CN113271629B - A network load balancing method, access network equipment and network system - Google Patents

Abstract

The application relates to the technical field of communication, and particularly provides a network load balancing method, access network equipment and a network system. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment determines first connection information of a first slice, wherein the first slice is a slice of the first access network equipment; the first access network equipment sends first connection information and the identification of the first slice to the second access network equipment, and the first connection information and the identification of the first slice are used for load balancing of the second access network equipment. According to the method, the access network devices share the connection information of the slices, so that the user devices can be uniformly distributed among the slices, and therefore, the load of the slices is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured on the network management side, the capacity of the network system is improved, and the user network experience is improved.

Description

A network load balancing method, access network equipment and network system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a network load balancing method, access network equipment and a network system.

Background Art

With the development of mobile communication technology, various new services and application scenarios are constantly emerging. These services have very different requirements for network functions, connection performance and security. If a single network is used to carry these services, it will be difficult to meet the requirements of high bandwidth, low latency and high reliability at the same time. If a new network is built for each service separately, it will bring huge costs. This requires the fifth-generation (5G) communication technology to be flexible and scalable while being able to meet different business needs. To this end, 5G communication technology provides users with customized network services through end-to-end network slicing. Network slicing refers to a collection of logical network function entities that support specific communication business needs. It mainly relies on software defined network (SND) technology and network function virtualization (NFV) technology to realize customizable communication services. Specifically, 5G communication technology flexibly allocates network resources and networks on demand to virtualize multiple logical subnets with different characteristics and isolation from each other on the same set of physical facilities (including access network equipment and core network equipment) to provide targeted services to users. This logical subnet can be called a network slice. Network resources can include cloud-based communication, computing and storage resources, physical connection and communication resources, wireless radio access resources such as frequency, time, code multiple access resources, telecommunication resources, storage resources and computing resources.

Generally, 5G network slices mainly include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) type network slices, massive machine type of communication (mMTC) type network slices and ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) type network slices. Figure 1 shows the physical infrastructure that supports the above three types of network slices. As shown in Figure 1, the physical infrastructure will include sites and three-layer data centers (DCs). Sites will support multiple modes such as 5G, long term evolution (LTE) and wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) in the form of macro base stations, micro base stations and micro-micro base stations. The three-layer cloud DCs contain computing and storage resources, among which the bottom layer is called central office DC, which is quite close to the site side; the second layer is local DC; and the top layer is regional DC. As shown in Figure 1, the service demand types of eMBB, mMTC and URLLC are different, and the locations where caches are deployed are also different. eMBB type network slices have high bandwidth requirements, so they tend to deploy cache in the mobile cloud engine (MCE) of the local DC to provide high-speed services, thereby reducing the bandwidth requirements of the backbone network. uRLLC type network slices such as unmanned driving and remote management have strict requirements on latency, so the radio access network (RAN) real-time processing function unit (RNA real time, RNA-RT) and RAN non-real-time processing function unit (RNA non-real time, RNA-NRT) are usually deployed as close to the site as possible, the V2X server and service gateway are deployed in the mobile cloud engine of the centraloffice DC, and the control plane function is deployed in the local DC and regional DC. mMTC type network slices do not require a large amount of and high-frequency data interaction, so they can be deployed in the mobile cloud engine of the local DC, and other additional functions and application servers (for example, the Internet of Things server (IOT sever)) can be deployed in the regional DC.

In the relevant protocols of LTE, a load balancing function is defined. This function refers to the automatic adjustment of mobility-related parameters by exchanging load information between evolutionary NodeBs (eNBs) to achieve uniform distribution of services or users between different eNBs, so as to maintain high wireless resource utilization and improve system capacity. However, in 5G, due to the introduction of network slicing, wireless resource allocation has changed, and the load balancing function defined in LTE is difficult to adapt to this change, resulting in handover failures when UEs in 5G perform cell handovers.

Summary of the invention

The embodiments of the present application provide a network load balancing method, access network equipment and network system, in order to achieve uniform distribution of user devices between slices and improve the capacity of the network system.

In a first aspect, a network load balancing method is provided, the method comprising: a first access network device determines first connection information of a first slice, the first slice being a slice of the first access network device; the first access network device sends the first connection information and an identifier of the first slice to a second access network device, the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice being used for load balancing on the second access network device.

That is to say, the method can determine the connection information of the slice of the access network device and send the connection information to other access network devices, so that other access network devices can consider the connection information when performing load balancing, thereby ensuring the uniform distribution of user devices between slices and indicating the capacity of the network system.

In a possible implementation manner, the first connection information includes at least one of the following:

Number of radio resource control RRC connections, number of activated user equipments, number of deactivated user equipments, number of idle user equipments.

In one possible implementation, the first connection information includes a first available connection capacity value, and the first available connection capacity value is determined by a first maximum connection number and a first connection number, the first maximum connection number being the maximum connection number of user devices in the first slice, and the first connection number being the number of user devices in the first slice.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections includes the RRC number of connections, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available RRC connection capacity value; wherein the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the first access network device based on the RRC maximum number of connections and the RRC number of connections.

In a possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of activated user devices, the first number of connections includes the number of activated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available activated user device capacity value; wherein the available activated user device capacity value is determined by the first access network device based on the maximum number of activated user devices and the number of activated user devices.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of deactivated user devices, the first connection information includes the number of deactivated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available deactivated user device capacity value; wherein the available deactivated user device capacity value is determined by the first access network device based on the maximum number of deactivated user devices and the number of deactivated user devices.

In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the first access network device receiving a first maximum number of connections from a network management entity.

In a possible implementation, the first slice includes:

A slice of the first cell, a slice of the first base station, or a slice of the first beam; wherein the first cell is a cell under a first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

In a possible implementation, the identifier of the first slice is at least one of the following:

Single network slice selection auxiliary information S-NSSAI, network slice selection auxiliary information NSSAI, network slice subnet instance NSSI, network slice instance NSI.

In a possible implementation, the first access network device includes a CU and a DU; the first access network device determines the first connection information of the first slice, including: the CU determines the number of RRC connections of the first slice, and the DU determines the number of activated user devices of the first slice; the first access network device sends the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice to the second access network device, including: the first access network device sends the RRC connection number and the number of activated user devices to the second access network device.

In a second aspect, a network load balancing method is provided, the method comprising: a first access network device receives a first maximum number of connections from a network management entity, the first maximum number of connections being the maximum number of connections of the first access network device; the first access network device determines a first number of connections, the first number of connections being the number of user devices under the first access network device; the first access network device performs load balancing based on the first maximum number of connections and the first number of connections.

That is to say, the network management entity can send the maximum number of connections of the access network device to the access network device, so that the access network device can perform load balancing based on the maximum number of connections and the actual number of connections, thereby ensuring the uniform distribution of user devices among the access network devices and indicating the capacity of the network system.

In a possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes:

The maximum number of connections of the first cell, the maximum number of connections of the first base station, or the maximum number of connections of the first beam; wherein, the first cell is a cell under the first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the RRC maximum number of connections, and the first number of connections includes the RRC number of connections; and/or, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of activated user devices, and the first number of connections includes the number of activated user devices; and/or, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of deactivated user devices, and the first number of connections includes the number of deactivated user devices.

According to a third aspect, a first access network device is provided, characterized in that the first access network device comprises: a processor, used to determine first connection information of a first slice, the first slice being a slice of the first access network device; a transceiver, used to send the first connection information and an identifier of the first slice to a second access network device, the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice being used for load balancing on the second access network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the first connection information includes at least one of the following:

Number of radio resource control RRC connections, number of activated user equipments, number of deactivated user equipments, number of idle user equipments.

In one possible implementation, the first connection information includes a first available connection capacity value, and the first available connection capacity value is determined by a first maximum connection number and a first connection number, the first maximum connection number being the maximum connection number of user devices in the first slice, and the first connection number being the number of user devices in the first slice.

In a possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections includes the RRC number of connections, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available RRC connection capacity value; wherein the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the processor based on the RRC maximum number of connections and the RRC number of connections.

In a possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of activated user devices, the first number of connections includes the number of activated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available activated user device capacity value; wherein the available activated user device capacity value is determined by the processor based on the maximum number of activated user devices and the number of activated user devices.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of deactivated user devices, the first connection information includes the number of deactivated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available deactivated user device capacity value; wherein the available deactivated user device capacity value is determined by the processor based on the maximum number of deactivated user devices and the number of deactivated user devices.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver is further configured to: receive a first maximum number of connections from a network management entity.

In a possible implementation, the first slice includes:

A slice of the first cell, a slice of the first base station, or a slice of the first beam; wherein the first cell is a cell under a first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

In a possible implementation, the identifier of the first slice is at least one of the following:

Single network slice selection auxiliary information S-NSSAI, network slice selection auxiliary information NSSAI, network slice subnet instance NSSI, network slice instance NSI.

In one possible implementation, the processor includes a CU module and a DU module; the CU module is used to determine the number of RRC connections of the first slice, and the DU module is used to determine the number of activated user devices of the first slice; the transceiver is also used to send the RRC connection number and the number of activated user devices to the second access network device.

In a fourth aspect, a first access network device is provided, and the first access network device includes: a transceiver, used to receive a first maximum connection number from a network management entity, the first maximum connection number being the maximum connection number of the first access network device; a processor, used to determine a first connection number, the first connection number being the number of user devices under the first access network device; the processor is also used to perform load balancing based on the first maximum connection number and the first connection number.

In a possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections is any one of the following:

The maximum number of connections of the first cell, the maximum number of connections of the first base station, and the maximum number of connections of the first beam; wherein, the first cell is a cell under the first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the RRC maximum number of connections, and the first number of connections includes the RRC number of connections; and/or, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of activated user devices, and the first number of connections includes the number of activated user devices; and/or, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of deactivated user devices, and the first number of connections includes the number of deactivated user devices.

In a fifth aspect, a first access network device is provided, the first access network device comprising: a processing unit, used to determine first connection information of a first slice, the first slice being a slice of the first access network device; a communication unit, used to send the first connection information and an identifier of the first slice to a second access network device, the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice are used for load balancing by the second access network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the first connection information includes at least one of the following:

Number of radio resource control RRC connections, number of activated user equipments, number of deactivated user equipments, number of idle user equipments.

In one possible implementation, the first connection information includes a first available connection capacity value, and the first available connection capacity value is determined by a first maximum connection number and a first connection number, the first maximum connection number being the maximum connection number of user devices in the first slice, and the first connection number being the number of user devices in the first slice.

In a possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections includes the RRC number of connections, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available RRC connection capacity value; wherein the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the processing unit based on the RRC maximum number of connections and the RRC number of connections.

In a possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of activated user devices, the first number of connections includes the number of activated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available activated user device capacity value; wherein the available activated user device capacity value is determined by the processing unit based on the maximum number of activated user devices and the number of activated user devices.

In a possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of deactivated user devices, the first connection information includes the number of deactivated user devices, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available deactivated user device capacity value; wherein the available deactivated user device capacity value is determined by the processing unit based on the maximum number of deactivated user devices and the number of deactivated user devices.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication unit is further configured to: receive a first maximum number of connections from a network management entity.

In a possible implementation, the first slice includes:

A slice of the first cell, a slice of the first base station, or a slice of the first beam; wherein the first cell is a cell under a first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

In a possible implementation, the identifier of the first slice is at least one of the following:

Single network slice selection auxiliary information S-NSSAI, network slice selection auxiliary information NSSAI, network slice subnet instance NSSI, network slice instance NSI.

