KR102838527B1 - Method and apparatus for managing an identifier of a terminal in edge computing service - Google Patents

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method and device for providing edge computing services to a terminal in a communication system, and more particularly, to a method and device for managing an identifier of a terminal to provide edge computing services to a wireless communication terminal.
A method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure may include a method for providing an edge computing service from an edge enabling server to a mobile communication terminal, the method including the steps of: receiving a terminal identifier request message including an IP address of a first mobile communication terminal from an edge application server; searching for a first identifier (Edge UE ID) corresponding to the IP address of the first mobile communication terminal; and, if the first identifier (Edge UE ID) corresponding to the IP address of the first terminal exists, transmitting a response message to the terminal identifier request message including the first identifier or a second identifier allocated corresponding to the first identifier to the edge application server.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING AN IDENTIFIER OF A TERMINAL IN EDGE COMPUTING SERVICE

The present disclosure relates to a method and device for providing edge computing services to a terminal in a communication system, and more particularly, to a method and device for managing an identifier of a terminal to provide edge computing services to a wireless communication terminal.

Recently, edge computing technology that transmits data using an edge server has been discussed. Edge computing technology may include, for example, multi-access edge computing (MEC) or fog computing. Edge computing technology may mean a technology that provides data to an electronic device through a separate server (hereinafter, edge server or MEC server) installed in a geographically close location to the electronic device, for example, inside or near a base station. For example, among at least one application installed in an electronic device, an application that requires low latency may transmit and receive data through an edge server installed in a geographically close location, without going through a server located in an external data network (DN) (e.g., the Internet).

However, there has not yet been any discussion on applying edge computing technology to user equipment (UE) of mobile communication systems. Therefore, when providing edge computing services to user equipment of mobile communication systems, methods and devices for managing identifiers for the terminals and signaling methods for the terminals are required.

The present disclosure provides a method and device for managing an identifier for a terminal of a mobile communication system in an edge computing system and a signaling method therefor.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for providing an edge computing service from an edge enabling server to a mobile communication terminal may include the steps of: receiving a terminal identifier request message including an IP address of a first mobile communication terminal from an edge application server; searching for a first identifier (Edge UE ID) corresponding to the IP address of the first mobile communication terminal; and, if the first identifier (Edge UE ID) corresponding to the IP address of the first terminal exists, transmitting a response message to the terminal identifier request message including the first identifier or a second identifier allocated corresponding to the first identifier to the edge application server.

According to the present disclosure, a method and device for managing an identifier for a terminal of a mobile communication system in an edge computing system and a signaling method therefor can be provided. Accordingly, an edge computing service can be provided to a terminal of the mobile communication system.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge computing platform may provide a Capability Exposure Application Program Interface (API) for an edge computing service to a third-party application server running on the infrastructure of the edge data network to which it belongs.

In addition, according to the present disclosure, the edge computing platform manages an ID for a terminal in the method suggested by the embodiment of the present disclosure, and based on the ID, provides necessary information using the Network Capability Exposure API of a mobile communication system, for example, a 3GPP system, in response to a Capability Exposure API requested by a third-party application server.

In addition, the Capability Exposure API provided by the edge computing platform to the third-party application server can have the following effects. First, the third-party application server can use a useful Capability Exposure function in the edge data network. For example, an API for checking the location of a terminal or an API for checking the connection status of a terminal can be used. This can be used by the third-party application server to provide better services. Second, the third-party application server can use the Capability Exposure function only by entering into a contract with the edge computing platform provider without having to negotiate directly with a mobile communication system, such as a 3GPP system, and conclude a Service Level Agreement to perform Network Capability Exposure. Accordingly, the edge computing platform provider can provide the Capability Exposure function without additional efforts from the third-party application server, and can reap business revenues thereby.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge computing platform may directly assign a terminal identifier used when providing an application program interface (API) for capability exposure for edge computing service to a third-party application server running on the infrastructure of the edge data network to which it belongs. Here, the edge computing platform may be a platform function of a system to which edge servers constituting an edge network are connected. Accordingly, it may be an edge enabler server connected to an edge server or a server for implementing a platform on which edge servers are run.

At this time, when the edge computing platform allocates a terminal identifier, it can allocate a different terminal identifier to each third-party application, thereby preventing the same terminal identifier from being shared between third-party applications. Accordingly, when providing a 'Capability Exposure Application Program Interface (API)' to obtain terminal information to a third-party application, it is possible to guarantee privacy for the terminal identifier, thereby preventing the corresponding information from being misused or tracked by other third-party applications.

FIG. 1a is a diagram for explaining a connection between an MEC platform structure and an electronic device capable of interoperating with a 3GPP mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 1b is a diagram illustrating a deployment of a user plane of a 3GPP network and an Edge Data Network in a single operator network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 3 is a signal flow diagram for a terminal to connect to an edge enabling server according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 4 is a signal flow diagram for providing an edge application service to a mobile communication terminal through an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 5 is a signal flow diagram for providing an edge computing service using an identifier assigned to a terminal in an MEC network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 6 is a signal flow diagram for providing an edge computing service using an identifier of a terminal identified in an edge computing platform according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 7a and FIG. 7b are control flowcharts for managing an identifier of a terminal that can receive MEC service from an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 8 is a control flowchart illustrating a process for providing terminal information from an edge enabling server to an edge application server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 9a is a control flowchart illustrating a process for assigning an identifier to a terminal in an edge management server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 9b is a control flow diagram when an edge enabling server provides an Edge Service API from an edge application according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIGS. 10A to 10C are control flowcharts for managing identifiers so that a mobile communication terminal can receive MEC services in an edge enabling server according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.
FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an edge enabler server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Figure 12 is an internal block diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. At this time, it should be noted that in the attached drawings, the same components are indicated by the same symbols as much as possible. In addition, detailed descriptions of well-known functions and configurations that may obscure the gist of the present disclosure will be omitted.

In describing the embodiments in this specification, descriptions of technical contents that are well known in the technical field to which the present disclosure belongs and are not directly related to the present disclosure are omitted. This is to convey the gist of the present disclosure more clearly without obscuring it by omitting unnecessary explanations.

For the same reason, some components in the attached drawings are exaggerated, omitted, or schematically illustrated. In addition, the size of each component does not entirely reflect the actual size. The same or corresponding components in each drawing are given the same reference numbers.

The advantages and features of the present disclosure, and the methods for achieving them, will become apparent by referring to the embodiments described in detail below together with the accompanying drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below and may be implemented in various different forms, and the embodiments are provided only to make the disclosure of the present disclosure complete and to fully inform a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure belongs of the scope of the disclosure, and the present disclosure is defined only by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification.

At this time, it will be understood that each block of the processing flow diagrams and combinations of the flow diagrams can be performed by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be loaded onto a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing equipment, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing equipment create a means for performing the functions described in the flow diagram block(s). These computer program instructions can also be stored in a computer-available or computer-readable memory that can be directed to a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to implement the function in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-available or computer-readable memory can also produce a manufactured article including an instruction means for performing the functions described in the flow diagram block(s). Since the computer program instructions may be installed on a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, a series of operational steps may be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a computer-executable process, so that the instructions executing the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus may also provide steps for executing the functions described in the flowchart block(s).

Additionally, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code that contains one or more executable instructions for performing a particular logical function(s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementation examples, the functions mentioned in the blocks may occur out of order. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be performed in reverse order, depending on the functionality they perform.

Here, the term '~ part' used in the present embodiment means software or hardware components such as FPGA or ASIC, and the '~ part' performs certain roles. However, the '~ part' is not limited to software or hardware. The '~ part' may be configured to be in an addressable storage medium and may be configured to reproduce one or more processors. Accordingly, as an example, the '~ part' includes components such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components, and task components, and processes, functions, properties, procedures, subroutines, segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuits, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables. The functions provided in the components and '~ parts' may be combined into a smaller number of components and '~ parts' or further separated into additional components and '~ parts'. Additionally, the components and '~parts' may be implemented to regenerate one or more CPUs within the device or secure multimedia card.

The present disclosure discloses a method for establishing a data connection to an edge data network located near a terminal's location in order to utilize a low-latency or wide-bandwidth service in a communication system. In addition, the present disclosure discloses a technology for utilizing a data service by accessing a third-party application service (Application Server) running on an edge computing platform (edge computing platform) operated in the edge data network. In addition, the present disclosure discloses a method for utilizing mobile edge computing.

The present disclosure discloses a method for managing a terminal identifier to support edge computing services with a terminal and a method for providing the identifier to a third-party application server operating on an edge computing platform.

In order to use edge computing services, a terminal accesses a third-party application server (hereinafter referred to as an edge application server) running on an edge computing platform. According to one embodiment, the edge application server may obtain necessary information about the terminal by using a capability exposure application program interface (hereinafter referred to as “Capability Exposure API”) provided by the edge computing platform. According to another embodiment, the edge application server may send a request for the terminal to the edge computing platform by using the Capability Exposure API provided by the edge computing platform.

According to one embodiment, the edge computing platform can be connected to a 3GPP system to use an External Network Capability Exposure API provided by the 3GPP system in order to provide the Capability Exposure API as described above. In other words, the edge computing platform must use an External Network Capability Exposure API of the 3GPP system corresponding to the Capability Exposure API requested by the edge application server. However, since the edge application server does not know the identifier (ID) used by the terminal in the 3GPP system, when requesting the Capability Exposure API to the edge computing platform, it cannot request it with an ID of the terminal that can be recognized by the 3GPP system. Therefore, the edge computing platform cannot determine which terminal ID to use to use the External Network Capability Exposure API provided by the 3GPP system. As a result, the Capability Exposure function cannot be supported. To address this issue and support Capability Exposure, edge computing platforms must provide a way to identify terminals between edge application servers and 3GPP systems.

First, there is ongoing discussion on the architecture for implementing Edge Computing services in the 3GPP next-generation communication system. Edge Computing technology can be called Mobile Edge Computing or Multi-Access Edge Computing, and for convenience, it will be referred to as "MEC" in the present invention. MEC can install a wireless base station or a gateway (or UPF) close to a wireless base station. In addition, MEC can deploy various services and caching contents close to user terminals by applying distributed cloud computing technology on the gateway (or UPF). This can alleviate congestion in the mobile core network and achieve low-latency communication in data communication with terminals. In addition, new services can be created based on such networks. The MEC system can provide application developers or content providers with cloud computing capabilities and IT service environments at the mobile network edge. In particular, it can provide ultra-low latency and large-capacity bandwidth to application applications, and a method for accessing network information in real time. Therefore, application applications providing MEC services can provide faster services to terminals when using the 5G network system among mobile communication networks. In addition, the 5G network system can provide a function for a terminal using MEC service to access the MEC system. In addition to the 5G network system, the 4G network system can also provide a function for MEC service.

For convenience of explanation below, some terms and names defined in the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution) standards may be used. However, the present invention is not limited by the above terms and names, and may be equally applied to systems that comply with other standards.

FIG. 1a is a diagram for explaining a connection between an MEC platform structure and an electronic device capable of interoperating with a 3GPP mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Then, with reference to FIG. 1a, let's look at network entities or network nodes according to the present disclosure. According to the present disclosure, a network structure for providing MEC service to a mobile communication terminal may have the following configurations.

First, it may include electronic devices (110, 120) that can access a mobile communication network, for example, a 3GPP network, a 3GPP network (130), an edge computing platform (200) for providing MEC services, and an edge management server (140).

Electronic devices (110, 120) that can access a 3GPP network can be generally referred to as user equipment (UE), and can be any type of electronic device that can access a 3GPP network (130). Hereinafter, the electronic devices (110, 120) will be referred to as terminals for convenience of explanation. The terminals (110, 120) can be directly connected to the 3GPP network (130), or can be connected to the 3GPP network (130) via a wireless WiFi network. In the example of Fig. 1a, a first terminal (110) and a second terminal (120) are exemplified.

A first application (App1) (111) and a second application (App2) (112) that can receive NEC services using an edge computing platform may be installed in the first terminal (110). A terminal (110, 120) that supports an MEC system service may include an edge enabling layer (113, 123) in the terminal. Accordingly, the edge enabling layer (113) in the first terminal (110) may be a layer that interworks with the edge enabling server (210) of the edge computing platform (200). A 3GPP communication layer (114) in the first terminal (110) may be a layer for communicating with a 3GPP network (130). The first application (App1) (111) and the second application (App2) (112) included in the first terminal (110) can each become application clients.

