CN106470416B

CN106470416B - Method and device for reporting data transmission state and determining transmission data volume

Info

Publication number: CN106470416B
Application number: CN201510502506.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 孙建成
Original assignee: China Academy of Telecommunications Technology CATT
Current assignee: China Academy of Telecommunications Technology CATT; Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2015-08-14
Filing date: 2015-08-14
Publication date: 2020-03-24
Anticipated expiration: 2035-08-14
Also published as: WO2017028681A1; CN106470416A

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and a device for reporting a data transmission state and determining a transmission data quantity, wherein the method comprises the following steps: forming a transmission status report at the wireless local area network side according to a data receiving confirmation report returned by the user equipment, wherein the transmission status report carries the data transmission success rate of the data transmitted by the wireless local area network side, and the data transmitted by the wireless local area network side is the data transmitted by the wireless local area network side and distributed to the wireless local area network side in the data transmitted by the user equipment; and sending the transmission state report to a long-term evolution network side. Receiving a transmission state report sent by a wireless local area network side at a long-term evolution network side; and when the long term evolution network and the wireless local area network are subjected to aggregate transmission, determining the data quantity distributed to the wireless local area network side for transmission in the data transmitted to the user equipment according to the data transmission success rate. The invention is simple to implement, has little influence on the prior wireless local area network equipment and is easy to implement.

Description

Method and device for reporting data transmission state and determining transmission data volume

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for reporting a data transmission status and determining a data transmission amount.

Background

With the increase of user demand and the development of communication technology, more and more Wireless communication technologies and related networks are emerging, for example, operators can provide not only wide-coverage 2G/3G/4G mobile communication technologies and networks, but also Wireless LAN (Wireless local area network) networks with hot-spot coverage. Therefore, a large number of different communication network coexistence scenarios, such as 2G/3G/4G network and WLAN coexistence scenarios, have occurred. Under these network coexistence scenarios, the LTE-WLAN aggregation technology enables User data or bearer of a UE (User Equipment) to be flexibly switched or concurrent between LTE (Long Term Evolution) and WLAN. In order to ensure that a better QoE (Quality of experience) is provided for a user, a flow control mechanism (referred to as flow control for short) needs to be introduced in the process of data forwarding between LTE and WLAN to ensure the throughput of the user as much as possible and prevent congestion on the WLAN.

However, the prior art has the disadvantages that: at present, no corresponding flow control scheme applicable to the LTE-WLAN aggregation technology exists.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a method and a device for reporting a data transmission state, and a method and a device for determining a transmission data volume, which are used for providing a flow control scheme applied to an LTE and WLAN aggregation technology.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for determining transmission data volume, which comprises the following steps:

receiving a transmission state report sent by a WLAN side, wherein the transmission state report carries a data transmission success rate of data transmitted by the WLAN side, and the data transmitted by the WLAN side is data transmitted by the WLAN side and is distributed to the WLAN side in the data transmitted to the UE;

and when the LTE and the WLAN are subjected to aggregate transmission, determining the data quantity distributed to the WLAN side for transmission in the data transmitted to the UE according to the data transmission success rate.

Preferably, the transmission status report is sent from an AL layer on the WLAN side.

Preferably, the transmission status report is received at a PDCP layer of the LTE side.

Preferably, further comprising:

receiving the load bearing state reported by the WLAN side, and/or determining the load bearing state of the LTE side;

when determining the data volume allocated to the WLAN side for transmission, determining the data volume allocated to the WLAN side for transmission according to one of the load bearing state reported by the WLAN side, the load bearing state reported by the LTE side, and the data transmission success rate, or a combination thereof.

The embodiment of the invention provides a method for reporting a data transmission state, which comprises the following steps:

receiving a data receiving confirmation report returned by the UE;

forming a transmission status report according to the data reception confirmation report returned by the UE, wherein the transmission status report carries the data transmission success rate of the data transmitted by the WLAN side, and the data transmitted by the WLAN side is the data transmitted by the WLAN side and distributed to the WLAN side in the data transmitted to the UE;

and sending the transmission state report to an LTE side.

