CN106464693B

CN106464693B - A kind of P-CSCF load management method and PGW

Info

Publication number: CN106464693B
Application number: CN201580031159.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈霞云; 倪国瑜; 邓涛; 陈丽金
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2015-06-29
Filing date: 2015-06-29
Publication date: 2019-09-20
Anticipated expiration: 2035-06-29
Also published as: WO2017000142A1; CN106464693A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses a kind of P-CSCF load management method and PGW, are related to the communications field, realize existing automatic load balancing and the load migration lossless to VoLTE voice service.Scheme provided in an embodiment of the present invention includes: the status message sent by receiving each P-CSCF of PGW management；According to status message, the load on each P-CSCF of PGW management is managed.The present invention is used for P-CSCF load management.

Description

P-CSCF load management method and PGW

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a P-CSCF load management method and a Packet Data Network GateWay (PGW).

Background

After a Voice Over LTE (Voice Over LTE, abbreviated as VoLTE) is deployed in a network, an Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network is composed of a Proxy Call Session Control function (P-CSCF), an inquiry Call Session Control function (I-CSCF), and a service Call Session Control function (S-CSCF). The P-CSCF is used as a proxy node for IMS access, and all IMS services need to be accessed through the P-CSCF.

Under the deployment of VoLTE, a PGW in an Evolved Packet Core (EPC for short) network is connected to a P-CSCF of an IMS network through an SGi interface, and the PGW is in a one-to-many relationship with the P-CSCF due to a capacity difference. User Equipment (User Equipment, UE for short) accessing P-CSCF, that is, the load of P-CSCF, selecting P-CSCF to be mainly allocated by PGW, UE needs to establish a default bearer for transmitting SIP signaling before IMS registration, request P-CSCF address to PGW in IMS PDN connection establishment process, PGW carries P-CSCF address list in response message (PGW feeds back P-CSCF address list according to weight ratio of each P-CSCF pre-configured by itself, performs load balancing to distribute User terminal), UE preferentially selects first P-CSCF address in P-CSCF address list, and initiates Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) registration, then normal voice calling and called service can be performed.

In the current actual deployment, load balancing is generally performed to distribute users to the P-CSCFs in the PGW according to the performance of each P-CSCF and the network deployment plan, and the load balancing distributed by the users is thus achieved.

However, there are some abnormal scenarios inevitable in VoLTE operation, and the load between P-CSCF devices needs to be adjusted, which specifically includes:

on one hand, according to a pre-configured way of allocating load by using fixed P-CSCF weights, load imbalance between actual P-CSCFs is caused in some abnormal scenarios, for example, there may be no user access on a P-CSCF restored after a failure, the number of users accessed by a newly-extended P-CSCF is very small, although a PGW issues a P-CSCF address based on a load sharing principle, due to terminal compatibility, not all terminals will preferentially select a first P-CSCF address of an address list, and the like. In the prior art, a method for controlling load imbalance among P-CSCF is not available, and long-term load imbalance greatly increases the risk of congestion of P-CSCF and enables an operator network not to be optimally utilized.

On the other hand, there are scenarios that require migration of the user on the P-CSCF device to another P-CSCF, such as P-CSCF upgrade, relocation, congestion, and the like. When these scenarios are processed in the prior art, the P-CSCF to be upgraded or moved may be directly offline or congestion may not be identified, which may cause the VoLTE voice service on the device to be damaged.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a P-CSCF load management method and a PGW, which realize automatic load balancing and lossless load migration of VoLTE voice service.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

in a first aspect, a P-CSCF load management method is provided, which is applied to a PGW, and the method includes:

receiving a status message sent by each P-CSCF managed by the PGW;

and managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the state message.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the status message comprises load information for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF;

the managing, according to the status message, the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW includes:

and distributing the load of the subsequent new access to each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information.

With reference to the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the status message comprises bearer information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded;

if there is a first P-CSCF in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message includes:

carrying out load migration on the first P-CSCF until the first P-CSCF is not overloaded; the first P-CSCF indicates the P-CSCF overloaded by the P-CSCF for the bearing information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW;

and distributing subsequent newly accessed load to P-CSCF except the first P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the state message.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the status message further comprises load information for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF;

the allocating, according to the status message, a subsequent load of a new access to a P-CSCF managed by the PGW, other than the first P-CSCF, includes:

and distributing subsequent newly accessed load to P-CSCF (P-CSCF) managed by the PGW except the first P-CSCF according to the load information.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

if the first P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message includes:

With reference to the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the state message comprises maintenance information used for indicating whether the P-CSCF is to operate and maintain;

if a second P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message includes:

carrying out load migration on the second P-CSCF until no load is accessed on the second P-CSCF; the second P-CSCF indicates the P-CSCF to be operated and maintained for the maintenance information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW;

and distributing subsequent newly accessed load to the P-CSCF managed by the PGW except the second P-CSCF according to the state message.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the allocating, according to the status message, a subsequent load of a new access to a P-CSCF managed by the PGW, other than the second P-CSCF, includes:

and distributing subsequent newly accessed load to P-CSCF except the second P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

if the second P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the managing, according to the status message, the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW includes:

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the status message also comprises bearing information used for indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded or not;

if a third P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message includes:

carrying out load migration on the third P-CSCF until the third P-CSCF is not overloaded; the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is not about to operate and maintain for maintenance information in a status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the bearer information in the status message indicates a P-CSCF in which the P-CSCF is overloaded; or, the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain for the maintenance information in the status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the bearer information in the status message indicates that the P-CSCF is not overloaded;

and distributing subsequent newly accessed load to the P-CSCF managed by the PGW except the third P-CSCF according to the state message.

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the allocating, according to the status message, a subsequent load of a new access to a P-CSCF managed by the PGW, other than the third P-CSCF, includes:

and distributing subsequent newly accessed load to P-CSCF (P-CSCF) managed by the PGW except the third P-CSCF according to the load information.

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

if the third P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message includes:

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, or the tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the load information includes at least one of the following information: the residual accessible load quantity of the P-CSCF and the occupation ratio of the P-CSCF capacity;

the managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information includes:

receiving a P-CSCF address request message sent by a first load; the first load is any one of the loads which are newly accessed subsequently;

feeding back a first P-CSCF address list to the first load; the first P-CSCF address list includes addresses of at least one P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the priorities are sequentially arranged from high to low according to the remaining accessible load number of each P-CSCF, or are sequentially arranged from low to high according to the capacity occupancy ratio of each P-CSCF.

With reference to any one of the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a twelfth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

for the fourth P-CSCF, the load migration includes:

scanning the user context and acquiring the load accessed to the fourth P-CSCF; the user context comprises the corresponding relation between each P-CSCF in the jurisdiction and the load of accessing the P-CSCF; the fourth P-CSCF needs to perform any P-CSCF of load migration;

according to a preset rate, sending a second P-CSCF address list to the load accessed to the fourth P-CSCF in batches respectively to indicate the load accessed to the fourth P-CSCF to migrate; wherein the second P-CSCF address list does not include an address of the fourth P-CSCF.

