Congestion/overload control method and apparatus

1. A congestion/overload control method comprising:

obtaining, by a gateway device, a congestion/overload control parameter associated with an identifier (ID) of a group of user equipment (UE) comprising more than one UE;

determining, by the gateway device, the congestion/overload control parameter is reached or exceeded;

rejecting, by the gateway device, session management request messages from the UEs of the group of UE by sending reject messages indicating a back-off time to the UEs of the group of UE; and

deleting, by the gateway device, sessions associated with the ID in response to determining the congestion/overload control parameter is reached or exceeded,

wherein the congestion/overload control parameter is a maximum access rate associated with the ID.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein obtaining, by the gateway device, the congestion/overload control parameter comprises:

receiving, by the gateway device, the congestion/overload control parameter from a mobility management network element.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein obtaining, by the gateway device, the congestion/overload control parameter comprises:

obtaining, by the gateway device, the congestion/overload control parameter from configuration information stored on the gateway device.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein obtaining, by the gateway device, the congestion/overload control parameter comprises:

obtaining, by the gateway device, the congestion/overload control parameter from a database.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the back-off time indicates a time range in which a request associated with the ID shall not be initiated.

6. A gateway device comprising:

a processor; and

a computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to carry out steps comprising:

obtaining a congestion/overload control parameter associated with an identifier (ID) of a group of user equipment (UE) comprising more than one UE;

determining the congestion/overload control parameter is reached or exceeded;

rejecting session management request messages from the UEs of the group of UEs by sending reject messages indicating a back-off time to the UEs of the group of UE; and

deleting sessions associated with the ID in response to the determining the congestion/overload control parameter is reached or exceeded,

wherein the congestion/overload control parameter is a maximum access rate associated with the ID.

7. The gateway device according to claim 6 , wherein obtaining the congestion/overload control parameter associated with the ID comprises:

receiving the congestion/overload control parameter from a mobility management network element.

8. The gateway device according to claim 6 , wherein the obtaining a congestion/overload control parameter associated with the ID comprises:

obtaining the congestion/overload control parameter from configuration information stored locally.

9. The gateway device according to claim 6 , wherein obtaining the congestion/overload control parameter associated with the ID comprises:

obtaining the congestion/overload control parameter from a database.

10. The gateway device according to claim 6 , wherein the back-off time indicates a time range in which a request associated with the ID shall not be initiated.

11. A congestion/overload control system comprising:

a mobility management network element configured to:

receive a session request message associated with an identifier (ID) of a group of user equipment (UE) comprising more than one UE, wherein the ID indicates a user equipment (UE) group; and

send the session request message to a gateway device; and

the gateway device configured to:

obtain a congestion/overload control parameter associated with ID obtained from the session request message;

determine the congestion/overload control parameter is reached or exceeded;

reject session management request messages from the UEs of the group of UE by sending reject messages indicating a back-off time to the UEs of the group of UE through the mobility management network element; and

delete sessions associated with the ID in response to determining the congestion/overload control parameter is reached or exceeded,

wherein the congestion/overload control parameter is maximum access rate associated with the ID.

12. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the gateway device is configured to receive the congestion/overload control parameter from the mobility management network element.

13. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the gateway device is configured to obtain the congestion/overload control parameter from configuration information stored locally.

14. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the gateway device is configured to obtain the congestion/overload control parameter from a database.

15. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the back-off time indicates a time range in which a request associated with the access point name ID shall not be initiated.

16. The system according to claim 11 , wherein mobility management network element is further configured to:

obtain a congestion/overload control policy associated with the group of UE;

determine the congestion/overload control policy is met; and

reject an access request from a UE belonging to the group of UE by sending a second reject message to the terminal device, wherein the reject messages indicating a back-off time sent to the UEs of the group of UE are first reject messages, and wherein the back-off time is a first back-off time.

17. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the second reject message indicates a second back-off time indicating a time range in which a further access request associated with the group of UE shall not be initiated.