CN113872995B

CN113872995B - Method and device for selecting edge-enabled clients

Info

Publication number: CN113872995B
Application number: CN202010613896.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 葛翠丽; 杨艳梅
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-30
Filing date: 2020-06-30
Publication date: 2023-09-26
Anticipated expiration: 2040-06-30
Also published as: CN113872995A

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for selecting an edge enabled client EES. The ECS selects a more proper EES through the acquired load information of the EES on the EAS of the first application and combining the load information, and the EES can be used for the EAS discovery of the application or the context migration of the application, so that the EES is facilitated to provide information of the EAS capable of providing service for the application user for the EEC or the source EES, and the accuracy of EES selection is improved.

Description

Method and device for selecting edge-enabled clients

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for selecting an edge-enabled client.

Background

The 3GPP SA6 is conducting application-enabled multi-access EDGE computing (Multi-access EDGE computing, MEC) research and defines EDGE (EDGE) application architecture. In particular, the application architecture includes a terminal, an edge data network (edge data network, EDN), and an edge configuration server (edge configuration server, ECS). Wherein the EDN comprises an edge application and an edge enabled server (edge enabler server, EES). The terminal includes an application client (application client) and an edge-enabled client (edge enabler client, EEC).

In a conventional approach, the EEC sends an EAS discovery request to the EES, which may be used to request a query for a specific EAS, or a specific class of service EAS, or a specific application characteristic EAS, or an EAS used at a specific location. The EES receives the discovery request, authenticates and authorizes the EEC, inquires the EAS meeting the condition, and returns the EAS information to the EES. That is, the ECS may comprehensively consider information such as a location of the terminal, a deployment of the EES, an application instance supported on the EES, and the like when selecting the EES for the terminal. However, with the performance requirements of low latency and high availability of edge services, it is critical to select a suitable EES, and how to further improve the ECS selection to the suitable EES is needed to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and a device for selecting an edge enabling client, which can enable ESCs to select proper EESs, thereby being beneficial to improving communication efficiency.

In a first aspect, a method for selecting an edge enabled client EES is provided, the method comprising an edge configuration server ECS obtaining load information of each EES of a plurality of EES for an edge application instance EAS of a first application, the load information being used for indicating a load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application; the ECS determines a target EES from the plurality of EESs according to the load information.

The ECS selects a more proper EES through the acquired loading information of the EES on the EAS of the first application and combining the loading information, and the EES can be used for the EAS discovery of the application or the context migration of the application, so that the EES is facilitated to provide information of the EAS capable of providing service for the application user for the EEC or the source EES, and the accuracy of EES selection and the accuracy of application EAS selection, the availability and the continuity of application service are improved.

In some possible implementations, the EES is registered with at least one first EAS, the first EAS being configured to serve the first application, the load information for the edge application instance EAS of the first application including: load condition information for each of the at least one first EAS.

And the load information of the EES for the EAS of the first application is obtained through the load condition information of one or more EAS, so that the accuracy and the integrity of the load information are improved, and the EES selected based on the load information is more accurate.

In some possible implementations, the ECS obtaining load information of each EES of the plurality of EES for an edge application instance EAS of the first application includes: the ECS receives load information for the EAS of the first application from each of the plurality of EESs.

And the EES is adopted to aggregate the information of the first EAS on the EES, and the load information is acquired more timely and more efficiently by the mode of the signaling surface.

In some possible implementations, the ECS obtaining load information of each EES of the plurality of EES for an edge application instance EAS of the first application includes: the ECS receiving load condition information from each EAS transmission of the first application; the ECS determines load information for the EAS of the first application from the load condition information sent by each of the EAS of the first application.

The ECS directly acquires the EAS load condition information with the EAS, so that the ECS can acquire the latest EAS load condition, and the ECS can generate the EES load information of the EAS for the first application by itself, namely, the load information is acquired more quickly and accurately.

In some possible implementations, the ECS obtaining load information of each EES of the plurality of EES for an edge application instance EAS of the first application includes: the ECS receives load condition information from each EAS in each of the plurality of EESs transmitted by the plurality of EESs; the ECS determines load information of the EAS for the first application from the load condition information of each EAS in each EES.

The ECS obtains the load condition information of each EAS through the EES and generates the load condition information, and the ECS interacts with each EAS one to one, so that the number of signaling interactions is reduced, and the system efficiency is improved.

In some possible implementations, the ECS obtaining load information of each EES of the plurality of EES for an edge application instance EAS of the first application includes: the ECS receives load information for the EAS of the first application from each of the plurality of EESs sent by a management plane function.

The ECS and the management plane directly interact, so that the signaling interaction quantity of the system can be reduced, the load information of the management plane is more timely and accurate, and the efficiency of acquiring the load information and the accuracy of the load information are improved.

In some possible implementations, the ECS obtaining load information of each EES of the plurality of EES for an edge application instance EAS of the first application includes: the ECS receives load condition information of each of the EAS corresponding to the first application sent by a management plane function; the ECS determines load information for the EAS of the first application for each of the plurality of EESs based on the load condition information for each of the EAS.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the ECS sends a load request to each EES in the plurality of EESs, wherein the load request is used for requesting the EES to aim at the load condition of the corresponding EAS of the first application; wherein the ECS receiving load information for EAS of the first application transmitted from each of the plurality of EES includes: the ECS receives a response message from the load request of a first EES of the plurality of EESs, the response message including load information of an EAS for the first application in the first EES.

The ECS requests or subscribes the load information of the EAS aiming at the EAS of the first application from different EESs, and the existing interfaces and signaling of the ECS and the EES can be utilized, so that signaling interaction of load information acquisition is simplified, and the efficiency of the system is higher.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the ECS sends a load request to the management plane function, wherein the load request is used for requesting the load condition of the corresponding EAS for the first application in each EES in the plurality of EESs; wherein the ECS receiving load information for EAS of the first application from each of the plurality of EES sent by a management plane function includes: the ECS receives a response message from the management plane function to the load request, the response message including load information for the EAS of the first application for each of the plurality of EESs.

The ECS requests or subscribes the load information of each EAS of the plurality of EESs aiming at the EAS of the first application from the management surface function, so that the load information of each EAS of the plurality of EESs aiming at the EAS of the first application can be directly acquired from the management surface function, and the acquisition efficiency is improved.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the ECS sends a load request to the management surface function, wherein the load request is used for requesting the load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application; wherein the ECS receiving load status information of each EAS corresponding to the first application from the management plane function includes: the ECS receives a response message from the management plane function to the load request, the response message including load status information for each of the EAS corresponding to the first application.

The ECS requests or subscribes to the load information of EAS for the first application from the management plane function, so that the load information of EAS for the first application can be directly obtained from the management plane function, and the ECS further obtains the load information of EAS for the first application from the load information of EAS for the first application in different EES. That is, another way of obtaining is provided, thereby providing flexibility in obtaining load condition information.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the ECS sends a load request to a first EAS (electronic article surveillance) in the EAS corresponding to the first application, wherein the load request is used for requesting the load condition of the first EAS; wherein the ECS receiving load condition information from each EAS transmission of the first application comprises: the ECS receives a response message from the load request sent by the first EAS, the response message including load condition information for the first application by the first EAS.

The ECS may obtain load status information of EAS of each first application, and further combine the relationship between EES and EAS of the first application on the ECS to obtain the load information. In this way, the load information acquired by the ECS is more accurate and timely.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the ECS sends a load request to a first EES of the plurality of EESs, wherein the load request is used for requesting the load conditions of the EAS corresponding to all applications in the first EES, and all applications comprise the first application; wherein the ECS receiving load condition information for each EAS in each of the plurality of EES transmitted from the plurality of EES includes: the ECS receives a response message of the load request from the first EES, wherein the response message of the load request is used for indicating the load conditions of the EAS corresponding to all the applications in the first EES.

The ECS can acquire the load information of the EES on the EAS of all the applications without specially designating the first application, so that the efficiency of acquiring the load information is improved.

In some possible implementations, the load condition is a load alert state or a load normal state.

By defining a discretized load condition, the transmission of load information can be triggered only when the condition changes, and the efficiency and accuracy of the load information transmission are provided.

In some possible implementations, the load information further includes a load level or a load parameter.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the ECS is used for requesting to acquire the target EES from a request message of a first device, wherein the first device is an EES to be updated or an edge enabled client EEC; the ECS sends a response message of the request message to the first device, wherein the response message of the request message comprises information of the target EES.

The ECS is triggered to acquire the load information through the EES or the EEC request, and the target EES is selected, so that the acquisition of the load information is more targeted, the target EES can be selected to have more input information, and the accuracy and the efficiency of EES selection are improved.

In a second aspect, a method of selecting an edge-enabled client EES is provided, the method comprising: the method comprises the steps that a first EES obtains the load condition of the first EES aiming at an edge application instance (EAS) corresponding to a first application; the first EES sends load information to an edge configuration server ECS, where the load information is used to indicate a load condition of the first EES for EAS corresponding to the first application, and the load condition of the first EES for EAS corresponding to the first application is used by the ECS to determine a target EES.

The EES may send load information of the EES for EAS of the first application to the ECS, so that the ECS selects a more appropriate EES for the EEC or EES, thereby improving accuracy and availability of EES selection.

In some possible implementations, the obtaining, by the first EES, a load condition of the first EES for an edge application instance EAS corresponding to the first application includes: the first EES acquires load condition information of each of a plurality of EAS, wherein the load condition information of a first EAS in the plurality of EAS is used for indicating the load condition of the first EAS, and the plurality of EAS is the corresponding EAS of the first application; the first EES determines the load condition of the first EES for the corresponding EAS of the first application according to the load condition information of each EAS of the plurality of EAS.

The EES obtains the load information from the load condition information of each EAS of the EES of the first application, so that the load information is more accurate and timely, and the accuracy and usability of final EES selection are improved.

In some possible implementations, the first EES acquiring load condition information for each of the plurality of EAS includes: the first EES receiving the load condition information transmitted from each of the plurality of EAS; or the first EES receives load status information from each of the plurality of EAS's transmitted by the management plane function.

The EES may have multiple ways to obtain load condition information for each EAS, thereby improving the efficiency of the acquisition.

In some possible implementations, the determining, by the first EES, the load status of the EAS corresponding to the first application in the first EES according to the load status information of each EAS of the plurality of EAS includes: and the first EES determines that the load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application in the first EES is a load alarm state under the condition that the load condition indicated by all or part of the load condition information in the plurality of EAS is the load alarm state.

The EES obtains the load information of the EES on the EAS of the first application by aggregating the plurality of pieces of the load condition information of the EAS of the first application, so that the EES can be prevented from sending information to the ECS under the condition that other first EAS is still available, and unnecessary information interaction is caused, and the accuracy of the load information and the efficiency of the system are improved.

In some possible implementations, the obtaining, by the first EES, a load condition of the first EES for an edge application instance EAS corresponding to the first application includes: the first EES receives the load information of the first EES aiming at the EAS of the first application, which is sent by a management plane function, wherein the load information is used for indicating the load condition of the first EES aiming at the EAS corresponding to the first application.

By acquiring the load condition information from each EAS and the interaction mode of the management plane function, signaling interaction is reduced, and therefore the efficiency and timeliness of load information acquisition are improved.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the first EES receives a load request from the ECS, wherein the load request is used for requesting the load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application; wherein the first EES sending load information to the ECS includes: the first EES sends a response message of the load request to the ECS, the response message of the load request including the load information.

When the EES receives the request or subscription, the EES sends load information to the ECS, so that the running efficiency of the system and the effective transmission and use of the load information are improved.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the first EES receiving a load request from the ECS requesting a load status of EAS of all applications in the first EES, wherein the all applications include the first application; wherein the first EES sending load information to the ECS includes: the first EES sends a response message of the load request to the ECS, the response message of the load request includes load conditions of EAS corresponding to all applications in the first EES, and the load subscription notification message includes the load information.

