CN115361713A

CN115361713A - Network slice switching method and device and communication system

Info

Publication number: CN115361713A
Application number: CN202210918231.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 于小博; 邓娟; 白常明
Original assignee: Alibaba China Co Ltd
Current assignee: Alibaba China Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-03-29
Filing date: 2022-08-01
Publication date: 2022-11-18
Also published as: CN114679753A

Abstract

The application discloses a network slice switching method, a network slice switching device and a communication system. Wherein, the method comprises the following steps: the application function entity sends a first request message to the unified data management entity through the network open function entity, wherein the first request message includes a slice switching instruction, the first request message is used for enabling the unified data management entity to send a second request message to the access and mobility management function entity, and the second request message is used for enabling the access and mobility management function entity to switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from a first network slice to a second network slice. The method and the device solve the technical problem that the user equipment needs to be registered again after being switched from the first network slice to the second network slice in the related technology, so that the continuous service cannot be provided.

Description

Network slice switching method and device and communication system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method, an apparatus, and a communication system for switching a network slice.

Background

In the vertical industry field, a User can notify a terminal of improving service quality in a manual selection mode, an Application Function (AF) can prompt a 5GC terminal to change from a slice 1 service to a slice 2 service through a Network open Function (NEF) interface, but after the subscription changes into a slice subscription, if an access and Mobile management Function (AMF) responsible for User Equipment (UE) access cannot support the access of a target slice, the UE needs to trigger a re-registration process, so that the User Mobile phone service is interrupted, continuity service cannot be provided, and User experience cannot be met.

In view of the above problems, no effective solution has been proposed.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a switching method and device of network slices and a communication system, so as to at least solve the technical problem that in the related technology, after user equipment is switched from a first network slice to a second network slice, the user equipment needs to be registered again, so that continuous service cannot be provided.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a method for switching a network slice, including: an Application Function (AF) entity sends a first request message to a Unified Data Management entity (UDM) through a Network open Function (NEF) entity, where the first request message includes a slice switching instruction, the first request message is used to enable the Unified Data Management entity to send a second request message to an access and Mobile Management Function (AMF), and the second request message is used to enable the access and Mobile Management Function entity to switch a Protocol Data Unit session (PDU) corresponding to a user equipment from a first Network slice to a second Network slice.

Optionally, the first request message further includes at least one of: an identification of the second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a cause code indicating that a quality of service of the user equipment cannot meet a requirement, a slice handover indication.

Optionally, before the application function entity sends the first request message to the unified data management entity through the network openness function entity, the method further includes: and the application function entity receives a third request message sent by the user equipment, wherein the third request message is used for triggering the application function entity to send the first request message.

Optionally, the method further comprises: a fourth request message sent by the access and mobility Management Function entity to a target Session Management Function (SMF) entity corresponding to the second network slice, where the fourth request message includes at least one of the following: and the address, the session identifier and the session management context identifier of the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice.

Optionally, before the application function entity sends the first request message to the unified data management entity through the network openness function entity, the method further includes: the application function entity receives a third request message sent by the user equipment, wherein the third request message is used for triggering the switching process of the network slice; or, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, where the fifth request message is used to obtain at least one of: an identification of the second network slice, a slice switch indication in the first request message.

Optionally, the first network slice and the second network slice are network slices under the same network function NF; the method further comprises the following steps: the access and mobility management functional entity sends a sixth request message to a first session management functional entity, so that the first session management functional entity switches a protocol unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to a second network slice, wherein the sixth request message at least includes: and the identifier of the second network slice corresponding to the first session management functional entity.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the user plane functional entity receives a seventh request message sent by the first session management functional entity, wherein the seventh request message carries the identifier of the second network slice; the user plane function entity switches the user equipment from the first network slice to a second network slice.

The session management functional entity inquires whether a protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment is allowed to be switched among different network slices or not from a policy control functional entity; under the condition that switching among different network slices is allowed, the session management function entity sends a notification message to a user plane function entity, wherein the notification message at least comprises: an identification of the second network slice.

Optionally, the slice switching indication comprises: an identification of the second network slice; alternatively, the slice switching indication comprises: indication information dedicated to indicating a switch from a first network slice in which the user equipment resides to a second network slice.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is provided another method for switching a network slice, including:

an application function entity sends a first request message to a unified data management entity through a network open function entity, wherein the first request message at least comprises an identifier of a second network slice, the first request message is used for enabling the unified data management entity to send a second request message to an access and mobility management function entity, and the second request message is used for enabling the access and mobility management function entity to switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to user equipment from the first network slice to the second network slice.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is provided another method for switching a network slice, including: the access and mobile management functional entity receives a second request message sent by the unified data management entity; and the access and mobility management functional entity switches the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to a second network slice based on a second request message, wherein the second request message at least comprises the identification of the second network slice.

Optionally, before the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further includes: the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the fifth request message is at least used for acquiring one of the following: and the identification of the second network slice and the slice switching indication in the first request message, wherein the first request message is used for enabling the unified data management entity to send the second request message to the access and mobility management functional entity.

Optionally, the method further comprises: and the access and mobile management functional entity acquires the address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice.

Optionally, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fourth request message to the target session management functional entity, where the fourth request message includes: and the address, the session identifier and the session management context identifier of the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice.

Optionally, the acquiring, by the access and mobility management functional entity, the address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice includes: the access and mobility management Function entity obtains an address of a target session management Function entity corresponding to the second Network slice from a Network storage Function (NRF).

Optionally, at least one of the address of the source session management Function entity, the session identifier, and the session management context identifier is used to configure a User Plane Function (UPF) corresponding to the second network slice.

Optionally, the method further comprises: and the access and mobility management function entity receives a response message of the fourth request message, wherein the response message is used for determining whether the session management context is successfully created.

Optionally, before the access and mobility management function entity receives the response message of the fourth request message, the method further includes: the target session management functional entity sends an eighth request message to the source session management functional entity, wherein the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: a session management context identification and an identification of a second network slice; and the target session management functional entity receives a response message of an eighth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, wherein the response message of the eighth request message comprises context information corresponding to the session management context identifier.

Optionally, before the target session management function entity receives the response message of the eighth request message sent by the source session management function entity, the method further includes: a source session management Function entity sends a first message to a Policy Control Function (PCF); and the source session management function entity receives a response message of the first message, wherein the response message of the first message is used for determining whether the slice conversion is allowed or not.

Optionally, after the access and mobility management function entity receives the response message of the fourth request message, the method further includes: the access and mobility management function entity sends a second message to the user equipment, wherein the second message at least comprises: identification of a second network slice.

Optionally, before the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further includes: the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the fifth request message is at least used for acquiring one of the following: an identifier of a second network slice and a slice switching indication in the first request message; and the access and mobile management functional entity receives a second request message sent by the unified data management entity, wherein the second request message at least comprises the identifier of the second network slice.

Optionally, after the access and mobility management functional entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further includes: the user equipment sends a registration request message to an access and mobility management functional entity, wherein the registration request message at least comprises: identification of a first network slice.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the source session management functional entity sends a ninth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the ninth request message at least comprises a slice switching indication; the source session management functional entity receives a response message of the ninth request message, wherein the response message of the ninth request message includes at least one of the following: quality of service parameter information, an identification of the second network slice, and a slice switch indication.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the access and mobility management functional entity receives a tenth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, wherein the tenth request message includes at least one of the following: an identification of a second network slice and a slice switch indication.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the tenth request message is sent by the source session management function entity according to at least one of the quality of service parameter information, the identification of the second network slice, and the slice switching indication, and the policy information obtained from the policy control function entity.

Optionally, before the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further includes: the application function entity sends an eleventh request message to the unified data management entity through the network open function entity, wherein the eleventh request message includes at least one of the following: a list of common public user identities, quality of service parameter information, an identity of a second network slice, a slice handover indication.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is provided another method for switching a network slice, including: the unified data management entity receives a first request message sent by an application function entity through a network open function entity, wherein the first request message is a parameter setting request message and at least comprises one of the following messages: an identifier of a second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a reason code for indicating that the quality of service of the user equipment cannot meet the requirements, and a slice switching indication; and sending a second request message to the access and mobility management functional entity according to the first request message, wherein the second request message at least comprises an identifier of a second network slice allowing access, and the second request message is used for enabling the access and mobility management functional entity to switch the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to the second network slice.

Optionally, after sending the second request message to the access and mobility management function entity according to the first request message, the method further includes: receiving a ninth request message sent by the source session management function entity, wherein the ninth request message at least includes a slice switching indication; sending a response message of the ninth request message to the source session management function entity, wherein the response message of the ninth request message includes at least one of the following: quality of service parameter information, an identification of the second network slice, and a slice switch indication.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is provided another method for switching a network slice, including: the method comprises the following steps that a network open function entity receives a first request message sent by an application function entity, wherein the first request message is a parameter setting request message and comprises at least one of the following messages: the identification of the second network slice, the service quality parameter information, a reason code for indicating that the service quality of the user equipment can not meet the requirement, and a slice switching indication; the first request message is forwarded to a unified data management entity.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is provided another method for switching a network slice, including: the user equipment residing in the first network slice network sends a slice switching indication to the application function entity; the user equipment receives the response message sent by the access and mobile management functional entity, initiates and modifies the session flow according to the response message, and is connected to the data network. Optionally, the slice switching indication comprises at least: an identification of the second network slice.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is provided another method for switching a network slice, including: the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice sends an eighth request message to the source session management functional entity corresponding to the first network slice, wherein the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: a session management context identification and an identification of a second network slice; and the target session management functional entity receives a response message of an eighth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, wherein the response message of the eighth request message comprises context information corresponding to the session management context identifier.

