CN1878105A

CN1878105A - Method and system for interconnection of WLAN and external network

Info

Publication number: CN1878105A
Application number: CN 200510093054
Authority: CN
Inventors: 姚忠辉
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2005-08-25
Filing date: 2005-08-25
Publication date: 2006-12-13

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and system for communicating between a wireless local area network and an external network. The present invention includes a wireless local area network, an external network and an intercommunication entry entity, and the intercommunication entry entity is set between the wireless local area network and the external network for realizing the intercommunication of information between the two networks; specifically, the access point AP in the wireless local area network WLAN Obtain the external network information of the external network that communicates with it, and then establish communication with the external network according to the external network information. The invention realizes the intercommunication between the WLAN and the external network, and can meet various intercommunication application scenarios and end-to-end service requirements. The implementation of the present invention can make the WLAN-based networking more flexible and convenient, thereby meeting the requirements of WLAN users and external networks for intercommunication.

Description

Method and system for intercommunication between wireless local area network and external network

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of network communication technologies, and in particular, to a method and a system for interworking between a wireless local area network and an external network.

Background

WLAN (wireless local area network) technology is well received by the market due to its advantages of being wireless, high-speed access comparable to wire, and low cost. At present, the WLAN technology has begun to replace the wired wireless broadband access technology widely applied to the occasions such as home, campus, hotel, enterprise office, etc., and has begun to be widely deployed in public hotspots as a wireless broadband access technology to provide public wireless broadband data access service.

At present, the basic structure of the WLAN system defined by IEEE 802.11 is shown in fig. 1, and includes:

STA (Station) is a terminal device including an IEEE 802.11 wlan interface, many mobile phones in the market currently support the wlan interface, and a portable device has a wlan interface built therein. For some devices without WLAN interfaces, the WLAN interfaces can be provided by means of WLAN wireless network cards.

An AP (Access Point), which is a base station of a mobile network, and has a main function of enabling an STA to communicate with other STAs or related devices of a wired network, for example: a plurality of STAs are accessed to an AP to form a wireless local area network for communication, STAs accessed to different APs form a local area network for communication, and the STAs are communicated with related equipment of a wired local area network. STAs associated under one AP constitute one BSS (basic service set).

The DS (Distribution System) is used to enable a large lan to be formed between different BSSs and between a BSS and a wired lan. Wherein portal refers to a logical point providing MSDUs (MAC service data unit) forwarding between the DS and the wired local area network.

In the WLAN system, an SSID (Service Set Identifier) is used to distinguish different WLANs. When different BSSs (identified by BSSIDs) form a large local area network via the DS, they have the same SSID.

The current 802.11 network architecture is shown in fig. 1, and only the integration with IEEE 802.X LAN (local area network) is considered in the interworking with external networks, and for other external networks.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a method and a system for intercommunication between a wireless local area network and an external network, so that the WLAN can realize intercommunication with the external network and meet the intercommunication requirement in the network operation process.

The purpose of the invention is realized by the following technical scheme:

the invention provides a method for providing external network information service by a wireless local area network, which comprises the following steps:

A. the method comprises the steps that external network information of an external network intercommunicated with a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is saved in a Distribution System (DS) in the WLAN;

B. and the access point AP acquires the stored external network information.

The step B comprises the following steps:

b1, AP sends external network information request message to distribution system DS;

b2, DS returns the response message of external network information to AP, the message carries the corresponding external network information.

The step B comprises the following steps:

b3, DS sends the external network information indication message to AP actively, the message carries the corresponding external network information.

The external network information comprises:

home network identification information, additional home network information, and/or interworking service type information.

The invention also provides a method for providing the bearing service by the wireless local area network, which comprises the following steps:

C. the AP sends a bearing establishment request message to the DS, wherein the message carries parameter information of a bearing to be established;

D. after receiving the message, the DS establishes a corresponding bearer according to the parameter information of the bearer and returns a bearer establishment response message to the AP.

The loaded parameter information comprises: quality of service, QoS, information, security policy information, and/or routing information.