By acquiring the load information of all the EAS applied, the system efficiency is improved and the signaling interaction is reduced.

In a third aspect, a method of selecting an edge enabled client EES is provided, the method comprising: determining a load condition of a first EAS by a first edge application instance EAS, the first EAS corresponding to a first application; the first EAS transmits load condition information indicating a load condition of the first EAS.

The EAS sends the load status information when requesting, thereby avoiding the influence of the micro load status change on the system, improving the efficiency of acquiring and using the load information, and improving the accuracy and efficiency of selecting EES according to the load information.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the first EAS receiving a load request from the first EES, the load request requesting a load condition of the first EAS; wherein the first EAS transmit load condition information includes: the first EAS transmits a response message to the first EES for a load request, the response message for the load request including the load status information.

In some possible implementations, the first EAS transmit load condition information includes: and under the condition that the first EAS meets the preset condition, the load condition information is sent.

The quantifiable parameters of the load condition are defined, and the visualization and the quantification of the load condition can be realized.

In some possible implementations, the preset condition includes at least one of: the first EAS is first registered to the EES, a load of the first EAS is greater than or equal to a first preset threshold, and a load of the first EAS is less than a second preset threshold.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the first EAS receiving a load request from an ECS, the load request requesting a load condition of the first EAS; wherein the first EAS transmit load information includes: the first EAS sends a response message to the ECS for the load request, the response message for the load request including the load information.

By directly interacting the load condition information of the EAS with the ECS, timeliness and accuracy of the ECS for acquiring the load information of the EAS of the first application by the ECS are improved.

In some possible implementations, the load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application is a load alarm state or a load normal state.

In a fourth aspect, a method of selecting an edge-enabled client EES is provided, the method comprising: the management plane function determines load conditions of the first EES for a plurality of EAS corresponding to the first application; the management plane function sends load information indicating load conditions of the plurality of EAS for determining a target EES.

The management plane function provides the EES with the loading information of the EAS of the first application, so that the efficiency of the ECS for acquiring the EES loading information is improved.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the management plane function receives a load request from the first EES, the load request being for requesting the first EES to target load conditions of a plurality of EAS's corresponding to the first application; wherein, the management plane function sending load information includes: the management plane function sends a response message of the load request to the first EES, the response message of the load request including the load information.

Load information of the EES on the EAS of the first application is acquired in a targeted manner, so that efficiency of acquiring the load information by the system is improved.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the management plane function receives a load request from an ECS, wherein the load request is used for requesting the first EES to target the load conditions of a plurality of EAS corresponding to the first application; wherein, the management plane function sending load information includes: the management plane function sends a response message of a load request to the ECS, the response message of the load request including the load information.

By acquiring the load information of EAS of multiple applications, signaling interaction can be reduced, thereby improving system efficiency.

In some possible implementations, the load condition of the first EES for each of the plurality of EAS corresponding to the first application is a load alarm state or a load normal state.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a method of resource management, the method comprising: the ECS acquires the load information of the EES on the EAS of the first application; the ECS determines a processing type for carrying out resource processing on the EAS of the first application corresponding to the EES according to the load information, wherein the processing type is any one of capacity expansion, capacity shrinkage or instantiation; the ECS sends a first request message to a management plane function, wherein the first request message comprises the processing type for carrying out resource processing on the EAS of the first application corresponding to the EES.

The ECS acquires load information of the EES on the EAS of the first application, and determines the processing type of the resource processing of the EAS of the first application corresponding to the EES according to the load information. If the load information indicates that the load is in an alarm state, the processing type of the corresponding resource processing may be capacity expansion. If the load information indicates that the load is starved, the processing type of the corresponding resource processing may be a scaling. If the load information indicates that there is no EAS for the first application on the EES, the process type of the corresponding resource process may be instantiation. The ECS sends the determined processing type to the management surface function through the first request message, so that the management surface function performs resource processing according to the processing type, and the processing efficiency of data processing is improved.

In some possible implementations, the load information of the EAS for the first application includes load condition information of each EAS of the first application registered on the EES, or an overall load condition of all EAS of the first application registered on the EES.

The load information acquired by the ECS may be the respective load information of each EAS of the first application, or may be an aggregate result of the respective load information of each EAS of the first application, which improves flexibility of acquiring the load information.

In some possible implementations, the first request message further includes information and location information of the first application.

The location information is used to indicate a location of the EES, and the information of the first application is used to identify the first application. The first application corresponds to one or more EAS. The management plane function may select a partial EAS corresponding to the location of the EES from the one or more EAS corresponding to the first application based on the location of the EES in the first request message.

In some possible implementations, the first request message further includes identification information of EAS that require resource processing.

The first request message includes identification information of EAS of the first application that needs to perform resource processing, so that the management plane function can directly perform resource processing on EAS corresponding to the EAS identification.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the ECS receives a second request message of the first equipment, wherein the second request message is used for requesting information of the EES; the ECS selects a target EES according to the second request message; the ECS sends information of the target EES to the first device.

After the ECS processes the resource, the ECS can also receive the information of the second request message for requesting the EES sent by other devices, so that the ECS can reselect the EES according to the EAS after the resource processing, thereby further improving the accuracy or reliability of EES selection.

In some possible implementations, the second request message includes location information of a terminal, and the ECS selecting the target EES according to the second request message includes: and the ECS selects the target EES according to the position information of the terminal.

If the second request message includes the location information of the terminal, the ECS may specifically select the second target EES according to the location information of the terminal, thereby selecting EES that satisfy the current location of the terminal, and improving accuracy of selecting EES.

In some possible implementations, the second request message includes an identification of the terminal, the method further including: the ECS determines the position information of the terminal according to the identification of the terminal; wherein the ECS selecting the target EES according to the second request message includes: and the ECS selects the target EES according to the position information of the terminal.

If the second request message includes the identifier of the terminal, the ECS may specifically determine the location of the terminal according to the identifier of the terminal, and then select the second target EES according to the location of the terminal, thereby improving the accuracy of selecting EES.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a method of resource management, the method comprising: receiving a request message, wherein the request message comprises a processing type for performing resource processing on the EAS of the first application, and the processing type is any one of capacity expansion, capacity shrinkage or instantiation; and carrying out resource processing on the EAS of the first application according to the processing type.

The management plane function receives the first request message including the processing type and performs resource processing according to the processing type, thereby improving the processing efficiency of data processing.

In some possible implementations, the request message further includes information and location information of the first application, wherein the performing resource processing on EAS of the first application according to the processing type includes: and according to the processing type, performing resource processing on one or more EAS of the first application of the position indicated by the position information.

If the second request message includes the location information of the terminal, the management plane function performs resource processing on one or more EAS of the first application at the location indicated by the location information according to the processing type, so that resource processing is performed on EAS requiring resource processing, and power consumption overhead is avoided. That is, the management plane performs resource management in a targeted manner, so that the power consumption overhead is reduced.

In some possible implementations, the request message further includes identification information of EAS that needs to be processed by the resource, where the processing the EAS of the first application by the processing type includes: and processing the resource of the EAS indicated by the EAS identification information according to the processing type.

The first request message includes the identification information of the EAS of the first application, which needs to be subjected to resource processing, so that the management plane function can directly perform resource processing on the EAS corresponding to the identification of the EAS, thereby avoiding wasting power consumption overhead. That is, the management plane performs resource management in a targeted manner, so that the power consumption overhead is reduced.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a method of resource management, the method comprising: the EES acquires the load information of the EES on the EAS of the first application; the EES determines a processing type for carrying out resource processing on the EAS of the first application corresponding to the EES according to the load information, wherein the processing type is any one of capacity expansion, capacity shrinkage or instantiation; and sending a first request message to a management plane function, wherein the first request message comprises the processing type for carrying out resource processing on the EAS of the first application corresponding to the EES.

The EES acquires load information of the EES on the EAS of the first application, and determines the processing type of the resource processing of the EAS of the first application corresponding to the EES according to the load information. If the load information indicates that the load is in an alarm state, the processing type of the corresponding resource processing may be capacity expansion. If the load information indicates that the load is starved, the processing type of the corresponding resource processing may be a scaling. If the load information indicates that there is no EAS for the first application on the EES, the process type of the corresponding resource process may be instantiation. The EES sends the determined processing type to the management surface function through the first request message, so that the management surface function performs resource processing according to the processing type, and the processing efficiency of data processing is improved.

In some possible implementations, the load information of EAS of the first application corresponding to the EES includes load condition information of each EAS of the first application registered on the EES, or an overall load condition of all EAS of the first application registered on the EES.

The load information acquired by the EES may be the respective load information of each EAS of the first application, or may be an aggregate result of the respective load information of each EAS of the first application, which improves flexibility in acquiring the load information.

In some possible implementations, the first request message further includes information of the first application and location information corresponding to the EES.

In some possible implementations, the first request message further includes identification information of EAS performing the resource processing.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes: the EES receives a second request message of the first equipment, wherein the second request message is used for requesting information of the EAS; the EES selects a first EAS of the first application according to the second request message; the EES transmits a first EAS of the first application to the first device.

After the EES performs resource processing on the EAS, the EES can also receive a second request message sent by other equipment for requesting information of the EES, so that the EES can reselect the EES according to the EAS after the resource processing, and the accuracy and reliability of EES selection are further improved.

In an eighth aspect, an apparatus for selecting an edge-enabled client is provided, the apparatus being either an ECS or a chip within the ECS. The apparatus has the functionality to implement the first aspect described above, as well as various possible implementations. The functions can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes: the transceiver module may be, for example, at least one of a transceiver, a receiver, and a transmitter, and the processing module may include a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module may include a radio frequency circuit or an antenna. The processing module may be a processor. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a storage module, which may be a memory, for example. When included, the memory module is used to store instructions. The processing module is connected to the storage module, and the processing module may execute instructions stored in the storage module or derived from other instructions, so that the apparatus performs the method of the first aspect and various possible implementation manners. In this design, the device may be an ECS.

In another possible design, when the device is a chip, the chip includes: the transceiver module comprises a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module can be an input/output interface, a pin, a circuit or the like on the chip. The processing module may be, for example, a processor. The processing module may execute instructions to cause a chip within the ECS to perform the method of the first aspect described above, as well as any possible implementation. Alternatively, the processing module may execute instructions in a memory module, which may be an on-chip memory module, such as a register, cache, or the like. The memory module may also be a static memory device, random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or the like, located within the communication device, but external to the chip, such as read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static memory device that may store static information and instructions.

The processor referred to in any of the above may be a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control program execution in the first aspect and various possible implementations.

In a ninth aspect, an apparatus for selecting an edge-enabled client is provided, the apparatus being either an EES or a chip within the EES. The apparatus has the functionality to implement the second aspect described above, as well as various possible implementations. The functions can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes: a receiving module and a transmitting module. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a processing module. The receiving module and the transmitting module may be at least one of a transceiver, a receiver, and a transmitter, for example, and the transceiver module may include a radio frequency circuit or an antenna. The processing module may be a processor.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a storage module, which may be a memory, for example. When included, the memory module is used to store instructions. The processing module is coupled to the memory module and is operable to execute instructions stored by the memory module or derived from other instructions to cause the apparatus to perform the method of the second aspect, or any of the methods thereof.

In another possible design, when the device is a chip, the chip includes: the chip also comprises a processing module. The receiving module and the transmitting module may be, for example, input/output interfaces, pins or circuits on the chip, etc. The processing module may be, for example, a processor. The processing module may execute instructions to cause a chip within the EES to perform the second aspect described above, as well as any possible implementation methods.

