CN114079613A

CN114079613A - Communication method and related equipment

Info

Publication number: CN114079613A
Application number: CN202010819834.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张东霞; 彭涛
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-08-14
Filing date: 2020-08-14
Publication date: 2022-02-22
Anticipated expiration: 2040-08-14
Also published as: WO2022033461A1; CN114079613B

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and related equipment, which are used for realizing the process that a first user sends a detection message to a control plane entity and receives a response message sent by the control plane entity, so as to realize the processing of the detection message. Compared with the processing process of sending the user table entry to the user plane entity by the control plane entity, when the data volume of the user table entry is too large, the transmission delay can be greatly reduced, the condition that the terminal user is disconnected is avoided, and the communication efficiency is improved. In the method, a control plane entity receives a detection message sent by a first user plane entity, wherein the detection message comprises an identifier of a terminal; and then, the control plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity according to the detection message.

Description

Communication method and related equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to a communication method and related device.

Background

In order to be compatible with a data center-based network architecture, conventional network element devices need to evolve from network function specialization to generalization. For this reason, communication operators have proposed a system for separating a control plane entity from a user plane entity, and generally, the user plane entity may also be referred to as a control plane entity for implementing a forwarding function; the control plane entity is used to implement control functions. In the system, the forwarding function and the control function are separated, and one control plane entity can be connected with a plurality of user plane entities so as to realize the centralization of the user management function.

At present, in a scenario where a control plane entity is separated from a user plane entity, since a large number of terminal users are centralized in the control plane entity for management, in order to reduce the performance consumption of the control plane entity and reduce the bandwidth occupation between the control plane entity and the user plane entity, the user plane entity generally performs the processing of a probe packet. In the process of processing the detection message, the control plane entity issues a user table entry to the user plane entity, the user plane entity determines the user information accessed to the user plane entity from the user table entry, and then the detection message of the terminal user corresponding to the user information is received and sent.

The user plane entity connected to the terminal user is not fixed, for example, when the user plane entity fails or the user plane entity is switched due to the migration scheduling initiated by the control plane entity, the terminal user disconnects the connection with the original user plane entity according to the indication of the control plane entity, and establishes the connection with the destination user plane entity.

However, when the data amount of the user table entry is too large, a large transmission delay exists in the process of issuing the user table entry to the user plane entity by the control plane entity, so that the target user plane entity fails to obtain the user table entry in time, and processing of a detection message fails, which easily causes a situation of a dropped terminal user, and affects communication efficiency.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and related equipment, which are used for realizing the process of sending a detection message to a control plane entity by a first user and receiving a response message sent by the control plane entity, so as to realize the processing of the detection message.

In a first aspect of the embodiments of the present application, a communication method is provided, where a control plane entity is included in a broadband access gateway, and the broadband access gateway further includes a first user plane entity, where the control plane entity receives a probe packet sent by the first user plane entity, where the probe packet includes an identifier of a terminal; and then, the control plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity according to the detection message.

In this embodiment, the control plane entity receives a probe packet carrying an identifier of a terminal from the first user plane entity, and sends a response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity according to the probe packet, and the subsequent first user plane entity may forward the response packet to the terminal device. And the first user sends a detection message to the control plane entity and receives a response message sent by the control plane entity, so that the detection message is processed. Compared with the process that the control plane entity sends the user table entry to the user plane entity, when the data volume of the user table entry is too large, the transmission delay can be greatly reduced, the condition that the terminal user is disconnected is avoided, and the communication efficiency is improved.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present application, before the control plane entity receives the probe packet sent by the first user plane entity, the method further includes: the control plane entity sends a first user table entry to the first user plane entity, where the first user table entry is used to update a local user table entry of the first user plane entity, and the first user table entry includes an entry of the terminal.

In this embodiment, after the control plane entity sends the first user entry associated with the first user plane entity to the first user plane entity, the control plane entity receives the probe packet sent by the first user plane entity. Wherein, the first user table entry is used for updating a local user table entry of a first user plane entity, and the first user table entry includes an entry of the terminal. That is, in the process of sending the first user table entry to the user plane entity by the control plane entity, the control plane entity realizes the processing of the detection message, and can avoid the condition of user disconnection in the transmission process of the user table entry.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the broadband access gateway further includes a second user plane entity, and the sending, by the control plane entity, the first user table entry to the first user plane entity includes: when the control plane entity determines that the entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing, the control plane entity sends the first user entry to the first user plane entity.

In this embodiment, the terminal and the second user plane entity have an initial connection, and the entry of the terminal is initially processed by the second user plane entity. When the control plane entity determines that the entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the processing of the second user plane entity to the processing of the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the first user entry to the first user plane entity. That is, when the control plane entity determines that the entry of the terminal is processed by the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the first user entry to the first user plane entity, so that the situation that the first user plane entity fails to process the detection packet of the terminal can be avoided.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present application, when at least one of the following is satisfied, the determining, by the control plane entity, that an entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing includes:

the control plane entity detects that the second user plane entity has a fault; or the like, or, alternatively,

the control plane entity receives indication information sent by the second user plane entity, wherein the indication information is used for indicating that the second user plane entity has a fault; or the like, or, alternatively,

the control plane entity determines the user information of the terminal, and then the control plane entity determines that the table entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing according to the user information.

In this embodiment, when the second user plane entity has a fault, or when the control plane entity determines that the entry of the terminal is processed by the first user plane entity according to the user information of the terminal, the control plane entity determines that it is necessary to switch the processing of the entry of the terminal from the second user plane entity to the processing of the first user plane entity. Therefore, the control plane entity determines and migrates various implementation modes of the terminal, and the scheme can be adapted to various different application scenarios while the scheme realizability is improved.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present application, before the control plane entity receives the probe packet from the first user plane entity, the method further includes: the control plane entity sends a first notification to the first user plane entity, wherein the first notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to send a detection message to the control plane entity.

In this embodiment, the first notification sent by the control plane entity to the first user plane entity is used to instruct the first user plane entity to send the probe packet to the control plane entity, so that the first user plane entity may determine that the first user table entry from the control plane entity is to be received, and send the received probe packet to the control plane entity for processing. The first user plane entity can be ensured to forward the detection packet to the control plane entity for processing, and compared with the process of processing the detection packet through the user plane entity, the operation load of the user plane entity can be reduced, and meanwhile, the user plane entity can also use more computing capacity for processing other services of the terminal.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present application, after the control plane entity receives the probe packet from the first user plane entity, the method further includes: the control plane entity sends a second notification to the first user plane entity, wherein the second notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to stop sending the detection message to the control plane entity.

In this embodiment, after the control plane entity determines that the probe packet from the first user plane entity is received, the control plane entity sends, to the first user plane entity, a second notification for instructing the first user plane entity to stop sending the probe packet to the control plane entity. Thereafter, the first user plane entity processes the probe packet locally. Optionally, after the sending of the first user entry is completed, the control plane entity sends a second notification to the first user plane entity. That is, when the first user plane entity has the capability of processing the probe packet, at this time, the first user plane entity stops sending the probe packet to the control plane entity, and the control plane entity may not process the probe packet temporarily, so that the signaling consumption of the control plane entity may be reduced.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the sending, by the control plane entity, the second notification to the first user plane entity includes: and when the control plane entity determines that the table entry of the terminal is switched to be processed by the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the second notification to the first user plane entity.

In this embodiment, because there is a certain time delay in the switching process of switching the entry of the terminal from the second user plane entity to the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the second notification to the first user plane entity only when determining to switch the entry of the terminal to the first user plane entity, which can avoid the influence of the time delay in the migration process.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present application, sending, by the control plane entity, the response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity according to the probe packet includes: the control plane entity judges whether the local user list item of the control plane entity comprises the identifier of the terminal; if yes, the control plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity.

In this embodiment, in the process that the control plane entity sends the response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity according to the probe packet, the control plane entity may determine whether the identifier of the terminal is included in the local user table entry, and when the identifier is determined to be included, that is, when it is determined that the probe packet passes the validity detection, the control plane entity sends the response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity. Therefore, the specific processing process of the control plane entity for processing the detection message is provided, and the realizability of the scheme is improved.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the dialing manner of the terminal includes an ethernet-based internet protocol version four IPoEv4, an ethernet-based internet protocol version six IPoEv6, an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version four PPPoEv4, or an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version six PPPoEv 6.

In this embodiment, the dialing mode of the terminal may specifically be IPoEv4, IPoEv6, PPPoEv4, PPPoEv6, or another type of dialing mode. The scheme can be applied to the processing process of terminal users with different types of dialing modes, the realizability of the scheme is improved, and the scheme can be suitable for different application scenes.

A second aspect of the present embodiment provides a communication method, which is applied to a first user plane entity, where the first user plane entity is included in a broadband access gateway, and the broadband access gateway further includes a control plane entity, where the first user plane entity may be the first user plane entity in the first aspect and any implementation manner, and in the method, the first user plane entity receives a probe packet from a terminal, where the probe packet includes an identifier of the terminal; then, the first user plane entity sends the detection message to the control plane entity; and then, the first user plane entity receives the response message of the detection message from the control plane entity and sends the response message of the detection message to the terminal.

In this embodiment, the first user plane entity forwards the probe packet carrying the identifier of the terminal to the control plane entity, and receives a response packet of the probe packet sent by the control plane entity, and the subsequent first user plane entity may forward the response packet to the terminal device. And the user plane sends a detection message to the control plane entity and receives a response message sent by the control plane entity, so that the detection message is processed. Compared with the process that the control plane entity sends the user table entry to the first user plane entity, when the data volume of the user table entry is too large, the transmission delay can be greatly reduced, the condition that the terminal user is disconnected is avoided, and the communication efficiency is improved.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect of the embodiment of the present application, before the first user plane entity sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, the method further includes: the first user plane entity receives a first user table entry from the control plane entity, where the first user table entry is used to update a local user table entry of the first user plane entity, and the first user table entry includes an entry of the terminal.

In this embodiment, after the first user plane entity receives the first user entry associated with the first user plane entity and sent by the control plane entity, the first user plane entity determines that the control plane entity implements processing of the probe packet in a process of sending the user entry to the first user plane entity by the control plane entity. The first user table entry is used to update a local user table entry of a first user plane entity, where the first user table entry includes a table entry of the terminal, and thereafter, the first user plane entity may update the local user table entry according to the first user table entry. Namely, the detection message is sent to the control plane entity, so that the condition of user disconnection in the transmission process of the user table entry can be avoided.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect of the embodiment of the present application, before the first user plane entity sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, the method further includes: the first user plane entity receives a first notification from the control plane entity, wherein the first notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to send a detection message to the control plane entity.

