CN104303473B

CN104303473B - The flow control methods and device of network are shared by operator

Info

Publication number: CN104303473B
Application number: CN201380001943.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 汤斌淞; 张宏卓
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2013-05-06
Filing date: 2013-05-06
Publication date: 2019-02-05
Anticipated expiration: 2033-05-06
Also published as: CN104303473A; WO2014179928A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the present invention provides the flow control methods and device of a kind of shared network of operator, this method comprises: obtaining current load information and load-threshold of the public land mobile network PLMN under gateway belonging to the session of user equipment；Load balancing of the PLMN under gateway is controlled in the load-threshold of current load information and the PLMN under gateway under gateway according to the service traffics information of the session, the PLMN.In the embodiment of the present invention, by controlling load balancing of the PLMN under gateway in load-threshold of the present load and PLMN under gateway under gateway according to the service traffics of session, PLMN, resource overload of the operator under gateway is avoided.

Description

Flow control method and device for operator shared network

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for controlling traffic of an operator shared network.

Background

With the development of mobile communication technology, operators have proposed a new network sharing business model, which is referred to as enhanced network sharing herein. For example, the radio access network established by operator X is leased to core network operators a, B and C by lease, each of which leases a certain capacity share of the shared network. For example, A, B each lease 30%, C leases the remaining 40% share.

In the prior art, a Load balancing (Load balancing) may be achieved by switching UEs through a base station X2, so as to control air interface resource shares of a certain operator on a base station in a region. However, under a certain Serving Gateway (SGW), it is possible to overload resources of a certain operator.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a flow control method and a flow control device for an operator shared network, which can realize load balance of resources according to operator share in an SGW.

In a first aspect, a method for controlling traffic of an operator shared network is provided, where the method includes: acquiring current load information and a load threshold of a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) to which a session of user equipment belongs under a service gateway; and controlling the load balance of the PLMN under the service gateway according to the service flow information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the service gateway and the load threshold of the PLMN under the service gateway.

In a first possible implementation manner, with reference to the first aspect, the method is specifically implemented as: the load threshold of the PLMN at the serving gateway is a predetermined threshold or a threshold adjusted according to an operation strategy.

In a second possible implementation manner, with reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the obtaining of the current load information of the public land mobile network PLMN to which the session of the user equipment belongs under the serving gateway is specifically implemented as: the service gateway receives a session establishment request sent by an MME, the session establishment request carries identification information of the PLMN, and the service gateway acquires current load information of the PLMN according to the identification information of the PLMN

In a third possible implementation manner, with reference to the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, controlling load balancing of the PLMN under the serving gateway according to the service traffic information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the serving gateway, and the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway specifically includes: the service gateway determines whether to allow the bearer of the session to be established under the service gateway according to the service flow information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the service gateway and the load threshold of the PLMN under the service gateway.

In a fourth possible implementation manner, with reference to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, by the serving gateway, whether to allow the bearer for establishing the session under the serving gateway according to the service traffic information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the serving gateway, and the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway specifically includes: if the service flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are smaller than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the serving gateway sends a session establishment confirmation message to the MME so that the MME establishes a bearer of the session; or if the traffic flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are greater than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the serving gateway sends a setup reject message of the session to the MME so that the MME reselects the serving gateway to send a setup request of the session.

In a fifth possible implementation manner, with reference to any one possible implementation manner of the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes: if the traffic of the PLMN at the serving gateway is out of limit, the serving gateway sends indication information of the PLMN traffic out of limit to the MME so that the MME switches at least one session of the PLMN connected to the serving gateway to a serving gateway other than the serving gateway.

In a sixth possible implementation manner, with reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the obtaining of the current load information of the public land mobile network PLMN to which the session of the user equipment belongs under the serving gateway is specifically implemented as: the MME receives current load information of the PLMN sent by at least one service gateway; or the MME receives load information sent by a server according to the load query request of the MME, where the load information includes current load information of the PLMN recorded under at least one serving gateway of the server.

