TWI795274B - Method and system for determining user plane function service module based on hash value of transmission control protocol packet header - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and a system for determining user plane function service module based on hash value of transmission control protocol packet header is provided. The method includes: obtaining, by a programmable network interface card module, a transmission control protocol packet including a transmission control protocol packet header; obtaining, by the programmable network interface card module, a current hash value using the transmission control protocol packet header; obtaining, by the programmable network interface card module, a target service module using the current hash value; and transmitting, by the programmable network interface card module, the transmission control protocol packet to the target service module.

Description

Method and system for determining user plane function service module based on hash value of transmission control protocol packet header

The present invention relates to a method and system for determining a user plane function service module based on a hash value of a transmission control protocol packet header.

The cloud-native User Plane Function (UPF) in the 5G core network is mainly responsible for the forwarding of user packets and policy enforcement. When the number of connected user devices is huge and the traffic flow is increasing exponentially, the workload of the UPF service module is easily overloaded and unbalanced. Based on this, an improved method for determining a service module needs to be proposed.

The invention provides a method and system for determining user plane function service modules based on the hash value of the transmission control protocol packet header, which has the technical effect of service module load balancing.

The method for determining the user plane function service module based on the hash value of the transmission control protocol packet header of the present invention includes: obtaining the transmission control protocol packet including the transmission control protocol packet header by the programmable network interface card module; The programmable NIC module uses the TCP packet header to obtain the current hash value; the programmable NIC module uses the current hash value to obtain the target service module; and the programmable NIC module uses the current hash value to obtain the target service module; and the programmable NIC module The group sends the TCP packet to the target service module.

The system for determining the user plane function service module based on the hash value of the transmission control protocol packet header of the present invention includes: a programmable network interface card module, wherein the programmable network interface card module obtains the transmission control protocol packet header of the TCP packet, wherein the programmable network interface card module obtains the current hash value by using the TCP packet header, wherein the programmable network interface card module obtains the target service module by using the current hash value, Wherein the programmable network interface card module transmits the transmission control protocol packet to the target service module.

In order to make the above-mentioned features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, the following specific embodiments are described in detail together with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system 100 for determining a user plane function (User Plane Function, UPF) service module based on a hash value of a TCP packet header according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system 100 can include a programmable network interface card module 110 . In other embodiments, the system 100 may further include a user layer function traffic control module 120 and a traffic load balancing module 130 .

The programmable NIC module 110 (or the user layer function traffic control module 120 or the traffic load balancing module 130 ) can be software and/or firmware code executed by a processor. In another embodiment, the programmable network interface card module 110 (or the user layer function traffic control module 120 or the traffic load balancing module 130 ) can be implemented as a circuit. In another embodiment, the programmable network interface card module 110 (or the user layer function traffic control module 120 or the traffic load balancing module 130) can be implemented as software and/or firmware codes and circuits The combination. The present invention does not limit the implementation method of the programmable network interface card module 110 (or the user layer function traffic control module 120 or the traffic load balancing module 130 ).

The programmable network interface card module 110 is communicatively connected to the user layer function traffic control module 120 . The user layer function traffic control module 120 can be communicatively connected to the traffic load balancing module 130 .

In other embodiments, the programmable network interface card module 110 can be communicatively connected to a next generation base station (gNB, Next Generation Node B) 300 and a data network (Data Network) 400 . The user layer function traffic control module 120 can be communicatively connected to the traffic control module 500 .

The service module 200 a , the service module 200 b . . . the service module 200 n can be (respectively) communicatively connected to the programmable network interface card module 110 . In other embodiments, the service module 200 a , the service module 200 b . . . the service module 200 n can also be (respectively) communicatively connected to the user layer function traffic control module 120 . The service module 200a, the service module 200b...the service module 200n can be software and/or firmware code executed by a processor. In another embodiment, the service module 200a, the service module 200b...the service module 200n can be implemented as a circuit. In another embodiment, the service module 200a, the service module 200b...the service module 200n may be implemented as a combination of software and/or firmware codes and circuits. The present invention does not limit the implementation method of the service module 200a, the service module 200b...the service module 200n.

In this embodiment, the service module 200a, service module 200b... service module 200n may be a user plane function (User Plane Function, UPF) service module.

