WO2024114354A1 - Communication method, apparatus, communication device, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure are a communication method, an apparatus, a communication device, and a storage medium. The method comprises: a terminal device separately sends first information to at least two network devices, the first information being used for instructing the network devices to measure network performance between same and a data network (DN) device, and each network device corresponding to one session among multi-access protocol data unit (MA PDU) sessions; separately receiving second information from the at least two network devices, the second information comprising first network performance information between the network devices and the DN device; and, at least on the basis of the second information, determining whether the sessions are switched, or determining flow distribution information of the at least two sessions.

Description

A communication method, device, communication equipment and storage medium

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This disclosure is based on the Chinese patent application with application number 202211516369.9 and application date November 29, 2022, and claims the priority of the Chinese patent application. The entire content of the Chinese patent application is hereby incorporated into this disclosure by introduction.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method, apparatus, communication equipment and storage medium.

Background technique

In typical hospitals, industries, logistics and other parks, 5G industry private networks (including 5G 2B base stations and 2B core networks) and self-built Wi-Fi networks are deployed. There are two types of terminals: dedicated 2B terminals and user 2C terminals. The two types of terminals can access applications on the industry cloud through 5G industry private networks and Wi-Fi networks respectively. Industry cloud deployment can be inside or outside the park. As shown in Figure 1.

In the above-mentioned converged networking scenario, the 2B user plane function (UPF) and 2C UPF may belong to the same 5G network, or they may belong to different 5G networks and have different 5G core networks.

For 2C terminals, there are two connection paths, which can be seen from the connection paths shown by numbers 1 and 2 in Figure 1. Currently, there is no effective solution for how to implement traffic switching or traffic splitting of two different network types under different UPFs.

Summary of the invention

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a communication method, an apparatus, a communication device, and a storage medium.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the present disclosure is implemented as follows:

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method, the method comprising:

The terminal device sends first information to at least two network devices respectively, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the network device and the data network (DN) device; each network device corresponds to one session in the multi-access protocol data unit (MA PDU) session;

The terminal device receives second information from the at least two network devices respectively, where the second information includes first network performance information between the network device and the DN device;

The terminal device determines whether to switch the session based on at least the second information, or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

First network connection status information, where the first network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the DN device is normal or abnormal;

First round-trip delay information between the network device and the DN device;

The first network jitter information between the network device and the DN device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes:

The terminal device receives third information from the at least two network devices respectively, and the third information includes second network performance information between the network device and the terminal device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the second network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

Second network connection status information, where the second network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the terminal device is normal or abnormal;

Second round-trip delay information between the network device and the terminal device;

Second network jitter information between the network device and the terminal device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device determines whether to switch the session based on at least the second information, or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions, including:

The terminal device determines whether to switch the session or determines the traffic distribution information of at least two sessions based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, and the second network performance information represents the network performance between the terminal device and the network device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device determines whether to switch a session based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, or determines traffic allocation information of at least two sessions, including:

The terminal device determines the third network performance information between the terminal device and the DN device based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, determines whether to switch the session based on the third network performance information, or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions based on the third network performance information; wherein,

The third network information includes at least one of the following:

Third network connection status information, the third network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the terminal device and the DN device is normal or abnormal;

Third round-trip delay information between the terminal device and the DN device;

The third network jitter information between the terminal device and the DN device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the determining whether to switch the session based on the third network performance information includes:

Whether to switch the session is determined according to at least one of the third network connection state information, the third round-trip delay information, and the third network jitter information corresponding to at least two sessions.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, determining the traffic distribution information of at least two sessions based on the third network performance information includes:

When the third network connection status information corresponding to at least two sessions all indicates that the connection is normal, determine a first comparison result between an absolute value of a first difference in the third round-trip delay information corresponding to each two sessions of the at least two sessions and at least one first threshold, and/or determine a second comparison result between an absolute value of a second difference in the third network jitter information corresponding to each two sessions of the at least two sessions and at least one second threshold, and determine the traffic distribution information of the at least two sessions based on the first comparison result and/or the second comparison result.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first information includes at least one of the following information:

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

A first identifier used to indicate the network performance between the measured network device and the DN device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, before the terminal device sends the first information to at least two network devices respectively, the method further includes:

The terminal device creates a MA PDU session between each of the at least two network devices respectively, and the MA PDU session is in a single-link mode, and the single-link mode is used to indicate that there is only one session for each of the at least two network devices.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a communication method, the method comprising:

The network device receives first information from the terminal device, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure network performance between the network device and the DN device; the network device corresponds to a session in the MA PDU session;

The network device measures the network performance between the network device and the DN device to obtain a first network performance capability information, and sending second information to the terminal device, where the second information includes the first network performance information.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the network device performs network performance measurement with the DN device to obtain first network performance information, including:

The network device sends a first instruction to the DN device based on the obtained address of the DN device, and receives a first response corresponding to the first instruction;

The first network performance information is determined based on a first time of sending the first instruction and a second time of receiving the first response.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

First network connection status information, where the first network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the DN device is normal or abnormal;

First round-trip delay information between the network device and the DN device;

The first network jitter information between the network device and the DN device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: the network device performs network performance measurement with the terminal device, obtains second network performance information, and sends third information to the terminal device, wherein the third information includes the second network performance information.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the second network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

Second network connection status information, where the second network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the terminal device is normal or abnormal;

Second round-trip delay information between the network device and the terminal device;

Second network jitter information between the network device and the terminal device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first information includes at least one of the following information:

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

A first identifier used to indicate the network performance between the measured network device and the DN device.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a communication device, which is applied to a terminal device, and includes: a first communication unit and a first processing unit; wherein,

The first communication unit is configured to send first information to at least two network devices respectively, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the network device and the DN device; each network device corresponds to one session in the MA PDU session; and is also configured to receive second information from the at least two network devices respectively, wherein the second information includes first network performance information between the network device and the DN device;

The first processing unit is configured to determine whether to switch the session based on at least the second information, or to determine traffic allocation information of at least two sessions.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a communication device, which is applied to a network device, and includes: a second communication unit and a second processing unit; wherein,

The second communication unit is configured to receive first information from a terminal device, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure network performance between the network device and the DN device; the network device corresponds to a session in the MA PDU session;

The second processing unit is configured to perform network performance measurement with the DN device to obtain first network performance information;

The second communication unit is further configured to send second information to the terminal device, where the second information includes the first network performance information.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a computer-readable storage medium on which a computer program is stored, and when the program is executed by a processor, the steps of the method described in the first aspect or the second aspect of the embodiment of the present disclosure are implemented.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a communication device, comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein when the processor executes the program, the steps of the method described in the first aspect or the second aspect of the embodiment of the present disclosure are implemented.

