CN116056160B - Method and device for network slicing - Google Patents
Method and device for network slicing Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- CN116056160B CN116056160B CN202310116678.5A CN202310116678A CN116056160B CN 116056160 B CN116056160 B CN 116056160B CN 202310116678 A CN202310116678 A CN 202310116678A CN 116056160 B CN116056160 B CN 116056160B
- Authority
- CN
- China
- Prior art keywords
- slice
- sub
- bandwidth
- rid
- node
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Active
Links
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 title claims abstract description 49
- 230000004044 response Effects 0.000 claims description 38
- 238000013507 mapping Methods 0.000 claims description 32
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 claims description 9
- 230000032683 aging Effects 0.000 claims description 3
- 238000002955 isolation Methods 0.000 description 11
- 101150013245 Ehd2 gene Proteins 0.000 description 10
- 101150100990 RID1 gene Proteins 0.000 description 10
- 238000005516 engineering process Methods 0.000 description 10
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 6
- 238000004364 calculation method Methods 0.000 description 4
- 238000007726 management method Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000009286 beneficial effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000006870 function Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000003993 interaction Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000007246 mechanism Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000003287 optical effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000008447 perception Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000003672 processing method Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000000275 quality assurance Methods 0.000 description 1
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W28/00—Network traffic management; Network resource management
- H04W28/16—Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
- H04W28/18—Negotiating wireless communication parameters
- H04W28/20—Negotiating bandwidth
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W24/00—Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
- H04W24/04—Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W28/00—Network traffic management; Network resource management
- H04W28/16—Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
- H04W28/26—Resource reservation
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
- Signal Processing (AREA)
- Quality & Reliability (AREA)
- Data Exchanges In Wide-Area Networks (AREA)
Abstract
The invention relates to the technical field of computer networks, and provides a method and a device for network slicing, wherein the method comprises the following steps: when a new service demand exists, checking whether one basic slice in the basic slice group meets basic requirements, if so, establishing a sub-slice based on the corresponding basic slice, distributing sub-slice bandwidth, sub-slice RID and sub-slice priority, and establishing a sub-slice service path in the corresponding basic slice according to the new service demand; if the sub-slice service path is established successfully, the service flow is forwarded on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth; if the sub-slice service path is failed to be established, tuning is performed until the corresponding basic slice meets the basic requirement; the method for network slicing provided by the invention realizes flexible allocation and management of sub-slice bandwidths through the basic slicing, can solve the problem of expansibility, reduces the service configuration of intermediate nodes, can realize dynamic reservation and adjustment of resources, and improves the utilization rate of resources.
Description
Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of computer networks, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for network slicing.
Background
The IP networks of the 5G age provide not only connectivity but more importantly the ability to provide various differentiated services. The IP network supports a network slicing function, and can provide special or shared network resources and network capacity for specific users or services so as to meet different user and service differentiated connection requirements and quality assurance.
A key technology of the network slicing method is the resource isolation capability. The isolation of the control surface mainly comprises a virtual private network (Virtual Private Network, abbreviated as VPN) business isolation, protocol isolation or virtualization isolation technology and the like; the isolation of the forwarding plane includes VPN entry isolation, quality of service (Quality of Service, abbreviated as QoS) scheduling isolation, or flexible ethernet (Flexible Ethernet, abbreviated as FlexE) interface isolation, etc. The main method of current IP network slicing is VPN technology based on Segment Routing (abbreviated as SR) or IPv6 Segment Routing (Segment Routing over IPv, abbreviated as SRv 6), plus a combined scheme formed by FlexE and Qos technology. The IP network slice also needs to realize the mapping of physical resources and network slice virtual resources, realizes the mapping of physical topology and network slice logic topology, can plan, map and adjust the whole network resources through a slice controller, and can also configure and map through a distributed protocol; SRv6 network slicing techniques are currently mainly SRv slicing techniques based on resource awareness and SRv slicing techniques based on slice IDs.
The SRv slicing technology based on resource awareness adopts a Locator and a segment identifier (Segment Routing ID, abbreviated as SID) as slice identifiers, can flexibly realize mapping of physical resources and network slice virtual resources, and can be realized by adopting technical modes such as internal gateway protocol (Interior Gateway Protocols, abbreviated as IGP) multi-topology, IGP multi-instance, IGP flexible algorithm or SRv6 traffic engineering strategy (Traffic Engineer Policy, abbreviated as TE Policy) and the like. Each network node allocates a plurality of locators to correspond to different node resources and is divided into different slices. Different SIDs are assigned based on locators of different slices. Each slice network maintains a separate logical topology, and calculates traffic paths or configurations SRv TE Policy within the slice based on the respective locators and SIDs. The number of locators and SIDs required by the method is multiplied, meanwhile, consumption of a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, abbreviated as CPU) and a memory by a control plane protocol is also increased sharply, but service flows can be conveniently led into different network slices, and resource isolation is achieved.
If three slice networks are required to be established on the shared physical network, three locators are allocated to each node i according to the existing method, and the three locators are respectively: locators 1,2, and 3, corresponding to slice 1, slice 2, and slice 3; the resources divided into slice 1 are all identified by SIDs allocated based on locator 1. Therefore, the three slice networks not only need to maintain three locators and a plurality of SIDs for each node, but also maintain independent logic topologies for the three slice networks, and calculate respective service paths on slice 1, slice 2 and slice 3 respectively, and also independently maintain calculation of control planes.
