CN117641441A

CN117641441A - Congestion control method and device

Info

Publication number: CN117641441A
Application number: CN202210956565.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 魏鑫鹏; 朱奋勤; 王丹
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-08-10
Filing date: 2022-08-10
Publication date: 2024-03-01
Also published as: WO2024032211A1

Abstract

The application provides a congestion control method and a congestion control device, which are used for auditing the transmission rate of a service flow when a base station is congested, and adjusting the transmission mode of the service flow when the service flow is not normally slowed down, so that the congestion degree of the base station is reduced. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, a UPF network element receives congestion information from a base station, wherein the congestion information is used for indicating the congestion condition of a first Qos flow in the base station; if the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement, the UPF network element adjusts the transmission mode of the first service flow to reduce the transmission rate of the first service flow in the first QoS flow, thereby reducing the congestion degree of the first base station.

Description

Congestion control method and device

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a congestion control method and apparatus.

Background

When the service message sent by the application server arrives at the base station, if the base station is congested, the base station can inform the application server of congestion information, and the application server can obtain the current congestion degree of the network based on the received congestion information, so that congestion control is adopted to reduce network congestion. There are many different ways to send network congestion information to an application server currently, for example, L4S (Low Latency), low Loss, scalable Throughput (scalable throughput) is a scheme for providing network congestion information to an application, specifically, when a service packet sent by an application server arrives at a base station, if congestion occurs at the base station, the base station compares CE (i.e. congestion information) with explicit congestion notification (Explicit Congestion Notification, ECN) bits in an IP header of the service packet, and when a User Equipment (UE) receives the service packet, the UE feeds back the congestion information to the application server; or congestion information may be provided to the application server through a serviceization interface provided by the network. However, the problem of network congestion cannot be solved without the application server slowing down.

Disclosure of Invention

The application relates to a congestion control method and a congestion control device, which are used for auditing the transmission rate of a service flow when a base station is congested, and adjusting the transmission mode of the service flow when the service flow is not slowed down, so that the congestion degree of the base station is reduced.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a congestion control method, including: a user plane function (user plane function, UPF) network element receives congestion information from a base station, the congestion information being used to indicate congestion conditions of a first quality of service flow (Qos flow) in the base station; if the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement of the first service flow, the UPF network element adjusts the transmission mode of the first service flow.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, the UPF network element can audit the transmission rate of the service flow, and when the transmission rate of the service flow does not meet the rate requirement, the UPF network element can adjust the transmission mode of the service flow, so that the transmission rate of the service flow in the first QoS flow is reduced, the congestion degree of the first QoS flow is reduced, and that is, the congestion degree of the base station is reduced.

Alternatively, the traffic flow of one or more services may be transmitted in the first QoS flow, and the first traffic flow referred to in this application may be any traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow. And when a plurality of service flows are transmitted in the first QoS flow, the UPF network element may audit the transmission rate of each service flow, and the present application is exemplarily described by taking an audit process of the first service flow as an example.

The first traffic flow mentioned in this application may also be understood as all traffic flows transmitted in the first QoS flow, i.e. the first traffic flow may be used to represent all traffic flows transmitted in the first QoS flow at this time. In this scenario, the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the aforementioned first QoS flow does not meet the rate requirement of the first traffic flow, that is, the total transmission rate of all traffic flows transmitted in the first QoS flow does not meet the rate requirement, or the rate of the traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow does not meet the rate requirement of the QoS flow, or the first QoS flow on the base station is understood to be in a congestion state; the foregoing adjustment of the transmission manner of the first service flow by the UPF network element may be understood that the adjustment of the transmission manner of the service flow in the first QoS flow, where the transmission manner of the service flow does not meet the rate requirement by the UPF network element.

In addition, the first QoS flow may be a QoS flow in which the base station performs ECN marking or performs congestion notification, and generally, the transmission efficiency of the transmitted data is required to be higher, so congestion control is required to implement low-latency transmission of the data.

Optionally, if the transmission rate of the first service flow meets the rate requirement, that is, the sending end performs the speed reduction processing on the first service flow, the UPF network element may not need to adjust the transmission mode of the first service flow, so as to ensure that the first service flow can be normally transmitted in the first QoS flow.

In a possible implementation manner, the foregoing adjustment, by the UPF network element, of the transmission manner of the first service flow may include: the UPF network element maps the first service flow to the second Qos flow for transmission. In this embodiment of the present application, the UPF network element may map the first traffic flow to the transmission in the alternative QoS flow, so as to reduce the amount of data transmitted in the first QoS flow, and reduce the congestion degree of the first QoS flow.

Specifically, the second Qos flow may be a Qos flow different from the first Qos flow, for example, the first Qos flow may be a Qos flow for performing ECN marking or performing congestion notification, the second Qos flow may be a Qos flow for not performing ECN marking or not performing congestion notification, or a low priority Qos flow, etc.

In one possible embodiment, the method may further include: the UPF network element sends information of a second Qos flow to the session management function (session management function, SMF) network element, where the information of the second Qos flow is used to trigger mapping the first traffic flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the UPF network element may send the information of the selected alternative Qos flow to the SMF network element, so as to notify the SMF network element that the first service flow has been mapped to the second Qos flow for transmission.

In one possible embodiment, the method may further include: before the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station, the UPF network element receives a first configuration message from the SMF network element, wherein the first configuration message carries information of a second Qos flow.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, before the UPF network element receives congestion information sent by the base station, the UPF network element may receive a configuration message sent by the SMF, so as to obtain information of available Qos flows, so as to select a transmittable Qos flow resource for a service flow when congestion occurs.

In a possible implementation manner, the foregoing adjustment, by the UPF network element, of the transmission manner of the first service flow may include: the UPF network element sends an indication that the rate requirement is not met to the SMF network element, and the indication that the rate requirement is not met can be used for indicating that the transmission rate of the first service flow is not met; then, the UPF network element receives information of a third Qos flow sent by the SMF network element; and the UPF network element maps the first service flow to the third Qos flow for transmission.

Therefore, in this embodiment of the present application, the third QoS flow may also be referred to as an alternative QoS flow, and after the UPF network element determines that the rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement, the UPF network element receives information of the alternative QoS flow from the SMF network element, and maps the first traffic flow to the alternative QoS flow for transmission, so as to reduce the amount of data transmitted in the first QoS flow and reduce the congestion degree of the first QoS flow.

In a possible implementation manner, the foregoing adjustment, by the UPF network element, of the transmission manner of the first service flow may include: the UPF network element performs speed limiting processing on the first traffic flow, so that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not exceed an available rate, and the available rate can be obtained according to congestion information.

Therefore, in this embodiment of the present application, when the base station is in a congestion state, for example, when the sending end does not perform the speed reduction on the first traffic flow, or the sending end performs less speed reduction on the first traffic flow, the UPF network element may perform the speed reduction processing, so as to reduce the transmission rate or occupy the bandwidth of the first traffic flow in the first Qos flow, and reduce the congestion degree of the first Qos flow. In this application, in the case where the first traffic flow refers to all traffic flows transmitted in QoS flow, the transmitting end may refer to one or more transmitting ends.

In one possible implementation, the foregoing rate requirements may include: the drop in transmission rate over a preset period of time is greater than a first threshold, or the transmission rate is less than a second threshold, or the transmission rate is not higher than the available rate. The rate requirement may be derived from congestion information, and if the congestion information includes a congestion percentage, a value for the traffic flow to slow down may be determined according to the congestion percentage, for example, if the congestion information indicates that the congestion percentage is 10%, the traffic flow needs to slow down by 10%, that is, the rate requirement is considered to be satisfied. In this application, when the first traffic flow refers to all traffic flows transmitted in QoS flows, the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement of the first traffic flow, which may also be understood as that the first QoS flow in the base station is in a congestion state.

In one possible implementation, before the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station, the method may further include: the UPF network element receives an audit instruction from the SMF network element, wherein the audit instruction is used for triggering the UPF network element to judge whether the transmission rate of the service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, the UPF network element may receive the audit indication from the SMF network element, so that the transmission rate of the first service flow is audited under the trigger of the audit indication, so that the transmission mode of the first service flow may be timely adjusted under the condition that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement, and the congestion degree of the first Qos flow is reduced.

In one possible implementation, the foregoing congestion information may include at least one of: congestion indication, congestion level, congestion percentage or available bandwidth, the congestion indication is used to indicate that the first Qos flow generates congestion, the congestion level may be used to indicate a congestion corresponding level generated in the first Qos flow, the congestion percentage indicates a percentage of data packets in the first Qos flow that are congested, and the available bandwidth is available for the first Qos flow.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a congestion control method, including: the SMF network element sends an audit indication to the UPF network element, the audit indication is used for triggering the UPF network element to judge whether the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement, and the congestion information is used for indicating the congestion condition of the first Qos flow in the base station.

Therefore, in this embodiment of the present application, the SMF network element may send an audit indication to the UPF network element, so as to trigger the UPF network element to audit the transmission rate of the first service flow in the first QoS flow when the base station is congested, determine whether the transmission rate of the first service flow meets the rate requirement, and adjust the transmission mode of the first service flow when the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement, thereby reducing the transmission rate of the first service flow in the first QoS flow, and reducing the congestion degree of the first QoS flow.

In a possible implementation manner, the audit indication is carried in a first configuration message, and the first configuration message may also carry information of a second Qos flow, so that when the UPF network element determines that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow does not meet the rate requirement, the first traffic flow is mapped to the second Qos flow for transmission.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, before the UPF network element receives congestion information sent by the base station, the UPF network element may receive a configuration message sent by the SMF, so as to obtain information of available Qos flows, so as to select a transmittable Qos flow resource for a service flow when congestion occurs. The second QoS flow may also be referred to herein as an alternative QoS flow to the traffic flow transported in the first QoS flow.

In one possible implementation, the SMF network element further receives information of a second Qos flow from the UPF network element for triggering mapping the first traffic flow into the second Qos flow for transmission.

In this embodiment of the present application, after the UPF network element maps the first service flow to the second Qos flow for transmission, the information of the second Qos flow may also be sent to the SMF network element, so as to notify the SMF network element that the first service flow has been mapped to the second Qos flow for transmission.

In one possible implementation, the SMF network element receives an indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not met, the indication that the rate requirement is not met being used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow is not met; and then sending the information of the third Qos flow to the UPF network element for the UPF network element to map the first service flow to the third Qos flow for transmission.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, after the UPF network element sends the indication that the rate requirement is not satisfied to the SMF network element, the information of the alternative Qos flow may be sent to the UPF network element.