In order to enable the use of MEC service within the first terminal (110), the Edge Enabling Layer (113) can identify which application can use the MEC service. The Edge Enabling Layer (113) can perform an operation of connecting a network interface so that data of a terminal client application can be transmitted to an application server (201, 202, or 203) providing the MEC service. In addition, in order to establish a data connection for using the MEC service, the Edge Enabling Layer (113) can enable communication through the 3GPP communication layer (114). The 3GPP communication layer (114) can include logic for processing a modem and a wireless signal for using a mobile communication system. The 3GPP communication layer (114) can establish a wireless connection for data communication, register a terminal in a mobile communication system, establish a connection for data transmission in a mobile communication system, and perform a role of transmitting and receiving data. The edge enabling layer (113) performs an operation for providing edge service through an edge enabling server (210), and therefore may be called an edge enabler client.

In addition, the first terminal (110) may further include a wireless WiFi layer (not shown). If the first terminal (110) has a wireless WiFi layer, it may connect to a 3GPP network (130) using the wireless WiFi layer.

In the first terminal (110), only the edge enabling layer (113) that enables the application and MEC service and the communication layer (114) that connects to the mobile communication system are exemplified. The first terminal (110) may further include other components.

The applications (111, 112) of the first terminal (110) refer to applications provided by a third party. In other words, they may refer to client applications that are run within the first terminal (110) for a specific application service. Accordingly, multiple applications may be run within the first terminal (110). At least one or two or more of these applications may use the MEC service. The first terminal (110) may include an edge enabling layer.

The second terminal (120) may have the same or similar configuration as the first terminal (110). In the example of Fig. 1a, the second terminal (120) is exemplified as having the first application (App1) (121) and the third application (App3) (122) installed. The first application (App1) (111) in the first terminal (110) and the first application (App1) (121) in the second terminal (120) may be the same application. The reason why the reference symbols are exemplified differently is to identify that they are installed in the first terminal (110) and the second terminal (120). In addition, the Edge Enabling Layer (123) within the second terminal (120) may be a layer that interacts with the Edge Enabling Server (210) of the Edge Computing Platform (200). The 3GPP communication layer (124) within the second terminal (120) may be a layer for communication with the 3GPP network (130). The 3GPP communication layer (124) may be a layer that performs procedures for the second terminal (110) to connect to the 3GPP network (130), procedures for transmitting and receiving data packets, etc. The second terminal (120) may also further include a wireless WiFi layer (not shown). When the second terminal (120) has a wireless WiFi layer, it may connect to the 3GPP network (130) using the wireless WiFi layer.

Next, the 3GPP mobile communication network (130) may be composed of the following network entities (functions).

5G-RAN (131) can be a base station that provides wireless communication functions to terminals. An example of a base station (131) will be examined in more detail in Fig. 1b.

The N3IWF (138) may be an interworking entity that allows a terminal to access a mobile network, such as a 5G network, when the terminal accesses a wireless function other than a mobile network (non-3GPP) such as WiFi. For example, a terminal (110, 120) may access the N3IWF (138) through a WiFi AP (not shown), and the terminal (110, 120) and the N3IWF (138) may establish an IP secure tunnel connection. Thereafter, all signaling between the terminal (110, 120) and the N3IWF (138) may be connected to an AMF (133) of a mobile network, such as a 5G network, through the N3IWF (138). In addition, the N3IWF (138) may establish a user plane connection with the UPF (132). Accordingly, packets or data transmitted by the terminal (110, 120) can be transmitted to the UPF (132) via the N3IWF (138) through the WiFi AP (not shown). Accordingly, the UPF (132) can transmit packets to the data network.

The User Plane Function (UPF) (132) can act as a gateway to transfer packets transmitted and received by terminals (110, 120). The UPF (132) can be located near an edge server to support MEC. By using the UPF (132), data packets transmitted by terminals (110, 120) can be directly transferred to an edge network to achieve low-latency transmission. The UPF (132) can also be connected to a data network connected to the Internet. Accordingly, the UPF (132) can route data that must be transferred to the Internet among the packets transmitted by the terminals (110, 120) to the Internet data network.

The Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) (133) may be a network entity that manages the mobility of terminals (110, 120).

NEF (Network Exposure Function) (134) can access information for managing a terminal in a 5G network, and can subscribe to mobility management events for the terminal, subscribe to session management events for the terminal, request session-related information, set charging information for the terminal, request a change in PDU session policy for the terminal, and transmit small data to the terminal.

The Policy and Charging Function (PCF) (135) may be a network entity that applies the mobile carrier's service policy, charging policy, and policy for PDU sessions to terminals (110, 120).

The Session Management Function (hereinafter referred to as SMF) (136) may be a network entity that manages the connection of a packet data network to provide packet data to terminals (110, 120). The connection between the terminals (110, 120) and the SMF (136) may be a PDU session.

Unified Data Management (UDM) (137) can be a network entity that stores information about subscribers.

Next, we will look at network entities for providing edge computing services.

The MEC system structure may be composed of terminals (110, 120), an Edge Enabling Server (210), and an Edge Management Server (140). The Edge Enabling Server (210) may be a server that constitutes an Edge Computing Platform (200) of an Edge Data Network. The Edge Enabling Server (210) is a server that a terminal connects to in order to use an MEC service, and can know in advance which third-party application servers (201, 202, 203) are running within the Edge Computing Platform (200). The edge enabling server (210) can perform an operation of negotiating with the terminal (110, 120) to connect the third-party application client of the terminal (110, 120) and the third-party application server (201, 202, 203) within the edge computing platform (200). The edge enabling server (210) may also be called an edge enabler or an edge enabler server.

The edge management server (140) performs a function for transmitting setting information for using the MEC service to the terminal (110, 120). Since it plays a role in setting the necessary information for the terminal (110, 120), it may also be called an edge configuration server or an edge data network configuration server. In the following description, unless otherwise specified, the edge management server, edge configuration server, or edge data network configuration server may be used with the same meaning.

The edge management server (140) may know the deployment information of the edge enabling servers (210) in advance. Before using the MEC service, the terminal (110, 120) may access the edge management server (140) and receive setting information necessary for using the MEC service, for example, information on the edge enabling server (210) that must be accessed from a specific location. In addition, a DNS server for the MEC service may exist. If a DNS server for the MEC service exists, this DNS server may be used to resolve the IP address of the edge enabling server (210) or to resolve the IP address of the application server (201, 202, 203) running on the edge enabling server (210). This DNS server may be a network entity that knows information about the edge enabling server (210) or information about the application server (201, 202, 203) running on the edge enabling server (210). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the DNS server may exist in each edge enabling network covering a specific region. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, one DNS server may exist in the entire MEC system. The edge management server (140) may set information about the DNS server for each location to the terminal.

Edge application servers (201, 202, 203) refer to third-party application servers running within the MEC system. In other words, they may be third-party application servers running on the infrastructure provided by the edge computing platform (200). Since these third-party application servers can provide services at locations close to terminals (110, 120), they can provide ultra-low-latency services. Edge Apps (201, 202, 203) can obtain information necessary for servicing terminals or provide such information to the edge computing platform (200) by using the Capability Exposure API provided by the edge computing platform (200). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) within the edge computing platform (200) provides the Capability Exposure API to the Edge Apps (201, 202, 203), but another function within the edge computing platform (200) may provide the API. In the embodiment of FIG. 1a, for convenience, the edge enabling server (210) provides the Capability Exposure API to the Edge Apps (201, 202, 203). However, another function (or entity) within the edge computing platform (200) may be configured to provide the Capability Exposure API to the Edge Apps (201, 202, 203). In this case, the enabling server (210) may be used by being replaced with a name that performs another function.

The edge management server (140) can be connected to the edge enabling server (210) and transmit information or policies necessary to provide MEC services to terminals (110, 120). In addition, information about the terminals (110, 120) can be provided to the edge enabling server (210) so that the edge enabling server (201) can utilize the information when providing MEC services to the terminals (110, 120). For example, authentication/authorization information of the terminals (110, 120), information about services subscribed to by the terminals, the terminal ID, etc. can be transmitted to the edge enabling server (210).

FIG. 1b is a diagram illustrating a deployment of a user plane of a 3GPP network and an Edge Data Network in a single operator network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 1b, the service area (160) of the MNO (Mobile Network Operator) includes a first edge data network (161) and a second edge data network (162).

First, let's look at the configuration of the first edge data network (161). The first edge data network (161) can allow the first terminal (110) and the second terminal (120) to perform wireless communication through different base stations (151, 152), respectively. In addition, each of the base stations (151, 152) can be connected to different UPFs (132a, 132b). However, one edge data network has one edge enabling server (210a), and the UPFs (132a, 132b) can be connected to the edge computing infrastructure (161a) through one edge enabling server (210a) located in the first edge data network (161). Additionally, the edge computing infrastructure (161a) operates third-party application servers (201, 202) and can be operated as described in FIG. 1a.

Next, the second edge data network (162) can communicate with the third terminal (111) within the network. The base station (153) included in the second edge data network (162) can be connected to the edge enabling server (210b) via the UPF (132c) and can be connected to the edge computing infrastructure (162b). Third-party application servers (2101, 202) running on the edge computing infrastructure (162b) can provide MEC services to the terminal (111) located within the second edge data network (162).

The above edge computing infrastructure (161a, 162b) can provide efficient services by reducing latency and load by positioning UE access points close to each other, and can be a server that improves the environment for providing functions necessary for Edge Applications to operate.

The terminal (110, 120) can access a mobile communication system, for example, a 5G system, through a base station of a mobile communication network, for example, a 5G base station (not shown in FIG. 1A), and establish a data connection. In the following description, it is assumed that the mobile communication network is a 5G network or a 5G system. The 5G system can allocate a UPF (132) that can access the corresponding edge network in order to provide an MEC service to the terminal (110, 120). The terminal (110, 120) can communicate with the edge enabling server (210) through the UPF (132). In addition, the terminal (110, 120) can obtain certain information, for example, information on available Edge Apps, from the edge enabling server (210). Accordingly, the terminals (110, 120) can communicate data based on the information of the received available Edge App. The edge enabling server (210) can perform a function of managing information on edge application servers (201, 202, 203) and can provide the terminals (110, 120) with information on which edge application is currently running in the edge network. In addition, the edge enabling server (210) can manage the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) or IP address required to send data to the corresponding edge application server. In this way, the information managed by the edge enabling server (210) can be transmitted to the edge enabling layer of the corresponding terminal.

The edge enabling server (210) can communicate with the PCF (135) or NEF (134) of the 3GPP network and exchange certain information during communication. This information exchange is referred to as negotiation hereinafter. The edge enabling server (210) can provide the information necessary for the terminal (110, 120) to use the MEC service to the 5G mobile communication system through the PCF (135) or NEF (134) through negotiation with the PCF (135) or NEF (134) of the 3GPP network. According to another embodiment, the edge enabling server (210) may utilize the Exposure function provided by the NEF (134) of the 5G mobile communication system to an external server through negotiation with the PCF (135) or NEF (134) of the 3GPP network, for example, terminal location reporting, terminal session-related event reporting, etc.

The edge enabling server (210) can provide a Capability Exposure service to an Edge App running on an edge computing platform (200) by utilizing this function. For example, the service may include a service for confirming the location of a terminal or a service for confirming the connection status of a terminal. In addition, the edge enabling server (210) can perform a proxy role so that the edge application servers (201, 202, 203) can utilize the Exposure function provided by a 3GPP network (130), for example, an NEF (134) of a 5G mobile communication system. According to various embodiments, the Exposure function provided by the NEF (134) can be a mobility-related event of a terminal, a session-related event, a traffic path change event of a terminal, etc.

At the request of the edge application server, the edge enabling server (210) can call the Exposure service provided by the NEF (134) of the 5G mobile communication system to enable the use of the necessary network Exposure function. In addition, platform services provided using the 5G system, such as reporting on network conditions, request for changing the traffic path of the terminal, and reporting of the location information of the terminal, can be provided to the edge application server (201, 202, 203).

The edge enabling server (210) illustrated in FIG. 1a may be a single network function (entity) that provides the functions described above. Therefore, it may be referred to as an edge enabling function. It is obvious that the present disclosure is not limited to this name, and may refer to a logical device or network entity or network function that exists for a MEC service that logically performs the functions covered in the present disclosure.

Platform Functionality, although not illustrated in FIG. 1a, may refer to the platform function of a system to which edge enabling servers (210) constituting an edge network are connected, and may refer to an Orchestration function. The platform function, or Orchestration function, may include a middleware application or infrastructure service for constituting an MEC system structure. That is, the arrangement and distribution of each edge enabling server (210) constituting an edge network, an operation for installing or injecting an edge application package into an edge enabling server (210) or for driving an edge application server on an edge enabling server (210), and information (e.g., IP address, FQDN) of an edge application server may be set in the edge enabling server.

FIG. 1b is a diagram illustrating a case where a user plane and an edge data network of a 3GPP network are deployed in a single operator network according to the present disclosure.

With reference to FIG. 1b, a more detailed description will be given of a case in which a user plane and an edge data network of a 3GPP network are deployed in a single operator network according to the present disclosure and the operation of the MEC service accordingly.

