CN114554538B

CN114554538B - Flow statistics method, device, electronic equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN114554538B
Application number: CN202210287793.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 何峣; 贾聿庸; 欧亮; 彭宁
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-22
Filing date: 2022-03-22
Publication date: 2024-05-14
Anticipated expiration: 2042-03-22
Also published as: CN114554538A

Abstract

The disclosure provides a traffic statistics method, a traffic statistics device, an electronic device and a storage medium, and relates to the technical field of communication, including: receiving a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic; and counting public network traffic volume information according to the public network PDR, and counting private network traffic volume information and private network access information according to the private network PDR. The method can judge the target enterprise or service type accessed by the private network traffic according to different private network traffic identifications, and realize the refined distinguishing and statistics of the private network traffic.

Description

Flow statistics method, device, electronic equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The disclosure relates to the technical field of communication, and in particular relates to a traffic statistics method, a traffic statistics device, electronic equipment and a storage medium.

Background

Currently, there are two main implementations of a 5G private network, one is that an operator uses a user plane function (UPF, user Plane Function) to split the data of a user directly to an intranet of the user through a network slicing technology, and the other is that a special 5G frequency band is utilized to enable an industry user to build the 5G private network. In a first implementation manner, the statistical manner for the user traffic in the enterprise park is to use the traffic passing through the N6 port or the N6 sub-interface of the edge UPF as private network traffic, and use the traffic passing through the N9 port of the edge UPF as public network traffic, so as to realize the distinction between the public network traffic and the private network traffic.

However, since one N6 port or N6 sub-interface may correspond to private network traffic of multiple enterprises or multiple service types, the above traffic statistics manner is difficult to implement flexible classification statistics on private network traffic of different enterprises or different service types, and enterprises are difficult to know specific private network service conditions, so that the traffic charging manner is limited.

It should be noted that the information disclosed in the above background section is only for enhancing understanding of the background of the present disclosure and thus may include information that does not constitute prior art known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

The disclosure provides a flow statistics method, a flow statistics device, an electronic device and a storage medium, which at least overcome the problem that the flow of an enterprise private network cannot be flexibly classified and counted in the related technology to a certain extent.

Other features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from the following detailed description, or may be learned in part by the practice of the disclosure.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a traffic statistics method, the method being applied to a user plane function UPF network element, including:

receiving a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic;

And counting public network traffic volume information according to the public network PDR, and counting private network traffic volume information and private network access information according to the private network PDR.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, after receiving a packet forwarding control protocol PFCP session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a session management function SMF network element, the method further includes:

establishing a mapping relation between private network flow identification and private network access information;

and when the user traffic is detected to comprise the specified private network traffic identification, determining the user traffic as the traffic for accessing the specified private network.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the private network traffic identification includes at least one of: a specified data network name DNN, a specified virtual routing table identification VRF ID, a specified N6 interface identification and a specified N6 subinterface identification.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PFCP session establishment request or PFCP session modification request further includes: the usage reporting rule URR, the method further comprises:

and according to the URR, sending a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying public network traffic volume information counted by the public network PDR or private network traffic volume information counted by the private network PDR.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the public network PDR and the private network PDR are respectively associated with different URRs, the sending, according to the URRs, a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element specifically includes:

Writing the public network traffic volume information into a first PFCP session reporting request according to the URR associated with the public network PDR, and then sending the first PFCP session reporting request for writing the public network traffic volume information to the SMF network element; or (b)

And writing the private network traffic volume information into a second PFCP session reporting request according to the URR associated with the private network PDR, and then sending the second PFCP session reporting request for writing the private network traffic volume information to the SMF network element.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the public network PDR and the private network PDR are associated to the same URR, the sending, according to the URR, a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element specifically includes:

Writing the public network traffic volume information or the private network traffic volume information into a third PFCP session reporting request according to the URR associated with the public network PDR and the private network PDR;

And sending a third PFCP session report request for writing the public network traffic volume information or the private network traffic volume information to the SMF network element.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a traffic statistics method applied to a session management function SMF network element, including:

A message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request is sent to a User Plane Function (UPF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic;

the public network PDR is used for counting public network traffic volume information, and the private network PDR is used for counting private network traffic volume information and private network access information.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:

