CN108924816B

CN108924816B - Tracking method for network side notification area, network side equipment and user equipment

Info

Publication number: CN108924816B
Application number: CN201710179203.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李小龙
Original assignee: Vivo Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Current assignee: Vivo Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-03-23
Filing date: 2017-03-23
Publication date: 2020-08-14
Anticipated expiration: 2037-03-23
Also published as: CN108924816A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses a tracking method of a network side notification area, network side equipment and user equipment, wherein the tracking method of the network side notification area comprises the following steps: and when determining that the UE meets the condition of the non-activated state, sending a notification message for indicating that the UE does not track a network side notification area to the UE. Or receiving a notification message sent by a network side, and when determining that the notification message is a notification area message for indicating that the UE does not track the network side, not sending a network side notification area update request message to the network side.

Description

Tracking method for network side notification area, network side equipment and user equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method for tracking a network side notification area, a network side device, and a user equipment.

Background

In a Fifth Generation (5G) mobile communication system, in order to meet new traffic demands and in view of power saving of User Equipment (UE), a new UE state is defined: INACTIVE state (RRC _ INACTIVE).

For the UE in the inactive state, the following characteristics are provided:

mobility is achieved through cell reselection;

an anchor base station of the UE keeps connection between a Radio Access Network (RAN) side of the UE and a control plane and a user plane of a Core Network (CN), that is, the anchor base station keeps connection between the user plane and the control plane similar to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system S1;

at least one base station stores the context information of the access layer of the UE, namely the base station which at least keeps the connection of the control plane and the user plane from the wireless access network side of the UE to a core network (NR RAN-CN) stores the context information of the access layer of the UE;

there is a network side notification area, which is managed by a New Radio (NR) RAN and which knows to which RAN side notification area a UE belongs, and a paging message is transmitted to the UE by the NR RAN at initialization.

For the UE in the inactive state, the network side configures the RAN side notification area and the CN tracking area for the UE. Therefore, the UE in the inactive state needs to perform RAN side notification area and CN tracking area update.

However, the RAN-side notification area update is more frequent than the CN tracking area, and frequent network-side notification area updates may cause an increase in signaling overhead, which may also cause an increase in power consumption of the UE.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the technical problems of high energy consumption and high signaling overhead between the network side and the network side due to frequent updating of the network side notification area of the UE, embodiments of the present invention provide a tracking method for the network side notification area, a network side device, and a user equipment.

The method for tracking the network side notification area provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps:

and when determining that the UE meets the condition of the non-activated state, sending a notification message for indicating that the UE does not track a network side notification area to the UE.

In the foregoing solution, the determining that the UE satisfies the condition of the inactive state includes:

determining that the UE satisfies a condition for transitioning to an inactive state.

In the foregoing solution, the notification message includes: a radio resource control, RRC, message instructing the UE to transition from a connected state to an inactive state;

the RRC message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

Not updating the indication information of the network side notification area; or

And setting fields in the configuration information of the network side notification area.

determining that the UE has been in an inactive state.

In the foregoing solution, after determining that the UE is already in the inactive state, the method further includes: receiving a network side notification area update request message sent by the UE; sending a response message of the network side notification area update request message to the UE;

the notification message includes: the response message;

the response message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

In the foregoing solution, the notification message includes: a radio access network paging message;

the radio access network paging message comprises:

In the foregoing solution, after sending a notification message to the UE to indicate that the UE does not track a network side notification area, the method further includes:

and informing the core network to only carry out core network paging on the UE.

In the above scheme, the notifying the core network to perform only core network paging for the UE includes:

releasing the connection from the radio access network of the UE to the control plane and the user plane of the core network; or

And sending indication information for only carrying out core network paging on the UE to a core network when the connection from the radio access network of the UE to a control plane and a user plane of the core network is maintained.

In the foregoing solution, when the UE does not track the network side notification area, the method further includes:

and receiving an update request message of the core network tracking area sent by the UE, and updating the core network tracking area of the UE.

In the foregoing solution, in the process of updating the core network tracking area of the UE, the method further includes:

configuring a network side notification area for the UE; or sending indication information for carrying out network side notification area tracking to the UE; or configuring a network side notification area for the UE, and sending indication information for tracking the network side notification area to the UE.

and receiving a notification message sent by a network side, and when determining that the notification message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked, not sending a network side notification area update request message to the network side.

