CN113810964B

CN113810964B - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN113810964B
Application number: CN202010730139.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王洲; 张健; 刘云
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-13
Filing date: 2020-07-27
Publication date: 2023-03-10
Anticipated expiration: 2040-07-27
Also published as: CN113810964A

Abstract

The application relates to a communication method and equipment. Sending first information to a terminal device, wherein the first information is used for inquiring whether the terminal device can carry out cell switching or not; and when the terminal equipment is determined to be capable of carrying out cell switching according to the first information, carrying out cell switching operation. In the embodiment of the application, the network device may send the first information to the terminal device, and if it is determined that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information, the cell handover operation is performed, so that the data transmission delay is reduced, and the packet loss rate is further reduced.

Description

Communication method and device

The present application claims priority of chinese patent application entitled "a handover control method, UE and network device" filed by the chinese intellectual property office on 13/6/2020, application number 202010538519.0, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and device.

Background

Cell handover is an important operation for mobility and state transition of a terminal device, and refers to an operation performed when the terminal device is in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connected (connected) state to change a serving cell.

Before cell handover, there may be data transmission between the terminal device and the source base station, for example, the source base station has downlink data to send to the terminal device. After entering the cell switching process, the source base station sends data which is not sent to the terminal equipment to the target base station of the terminal equipment, and after the cell switching is finished, the target base station sends the data to the terminal equipment. Therefore, if a cell switching process is encountered, the transmission delay of data is relatively large. However, the packet loss rate may be higher due to the long transmission delay. For more important data, if the packet loss rate is high, the terminal device may not perform corresponding operations.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and equipment, which are used for reducing the transmission delay of data so as to reduce the packet loss rate.

In a first aspect, a first communication method is provided, where the method includes: sending first information to a terminal device, wherein the first information is used for inquiring whether the terminal device can carry out cell switching; and when the terminal equipment is determined to be capable of carrying out cell switching according to the first information, carrying out cell switching operation.

The method may be performed by a first communication device, which may be a communication apparatus or a communication device, e.g. a chip, capable of supporting the communication apparatus to implement the functionality required for the method. Illustratively, the first communication device is a network device, or a chip provided in the network device for implementing the functions of the network device, or other components for implementing the functions of the network device. In the following description, the first communication device is taken as a network device, for example, a source network device serving a terminal device before cell handover. Illustratively, the source network device is an access network device, such as a base station.

In this embodiment, the network device may send the first information to the terminal device, and if it is determined that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information, perform a cell handover operation again, for example, if the terminal device has data being transmitted, the cell handover may not be performed. By the method, the cell switching process is executed after the data transmission is finished as much as possible, so that the data transmission delay is reduced, and the packet loss rate can be further reduced.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, according to the first information, that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover includes:

and receiving second information which is from the terminal equipment and responds to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching.

In this implementation, if the terminal device determines that the cell handover is possible, the terminal device sends second information to the source network device, the second information indicating that the terminal device is capable of cell handover, and if the terminal device determines that the cell handover is not possible, the terminal device sends second information to the source network device, the second information indicating that the terminal device is not capable of cell handover. That is, no matter whether the terminal device determines whether the cell switching can be performed, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device, and the source network device can determine whether the terminal device can perform the cell switching according to the indication of the second information. This may make the indication more definite.

With reference to the first aspect, in a second optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, according to the first information, that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover includes:

and receiving second information responding to the first information from the terminal equipment, and then determining that the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching.

In this implementation, if the terminal device determines that the cell handover can be performed, the terminal device sends second information to the source network device, where the second information indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell handover, or indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell handover in case that the terminal device sends an event of the second information; if the terminal device determines that the cell switching cannot be performed, the terminal device does not send the second information to the source network device, and the terminal device indicates that the cell switching cannot be performed if the terminal device does not send the event of the second information, or the second information indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell switching, and the terminal device indicates that the cell switching cannot be performed if the terminal device does not send the second information. That is, in this manner, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device only when it is determined that cell handover is possible, and otherwise does not send the second information to the source network device. In this way, signaling overhead can be saved while the source network device is prompted.

With reference to the first aspect, the first optional implementation manner of the first aspect, or the second optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the performing a cell handover operation includes:

sending a switching request message to target network equipment, wherein the switching request message is used for requesting to switch the terminal equipment to the target network equipment;

receiving a switching request confirmation message from the target network equipment, wherein the switching request confirmation message is used for confirming that the terminal equipment is switched to the target network equipment;

and sending an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the RRC reconfiguration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to be switched to the target network equipment.

In this implementation, the source network device may send the first information to the terminal device before sending the handover request message to the target network device. Then, if cell handover is required, the source network device may perform a corresponding cell handover operation. The above cell handover operation may be only a part of the cell handover process, and the cell handover process of the terminal device may also involve other signaling, for example, also involves the interaction between the access network device and the core network device, which are included in the scope of the embodiments of the present application, and this is not written one by one in the embodiments of the present application.

With reference to the first aspect, or the first optional implementation manner of the first aspect, or the second optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, before sending the first information to the terminal device, the method further includes:

and receiving a switching request confirmation message from the target network equipment, wherein the switching request confirmation message is used for confirming that the terminal equipment is switched to the target network equipment.

After the source network device sends the handover request message to the target network device, the target network device is likely not to allow the terminal device to be handed over to the target network device, and therefore in this embodiment, the source network device determines whether the terminal device can perform cell handover or not under the condition that the target network device is determined to allow the terminal device to be handed over to the target network device, so that invalid signaling interaction between the source network device and the terminal device can be reduced, and signaling overhead is saved.

With reference to the fourth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the performing a cell handover operation includes:

If the source network device sends the first information to the terminal device again under the condition that the target network device is determined to allow the terminal device to be switched to the target network device, if the source network device determines that the cell switching can be carried out, the source network device does not need to send a switching request message to the target network device any more, and only needs to send an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device.

With reference to the first aspect, in a sixth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

and when the terminal equipment is determined to be incapable of carrying out cell switching according to the first information, the cell switching operation is not executed.

If the source network device determines that a cell handover cannot be performed, the cell handover may not be necessary. For example, if the terminal device has data being transmitted, a cell handover may not be performed. By the method, the cell switching process is executed after the data transmission is finished as much as possible, so that the data transmission delay is reduced, and the packet loss rate can be further reduced.

With reference to the sixth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a seventh optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover according to the first information includes:

and receiving second information from the terminal equipment responding to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching.

In this implementation, if the terminal device determines that the cell handover is possible, the terminal device transmits second information to the source network device, the second information indicating that the terminal device is capable of cell handover, and if the terminal device determines that the cell handover is not possible, the terminal device transmits second information to the source network device, the second information indicating that the terminal device is not capable of cell handover. That is, no matter whether the terminal device determines whether the cell switching can be performed, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device, and the source network device can determine whether the terminal device can perform the cell switching according to the indication of the second information. This may make the indication more definite.

With reference to the seventh optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in an eighth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the second information further includes:

suggested time information, wherein the suggested time information is used for indicating the time for which the terminal equipment can perform cell switching; and/or the presence of a gas in the atmosphere,

first reason information, wherein the first reason information is used for indicating a reason why the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching.

The terminal device sends the first reason information to the source network device, so that the source network device can determine the reason why the terminal device cannot perform cell switching currently. The proposed time information may indicate a time at which the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, so that the source network device can initiate cell handover again at the time indicated by the proposed time information, or the source network device may determine a time at which to initiate cell handover again according to the proposed time information and some other factors.

With reference to the sixth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, in a ninth optional implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover according to the first information includes:

and if second information responding to the first information from the terminal equipment is not received within the first time length, determining that the terminal equipment cannot carry out cell switching.

In this implementation, if the terminal device determines that the cell handover can be performed, the terminal device sends second information to the source network device, where the second information indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell handover, or indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell handover in case that the terminal device sends an event of the second information; if the terminal device determines that the cell switching cannot be performed, the terminal device does not send the second information to the source network device, and the terminal device indicates that the cell switching cannot be performed if the terminal device does not send the event of the second information, or the second information indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell switching, and the terminal device indicates that the cell switching cannot be performed if the terminal device does not send the second information. That is, in this manner, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device only when it is determined that cell handover is possible, otherwise, the terminal device does not send the second information to the source network device. In this way, signaling overhead can be saved while the source network device is prompted.

In a second aspect, a second communication method is provided, the method including: receiving first information from source network equipment, wherein the first information is used for inquiring whether the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching; and when the terminal equipment is determined to be capable of carrying out cell switching, sending second information to the source network equipment to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of carrying out cell switching.

The method may be performed by a second communication device, which may be a communication apparatus or a communication device, e.g. a chip, capable of supporting the communication apparatus to perform the functions required by the method. Illustratively, the second communication device is a terminal device, or a chip provided in the terminal device for implementing the function of the terminal device, or another component for implementing the function of the terminal device. In the following description, the second communication device is taken as an example of a terminal device.

In combination with the second aspect, in a first alternative embodiment of the second aspect,

the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching; or the like, or a combination thereof,

and sending the second information, wherein the event for sending the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching.

With reference to the second aspect or the first optional implementation manner of the second aspect, in a second optional implementation manner of the second aspect, the determining that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover includes:

determining that the terminal equipment can perform cell switching according to base layer data which is not to be received and is to be sent, wherein the base layer data corresponds to a first service and is data necessary for executing the first service.

For example, one way for the terminal device to determine whether the terminal device can perform cell handover is that the terminal device can determine whether service data is to be received or to be sent, if the service data is to be received and/or to be sent, the terminal device determines that cell handover cannot be performed, and if there is no data to be received and no data to be sent, the terminal device determines that cell handover can be performed. As an alternative embodiment, the importance level of the service data is higher than the first level (or, the priority level is higher than the first level). That is, if the terminal device determines that the service data is to be received or to be transmitted, and the importance level of the service data is higher than the first level, the terminal device determines that the cell switching cannot be performed; or, if the terminal device determines the service data to be received or to be sent, but the importance level of the service data is lower than or equal to the first level, the terminal device determines that cell switching can be performed; or, if the terminal device determines that there is no data to be received and no data to be transmitted, the terminal device determines that cell switching is possible. The importance level is higher than the first level, which may indicate that the service data is more important data or data with higher priority, and for such service data, if the packet loss rate is higher due to longer delay caused by performing cell handover, a larger influence may be caused to the terminal device, for example, the terminal device may not execute the service corresponding to the service data. Therefore, if the terminal device waits to receive or send such service data before performing cell switching, the terminal device may determine that cell switching cannot be performed, so as to perform cell switching as far as possible, for example, the terminal device may continue to perform transmission of the service data, so as to reduce transmission delay of the service data, thereby reducing a packet loss rate.

With reference to the second aspect, in a third alternative embodiment of the second aspect, the method further comprises:

and when the terminal equipment is determined to be incapable of cell switching, sending second information to the source network equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is incapable of cell switching.

With reference to the third optional implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fourth optional implementation manner of the second aspect, the second information further includes:

suggested time information, which is used for indicating the time that the terminal equipment can perform cell switching; and/or the presence of a gas in the atmosphere,

With reference to the second aspect, in a fifth alternative embodiment of the second aspect, the method further comprises:

and when the terminal equipment is determined not to be capable of carrying out cell switching, not sending second information to the source network equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment is capable of carrying out cell switching.

With reference to the second aspect, or the third optional implementation manner of the second aspect, or the fourth optional implementation manner of the second aspect, or the fifth optional implementation manner of the second aspect, in a sixth optional implementation manner of the second aspect, the determining that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover includes:

determining that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching according to base layer data to be received or to be sent, wherein the base layer data corresponds to a first service and is data necessary for executing the first service.

With regard to the technical effects brought about by the second aspect or the various embodiments of the second aspect, reference may be made to the introduction to the technical effects of the first aspect or the respective embodiments.

In a third aspect, a third method of communication is provided, the method comprising: receiving second information from the terminal equipment; and when the second information indicates that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching, not performing cell switching operation.

The method may be performed by a third communication apparatus, which may be a communication device or a communication apparatus capable of supporting a communication device to implement the functions required by the method, such as a chip. Illustratively, the third communication device is a network device, or a chip provided in the network device for implementing the function of the network device, or another component for implementing the function of the network device. In the following description, the third communication device is taken as a network device, for example, a source network device serving as a terminal device before cell handover. Illustratively, the source network device is an access network device, such as a base station.

The terminal device may send second information to the source network device to indicate whether the terminal device is capable of cell handover. The source network device may not perform the cell handover operation if the second information indicates that the terminal device is not capable of cell handover. The terminal equipment can know the current condition of the terminal equipment more, and the terminal equipment determines whether the cell switching can be carried out or not, so that the influence on the data transmission of the terminal equipment due to the cell switching can be avoided as much as possible, and the time delay of the data transmission is reduced.

With reference to the third aspect, in a first optional implementation manner of the third aspect, the second information further includes:

the first reason information is used for indicating the reason that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching.

With reference to the third aspect, in a second optional implementation manner of the third aspect, the second information includes one or more of the following information:

the terminal device has high throughput rate information; or the like, or a combination thereof,

the terminal equipment receives the information of the data to be transmitted and/or the data to be received; or the like, or a combination thereof,

the terminal device has information of low power consumption requirements.

That is, the second information may be existing information, and it may be understood that the second information may indicate whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover in an implicit manner. For example, the second information may implicitly indicate that the terminal device is not capable of cell handover if the second information includes information that the terminal device has a high throughput rate, which indicates that the terminal device may have a large amount of data in transmission. For another example, the second information includes information of data to be transmitted and/or received by the terminal device, and the data to be transmitted and/or received by the terminal device may implicitly indicate that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover. For another example, the second information includes information that the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement, and the cell handover needs to consume corresponding power, and if the terminal device has the low power consumption requirement, the second information is also equivalent to implicitly indicating that the terminal device cannot perform the cell handover. The terminal equipment is implicitly indicated by the existing information to be incapable of cell switching without additionally occupying the information for indication, thereby being beneficial to saving signaling overhead.

