CN113498149A

CN113498149A - Network slice-based dual-connection method, device, equipment and medium

Info

Publication number: CN113498149A
Application number: CN202010261138.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 唐飞
Original assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Chengdu ICT Co Ltd
Current assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Chengdu ICT Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-03
Filing date: 2020-04-03
Publication date: 2021-10-12

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a network slice-based dual-connection method, device, equipment and medium. The method comprises the following steps: virtualizing hardware resources of User Equipment (UE) into a first Virtual Machine (VM) and a second VM, wherein a first application (App) runs on the first VM, and a second App runs on the second VM; when the UE resides in the professional network slice and the general network slice based on the subscription information of the UE, the first App is bound with the professional network slice, and the second App is bound with the general network slice. By the embodiment of the invention, the service execution efficiency and the hardware resource utilization rate of the terminal can be improved, and the user experience is optimized.

Description

Network slice-based dual-connection method, device, equipment and medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a network slice-based dual connectivity method, apparatus, device, and computer-readable storage medium.

Background

A fifth generation mobile communication technology (5th generation mobile networks, 5G) Network architecture is based on a Cloud Native concept, and has an end-to-end Network slicing capability by adopting technical means such as a Flexible Air Interface (flexile Air Interface), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Software Defined Networking (SDN), and the like. The terminal may select an instance related to the group Slice by providing Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI),

the network of the vertical industry has stronger private network requirement, has different isolation and quality guarantee requirements, and can be divided into a wide area industry private network and a local area industry private network. The mutual penetration of information communication and various industries is gradually deepened, and the vertical industry gradually recognizes that the information communication technology enters the production link to bring the change of the production mode, thereby having an important promoting effect on the realization of intelligent transformation and upgrading of the industry.

At present, the existing terminal can only reside in an industry private network slice or a common large network slice, and cannot reside at the same time, when business needs to be done in the industry private network, the existing terminal needs to be switched to the industry private network slice, and if the business needs to be done in the large network, the existing terminal needs to be switched to the common large network slice, so that the process is complicated, and the efficiency is low.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a network slice-based dual connectivity method, apparatus, device, and computer-readable storage medium, which can improve service execution efficiency and hardware resource utilization of a terminal, and optimize user experience.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a dual connectivity method based on a network slice, where the method includes: virtualizing hardware resources of User Equipment (UE) into a first Virtual Machine (VM) and a second VM, where a first Application (App) runs on the first VM and a second App runs on the second VM; when the UE resides in the professional network slice and the general network slice based on the subscription information of the UE, the first App is bound with the professional network slice, and the second App is bound with the general network slice.

In some implementations of the first aspect, the subscription information of the UE includes subscription information of a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) of the UE.

In some implementations of the first aspect, after the first App is bound to the professional network slice and the second App is bound to the general network slice, the method further includes:

based on the first App, performing the service through the professional network slice;

and based on the second App, executing the service through the universal network slice.

In some implementations of the first aspect, the resources of the first App are not shared with the resources of the second App.

In some implementations of the first aspect, the method further comprises: isolating resources of the first App from resources of the second App based on a sandbox mechanism.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a dual connectivity device based on a network slice, where the device includes: the device comprises a virtualization module, a first application program (App) and a second application program (App), wherein the virtualization module is used for virtualizing hardware resources of the UE into a first Virtual Machine (VM) and a second VM, the first App runs on the first VM, and the second App runs on the second VM;

and the binding module is used for binding the first App with the professional network slice and binding the second App with the universal network slice when the UE resides in the professional network slice and the universal network slice based on the subscription information of the UE.

In some implementations of the second aspect, the subscription information of the UE includes subscription information of a subscriber identity card, SIM, of the UE.

In some implementations of the second aspect, the apparatus further comprises: the execution module is used for executing the service through the professional network slice based on the first App after the first App is bound with the professional network slice and the second App is bound with the general network slice; and based on the second App, executing the service through the universal network slice.