In a seventh possible implementation manner, with reference to the sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, controlling load balancing of the PLMN under the serving gateway according to the service traffic information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the serving gateway, and the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway specifically includes: and the MME selects a serving gateway meeting the service flow requirement of the session from the at least one serving gateway according to the service flow information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the serving gateway and the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, and sends a request for establishing the session to the serving gateway meeting the service flow requirement of the session so as to establish the bearer of the session.

In a second aspect, a serving gateway is provided, including: a receiving unit, configured to receive session establishment request information sent by a mobility management entity MME, where the session establishment request information includes identification information of a public land mobile network PLMN to which the session belongs and service traffic information of the session; a determining unit, configured to determine feedback information of the session establishment request according to a load threshold of the PLMN, current load information of the PLMN, and service traffic information of the session, where the feedback information includes establishment confirmation information of the session or establishment rejection information of the session; a sending unit, configured to send the feedback information to the MME.

In a first possible implementation manner, with reference to the second aspect, the method is specifically implemented as: if the traffic flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are less than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the determining unit is configured to determine an establishment confirmation message of the session so as to instruct the MME to establish a bearer of the session; or if the traffic flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are greater than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the determining unit is configured to determine an establishment reject message of the session so as to instruct the MME to reselect the serving gateway to send the establishment request of the session.

In a second possible implementation manner, with reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method is specifically implemented as: the sending unit is further configured to send, to the MME, indication information that the PLMN traffic is over-limited, so that the MME switches at least one session of the PLMN connected to the serving gateway to a serving gateway other than the serving gateway, if the PLMN traffic is over-limited at the serving gateway.

In a third aspect, a mobility management entity apparatus is provided, including: a receiving unit, configured to receive current load information and a load threshold of a public land mobile network PLMN under at least one serving gateway; a selecting unit, configured to select, according to current load information and a load threshold of a PLMN to which a session belongs in the at least one serving gateway and service traffic information of the session, a serving gateway that meets a service traffic requirement of the session from the at least one serving gateway; and the sending unit is used for sending the establishment request of the session to the service gateway meeting the service flow requirement of the session.

In a first possible implementation manner, with reference to the third aspect, the method is specifically implemented as: the current load information and load threshold of the PLMN under the at least one serving gateway are actively transmitted by the at least one serving gateway.

In a second possible implementation manner, with reference to the third aspect, the method is specifically implemented as: the sending unit is further configured to send a first load query request to the at least one serving gateway so that the receiving unit receives current load information and a load threshold of the PLMN under the at least one serving gateway.

In a third possible implementation manner, with reference to the third aspect, the implementation manner is specifically that: the sending unit is further configured to send a second load query request to the server so that the receiving unit receives current load information and a load threshold of the PLMN under the at least one serving gateway, where the current load information and the load threshold of each PLMN under the at least one serving gateway are recorded in the server.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a flow control method for an operator-shared network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an interaction flowchart of a flow control method for an operator shared network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is another interactive flowchart of a flow control method for a carrier shared network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is another interactive flowchart of a flow control method for a carrier shared network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is another interaction flowchart of a flow control method for an operator shared network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a service gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is another structural diagram of a mobility management entity apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is another structural diagram of the service gateway according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a mobility management entity apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, not all, embodiments of the present invention. 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 invention.

The technical scheme of the invention can be applied to various communication systems, such as: global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and the like.

The Base Station may be a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in GSM or CDMA, a Base Station (NodeB) in WCDMA, or an evolved node b (eNB or e-NodeB) in LTE, and the following embodiments are not limited in the present invention, but for convenience of description, the eNB is taken as an example for explanation.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a flow control method for an operator-shared network according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the method in fig. 1 is executed by a Mobility Management Entity (MME).

101, obtaining current load information and a load threshold of a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) to which a session of a user equipment belongs under a serving gateway.

In a country or region, a cellular mobile communications network of one format of one operator is called PLMN. The PLMN is a network established and operated by the government or its approved operator for the purpose of providing land mobile services to the public. The Network can be interconnected with other communication networks such as Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to form a communication Network of whole area or country scale. At present, since there is one standard cellular mobile communication network corresponding to one service, in the embodiment of the present invention, the PLMN may be simply considered as an operator.

