CN113271629B

CN113271629B - Network load balancing method, access network equipment and network system

Info

Publication number: CN113271629B
Application number: CN202010093621.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 石小丽; 张凯; 邹兰
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-02-14
Filing date: 2020-02-14
Publication date: 2023-11-21
Anticipated expiration: 2040-02-14
Also published as: WO2021160003A1; CN113271629A

Abstract

The application relates to the technical field of communication, and particularly provides a network load balancing method, access network equipment and a network system. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment determines first connection information of a first slice, wherein the first slice is a slice of the first access network equipment; the first access network equipment sends first connection information and the identification of the first slice to the second access network equipment, and the first connection information and the identification of the first slice are used for load balancing of the second access network equipment. According to the method, the access network devices share the connection information of the slices, so that the user devices can be uniformly distributed among the slices, and therefore, the load of the slices is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured on the network management side, the capacity of the network system is improved, and the user network experience is improved.

Description

Network load balancing method, access network equipment and network system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a network load balancing method, an access network device, and a network system.

Background

With the development of mobile communication technology, various new services and application scenarios are continuously emerging, and the requirements of the services on network functions, connection performance, security and the like are greatly different. If a single network is used to carry these services, it is difficult to meet the requirements of high bandwidth, low latency, high reliability, etc. at the same time. If a network is built separately for each service, huge costs are brought. This requires that the fifth generation (5 th-generation, 5G) communication technology be flexible and extensible, and at the same time, be able to meet different business requirements. To this end, 5G communication technology provides customized web services to users through end-to-end network slicing (network slicing). Network slicing refers to a collection of logical network function entities supporting specific communication traffic requirements, and mainly implements services customizable by means of software defined network (software defined netwoek, SND) technology and network function virtualization (network function virtualization, NFV) technology. Specifically, the 5G communication technology provides services for users in a targeted manner by flexibly distributing network resources and networking according to needs, and virtualizing a plurality of mutually isolated logic subnets with different characteristics on the same set of physical facilities (including access network equipment and core network equipment). This logical subnetwork may be referred to as a network slice. Network resources may include cloud-based communication, computing and storage resources, physical connections and communication resources, wireless access (wireless radio access) resources such as frequency, time, code multiple access resources, telecommunications resources, storage resources and computing resources.

Generally, the network slices of 5G mainly include network slices of an enhanced mobile broadband service (enhanced mobile broadband, eMBB) type, a massive machine type communication (massive machine type of communication, mctc) type, and a super reliability delay service (ultra-reliable and low latency communications, URLLC) type. Fig. 1 shows a physical infrastructure (physical infrastructure) supporting the aforementioned three types of network slices. As shown in fig. 1, the physical infrastructure will include sites and three layers of Data Centers (DCs). The station may support multiple modes such as 5G, long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE), and wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) in the form of macro, micro, and pico base stations. Three layers of cloud DCs contain computing and storage resources, with the bottom layer named central office DC, quite close to the site side; the second layer is local DC; the uppermost layer is region DC. As shown in fig. 1, the service requirement type of eMBB, mMTC, URLLC is different, and the location where the cache is deployed is also different. Network slices of the eMBB type have high bandwidth requirements and thus tend to deploy caches (caches) in the mobile cloud engine (mobile cloud engine, MCE) of the local DC to provide high-speed services, thereby reducing bandwidth requirements on the backbone. Network slicing of the unmanned, remote management, etc. type of ul lc has strict requirements on latency, so radio access network (radio access network, RAN) real-time processing functional units (RNA real time, RNA-RT) and RAN non-real-time processing functional units (RNA non-real time, RNA-NRT) are typically deployed as close to the site side as possible, V2X servers and service gateways are deployed in the mobile cloud engine of central office DC, and control plane functions are deployed in local DC and regional DC. Network slicing of mctc type does not require a large amount of data interaction with high frequency, and thus can be deployed at a mobile cloud engine of local DC, and other additional functions and application servers (e.g., internet of things server (internet of thing server, IOT server)) can be deployed at local DC.

In the related protocol of LTE, a load balancing (load balancing) function is defined, which refers to that parameters related to mobility are automatically adjusted by exchanging load information between evolved nodebs (enbs), so as to achieve uniform distribution of services or users among different enbs, so as to maintain high radio resource utilization and improve system capacity. However, in 5G, due to the introduction of network slicing, the radio resource allocation changes, and the load balancing function defined by LTE is difficult to adapt to the change, so that when the UE in 5G performs cell handover, handover failure often occurs.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a network load balancing method, access network equipment and a network system, which aim to realize uniform distribution of user equipment among slices and improve the capacity of the network system.

In a first aspect, a network load balancing method is provided, the method comprising: the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment determines first connection information of a first slice, wherein the first slice is a slice of the first access network equipment; the first access network equipment sends first connection information and the identification of the first slice to the second access network equipment, and the first connection information and the identification of the first slice are used for load balancing of the second access network equipment.

That is, the method can determine the connection information of the slices of the access network equipment and send the connection information to other access network equipment, so that the connection information can be considered when the other access network equipment performs load balancing, thereby ensuring the uniform distribution of the user equipment among the slices and prompting the capacity of the network system.

In one possible implementation, the first connection information includes at least one of:

the number of Radio Resource Control (RRC) connections, the number of active state user equipment, the number of inactive state user equipment and the number of idle state user equipment.

In one possible implementation, the first connection information includes a first available connection capacity value, the first available connection capacity value being determined by a first maximum connection number and a first connection number, the first maximum connection number being a maximum connection number of user devices of the first slice, the first connection number being a number of user devices in the first slice.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections comprises an RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprises an RRC number of connections, and the first available connection capacity value comprises an available RRC connection capacity value; the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the first access network device according to the RRC maximum connection number and the RRC connection number.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum connection number includes a maximum number of active user devices, the first connection number includes a number of active user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes an available active user device capacity value; the capacity value of the available active state user equipment is determined by the first access network equipment according to the maximum number of the active state user equipment and the number of the active state user equipment.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes a maximum number of deactivated user devices, the first connection information includes a number of deactivated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes an available deactivated user device capacity value; the capacity value of the available user equipment in the deactivation state is determined by the first access network equipment according to the maximum number of the user equipment in the deactivation state and the number of the user equipment in the deactivation state.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the first access network device receives a first maximum number of connections from a network management entity.

In one possible implementation, the first slice includes:

a slice of the first cell, a slice of the first base station, or a slice of the first beam; the first cell is a cell under the first access network equipment, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network equipment, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network equipment.

In one possible implementation, the identification of the first slice is at least one of:

single network slice selection assistance information S-nsai, network slice selection assistance information nsai, network slice subnet instance NSI, network slice instance NSI.

In one possible implementation, the first access network device includes a CU and a DU; the first access network device determining first connection information for the first slice includes: the CU determines the RRC connection number of the first slice, and the DU determines the number of active user equipment of the first slice; the first access network device sending the first connection information and the identification of the first slice to the second access network device includes: the first access network device sends the RRC connection number and the number of the activated user equipment to the second access network device.

In a second aspect, a network load balancing method is provided, and the method includes: the first access network equipment receives a first maximum connection number from a network management entity, wherein the first maximum connection number is the maximum connection number of the first access network equipment; the first access network equipment determines a first connection number, wherein the first connection number is the number of user equipment under the first access network equipment; and the first access network equipment performs load balancing according to the first maximum connection number and the first connection number.

That is, the network management entity may send the maximum connection number of the access network device to the access network device, so that the access network device may perform load balancing according to the maximum connection number and the actual connection number, thereby ensuring uniform distribution of user devices between the access network devices and prompting the capacity of the network system.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes:

the maximum number of connections of the first cell, the maximum number of connections of the first base station, or the maximum number of connections of the first beam; the first cell is a cell under the first access network equipment, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network equipment, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network equipment.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections comprises an RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprising an RRC number of connections; and/or the first maximum connection number comprises the maximum number of active state user equipment, and the first connection number comprises the number of active state user equipment; and/or the first maximum connection number comprises the maximum number of the user equipment in the deactivation state, and the first connection number comprises the number of the user equipment in the deactivation state.

In a third aspect, a first access network device is provided, where the first access network device includes: a processor, configured to determine first connection information of a first slice, where the first slice is a slice of the first access network device; and the transceiver is used for sending the first connection information and the identification of the first slice to the second access network equipment, wherein the first connection information and the identification of the first slice are used for carrying out load balancing on the second access network equipment.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections comprises an RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprises an RRC number of connections, and the first available connection capacity value comprises an available RRC connection capacity value; the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the processor according to the RRC maximum connection number and the RRC connection number.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum connection number includes a maximum number of active user devices, the first connection number includes a number of active user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes an available active user device capacity value; the capacity value of the available active state user equipment is determined by the processor according to the maximum number of the active state user equipment and the number of the active state user equipment.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes a maximum number of deactivated user devices, the first connection information includes a number of deactivated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes an available deactivated user device capacity value; the available deactivation state user equipment capacity value is determined by the processor according to the maximum number of the deactivation state user equipment and the number of the deactivation state user equipment.

In one possible implementation, the transceiver is further configured to: a first maximum number of connections is received from a network management entity.

In one possible implementation, the first slice includes:

In one possible implementation, the processor includes a CU module and a DU module; the CU module is used for determining the RRC connection number of the first slice, and the DU module is used for determining the number of the active user equipment of the first slice; the transceiver is further configured to send the RRC connection number and the number of active user equipments to the second access network device.

In a fourth aspect, a first access network device is provided, the first access network device comprising: a transceiver configured to receive a first maximum connection number from a network management entity, the first maximum connection number being a maximum connection number of a first access network device; the processor is used for determining a first connection number, wherein the first connection number is the number of user equipment under the first access network equipment; the processor is further configured to perform load balancing according to the first maximum connection number and the first connection number.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections is any one of:

a maximum number of connections for the first cell, a maximum number of connections for the first base station, a maximum number of connections for the first beam; the first cell is a cell under the first access network equipment, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network equipment, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network equipment.

In a fifth aspect, a first access network device is provided, the first access network device comprising: the processing unit is used for determining first connection information of a first slice, wherein the first slice is a slice of the first access network equipment; and the communication unit is used for sending the first connection information and the identification of the first slice to the second access network equipment, wherein the first connection information and the identification of the first slice are used for carrying out load balancing on the second access network equipment.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections comprises an RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprises an RRC number of connections, and the first available connection capacity value comprises an available RRC connection capacity value; the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the processing unit according to the RRC maximum connection number and the RRC connection number.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum connection number includes a maximum number of active user devices, the first connection number includes a number of active user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes an available active user device capacity value; the capacity value of the available active state user equipment is determined by the processing unit according to the maximum number of active state user equipment and the number of active state user equipment.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes a maximum number of deactivated user devices, the first connection information includes a number of deactivated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes an available deactivated user device capacity value; the available deactivation state user equipment capacity value is determined by the processing unit according to the maximum number of the deactivation state user equipment and the number of the deactivation state user equipment.