Alternatively, the processing module may execute instructions in a memory module, which may be an on-chip memory module, such as a register, cache, or the like. The memory module may also be a static memory device, random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or the like, located within the communication device, but external to the chip, such as read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static memory device that may store static information and instructions.

The processor referred to in any of the above may be a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control the execution of the program of the method of the second aspect, and any possible implementation.

In a tenth aspect, an apparatus for selecting an edge-enabled client is provided, which may be an ECS or a chip within an ECS. The apparatus has the functionality to implement the third aspect described above, as well as various possible implementations. The functions can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes: the transceiver module may be, for example, at least one of a transceiver, a receiver, and a transmitter, and the processing module may include a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module may include a radio frequency circuit or an antenna. The processing module may be a processor. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a storage module, which may be a memory, for example. When included, the memory module is used to store instructions. The processing module is connected to the storage module, and the processing module may execute instructions stored in the storage module or derived from other instructions, so that the apparatus performs the method of the third aspect and various possible implementation manners. In this design, the device may be an ECS.

In another possible design, when the device is a chip, the chip includes: the transceiver module comprises a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module can be an input/output interface, a pin, a circuit or the like on the chip. The processing module may be, for example, a processor. The processing module may execute instructions to cause a chip within the ECS to perform the method of the third aspect described above, as well as any possible implementation. Alternatively, the processing module may execute instructions in a memory module, which may be an on-chip memory module, such as a register, cache, or the like. The memory module may also be a static memory device, random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or the like, located within the communication device, but external to the chip, such as read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static memory device that may store static information and instructions.

The processor referred to in any of the above may be a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control the execution of the program of the method of the third aspect, and any possible implementation.

In an eleventh aspect, an apparatus for selecting an edge-enabled client is provided, which may be an EES or a chip within an EES. The apparatus has the functionality to implement the fourth aspect described above, as well as various possible implementations. The functions can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes: a transceiver module and a processing module. The transceiver module includes a receiving module and a transmitting module, and may be, for example, at least one of a transceiver, a receiver, and a transmitter, and may include a radio frequency circuit or an antenna. The processing module may be a processor.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a storage module, which may be a memory, for example. When included, the memory module is used to store instructions. The processing module is connected to the storage module, and the processing module may execute instructions stored in the storage module or derived from other instructions to cause the apparatus to perform the method of the fourth aspect, or any one of them.

In another possible design, when the device is a chip, the chip includes: a transceiver module and a processing module. The transceiver module comprises a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module can be an input/output interface, a pin, a circuit or the like on the chip. The processing module may be, for example, a processor. The processing module may execute instructions to cause a chip within the EES to perform the fourth aspect described above, as well as any possible implementation methods.

The processor referred to in any of the above may be a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control the execution of the program of the method of the fourth aspect and any possible implementation.

In a twelfth aspect, an apparatus for selecting an edge-enabled client is provided, which may be an ECS or a chip within an ECS. The apparatus has the functionality to implement the fifth aspect described above, as well as various possible implementations. The functions can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes: the transceiver module may be, for example, at least one of a transceiver, a receiver, and a transmitter, and the processing module may include a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module may include a radio frequency circuit or an antenna. The processing module may be a processor. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a storage module, which may be a memory, for example. When included, the memory module is used to store instructions. The processing module is connected to the storage module, and the processing module may execute instructions stored in the storage module or derived from other instructions, so that the apparatus performs the method of the fifth aspect and various possible implementation manners. In this design, the device may be an ECS.

In another possible design, when the device is a chip, the chip includes: the transceiver module comprises a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module can be an input/output interface, a pin, a circuit or the like on the chip. The processing module may be, for example, a processor. The processing module may execute instructions to cause a chip within the ECS to perform the fifth aspect described above, as well as any possible implementation method. Alternatively, the processing module may execute instructions in a memory module, which may be an on-chip memory module, such as a register, cache, or the like. The memory module may also be a static memory device, random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or the like, located within the communication device, but external to the chip, such as read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static memory device that may store static information and instructions.

The processor referred to in any of the above may be a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control program execution in the fifth aspect, as well as in various possible implementations.

In a thirteenth aspect, an apparatus for selecting an edge-enabled client is provided, which may be a management plane function or a chip within a management plane function. The apparatus has the functionality to implement the sixth aspect described above, as well as various possible implementations. The functions can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes: the transceiver module may be, for example, at least one of a transceiver, a receiver, and a transmitter, and the processing module may include a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module may include a radio frequency circuit or an antenna. The processing module may be a processor. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a storage module, which may be a memory, for example. When included, the memory module is used to store instructions. The processing module is connected to the storage module, and the processing module may execute the instructions stored in the storage module or the instructions from other sources, so that the apparatus performs the method of the sixth aspect and various possible implementation manners. In this design, the device may be an ECS.

In another possible design, when the device is a chip, the chip includes: the transceiver module comprises a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module can be an input/output interface, a pin, a circuit or the like on the chip. The processing module may be, for example, a processor. The processing module may execute instructions to cause a chip within the management plane function to perform the method of the sixth aspect described above, as well as any possible implementation. Alternatively, the processing module may execute instructions in a memory module, which may be an on-chip memory module, such as a register, cache, or the like. The memory module may also be a static memory device, random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or the like, located within the communication device, but external to the chip, such as read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static memory device that may store static information and instructions.

The processor referred to in any of the above may be a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control program execution in accordance with the sixth aspect and various possible implementations.

In a fourteenth aspect, an apparatus for selecting an edge-enabled client is provided, which may be an EES or a chip within an EES. The apparatus has the functionality to implement the seventh aspect described above, as well as various possible implementations. The functions can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a storage module, which may be a memory, for example. When included, the memory module is used to store instructions. The processing module is connected to the storage module, and the processing module may execute instructions stored in the storage module or derived from other instructions to cause the apparatus to perform the method of the seventh aspect, or any one of them.

In another possible design, when the device is a chip, the chip includes: a transceiver module and a processing module. The transceiver module comprises a receiving module and a transmitting module, and the transceiver module can be an input/output interface, a pin, a circuit or the like on the chip. The processing module may be, for example, a processor. The processing module may execute instructions to cause a chip within the EES to perform the seventh aspect described above, as well as any possible implementation of the method.

The processor referred to in any of the above may be a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control the execution of the program of the method of the seventh aspect and any possible implementation.

A fifteenth aspect provides a computer storage medium having stored therein program code for instructing the execution of the instructions of the methods of the first, third, fifth and seventh aspects described above, and any possible implementation thereof.

In a sixteenth aspect, a computer storage medium having stored therein program code for instructing the execution of the instructions of the methods of the above second and fourth aspects, and any possible implementation thereof, is provided.

In a seventeenth aspect, a computer storage medium is provided, in which a program code is stored for instructing the execution of the instructions of the method of the above sixth aspect, and any possible implementation thereof.

In an eighteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product containing instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first, third, fifth and seventh aspects described above, or any possible implementation thereof.

In a nineteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product containing instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the methods of the second and fourth aspects above, or any possible implementation thereof.

In a twentieth aspect, there is provided a computer program product containing instructions that, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the sixth aspect described above, or any possible implementation thereof.

In a twenty-first aspect, a communication system is provided, which comprises means having functions for implementing the methods and the various possible designs of the first aspect, means having functions for implementing the methods and the various possible designs of the second aspect, and means having functions for implementing the methods and the various possible designs of the third aspect.

In a twenty-second aspect, there is provided a communication system including an apparatus having functions to implement the methods and various possible designs of the above second aspect, an apparatus having functions to implement the methods and various possible designs of the above third aspect, and an apparatus having functions to implement the methods and various possible designs of the above fourth aspect.

In a twenty-third aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes an apparatus having functions for implementing the methods and the various possible designs of the fifth aspect and an apparatus having functions for implementing the methods and the various possible designs of the sixth aspect.

In a twenty fourth aspect, a communication system is provided, which comprises an apparatus having functions for implementing the methods and the various possible designs of the above sixth aspect and an apparatus having functions for implementing the methods and the various possible designs of the above seventh aspect.

Based on the technical scheme, the ECS selects a more proper EES by combining the acquired load information of the EES on the EAS of the first application, and the EES can be used for the EAS discovery of the application or the context migration of the application, so that the EES is facilitated to provide information of the EAS capable of providing service for the application user for the EEC or the source EES, and the accuracy of EES selection is improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application architecture of an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a method of selecting an EES according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method of selecting an EES according to another embodiment of the application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a method of resource management in accordance with one embodiment of the application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a method of resource management in accordance with another embodiment of the application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for selecting an EES according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for selecting EES according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for selecting an EES according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for selecting EES according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for selecting EES in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural view of an apparatus for selecting EES according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical scheme of the application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The terminal in the embodiment of the present application may refer to a device with a wireless transceiver function, and may be referred to as a terminal (terminal), a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), a vehicle-mounted terminal, a remote station, a remote terminal, and the like. The specific form of the terminal may be a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wearable tablet (pad), a desktop, a notebook, an all-in-one, a car-mounted terminal, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA) or the like. The terminal can be applied to the following scenarios: virtual Reality (VR), augmented reality (augmented reality, AR), industrial control (industrial control), unmanned (self driving), tele-surgery (remote medical surgery), smart grid (smart grid), transportation safety (transportation safety), smart city (smart home), smart home (smart home), etc. The terminal may be fixed or mobile. It should be noted that the terminal may support at least one wireless communication technology, such as LTE, NR, wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA), etc.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal comprises a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a memory management unit (memory management unit, MMU), and a memory (also referred to as a main memory). The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processes through processes (processes), such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system. The application layer comprises applications such as a browser, an address book, word processing software, instant messaging software and the like. Further, the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited to the specific structure of the execution body of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, as long as communication can be performed by the method provided according to the embodiment of the present application by running a program in which the code of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is recorded.

Furthermore, various aspects or features of the application may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, or magnetic tape, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact Disk (CD), digital versatile disk (digital versatile disc, DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), cards, sticks, key drives, etc.). Additionally, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include, without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

It will be appreciated that the terminal in the embodiments of the present application may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand held or vehicle mounted; the device can be deployed on the water surface; but also on aerial planes, balloons and satellites. The embodiment of the application does not limit the application scene of the wireless access network equipment and the terminal.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an application architecture of an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the application architecture includes a terminal 110, an edge data network (edge data network, EDN) 120, and an edge configuration server (edge configuration server, ECS) 130. The EDN includes, among other things, an edge application 121 and an edge enabled server (edge enabler server, EES) 122. The terminal includes an application client (application client) 111 and an edge-enabled client (edge enabler client, EEC) 112.

EDN120：

One general understanding is that an EDN corresponds to a data network, is a special local data network (local DN), contains edge-enabled functions, can be identified using a data network access identifier (DN access identifier, DNAI) and a Data Network Name (DNN), and is a network logical concept. Another understanding of EDNs is that EDNs are peer-to-peer concepts of a central cloud, which can be understood to be a local data center (i.e., a geolocation concept), can be identified using DNAI, and can contain multiple local data networks (local DNs).

Edge application 121:

an edge application is an application deployed in an edge data network. The edge application may also be referred to as an "application instance". In particular, a server application (e.g., social media software, augmented Reality (AR), virtual Reality (VR)) deploys instances (instances) running on the EDN. An application may deploy one or more EAS in one or more EDNs, deploying EAS running in different EDNs may be considered as different EAS of an application, they may share a domain name, or may use different domain names with applications deployed on the cloud, where the domain names may be fully qualified domain names (fully qualified domain name, FQDN), may use an anycast IP address, or may use different IP addresses.

It is to be appreciated that EAS may also be referred to as edge applications (servers), application instances, edge application instances, multiple access edge computing (MEC) applications (servers), EAS functions, and the like.

