CN112788585B

CN112788585B - NF (NF) switching method and device in 5G core network and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN112788585B
Application number: CN202011581642.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 邱权冠; 苏国章
Original assignee: Guangzhou Aipu Road Network Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Guangzhou Aipu Road Network Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-12-28
Filing date: 2020-12-28
Publication date: 2021-11-02
Anticipated expiration: 2040-12-28
Also published as: CN112788585A

Abstract

The invention discloses a NF switching method in a 5G core network, which comprises the steps of obtaining a registration request sent by each NF through an NRF of the 5G core network, registering, and sending a registration response message to the corresponding NF after each NF is successfully registered; the registration request comprises resource information and selection priority of the NF; when a service request instruction sent by a requester is received through the NRF and is matched with the NF registered in the system, one or more NF to be accessed is obtained, and the NF to be accessed with the highest priority is selected from the one or more NF to be accessed as the accessing NF according to the selection priority of each NF; and returning the service access address of the access NF to the requester through the NRF, so that the requester sends the service request to the access NF, and the service is provided for the requester through the access NF. The method can solve the problems of complicated operation and the like caused by manual addition of NF in the prior art. The invention also provides a NF switching device and a storage medium in the 5G core network.

Description

NF (NF) switching method and device in 5G core network and storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to NF backup in a 5G core network, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, and a storage medium for NF switching in a 5G core network.

Background

For an existing 5G (5th generation mobile communication technology) core network, compared with a 4G (fourth generation communication technology) core network, a network resource storage function nrf (network discovery function) is added to support a service discovery function, receive an NF discovery request from an NF (network function) instance, and provide information of a discovered NF instance to the NF instance. When the NF in the 5G core network is added to the 5G core network in a dynamic manner, the NF needs to be registered on the NRF to be discovered by other NFs.

When wanting NRF registration, each NF submits data information of each NF, such as load, affiliated slice network and the like. Thus, when other NFs request service to the NRF, the NRF matches and finds the requested NF according to the data information submitted when each NF registers. That is, the probability that all NFs registered on the NRF are discovered is the same.

However, in the 5G core network, during the operation of each NF, due to the increase of users and traffic, the NF may be overloaded or have operation failure, which may cause the existing network resources to fail to normally maintain the normal operation of the 5G core network, and therefore, the NF resources to be backed up need to be added. In the prior art, NF resources are generally increased manually, and meanwhile, the NF resources can only be increased manually aiming at a specific NF, and meanwhile, the operation flow and parameters are complex, so that the NF resources are inconvenient to develop and maintain.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to overcome the defects of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for switching NFs in a 5G core network, which can solve the problem in the prior art that operations are complicated because the NFs have the same discovery probability and thus when a certain NF fails to provide services due to overload or failure, etc., the NF needs to be manually added to provide services.

The second purpose of the present invention is to provide a switching device for NFs in a 5G core network, which can solve the problem in the prior art that operations are complicated due to the fact that when a certain NF cannot provide services due to overload or failure, etc., due to the same discovery probability of the NFs, the NF needs to be manually added to provide services.

The invention also aims to provide a storage medium, which can solve the problems that in the prior art, due to the same discovery probability of NF, when a certain NF cannot provide service due to overload or failure, the NF needs to be manually added to provide service, so that the operation is complicated and the like.

One of the purposes of the invention is realized by adopting the following technical scheme:

a NF switching method in a 5G core network comprises the following steps:

a registration step: acquiring a registration request sent by each NF through an NRF of a 5G core network, registering each NF, and sending a registration response message to the corresponding NF after each NF is successfully registered; the registration request comprises resource information and selection priority of NF;

a request step: when a service request instruction sent by a requester is received through the NRF, one or more NF to be accessed are obtained from the NF registered in the system through matching according to the service request instruction, and the NF to be accessed with the highest priority is selected from the one or more NF to be accessed as an access NF according to the selection priority of each NF;

a connection step: and returning the service access address of the access NF to the request party through the NRF, so that the request party sends the service request to the access NF, and the access NF provides service for the request party.

Further, the NF to be accessed comprises an operation NF and a backup NF; the operating NF is the NF which is in operation in the system, the backup NF is the backup NF in the system, and the selection priority of the operating NF is greater than that of the backup NF.