With reference to the second optional implementation manner of the third aspect, in a third optional implementation manner of the third aspect, the second information includes information that the terminal device has a high throughput rate, and then the second information is used to indicate that the MCS supported by the terminal device is higher than the MCS configured for the terminal device by the network device, or the second information is used to indicate the throughput rate supported by the terminal device, where the throughput rate is greater than or equal to a first threshold.

The information that the terminal device has the high throughput rate may indicate the throughput rate supported by the terminal device, or may indicate the MCS supported by the terminal device, and if the MCS supported by the terminal device is higher, it is also equivalent to indicating that the terminal device has the high throughput rate. Therefore, the terminal device has high throughput rate information, which may be throughput rate information or MCS information.

With reference to the second optional implementation manner of the third aspect, in a fourth optional implementation manner of the third aspect, the second information includes information of data to be sent and/or data to be received by the terminal device, where the data is base layer data of a first service, and the base layer data is data necessary for executing the first service.

The data to be transmitted (including the data to be transmitted and/or the data to be received) may be data of any priority (or any importance level), that is, as long as there is data to be transmitted, the data is regarded as the data to be transmitted by the terminal device. Or, the data to be transmitted may also refer to data with a priority higher than the first priority (or an importance level higher than the first priority), that is, if there is data with a priority higher than the first priority that needs to be transmitted, the terminal device considers that the terminal device has data to be transmitted, otherwise, if there is data that needs to be transmitted, but the priority of the data is lower than or equal to the first priority, the terminal device considers that there is no data to be transmitted. For example, the data to be transmitted is base layer data of a first service, and the first service is, for example, an XR service. The base layer data of the XR service may be prioritized above the first priority and the enhancement layer data of the XR service may be prioritized below or equal to the first priority. By the mode, more important data can be transmitted in time as much as possible, transmission delay is reduced, service requirements are met, and the probability of service interruption is reduced; for data with lower importance, the requirement of cell switching can be met preferentially, and the data is transmitted after the cell switching, because the importance of the data is lower, even if the transmission delay is larger and the packet loss rate is higher, the influence is not too large.

With reference to the third aspect or any one of the first optional implementation manner to the fourth optional implementation manner of the third aspect, in a fifth optional implementation manner of the third aspect, the method further includes:

and sending first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for inquiring whether the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching.

The source network device may send the first information to the terminal device to trigger the terminal device to send the second information to the source network device.

With reference to the third aspect or any one of the first optional implementation manner to the fifth optional implementation manner of the third aspect, in a sixth optional implementation manner of the third aspect, the method further includes:

and when the second information indicates that the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching, executing the cell switching operation.

With regard to the technical effects brought by some alternative embodiments of the third aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the first aspect or the respective embodiments of the first aspect, or to the introduction of the technical effects of the second aspect or the respective embodiments of the second aspect.

In a fourth aspect, a fourth communication method is provided, the method comprising: sending second information to the source network device; and when the second information indicates that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching, not performing cell switching operation.

The method may be performed by a fourth communication device, which may be a communication apparatus or a communication device, such as a chip, capable of supporting a communication apparatus to implement the functions required by the method. Illustratively, the fourth communication device is a terminal device, or a chip provided in the terminal device for implementing a function of the terminal device, or another component for implementing a function of the terminal device. In the following description, the fourth communication device is taken as an example of a terminal device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the second information further includes:

suggested time information, which is used for indicating the time that the terminal equipment can perform cell switching; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a second optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the second information includes one or more of the following information:

the terminal device has high throughput rate information; or the like, or, alternatively,

the terminal equipment receives the information of the data to be transmitted and/or the data to be received; or the like, or, alternatively,

the terminal device has information of low power consumption requirements.

With reference to the second optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a third optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the second information includes information that the terminal device has a high throughput rate, and then the second information is used to indicate that the MCS supported by the terminal device is higher than the MCS configured for the terminal device by the network device, or the second information is used to indicate the throughput rate supported by the terminal device, where the throughput rate is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

With reference to the second optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a fourth optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the second information includes information of data to be transmitted and/or data to be received by the terminal device, where the data is base layer data of a first service, and the base layer data is data necessary for executing the first service.

With reference to the fourth aspect or any one of the first optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect to the fourth optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a fifth optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the method further includes:

and receiving first information from the source network equipment, wherein the first information is used for inquiring whether the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching.

With reference to the fourth aspect or any one of the first optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect to the fifth optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a sixth optional implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the method further comprises:

With regard to the technical effects brought about by the fourth aspect or the various alternative embodiments of the fourth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the respective alternative embodiments of the third aspect or the third aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a fifth communication method is provided, the method comprising: second information from the terminal equipment is not received; determining that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching according to an event that the second information from the terminal equipment is not received; no cell handover operation is performed.

The method may be performed by a fifth communication device, which may be a communication apparatus or a communication device, e.g. a chip, capable of supporting a communication apparatus to implement the functions required by the method. Illustratively, the fifth communication device is a network device, or a chip provided in the network device for implementing the functions of the network device, or other components for implementing the functions of the network device. In the following description, the fifth communication device is taken as a network device, for example, a source network device serving as a terminal device before cell handover. Illustratively, the source network device is an access network device, such as a base station.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a first optional implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the method further includes:

receiving the second information from the terminal equipment;

determining that the terminal equipment can perform cell switching according to the event of receiving the second information from the terminal equipment;

a cell handover operation is performed.

In this implementation, if the terminal device determines that the cell handover is possible, the terminal device sends second information to the source network device, where the second information indicates that the terminal device is capable of performing the cell handover, or indicates that the terminal device is capable of performing the cell handover in case that the terminal device sends an event of the second information; if the terminal device determines that the cell switching cannot be performed, the terminal device does not send the second information to the source network device, and the terminal device is indicated that the cell switching cannot be performed if the terminal device does not send the event of the second information, or the second information indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell switching, and the terminal device is indicated that the cell switching cannot be performed if the terminal device does not send the second information. That is, in this manner, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device only when it is determined that cell handover is possible, otherwise, the terminal device does not send the second information to the source network device. In this way, signaling overhead can be saved while the source network device is prompted.

With reference to the fifth aspect or the first optional implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a second optional implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the method further comprises:

The source network device may send the first information to the terminal device to trigger the second information of the terminal device.

In a sixth aspect, a sixth communication method is provided, the method comprising: determining that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching; and not sending second information to the source network equipment to indicate that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching.

The method may be performed by a sixth communication device, which may be a communication apparatus or a communication device, e.g. a chip, capable of supporting the communication apparatus to implement the functions required by the method. Illustratively, the sixth communication device is a terminal device, or a chip provided in the terminal device for implementing a function of the terminal device, or another component for implementing a function of the terminal device. In the following description, the sixth communication device is taken as an example of a terminal device.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a first optional embodiment of the sixth aspect, the method further comprises:

determining that the terminal equipment can perform cell switching;

and sending the second information to the source network equipment to indicate that the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching.

With reference to the first optional implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in a second optional implementation manner of the sixth aspect, the method further includes:

a cell handover operation is performed.

With reference to the sixth aspect or the first optional embodiment of the sixth aspect or the second optional embodiment of the sixth aspect, in a third optional embodiment of the sixth aspect, the method further comprises:

With regard to the technical effects brought about by the sixth aspect or the various alternative embodiments of the sixth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction to the technical effects of the respective embodiments of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a communications apparatus is provided. The communication device is configured to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, for example, the communication device is the first communication device described above; or the communication device is configured to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect, for example, the communication device is the third communication device described above; alternatively, the communication device is configured to perform the method of the fifth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, for example, the communication device is the fifth communication device described above. In particular, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method of the first aspect or any of its possible embodiments, for example comprising processing means and transceiver means; alternatively, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect, for example, comprising a processing means and a transceiver means; alternatively, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method of the fifth aspect or any of its possible embodiments, for example comprising processing means and transceiver means. For example, the transceiver module may include a transmitting module and a receiving module, and the transmitting module and the receiving module may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but can implement different functions. Illustratively, the communication device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in a communication device. Illustratively, the communication device is a network device, for example, a source network device serving a terminal device before the terminal device performs cell handover. Illustratively, the source network device is, for example, an access network device, such as a base station. For example, the transceiver module may be implemented by a transceiver, and the processing module may be implemented by a processor. Alternatively, the sending module may be implemented by a sender, the receiving module may be implemented by a receiver, and the sender and the receiver may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but may implement different functions. If the communication device is a communication device, the transceiver is implemented, for example, by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, etc. in the communication device. Alternatively, if the communication device is a chip disposed in a communication device, the transceiver (or the transmitter and the receiver) is, for example, a communication interface in the chip, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication device to transmit and receive information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device is configured to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect, for example, the communication device is the second communication device described above; or, the communication device is configured to perform the method of the fourth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, for example, the communication device is the fourth communication device described above; alternatively, the communication device is configured to perform the method of the sixth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, for example, the communication device is the sixth communication device described above. In particular, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect, for example, a transceiver module, and optionally, a processing module; alternatively, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method of the fourth aspect or any possible implementation of the fourth aspect, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means; alternatively, the communication device may comprise means, for example comprising processing means and transceiver means, for performing the method in any of the possible embodiments of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect. For example, the transceiver module may include a sending module and a receiving module, and the sending module and the receiving module may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but may implement different functions. Illustratively, the communication device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in a communication device. Illustratively, the communication device is a terminal device. For example, the transceiver module may be implemented by a transceiver, and the processing module may be implemented by a processor. Alternatively, the sending module may be implemented by a sender, the receiving module may be implemented by a receiver, and the sender and the receiver may be different functional modules, or may also be the same functional module, but may implement different functions. If the communication means is a communication device, the transceiver is implemented, for example, by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, etc. in the communication device. Alternatively, if the communication device is a chip disposed in a communication device, the transceiver (or the transmitter and the receiver) is, for example, a communication interface in the chip, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication device to transmit and receive information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

In a ninth aspect, a communications apparatus is provided. The communication device includes one or more processors and optionally a communication interface, which may be used to communicate with other devices or apparatuses. Optionally, the communication device may also include one or more memories for storing computer instructions. One or more processors and one or more memories coupled to each other for implementing the methods described in the first aspect or the various possible embodiments of the first aspect, for example, the communication device is the first communication device described above; or, for implementing the method described in the third aspect or various possible embodiments of the third aspect, for example, the communication device is the aforementioned third communication device; or, the method for implementing the fifth aspect or the various possible embodiments of the fifth aspect is, for example, the fifth communication device described above. Alternatively, the communication device may not include a memory, and at least one memory may be located external to the communication device. The one or more processors, the one or more memories and the communication interface are coupled to each other for implementing the methods described in the above-mentioned first aspect or various possible embodiments of the first aspect, or for implementing the methods described in the above-mentioned third aspect or various possible embodiments of the third aspect, or for implementing the methods described in the above-mentioned fifth aspect or various possible embodiments of the fifth aspect. For example, the communication device may also include one or more computer programs, stored in one or more memories, the one or more computer programs including computer instructions. The computer instructions stored by the one or more memories, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the communication apparatus to perform the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect, or cause the communication apparatus to perform the method of the third aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the third aspect, or cause the communication apparatus to perform the method of any one of the possible implementations of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect. Illustratively, the communication device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in a communication device. Illustratively, the communication device is a network device, for example, a source network device serving a terminal device before the terminal device performs cell handover. Illustratively, the source network device is, for example, an access network device, such as a base station.

Where the communication means is a communication device, the communication interface is implemented, for example, by a transceiver (or transmitter and receiver) in the communication device, e.g., by an antenna, feeder, codec, etc. in the communication device. Or, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication apparatus, the communication interface is, for example, an input/output interface, such as an input/output pin, of the chip, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication apparatus to realize transceiving of information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

In a tenth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided. The communication device includes one or more processors and optionally a communication interface, which may be used to communicate with other devices or apparatuses. Optionally, the communication device may further comprise a memory for storing computer instructions. One or more processors and one or more memories coupled to each other for implementing the methods described in the second aspect or the various possible embodiments of the second aspect, for example, the communication device is the second communication device described above; or, for implementing the method described in the above fourth aspect or various possible embodiments of the fourth aspect, for example, the communication device is the fourth communication device described above; or, the communication device is the sixth communication device described above, for example, for implementing the methods described in the foregoing various possible embodiments of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect. Alternatively, the communication device may not include memory, and one or more memories may be located external to the communication device. The one or more processors, the one or more memories and the communication interface are mutually coupled for implementing the methods described in the second aspect or the various possible embodiments of the second aspect, or for implementing the methods described in the fourth aspect or the various possible embodiments of the fourth aspect, or for implementing the methods described in the sixth aspect or the various possible embodiments of the sixth aspect. For example, the communications apparatus can also include one or more computer programs, the one or more computer programs being stored in the one or more memories, the one or more computer programs including computer instructions. The computer instructions stored by the one or more memories, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the second communication device to perform the method of any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect or the second aspect described above, or cause the communication device to perform the method of any one of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect or the fourth aspect described above, or cause the communication device to perform the method of any one of the possible implementations of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect described above. Illustratively, the communication device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device. Illustratively, the communication device is a terminal device.