The communication method, apparatus, communication device and storage medium provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure include: the terminal device sends first information to at least two network devices respectively, the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the network device and the DN device; each network device corresponds to one session in the MA PDU session; second information is received from the at least two network devices respectively, the second information includes the first network performance information between the network device and the DN device; at least based on the second information, it is determined whether the session is switched, or the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions is determined. The technical solution of the embodiments of the present disclosure is adopted, and by realizing the measurement of the network performance between the network device and the DN device (that is, the measurement of the N6 interface), it is realized that in the scenario where the terminal device accesses the industry cloud through at least two connection paths, the terminal device can accurately know the network performance between the DN device (or industry cloud) under each connection path, realize accurate switching of sessions or traffic splitting in multiple sessions, ensure the continuity and stability of the "dual-domain private network" service, and ensure that users get the best user experience.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a converged networking mode;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the network architecture of the 5G and MEC combination solution;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of an untrusted non-3GPP access network;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the ATSSS technical architecture;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a technical architecture of a communication method application according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a single link mode in a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG7 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG8 is a second flow chart of the communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG9 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG10 is a schematic diagram of a network measurement object in a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG11 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG12 is a second schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of the hardware composition structure of the communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed ways

The present disclosure is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to various communication systems, such as: Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) system, Long Term Evolution (LTE) system or 5G system, etc. Optionally, the 5G system or 5G network can also be called New Radio (NR) system or NR network.

It should be understood that the device with communication function in the network/system in the embodiment of the present application can be referred to as a communication device. The communication device may include a network device and a terminal device with communication function; the communication device may also include other devices in the communication system, such as a network controller, a mobile management entity and other network entities, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present disclosure.

It should be understood that the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably in this article. The term "and/or" in this article is only a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, A and/or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" in this article generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

The terms "first", "second", etc. in the specification and claims of this application are used to distinguish The term "comprising" and "having" and any variation thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, for example, a process, method, system, product or device comprising a series of steps or units need not be limited to those steps or units clearly listed, but may include other steps or units that are not clearly listed or inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices.

Before describing the access network switching method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, a network architecture and related technologies applicable to the embodiment of the present disclosure are briefly described first.

At present, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has given a reference design for the combination of the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) and multi-access edge computing (MEC) as shown in Figure 2, which mainly includes two parts:

To enable low-latency, high-bandwidth, and high-reliability edge applications in vertical industries, UPF is deployed in the industry customer park, close to the MEC edge server (also known as the MEC platform (MEP)), and forwards data to the MEC edge server (or MEP) through the local diversion technology of UPF (i.e., uplink filter/IPv6 branching point (UL-CL/IPv6 BP)).

The application function (AF) in the core network is moved down to the MEP side to provide better data flow control strategies (such as encoding strategies, Quality of Service (QoS) strategies, routing strategies, etc.) for applications deployed on MEC.

3GPP defines the basic architecture of 5G network to support fixed-mobile convergence. The fixed-mobile convergence of 5G network mainly includes fixed wireless access, non-3GPP, hybrid access (mixed fixed wireless and non-3GPP), etc. Among them, non-3GPP access includes at least trusted non-3GPP access, untrusted non-3GPP access, wired access, etc. User equipment (UE) can access 5G network through at least these three non-3GPP technologies. Among them, Wi-Fi is the most common untrusted non-3GPP technology. 3GPP The network architecture based on untrusted non-3GPP access is defined as shown in FIG3 .

In Figure 3, the UE can access the 5G network through 3GPP access technology and non-3GPP access technology respectively. The non-3GPP interworking function (N3IWF, Non-3GPP InterWorking Function) is an untrusted non-3GPP access gateway device deployed by the operator. It supports the N2 and N3 interfaces between the 5G core network and can transfer the non-access stratum (NAS, Non-Access Stratum) signaling between the UE and the access and mobility management function (AMF, Access and Mobility Management Function).

Based on the above-mentioned converged architecture, 3GPP describes the access traffic steering, switching, splitting (ATSSS) technology based on non-3GPP access, and its architecture diagram is shown in Figure 4.

ATSSS is a network-level traffic aggregation technology that aims to reduce mobile network congestion by using a method that is transparent to users and balances data traffic between mobile networks and non-3GPP access. It can not only direct traffic from 5G networks to non-3GPP access, but also switch or split traffic between the two types of access. Operators can provide the best customer experience by using the 5G core network to perform unified traffic processing between 3GPP and non-3GPP access.

In order to support the ATSSS function, the original 5G system architecture needs to be expanded, and new requirements are put forward for the UE and related network element functions of the 5G network, as follows:

(1) The UE shall support one or more access offload functions, such as MultiPath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) functionality for multi-path offload and/or ATSSS low-layer functionality for Ethernet-based service offload. Each access offload function in the UE shall implement service control, switching, and offload across 3GPP access and non-3GPP access according to the ATSSS rules provided by the network.

(2) The UPF includes MPTCP Proxy functionality for 3GPP Access and/or Non-3GPP Access to the UE. The UPF also includes a performance measurement function (PMF), which can be used by the UE to obtain access performance measurements on the user plane of 3GPP access and/or on the user plane of non-3GPP access.

(3) UE and UPF implement multi-access offload scheduling control based on the offload strategy issued by the control plane, thereby increasing bandwidth and improving service reliability.

Based on the above architecture, the 5G network supports a flow to be split and transmitted in parallel on multiple accesses and switched between different access channels, so as to achieve flexible transmission and path selection of data on untrusted non-3GPP networks (such as Wi-Fi) and 5G channels.

In addition, a new protocol layer is added between UE and UPF to support link quality detection and round-trip time (RTT) tests initiated by UE and UPF to calculate 3GPP and non-3GPP traffic delays for subsequent service scheduling.

Currently, the following four steering modes are defined for the ATSSS service diversion function:

Active-Standby mode: In this mode, the service traffic will give priority to the active node defined by the ATSSS rule. When the active node is unavailable, it will switch to the standby node. When the active node is available again, the traffic will switch back to the active node.

Smallest Delay mode: In this mode, service traffic will be directed to the access path with the smallest delay. The UE measures the RTT on two accesses (3GPP and non-3GPP) to determine which access has the smallest delay and prefers the access with the smallest RTT.

Load-Balancing mode: By configuring the percentage of traffic sent by 3GPP access and non-3GPP access, load balancing between the two accesses is achieved. At this time, service traffic is diverted to different accesses according to the set ratio;

Priority-based mode: In this case, the access mode with high priority is preferred. The priority can be set by the network.

In the above four modes, the UE can apply the network-provided policy (i.e., ATSSS rules) and local conditions to decide how to allocate uplink traffic between the two access networks. The UPF of the Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session can also apply the network-provided policy (i.e., N4 rules) and feedback received from the UE via the user plane to decide how to allocate downlink traffic information.

The integrated networking mode of a typical campus is shown in Figure 1.

There are two link paths for dedicated 2B terminals to access the industry cloud:

Connection path 1: The dedicated 2B terminal accesses the 2B UPF through the 5G private network to unload the industry cloud’s exclusive data, access the industry cloud through a dedicated line, and access the industry cloud’s applications through the dedicated 2B terminal;

Connection path two: After the dedicated 2B terminal accesses the campus Wi-Fi network, it accesses the 2B UPF through the N3IWF network element to unload the industry cloud-specific data, access the industry cloud through a dedicated line, and access the industry cloud applications through the dedicated 2B terminal.

Among them, the so-called 2B, namely To Business, the full name is B2B, which refers to business and transaction activities carried out for enterprises.

There are also two connection paths for 2C terminals to access the industry cloud:

Connection path 1: See number ① in the figure. The 2C terminal accesses the industry cloud based on the "dual-domain private network" method, that is, it accesses the 2C UPF through the 5G private network to unload the industry cloud's exclusive data, and accesses the industry cloud through a dedicated line, so as to realize the application of accessing the industry cloud through the 2C terminal;

Connection path two: See number ② in the figure. After the 2C terminal accesses the campus Wi-Fi network, it accesses the 2C UPF through the N3IWF network element to unload the industry cloud-specific data, and accesses the industry cloud through a dedicated line, enabling access to industry cloud applications through the 2C terminal.