Further, the registering step further comprises a setting step: and identifying the running NF and the backup NF according to the selection priority submitted during the registration of each NF, placing the backup NF in a rest and power-saving mode, ensuring the heartbeat interconnection between the backup NF and the NRF and placing the backup NF in a state of waiting for a service monitoring request.

Further, when the access NF is the backup NF, and the requester in the connection step sends the service request to the access NF, the access NF exits the sleep and power saving mode, and the selection priority of the access NF is set as the selection priority of the running NF and is sent to the NRF.

Further, the selecting, in the requesting step, the NF to be accessed with the highest priority from the NFs to be accessed according to the selection priority of each NF specifically includes: when the operating NF exists in the system, judging whether the operating NF is overloaded and/or fails, if so, identifying and matching the matched backup NF from the NF to be accessed and taking the matched backup NF as the accessing NF; if not, the NF is operated as the access NF.

Further, the registration request further includes a selection order priority; when a plurality of operating NFs exist in the system, judging whether each operating NF has overload and/or fault, if so, identifying a matched backup NF from the NF to be accessed; and if not, selecting the operating NF with the highest priority from the one or more NFs without overload and/or fault as the access NF according to the selection order priority of the operating NFs.

Further, the backup NFs include a first backup NF and a second backup NF; wherein the NRF selection priority of the first backup NF is greater than the NRF selection priority of the second backup NF; the first backup NF is a backup NF in the slice network; the second backup NF is a backup NF in the PLMN.

Further, the specific process of identifying the matching backup NF from the NFs to be accessed and using the matching backup NF as the access NF comprises the following steps: judging whether a first backup NF exists in the system, if so, selecting the first backup NF and taking the first backup NF as an access NF, and if not, selecting a second backup NF and taking the second backup NF as the access NF; when a plurality of first backup NF exist in the system, the first backup NF with the highest priority is selected as the access NF according to the priority of the selection sequence;

and/or when a plurality of second backup NFs exist in the system, selecting the second backup NF with the highest priority as the access NF according to the priority of the selection sequence.

The second purpose of the invention is realized by adopting the following technical scheme:

the NF switching device in the 5G core network comprises a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is stored with a NF switching program in the 5G core network which can run on the processor, the NF switching program in the 5G core network is a computer program, and the processor realizes the steps of the NF switching method in the 5G core network adopted by one of the purposes of the invention when executing the NF switching program in the 5G core network.

The third purpose of the invention is realized by adopting the following technical scheme:

a storage medium, which is a computer-readable storage medium and on which a NF handover program in a 5G core network is stored, where the NF handover program in the 5G core network is a computer program, and when the NF handover program in the 5G core network is executed by a processor, the steps of the NF handover method in the 5G core network, which are adopted by one of the purposes of the present invention, are implemented.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

the method and the device have the advantages that the selection priority is set for each NF, the selection priority of each NF is sent to the NRF during registration, and meanwhile, when the NF providing the service is selected, the corresponding NF is selected according to the selection priority, so that the corresponding NF can be automatically selected according to the selection priority to provide the corresponding service, and the problems that the operation is inconvenient and the like caused by the fact that the specific NF is required to be manually added to provide the service in the prior art are solved; meanwhile, the invention is convenient for development and maintenance only by setting the selection priority of each NF during registration.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of an NF handover method in a 5G core network according to the present invention;

fig. 2 is a connection network diagram of an NFR, each NF, and a requester in a 5G core network provided by the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a connection network in which the pNF (P2P1) in FIG. 2 provides services for a requester;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a backup NF registration process;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of step S2 in FIG. 1;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of step S23 in fig. 5;

FIG. 7 is a data storage structure of a first backup NF;

FIG. 8 is a data storage structure of a second backup NF;

fig. 9 is a block diagram of an NF switching apparatus in a 5G core network according to the present invention.

In the figure: 11. a memory; 12. a processor; 13. a communication bus; 14. a network interface.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings and the detailed description, and it should be noted that any combination of the embodiments or technical features described below can be used to form a new embodiment without conflict.