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a thirteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

after the sending, in batches, second P-CSCF address lists to the load accessing the fourth P-CSCF respectively according to the preset rate, the method further includes:

if the message of updating the P-CSCF address by the second load is not received after the preset time length, sending an IMS PND connection release message to the second load to indicate the second load to disconnect the current IMS PDN connection; wherein, the IMSPDN connection release message includes indication information for indicating the second load to immediately reinitiate an IMS PDN establishment request; the second load is any one of the loads of the P-CSCF address list which is sent;

receiving an IMS PDN establishment request sent by the second load;

and feeding back the second P-CSCF address list to the second load.

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the first aspect or the thirteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the sending a second P-CSCF address list to the load accessing the fourth P-CSCF in batches according to the preset rate, respectively, includes:

and according to the preset rate, sending the second P-CSCF address list to the loads which do not carry out communication in the loads accessed to the fourth P-CSCF in batches respectively.

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the thirteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, or the fourteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the priority of the P-CSCF address included in the second P-CSCF address list is arranged in sequence from high to low according to the number of the residual accessible loads of each P-CSCF, or is arranged in sequence from low to high according to the capacity occupation ratio of each P-CSCF.

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, any one of the twelfth possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the fifteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a sixteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

after the load migration, the method further comprises:

and no longer distributing the load of the new access to the P-CSCF carrying out the load migration.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the first possible implementation manner to the sixteenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a seventeenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

receiving a status message sent by each proxy call session control function P-CSCF managed by the PGW, including:

receiving a state message sent by each agent call session control function P-CSCF managed by the PGW through an SGi interface;

or,

and receiving the status message sent by each proxy call session control Function P-CSCF managed by the PGW through forwarding of a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF).

In a second aspect, there is provided a PGW comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a status message sent by each proxy call session control function P-CSCF managed by the PGW;

and the management unit is used for managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message received by the receiving unit.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

if a first P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

if the first P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the second aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

if a second P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

if the second P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

if a third P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

if the third P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, or the tenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the managing unit manages the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information, including:

With reference to any one of the second possible implementation manner of the second aspect to the tenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a twelfth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

for the fourth P-CSCF, the managing unit performs load migration, including:

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a thirteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the management unit is further configured to:

after the second P-CSCF address lists are respectively sent to the loads accessed to the fourth P-CSCF in batches according to the preset rate, if a message of updating the P-CSCF addresses by the second loads is not received after the preset time length, an IMS PND connection release message is sent to the second loads to indicate that the second loads disconnect the current IMS PDN connection; wherein, the IMS PDN connection release message includes indication information for indicating that the second load immediately re-initiates an IMS PDN establishment request; the second load is any one of the loads of the P-CSCF address list which is sent;

receiving an IMS PDN establishment request sent by the second load;

and feeding back the second P-CSCF address list to the second load.

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the second aspect or the thirteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fourteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the management unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the thirteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, or the fourteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fifteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the second aspect to the tenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, any one of the twelfth possible implementation manner of the second aspect to the fifteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a sixteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the management unit further includes:

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the first possible implementation manner to the sixteenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a seventeenth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the receiving unit is specifically configured to:

or,

and receiving the state message sent by each proxy call session control function P-CSCF managed by the PGW through the forwarding of the PCRF.

In a third aspect, a PGW is provided, comprising:

a receiver, configured to receive a status message sent by each proxy call session control function P-CSCF managed by the PGW;

and the processor is used for managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message received by the receiver.

With reference to the third aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the third aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

if a first P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

if the first P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the third aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

if a second P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

if the second P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

if a third P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

if the third P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the fourth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the seventh possible implementation manner of the third aspect, or the tenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the processor manages the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information, including:

With reference to any one of the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect to the tenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a twelfth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

for the fourth P-CSCF, the processor performs load migration, including:

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a thirteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the processor is further configured to:

receiving an IMS PDN establishment request sent by the second load;

and feeding back the second P-CSCF address list to the second load.

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the third aspect or the thirteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a fourteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to the twelfth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the thirteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, or the fourteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a fifteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the third aspect to the tenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, any one of the twelfth possible implementation manner of the third aspect to the fifteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a sixteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the processor further comprises:

With reference to the third aspect or any one of the first possible implementation manner to the sixteenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a seventeenth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,

the receiver is specifically configured to:

or,

According to the P-CSCF load management method and the PGW provided by the embodiment of the invention, the state message sent by each P-CSCF managed by the PGW is received; and managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the state message. Therefore, as the state message is fed back by the P-CSCF, the current state of each P-CSCF is dynamically reflected, and the PGW manages the load on each P-CSCF (management modes such as distribution, migration and the like) according to the state message, so that the load distribution better conforms to the current access capability of each P-CSCF, the load distribution balance degree is improved, and the overload risk of each P-CSCF is correspondingly reduced; the PGW can also unload the load on the overloaded P-CSCF or the P-CSCF to be operated and maintained, so that the damage of the overload of the P-CSCF or the operation and maintenance on the call of the load accessed to the P-CSCF is avoided, and the user experience is well improved.

Drawings

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

Fig. 1 is a flow chart of IMS PDN establishment provided in the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a fault recovery provided by the prior art;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a P-CSCF load management method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of another P-CSCF load management method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4A is a schematic flowchart of a load migration method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of another P-CSCF load management method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating an apparatus structure of a PGW according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a block diagram of another PGW 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 only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Specifically, under the deployment of VoLTE, before the UE initiates IMS registration, an IMS PDN connection is established. The process of UE establishing IMSPDN connection may be as shown in fig. 1:

s101, UE sends a PDN connection request (PDN connection request) message to a Mobility Management Entity (MME), wherein the message carries a request P-CSCF address indication.

S102, MME sends a request for creating session (CreateResponse request) message to a Serving GateWay (SGW), wherein the message carries a request P-CSCF address indication.

S103, the SGW sends a Create session request message to the PGW, and the message carries a request P-CSCF address indication.

S104, PGW selects P-CSCF address list according to load sharing principle, and sends it to SGW by creating session response Create session response message.

The selected P-CSCF address list at least comprises the address of the P-CSCF which is selected by the PGW according to the load sharing principle and is preferentially distributed.

Specifically, in the current actual deployment, load balancing is generally performed to distribute users to the P-CSCFs that are butted according to the performance of each P-CSCF and the network deployment plan, and the fixed P-CSCF weights are pre-configured in the PGW, so that load balancing of user distribution is achieved.

For example, assuming that a PGW manages 4P-CSCFs (respectively recorded as P-CSCF1, P-CSCF2, P-CSCF3, and P-CSCF4), according to the performance and network deployment plan of each P-CSCF, the pre-configured fixed P-CSCF weights in the PGW are: 25:25:10:40. Then, when the PGW performs load balancing distribution to the user according to the configured weight value, the following operations are sequentially performed in order: the P-CSCF1 is allocated 25 loads first, then the P-CSCF2 is allocated 25 loads, then the P-CSCF3 is allocated 10 loads, then the P-CSCF4 is allocated 40 loads, and then the process is repeated to ensure that the subscriber count rate at each P-CSCF is substantially close to the respective weight ratio (25:25:10: 40).

It should be noted that the above examples are only for illustrating load distribution, and are not intended to limit the specific manner of load distribution.

Optionally, the selected P-CSCF address list may be one P-CSCF address, or may be multiple P-CSCF addresses.

Preferably, when the selected P-CSCF address list is a plurality of P-CSCF addresses, the P-CSCF address ranked first is a high priority address for the UE to preferentially select.

S105, the SGW sends a Create session response message to the MME, and the message carries the P-CSCF address list.

