PFD management method, network element and computer-readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12495004-B2
Application number	US-202118247164-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 6, 2021
Priority date	Sep 30, 2020
Publication date	Dec 9, 2025
Grant date	Dec 9, 2025

Abstract

A PFD management method, a network element and a computer-readable storage medium are disclosed. The method may include: acquiring and storing PFD management request information sent by an Application Function (AF), wherein the PFD management request information comprises access point name (APN) information, application identifiers (APP ID), and a PFD, and the APN information and APP ID are associated with the PFD; and forwarding the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD in the PFD management request information to a (user plane function) UPF through a Session Management Function (SMF), to cause the UPF to store the PFD according to the APN information and the APP ID.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for managing Packet Flow Description (PFD), which is applied to a Network Exposure Element (NEF), the method comprising:
acquiring and storing PFD management request information sent by an Application Function (AF), wherein the PFD management request information comprises access point name (APN) information, an application identifier (APP ID), and a PFD, and the APN information and APP ID are associated with the PFD, such that a User Plane Function (UPF) is allowed to identify the PFD according to the APN information; and forwarding the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD in the PFD management request information to the UPE through a Session Management Function (SMF), to cause the UPF to store the PFD according to the APN information and the APP ID.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein acquiring and storing the PFD management request information sent by an AF further comprises, sending the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD of the PFD management request information to a Unified Data Repository (UDR), so that the UDR determines a mapping relationship corresponding to the APN information, and updates the mapping relationship according to the APP ID and the PFD, wherein the mapping relationship is the mapping relationship between the APP ID and the PFD; and
storing the PFD management request information in response to a reception of update confirmation information sent by the UDR.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein after storing the PFD management request information, the method further comprises, sending PFD creation confirmation information to the AF, to cause the AF to confirm that a response to the sent PFD management request information is completed.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein forwarding the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD in the PFD management request information to a UPF through an SMF comprises, receiving PFD acquisition request information sent by the SMF; and
forwarding the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD in the PFD management request information to the UPF through the SMF, in response to the APN information in the PFD acquisition request information matching with the APN information in the PFD management request information, and the APP ID in the PFD acquisition request information matching with the APP ID in the PFD management request information.

5 . A method for managing Packet Flow Description (PFD), which is applied to a Session Management Function (SMF), the method comprising:
acquiring access point name (APN) information, an Application Identifier (APP ID), and a PFD sent by a Network Exposure Function (NEF), wherein the APN information, APP ID, and the PFD are parameters associated with each other in PFD management request information, such that a User Plane Function (UPF) is allowed to identify the PFD according to the APN information, and the PFD management request information is acquired from an Application Function (AF) and stored by the NEF), and maintaining a cache duration of the PFD; and sending the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD to the UPF, to cause the UPF to store the PFD according to the APN information and the APP ID.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein after acquiring the APN information, APP ID, and PFD sent by a NEF, the method further comprises, storing the acquired APN information, APP ID, and PFD locally.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein acquiring the APN information, APP ID, and PFD sent by a NEF comprises, receiving a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule sent by a Policy Control Function (PCF), and acquiring target APN information and target APP ID from the PCC rule; and
in response to a failure in retrieving a target PFD locally according to the target APN information and the target APP ID, generating PFD acquisition request information according to the target APN information and the target APP ID, and sending the PFD acquisition request information to the NEF, to cause the NEF to send the APN information, the APP ID and the PFD according to the PFD acquisition request information.

8 . The PFD management method of claim 7 , wherein after sending the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD to a UPF, the method further comprises, acquiring PFD management result information sent by the UPF, wherein the PFD management result information is generated and sent by the UPF after storing the PFD according to the APN information and APP ID.

9 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer-executable instruction which, when executed by a processor causes the processor to carry out a method for managing Packet Flow Description (PFD), which is applied to a Network Exposure Element (NEF), the method comprising:
acquiring and storing PFD management request information sent by an Application Function (AF), wherein the PFD management request information comprises access point name (APN) information, application identifiers (APP ID), and a PFD, and the APN information and APP ID are associated with the PFD, such that the UPF is allowed to identify the PFD according to the APN information; and forwarding the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD in the PFD management request information to a (user plane function) UPF through a Session Management Function (SMF), to cause the UPF to store the PFD according to the APN information and the APP ID; or, the computer program which, when executed by the processor causes the processor to carry out a method for managing Packet Flow Description (PFD), which is applied to a Session Management Function (SMF), the method comprising,
acquiring access point name (APN) information, an Application Identifier (APP ID), and a PFD sent by a Network Exposure Function (NEF), wherein the APN information, APP ID, and the PFD are parameters associated with each other in PFD management request information, such that the UPF is allowed to identify the PFD according to the APN information, and the PFD management request information is acquired from an Application Function (AF) and stored by the NEF), and maintaining a cache duration of the PFD; and
sending the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD to a User Plane Function (UPF), to cause the UPF to store the PFD according to the APN information and the APP ID.

10 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein acquiring and storing the PFD management request information sent by an AF further comprises, sending the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD of the PFD management request information to a Unified Data Repository (UDR), so that the UDR determines a mapping relationship corresponding to the APN information, and updates the mapping relationship according to the APP ID and the PFD, wherein the mapping relationship is the mapping relationship between the APP ID and the PFD; and
storing the PFD management request information in response to a reception of update confirmation information sent by the UDR.

11 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein after storing the PFD management request information, the method further comprises, sending PFD creation confirmation information to the AF, to cause the AF to confirm that a response to the sent PFD management request information is completed.

12 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein forwarding the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD in the PFD management request information to a UPF through an SMF comprises, receiving PFD acquisition request information sent by the SMF; and
forwarding the APN information, the APP ID, and the PFD in the PFD management request information to the UPF through the SMF,

Assignees

• Zte Corp

Inventors

• Jian Huijun
• Hou Lichang
• Shen Yang

Classifications

• H04M15/8083

  involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts · CPC title

• H04L67/14

  Session management (for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066) · CPC title

• H04M15/63

  based on the content carried by the session initiation protocol [SIP] messages · CPC title

• H04M15/57

  for integrated multimedia messaging subsystem [IMS] · CPC title

• H04M15/8016

  based on quality of service [QoS] · CPC title