Preferably, the data reception confirmation report returned by the UE is received at the LLC layer on the WLAN side.

Preferably, the transmission status report is formed according to the data reception confirmation report returned by the UE, and is formed at the AL layer on the WLAN side.

Preferably, the transmission status report is sent to the LTE side and sent to the PDCP layer of the LTE side.

Preferably, the transmission status report is transmitted to the LTE side from the AL layer of the WLAN side.

The embodiment of the invention provides a device for determining transmission data volume, which comprises:

a first receiving module, configured to receive a transmission status report sent by a WLAN side, where the transmission status report carries a data transmission success rate of data transmitted by the WLAN side, and the data transmitted by the WLAN side is data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission among data transmitted to a UE;

and the determining module is used for determining the data volume distributed to the WLAN side for transmission in the data transmitted to the UE according to the data transmission success rate when the LTE and the WLAN are subjected to aggregated transmission.

Preferably, the first receiving module is further configured to receive the transmission status report sent from an AL layer on the WLAN side.

Preferably, the first receiving module is further configured to receive the transmission status report at a PDCP layer of the LTE side.

Preferably, further comprising:

a state acquisition module, configured to receive a bearer load state reported by a WLAN side, and/or determine a bearer load state of an LTE side;

the determining module is further configured to determine the amount of data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission according to one of or a combination of a bearer load status reported by the WLAN side, a bearer load status of the LTE side, and the data transmission success rate, when determining the amount of data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission.

The embodiment of the invention provides a reporting device of a data transmission state, which comprises:

a second receiving module, configured to receive a data reception confirmation report returned by the UE;

a report module, configured to form a transmission status report according to a data reception confirmation report returned by the UE, where the transmission status report carries a data transmission success rate of data transmitted by a WLAN side, and the data transmitted by the WLAN side is data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission among data transmitted to the UE;

and the sending module is used for sending the transmission state report to an LTE side.

Preferably, the second receiving module is further configured to receive, at the LLC layer on the WLAN side, a data reception confirmation report returned by the UE.

Preferably, the reporting module is further configured to form a transmission status report according to the data reception confirmation report returned by the UE at the AL layer on the WLAN side.

Preferably, the sending module is further configured to send the transmission status report to a PDCP layer of the LTE side.

Preferably, the sending module is further configured to send the transmission status report from the AL layer on the WLAN side to the LTE side.

The invention has the following beneficial effects:

in the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present invention, at the WLAN side, a transmission status report carrying a data transmission success rate is formed according to a data reception confirmation report returned by the UE, and is sent to the LTE side, so as to be used as a basis for determining the flow control of the split data volume by the LTE side. And on the WLAN side, when the LTE and the WLAN are subjected to aggregate transmission, determining the data volume distributed to the WLAN side for transmission in the data transmitted to the UE according to the data transmission success rate.

When the transmission status report is formed according to the data reception confirmation report returned by the UE, the success rate can be calculated by multiplexing the existing MAC PDU transmission status report by using the existing ACK mechanism of WLAN MAC data transmission. Therefore, the implementation is simple, and the influence on the existing WLAN equipment is small.

Furthermore, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in the AL layer, and the AL layer is necessarily introduced in the implementation of the LTE and WLAN aggregation technologies, so the present solution is easy to implement.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the invention and not to limit the invention. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of LTE-WLAN aggregation technology in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of two architectures of LTE-WLAN aggregation techniques according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an L2 architecture for bearer offload in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a bearer separation L2 architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a split bearer data transmission process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a method for determining a transmission data amount according to the present invention;

fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an implementation of a method for reporting a data transmission status according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an apparatus for determining an amount of data to be transmitted according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary reporting apparatus for reporting data transmission status according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a base station structure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an access point device in an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following describes embodiments of the present invention with reference to the drawings.