102, controlling the load balance of the PLMN under the service gateway according to the service flow information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the service gateway, and the load threshold of the PLMN under the service gateway.

The load threshold of the PLMN refers to a threshold value of the traffic flow allowed by the PLMN in the serving gateway.

In the embodiment of the invention, the load balance of the PLMN under the service gateway is controlled according to the service flow of the session, the current load of the PLMN under the service gateway and the load threshold of the PLMN under the service gateway, so that the resource overload of an operator under the service gateway is avoided.

Optionally, the load threshold of the PLMN at the serving gateway is a predetermined threshold or a threshold adjusted according to an operation policy. The operation policy may be a control policy of bandwidth share, or an adjustment policy according to temporary needs of each operator, and certainly, other situations that may cause share change are not excluded.

It is not assumed that operator a operates the managed communication network, and that operators B, C and D are allocated a certain share of network bandwidth, and that at least serving gateways 1, 2 and 3 are managed under operator a. The network bandwidth share configured by the operator a for the operators B, C and D may be the same share proportion for all service gateways or different share proportions may be allocated to different service gateways, for example, 40%, 30% for the operators B, C and D at the service gateways 1, 2, and 3, or 40%, 30% for the operators B, C and D at the service gateway 1, 30%, 35% for the service gateway 2, and 20%, 30%, 50% for the service gateway 3. In addition, the operator a can flexibly adjust the share occupied by each operator in the service gateway according to the control strategy of the bandwidth share.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the obtaining current load information of a public land mobile network PLMN to which a session of the user equipment belongs under a serving gateway may include: the service gateway receives a session establishment request sent by an MME, the session establishment request carries identification information of the PLMN, and the service gateway acquires current load information of the PLMN according to the identification information of the PLMN.

The identification information of the PLMN to which the session belongs may be information for distinguishing different PLMNs, for example, a PLMN name, an ID number, a serial number, and the like of the PLMN, and the present invention is not limited herein.

Further, the session establishment request may also carry service traffic information of the session.

Further, controlling the load balancing of the PLMN under the serving gateway according to the traffic information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the serving gateway, and the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway may include: and the service network determines whether to allow the bearer of the session to be established under the service gateway according to the service flow information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the service gateway and the load threshold of the PLMN under the service gateway.

Further, the determining, by the serving gateway, whether to allow the bearer of the session to be established under the serving gateway according to the traffic flow information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the serving gateway, and the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway may include: if the service flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are smaller than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the serving gateway sends a session establishment confirmation message to the MME so that the MME establishes a bearer of the session; or, if the traffic flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are greater than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the serving gateway sends an establishment reject message of the session to the MME, so that the MME reselects the serving gateway to send the establishment request of the session.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the method may further include: if the traffic of the PLMN at the serving gateway is out of limit, the serving gateway sends indication information of the PLMN traffic out of limit to the MME so that the MME switches at least one session of the PLMN connected to the serving gateway to other serving gateways except the serving gateway. Further, the MME may switch the at least one session to another serving gateway other than the serving gateway through a location area update procedure or a handover procedure of the user equipment to which the session belongs, so as to implement traffic redirection of the user equipment to which the session belongs.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the obtaining of the current load information of the public land mobile network PLMN to which the session of the user equipment belongs under the serving gateway may include: the MME receives current load information of the PLMN sent by at least one service gateway; or, the MME receives load information sent by a server according to a load query request of the MME, where the load information includes current load information of the PLMN recorded under at least one serving gateway of the server.

Further, controlling the load balancing of the PLMN under the serving gateway according to the traffic information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the serving gateway, and the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway may include: and the MME selects a serving gateway meeting the requirement of the load threshold of the PLMN from the at least one serving gateway according to the service flow information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the serving gateway and the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, and sends an establishment request of the session to the MME.

Specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to specific examples.

201, the UE sends an attach request to the MME through the eNB.

202, the MME sends a security authentication request to a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) according to the attach request of the UE.

And 203, the HSS sends a security authentication feedback message according to the security authentication request.

And 204, when the security authentication feedback message indicates that the security authentication passes, the MME passes the security authentication of the UE.

205, the UE initiates a location area update procedure.