In one possible implementation, the foregoing congestion information may include at least one of: congestion indication, congestion level, congestion percentage or available bandwidth, wherein the congestion indication is used for indicating that the first Qos flow generates congestion, the congestion percentage represents the percentage of data packets with congestion in the first Qos flow, and the available bandwidth is available for the first Qos flow. The congestion level is used to identify a congestion level, which may be divided into several levels, each of which may be referred to as a congestion level, for example.

In one possible implementation, the foregoing rate requirements may include: the decrease in transmission rate over a preset period of time is greater than a first threshold or the transmission rate is less than a second threshold.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a congestion control method, including: the UPF network element receives congestion information from a base station, wherein the congestion information is used for indicating congestion conditions of a first quality of service flow Qos flow in the base station; if the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement, the UPF network element sends an indication that the rate requirement is not met to the session management function SMF network element, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement, so that the SMF network element can notify the base station to stop performing ECN marking or congestion notification on the first QoS flow.

Therefore, in this embodiment of the present application, when the sending end does not slow down the traffic flow, congestion notification or ECN marking may not be performed for the Qos flow for transmitting the traffic flow, and the base station may process the transmitted traffic flow, such as shaping or packet loss, so as to reduce the congestion level of the first Qos flow.

In one possible implementation manner, before the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station, the UPF network element receives an audit indication from the SMF network element, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets a rate requirement.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, the UPF network element may receive the audit indication from the SMF network element, so as to audit the transmission rate of the service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow under the indication of the audit indication, so that the transmission mode of the first service flow may be timely adjusted under the condition that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement, and the congestion degree of the first QoS flow is reduced.

In one possible implementation manner, after the UPF network element sends an indication that the rate requirement is not met to the session management function SMF network element, a stop audit indication from the SMF network element is received, where the stop audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to stop determining whether the transmission rate of the traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, after notifying the base station to stop performing ECN marking or stop performing congestion notification, the SMF network element may notify the UPF network element to stop performing audit, so as to reduce workload of the UPF network element.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a congestion control method, including: the SMF network element receives an indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not met, wherein the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used for indicating that the transmission rate of the first service flow is not met; the SMF network element sends a notification message to the base station, where the notification message is used to notify the base station to stop sending congestion notifications for the congestion level of the first Qos flow, and/or the notification message is used to instruct the base station to stop explicit congestion notification ECN marking of the first traffic flow.

In one possible implementation manner, the SMF network element sends an audit indication to the UPF network element, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets a rate requirement when the base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, the SMF network element may send an audit indication to the UPF network element, so as to trigger the UPF network element to audit the rate of the traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow.

In one possible implementation manner, the SMF network element further sends a stop audit indication to the UPF network element, where the stop audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to stop determining whether the transmission rate of the traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

In one possible implementation manner, after the UPF network element sends an indication that the rate requirement is not met to the session management function SMF network element, the SMF network element further sends a stop audit indication to the UPF network element, where the stop audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to stop judging whether the transmission rate of the first service flow meets the rate requirement, so that the workload of the UPF network element is reduced.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a congestion control apparatus, comprising:

the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving congestion information from the base station, wherein the congestion information is used for indicating congestion conditions of a first quality of service flow Qos flow in the base station;

and the processing module is used for adjusting the transmission mode of the first service flow if the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement of the first service flow.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing module is specifically configured to map the first traffic flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send, to the session management function SMF network element, information of a second Qos flow, where the information of the second Qos flow is used to trigger mapping the first traffic flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive, before the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station, a first configuration message from the SMF network element, where the first configuration message carries information of a second Qos flow, where the second Qos flow is an alternative Qos flow of the traffic flows transmitted in the first Qos flow, that is, when the first Qos flow is congested, the traffic flows transmitted in the first Qos flow may be mapped to the alternative Qos flows for transmission.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send an indication that the rate requirement is not met to the session management function SMF network element, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement;

the receiving and transmitting module is also used for receiving the information of the third Qos flow sent by the SMF network element;

And the processing module is specifically used for mapping the first service flow to the transmission in the third Qos flow.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing module is specifically configured to perform speed limiting processing on the first traffic flow, so that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not exceed an available rate, where the available rate is obtained according to congestion information.

In one possible implementation, the rate requirements include: the drop in transmission rate over a preset period of time is greater than a first threshold, or the transmission rate is less than a second threshold, or the transmission rate is not higher than the available rate.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive, before the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station, an audit indication from the SMF network element, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets a rate requirement.

In one possible implementation, the congestion information includes at least one of:

congestion indication, congestion level, congestion percentage, or available bandwidth, where the congestion indication is used to indicate that the first Qos flow is congested, and the congestion percentage indicates the percentage of data packets in the first Qos flow that are congested, and the available bandwidth is available to the first Qos flow.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a congestion control apparatus, including:

the receiving and transmitting module is used for sending an audit instruction to the user plane function UPF network element, the audit instruction is used for triggering the UPF network element to judge whether the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement or not under the condition that the base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element, and the congestion information is used for indicating the congestion condition of the first Qos flow in the base station.

In a possible implementation manner, the audit indication is carried in a first configuration message, and the first configuration message also carries information of a second Qos flow, so that when the UPF network element determines that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow does not meet the rate requirement, the first traffic flow is mapped to the second Qos flow for transmission.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive information of the second Qos flow from the UPF network element, and instruct the UPF network element to map the first traffic flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive an indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not met, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement;

And the receiving and transmitting module is also used for sending the information of the third Qos flow to the UPF network element and mapping the first service flow to the third Qos flow for transmission by the UPF network element.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a congestion control apparatus, including: the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving congestion information from the base station, wherein the congestion information is used for indicating congestion conditions of a first quality of service flow Qos flow in the base station;

and the receiving-transmitting module is further configured to send an indication that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement to the session management function SMF network element if the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement, where the indication that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive, before receiving congestion information from the base station, an audit indication from the SMF network element, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets a rate requirement.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive a stop audit instruction from the SMF network element after sending an instruction that the rate requirement is not met to the session management function SMF network element, where the stop audit instruction is used to trigger the UPF network element to stop determining whether the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a congestion control apparatus, including:

the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving an indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not met, and the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used for indicating that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement;

and the transceiver module is further used for sending a notification message to the base station, wherein the notification message is used for notifying the base station to stop sending the congestion notification aiming at the congestion degree of the first Qos flow, and/or the notification message is used for instructing the base station to stop carrying out explicit congestion notification ECN marking on the first service flow.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send an audit indication to the UPF network element, where the audit indication is used to instruct the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets a rate requirement when the base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send a stop audit indication to the UPF network element, where the stop audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to stop determining whether the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a congestion control apparatus, comprising: a processor, a memory, an input-output device, and a bus; the memory has stored therein computer instructions; the processor, when executing the computer instructions in the memory, stores the computer instructions in the memory; the processor, when executing the computer instructions in the memory, is configured to implement any one of the implementations as in the first aspect.

In one possible implementation, the processor, memory, and input-output devices are each coupled to the bus.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a congestion control apparatus, comprising: a processor, a memory, an input-output device, and a bus; the memory has stored therein computer instructions; the processor, when executing the computer instructions in the memory, stores the computer instructions in the memory; the processor, when executing the computer instructions in the memory, is adapted to carry out any one of the implementations as described in the second aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a congestion control apparatus, including: a processor, a memory, an input-output device, and a bus; the memory has stored therein computer instructions; the processor, when executing the computer instructions in the memory, stores the computer instructions in the memory; the processor, when executing the computer instructions in the memory, is adapted to carry out any one of the implementations as defined in the third aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a congestion control apparatus, including: a processor, a memory, an input-output device, and a bus; the memory has stored therein computer instructions; the processor, when executing the computer instructions in the memory, stores the computer instructions in the memory; the processor, when executing the computer instructions in the memory, is adapted to carry out any one of the implementations as claimed in the fourth aspect.

A thirteenth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a communication system including the congestion control apparatus as in the sixth aspect and the congestion control apparatus as in the seventh aspect.

A fourteenth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a communication system including the congestion control apparatus as the eighth aspect and the congestion control apparatus as the tenth aspect.

A fifteenth aspect of the present embodiment provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and an input/output port, where the processor is configured to implement a processing function related to the congestion control method described in the first aspect, and the input/output port is configured to implement a transceiver function related to the congestion control method described in the first aspect.

In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory, where the memory is configured to store program instructions and data for implementing the functions involved in the congestion control method described in the first aspect.

The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

A sixteenth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and an input/output port, where the processor is configured to implement a processing function related to the congestion control method described in the second aspect, and the input/output port is configured to implement a transceiver function related to the congestion control method described in the second aspect.

In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory, where the memory is configured to store program instructions and data for implementing the functions involved in the congestion control method described in the second aspect.

A seventeenth aspect of the present embodiment provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and an input/output port, where the processor is configured to implement a processing function related to the congestion control method described in the third aspect, and the input/output port is configured to implement a transceiver function related to the congestion control method described in the third aspect.

In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory, where the memory is configured to store program instructions and data for implementing the functions involved in the congestion control method described in the third aspect.

An eighteenth aspect of the present application provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and an input/output port, where the processor is configured to implement a processing function related to the congestion control method described in the fourth aspect or the fifth aspect, and the input/output port is configured to implement a transceiver function related to the congestion control method described in the fourth aspect.

In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory, where the memory is configured to store program instructions and data for implementing the functions involved in the congestion control method described in the fourth aspect.

A nineteenth aspect of an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium has stored therein computer instructions; the computer instructions, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the communication processing method as described in any one of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect or the fourth aspect.

A twentieth aspect of embodiments of the present application provides a computer program product. The computer program product comprises a computer program or instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the communication processing method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first, second, third or fourth aspects.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a congestion control method provided in the present application;

fig. 4 is a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application;

fig. 5 is a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application;

fig. 6 is a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application;

fig. 7 is a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application;

fig. 8 is a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application;

fig. 9 is a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application;

fig. 10 is a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application;

Fig. 11 is a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a congestion control apparatus provided in the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of another congestion control apparatus provided in the present application;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of another congestion control apparatus provided in the present application;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of another congestion control apparatus provided in the present application;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of another congestion control apparatus provided in the present application;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of another congestion control apparatus provided in the present application;

fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of another congestion control apparatus provided in the present application;

fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of another congestion control apparatus provided in the present application;

fig. 20 is another architecture diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 21 is another architecture diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The embodiment of the application provides a congestion control method and device, which are used for reducing the congestion degree of a base station and improving the data transmission efficiency and reliability.

