CN107005908B

CN107005908B - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN107005908B
Application number: CN201580061927.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 彭文杰; 郭轶; 罗海燕; 石小丽
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2015-09-25
Filing date: 2015-09-25
Publication date: 2020-01-17
Anticipated expiration: 2035-09-25
Also published as: WO2017049616A1; CN107005908A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses a communication method and equipment, relates to the field of communication, and aims to avoid a large amount of UE data loss in a WLAN link in the converged communication of a cellular mobile network and a WLAN so as to improve user experience. The scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps: in the process that the UE performs the converged communication of the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, the base station receives a failure message sent by the UE; the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE; the data of the UE is stopped from being transmitted to the WT to which the WLAN AP providing the WLAN service to the UE belongs. The invention is used for converged communication.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

With the rapid development of the mobile internet, the data traffic of the mobile communication network shows an explosive growth trend. In order to meet the rapidly increasing data requirements of users and improve user experience, in the field of mobile communications, a converged communication technology in which a cellular mobile network and a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) are used to provide services at the same time is studied. For example, a Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE for short) Aggregation (LWA) technology in which a Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution) network and a WLAN network simultaneously provide services for users.

As shown in fig. 1, a network architecture for LWA technology is illustrated. An evolved Node B (eNB) may provide a service for a User Equipment (UE) through an LTE network; the eNB may also be connected to a WLAN Access Point (AP) through a WLAN Termination Point (WT), and provide services to the user through a WLAN network. By adopting the LWA technology, the user can simultaneously use wireless resources of the LTE network and the WLAN network, the transmission bandwidth is obviously increased, and the transmission rate and the service quality are improved.

However, in the converged communication process, if the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails, when the base station transmits data of the UE to the WT, the WT cannot successfully transmit the data to the UE, which results in a large amount of data loss of the UE and poor user experience.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a communication method and equipment, which are used for avoiding a large amount of UE data loss in a WLAN link in the converged communication of a cellular mobile network and a WLAN so as to improve user experience.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

in a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which is applied to a process in which a UE performs converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN, and the method includes:

a base station receives a failure message sent by the UE; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE;

and the base station stops sending the data of the UE to a WLAN termination point WT to which a WLAN access point AP providing WLAN service for the UE belongs.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the failure message comprises a failure reason, wherein the failure reason is that the MAC address used by the UE for WLAN communication is changed;

after the receiving the failure message sent by the UE, the method further includes:

acquiring the changed MAC address;

after the ceasing to transmit data of the UE to a WT to which a WLAN AP providing WLAN service for the UE belongs, the method further comprises:

and recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE according to the changed MAC address.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the failure message includes the changed MAC address.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the acquiring the changed MAC address includes:

and receiving a report message which is sent by the UE and contains the changed MAC address.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

before the receiving the report message including the changed MAC address sent by the UE, the method further includes:

and sending an MAC address request message to the UE for requesting the UE to report the changed MAC address.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE according to the changed MAC address includes:

sending an update message containing the changed MAC address to the WT, so that the WT recovers a WLAN link accessed by the UE by updating the saved MAC address of the UE to the changed MAC address.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

performing a WT addition procedure with the WT using the changed MAC address, wherein the WT addition procedure is used for recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

after the obtaining the changed MAC address, the method further comprises:

receiving a measurement report sent by the UE;

selecting an Access Point (AP) group for accessing the WLAN for the UE according to the measurement report; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP belonging to the same WT;

sending the AP group to the UE so that the UE selects one AP from the AP group to complete WLAN connection;

performing a WT addition procedure with a WT to which the at least one AP belongs, in which the changed MAC address is transmitted to the WT to which the at least one AP belongs.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

before the receiving the measurement report sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

and sending a measurement report request message to the UE for requesting the UE to report a measurement report.

With reference to the first aspect or any one of the first possible implementation manner to the eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

receiving a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) status report sent by the UE;

determining data of the UE lost on a WLAN link according to the PDCP status report and a data record of the UE sent to the WT;

sending the lost UE data to the UE.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the sending the lost data of the UE to the UE comprises:

transmitting the lost data of the UE to the UE through a cellular mobile network;

or,

sending the lost data of the UE to the UE over the recovered WLAN link.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation manner of the first aspect or the tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

before the receiving the PDCP status report sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

and sending a PDCP status report request message to the UE, wherein the PDCP status report request message is used for requesting the UE to report a PDCP status report.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which is applied to a process of a user equipment UE performing converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN, and the method includes:

the UE determines that an accessed WLAN link fails;

the UE sends a failure message to a base station; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the WLAN link failure accessed by the UE.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the determining, by the UE, that the WLAN link fails to be accessed includes:

the UE determines that a Media Access Control (MAC) address for WLAN communication is changed, so that a WLAN link accessed by the UE fails;

the failure message includes a failure cause due to a change in a MAC address used by the UE for WLAN communication.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

the failure message also includes the changed MAC address.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

after the sending of the failure message to the base station, the method further comprises:

and sending a report message containing the changed MAC address to the base station.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

before the sending the report message including the changed MAC address to the base station, the method further includes:

and receiving an MAC address request message sent by the base station, and requesting the UE to report the changed MAC address.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

transmitting a measurement report to the base station;

receiving an Access Point (AP) group which is sent by the base station and used for the UE to access the WLAN; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP connected to the same WT;

and selecting one AP from the at least one AP to complete the WLAN connection.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

prior to the sending of the measurement report to the base station, the method further comprises:

and receiving a measurement report request message sent by the base station, and requesting the UE to report a measurement report.

With reference to the second aspect or any one of the first possible implementation manner to the sixth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

sending a PDCP status report to the base station.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the second aspect,

prior to the sending of the PDCP status report to the base station, the method further comprises:

and receiving a PDCP status report request message sent by the base station, and requesting the UE to report the PDCP status report.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided, which is applied to a process in which a UE performs converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN, and the method includes:

the WT receives an update message which is sent by a base station and contains a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the UE;

and the WT updates the saved MAC address of the UE into the MAC address for recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

In a fourth aspect, a base station is provided for performing converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN with a UE, and the base station includes:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a failure message sent by the UE; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE;

a first sending unit, configured to stop sending data of the UE to a WT to which a WLAN AP providing a WLAN service for the UE belongs when the receiving unit receives the failure message sent by the UE.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the base station further comprises:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain the changed MAC address after the receiving unit receives the failure message sent by the UE;

a recovery unit, configured to recover the WLAN link accessed by the UE according to the changed MAC address acquired by the acquisition unit.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the failure message includes the changed MAC address.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive a report message that is sent by the UE and includes the changed MAC address;

the obtaining unit is specifically configured to obtain the changed MAC address from the report message received by the receiving unit.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the base station further comprises:

a second sending unit, configured to send a MAC address request message to the UE before the receiving unit receives the report message that includes the changed MAC address and is sent by the UE, so as to request the UE to report the changed MAC address.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the recovery unit is specifically configured to:

sending, by the first sending unit, an update message including the changed MAC address to the WT, so that the WT recovers a WLAN link accessed by the UE by updating the saved MAC address of the UE to the changed MAC address.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the recovery unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive a measurement report sent by the UE;

the recovery unit is specifically configured to:

selecting an Access Point (AP) group for accessing the WLAN for the UE according to the measurement report received by the receiving unit; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP belonging to the same WT;

sending the AP group to the UE through a second sending unit so that the UE selects one AP from the AP group to complete WLAN connection;

performing a WT addition procedure with a WT to which at least one AP in the AP group belongs, in which the changed MAC address is transmitted to the WT to which the at least one AP belongs.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the second sending unit is further configured to send, to the UE, a measurement report request message for requesting the UE to report a measurement report before the receiving unit receives the measurement report sent by the UE.