In this embodiment, the first user plane entity receives the first notification sent by the control plane entity to instruct the first user plane entity to send the probe message to the control plane entity, so that the first user plane entity may determine to receive the first user table entry from the control plane entity, and send the received probe message to the control plane entity for processing. The method and the device can ensure that the first user plane entity forwards the detection packet to the control plane entity for processing in the transmission process of the first user table entry.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect of the embodiment of the present application, after the first user plane entity sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, the method further includes: the first user plane entity receives a second notification from the control plane entity, wherein the second notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to stop sending the detection message to the control plane entity.

In this embodiment, the first user plane entity receives a second notification, which is sent by the control plane entity and used to instruct the first user plane entity to stop sending the probe packet to the control plane entity, that is, the control plane entity determines that the sending of the first user entry is completed. After that, the first user plane entity has the capability of processing the detection message according to the first forwarding table entry, that is, the first user plane entity stops sending the detection message to the control plane entity, and the control plane entity may not process the detection message temporarily, so that the signaling consumption of the control plane entity can be reduced.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the sending, by the first user plane entity, the probe packet to the control plane entity includes: the first user plane entity judges whether the local user list item comprises the identifier of the terminal; if not, the first user plane entity sends the detection message to the control plane entity.

In this embodiment, in the process of processing the probe packet, the first user plane entity may determine whether the identifier of the terminal is included in the local user table entry, and send the probe packet to the control plane entity only when it is determined that the identifier of the terminal is not included. That is, when the first user plane entity determines that the detection packet cannot be processed, the detection packet is sent to the control plane entity and processed by the control plane entity, and the user table entry is managed and maintained on the control plane entity, so that the condition that the terminal user is disconnected can be avoided to a certain extent.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the dialing manner of the terminal includes an ethernet-based internet protocol version four IPoEv4, an ethernet-based internet protocol version six IPoEv6, an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version four PPPoEv4, or an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version six PPPoEv 6.

In this embodiment, the dialing mode of the terminal may specifically be IPoEv4, IPoEv6, PPPoEv4, PPPoEv6, or another type of dialing mode. The scheme can be applied to the processing process of the terminal user corresponding to the dialing modes of various different types, and the scheme can be suitable for various different application scenes while the scheme realizability is improved.

A third aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a control plane entity, where the control plane entity is included in a broadband access gateway, and the broadband access gateway further includes a first user plane entity, where the control plane entity includes:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a detection packet sent by a first user plane entity, where the detection packet includes an identifier of a terminal;

and the sending unit is used for sending a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity according to the detection message.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the sending unit is further configured to:

and sending a first user table entry to the first user plane entity, wherein the first user table entry is used for updating a local user table entry of the first user plane entity, and the first user table entry comprises the table entry of the terminal.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the broadband access gateway further includes a second user plane entity, and the sending unit is specifically configured to:

and when determining that the table entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing, sending the first user table entry to the first user plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the controlling plane entity further includes a processing unit, and the determining, by the processing unit, that the entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing when at least one of the following is satisfied includes:

the processing unit detects that the second user plane entity has a fault;

the receiving unit receives indication information sent by the second user plane entity, wherein the indication information is used for indicating that the second user plane entity has a fault; or the like, or, alternatively,

the receiving unit determines user information of the terminal;

the processing unit determines that the item of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing according to the user information.

and sending a first notification to the first user plane entity, wherein the first notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to send the detection message to the control plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present application, after determining that the sending of the first user entry is completed, the sending unit is further configured to:

and sending a second notification to the first user plane entity, wherein the second notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to stop sending the detection message to the control plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the sending unit is specifically configured to:

when determining that the entry of the terminal has been switched to the first user plane entity for processing, the sending unit sends the second notification to the first user plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the control plane entity further includes a processing unit;

the processing unit judges whether the local user list item comprises the identifier of the terminal;

if the processing unit determines that the local user table entry of the control plane entity includes the identifier of the terminal, the sending unit sends a response message of the probe message to the first user plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the dialing manner of the terminal includes an ethernet-based internet protocol version four IPoEv4, an ethernet-based internet protocol version six IPoEv6, an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version four PPPoEv4, or an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version six PPPoEv 6.

In the third aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the modules forming the control plane entity may also be configured to execute steps executed in each possible implementation manner of the first aspect, which may specifically refer to the first aspect, and are not described herein again.

A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a first user plane entity, where the first user plane entity is included in a broadband access gateway, the broadband access gateway further includes a control plane entity, and the first user plane entity includes:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a detection packet from a terminal, where the detection packet includes an identifier of the terminal;

a sending unit, configured to send the probe packet to the control plane entity;

the receiving unit is further configured to receive a response packet of the probe packet from the control plane entity;

the sending unit is further configured to send a response message of the probe message to the terminal.

In a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the receiving unit is further configured to:

and receiving a first user table entry from the control plane entity, wherein the first user table entry is used for updating a local user table entry of the first user plane entity, and the first user table entry comprises an entry of the terminal.

In a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect of the embodiment of the present application, before the receiving unit receives the first user entry from the control plane entity, the receiving unit is further configured to:

receiving a first notification from the control plane entity, wherein the first notification is used for instructing the first user plane entity to send a probe message to the control plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect of the embodiment of the present application, after the sending unit sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, the receiving unit is further configured to:

and receiving a second notification from the control plane entity, wherein the second notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to stop sending the detection message to the control plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the first user plane entity further includes a processing unit;

the processing unit judges whether the local user table entry of the first user plane entity comprises the identifier of the terminal;

if the processing unit determines that the local user table entry of the first user plane entity does not include the identifier of the terminal, the sending unit sends the probe packet to the control plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the dialing manner of the terminal includes an ethernet-based internet protocol version four IPoEv4, an ethernet-based internet protocol version six IPoEv6, an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version four PPPoEv4, or an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version six PPPoEv 6.

In the fourth aspect of the embodiment of the present application, the component module of the first user plane entity may also be configured to execute steps executed in each possible implementation manner of the second aspect, which may specifically refer to the second aspect, and is not described herein again.

A fifth aspect of embodiments of the present application provides a control plane entity, where the control plane entity includes at least one processor, a memory, and computer executable instructions stored in the memory and executable on the processor, and when the computer executable instructions are executed by the processor, the processor performs the method according to any one of the specific implementation manners of the first aspect or the first aspect.

A sixth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a first user plane entity, which includes at least one processor, a memory, and computer-executable instructions stored in the memory and executable on the processor, where the computer-executable instructions are executed by the processor, and the processor executes the method according to any one of the specific implementation manners of the second aspect or the second aspect.

A seventh aspect of the present embodiment provides a broadband access gateway, where the broadband access gateway includes the control plane entity in the third aspect and the first user plane entity in the fourth aspect, or the broadband access gateway includes the control plane entity in the fifth aspect and the first user plane entity in the sixth aspect.

An eighth aspect of embodiments of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a processor, perform the method according to the first aspect to the second aspect or any one of the specific implementations.

A ninth aspect of embodiments of the present application provides a computer program product storing one or more computer executable instructions, where the computer executable instructions are executed by a processor, and the processor executes the method according to any one of the first aspect to the second aspect or any one of the specific implementation manners.

A tenth aspect of the present embodiment provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor, where the processor may include a Baseband Processor (BP) and, for example, an Application Processor (AP), and is configured to support a communication apparatus to implement the method according to any one of the first aspect to the second aspect or any one of the specific implementation manners. In one particular design, the system-on-chip may also include a memory for storing the necessary program instructions and data. The chip system may be constituted by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

For technical effects brought by any one of the third, fifth, seventh, ninth and tenth aspects or any one of specific implementation manners of the third aspect or the first aspect, reference may be made to the technical effects brought by different specific implementation manners of the first aspect or the first aspect, and details are not described here.

For technical effects brought by the fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth aspects or any specific implementation manner of the fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth aspects, reference may be made to the technical effects brought by the second aspect or different specific implementation manners of the second aspect, and details are not described here.

It can be seen from the above technical solutions that, in some embodiments proposed in the present application, the following advantages are provided: the control plane entity receives a detection message carrying the identifier of the terminal from the first user plane entity, and sends a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity according to the detection message, and the subsequent first user plane entity can forward the response message to the terminal device. Compared with the process that the control plane entity sends the user table entry to the user plane entity, when the data volume of the user table entry is overlarge, the transmission delay can be greatly reduced, the condition that a terminal user is disconnected is avoided, and the communication efficiency is improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of network communication in a CU separation scenario in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is another schematic diagram of network communication in the CU separation scenario of the present application;

FIG. 3 is another diagram illustrating network communication in a CU separation scenario in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is another schematic diagram of network communication in the CU separation scenario of the present application;

FIG. 5 is another schematic diagram of network communication in the CU separation scenario of the present application;

FIG. 6 is another schematic diagram of network communication in the CU separation scenario of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a communication method according to the present application;

fig. 8 is another schematic diagram of an embodiment of a communication method according to the present application;

fig. 9 is another schematic diagram of an embodiment of a communication method according to the present application;

fig. 10 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a control plane entity according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a user plane entity according to the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

First, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained so as to be easily understood by those skilled in the art.

1. The terminal equipment comprises equipment for providing voice for users, equipment for providing data connectivity for users and equipment for providing voice and data connectivity for users. For example, may include a handheld device having wireless connection capability, or a processing device connected to a wireless modem. Or simply referred to as a terminal, or referred to as an end user, a user terminal, user equipment, etc. The terminal may communicate with a core network via a Radio Access Network (RAN), exchange voice or data with the RAN, or interact with the RAN. The terminal may include a User Equipment (UE), a wireless terminal, a mobile terminal, a device-to-device communication (D2D) terminal, a vehicle-to-all (V2X) terminal, a Road Side Unit (RSU), a machine-to-machine/machine-type communication (M2M/MTC) terminal, an internet of things (IoT) terminal, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber station), a mobile station (mobile station), a remote station (remote station), an access point (access point, AP), a remote terminal (remote), an access terminal (access terminal), a user terminal (user), a user agent (user), or user equipment. May include mobile telephones (or so-called "cellular" telephones), computers with mobile terminals, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included mobile devices, and the like. May include Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and the like. But also limited devices, devices with lower power consumption, or devices with limited storage capacity, or devices with limited computing capacity, etc. Information sensing devices may include bar codes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), sensors, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), laser scanners, and the like.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable equipment can also be called wearable smart device or intelligent wearable equipment etc. is the general term of using wearable technique to carry out intelligent design, develop the equipment that can dress to daily wearing, like glasses, gloves, wrist-watch, dress and shoes etc.. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device includes full functionality, large size, and can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smart phone, such as: smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to be used in cooperation with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart bracelets, smart helmets, smart jewelry and the like for monitoring physical signs.