First, the congestion control method provided in the present application may be applied to various communication networks, such as a fifth generation (5th generation,5G) communication system, a New Radio (NR), a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, an LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, an LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), a universal mobile telecommunication system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication system, or other future communication systems such as 6G. The present application is illustratively presented with respect to a 5G communication system.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) network based on 5G communication technology. The network shown in fig. 1 mainly includes: a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) device, an AMF network element, a user plane function (user plane function, UPF) network element, a PCF network element, a terminal device, etc.

In a communication system, a part operated by an operator may be referred to as a PLMN (may also be referred to as an operator network, etc.).

The network architecture may include three parts, a terminal device part, a PLMN, and a Data Network (DN), respectively. The PLMN is mainly a public network of mobile network operators (mobile network operator, MNO) providing mobile broadband access services for subscribers. The PLMN described in the present application may specifically be a network meeting the requirements of the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) standard, abbreviated as 3GPP network. The 3GPP network generally includes, but is not limited to, a fifth generation mobile communication (5 th-generation, 5G) network (abbreviated as 5G network), a fourth generation mobile communication (4 th-generation, 4G) network (abbreviated as 4G network), and the like.

The terminal device part may include a terminal device 110, which terminal device 110 may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE). The terminal device 110 in the present application is a device having a radio transceiver function, and may communicate with one or more Core Network (CN) devices (or may also be referred to as core devices) via an access network device (or may also be referred to as an access device) in the radio access network (radio access network, RAN) 140. Terminal equipment 110 may also be called an access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, user agent, user device, or the like. Terminal device 110 may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held, or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as ships, etc.); but may also be deployed in the air (e.g., on aircraft, balloon, satellite, etc.). The terminal device 110 may be a cellular phone (cellular phone), a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a smart phone (smart phone), a mobile phone (mobile phone), a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), etc. Alternatively, the terminal device 110 may also be a handheld device, a computing device or other device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, an unmanned aerial vehicle device or internet of things, a terminal in the internet of things, a terminal in any form of a 5G network and a future network, a relay user device, or a terminal in a future evolved PLMN, etc. The relay user equipment may be, for example, a 5G home gateway (residential gateway, RG). For example, the terminal device 110 may be a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned (self driving), a wireless terminal in telemedicine (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city, a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and the like. The embodiment of the application is not limited to the type or kind of the terminal device.

The PLMN may include: network open function (network exposure function, NEF) 131, network storage function (network function repository function, NRF) 132, policy control function (policy control function, PCF) 133, unified data management (unified data management, UDM) 134, application function (application function, AF) 135, AUSF136, AMF137, session management function (session management function, SMF) 138, user plane function (user plane function, UPF) 139, and (radio) access network (R) AN) 140, nsaaf 141, and the like. In the above PLMN, the parts other than the (radio) access network 140 part may be referred to as a Core Network (CN) part or a core network part.

The Data Network (DN) 120, which may also be referred to as a packet data network (packet data network, PDN), is typically a network outside the PLMN, such as a third party network. Illustratively, the PLMN may access a plurality of data networks DN 120, and a plurality of services may be deployed on the data networks DN 120, thereby providing services such as data and/or voice for the terminal device 110. For example, the data network DN 120 may be a private network of an intelligent plant, the sensors installed in the plant of the intelligent plant may be the terminal devices 110, and the control servers of the sensors deployed in the data network DN 120 may provide services for the sensors. The sensor may communicate with the control server, obtain instructions from the control server, transmit collected sensor data to the control server, etc., according to the instructions. For another example, the data network DN 120 may be an internal office network of a company, where a mobile phone or a computer of a staff member may be the terminal device 110, and the mobile phone or the computer of the staff member may access information, data resources, etc. on the internal office network of the company. The terminal device 110 may establish a connection with the PLMN through an interface provided by the PLMN (e.g., an N1 interface in fig. 1, etc.), and use data and/or voice services provided by the PLMN. Terminal device 110 may also access data network DN 120 via a PLMN, use operator services deployed on data network DN 120, and/or services provided by third parties. The third party may be a service party other than the PLMN and the terminal equipment 110, and may provide other services such as data and/or voice for the terminal equipment 110. The specific expression form of the third party may be specifically determined according to the actual application scenario, which is not limited herein.

Illustratively, the network functions in the PLMN are briefly described below.

(R) AN 140 is a subnetwork of the PLMN, and is AN implementation system between a service node (or network function) and terminal equipment 110 in the PLMN. The terminal device 110 is to access the PLMN, and first goes through the (R) AN 140 and then connects to the service node in the PLMN through the (R) AN 140. The access network device in the embodiment of the present application is a device that provides a wireless communication function for the terminal device 110, and may also be referred to as AN access device, (R) AN device, or a network device. Such as the access device includes, but is not limited to: a next generation base station (next generation node basestation, gNB) in the 5G system, an evolved node B (eNB) in the LTE system, a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (home evolved nodeB, or home node B, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), a transmission reception point (transmitting and receiving point, TRP), a transmission point (transmitting point, TP), a small base station device (pico), a mobile switching center, or a network device in a future network, and the like. It will be appreciated that the specific type of access network device is not limited in this application. In systems employing different radio access technologies, the names of access network device-capable devices may vary.

Alternatively, in some deployments of the access device, the access device may include a Centralized Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), and the like. In other deployments of the access device, the CUs may also be divided into a CU-Control Plane (CP) and a CU-User Plane (UP), etc. In still other deployments of the access device, the access device may also be an open radio access network (open radio access network, ora) architecture, etc., and the specific deployment manner of the access device is not limited in this application.

The network opening function NEF (which may also be referred to as a NEF network function or a NEF network function entity) 131 is a control plane function provided by the operator. The NEF network function 131 opens the external interface of the PLMN to the third party in a secure manner. The NEF network function 131 may act as a relay for the SMF network function 138 to communicate with a network entity of a third party when the SMF network function 138 needs to communicate with a network function of the third party. The NEF network function 131 may be used as a relay to translate identification information of subscribers and to translate identification information of network functions of third parties. For example, the NEF network function 131 may translate the subscriber's subscriber permanent identifier (subscriber permanent identifier, SUPI) to its corresponding external Identity (ID) when sending the SUPI from the PLMN to a third party. Conversely, when the NEF network function 131 sends an external ID (network entity ID of a third party) to the PLMN, it may be translated into SUPI.

The network storage function NRF 132 may be used to maintain real-time information for all network function services in the network.

Policy control function PCF 133 is a control plane function provided by the operator for providing policies of protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) sessions to session management function SMF 138. Policies may include charging related policies, qoS related policies, and authorization related policies, among others.

The unified data management UDM 134 is a control plane function provided by an operator, and is responsible for storing information such as a subscriber permanent identifier (subscriber permanent identifier, SUPI), security context (security context), subscription data, etc. of signing subscribers in the PLMN. The subscribers of the PLMN may specifically be subscribers using services provided by the PLMN, for example, subscribers using a core card of a terminal device of china telecommunication, subscribers using a core card of a terminal device of china mobile, or the like. For example, the SUPI of the subscriber may be the number of the core card of the terminal device, etc. The security context may be data (cookie) or token (token) stored on a local terminal device (e.g., a cell phone), etc. The subscription data of the subscriber can be the matched service of the core card of the terminal equipment, such as the flow package of the mobile phone core card, etc.

And the application function AF 135 is used for performing data routing affected by application, accessing the network opening function, interacting with the policy framework to perform policy control and the like.

The authentication server function AUSF 136 is a control plane function provided by an operator and is typically used for primary authentication, i.e. authentication between the terminal device 110 (subscriber) and the PLMN.

The network slice authentication and authorization function NSSAAF141 is a control plane function provided by the operator and is typically used for slice authentication of network slices. I.e. slice authentication performed between the terminal device 110 and an authentication server, such as an authentication server of an operator network or an authentication server of a third party DN.

The access and mobility management function AMF 137 is a control plane network function provided by the PLMN, and is responsible for access control and mobility management of the access of the terminal device 110 to the PLMN, for example, including mobility state management, allocation of a temporary identity of a user, authentication and authorization of the user, and other functions.

The session management function SMF 138 is a control plane network function provided by the PLMN and is responsible for managing protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) sessions of the terminal equipment 110. A PDU session is a channel for transmitting PDUs, and the terminal device needs to transmit PDUs to each other through the PDU session and DN 120. PDU sessions may be responsible for setup, maintenance, deletion, etc. by the SMF 138. The SMF 138 includes session management (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including maintenance of tunnels between the UPF 139 and (R) AN 140, etc.), selection and control of the UPF 139, traffic and session continuity (service and session continuity, SSC) mode selection, roaming, etc., session related functions.

The user plane function UPF 139 is a gateway provided by the operator and is a gateway for PLMN communication with DN 120. The UPF 139 includes functions related to the user plane such as packet routing and transmission, packet detection, traffic reporting, quality of service (quality of service, qoS) handling, lawful interception, uplink packet detection, downlink packet storage, etc.

The network functions in the PLMN shown in fig. 1 may also include a network slice selection function (network slice selection function, NSSF) (not shown in fig. 1) for being responsible for determining network slice instances, selecting AMF network function 137, etc. The network functions in the PLMN shown in fig. 1 may also include unified data store (unified data repository, UDR), etc., and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to other network functions included in the PLMN.

Nnef, nausf, nnssaaf, nnrf, npcf, nudm, naf, namf, nsmf, N1, N2, N3, N4, and N6 in fig. 1 are interface serial numbers. For example, the meaning of the above-mentioned interface serial number may be referred to the meaning defined in the 3GPP standard protocol, and the present application does not limit the meaning of the above-mentioned interface serial number. It should be noted that, in fig. 1, only the terminal device 110 is used to make an exemplary description for the UE, and the interface names between the network functions in fig. 1 are also merely an example, and in a specific implementation, the interface names of the system architecture may also be other names, which is not limited in this application.

In general, various data such as communication data between users, or media data generated by a service used by users, etc. may be transmitted in a communication network. For example, communication development drives new media industry experience to be further improved, video services become a mainstream media form, and new multimedia services such as Virtual Reality (VR), augmented Reality (AR), and the like, which are augmented Reality (XR) are emerging. The VR service is described below as an example.

VR is a revolutionary technology that thoroughly overturns content consumption and communication consumption, and VR technology brings sense organs into an independent and brand-new virtual space by shielding the sight of a user, so that immersive experience with stronger sense of substitution is provided for the user.

A typical business flow of a cloud (Clou) VR business is shown in fig. 2, where a user's VR device (e.g., a wearable VR head display) captures motion information of the user, such as head motion, hand motion, squat/stand, etc., and sends the motion information to a cloud server through a communication network (e.g., a 5G network). The cloud server renders and generates a picture according to the action information of the user, and sends the picture to the user equipment for viewing through a communication network.