Where the communication means is a communication device, the communication interface is implemented, for example, by a transceiver (or a transmitter and a receiver) in the communication device, for example, by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, etc. in the communication device. Or, if the communication device is a chip disposed in the communication apparatus, the communication interface is, for example, an input/output interface, such as an input/output pin, of the chip, and the communication interface is connected to a radio frequency transceiving component in the communication apparatus to realize transceiving of information through the radio frequency transceiving component.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a communication system including the communication apparatus of the seventh aspect or the communication apparatus of the ninth aspect, and including the communication apparatus of the eighth aspect or the communication apparatus of the tenth aspect.

A twelfth aspect provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible embodiments of the first aspect, or causes the computer to perform the method as described in the third aspect or any one of the possible embodiments of the third aspect, or causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of the possible embodiments of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect.

A thirteenth aspect provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of the possible embodiments of the second aspect or the second aspect above, or causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of the possible embodiments of the fourth aspect or the fourth aspect above, or causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of the possible embodiments of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect above.

A fourteenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible embodiments of the first aspect, or causes the computer to perform the method as described in the third aspect or any one of the possible embodiments of the third aspect, or causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of the possible embodiments of the fifth aspect.

A fifteenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of the possible embodiments of the second aspect or the second aspect above, or causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of the possible embodiments of the fourth aspect or the fourth aspect above, or causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of the possible embodiments of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect above.

In the embodiment of the application, the network device may send the first information to the terminal device, and if it is determined that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information, the cell handover operation is performed, so that the data transmission delay is reduced, and the packet loss rate is further reduced.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating RRC state transition of a terminal device;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a cell handover process;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a process for transmitting XR data;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a transmission cycle of application layer data and a transmission cycle of physical layer data;

fig. 5 is a schematic view of an application scenario according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of a first communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a flowchart of a second communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8A is a flowchart of a third communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8B is a schematic diagram of a display screen of a mobile phone displaying XR video content;

FIG. 8C is a diagram of a mobile phone showing a stuck video while the display screen displays XR video;

fig. 8D is a schematic diagram illustrating that the mobile phone cannot continue to execute the XR service and quits the XR service;

fig. 8E is a schematic diagram illustrating that the mobile phone may continue to perform the XR service after the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is adopted;

fig. 9 is a first schematic block diagram of a source network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a first schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a second schematic block diagram of a source network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a second schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a third schematic block diagram of a source network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a third schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 17 is a further schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 18 is a further schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained so as to be easily understood by those skilled in the art.

1) Terminal equipment, including equipment providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user, in particular, including equipment providing voice to a user, or including equipment providing data connectivity to a user, or including equipment providing voice and data connectivity to a user. For example, may include a handheld device having wireless connection capability, or a processing device connected to a wireless modem. The terminal device may communicate with a core network via a Radio Access Network (RAN), exchange voice or data with the RAN, or interact with the RAN. The terminal device may include a User Equipment (UE), a wireless terminal device, a mobile terminal device, a device-to-device communication (D2D) terminal device, a vehicle-to-all (V2X) terminal device, a machine-to-machine/machine-type communication (M2M/MTC) terminal device, an internet of things (IoT) terminal device, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber station), a mobile station (mobile station), a remote station (remote station), an access point (access point, AP), a remote terminal (remote terminal), an access terminal (access terminal), a user terminal (user terminal), a user agent (user agent), or a user equipment (user), etc. For example, mobile telephones (otherwise known as "cellular" telephones), computers with mobile terminal equipment, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-embedded mobile devices, and the like may be included. For example, personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and the like. Also included are constrained devices, such as devices that consume less power, or devices that have limited storage capabilities, or devices that have limited computing capabilities, etc. Examples of information sensing devices include bar codes, radio Frequency Identification (RFID), sensors, global Positioning Systems (GPS), laser scanners, and so forth.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable equipment can also be called wearable smart device or intelligent wearable equipment etc. is the general term of using wearable technique to carry out intelligent design, develop the equipment that can dress to daily wearing, like glasses, gloves, wrist-watch, dress and shoes etc.. The wearable device may be worn directly on the body or may be a portable device integrated into the user's clothing or accessory. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device includes full functionality, large size, and can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smart phone, such as: smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to be used in cooperation with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart bracelets, smart helmets, smart jewelry and the like for monitoring physical signs.

The various terminal devices described above, if located on a vehicle (e.g. placed in or mounted in a vehicle), may be considered to be vehicle-mounted terminal devices, also referred to as on-board units (OBUs), for example.

In this embodiment, the terminal device may further include a relay (relay). Or, it is understood that any device capable of data communication with a base station may be considered a terminal device.

In this embodiment of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the terminal device may be the terminal device, or may be an apparatus capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the function, for example, a chip system, and the apparatus may be installed in the terminal device. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, a device for implementing a function of a terminal is taken as an example of a terminal device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

2) Network devices, including, for example, access Network (AN) devices, such as base stations (e.g., access points), may refer to devices in AN access network that communicate with wireless terminal devices over one or more cells over AN air interface, or, for example, a network device in vehicle-to-all (V2X) technology is a Road Side Unit (RSU). The base station may be configured to interconvert received air frames and IP packets as a router between the terminal device and the rest of the access network, which may include an IP network. The RSU may be a fixed infrastructure entity supporting V2X applications, and may exchange messages with other entities supporting V2X applications. The network device may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface. For example, the network device may include an evolved Node B (NodeB) or eNB or e-NodeB in an LTE system or an LTE-a (long term evolution-advanced), or may also include a next generation Node B (gNB) in a New Radio (NR) system (also referred to as an NR system) of the fifth generation mobile communication technology (the 5th generation, 5g), or may also include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a distributed unit (distributed unit, DU) in a Cloud access network (Cloud RAN) system, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

The network device may further include a core network device, and the core network device includes, for example, an access and mobility management function (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), a User Plane Function (UPF), or the like in a 5G system, or includes a Mobility Management Entity (MME) in a 4G system, or the like. In the embodiments of the present application, mainly an access network device is referred to, and therefore, unless otherwise specified, all the network devices described below refer to access network devices.

In the embodiment of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the network device may be a network device, or may be an apparatus capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a system on chip, and the apparatus may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, a device for implementing a function of a network device is taken as an example, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

3) Discontinuous Reception (DRX) mechanism. The DRX mechanism includes a DRX cycle (cycle) during which the terminal device periodically "wakes up" for a period of time, and may remain in a "sleep" state at other times in the DRX cycle to reduce power consumption. In short, under the DRX mechanism, the terminal device may periodically enter a sleep state without monitoring a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).

4) RRC state, the terminal device has 3 RRC states: RRC connected state, RRC idle (idle) state, and RRC inactive (inactive) state.

Herein, "connected state" and "RRC connected state" are the same concept, and the two designations may be interchanged): the terminal device establishes RRC connection with the network and can perform data transmission.

Herein, "idle state" and "RRC idle state" are the same concept, and the two designations may be interchanged): the terminal device does not establish an RRC connection with the network and the base station does not store the context of the terminal device. If the terminal device needs to enter the RRC connected state from the RRC idle state, an RRC connection establishment procedure needs to be initiated.

Herein, "deactivated dynamic," "inactive state," "deactivated state," "inactive state," "RRC inactive state," or "RRC deactivated state," etc. are the same concept, and these designations may be interchanged): the terminal device has previously entered an RRC connected state at the anchor base station, which then releases the RRC connection, but the anchor base station maintains the context of the terminal device. If the terminal device needs to enter the RRC connected state again from the RRC inactive state, an RRC connection recovery procedure (alternatively referred to as an RRC connection re-establishment procedure) needs to be initiated at the currently camped base station. Because the terminal device may be in a mobile state, the base station where the terminal device currently resides and the anchor base station of the terminal device may be the same base station or different base stations. Compared with the RRC establishment process, the RRC recovery process has shorter time delay and smaller signaling overhead. However, the base station needs to store the context of the terminal device, which occupies the storage overhead of the base station.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of RRC state transition of a terminal device. When the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, the terminal device may enter the RRC connected state through an RRC connection setup (idle) procedure, and when the terminal device is in the RRC connected state, the terminal device may also return to the RRC idle state through an RRC connection release (release) procedure. When the terminal device is in the RRC connected state, the terminal device may also enter the RRC inactive state through a release with suspend (release) procedure of the RRC connection, and when the terminal device is in the RRC inactive state, the terminal device may return to the RRC idle state through the release procedure of the RRC connection, or when the terminal device is in the RRC inactive state, the terminal device may also enter the RRC connected state through a resume procedure of the RRC connection.

5) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated object, indicating that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, which may indicate: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. For example, A/B, represents: a or B. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple.

And, unless stated to the contrary, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal numbers "first", "second", etc., for distinguishing a plurality of objects, and do not limit the size, content, sequence, timing, priority, degree of importance, etc., of the plurality of objects. For example, the first information and the second information are different information only for distinguishing them, and do not represent the difference in the size of the information amount, the content, the transmission order, the priority, the degree of importance, or the like between the two information.

The foregoing has described some of the noun concepts to which embodiments of the present application relate, and the following has described some features of the embodiments of the present application.

In the moving process of the terminal device, when the terminal device is transferred from the coverage of one cell to the coverage of another cell, the terminal device may perform cell reselection (reselection) or cell handover (handover). The terminal device may determine whether the terminal device is in a coverage of a cell through Radio Resource Management (RRM), and the terminal device may receive reference signals from multiple cells, and may select a cell to be accessed according to received power of the reference signals.

The cell reselection is mainly realized by the terminal equipment, and after certain trigger conditions and access criteria are met, the terminal equipment completes the cell reselection. Whereas cell switching requires the network device to use a series of RRM measurement configurations and to configure the terminal device according to its feedback. The network device may send a handover command to the terminal device instructing the terminal device to handover from one cell to another cell if the RRM measurement result satisfies a certain condition.

Cell handover is an important operation for mobility and state transition of a terminal device, and refers to an operation performed when the terminal device is in an RRC connected state to change a serving cell. The cell switching operation is integrally divided into two scenes, namely intra-system handover (intra-system handover) and inter-system handover (inter-system handover). Intra-system handovers do not involve a change of core network, and extra-system handovers involve a change of core network. The core network may be a 5G core network (5G core, 5gc), or an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). For the off-system handover, there are three cases, namely, a handover inside the 5G core network (intra 5 GC), a handover from the 5G core network to the EPC core network (from 5GC to EPC), or a handover from the EPC core network to the 5G core network (from EPC to 5 GC). The switching instructions and scenarios for each case are slightly different. Please refer to fig. 2, which is a flowchart of a cell handover process, and the operation of the core network side is not shown in fig. 2, so the cell handover process shown in fig. 2 may be applied to an intra-system handover process or an extra-system handover process.

S201, a source base station sends a handover request message to a target base station, and the target base station receives the handover request message from the source base station. The handover request message is used to instruct handover of the terminal device from the source base station to the target base station.

S202, the target base station performs admission control (admission control). That is, the target base station determines whether to allow the terminal device to handover to the target base station.

S203, the target base station sends a handover request acknowledgement message to the source base station, and the source base station receives the handover request acknowledgement message from the target base station.

The handover request reply message may indicate to the target base station that the terminal device is allowed to be handed over to the target base station.

S204, the source base station sends an RRC reconfiguration (RRC reconfiguration) message to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the RRC reconfiguration message from the source base station.

The RRC reconfiguration message may instruct the terminal device to handover from the source base station to the target base station.

S205, the terminal device performs a handover operation to handover from the source base station to the target base station, or to switch from the current serving cell to a new cell (switch to new cell).

At this time, the terminal device will perform a switching operation. In a conventional cell switching process, an RRC reconfiguration message sent by a source base station to a terminal device includes an ID of a target cell and all access resource information required for accessing the target cell, so that the terminal device does not need to read system information of the target cell to perform random access in the target cell. Specifically, at this time, the terminal device only needs to perform normal uplink transmission scheduling according to the resource indication in the RRC reconfiguration message.

S206, the terminal device sends an RRC reconfiguration complete (RRC reconfiguration complete) message to the target base station, and the target base station receives the RRC reconfiguration complete message from the terminal device.

The RRC reconfiguration complete may indicate that the terminal device has completed the handover.

Through the process shown in fig. 2, the terminal device completes the cell handover process. Before the cell handover starts, that is, before S201, there may be data transmission between the source base station and the terminal device, for example, the source base station is sending downlink data to the terminal device. After the handover procedure is started, the source base station cannot send downlink data to the terminal device. Then, after S204, the source base station may send downlink data that has not been sent to the terminal device to the target base station. Therefore, after the target base station completes the handover, the target base station can continuously send the downlink data to the terminal equipment. Therefore, if a cell switching process is encountered, the transmission delay of data is relatively large. However, the packet loss rate may be higher due to the long transmission delay. The source base station may send more important data to the terminal device, and for the more important data, if the packet loss rate is high, the terminal device may not perform corresponding processing. For example, the source base station sends the base layer data of the extended reality (XR) service to the terminal device, and if the base layer data is lost, the terminal device may not be able to perform the XR service.

The XR service is mentioned above, and XR techniques are described below.

XR refers to a real and virtual combined, human-machine interactive environment created by computer technology and wearable devices. The augmented reality includes multiple forms such as Augmented Reality (AR), virtual Reality (VR), or Mixed Reality (MR), which is an important development direction of future terminal devices and an important application direction of 5G technology.

