CN114629957A

CN114629957A - Network slice processing method and device, storage medium and electronic equipment

Info

Publication number: CN114629957A
Application number: CN202210251031.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张妍; 沈鸿; 王奇文
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-15
Filing date: 2022-03-15
Publication date: 2022-06-14

Abstract

The disclosure provides a network slice processing method, a network slice processing device, a storage medium and electronic equipment, and relates to the technical field of communication. The network slice processing method comprises the following steps: identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of the target user equipment according to the resource use requirements of the target user equipment; if the resources corresponding to the available network slices meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, providing the resources corresponding to the available network slices for the target user equipment to use; and if the resources corresponding to the available network slices do not meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment. The method and the device realize dynamic resource allocation of the network slices so as to improve the utilization rate of the network resources and further reduce the waste of the network resources.

Description

Network slice processing method and device, storage medium and electronic equipment

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a network slice processing method, a network slice processing apparatus, a computer-readable storage medium, and an electronic device.

Background

5G (5th generation mobile networks) was first deployed in densely populated urban areas. In order to realize ultra-high data transmission rate and ultra-low response time (delay), the 5G adopts techniques such as SDN (Software Defined Network) and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) for deployment. The SDN can support the flow management requirement required by distributed processing in a new form, the NFV introduces a concept of network function virtualization, hardware and software parts are separated from a traditional network, the hardware is deployed by a unified server, and the software is born by different network functions, so that the requirement of flexible assembly service is met.

In order to enable SDN and NFV to execute different types of services on a 5G architecture, such as services of URLLC (Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication), mtc (passive Machine Type of Communication), eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband), etc., networks are generally sliced to form network slices with specific resources and functions, which are perceived by users as a dedicated physical network and isolated from other virtual systems. The service-oriented network slice can isolate specific network functions, guarantee certain types of network resources and maintain the continuity of end-to-end services on a physical network, but how to relieve the resource waste of the network slice caused by resource allocation becomes a problem which needs to be solved urgently at present.

It is to be noted that the information disclosed in the above background section is only for enhancement of 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 network slice processing method, a network slice processing device, a computer readable storage medium and an electronic device, thereby alleviating the problem of resource waste of a network slice caused by resource allocation at least to a certain extent.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the detailed description which follows, or in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a network slice processing method, including: a method of network slice processing, the method comprising: identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of target user equipment according to resource use requirements of the target user equipment; if the resources corresponding to the available network slices meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, providing the resources corresponding to the available network slices for the target user equipment to use; and if the resources corresponding to the available network slices do not meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment.

In an exemplary embodiment of the disclosure, before identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of the target user equipment, the method further includes: responding to the network service request of the target user equipment, and performing identity authentication on the target user equipment; and if the identity of the target user equipment passes the authentication, acquiring the resource use requirement of the target user equipment.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the identifying resources corresponding to the available network slices of the target user equipment includes: adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the current network operation state; and determining resources corresponding to the network slices available to the target user equipment based on the adjusted parameter configuration information.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the current network operating state includes: and adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the resource use state, the resource release state and the network flow change state of each network slice.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment includes: determining at least one re-allocated network slice from the network slices, wherein idle resources exist in the re-allocated network slice; and performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment according to the inter-chip sharing function activation state of the reallocation network slice.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the reallocating resources to the target ue according to the inter-chip sharing function activation status of the reallocating network slice includes: when the inter-chip sharing function of the redistribution network slice is activated, extracting resources to be distributed from idle resources corresponding to the redistribution network slices according to preset slice weights corresponding to the redistribution network slices; and when the resource to be allocated meets the resource use requirement of the target user equipment, allocating the resource to be allocated to the target user equipment for use.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the reallocating resources to the target ue according to the inter-chip sharing function activation status of the reallocating network slice includes: when the inter-chip sharing function of the re-distributed network slice is not activated, judging whether the on-chip sharing function of the available network slice is activated or not; reallocating resources within the available network slice for user equipment served by the available network slice when an on-chip sharing function of the available network slice is activated.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a network slice processing apparatus, the apparatus comprising: the available resource identification module is used for identifying resources corresponding to the available network slices of the target user equipment according to the resource use requirements of the target user equipment; a resource service providing module, configured to provide the resource corresponding to the available network slice to the target user equipment for use if the resource corresponding to the available network slice meets the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment; and the resource reallocation module is used for performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment if the resources corresponding to the available network slices do not meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment.