The Cloud VR service has periodicity: the VR device periodically sends an uplink control packet containing signals from the interactive devices such as the head turn/handle, typically with a period of about 2.5ms to 5 ms); the cloud server generates video frames at a frame rate and sends the frames to the terminal via the downlink (e.g., a frame is generated every 16.67ms at a frame rate of 60 fps).

In general, when the amount of data transmitted in a network is greater than the forwarding capability of a network device, congestion occurs in the network device, and in order to reduce the congestion of the network device, a sender (such as an application server) of a traffic flow needs to take congestion control measures, for example, reducing the traffic flow.

L4S (Low Latency), low Loss (scalable throughput), scalable Throughput is a scheme for providing network congestion information to applications. Specifically, when a service message sent by an application server arrives at a base station, if congestion occurs at the base station, the base station compares CE (congestion information) in explicit congestion notification (Explicit Congestion Notification, ECN) bits of an IP header of the service message, when a UE receives the service message, the UE feeds back the congestion information to the application server, and the application server calculates the current congestion degree of a network based on the received congestion information, so that congestion control is adopted to reduce network congestion.

The 5G network may also provide congestion information to the application server through a servitization interface defining network capability openness, and the application server may take congestion control based on the received congestion information to reduce network congestion.

In this scheme, the application transmitting end performs appropriate congestion control based on the received congestion information, so as to reduce the congestion state. However, in a practical scenario, it may not be ensured that the application sender must be able to take appropriate congestion control measures. If the application transmitting end does not reduce the speed, the congestion of the RAN is not solved, if part of applications adopt an appropriate congestion control algorithm, the RAN can continuously inform the congestion, other applications following the congestion control reduce the speed, and finally, the applications which do not reduce the speed are led to preempt the bandwidth of the speed-reducing application.

Therefore, after the base station sends the congestion information to the application sending end, the UPF audits whether the application takes correct deceleration measures, and if the UPF detects that the application does not take proper deceleration actions, the transmission mode of the service flow is adjusted, so that the congestion of the base station is reduced.

Firstly, the congestion control method provided by the application comprises a plurality of control modes, wherein in one scene, a UPF network element receives congestion information from a base station, and the congestion information is used for indicating the congestion condition of a first quality of service flow (Qos flow) in the base station; if the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement, the UPF network element adjusts the transmission mode of the first service flow.

In another scenario, a UPF network element receives congestion information from a base station, where the congestion information is used to indicate congestion conditions of a first quality of service flow Qos flow in the base station; if the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement, the UPF network element sends an indication of not meeting the rate requirement to the SMF network element, and the indication of not meeting the rate requirement is used for indicating that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement.

The congestion control method provided in the present application is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In another scenario, if the traffic flow is not slowed down, the UPF network element may report the SMF network element, and the SMF network element notifies the base station to stop performing ECN marking on the traffic flow or stop performing congestion notification on the QoS flow, and the like, and different scenarios are respectively described below.

First, referring to fig. 3, a scheme for adjusting a transmission manner of a service flow by using a UPF network element is shown in a flow chart of a congestion control method provided in the present application, which is described below.

301. The SMF network element sends a configuration message to the UPF network element.

Wherein the configuration message (may also be referred to as a first configuration message for convenience of distinction) may be that the SMF network element sends to the UPF network element through an N4 interface (or referred to as an N4 rule).

The configuration message may carry first service flow identification information for identifying the service flow, and optionally may also carry an audit indication, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to audit the rate of the service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow. That is, the audit indication triggers the UPF network element to audit the rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow.

In general, a traffic flow, which may have multiple traffic within a communication network, may be any traffic flow transmitted within the communication network, which may be transmitted via an application server, a UPF network element, a base station, a UE, etc.

Specifically, the SMF network element and the UPF network element may refer to the foregoing description related to fig. 1, which is not described herein. The configuration message may be sent by the SMF network element and the UPF network element when the PDU session is established, or may be sent at any time before the first service flow is transmitted, specifically, may be adjusted according to an actual application scenario, which is not limited in this application.

In a possible implementation manner, the first configuration message carries information of the second Qos flow. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, before the UPF network element receives congestion information sent by the base station, the UPF network element receives a configuration message sent by the SMF, so as to obtain information of available Qos flows, so that when congestion occurs in the base station, a service flow is mapped to an alternative Qos flow for transmission.

302. The base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element.

The first traffic flow may be transmitted in a first QoS flow, where one or more traffic flows corresponding to the traffic may be transmitted in the first QoS flow, and this application is exemplarily illustrated by using the first traffic flow as an example, where the first traffic flow may be any traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow.

In the process of transmitting the first service flow, the base station can monitor the congestion condition of the first QoS flow, and when congestion is monitored, if the queue of the base station exceeds a threshold value, congestion information is sent to the UPF network element, so that the first QoS flow is indicated to generate congestion.

Alternatively, the congestion information may include an indication of congestion, a level of congestion, a percentage of congestion, a level of congestion, available bandwidth, or other information indicative of congestion conditions, etc. The congestion indication is used to indicate that the first QoS flow is congested, as may be represented by one of the bits in the congestion information; the congestion percentage is the percentage of the data packet with congestion, the congestion level indicates the congestion level, for example, the congestion condition can be divided into a plurality of levels, the congestion level carried in the congestion information can indicate the level of the current congestion of the base station, and the available bandwidth is the available bandwidth in the first QoS flow.

303. The UPF network element determines whether the transmission rate of the first service flow meets the rate requirement, if not, step 304 is executed, and if yes, no subsequent step is executed.

The UPF network element may audit the transmission rate of the first service flow, determine whether the first service flow meets the rate requirement corresponding to the first service flow, if not, that is, if the sending end does not perform the speed reduction processing for the congestion situation, step 304 may be executed, and if yes, that is, if the sending end performs the speed reduction processing for the first service flow for the congestion situation, the UPF network element may not need to perform the processing, which is not shown in fig. 3 herein.

Specifically, the UPF network element may obtain the first traffic flow information transmitted in the first QoS flow based on the maintained correspondence between the traffic flow and the QoS flow. It can be understood that a mapping relationship between a service flow and a QoS flow may be maintained in a UPF network element, so that when congestion information of a first QoS flow is received, service flow information transmitted in the first QoS flow may be obtained from the mapping relationship. The transmission rate of the first traffic stream not meeting the rate requirement may mean that the first traffic stream is not slowed down, or further it may be understood that the sending end does not slow down according to network congestion when sending the first traffic stream.

Alternatively, the rate requirement may include that the transmission rate falls above a first threshold, or that the transmission rate is below a second threshold, or that the transmission rate is not higher than an available rate, or that the transmission rate falls, etc. within a preset period of time, the rate requirement may be determined according to congestion information, e.g. the available rate may be an available rate or an available bandwidth carried in the congestion information. Specifically, for example, if congestion information carries a congestion percentage, it may be determined that the transmission rate falls to be greater than a first threshold in a preset period, if congestion information carries an available bandwidth, it may be determined that the transmission rate is lower than a second threshold, etc., and specifically, a matching determination criterion may be selected according to an actual application scenario, which is not limited in this application.

It can be understood that after congestion occurs in the first QoS flow, the UPF network element may determine whether the first traffic flow is slowed down, if not, further processing may be performed, and if the first traffic flow is slowed down, it indicates that the application server has processed the congestion condition, and the congestion degree of the subsequent first QoS flow will be relieved, so that the UPF network element may not need to process.

Optionally, if the configuration message in step 301 carries an audit indication, the UPF network element may audit the transmission rate of the service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow under the trigger of the audit indication, that is, determine whether the transmission rate of the service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow meets the corresponding rate requirement.

304. The UPF network element adjusts the transmission mode of the first service flow.

After the UPF network element determines that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement, the transmission mode of the first service flow can be adjusted, so that the congestion degree of the first QoS flow is reduced.

Optionally, the QoS flow for transmitting the first traffic flow is changed, and the transmission rate of the first traffic flow may be limited, so as to reduce the congestion degree of the first QoS flow.

In a possible implementation manner, the foregoing adjustment, by the UPF network element, of the transmission manner of the first service flow may include: the UPF network element maps the first service flow to the second Qos flow for transmission. In this embodiment of the present application, the UPF network element may map the first traffic flow to the transmission in the alternative QoS flow, so as to reduce the amount of data transmitted in the first QoS flow, and reduce the congestion degree of the first QoS flow. The UPF network element maps the first traffic flow to the second QoS flow for transmission, which may also be understood as that the UPF network element transmits the first traffic flow through the second QoS flow.

In a possible implementation manner, the foregoing adjustment, by the UPF network element, of the transmission manner of the first service flow may include: the UPF network element sends an indication that the rate requirement is not met to the SMF network element, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement. The UPF network element receives information of a third Qos flow sent by the SMF network element, wherein the third Qos flow can be understood as an alternative Qos flow distributed by the SMF network element for the first service flow or as a QoS flow corresponding to the first service flow, namely the SMF network element maps the first service flow to the third QoS flow; and the UPF network element maps the first service flow to the third Qos flow for transmission. Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, after the UPF network element determines that the rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement, the UPF network element receives the information of the alternative Qos flow from the SMF network element, and maps the first service flow to the alternative Qos flow for transmission, so that the amount of data transmitted in the first Qos flow is reduced, and the congestion degree of the first Qos flow is reduced.

It should be understood that the foregoing second Qos flow and third Qos flow may be understood as alternative Qos flows allocated by the SMF network element for the traffic flows transmitted in the first Qos flow, which may be referred to as alternative Qos flows in the following embodiments of the present application, and will not be described herein. In this application, an alternative QoS flow may be understood as a service flow may be remapped from its mapped QoS flow to the alternative QoS flow in some cases.

Moreover, generally, the first Qos flow may include Qos flows that need to be marked by ECN or notified by congestion by the base station, and the alternative Qos flows may include Qos flows that need not be marked by ECN or notified by congestion, or Qos flows with non-guaranteed bit rate (non-Guaranteed Bit Rate, non-GBR), or Qos flows with low priority, which may be specifically adjusted according to practical application scenarios, which is not limited in this application.