Receiving a PFCP session report request sent by the UPF network element, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying public network traffic volume information of the public network PDR statistics or private network traffic volume information of the private network PDR statistics;

and reporting the public network traffic volume information or the private network traffic volume information to a CHF network element of a charging function.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a traffic statistics apparatus, the apparatus being applied to a user plane function UPF network element, comprising:

the system comprises a rule receiving module, a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic;

and the consumption statistics module is used for counting public network traffic consumption information according to the public network PDR, and counting private network traffic consumption information and private network access information according to the private network PDR.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PFCP session establishment request or PFCP session modification request further includes a usage reporting rule URR, and the apparatus further includes:

and the consumption reporting module is used for sending a PFCP session reporting request to the SMF network element according to the URR, wherein the PFCP session reporting request is used for carrying public network traffic consumption information counted by the public network PDR or private network traffic consumption information counted by the private network PDR.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a traffic statistics apparatus, the apparatus being applied to a session management function, SMF, network element, comprising:

The system comprises a rule sending module, a Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic;

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus further comprises:

The consumption receiving module is used for receiving a PFCP session report request sent by the UPF network element, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying public network traffic consumption information of the public network PDR statistics or private network traffic consumption information of the private network PDR statistics;

And the usage charging module is used for reporting the public network traffic usage information or the private network traffic usage information to a CHF network element with a charging function.

According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic apparatus including:

A processor; and

A memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to perform the above-described flow statistics method via execution of the executable instructions.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the above-described flow statistics method.

According to the traffic statistics method, the traffic statistics device, the electronic equipment and the storage medium, private network traffic identification used for representing private network traffic target information is added into the packet detection rule of the private network traffic, so that target enterprises or business types accessed by the private network traffic are judged according to different private network traffic identifications, and the refined differentiated statistics of the private network traffic is realized.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the drawings in the following description are merely examples of the disclosure and that other drawings may be derived from them without undue effort.

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture in an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a flow statistics method in the related art;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of a flow statistics method in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates another flow statistics method flow chart in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of yet another flow statistics method in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of yet another flow statistics method in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a flow statistics method according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow statistics apparatus schematic diagram in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates another flow statistics apparatus schematic diagram in an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 10 shows a block diagram of an electronic device in an embodiment of the disclosure.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the exemplary embodiments may be embodied in many forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

Furthermore, the drawings are merely schematic illustrations of the present disclosure and are not necessarily drawn to scale. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar parts, and thus a repetitive description thereof will be omitted. Some of the block diagrams shown in the figures are functional entities and do not necessarily correspond to physically or logically separate entities. These functional entities may be implemented in software or in one or more hardware modules or integrated circuits or in different networks and/or processor devices and/or microcontroller devices.

For ease of understanding, the description first applies to the network architecture of the present disclosure, which is primarily implemented by issuing a PDR with specified traffic characteristics to the user plane functions (UPFs, user Plane Function) of the 5G edge network.

As shown in fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a 5G network architecture according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The 5G network performs certain splitting on some functional network elements of the 4G network (such as Mobility Management Entity (MME) MANAGEMENT ENTITY, etc.), and defines an architecture based on a serviced architecture. In the network architecture shown in fig. 1, the functions of the MME like in the 4G network are split into an access and mobility management function (AMF, ACCESS AND Mobility Management Function) and a session management function (SMF, session Management Function), etc.

Some other related network elements/entities are described below.

A User Equipment (UE) accesses a Data Network (DN) or the like by accessing an operator Network, using a service provided by an operator or a third party on the DN.

An access and mobility management function (AMF) is a control plane network element in a 3GPP network, and is mainly responsible for access control and mobility management of a UE accessing an operator network. The security anchor function (SEAF, security Anchor Function) may be deployed in the AMF, or SEAF may be deployed in another device different from the AMF, for example SEAF in fig. 1. When SEAF is deployed in an AMF, SEAF and the AMF may be collectively referred to as an AMF.

Session Management Function (SMF) is a control plane network element in a 3GPP network, where the SMF is mainly responsible for managing protocol data unit (PDU, protocol Data Unit) sessions of a UE. A PDU session is a channel for transmitting PDUs, and the UE may send PDUs to each other through the PDU session and DN. The SMF is responsible for management tasks such as establishment, maintenance, and deletion of PDU sessions.

