CN109246793B

CN109246793B - Multi-link data transmission method and device

Info

Publication number: CN109246793B
Application number: CN201710347558.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 石小丽; 朱元萍; 刘菁
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-05-17
Filing date: 2017-05-17
Publication date: 2021-05-18
Anticipated expiration: 2037-05-17
Also published as: CN109246793A

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a multilink data transmission method and a device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: a base station determines that relay User Equipment (UE) is added to carry out data transmission with remote UE, and the remote UE carries out data transmission with the base station through a first relay UE at present; the base station sends an indication message of adding relay UE to the remote UE, wherein the indication message of adding relay UE is used for indicating the remote UE to discover a second relay UE; and the base station receives the relay UE increasing success message fed back by the remote UE and triggers a data transmission process of establishing multi-link with the second relay UE according to the relay UE increasing success message so as to realize the data transmission between the remote UE and the base station through the second relay UE. By adopting the embodiment of the application, the method and the device have the advantages of realizing multi-link data transmission between terminal devices, improving the throughput of a communication system and improving the user experience of data transmission.

Description

Multi-link data transmission method and device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for multilink data transmission.

Background

Device-to-device (D2D) communication based on cellular networks, or referred to as proximity services (ProSe), refers to a communication technique by which user data can be transmitted directly between User Equipments (UEs) without transit through the network. D2D communication is one of the communication technologies that enables direct communication between UEs in close proximity. As oriented to the fifth generation (5)^thGeneration, 5G) network, D2D communication has potential prospects of improving system performance, user experience, and expanding cellular communication applications. In the future, 5G networks will have various technologies related to D2D communication, for example, technologies such as car networking, multi-hop communication (also called frequency hopping communication), and Ultra Dense Network (UDN) will be related to D2D communication. Different services, different services or various communication technologies involved in different network structures will have different demands on the D2D technology, so that the seeking of the D2D technology to meet different demands under the cellular architecture is the key point of the technology which is currently concernedOne, the first step.

However, for 5G networks, the prior art provides a terminal data transmission manner in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) dual link (DC) application scenario. The data transmission method provided by the prior art is limited to one-to-one communication between two UEs, and the prior art does not relate to a D2D data transmission method in a multi-link application scenario of a terminal device. The prior art also does not provide a D2D data transmission method in a multi-link application scenario of a terminal device in a new radio access technology (NR) network, and multi-link data transmission between terminal devices is one of the technical problems to be solved urgently in the 5G communication network.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a multilink data transmission method and device, which can realize multilink data transmission between terminal devices, improve the throughput of a communication system and improve the user experience of data transmission.

In a first aspect, a method for multi-link data transmission is provided, which may include:

a base station determines that relay User Equipment (UE) is added to carry out data transmission with remote UE, and the remote UE carries out data transmission with the base station through a first relay UE at present;

the base station sends an indication message of adding relay UE to the remote UE, wherein the indication message of adding relay UE is used for indicating the remote UE to discover a second relay UE;

and the base station receives the relay UE increasing success message fed back by the remote UE and triggers a data transmission process of establishing multi-link with the second relay UE according to the relay UE increasing success message so as to realize the data transmission between the remote UE and the base station through the second relay UE.

According to the embodiment of the application, the technical problem that the remote UE transmits data with the base station through the relay UEs can be solved, the throughput of the cell is improved through multi-link data transmission, and the user experience of data transmission is improved.

In some possible implementations, the sending, by the base station to the remote UE, the indication message of adding a relay UE includes:

the base station sends an indication message for adding relay UE to the remote UE through the first relay UE;

wherein the indication message of the increased relay UE is carried by a one-to-one communication request message or a predefined message between the remote UE and the first relay UE.

the base station transmits an indication message for increasing the relay UE through an air interface link between the remote UE and the base station;

wherein the indication message for adding the relay UE is carried by a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message or a predefined message between the base station and the remote UE.

In some possible implementations, the indication message of the added relay UE includes identification information of the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the indication message of the relay UE includes a requirement for multilink data transmission, where the requirement for multilink data transmission is used to instruct the remote UE to send a request for multilink data transmission to a second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the indication message for adding the relay UE includes a requirement for multi-link data transmission and identification information of the base station;

the requirement of the multilink data transmission is used for indicating the remote UE to send a multilink data transmission request to the relay UE to be added so as to trigger the relay UE to be added to initiate a multilink establishment request to the base station identified by the identification information of the base station.

In some possible implementations, the receiving, by the base station, the increased relay UE success message fed back by the remote UE includes:

and the base station receives the relay UE increasing success message fed back by the remote UE through the first relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the add relay UE success message includes identification information of the second relay UE;

the data transmission process of triggering the establishment of the multi-link with the second relay UE according to the relay UE success message comprises the following steps:

and the base station sends a multi-link data transmission request to the second relay UE according to the identification information of the second relay UE, and establishes data transmission connection with the second relay UE according to a multi-link data transmission response fed back by the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes:

the base station sends configuration information to the remote UE through the first relay UE or the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the configuration information includes bearer configuration information between the remote UE and the second relay UE and usage interface indication information of the bearer configuration information;

wherein the interface indication information of the bearer configuration information is used to indicate that the bearer configuration information is used for an interface of the second relay UE or an interface of the remote UE.

A second aspect provides a method of multi-linked data transmission, which may include:

receiving an indication message for adding relay UE sent by a base station by remote User Equipment (UE), wherein the remote UE carries out data transmission with the base station through first relay UE at present;

the remote UE discovers second relay UE according to the indication message of the relay UE and sends a relay UE success message to the base station, wherein the relay UE success message is used for triggering the base station to establish a multi-link data transmission process with the second relay UE;

and the remote UE receives the configuration information sent by the base station to realize data transmission with the base station through the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the receiving, by the remote UE, an indication message sent by a base station to add a relay UE includes:

the remote UE receives an indication message of adding relay UE, which is sent by the base station through the first relay UE; or

And the remote UE receives an indication message for adding the relay UE, which is transmitted by the base station through an air interface link between the remote UE and the base station.

In some possible implementations, the sending the add relay UE success message to the base station includes:

the remote UE sends a relay UE adding success message to the base station through the first relay UE;

wherein the relay UE successful adding message includes identification information of the second relay UE.

A third aspect provides a method of multi-linked data transmission, which may include:

the remote UE discovers second relay UE according to the indication message of the relay UE and sends a relay UE adding success message to the second relay UE, wherein the relay UE adding success message is used for triggering the second relay UE to establish a multi-link data transmission process with the base station;

In some possible implementations, the increase relay UE success message includes a requirement for multilink data transmission and identification information of the base station;

wherein the requirement of multilink data transmission is used for instructing the second relay UE to initiate a multilink establishment request to the base station identified by the identification information of the base station.

A fourth aspect provides a method of multilink data transmission, which may include:

the base station determines to add a second relay User Equipment (UE) to perform data transmission with a remote UE, and the remote UE performs data transmission with the base station through a first relay UE at present;

the base station establishes connection with the second relay UE and sends a multi-link data transmission request to the second relay UE;

and the base station receives the multilink data transmission response fed back by the second relay UE and sends configuration information to the remote UE so as to realize the data transmission between the remote UE and the base station through the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the receiving, by the base station, the multi-link data transmission response fed back by the second relay UE, and sending the configuration information to the remote UE includes:

the base station receives a multi-link data transmission response fed back by the second relay UE, and creates configuration information corresponding to the bearer information to be distributed to the second relay UE according to the multi-link data transmission response;

the base station sends the configuration information to the remote UE through the first relay UE or the second relay UE.

A fifth aspect provides a method of multi-linked data transmission, which may include:

the method comprises the steps that a second relay User Equipment (UE) establishes data transmission connection with a base station, and the base station transmits data with a remote station through the first relay UE currently;

the second relay UE receives a multi-link data transmission request sent by the base station, wherein the multi-link data transmission request is used for indicating the second relay UE to discover the remote UE;

the second relay UE discovering the remote UE according to the multi-link data transmission request;

and the second relay UE establishes data transmission connection with the remote UE and sends a multi-link data transmission response to the base station, wherein the multi-link data transmission response is used for informing the base station that the second relay UE is successfully established in communication with the remote UE.

In some possible implementations, the method further includes:

and the second relay UE receives the configuration information sent by the base station and forwards the configuration information to the remote UE.

A sixth aspect provides a method of multi-linked data transmission, which may include:

remote User Equipment (UE) discovers second relay UE and determines to establish data transmission connection with the second relay UE, and the remote UE currently performs data transmission with a base station through the first relay UE;

the remote UE sends a multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the second relay UE, wherein the multi-link data transmission request is used for requesting the second relay UE and the base station to establish a data transmission link to the remote UE;

and the remote UE receives a multilink data transmission response sent by the base station, wherein the multilink data transmission response is used for informing the remote UE that the establishment of a data transmission link from the base station to the remote UE through the second relay UE is completed.