While the various terminals described above, if located on a vehicle, e.g. placed in or mounted in a vehicle, may be considered as vehicle mounted terminals, e.g. also referred to as on-board units (OBUs).

In the embodiment of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the terminal may be the terminal, or may be a circuit capable of supporting the terminal to implement the function, for example, a circuit that can be applied to a system-on-chip, and the system-on-chip may be installed in the terminal. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, a device for implementing a function of a terminal is taken as an example, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

2. The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a alone, A and B together, and B alone, wherein A and B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, "at least one of A, B, and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC. And, unless specifically stated otherwise, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal numbers "first", "second", etc., for distinguishing between a plurality of objects, and do not limit the order, sequence, priority, or importance of the plurality of objects.

With the development of Software Defined Network (SDN) controller technology and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology, a metropolitan area network (metropolitan area network) evolves toward a traditional network-centric architecture to a data center-centric network architecture. Traditional network element equipment has also evolved from specialization towards generalization. The traditional network element equipment mainly solves two decoupling from specialization to generalization evolution: decoupling control and forwarding, and decoupling software and hardware.

For this reason, communication operators have proposed a system for separating a control plane entity (CP) from a user plane entity (UP), where generally, the user plane entity may also be referred to as a control plane entity for implementing a forwarding function; the control plane entity is used to implement control functions. In the system, the forwarding function and the control function are separated (i.e. CU is separated from UP, CU is separated for short), and one control plane entity can connect multiple user plane entities to realize centralization of user management functions.

Among them, Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) is very important as a traditional broadband access gateway device in user broadband access service and scenario. The main requirements for BNG devices on user access are user authentication, access control, traffic scheduling, etc. With the endless layer of various internet services, the requirements for the number of sessions of users supported by BNG devices and the access bandwidth of users are increasing, and especially the requirements for the external service provision, open and programmable capabilities of BNG devices are increasing. Based on these factors, BNG devices implement the aforementioned two decouples based on the architecture of SDN/NFV.

As a specific application of the BNG network, in a forwarding control separated Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) system (abbreviated as CU separated vbars), the CU separated vbars sufficiently uses the concept of centralized management and control of SDN technology and device clouding of NFV, and maintains high forwarding performance of BRAS devices, and at the same time, centralizes and centralizes the compute-intensive BRAS user management function NFV, so that not only can the requirements of current network functions, performance and maintainability be met, but also the evolution requirement of the network to the SDN/NFV network architecture can be supported.

The BRAS system is constructed by superposing a user management function on a router system, and functionally divides a virtual broadband remote access server (vbars) into a virtual broadband remote access server control plane (vbars-CP) and a virtual broadband remote access server forwarding plane (vbars-UP). Generally, one vbars-CP can connect multiple vbars-UPs to achieve centralization of subscriber management functions. The basic idea of forwarding control separation vBRAS is to extract and centralize user management functions on a plurality of BRAS devices to form a control plane (namely vBRAS-CP); the BRAS equipment retains the control plane of the router as well as the user plane of the BRAS (i.e., vbars-UP), which may also be referred to as the forwarding plane.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of network communication in a CU separation scenario according to an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 1, the forwarding CU split vbars system consists of two parts, vbars-UP and vbars-CP. The user management function is realized through vBRAS-CP, the routing control function and the forwarding function are realized through vBRAS-UP, and the vBRAS-CP can be connected with a plurality of vBRAS-UP and is controlled through the CU to manage the plurality of vBRAS-UP.

Illustratively, based on what is shown in fig. 1, the system model for CU separation vbars may include:

first, online/forward model.

(1) And the vBRAS-UP sends the dial message to the vBRAS-CP, and the vBRAS-CP processes the user on-line and then issues a user table entry to the vBRAS-UP.

The user table entry refers to a mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal and the online parameter of the terminal and/or the user information using the online of the terminal. For example, the parameters of the terminal online may include an interface of a user online, a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), a remote access-in-user service (RADIUS or RADIUS Server) (e.g., authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) Server) specially issued option (option), and the like; the user information on the terminal may include quality of service (QoS) bandwidth requirements, Service Level Agreement (SLA), service priority information, device priority information, VIP level identifier, and the like of the terminal. Generally, one terminal corresponds to one user entry.

(2) A vBRAS-UP independently runs a routing protocol to generate a network forwarding table entry;

the network forwarding table entry refers to a routing table entry generated by a basic routing protocol, an Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), an intermediate-system-to-intermediate-system (ISIS), a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and the like, and is stored in the network forwarding table entry.

And secondly, configuring/managing the model.

(1) The BRAS service is uniformly configured in the vBRAS-CP;

(2) a BRAS service resource management system such as a Radius Server/Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server (Server) and the like only sees one BRAS service node, namely a vbars-CP node, and the vbars-CP node can be connected with and manage a plurality of vbars-UPs;

(3) the router service is independently configured in vBRAS-UP;

and thirdly, maintaining/operating the model.

(1) The maintenance and alarm of BRAS service is in vBRAS-CP;

(2) maintenance and alerting of router traffic is at vbars-UP.

Based on the system model, the architecture of the CU separation vbars system has the following characteristics:

(1) the forwarding plane and the control plane are separated, so that the tight coupling of the forwarding plane and the control plane is broken, the flexible capacity expansion is facilitated, and the forwarding plane and the control plane are not constrained;

(2) the control surface is centralized/clouded, so that centralized control and management are easier, and clouding is beneficial to elastic expansion and contraction capacity and operation and maintenance are simplified;

(3) the control surface is realized by software, is calculation-intensive and is suitable for software realization;

(4) the forwarding plane can be realized by adopting special hardware, on one hand, the forwarding plane belongs to flow intensive type and is suitable for realizing high-performance special hardware, and on the other hand, the forwarding plane is also beneficial to the old utilization of the existing network equipment; and a standard interface is adopted between the control plane and the forwarding plane, so that the standardization and the generalization of the high-performance forwarding plane are promoted.

The framework has the advantages of obvious advantages, complete separation of forwarding control, complete decoupling and high flexibility. Wherein, x86 (control plane) is focused on the calculation intensive table item management, and the forwarding plane adopting special hardware is focused on the large flow forwarding, so that the best use of the object and the high efficiency of the focus can be realized, and various challenges of the traditional BRAS can be thoroughly solved.

In the CU separation vbrs, a user keep-alive mechanism is introduced to ensure that a user does not frequently drop a line, so as to improve user experience, and the following respectively introduces an implementation process of the user keep-alive mechanism of the CU separation vbrs in different application scenarios through fig. 2 to fig. 6.

Please refer to fig. 2, which is a schematic diagram of network communication in a CU separation scenario according to an embodiment of the present application, where devices involved in the communication process include a ue, a vbrs-UP, a vbrs-CP, and an AAA/Radius.

Step 1, establishing a configuration channel between a vBRAS-CP and a vBRAS-UP;

step 2a, the user terminal sends a dynamic host configuration protocol Discovery (DHCP IPv4 Discovery) message based on an internet protocol fourth edition to the vBRAS-UP;

step 2b, the vBRAS-UP sends DHCP IPv 4Discovery to the vBRAS-CP;

step 2c, the vBRAS-CP sends a remote authentication dial-in user server Request (Radius Request) message to AAA/Radius;

step 3a, AAA/Radius sends an Access-accept message to vBRAS-CP;

step 3b, the vBRAS-CP sends a dynamic host configuration protocol version 4offer (DHCP IPv4 offer) message based on the Internet protocol fourth edition to the vBRAS-UP;

step 3c, the vBRAS-UP sends DHCP IPv 4offer to the user terminal;

step 4a, the user terminal sends a dynamic host configuration protocol version 4Request (DHCP IPv4 Request) message based on an internet protocol fourth edition to the vBRAS-UP;

step 4b, the vBRAS-UP sends DHCP IPv 4Request to the vBRAS-CP;

step 5a, the vBRAS-CP sends an address resolution protocol (dynamic host configuration protocol version 4address resolution protocol, DHCP IPv4 ACK) message based on an Internet protocol fourth edition dynamic host configuration protocol to the vBRAS-UP;

step 5b, the vBRAS-UP sends DHCP IPv4 ACK to the user terminal;

step 6, vBRAS-UP sends a detection message to the user terminal;

step 7, the user terminal sends a detection response (message) to vBRAS-UP;

step 8, vBRAS-UP sends a detection message to the user terminal;

step 9, vBRAS-UP sends a detection message to the user terminal;

step 10, vBRAS-UP sends a detection message to a user terminal;

step 11, when the detection response is not obtained in the steps 8 to 10, reporting user detection overtime to the vBRAS-CP by the vBRAS-UP;

and step 12, user offline flow.

In fig. 2, the method can be applied to a scenario of ethernet-based Internet Protocol Over Ethernet (IPOE) communication. An IPOE user of a conventional BRAS periodically sends a free Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) to an IPOE terminal by a BRAS device to detect whether the user is online. Under a CU separation scene, as a large number of terminal users concentrate on vBRAS-CP management, in order to reduce the CPU occupancy rate of the vBRAS-CP and the occupation of bandwidth between the vBRAS-CP and the vBRAS-UP, the vBRAS-UP generally sends and receives detection messages; configuring detection times and detection periods on the vBRAS-CP, configuring and issuing the detection times and the detection periods to the vBRAS-UP, and periodically sending a detection message by the vBRAS-UP. As indicated by the dashed box content in fig. 2.

Please refer to fig. 3, which is another schematic diagram of network communication in the CU separation scenario in the embodiment of the present application, in which the devices involved in the communication process include a ue, vbrs-UP, vbrs-CP, and AAA/Radius.

