CN115314409B

CN115314409B - Network state information acquisition method and system

Info

Publication number: CN115314409B
Application number: CN202210851138.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 马骁; 周傲; 任蒙; 邢若粼; 徐梦炜; 李元哲; 孙其博; 王尚广
Original assignee: Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Current assignee: Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Priority date: 2022-07-20
Filing date: 2022-07-20
Publication date: 2024-02-06
Anticipated expiration: 2042-07-20
Also published as: CN115314409A

Abstract

The invention provides a method and a system for acquiring network state information, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, a first user plane device analyzes a first GTP-U message, collects first INT metadata of the first user plane device according to INT instructions issued by control plane devices in advance, generates a second GTP-U message and sends the second GTP-U message to second user plane devices, then the second user plane device analyzes the second GTP-U message, collects second INT metadata of the second user plane device according to the INT instructions, sends the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane device, and finally, the control plane device receives the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata and stores the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata in a preset database. In the application, the application of in-band network telemetry in a core network is realized by collecting the INT metadata of each user plane device, and the network state information perception of high-precision and various service flows can be realized based on the INT metadata.

Description

Network state information acquisition method and system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and a system for acquiring network status information.

Background

In recent years, with the continuous emergence of new network applications such as virtual reality and outdoor live broadcast, and the continuous improvement of network service quality assurance requirements of users, mobile data traffic is rapidly increasing. Such a huge traffic load increases the difficulty and overhead of deployment and subsequent operation, maintenance, management of the mobile operator UPF (User Plane Function ). Meanwhile, in order to accommodate the high-speed development of multi-access edge computing (MEC), a control plane and user plane separation (cup) architecture is adopted by a core network: i.e. the control plane of the core network is deployed in a centralized way, one control plane SMF (Session Management Function ) manages a plurality of UPFs at the same time, without affecting the performance of the core network; the user plane of the core network is distributed and deployed, and a plurality of UPFs can be distributed and deployed flexibly as required. How to efficiently monitor and manage the user plane traffic of the core network and quickly locate the network fault location becomes a technical problem to be solved.

In the related art, the SNMP technology is adopted to monitor and collect the basic flow information of the network bottom equipment, however, the data collected by the measurement mode has fewer types and thicker granularity, and meanwhile, only one UPF local state information can be monitored, but the global information such as the network state of the user plane of the whole core network can not be monitored, so that the method has certain limitation.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a method and a system for acquiring network state information, which aim to solve the problems in the background technology.

In order to solve the technical problems, the invention is realized as follows:

in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for acquiring network status information, where the method includes:

the first user plane device analyzes the first GTP-U message, collects first INT metadata of the first user plane device according to the INT indication sent by the control plane device in advance, generates a second GTP-U message comprising the INT indication and the first INT metadata, and sends the second GTP-U message to the second user plane device;

the second user plane device analyzes the second GTP-U message to obtain an INT indication and first INT metadata, collects the second INT metadata of the second user plane device according to the INT indication, and sends the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane device;

the control plane device receives the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata and stores the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata in a preset database.

Optionally, before the step of receiving the first GTP-U message by the first user plane device, the method further includes:

the control plane device determines target user plane devices according to whether each user plane device supports an INT function;

According to network state monitoring requirements input by a user, determining first user plane equipment and second user plane equipment from target user plane equipment;

the control plane device sends a first deployment instruction and an INT instruction to the first user plane device, and sends a deployment instruction to the second user plane device and a second deployment instruction;

after receiving the first deployment instruction, the first user plane equipment switches the working mode into a working mode matched with the first deployment instruction, and updates a network monitoring table of the first user plane equipment;

and after the second user plane equipment receives the second deployment instruction, switching the working mode into a working mode matched with the second deployment instruction, and updating a network monitoring table of the second user plane equipment.

Optionally, the step of generating a second GTP-U message including the INT indication and the first INT metadata includes:

acquiring a service flow data packet and a tunnel endpoint identifier in a first GTP-U message;

determining whether the traffic data packet requires the addition of an INT header according to the tunnel endpoint identifier;

under the condition that the fact that the INT header needs to be added to the service flow data packet is determined, determining the size relation between the target storage space occupied by the INT header and the first INT metadata and a preset storage space threshold;

And under the condition that the target storage space is smaller than or equal to the storage space threshold value, inserting the first INT metadata and the INT indication into the first GTP-U message, and packaging the first GTP-U message and the business flow data packet together to generate a second GTP-U message.

Optionally, in the case that the target storage space is greater than the storage space threshold, the method further comprises:

directly forwarding the first GTP-U message to second user plane equipment, inserting the first INT metadata into the empty GTP-U message, updating the flag bit of the INT header, and generating a third GTP-U message; wherein the third GTP-U message does not contain a service flow data packet, or

And directly forwarding the first GTP-U message to second user plane equipment, generating an event report, and sending the event report to control plane equipment.

Optionally, after the step of transmitting the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane device, the method further comprises:

the second user plane device encapsulates the service flow data packet in the second GTP-U message into a fourth GTP-U message and sends the fourth GTP-U message to the target edge server;

and the target edge server executes the corresponding service task according to the fourth GTP-U message.

Optionally, the method further comprises: and sending the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane equipment through the first thread, and simultaneously sending a fourth GTP-U message to the target edge server through the second thread.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

responding to network state analysis requirements input by a user, extracting information matched with the network state analysis requirements from a preset database, and analyzing equipment-level network state parameters; and/or

Responding to network state analysis demands input by users, extracting information matched with network state analysis instructions from a preset database, and analyzing data stream level network state parameters; wherein the device-level network state parameters include at least a CPU load and the data flow-level network state parameters include at least a network delay.