In this embodiment, in order to use the hash value of the TCP packet header to determine, which service module among the service module 200a, service module 200b...service module 200n will carry the TCP packet ( service), the traffic load balancing module 130 may store a plurality of recorded hash values, and each of these recorded hash values corresponds to a recorded service module. Table 1 is an example stored by the traffic load balancing module 130 . For ease of description, the content stored in the traffic load balancing module 130, as shown in Table 1, will be referred to as a "selection table" hereinafter. Table 1 Selection list stored in the traffic load balancing module 130 Recorded hash value Logged service mod hash value 1 Service Module 200a hash value 2 Service Module 200b

Specifically, the content of the "selection table" records means that a specific recorded hash value (ie, a specific TCP packet header) has been loaded/served by a specific service module.

In addition, the traffic load balancing module 130 can also store a plurality of responsible traffic quantities respectively corresponding to a plurality of candidate service modules. Table 2 is an example stored by the traffic load balancing module 130 . For ease of description, the content stored by the traffic load balancing module 130, as shown in Table 2, will be referred to as a "workload table" in the following. Table 2 Workload table stored by the traffic load balancing module 130 Candidate Service Module Responsible for traffic volume Service Module 200a 100 Service Module 200b 101

Specifically, the content recorded in the "workload table" represents the number of hash values (that is, specific TCP packet headers) currently loaded/served by a specific service module.

On the other hand, the programmable NIC module 110 can store a plurality of recorded hash values, and each of the plurality of recorded hash values corresponds to a recorded service module. Table 3 is an example stored in the programmable network interface card module 110 . For ease of description, the content stored in the programmable network interface card module 110, as shown in Table 3, will be referred to as a "transmission table" later. Table 3 The transmission table stored in the programmable network interface card module 110 Recorded hash value Logged service mod hash value 1 Service Module 200a hash value 3 Service Module 200c

In detail, the meaning of the content recorded in the "transmission table" is (similar to the aforementioned "selection table") that a specific recorded hash value (that is, a specific TCP packet header) has been used by a specific service Mod load/service.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method for determining a user plane function service module based on a hash value of a TCP packet header according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step S201 , the programmable network interface card module 110 obtains a TCP packet including a TCP packet header (Header).

In detail, when a user device (not shown in the figure) registers and obtains an IP, the traffic control module 500 will receive the user information (corresponding to the user device) from the session management function (Session Management Function, SMF) The service rules are sent to the user layer functional service control module 120. Traffic rules can be Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) information from the control plane (Control Plane), which includes Packet Detection Rule (PDR), forwarding action rule (Forwarding Action Rule, FAR) and other traffic rules and transmission control protocol flow transmission channel information (TCP flow transmission channel information). The user layer function traffic control module 120 can store traffic rules and TCP stream transmission channel information. In addition, the user layer function traffic control module 120 can create a related traffic record according to the packet information of the GPRS Tunneling Protocol User Plane (GTP-U, GPRS Tunneling Protocol User Plane) packet.

The programmable network interface card module 110 can receive the above-mentioned transmission channel information from the user layer function service control module 120, and store the transmission channel information.

In one embodiment, when the programmable network interface card module 110 receives the GPRS tunneling protocol user plane packet from the next generation base station 300, the programmable network interface card module 110 will first confirm whether the packet is GPRS If the Tunneling Protocol User Plane packet is used, the above transmission channel information will be used to search and unpack decrypted information, so as to restore the GPRS Tunneling Protocol User Plane packet to a Transmission Control Protocol packet. In other words, the above transmission channel information allows the programmable network interface card module 110 to identify/process the GPRS tunneling protocol user plane packet received from the next generation base station 300 to obtain the TCP packet.

In another embodiment, the programmable network interface card module 110 can receive TCP packets from the information network 400 .

After obtaining the TCP packet, the programmable NIC module 110 can extract the TCP packet header in the TCP packet for subsequent steps.

In step S202, the programmable network interface card module 110 obtains the current hash value by using the header of the TCP packet.

In step S203, the programmable network interface card module 110 uses the current hash value to obtain the target service module.

The above step S202 and step S203 will be further described with an embodiment below.

FIG. 3 is a detailed flow chart illustrating the method of “obtaining the current hash value to obtain the target service module by using the current hash value” shown in FIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step S301, the programmable network interface card module 110 can determine whether the header of the TCP packet is a critical packet. In this embodiment, the critical packets may include TCP SYN, TCP FIN, or TCP RST packets.

If the programmable network interface card module 110 determines that the TCP packet header is a critical packet (the judgment result of step S301 is "Yes"), then in step S302, the programmable network interface card module 110 can The traffic control module 120 transmits the TCP packet header to the traffic load balancing module 130 through the user layer function. The traffic load balancing module 130 can reconfirm that "the TCP packet header is indeed a critical packet" for the TCP packet header, and then proceed to the subsequent steps.