In some implementations of the second aspect, the resources of the first App are not shared with the resources of the second App.

In some implementations of the second aspect, the apparatus further comprises: and the isolation module is used for isolating the resources of the first App and the resources of the second App based on a sandbox mechanism.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a dual connectivity device based on a network slice, where the device includes: a processor and a memory storing computer program instructions; the processor, when executing the computer program instructions, implements the network slice-based dual connectivity method as described in the first aspect or any of the realizations of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, where computer program instructions are stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and when executed by a processor, the computer program instructions implement the network slice-based dual connectivity method described in the first aspect or any of the realizations of the first aspect.

According to the network slice-based dual-connection method, device, equipment and computer-readable storage medium provided by the embodiment of the invention, the hardware resource of the UE is virtualized into the first VM and the second VM, the first App is operated on the first VM, the second App is operated on the second VM, and when the UE resides in the professional network slice and the general network slice simultaneously based on the subscription information of the UE, the first App is bound with the professional network slice, and the second App is bound with the general network slice. Therefore, the UE can reside in the professional network slice and the general network slice at the same time, corresponding services can be executed based on the bound first App and the bound second App, service execution efficiency and the hardware resource utilization rate of the terminal are improved, and user experience is optimized.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly described below, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network slice provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a terminal accessing an industry application server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a terminal accessing a general large-network application server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a terminal executing an industry private network service according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of another terminal executing an industry private network service according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a terminal executing a general large network service according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic flow chart of another terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention for executing a general large network service;

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a network slice-based dual connectivity method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a conventional server deployment according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a virtualized server deployment according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of NSSAI format provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating the format of an S-NSSAI provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a sandbox mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 14 is a schematic flowchart of a terminal simultaneously accessing an industrial application server and a general web application server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 15 is a flowchart illustrating another network slice-based dual connectivity method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a dual connection device based on a network slice according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a dual connectivity device based on a network slice according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Features and exemplary embodiments of various aspects of the present invention will be described in detail below, and in order to make objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. The following description of the embodiments is merely intended to provide a better understanding of the present invention by illustrating examples of the present invention.

It is noted that, herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising … …" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

The term "and/or" herein is merely an association describing an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B, may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone.

Currently, a physical network may be sliced into multiple network slices on a common physical infrastructure basis. Different network slices adopt physical or logical isolation mechanisms and can independently operate without mutual influence. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network slice provided by an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, a physical network can be divided into a mobile broadband slice, a medical slice, an internet of things slice, and the like by networking on demand on a unified physical infrastructure.

In the 5G era, vertical industry application is an important direction of 5G development, and an industry terminal is used as basic hardware for fusing 5G and vertical industry, so that the industry terminal has huge market space. The network in the vertical industry has strong private network requirements and different isolation and quality guarantee requirements, and can be divided into a wide area industry private network and a local area industry private network. Under the current vertical industry informatization large background, various terminals are widely used, such as a notebook, a tablet computer, a mobile phone and the like, and if the terminals need to access a system specific to the industry, the terminals need to reside on a special network slice in the industry due to the information security. Fig. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a process in which a terminal accesses an industry application server according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 2, the terminal may access the industry application server through an industry private network slice, that is, the terminal may reside on the industry private network slice and execute an industry private network service through an industry App.

As a specific example, the Hospital staff can access a Hospital Information System (HIS), a Laboratory Information Management System (LIS), a medical image Archiving and Communication System (PACS), a Radiology Information Management System (RIS), and the like through a Hospital-specific App based on the terminal residing in a medical section.

When a user holding a terminal needs to use a common application, for example, a communication application is used for performing remote voice and video interaction with other people, or an industry application server deployed in a large network is accessed, the user needs to disconnect an industry private network slice and reside in the common large network slice. Fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a terminal accessing a general piconet application server according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 3, the terminal may access an application server deployed in a piconet through a general piconet slice, that is, the terminal may reside on the general piconet slice and execute a general piconet service through a general App.