A second aspect of an embodiment of the present invention provides a system for acquiring network status information, where the system includes:

the first acquisition module is used for analyzing the first GTP-U message by the first user plane equipment, collecting first INT metadata of the first user plane equipment according to the INT indication sent by the control plane equipment in advance, generating a second GTP-U message comprising the INT indication and the first INT metadata, and sending the second GTP-U message to the second user plane equipment;

the second acquisition module is used for analyzing the second GTP-U message by the second user plane equipment, obtaining the INT indication and the first INT metadata, collecting the second INT metadata of the second user plane equipment according to the INT indication, and sending the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane equipment;

The data storage module is used for receiving the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata by the control plane device and storing the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata in a preset database.

Optionally, the system further comprises a deployment module, the deployment module comprising:

the attribute acquisition sub-module is used for determining target user plane equipment according to whether each user plane equipment supports an INT function or not;

the device screening submodule is used for determining a first user plane device and a second user plane device from target user plane devices according to network state monitoring requirements input by users;

the instruction sending submodule is used for sending a first deployment instruction and an INT instruction to the first user-plane equipment by the control-plane equipment and sending a deployment instruction to the second user-plane equipment and a second deployment instruction;

the first execution sub-module is used for switching the working mode into the working mode matched with the first deployment instruction after the first user plane equipment receives the first deployment instruction, and updating a network monitoring table of the first user plane equipment;

and the second execution sub-module is used for switching the working mode into the working mode matched with the second deployment instruction after the second user plane equipment receives the second deployment instruction, and updating the network monitoring table of the second user plane equipment.

Optionally, the first acquisition module includes:

the identification acquisition sub-module is used for acquiring a service flow data packet and a tunnel endpoint identifier in the first GTP-U message;

a first judging sub-module, configured to determine, according to the tunnel endpoint identifier, whether the traffic flow packet needs to be added with an INT header;

the second judging sub-module is used for determining the size relation between the target storage space occupied by the INT header and the first INT metadata and a preset storage space threshold value under the condition that the INT header needs to be added to the service flow data packet is determined;

and the message generation sub-module is used for inserting the first INT metadata and the INT indication into the first GTP-U message and packaging the first GTP-U message and the business flow data packet together to generate a second GTP-U message under the condition that the target storage space is smaller than or equal to the storage space threshold value.

A third aspect of the embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device, including a processor, a communication interface, a memory, and a communication bus, where the processor, the communication interface, and the memory complete communication with each other through the communication bus;

a memory for storing a computer program;

and the processor is used for realizing the method steps provided by the first aspect of the embodiment of the invention when executing the program stored in the memory.

A fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention proposes a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements a method as proposed in the first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention.

The embodiment of the invention has the following advantages: firstly, a first user plane device analyzes a first GTP-U message, collects first INT metadata of the first user plane device according to an INT indication sent by control plane device in advance, generates a second GTP-U message comprising the INT indication and the first INT metadata, and sends the second GTP-U message to a second user plane device, then the second user plane device analyzes the second GTP-U message, obtains the INT indication and the first INT metadata, collects second INT metadata of the second user plane device according to the INT indication, sends the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane device, and finally, the control plane device receives the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata and stores the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata in a preset database. In the application, the application of in-band network telemetry in a core network is realized by collecting the INT metadata of each user plane device, and the network state information perception of high-precision and various service flows can be realized based on the INT metadata.

In some embodiments of the present application, the present invention has good compatibility, so that the user plane device that cannot support the technology of the present invention can also correctly forward the GTP-U packet carrying the INT metadata.

In some embodiments of the present application, in the process of collecting the INT metadata, the forwarding of the traffic is not affected, i.e. the user's requirement on the traffic transmission speed can be ensured.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings that are required in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly described, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the invention, and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

Fig. 1 is a topology structure diagram of a core network user plane device in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating steps of a method for acquiring network status information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a GTP-U message format with INT information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a network status information acquisition system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments of the present invention will be made clearly and fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which it is evident that the embodiments described are some, but not all embodiments of the invention. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the invention without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the invention.

In the conventional traffic monitoring method, operators often use SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol ) technology to monitor and collect basic traffic information of network bottom devices, for example: the number of received packets, the number of bytes, etc. However, this measurement method has a certain limitation, for example, the collected data type is less and the granularity is thicker, and meanwhile, only local state information of a certain UPF (User Plane Function ) can be monitored, but global information such as network state of the user plane of the whole core network cannot be monitored. This greatly limits the implementation of carrier network failure localization and fine-grained scheduling of session traffic per user.

The proposal of In-band network telemetry (In-band Network Telemetry, INT) technology provides a completely new framework for network state sensing. In-band network telemetry is a framework for network data plane collection and reporting of network status without network control plane intervention. In the framework, the main packet processing flow is as follows: 1. when a common data message arrives at a first node of an in-band network telemetry system, an in-band network telemetry module inserts an INT head and related telemetry information into a corresponding message in a certain sampling mode; 2. when the message is forwarded to the intermediate node, the corresponding equipment is matched with the INT head and relevant telemetry information is inserted; 3. when the message is forwarded to the last hop of the telemetry system, the corresponding device matches the INT header and inserts the last telemetry information, and then extracts all telemetry information and sends the telemetry information to a telemetry server; 4. the telemetry server analyzes and extracts telemetry information sent by each node and reports the telemetry information to an upper application program for processing. The INT technology is applied to the user plane of the core network, so that effective support can be provided for related functions of fault monitoring, flow scheduling, flow visualization and the like of the core network. However, current in-band network telemetry implementations focus on the IP layer and cannot be directly applied to UPF of the core network.