Optionally, before the target session management function entity receives the response message of the eighth request message sent by the source session management function entity, the method further includes: a source session management functional entity sends a first message to a policy control functional entity; and the source session management function entity receives a response message of the first message, wherein the response message of the first message is used for determining whether the slice conversion is allowed or not.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is also provided a method for switching a network slice, including: the session management function entity inquires the policy control function entity whether to allow the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment to be switched among different network slices; under the condition that switching among different network slices is allowed, the session management function entity sends a notification message to a user plane function entity, wherein the notification message comprises S-NSSAI2, so that the user plane function entity switches the session of the user equipment to a network slice corresponding to a second network slice identifier, wherein the notification message at least comprises: an identification of the second network slice.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is also provided a network slice switching apparatus, including: a communication module, configured to send a first request message to a unified data management entity according to a slice switching indication, where the first request message is a parameter setting request message, and the first request message includes at least one of the following: an identifier of a second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a cause code for indicating that a quality of service of the user equipment cannot meet a requirement, and a slice handover indication; and the processing module is used for enabling the unified data management entity to send a second request message to the access and mobility management functional entity after receiving the first request message, wherein the second request message at least comprises an identifier of a second network slice, and the second request message is used for enabling the access and mobility management functional entity to switch the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to the second network slice.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is also provided a communication system, including: the system comprises an application function entity, a network open function entity, a unified data management entity, an access and mobile management function entity, a target session management function entity corresponding to a second network slice and user equipment, wherein: the application function entity is used for sending a first request message to the unified data management entity according to the slice switching indication, wherein the first request message is a parameter setting request message and comprises at least one of the following messages: an identifier of a second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a cause code for indicating that a quality of service of the user equipment cannot meet a requirement, and a slice handover indication; the network open function entity is used for receiving a first request message sent by the application function entity and forwarding the first request message to the unified data management entity; the unified data management entity is used for receiving a first request message forwarded by the network open function entity and sending a second request message to the access and mobile management function entity according to the first request message, wherein the second request message at least comprises an identifier of a second network slice; the access and mobile management functional entity is used for receiving the second request message and switching the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to the second network slice; a target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice, configured to send an eighth request message to a source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, where the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: a session management context identification and an identification of a second network slice; receiving a response message of an eighth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, wherein the response message of the eighth request message includes context information corresponding to the session management context identifier; and the user equipment is used for sending a slice switching instruction to the application function entity, receiving a response message sent by the access and mobility management function entity, initiating and modifying the session protocol data unit flow according to the response message, and connecting to the data network.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is provided another method for switching a network slice, including: an application function entity sends a thirteenth request message to a policy control function entity through a network open function entity, wherein the thirteenth request message includes a slice switching indication, the thirteenth request message is used for enabling the policy control function entity to send a fourteenth request message to an access and mobility management function entity, and the fourteenth request message is used for enabling the access and mobility management function entity to switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to a user equipment from a first network slice to a second network slice.

In the embodiment of the application, after receiving a slice switching instruction sent by a user equipment, an application function entity sends a first request message to a unified data management entity through a network open entity, and the first request message enables the unified data management entity to send a second request message to an access and mobility management function entity, so that the purpose that the access and mobility management function entity switches a first network slice where the user equipment resides to a second network slice is achieved, the user equipment does not need to be re-registered, and the technical effect that the user equipment is informed of relevant information of the second network slice through the access and mobility management function entity is achieved, and the technical problem that the user equipment needs to be re-registered after being switched from the first network slice to the second network slice in the related art, and continuous service cannot be provided is further solved.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application and not to limit the application. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a flowchart of a first network slice handover method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2a is a flow chart of a second network slice handover scheme according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2b is a flow chart of a second network slice handover scheme according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a handover method of a network slice according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of another handover method for a network slice according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of another handover method for a network slice according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of another handover method for a network slice according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a flowchart of another handover method for a network slice according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a flowchart of another handover method for a network slice according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a flowchart of another handover method for network slices according to an embodiment of the present application

Fig. 10 is a block diagram of a switching apparatus of a network slice according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a block diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical solutions better understood by those skilled in the art, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only partial embodiments of the present application, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of this application and in the accompanying drawings are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used is interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the application described herein are capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

It should be further noted that each functional entity related in the embodiment of the present application, for example, a Network open Function (NEF) entity, a Session Management Function (SMF) entity, and the like, may be a specific Network Function instantiated on the same core Network server. Alternatively, the entities may be separate servers, and in some cases, a plurality of functional entities may share one server.

The specific structure of the server includes but is not limited to: a processor, a memory for storing data, and a transmission module for communication functions. In addition, the method can also comprise the following steps: a display, an input/output interface (I/O interface), a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port (which may be included as one of the ports of the I/O interface), a network interface, a power source, and/or a camera.

It should be noted that the above-described processor may be generally referred to herein as a "data processing circuit". The data processing circuitry may be embodied in whole or in part in software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. Further, the data processing circuit may be a single, stand-alone processing module, or incorporated, in whole or in part, into any of the other elements of the server. As referred to in the embodiments of the application, the data processing circuit acts as a processor control (e.g. selection of a variable resistance termination path connected to the interface).

The memory may be used to store software programs and modules of application software, such as program instructions/data storage devices corresponding to the network slice switching method in the embodiment of the present application, and the processor executes various functional applications and data processing by running the software programs and modules stored in the memory.

The transmission module is used for receiving or sending data via a network. In one example, the transmission device includes a Network adapter (NIC) that can be connected to other Network devices through a base station to communicate with the internet. In one example, the transmission module may be a Radio Frequency (RF) module, which is used for communicating with the internet in a wireless manner.

For a better understanding of the embodiments of the present application, some of the terms or phrases appearing in the following description of the embodiments of the present application are explained as follows:

AF: the various services of the application layer can be applications inside the operator, such As a volt AF (like 4G volt As), or AFs of third parties (such As a video server and a game server), if the applications are the AFs inside the operator, the applications and other NFs are in a trusted domain, and can be directly accessed by interacting with other NFs, such As PCF, while the AFs of the third parties are not in the trusted domain and must access other NFs through NEF.

NEF: and all external applications which are located between the 5G core network and external third-party application function bodies (possibly part of internal AF) and are responsible for managing data of the external open network must pass through NEF when the external applications want to access the internal data of the 5G core network. The NEF provides corresponding security guarantee to ensure the security of the external application to the third Generation Partnership project (3 gpp) network, and provides the functions of external application QoS customization capability openness, mobility state event subscription, AF request distribution, etc.

And (2) UDM: and the UDM is responsible for managing user identification, subscription data, authentication data, and registration management of a service network element of the user (for example, when the user switches an AMF to be accessed, the UDM may also initiate a logout message to the old AMF, and the old AMF is required to delete user-related information, such as the AMF and SMF currently providing services for the terminal).

PCF: and a unified policy framework is supported to manage network behaviors, policy rules are provided for a network entity to implement execution, and subscription information of a Unified Data Repository (UDR) is accessed.

UPF: including routing and forwarding of user packets, data interaction with the external data network DN, qoS processing for the user plane, flow control rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), etc.

UDR: for UDMs to store subscription data or read subscription data and PCFs to store policy data or read policy data.

DN: such as operator services, internet or third party services, etc.

SMF: it is mainly responsible for interacting with a separate data plane, creating, updating, and deleting PDU sessions, and managing session context (session context) with the UPF.

AMF: all connection and session related information is received from the user equipment (N1/N2), but is only responsible for handling connection and mobility management tasks.

Individual Network Slice Selection Assistance information (S-NSSAI): i.e. a single network slice, S-NSSAI refers to an instance of a network slice in network signaling, and in an actual network environment, a network slice instance may be understood as a set of network resources, such as a certain (1 AMF +1 SMF +4 UPFs + … …) constituting one instance of a network slice, and a certain (1 SMF +1 UPF) constituting one instance of a network slice, for example.

NRF: the NF is used for registering, managing and detecting states, and realizing the automatic management of all NF, when each NF is started, the NF needs to be registered by the NRF to provide services, and the registration information comprises NF types, addresses, service lists and the like.

User Permanent Identifier (Subscription Permanent Identifier, SUPI): in Mobile communications, a network operator usually assigns a (unique) identifier to each SIM card, where this identifier is an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) in 4G, and a SUPI in 5G networks;

general Public user identity (Generic Public Subscription Identifier, GPSI): the MSISDN equivalent to 4G, SUPI and GPSI do not necessarily correspond one-to-one, and if a user accesses different data networks, there will be multiple GPSI identities, and the network will need to associate the external network GPSI with SUPI.

Example 1

The fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) system first proposed the concept of network slicing. Since 5G needs to meet different network requirements (e.g., large bandwidth, low latency, multiple access, etc.), network slices can help meet the communication service requirements of a certain class or a specific use case. A complete 5G system may consist of a large number of network slices together that satisfy different scenarios or network characteristics. Network slicing may be implemented in different parts of a 5G network, such as the radio access network side, the core network side and the transport network side. The network slices of the above-mentioned multiple parts are connected together to form an integral network slice which provides a complete set of services for users. Wherein the network slices of different parts are logically isolated.

The 3gpp sa2 defines Slice-related core Network elements and Slice Selection-related procedures, and Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) Network elements are introduced in a 5G core Network framework. The NSSF network mainly provides the following functions:

1) Selecting a set of network slice instances for a service and a UE;

2) Determining Allowed NSSAI (Allowed NSSAI) and mapping relation of Allowed NSSAI to subscribed S-NSSAI (subscribed NSSAI);

3) Determining configured NSSAI (configured NSSAI) and a mapping relation between the configured NSSAI and the subscribed S-NSSAI;

4) Determining a set of AMFs that may be used to query the UE, or determining a list of candidate AMFs based on the configuration, the list of candidate AMFs may be obtained by querying the NRF.

The UE carries corresponding slice ID information NSSAI in the initial registration process, and the AMF determines whether to allow the UE to access a slice corresponding to one S-NSSAI in the NSSAI according to interaction with the UDM or the NSSF. The network slice of the core network may include one or more of a plurality of network elements such as AMF, SMF, and UPF. If the NSSF determines that the AMF initially accessed by the UE cannot serve the slice to be accessed by the UE, the NSSF notifies the UE to re-register to the AMF that can serve the target slice through the AMF.

In the related art, a 3gpp SA2 r18 slice enhancement project mainly studies how to guarantee service continuity of a slice or a slice example under an overload condition, and currently, a technical scheme for switching a network slice corresponding to a situation that the slice is not overloaded and service continuity is to be guaranteed is not provided in the related art.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a network slice handover method embodiment, it should be noted that the steps shown in the flowchart of the drawings may be executed in a computer system such as a set of computer executable instructions, and although a logical order is shown in the flowchart, in some cases, the steps shown or described may be executed in an order different from that here.