In some possible implementations, the multi-link data transmission response includes configuration information sent by the base station to the remote UE, and the remote UE performs data transmission with the base station via the second relay UE according to the configuration information.

In some possible implementations, the remote UE sending a multi-link data transmission request to the base station includes:

the remote UE sends a multi-link data transmission request to the second relay UE so as to forward the multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the second relay UE;

the multilink data transmission request includes identification information of the base station, and the identification information of the base station is used for triggering the second relay UE to forward the multilink data transmission request to the base station.

the remote UE forwards a multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the first relay UE;

wherein the multi-link data transmission request carries identification information of the second relay UE.

A seventh aspect provides a method of multilink data transmission, which may include:

a first base station receives an indication of a multi-link data transmission request sent by relay User Equipment (UE), the first base station performs data transmission with remote UE via the relay UE at present, and the indication of the multi-link data transmission request is used for indicating the first base station and a second base station to establish a data transmission link from the relay UE to the remote UE;

the first base station determines to add a second base station according to the indication of the multilink data transmission request, and sends a multilink data transmission request to the second base station, wherein the multilink data transmission request is used for requesting the second base station to allocate radio resources for the bearer to be shunted;

the first base station receives a multilink data transmission response fed back by the second base station, wherein the multilink data transmission response is used for informing the first base station that the allocation of the radio resources of the bearer to be shunted is completed;

and the first base station sends an indication of completion of multi-link data transmission to the relay UE, wherein the indication of completion of multi-link data transmission is used for informing the relay UE of completion of establishment of a multi-link data transmission link, so that the second base station can perform data transmission with the remote UE through the relay UE.

In some possible implementation manners, the indication of the multilink data transmission request carries indication information of a candidate base station of the second base station, and the first base station determines the second base station according to the indication information of the candidate base station.

An eighth aspect provides a multilink data transmission method, which may include:

the method comprises the steps that relay User Equipment (UE) sends an indication of a multi-link data transmission request to a first base station which is connected currently, wherein the indication of the multi-link data transmission request carries indication information of candidate base stations, and the first base station carries out data transmission with remote UE through the relay UE;

and the relay UE receives the indication of the completion of the multi-link data transmission sent by the first base station and establishes data transmission with the second base station selected by the first base station according to the indication of the completion of the multi-link data transmission.

In some possible implementations, the indication information of the candidate base station includes identification information of at least one candidate base station;

the method further comprises the following steps:

the relay UE obtains identification information of at least one candidate base station through measurement, and determines indication information of the candidate base station according to the identification information of the at least one candidate base station;

the identification information comprises identification information of the candidate base station and identification information of a cell where the candidate base station is located.

The implementation method provided by the embodiment of the application solves the technical problem that the remote UE performs data transmission with a plurality of base stations through the relay UE, improves the throughput of the cell through multi-link data transmission, and improves the user experience of data transmission.

A ninth aspect provides a base station, which may comprise:

the processor is used for determining that relay User Equipment (UE) is added to carry out data transmission with remote UE, and the remote UE carries out data transmission with a base station through first relay UE at present;

a transceiver, configured to send an indication message of adding a relay UE to the remote UE, where the indication message of adding a relay UE is used to indicate that the remote UE discovers a second relay UE;

the transceiver is further configured to receive an increase relay UE success message fed back by the remote UE;

the processor is further configured to trigger a data transmission process of establishing multi-link with the second relay UE according to the relay UE addition success message received by the transceiver, so as to implement data transmission between the remote UE and the base station via the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver is to:

sending, by the first relay UE, an indication message to the remote UE to add a relay UE;

In some possible implementations, the transceiver is to:

issuing an indication message for adding relay UE through an air interface link between the remote UE and the base station;

In some possible implementations, the transceiver is to:

and receiving an increased relay UE success message fed back by the remote UE through the first relay UE.

the transceiver is configured to send a multilink data transmission request to the second relay UE according to the identification information of the second relay UE;

the processor is configured to establish a data transmission connection with the second relay UE according to the multi-link data transmission response fed back by the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver is further configured to:

transmitting configuration information to the remote UE through the first relay UE or the second relay UE.

A tenth aspect provides a terminal device, the terminal device being a remote user equipment, UE, and comprising:

the transceiver is used for receiving an indication message of adding relay UE sent by a base station, and the current remote UE carries out data transmission with the base station through a first relay UE;

a processor, configured to discover a second relay UE according to the indication message of the added relay UE received by the transceiver;

the transceiver is further configured to send an add relay UE success message to the base station after the processor discovers the second relay UE, where the add relay UE success message is used to trigger a data transmission process in which the base station establishes multi-link with the second relay UE;

the transceiver is further configured to receive configuration information sent by the base station to implement data transmission with the base station via the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver is for

Receiving an indication message for adding relay UE, which is sent by the base station through the first relay UE; or

And receiving an indication message for adding the relay UE, which is sent by the base station through an air interface link between the remote UE and the base station.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver is to:

sending a relay UE adding success message to the base station through the first relay UE;

An eleventh aspect provides a terminal device, which is a remote user equipment UE, and may include:

the transceiver is further configured to send an add relay UE success message to the second relay UE after the processor discovers the second relay UE, where the add relay UE success message is used to trigger a data transmission process in which the second relay UE establishes multi-link with the base station;

A twelfth aspect provides a base station, which may comprise:

the processor is used for determining that a second relay User Equipment (UE) is added to perform data transmission with a remote UE, and the remote UE performs data transmission with the base station through a first relay UE currently;

the processor is further configured to establish a connection with the second relay UE;

a transceiver for transmitting a multi-link data transmission request to the second relay UE;

the transceiver is further configured to receive a multilink data transmission response fed back by the second relay UE, and send configuration information to the remote UE, so as to implement data transmission between the remote UE and the base station via the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the processor is further configured to:

according to the multilink data transmission response, creating configuration information corresponding to the bearing information to be distributed to the second relay UE;

the transceiver is configured to send the configuration information to the remote UE through the first relay UE or the second relay UE.

A thirteenth aspect provides a terminal device, which is a second relay user equipment UE, and may include:

a processor configured to establish a data transmission connection with a base station, where the base station is currently performing data transmission with a remote station via a first relay UE;

a transceiver configured to receive a multi-link data transmission request sent by the base station, where the multi-link data transmission request is used to instruct the second relay UE to discover the remote UE;

the processor is further configured to discover the remote UE according to the multi-link data transmission request;

the processor is further configured to establish a data transmission connection with the remote UE;

the transceiver is further configured to send a multilink data transmission response to the base station, where the multilink data transmission response is used to notify the base station that the second relay UE is successfully established in communication with the remote UE.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver is further configured to:

and receiving the configuration information sent by the base station, and forwarding the configuration information to the remote UE.

A fourteenth aspect provides a terminal device, which is a remote user equipment UE, and may include:

a processor, configured to discover a second relay UE, and determine to establish a data transmission connection with the second relay UE, where the remote UE currently performs data transmission with a base station via a first relay UE;

a transceiver configured to send a multilink data transmission request to the base station through the second relay UE, the multilink data transmission request requesting the second relay UE to establish a data transmission link with the base station to the remote UE;

the transceiver is further configured to receive a multilink data transmission response sent by the base station, where the multilink data transmission response is used to notify the remote UE that establishment of a data transmission link from the base station to the remote UE through the second relay UE is completed.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver is to:

sending a multi-link data transmission request to the second relay UE so as to forward the multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the second relay UE;

In some possible implementations, the transceiver is to:

forwarding a multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the first relay UE;

A fifteenth aspect provides a base station, the base station being a first base station, which may comprise:

a transceiver, configured to receive an indication of a multilink data transmission request sent by a relay user equipment UE, where the first base station performs data transmission with a remote UE via the relay UE currently, and the indication of the multilink data transmission request is used to indicate the first base station and a second base station to establish a data transmission link to the remote UE through the relay UE;

a processor configured to determine to add a second base station according to an indication of the multi-link data transmission request;

the transceiver is further configured to send a multilink data transmission request to the second base station, where the multilink data transmission request is used to request the second base station to allocate radio resources to bearers to be shunted;

the transceiver is further configured to receive a multilink data transmission response fed back by the second base station, where the multilink data transmission response is used to notify the first base station that the allocation of the radio resources of the bearer to be shunted is completed;

the transceiver is further configured to send an indication of completion of multilink data transmission to the relay UE, where the indication of completion of multilink data transmission is used to notify the relay UE that establishment of a multilink data transmission link is completed, so that the second base station performs data transmission with the remote UE via the relay UE.