S106, the MME sends a PDN connection reception connection accept message to the UE, and the message carries a P-CSCF address list.

S107, the UE selects a P-CSCF address from the P-CSCF address list to initiate IMS registration.

Preferably, the UE selects the P-CSCF address with the highest priority from the P-CSCF address list to initiate IMS registration.

S108, after the UE successfully registers in the IMS, the P-CSCF accessed by the UE sends an Application Authentication Request (AAR) message to the PCRF.

Wherein, the AAR message carries the P-CSCF address registered by the UE.

S109, PCRF sends authentication response Request (Re-Auth-Request, RAR for short) message to PGW.

The RAR message carries the P-CSCF address registered by the UE.

Therefore, through two steps of S108 and S109, the PGW knows the P-CSCF address registered by the UE, and updates the correspondence between the UE and the P-CSCF to the user context in the PGW.

Furthermore, when the UE is successfully registered in the IMS, the P-CSCF has a risk of failure, and when a certain P-CSCF fails, the PGW also needs to perform failure recovery on the UE accessing the P-CSCF; referring to fig. 2, taking the PGW-to-P-CSCF 1 monitoring procedure as an example, a procedure for the PGW to perform failure recovery on a UE accessing to the P-CSCF1 is described, where the procedure may include:

s201, PGW periodically detects whether P-CSCF1 is reachable;

s202, when the PGW finds that the P-CSCF1 is not reachable, the PGW sends an Update bearer request (Update bearer request) message to the UE registered on the P-CSCF1 through the SGW;

wherein, the updated P-CSCF address list is carried in the Update bearer request message; the updated P-CSCF address list does not contain the failed P-CSCF 1.

S202, after receiving the updated P-CSCF address list, the UE selects a P-CSCF address from the updated P-CSCF address list and initiates IMS registration again.

It should be noted that, due to the UE compatibility problem, part of the terminals do not support the failure recovery procedure initiated by the PGW, that is, in S202, the UE receives the updated P-CSCF address list and does not initiate the IMS registration again.

The flow after S202 is the same as S108 and S109, and is not described again here.

Example one

An embodiment of the present invention provides a P-CSCF load management method, which is applied to a PGW, and with reference to fig. 3, the method may include:

s301, receiving a status message sent by each P-CSCF managed by the PGW.

Optionally, the status message may be a conventional interaction message between the PGW and the P-CSCF, that is, the content in the status message is carried by the conventional interaction message between the PGW and the P-CSCF.

Of course, the status message may also be a dedicated message, which is dedicated to sending the content included in the status message; the present invention does not specifically limit the form of the status message.

It should be noted that, no matter what form the status message takes, the receiving time of the status message may be determined according to actual requirements, and the present invention is not limited in this respect.

For example, if the status message is a normal interaction message between the PGW and the P-CSCF, the status message may be sent along with the normal interaction message, and the content of the status message is carried when the normal interaction message is sent once.

For example, if the status message is a dedicated message, the status message may be sent periodically or at a preset time point, which is not limited in the present invention.

Optionally, the method for receiving the status message by the PGW may include, but is not limited to, the following two methods:

the first mode is as follows:

and receiving the status message sent by each P-CSCF in the jurisdiction through the SGi interface.

And the SGi interface is a direct communication interface between the PGW and the P-CSCF.

Optionally, in the first manner, if the status message is a conventional interaction message between the PGW and the P-CSCF, the status message may be a probe message, for example, a Ping message.

It should be noted that, if the status message is a conventional interaction message between the PGW and the P-CSCF, the form of the status message may be set according to actual requirements, and the present invention is not limited to this specifically.

The second mode is as follows:

and receiving the status message sent by each P-CSCF in the jurisdiction through the forwarding of the PCRF.

When the PGW receives the status message sent by each P-CSCF in the administration via the forwarding of the PCRF, the PGW receives the status message via the message interaction of the Rx interface and the Gx interface.

For example, in the first manner, if the status message is a normal interaction message between the PGW and the P-CSCF, the Rx interface message may be an AAR message; the Gx interface message may be a RAR interface message.

For example, the P-CSCF may send a status message to the PCRF over an Rx interface message (e.g., AAR message), which the PCRF forwards to the PGW using a Gx interface message (e.g., RAR).

S302, according to the state information, load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW is managed.

The managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW may include, but is not limited to: load distribution, load migration, etc.

Specifically, different contents may be included in the status message according to different actual requirements, so as to indicate the PGW to manage the load on the P-CSCF.

Optionally, the state message may include information reflecting the access capability of the P-CSCF, so that the PGW allocates a new access load according to the information, thereby improving the phenomenon of load imbalance.

Optionally, the state message may include information reflecting the overload of the P-CSCF, so that the PGW unloads the load on the overloaded P-CSCF according to the information, thereby improving a phenomenon that the service of the access user is damaged due to the overload.

Optionally, the state message includes information reflecting that the P-CSCF is about to perform operation and maintenance, so that the PGW unloads the load on the P-CSCF about to perform operation and maintenance according to the information, thereby improving a phenomenon that an access user service is damaged due to that the P-CSCF is about to fail to provide a service.

It should be noted that the content included in the status message may be set according to actual requirements, and the present invention is not limited in this regard. All schemes that the PGW manages the load on the managed P-CSCF according to the status message belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

The method for managing the load of the P-CSCF, provided by the embodiment of the invention, comprises the steps of receiving a state message sent by each P-CSCF managed by a PGW; and managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the state message. Therefore, as the state message is fed back by the P-CSCF, the current state of each P-CSCF is dynamically reflected, and the PGW manages the load on each P-CSCF (management modes such as distribution, migration and the like) according to the state message, so that the load distribution better conforms to the current access capability of each P-CSCF, the load distribution balance degree is improved, and the overload risk of each P-CSCF is correspondingly reduced; the PGW can also unload the load on the overloaded P-CSCF or the P-CSCF to be operated and maintained, so that the damage of the overload of the P-CSCF or the operation and maintenance on the call of the load accessed to the P-CSCF is avoided, and the user experience is well improved.

Example two

A second embodiment of the present invention provides another P-CSCF load management method, which is applied to a PGW, and with reference to fig. 4, the method may include:

s401, receiving a status message sent by each P-CSCF managed by the PGW.

The manner in which the PGW receives the status message sent by each P-CSCF managed by the PGW is described in detail in the first embodiment, and details are not repeated here.

Optionally, the status message of a P-CSCF may include at least one of the following information: load information used for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF, bearing information used for indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded currently, and maintenance information used for indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to carry out operation and maintenance.

Specifically, the load information may include at least one of the following information: the P-CSCF residual accessible load quantity and the P-CSCF capacity occupation ratio. The load information is sent after being statistically acquired by the P-CSCF, and the specific scheme for statistically acquiring the load information by the P-CSCF is not limited by the invention.

The P-CSCF capacity occupation ratio may be a ratio of the load quantity that the P-CSCF has accessed to the maximum accessible load quantity, or may be the load quantity that the P-CSCF has accessed to the maximum accessible load quantity. The invention does not limit the concrete representation form of the P-CSCF capacity occupation ratio.

Specifically, the bearer information is sent by the P-CSCF when determining that the P-CSCF is overloaded according to the load information of the P-CSCF.

