JP7611817B2 - Method, device, storage medium and electronic device for allocating resources required for network functions - Google Patents

Description

This invention claims priority to Chinese patent application bearing application number 201811032776.6, filed with the China Patent Office on September 5, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and for example to a method, device, storage medium and electronic device for deploying resources required for NF.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization organization has defined in its standards that the 5th Generation mobile communication technology (5G) system architecture is a service-based architecture, that is, a service-based architecture (SBA) method. In SBA, each network function (NF) consists of different network function services (NFS), and the functions and interfaces of each NFS are independent, and traffic logic control is performed between different NFSs through message interactions. At the same time, 3GPP also defined in its standards the functions of NFS, as well as the interfaces and mechanisms for message interaction between NFSs.

However, no clear implementation form has been presented in the relevant protocols regarding how to deploy NF in SBA.

The embodiments of the present invention provide a method, device, storage medium, and electronic device for deploying resources required for an NF, which at least solves the problem that it is not clear how to deploy an NF in an SBA in protocols in the related art.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for deploying resources required for a network function NF is provided, the method including: determining information of a network function service NFS included in a target NF waiting to be edited; generating a virtual network function descriptor (VNFD) for the target NF based on the information of the NFS included in the target NF; and deploying resources required for the target NF based on the VNFD.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a deployment device for resources required for a network function NF is provided, the deployment device comprising: a determination module configured to determine information of a network function service NFS included in a target NF to be edited; a generation module configured to generate a virtual network function descriptor VNFD of the target NF based on information of the NFS included in the target NF; and a deployment module configured to deploy resources required for the target NF based on the VNFD.

According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, there is further provided a storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program being configured to implement a method according to any of the above embodiments when executed.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, there is further provided an electronic device comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program, the processor being configured to execute the computer program to implement a method according to any of the above embodiments.

2 is a flowchart of a method for provisioning resources required for a network function NF according to an embodiment of the present invention; 4 is a flowchart of editing and deploying NF based on NFS by adopting a manual method according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a flowchart of compiling and deploying NF based on NFS using an automatic method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a structural block diagram of a provisioning device for resources required by a network function NF according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a structural block diagram of an edit deployment system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings and examples. Unless inconsistent, the embodiments of the present invention and the features of the embodiments may be combined with each other in any combination.

In addition, the terms "first", "second", etc. in the specification, claims, and drawings of the present invention are used to distinguish between similar objects, and are not necessarily used to describe a particular order or priority.

In 5G and post-5G mobile communication systems, when editing, deploying, and managing NFs using Network Functions Virtualization Management and Orchestration (NFV-MANO), it is necessary to support the SBA method. In response to this need, in the embodiment of the present invention, a form for realizing editing and deployment of NFs based on NFS is provided, and the form in the embodiment of the present invention makes it easy to edit and deploy NFs based on NFS, which is also an effective complement and improvement to standard protocols. In this specification, "editing" means "orchestration".

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method for provisioning resources required for a network function NF according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the method includes S102 to S106.

In S102, the information of the network function service NFS included in the target NF waiting to be edited is confirmed.

At S104, a virtual network function descriptor VNFD for the target NF is generated based on the NFS information contained in the target NF.

At S106, the necessary resources are deployed to the target NF based on the VNFD.

Here, the above steps can be performed by an edit deployment system (also called an edit deployment tool).

In the above embodiment, a VNFD for an NF is generated based on the NFS information contained in the NF, and the necessary resources for the NF are then deployed based on the VNFD, i.e., the NF is deployed based on a network function service, and the NF is then deployed in an SBA. This solves the problem that it is not clear how to deploy an NF in an SBA in protocols that exist in related technologies.

In one preferred embodiment, there are multiple methods for determining the information of the network function service NFS included in the target network function NF to be edited. For example, the NFS information may be input directly, or a template containing the NFS information may be called up and the NFS information in the template may be adjusted according to the actual situation. The above methods are described below.