In the foregoing solution, the notification message includes:

an RRC message indicating a transition from a connected state to an inactive state;

the determining that the notification message is a message for indicating not to track a network side notification area includes:

when determining that the RRC message comprises at least one of the following information, the RRC message is a message for indicating not to track a network side notification area:

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

In the foregoing solution, after determining that the mobile terminal is already in the inactive state, the method further includes: sending a notification area update request message to a network side; receiving a response message of a notification area updating request message sent by a network side;

the notification message includes: the response message;

when determining that at least one of the following information is included in the response message, the response message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked:

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

when determining that the radio access network paging message includes at least one of the following information, the radio access network paging message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked:

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

In the above scheme, the method further comprises:

sending an update request message of a core network tracking area to the network side;

in the process of updating the tracking area of the core network, receiving information for configuring the network side notification area sent by the network side, or receiving indication information for tracking the network side notification area sent by the network side, or receiving the information for configuring the network side notification area sent by the network side and the indication information for tracking the network side notification area, and recovering to track the network side notification area.

The network side device provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises:

a determining unit, configured to determine whether a UE meets a condition of an inactive state, and trigger a sending unit when the UE meets the condition of the inactive state;

a sending unit, configured to send, to the UE, a notification message for indicating that the UE does not track a network side notification area.

In the foregoing solution, the determining unit determines that the UE satisfies the condition of the inactive state, including:

In the foregoing solution, the notification message includes: an RRC message indicating a transition of the UE from a connected state to an inactive state;

the RRC message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

determining that the UE has been in an inactive state.

In the foregoing solution, the network side device further includes:

a first receiving unit, configured to receive a network side notification area update request message sent by the UE after the determining unit determines that the UE is already in an inactive state;

the sending unit is further configured to send a response message of the network side notification area update request message to the UE;

the response message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

the radio access network paging message comprises:

In the foregoing solution, the network side device further includes:

and the notification unit is used for notifying a core network to only page the UE by the core network after the sending unit sends a notification message for indicating that the UE does not track a network side notification area to the UE.

In the foregoing solution, the notifying unit is further configured to:

In the foregoing solution, the network side device further includes:

a second receiving unit, configured to receive an update request message of a core network tracking area sent by the UE when the UE does not track a network side notification area;

and the updating unit is used for updating the core network tracking area of the UE.

In the foregoing solution, the sending unit is further configured to send, to the UE, indication information for performing network side notification area tracking.

In the above solution, the apparatus further includes:

and the configuration unit is used for configuring a network side notification area for the UE in the process of updating the core network tracking area of the UE.

In the foregoing solution, the sending unit is further configured to send, to the UE, indication information for performing network side notification area tracking after the configuration unit configures a network side notification area for the UE.

The embodiment of the invention provides user equipment, which comprises: receiving unit, determining unit and transmitting unit, wherein:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a notification message sent by a network side;

a determining unit, configured to determine whether the notification message is a message for indicating that the network side notification area is not tracked, and when it is determined that the notification message is a message for indicating that the network side notification area is not tracked, instruct the sending unit not to send the network side notification area update request message to the network side.

In the foregoing solution, the notification message includes:

the determining unit is further configured to determine that the RRC message includes at least one of the following information, where the RRC message is a message for indicating not to track a network side notification area:

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

In the foregoing solution, the notification message includes: the network side notifies the response message of the area updating request;

the determining unit is further configured to determine that the response message includes at least one of the following information, where the response message is a message for indicating that a network-side notification area is not tracked:

determining that at least one of the following information is included in the response message:

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

the determining unit is further configured to determine that the radio access network paging message includes at least one of the following information, where the radio access network paging message is a message used to instruct the UE not to track a network side notification area:

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

In the foregoing solution, the sending unit is further configured to send an update request message of a core network tracking area to the network side;

the receiving unit receives information for configuring a network side notification area sent by the network side, or receives indication information for network side notification area tracking sent by the network side, or receives information for configuring a network side notification area sent by the network side and indication information for network side notification area tracking when a core network tracking area updating process is carried out;

the determining unit is further configured to resume performing tracking of the network side notification area.

According to the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the network side can indicate that the UE does not track the RAN side notification area through signaling and only updates the CN tracking area according to whether the current state of the UE is in an inactive state; and the UE only updates the CN tracking area according to the indication of the network side. The network side can also recover the UE to track the network side notification area according to the service state of the UE. The technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention greatly reduces the energy consumption of the UE in the inactive state and also reduces the signaling overhead of the mobile communication system.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method for tracking a notification area on a network side according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for tracking a notification area on a network side according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a network-side device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a UE according to an embodiment of the present invention

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is another schematic structural diagram of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method for tracking a notification area on a network side according to a first embodiment of the present invention, where the method for tracking a notification area on a network side shown in fig. 1 is applicable to a network side, such as a base station side, an Access Point (AP) side, a relay station side, and the like; as shown in fig. 1, the method for tracking a network-side notification area according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps:

step 101, determining that the UE meets the condition of the inactive state.