Data corresponding to the XR service, which is differentiated in terms of importance, may be divided into base layer data and enhancement layer data. The base layer data is typically data that is necessary for XR services, such as background pictures or current view maps, to ensure that the XR services are executable. Enhancement layer data is typically data used to enhance the XR service experience, but is not data that is necessary for XR service, such as more refined picture detail data, motion compensation data, or visual enhancement data. For example, the base station sends XR data to the terminal device, and when the terminal device receives the base layer data, the terminal device may provide basic XR service to the user, but the clarity or smoothness of the XR service may be affected, for example, the user may not view a clear picture. When the end device receives the enhancement layer data, it may provide the user with a better-experienced XR service, e.g., the user may view a clearer picture. If the terminal device does not receive the base layer data, the terminal device cannot provide the XR service for the user no matter whether the terminal device receives the enhancement layer data or not. If the terminal device does not receive the enhancement layer data, but receives the base layer data, the terminal device can still provide the XR service for the user. It can be seen that the base layer data is of higher importance relative to the enhancement layer data.

The amount of XR traffic depends on whether the terminal device is active, and a conventional data transmission process can be illustrated with reference to fig. 3. The left side in fig. 3 represents a network side, for example, including a core network device and an access network device, the smart glasses worn by the user on the right side represent a terminal device, and fig. 3 takes the smart glasses as an example. For example, the network may send XR data corresponding to the XR service to the terminal device, with the circular identifier XR data in between. The amount of data sent by the network is large and may include base layer data and enhancement layer data, e.g., the sector inside the middle circle represents the base layer data and the sectors outside represent the enhancement layer data. The terminal device may provide XR services to the user based on the XR data from the network, e.g., the user may view XR images through the smart glasses, etc. In addition, the terminal device may also send XR data to the network, where the XR data sent by the terminal device is, for example, some control data, for example, for indicating a view angle to switch, and therefore the data volume of XR data sent by the terminal device is small. The XR data sent by the terminal device to the network may also include base layer data and enhancement layer data. After receiving the XR data from the terminal device, the network may send the corresponding XR data to the terminal device.

In general, the base layer data and the enhancement layer data are transmitted via different data streams, both of which have the property of periodically bursting, i.e., the throughput rate may be lower for a longer period of time, with the data streams proliferating when there is a corresponding data transmission.

For example, data corresponding to the XR service can be divided into base layer data and enhancement layer data in terms of importance, and can be divided into application layer data and physical layer data in terms of protocol stack, where the application layer data may include the base layer data and the enhancement layer data, and the physical layer data may also include the base layer data and the enhancement layer data. Referring to fig. 4, a diagram of a transmission period of application layer data and a transmission period of physical layer data is shown, wherein the vertical axis in fig. 4 represents data amount and the horizontal axis represents time. Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a transmission period of 16.7ms of application layer data, and it can be seen that there is no application layer data transmission for a longer time of one period, and there is application layer data transmission for a shorter time of one period. Fig. 4 illustrates an example in which the transmission period of the physical layer data is 10ms, and it can be seen that there is no physical layer data transmission for a longer time of one period, and there is physical layer data transmission for a shorter time of one period.

In conjunction with the cell handover procedure, if the cell handover procedure occurs during the transmission of the XR service, the XR service cannot be transmitted continuously during the cell handover procedure. Before cell handover, for example, the source base station is sending XR data to the terminal device, and after cell handover starts, the source base station cannot send XR data to the terminal device. Then, in the cell handover procedure, for example, after the source base station sends the RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device, the source base station may send XR data that has not been sent to the terminal device to the target base station. After the cell switching is completed, the target base station sends the XR data to the terminal equipment. The XR data may include base layer data, and as can be seen from the foregoing description, the XR data is more important data. Due to the cell handover process, the transmission delay of the base layer data is relatively long, which may affect the user experience, for example, cause the terminal device to cause the XR service provided for the user to be stuck. However, the transmission delay is long, which may also result in a high packet loss rate, and if the packet loss rate is high, the terminal device may not perform corresponding processing, for example, the terminal device may not continue to provide the XR service for the user, thereby causing an interruption of the XR service.

In view of this, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are provided. In this embodiment, the network device may send the first information to the terminal device, and if it is determined that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information, perform a cell handover operation again, for example, if the terminal device has data being transmitted, the cell handover may not be performed. By the method, the cell switching process is executed after the data transmission is finished as much as possible, so that the data transmission time delay is reduced, and the packet loss rate can be further reduced.

The technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to the fourth generation mobile communication technology (the 4G generation, 4G) system, such as an LTE system, or may be applied to a 5G system, such as an NR system, or may also be applied to a next generation mobile communication system or other similar communication systems, which is not limited specifically.

Fig. 5 is a schematic view of an application scenario according to an embodiment of the present application. Fig. 5 includes a terminal device, an access network device 1, and an access network device 2. The access network device 1 is an access network device accessed by the terminal device before performing cell handover, or in other words, the cell 1 provided by the access network device 1 is a serving cell of the terminal device before performing cell handover. The terminal device may perform cell handover to handover from the access network device 1 to the access network device 2, or may handover from the cell 1 to a cell 2 provided by the access network device 2, where the cell 2 is a serving cell of the terminal device after cell handover. The access network device 1 may be referred to as a source access network device of the terminal device, and the access network device 2 may be referred to as a target access network device of the terminal device. The terminal device may also involve a core network device for performing cell handover, but the embodiment of the present application does not pay attention to the core network device, that is, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is applicable to intra-system handover and also applicable to extra-system handover, so that fig. 5 does not show the core network device.

The access network device in fig. 5 is, for example, a base station. The access network device corresponds to different devices in different systems, for example, the access network device may correspond to an eNB in a 4G system, and the access network device corresponds to an access network device in a 5G system, for example, a gNB in a 5G system. Of course, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to a future mobile communication system, and therefore, the access network device in fig. 5 may also correspond to a network device in the future mobile communication system. Fig. 5 illustrates that the access network device is a base station, and actually, referring to the foregoing description, the access network device may also be an RSU or the like.

The method provided by the embodiment of the application is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiment of the present application provides a first communication method, please refer to fig. 6, which is a flowchart of the method. In the following description, the method is applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 5 as an example.

For ease of description, in the following, the method is performed by a network device and a terminal device as an example. Since the embodiment of the present application is applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 5 as an example, the terminal device described below may be a terminal device in the network architecture shown in fig. 5, the source network device described below may be an access network device 1 in the network architecture shown in fig. 5, and the target network device described below may be an access network device 2 in the network architecture shown in fig. 5.

S601, before initiating cell switching, the source network device sends first information to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information from the source network device.

For example, when the terminal device is in a moving state, the relative position between the terminal device and a surrounding cell (cell) may change continuously. In order to ensure the channel quality of the terminal device, the terminal device may continuously measure the wireless channel quality of the surrounding cells, and send the measurement result to the source network device through the measurement report. And the source network equipment determines whether the terminal equipment meets the cell switching condition or not according to the information of the level strength and the like of the serving cell and the adjacent cell contained in the measurement report. If the source network device determines that the terminal device meets the cell switching condition, the source network device may send first information to the terminal device, where the first information may be used to inquire whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell switching, or the source network device directly sends the first information to the terminal device when determining that the terminal device needs to perform cell switching (without performing cell switching), without determining whether the terminal device meets the cell switching condition. Alternatively, the first information may have another name, for example, may also be referred to as handover query (handover query) information, as long as the first information can query whether the terminal device can perform cell handover, and the name of the first information is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

The first information is included in a first message, for example, an RRC setup request (RRC setup request) message, or may also be an RRC reconfiguration message, etc. Since the cell handover related message is originally an RRC message, the first message is implemented by an RRC message, which is a reasonable design and is more beneficial to being compatible with the existing technology. Alternatively, the first message may be another message, such as Downlink Control Information (DCI) or a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE).

No matter what the first message is, the first message is to include the first information in the first message, in one way, a reserved bit of an original field in the first message may be utilized to carry the first information, and a new field does not need to be added to the first message, which is more beneficial to being compatible with an existing message format. Or, to include the first information in the first message, another way is to add a new domain to the first message, where the new domain may be used to carry the first information. The first information is carried by the newly added domain, so that the terminal equipment can identify the first information more easily and the indication is more definite.

S601 is an optional step, that is, the source network device may not send the first information to the terminal device. S601 is therefore indicated by a dashed line in fig. 6.

S602, the terminal device determines whether the terminal device can perform cell switching.

For example, if S601 is performed, the terminal device may determine whether the terminal device is capable of cell handover after receiving the first information. Alternatively, if S601 is not executed, the terminal device may also periodically determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, or if S601 is not executed, the terminal device may also determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover in other cases.

For example, one way for the terminal device to determine whether the terminal device can perform cell handover is that the terminal device can determine whether there is service data to be received or to be sent, if there is service data, the terminal device determines that cell handover cannot be performed, and if not, the terminal device determines that cell handover can be performed. As an alternative embodiment, the service data has a higher importance level than the first level (or, a higher priority level than the first level). That is, if the terminal device determines that the service data is to be received or to be transmitted, and the importance level of the service data is higher than the first level, the terminal device determines that the cell switching cannot be performed; or, if the terminal device determines the service data to be received or to be sent, but the importance level of the service data is lower than or equal to the first level, the terminal device determines that cell switching can be performed; or, if the terminal device determines that there is no service data to be received or to be transmitted, the terminal device determines that cell switching is possible.

The importance level is higher than the first level, which may indicate that the service data is more important data or data with higher priority, and for such service data, if the time delay is longer due to the execution of cell handover, which results in a higher packet loss rate, a larger influence may be caused to the terminal device, for example, the terminal device may not execute a service corresponding to the service data. Therefore, if the terminal device waits to receive or send such service data before performing cell switching, the terminal device may determine that cell switching cannot be performed, so as to perform cell switching as far as possible, for example, the terminal device may continue to perform transmission of the service data, so as to reduce transmission delay of the service data, thereby reducing a packet loss rate. For example, the service data is data of a first service, for example, the first service is an XR service, and the service data is, for example, base layer data of the XR service, or the first service may be another service, and the service data may be another data. Or, the terminal device may also determine whether cell handover can be performed in other manners, which depends on implementation of the terminal device, and the manner adopted by the terminal device is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

As an alternative implementation, the service data may correspond to any importance level (or priority), or the terminal device determines whether cell switching can be performed only according to whether the service data is to be transmitted, regardless of the importance level of the service data. For example, as long as the terminal device determines the service data to be received and/or to be sent, the terminal device determines that cell switching cannot be performed; or, if the terminal device determines that there is no service data to be received and no service data to be transmitted, the terminal device determines that cell switching is possible. In this way, without distinguishing the important level of the service data, the terminal device determines that cell switching cannot be performed as long as there is service data to be transmitted or received. Therefore, the transmission delay of more service data can be reduced.

S603, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device, and the source network device receives the second information from the terminal device. And the source network device receives the second information from the terminal device, i.e. the second information is obtained. The second information may also have other names, for example, it may also be referred to as handover query response (handover query) information, and the name of the second information is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

As an alternative implementation manner, an implementation mechanism 1 is provided, for example, the implementation mechanism 1 is that, no matter whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, S603 is executed, that is, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device. The implementation mechanism 1 is specifically that, if the terminal device determines that cell handover can be performed, the terminal device sends second information to the source network device, where the second information indicates that the terminal device can perform cell handover, and if the terminal device determines that cell handover cannot be performed, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device, where the second information indicates that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover. That is, whether the terminal device determines whether the cell handover can be performed or not, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device, and the source network device can determine whether the terminal device can perform the cell handover or not according to the indication of the second information. For example, the second information may occupy one or more bits (bits), and taking that the second information occupies 1 bit as an example, if the value of the bit is "0", it indicates that the terminal device cannot perform cell switching, and if the value of the bit is "1", it indicates that the terminal device can perform cell switching. Whether the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching or not can be indicated to the source network equipment through a simple mode, and the indication mode is more definite. In implementation mechanism 1, S601 may be executed or may not be executed. If S601 is executed, the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device, which may be considered to be sent in response to the first information, or if S601 is executed, the terminal device is considered to determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover under the trigger of the source network device, or if S601 is executed, the terminal device determines whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information.

In implementation mechanism 1, if the second information indicates that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, optionally, the second information may further include suggested time information, or the second information may further include first reason information, or the second information may further include suggested time information and the first reason information. The suggested time information may indicate a time when the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, and the first reason information may indicate a reason why the terminal device is not capable of performing cell handover. Or, in S603, the terminal device may send a second message to the source network device, where the second message includes second information, and optionally, the second message further includes suggested time information and/or first cause information if the second information indicates that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover. For example, if the terminal device determines that cell handover cannot be performed, the terminal device may estimate a time at which cell handover can be performed and transmit the suggested time information to the source network device, so that the source network device can initiate cell handover again at the time indicated by the suggested time information. For example, the terminal device may determine the recommended time information according to the traffic volume of the first service, or may determine the recommended time information according to the type of the first service, or may determine the recommended time information according to the traffic volume and the type of the first service, and so on. And if the second information does not include the suggested time information, the source network device may decide on its own when to initiate a cell handover. For another example, if the terminal device determines that the cell handover cannot be performed, the terminal device may send the first cause information to the source network device, so that the source network device can specify the reason why the terminal device cannot perform the cell handover currently. For example, the reason why the terminal device cannot perform cell handover currently is that the currently transmitted data amount is large, or the priority of the currently transmitted data is high (for example, the currently transmitted data may be indicated as base layer data), or the terminal device has a need to reduce power consumption, and so on.

The traffic size of the first service may include a total traffic size of the first service, and for example, the first service is a downlink service, where the source network device may notify the terminal device of the total traffic size of the first service before sending data of the first service to the terminal device, and the traffic size of the first service may also include a traffic size of the first service that the terminal device has received, so that the terminal device can estimate a remaining transmission duration according to the total traffic and the received traffic, and when the remaining transmission duration is reached, the terminal device can perform cell switching, and the proposed time information may indicate the remaining transmission duration, or the proposed time information may also indicate a first time, and the first time is a time when transmission of the first service ends.

