CN103841542A

CN103841542A - Method for determining proximity relation between user equipment, equipment and communication system

Info

Publication number: CN103841542A
Application number: CN201210488666.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张娟; 周燕飞
Original assignee: China Academy of Telecommunications Technology CATT
Current assignee: China Academy of Telecommunications Technology CATT
Priority date: 2012-11-26
Filing date: 2012-11-26
Publication date: 2014-06-04
Also published as: WO2014079313A1

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for determining the proximity relation between user equipment, equipment and a communication system, and is to solve the problem that at present, a solution scheme for finding the proximity relation between mutually-adjacent user equipment is still unavailable. The method of the embodiment in the invention comprises the following steps: the application layer equipment obtaining and storing subscription information of each terminal; after receiving a proximity relation discovery request of a first terminal, determining the first terminal has a function of being capable of finding other terminals based on the subscription information corresponding to the first terminal; and obtaining position information of the first terminal and a second terminal, judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal accord with the proximity principle, and sending the judgment results to the first terminal. The embodiment of the invention provides the scheme for determining the proximity relation between the user equipment; discovery process of the proximity relation between the user equipment is realized; and with the scheme, a network architecture in an existing protocol is modified less, and the scheme is easy to realize.

Description

Method, equipment and communication system for determining proximity relation between user equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a method, a device, and a communication system for determining a proximity relationship between user equipments.

Background

In the communication process between two User Equipments (UEs) defined in the current third Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP), referring to fig. 1, the process of sending data from UE1 to UE2 includes:

the UE1 sends data to the eNB1 that serves it; the eNB1, upon receiving the data, passes the data to a Serving Gateway (SGW)/Packet Gateway (PGW); after receiving the data, the SGW/PGW routes the data to the SGW/PGW serving the UE1 according to the route identifier of the UE 1; since UE1 is the same as the SGW/PGW of UE2, the SGW/PGW serving UE2 passes this data to eNB2 serving UE 2; finally, eNB2 passes the data to UE2 to complete the process of UE1 sending data to UE 2; if the SGW/PGW serving the UE1 and the UE2 are not the same, the communication procedure between the UE1 and the UE2 further includes a procedure that the PGW of the UE1 routes data to the PGW of the UE 2.

As can be seen from the above process, even if the two user equipments communicating with each other are located very close to each other, the data transmission needs to pass through the eNB and the core network serving each user equipment to reach the opposite end, so that the communication delay is very long, and further, more network resources are occupied. Therefore, 3GPP is studying on communication technologies between neighboring devices, namely: when the distance between two UEs needing to communicate is very close, the data transmission path between the two UEs is as shown in fig. 2A, and the data can be directly transmitted between the UE1 and the UE2 without passing through any mobile network device; or fast communication between the two UEs is realized only by means of the delivery of the eNB, and the data transmission paths thereof are shown in fig. 2B, the UE1 and the UE2 are connected to the same eNB, so that the data to be transmitted is forwarded only through the eNB without routing the data to the core network for forwarding. The two transmission modes greatly reduce the time delay of data transmission, and can save network resources, especially the network resources of a core network.

Currently, 3GPP SA1 is discussing the implementation of proximity communication, and in order to implement proximity communication between UEs, the following two major problems need to be solved: the method comprises the following steps of firstly, discovering the proximity relation between the UE and secondly determining how to realize direct communication between the UE with the proximity relation. The discovery process of the proximity relationship between UEs is not only an important premise for implementing proximity communication, but also supports many application scenarios. For example, a merchant may send discounted and promotional advertisements to UEs in the vicinity of the merchant by detecting proximity; for another example, the user may search for information such as restaurants and supermarkets near the user's location through the function of proximity discovery; for another example, the bus stop may forecast bus arrival information through a function of proximity relation discovery, and the like.

In order to support the feature of Machine-Type Communication (MTC) triggering (trigger), a new architecture is introduced into the 3GPP Network architecture, and as shown in fig. 3, an entity, namely, a Machine-Type Communication interaction Function (MTC-IWF) entity, is newly added in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) Network to connect Network elements in the 3GPP Network and an MTC server (server), and shield the MTC server from the topology of the 3GPP Network. An interface T5b is arranged between the MTC-IWF and a Mobility Management Entity (MME), and an interface S6m is arranged between the MTC-IWF and a Home Subscriber Server (HSS).

The UE uses an internal identity (internal identity) in the 3GPP network, such as an International Mobile Subscriber Identifier (IMSI); and the interaction between the UE and the MTC server uses external identification (external ID), and the mapping relation between the external identification and the internal identification of each UE is stored in the HSS. When the MTC server initiates a trigger (trigger) message to the UE, the trigger message carries an external identifier of the UE; and the MTC-IWF receives the internal identification and then queries the internal identification corresponding to the UE by the HSS. The HSS returns the internal identification of the UE to the MTC-IWF and the MME ID information of UE registration saved in the HSS. And after receiving the information, the MTC-IWF triggers a corresponding message to the MME through a T5b interface.

In summary, at present, 3GPP only defines the requirement for proximity relation discovery, and there is no solution for proximity relation discovery between user equipments in proximity to each other.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a device, and a communication system for determining a proximity relationship between user equipments, which are used to solve the problem that in the prior art, no solution for discovering a proximity relationship between user equipments in proximity to each other exists at present.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for determining a proximity relation between user equipment, which comprises the following steps:

the application layer equipment acquires and stores the subscription information of each terminal;

after receiving a proximity relation discovery request of a first terminal, the application layer device determines that the first terminal has a function of being capable of discovering other terminals according to subscription information corresponding to the first terminal, wherein the proximity relation discovery request carries an external identifier of the first terminal;

and the application layer equipment acquires the position information of the first terminal and the second terminal, judges whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the proximity principle or not, and sends the judgment result to the first terminal.

