CN107426797A - For accessing the section managing and control system and method for net side - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a kind of section managing and control system for being used to access net side.The system includes：For the module for the dicing strategy that access net side is formulated based on network demand；For sending instruction message to virtual base station management and control module based on the dicing strategy, to complete the module of the incidence relation between section and virtual base station；And for the module according to the associated virtual base station of the instruction message arrangement section.The system according to the present invention being capable of effectively management and control and the section of control access net side, the mapping relations established based on network demand between section and base station, and neatly enter Mobile state adjustment.

Description

Slicing management and control system and method for access network side

technical field

The invention belongs to the technical field of communication, and in particular relates to a slice management and control system and method for an access network side.

Background technique

Network slicing, that is, virtual network, refers to the way that operators divide multiple virtual end-to-end networks on one hardware infrastructure. It uses logical rather than physical resources to realize on-demand networking, and can adapt to changing New services that adapt to user needs and quickly meet the needs of new applications. For example, the 5G era is an era where everything is connected. There will be a large number of devices connected to the network. These devices belong to different industrial fields and have different characteristics and requirements. For example, for the IoT application of forest fire prevention, a large number of sensors distributed in the forest detect temperature, humidity and precipitation. These sensors are usually stationary and do not require mobility control such as frequent switching and location updates like smartphones. However, when 5G networks are used in areas such as driverless driving and remote robot control, ultra-low end-to-end latency is required, which is much lower than the latency of wireless Internet access on smartphones. Therefore, these emerging new applications have different requirements for network mobility, security, delay, and reliability. Through network slicing, various network services suitable for different applications can be provided to realize network sharing.

Efficient network slicing management and control functions are the basis for ensuring network slicing security and effectively providing network services. At present, the research in the field of mobile communication mainly focuses on network slice architecture design, resource sharing and isolation, and slice control. These studies mainly focus on the core network side, but there is no specific solution for slice management and control on the access network side. programs and practices.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the above-mentioned defects in the prior art, and provide an effective access network slice management and control mechanism.

The first aspect of the present invention provides a slice management and control system used on the access network side. The system includes:

Slicing parameter configuration module: used to formulate slicing strategies on the access network side based on network requirements;

Slicing management and control module: used to send an indication message to the virtual base station management and control module based on the slicing strategy, so as to complete the association between the slice and the virtual base station;

The virtual base station management and control module: configured to configure the virtual base station associated with the slice according to the indication message.

Preferably, the network requirement includes at least one of delay, bandwidth, security level, capacity and battery life.

Preferably, the formulation of the slicing strategy on the access network side includes at least one of determining a segmentation method, determining a sharing mode of wireless resources between slices, or determining information related to virtual base station resources.

Preferably, the segmentation method includes one slice exclusively sharing one virtual base station, one slice exclusively sharing multiple virtual base stations, multiple slices sharing one virtual base station, or multiple slices sharing multiple virtual base stations.

Preferably, the splitting manner is determined according to at least one of the coverage required by the slice, the number of service users, the coverage capability of the virtual base station, or the load capacity of the virtual base station.

Preferably, the virtual base station resource-related information includes at least one of a spectrum resource reservation ratio, a spectrum resource allocation ratio, and a spectrum bandwidth.

Preferably, the slicing parameter configuration module further includes formulating the slicing strategy in combination with wireless capability information of the access network.

Preferably, the slicing parameter configuration module further includes dynamically adjusting the slicing strategy based on monitored network status and/or network demand changes.

Preferably, the indication message is used to indicate at least one of slice creation, slice release, or slice update.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a slice control method for the access network side, including the following steps: formulate a slice policy for the access network side based on network requirements; send a slice policy to the virtual base station control module based on the slice policy An indication message is used to complete the association between the slice and the virtual base station; and the virtual base station associated with the slice is configured according to the indication message.

The invention has the advantages of being able to effectively manage and control slices on the access network side, establish a mapping relationship between slices and base stations according to network requirements, and flexibly perform dynamic adjustments.

Description of drawings

Embodiments of the present invention will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 shows a network architecture and four segmentation modes of a slice management and control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of functional modules of a slice management and control system of an access network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 schematically shows a general flowchart of slice information management and control according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of an example of wireless resource allocation based on segmentation mode 3.

FIG. 5 schematically shows a flow chart of slice creation and data transmission based on segmentation mode 3.

Fig. 6 shows an example of applying the slice management and control system according to the present invention to a super base station architecture.