Different types of traffic may have different transmission times, for example, for some types of traffic, the transmission duration may have been specified, for example, by a protocol, or may be predefined by the source network device. Then, if the first service is a service of this type, the terminal device may determine the remaining transmission time according to the type, and when the remaining transmission time is reached, the terminal device may perform cell handover, and the suggested time information may indicate the remaining transmission time, or the suggested time information may also indicate a first time, where the first time is a time when the transmission of the first service is ended.

As another alternative implementation, implementation mechanism 2 is provided, for example, the implementation mechanism 2 is that S603 is executed when a condition is satisfied, where the condition is that the terminal device determines that cell handover is possible. That is, the implementation mechanism 2 is that, if the terminal device determines that the cell handover can be performed, the terminal device executes S603, that is, the terminal device sends second information to the source network device, where the second information indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell handover, or indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell handover in an event that the terminal device sends the second information; if the terminal device determines that the cell handover cannot be performed, the terminal device does not perform S603, that is, the terminal device does not send the second information to the source network device, and the event that the terminal device does not send the second information indicates that the terminal device cannot perform the cell handover, or the second information indicates that the terminal device can perform the cell handover, and if the terminal device does not send the second information, indicates that the terminal device cannot perform the cell handover. For example, the second information may occupy one or more bits, and the value of the one or more bits is not limited. Therefore, if the source network device receives the second information from the terminal device, the source network device may determine that the terminal device is capable of performing cell switching according to the second information, or determine that the terminal device is capable of performing cell switching according to an event of receiving the second information; alternatively, if the source network device does not receive the second information from the terminal device, it may be determined that the terminal device is not capable of performing cell handover (the second information indicates that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, and thus it is determined that the terminal device is not capable of performing cell handover if the second information is not received), or it may be determined that the terminal device is not capable of performing cell handover according to an event in which the second information is not received. Under the implementation mechanism 2, if the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, the terminal device may not need to send the second information to the source network device, which is helpful to save signaling overhead.

In implementation mechanism 2, S601 may be executed or may not be executed. If S601 is executed, if the terminal device sends the second information to the source network device, it may be considered to be sent in response to the first information, or if S601 is executed, it is considered that the terminal device determines whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover under the trigger of the source network device, or if S601 is executed, the terminal device determines whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information.

As still another alternative, implementation mechanism 3 is provided, and in implementation mechanism 3, S603 is not executed, but S601 is executed, that is, the source network device sends the first information to the terminal device, but the terminal device does not send the second information to the source network device. In this manner, S602 may be performed, that is, the terminal device may determine whether cell handover is possible, but the terminal device may not transmit the second information to the source network device whether the terminal device determines that cell handover is possible or not. For the implementation mechanism 1 and the implementation mechanism 2, the source network device may decide whether to perform cell handover according to the feedback (i.e., the second information) of the terminal device, but for the implementation mechanism 3, the terminal device does not perform feedback, so the source network device performs cell handover after performing S601. That is, under the implementation mechanism 3, for the terminal device, if S602 is executed, the source network device initiates cell handover no matter the terminal device determines that cell handover is possible or not, and the terminal device needs to perform cell handover.

In implementation mechanism 3, although the terminal device performs cell handover anyway, since the terminal device receives the first information from the source network device, the terminal device has a certain buffer time from receiving the first information to performing cell handover. For example, if the terminal device determines that the terminal device cannot actually perform cell handover, the terminal device may perform corresponding processing using the buffer time to minimize the packet loss rate. For example, the terminal device has service data to be received, the service data corresponding to a first service, the first service is an XR service, for example, the terminal device is watching VR images. Then, if the terminal device receives the first information from the source network device, the terminal device may reduce the definition of the image, the terminal device reduces the definition, the source network device can also know the condition, and after the definition of the terminal device is reduced, the data volume of the required first service is reduced, the source network device does not need to send a large amount of data to the terminal device, and the data volume to be transmitted may be reduced, or the source network device may reduce the transmission rate. Thus, even if the transmission delay of the service data to be sent to the terminal device by the source network device is large due to the cell switching process, the packet loss rate can be reduced to a certain extent due to the small data volume of the service data.

Several different implementation mechanisms are provided as above, and whichever implementation mechanism is employed, the end device may be notified in advance by the source network device, or may be specified by a protocol, or the implementation mechanisms may be preconfigured in the source network device and the end device.

It was also introduced in the foregoing that, if the terminal device is to send the second information to the source network device, the second information may be included in the second message to be sent to the source network device. The second information is, for example, included in a second message, which is, for example, an RRC message, such as an RRC setup complete (RRC setup complete) message, or may also be an RRC reconfiguration complete message, etc. Since the message related to cell handover is originally an RRC message, the second message is an RRC message, which is a reasonable design and helps to be compatible with the existing technology. Alternatively, the second message may be other messages, such as MAC CE, etc.

No matter what type of the second message, the second message is to include the second information in the second message, and one way is that the reserved bit of the original domain in the second message can be used to carry the second information, and a new domain does not need to be added in the second message, which is more beneficial to being compatible with the existing message format. Or, to include the second information in the second message, another way is to add a new domain in the second message, and the new domain may be used to carry the second information. The second information is carried by the newly added domain, so that the terminal equipment can identify the second information more easily and the indication is more definite.

As can be seen from the above description, S603 is also only an optional step, and is indicated by a dashed line in fig. 6.

S604, the source network device sends a switching request message to the target network device, and the target network device receives the switching request message from the source network device. The handover request message may be used to request handover of the terminal device to the target network device. From here on, it can be seen that the source network device performs a cell handover operation.

If the implementation mechanism 1 is adopted, if the second information received by the source network device indicates that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, the source network device may perform a cell handover operation, that is, the source network device may perform S604 and other steps to be described next; if the second information received by the source network device indicates that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, the source network device may not initiate cell handover, that is, the source network device does not perform S604 and other steps to be described next, and the process ends.

In addition, if the second information includes suggested time information, the source network device may determine a time to initiate a cell handover next time according to the suggested time information. When the time indicated by the recommendation time information arrives, the source network device may initiate cell handover again. When the source network device initiates the cell handover again, S601 to S603 may not be necessarily performed, but S604 and other steps to be described next may be directly performed. If the second information does not include the suggested time information, the source network device may determine a time for initiating the cell handover next time by itself, and may directly perform S604 and other steps to be described next without performing S601 to S603 when the source network device initiates the cell handover again, or may continue to perform S601 (or perform S602 and S603, or perform S601 to S603) and subsequent steps when the source network device initiates the cell handover again.

If the implementation mechanism 2 is adopted, if the source network device receives the second information, the source network device determines that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, and the source network device may perform cell handover operation, that is, the source network device may perform S604 and other steps to be described next; if the source network device does not receive the second information, the source network device determines that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, or if the source network device does not receive the second information within the first duration, the source network device determines that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, and the source network device may not initiate cell handover, that is, the source network device does not perform S604 and other steps to be described next, and the process ends. If S601 is executed, the starting time of the first duration is, for example, the time when the source network device sends the first information, and the duration of the first duration may be set by the source network device or specified by a protocol. Whereas if S601 is not performed, the first duration may not be considered.

Under the implementation mechanism 2, if it is determined that the cell handover cannot be performed, the terminal device does not send the second information to the source network device, and therefore the terminal device cannot suggest the time for initiating the cell handover next time to the source network device. Then, the source network device may determine the time for initiating the cell handover next time by itself, and when the source network device initiates the cell handover again, S601 to S603 may not be necessarily performed, but S604 and other steps to be described next may be directly performed, or when the source network device initiates the cell handover again, S601 (or S602 and S603, or S601 to S603) and subsequent steps may be continuously performed.

If the implementation mechanism 3 is adopted, the source network device may perform the cell handover operation after sending the first information to the terminal device, that is, the source network device may perform S604 and other steps to be described next, or the source network device may also perform the cell handover operation after sending the first information to the terminal device for the second duration, that is, the source network device may perform S604 and other steps to be described next. If the terminal device determines that the cell switching operation cannot be actually performed, the second duration may be left to the terminal device as a buffering time, for example, the terminal device may perform some operations to reduce the packet loss rate as much as possible. The second duration may be specified by the protocol or may also be set by the source network device.

S605, the target network equipment performs admission control. That is, the target network device may determine whether to allow the terminal device to handover to the target network device.

S606, the target network equipment sends a switching request response message to the source network equipment, and the source network equipment receives the switching request response message from the target network equipment.

The target network device may send a handover request response message to the source network device according to the result of the admission control, where the handover request response message may be used to indicate that the target network device allows the terminal device to be handed over to the target network device, or indicate that the target network device does not allow the terminal device to be handed over to the target network device.

S607, the source network device sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the RRC reconfiguration message from the source network device.

If the handover request response message indicates that the target network device allows the terminal device to handover to the target network device, the source network device performs S607, and the RRC reconfiguration message may indicate that the terminal device is handed over from the source network device to the target network device. In addition, the source network device also releases the terminal device.

If the handover request response message indicates that the target network device does not allow the terminal device to be handed over to the target network device, the source network device may not need to execute S607, and the cell handover procedure is terminated this time. For example, the source network device may re-seek the target network device to initiate the cell handover procedure again.

And S608, the terminal equipment is switched to the target network equipment from the source network equipment. Or, the terminal device switches from a first cell provided by the source network device to a second cell provided by the target network device, where the first cell is a serving cell before the terminal device is switched, and the second cell is a serving cell after the terminal device is switched.

S609, the terminal device sends an RRC reconfiguration complete message to the target network device, and the target network device receives the RRC reconfiguration complete message from the terminal device. The RRC reconfiguration complete message may indicate that the terminal device performs cell handover completion.

The cell handover process of the terminal device may also involve other signaling, for example, the cell handover process also involves the interaction between the access network device and the core network device, which are included in the scope of the embodiments of the present application, and this is not written one by one in the embodiments of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the cell switching operation may be performed as much as possible under the condition that it is determined that the terminal device is capable of performing cell switching, for example, if the terminal device has data being transmitted, the cell switching may not be performed. By the method, the cell switching process is executed after the data transmission is finished as much as possible, so that the data transmission time delay is reduced, and the packet loss rate can be further reduced.

In order to solve the same technical problem, the present embodiment provides a second communication method, please refer to fig. 7, which is a flowchart of the method. In the following description, the method is applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 5 as an example.

For ease of introduction, in the following, the method is performed by a network device and a terminal device as an example. Since the embodiment of the present application is applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 5 as an example, the terminal device described below may be a terminal device in the network architecture shown in fig. 5, the source network device described below may be an access network device 1 in the network architecture shown in fig. 5, and the target network device described below may be an access network device 2 in the network architecture shown in fig. 5.

S701, the source network device sends a switching request message to the target network device, and the target network device receives the switching request message from the source network device. The handover request message may be used to request handover of the terminal device to the target network device.

If the source network device determines that the terminal device meets the cell switching condition, the source network device may send a handover request message to the target network device to request that the terminal device be handed over to the target network device.

S702, the target network equipment performs admission control. That is, the target network device may determine whether to allow the terminal device to handover to the target network device.

S703, the target network device sends a switching request response message to the source network device, and the source network device receives the switching request response message from the target network device.

S704, the source network device sends first information to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the first information from the source network device.

If the handover request response information indicates that the target network device allows the terminal device to handover to the target network device, the source network device may perform S704, that is, the source network device sends the first information to the terminal device, whereas if the handover request response information indicates that the target network device allows the terminal device to handover to the target network device, the source network device may not necessarily perform S704, and the procedure is terminated. For example, the source network device may re-find the target network device to re-initiate the cell handover procedure.

The first information may also have other names, for example, may also be referred to as handover query information, and the name of the feature is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

S704 is an optional step, indicated by the dashed line in fig. 7. For more contents of S704, reference may be made to the description of S601 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6.

S705, the terminal device determines whether the terminal device can perform cell switching.

For more contents of S705, reference may be made to the description of S602 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6.

S706, the terminal device sends second information to the source network device, and the source network device receives the second information from the terminal device. And the source network device receives the second information from the terminal device, i.e. the second information is obtained. The second information may also have other names, for example, may also be referred to as handover query response information, and the like.

S706 is an optional step, indicated by the dashed line in fig. 7. For more about S706, reference may be made to the description of S603 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6.

S707, the source network device sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the RRC reconfiguration message from the source network device. The RRC reconfiguration message may instruct the terminal device to handover from the source network device to the target network device. In addition, the source network device also releases the terminal device. From here on, it can be seen that the source network device performs a cell handover operation. Of course, S701 and S702 are also the source network device performing the cell handover operation.

If the implementation mechanism 1 is adopted, if the second information received by the source network device indicates that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, the source network device may continue to perform the cell handover operation, that is, the source network device may perform S707 and other steps to be described next; if the second information received by the source network device indicates that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, the source network device may not continue to perform cell handover, that is, the source network device does not perform S707 and other steps to be described next, and the process ends.

In addition, if the second information includes suggested time information, the source network device may determine a time to initiate a cell handover next time according to the suggested time information. When the time indicated by the recommendation time information arrives, the source network device may initiate cell handover again. When the source network device initiates the cell handover again, S704 to S706 may not be necessarily performed, but S707 and other steps to be described next may be performed after S703 is performed. If the second information does not include the suggested time information, the source network device may determine a time for initiating the cell handover next time by itself, and when the source network device initiates the cell handover again, S704 to S706 may not be necessarily performed, but S707 and other steps to be described next may be performed after S703 is performed, or when the source network device initiates the cell handover again, S704 (or S705 and S706, or S704 to S706) and subsequent steps may be continuously performed after S703 is performed.