Determination method 1: Determine that the received input NFS information is NFS information included in the target NF. In determination method 1, the NFS information may be information input by the user via an interaction interface, or of course, NFS information input from a northbound interface system.

Determination method 2: determine a pre-configured service blueprint template corresponding to the target NF and including NFS information, adjust the NFS information included in the service blueprint template according to the received adjustment instruction, obtain the updated NFS information, and use the updated NFS information as the NFS information included in the target NF. In the determination method 2, multiple service blueprint templates (which can be stored in the form of a manifest file) can be pre-configured, and each service blueprint template can be used to describe information such as the type, number, and deployment parameters between NFSs included in a specific NF (i.e., the target NF), where each service blueprint template includes:
numbers indicating the types of NFS included in the NF and the number of instances of each NFS type; logical connection relationships between NFS; NFS deployment parameters including NFS marks, NFS logical network planes, NFS application software information, NFS resource requirement characteristics (e.g., acceleration requirements), NFS Quality of Service (QoS) characteristics, NFS Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, NFS gateways, NFS routing information, and NFS affinity/anti-affinity requirements; and NFS flexible policies including policies for adding and deleting instances of a certain NFS type.
Information on the above may be included.

In the above determination method 2, the above adjustment instruction may be an adjustment instruction input by the user via an interaction interface, or an adjustment instruction input from a northbound interface system.

In one preferred embodiment, adjusting the NFS information included in the service blueprint template in accordance with the received adjustment instruction and obtaining the updated NFS information includes at least one of the following adjustment methods:

Adjustment method 1: According to the received first adjustment instruction, the NFS information included in the service blueprint template is adjusted and the updated NFS information is obtained. Here, the first adjustment instruction includes adjustment information for the NFS information included in the service blueprint template. In adjustment method 1, the NFS information included in the service blueprint template is directly adjusted.

Adjustment method 2: According to the received second adjustment instruction, calculate the actual NFS information included in the target NF, adjust the NFS information included in the service blueprint template based on the actual NFS information, and obtain the updated NFS information. Here, the second adjustment instruction includes the service-level agreement (SLA) parameters of the target NF. In adjustment method 2, indirect adjustment of the NFS information included in the service blueprint template is realized according to the second adjustment instruction, that is, according to the second adjustment instruction, the NFS information that the NF should actually include is determined, and the NFS information included in the service blueprint template is adjusted based on the NFS information that should actually be included. Here, the second adjustment instruction may be instruction information input by the user via the interaction interface, or instruction information input from the northbound interface system.

In one preferred embodiment, the SLA parameters include at least one of a traffic model, a capacity, a quality of service, and a reliability. In this embodiment, the capacity may be a user capacity, i.e., the number of users that the editing and deployment system can support, the quality of service QoS may be the quality of the network, and the reliability may be the reliability of the editing and deployment system.

In one preferred embodiment, generating a Virtual Network Function Descriptor (VNFD) for the target NF based on NFS information included in the target NF includes calculating resources required for editing the target NF based on the NFS information, and generating a VNFD including information on the resources.

In one preferred embodiment, the resources include the type and number of Virtual Machines (VMs), the NFS flexible policy, the required network links, storage resources, and mirroring. In this embodiment, the number may be the number of instances of a single type of virtual machine, the NFS flexible policy is similar to the NFS flexible policy in the previous embodiment, the storage may be hard disk resources, i.e., the hard disk resources required for NFS deployment, and the mirroring may be the NFS version. In this embodiment, if the calculated NFS flexible policy does not match the NFS flexible policy in the service blueprint template, the calculated NFS flexible policy can be used to update the NFS flexible template in the service blueprint template.

In one preferred embodiment, performing deployment of required resources to the target NF based on the VNFD includes sending the VNFD to a network virtualization infrastructure NFVI to instruct the NFVI to perform deployment of required resources to the target NF.