Therefore, aiming at the current situation that the UPF of the current core network does not support INT technology and the network state information sensing requirement of finer granularity and higher precision on the state of user plane traffic in the core network, the inventor provides the technical conception of the application: the UPF equipment adds INT data information and INT heads into GTP-U messages carrying the actual service flow of the user plane of the core network, and other relevant UPF equipment collects relevant INT metadata of the UPF equipment according to the indication of the added INT heads and updates the INT data information of the corresponding GTP-U messages. Finally, the in-band network telemetry of the user plane of the whole core network is realized by collecting and analyzing all INT metadata, and a network state information sensing function with finer granularity and higher precision is provided.

The topology diagram of the core network user plane device shown in fig. 1 includes: the 5G RAN (Radio Access Network ), it is understood that the 5G RAN may be understood as a base station device, configured to receive a service traffic packet sent by a user through a mobile terminal, and an I-UPF (Intermediate UPF) configured to transfer an uplink and downlink service traffic packet between the 5G RAN and the a-UPF. And the A-UPF (Anchor UPF) is used for sending the service flow data packet of the user to the corresponding edge server DN and receiving feedback data generated by the edge server DN according to the service data. The existing method can only monitor the state information of a certain UPF, and as an example, the existing method can only monitor the data such as the receiving number, the byte number and the like of the I-UPF data packet, but cannot monitor the network state information of equipment such as A-UPF, 5G RAN and the like. And, when the entire network fails, network failure localization cannot be performed.

Before implementing the method steps of the present application, functional configuration needs to be performed on user plane equipment in a core network, which specifically includes:

In this embodiment, as further shown in fig. 1, a control plane device is added to the topology structure of the existing core network user plane device, where the control plane device may be an INT data collection server, and the user plane device may be a-UPF, 5G RAN, I-UPF, etc., where the solid double-headed arrow part in fig. 1 represents a data transmission process of a GTP-U packet including a service flow packet, and the dotted arrow part represents a data interaction process of the user plane device and the control plane device. The INT data collecting server collects the equipment attribute of each user plane equipment in the core network, wherein the equipment attribute refers to whether the A-UPF, the 5G RAN and the I-UPF have the capability of supporting the INT function, namely whether the software and the hardware of the equipment of the user plane can meet the requirement of installing the INT function, and for the user plane equipment, the INT node function can be continuously allocated to the user plane equipment after the INT function is firstly supported, namely the user plane equipment supporting the INT function is target user plane equipment. The INT domain contains 3 types of INT function nodes, namely an INT Source function node, an INT Sink function node and an INT Transit Hop function node. The INT Source function node is responsible for indicating the flow of information to be collected and the information to be collected, and the INT Sink function node is responsible for sorting the received information and reporting the information to an INT data collection server; the INT Transit Hop function node can then be considered all devices on the line that support INT telemetry. If the user plane device supports the INT function, the working mode which is started by default is an INT transmission Hop function node in the INT node function, the first user plane device is an INT Source function node representing that the user plane device is started, and the second user plane device is an INT Sink function node representing that the user plane device is started.

Thus, after determining the target user plane device, the function of the user plane device may be set according to the network status monitoring requirement of the user, and in selecting a user plane device and a second user plane device from the target user plane device, for example, if the network information monitoring requirement of the user is from 5G RAN to a-UPF, and monitoring is finished, it may be determined that the I-UPF enables the INT Transit Hop function node operation mode, that is, the first user plane device is 5G RAN, which needs to enable the INTSource function node operation mode, and the second user plane device is a-UPF, which needs to enable the INT Sink function node operation mode, and if the I-UPF exists, the I-UPF enables the INT Transit Hop function node operation mode. If the network information monitoring requirement of the user starts from the I-UPF to the A-UPF, the first user plane device can be determined to be the I-UPF, the INT Source function node working mode which needs to be started is determined to be the A-UPF, the second user plane device is determined to be the A-UPF, the INT Sink function node working mode which needs to be started is determined to be the A-UPF, namely an INT domain can comprise a plurality of INT Transit Hop function nodes or not, but the INT Transit Hop function node must comprise a first user plane device (INT Source function node) and a second user plane device (INT Sink function node).

After determining the target node and the functions corresponding to the target node, the control plane device issues a deployment instruction and an INT instruction to each target user plane device, and sends a first deployment instruction to the first user plane device, where the first deployment instruction is used to switch the user plane device from a default INT Transit Hop function node working mode to an INT Source function node working mode, the second deployment instruction is used to switch the target device from the default INT Transit Hop function node working mode to an INT Sink function node working mode, and the INT instruction refers to the type and quantity of network state information that the user plane device is expected to collect, and generally can be divided into two levels of data, namely, a device level and a data stream level, where the data at the device level includes: data such as UPF number, CPU utilization, etc., and data at the data flow level includes: qos Flow Id, ingress port timestamp, egress port timestamp, buffer queue length, processing delay, current packet count, current byte count, etc., i.e., the INT indication specifies those of the target INT elements that need to be acquired, and the size of the corresponding data amount. The INT indication only needs to be issued to the first user plane device.

When the first user plane device receives a first deployment instruction, the current working mode is switched from the default INT transmission Hop function node working mode to the INT Source function node working mode, network state information of a target type is acquired according to the INT indication, a network monitoring table of the first user plane device is updated, and when the second user plane device receives a second deployment instruction, the current working mode is switched from the default INT transmission Hop function node working mode to the INT Sink function node working mode, and the network monitoring table of the second user plane device is updated. After each user plane device completes the switching of the working modes, the deployment task is completed. And the user can update the network state monitoring requirement, thereby realizing the update of the network monitoring table of the user plane equipment.