Based on the SRv slicing technology of resource perception, each network slice is allocated with an independent IP address, a Locator and a SID, an independent logic topology is maintained, independent route calculation is operated, the pressure on a control surface is high, expansion is limited, and the method is suitable for scenes with fewer requirements on the number of slices and is generally used for specification requirements on the order of tens of slices.
For the requirement of medium-scale or even large-scale slice quantity, SRv slice technology based on slice ID is needed, all slices have the same logic topology, share IP address, locator and SID, and share control plane protocol; only introducing a slice ID into a forwarding plane as a slice identifier, and carrying the slice ID in a service flow to distinguish different slices, wherein when each node forwards, a forwarding plane resource of a corresponding slice is selected for forwarding according to the slice ID carried in the service flow, and the forwarding plane resource comprises an interface, a bandwidth, a queue or the like; the slice ID is not involved in control plane path calculation and is only used for mapping and isolating the slice resources of the forwarding plane, so that the problem of network slice expansibility is solved; however, each new slice needs to configure the mapping relationship of the corresponding slice ID and its forwarding plane resources on all nodes in the slice network.
The actual support of large-scale network slicing is usually a joint application of the two technologies, which involves the problem of how to efficiently create hierarchical slices and realize mapping and isolation of resources. The introduction of the slice ID causes that each node in the slice network needs to sense and maintain the state of the slice ID, and establishes the mapping relation between the slice ID and the resource, which additionally introduces a large amount of intermediate states for the forwarding technology adopting the source route, and an effective mechanism is needed to realize the mapping establishment and release of the slice and the resource, thereby reducing the intermediate state configuration of the service.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to solve the technical problems that:
for the requirement of medium-scale or even large-scale slice quantity, each slice needs to be newly added with a corresponding slice ID and the mapping relation of forwarding plane resources thereof on all nodes in a slice network, and for the forwarding technology adopting source routing, a large number of forwarding states are additionally introduced into intermediate nodes, forwarding plane resources are fixedly allocated, and the resource utilization rate is reduced.
In order to achieve the above purpose, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:
in a first aspect, the present invention provides a method of network slicing, comprising:
when new service demands exist, checking whether one basic slice in the basic slice group meets basic demands, if so, establishing a sub-slice service path based on the corresponding basic slice; otherwise, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller;
if the sub-slice service path is established successfully, forwarding the service flow on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth; if the sub-slice service path is failed to be established, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the establishing a sub-slice service path based on the corresponding basic slice specifically includes:
according to new service requirements, calculating a sub-slice service path on the corresponding basic slice by a control surface of the corresponding basic slice according to the logic topology of the corresponding basic slice, the measured link delay of the corresponding basic slice and the link bandwidth of the corresponding basic slice;
the sub-slice service path is formed by orderly arranging nodes and links in corresponding basic slices, and comprises sub-slice RID, sub-slice reserved bandwidth, sub-slice priority and path reserved bandwidth information.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the judging process of success or failure of sub-slice service path establishment specifically includes:
the head node in the sub-slice service path initiates a sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation flow, and after receiving the request message of the last node, other nodes in the sub-slice service path respond to the response message to the head node in the sub-slice service path;
if the response messages responded by all the nodes to be responded carry the successfully allocated state identifiers, the sub-slice service path is successfully established; otherwise, the sub-slice service path establishment fails.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the head node initiates a sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation procedure, specifically including:
the head node judges whether the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation can be completed according to the residual bandwidth of the own link, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth, the path reserved bandwidth and the sub-slice priority, if the head node can complete the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation, a request message is sent to the next hop node, otherwise, the request message is not sent, and the allocation fails.
In one embodiment of the present invention,
after receiving the request message of the last node, other non-tail nodes in the sub-slice service path judge whether the sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation can be completed according to the residual bandwidth of own link, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth, the path reserved bandwidth and the sub-slice priority, and send the judging result to the head node in the sub-slice service path in the form of response message;
if the sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation can be completed at the node to be responded, the response message carries the ID of the corresponding basic slice, the sub-slice RID, the SID address of the corresponding node to be responded and the successful allocation state identification; otherwise, the response message carries the ID of the corresponding basic slice, the SID address of the corresponding node to be responded and the status information of the allocation failure;
after receiving the request message of the last node, the tail node in the sub-slice service path carries the ID of the corresponding basic slice, the RID of the sub-slice, the SID address of the corresponding node to be responded and the successfully allocated state identifier.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the determining whether each of the sub-slice bandwidths and sub-slice RID allocation can be completed according to the own link residual bandwidth, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth, the path reserved bandwidth, and the sub-slice priority specifically includes:
the node searches a next jumping-out interface set of the service path, and if the jumping-out interface set is empty, the node judges that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation cannot be completed; otherwise, calculating to obtain the link residual bandwidth of each interface;
if the interfaces in the interface set are not bound with RID, if the link residual bandwidth of the interfaces is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth, configuring the sub-slice bandwidth to reserve bandwidth for the path based on the interfaces, setting the sub-slice priority and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth based on the interfaces, binding the interfaces with RID, and judging that the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation can be completed at the node; otherwise, determining that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation cannot be completed at the node;
if the interfaces in the interface set are bound with RID, if the link residual bandwidth of the interfaces is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth, updating the configuration sub-slice bandwidth based on the interfaces to be the current sub-slice bandwidth plus the path reserved bandwidth, updating the sub-slice priority and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth based on the interfaces, and judging that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation can be completed at the node; otherwise, it is determined that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation cannot be completed at the node.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the request message is used to request allocation of sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID; the request message includes: ID of the corresponding basic slice, sub-slice RID, sub-slice reserved bandwidth, path reserved bandwidth and sub-slice priority, wherein the path reserved bandwidth is less than or equal to the sub-slice reserved bandwidth.