Step 1, establishing a configuration channel between a vBRAS-CP and a vBRAS-UP;

step 2a, the user terminal sends a PPPoE activation discovery request Packet (PADI) message based on a point-to-point protocol over Ethernet (PPPOE) to the vBRAS-UP;

step 2b, the vBRAS-UP sends PPPoE PADI to the vBRAS-CP;

step 3a, the vBRAS-CP sends PPPoE activated discovery phase service (PADO) message of PPPoE to the vBRAS-UP;

step 3b, vBRAS-UP sends PPPoE PADO to the user terminal;

step 4a, the user terminal sends a PPPoE active discovery phase request (PADR) message of PPPoE to vBRAS-UP;

step 4b, the vBRAS-UP sends PPPoE PADR to the vBRAS-CP;

step 5a, the vBRAS-CP sends PPPoE activated discovery session-confirmation (PADS) message of PPPoE to the vBRAS-UP;

step 5b, vBRAS-UP sends PPPoE PADS to the user terminal;

step 6, a point-to-point protocol link control protocol (PPP LCP) message is interacted between the user terminal and the vBRAS-CP;

step 7, the vBRAS-CP sends an Access-Request (Access-Request) to AAA/Radius;

step 8, AAA/Radius sends Access-accept to vBRAS-CP;

step 9a, executing address allocation request and response between AAA/Radius and vBRAS-CP;

step 9b, executing address allocation request and response between vBRAS-CP and vBRAS-UP;

step 9c, executing address allocation request and response between vBRAS-UP and user terminal;

step 10, executing point-to-point protocol (PPP) detection/response between vBRAS-UP and user terminal;

step 11, PPP detection/response is executed between vBRAS-UP and the user terminal;

step 12, PPP detection/response is executed between vBRAS-UP and the user terminal;

step 13, actively taking off the line when the user detects no response (the user middle end feeds back to vBRAS-CP)/UP detects that the user has no response and passively takes off the line (vBRAS-UP feeds back to vBRAS-CP);

and step 14, user offline flow.

In fig. 3, the method can be applied to a point-to-point protocol over ethernet (PPPOE) communication scenario. In the CU separation scenario, both the PPPoE user terminal and the BRAS device may initiate probe packets. If the terminal detection equipment side does not respond, the terminal is actively off-line; if the terminal is abnormally off-line, the equipment side initiates the detection message terminal to have no response in the set period, the equipment side deletes the user table entry, and the terminal is passively off-line. As indicated by the dashed box content in fig. 3.

In the CU separation scenario, users of internet protocol version four (IPOE version 4, IPoEv4) based on ethernet, users of internet protocol version six (IPOE version 6, IPoEv6) based on ethernet, users of point-to-point protocol version four (PPPOE version 4, PPPOEv4) based on ethernet, or users of point-to-point protocol version six (PPPOE version 6, PPPOEv6) based on ethernet, and the like, the user keep-alive mechanism is similar to the implementation process of fig. 2 and fig. 3, and is processed on UP.

Please refer to fig. 4, which is another schematic diagram of network communication in the CU separation scenario according to the embodiment of the present application.

In fig. 4, the method can be applied to an N:1 warm-up model in a CU separation vbars scenario. Among them, BRAS, as a service access gateway, often has a high reliability requirement. The CU separates the vBRAS to support the N:1 warm standby model, namely 1 vBRAS-UP can be used for backing UP a plurality of vBRAS-UP, so that the user can be switched to the standby UP under the condition that the user does not drop the line when the main UP fails, the access reliability can be improved, and the resources can be saved.

The process of implementing the user keep-alive mechanism in the system shown in fig. 4 includes the following steps:

(1) a user side interface (Master) on UP1, a user side interface (Master) on UP2 and a user side interface (Slave) on UP3 are designated on CP as a Master-Slave relationship, and then linkage of network side interfaces is configured, and the like, so that a complex Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) is not needed any more;

(2) when the terminal dialing message broadcast reaches all UP, CP sends response message at the main interface with high priority based on the number of single-board users, and other main interfaces delay the response message. The user is on line at the main interface to achieve load balance based on the user number;

(3) the user is on-line, and the CP does not issue the user table entry to the standby equipment;

(4) if any main interface fails, UP reports CP;

(5) the CP sets the interface on UP3 as the main interface, and the user list item on the fault interface is sent to the standby device;

(6) CP informs backup interface of UP3 to send free ARP message, user flow goes UP 3;

(7) meanwhile, the CP controls the UP3 to refresh the route or establishes a tunnel between the UP1 and the UP3 to forward the network side traffic;

(8) the new user dials UP, load sharing the UP on UP2 and UP 3.

Please refer to fig. 5, which is another schematic diagram of network communication in the CU separation scenario according to the embodiment of the present application.

In fig. 5, the method can be applied to the process of user live migration in the CU separation scenario. vBNG-UP includes a plurality of physical UP (pUP) and virtual UP (vUP). In fig. 5, the vBNG-UPs including the UPs 1(203), the UPs 2(204), and vUP3(205) are illustrated as examples, and the UPs 1(203), the UPs 2(204), and the vUP3(205) or other UPs may be distributed at the edge of the network, or may be distributed at a higher position in the network. The vBNG-CP needs to cooperate with a software defined network controller (SDN controller) to implement dynamic migration of users. The following describes the network element to which fig. 2 relates:

and (3) the CP 208: the vBNG service control plane is used for implementing user dialing protocol processing, and performs user Authentication, Authorization, and Authorization in interaction with an Authentication, Authorization, Accounting, AAA server. According to a Service Level Agreement (SLA) signed by a user, a UP migration function (USF) 207 is notified that the user is online and waits for the USF to guide the user to migrate through access line information carried in a user dialing agreement, and the user is mapped to a port corresponding to the UP access. Meanwhile, the CP208 issues the user table information to the corresponding UP, generates a forwarding table of the user corresponding to the UP, and issues a route to the outside.

USF 207: the policy control component of UP migration generates migration policy according to the conditions of SLA and load of the user, and notifies CP208 and SF202 to migrate the user, so as to achieve load equalization of the network and SLA requirements.

vBNG-UP includes pUP1(203), pUP2(204), vUP3 (205): vBNG traffic forwarding plane. After CP finishes processing user on-line, it sends down user list item, UP receives user list item sent down by CP208, generates user forwarding list item locally, carries out relevant service strategy execution and flow forwarding, and issues route outwards.

Migration function entity (SF) 202: the SF202 is used as a user access gateway, when a user is online, the SF202 can send a dialing protocol message of the user to the CP through a service channel for processing, and simultaneously perform convergence of a home terminal, converge the user to UP, perform forwarding of a two-layer message, and perform isolation of a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN)/a double-layer VLAN (802.1Q in 802.1Q, QinQ) for the user, where each user shares one VLAN/QinQ. In the network architecture, one or more SFs 202 may be present to support scenarios with different numbers of AN201 accesses.

AN Access Node (AN) 201, a home terminal (RGW or RG), may access the BNG device through AN, where the RGW may be a Personal Computer (PC), a mobile phone, a tablet computer, or another terminal, and the AN generally performs Network Address Translation (NAT) processing on the RGW, allocates AN Internet Protocol (IP) address to the RGW, performs PPPoE and IPoE dialing, acquires AN IP from the BNG, and performs network access.

The SDN controller 206: the access line information of the corresponding user sent by the CP208 is received through the USF207, which includes an Identification (ID) of an accessed switch (switch, SW)/Optical Line Terminal (OLT), accessed port information, VLAN information, and the like, and issues a migration policy to the corresponding SW/OLT, and maps the port + VLAN/QINQ of the user to a two-layer tunnel connected to the corresponding UP, such as a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN), a Virtual Leased Link (VLL), or an Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN).

In the network architecture shown in fig. 5, AN SF202 device is added behind AN access terminal (AN) 201 access network, and a two-layer tunnel is established between the SF202 device and vBNG-UP; the physical interfaces accessed by the SF202 and the AN201 are divided into different sub-interfaces, different Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs)/double-layer VLANs (QinQ, 802.1Q in 802.1Q) ranges are matched in the different sub-interfaces, and the different sub-interfaces correspond to different two-layer tunnels. Specifically, the on-line of the AN201 may default to be on-line from the pUP1(203), the control message is sent to the CP208, the CP208 interacts the migration policy of the user to the USF207, and the USF207 judges that the user should be accessed from the pUP2(204) according to a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of the AN201, and notifies the CP208 to send the user table entry to the pUP2 (204); meanwhile, the USF207 notifies the SDN controller 206, configures the SF202, binds the VLAN/QinQ corresponding to the user to AN interface corresponding to the pUP2(204), and directly forwards a subsequent forwarding packet of the AN201 to the pUP2 (204).

Referring to fig. 6, based on the network architecture shown in fig. 5, USF207 is a policy point for live migration, and in step 5, CP208 queries USF207 whether to migrate. In step 6, the USF207 notifies the CP208 and the SDN controller 206 to perform migration, and the policy point may be built in the CP208, may be built in the SDN controller 206, or may be a separate network element.

The devices involved in the communication process shown in fig. 6 include RG, AN, SDN Controller, USF, SF, UP1, UP2, CP.

Step 1, initial (initial) authentication between RG, AN, SDN Controller, USF, SF, UP1, UP2 and CP;

step 2, the RG performs a sending step, i.e. the Subscriber sends PPPoE/DHCP dial to SF (Subscriber send PPPoE/DHCP to dial);

step 3, the SF executes the sending step, i.e. the SF sends PPPoE/DHCP message (SF send PPPoE/DHCP to UP1) to UP 1;

step 4, UP1 executes the sending step, that is, UP1 sends PPPoE/DHCP redirect message (UP1 redirect PPPoE/DHCP to CP) to CP;

step 5, the CP executes the sending step, namely the CP sends a request to the USF to determine the purpose UP (CP request the target UP for the subscriber accessing to SLA) according to the SLA; alternatively, the CP may determine the SLA through a message sent by the RADIUS Server;

step 6, the USF executes a sending step, namely the USF replies a determined purpose UP to the CP as UP2(USF reply the target UP is UP 2);

step 7, the CP performs a sending step, i.e. the CP allocates an IP address from the IP Pool in UP2 to the subscriber (CP allocate the IP address from the IP Pool in UP2 to subscriber);

step 8, the CP executes the sending step, that is, the CP issues a user table entry (CP downlink session table to UP2) to UP 2;

step 9, the CP performs a transmission step, i.e. the CP transmits a notification to the USF that the subscriber session is interrupted (CP notify subscriber's session consumed);

step 10, a USF executes a sending step, that is, the USF notifies an SDN Controller to execute migration (USF notify SDN Controller to do stepping), and may carry an identifier of a destination UP, that is, an identifier of UP 2;

step 11, the SDN Controller executes a sending step, that is, the SDN Controller performs migration (SDN Controller instruction SF do stepping) to the SF instruction, and may carry an identifier of the destination UP, that is, an identifier of UP 2;

step 12, the RG performs a transmitting step, i.e. the RG enables a Subscriber to access the Internet through UP2 (Subscriber access Internet by UP 2). At this time, the user table entry of the RG is processed through the UP2, and the RG and the UP2 can interact with each other to detect a message and respond to the message.