In one possible implementation, the communication unit is further configured to: a first maximum number of connections is received from a network management entity.

In one possible implementation, the first slice is a slice comprising:

In one possible implementation, the processing unit includes a CU subunit and a DU subunit; the CU subunit is used for determining the RRC connection number of the first slice, and the DU subunit is used for determining the number of the active user equipment of the first slice; the communication unit is further configured to send the RRC connection number and the number of active user equipments to the second access network device.

In a sixth aspect, a first access network device is provided, the first access network device comprising: a communication unit, configured to receive a first maximum connection number from a network management entity, where the first maximum connection number is a maximum connection number of a first access network device; the processing unit is used for determining a first connection number, wherein the first connection number is the number of user equipment under first access network equipment; the processing unit is further configured to perform load balancing according to the first maximum connection number and the first connection number.

In a seventh aspect, a network system is provided, including a first access network device and a second access network device; the first access network equipment is used for determining first connection information of a first slice, wherein the first slice is a slice of the first access network equipment; the first access network device is further configured to send first connection information and an identifier of the first slice to the second access network device; the second access network device is used for carrying out load balancing according to the first connection information and the identification of the first slice.

An eighth aspect provides a network system, including a network management entity and a first access network device; the network management entity is used for determining a first maximum connection number, wherein the first maximum connection number is the maximum connection number of the first access network equipment; the first access network equipment is used for determining a first connection number, wherein the first connection number is the number of user equipment under the first access network equipment; the first access network device is configured to perform load balancing according to the first maximum connection number and the first connection number.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer storage medium comprising computer instructions which, when run on an access network device, cause the access network device to perform the method provided in the first aspect or the method provided in the second aspect.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising program code which, when executed by a processor in an access network device, implements the method provided by the first aspect or the method provided by the second aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a chip system for use in an access network device, the chip system comprising: a processor and interface circuit; the processor is connected to the interface circuit to perform the operations of the first access network device in the methods provided in the above aspects.

A twelfth aspect provides a network system comprising a first access network device and a second access network device, wherein the first access device is configured to perform the method provided by the first aspect or various possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, a network system is provided, comprising a network management entity and a first access network device, wherein the first access network device is configured to perform the method provided by the second aspect or the various possible implementations of the second aspect.

By the network load balancing method provided by the embodiment of the application, the user equipment can be uniformly distributed among the slices by sharing the connection information of the slices among the access network equipment, so that the load (connected or managed UE) of the slices is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured on the network management side, thereby improving the capacity of the network system and improving the user network experience. For example, when the access network device performs UE handover between slices, connection information of slices of other access network devices can be considered, so that the UE handover failure rate can be reduced more effectively.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a physical infrastructure that can support multiple types of network slices;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a UE handover scenario;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of another UE handover scenario;

FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system;

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of a network management entity structure;

fig. 4C is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of a network load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method for determining a load balancing policy according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 8 is a flowchart of a network load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a method for determining a load balancing policy according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a flowchart of a network load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a flowchart of a network load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic block diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic block diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will be apparent that the described embodiments are only some, but not all, embodiments of the application.

Reference in the specification to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" or the like means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in one or more embodiments of the application. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," and the like in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but mean "one or more but not all embodiments" unless expressly specified otherwise.

Wherein, in the description of the present specification, "/" means or is meant unless otherwise indicated, for example, a/B may represent a or B; "and/or" herein is merely an association relationship describing an association object, and means that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, in the description of the embodiments of the present application, "plurality" means two or more than two.

In the description of this specification, the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more such feature. The terms "comprising," "including," "having," and variations thereof mean "including but not limited to," unless expressly specified otherwise.

Before describing and expanding the scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, the related characteristics of the lower network slice are described.

Resources between different network slices may be isolated and not shared with each other. Alternatively, resources between different network slices may be shared. In general, different network slices may be identified and distinguished by single network slice selection support information (single network slice selection assistance information, S-nsai). One S-NSSAI may include a network slice information/service type (SST). SST points to network slice specific features and traffic types. The traffic type is eMBB, mMTC, URLLC as described above, etc. Optionally, the S-NSSAI may also include a slice separator (slice differentiator, SD). SD, in addition to SST, can be used to further distinguish between multiple network slice instances that satisfy the same SST.

In addition, for S-NSSAI, there are several classifications.

Subscription S-NSSAI (subscribed S-NSSAIs), belonging to the subscription data of the user.

Default S-NSSAI (default S-NSSAI): one or more of the subscribers S-nsais may be set to a default S-nsai according to the operator' S policy. If the User Equipment (UE) does not carry an grant NSSAI (allowed NSSAI) in the registration request message (registration request), the network will use the default S-nsai to provide service to the UE in the presence of the default S-nsai.

The request NSSAI (requested NSSAI) refers to the NSSAI carried by the UE in the registration request message (registration request).

The grant NSSAI (allowed NSSAI) refers to an S-nsai allowed by the network among nsais requested by the UE. The network will allow NSSAI to be brought to the UE by registering an "Allowed NSSAI" cell (information element, IE) of the received message (registration accept).

Reject NSSAI (rejected NSSAI) refers to the NSSAI rejected by the network from among the NSSAIs requested by the UE. The network will reject NSSAl from being brought to the UE by registering the "reject NSSAI" IE of the received message.

Configuration NSSAI (configured NSSAI) refers to NSSAI that the network configures for use by the UE. The network will bring the Configured nsai to the UE by registering the Configured nsai IE of the received message. Upon receiving this configuration parameter, the UE knows which S-NSSAIs are available under the network. If the configuration of the UE changes after registration, the network may notify the UE of the update through a configuration update command (configuration update command). The UE will save the configuration nsai that each network configures for it in nonvolatile memory. Typically, a public mobile land network (public land mobile network, PLMN) can only be configured with at most one configuration nsai.

The UE may access the network slice through the cell. In general, the radio resources of one network slice may be part or all of the radio resources of at least one cell. In other words, the radio resources of one network slice may be part or all of the radio resources of one cell, or the radio resources of one network slice may be part or all of the radio resources of a plurality of cells. From the perspective of the network system, the network slices that can be supported by an access network device (e.g., a base station) are granularity of Tracking Area (TA), i.e., if different cells of different access network devices or different cells of the same access network device belong to the same tracking area, then the network slices supported by these cells are the same. In other words, the network slices supported by cells within the same tracking area are identical. If the cells belong to different tracking areas, the network slices supported by the cells may or may not be the same. In addition, one cell may support one or more network slices.

In this specification, a network slice may be simply referred to as a slice (slice).

Next, the background of the mobility load balancing feature will be described.

The load balancing (load balancing) function defined by LTE refers to that by exchanging load information between enbs, mobility related parameters are automatically adjusted, so as to achieve uniform distribution of services or users between different enbs.

Mobility load balancing is to control unbalanced traffic distribution to achieve balanced distribution of traffic load among different cells. Load balancing also improves system capacity in order to maintain high radio resource utilization.

In general, mobility load balancing has mainly the following gains:

and a, selecting proper UE and transferring to a different-frequency adjacent cell with relatively lighter load.

And b, relieving the state of load imbalance among different-frequency cells.

And c, improving the success rate of service access, improving the service experience of users and improving the utilization rate of system resources.

Based on the results of the current NR standard discussion, the load that the base station can currently count includes cell load, slice load, and synchronization signal module (synchronization signal block, SSB) beam load. In other words, the base station may perform load balancing of cells, load balancing of network slices, and load balancing of SSB beams.

The cell load consists of a cell radio resource state (radio resource status), a hardware load (HW load), a transmission load (TNL load), an available capacity (available capacity) of the cell, radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) connection information of the cell and the number of activated UEs of the cell.

The cell radio resource status employs a cell (physical resource block, PRB) utilization (usage), which may include uplink and downlink PRB utilization, and a guaranteed bit rate (guaranteed bit rate, GBR) type PRB utilization and a Non-guaranteed bit rate (Non-guaranteed bit rate, non-GBR) type PRB utilization.

The hardware load is divided into low, medium, high and overload. The base station evaluates the utilization of the baseband board central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU) and the digital signal processing (digital signal processing, DSP) and integrates the utilization of the CPU and the DSP to distinguish the load states into different grades.

The transmission load is classified into low, medium, high, overload. The base station evaluates the use condition of the interface bandwidth with the core network, and divides the use condition into different grades of load states according to the use condition of the bandwidth.

The available capacity of a cell refers to the total level of available resources (overall available resource level) of the downlink (downlink) or uplink (uplink) of the cell.

The RRC connection information of a cell refers to a state of an intra-cell RRC connection, including the number of RRC connections (number of RRC connections) of the cell, which refers to an absolute number of UEs in an rrc_connected (rrc_connected) mode within the cell, and an available RRC connection capacity of the cell, which is a remaining percentage representing the number of RRC connections with respect to a maximum number of RRC connections supported by the cell. The number of RRC connections may also be referred to as RRC connection number.

Slice load refers to the available capacity (slice available capacity) of a slice, which may also be referred to as the total level of available resources of the slice, indicating the ratio of the amount of resources available to the network slice relative to the total amount of resources of the next generation radio access network (next generation radio access network, NG-RAN).

The SSB beam load consists of the radio resource status (radio resource status) of the SSB region (area) and the available capacity (available capacity) of the SSB beam. The radio resource status of the SSB region adopts the PRB utilization of the SSB region (PRB usage), which may include the PRB utilization of the uplink and downlink, and the PRB utilization of the guaranteed bit rate (guaranteed bit rate, GBR) type and the PRB utilization of the Non-guaranteed bit rate (Non-guaranteed bit rate, non-GBR) type. The available capacity of the SSB beam refers to the total level of downlink (downlink) or uplink (uplink) available resources of the SSB region.

Next, the cell types in load balancing (also called load balancing) are described.

The source cell refers to a cell that needs to transfer load outwards to trigger load balancing, and may also be referred to as a serving cell in this specification.

The candidate neighbor cell refers to a different frequency or same frequency cell which can become a target cell when the selection condition of load balancing on the neighbor cell is satisfied.

The target cell is a neighbor cell to which the source cell load is to be admitted with respect to the source cell.

Currently, in the network management protocol [ see TS28.541 ], a maximum connection number of a network slice (number of connections) is defined, and the maximum connection number of the network slice describes a maximum session connection number of the network slice, and the maximum session connection number can be sent to the base station through a northbound interface of the network management side device.

By way of introduction, the following two scenarios may occur when balancing the load of network slices.

In a first scenario, different slices of a cell share resources of the whole cell, and load balancing between different slices or the same slice can be performed in the cell and between cells. The slices of a cell may also be referred to as slices supported by the cell or as slices within the cell. Referring to fig. 2, it is possible to set cell A1 to have slice B1 and slice B2, cell A2 to have slice B2, and cell A3 to have slice B1.