In one embodiment of the present invention, after the sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation is completed and the sub-slice traffic path is established, the method further comprises:
establishing a mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth;
and encapsulating the sub-slice RID into a service flow by a head node in the sub-slice service path, and completing forwarding of the service flow on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth according to the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth.
In one embodiment of the invention, when at least one sub-slice service path exists in the sub-slices, reserving respective sub-slice service path bandwidths for the respective sub-slice service paths; the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice service path bandwidth are dynamically configured, and specifically include:
when the head node senses that no service flow exists in the sub-slice service path for a long time, the reserved sub-slice service path bandwidth is released through the aging message;
when no sub-slice service path bandwidth is allocated in the sub-slice, each node releases the reserved sub-slice bandwidth and releases the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth;
when the sub-slice has the service flow again, a new sub-slice bandwidth is allocated for the sub-slice, the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the new sub-slice bandwidth is established, and the establishment of a new sub-slice service path is carried out.
In a second aspect, the present invention provides a network slicing apparatus, including a sub-slice service path establishment module and a service flow forwarding module, where:
the sub-slice service path module is used for checking whether one basic slice in the basic slice group meets basic requirements or not when new service requirements exist, and if so, establishing a sub-slice service path based on the corresponding basic slice; otherwise, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller;
the service flow forwarding module is used for forwarding the service flow on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth when the sub-slice service path is successfully established; if the sub-slice service path is failed to be established, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:
the invention provides a network slice method, which adopts a layering mode of combining a basic slice with a sub-slice, and realizes flexible allocation and management of sub-slice bandwidths through the basic slice, so that the problem of expansibility can be solved, dynamic reservation and adjustment of resources can be realized, configuration points of intermediate node services are reduced, and the resource utilization rate is improved.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings that are required to be used in the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly described below. It is evident that the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention and that other drawings may be obtained from these drawings without inventive effort for a person of ordinary skill in the art;
fig. 1 is a flow chart of a method for slicing a network according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a flow chart of another method for network slicing according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a flow chart of another method for network slicing according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of basic slices and sub-slices in a method for network slicing according to an embodiment of the present invention;
fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a process for establishing a sub-slice service path in a method for network slicing according to an embodiment of the present invention;
fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a format of a request message in a method for network slicing according to an embodiment of the present invention;
fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a process for establishing a sub-slice service path in a method for network slicing according to an embodiment of the present invention;
fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a format of a response message in a method for network slicing according to an embodiment of the present invention;
fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a network slicing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the drawings and examples, in order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
In the description of the present invention, the terms "inner", "outer", "longitudinal", "transverse", "upper", "lower", "top", "bottom", etc. refer to an orientation or positional relationship based on that shown in the drawings, merely for convenience of describing the present invention and do not require that the present invention must be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and thus should not be construed as limiting the present invention.
In addition, the technical features of the embodiments of the present invention described below may be combined with each other as long as they do not collide with each other.
As shown in fig. 1, the present invention provides a method for slicing a network, including:
(1) When new service demands exist, checking whether one basic slice in the basic slice group meets basic demands, if so, establishing a sub-slice service path based on the corresponding basic slice; otherwise, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller;
(2) If the sub-slice service path is established successfully, the service flow is forwarded on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth; if the sub-slice service path is failed to be established, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller.
Example 1:
the embodiment of the invention provides a network slicing method, as shown in fig. 2, which comprises the following steps:
in step 201, when there is a new service requirement, checking whether there is one basic slice in the basic slice group that meets the basic requirement; the basic slice group is obtained by planning on the basis of a shared physical network according to different industrial applications; each basic slice in the basic slice group has a respective ID, and each node in the basic slice has a respective SID address; the basic requirements include basic connectivity and service level agreements (Service Level Agrement, SLA for short) bandwidth requirements, associated with new traffic demands.
In step 202, if there is one basic slice satisfying the basic requirement, creating sub-slices based on the corresponding basic slice, and creating sub-slice service paths in the corresponding basic slice by the control plane of the corresponding basic slice according to the new service requirement; wherein, the corresponding basic slice refers to one basic slice meeting basic requirements in the basic slice group; the sub-slice service path is formed by orderly arranging nodes and links in corresponding basic slices, and comprises sub-slice RID, sub-slice reserved bandwidth, sub-slice priority and path reserved bandwidth information. The sub-slice RID is used for uniquely identifying the sub-slice; the sub-slice bandwidth is the bandwidth of the sub-slice corresponding to the new service requirement; the sub-slice priority is used for reserving the bandwidths of all the sub-slices in sequence according to the sub-slice priority order when at least two sub-slices need to be established; the path reserved bandwidth is a bandwidth corresponding to the new traffic demand.