A sixteenth aspect provides a terminal device, which is a relay user equipment UE, and may include:

a transceiver, configured to send an indication of a multilink data transmission request to a first base station currently connected, where the indication of the multilink data transmission request carries indication information of candidate base stations, and the first base station performs data transmission with a remote UE via the relay UE;

the transceiver is further configured to receive an indication that the transmission of the multi-link data sent by the first base station is complete;

a processor configured to establish data transmission with a second base station selected by the first base station according to the indication that the multilink data transmission is completed received by the transceiver.

the processor is further configured to:

obtaining identification information of at least one candidate base station through measurement, and determining indication information of the candidate base station according to the identification information of the at least one candidate base station;

In some possible implementations, the bearer configuration information provided in this embodiment of the present application includes at least one of indication information of using reflexive for the PC5bearer and a mapping relationship between the PC5bearer and the flow Id.

In a seventeenth aspect, a base station is provided, which may include: a processor, a memory, a transceiver, and a bus system;

the memory, the processor and the transceiver are connected by the bus system;

the memory is used for storing a group of program codes;

the processor and the transceiver are configured to call program code stored in the memory to perform the method provided in the first aspect, the fourth aspect, or the seventh aspect.

In an eighteenth aspect, a terminal device is provided, which may include: a processor, a memory, a transceiver, and a bus system;

the memory, the processor and the transceiver are connected by the bus system;

the memory is used for storing a group of program codes;

the processor and the transceiver are configured to invoke program code stored in the memory to perform the methods provided by the second, third, fifth, sixth, or eighth aspects described above.

In a nineteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, where the system includes the base station provided in the above ninth aspect, twelfth aspect, or fifteenth aspect, and the terminal device provided in the above tenth aspect, eleventh aspect, thirteenth aspect, fourteenth aspect, or sixteenth aspect.

In a twentieth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer storage medium for storing computer software instructions for the terminal device, which includes a program designed to execute the above aspects.

In a twenty-first aspect, the present application provides a computer storage medium for storing computer software instructions for the base station, which includes a program designed to execute the above-mentioned aspects.

In a twenty-second aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, where the chip is coupled to a transceiver in a base station, and is configured to perform the technical solutions provided in the first aspect, the fourth aspect, or the seventh aspect of the embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that "coupled" in the embodiments of the present application means that two components are directly or indirectly joined to each other. The combination may be fixed or movable, which may allow flowing fluid, electrical or other types of signals to be communicated between the two components.

In a twenty-third aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, where the chip is coupled to a transceiver in a terminal device, and is configured to execute the technical solution of the second, third, fifth, sixth, or eighth aspect of the embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that "coupled" in the embodiments of the present application means that two components are directly or indirectly joined to each other. The combination may be fixed or movable, which may allow flowing fluid, electrical or other types of signals to be communicated between the two components.

The terminal device according to the embodiments of the present application may be a device (device) providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user, including a wired terminal and a wireless terminal. The wireless terminal may be a handheld device having wireless connection capabilities, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a mobile terminal communicating with one or more core networks via a radio access network. For example, the wireless terminal may be a mobile phone, a computer, a tablet computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a wearable device, an electronic book reader (e-book reader), and the like. As another example, a wireless terminal may be a portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or vehicle-mounted mobile device. As another example, the wireless terminal may be a mobile station (mobile station), an access point (access point). UE is a kind of terminal device, and is called in LTE system. For convenience of description, in the following description of the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device mentioned above will be described by taking a UE as an example.

The message transmission related in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the message transmission between the remote UE and the relay UE may adopt an existing discovery message or a one-to-one communication message, or an existing other message or an additional message, which is not limited herein; the message transmission between the relay UE and the base station may use an RRC message, or may use other existing messages or new messages, which is not limited herein.

The names of the multilink data transmission request and/or the multilink data transmission response provided by the embodiment of the present application may adopt other names, which is not limited herein.

The message name of the indication of completion of establishment of the multi-link transmission link provided in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as an indication of completion of multi-link data transmission, or other names used for notifying completion of establishment of a multi-link data transmission link of the relay UE.

The indication message of the multilink data transmission request and the message of establishing the multilink transmission link in the embodiment of the present application may adopt other names, which is not limited herein.

According to the embodiment of the application, the technical problem that the remote UE transmits data with the base station through the relay UEs can be solved, the throughput of the cell is improved through multi-link data transmission, and the user experience of data transmission is improved. The implementation method provided by the embodiment of the application can also solve the technical problem that the remote UE performs data transmission with a plurality of base stations through the relay UE, improves the throughput of the cell through multi-link data transmission, and improves the user experience of data transmission.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments of the present application will be described below.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of D2D communication provided in LTE;

fig. 2 is another scenario diagram of D2D communication provided in LTE;

fig. 3 is another scenario diagram of D2D communication provided by LTE;

fig. 4 is a network architecture diagram of UE-to-network relay provided by LTE;

fig. 5 is a schematic view of a scenario of a multi-link data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is an interactive schematic diagram of a multi-link data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is another schematic interaction diagram of a multi-link data transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is another schematic interaction diagram of a multi-link data transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is another schematic view of a multi-link data transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is another schematic interaction diagram of a multi-link data transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is another schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 15 is another schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 is another schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 18 is another schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

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

Detailed Description

The embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The D2D technology has many expressions, and air interface technologies such as WiFi Direct, FlashLinQ, Bluetooth, and Zigbee can be regarded as D2D technology. The potential gain and application scenario of the D2D technology needs to be further explored in the future 5G systems.

The D2D scenarios currently considered in LTE networks may mainly include two types:

one type is high speed D2D (high speed D2D):

referring to fig. 1, a scene diagram of D2D communication provided in LTE is shown. In the scenario shown in fig. 1, the base station sends data to two UEs through control signaling. End-to-end direct communication is performed between two UEs (including UE1 and UE2) through D2D. For example, two UEs desiring direct communication are located outside the network coverage area (network-of-coverage), and cannot exchange information through the network, and at this time, using D2D directly for the two UEs can achieve data exchange between the two UEs. For another example, generally for hot spots or large meeting scenarios, a large number of UEs may wish to exchange information with each other at the same time. However, the network in the hot spot or large meeting area cannot carry a large amount of communication data caused by simultaneous information exchange between a large number of UEs, and the D2D communication allows direct data exchange between UEs, so that extra capacity can be obtained.

Referring to fig. 2, another scenario diagram of D2D communication provided in LTE is shown. In the scenario shown in fig. 2, the base station transmits data to UE1 and UE2 through control signaling. UE1, UE2, and UE3 communicate directly between each other via D2D. Note that, in the scenario shown in fig. 2, direct communication is not performed between the base station and the UE3, and the UE3 performs data transmission communication with the base station via the UE 2. At this time, the UE3 acts as a remote UE for the base station, and the UE2 acts as a relay UE for data transmission communication between the base station and the UE 3.

The other is extended coverage D2D (extended coverage D2D):

referring to fig. 3, another scenario diagram of D2D communication provided by LTE is shown. In the 6 scenarios shown in fig. 3, the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) may be a UE on the ground, or may be other devices with communication, which is not limited herein. The embodiments of the present application will be described with reference to a UE as an example.

In the scenario shown in fig. 3, in scenario (1), CPE2 communicates with the base station via CPE1, and CPE1 and CPE2 communicate directly via D2D. Wherein, CPE2 can be called remote UE (remote UE), CPE1 can be called relay UE (relay UE).

The scenario (2) is a scenario of separating uplink and downlink services, that is, the uplink service is that the CPE2 communicates with the base station through the CPE1, and the downlink data is that the base station directly communicates with the UE 2. Data transmission is performed between CPE1 and CPE2 by D2D technology.

Scenario (3) is a multi-link scenario, i.e., communication data of CPE2 is forwarded to the base station through two user equipments (CPE 1 and CPE 3). Data transmission is performed between CPE2 and CPE1, and between CPE2 and CPE3 via D2D technology. Where CPE2 may be referred to as a remote UE and CPE1 and CPE3 may be referred to as relay UEs.

Scenario (4) is a multi-link scenario, but unlike scenario 3, the communication data of CPE2 is communicated with the base station through one user equipment (i.e., CPE1) and one direct link, and data transmission is performed between CPE1 and CPE2 through D2D technology.

