System and method for dual-homing networking in communication network
Technical Field
The invention relates to a communication technology, in particular to a technology of dual-homing networking.
Background
With the increasing requirements of users on network security reliability and network processing capability, operators must introduce sufficient capacity and various diversity means into the network when designing the network at the beginning, so as to provide users with sufficiently high service capability, minimize the influence caused by faults, improve the prior recovery capability, dual access capability and various routing capabilities of the network, and the like, so as to ensure the normal provision of services, and enable users to have high satisfaction degree on the provided services. On the other hand, if the main-standby mode is adopted for the core control or processing device, not only the networking cost and the maintenance management cost are increased, but also greater resource waste is caused by the idle of the used device.
Therefore, under the comprehensive consideration of several factors such as the integration level of the device, the cost, the disaster recovery capability and the network security, a dual-homing concept is introduced, which is used for a mechanism for preventing the network from being paralyzed in a large area or providing communication emergently when a sudden disaster accident happens, and providing the rapid recovery capability of the device communication when an extreme abnormal condition happens. Such as: the emergency communication recovery mechanism is included, and 80% -90% of communication recovery capacity can be provided. The dual homing is actually a special terminal connection mode, each terminal needing the service provided by the switching control center is simultaneously connected with two switching control centers, namely the same terminal belongs to two switching control centers, one is used as a main terminal and the other is used as a standby terminal, the terminal can be provided with the service by any one of the two switching control centers, and the disaster processing capacity provided by the dual homing has a great relationship with the networking and realization of the dual homing.
A Next Generation Network (NGN) is a packet Network, which provides various services including telecommunication services, and can implement separation of Service function and underlying transmission technology by using various bandwidths and transmission technologies with Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities; the method allows the user to freely access different service provider networks, supports universal mobility, and realizes the consistency and uniformity of the user to the service use.
The user capacity of the NGN network is very large, in the networking of the NGN, the soft switch devices are in a position of great core importance, and there is no main and standby soft switch devices by default in the networking level, in order to improve the network reliability, the soft switch devices are required to realize dual homing, so that under the condition that a certain soft switch device is down due to abnormal disaster or hardware upgrade, the service responsible for processing can be automatically taken over by the standby soft switch device, and the service interruption is ensured to be minimized. The dual homing means that two soft switch devices are backed up with each other on the same networking level, so that the standby soft switch device in the dual homing position can undertake the service processing of the main soft switch device under the condition that the main soft switch device is down.
In the NGN network, the PSTN is connected to the soft switch access network through a Media GateWay (MGW), source signaling Point Code (OPC) is completed between the PSTN and the MGW, and the MGW is connected to the soft switch through a relay link and transmits data. When the main soft switch device is in the down state, the MGW connected to the main soft switch device is registered to the standby soft switch device again to ensure the continuity of the service. Wherein a signaling point is a node in a signaling network that handles control messages.
In the prior art, in a dual homing state, different independent signaling points are respectively used by soft switch devices that are generally dual homing to each other, after dual homing is switched, a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) relay link on an MGW under a failed signaling point is automatically switched to a TDM relay group under an effective signaling point, and the TDM relay link under the failed signaling point is failed.
In practical applications, the above scheme has the following problems: according to the prior art, after the dual homing is switched, the relay resource waste is serious.
The main reason for this is that in the existing technical solution, the soft switch devices that belong to each other respectively use different independent signaling points, after the dual-homing handover, the signaling point of the down soft switch device is invalid, the signaling point of the opposite network entity changes, the relay link resource under the valid signaling point is utilized, and the relay link resource under the invalid signaling point is not utilized, which results in the waste of relay resource.