As exemplified in the first edge data network (161), UPFs (132a, 132b) of multiple 3GPP networks can be deployed within one edge computing data network. Accordingly, one UPF close to a terminal can be selected according to the location of the terminal in one edge computing data network. That is, for a terminal that accesses the same edge computing data network and uses the MEC service, the UPF serving the terminal can be changed. The change of the UPF means that the IP address of the terminal can be changed.

As exemplified in the second edge data network (162), one 3GPP network's UPF (132c) can be deployed in one edge computing data network. Accordingly, one UPF can be selected for one edge computing data network. That is, in the case of the second edge data network (162), since a terminal that accesses the second edge data network (162) and uses the MEC service has only one UPF, the IP address of the terminal can be used without changing when using the corresponding edge computing data network.

The terminal establishes a PDU session through the 3GPP network, and this PDU session can be connected to a base station and UPF via the terminal. Since the UPF is connected to the edge data network, it can transmit data to an application server (Edge Application Server) running on the edge data network. Accordingly, the terminal can transmit/receive data with at least one of the edge application servers running on the edge computing infrastructure.

The terminal can receive (acquire) information on edge application servers operating in the edge data network by negotiating with the edge enabling server. At this time, data negotiated by the terminal with the edge enabling server can be transmitted through a PDU session passing through the user plane of the 3GPP system, that is, the base station and the UPF. The edge enabling server can acquire information on edge application servers, expose network capability to the edge application server, or expose services for edge computing.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2, the edge enabling server (210) may include an internal communication interface (211), a control unit (212), an external interface (213), and a memory (214) inside. In addition, the edge enabling server (210) may include separate devices or connection devices for an operator or network manager to control the edge enabling server (210). In addition to the interfaces illustrated in FIG. 2, the edge enabling server (210) may further have additional interfaces with other networks. In FIG. 2, only an interface for performing an operation according to the present disclosure is illustrated.

The internal communication interface (211) can interface with at least one or more edge application servers based on the control of the control unit (212). For example, the internal communication interface (211) can process data or signaling required for communication between the first edge application server (201) and the edge enabling server (210) based on the control of the control unit (212). As another example, the internal communication interface (211) can process data or signaling required for communication between the second edge application server (202) and/or the third edge application server (203) and the edge enabling server (210) based on the control of the control unit (212).

The control unit (212) can control the overall operation performed by the edge enabling server (210) and can be composed of at least one or more processors. The control unit (212) can transmit/receive data with a specific edge application server through the internal communication interface (211). In addition, the control unit (212) can communicate with a terminal and/or a 3GPP network through the external communication interface (213) to provide or obtain predetermined information. In addition, the control unit (212) can control the operation performed by the edge enabling server (210) described in the present disclosure.

The external interface (213) may include a first interface (213a), a second interface (213b), and a third interface (213c) therein. The first interface (213a) may perform communication with at least one of the control plane nodes of the 3GPP network based on the control of the control unit (212). The control plane nodes of the 3GPP network may be at least one of the AMF (133), the NEF (134), the PCF (135), the SMF (136), and the UDM (137) of FIG. 1a. The first interface (213a) may communicate with at least one of these control plane nodes.

The second interface (213b) can communicate with at least one of the user plane nodes of the 3GPP network based on the control of the control unit (212). For example, it can communicate with the UPFs (132a, 132b, 132c) corresponding to the user plane nodes as in FIG. 1b described above. In addition, when one terminal moves within the same edge data network and the UPF changes, it can communicate with the corresponding UPF. As another example, when one terminal moves to another edge data network, for example, when moving from the first edge data network (161) to the second edge data network (162) or from the second edge data network (162) to the first edge data network (161), it can communicate with the corresponding UPF.

The memory (214) can temporarily store operations required for controlling the edge enabling server (210) and data generated during control based on the control of the control unit (212). In addition, the memory (214) can store data required for receiving or transmitting data from the edge enabling server (210) described in the present disclosure based on the control of the control unit (212). In addition, the memory (214) can store the identifier information of the terminal alone or by mapping it with specific other information based on the control of the control unit (212).

FIG. 3 is a signal flow diagram for a terminal to connect to an edge enabling server according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 3, it is assumed that the terminal (110) is a terminal including an edge enabling layer (113) as described in FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b, and that at least one application capable of receiving MEC service according to the present disclosure is installed. In addition, it is assumed that the terminal (110) is a terminal capable of connecting to a 3GPP network (130), which is a mobile communication network.

In the present disclosure, a Generic Public Subscription Identifier (hereinafter referred to as GPSI) is used as an identifier of a terminal, which may be an identifier of a terminal used in a 5G system defined by 3GPP. The GPSI may correspond to an External ID used in a 3GPP system, or may correspond to a Mobile Station International ISDN Number (hereinafter referred to as MSISDN) corresponding to a telephone number. An external identifier is an identifier defined so that an identifier (ID) granted by a third-party service provider to a terminal (110) can be identified within a 3GPP mobile communication network. In the present disclosure, an ID granted by an Edge Computing Service Provider to a terminal (110) may be used as an External ID within the 3GPP system. Alternatively, an Edge Computing Service Provider may enter into a contract with a 3GPP mobile communication operator to preset which External ID to use for a specific terminal. In this case, if a contract has been made in advance with a 3GPP mobile operator, this information may be stored in the 3GPP mobile operator's subscriber information server (not shown in the diagram). Alternatively, the MSISDN of the terminal may be used as an ID for the edge computing service provider to identify the terminal.

Based on the contents described above, a method for managing the identifier of a terminal (110) will be examined with reference to FIG. 3.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal (110) may perform a registration procedure to use the edge computing service with the edge enabling server (210) in order to use the MEC service in operation 300. This registration procedure may be performed by causing the edge enabling layer (113) of the terminal (110) to generate and transmit a message to the 3GPP network (130) through the 3GPP communication layer (114). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the 3GPP network (130) may transmit a message transmitted from the terminal (110) to the edge enabling server (210) during the registration procedure, and may transmit a message transmitted from the edge enabling server (210) to the terminal (110) through a wireless channel.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal (110) may perform a service discovery procedure with the edge enabling server (210) to check what third-party applications are available on the edge computing platform (200) to which it has connected in order to use the MEC service. At this time, the terminal (110) may transmit a message to the edge enabling server (210) including the GPSI assigned to it. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the 3GPP network (130) may transmit a message transmitted from the terminal (110) to the edge enabling server (210) during the registration procedure, and may transmit a message transmitted from the edge enabling server (210) to the terminal (110) via a wireless channel.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the GPSI of the terminal (110) may be preset in the SIM information of the terminal (110) or may be information set in the edge enabling layer (113) of the terminal (110). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the GPSI may be a value received from a 3GPP network when the terminal (110) initially connects to the 3GPP network.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can identify an ID of the terminal (110), for example, GPSI, included in a request message received from the terminal (110) in operation 302.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may receive a user profile prior to the operation of FIG. 3. For example, an authorization/authentication operation of the terminal may be performed in advance, and the user profile may be received at this time. Accordingly, the edge enabling server (210) may identify whether the GPSI identified in operation 302 is included in the profile of the terminal (110) obtained in the previous authentication/authorization procedure of the terminal (110). The profile may be information received by the edge enabling server (210) from the edge management server (140).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can determine whether the GPSI identified in operation 302 is a valid GPSI. For example, the validity can be determined by comparing the GPSI of the profile of the terminal (110) received in the authentication/authorization procedure previously performed in the flowchart of FIG. 3 with the GPSI included in the message received in operation 300. For example, the edge enabling server (210) can identify the GPSI as a valid GPSI if the GPSI received in advance and the GPSI included in the message received in operation 300 are the same. On the other hand, the edge enabling server (210) can identify the GPSI as an invalid GPSI if the GPSI received in advance and the GPSI included in the message received in operation 300 are different from each other.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) does not receive the profile of the terminal (110) during the authentication/authorization procedure or from the edge management server (140), operation 302 may not be performed.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may bind the IP address of the terminal (110) and the GPSI information of the terminal (110) using the message received in operation 300 in operation 304 and store the information in the memory (214). This information may be used later by the edge enabling server (210) to determine the GPSI information of the terminal (110) based on the IP address of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 306, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a response to the message received in the preceding operation 300 to the terminal (110). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the response message may be a registration approval response if the GPSI information is valid and the message is a registration request message. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the response message may be a response message regarding the type of service if the GPSI information is valid and the message is a service search message. For example, if the terminal (110) has performed registration, a response to the registration may be transmitted to the terminal (110). As another example, if the terminal (110) has performed service discovery, the terminal (110) may transmit information regarding third-party applications that can be used through the edge computing service and information (e.g., FQDN or IP address) that can access a third-party application server as a response message.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, operation 306 may be transmitted immediately after the registration procedure if the terminal (110) performs registration. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the terminal (110) performs service discovery, information about the third-party application and information (e.g., FQDN or IP address) for connecting to the third-party application server may be transmitted together with the response signal.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 308, the edge enabling server (210) may be performed when there is no GPSI information in the message received from the terminal (110) or there is no GPSI information stored in advance. That is, the edge enabling server (210) may be performed when it cannot determine whether the GPSI information received from the terminal (110) is valid information. Therefore, when it can determine whether the GPSI information received from the terminal (110) is valid information, the edge enabling server (210) may not perform operations 308 to 314.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may determine whether to acquire user information from the 3GPP network (130) to verify the validity of GPSI information included in a message received from the terminal (110) in operation 308 or to transmit a request to determine the validity of the user information.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server (210) determines that the validity of the GPSI sent by the terminal (110) should be verified or when the edge enabling server (210) determines that the profile for the GPSI sent by the terminal (110) should be obtained from the 3GPP network (130), the edge enabling server (210) may perform operation 310.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit an inquiry message to the 3GPP network (130) in operation 310 to obtain information about the terminal (110). For example, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a request message to the NEF (134) or the PCF (135) of the 3GPP network in operation 310 to confirm the GPSI of the terminal (110) or obtain a profile for the GPSI of the terminal (110). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit the request message including the IP address of the terminal (110). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may further transmit the request message including a service provider identifier (Service Provider ID) that may identify an edge computing service provider.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) can directly access the PCF (135), the edge enabling server (210) can transmit a request message to the PCF (135) using the Npcf service. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) cannot directly access the PCF (135), it can also make a request through the NEF (134).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) of the 3GPP network (130) may have information about a session currently being used by the terminal (110). For example, the PCF (135) may have information about a session currently being used by the terminal (110) while connected to the edge computing data network. In this case, the PCF (135) may know the IP address used by the terminal (110) and may also store the GPSI for the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the case where the PCF (135) has the corresponding information may be the case where the PCF (135) receives and stores the information of the corresponding terminal when establishing a PDU session for the corresponding terminal from the SMF (136). In addition, the PCF (135) may store policy information and service parameters for the MEC service.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server (210) sends a request message through the NEF (134), the NEF (134) can obtain the PCF (135) serving the IP address of the terminal (110) received in operation 312 through the BSF (Binding Support Function) or by using local configuration. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF (134) can configure the request received from the edge enabling server (210) in operation 312 according to the Npcf service operation and forward it to the PCF (135).

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server (210) sends a request directly to the PCF (135), the edge enabling server (210) can find the PCF (135) serving the corresponding IP Address through the BSF. In this case, the edge enabling server (210) can transmit a request message directly to the PCF (135) by configuring it according to the Npcf service operation in operation 312.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server (210) transmits a request message to the PCF (135) through the NEF (134) in operation 312 or transmits a request message directly to the PCF (135), the transmitted message may be a message including information requesting confirmation of the GPSI of the terminal (110) or requesting transmission of policy information or a user profile that the terminal (110) can use for the MEC service for the IP address of the corresponding terminal (110). Accordingly, the PCF (135) that receives the request message may search for the GPSI corresponding to the UE IP address in operation 312. In addition, the PCF (135) may configure policy information and/or parameters for the MEC service as a response message for the corresponding GPSI in operation 312. In addition, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the request message received by the PCF (135) in operation 312 includes Service Provider ID information, the PCF (135) may configure information by considering policy information and/or parameters corresponding to the Service Provider ID information, or the profile of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) may directly transmit the message configured in operation 314 as a response message to the edge enabling server (210). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) may transmit the response message to the edge enabling server (210) through the NEF (134) in operation 314.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, it may be assumed that the PCF (135) knows the mapping between the External UE IP Address and the Internal UE IP Address. This assumption is because the IP address used by the terminal (110) within the 3GPP network (130) and the IP address of the terminal (110) used outside the 3GPP network (130) may be different. This may mean that a Network Address Translation (NAT) function (entity) exists between the data connection to connect the inside and the outside of the 3GPP network (130).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a method may be included in which the PCF (135) resolves the internal IP address of the terminal (110) by negotiating with a server performing a NAT function. Accordingly, although the IP address of the terminal (110) included in the request received by the PCF (135) is an external IP address, the PCF (135) may obtain the internal IP address of the terminal (110) by negotiating with a NAT function server (not shown in the drawing). In addition, the PCF (135) may obtain information about the terminal (110), for example, GPSI or policy information or parameters.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, NEF (134) can obtain profile information of terminal (110) from UDM (137) or UDR (not shown). In this case, NEF (134) can request PCF (135) to provide GPSI corresponding to terminal IP address, and PCF (135) can reply to NEF (134) with GPSI value that is stored by mapping with terminal IP address.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 312, the NEF (134) may request a user profile or terminal profile for a corresponding GPSI from the UDM (137) or UDR using the GPSI value received from the PCF (135). At this time, the NEF (134) may send a request to the UDM (137) or UDR including a service provider identifier (Service Provider ID) that can identify an edge computing service provider received from the edge enabling server (210).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the UDM (137) or UDR that receives it can search for the profile of the terminal (110) corresponding to the received GPSI, and use the searched information to create a message to be sent to the NEF (134), and then transmit it to the NEF (134).