In one preferred embodiment, sending the VNFD to the network function virtual infrastructure NFVI to instruct the NFVI to perform deployment of the required resources to the target NF includes sending the VNFD to the NFVI by management and orchestration (MANO) and instructing the NFVI to perform deployment of the required resources to the NF, i.e., when the NFVI receives the VNFD, it performs deployment of the required resources to the NF. In this embodiment, the editing and deployment system and the MANO that perform the above steps may be provided separately, or of course, the two may be integrated together.

In one preferred embodiment, determining the information of the network function service NFS included in the target network function NF to be edited includes determining the information of the NFS included in the target NF based on information input by a received user, or determining the information of the NFS included in the target NF based on information received from a northbound management system. The northbound management system described in this embodiment and the above-mentioned embodiments may be an upper management system of the edit deployment system. Thus, it can be seen that the NF deployment operation in the embodiment of the present invention may be triggered by a user or may be triggered by a northbound management system.

In one preferred embodiment, the NFS information included in the target NF includes at least one of the types of NFS included in the NF and the number of instances of each type, the logical connection relationships of the NFS included in the NF, the deployment parameters of the NFS included in the NF, and the flexible policies of the NFS included in the NF. In one embodiment, the listed NFS information is only preferred information, and the NFS information may further include other information that may appear subsequently.

In one preferred embodiment, the NFS deployment parameters included in the NF include at least one of: identification information of the NFS included in the NF; logical network plane information of the NFS included in the NF; application software information of the NFS included in the NF; resource requirement characteristic information of the NFS included in the NF; quality of service (QoS) characteristic information of the NFS included in the NF; network protocol (IP) address information of the NFS included in the NF; gateway information of the NFS included in the NF; routing information of the NFS included in the NF; affinity requirement information of the NFS included in the NF; and anti-affinity requirement information of the NFS included in the NF. In one embodiment, the listed NFS deployment parameters are only preferred parameters, and the NFS deployment parameters may further include other parameters that may appear subsequently.

In one embodiment, the deployment mode corresponding to the above adjustment method 1 may be called a manual deployment mode (corresponding to a mode in which the user triggers the deployment operation), and the deployment mode corresponding to the above adjustment method 2 may be called an automatic deployment mode. Below, the manual deployment mode and the automatic deployment mode are each described with reference to the embodiment.

[Example 1]
The process of manually editing and deploying an NF (Access Management Function, AMF) based on an NFS can be seen in FIG. 2, where AMF is an NF in a 5G core network and is responsible for managing access and mobility of 5G users. The process presupposes that a service blueprint manifest file or template of the NF (here, AMF) is preconfigured in an editing tool (corresponding to the above-mentioned editing and deployment system). As shown in FIG. 2, the process includes the following steps:

At 201, the user selects the NF (here, AMF) that needs to be edited in the editing tool interface.

At 202, the editing tool background selects a pre-configured AMF service blueprint template from the "NF Service Blueprint Management" module.

At 203, the editing tool analyzes the pre-configured AMF service blueprint template and, based on the template, represents the NFS components required for AMF in an interaction interface of a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

At 204, the user selects an AMF NFS component (corresponding to the NFS included in the NF described above), sets the type, number and deployment attributes of the component, such as the logical network plane name of the service, QoS parameters, external service IP address, gateway, etc., and generates a new AMF service blueprint and transmits it to the resource conversion module.

At 205, the resource conversion module calculates the required resources such as VM type and number, flexible policy, network links, storage resources, and mirroring based on the type, number and other parameter information of the selected services.

At 206, the editing tool generates a standard AMF VNFD file.
At 207, MANO interacts with NFVI based on the AMF's VNFD file and allocates the required resources to the AMF.

[Example 2]
The process of editing and deploying NF (taking AMF as an example) based on NFS in an automatic manner can be seen in Fig. 3, and the process assumes that a service blueprint manifest file or template of NF (here, AMF) is pre-configured in the editing tool. As shown in Fig. 3, the process includes the following steps:

At 301, the user selects the NF (here, AMF) that needs to be edited in the editing tool interface.