With reference to the fourth aspect or any one of the first possible implementation manner to the eighth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive a packet data convergence protocol PDCP status report sent by the UE;

the base station further comprises:

a determining unit, configured to determine data of the UE lost on a WLAN link according to the PDCP status report received by the receiving unit and a data record of the UE sent to the WT;

a second sending unit, configured to send the lost UE data to the UE.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the second sending unit is specifically configured to:

or,

sending the lost data of the UE to the UE over the recovered WLAN link.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect or the tenth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect,

the second sending unit is further configured to send a PDCP status report request message to the UE before the receiving unit receives the PDCP status report sent by the UE, so as to request the UE to report the PDCP status report.

In a fifth aspect, a UE for converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN is provided, the UE comprising:

a determining unit, configured to determine that an accessed WLAN link fails;

a sending unit, configured to send a failure message to the base station when the determining unit determines that the accessed WLAN link fails; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the WLAN link failure accessed by the UE.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect,

the determining unit is specifically configured to:

determining that a change in a MAC address used for WLAN communication results in a WLAN link failure for access by the UE;

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect,

the failure message also includes the changed MAC address.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect,

the sending unit is further configured to send a report message including the changed MAC address to the base station.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect,

the UE further includes a receiving unit, configured to receive an MAC address request message sent by the base station, and configured to request the UE to report the changed MAC address.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect,

the sending unit is further configured to send a measurement report to the base station;

the UE also comprises a receiving unit used for receiving an access point AP group which is sent by the base station and used for the UE to access the WLAN; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP connected to the same WT;

the UE further includes a connection unit, configured to select one AP from at least one AP included in the AP group received by the receiving unit to complete WLAN connection.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive a measurement report request message sent by the base station, and is configured to request the UE to report a measurement report.

With reference to the fifth aspect or any one of the first possible implementation manner to the sixth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect,

the sending unit is further configured to send a PDCP status report to the base station.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect,

the UE further includes a receiving unit, configured to receive a PDCP status report request message sent by the base station, and configured to request the UE to report a PDCP status report.

In a sixth aspect, a WT is provided for converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN, the WT comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive an update message including a UE MAC address sent by a base station;

an updating unit, configured to update the saved MAC address of the UE to the MAC address included in the update message received by the receiving unit, so as to recover the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

In a seventh aspect, a base station is provided, configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN with a UE, where the base station includes:

a receiver, configured to receive a failure message sent by the UE; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE;

a processor, configured to stop sending data of the UE to a WT to which a WLAN AP providing a WLAN service for the UE belongs when the receiver receives a failure message sent by the UE.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the processor is further configured to:

after the receiver receives a failure message sent by the UE, acquiring the changed MAC address;

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the failure message includes the changed MAC address.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the receiver is further configured to receive a report message that is sent by the UE and includes the changed MAC address;

the processor is specifically configured to obtain the changed MAC address from the report message received by the receiver.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the base station further comprises:

a first transmitter, configured to send a MAC address request message to the UE before the receiver receives a report message that includes the changed MAC address and is sent by the UE, so as to request the UE to report the changed MAC address.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner to the fourth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the processor is specifically configured to send, by the second transmitter, an update message including the changed MAC address to the WT, so that the WT recovers the WLAN link accessed by the UE by updating the saved MAC address of the UE to the changed MAC address.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner to the fourth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the processor is specifically configured to:

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner to the fourth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the receiver is further configured to receive a measurement report sent by the UE;

the processor is specifically configured to:

selecting an Access Point (AP) group for the UE to access a WLAN according to the measurement report received by the receiver; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP belonging to the same WT;

transmitting the AP group to the UE through the first transmitter, so that the UE selects one AP from the AP group to complete WLAN connection;

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the first transmitter is further configured to send a measurement report request message to the UE before the receiver receives the measurement report sent by the UE, so as to request the UE to report the measurement report.

With reference to the seventh aspect or any one of the first possible implementation manner to the eighth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the receiver is further configured to receive a PDCP status report sent by the UE;

the processor is further configured to:

determining data of the UE lost on a WLAN link according to the PDCP status report received by the receiver and a data record of the UE sent to the WT;

transmitting the lost data of the UE to the UE through the first transmitter.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the first transmitter is specifically configured to:

or,

sending the lost data of the UE to the UE over the recovered WLAN link.

With reference to the ninth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect or the tenth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect,

the base station further comprises:

a first transmitter, configured to send a PDCP status report request message to the UE before the receiver receives the PDCP status report sent by the UE, so as to request the UE to report the PDCP status report.

In an eighth aspect, a UE for converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN is provided, the UE comprising:

a processor for determining an access WLAN link failure;

a transmitter, configured to send a failure message to a base station when the processor determines that an accessed WLAN link fails; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the WLAN link failure accessed by the UE.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect,

the determining unit is specifically configured to:

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect,

the failure message also includes the changed MAC address.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect,

the transmitter is further configured to transmit a report message including the changed MAC address to the base station.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect,

the UE further includes a receiver, configured to receive an MAC address request message sent by the base station, and configured to request the UE to report the changed MAC address.

With reference to any one of the first possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect to the fourth possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect,

the transmitter is further configured to transmit a measurement report to the base station;

the UE also comprises a receiver used for receiving an access point AP group which is sent by the base station and used for the UE to access the WLAN; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP connected to the same WT;

the processor is further configured to select one AP from at least one AP included in the AP group received by the receiver to complete the WLAN connection.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect,

the receiver is further configured to receive a measurement report request message sent by the base station, and is configured to request the UE to report a measurement report.

With reference to the eighth aspect or any one of the first possible implementation manner to the sixth possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect,

the transmitter is further configured to transmit a PDCP status report to the base station.

With reference to the seventh possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the eighth aspect,

the UE further includes a receiver configured to receive a PDCP status report request message sent by the base station, and configured to request the UE to report a PDCP status report.

In a ninth aspect, a WT is provided for performing cellular mobile network and WLAN converged communication, the WT comprising:

the receiver is used for receiving an updating message which is sent by the base station and contains the MAC address of the UE;

and the processor is configured to update the saved MAC address of the UE to the MAC address included in the update message received by the receiver, so as to recover the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising:

at least one base station according to the fourth aspect or the seventh aspect or any possible implementation manner described above, and at least one WT according to the sixth aspect or the ninth aspect or any possible implementation manner described above.