The step D comprises the following steps:

when the bearer is successfully established, carrying the actual parameter information of the established bearer in the bearer establishment response message;

or,

and when the bearer establishment fails, carrying bearer establishment failure information in the bearer establishment response message.

The method further comprises the following steps:

and distributing corresponding bearing identification information for the established bearing.

The method further comprises the following steps:

and the DS actively sends a bearing indication message to the AP, wherein the message carries the use condition information of the corresponding bearing.

The invention also provides a system for intercommunication between the wireless local area network and the external network, which comprises the wireless local area network, the external network and an intercommunication entrance entity, wherein the intercommunication entrance entity is arranged between the wireless local area network and the external network and is used for realizing the intercommunication of information of the two networks.

The interworking portal entity includes:

a bearing service module: the method is used for establishing the bearing between the interworking entry entity and the wireless local area network access point and managing the bearing.

The interworking portal entity includes:

external network information service module: the access point is used for acquiring external network information of an external network connected with the interworking entry entity and providing the external network information to the access point in the wireless local area network.

The external network information service module is arranged on the intercommunication entrance entity or is independent of the intercommunication entrance entity.

The number of the intercommunication entrance entities is at least one, and each intercommunication entrance entity is at least communicated with an external network.

The technical scheme provided by the invention can show that the invention realizes the intercommunication between the WLAN and the external network and can meet the requirements of various intercommunicated application scenes and end-to-end services. The realization of the invention makes the networking based on the WLAN more flexible and convenient, thereby meeting the requirement of the intercommunication between the WLAN user and the external network.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional WLAN system;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a system for interworking a WLAN with an external network;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an interworking portal entity according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the process of the method of the present invention 1;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the process of the method of the present invention in FIG. 2.

Detailed Description

The invention provides a WLAN internal network architecture supporting intercommunication and a corresponding implementation method by considering the intercommunication problem between a WLAN and an external network from the inside of the WLAN.

The system for interworking between a wireless local area network and an external network, as shown in fig. 2 and 3, includes a wireless local area network, an external network, and an interworking entry entity entry, which is disposed between the wireless local area network and the external network and is used for implementing the interworking between information of the two networks.

The system also comprises an external network information service module which is arranged in the intercommunication entrance entity and used for acquiring the external network information of the external network connected with the intercommunication entrance entity and providing the external network information to the access point in the wireless local area network; furthermore, the external network information service module is disposed on the interworking entry entity entry or disposed independently of the interworking entry entity, and the external network information includes home network identification information, additional home network information and/or interworking service type information, and the like.

The interworking entry entity entry needs to include a corresponding bearer service module, which is used to establish a bearer between the interworking entry entity and a wireless local area network AP (access point) device, manage the bearer, and perform information interaction between the entry and the AP based on the bearer, thereby implementing information interaction between the access terminal and an external network.

The structural function of the interworking portal entity entry will be described in detail below.

The interworking entry entity entry is a logical entity connected between the DS and the external network, and the logical entity may be disposed on an independent physical entity or an existing physical entity, that is, the entry is a logical reference point of the interworking interface between the WLAN and the external network.

When the DS system carries out MSDU distribution (distribution), data packets from and to an external network all pass through Entrance; if STA1 sends a packet to the external network, the DS system receives the address of the entry when forwarding. The data packet from the external network to STA1 is sent with the address entry and received with the address of the corresponding AP, and then the AP forwards the data packet to STA 1.

WLANs may interwork with different external networks through different enroutes or with different external networks through the same enroute.

As shown in fig. 2, in a general WLAN network, when STA1 and STA4 are both associated with the same WLAN network, after the AP receives a packet of a destination address sent by STA1, the AP corresponding to BSS1 directly forwards the packet to the AP corresponding to BSS2, and the AP delivers the packet to STA 4. In a WLAN network where interworking is considered, the AP corresponding to BSS1 directly forwards the packet to issue, which in turn forwards the packet to the AP corresponding to BSS2, which in turn delivers the packet to STA 4. Of course, based on some service control policies, the entrnce may also prevent the STA1 from directly sending MAC layer packets to the STA4, which prevents the interworking of the two-layer services.