At 302, the editing tool background selects a pre-configured AMF service blueprint template from the "NF Service Blueprint Management" module.

At 303, the user inputs information such as the NF traffic model, capacity, QoS, and reliability into the editing tool interface.

At 304, the editing tool calculates the type, number and deployment attributes of NFS required for AMF, such as the logical network plane name of the service, QoS parameters, IP address and gateway of the external service, etc., and automatically generates a new AMF service blueprint and transmits it to the resource conversion module.

At 305, the resource conversion module calculates the required resources such as VM type and number, flexible policy, network links, storage resources, and mirroring, etc. based on the type, number and other parameter information of the selected services.

306, the editing tool generates a standard AMF VNFD file.
At 307, MANO interacts with NFVI based on the AMF's VNFD file and allocates the required resources to the AMF.

Through the above steps, the user can easily perform editing deployment and management of NF based on NFS by the editing tool. The editing tool may be deployed together with MANO in use or may be deployed independently.

From the above description of the embodiments, the method according to the above embodiment can be realized by adding the necessary general-purpose hardware platform to the software, and of course, it can also be realized by hardware. The technical solution of the present invention, the essential part or the part that contributes to the related technology, can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in one storage medium (e.g., ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk) and includes multiple instructions for performing the methods described in multiple embodiments of the present invention in one terminal device (which may be a mobile phone, computer, server, or network device, etc.).

In this embodiment, a deployment device for resources required for the network function NF is further provided, which is configured to realize the above embodiment and preferred embodiment. As used below, the term "module" can realize a software and/or hardware combination of a given function. The device described in the following embodiment can be realized by software, but it is also envisioned that it can be realized by hardware or a combination of software and hardware.

Figure 4 is a block diagram of the structure of a deployment device for resources required for a network function NF according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 4, the device includes a module determination module 42, a generation module 44, and a deployment module 46.

The determination module 42 is configured to determine information on the network function service NFS included in the target NF waiting to be edited, the generation module 44 is connected to the determination module 42 and configured to generate a virtual network function descriptor VNFD for the target NF based on the NFS information included in the target NF, and the deployment module 46 is connected to the generation module 44 and configured to deploy resources required for the target NF based on the VNFD.

In one preferred embodiment, the determination module 42 includes a first determination unit configured to determine that the received input NFS information is NFS information included in the target NF.

Alternatively, the determination module 42 includes a second determination unit configured to determine a pre-configured service blueprint template corresponding to the target NF and including NFS information, and an adjustment unit configured to adjust the NFS information included in the service blueprint template according to the received adjustment instruction, obtain the updated NFS information, and make the updated NFS information the NFS information included in the target NF.

In one preferred embodiment, the adjustment unit is configured to perform at least one of the following operations:

Operation 1: In accordance with the received first adjustment instruction, adjust the NFS information included in the service blueprint template and obtain the updated NFS information. Here, the first adjustment instruction includes adjustment information for the NFS information included in the service blueprint template.

Operation 2: According to the received second adjustment instruction, calculate the actual NFS information included in the target NF, adjust the NFS information included in the service blueprint template based on the actual NFS information, and obtain the updated NFS information. Here, the second adjustment instruction includes the service level agreement SLA parameters of the target NF.

In one preferred embodiment, the SLA parameters include at least one of a traffic model, capacity, quality of service, and reliability.

In one preferred embodiment, the generation module 44 is configured to generate a virtual network function descriptor VNFD of the target NF by calculating resources required for editing the target NF based on information of the NFS and generating the VNFD including information of the resources.

In one preferred embodiment, the resources include the type and number of virtual machines, NFS flexible policies, network links, storage resources, and mirroring.

In one preferred embodiment, the deployment module 46 is configured to perform deployment of the required resources to the target NF by sending the VNFD to the network virtualization infrastructure NFVI to instruct the NFVI to perform deployment of the required resources to the target NF.