The inventor notices in the process of invention that:

fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an LTE-WLAN aggregation technology, and as shown in the figure, the basic idea of the technology is to fully utilize resources of an eNB and a WLAN to provide better QoE for a UE, such as a faster download rate for the UE, in a common coverage area of the LTE and the WLAN. In the technology, an eNB is used as a control node, and determines whether to aggregate WLAN AP resources for a certain UE according to signal strength and load conditions of a WLAN AP (Access Point), and shunts all/part of data on a certain bearer of the eNB to the WLAN AP side for transmission.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of two architectures of the LTE-WLAN aggregation technology, and as shown in the figure, only two architectures of "bearer offloading" and "bearer splitting" are considered in the LTE-WLAN aggregation technology. The method comprises the following specific steps:

1. load-bearing shunting architecture

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an L2 architecture for bearer offloading, and as shown, a connection of a UE to an eNB may have an independent bearer. All Data carried by one or more EPS (Evolved Packet System) on the eNB is shunted to the AP for transmission, a PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) entity carried by the EPS is located in the eNB, and on the WLAN AP, there are independent WLAN layer 2 and Physical layer entities, including an LLC (logical link Control) layer, an MAC (Media Access Control) layer, and a PHY (Physical layer) layer of the WLAN.

2. Bearer separation architecture

Fig. 4 is a schematic bearer split L2 architecture, and as shown, a connection of a UE to an eNB may have an independent bearer (the part identified by a dotted line in fig. 4); the eNB may configure some or all of the bearers as split bearers (the portions identified by solid lines in fig. 4), and the eNB may offload some or all of the data on the split bearers onto the WLAN AP for transmission; the PDCP entity of the split bearer is located in the eNB, and there are separate WLAN layer 2 and physical layer entities on the WLAN AP, including the LLC layer, MAC layer and PHY layer of the WLAN.

The problem in the prior art is that in both of the above two architectures, the eNB needs to consider how to reasonably offload data on separate bearers to the WLAN AP for transmission. If the amount of data to be distributed is too much and the AP is not transmitting in time, problems such as data congestion at the WLAN side, buffer overflow, etc. may be caused, and the throughput of data on the entire bearer is not favorable; however, if the amount of the split data is too small, the resources on the AP side cannot be fully utilized, and thus, the UE throughput is not contributed, and the purpose of aggregation is not satisfied.

To date, there is no flow control mechanism for LTE-WLAN aggregation techniques. The inventor also notes that the data transmission process on the separated bearer under the separated bearer architecture in the LTE-WLAN aggregation technology is as follows:

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a separated bearer data transmission process, where a thick solid arrow in the diagram indicates a process of separated bearer data transmission at an LTE side, and a thin solid arrow indicates an acknowledgement process of LTE side data transmission; the thick dotted arrow represents the transmission process of the separated bearer data on the WLAN side, and the thin dotted arrow represents the data confirmation process thereof.

Before step 500, the LTE-WLAN aggregation function has been activated and configures bearer x of a certain UE as a split bearer. Step 500 is a data offloading process; steps L501-L507 are the transmission process of data on the LTE side; steps W501-W511 are the transmission process of data on the WLAN side; step 512 is the process of data merging submission; as shown in the figure, the method mainly comprises the following processes:

step 500, the eNB side PDCP receives downlink data on a certain UE bearer x. The eNB performs data offloading according to some existing principle, and a part of data on the bearer x is transmitted on LTE, and another part is transmitted on the WLAN side.

In the transmission process of the LTE side:

in step L501, the PDCP entity sends a PDCP PDU (Protocol Data Unit) carrying part of Data on x to an RLC (Radio Link Control) entity.

Step L502, the RLC entity of the eNB processes the data correspondingly after receiving the PDCP PDU and sends the processed data to the MAC layer.

Step L503, the MAC entity of the eNB processes the received RLC PDU and sends the RLC PDU to the UE through the PHY layer.

And L504, after the LTE MAC layer of the UE receives the data packet on the separated bearer, the data packet is normally processed and delivered to the RLC entity.

Step L505, the LTE RLC layer of the UE processes the data packet received from the MAC and delivers the data packet to the corresponding PDCP entity.