Application client 111:

the application client is a peer entity whose edge application is on the UE side. The application client is used for an application user (user) to acquire an application service from the application server. The application client is a client program applied on the terminal side, and can be connected to an application server on the cloud to acquire application services, and can also be connected to EAS deployed and run in one or more EDNs to acquire the application services.

EES122：

The EES is deployed in the EDN, can provide some enabling capability for application examples deployed in the EDN, can better support deployment conditions of the application in the MEC, can also support registration of edge application, authentication and authentication of UE, can provide IP address information of the application examples for the UE, and the like, can further support obtaining identification and IP address information of the application examples, and can further send the identification and the IP address information of the application examples to an edge data network configuration server. Typically, EAS is registered with an EES, or information of an EAS is configured on an EES by a management system, which is referred to as the EAS associated EES, which controls/manages EAS registered/configured on the EES.

EEC112：

EECs are peer entities of EES on the UE side. The EEC is used to register information of the EEC with the EES, to perform security authentication and authorization, to obtain an IP address of the EAS from the EES, to provide the application client with edge calculation enabling capabilities, such as the EAS discovery server returning the IP address of the EAS to the application client. EECs may be a sub-functional module implemented within the AC, or a module integrated into the operating system, or a stand-alone application.

ECS 130：

The ECS is responsible for configuration of the EDN, such as providing information of the EES to the UE. The ECS may also directly provide the UE with information of the application instance, and interact with the DNS of the application to obtain information of the application instance. Information of the application instance and the IP address may be further obtained and saved from other functional entities.

The following will briefly describe terms related to the present application.

Load of EAS:

the load of EAS may be a comprehensive representation of the running states of various system resources of EAS, including CPU usage status, memory usage status, IO usage status, number of connection users, number of requested connections, bandwidth, etc. When these resource operating states reach a certain level, the user may no longer be served or may no longer accept access from a new user. At this point, the EAS may be considered overloaded (overloaded).

It will be appreciated that the loading of different EAS for the same application may be different, as may the different EAS for different applications. That is, different applications may independently count their own load conditions of their corresponding EAS. For example, when an EAS for a first application is overloaded, EAS for a second application may also be in a normal state.

In a conventional approach, the EEC sends an EAS discovery request to the EES, which may be used to request a query for a specific EAS, or a specific class of service EAS, or a specific application characteristic EAS, or an EAS used at a specific location. The EES receives the discovery request, authenticates and authorizes the EEC, inquires the EAS meeting the condition, and returns the EAS information to the EES. It follows that it is important to select the appropriate EES. Therefore, when the ECS selects the EES for the terminal, the information such as the position of the terminal, the deployment topology of the EES, the application instance supported on the EES and the like can be comprehensively considered. However, as the demands for low latency and high reliability of edge services are gradually increased, the demands for the accuracy of the selected EES are also increasing, and how to further increase the ECS to select a suitable EES is in need of solving.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic flow chart of a method of selecting EES according to an embodiment of the present application.

The ECS obtains load information of each EES of the plurality of EESs for the EAS of the first application, the load information indicating a load condition of the corresponding EAS of the first application 201.

Specifically, the ECS may actively acquire or passively receive load information of EAS for the first application for each of the plurality of EES.

It is understood that one application may deploy one or more EAS in one or more EDNs. That is, an application may exist in the same EDN with one or more EAS providing the services of the application. Among the EDNs, each EDN may exist one or more EAS's of the application providing services of the application.

It is also understood that the plurality of EES may be EES located near the terminal. For example, a distance threshold is preset, and the plurality of EES may be EES having a planar geographic distance from the terminal less than or equal to the distance threshold. Or may also represent a proximity in the sense of a network communication path, e.g., the plurality of EES are EES less than or equal to the distance threshold from the cell (cell) in which the UE is currently located, the tracking area, and the base station communication path currently serving the UE. For another example, a delay threshold may be preset, where the delay of the communications between the EES and the UE is less than or equal to the delay threshold.

It is also understood that the ECS passively receiving load information for EAS of the first application for each of the plurality of EES may be understood as the EES actively sending the load information to the ECS, i.e., the ECS has not sent a request message to the EES requesting the load information before receiving the load information. The load information of the EAS for the first application may also be described as the load information of the EAS for the first application, which is not limited in the present application.

It will also be appreciated that prior to step 201, the ECS has configured or acquired address information for the EES, e.g., the ECS acquired address information for the EES during the EES registration process.

Alternatively, the load condition may comprise a load alarm state or a load normal state.

Specifically, the load alarm state may be understood as a preset load alarm threshold reached by the resource usage or occupancy of the EAS, and also indicates that the EAS cannot accept the service requested by the new terminal to use the first application, and the load normal state may be understood as that the resource usage or occupancy of the EAS is below the preset load alarm threshold, and also indicates that the EAS can also accept the service requested by the new terminal to use the first application. For example, if the state of the EAS of the first EES for the first application is a load alarm state, it indicates that the EAS of the first EES for the first application cannot accept the connection request or the service request of the new terminal any more.

It will be appreciated that when an EAS (e.g., the first EAS of the first application) is overloaded, the operating state of the various resources of the EAS may change if the client of the first application that has connected or used the EAS terminates the connection with the EAS or terminates the system resources that use the EAS. For example, the operating state of the EAS changes to be able to accept access by more first application clients, or to accept new resource requests by clients of the first application (the operating state may be referred to as an "overload alert release state"). That is, the load normal state may include an overload warning release state.

It is further understood that, in the case that the state of the EAS of the first EES for the first application is a load alarm state, the EAS state of the first EES for other applications (e.g., the second application) may be a load alarm state or a load normal state, which is not limited in the present application.

Optionally, the EES is registered with at least one first EAS for providing the first application service to EAS of the first application, and the load information for EAS of the first application may include load condition information of each of the at least one first EAS.

Specifically, one or more first EAS may be registered on the EES. Wherein the load information for the EAS of the first application in step 201 may include load condition information for each of the one or more first EAS. In other words, the load information for the first application may include load condition information of each of all EAS registered on the first EES corresponding to the first application. Wherein the load condition information of the first EAS is used to describe the load condition of the first EAS, the load condition information of the first EAS may include a load level of the first EAS, and a load parameter of the first EAS.

It is to be appreciated that the loading information for the EAS of the first application may also be an aggregate of loading conditions of all EAS registered on the first EES corresponding to the first application, where the loading information represents the loading conditions of all EAS of the first application as a whole.

Optionally, the load information further comprises a first load level or a first load parameter.

Specifically, the first load level indicates a load level of EAS of the EES for the first application, which may be an aggregate of load levels of each of the one or more EAS of the EES corresponding to (registered with) the EES (i.e., the second load level, i.e., the load level of the first EAS). Or the first load level comprises a load level (a second load level, i.e., a load level of the first EAS) for each of the one or more EAS of the first application to which the EES corresponds (registered with the EES). The following description will take the first load level as an example:

for example, the load level of EAS of the first application for which EES is aimed, i.e., the first load level, is divided into a load starvation state, a load early warning state, and a load alarm state. Wherein the load starvation condition may be a resource sufficiency of EAS of the first application for which the EES is directed; the load early warning state may be that the EAS of the first application for which the EES is directed is relatively resource intensive, but may still be accessible to new users; the load alarm condition may be insufficient resources for EAS of the first application for which the EES is directed to, failing to access the new user. The specific resource parameter settings corresponding to the EAS resource status of the first application for which the EES is directed may be formulated by an administrator configuration of the EAS resource.

For another example, the loading conditions of EAS for the first application for which EES is aimed are divided into primary, secondary, tertiary, etc. Wherein when the resource occupancy (resource occupancy=occupied/total resources) is at 90% to 95% at one level (e.g., level 1), when the resource occupancy is at 80% to 90% at another level (e.g., level 2), when the resource occupancy is below 80% at yet another level (e.g., level 3).

The first load parameter may be used to describe an EAS detailed load condition of the first application for which the EES is directed. The first load parameter may be a set of load parameters aggregated from load parameters (second load parameters, i.e., load parameters of the first EAS) of each of the one or more EAS of the EES corresponding to (registered with) the EES first application. Or the first load parameter further comprises a load parameter (second load parameter, i.e., load parameter of the first EAS) of each of the one or more EAS of the first application to which the EES corresponds (registered with the EES). For example, the first load parameter may include a CPU usage status (condition), a memory usage status, an IO usage status, a number of connection users, a requested connection number, a bandwidth usage status, and the like, which is not limited in the present application.

It can be appreciated that the resource occupancy rate in the embodiment of the present application may be a comprehensive resource occupancy rate determined by at least one of memory, storage and computer resources or a combination of multiple resources.

The second load level indicates a load level of a single EAS of the first application, i.e., a respective, independent load level for each EAS describing the first application. The second load level may also be divided into different levels, such as dividing the second load level into a load starvation state, a load early warning state, and a load alert state. Wherein the starvation condition may indicate that the resources of one EAS of the first application are sufficient; the load early warning state may indicate that the EAS resource of the first application is relatively intense, but may still be accessible to the new user; the load alarm condition may indicate that the EAS of the first application is starved for resources and cannot access the new user. The specific resource parameter settings corresponding to the resource status of one EASS of the first application may be formulated by the administrator configuration of the EAS's resources.

For another example, the loading condition of one EAS of the first application is divided into a first stage, a second stage, a third stage, and the like. Wherein when the resource occupancy (resource occupancy=occupied/total resources) is at 90% to 95% at one level (e.g., level 1), when the resource occupancy is at 80% to 90% at another level (e.g., level 2), when the resource occupancy is below 80% at yet another level (e.g., level 3).

The second load parameter may be used for detailed loading of a single EAS of the first application, i.e. for describing a respective, independent loading of each EAS of the first application, i.e. the loading of the first EAS. The second load parameter may include a CPU usage status (condition), a memory usage status, an IO usage status, a number of connection users, a requested connection number, a bandwidth usage status, and the like, which is not limited in the present application.

In one embodiment, step 201 may specifically be the ECS receiving load information for EAS of the first application from each EES of the plurality of EES. Accordingly, each EES transmits load information for EAS of the first application to the ECS.

Specifically, the ECS may interact with each of the plurality of EES separately to enable obtaining load information of EAS for the first application for each EES.

Alternatively, the ECS may send a first load request to each of the plurality of EES requesting a load condition of the corresponding EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application. The ECS thus receives a response message from the load request sent by each of the plurality of EES, each load request response message including corresponding load information.

Specifically, the ECS may first request the load information from each of the EES, that is, the EES may send the load information only if the ECS has a need, thereby saving signaling overhead. Specifically, the ECS sends a load request to each EES of the plurality of EES to request a load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application, and receives a response message including the load request of the load information, which the corresponding EES responds to. That is, the load request is requested with the application as granularity, and the response message of the received load request includes the load condition of the overall aggregation for EAS corresponding to the first application.

For example, the ECS sends a first load request to the first EES and receives a response message to the load request from the first EES, the response message to the load request including a load condition of the first EES for the EAS of the first application.

It is understood that the load request and the response message of the load request may be a single request and response mode or a subscription and response mode. When the subscription and response modes are based, the load request message may be referred to as load subscription request information, and the response message of the load request is referred to as load notification message, specifically, when the first EES receives the first load request, the first EES may immediately feed back the response message of the load request, that is, immediately notify. The first load request carries a time threshold value or a trigger condition for requiring feedback of the load condition, so that after the first EES receives the first load request, the first EES sends a notification message to feed back the load request message when the time threshold value is reached or the trigger condition is met.

Optionally, the first load subscription request may include an identification of the first application.

Specifically, the identification of the first application is used to uniquely identify the application (application), which may be a fully qualified domain name (fully qualified domain name, FQDN), thereby distinguishing that the load subscription request is a load request for the first application.