According to the communication method and the communication equipment provided by the embodiment of the invention, in the process of carrying out the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, the base station receives the failure message sent by the UE; the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE; stopping transmitting data of the UE to a WT to which a WLAN AP providing WLAN service for the UE belongs; therefore, after receiving the failure message of the UE, the WT stops sending the UE data, so that the condition that the UE data is sent through the WLAN link when the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails is avoided, a large amount of data is prevented from being lost, and the UE data is prevented from being lost in the WLAN link in the converged communication of the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, so that the user experience is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a prior art network architecture for LWA techniques;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flow diagram of an LWA technique of the prior art;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a UE apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another UE apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an apparatus of a WT according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus of another base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of a UE according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of another UE apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an apparatus of another WT according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In order to better understand the present invention, the following describes the implementation process of converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN network in the prior art related to the background of the present invention.

It should be noted that, the cellular mobile network referred to herein may be an LTE network, or a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) network, or a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network, or other cellular mobile networks.

It should be noted that, here, taking the cellular mobile network as the LTE network, taking the LWA technology for converged communication between the LTE network and the WLAN network as an example, the implementation process of converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN network is described, and the type of the cellular mobile network is not specifically limited.

Specifically, fig. 1 illustrates a network architecture of the LWA technology, and the implementation process of the LWA technology is divided into a WT adding process and a data transmission process.

As shown in fig. 2, the WT addition procedure may include:

s201, the eNB requests the UE to report the capability of the UE.

Wherein the capability is used to determine whether the UE is LWA capable.

Optionally, S201 may be executed when the UE is powered on, or may also be executed before data is sent to the UE, which is not specifically limited, and may be set according to actual requirements.

S202, reporting the capability information by the UE.

The capability information may include LWA capability of the UE, and may further include a WLAN frequency band supported by the UE.

Optionally, the capability information may further include a MAC address used by the UE for performing WLAN communication.

It should be noted that, in order to protect the user information and prevent WLAN interception, WLAN communication is generally performed by disguising a MAC address.

Optionally, the disguised MAC address of the UE may be obtained by performing algorithm (e.g., hash algorithm) calculation on the fixed MAC address of the UE.

It should be noted that S201 and S202 are not performed every time the WT addition procedure is performed, and may not be performed any more if the eNB and the UE have interacted with each other.

S203, the eNB sends the WLAN measurement configuration to the UE.

Wherein the measurement configuration comprises at least a measurement event related threshold condition. And when the measured value of the UE to the measured object meets the measurement event related threshold condition in the measurement configuration, the UE sends a measurement report to the eNB.

It should be noted that the threshold condition may be determined according to an algorithm, or may be configured manually, which is not limited specifically.

Optionally, in S203, the WLAN measurement configuration may be sent to the UE through a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration message.

Optionally, the measurement configuration may further include one or more of the following information: measuring frequency band, measuring report configuration, measuring quantity and measuring identification.

It should be noted that the content included in the measurement configuration may be set according to actual requirements, and is not particularly limited.

S204, the UE replies a confirmation message to the eNB.

Wherein the confirmation message is used for indicating that the UE has successfully received the measurement configuration.

S205, the UE acquires the information of the WLAN according to the measurement configuration.

Specifically, in S205, the UE performs measurement according to the indication of the measurement configuration, acquires the measurement value as information of the WLAN, and determines whether to send a measurement report.

When the UE determines that the acquired information of the WLAN satisfies the measurement event, S206 is performed to transmit a measurement report to the eNB.

S206, the UE sends a measurement report to the eNB.

Wherein the measurement report includes the measurement object and the corresponding measurement value.

Optionally, the measurement report may further include a MAC address used by the UE for performing WLAN communication.

If the MAC address used by the UE for WLAN communication is included in the capability information in S202, the capability information does not need to be included in S206.

S207, the eNB selects an AP group for the UE according to the measurement report.

The eNB may select an AP group for the UE according to the measurement report, where the AP group includes N APs belonging to the same WT.

It should be noted that the value of N may be set according to actual requirements, and is not particularly limited.

Optionally, the eNB may select N APs with the best signal quality and performance as the AP group selected for the UE according to the measurement report.

Optionally, the eNB may also select N APs with the best signal quality and performance as the AP group selected for the UE according to the measurement report and by combining the capability of each AP acquired by the eNB through interaction with the WT.

S208, the eNB decides to send a WT addition request to the WT to which the AP in the AP group belongs for the specific bearer of the UE.

Wherein the WT add request is to request WLAN resources from the WT. A General Packet Radio service tunneling Protocol (GTP-U) tunnel for the user plane for requesting establishment of a specific bearer of the UE with the WT.

The WT addition request includes a MAC address used by the UE for WLAN communication and at least one bearer decided by the eNB to send data to the UE over the WLAN.

Optionally, the MAC address, which is included in the WT addition request and used by the UE to perform WLAN communication, may be reported by the UE in the capability information included in S202, or may be reported by the UE in the measurement report included in S206, or may be reported by the UE through a separate report message before S208.

The at least one bearer for the eNB to send data to the UE through the WLAN is selected by the eNB through a preset algorithm from all bearers for sending data to the UE, and this is not particularly limited.

S209, the WT determines to allow the bearer of the resource to be allocated, and allocates a Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (TEID).

Wherein the WT decides one or more bearers for which resources can be allocated from among the at least one bearer included in the WT addition request message and assigns a TEID to each of the allowed bearers.

In S209, after the WT assigns the TEID, the correspondence between the MAC address of the WLAN and the TEID of the UE may be established, so that when receiving data from a tunnel indicated by one TEID, the WT can know to which UE the received data is sent through the correspondence between the MAC address and the TEID.

S208 and S209 complete the establishment of a GTP-U tunnel for the particular bearer of the UE.

S210, the WT sends a WT addition request reply message to the eNB.

Wherein the WT addition request reply message includes bearers for which the WT decides to allow allocation of WLAN resources and TEIDs assigned for each bearer for which allocation of WLAN resources is allowed.

Specifically, after receiving the WT addition request reply message, the eNB obtains a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, and a mapping relationship between the MAC address of the UE and the TEID.

S211, the eNB sends the AP group to the UE.

S212, the UE executes WLAN access.

Illustratively, when the eNB sends data of a specific bearer of the UE (the UE is identified by the C-RNTI identification at the eNB side) to the WT, the data is packed according to a GTP-U protocol, and a corresponding TEID is added to a GTP-U header; after receiving the GTP-U packet, the WT can know which UE the data in the GTP-U packet belongs to according to the mapping relationship between the TEID and the MAC address, and then send the data to the corresponding AP.

S213, the WT sends a WT access confirmation message to the eNB.

To this end, the WT adds a procedure and may use LWA techniques for data transmission.

In the network architecture shown in fig. 1, the data transmission process includes: data destined for the UE arrives at the eNB via the core network, the eNB sending a portion of the data to the UE over the LTE link and a portion of the data to the UE over the WLAN links (WT and AP); the uplink data transmission is similar.

In the process of data transmission, when the UE determines that the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails (for example, the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails due to the MAC address change of the WLAN), data that should be sent to the UE cannot be sent to the UE, which results in a large amount of data loss.

In order to protect the user information security and prevent WLAN interception, the UE may use a masquerading MAC address to communicate with the WLAN. Since the masquerading MAC address is not fixed and unchanged, once the masquerading MAC address of the UE changes during the LWA process, when the eNB sends data of the UE to the WT, the WT cannot find the UE, which may result in failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

Example one

The embodiment of the invention provides a communication method, which is applied to a process of performing converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN by UE. Referring to fig. 3, the method may include:

s301, the base station receives a failure message sent by the UE.