The slice B1 of the cell A1 and the slice B2 of the cell A1 share the resource of the cell A1, and the available capacity of the slice B1 of the cell A1 is equal to the available capacity of the slice B2 of the cell A1 and equal to the available capacity of the cell A1. The network management entity configures the maximum connection number of the UE of each slice, that is, the connection number of the UE in each slice in the network cannot exceed the maximum connection number of the UE.

In this scenario one, the following may occur.

The available capacity of cell A1 is not small enough or the available capacity of cell A1 is also sufficient for connecting one or more UEs, the current number of UE connections of slice B1 has reached the maximum number of connections of the UE. As described above, the available capacity of the slice B1 of the cell A1 is equal to the available capacity of the cell A1, and according to the prior art, since the cell load judgment of the base station is based on the available capacity of the slice, and only the available capacity of the slice B1 of the cell A1 is interacted between the base stations, on the one hand, the slice B1 of the cell A1 can continue to receive new UE access, and on the other hand, its neighboring base station may also instruct the UE under the slice B1 of its cell (e.g., the cell A3) to switch to the slice B1 of the cell A1. Since the UE connection number of the slice B1 has reached the maximum value, the base stations to which the cell A1 and the cell A3 belong do not know this information, which may result in access failure or handover failure of the UE or poor user network experience.

In a second scenario, different slices of a cell are resource-isolated (i.e., the cell configures specific resources for different slices therein, respectively, the slices utilize the resources allocated by the cell for them, but not the resources allocated by the cell for other slices), and load balancing of the same slices can be performed between cells. Referring to fig. 3, cell A4 has a slice B3, and a specific resource is allocated to the slice B3. Cell A5 has a slice B3, and a specific resource is allocated to slice B3. The network management entity configures the maximum number of connections of the UE for slice B3.

In this scenario two, the following may occur.

The available capacity of the slice B3 supported by the cell A4 is not sufficiently small or the available capacity of the slice B3 of the cell A4 is also sufficient for connecting one or more UEs, but the current number of UE connections of the slice B3 of the cell A4 has reached the maximum number of UE connections, i.e. the B3 of the cell A4 is in a heavy load state. Since the cell load judgment of the base station is based on the available capacity of the slice, and only the available capacity of the slice B3 of the cell A4 is interacted between the base stations, on one hand, the slice B3 of the cell A4 can continue to receive new UE access, and on the other hand, the neighboring base station can also instruct the UE under the slice B3 of its cell (e.g. the cell A5) to switch to the slice B3 of the cell A4. Since the UE connection number of slice B3 has reached the maximum value, the base station to which cell A5 belongs does not know this information, which may result in access failure or handover failure of the UE or poor user network experience.

In scenario three, it may be set that cell A6 of base station G1 has slice B4 and cell A7 of base station G2 has slice B4. The network management entity defines the maximum number of connections for the UE for slice B4. The UE connection number of slice B4 of cell A6 and the UE connection number of cell A7 are not allowed to exceed the maximum connection number of the UE. Since the base station G1 does not know the number of UEs currently connected to the slice B4 of the cell A7, it is only limited by the maximum number of UEs connected to accommodate UE access. The base station G2 does not know the number of UEs currently connected to the slice B4 of the cell A6, and only accepts UE access by limiting the maximum number of UEs. In this case, it may happen that the sum of the UE connection number of the slice B4 of the cell A6 and the UE connection number of the slice B4 of the cell A7 exceeds the maximum connection number of the UE, resulting in dropped calls, so that the user network experience is poor.

The embodiment of the application provides a network load balancing method, which can ensure that access network equipment can determine current connection information of slices of the access network equipment, wherein the current connection information can comprise the number of currently connected UE. The access network device may send the current connection information of the slice of the access network device to other access network devices, so that when the access network device performs balancing load (for example, when switching the UE to access the cell), the current connection information of the slice of the target cell may be considered, and handover failure caused by that the number of UEs currently connected to the slice of the target cell reaches or exceeds the maximum connection number may be avoided.

Fig. 4A is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system. The communication system comprises an access network and a core network. The access network may be a next generation radio access network (next generation radio access network, NG-RAN) and the core network may be a 5G core network (5G core network,5GC). The access network may include base stations (e.g., gNB (next generation NodeB), or ng-eNB (next generation eNodeB)) that are connected by an interface (e.g., an Xn interface). The base station and the 5GC may be connected through an interface (e.g., ng interface). The core network may include access and mobility management functions (access and mobility management function, AMF). The core network may also include user plane functions (user plane function, UPF).

As shown in fig. 4A, the communication system may further include a network management entity (may also be referred to as a network management device). Illustratively, the network management entity (e.g., management function entity (management function, mnF)) may be connected to the base station via a northbound interface. The network management entity may also be connected to a 5G core network (not shown) via an interface, for example.

MnF is a management entity defined (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) whose externally visible behavior and interfaces are defined as management services (management services). In a service-giving management architecture, mnF may act as a management service Producer (management service Producer, producer of MnS) or a management service Consumer (management service Consumer, consumer of MnS). Illustratively, as shown in fig. 4B, mnF may act as both a management service producer and a management service consumer.

Management services produced by MnF management service producers may have multiple customers. MnF may consume multiple management services from one or more management service producers. In other words, the MnF-acting management service producer may manage a plurality of management service consumers, or may acquire management information from a plurality of management service consumers.

The management service consumer may be a network element management entity such as a wireless automation engine (mobile broad band automation engine, MAE), a network element management system (element management system, EMS), or the like. The network element management entity may also be referred to as a domain management device.

Illustratively, the management service producer may be specifically a network management system (network management system, NMS) or the like.

Management service producers (e.g., NMS), management service consumers (e.g., MAE, EMS, etc.) may be collectively referred to as network management entities. In other words, the network management entity may refer to a management service producer, a management service consumer, an NMS, an MAE, or an EMS.

Next, taking the gNB as an example, a base station in the communication system shown in fig. 4A will be further described.

Fig. 4C shows a schematic diagram of the architecture of a CU-DU in a New Radio (NR) system. As shown in fig. 4C, the gNB may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU). The functions of the base station are split, part of the functions of the gNB are deployed on one CU, and the other part of the functions of the gNB are deployed on DU. The number of DUs may be one or more. Multiple DUs may share one CU to save cost and facilitate network expansion. The CU and the DU are connected by an interface (e.g., F1 interface). The CU represents that the gNB is connected to the core network via an interface (e.g., ng interface). CU stands for gNB connected via interfaces (e.g., xn interface, xn-C interface) with other gnbs.

The functional partitioning of CUs and DUs may be performed in terms of protocol stacks. In one illustrative example, a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) and packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer and a service data adaptation (service data adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer may be deployed at the CU. A radio link layer control protocol (radio link control, RLC), medium access control (media access control, MAC), physical layer (PHY) are deployed at the DUs. Accordingly, the CU has the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP and SDAP. The DU has the processing power of RLC, MAC and PHY. It should be noted that the above functional segmentation is only an illustrative example, and other ways of functional segmentation are possible. For example, a CU includes RRC, PDCP, RLC and SDAP processing capabilities, and a DU has MAC and PHY processing capabilities. Also for example, a CU includes RRC, PDCP, RLC, SDAP and partial MAC (e.g., MAC header added) processing capabilities, and a DU has PHY and partial MAC (e.g., schedule) processing capabilities. The names of the CU and the DU may vary, so long as the access network node capable of implementing the above functions can be regarded as the CU and the DU in the present specification.

It should be noted that the architecture shown in fig. 4C may also be applied to a multi-hop relay scenario, that is, the DU may be a relay device, or the DU and the UE may be transmitted through the relay device.

Fig. 5 shows yet another communication system, which may comprise a plurality of access network devices, which may comprise an access network device C1 and an access network device C2. Illustratively, access network device C1 and access network device C2 may be used to connect or manage multiple UEs. Illustratively, access network device C2 may be an access network device adjacent to access network device C1. Illustratively, access network device C1 may be connected to access network device C2 via an Xn interface.

The access network device (e.g., access network device C1 or access network device C2) may be a base station, or a CU, or a DU, or an Access Point (AP), or a cluster.

In some embodiments, a cluster may be a set of one or more base stations, or may be a subnet. The cluster may be managed by a network management entity (e.g., MAE or EMS or NMS, etc.), or by an other newly defined centralized management entity or domain management entity, for example.

In some embodiments, under the CU-DU framework, the set of one or more DUs under the CU may act as a cluster. In this case, the cluster may be managed by the CU.

In some embodiments, under the CU-DU architecture, a set of one or more CUs may be used as a cluster. In this case, the cluster may be managed by a network management entity (e.g., MAE or EMS or NMS, etc.), or may be managed by one other newly defined centralized management entity or domain management entity.

In the embodiment of the present application, an entity or device that manages a cluster may be referred to as a centralized management entity for convenience of description.

In some embodiments, the communication system in which the access network device C1 and the access network device C2 are located may be the communication system shown in fig. 4A, and accordingly, the access network device C1 and the access network device C2 may be base stations. Illustratively, the access network device C1 and the access network device C2 may be adjacent, i.e., the access network device C1 is one of two adjacent base stations and the access network device C2 is the other of the two adjacent base stations.

An access network device (e.g., access network device C1 or access network device C2) may have one or more slices, which may be referred to as slices of the access network device. The slices of the access network device may include slices of one level or multiple levels.

For example, the slices of the access network device may comprise cell-level slices, in other words, one or more of the slices of the access network device may specifically be slices of cells under the access network device.

For example, the slices of the access network device may comprise base station level slices, in other words, one or more of the slices of the access network device may be base station slices. The base station is the base station corresponding to the access network equipment. In one example, when the access network device is a base station, the base station is the access network device. In one example, the base station may be any one or more base stations (or CUs, or DUs) of a cluster.

For example, when the access network device is a cluster, the slices of the access network device may include a cluster-level slice, in other words, one or more of the access network device slices may be cluster slices. For example, when a cluster consists of one or more base stations, the slice of the cluster may be a slice common to the one or more base stations, i.e., the slice of the cluster may be a slice commonly supported by the one or more base stations. For example, when a cluster is composed of a plurality of base stations, the slice of the cluster may be a slice of a portion of the plurality of base stations, i.e., the slice of the cluster may be a slice supported by a portion of the plurality of base stations. For example, when a cluster consists of one or more CUs, the slice of the cluster may be a slice common to the one or more CUs, i.e., the slice of the cluster may be a slice commonly supported by the one or more CUs. For example, when a cluster consists of multiple CUs, the slice of the cluster may be a slice of a portion of the multiple CUs, i.e., the slice of the cluster may be a slice supported by a portion of the multiple CUs. For example, when a cluster consists of one or more DUs, the slice of the cluster may be a slice common to the one or more DUs, i.e., the slice of the cluster may be a slice commonly supported by the one or more DUs. For example, when a cluster consists of a plurality of DUs, the slice of the cluster may be a slice of a portion of the DUs in the plurality of DUs, i.e., the slice of the cluster may be a slice of a portion of the DUs in the plurality of DUs.