For the second connection path, since the 2C terminal has not signed a 5G private network DNN, it cannot access the industry cloud through the 5G industry private network, and non-trusted non-3GPP networks such as Wi-Fi cannot directly Connect to the industry cloud (MEC).

Among them, the so-called 2C, namely To Consumer (or Customer), the full name is B2C, which refers to business and transaction activities carried out for consumers.

The embodiments of the present disclosure are mainly aimed at the problems existing in the process of 2C terminals accessing the industry cloud.

(I) Problems with different UPFs. When the 2C terminal performs exclusive data unloading, due to the different UPFs connected, two different PDU sessions are used to access the industry cloud, rather than using the multi-access MA PDU session to access the same UPF.

(ii) The performance test data from UPF to the industry cloud (N6 interface) is different. Since the connection paths from the two UPFs to the industry cloud are different, the performance parameter data of this section of network traffic data is different, which will affect the network switching strategy of the terminal. The UPF needs to collect the performance parameters of this section and send them to the 2C terminal so that the UE can make the correct network switching choice.

Based on this, the following embodiments of the present disclosure are proposed.

The disclosed embodiment proposes an ASSSS method for multi-anchor UPF in a 5G industry dual-domain private network. As shown in Figure 5, the disclosed embodiment solves the above-mentioned problems by adding a UE collaborative management module (U-CMM, UE-Collaborative Management Module) on the UE and a PMF collaborative management module (P-CMM, PMF-Collaborative Management Module) on the UPF without changing the ATSSS architecture.

Among them, U-CMM is carried on the UE and is used to generate a single link mode to implement session switching management for two different MA PDU sessions. As shown in Figure 6, MA PDU#1 represents the first 3GPP session, and MA PDU#2 represents the second non-3GPP session.

The P-CMM is carried on the UPF and is used to measure the network performance of the N6 interface, including but not limited to key performance indicators such as network jitter and/or average network round-trip delay. The module can be deployed as part of the PMF function as shown in Figure 5, or it can be deployed separately.

Through signaling interaction between the U-CMM module and the P-CMM module, traffic switching between two different paths for 2C terminals to access the industry cloud can be achieved.

In other embodiments, the U-CMM may also be called a first module, a first processing module, etc., and the P-CMM may also be called a second module, a second processing module, etc., as long as they can realize their corresponding functions. This embodiment does not limit the names of the modules.

Based on this, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method. FIG7 is a flow chart of the communication method of an embodiment of the present disclosure; as shown in FIG7 , the method includes:

Step 101: The terminal device sends first information to at least two network devices respectively, where the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the network device and the DN device; each network device corresponds to one session in the MA PDU session;

Step 102: The terminal device receives second information from the at least two network devices respectively, where the second information includes first network performance information between the network device and the DN device;

Step 103: The terminal device determines whether to switch the session based on at least the second information, or determines traffic allocation information of at least two sessions.

In this embodiment, the terminal device may be the 2C terminal in the aforementioned embodiment. The so-called 2C, namely To Consumer (or Customer), is the full name of B2C, which refers to the business and transaction behavior carried out for consumers. The terminal device in this embodiment refers to the terminal for consumers or users. The network device may specifically be a core network device connected to an industry cloud or data network (or application server), such as a UPF. In this embodiment, the terminal device is connected to at least two UPFs, and decides which link to access by obtaining the performance or related parameters of at least two links (or at least two accesses). Among them, the at least two network devices are network devices belonging to different access networks; wherein, the access network includes a 3GPP access network and a non-3GPP access network, that is, among the at least two network devices, at least one network device belongs to a network device of a 3GPP access network, and the other network device belongs to a network device of a non-3GPP access network, or it can also be considered that, among the two UPFs, one UPF is a 2C UPF and the other UPF is a 2B UPF.

In this embodiment, in order to enable the terminal device to make a correct network switching selection, the terminal device needs to obtain the network performance between the network device and the DN device and the network performance between the network device and the terminal device. Among them, the terminal device obtains the network performance between the network device and the terminal device, which already exists in the relevant technical solutions. Therefore, the embodiment of the present disclosure focuses on how the terminal device obtains the network performance between the network device and the DN device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, before the terminal device sends the first information to at least two network devices respectively, the method also includes: the terminal device creates a MA PDU session between each of the at least two network devices respectively, and the MA PDU session is in a single-link mode, and the single-link mode is used to indicate that there is only one session for each of the at least two network devices.

In this embodiment, taking two network devices as an example, the terminal device creates a single-link mode MA PDU session between each network device, for example, as shown in FIG6 , there is only one session for each network device, and no session switching is performed. Exemplarily, the session in each embodiment of the present disclosure specifically refers to a PDU session, or it can also be referred to as a single-link mode MA PDU session.

Exemplarily, the process of the terminal device creating an MA PDU session between each network device is similar to the PDU session establishment process. The session management function (SMF, Session Management Function) supports sending N4 rules and ATSSS control information (including MPTCP control parameters, ATSSS-LL control parameters and PMF control parameters) containing ATSSS information to UPF in the N4 session establishment and modification process; when UPF completes the corresponding resource allocation, it supports carrying ATSSS control parameters in the response message.

When creating a single-link mode MA PDU session, make the following settings based on the current PDU session establishment process:

(1) During the MA PDU session creation process, the type of PDU session establishment request is set to "MA PDU Request" and the "Multi-access PDU Connectivity Service" field in the PDU session is set to "Yes".

(2) During the creation of the MA PDU session, the SMF sends the MAR rules to the UPF through the N4 interface. In order for the UPF to recognize that the MA PDU session is in single-link mode, Add an optional field for Session Link Mode, including two cases: "Normal Mode" and "Single Link Mode". The default setting is Normal Mode, and the optional setting is Single Link Mode. There are three implementation examples, as shown in Table 1.

In Example 1, the "Steering mode" field in the MAR rule is set to the active-standby mode (Active-Standby) and the "Priority" field is set to the main link mode (Active), indicating that a single-link session is implemented by using the MPTCP function without performing session switching.

In Example 2, the "Steering mode" field in the MAR rule is set to the priority-based mode (Priority-based), the "Priority" field is set to the high priority mode (High), and the "Threshold values" are set to infinite RTT or infinite Loss or infinite packet loss rate (Packet Loss Rate), indicating that the single-link mode is implemented by using the MPTCP function and based on the high priority mode, and setting infinite RTT so that no session switching is performed.

In Example 3, the "Steering mode" field in the MAR rule is set to the load balancing mode (Load-Balancing), and the "Weight" field is set to the string "3GPP=100%, non-3GPP=0%", that is, the link contains 100% of the traffic, indicating that the single-link mode is achieved by using the MPTCP function and the load balancing mode. Setting the 3GPP traffic to 100% means that only 3GPP sessions are used.

Table 1

(3) After the MA PDU session is created, the UE receives a priority list of ATSSS rules from the SMF, which may include the following exemplary embodiments:

Example a, "Traffic Descriptor: UDP, DestAddr 10.20.30.40", "Steering Mode: Active-Standby, Active = 3GPP", "Steering Functionality: MPTCP": This rule means "divest UDP traffic with destination IP address 10.20.30.40 to primary access (3GPP) by using MPTCP functionality, if available; do not set up backup session access."

