Method and apparatus for the specification of a network slice instance and underlying information model

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10708143-B2
Application number	US-201816186266-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 9, 2018
Priority date	Nov 17, 2017
Publication date	Jul 7, 2020
Grant date	Jul 7, 2020

Abstract

A method comprises communicating a specification of a network slice instance (NSI) that identifies a network function (NF), and operating the identified NF in accordance with the specification.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A function in a communications network, comprising:
a processor; and
a non-transitory memory for storing instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the function to:
communicate a specification of a network slice instance (NSI) that describes the NSI, wherein the specification comprises information that specifies at least one of a plurality of network functions (NFs) of the NSI, an attribute of each NF of the NSI, and a topology of the NSI, the topology of the NSI designating traffic sources and traffic destinations of a plurality of links between the plurality of network functions; and
operate the plurality of NFs in accordance with the specification.

2. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the function is a management function (MF) or a network slice MF (NSMF).

3. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the specification includes a specification of a network slice subnet instance (NSSI) and the function is a management function (MF) or a network slice subnet MF (NSSMF).

4. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the instructions cause the function to develop an information model describing the NSI with the specification.

5. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the information further specifies connectivity of an NSSI that is a component of the NSI, and at least one service function chain (SFC) coupling a plurality of the NFs.

6. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the function to obtain the specification of the NSI in at least one of following solutions: a loosely-defined solution, a moderately-defined solution, and a fully-defined solution.

7. The function according to claim 6 , wherein, in respect of a specification that is other than the loosely-defined solution, the specification comprises the information that specifies the plurality of the NFs of the NSI and the topology of the NSI that identifies an existence of at least one link coupling two of the plurality of NFs.

8. The function according to claim 7 , wherein one NF associated with the at least one link is a control plane function (CPF) and the at least one link couples the CPF to a second one of the plurality of NFs controlled by the CPF.

9. The function according to claim 7 , wherein the at least one link is a logical link coupling the two of the plurality of the NFs.

10. The function according to claim 9 , wherein the information that specifies the topology of the NSI identifies an uplink (UL) direction and a downlink (DL) direction of the logical link.

11. The function according to claim 9 , wherein the instance is the fully-defined solution and the information that specifies the topology description of the NSI further identifies a capacity of the logical link.

12. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the specification is communicated to at least one of the NFs of the NSI that is a control plane function (CPF).

13. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the instructions cause the function to communicate by one of sending and receiving a NSI configuration request message comprising the specification.

14. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the function to communicate by sending a storage request including the specification to a database and informing at least one of the NFs to access the database to obtain the specification.

15. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the function to communicate by sending a storage request including the at least one aspect of the specification to a NSI specification database and informing a NSI specification database distribution function to access the NSI specification database and communicate the at least one aspect of the specification to at least one of the NFs.

16. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the function is one of the NFs that the information included in the specification of the NSI specifies.

17. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the function to execute at least one of instantiating, managing and controlling at least one of the plurality of NFs in accordance with at least one aspect of the specification of the NSI.

18. The function according to claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the function to communicate by obtaining a notification to access a database and obtaining at least one aspect of the specification from the database.

19. The function of claim 1 wherein the NSI is associated with one or more segments of the network where an end-to-end (E2E) network slice crosses.

20. The function of claim 19 wherein the NSI is configured based on the specification with one of fully defined, moderately defined and loosely defined solutions, and the NSI is configured differently from another NSI associated with different segments of the network.

21. A method comprising:
communicating a specification of a network slice instance (NSI) that describes the NSI, wherein the specification comprises information that specifies at least one of a plurality of network functions (NFs) of the NSI, an attribute of each NF of the NSI, and a topology of the NSI, the topology of the NSI designating traffic sources and traffic destinations of a plurality of links between the plurality of network functions; and
operating the plurality of NFs in accordance with the specification.

22. A system comprising a first function, a second function and a network interface communicatively coupling the first function with the second function, wherein the first function is configured to:
communicate a specification of a network slice instance (NSI) that describes the NSI with the second function via the network function, wherein the specification comprises information that specifies at least one of a plurality of network functions (NFs) of the NSI, an attribute of each NF of the NSI, and a topology of the NSI, the topology of the NSI designating traffic sources and traffic destinations of a plurality of links between the plurality of network functions; and
the first function is further configured to:
operate the plurality of NFs in accordance with the specification.

Assignees

• Zhang Hang
• Senarath Nimal Gamini
• Liang Chengchao
• Bor Yaliniz Remziye Irem
• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Hang
• Senarath Nimal Gamini
• Liang Chengchao
• Bor-Yaliniz Remziye Irem

Classifications

• H04L41/145 Primary

  involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network · CPC title

• H04L41/40 Primary

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title

• H04L41/5045

  Making service definitions prior to deployment · CPC title

• H04L41/5096

  wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications · CPC title

• G06F9/455

  Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines · CPC title