For example, the slices of the access network device may include slices of a beam level, in other words, one or more of the slices of the access network device may be slices of a beam under the access network device. The beam may be, for example, a synchronization signal module (synchronization signal block, SSB) beam.

The access network device may determine or identify the slice by its identity. In one example, the identification of the slice may select auxiliary information (single network slice selection assistance information, S-nsai) for a single network slice. In one example, the identification of the slice may select auxiliary information (network slice selection assistance information, NSSAI) for the network slice. In one example, the identification of the slice may be a network slice subnet instance (network slice subnet instance, NSSI). In one example, the identification of the slice may be a network slice instance (network slice instance, NSI). In one example, the identification of a slice may be a combination of any two or more of S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSSI, NSI. In one example, the identification of the slice may be one or more corresponding information in S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSSI, NSI. In one example, the identification of the slice may be other identifications defined by the access network device.

The above examples merely introduce identification of slices and are not limiting. The information that may be used by the access network device to determine or identify a slice may be referred to as an identification of the slice.

Next, referring to fig. 6, an example of application in the communication system shown in fig. 5 is taken to describe a method for balancing network load according to an embodiment of the present application.

The access network device C1 may perform step 601 to determine connection information of the slice of the access network device C1. The slice of the access network device C1 may be a slice of a cell under the access network device C1. The slice may also be a slice of the base station corresponding to the access network device C1. The slice may also be a slice of a beam under the access network device C1. The foregoing types of slices may be referred to above in the description of slices in the embodiments shown in fig. 5, and are not described in detail herein.

The slices under the access network device C1 may also be other types of slices under the access network device C1, which are not listed here. .

Illustratively, when access network device C1 has a plurality of slices, access network device C1 may determine connection information for each of the plurality of slices. For example, when the access network device C1 has a plurality of slices, the access network device C1 may determine connection information of a number of slices of the plurality of slices, and the number of slices of the number of slices may be smaller than the number of slices of the plurality of slices.

The slice D1 may be set as one slice of the access network device C1. Specifically, the slice D1 may be a slice of a cell under the access network device C1, or may be a slice of a base station corresponding to the access network device C1, or may be a slice of a beam under the access network device C1, or may be another type of slice under the access network device C1. The connection information of the slice D1 determined by the access network device C1 may refer to information about user devices connected or managed by the slice D1 in case of using resources provided or managed by the access network device C1. Next, for convenience of description, the connection information of the slice D1 determined by the access network device C1 may be referred to as connection information D11.

In some embodiments, access network device C1 may count the RRC connection number of slice D1 (slice number of RRC connections). The RRC connection number of the slice D1 is the absolute number of user equipments in rrc_connected mode in the slice D1, in other words, the RRC connection number of the slice D1 is the number of RRC connections that the slice D1 currently really exists. Illustratively, under the architecture of CU-DU separation of the gNB, the CU may count the RRC connection number of slice D1. The counted RRC connection number may be used as the connection information D11 or included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be the RRC connection number, or the connection information D11 may include the RRC connection number.

In some embodiments, access network device C1 may count the number of active user devices for slice D1 (slice number of active UEs). The number of active state user devices of the slice D1 is the number of user devices with data transmission under the slice D1, in other words, the number of active state user devices of the slice D1 is the number of active state user devices in which the slice D1 currently exists. Illustratively, in the framework of CU-DU separation of the gNB, the DU may count the number of active user equipments of slice D1. The counted number of active user equipments may be used as the connection information D11 or included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be the number of active user equipments, or the connection information D11 may include the number of active user equipments.

In some embodiments, access network device C1 may count the number of deactivated state user devices for slice D1 (slice number of inactive UEs). The RRC connection number of the slice D1 is the number of deactivated state user equipments of the slice D1, in other words, the number of deactivated state user equipments of the slice D1 is the number of deactivated state user equipments currently actually existing in the slice D1. The counted number of deactivated state user equipments may be used as the connection information D11 or included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be the number of deactivated state user equipments, or the connection information D11 may include the number of deactivated state user equipments.

In some embodiments, access network device C1 may count the number of idle state user devices for slice D1. The counted number of idle state user equipments may be used as the connection information D11 or included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be the number of idle state user equipments, or the connection information D11 may include the number of idle state user equipments.

In the embodiment of the present application, the number of RRC connections, the number of active user equipments, and the number of inactive user equipments may be collectively referred to as the number of connections or the number of UE connections, that is, the number of connections or the number of UE connections may refer to the number of RRC connections, the number of active user equipments, or the number of inactive user equipments.

In some embodiments, the network management entity at the network management side may configure a specification for a slice under the access network device, and send the configured slice specification to the access network device. Taking the slice D1 of the access network device C1 as an example, the network management entity may configure the specification of the slice D1. The specification of the slice D1 may be the maximum connection number of the UE of the slice D1 (the maximum connection number of the UE may also be referred to as the maximum connection number), which may be information describing how many user equipments the slice D1 is connectable or manages at most. In other words, the specification of the slice D1 may be or include the number of user devices to which the slice D1 is connectable or managed at most. The network management entity may send the specification of the slice D1 to the access network device C1.

The specification of the slice D1 may refer to a specification of a slice of a cell. For example, the specification of the slice D1 of the cell may be the maximum number of connections of the UE. For example, the maximum connection number of the UE may be 100 or 200. The maximum number of connections of the UEs of the other slices of the cell may be the same as or different from the maximum number of connections of the slice D1 of the cell. That is, the number of connections of the UE under the intra-cell slice D1 cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections of the UE. The maximum connection number of the UE may be the maximum connection number of RRC, the maximum connection number of the active UE, or the maximum connection number of the inactive UE.

Alternatively, the specification of the slice D1 may refer to the specification of the slice of the base station. For example, the specification of the slice D1 of the base station may be the maximum connection number of the UE. The maximum number of connections of UEs of the other slices of the base station may be the same as or different from the maximum number of connections of slice D1 of the base station. The number of connections of the UE under the slice D1 of the base station cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections of the UE. The maximum connection number of the UE may be the maximum connection number of RRC, the maximum connection number of the active UE, or the maximum connection number of the inactive UE.

Alternatively, the specification of slice D1 may refer to a slice of the beam. For example, the specification of the slice D1 of the beam of the cell may be the maximum connection number of the UE. The maximum number of connections for the UEs of the other slices of the beam may be the same or different from the maximum number of connections for slice D1 of the beam. The number of connections of the UE under the beam slice D1 of the cell cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections of the UE. The maximum connection number of the UE may be the maximum connection number of RRC, the maximum connection number of the active UE, or the maximum connection number of the inactive UE.

Alternatively, the slice D1 may be a slice of the core network. For example, the specification of the slice D1 of the core network may be the maximum number of connections of the UE. The maximum number of connections of UEs of other slices of the core network may be the same or different from the maximum number of connections of slice D1 of the core network. The number of connections of the UE under slice D1 of the core network cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections of the UE. The maximum connection number of the UE may be the maximum connection number of RRC, the maximum connection number of the active UE, or the maximum connection number of the inactive UE.

In one example of these embodiments, the specification of slice D1 may include the RRC maximum number of connections for slice D1. The RRC maximum number of connections for a slice may also be referred to as the maximum RRC number of connections for a slice (slice maxinum RRC connections). The available RRC connection capacity value of slice D1 may be determined according to the RRC maximum connection number of slice D1 and the RRC connection number of slice D1 (slice available RRC connection capacity value). In one example, the RRC maximum connection number of slice D1 may be subtracted from the RRC connection number of slice D1, and the resulting difference value may then be compared to the RRC maximum connection number of slice D1, and the resulting ratio (e.g., percentage) may be used as the available RRC connection capacity value of slice D1. In one example, the maximum number of RRC connections that can be sliced D1 can be subtracted from the number of RRC connections for sliced D1 to obtain the available RRC connection capacity value for sliced D1. The available RRC connection capacity value of the slice D1 may be used as the connection information D11 or may be included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be an available RRC connection capacity value of the available slice D1, or the connection information D11 may include an available RRC connection capacity value of the slice D1.

In another example of these embodiments, the specification of slice D1 may include the maximum number of active user devices for slice D1. The maximum number of active user devices for a slice may be referred to as the maximum number of active user devices (slice maxnum active UEs). The available active user equipment capacity value for slice D1 may be determined (slice available active UEs capacity value) based on the maximum number of active user equipment for slice D1 and the number of active user equipment for slice D1. In one example, the maximum number of active user devices for slice D1 may be subtracted from the number of active user devices for slice D1, and the resulting difference value may be compared to the maximum number of active user devices for slice D1, and the resulting ratio (e.g., percentage) may be used as the available active user device capacity value for slice D1. In one example, the maximum number of active user devices for slice D1 may be subtracted by the number of active user devices for slice D1 to obtain the available active user device capacity value for slice D1. The available active user equipment capacity value of slice D1 may be used as connection information D11 or may be included in connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be an available active user equipment capacity value of the slice D1, or the connection information D11 may include an available active user equipment capacity value of the slice D1.

In yet another example of these embodiments, the specification of slice D1 may include a maximum number of deactivated state user devices for slice D1. The maximum number of deactivated state user devices of the slice may be referred to as the maximum number of deactivated state user devices (slice maxnum inactive UEs). The available deactivation state user equipment capacity value for slice D1 may be determined based on the maximum number of deactivation state user equipment for slice D1 and the number of deactivation state user equipment for slice D1 (slice available inactive UEs capacity value). In one example, the maximum number of deactivated user devices for slice D1 may be subtracted from the maximum number of deactivated user devices for slice D1, and the resulting difference may be compared to the maximum number of deactivated user devices for slice D1, where the resulting ratio (e.g., percentage) may be used as the available deactivated user device capacity value for slice D1. In one example, the maximum number of deactivated user devices for slice D1 may be subtracted by the number of deactivated user devices for slice D1 to obtain the available deactivated user device capacity value for slice D1. The available deactivated state user equipment capacity value of the slice D1 may be used as the connection information D11 or may be included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be an available deactivated state user equipment capacity value of the slice D1, or the connection information D11 may include an available deactivated state user equipment capacity value of the slice D1.

The maximum number of RRC connections (may be abbreviated as specification 1), the maximum number of active user equipments (may be abbreviated as specification 2), and the maximum number of inactive user equipments (may be abbreviated as specification 3). In one example, the network management entity may send Specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, specification 4 to the CU. The CU may send one or more of specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, specification 4 to the DU via an existing or future defined F1 interface message. In one example, the network management entity may send Specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, specification 4 to the DU. The DU may send one or more of specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, specification 4 to the CU via an existing or future defined F1 interface message. In one example, the network management entity may send one or more of Specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, specification 4 (e.g., specification 1, specification 2) to the CU and other items (e.g., specification 3, specification 4) to the DU.