According to a third 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 network slice processing method.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device comprising: a processor; and a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein the processor is configured to perform the above-described network slice processing method via execution of the executable instructions.

The technical scheme of the disclosure has the following beneficial effects:

identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of the target user equipment according to the resource use requirements of the target user equipment in the network slice processing process; if the resources corresponding to the available network slices meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, providing the resources corresponding to the available network slices for the target user equipment to use; and if the resources corresponding to the available network slices do not meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment. In the process, the resource use requirement of the target user equipment is considered, and the resource is redistributed, so that the problem that the network slice cannot meet the user requirement due to improper resource distribution can be avoided, the communication requirement of the user can be better met by the network slice, the network resource utilization rate can be improved, and the waste of network resources is reduced.

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 present disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is apparent that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and that other drawings can be obtained from those drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system architecture on which a network slicing process operates in the present exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of a network slice processing method in the present exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates a real-time dynamic network slicing process flow diagram in the exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of a user equipment service request in the exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates a network slice resource reallocation flow diagram in the exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates a simulated scene diagram of a network slicing process in the present exemplary embodiment;

fig. 7 shows RU and DU profiles for different periods of time in the present exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates a trend graph of changes in the number of active RUs and DUs in the present exemplary embodiment;

fig. 9 is a block diagram showing the structure of a network slice processing apparatus in the present exemplary embodiment;

fig. 10 shows an electronic device for implementing the network slice processing method described above in the present exemplary embodiment.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different 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 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. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments of the disclosure. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the subject matter of the present disclosure can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, devices, steps, and the like. In other instances, well-known technical solutions have not been shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the present disclosure.

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 their repetitive description 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 the form of software, or in one or more hardware modules or integrated circuits, or in different networks and/or processor devices and/or microcontroller devices.

In the related art, there are two common network slicing methods, one is static slicing, and the other is dynamic slicing. When static slicing is performed, fixed and constant resources are generally allocated, but since the load in the network is variable, it is affected by different factors (e.g., difference in use between day and night, change in communication traffic in a geographic area, etc.), and this approach may lead to waste of resources. When dynamic slicing is performed, resources are generally allocated to a specific network slice according to a service type requested by user equipment, but since a 5G communication environment is complex, when a communication channel suddenly changes, a network learning model based on network evolution is seriously affected, so that the method is difficult to apply in an actual scene.

In view of one or more of the above problems, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure provide a network slice processing method.

The method can be applied to a system architecture based on the 5G-3GPP standard as shown in FIG. 1. The system architecture comprises a network side and a user side. The User terminal may be a UE (User Equipment), such as an electronic device with a communication function, such as a vehicle-mounted system device and a mobile phone terminal device. The Network includes a RAN (Radio Access Network), a CN (Core Network) and a bearer Network. The RAN may be configured to connect the CN and the UE, and may be, for example, a 5G base station, where the 5G base station is referred to as a gnnodeb in the 3GPP standard, and may be composed of a RRH (Remote Radio Head), a DU (Distributed Unit), and a CU (Centralized Unit); the bearer network is used for being responsible for the connection between network elements of the 5G access network (namely between RRH, DU and CU), and can be divided into forward transmission, intermediate transmission, backward transmission and the like based on the difference of the connection positions; the CN has specific functions of a control plane and a user plane, and can communicate through a specific network interface and protocol.

In addition, a SDN agent may be configured for a gnnodeb in a system architecture, and the SDN agent is used for transmitting signaling between an SDN controller and a control plane. The role of the SDN controller is to monitor the state of the underlying network, e.g. by monitoring the RAN and CN parts, collecting network statistics and issuing new slice configurations when needed. On the control plane of the CN, the SDN controller and SDN agent may also share radio parameters such as frequency, amount of resources, transmission gain, etc. These are all necessary to configure SDR (Software Defined Radio).