In one possible implementation, the processing unit includes a CU sub-unit and a DU sub-unit; the CU sub-unit is used to determine the number of RRC connections of the first slice, and the DU sub-unit is used to determine the number of activated user devices of the first slice; the communication unit is also used to send the RRC connection number and the number of activated user devices to the second access network device.

In a sixth aspect, a first access network device is provided, the first access network device comprising: a communication unit, used to receive a first maximum number of connections from a network management entity, the first maximum number of connections being the maximum number of connections of the first access network device; a processing unit, used to determine the first number of connections, the first number of connections being the number of user devices under the first access network device; the processing unit is also used to perform load balancing based on the first maximum number of connections and the first number of connections.

In a possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes:

The maximum number of connections of the first cell, the maximum number of connections of the first base station, and the maximum number of connections of the first beam; wherein, the first cell is a cell under the first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

In one possible implementation, the first maximum number of connections includes the RRC maximum number of connections, and the first number of connections includes the RRC number of connections; and/or, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of activated user devices, and the first number of connections includes the number of activated user devices; and/or, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of deactivated user devices, and the first number of connections includes the number of deactivated user devices.

In the seventh aspect, a network system is provided, comprising a first access network device and a second access network device; wherein the first access network device is used to determine first connection information of a first slice, and the first slice is a slice of the first access network device; the first access network device is also used to send the first connection information and an identifier of the first slice to the second access network device; the second access network device is used to perform load balancing according to the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice.

In an eighth aspect, a network system is provided, comprising a network management entity and a first access network device; wherein the network management entity is used to determine a first maximum number of connections, which is the maximum number of connections of the first access network device; the first access network device is used to determine a first number of connections, which is the number of user devices under the first access network device; the first access network device is used to perform load balancing based on the first maximum number of connections and the first number of connections.

In a ninth aspect, a computer storage medium is provided, which includes computer instructions. When the computer instructions are executed on an access network device, the access network device executes the method provided in the first aspect or the method provided in the second aspect.

In the tenth aspect, a computer program product is provided. When the program code contained in the computer program product is executed by a processor in an access network device, the method provided in the first aspect or the method provided in the second aspect is implemented.

In the eleventh aspect, a chip system is provided, which is applied to an access network device, and the chip system includes: a processor and an interface circuit; the processor and the interface circuit are connected to perform the operations of the first access network device in the methods provided in the above-mentioned various aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, a network system is provided, comprising a first access network device and a second access network device, wherein the first access device is used to execute the method provided by the first aspect or various possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, a network system is provided, including a network management entity and a first access network device, wherein the first access network device is used to execute the method provided by the second aspect or various possible implementations of the second aspect.

Through the network load balancing method provided in the embodiment of the present application, each access network device shares the connection information of its own slice, so that the user equipment can be evenly distributed among the slices, so that the load of each slice (connected or managed UE) is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured on the network management side, thereby improving the capacity of the network system and improving the user network experience. For example, when the access network device performs UE switching between slices, it can consider the connection information of the slices of other access network devices, so as to more effectively reduce the UE switching failure rate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a physical infrastructure structure that can support multiple types of network slices;

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a UE handover scenario;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of another UE handover scenario;

FIG4A is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system;

FIG4B is a schematic diagram of a network management entity structure;

FIG4C is a schematic diagram of the structure of an access network device;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system;

FIG6 is a flow chart of a network load balancing method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG7 is a flow chart of a method for determining a load balancing strategy provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG8 is a flow chart of a network load balancing method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG9 is a flow chart of a method for determining a load balancing strategy provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG10 is a flow chart of a network load balancing method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG11 is a flow chart of a network load balancing method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG12 is a schematic block diagram of an access network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG13 is a schematic block diagram of an access network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG14 is a schematic diagram of the structure of an access network device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments.

In the description of this specification, "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" etc. means that one or more embodiments of the present application include a specific feature, structure or characteristic described in conjunction with the embodiment. Therefore, the phrases "in one embodiment", "in some embodiments", "in some other embodiments", "in some other embodiments", etc. appearing in different places in this specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, but mean "one or more but not all embodiments", unless otherwise specifically emphasized in other ways.

In the description of this specification, unless otherwise specified, "/" means or, for example, A/B can mean A or B; "and/or" in this article is only a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships, for example, A and/or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, in the description of the embodiments of the present application, "multiple" means two or more than two.

In the description of this specification, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined as "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. The terms "include", "comprises", "has" and their variations all mean "including but not limited to", unless otherwise specifically emphasized.

Before introducing the solution provided in the embodiments of the present application, the relevant characteristics of network slicing are first introduced.

Resources between different network slices may be isolated and cannot be shared with each other. Alternatively, resources between different network slices may be shared. Typically, different network slices can be identified and distinguished by single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI). An S-NSSAI may include network slice information/service type (slice/service type, SST). SST points to network slice-specific features and service types. Service types include eMBB, mMTC, URLLC, etc. as described above. Optionally, S-NSSAI may also include a slice differentiator (SD). SD, as a supplement to SST, can be used to further distinguish multiple network slice instances that meet the same SST.

In addition, S-NSSAI can be classified into the following categories.

Subscribed S-NSSAIs are the subscription data of the user.

Default S-NSSAI: According to the operator's policy, one or more of the user's subscribed S-NSSAIs may be set as the default S-NSSAI. If the user equipment (UE) does not carry an allowed NSSAI in the registration request message, the network will use the default S-NSSAI to provide services to the UE if there is a default S-NSSAI.

The requested NSSAI refers to the NSSAI carried by the UE in the registration request message.

Allowed NSSAI refers to the S-NSSAI allowed by the network in the NSSAI requested by the UE. The network will bring the allowed NSSAI to the UE through the "Allowed NSSAI" information element (IE) of the registration accept message.

Rejected NSSAI refers to the NSSAI that is rejected by the network among the NSSAI requested by the UE. The network will convey the rejected NSSAI to the UE through the "Rejected NSSAI" IE of the registration reception message.

Configured NSSAI refers to the NSSAI that the network configures for the UE to use. The network will bring the configured NSSAI to the UE through the "Configured NSSAI" IE of the registration reception message. When the UE receives this configuration parameter, the UE knows which S-NSSAI are available in the network. If the UE configuration changes after registration, the network can notify the UE to update through the configuration update command. The UE will save the configured NSSAI configured by each network in the non-volatile storage space. Usually, a public land mobile network (PLMN) can only be configured with one configured NSSAI at most.

UE can access network slices through cells. Generally, the wireless resources of a network slice can be part or all of the wireless resources of at least one cell. In other words, the wireless resources of a network slice can be part or all of the wireless resources of a cell, or the wireless resources of a network slice can be part or all of the wireless resources of multiple cells. From the perspective of the network system, the network slices that can be supported by access network devices (such as base stations) are based on the granularity of tracking areas (TAs), that is, if different cells of different access network devices or different cells of the same access network device belong to the same tracking area, then the network slices supported by these cells are the same. In other words, the network slices supported by cells in the same tracking area are the same. If these cells belong to different tracking areas, the network slices supported by these cells may be the same or different. In addition, a cell can support one or more network slices.

In this specification, network slices may be referred to as slices for short.

Next, let's introduce the background of the mobility load balancing feature.

The load balancing function defined in LTE refers to the automatic adjustment of mobility-related parameters by exchanging load information between eNBs to achieve uniform distribution of services or users among different eNBs.

Mobility load balancing is to control the imbalanced service distribution to achieve balanced distribution of service loads among different cells. Load balancing is also to maintain high wireless resource utilization and improve system capacity.

Generally speaking, mobility load balancing has the following benefits:

a. Select a suitable UE to transfer to an inter-frequency neighboring cell with a relatively light load.

b. Alleviate the load imbalance between cells with different frequencies.

c. Improve the access success rate of services, improve users’ service experience, and increase system resource utilization.

According to the results of the current NR standard discussion, the loads that the base station can currently count include cell load, slice load, and synchronization signal block (SSB) beam load. In other words, the base station can perform cell load balancing, network slice load balancing, and SSB beam load balancing.

The cell load is composed of the cell radio resource status, hardware load (HWload), transmission load (TNL load), available capacity of the cell, radio resource control (RRC) connection information of the cell, and the number of activated UEs in the cell.

The cell radio resource status adopts the cell (physical resource block, PRB) utilization (usage), which may include uplink and downlink PRB utilization, as well as guaranteed bit rate (guaranteed bit rate, GBR) type PRB utilization and non-guaranteed bit rate (non-GBR) type PRB utilization.

Hardware load is divided into low, medium, high and overload. The base station evaluates the utilization of the baseband board central processing unit (CPU) and digital signal processing (DSP), and comprehensively considers the utilization of the CPU and DSP to distinguish different levels of load status.

Transmission load is divided into low, medium, high and overload. The base station evaluates the bandwidth usage of the core network interface and divides it into different levels of load status according to the bandwidth usage.

The available capacity of a cell refers to the overall available resource level of the downlink or uplink of the cell.

The RRC connection information of a cell refers to the status of the RRC connection in the cell, including the number of RRC connections in the cell and the available RRC connection capacity, wherein the number of RRC connections in the cell refers to the absolute number of UEs in RRC_connected mode in the cell, and the available RRC connection capacity of the cell refers to the remaining percentage of the number of RRC connections relative to the maximum number of RRC connections supported by the cell. The number of RRC connections may also be referred to as the number of RRC connections.

Slice load refers to the slice available capacity, which can also be called the total level of available resources of the slice, which indicates the ratio of the amount of resources available to the network slice to the total amount of resources of the next generation radio access network (NG-RAN).

The SSB beam load consists of the radio resource status of the SSB area and the available capacity of the SSB beam. The radio resource status of the SSB area adopts the PRB usage of the SSB area, which can include the PRB usage of uplink and downlink, as well as the PRB utilization of the guaranteed bit rate (GBR) type and the PRB utilization of the non-guaranteed bit rate (Non-GBR) type. The available capacity of the SSB beam refers to the total level of available resources in the downlink or uplink of the SSB area.

Next, the cell types in load balancing (also called load balancing) are introduced.

The source cell refers to the cell that triggers load balancing and needs to transfer load outward, and may also be referred to as a serving cell in this specification.

A candidate neighbor cell refers to a cell that meets the selection criteria for neighbor cells for load balancing and can become an inter-frequency or co-frequency cell of the target cell.

The target cell is relative to the source cell and refers to the neighboring cell that is ready to accept the load of the source cell.

Currently, the maximum number of connections of a network slice is defined in the network management protocol [see TS28.541]. The maximum number of connections of a network slice describes the maximum number of session connections of the network slice. This value can be sent to the base station through the northbound interface of the network management side device.

Through the above introduction, the following two scenarios may occur when balancing the load of network slicing.

In scenario 1, different slices of a cell share the resources of the entire cell. Load balancing can be performed between different slices or the same slice within and between cells. The slices of a cell can also be called slices supported by the cell, or slices within the cell. Referring to Figure 2, it can be set that cell A1 has slices B1 and B2, cell A2 has slice B2, and cell A3 has slice B1.

Among them, slice B1 of cell A1 and slice B2 of cell A1 share the resources of cell A1, and the available capacity of slice B1 of cell A1 is equal to the available capacity of slice B2 of cell A1, which is equal to the available capacity of cell A1. The network management entity configures the maximum number of UE connections for each slice, that is, the number of UE connections in each slice in the network cannot exceed the maximum number of connections of each UE.