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, UDM (137) or UDR may search for a profile of a terminal (110) corresponding to a service provision identifier included in a request of NEF (134), compose a response message, and then reply to NEF (134).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF (134) that has received the response message according to the method described above may transmit the response message to the edge enabling server (210) in operation 314. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the response message may include the GPSI of the corresponding terminal (110) or profile information necessary for the corresponding terminal (110) to use the MEC service.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) that receives the response according to operation 314 can identify whether the GPSI received from the terminal (110) in operation 300 matches the GPSI received from the 3GPP network (130). If the two GPSIs match, the edge enabling server (210) can determine the GPSI received from the terminal (110) in operation 300 as a valid GPSI and store it in the memory (214). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can store the valid GPSI in the memory (214) by mapping it to an IP address.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may receive profile or policy information and service parameters for the corresponding GPSI from the 3GPP network (130). In this case, the edge enabling server (210) may apply this to a service for the terminal (110). For example, in the case of a premium subscriber, all services of the MEC service may be identified so that they are available, and the corresponding information may be stored in the memory (214). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the premium service may be a service that is not applicable to general subscribers.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, through the operation described above, the edge application server (201) and the terminal (110) can transmit/receive data traffic in operation 320.

First, for convenience of explanation, in the following description, the edge application server will be explained using the first edge application server (201), and ordinal numbers such as first, second, etc. for distinguishing application servers or identifying applications loaded on a terminal (110) will not be used.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) may call an Edge Service API provided by the edge enabling server (210) in operation 322. In the specification according to the present disclosure, the Edge Service API may mean an API that provides a Capability Exposure function for an edge computing service to a third-party application server (201) running on an edge computing infrastructure of an edge data network to which the edge enabling server (210) belongs. For example, there may be a Location API for identifying the location of a terminal (110), a Management API for managing resources of the terminal (110), a Traffic Steering API for modifying a data path of the terminal (110), etc.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) can determine what Edge Service API is provided by the edge enabling server (210) through an API discovery procedure or a CAPIF (Common API Framework) function. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge application server (201) requests an Edge Service API to the edge enabling server (210), since it does not know the identifier of the terminal (110), it may include the IP address of the terminal (110) that has accessed its server.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may obtain an identifier of the terminal (110), i.e., GPSI, corresponding to the IP address of the terminal (110) received from the edge application server (201) from the mapping table in operation 324. The mapping information described in the specification according to the present disclosure may be information obtained through operation 314 within operation 302 described above and stored in the memory (214) of the edge enabling server (210).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may obtain GPSI using the mapped information and then use it as an ID of the terminal (110) in operation 326 to call the 3GPP Network Capability Exposure API to support the Edge Service API requested by the edge application server (201). Furthermore, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit this request to the NEF (134) in operation 326.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a service operation request message to the NEF (134) by setting GPSI as a terminal (110) identifier. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) is a reliable network entity in a 3GPP network, the service operation request message may be transmitted directly to the AMF (133), the SMF (136), or the PCF (135).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, whether the edge enabling server (210) sends the service operation request message to the AMF (133), the SMF (136), or the PCF (135) may vary depending on the type of 3GPP Network Capability Exposure that the edge enabling server (210) intends to use. For example, if location-related information of the terminal (110) is desired, it may be decided to send it to the AMF (133). In addition, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server (210) directly transmits the service operation request message to the AMF (133), the SMF (136), or the PCF (135), the edge enabling server (210) may use the GPSI information acquired in operation 324 as the ID of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF (134) or AMF (133), SMF (136), or PCF (135) that has received a service operation request message may perform a Capability Exposure operation for the corresponding terminal (110) according to the request. The NEF (134) or AMF (133), SMF (136), or PCF (135) may transmit the result to the edge enabling server (210) in operation 328.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) that receives the message in operation 328 may generate an edge service API response message according to the result of the API requested by the edge application server (201) in operation 322. Accordingly, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit the edge service API response message generated in operation 330 to the edge application server (201).

According to the disclosure of FIG. 3 described above, when a terminal (110) accesses an edge enabling server (210), it registers by using GPSI used in a 3GPP network as its ID, and based on this, the edge enabling server (210) can support a Capability Exposure API to an edge application server by using Network Capability Exposure provided by the system of the 3GPP network (130).

FIG. 4 is a signal flow diagram for providing an edge application service to a mobile communication terminal through an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Briefly explaining the overall operation of Fig. 4, when a terminal (110) connects to an edge enabling server (210), the edge enabling server (210) can obtain the GPSI of the terminal through signaling with the 3GPP network (130) based on the IP of the terminal. Thereafter, the edge enabling server (210) can support the Capability Exposure API to the edge application server (201) by using the Network Capability Exposure provided by the 3GPP network (130) based on the obtained information.

In the present disclosure, a Generic Public Subscription Identifier (hereinafter referred to as GPSI) is used as an identifier of a terminal, which may be an identifier of a terminal used in a 5G system defined by 3GPP. The GPSI may correspond to an External ID used in a 3GPP system, or may correspond to a Mobile Station International ISDN Number (hereinafter referred to as MSISDN) corresponding to a telephone number. An external identifier is an identifier defined so that an identifier (ID) granted by a third-party service provider to a terminal (110) can be identified within a 3GPP mobile communication network. In the present disclosure, an ID granted by an Edge Computing Service Provider to a terminal (110) may be used as an External ID within the 3GPP system. Alternatively, an Edge Computing Service Provider may enter into a contract with a 3GPP mobile communication operator to preset which External ID to use for a specific terminal. In this case, if a contract has been made in advance with a 3GPP mobile operator, this information may be stored in the 3GPP mobile operator's subscriber information server (not shown in the diagram). Alternatively, the MSISDN of the terminal may be used as an ID for the edge computing service provider to identify the terminal.

In addition, for the convenience of explanation, in the following description, the edge application server will be explained using the first edge application server (201), and ordinal numbers such as first, second, etc. for distinguishing application servers or identifying applications loaded on a terminal (110) will not be used.

First, for convenience of explanation, in the following description, the edge application server will be explained using the first edge application server (201), and ordinal numbers such as first, second, etc. for distinguishing application servers or identifying applications loaded on a terminal (110) will not be used.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 400, the terminal (110) may perform a registration procedure to use an edge computing service with the edge enabling server (210) in order to use the MEC service. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal (110) may perform a service discovery procedure with the edge enabling server (210) in order to check whether there is any third-party application server available on the edge computing platform (200) to which it has connected in order to use the MEC service.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can store the IP address of the terminal (110) that sent the message transmitted in operation 400. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the IP address information of the terminal (110) can be used to obtain and store GPSI information of the terminal (110) based on the IP address of the terminal (110) at a later time by the edge enabling server (210).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 403, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a response to the message of operation 400 to the terminal (110). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the terminal (110) has performed registration, a response thereto may be transmitted. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the terminal (110) has performed service discovery, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit information about a third-party application server that the terminal (110) can use through an edge computing service and information (e.g., FQDN or IP address) that can access the third-party application server (201) in a response message.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 406, the edge enabling server (210) can identify whether to transmit a request to the 3GPP network (130) for obtaining user information corresponding to the IP address transmitted by the terminal (110) in operation 400, for example, GPSI or GPSI and its corresponding profile information.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a request message to the NEF (134) or the PCF (135) to confirm the GPSI of the terminal (110) or to obtain a profile for the GPSI of the terminal (110), as in operation 406. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may include an IP address of the terminal (110) in the request message. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may include a service provider identifier (Service Provider ID) that may identify an edge computing service provider.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) can directly access the PCF (135), the edge enabling server (210) can transmit a request message to the PCF (135) using the Npcf service. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) cannot directly access the PCF (135), the request message can be transmitted through the NEF (134).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) may have information about a session currently being used by the terminal (110). For example, the PCF (135) may have information about a session currently being used by the terminal (110) while connected to an Edge Computing Data Network. Accordingly, the PCF (135) may know the IP address used by the terminal (110). In addition, the PCF (135) may also store the GPSI for the corresponding terminal (110). The PCF (135) may receive and store this information from the SMF (136) when establishing a PDU session. In addition, the PCF (135) may store policy information and service parameters for the MEC service.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server (210) transmits a request message through the NEF (134), the NEF (134) can obtain information about the PCF (135) serving the IP address of the terminal (110) received in operation 408 through the BSF (Binding Support Function) or based on the local configuration. As a result, the NEF (134) can find the PCF (135) serving the terminal (110). Accordingly, the NEF (134) can generate a response message according to the NPCF (135) service operation for the request received from the edge enabling server (210) and transmit it to the PCF (135).

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server (210) sends a request directly to the PCF (135), the edge enabling server (210) can obtain information about the PCF (135) serving the corresponding IP address through the BSF. The edge enabling server (210) can directly transmit a request message to the PCF (135) by configuring it according to the Npcf service operation.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the request message that the edge enabling server (210) transmits to the PCF (135) through the NEF (134) or directly to the PCF (135) may be a request to verify the GPSI of the terminal (110), or a request message to transmit policy information or a user profile that the terminal (110) can use for the MEC service for the IP address of the corresponding terminal.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) that receives the request can obtain the GPSI corresponding to the IP address of the terminal. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) can configure policy information or parameters for the MEC service for the corresponding GPSI. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the request message received by the PCF (135) includes Service Provider ID information, the PCF (135) can configure a response message with policy information, parameters, or a profile of the terminal (110) corresponding to the Service Provider ID.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) may configure this information as a response message in operation 410 and transmit it to the edge enabling server (210).

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the PCF (135) cannot send a message directly to the edge enabling server (210), it may send a response message to the edge enabling server (210) through the NEF (134) in operation 410.

In the specification according to the present disclosure, it is assumed that the PCF (135) knows the mapping between the External UE IP Address and the Internal UE IP address. This is because the IP address used by the terminal (110) within the 3GPP network (130) and the IP address of the terminal (110) used outside the 3GPP network (130) may be different. Accordingly, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a Network Address Translation (NAT) function (or entity) may exist between the data connection connecting the inside and the outside of the 3GPP network (130).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) may include a method for resolving an external IP address of the terminal (110) by negotiating with a server performing a NAT function. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the IP address of the terminal (110) included in the request message received from the edge enabling server (210) by the PCF (135) is an external IP address, but the PCF (135) may obtain an internal IP address of the terminal (110) by negotiating with the NAT function server. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) may also further identify information (GPSI or policy information or parameters) of the terminal (110).

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 408, the NEF (134) may obtain the profile information of the terminal (110) from the UDM (137) or the UDR (not shown in FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b). In this case, the NEF (134) may request the PCF (135) to provide the GPSI corresponding to the terminal IP address, and the PCF (135) may reply to the NEF (134) with the GPSI value stored for the terminal corresponding to the terminal IP address. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF (134) may request the UDM (137) or the UDR for the user profile or the user terminal profile for the corresponding GPSI using the GPSI value received from the PCF (135). At this time, NEF (134) can transmit a request message to UDM (137) or UDR including a service provider identifier (Service Provider ID) that can identify the edge computing service provider received from the edge enabling server (210).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a UDM (137) or UDR that receives a request message from a NEF (134) can obtain a profile of a terminal (110) corresponding to the received GPSI, generate information including the profile as a response message, and transmit it to the NEF (134).

