KR20220138353A - Method and apparatus for providing pvs address FOR REMOTE PROVISIONING - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is an NF within an onboarding network, which performs the steps of: receiving a provisioning server (PVS) address from an external domain; storing the PVS address; and transmitting, when a terminal requests registration for the onboarding network, the PVS address to the terminal according to an authentication result of the terminal.

Description

Method and apparatus for providing pvs address FOR REMOTE PROVISIONING

This disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for providing a provisioning server address for remote provisioning.

The 5G standalone non public network (NPN) can be used as a dedicated vertical industrial network. Since network subscription information may not be set in the case of a terminal used in an industrial dedicated network, an automatic setting method for network subscription information may be required for such a terminal. Remote provisioning of subscription information may be an example of such an automatic setting method. The terminal may receive information necessary for connecting to the target network by accessing the provisioning server located remotely through the onboarding network.

One embodiment provides NF in the onboarding network.

According to one embodiment, a network function (NF) in the onboarding network is provided. The network function includes a processor, a memory, and a communication unit, wherein the processor executes a program stored in the memory to receive a provisioning server address (PVS address) from an external domain, the PVS address , and when the terminal requests registration for the onboarding network, transmitting the PVS address to the terminal according to the authentication result of the terminal is performed.

When a change occurs in the provisioning server address, the onboarding network flexibly reflects the change in the provisioning server address, so that the correct provisioning server address can be delivered to the terminal requesting access to the provisioning server.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a topology of a mobile communication system according to an embodiment.
2 is a diagram illustrating an architecture of an onboarding network and a target network according to an embodiment.
3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of forwarding a provisioning server address according to an embodiment.
4 is a block diagram illustrating a network function according to an embodiment.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, it will be described in detail for those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains to easily implement the embodiments of the present disclosure. However, the present description may be implemented in various different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. And in order to clearly explain the present description in the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted, and similar reference numerals are attached to similar parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, a terminal is a user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal (MT), an advanced mobile station (AMS), a high reliability mobile station (high reliability mobile station, HR-MS), subscriber station (SS), portable subscriber station (PSS), access terminal (AT), machine type communication device (machine type communication device, MTC device) and the like, and may include all or some functions of UE, MS, MT, AMS, HR-MS, SS, PSS, AT, and the like.

In addition, the base station (base station, BS) is a node B (node B), an advanced node B (evolved node B, eNB), gNB, an advanced base station (ABS), a high reliability base station (high reliability base station, HR-BS), access point (AP), radio access station (RAS), base transceiver station (BTS), mobile multihop relay (MMR)-BS, a repeater serving as a base station (relay station, RS), a relay node (RN) serving as a base station, an advanced relay station (ARS) serving as a base station, high reliability relay station serving as a base station , HR-RS), small base station [femto base station (femto BS), home node B (home node B, HNB), home eNodeB (HeNB), pico base station (pico BS), macro base station (macro BS), micro base station ( micro BS), etc.], and all or part of the functions of NB, eNB, gNB, ABS, AP, RAS, BTS, MMR-BS, RS, RN, ARS, HR-RS, small base station, etc. may include

Throughout the specification, when a part "includes" a certain component, it means that other components may be further included, rather than excluding other components, unless otherwise stated.

In this specification, expressions described in the singular may be construed as singular or plural unless an explicit expression such as “a” or “single” is used.

As used herein, “and/or” includes each and every combination of one or more of the recited elements.

In this specification, terms including an ordinal number such as first, second, etc. may be used to describe various elements, but the elements are not limited by the terms. The above terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, a first component may be referred to as a second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as a first component.

In the flowchart described with reference to the drawings in this specification, the order of operations may be changed, several operations may be merged, some operations may be divided, and specific operations may not be performed.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a topology of a mobile communication system according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1 , a core network of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment includes a plurality of network functions (NFs) and may connect a data network (DN) and a UE.

A (Radio) Access Network ((R)AN) may represent a base station providing 3GPP connectivity and another base station or access point (AP) providing non-3GPP connectivity, such as Wi-Fi. . (R)AN may be connected to an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) through an N2 interface, and may be connected to a User Plane Function (UPF) through an N3 interface.

The AMF may be responsible for the mobility management function of the UE. The AMF may provide an access and mobility management function independently of an access technology, that is, in units of terminals. Therefore, each terminal may be basically connected to one AMF.