In this scenario 1, the following situation may occur.

The available capacity of cell A1 is not small enough or the available capacity of cell A1 is still sufficient to connect one or more UEs, and the current number of UE connections in slice B1 has reached the maximum number of UE connections. As mentioned above, the available capacity of slice B1 of cell A1 is equal to the available capacity of cell A1. According to the prior art, since the cell load judgment of the base station is based on the available capacity of the slice, and only the available capacity of slice B1 of cell A1 is exchanged between base stations, at this time, on the one hand, slice B1 of cell A1 can continue to accept new UE access, and on the other hand, its neighboring base station may also instruct the UE under slice B1 of its cell (for example, cell A3) to switch to slice B1 of cell A1. Since the number of UE connections in slice B1 has reached the maximum value, but the base stations to which cells A1 and A3 belong do not know this information at this time, it will cause UE access failure or switching failure, or make the user network experience poor.

In scenario 2, different slices of a cell are resource isolated (i.e., the cell configures specific resources for different slices within it. The slice uses the resources allocated by the cell, but does not use the resources allocated by the cell for other slices). The same slice can be load balanced between cells. Referring to Figure 3, cell A4 has slice B3, and specific resources are allocated to slice B3. Cell A5 has slice B3, and specific resources are allocated to slice B3. The network management entity configures the maximum number of UE connections for slice B3.

In the second scenario, the following situation may occur.

The available capacity of slice B3 supported by cell A4 is not small enough, or the available capacity of slice B3 of cell A4 is still sufficient to connect one or more UEs, but the current number of UE connections in slice B3 of cell A4 has reached the maximum number of UE connections, that is, B3 of cell A4 is in a heavy load state. Since the cell load judgment of the base station is based on the available capacity of the slice, and only the available capacity of slice B3 of cell A4 is exchanged between base stations, at this time, on the one hand, slice B3 of cell A4 can continue to accept new UE access, and on the other hand, its neighboring base station may also instruct the UE under slice B3 of its cell (such as cell A5) to switch to slice B3 of cell A4. Since the number of UE connections in slice B3 has reached the maximum value, but the base station to which cell A5 belongs does not know this information at this time, it will cause UE access failure or switching failure, or make the user network experience poor.

In scenario three, it can be set that cell A6 of base station G1 has slice B4, and cell A7 of base station G2 has slice B4. The network management entity defines the maximum number of UE connections for slice B4. The number of UE connections of slice B4 of cell A6 and the number of UE connections of cell A7 are not allowed to exceed the maximum number of connections of the UE. Since base station G1 does not know the number of UEs currently connected to slice B4 of cell A7, it only accepts UE access based on the maximum number of connections of UE. In addition, base station G2 does not know the number of UEs currently connected to slice B4 of cell A6, and only accepts UE access based on the maximum number of connections of UE. In this case, the sum of the number of UE connections of slice B4 of cell A6 and the number of UE connections of slice B4 of cell A7 may exceed the maximum number of connections of UE, resulting in dropped calls and poor user network experience.

The embodiment of the present application provides a network load balancing method, where an access network device can determine the current connection information of its slice, which may include the number of UEs currently connected. The access network device can send the current connection information of its slice to other access network devices, so that the access network device can consider the current connection information of the slice of the target cell when performing load balancing (for example, when switching UE access to a cell), thereby avoiding switching failure caused by the number of UEs currently connected to the slice of the target cell reaching or exceeding the maximum number of connections.

Figure 4A is a schematic diagram of the network architecture of a communication system. The communication system includes an access network and a core network. The access network may be a next generation radio access network (NG-RAN), and the core network may be a 5G core network (5G core network, 5GC). The access network may include base stations (e.g., gNB (next generation NodeB), or ng-eNB (next generation eNodeB)), and the base stations are connected through interfaces (e.g., Xn interfaces). The base stations and 5GC may be connected through interfaces (e.g., Ng interfaces). The core network may include an access and mobility management function (AMF). The core network may also include a user plane function (UPF).

As shown in FIG4A , the communication system may further include a network management entity (also referred to as a network management device). Exemplarily, the network management entity (e.g., a management function entity (MnF)) may be connected to a base station via a northbound interface. Exemplarily, the network management entity may also be connected to a 5G core network via an interface (not shown).

MnF is a management entity defined by 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), and its externally visible behavior and interface are defined as management services. In the management architecture for providing services, MnF can play the role of management service producer (Producer of MnS) or management service consumer (Consumer of MnS). Exemplarily, as shown in FIG4B , MnF can play the role of management service producer and management service consumer at the same time.

The management service produced by the management service producer of MnF may have multiple consumers. MnF can consume multiple management services from one or more management service producers. In other words, the management service producer played by MnF can manage multiple management service consumers and can also obtain management information from multiple management service consumers.

Exemplarily, the management service consumer may be a network element management entity such as a mobile broad band automation engine (MAE), an element management system (EMS), etc. The network element management entity may also be referred to as a domain management device.

Exemplarily, the management service producer may specifically be a network management system (NMS) or the like.

Management service producers (such as NMS) and management service consumers (such as MAE, EMS, etc.) can be collectively referred to as network management entities. In other words, the network management entity can refer to management service producers, management service consumers, NMS, MAE, or EMS.

Next, taking gNB as an example, the base station in the communication system shown in Figure 4A is further introduced.

FIG4C shows a schematic diagram of the architecture of CU-DU in a new radio (NR) system. As shown in FIG4C , the gNB may include a centralized unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). The functions of the base station are split, with some functions of the gNB deployed in a CU and other functions of the gNB deployed in the DU. The number of DUs may be one or more. Multiple DUs may share one CU to save costs and facilitate network expansion. The CU and DU are connected through an interface (e.g., an F1 interface). The CU represents the gNB connected to the core network through an interface (e.g., an Ng interface). The CU represents the gNB connected to other gNBs through an interface (e.g., an Xn interface, an Xn-C interface).

The functional division of CU and DU can be divided according to the protocol stack. In an illustrative example, the radio resource control (RRC) and the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer and the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer can be deployed in the CU. The radio link layer control protocol (RLC), the media access control (MAC), and the physical layer (PHY) are deployed in the DU. Accordingly, the CU has the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP and SDAP. The DU has the processing capabilities of RLC, MAC and PHY. It is worth noting that the above functional division is only an illustrative example, and there may be other functional divisions. For example, the CU includes the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP, RLC and SDAP, and the DU has the processing capabilities of MAC and PHY. For another example, the CU includes the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP, RLC, SDAP and part of MAC (for example, adding a MAC header), and the DU has the processing capabilities of PHY and part of MAC (for example, scheduling). The names of CU and DU may change. As long as the access network node can implement the above functions, it can be regarded as CU and DU in this specification.

It should be noted that the architecture shown in FIG. 4C can also be applied to a multi-hop relay scenario, that is, the DU can be a relay device, or the DU and the UE are transmitted through a relay device.

FIG5 shows another communication system, which may include multiple access network devices, and the multiple access network devices may include access network device C1 and access network device C2. Exemplarily, access network device C1 and access network device C2 may be used to connect or manage multiple UEs. Exemplarily, access network device C2 may be an access network device adjacent to access network device C1. Exemplarily, access network device C1 may be connected to access network device C2 via an Xn interface.

The access network device (eg, the access network device C1 or the access network device C2) may be a base station, or a CU, or a DU, or an access point (AP), or a cluster.

In some embodiments, a cluster may be a collection of one or more base stations, or may be a subnet. Exemplarily, the cluster may be managed by a network management entity (such as a MAE, EMS, or NMS, etc.), or may be managed by another newly defined centralized management entity or domain management entity.

In some embodiments, under the CU-DU architecture, a set of one or more DUs under a CU may be used as a cluster. In this case, the cluster may be managed by the CU.

In some embodiments, under the CU-DU architecture, a set of one or more CUs may be used as a cluster. In this case, the cluster may be managed by a network management entity (such as a MAE or an EMS or an NMS, etc.), or may be managed by another newly defined centralized management entity or a domain management entity.

In the embodiments of the present application, for the convenience of description, the entity or device that manages the cluster may be referred to as a centralized management entity.

In some embodiments, the communication system where the access network device C1 and the access network device C2 are located may be the communication system shown in FIG4A, and accordingly, the access network device C1 and the access network device C2 may be base stations. Exemplarily, the access network device C1 and the access network device C2 may be adjacent, that is, the access network device C1 is one of two adjacent base stations, and the access network device C2 is the other of the two adjacent base stations.

An access network device (eg, access network device C1 or access network device C2) may have one or more slices, which may be referred to as slices of the access network device. The slices of the access network device may include slices of one level or multiple levels.

Exemplarily, the slices of the access network device may include cell-level slices. In other words, one or more slices in the slices of the access network device may specifically be slices of the cells under the access network device.

Exemplarily, the slices of the access network device may include slices at the base station level. In other words, one or more slices in the slices of the access network device may be slices of the base station. The base station is a base station corresponding to the access network device. In an example, when the access network device is a base station, the base station is the access network device. In an example, the base station may be any one or more base stations (or CU, or DU) in a cluster.

Exemplarily, when the access network device is a cluster, the slices of the access network device may include slices at the cluster level, in other words, one or more slices of the slices of the access network device may be slices of the cluster. Exemplarily, when a cluster is composed of one or more base stations, the slices of the cluster may be slices common to the one or more base stations, that is, the slices of the cluster may be slices commonly supported by the one or more base stations. Exemplarily, when a cluster is composed of multiple base stations, the slices of the cluster may be slices of some of the multiple base stations, that is, the slices of the cluster may be slices supported by some of the multiple base stations. Exemplarily, when a cluster is composed of one or more CUs, the slices of the cluster may be slices common to the one or more CUs, that is, the slices of the cluster may be slices commonly supported by the one or more CUs. Exemplarily, when a cluster is composed of multiple CUs, the slices of the cluster may be slices of some of the multiple CUs, that is, the slices of the cluster may be slices supported by some of the multiple CUs. Exemplarily, when a cluster is composed of one or more DUs, the slices of the cluster may be slices common to the one or more DUs, that is, the slices of the cluster may be slices commonly supported by the one or more DUs. Exemplarily, when a cluster is composed of multiple DUs, the slices of the cluster may be slices of some DUs in the multiple DUs, that is, the slices of the cluster may be slices of some DUs in the multiple DUs.

Exemplarily, the slices of the access network device may include beam-level slices, in other words, one or more slices in the slices of the access network device may be slices of the beam under the access network device. Exemplarily, the beam may be a synchronization signal block (SSB) beam.

The access network device can determine or identify the slice by the slice identifier. In one example, the slice identifier can be single network slice selection assistance information (single network slice selection assistance information, S-NSSAI). In one example, the slice identifier can be network slice selection assistance information (network slice selection assistance information, NSSAI). In one example, the slice identifier can be a network slice subnet instance (network slice subnet instance, NSSI). In one example, the slice identifier can be a network slice instance (network slice instance, NSI). In one example, the slice identifier can be a combination of any two or more of S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSSI, and NSI. In one example, the slice identifier can be one or more corresponding information of S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSSI, and NSI. In one example, the slice identifier can be other identifiers defined by the access network device.

The above is only an example of introducing the identification of the slice and does not constitute a limitation. Information that can be used for the access network device to determine or identify the slice can be called the identification of the slice.