For example, the CU may determine a corresponding capacity value according to the specification it receives and the actual number of connections (or the number of user devices) to which the specification corresponds. The DU may determine the corresponding capacity value according to the received specification and the actual number of connections (or the number of user equipments) corresponding to the specification. Illustratively, a CU and a DU may interact with each determined capacity value through existing or future defined F1 interface messages.

In some embodiments, the connection information D11 may include a combination of any two or more of the above-described RRC connection number, number of active user equipments, number of inactive user equipments, number of idle user equipments, available RRC connection capacity value, available active user equipment capacity value, available inactive user equipment capacity value. Illustratively, under a CU-DU architecture, a CU and a DU may exchange information, such as exchange respective determined capacity values, and/or exchange respective counted actual connection numbers or numbers, through existing or future defined F1 interface messages.

The connection information D11 of the slice D1 can be determined by the above scheme. If the access network device C1 has a plurality of slices, the access network device C1 may determine the connection information of the other slices by referring to the scheme for determining the connection information D11.

The access network device C1 may perform step 603, sending connection information of the slice of the access network device C1 and an identification of the slice of the access network device C1 to the access network device C2.

The connection information of the slice of the access network device C1 may include the connection information D11 determined above, and may also include connection information of other slices in the slice of the access network device C1. The identification of the slice of the access network device C1 may include the identification of the slice D1, or may include the identification of other slices in the slice of the access network device C1. The connection information of the slices of the access network device C1 corresponds to the identification of the slices of the access network device C1 one by one, i.e. the connection information of one slice corresponds to the identification of the slice. The identification of the slice may be referred to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 5 above, and will not be repeated here.

In some embodiments, access network device C2 and access network device C1 may gNB, and access network device C1 may send connection information and identification of the slice to access network device C2 through an Xn interface message. The Xn interface message may be an existing Xn interface message or an Xn interface message defined in the future. Illustratively, under the CU-DU architecture, the CU corresponding to the access network device C1 may send connection information and an identification of the slice to the access network device C2.

In one illustrative example, the connection information may be set to include the number of RRC connections for the slice, the available RRC connection capacity value for the slice, the number of active user devices for the slice, the available active user device capacity value for the slice, the number of inactive user devices for the slice, and an identification of the slice. The connection information may be included or carried in Xn AP resource status update messages for transmission of the connection information between access network devices. In one example, the Xn AP resource status update message may include an information element (information element, IE) as shown in table 1.

TABLE 1

Wherein > slice RRC Connections comprises sub-cells as shown in table 2.

TABLE 2

/>

Wherein, as described above, S-NSSAI/NSSAI/NSSI/NSI is used as an identification of the slice. Slice Number of RRC Connections is the number of RRC connections per slice. Slice Available RRC Connection Capacity Value is the available RRC connection capacity value of the slice.

Wherein > slice Number of Active UEs comprises sub-cells as shown in table 3.

TABLE 3 Table 3

IE/Group Name
	S-NSSAI/NSSAI/NSSI/NSI
>Slice Number of Active UEs
	>Slice Available Active UEs Capacity Value
>slice number of inactive UEs

Wherein Slice Number of Active UEs is the number of active user equipments for slicing. Slice Available Active UEs Capacity Value is the available active user equipment capacity value for a slice. slice number of inactive UEs is the number of deactivated user devices in the slice.

It should be noted that, table 1, table 2, and table 3 are examples for describing the format of the message used for the connection information transmitted between the access network devices, and are not limited thereto. Other formats of messages may be used for the transmission of the connection message, e.g. the sub-cell > slice number of inactive UEs may be independent from > slice Number of Active UEs, etc.

The access network device C1 may send the sliced connection information to other access network devices (in particular, access network devices adjacent to the access network device C1) in the communication system in which it is located, in addition to sending the sliced connection information to the access network device C2. The access network device C2 may receive the connection information of the slice from other access network devices (in particular, access network devices adjacent to the access network device C2) in the communication system in which it is located, in addition to the connection information of the slice from the access network device C1.

Each access network device may perform load balancing (load balancing) according to the connection information of the respective received slice when or after receiving the connection information of the slice.

Next, an example description will be given taking the access network device C2 as an example.

With continued reference to fig. 6, the access network device C2 may perform step 605 to perform load balancing according to the connection information of the slice of the access network device C1 and the identification of the slice of the access network device C1.

Next, an example introduction to the scheme of load balancing is made.

In some embodiments, access network device C2 may determine connection information for its own slice, and may be implemented specifically with reference to the description of step 601 above. The access network device C2 may determine whether to perform UE handover according to its own slice connection information and the access network device C1 slice connection information, so as to perform load balancing.

Illustratively, the load balancing may be load balancing among the same slices. The same slice is referred to as two or more slices that identify the same, which may belong to different access network devices, respectively. For example, slice D2 may be set as one slice of access network device C2. If the identity of D2 is the same as the identity of D1, D2 and D1 can be considered to be the same slice.

With the load balancing between D2 and D1, the example introduces the same load balancing between slices. The access network device C2 may compare the connection information D21 of D2 with the connection information D11 of the slice D1.

In some embodiments, the RRC maximum connection number of the same slice may be set to be the same (the RRC maximum connection number of slice D2 is equal to the RRC maximum connection number of slice D1), the connection information D21 includes the RRC connection number, and the connection information D11 includes the RRC connection number, and then the RRC connection number in the connection information D21 and the RRC connection number in the connection information D11 may be compared, and if the RRC connection number in the connection information D21 is greater than the RRC connection number in the connection information D11, the access network device C2 may instruct or control the UE in the slice D2 to switch with the slice D1 as the target slice. In a specific example, the number of RRC connections in the connection information D11 may be set to 40, the number of RRC connections in the connection information D12 may be set to 100, and the access network device C2 may instruct or control the UE in the slice D2 to switch with the slice D1 as the target slice.

If the number of RRC connections in connection information D21 is smaller than the number of RRC connections in connection information D11, access network device C2 avoids performing UE handover in D2 with slice D1 as the target slice.

In some embodiments, the maximum number of active UEs of the same slice may be set to be the same (the maximum number of active UEs of slice D2 is equal to the maximum number of active UEs of slice D1), the connection information D21 includes the number of active UEs, and the connection information D11 includes the number of active UEs. The number of active UEs in the connection information D21 and the number of active UEs in the connection information D11 may be compared, and a handover policy of the active UEs may be formulated according to the comparison result.

In some embodiments, the maximum number of deactivated state user equipments for the same slice may be set to be the same (the maximum number of deactivated state user equipments for slice D2 is equal to the maximum number of deactivated state user equipments for slice D1), the connection information D21 includes the number of deactivated state UEs, and the connection information D11 includes the number of deactivated state UEs. The number of deactivated UEs in the connection information D21 and the number of deactivated UEs in the connection information D11 may be compared, and a handover policy for the deactivated UEs may be formulated according to the comparison result.

In some embodiments, the connection information D21 may be set to include an available RRC connection capacity value, the connection information D11 may include an available RRC connection capacity value, the available RRC connection capacity value in the connection information D21 and the available RRC connection capacity value in the connection information D11 may be compared, and a handover policy of the UE may be formulated according to the comparison result. In a specific example, the available RRC connection capacity value in the connection information D11 may be set to 60%, the available RRC connection capacity value in the connection information D12 may be set to 0, and the access network device C2 may instruct or control the UE in the slice D2 to switch with the slice D1 as the target slice.

In some embodiments, the connection information D21 may be set to include an available active UE capacity value, the connection information D11 may include an available active UE capacity value, the available active UE capacity value in the connection information D21 may be compared with the available active UE capacity value in the connection information D11, and a handover policy of the active UE may be formulated according to the comparison result.

In some embodiments, the connection information D21 may be set to include an available deactivated state UE capacity value, the connection information D11 may include an available deactivated state UE capacity value, the available deactivated state UE capacity value in the connection information D21 may be compared with the available deactivated state UE capacity value in the connection information D11, and a handover policy of the deactivated state UE may be formulated according to the comparison result.

The above description of the load balancing scheme is presented by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting. The access network device may also perform load balancing according to other schemes.

Next, a load balancing method applicable to the slice of the cluster will be described.

As described above, an entity or device that manages a cluster may be referred to as a centralized management entity. Taking the centralized management entity J1 and the centralized management entity J2 as examples, a load balancing method applicable to slicing of a cluster is described in an example.

The centralized management entity J1 may determine connection information of slices of the centralized management entity J1. The slice of the centralized management entity J1 may be a slice of a cluster managed by the centralized management entity J1. The slicing of the cluster may be referred to above in the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

The specific process of determining the connection information of the slices of the centralized management entity J1 may refer to the description of step 601 in fig. 6, which is not repeated here.

The network management entity may configure the specification of the slice of the cluster and send it to the centralized management entity. The specification of the slice of the cluster may be the maximum number of connections of the UE. When the number of slices of the cluster is plural, it is possible to set the slices of the cluster to include a slice D3 and a slice D4. The maximum number of connections of the UE of slice D3 may be the same as or different from the maximum number of connections of slice D4. The number of connections of the UE under slice D3 (or slice D4) cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections of the UE. The maximum connection number of the UE may be the maximum connection number of RRC, the maximum connection number of the active UE, or the maximum connection number of the inactive UE.

The centralized management entity J1 may send the connection information of the slice and the identification of the slice determined by the centralized management entity J2. Illustratively, the centralized management entity J2 may be a centralized management entity adjacent to the centralized management entity J1.

The process of the central management entity J1 sending the connection information of the slice of the central management entity J1 and the identification of the slice of the central management entity J1 to the central management entity J2 may refer to the description of step 603 in fig. 6, which is not repeated here.

The centralized management entity J2 may perform load balancing according to connection information of slices of the centralized management entity J1 and identification of slices of the centralized management entity J1. Reference is made specifically to the description of step 605 in fig. 6 above, and no further description is given here.

According to the network load balancing method provided by the embodiment of the application, the user equipment can be uniformly distributed among the slices by sharing the connection information of the slices among the centralized management entities, so that the load (connected or managed UE) of the slices is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured on the network management side, the capacity of a network system is improved, and the user network experience is improved. For example, when the centralized management entity performs UE handover between slices, connection information of slices of other access network devices can be considered, so that the UE handover failure rate can be reduced more effectively.

Next, examples introduce a method of determining a load balancing policy.

Referring to fig. 7, the access network device may perform step 701 of determining performance information of a slice.

The access network device may be a base station, a CU, a DU, or an access point. Reference may be made specifically to the description of the access network device shown in fig. 5 and will not be repeated here.