The Data Network (DN, data Network) is also called a packet Data Network (PDN, packet Data Network), which is a Network located outside the 3GPP Network. The 3GPP network can access a plurality of DNs, and a plurality of services provided by an operator or a third party can be deployed on the DNs. For example, a DN is a private network of an intelligent plant, and a sensor installed in a plant of the intelligent plant plays the role of a UE, and the DN configures a control server of the sensor. The UE communicates with the control server, and after acquiring an instruction from the control server, the UE may transfer the acquired data to the control server according to the instruction. For another example, the DN is an internal office network of a company, and the terminals used by employees of the company may act as UEs that can access information and other resources within the company.

The user plane function (UPF, user Plane Function) is a gateway for the 3GPP network to communicate with the DN. In the application scenario of splitting, there are two modalities of UPF, namely splitting UPF (UPF UL CL) and anchor UPF (UPF PSA). The traffic statistics method provided by the disclosure is applied to splitting UPF, and SMF is inserted into a user session when splitting is activated. The split UPF is connected with the anchor UPF through an N9 interface, and for the uplink flow, the messages which need to be sent to the main anchor UPF and the auxiliary anchor UPF are distinguished and forwarded after being identified according to the split rule. And for the downlink flow, aggregating the messages from the anchor UPF and forwarding the messages to the base station through an N3 interface.

A billing function (CHF, charging Function) is used to perform rate processing for online billing of various services of the user and to complete real-time settlement of the user's fees. In particular, CHF generates a ticket (CDR, call Detail Record) for collecting PDU session and charging data information related to service flows in session, and charging information of a plurality of service flows in one PDU session is recorded in CDR of CHF and stored in a service flow container manner. After CHF receives the SMF charging data request message, a CDR is opened. Under certain trigger conditions, the SMF should send a billing data request update message to the CHF, adding billing information in the open CDR after the CHF accepts the billing data request update message. When CHF receives the charging data request update message, charging information is added to the current CDR according to the triggering condition, and the CDR is closed, and a new CDR is opened. After the CHF receives the billing data request termination message, the CHF accesses the billing information to the CDR and then closes the CDR.

The tracking area (TA, tracking Area) is used to manage the location of the UE. When the UE is in an idle state, the core network can know the tracking area where the UE is located, and when the UE in the idle state needs to be paged, paging must be performed in all cells of the tracking area where the UE is registered. The TA is a configuration at a cell level, a plurality of cells can configure the same TA, and one cell can belong to only one TA.

In addition, the 3GPP network refers to a network conforming to the 3GPP standard. Wherein the parts of fig. 1 other than the UE and DN may be regarded as a 3GPP network, typically operated by an operator.

It should be noted that the network architecture applied to the embodiments of the present disclosure is merely illustrative, and those skilled in the art can make any adjustment to the network architecture according to actual needs, and any network architecture capable of implementing the functions of the foregoing network elements is suitable for the embodiments of the present disclosure, for example, the present disclosure is equally suitable for network elements with the same functions of the 4G core network. The embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited in this regard.

The problems of the related art will be further described with reference to the specific application scenario in fig. 2.

As shown in fig. 2, when a diffuse-in user of an out-province or a local user of a local province moves from a public network TA area to a private network TA area, an SMF network element selects an edge UPF network element for the user according to TA information, creates a packet forwarding control protocol (PFCP, packet Forwarding Control Protocol) session through an N4 port, issues rules such as packet detection rules (PDR, packet Detection Rule), forwarding behavior rules (FAR, forwarding Action Rule), usage reporting rules (URR, usage Reporting Rule) to the edge UPF network element, and the like, so that the ULCL function of the user terminal for accessing the public network goes from an N9 interface to the public network UPF network element, and the traffic for accessing the private network goes from an N6 interface or an N6 subinterface of the edge UPF network element.

According to the method, the edge UPF network element in the related technology can count the traffic usage of the public network and the private network accessed by the user according to the different access interfaces, and report the traffic usage of the public network and the private network to the SMF network element according to the URR.

Further, in practical application, private network traffic and public network traffic generally use different charging modes, and since the traffic accessing the private network does not occupy network resources of the public network, operators generally perform charging-free processing on the private network. In this case, after the traffic of the public network and the private network is reported, a new charging Group (RG) value is configured for the service identifier (domain name, IP) of the specified private network in the charging system of each province in China, and the rate corresponding to the new RG value is set to zero, so that the private network directional traffic is free. When the service identifier of the private network changes, the RG value setting of the whole country is changed, and the problems of long implementation period, large related range and the like also exist.