Fig. 7 shows a flow chart of a slice management and control method at the access network side according to an embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

The application will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described here are only used to explain related inventions, not to limit the invention. It should also be noted that, for the convenience of description, only the parts related to the related invention are shown in the drawings.

It should be noted that, in the case of no conflict, the embodiments in the present application and the features in the embodiments can be combined with each other.

In the following description, a user or user equipment is a terminal device used to receive data, including but not limited to mobile stations, cellular phones, smart phones, etc., and other types of communication devices connected to wireless networks, such as sensors, Instrumentation, drones, robots, etc. The access network refers to an access device for connecting user equipment to a wireless network, including a GSM base station, an enhanced node B (eNodeB), a node B, a base station controller, and the like.

A virtual base station (Virtual Base-Station, VBS) refers to virtualizing a traditional base station architecture into multiple virtual base stations by means of software virtualization. For example, for the centralized base station architecture C-RAN (Centralized, Cooperative, Cloud Radio Access Network), a certain number of calculation units (CalculateUnit, CU) can be centrally placed in a large central computer room, and these CUs can be arranged in a certain structure Connect each other to form a CU pool, and virtualize a certain number of CUs into a virtual base station. The establishment strategy and establishment process of the virtual base station belong to the prior art, and will not be described in detail herein.

In the present invention, the goal of slice management and control on the access network side is to establish an association relationship between virtual base stations and slices, so as to realize slice virtualization on the access network side. Fig. 1 shows a network architecture diagram of slice virtualization on the access network side and four segmentation modes according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, in this embodiment, the following four types of segmentation methods are designed according to the demand factors of slices (such as coverage, peak throughput, peak number of users, etc.) and the processing capacity of virtual base stations, etc. .

Slicing method 1 means that one slice exclusively owns one virtual base station, such as Slice1 in the figure. This type is applicable to scenarios where the coverage and/or number of service users required by a slice can be satisfied by one virtual base station, and the virtual base station is almost fully loaded when the number of service users reaches its peak.

Slicing method 2 means that one slice exclusively shares multiple virtual base stations, such as Slice2. This type is applicable to the coverage and/or the number of service users of a certain slice. Multiple virtual base stations may be required, and virtual base stations of multiple standards (for example, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE, etc.) At the same time, each virtual base station is almost at full load when the number of service users reaches a peak value, and the times when multiple virtual base stations reach full load are similar to ensure load balance.

Slicing mode 3 means that multiple slices share a virtual base station, such as Slice3 and Slice4. This type is applicable when the coverage and/or number of service users required by two or more slices can be satisfied by one virtual base station, and when the total number of service users of two slices reaches its peak value, the virtual base station is almost at fully loaded scenario.

Slicing mode 4 means that multiple slices share multiple virtual base stations, such as Slice5 and Slice6. This type is suitable for the coverage and/or number of service users required by two or more slices. Multiple virtual base stations may be required, and multiple standards may be required. At the same time, the number of service users for each virtual base station is almost at full load when it reaches its peak. , and the time when the virtual base station reaches full load is almost the same to ensure load balance. In addition, for a certain virtual base station, the peak numbers of the associated two slices or the two serving users do not overlap, or the almost overlapping peak number of users is less than or equal to the full capacity of the virtual base station.

By dividing the ownership relationship between the slice and the base station into different types, the requirement of the slice can be flexibly met and the resources of the virtual base station can be fully utilized.

In addition, in slice management and control, it is also necessary to consider the sharing mode of wireless resources between slices. Optionally, the present invention has three modes, namely dynamic allocation mode, fixed allocation mode and enhanced allocation mode. The fixed allocation mode means that slices use wireless resources in a fixed proportion or in a fixed frequency band, regardless of business demand factors, etc. The dynamic allocation mode refers to considering business needs and other factors. When the actual business demand of the slice is less than or equal to the amount of resources signed in the service agreement, it will be allocated according to the demand. When the actual business demand of the slice is greater than the amount of resources signed in the service agreement, then Assignment by service agreement. The enhanced allocation mode means to further consider the priority of the slice (for example, it can be obtained from the service provider/operator, that is, SAP), and the priority of the user (it can also be obtained from the SAP) to optimize radio resource allocation.

In the present invention, by designing different types of segmentation modes and wireless resource allocation modes, flexible configuration can be performed according to actual needs, so as to be applicable to different application scenarios.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a slice management and control system for an access network side is provided. The slice management and control system can manage and control slices on the access network side according to the requirements of third-party service providers/operators (ie SAP). relationship; allocate wireless spectrum resources for each slice, etc.