Therefore, the conventional terminal can only reside in an industry private network slice or a common large network slice, and cannot reside at the same time, when the industry private network is required to do business, the industry private network slice needs to reside, when the common large network is required to do business, the industry private network slice needs to be disconnected and reside on the common large network slice, the process is complicated, and the efficiency is low.

Under the current industry private network architecture, a terminal needs to switch to a corresponding network slice for performing a service, and thus, four situations occur, as shown in fig. 4, 5, 6, and 7, where fig. 4 is a schematic flow diagram of the terminal executing the industry private network service according to the embodiment of the present invention, fig. 5 is a schematic flow diagram of another terminal executing the industry private network service according to the embodiment of the present invention, fig. 6 is a schematic flow diagram of the terminal executing the general public network service according to the embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 7 is a schematic flow diagram of another terminal executing the general public network service according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In fig. 4, the industry terminal resides on the industry private network slice after being started, and at this time, the industry application of the industry terminal executes the industry private network service directly based on the industry private network slice.

In fig. 5, the industry terminal is started and then resides on the general large network slice, and at this time, if the industry terminal needs to execute the industry private network service, the industry terminal may first disconnect from the general large network slice and reside on the industry private network slice, and the industry application of the industry terminal executes the industry private network service based on the industry private network slice.

In fig. 6, the industry terminal resides on the ordinary large network slice after being started, and at this time, the ordinary application of the industry terminal may execute the ordinary large network service directly based on the ordinary large network slice.

In fig. 7, the industry terminal is started and then resides on the private network slice, and at this time, if the industry terminal needs to execute the ordinary large network service, the industry terminal may first disconnect the connection with the private network slice and reside on the ordinary large network slice, and the ordinary application of the industry terminal executes the ordinary large network service based on the ordinary large network slice.

Obviously, when the service to be executed is not consistent with the resident slice service type, the connection needs to be disconnected first, and then the service resides in the corresponding network slice, so that the corresponding service can be executed.

In view of the above, embodiments of the present invention provide a network slice-based dual connectivity method, apparatus, device, and computer-readable storage medium, where hardware resources of a UE are virtualized into a first VM and a second VM, a first App is run on the first VM, a second App is run on the second VM, and when the UE resides in a professional network slice and a general network slice simultaneously based on subscription information of the UE, the first App is bound to the professional network slice, and the second App is bound to the general network slice. Therefore, the UE can reside in the professional network slice and the general network slice at the same time, corresponding services can be executed based on the bound first App and the bound second App, service execution efficiency and the hardware resource utilization rate of the terminal are improved, and user experience is optimized.

The following describes a network slice-based dual connectivity method according to an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a network slice-based dual connectivity method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 8, the network slice-based dual connectivity method 100 may include S110 to S120.

S110, virtualizing the hardware resources of the UE into a first VM and a second VM, wherein a first App runs on the first VM, and a second App runs on the second VM.

The UE refers to user equipment in mobile communication, and may be an industry terminal, specifically, a mobile phone, a tablet, a notebook, and other terminals. As an example, hardware resources typically include memory, CPU, network, and disks, among others. Moreover, the resources of the first VM and the second VM are not shared.

The first App is generally used for executing corresponding services based on professional network slices, and has high security and professional requirements. As one example, the first App may be an industry App, such as a mobile broadband App, a medical App, an internet of things App, and so forth. The professional network slices have strong requirements for private network, isolation and quality guarantee, and can be industrial private network slices and other network slices with high requirements for professional properties, such as mobile broadband slices, medical slices, internet of things slices and the like. The second App is generally used for executing corresponding services based on a general network slice, and has strong universality. As an example, the second App may be a normal App, such as QQ, wechat, microblog, or the like. The general network slice has strong universality, can be a common large network slice, and other network slices with lower professional requirements. In some embodiments, the App may be divided according to its importance, expertise, security, and the like, into a first App, or a second App.