The slice may be a slice of a cell under the access network device. The slice may also be a slice of a base station corresponding to the access network device. The slice may also be a slice of a beam under the access network device. The foregoing types of slices may be referred to above in the description of slices in the embodiments shown in fig. 5, and are not described in detail herein.

In some embodiments, when the access network device is a base station or a CU or DU, the access network device may count performance information for nsai and/or S-nsai identified slices.

In some embodiments, step 701 may be performed periodically, i.e., the access network device may periodically count the performance information of the slices. The statistical period may be configured by a network management entity.

In some embodiments, step 701 may be performed by event triggering, i.e. by event triggering the access network device to count the performance information of the slice. The event may be an event configured and sent by a network management entity.

In some embodiments, the performance information of the slice may include the number of RRC connections.

For example, the RRC connection number herein may include an average RRC connection number in a specific period of time, and/or a maximum RRC connection number in a specific period of time. The maximum number of RRC connections here is different from the maximum number of RRC connections described above. As described above, the maximum RRC connection number is the number of RRC connections that can be reached or carried at most by the slice configured on the network management side, which is a specification information. The maximum number of RRC connections is the number of RRC connections at a certain time in the specific time period, and the number of RRC connections at the certain time is greater than or equal to the number of RRC connections at other times in the specific time period.

For example, when step 701 is performed periodically, the particular time period may be a period duration. When step 701 is the event triggering execution, the specific time period is a time period between the time of the last event to the time of the current event.

In some embodiments, the performance information of the slice may include the number of active user devices.

For example, the number of active user devices herein may include an average number of active user devices in a specific time period, and/or a maximum number of active user devices in a specific time period. It should be noted that, the maximum number of active state user equipments is different from the maximum number of active state user equipments described above. As described above, the maximum number of active UE is the number of active UEs that can be reached or carried at most by the slice configured at the network management side, which is a specification information. The maximum number of active state user equipment is the number of active state user equipment at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of active state user equipment at the moment is greater than or equal to the number of active state user equipment at other moments in the specific time period.

In some embodiments, the performance information of the slice may include the number of deactivated state user devices.

For example, the number of deactivated state user devices herein may include an average number of deactivated state user devices in a specific time period, and/or a maximum number of deactivated state user devices in a specific time period. It should be noted that, the maximum number of deactivated state user devices is different from the maximum number of deactivated state user devices described above. As described above, the maximum number of the deactivated UEs is the number of the deactivated UEs that can be reached or carried at most by the slice configured by the network management side, which is a specification information. The maximum number of the deactivated state user devices is the number of the deactivated state user devices at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of the deactivated state user devices at the moment is greater than or equal to the number of the deactivated state user devices at other moments in the specific time period.

With continued reference to fig. 7, the access network device may perform step 703 of sending the performance information of the slice to the network management device.

In some embodiments, the access network device may be a base station or a CU or DU. The network management device may be a combination of one or more of EMS, MAE, NMS, a management service Producer (management service Producer), a management service Consumer (management service Consumer).

In some embodiments, the access network device may be an EMS or MAE. The network management entity may be an NMS.

With continued reference to fig. 7, the network management device may perform step 705 of determining a load balancing policy for the slice based on performance information of the slice.

In some embodiments, the load balancing policy may be specifically a slice specification. The network management device may determine a specification of the slice according to performance information of the slice.

For example, when the performance information of the slice includes the RRC connection number, the network management device may determine the RRC maximum connection number according to the RRC connection number. For example, when the RRC connection number includes the maximum RRC connection number, the maximum RRC connection number may be determined (or the maximum RRC connection number may be added or subtracted by a preset value).

For example, when the performance information of the slice includes the number of active user equipments, the network management device may determine the maximum number of active user equipments according to the number of active user equipments. For example, when the number of active user devices includes the maximum number of active user devices, the maximum number of active user devices may be determined (or the maximum number of active user devices may be added or subtracted by a preset value).

For example, when the performance information of the slice includes the number of deactivated state user devices, the network management device may determine the maximum number of deactivated state user devices according to the number of deactivated state user devices. For example, when the number of deactivated state user devices includes the maximum number of deactivated state user devices, the maximum number of deactivated state user devices may be determined (or the maximum number of deactivated state user devices may be added or subtracted by a preset value).

In some embodiments, after the network management entity obtains the performance information of the slice, for example, after obtaining the performance information of the slice of the cell, the network management entity may reconfigure mobility parameters of the user equipment for the base station according to the performance information, where the mobility parameters are parameters of the base station for controlling the handover of the user equipment.

The method for determining the load balancing strategy provided by the embodiment of the application can determine the load balancing strategy of the slices according to the performance information of the slices, so that the access network equipment can more effectively perform load balancing among the slices, ensure uniform distribution of users among the slices and improve the capacity of a network system.

Next, a method of determining a load balancing policy for a slice of a cluster is described.

As described above, an entity or device that manages a cluster may be referred to as a centralized management entity.

The centralized management entity may determine performance information for the slices. The slice may be a slice of a cluster managed by a centralized management entity.

For a specific process of determining performance information of a slice, reference may be made to the description of step 701 in fig. 7, which is not repeated here.

When the centralized management entity is an MAE or an EMS, the centralized management entity may count the NSSI and/or performance information of the NSI identified slice.

The centralized management entity may send its determined performance information to the network management entity. Reference is made to the description of step 703 in fig. 7 above, which is not repeated here.

The network management entity may determine a load balancing policy for the slice based on the performance information of the slice. Reference is made to the description of step 703 in fig. 7 above, which is not repeated here.

The method for determining the load balancing policy provided by the embodiment of the application can determine the load balancing policy of the slices of the cluster according to the performance information of the slices of the cluster, so that a centralized management entity can more effectively perform load balancing among the slices of the cluster, and user equipment can be uniformly distributed among the slices of each cluster, thereby improving the capacity of a network system.

The above describes a network load balancing scheme between slices. Next, another network load balancing method is described.

For more efficient load balancing between cells, the current load of different cells, i.e. the number of user equipments connected or managed by different cells, e.g. the number of RRC connections of a cell, the number of active user equipments of a cell, the number of inactive user equipments of a cell, may also need to be considered. And the specification of different cells, that is, the number of user equipments that can be connected or managed at most by different cells, needs to be considered.

Aiming at the situation, the embodiment of the application provides a network load balancing method. As shown in fig. 8, the method includes the following steps.

The network management entity may perform step 801a to determine the specifications of the access network device.

The network management entity may refer to the description of the embodiments shown in fig. 4A and fig. 4B above. The access network device may refer to the description of the embodiments shown in fig. 5 above.

As described above, the network management entity is a functional entity at the network management side, which can configure the specification of the access network device.

In the embodiment of the present application, the specification may be the maximum connection number of the UE, which may include one or more of the maximum connection number of RRC, the maximum number of active user equipments, and the number of inactive user equipments.

The specification of the access network device may include the specification of a cell under the access network device, the specification of a base station (the base station is the access network device or a base station managed by the access network device), the specification of a beam (for example, SSB beam) under the access network device, the specification of a slice of the cell under the access network device, the specification of a slice of a base station corresponding to the access network device, and the specification of a slice of a beam under the access network device.

The specifications of the access network device may simultaneously include one or more of a specification of a cell, a specification of a base station, a specification of a beam, a specification of a slice of a cell, a specification of a slice of a base station, a specification of a slice of a beam.

With continued reference to fig. 8, the network management entity may perform step 803a, sending the specification of the access network device to the access network device.

Specifically, the network management entity may transmit the specification of the cell, the specification of the base station, the specification of the beam determined in step 801a to the access network device.

The network management device may also send a cell identifier corresponding to the cell specification to the access network device. The cell identifier may be a cell ID, a cell global identifier (cell global identifier, CGI), or a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI). The cell identity may also be other identity information, which is not listed here.

The network management device may also send a cell identifier and a slice identifier corresponding to the slice specification of the cell to the access network device. The cell identifier may be a cell ID, a CGI, or a PCI, and the slice identifier may be S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSI, NSSI, or a newly defined slice identifier, which is not limited herein.

The network management device may also send a base station identifier corresponding to the specification of the base station to the access network device. Illustratively, when the base station is a gNB, the base station identification may be a gNB ID, a gNB name (gNB name), or the like, which are not listed here.

The network management device may also send a base station identifier corresponding to the slice specification of the base station and the slice identifier to the access network device. The identifier of the base station may be a gNB ID, or a gNB name, and the identifier of the slice may be S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSI, NSSI, or a newly defined slice identifier, which is not limited herein in this embodiment of the present application.

The network management device may also send a beam identifier corresponding to the beam specification to the access network device. When the beam is an SSB beam, the beam identification may be SSB index (SSB index).

The network management device may also send a beam identification and a slice identification corresponding to the specification of the slice of the beam to the access network device. The beam identifier may be an SSB index, the slice identifier may be S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSI, NSSI, or a newly defined slice identifier, and embodiments of the present application are not limited herein.

In one illustrative example, as shown in table 4, one or more of the "maximum RRC connection number", "maximum active UE number", "maximum UE number" of cells, and slices of cells may be added to the NRcellCU.

TABLE 4 Table 4

Wherein maxinum rrcconnections represent the maximum RRC connection number, maxinum mactive UEs represent the maximum active UE number, and maxinum UEs represent the maximum UE number.

With continued reference to fig. 8, the access network device may perform step 801b of determining a load of the access network device.

The load may also be referred to as a connection number or connection information, which may include one or more of RRC connection number, number of active user equipments, number of inactive user equipments. In other words, the access network device may count one or more of the RRC connection number, the number of active user devices, and the number of inactive user devices of the access network device.

The load of the access network device may include the load of a cell under the access network device, the load of a base station (the base station is the access network device or a base station managed by the access network device), and the load of a beam (for example, SSB beam) under the access network device.

In other words, the access network device may count one or more of the RRC connection number of the cell, the number of active user equipments, and the number of inactive user equipments. One or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of active user equipments, and the number of inactive user equipments of the base station may also be counted. One or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of active user equipments, and the number of inactive user equipments for the beam may also be counted.

The load of the access network device may include one or more of the load of the cell, the load of the base station, and the load of the beam at the same time.

The load of the access network device may include the load of a slice of a cell under the access network device, the load of a slice of a base station (the base station is the access network device or a base station managed by the access network device), and the load of a slice of a beam (e.g., SSB beam) under the access network device. In other words, the access network device may count one or more of the RRC connection number of the slice of the cell, the number of active user equipments, and the number of inactive user equipments. One or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of active user equipments, and the number of inactive user equipments of the base station may also be counted. One or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of active user equipments, and the number of inactive user equipments for the slicing of the beam may also be counted. Reference is made in particular to the description of step 601 in fig. 6 above.

With continued reference to fig. 8, the access network device may perform step 805, load balancing according to the specification of the access network device and the load of the access network device.

