CN116828086A - Data transmission methods, devices, network equipment and systems - Google Patents

Abstract

A data transmission method, device, network equipment and system are disclosed, relating to the field of communication. The method is performed by a network device comprising resources of one or more network slices. The method comprises the following steps: and after the network equipment receives the data packet, processing the data packet according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier contained in the Ethernet frame header of the data packet. The data packet carries the network slice identifier for indicating the network slice in the Ethernet frame header, so that the network equipment in the data link layer and the network layer can control the data packet to enter the network slice according to the network slice identifier, the application of the network slice technology in the data forwarding of the data link layer and the network layer is realized, and the network quality of the data link layer and the network layer for data transmission is improved.

Description

Data transmission method, device, network equipment and system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a data transmission method, apparatus, network device, and system.

Background

Network slicing is a novel network architecture, in which a plurality of logic networks are provided on a physical network infrastructure, each logic network serving a specific service type or industry user to meet the differentiated requirements of different services on network capabilities.

Network slicing is typically applied to networks built based on virtual extended local area networks (Virtual Extensible LAN, VXLAN), segment routing (Segment Routing Internet Protocol Version, srv 6) based on IPv6 forwarding planes. When the network slicing technology is applied to data transmission, the network quality of a network can be improved, but no scheme for applying the network slicing to a data link layer and a network layer to perform data transmission exists at present.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a data transmission method, a device, network equipment and a system, wherein an Ethernet frame header of a data packet carries a network slice identifier, the network equipment can control the data packet to enter a network slice according to the network slice identifier in the data transmission process of a data link layer and a network layer, and the problem that the network slice cannot be applied to data transmission between the data link layer and the network layer can be solved, so that the network quality of the data transmission of the data link layer and the network layer is improved.

In a first aspect, a data transmission method is provided, the method being performed by a network device. The network device includes resources of at least one network slice. The network device is configured to receive and process a data packet, and the ethernet header of the data packet includes a network slice identifier, where the network slice identifier is configured to indicate a network slice used to process the data packet. The data packets received at the network devices of the data link layer and the network layer comprise ethernet headers, the network devices being capable of extracting network slice identifiers from the ethernet headers of the data packets and determining network slices for processing the data packets from at least one network slice based on the network slice identifiers. The network device may process the packet with the network slice indicated by the network slice identification, e.g., the network device forwards the packet using the resources of the network slice indicated by the network slice identification. Therefore, the data packet can carry the network slice identifier when transmitted between the network devices, the network devices at the data link layer and the network layer can acquire the network slice identifier from the Ethernet frame header of the data packet, and the data packet is processed through the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier, so that the scheme that the network devices at the data link layer and the network layer adopt the network slice technology to carry out data transmission is realized, and the network quality of the data transmission of the data link layer and the network layer is improved.

For example, the packet may carry a network slice identifier through an inner Virtual LAN (VLAN) tag field of the ethernet header.

As another example, the data packet may carry a network slice identifier through an ethernet frame extension header of the ethernet frame header.

Because the VLAN tag field of the inner layer and the Ethernet frame extension header both belong to the Ethernet frame header, the data packet can carry the network slice identifier in the forwarding process of the data link layer and the network layer. And the inner layer VLAN label is realized based on the QinQ (802.1Q-in-802.1Q) technology principle, and network devices capable of using the QinQ technology can analyze the network slice identification based on the QinQ technology, thereby improving the universality of the data transmission method.

In one possible implementation, the ethernet header of the data packet further includes a tag protocol identification for indicating that the data packet is to be processed based on the network slice. The network device recognizes the tag protocol identifier in the data packet, and may process the data packet based on the network slice, for example, the tag protocol identifier is 0x8888, and analyze the inner VLAN tag field or the ethernet frame extension header by using a network slice identifier analysis manner to obtain the network slice identifier.

In addition, the ethernet frame header of the data packet further includes a network slice type, where the network slice type may include a low latency slice for processing the data packet having a low latency requirement for data transmission and a large bandwidth slice for processing the data packet having a larger bandwidth requirement for data transmission. When the network slice type is a low-delay slice, the network slice identifier indicates a period number of the low-delay slice, and when the network slice type is a large-bandwidth slice, the network slice identifier indicates an identifier of the low-delay slice. The network device determines the cycle number or the identifier of the network slice according to the network slice type, and the network device can process the data packet through the network slices of different network slice types, so that in the data forwarding of the data link layer and the network layer, the network device at the data link layer and the network layer can select different types of network slices to process the data packet.

In a second aspect, a data transmission method is provided, the method being performed by a network device. The network device includes resources of at least one network slice. The network device receives a first data packet, an ethernet frame header of the first data packet including a network slice identifier, the network slice identifier indicating a network slice for processing the first data packet. After the first data packet is received by the network device, determining a network slice for processing the first data packet from at least one network slice, and generating a second data packet, wherein an ethernet frame header of the second data packet contains a network slice identifier. The network device may forward the second data packet using the network slice indicated by the network slice identification. For example, the network device forwards the second data packet using the resources of the network slice indicated by the network slice identification. Thus, the second data packet can carry the network slice identity when transmitted between the network devices. It should be noted that all or part of the resources of another network device that processes the second data packet belongs to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier, thereby implementing forwarding of the second data packet in the data link layer and the network layer through the same network slice, enabling the network slice technology to be applied to data forwarding of the data link layer and the network layer, and improving the network quality of data transmission of the data link layer and the network layer.

As an alternative implementation manner, the network device may generate the second data packet according to the network slice determined by the service type of the first data packet, that is, the network device determines the network slice for processing the first data packet according to the service type of the first data packet, and encapsulates the network slice identifier in the ethernet frame header of the first data packet by using the resource of the network slice, thereby generating the second data packet. After the Ethernet frame header of the second data packet carries the network slice identifier, the network slice identifier can be carried in the data forwarding process of the data link layer and the network layer.

For example, the second data packet may carry a network slice identification through an inner VLAN tag field of the ethernet frame header.

As another example, the second data packet may carry a network slice identifier through an ethernet frame extension header of the ethernet frame header.

