing method NRF side described in the foregoing embodiments. The third service processing program may be used for one or more processors to execute a process of implementing any one of the service processing methods described in the foregoing embodiments on the service NF side.

In addition, the present embodiment provides a network device, as shown in fig. 8: the network device 80 includes a processor 81, a memory 82, and a communication bus 83 for connecting the processor 81 and the memory 82, wherein the memory 82 may be the aforementioned storage medium storing at least one of the first service processing program, the second service processing program, and the third service processing program.

In some examples of this embodiment, the processor 81 may read the first service processing program, compile and execute a flow on the service processing NF side in the service processing method described in the foregoing embodiment, in this case, the network device 80 may serve as the service processing NF:

the processor 81 sends a registration request carrying attribute information to the NRF for registration, where the attribute information includes a range indication and a priority indication, the range indication is used to indicate services in at least two service ranges that can be processed by the network device 80, and the priority indication is used to indicate a processing priority of the network device 80 for the services in each service range indicated by the range indication relative to other network devices 80.

The processor 81 receives a service in a target service range assigned by the service NF, where the target service range is a service range to which a service to be processed on the service NF belongs, and the target service range is one of at least two service ranges;

the processor 81 processes the traffic within the target traffic range.

In some examples of this embodiment, after the processor 81 determines that the network device 80 is not suitable to continue to be the active NF corresponding to the target service range, it may send change information to the NRF, and simultaneously continue to process services in other service ranges, where the change information is used to represent that the network device 80 is not suitable to continue to be the active NF corresponding to the target service range.

The processor 81 may read the second service processing program, compile and execute a flow implementing the NRF side in the service processing method described in the foregoing embodiment, in this case, the network device 80 may be configured as an NRF:

the processor 81 receives a discovery request carrying a target service range sent by a service NF, where the target service range is a service range to which a service to be processed on the service NF belongs;

the processor 81 selects at least two target service processing NFs capable of processing services in a target service range from the service processing NFs according to the attribute information of the service processing NFs stored in the network device 80, where the target service processing NFs include a primary NF and a standby NF having a processing priority lower than that of the primary NF, and the primary NF is capable of processing at least services in two service ranges.

After determining the target service processing NF, the processor 81 may send NF indication information to the service NF, where the NF indication information is used to indicate the target service processing NF and a processing priority of each target service processing NF on a service within the target service range.

In some examples of the present embodiment, processor 81 may obtain attribute information of the service process NF by receiving a registration request sent by the service process NF. After acquiring the attribute information of the service processing NF, the processor 81 may store the attribute information of the service processing NF.

In some examples, the processor 81 may further receive change information sent by the master NF in the target service processing NF, where the change information is used to represent that the master NF is not suitable to continue to serve as the master NF corresponding to the target service range; subsequently, the processor 81 instructs the service NF to determine a new active NF to replace the active NF from the standby NF through the NF change notification.

The processor 81 may also read the third service processing program, compile and execute a flow implementing the service NF side in the service processing method described in the foregoing embodiment, in this case, the network device 80 may serve as the service NF:

the processor 81 sends a discovery request carrying a target service range to the NRF, and then the processor 81 receives NF indication information sent by the NRF, where the NF indication information is used to indicate at least two target service processing NFs capable of processing services in the target service range and processing priorities of the target service processing NFs on the services in the target service range. The processor 81 may assign a service within the target service range to the active NF according to the NF indication information, and allow the active NF to process the assigned service.

In some scenarios of this embodiment, the processor 81 may also receive an NF change notification sent by the NRF, where the NF change notification can represent that the original active NF is not suitable to continue to serve as the active NF corresponding to the target service range;

the processor 81 determines a new master NF to replace the original master NF from the standby NFs according to the NF change notification, and assigns a service within the target service range to the new master NF, so that the new master NF processes the assigned service.

In some examples of the present embodiment, the number of target traffic processing NFs is 2; or, the number of the target service processing NF is more than 2, one of the NF is the main NF, and the rest NF is the standby NF.