Here, "virtualization" refers to virtualizing one device as a plurality of logical devices by virtualization technology, for example, virtualizing one computer as a plurality of logical computers by virtualization technology (abstraction of physical resources of the computer, realization of simulation, isolation, and sharing of resources). A plurality of logic computers are simultaneously operated on one computer, each logic computer can operate different operating systems, and application programs can operate in mutually independent spaces without mutual influence, so that the working efficiency of the computer is obviously improved.

As a specific example, fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a conventional server deployment provided by an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 9, it is assumed that there are 3 physical servers, which are respectively used for different specific applications. One of them is a mail server, one is a World Wide Web (Web) server, and the last is used to run traditional applications. Each server uses only about 30% of its computing capacity, which is only a small fraction of its operating capacity. However, since legacy applications are important to internal operation, they must be retained along with the third server on which they are running.

Fig. 10 is a schematic deployment diagram of a virtualized server according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 10, the server in fig. 9 may be processed by using a virtualization technology, and a mail server may be divided into 2 special servers capable of processing independent tasks, so that migration of a traditional application is implemented, and a resource utilization rate of the traditional application is improved from 30% to 60%. Therefore, the resource utilization rate can be improved on the premise of using the same hardware resource, and the idle server can be used for other tasks or can be stopped, so that the heat dissipation and maintenance cost is reduced.

Here, virtualization is mainly implemented by taking over physical resources through a virtual machine monitor (Hypervisor), dividing them, and allocating them to different virtual environments (i.e., tasks requiring them) for use. Where the Hypervisor is a virtualization layer, it may allow multiple operating systems and applications to share hardware, and may also be called a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), and the Hypervisor may be located on the top layer of the operating system (for example, on a portable computer) or directly installed on the hardware (for example, a server).

The user is inside a virtual environment (often referred to as a client or VM) and is able to interact with computing tasks and run computations. The VM runs as a single data file, like any digital file, can be migrated from one computer to another, can be opened on a different computer, and functionality is not affected. If a user or program issues an instruction requesting more resources from the physical environment while the virtual environment is running, the Hypervisor will pass the request to the physical system and cache the changes.

And S120, when the UE resides in the professional network slice and the general network slice based on the subscription information of the UE, the first App is bound with the professional network slice, and the second App is bound with the general network slice.

The subscription information of the UE may include subscription information of a SIM card of the UE. The network may be registered based on subscription information of the SIM card of the UE, and the UE may reside in a professional network slice and a general network slice based on NSSAI after the registration is completed.

Specifically, the UE may select an instance related to the building slice by providing NSSAI, where each piece of network slice selection assistance information corresponds to one network slice, and includes a service type and a difference factor of the service type. The NSSAI may be pre-configured or may be acquired from the network after the UE attaches. The network with the slicing function can select slices for the terminal according to NSSAI provided by the UE, so that the UE can reside in a professional network slice and a general network slice simultaneously based on the corresponding NSSAI.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a format of an NSSAI provided by an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 11, according to a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP) standard protocol definition, the NSSAI is a set of Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI) that includes a stack of S-NSSAIs, or may be considered as a list of S-NSSAIs.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of the format of an S-NSSAI according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 12, the S-NSSAI is used to identify a network Slice and is composed of two parts, i.e., a Slice/Service type (SST) and a Slice Differentiator (SD). Where SST refers to the expected network slice behavior in terms of function and service, SD is optional information to supplement slice/service types to distinguish multiple network slices of the same slice/service type. The SST length is one byte, the protocols 0-127 are the value range of the standard SST (only three values are used in the current protocol), and 128-255 belong to the self-defined range of an operator; the operator-defined values are valid only under the own network and are common to the standard values over the entire network. The S-NSSAI can be a standard value (SST takes the value of the standard value, and SD does not exist) or a non-standard value (namely SST and SD simultaneously exist or only SST takes the value of the non-standard value).