According to the scheme provided by the disclosure, the private network flow identification used for representing the private network flow target information is added into the packet detection rules (PDR, packet Detection Rule) of the private network flow, so that the target enterprise or service type accessed by the private network flow is judged according to different private network flow identifications, and the refined differentiated statistics of the private network flow is realized.

Furthermore, since the edge UPF network element performs refined differentiation on the traffic before reporting the traffic, when the specified private network traffic needs to be subjected to charging-free processing, the specified private network traffic only needs to be accurately removed from the reported traffic (i.e. only the traffic needing to be charged is reported). And through setting different URRs for private network traffic accessing different enterprises and services, the private network traffic reporting and flexible charging for different enterprises and services can be realized, and even when the private network of a certain enterprise or service changes, the private network traffic identification of the enterprise or service can be correspondingly increased or modified only at the edge UPF network element, so that the flexible adjustment of the private network traffic reporting mode and the charging mode can be realized.

The present exemplary embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples.

First, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, a traffic statistics method is provided, and the method may be performed by a UPF network element having a splitting function.

Fig. 3 shows a flow chart of a flow statistics method in an embodiment of the present disclosure, and as shown in fig. 3, the flow statistics method provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes the following steps:

S302, a PFCP session establishment request (PFCP Session Establishment Request) or a PFCP session modification request (PFCP Session Modification Request) sent by an SMF network element is received, the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a packet detection rule PDR, the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used for indicating private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is the attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic.

It should be noted that, the PFCP session establishment request and the PFCP session modification request mainly exist in the N4 interface, and are mainly used for the SMF network element to send information to the UPF network element, for example, may carry a PDR and/or a URR.

Specifically, the SMF network element issues a PFCP session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request to the edge UPF network element through the N4 interface, where the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request may include a public network PDR and a private network PDR, where the public network PDR and the private network PDR are respectively used to distinguish and count public network traffic and private network traffic according to respective defined detection rules.

It should be noted that, the PDR is issued through the N4 interface and is used for informing the UPF network element how to detect and classify the data packet, and each PDR must include a PDI (Packet Detection Information ) parameter, where the PDI defines a detailed rule of packet detection.

In some embodiments, the number of public network PDRs and private network PDRs issued by the SMF network element at a time is not unique, and for example, the same UPF network element may access a plurality of different private networks, and different private networks are allocated with different private network traffic identifiers and correspond to different private network PDRs, which will not be repeated for brevity description.

When the UPF network element receives the PDR from the SMF network element, a PFCP session setup response (PFCP Session Establishment Response) or a PFCP session modification response (PFCP Session Modification Response) may be sent to the SMF network element, for informing the SMF network element that the PDR is acknowledged to be received.

More specifically, the private network PDR may include private network traffic identifications such that the UPF network element may differentiate statistical private network traffic usage based on the private network PDR detecting a particular private network traffic identification.

Further, in order to enable the UPF to finely classify the private network traffic according to the private network traffic identifier, before receiving the PDR sent by the SMF network element, a mapping relationship between the private network traffic identifier and the private network access information may be pre-established; and when the user traffic is detected to comprise the specified private network traffic identification, determining the user traffic as the traffic for accessing the specified private network.

The private network access information may be understood as the attribution information of the target private network accessed by the private network traffic, for example, an enterprise to which the target private network accessed by the private network traffic belongs, a service to which the target private network accessed by the private network traffic belongs, and so on. It should be understood that the private network access information may be set according to a traffic statistics requirement or a traffic charging requirement of an enterprise or an operator, where private network traffic with the same private network access information has the same private network traffic identifier.

It should be noted that the private network traffic identifier may be any one or more of a specified data network name (DNN, data Network Name), a specified virtual routing table identifier (VRF ID, virtual Routing Forwarding ID), a specified N6 interface identifier, and a specified N6 subinterface identifier.

In some embodiments, the private network traffic identifier of a certain enterprise (or service) may be specified as a specified DNN for the enterprise, and when the UPF network element detects that the specified DNN exists in the traffic accessing the private network, it is determined that the private network traffic is the private network traffic accessing the enterprise (or service) according to the private network PDR.