Scenario (5) is a data forwarding scenario between multiple CPEs, in which communication data of CPE3 is forwarded to CPE1 through CPE2 and then forwarded to a base station through CPE 1. Data transmission is performed between CPE3 and CPE2, and between CPE2 and CPE1 via D2D technology. Where CPE2 and CPE3 may be referred to as remote UEs and CPE1 may be referred to as relay UEs.

Scenario (6) is a scenario where two CPEs communicate with each other through an unlicensed spectrum, such as wifi, bluetooth, or the like. That is, data transmission is performed between CPE1 and CPE2 through the unlicensed spectrum, and communication data of CPE2 is forwarded to the base station through CPE 1. Where CPE2 may be referred to as a remote UE and CPE1 may be referred to as a relay UE.

In various application scenarios shown in fig. 3, a remote UE may perform data transmission with a base station through a relay UE. For example. A proximity-enabled (ProSe-enabled) UE outside of a Network coverage area may maintain a connection with a base station through an in-coverage relay UE (UE-to-Network relay).

Referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of a network architecture of UE-to-network relay provided by LTE is shown. In a UE-to-network relay (UE-to-network relay) network architecture provided by LTE, a remote UE may communicate with a relay UE through a PC5interface, and the relay UE may communicate with a base station through a Uu interface. The base station acquires data from an LTE core network (EPC). Public safety (public security) accesses the EPC through a Short Guard Interval (SGI) interface. It should be noted that, in a system using different radio access technologies, specific names of base stations may be different, for example, in an LTE network, the base station is called an evolved NodeB (eNB), and in a subsequent evolved system, the base station may also be called a new radio NodeB (gNB). For convenience of description, the base station will be described in the following description of the embodiment of the present application. The multilink data transmission method and device provided by the embodiment of the application are mainly designed for application scenes from UE to a network. For an application scenario from the UE to the network, the embodiments of the present application provide a method and an apparatus for multilink data transmission for the application scenario described in the following scenario one and scenario two, which can improve throughput of a network communication system and improve user experience of multilink data transmission. It is understood that one remote UE can access to the base station through multiple relay UEs at the same time, and each relay UE can transmit part of the user plane data of the remote UE, respectively, so that dual connectivity can also be referred to as multi-connectivity (multi-connectivity).

The prior art does not provide the following two data transmission modes. The dual link scenario provided by LTE and NR networks does not provide for the application of D2D technology.

The following describes a data transmission method and apparatus in two application scenarios provided in the embodiment of the present application with reference to fig. 5 to 19.

Scenario one (case 1):

fig. 5 is a schematic view of a scene of the multilink data transmission method according to the embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, a remote UE performs multi-link data transmission with a base station through two relay UEs (e.g., relay UE1 and relay UE 2). In the application scenario shown in fig. 5, the multi-link data transmission may be triggered by the base station or the remote UE, which may be described in the following implementation manner one and implementation manner two, respectively.

Implementation manner one (case1-1, case 1-2):

case 1-1: the remote UE performs the discovery and connection procedure of the relay UE 2.

Fig. 6 is an interaction diagram of the multilink data transmission method according to the embodiment of the present application. The method provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps:

s61, the base station determines to add the relay UE for data transmission with the remote UE.

Specifically, the base station determines whether to add another relay UE (i.e., a second relay UE, such as the relay UE2) for data transmission with the remote UE according to the measurement information of the link quality of the cellular link (cellular link) and the link quality of the sidelink (sidelink). Specifically, the measurement configuration information may be sent from the base station to the remote UE through the first relay UE (e.g., the relay UE1), or may be sent to the remote UE directly through a link between the base station and the remote UE. The link quality of the cellular link refers to the link quality of the Uu port between the relay UE1 and the base station, and may be obtained through measurement by the relay UE1 and sent to the remote UE, and forwarded by the remote UE to the base station, or obtained through measurement by the relay UE1 and sent directly to the base station. The link quality of Sidelink refers to the link quality of the interface between the remote UE and the relay UE. The sidelink may specifically be an interface between D2D links, used for communication and discovery processes between UEs, such as a PC5 interface. The sidelink protocol is explained as follows: "UE to UE interface for sidelink communication and sidelink discovery". The sidelink correlations to The PC5interface (sidelink corresponds to The PC5 interface). "where the PC5interface is an interface between proximity service enabled UEs, e.g., an interface between a relay UE and a remote UE. The remote UE needs to report the measurement information of the current sidelink to the base station, where the measurement information includes information such as a connected relay (connected relay) state and channel quality of the sidelink, and the information is used by the base station to decide whether to add the relay UE. The measurement information may further include information such as channel quality between the remote UE and the base station or a load state of the remote UE, and may be specifically determined according to an actual application scenario, which is not limited herein.

In a specific implementation, if the base station determines that part of data of the remote UE needs to be distributed to another relay UE according to the measurement information, it may be determined that the relay UE and the remote UE are added to perform data transmission.

S62, the base station sends an indication message to the remote UE to add the relay UE.

Specifically, the base station may send an indication message to the remote UE to add the relay UE through the relay UE1, i.e., the base station first sends an indication message to add the relay UE to the relay UE 1. The indication message for adding the relay UE may be carried in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message between the base station and the relay UE1, such as an rrcconnectionconfiguration message, or may be carried in an existing other message or a new message, which is not limited herein. The relay UE1 forwards the indication message of adding relay UE to the remote UE after receiving the indication message. The indication message transmission between the remote UE and the relay UE1 may be carried by a one-to-one communication request (one-to-one communication request) message between the remote UE and the relay UE1, such as a direct communication request message, or may be carried by a newly added message, which is not limited herein. The indication message between the base station and the relay UE1 may be carried by an RRC message, such as an rrcconnectionconfiguration message, or may be carried by another existing message or a new message, which is not limited herein.

Specifically, the indication message for adding the relay UE is used to indicate the remote UE to discover another available relay UE.

Optionally, the indication message of adding the relay UE includes identification information of the added relay UE (e.g., the relay UE2), and the specific identification information may be information such as Identification (ID) of the relay UE 2.

Optionally, the indication message of the added relay UE further includes a requirement for multi-link data transmission, which is used to indicate the remote UE to send the requirement for multi-link data transmission to the added relay UE, such as the relay UE2, so as to trigger the relay UE2 to initiate a multi-link establishment request to the base station.

Optionally, the name of the indication message for adding the relay UE may adopt other names, which is not limited herein.

In a specific implementation, if a direct communication link exists between the base station and the remote UE, the base station may send an indication message for adding the relay UE through an air interface link between the remote UE and the base station.

Optionally, if the indication message for adding the relay UE includes a requirement for multilink data transmission, the indication message for adding the relay UE may also carry identification information of the base station, for example, an ID of the base station. In addition, the indication message for adding the relay UE may also carry information such as bearer information, Qos, and offloading types that the remote UE needs to offload to the relay UE2, which is not limited herein.

S63, the remote UE discovers the relay UE 2.

Specifically, if the indication message of adding the relay UE in the step of S62 does not include the identification information of the relay UE, the remote UE autonomously discovers the relay UE 2. If the indication message of adding the relay UE in the step S62 includes the identification information of the relay UE, the remote UE finds the relay UE2 according to the identification information of the relay UE2 in the indication message.

Optionally, the remote UE may discover the relay UE2 using the discovery mode of mode a or mode B. Where mode A can be: sending an announcing message by the remote UE; mode B may send a solicitation message for the remote UE. In a specific implementation, the specific implementation of the mode a and mode B discovery modes described above can be referred to the implementation provided in the existing standard, and is not limited herein.

S64, the remote UE sends an add relay UE success message to the base station.

Specifically, the remote UE may send an add relay UE success message to the relay UE1, which is forwarded to the base station through the relay UE 1. If the add relay UE2 is not successful, the remote UE sends an add relay UE failure message to the relay UE 1. The relay UE add success message and the relay UE add failure message sent by the remote UE through the relay UE1 may be carried in a one-to-one communication request message, or may be carried in an additional message, which is not limited herein. The relay UE1 may carry the add relay UE success message and the add relay UE failure message forwarded to the base station in the RRC message, or may carry other existing messages or newly added messages, which is not limited herein.

Alternatively, if the indication message of adding the relay UE in the step S62 does not include the identification information of the relay UE, the remote UE needs to send the identification information of the discovered relay UE2 to the relay UE1, which may be specifically sent in the message of adding the relay UE success. The relay UE1 forwards the identification information of the relay UE2 to the base station, which may specifically be sent in an add relay UE success message.

Optionally, the message names of the relay UE success adding message and the relay UE failure adding message may adopt other names, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, if a direct communication link exists between the remote UE and the base station, the remote UE may feed back an additional relay UE success message through an air interface link between the base station and the remote UE, specifically may use an RRC message, or other existing message or an additional message, which is not limited herein.