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the UDM (137) or UDR may obtain a profile of a terminal (110) corresponding to a Service Provider ID included in a request of the NEF (134), configure information including the profile into a response message, and transmit (reply) the response message to the NEF (134). Accordingly, the NEF (134) that has received the response message from the UDM (137) or UDR may transmit the response message to the edge enabling server (210) in operation 410. As described above, the response message may include the GPSI of the corresponding terminal (110) or profile information necessary for the corresponding terminal (110) to use the MEC service.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) that has received the response message can map the IP address transmitted by the terminal (110) in operation 400 and the GPSI received from the 3GPP system and store them in the memory (214) in operation 412. Such mapping information can also be stored by configuring a mapping table for each application server or each terminal.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when a profile, policy information, or service parameter for a GPSI of a terminal is received from a 3GPP network (130), the edge enabling server (210) can apply the same to a service for the terminal (110). For example, the edge enabling server (210) can set all services of the MEC service to be available to a premium subscriber. The premium service may be a service that is not applicable to general subscribers.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, as described above, when the terminal (110) completes the registration procedure through the edge enabling server (210) or completes the search of the edge application server, it can perform data communication with the edge application server (201) as in operation 420.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) may call an edge service API provided by the edge enabling server (210) to the edge enabling server (210). In the specification according to the present disclosure, the Edge Service API may mean an API that provides a Capability Exposure function for an edge computing service to a third-party application server running on the infrastructure of the edge data network to which the edge enabling server (210) belongs. For example, there may be a location API for identifying the location of a terminal (110), a management API for managing resources of the terminal (110), a traffic steering API for modifying a data path of the terminal (110), etc.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) can determine what Edge Service API is provided by the edge enabling server (210) through an API discovery procedure or a CAPIF (Common API Framework) function. Since the edge application server (201) does not know the ID of the terminal (110) when requesting the Edge Service API to the edge enabling server (210), it can include the IP address of the terminal (110) that has accessed its server.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) that has received this can obtain (search) the IP address of the terminal (110) included in the previously received request message and the corresponding terminal (110) ID, i.e., GPSI, based on the mapping information stored in 7 in operation 412.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may use the GPSI information mapped in operation 426 as the ID of the terminal (110) to call the 3GPP Network Capability Exposure API to support the Edge Service API requested by the edge application server (201) in operation 422. For example, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a request message to the NEF (134). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit the request message by setting GPSI as the ID of the terminal (110). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) is a trusted device in the 3GPP network (130), the request may be transmitted directly to the AMF (133), the SMF (136), or the PCF (135).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, whether the edge enabling server (210) transmits the request message to the AMF (133), the SMF (136), or the PCF (135) may vary depending on the type of 3GPP Network Capability Exposure that the edge enabling server (210) intends to use. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the request message that the edge enabling server (210) intends to transmit is one that desires location-related information of the terminal (110), the edge enabling server (210) may decide to transmit it to the AMF (133). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can use the GPSI information acquired in operation 424 as the ID of the terminal (110) even when sending a request directly to the AMF (133), SMF (136), or PCF (135).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF (134) or AMF, SMF (136), or PCF (135) that has received a request message in operation 426 may perform a Capability Exposure operation for the corresponding terminal (110) according to the request message. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF (134) or AMF, SMF (136), or PCF (135) that has performed the Capability Exposure operation for the corresponding terminal (110) according to the request message may generate a response message as a result in operation 428 and transmit it to the edge enabling server (210).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) that receives the response message in operation 430 may generate a response message for transmitting a result according to the API requested by the edge application server (201) to the edge application server (201) in operation 422. Thereafter, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit the response message generated in operation 430 to the edge application server (201).

Through the above operations, the edge application server (201) can obtain edge service API information provided by the edge enabling server (210).

FIG. 5 is a signal flow diagram for providing an edge computing service using an identifier assigned to a terminal in an MEC network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Briefly describing the overall operation of Fig. 5, when a terminal (110) performs a registration procedure on an edge management server (140) operating on an edge computing platform (200), an identifier (ID) for the terminal (110) can be assigned. Thereafter, the edge management server (140) can register this with GPSI used in a 3GPP network (130). Based on this, the edge enabling server (210) can support the Capability Exposure API to the edge application server (201) by using the Network Capability Exposure provided by the 3GPP network (130).

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the name Edge UE ID is used as the terminal ID. This may be an ID used to identify the terminal in the edge computing platform (200) to which the terminal is connected, and may be an ID assigned to the terminal by the edge management server (140) of the edge computing platform (200). When provided to the 3GPP network (130), this may be provided in the form of a Generic Public Subscription Identifier (hereinafter referred to as GPSI).

This can be an identifier of a terminal used in a 5G system defined by 3GPP. GPSI can correspond to an external identifier (External ID) used in a 3GPP system, or can correspond to a Mobile Station International ISDN Number (hereinafter referred to as MSISDN) corresponding to a telephone number. An external identifier is an identifier defined so that an identifier (ID) granted by a third-party service provider to a terminal (110) can be identified within a 3GPP mobile communication network. In the present disclosure, an ID granted by an Edge Computing Service Provider to a terminal (110) can be used as an External ID within a 3GPP system. Alternatively, an Edge Computing Service Provider can enter into a contract with a 3GPP mobile communication operator and set in advance which External ID to use for a specific terminal. If a contract is made in advance with a 3GPP mobile communication operator in this way, this information can be stored in a subscriber information server (not shown in the drawing) of the 3GPP mobile communication operator. Alternatively, the MSISDN of the terminal can be used as an ID for the edge computing service provider to identify the terminal.

In addition, for the convenience of explanation, in the following description, the edge application server will be explained using the first edge application server (201), and ordinal numbers such as first, second, etc. for distinguishing application servers or identifying applications loaded on a terminal (110) will not be used.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 500, a terminal (110) may perform a registration procedure to use an edge computing service with an edge management server (140) in order to use an MEC service.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) that has received a registration request message from a terminal (110) may assign an Edge UE ID that is available in the edge computing platform (200) to which the terminal (110) is currently connected in operation 502.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) can store the Edge UE ID allocated in operation 504 in its internal memory. The edge management server (140) can bind this information with the IP address of the terminal (110) that sent the message in operation 500 and store it in the memory.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) may transmit a response message to the terminal (110) for a registration request sent by the terminal (110). At this time, the response message may include an Edge UE ID assigned to the terminal (110). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling layer (113) of the terminal (110) may determine that this ID is an ID that it should use when using the corresponding edge computing service, and may store it in the internal memory or the edge enabling layer (113). In addition, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling layer (113) of the terminal (110) may use this information as its own ID for an API request message sent to the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) at a later time.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) can transfer the Edge UE ID successfully assigned to the terminal (110) in operation 508 to the edge enabling servers (210) within the same edge computing platform (200). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, since the terminal (110) can select and connect to the edge enabling server (210) according to its location, the ID of the terminal (110) can be transferred to the edge enabling servers (210) belonging to the area managed by the edge computing platform (200), so that when the terminal (110) connects to the edge enabling server (210) using the corresponding ID at a later time, it can identify which terminal (110) it is. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) may transmit the Edge UE ID to the edge enabling server (210) along with the service profile or setting information that should be applied to the corresponding terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 510, the edge management server (140) may perform an operation to set the Edge UE ID assigned to the terminal (110) to an external identifier (External ID) or GPSI of the 3GPP network (130). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) may send a request message to include the Edge UE ID assigned by itself in the subscription information of the terminal (110) through the NEF (134). In addition, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF (134) may include the Edge UE ID assigned by the edge management server (140) in the subscription information of the terminal (110) and store it in the UDR (137).

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) may transmit to the PCF (135) that the Edge UE ID assigned by the edge management server (140) to the GPSI using the IP address of the terminal (110) acquired in operation 500 is used. Accordingly, the PCF (135) may set and store the Edge UE ID received as the GPSI of the terminal (110) identified by the IP address, as the GPSI corresponding to the IP address of the terminal (110). In addition, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCF (135) may store the Edge UE ID received as the GPSI of the terminal (110) in the UDR (137).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) can register the Edge UE ID assigned to the terminal (110) as the GPSI of the terminal (110) in the subscriber server or policy server of the 3GPP network (130) according to operation 510. Now, the 3GPP network (130) can recognize the value corresponding to the Edge UE ID as the GPSI and identify which terminal (110) it is.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 512, the terminal (110) may perform a Service Discovery procedure to receive information on applications that can use the MEC service from the edge enabling server (210). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 512, the terminal (110) may perform a Service On-boarding procedure to transmit information on applications that it will use for the MEC service to the edge enabling server (210). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal (110) may use the Edge UE ID assigned in operation 506 as its ID in the above-described messages transmitted to the edge enabling server (210).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may bind the Edge UE ID included in the request message transmitted by the terminal (110) and the ID address of the terminal (110) obtained from the IP packet transmitted by the terminal (110) in operation 514 and store them in the memory (214). Accordingly, when the edge enabling server (210) learns the IP address of the terminal (110), it may identify the Edge UE ID corresponding thereto.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may generate a response message corresponding to the request message of operation 512 sent by the terminal (110) in operation 516 and transmit the response message to the terminal (110). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the terminal (110) requests Service Discovery, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit information about an edge application server (201) that the terminal (110) can use. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the information about the edge application server may be configured as a list, and may include an ID of an application that the terminal (110) can use, or may include at least one of an FQDN, an IP address, or other information that can identify the terminal for accessing the corresponding application server.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when a terminal (110) requests Service On-boarding, the edge enabling server (210) may provide information about an edge application server (201) that the terminal (110) has requested to use. The information about the edge application server (201) may include at least one of an IP address of the edge application server (201), an FQDN, and information about a DNS server capable of resolving the FQDN.

Through the above operation, the terminal (110) can obtain information on the edge application server from the edge enabling server (210) and register identifier information to be used by the terminal (110). Using this, the terminal (110) can transmit and receive data traffic with the edge application server (201) in operation 520.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) may call an Edge Service API provided by the edge enabling server (210) in operation 522. In the specification of the present disclosure, the Edge Service API may mean an API that provides a Capability Exposure function for an edge computing service to a third-party application server running on the infrastructure of an edge data network to which the edge enabling server (210) belongs. For example, there may be a Location API for identifying the location of a terminal (110), a Management API for managing resources of the terminal (110), a Traffic Steering API for modifying a data path of the terminal (110), etc. The edge application server (201) can determine what Edge Service API is provided by the edge enabling server (210) through an API discovery procedure or a CAPIF (Common API Framework) function. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge application server (201) transmits an Edge Service API request message to the edge enabling server (210), since it does not know the ID of the terminal (110), it can transmit the Edge Service API request message including the IP address of the terminal (110) used when the terminal (110) accesses it.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) that receives the Edge Service API request message including the IP address of the terminal (110) in operation 524 can obtain the IP address of the terminal (110) included in the Edge Service API request message including the IP address of the terminal (110) and the corresponding terminal (110) ID, i.e., the Edge UE ID, based on the mapping information stored in operation 514.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 526, the edge enabling server (210) may use the mapped Edge UE ID information in the form of GPSI as the ID of the terminal (110) to call the 3GPP Network Capability Exposure API to support the Edge Service API requested by the edge application server (201) in operation 522. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a request message for calling the 3GPP Network Capability Exposure API to the NEF (134) of the 3GPP network (13). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may include GPSI as the ID of the terminal (110) in the request message for calling the 3GPP Network Capability Exposure API and transmit it. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) is a trusted device in the 3GPP network (130), it can directly forward a request message for calling the 3GPP Network Capability Exposure API to the AMF (133), the SMF (136), or the PCF (135).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, whether the edge enabling server (210) transmits a request message for calling a 3GPP Network Capability Exposure API to the AMF (133), the SMF (136), or the PCF (135) may vary depending on the type of 3GPP Network Capability Exposure that the edge enabling server (210) intends to use. For example, if information related to the location of the terminal (110) is desired, it may be decided to send it to the AMF. Even when the edge enabling server (210) directly sends a request to the AMF (133), the SMF (136), or the PCF (135), the ID of the terminal (110) may use the GPSI information stored in operation 514.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF (134) or the AMF (133), the SMF (136), or the PCF (135) that has received a request message for calling the 3GPP Network Capability Exposure API in operation 526 may perform the Capability Exposure operation for the corresponding terminal (110) according to the request. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the NEF (134) or the AMF, the SMF, or the PCF (135) may transmit a Capability Exposure operation performance result message to the edge enabling server (210) in operation 528. The edge enabling server (210) that has received the Capability Exposure operation performance result message in operation 528 may generate an Edge Service API response message as a result according to the API requested by the edge application server (201) in operation 530, and transmit the same to the edge application server (201).