In other embodiments, a designated N6 interface may be reserved for a private network of an enterprise (or service), where the designated N6 interface identifier may be used as a private network traffic identifier, and according to a private network PDR, when a UPF network element detects that a traffic accessing the private network passes through the designated N6 interface, the private network traffic is considered to be a private network traffic accessing the enterprise (or service).

Of course, based on the principle similar to the above embodiment, any traffic characteristic identifier capable of achieving the same effect may be used as the private network traffic identifier, which is not limited by the embodiment of the disclosure.

S304, counting public network traffic volume information according to the public network PDR, and counting private network traffic volume information and private network access information according to the private network PDR.

Specifically, after the UPF network element receives the user traffic of the private network TA area, it can primarily determine whether the user traffic is the traffic accessing the private network or the traffic accessing the public network according to the traffic through the N6 interface or the N9 interface, and then identify and count private network access information that needs to be counted by the enterprise or the operator according to the private network traffic identifier in the private network PDR.

Optionally, the UPF network element may provide a network management interface or API interface for an administrator or an upper layer system to query the usage information of various private network traffic of the user according to the conditions of the user (MSISDN, mobile Station International ISDN Number), international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI, international Mobile Subscriber Identity), subscription permanent identifier (SUPI, subscription PERMANENT IDENTIFIER), internet protocol (IP, internet Protocol) address, etc.

Based on the same inventive concept, another flow statistics method is also provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure, as described in the following embodiments. Since the principle of solving the problem of this method embodiment is similar to that of the above method embodiment, the implementation of this method embodiment may refer to the implementation of the above method embodiment, and the repetition is not repeated. As can be found by comparison, the difference between the method embodiment and the traffic statistics method shown in fig. 3 is that the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request in the method embodiment further includes a URR, so that the method embodiment can selectively report public network traffic volume information or private network traffic volume information according to the URR.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another flow statistics method in an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in fig. 4, where the method may be performed by a UPF network element with a splitting function, including:

S402, receiving a PFCP session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by an SMF network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a PDR and a URR, the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is the attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic.

It should be noted that, the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes a PDR and a URR.

Specific technical details of the PDR are similar to those of the embodiment of the flow statistics method shown in fig. 3, and corresponding technical effects can be achieved, which are not described in detail in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that, the number of URRs may be one or more, and the URRs may be issued through the N4 interface. The UPF network element can report the usage statistics information of the service identified by the PDR according to the URR, each URR must be associated with one PDR, firstly, the PDR is seen to carry out packet detection and classification, and then the usage statistics is carried out according to different service classifications and reported.

S404, counting public network traffic volume information according to the public network PDR, and counting private network traffic volume information and private network access information according to the private network PDR.

It should be noted that, because S404 is similar to S303 in the above embodiment and can achieve the corresponding technical effects, the embodiments of the disclosure will not be repeated here.

And S406, according to the URR, sending a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying public network traffic volume information of public network PDR statistics or private network traffic volume information of private network PDR statistics.

It should be noted that, when the PDR and the URR have an association relationship and the associated URR is triggered according to the traffic usage counted by the PDR, a PFCP session report request is sent to the SMF, so as to complete traffic report.

In some embodiments, after a packet enters the UPF, a matching PFCP session (i.e., an N4 interface session) is first found; if a matched PFCP session exists, finding all associated PDRs in the session, and matching the data packets according to the priority; if the matching is successful, the operation of reporting the usage amount is completed according to the URR associated with the PDR matched with the data packet, and if the case is also applicable, the FAR forwarding operation associated with the PDR can be searched, and the QER associated with the FAR forwarding operation can be searched to complete the operation related to Qos.

Specifically, the triggering condition of the URR may be triggered according to time or according to an event, and the embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

In some embodiments, the UPF may automatically report traffic volume based on the associated PDR statistics after a preset time interval has elapsed, based on the URR.

In other embodiments, the UPF may automatically report the traffic volume of a certain PDR statistic after the traffic volume of the PDR statistic reaches a preset threshold according to the URR.

It should be noted that the PFCP session Report request is mainly used for reporting information to the SMF network element by the UPF network element, for example, a Usage Report (Usage Report) may be carried, so that the traffic Usage information is reported to the SMF network element, and after receiving the traffic Usage information, the SMF network element may further forward the traffic Usage information to the CHF network element, so as to implement traffic charging.