An embodiment of the present invention provides an application layer device, including:

the subscription information acquisition module is used for acquiring and storing subscription information of each terminal;

a receiving module, configured to receive a proximity relation discovery request of a first terminal, and determine that the first terminal has a function of being able to discover other terminals according to subscription information corresponding to the first terminal, where the proximity relation discovery request carries an external identifier of the first terminal;

the position information acquisition module is used for acquiring the position information of the first terminal and the second terminal;

the judging module is used for judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the proximity principle or not;

and the sending module is used for sending the judgment result of the judging module to the first terminal.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a communication system, including:

the application layer equipment is used for acquiring and storing the subscription information of each terminal; after receiving a proximity relation discovery request of a first terminal, determining that the first terminal has a function of being capable of discovering other terminals according to subscription information corresponding to the first terminal; acquiring position information of the first terminal and the second terminal, judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet a proximity principle or not, and sending a judgment result to the first terminal; wherein, the proximity relation discovery request carries the external identifier of the first terminal;

and the first terminal is used for sending a proximity relation discovery request to the application layer equipment and receiving a judgment result fed back by the application layer equipment.

The application layer equipment of the embodiment of the invention acquires and stores the subscription information of each terminal; after receiving a proximity relation discovery request of a first terminal, determining that the first terminal has a function of discovering other terminals according to proximity relation subscription information corresponding to the first terminal; acquiring position information of a first terminal and a second terminal, judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet a proximity principle or not, and sending a judgment result to the first terminal; the embodiment of the invention provides a scheme for determining the proximity relation between user equipment, which realizes the discovery process of the proximity relation between the user equipment, and the scheme has small change on the network architecture in the existing protocol and is easy to realize.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a data transmission path for communication between two pieces of user equipment in the prior art;

fig. 2A is a schematic diagram of a data transmission path for direct communication between two ues defined in the existing protocol;

fig. 2B is a schematic diagram of a data transmission path defined in a conventional protocol for communication between two ues through an eNB;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a 3GPP network architecture in the background art;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining a proximity relationship between user equipments according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a method for acquiring subscription information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a network architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating interaction among entities in a process of acquiring subscription information based on the network architecture shown in fig. 5 according to the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating interaction among entities in a process of acquiring location information based on the network architecture shown in fig. 5 according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an application layer device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The application layer equipment of the embodiment of the invention acquires and stores the subscription information of each terminal; after receiving a proximity relation discovery request of a first terminal, determining that the first terminal has a function of discovering other terminals according to proximity relation subscription information corresponding to the first terminal; and judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the proximity principle or not, and sending the judgment result to the first terminal, thereby solving the problem that no solution for discovering the proximity relation between the user equipment which are adjacent to each other exists at present.

The embodiments of the present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the drawings attached hereto.

Referring to fig. 4, a method for determining a proximity relationship between user equipments according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps:

step 41, the application layer device acquires and stores the subscription information of each terminal;

step 42, after receiving the proximity relationship discovery request of the first terminal, the application layer device determines that the first terminal has a function of discovering other terminals according to the subscription information corresponding to the first terminal; wherein, the proximity relation discovery request carries the external identifier of the first terminal;

step 43, the application layer device obtains the position information of the first terminal and the second terminal, and judges whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the proximity principle;

the second terminal in the embodiment of the present invention refers to a terminal different from the first terminal.

And step 44, the application layer device sends the judgment result to the first terminal to complete the proximity relation discovery process.

The application layer device in the embodiment of the present invention may be an application server or the like (server).

It should be noted that, for a terminal having a proximity relation discovery function, the subscription information further includes proximity relation subscription information of the terminal, and the proximity relation subscription information of the terminal is: the terminal allows discovery of other terminals and not allows discovery by other terminals, the terminal allows discovery by other terminals and not allows discovery of other terminals, the terminal allows discovery of other terminals and allows discovery by other terminals, or the terminal does not allow discovery by other terminals and does not allow discovery of other terminals; the proximity relation subscription information of the terminal is for all proximity relation related services of the terminal, that is, any proximity relation related service activated by the terminal should obey the proximity relation subscription information signed by the terminal.

In the implementation of the present invention, a certain terminal does not have the function of discovering other terminals, including: the terminal does not have a proximity relation discovery function; or the terminal has a proximity relation discovery function, but the proximity relation subscription information of the terminal is that the terminal is allowed to be discovered by other terminals and is not allowed to discover the other terminals; or the terminal has a proximity relation discovery function, but the proximity relation subscription information of the terminal is that the terminal is not allowed to be discovered by other terminals and is not allowed to discover other terminals;

one terminal has the function of discovering other terminals, and the function comprises the following steps: the proximity relation subscription information of the terminal is that the terminal allows other terminals to be discovered and allows the other terminals to be discovered; or the proximity relation subscription information of the terminal allows other terminals to be discovered for the terminal and does not allow the other terminals to be discovered.

In implementation, if the first terminal does not have a function of discovering another terminal, the application layer device does not execute the proximity relationship discovery process after receiving the proximity relationship discovery request sent by the first terminal, or notifies the first terminal that the first terminal does not have the function of discovering another terminal through an application layer message.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the proximity rule in step 43 means that the distance between the first terminal and the second terminal satisfies the setting condition.

Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, the following three ways are included when the distance between the first terminal and the second terminal satisfies the setting condition:

in the first mode, the distance between the first terminal and the second terminal is not greater than a set threshold value;

wherein, the set threshold is an empirical value and can be set according to requirements; for example, the distance between the first terminal and the second terminal is not more than 500 meters, etc.;

in the second mode, the first terminal and the second terminal reside in the same cell; namely: the IDs of the current resident cells of the first terminal and the second terminal are the same;

in the third mode, the first terminal and the second terminal reside in the same base station; namely: and the IDs of the first terminal and the second terminal which currently reside in the base station are the same.

Since a limited scenario for the discovery process of the proximity relationship is also defined in 3GPP, that is, the discovery process of the proximity relationship is required to be related to the proximity relationship subscription information of the UE, the network configuration, and whether the registration relationship between two user equipments at the application layer is a friendship (i.e. social relationship) or not.

For example, the following steps are carried out: assuming A, B and C use the same social networking application and A, B and C both use a proximity business enabled UE, the social networking application layer maintains a context in which the following relationship information is displayed: a and C are friends, C and B are friends, and A and B are not friends, in this scenario, the proximity discovery function needs to be implemented as follows:

the UE of a may find C in a nearby location;

the UE of C may find a in a nearby location;

the social networking application of a can know whether C is in its vicinity;

the social networking application of C can know whether a is in its vicinity;

-the UE of B cannot find the UE of a in its vicinity;

the social networking application of a cannot detect whether B is in its proximity;

the social networking application of B cannot detect whether a is in its proximity;

therefore, the proximity relation discovery process requires that only UEs with a friendship can discover each other, and if the application layer displays that the UEs are not friendships, the UEs cannot discover each other, that is, two terminals in proximity need to satisfy a certain social relation.

For the limited scenario defined by the 3GPP for the proximity relationship discovery process, further, in step 43, before the obtaining the location information of the first terminal and the second terminal, the application layer device further includes: and judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the set social relationship.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the set social relationship means that the identity relationship between terminals registered in the same social network satisfies the set condition, where the application layer device may query the identity relationship between terminals registered in the same social network in a context stored by the application layer device, for example, the UE1 and the UE2 are a friendship, and the UE1 and the UE3 are not a friendship; for another example, UE1 belongs to the same group as UE2, UE2 does not belong to the same group as UE 3; and the like;

the set social relationship may be that the second terminal to be determined is in a friendship with the first terminal, or that the second terminal to be determined and the first terminal belong to the same set group, and so on; in the embodiment of the invention, the conditions which need to be met in the process of discovering the identity relationship of each terminal registered in the same social network can be set according to actual needs.

Further, referring to fig. 5, in step 41, the application layer device obtains and stores subscription information of each terminal (including at least a first terminal and a second terminal) according to the following steps:

step 51, in the process of initiating attachment by a certain terminal, the MME in which the terminal currently resides initiates a subscription information acquisition request to the HSS, where the subscription information acquisition request carries an internal identifier of the terminal; signaling transmission between the MME and the HSS employs an internal identifier to identify a corresponding terminal, such as an IMSI;

for the attach procedure of the terminal, please refer to 3GPP TS 23.401 protocol, which is not described herein again.

Step 52, the HSS obtains the subscription information corresponding to the internal identifier from the subscription information of each terminal stored in the HSS according to the internal identifier carried in the received subscription information obtaining request, and sends the obtained subscription information and the mapping relationship between the internal identifier and the external identifier (such as the mapping relationship between the IMSI and the application layer identifier) of the terminal to the MME;

the HSS stores the subscription information of each terminal, and for the terminal with the proximity relation discovery function, the subscription information also comprises the proximity relation subscription information of the terminal, and because the terminal and the application layer equipment use the external identifier for interaction and the terminal and the 3GPP network side equipment use the internal identifier for interaction, the HSS also stores the mapping relation between the internal identifier and the external identifier of each terminal; generally, the internal identifier of the terminal is an IMSI, and the external identifier of the terminal is an application layer identifier (e.g., a QQ number of the terminal, an MSN account number, etc.).

Step 53, the MME sends the subscription information of the terminal returned by the HSS and the mapping relationship between the internal identifier and the external identifier of the terminal to the intermediate interaction device; and

and step 54, the intermediate interaction device stores the received mapping relationship between the internal identifier and the external identifier of the terminal, and sends the subscription information of the terminal and the external identifier of the terminal to the application layer device for storage.

Preferably, in step 53, the MME further sends the identification information of itself to the intermediate interaction device for storage;

correspondingly, in step 54, after receiving the identification information of the MME sent by the MME, the intermediate interaction layer device stores the identification information of the MME where the terminal currently resides.

Preferably, after the MME where a certain terminal currently resides is changed, the MME where the terminal currently resides sends an update request to the intermediate interaction device, where the update request carries identification information of the MME itself and an internal identification of the terminal;

correspondingly, the intermediate interaction device updates the stored identification information of the MME where the terminal currently resides according to the received update request, so as to ensure that the identification information of the MME stored in the intermediate interaction device is valid information.

It should be noted that, signaling interaction between the MME and the HSS adopts an internal identifier to identify the terminal; signaling interaction between the MME and the intermediate interaction equipment adopts an internal identifier to identify the terminal; the signaling interaction between the intermediate interaction device and the application layer device uses an external identifier to identify the terminal, such as the application layer ID of the terminal.