Step L506, after receiving the MAC acknowledgement mode data packet in step L505, the LTE RLC layer of the UE feeds back ACK to the network, and the ACK is sent to the eNB through the MAC and the PHY.

Step L507, the LTE MAC layer of the UE transmits ACK (Acknowledgement) in step L506.

Step L508, the MAC of the eNB sends the received UL (Up-Link) data packet to the RLC layer, and the RLC layer determines whether the data transmission in step L502 is successful according to the received ACK information, and if not, retransmits the data.

In the transmission process on the WLAN side:

step W501, the PDCP entity sends the partial data (PDCP PDU) on bearer x to AL (adaptation Layer) of the WLAN through Xw interface.

In step W502, the AL layer encapsulates the received PDCP data packet, and adds a data header to distinguish which PDCP entity or which bearer to separate.

Step W503, encapsulating the PDCP data packet in an 802.2LLC/SNAP (logical Link Control/Sub-Network Access Protocol) data frame is also completed by the AL layer, and sending the data packet to the WLAN MAC layer after encapsulation.

Step W504, the MAC encapsulates the received SDU (adds an 802.11MAC header), and then sends the SDU to the peer MAC layer of the UE side through the L1 layer.

Step W505, the WLAN MAC module of the UE removes the MAC header from the received data, and then delivers the data to the higher layer.

And step W506, the LLC/SNAP layer processes the received data packet and then delivers the processed data packet to the AL layer.

And step W507, the adaptation layer of the UE unpacks the data packet, judges the separation bearing corresponding to the data packet and sends the data to the PDCP entity corresponding to the LTE module.

In step W508, the WLAN MAC entity of the UE performs ACK acknowledgement on the received MAC PDU.

After the MAC of step W509 receives the acknowledgement of the UE or after the timer (timer) times out and does not receive the status of the acknowledgement packet, a status report is sent to the LLC layer, reporting success or failure of MPDU transmission.

In step 512, the UE side PDCP entity performs reordering and other processes on the PDCP data packets from the RLC layer and the AL layer and delivers the data packets to the higher layer.

The inventive concept of the present application is that, in the above-mentioned flow, flow control may be implemented by adding steps, the implementation of flow control mainly includes step W510 and step W511, and the eNB may adjust the data volume to be shunted to the WLAN next time/for a period of time according to the information fed back by the WLAN in step W511.

Specifically, as shown by the dotted arrow in fig. 5, the process (step W510 and step W511) is used to indicate the status of data transmission on the detached bearer on the WLAN side to the eNB, so that the eNB adjusts the data volume shunted to the WLAN next/for a period of time according to the information, that is, flow control is implemented. Step W510 and step W511 may specifically be:

step W510, LLC forwards the received status report to AL layer.

And step W511, the AL layer counts the received state packet, analyzes the MAC PDU transmission success ratio of the AP side per UE, and sends a state report to the eNB through an Xw interface.

Based on the inventive concept, the embodiment of the invention provides an information feedback scheme based on the transmission success rate statistics of the MAC PDU at the WLAN side, so that the LTE side can realize the flow control of per UE on a separate bearer in the LTE-WLAN aggregation technology, better QoE can be provided for the UE, congestion is reduced, throughput is improved, and meanwhile, the influence on the existing WLAN equipment is small.

In the solution provided in the embodiment of the present invention, in the LTE-WLAN aggregation technology, all data offloaded to the AP are from the eNB, the implementation party of flow control may be the eNB, and the transmission state of the offloaded data at the WLAN side and the resource situation or buffer situation at the WLAN side may be fed back in time through the AP at the WLAN side, which is described below.

Fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of an implementation of the method for determining the amount of transmission data, as shown in the figure, the method may include:

601, receiving a transmission status report sent by a WLAN side, where the transmission status report carries a data transmission success rate of data transmitted by the WLAN side, and the data transmitted by the WLAN side is data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission among data transmitted to a UE;

step 602, when the LTE and WLAN are aggregated for transmission, determining the amount of data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission in the data transmitted to the UE according to the data transmission success rate.