Next, referring to FIG. 6 , a method for network load balancing provided in an embodiment of the present application is described by taking the application in the communication system shown in FIG. 5 as an example.

The access network device C1 may execute step 601 to determine the connection information of the slice of the access network device C1. The slice of the access network device C1 may be a slice of a cell under the access network device C1. The slice may also be a slice of a base station corresponding to the access network device C1. The slice may also be a slice of a beam under the access network device C1. The aforementioned types of slices may refer to the above description of the slices in each embodiment shown in FIG. 5, which will not be repeated here.

The slices under the access network device C1 may also be other types of slices under the access network device C1, which are not listed here one by one. .

Exemplarily, when the access network device C1 has multiple slices, the access network device C1 can determine the connection information of each of the multiple slices. Exemplarily, when the access network device C1 has multiple slices, the access network device C1 can determine the connection information of several slices of the multiple slices, and the number of slices in the several slices can be less than the number of slices in the multiple slices.

Slice D1 can be set as a slice of the access network device C1. Specifically, slice D1 can be a slice of a cell under the access network device C1, or can be a slice of a base station corresponding to the access network device C1, or can be a slice of a beam under the access network device C1, or can be other types of slices under the access network device C1. The connection information of slice D1 determined by the access network device C1 may refer to relevant information of a user device connected or managed by slice D1 when using resources provided or managed by the access network device C1. Next, for the convenience of expression, the connection information of slice D1 determined by the access network device C1 may be referred to as connection information D11.

In some embodiments, the access network device C1 can count the RRC connection number of slice D1 (slice number ofRRC connections). The RRC connection number of slice D1 is the absolute number of user equipment in RRC_connected mode under slice D1. In other words, the RRC connection number of slice D1 is the number of RRC connections that currently actually exist in slice D1. Exemplarily, under the CU-DU separation architecture of the gNB, the CU can count the RRC connection number of slice D1. The counted RRC connection number can be used as connection information D11 or included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 can be the RRC connection number, or the connection information D11 can include the RRC connection number.

In some embodiments, the access network device C1 can count the number of active UEs in slice D1. The number of active UEs in slice D1 is the number of user devices with data transmission under slice D1. In other words, the number of active user devices in slice D1 is the number of active user devices that currently exist in slice D1. Exemplarily, in the CU-DU separation architecture of the gNB, the DU can count the number of active user devices in slice D1. The counted number of active user devices can be used as connection information D11 or included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 can be the number of active user devices, or the connection information D11 can include the number of active user devices.

In some embodiments, the access network device C1 can count the number of inactive UEs in slice D1. The number of RRC connections in slice D1 is the number of inactive UEs in slice D1. In other words, the number of inactive UEs in slice D1 is the number of inactive UEs currently existing in slice D1. The number of inactive UEs obtained by counting can be used as connection information D11 or included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 can be the number of inactive UEs, or the connection information D11 can include the number of inactive UEs.

In some embodiments, the access network device C1 may count the number of idle user devices in the slice D1. The number of idle user devices counted may be used as the connection information D11 or included in the connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be the number of idle user devices, or the connection information D11 may include the number of idle user devices.

Among them, in an embodiment of the present application, the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user equipments, and the number of deactivated user equipments can be collectively referred to as the number of connections or the number of UE connections, that is, the number of connections or the number of UE connections can refer to the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user equipments, or the number of deactivated user equipments.

In some embodiments, the network management entity on the network management side may configure specifications for the slices under the access network device, and send the configured slice specifications to the access network device. Taking slice D1 of access network device C1 as an example, the network management entity may configure the specifications of slice D1. The specification of slice D1 may be the maximum number of connections of UE of slice D1 (the maximum number of connections of UE may also be referred to as the maximum number of connections), which may be information used to describe how many user devices slice D1 can connect to or manage at most. In other words, the specification of slice D1 may be or include the maximum number of user devices that slice D1 can connect to or manage at most. The network management entity may send the specifications of slice D1 to access network device C1.

It should be noted that the specification of slice D1 may refer to the specification of the slice of the cell. For example, the specification of slice D1 of the cell may be the maximum number of connections of the UE. For example, the maximum number of connections of the UE may be 100 or 200. The maximum number of connections of UEs in other slices of the cell may be the same as or different from the maximum number of connections of slice D1 of the cell. In other words, the number of connections of UEs under slice D1 in the cell cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections of UEs. Among them, the maximum number of connections of UEs may refer to the maximum number of connections of RRC, the maximum number of connections of activated UEs, or the maximum number of connections of deactivated UEs.

Optionally, the specification of slice D1 may refer to the specification of the slice of the base station. For example, the specification of slice D1 of the base station may be the maximum number of connections of the UE. The maximum number of connections of UEs of other slices of the base station may be the same as or different from the maximum number of connections of slice D1 of the base station. The number of connections of UEs under slice D1 of the base station cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections of UEs. Among them, the maximum number of connections of UE may refer to the maximum number of connections of RRC, the maximum number of connections of activated UEs, or the maximum number of connections of deactivated UEs.

Optionally, the specification of slice D1 may refer to the slice of the beam. For example, the specification of slice D1 of the beam of a cell may be the maximum number of connections of the UE. The maximum number of connections of UEs of other slices of the beam may be the same as or different from the maximum number of connections of slice D1 of the beam. The number of connections of UEs under the beam slice D1 of the cell cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections of UEs. Among them, the maximum number of connections of UE may refer to the maximum number of connections of RRC, the maximum number of connections of activated UEs, or the maximum number of connections of deactivated UEs.

Optionally, the specification of slice D1 may be a slice specification of the core network. For example, the specification of slice D1 of the core network may be the maximum number of connections of the UE. The maximum number of connections of UEs in other slices of the core network may be the same as or different from the maximum number of connections of slice D1 of the core network. The number of connections of UEs under slice D1 of the core network cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections of UEs. Among them, the maximum number of connections of UE may refer to the maximum number of connections of RRC, the maximum number of connections of activated UEs, or the maximum number of connections of deactivated UEs.

In one example of these embodiments, the specification of slice D1 may include the maximum number of RRC connections of slice D1. The maximum number of RRC connections of a slice may also be referred to as the maximum number of RRC connections of a slice (slice maxinum RRCconnections). The available RRC connection capacity value of slice D1 may be determined based on the maximum number of RRC connections of slice D1 and the number of RRC connections of slice D1. In one example, the RRC maximum number of connections of slice D1 may be subtracted from the number of RRC connections of slice D1, and then the obtained difference may be divided by the maximum number of RRC connections of slice D1, and the obtained ratio (e.g., percentage) may be used as the available RRC connection capacity value of slice D1. In one example, the RRC maximum number of connections of slice D1 may be subtracted from the number of RRC connections of slice D1 to obtain the available RRC connection capacity value of slice D1. The available RRC connection capacity value of slice D1 may be used as connection information D11 or may be included in connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be the available RRC connection capacity value of the available slice D1, or the connection information D11 may include the available RRC connection capacity value of the slice D1.

In another example of these embodiments, the specification of slice D1 may include the maximum number of active user equipment of slice D1. The maximum number of active user equipment of the slice may be referred to as the maximum number of active user equipment (slicemaxnum active UEs). The available active user equipment capacity value (slice available active UEscapacity value) of slice D1 may be determined according to the maximum number of active user equipment of slice D1 and the number of active user equipment of slice D1. In one example, the maximum number of active user equipment of slice D1 may be subtracted from the number of active user equipment of slice D1, and then the obtained difference may be divided by the maximum number of active user equipment of slice D1, and the obtained ratio (e.g., percentage) may be used as the available active user equipment capacity value of slice D1. In one example, the maximum number of active user equipment of slice D1 may be subtracted from the number of active user equipment of slice D1 to obtain the available active user equipment capacity value of slice D1. The available active user equipment capacity value of slice D1 may be used as connection information D11 or may be included in connection information D11. In other words, the connection information D11 may be the available activated user equipment capacity value of the slice D1, or the connection information D11 may include the available activated user equipment capacity value of the slice D1.

In another example of these embodiments, the specification of slice D1 may include the maximum number of inactive UEs of slice D1. The maximum number of inactive UEs of a slice may be referred to as the maximum number of inactive UEs (slice maxnum inactive UEs). The available inactive UEs capacity value of slice D1 may be determined based on the maximum number of inactive UEs of slice D1 and the number of inactive UEs of slice D1. In one example, the maximum number of inactive UEs of slice D1 may be subtracted from the number of inactive UEs of slice D1, and then the obtained difference may be divided by the maximum number of inactive UEs of slice D1, and the obtained ratio (e.g., percentage) may be used as the available inactive UEs capacity value of slice D1. In one example, the maximum number of inactive UEs of slice D1 may be subtracted from the number of inactive UEs of slice D1 to obtain the available inactive UEs capacity value of slice D1. The available deactivated state user equipment capacity value of slice D1 may be used as connection information D11 or may be included in connection information D11. In other words, connection information D11 may be the available deactivated state user equipment capacity value of slice D1, or connection information D11 may include the available deactivated state user equipment capacity value of slice D1.

The maximum number of RRC connections (which may be referred to as specification 1), the maximum number of user equipment in the activated state (which may be referred to as specification 2), and the maximum number of user equipment in the deactivated state (which may be referred to as specification 3). In an example, the network management entity may send specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, and specification 4 to the CU. The CU may send one or more of specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, and specification 4 to the DU through an existing or future defined F1 interface message. In an example, the network management entity may send specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, and specification 4 to the DU. The DU may send one or more of specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, and specification 4 to the CU through an existing or future defined F1 interface message. In an example, the network management entity may send one or more of specification 1, specification 2, specification 3, and specification 4 (e.g., specification 1 and specification 2) to the CU, and send other items (e.g., specification 3 and specification 4) to the DU.

Exemplarily, the CU may determine the corresponding capacity value based on the received specification and the actual number of connections (or the number of user devices) corresponding to the specification. The DU may determine the corresponding capacity value based on the received specification and the actual number of connections (or the number of user devices) corresponding to the specification. Exemplarily, the CU and the DU may exchange the capacity values determined by each other through an existing or future defined F1 interface message.

In some embodiments, the connection information D11 may include any two or more of the above-mentioned RRC connection number, the number of activated user equipment, the number of deactivated user equipment, the number of idle user equipment, the available RRC connection capacity value, the available activated user equipment capacity value, and the available deactivated user equipment capacity value. Exemplarily, under the CU-DU architecture, the CU and DU can exchange information through existing or future defined F1 interface messages, such as exchanging the capacity values determined by each other, and/or exchanging the actual number or number of connections counted by each other.

The connection information D11 of the slice D1 can be determined by the above solution. If the access network device C1 has multiple slices, the access network device C1 can refer to the solution for determining the connection information D11 to determine the connection information of other slices.

Access network device C1 may execute step 603 to send connection information of the slice of access network device C1 and an identifier of the slice of access network device C1 to access network device C2.

The connection information of the slice of the access network device C1 may include the connection information D11 determined above, and may also include the connection information of other slices in the slice of the access network device C1. The identifier of the slice of the access network device C1 may include the identifier of the slice D1, and may also include the identifier of other slices in the slice of the access network device C1. Among them, the connection information of the slice of the access network device C1 and the identifier of the slice of the access network device C1 correspond one-to-one, that is, the connection information of a slice corresponds to the identifier of the slice. The identifier of the slice can refer to the introduction of the embodiment shown in Figure 5 above, and will not be repeated here.