Wherein the failure message is used for indicating the WLAN link failure accessed by the UE.

Optionally, the type of the base station is different according to different cellular mobile networks.

For example, the base station may be an eNB in an LTE System, or may be a Node B in a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

It should be noted that the above example only illustrates the relationship between the type of the base station and the cellular mobile network, and does not specifically limit the type of the base station.

Optionally, the WLAN link failure accessed by the UE may be caused by a MAC address change of the UE performing WLAN communication, or may also be caused by a weak AP signal accessed by the UE or other reasons.

Optionally, the failure message may include a failure reason, where the failure reason is a change of a MAC address used by the UE for WLAN communication.

The MAC address used by the UE for WLAN communication may be a pseudo MAC address of the UE.

Specifically, the change of the MAC address used by the UE for performing the WLAN communication may be a configuration modification, or an automatic modification of the UE, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention, and all changes of the MAC address used by the UE for performing the WLAN communication belong to the protection scope of the embodiment of the present invention.

S302, the base station stops transmitting data of the UE to the WT to which the WLAN AP providing the WLAN service for the UE belongs.

Optionally, after S302, in order to ensure continuity of the data service, the method may further include: receiving a PDCP status report sent by the UE; determining data of the UE lost on the WLAN link according to the PDCP status report and a data record of the UE sent to a WT, wherein the determined data of the UE lost on the WLAN link can be sent to the UE through a cellular mobile network.

It should be noted that, the method for determining the data of the UE lost on the WLAN link according to the PDCP status report and the data record of the UE sent to the WT belongs to a specific implementation, and this is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

Optionally, after S302, the method may further include performing a WT release procedure between the base station and the WT, the WT release procedure being used to release resources of the UE on the WT.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the invention is applied to the process that the UE performs the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, and the failure message sent by the UE is received through the base station; the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE; stopping transmitting data of the UE to a WT to which a WLAN AP providing WLAN service for the UE belongs; therefore, after receiving the failure message of the UE, the WT stops sending the UE data, so that the condition that the UE data is sent through the WLAN link when the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails is avoided, a large amount of data is prevented from being lost, and the UE data is prevented from being lost in the WLAN link in the converged communication of the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, so that the user experience is improved.

Example two

The second embodiment of the present invention provides another communication method, which is applied to a process in which a user equipment UE performs converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN. Referring to fig. 4, the method may include:

s401, the base station receives a failure message sent by the UE.

Optionally, the failure message may further include the changed MAC address.

S402, the base station stops sending UE data to the WT to which the WLAN AP providing WLAN service for the UE belongs.

If the failure message includes a failure reason that the MAC address used by the UE for performing WLAN communication is changed, after S402, the method may further include:

s403, the base station acquires the changed MAC address.

Specifically, the base station may obtain the changed MAC address by using one of the following two schemes:

the first scheme is as follows:

the failure message includes the changed MAC address, and the changed MAC address included in the failure message is acquired.

The second scheme is as follows:

and receiving a report message which is sent by the UE and contains the changed MAC address, and acquiring the changed MAC address from the report message.

Further optionally, in the second scheme, before receiving the report message sent by the UE and containing the changed MAC address, the method may further include: and sending an MAC address request message to the UE for requesting the UE to report the changed MAC address.

S404, the base station recovers the WLAN link accessed by the UE according to the changed MAC address.

Specifically, the base station may recover the WLAN link accessed by the UE according to the changed MAC address by using any one of the following three schemes:

scheme 1:

and sending an update message containing the changed MAC address to the original WT so that the WT recovers the WLAN link accessed by the UE by updating the saved MAC address of the UE to the changed MAC address.

In scheme 1, an update message containing a changed MAC address is sent to the original WT to report the changed MAC address to the WT, so that the WT updates the MAC address of the UE in the corresponding relationship stored in the WT, and thus, the WLAN link accessed by the UE is recovered, and the data of the UE can be continuously sent by using the WLAN link.

Scheme 2:

if S404 is implemented using scenario 2, the base station may perform WT release with the original WT before S404. The WT release procedure is to release resources of the UE on the WT.

After performing WT release between the base station and the original WT, the base station performs WT addition with the original WT using the changed MAC address for recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

It should be noted that, for the WT addition process, the detailed description is already made in the method shown in fig. 2, and the detailed description is not repeated here.

In scheme 2, the WT is newly added to the original WT, so that the WT reestablishes its internally stored correspondence relationship, and therefore, the MAC address of the UE in each internally stored correspondence relationship is the latest MAC address, so that the WLAN link accessed by the UE is recovered, and the data of the UE can be continuously transmitted by using the WLAN link.

Scheme 3:

if S404 is implemented using scenario 3, the base station may perform WT release with the original WT before S404. The WT release procedure is to release resources of the UE on the WT.

Prior to S404, the method may further include: receiving a measurement report sent by UE; the implementation of the step S404 in the scheme 3 specifically includes the following steps:

step 1, selecting an AP group for accessing the WLAN for the UE according to the received new measurement report.

Wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP belonging to the same WT;

after step 1, the method may further include: and sending the AP group to the UE so that the UE selects one AP from the AP group to complete WLAN connection.

And 2, executing a WT addition process with the WT to which the at least one AP belongs, and sending the changed MAC address to the WT to which the at least one AP belongs in the WT addition process.

Further, before the receiving the measurement report sent by the UE, the method may further include: and sending a measurement report request message to the UE for requesting the UE to report the measurement report.

Further, after S401, the method may further include S405 to S407:

s405, the base station receives the PDCP status report sent by the UE.

Wherein, the PDCP status report may include data that the UE has received.

It should be noted that S405 may be executed after S401, and the execution order of S405 is not limited in the present invention, and fig. 4 only illustrates one execution order of S405, and does not limit the execution order of S405.

S406, the base station determines the data of the UE lost on the WLAN link according to the PDCP status report and the data record of the UE sent to the WT.

It should be noted that, for the execution of S406, description has been already made in one embodiment, and details are not repeated here.

S407, the base station sends the data of the UE lost on the WLAN link to the UE.

Specifically, the sending of the lost UE data to the UE may be implemented by any one of the following two possible implementation manners:

the first mode is as follows:

and sending the lost UE data to a UE through a cellular mobile network.

The second mode is as follows:

and sending the lost UE data to the UE through the recovered WLAN link accessed by the UE.

Optionally, before the receiving the PDCP status report sent by the UE, the method may further include:

the base station sends a PDCP status report request message to the UE for requesting the UE to report the PDCP status report.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the invention is applied to the process that the UE performs the converged communication of the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, the base station receives the failure message sent by the UE and stops sending the data of the UE to the WT to which the WLAN AP providing the WLAN service for the UE belongs; because the data of the UE is stopped being sent to the WT after the failure message of the UE is received, the condition that the data of the UE is sent through the WLAN link when the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails is avoided, and a large amount of data is prevented from being lost.

Furthermore, by acquiring the changed MAC address and recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE, the WLAN communication of the UE is recovered, so that the convergence service can be continuously used;

further, the data of the UE lost on the WLAN link is obtained by receiving the PDCP status report sent by the UE, and the lost data of the UE is sent to the UE, so that the continuity of data service is ensured, and the data loss is avoided.