S65, the base station triggers the data transmission process of establishing multi-link with the relay UE2 according to the success message of the relay UE.

Specifically, the base station sends a multilink data transmission request to the relay UE2, and the relay UE2 returns a multilink data transmission response after receiving the multilink data transmission request. The multi-link data transmission request is used to instruct the relay UE2 to allocate radio resources for bearers requiring offloading, and the multi-link data transmission response is used to notify the base station relay UE2 to confirm that radio resources are allocated for bearers requiring offloading. The multilink data transmission request includes at least one of bearer information, Qos, offload type, tunnel information, and the like, which need to be offloaded. The multi-link data transmission response includes at least one of bearer information, tunnel information, etc. for confirming the split. For the detailed description of the multi-link establishment procedure, reference may be made to related contents of LTE dual-link establishment in the prior art, which are not described herein again.

It should be noted that the information such as bearer information, Qos, and offload type provided in the embodiment of the present application may be parameters in a multi-link scenario similar to that of LTE and NR networks. For example: the bearer information includes a bearer identification and the like. The Qos may include a Qos Class Identifier (QCI), an Allocation and Retention Priority (ARP), and the like. The splitting type may include split bearer splitting (split bearer) or core network splitting (e.g., Secondary Cell Group (SCG) bearer), etc.

Optionally, the multilink data transmission request and the multilink data transmission response may be carried by an RRC message between the relay UE2 and the base station, or may be carried by other existing messages or newly added messages, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, if there is no link between the base station and the relay UE2, the RRC connection needs to be established first, and the detailed description of the specific establishment method may refer to related contents in the prior art, which is not described herein again.

Alternatively, the above steps S64 and S65 may be replaced by the following steps S64 'and S65':

s64', the remote UE sends a request for multi-link data transmission to the relay UE 2.

Specifically, as described in the step S62, if the indication message for adding the relay UE sent by the base station to the remote UE may include a requirement for multi-link data transmission (which may also be referred to as an indication for multi-link data transmission, etc., without limitation), the remote UE may send the requirement for multi-link data transmission to the relay UE2 after discovering the relay UE2, so as to trigger the relay UE2 to initiate a multi-link data transmission process with the base station.

Optionally, the requirement that the remote UE sends the multi-link data transmission to the relay UE2 may carry identification information of the base station, for example, an ID of the base station.

Optionally, the requirement for multilink data transmission may also be carried in a message for increasing relay UE success. That is, the remote UE may send an add relay UE success message to the relay UE2, where the add relay UE success message carries information such as the requirement of the multi-link data transmission and the ID of the base station, so as to trigger the relay UE2 to establish the multi-link data transmission with the base station.

Optionally, before this step, the remote UE may send an add relay UE success message to the base station, as in step S64.

S65', the relay UE2 triggers a data transmission process of establishing multi-link with the base station according to the requirement of the multi-link data transmission.

Specifically, after the remote UE sends a need for multi-link data transmission to the relay UE2, the relay UE2 may send a multi-link setup need to the base station. The base station may trigger a data transmission procedure for establishing multi-link with the relay UE2 according to the multi-link establishment requirement sent by the relay UE 2. The implementation manner of the data transmission process in which the base station triggers the multi-link establishment with the relay UE2 may refer to the step S65, which is not described herein again. Or the relay UE2 directly sends a multilink setup request to the base station, and the base station returns a multilink setup response message to the relay UE2 after receiving the request. The multi-link data transmission request is used to indicate which bearers the base station relay UE2 may allocate radio resources for. The multi-link data transmission response is used to inform the relay UE2 that the base station acknowledges to offload the bearers to the relay UE 2.

Alternatively, if the indication message of adding the relay UE in the step of S62 does not include the identification information of the relay UE, the remote UE autonomously discovers the relay UE 2. After the remote UE sends a requirement for multilink data transmission (or adds a relay UE success message, which carries the requirement for multilink data transmission) to the relay UE2, the relay UE2 determines whether its primary serving base station is the base station identified by the ID of the base station according to the identification information of the base station, such as the ID of the base station, carried in the requirement for multilink data transmission. If the relay UE2 determines that the base station it is serving is the base station identified by the ID of the base station, a multi-link setup request may be initiated to the base station. The base station may trigger a data transmission process to establish a multi-link with the relay UE2 according to a multi-link establishment requirement initiated by the relay UE 2. The implementation manner of the data transmission process in which the base station triggers the multi-link establishment with the relay UE2 may refer to the step S65, which is not described herein again. Or the relay UE2 directly sends a multilink setup request to the base station, and the base station returns a multilink setup response message to the relay UE2 after receiving the request.

Alternatively, if the relay UE2 and the base station have not been RRC-linked at this time, the RRC link is first established. For the specific RRC establishment method, reference is made to the prior art, and details are not repeated here.

The multi-link request and multi-link response messages in the above steps may adopt other message names, and are not limited herein.

S66, the base station sends configuration information to the remote UE.

Specifically, the base station may transmit the configuration information to the remote UE through the relay UE1, or may transmit the configuration information to the remote UE through the relay UE 2.

In some possible embodiments, the base station may issue configuration information to the remote UE through the relay UE 1. The remote UE may establish one-to-one communication with the relay UE2 according to the configuration information and may begin data transmission.

Optionally, the configuration information includes bearer configuration information between the remote UE and the relay UE2 and interface usage indication information of the bearer configuration information. The bearer configuration information includes at least one of PC5bearer, indication information using reflective, and a mapping relationship between PC5bearer and flow Id. The PC5bearer is a bearer between the remote UE and the relay UE2, and may use an existing packet priority (ProSe-packet priority, PPPP) for carrying a ProSe, that is, each packet has its own ProSe priority), or may be a new bearer, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the name. The mapping relationship between the PC5bearer and the flow Id is that data stream transmission on the core network and the Residential Access Network (RAN) side of the NR system is no longer at a bearer level, but at a flow level, so that the base station needs to send the mapping relationship between the two to the remote UE.

In addition, optionally, the relay UE1 also needs to acquire bearer configuration information, for example, a mapping relationship between the PC5bearer and the flow Id. Therefore, when the base station forwards the configuration information to the remote UE through the relay UE1, the forwarded RRC message further includes the indication information of whether the bearer configuration information is used for the PC5interface of the remote UE or the Uu interface of the relay UE2, so that the relay UE1 can determine which interface the received configuration information is used for, which will not be described in detail below.

In some possible embodiments, the process of the remote UE establishing one-to-one communication with the relay UE2 may also be performed before the base station issues configuration information to the remote UE. The remote UE may then perform data transmission after establishing one-to-one communication with the relay UE 2. Further, the base station may send the configuration information to the relay UE2, forwarding the configuration information to the remote UE through the relay UE 2.

Case 1-2: the relay UE2 performs discovery and connection procedures for the remote UE.

Fig. 7 is another schematic interaction diagram of the multi-link data transmission method according to the embodiment of the present application. The method provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps:

s71, the base station determines to add the relay UE for data transmission with the remote UE.

Specifically, the implementation manner of the base station determining to add the relay UE and the remote UE to perform data transmission according to the measurement information may refer to the implementation manner described in step S61 of the above embodiment, and is not described herein again.

S72, the base station sends a multi-link data transmission request to the relay UE 2.

Specifically, the base station may send a multi-link data transmission request to the relay UE2, triggering the relay UE2 to perform a discovery process for the remote UE.

Optionally, the multi-link data transmission request may be carried in an RRC message between the base station and the relay UE2, such as an rrcconnectionconfiguration message, or may be carried in an existing other message or a new message, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, the multi-link data transmission request includes discovery indication information, where the discovery indication information is used to indicate that the relay UE2 discovers the remote UE.

Optionally, the name of the multilink data transmission request may adopt other names, which is not limited herein.

S73, the relay UE2 discovers the remote UE.

Optionally, if the discovery indication information includes identification information of the remote UE, for example, an ID of the remote UE, the relay UE2 may discover the remote UE according to the identification information of the remote UE.

If the discovery indication information does not include the identification information of the remote UE, the relay UE2 may actively discover the remote UE after receiving the multilink data transmission request.

S74, the relay UE2 establishes one-to-one communication with the remote UE.

Specifically, the relay UE2 may discover the remote UE through the discovery mode of mode a and mode B described above, and then establish one-to-one communication with the remote UE. In a specific implementation, the specific implementation of the mode a and mode B discovery modes described above can be referred to the implementation provided in the existing standard, and is not limited herein.