In some embodiments, the access network device C2 and the access network device C1 may be gNBs, and the access network device C1 may send connection information and a slice identifier to the access network device C2 via an Xn interface message. The Xn interface message may be an existing Xn interface message or an Xn interface message defined in the future. Exemplarily, under the CU-DU architecture, the CU corresponding to the access network device C1 may send connection information and a slice identifier to the access network device C2.

In an illustrative example, the connection information may be set to include the number of RRC connections of the slice, the available RRC connection capacity value of the slice, the number of activated user equipments of the slice, the available activated user equipment capacity value of the slice, the number of deactivated user equipments of the slice, and the identifier of the slice. The connection information may be included or carried in an Xn AP resources status update message to transmit the connection information between access network devices. In an example, the information element (IE) included in the Xn AP resource status update message may be as shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Among them, >>slice RRC Connections includes sub-information elements as shown in Table 2.

Table 2

As mentioned above, S-NSSAI/NSSAI/NSSI/NSI is used as the slice identifier. Slice Number ofRRC Connections is the number of RRC connections of the slice. Slice Available RRC Connection CapacityValue is the available RRC connection capacity value of the slice.

Among them, >>slice Number of Active UEs includes sub-information elements as shown in Table 3.

Table 3

IE/Group Name S-NSSAI/NSSAI/NSSI/NSI >Slice Number of Active UEs >Slice Available Active UEs Capacity Value >slice number of inactive UEs

Wherein, Slice Number of Active UEs is the number of active user equipments in the slice. Slice Available Active UEs Capacity Value is the available active user equipment capacity value of the slice. Slice Number of Inactive UEs is the number of deactivated user equipments in the slice.

It should be noted that Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3 are examples of the message formats used for the connection information transmitted between access network devices, and are not limiting. Other message formats may also be used to transmit the connection message, for example, the sub-information element of >slicenumber of inactive UEs may be separated from the >>slice Number of Active UEs, and so on.

In addition to sending the slice connection information to the access network device C2, the access network device C1 may send the slice connection information to other access network devices in the communication system where it is located (especially the access network devices adjacent to the access network device C1). In addition to receiving the slice connection information from the access network device C1, the access network device C2 may also receive the slice connection information from other access network devices in the communication system where it is located (especially the access network devices adjacent to the access network device C2).

When or after receiving the connection information of the slice, each access network device can perform load balancing according to the connection information of the slice it has received.

Next, an example is given by taking access network device C2 as an example.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 6 , the access network device C2 may execute step 605 to perform load balancing according to the connection information of the slice of the access network device C1 and the identifier of the slice of the access network device C1.

Next, we will use an example to introduce the load balancing solution.

In some embodiments, the access network device C2 may determine the connection information of its own slice, which may be specifically implemented with reference to the above description of step 601. The access network device C2 may determine whether to perform UE switching based on the connection information of its own slice and the connection information of the slice of the access network device C1 to perform load balancing.

Exemplarily, load balancing may be load balancing between the same slices. The same slice refers to two or more slices with the same identifier, and the two or more slices may belong to different access network devices. For example, slice D2 may be set as a slice of access network device C2. If the identifier of D2 is the same as the identifier of D1, D2 and D1 may be considered to be the same slice.

Taking the load balancing between D2 and D1 as an example, load balancing between the same slices is introduced. The access network device C2 can compare the connection information D21 of D2 with the connection information D11 of the slice D1.

In some embodiments, the maximum number of RRC connections of the same slice can be set to be the same (the maximum number of RRC connections of slice D2 is equal to the maximum number of RRC connections of slice D1), the connection information D21 includes the number of RRC connections, and the connection information D11 includes the number of RRC connections. The number of RRC connections in the connection information D21 and the number of RRC connections in the connection information D11 can be compared. If the number of RRC connections in the connection information D21 is greater than the number of RRC connections in the connection information D11, the access network device C2 can instruct or control the UE in the slice D2 to switch with the slice D1 as the target slice. In a specific example, the number of RRC connections in the connection information D11 can be set to 40, and the number of RRC connections in the connection information D12 can be set to 100. The access network device C2 can instruct or control the UE in the slice D2 to switch with the slice D1 as the target slice.

If the number of RRC connections in the connection information D21 is less than the number of RRC connections in the connection information D11, the access network device C2 avoids switching the UE in D2 with slice D1 as the target slice.

In some embodiments, the maximum number of activated user equipments of the same slice can be set to be the same (the maximum number of activated user equipments of slice D2 is equal to the maximum number of activated user equipments of slice D1), the connection information D21 includes the number of activated UEs, and the connection information D11 includes the number of activated UEs. The number of activated UEs in the connection information D21 and the number of activated UEs in the connection information D11 can be compared, and a switching strategy for the activated UEs can be formulated based on the comparison result.

In some embodiments, the maximum number of deactivated user equipments of the same slice can be set to be the same (the maximum number of deactivated user equipments of slice D2 is equal to the maximum number of deactivated user equipments of slice D1), the connection information D21 includes the number of deactivated UEs, and the connection information D11 includes the number of deactivated UEs. The number of deactivated UEs in the connection information D21 and the number of deactivated UEs in the connection information D11 can be compared, and a switching strategy for the deactivated UEs can be formulated based on the comparison result.

In some embodiments, the connection information D21 may be set to include an available RRC connection capacity value, the connection information D11 may include an available RRC connection capacity value, the available RRC connection capacity value in the connection information D21 and the available RRC connection capacity value in the connection information D11 may be compared, and a switching strategy for the UE may be formulated based on the comparison result. In a specific example, the available RRC connection capacity value in the connection information D11 may be set to 60%, the available RRC connection capacity value in the connection information D12 may be set to 0, and the access network device C2 may instruct or control the UE in the slice D2 to switch with the slice D1 as the target slice.

In some embodiments, the connection information D21 can be set to include the available activated user equipment capacity value, and the connection information D11 can include the available activated user equipment capacity value. The available activated user equipment capacity value in the connection information D21 and the available activated user equipment capacity value in the connection information D11 can be compared, and based on the comparison result, a switching strategy for the activated UE can be formulated.

In some embodiments, the connection information D21 can be set to include the available deactivated user equipment capacity value, and the connection information D11 can include the available deactivated user equipment capacity value. The available deactivated user equipment capacity value in the connection information D21 and the available deactivated user equipment capacity value in the connection information D11 can be compared, and based on the comparison result, a switching strategy for the deactivated UE can be formulated.

The above is only an example of a load balancing solution and does not constitute a limitation. The access network device may also perform load balancing according to other solutions.

Through the network load balancing method provided in the embodiment of the present application, each access network device shares the connection information of its own slice, so that the user equipment can be evenly distributed among the slices, so that the load of each slice (connected or managed UE) is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured on the network management side, thereby improving the capacity of the network system and improving the user network experience. For example, when the access network device performs UE switching between slices, the connection information of the slices of other access network devices can be considered, so as to more effectively reduce the UE switching failure rate.

Next, we will introduce the load balancing method for cluster slices.

As described above, the entity or device that manages the cluster may be referred to as a centralized management entity. Taking centralized management entity J1 and centralized management entity J2 as examples, a load balancing method applicable to slices of a cluster is introduced.

The centralized management entity J1 may determine the connection information of the slice of the centralized management entity J1. The slice of the centralized management entity J1 may be a slice of a cluster managed by the centralized management entity J1. The slice of the cluster may refer to the introduction of the embodiment shown in FIG5 above.

The specific process of determining the connection information of the slice of the central management entity J1 can be referred to the above introduction to step 601 in Figure 6, which will not be repeated here.

The network management entity can configure the specifications of the cluster's slices and send them to the centralized management entity. The specifications of the cluster's slices can be the maximum number of connections for the UE. When there are multiple slices for the cluster, the cluster's slices can be set to include slices D3 and slices D4. The maximum number of connections for UEs in slice D3 can be the same as or different from the maximum number of connections for slice D4. The number of connections for UEs under slice D3 (or slice D4) cannot exceed the set maximum number of connections for UEs. Among them, the maximum number of connections for UEs can refer to the maximum number of connections for RRC, the maximum number of connections for activated UEs, or the maximum number of connections for deactivated UEs.

The centralized management entity J1 may send the connection information of the slices and the identification of the slices determined by it to the centralized management entity J2. Exemplarily, the centralized management entity J2 may be a centralized management entity adjacent to the centralized management entity J1.

The process of the centralized management entity J1 sending the connection information of the slice of the centralized management entity J1 and the identifier of the slice of the centralized management entity J1 to the centralized management entity J2 can be referred to the introduction of step 603 in Figure 6, which will not be repeated here.

The centralized management entity J2 can perform load balancing according to the connection information of the slice of the centralized management entity J1 and the identifier of the slice of the centralized management entity J1. For details, please refer to the introduction of step 605 in Figure 6 above, which will not be repeated here.

Through the network load balancing method provided in the embodiment of the present application, each centralized management entity shares the connection information of each slice, so that the user equipment can be evenly distributed among the slices, so that the load of each slice (connected or managed UE) is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured on the network management side, thereby improving the capacity of the network system and improving the user network experience. For example, when the centralized management entity performs UE switching between slices, it can consider the connection information of the slices of other access network devices, so as to more effectively reduce the UE switching failure rate.

Next, an example is given to describe a method for determining a load balancing strategy.

Referring to Figure 7, the access network device can execute step 701 to determine the performance information of the slice.

The access network device may be a base station, a CU, a DU, or an access point. For details, please refer to the above introduction to the access network device shown in FIG. 5 , which will not be described in detail here.

The slice may be a slice of a cell under the access network device. The slice may also be a slice of a base station corresponding to the access network device. The slice may also be a slice of a beam under the access network device. The aforementioned types of slices may refer to the above description of the slices in each embodiment shown in FIG. 5, and will not be repeated here.

In some embodiments, when the access network device is a base station or a CU or a DU, the access network device can count the performance information of the slices identified by NSSAI and/or S-NSSAI.

In some embodiments, step 701 may be performed periodically, that is, the access network device may periodically collect statistics on the performance information of the slices. The statistics period may be configured by the network management entity.

In some embodiments, step 701 may be executed by event triggering, that is, an event may be triggered to trigger the access network device to collect performance information of the slice. The event may be an event configured and sent by a network management entity.

In some embodiments, the performance information of the slice may include the number of RRC connections.

Exemplarily, the number of RRC connections here may include the average number of RRC connections in a specific time period, and/or the maximum number of RRC connections in a specific time period. It should be noted that the maximum number of RRC connections here is different from the maximum number of RRC connections described above. As mentioned above, the maximum number of RRC connections is the maximum number of RRC connections that can be reached or carried by the slice configured on the network management side, which is a kind of specification information. The maximum number of RRC connections here is the number of RRC connections at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of RRC connections at this moment is greater than or equal to the number of RRC connections at other moments in the specific time period.

Exemplarily, when step 701 is performed periodically, the specific time period may be the period duration. When step 701 is performed by event triggering, the specific time period is the time period between the reception time of the last event and the reception time of this event.

In some embodiments, the performance information of the slice may include the number of activated user devices.

Exemplarily, the number of activated user devices here may include the average number of activated user devices in a specific time period, and/or the maximum number of activated user devices in a specific time period. It should be noted that the maximum number of activated user devices here is different from the maximum number of activated user devices described above. As described above, the maximum number of activated user devices is the maximum number of activated UEs that can be reached or carried by the slice configured on the network management side, which is a kind of specification information. The maximum number of activated user devices here is the number of activated user devices at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of activated user devices at this moment is greater than or equal to the number of activated user devices at other moments in the specific time period.