In one possible implementation, the ethernet frame header of the second data packet further includes a label protocol identification for indicating that the second data packet is to be forwarded based on the network slice. The network device carries the tag protocol identification in the second data packet so that the network device receiving the second data packet processes the value of the second data packet based on the network slice. For example, when the tag protocol identifier is 0x8888, the network slice identifier is obtained by analyzing the inner VLAN tag field or the ethernet frame extension header in a network slice identifier analyzing manner.

In addition, the ethernet frame header of the second data packet further includes a network slice type, which may include a low latency slice and a large bandwidth slice. Low latency slicing is used to process packets that have low latency requirements for data transmission. Large bandwidth slices are used to process data packets that have a large bandwidth requirement for data transmission. When the network slice type is a low latency slice, the network slice identifier indicates a cycle number of the low latency slice. When the network slice type is a large bandwidth slice, the network slice identification indicates the identification of a low latency slice. Therefore, the network equipment for receiving the second data packet can determine the cycle number or the identification of the network slice according to the network slice type, and the network equipment can process the second data packet through the network slices of different network slice types, so that in the data forwarding of the data link layer and the network layer, the network equipment can select the network slices of different types to process the data packet.

In a third aspect, a data transmission apparatus is provided that includes at least one network slice. The data transmission device comprises a receiving and transmitting module and a processing module. And the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving or forwarding the data packet. And the processing module is used for processing the data packet according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identification.

For example, the packet may carry a network slice identifier through the inner VLAN tag field of the ethernet header.

As another example, the data packet may carry a network slice identifier through an ethernet frame extension header of the ethernet frame header.

In one possible implementation, the ethernet header of the data packet further includes a tag protocol identification for indicating that the data packet is to be processed based on the network slice. The processing module is specifically used for: and processing the data packet based on the network slice according to the tag protocol identification indication carried in the data packet, for example, the tag protocol identification is 0x8888, and analyzing an inner VLAN tag field or an Ethernet frame expansion header by adopting a network slice identification analysis mode to acquire the network slice identification.

In addition, the ethernet header of the packet also includes a network slice type. Network slice types may include low latency slices and large bandwidth slices. The low latency slice is used to process data packets having low latency requirements for data transmission, and the large bandwidth slice is used to process data packets having greater bandwidth requirements for data transmission. When the network slice type is a low latency slice, the network slice identifier indicates a cycle number of the low latency slice. When the network slice type is a large bandwidth slice, the network slice identification indicates the identification of a low latency slice.

In a fourth aspect, a data transmission apparatus is provided that includes at least one network slice. The data transmission device comprises a receiving and transmitting module and a processing module. And the transceiver module is used for receiving the first data packet. And the processing module is used for determining a network slice for processing the first data packet from at least one network slice and generating a second data packet, and the Ethernet frame header of the second data packet comprises the network slice identification. The transceiver module is further configured to forward the second data packet through the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

As an alternative embodiment, the processing module is specifically configured to, when generating the second data packet according to the first data packet: and generating a second data packet according to the network slice determined by the service type of the first data packet, namely determining the network slice for processing the first data packet according to the service type of the first data packet, and encapsulating the network slice identifier at the Ethernet frame header of the first data packet by adopting the resources of the network slice, thereby generating the second data packet.

For example, the second data packet may carry a network slice identification through an inner VLAN tag field of the ethernet frame header.

As another example, the second data packet may carry a network slice identifier through an ethernet frame extension header of the ethernet frame header.

In one possible embodiment, the ethernet frame header of the second data packet further comprises a label protocol identification for indicating that the second data packet is to be processed based on the network slice.

In addition, the ethernet frame header of the second data packet further includes a network slice type, which may include a low latency slice and a large bandwidth slice. The low latency slice is used to process data packets having low latency requirements for data transmission, and the large bandwidth slice is used to process data packets having greater bandwidth requirements for data transmission. When the network slice type is a low-delay slice, the network slice identifier indicates a period number of the low-delay slice, and when the network slice type is a large-bandwidth slice, the network slice identifier indicates an identifier of the low-delay slice.

The data transmission device according to the third or fourth aspect may be a terminal device or a network device, or may be a chip (system) or other components or assemblies that may be disposed in the terminal device or the network device, or may be a device including the terminal device or the network device, which is not limited in this aspect of the present application.

The technical effects of the data transmission device according to the third aspect and the fourth aspect may refer to the technical effects of the data transmission method according to the first aspect, and are not described herein.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a network device comprising a memory for storing a set of computer instructions which, when executed by the processor, are operable to perform the operational steps of the data transmission method of any one of the possible designs of the first or second aspects.

In one possible configuration, the network device according to the fifth aspect may further comprise a transceiver. The transceiver may be a transceiver circuit or an interface circuit. The transceiver may be for a network device according to the fifth aspect to communicate with other network devices.

In addition, the technical effects of the network device according to the fifth aspect may refer to the technical effects of the data transmission method according to any implementation manner of the first aspect or the second aspect, which are not described herein.

In a sixth aspect, a data transmission system is provided, where the data transmission system includes at least one service terminal and at least one network device as described in the fifth aspect, where the at least one service terminal is connected through the at least one network device, and where the network device in the at least one network device receives a packet of data sent by the service terminal, and performs an operation step of the data transmission method in any one of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect or the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium comprising: computer software instructions; the computer software instructions, when executed in a computing device, cause the computing device to perform the operational steps of the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first or second aspects.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program product for, when run on a computer, causing a computing device to perform the operational steps of the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first or second aspects.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a chip system including a processor for implementing the functions of the intermediate processor of the fifth aspect. In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for holding program instructions and/or data. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

Further combinations of the present application may be made to provide further implementations based on the implementations provided in the above aspects.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a data transmission system according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a network slice according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a network slice identifier package format according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another network slice identifier package format according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a data transmission device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The embodiment of the application provides a data transmission method, in particular to a data transmission method for applying a network slice to a data link layer and a network layer, namely, a network device sets a network slice identifier in an Ethernet frame header of a data packet so that after receiving the data packet, another network device determines the network slice for processing the data packet according to the network slice identifier in the Ethernet frame header and forwards the data packet through a physical port associated with the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier. Therefore, the network equipment at the data link layer and the network layer can acquire the network slice identification from the Ethernet frame header of the data packet, and the data packet is processed through the network slice indicated by the network slice identification, so that the scheme that the network equipment at the data link layer and the network layer adopts the network slice technology to carry out data transmission is realized, and the network quality of the data link layer and the network layer for carrying out data transmission is improved.