After the deployment of the system is completed, taking a complete process of sending service traffic data as an example, the network state information obtaining method of the present application is described below, as shown in fig. 2, and fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of a network state information obtaining method of the present application.

S201: the first user plane device analyzes the first GTP-U message, collects first INT metadata of the first user plane device according to the INT indication sent by the control plane device in advance, generates a second GTP-U message comprising the INT indication and the first INT metadata, and sends the second GTP-U message to the second user plane device.

In this embodiment, first, a user sends service request data through a mobile terminal, a 5G RAN receives a data packet of the service request data, prepares to be encapsulated into a first GTP-U message, and sends the first GTP-U message to a first user plane device, and generates a second GTP-U message including an INT indication and first INT metadata, which may specifically include the following steps:

s201-1: and acquiring a service flow data packet and a tunnel endpoint identifier in the first GTP-U message.

In this embodiment, taking the first user plane device as an I-UPF as an example, after receiving the first GTP-U packet, the I-UPF first records information such as a port timestamp and a waiting queue length, then parses the first GTP-U packet, and after parsing, may obtain a Qos (Quality of Service ) Flow Id or TEID (Tunnel Endpoint Identifier, tunnel endpoint identifier) of a GTP-U Header portion in the first GTP-U packet.

S201-2: based on the tunnel endpoint identifier, it is determined whether the traffic flow packet requires the addition of an INT header.

In this embodiment, a preset stored monitoring table is referred to according to a Qos Flow Id or a tunnel endpoint identifier, the stored monitoring table is a hash table, a Qos Flow Id or a tunnel endpoint identifier of a service Flow for which an INT should be started to sense network status information is stored, if the Qos Flow Id or the tunnel endpoint identifier obtained by analyzing a first GTP-U packet can be queried in the stored monitoring table, it is determined that an INT header needs to be added to a service Flow packet, and conversely, if the Qos Flow Id or the tunnel endpoint identifier obtained by analyzing the first GTP-U packet cannot be queried in the stored monitoring table, it is determined that the INT header does not need to be added to the service Flow packet, and forwarding is performed according to a forwarding manner of a normal GTP-U packet.

In a possible implementation manner, in addition to the method of determining whether the INT header needs to be added according to the tunnel endpoint identifier, whether the service traffic data packet needs to be added with the INT header may also be determined according to the monitoring requirements of other users, such as qos flow id and pdu session id.

In a possible implementation, an INT data message format suitable for core network user plane network status information awareness is given in fig. 3; wherein: the first 4bit Ver field represents the version of the INT packet, fixed at 2. The second part is 1bit flag bit D, if it is set to 1, it indicates that the message needs to be discarded after INT information is extracted. The third part is a 1bit flag E, which if set to 1, indicates that MAX Hop Count has been reached. The fourth part is a 1bit flag bit M, if set to 1, indicating that the message has exceeded the MTU setting. The fifth part is 12 bits Reserved, unused. The sixth part is 5bit Hop ML, records how many bytes there are of INT metadata inserted per Hop, and takes 4 Bytes as a unit. The seventh part is 8bit RemainingHopCnt, which records how many hops remain to insert INT information. The eighth section is 16bit Instruction Bitmap, where each bit represents an INT metadata type, which indicates the type and order of INT metadata that each hop needs to fill in INT Metadata Stack (metadata stack), such as: UPF number, qos Flow Id, ingress port timestamp, egress port timestamp, buffer queue length, processing delay, CPU utilization, current packet count, current byte count, etc.

The ninth part is 16bit Domain Specific ID, records the area ID perceived by the current network state information, and mainly aims to realize different INT metadata insertion for different areas, namely Instruction Bitmap is only effective in the area with specific ID.

The tenth part is INT Metadata Stack (metadata stack) which stores the INT metadata collected on each UPF in a sequence consistent with Instruction Bitmap. The INT metadata size for each UPF insertion should be a multiple of 4 Byte.

Specifically, corresponding data is mapped in each part of the INT data packet, for example, the data mapped in the eighth part is an INT indication, and is used for guiding the subsequent user plane device to collect the target INT metadata, and the data mapped in the tenth part is the first INT metadata collected by the first user plane device according to the INT indication.

S201-3: and under the condition that the fact that the INT header needs to be added to the service flow data packet is determined, determining the size relation between the target storage space occupied by the INT header and the first INT metadata and a preset storage space threshold value.

S201-4: inserting the first INT metadata and the INT indication into the first GTP-U message to generate a second GTP-U message under the condition that the target storage space is smaller than or equal to the storage space threshold value;

In the embodiments of S201-3 through S201-4, in the event that it is determined that the traffic packet requires the addition of an INT header;

an INT indication issued by the control plane device is added to the INT header, thereby generating a new INT header. And determining a storage space threshold of the service flow data packet, namely determining the MTU (maximum transmission unit) corresponding to the service flow data packet. That is, whether the traffic packet has enough space to store the INT metadata and the INT header may be determined according to the INT indication field in the INT header, and since the INT indication field specifies the data type of the collected INT metadata and the data size corresponding to the data type of the INT metadata is fixed, the data size of the first INT metadata to be collected, that is, the size of the target storage space occupied by the first INT metadata, may be calculated, the storage space threshold of the traffic packet is equal to the value of the storage space corresponding to the MTU of the traffic packet minus the value of the storage space occupied by the traffic packet, and if the target storage space is less than or equal to the storage space threshold, it is determined that the traffic packet has enough space to store the INT metadata.