It should be noted that, the network slicing is to divide a physical network into a plurality of virtual networks on a logical level, and flexibly allocate network resources to different user equipments as needed by means of related software, so as to satisfy individual requirements of each user and ensure mutual isolation of network resources among different user equipments. In a network slice, at least three parts of RAN subslice, bearer network subslices and CN subslices are divided, and each network slice is logically isolated from the RAN to the bearer network and then to the CN so as to adapt to various types of applications. Specifically, the network slice processing method in the present disclosure may be performed by a 5G base station in the system architecture.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic flow of a network slice processing method in the present exemplary embodiment, including the following steps S210 to S230:

step S210, identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of the target user equipment according to the resource use requirements of the target user equipment;

step S220, if the resources corresponding to the available network slices meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, providing the resources corresponding to the available network slices for the target user equipment to use;

in step S230, if the resource corresponding to the available network slice does not meet the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment, the resource is reallocated to the target user equipment.

In the network slice processing process, the resource is redistributed by considering the resource use requirement of the target user equipment, so that the problem that the network slice cannot meet the user requirement due to improper resource distribution can be avoided, the communication requirement of the user can be better met by the network slice, the network resource utilization rate can be improved, and the waste of network resources is reduced.

It should be noted that, before performing step S210, the operator may send the location of the ue parameter database to the CN responsible for user management in advance, so that the ue parameter database can be subsequently accessed through an interface provided by the CN to an external network. The user equipment parameter database may be obtained by an operator by registering user equipment parameters in the database, and the user equipment parameters may be parameter information such as an international mobile subscriber identity, a public land mobile network, an access point name, an operator key, and the like. In addition, the CN and the RAN may be initialized, so that each block in the CN is in an active state and synchronized, and the RAN can connect to the CN, then initialize the parameter configuration information of the network slice, and send the parameter configuration information of the initialized network slice to the RAN and the CN, so as to facilitate the later management of the network slice, where the parameter configuration information of the network slice may be, for example, the oriented service type, the resource allocation amount, and other parameter information. When the parameter configuration information of the network slice is initialized, equal amount of resources may be allocated to each network slice, and resources in a corresponding proportion may also be allocated to each network slice based on a preset proportion, which is not specifically limited by the present disclosure.

Each step in fig. 2 will be described in detail below.

Step S210, identifying resources corresponding to the available network slice of the target user equipment according to the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment.

The target user equipment may be the user equipment that initiated the network service request. When the existence of the target user equipment is detected, the available network slices of the target user equipment and the resources corresponding to the available network slices can be identified from the plurality of network slices. The available network slice here refers to a network slice that matches the type of service requested by the target user equipment. The resources corresponding to the available network slice refer to the network resources allocated for the available network slice. After determining the resources corresponding to the available network slice, it may be determined whether the resources corresponding to the available network slice can meet the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment.

In an optional implementation manner, before identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of the target user equipment, the target user equipment may further be authenticated in response to a network service request of the target user equipment; and if the identity of the target user equipment passes the authentication, acquiring the resource use requirement of the target user equipment.

When the target user equipment is detected to send a network service request to the 5G base station, the identity verification program is activated, and whether the user identity authentication parameters carried in the network service request of the target user equipment are matched with the parameter information recorded in the user equipment parameter database or not can be judged by calling the user equipment parameter database. And if the user identity authentication parameters carried in the network service request of the target user equipment are matched with the parameter information recorded in the user equipment parameter database, the identity verification of the target user equipment is passed. If the identity of the target user equipment passes the authentication, the network service request of the target user equipment is accepted, the resource use requirement of the target user equipment is obtained, otherwise, the network service request of the target user equipment is refused.

In the process, the user equipment is subjected to identity authentication so as to determine the validity of the user identity, avoid the malicious resource occupation of the user equipment and further improve the network security.

In an optional implementation manner, when identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of the target user equipment, the following may be further implemented: adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the current network operation state; and determining resources corresponding to the network slices available to the target user equipment based on the adjusted parameter configuration information.

