CN110324892A

CN110324892A - A kind of tracing section updating method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: CN110324892A
Application number: CN201810273767.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 金巴
Original assignee: Vivo Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Current assignee: Vivo Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-03-29
Filing date: 2018-03-29
Publication date: 2019-10-11
Anticipated expiration: 2038-03-29
Also published as: CN110324892B

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses a kind of tracing section updating method and apparatus, it is related to field of communication technology, it is able to solve when UE is in two moving between cells belonged in a TA, the problem of may be such that UE is mistakenly considered to have been moved out TA belonging to the cell that UE is currently resident as the length variation of TAC, TAU accidentally initiated so as to cause UE.The specific scheme is that UE obtains target TAC, the TAC of TA belonging to the cell that target TAC is currently resident for UE；UE compares at least two TAC saved in target TAC and UE, obtains comparison result according to the length of target TAC；UE is according to comparison result, it is determined whether initiates TAU.The embodiment of the present invention is applied to during determining whether to initiate TAU.

Description

Tracking area updating method and equipment

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a tracking area updating method and equipment.

Background

In a communication system, a network device may manage a location of a User Equipment (UE) based on a Tracking Area (TA). After the UE moves out of the TA to which the cell where the UE currently resides belongs, the UE sends a Tracking Area Update (TAU) request message to the network device to notify the network device to Update the TA to which the cell where the UE currently resides belongs.

Generally, in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, when a UE moves from one cell to another cell, the UE may determine whether to initiate a TAU by acquiring a Tracking Area Code (TAC) of a cell where the UE currently resides. Specifically, the UE may determine whether to initiate the TAU by determining whether the TAC acquired by the UE is in a TA list (including multiple TACs) stored by the UE, for example, if the TAC is not in the TA list, the UE initiates the TAU.

However, since the length of the TAC is 2 bytes in the LTE network, while the length of the TAC is 3 bytes in the fifth generation mobile communication (5G) network; and when the lengths of the TACs of two different cells (e.g., cell 1 and cell 2) belonging to the same TA are 2 bytes and 3 bytes, respectively, assuming that the UE does not register cell 2, at this time, if the UE moves from cell 1 to cell 2, the UE cannot find the TAC with the length of 3 bytes in the TA list stored in the UE according to the above method, so the UE may misunderstand that the UE has moved out of the TA to which the cell currently camped on is belonged, and thus the UE may mistakenly initiate a TAU.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a tracking area updating method and equipment, which can solve the problem that when UE moves between two cells belonging to one TA, the length change of TAC can cause the UE to mistakenly think that the UE moves out of the TA to which the cell where the UE currently resides belongs, so that the UE mistakenly initiates TAU.

In order to solve the technical problem, the embodiment of the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

in a first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, a tracking area updating method is provided, where the tracking area updating method includes: the method comprises the steps that UE obtains a target TAC, wherein the target TAC is the TAC of a TA to which a cell where the UE resides currently belongs; the UE compares the target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE according to the length of the target TAC to obtain a comparison result; and the UE determines whether to initiate the TAU according to the comparison result.

In a second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, a tracking area updating method is provided, where the tracking area updating method includes: the control plane device determines at least one access network device, and a cell served by the at least one access network device belongs to a TA; and the control plane device sends a configuration message to each access network device in the at least one access network device, where the configuration message is used to indicate a target access network device that receives the configuration message to configure a TAC of the TA for a cell that the target access network device provides service for, where the length of the TAC is a first length or a second length, and the TAC is used to determine whether to initiate a TAU.

In a third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, a UE is provided, where the UE includes: the device comprises an acquisition unit, a comparison unit and a determination unit. The acquiring unit is configured to acquire a target TAC, where the target TAC is a TAC of a TA to which a cell where the UE currently resides belongs. And the comparison unit is used for comparing the target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE according to the length of the target TAC acquired by the acquisition unit to obtain a comparison result. And the determining unit is used for determining whether to initiate the TAU according to the comparison result obtained by the comparing unit.