If the implementation mechanism 2 is adopted, if the source network device receives the second information, the source network device determines that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, and the source network device may continue to perform cell handover operation, that is, the source network device may perform S707 and other steps to be described next; if the source network device does not receive the second information, the source network device determines that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, or if the source network device does not receive the second information within the first duration, the source network device determines that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, and the source network device may not continue to perform cell handover, that is, the source network device does not perform S707 and other steps to be described next, and the process ends. Wherein if S704 is executed, the starting time of the first duration is, for example, the time when the source network device sends the first information, and the duration of the first duration may be set by the source network device or specified by a protocol. Whereas if S704 is not performed, the first duration may not be considered.

Under the implementation mechanism 2, if it is determined that the cell handover cannot be performed, the terminal device does not send the second information to the source network device, and therefore the terminal device cannot suggest the time for initiating the cell handover next time to the source network device. Then, the source network device may determine the time for initiating the cell handover next time by itself, and when the source network device initiates the cell handover again, S704 to S706 may not be necessarily performed, but S707 and other steps to be described next may be performed after S703 is performed, or when the source network device initiates the cell handover again, S704 (or S705 and S706, or S704 to S706) and subsequent steps may be continuously performed after S703 is performed.

If the implementation mechanism 3 is adopted, the source network device may perform the cell handover operation after sending the first information to the terminal device, that is, the source network device may perform S707 and other steps to be described next, or the source network device may continue to perform the cell handover operation after sending the first information to the terminal device for the second duration, that is, the source network device may perform S707 and other steps to be described next. If the terminal device determines that the cell switching operation cannot be actually performed, the second duration may be left to the terminal device as a buffering time, for example, the terminal device may perform some operations, and the packet loss rate may be reduced as much as possible. The second duration may be specified by the protocol or may also be set by the source network device.

And S708, the terminal equipment is switched from the source network equipment to the target network equipment. Or, the terminal device switches from a first cell provided by the source network device to a second cell provided by the target network device, where the first cell is a serving cell before the terminal device is switched, and the second cell is a serving cell after the terminal device is switched.

S709, the terminal device sends an RRC reconfiguration complete message to the target network device, and the target network device receives the RRC reconfiguration complete message from the terminal device. The RRC reconfiguration complete message may indicate that the terminal device performs cell handover complete.

In the embodiment of the present application, the cell switching operation may be performed as much as possible under the condition that it is determined that the terminal device is capable of performing cell switching, for example, if the terminal device has data being transmitted, the cell switching may not be performed. By the method, the cell switching process is executed after the data transmission is finished as much as possible, so that the data transmission delay is reduced, and the packet loss rate can be further reduced. In the embodiment of the present application, the source network device determines whether the terminal device can perform cell handover or not under the condition that the target network device is determined to allow the terminal device to be handed over to the target network device, so that invalid signaling interaction between the source network device and the terminal device can be reduced, and signaling overhead is saved.

To solve the same technical problem, the present embodiment provides a third communication method, please refer to fig. 8A, which is a flowchart of the method. In the following description, the method is applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 5 as an example.

S801, the terminal device determines whether the terminal device can carry out cell switching.

For example, if the current throughput rate of the terminal device is high, for example, greater than or equal to the first threshold, the terminal device determines that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover; or, if the current throughput rate of the terminal device is small, for example, smaller than the first threshold, the terminal device determines that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover.

For another example, if the terminal device has data to be transmitted (including data to be sent by the terminal device, or data to be received by the terminal device, or data to be sent and data to be received by the terminal device), the terminal device determines that the terminal device cannot perform cell switching; or, the terminal device determines that the terminal device can perform cell switching if the terminal device has no data to be transmitted.

For another example, if the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement, the terminal device determines that the terminal device cannot perform cell switching; or the terminal equipment does not have the low power consumption requirement, and the terminal equipment determines that the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching.

As mentioned above, there are only a few examples, how to determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover depends on the internal implementation of the terminal device, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited.

Alternatively, the terminal device may not determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, and the source network device may determine that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, and then S801 may not be executed, so S801 is an optional step and is indicated by a dotted line in fig. 8A.

S802, the source network equipment obtains first information. The first information may indicate whether the terminal device is capable of cell handover.

The first information may be from the terminal device, for example, the terminal device may determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information, and the terminal device may further send the first information to the source network device, so that the source network device receives the first information, that is, obtains the first information, and the source network device may also determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information. Or, the terminal device may determine the first information, but the terminal device does not determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information, and the terminal device may send the first information to the source network device, so that the source network device receives the first information, that is, obtains the first information, and the source network device may determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information. S802 in fig. 8A takes the first information as an example that the terminal device sends the first information to the source network device.

Alternatively, the first information may be determined by the source network device itself, and does not need to be sent by the terminal device.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first information may be existing information, and it may be understood that the first information may indicate whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover in an implicit manner.

For example, the first information may include one or more of the following information: the information of the throughput rate of the terminal equipment, the information whether the terminal equipment has data to be transmitted or not, or the information whether the terminal equipment has the low power consumption requirement or not. It is to be understood that the first information includes one or more of the above information, and the indication of the one or more of the above information may implicitly indicate whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover. For example, the first information may include throughput rate information of the terminal device; alternatively, the first information may include information on whether the terminal device has data to be transmitted; or, the first information may include information whether the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement; alternatively, the first information may include throughput rate information of the terminal device, and information including whether the terminal device has data to transmit; or, the first information may include information whether the terminal device has data to be transmitted, and information whether the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement; alternatively, the first information may include throughput rate information of the terminal device, information of whether the terminal device has data to be transmitted, and information of whether the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement, and the like. The data to be transmitted by the terminal device may include data to be transmitted by the terminal device, or include data to be received by the terminal device, or include data to be transmitted by the terminal device and data to be received.

The source network device may determine the throughput rate information of the terminal device by itself, or the terminal device may send the throughput rate information to the source network device. For example, the throughput rate information may directly indicate the throughput rate of the terminal device, and if the throughput rate of the terminal device indicated by the throughput rate information is higher, for example, the throughput rate indicated by the throughput rate information is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the throughput rate of the terminal device is considered to be higher, that is, the terminal device is considered to have a high throughput rate, which indicates that there may be a large amount of data in the terminal device for transmission, the throughput rate information may implicitly indicate that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, and in this case, the first information may also be considered to include information that the terminal device has a high throughput rate; if the throughput rate indicated by the throughput rate information is smaller than the first threshold, the throughput rate of the terminal device is considered to be low, that is, the terminal device is considered to have a low throughput rate, which indicates that the terminal device may not have data in transmission, then the throughput rate information may implicitly indicate that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, in this case, the first information may also be considered to include information that the terminal device has a low throughput rate. For another example, the throughput rate information may indicate a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) supported by the terminal device, and the terminal device may send the MCS supported by the terminal device to the source network device, and if the MCS is higher than the first MCS, the throughput rate information may implicitly indicate that the throughput rate of the terminal device is higher, which indicates that the terminal device may have a large amount of data to be transmitted or that a large amount of data is to be transmitted, and the throughput rate information may also implicitly indicate that the terminal device cannot perform cell switching, and in this case, the first information may also be considered to include information that the terminal device has a high throughput rate; if the MCS is lower than the first MCS, the throughput rate of the terminal device may be implicitly indicated to be lower, and the terminal device may not have data to transmit, then the throughput rate information may also implicitly indicate that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, in which case, the first information may also be considered to include information that the terminal device has a low throughput rate. The first MCS is, for example, the MCS assigned by the source network device to the terminal device, or may also be dedicated to the MCS used as a reference.

The source network device may determine whether the terminal device has information about data to be transmitted, for example, the source network device has data to be sent to the terminal device and/or data to be received from the terminal device, and may determine that the source network device determines the information about the data to be transmitted by the terminal device, in which case, the first information may also be considered to include the information about the data to be transmitted by the terminal device; or, the source network device may determine that the terminal device has no information of data to be transmitted, and in this case, the first information may also be considered to include information of data to be transmitted, which is not to be transmitted by the terminal device, by the source network device having no data to be transmitted to the terminal device and no data to be received from the terminal device. Or, the terminal device may determine whether the terminal device has data to be transmitted, and send the information whether the terminal device has data to be transmitted to the source network device, where the information whether the terminal device has data to be transmitted indicates that the terminal device has data to be transmitted, or indicates that the terminal device has no data to be transmitted. If the terminal equipment has data to be transmitted, the information of the data to be transmitted of the terminal equipment can implicitly indicate that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching; if the terminal device has no data to be transmitted, the terminal device may implicitly indicate that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover if the terminal device has no data to be transmitted.

As an alternative implementation, the data to be transmitted may be data of any priority (or any importance level), that is, as long as there is data to be transmitted, the data is regarded as data to be transmitted by the terminal device. Or, the data to be transmitted may also refer to data with a priority higher than the first priority (or, an importance level higher than the first priority), that is, if there is data with a priority higher than the first priority that needs to be transmitted, the terminal device considers that the terminal device has data to be transmitted, otherwise, if the terminal device has data that needs to be transmitted, but the priority of the data is lower than or equal to the first priority, the terminal device considers that the terminal device has no data to be transmitted. For example, the data to be transmitted is base layer data of a first service, and the first service is, for example, an XR service. The base layer data of the XR service may be prioritized above the first priority and the enhancement layer data of the XR service may be prioritized below or equal to the first priority. By the mode, more important data can be transmitted in time as much as possible, transmission delay is reduced, service requirements are met, and the probability of service interruption is reduced; for data with lower importance, the requirement of cell switching can be met preferentially, and the data is transmitted after the cell switching, because the importance of the data is lower, even if the transmission delay is larger and the packet loss rate is higher, the influence is not too large.

The source network device may determine whether the terminal device has information of low power consumption requirement by itself, for example, the source network device may determine whether the terminal device has the low power consumption requirement according to the subscription information of the terminal device; or, the terminal device may also send information whether the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement to the source network device. If the terminal equipment has a low power consumption requirement, it indicates that the terminal equipment needs to save power, and the cell switching may consume more power, and the terminal equipment may not meet the requirement, then whether the terminal equipment has the information of the low power consumption requirement or not may implicitly indicate that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching, and in this case, it may also be considered that the first information includes the information of the low power consumption requirement of the terminal equipment; if the terminal device does not have the low power consumption requirement, the terminal device may implicitly indicate whether the terminal device has the information of the low power consumption requirement, and in this case, the first information may also be considered to include the information that the terminal device does not have the low power consumption requirement. It should be noted that if the terminal device does not have the low power consumption requirement, there may also be information indicating that the terminal device does not have the low power consumption requirement. Or there is also a possibility that if the terminal device does not have the low power consumption requirement, there may not be information that the terminal device does not have the low power consumption requirement, for example, if the terminal device has the low power consumption requirement, the terminal device may send the information that the terminal device has the low power consumption requirement to the source network device, indicating that the terminal device has the low power consumption requirement, and if the terminal device does not have the low power consumption requirement, the terminal device may not send the information that the terminal device does not have the low power consumption requirement to the source network device, and an event that the terminal device does not send information is regarded as indicating that the terminal device does not have the low power consumption requirement; alternatively, if the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement, the subscription information of the terminal device may include information that the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement, indicating that the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement, and if the terminal device has no low power consumption requirement, the subscription information of the terminal device does not include information that the terminal device has no low power consumption requirement, and the source network device may determine that the terminal device has no low power consumption requirement.

S803, the source network device sends a handover request message to the target network device, and the target network device receives the handover request message from the source network device. The handover request message may be used to request handover of the terminal device to the target network device. From here on, it can be seen that the source network device performs a cell handover operation.

If the source network device determines that the terminal device is capable of cell handover from the first information, S803 may be performed, whereas if the source network device determines that the terminal device is not capable of cell handover from the first information, S803 does not have to be performed and the flow ends. For example, the source network device may obtain the first information again after the third duration to determine whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover. The third duration may be determined by the source network device itself, or the source network device may determine the third duration according to the first information, or the third duration may also be specified by a protocol.

S804, the target network equipment performs admission control. That is, the target network device may determine whether to allow the terminal device to handover to the target network device.

S805, the target network device sends a switching request response message to the source network device, and the source network device receives the switching request response message from the target network device.

S806, the source network device sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the RRC reconfiguration message from the source network device.

If the handover request response message indicates that the target network device allows the terminal device to handover to the target network device, the source network device performs S806, and the RRC reconfiguration message may indicate that the terminal device is handed over from the source network device to the target network device. In addition, the source network device also releases the terminal device.

If the handover request response message indicates that the target network device does not allow the terminal device to be handed over to the target network device, the source network device may not need to execute S806, and the cell handover procedure is terminated. For example, the source network device may re-seek the target network device to initiate the cell handover procedure again.

S807, the terminal device is switched from the source network device to the target network device. Or, the terminal device switches from a first cell provided by the source network device to a second cell provided by the target network device, where the first cell is a serving cell before the terminal device is switched, and the second cell is a serving cell after the terminal device is switched.

S808, the terminal device sends an RRC reconfiguration complete message to the target network device, and the target network device receives the RRC reconfiguration complete message from the terminal device. The RRC reconfiguration complete message may indicate that the terminal device performs cell handover completion.

The cell handover procedure of the terminal device may also involve other signaling, for example, the cell handover procedure also involves the interaction between the access network device and the core network device, which are included in the scope of the embodiments of the present application, and this is not written one by one in the embodiments of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the cell switching operation may be performed as much as possible under the condition that it is determined that the terminal device is capable of performing cell switching, for example, if the terminal device has data being transmitted, the cell switching may not be performed. By the method, the cell switching process is executed after the data transmission is finished as much as possible, so that the data transmission time delay is reduced, and the packet loss rate can be further reduced. Moreover, the first information may implicitly indicate whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover, and it is not necessary for the terminal device to send special information to the network device for indication, which is helpful for saving signaling overhead.