When the P-CSCF judges that the number of the accessed loads is larger than or equal to a first preset threshold value, the P-CSCF judges that the P-CSCF is overloaded; or, when the P-CSCF determines that the occupancy rate of a Central Processing Unit (CPU) of the P-CSCF is greater than or equal to a second preset threshold, the P-CSCF determines that the P-CSCF is overloaded; the first preset threshold value may be less than or equal to the maximum number of the accessible loads of the P-CSCF; the second predetermined threshold may be less than or equal to 100%.

Specifically, the maintenance information is sent by the P-CSCF when determining that the P-CSCF is about to perform operation and maintenance according to an operation and maintenance instruction appearing inside the P-CSCF.

Wherein, the performing operation and maintenance includes but is not limited to: upgrading, powering down, etc. cannot continue the operation of the service.

It should be noted that, the representation format of the information included in the status message may be in a character form or a number form, and the present invention is not limited to this. All the two parties are known to each other.

Preferably, if one P-CSCF determines that it is overloaded or is about to perform operation and maintenance, the status message of the P-CSCF may not include load information.

Preferably, if a P-CSCF determines that it is not overloaded or is not going to operate and maintain, the status message of the P-CSCF may only carry information, but does not include bearer information or maintenance information.

Preferably, when a P-CSCF determines that it is overloaded, its status information includes bearer information.

Preferably, when a P-CSCF determines that it is going to perform operation and maintenance, its state information includes maintenance information.

Further, after receiving the status message sent by each managed P-CSCF, the PGW needs to manage the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message.

Optionally, according to different contents included in the status message, the PGW manages the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message, and may selectively execute any one of S402, S403, S406, and S409.

Specifically, if the status message received by the PGW only includes the load information, S402 is performed.

If the status message received by the PGW includes the bearer information, S403 is performed.

If the status message received by the PGW includes the operation and maintenance information, S406 is executed.

If the status message received by the PGW includes the operation and maintenance information and the bearer information, S409 is executed.

S402, distributing the load of the subsequent new access to each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information.

Specifically, the process of allocating the load of the subsequent new access to each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information may include the following steps a and B:

step A, receiving a P-CSCF address request message sent by a first load; the first load is any one of the loads which are newly accessed subsequently.

And step B, feeding back a first P-CSCF address list to the first load.

The first P-CSCF address list includes addresses of at least one P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the priorities are sequentially arranged from high to low according to the remaining accessible load number of each P-CSCF, or are sequentially arranged from low to high according to the capacity occupancy ratio of each P-CSCF.

It should be noted that, if only one address of a P-CSCF managed by a PGW is included in the first P-CSCF address list, priority ranking need not be considered.

Optionally, if the first P-CSCF address list only includes an address of a P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the address of the P-CSCF only included in the first P-CSCF address list is the highest number of loads that can be accessed in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW.

Optionally, if the first P-CSCF address list only includes an address of a non-overloaded and non-operation-and-maintenance P-CSCF in the jurisdiction, the address of the P-CSCF only included in the first P-CSCF address list is the lowest capacity occupancy ratio in the non-overloaded and non-operation-and-maintenance P-CSCF in the jurisdiction.

Illustratively, assume that PGW1 manages 5P-CSCFs, recorded as proxy 1, proxy 2, proxy 3, proxy 4, proxy 5;

at a certain time, the status messages (including only the load information) respectively sent by the 3P-CSCFs received by the PGW1 are:

status message of agent 1: the number of remaining accessible loads is 100, and the number of accessed loads is 200;

status message of agent 2: the number of remaining accessible loads 150, the number of accessed loads 100;

status message of agent 3: the number of remaining accessible loads 300, the number of accessed loads 50;

therefore, the PGW1 may allocate the load of the subsequent new access to the managed 3P-CSCFs (proxy 1, proxy 2, proxy 3) according to the load information in the status message.

Optionally, the scheme that the PGW1 allocates the load of the subsequent new access to the managed 3P-CSCFs (proxy 1, proxy 2, and proxy 3) according to the load information in the status message may include at least the following two schemes:

scheme 1:

as can be seen from the load information in the status message, the remaining accessible load amounts of the agent 1, the agent 2, and the agent 3 are: 100. 150, 300;

when the PGW1 receives a P-CSCF address request message sent by a newly accessed load, the PGW1 may sequentially allocate the newly accessed load to the proxy 1, the proxy 2, and the proxy 3 according to a load sharing principle and a weight ratio of 100:150:300 (i.e., 2:3: 6).

Alternatively, PGW1 may allocate 2 loads to agent 1, then 3 loads to agent 2, then 6 loads to agent 3, and then repeat the process.

Of course, the PGW1 may also allocate the load to the agent 2 first, or may also allocate the load to the agent 3 first, and the present invention does not limit the order of allocating the newly accessed loads to the agent 1, the agent 2, and the agent 3 in this example, and only needs to allocate the loads in sequence according to the weight ratio of 2:3: 6.

Scheme 2:

as can be seen from the load information in the status message, the capacity occupancy ratios of the agent 1, the agent 2, and the agent 3 are: 200/(100+200), 100/(150+100), 50/(300+50), namely: 66.7%, 40%, 14.3%;

when the PGW1 receives a P-CSCF address request message sent by the newly accessed load, the PGW1 distributes the newly accessed load in sequence according to the order of the capacity occupation ratios of the three P-CSCFs from low to high, so that the capacity occupation ratios of the P-CSCFs are as close as possible.

Illustratively, PGW1 may preferentially allocate the newly accessed load to agent 3.

Specifically, in the two schemes, if the PGW1 is used to distribute the load to the agent 1, the following steps may be specifically implemented:

when the PGW1 receives a P-CSCF address request message sent by a newly accessed load, the PGW1 may feed back to the newly accessed load a P-CSCF address list as follows: the address of agent 1; alternatively, PGW1 may feed back the list of P-CSCF addresses to this newly accessed load as: the address of agent 1, the address of agent 2, the address of agent 3.

S403, judging whether a first P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW.

And the first P-CSCF indicates the P-CSCF overloaded by the P-CSCF for the bearing information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW.

Specifically, if there is a first P-CSCF in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, S404 and S405 are performed.

If the first P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, S402 is performed.

S404, carrying out load migration on the first P-CSCF until the first P-CSCF is not overloaded.

Specifically, referring to fig. 4A, the method for performing load migration on the first P-CSCF may include:

s4041, scanning the user context, and acquiring the load of accessing the first P-CSCF.

The user context is stored in the PGW and comprises the corresponding relation between each P-CSCF in the jurisdiction and the load of accessing the P-CSCF.

Illustratively, as shown in Table 1, a user context is illustrated;

TABLE 1

Identification of P-CSCF in jurisdiction	Accessing the load identification of the P-CSCF
		1	UE1、UE3
2	UE2、UE4、UE8
		3	UE5、UE6
5	UE7
		……	……

It should be noted that table 1 is only an example to illustrate the included content of the user context, and is not a specific limitation on the form and content of the user context. In practical applications, the form and content of the user context may be determined according to actual requirements, which is not specifically limited by the present invention.

For example, assuming that the PGW2 receives the status message of the P-CSCF3 and includes the bearer information indicating that the P-CSCF3 is overloaded, the PGW2 scans the internal user context shown in table 1, and may obtain the load of accessing the P-CSCF3 as UE5 and UE 6.