Example b, "Traffic Descriptor: TCP, DestPort 8080", "Steering Mode: Priority-based, Priority: High", "Steering Functionality: MPTCP": This rule means "by using the MPTCP function, the TCP traffic of destination port 8080 will be diverted to the high-priority-based access, and the backup session will not be switched under any circumstances."

Example c, "Traffic Descriptor:Application-1", "Steering Mode:Load-Balancing,3GPP=100%,non-3GPP=0%," "Steering Functionality:MPTCP": This rule means "Send 100% of the traffic of Application-1 to 3GPP access by using MPTCP functionality and not to non-3GPP access."

In this embodiment, the terminal device measures the network performance between the terminal device and the DN device by instructing at least two network devices to measure the network performance between the terminal device and the DN device. The first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the terminal device and the DN device. In other embodiments, the first information may also be called network performance measurement indication information or indication information, as long as the corresponding function can be realized. In this embodiment, the name is not used. limited.

In some optional embodiments, the first information includes at least one of the following information:

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

A first identifier used to indicate the network performance between the measured network device and the DN device.

Exemplarily, the first information sent by the terminal device to the network device can be specifically shown in Table 2. Table 2 is only an example and may include more or less content in actual situations, which is not limited here.

Table 2

Among them, the identification of the MA PDU session, whose implementation method can be found in the 3GPP standard, is used to identify the uniqueness of the MA PDU session, that is, to identify the PDU session identity and the message flow.

The terminal device identifier (i.e.) UE identifier is used to identify the global uniqueness of the UE. It can be implemented by a media access control (MAC) address, an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), an identifier (ID) When the MAC address description method is used, the MAC address of the UE is used as the globally unique identifier, such as "2A:DA:0B:84:03:9B"; when IMSI is used, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the mobile phone card provided by the operator is used as the identifier; when the ID description method is used, the mobile phone number or the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) corresponding to the UE or the factory number set by the manufacturer is used as the identifier.

The identification of the network device (i.e., UPF identification) is used to identify the global uniqueness of the UPF and distinguish whether it is a 2B UPF or a 2C UPF. It can be implemented as a string or a globally unique identifier (GUID). When using a string representation, a globally unique string representation is used, such as "upf-2B-chinamobile". When using a GUID representation, the format of the GUID is the string "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx", where each x is a hexadecimal number in the range of 0-9 or a-f. For example: 9F9619FF-8B86-D011-B42D-00C04FC964FF.

The first identifier (i.e., network performance identifier) used to indicate the network performance between the measurement and the DN device can be implemented as a string. When a string is used, if the identifier is "N6", it means that the network performance parameters are obtained from the N6 interface. If the identifier is other, it means that the identifier is wrong.

In some optional embodiments, the first network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

First network connection status information, where the first network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the DN device is normal or abnormal;

First round-trip delay information between the network device and the DN device;

The first network jitter information between the network device and the DN device.

For example, the content of the first network performance information may be specifically shown in Table 3. Table 3 is only an example and may include more or less content in actual situations. There is no limitation here.

table 3

Among them, the identification of the MA PDU session, whose implementation method can be found in the 3GPP standard, is used to identify the uniqueness of the MA PDU session, that is, to identify the PDU session identity and the message flow.

The terminal equipment identification (i.e.) UE identification is used to identify the global uniqueness of the UE, which can be implemented by description methods such as Media Access Control (MAC) address, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), identification (ID), etc. When the MAC address description method is used, the MAC address of the UE is used as the globally unique identifier, such as "2A:DA:0B:84:03:9B"; when IMSI is used, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the mobile phone card provided by the operator is used as the identifier; when the ID description method is used, the mobile phone number or the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) corresponding to the UE or the factory number set by the manufacturer is used as the identifier.

The network device identifier (i.e., UPF identifier) is used to identify the global uniqueness of the UPF and distinguish whether it is a 2B UPF or a 2C UPF. It can be implemented as a string or a globally unique identifier. (GUID, Globally Unique Identifier). When using string representation, use a globally unique string representation, such as "upf-2B-chinamobile". When using GUID representation, the format of the GUID is the string "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx", where each x is a hexadecimal number in the range of 0-9 or af. For example: 9F9619FF-8B86-D011-B42D-00C04FC964FF.

The first network connection status information (i.e., the network connection status in Table 3) can be implemented in a Boolean or string manner. When a Boolean expression is used, for example, 1 can be used to indicate that the network connection of the N6 interface is normal, and 0 can be used to indicate that the network of the N6 interface is abnormally disconnected; when a string expression is used, for example, "up" can be used to indicate that the network connection of the N6 interface is normal, and "down" can be used to indicate that the network of the N6 interface is abnormally disconnected.

The network performance information may be implemented as a structure, which at least includes network jitter (e.g., first network jitter information) and network average round-trip time (RTT) (e.g., first round-trip time delay information). The detailed implementation of the included information is described as follows:

The first network jitter information represents the average time required for a data packet to be sent from the UPF to the industry cloud (ie, the DN device), and may be expressed as a floating point number in milliseconds (ms), such as 3.15ms.

The first network jitter information indicates the time difference between the maximum network delay and the minimum delay. For example, if the maximum delay is 20.55ms and the minimum delay is 5.80ms, the first network jitter information is 14.75ms, which mainly indicates the stability of the network link.

In particular, when the Network Connection Status parameter is 0 or down, Network Bandwidth is set to 0, Network Average Round Trip Delay is set to infinity, and Network Jitter is set to infinity.

In this embodiment, the terminal device determines whether to switch the session based at least on the first network performance information between the network device and the DN device; in the process of determining whether to switch the session, in addition to the first network performance information between the network device and the DN device, the network performance between the network device and the terminal device is also required.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: the terminal device receives third information from the at least two network devices respectively, and the third information includes second network performance information between the network device and the terminal device.

In this embodiment, the terminal device may also respectively send indication information for measuring the second network performance information between the network device and the terminal device to the at least two network devices. Based on the indication information, each network device measures the network performance between the terminal device, obtains the second network performance information, and sends the second network performance information to the terminal device.

In other embodiments, the terminal device may also actively measure the second network performance information between the terminal device and the network device. In some optional embodiments, the terminal device may measure the network performance between the terminal device and the network device (such as UPF) through the U-CMM as shown in Figure 5. Exemplarily, the terminal device may use the PING command to measure the network performance, using the time from sending data to receiving feedback data from the PING command, that is, the round-trip delay (RTT). The specific implementation method can refer to the specific implementation method of network performance measurement in the method embodiment on the network device side.

In some optional embodiments, the second network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

Second network connection status information, where the second network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the terminal device is normal or abnormal;

Second round-trip delay information between the network device and the terminal device;

Second network jitter information between the network device and the terminal device.

The specific implementation method of the above-mentioned second network performance information can refer to the implementation method of the above-mentioned first network performance information, which will not be repeated here.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device determines whether to switch the session based on at least the second information, or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions, including: The terminal device determines whether to switch the session or determines the traffic distribution information of at least two sessions based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, wherein the second network performance information represents the network performance between the terminal device and the network device.