As a specific example, when the UE is powered on for network access, one or several S-NSSAIs are signed on the core network, and may be considered to be signed on one or more network slices. When the UE accesses the network, one or more subscribed S-NSSAIs are carried. In the case of multiple network slices, the network device knows the network slice that the UE wishes to access based on the S-NSSAI and accesses the UE into this slice. It can be seen that in case of multiple slices of the 5G network, the S-NSSAI will direct the network to access the UE into the corresponding slice. So that the UE can reside in both the professional network slice and the general network slice based on the corresponding S-NSSAI.

When the UE resides in the professional network slice and the general network slice, a first App running in the first VM is bound with the professional network slice, and a second App running in the second VM is bound with the general network slice. The first App is bound with the professional network slice, and can be considered to execute corresponding services through the professional network slice, the second App is bound with the general network slice, and can be considered to execute corresponding services through the general network slice.

According to the network slice-based dual-connection method, the hardware resources of the UE are virtualized into the first VM and the second VM, the first App is operated on the first VM, the second App is operated on the second VM, when the UE resides in the professional network slice and the general network slice simultaneously based on the subscription information of the UE, the first App is bound with the professional network slice, and the second App is bound with the general network slice. Therefore, the UE can reside in the professional network slice and the general network slice at the same time, corresponding services can be executed based on the bound first App and the bound second App, service execution efficiency and the hardware resource utilization rate of the terminal are improved, and user experience is optimized.

In some embodiments, after the first App is bound to the professional network slice and the second App is bound to the general network slice, the service may be executed through the professional network slice based on the first App and executed through the general network slice based on the second App. The service executed by the professional network slice is a service corresponding to the professional network slice, and the service executed by the universal network slice is a service corresponding to the universal network slice. Therefore, the professional network slice and the general network slice do not need to be switched back and forth when different services are executed, and more convenience can be provided for a UE user.

In some embodiments, the resources of the first App and the resources of the second App are not shared, and specifically, the resources of the first App and the resources of the second App may be isolated based on a sandbox mechanism, so that the resources of the first App and the resources of the second App are not shared.

The principle of the sandbox mechanism is to direct files generated and modified by a program to a self folder through a redirection technology. Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a sandbox mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention, where folders between each program cannot be accessed to each other as shown in fig. 13. That is, an application can only read files in the file system created by the application, and cannot access the file system from other locations, and this area is sandboxed so that all non-code files, such as images, icons, sounds, maps, property lists, text files, etc., are saved. Each application program has own storage space, the application program cannot access the content of other storage spaces by turning over own enclosing walls, data requested by the application program is detected by the authority, and if the conditions are not met, the data cannot be released. However, for some user-level data, the user may grant authorization to the current software to allow the current application to access the data, considering that many software needs to use the data.

Therefore, the first App and the second App can be isolated based on the sandbox mechanism, and the application safety is improved.

As a specific example, fig. 14 is a schematic flowchart of a terminal simultaneously accessing an industrial application server and a general web application server according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 14, the industry App can be isolated from the normal App by a sandbox mechanism, the industry App is located in the isolation zone, the normal App is located outside the isolation zone, the terminal supports dual connectivity, meanwhile, the section of the industry private network and the section of the common large network are remained, and the industry App in the terminal isolation area is bound with the section of the industry private network, the industry application server can be accessed through the industry private network slice, the common App outside the isolation area is bound with the common large network slice, the application server deployed in the common large network can be accessed through the common large network slice, in addition, the terminal preferentially distributes hardware resources to the industry App in the isolation area to guarantee the service of the industry App, and the rest hardware resources are reserved for the common App to serve as the service.

The network slice-based dual connectivity method provided in the embodiment of the present invention is specifically described below with reference to fig. 15, where fig. 15 is a schematic flow diagram of another network slice-based dual connectivity method provided in the embodiment of the present invention.