If the number of the target service processing NF is more than 2, one is the main NF, and the rest is the standby NF; the processor 81 determines the new master NF to replace the original master NF from the slave NFs according to the NF change notification in such a manner that the one with the highest priority is selected from the slave NFs as the new master NF to replace the original master NF; or a new primary NF can be randomly selected from the standby NFs to replace the original primary NF.

The embodiment further provides a service processing system, which includes a service NF, an NRF, and a plurality of service processing NFs, where the service NF is a network device, such as an AMF or an SMF, in which the processor 81 executes a third service processing program; NRF is a network device for the processor 81 to execute a second service processing program; the service process NF may be a network device, such as UDM or AMF, for which the processor 81 executes a first service process program.

Because the concept of the service range is provided, when the service NF finds that the target service processes the NF, the service NF may use the target service range as a basis to find the primary NF capable of processing the target service range and the backup NF capable of disaster tolerance for processing the service in the target service range, and the relationship between the primary NF and the backup NF does not directly bind the two devices strictly one to one, but only exists in the primary-backup relationship when corresponding to the target service range, so the scheme solves the rigid binding relationship between NFs, and naturally, the disaster tolerance mechanism becomes more flexible accordingly.

And when the master-slave switching is carried out, all services on the master NF do not need to be migrated, so that the flexibility of a disaster recovery mechanism can be improved, the service migration efficiency during the master-slave switching can be improved, the user perception is reduced, and the service experience of a user is improved.

In the present application, technical features in the respective embodiments may be combined and used in one embodiment without conflict.

In addition, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the service processing method, system, network device and storage medium provided in the embodiments of the present invention may be applied not only to the currently existing communication system, but also to any future communication system.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that all or some of the steps of the methods, systems, functional modules/units in the devices disclosed above may be implemented as software (which may be implemented in program code executable by a computing device), firmware, hardware, and suitable combinations thereof. In a hardware implementation, the division between functional modules/units mentioned in the above description does not necessarily correspond to the division of physical components; for example, one physical component may have multiple functions, or one function or step may be performed by several physical components in cooperation. Some or all of the physical components may be implemented as software executed by a processor, such as a central processing unit, digital signal processor, or microprocessor, or as hardware, or as an integrated circuit, such as an application specific integrated circuit. Such software may be distributed over computer-readable media, which may include computer storage media (or non-transitory media) and communication media (or transitory media), executed by a computing device, and in some cases may perform the steps shown or described in a different order than here. The term computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data, as is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, Digital Versatile Disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by a computer. In addition, communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media as known to those skilled in the art. Thus, the present invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.

The foregoing is a more detailed description of embodiments of the present invention, and the present invention is not to be considered limited to such descriptions. For those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains, several simple deductions or substitutions can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, and all shall be considered as belonging to the protection scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A service processing method comprises the following steps:

a service processing Network Function (NF) sends a registration request carrying attribute information to a network storage function (NRF) for registration, wherein the attribute information comprises a range indication and a priority indication, the range indication is used for indicating services in at least two service ranges which can be processed by the service processing NF, and the priority indication is used for indicating the processing priority of the service processing NF relative to other service processing NFs on the services in each service range indicated by the range indication;

the service processing NF receives a service in a target service range assigned by the service NF, wherein the target service range is a service range to which a service to be processed on the service NF belongs, and the target service range is one of the at least two service ranges;

2. The service processing method of claim 1, wherein after the service NF processes the service within the target service scope, the method further comprises:

the service processing NF determines that the service processing NF is not suitable for being continuously used as a main NF corresponding to the target service range;

and the service processing NF sends change information to the NRF, and simultaneously continues to process services in other service ranges, wherein the change information is used for representing that the service processing NF is not suitable for being continuously used as the main NF corresponding to the target service range.

3. A service processing method comprises the following steps:

the method comprises the steps that an NRF receives a discovery request which is sent by a service NF and carries a target service range, wherein the target service range is a service range to which a service to be processed on the service NF belongs;

the NRF selects at least two target service processing NFs capable of processing the services in the target service range from the service processing NFs according to the attribute information of the service processing NFs stored by the NRF, wherein the target service processing NFs comprise a main NF and a standby NF, the processing priority of the services in the target service range is lower than that of the main NF, and the main NF can process the services in at least two service ranges; the attribute information comprises a range indication and a priority indication, wherein the range indication is used for indicating a service range which can be processed by the service processing NF, and the priority indication is used for indicating the processing priority of the service processing NF relative to other service processing NF on the service in each service range indicated by the range indication;

and the NRF sends NF indication information to the service NF, wherein the NF indication information is used for indicating the target service processing NF and the processing priority of each target service processing NF on the service in the target service range.