The embodiment of the application mainly provides two switching schemes of network slices, wherein the first scheme is that user equipment initiates a third request message, the third request message is a request for improving service quality and is used for triggering a switching process of the network slices, an application function entity receives the third request message sent by the user equipment, converts the third request message into a slice switching instruction, sends a first request message to a unified data management entity, the first request message comprises a slice switching instruction, and switches a protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from a first network slice to a second network slice after data transmission and interaction are carried out among the entities according to the first request message; in the second scheme, instead of initiating the third request message by the user equipment, an application function entity on the network side acquires a trigger condition for slice switching, that is, qos parameter information, and finds that the specified UE does not satisfy qos requirements through qos detection, thereby triggering a slice switching operation for the UE, that is, sending a first request message (here, an eleventh request message) to the unified data management entity, where the first request (eleventh request message) message includes a slice switching indication, and after data transmission and interaction are performed between the entities based on the first request message (eleventh request message), a protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment can be switched from a first network slice to a second network slice.

It should be noted that the two implementations described above are slightly different in the interaction flow between the entities, and are described in detail below.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a first network slice handover scheme according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 1, the method includes the following steps:

step S101, user equipment registers to a first network slice, and accesses to a 5G network through the first network slice, wherein the first network slice can be S-NSSAI 1;

step S102, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the fifth request message is at least used for obtaining one of the following: an identity of the second network slice (S-NSSAI 2), a slice switching indication in the first request message;

optionally, the fifth request message may be a session data management subscription (numm _ SDM _ Subscribe) message, or may also be other related interface messages, and the message used by the fifth request message to obtain the slice switching indication may be an S-NSSAI update indication (S-NSSAI update indicator) message.

Step S103, when the application layer in the user equipment considers that the current service quality does not meet the requirement, for example, the condition that the requirement is not met may be network delay, jitter, or deterioration of QoS parameters affecting user experience, such as throughput, the user equipment sends a third request message to the application function entity, where the third request message is used to trigger the application function entity to send a first request message to the unified data management entity through the network open function entity;

optionally, the application function entity may determine, through information such as a subscription with the user equipment, whether to send the first request message, that is, determine whether to trigger an operation of switching a protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from a first network slice to a second network slice. The judgment basis can be whether the user has the right to access the second network slice, or whether the priority of the user meets the requirement of accessing the second network slice, and the like.

Step S104, the application function entity sends a first request message to the network openness function entity, where the first request message includes a GPSI, that is, a GPSI corresponding to a user equipment, and determines, through the identifier, the user equipment that needs to perform slice switching, and the first request message further includes at least one of the following messages: identification of a second network slice, slice switching indication, service quality parameter information, and a reason code;

alternatively, the first request message may be a message providing a parameter Update request (Nnef _ parameter provision _ Update _ Req), or other related interface message, which is detected internally by the 5GC and determines whether to perform network slice switching; the identifier of the second network slice may be S-NSSAI2, and a slice switching indication (slice selection indication) may be used to indicate the target network element (e.g., AMF) to perform a slice switching operation on the specified UE; quality of service parameter information (QoS parameter) may be used to instruct a target network element (e.g., SMF) to trigger the operation of slice switching when detecting that the quality of service of a given UE does not meet the quality of service parameter; the Reason code is used to indicate that the service quality of the UE cannot meet or meet the preset requirement, and the Reason code (Reason code) may include a Reason for requesting to switch the slice, for example, the Reason code may include content that the UE or a specified application cannot meet the service quality requirement in the slice that has been accessed, and the like. In addition to the above parameters, other parameter information may be included in the first request message, and only some of them are listed here, and the other information specifically included may be increased according to the actual situation.

Note that the slice switching instruction in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as a slice selection instruction, and for convenience of understanding, the slice switching instruction is hereinafter collectively referred to as a slice switching instruction.

Optionally, after receiving the first request message sent by the application function entity, the network open function entity sends a response message of the first request message to the application function entity, where the response message is used to notify the application function entity, confirm that the network open function entity has received the first request message sent by the application function entity, and successfully complete transmission of subsequent messages.

Step S105, after receiving a first request message sent by an application function entity, a network open function entity forwards the first request message to a unified data management entity;

optionally, since the received entities are different, in this embodiment of the application, the first request message forwarded by the network openfunction entity in step S105 in fig. 1 is not a provide parameter Update request (Nnef _ parameter provision _ Update _ Req) message, but is a provide parameter Update request (numdm _ parameter provision _ Update _ Req) message, specifically, the provide parameter Update request message (numdm _ parameter provision _ Update _ Req) includes a GPSI, that is, a GPSI corresponding to one user equipment, and at least one of: an identification of a second network slice (S-NSSAI 2), a slice switching indication (slice selection indication), quality of service parameter information (QoS parameter), a Reason code (Reason code); the identifier of the second network slice is an identifier of a second network slice allowing access, and other information may also be included in the provide parameter Update request (numdm _ parameter provision _ Update _ Req) message, which is only listed in part herein.

Optionally, after receiving the first request message (here, the Nudm _ parameterprovisionupdate _ Req message) forwarded by the network openfunction entity, the unified data management entity sends a response message of the first request message (i.e., the Nudm _ parameterprovisionupdate _ Req message) to the network openfunction entity, where the response message is used to notify the network openfunction entity that the unified data management entity has received the first request message (i.e., the Nudm _ parameterprovisionupdate _ Req message) forwarded by the network openfunction entity, and can complete transmission of subsequent messages smoothly.

Step S106, the unified data management entity sends a second request message to the access and mobile management function entity, wherein the second request message comprises SUPI and the identifier of the second network slice;

alternatively, the second request message may be a session data management Notification (Nudm _ SDM _ Notification) message, or may also be other related interface messages, and the identifier of the second network slice in step S106 is an identifier of a second network slice allowed to be accessed. The unified data management entity will complete the conversion of GPSI to SUPI through interaction with other network elements.

Step S107, the access and mobile management functional entity obtains the address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice from the network storage functional entity;

step S108, the access and mobile management function entity sends a fourth request message to a target Session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice, wherein the fourth request message at least comprises an address of a source Session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, a PDU Session identifier (PDU Session ID) and a Session management Context identifier (SM Context ID);

optionally, at least one of the address of the source session management function entity, the session identifier, and the session management context identifier is used to configure the user plane function entity corresponding to the second network slice, and the configuration of the UPF may also be configured in the process of network-triggered PDU session modification.

Optionally, the fourth request message may be a PDU session request (Nsmf _ PDU _ CreateSMContext Req) message for creating a session management context, or may also be other related interface messages, and the address of the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice may be the source SMF.

Step S109, after receiving the fourth request message, the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice configures a corresponding UPF;

optionally, the configuration of the UPF may also be configured during a network-triggered PDU session modification.

Step S110, after the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice configures the corresponding UPF, the target session management function entity sends an eighth request message to the source target session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, where the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: a session management context identification (SM context ID), an identification of a second network slice (S-NSSAI 2);

optionally, the eighth request message may be a PDU session management Context request (Nsmf _ PDU _ Context Req) message, or may also be other related interface messages. Optionally, before sending the eighth request message, the target SMF may send a PCF session management policy control Update (Npcf _ SMPolicyControl _ Update) request message, or other related interface messages, to the PCF, where the message is used to confirm whether the policy of the second network slice supports the transfer of the session context across slices or supports the session handover, and may obtain whether the policy supports the transfer of the session context across slices or supports the result of the session handover by receiving a PCF session management policy control Update response message.

Step S111, the source session management function entity sends a first message to the PCF, where the first message is used to request to confirm whether session handover (i.e. session handover) is allowed between cross slices (in this application, a first network slice and a second network slice);

optionally, the first message in this embodiment may be a session management policy control Update (Npcf _ SMPolicyControl _ Update) request message, or may also be other related interface messages. The message is used to confirm whether the policy of the first network slice supports the transfer of the session context across slices or whether the session handover is supported, and the result of whether the policy supports the transfer of the session context across slices or whether the session handover is supported can be obtained by receiving a PCF session management policy control update response message.

Step S112, under the condition that PCF confirms that the strategy allows the session switching between the cross slices, the source session management functional entity sends a response message of an eighth request message to the target session management functional entity, wherein the response message of the eighth request message at least comprises session management context information (SM context) corresponding to the session management context identification;

optionally, the response message of the eighth request message may be a PDU session management Context response (Nsmf _ PDU _ Context Res) message, or may also be other related interface messages.

In step S113, after receiving the response message of the eighth request message, the target session management functional entity sends a third message to the access and mobility management functional entity, where the third message is a response message of the PDU session request message for creating the session management context, that is, a response message corresponding to the fourth request message in step S108, such as a PDU session response (Nsmf _ PDU _ create _ context) message for creating the session management context, which may also be other related interface messages.

Step S114, after receiving the third message, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a second message to the ue, where the second message is a network slice update message, and the second message at least includes: and the identification of the second network slice and a target data network access identifier (target DNAI), and the user equipment accesses the corresponding second network slice according to the configuration information (such as the target DNAI) of the second network slice. The second message may be a command message sent by the AMF to the terminal device, for example, a PDU session modification command (PDU session modification command) or a UE configuration update command (UE configuration update command) or another command message, which is not limited in this embodiment.

Step S115, after the access and mobility management functional entity sends the second message to the UE, the access and mobility management functional entity triggers a PDU session modification (PDU session modification) procedure, so that the UE is switched to a network corresponding to the second network slice. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the meaning of switching from the first network slice to the second network slice by the user equipment may be: and switching the PDU session corresponding to the UE from the first network slice to the second network slice.

Step S116, after the PDU conversation modification, the access and mobile management function entity sends a slice switching completion confirmation message to the unified data management entity;

step 117, the unified data management entity forwards the slice switching completion confirmation message to the network open function entity;

step S118, the network open function entity forwards the slice switching completion confirmation message to the application function entity.

Through the above steps S101 to S118, a first network switching process is implemented, that is, a third request message is initiated by the user equipment, where the third request message is used to trigger a network slice switching process, the third request message is a request for improving quality of service, after receiving the third request message sent by the user equipment, the application function entity converts the third request message into a slice switching instruction, and sends a first request message to the unified data management entity, where the first request message includes a slice switching instruction, and after data transmission and interaction are performed between the entities according to the first request message, a protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment is switched from the first network slice to the second network slice.

Fig. 2a is a flowchart of a second network slice handover scheme according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 2a, the method includes the following steps:

step S201, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, where the fifth request message is at least used to obtain one of the following: an identification of the second network slice (S-NSSAI 2), a slice switching indication in the first request message;

alternatively, the fifth request message may be a session data management subscription (numm _ SDM _ Subscribe) message, or may also be other related interface messages, and the message used by the fifth request message to obtain the slice switching indication may be an S-NSSAI update indication message (S-nssaiiupdate indicator). The second slice identifier may enable the AMF to identify a second network slice identifier corresponding to the second network slice that may be switched after acquiring the slice switching related request, and trigger a corresponding slice switching operation.