In step S303 , the traffic load balancing module 130 can use the header of the TCP packet to calculate the current hash value (Hash).

Then, the traffic load balancing module 130 can determine the target service module according to the current hash value.

Specifically, in step S304 , the traffic load balancing module 130 can determine whether the current hash value matches the recorded hash value stored by the traffic load balancing module 130 (selection table shown in Table 1).

If the traffic load balancing module 130 determines that the current hash value does not match each of the multiple recorded hash values (the judgment result of step S304 is "No"), then in step S305, the traffic load balancing module 130 may Utilize (workload table shown in Table 2)(s) responsible for the amount of traffic to determine the target service module. For example, if the current hash value does not match the hash value 1 of Table 1, and the current hash value does not match the hash value 2 of Table 1, that is, the current hash value (the current TCP packet header) has not been used by the service module 200a, service module 200b...any one of the service modules in the service module 200n loads/services. In this case, the traffic load balancing module 130 can select the service module responsible for the smallest amount of traffic from the candidate service modules shown in Table 2 (that is, select the service module 200a shown in Table 2), To set the service module 200a as the target service module.

Next, in step S306, the traffic load balancing module 130 may update the selection table and the workload table. Following the above-mentioned embodiment, after setting the service module 200a as the target service module, the traffic load balancing module 130 can add [current hash value, service module 200a] to column 1 of Table 1, and can add In Table 2, the responsible traffic quantity of the service module 200a is increased by 1.

On the other hand, if the traffic load balancing module 130 determines that the current hash value matches the second recorded hash value among the plurality of first recorded hash values (the judgment result of step S304 is "Yes"), then in step S307 , the traffic load balancing module 130 may set the second recorded service module corresponding to the second recorded hash value as the target service module. For example, if the current hash value matches the hash value 2 shown in Table 1, that is, the current hash value (the current TCP packet header) has been loaded/served by the service module 200b, the traffic load balancing module 130 The service module 200b can be set as the target service module.

In step S308, the traffic load balancing module 130 may update the selection table in response to determining that the TCP packet header corresponding to the current hash value is TCP FIN or TCP RST and worksheets. In detail, since the TCP packet header indicates that the TCP Flow is about to end when the TCP ends or the TCP restarts, the traffic load balancing module 130 can delete from Table 1 [the current hash value and the service module 200b ], and the number of traffics in charge of the service module 200b in Table 2 may be reduced by 1.

After the traffic load balancing module 130 determines the target service module, in step S309, the traffic load balancing module 130 can send the current hash value to the programmable network interface through the user layer function traffic control module 120 Card module 110 . In addition, the traffic load balancing module 130 can also transmit the target service module to the programmable network interface card module 110 through the user layer function traffic control module 120 .

In step S310, the programmable network interface card module 110 can set the target service module as the recorded service module, set the current hash value as the recorded hash value, and store the recorded hash value corresponding to Record service modules (for example, add a new transfer table as shown in Table 3).

If the programmable network interface card module 110 determines that the header of the TCP packet is not a critical packet (the judgment result of step S301 is "No"), then in step S311, the programmable network interface card module 110 can Calculate the current hash value using the TCP packet header.

Then, the programmable network interface card module 110 can determine the target service module according to the current hash value.

Specifically, in step S312, the programmable network interface card module 110 can determine whether the current hash value matches the recorded hash value stored in the programmable network interface card module 110 (transmission table shown in Table 3). value.

If the programmable network interface card module 110 determines that the current hash value matches the fourth recorded hash value among the plurality of third recorded hash values (the determination result of step S312 is "Yes"), then in step S313, The programmable NIC module 110 can set the fourth recorded service module corresponding to the fourth recorded hash value as the target service module.

If the programmable network interface card module 110 determines that the current hash value does not match each of the plurality of third recorded hash values (the determination result of step S312 is "No"), then in step S314, The programmable NIC module 110 can drop the TCP packet.

Please refer to Figure 2 again. After obtaining the target service module, in step S204, the programmable network interface card module 110 sends the TCP packet to the target service module.

To sum up, the method and system for determining the user plane function service module based on the hash value of the TCP packet header of the present invention can determine whether the traffic load balancing is to be performed according to whether the TCP packet header is a critical packet. The module determines the target service module, or the programmable network interface card module determines the target service module. In particular, the traffic load balancing module can select the service module currently responsible for the smallest traffic as the target service module, so as to achieve the technical effect of service module load balancing and provide users with better experience.

Although the present invention has been disclosed above with the embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone with ordinary knowledge in the technical field may make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The scope of protection of the present invention should be defined by the scope of the appended patent application.