For the WLAN network architecture supporting interworking, since all service forwarding must pass through the enterprise, this point will also be one of the important collection points of charging information.

The following is a description of a specific implementation of the method according to the present invention based on the above system.

Before the WLAN system operates, the AP needs to know the respective entry information in the network and the feature information of the external network corresponding to each entry connection, that is, the external network information, such as the connected external network identifier, the supported interworking external network type, specifically, 3GPP scenario 2, 3GPP scenario 3, UMA (unlicensed band mobile access), IMS (Internet multimedia subnet), ISP (service provider), Intranet or Internet information, and so on. These pieces of information are called external network information, the entity of the entity.

When a user affiliated to a specific service provider requests to access a corresponding external network through the WLAN to obtain a corresponding interworking service, the AP must know corresponding external network information, including information for providing the user with a required external network information service, access control, and the like.

Therefore, a new Service, i.e., an external network information Service, needs to be defined between the AP and the DS by the SAP (Service Access Point), so that the AP can obtain the external network information. The external network information service is a newly added DS logical service function, and can be realized by setting a corresponding external network information service module.

As shown in fig. 4, the specific implementation process of the AP acquiring the external network information includes: the active mode and the passive mode are two modes, wherein:

the passive mode is shown as step 41, and specifically includes:

an External network information service module in the DS directly pushes External network information to the AP, namely the External network information is sent to the AP by carrying corresponding External network information through an External-network-information-indication message primitive.

The active mode is shown as step 42 and step 43, and specifically includes:

step 42: the AP initiates an External-network-information request to an External network information service module in the DS;

step 43: and the External network information service module in the DS returns an External-network-information-indication message to the AP, wherein the message carries the requested External network information.

Through the active mode, all the Entrance associated external network information or the specified Entrance associated information can be requested to be obtained, the Entrance can be identified by the MAC address, and various specific information such as whether roaming relation exists between a certain network operator and the external networks can be requested to be inquired.

After the AP obtains the corresponding external network information, it can implement the information interaction between the access terminal and the external network through the bearer Service (Bear Service) established between the AP and the interworking ingress entity, thereby implementing the interworking between the WLAN and the external network.

When performing STA access authentication, the authorization data transmitted by the authentication server corresponding to the STA to the corresponding AP may include control information for QoS, security policy, routing, etc., and the AP must implement on the air interface (interface between the AP and the access terminal) and the DS interface (i.e., interface between the AP and the interworking entry entity) according to the control information. For this reason, it is necessary to add corresponding primitives on the DS interface, requiring the DS to add a new service: a bearer service.

As shown in fig. 5, the corresponding processing specifically includes:

step 51: the AP sends a bearer request message to the interworking entry entity, which may be used for the AP to request establishment of a new bearer, change of parameters of an existing bearer, deletion of a certain bearer, and the like.

Step 52: after receiving the request message, the interworking entry entity in the DS performs corresponding processing and returns a bea.response message, where the message includes whether the request message is successfully executed or failed, and a specific parameter of a corresponding bearer when the request message is successfully executed.

After the bearer is established, step 53 may also be executed as needed, that is, the interworking entry entity in the DS sends a bearer indication message to the AP, where the message is used to report the usage status of the bearer, such as packet loss rate, to the user; each bearer has an identification Bear ID, and can be created when the AP sends a bear.request request to create the bearer, or created when the DS successfully creates the bearer and returns to bear.response, and different bearers can be distinguished in the message through different Bear IDs.

In DS implementations, the Bear ID may be specifically mapped to a specific port number or address of the underlying transport technology, so as to facilitate information interaction between the access terminal and the external network based on the bearer. For example, assuming that the DS is Ethernet based, VLAN (virtual local area network) services can be provided, the Bear ID can be mapped to one VLAN port; like DS IP based networks, Bear ID can be mapped to a certain VPN (virtual private network) or PPP (point-to-point), or a certain PVC (permanent virtual path) of an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network, etc.

For a user, according to the authorization information, when a plurality of concurrent service flows are to be supported, a plurality of bearers can be created, and each bearer is identified by different Bear ID.