In the embodiment of the present invention, determining that the UE satisfies the condition of the inactive state includes:

determining that the UE satisfies a condition for transitioning to an inactive state. Or, determining that the UE is already in an inactive state.

When the network side determines that the UE needs to enter the inactive state from the connected state, or the UE is already in the inactive state, it determines that the UE meets the condition of the inactive state, and executes step 102.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the network side determines that no uplink and downlink traffic between the network side and the UE exceeds the set length, an indication message for entering the inactive state may be sent to the UE, for example, the RRC message is sent to the UE to indicate that the UE is switched from the connected state to the inactive state. When the network side sends an RRC message to the UE, the UE is considered to enter an inactive state, and when the UE receives the RRC message, the UE enters the inactive state. As one implementation, the RRC message includes an indication message indicating release of the RRC connection, and the like.

Step 102, sending a notification message for indicating that the UE does not track a network side notification area to the UE.

Wherein the notification message is used for indicating that the UE does not track a network side notification area.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the notification message may include: an RRC message indicating that the UE is switched from a connection state to an inactive state or a response message of a network side notification area update request message.

In the embodiment of the invention, when the network side determines that the UE needs to be instructed to enter the inactive state, the RRC message for switching from the connection state to the inactive state is sent to the UE.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a notification message for indicating that the UE does not track a network side notification area may be used. Specifically, the following indication information may be inserted in the RRC message:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that, as an implementation manner, it may be agreed between the network side and the UE, when the UE does not receive any configuration or indication information of the network side notification area, the network side is not configured for the UE by default, and at this time, since the network side is not configured for the UE, the UE does not initiate tracking of the network side notification area any more. For example, after the UE enters the inactive state, when the UE does not receive any relevant indication information of the network side notification area, the UE does not initiate tracking of the network side notification area to the network side.

In the embodiment of the invention, when a network side determines that the UE is in an inactive state, the UE sends a network side notification area update request message to the network side when the UE updates a network side tracking area, at the moment, the network side sends a response message of the network side notification area update request message to the UE, and information indicating that the UE does not track the network side notification area is inserted into the response message.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the information indicating that the UE does not track the network side notification area includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

Here, it may also be agreed between the network side and the UE, and when the UE does not receive any configuration or indication information of the network side notification area, the network side does not configure the network side notification area for the UE by default. For example, after the UE enters the inactive state, when the UE does not receive any relevant indication information of the network side notification area, the UE does not initiate tracking of the network side notification area to the network side.

In the embodiment of the invention, the network side can not configure the network side notification area for the UE, so that the UE does not initiate the tracking of the network side notification area any more. Or the network side directly sends the indication information of not tracking the network side notification area to the UE, and the UE is clearly indicated not to track the network side notification area, so that the UE does not update the network side notification area any more. Specifically, when sending an RRC message or a response message of a network side notification area update request message to the UE, the sent message carries indication information that the network side notification area is not updated, or a set field in configuration information of the network side notification area, so that the UE does not send a tracking request message of the network side notification area to the network side after receiving the corresponding message and analyzing the indication information or the set field that the network side notification area is not updated.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the network side determines that the UE is already in the inactive state, the notification message may also be a radio access network paging message; at this time, the UE is instructed not to track the network side notification area by inserting indication information for not updating the network side notification area or a set field in configuration information of the network side notification area into the radio access network paging message; wherein, not tracking the network side notification area, including: the network side notification area is not updated.

In the embodiment of the invention, after receiving the information which is sent by the network side and indicates that the UE does not track the notification area of the network side, the UE sends a confirmation message to the network side to confirm that the information which indicates that the notification area of the network side is not tracked is received, so that a tracking request for the notification area of the network side is not initiated any more, and only an updating request message of the core network tracking area sent by the UE is received to update the core network tracking area of the UE.

In the embodiment of the invention, after the UE is indicated not to track the network side notification area, the network side needs to notify the core network to only page the core network for the UE. Specifically, the notification that the core network performs only core network paging on the UE may be implemented in the following manner:

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the network side needs the UE to track the network side notification area, the UE can be notified at any time to track the network side notification area, and the specific manner is as follows:

and configuring a network side notification area for the UE in the process of updating the core network tracking area by the UE.

And configuring a network side notification area for the UE in the process of updating the core network tracking area by the UE, and sending indication information for tracking the network side notification area to the UE.

After configuring the network side notification area for the UE, the network side may further send indication information for performing network side notification area tracking to the UE.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the network side notifies the area, that is, the RAN notifies the area.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for tracking a network-side notification area according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the method for tracking a network-side notification area shown in fig. 2 is applicable to a user equipment side. As shown in fig. 2, the method for tracking a network-side notification area according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the following steps:

step 201, receiving a notification message sent by a network side.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the notification message includes: an RRC message indicating a transition from a connected state to an inactive state; or a response message of the network side informing the area updating request message; or radio access network paging messages, etc.