The method comprises the following specific steps:

step 1, starting an industry terminal, isolating an industry App based on a sandbox mechanism, and placing the industry App in an isolation area, wherein a common App is placed outside the isolation area.

And 2, performing hardware virtualization by the industry terminal, virtualizing hardware resources into two virtual machines of VM-V and VM-H, and binding an industry App in the isolation area with the virtual machine VM-V, wherein the industry App runs on the virtual machine VM-V, a common App runs on the virtual machine VM-H, and the common App runs on the virtual machine VM-H. Therefore, different applications inside and outside the isolation area are bound with different logic resources through the virtualization technology, and secondary isolation is achieved.

And 3, the industry terminal resides in the industry private network slice and the common large network slice simultaneously after completing registration through the signed SIM card information.

And 4, when the network slices are selected, the same slice is bound, the industry App in the isolation area is bound with the industry private network slice, and the common App outside the isolation area is bound with the common large network slice.

And step 5, the industry App serves as a service through the industry private network slice, and the common App serves as a service through the common large network slice.

Fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a network slice-based dual-connection device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 16, the network slice-based dual-connection device 200 may include: virtual module 210, binding module 220.

The virtualization module 210 is configured to virtualize hardware resources of the UE into a first VM and a second VM, where a first App runs on the first VM and a second App runs on the second VM. The binding module 220 is configured to bind the first App with the professional network slice and bind the second App with the general network slice when the UE resides in the professional network slice and the general network slice based on subscription information of the UE.

In some embodiments, the subscription information of the UE includes subscription information of a subscriber identity card, SIM, of the UE.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 200 further comprises: the execution module 230 is configured to execute a service through the professional network slice based on the first App after the first App is bound with the professional network slice and the second App is bound with the general network slice; and based on the second App, executing the service through the universal network slice.

In some embodiments, the resources of the first App are not shared with the resources of the second App.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 200 further comprises: an isolating module 240, configured to isolate resources of the first App from resources of the second App based on a sandbox mechanism.

According to the network slice-based dual-connection device, the hardware resources of the UE are virtualized into the first VM and the second VM, the first App is operated on the first VM, the second App is operated on the second VM, when the UE resides in the professional network slice and the general network slice at the same time based on the subscription information of the UE, the first App is bound with the professional network slice, and the second App is bound with the general network slice. Therefore, the UE can reside in the professional network slice and the general network slice at the same time, corresponding services can be executed based on the bound first App and the bound second App, service execution efficiency and the hardware resource utilization rate of the terminal are improved, and user experience is optimized.

It can be understood that the network slice based dual connectivity device 200 in the embodiment of the present invention may correspond to the implementation subject of the network slice based dual connectivity method in fig. 8 in the embodiment of the present invention, and specific details of operations and/or functions of each module/unit of the network slice based dual connectivity device 200 may refer to the description of the corresponding part in the network slice based dual connectivity method in fig. 8 in the embodiment of the present invention, and are not described herein again for brevity.

Fig. 17 is a schematic hardware structure diagram of a dual connectivity device based on network slices according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 17, the network slice-based dual connectivity device 300 in the present embodiment includes an input device 301, an input interface 302, a central processor 303, a memory 304, an output interface 305, and an output device 306. The input interface 302, the central processing unit 303, the memory 304, and the output interface 305 are connected to each other through a bus 310, and the input device 301 and the output device 306 are connected to the bus 310 through the input interface 302 and the output interface 305, respectively, and further connected to other components of the dual connectivity device 300 based on the network slice.

Specifically, the input device 301 receives input information from the outside and transmits the input information to the central processor 303 through the input interface 302; central processor 303 processes the input information based on computer-executable instructions stored in memory 304 to generate output information, stores the output information temporarily or permanently in memory 304, and then transmits the output information to output device 306 through output interface 305; the output device 306 outputs the output information to the outside of the network slice based dual connectivity device 300 for use by the user.