S4042, according to the preset rate, sending the second P-CSCF address lists to the load accessed to the first P-CSCF in batches respectively to indicate the load accessed to the first P-CSCF to migrate.

Wherein the second P-CSCF address list does not include an address of the first P-CSCF.

Optionally, the priorities of the P-CSCF addresses included in the second P-CSCF address list are sequentially arranged from high to low according to the number of remaining accessible loads of each P-CSCF, or sequentially arranged from low to high according to the capacity occupancy ratio of each P-CSCF.

Because the second P-CSCF address list sent to the load accessing the first P-CSCF does not contain the address of the first P-CSCF, the load receiving the second P-CSCF address list can be re-registered to other P-CSCFs in the second P-CSCF address list, and the load transfer is realized.

Specifically, the preset rate indicates the number of messages that can be sent simultaneously, and therefore, according to the preset rate, the second P-CSCF address lists are sent to the loads accessing the first P-CSCF in batches, respectively, which means that the second P-CSCF address lists are sent to the number of loads indicated by the preset rate among the loads accessing the first P-CSCF each time, and the rest of the next batch of sending is performed.

Optionally, the predetermined rate is less than or equal to the processing capacity of the PGW. The preset rate may be set according to actual requirements, which is not specifically limited by the present invention.

Preferably, the predetermined rate is equal to the processing capacity of the PGW

For example, assuming that the processing capability of the PGW is 100P-CSCFs per second, the preset rate may be less than or equal to 100/second per second, i.e. the second P-CSCF address list may be sent to less than 100 loads accessing the first P-CSCF per second.

Illustratively, based on the example in step 1 above, if the processing capability of the PGW is that 100P-CSCFs can interact with each second, the PGW2 may send a second P-CSCF address list to the UE5 and the UE6 at the same time.

It should be noted that, when the second P-CSCF address list is sent in batch according to the preset rate, if the overhead of the PGW is detected to be too large, the sending at the preset rate may also be reduced, so as to improve the performance of the PGW.

Further, for a load of accessing to a first P-CSCF acquired by a PGW, there may be a load of a call in progress, and therefore, the sending a second P-CSCF address list to the load of accessing to the first P-CSCF in batches according to a preset rate may include:

and respectively sending the second P-CSCF address lists to loads which do not carry out communication in the loads accessed to the first P-CSCF in batches according to the preset rate.

And further, accessing the load of the call in the load of the first P-CSCF, and after the call is finished, sending a second P-CSCF address list to the first P-CSCF.

It should be noted that, for sending the P-CSCF address list to the load by the PGW, the P-CSCF address list may be sent directly through the SGi interface, or may be sent through forwarding of the PCRF, which is not specifically limited in the present invention.

It should be further noted that, for sending the P-CSCF address list to the load by the PGW, the current existing interaction message carrying the P-CSCF address list to be sent may be used, and the current interaction message may also be used in the form of a proprietary message, which is not specifically limited in the present invention.

Optionally, after S4042, the method for load migrating the first P-CSCF may further include the following S4043 to S4045:

s4043, if the message that the second load updates the P-CSCF address is not received after the preset time length, an IMS PND connection release message is sent to the second load to indicate the second load to disconnect the current IMS PDN connection.

The IMS PDN connection release message comprises indication information used for indicating a second load to immediately reinitiate an IMS PDN establishment request; the second load is any one of the loads of the P-CSCF address list sent.

Alternatively, the indication information may be a Reactivation (Reactivation) required reason value.

Specifically, the preset time duration may be implemented by using a timer, that is, after the second P-CSCF address list is sent to the second load, the timer is started, and when the timer is overtime, the preset time duration is ended.

It should be noted that the specific value of the preset duration may be set according to actual requirements, and the present invention is not limited to this specifically. The longer the preset time length is set, the better the judgment accuracy is, but the higher the system implementation requirement is; the shorter the preset time is, the lower the judgment accuracy is, and the lower the system implementation cost is.

Preferably, the preset time period is set to 10 seconds.

After the preset time length, if a message of updating the P-CSCF address by the second load is not received, the second load is not migrated successfully, and the steps 3 to 4 are required to be executed to re-register the second load so as to achieve the purpose of migration; the call damage of the second load caused by overload is avoided.

Alternatively, the message for the second load update P-CSCF address may be an AAR message in S109.

S4044, an IMS PDN establishment request sent by the second load is received.

S4045, feeding back the second P-CSCF address list to the second load.

It should be noted that S4044 and S4045 are the same as S103 and S104, and are not described again here.

Further, after the load migration is performed on the first P-CSCF, the newly accessed load will not be allocated to the first P-CSCF.

S405, according to the state information, distributing the load of the subsequent new access to the P-CSCF managed by the PGW except the first P-CSCF.

Further, on the basis that the status message includes bearer information indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded or not, the status message may further include load information indicating access capability of the P-CSCF.

Specifically, in S405, according to the status message, allocating a subsequent load of a new access to a P-CSCF managed by the PGW, except for the first P-CSCF, includes:

and distributing the load of subsequent new access to P-CSCF except the first P-CSCF in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information.

It should be noted that, in S405, according to the load information, a subsequent newly accessed load is allocated to a P-CSCF, other than the first P-CSCF, in a P-CSCF managed by the PGW, which is similar to a process of allocating a subsequent newly accessed load to each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information in S402, and only the P-CSCF address list fed back by the PGW to the newly accessed load does not include the first P-CSCF.

For example, assume that PGW1 polices 5P-CSCFs, recorded as proxy 1, proxy 2, proxy 3, proxy 4, proxy 5;

at a certain time, the status messages respectively sent by the 5P-CSCFs received by the PGW1 in the jurisdiction are:

status message of agent 3: has been overloaded;

status message of agent 4: the number of remaining accessible loads 300, the number of accessed loads 50;

therefore, the agent 3 is overloaded, and S404 is performed to load migrate it.

The PGW1 may allocate the load of the subsequent new access to (agent 1, agent 2, agent 4) according to the load information in the status message; for the specific allocation process, the detailed description has been already made in S402, and the detailed description is omitted here.

S406, judging whether a second P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW.

And the second P-CSCF indicates the P-CSCF to be operated and maintained by the P-CSCF for the maintenance information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW.

Specifically, if there is a second P-CSCF in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, S407 and S408 are performed.

If the second P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, S402 is performed.

S407, carrying out load migration on the second P-CSCF until no load is accessed on the second P-CSCF.

It should be noted that, for the specific process of the PGW performing load migration on the P-CSCF, detailed description is already performed in S404, and details are not repeated here.

Further, after the load migration is performed on the second P-CSCF, the newly accessed load will not be allocated to the second P-CSCF.

And S408, distributing the load of subsequent new access to the P-CSCF managed by the PGW except the second P-CSCF according to the state message.

Further, on the basis that the status message includes maintenance information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, the status message may further include load information for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF.

Specifically, in S408, according to the status message, allocating a subsequent load of a new access to a P-CSCF managed by the PGW, except for the second P-CSCF, includes:

and distributing the load of the subsequent new access to the P-CSCF managed by the PGW except the second P-CSCF according to the load information.