In addition, the embodiment of the disclosure can also realize charging-free processing for the appointed partial flow. According to the foregoing, since the PDR and the URR have an association relationship, and one URR may be associated with one or more PDRs, the following will describe in detail the technical means for implementing the flow charging-free effect by using two cases respectively.

When the public network PDR and the private network PDR are respectively associated with different URRs, the UPF network element can only trigger the URR associated with the public network PDR or the URR associated with the private network PDR, so that the charging can be avoided only by reporting the public network traffic volume or the private network traffic volume through the PFCP session reporting request.

When the public network PDR and the private network PDR are associated to the same URR, the PFCP session report request only carries the public network traffic volume or the private network traffic volume which needs to be charged by modifying the volume measurement (Volume Measurement) attribute in the volume report, so that the traffic volume which is not reported can be free from charging.

It should be understood that, specific technical details not described in the embodiments of the present disclosure are similar to those of the embodiment of the flow statistics method shown in fig. 3 and achieve corresponding technical effects, so that the embodiments of the present disclosure will not be repeated.

Based on the same inventive concept, still another flow statistics method is provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure, as described in the following embodiments. Since the principle of solving the problem of this method embodiment is similar to that of the above method embodiment, the implementation of this method embodiment may refer to the implementation of the above method embodiment, and the repetition is not repeated.

Fig. 5 shows a flowchart of yet another flow statistics method in an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in fig. 5, where the method is applied to an SMF network element, and includes:

S502, a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request is sent to a User Plane Function (UPF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is the attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic.

The public network PDR is used for counting public network traffic information, and the private network PDR is used for counting private network traffic information and private network access information.

Based on the same inventive concept, still another flow statistics method is provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure, as described in the following embodiments. Since the principle of solving the problem of this method embodiment is similar to that of the above method embodiment, the implementation of this method embodiment may refer to the implementation of the above method embodiment, and the repetition is not repeated. As can be seen by comparison, the difference between the method embodiment and the flow statistics method shown in fig. 5 is that the method embodiment further includes S604 and S606, so as to achieve the effect of charging-free of the specified flow.

Fig. 6 shows a flowchart of yet another traffic statistics method in an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in fig. 6, where the method is applied to an SMF network element, and includes:

S602, a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request is sent to a User Plane Function (UPF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is the attribution information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic.

S604, receiving a PFCP session report request sent by a UPF network element, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying public network traffic volume information of public network PDR statistics or private network traffic volume information of private network PDR statistics;

And S606, reporting the public network traffic volume information or the private network traffic volume information to a CHF network element of a charging function.

It should be noted that, by controlling the flow usage information reported by the UPF, the charging-free effect for the specified flow can be achieved, and specific implementation means and technical details thereof can refer to the foregoing embodiments, which are not described herein again.

To facilitate further understanding of the flow statistics method provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, the following sections of the embodiments of the present disclosure are provided by way of example to describe the method in its entirety.

Notably, the following embodiments achieve the charging-free effect for private network traffic by enabling the UPF to report only public network traffic.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a flow statistics method in an embodiment of the disclosure, and as shown in fig. 7, the flow statistics method may include the following steps.

S701, a network manager can set the flow of the appointed private network through a network management interface of an edge UPF network element or an upper layer network management system through the network management interface of the edge UPF network element so as to avoid charging, and can appoint the specific private network based on DNN, VRF ID, N6 interface, N6 sub-interface and other conditions.

S702, the SMF network element sends a PFCP session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request to the edge UPF network element according to a standard flow, and the session carries PDR (packet data protocol) split to the public network, PDR split to the private network and URR (packet data protocol) split to the private network, wherein the public network PDR and the private network PDR can have corresponding URR respectively or share one URR.

S703, after receiving the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request sent by the SMF network element, the edge UPF network element returns a PFCP session establishment response or a PFCP session modification response to the SMF network element, for confirming that the PFCP session establishment request or the PDR and the URR carried in the PFCP session modification request are received.

S704, after confirming that the PDR and the URR sent by the SMF network element are received, the edge UPF network element can count traffic information of the public network and the private network of the user level and store the traffic information of the private network for subsequent inquiry.

And S705, the edge UPF network element sends a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element according to the URR (such as time trigger or event trigger), reports the usage information, and only reports the usage of the user accessing the public network without reporting the usage of the user accessing the designated private network according to the prior charging-free private network setting. The specific reporting method comprises the following steps: if the public network PDR and the private network PDR are scenes of different URRs respectively, the edge UPF network element only reports the usage report of the public network and does not report the usage report of the private network; if the public network PDR and the private network PDR are shared URR, the edge UPF network element only reports the public network usage value in the usage measurement of the usage report, and does not report the private network usage value.