In order to solve the defect that the NF backup on the NRF needs to be manually increased in the prior art, the present invention provides a preferred embodiment, and the NRF distinguishes multiple NFs according to the selection priority of each NF when each NF is registered on the NRF by setting the selection priority for each NF.

Thus, when a requester needs to request to use a certain type of NF, the NRF may select a corresponding NF to provide a corresponding service to the requester according to the selection priority of each NF. Wherein, the requesting party is also a kind of NF, and belongs to the NF instance. That is, the NF instance needs to discover the corresponding NF through the NRF to provide service for it.

Preferably, in order to save system resources, when a plurality of NFs are registered on the NRF, the NRF further distinguishes the NFs as the operating NF and the backup NF according to the selection priority. Here, the plurality of NFs refers to NFs that can provide the same service for other NFs.

The operating NF is the current normal operating NF, and the backup NF is the backup of the current normal operating NF, that is, the backup NF is the NF that can be used only when the current normal operating NF fails or is overloaded. Meanwhile, when the NF is successfully registered on the NRF, the NRF also places the backup NF in a sleep and power saving mode, and simultaneously enters the backup NF into a state of waiting for a listening service request and interoperates with the heartbeat of the NRF.

Preferably, in order to improve the resource utilization rate, the selection priority of the operating NF is set to be higher than that of the backup NF, so that it can be ensured that the operating NF can be preferentially selected when the operating NF fails and is not overloaded.

Therefore, based on the above, the present invention provides a preferred embodiment, a method for NF handover in a 5G core network, as shown in fig. 1 to 3, including the following steps:

step S1, obtaining the registration request sent by each NF through the NRF of the 5G core network, registering each NF, and sending a registration response message to the corresponding NF when each NF is successfully registered. Preferably, the registration request includes resource information and selection priority of the NF. The resource information of the NF is information about the operation of the NF, and is well known to those skilled in the art. The selection priority is what is given by the present invention, i.e., at each NF registration, the selection priority of the NF is also sent to the NRF. The selection priority refers to the sequence of NF selection when a plurality of NF of the same type exist in the system.

The NF in this embodiment includes an operating NF and a backup NF, and the operating NF and the backup NF have different selection priorities. Thus, when each NF is registered with the NRF, the NRF may identify the running NF and the backup NF according to the selection priority of each NF. Wherein, the operating NF refers to normal operating NF. As shown in fig. 4, a registration procedure of the backup NF is to put the backup NF into a sleep and power saving mode in order to save resources, and simultaneously ensure heartbeat interconnection between the backup NF and the NRF and put the backup NF into a state waiting for a listening service request.

Wherein, the heartbeat interconnection means: the heartbeat information is sent to the NRF by the backup NF timing and the received NRF replies with the heartbeat.

Step S2, when a service request instruction sent by a requester is received through the NRF, one or more NF to be accessed are obtained from the NF registered in the system according to the service request instruction in a matching way, and the NF to be accessed with the highest priority is selected from the one or more NF to be accessed as the accessing NF according to the selection priority of each NF.

When a requester sends a service request instruction, the NRF first identifies one or more NFs that can provide services according to the service request instruction, which is named as NF to be accessed. For performance, an NF to be accessed refers to an NF that is capable of providing service to a requestor.

Because there may be a plurality of NF capable of providing the same service, when it is registered, it is divided into operation NF and backup NF according to its own selection priority, then the backup NF is in dormant and power-saving mode, the operation NF can normally provide service, so that it can greatly save system resource. Meanwhile, when other NF sends a service request, the NRF identifies the NF to be accessed which can provide the service, and selects the corresponding NF to be accessed as the access NF according to the selection priority, thereby realizing the switching of different NFs and avoiding the problems of complicated operation and the like caused by manually adding backup NF.

Specifically, in the present embodiment, it is specified that the priority of the operating NF is higher than that of the backup NF, and therefore, when selecting from one or more NFs to be accessed, the NF to be accessed with the highest priority is selected as the access NF.

When the FN is selected, the method further comprises:

step S3, the service access address of the access NF is returned to the requestor through the NRF, so that the requestor sends the service request to the access NF, and the access NF provides the service for the requestor.

Preferably, since the backup NF is in the sleep and power saving mode before being inactive, after the access FN receives the service request sent by the requestor in step S3, the access NF exits the sleep and power saving mode, sets the selection priority of the access NF as the selection priority of the operating NF, and sends the reset selection priority to the NRF for updating through heartbeat interoperation.