In the flowchart shown in fig. 2a, step S201 is optional, and step S201 may or may not be performed.

Step S202, the application functional entity sends a first request message to the network open functional entity, where the first request message in the step is different from the first request message in step S104, and the first request message in the step includes: a list of common public user identities, and at least one of: the identification of the second network slice, slice switching indication, service quality parameter information and reason code; in order to distinguish the first request message in step S202 from the first request message in step S104, the first request message in step S202 may be named as an eleventh request message, and hereinafter collectively referred to as an eleventh request message.

Optionally, the application function entity may send condition information for determining whether the UE needs to switch the slice to a 5G core network element, such as NEF and UDM, through an eleventh request message. The application function entity may determine whether to send the eleventh request message through information such as a subscription with the user equipment, and then determine whether to perform slice switching according to a QoS parameter measured by the N4 interface by a core network element, for example, an SMF, and finally initiate migration of the session management context across slices by the AMF.

Alternatively, the eleventh request message may be a message providing a parameter Update request (Nnef _ ParameterProvision _ Update _ Req), or other related interface message, which is detected internally by the 5GC and determines whether to perform network slice switching; the identifier of the second network slice may be S-NSSAI2, and a slice switching indication (slice selection indication) may be used to indicate the target network element (e.g., AMF) to perform a slice switching operation on the specified UE; a quality of service parameter (QoS parameter) may be used to instruct a target network element (e.g., SMF) to trigger a slice handover operation when detecting that the quality of service of a given UE does not meet the QoS parameter; the Reason code is used to indicate that the service quality of the UE cannot meet or meet the preset requirement, and the Reason code (Reason code) may include a Reason for requesting to switch the slice, for example, the Reason code may include content that the UE or a specified application cannot meet the service quality requirement in the slice that has been accessed, and the like. In addition to the above parameters, other parameter information may be included in the eleventh request message, and only some of the parameter information are listed here, and other information specifically included may be added according to actual situations.

Optionally, after receiving the eleventh request message sent by the application function entity, the network open function entity sends a response message of the eleventh request message to the application function entity, where the response message is used to notify the application function entity, and the network open function entity has received the eleventh request message sent by the application function entity and can smoothly complete transmission of subsequent messages.

Step S203, after receiving the eleventh request message sent by the application function entity, the network open function entity forwards the eleventh request message to the unified data management entity;

in fig. 2a, since the received entities are different, the eleventh request message forwarded by the network open function entity is not a provide parameter Update request (Nnef _ parameterprovisionupdate _ Req) message, but a provide parameter Update request (numdm _ parameterprovisionupdate _ Req) message. Specifically, the Nudm _ ParameterProvision _ Update _ Req message in this step includes: a list of common public user identities, and at least one of: an identification of a second network slice (S-NSSAI 2), a slice switching indication (slice selection indication), quality of service parameter information (QoS parameter), a Reason code (Reason code); the identification of the second network slice here is the identification of the second network slice to which access is allowed.

It should be noted that, in the present embodiment, the numdm _ ParameterProvision _ Update _ Req message in fig. 2a may also include other information, and only some of the information is listed here.

Alternatively, in fig. 2a, after receiving the eleventh request message (here, the numdparametersrivision _ Update _ Req message) forwarded by the network openwork entity, the unified data management entity sends a response message of the eleventh request message (i.e., the numdparametersrivision _ Update _ Req message) to the network openwork entity, where the response message is used to notify the network openwork entity, confirm that the unified data management entity has received the eleventh request message (i.e., the numdparametersrivision _ Update _ Req message) forwarded by the network openwork entity, and can smoothly complete transmission of subsequent messages.

Step S204, the unified data management entity sends a second request message to the access and mobile management functional entity, wherein the second request message comprises the identifier of the second network slice; since the sender and the receiver of the second request message in step S204 and step S106 are the same, but the contents included in the two steps are slightly different, in order to distinguish the second request message in step S106 and step S204, the second request message in step S204 is named as a twelfth request message, which is hereinafter collectively referred to as a twelfth request message.

Optionally, the twelfth request message may be a session data management Notification (numm _ SDM _ Notification) message, or may also be other related interface messages, and the identifier of the second network slice included in the twelfth request message in step S204 is an identifier of a second network slice allowed to be accessed. The unified data management entity will complete the conversion from GPSI to SUPI through interaction with other network elements. The identifier of the second network slice may be used for determining, by the AMF, that the second network slice is used as a handover object after the AMF acquires the slice handover request, and triggering handover of the designated UE to the second network slice. Optionally, before triggering handover, the AMF may obtain the quality of service parameter of the slice from the SMF corresponding to the second network slice. And the method is used for judging whether the service quality parameter meets the service quality requirement of the UE. And when the requirement is judged to be met, triggering the operation of switching the UE to the second network slice.

In the flowchart shown in fig. 2a, step S204 is optional, and step S204 may or may not be performed. In step S201, step S204 is performed; when step S201 is not performed, step S205 is performed without performing step S204.

Step S205, the user equipment registers to a first network slice, and accesses to the 5G network through the first network slice, wherein the first network slice can be S-NSSAI 1;

step S206, the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice sends a ninth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the ninth request message at least comprises SUPI and a slice switching indication;

alternatively, the ninth request message may be a get session data management request (Nudm _ SDM _ GetReq) message, or other related interface messages. The message may be sent by the SMF to the UDM during PDU session establishment, so that the SMF knows whether the UE is requested to perform a corresponding slice switching operation when the QoS does not meet the requirement. Optionally, the message may also be triggered in the PDU session modification procedure.

Step S207, the source session management functional entity receives a response message of a ninth request message sent by the unified data management entity, where the response message of the ninth request message includes at least one of the following: quality of service parameter information, an identifier of a second network slice, and a slice switching indication;

alternatively, the response message of the ninth request message may be a get session data management response (numm _ SDM _ GetRes) message, or other related interface messages.

Step S208, after receiving a response message of the ninth request message sent by the unified data management entity, the source session management functional entity sends a first message to the policy control functional entity, where the first message is used to request to confirm whether session handover (i.e. session handover) is allowed between cross slices (in this application, a first network slice and a second network slice);

optionally, the first message in this embodiment may be a session management policy control Update (Npcf _ SMPolicyControl _ Update) request message, or may also be other related interface messages, where the message is used to confirm whether the policy of the first network slice supports transfer of session context across slices or whether session handover is supported.

Step S209, under the condition that the policy control function entity confirms that the policy allows the session switching between the cross slices, the source session management function entity sends a tenth request message to the access and mobile management function entity, wherein the tenth request message at least comprises SUPI, a slice switching indication and an identifier of a second network slice;

optionally, the tenth request message is sent by the source session management function entity according to at least one of the qos parameter information, the identifier of the second network Slice, and the Slice switch indication (Slice switch indication), and the policy information acquired from the policy control function entity, and the tenth request message may be a session management context state notification message (Nsmf _ pdu _ smcontextstatus notification) message, and may also be other related interface messages.

It should be noted that, if step S201 and step S204 are executed, in step S201 to step S204, the access and mobile data management functional entity has received the identifier of the second network slice, and in a subsequent message sent to the access and mobile data management functional entity by another entity, the identifier of the second network slice may not be carried, and the identifier of the second network slice may also be carried, which is not limited herein; if step S201 and step S204 are not executed, the identifier of the second network slice needs to be carried in the subsequent message sent by the other entity to the access and mobile data management function entity. The specific requirement for carrying the identifier of the second network slice depends on the actual situation, and is not limited herein.

Step S210, after receiving the tenth request message, the access and mobility management functional entity obtains the address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice from the network storage functional entity;

step S211, after the access and mobility management functional entity obtains the address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fourth request message to the target session management functional entity, where the fourth request message at least includes: an address of a source Session management function entity, a PDU Session identifier (PDU Session ID), and a Session management Context identifier (SM Context ID) corresponding to the first network slice;

Optionally, the fourth request message may be a PDU session request (Nsmf _ PDU _ CreateSMContext Req) message for creating a session management context, or may also be other related interface messages, and the address of the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice may be a source SMF address.

Step S212, after receiving the fourth request message, the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice configures a corresponding UPF;

Step S213, after the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice configures the corresponding UPF, the target session management function entity sends an eighth request message to the source target session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, where the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: a session management context identification (SM context ID), an identification of a second network slice (S-NSSAI 2);

optionally, the eighth request message may be a PDU session management Context request (Nsmf _ PDU _ Context Req) message, or may also be other related interface messages. Optionally, before sending the eighth request message, the target SMF may send a PCF session management policy control Update (Npcf _ SMPolicyControl _ Update) request message, or other related interface messages, to the PCF, where the message is used to confirm whether the policy of the second network slice supports transfer of session context across slices or supports session handover, and may obtain whether the policy supports transfer of session context across slices or supports a result of session handover by receiving a PCF session management policy control Update response message.

Step S214, after receiving the eighth request message, the source session management functional entity sends a response message of the eighth request message to the target session management functional entity, wherein the response message of the eighth request message at least includes session management context information (SM context) corresponding to the session management context identifier;

In step S215, after receiving the response message of the eighth request message, the target session management functional entity sends a third message to the access and mobility management functional entity, where the third message is a response message of the PDU session request message for creating the session management context, that is, a response message corresponding to the fourth request message in step S211, such as a PDU session response (Nsmf _ PDU _ creation _ context Res) message for creating the session management context, which may also be other related interface messages.

Step S216, after receiving the third message, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a second message to the ue, where the second message is a network slice update message, and the second message at least includes: and the user equipment accesses the corresponding second network slice according to the configuration information (such as the target DNAI) of the second network slice. The second message may be a command message sent by the AMF to the terminal device, for example, a PDU session modification command (PDU session modification command) or a UE configuration update command (UE configuration update command) or other command messages, which is not limited in this embodiment.

Step S217, after the access and mobility management functional entity sends the second message to the UE, the access and mobility management functional entity triggers a PDU session modification (PDU session modification) procedure, so that the UE is switched to a network corresponding to the second network slice.

Step S218, after the PDU session modification is completed, the access and mobile management functional entity sends a slice switching completion confirmation message to the unified data management entity;

step S219, the unified data management entity forwards the slice switching completion confirmation message to the network open function entity;

step S220, the network open functional entity forwards the slice switching completion confirmation message to the application functional entity.