In one embodiment, the network slice-based dual connectivity device 300 shown in fig. 17 comprises: a memory 304 for storing programs; a processor 303 for executing the program stored in the memory to execute the network slice-based dual connectivity method provided by the embodiment shown in fig. 8.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium has computer program instructions stored thereon; the computer program instructions, when executed by a processor, implement the network slice-based dual connectivity method provided by the embodiment shown in fig. 8.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific arrangements and instrumentality described above and shown in the drawings. A detailed description of known methods is omitted herein for the sake of brevity. In the above embodiments, several specific steps are described and shown as examples. However, the method processes of the present invention are not limited to the specific steps described and illustrated, and those skilled in the art can make various changes, modifications and additions or change the order between the steps after comprehending the spirit of the present invention.

The functional blocks shown in the above-described structural block diagrams may be implemented as hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. When implemented in hardware, it may be, for example, an electronic Circuit, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), suitable firmware, plug-in, function card, or the like. When implemented in software, the elements of the invention are the programs or code segments used to perform the required tasks. The program or code segments may be stored in a machine-readable medium or transmitted by a data signal carried in a carrier wave over a transmission medium or a communication link. A "machine-readable medium" may include any medium that can store or transfer information. Examples of machine-readable media include electronic circuits, semiconductor Memory devices, Read-Only memories (ROMs), flash memories, erasable ROMs (eroms), floppy disks, CD-ROMs, optical disks, hard disks, fiber optic media, Radio Frequency (RF) links, and so forth. The code segments may be downloaded via computer networks such as the internet, intranet, etc.

It should also be noted that the exemplary embodiments mentioned in this patent describe some methods or systems based on a series of steps or devices. However, the present invention is not limited to the order of the above-described steps, that is, the steps may be performed in the order mentioned in the embodiments, may be performed in an order different from the order in the embodiments, or may be performed simultaneously.

As described above, only the specific embodiments of the present invention are provided, and it can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the system, the module and the unit described above may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again. It should be understood that the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive various equivalent modifications or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and these modifications or substitutions should be covered within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A network slice based dual connectivity method, the method comprising:

virtualizing hardware resources of User Equipment (UE) into a first Virtual Machine (VM) and a second VM, wherein a first application (App) runs on the first VM, and a second App runs on the second VM;

when the UE is resided in a professional network slice and a general network slice based on the subscription information of the UE, the first App is bound with the professional network slice, and the second App is bound with the general network slice.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscription information of the UE comprises subscription information of a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) of the UE.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein after the first App is bound to the professional network slice and the second App is bound to the general network slice, the method further comprises:

based on the first App, performing business through the professional network slice;

and executing the service through the universal network slice based on the second App.

4. A method according to any of claims 1-3, characterized in that the resources of the first App are not shared with the resources of the second App.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

isolating resources of the first App from resources of the second App based on a sandbox mechanism.

6. A dual connectivity device based on network slices, the device comprising:

the virtual module is used for virtualizing hardware resources of User Equipment (UE) into a first Virtual Machine (VM) and a second VM, wherein a first application (App) runs on the first VM, and a second App runs on the second VM;

and the binding module is used for binding the first App with the professional network slice and binding the second App with the general network slice when the UE resides in the professional network slice and the general network slice based on the subscription information of the UE.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the subscription information of the UE comprises subscription information of a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) of the UE.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising:

the execution module is used for executing services through the professional network slices based on the first App after the first App is bound with the professional network slices and the second App is bound with the general network slices;

9. The apparatus according to any of claims 6-8, characterized in that the resources of the first App are not shared with the resources of the second App.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

an isolation module for isolating the resources of the first App from the resources of the second App based on a sandbox mechanism.

11. A dual connectivity device based on network slices, the device comprising: a processor and a memory storing computer program instructions;

the processor, when executing the computer program instructions, implements the network slice-based dual connectivity method as claimed in any of claims 1-5.

12. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer program instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement the network slice-based dual connectivity method of any one of claims 1-5.