In this embodiment, the terminal device determines whether the session is switched from the current access or current link to other access or other links based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, or the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions can be determined based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information. For example, in the scenario shown in FIG6, for the two sessions MA PDU#1 and MA PDU#2, there may be a 3GPP access network or a non-3GPP access network, or both a 3GPP access network and a non-3GPP access network.

In some optional embodiments, the terminal device determines whether to switch the session based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions, including: the terminal device determines the third network performance information between the terminal device and the DN device based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, and determines whether to switch the session based on the third network performance information, or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions based on the third network performance information; wherein the third network information includes at least one of the following:

Third network connection status information, the third network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the terminal device and the DN device is normal or abnormal;

Third round-trip delay information between the terminal device and the DN device;

The third network jitter information between the terminal device and the DN device.

In some other optional embodiments, the terminal device receives the second information from the at least two network devices respectively, including: the terminal device receives the fourth information sent by the at least two network devices respectively, the fourth information includes the third network performance information between the terminal device and the DN device, the third network information is based on the first network performance information between the network device and the DN device and the second network performance information between the network device and the terminal device. Information is determined; the terminal device determines whether to switch the session based on the third network performance information, or determines the traffic distribution information of at least two sessions based on the third network performance information.

In the above two embodiments, one method is that the terminal device determines the third network performance information between the terminal device and the DN device through the first network performance information and the second network performance information obtained from the network device. Another method is that the network device measures the N6 interface based on the instruction of the terminal device to obtain the first network performance information, and measures the network performance between the network device and the terminal device to obtain the second network performance information, obtains the third network performance information between the terminal device and the DN device based on the obtained first network performance information and the second network performance information, and sends the third network performance information to the terminal device.

Exemplarily, the measurement of network performance is mainly based on three performance indicators: round-trip delay, packet loss rate (network jitter), and network connection status. Taking the first method as an example, after obtaining the first network performance information and the second network performance information, the terminal device can determine the third network performance information based on the above three performance indicators in the following manner:

(1) Network connection status = "network connection status from UE to UPF (i.e., the second network connection status information)" & "network connection status from UPF to DN device (i.e., the first network connection status information)", where "&" represents an AND operation. For example, 1 represents a normal network connection status, and 0 represents an abnormal network connection status.

(2) Round Trip Time (RTT) = "round trip time from UE to UPF (i.e., the second round trip time delay information)" + "average network round trip time from UPF to DN device (i.e., the first round trip time delay information)".

(3) Network jitter (Jitter) = max("network jitter from UE to UPF (i.e., the second network jitter information)", "network jitter from UPF to DN device (i.e., the first network jitter information)"), that is, the maximum value of the two network jitter values is taken.

In some optional embodiments, the determining whether the session is switched based on the third network performance information includes: determining whether the session is switched based on at least one of the third network connection status information, the third round-trip delay information, and the third network jitter information corresponding to at least two sessions. No switch.

For example, an example of switching of the MA PDU session may be as follows:

Example 1: (status_A=1) and (status_B=0); that is, the network connection status of link A is normal, and the network connection status of link B is abnormal, then the link is switched from B to A.

Example 2: (status_A=1) and (status_B=1) and (RTT_A<RTT_B), that is, the network connection status of A and B are normal, but the round-trip delay of link A is less than the round-trip delay of link B, then the link is switched from B to A.

Example 3: (status_A=1)and(status_B=1)and(Jitter_A<Jitter_B), that is, the network connection status of A and B are both normal, but the network jitter of link A is smaller than that of link B, then the link is switched from B to A.

Example 4: (status_A=1)and(status_B=1)and(RTT_A<RTT_B)and(Jitter_A<Jitter_B), that is, the network connection status of A and B are normal, but the round-trip delay of link A is smaller than that of link B, and the network jitter of link A is smaller than that of link B, then the link is switched from B to A.

In summary, when determining whether to switch a session, first determine whether the network connection status corresponding to each session is normal, and select the session with a normal network connection status for switching; if the network connection status corresponding to each session is normal, select the session with the smallest round-trip delay for switching, and/or select the session with the smallest network jitter for switching.

In other optional embodiments, determining the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions based on the third network performance information includes: determining a first comparison result of an absolute value of a first difference in third round-trip delay information corresponding to each two sessions of the at least two sessions and at least one first threshold, and/or determining a second comparison result of an absolute value of a second difference in third network jitter information corresponding to each two sessions of the at least two sessions and at least one second threshold, and determining the traffic allocation information of the at least two sessions based on the first comparison result and/or the second comparison result.

In this embodiment, in the process of determining the flow distribution of the session, the round-trip delay can be Information and/or network jitter information are judged separately. Among them, at least one first threshold can be set for the judgment of the round-trip delay information; then the at least one first threshold can form multiple threshold intervals (even if one first threshold is set, two threshold intervals less than the first threshold and greater than or equal to the first threshold can be formed, or two threshold intervals less than or equal to the first threshold and greater than the first threshold can be formed). Correspondingly, at least one second threshold can be set for the judgment of the network jitter information; then the at least one second threshold can form multiple threshold intervals (even if one second threshold is set, two threshold intervals less than the second threshold and greater than or equal to the second threshold can be formed, or two threshold intervals less than or equal to the second threshold and greater than the second threshold can be formed). The relevant parameters corresponding to each two sessions in at least two sessions (such as the third round-trip delay information and/or the third network jitter information) can be respectively subjected to difference processing to obtain the corresponding absolute value of the difference; then the absolute value of each difference is compared with the corresponding threshold to determine the threshold interval where the absolute value of each difference is located, and then the corresponding traffic distribution information of each session is determined according to the threshold interval where the absolute value of each difference is located.

For example, when two MA PDU sessions are used at the same time, the proportions of the two MA PDU sessions can be divided into the following three levels, so as to avoid frequent traffic proportion allocation adjustments. For specific examples, please refer to Table 4.

Table 4

An example of a trigger condition may be as follows, wherein threshold A, threshold B, threshold C, threshold X, threshold Y, and threshold Z are set as appropriate.

Traffic distribution condition 1: abs(RTT_A-RTT_B)<threshold A or abs(Jitter_A-Jitter_B)<threshold X; abs means an absolute value.

Traffic distribution condition 2: Threshold A < (RTT_A - RTT_B) < Threshold B or Threshold X<(Jitter_A-Jitter_B)<threshold Y.

Traffic distribution condition 3: threshold B < (RTT_A-RTT_B) < threshold C or threshold X < (Jitter_A-Jitter_B) < threshold Z.

By adopting the technical solution of the embodiment of the present disclosure, by realizing the measurement of the network performance between the network device and the DN device (that is, the measurement of the N6 interface), it is realized that in the scenario where the terminal device accesses the industry cloud through at least two connection paths, the terminal device can accurately know the network performance between the DN device (or industry cloud) under each connection path, realize the accurate switching of sessions or traffic splitting in multiple sessions, ensure the continuity and stability of the "dual-domain private network" service, and ensure that users get the best user experience. This embodiment can meet the needs of 2C users to use 2C terminals to access the enterprise intranet and the Internet without changing cards or numbers, and ensure a good user experience.