Preferably, in the embodiment of the present invention, the intermediate interaction device may be deployed alone, may be co-located with the MTC-IWF, and may also be co-located with the HSS.

Specifically, if the intermediate interaction device is combined with the MTC-IWF, the intermediate interaction device may interact with the MME and the application layer device through the interface Xx and the interface Xz, respectively; the interface T5b and the interface Tsp of the MTC-IWF may also interact with the MME and the application layer device, respectively, where the interface T5b and the interface Tsp are defined to have the functions of the interface Xx and the interface Xz;

and if the intermediate interaction equipment is combined with the HSS, the intermediate interaction equipment interacts with the MME and the application layer equipment through an interface Xx and an interface Xz respectively.

Fig. 6 is a network architecture diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention, in the network architecture, an interface Xx is defined for interaction between an intermediate interaction device and an MME, where the interface Xx is used to implement a process of acquiring location information and subscription information of a terminal between the intermediate interaction device and the MME, specifically: the MME sends the acquired subscription information of the terminal and the mapping relation between the internal identifier and the external identifier of the terminal to intermediate interaction equipment through an interface Xx; the middle interaction equipment sends a position information acquisition request to the MME through an interface Xx, and the MME sends the acquired position information of the terminal to the middle interaction equipment through the interface Xx;

defining the interaction between the intermediate interaction device and the application layer device through an interface Xz, wherein the interface Xy is used for realizing the acquisition process of the position information and the subscription information of the terminal between the intermediate interaction device and the application layer device, and specifically: the intermediate interaction equipment sends the acquired subscription information of the terminal to the application layer equipment through an interface Xz; and the application layer equipment initiates a position information acquisition request to the intermediate interactive equipment through an interface Xz, and the intermediate interactive equipment sends the acquired position information of the terminal to the application layer equipment through the interface Xz.

It should be noted that the interface Xy and the interface Xz may be defined by any existing protocol stack as long as the above functions are implemented.

Taking the network architecture shown in fig. 6 as an example, the process of acquiring the subscription information of each terminal in the embodiment of the present invention includes: the interactions between the HSS and the MME, between the MME and the intermediate interaction device, and between the intermediate interaction device and the application layer device are shown in fig. 7, and specifically refer to steps 51 to 54.

Preferably, the intermediate interaction device in the embodiment of the present invention may be deployed alone, may be disposed in an MTC-IWF, and may be disposed in an HSS.

Specifically, if the intermediate interaction device is arranged in the MTC-IWF, the intermediate interaction device may interact with the HSS and the application layer device through the interface Xy and the interface Xz, respectively; the MTC-IWF may also interact with the HSS and the application layer device through an interface S6m and an interface Tsp of the MTC-IWF, where the interface S6m and the interface Tsp are defined to have the functions of the interface Xy and the interface Xz;

if the intermediate interaction device is arranged in the HSS, the intermediate interaction device interacts with the HSS and the application layer device through an interface Xy and an interface Xz respectively, wherein the interaction between the intermediate interaction device and the HSS adopts internal signaling.

Further, the proximity relation discovery request initiated by the first terminal includes the following two types:

the first proximity relation discovery request is: the first terminal requests to determine whether the first terminal and a second terminal specified by the first terminal meet the proximity principle (or meet the proximity principle and a set social relationship); the proximity relation discovery request also carries an external identifier of the second terminal;

in this application scenario, the first terminal needs to be able to obtain the external identifier of the second terminal specified by the first terminal, for example, the first terminal may obtain the external identifier of the second terminal through the application layer device, and certainly, the external identifier of the second terminal may also be obtained in other manners.

The second proximity relation discovery request is: the first terminal requests to determine all the second terminals which satisfy the proximity principle (or the proximity principle and the set social relationship) with itself.

The following describes the execution procedure of step 43 after the first terminal initiates the proximity relation discovery request for the limited scenario of the proximity relation discovery procedure defined by the above-mentioned 3 GPP.

For the first proximity relationship discovery request, before the application layer device obtains the location information of the first terminal and the second terminal in step 43, the method further includes:

and the application layer equipment determines that the second terminal has the function which can be discovered by other terminals and the second terminal and the first terminal meet the set social relationship according to the external identifier of the second terminal carried in the proximity relationship discovery request.

Correspondingly, after the application layer equipment determines that the second terminal has the function which can be found by other terminals and the second terminal and the first terminal meet the set social relationship, the application layer equipment acquires the position information of the first terminal and the second terminal; after receiving the position information returned by the intermediate interaction equipment, determining whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the proximity principle or not according to the position information of the first terminal and the second terminal;

if yes, determining that the second terminal is adjacent to the first terminal;

and if not, determining that the second terminal is not adjacent to the first terminal.

Correspondingly, in step 44, the sending, by the application layer device, the determination result to the first terminal includes:

if the determination result in the step 43 is that the second terminal is adjacent to the first terminal, the application layer device returns an adjacent response message to the first terminal; and

if the determination result in step 43 is that the second terminal is not adjacent to the first terminal, the application layer device returns a non-proximity response message to the first terminal.

Preferably, step 44 further includes: and the application layer equipment sends the judgment result to the second terminal.

Specifically, if the determination result in step 43 is that the second terminal is adjacent to the first terminal, the application layer device returns a response message adjacent to the first terminal to the second terminal, where the returned message carries the external identifier of the first terminal;

if the determination result in step 43 is that the second terminal is not adjacent to the first terminal, the application layer device returns a non-adjacent response message to the second terminal, where the returned message carries the external identifier of the first terminal.