It can be seen that, in the present invention, because the bearer service is newly added, the implementation method that the WLAN can only consider the air interface is changed, thereby being beneficial to providing the capability support of QoS, security, etc. of the end-to-end connection in the WLAN.

The invention can enhance the network discovery mechanism in the WLAN system, in particular to the method that when the AP broadcasts to the STA or responds to the STA capability discovery request, the AP can correctly transmit corresponding information to the STA by using external network information service.

In addition, the realization of the invention can also ensure that when the air interface can meet the QoS requirement of a service and the DS can not meet the corresponding QoS requirement for a VoIP service, the Ap will fail in applying for the DS carrying process for the VoIP service, thereby preventing the establishment of the VoIP service. Vice versa, it can be guaranteed that the QoS guarantee of the DS bearer is maintained during one VoIP service.

In summary, the present invention provides a WLAN internal network architecture supporting WLAN and external network interworking, and meets the requirements of various interworking application scenarios and end-to-end service requirement guarantees, so that users in the WLAN network can conveniently interwork with the external network and develop corresponding services.

The above description is only for the preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present invention are included in the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for a wireless local area network to provide external network information services, characterized in that it comprises:

A. Store the external network information of the external network intercommunicating with the WLAN in the distribution system DS in the wireless local area network WLAN;

B. The access point AP obtains the stored external network information.

2. The method for providing external network information services by wireless local area network according to claim 1, characterized in that said step B comprises:

B1. The AP sends an external network information request message to the distribution system DS;

B2. The DS returns an external network information response message to the AP, and the message carries corresponding external network information.

3. The method for providing external network information services by wireless local area network according to claim 1, characterized in that said step B comprises:

B3. The DS actively sends an external network information indication message to the AP, and the message carries corresponding external network information.

4. The method for providing external network information services by WLAN according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that said external network information includes:

Home network identification information, additional home network information and/or interworking service type information.

5. A method for providing a bearer service in a wireless local area network, characterized in that it comprises:

C. The AP sends a bearer establishment request message to the DS, and the message carries the parameter information of the bearer to be established;

D. After receiving the message, the DS establishes a corresponding bearer according to the parameter information of the bearer, and returns a bearer establishment response message to the AP.

6. The method for providing a bearer service by a wireless local area network according to claim 5, wherein the parameter information of the bearer includes:

Quality of service QoS information, security policy information and/or routing information.

7. The method for providing bearer services by wireless local area network according to claim 5, characterized in that said step D comprises:

When the bearer is established successfully, the actual parameter information of the established bearer is carried in the bearer establishment response message;

or,

When the bearer establishment fails, the bearer establishment failure information is carried in the bearer establishment response message.

8. The method for providing a bearer service by a wireless local area network according to claim 5, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Allocating corresponding bearer identification information for the established bearer.

9. The method for providing bearer services by wireless local area network according to claim 5, characterized in that, the method further comprises:

The DS actively sends a bearer indication message to the AP, and the message carries usage status information of the corresponding bearer.

10. A system for intercommunication between a wireless local area network and an external network, including a wireless local area network and an external network, characterized in that it also includes an intercommunication entry entity, and the intercommunication entry entity is set between the wireless local area network and the external network for realizing two Network information exchange.

11. The system for intercommunicating between a wireless local area network and an external network according to claim 10, wherein the intercommunication entry entity includes:

Bearer service module: used to establish the bearer between the interworking entry entity and the WLAN access point, and manage the bearer.

12. The system for intercommunicating between a wireless local area network and an external network according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the intercommunication entry entity includes:

External network information service module: used to obtain the external network information of the external network connected to the interworking entrance entity, and provide the external network information to the access point in the wireless local area network.

13. The system for intercommunicating between a wireless local area network and an external network according to claim 12, wherein the external network information service module is set on the intercommunication entry entity or is independent from the intercommunication entry entity.

14. The system for interworking between WLAN and external network according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that there is at least one interworking entry entity, and each interworking entry entity communicates with at least one external network.