The above steps 201 and 205 belong to the prior art, and the embodiment of the present invention is not described in detail herein.

206, the MME sends a session establishment request to a Serving Gateway (SGW) according to the attach request of the user. The session establishment request carries identification information of an operator to which the session belongs and service flow information of the session. The identifier of the operator may be a name, a code, or other information capable of identifying the operator to which the session belongs, and the present invention is not limited herein.

207, the SGW obtains the load threshold and the current load information of the operator to which the session belongs according to the session establishment request, and determines whether to allow the session establishment by combining the service flow information of the current session. The relation between the sum of the service flow of the session and the current load of the operator and the load threshold of the operator can be judged, so that whether the service flow of the operator is over-limited due to the establishment of the current session or not can be judged. And if the establishment of the current session does not cause the service flow of the operator to exceed the load threshold, accepting the establishment of the bearer corresponding to the session, and sending a session establishment confirmation message to the MME.

208, the UE initiates an RRC setup reconfiguration procedure.

209, attach procedure (see 3GPP TS23.4015.3.2).

Step 208 and step 209 are also prior art and the present invention is not described in detail herein.

In the embodiment of the invention, the MME sends the operator information of the user and the service flow information of the session to the service gateway, so that the service gateway can determine whether to establish the session of the user according to the load condition of the operator, thereby realizing the load balance according to the operator share in the service gateway.

Steps 301-306 are similar to step 201-206 of fig. 2, and the detailed description of the embodiment of the invention is omitted here.

307, the SGW1 obtains the load threshold and the current load information of the operator to which the session belongs according to the session establishment request, and determines whether to allow the session establishment by combining the traffic information of the current session. The relation between the sum of the service flow of the session and the current load of the operator and the load threshold of the operator can be judged, so that whether the service flow of the operator is over-limited due to the establishment of the current session or not can be judged. And if the establishment of the session causes that the service flow of the operator exceeds the load threshold, rejecting the establishment of the bearer corresponding to the current session, and sending a session establishment rejection message to the MME.

308, after receiving the session establishment reject message, the MME sends a session establishment request to the SGW 2. The SGW2 is a serving gateway different from the SGW1, and the steps after the MME sends the session establishment request to the SGW2 are similar to the steps after the MME sends the session establishment request to the serving gateway for the first time, which is not described in detail herein in the embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the invention, after receiving the session establishment request rejection message of the serving gateway, the MME can reselect the serving gateway to establish the session request.

401, the UE sends an attach request to the MME through the eNB.

402, the serving gateway sends the current load information and load threshold of each PLMN under the serving gateway to the MME.

And the service gateway sends the current load information of each PLMN in the service gateway, load related information such as a load threshold and the like to the MME. In the case that the load threshold is not changed, the load threshold only needs to be sent when the load related information is sent for the first time, and the current load information needs to be sent each time the load related information is sent. Alternatively, the serving gateway may actively send the load related information to the MME, e.g., periodically send the load related information to the MME. Or, optionally, the serving gateway may send the load related information to the MME according to the load query request sent by the MME.

In addition, if the serving gateway is actively sending the load related information to the MME, step 401 and step 402 have no temporal precedence relationship. But if the serving gateway sends load related information to the MME according to the load query request sent by the MME, step 402 follows step 401.

403, the MME selects the SGW1 according to the current load information, the load threshold, and the traffic flow information of the session of the PLMN to which the session belongs, where the unallocated bandwidth share of the PLMN of the SGW1 in the SGW meets the traffic flow requirement of the session.

And the MME selects a service gateway meeting the service flow requirement of the session according to the received load related information. The unallocated bandwidth share (load threshold — current load) of said PLMN for the session in the serving gateway is greater than or equal to the traffic flow for the session. In fig. 4, the SGW1 is not assumed to be the serving gateway that meets the traffic flow requirements of the session.

404, the MME sends a session establishment request to the SGW 1.

405, SGW1 sends a setup confirm message to the MME.

Step 404 and step 405 belong to the prior art, and are not described in detail herein.

501, a UE sends an attach request to an MME through an eNB.

502, the service gateway sends current load information and load threshold of each PLMN under the service gateway to a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server.