It should be noted that, in S408, according to the load information, a subsequent newly accessed load is allocated to a P-CSCF, other than the second P-CSCF, in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, which is similar to the process of allocating a subsequent newly accessed load to each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information in S402, and only the P-CSCF address list fed back by the PGW to the newly accessed load does not include the second P-CSCF.

status message of agent 3: operation and maintenance are to be carried out;

therefore, the agent 3 is ready to perform operation and maintenance, and then performs S407 to perform load migration.

S409, judging whether a third P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW.

The third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is not about to operate and maintain for maintenance information in a status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the bearer information in the status message indicates a P-CSCF in which the P-CSCF is overloaded; or, the third P-CSCF indicates, for the maintenance information in the status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, that the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, and the bearer information in the status message indicates the P-CSCF that the P-CSCF is not overloaded.

Specifically, if a third P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, S410 and S411 are performed.

If the third P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, S402 is performed.

And S410, carrying out load migration on the third P-CSCF.

Specifically, if the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is not about to operate and maintain for the maintenance information in the status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the bearer information in the status message indicates a P-CSCF in which the P-CSCF is overloaded, the load migration is performed on the third P-CSCF until the third P-CSCF is not overloaded.

And if the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain for the maintenance information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the bearing information in the state message indicates the P-CSCF which is not overloaded with the P-CSCF, carrying out load migration on the third P-CSCF until no load is accessed on the third P-CSCF.

Further, after the load migration is performed on the third P-CSCF, the newly accessed load will not be allocated to the third P-CSCF.

S411, according to the state information, distributing the load of the subsequent new access to the P-CSCF managed by the PGW except the third P-CSCF.

Further, on the basis that the status message includes maintenance information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain and bearer information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded, the status message may further include load information for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF.

Specifically, in S411, according to the status message, allocating a subsequent load of a new access to a P-CSCF managed by the PGW, except for the third P-CSCF, includes:

and distributing the load of subsequent new access to P-CSCF except the third P-CSCF in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information.

It should be noted that, in S411, according to the load information, a subsequent newly accessed load is allocated to a P-CSCF, other than the third P-CSCF, in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, which is similar to the process of S402, according to the load information, allocating a subsequent newly accessed load to each P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and only the P-CSCF address list fed back by the PGW to the newly accessed load does not include the third P-CSCF.

And S412, no longer allocating the load of the new access to the P-CSCF which performs the load migration.

Furthermore, due to the fact that the preset time length is set in the migration, migration failure caused by the problem of load compatibility is avoided, and the phenomenon that the call of the load is damaged is avoided.

EXAMPLE III

A third embodiment of the present invention provides another P-CSCF load management method, which takes the interaction between the EPC network and each element in the IMS network as an example, and describes the method shown in fig. 3 or fig. 4 in detail. The PGW directly interacts with the P-CSCF through the SGi interface.

The PGW is assumed to manage 2P-CSCFs, which are recorded as P-CSCF a and P-CSCF B, respectively.

Referring to fig. 5, the method may include:

s501, PGW receives state information containing load information sent by P-CSCF A and P-CSCF B through SGi interface respectively.

For example, the load information in the status message sent by the P-CSCF a and received by the PGW is: the capacity occupancy ratio is 30%; the load information in the status message sent by the P-CSCF B received by the PGW is: the capacity occupancy ratio is 50%.

S502, the PGW receives the P-CSCF address request message sent by the UE 1.

Wherein the UE1 is any one of the loads of the subsequent new access.

Specifically, the P-CSCF address request message sent by the UE1 is forwarded and received step by step through the MME, HSS, SGW.

S503, the PGW feeds back the P-CSCF address list to the UE 1.

The P-CSCF address list comprises the address of the P-CSCF A and the address of the P-CSCF B, and the priority of the address of the P-CSCF A is higher than that of the address of the P-CSCF B.

Specifically, the PGW feeds back a P-CSCF address list to the UE1, and forwards and sends the P-CSCF address list step by step through the SGW, the HSS, and the MME.

After S503, the procedure of registering IMS by the UE1 is described in detail in the first embodiment, and is not described again here.

S504, the PGW receives the state information including the bearing information sent by the P-CSCF A through the SGi interface.

Wherein the bearer information in the status message indicates that the P-CSCF A is overloaded.

S505, PGW scans user context and obtains load of accessing P-CSCF A.

For example, suppose that the PGW scans the user context and obtains 20 loads for accessing the P-CSCF a, which are recorded as UE 2-UE 21 in sequence.

S506, the PGW sends the updated P-CSCF address list to 5 loads which do not carry out communication in the loads accessed to the P-CSCF A according to the preset speed, and respectively starts a timer.

Specifically, the PGW sends an updated P-CSCF address list to 5 loads that do not have a call among the loads accessed to the P-CSCF a according to a preset rate, and the updated P-CSCF address list is forwarded and sent step by step through the SGW, the HSS, and the MME.

Wherein the preset rate is 5 processes per second.

Assume that the PGW transmits the updated P-CSCF address list to UEs 3, 6, 8, 10, and 12, which are not in a call among UEs 2 to 21.

The updated P-CSCF address list does not include the address of P-CSCF a, but only the address of P-CSCF B.

Assuming that before the timer is overtime, the PGW receives a message sent by the P-CSCF B that the UE3, the UE6, the UE8, and the UE10 update the P-CSCF address, and the message sent by the P-CSCF B that the UE3, the UE6, the UE8, and the UE10 update the P-CSCF address includes the identities of the UE3, the UE6, the UE8, and the UE10, which are used to indicate that the UE3, the UE6, the UE8, and the UE10 have re-accessed the P-CSCF B, so that the migration from the P-CSCFA to the P-CSCF B is realized.

It should be noted that the message sent by the P-CSCF B to update the P-CSCF address by the UE3, the UE6, the UE8, and the UE10 may be a single message or multiple messages, which is not limited in this invention.

Further, if the PGW does not receive the message sent by the P-CSCF B that the UE12 updates the P-CSCF address after the timer expires, S507 is executed.

S507, the PGW sends an IMS PND connection release message to the UE 12.

Wherein the IMS PDN connection release message comprises a reactivation requested cause value.

Specifically, the PGW sends the IMS PND connection release message to the UE12, and the message is forwarded and sent step by step through the SGW, the HSS, and the MME.

S508, the PGW receives the IMS PDN establishment request sent by the UE12 and feeds back the updated P-CSCF address list to the U12, so that the UE12 completes IMS re-registration.

S509, the PGW receives the state information including the load information sent by the P-CSCF a, and ends the load migration of the P-CSCF a.

And S510, the PGW receives the state information which is sent by the P-CSCF B and contains the maintenance information, and starts to carry out load migration on the P-CSCF B until no load is accessed on the second P-CSCF.

Specifically, the process of performing load migration on P-CSCF B in S510 is the same as the process of performing load migration on P-CSCF a in S505 to S508, and is not described herein again.

Furthermore, because the timer is set in the migration, the migration failure caused by the load compatibility problem is avoided, and the phenomenon that the call of the load is damaged is also avoided.

Example four

An embodiment of the present invention provides a PGW60, referring to fig. 6, where the PGW60 may include:

a receiving unit 601, configured to receive a status message sent by each P-CSCF managed by the PGW 60;

a managing unit 602, configured to manage the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW60 according to the status message received by the receiving unit 601.

Optionally, the status message may include load information for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF;

correspondingly, the management unit 602 may specifically be configured to:

and according to the load information, allocating the load of the subsequent new access to each P-CSCF managed by the PGW 60.

