The present disclosure relates to a communication method and system for converging a 5.sup.th-Generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a 4.sup.th-Generation (4G) system with a technology for Internet of Things (IoT). The present disclosure may be applied to intelligent services based on the 5G communication technology and the IoT-related technology, such as smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car, connected car, health care, digital education, smart retail, security and safety services. According to the present disclosure, communication is performed more efficiently in a software defined network (SDN) environment.

The present disclosure relates to a communication method and system for converging a 5.sup.th-Generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a 4.sup.th-Generation (4G) system with a technology for Internet of Things (IoT). The present disclosure may be applied to intelligent services based on the 5G communication technology and the IoT-related technology, such as smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car, connected car, health care, digital education, smart retail, security and safety services. According to the present disclosure, communication is performed more efficiently in a software defined network (SDN) environment.

In one embodiment, a first path computation element (PCE) receives a request from a gateway for service chain functions (SFs) to be applied to a traffic flow, wherein a first subset of the SFs is located in a first zone. The first PCE identifies a boundary node located at a border between the first zone and a second zone where a second subset of the SFs are located. The first PCE sends a response to the gateway indicating a path within the first zone between the gateway and the boundary node to apply the first subset of SFs to the flow. The first PCE provides information regarding the flow and the boundary node to a second PCE that uses the information to configure the boundary node to route the flow in the second zone to apply the second subset of SFs to the flow.

A method for establishing Segment Routing (SR) tunnel based on Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) data-plane using a path computation element communication protocol (PCEP) includes generating, by a path computation element (PCE), a first PCEP message, wherein the first PCEP message comprises indicating information and segment identifier (SID), and wherein the indicating information indicates that the SID is an IPv6 prefix of a node in a tunnel. A first path computation client (PCC) receives a first PCEP message from a PCE and the first PCC establishes an SR for IPv6 forwarding plane (SRv6) tunnel from the first PCC to a second PCC.

This application provides a communication method, a UP device, and a CP device, and pertains to the field of communications technologies. In the method, the UP device reports interface information to the CP device by using PFCP. Specifically, the UP device carries the interface information in a PFCP message, and transmits the PFCP message to the CP device. The CP device can obtain the interface information of the UP device from the PFCP message, which ensures that the CP device can sense the interface information of the UP device.

This application provides a communication method, a UP device, and a CP device, and pertains to the field of communications technologies. In the method, the UP device reports interface information to the CP device by using PFCP. Specifically, the UP device carries the interface information in a PFCP message, and transmits the PFCP message to the CP device. The CP device can obtain the interface information of the UP device from the PFCP message, which ensures that the CP device can sense the interface information of the UP device.

Techniques are described for forming on-demand mesh connections between spoke routers of a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) arranged in a hub-and-spoke topology. A first spoke router modifies the first packet to include metadata specifying first reachability information and first Internet Protocol (IP) address information for the first spoke router. The first spoke router forwards the first packet to a hub router for forwarding to a second spoke router. The first spoke router receives a second packet from the hub router that includes metadata specifying second reachability information and second IP address information for the second spoke router. In response to determining that the first reachability information is compatible with the second reachability information, the first spoke router initiates a peering connection with the second spoke router along a path which bypasses the hub router for forwarding subsequent packets of the forward packet flow.

A method for accessing a gateway and an apparatus are disclosed, relate to the field of communication technologies, and are applied to a network system including a virtual broadband network gateway (vBNG), where the vBNG includes a control plane (CP) device and a plurality of user plane (UP) devices managed by the CP device, and the network system further includes a user plane steering function (USF) device. The method includes: The USF device obtains user information of a target terminal; the USF device determines a target UP device in the plurality of UP devices based on the user information and load of the plurality of UP devices; and the USF device indicates the target terminal to access the target UP device. Therefore, an appropriate UP device is selected for the target terminal in the network system including the vBNG, and load balancing between the plurality of UP devices is implemented.

Techniques for using computer networking protocol extensions to route control-plane traffic and data-plane traffic associated with a common application are described herein. For instance, a traffic flow associated with an application may be established such that control-plane traffic is sent to a control-plane node associated with the application and data-plane traffic is sent to a data-plane node associated with the application. When a client device sends an authentication request to connect to the application, the control-plane node may send an indication of a hostname to be used by the client device to send data-plane traffic to the data-node. As such, when a packet including the hostname corresponding with the data-plane node is received, the packet may be forwarded to the data-plane node.

Optimal determination of wireless network pathway configurations may be provided. A computing device may receive an error profile and a response instruction associated with the error profile, as generated by a network controller. The computing device may then monitor, for an error, on a communication Track, in a network, between an ingress node and an egress node. Then, the computing device, upon detecting the error, can determine that the error is similar to the error profile, and based on the determination that the error is similar to the error profile, enact the response instruction. The response instruction can direct the computing device to switch from the communication Track to a communication subTrack between the ingress node and the egress node.