Step 202, determining the notification message as a message for indicating not to track the network side notification area.

In this embodiment of the present invention, after receiving a notification message sent by a network side, first determining whether the notification message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked, for example, determining whether the network side notification area needs to be tracked by determining whether the notification message includes information indicating that the network side notification area is not tracked, and if it is determined that the notification message includes information indicating that the network side notification area is not tracked, executing step 203.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that, as an implementation manner, it may be agreed between the network side and the UE, when the UE does not receive any configuration or indication information of the network side notification area, the network side does not configure the network side notification area for the UE by default, and at this time, since the network side does not configure the network side notification area for the UE, the UE does not naturally initiate tracking of the network side notification area any more. For example, after the UE enters the inactive state, when the UE does not receive any relevant indication information of the network side notification area, the UE does not initiate tracking of the network side notification area to the network side.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the method for not tracking the network side notification area includes: the network side notification area is not updated.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the notification message includes an RRC message indicating a transition from a connected state to an inactive state or a response message of a network side notification area update request message, and when it is determined that the RRC message or the response message includes at least one of the following information, the RRC message or the response message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked:

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

The notification message may also be a radio access network paging message, and when it is determined that the radio access network paging message includes at least one of the following information, the radio access network paging message is a message for indicating that a network-side notification area is not tracked:

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

Step 203, not sending the network side notification area update request message to the network side.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the method for tracking a notification area on a network side may further include:

The essence of the technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention is further clarified by specific examples below.

Example 1

When the UE transitions from the connected state to the RRC _ INACTIVE state, the base station indicates, in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message in which the UE transitions from the connected state to the RRC _ INACTIVE state, that the UE does not track the network-side notification area.

In this example, the specific way of indicating, by the RRC message, that the UE does not track the network side notification area may be:

not configuring a network side notification area for the UE;

or, the UE is explicitly indicated by binary values not to track the network side notification area;

or, a field is set in the configuration information of the network side notification area, where the configuration information may be, for example, a cell id list (cell id list) or a radio access network id list (radio access network id list) for the network side notification area, and a specific field is set in the cell id list/RAN id list, so that if the configuration information of the network side notification area configured by the base station to the UE includes the set field, the UE does not track the network side notification area.

In this example, the network side notification area is not tracked, which includes: the network side notification area is not updated.

And after receiving the RRC message sent by the base station, the UE only updates the CN tracking area according to the indication of the RRC message and does not track the network side notification area.

In the embodiment of the invention, after receiving the information which is sent by the network side and indicates that the UE does not track the notification area of the network side, the UE sends a confirmation message to the network side to confirm that the indication information which does not track the notification area of the network side is received, so that a tracking request for the notification area of the network side is not initiated any more.

And when the base station indicates that the UE does not track the network side notification area, indicating the core network to only perform core network paging (CN paging) on the UE.

The specific indication manner for indicating the core network to perform only core network paging on the UE may include the following manner:

the base station releases the control plane and user plane connection from the radio access network side of the UE to a core network (NR RAN-CN), namely, the user plane and control plane connection similar to S1 in the LTE system is kept;

or, the base station sends indication information explicitly indicating that only CNpaging is performed for the UE to the core network through an interface between the base station and the core network.

When the tracking of the network side notification area needs to be recovered, the base station notifies the UE to recover the tracking of the network side notification area, which includes the following specific steps:

the base station can instruct the UE to recover the tracking of the network side notification area in the process of updating the CN tracking area by the UE; the indication mode for recovering the tracking of the network side notification area may be:

a base station configures a network side notification area for UE;

or the base station configures a network side notification area for the UE and explicitly indicates the UE to track the network side notification area by binary numerical values.

In the technical scheme of the example, the base station can indicate that the UE does not track the RAN side notification area through signaling and only updates the CN tracking area according to whether the current state of the UE is an inactive state; and the UE only updates the CN tracking area according to the indication of the base station. The base station can also recover the UE to perform network side notification area tracking according to the service condition of the UE. The technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention greatly reduces the energy consumption of the UE in the inactive state and also reduces the signaling overhead of the mobile communication system.

Example two

When the UE transitions from the connected state to the RRC _ INACTIVE state, the UE is instructed not to track the network side notification area through a radio access network paging (RAN paging) message.