Exemplarily, when step 701 is performed periodically, the specific time period may be the period duration. When step 701 is performed by event triggering, the specific time period is the time period between the reception time of the last event and the reception time of this event.

In some embodiments, the performance information of the slice may include the number of deactivated user devices.

Exemplarily, the number of deactivated user devices here may include the average number of deactivated user devices in a specific time period, and/or the maximum number of deactivated user devices in a specific time period. It should be noted that the maximum number of deactivated user devices here is different from the maximum number of deactivated user devices described above. As described above, the maximum number of deactivated user devices is the maximum number of deactivated UEs that can be reached or carried by the slice configured on the network management side, which is a kind of specification information. The maximum number of deactivated user devices here is the number of deactivated user devices at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of deactivated user devices at this moment is greater than or equal to the number of deactivated user devices at other moments in the specific time period.

Exemplarily, when step 701 is performed periodically, the specific time period may be the period duration. When step 701 is performed by event triggering, the specific time period is the time period between the reception time of the last event and the reception time of this event.

Continuing to refer to Figure 7, the access network device can execute step 703 to send the performance information of the slice to the network management device.

In some embodiments, the access network device may be a base station or a CU or a DU. The network management device may be a combination of one or more of EMS, MAE, NMS, management service producer (Management Service Producer, Producer of MnS), and management service consumer (Management Service Consumer, Consumer of MnS).

In some embodiments, the access network device may be an EMS or a MAE. The network management entity may be an NMS.

Continuing to refer to Figure 7, the network management device can execute step 705 to determine the load balancing strategy of the slice based on the performance information of the slice.

In some embodiments, the load balancing strategy may specifically be the specification of the slice. The network management device may determine the specification of the slice based on the performance information of the slice.

Exemplarily, when the performance information of the slice includes the number of RRC connections, the network management device may determine the maximum number of RRC connections based on the number of RRC connections. For example, when the number of RRC connections includes the maximum number of RRC connections, the maximum number of RRC connections (or the maximum number of RRC connections plus or minus a preset value) may be determined as the maximum number of RRC connections.

Exemplarily, when the performance information of the slice includes the number of activated user devices, the network management device may determine the maximum number of activated user devices according to the number of activated user devices. For example, when the number of activated user devices includes the maximum number of activated user devices, the maximum number of activated user devices (or the maximum number of activated user devices plus or minus a preset value) may be determined as the maximum number of activated user devices.

Exemplarily, when the performance information of the slice includes the number of deactivated user devices, the network management device may determine the maximum number of deactivated user devices according to the number of deactivated user devices. For example, when the number of deactivated user devices includes the maximum number of deactivated user devices, the maximum number of deactivated user devices (or the maximum number of deactivated user devices plus or minus a preset value) may be determined as the maximum number of deactivated user devices.

In some embodiments, after the network management entity obtains the performance information of the slice, for example, the slice performance information of the cell, the network management entity can reconfigure the mobility parameters of the user equipment for the base station according to the performance information, where the mobility parameters are the parameters used by the base station to control the switching of the user equipment.

Through the method for determining the load balancing strategy provided in the embodiment of the present application, the load balancing strategy of the slice can be determined according to the performance information of the slice, so that the access network equipment can more effectively perform load balancing between slices, ensure the uniform distribution of users between slices, and improve the capacity of the network system.

Next, we will introduce how to determine the load balancing strategy for cluster slices.

As mentioned above, the entity or device that manages the cluster can be called a centralized management entity.

The central management entity may determine performance information of a slice. The slice may be a slice of a cluster managed by the central management entity.

The specific process of determining the performance information of the slice can refer to the above introduction to step 701 in Figure 7, which will not be repeated here.

Among them, when the centralized management entity is MAE or EMS, the centralized management entity can count the performance information of slices identified by NSSI and/or NSI.

The centralized management entity may send the determined performance information to the network management entity. Please refer to the above description of step 703 in FIG. 7 , which will not be described in detail here.

The network management entity may determine the load balancing strategy of the slice according to the performance information of the slice. Please refer to the introduction of step 703 in Figure 7 above, which will not be repeated here.

Through the method for determining the load balancing strategy provided in the embodiment of the present application, the load balancing strategy of the cluster slices can be determined according to the performance information of the cluster slices, so that the centralized management entity can more effectively perform load balancing between the cluster slices, so that user devices can be evenly distributed between the slices of each cluster, thereby improving the capacity of the network system.

The above article introduces the network load balancing solution between slices. Next, another network load balancing method is introduced.

In order to more effectively balance the load between cells, it may also be necessary to consider the current load of different cells, that is, the number of user equipment connected or managed by different cells, for example, the number of RRC connections in the cell, the number of activated user equipment in the cell, and the number of deactivated user equipment in the cell. It is also necessary to consider the specifications of different cells, that is, the maximum number of user equipment that can be connected or managed by different cells.

In view of the above situation, the embodiment of the present application provides a network load balancing method. As shown in FIG8 , the method includes the following steps.

The network management entity may execute step 801a to determine the specification of the access network device.

The network management entity may refer to the above description of the embodiments shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B . The access network device may refer to the above description of the embodiments shown in FIG. 5 .

As described above, the network management entity is a functional entity on the network management side, which can configure the specifications of the access network equipment.

In an embodiment of the present application, the specification may be the maximum number of connections of the UE, which may include one or more of the maximum number of RRC connections, the maximum number of activated user equipments, and the number of deactivated user equipments.

The specifications of the access network device may include specifications of the cell under the access network device, and may also include specifications of the base station (the base station is the access network device or a base station managed by the access network device), and may also include specifications of the beam (for example, SSB beam) under the access network device, and may also include specifications of the slice of the cell under the access network device, and may also include specifications of the slice of the base station corresponding to the access network device, and may also include specifications of the slice of the beam under the access network device.

The specifications of the access network equipment may include one or more of the cell specifications, base station specifications, beam specifications, cell slice specifications, base station slice specifications, and beam slice specifications.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 8 , the network management entity may execute step 803 a to send the specification of the access network device to the access network device.

Specifically, the network management entity may send the cell specifications, base station specifications, and beam specifications determined in step 801a to the access network device.

The network management device may also send a cell identifier corresponding to the cell specifications to the access network device. The cell identifier may be a cell ID, a cell global identifier (CGI), or a physical cell ID (PCI). The cell identifier may also be other identification information, which will not be listed here.

The network management device may also send the cell identifier and the slice identifier corresponding to the cell slice specification to the access network device. The cell identifier may be a cell ID, a CGI, or a PCI, and the slice identifier may be an S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSI, NSSI, or a newly defined slice identifier, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

The network management device may also send a base station identifier corresponding to the specifications of the base station to the access network device. For example, when the base station is a gNB, the base station identifier may be a gNB ID, or a gNB name, etc., which are not listed here one by one.

The network management device may also send the base station identifier and the slice identifier corresponding to the specification of the base station slice to the access network device. The base station identifier may be a gNB ID or a gNB name, and the slice identifier may be S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSI, NSSI, or a newly defined slice identifier, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

The network management device may also send a beam identifier corresponding to the specification of the beam to the access network device. When the beam is an SSB beam, the beam identifier may be an SSB index.

The network management device may also send the beam identifier and the slice identifier corresponding to the specification of the beam slice to the access network device. The beam identifier may be an SSB index, and the slice identifier may be S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSI, NSSI, or a newly defined slice identifier, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In an illustrative example, as shown in Table 4, one or more of the cell's "maximum number of RRC connections", "maximum number of activated UEs", "maximum number of UEs", and cell slices may be added in the NRcellCU.

Table 4

Among them, MaximumRRCconnections represents the maximum number of RRC connections, MaxnumActiveUEs represents the maximum number of active UEs, and MaxnumUEs represents the maximum number of UEs.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 8 , the access network device may execute step 801 b to determine the load of the access network device.

The load may also be referred to as the number of connections or connection information, which may include one or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user equipments, and the number of deactivated user equipments. In other words, the access network device may count one or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user equipments, and the number of deactivated user equipments of the access network device.

The load of the access network device may include the load of the cell under the access network device, the load of the base station (the base station is the access network device or a base station managed by the access network device), and the load of the beam (such as an SSB beam) under the access network device.

In other words, the access network device may count one or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user equipments, and the number of deactivated user equipments of the cell. It may also count one or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user equipments, and the number of deactivated user equipments of the base station. It may also count one or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user equipments, and the number of deactivated user equipments of the beam.

The load of the access network equipment may include one or more of the load of the cell, the load of the base station, and the load of the beam.

The load of the access network device may include the load of the slices of the cell under the access network device, and may also include the load of the slices of the base station (the base station is the access network device or the base station managed by the access network device), and may also include the load of the slices of the beam (such as the SSB beam) under the access network device. In other words, the access network device can count one or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user devices, and the number of deactivated user devices of the slices of the cell. It is also possible to count one or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user devices, and the number of deactivated user devices of the slices of the base station. It is also possible to count one or more of the number of RRC connections, the number of activated user devices, and the number of deactivated user devices of the slices of the beam. For details, please refer to the above introduction to step 601 in Figure 6.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 8 , the access network device may execute step 805 to perform load balancing according to the specification of the access network device and the load of the access network device.

Through the specifications and load of the access network equipment, the access network equipment can obtain the cell (or base station or beam) specifications, and then determine the available RRC connection capacity value, available activated user equipment capacity value, and available deactivated user equipment capacity value of the cell (or base station or beam), so as to perform cell (or base station or beam) load balancing.

Exemplarily, the access network device may also receive specifications of other access network devices and loads of other access network devices. For example, the specifications of the other access network devices may be received from a network management device or other access network devices, and the loads of the other access network devices may be received from other access network devices. In step 805, the access network device may combine its own specifications and loads, as well as the specifications and loads of other access network devices, to perform cell (or base station or beam) load balancing.

The load balancing between cells (or base stations or beams) can be implemented by referring to the above description of step 605 in FIG. 6 , which will not be described in detail here.

The access network device can perform load balancing between slices according to the specifications and loads of the slices (cell slices, base station slices, or beam slices). For details, please refer to the above introduction to step 605 in Figure 6.

The network load balancing method provided in the embodiment of the present application can comprehensively consider the specifications and loads of the cells (or base stations or beams) or slices when the access network device performs load balancing between cells (or base stations or beams) or slices, so that the load balancing between cells (or base stations or beams) or slices can be more effectively performed, so that user equipment can be evenly distributed among the cells (or base stations or beams) (or base stations or beams) or slices, thereby improving the capacity of the network system.

Next, an example is given to describe how to determine the network load balancing between clusters.

The network management entity may determine the specifications of the cluster. For details of the specifications and the determination process, please refer to the introduction to step 801a in FIG. 8 above.

The network management entity may determine the specifications of the slices of the cluster. The specifications and the determination process may be specifically referred to the introduction to step 801a in FIG8 above.

The network management entity may send the specifications of the cluster to the centralized management entity. For details, please refer to the introduction of 803a in FIG. 8 above.

The network management device may also send a cluster identifier corresponding to the cluster specification to the centralized management entity. The cluster identifier may be a cluster ID.

Exemplarily, the NMS may serve as a network management entity and send the specifications of the cluster to the EMS, which serves as a centralized management entity.