FIG. 6 is a signal flow diagram for providing an edge computing service using an identifier of a terminal identified in an edge computing platform according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Briefly describing the overall operation of Fig. 6, there may be a case where an ID confirmed to be used for a terminal (110) is provided to an edge application server (201) in an edge computing platform (200), and the edge application server (201) uses the Capability Exposure API using this ID.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, multiple 3GPP networks' UPFs (User Plane Functions) (132) may be connected to one edge computing data network (or edge data network). In the following description, the edge computing data networks may be the edge data networks (161, 162) described in FIG. 1b. Accordingly, a UPF (132) close to a terminal (110) may be selected according to the location of the terminal (110) for one edge computing data network. For example, a case in which a terminal (110) accesses the same edge computing data network and uses an MEC service will be described with reference to FIG. 1b. Referring to FIG. 1b, a first terminal (110) may receive an edge computing service through a UPF (132a) closest to it. At this time, if the first terminal (110) moves to the location of the second terminal (120), the serving UPF of the first terminal (110) may change from the first UPF (132a) to the second UPF (132b), even though the first terminal (110) is located within the same edge data network (161).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the UPF (132) serving the terminal (110) may be changed, which may mean that the IP address of the terminal (110) may be changed. Accordingly, if the edge enabling server (210) or the edge management server (140) manages the terminal (110) based on the IP address of the terminal (110), it is necessary to perform an operation for updating information that can newly identify the terminal (110) whenever the UPF (132) serving the terminal (110) is changed, that is, whenever the IP address of the terminal (110) is changed. For example, among the embodiments of the present disclosure, the embodiments of FIGS. 3 and 4 need to be performed whenever the IP address of the terminal (110) is changed. This is because the edge enabling server (210) may not know whether the terminal (110) was the terminal (110) that was previously connected if the terminal (110) connects with a changed IP address. In addition, if the edge application server (201) uses the IP address of the terminal (110) as the identifier of the terminal (110) when using the Edge Service API, the edge enabling server (210) must update the binding for the identifier corresponding to the GPSI for the terminal (110) whenever the IP address of the terminal (110) changes, and based on this, the edge enabling server (210) can use the Capability Exposure service of the 3GPP network (130).

Therefore, according to the example of the present disclosure, after assigning an ID to a terminal (110), the ID of the terminal (110) can be notified to edge application servers (201). Accordingly, according to the present disclosure, a method can be provided in which the edge application server (201) uses the ID of the terminal assigned to the terminal as an identifier of the terminal (110) when using the Edge Service API for the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, when the method described above is used, the operation of updating GPSI information based on the IP address of the terminal (110) suggested by the embodiments of FIGS. 3 and 4 described above may not be performed whenever the IP address of the terminal (110) changes.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to use the MEC service in operation 600, the terminal (110) may perform a registration procedure for using the edge computing service on the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to use the MEC service in operation 600, the terminal (110) may perform a service discovery procedure with the edge enabling server (210) to check which third-party applications are available on the edge computing platform (200) to which it has connected. According to yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to transfer information on the application to be used for the MEC service to the edge enabling server (210), the terminal (110) may perform a service on-boarding procedure in order to transfer information on the application to be used for the MEC service to the edge enabling server (210). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal (110) can inform the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) of the application to be used through a service discovery procedure. As a result of this, the terminal (110) can obtain information on the application to be used (e.g., FQDN of the application server, IP address of the application server, DNS server address for finding the corresponding application server, etc.) from the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210).

As discussed above, when the terminal (110) transmits a message in operation 600 to the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210), it can use its own GPSI information. In this way, the terminal (110) can use its own GPSI information based on the control of the edge enabling layer (113) of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) can assign an Edge UE ID that the terminal (110) should use by using at least one of the procedures described above. Also, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, this can use the embodiment according to FIG. 5. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) can assign GPSI information transmitted by the terminal (110) in operation 600 to the Edge UE ID of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) may verify the GPSI of the terminal (110) with the 3GPP network (130) according to the embodiments of FIGS. 3, 4, and 5, or store the GPSI of the terminal (110) in the 3GPP network (130). Alternatively, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) may obtain the GPSI for the corresponding terminal (110) by the method according to the embodiment of FIG. 4 based on the IP address transmitted by the terminal (110) in operation 600, and then use it as the Edge UE ID of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a response message to the terminal (110) that transmitted the request message of the 600 operation, and may assign and transmit an Edge UE ID that the terminal (110) should use to the response message. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) may store, in memory, the Edge UE ID that the terminal (110) that transmitted the response message should use.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the Edge UE ID may be a GPSI transmitted by the terminal (110) using a request message in operation 600, or a GPSI confirmed from a 3GPP network (130), or a value assigned by the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210). The edge management server (140) may transmit the ID of the terminal (110) assigned by it to the edge enabling servers (210).

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) assigns an Edge UE ID, the following may be considered.

First, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) can assign an edge UE ID to identify the terminal (110) for each third-party application that the terminal (110) has reported to use. For example, the identifiers of the terminal (110) to be used in the first edge application (Edge Application 1) (201) and the second edge application (Edge Application 2) (202) are independently assigned to each of Edge Application 1 and Edge Application 2, and thus different values may be assigned to each. In a specific case, even if the same value is assigned to Edge Application 1 and Edge Application 2, each of Edge Application 1 and Edge Application 2 may not be able to recognize that the identifiers of the terminals (110) are the same. As a result, each Edge Application can be prevented from knowing the identifiers of the terminals used by other Edge Applications. The edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) can use a randomly generated value to assign a different terminal identifier to each Edge Application as described above, and can store this by mapping it to the ID of the Edge Application. This can be used later when the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) requests an identifier of a terminal (110) required for the Edge Application to use the Edge Service API from the Edge Application. For example, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) can use this when responding with an identifier value of a terminal (110) assigned to the Edge Application when the Edge Application requests an identifier of a terminal (110) required for the Edge Service API.

Second, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) may allocate an edge terminal identifier (Edge UE ID) for identifying a terminal to be used between the terminal (110) and the edge management server (140) or between the terminal (110) and the edge enabling server (210). In other words, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) may allocate an Edge UE ID for identifying the terminal (110) and transmit it to the terminal via a response message. However, the Edge UE ID allocated as described above may not be used between the API between the edge management server (140) and the Edge Application or between the API between the edge enabling server (210) and the Edge Application. When the Edge Enabling Server (210) allocates an identifier of a terminal (110) that an Edge Application must use for the Edge Service API, it can assign a different identifier to each Edge Application based on the Edge UE ID assigned as described above and deliver the identifier to the Edge Application. That is, it can assign and manage an identifier used between a terminal (110) and an edge management server (140) or a terminal (110) and an edge enabling server (210), and an identifier used between an edge enabling server (210) and an Edge Application, respectively. This is to protect the privacy of the identifier of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 502, the edge enabling server (210) can identify which edge application server (201) the terminal (110) wants to use based on a Service Discovery or Service On-boarding request performed by the terminal (110).

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, operation 610 or operation 620 or operation 630 may be performed independently, and only operation 610 may be performed, only operation 620 may be performed, or only operation 630 may be performed, as needed. Also, according to another embodiment of the present disclosure, operation 610 or operation 620 or operation 630 may be performed sequentially or selectively.

First, let's look at the 610 movement.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can identify whether there is an edge application server (201) that has requested a Subscribe operation to notify the ID of the terminal (110) in operation 612.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may perform a procedure for registering with the edge enabling server (210) when the edge application server (201) is instantiated and starts to run on the edge computing platform (200) in operation 612 (Enablement). At this time, the edge enabling server (210) may also perform a setting for receiving a notification about the ID of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) determines that there is an edge application server (201) that has requested a subscribe operation to be notified of the ID of the terminal (110) or if there is information set to notify the ID of the terminal (110) to the edge application server (201), the edge enabling server (210) can transmit a message to the corresponding edge application server (201) to notify the ID of the terminal (110). This can be operated based on an API.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) that has decided to inform the edge application server (201) of the ID of the terminal (110) in operation 614 may transmit an API-based message for informing each edge application server (201) of the ID of the terminal (110). In the embodiment of the present disclosure, this will be referred to as a UE Identification Notification message. However, if it is a message used by the edge enabling server (210) to inform the edge application server (201) of the ID of the terminal (110), it may be understood in the same way even if a name different from the name described in the present disclosure is used. The edge enabling server (210) may include the ID of the terminal (110), that is, the Edge UE ID according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, in the UE Identification Notification message. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may include an IP address of the terminal (110) to indicate which terminal (110) with which IP address uses the Edge UE ID. This may be an IP address acquired from the terminal (110) in operation 600.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) that receives the UE Identification Notification message can bind and store which Edge UE ID should be used for the IP of the corresponding terminal (110) in operation 616. Even if the IP address of the terminal (110) is changed later and connects to its own server, the edge application server (201) can identify the terminal (110) using the corresponding TCP session or application session by the Edge UE ID, and accordingly can newly bind and store the changed IP address of the terminal (110) to the Edge UE ID of the terminal (110). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) can use the Edge UE ID for an Edge Service API operation with the Edge enabling server (210). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the Edge enabling server (210) can identify the terminal (110) by using the Edge UE ID included in the Edge Service API message.

Next, let's look at the 620 movement.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 622, the edge application server (201) may transmit a terminal identifier request message to the edge enabling server (210) to request an identifier of the terminal (110) for identifying the terminal (110) when using the Edge Service API. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) may also use the Edge Service API using the IP address of the terminal (110). However, if the IP address of the terminal (110) has been changed, and the edge enabling server (210) does not know the changed IP address of the terminal (110), after the edge enabling server (210) receives the Edge Service API requested using the IP address of the terminal (110), it cannot confirm which terminal (110) the request is for. Therefore, the edge application server (201) needs to obtain an identifier for the terminal (110) to be used regardless of the IP address of the terminal (110). To this end, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) can transmit an API message to the edge enabling server (210) to obtain information for identifying the terminal (110), i.e., the ID of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge application server (201) may include the IP address of the terminal (110) connected to it in the terminal identifier request message. This is because the IP address of the terminal (110) is the only identifier for initially identifying the terminal (110). After the terminal (110) connects to the edge enabling server (210) and obtains information about the edge application server (201), the terminal (110) connects to the edge application server (201) and performs data communication. When the edge application server (201) starts data communication with the corresponding terminal (110), it may perform operation 622 to obtain the ID of the corresponding terminal (110) for the IP address of the corresponding terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) that receives the terminal identifier request message in operation 622 can identify the terminal for the IP address of the terminal (110) included in the message in operation 624. This can be based on the information obtained as a result of operation 600 described above. If the edge enabling server (210) cannot find the terminal for the IP address of the terminal (110) included in the terminal identifier request message of operation 622, the edge enabling server (210) can determine that the corresponding terminal (110) is not a terminal (110) connected to the edge computing platform (200). In this case, the edge enabling server (210) can transmit failure information indicating that it cannot inform the ID of the corresponding terminal (110) to the edge application server (201).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, after a terminal (110) connects to an edge enabling server (210), it can receive information about an edge application server (201) and start data communication with the edge application server (201). In this case, it can be considered that the possibility that the terminal (110) changes its location and its IP address changes is significantly low. Accordingly, if the edge enabling server (210) cannot identify a terminal (110) using the IP address of the terminal (110) received from the edge application server (201), it is highly likely that the terminal (110) is not connected to the edge computing platform (200). Therefore, an Edge UE ID cannot be assigned to the terminal (110).

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, even if the edge enabling server (210) cannot identify the IP address of the terminal (110) received in step 622, it can temporarily store the IP address and the edge application server (201) that requested using the IP address. Later, when the terminal (110) performs a new procedure in the edge enabling server (210) due to a change in the IP address, the edge enabling server (210) can compare the IP address of the terminal (110) received in the new procedure with the IP address temporarily stored according to the operation described above. Accordingly, if these two IP addresses match, the edge application server (210) can rebind and store the Edge UE ID for the terminal (110) with the IP address. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, since the edge enabling server (210) also stores information about the edge application server (201) that requested the stored temporary IP address, it may decide to transmit the newly bound Edge UE ID to the edge application server (201). Accordingly, the edge enabling server (210) may inform the edge application server (201) of the ID of the terminal (110) in operation 626 or, as in operation 614.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 626, the edge enabling server (210) may search for an Edge UE ID for the IP address of the terminal (110) included in the message of operation 622, and then the edge enabling server (210) may include this information in a response message in operation 626 and transmit it to the edge application server (201). The edge application server (201) that receives this may use the received Edge UE ID information as an identifier of the terminal (110) when requesting an Edge Service API for the terminal (110) in the future. Accordingly, even if the IP address of the terminal (110) connected to the edge application server (201) changes, the edge application server (201) may call the Edge Service API using the Edge UE ID, and the edge enabling server (210) may perform an Edge Service API operation based on the received Edge UE ID.

As another example, in operation 626, after the edge enabling server (210) searches for the terminal identifier for the IP address of the terminal (110) included in the message of operation 622, the edge enabling server (210) may assign an identifier of the terminal to be transmitted to the edge application server (201) in operation 626. In this case, the Edge UE ID for identifying the terminal, i.e., the Edge UE ID performed in operation 600 and assigned to the terminal, may be assigned, and there may be no terminal identifier to be used between the edge application server (201) and the edge enabling server (210). That is, as described above, the terminal identifier used between the terminal (110) and the edge enabling server (210) and the identifier used between the edge enabling server (210) and the edge application server (201) may be different from each other. For example, there may be a case where the terminal identifier used between the terminal (110) and the edge enabling server (210) is set to “AAA” and the identifier to be used between the edge enabling server (210) and the second edge application server (202) is not set. In this case, the edge enabling server (210) may set the identifier to be used between the edge enabling server (210) and the second edge application server (202) to “ABC”.