Through steps S201 to S219, a second network handover switching process is implemented, that is, an application function entity on the network side acquires a trigger condition of slice switching, that is, qos parameter information, and finds that a specified UE does not meet qos requirements through qos detection, so as to trigger a slice switching operation for the UE, that is, an eleventh request message is sent to a unified data management entity, where the eleventh request message includes a slice switching instruction, and based on the eleventh request message, after data transmission and interaction are performed between the entities, a protocol data unit session corresponding to a user equipment may be switched from a first network slice to a second network slice.

In the related art, when a resource of one S-NSSAI is congested, application performance of some UEs using the resource of the S-NSSAI may not be satisfied. The AF may notify a service performance degradation and then trigger a request to the 5GC for slice remapping of the corresponding PDU session to guarantee the performance of the application while ensuring the service continuity of the application (e.g., cloud games and real-time high-resolution video streams, which are required to provide QoE to the client). The scheme in the embodiment of the present application is proposed based on the principle that each PDU session can be allocated to multiple (e.g., two) network slices (S-NSSAI). In this case, NF (network open function) such as SMF, UPF, etc. in one network slice can support multiple S-NSSAIs, each having different network resources. Once the fixed network resources corresponding to the S-NSSAI become congested, the SMF and/or UPF may use other resources of the S-NSSAI to ensure service continuity for applications such as cloud games and real-time high-resolution video streaming.

In other embodiments, the slice switching indication may be an identifier of the second network slice, that is, the request message sent by the AF entity to the UDM entity through the NEF entity may carry the identifier of the second network slice, so that the UDM entity may send the second request message to the AMF, so that the AMF switches from the first network slice to the second network slice to the user equipment. Optionally, the AF entity may also send a request message to the PCF through the NEF entity to query the PCF about the session handover policy, that is, whether to allow the PDU session to be handed over between different S-NSSAI network resources under the SMF entity and the UPF entity. And under the permission of the strategy, the PCF triggers and sends a message carrying the second network slice identifier to the AMF, so that the AMF triggers a PDU session modification flow.

However, it should be noted that the slice switching indication may also be indication information dedicated to indicate switching from the first network slice where the ue resides to the second network slice, that is, the slice switching indication may be indication information newly added in the 3GPP protocol, and its expression is not limited.

It should be noted that, before the SMF sends the session modification request to the UPF, the session management function entity may directly or indirectly send a request message to the policy control function entity to query whether to allow the protocol data unit session corresponding to the ue to be switched between different network slices. In some embodiments, the session management function entity queries the policy control function entity whether to allow a protocol data unit session corresponding to the ue to be switched between different network slices; under the condition that switching among different network slices is allowed, the session management function entity sends a notification message to the user plane function entity, wherein the notification message at least comprises: an identification of a second network slice; under the condition that switching among different network slices is allowed, the session management function entity sends a notification message to the user plane function entity, wherein the notification message at least comprises: identification of a second network slice.

For the case where the slice switch indication may be an identification of a second network slice, this is explained in detail below in connection with fig. 2 b. As shown in fig. 2 b: step 1, the ue accesses the 5G network and resides on slice S-NSSAI 1.

Step 2, AF sends Nnef _ ParameterProvision _ Request message to NEF (network open function), wherein GPSI and S-NSSAI2 are included; it should be noted that, at this time, it may be considered that S-NSSAI2 is a slice switching indication, or it may be considered that the request message does not include a slice switching indication and only includes a slice identifier of the target slice, i.e., S-NSSAI 2. Step 3, the NEF entity sends a Nudm _ ParameterProvision _ Request message to the UDM entity, wherein the message comprises GPSI, AS-NSSAI 2 and the like.

And 4, the UDM entity sends a Nudm _ SDM _ Notification message to the AMF entity, wherein the message comprises SUPI and S-NSSAI 2.

Step 5, the AMF entity sends a Namf _ PDSusesion _ UpdateSMContext message to the SMF entity, wherein the message comprises SUPI, S-NSSAI2 and PDU session ID;

step 6, the SMF entity inquires whether the strategy allows the PDU session to be switched between different S-NSSAI network resources under the SMF entity and the UPF entity from the PCF entity through the Npcf _ SMPolicyControl _ Update message;

and step 7, if the strategy allows, the SMF entity sends an N4 session Modification message to the UPF entity, wherein the message comprises S-NSSAI2, so that the UPF entity can switch the corresponding PDU session to the network resource corresponding to the S-NSSAI 2.

And 8, the SMF entity receives a session Modification Response (N4 _ session Modification Response) sent by the UPF entity.

And 9, the SMF entity sends a session context update Response (Response of Namf PDSUSession _ UpdateSMContext) to the AMF entity.

And step 10, continuing to execute a PDU session modification procedure (connection PDU). .

Step 11, AMF sends Notification message (Notification) to AF through UDM and AEF.

It should be noted that the interactive messages between the AMF and the SMF are not limited to the types of interface messages described in the embodiments of the present application, and may also be other types of interface messages.

Example 2

Based on the flows in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2a to fig. 2b, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for switching a network slice, and fig. 3 is a flowchart of a method for switching a network slice according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the method comprises the following processing steps:

step S302, an application function entity sends a first request message to a unified data management entity through a network open function entity, wherein the first request message comprises a slice switching instruction;

step S304, after receiving the first request message, the unified data management entity sends a second request message to the access and mobility management functional entity, where the second request message is used to enable the access and mobility management functional entity to switch the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to the second network slice.

In step S302, the application function entity sends a first request message to the network openness entity, and the network openness entity forwards the first request message to the unified data management entity, where the first request message includes a GPSI, that is, a GPSI corresponding to a ue, and determines, through the identifier, the ue that needs to perform slice switching, and the first request message further includes at least one of the following: identification of the second network slice, service quality parameter information, a reason code for indicating that the service quality of the user equipment cannot meet the requirement, and a slice switching indication.

The first request message may be a message providing a parameter Update request (Nnef _ parameter _ Update _ Req), or other related interface message, which is detected internally by the 5GC and determines whether to perform network slice handover; the identifier of the second network slice may be S-NSSAI2, and a slice switching indication (slice selection indication) may be used to indicate the target network element (e.g., AMF) to perform a slice switching operation on the specified UE; quality of service parameter information (QoS parameter) may be used to instruct a target network element (e.g., SMF) to trigger the operation of slice switching when detecting that the quality of service of a given UE does not meet the quality of service parameter; the Reason code is used to indicate that the service quality of the UE cannot meet or meet the preset requirement, and the Reason code (Reason code) may include a Reason for requesting to switch the slice, for example, the Reason code may include content that the UE or a specified application cannot meet the service quality requirement in the slice that has been accessed, and the like. In addition to the above parameters, other parameter information may be included in the first request message, and only some of them are listed here, and the other information specifically included may be increased according to the actual situation.

Optionally, before the application function entity sends the first request message to the unified data management entity through the network open function entity, the method further includes the following steps: the application function entity receives a third request message sent by the user equipment, wherein the third request message is used for triggering a switching process of the network slice, that is, for triggering the application function entity to send the first request message, and the third request message is a request for improving the service quality.

And after receiving the third request message sent by the user equipment, the application function entity converts the third request message into a slice switching instruction and sends the first request message to the unified data management entity.

When the application layer in the user equipment considers that the current quality of service does not meet the requirement, for example, the condition that the requirement is not met may be that network delay, jitter, throughput, or other QoS parameters affecting user experience are deteriorated, the user equipment sends a third request message to the application function entity, where the third request message is used to trigger the application function entity to send the first request message to the unified data management entity through the network open function entity.

The application function entity may determine, through information such as a subscription with the user equipment, whether to send the first request message, that is, determine whether to trigger an operation of switching a protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from a first network slice to a second network slice. The judgment basis can be whether the user has the right to access the second network slice, or whether the priority of the user meets the requirement of accessing the second network slice, and the like.

After receiving the first request message sent by the application function entity, the network open function entity sends a response message of the first request message to the application function entity, where the response message is used to notify the application function entity, determine that the network open function entity has received the first request message sent by the application function entity, and can smoothly complete transmission of subsequent messages.

And after receiving the first request message sent by the application function entity, the network open function entity forwards the first request message to the unified data management entity. It should be noted that, because the received entities are different, the first request message forwarded by the network open function entity is not an Nnef _ parameterprovisionupdate _ Req message but a numdm _ parameterprovisionupdate _ Req message, and specifically, the numdm _ parameterprovisionupdate _ Req message includes a GPSI, which is a GPSI corresponding to one user equipment, and at least one of: an identification of a second network slice (S-NSSAI 2), a slice switching indication (slice selection indication), quality of service parameter information (QoS parameter), a Reason code (Reason code); the identifier of the second network slice is an identifier of a second network slice allowing access, and other information may be included in the numdm _ parameter provision _ Update _ Req message as well, and only part of the information is enumerated here.

After receiving the first request message (here, the numjparameterprovisionjapdate _ Req message) forwarded by the network openwork entity, the unified data management entity sends a response message of the first request message (i.e., the numjparameterprovisionjapdate _ Req message) to the network openwork entity, where the response message is used to notify the network openwork entity, confirm that the unified data management entity has received the first request message (i.e., the numjparameterprovisionjapdate _ Req message) forwarded by the network openwork entity, and can smoothly complete transmission of subsequent messages.

The unified data management entity sends a second request message to the access and mobility management function entity, wherein the second request message includes the SUPI and an identification of the second network slice. In this embodiment of the application, the second request message may be a session data management Notification (numm _ SDM _ Notification) message, or may also be other related interface messages, where the identifier of the second network slice is an identifier of a second network slice allowed to be accessed, and the unified data management entity may complete the conversion from the GPSI to the SUPI through interaction with other network elements.

Optionally, the access and mobility management function entity obtains, after receiving the second request message, an address of the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice from the network storage function entity.

Optionally, the method for switching a network slice in the embodiment of the present application further includes: a fourth request message sent by the access and mobility management functional entity to a target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice, where the fourth request message at least includes: the address of the source Session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, a PDU Session identifier (PDU Session ID), and a Session management Context identifier (SM Context ID).

In this embodiment of the present application, at least one of the address of the source session management functional entity, the session identifier, and the session management context identifier is used to configure the user plane functional entity corresponding to the second network slice, and the configuration of the UPF may also be configured in the process of network-triggered PDU session modification.