It will be appreciated that if there is no registration of the EAS corresponding to the application requested by the ECS on the first EES, the first EES may feed back to the ECS that there is no information of the first application.

It will also be appreciated that if the ECS requests load information for a plurality of applications, the first load subscription request may include an identification list (i.e., FQDN list) of the applications.

In another embodiment, the ECS may receive load condition information from each EAS of the plurality of EES transmitted by the plurality of EES, i.e., each EAS's respective, independent load condition information, and determine load information for EAS of the plurality of EES for the first application based on the load condition information for each EAS of the plurality of EES. Accordingly, each EES of the plurality of EES transmits load status information for all EAS registered on the EES to the ECS.

Specifically, the ECS may interact with each of the plurality of EES to enable the acquisition of load status information for all EAS in each EES (i.e., EAS corresponding to all applications). Further, the ECS may store correspondence between EAS and EES of different applications, so that the load condition of a certain EES (e.g., the first application) for all EAS corresponding to the certain application may be determined according to the load condition information of all EAS in the certain EES (e.g., the first EES).

Optionally, the ECS sends a second load request to a first EES of the plurality of EES, where the second load request is used to request load conditions of EAS corresponding to all applications in the first EES; the ECS receives a response message of a load request from the first EES, wherein the response message of the load request is used for indicating the load conditions of the EAS corresponding to all the applications in the first EES; in step 201, the load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application may be determined from the response message of the load request.

Specifically, the load information that the ECS requests from each EES is granular such that the load request does not need to indicate which application is requesting the load condition of the corresponding EAS. For example, the load request does not need to carry the identifier of the first application, thereby reducing the complexity of signaling and the processing logic of the EES on the load condition.

It is understood that the load request may be a load condition for requesting all EAS's in the first EES. Wherein the load condition of each EAS may include a load condition of each EAS corresponding to each of the plurality of applications.

It will also be appreciated that the ECS may request the load information to be obtained simultaneously in both of the above-described ways.

Optionally, the second load request may include an identification of the first application.

Alternatively, in the above two embodiments, the EES may also actively report the load information to the ECS.

Specifically, the load information sent by the EES to the ECS may be carried in an EES registration request or an EES update request.

It is further understood that the EES registration request message may also carry an Identification (ID) of the EES. The identity of the EES may also be access point information of the EES, such as an IP address or a uniform resource location system (uniform resource locator, URL), or a combination of one or more of the FQDNs of the EES.

It is further understood that the EES may send the load information of each application registered/managed on the EES in a separate message, or may send the load information of a plurality of applications registered/managed on the EES in one message, which is not limited in the present application.

It is also understood that the ECS may also send a response message to the EES requesting a message (e.g., a registration request or an update request). The response message may be an EES registration response message, an EES registration update response message, a load report response/acknowledgement message applied to the EES, a load event report response/acknowledgement message applied to the EES, or the like.

In yet another embodiment, the ECS may directly receive load status information sent by each EAS of the plurality of EAS from the plurality of EAS corresponding to the first application, and obtain load information of the EES for the EAS of the first application according to a correspondence between the plurality of EAS and the EES. Accordingly, each of the plurality of EAS corresponding to the first application may send load condition information for the first application to the ECS.

Specifically, the ECS may interact directly with each EAS of the plurality of EAS corresponding to the first application to obtain load condition information for each EAS of the plurality of EAS corresponding to the first application.

It is to be appreciated that the plurality of EAS may all be registered on the same EES.

Alternatively, the ECS may also receive a response message fed back by each EAS after sending a load request to the first application corresponding to a plurality of EAS, where the response message carries load status information of EAS.

In yet another embodiment, the ECS may receive load condition information from each of the plurality of EESs sent by the management plane function and determine load condition information for the EAS of the first application based on the load condition information for the EAS in each EES. Accordingly, the management plane function may obtain information on the load condition of each EAS in each EES of the plurality of EES and send the information to the ECS.

Alternatively, the ECS may receive a response message sent back by the management plane function after sending the load request to the management plane function, where the response message carries load status information of each EAS in the EES.

In yet another embodiment, the ECS may further receive load status information of each EAS of the EAS corresponding to the first application transmitted from the management plane entity, and determine load information of EAS for the first application for each EES of the plurality of EES according to the load status information of each EAS. Accordingly, the management plane function may obtain load status information of each EAS in the EAS corresponding to the first application, and send the load status information to the ECS.

Specifically, the EAS corresponding to the first application may include EAS registered to different EES, respectively. Therefore, the ECS receives the load status information of each EAS corresponding to the first application, and may further determine the load status of the EAS for the first application in each EES according to the correspondence between EAS and EES.

In one embodiment, the load information sent by the EES to the ECS may be load status information that the EAS may actively send to a registered EES (described below as a "first EES").

Specifically, the EAS may periodically send load status information to the first EES, or may send load status information to the first EES based on an event trigger. For example, the EAS transmits load status information to the first EES upon detecting a change in load.

Alternatively, the load condition information may be carried in at least one of an EAS registration request, an EAS load report message, or an EAS load event report message.

Specifically, the EAS registration request message may be an EAS registration request message or an EAS registration update message. That is, the EAS may carry the load condition information during a registration process with the first EES, or during a registration update process with the first EES.

It will be appreciated that the load condition information may also be carried in other processes using other messages after EAS registration with the first EES, as the application is not limited in this regard.

It will also be appreciated that the EAS registration request message may also carry an Identification (ID) of the EAS. The EAS identification may also be one or a combination of several of the EAS access point information, such as an IP address or URL, or the FQDN of the application to which the EAS corresponds.

It will be appreciated that the EAS identifier in the embodiments of the present application may also be an EAS instance identifier, by which multiple EAS of a same application may be distinguished when registering EAS of multiple first applications on an EES. The identification of the EAS may also be a resource identifier of the EAS, for example, an identification of a container (container) carrying the EAS, used to index the resources allocated by the management system for the EAS.

It is further understood that the EAS and the first EES may also be pre-agreed that if the load status is a normal load status, the registration request message may not carry the load status information. If the EES does not detect the load status information in the registration request message, the load status is a normal load status.

It is also understood that the EES may also send a response message to the EAS requesting the message. The response message may be an EAS registration response message, or an EAS registration update response message, or an EAS load report response/confirm message, or an EAS load event report response/confirm message.

It is also understood that before each EES of the plurality of EES receives the load condition information transmitted by the EAS, the EES has configured or acquired the address information of the EAS, e.g., the EAS informs the EAS of the address information during registration with the EES.

Optionally, the EAS actively reports the load status information specifically may be reporting when a preset condition is met.

For example, the EAS is first registered with the first EES; or (b)

The load of the EAS exceeds a first preset threshold; or (b)

The load of the EAS is below a second preset threshold.

Specifically, the first preset threshold may be greater than or equal to the second preset threshold. Wherein the load of the EAS exceeds a first predetermined threshold, which may be exceeded for a period of time (e.g., setting timer 1), the load of the EAS is deemed to exceed the first predetermined threshold. Likewise, the load of the EAS being below the second preset threshold may be below the second preset threshold for a period of time (e.g., setting timer 2), then the load of the EAS is deemed to be below the second preset threshold.

It will be appreciated that the first preset threshold or the second preset threshold may be set by using EAS single resources, such as resources in a storage space, or may be set by using preset thresholds respectively for multiple EAS resources or even for a combination of all EAS resources (i.e. the first preset threshold may be understood to include a set of multiple parameter thresholds), or may be an aggregate threshold obtained by using a specific algorithm based on multiple EAS resource parameters set by multiple EAS resources, which is not limited in the present application. For example, the first preset threshold is set for the total resource situation of memory, storage and computer, or the first preset threshold is a set of three thresholds { memory=value 1, storage=value 2, and computer=value 3 }.

In another embodiment, the EAS transmits a response message to the first EES for a load request upon receiving the load request transmitted by the first EES, the response message for the load request indicating load status information of the EAS.

Specifically, the EAS may feed back the load status information to the first EES when the EAS is in the overload condition, so that resource waste caused by still sending the unnecessary load status information may be avoided, that is, resource overhead is reduced.

Accordingly, the first EES may obtain load conditions of the EAS corresponding to the first application.

In one embodiment, the first EES receives load condition information transmitted from each of the plurality of EAS.

Specifically, the first EES may determine a load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application according to the load condition information of each EAS of the plurality of EAS. That is, the first EES may aggregate the overall loading conditions of EAS for the first application.

In one possible implementation, the first EES determines that the load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application is a load alarm state if the load condition indicated by the load condition information of each EAS of the plurality of EAS is a load alarm state. Accordingly, when the load condition indicated by the load condition information of at least one EAS of the plurality of EAS is a load normal state, the first EES determines that the load condition of the first EES corresponding to the first application is a load normal state.

In another possible implementation manner, the first EES determines that the load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application is a load alarm state when the load condition indicated by part of the state information of the EAS is the load alarm state. Accordingly, when the load condition indicated by all load state information in the load state information of the EAS is the load normal state, the first EES determines that the load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application is the load normal state.

Optionally, the first EES may further integrate the load status information of the plurality of first EAS to determine that the load information of the EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application further includes the number or proportion of EAS in the load alarm state.

In another embodiment, the first EES may receive load status information from the plurality of EAS's transmitted by the management plane function.

The first EES sends a load request message to the management plane function, the message carrying identification information of at least one EAS of the first application. The management plane function returns a response message to the load request carrying load status information of the at least one EAS of the first application.

In another embodiment, the first EES may receive load information for EAS of the first application from the EES sent by the management plane function.

The first EES sends a load request message to the management plane function, the message carrying first application information. The management plane function returns a response message to the load request carrying load status information of the at least one EAS of the first application. Or alternatively

The management plane function may have the ability to learn the load information on each EES for the EAS corresponding to the application or applications.

Optionally, the first EES may also send a load request to the management plane function to request a load status on the first EES for EAS corresponding to the application or applications. The management plane function may carry the load information through a response message of the load request, where the load information indicates a load condition of EAS corresponding to the application or applications on the first EES. Wherein the management plane function may be an operation support system (operations support system, OSS) function or a multiple access edge orchestrator (multi-access edge orchestrator, MEAO) function.

202, the ECS determines a target EES from the plurality of first EES based on the load information.

Specifically, the EEC may send a service configuration request message to the ECS. For each application, upon receipt of the service configuration request message, or a request message (application's identification FQDN) for a target EES of a source EES in the event of movement of the UE, or context migration of the UE, the ECS determines an EES for the application based on the load information of the application on each EES. The ECS then sends the selected EES to the EEC or source EES.

It is understood that the target EES may be configured to accept a service connection request or a service resource request of a client of the first application, and provide a service of the first application for the client of the first application.

It will be appreciated that the ECS may also select the target EES in connection with at least one of a location of the terminal, a deployment of the EES, and an application instance supported on the EES, as the application is not limited in this regard.

It is further understood that the service configuration request message may carry application identifiers, such as FQDNs, of all accessed applications. And the service configuration request message may carry multiple applications, i.e., multiple application identifications, at a time.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic flow chart of a method of selecting EES in accordance with another embodiment of the present application.

It is to be understood that unless otherwise specified, the embodiment shown in fig. 3 has the same meaning as the same terms in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and no further description is given here for the purpose of avoiding repetition.

301, the ecs obtains, from the management plane function, load information of EAS of each EES of the plurality of EES for the first application, the load information indicating a load condition of each EES of the plurality of EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application.

Specifically, the ECS may acquire the load information from the management plane function through a single request and response, or may receive the load information through subscription and notification.

In one embodiment, the ECS may request from the management plane function the loading conditions of the EAS for all applications in each of the plurality of EESs. The ECS finds the corresponding EAS load condition of the first application from the received response message of the load request.