In implementation, the transmission status report may be sent from the AL layer on the WLAN side.

In an implementation, the transmission status report may be received at a PDCP layer of the LTE side.

Fig. 7 is a schematic flow chart of an implementation of a data transmission status reporting method, as shown in the figure, the method may include:

step 701, receiving a data reception confirmation report returned by the UE;

in implementation, the data reception acknowledgement report may specifically adopt an ACK message or the like.

Step 702, forming a transmission status report according to the data reception confirmation report returned by the UE, where the transmission status report carries a data transmission success rate of data transmitted by the WLAN side, and the data transmitted by the WLAN side is data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission among the data transmitted to the UE;

and step 703, sending the transmission state report to the LTE side.

In an implementation, the data reception acknowledgement report returned by the receiving UE may be received in an LLC layer on the WLAN side.

In implementation, the transmission status report is formed according to the data reception confirmation report returned by the UE, and may be formed at the AL layer on the WLAN side.

In implementation, the transmission status report is sent to the LTE side, which may be sent to a PDCP layer of the LTE side.

In implementation, the transmission status report may be transmitted from the AL layer of the WLAN side to the LTE side.

In the scheme based on the WLAN side MAC PDU transmission success rate statistics, the WLAN side LLC layer can report the MAC PDU transmission state report to the adaptation layer AL; the adaptation layer collects and counts to obtain the MAC PDU transmission success rate of per UE, thereby representing the data packet transmission state of UE distributed to a WLAN side and feeding back the information to the eNB through an Xw interface;

the eNB may decide to increase or decrease the data offloading from the UE to the WLAN AP according to the information, assisted by some other eNB or WLAN information, such as the load information of the WLAN AP obtained from the Xw interface. The implementation of the scheme does not need to accurately feed back the transmission status of the PDCP PDUs on each split bearer in the WLAN, and only provides the packet transmission success status of per UE to the eNB.

In specific implementation, the packet transmission success status of each UE is also easily known, for example: the LLC layer receives the MAC state packets 100 times within a period of time; 60 times are for UE1, where the transmission was 57 times successful with a success rate of 95%; 40 times are for the UE2, with 36 successful transmissions, with a 90% success rate. Under the condition that a plurality of UEs are aggregated to the same AP, the IP address or the UE MAC address can be used for distinguishing which UE the MPDU ACK is.

Referring to fig. 5, steps W508 and W509 are existing acknowledgement mechanisms of the WLAN, and steps W10 and W511 are steps for implementing flow control increase. In a specific implementation, the information content processed in step W510 may be the same as the information content processed in step W509, and step W511 is to collect and count the information processed in step W510, and feed back the information to the eNB according to a certain period, and the eNB adjusts the data amount to be distributed to the WLAN next time/for a certain period of time according to the information fed back by the WLAN in step W511.

In practice, for specific flow control, the method may further comprise:

In a specific implementation, the eNB determines, according to the data transmission condition of the AP side per UE in the status report, that the data split flow on the split bearer should be increased, decreased, or maintained, by combining load (load) information of itself and load information of the AP obtained through the Xw interface, or other available resource information contributing to flow control. For example, the flow control behavior possible for the eNB in different cases can be implemented as follows:

1. if the eNB load is larger, the AP load is smaller, and the transmission success rate of the distributed data is high; increasing data offloading to the AP;

2. if the eNB load is larger, the AP load is smaller, and the transmission success rate of the distributed data is not high; then the current data distribution condition is kept;

3. if the eNB load is larger, the AP load is larger, and the transmission success rate of the shunt data is high; then the current data distribution condition is kept;

4. if the eNB load is larger, the AP load is larger, and the transmission success rate of the shunt data is not high; then the current data distribution condition is kept;

5. if the eNB load is smaller, the AP load is smaller, and the transmission success rate of the distributed data is high; increasing data offloading to the AP;