The indexes of the network quality in the embodiment of the application can comprise throughput, time delay change (such as jitter and drift) and packet loss rate of information flow in the network.

It should be understood that the data link layer and the network layer described in this embodiment belong to the open system interconnection communication reference model (Open System Interconnection Reference Model, OSI), which divides the computer network architecture into seven layers, in order from the first to seventh layers: a physical layer, a data link layer, a network layer, a transport layer, a session layer, a presentation layer, and an application layer. The data link layer and the network layer in this embodiment are the second layer and the third layer in OSI respectively, so data transmission between the data link layer and the network layer is also called two-three layer data forwarding.

The method of network slicing applied to data transmission of the data link layer and the network layer is described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a block diagram of a data transmission system 100 according to an embodiment of the application. The data transmission system 100 includes at least one service terminal (e.g., service terminal 101, service terminal 102, service terminal 103, and service terminal 104) and at least one network device (e.g., network device 105, network device 106, network device 108, network device 109, network device 1010, network device 1011, network device 1012, and network device 1013).

For example, the data transmission system 100 may be a data transmission network of an industrial Internet campus. An industrial internet park is an industrial park in which networking communication of industrial infrastructure in the industrial park such as control equipment and business terminals is realized through information communication technology.

As another example, the data transmission system 100 may comprise a data transmission network of a plurality of industrial internet parks. The data transmission system 100 may also include a backbone network 107. A Backbone Network (Backbone) is a high-speed Network used to connect a plurality of areas or regions. The backbone network 107 in this embodiment may be used to connect data transmission networks for multiple industrial internet campuses. Backbone network 107 may include one or more network devices.

Fig. 1 illustrates one manner of connection of various devices in a data transmission system 100. The service terminal 101, the network device 105, the network device 106, the backbone network 107, the network device 108, the network device 109, and the service terminal 103 are sequentially connected. The service terminal 102, the network device 1010, the network device 1011, the backbone network 107, the network device 1012, and the network device 1013 are sequentially connected. Network device 1010 is also connected to network device 1011, network device 106 is also connected to network device 1010, network device 108 is also connected to network device 1013, and network device 109 is also connected to network device 1012. Network device 106 may also be coupled to network device 1012 via backbone 107, and network device 108 may also be coupled to network device 1011 via backbone 107.

The service Terminal may also be called a Terminal (Terminal), a Terminal Equipment, a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc. The service terminals may be Access Points (APs), mobile phones (Mobile Phone), tablet computers (Pad), computers with wireless transceiving functions, virtual Reality (VR) terminal devices, augmented Reality (Augmented Reality, AR) terminal devices, programmable logic controllers (Programmable Logic Controller, PLC) etc. in industrial control (Industrial Control), wireless terminals in Self Driving, wireless terminals in teleoperation (Remote Medical Surgery), wireless terminals in Smart Grid (Smart Grid), wireless terminals in transportation security (Ttransportation Safety), wireless terminals in Smart City (Smart City), wireless terminals in Smart Home (Smart Home), etc. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology and the specific equipment form adopted by the terminal. The service terminal is used for carrying out data packet communication with other service terminals through the network equipment.

For example, the service terminals 101 and 102 may be programmable logic controller (Programmable Logic Controller, PLC) master stations. The PLC master station is a PLC device having a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU) module capable of performing operations, communication, etc., and capable of issuing commands to other devices on the network and receiving feedback from the other devices. The service terminals 103 and 104 may be PLC slaves for responding to commands from other masters.

The network device may be a switch, router, gateway or other type of device for forwarding or processing packets of the service terminal. The deployment location of the network device is not limited in the embodiment of the application. For example, the network device 105, the network device 109, the network device 1010, and the network device 1013 are two-layer switches on the side close to the service terminal, which refers to switches operating in the second layer (data link layer) of OSI. Network device 106, network device 108, network device 1011, and network device 1012 are three-layer switches near the backbone side, which refers to switches operating at the third layer (network layer) of the OSI. In some embodiments, the backbone network 107 in the data transmission system 100 may comprise a plurality of three-layer switches.

By way of example, assuming that service terminal 101 sends a packet to service terminal 103, the packet is forwarded through a two-layer switch (e.g., network device 1010, network device 1013) and a three-layer switch (e.g., network device 1011, network device 1012) to implement two-layer and three-layer data forwarding.

It should be understood that fig. 1 is a simplified schematic diagram that is merely illustrative for ease of understanding, and that other network devices, and/or other terminal devices, may also be included in the data transmission system 100, and are not shown in fig. 1.

The network slice is an on-demand networking mode, and multiple virtual network slices can be separated on a unified infrastructure of the network, and each network slice is logically isolated from a transmitting end to a receiving end of data so as to adapt to various types of data transmission. If the network slicing technology is applied to the two-layer and three-layer data forwarding, a plurality of special, virtualized and mutually isolated logic networks can be constructed on the general two-layer and three-layer network through network slicing, so that the requirement of different data packets in the two-layer and three-layer data forwarding on the differentiation of network capacity is met. In order to ensure the network quality of the data transmission system 100, the present embodiment applies the technique of network slicing to the data transmission system 100.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 2, the data transmission system 100 includes a network slice 210 and a network slice 220. The network slice 210 includes network device 105, network device 106, backbone 107, network device 108, and network device 109. Network slice 220 includes network device 105, backbone 107, network device 108, network device 1010, network device 1011, network device 1012, and network device 1013.