Preferably, in an actual application process, when the running NF is overloaded or fails, the running NF cannot normally provide a service, and therefore, when the NF to be accessed with the highest priority is selected from the NFs to be accessed according to the selection priority in step S2, as shown in fig. 5, the method specifically includes:

step S21, judging whether the system has operation NF, if yes, executing step S22; if not, step S23 is executed.

Step S22, judging whether the operation NF is overloaded or failed, if yes, executing step S23; if not, step S24 is executed.

Step S23, judging whether a backup NF exists in the system, if yes, executing step S25; if not, exiting.

Step S24, the operating NF is used as the access NF.

And step S25, taking the backup NF as the access NF.

That is, when selecting the NF, the operating NF with the highest priority is selected first, and then it is determined whether the operating NF is overloaded or failed, if so, it is considered that the operating NF cannot provide a service, and the backup NF with the next priority is selected as the access NF. Because the NF can send heartbeat messages to the NRF at regular time, the NRF can know whether the NF is overloaded or fails according to the heartbeat messages.

Meanwhile, when the operating NF does not exist in the system, the backup NF needs to be selected as the access NF.

When the backup NF is selected as the access NF, the service address of the selected backup NF is returned to the requestor through the NRF. In this way, the requesting party sends the service request to the backup NF according to the service address of the backup NF, so that the backup NF provides service for the requesting party, the backup NF exits the sleep and power saving modes, the selection priority of the backup NF is modified into the selection priority of the running NF and is sent to the NRF for updating, the backup NF changes the running NF, and thus when other requesting parties access the NF of the same type, the NRF can preferentially discover that the running NF provides service for the requesting party.

Preferably, as can be seen from the foregoing, when a certain operating NF is overloaded or fails, the operating NF cannot currently provide a service, and at this time, the backup NF is selected to provide a service for the requester, and the backup NF is changed to the operating NF. However, with the operation of time, if the operation NF in overload or failure exits the overload or failure state, it may provide service like the normal operation NF, and at this time, a plurality of operation NFs may exist in the system, and the selection priorities of the plurality of operation NFs are the same.

When a request direction NRF sends a service request command, there are multiple operating NFs in the system, that is, the multiple operating NFs have the same selection priority. To facilitate the system's selection of multiple running NFs of the same selection priority. The present embodiment also sets a corresponding selection order priority for each running NF. The selection order priority refers to the order in which each operating NF is selected when a plurality of operating NFs exist in the system.

That is, for the case where a plurality of operating NFs exist in the system in step S21, the operating NF having the highest priority among them is selected as the access NF according to the selection order priority.

Preferably, in a 5G core network, there are multiple different backups due to the different networks to which the backup NF belongs. More specifically, the backup NFs in the present embodiment include a first backup NF and a second backup NF. The first backup NF is a backup NF in the slice network; the second backup NF is a backup NF in the PLMN. Preferably, the NRF selection priority of the first backup NF is greater than the NRF selection priority of the second backup NF.

Similarly, when there is no operating NF in the system or the existing operating NFs are both in failure or overload, the present embodiment may select the backup NF.

Since the backup NF includes the first backup NF and the second backup NF. Therefore, when the backup NF is used as the access NF in step S23, as shown in fig. 6, the method further includes:

and S231, judging whether the system has the first backup NF according to the selection priority, if so, taking the first backup NF as the access NF, and if not, executing the step S232.

Step S232, judging whether a second backup NF exists in the system according to the selection priority, and if not, exiting; if so, the second backup NF is taken as the access NF.

Preferably, when a plurality of first backup NFs exist in the system, that is, the selection priorities of the plurality of first backup NFs are the same, the first backup NF with the highest priority is selected as the access NF according to the selection order priority.

Similarly, when a plurality of second backup NFs exist in the system, that is, the selection priorities of the plurality of second backup NFs are the same, the second backup NF with the highest priority is selected as the access NF according to the selection order priority.

Preferably, according to the NRF service architecture protocol of TS 3GPP 29510, NFRegister to the NRF uses the NFRegister message flow, and update the selection priority of the NF to the NRF uses the NFUpdate flow.