Through the specification and load of the access network device, the access network device can obtain the specification of the cell (or the base station or the wave beam), and then can determine the available RRC connection capacity value, the available active state user equipment capacity value and the available inactive state user equipment capacity value of the cell (or the base station or the wave beam) so as to balance the load of the cell (or the base station or the wave beam).

The access network device may also receive specifications of other access network devices and loads of other access network devices, for example. The specification of the other access network device may be received, for example, from a network management device or other access network device, and the load of the other access network device may be received from the other access network device. In step 805, the access network device may integrate its own specification and load with those of other access network devices to perform cell (or base station or beam) load balancing.

Load balancing between cells (or base stations or beams) may be achieved with reference to the description of step 605 in fig. 6 above, and will not be described in detail herein.

The access network device may perform load balancing between slices according to the specification and load of the slices (slices of the cell or slices of the base station or slices of the beam), and reference may be made to the description of step 605 in fig. 6.

According to the network load balancing method provided by the embodiment of the application, when the access network equipment performs load balancing among cells (or base stations or beams) or among slices, the specification and the load of the cells (or base stations or beams) or among slices can be comprehensively considered, so that the load balancing among the cells (or base stations or beams) or among the slices can be more effectively performed, the user equipment can be uniformly distributed among the cells (or base stations or beams), and the capacity of a network system is improved.

Next, an example introduction to determining inter-cluster network load balancing method

The network management entity may determine the specification of the cluster. The specification and determination process may be specifically referred to above in the description of step 801a of fig. 8.

The network management entity may determine the specification of the slice of the cluster. The specification and determination process may be specifically referred to above in the description of step 801a of fig. 8.

The network management entity may send the specification of the cluster to the centralized management entity. Reference is made in particular to the description of 803a in fig. 8 above.

The network management device may further send a cluster identifier corresponding to the specification of the cluster to the centralized management entity. The cluster identity may be a cluster ID.

For example, the NMS may transmit the specification of the cluster to the EMS as a network management entity, which acts as a centralized management entity.

The network management entity may send the specification of the slice of the cluster to the centralized management entity. Reference is made in particular to the description of 803a in fig. 8 above.

The network management device may further send a cluster identifier corresponding to the slice specification of the cluster and the slice identifier to the centralized management entity. The cluster identifier may be a cluster ID, the slice identifier may be S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSI, NSSI, or a newly defined slice identifier, and embodiments of the present application are not limited herein. .

The centralized management entity may determine the load of the cluster. The load and determination process may be referred to above in the description of step 801 b.

The centralized management entity may determine the load of the slice of the cluster. The load and determination process may be referred to above in the description of step 801 b.

The centralized management entity can perform load balancing among the clusters according to the specification of the clusters and the load of the clusters. Reference is made in particular to the description of step 805 in fig. 8 above.

The centralized management entity can perform load balancing among the slices of the cluster according to the specification of the slices of the cluster and the load of the slices of the cluster. Reference is made in particular to the description of step 805 in fig. 8 above.

According to the network load balancing method provided by the embodiment of the application, the specification and the load of the clusters (or the slices of the clusters) can be comprehensively considered when the access network equipment performs load balancing among the clusters (or the slices of the clusters), so that the load balancing among the clusters (or the slices of the clusters) can be more effectively performed, the user equipment is uniformly distributed among the clusters (or the slices of the clusters), and the capacity of a network system is improved.

Next, examples introduce a method of determining a load balancing policy.

Referring to fig. 9, the access network device may perform step 901 to determine performance information of the access network device.

The access network device may be a base station, a CU, a DU, an access network device management entity, or an access point. Reference may be made specifically to the description of the access network device shown in fig. 5 and will not be repeated here.

The performance information of the access network device may include performance information of a cell under the access network device, may include performance information of a base station (the base station is the access network device or a base station managed by the access network device), and may also include performance information of a beam under the access network device (for example, SSB beam).

The performance information of the access network device may include one or more of the performance information of the cell, the performance information of the base station, and the performance information of the beam at the same time.

In some embodiments, step 901 may be performed periodically, i.e. the access network device may periodically count the performance information of the slices. The statistical period may be configured by the network management device.

In some embodiments, step 901 may be performed by event triggering, i.e. by event, triggering the access network device to count the performance information of the slice. The event may be an event configured and transmitted by the network management device.

In some embodiments, the performance information may include the number of RRC connections.

For example, the RRC connection number herein may include an average RRC connection number in a specific period of time, and/or a maximum RRC connection number in a specific period of time. The maximum number of RRC connections here is different from the maximum number of RRC connections described above. As described above, the maximum RRC connection number is the maximum number of RRC connections that can be reached or carried configured by the network management side, which is a type of specification information. The maximum number of RRC connections is the number of RRC connections at a certain time in the specific time period, and the number of RRC connections at the certain time is greater than or equal to the number of RRC connections at other times in the specific time period.

For example, when step 901 is performed periodically, the specific period of time may be a period duration. When step 901 is the event triggering execution, the specific time period is the time period between the time of the last event to the time of the current event.

In some embodiments, the performance information may include the number of active user devices.

For example, the number of active user devices herein may include an average number of active user devices in a specific time period, and/or a maximum number of active user devices in a specific time period. It should be noted that, the maximum number of active state user equipments is different from the maximum number of active state user equipments described above. As described above, the maximum number of active state user equipments is the number of the active state user equipments configured by the network management side and can reach or be carried at most, which is a specification information. The maximum number of active state user equipment is the number of active state user equipment at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of active state user equipment at the moment is greater than or equal to the number of active state user equipment at other moments in the specific time period.

In some embodiments, the performance information may include a number of deactivated state user devices.

For example, the number of deactivated state user devices herein may include an average number of deactivated state user devices in a specific time period, and/or a maximum number of deactivated state user devices in a specific time period. It should be noted that, the maximum number of deactivated state user devices is different from the maximum number of deactivated state user devices described above. As described above, the maximum number of the deactivated state user devices is the number of the deactivated state user devices configured by the network management side and can reach or be carried at most, which is a specification information. The maximum number of the deactivated state user devices is the number of the deactivated state user devices at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of the deactivated state user devices at the moment is greater than or equal to the number of the deactivated state user devices at other moments in the specific time period.

With continued reference to fig. 9, the access network device may perform step 903 of sending the performance information of the access network device to the network management entity.

In some embodiments, the access network device may be a base station or a CU or DU. The network management entity may be a combination of one or more of EMS, MAE, NMS, a management service Producer (management service Producer, producer of MnS), and a management service Consumer (management service Consumer, consumer of MnS).

With continued reference to fig. 9, the network management entity may perform step 905 of determining a load balancing policy of the access network device according to the performance information of the access network device.

In some embodiments, the load balancing policy may be specifically a specification of the access network device. The network management device may determine the specification of the access network device according to the performance information of the access network device.

For example, when the performance information of the access network device (specifically, may be a cell or a base station or a beam r) includes the RRC connection number, the network management device may determine the RRC maximum connection number of the access network device (specifically, may be a cell or a base station or a beam) according to the RRC connection number of the access network device (specifically, may be a cell or a base station or a beam). For example, when the RRC connection number includes the maximum RRC connection number, the maximum RRC connection number (or the maximum RRC connection number may be added or subtracted by a preset value) may be determined as the RRC maximum connection number of the access network device (which may be specifically a cell or a base station or a beam).

For example, when the performance information of the access network device (specifically, may be a cell or a base station or a beam) includes the number of active user devices, the network management device may determine, according to the number of active user devices of the access network device (specifically, may be a cell or a base station or a beam), the maximum number of active user devices of the access network device (specifically, may be a cell or a base station or a beam). For example, when the number of active user devices includes the maximum number of active user devices, the maximum number of active user devices may be determined (or the maximum number of active user devices may be added or subtracted by a preset value).

For example, when the performance information of the access network device (specifically, may be a cell or a base station or a beam) includes the number of deactivated state user devices, the network management device may determine, according to the number of deactivated state user devices of the access network device (specifically, may be a cell or a base station or a beam), the maximum number of deactivated state user devices of the access network device (specifically, may be a cell or a base station or a beam). For example, when the number of deactivated state user devices includes the maximum number of deactivated state user devices, the maximum number of deactivated state user devices may be determined (or the maximum number of deactivated state user devices may be added or subtracted by a preset value).

The method for determining the load balancing policy provided by the embodiment of the application can determine the load balancing policy of the access network equipment according to the performance information of the access network equipment, so that the access network equipment can more effectively perform load balancing, and the user equipment can be uniformly distributed among the access network equipment, thereby improving the capacity of a network system.

Next, examples introduce a method of determining a cluster load balancing policy.

The centralized management entity may determine performance information for the cluster. The specific process of determining the performance information may be referred to above in connection with step 901 of fig. 9.

The centralized management entity may send the performance information of the cluster to the network management entity. Illustratively, the centralized management entity may be an EMS or MAE. The network management entity may be an NMS.

The network management entity can determine the load balancing policy of the cluster according to the performance information of the centralized cluster. Reference is made in particular to the description of step 905 of fig. 9 above.

The method for determining the load balancing strategy can determine the load balancing strategy of the cluster according to the performance information of the cluster, so that the centralized management entity can more effectively perform load balancing, user equipment can be uniformly distributed among the clusters, and the capacity of a network system is improved.

The embodiment of the application provides a network load balancing method, as shown in fig. 10, which comprises the following steps.

In step 1001, the first access network device determines first connection information of a first slice, where the first slice is a slice of the first access network device. The implementation of step 601 in fig. 6 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

In step 1003, the first access network device sends first connection information and an identifier of the first slice to the second access network device, where the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice are used for load balancing by the second access network device. The implementation of step 603 and step 605 in fig. 6 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

In some embodiments, the first connection information may include at least one of:

The implementation of step 601 in fig. 6 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

In some embodiments, the first connection information includes a first available connection capacity value, the first available connection capacity value being determined by a first maximum number of connections and a first number of connections, the first maximum number of connections being a maximum number of connections of the user equipment of the first slice, the first number of connections being a number of user equipment in the first slice.

In one example of these embodiments, the first maximum number of connections comprises an RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprises an RRC number of connections, and the first available connection capacity value comprises an available RRC connection capacity value; the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the first access network device according to the RRC maximum connection number and the RRC connection number. The implementation of step 601 in fig. 6 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

In one example of these embodiments, the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of active user devices, the first number of connections comprises a number of active user devices, and the first available connection capacity value comprises an available active user device capacity value; the capacity value of the available active state user equipment is determined by the first access network equipment according to the maximum number of the active state user equipment and the number of the active state user equipment. The implementation of step 601 in fig. 6 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

In one example of these embodiments, the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of deactivated user devices, the first connection information comprises a number of deactivated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value comprises an available deactivated user device capacity value; the capacity value of the available user equipment in the deactivation state is determined by the first access network equipment according to the maximum number of the user equipment in the deactivation state and the number of the user equipment in the deactivation state. The implementation of step 601 in fig. 6 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

In some embodiments, the first maximum number of connections is configured by a network management entity; the method further comprises the steps of: the first access network device receives a first maximum number of connections from a network management entity. The implementation of step 601 in fig. 6 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

In some embodiments, the first slice comprises:

The implementation of step 601 in fig. 5 and fig. 6 may be referred to, and will not be described herein.