A session management function (SMF) may be responsible for managing a session to the UE. When multiple sessions are created in the terminal, a different SMF may be allocated to each session.

Policy Control Function (PCF) is a function of session management, mobility management, etc., based on packet flow information to ensure Quality of Service (QoS) received from an application function (AF). policy can be decided. The policy determined in the PCF is transmitted to the AMF and the SMF, and thereafter, mobility management, session management, QoS management, etc. may be performed in each NF.

The DN may transmit a protocol data unit (PDU) to be transmitted to the UE to the UPF or may receive a PDU transmitted from the UE through the UPF. UPF and DN can be connected through the N6 interface.

The UPF may be set using the control signal information generated by the SMF, and the UPF may report its status to the SMF through the N4 interface.

The terminal and the AMF may be connected through the N1 interface.

The authentication server function (AUSF) may store data for authentication of the terminal.

By collecting and analyzing various network data, NWDAF can help optimize the operation of network functions in the core network, such as AMF, SMF, and PCF. The NWDAF collects data, events, and status information from various network functions in the core network, and analyzes the collected data, events, and status information to provide various analysis information necessary for optimizing the operation of the network function. And each network function can optimize its operation by utilizing various analysis information generated by NWDAF.

The network repository function (NRF) stores information such as the network function profile (capacity, load, status, etc. of network function) and service of network function (capacity per service, load per service, status per service), etc. is an entity that does The information stored in the NRF may be provided by calling a service operation such as NFDiscovery_Request and NFManagement_NFStatusNotify.

A network exposure function (NEF) is an entity that securely opens services and capabilities provided by the ^3GPP network function to a third-party server or the like outside the 3GPP network.

2 is a diagram illustrating an architecture of an onboarding network and a target network according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the terminal may select an onboarding network for a remote provisioning service. In one embodiment, the onboarding network is a network capable of 3GPP access, and may be a public network or a non-public network (NPN). The NPN may include a stand-alone NPN (SNPN), a public network integrated-NPN (PNI-NPN), and the like.

The terminal may select an onboarding network based on broadcast information of the onboarding network. In an embodiment, the broadcast information of the onboarding network may include whether onboarding registration is supported. Thereafter, the terminal completes registration with the selected onboarding network and receives information necessary to access the target network through the onboarding network, and may access a provisioning server (PVS) based on this information. In one embodiment, the target network is a network capable of providing a specific service to a terminal, and may be a public network or a non-public network. The NPN may include SNPN, PNI-NPN, and the like. In one embodiment, the PVS may store essential information for the terminal to access the target network.

When the network selection parameter for selection of the onboarding network is not configured in the terminal, the terminal may select the onboarding network in a manual manner. After the registration step, when the terminal requests registration to the onboarding network, the onboarding network uses the default UE credential to determine whether the terminal is authorized to access the provisioning server through the PDU session In order to do this, the terminal may be authenticated. Here, the terminal may be a terminal that does not have subscriber information. In one embodiment, the default UE credential is information that enables the onboarding network to uniquely identify and verify the terminal, and is located in the terminal and/or in the default credential server (default credential) before the terminal performs the onboarding procedure. server, DCS). The onboarding network needs to connect to a device in an external domain, such as a DCS, in order to check the basic UE credential of the terminal.

When the terminal successfully accesses the provisioning server via the onboarding network, subscription credentials and other essential information may be provisioned to the terminal by the provisioning server for access to the target network. When the subscription credentials and required information are fully provisioned to the terminal, the terminal may deregister from the onboarding network and attempt to connect to the target network using the provisioned information.

In the present disclosure, various network architectures may be possible. In one embodiment, both DCS and PVS may be located within the onboarding network or within the target network. Alternatively, DCS and PVS may be located in different external domains, respectively. Referring to FIG. 2 , in one embodiment, a DCS is located in a first domain and a PVS is located in a second domain, and the first domain and the second domain are shown as different domains from the onboarding network.

In one embodiment, when the onboarding service is provided to the terminal, the AMF in the onboarding network may select the SMF to be used for the onboarding service by using the SMF discovery and selection functionality. Onboarding configuration data of AMF is single-network slice selection assistance information (Single - Network Slice Selection Assistance Information S-NSSAI) and data network name to select the SMF to be used for onboarding service , DNN) information.