Further, the application layer device determines that the second terminal has a function that can be discovered by other terminals according to the following steps:

the application layer equipment acquires the subscription information of the second terminal from the subscription information of the terminal stored by the application layer equipment according to the external identifier of the second terminal carried in the proximity relation discovery request;

the application layer equipment judges whether the second terminal has a function which can be discovered by other terminals or not according to the subscription information of the second terminal; and

and when the proximity relation subscription information contained in the subscription information is that the terminal is allowed to be discovered by other terminals and is not allowed to be discovered by other terminals, or the terminal is allowed to be discovered by other terminals and is allowed to be discovered by other terminals, determining that the second terminal has the function of allowing the second terminal to be discovered by other terminals.

Further, if the subscription information does not include proximity relation subscription information (that is, the terminal does not have a proximity relation discovery function), or the proximity relation subscription information of the terminal is that the terminal allows discovery of other terminals and is not allowed to be discovered by other terminals, or the proximity relation subscription information of the terminal is that the terminal does not allow discovery of other terminals and is not allowed to be discovered by other terminals, it is determined that the second terminal does not have a function of allowing discovery by other terminals.

In this embodiment, the application layer device determines whether the second terminal has a function that can be discovered by other terminals, and determines whether the order of the set social relationship between the second terminal and the first terminal is satisfied, where the order is not limited, that is: the application layer device may first determine whether the second terminal has a function that can be discovered by other terminals, and then determine whether the second terminal and the first terminal satisfy a set social relationship; or judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the set social relationship, and then judging whether the second terminal has the function which can be discovered by other terminals. Specifically, the method comprises the following steps:

the application layer device may first determine whether the second terminal has a function that can be discovered by other terminals, and if not, determine that the second terminal is not adjacent to the first terminal; if yes, continuously determining whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the set social relationship, and if not, determining that the second terminal is not adjacent to the first terminal; if so, determining whether the second terminal has the function which can be found by other terminals and whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the set social relationship;

the application layer device may also determine whether the second terminal and the first terminal satisfy the set social relationship, and if not, determine that the second terminal is not adjacent to the first terminal; if yes, continuing to determine whether the second terminal has the function which can be found by other terminals, and if not, determining that the second terminal is not adjacent to the first terminal; and if so, determining whether the second terminal has the function which can be found by other terminals and whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the set social relationship.

For the second proximity relationship discovery request, before the application layer device obtains the location information of the first terminal and the second terminal in step 43, the method further includes:

the application layer device determines all second terminals which have the functions which can be discovered by other terminals and meet the set social relationship with the first terminal.

Correspondingly, the application layer equipment acquires the first terminal and the determined position information of all the second terminals; and after receiving the position information returned by the intermediate interactive equipment, determining the second terminal which meets the proximity principle with the first terminal according to the first terminal and the determined position information of all the second terminals.

if the determination result in step 43 is that there is a second terminal that has a function that can be discovered by other terminals and that satisfies the set social relationship and proximity rule with the first terminal, the application layer device returns a successful response message to the first terminal, and feeds back the external identifiers and/or location information of all the second terminals determined in step 43 to the first terminal; and

if the determination result in step 43 is that there is no second terminal that satisfies the above condition, the application layer device returns a failure response message to the first terminal.

Preferably, step 44 further includes: the application layer equipment sends the judgment result to the second terminal;

specifically, if the result of the determination in step 43 is that a certain second terminal and the first terminal satisfy the above condition, the application layer device returns a response message adjacent to the first terminal to the second terminal, where the returned message carries the external identifier of the first terminal.

Preferably, the application layer device sends the judgment result in step 43 to the first terminal and/or the second terminal through an application layer message.

Further, the application layer device determines all second terminals with functions capable of being discovered by other terminals according to the subscription information of each terminal stored by the application layer device; specifically, the method comprises the following steps:

and if the proximity relation subscription information contained in the subscription information is that the terminal is allowed to be discovered by other terminals and is not allowed to be discovered by other terminals, or the terminal is allowed to be discovered by other terminals and is allowed to be discovered by other terminals, determining that the second terminal has the function of allowing the second terminal to be discovered by other terminals.

Further, the application layer device may query all second terminals that satisfy a set social relationship (e.g., a friendship) with the first terminal from its stored context.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, the application layer device obtains the location information of each terminal (including at least the first terminal and the second terminal) according to the following steps:

the method comprises the steps that an application layer device sends a position information acquisition request to an intermediate interaction device, wherein the position information acquisition request carries an external identifier of a terminal;

the intermediate interaction equipment determines the internal identifier of the terminal according to the mapping relation between the internal identifier and the external identifier stored by the intermediate interaction equipment, and initiates a position query request to an MME (mobility management entity) where the terminal currently resides, wherein the position query request carries the internal identifier of the terminal;

the MME acquires the position information of the terminal according to the internal identification carried in the received position query request, and sends the acquired position information to the intermediate interaction equipment, wherein the position information comprises: one or a combination of the ID of the cell where the terminal currently resides, the ID of the base station where the terminal currently resides and the geographical location information of the terminal; and

and the intermediate interaction equipment sends the received position information of the terminal to the application layer equipment.

Still taking the network architecture diagram shown in fig. 6 as an example, in the embodiment of the present invention, the process of acquiring the location information of each terminal includes: the interaction between the intermediate interaction device and the application layer device and the interaction between the intermediate interaction device and the MME are shown in fig. 8.

The above method process flow may be implemented by a software program, which may be stored in a storage medium, and when the stored software program is called, the above method steps are performed.