In the case where the traffic packet is of sufficient space to store INT metadata;

and then collecting target INT metadata of the first user plane device according to the corresponding indication content of the INT indication field (specifically, instruction Bitmap field), so as to obtain first INT metadata, wherein the first INT metadata can be one or more of UPF ID, qos Flow Id, outlet port timestamp, inlet port timestamp, processing time delay, queue length and CPU load. After the first INT metadata collection is completed, as an example, in the message shown in fig. 2, INT Data Container is first added to GTP-UExtension Header to carry the INT header and the first INT metadata as a new GTP-U Extension Header, and then the first INT metadata and the INT header are sequentially inserted INT Data Container in the order corresponding to the INT indication, where GTP-U Extension Header Type to which INT Data Container belongs should be 0x8F. Finally, the first user plane equipment encapsulates the GTP-U Message with the first INT metadata and the INT indication, encapsulates the UDP and IP header, updates the Length and checks, updates the Message Length of the GTP-U Message, and generates a second GTP-U Message because the INT header and the first INT metadata are added in the process of encapsulating the UDP and IP header.

In the event that the traffic packet does not have enough space to store the INT metadata;

s201-5: directly forwarding the first GTP-U message to second user plane equipment, inserting the first INT metadata into the empty GTP-U message, updating the flag bit of the INT header, and generating a third GTP-U message; or (b)

In this case, an empty GTP-U message may be sent separately, where the UDP and IP layer Header formats are the same as the original GTP-U message, but the GTP-U payload is empty, and INT Data Container is added to GTP-U Extension Header as well, except that the M flag position of the INT Header is 1 and the d flag position is 1, to indicate that the message is a separate INT message; or take an ignore strategy, i.e. not add INT information to the datagram, but report the event to the INT collection server. As an example, if the first user plane device parses the first GTP-U packet (numbered a), and finds that there is not enough storage space in a to store the collected first INT metadata of the first user plane device, then encapsulates the a according to the encapsulation mode of the common packet, directly forwards the encapsulated first GTP-U packet to the next user plane device, and then generates another GTP-U packet (numbered B), where the UDP and IP layer headers of the B have the same format as a, but the Data field of the B has no traffic Data, it may be understood that B is a duplicate packet of a, but removes a portion of the traffic Data, then adds INT Data Container in GTP-U Extension Header of B, sequentially inserts INT Data Container the first INT metadata and the INT header according to the sequence corresponding to the INT indication, and places the second portion D flag and the fourth portion M flag of the INT Data packet to be 1, so as to indicate that the packet is an independent INT packet, and then discards the packet after extraction. And then packaging to generate a third GTP-U message (with the number of B), and sending the third GTP-U message to the next user plane device.

Or if the first user plane device parses the first GTP-U packet (numbered a), and finds that there is not enough storage space in a to store the collected first INT metadata of the first user plane device, an ignore policy is adopted, that is, the first INT metadata of the first user plane device is not added to the datagram, but an event report is sent to the control plane device, where the content of the event report may be: the first INT metadata collection of the first user plane device is disabled. And forwarding is carried out according to the forwarding mode of the common GTP-U message.

In the first user plane device, the INT technology is realized in the extensionHeader of the original GTP-U Header, and the high-precision, real-time and multi-kind network state data acquisition of Qos Flow level is realized in the first user plane device based on the INT technology, so that a data basis is provided for the subsequent fine-grained network state analysis of the user plane device.

The above embodiment provides an implementation process when the first user plane device is an I-UPF, where the first user plane device may also be a 5G RAN, and the first user plane device, specifically, which device, is determined according to which device the user needs to start to monitor network status information, so that the first user plane device is the original user plane device, and when the first user plane device is a 5G RAN, it is first required to package a service flow data packet into a first GTP-U packet, then parse the first GTP-U packet and collect first INT metadata, package and generate a second GTP-U packet, and send the next user plane device.

And under the condition that the service flow data packet is determined not to need to be added with an INT header, directly packaging the first GTP-U message according to a packaging mode of a common message, and directly forwarding the first GTP-U message to the next user plane equipment according to a forwarding mode of the common GTP-U message.

After the first user plane device sends the generated second GTP-U message to the next user plane device, the next user plane device may be an intermediate user plane device, where the working mode of the intermediate user plane device is an INT Transit Hop function node, or may be the second user plane device, and the working mode of the second user plane device is an INT Sink function node, or may be a user plane device that does not support the INT function.

In case the next user plane device is a user plane device that does not support the INT function;

in this embodiment, the second GTP-U message is first parsed, and then the parsed second GTP-U message is directly encapsulated according to the encapsulation mode of the generic message, and forwarded to the next user plane device according to the forwarding mode of the generic GTP-U message.

In the case that the working mode of the next user plane device is an INT transmission Hop function node;

in this embodiment, if the working mode of the user plane device is an INT Transit Hop function node, the user plane device is an intermediate user plane device, first, the second GTP-U message is parsed, then it is determined whether the extensionheader of the GTP-U message has INT Data Container, if no INT Data Container, the parsed second GTP-U message is packaged according to the packaging mode of the general report message, and then the second GTP-U message is directly forwarded to the next user plane device. If INT Data Container (i.e., GTP-U Extension Header Type =0x8f) is present, then it is continuously determined whether the traffic packet has enough space to store the INT metadata, and the determination result are the same as those of the above embodiment, so that a detailed description is omitted, and then a GTP-U message containing the INT metadata of the ue is generated. And send the data to the next user plane device, if the working mode of the next user plane device is an INT transmission Hop function node, the steps of this embodiment are continuously executed, and the INT metadata of the next user plane device is collected until the working mode of the next user plane device is a Sink function node.