If none of the base slices is able to meet the base requirements, then an error alert is reported to the controller in step 203. If one basic slice can meet the basic requirement, but the sub-slice service path establishment fails according to the new service requirement, an error alarm is reported to the controller. Reporting the reason of the failure of establishing the sub-slice service path to the controller through a node positioned at the first position in the sub-slice service path, namely a head node in the sub-slice service path, and optimizing the corresponding basic slice by the controller based on the received reason of the failure of establishing the sub-slice service path.
In step 204, if the control plane of the corresponding basic slice completes hop-by-hop allocation of the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID on the sub-slice service path, that is, the sub-slice service path is successfully established, a mapping relationship between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth is established, and the service flow is forwarded on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth according to the mapping relationship between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth; the service flow refers to a service message corresponding to the new service requirement.
The method for network slicing provided by the invention adopts a layering mode of combining a basic slice with a sub-slice, and realizes flexible allocation and management of sub-slice bandwidths through the basic slice, and specifically comprises the following steps: the sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation are completed through the foundation slice being responsible for the establishment of the sub-slice service path; and the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth is established through the basic slice, so that the state configuration maintained by the intermediate node is reduced, the sub-slice bandwidth is distributed according to the sub-slice service path as required, and the resource utilization rate is improved.
In the embodiment of the present invention, the establishing of the sub-slice service path in the corresponding basic slice according to the new service requirement specifically includes:
according to the new service demand, calculating a sub-slice service path on the corresponding basic slice by a control surface of the corresponding basic slice according to the link delay of the corresponding basic slice and the bandwidth of the corresponding basic slice, which are measured by the logic topology of the corresponding basic slice; after calculating to obtain a sub-slice service path, reserving sub-slice bandwidths hop by hop on the sub-slice service path by a control surface of a basic slice, so as to establish the sub-slice service path; the nodes in the sub-slice service paths are all nodes in the corresponding basic slices; links in the sub-slice service paths are links in the corresponding basic slices; the sub-slice service paths are formed by orderly arranging nodes and links in corresponding basic slices.
The method for network slicing provided by the invention obtains the sub-slice service path through basic slice calculation, reserves sub-slice bandwidth hop by hop on the sub-slice service path through the control surface of the basic slice, completes sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation, establishes the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth, and forwards the sub-slice according to the mapping relation.
In the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 3, the judging process of success or failure of sub-slice service path establishment specifically includes:
in step 301, a head node in a sub-slice traffic path initiates a sub-slice bandwidth reservation and sub-slice RID allocation procedure.
In step 302, after receiving the request message of the last node, the other nodes in the sub-slice service path respond to the response message to the head node in the sub-slice service path; the head node in the sub-slice service path is a node positioned at the first position in the sub-slice service path.
In step 303, if all the response messages responded by the nodes to be responded carry the successfully allocated state identifier, the sub-slice service path is successfully established; the node to be responded is a node of the sub-slice service path, of which the bandwidth is reserved currently.
In step 304, if there is one node to be responded in all the nodes to be responded, and the response message responded by the node to be responded carries the status information of failed allocation, the sub-slice service path establishment fails.
The response message carries SID address, basic slice ID and sub-slice RID of the node to be responded, besides the successful allocation status identification or the failed allocation status information; the SID address is used to indicate which node to respond to the response message.
In the following detailed description with reference to fig. 4, fig. 5 and fig. 7, in fig. 4, when an industry user U1 initiates a new service requirement and needs a shared sub-slice with a bandwidth of 100M, it is checked that a basic slice S1 exists in the basic slice group to meet the basic requirement, where the basic slice S1 is composed of a node 1, a node 2, a node 3, a node 4, a node 5 and a node 6, and the bandwidth of the basic slice is 20G, which can be established based on a FlexE interface; based on the basic slice S1 meeting the basic requirement of creating the sub-slice S (1, 1), the sub-slice reserved bandwidth is 100M, the sub-slice RID is 1, and the sub-slice priority is 5; the control plane of the basic slice S1 establishes a sub-slice service path according to the logic topology of the basic slice S1, the measured link delay of the basic slice S1 and the bandwidth of the basic slice S1, and calculates to obtain a sub-slice service path {1,3,4,6,5} from the node 1 to the node 5 with low delay, wherein the head node of the sub-slice service path is the node 1.
Taking fig. 5 as an example, the specific process of establishing the sub-slice service path includes:
the node 1 initiates a sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation flow, finds out an interface INTF13 of the next hop node 3 of the service path, the interface is not bound with RID1, and the link residual bandwidth 20G of the interface is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth 10M, configures the sub-slice bandwidth to be the path reserved bandwidth 10M based on the interface INTF13, sets the sub-slice priority 5 and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth 100M based on the interface, and binds the interface with RID 1. After the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID are allocated, a mapping relation between the sub-slice bandwidth 10M and the sub-slice RID1 is established.
Node 1 sends a Request message res_request to node 3 for requesting sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation; the format of the request message is shown in fig. 6, and the request message includes: the ID of the corresponding basic slice is 1, the sub-slice RID is 1, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth is 100M, the sub-slice priority is 5, and the path reserved bandwidth is 10M.