The base station indicates the UE not to track the network side notification area through the RAN paging message, and the specific indication mode comprises the following steps:

the UE is explicitly indicated not to track the network side notification area by binary numerical values;

or, a field is set in the configuration information of the network side notification area, where the configuration information may be, for example, a cell id list (cell id list) or a radio access network id list (RAN id list) for the network side notification area, and a specific field is set in the cell id list/RAN id list, so that if the configuration information of the network side notification area configured by the base station to the UE includes the set field, the UE does not track the network side notification area.

As an implementation manner, in this example, when the UE performs network side notification area tracking, the base station may also instruct the UE not to track the network side notification area in the UE network side notification area tracking process; the specific indication mode is as follows:

not configuring a network side notification area for the UE;

And after receiving a RAN paging message or a response message of a network side notification area updating request message sent by the base station, the UE only updates the CN tracking area and does not track the network side notification area according to the indication of the message.

In the embodiment of the invention, after receiving the information which is sent by the base station and indicates that the UE does not track the network side notification area, the UE sends a confirmation message to the base station to confirm that the indication information which does not track the network side notification area is received, so that a tracking request for the network side notification area is not initiated any more.

The specific indication manner for indicating the core network to perform only core network paging on the UE may be as follows:

the base station can instruct the UE to recover the network side notification area tracking in the process of updating the CN tracking area by the UE; the indication mode for recovering the network side notification area tracking may be:

a base station configures a network side notification area for UE;

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a network-side device according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the network-side device includes a base station, an AP, or a relay station; as shown in fig. 3, the network side device according to the embodiment of the present invention includes:

a determining unit 30, configured to determine whether a user equipment UE meets a condition of an inactive state, and trigger a sending unit when the UE meets the condition of the inactive state;

a sending unit 31, configured to send, to the UE, a notification message for instructing the UE not to track a network side notification area.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the determining unit 30 determines that the UE satisfies the condition of the inactive state, including:

The notification message includes: a radio resource control, RRC, message instructing the UE to transition from a connected state to an inactive state;

the RRC message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

determining that the UE has been in an inactive state.

On the basis of the network side device shown in fig. 3, the network side device of the embodiment of the present invention further includes:

a first receiving unit (not shown in fig. 3), configured to receive a network side notification area update request message sent by the UE after the determining unit determines that the UE is already in an inactive state;

the sending unit 31 is further configured to send a response message of the network side notification area update request message to the UE;

the response message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

Those skilled in the art should understand that the first receiving unit is configured to optimize the network side device according to the embodiment of the present invention, and is not to be construed as limiting the network side device shown in fig. 3.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the notification message includes: a radio access network paging message;

the radio access network paging message comprises:

On the basis of the network side device shown in fig. 3, the network side device according to the embodiment of the present invention further includes:

a notifying unit (not shown in fig. 3), configured to notify a core network to perform only core network paging on the UE after the sending unit 31 sends a notification message to the UE, where the notification message is used to instruct the UE not to track a network side notification area.

The notification unit is further configured to:

Those skilled in the art should understand that the notification unit is configured to optimize the network-side device according to the embodiment of the present invention, and is not to be understood as a limitation to the network-side device shown in fig. 3, nor a processing unit necessary for implementing the network-side device shown in fig. 3.

a second receiving unit (not shown in fig. 3), configured to receive, when the UE does not track the network side notification area, an update request message of the core network tracking area sent by the UE;

and an updating unit (not shown in fig. 3) for updating the core network tracking area of the UE.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the second receiving unit and the updating unit are configured to optimize the network-side device according to the embodiment of the present invention, and are not to be construed as limiting the network-side device shown in fig. 3.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the sending unit 31 is further configured to send, to the UE, indication information for performing network side notification area tracking.

a configuration unit (not shown in fig. 3), configured to configure a network side notification area for the UE in a process of updating a core network tracking area of the UE.

The sending unit 31 is further configured to send, to the UE, indication information for performing network side notification area tracking after the configuration unit configures a network side notification area for the UE.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the processing units in the network-side device of the present embodiment, such as the determining unit 30, the configuring unit, etc., may be implemented by a microprocessor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other Programmable logic devices, discrete Gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc., and the functions of the foregoing processing units may also be implemented by corresponding analog circuits. The transmitting unit 31, the first receiving unit, the second receiving unit, the notification unit, etc. may be implemented by an antenna system. The functions of each processing unit in the network side device of this embodiment can be understood with reference to the related embodiments of the resource allocation method described above.