Based on the foregoing embodiments, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an application layer device, as shown in fig. 9, where the application layer device includes:

a subscription information acquisition module 90, configured to acquire and store subscription information of each terminal;

a receiving module 91, configured to receive a proximity relationship discovery request of a first terminal, and determine that the first terminal has a function of discovering other terminals according to subscription information corresponding to the first terminal and stored in the subscription information obtaining module 90, where the proximity relationship discovery request carries an external identifier of the first terminal;

a location information obtaining module 92, configured to obtain location information of the first terminal and the second terminal;

a determining module 93, configured to determine whether the second terminal and the first terminal satisfy a proximity rule, where the proximity rule indicates that a distance between the first terminal and the second terminal satisfies a set condition;

a sending module 94, configured to send the determination result of the determining module 93 to the first terminal.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the second terminal refers to a terminal different from the first terminal.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the proximity rule means that a distance between the first terminal and the second terminal satisfies a predetermined condition.

Further, the distance between the first terminal and the second terminal satisfying the setting condition includes: the distance between the first terminal and the second terminal is not greater than a set threshold, or the first terminal and the second terminal reside in the same cell, or the first terminal and the second terminal reside in the same base station.

Further, the decision module 93 is further configured to: before the location information obtaining module 92 obtains the location information of the first terminal and the second terminal, it is further determined whether the second terminal and the first terminal satisfy the set social relationship.

Further, the application layer device further comprises:

the subscription information obtaining module 95 is configured to receive and store subscription information of each terminal sent by the intermediate interaction device, where the subscription information sent by the intermediate interaction device carries an external identifier of the terminal.

As an application scenario, if the proximity relationship discovery request is: the method comprises the steps that a first terminal requests to determine whether the first terminal and a second terminal designated by the first terminal meet a proximity principle and a set social relationship, and a proximity relationship discovery request also carries an external identifier of the second terminal; the decision module 93 is specifically configured to:

before the location information obtaining module 92 obtains the location information of the first terminal and the second terminal, it is determined that the second terminal has a function that can be found by other terminals and that the second terminal and the first terminal satisfy the set social relationship according to the external identifier of the second terminal carried in the proximity relationship discovery request.

As another application scenario, if the proximity relationship discovery request is: the first terminal requests to determine all second terminals meeting the proximity principle and the set social relationship; the decision module 93 is specifically configured to:

before the location information obtaining module 92 obtains the location information of the first terminal and the second terminal, determining all the second terminals which have functions that can be found by other terminals and meet the set social relationship with the first terminal; and after the position information obtaining module 92 receives the position information returned by the intermediate interaction device, according to the first terminal and the determined position information of all the second terminals, determining the second terminal which meets the proximity principle with the first terminal.

Correspondingly, the sending module 94 is further configured to:

and feeding back the external identification and/or the position information of all the second terminals which are determined to have the functions which can be discovered by other terminals and meet the set social relationship and the proximity principle with the first terminal to the first terminal.

Further, the sending module 94 is further configured to: and sending the judgment result of the judgment module 93 to the second terminal.

Based on the foregoing embodiments, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a communication system, as shown in fig. 10, where the communication system includes:

the application layer device 100 is configured to acquire and store subscription information of each terminal; after receiving a proximity relationship discovery request of a first terminal 110, determining that the first terminal 110 has a function of being able to discover other terminals according to proximity relationship subscription information corresponding to the first terminal 110; acquiring position information of the first terminal 110 and the second terminal, judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal 110 meet a proximity principle, and sending a judgment result to the first terminal 110; the proximity relation discovery request carries an external identifier of the first terminal 110, and the proximity principle means that a distance between the first terminal and the second terminal meets a set condition;

the first terminal 110 is configured to send a proximity relationship discovery request to an application layer device, and receive a determination result fed back by the application layer device.

Further, the application layer device 100 is further configured to: before the position information of the first terminal 110 and the second terminal is obtained, it is further determined whether the second terminal and the first terminal 110 satisfy a set social relationship.

Further, the communication system further includes: MME120, intermediate interaction device 130, and HSS 140; the subscription information acquisition process of each terminal comprises the following steps:

the MME120 is configured to send a subscription information acquisition request to the HSS140, and send a feedback of the HSS140 to the intermediate interaction device 130, where the subscription information acquisition request carries an internal identifier of the terminal;

the HSS140 is configured to acquire, according to the internal identifier carried in the received subscription information acquisition request, subscription information corresponding to the internal identifier from subscription information stored in the HSS, and send the acquired subscription information and a mapping relationship between the internal identifier and an external identifier of the terminal stored in the HSS to the MME 120;

the intermediate interaction device 130 is configured to store the received mapping relationship between the internal identifier and the external identifier of the terminal, and send the received subscription information of the terminal to the application layer server 100.

Further, the MME120 is further configured to: when the feedback of the HSS140 is sent to the intermediate interaction device 130, the identification information of the HSS is sent to the intermediate interaction layer device 130;

the intermediate interaction layer device 130 is also configured to: the identification information of the MME120 where the terminal currently resides is saved.

Further, after the MME120 where a certain terminal currently resides is changed, the MME120 where the terminal currently resides is further configured to: sending an update request to the intermediate interactive device 130, where the update request carries identification information of itself and an internal identification of the terminal;

the intermediate interaction device 130 is further configured to: and updating the stored identification information of the MME where the terminal currently resides according to the received updating request.