After receiving the request message, the node 3 finds out an interface INTF34 of the next hop node 4 of the service path, the interface is not bound with RID1, and the link residual bandwidth 20G of the interface is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth 10M, configures the sub-slice bandwidth to be the path reserved bandwidth 10M based on the interface INTF34, sets the sub-slice priority 5 and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth 100M based on the interface, and binds the interface with RID 1. After the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID are allocated, a mapping relation between the sub-slice bandwidth 10M and the sub-slice RID1 is established.
The node 3 responds a response message carrying a successfully allocated state identifier to the node 1, and the specific format is shown in fig. 8, wherein an ID of a basic slice in the response message is 1, which indicates that the corresponding basic slice is S1, an RID of 1 indicates that the allocated sub-slice RID is 1, and a state of 0 in the response message indicates that the establishment of the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID1 and the sub-slice bandwidth 10M is completed; meanwhile, the node 3 updates the destination address in the request message from the node 3 to the node 4 so as to send the updated request message to the node 4.
After receiving the request message, the node 4 finds out the outgoing interface INTF46 of the next hop node 6 of the service path, the interface is already bound with RID1, the current sub-slice bandwidth 20M, and the link residual bandwidth 10G of the interface is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth 10M, then the sub-slice bandwidth is configured to be 30M based on the interface INTF46, that is, the current sub-slice bandwidth 20 m+the path reserved bandwidth 10M, and the sub-slice priority 5 and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth 100M are set based on the interface. After the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID are allocated, a mapping relation between the sub-slice bandwidth 10M and the sub-slice RID1 is established.
The node 4 responds to the response message carrying the successfully allocated state identifier to the node 1; meanwhile, the node 4 updates the destination address in the request message from the node 4 to the node 6, so as to send the updated request message to the node 6.
After receiving the request message, the node 6 finds out an interface INTF65 of the next hop node 5 of the service path, the interface is not bound with RID1, and the link residual bandwidth 20G of the interface is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth 10M, configures the sub-slice bandwidth to be the path reserved bandwidth 10M based on the interface INTF65, sets the sub-slice priority 5 and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth 100M based on the interface, and binds the interface with RID 1. After the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID are allocated, a mapping relation between the sub-slice bandwidth 10M and the sub-slice RID1 is established.
The node 6 responds to the response message carrying the successfully allocated state identifier to the node 1; meanwhile, the node 6 updates the destination address in the request message from the node 6 to the node 5, so as to send the updated request message to the node 5.
After receiving the request message, the node 5 responds to the node 1 with a response message carrying the successfully allocated state identifier.
After receiving the response messages of the node 3, the node 4, the node 5 and the node 6, the node 1 discovers that the response messages responded by all the nodes to be responded carry the successfully allocated state identifiers, so that the sub-slice service path {1,3,4,6,5} is judged to be successfully established, and the corresponding service flow is forwarded on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth.
Taking fig. 7 as an example, the specific process of establishing the sub-slice service path includes:
node 1 initiates a sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation flow, and sends a Request message res_request to node 3 for requesting sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation; the format of the request message is shown in fig. 6, and the request message includes: the ID of the corresponding basic slice is 1, the sub-slice RID is 1, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth is 100M, the sub-slice priority is 5, and the path reserved bandwidth is 10M.
After receiving the request message, the node 3 responds to the response message carrying the successfully allocated state identifier to the node 1, wherein the specific format is shown in fig. 8, the ID of the basic slice in the response message is 1, the corresponding basic slice is S1, the RID is 1, the allocated sub-slice RID is 1, and the state in the response message is 0, so that the establishment of the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID1 and the sub-slice bandwidth 10M is completed; meanwhile, the node 3 updates the destination address in the request message from the node 3 to the node 4 so as to send the updated request message to the node 4.
After receiving the request message, the node 4 responds to the response message carrying the status information of the allocation failure to the node 1; the status information of the allocation failure is denoted Err in fig. 7; meanwhile, the node 4 updates the destination address in the request message from the node 4 to the node 6, so as to send the updated request message to the node 6.
After receiving the request message, the node 6 responds to the response message carrying the successfully allocated state identifier to the node 1; meanwhile, the node 6 updates the destination address in the request message from the node 6 to the node 5, so as to send the updated request message to the node 5.
After receiving the request message, the node 5 responds to the node 1 with a response message carrying the successfully allocated state identifier.
After receiving the response messages of the node 3, the node 4, the node 5 and the node 6, the node 1 discovers that the response message responded by the node 4 carries the status information of the allocation failure, so that the sub-slice service path {1,3,4,6,5} is judged to be failed to be established, and the basic slice S1 is optimized based on the status information of the allocation failure until the basic slice S1 meets the basic requirement.
Similarly, as shown in fig. 4, when an industry user U2 initiates a new service requirement and needs a shared sub-slice with a bandwidth of 50M, it is checked that a basic slice S1 in the basic slice group exists to meet the basic requirement, based on the basic slice S1 meeting the basic condition of creating the sub-slice S (1, 2), the sub-slice reserved bandwidth is 50M, the sub-slice RID is 2, and the sub-slice priority is 3; the control plane of the basic slice S1 establishes a sub-slice traffic path according to the logical topology of the basic slice S1, the measured link delay of the basic slice S1 and the bandwidth of the basic slice S1.