In summary, the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present invention achieves avoiding a large amount of data loss of the UE in the WLAN link in the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, so as to improve user experience.

EXAMPLE III

The third embodiment of the invention provides another communication method, which is applied to the process of performing converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN by UE; referring to fig. 5, the method may include:

s501, the UE determines that the accessed WLAN link fails.

S502, the UE sends a failure message to the base station.

Optionally, after S501, in order to ensure continuity of the data service, the method may further include: the UE sends a PDCP status report to the base station, so that the base station determines the lost data of the UE on the WLAN link according to the PDCP status report, and sends the lost data of the UE to the UE by adopting a cellular mobile network.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the invention is applied to the process that the UE performs the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, the UE sends the failure message to the base station when determining that the accessed WLAN link fails, and the base station is indicated to stop sending the UE data to the WT after receiving the failure message of the UE, so that the condition that the UE data is sent through the WLAN link when the accessed WLAN link of the UE fails is avoided, a large amount of data is prevented from being lost, and the condition that the UE data is greatly lost in the WLAN link in the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN is realized, so that the user experience is improved.

Example four

The fourth embodiment of the present invention provides another communication method, which is applied to a process in which a UE performs converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN; referring to fig. 6, the method may include:

s601, the UE determines that the accessed WLAN link fails.

S601 is the same as S501, and will not be described in detail here.

S602, the UE sends a failure message to the base station.

Optionally, the failure message may further include the changed MAC address.

Optionally, the UE may determine whether the MAC address used for performing the WLAN communication changes in a real-time monitoring manner.

Further, if the UE determines that the access failure of the WLAN link is caused by a MAC address change for the WLAN service, the method may further include:

optionally, the method may further include:

s603, the UE sends a report message containing the changed MAC address to the base station.

If the failure message in S602 includes the changed MAC address, S603 does not need to be executed.

Further optionally, in S603, the sending, by the UE, the report message including the changed MAC address to the base station may be an active report, or a report based on a request of the base station.

Optionally, if in S603, the sending, by the UE, the report message including the changed MAC address to the base station is based on a request report of the base station, before S603, the method may further include:

and the UE receives the MAC address request message sent by the base station and is used for requesting the UE to report the changed MAC address.

Further optionally, after S603, the method may further include:

s604, the UE sends a measurement report to the base station.

Optionally, the UE sending the measurement report to the base station may be included in the failure message.

Optionally, in S604, the UE may send the measurement report to the base station actively, or based on a request of the base station.

Further, if the UE transmits the measurement report to the base station based on the request of the base station in S604, the method may further include, before S604:

and receiving a measurement report request message sent by a base station, and requesting the UE to report a measurement report.

It should be noted that S604 may be executed after S602, the order of executing S604 is not limited in the present invention, and fig. 6 only illustrates one execution order of S604, and does not limit the execution order of S604.

S605, the UE receives an access point AP group which is sent by the base station and used for the UE to access the WLAN.

Wherein the AP group comprises at least one AP, and the at least one AP is connected with the same WT.

S606, the UE selects one AP from the at least one AP to complete WLAN connection.

Further optionally, after S601, the method may further include:

s607, the UE sends a PDCP status report to the base station.

Optionally, in S607, the UE may send the PDCP status report to the base station actively, or based on a request of the base station.

Further, if the UE sends the PDCP status report to the base station based on a request from the base station in S607, before S607, the method may further include:

It should be noted that S607 may be executed after S602, the order of executing S607 is not limited in the present invention, and fig. 6 only illustrates one order of executing S607, and does not limit the order of executing S607.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the invention is applied to the process that the UE performs the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, and the UE sends a failure message to the base station; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the WLAN link failure accessed by the UE. Because the failure message can indicate that the base station stops sending the data of the UE to the WT after receiving the failure message of the UE, the condition that the data of the UE is sent through a WLAN link when the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails is avoided, and a large amount of data is prevented from being lost.

Furthermore, the changed MAC address is sent to the base station, so that the base station can conveniently recover the WLAN link accessed by the UE through the changed MAC address, and further recover the WLAN communication of the UE, and the convergence service can be continuously used;

further, the base station determines the lost data of the UE on the WLAN link by sending the PDCP status report to the base station, and sends the lost data of the UE to the UE, thereby ensuring continuity of data service and avoiding data loss.

EXAMPLE five

The fifth embodiment of the present invention provides another communication method, which is applied to a process in which a UE performs converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN; referring to fig. 7, the method may include:

s701, the WT receives an update message which is sent by the base station and contains the MAC address of the UE.

S702, the WT updates the saved MAC address of the UE to the MAC address, and the MAC address is used for recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the invention is applied to the process that the UE performs the converged communication of the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, the updating message which is sent by the base station and contains the MAC address of the UE is received by the WT, and the stored MAC address of the UE is updated to the MAC address for recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE; because the MAC address of the UE stored in the WT is updated according to the update message, the WLAN link of the UE is recovered, so that the convergence service can be continuously used; the method and the device ensure the continuity of data service, avoid data loss, and avoid mass loss of data sent to the UE to improve user experience when the MAC address of the UE changes.

EXAMPLE six

A sixth embodiment of the present invention provides another communication method, which is applied to an LWA process in which a UE performs LTE and WLAN converged communication, and the method described in the foregoing embodiment is described in detail by taking an interaction process among an eNB, the UE, and a WT as an example. Referring to fig. 8, the method may include:

s801, when the MAC address changes, the UE sends a failure message to the eNB.

The failure message includes a failure reason, the failure reason is that the UE changes the MAC address of the WLAN communication, and the failure message further includes the changed MAC address.

For example, assume that the MAC address used by the UE for WLAN communication is: 00-01-6C-06-a6-29, at some point the UE monitors that the MAC address for WLAN communication changes to: 00-05-6C-06-A1-08, the UE sends a failure message as shown in Table 1 to the eNB.

TABLE 1

MAC change

00-05-6C-06-A1-08

It should be noted that table 1 is only an example of a failure message, and does not specifically limit the form and content of the failure message.

S802, the eNB stops sending the data of the UE to the WT to which the WLAN AP providing the WLAN service for the UE belongs.

S803, the eNB acquires the changed MAC address included in the failure message.

For example, the eNB may obtain the changed MAC address of 00-05-6C-06-a1-08 in the failure message as shown in table 1.

S804, the eNB sends an update message to the WT.

Wherein the update message includes the changed MAC address for notifying the WT that the MAC address of the UE is changed to the changed MAC address.

Illustratively, the eNB may send an update message to the WT containing the changed MAC address 00-05-6C-06-A1-08.

S805, the WT updates the saved MAC address of the UE to the changed MAC address.

For example, assume that the correspondence relationship stored in the WT for providing WLAN communication to the UE is shown in table 2.

TABLE 2

MAC address of UE	Bearer identification of UE	TEID	Identification of AP
				……	……	……	……
00-01-6C-06-A6-29	A	B	C
				……	……	……	……

Table 2 is only an example of correspondence stored in the WT, and does not limit the content and form of the correspondence.

After receiving the update message sent by the eNB at S804, the WT may update the correspondence shown in table 2 to that shown in table 3.