Because the data packets sent by different service terminals in the data transmission system 100 may have different requirements on the functions and performances of the network, such as low latency (e.g., transmission latency between service terminals is less than 10 ms), large bandwidth (e.g., transmission bandwidth between service terminals is greater than or equal to 10 Gbit/s), and the network slice types of the network slice 210 and the network slice 220 may be the same or different. For example, network slice 210 is a low latency slice and network slice 220 is a large bandwidth slice. In some embodiments, network slice 210 and network slice 220 may be other network slice types than low latency slices, large bandwidth slices, such as network slice types determined based on security, reliability, geographic coverage, etc., requirements, and the like.

It should be appreciated that fig. 2 is a simplified schematic diagram that is merely illustrative for ease of understanding, and that other network slices may also be included in the data transmission system 100, which are not shown in fig. 2. For example, the network slice 210 and the network slice 220 may also flexibly define a logical topology, a service level agreement (Service Level Agreement, SLA) requirement, reliability and security level to meet different business, industry or user differentiation requirements, without limiting the specific logical structure of the network slice 210 and the network slice 220. Other network devices and/or other terminal devices may also be included in the data transmission system 100, not shown in fig. 2. For example, the data transmission system 100 further includes a management device for performing segment management, segment planning, segment transport, and/or segment transport dimensions of the network segments, and a management device for configuring and/or deploying the network devices or service terminals.

The resources used by the different network slices (e.g., computing resources, memory resources, storage resources, transmission resources, etc.) are isolated from each other. The resource isolation can be classified into hard isolation and soft isolation according to the degree of isolation.

Hard isolation refers to the fact that different network slices use completely different resources, each sharing only a portion of the resources in the network. For example, of the network slices 210 and 220, the network devices 106 and 109 belong to the network slice 210 but not to the network slice 220, and the network devices 1010, 1011, 1012, and 1013 belong to the network slice 220 but not to the network slice 210. On each of network devices 106, 109, 1010, 1011, 1012, and 1013, the resources used by network slice 210 and network slice 220 are hard isolated from each other.

Soft isolation refers to that the resources used by different network slices are not identical, i.e. the different network slices can use the same resources in the network, thereby improving the utilization ratio of the network equipment resources. For example, in network slice 210 and network slice 220, all or a portion of the resources of network device 105, network device 108 belong to both network slice 210 and network slice 220, and then the resources of network slice 210 and network slice 220 on network device 105 and network device 108 are soft isolated from each other.

It should be noted that the solution in the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to other networks, and the corresponding names may also be replaced by names of corresponding functions in other network architectures.

Next, a data transmission method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be specifically described with reference to fig. 3 to 6. The transmission of data by the service terminal 101 to the service terminal 103 through the network slice 210 in fig. 1 is described herein.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 3, the data transmission method includes the following steps 310 to 370.

Step 310, the service terminal 101 sends a first data packet to the network device 105.

The service terminal 101 sends a first data packet to the network device 105 through a physical port connected to the network device 105. The first data packet includes a base header and a data portion. The basic header may contain a destination MAC (Media Access Control) address, a source MAC address, and a traffic VLAN tag. For example, the service terminal 101 transmits data to the service terminal 103, the source MAC address is the MAC address of the service terminal 101, and the destination MAC address is the MAC address of the service terminal 103. The service VLAN tag is an 802.1Q tag (tag) added with 4 bytes in the ethernet frame header according to the IEEE 802.1Q standard, and the description of each field and explanation contained in the service VLAN tag may refer to the description of the prior art, which is not repeated. The data portion may be referred to as a payload (payload) or payload. The data portion includes data transmitted by the service terminal 101 to the service terminal 103. For example, the data is industrial control commands or other industrial control related data.

Step 320, the network device 105 receives the first data packet and generates a second data packet according to the first data packet.

The network device 105 selects a network slice for processing the first data packet from the network slices of the data transmission system 100 according to the traffic type of the traffic data comprised by the first data packet. It is understood that the service types may be divided according to service requirements. For example, the traffic demand is a low latency demand, and the traffic type is a low latency type; the traffic demand is a large bandwidth demand and the traffic type is a large bandwidth type.

Illustratively, the network device 105 represents the traffic type with a five-tuple, i.e., the network device 105 determines a network slice for processing the first data packet from the five-tuple of the first data packet. For example, the five-tuple contains a source MAC address, a source port, a destination MAC address, a destination port, and a transport layer protocol.

In some embodiments, network device 105 is configured with a five-tuple to network slice mapping. The mapping relationship of the five-tuple and the network slice can be configured by the management device. The network device 105 extracts the quintuple of the first data packet, and determines a network slice corresponding to the first data packet according to the quintuple query mapping relationship. The mapping relation between five-tuple and network slice is shown in table 1.

TABLE 1

Five-tuple	Network slice
		Five-tuple 1	Network slice 210
Quintuple 2	Network slice 220

As can be seen from table 1, the five-tuple 1 has a mapping relationship with the network slice 210, and the five-tuple 2 has a mapping relationship with the network slice 220. Assuming that the network device 105 identifies that the five-tuple carried by the first data packet is five-tuple 1, the network device 105 queries table 1 according to the five-tuple 1 to obtain a network slice 210 corresponding to the five-tuple 1 in table 1, and the network slice for processing the first data packet is the network slice 210. In other possible embodiments, if the network device 105 identifies that the five-tuple carried by the first data packet is five-tuple 2, the network device 105 queries table 1 according to five-tuple 2 to obtain the network slice 220 corresponding to five-tuple 2 in table 1, and the network slice for processing the first data packet is the network slice 220.

For example, the communication between the service terminal 101 and the service terminal 103 has a low latency requirement, and the network slice 210 is a low latency slice. The quintuple of the data packet sent by the service terminal 101 to the service terminal 103 corresponds to the network slice 210 in the mapping relationship of the quintuple and the network slice.

As another example, where the communication between the service terminal 102 and the service terminal 104 has a requirement of a large bandwidth, and the network slice 220 is a large bandwidth slice, in the mapping relationship between the quintuple and the network slice, the quintuple of the data packet sent by the service terminal 102 to the service terminal 104 corresponds to the network slice 220.