100: A system that determines the user plane function service module based on the hash value of the transmission control protocol packet header 110:Programmable network interface card module 120: user layer function communication service control module 130: Traffic load balancing module 200a, 200b, ..., 200n: service module 300: Next Generation Base Station 400: Information Network 500: Communication control module S201~S204, S301~S314: steps

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for determining a user plane function service module based on a hash value of a TCP packet header according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method for determining a user plane function service module based on a hash value of a TCP packet header according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a detailed flow chart illustrating the method of “obtaining the current hash value to obtain the target service module by using the current hash value” shown in FIG. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

S201~S204: steps

Claims (10)

A method for determining a user plane function (User Plane Function, UPF) service module based on a hash value of a transmission control protocol packet header, comprising: obtaining a transmission including the transmission control protocol packet header by a programmable network interface card module control protocol packet; the programmable network interface card module uses the transmission control protocol packet header to obtain the current hash value; the programmable network interface card module uses the current hash value to obtain the target a service module; and sending the TCP packet to the target service module by the programmable network interface card module. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the programmable network interface card module is communicatively connected to the user layer function traffic control module, and the user layer function traffic control module is communicatively connected to the traffic load The balance module, wherein the step of obtaining the current hash value by the programmable network interface card module using the TCP packet header includes: if the programmable network interface card module determines that the The transmission control protocol packet header is a key packet, and the programmable network interface card module transmits the transmission control protocol packet header to the traffic load balancing through the user layer function traffic control module A module; the traffic load balancing module uses the TCP packet header to calculate the current hash value, and transmits it through the user layer function traffic control module The current hash value is sent to the programmable network interface card module. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of obtaining the target service module by the programmable network interface card module using the current hash value includes: using the traffic load balancing module according to the The current hash value determines the target service module, and transmits the target service module to the programmable network interface card module through the user layer function traffic control module. The method of claim 3, wherein the traffic load balancing module stores a plurality of first recorded hash values, and each of the plurality of first recorded hash values corresponds to a first recorded service module, and the traffic load balancing module further stores a plurality of responsible flow quantities respectively corresponding to a plurality of candidate service modules, wherein the programmable network interface card module uses the current hash value to obtain The step of the target service module further includes: if the traffic load balancing module determines that the current hash value does not match each of the plurality of first recorded hash values, by the traffic load balancing The module determines the target service module by using the plurality of responsible traffic quantities; if the traffic load balancing module determines that the current hash value matches the second recorded hash value among the plurality of first recorded hash values a hash value, the traffic load balancing module sets a second recorded service module corresponding to the second recorded hash value as the target service module. The method as described in claim item 3, wherein said method further comprises: setting the target service module as the third recorded service module by the programmable network interface card module, setting the current hash value as the third recorded hash value, and storing the The third recorded service module of the third recorded hash value. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining the current hash value by the programmable network interface card module using the TCP packet header includes: if the programmable network interface The card module determines that the TCP packet header is not the critical packet, and the programmable network interface card module uses the TCP packet header to calculate the current hash value. The method as described in claim 6, wherein the step of obtaining the target service module by using the current hash value from the programmable network interface card module includes: using the programmable network interface card module The group determines the target service module according to the current hash value. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the programmable network interface card module stores a plurality of third recorded hash values, and each of the plurality of third recorded hash values corresponds to a third The recorded service module, wherein the step of obtaining the target service module by the programmable network interface card module using the current hash value includes: if the programmable network interface card module determines that the said current hash value matches a fourth recorded hash value of said plurality of third recorded hash values, by said programmable The NIC module sets the fourth recorded service module corresponding to the fourth recorded hash value as the target service module. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the programmable network interface card module is communicatively connected to the user layer function traffic control module, and the user layer function traffic control module stores traffic rules and transmits Channel information, wherein the step of obtaining the TCP packet including the TCP packet header by the programmable network interface card module includes: using the programmable network interface card module from The user layer function traffic control module receives the transmission channel information; the programmable network interface card module responds to receiving the GPRS tunneling protocol user plane packet from the next generation base station and utilizes the transmission channel information And the GPRS tunneling protocol user plane packet obtains the transmission control protocol packet. A system for determining a user plane function (User Plane Function, UPF) service module based on a hash value of a transmission control protocol packet header, including: a programmable network interface card module, wherein the programmable network interface card The module obtains a TCP packet including a TCP packet header, wherein the programmable network interface card module uses the TCP packet header to obtain a current hash value, wherein the programmable network The interface card module uses the current hash value to obtain the target service module, wherein The programmable network interface card module transmits the TCP packet to the target service module.

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