For example, a user may view XR video through a mobile phone, and referring to fig. 8B, a schematic diagram of XR video content is displayed on a display screen of the mobile phone (a horizontal screen is taken as an example). The content of the XR video comes from a network device (e.g., a base station) to which the cell phone has access, which may be considered a source network device of the cell phone. Then the handset has XR traffic data being transmitted at this point. If the source network device determines that the cell-phone needs to perform cell handover, the cell-phone also needs to cooperate with the source network device to perform cell handover if the source network device directly starts to perform a cell handover procedure according to the existing scheme. Then, a large transmission delay occurs to data corresponding to the XR service currently executed by the mobile phone, and a pause phenomenon may occur when the user watches the data. For example, with continued reference to fig. 8C, a schematic diagram of XR video content displayed on a display screen of a mobile phone when the mobile phone performs a cell handover is shown. Fig. 8C is a fragmentary view relative to fig. 8B, and it is understood that the display of fig. 8C is shown with a stuck. After the cell handover is performed by the mobile phone, the target network device of the mobile phone may obtain, from the source network device, the XR service data that has not been sent to the mobile phone by the source network device, and then the target network device may continue to send the XR service data to the mobile phone. But some XR service data may be lost, for example, more important XR base layer service data may be lost, and the mobile phone may not be able to perform XR service any more, and the user may not be able to continue watching. For example, the mobile phone may actively exit an Application (APP) corresponding to the XR service, or the user may only select to exit the APP corresponding to the XR service. For example, referring to fig. 8D, a schematic diagram of the display content of the display screen of the mobile phone after the mobile phone exits the application corresponding to the XR service is shown, for example, the desktop of the mobile phone is shown at this time.

However, according to the solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, if the source network device determines that the mobile phone needs to perform cell switching, the source network device may send the first information to the mobile phone, and the mobile phone receives the first information from the source network device, the mobile phone may determine that cell switching cannot be performed currently, and the mobile phone may send the second information to the source network device to indicate that the terminal device cannot perform cell switching, or the mobile phone may indicate that the mobile phone cannot perform cell switching by not sending the second information to the source network device. Or, even if the source network device does not send the first information to the mobile phone, the mobile phone may select to send the second information to the source network device to indicate that the mobile phone cannot perform cell switching, or the mobile phone may indicate that the mobile phone cannot perform cell switching by not sending the second information to the source network device. The source network device may not perform cell switching temporarily so that the handset can continue to perform XR services for viewing by the user. That is, the XR service of the mobile phone is continued, for example, the display time of the content shown in fig. 8B is the first time, and as shown in fig. 8E, the content of the XR video displayed on the display screen of the mobile phone after a certain time is the second time. It can be seen that the display content at the first and second moments in time are different and the XR service is ongoing normally. Therefore, by the scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, the XR service can be continuously carried out, the transmission delay of service data is reduced, and the packet loss rate is correspondingly reduced.

The following describes an apparatus for implementing the above method in the embodiment of the present application with reference to the drawings. Therefore, the above contents can be used in the subsequent embodiments, and the repeated contents are not repeated.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 900 according to an embodiment of the present application. Illustratively, the communication apparatus 900 is, for example, a network device 900. Illustratively, network device 900 is capable of implementing the functionality of the source network device described in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7.

Network device 900 includes a processing module 910, a transmitting module 920, and a receiving module 930. Illustratively, the network device 900 may be a network device, and may also be a chip applied in the network device or other combined devices, components, etc. having the functions of the source network device. When the network device 900 is a network device, the sending module 920 may be a transmitter, the receiving module 930 may be a receiver, the transmitter may include an antenna and a radio frequency circuit, and the receiver may also include an antenna and a radio frequency circuit. The transmitter and the receiver may be unified to form a transceiver, and the transceiver may implement functions of the transmitter and the receiver, or the transmitter and the receiver may be two separately deployed functional modules. The processing module 910 may include a processor, such as a baseband processor, which may include one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs). When the network device 900 is a component having the functions of the source network device, the transmitting module 920 may be a radio frequency unit, the receiving module 930 may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module 910 may be a processor, such as a baseband processor. When the network device 900 is a system-on-chip, the transmitting module 920 and the receiving module 930 may be input and output interfaces of a chip (e.g., a baseband chip), and the processing module 910 may be a processor of the system-on-chip and may include one or more central processing units. It should be understood that the processing module 910 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and the transmitting module 920 and the receiving module 930 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component.

For example, processing module 910 may be used to perform all operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, except transceiving operations, such as operations to determine whether a terminal device is or is not capable of cell handover, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein. The sending module 920 may be used to perform all sending operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S601, S604, and S607, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Receiving module 930 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S603 and S606, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, processing module 910 may be used to perform all operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 except transceiving operations, such as operations to determine whether a terminal device is or is not capable of cell handover, and/or other procedures to support the techniques described herein. The sending module 920 may be used to perform all of the sending operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S701, S704, and S707, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The receiving module 930 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S603 and S706, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In addition, the transmitting module 920 and the receiving module 930 may be one functional module, which is called as a transceiving module, and the transceiving module can perform both the transmitting operation and the receiving operation, for example, the transceiving module may be used to perform all the transmitting operation and the receiving operation performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7, for example, when the transmitting operation is performed, the transceiving module may be considered as the transmitting module 920, and when the receiving operation is performed, the transceiving module may be considered as the receiving module 930; alternatively, the sending module 920 and the receiving module 930 may also be two functional modules, the transceiving module may be regarded as a general term for the two functional modules, the sending module 920 is configured to complete the sending operation, for example, the sending module 920 may be configured to perform all sending operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and the receiving module 930 is configured to complete the receiving operation, for example, the receiving module 930 may be configured to perform all receiving operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7.

A sending module 920, configured to send first information to a terminal device, where the first information is used to inquire whether the terminal device can perform cell handover;

a processing module 910, configured to execute a cell handover operation when it is determined that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information.

As an optional implementation manner, the processing module 910 is configured to determine that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information by:

receiving, by the receiving module 930, second information from the terminal device in response to the first information, where the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover.

receiving second information from the terminal device in response to the first information through the receiving module 930, determining that the terminal device is capable of cell handover.

As an optional implementation, the processing module 910 is configured to perform a cell handover operation by:

sending a handover request message to a target network device through a sending module 920, where the handover request message is used to request that the terminal device be handed over to the target network device;

receiving, by the receiving module 930, a handover request confirmation message from the target network device, where the handover request confirmation message is used to confirm that the terminal device is handed over to the target network device;

sending, by a sending module 920, an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device, where the RRC reconfiguration message is used to instruct the terminal device to switch to the target network device.

As an alternative to the above-described embodiment,

a sending module 920, configured to send a handover request message to a target network device before sending the first information to a terminal device, where the handover request message is used to request that the terminal device is handed over to the target network device;

the receiving module 930 is further configured to receive a handover request confirmation message from the target network device, where the handover request confirmation message is used to confirm that the terminal device is handed over to the target network device.

As an optional implementation manner, the processing module 910 is further configured to not perform the cell handover operation when it is determined that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover according to the first information.

As an optional implementation manner, the processing module 910 is configured to determine that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover according to the first information by:

receiving, by the receiving module 930, second information from the terminal device in response to the first information, where the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover.

if the second information from the terminal device in response to the first information is not received by the receiving module 930 within the first duration, it is determined that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover.

As to the functions that can be specifically realized by the processing module 910, the sending module 920 and the receiving module 930, reference may be made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7, which is not repeated.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 1000 according to an embodiment of the present application. Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 1000 is, for example, a terminal device 1000. Illustratively, the terminal device 1000 is capable of implementing the functionality of the terminal device described in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7.

The terminal device 1000 includes a processing module 1010, a transmitting module 1020, and a receiving module 1030. With regard to the implementation of terminal device 1000, reference may be made to the introduction to the implementation of network device 900.

For example, the processing module 1010 may be used to perform all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, except for transceiving operations, e.g., S602 and S608, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The transmitting module 1020 may be used to perform all of the transmitting operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S603 and S609, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Receiving module 1030 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by a terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S601 and S607, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, the processing module 1010 may be used to perform all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, except for transceiving operations, such as S705 and S708, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The transmitting module 1020 may be used to perform all of the transmitting operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S706 and S709, and/or other procedures for supporting the techniques described herein. Receiving module 1030 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S704 and S707, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In addition, regarding the implementation manners of the transmitting module 1020 and the receiving module 1030, reference may be made to the introduction of the implementation manners of the transmitting module 920 and the receiving module 930.

A receiving module 1030, configured to receive first information from a source network device, where the first information is used to query whether the terminal device 1000 is capable of performing cell handover;

a sending module 1020, configured to send, when the processing module 1010 determines that the terminal device 1000 is capable of performing cell handover, second information to indicate that the terminal device 1000 is capable of performing cell handover to the source network device.

As an alternative to the above-described embodiment,

the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device 1000 is capable of performing cell handover; or the like, or, alternatively,

the sending module 1020 is further configured to send the second information, where an event of sending the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device 1000 is capable of performing cell handover.

As an alternative embodiment, the processing module 1010 is configured to determine that the terminal device 1000 is capable of performing cell handover by:

determining that the terminal device 1000 is capable of performing cell handover according to base layer data to be received and to be transmitted, where the base layer data corresponds to a first service and is data necessary for executing the first service.

As an optional implementation manner, the sending module 1020 is further configured to send, to the source network device, second information when the processing module 1010 determines that the terminal device 1000 cannot perform cell handover, where the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device 1000 cannot perform cell handover.

As an optional implementation manner, the sending module 1020 is further configured to, when the processing module 1010 determines that the terminal device 1000 cannot perform cell handover, not send second information to the source network device, where the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device 1000 can perform cell handover.

As an optional implementation, the processing module 1010 is configured to determine that the terminal device 1000 is not capable of performing cell handover by:

it is determined that terminal device 1000 is not capable of cell handover based on base layer data to be received and/or transmitted, the base layer data corresponding to a first service, the base layer data being data necessary for performing the first service.

As to the functions that can be specifically realized by the processing module 1010, the sending module 1020, and the receiving module 1030, reference may be made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and details are not repeated.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 1100 provided in an embodiment of the present application. Illustratively, the communication apparatus 1100 is, for example, a network device 1100. Illustratively, the network device 1100 is capable of implementing the functionality of the source network device as described in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7 or the embodiment shown in fig. 8A.

Network device 1100 includes a processing module 1110 and a receiving module 1130. Optionally, the network device 1100 may further include a transmitting module 1120. With regard to the implementation of network device 1100, reference may be made to the introduction to the implementation of network device 900.

For example, processing module 1110 may be used to perform all operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, except transceiving operations, such as operations to determine that a terminal device is or is not capable of cell handover, and/or other procedures to support the techniques described herein. The transmitting module 1120 may be used to perform all of the transmitting operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S601, S604, and S607, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Receiving module 1130 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S603 and S606, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, processing module 1110 may be configured to perform all operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 7 except transceiving operations, such as operations to determine whether a terminal device is capable of cell handover or not capable of cell handover, and/or other procedures to support the techniques described herein. The transmitting module 1120 may be used to perform all of the transmitting operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S701, S704, and S707, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Receiving module 1130 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S603 and S706, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, processing module 1110 may be configured to perform all operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 8A except transceiving operations, such as operations to determine that a terminal device is or is not capable of cell handover, and/or other procedures to support the techniques described herein. The transmitting module 1120 may be used to perform all of the transmitting operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 8A, e.g., S803 and S806, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The receiving module 1130 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 8A, such as S802 and S805, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In addition, regarding the implementation of the transmitting module 1120 and the receiving module 1130, reference may be made to the description of the implementation of the transmitting module 920 and the receiving module 930.

The receiving module 1130 is configured to receive second information from the terminal device;

a processing module 1110, configured to not perform a cell handover operation when the second information indicates that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover.

As an optional implementation manner, the sending module 1120 is configured to send, to the terminal device, first information, where the first information is used to inquire whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover.

As an optional implementation manner, the processing module 1110 is further configured to execute the cell handover operation when the second information indicates that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover.

As to the functions that can be specifically realized by the processing module 1110, the sending module 1120, and the receiving module 1130, reference may be made to the description of any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 6 to fig. 8A, which is not repeated herein.

Fig. 12 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1200 according to an embodiment of the present application. Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 1200 is, for example, a terminal device 1200. Illustratively, the terminal device 1200 is capable of implementing the functionality of the terminal device described in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7 or the embodiment shown in fig. 8A.

The terminal device 1200 includes a processing module 1210 and a transmitting module 1220. Optionally, the terminal device 1200 may further include a receiving module 1230. With regard to the implementation of the terminal device 1200, reference may be made to the introduction to the implementation of the network device 900.

For example, processing module 1210 may be used to perform all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, except transceiving operations, e.g., S602 and S608, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The transmitting module 1220 may be used to perform all of the transmitting operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S603 and S609, and/or other procedures for supporting the techniques described herein. The receiving module 1230 may be configured to perform all receiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S601 and S607, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, processing module 1210 may be used to perform all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 except transceiving operations, e.g., S705 and S708, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein. The transmitting module 1220 may be used to perform all of the transmitting operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S706 and S709, and/or other procedures for supporting the techniques described herein. The receiving module 1230 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S704 and S707, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, the processing module 1210 may be configured to perform all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 8A except transceiving operations, such as S801 and S807, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein. The sending module 1220 may be used to perform all of the sending operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 8A, e.g., S802 and S808, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The receiving module 1230 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 8A, such as S806, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In addition, regarding the implementation of the transmitting module 1220 and the receiving module 1230, reference may be made to the description of the implementation of the transmitting module 920 and the receiving module 930.