In one possible implementation, the UPF network element may perform speed limiting processing, such as shaping or packet loss, on the first traffic flow, so that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not exceed an available rate, where the available rate may be obtained according to congestion information. Therefore, the transmission rate of the first service flow in the first QoS flow is reduced, the congestion degree of the first QoS flow is reduced, and the congestion degree of the base station is further reduced.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, the UPF network element can audit the transmission rate of the service flow transmitted in the QoS flow, and when the QoS flow is congested, if the application server does not slow down the service flow or the application server slows down the service flow, the rate of the service flow is reduced slightly, and the like, the UPF network element can adjust the transmission rate of the service flow, thereby reducing the congestion degree of the QoS flow and improving the data transmission efficiency.

In one possible implementation, if the UPF maps the first traffic flow to the second Qos flow for transmission, the UPF network element may send information of the second Qos flow to the session management function (session management function, SMF) network element, where the information of the second Qos flow is used to indicate that the first traffic flow is mapped to the second Qos flow for transmission. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the UPF network element may send the information of the selected alternative Qos flow to the SMF network element, so as to notify the SMF network element that the first service flow has been mapped to the second Qos flow for transmission.

For ease of understanding, different procedures for adjusting the transmission mode of the service flow by the UPF network element are described below.

Referring to fig. 4, a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application is described below.

401. The SMF network element sends a configuration message to the UPF network element, wherein the configuration message carries audit indication and information of the second QoS flow.

The configuration message may be a message sent by the SMF network element to the UPF network element through the N4 interface, where the configuration message may carry first service flow identification information for identifying a service flow, and may also carry an audit indication, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to audit a rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow.

The configuration message may also carry one or more pieces of information of the second QoS flow, such as an identifier of the second QoS flow or other QoS flow feature description information, etc. It may be understood that the second QoS flow is an alternative QoS flow, which is used to map, when congestion occurs in the first QoS flow, data transmitted in the first QoS flow to be transmitted in the second QoS flow, so as to reduce the congestion degree of the first QoS flow.

402. The base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element.

403. The UPF network element determines whether the transmission rate of the first service flow meets the rate requirement, if not, step 404 is executed, and if yes, no subsequent steps are executed.

It should be noted that, step 402 and step 403 in the present application may refer to the descriptions in step 302 and step 303, and are not described herein.

404. The UPF network element maps the first service flow to the second QoS flow for transmission.

When the UPF network element determines that the first traffic flow is not slowed down, the UPF network element may map the first traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow to be transmitted in the second QoS flow, that is, transmit the first traffic flow in the second QoS flow, so as to reduce the congestion degree of the first QoS flow.

405. The UPF network element sends the information of the second QoS flow to the SMF network element.

After the UPF network element maps the first service flow to the second QoS flow for transmission, a report message may be sent to the SMF network element, where the report message carries information of the second QoS flow, such as information of an identifier or a name of the second QoS flow, so as to inform the SMF that the first service flow has been mapped to the second QoS flow for transmission.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, before congestion occurs, that is, before the SMF network element sends the information of the alternative QoS flow to the UPF network element through the configuration message, when congestion occurs and the traffic flow does not slow down, the UPF network element may map the traffic flow to the alternative QoS flow for transmission, so as to reduce the congestion degree of the first QoS flow.

Referring to fig. 5, a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application is described below.

It should be noted that steps similar to those of fig. 3 and fig. 4 are not repeated here, and only some steps with differences will be described.

501. The SMF network element sends a configuration message to the UPF network element, wherein the configuration message carries an audit indication.

502. The base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element.

503. The UPF network element determines whether the transmission rate of the first service flow meets the rate requirement, if not, step 504 is executed, and if yes, no subsequent steps are executed.

504. The UPF network element sends a report message to the SMF network element.

The reporting message may carry an indication that the rate requirement is not met, which is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement, so as to inform the SMF network element to allocate an optional QoS flow to the first service flow. The allocation herein may also be referred to as mapping, and the SMF network element allocates an alternative QoS flow to the first traffic flow may also be referred to as the SMF network element mapping the first traffic flow to an alternative QoS flow, i.e. transmitting the first traffic flow over the alternative QoS flow.

505. And the SMF network element sends a configuration message to the UPF network element, and the configuration message carries the information of the second QoS flow.

After receiving the indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not met, the SMF network element may allocate an optional QoS flow, that is, a second QoS flow, to the first traffic flow, or may understand that the first traffic flow is mapped to the second QoS flow, or a part or all of the available QoS flows are selected as the optional QoS flows, and the information of the optional QoS flows is carried in the issued configuration message.

506. The UPF network element maps the first service flow to the second QoS flow for transmission.

After receiving the configuration message from the SMF, the UPF network element may map the first traffic flow to the alternative QoS flow for transmission, thereby reducing the congestion level of the first QoS flow.

The difference between this embodiment and fig. 4 is that, after the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station and determines that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement, a report message may be sent to the SMF network element, to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement, the SMF network element issues information of an alternative QoS flow, and the UPF network element may map the first traffic flow to the alternative QoS flow for transmission, thereby reducing the congestion degree of the first QoS flow.

Referring to fig. 6, a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application is described below.

601. The SMF network element sends a configuration message to the UPF network element, wherein the configuration message carries an audit indication.

602. The base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element.

603. The UPF network element determines whether the transmission rate of the first service flow meets the rate requirement, if not, step 604 is executed, and if yes, other steps are executed.

604. The UPF network element limits the speed of the first service flow.

When the UPF network element determines that the base station is in a congestion state or the first service flow is not in a speed reduction state, speed-limiting processing can be performed on the first service flow, so that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not exceed an available rate (or available bandwidth), and the available rate is obtained according to congestion information, so that the transmission rate of the first service flow is reduced, and congestion of the first QoS flow is reduced.

For example, if the congestion information includes a congestion percentage, the traffic flow is slowed down based on the percentage, e.g., if the congestion information indicates that the congestion percentage is 10%, the traffic flow needs to be slowed down by 10%, i.e., the available rate of the traffic flow is 90% of the current rate; if the congestion information includes available bandwidth, the available rate for each traffic flow may be an average of the available bandwidths for the traffic flows, or if the first traffic flow refers to all traffic flows in the Qos flow, the available bandwidth included in the congestion information is used as the total available bandwidth for all traffic flows in the Qos flow.

For example, the UPF network element may shape (shaping), buffer, or packet loss, etc. the first traffic flow, thereby reducing the transmission rate of the first traffic flow.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, when the application server does not slow down the first service flow, the UPF network element may perform speed limiting processing on the first service flow, so as to reduce the transmission rate of the first service flow, so that the transmission rate of the first service flow meets the rate requirement, and reduce the congestion degree of the first QoS flow.

Secondly, in the method provided by the application, besides the adjustment of the transmission mode of the first service flow by the UPF network element, the determination of stopping the ECN marking or stopping the congestion notification on the first QoS flow by the SMF network element can be performed.

Referring to fig. 7, a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application is described below.

701. The SMF network element sends a configuration message to the UPF network element, wherein the configuration message carries an audit indication.

702. The base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element.

703. The UPF network element determines whether the transmission rate of the first service flow meets the rate requirement, if not, step 704 is executed, if yes, no subsequent steps are executed.

Step 701 to step 703 may refer to step 301 to step 303 in fig. 3, and are not described herein.

704. The UPF network element sends a report message to the SMF network element, carrying an indication that the rate requirement is not satisfied.

When the UPF network element determines that the first traffic flow does not slow down, that is, the congestion degree of the first QoS flow will not decrease, a report message may be sent to the SMF network element, where the report message carries an identifier of the first traffic flow and an indication that the rate requirement is not met, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement, that is, notify the SMF network element that the first traffic flow does not slow down normally.

705. The SMF network element sends a stop sending congestion notification indication and/or a stop ECN marking indication to the base station.

The stop sending congestion notification indication is used for notifying the base station to stop sending congestion notifications, and the stop ECN flag indication is used for instructing the base station to stop carrying out explicit congestion notification ECN flags.

After receiving the indication that the rate requirement is not met, the SMF network element may send a notification message to the base station, where the notification message carries a congestion notification indication and/or an ECN mark stop indication, so as to notify the base station to stop sending the congestion notification for the first QoS flow and/or stop performing the ECN mark.

It may be understood that, after receiving the notification message, the base station may continue to transmit the first traffic flow, and does not perform congestion notification or stop ECN marking for the first traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow.

706. The SMF network element sends a configuration message to the UPF network element, carrying a stop audit indication.

After receiving the indication that the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement, the SMF network element may send a configuration message to the UPF network element, carrying a stop audit indication, triggering the UPF network element to stop auditing the transmission rate of the traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow, and after receiving the stop audit indication, the UPF may stop auditing the rate of the traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow, that is, stop executing step 703.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, when the application server does not slow down the transmission rate of the first traffic flow, the ECN marking or congestion notification of the first traffic flow may be stopped. It may be understood that the base station may stop notifying the congestion situation of the first QoS flow, and when the first QoS flow is congested, the congestion level may be reduced by shaping (shaping), buffering (buffering), or packet loss.

The foregoing details of the method flow provided by the present application are described further below for convenience of understanding, in conjunction with specific application scenarios.

Referring to fig. 8, a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application is described below.

801. The SMF network element sends an N4 configuration message to the UPF network element, carrying information of alternative QoS flow and audit indication.

Firstly, the SMF network element can send first service flow identification information, information of alternative QoS flow and audit indication to the UPF network element through an N4 rule, wherein the audit indication is an optional carrying item.

Specifically, the first traffic identifying information may include identifying information of the first traffic, such as an IP five tuple of the first traffic. Traffic flows for one or more services may typically be transmitted in the same QoS flow.

The information of the alternative QoS flow may include an identifier of the alternative QoS flow, such as QFI (QoS flow ID) or other information describing QoS flow characteristics, etc. for enabling the UPF to learn specific information of the available alternative QoS flow, so that the UPF network element maps the transmitted traffic flow.

The audit indication can be used for triggering the UPF network element to audit the service flow transmitted in the QoS flow, or can be understood as audit the service flow identified by the service flow identification information.

In addition, the N4 configuration message may be sent during the process of establishing the PDU session, or may be sent at any time before the transmission of the first service flow, and specifically may be adjusted according to the actual application scenario, which is not limited in this application.

802. And transmitting the first service flow in the first QoS flow.

When transmitting the first service flow, the first service flow may include uplink data or downlink data, and is transmitted via the UPF network element, the AMF network element, the base station, and the UE.

Typically, the finest granularity of 5G QoS control is QoS Flow. Each QoS Flow is identified with a QoS Flow ID (QFI), which is an identification for identifying QoS flows in the 5G system. User plane traffic with the same QFI within a PDU session receives the same traffic forwarding process (e.g., scheduling, admission threshold).