In some embodiments, the first access network device comprises a CU and a DU; the first access network device determining first connection information for the first slice includes: the CU determines the RRC connection number of the first slice, and the DU determines the number of active user equipment of the first slice; the first access network device sending the first connection information and the identification of the first slice to the second access network device includes: the first access network device sends the RRC connection number and the number of the activated user equipment to the second access network device.

The implementation of step 601 and step 603 in fig. 6 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

The embodiment of the application provides a network load balancing method, as shown in fig. 11, which comprises the following steps.

In step 1101, the first access network device receives a first maximum number of connections from the network management entity, the first maximum number of connections being a maximum number of connections of the first access network device. The implementation of step 801a and step 803a in fig. 8 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

In step 1103, the first access network device determines a first connection number, where the first connection number is the number of user devices under the first access network device. The implementation of step 801b in fig. 8 may be referred to, and will not be described herein.

In step 1105, the first access network device performs load balancing according to the first maximum connection number and the first connection number. The implementation of step 805 in fig. 8 may be specifically referred to above, and will not be described herein.

In some embodiments, the first maximum number of connections comprises:

a maximum number of connections of the first cell, a maximum number of connections of the first base station, or a maximum number of connections of the first beam; the first cell is a cell under the first access network equipment, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network equipment, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network equipment.

The implementation of step 801a in fig. 8 may be referred to, and will not be described herein.

In some embodiments, the first maximum number of connections comprises an RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprising an RRC number of connections; and/or the first maximum connection number comprises the maximum number of active state user equipment, and the first connection number comprises the number of active state user equipment; and/or the first maximum connection number comprises the maximum number of the user equipment in the deactivation state, and the first connection number comprises the number of the user equipment in the deactivation state.

The above description of step 801a, step 801b, and step 805 in fig. 8 may be referred to for implementation, and will not be repeated here.

According to the network load balancing method provided by the embodiment of the application, the specification and the load of the access network equipment can be comprehensively considered when the access network equipment performs load balancing, so that the load balancing of the access network equipment can be more effectively performed, the user equipment can be uniformly distributed among the access network equipment, and the capacity of a network system is improved.

The embodiment of the application provides an access network device 1200, as shown in fig. 12, the access network device 1200 includes:

the processing unit 1210 is configured to determine first connection information of a first slice, where the first slice is a slice of the first access network device. The implementation of step 601 in fig. 6 may be referred to above, and will not be described herein.

The communication unit 1220 is configured to send the first connection information and the identification of the first slice to other access network devices, where the first connection information and the identification of the first slice are used for load balancing of the other access network devices.

The functions of the functional units of the access network device 1200 may be implemented with reference to the embodiments shown in fig. 10, which are not described herein.

In the embodiment of the application, the access network devices share the connection information of the respective slices, so that the user devices can be uniformly distributed among the slices, and therefore, the load (connected or managed UE) of each slice is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured on the network management side, thereby improving the capacity of the network system and improving the user network experience. For example, when the access network device performs UE handover between slices, connection information of slices of other access network devices can be considered, so that the UE handover failure rate can be reduced more effectively.

The access network device provided by the embodiment of the application is mainly described above from the aspect of a method flow. It will be appreciated that, in order to achieve the above-described functions, each access network device includes a corresponding hardware structure and/or software module that performs each function. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the present application may divide functional modules of an access network device or the like according to each method embodiment shown in fig. 10, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation.

An embodiment of the present application provides an access network device 1300, as shown in fig. 13, where the access network device 1300 includes:

a communication unit 1310, configured to receive a first maximum connection number from the network management entity, where the first maximum connection number is a maximum connection number of the first access network device.

The processing unit 1320 is configured to determine a first connection number, where the first connection number is the number of user equipments under the first access network device.

The processing unit 1320 is further configured to perform load balancing according to the first maximum connection number and the first connection number.

The functions of the functional units of the access network device 1300 may be implemented with reference to the embodiments shown in fig. 11, which are not described herein.

In the embodiment of the application, the specification and the load of the access network equipment can be comprehensively considered when the access network equipment performs load balancing, so that the load balancing of the access network equipment can be more effectively performed, the user equipment can be uniformly distributed among the access network equipment, and the capacity of a network system is improved.

The embodiment of the present application may divide functional modules of an access network device or the like according to each method embodiment shown in fig. 11, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation.

An embodiment of the present application provides an access network device 1400. Referring to fig. 14, an access network device 1400 may perform the operations of the access network device described in any of the embodiments methods described above with respect to fig. 6-11. Wherein the access network device 1400 may include a processor 1410 and a transceiver 1420. The processor 1410 is coupled to the transceiver 1420 to perform the operations of the access network device described in the method of any of the embodiments shown in fig. 6-11, described above. In particular, the processor 1410 may perform data processing operations and the transceiver 1420 may perform transmit and/or receive operations.

In some embodiments, access network device 1400 also includes memory 1430. Stored in memory 1430 are instructions that can be executed by processor 1410. The instructions, when executed by the processor 1410, may cause the access network device 1400 to perform the operations of the access network device described in any of the embodiments methods illustrated in fig. 6-11 above.

The embodiment of the application provides a chip system which can be applied to access network equipment, and the chip system comprises: a processor and interface circuit; the processor is connected to the interface circuit for performing the operations of the access network device described in the method of any of the embodiments shown in fig. 6-11.

In some embodiments, the system on a chip further comprises a memory. The memory has stored therein instructions executable by the processor. The instructions, when executed by the processor, may cause the system-on-chip to perform the operations of the access network device described in any of the embodiment methods illustrated in fig. 6-11 above.

It is to be appreciated that the processor in embodiments of the application may be a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), other general purpose processor, digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic device, transistor logic device, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, it may be any conventional processor.

The method steps in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by executing software instructions by a processor. The software instructions may be comprised of corresponding software modules that may be stored in random access memory (random access memory, RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable EPROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, produces a flow or function in accordance with embodiments of the present application, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted across a computer-readable storage medium. The computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

It will be appreciated that the various numerical numbers referred to in the embodiments of the present application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of network load balancing, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment determines first connection information of a first slice, wherein the first slice is a slice of the first access network equipment; wherein the first connection information includes a radio resource control, RRC, connection number or available connection capacity value;

the first access network device sends the first connection information and the identification of the first slice to the second access network device, wherein the first connection information and the identification of the first slice are used for load balancing among slices of the second access network device;

the second access network device is configured to perform load balancing between a second slice of the second access network device and the first slice based on the first connection information, where an identifier of the second slice is the same as an identifier of the first slice;

and when the RRC maximum connection number of the second slice is the same as the RRC maximum connection number of the first slice and the RRC connection number of the second slice is larger than the RRC connection number of the first slice, or when the available connection capacity value of the second slice is smaller than the available connection capacity value of the first slice, the second access network equipment indicates the user equipment in the second slice to switch by taking the first slice as a target slice.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the available connection capacity value is determined by a first maximum number of connections and a first number of connections, the first maximum number of connections being a maximum number of connections of user devices of the first slice, the first number of connections being a number of user devices in the first slice.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprises a RRC number of connections, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available RRC connection capacity value; wherein,

the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the first access network device according to the RRC maximum connection number and the RRC connection number.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of active user devices, the first number of connections comprises a number of active user devices, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available active user device capacity value; wherein,

and the capacity value of the available active state user equipment is determined by the first access network equipment according to the maximum number of active state user equipment and the number of active state user equipment.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of deactivated user devices, the first connection information comprises a number of deactivated user devices, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available deactivated user device capacity value; wherein,

and the available deactivation state user equipment capacity value is determined by the first access network equipment according to the maximum number of the deactivation state user equipment and the number of the deactivation state user equipment.

6. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that

The first access network device receives the first maximum number of connections from a network management entity.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first cut comprises:

a slice of the first cell, a slice of the first base station, or a slice of the first beam; the first cell is a cell under the first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the identification of the first slice is at least one of:

9. The method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first access network device comprises a CU and a DU;

the first access network device determining first connection information of a first slice includes: the CU determines the RRC connection number of the first slice, and the DU determines the number of active user equipment of the first slice;

the first access network device sending the first connection information and the identification of the first slice to a second access network device includes:

and the first access network equipment sends the RRC connection number and the number of the activated user equipment to the second access network equipment.

10. A first access network device, the first access network device comprising:

a processor, configured to determine first connection information of a first slice, where the first slice is a slice of the first access network device; wherein the first connection information includes a radio resource control, RRC, connection number or available connection capacity value;

a transceiver, configured to send the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice to a second access network device, where the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice are used for load balancing between slices by the second access network device;

11. The first access network device of claim 10, wherein the available connection capacity value is determined by a first maximum number of connections and a first number of connections, the first maximum number of connections being a maximum number of connections of user devices in the first slice, the first number of connections being a number of user devices in the first slice.

12. The first access network device of claim 11, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprises a RRC number of connections, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available RRC connection capacity value; wherein,

The available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the processor according to the RRC maximum connection number and the RRC connection number.

13. The first access network device of claim 11, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of active user devices, the first number of connections comprises a number of active user devices, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available active user device capacity value; wherein,

and the capacity value of the available active user equipment is determined by the processor according to the maximum number of the active user equipment and the number of the active user equipment.

14. The first access network device of claim 11, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of deactivated state user devices, the first connection information comprises a number of deactivated state user devices, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available deactivated state user device capacity value; wherein,

the available deactivation state user equipment capacity value is determined by the processor according to the maximum number of the deactivation state user equipment and the number of the deactivation state user equipment.

15. The first access network device of claim 11, wherein the transceiver is further configured to: the first maximum number of connections is received from a network management entity.

16. The first access network device according to any of claims 10-15, wherein the first slice comprises:

17. The first access network device of any of claims 10-15, wherein the identification of the first slice is at least one of:

18. The first access network device of any of claims 10-15, wherein the processor comprises a CU module and a DU module;

the CU module is used for determining the RRC connection number of the first slice, and the DU module is used for determining the number of active user equipment of the first slice;

the transceiver is further configured to send the RRC connection number and the number of active user equipments to the second access network device.

19. A network system comprising a first access network device and a second access network device; wherein,

the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment is used for determining first connection information of a first slice, wherein the first slice is a slice of the first access network equipment; wherein the first connection information includes a radio resource control, RRC, connection number or available connection capacity value;

the first access network device is further configured to send the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice to the second access network device;

the second access network device is used for balancing the load among the slices according to the first connection information and the identification of the first slice;

20. A computer storage medium comprising computer instructions which, when run on an access network device, cause the access network device to perform the method of any of claims 1-9.