For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 2 , the slice management and control system 200 includes a slice parameter configuration module 210 , a slice management and control module 220 and a virtual base station management and control module 230 .

The slice parameter configuration module 210 is used to formulate a slice policy based on network demand information.

The network demand information reflects the user's expectations for the service performance that the network can provide, including delay (such as 50ms, 100ms), bandwidth (such as 20M), capacity (such as 100Mbps), security level and battery life (such as the expected battery life time), etc. The network demand information is usually determined by the service provider/operator (ie SAP) according to the type of service initiated by the user or the type of service ordered by the user, and sent to the access network.

The slice parameter configuration module 210 can rationally allocate slice resources or formulate slice policies according to the obtained network demand information, so as to provide users with satisfactory services, thereby ensuring the user's network experience.

In one embodiment, the slice resource/slice strategy includes, but is not limited to: number of slices, segmentation method, parameters related to the virtual base station to which the slice belongs, such as the proportion of resources reserved by the virtual base station for the slice to which it belongs, and the like.

In another embodiment, the slice policy may further include a sharing mode of radio resources between slices, for example, a dynamic allocation mode, a fixed allocation mode, an enhanced allocation mode, and the like. By allocating different sharing modes of wireless resources between slices, network resources can be maximized on the basis of meeting user requirements.

In addition, the slice parameter configuration module 210 may also provide interfaces with other functional modules, for example, for receiving network requirements from other modules, or obtaining wireless capability parameters of the access network fed back by other modules.

In yet another embodiment, in order to make the assigned slicing strategy more in line with the capabilities of the access network, to avoid abnormalities or failures caused by slicing resources exceeding the carrying capacity of the base station, the slicing strategy can be formulated further in combination with wireless capability parameters, for example , formulate a slicing strategy based on the obtained number of available virtual base stations, available spectrum bandwidth configuration, etc.

In addition, when the SAP network requirement changes, the slicing parameter configuration module 210 may update the slicing policy allocated above, for example, update the slicing mode and the like. Through this update method, network slicing can meet the dynamic needs of users. For example, the access network has the ability to dynamically allocate slicing strategies for certain service needs temporarily proposed by users, thereby improving the utilization of network resources.

The slice management and control module 220 is a core control module for access network virtualization, which realizes the sharing and isolation of wireless resources between virtual operators. The slice management and control module 220 has interfaces with the parameter configuration module 210 and the virtual base station management and control module. Mapping relationship between base stations. For example, the slice management module 220 may be configured to notify the slice to which the virtual base station belongs, the PLMN to which it belongs, and the like.

The virtual base station management and control module 230 is configured to receive instructions from the slice management and control module 220, and notify the personalized parameters used by the virtual base station, so as to configure a virtual base station that meets the requirements. For example, according to the mapping relationship between the slice and the virtual base station, the label to which the virtual base station belongs, such as PLMN, service type, etc., is set. For example, when user requirements change and the user does not match the access network slice, the virtual base station management and control module 230 will receive feedback information from the user, and report the error feedback to the slice management and control module 220 .

For example, the virtual base station management and control module 230 configures the virtual base station to which the slice belongs by using the virtual base station resource related information in the slice policy. For example, the virtual base station is configured to use 80% of spectrum resources for the slice. For another example, when multiple slices share one virtual base station, the virtual base station is configured with an allocation ratio of spectrum resources used for each slice, and the like.

As mentioned above, the slice parameter configuration module 210 is used to formulate policies related to slice resources; the slice management and control module 220 is used for process management and control during slice creation; the virtual base station management and control module 230 is used to configure virtual base stations. This function-based module division can realize network virtualization on the access network side, and manage and control slices of the access network. This method can ensure that the logic functions of each module are relatively single and independent, thereby reducing the coupling degree between modules and the complexity of implementation.

Those skilled in the art can understand that, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, the division of the above functional modules can be modified in many ways. For example, it is integrated into a functional module to manage the slices of the access network in a unified manner.

The process of information interaction and parameter transfer among the functional modules shown in FIG. 2 will be described below with reference to FIG. 3 . In Figure 3, the information interaction and parameter transfer process between modules in the access network side slice management and control process is divided into three stages: slice initialization creation stage S310, service distribution stage S320 and slice update stage S330.

21) S310, slice initialization creation stage.

Steps 1 to 8 in FIG. 3 show a flow chart of the functions and information interaction completed by each module in the slice initialization and creation phase.