In another embodiment, the ECS may request from the management plane function a loading condition of the EAS for the first application in each of the plurality of EESs. Thus, the ECS can directly obtain the load condition of the EES on the corresponding EAS of the first application from the response message of the load request

In yet another embodiment, the ECS may subscribe to the management plane function for loading conditions of all EAS's of the first application. The ECS may pre-store the correspondence between different EAS and EES, so that the ECS may determine, according to the correspondence between the EES and EAS, a load condition of at least one EES of the plurality of EES corresponding to the EAS of the first application.

In yet another embodiment, the ECS may subscribe to the management plane function for loading conditions of all EAS's of the plurality of applications. The ECS may store the correspondence between different EAS and EES in advance, so that the ECS may determine, according to the correspondence, a load condition of each of the plurality of applications corresponding to the EAS of the EES, and further obtain a load condition of the EES for the EAS of the first application.

302, the ECS determines a target EES from the plurality of EES based on load information of EAS for the first application from the plurality of EES.

It will be appreciated that the embodiment shown in fig. 3 may be combined with the various embodiments shown in fig. 2 in the absence of a logical conflict, as the application is not limited in this regard.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic flow chart of a method of resource management of an embodiment of the application.

Unless otherwise specifically stated, the embodiment shown in fig. 4 has the same meaning as the embodiment shown in fig. 3 in which the same terms are used,

The ecs obtains load information of the EES for EAS of the first application 401.

It is to be understood that the acquiring load information of the EAS for the first application in step 401 may be the same as the acquiring manner in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and will not be described herein for avoiding repetition.

Optionally, the load information of the EAS for the first application of the EES includes load condition information of each EAS of the first application registered on the EES, or an overall load condition of all EAS of the first application registered on the EES.

Specifically, the EES is registered with one or more EAS. Wherein a portion of the one or more EAS are EAS for the first application. The load information obtained in step 401 may be the respective load information for each EAS of the first application or may be an aggregate result of the respective load information for each EAS of the first application.

Alternatively, the ECS may be actively acquiring the load information of the EAS for the first application from the EES, i.e. the ECS receives the information in a response to the request by first sending the EES a request for the load information of the EAS for the first application to the EES. It may also be that the load information of the EAS for the first application is passively received from the EES, i.e. the EES actively sends the information to the ECS, which has not previously sent a request message to the EES requesting the load information of the EAS for the first application.

Specifically, for example, the ECS may actively acquire the load information of the EAS for the first application from the EES upon receiving a request message from the EEC or the EES.

In one implementation, the EEC sends a configuration request (provisioning request) message to the ECS requesting information of the EES.

Optionally, the configuration request message includes information of the first application. The information of the first application may be an application identifier of the first application.

Optionally, the service configuration request message may further include an identification of the terminal and/or location information of the terminal.

Specifically, the ECS may determine a first target EES (i.e., EES in step 401) that meets the requirements according to the location information of the terminal. For example, the ECS may take as the first target EES an EES capable of providing service to the terminal indicated by the location information, or an EES whose service area includes the location indicated by the location information of the terminal.

In another implementation, the source EES sends an EES request message to the ECS requesting information of the first target EES (i.e., EES in step 401).

Optionally, the EES request message may include information of the first application and/or information of the application client.

Optionally, the EES request message may also include an identification of the enabling client and an identification of the terminal.

402, the ECS determines, according to the load information, a processing type of performing resource processing on the EAS of the first application corresponding to the EES, where the processing type is any one of expansion, contraction, or instantiation.

Specifically, if the load information indicates that the load is in an alarm state, the processing type of the corresponding resource processing may be capacity expansion. If the load information indicates that the load is starved, the processing type of the corresponding resource processing may be a scaling. If the load information indicates that there is no EAS for the first application on the EES, the process type of the corresponding resource process may be instantiation.

The ECS sends 403 a first request message to the management plane function, the first request message including the processing type.

Specifically, the ECS sends the determined processing type to the management plane function carried in the first request message.

Optionally, the first request message may further include information of the first application and location information corresponding to the EES.

Optionally, the first request message may further include identification information of EAS that require resource processing.

In particular, in the case where the processing type is expansion or contraction, the first request message may include identification information of EAS that requires resource processing.

Optionally, the first request may further include load information of EAS for the first application by EES, which may include, for example, up to 80% load.

404, the management plane function performs resource processing on the EAS of the first application according to the processing type.

Specifically, if the processing type is capacity expansion, the management plane function performs capacity expansion processing on the EAS of the first application. For example, the management plane function may expand 20% each time, or a specific amount of resources (e.g., store = value1, CPU = value2, memory = value3, etc.) each time.

In one embodiment, the first request message may also include information of the first application and location information, such that step 404 may be, in particular, performing resource processing on one or more EAS of the first application at the location indicated by the location information, according to the processing type.

Specifically, the location information (e.g., DNAI) is used to indicate the location of the EES, and the information of the first application is used to identify the first application. The first application corresponds to one or more EAS. The management plane function may select a partial EAS corresponding to the location of the EES from the one or more EAS corresponding to the first application based on the location of the EES in the first request message.

It will be appreciated that the portion EAS may be one or more. For example, the management plane function may be configured to expand the most heavily loaded EAS, or may be configured to expand each EAS separately. The capacity expansion of different EAS may be performed the same or may be performed different, which is not limited in the present application.

In another embodiment, the first request message further includes identification information of EAS that require resource processing. Step 404 may thus be, in particular, performing a resource process on the EAS identified by the EAS's identification information based on the type of process.

Specifically, the first request message includes identification information of EAS that needs to be processed by the first application, so that the management plane function can directly process the resource of EAS corresponding to the EAS identification.

In one embodiment, the first request message may further include load information of the EES for EAS of the first application, so that step 404 may specifically determine granularity of resource operation according to the load information, for example, expanding EAS by 20% when the load is 80% and expanding EAS by 30% when the load is 90%.

Optionally, after step 404, the management plane function may send a response message of the first request message to the ECS, where the response message of the first message is used to indicate a processing result of the resource processing. For example, the processing result may be processing success, processing failure, or refusing processing.

Optionally, after step 404, the EAS after the resource processing may perform an EAS registration or EAS update operation. For example, the expanded EAS or the instantiated EAS may send a registration update message or EAS registration message to the EES, sending the latest EAS configuration information to the EES. The EES in turn triggers updating of information of the EES to the ECS, e.g. new applications are registered on the EES.

Optionally, the ECS may further receive a second request message of the first device, where the second request message is used to request information of the EES, so that the ECS selects a second target EES according to the second request message, and sends the information of the second target EES to the first device. Wherein the first device may be a first EEC or a first EES.

Specifically, the ECS may also receive a second request message sent by another device for requesting information of EES after performing the resource processing on EAS, so that the ECS may reselect EES (hereinafter referred to as "second target EES") according to EAS after performing the resource processing.

It is to be appreciated that the other device may be other EECs (different from the first EEC) or other EES (different from the first EES).

It is also understood that the state of the EAS may change after the ECS has processed the EAS for the resource. For example, the ECS performs a capacity expansion process on the EAS, and the load condition of the EAS may change from a load alarm to a normal load, or a starvation of the load.

In one embodiment, if the second request message includes location information of the terminal, the ECS may specifically select the second target EES according to the location information of the terminal.

In another embodiment, if the second request message includes an identifier of the terminal, the ECS may specifically determine the location of the terminal according to the identifier of the terminal, and then select the second target EES according to the location of the terminal.

Alternatively, if the ECS receives the configuration request message sent by the EEC before step 401, the ECS may send a response message of the configuration request to the EEC, where the response message may carry information of the second target EES.

Alternatively, if the ECS receives the EES request message sent by the source EES before step 401, the ECS may send a response message to the source EES for the EES request message.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a method of resource management in accordance with another embodiment of the application.

Unless otherwise specifically indicated, the same terms in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 as those in the embodiment shown in fig. 4 are used in the meaning of the term, and the present application is not limited thereto for convenience of description.

It should be further noted that, in the case where there is no logic conflict, the embodiment shown in fig. 4 may be combined with the embodiment shown in fig. 5, which is not limited by the present application.

501, the EES obtains load information of EAS of the EES for the first application.

In one embodiment, the EES may receive the EAS discovery request message sent by the EEC and perform step 501 after receiving the EAS discovery request message. The EAS discovery request message is used to request information of EAS.

Optionally, the EAS discovery request message includes an application identification of the first application.

Optionally, the EAS discovery request message further includes an identification of the terminal and/or location information of the terminal.

In another embodiment, the EES may also be an application context migration message that receives other EES (e.g., hereinafter referred to as "source EES"). The application context migration message is used to request information of EAS.

Optionally, the application context migration message may include information of the application identification and/or the application client of the first application.

Optionally, the application context migration message may further include an identification of the enabling client and/or an identification of a terminal, which is a terminal running the application client.

502, the EES determines, according to the load information, a processing type of performing resource processing on the EAS of the first application corresponding to the EES, where the processing type is any one of expansion, contraction or instantiation.

503, the EES sends a first request message to the management plane function, the first request message including the processing type.

The management plane function performs resource processing on the EAS of the first application according to the processing type 504.

Optionally, following step 504, the EAS after resource processing may perform EAS registration or EAS update operations. For example, the expanded EAS or the instantiated EAS may send a registration update message or EAS registration message to the EES, sending the latest EAS configuration information to the EES.

Alternatively, if the EES receives the EAS discovery request message sent by the EEC prior to step 501, the ECS may send a response message to the EEC for the EAS discovery request message, which may carry information of the second target EES.

Alternatively, if the EES receives the application context migration message sent by the source EES before step 501, the ECS may send a response message to the source EES for the application context migration message.

The various embodiments described herein may be separate solutions or may be combined according to inherent logic, which fall within the scope of the present application.

It will be appreciated that in the foregoing embodiments of the methods and operations performed by the respective devices may also be performed by components (e.g., chips or circuits) of the corresponding devices.

The above description has been mainly made on the schemes provided by the embodiments of the present application from the respective interaction points of view. It will be appreciated that each network element, e.g. the transmitting device or the receiving device, in order to implement the above-mentioned functions, comprises corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing each function. Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as 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 application can divide the function modules of the transmitting end equipment or the receiving end equipment according to the method example, for example, each function module can be divided corresponding to each function, and two or more functions can be integrated in one processing module. The integrated modules described above may be implemented either 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. The following description will be given by taking an example of dividing each function module into corresponding functions.

It should be understood that the specific examples of the embodiments of the present application are intended to facilitate a better understanding of the embodiments of the present application by those skilled in the art, and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

The method provided by the embodiment of the application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 2 to 5. The following describes the device provided in the embodiment of the present application in detail with reference to fig. 6 to 11. It should be understood that the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments and the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to each other, and thus, descriptions of details not described may be referred to the above method embodiments, which are not repeated herein for brevity.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 600 for selecting an edge-enabled client EES according to an embodiment of the present application.

It should be appreciated that the apparatus 600 may correspond to the ECS in the embodiment shown in fig. 2 and may have any function of the ECS in the method. The apparatus 600 includes a transceiver module 610 and a processing module 620.

The transceiver module 610 is configured to obtain load information of each EES of the plurality of EES for an edge application instance EAS of the first application, where the load information is used to indicate a load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application

The processing module 620 is configured to determine a target EES from the plurality of EES according to the load information.

Optionally, the EES is registered with at least one first EAS, the first EAS being configured to serve the first application, and the load information of the edge application instance EAS for the first application includes: load condition information for each of the at least one first EAS.