6. if the eNB load is smaller, the AP load is smaller, and the transmission success rate of the distributed data is not high; reducing data offloading to the AP;

7. if the eNB load is small, the AP load is large, and the transmission success rate of the shunt data is high; the data offload to the AP is appropriately reduced;

8. if the eNB load is small, the AP load is large, and the transmission success rate of the shunt data is not high; the data offloading to the AP is reduced or stopped.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiments of the present invention further provide a device for determining a data transmission amount and a reporting device for a data transmission state, and because the principles of solving the problems of these devices are similar to a method for determining a data transmission amount and a reporting method for a data transmission state, the implementation of these devices may refer to the implementation of the methods, and repeated details are omitted.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus for determining a transmission data amount, as shown in the figure, the apparatus may include:

a first receiving module 801, configured to receive a transmission status report sent by a WLAN side, where the transmission status report carries a data transmission success rate of data transmitted by the WLAN side, and the data transmitted by the WLAN side is data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission in data transmitted to a UE;

a determining module 802, configured to determine, according to the data transmission success rate, a data amount allocated to the WLAN side for transmission in the data transmitted to the UE when LTE and WLAN aggregate transmission is performed.

In an implementation, the first receiving module may be further configured to receive the transmission status report sent from an AL layer on the WLAN side.

In an implementation, the first receiving module may be further configured to receive the transmission status report at a PDCP layer of the LTE side.

In the implementation, the method can further comprise the following steps: a state acquiring module 803, configured to receive a bearer load state reported by the WLAN side, and/or determine a bearer load state of the LTE side;

the determining module may be further configured to determine the amount of data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission according to one of a bearer load status reported by the WLAN side, a bearer load status of the LTE side, and the data transmission success rate, or a combination thereof, when determining the amount of data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a data transmission status reporting apparatus, as shown in the figure, the apparatus may include:

a second receiving module 901, configured to receive a data reception confirmation report returned by the UE;

a reporting module 902, configured to form a transmission status report according to a data reception confirmation report returned by the UE, where the transmission status report carries a data reception success rate of data transmitted by a WLAN side, and the data transmitted by the WLAN side is data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission among data transmitted to the UE;

a sending module 903, configured to send the transmission status report to an LTE side.

In an implementation, the second receiving module may be further configured to receive, at an LLC layer on the WLAN side, a data reception confirmation report returned by the UE.

In an implementation, the reporting module may be further configured to form, at the AL layer on the WLAN side, a transmission status report according to the data reception acknowledgement report returned by the UE.

In an implementation, the sending module may be further configured to send the transmission status report to a PDCP layer of the LTE side.

In an implementation, the sending module may be further configured to send the transmission status report from the AL layer on the WLAN side to the LTE side.

For convenience of description, each part of the above-described apparatus is separately described as being functionally divided into various modules or units. Of course, the functionality of the various modules or units may be implemented in the same one or more pieces of software or hardware in practicing the invention.

When the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention is implemented, the implementation can be carried out as follows.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station, as shown in the figure, the base station includes:

the processor 1000, which is used to read the program in the memory 1020, executes the following processes:

A transceiver 1010 for transmitting data under the control of the processor 1000, performing the following processes:

and receiving a transmission state report sent by the WLAN side, wherein the transmission state report carries the data transmission success rate of the data transmitted by the WLAN side, and the data transmitted by the WLAN side is the data allocated to the WLAN side for transmission in the data transmitted to the UE.

In an implementation, the transmission status report is sent from an AL layer on the WLAN side.

In practice, the transmission status report is received at the PDCP layer of the LTE side.

In an implementation, the method further comprises the following steps: receiving the load bearing state reported by the WLAN side, and/or determining the load bearing state of the LTE side;

Where in fig. 10, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with various circuits being linked together, particularly one or more processors represented by processor 1000 and memory represented by memory 1020. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 1010 may be a number of elements including a transmitter and a transceiver providing a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The processor 1000 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1020 may store data used by the processor 1000 in performing operations.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an access point device, and as shown in the figure, the device includes:

the processor 1100, which reads the program in the memory 1120, performs the following processes:

a transceiver 1110 for transmitting data under the control of the processor 1100, performing the following processes:

receiving a data receiving confirmation report returned by the UE;

and sending the transmission state report to an LTE side.