In step 1, the slice parameter configuration module receives a network requirement message from a virtual network operator or a service provider. Network requirements include, for example, parameters such as latency, bandwidth, security, capacity, and battery life.

In step 2, the slicing parameter configuration module configures relevant slicing parameters/slicing strategies.

For example, slice-related parameters include application information, slice type, slice capacity information, restriction conditions, and the like. Application information refers to the diversified characteristics of business transmission requirements (such as network bandwidth, delay, and throughput); slice type refers to the above-mentioned inter-slice wireless resource sharing mode (such as dynamic allocation mode, fixed allocation mode, enhanced allocation mode) ; The slice capacity information refers to the personalized parameters of the virtual base station, such as the resource reservation ratio, the resource allocation ratio, etc.; the restriction refers to some other constraints for formulating slice resources.

In step 3, the slice parameter configuration module sends a slice creation request message to the slice control module.

The slice creation request message may include configured slice resources, for example, the number of slices, a splitting method, and the like.

In step 4, the slice control module performs slice initialization according to the received slice creation message, and the slice initialization is completed: generation of slice ID, configuration of the virtual base station ID to which the slice belongs, etc.

In step 5, the slice control module sends the personalized parameters of the virtual base station to the virtual base station control module, for example, through a virtual base station creation request/or an existing virtual base station parameter configuration request message.

In step 6, the virtual base station control module initializes the virtual base station, that is, generates a customized virtual base station according to the personalized parameters of the virtual base station and some default parameters, or updates the relevant parameter configuration of the generated virtual base station.

In step 7, the virtual base station management and control module feeds back a message that the creation of the virtual base station or the configuration update is completed to the slice management and control module.

In step 8, the slice is created, and the slice control module saves and maintains the slice instance.

22) S320, data transmission stage.

Steps 9 to 17 in FIG. 3 show a schematic flowchart of starting data transmission or service transmission after the creation of slices is completed.

In step 9, the slice control module learns that the downlink service arrives, for example, the core network service arrives at the access network.

In step 10, the slice control module screens the slice to which the service belongs according to the network slice ID and notifies the associated virtual base station.

In step 11, the virtual base station to which the slice belongs is determined according to the mapping table between the slice and the virtual base station and the virtual base station label, and a mapping relationship between the slice and the virtual base station is established.

In step 12, the slice management and control module may adjust the slice resources according to the monitored network conditions, and notify the associated virtual base station of the new slice resources.

For example, the slice control module can adjust the proportion of resources occupied by slices according to the actual business volume, throughput, delay, etc., and the proportion of resources occupied by slices always follows the principle of wireless resource sharing. The principle of resource sharing is the above four segmentation methods and Share the principles of slice control, virtual resource layer, and physical resource layer.

In step 13, the virtual base station management and control module updates resources according to the resources adjusted on demand.

In steps 14 to 16, downlink service transmission is started, and data is transmitted to the user.

In step 17, during service transmission, when the data transmitted by the service does not match the user information or the data cannot be transmitted to the user, the user will feed back error information to the control of the virtual base station, and report the error step by step until the correct delivery data is obtained until.

23) S330, slice update stage

Steps 18 to 27 in FIG. 3 schematically show a flow chart of slice updating.

The slice management and control module monitors the network status in real time. When the current slice cannot meet user requirements or SAP network requirements change, the slice parameter configuration module reconfigures slice resources and sends slice update messages to the virtual base station management and control module step by step. Existing slices are updated. For example, the new slice resource can be sent to the slice control module through the slice update/slice reconstruction request message in step 21, and the slice control module can send the related virtual base station through the virtual base station change request message in step 22. Other processes are basically similar to the process of slice initialization and creation, and will not be repeated here.

In order to further understand the present invention, the following further introduces the management and control process of slice generation and data transmission in segmentation mode 3 (that is, multiple slices share one virtual base station). As shown in FIG. 4 , for the segmentation method 3, it can be assumed that the shared virtual base station is divided into two logical virtual base stations, which together with other related modules form two virtual networks, that is, two slices. Taking spectrum resource allocation as an example, spectrum resources are allocated according to slice requirements, so that two slices can share spectrum resources.

FIG. 5 schematically shows a flow chart of slice creation and data transmission based on segmentation mode 3.