Optionally, the transceiver module 610 is specifically configured to:

receiving load information of EAS for the first application transmitted from each EES of the plurality of EES; or (b)

Receiving load condition information from each EAS transmission of the first application; determining load information of EAS of the plurality of EES for the first application according to load condition information transmitted by each EAS of the first application; or (b)

Receiving load condition information from each EAS in each of the plurality of EES transmitted by the plurality of EES; determining load information of EAS of the plurality of EES for the first application according to the load condition information of each EAS of the each EES; or (b)

Receiving load information for EAS of the first application from each of the plurality of EES sent by a management plane function; or (b)

Receiving load condition information of each EAS corresponding to the first application sent by a management plane function; and determining the load information of the EAS of the first application according to the load condition information of each EAS.

Optionally, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to: transmitting a load request to each EES of the plurality of EES, the load request being for requesting a load condition of the EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application;

the transceiver module 610 is specifically configured to:

receiving a response message to the load request from a first EES of the plurality of EES, the response message including load information for EAS in the first EES for the first application

Optionally, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to: sending a load request to the management plane function, the load request being for requesting a load condition of EAS corresponding to the first application in each EES of the plurality of EES;

the transceiver module 610 is specifically configured to:

receiving a response message to the load request from the management plane function, the response message including load information for EAS of the first application for each EES of the plurality of EES.

Optionally, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to: transmitting a load request to a first EAS of EAS corresponding to the first application, wherein the load request is used for requesting a load condition of the first EAS;

the transceiver module 610 is specifically configured to: receiving a response message from the load request sent by the first EAS, the response message including load condition information of the first EAS for the first application.

Optionally, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to: transmitting a load request to a first EES of the plurality of EES, the load request being for requesting a load status of EAS corresponding to all applications in the first EES, the all applications including the first application;

the transceiver module 610 is specifically configured to: and receiving a response message of the load request from the first EES, wherein the response message of the load request is used for indicating the load conditions of the EAS corresponding to all the applications in the first EES.

Optionally, the load condition is a load alarm state or a load normal state.

Optionally, the load information further includes a load level or a load parameter.

Optionally, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to:

A request message from a first device, the request message being for requesting acquisition of the target EES, the first device being an EES or edge enabled client EEC to be updated;

and sending a response message of the request message to the first equipment, wherein the response message of the request message comprises the information of the target EES.

Fig. 7 illustrates an apparatus 700 for selecting an edge-enabled client EES according to an embodiment of the present application, where the apparatus 700 may be the ECS described in fig. 2. The apparatus may employ a hardware architecture as shown in fig. 7. The apparatus may include a processor 710 and a transceiver 730, and optionally the apparatus may further include a memory 740, the processor 710, the transceiver 730, and the memory 740 communicating with each other through an internal connection path. The related functions performed by the processing module 620 in fig. 6 may be performed by the processor 710, and the related functions performed by the transceiver module 610 may be performed by the processor 710 controlling the transceiver 730.

Alternatively, the processor 710 may be a general purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), special purpose processor, or one or more integrated circuits for performing the techniques of embodiments of the present application. In the alternative, a processor may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions). For example, a baseband processor, or a central processing unit. The baseband processor may be used to process the communication protocol and the communication data, and the central processor may be used to control the means for selecting the edge enabled client EES, execute a software program, and process the data of the software program.

Alternatively, the processor 710 may include one or more processors, including, for example, one or more central processing units (central processing unit, CPU), which may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU in the case where the processor is a CPU.

The transceiver 730 is used to transmit and receive data and/or signals, as well as to receive data and/or signals. The transceiver may include a transmitter for transmitting data and/or signals and a receiver for receiving data and/or signals.

The memory 740 includes, but is not limited to, random access memory (random access memory, RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable memory (erasable programmable read only memory, EPROM), and compact disc-read only memory (compact disc read-only memory, CD-ROM), the memory 740 for storing related instructions and data.

The memory 740 is used to store program codes and data for the ECS, either as a separate device or integrated in the processor 710.

Specifically, the processor 710 is configured to control the transceiver to perform information transmission with the EES. Reference may be made specifically to the description of the method embodiments, and no further description is given here.

In a specific implementation, the apparatus 700 may further comprise an output device and an input device, as an embodiment. The output device communicates with the processor 710 and can display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device may be a liquid crystal display (liquid crystal display, LCD), a light emitting diode (light emitting diode, LED) display device, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, or a projector (projector), or the like. The input device(s) are in communication with the processor 601 and may receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, a sensing device, or the like.

It will be appreciated that fig. 7 shows only a simplified design of a device for selecting an edge enabled client EES. In practical applications, the apparatus may also include other necessary components, including but not limited to any number of transceivers, processors, controllers, memories, etc., and all ECSs that can implement the present application are within the scope of the present application.

In one possible design, the device 700 may be a chip, such as a communication chip, that may be used in an ECS to implement the functions associated with the processor 710 in the ECS. The chip can be a field programmable gate array for realizing related functions, an application specific integrated chip, a system chip, a central processing unit, a network processor, a digital signal processing circuit, a microcontroller, a programmable controller or other integrated chips. In the chip, one or more memories may optionally be included for storing program code that, when executed, causes the processor to perform the corresponding functions.

The embodiment of the application also provides a device which can be an ECS or a circuit. The apparatus may be used to perform the actions performed by the ECS in the method embodiments described above.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 800 for selecting an edge-enabled client EES according to an embodiment of the present application.

It should be appreciated that the apparatus 800 may correspond to the EES in the embodiment shown in fig. 2 and may have any function of the EES in the method. The apparatus 800 includes a receiving module 810 and a transmitting module 820.

The receiving module 810 is configured to obtain a load condition of the first EES for an edge application instance EAS corresponding to a first application;

the sending module 820 is configured to send load information to an edge configuration server ECS, where the load information is used to indicate a load status of the first EES for EAS corresponding to the first application, and the load status of the first EES for EAS corresponding to the first application is used for the ECS to determine a target EES.

Optionally, the load condition is a load alarm state or a load normal state.

Optionally, the receiving module 810 is specifically configured to: acquiring load condition information of each of a plurality of EAS, wherein the load condition information of a first EAS of the plurality of EAS is used for indicating the load condition of the first EAS, and the plurality of EAS are EAS corresponding to the first application;

And the processing module is used for determining the load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application according to the load condition information of each of the plurality of EAS.

Optionally, the receiving module 810 is specifically configured to:

receiving the load condition information transmitted from each of the plurality of EAS; or (b)

Load condition information from each of the plurality of EAS's transmitted by the management plane function is received.

Optionally, the processing module is specifically configured to:

and under the condition that the load condition indicated by all or part of the load condition information in the plurality of EAS is a load alarm state, determining that the load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application in the first EES is the load alarm state.

Optionally, the receiving module 810 is specifically configured to: and receiving load information of the first EES aiming at the EAS of the first application, which is sent by a management plane function, wherein the load information is used for indicating the load condition of the first EES aiming at the EAS corresponding to the first application.

Optionally, the receiving module 810 is further configured to receive a load request from the ECS, where the load request is used to request the load status of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application; the sending module 820 is specifically configured to: and sending a response message of the load request to the ECS, wherein the response message of the load request comprises the load information.

Optionally, the receiving module 810 is further configured to receive a load request from the ECS, where the load request is used to request a load status of EAS of all applications in the first EES, where the all applications include the first application;

the sending module 820 is specifically configured to: and sending a response message of the load request to the ECS, wherein the response message of the load request comprises the load conditions of the EAS corresponding to all the applications in the first EES, and the load subscription notification message comprises the load information.

Fig. 9 illustrates an apparatus 900 for selecting an edge-enabled client EES according to an embodiment of the present application, where the apparatus 900 may be the EES described in fig. 4. The apparatus may employ a hardware architecture as shown in fig. 9. The apparatus may include a processor 910 and a transceiver 920, and optionally, a memory 930, where the processor 910, transceiver 920, and memory 930 communicate with each other through an internal connection path. The related functions performed by the processing module in the embodiment shown in fig. 8 may be performed by the processor 910, and the related functions performed by the receiving module 810 and the transmitting module 820 may be performed by the processor 910 controlling the transceiver 920.

Alternatively, the processor 910 may be a general purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), special purpose processor, or one or more integrated circuits configured to perform the techniques of embodiments of the present application. In the alternative, a processor may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions). For example, a baseband processor, or a central processing unit. The baseband processor may be used to process the communication protocol and the communication data, and the central processor may be used to control the means for selecting the edge enabled client EES, execute a software program, and process the data of the software program.

Alternatively, the processor 910 may include one or more processors, including, for example, one or more central processing units (central processing unit, CPU), which in the case of a CPU, may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

The transceiver 920 is used to transmit and receive data and/or signals, and to receive data and/or signals. The transceiver may include a transmitter for transmitting data and/or signals and a receiver for receiving data and/or signals.

The memory 930 includes, but is not limited to, random access memory (random access memory, RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable memory (erasable programmable read only memory, EPROM), and compact disc-read only memory (compact disc read, CD-ROM), the memory 930 configured to store instructions and data.

The memory 930 is used to store program codes and data for the EES and may be a separate device or integrated within the processor 910.

Specifically, the processor 910 is configured to control the transceiver to perform information transmission with the ECS. Reference may be made specifically to the description of the method embodiments, and no further description is given here.

In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the apparatus 900 may further include an output device and an input device. An output device communicates with the processor 910 and can display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device may be a liquid crystal display (liquid crystal display, LCD), a light emitting diode (light emitting diode, LED) display device, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, or a projector (projector), or the like. The input device(s) are in communication with the processor 601 and may receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, a sensing device, or the like.

It will be appreciated that fig. 9 only shows a simplified design of a device that selects an edge-enabled client EES. In practical applications, the apparatus may further include other necessary components, including but not limited to any number of transceivers, processors, controllers, memories, etc., and all EES that can implement the present application are within the scope of the present application.

In one possible design, the device 900 may be a chip, such as a communication chip, that may be used in an EES for implementing the associated functions of the processor 910 in the EES. The chip can be a field programmable gate array for realizing related functions, an application specific integrated chip, a system chip, a central processing unit, a network processor, a digital signal processing circuit, a microcontroller, a programmable controller or other integrated chips. In the chip, one or more memories may optionally be included for storing program code that, when executed, causes the processor to perform the corresponding functions.

The embodiment of the application also provides a device which can be an EES or a circuit. The apparatus may be used to perform the actions performed by the EES in the method embodiments described above.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 1000 for selecting an edge-enabled client EES according to an embodiment of the present application.

It should be appreciated that the apparatus 1000 may correspond to an EAS in the embodiment shown in fig. 2 and may have any of the functions of an EAS in the method. The apparatus 1000 includes a processing module 1010 and a transceiver module 1020.

The processing module 1010 is configured to determine a loading condition of the first EAS, the first EAS corresponding to a first application;

the transceiver module 1020 is configured to send load condition information, where the load condition information is used to indicate a load condition of the first EAS.

Optionally, the transceiver module 1020 is further configured to receive a load request from the first EES, where the load request is used to request a load status of the first EAS; the transceiver module 1020 is specifically configured to:

and sending a response message of the load request to the first EES, wherein the response message of the load request comprises the load condition information.

Optionally, the transceiver module 1020 is specifically configured to:

and sending the load condition information under the condition that the preset condition is met.

Optionally, the preset condition includes at least one of the following:

the first EAS is first registered with the EES,

The load of the first EAS is greater than or equal to a first predetermined threshold,

the load of the first EAS is less than a second preset threshold.

Optionally, the transceiver module 1020 is further configured to receive a load request from the ECS, where the load request is for requesting a load condition of the first EAS;

the transceiver module 1020 is specifically configured to:

a response message to the ECS for sending the load request, the response message of the load request including the load information

Optionally, the load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application by the first EES is a load alarm state or a load normal state.