After the relay UE discovers the remote UE, one-to-one communication with the remote UE may be established.

S75, the relay UE2 sends a multi-link data transmission response to the base station.

Specifically, if the relay UE2 establishes communication with the remote UE successfully, a multi-link data transmission response is returned to the base station. If relay UE2 does not successfully establish communication with the remote UE, a failure message is returned. The multi-link data transmission response may be sent through an RRC message between the relay UE2 and the base station, or may be other newly defined messages, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. The packet-relay UE2 in the multi-link data transmission response confirms the bearer information that needs to be offloaded.

Alternatively, if the indication information in the step S72 does not carry the identification information of the remote UE, the relay UE2 needs to transmit the identification information of the discovered remote UE to the base station in the above-mentioned multi-link data transmission response. Whether to continue the following steps is further judged by the base station.

Optionally, the one-to-one communication procedure between the relay UE and the remote UE may also be performed after this step.

S76, the base station sends configuration information to the remote UE.

Specifically, after receiving the multilink data transmission response fed back by the relay UE2, the base station may create configuration information corresponding to the bearer information to be shunted, and send the configuration information to the remote UE through the relay UE 2. The information carried in the configuration information may refer to the implementation manner provided in the above embodiments, and is not described herein again.

Implementation two (case 1-3):

in some possible embodiments, the multi-link data transmission between the remote UE and the base station may also be triggered by the remote UE, and another implementation of the multi-link data transmission method provided in the embodiment of the present application will be described below with reference to the implementations described in the above-mentioned case1-1 and case1-2 and fig. 8. Fig. 8 is another schematic interaction diagram of the multi-link data transmission method according to the embodiment of the present application. The method provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps:

s81, the remote UE discovers the relay UE 2.

Specifically, before the remote UE sends the relay UE2 (which may be set as the second relay UE), the remote UE is currently performing data transmission with the base station via the relay UE1 (which may be set as the first relay UE), and determines to add the relay UE2 to implement data transmission with the base station according to the link quality of sidelink and/or the link quality of cell link.

Optionally, the remote UE may discover the relay UE2 through the discovery modes of mode a and mode B described in the above embodiments, which are not described herein again.

S82, the remote UE establishes one-to-one communication with the relay UE 2.

S83, the remote UE sends a multi-link data transmission request to the base station.

Specifically, the remote UE may initiate a multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the discovered relay UE2, i.e., the remote UE may send a multi-link data transmission request to its discovered relay UE2 and forward the multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the relay UE 2. The multi-link data transmission request is for requesting the base station to establish a data transmission link through the relay UE to the remote UE. Or alternatively, the multi-connection data transmission request may be sent by the relay UE 1. For the case that the remote UE sends the multilink data transmission request to the base station through the relay UE1, the multilink data transmission request may carry the identification information of the relay UE2, and the specific process is the same as the first implementation manner, which is not described herein again. The contents carried in the multilink data transmission request can be referred to the implementation manner described in the above embodiment.

Alternatively, the remote UE may establish one-to-one communication with the relay UE2 before this step, or the remote UE may establish one-to-one communication with the relay UE2 after the multi-link data transmission link establishment is completed.

Optionally, the communication message between the remote UE and the relay UE2 may include bearer information that the remote UE needs to perform multi-link offloading. Note that here, the one-to-one communication between the remote UE and the relay UE2 is only used to establish a default bearer.

After the remote UE establishes a connection with the relay UE2, the remote UE initiates a multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the relay UE 2.

Optionally, the message for the remote UE to forward the multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the discovered relay UE2 may include identification information of the base station currently served by the remote UE. The remote UE sends a multilink data transmission request to the relay UE2, and the relay UE2 may determine whether the currently served base station is the same as the currently served base station of the remote UE according to the identification information of the currently served base station of the remote UE, which is carried in the multilink data transmission request. If so, the multi-link data transmission request is continuously forwarded to the base station, otherwise, multi-link transmission failure information is returned to the remote UE.

Optionally, the message for the remote UE to forward the multi-link data transmission request to the base station through the discovered relay UE2 may include one or more of bearer information, Qos, offload type, etc. that the remote UE needs to offload to the relay UE 2.

S84, the base station feeds back a multi-link data transmission response to the remote UE.

In particular, if the multi-link data transmission request sent by the remote UE is sent through the relay UE1, reference may be made to the implementation described in the above embodiment. The multi-link data transmission response is used to inform the remote UE that the data transmission link establishment from the base station to the remote UE via the relay UE2 is complete. The remote UE may transmit data with the base station through the relay UE1, and the remote UE may also transmit data with the base station through the relay UE 2.

S85, the base station sends configuration information to the remote UE.

In some possible embodiments, the base station creates configuration information, including bearer configuration information between the remote UE and the relay UE2, while sending the configuration information to the remote UE and the relay UE 2. The bearer configuration information includes the PC5bearer and a mapping relationship between the PC5bearer and the flow Id, or indication information using reflexive.

Optionally, the RRC message forwarded by the base station to the remote UE through the relay UE2 further includes an interface usage indication message indicating whether the bearer configuration information is for the PC5interface of the remote UE or the Uu interface of the relay UE 2.

Alternatively, the configuration information may be directly transmitted through the multilink data transmission response message in step S84.

The message transmission related in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the message transmission between the remote UE and the relay UE may adopt existing discovery or one-to-one communication message, or existing other messages or new messages, which is not limited herein; the message transmission between the relay UE and the base station may use an RRC message, or may use other existing messages or new messages, which is not limited herein.

The technical problem that the remote UE performs data transmission with the base station through the relay UEs is solved, the throughput of the cell is improved through multi-link data transmission, and the user experience of data transmission is improved.

Scenario two (case 2):

fig. 9 is a schematic view of another scenario of the multi-link data transmission method according to the embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the remote UE communicates with two base stations through one relay UE (e.g., relay UE 1). The two base stations may be a master base station and a secondary base station. The main base station and the secondary base station are similar to Dual Connectivity (DC) in an LTE or NR network, and the system of the main and secondary base stations is not limited. Among them, the base station that preferentially establishes connection with the relay UE among the two base stations may be referred to as a master base station. The base station, which is added subsequently to the two base stations and establishes connection with the relay UE, may be called an auxiliary base station, and the auxiliary base station is used for offloading bearers. In a specific implementation, the master base station may be a master base station (master eNB, MeNB) in an LTE network or a master gbb (MgNB) in an NR network. The secondary base station may specifically be a secondary base station (secondary eNB, SeNB) in an LTE network, or a secondary base station (secondary gbb, SgNB) in an NR network.

Fig. 10 is another schematic interaction diagram of the multi-link data transmission method according to the embodiment of the present application. The multilink data transmission method provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps:

s91, the relay UE sends an indication of a multi-link data transmission request to the first base station.

Specifically, the first base station may be a master base station, and for convenience of description, the following description will be made with reference to the master base station in a simple manner.

Specifically, the indication of the multi-link data transmission request is used to instruct the main base station to establish a data transmission link to the remote UE through the relay UE with the secondary base station (second base station). Optionally, the indication of the multilink data transmission request carries indication information of a base station to be multilinked. The base station indication information may specifically include identification information of a group of base stations (i.e., at least one base station). The identification information of the base station may be an ID of the base station, or an ID of a cell to which the base station belongs, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited. At this time, the remote UE is performing data transmission with the master base station through the relay UE.

Alternatively, the relay UE may decide to trigger the multi-link data transmission by measuring the link quality of the current cellular link (i.e., Uu port).

S92, the first base station sends a multi-link data transmission request to the second base station.

Specifically, the first base station determines to add a second base station as a secondary base station to perform multi-connection data transmission according to the indication information received from the relay UE, and for convenience of description, the first base station is simply used as a main base station, and the second base station is used as a secondary base station for description. After receiving the indication of the multilink data transmission request sent by the relay UE, the primary base station may determine whether to add a base station as a secondary base station according to the indication of the multilink data transmission request.

Optionally, the master base station may determine whether an interface exists between the candidate base station identified by the identification information and the master base station according to the identification information of the base station carried in the indication of the multilink data transmission request. If there is an interface between the candidate base station (e.g., base station 1) identified by the identification information and the master base station, the master base station may determine to add base station 1 as the secondary base station.

Optionally, the primary base station may also determine whether to add a base station as a secondary base station according to information such as the load of each base station, and the like, and specifically may determine according to an actual application scenario, where no limitation is known,

if the primary base station determines to add a base station as a secondary base station, a multi-link data transmission request may be initiated to the selected secondary base station. Specifically, the multilink data transmission request is used to request the secondary base station to allocate radio resources to the bearers to be shunted.

