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KR-102963538-B1 - EDGDE COMPUTING ROUTER, AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF

KR102963538B1KR 102963538 B1KR102963538 B1KR 102963538B1KR-102963538-B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to an edge computing router and a method of operation of the edge computing router for maintaining context information of a terminal regarding an edge computing service when the access network connection of a terminal using an edge computing service changes.

Inventors

  • 정문영

Assignees

  • 에스케이텔레콤 주식회사

Dates

Publication Date
20260511
Application Date
20201019

Claims (10)

  1. A determination unit that determines at least one instance among each instance of an application installed on an edge cloud site as a service instance for the edge computing service according to a signaling message received from a terminal for accessing the edge computing service; A routing unit for forming a new session for traffic transmission between the terminal and the service instance; and An edge computing router characterized by including a session management unit that generates session management information regarding the new session, and when the previous source address of the terminal recorded in the session management information is identified from a signaling message received from the terminal upon reconnection due to a change in the terminal's access network connection, the service instance forms a subsequent session identical to the new session.
  2. In Article 1, The above decision unit is, An edge computing router characterized by determining at least one of the instances matching the representative address as the service instance according to a predefined traffic distribution policy when the destination address of the above signaling message is a representative address for each instance of the above application.
  3. In Article 1, The above session management unit is, The session management information is generated to include the previous source address recorded in a specific field defined within the signaling message, and The above previous source address is, An edge computing router characterized by the source address assigned to the terminal (UE) in the access network prior to reconnection, in relation to the reconnection of the edge computing service due to a change in the access network of the above terminal.
  4. In Paragraph 3, The above routing unit is, When the terminal whose source address has changed due to the change in the access network connection is reconnected to the edge computing service, it is checked whether the previous source address recorded in the specific field within the signaling message received for the reconnection matches the previous source address already stored in the session management information, and An edge computing router characterized by forming a subsequent session for traffic transmission between a terminal with a changed source address and a service instance when the previous source address recorded in the aforementioned specific field matches the previous source address stored in the aforementioned session management information.
  5. In Paragraph 3, The aforementioned specific field is, An edge computing router characterized by including an XFF (X-Forwarded-For) field defined in the signaling message that is the basis of HTTP.
  6. A determination step for determining at least one instance among each instance of an application installed on an edge cloud site as a service instance for the edge computing service according to a signaling message received from a terminal for accessing the edge computing service; A new session formation step for forming a new session for traffic transmission between the terminal and the service instance; and A method of operation of an edge computing router characterized by including a session management step of generating session management information regarding the new session, and, when the previous source address of the terminal recorded in the session management information is confirmed from a signaling message received from the terminal upon reconnection due to a change in the access network connection of the terminal, such that the service instance forms a subsequent session identical to the new session.
  7. In Article 6, The above decision step is, A method of operation of an edge computing router characterized by determining at least one of the instances matching the representative address as the service instance according to a predefined traffic distribution policy when the destination address of the signaling message is a representative address for each instance of the application.
  8. In Article 6, The above session management step is, The session management information is generated to include the previous source address recorded in a specific field defined within the signaling message, and The above previous source address is, A method of operation of an edge computing router characterized by the source address assigned to the terminal (UE) in the access network prior to reconnection, in relation to the reconnection of the edge computing service due to a change in the access network of the above terminal.
  9. In Article 8, The above method is, When the terminal whose source address has changed due to the change in the access network connection is reconnected to the edge computing service, it is checked whether the previous source address recorded in the specific field within the signaling message received for the reconnection matches the previous source address already stored in the session management information, and A method of operation of an edge computing router characterized by including a subsequent session formation step for forming a subsequent session for traffic transmission between a terminal with a changed source address and a service instance when the previous source address recorded in the aforementioned specific field and the previous source address stored in the aforementioned session management information match each other.
  10. In Article 8, The aforementioned specific field is, A method of operation of an edge computing router characterized by including an XFF (X-Forwarded-For) field defined in the signaling message that is the basis of HTTP.

Description

Edge Computing Router and Control Method Thereof The present invention relates to Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) technology, and more specifically, to a method for maintaining the context information of a terminal regarding an edge computing service when the access network connection of a terminal using an edge computing service changes. In existing mobile communication networks, it was common practice for all traffic generated from terminals (e.g., smartphones) to be transmitted to a central SP-GW (SGW, PGW) for reasons such as mobility management and billing. In this centralized network structure, services such as telephone (IMS), internet access, and messaging/video via various portals/OTT, which are mainly used at terminals, are not very sensitive to latency and have a capacity of at most tens of Mbps, so there were no major problems with their use. However, recently, terminal devices connected to mobile communication networks have become highly diversified, including not only existing smartphones (humans) but also objects such as cars, drones, sensors, VR headsets, cameras, and robots. Furthermore, services required by each terminal device require ultra-low latency (RTT) within a few ms to 10 ms, and have reached the point where large bandwidths ranging from hundreds of Mbps to several Gbps per stream are required. In this regard, Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) technology is attracting attention as a technology to meet these requirements, as it enables the provision of edge computing services, which are application services, at edge cloud sites (MEC Sites) located near terminals. In such multi-access edge computing, an application for edge computing services is installed on computing deployed at an edge cloud site, thereby providing ultra-low latency and high-capacity edge computing services to terminals connected to the edge computing service through an access network. However, the access network (e.g., 5G/4G, Wi-Fi) that a terminal connects to in order to use edge computing services may change depending on the wireless environment, and the terminal's reconnection to the edge computing service caused by such a change in the access network disconnects the terminal's context information in the edge computing service, resulting in a failure to guarantee service continuity. FIGS. 1 to 3 are exemplary diagrams for explaining an edge computing service environment according to the prior art. FIG. 4 is an illustrative diagram for explaining an edge computing service environment according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of an edge computing router according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is an exemplary diagram illustrating session management information according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart for explaining the operation method of an edge computing router according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings. In one embodiment of the present invention, Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) technology is provided, which enables the provision of an edge computing service, an application service, at an edge cloud site (MEC Site) located near a terminal. In such multi-access edge computing, an application for edge computing services is installed on computing deployed at an edge cloud site, thereby providing ultra-low latency and high-capacity edge computing services to terminals connected to the edge computing service through an access network. However, the access network (e.g., 5G/4G, Wi-Fi) that a terminal connects to in order to use edge computing services may change depending on the wireless environment, and the terminal's reconnection to the edge computing service caused by such a change in the access network disconnects the terminal's context information in the edge computing service, resulting in a failure to guarantee service continuity. To aid in understanding the explanation, Figure 1 illustrates an edge computing service environment according to the prior art. As illustrated in Fig. 1, in an edge computing service environment according to the prior art, an example structure is shown in which a common DB (App DB) is provided for each instance (App instance #1, #2, #3) at the application level providing the edge computing service. In this case, the App Server managing applications within the edge cloud site has a representative address (IP) representing each instance of the application, and accordingly, the terminal (UE) can access the edge computing service by receiving the representative address (IP) of the application in response to a DNS query (Domain Name System Query). At this time, each edge computing router (MEC Router #1, #2, #3) can manage the session of a terminal (UE) that leads from the terminal (UE) to the common DB (App DB) via each instan