S706, after receiving the PFCP session report request sent by the edge UPF network element, the SMF network element returns a PFCP session report response to the edge UPF network element, for confirming that the usage report carried in the PFCP session report request is received.

S707, after confirming that the consumption report reported by UPF is received, SMF network element reports the charging information of the removed private network consumption to CHF.

S708, the edge UPF can provide a network management interface or an API interface for an administrator or an upper layer system to inquire the consumption information of the private network traffic according to the MSISDN, IMSI/SUPI, IP and other conditions of the user.

Based on the same inventive concept, a flow statistics device is also provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure, as described in the following embodiments. Since the principle of solving the problem of the embodiment of the device is similar to that of the embodiment of the method, the implementation of the embodiment of the device can be referred to the implementation of the embodiment of the method, and the repetition is omitted.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a flow statistics apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure, as shown in fig. 8, the apparatus 800 includes:

The rule receiving module 801 is configured to receive a packet forwarding control protocol PFCP session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a session management function SMF network element, where the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request includes a packet detection rule PDR, the PDR includes a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR includes a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used to provide private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is home information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic.

The usage statistics module 802 is configured to count public network traffic usage information according to the public network PDR, and count private network traffic usage information and private network access information according to the private network PDR.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 800 further comprises:

And the consumption reporting module is used for sending a PFCP session reporting request to the SMF network element according to the URR, wherein the PFCP session reporting request is used for carrying public network traffic consumption information of public network PDR statistics or private network traffic consumption information of private network PDR statistics.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented as a system, method, or program product. Accordingly, various aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in the following forms, namely: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects may be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system.

Based on the same inventive concept, still another flow statistics device is provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure, as described in the following embodiments. Since the principle of solving the problem of the embodiment of the device is similar to that of the embodiment of the method, the implementation of the embodiment of the device can be referred to the implementation of the embodiment of the method, and the repetition is omitted.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of another flow statistics apparatus in an embodiment of the disclosure, as shown in fig. 9, the apparatus 900 includes:

the rule sending module 901 is configured to send a packet forwarding control protocol PFCP session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request to a user plane function UPF network element, where the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request includes a packet detection rule PDR, the PDR includes a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR includes a private network traffic identifier, the private network traffic identifier is used to provide private network access information of private network traffic, and the private network access information is home information of a target private network accessed by the private network traffic;

In some embodiments, the apparatus 900 further comprises:

the consumption receiving module is used for receiving a PFCP session report request sent by the UPF network element, wherein the PFCP session report request is used for carrying public network traffic consumption information of public network PDR statistics or private network traffic consumption information of private network PDR statistics;

and the usage billing module is used for reporting the public network traffic usage information or the private network traffic usage information to a CHF network element with a billing function.

An electronic device 1000 according to such an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 10. The electronic device 1000 shown in fig. 10 is merely an example and should not be construed as limiting the functionality and scope of use of the disclosed embodiments.

As shown in fig. 10, the electronic device 1000 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. Components of electronic device 1000 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 1010, the at least one memory unit 1020, and a bus 1030 that connects the various system components, including the memory unit 1020 and the processing unit 1010.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 1010 such that the processing unit 1010 performs steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure described in the above section of the present specification. For example, the processing unit 1010 may perform the following steps of the method embodiment described above: receiving a message forwarding control protocol (PFCP) session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or the PFCP session modification request comprises a Packet Detection Rule (PDR), the PDR comprises a public network PDR and a private network PDR, the private network PDR comprises a private network traffic identifier, and the private network traffic identifier is used for providing private network access information of private network traffic; and counting public network traffic volume information according to the public network PDR, and counting private network traffic volume information and private network access information according to the private network PDR, wherein the private network access information is used for indicating target private network information of private network traffic access, and the private network access information is attribution information of the target private network of the private network traffic access.

The memory unit 1020 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory units such as Random Access Memory (RAM) 10201 and/or cache memory unit 10202, and may further include Read Only Memory (ROM) 10203.