TABLE 3

MAC address of UE	Bearer identification of UE	TEID	Identification of AP
				……	……	……	……
00-05-6C-06-A1-08	A	B	C
				……	……	……	……

Table 3 is only an example of correspondence stored in the WT, and does not limit the content and form of the correspondence.

S806, the UE sends a PDCP status report to the eNB.

Illustratively, the PDCP status includes that the UE determines that the missing PDCP PDU is: PDU1, PDU2, PDU3, PDU4, PDU5, PDU 6.

S807, the eNB acquires the data of the UE lost on the WLAN link according to the PDCP status report and the data record of the UE sent to the WT.

For example, assume that the UE's data record sent by the eNB to the WT is: PDU1, PDU2, PDU3, PDU8, PDU9, then the data for this UE lost on the WLAN link may be determined to be PDU1, PDU2, PDU 3.

It should be noted that, the above example only describes a specific implementation of the base station acquiring the data of the UE lost on the WLAN link according to the PDCP status report and the data record of the UE sent to the WT by way of example, and is not a specific limitation on the base station acquiring the data of the UE lost on the WLAN link according to the PDCP status report and the data record of the UE sent to the WT.

S808, the eNB sends the data of the UE lost on the WLAN link to the UE through the LTE link.

It should be noted that S806 to S808 may be executed after S801, and the execution sequence of S806 to S808 and other steps is not limited in the present invention, and fig. 8 only illustrates one execution sequence, and does not limit the execution sequence of S806 to S808 and other steps.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the invention is applied to the process that the UE performs the converged communication of the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, the eNB receives the failure message sent by the UE and stops sending the data of the UE to the WT to which the WLAN AP providing the WLAN service for the UE belongs; because the data of the UE is stopped being sent to the WT after the failure message of the UE is received, the condition that the data of the UE is sent through the WLAN link when the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails is avoided, and a large amount of data is prevented from being lost.

EXAMPLE seven

The seventh embodiment of the present invention provides a base station 90, configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN with a UE, where referring to fig. 9, the base station 90 may include:

a receiving unit 901, configured to receive a failure message sent by a UE; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE;

a first sending unit 902, configured to, when the receiving unit 901 receives the failure message sent by the UE, stop sending data of the UE to a WT to which a WLAN AP providing a WLAN service for the UE belongs.

Further, referring to fig. 10, the base station 90 may further include:

an obtaining unit 903, configured to obtain the changed MAC address after the receiving unit 901 receives the failure message sent by the UE;

a recovering unit 904, configured to recover the WLAN link accessed by the UE according to the changed MAC address acquired by the acquiring unit 903.

Optionally, the failure message may include the changed MAC address, and the obtaining unit 903 may specifically be configured to:

and acquiring the changed MAC address in the failure message.

Further, the receiving 901 may also be configured to receive a report message that includes the changed MAC address and is sent by the UE;

specifically, the obtaining unit 903 may be specifically configured to obtain the changed MAC address from the report message received by the receiving unit 901.

Further, referring to fig. 10, the base 90 may further include:

a second sending unit 905, configured to send a MAC address request message to the UE before the receiving unit 901 receives the report message that includes the changed MAC address and is sent by the UE, so as to request the UE to report the changed MAC address.

Specifically, the recovery unit 904 may specifically be configured to:

sending an update message containing the changed MAC address to the WT through the first sending unit 902, so that the WT recovers a WLAN link accessed by the UE by updating the saved MAC address of the UE to the changed MAC address.

Optionally, the recovery unit 904 may specifically be configured to:

Further, the receiving unit 901 may be further configured to receive a measurement report sent by the UE;

optionally, the recovery unit 904 may specifically be configured to:

selecting an Access Point (AP) group for accessing the WLAN for the UE according to the measurement report received by the receiving unit 901; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP belonging to the same WT;

transmitting the AP group to the UE through the second transmitting unit 905, so that the UE selects one AP from the AP group to complete WLAN connection;

Further, the second sending unit 905 may be further configured to send, before the receiving unit 901 receives the measurement report sent by the UE, a measurement report request message to the UE, where the measurement report request message is used to request the UE to report the measurement report.

Optionally, the receiving unit 901 may be further configured to receive a PDCP status report sent by the UE;

further, referring to fig. 10, the base station 90 may further include:

a determining unit 906, configured to determine data of the UE lost on a WLAN link according to the PDCP status report received by the receiving unit 901 and a data record of the UE sent to the WT;

the second sending unit 905 is further configured to send the lost data of the UE to the UE.

Optionally, the second sending unit 905 may specifically be configured to:

or,

sending the lost data of the UE to the UE over the recovered WLAN link.

Further, the second sending unit 905 may be further configured to send, before the receiving unit 901 receives the PDCP status report sent by the UE, a PDCP status report request message to the UE, where the PDCP status report request message is used to request the UE to report the PDCP status report.

The base station 90 provided in the embodiment of the present invention is configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN, and stop sending data of a UE to a WT to which a WLAN AP providing a WLAN service for the UE belongs by receiving a failure message sent by the UE; because the data of the UE is stopped being sent to the WT after the failure message of the UE is received, the condition that the data of the UE is sent through the WLAN link when the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails is avoided, and a large amount of data is prevented from being lost.

In summary, the base station 90 provided in the embodiment of the present invention realizes that a large amount of data of the UE is prevented from being lost in the WLAN link in the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, so as to improve the user experience.

Example eight

An eighth embodiment of the present invention provides a UE 110, configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN, where, referring to fig. 11, the UE 110 may include:

a determining unit 1101, configured to determine that an accessed WLAN link fails;

a sending unit 1102, configured to send a failure message to the base station when the determining unit 1101 determines that the accessed WLAN link fails; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the WLAN link failure accessed by the UE.

Optionally, the determining unit 1101 may be specifically configured to:

determining a change in a MAC address for performing WLAN communications resulting in a WLAN link failure for the UE to access.

Optionally, the failure message includes a failure reason, and the failure reason is a MAC address change used by the UE for performing WLAN communication.

Optionally, the failure message may further include the changed MAC address.

Further, the sending unit 1102 may be further configured to send a report message including the changed MAC address to the base station.

Further, referring to fig. 12, the UE 110 may further include a receiving unit 1103, configured to receive a MAC address request message sent by the base station, and configured to request the UE to report the changed MAC address.

Optionally, the sending unit 1102 may be further configured to send a measurement report to the base station;

the receiving unit 1103 may be further configured to receive an access point AP group sent by the base station and used for the UE to access the WLAN; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP connected to the same WT;

further, referring to fig. 12, the UE 110 may further include a connection unit 1104, configured to select an AP from at least one AP included in the AP group received by the receiving unit to complete WLAN connection.

Optionally, the receiving unit 1103 may be further configured to receive a measurement report request message sent by the base station, where the measurement report request message is used to request the UE to report a measurement report.

Optionally, the sending unit 1102 may be further configured to send a PDCP status report to the base station.

The receiving unit 1103 may be further configured to receive a PDCP status report request message sent by the base station, and be used to request the UE to report a PDCP status report.

The UE 110 provided in the embodiment of the present invention is configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN, and send a failure message to a base station when determining that an access WLAN link fails; the failure message is used for indicating that the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails, and the failure message can indicate that the base station stops sending the data of the UE to the WT after receiving the failure message of the UE, so that the condition that the UE data is sent through the WLAN link when the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails is stopped, and a large amount of data loss is avoided.