QoS flows can be classified into GBR (Guaranteed Bit Rate ) and non-GBR (non-Guaranteed Bit Rate, non-guaranteed bit rate) types. The network provides bandwidth guarantee for GBR QoS flows but not for non-GBR QoS flows. The QoS flow matched with the first traffic flow can be selected to transmit data according to the actual application scenario. And typically first traffic flows with the same QoS requirements are mapped into the same QoS flow for transmission, i.e. first traffic flows in one QoS flow that may transmit one or more traffic.

During transmission, the UE and the UPF network element are provided with Packet filter set, one Packet filter set containing multiple packet filters (packet filters) and priorities. When a downlink data packet arrives, the UPF (cn_up) maps it to a QoS flow by using a filter, then performs QoS control corresponding to the QoS flow, marks the data packet with QFI in the header of the upper layer encapsulation protocol, and then sends the data packet to the RAN through the N3 Tunnel corresponding to the QoS flow. After receiving the packet, the RAN finds a corresponding DRB (corresponding radio transmission resource) and QoS parameters according to the QFI, performs QoS control, and then transmits the packet to the UE through the DRB.

When the UE is about to send uplink data, the uplink data is mapped to a certain QoS flow through a filter, and then the corresponding DRB is found to send. After the RAN receives the packet, the RAN executes QoS control according to QFI, and then finds out the corresponding N3 Tunnel and sends the packet to UPF.

803. A congestion notification is transmitted to the AS.

The base station can monitor the congestion condition of the QoS flow, and when congestion occurs or the congestion degree is higher, the base station can transmit congestion notification to the AS to inform the AS to slow down the first service flow. It can be understood that when the base station is congested, congestion information is sent to the application sender. For example, when the base station is congested, congestion information is sent to the application sending end through an L4S mechanism or a network capability open interface, so that the application sending end performs speed reduction according to congestion instructions.

In general, when the amount of data transmitted in the network is greater than the forwarding capability of the network device, congestion occurs at a node of the network device, and in order to reduce congestion of the network device, a sender (e.g. an application server) of the first traffic flow needs to take congestion control measures, such as reducing the first traffic flow.

Generally, a TCP/IP network may indicate a channel block by dropping packets. In the event that the ECN successfully negotiates, the ECN aware router can set a flag in the IP header to indicate that congestion is imminent, instead of dropping the packet. The receiving end of the data packet responds to the indication of the sending end, reducing its transmission rate as if packet loss was detected in the usual manner. When congestion occurs in a network forwarding device (such as a router), ECN bits in an IP header (header) are set as CEs, and congestion information is carried in an IP packet and transmitted to a receiving end.

804. The RAN sends congestion information to the UPF network element.

The congestion information may include congestion indication, congestion percentage, congestion level, available bandwidth, or other information indicative of congestion, etc., which may be used to indicate the congestion level of QoS flows.

Congestion information can be transmitted through a user plane path, for example, the congestion information can be carried through a GTP-U protocol extension header (added to the GTP-U protocol extension header by a RAN and sent to a UPF), and at the moment, qoS flow information (such as QFI) corresponding to the congestion information can be carried together; or congestion information may be transmitted over the control plane, such as over the RAN- > AMF- > SMF- > UPF path (not shown in fig. 8). The GTP-U protocol is a user plane tunnel protocol used by the 5G network, and user data bearer transmission is carried out between the RAN and the UPF and between the UPF and the UPF through the GTP-U protocol.

805. The UPF network element determines whether to slow down, if not, then step 806 is performed, if so, then no subsequent steps are performed.

After the UPF receives the congestion information, judging whether the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the QoS flow meets the rate requirement, namely judging whether the first service flow in the QoS flow is slowed down, and if the transmission rate does not meet the requirement, namely not slowing down, mapping the corresponding first service flow to an alternative QoS flow for transmission.

Optionally, when the N4 configuration information carries an audit indication, the UPF network element may measure a transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow under the trigger of the audit indication, and determine whether the transmission rate of the first service flow is reduced after receiving the congestion notification.

Or after receiving the congestion indication, the UPF network element starts to measure the rate of the first service flow and judges whether the descending trend exists.

Specifically, it may be an index that indicates that the sending end adjusts the transmission rate of the first service flow, such as determining whether the decrease value of the transmission rate of the first service flow is greater than a first threshold, or whether the transmission rate of the first service flow is lower than a second threshold.

When the sending end decelerates the first service flow, the UPF network element can adjust the transmission mode of the first service flow without processing the first service flow, thereby reducing the transmission rate of the first service flow and further reducing the congestion degree of QoS flow.

806. The UPF network element maps the first traffic flow to an alternative QoS flow for transmission.

After the UPF network element determines that the first service flow is not slowed down, the first service flow can be mapped into an alternative QoS flow for transmission. The information of the alternative QoS flow may be carried in the N4 configuration message mentioned in the foregoing step 801. The alternative QoS flow may be a QoS flow with a lower priority, or may be a QoS flow that does not perform ECN marking or congestion notification, and may specifically be adjusted according to an actual application scenario.

When the N4 configuration message in the step 801 carries information of one QoS flow, the one QoS flow may be used as an alternative QoS flow; when the N4 configuration message carries multiple QoS flows, one of the QoS flows may be selected as an alternative QoS flow for transmission.

807. The UPF network element sends a report message to the SMF network element, carrying information of alternative QoS flows.

When the UPF network element determines to map the first traffic flow to the alternative QoS flow for transmission, a report message may be sent to the SMF network element, where the report message carries identification information of the first traffic flow and information of the alternative QoS flow, so as to inform the SMF network element to map the first traffic flow to the alternative QoS flow for transmission.

808. The first traffic stream is mapped to transmission in an alternative QoS flow.

After the SMF network element receives the report message, it can negotiate with the AMF network element, RAN, UE, etc. to map the first service flow into QoS flow for transmission.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, the SMF network element may send the information of the available QoS flows to the UPF network element in advance through the N4 configuration message, and the UPF network element may audit the transmission rate of the first service flow, and when it is determined that the first service flow does not slow down normally, the first service flow may be mapped to the alternative QoS flows for transmission, so as to reduce the congestion degree of the QoS flows.

Referring to fig. 9, a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application is described below.

For similar steps, reference may be made to the related description in fig. 8, which is not repeated herein, but only the steps with differences are described.

901. The SMF network element sends an N4 configuration message to the UPF network element, carrying an audit indication.

902. And transmitting the first service flow in the first QoS flow.

903. A congestion notification is transmitted to the AS.

904. The RAN sends congestion information to the UPF network element,

905. the UPF network element determines whether to slow down, if not, then step 906 is executed, if yes, then no subsequent steps are executed.

Steps 901 to 905 may refer to the foregoing steps 801 to 805, except that the N4 configuration message in step 901 does not carry information of the alternative QoS flow, and the description thereof will not be repeated here for the similar points.

906. The UPF network element sends a report message to the SMF network element, carrying an indication that the rate requirement is not satisfied.

After the UPF network element determines that the first service flow is not slowed down, a reporting message can be sent to the SMF network element, and an indication that the rate requirement is not satisfied is carried, that is, the SMF network element is instructed to map the first service flow to an alternative QoS flow.

907. The SMF network element sends the information of the N4 configuration message carrying the alternative QoS flow to the UPF network element.

After receiving the indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not satisfied, the SMF network element may map the first traffic flow to an available alternative QoS flow, and send information of the alternative QoS flow to the UPF network element through an N4 configuration message.

908. The first traffic stream is mapped to transmission in an alternative QoS flow.

After the SMF network element maps the first traffic flow to the alternative QoS flow, negotiating with the AMF network element, RAN, UE, etc. may be performed to map the first traffic flow to the QoS flow for transmission.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, after congestion occurs in the base station, when the UPF network element determines that the first traffic flow does not slow down, an indication that the rate requirement is not satisfied may be reported to the SMF network element, so as to inform the SMF network element to map the first traffic flow to the alternative QoS flow for transmission, thereby reducing the congestion degree of the base station.

Referring to fig. 10, a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application is described below.

1001. The SMF network element sends an N4 configuration message to the UPF network element, carrying an audit indication.

1002. And transmitting the first service flow in the first QoS flow.

1003. A congestion notification is transmitted to the AS.

1004. The RAN sends congestion information to the UPF network element.

1005. The UPF network element determines whether to slow down, if not, then step 1006 is executed, if yes, then other steps are executed.

Steps 1001 to 1005 may refer to the foregoing steps 801 to 805, except that the N4 configuration message in step 901 does not carry information of the alternative QoS flow, and the description thereof will not be repeated here.

1006. And the UPF network element carries out speed limiting processing on the first service flow.

And after the UPF network element determines that the first service flow is not slowed down, the speed of the first service flow can be limited, so that the transmission rate of the first service flow or the occupied transmission bandwidth is reduced, and the congestion degree of QoS flow is reduced.

Specifically, the rate percentage that each service flow should be reduced can be calculated according to the congestion percentage information carried in the congestion information, and the service flow is limited according to the calculated rate.

Or, the available bandwidth of each service flow can be calculated based on the available bandwidth information carried in the congestion information, and the service flow is limited according to the calculated speed.

Specific speed limiting modes may include shaping (shaping), buffering (buffering), packet loss, etc., so as to reduce the transmission rate of the traffic flow.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, after the UPF network element determines that the first service flow is not slowed down, the first service flow may be limited in speed, so as to reduce the transmission rate of the first service flow or the occupied transmission bandwidth, thereby reducing the congestion degree of the QoS flow.

Referring to fig. 11, a flow chart of another congestion control method provided in the present application is described below.

1101. The SMF network element sends an N4 configuration message to the UPF network element, carrying an audit indication.

1102. And transmitting the service flow in the first QoS flow.

1103. A congestion notification is transmitted to the AS.

1104. The RAN sends congestion information to the UPF network element,

1105. the UPF network element determines whether to slow down, if not, then step 1106 is executed, and if so, then other steps are executed.

Steps 1101 to 1105 may refer to the foregoing steps 801 to 805, except that the N4 configuration message in step 901 does not carry information of the alternative QoS flow, and the description thereof will not be repeated here.

1106. The UPF network element sends a report message to the SMF network element, carrying an indication that the rate requirement is not satisfied.

1107. The SMF network element informs the base station to stop sending congestion notification indications and/or stop ECN marking indications.

After receiving the indication that the rate requirement is not met, the SMF network element may send a notification message to the base station, carrying a congestion notification indication and/or an ECN mark stop indication, so as to notify the base station to stop sending the congestion notification for the first QoS flow and/or stop performing the ECN mark.

1108. The SMF network element sends a configuration message to the UPF network element, carrying a stop audit indication.