In this embodiment, the data reception acknowledgement report returned by the UE is received in the LLC layer on the WLAN side.

In the implementation, the transmission status report is formed according to the data reception confirmation report returned by the UE, and is formed at the AL layer on the WLAN side.

In the implementation, the transmission status report is transmitted to the LTE side and is transmitted to the PDCP layer of the LTE side.

In the implementation, the transmission status report is transmitted to the LTE side from the AL layer of the WLAN side.

Where in fig. 11, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with one or more processors, represented by processor 1100, and various circuits, represented by memory 1120, being linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 1110 may be a number of elements including a transmitter and a transceiver providing a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The processor 1100 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1120 may store data used by the processor 1100 in performing operations.

In summary, in the flow control scheme based on the WLAN side MAC PDU transmission success rate statistics in the LTE and WLAN aggregation technology provided in the embodiments of the present invention, the existing ACK mechanism for WLAN MAC data transmission is fully utilized, and the existing MAC PDU transmission status report is multiplexed and the success rate statistics of per UE is performed.

The procedure is simple without the need to reverse map the transmission status of WLAN MAC PDUs to specific PDCP PDUs of a specific UE specific bearer.

The influence on the existing WLAN equipment (AC/AP) is small, and the main work can be completed in an AL layer, which is necessarily introduced by the implementation of the LTE and WLAN aggregation technology.

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, 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.

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 for determining an amount of data to transmit, comprising:

receiving a transmission state report sent by a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), wherein the transmission state report carries a data transmission success rate of data transmitted by the WLAN, and the data transmitted by the WLAN is data transmitted by the WLAN and allocated to the WLAN in the data transmitted to User Equipment (UE); the transmission status report is sent from an adaptation layer AL layer on the WLAN side;

when Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) are subjected to aggregate transmission, determining the data volume distributed to the WLAN side for transmission in the data transmitted to the UE according to the data transmission success rate;

the method further comprises the following steps:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission status report is received at a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer of an LTE side.

3. A method for reporting a data transmission status, comprising:

receiving a data receiving confirmation report returned by the UE;

transmitting the transmission status report to an LTE side; the transmission status report is transmitted to the LTE side from the AL layer of the WLAN side.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the reception of the data reception confirmation report returned by the UE is received at a Logical Link Control (LLC) layer on the WLAN side.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the transmission status report is formed according to a data reception acknowledgement report returned by the UE, formed at an AL layer on a WLAN side.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the transmitting of the transmission status report to the LTE side is transmitted to a PDCP layer of the LTE side.

7. An apparatus for determining an amount of data to transmit, comprising:

the determining module is used for determining the data volume distributed to the WLAN side for transmission in the data transmitted to the UE according to the data transmission success rate when the LTE and the WLAN are subjected to aggregate transmission;

the determining module is further configured to determine the data amount allocated to the WLAN side for transmission according to one of or a combination of a bearer load status reported by the WLAN side, a bearer load status of the LTE side, and the data transmission success rate when determining the data amount allocated to the WLAN side for transmission;

the first receiving module is further configured to receive the transmission status report sent from an AL layer on the WLAN side.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the first receiving module is further for receiving the transmission status report at a PDCP layer of an LTE side.

9. An apparatus for reporting a data transmission status, comprising:

a sending module, configured to send the transmission status report to an LTE side;

the sending module is further configured to send the transmission status report from the AL layer on the WLAN side to the LTE side.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the second receiving module is further configured to receive a data reception confirmation report returned by the UE at an LLC layer on the WLAN side.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the reporting module is further for forming a transmission status report at an AL layer of the WLAN side according to a data reception acknowledgement report returned by the UE.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the transmitting module is further for transmitting a transmission status report to a PDCP layer of an LTE side.