That is, when the NF is registered, the NF register message is sent to the NRF through the NF, and further the resource information and the selection priority of the NF are sent to the NRF. Preferably, the present invention uses the parameters of the selection priority and the selection order priority as a new selectable item structure of NFProfile in json data, and the data format of json corresponding to the new selectable item is: { "selected priority": 1, "sequence priority": 1}. Wherein, the selected priority is used as the selection priority and the value range is 1 to 3. The sequence priority is a selection order priority and has a value ranging from 0 to 225.

Preferably, the parameter values of the selection priority and the selection order priority may be set according to the actual situation, and are not limited to 1 to 3 and 0 to 225 in this embodiment, as long as the priority order can be indicated.

Similarly, when the NF updates its own selection priority to the NRF, the same data format is also used.

Preferably, the set selection priority is indicated by a capital letter P and the selection order priority is indicated by a lower case letter P. The selection priorities of the running NF, the first backup NF, and the second backup NF in this embodiment are respectively expressed as: p1, P2, P3. That is, when the selection priority is P1, the NF is considered to be the current NF that normally works in the 5G core network; when the selection priority is P2, the NF is considered as a first backup NF in a certain slice network in the 5G core network; when the selection priority is P3, the NF is considered as a second backup NF in a certain PLMN in the 5G core network; meanwhile, the selection priority of the running NF is greater than that of the first backup NF and that of the second backup NF.

Specifically, in the 5G core network, all the NFs that are normally providing services have a priority level of P1, which is the highest priority level. If a NF does not send the selection priority parameter at the time of initial registration with the NRF, the selection priority of the NF is set to P1.

The NF with priority P2 is selected as a backup for the same type of NF in the slice network, which is generally in sleep and power saving modes, is not involved in providing any relevant services in the 5G core network except for being interconnected with the heartbeat of the NRF, is woken up to provide services when the NRF finds no running NF available, and the first backup NF is set to P1 for selection priority when woken up.

Similarly, the NF with priority P3 is selected as a backup for the same type of NF in the slice network, which is normally in sleep and power saving mode, except for being interconnected with the heartbeat of the NRF and not participating in providing any relevant services in the 5G core network, and is woken up to provide services when the NRF finds no running NF available, and the first backup NF is selected with priority P1 when woken up.

As shown in fig. 2-3, the selection priority is denoted as P and the selection order priority is denoted as P. The NF with the selection priority P1 is denoted as NF (P1), the NF with the selection priority P1 and the NF with the selection order priority P1 are denoted as NF (P1P1), and the request for service from the NRF is denoted as the requester. The NF in the NRF that can serve the requestor is denoted pNF. As can be seen from fig. 2 and 3, NFs that can serve requestors include: pNF (P1), pNF (P1), pNF (P2P1), pNF (P2P2), pNF (P3P1) and pNF (P3P 2). Since the two NFs with priority P1 were selected to be overloaded and failed, the NF with priority P2 may serve cNF. Meanwhile, because there are two NFs with the selection priority of P2, pNF (P2P1) is selected according to the selection order priority to provide services for the requester, and the service address of pNF (P2P1) is sent to the requester through NRF, so that the requester sends a service request to pNF (P2P1), and pNF (P2P1) provides services for the requester.

Under normal conditions, the backup NFs with priority P2 and P3 are selected to be in sleep and power saving modes, and remain interconnected with the NRF's heartbeat and waiting for listening for service requests. By placing the back-up NF in sleep and power saving modes, system resources may be saved.

When an external service request is sent to the NRF, the NRF obtains the required NF from the system through matching according to the external service request, and then selects the operating NF or the backup NF which is matched with the required NF from the required NF according to the selection priority and the selection sequence priority to serve as the NF for providing service. Specifically, the NRF firstly matches the operating NF according to the selection priority, and when no NF exists in the system or the existing NF is overloaded or fails, the NRF matches the first backup NF according to the selection priority; similarly, when the first backup NF is not present in the system, the NRF matches the second backup NF according to the selection priority. That is, the NF of the previous priority cannot be identified when it is not present or cannot provide a service. When there are a plurality of matching operation NFs, the NRF further selects an operation NF with the highest priority to serve the requester according to the selection order priority. Similarly, when a plurality of first backup NFs are obtained by matching, the NRF further selects the first backup NF with the highest priority according to the priority of the selection order to provide service for the requester; when there are a plurality of matched first backup NFs, the NRF further selects the first backup NF with the highest priority according to the selection order priority to provide a service to the requester.