As can be seen from the contents shown in fig. 2 to fig. 6, the UP serves as a user access gateway and is responsible for processing user keep-alive messages (the user keep-alive messages may also be referred to as keep-alive messages, probe messages, etc.). When UP fails to migrate users or CP actively migrates users between UP, the target UP has no user table item when the detection message of the user reaches the target UP through a drainage mechanism, and when the user quantity is large and the CP is not timely issued to the target UP, the target UP can not respond to the detection message of the user due to no user table item within a certain time.

For example, taking fig. 4 as an example, assuming that an N:1 warm standby scenario includes 30 thousands of users in the main UP, and the CP currently backs UP 3000 users per second, it takes 100 seconds for the CP to back UP the entry to the standby UP. Taking PPPoE access users as an example, PPPoE generally defaults to detecting for three times 20 seconds, i.e., after 60 seconds, the user will be detected to be dropped. Therefore, during the time of the CP warm-UP backup table entry, some users will inevitably detect the disconnection, and the requirement that the warm-UP failover user will not be disconnected cannot be satisfied. If the terminal probing period is shortened, more users are forced to drop during UP failover. Similarly, during the user migration (as shown in the above flowchart 6), before the SF switch, the terminal goes online through UP1, but the user table is issued to the target UP2, so before the SF switch, the UP1 cannot normally reply to the probe. If the SF switch is slow, it may also cause the user to drop.

In summary, in the implementation process of the current user keep-alive mechanism, since the user plane entity connected to the end user is not fixed, for example, when the user plane entity fails or the user plane entity is switched due to the migration scheduling initiated by the control plane entity, the end user disconnects the connection with the original user plane entity according to the indication of the control plane entity, and establishes the connection with the target user plane entity. However, when the data amount of the user table entry is too large, a large transmission delay exists in the process of issuing the user table entry to the user plane entity by the control plane entity, so that the target user plane entity fails to obtain the user table entry in time, and processing of a detection message fails, which easily causes a situation of a dropped terminal user, and affects communication efficiency.

Therefore, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and related devices, which are used to implement a process in which a first user sends a probe packet to a control plane entity and receives a response packet sent by the control plane entity, so as to implement processing of the probe packet. The embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 7, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which includes the following steps.

S101, the terminal sends a detection message to the first user plane entity.

In this embodiment, a terminal sends a detection message to a first user plane entity; correspondingly, in step S101, the first user plane entity receives the probe packet sent from the terminal.

Specifically, the terminal may be any one or more terminals that will establish a connection with the first user plane entity, or any one or more terminals that have established a connection with the first user plane entity. The probe packet may include an identifier of the terminal, where the identifier may specifically indicate at least one of the following identifiers associated with the terminal: a Media Access Control (MAC) address, a QINQ address, an IP address, etc., or other identifiers that can be used to identify the terminal, and is not limited herein.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment and subsequent embodiments, the first user plane entity and the control plane entity may be included in a broadband access gateway, and the broadband access network may specifically be a BNG device, a BRAS device, a vBNG device, a vbars device, or the like, or another broadband access gateway, which is not limited herein.

The information interaction between the control plane entity and the user plane entity may be carried in a control-user separation protocol (CUSP) channel for transmission. Specifically, in step S102, the first user plane entity may send a probe packet to the control plane entity through the CUSP channel, and in subsequent step S103, the control plane entity may send a response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity through the CUSP channel. Besides the CUSP channel, the information interaction between the control plane entity and the user plane entity may also be implemented by virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN), Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), Virtual Leased Link (VLL), or Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN), or in other manners, which is not limited herein.

In an alternative implementation, the terminal may have an initial connection with a second user plane entity in the broadband access gateway, that is, the entry of the terminal is processed by the second user plane entity. When the control plane entity determines that the entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity to the first user plane entity, the control plane entity controls the terminal to be switched to be connected to the first user plane entity, that is, the entry of the terminal is processed by the first user plane entity.

The process of the terminal switching to connect to the first user plane entity may be switching through a switch between the terminal and the user plane entity. The switch may be SW shown in a scenario of fig. 4, may also be SF shown in a scenario of fig. 5, and may also be a switch device in other application scenarios, which is not limited herein.

Specifically, the switch is taken as SW shown in the scenario of fig. 4 as an example for explanation. After the second user plane entity fails, if the control plane entity detects that the second user plane entity fails, the control plane entity notifies the first user plane entity to upgrade to the main device and sends a user table entry to the first user plane entity; the first user plane entity will actively send a gratuitous ARP to the SW after the first user plane entity is promoted, the SW will refresh the binding relationship between the terminal MAC and the interface when receiving the gratuitous ARP, and when the SW receives a message that the source MAC is the terminal and the destination MAC is the gateway, the SW will send a detection message to the first user plane entity from the interface (the interface that has updated the binding relationship) connected to the first user plane entity, that is, the implementation process in step S101.

In a possible implementation manner, the dialing manner of the terminal may specifically be IPoEv4, IPoEv6, PPPoEv4, PPPoEv6, or another type of dialing manner, which is not limited herein. The scheme can be applied to the processing process of terminals with different types of dialing modes, and is suitable for different application scenes.

S102, the first user plane entity sends a detection message to the control plane entity.

In this embodiment, a first user plane entity sends a probe packet carrying an identifier of the terminal to a control plane entity; correspondingly, in step S102, the control plane entity receives the probe packet carrying the identifier of the terminal sent by the first user plane entity.

In one possible implementation manner, the method is adapted to pre-store a scenario of a local user entry in the first user plane entity, where the local user entry may include user entries of one or more terminals. The user entry refers to a mapping relationship between the identifier of the terminal and the online parameter of the terminal and/or the user information using the online of the terminal, and the specific definition may refer to the description in fig. 1, which is not described herein again.

After the first user plane entity receives the probe packet in step S101, in the processing process of the first user plane entity according to the probe packet in step S102, the first user plane entity may determine whether the identifier of the terminal is included in the locally maintained user table entry, and send the probe packet to the control plane entity only when it is determined that the identifier is not included. That is, when the first user plane entity determines that the detection packet cannot be processed, the detection packet is sent to the control plane entity and processed by the control plane entity, and the user table entry is managed and maintained on the control plane entity, so that the condition that the terminal user is disconnected can be avoided to a certain extent.

The local user entry in the first user plane entity may be sent by the control plane entity to the first user plane entity in advance, may also be preset by the first user plane entity when the first user plane entity leaves a factory, and may also be obtained by the first user plane entity receiving a manual operation instruction or receiving other equipment, which is not limited herein. In addition, when the first user plane entity serves as a standby user plane entity, the content of the local user entry of the first user plane entity may be null, that is, the first user plane entity does not maintain the content of the user entry corresponding to the identifier of any terminal, for example, the implementation of the vbars-UP 3Slave in the scenario shown in fig. 4. When the first user plane entity is used as the user plane entity of the initial default access or other user plane entities, the local user table entry of the first user plane entity may not be empty, that is, there is user table entry content corresponding to part of the terminal identifiers, and the table entries of the part of terminals are processed by the first user plane entity. The local user table entry of the first user plane entity may also be configured differently according to different scenarios, which is not specifically limited herein.

In a possible implementation manner, before the first user plane entity sends the probe packet to the control plane entity in step S102, the method further includes: the first user plane entity receives a first user table entry from the control plane entity, wherein the first user table entry is used for updating a local user table entry of the first user plane entity, and the first user table entry comprises an entry of the terminal. Specifically, the first user entry includes entry content to be updated, which specifically includes a mapping relationship between an identifier of a terminal to be updated and a user entry, where the terminal to be updated is one or more terminals to be connected to or already connected to the first user plane entity, and the content of the user entry is similar to the definition in the user entry, and is not described herein again.

The control plane may divide the first user table entry into one or more packets according to the size of the data size of the first user table entry and send the packets to the first user plane entity in the process of sending the first user table entry to the first user plane entity. Generally, a user entry of a single terminal is about 1000 bytes, and a first user entry is carried by one message or a plurality of messages, which may be specifically determined according to parameters such as a Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) and a transmission bandwidth of a network. Taking MTU as an example, when the MTU value of one message is 9600, one message can carry the entry content corresponding to the identifiers of multiple terminals, and when the MTU value of one message is 1000, one message can carry the entry content corresponding to the identifier of a single terminal.

Specifically, after the first user plane entity receives the first user entry associated with the first user plane entity and sent by the control plane entity, the first user plane entity determines that the control plane entity implements processing of the probe packet in a process of sending the user entry to the first user plane entity by the control plane entity. Namely, the detection message is sent to the control plane entity, so that the condition of user disconnection in the transmission process of the user table entry can be avoided.

In addition, the first user plane entity may perform an update process of the local user table entry of the first user plane entity according to the first user table entry. Optionally, when the content of the local user table entry of the first user plane entity is empty, the first user table entry may be directly used to replace the local user table entry of the first user plane entity, so as to implement the update process. When the content of the local user table entry of the first user plane entity is not empty, the first user table entry may be directly used to replace the local user table entry of the first user plane entity, that is, the updating process is implemented in a replacement manner. When the content of the local user table entry of the first user plane entity is not empty, the first user table entry may also be used to perform incremental update on the local user table entry of the first user plane entity, that is, the update process is implemented by using a union of the first user table entry and the local user table entry of the first user plane entity. The first user plane entity implements an update process according to the first user entry, and may also perform different settings according to different scenarios, which is not specifically limited herein.

In a possible implementation manner, in the implementation process of step S102, when the control plane entity determines that the entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing, the control plane entity sends the first user entry to the first user plane entity.