The network management entity may send the specifications of the cluster slices to the centralized management entity. For details, please refer to the above introduction to 803a in FIG. 8 .

The network management device may also send the cluster identifier and the slice identifier corresponding to the specifications of the cluster slice to the centralized management entity. The cluster identifier may be a cluster ID, and the slice identifier may be S-NSSAI, NSSAI, NSI, NSSI, or a newly defined slice identifier, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

The centralized management entity may determine the load of the cluster. The load and the determination process may refer to the introduction to step 801b above.

The centralized management entity may determine the load of the slices of the cluster. The load and determination process may refer to the introduction to step 801b above.

The centralized management entity can perform load balancing among clusters according to the specifications of the clusters and the loads of the clusters. For details, please refer to the above introduction to step 805 in FIG. 8 .

The centralized management entity may perform load balancing among the slices of the cluster according to the specifications of the slices of the cluster and the loads of the slices of the cluster. For details, please refer to the introduction of step 805 in FIG. 8 above.

The network load balancing method provided in the embodiment of the present application can comprehensively consider the specifications and loads of clusters (or cluster slices) when the access network device performs load balancing between clusters (or cluster slices), so that the load balancing between clusters (or cluster slices) can be more effectively performed, so that user devices are evenly distributed among the clusters (or cluster slices), thereby improving the capacity of the network system.

Next, an example is given to describe a method for determining a load balancing strategy.

9 , the access network device may execute step 901 to determine performance information of the access network device.

The access network device may be a base station, a CU, a DU, an access network device management entity, or an access point. For details, please refer to the above introduction to the access network device shown in FIG. 5, which will not be repeated here.

The performance information of the access network device may include the performance information of the cell under the access network device, and may also include the performance information of the base station (the base station is the access network device or a base station managed by the access network device), and may also include the performance information of the beam (such as the SSB beam) under the access network device.

The performance information of the access network equipment may include one or more of the performance information of the cell, the performance information of the base station, and the performance information of the beam.

In some embodiments, step 901 may be performed periodically, that is, the access network device may periodically collect statistics on the performance information of the slices. The statistics period may be configured by the network management device.

In some embodiments, step 901 may be executed by event triggering, that is, an access network device may be triggered to collect performance information of a slice by an event. The event may be an event configured and sent by a network management device.

In some embodiments, the performance information may include the number of RRC connections.

Exemplarily, the number of RRC connections here may include the average number of RRC connections in a specific time period, and/or the maximum number of RRC connections in a specific time period. It should be noted that the maximum number of RRC connections here is different from the maximum number of RRC connections described above. As mentioned above, the maximum number of RRC connections is the maximum number of RRC connections that can be reached or carried by the network management side, which is a kind of specification information. The maximum number of RRC connections here is the number of RRC connections at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of RRC connections at this moment is greater than or equal to the number of RRC connections at other moments in the specific time period.

Exemplarily, when step 901 is performed periodically, the specific time period may be the period duration. When step 901 is performed by event triggering, the specific time period is the time period between the reception time of the last event and the reception time of this event.

In some embodiments, the performance information may include the number of active user equipments.

Exemplarily, the number of activated user devices here may include the average number of activated user devices in a specific time period, and/or the maximum number of activated user devices in a specific time period. It should be noted that the maximum number of activated user devices here is different from the maximum number of activated user devices described above. As described above, the maximum number of activated user devices is the maximum number of activated user devices that can be reached or carried by the network management side, which is a kind of specification information. The maximum number of activated user devices here is the number of activated user devices at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of activated user devices at this moment is greater than or equal to the number of activated user devices at other moments in the specific time period.

Exemplarily, when step 901 is performed periodically, the specific time period may be the period duration. When step 901 is performed by event triggering, the specific time period is the time period between the reception time of the last event and the reception time of this event.

In some embodiments, the performance information may include the number of deactivated user equipments.

Exemplarily, the number of deactivated user devices here may include the average number of deactivated user devices in a specific time period, and/or the maximum number of deactivated user devices in a specific time period. It should be noted that the maximum number of deactivated user devices here is different from the maximum number of deactivated user devices described above. As described above, the maximum number of deactivated user devices is the maximum number of deactivated user devices that can be reached or carried by the network management side, which is a kind of specification information. The maximum number of deactivated user devices here is the number of deactivated user devices at a certain moment in the specific time period, and the number of deactivated user devices at this moment is greater than or equal to the number of deactivated user devices at other moments in the specific time period.

Exemplarily, when step 901 is performed periodically, the specific time period may be the period duration. When step 901 is performed by event triggering, the specific time period is the time period between the reception time of the last event and the reception time of this event.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 9 , the access network device may execute step 903 to send the performance information of the access network device to the network management entity.

In some embodiments, the access network device may be a base station or a CU or a DU. The network management entity may be a combination of one or more of EMS, MAE, NMS, management service producer (Management Service Producer, Producer of MnS), and management service consumer (Management Service Consumer, Consumer of MnS).

Continuing to refer to FIG. 9 , the network management entity may execute step 905 to determine a load balancing strategy for the access network device according to the performance information of the access network device.

In some embodiments, the load balancing strategy may specifically be the specification of the access network device. The network management device may determine the specification of the access network device according to the performance information of the access network device.

Exemplarily, when the performance information of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam) includes the number of RRC connections, the network management device may determine the maximum number of RRC connections of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam) according to the number of RRC connections of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam). For example, when the number of RRC connections includes the maximum number of RRC connections, the maximum number of RRC connections (or the maximum number of RRC connections plus or minus a preset value) may be determined as the maximum number of RRC connections of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam).

Exemplarily, when the performance information of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam) includes the number of activated user devices, the network management device may determine the maximum number of activated user devices of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam) according to the number of activated user devices of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam). For example, when the number of activated user devices includes the maximum number of activated user devices, the maximum number of activated user devices (or the maximum number of activated user devices plus or minus a preset value) may be determined as the maximum number of activated user devices.

Exemplarily, when the performance information of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam) includes the number of deactivated user devices, the network management device may determine the maximum number of deactivated user devices of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam) according to the number of deactivated user devices of the access network device (specifically, a cell or a base station or a beam). For example, when the number of deactivated user devices includes the maximum number of deactivated user devices, the maximum number of deactivated user devices (or the maximum number of deactivated user devices plus or minus a preset value) may be determined as the maximum number of deactivated user devices.

Through the method for determining the load balancing strategy provided in the embodiment of the present application, the load balancing strategy of the access network device can be determined according to the performance information of the access network device, so that the access network device can perform load balancing more effectively and the user equipment can be evenly distributed among the access network devices, thereby improving the capacity of the network system.

Next, an example is given to describe a method for determining a cluster load balancing strategy.

The centralized management entity may determine the performance information of the cluster. The performance information and the specific process of determining the performance information may refer to the introduction of step 901 in FIG. 9 above.

The centralized management entity may send the performance information of the cluster to the network management entity. Exemplarily, the centralized management entity may be an EMS or a MAE. The network management entity may be an NMS.

The network management entity may determine the load balancing strategy of the cluster according to the performance information of the centralized cluster. For details, please refer to the introduction of step 905 in FIG. 9 above.

Through the method for determining the load balancing strategy provided in the embodiment of the present application, the load balancing strategy of the cluster can be determined according to the performance information of the cluster, so that the centralized management entity can perform load balancing more effectively, so that user devices can be evenly distributed among the clusters, thereby improving the capacity of the network system.

An embodiment of the present application provides a network load balancing method, as shown in FIG10 , the method includes the following steps.

Step 1001: The first access network device determines first connection information of a first slice, where the first slice is a slice of the first access network device. For details, please refer to the above description of step 601 in FIG. 6, which will not be described again.

In step 1003, the first access network device sends the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice to the second access network device, and the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice are used by the second access network device to perform load balancing. For details, please refer to the above description of step 603 and step 605 in Figure 6, which will not be repeated here.

In some embodiments, the first connection information may include at least one of the following:

Number of radio resource control RRC connections, number of activated user equipments, number of deactivated user equipments, number of idle user equipments.

For details, please refer to the above description of step 601 in FIG. 6 , which will not be described in detail here.

In some embodiments, the first connection information includes a first available connection capacity value, which is determined by a first maximum connection number and a first connection number, wherein the first maximum connection number is the maximum connection number of user devices in the first slice, and the first connection number is the number of user devices in the first slice.

In one example of these embodiments, the first maximum number of connections includes the RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections includes the RRC number of connections, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available RRC connection capacity value; wherein the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the first access network device according to the RRC maximum number of connections and the RRC number of connections. For details, reference may be made to the above description of step 601 in FIG. 6, which will not be repeated here.

In one example of these embodiments, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of activated user equipment, the first number of connections includes the number of activated user equipment, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available activated user equipment capacity value; wherein the available activated user equipment capacity value is determined by the first access network device according to the maximum number of activated user equipment and the number of activated user equipment. For details, reference may be made to the above description of step 601 in FIG. 6, which will not be repeated here.

In one example of these embodiments, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of deactivated user equipment, the first connection information includes the number of deactivated user equipment, and the first available connection capacity value includes the available deactivated user equipment capacity value; wherein the available deactivated user equipment capacity value is determined by the first access network device according to the maximum number of deactivated user equipment and the number of deactivated user equipment. For details, reference may be made to the above description of step 601 in FIG. 6, which will not be repeated here.

In some embodiments, the first maximum number of connections is configured by a network management entity; the method further includes: the first access network device receives the first maximum number of connections from the network management entity. For details, please refer to the above description of step 601 in FIG. 6, which will not be repeated here.

In some embodiments, the first slice includes:

A slice of the first cell, a slice of the first base station, or a slice of the first beam; wherein the first cell is a cell under a first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

For details, please refer to the above description of step 601 in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 , which will not be described in detail here.

In a possible implementation, the identifier of the first slice is at least one of the following:

Single network slice selection auxiliary information S-NSSAI, network slice selection auxiliary information NSSAI, network slice subnet instance NSSI, network slice instance NSI.

For details, please refer to the above description of step 601 in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 , which will not be described in detail here.

In some embodiments, the first access network device includes a CU and a DU; the first access network device determines the first connection information of the first slice, including: the CU determines the number of RRC connections of the first slice, and the DU determines the number of activated user devices of the first slice; the first access network device sends the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice to the second access network device, including: the first access network device sends the RRC connection number and the number of activated user devices to the second access network device.

For details, please refer to the above description of step 601 and step 603 in FIG. 6 , which will not be described in detail here.

Through the network load balancing method provided in the embodiment of the present application, each access network device shares the connection information of its own slice, so that the user equipment can be evenly distributed among the slices, so that the load of each slice (connected or managed UE) is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured on the network management side, thereby improving the capacity of the network system and improving the user network experience. For example, when the access network device performs UE switching between slices, it can consider the connection information of the slices of other access network devices, so as to more effectively reduce the UE switching failure rate.

An embodiment of the present application provides a network load balancing method, as shown in FIG11 , the method includes the following steps.

Step 1101: The first access network device receives a first maximum number of connections from a network management entity. The first maximum number of connections is the maximum number of connections of the first access network device. For details, please refer to the above description of step 801a and step 803a in FIG. 8, which will not be repeated here.

Step 1103: The first access network device determines a first connection number, which is the number of user devices under the first access network device. For details, please refer to the above description of step 801b in FIG. 8, which will not be repeated here.