For comparison, steps with the same functions in FIG. 5 and those in FIG. 3 are marked with the same reference numerals. Different from the flow shown in Figure 3, the slice parameter configuration module receives network requirements from SAP1 and SAP2 (see step 1a, step 1b), and needs to complete the configuration and creation of two slice resources (see step 2, step 3), And because two slices share one virtual base station, the slice control module needs to allocate the allocation ratio of the spectrum resources of the two slices, for example, the configuration is 2:3 (see step 4), other steps are similar to those shown in Figure 3, here No more details.

In summary, the slice management and control system designed by the present invention can meet the basic functions of slice management and control. When the SAP network requirements change, the information processing flow will not change, but the parameter configuration contained in the transmission information will be updated. information.

The slice management and control system of the present invention can be applied to a general mobile communication network architecture, for example, the super base station structure shown in FIG. 6 or the radio access network (C-RAN) architecture based on an open platform real-time cloud infrastructure (not show).

Correspondingly, in another aspect, the present invention also provides a method for slice management and control on the access network side, as shown in FIG. 7 .

1) Step S710, acquiring network requirements.

The network demand information reflects the user's expectation on the service performance that the network can provide, including delay, bandwidth, security, capacity and battery life, etc., for example. The network demand information is usually determined by the service provider/operator (ie SAP) according to the service type initiated by the user or the service type ordered by the user, and sent to the access network.

2) Step S720, determining a slicing strategy based on network requirements.

According to the obtained network demand information, slice resources can be reasonably allocated or slice strategies can be formulated to provide users with satisfactory services, thereby ensuring the user's network experience.

In addition, when the SAP network requirements change, the slicing strategy can be updated, for example, the slicing method can be updated. In this way, "network slicing" can meet the dynamic needs of users. For example, the access network has the ability to dynamically allocate resources for a certain service demand temporarily proposed by users, thereby improving the utilization of network resources.

3) Step S730, establishing a mapping relationship between a slice and a virtual base station based on a slice policy.

For example, when a slice of the access network is newly established, the mapping relationship between the slice and the virtual base station may be established based on the segmentation manner in the slice policy. This step is used to notify the slice to which the virtual base station belongs, the PLMN to which it belongs, and the like.

4) Step S740, configuring the virtual base station to which the slice belongs.

In this step, the virtual base station to which the slice belongs is configured using the virtual base station resource-related information in the slice policy. For example, the virtual base station is configured to use 80% of spectrum resources for the slice. For another example, when multiple slices share one virtual base station, the virtual base station is configured with an allocation ratio of frequency spectrum resources for each slice.

Having described various embodiments of the present invention, the foregoing description is exemplary, not exhaustive, and is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and alterations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein is chosen to best explain the principle of each embodiment, practical application or technical improvement in the market, or to enable other ordinary skilled in the art to understand each embodiment disclosed herein.

Claims (10)

1. A slice management and control system for the access network side, comprising: A slicing parameter configuration module, used to formulate a slicing strategy on the access network side based on network requirements; A slice management and control module, configured to send an indication message to the virtual base station management and control module based on the slice strategy, so as to complete the association between the slice and the virtual base station; The virtual base station management and control module is configured to configure the virtual base station associated with the slice according to the indication message. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the network requirements include at least one of latency, bandwidth, security level, capacity, and battery life. 3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said formulating the slicing strategy on the access network side includes at least one of determining the segmentation method, determining the sharing mode of wireless resources between slices, or determining the resource-related information of the virtual base station . 4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the segmentation method includes one slice exclusively sharing one virtual base station, one slice exclusively sharing multiple virtual base stations, multiple slices sharing one virtual base station, or multiple slices sharing multiple virtual base stations. virtual base station. 5. The system according to claim 3, wherein the division method is determined according to at least one of the coverage required by the slice, the number of service users, the coverage capability of the virtual base station, or the load capacity of the virtual base station. 6. The system according to claim 3, wherein the virtual base station resource-related information includes at least one of a spectrum resource reservation ratio, a spectrum resource allocation ratio, and a spectrum bandwidth. 7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the slice parameter configuration module further comprises formulating the slice policy in combination with wireless capability information of an access network. 8. The system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the slicing parameter configuration module further comprises dynamically adjusting the slicing strategy based on monitored network status and/or network demand changes. 9. The system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the indication message is used to indicate at least one of slice creation, slice release or slice update. 10. A slice control method used by the system on the access network side according to any one of claims 1-9, comprising the following steps: Formulate slicing strategies on the access network side based on network requirements; Sending an indication message to the virtual base station management and control module based on the slicing strategy to complete the association between the slice and the virtual base station; Configure the virtual base station associated with the slice according to the indication message.