After receiving the indication that the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement, the SMF network element may send a configuration message to the UPF network element, where the configuration message carries a stop audit indication, which is used to trigger the UPF network element to stop auditing the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow, and after receiving the stop audit indication, the UPF may stop auditing the rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, when the transmitting end does not slow down the transmission rate of the first traffic flow, the ECN marking or congestion notification of the first traffic flow may be stopped. It will be appreciated that the notification of the congestion situation of the first QoS flow may be stopped by the RAN, and when the congestion occurs in the first QoS flow, the RAN may reduce the congestion level by shaping (shaping), buffering (buffering), or packet loss, etc.

The foregoing describes steps of a method provided herein, and the following describes apparatus for performing the foregoing method.

Referring to fig. 12, a schematic structural diagram of a congestion control apparatus provided in the present application includes:

a transceiver module 1201, configured to receive congestion information from a base station, where the congestion information is used to indicate congestion conditions of a first Qos flow in the base station;

the processing module 1202 is configured to adjust a transmission manner of the first traffic flow if a transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet a rate requirement of the first traffic flow, where the rate requirement of the first traffic flow may be determined by congestion information.

In one possible implementation, the processing module 1202 is specifically configured to map the first traffic flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 1201 is further configured to send, to the session management function SMF network element, information of a second Qos flow, where the information of the second Qos flow is used to trigger mapping the first traffic flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 1201 is further configured to receive, before the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station, a first configuration message from the SMF network element, where the first configuration message carries information of a second Qos flow, where the second Qos flow is an alternative Qos flow of the traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 1201 is further configured to send an indication that the rate requirement is not met to the session management function SMF network element, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement;

the transceiver module 1201 is further configured to receive information of a third Qos flow sent by the SMF network element;

the processing module 1202 is specifically configured to map the first traffic flow to the transmission in the third Qos flow.

In one possible implementation, the processing module 1202 is specifically configured to perform rate-limiting processing on the first traffic flow, so that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not exceed an available rate, where the available rate is obtained according to congestion information.

In one possible implementation, the rate requirements include: the decrease in transmission rate over a preset period of time is greater than a first threshold or the transmission rate is less than a second threshold.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 1201 is further configured to receive, before the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station, an audit indication from the SMF network element, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets a rate requirement.

In one possible implementation, the congestion information includes at least one of: congestion indication, congestion level, congestion percentage, or available bandwidth, where the congestion indication is used to indicate that the first Qos flow is congested, and the congestion percentage indicates the percentage of data packets in the first Qos flow that are congested, and the available bandwidth is available to the first Qos flow.

Referring to fig. 13, a schematic structural diagram of a congestion control apparatus provided in the present application includes:

the transceiver module 1301 is configured to send an audit indication to the UPF network element, where the audit indication is configured to instruct the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a first traffic flow transmitted in a first Qos flow meets a rate requirement when the base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element, and the congestion information is used to indicate a congestion condition of the first Qos flow in the base station.

The congestion control apparatus may also include a processing module 1302 that may be used to process received messages or generate transmitted messages, etc.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 1301 is further configured to receive information of the second Qos flow from the UPF network element, and is configured to trigger mapping the first traffic flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 1301 is further configured to receive an indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not met, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement;

the transceiver module 1301 is further configured to send information of the third Qos flow to the UPF network element, where the UPF network element maps the first service flow to the third Qos flow for transmission.

Referring to fig. 14, a schematic structural diagram of a congestion control apparatus provided in the present application includes:

a transceiver module 1401, configured to receive congestion information from a base station, where the congestion information is used to indicate congestion conditions of a first quality of service flow Qos flow in the base station;

the transceiver module 1401 is further configured to send an indication that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement to the session management function SMF network element if the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement, where the indication that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement.

The congestion control apparatus may also include a processing module 1402 that may be used to process received messages or generate transmitted messages, etc.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 1401 is further configured to receive, before receiving congestion information from the base station, an audit indication from the SMF network element, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets a rate requirement.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 1401 is further configured to receive a stop audit indication from the SMF network element after sending an indication that the rate requirement is not met to the session management function SMF network element, where the stop audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to stop determining whether the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

Referring to fig. 15, a schematic structural diagram of a congestion control apparatus provided in the present application includes:

the transceiver module 1501 is configured to send an audit indication to a user plane function UPF network element, where the audit indication is configured to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a first service flow transmitted in a first Qos flow meets a rate requirement when the base station sends congestion information to the UPF network element;

The transceiver module 1501 is further configured to receive an indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not met, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement;

the transceiver module 1501 is further configured to send a notification message to the base station, where the notification message is configured to notify the base station to stop sending congestion notifications for congestion situations of the first Qos flow, and/or the notification message is configured to instruct the base station to stop performing explicit congestion notification ECN marking on traffic flows transmitted in the first Qos flow.

The congestion control apparatus may also include a processing module 1502 that may be used to process received messages or generate transmitted messages, etc.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 1501 is further configured to send a stop audit indication to the UPF network element, where the stop audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to stop determining whether the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

The present application further provides a congestion control apparatus 1600, referring to fig. 16, in an embodiment of the present application, the congestion control apparatus may be a UPF network element, or a chip or a system on a UPF network element, and the congestion control apparatus may be used to perform the steps performed by the UPF network element in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to fig. 6 and fig. 8 to fig. 10, and may refer to the related descriptions in the above method embodiments.

The congestion control apparatus 1600 includes: a processor 1601, a memory 1602, an input-output device 1603, and a bus 1604.

In a possible implementation, the processor 1601, memory 1602, and input-output devices 1603 are each coupled to a bus 1604, where computer instructions are stored.

The processing module 1202 in the embodiment shown in fig. 12 may be specifically the processor 1601 in the present embodiment, so that a specific implementation of the processor 1601 is not described herein. The transceiver module 1201 in the embodiment shown in fig. 12 may be the input/output device 1603 in the embodiment, so that the specific implementation of the input/output device 1603 is not described herein.

The present application further provides a congestion control apparatus 1700, referring to fig. 17, in an embodiment of the congestion control apparatus in this application, the congestion control apparatus may be an SMF network element, or a chip or a system of chips located on the SMF network element, and the congestion control apparatus may be used to perform the steps performed by the SMF network element in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to fig. 6 and fig. 8 to fig. 10, and may refer to the related descriptions in the above method embodiments.

The congestion control apparatus 1700 includes: a processor 1701, a memory 1702, an input-output device 1703, and a bus 1704.

In a possible implementation, the processor 1701, the memory 1702, and the input-output device 1703 are each coupled to a bus 1704, where the memory stores computer instructions.

The processing module 1302 in the embodiment shown in fig. 13 may be specifically the processor 1701 in this embodiment, so that a detailed description of the specific implementation of the processor 1701 is omitted. The transceiver module 1301 in the embodiment shown in fig. 13 may be specifically the input/output device 1703 in this embodiment, so that detailed implementation of the input/output device 1703 is not repeated.

The present application further provides a congestion control apparatus 1800, referring to fig. 18, in an embodiment of the present application, the congestion control apparatus may be a UPF network element, or a chip or a system on a UPF network element, and the congestion control apparatus may be used to perform the steps performed by the UPF network element in the embodiments shown in fig. 7 and 11, and may refer to the related descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments.

The congestion control apparatus 1800 includes: a processor 1801, a memory 1802, an input-output device 1803, and a bus 1804.

In a possible implementation, the processor 1801, the memory 1802, and the input/output devices 1803 are respectively connected to the bus 1804, where computer instructions are stored.

The processing module 1402 in the embodiment shown in fig. 14 may be the processor 1801 in this embodiment, so the specific implementation of the processor 1801 is not described herein. The transceiver module 1401 in the foregoing embodiment shown in fig. 14 may be the input/output device 1803 in this embodiment, and thus the specific implementation of the input/output device 1803 is not described herein.

The present application further provides a congestion control apparatus 1900, referring to fig. 19, in an embodiment of the present application, the congestion control apparatus may be an SMF network element, or a chip or a system of chips located on the SMF network element, and the congestion control apparatus may be used to perform the steps performed by the SMF network element in the embodiments shown in fig. 7 and fig. 11, and may refer to the related descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments.

The congestion control apparatus 1900 includes: a processor 1901, a memory 1902, an input-output device 1903, and a bus 1904.

In a possible implementation, the processor 1901, the memory 1902, and the input-output device 1903 are each connected to a bus 1904, where computer instructions are stored.

The processing module 1502 in the foregoing embodiment shown in fig. 15 may be specifically the processor 1901 in this embodiment, so that a detailed description of the implementation of the processor 1901 is omitted. The transceiver module 1501 in the embodiment shown in fig. 15 may be the input/output device 1903 in the embodiment, so that the specific implementation of the input/output device 1903 is not described herein.

Referring to fig. 20, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication processing system, where the communication processing system includes a communication processing device, and specifically, the communication processing device may include a UPF network element and an SMF network element; wherein the UPF network element may be configured to perform all or part of the steps performed by the UPF network element in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 6 and fig. 8 to 10, and the SMF network element is configured to perform all or part of the steps performed by the SMF network element in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 6 and fig. 8 to 10.

Referring to fig. 21, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication processing system, where the communication processing system includes a communication processing device, and specifically, the communication processing device may include a UPF network element and an SMF network element; wherein the UPF network element may be configured to perform all or part of the steps performed by the UPF network element in the embodiments shown in fig. 7 and 11, and the SMF network element is configured to perform all or part of the steps performed by the SMF network element in the embodiments shown in fig. 7 and 11.

An embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor for implementing the processing functions involved in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 11 and an input/output port for implementing the transceiver functions involved in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 11.

In one possible design, the system on a chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data that implement the functions involved in the embodiments shown in fig. 3-11 above.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the application further provides a computer program product, which comprises: computer program code for causing a computer to perform the method of the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 11 when the computer program code is run on the computer.

According to the method provided in the embodiments of the present application, there is further provided a computer readable medium storing a program code, which when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 11.

The embodiment of the application also provides a processing device, which comprises a processor and an interface; the processor is configured to perform the method of any of the method embodiments described above.

It should be understood that the processing means may be a chip. For example, the processing device may be a field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA), an application specific integrated chip (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a central processing unit (central processor unit, CPU), a network processor (network processor, NP), a digital signal processing circuit (digital signal processor, DSP), a microcontroller (micro controller unit, MCU), a programmable controller (programmable logic device, PLD) or other integrated chip.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or by instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in a hardware processor for execution, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor for execution. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory and, in combination with its hardware, performs the steps of the above method. To avoid repetition, a detailed description is not provided herein.