The parameter configuration information of the network slice may be information related to network slice configuration, such as a type of service provided, a total amount of resources allocated, an inter-slice shared function active state, an intra-slice shared function active state, and the like. In the above process, dynamic optimization of the network slice is implemented based on the current network operating state, so as to allocate an optimal amount of network resources for each network slice (e.g., eMBB, URLLC, mtc). In this case, when the network slice in which the unused idle resources in the network slice are located does not change, the unused idle resources do not need to be isolated again. It should be noted that the above process can be executed in a background mode to reduce the load of a Central Processing Unit (CPU). In allocating network resources for each network slice, the allocation may be made based on a particular granularity (e.g., a frame length) to better understand the granularity of resource allocation.

In an optional implementation manner, when the parameter configuration information of each network slice is adjusted according to the current network operating state, the parameter configuration information of each network slice may be adjusted according to a resource usage state, a resource release state, and a network traffic change state of each network slice.

The network operation state may include a resource usage state, a resource release state, and a network traffic change state of the network slice, which affect the network resource allocation. In addition, the parameter configuration of the network slice may be optimized by considering the following factors: ongoing services in the network, unpredictable traffic variations, network resources released by a user equipment completing a service session, and variations in service type (e.g., from eMBB to URLLC) during persistent transmissions of the same user equipment, etc. In the process, various influence factors are comprehensively considered to continuously optimize the parameter configuration information of the network slice, so that the adaptability of the network slice to the current network environment is improved.

When the parameter configuration information of each network slice is adjusted, the currently required throughput of each network slice may be predicted, and the parameter configuration information of each network slice may be adjusted based on the predicted throughput of each network slice, so that the number of resources allocated to the network slice may satisfy the currently actual throughput of the network slice as much as possible. In the process, the optimal number of resources are allocated to the network slice as much as possible through the adjustment of the parameter configuration information, so that the delay caused by resource reconfiguration when a new network service request arrives is reduced.

Fig. 3 provides a flow chart of a real-time dynamic network slicing process, which may specifically include the following steps:

step S301, acquiring resource usage demand of target user equipment;

step S302, adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the current network operation state;

step S303, based on the adjusted parameter configuration information, performing resource scheduling on each network slice, and outputting the resource amount corresponding to the available network slice after resource scheduling;

step S304, judging whether the resource quantity corresponding to the available network slice after the resource scheduling meets the resource use requirement of the target user equipment.

When the parameter configuration information of each network slice is adjusted according to the current network operating state, the parameter configuration information of each network slice may be predicted at the current time t according to the current network operating state, and may be used as the parameter configuration of each network slice at the next time t +1, for example, eMBB (t +1) - > eMBB _ est (t), URLLC (t +1) - > URLLC _ est (t), mtc (t +1) - > mtc _ est (t). The eMBB _ est (t), the URLLC _ est (t), and the mMTC _ est (t) are respectively parameter configuration information predicted by the eMBB, the URLLC and the mMTC network slices at the time t, the eMBB (t +1), the URLLC (t +1) and the mMTC (t +1) are respectively parameter configuration information of the eMBB, the URLLC and the mMTC network slices at the time t +1, and the eMBB (t +1) - > eMBB _ est (t) represents that the parameter configuration information predicted by the eMBB network slices at the time t is taken as the parameter configuration information of the eMBB at the time t + 1; URLLC (t +1) - > URLLC _ est (t) represents that the parameter configuration information predicted by URLLC network slice at time t is taken as the parameter configuration information of URLLC at time t +1, and mtc (t +1) - > mtc _ est (t) represents that the parameter configuration information predicted by mtc network slice at time t is taken as the parameter configuration information of mtc at time t + 1.

In the step shown in fig. 3, the network evolution is made to conform to the optimal resource configuration as much as possible by continuously optimizing the parameter configuration information of the network slice.

Step S220, if the resource corresponding to the available network slice meets the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment, providing the resource corresponding to the available network slice to the target user equipment for use.

If the determined resources corresponding to the available network Slice can meet the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment, i.e. Slice _ X _ res (t) >, UE _ req, then the resources allocated by the available network Slice are provided for the target user equipment to use, the target user equipment is connected to the available network Slice, and the resource usage status parameters of the available network Slice are updated. Wherein, Slice _ X _ res (t) is the resource amount corresponding to the available network Slice, and UE _ req is the resource usage demand of the target UE.

Step S230, if the resource corresponding to the available network slice does not meet the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment, performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment.

And if the resources corresponding to the determined available network slices cannot meet the resource use requirement of the target user equipment, namely Slice _ X _ res (t) < UE _ req, performing resource reallocation.