If the UPF is selected for the onboarding service, the UPF selection function for the general service may be applied in consideration of the DNN used for the onboarding. The SMF and/or PCF may store S-NSSAI and DNN information used for onboarding.

The onboarding configuration data available to the PCF and/or SMF may include a provisioning server address (PVS address). In one embodiment, the PVS address may be in the form of a PVS IP address or a PVS Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). In one embodiment, the PVS address may be configured by an agreement between an operator of the onboarding network and a ^3rd party. Based on the agreement, the PVS address may be pre-configured in the terminal. In one embodiment, the third party may be the owner of the DCS, the owner of the PVS, or the manufacturer. Alternatively, the PVS address may be configured in advance by information included in a request from the terminal.

In one embodiment, the PVS address may be changed by generation, update, or deletion of the PVS, and the PVS may notify the DCS of the creation, update, or deletion of the PVS address. In one embodiment, the DCS may inform the onboarding network of the latest PVS address derived by an event such as creation, update, or deletion of a PVS address, and the onboarding network may use the latest PVS address to attempt access to the PVS. It can notify the terminal.

The PVS address may be delivered to the onboarding network by another server in a domain to which the DCS belongs. In one embodiment, the authentication server function (AUSF) and unified data management (UDM) of the domain to which the DCS belongs may deliver the PVS address of the provisioning server to the AMF of the onboarding network. In this case, the PVS address may be delivered through an interface connecting the domain to which the DCS belongs and the onboarding network. Alternatively, an Authentication Authorization Accounting (AAA) server of the domain to which the DCS belongs may transmit the PVS address of the provisioning server to the AUSF and/or AMF of the onboarding network. In this case, the PVS address may be transmitted through the AAA protocol between the domain to which the DCS belongs and the onboarding network.

When the terminal registered in the onboarding network successfully receives subscriber information (or subscription credentials) for accessing the target network through remote provisioning, the terminal needs to cancel registration to the onboarding network. The initial QoS parameters used when setting up the onboarding service may be configured in the SMF when dynamic policy and charging control (PCC) is not used. In one embodiment, dynamic PCC may be used for PDU sessions established for onboarding services. The QoS flow of the PDU session associated with the restricted DNN may be used exclusively for the onboarding service.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of delivering a PVS address according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 3 , an application function (AF) 100 of an external domain capable of performing a DCS or PVS role may generate a new request (eg, AF request) for configuring a PVS address. There is (S110). In one embodiment, the PVS address may be changed by creation of PVS, update of PVS, deletion of PVS, etc., and AF 100 is an onboarding network for configuration of a PVS address according to creation, update, or deletion of PVS You can create a request for

Afterwards, the AF 100 may call the NF service to the onboarding network for the configuration of the PVS address (S120). In one embodiment, the AF 100 may call the Nnef_ServiceParameter_Create service operation when the PVS address is newly created. Alternatively, the AF 100 may call the Nnef_ServiceParameter_Update service operation to update the existing PVS address or call the Nnef_ServiceParameter_Delete service operation to delete the existing PVS address. When the AF 100 calls the NF service operation for updating or deleting the PVS address, the corresponding transaction reference ID provided to the AF 100 may be input in the response message of the Nnef_ServiceParameter_Create service operation.

When the service operation is called by the AF 100 , the NEF 200 may authorize the request of the AF 100 ( S130 ). The NEF 200 may perform the following mapping in order to authorize the request of the AF 100 .

- The NEF 200 may map a service identifier (eg, AF-Service-Identifier) to a combination of DNN information and S-NSSAI determined by local configuration.

- The NEF 200 may map the GPSI in the target UE identifier to the SUPI according to the information received from the UDM.

- The NEF 200 may map the external group identifier (External Group Identifier) in the target terminal identifier to the internal group identifier (Internal Group Identifier) according to the information received from the UDM.

When the Nnef_ServiceParameter_Create service operation is called, the NEF 200 may allocate a transaction reference ID to the Nnef_ServiceParameter_Create request.

Then, the NEF 200 creates a PVS address in a unified data management (UDM) / unified data repository (UDR), or updates the PVS address in the UDM / UDR, or UDM / UDR The PVS address can be deleted from within (S140).

In one embodiment, NEF 200 may store AF 100's request (including PVS address) as “application data” along with a transaction reference ID assigned within the UDR. The application data may be a data subset that sets "service specific information". Alternatively, the NEF 200 may delete request information of the AF 100 in the UDR.