In the case that the working mode of the next user plane device is a Sink function node, the method includes:

s202: the second user plane device analyzes the second GTP-U message to obtain an INT indication and first INT metadata, collects the second INT metadata of the second user plane device according to the INT indication, and sends the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane device.

In this embodiment, after the second user plane device receives the second GTP-U packet, taking the case that the second GTP-U packet is directly sent by the first user plane device as an example, information such as a port timestamp and a waiting queue length is recorded first, then whether an extensionheader of the parsed second GTP-U packet has INT Data Container is determined, that is, GTP-U Extension Header Type =0x8f is determined, and if the determination passes, a flow of parsing the second GTP-U packet is entered, and the second user plane device parses the INT Header according to a corresponding INT message format, and obtains relevant information such as an INT indication, a remaining hop count, and the like. Specifically, the second user plane device is collected target INT metadata according to the corresponding indication content of the INT indication field (specifically, instruction Bitmap field), so as to obtain second INT metadata, where the second INT metadata may be one or more of UPF ID, qos Flow ID, egress port timestamp, ingress port timestamp, processing delay, queue length, and CPU load. After the acquisition of the second INT metadata is completed, the second INT metadata is sequentially inserted into the GTP-U Extension Header according to the sequence corresponding to the INT indication INT Data Container, all the INT metadata are extracted from the GTP-U Extension Header, including at least the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata, if an intermediate user plane device exists, the second INT metadata also includes the INT metadata of the intermediate user plane device, and after the extraction is completed, all the extracted INT metadata and the INT header are required to be sent to the control plane device.

In a possible implementation manner, in order to ensure the transmission efficiency of the traffic data packet, the transmission process of the INT metadata and the traffic data packet needs to be performed simultaneously, and the specific steps include:

and sending the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane equipment through the first thread, and simultaneously sending a fourth GTP-U message to the target edge server through the second thread.

In this embodiment, the INT metadata is sent to the control plane device by a multithreading concurrency manner, where multithreading concurrency refers to that a part of threads send the INT metadata and the INT header to the control plane device, and another part of threads send the traffic data packet in a normal package, and then send the traffic data packet to the edge server, that is, send the INT metadata and the INT header and forward the traffic data packet at the same time, so that the sending efficiency of the traffic data packet is prevented from being reduced due to the sequential sending.

S203: the control plane device receives the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata and stores the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata in a preset database.

In this embodiment, after the control plane device receives the INT metadata information sent by each second user plane device, the control plane device also stores the original data information in the INT information database in a multithreading manner, and simultaneously parses the INT metadata by using the INT data processing module in the control plane device, and then stores the INT metadata in the INT information database in a manner that a user can directly read the INT metadata. When in storage, different types of data can be stored in different INT information databases according to specific data types, and can also be stored according to the types of user plane devices.

In order not to affect the normal message forwarding in the second user plane device, meanwhile, the UPF needs to encapsulate and decapsulate the GTP-U message of the original service flow according to rules, and forward the GTP-U message, which specifically includes:

In this embodiment, after the second ue sends the collected INT metadata of all ues to the control plane device, the original traffic data packet is encapsulated according to a preset rule to form a fourth GTP-U packet, where the fourth GTP-U packet is encapsulated by the second ue, does not include the INT metadata, and only includes the GTP-U packet of the traffic data packet. If the second user plane device is the a-UPF, forwarding the fourth GTP-U message to the target edge server through the second user plane device, where the target edge server may be an edge server with the nearest physical location in the edge servers supporting the service request corresponding to the service flow data packet. When the target edge server receives the fourth GTP-U message, analyzes the fourth GTP-U message, extracts a service flow data packet therein, then executes corresponding service according to data in the service flow data packet, generates a corresponding service result, returns the service result to the mobile terminal according to an original transmission process, so that a user obtains a result of the service task, the service flow data packet sent by the user can be a processing request of a picture as an example, the service flow data packet is packaged into a GTP-U message and enters a core network, then in the transmission process of the GTP-U message in user plane equipment of the core network, INT metadata of the user plane equipment is inserted for network state analysis among the user plane equipment of the core network, when the continuously updated GTP-U message is sent to an INT Sink function node, the collected INT metadata is extracted, the service flow data packet is sent to the edge server, the picture is processed after the edge server receives the service flow data packet, and the processed picture is sent to the user. Therefore, the INT metadata is collected, and the service use request of the user is not influenced.

In the running process of the whole system, certain network parameters have higher attention, so that important attention needs to be paid to the parameters, as an example, as to one parameter of the queue length, the user needs to judge whether the waiting queue is overlong or not, and other network parameters have lower attention, so that the attention of the user is not needed, and the acquisition frequency and the acquisition of the parameters need to be adjusted according to the setting requirement of the user, and the method specifically can comprise the following steps:

the control plane device updates deployment instructions of the first user plane device and the second user plane device according to the network state monitoring requirement input by the user;

and according to the updated deployment instructions of the first user plane equipment and the second user plane equipment, adjusting the network monitoring tables of the user plane equipment.