It should be noted that, when performing resource redistribution, homogeneous resource distribution may be applied among the network slices to distribute relatively similar network resources for the network slices as much as possible, so that data processing of each network slice is more targeted.

As shown in fig. 4, the flowchart related to the user equipment service request may specifically include the following steps:

step S401, start;

step S402, initializing a 5G RAN domain and a 5G CN domain, and loading default parameter configuration information of each network slice;

step S403, determining whether a target ue initiates a network service request, if so, executing step S404, and if not, executing step S403 in a circulating manner;

step S404, the identity of the target user equipment is verified, if the verification is passed, the step S405 is executed, if the verification is unsuccessful, the network service request of the target user equipment is refused, and the step S410 is skipped;

step S405, obtaining the resource usage demand UE _ req of the target user equipment;

step S406, identifying the resource amount Slice _ X _ res (t) corresponding to the available network Slice at the current moment;

step S407 of determining whether the resource amount corresponding to the available network Slice at the current time satisfies the resource usage requirement of the target UE, that is, whether Slice _ X _ res (t) > (UE _ req) is true, if true, executing step S408, and if not, executing step S409;

step S408, satisfying the network service request of the target user equipment and updating the resource usage of the available network slice, and jumping to step S410;

step S409, performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment;

and step S410, ending.

In the step shown in fig. 4, network resources are allocated to the user equipment based on the resource usage demand of the user equipment, and dynamic allocation of network slices is implemented to improve the utilization rate of the network resources.

It should be noted that, when re-allocating resources to each network slice, a slice manager tool may be designed, and the re-allocation process of resources is implemented by calling the slice manager tool. The slice management tool may communicate with the RAN and CN domains via the CP specification in 5G to ensure compliance with the 3GPP standard solution. In addition, the slice management tool can also acquire the resource amount corresponding to each network slice so as to monitor the resources corresponding to the network slices in real time.

In an optional embodiment, the reallocation of resources to the target ue in step S230 may be implemented by: determining at least one re-distribution network slice from each network slice, wherein idle resources exist in the re-distribution network slice; and performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment according to the inter-chip sharing function activation state of the reallocation network slice.

A reallocated network slice refers to a network slice that contains free resources that can be used by a target user equipment. It should be noted that the reallocation network slice may or may not include the determined available network slice, which may be set according to practical situations, and this disclosure is not limited in this regard.

When at least one network slice has available unused idle resources, the network slices corresponding to the idle resources can be used as the re-distribution network slices, a slice management tool is called to detect whether the inter-slice sharing function of the re-distribution network slices is activated, and when the inter-slice sharing function of the re-distribution network slices is activated, the idle resources corresponding to the re-distribution network slices are re-distributed to realize resource scheduling among different network slices, so that the network can meet the resource use requirement of target user equipment as soon as possible, the resource utilization rate is improved, and the waiting for the release of resources by other user equipment is not needed.

In an alternative embodiment, the reallocation of resources to the target user equipment based on the inter-chip shared function activation status of the reallocated network slice includes: when the inter-chip sharing function of the re-distribution network slices is activated, extracting resources to be distributed from idle resources corresponding to the re-distribution network slices according to preset slice weights corresponding to the re-distribution network slices; and when the resource to be allocated meets the resource use requirement of the target user equipment, allocating the resource to be allocated to the target user equipment for use.

When the inter-slice sharing function of the re-allocated network slices is activated, the slice management tool may extract a certain amount of resources to be allocated from each re-allocated network slice according to a particular slice weight. In addition, the slice management tool can also extract the resource quantity of the re-allocated network slices in sequence according to a specific arrangement order, and stop the extraction operation until the sum of the resource quantity to be allocated is greater than or equal to the resource use requirement of the target user equipment.

In the process, the resources to be distributed are extracted based on the preset slice weight, so that the resource allocation of each network slice can be balanced, and the problem that the normal operation of the network is influenced due to extraction transition of the resources corresponding to a certain network slice can be avoided.

In an alternative embodiment, the reallocation of resources to the target user equipment based on the inter-chip shared function activation status of the reallocated network slice includes: when the inter-chip sharing function of the re-distributed network slice is not activated, judging whether the on-chip sharing function of the available network slice is activated or not; when the on-chip sharing function of the available network slice is activated, resources are reallocated within the available network slice for each user equipment served by the available network slice.