The DCHP server records load related information of at least one service gateway, wherein the load related information comprises current load information and a load threshold of each PLMN under the service gateway.

It should be understood that other servers may be substituted for the DHCP server in the embodiment of the present invention to record the current load information and load threshold of each PLMN under each serving gateway, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

It should be noted that step 501 and step 502 are not temporally consecutive.

503, the MME sends a load query request to the DHCP server.

According to the attachment request of the UE, the MME initiates a load query request to a DHCP server so as to obtain the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN under each service gateway.

504, the DHCP server sends current load information and a load threshold of a PLMN to which the session under the at least one serving gateway belongs to the MME.

The DHCP server may select to transmit the load-related information of all the service gateways, or may select only the load-related information of the service gateways that meet the conditions. The load related information of the serving gateway may include only the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway to which the session belongs, or may include the current load information and the load threshold of each PLMN under the serving gateway.

505, the MME selects the SGW1 according to the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN to which the session belongs, and the traffic flow information of the session, wherein the unallocated bandwidth share of the PLMN to which the session belongs in the SGW1 meets the traffic flow requirement of the session.

And the MME selects a service gateway meeting the service flow requirement of the session according to the received load related information. The unallocated bandwidth share (load threshold — current load) of said PLMN for the session in the serving gateway is greater than or equal to the traffic flow for the session. In fig. 5, the SGW1 is not assumed to be the serving gateway that meets the traffic flow requirements of the session.

The MME sends 506 a session establishment request to the SGW 1.

507, the SGW1 sends a setup confirm message to the MME.

Step 506 and step 507 belong to the prior art, and are not described in detail herein.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a service gateway 600 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Service gateway 600 may include: a receiving unit 601, a determining unit 602, and a transmitting unit 603.

The receiving unit 601 may receive session establishment request information sent by a mobility management entity MME, where the session establishment request information includes identification information of a public land mobile network PLMN to which the session belongs and service traffic information of the session.

The determining unit 602 may determine feedback information of the session establishment request according to the load threshold of the PLMN, current load information of the PLMN, and traffic flow information of the session, where the feedback information includes establishment confirmation information of the session or establishment rejection information of the session.

The sending unit 603 may send the feedback information to the MME.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the serving gateway 600 obtains the PLMN (operator) to which the current session belongs and the traffic flow information of the session according to the session establishment request of the MME, and determines whether to allow establishment of the session according to the load condition of the current PLMN, thereby controlling load balancing of the PLMN under the serving gateway and avoiding resource overload of the PLMN under the serving gateway.

Optionally, the loading threshold of the PLMN is a predetermined threshold or a threshold adjusted according to an operation policy.

Optionally, as an embodiment, if the traffic flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are less than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the determining unit 602 may determine an establishment confirmation message of the session so as to instruct the MME to establish the bearer of the session.

Optionally, as another embodiment, if the traffic flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are greater than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the determining unit 602 may determine an establishment reject message of the session so as to instruct the MME to reselect the serving gateway to send the establishment request of the session.

Optionally, as another embodiment, if the traffic of the PLMN at the serving gateway exceeds the traffic limit, the sending unit 603 may further send the indication information of the PLMN traffic limit to the MME, so that the MME switches at least one session of the PLMN connected to the serving gateway to a serving gateway other than the serving gateway.

The serving gateway 600 may also implement the SGW in the embodiment shown in fig. 2 or the SGW1 and the SGW2 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, which is not described herein again.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a mobility management entity 700 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The mobility management entity apparatus 700 may include: a receiving unit 701, a selecting unit 702 and a transmitting unit 703.

The receiving unit 701 may receive current load information and a load threshold of a public land mobile network PLMN under at least one serving gateway.

The selecting unit 702 may select a serving gateway meeting the traffic flow requirement of the session from the at least one serving gateway according to the current load information of the PLMN to which the session belongs in the at least one serving gateway, the load threshold, and the traffic flow information of the session.