Based on the above embodiments, the present disclosure provides a communication method. FIG8 is a flow chart of the communication method of the present disclosure embodiment; as shown in FIG8 , the method includes:

Step 201: The network device receives first information from the terminal device, where the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the network device and the DN device; the network device corresponds to a session in the MA PDU session;

Step 202: The network device measures the network performance between itself and the DN device, obtains first network performance information, and sends second information to the terminal device, where the second information includes the first network performance information.

In some optional embodiments, the first information includes at least one of the following information:

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

A first identifier used to indicate the network performance between the measured network device and the DN device.

Exemplarily, the first information may be specifically referred to as shown in Table 2 in the above embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the network device performs network performance measurement with the DN device to obtain first network performance information, including: the network device sends a first instruction to the DN device based on the obtained address of the DN device, and receives a first response corresponding to the first instruction; and determines the first network performance information based on a first moment of sending the first instruction and a second moment of receiving the first response.

In this embodiment, taking the network device as UPF as an example, the network performance between the network device and the DN device can be measured through the P-CMM as shown in Figure 5. The network device (such as the P-CMM of the UPF) can obtain the address of the DN device by manual configuration, or obtain the address of the DN device from the obtained forwarding action rule (FAR, Forwarding Action Rule). Taking the network device as UPF as an example, the FAR can be sent to the UPF by the SMF through the N4 interface.

Use the PING command on the UPF's P-CMM to measure network performance. Assuming that the IP address of the DN device (such as the industry cloud) is 168.166.177.188, use the PING command to measure the time from when the P-CMM module sends data to when it receives the feedback data from the DN device (such as the industry cloud), that is, the round-trip delay (RTT). Send test data once a second, command parameters: #ping 168.166.177.188-i1.

In this embodiment, a sliding time window can be introduced, and the sliding time window size is set to 5s, sliding once every 1 second, and the average network delay and network jitter in each time window are calculated in turn. The time window size and sliding size can be set. If the RTTs received within 8s are [2.00, 3.00, 5.00, 4.00, 1.00, 3.00, 6.00, 2.00], the unit is milliseconds.

In the first sliding window, take out the first five RTTs, that is, [2.00, 3.00, 5.00, 4.00, 1.00]. The average round-trip delay is (2.00+3.00+5.00+4.00+1.00)/5=3.00ms. The maximum RTT is 5.00ms and the minimum RTT is 1.00ms. The network jitter in the first time window is the time difference between the maximum network delay and the minimum delay, that is, 4.00ms.

In the second sliding window, take out the 2nd to 6th RTT, that is, [3.00, 5.00, 4.00, 1.00, 3.00]. The average round-trip delay is (3.00+5.00+4.00+1.00+3.00)/5=3.20ms. The maximum If the RTT is 5.00ms and the minimum RTT is 1.00ms, the network jitter in the second time window is the time difference between the maximum network delay and the minimum delay, which is 4.00ms.

The average round-trip delay and network jitter in different time windows are obtained in turn by analogy. The P-CMM module of the UPF sends the received average round-trip delay (RTT) and network jitter to the U-CMM module of the UE periodically (1 second or an integer multiple of 1 second).

In some optional embodiments, the first network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

First network connection status information, where the first network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the DN device is normal or abnormal;

First round-trip delay information between the network device and the DN device;

The first network jitter information between the network device and the DN device.

Exemplarily, the first information may be specifically referred to as shown in Table 3 in the above embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: the network device performs network performance measurement with the terminal device, obtains second network performance information, and sends third information to the terminal device, wherein the third information includes the second network performance information.

In this embodiment, the specific method for the network device to obtain the second network performance information can refer to the above-mentioned method for obtaining the first network performance information, which will not be repeated here.

In some optional embodiments, the second network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

second network connection status information, wherein the second network connection status information is used to indicate the network The connection between the network device and the terminal device is normal or abnormal;

Second round-trip delay information between the network device and the terminal device;

Second network jitter information between the network device and the terminal device.

In other embodiments, the method may also include: the network device determines the third network performance information between the terminal and the DN device based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, and sends fourth information to the terminal device, wherein the fourth information includes the third network performance information.

Exemplarily, the measurement of network performance is mainly based on three performance indicators: round-trip delay, packet loss rate (network jitter), and network connection status. After obtaining the first network performance information and the second network performance information, the network device can determine the third network performance information based on the above three performance indicators in the following manner:

(1) Network connection status = "network connection status from UE to UPF (i.e., the second network connection status information)" & "network connection status from UPF to DN device (i.e., the first network connection status information)", where "&" represents an AND operation. For example, 1 represents a normal network connection status, and 0 represents an abnormal network connection status.

(2) Round Trip Time (RTT) = "round trip time from UE to UPF (i.e., second round trip time delay information)" + "average network round trip time from UPF to DN device (i.e., first round trip time delay information)".

(3) Network jitter (Jitter) = max("network jitter from UE to UPF (i.e., the second network jitter information)", "network jitter from UPF to DN device (i.e., the first network jitter information)"), that is, the maximum value of the two network jitter values is taken.

The communication method of the embodiment of the present disclosure is described in detail below with reference to a specific example. In the following example, the network device is UPF as an example for description.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; as shown in FIG. 9 , the method includes:

Step 301: UE creates single link mode, that is, UE is between 2C UPF and 2B UPF Two different MA PDU sessions are created, as shown in Figure 6.

Step 302: The UE sends first information to each UPF, where the first information is used to indicate the network performance measurement of the N6 interface, that is, to instruct the UPF to measure the network performance between the UPF and the DN device. The above first information may also be referred to as the network performance measurement indication information of the N6 interface.

Step 303: UPF starts network performance measurement of the N6 interface to obtain first network performance information.

Step 304: UPF sends second information to the UE, where the second information includes the first network performance information.

Step 305: The UE determines whether to switch the session or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions based on the first network performance information sent by each UPF and the second network performance information obtained from each UPF.

In this step, before making a session switching judgment or determining traffic allocation, the UE also needs to obtain second network performance information from each UPF, where the second network performance information represents the network performance between the UPF and the UE.

The measurement objects mainly include two, measurement object A between UE and UPF, and measurement object B between UPF and DN device (or industry cloud), as shown in Figure 10. The UE can obtain the network performance information (i.e., the third network performance information) between the UE and the DN device (or industry cloud) based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information. The third network performance information is used as a judgment condition to determine whether the session is switched or whether the traffic ratio of the two sessions is redistributed.