The on-chip sharing function means that resources within the same network slice can be shared by a plurality of user equipments at the same time. Under the condition that the resources corresponding to the available network slices do not meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, if the inter-chip sharing function of the re-allocated network slices is not activated, whether the on-chip sharing function of the available network slices is activated or not can be further judged, so that the required service can be provided for the target user equipment as soon as possible, and the waiting time of the target user equipment is reduced. It should be noted that, if the available network slice is not configured for the on-chip resource for the first time, the target ue may be redirected to perform a new resource reallocation.

As shown in fig. 5, a network slice resource reallocation flowchart is provided, which specifically includes the following steps:

step S501, start;

step S502, traversing each network slice, and judging whether each network slice has a network slice containing idle resources at the time t, namely a network slice to be distributed, if so, executing step S503, otherwise, skipping to step S509;

step S503, judging whether the inter-chip sharing function of the re-distributed network slice is activated, if so, executing step S504, otherwise, skipping to step S506;

step S504, traversing the idle resources of each redistribution network Slice to make sum (Slice _ X '_ free _ res (t) _ Slice _ X' _ w) > (UE _ req), and updating resource allocation of each redistribution network Slice by calculating Slice _ X '_ res (t +1) ═ Slice _ X' _ res (t) - (Slice _ X '_ free _ res (t) _ Slice _ X' _ w), and performing corresponding resource scheduling;

step S505, judging whether the resource amount corresponding to the available network slice X of the target user equipment at the time t +1 meets UE _ req, and jumping to step S510;

step S506, judging whether the in-chip sharing function of the available network slice X is activated, if so, executing step S507, otherwise, skipping to step S509;

step S507, determining whether the available network slice X is configured for the first time for the in-chip resource, if so, executing step S508, otherwise, skipping to step S509;

step S508, reallocating resources in the available network slice for each user equipment served by the available network slice X, and jumping to step S510;

step S509, redirecting the target ue;

and step S510, ending.

In the step shown in fig. 5, resource reallocation of network slices is performed through inter-slice sharing and intra-slice sharing, so as to improve resource utilization rate and reduce waste of network resources. The Slice _ X '_ res (t) represents the resource amount of the network Slice X' to be allocated at the time t, the Slice _ X '_ free _ res (t) represents the free resource amount released by the network Slice X' to be allocated at the time t, the UE _ req represents the resource usage demand of the target user equipment, the Slice _ X '_ res (t +1) represents the resource amount of the network Slice X' to be allocated at the time t +1, and the Slice _ X '_ w represents the preset Slice weight corresponding to the network Slice X' to be allocated.

In addition, the present disclosure also provides a simulated scene of network slicing process, which is a city center city block model (9 × 9 streets) with grid-shaped roads, specifically as shown in fig. 6, wherein RUs are deployed on the traffic signal or sign of each intersection, 6 JP (Jumper Switch) are randomly deployed on each street, and adjacent RUs are grouped into one group as shown by the dashed box in fig. 6. The delay requirement of the forward transmission is set to be 100 mus, and the processing delay and the time slot length of each hop are both 20 mus. Note that, in this simulation scenario, when an RU is activated, an RU included in an RU group to which the RU belongs is also activated.

The effectiveness of the proposed network architecture in this simulation scenario can be evaluated by calculating the activation state of the RU and the location where the DU is located for each time period. Considering that the usage rate of the RU is low at night, some RUs may be activated during the night period, and (a) - (c) in fig. 7 respectively show the activated RUs at time t 2, t 3, and t 4, and distribution of communicable paths among nodes, and (d) - (f) in fig. 7 respectively depict locations where the DU is located at time t 2, t 3, and t 4 and forwarding paths of previous flows. Where t-2, t-3 and t-4 above have 60%, 40% and 20% RU activation, respectively. In the simulation scenario, when the activation state of the RUs changes, the distribution of the RUs in the neighborhood model is changed, the RU in the activation state needs to be relocated, and a data stream generated by the user terminal can be forwarded through a wireless relay between the RUs. Fig. 8 shows the changes of the number of RU and DU at time t-1 to t-4, respectively, where the time period t-1 has 100% of RU in active state, RU (prop.) represents RU that may be in active state, RU (stat.) represents RU that can be activated, DU (prop.) represents DU that may be in active state, and DU (stat.) represents DU that can be activated, and it can be seen that the architecture greatly reduces the number of RU and DU nodes in active state.