In one preferred embodiment, the deployment module 46 is configured to send a VNFD to the network function virtual infrastructure NFVI to instruct the NFVI to perform deployment of resources required for the target NF by sending a VNFD to the NFVI via the management and editing MANO to instruct the NFVI to perform deployment of resources required for the NF.

In one preferred embodiment, the determination module 42 can be configured to determine the information of the network function service NFS contained in the target network function NF waiting to be edited by determining the information of the NFS contained in the target NF based on information input by a received user, or by determining the information of the NFS contained in the target NF based on information received from a northbound management system.

In one preferred embodiment, the information on the NFS included in the target NF includes at least one of the types of NFS included in the NF and the number of instances of each type, the logical connection relationships of the NFS included in the NF, the deployment parameters of the NFS included in the NF, and the flexible policies of the NFS included in the NF.

In one preferred embodiment, the deployment parameters of the NFS included in the NF include at least one of identification information of the NFS included in the NF, logical network plane information of the NFS included in the NF, application software information of the NFS included in the NF, resource requirement characteristic information of the NFS included in the NF, quality of service (QoS) characteristic information of the NFS included in the NF, network protocol (IP) address information of the NFS included in the NF, gateway information of the NFS included in the NF, routing information of the NFS included in the NF, affinity requirement information of the NFS included in the NF, and anti-affinity requirement information of the NFS included in the NF.

The following provides an overall explanation of the editing and deployment system in an embodiment of the present invention, with reference to the examples.

[Example 3]
FIG. 5 is a structural block diagram of an edit deployment system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the system comprises the following modules:

The NFS Editing Management module (corresponding to the NFS Editing Management in FIG. 5) is configured to provide a GUI interaction interface, allowing a user to manually select NFS based on the interface, and configure NFs by specifying the type and number of NFSs, deployment characteristics, and logical connection relationships between NFSs.

The NFS calculation module (corresponding to the NFS calculation in FIG. 5) provides calculation capabilities and is configured to calculate the NFSs that constitute an NF based on information such as traffic model/capacity/QoS/reliability input by the user, i.e., based on the traffic and resource characteristics of a given NF, and automatically generate the type and number of NFSs, deployment characteristics, and logical connection relationships between the NFSs.

The NF service blueprint management module is configured to manage NF service blueprint manifest files including pre-configured NF service blueprint templates, newly generated NF service blueprints, and provide management capabilities for adding, deleting, searching, and modifying NF service blueprint manifest files.

The resource conversion module is responsible for converting the NF service blueprint manifest file into a VNFD file defined by the European Telecom Standards Institute (ETSI) standard, and is configured to be used for interaction between the MANO and the NFVI and to deploy NF resources. In one embodiment, the resources to be calculated are not limited to virtual machine resources, but may also be resource information such as a container or PoD (a combination of one or more containers).

In one embodiment, the multiple modules can be implemented in software or firmware, in which case the multiple modules can be implemented in a manner in which they are all located on the same processor, or in which they are each located on different processors in any combination, but this is not limited to the above.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program being configured to, when executed, perform steps in any of the method embodiments described above.

Preferably, in this embodiment, the storage medium may include media capable of storing various computer programs, such as a Universal Serial Bus flash disk (USB), a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a removable hard disk, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides an electronic device, comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program, the processor configured to execute the computer program to implement the steps of any of the method embodiments described above.

Preferably, the electronic device further comprises a transmission device and an input/output device, where the transmission device is connected to the processor and the input/output device is connected to the processor.

Preferably, the examples in this embodiment can be referenced from the examples described in the above embodiments and preferred embodiments, and the explanation of this embodiment will be omitted.

The embodiment of this invention realizes NF editing and deployment based on NFS, so that maintenance personnel can easily edit and deploy NF based on NFS using the NFS editing tool deployed in MANO, solving the problem that NFS editing and deployment cannot be performed in the SBA architecture, and is a complement and improvement to the 3GPP and ETSI standards, which has great engineering application value.