In addition to The NGN network, a dual-homing networking may also be implemented in The Third Generation (3G for short) network, and at present, there is a problem similar to The dual-homing networking in The NGN network.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above, the main objective of the present invention is to provide a system and method for dual-homing networking in a communication network, so that relay resources of the system can be fully utilized when dual-homing networking is used.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a dual-homing networking system in a communication network, which comprises two soft switch devices in a master-slave relationship with each other and a plurality of other network entities; wherein,
each other network entity is respectively connected with the two soft switch devices through a main link and a standby link which belong to the same link set;
each soft switch device is used for performing soft switch processing, detecting the states of the soft switch devices which are mutually active and standby, and activating the standby link connected with the soft switch device when the detected soft switch device fails.
Each soft switch device is provided with an active signaling point and a standby signaling point corresponding to the active signaling point of the other soft switch device, and the corresponding active signaling point and the standby signaling point are set identically;
the active link and the standby link of each other network entity respectively correspond to the active signaling point of the active soft switch device and the standby signaling point of the standby soft switch device.
In addition, in the system, the other network entities are respectively connected to the two mutually active-standby soft switch devices through media gateways;
the main link and the standby link belonging to the same link set are configured on the media gateway.
Further in the system, the active link and the standby link are layer 3 links of a messaging portion.
Further in the system, the communication network is a next generation network;
the other network entity may be one of:
media resource server, application server, public switched telephone network, integrated home location register, and soft switch device.
Further in the system, the communication network is a third generation mobile communication network;
the other network entity may be one of:
base station controller, home location register, public switched telephone network, service control point and mobile service switching center.
The invention also provides a system of the dual-homing networking in the communication network, which comprises the main soft switching equipment, the standby soft switching equipment and the signaling gateway; wherein,
each soft switch device is used as an application service point and is associated to a signaling point of the signaling gateway in a proxy or transfer mode through the message transmission part layer 3 link user adaptation;
the soft switching equipment is used for performing soft switching processing and the like;
the signaling gateway is used for supporting the adaptation of layer 3 link users of the message transmission part and adapting the service on the active soft switch device to the standby soft switch device when the active soft switch device fails.
The signaling gateway may be an independent device external to the soft switch device, or may be embedded in the access side media gateway.
Further in the system, the communication network may be a next generation network or a third generation mobile communication network;
the soft switch device may be a mobile switching center server in a third generation mobile communications network.
The invention also provides a method for dual-homing networking in a communication network, which is applied to the system for dual-homing networking and comprises the following steps:
a, setting a main link connected to the main soft switch equipment to be in an activated state, and setting a standby link connected to the standby soft switch equipment to be in a locked state;
b, the standby soft switch device detects whether the main soft switch device has a fault, if so, the standby link is activated;
c, after the active soft switch device recovers from the fault, the standby soft switch device is informed, the standby soft switch device responds to the notice to lock the standby link, and the active soft switch device activates the active link.
And the fault of the main soft switch equipment is down.
In step C, the active soft switch device may notify the standby soft switch device through one of the following protocols:
a proprietary protocol, a session initiation protocol, or a mobile application part protocol.
By comparison, it can be seen that the technical solution of the present invention is mainly different from the prior art in that the technical concept is based on a unique signaling point. When realizing dual homing, each network entity needing to be connected with the soft switch device sets up a main link and a spare link belonging to the same link set, and is respectively connected to 2 soft switch devices which are in a main-spare relationship with each other, in addition, 2 signaling points are respectively arranged on the 2 soft switch devices, one is a main signaling point of the soft switch device, the other one is a spare signaling point corresponding to the main signaling point of the spare soft switch device, the main signaling point and the spare signaling point respectively correspond to the main link and the spare signaling point, and the corresponding main signaling points are set up identically. When one soft exchange device detects that another soft exchange device is failed, the originally locked standby link is activated, and the original locked standby link always appears as a signaling point to the outside.