The sending module 1220 is configured to send the second information to the source network device;

a processing module 1210, configured to not perform a cell handover operation when the second information indicates that the terminal apparatus 1200 is unable to perform cell handover.

As an optional implementation manner, the receiving module 1230 is configured to receive the first information from the source network device, where the first information is used to query whether the terminal device 1200 is capable of performing cell handover.

As an optional embodiment, the processing module 1210 is further configured to execute the cell handover operation when the second information indicates that the terminal device 1200 is capable of performing cell handover.

For functions that can be specifically realized by the processing module 1210, the sending module 1220, and the receiving module 1230, reference may be made to the description of any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 6 to fig. 8A, and details are not repeated.

Fig. 13 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1300 according to an embodiment of the present application. Illustratively, the communication apparatus 1100 is, for example, a network device 1300. Illustratively, the network device 1300 is capable of implementing the functionality of the source network device described in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7.

Network device 1300 includes a processing module 1310 and a receiving module 1330. Optionally, the network device 1300 may further include a sending module 1320. With regard to the implementation of network device 1300, reference may be made to the introduction to the implementation of network device 900.

For example, processing module 1310 may be used to perform all operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, except transceiving operations, such as operations to determine that a terminal device is or is not capable of cell handover, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein. The sending module 1320 may be used to perform all of the sending operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S601, S604, and S607, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Receiving module 1330 may be configured to perform all receiving operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 6, e.g., S603 and S606, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, processing module 1310 may be used to perform all operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 except transceiving operations, such as operations to determine whether a terminal device is capable of cell handover or not capable of cell handover, and/or other procedures to support the techniques described herein. The sending module 1320 may be used to perform all of the sending operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S701, S704, and S707, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Receiving module 1330 may be configured to perform all receiving operations performed by the source network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, e.g., S603 and S706, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In addition, regarding the implementation of the transmitting module 1320 and the receiving module 1330, reference may be made to the description of the implementation of the transmitting module 920 and the receiving module 930.

The receiving module 1330 is configured to not receive the second information from the terminal device;

a processing module 1310, configured to determine that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover according to an event that the second information from the terminal device is not received;

the processing module 1310 is further configured to not perform a cell handover operation.

As an alternative to the above-described embodiment,

a receiving module 1230, further configured to receive the second information from the terminal device;

a processing module 1310, further configured to determine that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to an event of receiving the second information from the terminal device;

the processing module 1310 is further configured to perform a cell handover operation.

As an optional implementation manner, the sending module 1320 is configured to send first information to the terminal device, where the first information is used to inquire whether the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover.

As to the functions that can be specifically realized by the processing module 1310, the sending module 1320, and the receiving module 1330, reference may be made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7, which is not repeated here.

Fig. 14 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1400 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 1400 is, for example, a terminal device 1400. Illustratively, the terminal device 1400 is capable of implementing the functionality of the terminal device described in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7.

Terminal device 1400 includes a processing module 1410 and a transmitting module 1420. Optionally, terminal device 1400 may further include a receiving module 1430. With regard to the implementation of terminal device 1400, reference may be made to the introduction to the implementation of network device 900.

For example, processing module 1410 may be used to perform all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, except for transceiving operations, e.g., S602 and S608, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The transmitting module 1420 may be configured to perform all of the transmitting operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, e.g., S603 and S609, and/or other procedures for supporting the techniques described herein. The receiving module 1430 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, such as S601 and S607, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, processing module 1410 may be configured to perform all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 7, except for transceiving operations, e.g., S705 and S708, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein. The transmitting module 1420 may be configured to perform all of the transmitting operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 7, e.g., S706 and S709, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The receiving module 1430 may be used to perform all receiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, such as S704 and S707, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In addition, regarding the implementation manners of the transmitting module 1420 and the receiving module 1430, reference may be made to the introduction of the implementation manners of the transmitting module 920 and the receiving module 930.

The processing module 1410 is configured to determine that the terminal device 1400 cannot perform cell handover;

a sending module 1420, configured to not send the second information to the source network device to indicate that the terminal device 1400 is unable to perform cell handover.

As an alternative to the above-described embodiment,

a processing module 1410, further configured to determine that the terminal device 1400 is capable of performing cell handover;

a sending module 1420, configured to send the second information to the source network device to indicate that the terminal device 1400 is capable of performing cell handover.

As an optional embodiment, the processing module 1410 is further configured to perform a cell handover operation.

As an optional implementation manner, the receiving module 1230 is configured to receive the first information from the source network device, where the first information is used to query whether the terminal device 1400 is capable of performing cell handover.

As to the functions that can be specifically realized by the processing module 1410, the sending module 1420 and the receiving module 1430, reference may be made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 6 or the embodiment shown in fig. 7, which is not repeated.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device which can be terminal equipment or a circuit. The communication device may be configured to perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the above-described method embodiments.

When the communication apparatus is a terminal device, fig. 15 shows a schematic structural diagram of a simplified terminal device. For easy understanding and illustration, in fig. 15, the terminal device is exemplified by a mobile phone. As shown in fig. 15, the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the terminal equipment, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs and the like. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by users and outputting data to the users. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal devices may not have input/output devices.

When data needs to be sent, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signals and sends the radio frequency signals to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is transmitted to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in FIG. 15. In an actual end device product, there may be one or more processors and one or more memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc. The memory may be provided independently of the processor, or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In the embodiment of the present application, an antenna and a radio frequency circuit having a transceiving function may be regarded as a transceiving unit of a terminal device (the transceiving unit may be a functional unit, and the functional unit is capable of implementing a sending function and a receiving function, or the transceiving unit may also include two functional units, that is, a receiving unit capable of implementing a receiving function and a sending unit capable of implementing a sending function, respectively), and a processor having a processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 15, the terminal device includes a transceiving unit 1510 and a processing unit 1520. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. A processing unit may also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, or the like. Optionally, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiver 1510 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiver 1510 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver 1510 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. A transceiver unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuit, or the like. A receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, or the like. A transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

It should be understood that the transceiving unit 1510 is configured to perform the transmitting operation and the receiving operation on the terminal device side in any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 6 to fig. 8A, and the processing unit 1520 is configured to perform other operations on the terminal device side than the transceiving operation in any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 6 to fig. 8A.

When the communication device is a chip-like device or circuit, the device may include a transceiving unit and a processing unit. The transceiver unit may be an input/output circuit and/or a communication interface; the processing unit is an integrated processor or microprocessor or integrated circuit.

When the communication device in this embodiment is a terminal device, reference may be made to the device shown in fig. 16. As an example, the device may perform functions similar to processing module 1010 of FIG. 10. As yet another example, the device may perform functions similar to the processing module 1210 of FIG. 12. As yet another example, the device may perform functions similar to processing module 1410 of FIG. 14. In fig. 16, the apparatus includes a processor 1610, a transmitting data processor 1620, and a receiving data processor 1630. The processing module 1010 in the above embodiments may be the processor 1610 in fig. 16, and performs the corresponding functions; the sending module 1020 in the above embodiment may be the sending data processor 1620 in fig. 16, and performs the corresponding functions; the receiving module 1030 in the above embodiment may be the received data processor 1630 in fig. 16, and performs corresponding functions. Alternatively, the processing module 1210 in the above embodiments may be the processor 1610 in fig. 16, and performs the corresponding functions; the sending module 1220 in the above embodiment may be the sending data processor 1620 in fig. 16, and performs the corresponding functions; the receiving module 1230 in the above embodiment may be the received data processor 1630 in fig. 16, and performs corresponding functions. Alternatively, the processing module 1410 in the above embodiments may be the processor 1610 in fig. 16, and perform the corresponding functions; the sending module 1420 in the above embodiments may be the sending data processor 1620 in fig. 16, and performs the corresponding functions; the receiving module 1430 in the above embodiment may be the received data processor 1630 in fig. 16, and performs corresponding functions. Although fig. 16 shows a channel encoder and a channel decoder, it is understood that these blocks are not limitative and only illustrative to the present embodiment.

Fig. 17 shows another form of the present embodiment. The processing device 1700 includes modules such as a modulation subsystem, a central processing subsystem, and peripheral subsystems. The communication device in this embodiment may serve as a modulation subsystem therein. In particular, the modulation subsystem may include a processor 1703, an interface 1704. The processor 1703 completes the functions of the processing module 1010, and the interface 1704 completes the functions of the sending module 1020 and the receiving module 1030. Alternatively, the processor 1703 performs the functions of the processing module 1210, and the interface 1704 performs the functions of the sending module 1220 and the receiving module 1230. Alternatively, the processor 1703 may perform the functions of the processing module 1410, and the interface 1704 may perform the functions of the sending module 1420 and the receiving module 1430. As another variation, the modulation subsystem includes a memory 1706, a processor 1703, and a program stored in the memory 1706 and executable on the processor, and the processor 1703 implements the method on the terminal device side in the above method embodiment when executing the program. It is noted that the memory 1706 can be non-volatile or volatile, and can be located within the modulation subsystem or within the processing device 1700, as long as the memory 1706 can be coupled to the processor 1703.

When the device in the embodiment of the present application is a network device, the device may be as shown in fig. 18. The apparatus 1800 includes one or more radio frequency units, such as a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) 1810 and one or more baseband units (BBUs) (also referred to as digital units, DUs) 1820. The RRU 1810 may be referred to as a transceiver module, which may include a transmitting module and a receiving module, or may be a module capable of performing transmitting and receiving functions. The transceiving module may correspond to the transmitting module 920 and the receiving module 930 in fig. 9. Alternatively, the transceiving module may correspond to the transmitting module 1120 and the receiving module 1130 in fig. 11. Alternatively, the transceiver module may correspond to the transmitting module 1320 and the receiving module 1330 in fig. 13. Alternatively, the transceiver module may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 1811 and a radio frequency unit 1812. The RRU 1810 part is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, to send indication information to a terminal device. The BBU1820 is mainly used for performing baseband processing, controlling a base station, and the like. The RRU 1810 and the BBU1820 may be physically located together or separately, that is, distributed base stations.

The BBU1820 is a control center of the base station, and may also be referred to as a processing module, and may correspond to the processing module 910 in fig. 9, or may correspond to the processing module 1110 in fig. 11, or may correspond to the processing module 1310 in fig. 13, where the BBU1820 (processing module) is mainly used to perform baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and the like. For example, the BBU (processing module) may be configured to control the base station to perform an operation procedure related to the network device in the foregoing method embodiment, for example, to generate the foregoing indication information.

In an example, the BBU1820 may be formed by one or more boards, where a plurality of boards may support a radio access network of a single access system (e.g., an LTE network) together, or may support radio access networks of different access systems (e.g., an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks) respectively. The BBU1820 also includes a memory 1821 and a processor 1822. The memory 1821 is used to store the necessary instructions and data. The processor 1822 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the operation procedures of the method embodiments described above with respect to the network device. The memory 1821 and the processor 1822 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and processor may be provided separately on each board. Multiple boards may share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

It should be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a CPU, and may also be other general purpose processors, digital Signal Processors (DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It will also be appreciated that the memory referred to in the embodiments herein may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (dynamic RAM, DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), SLDRAM (synchronous DRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, the memory (memory module) is integrated in the processor.

It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one type of logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one position, or may be distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. The computer readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. Take this as an example but not limiting: a computer-readable medium may include a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a universal serial bus flash disk (universal serial bus disk), a removable hard disk, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

The above description is only for the specific implementation of the present application, but the scope of the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the embodiments of the present application, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered by the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

sending first information to a terminal device, wherein the first information is used for inquiring whether the terminal device can carry out cell switching;

when the terminal equipment is determined to be capable of carrying out cell switching according to the first information, cell switching operation is executed;

the method further comprises the following steps: when the terminal equipment is determined to be incapable of carrying out cell switching according to the first information, the cell switching operation is not executed;

determining that the terminal device cannot perform cell switching according to the first information, including:

receiving second information from the terminal equipment responding to the first information, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching, the second information also comprises suggested time information and/or first reason information, the suggested time information is used for indicating the time that the terminal equipment can perform cell switching, and the first reason information is used for indicating the reason that the terminal equipment cannot perform cell switching.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the terminal device is capable of cell handover according to the first information comprises:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the terminal device is capable of performing cell handover according to the first information comprises:

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein performing a cell handover operation comprises:

5. The method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein before sending the first information to the terminal device, the method further comprises:

6. The method of claim 5, wherein performing a cell handover operation comprises:

7. A method of communication, comprising:

receiving first information from source network equipment, wherein the first information is used for inquiring whether the terminal equipment can carry out cell switching or not;

when the terminal equipment is determined to be capable of carrying out cell switching, sending second information to the source network equipment to indicate that the terminal equipment is capable of carrying out cell switching;

the method further comprises the following steps: when it is determined that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, sending second information to the source network device, where the second information is used to indicate that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover, the second information further includes suggested time information and/or first reason information, the suggested time information is used to indicate a time that the terminal device can perform cell handover, and the first reason information is used to indicate a reason that the terminal device cannot perform cell handover.

8. The method of claim 7,

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein determining that the terminal device is capable of cell handover comprises:

10. The method according to any of claims 7 to 9, wherein determining that the terminal device is not capable of cell handover comprises:

11. A network device, comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more memories;

and one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in the one or more memories, the one or more computer programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of the network device, cause the network device to perform the method of any of claims 1-6.

12. A terminal device, comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more memories;

and one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in the one or more memories, the one or more computer programs comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of the terminal device, cause the terminal device to perform the method of any of claims 7-10.

13. A computer-readable storage medium, for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 6, or causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 7 to 10.

14. A chip comprising one or more processors and a communications interface, the one or more processors being configured to read instructions to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 6 or to perform the method of any one of claims 7 to 10.