In this embodiment, the network state information of the user plane device that the user needs to monitor is adjustable in real time, and as an example, the user plane device that the user needs to monitor for the first time starts from the 5G RAN and then ends to the a-UPF, in this link, the 5G RAN functions as an INT SOUSE node, the data acquisition period is once every 0.1s, the a-UPF enables the functions of the INT Sink function node, and in the subsequent monitoring process, if the user plane device that needs to monitor starts from the I-UPF and then ends to the a-UPF, the data acquisition period is once every 0.2s, in this link, the I-UPF functions as an INT SOUSE node, and the a-UPF enables the functions of the INT Sink function node. Because the data acquisition period and the user plane equipment to be detected are changed, the INT function node and the acquisition frequency of the user plane equipment need to be adjusted, namely the deployment instructions of the first user plane equipment and the second user plane equipment need to be updated, and then the deployment instructions are issued again.

When the INT metadata is collected, fine-grained network state analysis can be performed according to the collected INT metadata, and the specific method comprises the following steps of:

In this embodiment, when a user needs to analyze a network condition of a user plane device, the network condition analysis requirement input by the user may include a number of the user plane device, a type of network condition data, and the like, and if the user knows delay information between the 5G RAN and the a-UPF, the user input network condition analysis instruction at least needs to include the a-UPF and the device number of the 5G RAN, and the type of the network condition data is delay information, and then the control plane device searches a preset database with the device number as an index after receiving the network condition analysis instruction, obtains a port timestamp that the GTP-U message reaches the 5G RAN and the a-UPF, and then determines delay information between the 5G RAN and the a-UPF according to the port timestamps of the 5G RAN and the a-UPF, thereby implementing analysis of network condition parameters at a data flow level, and also determining a processing delay of the 5G RAN according to a difference between the port timestamp and the port timestamp of the 5G RAN. Similarly, based on the above process, analysis of analysis conditions of network state parameters at the device level such as CPU utilization rate can also be realized. It can be understood that what level and what network state information the user needs to analyze is adjusted according to the user's use requirement, which is not limited in this application.

In a possible implementation manner, the invention further provides a core network user plane network state information sensing system to implement the steps of the first aspect of the application. The system is deployed on a core network user plane device (e.g., a base station or UPF), and extracts this information at the PSA or designated UPF by adding INT Data Container to GTP-U Extension Header, and specifically comprises:

INT data generation module. The module is located on a core network user plane device, such as a base station or UPF. The main functions are to collect INT metadata, generate INT Header, add corresponding INT metadata and INT Header to the Extension Header of GTP-U Header.

INT data extraction module. The module is located on a core network user plane device, such as a base station or UPF. The main function is to extract INT Data Container in GTP-U message and send it to INT data collection server through multi-thread concurrence mode.

INT data collection server, the function module is the control module of the whole system, should dispose on the specific server. The main functions include controlling the kernel network user plane equipment to start the network state information sensing function, regulating sampling frequency, modifying the INT function role of UPF, updating the monitoring list of UPF, storing and analyzing INT metadata, and providing the kernel network user plane network state information report (for example, the time delay of PDU session between UPF in different time periods). The INT data collection server and the INT data extraction module are communicated in a multithreaded concurrency mode.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a system for acquiring network state information, referring to fig. 4, a functional block diagram of a first aspect of the embodiment of the system for acquiring network state information of the invention is shown, and the system comprises:

the first acquisition module 401 is configured to parse the first GTP-U packet by the first user plane device, collect first INT metadata of the first user plane device according to an INT instruction sent in advance by the control plane device, generate a second GTP-U packet including the INT instruction and the first INT metadata, and send the second GTP-U packet to the second user plane device;

a second acquisition module 402, configured to parse a second GTP-U packet by a second user plane device, obtain an INT indication and first INT metadata, collect the second INT metadata of the second user plane device according to the INT indication, and send the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to a control plane device;

the data storage module 403 is configured to receive the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata by the control plane device, and store the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata in a preset database.

In one possible embodiment, the system further comprises a deployment module comprising:

In one possible embodiment, the second acquisition module comprises:

and the multithreading concurrence submodule is used for sending the first INT metadata to the control plane device through the first thread and simultaneously sending the second INT metadata to the control plane device through the second thread.

In one possible embodiment, the first acquisition module comprises:

In a possible embodiment, the first acquisition module further comprises:

the event report generating module is used for directly forwarding the first GTP-U message to the second user plane equipment, inserting the first INT metadata into the empty GTP-U message, updating the flag bit of the INT header and generating a third GTP-U message; wherein, the third GTP-U message does not contain a service flow data packet; or (b)

And directly forwarding the first GTP-U message, generating an event report, and sending the event report to the control plane equipment.

In one possible embodiment, the system further comprises:

the forwarding module is used for encapsulating the business flow data packet in the second GTP-U message into a fourth GTP-U message by the second user plane equipment and sending the fourth GTP-U message to the target edge server;

and the execution module is used for executing the corresponding service task by the target edge server according to the fourth GTP-U message.

In one possible embodiment, the system further comprises:

the first analysis module is used for responding to network state analysis requirements input by a user, extracting information matched with the network state analysis requirements from a preset database and analyzing equipment-level network state parameters; and/or

The second analysis module is used for responding to network state analysis requirements input by a user, extracting information matched with the network state analysis instructions from a preset database and analyzing data stream level network state parameters; wherein the device-level network state parameters include at least a CPU load and the data flow-level network state parameters include at least a network delay.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiments of the present application further provide an electronic device, including:

at least one processor; and a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; the memory stores instructions executable by the at least one processor to enable the at least one processor to perform the network state information acquisition method of the embodiments of the present application.