Specifically, the terminal and a second user plane entity in the broadband access gateway have an initial connection, that is, an entry of the terminal is initially processed by the second user plane entity, and when the control plane entity determines that it is necessary to switch the entry of the terminal from the processing of the second user plane entity to the processing of the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the first user entry to the first user plane entity. That is, when the entry of the terminal of the control plane entity is processed by the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the first user entry to the first user plane entity, so that the situation that the first user plane entity fails to process the detection packet of the terminal can be avoided.

Specifically, the determining, by the control plane entity, that the table entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing when at least one of the following conditions is met includes:

(1) the control plane entity detects that the second user plane entity has a failure. When the control plane entity detects that there is a failure in a connection between the control plane entity and the second user plane entity, or the control plane entity detects that there is a failure in the second user plane entity, or the control plane entity detects indication information sent from another device (e.g., a USF, an SDN controller, etc.) and used for indicating that there is a failure in the second user plane entity, in order to avoid a situation that a terminal connected to the second user plane entity is disconnected, the control plane entity determines that it is necessary to switch an entry of the terminal from processing of the second user plane entity to processing of another user plane entity, for example, the first user plane entity processes an entry of the terminal. Thereafter, the control plane entity may migrate and connect the terminal to the specified user plane entity according to the operation load of other user plane entities or the user information of the terminal, where the specified user plane entity may be the first user plane entity.

(2) The control plane entity receives indication information sent by the second user plane entity, and the indication information is used for indicating that the second user plane entity has a fault. When a second user plane entity which has an initial connection with the terminal has a fault, or when the connection between the second user plane entity and the terminal has a fault, the second user plane entity sends indication information indicating that the second user plane entity has the fault to the control plane entity. So that the control plane entity switches the table entry of the terminal processed by the second user plane entity to be processed by other user plane entities, such as the first user plane entity. Thereafter, the control plane entity may be according to the operation load of other user plane entities or the user information of the terminal, wherein the terminal is migrated to be connected to the specified user plane entity, which may be the first user plane entity.

(3) The control plane entity obtains the user information of the terminal, and then the control plane entity determines to switch the table entry of the terminal from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing according to the user information. When the control plane entity determines that the user plane entity corresponding to the table entry of the terminal needs to be switched according to the user information of the terminal, the control plane entity determines to switch the table entry of the terminal from the processing of the second user plane entity to the processing of the first user plane entity.

Specifically, the user information of the terminal may include a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of the terminal, service priority information, device priority information, a VIP level identifier, and the like, or other information, which is not limited herein. And when the user information of the terminal changes or the terminal is initially accessed to a second user plane entity by default, the control plane entity determines the user plane entity capable of processing the list item of the terminal according to the user information of the terminal. For example, when the control plane entity determines that the SLA level of the terminal is updated through the USF, the terminal needs to be migrated to the user plane entity adapted to the updated SLA. The implementation of the USF is similar to the network architecture shown in fig. 5, and may be set for an independent network element, or may be embedded in a control plane entity, which is not limited herein.

In a possible implementation manner, before the control plane entity may send the first user plane entity the first user entry, the control plane entity sends a first notification to the first user plane entity, where the first notification is used to instruct the first user plane entity to send a probe packet to the control plane entity, that is, instruct the first user plane entity to enter a state of sending the probe packet to the control plane entity. Thereafter, the first user plane entity may be caused to determine that the first user entry from the control plane entity is to be received, and to upload the received probe message to the control plane entity for processing. The method and the device can ensure that the first user plane entity forwards the detection packet to the control plane entity for processing in the transmission process of the first user table entry.

Optionally, the control plane entity may divide the data size of the first user table entry into one or more packets and send the packets to the first user plane entity, so that the control plane entity may send the first notification to the first user plane entity before sending the first packet, may also carry the first notification in the first packet, or may carry the first notification in any one packet, or may also carry other sending manners, which is not limited herein.

After receiving the first notification, the first user plane entity may also determine the probe packet from the terminal through the local user table entry, and send the probe packet to the control plane entity only when it is determined that the local user table entry does not include the identifier of the terminal. As can be seen from the foregoing, the first user entry may be transmitted via one or more messages. As an optional implementation manner, when the first user table is transmitted by multiple messages, the first user plane entity may also update the local user table entry each time a message is received, and use the updated local user table entry to determine whether the identifier of the terminal carried by the detection message is included, and if the identifier of the terminal carried by the detection message is not included, send the detection message to the control plane entity; if yes, the first user plane entity generates a response message of the probe message and sends the response message to the terminal, without forwarding the probe message to the control plane entity in step S102.

Optionally, the control plane entity may also indicate, in an implicit manner, to the first user plane entity that the first user plane entity sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, that is, indicate, in an implicit manner, that the first user plane entity enters a state of sending the probe packet to the control plane entity. For example, when the data size of the first user entry is large, the first user entry needs to be divided into a plurality of messages for transmission, and because the transmission delay is long, the first user plane entity may default to send the probe message to the control plane entity when receiving the first message.

In a possible implementation manner, after the control plane entity determines that the sending of the first user entry is completed, the control plane entity sends, to the first user plane entity, a second notification for instructing the first user plane entity to stop sending the probe packet to the control plane entity, that is, instructing the first user plane entity to release the state of sending the probe packet to the control plane entity. Thereafter, the first user plane entity processes the probe packet locally. After the first user entry is sent, the first user plane entity has the capability of processing the detection message, that is, the first user plane entity stops sending the detection message to the control plane entity, and the control plane entity may not process the detection message temporarily, so that the signaling consumption of the control plane entity can be reduced.

Optionally, the control plane entity may send the first user plane entity in one or more packets according to the size of the data size of the first user table entry. Therefore, the control plane entity may send the second notification to the first user plane entity after the last packet is sent, may also carry the second notification in the last packet, and may also be other sending manners, which is not limited herein.

Specifically, when the control plane entity determines that the entry of the terminal has been switched to the processing of the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the second notification to the first user plane entity. After the first user entry is successfully sent, because a certain time delay exists in the switching process of switching the entry of the terminal from the second user plane entity to the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the second notification to the first user plane entity only when determining that the entry of the terminal is switched to the first user plane entity for processing, so that the influence of the time delay of the switching process can be avoided.

In a possible implementation manner, before the control plane entity receives the probe packet sent by the first user plane entity in step S102, the control plane entity may also send a first notification to the first user plane entity, where the first notification is used to instruct the first user plane entity to send the probe packet to the control plane entity, that is, instruct the first user plane entity to enter a state of sending the probe packet to the control plane entity. Optionally, in this implementation, the sending of the first notification does not need to be associated with a sending process of the first user entry.

Specifically, the first user plane entity determines that the probe message needs to be sent to the control plane entity for processing according to the first notification, and what is executed on the first user plane entity is only a data forwarding process, and does not involve a determination process of detecting the validity of the probe message. Therefore, the first user plane entity can be ensured to forward the detection packet to the control plane entity for processing, and compared with the process of processing the detection packet through the user plane entity, the operation load of the user plane entity can be reduced. Meanwhile, the user plane entity can use more processing capacity for processing other service data of the terminal, for example, the user plane entity can be applied to a service transmission process with higher priority, a service transmission process with high delay requirement and the like, so as to ensure service requirements with special requirements and further improve user experience.

In addition, in a possible implementation manner, after the control plane entity receives the probe packet sent by the first user plane entity in step S102, the control plane entity may also send, to the first user plane entity, a second notification for instructing the first user plane entity to stop sending the probe packet to the control plane entity, that is, instructing the first user plane entity to release the state of sending the probe packet to the control plane entity. That is, when the first user plane entity has the capability of processing the probe packet, at this time, the first user plane entity stops sending the probe packet to the control plane entity, and the control plane entity may not process the probe packet temporarily, so that the signaling consumption of the control plane entity may be reduced. For example, when the control plane entity determines that the first user plane entity does not need to use more processing power for processing other service data of the terminal, for example, when it is determined that the first user plane entity does not need to meet a service requirement of a special requirement, the second notification may enable the first user plane entity to perform a processing procedure of the probe packet without being performed by the control plane entity. The method can reduce the signaling consumption of the control plane entity, realize reasonable distribution of the operation load of the communication system and improve the stability of the communication system.

S103, the control plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity.

In this embodiment, the control plane entity sends a response message of the probe message to the first user plane entity; accordingly, the first user plane entity receives a response packet of the probe packet sent by the control plane entity in step S103.

In a possible implementation manner, since the control plane entity implements the user management function in the CU separation scenario, the control plane entity connects and controls and manages a plurality of user plane entities, and the control plane entity may include user entries of the plurality of user plane entities. Obviously, the local user table entry of the control plane entity includes the first user table entry of the first user plane entity. Therefore, in the implementation process of step S103, the control plane entity first determines whether the local user table entry of the control plane entity includes the identifier of the terminal; if yes, the control plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity.

Specifically, the control plane entity may determine whether the identifier of the terminal is included in the local user table entry, and send the response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity only when the identifier of the terminal is determined to be included, that is, when it is determined that the probe packet passes the validity detection. Therefore, the detection process of the detection message is realized in the control plane entity.

S104, the first user plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the terminal.

In this embodiment, the first user plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the terminal; accordingly, the terminal receives a response message from the probe message sent by the first user plane entity in step S104.

Specifically, the first user plane entity sends a response packet of the probe packet to the terminal, and may indicate to the terminal that the connection between the terminal and the network is not disconnected, that is, the terminal is not disconnected. Thereafter, the terminal may continue network communication through the first user plane entity.

In this embodiment, the control plane entity receives a probe packet carrying an identifier of a terminal from the first user plane entity, and sends a response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity according to the probe packet, and the subsequent first user plane entity may forward the response packet to the terminal device. And the first user sends a detection message to the control plane entity and receives a response message sent by the control plane entity, so that the detection message is processed. Compared with the process that the control plane entity sends the user table entry to the first user plane entity, when the data volume of the user table entry is too large, the transmission delay can be greatly reduced, the condition that the terminal user is disconnected is avoided, and the communication efficiency is improved.

Based on the embodiment shown in fig. 7, a specific application process of the communication method shown in fig. 7 in different scenarios will be described below.