The modules or steps of the present invention described above can be implemented in a general-purpose computing device, and may be centralized in a single computing device or distributed across a network of computing devices, and preferably implemented in computing device executable program code, so that they can be stored in a storage device and executed by a computing device, and in some cases, the steps shown or described may be performed in a different order than that shown here, or they may be fabricated in one or more integrated circuit modules, respectively, or multiple modules or steps therein may be fabricated in a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the present invention is not limited to a specific combination of hardware and software.

Claims (10)

A method for provisioning resources required for a target network function (NF) executed by a processor, comprising:
determining information of a network function service NFS included in the target NF to be edited, the target NF being deployed in a service-based architecture SBA; and
generating a virtual network function descriptor (VNFD) of the target NF based on NFS information included in the target NF;
provisioning the resources required for the target NF based on the VNFD;
generating a VNFD of the target NF based on information of the NFS included in the target NF,
Calculating the resources required for editing the target NF based on information of the NFS;
generating the VNFD including information of the resource;
Performing the provisioning of the resources required for the target NF based on the VNFD,
sending the VNFD to a network virtualization infrastructure NFVI to instruct the NFVI to perform the deployment of the resources required for the target NF;
sending the VNFD to the NFVI to instruct the NFVI to perform the deployment of the resources required for the target NF;
sending the VNFD to the NFVI by a management and editing MANO to instruct the NFVI to perform the deployment of the resources required for the target NF;
A method for provisioning resources required by the target NF . Determining the information of the NFS included in the edit target NF includes:
Determining that the received input NFS information is NFS information included in the target NF; or
determining a pre-configured service blueprint template corresponding to the target NF and including NFS information; adjusting the NFS information included in the service blueprint template according to the received adjustment instruction; obtaining updated NFS information; and setting the updated NFS information as the NFS information included in the target NF.
The method of claim 1. adjusting NFS information included in the service blueprint template according to the received adjustment instruction and acquiring updated NFS information;
adjusting NFS information included in the service blueprint template according to a received first adjustment instruction, and obtaining updated NFS information; or calculating actual NFS information included in the target NF according to a received second adjustment instruction, and adjusting NFS information included in the service blueprint template based on the actual NFS information, and obtaining updated NFS information;
the first adjustment instruction includes adjustment information for NFS information included in the service blueprint template;
The second adjustment instruction includes a service level agreement (SLA) parameter of the target NF.
The method of claim 2. The SLA parameters are:
including at least one of a traffic model, capacity, quality of service, and reliability;
The method according to claim 3. The resource is:
including the type and number of virtual machines, NFS flexible policies, network links, storage resources, and mirroring;
The method of claim 1. Determining the information of the NFS included in the target NF waiting to be edited includes:
determining information of the NFS included in the target NF based on information input by the received user; or
determining information of the NFS included in the target NF based on information received from the northbound management system;
The method of claim 1. The NFS information included in the target NF is
The types of NFS included in the NF and the number of instances corresponding to each type;
A logical connection relationship of the NFS included in the NF;
NFS deployment parameters included in the NF;
and a flexible policy of NFS included in the NF.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6. The NFS deployment parameters included in the NF are:
Identification information of the NFS included in the NF, logical network plane information of the NFS included in the NF, application software information of the NFS included in the NF, resource requirement characteristic information of the NFS included in the NF, quality of service (QoS) characteristic information of the NFS included in the NF, network protocol (IP) address information of the NFS included in the NF, gateway information of the NFS included in the NF, routing information of the NFS included in the NF, affinity request information of the NFS included in the NF,
and NFS anti-affinity request information included in the NF;
The method of claim 7. A storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program being configured to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 when executed by a processor.
Storage medium. A memory and a processor,
A computer program is stored in the memory;
The processor is configured to execute the computer program to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.
Electronic device.

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