It should be noted that, table 1 only illustrates the storage form of the mapping relationship between the five-tuple and the network slice in the storage device in the form of a table, and is not limited to the storage form of the association relationship in the storage device, and of course, the storage form of the mapping relationship in the storage device may also be stored in other forms, which is not limited in this embodiment. The mapping relation between the five-tuple and the network slice occupies less storage resources, the calculation complexity of inquiring the mapping relation is low, and the efficiency of determining the network slice for processing the first data packet is improved.

Optionally, the network device 105 may also employ different traffic characteristics (e.g., source MAC address, destination MAC address, ethernet type, etc.) to represent different traffic types. The manner in which the network device 105 determines the network slice according to the traffic characteristics of the first data packet is similar to the manner in which the network slice is determined according to the five-tuple, which is not described herein.

Since the network device 105 determines the network slice for processing the first data packet, the second data packet generated by the network device 105 includes the network slice identification (network slice identification, NSID). Understandably, because some of the resources of the network device 105 belong to the network slice 210, the network device 105 generating the second data packet refers to processing the first data packet by the resources of the network device 105 belonging to the network slice 210 to generate the second data packet. One network slice identifier is used to uniquely indicate one network slice. The network slice identifiers are in one-to-one correspondence with the network slices.

In an embodiment of the present application, the network slice identifier may be set in the ethernet frame header.

In some embodiments, the network slice identifier may be set in an inner VLAN tag of the ethernet frame header.

For example, the network device 105 may generate the second packet by performing QinQ encapsulation on the first packet, and encapsulating the inner VLAN tag in the ethernet header of the first packet by using QinQ encapsulation. The encapsulation format for carrying the network slice identifier in the inner VLAN tag is shown in fig. 4.

In other embodiments, the network slice identifier may be provided in an ethernet frame extension header of the ethernet frame header. An encapsulation format for carrying the network slice identifier in the ethernet frame extension header is shown in fig. 5.

Step 330, the network device 105 forwards the second data packet to the network device 106 via the network slice indicated by the network slice identification.

The network device 105 queries the MAC address table for a port according to the destination MAC address in the second data packet, and determines an egress port for the network device 105 to forward the second data packet. The network device 105 schedules the second data packet to the egress port using the resources of the network slice itself as indicated by the network slice identifier, and forwards the second data packet through the egress port. For example, the network slice identifier in the second data packet corresponds to the network slice 210, and the network device 105 uses its own resources belonging to the network slice 210 to schedule the second data packet to an egress port, which is connected to the network device 106.

Step 340, the network device 106 processes the second data packet according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

After receiving the second data packet, the network device 106 parses the ethernet frame header of the second data packet to obtain the network slice identifier. The network device 106 processes the second data packet with resources belonging to the network slice indicated by the network slice identity itself. For example, if the network slice identifier obtained by the network device 106 parsing the second data packet indicates the network slice 210, the network device 106 processes the second data packet using the resource belonging to the network slice 210.

The processing of the second data packet by the network device 106 may be sending the second data packet into a network slice indicated by the network slice identifier, and forwarding the second data packet through a resource port of the network slice using resources of the network slice. The network device 106 divides the transmission channel into one or more mutually isolated transmission resources, and the transmission resources allocated to the network slice are resource ports of the network slice.

After processing the second data packet, the network device 106 forwards the second data packet. Optionally, the network device 106 forwards the second data packet to the backbone network 107 via the network slice indicated by the network slice identification. For example, the network device 106 forwards the second data packet from an egress port connected to the network device in the backbone network 107 using a resource that itself belongs to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

In some embodiments, the egress port may be obtained by the network device 106 looking up the routing table based on the destination MAC address carried by the second data packet. In the case where the network device 106 belongs to a three-layer switch, the network device 106 forwards the second data packet through the egress port, and the network device 106 encapsulates the header of the internet communication protocol fourth version (Internet Protocol version, ipv 4) and the header of the user datagram protocol (User Datagram Protocol, UDP) of the second data packet according to the query result of the routing table. The specific explanation of the fields included in the IPv4 header and the UDP header may refer to the description of the prior art, and will not be repeated.

Step 350, the backbone network 107 forwards the second data packet to the network device 108 via the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

Step 360, the network device 108 forwards the second data packet to the network device 109 via the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

In other possible embodiments, the network device 106 and the network device 108 may be directly connected, and the network device 106 may forward the second data packet directly to the network device 108 without being connected through another network (e.g., the backbone network 107).

It should be appreciated that during the forwarding of the second data packet by the backbone network 107 and the network devices 108, at least one network device in the backbone network 107 forwards the second data packet in turn until the second data packet is forwarded to the network device 109. The backbone network 107 or the network device 108 forwards the second data packet through the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier, which may be that the network device or the network device 108 in the backbone network 107 addresses a forwarding path of the second data packet based on the destination IP address in the IPv4 frame header, selects a forwarding resource of the network slice corresponding to the second data packet based on the network slice identifier, and forwards the second data packet through the forwarding resource of the network slice. For example, the network slice corresponding to the network slice identifier is the network slice 210, the network device or the network device 108 in the backbone network 107 parses the second data packet to obtain the network slice identifier, selects a forwarding resource of the network slice 210 according to the network slice identifier, and forwards the second data packet through the forwarding resource of the network slice 210.

Step 370, the network device 109 forwards the second data packet to the service terminal 103 via the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

Since the network device 105 encapsulates the network slice identifier in the ethernet header of the second data packet before forwarding the second data packet. After the network device 109 receives the second data packet, the network device 109 analyzes the ethernet frame header of the second data packet, and obtains the network slice identifier, so that the network device 109 forwards the second data packet to the service terminal 103 through the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier. The network slice identifier may be set in an inner VLAN tag of the ethernet frame header or in an ethernet frame extension header. Reference may be made to the detailed description of step 320 for the manner in which the network slice identifier is encapsulated in the data packet.