In a fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, a control plane device is provided, where the control plane device includes: a determining unit and a transmitting unit. The determining unit is configured to determine at least one access network device, where a cell served by the at least one access network device belongs to one TA. A sending unit, configured to send a configuration message to each access network device in the at least one access network device determined by the determining unit, where the configuration message is used to indicate a target access network device that receives the configuration message to configure a TAC of a TA for a cell where the target access network device provides service, where the length of the TAC is a first length or a second length, and the TAC is used to determine whether to initiate a TAU.

In a fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a UE, which includes a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, and when executed by the processor, the computer program implements the steps of the tracking area updating method according to the first aspect.

A sixth aspect of embodiments of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which, when being executed by a processor, implements the steps of the tracking area update method according to the first aspect.

A seventh aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a control plane apparatus, which includes a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and running on the processor, and when the computer program is executed by the processor, the steps of the tracking area update method according to the second aspect are implemented.

An eighth aspect of embodiments of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which, when being executed by a processor, implements the steps of the tracking area update method according to the second aspect.

The embodiment of the invention provides a tracking area updating method, when a UE moves from one cell to another cell, because the UE can compare a target TAC (namely the TAC of a TA to which the other cell belongs) according to the length of the acquired target TAC, and determine whether to initiate the TAU according to the comparison result, for example, the UE can determine whether to initiate the TAU by comparing the TAC with the same length, compared with the prior art in which the UE determines whether to initiate the TAU according to the result that the TAC with the same length as the target TAC can be found in a TA list stored by the UE directly, the tracking area updating method of the embodiment of the invention can solve the problem that in the prior art, when the UE moves between two cells (the two cells have TACs with different lengths), the UE mistakenly thinks that the TA to which the cell where the UE currently resides belongs is moved out due to the length change of the TAC, and the caused problem that the UE initiates the TAU is avoided, so that the UE can more accurately determine whether to initiate the TAU.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a Tracking Area Identity (TAI) according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture to which a tracking area update method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a tracking area updating method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of a tracking area updating method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example of a target TAC according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of a tracking area updating method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a fourth flowchart of a tracking area updating method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a possible structure of a UE according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a control surface device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a hardware diagram of a UE according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a hardware schematic diagram of a control plane device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

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

The terms "first" and "second," and the like, in the description and in the claims of embodiments of the present invention are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular order of the objects. For example, the first length and the second length, etc. are for distinguishing different lengths, not for describing a specific order of the lengths. In the description of the embodiments of the present invention, the meaning of "a plurality" means two or more unless otherwise specified.

The term "and/or" herein is an association relationship describing an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B, may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The symbol "/" herein denotes a relationship in which the associated object is or, for example, a/B denotes a or B.

In the embodiments of the present invention, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to mean serving as examples, illustrations or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "e.g.," an embodiment of the present invention is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, use of the word "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present concepts related in a concrete fashion.

The following explains some concepts and/or terms involved in the tracking area updating method and apparatus provided by the embodiments of the present invention.

TAC: i.e. tracking area codes, are assigned by the operator administration. The TAC is used to represent a tracking area code unique to a certain operator and is composed of an integer of 16 bits.

TAI: consists of Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) identity and TAC.

Exemplarily, as shown in fig. 1, a schematic structural diagram of two TAIs in a 5G network provided by an embodiment of the present invention is shown. As shown in (1) of fig. 1, the TAI includes a PLMN identity and a TAC, which is 2 bytes in length. As shown in (2) in fig. 1, the TAI includes a PLMN identity and a TAC, and the TAC has a length of 3 bytes, where the first part has a length of 2 bytes, the first part is used to store a tracking area code, the second part has a length of 1 byte, and the second part is used to store compatible data of the LTE network and the 5G network.

TAU: i.e. tracking area updates. In the embodiment of the invention, the UE initiates or falsely initiates the updating of the tracking area, which means that the UE sends a TAU request message to the network equipment.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a tracking area updating method and device, where a UE may compare a target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE according to a length of the target TAC to determine whether to initiate a TAU, so as to solve a problem in the prior art that when the UE moves between two cells belonging to one TA (where there are TACs with different lengths in the two cells), the UE may mistakenly think that the UE has moved out of the TA to which the cell currently resides due to a change in the length of the TAC, thereby causing the UE to mistakenly initiate a TAU.