The difference of the technical scheme brings obvious beneficial effects, namely, by using the scheme of the invention, the dual-homing soft switch equipment at the edge of the network embodies 1 signaling point to the access network, so that the TDM relay link resource between the failed soft switch equipment and the access network can be continuously utilized when the main and standby are switched, and the relay resource waste caused by the independence of the dual-homing signaling points is avoided; the scheme of the invention only needs to change the soft switch equipment a little, does not relate to the upgrading of the system, and only changes the configuration of other equipment, thereby improving the reliability of the dual-homing networking with lower cost.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a system composition diagram of a dual-homing networking in an NGN according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
fig. 2 is a system composition diagram of dual-homing networking in 3G according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description
In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The basic principle of the present invention is first explained. The soft exchange devices which belong to each other only show a unique signaling point relative to an opposite terminal network entity, realize the link state management of a Message Transfer Part (MTP for short) through the dual-homing state stored in the soft exchange device, realize the automatic Message switching by using the backup route of the MTP3 or the signaling link load, and realize the switching between the main soft exchange device and the standby soft exchange device on the premise of ensuring that the unique signaling point seen by the opposite terminal network entity is not changed.
A schematic system composition diagram of dual-homing networking in an NGN according to a first embodiment of the present invention is shown in fig. 1. It should be noted that the solution of the present invention is applicable to the networking situation of the soft switch device, the integrated Home Location Register (short for "SHLR"), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the Service Control Point (SCP), and other devices, and the preferred embodiment describes the implementation of the solution of the present invention through the soft switch device and the MGW networking, and those skilled in the art can understand that this does not affect the essence of the present invention.
The system of dual-homing networking comprises: softswitches 10-1 and 10-2, MGWs 20-1 and 20-2, and PSTN30-1 and 30-2. Wherein, the soft switch devices 10-1 and 10-2 are dual-homing offices that are active and standby each other. It should be noted that for clarity of description, the same reference numerals are used herein to distinguish devices having the same function.
PSTN30-1 is connected to softswitch 10-1 and softswitch 10-2 through MGW20-1, and PSTN30-2 is connected to softswitch 10-1 and softswitch 10-2 through MGW 20-2. For convenience of description, a link between the MGW20 and the active soft switch device 10 is referred to as an active link, and a link between the MGW20 and the standby soft switch device 10 is referred to as a standby link. It should be noted that the configuration of the same linkset can be completed on the MGW 20. For example, link 1 and link 2 in fig. 1 are the same link set, and link 3 and link 4 are the same link set. Although the link is a load sharing method, the PSTN normally selects only the link connected to the active soft switch device 10, and in fig. 1, the link connected to the active soft switch device 10 is indicated by a solid line and the link connected to the standby soft switch device 10 is indicated by a broken line.
The softswitch 10-1 includes two signaling points, one is the only signaling point seen by the normally active PSTN20-1, OPC1, and one is the only signaling point seen by the normally standby PSTN20-2, OPC 2; similarly, the softswitch 10-2 includes two signaling points, one being the only signaling point normally seen by the active PSTN20-2, OPC2, and one being the only signaling point normally seen by the standby PSTN20-1, OPC 1. For convenience of description, when the active and standby soft switch devices 10 are normal, the signaling point in the active state is referred to as an active signaling point of the soft switch device 10, and the signaling point in the standby state is referred to as a standby signaling point of the soft switch device 10.
The soft switch device 10 is configured to perform a soft switch process, detect a state of the soft switch device 10 which is active/standby with each other, and determine whether to activate a layer 3 (MTP 3) link of a Message Transfer Part of the standby signaling point according to a detection result. For example, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the soft switch device 10-2 detects that the soft switch device 10-1 in the active/standby relationship with each other is down, the MTP3 link of the standby signaling point — OPC1, that is, link 2, is activated, so that the a interface link of the PSTN30-1 is switched to link 2, and thus the message of the PSTN1 is automatically sent to the soft switch device 10-2, and the soft switch device 10-2 will smoothly take over the service processing of the soft switch device 10-1.
The functions and related configuration methods of the MGW20 and PSTN30 are well known to those skilled in the art and will not be described in detail herein.