In this embodiment of the present application, the fourth request message may be a PDU session request message (Nsmf _ PDU _ CreateSMContext Req) message for creating a session management context, or may also be another related interface message, and the address of the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice may be a source SMF address.

Optionally, before the application function entity sends the first request message to the unified data management entity through the network openness function entity, the method further includes: the application function entity receives a third request message sent by the user equipment, wherein the third request message is used for triggering the switching process of the network slice; or, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, where the fifth request message is used to obtain at least one of: identification of the second network slice (S-NSSAI 2), slice switching indication in the first request message.

Optionally, the fifth request message may be a session data management subscription message (numm _ SDM _ Subscribe) message, or may also be other related interface messages, and the message used by the fifth request message to obtain the slice switching indication may be an S-NSSAI update indication (S-NSSAI update indicator) message.

The first scheme is that user equipment initiates a third request message, the third request message is a request for improving service quality and is used for triggering a switching process of network slices, an application function entity receives the third request message sent by the user equipment, converts the third request message into a slice switching instruction, and sends a first request message to a unified data management entity, wherein the first request message comprises a slice switching instruction, and after data transmission and interaction are carried out among the entities according to the first request message, protocol data unit sessions corresponding to the user equipment are switched from the first network slice to a second network slice; the second scheme is that, instead of initiating the third request message by the UE, the application function entity on the network side first obtains a trigger condition for slice switching, that is, qos parameter information, and finds that the specified UE does not satisfy qos requirements through qos detection, thereby triggering a slice switching operation for the UE, that is, the access and mobility management function entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, and then the application function entity sends a first request message (that is, an eleventh request message) to the unified data management entity, where the first request message (that is, the eleventh request message) includes a slice switching indication, and based on the first request message (that is, the eleventh request message), after data transmission and interaction are performed between the entities, a protocol data unit session corresponding to the UE can be switched from the first network slice to the second network slice.

It should be noted that, in the second scheme, the step of sending the fifth request message to the unified data management entity by the access and mobility management functional entity is an optional step, that is, the step may be executed, or the step may not be executed, and whether to execute the step is determined by an actual situation, which is not limited herein.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant description in example 1 for a preferred implementation of the embodiment of the present application, and details are not described here again.

It should be noted that for simplicity of description, the above-mentioned embodiments of the method are described as a series of acts, but those skilled in the art should understand that the present application is not limited by the described order of acts, as some steps may be performed in other orders or simultaneously according to the present application. Further, those skilled in the art should also appreciate that the embodiments described in the specification are preferred embodiments and that the acts and modules referred to are not necessarily required in this application.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the method according to the above embodiments can be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly can also be implemented by hardware, but the former is a better implementation mode in many cases. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present application or portions thereof that contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product, where the computer software product is stored in a storage medium (such as a ROM/RAM, a magnetic disk, and an optical disk), and includes several instructions for enabling a terminal device (which may be a mobile phone, a computer, a server, or a network device) to execute the method of the embodiments of the present application.

Example 3

Based on the flows in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2 a-2 b, the embodiment of the present application provides another method for switching a network slice, and fig. 4 is a flowchart of another method for switching a network slice according to the embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the method includes the following processing steps:

step S402, the access and mobile management function entity receives a second request message sent by the unified data management entity, wherein the second request message comprises SUPI and the identifier of a second network slice;

alternatively, the second request message may be a session data management Notification (numm _ SDM _ Notification) message, or other related interface messages.

Step S404, the access and mobility management functional entity switches the protocol data unit session corresponding to the ue from the first network slice to the second network slice based on the second request message, where the second request message at least includes an identifier of the second network slice.

Optionally, before the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further includes: the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the fifth request message is at least used for acquiring one of the following: an identification of the second network slice (S-NSSAI 2), a slice switching indication in a first request message, wherein the first request message is for causing the unified data management entity to send a second request message to the access and mobility management functional entity.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the access and mobility management functional entity obtains an address of a target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice, and after obtaining the address of the target session management functional entity, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fourth request message to the target session management functional entity, wherein the fourth request message at least comprises: the address of the source Session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, a PDU Session identifier (PDU Session ID), and a Session management Context identifier (SM Context ID).

In this embodiment of the present application, the fourth request message may be a PDU session request (Nsmf _ PDU _ CreateSMContext Req) message for creating a session management context, or may also be other related interface messages, and the address of the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice may be a source SMF address.

Optionally, the acquiring, by the access and mobility management functional entity, an address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice includes: and the access and mobile management functional entity acquires the address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice from the network storage functional entity.

In another optional embodiment, before the access and mobility management function entity receives the response message of the fourth request message, the method further comprises the following steps: after receiving the fourth request message, the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice configures a corresponding UPF, and after the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice configures a corresponding UPF, the target session management function entity sends an eighth request message to the source session management function entity, where the eighth request message includes at least one of: a session management context identification (SM context ID), an identification of a second network slice (S-NSSAI 2); and the target session management functional entity receives a response message of an eighth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, wherein the response message of the eighth request message includes context information (SM context) corresponding to the session management context identifier.

In this embodiment of the present application, the eighth request message may be a PDU session management Context request (Nsmf _ PDU _ Context Req) message, or may also be other related interface messages, and the response message of the eighth request message may be a PDU session management Context response (Nsmf _ PDU _ Context Res) message, or may also be other related interface messages.

Optionally, before sending the eighth request message, the target SMF may send a PCF session management policy control Update (Npcf _ SMPolicyControl _ Update) request message, or other related interface messages, to the PCF, where the message is used to confirm whether the policy of the second network slice supports the transfer of the session context across slices or supports the session handover, and may obtain whether the policy supports the transfer of the session context across slices or supports the result of the session handover by receiving a PCF session management policy control Update response message.

Optionally, before the target session management function entity receives the response message of the eighth request message sent by the source session management function entity, the method further includes: a source session management functional entity sends a first message to a policy control functional entity; the source session management function entity receives a response message of the first message, where the response message of the first message is used to determine whether session switching (i.e., session switching) of the slices across slices is allowed, and in this application, refers to session switching between a first network slice and a second network slice.

Optionally, the first message in this embodiment may be a session management policy control Update (Npcf _ SMPolicyControl _ Update) request message, or may be other related interface messages. The message is used to confirm whether the policy of the first network slice supports transfer of session context across slices or whether session handoff is supported.

It should be noted that, in the case that the PCF allows session handover between cross-slices, the source session management function entity sends a response message of the eighth request message to the target session management function entity.

In another optional embodiment, the method further comprises: the source session management functional entity sends a ninth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the ninth request message at least comprises SUPI and a slice switching indication; after the source session management functional entity receives a response message of the ninth request message sent by the unified data management entity, a first message is sent to the policy control functional entity, where the first message is used to request to confirm whether session handover (i.e., session handover) is allowed between cross slices (in this application, a first network slice and a second network slice).

In another optional embodiment of the present application, the response message of the ninth request message includes at least one of the following: quality of service parameter information, an identification of the second network slice, a slice switch indication.

In another alternative embodiment, in the case of confirming with the policy control function that the policy allows the session handover between slices, the access and mobility management function receives a tenth request message sent by the source session management function, where the tenth request message at least includes the SUPI, the slice handover indication, and the identifier of the second network slice.

In another optional embodiment of the present application, the tenth request message is sent by the source session management function entity according to at least one of the qos parameter information, the identifier of the second network Slice, and a Slice switch indication (Slice switch indication), and the policy information acquired from the policy control function entity, where the tenth request message may be a session management context state notification (Nsmf _ packet _ smcontextstatenotify) message, and may also be other related interface messages.

After receiving the tenth request message, the access and mobility management functional entity obtains the address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice from the network storage functional entity, and after obtaining the address of the target session management functional entity, sends a fourth request message to the target session management functional entity, where the fourth request message at least includes: the address of the source Session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, a PDU Session identifier (PDU Session ID), and a Session management Context identifier (SM Context ID).

Optionally, after the access and mobility management function entity receives the response message of the fourth request message, the method further includes: the access and mobility management function entity sends a second message to the user equipment, wherein the second message at least comprises: and the user equipment accesses the corresponding second network slice according to the configuration information (such as the target DNAI) of the second network slice. The second message may be a command message sent by the AMF to the terminal device, for example, a PDU session modification command (PDU session modification command) or a UE configuration update command (UE configuration update command) or another command message, which is not limited in this embodiment.

Optionally, after the access and mobility management functional entity sends the second message to the UE, the access and mobility management functional entity triggers a PDU session modification (PDU session modification) procedure, so that the UE switches to a network corresponding to the second network slice, and after the PDU session modification is completed, the access and mobility management functional entity sends a slice switching completion confirmation message to the unified data management entity.

Optionally, before the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further includes: the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the fifth request message is at least used for acquiring one of the following: the identification of the second network slice and the slice switching indication in the first request message; and the access and mobility management functional entity receives a second request message sent by the unified data management entity, wherein the second request message at least comprises the identifier of the second network slice.

Optionally, the fifth request message may be a session data management subscription (numm _ SDM _ Subscribe) message, or may also be other related interface messages, and the message used by the fifth request message to obtain the slice switching indication may be an S-NSSAI update indication (S-NSSAI update indicator) message. The second slice identifier may enable the AMF to identify a second network slice identifier corresponding to the second network slice that may be switched after acquiring the slice switching related request, and trigger a corresponding slice switching operation.

In this embodiment of the present application, the step of sending the fifth request message to the unified data management entity by the access and mobility management function entity is an optional step, that is, the step may be executed, or the step may not be executed, and whether to execute the step is determined by an actual situation, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, after the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further includes: the user equipment sends a registration request message to an access and mobility management functional entity, wherein the registration request message at least comprises: and the identifier of the first network slice is accessed after the user equipment is registered to the access and mobile management functional entity.

In another optional embodiment, before the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further includes: the application function entity sends an eleventh request message to the unified data management entity through the network open function entity, wherein the eleventh request message includes at least one of the following: a list of generic public user identities, quality of service parameter information, an identity of a second network slice, a slice handover indication, a reason code.

Optionally, the application function entity may send the condition information for determining whether the UE needs to switch the slice to a 5G core network element, such as the NEF and the UDM, through an eleventh request message. The application function entity may determine whether to send the eleventh request message through information such as a subscription with the user equipment, and then determine whether to perform slice switching according to a QoS parameter measured by the N4 interface by a core network element, for example, an SMF, and finally initiate migration of the session management context across slices by the AMF.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant description in examples 1-2 for a preferred implementation of the embodiments of the present application, and details are not described herein again.