In summary, the UE 110 provided in the embodiment of the present invention realizes that a large amount of data of the UE is prevented from being lost in the WLAN link in the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, so as to improve the user experience.

Example nine

An embodiment of the present invention provides a WT130, configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN, where, referring to fig. 13, the WT130 may include:

a receiving unit 1301, configured to receive an update message including a UE MAC address sent by a base station;

an updating unit 1302, configured to update the saved MAC address of the UE to the MAC address included in the update message received by the receiving unit 1301, so as to recover the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

The WT130 provided in the embodiment of the present invention is configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN, receive an update message including a UE MAC address sent by a base station through the WT, update a stored UE MAC address to the MAC address, and use to recover a WLAN link accessed by the UE; because the MAC address of the UE stored in the WT is updated according to the update message, the WLAN communication of the UE is recovered, so that the convergence service can be continuously used; the continuity of data service is ensured, data loss is avoided, and a large amount of data of the UE is prevented from being lost in a WLAN link in the converged communication of the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, so that the user experience is improved.

Example ten

An embodiment of the present invention provides another base station 90, configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN with a UE, where, referring to fig. 14, the base station 90 may include:

at least one processor 1401; a memory 1402; at least one communication bus 1403 for enabling connection and intercommunication between the devices; a receiver 1404;

the communication bus 1403 may be an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended ISA (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus 1403 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 14, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

Processor 1401 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more Integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present invention. The processor 1401 is configured to execute program code stored in the memory 1402 to implement the functions of the processor 1401.

The receiver 1404 is configured to receive a failure message sent by the UE; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE;

a processor 1401, configured to, when the receiver 1401 receives the failure message sent by the UE, stop sending data of the UE to a WT to which a WLAN AP providing a WLAN service for the UE belongs.

Further, the processor 1401 may be further configured to:

after the receiver 1404 receives the failure message sent by the UE, acquiring the changed MAC address;

Optionally, the failure message may include the changed MAC address, and the processor 1401 is specifically configured to:

and acquiring the changed MAC address in the failure message.

Further, the receiver 1404 may be further configured to receive a report message sent by the UE and including the changed MAC address.

Further, the processor 1401 may be specifically configured to obtain the changed MAC address from the report message received by the receiver 1404.

Further, referring to fig. 15, the base station 90 may further include:

a first transmitter 1405, configured to, before the receiver 1404 receives the report message sent by the UE and including the changed MAC address, send a MAC address request message to the UE, for requesting the UE to report the changed MAC address.

Further, referring to fig. 15, the base station 90 may further include a second transmitter 1406, and the processor 1401 may specifically be configured to:

sending, by the second transmitter 1406, an update message to the WT including the changed MAC address to cause the WT to restore a WLAN link accessed by the UE by updating the saved MAC address of the UE to the changed MAC address.

Further, the processor 1401 may specifically be configured to:

Optionally, the receiver 1404 may be further configured to receive a measurement report sent by the UE.

Accordingly, the processor 1401 may specifically be configured to:

selecting a set of access points, APs, for the UE to access a WLAN based on the measurement report received by the receiver 1404; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP belonging to the same WT;

transmitting the AP group to the UE through the first transmitter 1405, so that the UE selects one AP from the AP group to complete WLAN connection;

Further, the first transmitter 1405 may be further configured to transmit, to the UE, a measurement report request message for requesting the UE to report the measurement report before the receiver 1404 receives the measurement report transmitted by the UE.

Optionally, the receiver 1404 may be further configured to receive a PDCP status report sent by the UE.

Further, the processor 1401 may be further configured to:

determining the data of the UE lost on the WLAN link from the PDCP status report received by the receiver 1404 and the data record of the UE sent to the WT;

transmitting the lost data of the UE to the UE through the first transmitter 1405.

Optionally, the first transmitter 1405 may specifically be configured to:

or,

sending the lost data of the UE to the UE over the recovered WLAN link.

Further, the first transmitter 1405 may be further configured to, before the receiver 1404 receives the PDCP status report sent by the UE, send a PDCP status report request message to the UE, for requesting the UE to report the PDCP status report.

EXAMPLE eleven

An eleventh embodiment of the present invention provides another UE 110, configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN, where, referring to fig. 16, the UE 110 may include:

at least one processor 1601; a memory 1602; at least one communication bus 1603 for enabling connection and intercommunication between devices; a transmitter 1604;

the communication bus 1603 may be an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended ISA (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus 1603 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 16, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

The processor 1601 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more Integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present invention. The processor 1601 is configured to execute program code stored in the memory 1602 to implement the functions of the processor 1601.

Wherein the processor 1601 may be configured to determine that an accessed WLAN link fails;

a transmitter 1604, configured to send a failure message to the base station when the processor 1601 determines that the accessed WLAN link fails; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the WLAN link failure accessed by the UE.

Optionally, the processor 1601 may be specifically configured to:

Optionally, the failure message may further include the changed MAC address.

Further, the transmitter 1604 may be further configured to transmit a report message including the changed MAC address to the base station.

Further, referring to fig. 17, the UE 110 may further include a receiver 1605, configured to receive a MAC address request message sent by the base station, and configured to request the UE to report the changed MAC address.

Further, the transmitter 1604 may be further configured to transmit a measurement report to the base station.

Correspondingly, the receiver 1605 may be further configured to receive an AP group sent by the base station and used for the UE to access the WLAN; wherein the group of APs comprises at least one AP connected to the same WT;

the processor 1601 is further configured to select one AP from at least one AP included in the AP group received by the receiver 1605 to complete the WLAN connection.

Optionally, the receiver 1605 may be further configured to:

Optionally, the transmitter 1604 may be further configured to transmit a PDCP status report to the base station.

Correspondingly, the receiver 1605 may be further configured to receive a PDCP status report request message sent by the base station, and be configured to request the UE to report a PDCP status report.

Example twelve

A twelfth embodiment of the present invention provides another WT130, configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN, where, referring to fig. 18, the WT130 may include:

at least one processor 1801; a memory 1802; at least one communication bus 1803 for enabling connection and intercommunication among the devices; a receiver 1804;

the communication bus 1803 may be an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended ISA (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus 1803 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 18, but this does not mean only one bus or one type of bus.

The processor 1801 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more Integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present invention. The processor 1801 is configured to execute program code stored in the memory 1802 in order to implement the functions of the processor 1801.

The receiver 1804 may be configured to receive an update message sent by a base station and including a UE MAC address.

The processor 1801 may be configured to update the saved MAC address of the UE to the MAC address included in the update message received by the receiver 1804, so as to recover a WLAN link accessed by the UE.

EXAMPLE thirteen

An embodiment of the present invention provides a communication system 190, configured to perform converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network WLAN by a UE, and referring to fig. 19, where the communication system 190 may include:

at least one base station 90 according to any of the embodiments above, configured to receive a failure message sent by a UE; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE; and stopping sending the data of the UE to a WLAN termination point WT to which a WLAN Access Point (AP) providing WLAN service for the UE belongs.

And at least one WT130 as in any of the above embodiments for cellular mobile network and WLAN converged communication with the base station 90.