The specific implementation methods of the above steps can refer to the implementation methods recorded in the above embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

Based on the above embodiments, the present disclosure also provides a communication device, which is applied to a terminal device. FIG11 is a schematic diagram of the composition structure of the communication device of the present disclosure embodiment; as shown in FIG11 , the device includes: a first communication unit 11 and a first processing unit 12; wherein,

The first communication unit 11 is configured to send first information to at least two network devices respectively, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the network device and the DN device; each network device The network device corresponds to a session in the MA PDU session; and is further configured to receive second information from the at least two network devices respectively, wherein the second information includes first network performance information between the network device and the DN device;

The first processing unit 12 is configured to determine whether to switch the session at least based on the second information, or determine the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

First network connection status information, where the first network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the DN device is normal or abnormal;

First round-trip delay information between the network device and the DN device;

The first network jitter information between the network device and the DN device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first communication unit 11 is further configured to receive third information from the at least two network devices respectively, and the third information includes second network performance information between the network device and the terminal device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the second network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

Second network connection status information, where the second network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the terminal device is normal or abnormal;

Second round-trip delay information between the network device and the terminal device;

Second network jitter information between the network device and the terminal device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first processing unit 12 is configured to determine whether to switch the session or determine the traffic distribution information of at least two sessions based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, and the second network performance information represents the network performance between the terminal device and the network device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first processing unit 12 is configured to determine the third network performance information between the terminal device and the DN device based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, determine whether to switch the session based on the third network performance information, or determine the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions based on the third network performance information; wherein,

The third network information includes at least one of the following:

Third network connection status information, the third network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the terminal device and the DN device is normal or abnormal;

Third round-trip delay information between the terminal device and the DN device;

The third network jitter information between the terminal device and the DN device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first processing unit 12 is configured to determine whether to switch the session based on at least one of the third network connection status information, the third round-trip delay information and the third network jitter information corresponding to at least two sessions.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first processing unit 12 is configured to determine a first comparison result between an absolute value of a first difference between third round-trip delay information corresponding to each two sessions of the at least two sessions and at least one first threshold, and/or determine a second comparison result between an absolute value of a second difference between third network jitter information corresponding to each two sessions of the at least two sessions and at least one second threshold, when the third network connection status information corresponding to at least two sessions all indicates a normal connection, and determine the traffic distribution information of the at least two sessions based on the first comparison result and/or the second comparison result.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first information includes at least one of the following information:

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

A first identifier used to indicate the network performance between the measured network device and the DN device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first communication unit 11 is further configured to create a MA PDU session between each of the at least two network devices before sending the first information to the at least two network devices respectively, and the MA PDU session is in a single-link mode, and the single-link mode is used to indicate that there is only one session for each of the at least two network devices.

In the disclosed embodiment, the first processing unit 12 in the device can be implemented by a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller unit (MCU) or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) in practical applications; the first communication unit 11 in the device can be implemented by a communication module (including: basic communication kit, operating system, communication module, standardized interface and protocol, etc.) and a transceiver antenna in practical applications. In some optional embodiments, the first processing unit 12 and the first communication unit 11 can also be equivalent to the U-CMM in Figure 5.

The present disclosure also provides a communication device, which is applied to a network device. FIG12 is a second schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device of the present disclosure; as shown in FIG12 , the device includes: a second communication unit 21 and a second processing unit 22; wherein,

The second communication unit 21 is configured to receive first information from a terminal device, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the network device and the DN device; the network device corresponds to a session in the MA PDU session;

The second processing unit 22 is configured to measure the network performance between the DN device and the DN device. obtaining first network performance information;

The second communication unit 21 is further configured to send second information to the terminal device, where the second information includes the first network performance information.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the second processing unit 22 is configured to send a first instruction to the DN device through the second communication unit 21 based on the obtained address of the DN device, and receive a first response corresponding to the first instruction; and determine the first network performance information based on the first time of sending the first instruction and the second time of receiving the first response.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

First network connection status information, where the first network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the DN device is normal or abnormal;

First round-trip delay information between the network device and the DN device;

The first network jitter information between the network device and the DN device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the second processing unit 22 is further configured to perform network performance measurement with the terminal device to obtain second network performance information;

The second communication unit 21 is further configured to send third information to the terminal device, where the third information includes the second network performance information.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the second network performance information includes at least one of the following:

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

Second network connection status information, where the second network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the terminal device is normal or abnormal;

Second round-trip delay information between the network device and the terminal device;

Second network jitter information between the network device and the terminal device.

In some optional embodiments of the present disclosure, the first information includes at least one of the following information:

Identification of the terminal device;

Identification of network equipment;

The identifier of the MA PDU session;

A first identifier used to indicate the network performance between the measured network device and the DN device.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the second processing unit 22 in the device can be implemented by a CPU, a DSP, an MCU or an FPGA in practical applications; the second communication unit 21 in the device can be implemented by a communication module (including: a basic communication kit, an operating system, a communication module, a standardized interface and protocol, etc.) and a transceiver antenna in practical applications. In some optional embodiments, the second processing unit 22 and the second communication unit 21 can also be equivalent to the P-CMM in Figure 5.

It should be noted that: when the communication device provided in the above embodiment performs communication, only the division of the above program modules is used as an example. In actual applications, the above processing can be assigned to different program modules as needed, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different program modules to complete all or part of the processing described above. In addition, the communication device and the communication method embodiment provided in the above embodiment belong to the same concept, and the specific implementation process is detailed in the method embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

Based on the above embodiments, the present disclosure also provides a communication device, which may be a terminal device or a network device in the above embodiments. FIG13 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of the communication device in the present disclosure embodiment. As shown in FIG13 , the communication device includes a memory 32, a processor 31, and a computer program stored in the memory 32 and executable on the processor 31. When the processor 31 executes the program, the steps of the communication method applied to the terminal device are implemented; Alternatively, the processor 31 implements the steps of the communication method applied to the network device when executing the program.

Optionally, the communication device further includes at least one network interface 33. The various components in the communication device are coupled together via a bus system 34. It is understood that the bus system 34 is used to realize the connection and communication between these components. In addition to the data bus, the bus system 34 also includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus. However, for the sake of clarity, various buses are labeled as bus system 34 in FIG. 13.

It can be understood that the memory 32 can be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, and can also include both volatile and non-volatile memories. Among them, the non-volatile memory can be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a magnetic random access memory (FRAM), a flash memory, a magnetic surface memory, an optical disk, or a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM); the magnetic surface memory can be a disk memory or a tape memory. The volatile memory can be a random access memory (RAM), which is used as an external cache. By way of example and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory (SRAM), synchronous static random access memory (SSRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDRSDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), and so on. Memory), SyncLink Dynamic Random Access Memory (SLDRAM), Direct Rambus Random Access Memory (DRRAM). The memory 32 described in the embodiments of the present disclosure is intended to include but is not limited to these and any other suitable types of memory.

The method disclosed in the above embodiment of the present disclosure can be applied to the processor 31, or implemented by the processor 31. The processor 31 may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. In the implementation process, each step of the above method can be completed by the hardware integrated logic circuit in the processor 31 or the instruction in the form of software. The above processor 31 can be a general-purpose processor, a DSP, or other programmable logic devices, discrete gates or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. The processor 31 can implement or execute the various methods, steps and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiment of the present disclosure. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiment of the present disclosure can be directly embodied as a hardware decoding processor to execute, or a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor to execute. The software module can be located in a storage medium, which is located in the memory 32. The processor 31 reads the information in the memory 32 and completes the steps of the above method in combination with its hardware.

In an exemplary embodiment, the communication device can be implemented by one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), DSP, programmable logic device (PLD), complex programmable logic device (CPLD), FPGA, general processor, controller, MCU, microprocessor, or other electronic components to execute the aforementioned method.

In an exemplary embodiment, the present disclosure also provides a computer-readable storage medium, such as a memory 32 including a computer program, and the computer program can be executed by a processor 31 of the communication device to complete the steps of the aforementioned method. The computer-readable storage medium can be a memory such as FRAM, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash Memory, magnetic surface memory, optical disk, or CD-ROM; it can also be a variety of devices including one or any combination of the above memories. Preparation.

The computer-readable storage medium provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure stores a computer program thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the communication method applied to a terminal device; or, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the communication method applied to a network device.