4. The service processing method of claim 3, wherein before the NRF receives the discovery request carrying the target service range sent by the service NF, the method further comprises:

the NRF receives a registration request sent by a service processing NF, wherein the registration request carries attribute information of the service processing NF;

and the NRF stores the attribute information of the service processing NF.

5. The traffic processing method according to claim 3, wherein the scope indication indicates a traffic scope that the traffic processing NF can process through any one of a subscriber number segment, a subscriber group, a network slice, and a context.

6. The traffic processing method according to any of claims 3-5, wherein after the NRF sends NF indication information to the traffic NF, further comprising:

the NRF receives change information sent by a master NF in the target service processing NF, wherein the change information is used for representing that the master NF is not suitable to be continuously used as the master NF corresponding to the target service range;

and the NRF indicates the service NF to determine a new main NF for replacing the main NF from the standby NF through NF change notification.

7. A service processing method comprises the following steps:

a service NF sends a discovery request carrying a target service range to an NRF, wherein the target service range is a service range to which a service to be processed on the service NF belongs;

the service NF receives NF indication information sent by the NRF, wherein the NF indication information is used for indicating at least two target service processing NFs capable of processing the services in the target service range and the processing priority of each target service processing NF on the services in the target service range, the target service processing NF comprises a main NF and a standby NF, the processing priority of the service in the target service range is lower than that of the main NF, and the main NF can process the services in the two service ranges at least at the same time; the target service processing NF is selected from all the service processing NFs by the NRF according to the stored attribute information of all the service processing NFs; the attribute information comprises a range indication and a priority indication, wherein the range indication is used for indicating a service range which can be processed by the service processing NF, and the priority indication is used for indicating the processing priority of the service processing NF relative to other service processing NF on the service in each service range indicated by the range indication;

and the service NF allocates the service in the target service range to the main NF, and the main NF processes the allocated service.

8. The traffic processing method according to claim 7, wherein after the traffic NF assigns traffic within a target traffic range to the master NF, the method further comprises:

the service NF receives a NF change notice sent by the NRF, wherein the NF change notice can represent that an original main NF is not suitable to be continuously used as the main NF corresponding to the target service range;

the service NF determines a new main NF for replacing the original main NF from the standby NF according to the NF change notice;

and the service NF allocates the service in the target service range to the new main NF, and the new main NF processes the allocated service.

9. The traffic processing method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the number of target traffic processing NFs is 2; or, the number of the target service processing NFs is greater than 2, one of the NFs is the primary NF, and the rest of the NFs are the standby NFs.

10. The service processing method according to claim 9, wherein if the number of the target service processing NFs is greater than 2, one of the NFs is a primary NF, and the remaining NFs are standby NFs; the determining, by the service NF, the new primary NF to replace the original primary NF from the standby NFs according to the NF change notification includes:

the service NF selects one with the highest priority from the standby NFs as a new main NF for replacing the original main NF;

or the like, or, alternatively,

and the service NF randomly selects a new main NF from the standby NFs to replace the original main NF.

11. A network device comprising a processor, a memory, and a communication bus;

the processor is configured to execute a first business process program stored in the memory to implement the steps of the business process method according to claim 1 or 2;

or the processor is used for executing a second business processing program stored in the memory to realize the steps of the business processing method according to any one of claims 3-6;

or the processor is configured to execute a third service processing program stored in the memory to implement the steps of the service processing method according to any one of claims 7 to 10.

12. A storage medium having stored therein at least one of a first service processing program, a second service processing program, and a third service processing program, the first service processing program being executable by one or more processors to implement the steps of the service processing method according to claim 1 or 2; the second business process program is executable by one or more processors to implement the steps of the business process method of any one of claims 3-6; the third business process program is executable by one or more processors to implement the steps of the business process method of any one of claims 7-10.