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 4, the user equipment according to the embodiment of the present invention includes: a receiving unit 40, a determining unit 41 and a transmitting unit 42, wherein:

a receiving unit 40, configured to receive a notification message sent by a network side;

a determining unit 41, configured to determine whether the notification message is a message for indicating not to track a network-side notification area, and when it is determined that the notification message is a message for indicating not to track a network-side notification area, instruct the sending unit 42 not to send a network-side notification area update request message to the network side.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the notification message includes:

the determining unit 41 is further configured to determine that the RRC message includes at least one of the following information, where the RRC message is a message for indicating not to track a network side notification area:

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

As one implementation, the notification message includes: the network side notifies the response message of the area updating request message;

the determining unit 41 is further configured to determine that the response message includes at least one of the following information, where the response message is a message for indicating not to track a network-side notification area:

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

the determining unit 41 is further configured to determine that the radio access network paging message includes at least one of the following information, where the radio access network paging message is a message used to instruct the UE not to track a network side notification area:

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

In this embodiment of the present invention, the sending unit 42 is further configured to send an update request message of a core network tracking area to the network side;

the receiving unit 40 is configured to receive information for configuring a network side notification area sent by the network side, or receive indication information for network side notification area tracking sent by the network side, or receive information for configuring a network side notification area sent by the network side and indication information for network side notification area tracking when a core network tracking area is updated;

the determining unit 41 is further configured to resume performing tracking of the network-side notification area.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the processing units in the network-side device of the present embodiment, such as the determining unit 41, may be implemented by a microprocessor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete Gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc., and may also be implemented by corresponding analog circuits to implement the functions of the foregoing processing units. The receiving unit 40, the transmitting unit 42, and the like may be implemented by an antenna system. The functions of each processing unit in the user equipment of the present embodiment can be understood with reference to the related embodiments of the resource allocation method described above.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention. The base station 800 shown in fig. 5 includes: at least one processor 801, memory 802, and at least one X2 interface 804. The various components in the base station 800 are coupled together by a bus system 805. It is understood that the bus system 805 is used to enable communications among the components connected. The bus system 805 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are labeled as bus system 805 in fig. 5.

Wherein the X2 interface 804 is used for connecting with other base stations.

It will be appreciated that the memory 802 in embodiments of the invention may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. Volatile Memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache Memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), Double Data rate Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (ddr SDRAM ), Enhanced Synchronous SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DRRAM). The memory 802 of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

In some embodiments, memory 802 stores the following elements, executable modules or data structures, or a subset thereof, or an expanded set thereof: an operating system 8021 and application programs 8022.

The operating system 8021 includes various system programs, such as a framework layer, a core library layer, a driver layer, and the like, and is used for implementing various basic services and processing hardware-based tasks. The application program 8022 includes various application programs, such as a Media Player (Media Player), a Browser (Browser), and the like, for implementing various application services. A program implementing a method according to an embodiment of the present invention may be included in application program 8022.

In the embodiment of the present invention, by calling a program or an instruction stored in the memory 802, specifically, a program or an instruction stored in the application 8022, the processor 801 is configured to send, to the UE, a notification message for instructing the UE not to track a network-side notification area when determining that the UE satisfies a condition of an inactive state.

Wherein, not tracking the network side notification area, including: the network side notification area is not updated.

The methods disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention described above may be implemented in the processor 801 or implemented by the processor 801. The processor 801 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 801. The Processor 801 may be a general purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 802, and the processor 801 reads the information in the memory 802, and combines the hardware to complete the steps of the method.

It is to be understood that the embodiments described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or any combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the Processing units may be implemented within one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), general purpose processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units configured to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof.

For a software implementation, the techniques described herein may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. The software codes may be stored in a memory and executed by a processor. The memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 801 is further configured to: determining that the UE satisfies a condition of an inactive state, including:

the RRC message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 801 determines that the UE satisfies the condition of the inactive state, including:

determining that the UE has been in an inactive state.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the processor 801 is further configured to: after determining that the UE is in an inactive state, receiving a network side notification area update request message sent by the UE; sending a response message of the network side notification area update request message to the UE;

or, the notification message includes: the response message;

the response message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

The notification message includes: a radio access network paging message;

the radio access network paging message comprises:

Optionally, the processor 801 is further configured to: and after sending a notification message for indicating that the UE does not track a network side notification area to the UE, notifying a core network to only perform core network paging on the UE.

The informing the core network to perform only core network paging for the UE includes:

Optionally, when the UE does not track the network side notification area, the processor 801 is further configured to: and receiving an update request message of the core network tracking area sent by the UE, and updating the core network tracking area of the UE.

The processor 801 is further configured to: configuring a network side notification area for the UE in the process of updating the core network tracking area of the UE; or sending indication information for carrying out network side notification area tracking to the UE; or configuring a network side notification area for the UE, and sending indication information for tracking the network side notification area to the UE.