In this embodiment, the inner layer VLAN tag or the ethernet frame extension header in the QinQ packet format carries a network slice identifier, so that the packet forwarded by the network device of two layers and three layers can carry the network slice identifier. The network equipment of the second layer and the third layer selects the resources of the network slice corresponding to the data packet according to the network slice identification to finish forwarding the data packet, so that the scheme that the network equipment of the second layer and the third layer adopts the network slice technology to perform data transmission is realized, the application scene of the network slice technology is expanded, and the network quality of the data link layer and the network layer for data transmission is improved.

It should be noted that, when different network slices are used to transmit data, the data packets carry different network slice identifiers.

For example, if the service terminal 102 shown in fig. 2 sends data to the service terminal 103 and uses the network slice 220 to transmit data, after receiving the first data packet sent by the service terminal 102, the network device 1010 carries the network slice identifier of the network slice 220 in the first data packet to generate the second data packet. After receiving the second data packet sent by the network device 1011, the network device 1011 forwards the second data packet to the backbone network 107 through the resource of the network slice 220 according to the network slice identifier of the network slice 220 carried in the second data packet. The backbone network 107, the network device 1012 and the network device 1013 forward the second data packet sequentially through the resources of the network slice 220 until the service terminal 103 receives the second data packet. For the second packet generated by the network device 105 in step 320, the network slice identifier may be set in the inner VLAN tag of the ethernet frame header, or in the ethernet frame extension header of the ethernet frame header, that is, the encapsulation format of the two network slice identifiers of the second packet is provided. The encapsulation of two network slice identifiers of the second data packet is described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 4 and 5.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a network slice identifier package format according to an embodiment of the present application.

The second data packet includes a base header and a data portion. The basic header of the second data packet may also be referred to as an ethernet frame header. The ethernet frame header may include the following fields in sequence: destination MAC address, source MAC address, outer label protocol identification (Tag Protocol Identifier, TPID), priority (PRI), standard format indicator bit (CFI), egress virtual local area network (Outer VLAN), inner label protocol identification, reserved (Reserved), network Slice type, and network Slice identification (Slice Identity Document, slice ID).

The second data packet is different from the first data packet in that an inner layer VLAN tag is added, and a service VLAN tag in the first data packet is used as an outer layer VLAN tag. The network slice identifier is set in the inner layer VLAN tag of the ethernet frame header.

The outer VLAN tag includes the following fields: the outer label protocol identification, priority, standard format indicator bits, and egress port virtual local area network. The outer label protocol identification is information indicating how to handle the outer VLAN label, for example, the outer label protocol identification has a value of 0x8100, and 0x8100 is a value prescribed by the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE) 802.1Q protocol.

The inner VLAN tag includes the following fields: inner label protocol identification, reservation, network slice type, and network slice identification.

The inner label protocol identifier is information indicating how to process the inner VLAN label, for example, the value of the inner label protocol identifier is 0x8888, indicating that the network device processes the inner VLAN label of the second data packet based on the corresponding manner of the network slicing technique.

Reserved as a reserved field, which in this embodiment does not represent any meaning, which in other embodiments may be defined.

The network slice type is used to indicate the type of network slice used to process the second data packet, e.g., a value of 0 for the network slice type field indicates that the network slice type is a low latency slice and a value of 1 for the network slice type field indicates that the network slice type is a large bandwidth slice.

The network slice identifier is used to indicate the network slice that is processing the data packet.

The network slice type is a low latency slice, the network slice identification field represents a cycle number of the network slice, and when the network slice type is a large bandwidth slice, the network slice identification field represents an identification of the network slice.

For example, assuming that the network slice 210 is a low latency slice, the second data packet is sent to the service terminal 103 by the service terminal 101, the second data packet has a low latency requirement for the transmission network, the network slice for processing the second data packet is the network slice 210, the value of the network slice type field of the second data packet is 0, and the value of the network slice identification field is the period number corresponding to the network slice 210. The period number is used to indicate a processing slot, for example, the network device divides its own resource into a plurality of processing slots according to the time division multiplexing principle, and the processing slot with period number 1 is allocated to the network slice 210. Each processing slot corresponds to a network slice one-to-one.

For another example, assuming that the network slice 220 is a large bandwidth slice, the second data packet is sent to the service terminal 104 by the service terminal 102, and the second data packet has a large bandwidth requirement for the transmission network, the network slice for processing the second data packet is the network slice 220, the value of the network slice type field of the second data packet is 1, and the value of the network slice identification field is the identification corresponding to the network slice 220. The identification can be a character string identification, and each character string corresponds to the network slice one by one.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another network slice identifier package format according to an embodiment of the present application.

The second data packet shown in fig. 5 is different from the second data packet shown in fig. 4 in that the second data packet shown in fig. 5 does not include an inner layer VLAN tag and an outer layer VLAN tag, and an ethernet frame extension header is added.

The ethernet frame extension header includes the following fields: the type of ethernet, type of network slice, network slice identification, and reserved, the reserved field may be one or more. The difference between the ethernet frame extension header and the inner layer VLAN tag is that the ethernet frame extension header uses an ethernet type field instead of the inner layer tag protocol identifier, and the role and format of the ethernet type field are the same as those of the inner layer tag protocol identifier field, which are not described herein.

It should be appreciated that when there is only one type of network slice, the network slice type field may not be included in the inner VLAN tag or ethernet frame extension header.

The network equipment encapsulates the network slice identifier in the Ethernet frame header of the data packet, so that the data packet can carry the network slice identifier in the forwarding process of two layers and three layers, and the problem that the data packet cannot carry the network slice identifier in the forwarding process of two layers and three layers is solved. The network device in the two-layer and three-layer network for forwarding the data packet can identify the network slice identifier, and the network device can process or forward the data packet through the network slice indicated by the network device identifier, so that the network slice technology can be applied to the two-layer and three-layer data forwarding, and the network quality of data transmission of the data link layer and the network layer is improved.

In the following, referring to the specific structure of the second data packet shown in fig. 4, in this embodiment, the step of processing the second data packet by the network device 106 according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier in step 340 is described in detail by taking the example that the second data packet includes an inner layer VLAN tag.

First, the network device 106 parses the inner VLAN tag from the inner tag protocol identification field.