The scene model reduces the consumption of network resources by continuously optimizing the distribution positions of the RU and DU nodes and the wireless transmission path, and the real-time dynamic network slice processing method disclosed by the invention is applied to the scene of the scene model due to the characteristic that the distribution positions of the RU and DU nodes have dynamic changes, so that the scene model can be well adapted to the dynamic characteristics of the distribution positions of the RU and DU nodes.

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a network slice processing apparatus, as shown in fig. 9, the network slice processing apparatus 900 may include:

an available resource identification module 910, configured to identify, according to a resource usage requirement of a target user equipment, a resource corresponding to an available network slice of the target user equipment;

a resource service providing module 920, configured to provide the resource corresponding to the available network slice to the target user equipment for use if the resource corresponding to the available network slice meets the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment;

the resource reallocation module 930 is configured to reallocate the resource to the target user equipment if the resource corresponding to the available network slice does not meet the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment.

In an optional implementation manner, before identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of the target user equipment, the network slice processing apparatus 900 may further include: the request response module is used for responding to the network service request of the target user equipment and carrying out identity authentication on the target user equipment; and the requirement acquisition module is used for acquiring the resource use requirement of the target user equipment if the identity authentication of the target user equipment passes.

In an optional implementation manner, the available resource identification module 910 may further include: the slice parameter adjusting module is used for adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the current network operation state; and the resource identification module is used for determining the resources corresponding to the network slices available to the target user equipment based on the adjusted parameter configuration information.

In an alternative embodiment, the slice parameter adjustment module may be configured to: and adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the resource use state, the resource release state and the network flow change state of each network slice.

In an optional implementation manner, the resource reallocation module 930 may further include: the reallocation network slice determining module is used for determining at least one reallocation network slice from the network slices, and idle resources exist in the reallocation network slices; and the resource reallocation sub-module is used for reallocating the resources of the target user equipment according to the inter-chip sharing function activation state of the reallocation network slice.

In an optional embodiment, the resource reallocation sub-module may be configured to: when the inter-chip sharing function of the re-distribution network slices is activated, extracting resources to be distributed from idle resources corresponding to the re-distribution network slices according to preset slice weights corresponding to the re-distribution network slices; and when the resource to be allocated meets the resource use requirement of the target user equipment, allocating the resource to be allocated to the target user equipment for use.

In an optional embodiment, the resource reallocation sub-module may be further configured to: when the inter-chip sharing function of the re-distributed network slice is not activated, judging whether the on-chip sharing function of the available network slice is activated or not; when the on-chip sharing function of the available network slice is activated, resources are reallocated within the available network slice for each user equipment served by the available network slice.

The specific details of each part in the network slice processing apparatus 900 are described in detail in the method part embodiment, and details that are not disclosed may refer to the method part embodiment, and thus are not described again.

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program product capable of implementing the above-described network slice processing method of the present specification. In some possible embodiments, various aspects of the disclosure may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code for causing an electronic device to perform the steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the disclosure described in the above-mentioned "exemplary methods" section of this specification, when the program product is run on the electronic device. The program product may employ a portable compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) and include program code, and may be run on an electronic device, such as a personal computer. However, the program product of the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and in this document, a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program product may employ any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. A readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, 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.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take many forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A readable signal medium may 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.

Program code embodied on a readable 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.

Program code for carrying out operations for 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 computing device, partly on the target user device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user computing device and partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of a remote computing device, 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., through the internet using an internet service provider).

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure also provide an electronic device capable of implementing the network slice processing method. An electronic device 1000 according to such an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 10. The electronic device 1000 shown in fig. 10 is only an example and should not bring any limitation to the functions and the scope of use of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 10, the electronic device 1000 may be embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. The components of the electronic device 1000 may include, but are not limited to: at least one processing unit 1010, at least one memory unit 1020, a bus 1030 that couples various system components including the memory unit 1020 and the processing unit 1010, and a display unit 1040.