Further optionally, the WT130 may be further configured to receive an update message sent by the base station 90 and including the UE medium access control MAC address; and the WT updates the saved MAC address of the UE into the MAC address for recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

Receiving an update message containing the UE MAC address sent by the base station 90; and updating the saved MAC address of the UE into the MAC address for recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE.

The communication system 190 provided by the embodiment of the invention is applied to the process that the UE performs the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, and receives the failure message sent by the UE; the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE; stopping transmitting data of the UE to a WT to which a WLAN AP providing WLAN service for the UE belongs; in this way, since the base station 90 stops sending the UE data to the WT after receiving the UE failure message, the situation that the UE data is sent through the WLAN link when the WLAN link accessed by the UE fails is avoided, a large amount of data is avoided being lost, and a large amount of data of the UE is avoided being lost in the WLAN link in the converged communication between the cellular mobile network and the WLAN, so as to improve user experience.

Further, a computer-readable medium (or media) is also provided, comprising computer-readable instructions that when executed: the operations of the method in the above-described first to sixth embodiments are performed.

Additionally, a computer program product is also provided, comprising the computer readable medium described above.

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

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

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

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

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may be physically included alone, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, or in a form of hardware plus a software functional unit.

The integrated unit implemented in the form of a software functional unit may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. The software functional unit is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute some steps of the methods according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, but not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A communication method is applied to a process of a User Equipment (UE) for converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), and comprises the following steps:

the base station stops sending the data of the UE to a WLAN termination point WT to which a WLAN access point AP providing WLAN service for the UE belongs;

wherein the failure message comprises a failure reason, and the failure reason is that a Media Access Control (MAC) address used by the UE for WLAN communication is changed;

acquiring the changed MAC address;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the failure message comprises the changed MAC address.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining the changed MAC address comprises:

4. The method of claim 3, wherein before the receiving the report message containing the changed MAC address sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE according to the changed MAC address comprises:

6. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the recovering the WLAN link accessed by the UE according to the changed MAC address comprises:

7. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein after said obtaining said changed MAC address, said method further comprises:

receiving a measurement report sent by the UE;

8. The method of claim 7, wherein prior to the receiving the measurement report sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

9. The method according to any of claims 1-4 and 8, wherein after receiving the failure message sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

sending the lost UE data to the UE.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein after receiving the failure message sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

sending the lost UE data to the UE.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein after receiving the failure message sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

sending the lost UE data to the UE.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein after receiving the failure message sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

sending the lost UE data to the UE.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the sending the lost data of the UE to the UE comprises:

or,

sending the lost data of the UE to the UE over the recovered WLAN link.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein prior to the receiving the PDCP status report sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

15. The method according to any of claims 10-13, wherein prior to said receiving the PDCP status report sent by the UE, the method further comprises:

16. A communication method is applied to a process of a User Equipment (UE) for converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), and comprises the following steps:

the UE determines that an accessed WLAN link fails;

the UE sends a failure message to a base station; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE;

wherein the determining, by the UE, that the accessed WLAN link fails comprises:

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the failure message further comprises the changed MAC address.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein after the sending the failure message to the base station, the method further comprises:

19. The method of claim 18, wherein before the sending the report message including the changed MAC address to the base station, the method further comprises:

20. The method according to any of claims 16-19, wherein after said sending a failure message to a base station, the method further comprises:

transmitting a measurement report to the base station;

and selecting one AP from the at least one AP to complete the WLAN connection.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein prior to said sending the measurement report to the base station, the method further comprises:

22. The method according to any of claims 16-19, 21, wherein after said sending a failure message to said base station, said method further comprises:

and sending a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) status report to the base station.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein after the sending the failure message to the base station, the method further comprises:

24. The method of claim 22, wherein prior to said sending the PDCP status report to the base station, the method further comprises:

25. A communication method is applied to a process of a User Equipment (UE) for converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), and comprises the following steps:

a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) termination point (WT) receives an update message which is sent by a base station and contains a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the UE;

26. A base station for converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a wireless local area network, WLAN, with a user equipment, UE, the base station comprising:

a first sending unit, configured to, when the receiving unit receives the failure message sent by the UE, stop sending data of the UE to a WLAN termination point WT to which a WLAN access point AP providing a WLAN service for the UE belongs;

the failure message comprises a failure reason, wherein the failure reason is that a Media Access Control (MAC) address used by the UE for WLAN communication is changed;

the base station further comprises:

27. The base station of claim 26, wherein the failure message comprises the changed MAC address.

28. The base station of claim 26,

29. The base station of claim 28, wherein the base station further comprises:

30. The base station according to any of claims 26 to 29, wherein the recovery unit is specifically configured to:

31. The base station according to any of claims 26 to 29, wherein the recovery unit is specifically configured to:

32. The base station according to any of claims 26-29,

the recovery unit is specifically configured to:

33. The base station of claim 32, wherein the second sending unit is further configured to:

before the receiving unit receives the measurement report sent by the UE, a measurement report request message is sent to the UE for requesting the UE to report the measurement report.

34. The base station according to any of claims 26-29, 33,

the base station further comprises:

a second sending unit, configured to send the lost UE data to the UE.

35. The base station of claim 30,

the base station further comprises:

a second sending unit, configured to send the lost UE data to the UE.

36. The base station of claim 31,

the base station further comprises:

a second sending unit, configured to send the lost UE data to the UE.

37. The base station of claim 32,

the base station further comprises:

a second sending unit, configured to send the lost UE data to the UE.

38. The base station of claim 34, wherein the second sending unit is specifically configured to:

or,

sending the lost data of the UE to the UE over the recovered WLAN link.

39. The base station of claim 34, wherein the second sending unit is further configured to:

before the receiving unit receives the PDCP status report sent by the UE, a PDCP status report request message is sent to the UE and used for requesting the UE to report the PDCP status report.

40. The base station according to any of claims 35-38, wherein said second transmitting unit is further configured to:

41. User Equipment (UE) for converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), comprising:

a determining unit, configured to determine that an accessed WLAN link fails;

a sending unit, configured to send a failure message to the base station when the determining unit determines that the accessed WLAN link fails; wherein the failure message is used for indicating the failure of the WLAN link accessed by the UE;

wherein the determining unit is specifically configured to:

determining that a Media Access Control (MAC) address change for WLAN communication causes a WLAN link failure accessed by the UE;

42. The UE of claim 41, wherein the failure message further comprises the changed MAC address.

43. The UE of claim 41, wherein the sending unit is further configured to:

44. The UE of claim 43, further comprising a receiving unit, configured to receive a MAC address request message sent by the base station, and configured to request the UE to report the changed MAC address.

45. The UE of any of claims 41 to 44,

46. The UE of claim 45, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to:

47. The UE of any of claims 41 to 44, 46,

the sending unit is further configured to:

48. The UE of claim 45, wherein the sending unit is further configured to:

49. The UE of claim 47,

50. A WLAN termination point for converged communication between a cellular mobile network and a WLAN, the WLAN termination point WT comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive an update message sent by a base station and including a media access control MAC address of a user equipment UE;

51. A communication system, the communication system comprising:

at least one base station according to any of claims 26 to 40, and at least one wireless local area network, WLAN, termination point, WT, according to claim 50.