The base station 800 can implement the processes implemented by the base station in the foregoing embodiments, and details are not described here to avoid repetition. The base station 800 may indicate, through signaling, that the UE does not track the RAN-side notification area, and only performs CN tracking area update, according to whether the current state of the UE is an inactive state; thereby enabling the UE to perform only CN tracking area update according to the indication of the base station 800. The base station 800 may also resume the UE to perform tracking of the network side notification area according to the service status of the UE. Therefore, the energy consumption of the UE in the inactive state is greatly reduced, and the signaling overhead of the mobile communication system is also reduced.

Fig. 6 is another schematic structural diagram of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, the user device 900 in fig. 6 may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or an in-vehicle computer.

The user equipment 900 in fig. 6 includes a Radio Frequency (RF) circuit 910, a memory 920, an input unit 930, a display unit 940, a processor 960, an audio circuit 970, a wifi (wireless fidelity) module 980, and a power supply 990.

The input unit 930 may be used, among other things, to receive numeric or character information input by a user and to generate signal inputs related to user settings and function control of the user device 900. Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, the input unit 930 may include a touch panel 931. The touch panel 931, also referred to as a touch screen, may collect a touch operation performed by a user on or near the touch panel 931 (for example, a user may operate the touch panel 931 by using a finger, a stylus pen, or any other suitable object or accessory), and drive the corresponding connection device according to a preset program. Alternatively, the touch panel 931 may include two parts, a touch detection device and a touch controller. The touch detection device detects the touch direction of a user, detects a signal brought by touch operation and transmits the signal to the touch controller; the touch controller receives touch information from the touch sensing device, converts it to touch point coordinates, and sends the touch point coordinates to the processor 960, where the touch controller can receive and execute commands sent by the processor 960. In addition, the touch panel 931 may be implemented by various types, such as a resistive type, a capacitive type, an infrared ray, and a surface acoustic wave. In addition to the touch panel 931, the input unit 930 may also include other input devices 932, and the other input devices 932 may include, but are not limited to, one or more of a physical keyboard, function keys (e.g., volume control keys, switch keys, etc.), a trackball, a mouse, a joystick, and the like.

Among other things, the display unit 940 may be used to display information input by a user or information provided to the user and various menu interfaces of the user device 900. The display unit 940 may include a display panel 941, and the display panel 941 may be optionally configured in the form of an LCD or an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED).

It should be noted that the touch panel 931 may overlay the display panel 941 to form a touch display screen, and when the touch display screen detects a touch operation on or near the touch display screen, the touch display screen transmits the touch operation to the processor 960 to determine the type of the touch event, and then the processor 960 provides a corresponding visual output on the touch display screen according to the type of the touch event.

The touch display screen comprises an application program interface display area and a common control display area. The arrangement modes of the application program interface display area and the common control display area are not limited, and can be an arrangement mode which can distinguish two display areas, such as vertical arrangement, left-right arrangement and the like. The application interface display area may be used to display an interface of an application. Each interface may contain at least one interface element such as an icon and/or widget desktop control for an application. The application interface display area may also be an empty interface that does not contain any content. The common control display area is used for displaying controls with high utilization rate, such as application icons like setting buttons, interface numbers, scroll bars, phone book icons and the like.

The processor 960 is a control center of the user equipment 900, connects various parts of the entire cellular phone using various interfaces and lines, and performs various functions of the user equipment 900 and processes data by operating or executing software programs and/or modules stored in the first memory 921 and calling data stored in the second memory 922, thereby integrally monitoring the user equipment 900. Optionally, processor 960 may include one or more processing units.

In this embodiment of the present invention, by invoking a software program and/or a module stored in the first memory 921 and/or data in the second memory 922, the processor 960 is configured to receive a notification message sent by a network side, and when determining that the notification message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked, not send a network side notification area update request message to the network side.

Optionally, as another embodiment, the notification message includes: a radio resource control, RRC, message indicating a transition from a connected state to an inactive state; processor 960 is further configured to determine that the RRC message includes at least one of the following information, the RRC message being a message indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked:

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

Optionally, the processor 960 is further configured to: after determining that the mobile terminal is in the inactive state, sending a notification area update request message to a network side; receiving a response message of a notification area updating request message sent by a network side;

the notification message includes: the response message;

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

Optionally, the notification message includes: a radio access network paging message; the processor 960 is further configured to: when determining that the radio access network paging message includes at least one of the following information, the radio access network paging message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked:

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

Optionally, the processor 960 is further configured to: sending an update request message of a core network tracking area to the network side;

As can be seen, the user equipment 900 of this embodiment only performs CN tracking area update according to the indication of the network side. And the UE can be recovered to track the network side notification area according to the indication of the network side, thereby greatly reducing the energy consumption of the UE in the non-activated state and reducing the signaling overhead of the mobile communication system.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. The above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, for example, the division of the unit is only a logical functional division, and there may be other division ways in actual implementation, such as: multiple units or components may be combined, or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented. In addition, the coupling, direct coupling or communication connection between the components shown or discussed may be through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection between the devices or units may be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