The network device 106 recognizes the value of the inner tag protocol identification field and determines the manner in which the information of the inner VLAN tag is processed as indicated by the value of the inner tag protocol identification field. The network device 106 extracts the contents of the network slice type field and the network slice identification in accordance with the manner in which the information of the inner layer VLAN tag is processed. For example, if the network device 106 recognizes that the value of the inner layer tag protocol identification field is 0x8888, the network device 106 extracts the values of the network slice type field and the network slice identification field from the inner layer VLAN tag using a parsing scheme represented by 0x 8888.

The network device 106 then controls the second data packet to enter the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

The network device 106 adds the second data packet to the message queue of the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier, and the second data packet enters the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier through the message queue.

Finally, the network device 106 forwards the second data packet to the backbone network 107 via the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

In another embodiment, the network device 106 may process the second data packet according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier in the ethernet frame extension header, where the processing step is the same as the processing step in which the second data packet uses the inner VLAN tag to carry the network slice identifier, and will not be described herein.

The data transmission method provided by the present embodiment is described in detail above with reference to fig. 1 to 5, and the data transmission apparatus provided by the present embodiment will be described below with reference to fig. 6.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a possible data transmission device according to this embodiment. The data transmission device can be used for realizing the functions of the network equipment in the method embodiment, so that the data transmission device also has the beneficial effects of the method embodiment. In this embodiment, the data transmission apparatus may be the network device 105, the network device 106 or other network devices as shown in fig. 1, or may be a module (such as a chip) applied to a server.

As shown in fig. 6, the data transmission apparatus 600 includes a transceiver module 610, a processing module 620, and a storage module 630, where the data transmission apparatus 600 is configured to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3.

When the data transmission device 600 is used to implement the functions of the network device 106 in fig. 3, each module included in the data transmission device 600 is specifically used to implement the following functions.

The transceiver module 610 is used to implement a transmitting function and a receiving function of the data transmission apparatus 600, for example, to receive a data packet or transmit a data packet. The transceiver module 610 may include a receiving sub-module and a transmitting sub-module.

A processing module 620, configured to process the data packet according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier. For example, the processing module 620 is configured to perform step 340 in fig. 3.

The storage module 630 is configured to store a mapping relationship between the network slice identifier and the network slice, so that the processing module 620 processes the data packet according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

When the data transmission device 600 is used to implement the functions of the network apparatus 105 in fig. 3, each module included in the data transmission device 600 is specifically used to implement the following functions.

The transceiver module 610 is configured to implement a transmitting function and a receiving function of the data transmission apparatus 600, for example, to receive a first data packet or transmit a second data packet. The transceiver module 610 may include a receiving sub-module and a transmitting sub-module.

And a processing module 620, configured to generate a second data packet according to the first data packet. For example, the processing module 620 is configured to perform step 320 and step 330 in fig. 3.

The storage module 630 is configured to store a mapping relationship between the network slice identifier and the network slice, so that the processing module 620 generates the second data packet according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

As a possible implementation manner, the processing module 620 generates a second data packet according to the first data packet, specifically configured to: and generating a second data packet according to the network slice determined by the service type of the first data packet.

As one possible implementation, the network slice identifier is set in an inner VLAN tag field contained in the ethernet frame header.

As a possible implementation, the network slice identifier is set in an ethernet frame extension header contained in the ethernet frame header.

As a possible implementation manner, the ethernet frame header further includes a tag protocol identification TPID, where the TPID is used to instruct the processing of the second data packet based on the network slice.

As a possible implementation, the value of TPID is 0x8888.

As a possible implementation, the ethernet frame header further includes a network slice type; the network slice type is a low-delay slice, and the network slice identification indicates the period number of the low-delay slice; the network slice type is a large bandwidth slice, and the network slice identification indicates an identification of the large bandwidth slice.

It should be appreciated that the data transfer device 600 of embodiments of the present application may be implemented as an Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (Programmable Logic Device, PLD), which may be a complex program logic device (Complex Programmable Logical Device, CPLD), a Field programmable gate array (Field-Programmable Gate Array, FPGA), general array logic (Generic Array Logic, GAL), or any combination thereof. When the data transmission method shown in fig. 3 is implemented by software, the data transmission apparatus 600 and its respective modules may be software modules.

The data transmission apparatus 600 according to the embodiment of the present application may correspond to performing the method described in the embodiment of the present application, and the above and other operations and/or functions of each unit in the data transmission apparatus 600 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flow of the method in fig. 3, and are not described herein for brevity.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device 700 according to this embodiment. As shown, network device 700 includes a processor 710, a bus 720, a Memory 730, a communication interface 740, and a Memory unit 750 (which may also be referred to as a Main Memory unit). Processor 710, memory 730, memory unit 750, and communication interface 740 are coupled by bus 720.

It should be appreciated that in this embodiment, the processor 710 may be a CPU, and the processor 710 may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (Digital Signal Processing, DSP), ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like.

The processor may also be a graphics processor (Graphics Processing Unit, GPU), a neural network processor (Neural Network Processing Unit, NPU), a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the present inventive arrangements.

The communication interface 740 is used to enable communication of the network device 700 with external devices or appliances. In this embodiment, when the network device 700 is used to implement the functions of the network device shown in fig. 3, the communication interface 740 is used as a physical port for receiving and transmitting data packets.

Bus 720 may include a path for transferring information between components such as processor 710, memory unit 750, and storage 730. The bus 720 may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like in addition to a data bus. But for clarity of illustration, the various buses are labeled as bus 720 in the figures. Bus 720 may be a peripheral component interconnect express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express, PCIe) Bus, or an extended industry standard architecture (Extended Industry Standard Architecture, EISA) Bus, a Unified Bus (Ubus or UB), a computer quick link (Compute Express Link, CXL), a cache coherent interconnect protocol (Cache Coherent Interconnect for Accelerators, CCIX), or the like. Bus 720 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like.

As one example, network device 700 may include multiple processors. The processor may be a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or computing units for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions). In this embodiment, when the network device 700 is used to implement the functions of the network device shown in fig. 3, the processor 710 may invoke the mapping relationship between the network slice identifier and the network slice stored in the memory 730, and process the data packet according to the network slice determined by the mapping relationship.