In the embodiment of the invention, the request message is used for requesting reservation of sub-slice bandwidth and allocation of sub-slice RID; the request message includes: ID of the corresponding basic slice, sub-slice RID, sub-slice reserved bandwidth sub-slice priority; further, the request message may further include a sub-slice service path reserved bandwidth; wherein the sub-slice service path reserved bandwidth is less than or equal to the sub-slice reserved bandwidth.
In the embodiment of the present invention, after receiving the request message of the previous node, the other non-tail nodes in the sub-slice service path perform the judgment whether the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation can be completed according to the link residual bandwidth, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth, the path reserved bandwidth and the sub-slice priority, and send the judgment result to the head node in the sub-slice service path in the form of a response message.
If the sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation can be completed at the node to be responded, the response message carries the ID of the corresponding basic slice, the sub-slice RID, the path address of the corresponding node to be responded and the successful allocation state identification; otherwise, the response message carries the ID of the corresponding basic slice, the path address of the corresponding node to be responded and the status information of the allocation failure.
After receiving the request message of the last node, the tail node in the sub-slice service path carries the ID of the corresponding basic slice, the RID of the sub-slice, the SID address of the corresponding node to be responded and the successfully allocated state identifier.
The SID address is used for indicating which response message to be sent by the responding node; the status information of the allocation failure includes: information that the sub-slice RID cannot be allocated, information that the sub-slice bandwidth cannot be reserved, or sub-slice traffic path bandwidth cannot be reserved.
In the embodiment of the present invention, the determining whether each of the sub-slice bandwidths and sub-slice RID allocations can be completed according to the remaining bandwidth of the own link, the reserved bandwidth of the sub-slice, the reserved bandwidth of the path, and the sub-slice priority, specifically includes:
and the node searches the next out interface set of the service path, and if the out interface set is empty, the node judges that the sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation cannot be completed. Otherwise, calculating to obtain the link residual bandwidth of each interface.
If the interfaces in the interface set are not bound with RID, if the link residual bandwidth of the interfaces is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth, configuring the sub-slice bandwidth to reserve bandwidth for the path based on the interfaces, setting the sub-slice priority and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth based on the interfaces, binding the interfaces with RID, and judging that the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation can be completed at the node; otherwise, it is determined that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation cannot be completed at the node.
If the interfaces in the interface set are bound with RID, if the link residual bandwidth of the interfaces is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth, updating the configuration sub-slice bandwidth based on the interfaces to be the current sub-slice bandwidth plus the path reserved bandwidth, updating the sub-slice priority and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth based on the interfaces, and judging that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation can be completed at the node; otherwise, it is determined that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation cannot be completed at the node.
In the embodiment of the invention, after the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID are allocated, the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth is established after the sub-slice service path is established.
And encapsulating the sub-slice RID into a service flow by a head node in the sub-slice service path, and completing forwarding of the service flow on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth according to the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth.
In the embodiment of the invention, when at least one sub-slice service path exists in the sub-slice, the bandwidth of each sub-slice service path is reserved for each sub-slice service path; the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice service path bandwidth are dynamically configured, and specifically include:
and when the head node senses that no service flow exists in the sub-slice service path for a long time, the reserved sub-slice service path bandwidth is released through the aging message.
When no sub-slice service path bandwidth is allocated in the sub-slice, each node releases the reserved sub-slice bandwidth and releases the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth.
When the sub-slice has the service flow again, a new sub-slice bandwidth is allocated for the sub-slice, the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the new sub-slice bandwidth is established, and the establishment of a new sub-slice service path is carried out.
Example 2:
the embodiment of the invention provides a device for network slicing, which comprises a sub-slicing service path module and a service flow forwarding module, wherein:
the sub-slice service path establishing module is used for checking whether one basic slice in the basic slice group meets basic requirements when new service requirements exist, and establishing a sub-slice service path based on the corresponding basic slice if the basic slice meets the basic requirements; otherwise, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller;
the service flow forwarding module is used for forwarding the service flow on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth when the sub-slice service path is successfully established; if the sub-slice service path is failed to be established, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller.
It should be noted that, because the content of information interaction between the above units, the executing process, etc. is based on the same concept as the processing method embodiment of the present invention, specific content may be referred to the description in the method embodiment of the present invention, and will not be repeated here.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that all or a portion of the steps in the various methods of the embodiments may be implemented by a program that instructs associated hardware, the program may be stored on a computer readable storage medium, the storage medium may include: read Only Memory (ROM), random access Memory (RAM, random Access Memory), magnetic or optical disk, and the like.
The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention is not intended to be limiting, but rather is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and principles of the invention.
Claims (8)
1. A method of network slicing, comprising:
when new service demands exist, checking whether one basic slice in the basic slice group meets basic demands, if so, establishing a sub-slice service path based on the corresponding basic slice; otherwise, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller; the sub-slice service path is formed by orderly arranging nodes and links in corresponding basic slices, and comprises sub-slice RID, sub-slice reserved bandwidth, sub-slice priority and path reserved bandwidth information;
the judging process of success or failure of the sub-slice service path establishment specifically comprises the following steps: the head node in the sub-slice service path initiates a sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation flow, and after receiving the request message of the last node, other nodes in the sub-slice service path respond to the response message to the head node in the sub-slice service path; if the response messages responded by all the nodes to be responded carry the successfully allocated state identifiers, the sub-slice service path is successfully established; otherwise, the sub-slice service path is failed to be established; the head node initiates a sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation flow, which specifically comprises: the head node judges whether the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation can be completed according to the residual bandwidth of the own link, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth, the path reserved bandwidth and the sub-slice priority, if the head node can complete the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation, a request message is sent to the next hop node, otherwise, the request message is not sent, and the allocation fails;
if the sub-slice service path is established successfully, forwarding the service flow on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth; if the sub-slice service path is failed to be established, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller.