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, that is, 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, all the functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may be separately regarded as one unit, 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.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: all or part of the steps for implementing the method embodiments may be implemented by hardware related to program instructions, and the program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and when executed, the program performs the steps including the method embodiments; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as a removable Memory device, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

Alternatively, the integrated unit of the present invention may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if it is implemented in the form of a software functional module and sold or used as a separate product. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention may be essentially implemented or a part contributing to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product, which 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 all or part of the methods described in the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as a removable Memory device, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

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

Claims

1. A method for tracking a network side notification area is characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:

when determining that User Equipment (UE) meets the condition of an inactive state, sending a notification message for indicating that the UE does not track a network side notification area to the UE; wherein the condition that the UE satisfies the inactive state includes that the UE satisfies a condition for transition to the inactive state or that the UE is already in the inactive state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification message comprises: a radio resource control, RRC, message instructing the UE to transition from a connected state to an inactive state;

the RRC message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

3. The method of claim 1, wherein after determining that the UE is already in an inactive state, the method further comprises: receiving a network side notification area update request message sent by the UE; sending a response message of the network side notification area update request message to the UE;

the notification message includes: the response message;

the response message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification message comprises: a radio access network paging message;

the radio access network paging message comprises:

5. The method according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein after sending a notification message to the UE indicating that the UE does not track the network side notification area, the method further comprises:

and informing the core network to only carry out core network paging on the UE.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the notifying the core network of core network paging only for the UE comprises:

7. The method according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein when the UE does not track the network side notification area, the method further comprises:

8. The method of claim 7, wherein in updating the core network tracking area of the UE, the method further comprises:

9. A method for tracking a network side notification area is characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:

receiving a notification message sent by a network side, and when determining that the notification message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked, not sending a network side notification area update request message to the network side; the message for indicating not tracking the network side notification area is sent by the network side when the user equipment UE is determined to meet the condition of the non-activated state; wherein the condition that the UE satisfies the inactive state includes that the UE satisfies a condition for transition to the inactive state or that the UE is already in the inactive state.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the notification message comprises:

a radio resource control, RRC, message indicating a transition from a connected state to an inactive state;

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

11. The method of claim 9, wherein after determining that the device has been in the inactive state, the method further comprises: sending a notification area update request message to a network side; receiving a response message of a notification area updating request message sent by a network side;

the notification message includes: the response message;

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the notification message comprises: a radio access network paging message;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

13. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 12, further comprising:

14. A network side device, wherein the network side device comprises:

a sending unit, configured to send, to the UE, a notification message for instructing the UE not to track a network side notification area;

wherein the condition that the UE satisfies the inactive state includes that the UE satisfies a condition for transition to the inactive state or that the UE is already in the inactive state.

15. The network-side device of claim 14, wherein the notification message comprises: a radio resource control, RRC, message instructing the UE to transition from a connected state to an inactive state;

the RRC message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

16. The network-side device of claim 14, wherein the network-side device further comprises:

the response message includes:

information of a network side notification area is not configured; or

17. The network-side device of claim 14, wherein the notification message comprises: a radio access network paging message;

the radio access network paging message comprises:

18. The network-side device according to any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein the network-side device further comprises:

19. The network-side device of claim 18, wherein the notifying unit is further configured to:

20. The network-side device according to any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein the network-side device further comprises:

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the sending unit is further configured to send, to the UE, indication information for performing network-side notification area tracking.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the sending unit is further configured to send, to the UE, indication information for performing network-side notification area tracking after the configuring unit configures a network-side notification area for the UE.

24. A user equipment, the user equipment comprising: receiving unit, determining unit and transmitting unit, wherein:

a determining unit, configured to determine whether the notification message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked, and when it is determined that the notification message is a message for indicating that a network side notification area is not tracked, instruct the sending unit not to send a network side notification area update request message to the network side; the message for indicating not tracking the network side notification area is sent by the network side when the user equipment UE is determined to meet the condition of the non-activated state; wherein the condition that the UE satisfies the inactive state includes that the UE satisfies a condition for transition to the inactive state or that the UE is already in the inactive state.

25. The ue of claim 24, wherein the notification message comprises:

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

26. The ue of claim 24, wherein the notification message comprises: the network side notifies the response message of the area updating request;

information of a network side notification area is not configured;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

27. The ue of claim 24, wherein the notification message comprises: a radio access network paging message;

not updating the indication information of the network side notification area;

28. The user equipment according to any of claims 24 to 27,

the sending unit is further configured to send an update request message of a core network tracking area to the network side;