As another example, the terminal identifier used between the terminal (110) and the edge enabling server (210) is set to "AAA", the identifier used between the edge enabling server (210) and the second edge application server (202) is set to "ABC", but the identifier used with the first edge application server (201) is not set. In this case, the edge enabling server (210) can set the identifier used between the edge enabling server (210) and the first edge application server (201) to "CDAB". Here, "AAA", "ABC", "CDAB", etc. are used to indicate specific identifier values, and when used in an actual system, they can be set to have values according to each system or standard specification. At this time, the edge enabling server (210) can separately allocate an Edge UE ID for identifying the terminal (110) for each third-party application. For example, the identifiers of the terminals to be used in Edge Application 1 and Edge Application 2 can be allocated with different values so that each Edge Application does not know the identifiers of the terminals used by other Edge Applications. In order to allocate different identifiers of the terminals (110) for each Edge Application as described above, the edge enabling server (210) can use a randomly generated value and store it by mapping it with the ID of the Edge Application. In addition, the edge enabling server (210) can bind the Edge UE ID allocated for each Edge Application to an identifier for the corresponding terminal (110) (e.g., GPSI, or an identifier that can be mutually identified between the edge enabling server (210) and the terminal) and store it. Therefore, the edge enabling server (210) can check which terminal each Edge UE ID assigned to the Edge Application represents by looking at the bound information. In other words, the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) internally stores the Edge UE ID for identifying the terminal (110), but may not use this Edge UE ID in the API with the Edge Application. When the edge enabling server (210) assigns an identifier of a terminal that the Edge Application must use for the Edge Service API, the edge enabling server (210) may assign a different identifier to each Edge Application based on the assigned Edge UE ID and transmit it to the Edge Application. That is, the identifier used between the terminal (110) and the edge management server (140) or the edge enabling server (210) and the identifier used between the edge enabling server (210) and the Edge Application may be assigned and managed separately. This is to protect the privacy of the identifier of the terminal (110). In the present invention, the terminal identifier used in the Edge Application and the Edge Enabling Server (210) is also referred to as Edge UE ID, but its value may be different between the terminal (110) ?? Edge Enabling Server (210), the Edge Enabling Server (210) ?? Edge Application (201) as described above. Such mapping or binding information may be stored in the Edge Enabling Server (210). After performing the allocation procedure as described above, the Edge Enabling Server (210) may include the identifier of the terminal allocated to each Edge Application (Edge UE ID in the drawing) in a response message and transmit it to the Edge Application Server (201). The Edge Application Server (201) that receives this may use the received Edge UE ID information as the identifier of the terminal (110) when requesting an Edge Service API for the terminal (110) in the future.

Finally, let's look at the 630 movement.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 632, the edge enabling server (210) can determine whether the mapping of the Edge UE ID and the IP address information of the terminal (110) to it has changed. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can change the Edge UE ID for the terminal (110), and in this case, it can also determine that the mapping of the Edge UE ID and the IP address information to it has changed. This means that when the IP address of the terminal (110) is changed, the edge enabling server (210) can identify whether there has been a change through a new procedure. For example, when the edge enabling server (210) performs a registration procedure, a service discovery procedure, or a service on-boarding procedure with a terminal (110), the terminal (110) may include an Edge UE ID (which may be the same as the GPSI value) assigned or used by the terminal in a message transmitted to the edge enabling server (210) for performing such procedure. Accordingly, the edge enabling server (210) may identify whether the IP address of the terminal (110) has been changed by using the IP address of the terminal (110) that sent the message and the Edge UE ID included in the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the IP address of the terminal (110) has been changed, the edge enabling server (210) may bind the changed IP address of the terminal (110) with the Edge UE ID and store this information in the memory (214). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may assign a new Edge UE ID to the terminal (110) and store the newly assigned Edge UE ID in the memory (214). This may occur due to security issues, for example, when the ID is leaked to the outside or when authentication of the terminal (110) fails and a new ID is assigned.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, due to a change in the IP address of the terminal (110), the edge enabling server (210) may allocate a new Edge UE ID for the changed IP address. The edge enabling server (210) may allocate a new Edge UE ID, bind it with the IP address of the terminal (110), and store it in the memory (214).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if binding information of the Edge UE ID and the IP address of the terminal (110) is updated in operation 634, the edge enabling server (210) can notify this to the edge application server (201). The terminal identifier notification message to notify the edge application server (201) can include the Edge UE ID of the terminal (110) or the IP address of the terminal (110). The edge application server (201) that receives this can decide to use the received Edge UE ID for the IP address of the terminal (110) included in the message and store it. Accordingly, when a terminal (110) accesses an edge application server (201) and communicates data, if the terminal (110) uses the IP address included in the message to communicate data, the edge application server (201) can determine the Edge UE ID for the corresponding IP address as in operation 636, and can call the Edge Service API using this Edge UE ID.

In addition, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 632, the edge enabling server (210) can change the identifier of the terminal (110) allocated to the edge application server (201). For example, the edge enabling server (210) can update the identifier of the terminal (110) allocated to each Edge Application to a new value. This may be to allocate a new value in order to maintain the security of the corresponding terminal identifier, or may be to provide the edge application server (201) with a new terminal identifier corresponding to the identifier that identifies the terminal (110) changed or the IP address of the terminal (110) changed. If the identifier information of the terminal that the edge application server (201) should use has been updated, the edge enabling server (210) can notify the edge application server (201) of this. The terminal identifier notification message to be notified to the edge application server (201) may include the Edge UE ID of the updated terminal (110), the IP address of the terminal (110), or user information identifiable by the edge application server (201) (for example, an identifier of a user using an edge application, a User ID, or User Information that can identify the user, for example, the user's email address, the user's ID, or a Reference value allocated to the terminal's application client from the application server). The edge application server (201) that receives this may determine which terminal is being identified based on the user information included in the message, and may decide to use and store the updated Edge UE ID included in the message for the terminal. Thereafter, the edge application server (201) may call the Edge Service API provided by the edge enabling server (210) using the updated Edge UE ID.

When the identifier of a terminal allocated to each Edge Application is updated, the Edge enabling server (210) can update a new identifier for all Edge Applications used by the terminal (110), or can update a new identifier for only some Edge Applications. The Edge enabling server (210) can transmit an identifier update message for each terminal (110) to the corresponding Edge application server (201) for each Edge Application whose identifier has been updated, as in operation 634.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, when the edge enabling server (210) recognizes an Edge Application that is no longer used by a terminal, it can inform the edge application server (201) corresponding to the Edge Application that it can no longer use the Edge Service API. After receiving a request, such as Application discovery, requested by the terminal (110) (or the edge enabling layer (113) of the terminal (110)), the edge enabling server (210) can recognize the Edge Application that the terminal (110) wants to use, and can also recognize the Edge Application that the terminal (110) no longer uses. This can be done by identifying an application that the terminal (110) (or the edge enabling layer (113) of the terminal) included in a previous request but not included in a new request in the Application discovery request message sent to the edge enabling server (210) and determining that the application is no longer used by the terminal (110). Alternatively, the terminal (110) (or the edge enabling layer (113) of the terminal (110)) can designate an application that it will no longer use and transmit it to the edge enabling server (210) in the Application discovery request message. The edge enabling server (210) that receives this can determine that the terminal (110) no longer uses the Edge Application. The edge enabling server (210) can determine an application that the terminal (110) has decided not to use, and then transmit a message to the edge application server (201) running the corresponding Edge Application to prevent the terminal (!10) from using the Edge Service API. The edge enabling server (210) that receives this message can include the identifier of the terminal (110) that was previously transmitted to the edge application server (201) and an indicator that the Edge Service API for the terminal (110) is no longer available. The edge application server (201) that receives this can check the identifier of the terminal included in the message, and can also check the indicator that the Edge Service API for the terminal (110) is no longer available in the message. Accordingly, the edge application server (201) can determine that the Edge Service API can no longer be used for the corresponding terminal (110) and can no longer request the Edge Service API for the corresponding terminal from the edge enabling server (210).

In another way, the edge enabling server (210) may include in the message the identifier of the terminal that was previously transmitted to the edge application server (201), and may include an indicator that the identifier for the corresponding terminal (110) is no longer valid. The edge application server (201) that receives this may verify the identifier of the terminal included in the message, and may also verify the indicator that the identifier for the corresponding terminal is no longer valid in the message. Accordingly, the edge application server (201) may determine that the Edge Service API can no longer be used for the corresponding terminal (110), and may no longer request the Edge Service API for the corresponding terminal from the edge enabling server (210).

FIG. 7a and FIG. 7b are control flowcharts for managing an identifier of a terminal that can receive MEC service from an edge enabling server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may receive an edge service registration message or an edge service discovery message from the terminal (110). At this time, the edge service registration message or the edge service discovery message may include the GPSI of the terminal (110). Accordingly, the edge enabling server (210) may check whether identification of validity is possible using the GPSI included in the message in operation 702. For example, the edge enabling server (210) may receive a user profile of the terminal (110) in advance. This user profile may be received when an authorization/authentication operation of the terminal (110) is performed in advance. Accordingly, the edge enabling server (210) can determine whether the validity of the GPSI is possible by checking whether the profile information corresponding to the GPSI received in operation 700 is stored in advance. If there is pre-stored profile information, the edge enabling server (210) can perform operation 704, and if there is no pre-stored profile information, it can perform operation 720.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, it can be determined that the validation of GPSI can be performed even when the profile of the terminal (110) is not received, but only the GPSI of the terminal is received in the authentication/authorization operation. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the validation can be identified as valid when the GPSI received in operation 700 is identical to the GPSI stored in advance.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may bind a valid GPSI in operation 704 to the IP of the terminal received in operation 700 and store it in the memory (214).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 706, the edge enabling server (210) can identify whether the message received in operation 700 is a registration message or a service discovery message. If the message received in operation 700 is a registration message, the edge enabling server (210) can generate a response message to be transmitted to the terminal (110) in operation 708 and transmit the same to the terminal. On the other hand, if the message received in operation 700 is a service discovery message, the edge enabling server (210) can generate a response message containing information about a third-party application that can be used through the edge computing service and information (e.g., FQDN or IP address) that can access a third-party application server, and transmit the same to the terminal in operation 712.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a message requesting GPSI information (or profile information) to the 3GPP network (130) at operation 720. The edge enabling server (210) may be distinguished as being trusted by the 3GPP network (130) or not.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) is trusted by the 3GPP network (130), it may directly send a request message to an entity that manages information in the 3GPP network (130). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) is not trusted by the 3GPP network (130), it may request transmission of the message through the NEF (134) of the 3GPP network (130).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may receive a response message from a specific entity of the 3GPP network (130) directly or via the NEF (134) in operation 722. The response message may include GPSI information of the terminal or profile information of the terminal.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 724, the edge enabling server (210) can identify whether GPSI information of the terminal is valid information by using GPSI information received in the preceding operation 700 and information received in a response message in operation 722.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the GPSI information of the terminal is valid as a result of identification in operation 724, the edge enabling server (210) can store the GPSI in the memory (214) in operation 726. On the other hand, if the GPSI information of the terminal is invalid as a result of identification in operation 724, the edge enabling server (210) can generate an error message and transmit the error message to the terminal in operation 728. If unnecessary, the transmission of the error message may be omitted.

FIG. 8 is a control flowchart illustrating a process for providing terminal information from an edge enabling server to an edge application server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Prior to the description of FIG. 8, the edge enabling server (210) may be in a state where it has received or acquired and stored the terminal identifier information as described above in FIG. 7, and, if necessary, may be in a state where it has acquired the terminal identifier information from the 3GPP network (130).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can receive an Edge Service API request message for a specific terminal from the edge application server (201) in operation 800. At this time, the Edge Service API request message can include IP information of the terminal. Accordingly, the edge enabling server (210) can obtain GPSI information using the IP information of the terminal obtained in advance.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can transmit a service operation request message (3GPP Network Capability Exposure API) including GPSI to a 3GPP network.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) is trusted by the 3GPP network (130), it may directly send a request message to an entity that manages information in the 3GPP network (130). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) is not trusted by the 3GPP network (130), it may request transmission of the message through the NEF (134) of the 3GPP network (130).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may receive a service operation response message through an NEF (134) of a 3GPP network (130) or directly from an entity having the corresponding information in operation 820. In this way, when the edge enabling server (210) receives the service operation response message from the GPP network (130), it may generate and transmit an Edge Service API response message to the edge application server (201) in operation 830.