Fig. 11 illustrates an apparatus 1100 for selecting an edge enabled client EES according to an embodiment of the present application, where the apparatus 1100 may be an EAS in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 2. The apparatus may employ a hardware architecture as shown in fig. 11. The apparatus may include a processor 1110 and a transceiver 1130, and optionally the apparatus may further include a memory 1140, the processor 1110, the transceiver 1130, and the memory 1140 communicating with each other through an internal connection path. The related functions performed by the processing module 1010 in fig. 10 may be performed by the processor 1110, and the related functions performed by the transceiver module 1020 may be performed by the processor 1110 controlling the transceiver 1130.

Alternatively, the processor 1110 may be a general-purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), special-purpose processor, or one or more integrated circuits for performing the techniques of embodiments of the present application. In the alternative, a processor may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions). For example, a baseband processor, or a central processing unit. The baseband processor may be used to process the communication protocol and the communication data, and the central processor may be used to control the means for selecting the edge enabled client EES, execute a software program, and process the data of the software program.

Alternatively, the processor 1110 may include one or more processors, including, for example, one or more central processing units (central processing unit, CPU), which in the case of a CPU, may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

The transceiver 1130 is configured to transmit and receive data and/or signals, and to receive data and/or signals. The transceiver may include a transmitter for transmitting data and/or signals and a receiver for receiving data and/or signals.

The memory 1140 includes, but is not limited to, random access memory (random access memory, RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable memory (erasable programmable read only memory, EPROM), and compact disc-read only memory (compact disc read-only memory, CD-ROM), and the memory 1140 is used to store related instructions and data.

Memory 1140 is used to store program codes and data for the EAS, either as a separate device or integrated in processor 1110.

Specifically, the processor 1110 is configured to control the transceiver to perform information transmission with the EES. Reference may be made specifically to the description of the method embodiments, and no further description is given here.

In a specific implementation, the apparatus 1100 may further include an output device and an input device, as an embodiment. An output device communicates with the processor 1110 and can display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device may be a liquid crystal display (liquid crystal display, LCD), a light emitting diode (light emitting diode, LED) display device, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, or a projector (projector), or the like. The input device(s) is in communication with the processor 1001 and may receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, a sensing device, or the like.

It will be appreciated that fig. 11 shows only a simplified design of a device for selecting an edge enabled client EES. In practice, the device may each contain the necessary other elements including, but not limited to, any number of transceivers, processors, controllers, memories, etc., and all EAS that may implement the present application are within the scope of the present application.

In one possible design, the device 1100 may be a chip, such as a communication chip usable in an EAS, for implementing the functions associated with the processor 1110 in the EAS. The chip can be a field programmable gate array for realizing related functions, an application specific integrated chip, a system chip, a central processing unit, a network processor, a digital signal processing circuit, a microcontroller, a programmable controller or other integrated chips. In the chip, one or more memories may optionally be included for storing program code that, when executed, causes the processor to perform the corresponding functions.

The embodiment of the application also provides a device which can be an EAS or a circuit. The apparatus may be used to perform the actions performed by EAS in the method embodiments described above.

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 the computer instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced 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 a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, 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 (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 high-density digital video disc (digital video disc, DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

It should be appreciated that the processor may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in software form. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components. The disclosed methods, steps, and logic blocks in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in the execution of a hardware decoding processor, or in the execution of a combination of hardware and software modules in a decoding processor. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory and, in combination with its hardware, performs the steps of the above method.

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM).

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.

It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

As used in this specification, the terms "component," "module," "system," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between 2 or more computers. Furthermore, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from two components interacting with one another in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the internet with other systems by way of the signal).

It should also be understood that the first, second, and various numerical numbers referred to herein are merely descriptive convenience and are not intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" is merely an association relationship describing the associated 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. Wherein a or B is present alone, the number of a or B is not limited. Taking a alone as an example, it is understood that there are one or more a.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software 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.

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

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

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

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or an access network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of selecting an edge enabled server EES, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that an Edge Configuration Server (ECS) obtains load information of each EES in a plurality of EESs aiming at an edge application instance (EAS) of a first application, wherein the load information is used for indicating the load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application;

the ECS determines a target EES from the plurality of EESs according to the load information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the EES is registered with at least one first EAS, the first EAS for serving the first application, the load information of EAS for the first application comprising: load information for each of the at least one first EAS.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the ECS obtaining load information for EAS of the first application for each of the plurality of EES comprises:

the ECS receiving load information for EAS of the first application from each of the plurality of EES; or (b)

The ECS receiving load information from each EAS transmission of the first application;

the ECS determines load information of the plurality of EESs for the EAS of the first application according to the load information sent by each EAS of the first application; or (b)

The ECS receiving load information from each EAS in each of the plurality of EESs transmitted by the plurality of EESs;

the ECS determines the load information of the EAS aiming at the first application in the plurality of EESs according to the load information of each EAS in each EES; or (b)

The ECS receiving load information for the EAS of the first application from each of the plurality of EESs sent by a management plane function; or (b)

The ECS receives load information of each of the EAS corresponding to the first application sent by a management plane function;

the ECS determines load information for the EAS of the first application for each of the plurality of EESs based on the load information for each of the EAS.

4. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the ECS sends a load request to each EES in the plurality of EESs, wherein the load request is used for requesting the EES to aim at the load condition of the corresponding EAS of the first application;

wherein the ECS receiving load information for EAS of the first application transmitted from each of the plurality of EES includes:

the ECS receives a response message from the load request of a first EES of the plurality of EESs, the response message including load information of an EAS for the first application in the first EES.

5. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the ECS sends a load request to the management plane function, wherein the load request is used for requesting the load condition of the corresponding EAS for the first application in each EES in the plurality of EESs;

wherein the ECS receiving load information for EAS of the first application from each of the plurality of EES sent by a management plane function includes:

the ECS receives a response message from the management plane function to the load request, the response message including load information for the EAS of the first application for each of the plurality of EESs.

6. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the ECS sends a load request to a first EAS (electronic article surveillance) in the EAS corresponding to the first application, wherein the load request is used for requesting the load condition of the first EAS;

wherein the ECS receiving load information from each EAS transmission of the first application comprises:

the ECS receives a response message from the load request sent by the first EAS, the response message including load information for the first application by the first EAS.

7. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

the ECS sends a load request to a first EES of the plurality of EESs, wherein the load request is used for requesting the load conditions of the EAS corresponding to all applications in the first EES, and all applications comprise the first application;

wherein the ECS receiving load information from each EAS of each EES of the plurality of EES transmitted by the plurality of EES includes:

the ECS receives a response message of the load request from the first EES, wherein the response message of the load request is used for indicating the load conditions of the EAS corresponding to all the applications in the first EES.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the load condition is a load alert state or a load normal state.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the load information further comprises a load level or a load parameter.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the ECS is used for requesting to acquire the target EES from a request message of a first device, wherein the first device is an EES to be updated or an edge enabled client EEC;

The ECS sends a response message of the request message to the first device, the response message of the request message including information of the target EES.

11. A method of selecting an edge enabled server EES, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a first EES obtains the load condition of the first EES aiming at an edge application instance (EAS) corresponding to a first application;

the first EES sends load information to an edge configuration server ECS, where the load information is used to indicate a load condition of the first EES for EAS corresponding to the first application, and the load condition of the first EES for EAS corresponding to the first application is used by the ECS to determine a target EES.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the load condition is a load alert state or a load normal state.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the load information further comprises a load level or a load parameter.

14. The method of claim 12 or 13, wherein the obtaining, by the first EES, a load condition of the first EES for an edge application instance EAS corresponding to the first application comprises:

the first EES acquires load information of each of a plurality of EAS, wherein the load information of a first EAS in the plurality of EAS is used for indicating the load condition of the first EAS, and the plurality of EAS is the corresponding EAS of the first application;

And the first EES determines the load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application according to the load information of each EAS in the plurality of EAS.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first EES acquiring load information for each of a plurality of EAS's comprises:

the first EES receiving the load information transmitted from each of the plurality of EAS; or (b)

The first EES receives load information from each of the plurality of EAS's transmitted by the management plane function.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining, by the first EES based on the load information for each EAS of the plurality of EAS, the load condition for the EAS corresponding to the first application in the first EES comprises:

and under the condition that the load condition indicated by all or part of the load information of the plurality of EAS is a load alarm state, the first EES determines that the load condition of the EAS corresponding to the first application in the first EES is the load alarm state.

17. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the obtaining, by the first EES, a load condition of the first EES for an edge application instance EAS corresponding to the first application comprises:

The first EES receives the load information of the first EES aiming at the EAS of the first application, which is sent by a management plane function, wherein the load information is used for indicating the load condition of the first EES aiming at the EAS corresponding to the first application.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

the first EES receives a load request from the ECS, wherein the load request is used for requesting the load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application;

wherein the first EES sending load information to the ECS includes:

the first EES sends a response message of the load request to the ECS, the response message of the load request including the load information.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

the first EES receiving a load request from the ECS requesting a load status of EAS of all applications in the first EES, wherein the all applications include the first application;

wherein the first EES sending load information to the ECS includes:

the first EES sends a response message of the load request to the ECS, the response message of the load request includes load conditions of EAS corresponding to all applications in the first EES, and the response message of the load request includes the load information.

20. A method of selecting an edge enabled server EES, comprising:

determining a load condition of a first EAS by a first edge application instance EAS, the first EAS corresponding to a first application;

the first EAS transmits load information indicating a load condition of the first EAS, the load condition of the first EAS being used to determine a target EES.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

the first EAS receiving a load request from a first EES, the load request requesting a load condition of the first EAS;

wherein the first EAS transmit load information includes:

the first EAS transmits a response message for a load request to the first EES, the response message for the load request including the load information.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first EAS transmit load information comprises:

and under the condition that the first EAS meets the preset condition, the load information is sent.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the preset conditions include at least one of:

the first EAS is first registered with the EES,

the load of the first EAS is less than a second preset threshold.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

the first EAS receiving a load request from an ECS, the load request requesting a load condition of the first EAS;

wherein the first EAS transmit load information includes:

the first EAS sends a response message to the ECS for the load request, the response message for the load request including the load information.

25. The method of any one of claims 20 to 24, wherein the load condition of the first EES for the EAS corresponding to the first application is a load alarm state or a load normal state.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein the load information further comprises a load level or a load parameter.

27. A method of selecting an edge enabled server EES, comprising:

the management plane function determines load conditions of the first EES for a plurality of EAS corresponding to the first application;

the management plane function sends load information indicating load conditions of the plurality of EAS for determining a target EES.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the method further comprises:

the management plane function receives a load request from the first EES, the load request being for requesting the first EES to target load conditions of a plurality of EAS's corresponding to the first application;

wherein, the management plane function sending load information includes:

the management plane function sends a response message of the load request to the first EES, the response message of the load request including the load information.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the method further comprises:

the management plane function receives a load request from an ECS, wherein the load request is used for requesting the first EES to target the load conditions of a plurality of EAS corresponding to the first application;

wherein, the management plane function sending load information includes:

the management plane function sends a response message of a load request to the ECS, the response message of the load request including the load information.

30. The method of any one of claims 27 to 29, wherein the load condition of the first EES for each of the plurality of EAS's corresponding to the first application is a load alarm condition or a load normal condition.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the load information further comprises a load level or a load parameter.

32. An apparatus for selecting an edge enabled server EES comprising a processor and a memory, the processor for invoking a program stored in the memory to perform the method of any of claims 1-31.

33. An apparatus for selecting an edge enabled server EES, comprising: a processor and interface circuitry, the processor being for communicating with other devices through the interface circuitry and performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 31.

34. A computer storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 31.