It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in software form. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, or discrete hardware components. The disclosed methods, steps, and logic blocks in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in hardware, in a decoded processor, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in a decoded processor. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory and, in combination with its hardware, performs the steps of the above method.

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the present application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The UPMF network element, the UDM network element, the AMF network element, and the SMF network element in the foregoing embodiments of the communication processing apparatus and method in the foregoing embodiments of the respective apparatus embodiments are all corresponding, and respective steps are performed by respective modules or units, for example, the communication unit (transceiver) performs steps of receiving or transmitting in the embodiment of the method, and other steps except for transmitting and receiving may be performed by the processing unit (processor). Reference may be made to corresponding method embodiments for the function of a specific unit. Wherein the processor may be one or more.

In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein A, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (one) of a, b or c may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c can be single or multiple.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks (illustrative logical block) and steps (steps) described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application. It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

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

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, apparatuses, and methods may be implemented in other ways. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

In the above-described embodiments, the functions of the respective functional units may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions (programs). When the computer program instructions (program) are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are fully or partially produced. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (random access memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The above embodiments are merely for illustrating the technical solution of the present application, and not for limiting the same; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical scheme described in the foregoing embodiments can be modified or some technical features thereof can be replaced by equivalents; such modifications and substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions.

Claims

1. A congestion control method, comprising:

the user plane function UPF network element receives congestion information from a base station, wherein the congestion information is used for indicating congestion conditions of a first quality of service flow Qos flow in the base station;

and if the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement of the first service flow, the UPF network element adjusts the transmission mode of the first service flow.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the UPF network element adjusting the transmission mode of the first traffic flow comprises:

and the UPF network element maps the first service flow to a second Qos flow for transmission.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

and the UPF network element sends the information of the second Qos flow to a session management function SMF network element, and the information is used for triggering the mapping of the first service flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

4. A method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

before the UPF network element receives congestion information from a base station, the UPF network element receives a first configuration message from the SMF network element, where the first configuration message carries information of the second Qos flow, and the second Qos flow is an alternative Qos flow of a traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the UPF network element adjusting the transmission mode of the first traffic flow comprises:

the UPF network element sends an indication of not meeting the rate requirement to a session management function SMF network element, wherein the indication of not meeting the rate requirement is used for indicating that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement;

the UPF network element receives information of a third Qos flow sent by the SMF network element;

and the UPF network element maps the first service flow to the third Qos flow for transmission.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the UPF network element adjusting the transmission mode of the first traffic flow comprises:

and the UPF network element carries out speed limiting processing on the first service flow so that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not exceed the available rate, wherein the available rate is obtained according to the congestion information.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1-6, wherein the rate requirement comprises: the drop value of the transmission rate in the preset period is larger than a first threshold value, or the transmission rate is lower than a second threshold value, or the transmission rate is not higher than the available rate.

8. The method according to any of claims 1-7, wherein before the UPF network element receives congestion information from a base station, the method further comprises:

and the UPF network element receives an audit instruction from the SMF network element, wherein the audit instruction is used for triggering the UPF network element to judge whether the transmission rate of the service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

9. The method according to any of claims 1-8, wherein the congestion information comprises at least one of:

congestion indication, congestion level, congestion percentage, or available bandwidth, the congestion indication being used to indicate that the first Qos flow is congested, the congestion percentage being indicative of the percentage of data packets in the first Qos flow that are congested, the available bandwidth being available to the first Qos flow.

10. A congestion control method, comprising:

and the session management function SMF network element sends an audit indication to the user plane function UPF network element, wherein the audit indication is used for triggering the UPF network element to judge whether the transmission rate of the service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement, and the congestion information is used for indicating the congestion condition of the first Qos flow in the base station.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the audit indication is carried in a first configuration message, and the first configuration message further carries information of a second Qos flow, so that the UPF network element maps the first traffic flow to be transmitted in the second Qos flow when determining that a transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow does not meet the rate requirement.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

and the SMF network element receives the information of the second Qos flow from the UPF network element and is used for triggering the mapping of the first service flow to the transmission in the second Qos flow.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

the SMF network element receives an indication of not meeting the rate requirement from the UPF network element, wherein the indication of not meeting the rate requirement is used for indicating that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement;

and the SMF network element sends information of a third Qos flow to the UPF network element, and the information is used for the UPF network element to map the first service flow to the third Qos flow for transmission.

14. A congestion control method, comprising:

if the transmission rate of the first service flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement, the UPF network element sends an indication that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement to the session management function SMF network element, where the indication that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement is used to indicate.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein prior to the UPF network element receiving congestion information from a base station, the method further comprises:

16. The method of claim 15, wherein after the UPF network element sends an indication to the session management function, SMF, network element that the rate requirement is not met, the method further comprises:

and the UPF network element receives a stop audit instruction from the SMF network element, wherein the stop audit instruction is used for triggering the UPF network element to stop judging whether the transmission rate of the service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

17. A congestion control method, comprising:

and the SMF network element sends a notification message to the base station, wherein the notification message is used for notifying the base station to stop sending congestion notification aiming at the congestion condition of the first QoS flow, and/or the notification message is used for indicating the base station to stop carrying out explicit congestion notification ECN marking on the traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a session management function SMF network element sends an audit indication to a user plane function UPF network element, the audit indication being used to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a traffic flow transmitted in a first Qos flow meets a rate requirement.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises:

and the SMF network element sends a stop audit instruction to the UPF network element, wherein the stop audit instruction is used for triggering the UPF network element to stop judging whether the transmission rate of the service flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

20. A congestion control apparatus, comprising:

the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving congestion information from a base station, wherein the congestion information is used for indicating congestion conditions of a first quality of service flow Qos flow in the base station;

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the processing module is specifically configured to map the first service flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the transceiver module is further configured to send information of the second Qos flow to a session management function SMF network element, where the information of the second Qos flow is used to trigger mapping the first service flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 or 22, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the transceiver module is further configured to receive a first configuration message from the SMF network element before the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station, where the first configuration message carries information of the second Qos flow, and the second Qos flow is an alternative Qos flow of the traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow.

24. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the transceiver module is further configured to send an indication that the rate requirement is not met to a session management function SMF network element, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement;

the transceiver module is further configured to receive information of a third Qos flow sent by the SMF network element;

the processing module is specifically configured to map the first service flow to the third Qos flow for transmission.

25. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the processing module is specifically configured to perform speed limiting processing on the first service flow, so that a transmission rate of the first service flow does not exceed an available rate, where the available rate is obtained according to the congestion information.

26. The apparatus of any one of claims 20-25, wherein the rate requirement comprises: the drop value of the transmission rate in the preset period is larger than a first threshold value, or the transmission rate is lower than a second threshold value, or the transmission rate is not higher than the available rate.

27. The device according to any one of claims 20-26, wherein,

The transceiver module is further configured to receive an audit indication from the SMF network element before the UPF network element receives congestion information from the base station, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

28. The apparatus according to any one of claims 20-27, wherein the congestion information comprises at least one of:

29. A congestion control apparatus, comprising:

the receiving and transmitting module is used for sending an audit indication to a user plane function UPF network element, the audit indication is used for triggering the UPF network element to judge whether the transmission rate of a service flow transmitted in a first Qos flow meets the rate requirement, and the congestion information is used for indicating the congestion condition of the first Qos flow in the base station.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the audit indication is carried in a first configuration message, and wherein the first configuration message further carries information of a second Qos flow, so that the UPF network element maps a first traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow to be transmitted in the second Qos flow when determining that a transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the transceiver module is further configured to receive information of a second Qos flow from the UPF network element, and trigger mapping the first service flow to the second Qos flow for transmission.

32. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the transceiver module is further configured to receive an indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not met, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement;

the transceiver module is further configured to send information of a third Qos flow to the UPF network element, and configured to map the first service flow to the third Qos flow for transmission by the UPF network element.

33. A congestion control apparatus, comprising:

and the transceiver module is further configured to send an indication that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement to the session management function SMF network element if the transmission rate of the first traffic flow transmitted in the first QoS flow in the base station does not meet the rate requirement, where the indication that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first traffic flow does not meet the rate requirement.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the transceiver module is further configured to receive an audit indication from an SMF network element before receiving congestion information from the base station, where the audit indication is used to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the device comprises a plurality of sensors,

the transceiver module is further configured to receive a stop audit instruction from the SMF network element after sending an instruction that the rate requirement is not met to the session management function SMF network element, where the stop audit instruction is used to trigger the UPF network element to stop judging whether the transmission rate of the traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

36. A congestion control apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver module, configured to receive an indication from the UPF network element that the rate requirement is not met, where the indication that the rate requirement is not met is used to indicate that the transmission rate of the first service flow does not meet the rate requirement;

the transceiver module is further configured to send a notification message to the base station, where the notification message is configured to notify the base station to stop sending congestion notification for the congestion situation of the first Qos flow, and/or the notification message is configured to instruct the base station to stop performing explicit congestion notification ECN marking on the traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to send an audit indication to a user plane function UPF network element, the audit indication being configured to trigger the UPF network element to determine whether a transmission rate of a traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets a rate requirement.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to send a stop audit indication to the UPF network element, the stop audit indication being configured to trigger the UPF network element to stop determining whether a transmission rate of a traffic flow transmitted in the first Qos flow meets the rate requirement.

39. A congestion control apparatus, characterized in that the communication processing apparatus includes: a processor coupled to the memory;

the memory is used for storing a computer program;

the processor configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory, to cause the communication processing apparatus to execute the congestion control method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

40. A congestion control apparatus, characterized in that the communication processing apparatus includes: a processor coupled to the memory;

The memory is used for storing a computer program;

the processor configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory, to cause the communication processing apparatus to execute the congestion control method according to any one of claims 10 to 13.

41. A congestion control apparatus, characterized in that the communication processing apparatus includes: a processor coupled to the memory;

the memory is used for storing a computer program;

the processor configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory, to cause the communication processing apparatus to execute the congestion control method according to any one of claims 14 to 16.

42. A congestion control apparatus, characterized in that the communication processing apparatus includes: a processor coupled to the memory;

the memory is used for storing a computer program;

the processor configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory, to cause the communication processing apparatus to execute the congestion control method according to any one of claims 17 to 19.

43. A communication system comprising congestion control apparatus according to any of claims 20 to 28, congestion control apparatus according to any of claims 29 to 32.

44. A communication system comprising congestion control apparatus according to any of claims 33 to 35, congestion control apparatus according to any of claims 36 to 38.

45. A computer program product containing instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 19.

46. A computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 19.