Step 1105: The first access network device performs load balancing according to the first maximum number of connections and the first number of connections. For details, please refer to the above description of step 805 in FIG. 8, which will not be described in detail here.

In some embodiments, the first maximum number of connections includes:

The maximum number of connections of the first cell, the maximum number of connections of the first base station, or the maximum number of connections of the first beam; wherein, the first cell is a cell under the first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

For details, please refer to the above description of step 801a in FIG. 8 , which will not be described in detail here.

In some embodiments, the first maximum number of connections includes the RRC maximum number of connections, and the first number of connections includes the RRC number of connections; and/or, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of activated user devices, and the first number of connections includes the number of activated user devices; and/or, the first maximum number of connections includes the maximum number of deactivated user devices, and the first number of connections includes the number of deactivated user devices.

For details, please refer to the above description of step 801a, step 801b, and step 805 in FIG. 8 , which will not be described in detail here.

The network load balancing method provided in the embodiment of the present application can comprehensively consider the specifications and loads of the access network devices when performing load balancing, thereby more effectively performing load balancing of the access network devices, so that user devices can be evenly distributed among the access network devices, thereby improving the capacity of the network system.

The embodiment of the present application provides an access network device 1200. As shown in FIG12 , the access network device 1200 includes:

The processing unit 1210 is configured to determine first connection information of a first slice, where the first slice is a slice of a first access network device. For details, reference may be made to the above description of step 601 in FIG. 6 , which will not be repeated here.

The communication unit 1220 is used to send the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice to other access network devices, and the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice are used by the other access network devices to perform load balancing.

The functions of the functional units of the access network device 1200 may be implemented with reference to the embodiments shown in FIG. 10 above, and will not be described in detail here.

In the embodiment of the present application, each access network device shares the connection information of each slice, so that the user equipment can be evenly distributed among the slices, so that the load of each slice (connected or managed UE) is not easy to exceed the slice specification configured by the network management side, thereby improving the capacity of the network system and improving the user network experience. For example, when the access network device performs UE switching between slices, it can consider the connection information of the slices of other access network devices, so as to more effectively reduce the UE switching failure rate.

The above mainly introduces the access network device provided by the embodiment of the present application from the perspective of the method flow. It is understandable that, in order to realize the above functions, each access network device includes a hardware structure and/or software module corresponding to the execution of each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to exceed the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the present application can divide the functional modules of the access network equipment, etc. according to the various method embodiments shown in Figure 10. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above-mentioned integrated module can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation.

The embodiment of the present application provides an access network device 1300. As shown in FIG13 , the access network device 1300 includes:

The communication unit 1310 is configured to receive a first maximum number of connections from a network management entity, where the first maximum number of connections is a maximum number of connections of a first access network device.

The processing unit 1320 is used to determine a first connection number, where the first connection number is the number of user equipments under the first access network device.

The processing unit 1320 is further configured to perform load balancing according to the first maximum number of connections and the first number of connections.

The functions of the functional units of the access network device 1300 may be implemented with reference to the embodiments shown in FIG. 11 above, and will not be described in detail here.

In an embodiment of the present application, when performing load balancing, the access network device can comprehensively consider the specifications and loads of the access network device, so that the load balancing of the access network device can be more effectively performed, so that user devices can be evenly distributed among the access network devices, thereby improving the capacity of the network system.

The above mainly introduces the access network device provided by the embodiment of the present application from the perspective of the method flow. It is understandable that, in order to realize the above functions, each access network device includes a hardware structure and/or software module corresponding to the execution of each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to exceed the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the present application can divide the functional modules of the access network equipment, etc. according to the various method embodiments shown in Figure 11. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above-mentioned integrated module can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation.

The embodiment of the present application provides an access network device 1400. Referring to FIG. 14, the access network device 1400 can perform the operations of the access network device described in any of the embodiments shown in FIG. 6 to FIG. 11. Among them, the access network device 1400 may include a processor 1410 and a transceiver 1420. The processor 1410 and the transceiver 1420 are connected to perform the operations of the access network device described in any of the embodiments shown in FIG. 6 to FIG. 11. Specifically, the processor 1410 can perform data processing operations, and the transceiver 1420 can perform sending and/or receiving operations.

In some embodiments, the access network device 1400 further includes a memory 1430. The memory 1430 stores instructions that can be executed by the processor 1410. When the instructions are executed by the processor 1410, the access network device 1400 can perform the operations of the access network device described in any of the embodiments shown in FIG. 6 to FIG. 11.

An embodiment of the present application provides a chip system that can be applied to an access network device. The chip system includes: a processor and an interface circuit; the processor and the interface circuit are connected to execute the operations of the access network device described in any of the embodiment methods shown in Figures 6 to 11 above.

In some embodiments, the chip system further includes a memory. The memory stores instructions that can be executed by a processor. When the instructions are executed by the processor, the chip system can perform the operation of the access network device described in any of the embodiments shown in FIG. 6 to FIG. 11 above.

It is understandable that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented by hardware or by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), registers, hard disks, mobile hard disks, CD-ROMs, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC.

In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted through the computer-readable storage medium. The computer instructions may be transmitted from a website site, computer, server or data center to another website site, computer, server or data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid state disk (SSD)), etc.

It should be understood that the various numerical numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only used for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims (20)

1. A method of network load balancing, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment determines first connection information of a first slice, wherein the first slice is a slice of the first access network equipment; wherein the first connection information includes a radio resource control, RRC, connection number or available connection capacity value;

the first access network device sends the first connection information and the identification of the first slice to the second access network device, wherein the first connection information and the identification of the first slice are used for load balancing among slices of the second access network device;

the second access network device is configured to perform load balancing between a second slice of the second access network device and the first slice based on the first connection information, where an identifier of the second slice is the same as an identifier of the first slice;

and when the RRC maximum connection number of the second slice is the same as the RRC maximum connection number of the first slice and the RRC connection number of the second slice is larger than the RRC connection number of the first slice, or when the available connection capacity value of the second slice is smaller than the available connection capacity value of the first slice, the second access network equipment indicates the user equipment in the second slice to switch by taking the first slice as a target slice.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the available connection capacity value is determined by a first maximum number of connections and a first number of connections, the first maximum number of connections being a maximum number of connections of user devices of the first slice, the first number of connections being a number of user devices in the first slice.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprises a RRC number of connections, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available RRC connection capacity value; wherein,

the available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the first access network device according to the RRC maximum connection number and the RRC connection number.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of active user devices, the first number of connections comprises a number of active user devices, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available active user device capacity value; wherein,

and the capacity value of the available active state user equipment is determined by the first access network equipment according to the maximum number of active state user equipment and the number of active state user equipment.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of deactivated user devices, the first connection information comprises a number of deactivated user devices, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available deactivated user device capacity value; wherein,

and the available deactivation state user equipment capacity value is determined by the first access network equipment according to the maximum number of the deactivation state user equipment and the number of the deactivation state user equipment.

6. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that

The first access network device receives the first maximum number of connections from a network management entity.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first cut comprises:

a slice of the first cell, a slice of the first base station, or a slice of the first beam; the first cell is a cell under the first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the identification of the first slice is at least one of:

Single network slice selection assistance information S-nsai, network slice selection assistance information nsai, network slice subnet instance NSI, network slice instance NSI.

9. The method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first access network device comprises a CU and a DU;

the first access network device determining first connection information of a first slice includes: the CU determines the RRC connection number of the first slice, and the DU determines the number of active user equipment of the first slice;

the first access network device sending the first connection information and the identification of the first slice to a second access network device includes:

and the first access network equipment sends the RRC connection number and the number of the activated user equipment to the second access network equipment.

10. A first access network device, the first access network device comprising:

a processor, configured to determine first connection information of a first slice, where the first slice is a slice of the first access network device; wherein the first connection information includes a radio resource control, RRC, connection number or available connection capacity value;

a transceiver, configured to send the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice to a second access network device, where the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice are used for load balancing between slices by the second access network device;

The second access network device is configured to perform load balancing between a second slice of the second access network device and the first slice based on the first connection information, where an identifier of the second slice is the same as an identifier of the first slice;

and when the RRC maximum connection number of the second slice is the same as the RRC maximum connection number of the first slice and the RRC connection number of the second slice is larger than the RRC connection number of the first slice, or when the available connection capacity value of the second slice is smaller than the available connection capacity value of the first slice, the second access network equipment indicates the user equipment in the second slice to switch by taking the first slice as a target slice.

11. The first access network device of claim 10, wherein the available connection capacity value is determined by a first maximum number of connections and a first number of connections, the first maximum number of connections being a maximum number of connections of user devices in the first slice, the first number of connections being a number of user devices in the first slice.

12. The first access network device of claim 11, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a RRC maximum number of connections, the first number of connections comprises a RRC number of connections, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available RRC connection capacity value; wherein,

The available RRC connection capacity value is determined by the processor according to the RRC maximum connection number and the RRC connection number.

13. The first access network device of claim 11, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of active user devices, the first number of connections comprises a number of active user devices, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available active user device capacity value; wherein,

and the capacity value of the available active user equipment is determined by the processor according to the maximum number of the active user equipment and the number of the active user equipment.

14. The first access network device of claim 11, wherein the first maximum number of connections comprises a maximum number of deactivated state user devices, the first connection information comprises a number of deactivated state user devices, and the available connection capacity value comprises an available deactivated state user device capacity value; wherein,

the available deactivation state user equipment capacity value is determined by the processor according to the maximum number of the deactivation state user equipment and the number of the deactivation state user equipment.

15. The first access network device of claim 11, wherein the transceiver is further configured to: the first maximum number of connections is received from a network management entity.

16. The first access network device according to any of claims 10-15, wherein the first slice comprises:

a slice of the first cell, a slice of the first base station, or a slice of the first beam; the first cell is a cell under the first access network device, the first base station is a base station corresponding to the first access network device, and the first beam is a beam under the first access network device.

17. The first access network device of any of claims 10-15, wherein the identification of the first slice is at least one of:

single network slice selection assistance information S-nsai, network slice selection assistance information nsai, network slice subnet instance NSI, network slice instance NSI.

18. The first access network device of any of claims 10-15, wherein the processor comprises a CU module and a DU module;

the CU module is used for determining the RRC connection number of the first slice, and the DU module is used for determining the number of active user equipment of the first slice;

the transceiver is further configured to send the RRC connection number and the number of active user equipments to the second access network device.

19. A network system comprising a first access network device and a second access network device; wherein,

the method comprises the steps that first access network equipment is used for determining first connection information of a first slice, wherein the first slice is a slice of the first access network equipment; wherein the first connection information includes a radio resource control, RRC, connection number or available connection capacity value;

the first access network device is further configured to send the first connection information and the identifier of the first slice to the second access network device;

the second access network device is used for balancing the load among the slices according to the first connection information and the identification of the first slice;

the second access network device is configured to perform load balancing between a second slice of the second access network device and the first slice based on the first connection information, where an identifier of the second slice is the same as an identifier of the first slice;

and when the RRC maximum connection number of the second slice is the same as the RRC maximum connection number of the first slice and the RRC connection number of the second slice is larger than the RRC connection number of the first slice, or when the available connection capacity value of the second slice is smaller than the available connection capacity value of the first slice, the second access network equipment indicates the user equipment in the second slice to switch by taking the first slice as a target slice.

20. A computer storage medium comprising computer instructions which, when run on an access network device, cause the access network device to perform the method of any of claims 1-9.