The method of dual-homing networking according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes the following processing in several cases:
under the condition that the active and standby soft switch devices 10 are normal, the dual-homing soft switch device 10 locks all MTP3 links of the local signaling point in the standby state in a management prohibition manner. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention in the form of a network such as that shown in figure 1, when softswitches 10-1 and 10-2 are both normal, softswitch 10-1 blocks link 4 and softswitch 10-2 blocks link 4, thus avoiding signaling messages from PSTN30 to both softswitches 10 at the same time.
When the primary soft switch device 10 has a machine, the standby soft switch device actively activates the standby signaling point MTP3 link in the local office after detecting the opposite end failure. It should be noted that the softswitch devices are in a primary-standby relationship with each other, so the primary and the standby are relative concepts, and the description does not affect the understanding of those skilled in the art. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the soft switch device 10-2 detects that the soft switch device 10-1 is down, the MTP3 link of the standby signaling point of the local office, i.e. link 2, is activated, and the a interface link of the PSTN30-1 is switched to the link, so that the message of the PSTN1 is automatically sent to the soft switch device 10-2, and the soft switch device 10-2 will smoothly take over the service processing of the soft switch device 10-1.
After the active soft switch device 10 recovers from the failure, the active soft switch device 10 notifies the standby soft switch device 10 through a private protocol, the standby soft switch device 10 actively disables all MTP3 links of the standby signaling point of the local office, then notifies the active soft switch device 10, and the active soft switch device 10 actively activates all links of the active signaling point of the active soft switch device 10. In addition to the private Protocol, the primary soft switch device 10 may also notify the standby soft switch device 10 through a public Protocol, where the common public Protocol includes a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a Mobile Application Part (MAP) Protocol, and the like.
Those skilled in the art can easily implement dual-homing networking of the soft switch device and the SHLR, PSTN, SCP, etc. according to the above description. For example, in a network connected to the SHLR, the automatic switching of the signaling link from the SHLR to the soft switch may be implemented by configuring MTP3 to two soft switches as the same link set at a Signaling Transfer Point (STP).
A schematic diagram of system components of 3G dual-homing networking according to a second embodiment of the present invention is shown in fig. 2. It should be noted that the solution of the present invention is applicable to the networking situation of the MSC Server and the BSC, the Home Location Register (HLR for short), the Public switched telephone Network (PSTN for short), the Service Control Point (SCP for short), the MSC, and other devices, and the preferred embodiment describes the implementation of the solution of the present invention by the MSC Server and the BSC networking, and those skilled in the art can understand that this does not affect the essence of the present invention.
The system of dual-homing networking comprises: MSC servers 110-1 and 110-2, MGWs 120-1 and 120-2, and BSCs 130-1 and 130-2. The MSC Server110-1 and 110-2 are dual-home offices that are active and standby each other. It should be noted that for clarity of description, the same reference numerals are used herein to distinguish devices having the same function.
The BSC130-1 is connected to the MSC Server110-1 and the MSC Server110-2 through the MGW120-1, and the BSC130-2 is connected to the MSC Server110-1 and the MSC Server110-2 through the MGW 120-2. For convenience of description, a link between the MGW120 and the main MSC Server110 is referred to as a main link, and a link between the MGW120 and the standby MSC Server110 is referred to as a standby link. It should be noted that the configuration of the same link set can be completed on the MGW 120. For example, link 1 and link 2 in fig. 1 are the same link set, and link 3 and link 4 are the same link set. Note that, although the link is a load sharing method, the BSC normally selects only a link connected to the host MSC Server110, and in fig. 1, the link connected to the host MSC Server110 is indicated by a solid line and the link connected to the standby MSC Server110 is indicated by a broken line.
