CPC H04L 47/12 (2013.01) [H04L 67/566 (2022.05)] | 16 Claims |
1. A method for generating and using network function (NF) set load information, the method comprising:
at a service communication proxy (SCP):
receiving service based interface (SBI) requests from consumer NFs;
forwarding the SBI requests to producer NF instances that are members of an NF set;
receiving responses to the SBI requests from the producer NF instances;
determining NF instance load control information (LCI) for the producer NF instances from the responses;
computing, by the SCP and from the NF instance LCI for the producer NF instances, NF set LCI for the NF set, wherein computing the NF set LCI includes generating a sum using the NF instance LCI determined for the producer NF instances and wherein generating the sum includes adding normalized loads of the producer NF instances in the NF set using the following expression:
Load(nfSet)=ΣNormalized Loads of all NF Instances in NF Set,
where Load(nfSet) is the NF set LCI for the NF set and ΣNormalized Loads of all NF Instances in NF set is a sum of normalized loads of all of the producer NF instances in the NF set; and
communicating the NF set LCI to at least one of the consumer NFs or using the NF set LCI to select a producer NF instance within an NF set to provide a service for one of the consumer NFs.
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