In addition, when the operating NF is matched, it is also required to ensure that the operating NF cannot be under load or failure to serve as the access NF of the requester.

Preferably, in order to improve the efficiency of the NRF to search for NFs, the present invention further provides a data storage structure for the first backup NF and the second backup NF in the NRF.

As shown in fig. 7, a data storage structure for the first backup NF includes a first primary key and a first priority table. Wherein the first primary key comprises a PLMN ID encoding of 3 bytes, a NF type representation of 1 byte, and a slice representation S-NSSA of 4 bytes. The first priority table is used for storing each first backup NF and a selection order priority of each first backup NF.

The first backup NFs in the first priority table having the same selection order priority are each pointed to a linked list of one or more first backup NFs by pointers.

Similarly, fig. 8 shows a data storage structure of the second backup NF, which includes a second primary key and a second order priority table; the second primary key comprises PLMN ID codes and NF type codes; wherein, PLMN ID code is 3 bytes, NF type code is 1 byte; the second priority table is used for storing each second backup NF and a selection order priority of each second backup NF.

Wherein the PLMN is encoded into one 3-byte data according to the TS 38413 protocol. The NF type is a byte of data, which indicates that it corresponds to a network type, for example, 1 represents AMF, 2 represents SMF, etc. It is sufficient to identify the network element type in all 5G core networks by one byte of data. According to the TS 3GPP protocol, a slice representation S-NSSAI comprises a 1 byte SST and a 3 byte SD for indicating that the first affiliated slice network uniquely identifies a slice.

Preferably, based on the NF switching method in the 5G core network provided by the present invention, the present invention further provides an NF switching device in the 5G core network, and as shown in fig. 9, an internal structure schematic diagram of the NF switching device in the 5G core network provided by an embodiment of the present invention is shown.

In this embodiment, the NF switching device in the 5G core network may be a PC (Personal Computer), or may be a terminal device such as a smart phone, a tablet Computer, or a portable Computer. The NF switching device in the 5G core network at least includes: a processor 12, a communication bus 13, a network interface 14, and a memory 11.

The memory 11 includes at least one type of readable storage medium, which includes a flash memory, a hard disk, a multimedia card, a card type memory (e.g., SD or DX memory, etc.), a magnetic memory, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, and the like. The memory 11 may in some embodiments be an internal storage unit of the NF switching devices in the 5G core network, e.g. a hard disk of the NF switching devices in the 5G core network. The memory 11 may also be an external storage device of the NF switching device in the 5G core network in other embodiments, such as a plug-in hard disk, a Smart Media Card (SMC), a Secure Digital (SD) Card, a Flash memory Card (Flash Card), and the like equipped on the NF switching device in the 5G core network. Further, the memory 11 may also include both an internal storage unit and an external storage device of the NF switching device in the 5G core network. The memory 11 may be used to store not only application software installed in the NF switching device in the 5G core network and various types of data, such as codes of NF switching programs in the 5G core network, but also temporarily store data that has been output or is to be output.

The processor 12 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a controller, a microcontroller, a microprocessor or other data Processing chip in some embodiments, and is used for running program codes stored in the memory 11 or Processing data, such as executing NF switching programs in a 5G core network.

The communication bus 13 is used to realize connection communication between these components.

The network interface 14 may optionally include a standard wired interface, a wireless interface (e.g., WI-FI interface), and is generally used to establish a communication connection between the NF switching device and other electronic devices in the 5G core network.

Optionally, the NF switching apparatus in the 5G core network may further include a user interface, where the user interface may include a Display (Display), an input unit such as a Keyboard (Keyboard), and the optional user interface may further include a standard wired interface and a standard wireless interface. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the display may be an LED display, a liquid crystal display, a touch-sensitive liquid crystal display, an OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) touch device, or the like. The display may also be referred to as a display screen or a display unit, where appropriate, for displaying information processed in the NF switching devices in the 5G core network and for displaying a visual user interface.