The sending unit 703 may send the request for establishing the session to the serving gateway meeting the traffic flow requirement of the session.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the mobility management entity 700 obtains the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN to which the session belongs in each service gateway, and selects a service gateway meeting the traffic flow requirement of the session from the current load information and the load threshold to send the establishment request of the session, thereby controlling the load balance of the PLMN under the service gateway, and avoiding resource overload of the PLMN under the service gateway.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN under the at least one serving gateway are actively sent by the at least one serving gateway.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the sending unit 703 may further send a first load query request to the at least one serving gateway, so that the receiving unit 701 receives the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN under the at least one serving gateway.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the sending unit 703 may further send a second load query request to the server, so that the receiving unit 701 receives the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN under the at least one serving gateway, where the server records the current load information and the load threshold of each PLMN under the at least one serving gateway.

In the embodiment, the mobility management entity 700 may also implement the function of the MME in the embodiment shown in fig. 4 or fig. 5, which is not described herein again.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a service gateway 800 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The service gateway 800 may include: transmit circuitry 801, processor 802, and memory 803 and receive circuitry 804.

The receiving circuit 804 may receive session establishment request information sent by the mobility management entity MME, where the session establishment request information includes identification information of a public land mobile network PLMN to which the session belongs and service traffic information of the session.

The processor 802 may determine feedback information for the session establishment request according to the load threshold of the PLMN, current load information of the PLMN, and traffic flow information of the session, where the feedback information includes establishment confirmation information of the session or establishment rejection information of the session.

The memory 803 may store instructions that cause the processor 802 to determine feedback information for the session establishment request according to the loading threshold of the PLMN, current loading information of the PLMN, and traffic flow information of the session.

The transmitting circuit 801 may send the feedback information to the MME.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the serving gateway 800 obtains the PLMN (operator) to which the current session belongs and the traffic flow information of the session according to the session establishment request of the MME, and determines whether to allow establishment of the session according to the load condition of the current PLMN, thereby controlling load balancing of the PLMN under the serving gateway and avoiding resource overload of the PLMN under the serving gateway.

Processor 802 controls the operation of service gateway 800, and processor 802 may also be referred to as a CPU (Central processing Unit). The memory 803 may include both read-only memory and random-access memory, and provides instructions and data to the processor 802. A portion of the memory 803 may also include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). In particular applications, transmit circuitry 801 and receive circuitry 804 may be coupled to an antenna 805. The various components of the service gateway 800 are coupled together by a bus system 806, where the bus system 806 may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like, in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are designated as bus system 806 in the figures.

The method disclosed in the above embodiments of the present invention may be applied to the processor 802, or implemented by the processor 802. The processor 802 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 802. The processor 802 described above may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 803, and the processor 802 reads the information in the memory 803 and performs the steps of the above method in combination with the hardware thereof.

Optionally, as an embodiment, if the traffic flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are less than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the processor 802 may determine an establishment confirmation message of the session so as to instruct the MME to establish the bearer of the session.

Optionally, as another embodiment, if the traffic flow of the session and the current load of the PLMN under the serving gateway are greater than the load threshold of the PLMN under the serving gateway, the processor 802 may determine an establishment reject message of the session so as to instruct the MME to reselect the serving gateway to send the establishment request of the session.

Optionally, as another embodiment, if the traffic of the PLMN at the serving gateway is over-limited, the transmitting circuit 804 may further send the indication information of the PLMN traffic over-limit to the MME, so that the MME switches at least one session of the PLMN connected to the serving gateway to a serving gateway other than the serving gateway.

The serving gateway 800 may also implement the functions of the SGW in the embodiment shown in fig. 2 or the SGW1 and the SGW2 in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, which is not described herein again.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a mobility management entity apparatus 900 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The mobility management entity apparatus 900 may comprise transmit circuitry 901, receive circuitry 904, a processor 902, and a memory 903.

The receiving circuit 904 may receive current loading information and loading thresholds of a public land mobile network PLMN under at least one serving gateway.

The processor 902 may select a serving gateway according to the current load information of the PLMN to which the session belongs in the at least one serving gateway, the load threshold, and the traffic information of the session, from the at least one serving gateway.

The memory 903 may store instructions that cause the processor 902 to select a serving gateway from the at least one serving gateway according to the current load information of the PLMN to which the session belongs in the at least one serving gateway, the load threshold, and the traffic information of the session.

