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US-12627761-B2 - Methods and devices for policy control function network element selection

US12627761B2US 12627761 B2US12627761 B2US 12627761B2US-12627761-B2

Abstract

A method for selecting a policy control function (PCF) network element is performed by a first PCF network element. The method includes: in response to a received policy association establishment request being related to a packet data unit (PDU) session of a user equipment (UE) within a UE group, determining whether to select a same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE; and requesting a binding support function (BSF) network element to select a PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE based on a result of determining whether to select the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE.

Inventors

  • Wei Hong

Assignees

  • BEIJING XIAOMI MOBILE SOFTWARE CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20210331

Claims (16)

  1. 1 . A method for selecting a policy control function (PCF) network element, performed by a first PCF network element, the method comprising: in response to a received policy association establishment request being related to a packet data unit (PDU) session of a user equipment (UE) within a UE group, obtaining a result of determining whether to select a same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE; in response to the result indicating a need of selecting the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE, requesting a binding support function (BSF) network element to select a same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE; sending a registration request associated with the PDU session of the UE to the BSF network element, wherein the registration request comprises a UE group identifier of the UE group; receiving available PCF network element information fed back by the BSF network element, wherein the available PCF network element information is fed back when the BSF network element determines based on the registration request that the first PCF network element cannot serve as the same PCF network, and the available PCF network element information is related information of the same PCF network element; and feeding back the available PCF network element information to a session management function (SMF) network element.
  2. 2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining whether to select the same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE comprises: obtaining a user description of the UE from a user data repository (UDR), wherein the user description indicates whether the UE is subscribed to a service requiring group policy coordination; and determining whether to select the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE based on the user description.
  3. 3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining whether to select the same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE comprises: determining whether to select the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE based on a local policy in the first PCF network element, wherein the local policy indicates whether each UE belonging to a same UE group is served by a same PCF network element.
  4. 4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the UE group identifier is obtained by querying a user description of the UE stored in a user data repository (UDR).
  5. 5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein requesting the BSF network element to select the PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE comprises: in response to the result indicating no need of selecting the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE, requesting the BSF network element to select the first PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE.
  6. 6 . A non-transitory computer storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, that when executed by a processor, is caused to implement the method according to claim 1 .
  7. 7 . A method for selecting a policy control function (PCF) network element, performed by a binding support function (BSF) network element, the method comprising: receiving a registration request from a first PCF network element, wherein the registration request is related to a packet data unit (PDU) session of a user equipment (UE) within a UE group and wherein the registration request comprises a UE group identifier of the UE group; and selecting a same PCF network element serving each UE within the UE group for the PDU session of the UE based on the registration request; wherein selecting the same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE based on the registration request comprises: in response to binding information comprising the UE group identifier being registered in the BSF network element and a PCF network element indicated in the registered binding information being not the first PCF network element, feeding back available PCF network element information to the first PCF network element, wherein the available PCF network element information is related information of the PCF network element indicated in the registered binding information.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein selecting the same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE based on the registration request comprises: in response to binding information comprising the UE group identifier being not registered in the BSF network element, registering the binding information comprising the UE group identifier and selecting the first PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE.
  9. 9 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein selecting the same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE based on the registration request comprises: in response to binding information comprising the UE group identifier being registered in the BSF network element and a PCF network element indicated in the registered binding information being the first PCF network element, selecting the first PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE.
  10. 10 . The method according to claim 7 , further comprising: in response to the UE group identifier being carried in a received policy request related to an application function (AF) session of the UE within the UE group, selecting the same PCF network element for the AF session based on the UE group identifier.
  11. 11 . A communication device, comprising: a transceiver; a memory; a processor, connected to the transceiver and the memory respectively, wherein the processor is configured to execute computer-executable instructions on the memory, to control a wireless signal transceiving of the transceiver and implement the method according to claim 7 .
  12. 12 . A first policy control function (PCF) network element, configured to: in response to a received policy association establishment request being related to a packet data unit (PDU) session of a user equipment (UE) within a UE group, obtain a result of determining whether to select a same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE; and in response to the result indicating a need of selecting the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE, request a binding support function (BSF) network element to select a same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE; send a registration request associated with the PDU session of the UE to the BSF network element, wherein the registration request comprises a UE group identifier of the UE group; receive available PCF network element information fed back by the BSF network element, wherein the available PCF network element information is fed back when the BSF network element determines based on the registration request that the first PCF network element cannot serve as the same PCF network, and the available PCF network element information is related information of the same PCF network element; and feed back the available PCF network element information to a session management function (SMF) network element.
  13. 13 . The first PCF network element according to claim 12 , further configured to: obtain a user description of the UE from a user data repository (UDR), wherein the user description indicates whether the UE is subscribed to a service requiring group policy coordination; and determine whether to select the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE based on the user description.
  14. 14 . The first PCF network element according to claim 12 , further configured to: determine whether to select the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE based on a local policy in the first PCF network element, wherein the local policy indicates whether each UE belonging to a same UE group is served by a same PCF network element.
  15. 15 . The first PCF network element according to claim 12 , wherein the UE group identifier is obtained by querying a user description of the UE stored in a user data repository (UDR).
  16. 16 . The first PCF network element according to claim 12 , further configured to: in response to the result indicating no need of selecting the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE, request the BSF network element to select the first PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is the U.S. national application of International Application No. PCT/CN2021/084756, filed on Mar. 31, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The disclosure relates to a field of mobile communication technologies, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for selecting a policy control function (PCF) network element. BACKGROUND In a current mobile network system, packet data unit (PDU) sessions of different user equipment (UE) are served by different policy control function (PCF) network elements, and the same is true even for UEs belonging to the same group of UEs, resulting in a heavy interaction process between different PCF network elements when group policy coordination is performed between different UEs. SUMMARY A method for selecting a policy control function (PCF) network element is provided in a first aspect of the present disclosure, which is applied to a first PCF network element. The method includes: in response to a received policy association establishment request being related to a packet data unit (PDU) session of a user equipment (UE) within a UE group, determining whether to select a same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE; and requesting a binding support function (BSF) network element to select a PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE based on a result of determining whether to select the same PCF network element for the PDU session of the UE. A method for selecting a PCF network element is provided in a second aspect of the present disclosure, which is applied to a BSF network element. The method includes: receiving a registration request from a first PCF network element, in which the registration request is related to a PDU session of a UE within a UE group and includes a UE group identifier of the UE group; and selecting a same PCF network element serving each UE in the UE group for the PDU session of the UE based on the registration request. A method for selecting a PCF network element is provided in a third aspect of the present disclosure, which is applied to an AF network element. The method includes: in response to an AF session being initiated for a UE within a UE group, sending a policy request carrying a UE group identifier of the UE group to a BSF network element. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and/or additional aspects and advantages of the present disclosure may be understood from the following description of the embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 8 is a flowchart of another method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 9 is a flowchart of another method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 10 is a flowchart of another method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 11 is a flowchart of another method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 12 is a flowchart of another method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 13 is a flowchart of yet another method for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 14 is a structural diagram of an apparatus for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 15 is a structural diagram of an apparatus for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 16 is a structural diagram of another apparatus for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 17 is a structural diagram of yet another apparatus for selecting a PCF network element according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 18 is a structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 19 is a structural diagram