FIG. 9a is a control flowchart illustrating a process for assigning an identifier to a terminal in an edge management server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 9a, in operation 500, the edge management server (140) may receive a registration request message from a specific terminal. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) may assign an Edge UE ID that is available in the edge computing platform (200) to which the terminal (110) is currently connected. In addition, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 902, the edge management server (140) may bind the IP address of the terminal received from the terminal in operation 900 and the assigned Edge UE ID and store them in memory. In addition, the edge management server (140) may include the Edge UE ID assigned in operation 902 in a response message and transmit it to the corresponding terminal. Through this, the Edge UE ID may be assigned to the terminal.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) can transmit to the edge enabling servers (210) within the edge computing platform (200) in operation 904.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) may perform an operation to set the Edge UE ID assigned to the terminal in operation 906 to an external identifier (External ID) or GPSI of the 3GPP network (130). According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) may send a request message to include the Edge UE ID assigned by itself in the subscription information of the terminal through the NEF (134).

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge management server (140) may transmit to the PCF (135) that the Edge UE ID assigned by the edge management server (140) is used for the IP address of the terminal acquired in operation 900 as the GPSI using the corresponding IP address.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 906, the edge management server (140) may request the subscriber server or policy server of the 3GPP network (130) to register the Edge UE ID assigned to the terminal as the GPSI of the terminal. Through this, the 3GPP network (130) may recognize the value corresponding to the Edge UE ID as the GPSI, thereby enabling the 3GPP network (130) to identify which terminal it is by using the GPSI.

FIG. 9b is a control flow diagram when an edge enabling server provides an Edge Service API from an edge application according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may receive an Edge Service API request message from the edge application server (201) in operation 910. In the specification of the present disclosure, the Edge Service API request message may mean an API that provides a Capability Exposure function for an edge computing service to a third-party application server running on the infrastructure of an edge data network to which the edge enabling server (210) belongs. For example, there may be a Location API for identifying the location of a terminal (110), a Management API for managing resources of the terminal (110), a Traffic Steering API for modifying a data path of the terminal (110), etc.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can search for and obtain an identifier of the terminal, i.e., GPSI, by using the IP of the terminal in operation 912. The GPSI may be information received from the application management server (140) in FIG. 9a described above and stored in advance.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in operation 914, the edge enabling server (210) may use the mapped Edge UE ID information in the form of GPSI as the ID of the terminal (110) to transmit a service operation request (Nnef service operation request) message to a specific entity of the 3GPP network (130). At this time, the GPSI may be included as the ID of the terminal in the request message and transmitted.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, when the edge enabling server (210) transmits a service operation request (Nnef service operation request) message to the 3GPP network (130) in operation 914, the edge enabling server (210) can be distinguished between cases where the 3GPP network (130) trusts the server and cases where the edge enabling server (210) is not trusted.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) is trusted by the 3GPP network (130), it may directly send a request message to an entity that manages information in the 3GPP network (130). According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) is not trusted by the 3GPP network (130), it may request transmission of the message through the NEF (134) of the 3GPP network (130).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may receive a Nnef service operation response message from the 3GPP network (130) at operation 916.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may generate an Edge Service API response message in operation 918 based on the message received in operation 916 and transmit it to the edge application server (201).

FIGS. 10A to 10C are control flowcharts for managing identifiers so that a mobile communication terminal can receive MEC services in an edge enabling server according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 10A, the edge enabling server (210) may perform a registration procedure for using an edge computing service from a terminal in operation 1000, or perform a service discovery procedure to check what third-party applications are available on the edge computing platform (200) to which it has connected in order to use an MEC service, or perform a service on-boarding procedure to transfer information on applications to be used for the MEC service.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, in this case, the edge enabling server (210) can identify the edge application server that the terminal wishes to use by using information included in the message previously received in operation 1002.

Afterwards, the edge enabling server (210) can identify whether there is an edge application server that requested a terminal identifier in operation 1004.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may perform a procedure for registering with the edge enabling server (210) when the edge application server (201) is instantiated in the edge computing platform (200) and starts to operate (Enablement). At this time, the edge enabling server (210) may also perform a setting for receiving a notification about the ID of the terminal. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, if the edge enabling server (210) determines that there is an edge application server (201) that has requested a subscribe operation to notify the ID of the terminal in operation 1004, or if there is information set to notify the ID of the terminal to the edge application server (201), the edge enabling server (210) may perform operation 1006.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit a message to the edge application server (201)(s) to inform them of the ID of the terminal (110) in operation 1006. This may be operated based on an API.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) that decides to inform the edge application server (201) of the terminal ID in operation 1006 may transmit an API-based message for informing each edge application server (201) of the terminal ID (110). In the embodiment of the present disclosure, this will be referred to as a UE Identification Notification message. However, if it is a message used by the edge enabling server (210) to inform the edge application server (201) of the terminal ID, it may be understood identically even if a name different from the name described in the present disclosure is used. The edge enabling server (210) may include the terminal ID, i.e., the Edge UE ID according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, in the UE Identification Notification message. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may include an IP address of a terminal to indicate which terminal with which IP address uses the Edge UE ID. This may be an IP address obtained from the terminal in operation 1000.

Referring to Fig. 10b, operations 1000 and 1002 in Fig. 10b may be the same operations as those described above in Fig. 10a. Therefore, additional description will be omitted in the embodiment of Fig. 10b.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may receive a terminal identifier request message for identifying a terminal to use the Edge Service API from the edge application server (201) in operation 1010. According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal identifier request message may use the Edge Service API by using the IP address of the terminal.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal identifier request message may include the IP address of the terminal connected to the edge application server (201). This is because the identifier for initially identifying the terminal (110) is the IP address of the terminal (110).

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can search for and acquire an Edge UE ID corresponding to the information acquired in operation 1000 and the IP address of the terminal included in the message received in operation 1010 as described above in operation 1012.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) may generate a response message including the Edge UE ID obtained in operation 1014 and transmit it to the edge application server (201).

Referring to Fig. 10c, as described above, operations 1000 and 1002 may be the same operations as those described in Fig. 10a. Therefore, description of the same operations will be omitted.

The edge enabling server (210) can determine whether the mapping of the Edge UE ID and the IP address information of the terminal has changed in operation 1020. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the edge enabling server (210) can change the Edge UE ID for the terminal, and at this time, it can also determine that the mapping of the Edge UE ID and the IP address information of the terminal has changed. This means that when the IP address of the terminal (110) is changed, the edge enabling server (210) can identify whether the change has occurred through a new procedure. For example, when the edge enabling server (210) performs a registration procedure with the terminal, a service discovery procedure, or a service on-boarding procedure, the terminal can include the Edge UE ID (which may be the same as the GPSI value) that it is assigned or uses in a message transmitted to the edge enabling server (210) for performing such procedures. Therefore, the edge enabling server (210) can identify whether the IP address of the terminal has changed by using the IP address of the terminal that sent the message and the Edge UE ID included in the terminal.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, since the terminal identifier has been changed in operation 1022, the edge enabling server (210) may transmit the changed Edge UE ID and/or IP address of the terminal to the application server (201).

FIG. 11 is an internal configuration diagram of an edge enabler server according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 11, the edge enabler server (120) may include an edge enabler server control unit (1110), an edge enabler server memory (1120), and an edge enabler server communication unit (1130) therein. Unlike in FIG. 2, the edge enabler server (120) exemplified in FIG. 11 may be a case where edge application servers are run on separate servers.

The edge enabler server control unit (1110) can be implemented with at least one processor and can perform the control operations described above. For example, it can perform control such as allocating a terminal identifier, authenticating a terminal identifier through a 3GPP network, or transmitting and receiving messages with an edge application server (201) within an edge platform.

The edge enabler server memory (1120) can store mapping or binding information between control information controlled by the edge enabler server (120) and identifier information for a specific terminal.

The edge enabler server communication unit (1130) can transmit and receive signals and/or messages between the edge enabler server (120) and other nodes within the network, such as terminals, specific nodes of the 3GPP network, and various servers within the edge platform.

Figure 12 is an internal block diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 12, the terminal may include a terminal control unit (1210), a terminal transceiver unit (1220), and a terminal memory (1230). In addition, the terminal may include a display (not shown), a key (not shown), a touch screen, etc. for a user interface inside.

The terminal control unit (1210) may be composed of at least one processor and may perform control for performing all operations described in the present disclosure. In particular, it may control the operation of applications. In addition, it may control the operation of the edge enabling layer (113, 123) of the present disclosure.

The terminal transceiver (1220) may include a wireless processing unit that can connect to a mobile communication network and at least one communication processor for performing necessary control in the mobile communication network. In the aforementioned FIG. 1a, it may include a 3GPP communication layer (114, 124).

The terminal memory (1230) can store programs for terminal operation, programs stored by the user, applications according to the present disclosure, and control data for operation of the edge enabling layer.

In addition, the embodiments disclosed in this specification and drawings are only specific examples presented to easily explain and aid understanding of the contents of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should be interpreted as including all changes or modified forms derived based on the technical idea of the present invention in addition to the embodiments disclosed herein.

110, 120: Electronic device (or terminal or UE)
130: 3GPP network (or 5G network or 4G network)
140 : Edge Management Server
200 : Edge Computing Platform
210: Edge Enabling Server
201, 202, 203: Edge Application Server

Claims (20)

A method performed by an Edge Enabler Server (EES) of an edge computing system,
A step of receiving a service discovery message from a terminal;
A step of verifying an edge application based on the above service discovery message;
A step of transmitting information about an Edge Application Server (EAS) related to the edge application to the terminal;
A step of receiving a request message for a terminal identifier to be used in the edge computing system from the EAS;
A step of obtaining the terminal identifier based on at least one of an Internet Protocol (IP) address or interaction with a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network; and
A method characterized by comprising the step of transmitting a response message including the terminal identifier to the EAS.
In paragraph 1,
A method characterized by further comprising the step of transmitting an updated terminal identifier to be used in the edge computing system to the EAS when the terminal identifier has been changed for privacy reasons.
A method according to claim 1, wherein the terminal identifier uniquely identifies the terminal.
A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the terminal identifier is used by the EAS to request an additional capability exposure API (Application Program Interface) to the EES.
In the second paragraph,
A step of assigning the updated terminal identifier to the terminal;
A step of binding information about the updated IP address and the updated terminal identifier; and
A method characterized by further comprising the step of transmitting the bound information to the EAS.
A method performed by an Edge Application Server (EAS) of an Edge Computing System,
A step of receiving information related to an edge application from a terminal;
A step of transmitting a request message for a terminal identifier to be used in the edge computing system to an Edge Enabler Server (EES); and
A step of transmitting a response message including the terminal identifier from the EES;
A method characterized in that the terminal identifier is obtained based on at least one of an Internet Protocol (IP) address or interaction with a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network.
In paragraph 6,
A method characterized by further comprising the step of transmitting an updated terminal identifier to be used in the edge computing system to the EAS when the terminal identifier has been changed for privacy reasons.
A method according to claim 6, characterized in that the terminal identifier uniquely identifies the terminal.
A method according to claim 6, characterized in that the terminal identifier is used by the EAS to request an additional capability exposure API (Application Program Interface) to the EES.
In an Edge Enabler Server (EES) device of an edge computing system,
transceiver; and
It consists of a controller; and the controller:
Receive a service discovery message from the terminal,
Identify the edge application based on the above service discovery message,
Transmit information about the Edge Application Server (EAS) related to the above edge application to the terminal,
Receive a request message for a terminal identifier to be used in the edge computing system from the EAS,
Obtaining the terminal identifier based on at least one of an IP (Internet Protocol) address or interaction with a 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) network, and
A device characterized by transmitting a response message including the terminal identifier to the EAS.
In the 10th paragraph, the controller:
A device characterized in that when the terminal identifier is changed for privacy reasons, the device transmits an updated terminal identifier to be used in the edge computing system to the EAS.
A device according to claim 10, characterized in that the terminal identifier uniquely identifies the terminal.
A device according to claim 10, characterized in that the terminal identifier is used by the EAS to request an additional capability exposure API (Application Program Interface) to the EES.
In the 11th paragraph, the controller:
Assign the updated terminal identifier to the terminal,
Binding information about the updated IP address and the updated terminal identifier, and
A device characterized by transmitting the bound information to the EAS.
In the Edge Application Server (EAS) device of the edge computing system,
transceiver; and
It consists of a controller; and the controller:
Receive information related to edge applications from the terminal,
Send a request message for a terminal identifier to be used in the edge computing system to the Edge Enabler Server (EES),
Transmitting a response message including the terminal identifier from the EES;
A device characterized in that the terminal identifier is obtained based on at least one of an Internet Protocol (IP) address or interaction with a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network.
In the 15th paragraph, the controller:
A device characterized in that when the terminal identifier is changed for privacy reasons, the device transmits an updated terminal identifier to be used in the edge computing system to the EAS.
A device according to claim 15, wherein the terminal identifier uniquely identifies the terminal.
A device according to claim 15, characterized in that the terminal identifier is used by the EAS to request an additional capability exposure API (Application Program Interface) to the EES.
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