Example 4

Based on the flows in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2 a-2 b, the present application provides another method for switching network slices, and fig. 5 is a flowchart of another method for switching network slices according to the present application. As shown in fig. 5, the method comprises the following processing steps:

step S502, the unified data management entity receives a first request message sent by the application function entity through the network open function entity, the first request message is a parameter setting request message, and the first request message at least includes one of the following: an identifier of a second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a reason code for indicating that the quality of service of the user equipment cannot meet the requirements, and a slice switching indication;

step S504, a second request message is sent to the access and mobility management functional entity according to the first request message, where the second request message at least includes an identifier of a second network slice allowed to be accessed, and the second request message is used to enable the access and mobility management functional entity to switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to the second network slice.

In another alternative embodiment, the first request message may be replaced with an eleventh request message, and when the unified data management entity receives the eleventh request message sent by the application function entity through the network open function entity, the eleventh request message includes at least one of the following: a list of generic public user identities, quality of service parameter information, an identity of a second network slice, a slice handover indication, a reason code.

After sending the second request message to the access and mobility management functional entity according to the first request message, the method further comprises: receiving a ninth request message sent by a source session management function entity, wherein the ninth request message at least comprises SUPI and a slice switching indication; sending a response message of the ninth request message to the source session management function entity, wherein the response message of the ninth request message includes at least one of the following: quality of service parameter information, an identification of the second network slice, and a slice switch indication.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant descriptions in examples 1 to 3 for preferred embodiments of the present application, and details are not described herein again.

Example 5

Based on the flows in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2 a-2 b, the embodiment of the present application provides another method for switching a network slice, and fig. 6 is a flowchart of another method for switching a network slice according to the embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, the method includes the following processing steps:

step S602, the network open function entity receives a first request message sent by the application function entity, where the first request message is a parameter setting request message, and the first request message includes at least one of the following messages: the identification of the second network slice, the service quality parameter information, a reason code for indicating that the service quality of the user equipment can not meet the requirement, and a slice switching indication;

step S604, the first request message is forwarded to the unified data management entity.

In another alternative embodiment, the first request message may be replaced by an eleventh request message, and when the network open function entity receives the eleventh request message sent by the application function entity, the eleventh request message includes at least one of the following: a general public user identifier list, service quality parameter information, an identifier of a second network slice, a slice switching indication and a reason code; and forward the eleventh request message to the unified data management entity.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant descriptions in examples 1 to 4 for preferred embodiments of the present application, and details are not described herein again.

Example 6

Based on the flows in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2 a-2 b, the present application provides another method for switching network slices, and fig. 7 is a flowchart of another method for switching network slices according to the present application. As shown in fig. 7, the method includes the following processing steps:

step S702, the user equipment residing in the first network slice network sends a slice switching instruction to the application function entity;

step S704, the ue receives the response message sent by the access and mobility management function entity, initiates a session modification procedure according to the response message, and connects to the data network.

In the embodiment of the present application, the slice switching indication is encapsulated in a third request message, that is, a user equipment residing in the first network slice network sends the third request message to the application function entity, where the third request message is a request for improving quality of service and is used to trigger a switching process of network slices, and after receiving the third request message sent by the user equipment, the application function entity converts the third request message into the slice switching indication and sends the first request message to the unified data management entity, where the first request message includes the slice switching indication. The slice switching indication includes, but is not limited to: identification of a second network slice.

In the step S704, the response message sent by the ue receiving the access and mobility management function entity may be a second message, where the second message is a network slice update message, and the second message at least includes: and the user equipment accesses the corresponding second network slice according to the configuration information (such as the target DNAI) of the second network slice. The second message may be a command message sent by the AMF to the terminal device, for example, a PDU session modification command (PDU session modification command) or a UE configuration update command (UE configuration update command) or another command message, which is not limited in this embodiment.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant descriptions in examples 1 to 5 for preferred embodiments of the present application, and details are not described herein again.

Example 7

Based on the flows in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2 a-2 b, the present application provides another method for switching network slices, and fig. 8 is a flowchart of another method for switching network slices according to the present application. As shown in fig. 8, the method includes the following processing steps:

step S802, the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice sends an eighth request message to the source session management functional entity corresponding to the first network slice, where the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: a session management context identification (SM context ID), an identification of a second network slice (S-NSSAI 2);

step S804, the target session management functional entity receives a response message of an eighth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, where the response message of the eighth request message includes context information (SM context) corresponding to the session management context identifier.

Optionally, the eighth request message may be a PDU session management Context request (Nsmf _ PDU _ Context Req) message, or may also be other related interface messages, and the response message of the eighth request message may be a PDU session management Context response (Nsmf _ PDU _ Context Res) message, or may also be other related interface messages.

Optionally, before the target session management function entity receives the response message of the eighth request message sent by the source session management function entity, the method further includes: a source session management functional entity sends a first message to a policy control functional entity; the source session management function entity receives a response message of the first message, wherein the response message of the first message is used for determining whether session conversion between cross slices is allowed or not, and in the application, the session switching between the first network slice and the second network slice is referred to.

It should be noted that, in the case that the PCF allows session handover between cross slices, the source session management function entity sends a response message of the eighth request message to the target session management function entity.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant description in examples 1 to 7 for the preferred implementation of the embodiments of the present application, and details are not repeated here.

Example 8

Based on the flows in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2 a-2 b, the present application provides another method for switching a network slice, where the method includes the following processing steps:

Specifically, in case the UE accesses the 5G network and resides on slice S-NSSAI 1, the AF sends a Nnef _ parameterprovisioning _ Req message to the NEF, including GPSI, S-NSSAI2, etc.; the NEF sends a Nudm _ ParameterProvision _ Req message to the UDM including GPSI, AS-NSSAI 2, etc.

Example 9

Based on the flows in the embodiments shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2 a-2 b, the embodiment of the present application provides another method for switching network slices, and fig. 9 is a flowchart of another method for switching network slices according to the embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the method includes the following processing steps:

step S902, the session management function entity inquires the policy control function entity whether the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment is allowed to be switched among different network slices;

step S904, in a case that switching between different network slices is allowed, the session management functional entity sends a notification message to the user plane functional entity, so that the user plane functional entity switches the session of the user equipment to a network slice corresponding to the second network slice identifier, where the notification message at least includes: identification of a second network slice.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant descriptions in examples 1 to 8 for preferred embodiments of the present application, and details are not described herein again.

Example 10

This embodiment provides a method for implementing quality of service management in embodiment 2 by using a network slice switching device, as shown in fig. 10, where the device includes:

a communication module 1002, configured to send a first request message to a unified data management entity according to a slice switching indication, where the first request message is a parameter setting request message, and the first request message includes at least one of the following: an identifier of a second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a cause code for indicating that a quality of service of the user equipment cannot meet a requirement, and a slice handover indication;

the processing module 1004 is configured to, after receiving the first request message, enable the unified data management entity to send a second request message to the access and mobility management functional entity, where the second request message at least includes an identifier of a second network slice, and the second request message is used to enable the access and mobility management functional entity to switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to the ue from the first network slice to the second network slice.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant description in embodiments 1 to 9 for a preferred implementation of this embodiment, and details are not described here again.

Example 11

The method for switching network slices provided in this embodiment is applied to a communication system 1100, and as shown in fig. 11, the system includes: an application function entity, a network open function entity, a unified data management entity, an access and mobile management function entity, a target session management function entity corresponding to a second network slice, and user equipment, wherein:

the application function entity 1101 is configured to send a first request message to the unified data management entity according to the slice switching indication, where the first request message is a parameter setting request message, and the first request message includes at least one of: an identifier of a second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a cause code for indicating that a quality of service of the user equipment cannot meet a requirement, and a slice handover indication;

the network open function entity 1102 is configured to receive a first request message sent by an application function entity, and forward the first request message to a unified data management entity;

the unified data management entity 1103 is configured to receive a first request message forwarded by the network openness function entity, and send a second request message to the access and mobility management function entity according to the first request message, where the second request message at least includes an identifier of a second network slice;

an access and mobility management function 1104, configured to receive the second request message, and switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to the ue from the first network slice to the second network slice;

a target session management function entity 1105 corresponding to the second network slice, configured to send an eighth request message to the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, where the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: a session management context identification and an identification of a second network slice; receiving a response message of an eighth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, wherein the response message of the eighth request message includes context information corresponding to the session management context identifier;

the user equipment 1106 is configured to send a slice switching indication to the application function entity, receive a response message sent by the access and mobility management function entity, initiate a session protocol data unit modification procedure according to the response message, and connect to the data network.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant description in embodiments 1 to 7 for a preferred implementation of this embodiment, and details are not described here again.

Example 12

The embodiment of the present application further provides another method for switching a network slice, including:

an application function entity sends a thirteenth request message to a policy control function entity through a network open function entity, wherein the thirteenth request message includes an identifier of a second network slice, the thirteenth request message is used for enabling the policy control function entity to send a fourteenth request message to an access and mobility management function entity, and the fourteenth request message is used for enabling the access and mobility management function entity to switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to a user equipment from a first network slice to a second network slice.

It should be noted that the thirteenth request message may be a message dedicated to indicate to perform slice switching, or may be a message obtained by adding a second network slice identifier to an existing message, where the existing message may include an existing message between an AF entity and a NEF entity and an existing message between a NEF entity and a PCF entity, or may be an interactive message between any two of the AF entity and the NEF entity.

It should be noted that, reference may be made to the relevant description in embodiments 1 to 11 for a preferred implementation of this embodiment, and details are not described here again.

The above-mentioned serial numbers of the embodiments of the present application are merely for description and do not represent the merits of the embodiments.

In the above embodiments of the present application, the descriptions of the respective embodiments have respective emphasis, and for parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, reference may be made to related descriptions of other embodiments.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed technology can be implemented in other ways. The above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units may be a logical division, and in actual implementation, there may be another division, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or may not be executed. In addition, the shown or discussed coupling or direct coupling or communication connection between each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, units or modules, and may be electrical or in other forms.