Thereafter, the NEF 200 may respond to the service operation called by the AF 100 (S150). In one embodiment, the previously allocated transaction reference ID may be included in the response message of the Nnef_ServiceParameter_Create service operation.

Thereafter, the terminal may receive the PVS address from the onboarding network, and may access the PVS using the received PVS address. In one embodiment, when the terminal requests registration to the onboarding network (or requesting PVS address or PVS address information), the onboarding network may deliver the PVS address received from the AF 100 to the terminal. According to the flowchart of FIG. 3 , the UDM of the onboarding network may receive the PVS address from the AF 100 , and may provide the received PVS address to the SMF. Thereafter, the SMF may provide the corresponding PVS address to the PCF. In one embodiment, the AF 100 (eg, DCS) may provide the PVS address to the AMF of the onboarding network when the AF 100 performs an authentication procedure for a terminal connected to the onboarding network, The AMF of the onboarding network may send the PVS address received from the AF 100 to the SMF of the onboarding network. For example, the PVS address may be included in the Nsmf_PDUSession_CreateSMContext Request message that the AMF of the onboarding network delivers to the SMF.

In one embodiment, the PVS address transmitted from the AF 100 may be transmitted to the SMF through the AMF, and the terminal may receive the PVS address from the SMF in the response procedure of the PDU session. When the PVS address is created, updated, or deleted in the UDM of the onboarding network in step S140 of FIG. 3 , the SMF of the onboarding network may receive the latest PVS address in the generated, updated, or deleted state of the PVS address from the UDM. In one embodiment, the SMF may receive information about a PVS address change (changed according to creation, update, or deletion) from the UDM through a request of Nudm_SDM_Subscribe and a notification of Nudm_SDM_Notification.

As described above, when a change occurs in the provisioning server address, the onboarding network may reflect the change in the provisioning server address and deliver the provisioning server address to the terminal requesting access to the provisioning server.

4 is a block diagram illustrating a network function according to an embodiment.

A network function according to an embodiment may be implemented in a computer system, for example, a computer-readable medium. Referring to FIG. 4 , a computer system 400 includes a processor 410 , a memory 430 , an input interface device 450 , an output interface device 460 , and a storage device 440 that communicate via a bus 470 . ) may include at least one of. Computer system 400 may also include a communication device 420 coupled to a network. The processor 410 may be a central processing unit (CPU) or a semiconductor device that executes instructions stored in the memory 430 or the storage device 440 . The memory 430 and the storage device 440 may include various types of volatile or nonvolatile storage media. For example, the memory may include read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the memory may be located inside or outside the processor, and the memory may be connected to the processor through various known means. The memory is various types of volatile or non-volatile storage media, and for example, the memory may include a read-only memory (ROM) or a random access memory (RAM).

Accordingly, an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented as a computer-implemented method, or as a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored therein. In one embodiment, when executed by a processor, the computer readable instructions may perform a method according to at least one aspect of the present disclosure.

The communication device 420 may transmit or receive a wired signal or a wireless signal.

On the other hand, the embodiment of the present invention is not implemented only through the apparatus and/or method described so far, and a program for realizing a function corresponding to the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention or a recording medium in which the program is recorded may be implemented. And, such an implementation can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art from the description of the above-described embodiments. Specifically, the method (eg, network management method, data transmission method, transmission schedule generation method, etc.) according to an embodiment of the present invention is implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed through various computer means, and is stored in a computer-readable medium. can be recorded. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded in the computer-readable medium may be specially designed and configured for the embodiment of the present invention, or may be known and available to those skilled in the art of computer software. The computer-readable recording medium may include a hardware device configured to store and execute program instructions. For example, the computer-readable recording medium includes magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tapes, optical recording media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, and floppy disks. Such as magneto-optical media, ROM, RAM, flash memory, or the like. The program instructions may include not only machine language codes such as those generated by a compiler, but also high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer through an interpreter or the like.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. is within the scope of the right.

Claims (1)

A network function (NF) within an onboarding network, comprising:
It includes a processor, a memory, and a communication unit, wherein the processor executes a program stored in the memory,
receiving a provisioning server address (PVS address) from an external domain;
storing the PVS address; and
When the terminal requests registration for the onboarding network, transmitting the PVS address to the terminal according to the authentication result of the terminal
network functions that perform

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