The methods disclosed in several method embodiments provided in this application can be arbitrarily combined without conflict to obtain new method embodiments.

The features disclosed in several product embodiments provided in this application can be arbitrarily combined without conflict to obtain new product embodiments.

The features disclosed in several method or device embodiments provided in this application can be arbitrarily combined without conflict to obtain new method embodiments or device embodiments.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. The device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as: multiple units or components can be combined, or can be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored, or not executed. In addition, the coupling, direct coupling, or communication connection between the components shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection of the devices or units can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described above as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units; some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the present embodiment.

In addition, all functional units in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may be separately configured as a unit, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit; the above-mentioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of hardware plus software functional units.

A person of ordinary skill in the art can understand that: all or part of the steps of implementing the above-mentioned method embodiment can be completed by hardware related to program instructions, and the aforementioned program can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, which, when executed, executes the steps of the above-mentioned method embodiment; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as mobile storage devices, ROM, RAM, disks or optical disks.

Alternatively, if the above-mentioned integrated unit of the present disclosure is implemented in the form of a software function module and sold or used as an independent product, it can also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present disclosure can essentially or in other words, the part that contributes to the prior art can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes a number of instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the methods described in each embodiment of the present disclosure. The aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as mobile storage devices, ROM, RAM, magnetic disks or optical disks.

The above is only a specific embodiment of the present disclosure, but the protection scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art who is familiar with the technical field can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present disclosure, which should be included in the protection scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the protection scope of the present disclosure should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (20)

A communication method, the method comprising: The terminal device sends first information to at least two network devices respectively, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the network device and the data network DN device; each network device corresponds to one session in the multi-access protocol data unit MA PDU session; The terminal device receives second information from the at least two network devices respectively, where the second information includes first network performance information between the network device and the DN device; The terminal device determines whether to switch the session based on at least the second information, or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first network performance information includes at least one of the following: The identifier of the MA PDU session; Identification of the terminal device; Identification of network equipment; First network connection status information, where the first network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the DN device is normal or abnormal; First round-trip delay information between the network device and the DN device; The first network jitter information between the network device and the DN device. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the method further comprises: The terminal device receives third information from the at least two network devices respectively, and the third information includes second network performance information between the network device and the terminal device. The method according to claim 3, wherein the second network performance information includes at least one of the following: The identifier of the MA PDU session; Identification of the terminal device; Identification of network equipment; Second network connection status information, where the second network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the terminal device is normal or abnormal; Second round-trip delay information between the network device and the terminal device; Second network jitter information between the network device and the terminal device. The method according to claim 3, wherein the terminal device determines whether to switch the session based on at least the second information, or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions, comprising: The terminal device determines whether to switch the session or determines the traffic distribution information of at least two sessions based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, and the second network performance information represents the network performance between the terminal device and the network device. The method according to claim 5, wherein the terminal device determines whether to switch a session or determines traffic allocation information of at least two sessions based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, comprising: The terminal device determines the third network performance information between the terminal device and the DN device based on the first network performance information and the second network performance information, determines whether to switch the session based on the third network performance information, or determines the traffic allocation information of at least two sessions based on the third network performance information; wherein, The third network information includes at least one of the following: Third network connection status information, the third network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the terminal device and the DN device is normal or abnormal; Third round-trip delay information between the terminal device and the DN device; The third network jitter information between the terminal device and the DN device. The method according to claim 6, wherein the determining whether to switch the session based on the third network performance information comprises: According to the third network connection state information corresponding to at least two sessions, the third round trip At least one of the delay information and the third network jitter information is used to determine whether the session is switched. The method according to claim 6, wherein the determining the traffic distribution information of at least two sessions based on the third network performance information comprises: When the third network connection status information corresponding to at least two sessions all indicates that the connection is normal, determine a first comparison result between an absolute value of a first difference in the third round-trip delay information corresponding to each two sessions of the at least two sessions and at least one first threshold, and/or determine a second comparison result between an absolute value of a second difference in the third network jitter information corresponding to each two sessions of the at least two sessions and at least one second threshold, and determine the traffic distribution information of the at least two sessions based on the first comparison result and/or the second comparison result. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first information includes at least one of the following information: Identification of the terminal device; Identification of network equipment; The identifier of the MA PDU session; A first identifier used to indicate the network performance between the measured network device and the DN device. The method according to claim 1, wherein, before the terminal device sends the first information to at least two network devices respectively, the method further comprises: The terminal device creates a MA PDU session between each of the at least two network devices respectively, and the MA PDU session is in a single-link mode, and the single-link mode is used to indicate that there is only one session for each of the at least two network devices. A communication method, the method comprising: The network device receives first information from the terminal device, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure network performance between the network device and the DN device; the network device corresponds to a session in the MA PDU session; The network device measures the network performance between the network device and the DN device to obtain a first network performance capability information, and sending second information to the terminal device, where the second information includes the first network performance information. The method according to claim 11, wherein the network device performs network performance measurement with the DN device to obtain the first network performance information, comprising: The network device sends a first instruction to the DN device based on the obtained address of the DN device, and receives a first response corresponding to the first instruction; The first network performance information is determined based on a first time of sending the first instruction and a second time of receiving the first response. The method according to claim 11, wherein the first network performance information includes at least one of the following: The identifier of the MA PDU session; Identification of the terminal device; Identification of network equipment; First network connection status information, where the first network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the DN device is normal or abnormal; First round-trip delay information between the network device and the DN device; The first network jitter information between the network device and the DN device. The method according to claim 11, wherein the method further comprises: The network device measures the network performance between itself and the terminal device, obtains second network performance information, and sends third information to the terminal device, where the third information includes the second network performance information. The method according to claim 14, wherein the second network performance information includes at least one of the following: The identifier of the MA PDU session; Identification of the terminal device; Identification of network equipment; Second network connection status information, where the second network connection status information is used to indicate whether the connection between the network device and the terminal device is normal or abnormal; Second round-trip delay information between the network device and the terminal device; Second network jitter information between the network device and the terminal device. The method according to claim 11, wherein the first information includes at least one of the following information: Identification of the terminal device; Identification of network equipment; The identifier of the MA PDU session; A first identifier used to indicate the network performance between the measured network device and the DN device. A communication device, the device is applied to a terminal device, the device comprises: a first communication unit and a first processing unit; wherein, The first communication unit is configured to send first information to at least two network devices respectively, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure the network performance between the network device and the DN device; each network device corresponds to one session in the MA PDU session; and is also configured to receive second information from the at least two network devices respectively, wherein the second information includes first network performance information between the network device and the DN device; The first processing unit is configured to determine whether to switch the session based on at least the second information, or to determine traffic allocation information of at least two sessions. A communication device, the device is applied to a network device, the device comprises: a second communication unit and a second processing unit; wherein, The second communication unit is configured to receive first information from a terminal device, wherein the first information is used to instruct the network device to measure network performance between the network device and the DN device; the network device corresponds to a session in the MA PDU session; The second processing unit is configured to perform network performance measurement with the DN device to obtain first network performance information; The second communication unit is further configured to send second information to the terminal device, where the second information includes the first network performance information. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10; or When the program is executed by a processor, the steps of the method according to any one of claims 11 to 16 are implemented. A communication device, comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor implements the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 when executing the program; or When the processor executes the program, the steps of the method according to any one of claims 11 to 16 are implemented.