Method and apparatus for flow control
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatuses for flow control. A method at a service communication proxy (SCP) comprises creating a flow table entry including a match field and an instruction field. The method further comprises applying the flow table entry to match and process a service request from a network function (NF) consumer, wherein the service request may be to be served by a NF producer.
1. A method at a service communication proxy (SCP), comprising:
creating a flow table entry including a match field and an instruction field; and
applying the flow table entry to match and process a service request from a network function (NF) consumer, wherein the service request is to be served by a NF producer, wherein the SCP is a service entry of another NF set, and the method further comprises:
receiving a service request towards to the service entry of another NF set; and
forwarding the service request to a final NF service producer based on a policy of the service entry of another NF set.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the match field includes at least one of:
one or more discovery and selection parameters for discovering and selecting a NF service producer instance;
one or more service based interface (SBI) request headers;
one or more attributes of the NF consumer and/or the NF producer; or
a time range.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the instruction field includes a set of actions that apply at least one policy to the processing of the service request.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the set of actions includes at least one of:
selecting a signaling path for the service request based on at least one of end to end latency, locality, time range, service based interface (SBI) message priority, or slice information;
replacing a uniform resource identifier (URI) of the service request with a URI of a service entry of the NF producer; or
replacing an address of the NF producer with an address of an equivalent NF producer.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein replacing an address of the NF producer with an address of an equivalent NF producer comprises:
replacing an address of the NF producer in a first data center with an address of another NF producer in a second data center, wherein the NF producer and said another NF producer belong to a same NF set; or
replacing an address of the NF producer with high traffic load with an address of another NF producer with low traffic load.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the service entry is a resource of another SCP to configure how said another SCP as a portal to route the service request to a selected NF producer.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein information regarding the service entry is added to said another SCP profile stored on a network repository function (NRF).
8. The method of claim 4 , wherein the service entry acts as a portal to anchor the service request to a specific NF set or NF service set or a specific NF or NF service instance.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flow table entry further includes a priority field and/or a time out field indicating maximum amount of time or idle time before the flow table entry is expired.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a request for creating the flow table entry from a network node.
11. A method at a network function (NF), comprising:
determining to create a flow table entry including a match field and an instruction field in a service communication proxy (SCP), wherein the flow table entry is used to match and process a service request from a NF consumer, wherein the service request is to be served by a NF producer; and
sending a request for creating the flow table entry to the SCP, wherein the service entry is a resource of another SCP to configure how said another SCP as a portal to route the service request to a selected NF producer, and wherein information regarding the service entry is added to said another SCP profile stored on a network repository function (NRF).
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the match field includes at least one of
one or more discovery and selection parameters for discovering and selecting a NF service producer instance;
one or more attributes of the NF consumer and/or the NF producer;
one or more service based interface (SBI) request headers; or
a time range.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more attributes of the NF consumer or the NF producer includes at least one of
NF locality;
NF capacity;
NF load; or
NF type.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the instruction field includes a set of actions that apply at least one policy to the processing of the service request.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the set of actions includes at least one of
selecting a signaling path for the service request based on at least one of end to end latency, locality, busy hour, or slice information;
replacing a uniform resource identifier (URI) of the service request with a URI of a service entry of the NF producer; or
replacing an address of the NF producer with an address of an equivalent NF producer.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein replacing an address of the NF producer with an address of an equivalent NF producer comprises:
replacing an address of the NF producer in a first data center with an address of another NF producer in a second data center, wherein the NF producer and said another NF producer belong to a same NF set; or
replacing an address of the NF producer with high traffic load with an address of another NF producer with low traffic load.
17. The method of claim 15 , wherein
the service entry acts as a portal to anchor the service request to a specific NF set or NF service set or a specific NF or NF service instance, or
the flow table entry further includes a priority field and/or a time out field indicating maximum amount of time or idle time before the flow table entry is expired.
18. An apparatus, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor, said memory containing instructions executable by said processor, wherein said apparatus is configured to:
create a flow table entry including a match field and an instruction field in a service communication proxy (SCP); and
apply the flow table entry to match and process a service request from a network function (NF) consumer, wherein the service request is to be served by a NF producer, wherein the service entry is a resource of another SCP to configure how said another SCP as a portal to route the service request to a selected NF producer, and wherein information regarding the service entry is added to said another SCP profile stored on a network repository function (NRF).