The storage unit 1020 may also include a program/utility 10204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 10205, such program modules 10205 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each or some combination of which may include an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 1030 may be representing one or more of several types of bus structures including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 1000 can also communicate with one or more external devices 1040 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 1000, and/or with any device (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enables the electronic device 1000 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through an input/output (I/O) interface 1050. Also, electronic device 1000 can communicate with one or more networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the Internet, through network adapter 1060. As shown, the network adapter 1060 communicates with other modules of the electronic device 1000 over the bus 1030. It should be appreciated that although not shown, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in connection with the electronic device 1000, including, but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, data backup storage systems, and the like.

From the above description of embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the example embodiments described herein may be implemented in software, or may be implemented in software in combination with the necessary hardware. Thus, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (may be a CD-ROM, a U-disk, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, including several instructions to cause a computing device (may be a personal computer, a server, a terminal device, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium, which may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium, is also provided. On which a program product is stored which enables the implementation of the method described above of the present disclosure. In some possible implementations, various aspects of the disclosure may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps according to the various exemplary embodiments of the disclosure as described in the "exemplary methods" section of this specification, when the program product is run on the terminal device.

More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium in the present disclosure may include, but are not limited to: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

In this disclosure, a computer readable storage medium may include a data signal propagated in baseband or as part of a carrier wave, with readable program code embodied therein. Such a propagated data signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A readable signal medium may also be any readable medium that is not a readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Alternatively, the program code embodied on a computer readable storage medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

In particular implementations, the program code for carrying out operations of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device, partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of remote computing devices, the remote computing device may be connected to the user computing device through any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computing device (e.g., connected via the Internet using an Internet service provider).

It should be noted that although in the above detailed description several modules or units of a device for action execution are mentioned, such a division is not mandatory. Indeed, the features and functionality of two or more modules or units described above may be embodied in one module or unit in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Conversely, the features and functions of one module or unit described above may be further divided into a plurality of modules or units to be embodied.

Furthermore, although the steps of the methods in the present disclosure are depicted in a particular order in the drawings, this does not require or imply that the steps must be performed in that particular order, or that all illustrated steps be performed, to achieve desirable results. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step to perform, and/or one step decomposed into multiple steps to perform, etc.

From the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the example embodiments described herein may be implemented in software, or may be implemented in software in combination with the necessary hardware. Thus, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (may be a CD-ROM, a U-disk, a mobile hard disk, etc.) or on a network, including several instructions to cause a computing device (may be a personal computer, a server, a mobile terminal, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. This disclosure is intended to cover any adaptations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure following the general principles of the disclosure and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the disclosure pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

1. A traffic statistics method, wherein the method is applied to a user plane function UPF network element, and comprises:

2. The traffic statistics method according to claim 1, characterized in that after receiving a packet forwarding control protocol, PFCP, session establishment request or a PFCP session modification request sent by a session management function, SMF, network element, the method further comprises:

3. The traffic statistics method according to claim 2, wherein the private network traffic identification comprises at least one of: a designated data network name DNN, a designated virtual routing table identification VRFID, a designated N6 interface identification, and a designated N6 subinterface identification.

4. The traffic statistics method according to claim 1, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or PFCP session modification request further comprises: the usage reporting rule URR, the method further comprises:

5. The traffic statistics method according to claim 4, wherein when the public network PDR and the private network PDR are respectively associated with different URRs, the sending, according to the URRs, a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element specifically includes:

6. The traffic statistics method according to claim 4, wherein when the public network PDR and the private network PDR are associated to the same URR, the sending, according to the URR, a PFCP session report request to the SMF network element specifically includes:

7. A traffic statistics method, characterized in that the method is applied to a session management function SMF network element, comprising:

8. The flow statistics method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

9. A traffic statistics device, characterized in that the device is applied to a user plane function UPF network element, comprising:

10. The traffic statistics device according to claim 9, wherein the PFCP session establishment request or PFCP session modification request further comprises a volume reporting rule URR, the device further comprising:

11. A traffic statistics device, characterized in that the device is applied to a session management function, SMF, network element, comprising:

12. The flow statistic device of claim 11, wherein said device further comprises:

13. An electronic device, comprising:

A processor; and

A memory for storing executable instructions of the processor;

Wherein the processor is configured to perform the flow statistics method of any of claims 1-6 via execution of the executable instructions.

14. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, which when executed by a processor implements the flow statistics method of any of claims 1-6.