Optionally, the status message may include bearer information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded;

correspondingly, if there is a first P-CSCF in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW60, the management unit 602 may specifically be configured to:

carrying out load migration on the first P-CSCF until the first P-CSCF is not overloaded; the first P-CSCF indicates the P-CSCF overloaded by the P-CSCF for the bearing information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW 60;

and allocating the load of the subsequent new access to the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60 except the first P-CSCF according to the status message.

Further, on the basis that the status message includes bearer information indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded, the status message may further include load information indicating access capability of the P-CSCF;

correspondingly, the managing unit 602, according to the status message, allocates a subsequent load of a new access to a P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, except for the first P-CSCF, which may specifically include:

and allocating the load of the subsequent new access to the P-CSCFs other than the first P-CSCF in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW60 according to the load information.

Correspondingly, if the first P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, the managing unit 602 may specifically be configured to:

Optionally, the status message may include maintenance information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain;

correspondingly, if a second P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the management unit 602 may specifically be configured to:

carrying out load migration on the second P-CSCF until no load is accessed on the second P-CSCF; the second P-CSCF indicates, for the maintenance information in the status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, the P-CSCF to which the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain;

and allocating subsequent newly accessed load to the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW60 except the second P-CSCF according to the status message.

Further, on the basis that the status message includes maintenance information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, the status message may further include load information for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF;

correspondingly, the managing unit 602, according to the status message, allocates a subsequent load of a new access to a P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, except for the second P-CSCF, which may specifically include:

and allocating the load of the subsequent new access to the P-CSCFs other than the second P-CSCF among the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW60 according to the load information.

Correspondingly, if there is no second P-CSCF in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, the managing unit 602 may specifically be configured to:

Further, on the basis that the status message includes maintenance information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, the status message may further include bearer information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded;

correspondingly, if a third P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the management unit 602 may specifically be configured to:

carrying out load migration on the third P-CSCF until the third P-CSCF is not overloaded; the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is not about to operate and maintain for maintenance information in a status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, and the bearer information in the status message indicates a P-CSCF in which the P-CSCF is overloaded; or, the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain for the maintenance information in the status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, and the bearer information in the status message indicates that the P-CSCF is not overloaded;

and allocating the load of the subsequent new access to the P-CSCFs other than the third P-CSCF among the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW60 according to the status message.

Further, on the basis that the status message includes maintenance information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain and bearer information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded, the status message may further include load information for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF;

correspondingly, the management unit 602 may specifically be configured to:

and allocating the load of the subsequent new access to the P-CSCFs other than the third P-CSCF among the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW60 according to the load information.

correspondingly, if there is no third P-CSCF in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW60, the managing unit 602 may specifically be configured to:

Optionally, the load information may include at least one of the following information: the residual accessible load quantity of the P-CSCF and the occupation ratio of the P-CSCF capacity;

correspondingly, the managing unit 602 manages the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information, including:

feeding back a first P-CSCF address list to the first load; the first P-CSCF address list comprises addresses of at least one P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the priorities are sequentially arranged from high to low according to the number of the residual accessible loads of each P-CSCF, or the priorities are sequentially arranged from low to high according to the capacity occupation ratio of each P-CSCF.

Specifically, for the fourth P-CSCF, the performing, by the management unit 602, load migration may include:

Further, the management unit 602 may further be configured to:

receiving an IMS PDN establishment request sent by the second load;

and feeding back the second P-CSCF address list to the second load.

Preferably, the management unit 602 may specifically be configured to:

Preferably, the priorities of the P-CSCF addresses included in the second P-CSCF address list are sequentially arranged from high to low according to the number of remaining accessible loads of each P-CSCF, or sequentially arranged from low to high according to the capacity occupancy ratio of each P-CSCF.

Further, the management unit 602 may further be configured to:

Optionally, the receiving unit 601 may specifically be configured to:

receiving a status message sent by each proxy call session control function (P-CSCF) managed by the PGW60 through the SGi interface;

or,

and receiving the status message sent by each P-CSCF managed by the PGW60 through forwarding of the PCRF.

The PGW60 provided in the embodiment of the present invention receives a status message sent by each P-CSCF managed by the PGW; and managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the state message. Therefore, as the state message is fed back by the P-CSCF, the current state of each P-CSCF is dynamically reflected, and the PGW manages the load on each P-CSCF (management modes such as distribution, migration and the like) according to the state message, so that the load distribution better conforms to the current access capability of each P-CSCF, the load distribution balance degree is improved, and the overload risk of each P-CSCF is correspondingly reduced; the PGW can also unload the load on the overloaded P-CSCF or the P-CSCF to be operated and maintained, so that the damage of the overload of the P-CSCF or the operation and maintenance on the call of the load accessed to the P-CSCF is avoided, and the user experience is well improved.

EXAMPLE five

An embodiment of the present invention provides another PGW60, and referring to fig. 7, the PGW60 may include:

at least one processor 701; at least one communication bus 702 for enabling connection and intercommunication between the devices, a receiver 703;

the communication bus 702 may be an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended ISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) bus, or the like. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 7, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

The processor 701 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more Integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present invention.

The receiver 703 is configured to receive a status message sent by each P-CSCF managed by the PGW 60;

a processor 701, configured to manage a load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW60 according to the status message received by the receiver 703.

accordingly, the processor 701 may be specifically configured to:

correspondingly, if there is a first P-CSCF in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW60, the processor 701 may be specifically configured to:

correspondingly, the allocating, by the processor 701, a subsequent load of a new access to a P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, except for the first P-CSCF, may specifically include:

Correspondingly, if the first P-CSCF does not exist in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, the processor 701 may specifically be configured to:

correspondingly, if a second P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the processor 701 may be specifically configured to:

correspondingly, the processor 701 allocates a subsequent load of a new access to the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW60, except for the second P-CSCF, according to the status message, which may specifically include:

Correspondingly, if there is no second P-CSCF in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, the processor 701 may be specifically configured to:

correspondingly, if a third P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the processor 701 may be specifically configured to:

carrying out load migration on the third P-CSCF until the third P-CSCF is not overloaded; wherein, the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is not about to operate and maintain for maintenance information in a status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, and the bearer information in the status message indicates a P-CSCF in which the P-CSCF is overloaded; or, the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain for the maintenance information in the status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, and the bearer information in the status message indicates that the P-CSCF is not overloaded;

accordingly, the processor 701 may be specifically configured to:

correspondingly, if there is no third P-CSCF in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW60, the processor 701 may be specifically configured to:

correspondingly, the processor 701 manages the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information, including:

Specifically, for the fourth P-CSCF, the performing, by the processor 701, load migration may include:

Further, the processor 701 may be further configured to:

receiving an IMS PDN establishment request sent by the second load;

and feeding back the second P-CSCF address list to the second load.

Preferably, the processor 701 may specifically be configured to:

Further, the processor 701 may be further configured to:

Optionally, the receiver 703 may be specifically configured to:

or,

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 manners. 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 of some interfaces, devices or units, and may be an electric 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 be physically included alone, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, or in a form of hardware plus a software functional unit.