2. The method of network slicing according to claim 1, wherein said establishing sub-slice traffic paths based on the respective base slices comprises in particular:
according to the new service demand, calculating the sub-slice service path on the corresponding basic slice by the control surface of the corresponding basic slice according to the logic topology of the corresponding basic slice, the measured link delay of the corresponding basic slice and the link bandwidth of the corresponding basic slice.
3. The method of network slicing as set forth in claim 1, wherein,
after receiving the request message of the last node, other non-tail nodes in the sub-slice service path judge whether the sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation can be completed according to the residual bandwidth of own link, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth, the path reserved bandwidth and the sub-slice priority, and send the judging result to the head node in the sub-slice service path in the form of response message;
if the sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation can be completed at the node to be responded, the response message carries the ID of the corresponding basic slice, the sub-slice RID, the SID address of the corresponding node to be responded and the successful allocation state identification; otherwise, the response message carries the ID of the corresponding basic slice, the SID address of the corresponding node to be responded and the status information of the allocation failure;
after receiving the request message of the last node, the tail node in the sub-slice service path carries the ID of the corresponding basic slice, the RID of the sub-slice, the SID address of the corresponding node to be responded and the successfully allocated state identifier.
4. A method for network slicing according to claim 1 or 3, wherein said determining whether each of the sub-slice bandwidths and the sub-slice RID allocation can be completed according to the own link residual bandwidth, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth, the path reserved bandwidth, and the sub-slice priority comprises:
the node searches a next jumping-out interface set of the service path, and if the jumping-out interface set is empty, the node judges that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation cannot be completed; otherwise, calculating to obtain the link residual bandwidth of each interface;
if the interfaces in the interface set are not bound with RID, if the link residual bandwidth of the interfaces is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth, configuring the sub-slice bandwidth to reserve bandwidth for the path based on the interfaces, setting the sub-slice priority and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth based on the interfaces, binding the interfaces with RID, and judging that the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation can be completed at the node; otherwise, determining that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation cannot be completed at the node;
if the interfaces in the interface set are bound with RID, if the link residual bandwidth of the interfaces is greater than or equal to the path reserved bandwidth, updating the configuration sub-slice bandwidth based on the interfaces to be the current sub-slice bandwidth plus the path reserved bandwidth, updating the sub-slice priority and the sub-slice reserved bandwidth based on the interfaces, and judging that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation can be completed at the node; otherwise, it is determined that sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation cannot be completed at the node.
5. The method of network slicing according to claim 1, wherein the request message is for requesting allocation of sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID; the request message includes: ID of the corresponding basic slice, sub-slice RID, sub-slice reserved bandwidth, path reserved bandwidth and sub-slice priority, wherein the path reserved bandwidth is less than or equal to the sub-slice reserved bandwidth.
6. The method of network slicing according to claim 1, further comprising, after sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation is completed and a sub-slice traffic path is established:
establishing a mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth;
and encapsulating the sub-slice RID into a service flow by a head node in the sub-slice service path, and completing forwarding of the service flow on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth according to the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth.
7. The method of network slicing according to claim 1, wherein when there is at least one sub-slice traffic path in the sub-slice, reserving a respective sub-slice traffic path bandwidth for each sub-slice traffic path; the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice service path bandwidth are dynamically configured, and specifically include:
when the head node senses that no service flow exists in the sub-slice service path for a long time, the reserved sub-slice service path bandwidth is released through the aging message;
when no sub-slice service path bandwidth is allocated in the sub-slice, each node releases the reserved sub-slice bandwidth and releases the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the sub-slice bandwidth;
when the sub-slice has the service flow again, a new sub-slice bandwidth is allocated for the sub-slice, the mapping relation between the sub-slice RID and the new sub-slice bandwidth is established, and the establishment of a new sub-slice service path is carried out.