The MSC Server110-1 includes two signaling points, one is the only signaling point seen by the normally active BSC 120-1- -OPC1, and the other is the only signaling point seen by the normally standby BSC 120-2- -OPC 2; similarly, the MSC Server110-2 includes two signaling points, one of which is the only signaling point seen by the normally active BSC 120-2- -OPC2, and one of which is the only signaling point seen by the normally standby BSC 120-1- -OPC 1. For convenience of description, when the active and standby MSC servers 110 are both normal, the signaling point in the active state is referred to as a main signaling point of the MSC Server110, and the signaling point in the standby state is referred to as a standby signaling point of the MSC Server 110.
The MSC Server110 is configured to perform a soft switch process, detect a state of the MSC Server110 which is active/standby with the MSC Server, and determine whether to activate a layer 3 (MTP 3) link of a Message Transfer Part of the standby signaling point according to a detection result. For example, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the MSC Server110-2 detects that the MSCServer110-1 in active/standby relationship with the MSC Server110-2 goes down, the MTP3 link of the standby signaling point — OPC1, i.e. link 2, is activated, so that the a interface link of the BSC130-1 is switched to link 2, so that the message of the BSC1 will be automatically sent to the MSC Server110-2, and the soft switch device 110-2 will smoothly take over the service processing of the MSC Server 110-1.
The functions and related configuration methods of the MGW120 and BSC130 are well known to those skilled in the art and will not be described in detail herein.
The method of dual-homing networking according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises the following processing in several cases:
under the condition that the main MSC Server110 and the standby MSC Server110 are normal, the dual-homing MSC Server110 locks all MTP3 links of the local signaling point in the standby state in a management prohibition mode. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention in the networking format as shown in FIG. 1, when MSC Server110-1 and MSC Server110-2 are both normal, MSCServer110-1 blocks link 4 and MSC Server110-2 blocks link 4, thus avoiding signaling messages from BSC130 being sent to both MSC Server110 at the same time.
When the host MSC Server110 has a Server, the standby MSC Server detects the opposite end fault, and actively activates the standby signaling point MTP3 link in the local office. It should be noted that the MSCServer is in a primary-backup relationship with each other, and therefore the primary/backup is a relative concept, so that the description does not affect the understanding of those skilled in the art. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the MSC Server110-2 detects that the MSC Server110-1 is down, the MTP3 link of the standby signaling point in the local office, i.e. link 2, is activated, and the a interface link of the BSC130-1 is switched to the link, so that the message of the BSC1 is automatically sent to the MSC Server110-2, and the MSC Server110-2 will smoothly take over the service processing of the MSC Server 110-1.
When the main MSC Server110 recovers from the failure, the main MSC Server110 notifies the standby MSC Server110 through a private protocol, and the standby MSC Server110 actively disables all MTP3 links of the standby signaling point of the local office, and then notifies the main MSC Server110, and the main MSC Server110 actively activates all links of the main signaling point of the main MSC Server 110.
Those skilled in the art can easily implement dual-homing networking of the MSC with devices such as HLR, PSTN, SCP, MSC, etc. according to the above description. For example, in a networking connected to the HLR, the automatic switching of signaling links from the HLR to the MSC Server may be implemented by configuring MTPs 3 to two MSC servers as the same link set at a Signaling Transfer Point (STP).
The solution according to the invention can also be implemented as an alternative, also in view of the concept of a single signaling point, which is only briefly described below, since the same starting points and similar inventive concepts are also possible.
In a third embodiment of the alternative, two dual-homed softswitches are associated as 2 Application Service Points (ASPs) to a Signaling Point on a Signaling Gateway (SG) as an MTP3 User adaptation (M3 UA) proxy or transit mode, and the two ASPs are configured as active and standby modes. The SG is used for supporting M3UA, and when the active soft switch device is down, the service on the soft switch device is adapted to the standby soft switch device, the SG may be an independent device of the external soft switch device or embedded in the access side MGW, and the M3UA is supported by the independent SG or the SG embedded in the MGW. Under this scheme, the signaling of the PSTN terminates at the SG. The softswitch in this example may also be an MSC Server in a 3G network.
While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.