The integrated unit implemented in the form of a software functional unit may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. The software functional unit is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute some steps of the methods according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, but not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A P-CSCF load management method is applied to a packet data network gateway (PGW), and comprises the following steps:

receiving a state message sent by each agent call session control function P-CSCF managed by the PGW;

managing the load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message, wherein:

when the state information comprises load information used for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF, distributing the load of subsequent new access to each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the state information and the load information;

when the status message includes the bearer information for indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded or not, if a first P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, performing load migration on the first P-CSCF according to the status message until the first P-CSCF is not overloaded; the first P-CSCF indicates the P-CSCF overloaded by the P-CSCF for the bearing information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW; distributing subsequent newly accessed loads to P-CSCFs (P-CSCF) managed by the PGW except the first P-CSCF according to the state message;

when the state message comprises maintenance information used for indicating whether the P-CSCF is to be operated and maintained, if a second P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, carrying out load migration on the second P-CSCF according to the state message until no load is accessed to the second P-CSCF; the second P-CSCF indicates the P-CSCF to be operated and maintained for the maintenance information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW; and distributing subsequent newly accessed load to the P-CSCF managed by the PGW except the second P-CSCF according to the state message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the status message comprises bearer information indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded, and further comprises load information indicating access capability of the P-CSCF;

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the status message comprises bearer information indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded, and further comprises load information indicating access capability of the P-CSCF;

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the status message includes maintenance information indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, and further includes load information indicating access capability of the P-CSCF;

and distributing subsequent newly accessed load to P-CSCF (P-CSCF) managed by the PGW except the second P-CSCF according to the load information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the status message includes maintenance information indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, and further includes load information indicating access capability of the P-CSCF;

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the status message includes maintenance information indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, and further includes bearer information indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded;

performing load migration on the third P-CSCF; the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is not about to operate and maintain for maintenance information in a status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the bearer information in the status message indicates a P-CSCF in which the P-CSCF is overloaded; or, the third P-CSCF indicates that the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain for the maintenance information in the status message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, and the bearer information in the status message indicates that the P-CSCF is not overloaded;

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the status message further comprises load information indicating P-CSCF access capabilities;

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the status message further comprises load information indicating P-CSCF access capabilities;

9. The method according to any of claims 1, 3, 5, 8, wherein the load information comprises at least one of the following information: the residual accessible load quantity of the P-CSCF and the occupation ratio of the P-CSCF capacity;

10. A method according to any of claims 1-8, characterized in that for a fourth P-CSCF, the load migration comprises:

scanning the user context and acquiring the load accessed to the fourth P-CSCF; the user context comprises the corresponding relation between each P-CSCF in the jurisdiction and the load of accessing the P-CSCF; the fourth P-CSCF is any P-CSCF which needs load migration;

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein after said sending in batches a second list of P-CSCF addresses, respectively, to the load accessing said fourth P-CSCF at a preset rate, the method further comprises:

if the message of updating the P-CSCF address by the second load is not received after the preset time length, sending a multimedia subsystem IMS packet data network (PND) connection release message to the second load to indicate the second load to disconnect the current IMS PDN connection; wherein, the IMS PDN connection release message includes indication information for indicating that the second load immediately re-initiates an IMS PDN establishment request; the second load is any one of the loads of the P-CSCF address list which is sent;

receiving an IMS PDN establishment request sent by the second load;

and feeding back the second P-CSCF address list to the second load.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein said sending a second P-CSCF address list to the load accessing the fourth P-CSCF in batches according to a preset rate, respectively, comprises:

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the load information comprises at least one of: the residual accessible load quantity of the P-CSCF and the occupation ratio of the P-CSCF capacity;

14. The method of claim 10, wherein after the load migrating, the method further comprises:

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein receiving the status message sent by each proxy call session control function P-CSCF managed by the PGW comprises:

or,

and receiving the state message sent by each proxy call session control function P-CSCF managed by the PGW through forwarding of a policy and charging rule functional unit (PCRF).

16. A packet data network gateway, PGW, comprising:

a management unit, configured to manage a load on each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the status message received by the receiving unit, where:

when the status message includes load information used for indicating the access capability of the P-CSCF, the management unit is specifically configured to allocate a subsequent newly accessed load to each P-CSCF managed by the PGW according to the load information;

when the status message includes bearer information used for indicating whether a P-CSCF is overloaded, if a first P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCFs managed by the PGW, the management unit is specifically configured to perform load migration on the first P-CSCF until the first P-CSCF is not overloaded; the first P-CSCF indicates the P-CSCF overloaded by the P-CSCF for the bearing information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW; distributing subsequent newly accessed loads to P-CSCFs (P-CSCF) managed by the PGW except the first P-CSCF according to the state message;

when the status message includes maintenance information used for indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, if a second P-CSCF exists in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW, the management unit is specifically configured to perform load migration on the second P-CSCF until no load is accessed on the second P-CSCF; the second P-CSCF indicates the P-CSCF to be operated and maintained for the maintenance information in the state message in the P-CSCF managed by the PGW; and distributing subsequent newly accessed load to the P-CSCF managed by the PGW except the second P-CSCF according to the state message.

17. The PGW of claim 16, wherein the status message includes bearer information indicating whether a P-CSCF is overloaded, and further includes load information indicating access capabilities of the P-CSCF;

the management unit is specifically configured to:

18. The PGW of claim 16, wherein the status message includes bearer information indicating whether a P-CSCF is overloaded, and further includes load information indicating access capabilities of the P-CSCF;

19. The PGW of claim 16, wherein the status message includes maintenance information indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, and further includes load information indicating access capability of the P-CSCF;

the management unit is specifically configured to:

20. The PGW of claim 16, wherein the status message includes maintenance information indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, and further includes load information indicating access capability of the P-CSCF;

21. The PGW of claim 16, wherein the status message includes maintenance information indicating whether the P-CSCF is about to operate and maintain, and further includes bearer information indicating whether the P-CSCF is overloaded;

22. The PGW of claim 21, wherein the status message further includes load information indicating P-CSCF access capabilities;

the management unit is specifically configured to:

23. The PGW of claim 21, wherein the status message further includes load information indicating P-CSCF access capabilities;

24. The PGW of any of claims 16, 18, 20, 23, wherein the load information comprises at least one of: the residual accessible load quantity of the P-CSCF and the occupation ratio of the P-CSCF capacity;

25. The PGW of any of claims 16-23, wherein for a fourth P-CSCF, the load migration by the managing unit comprises:

26. The PGW of claim 25, wherein the management unit is further configured to:

after the second P-CSCF address lists are respectively sent to the loads accessed to the fourth P-CSCF in batches according to the preset rate, if a message of updating the P-CSCF address by the second load is not received after the preset time, a multimedia subsystem IMS packet data network (PND) connection release message is sent to the second load so as to indicate that the second load disconnects the current IMS PDN connection; wherein, the IMS PDN connection release message includes indication information for indicating that the second load immediately re-initiates an IMS PDN establishment request; the second load is any one of the loads of the P-CSCF address list which is sent;

receiving an IMS PDN establishment request sent by the second load;

and feeding back the second P-CSCF address list to the second load.

27. The PGW of claim 25, wherein the management unit is specifically configured to:

28. The PGW of claim 25, wherein the load information comprises at least one of: the residual accessible load quantity of the P-CSCF and the occupation ratio of the P-CSCF capacity;

29. The PGW of claim 25, wherein the management unit further comprises:

30. The PGW of claim 25, wherein the receiving unit is specifically configured to:

or,