In addition, in order to achieve the above object, an embodiment of the present application further proposes a computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, which when executed by a processor, implements a network state information acquisition method of the embodiment of the present application.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, apparatus, or computer program product. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may take the form of a computer program product on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

Embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, terminal devices (apparatus), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing terminal device to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing terminal device, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

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

The above detailed description of the method and system for acquiring network state information provided by the present invention applies specific examples to illustrate the principles and embodiments of the present invention, and the above description of the examples is only used to help understand the method and core idea of the present invention; meanwhile, as those skilled in the art will have variations in the specific embodiments and application scope in accordance with the ideas of the present invention, the present description should not be construed as limiting the present invention in view of the above.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining network status information, the method comprising:

the first user plane device analyzes a first GTP-U message, collects first INT metadata of the first user plane device according to an INT indication sent in advance by the control plane device, generates a second GTP-U message comprising the INT indication and the first INT metadata, and sends the second GTP-U message to the second user plane device;

the second user plane device analyzes the second GTP-U message, obtains the INT indication and the first INT metadata, collects the second INT metadata of the second user plane device according to the INT indication, and sends the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane device;

The control plane device receives the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata and stores the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata in a preset database;

generating a second GTP-U message including the INT indication and the first INT metadata, comprising:

acquiring a service flow data packet and a tunnel endpoint identifier in the first GTP-U message;

determining whether the traffic packet requires the addition of an INT header according to the tunnel endpoint identifier;

determining the size relation between a target storage space occupied by the INT header and the first INT metadata and a preset storage space threshold under the condition that the business flow data packet needs to be added with the INT header;

and under the condition that the target storage space is smaller than or equal to the storage space threshold, inserting the first INT metadata and the INT indication into the first GTP-U message, and packaging the first GTP-U message and the business flow data packet together to generate the second GTP-U message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to the step of the first user plane device receiving the first GTP-U message, the method further comprises:

Determining a first user plane device and the second user plane device from the target user plane devices according to network state monitoring requirements input by users;

the control plane device sends a first deployment instruction and the INT instruction to the first user plane device, and sends a deployment instruction to the second user plane device and sends a second deployment instruction;

after the first user plane equipment receives the first deployment instruction, switching the working mode into a working mode matched with the first deployment instruction, and updating a network monitoring table of the first user plane equipment;

3. The method of claim 1, wherein in the event that the target storage space is greater than the storage space threshold, the method further comprises:

directly forwarding the first GTP-U message to the second user plane equipment, inserting the first INT metadata into an empty GTP-U message, updating the flag bit of the INT header, and generating a third GTP-U message; wherein the third GTP-U message does not include the service flow data packet, or

And directly forwarding the first GTP-U message to the second user plane equipment, generating an event report, and sending the event report to the control plane equipment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein after the step of transmitting the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to a control plane device, the method further comprises:

the second user plane device encapsulates the service flow data packet in the second GTP-U message into a fourth GTP-U message and sends the fourth GTP-U message to a target edge server;

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

and sending the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to the control plane equipment through a first thread, and simultaneously sending the fourth GTP-U message to the target edge server through a second thread.

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

responding to network state analysis requirements input by a user, extracting information matched with the network state analysis requirements from the preset database, and analyzing equipment-level network state parameters; and/or

Responding to network state analysis requirements input by a user, extracting information matched with the network state analysis instruction from the preset database, and analyzing data stream level network state parameters; wherein the device-level network state parameters include at least a CPU load, and the data flow-level network state parameters include at least a network delay.

7. A network state information acquisition system, the system comprising:

the first acquisition module is used for analyzing a first GTP-U message by the first user plane equipment, collecting first INT metadata of the first user plane equipment according to an INT indication sent by the control plane equipment in advance, generating a second GTP-U message comprising the INT indication and the first INT metadata, and sending the second GTP-U message to the second user plane equipment;

Inserting the first INT metadata and the INT indication into the first GTP-U message and packaging the first GTP-U message and the business flow data packet together to generate the second GTP-U message under the condition that the target storage space is smaller than or equal to the storage space threshold value;

the second acquisition module is used for analyzing the second GTP-U message by second user plane equipment, obtaining the INT indication and the first INT metadata, collecting the second INT metadata of the second user plane equipment according to the INT indication, and sending the first INT metadata and the second INT metadata to control plane equipment;

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a deployment module, the deployment module comprising:

the attribute acquisition sub-module is used for determining target user plane equipment according to whether each user plane equipment supports an INT function or not by the control plane equipment;

the device screening submodule is used for determining the first user plane device and the second user plane device from the target user plane devices according to network state monitoring requirements input by users;

The instruction sending submodule is used for sending a first deployment instruction and the INT instruction to the first user-plane equipment by the control-plane equipment and sending a deployment instruction and a second deployment instruction to the second user-plane equipment;

the first execution sub-module is used for switching the working mode into a working mode matched with the first deployment instruction after the first deployment instruction is received by the first user plane equipment, and updating a network monitoring table of the first user plane equipment;

and the second execution sub-module is used for switching the working mode into the working mode matched with the second deployment instruction after the second user plane equipment receives the second deployment instruction, and updating a network monitoring table of the second user plane equipment.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the first acquisition module comprises:

an identifier obtaining sub-module, configured to obtain a service flow data packet and a tunnel endpoint identifier in the first GTP-U packet;

a first judging sub-module, configured to determine, according to the tunnel endpoint identifier, whether the traffic data packet needs to be added with an INT header;

a second judging sub-module, configured to determine a size relationship between a target storage space occupied by the INT header and the first INT metadata and a preset storage space threshold under a condition that it is determined that the service flow packet needs to be added with an INT header;

And the message generation sub-module is used for inserting the first INT metadata and the INT indication into the first GTP-U message and packaging the first GTP-U message and the service flow data packet together to generate the second GTP-U message under the condition that the target storage space is smaller than or equal to the storage space threshold value.