The transmitting circuit 901 may send a request for establishing the session to the serving gateway that meets the traffic flow requirement of the session.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the mobility management entity apparatus 900 obtains the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN to which the session belongs in each service gateway, and selects a service gateway meeting the traffic flow requirement of the session from the current load information and the load threshold to send the establishment request of the session, thereby controlling the load balance of the PLMN under the service gateway, and avoiding resource overload of the PLMN under the service gateway.

The processor 902 controls the operation of the mobility management entity apparatus 900, and the processor 902 may also be referred to as a CPU (Central Processing Unit). The memory 903 may include both read-only memory and random access memory, and provides instructions and data to the processor 902. A portion of the memory 903 may also include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). In particular applications, the transmit circuitry 901 and receive circuitry 904 may be coupled to an antenna 905. The various components of the mobility management entity apparatus 900 are coupled together by a bus system 906, where the bus system 906 may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, etc., in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are designated in the figure as the bus system 906.

The method disclosed in the above embodiments of the present invention may be applied to the processor 902, or implemented by the processor 902. The processor 902 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 902. The processor 902 may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 903, and the processor 902 reads the information in the memory 903 and performs the steps of the above method in combination with the hardware thereof.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the transmitting circuit 901 may further send a first load query request to the at least one serving gateway so that the receiving circuit 904 receives the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN under the at least one serving gateway.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the transmitting circuit 901 may further send a second load query request to the server so that the receiving circuit 904 receives the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMNs under the at least one serving gateway, where the current load information and the load threshold of each PLMN under the at least one serving gateway are recorded in the server.

In the embodiment, the mobility management entity 900 may also implement the function of the MME in the embodiment shown in fig. 4 or fig. 5, which is not described herein again.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present invention, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present invention.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

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

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

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 network 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 invention 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 functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of 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 invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for controlling flow of an operator shared network is characterized by comprising the following steps:

a mobility management entity MME receives current load information and a load threshold of a public land mobile network PLMN sent by at least one service gateway; or,

the MME receives load information sent by a server according to a load query request of the MME, wherein the load information comprises current load information and a load threshold of a PLMN recorded under at least one service gateway of the server;

and the MME controls the load balance of the PLMN under the service gateway according to the service flow information of the session under the PLMN, the current load information of the PLMN under the service gateway and the load threshold of the PLMN under the service gateway.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the MME controlling load balancing of the PLMN under a serving gateway based on traffic flow information belonging to a session under the PLMN, current load information of the PLMN under a serving gateway, and a load threshold of the PLMN under a serving gateway comprises:

and the MME selects a service gateway meeting the service flow requirement of the session from the at least one service gateway according to the service flow information of the session, the current load information of the PLMN under the service gateway and the load threshold of the PLMN under the service gateway, and sends the establishment request of the session to the service gateway meeting the service flow requirement of the session so as to establish the bearer of the session.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the loading threshold of the PLMN at the serving gateway is a predetermined threshold or a threshold adjusted according to an operation policy.

4. An apparatus of a mobility management entity, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive current load information and a load threshold of a public land mobile network PLMN sent by at least one serving gateway, or receive load information sent by a server according to a second load query request of the apparatus, where the load information includes current load information and a load threshold of a PLMN recorded under at least one serving gateway of the server;

a selecting unit, configured to select, according to current load information and a load threshold of a PLMN to which a session belongs in the at least one serving gateway and service traffic information of the session, a serving gateway that meets a service traffic requirement of the session from the at least one serving gateway;

and the sending unit is used for sending the establishment request of the session to the service gateway meeting the service flow requirement of the session.

5. The mobility management entity apparatus of claim 4,

and the current load information and the load threshold of the PLMN under the at least one service gateway are actively sent by the at least one service gateway.

6. The mobility management entity apparatus of claim 4,

the sending unit is further configured to send a first load query request to the at least one serving gateway so that the receiving unit receives current load information and a load threshold of the PLMN under the at least one serving gateway.

7. The mobility management entity apparatus of claim 4,

the sending unit is further configured to send the second load query request to a server.