Referring to fig. 8, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to the application scenario shown in fig. 8. The description will be given by taking a control plane entity as a vbars CP (abbreviated as CP), a first user plane entity as a backup vbars UP (vbars UP3Slave, abbreviated as UP3), a second user plane entity as a main vbars UP (vbars UP1 Slave, abbreviated as UP1), and a terminal as an end user.

As shown in fig. 8, in an N:1 warm standby scenario, user migration occurs when UP1 fails, and a keep-alive processing procedure of an end user in user migration is as follows:

(1) UP1 failed, UP1 notified CP of the failure;

(2) the CP sets the interface on UP3 as the main interface, and the user list on the fault interface is sent to the standby device;

(3) meanwhile, optionally, the CP notifies the UP3 of switching to the state of sending an unknown probe message;

(4) CP informs backup interface of UP3 to send free ARP message, user flow goes UP 3; CP controls UP3 to refresh route or to build tunnel between UP1 and UP3, and transmits network side traffic;

(5) UP3 receives the detection message sent by the terminal user, and sends the detection message to CP for processing;

(6) the CP detects the legality of the detection message, and the reply response message is sent to the UP3 through the VXLAN channel;

(7) the UP3 receives the response message and forwards the response message to the terminal user;

(8) optionally, after the CP issues all user entries to the UP3, the CP releases the unknown probe message uploading state of the UP 3; thereafter, UP3 is responsible for processing user probe messages based on user information;

(9) subsequent new online users continue to load share online between UP2 and UP3 until UP1 fails to recover, and a switchback occurs.

Through the embodiment shown in fig. 9, in the CU separation system, when the UP fails, it is avoided that a situation that some users detect a drop occurs within a time period when the UP backup user entry of the CP is in existence, so as to satisfy a demand that the UP failover user of the warm backup does not drop.

Referring to fig. 9, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to the application scenario shown in fig. 8. The description will be given by taking the control plane entity as vbars CP (CP for short), the first user plane entity as UP2, the second user plane entity as UP1, and the terminal as RG as an example.

The devices involved in the communication process shown in fig. 9 include RG, AN, SDN Controller, USF, SF, UP1, UP2, CP, RADIUS Server.

Step 1, initial (initial) authentication between RG, AN, SDN Controller, USF, SF, UP1, UP2, CP and RADIUS Server;

step 2, the RG performs a sending step, i.e. the Subscriber sends PPPoE/DHCP dial-up to the user plane entity (Subscriber send PPPoE/DHCP to dial up);

step 5, the RADIUS Server sends a message to the CP, so that the CP obtains SLA (CP gets subscriber's SLA);

step 6, the CP executes the sending step, namely the CP sends a request to the USF to determine the purpose UP (CP request the target UP for the subscriber accessing to SLA) according to the SLA; alternatively, the CP may determine the SLA through a message sent by the RADIUS Server;

step 7, the USF executes a sending step, namely the USF replies a determined purpose UP to the CP as UP2(USF reply the target UP is UP 2);

step 8, the CP performs a sending step, i.e. the CP allocates an IP address from the IP Pool in UP2 to the subscriber (CP allocate the IP address from the IP Pool in UP2 to subscriber);

step 9, the CP informs the UP1 of switching to the state of uploading unknown detection messages, namely, the UP1 is indicated to upload the detection messages to the CP;

step 10, after step 9, the detection message of the RG is interacted with the CP through the UP1, that is, the detection message of the RG and the response message of the detection message are forwarded to the CP for processing through the UP 1;

step 11, the CP executes the sending step, that is, the CP issues a user table entry (CP downlink session table to UP2) to UP 2;

step 12, the CP performs a transmission step, i.e. the CP transmits a notification to the USF that the subscriber session is interrupted (CP notify subscriber's session consumed);

step 13, the USF executes a sending step, that is, the USF notifies the SDN Controller to transfer the subscriber from UP1 to UP2(USF notify SDN Controller to do subscriber from UP1 to UP2), that is, the table entry of the RG is switched from UP1 processing to UP2 processing;

step 14, the SDN Controller executes a sending step, that is, the SDN Controller performs migration (SDN Controller instruction SF do stepping) to the SF instruction, and may carry an identifier of the destination UP, that is, an identifier of the UP 2;

step 15, the CP sends CP to UP1 to inform UP1 to release the state of sending unknown detection message, namely, the UP1 is instructed to stop sending detection message to CP;

step 16, the RG executes a sending step, that is, the RG realizes the Subscriber access to the Internet (Subscriber access Internet by UP2) through UP 2; at this time, the user table entry of the RG is processed through the UP2, and the RG and the UP2 can interact with each other to detect a message and respond to the message.

In the steps 1 to 8, the user completes online interaction through UP1 and CP;

in the steps from 9 to 10, the CP notifies the UP1 of switching to the state of uploading unknown probe messages, at this time, the probe message of RG is uploaded to the UP1, and the UP1 has no user entry, so the probe message is uploaded to the CP side for processing, and the CP replies according to the user information and returns the reply to the terminal through the UP 1. Also, since UP1 has no user entry, it is not actively detected.

In steps 11 to 12, after the CP starts to issue the user table entry to the UP2, the CP notifies the USF to perform flow switching on the SF side;

in steps 13 to 16, when the SF traffic is successfully switched, the detection message of the terminal is directly sent to the UP2, the UP2 replies according to the table entry, and the CP senses that the SF is successfully switched, and then releases the state of the UP1 that the detection message is not known to be sent. Subsequent user traffic and probing proceeds normally.

Through the embodiment shown in fig. 9, in the CU separation system, when a large number of users migrate between UPs, the problem of dropped connection due to the fact that the user detection packet cannot respond when the CP issues an entry in a short time is solved.

The communication method in the embodiment of the present application is described above, and the communication apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application is described below with reference to the drawings.

Referring to fig. 10, an embodiment of the present application provides a control plane entity 1000, where the control plane entity 1000 is included in a broadband access gateway, the broadband access gateway further includes a first user plane entity, and the control plane entity 1000 includes a receiving unit 1001, a sending unit 1002, and a processing unit 1003:

a receiving unit 1001, configured to receive a probe packet sent by a first user plane entity, where the probe packet includes an identifier of a terminal;

a sending unit 1002, configured to send a response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity according to the probe packet.

In a possible implementation manner, the sending unit 1002 is further configured to:

In a possible implementation manner, the broadband access gateway further includes a second user plane entity, and the sending unit 1002 is specifically configured to:

In a possible implementation manner, the control plane entity further includes a processing unit 1003, and the processing unit 1003 determines that the table entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity process to the first user plane entity process when at least one of the following conditions is met, including:

the processing unit 1003 detects that the second user plane entity has a failure;

the receiving unit 1001 receives indication information sent by the second user plane entity, where the indication information is used to indicate that the second user plane entity has a fault; or the like, or, alternatively,

the receiving unit 1001 determines user information of the terminal;

the processing unit 1003 determines that the table entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing according to the user information.

In a possible implementation manner, after determining that the first user entry is completely sent, the sending unit 1002 is further configured to:

In a possible implementation manner, the sending unit 1002 is specifically configured to:

the processing unit 1003 determines whether the local user table entry includes the identifier of the terminal;

if the processing unit 1003 determines that the local user table entry of the control plane entity includes the identifier of the terminal, the sending unit 1002 sends a response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner, the dialing mode of the terminal includes an ethernet-based internet protocol version four IPoEv4, an ethernet-based internet protocol version six IPoEv6, an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version four PPPoEv4 or an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version six PPPoEv 6.

It should be noted that, for details of the information execution process of the units of the control plane entity 1000, reference may be specifically made to the description of the foregoing method embodiments in the present application, and details are not described here again.

Referring to fig. 11, an embodiment of the present application provides a first user plane entity 1100, where the first user plane entity 1100 is included in a broadband access gateway, the broadband access gateway further includes a control plane entity, and the first user plane entity 1100 includes a receiving unit 1101, a sending unit 1102, and a processing unit 1103:

the receiving unit 1101 is configured to receive a probe packet from a terminal, where the probe packet includes an identifier of the terminal;

the sending unit 1102 is configured to send the probe packet to the control plane entity;

the receiving unit 1101 is further configured to receive a response packet of the probe packet from the control plane entity;

In a possible implementation manner, the receiving unit 1101 is further configured to:

In a possible implementation manner, before the receiving unit 1101 receives the first user entry from the control plane entity, the receiving unit 1101 is further configured to:

In a possible implementation manner, after the sending unit 1102 sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, the receiving unit 1101 is further configured to:

In a possible implementation manner, the sending unit 1102 is specifically configured to:

the processing unit 1103 determines whether the local user table entry of the first user plane entity includes the identifier of the terminal;

if the processing unit 1103 determines that the local user table entry of the first user plane entity does not include the identifier of the terminal, the sending unit 1102 sends the probe packet to the control plane entity.

It should be noted that, for details of the information execution process of the unit of the first user plane entity 1100, reference may be specifically made to the description in the foregoing method embodiment of the present application, and details are not described here again.

Referring to fig. 12, a specific logical structure diagram of the communication device 1200 according to the above embodiment is provided for an embodiment of the present application, the communication device 1200 may include, but is not limited to, a processor 1201, a communication port 1202, a memory 1203, and a bus 1204, and in the embodiment of the present application, the processor 1201 is configured to control an operation of the communication device 1200.

As a specific implementation manner, the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to perform the functions implemented by the control plane entity in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 to 9. Furthermore, when the units in the embodiment shown in fig. 10 are software-implemented functional modules, the software functional modules may be stored in the memory 1203, and when the processor 1201 executes the software codes in the memory 1203, the control plane entity is caused to perform the following steps:

the control plane entity receives a detection message sent by a first user plane entity, wherein the detection message comprises an identifier of a terminal;

and the control plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity according to the detection message.

In a possible implementation manner, before the control plane entity receives the probe packet sent by the first user plane entity, the method further includes:

the control plane entity sends a first user table entry to the first user plane entity, where the first user table entry is used to update a local user table entry of the first user plane entity, and the first user table entry includes an entry of the terminal.

In a possible implementation manner, the broadband access gateway further includes a second user plane entity, and the sending, by the control plane entity, the first user table entry to the first user plane entity includes:

when the control plane entity determines that the entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing, the control plane entity sends the first user entry to the first user plane entity.

In one possible implementation manner, the determining, by the control plane entity, that the table entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity process to the first user plane entity process when at least one of the following conditions is met includes:

the control plane entity detects that the second user plane entity has a fault;

the control plane entity determines the user information of the terminal;

and the control plane entity determines that the list item of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing according to the user information.