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

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be substantially implemented or contributed to by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a removable hard disk, a magnetic or optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is only a preferred embodiment of the present application and it should be noted that those skilled in the art can make several improvements and modifications without departing from the principle of the present application, and these improvements and modifications should also be considered as the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for switching network slices is characterized by comprising the following steps:

an application function entity sends a first request message to a unified data management entity through a network open function entity, wherein the first request message comprises a slice switching indication, the first request message is used for enabling the unified data management entity to send a second request message to an access and mobility management function entity, and the second request message is used for enabling the access and mobility management function entity to switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to user equipment from a first network slice to a second network slice.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request message further comprises at least one of: an identification of the second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a cause code indicating that a quality of service of the user equipment cannot meet the requirement.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the application function entity sends the first request message to the unified data management entity through the network open function entity, the method further comprises:

the application function entity receives a third request message sent by user equipment, wherein the third request message is used for triggering the application function entity to send the first request message.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a fourth request message sent by the access and mobility management functional entity to a target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice, where the fourth request message includes at least one of the following: and the address, the session identifier and the session management context identifier of the source session management functional entity corresponding to the first network slice.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the application function entity sends the first request message to the unified data management entity through the network open function entity, the method further comprises:

the application function entity receives a third request message sent by the user equipment, wherein the third request message is used for triggering a switching process of a network slice; or,

the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the fifth request message is at least used for acquiring one of the following: an identification of a second network slice in the first request message, the slice switching indication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network slice and the second network slice are network slices under the same Network Function (NF); the method further comprises the following steps:

the access and mobility management functional entity sends a sixth request message to a first session management functional entity, so that the first session management functional entity switches a protocol unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to a second network slice, wherein the sixth request message at least includes: and the identifier of the second network slice corresponding to the first session management functional entity.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

the user plane functional entity receives a seventh request message sent by the first session management functional entity, where the seventh request message carries an identifier of the second network slice;

the user plane function entity switches the user equipment from the first network slice to a second network slice.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the session management functional entity inquires whether a protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment is allowed to be switched among different network slices or not from a policy control functional entity;

under the condition that switching among different network slices is allowed, the session management function entity sends a notification message to a user plane function entity, wherein the notification message at least comprises: an identification of the second network slice.

9. The method according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the slice switching indication comprises: an identification of the second network slice; alternatively, the slice switching indication comprises: indication information dedicated to indicating that a protocol unit session of the user equipment is switched from a first network slice to a second network slice.

10. A method for switching network slices is characterized by comprising the following steps:

an application function entity sends a first request message to a unified data management entity through a network open function entity, wherein the first request message at least comprises an identifier of a second network slice, the first request message is used for enabling the unified data management entity to send a second request message to an access and mobile management function entity, and the second request message is used for enabling the access and mobile management function entity to switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to user equipment from a first network slice to a second network slice.

11. A method for switching network slices, comprising:

the access and mobile management functional entity receives a second request message sent by the unified data management entity;

and the access and mobility management functional entity switches the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to a second network slice based on the second request message, wherein the second request message at least comprises the identifier of the second network slice.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein before the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further comprises:

the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, where the fifth request message is at least used to obtain one of the following: an identification of a second network slice, a slice switching indication in a first request message, wherein the first request message is used for enabling the unified data management entity to send the second request message to an access and mobility management function entity.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

and the access and mobile management functional entity acquires the address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fourth request message to the target session management functional entity, wherein the fourth request message includes: and the address, the session identifier and the session management context identifier of the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the obtaining, by the access and mobility management function entity, the address of the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice comprises: and the access and mobile management functional entity acquires the address of the target session management functional entity corresponding to the second network slice from a network storage functional entity.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein at least one of an address of a source session management function entity, a session identifier, and a session management context identifier is used to configure the user plane function entity corresponding to the second network slice.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

and the access and mobility management function entity receives a response message of the fourth request message, wherein the response message is used for determining whether the session management context is successfully created.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein before the access and mobility management function entity receives the response message to the fourth request message, the method further comprises:

the target session management functional entity sends an eighth request message to a source session management functional entity, wherein the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: an identification of the session management context and an identification of the second network slice;

and the target session management functional entity receives a response message of the eighth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, wherein the response message of the eighth request message includes context information corresponding to the session management context identifier.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein before the target session management function entity receives the response message of the eighth request message sent by the source session management function entity, the method further comprises:

the source session management functional entity sends a first message to a policy control functional entity;

and the source session management function entity receives a response message of the first message, wherein the response message of the first message is used for determining whether slice conversion is allowed or not.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein after the access and mobility management function entity receives the response message of the fourth request message, the method further comprises:

the access and mobility management function entity sends a second message to the user equipment, wherein the second message at least comprises: an identification of the second network slice.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein before the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further comprises:

the access and mobility management functional entity sends a fifth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the fifth request message is at least used for acquiring one of the following: an identification of the second network slice, a slice switch indication in the first request message.

22. The method of claim 11, wherein after the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further comprises:

the user equipment sends a registration request message to an access and mobile management functional entity, wherein the registration request message at least comprises: an identification of the first network slice.

23. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

a source session management function entity sends a ninth request message to the unified data management entity, wherein the ninth request message at least comprises a slice switching indication;

the source session management function entity receives a response message of the ninth request message, wherein the response message of the ninth request message includes at least one of the following: quality of service parameter information, an identification of the second network slice, and the slice switch indication.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

the access and mobility management functional entity receives a tenth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, wherein the tenth request message includes at least one of the following: an identification of a second network slice and a slice switch indication.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

the tenth request message is sent by the source session management function entity according to at least one of the qos parameter information, the identifier of the second network slice, and the slice switching indication, and policy information obtained from a policy control function entity.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein before the access and mobility management function entity receives the second request message sent by the unified data management entity, the method further comprises:

the application function entity sends an eleventh request message to the unified data management entity through a network open function entity, wherein the eleventh request message includes at least one of the following: a list of common public user identities, quality of service parameter information, an identity of a second network slice, a slice handover indication.

27. A method for switching network slices is characterized by comprising the following steps:

the method comprises the following steps that a unified data management entity receives a first request message sent by an application function entity through a network open function entity, wherein the first request message is a parameter setting request message and at least comprises one of the following messages: the identification of the second network slice, the service quality parameter information, a reason code for indicating that the service quality of the user equipment can not meet the requirement, and a slice switching indication;

and sending a second request message to the access and mobility management function entity according to the first request message, wherein the second request message at least comprises an identifier of a second network slice allowing access, and the second request message is used for enabling the access and mobility management function entity to switch the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment from the first network slice to the second network slice.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein after sending a second request message to an access and mobility management function entity in accordance with the first request message, the method further comprises:

receiving a ninth request message sent by a source session management function entity, wherein the ninth request message at least comprises a slice switching indication;

sending a response message of the ninth request message to the source session management function entity, wherein the response message of the ninth request message includes at least one of the following: quality of service parameter information, an identification of the second network slice, and the slice switch indication.

29. A method for switching network slices is characterized by comprising the following steps:

a network open function entity receives a first request message sent by an application function entity, wherein the first request message is a parameter setting request message and comprises at least one of the following messages: an identifier of a second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a reason code for indicating that the quality of service of the user equipment cannot meet the requirements, and a slice switching indication;

forwarding the first request message to a unified data management entity.

30. A method for switching network slices is characterized by comprising the following steps:

the user equipment residing in the first network slice sends a slice switching indication to the application function entity;

and the user equipment receives a response message sent by the access and mobile management functional entity, initiates a session modifying process according to the response message and is connected to the data network.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the slice switching indication comprises at least: an identification of the second network slice.

32. A method for switching network slices, comprising:

the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice sends an eighth request message to the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, wherein the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: a session management context identification and an identification of the second network slice;

33. The method according to claim 32, wherein before the target session management function entity receives the response message of the eighth request message sent by the source session management function entity, the method further comprises:

34. A method for switching network slices, comprising:

the session management function entity inquires the policy control function entity whether to allow the protocol data unit session corresponding to the user equipment to be switched among different network slices;

under the condition that switching among different network slices is allowed, the session management function entity sends a notification message to a user plane function entity so that the user plane function entity switches a protocol data unit session of the user equipment to a network slice corresponding to a second network slice identifier, wherein the notification message at least comprises: an identification of the second network slice.

35. A network slice switching apparatus, comprising:

a communication module, configured to send a first request message to a unified data management entity according to a slice switching indication, where the first request message is a parameter setting request message, and the first request message includes at least one of the following: an identifier of a second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a cause code indicating that a quality of service of a user equipment cannot meet a requirement, and the slice handover indication;

a processing module, configured to, after receiving the first request message, enable the unified data management entity to send a second request message to an access and mobility management functional entity, where the second request message at least includes an identifier of the second network slice, and the second request message is used to enable the access and mobility management functional entity to switch the ue from the first network slice to the second network slice.

36. A communication system, comprising: an application function entity, a network open function entity, a unified data management entity, an access and mobile management function entity, a target session management function entity corresponding to a second network slice, and user equipment, wherein:

the application function entity is configured to send a first request message to a unified data management entity according to a slice switching indication, where the first request message is a parameter setting request message, and the first request message includes at least one of the following: an identifier of a second network slice, quality of service parameter information, a cause code indicating that a quality of service of a user equipment cannot meet a requirement, and the slice handover indication;

the network open function entity is used for receiving a first request message sent by an application function entity and forwarding the first request message to the unified data management entity;

the unified data management entity is configured to receive the first request message forwarded by the network openness function entity, and send a second request message to the access and mobility management function entity according to the first request message, where the second request message at least includes an identifier of the second network slice;

the access and mobility management function entity is configured to receive the second request message and switch the ue from the first network slice to the second network slice;

the target session management function entity corresponding to the second network slice is configured to send an eighth request message to the source session management function entity corresponding to the first network slice, where the eighth request message includes at least one of the following: a session management context identification and an identification of the second network slice; receiving a response message of the eighth request message sent by the source session management functional entity, wherein the response message of the eighth request message includes context information corresponding to the session management context identifier;

the user equipment is used for sending the slice switching indication to the application function entity, receiving a response message sent by the access and mobility management function entity, initiating a session protocol data unit modification process according to the response message, and connecting to a data network.

37. A method for switching network slices, comprising:

an application function entity sends a thirteenth request message to a policy control function entity through a network open function entity, wherein the thirteenth request message includes a slice switching indication, the thirteenth request message is used for enabling the policy control function entity to send a fourteenth request message to an access and mobility management function entity, and the fourteenth request message is used for enabling the access and mobility management function entity to switch a protocol data unit session corresponding to a user equipment from a first network slice to a second network slice.