Further, the application layer device 100 is further configured to: initiating a position information acquisition request to the intermediate interactive device 130, wherein the position information acquisition request carries an external identifier of the terminal;

the intermediate interaction device 130 is further configured to: determining an internal identifier corresponding to the external identifier carried in the received position information acquisition request according to a mapping relation between the internal identifier and the external identifier stored in the terminal, and initiating a position query request to an MME120 where the terminal currently resides, wherein the position information query request carries the internal identifier of the terminal; and sending feedback of the MME120 where the terminal currently resides to the application layer device 100;

the MME120 where the terminal currently resides is further configured to: acquiring the position information of the terminal according to the internal identifier carried in the received position query request, and sending the acquired position information to the intermediate interaction device 130 and carrying the internal identifier of the terminal, wherein the position information includes: one or a combination of an ID of a cell in which the terminal currently resides, an ID of a base station in which the terminal currently resides, and geographical location information of the terminal.

Preferably, the intermediate interactive device 130 is integrated with a machine type communication interactive function MTC-IWF entity; or the intermediate interaction device is co-located with the 130 HSS.

The application layer equipment of the embodiment of the invention acquires and stores the subscription information of each terminal; after receiving a proximity relation discovery request of a first terminal, determining that the first terminal has a function of discovering other terminals according to proximity relation subscription information corresponding to the first terminal; judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet the proximity principle or not, and sending a judgment result to the first terminal; the embodiment of the invention provides a scheme for determining the proximity relation between user equipment, which has small change on the network architecture in the existing protocol and is easy to realize.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all such alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method of determining proximity relationships between user devices, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein before the application layer device obtains the location information of the first terminal and the second terminal, the method further comprises:

the application layer device judges whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet a set social relationship, wherein the set social relationship means that identity relationships among terminals registered in the same social network meet set conditions.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the application layer device obtains the subscription information of each terminal according to the following steps:

and the application layer equipment receives and stores the subscription information of each terminal sent by the intermediate interactive equipment.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein before the application layer device receives the subscription information of the terminal sent by the intermediate interactive device, the method further comprises:

a mobile management entity MME where a terminal resides currently sends a subscription information acquisition request to a home subscriber server HSS, wherein the subscription information acquisition request carries an internal identifier of the terminal;

the HSS acquires the subscription information corresponding to the internal identification from the subscription information stored in the HSS according to the internal identification carried in the received subscription information acquisition request, and sends the acquired subscription information and the mapping relation between the internal identification and the external identification of the terminal stored in the HSS to the MME;

the MME sends the received terminal subscription information and the mapping relation between the internal identifier and the external identifier of the terminal to the intermediate interaction equipment;

and the intermediate interaction layer equipment stores the received mapping relation between the internal identifier and the external identifier of the terminal and sends the received subscription information of the terminal to the application layer server.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the MME, when sending the subscription information of the terminal returned by the HSS and the mapping relationship between the internal identifier and the external identifier of the terminal to the intermediate interaction device, further comprises:

the MME sends the identification information of the MME to the intermediate interaction layer equipment;

when the mapping relationship between the internal identifier and the external identifier of the terminal is stored, the intermediate interaction layer device further includes:

and the intermediate interaction layer equipment stores the identification information of the MME where the terminal currently resides.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

after the MME where a certain terminal currently resides is changed, the MME where the terminal currently resides sends an updating request to the intermediate interaction equipment, wherein the updating request carries identification information of the MME and an internal identification of the terminal;

and the intermediate interaction equipment updates the stored identification information of the MME where the terminal currently resides according to the received updating request.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the intermediate interaction device is co-located with a machine type communication interaction function, MTC-IWF, entity; or the intermediate interaction device is co-located with the HSS.

8. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the application layer device obtains the location information of each terminal according to the following steps:

the application layer equipment initiates a position information acquisition request to the intermediate interactive equipment, wherein the position information acquisition request carries the external identifier of the terminal;

the intermediate interaction equipment determines an internal identifier corresponding to the external identifier carried in the received position information acquisition request according to a mapping relation between the internal identifier and the external identifier stored in the intermediate interaction equipment, and initiates a position inquiry request to an MME (mobility management entity) where the terminal currently resides, wherein the position information inquiry request carries the internal identifier of the terminal;

the MME acquires the position information of the terminal according to the internal identification carried in the received position query request, and sends the acquired position information to the intermediate interaction equipment and carries the internal identification of the terminal;

the intermediate interaction equipment feeds back the received position information to the application layer equipment;

wherein the location information comprises: one or a combination of an ID of a cell in which the terminal currently resides, an ID of a base station in which the terminal currently resides, and geographical location information of the terminal.

9. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein if the proximity relation discovery request is: the first terminal requests to determine whether the first terminal and a second terminal designated by the first terminal meet the proximity principle and the set social relationship, wherein the proximity relationship discovery request also carries an external identifier of the second terminal;

before the application layer device obtains the location information of the first terminal and the second terminal, the method further includes:

and the application layer equipment determines that the second terminal has a function which can be discovered by other terminals and the second terminal and the first terminal meet the set social relationship according to the external identifier of the second terminal carried in the proximity relationship discovery request.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein if the proximity relation discovery request is: the first terminal requests to determine all second terminals which meet the proximity principle and the set social relation with the first terminal;

the application layer equipment determines all second terminals which have functions which can be discovered by other terminals and meet the set social relationship with the first terminal;

judging whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet a proximity principle, further comprising:

and after receiving the position information returned by the intermediate interaction equipment, the application layer equipment determines a second terminal meeting the proximity principle with the first terminal according to the first terminal and the determined position information of all the second terminals.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the application layer device sends the determination result to the first terminal, further comprising:

and the application layer equipment feeds back the external identifications and/or position information of all the second terminals which are determined to have the functions which can be discovered by other terminals and meet the set social relationship and the proximity principle with the first terminal to the first terminal.

12. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the application layer device sends the judgment result to the second terminal.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the application layer device sends the determination result to the first terminal and/or the second terminal through an application layer message.

14. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the proximity criterion is that a distance between the first terminal and the second terminal satisfies a set condition.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the distance between the first terminal and the second terminal satisfying a set condition comprises: the distance between the first terminal and the second terminal is not greater than a set threshold, or the first terminal and the second terminal reside in the same cell, or the first terminal and the second terminal reside in the same base station.

16. An application layer device, characterized in that the application layer device comprises:

a receiving module, configured to receive a proximity relationship discovery request of a first terminal, and determine that the first terminal has a function of being able to discover other terminals according to subscription information corresponding to the first terminal stored in the subscription information obtaining module, where the proximity relationship discovery request carries an external identifier of the first terminal;

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the determination module is further to:

before the position information acquisition module acquires the position information of the first terminal and the second terminal, whether the second terminal and the first terminal meet a set social relationship is judged, wherein the set social relationship means that identity relationships among terminals registered in the same social network meet set conditions.

18. The device of claim 16 or 17, wherein the subscription information acquisition module is specifically configured to:

and receiving and storing the subscription information of each terminal sent by the intermediate interactive equipment, wherein the subscription information sent by the intermediate interactive equipment carries the external identifier of the terminal.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein the determination module is further to:

if the proximity relation discovery request is: the first terminal requests to determine whether the first terminal and a second terminal designated by the first terminal meet the proximity principle and the set social relationship, and the proximity relationship discovery request also carries an external identifier of the second terminal;

before the position information acquiring module acquires the position information of the first terminal and the second terminal, according to the external identifier of the second terminal carried in the proximity relation discovery request, it is determined that the second terminal has a function which can be discovered by other terminals, and the second terminal and the first terminal meet the set social relation.

20. The device of claim 17, wherein the determination module is further to:

if the proximity relation discovery request is: the first terminal requests to determine all second terminals which meet the proximity principle and the set social relation with the first terminal;

before the position information acquisition module acquires the position information of the first terminal and the second terminal, determining all second terminals which have functions which can be discovered by other terminals and meet the set social relationship with the first terminal; and after the position information acquisition module receives the position information returned by the intermediate interaction equipment, determining the second terminals meeting the proximity principle with the first terminal according to the first terminal and the determined position information of all the second terminals.

21. The device of claim 20, wherein the sending module is further to:

22. The device of claim 16 or 17, wherein the sending module is further to: and sending the judgment result to the second terminal.

23. A communication system, comprising:

24. The communication system of claim 23, wherein the application layer device is further configured to:

before obtaining the location information of the first terminal and the second terminal, it is further determined whether the second terminal and the first terminal satisfy a set social relationship, where the set social relationship means that an identity relationship between terminals registered in the same social network satisfies a set condition.

25. The communication system according to claim 23 or 24, wherein the communication system further comprises: MME, intermediate interaction equipment and HSS; wherein,

the MME is used for sending a subscription information acquisition request to the HSS and sending the feedback of the HSS to the intermediate interaction equipment, wherein the subscription information acquisition request carries the internal identification of the terminal;

the HSS is used for acquiring the subscription information corresponding to the internal identification from the subscription information stored in the HSS according to the internal identification carried in the received subscription information acquisition request, and sending the acquired subscription information and the mapping relation between the internal identification and the external identification of the terminal stored in the HSS to the MME;

and the intermediate interaction device is used for storing the received mapping relation between the internal identifier and the external identifier of the terminal and sending the received subscription information of the terminal to the application layer server.

26. The communication system of claim 25, wherein the MME is further configured to: when the feedback of the HSS is sent to the intermediate interaction equipment, the identification information of the HSS is sent to the intermediate interaction layer equipment;

the intermediate interaction layer device is further to: and storing the identification information of the MME where the terminal currently resides.

27. The communication system of claim 26, wherein after the MME in which the terminal currently resides is changed, the MME in which the terminal currently resides is further configured to: sending an updating request to the intermediate interactive equipment, wherein the updating request carries identification information of the updating request and an internal identification of the terminal;

the intermediate interaction device is further configured to: and updating the stored identification information of the MME where the terminal currently resides according to the received updating request.

28. The communication system of claim 23 or 24, wherein the application layer device is further configured to: initiating a position information acquisition request to the intermediate interactive equipment, wherein the position information acquisition request carries the external identifier of the terminal;

the intermediate interaction device is further configured to: determining an internal identifier corresponding to an external identifier carried in a received position information acquisition request according to a mapping relation between the internal identifier and the external identifier stored in the terminal, and initiating a position query request to an MME (mobility management entity) where the terminal currently resides, wherein the position information query request carries the internal identifier of the terminal; sending the feedback of the MME where the terminal currently resides to the application layer equipment;

the MME where the terminal currently resides is further configured to: acquiring the position information of the terminal according to the internal identifier carried in the received position query request, and sending the acquired position information to the intermediate interaction device and carrying the internal identifier of the terminal, wherein the position information comprises: one or a combination of an ID of a cell in which the terminal currently resides, an ID of a base station in which the terminal currently resides, and geographical location information of the terminal.

29. The communication system of claim 25, wherein the intermediate interaction device is co-located with a machine type communication interaction function, MTC-IWF entity; or the intermediate interaction device is co-located with the HSS.