Fig. 9 only shows NF switching devices in a 5G core network with components 11-14 and NF switching procedures in the 5G core network, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the structure shown in fig. 9 does not constitute a limitation of NF switching devices in a 5G core network, and may include fewer or more components than shown, or combine certain components, or a different arrangement of components.

In the embodiment of the NF switching apparatus in the 5G core network shown in fig. 9, the memory 11 stores an NF switching program in the 5G core network; the processor 12 implements the following steps when executing the NF switching program in the 5G core network stored in the memory 11:

a NF switching method in a 5G core network comprises the following steps:

EXAMPLE III

A storage medium, which is a computer-readable storage medium and on which a NF handover program in a 5G core network is stored, where the NF handover program in the 5G core network is a computer program, and when executed by a processor, the NF handover program in the 5G core network implements the following steps:

a NF switching method in a 5G core network comprises the following steps:

The above embodiments are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and the protection scope of the present invention is not limited thereby, and any insubstantial changes and substitutions made by those skilled in the art based on the present invention are within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A NF switching method in a 5G core network is characterized in that the switching method comprises the following steps:

a connection step: the service access address of the access NF is returned to the request party through the NRF, so that the request party sends the service request to the access NF, and the access NF provides service for the request party; the NF to be accessed comprises an operation NF and a backup NF; the operating NF is the NF in operation in the system, the backup NF is the backup NF in the system, and the selection priority of the operating NF is greater than that of the backup NF;

the registration step further comprises a setting step: identifying to obtain an operating NF and a backup NF according to a selection priority submitted during the registration of each NF, placing the backup NF in a sleep power-saving mode, and simultaneously ensuring the heartbeat interconnection between the backup NF and an NRF and placing the backup NF in a state of waiting for a monitoring service request;

when the access NF is a backup NF, and a request party in the connection step sends a service request to the access NF, the access NF exits from the sleep and power-saving mode, and the selection priority of the access NF is set as the selection priority of the running NF and is sent to the NRF;

the step of requesting, when the NF to be accessed with the highest priority is selected from the NFs to be accessed as the access NF according to the selection priority of each NF, specifically includes: when the operating NF exists in the system, judging whether the operating NF is overloaded and/or fails, if so, identifying and matching the matched backup NF from the NF to be accessed and taking the matched backup NF as the accessing NF; if not, the operating NF is used as the access NF;

the registration request further includes a selection order priority; when a plurality of operating NFs exist in the system, judging whether each operating NF has overload and/or fault, if so, identifying a matched backup NF from the NF to be accessed; and if not, selecting the operating NF with the highest priority from the one or more NFs without overload and/or fault as the access NF according to the selection order priority of the operating NFs.

2. The NF switching method in a 5G core network according to claim 1, wherein the backup NF comprises a first backup NF and a second backup NF; wherein the NRF selection priority of the first backup NF is greater than the NRF selection priority of the second backup NF; the first backup NF is a backup NF in the slice network; the second backup NF is a backup NF in the PLMN.

3. The NF switching method in a 5G core network according to claim 2, wherein the specific process of identifying the matching backup NF from the NF to be accessed and using the matching backup NF as the accessing NF comprises: judging whether a first backup NF exists in the system, if so, selecting the first backup NF and taking the first backup NF as an access NF, and if not, selecting a second backup NF and taking the second backup NF as the access NF; when a plurality of first backup NF exist in the system, the first backup NF with the highest priority is selected as the access NF according to the priority of the selection sequence;

4. The NF switching device in the 5G core network comprises a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is stored with a NF switching program in the 5G core network which can run on the processor, the NF switching program in the 5G core network is a computer program, and the NF switching device is characterized in that: the steps of implementing a method for NF handover in a 5G core network as claimed in any of claims 1-3 when the processor executes the NF handover procedure in the 5G core network.

5. A storage medium, which is a computer-readable storage medium and on which a NF handover program in a 5G core network is stored, wherein the NF handover program in the 5G core network is a computer program, and the storage medium is characterized in that: the NF handover procedure in a 5G core network when executed by a processor implements the steps of a method for NF handover in a 5G core network as claimed in any of claims 1-3.