Optionally, the name of the multilink data transmission request may be the name of the SgNB addition request message in the current DC, or may be other names, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the multi-link data transmission request further carries related context information of the current relay UE, for example, the related context information includes an ID of the relay UE and information of authorization (authorized) of the relay UE.

Optionally, the multi-link data transmission request further includes configuration information of a bearer that the relay UE desires to offload to the secondary base station, specifically similar to a DC in LTE, such as one or more of a bearer identifier, a Qos, and an offload type.

S93, the second base station sends a multi-connection data transmission response to the first base station.

In some possible embodiments, the multi-link data transmission response is used to inform the main base station that the radio resource allocation of the bearer to be offloaded requested by the multi-link data transmission request is completed. After receiving the multi-connection data transmission request, the secondary base station can allocate radio resources for the bearer requested by the multi-connection data transmission request and create configuration information of the relevant bearer. The configuration information may be transmitted to the main base station through a multi-link data transmission response.

Optionally, the configuration information includes bearer configuration information between the relay UE and the secondary base station. Specifically, the bearer configuration information includes the PC5bearer, the indication information using reflective, the mapping relationship between the PC5bearer and the flow Id, and the like, which may specifically refer to the implementation manner described in the above embodiment, and is not described herein again.

Optionally, the configuration information may further include interface usage indication information for carrying configuration information, which is used to indicate whether the configuration information is used for an interface between the relay UE and the base station or an interface between the relay UE and the remote UE. For details, reference may be made to the implementation manners described in the above embodiments, which are not described herein again.

S94, the first base station returns an indication of completion of establishment of the multi-link transmission link to the relay UE.

In some possible embodiments, the indication of completion of establishment of the multi-link transmission link is used to inform the relay UE of completion of establishment of the multi-link data transmission link, so as to enable the secondary base station to perform data transmission with the remote UE via the relay UE. The auxiliary base station may carry the configuration information of the relevant bearer in the indication of completion of establishment of the multi-link transmission link and send the information to the relay UE, for example, new configuration information may be sent to the relay UE through an RRC message between the base station and the relay UE. The relay UE may also forward the configuration information to the remote UE after accepting the new configuration information.

Optionally, the message name of the indication of completion of establishment of the multi-link transmission link may also be referred to as an indication of completion of multi-link data transmission, or other names used for notifying completion of establishment of the multi-link data transmission link to the relay UE, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, the message is an optional message, and the secondary base station may carry the configuration information of the relevant bearer in other existing messages or new messages and send the information to the remote UE through the relay UE.

S95, the relay UE1 establishes a connection with the second base station.

In some possible embodiments, if there is no link between the relay UE and the secondary base station, the relay UE may initiate a random access procedure with the secondary base station at this time to create an RRC connection establishment with the secondary base station. It should be noted that, the RRC establishment in the connection and docking access process initiated by the relay UE and the secondary base station may refer to an implementation manner provided in the existing LTE standard, and is not described herein again.

After the relay UE establishes a connection with the secondary base station and completes configuration, the remote UE may perform data transmission with the secondary base station through the relay UE.

The embodiment of the application solves the technical problem that the remote UE performs data transmission with a plurality of base stations through the relay UE, improves the throughput of the cell through multi-link data transmission, and improves the user experience of data transmission.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of a base station according to the present application. The base station provided by the embodiment of the application comprises:

a processing unit 111, configured to determine that adding relay user equipment UE performs data transmission with a remote UE, where the remote UE currently performs data transmission with a base station via a first relay UE;

a transceiver unit 112, configured to send an indication message of adding a relay UE to the remote UE, where the indication message of adding a relay UE is used to indicate that the remote UE discovers a second relay UE;

the transceiver unit 112 is further configured to receive an add relay UE success message fed back by the remote UE;

the processing unit 111 is further configured to trigger a data transmission process of establishing multi-link with the second relay UE according to the relay UE add success message received by the transceiver unit 112, so as to implement data transmission between the remote UE and the base station via the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver unit 112 is configured to:

the transceiver unit 112 is configured to send a multilink data transmission request to the second relay UE according to the identification information of the second relay UE;

the processing unit 111 is configured to establish a data transmission connection with the second relay UE according to the multi-link data transmission response fed back by the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver unit 112 is further configured to:

Referring to fig. 12, a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown. The terminal device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be the remote UE provided in the above embodiment, and may include:

a transceiver unit 121, configured to receive an indication message for adding a relay UE sent by a base station, where the remote UE currently performs data transmission with the base station via a first relay UE;

a processing unit 122, configured to discover a second relay UE according to the indication message of the added relay UE received by the transceiver;

the transceiver unit 121 is further configured to send an add relay UE success message to the base station after the processing unit 122 finds the second relay UE, where the add relay UE success message is used to trigger a data transmission process in which the base station establishes multi-link with the second relay UE;

the transceiver unit 121 is further configured to receive configuration information sent by the base station to implement data transmission with the base station via the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver unit 121 is configured to

In some possible implementations, the transceiver unit 121 is configured to:

Fig. 13 is a schematic view of another structure of the terminal device according to the embodiment of the present application. The terminal device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be the remote UE provided in the above embodiment, and may include:

a transceiving unit 131, configured to receive an indication message for adding a relay UE sent by a base station, where the remote UE performs data transmission with the base station via a first relay UE currently;

a processing unit 132, configured to discover a second relay UE according to the indication message of adding relay UEs received by the transceiving unit 131;

the transceiver unit 131 is further configured to send a relay UE addition success message to the second relay UE after the processor unit 131 discovers the second relay UE, where the relay UE addition success message is used to trigger a data transmission process in which the second relay UE establishes multi-link with the base station;

the transceiver unit 131 is further configured to receive configuration information sent by the base station to implement data transmission with the base station via the second relay UE.

Fig. 14 is a schematic view of another structure of the base station according to the embodiment of the present application. The base station provided by the embodiment of the application comprises:

a processing unit 141, configured to determine to add a second relay UE to perform data transmission with a remote UE, where the remote UE currently performs data transmission with the base station via a first relay UE;

the processing unit 141, further configured to establish a connection with the second relay UE;

a transceiver unit 142, configured to send a multilink data transmission request to the second relay UE;

the transceiver unit 142 is further configured to receive a multilink data transmission response fed back by the second relay UE, and send configuration information to the remote UE, so as to implement data transmission between the remote UE and the base station via the second relay UE.

In some possible implementations, the processing unit 141 is further configured to:

the transceiver unit 142 is configured to send the configuration information to the remote UE through the first relay UE or the second relay UE.

Fig. 15 is a schematic view of another structure of the terminal device according to the embodiment of the present application. The terminal device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be the second relay UE provided in the above embodiment, and may include:

a processing unit 151, configured to establish a data transmission connection with a base station, where the base station currently performs data transmission with a remote station via a first relay UE;

a transceiver unit 152, configured to receive a multilink data transmission request sent by the base station, where the multilink data transmission request is used to instruct the second relay UE to discover the remote UE;

the processing unit 151, further configured to discover the remote UE according to the multilink data transmission request;

the processing unit 151 is further configured to establish a data transmission connection with the remote UE;

the transceiver unit 152 is further configured to send a multilink data transmission response to the base station, where the multilink data transmission response is used to notify the base station that the second relay UE is successfully established in communication with the remote UE.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver unit 152 is further configured to:

Fig. 16 is a schematic view of another structure of the terminal device according to the embodiment of the present application. The terminal device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be the remote UE provided in the above embodiment, and may include:

a processing unit 161, configured to discover a second relay UE, and determine to establish a data transmission connection with the second relay UE, where the remote UE currently performs data transmission with a base station via a first relay UE;

a transceiver unit 162, configured to send a multilink data transmission request to the base station through the second relay UE, where the multilink data transmission request is used to request the second relay UE to establish a data transmission link with the base station to the remote UE;

the transceiver unit 162 is further configured to receive a multilink data transmission response sent by the base station, where the multilink data transmission response is used to notify the remote UE that the data transmission link establishment from the base station to the remote UE through the second relay UE is completed.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver unit 162 is configured to:

Fig. 17 is a schematic view of another structure of the base station according to the embodiment of the present application. The base station provided in the embodiment of the present application is a first base station, and may include:

a transceiver unit 171, configured to receive an indication of a multilink data transmission request sent by a relay user equipment UE, where the first base station currently performs data transmission with a remote UE via the relay UE, and the indication of the multilink data transmission request is used to instruct the first base station and a second base station to establish a data transmission link to the remote UE through the relay UE;

a processing unit 172, configured to determine to add a second base station according to the indication of the multilink data transmission request;

the transceiver unit 171 is further configured to send a multilink data transmission request to the second base station, where the multilink data transmission request is used to request the second base station to allocate radio resources for bearers to be shunted;

the transceiver unit 171 is further configured to receive a multilink data transmission response fed back by the second base station, where the multilink data transmission response is used to notify the first base station that the allocation of the radio resources of the bearer to be shunted is completed;

the transceiver unit 171 is further configured to send an indication of completion of multilink data transmission to the relay UE, where the indication of completion of multilink data transmission is used to notify the relay UE that the establishment of a multilink data transmission link is completed, so as to implement data transmission between the second base station and the remote UE via the relay UE.