In a possible implementation manner, before the control plane entity receives the probe packet from the first user plane entity, the method further includes:

the control plane entity sends a first notification to the first user plane entity, wherein the first notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to send a detection message to the control plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner, after the control plane entity receives the probe packet from the first user plane entity, the method further includes:

the control plane entity sends a second notification to the first user plane entity, wherein the second notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to stop sending the detection message to the control plane entity.

In one possible implementation, the sending, by the control plane entity, the second notification to the first user plane entity includes:

the control plane entity sends the second notification to the first user plane entity when the control plane entity determines that the terminal has been migrated from the second user plane entity to the first user plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner, the sending, by the control plane entity, the response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity according to the probe packet includes:

the control plane entity judges whether the local user list item of the control plane entity comprises the identifier of the terminal;

if yes, the control plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity.

It should be noted that, for details of the control plane entity execution process and the like, reference may be specifically made to the description of the foregoing method embodiments in the present application, and details are not described herein again.

As a specific implementation manner, the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to perform the functions implemented by the first user plane entity in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 to 9. Furthermore, when the units in the embodiment shown in fig. 11 are software-implemented functional modules, these software functional modules may be stored in the memory 1203, and when the processor 1201 executes the software codes in the memory 1203, the first user plane entity is caused to perform the following steps:

the first user plane entity receives a detection message from a terminal, wherein the detection message comprises an identifier of the terminal;

the first user plane entity sends the detection message to the control plane entity;

the first user plane entity receives a response message of the detection message from the control plane entity;

and the first user plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the terminal.

In a possible implementation manner, before the first user plane entity sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, the method further includes:

the first user plane entity receives a first user table entry from the control plane entity, where the first user table entry is used to update a local user table entry of the first user plane entity, and the first user table entry includes an entry of the terminal.

the first user plane entity receives a first notification from the control plane entity, wherein the first notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to send a detection message to the control plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner, after the first user plane entity sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, the method further includes:

the first user plane entity receives a second notification from the control plane entity, wherein the second notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to stop sending the detection message to the control plane entity.

In a possible implementation manner, the sending, by the first user plane entity, the probe packet to the control plane entity includes:

the first user plane entity judges whether the local user table entry of the first user plane entity comprises the identifier of the terminal;

if not, the first user plane entity sends the detection message to the control plane entity.

It should be noted that, for details of the first user plane entity execution process and the like, reference may be specifically made to the description in the foregoing method embodiments of the present application, and details are not described herein again.

Further, the processor 1201 may be a central processing unit, a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, transistor logic, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, or the like. It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

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

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method as described in any one of the specific implementations of the foregoing method embodiments.

The present application further provides a computer program product storing one or more computer executable instructions, where when the computer executable instructions are executed by the processor, the processor executes the method of any one of the specific implementation manners of the foregoing method embodiments.

The present application further provides a chip system, which includes a processor, which may include a Baseband Processor (BP), and may further include an Application Processor (AP), for example, which is configured to support a communication apparatus to implement the functions involved in any specific implementation manner of the foregoing method embodiments. In one particular design, the system-on-chip may also include a memory, storage, or the like for holding necessary program instructions and data. The chip system may be constituted by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed 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 can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be substantially implemented or contributed to by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute 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 (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

Claims

1. A communication method applied to a control plane entity included in a broadband access gateway, the broadband access gateway further including a first user plane entity, the method comprising:

the control plane entity receives a detection message from a first user plane entity, wherein the detection message comprises an identifier of a terminal;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein before the control plane entity receives the probe packet sent from the first user plane entity, the method further comprises:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the broadband access gateway further comprises a second user plane entity, and wherein the control plane entity sending the first user table entry to the first user plane entity comprises:

and when the control plane entity determines that the table entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the processing of the second user plane entity to the processing of the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the first user table entry to the first user plane entity.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the control plane entity determining that the table entry of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity process to the first user plane entity process when at least one of the following is satisfied comprises:

the control plane entity determines the user information of the terminal;

and the control plane entity determines that the item of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing according to the user information.

5. The method according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein before the control plane entity receives the probe packet from the first user plane entity, the method further comprises:

and the control plane entity sends a first notification to the first user plane entity, wherein the first notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to send a detection message to the control plane entity.

6. The method according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein after the control plane entity receives the probe packet from the first user plane entity, the method further comprises:

and the control plane entity sends a second notification to the first user plane entity, wherein the second notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to stop sending the detection message to the control plane entity.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the control plane entity sending the second notification to the first user plane entity comprises:

and when the control plane entity determines that the table entry of the terminal is switched to be processed by the first user plane entity, the control plane entity sends the second notification to the first user plane entity.

8. The method according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the sending, by the control plane entity, the response packet of the probe packet to the first user plane entity according to the probe packet comprises:

the control plane entity judges whether a local user table entry of the control plane entity comprises the identifier of the terminal;

and if so, the control plane entity sends a response message of the detection message to the first user plane entity.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the terminal dialing mode comprises an ethernet-based internet protocol version four IPoEv4, an ethernet-based internet protocol version six IPoEv6, an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version four PPPoEv4 or an ethernet-based point-to-point protocol version six PPPoEv 6.

10. A communication method applied to a first user plane entity, wherein the first user plane entity is included in a broadband access gateway, wherein the broadband access gateway further includes a control plane entity, the method comprising:

11. The method of claim 10, wherein before the first user plane entity sends a probe packet to the control plane entity, the method further comprises:

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein before the first user plane entity sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, the method further comprises:

the first user plane entity receives a first notification from the control plane entity, where the first notification is used to instruct the first user plane entity to send a probe packet to the control plane entity.

13. The method according to any of claims 10 to 12, wherein after the first user plane entity sends the probe packet to the control plane entity, the method further comprises:

and the first user plane entity receives a second notification from the control plane entity, wherein the second notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to stop sending the detection message to the control plane entity.

14. The method according to any of claims 10 to 13, wherein the sending, by the first user plane entity, the probe packet to the control plane entity comprises:

the first user plane entity judges whether a local user table entry of the first user plane entity comprises the identifier of the terminal;

and if not, the first user plane entity sends the detection message to the control plane entity.

15. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein the dialling mode of the terminal comprises an ethernet based internet protocol version four IPoEv4, an ethernet based internet protocol version six IPoEv6, an ethernet based point to point protocol version four PPPoEv4 or an ethernet based point to point protocol version six PPPoEv 6.

16. A control plane entity, wherein the control plane entity is included in a broadband access gateway, the broadband access gateway further comprising a first user plane entity, the control plane entity comprising:

17. The control plane entity of claim 16, wherein the sending unit is further configured to:

and sending a first user table entry to the first user plane entity, where the first user table entry is used to update a local user table entry of the first user plane entity, and the first user table entry includes an entry of the terminal.

18. The control plane entity of claim 17, wherein the broadband access gateway further comprises a second user plane entity, and wherein the sending unit is specifically configured to:

19. The control plane entity of claim 18, further comprising a processing unit, wherein the processing unit determines that the switching of the entry of the terminal from the second user plane entity process to the first user plane entity process is required when at least one of the following is satisfied, comprising:

the processing unit detects that the second user plane entity has a fault;

the receiving unit determines user information of the terminal;

and the processing unit determines that the table item of the terminal needs to be switched from the second user plane entity processing to the first user plane entity processing according to the user information.

20. Control plane entity according to any of claims 17 to 19, wherein the sending unit is further configured to:

and sending a first notification to the first user plane entity, wherein the first notification is used for indicating the first user plane entity to send a detection message to the control plane entity.

21. Control plane entity according to any of claims 17 to 20, wherein the sending unit is further configured to:

22. The control plane entity of claim 21, wherein the sending unit is specifically configured to:

when determining that the entry of the terminal is switched to the first user plane entity for processing, the sending unit sends the second notification to the first user plane entity.

23. Control plane entity according to any of claims 16 to 22, characterized in that the control plane entity further comprises a processing unit;

24. A control plane entity as claimed in any one of claims 16 to 23, wherein the dialling mode of the terminal includes an ethernet based internet protocol version four IPoEv4, an ethernet based internet protocol version six IPoEv6, an ethernet based point to point protocol version four PPPoEv4 or an ethernet based point to point protocol version six PPPoEv 6.

25. A first user plane entity, wherein the first user plane entity is included in a broadband access gateway, wherein the broadband access gateway further comprises a control plane entity, and wherein the first user plane entity comprises:

the sending unit is further configured to send a response packet of the probe packet to the terminal.

26. The first user plane entity of claim 25, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to:

receiving a first user table entry from the control plane entity, where the first user table entry is used to update a local user table entry of the first user plane entity, and the first user table entry includes an entry of the terminal.

27. The first user plane entity of claim 26, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to:

and receiving a first notification from the control plane entity, where the first notification is used to instruct the first user plane entity to send a probe packet to the control plane entity.

28. The first user plane entity of any of claims 25 to 27, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to:

and receiving a second notification from the control plane entity, where the second notification is used to instruct the first user plane entity to stop sending the probe packet to the control plane entity.

29. The first user plane entity of any of claims 25 to 28, further comprising a processing unit;

and if the processing unit determines that the local user table entry does not comprise the identifier of the terminal, sending the detection message to the control plane entity.

30. The first user plane entity of any of claims 25 to 29, wherein the dialling mode of the terminal comprises an ethernet based internet protocol version four IPoEv4, an ethernet based internet protocol version six IPoEv6, an ethernet based point to point protocol version four PPPoEv4 or an ethernet based point to point protocol version six PPPoEv 6.

31. A control plane entity, comprising:

a processor and a memory;

the memory is to store program instructions;

the processor is configured to execute the program instructions to cause the control plane entity to implement the method of any of claims 1-9.

32. A first user plane entity, comprising:

a processor and a memory;

the memory is to store program instructions;

the processor is configured to execute the program instructions to cause the first user plane entity to implement the method of any of claims 10-15.

33. A broadband access gateway comprising a control plane entity as claimed in any one of claims 16 to 24, a first user plane entity as claimed in any one of claims 25 to 30.

34. A computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9; or causing the computer to perform the method of any of claims 10 to 15.

35. A computer readable storage medium for storing program instructions, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9; or causing the computer to perform the method of any of claims 10 to 15.