It should be noted that, in fig. 7, only the network device 700 includes 1 processor 710 and 1 memory 730 as an example, where the processor 710 and the memory 730 are used to indicate a type of device or device, respectively, and in a specific embodiment, the number of each type of device or device may be determined according to service requirements.

The memory unit 750 may correspond to a storage medium for storing information such as the network slice identifier and the mapping relationship between the network slices in the above-described method embodiment. The memory unit 750 may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM).

The memory 730 may correspond to a storage medium, for example, a magnetic disk, such as a mechanical hard disk or a solid state hard disk, for storing information of computer instructions, association relationships, and the like in the foregoing method embodiments.

The network device 700 may be a general purpose device or a special purpose device. For example, the network device 700 may be an edge device (e.g., a box carrying a chip with processing capabilities), or the like. Alternatively, the network device 700 may be a server or other computing device.

It should be understood that the network device 700 according to the present embodiment may correspond to the data transmission apparatus 600 in the present embodiment, and may correspond to performing the corresponding subject matter in the method according to fig. 3, and the foregoing and other operations and/or functions of each module in the data transmission apparatus 600 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flow of the method in fig. 3, and are not repeated herein for brevity.

The method steps in this embodiment may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by executing software instructions by a processor. The software instructions may be comprised of corresponding software modules that may be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, erasable programmable read only memory, electrically erasable programmable read only memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may reside in a computing device. The processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a computing device.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable apparatus. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer program or instructions may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired or wireless means. The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that integrates one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium, e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, tape; optical media, such as digital video discs (Digital Video Disc, DVD); but also semiconductor media such as solid state disks (Solid State Drive, SSD). While the application has been described with reference to certain preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and substitutions of equivalents may be made and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the application. Therefore, the protection scope of the application is subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (28)

1. A method of data transmission, the method performed by a network device, the method comprising:

receiving a data packet, wherein an Ethernet frame header of the data packet comprises a network slice identifier;

and processing the data packet according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network slice identifier is provided in an inner virtual local area network VLAN tag field contained in the ethernet frame header.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network slice identifier is disposed in an ethernet frame extension header contained in the ethernet frame header.

4. A method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the ethernet frame header further comprises a tag protocol identification, TPID, the TPID being used to indicate processing of data packets based on network slices.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the TPID has a value of 0x8888.

6. The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein the ethernet frame header further comprises a network slice type;

the network slice type is a low-delay slice, and the network slice identifier indicates a period number of the low-delay slice;

The network slice type is a large bandwidth slice, and the network slice identification indicates an identification of the large bandwidth slice.

7. A method of data transmission, the method performed by a network device, the method comprising:

receiving a first data packet;

generating a second data packet according to the first data packet, wherein an Ethernet frame header of the second data packet comprises a network slice identifier;

forwarding the second data packet through the network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein generating a second data packet from the first data packet comprises:

and generating a second data packet according to the network slice determined by the service type of the first data packet.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the network slice identifier is provided in an inner VLAN tag field contained in the ethernet frame header.

10. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the network slice identity is provided in an ethernet frame extension header comprised in the ethernet frame header.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the ethernet frame header further comprises a tag protocol identification, TPID, the TPID being used to indicate that the second data packet is to be processed based on a network slice.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the TPID has a value of 0x8888.

13. The method according to any of claims 7-12, wherein the ethernet frame header further comprises a network slice type;

the network slice type is a low-delay slice, and the network slice identifier indicates a period number of the low-delay slice;

the network slice type is a large bandwidth slice, and the network slice identification indicates an identification of the large bandwidth slice.

14. A data transmission apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving a data packet, and the Ethernet frame head of the data packet comprises a network slice identifier;

and the processing module is used for processing the data packet according to the network slice indicated by the network slice identification.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the network slice identifier is provided in an inner VLAN tag field contained in the ethernet frame header.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the network slice identifier is disposed in an ethernet frame extension header contained in the ethernet frame header.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the ethernet frame header further comprises a tag protocol identification, TPID, the TPID being used to indicate processing of data packets based on network slices.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the TPID has a value of 0x8888.

19. The apparatus of any of claims 14-18, wherein the ethernet frame header further comprises a network slice type;

the network slice type is a low-delay slice, and the network slice identifier indicates a period number of the low-delay slice;

the network slice type is a large bandwidth slice, and the network slice identification indicates an identification of the large bandwidth slice.

20. A data transmission apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving the first data packet;

the processing module is configured to generate a second data packet according to the first data packet, where an ethernet frame header of the second data packet includes a network slice identifier:

the transceiver module is further configured to forward the second data packet through a network slice indicated by the network slice identifier.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the processing module is configured to, when generating the second data packet from the first data packet: and generating a second data packet according to the network slice determined by the service type of the first data packet.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 or 21, wherein the network slice identifier is provided in an inner VLAN tag field contained in the ethernet frame header.

23. The apparatus of claim 20 or 21, wherein the network slice identifier is provided in an ethernet frame extension header contained in the ethernet frame header.

24. The apparatus of claim 22 or 23, wherein the ethernet frame header further comprises a tag protocol identification, TPID, the TPID being used to indicate that the second data packet is to be processed based on a network slice.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the TPID has a value of 0x8888.

26. The apparatus of any of claims 20-25, wherein the ethernet frame header further comprises a network slice type;

the network slice type is a low-delay slice, and the network slice identifier indicates a period number of the low-delay slice;

the network slice type is a large bandwidth slice, and the network slice identification indicates an identification of the large bandwidth slice.

27. A network device comprising a memory and a processor, the memory configured to store a set of computer instructions; the method of any of the preceding claims 1-6 or the method of any of the preceding claims 7-13 when executed by the processor.

28. A data transmission system, characterized in that it comprises at least one service terminal and at least one network device according to claim 27, said at least one service terminal being connected via said at least one network device, said network device receiving data packets sent by said service terminal, performing the operation steps of the method according to any of the preceding claims 1-6, or performing the operation steps of the method according to any of the preceding claims 7-13.