Fig. 18 is a schematic view of another structure of the terminal device according to the embodiment of the present application. The terminal device provided in the embodiment of the present application is a relay UE, which may include:

a transceiver unit 181, configured to send an indication of a multilink data transmission request to a first base station currently connected, where the indication of the multilink data transmission request carries indication information of candidate base stations, and the first base station performs data transmission with a remote UE via the relay UE;

the transceiver unit 181 is further configured to receive an indication that the transmission of the multi-link data sent by the first base station is completed;

a processing unit 182, configured to establish data transmission with a second base station selected by the first base station according to the indication that the multilink data transmission is completed and received by the transceiver.

the processing unit 182 is further configured to:

Referring to fig. 19, fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 40 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 19, the communication device 40 provided in the embodiment of the present application includes a processor 401, a memory 402, a transceiver 403, and a bus system 404.

The processor 401, the memory 402, and the transceiver 403 are connected by a bus system 404.

The memory 402 is used for storing programs. In particular, the program may include program code including computer operating instructions. The memory 402 includes, but is not limited to, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), or a portable read-only memory (CD-ROM). Fig. 19 shows only one memory, but of course, the memory may be provided in plural numbers as necessary. The memory 402 may also be a memory in the processor 401, which is not limited herein.

The memory 402 stores the following elements, executable modules or data structures, or a subset thereof, or an expanded set thereof:

and (3) operating instructions: including various operational instructions for performing various operations.

Operating the system: including various system programs for implementing various basic services and for handling hardware-based tasks.

The processor 401 controls the operation of the communication device 40, and the processor 401 may be one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs), and in the case that the processor 401 is one CPU, the CPU may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

In particular applications, various components of communication device 40 are coupled together by a bus system 404, where bus system 404 may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like, in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are labeled as bus system 404 in FIG. 19. For ease of illustration, it is only schematically drawn in fig. 19.

Fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8 or fig. 10 provided in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, or a method of a terminal device disclosed in the foregoing embodiments; or fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, or fig. 10 provided in the foregoing embodiments of the present application, or the methods of the base station in the foregoing embodiments may be applied to the processor 401, or implemented by the processor 401. The processor 401 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 401. The processor 401 may be a general-purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-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 application 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 application 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 402, and the processor 401 reads the information in the memory 402 and, in conjunction with its hardware, executes the method steps of fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, or the terminal device as shown in fig. 10, or the above-described embodiments; or in combination with hardware, to perform the method steps of fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, or the base station as described in fig. 10, or the various embodiments described above.

One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that all or part of the processes in the methods of the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware related to instructions of a computer program, which may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when executed, may include the processes of the above method embodiments. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as ROM or RAM, magnetic or optical disks, etc.

Claims

1. A method for multi-link data transmission, comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the base station sending an indication message to the remote UE to add a relay UE comprises:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the base station sending an indication message to the remote UE to add a relay UE comprises:

4. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein the indication message of the added relay UE includes identification information of the second relay UE.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the indication message of the added relay UE includes a requirement for multi-link data transmission, the requirement for multi-link data transmission instructing the remote UE to send a multi-link data transmission request to a second relay UE.

6. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein the indication message of the increased relay UE comprises a requirement of multi-link data transmission and identification information of the base station;

7. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the base station receiving the increased relay UE success message fed back by the remote UE comprises:

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the add relay UE success message includes identification information of the second relay UE;

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the configuration information comprises bearer configuration information between the remote UE and the second relay UE and usage interface indication information for the bearer configuration information;

11. A method for multi-link data transmission, comprising:

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the remote UE receiving an indication message sent by a base station to add a relay UE comprises:

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the indication message of the added relay UE includes identification information of the second relay UE.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the sending the add relay UE success message to the base station comprises:

15. A method for multi-link data transmission, comprising:

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the indication message of the added relay UE includes identification information of the second relay UE.

17. The method of claim 15 or 16, wherein the add relay UE success message includes a requirement for multi-link data transmission and identification information of the base station;

18. A method for multi-link data transmission, comprising:

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the base station receiving a multi-link data transmission response fed back by the second relay UE and sending configuration information to the remote UE comprises:

20. A method for multi-link data transmission, comprising:

the second relay UE receives a multi-link data transmission request sent by the base station, wherein the multi-link data transmission request is used for indicating the second relay UE to discover remote UE;

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

22. A method for multi-link data transmission, comprising:

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the multi-link data transmission response includes configuration information sent by the base station to the remote UE, and wherein the remote UE enables data transmission with the base station via the second relay UE according to the configuration information.

24. The method of claim 22 or 23, wherein the remote UE sending a multi-link data transmission request to the base station comprises:

25. The method of claim 22 or 23, wherein the remote UE sending a multi-link data transmission request to the base station comprises:

26. A method for multi-link data transmission, comprising:

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the indication of the multilink data transmission request carries indication information of candidate base stations of the second base station, and the first base station determines the second base station according to the indication information of the candidate base stations.

28. A method for multi-link data transmission, comprising:

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the indication information of the candidate base stations comprises identification information of at least one candidate base station;

the method further comprises the following steps:

30. A base station, comprising:

31. The base station of claim 30, wherein the transceiver is configured to:

32. The base station of claim 30, wherein the transceiver is configured to:

33. The base station of claim 31 or 32, wherein the indication message of the added relay UE includes identification information of the second relay UE.

34. The base station of claim 33, wherein the indication message of the additional relay UE includes a requirement for multi-link data transmission, the requirement for multi-link data transmission indicating that the remote UE sends a multi-link data transmission request to a second relay UE.

35. The base station of claim 31 or 32, wherein the indication message of the increased relay UE includes a requirement of multi-link data transmission and identification information of the base station;

36. The base station of any of claims 30-32, wherein the transceiver is configured to:

37. The base station of claim 36, wherein the add relay UE success message includes identification information of the second relay UE;

38. The base station of claim 37, wherein the transceiver is further configured to:

39. The base station of claim 38, wherein the configuration information comprises bearer configuration information between the remote UE and the second relay UE and usage interface indication information for the bearer configuration information;

40. A terminal device, wherein the terminal device is a remote User Equipment (UE), comprising:

41. The terminal device of claim 40, wherein the transceiver is configured to

42. The terminal device of claim 41, wherein the indication message of the added relay UE includes identification information of the second relay UE.

43. The terminal device of claim 40, wherein the transceiver is to:

44. A terminal device, wherein the terminal device is a remote User Equipment (UE), comprising:

45. The terminal device of claim 44, wherein the indication message of the added relay UE includes identification information of the second relay UE.

46. The terminal device of claim 44, wherein the increase relay UE success message includes a requirement for multi-link data transmission and identification information of the base station;

47. A base station, comprising:

48. The base station of claim 47, wherein the processor is further configured to:

49. A terminal device, wherein the terminal device is a second relay User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive a multilink data transmission request sent by the base station, where the multilink data transmission request is used to instruct the second relay UE to discover a remote UE;

50. The terminal device of claim 49, wherein the transceiver is further configured to:

51. A terminal device, wherein the terminal device is a remote User Equipment (UE), comprising:

52. The terminal device of claim 51, wherein the multi-link data transmission response includes configuration information sent by the base station to the remote UE, and wherein the remote UE enables data transmission with the base station via the second relay UE according to the configuration information.

53. The terminal device of claim 51 or 52, wherein the transceiver is configured to:

54. The terminal device of claim 51 or 52, wherein the transceiver is configured to:

55. A base station, wherein the base station is a first base station, comprising:

56. The base station of claim 55, wherein the indication of the multilink data transmission request carries indication information of candidate base stations of the second base station, and the first base station determines the second base station according to the indication information of the candidate base stations.

57. A terminal device, wherein the terminal device is a relay User Equipment (UE), comprising:

58. The terminal device of claim 57, wherein the indication information of the candidate base stations includes identification information of at least one candidate base station;

the processor is further configured to:

59. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that it stores a computer program which, when executed by hardware, is capable of implementing the method of any one of claims 1 to 29.