The memory unit 1020 stores program code that may be executed by the processing unit 1010 to cause the processing unit 1010 to perform steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure described in the "exemplary methods" section above in this specification. For example, processing unit 1010 may perform any one or more of the method steps of fig. 2-5.

The memory unit 1020 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory units, such as a random access memory unit (RAM)1021 and/or a cache memory unit 1022, and may further include a read-only memory unit (ROM) 1023.

Storage unit 1020 may also include a program/utility 1024 having a set (at least one) of program modules 1025, such program modules 1025 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each of which, or some combination thereof, may comprise an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 1030 may be any 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, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 1000 may also communicate with one or more external devices 1100 (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 devices (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enable the electronic device 1000 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur through input/output (I/O) interfaces 1050. Also, the electronic device 1000 may communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network such as the Internet) via the network adapter 1060. As shown, the network adapter 1060 communicates with the 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 conjunction with the electronic device 1000, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems, among others.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily understand that the exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented by software, or by software in combination with necessary hardware. Therefore, 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 (which may be a CD-ROM, a usb disk, a removable hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to enable a computing device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a terminal device, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method according to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

Furthermore, the above-described figures are merely schematic illustrations of processes included in methods according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, and are not intended to be limiting. It will be readily understood that the processes shown in the above figures are not intended to indicate or limit the chronological order of the processes. In addition, it is also readily understood that these processes may be performed synchronously or asynchronously, e.g., in multiple modules.

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

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied as a system, method or program product. Accordingly, various aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of: an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, microcode, etc.) or an embodiment combining hardware and software aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," module "or" system. 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 application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure following, in general, the 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.

It will be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the precise arrangements described above and shown in the drawings and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the present disclosure is to be limited only by the terms of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for network slice processing, the method comprising:

identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of target user equipment according to resource use requirements of the target user equipment;

if the resources corresponding to the available network slices meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, providing the resources corresponding to the available network slices for the target user equipment to use;

and if the resources corresponding to the available network slices do not meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment, performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to identifying resources corresponding to available network slices for the target user device, the method further comprises:

responding to the network service request of the target user equipment, and performing identity authentication on the target user equipment;

and if the identity of the target user equipment passes the authentication, acquiring the resource use requirement of the target user equipment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying resources corresponding to available network slices of the target user equipment comprises:

adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the current network operation state;

and determining resources corresponding to the network slices available to the target user equipment based on the adjusted parameter configuration information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the current network operating state comprises:

and adjusting the parameter configuration information of each network slice according to the resource use state, the resource release state and the network flow change state of each network slice.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-allocating resources to the target ue comprises:

determining at least one re-allocated network slice from the network slices, wherein idle resources exist in the re-allocated network slice;

and performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment according to the inter-chip sharing function activation state of the reallocation network slice.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the reallocating resources to the target UE according to the inter-chip shared function active status of the reallocating network slice comprises:

when the inter-chip sharing function of the redistribution network slice is activated, extracting resources to be distributed from idle resources corresponding to the redistribution network slices according to preset slice weights corresponding to the redistribution network slices;

and when the resource to be allocated meets the resource use requirement of the target user equipment, allocating the resource to be allocated to the target user equipment for use.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the reallocating resources of the target UE according to the inter-chip sharing function active status of the reallocation network slice comprises:

when the inter-chip sharing function of the redistribution network slice is not activated, judging whether the on-chip sharing function of the available network slice is activated;

reallocating resources within the available network slice for user equipment served by the available network slice when an on-chip sharing function of the available network slice is activated.

8. A network slice processing apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

the available resource identification module is used for identifying resources corresponding to the available network slices of the target user equipment according to the resource use requirements of the target user equipment;

a resource service providing module, configured to provide the resource corresponding to the available network slice to the target user equipment for use if the resource corresponding to the available network slice meets the resource usage requirement of the target user equipment;

and the resource reallocation module is used for performing resource reallocation on the target user equipment if the resources corresponding to the available network slices do not meet the resource use requirements of the target user equipment.

9. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which, when being executed by a processor, carries out the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor;

wherein the processor is configured to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 7 via execution of the executable instructions.