8. The device for slicing the network is characterized by comprising a sub-slice service path establishment module and a service flow forwarding module, wherein:
the sub-slice service path module is used for checking whether one basic slice in the basic slice group meets basic requirements or not when new service requirements exist, and if so, establishing a sub-slice service path based on the corresponding basic slice; otherwise, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller; the sub-slice service path is formed by orderly arranging nodes and links in corresponding basic slices, and comprises sub-slice RID, sub-slice reserved bandwidth, sub-slice priority and path reserved bandwidth information;
the judging process of success or failure of the sub-slice service path establishment specifically comprises the following steps: the head node in the sub-slice service path initiates a sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation flow, and after receiving the request message of the last node, other nodes in the sub-slice service path respond to the response message to the head node in the sub-slice service path; if the response messages responded by all the nodes to be responded carry the successfully allocated state identifiers, the sub-slice service path is successfully established; otherwise, the sub-slice service path is failed to be established; the head node initiates a sub-slice bandwidth and sub-slice RID allocation flow, which specifically comprises: the head node judges whether the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation can be completed according to the residual bandwidth of the own link, the sub-slice reserved bandwidth, the path reserved bandwidth and the sub-slice priority, if the head node can complete the sub-slice bandwidth and the sub-slice RID allocation, a request message is sent to the next hop node, otherwise, the request message is not sent, and the allocation fails;
the service flow forwarding module is used for forwarding the service flow on the sub-slice service path by using the sub-slice bandwidth when the sub-slice service path is successfully established; if the sub-slice service path is failed to be established, the new service is failed to be established, and an error alarm is reported to the controller.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN202310116678.5A CN116056160B (en) | 2023-02-09 | 2023-02-09 | Method and device for network slicing |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN202310116678.5A CN116056160B (en) | 2023-02-09 | 2023-02-09 | Method and device for network slicing |
Publications (2)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CN116056160A CN116056160A (en) | 2023-05-02 |
| CN116056160B true CN116056160B (en) | 2024-01-30 |
Family
ID=86129520
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN202310116678.5A Active CN116056160B (en) | 2023-02-09 | 2023-02-09 | Method and device for network slicing |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CN (1) | CN116056160B (en) |
Citations (5)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN110944357A (en) * | 2018-09-25 | 2020-03-31 | 中兴通讯股份有限公司 | Network slicing method and device |
| CN113556784A (en) * | 2021-07-29 | 2021-10-26 | 新华三技术有限公司 | Network slice implementation method and device and electronic equipment |
| CN115086218A (en) * | 2021-03-16 | 2022-09-20 | 华为技术有限公司 | Message processing method, network equipment and controller |
| CN115277548A (en) * | 2021-04-30 | 2022-11-01 | ***通信有限公司研究院 | Transmission method, device and storage medium |
| CN115297493A (en) * | 2022-07-22 | 2022-11-04 | 武汉烽火技术服务有限公司 | SRv6 network slice configuration management method and system |
Family Cites Families (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US20220141095A1 (en) * | 2020-10-30 | 2022-05-05 | Juniper Networks, Inc. | Network slicing including modeling, distribution, traffic engineering and maintenance |
-
2023
- 2023-02-09 CN CN202310116678.5A patent/CN116056160B/en active Active
Patent Citations (5)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN110944357A (en) * | 2018-09-25 | 2020-03-31 | 中兴通讯股份有限公司 | Network slicing method and device |
| CN115086218A (en) * | 2021-03-16 | 2022-09-20 | 华为技术有限公司 | Message processing method, network equipment and controller |
| CN115277548A (en) * | 2021-04-30 | 2022-11-01 | ***通信有限公司研究院 | Transmission method, device and storage medium |
| CN113556784A (en) * | 2021-07-29 | 2021-10-26 | 新华三技术有限公司 | Network slice implementation method and device and electronic equipment |
| CN115297493A (en) * | 2022-07-22 | 2022-11-04 | 武汉烽火技术服务有限公司 | SRv6 network slice configuration management method and system |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| CN116056160A (en) | 2023-05-02 |
Similar Documents
| Publication | Publication Date | Title |
|---|---|---|
| US6434612B1 (en) | Connection control interface for asynchronous transfer mode switches | |
| EP3384640B1 (en) | Communication among network controllers | |
| FI117225B (en) | Active / Backup routing system on ATM network | |
| CN110611924A (en) | Method, related device and medium for realizing data transmission of time-sensitive network | |
| CN111970137B (en) | Method, device and system for communication among controllers in TSN (traffic service network) | |
| CN101488898B (en) | Tree shaped fast connection establishing method based on multi-Agent cooperation | |
| US20070268821A1 (en) | Rpr representation in ospf-te | |
| CN105357024A (en) | Area control equipment, domain control equipment and control system for SDN (Software Defined Networking) | |
| AU2014414703A1 (en) | Data forwarding method, device and system in software-defined networking | |
| CN111726293B (en) | Message transmission method and device | |
| CN106060858B (en) | The method and device of software definition Satellite Networking based on OpenFlow Extended Protocol | |
| CN113037527B (en) | Network slice creation method, message forwarding method and device thereof | |
| US20220124023A1 (en) | Path Switching Method, Device, and System | |
| CN113285876A (en) | Routing method, routing device and computer readable storage medium | |
| CN113676412A (en) | Network control method and equipment | |
| CN113497754A (en) | Forwarding path establishing method and device and computer readable storage medium | |
| US20140185607A1 (en) | Communication system, communication path establishing method and management server | |
| EP1968251A1 (en) | Method and apparatus for QoS resource reservation and configuration of multicast network resources | |
| CN115277548A (en) | Transmission method, device and storage medium | |
| CN114285787A (en) | Cross-user-plane forwarding method, system and computer-readable storage medium | |
| CN113810442B (en) | Resource reservation method, device, terminal and node equipment | |
| CN116056160B (en) | Method and device for network slicing | |
| CN113193988B (en) | Multi-PCE path computation interaction method and system | |
| JPH09270816A (en) | Router, packet transfer method, and method for forming virtual transfer path | |
| WO2022057487A1 (en) | Path identifier allocation method, system, apparatus and device, and storage medium |
Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| PB01 | Publication | ||
| PB01 | Publication | ||
| SE01 | Entry into force of request for substantive examination | ||
| SE01 | Entry into force of request for substantive examination | ||
| GR01 | Patent grant | ||
| GR01 | Patent grant |