The tracking area updating method and the tracking area updating device provided by the embodiment of the invention can be applied to a communication system, and when UE moves from one cell to another cell, the UE determines whether to initiate TAU or not.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 2, the communication system may include a core network device 01, an access network device 02, and a UE 03. The core network device 01 and the access network device 02 may establish a connection therebetween, and the access network device 02 and the UE 03 may establish a connection therebetween.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the core network device 01 and the access network device 02 shown in fig. 2 may be in wireless connection; and there may also be a wireless connection between the access network device 02 and the UE 03. In fig. 2, in order to illustrate the connection relationship between the core network device 01 and the access network device 02 and between the access network device 02 and the UE 03 more clearly, fig. 2 illustrates the connection relationship between the core network device 01 and the access network device 02 and between the access network device 02 and the UE 03 with solid lines.

The core network device 01 may include a control plane device 10 and a user plane device 11.

Illustratively, the control plane device 10 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME), and the user plane device 11 may include a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN-GW), and the like. The MME may be used for mobility management, session management, network element selection, and user bearer information storage. The S-GW has functions of session management, routing and data forwarding, quality of service control, charging, and storing information, etc. The PDN-GW may be used for Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation, session management, routing, data forwarding, quality of service control, charging, policy and charging enforcement, and the like.

The access network device 02 may be a base station. A base station is a device deployed in a Radio Access Network (RAN) and configured to provide a Radio communication function for a UE. The base stations may include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations, relay stations, access points, and the like. In systems using different radio access technologies, names of devices having a base station function may be different, for example, in an LTE system, called an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB), in a third generation mobile communication (3G) network, called a base station (Node B), and so on. As communication technology evolves, the name "base station" may change.

The UE 03 is a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user, a handheld device with wired/wireless connectivity, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem. The UE 03 may communicate with one or more core network devices via the RAN. The UE 03 may be a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone) and a computer having a mobile terminal, or a portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or vehicle-mounted mobile device that exchanges speech and/or data with the RAN, for example, a Personal Communication Service (PCS) phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and the like. The UE 03 may also be referred to as a User Agent (User Agent) or a terminal device.

A tracking area updating method and apparatus provided in the embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Currently, a control plane device may control an access network device that provides a service to configure a TAC for a cell that the access network device provides a service. For example, in a fourth generation mobile communication (4G) network, each control plane device (denoted as a 4G control plane device) may control an access network device that it provides service to configure a TAC for a cell that the access network device provides service, and the length of the TAC may be a first length (e.g., 2 bytes). In the 5G network, each control plane device (denoted as a 5G control plane device) may also control the access network device that provides the service to configure a TAC for a cell that the access network device provides the service, and the length of the TAC may be a second length (e.g., 3 bytes). In a phase when the 4G network and the 5G network coexist, in a first case, since one access network device may be compatible with the 4G network and the 5G network, the access network device may configure TACs of different lengths for cells that it provides services, for example, the access network device may configure a TAC of a first length and a TAC of a second length for a cell that it provides services, that is, one cell may have TACs of two lengths. In the second case, different access network devices belonging to one TA may configure TACs with different lengths for cells that the access network devices provide services for, so that in one TA, one access network device may configure a TAC with a first length for the cell that the access network device provides services for, and another access network device configures a TAC with a second length for the cell that the access network device provides services for, that is, there may be TACs with two lengths in one TA. In both cases, when the UE moves between two cells (which have TACs with different lengths) in one TA, the UE may misunderstand that the UE has moved out of the TA to which the cell where the UE currently resides due to the change in the length of the TAC, thereby possibly causing the UE to falsely initiate a TAU.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides a tracking area updating method, and an exemplary description is provided below for the tracking area updating method provided by the embodiment of the present invention.

Based on the communication system shown in fig. 2, the embodiment of the present invention provides a tracking area updating method, which may include steps 101 to 105 described below, as shown in fig. 3.

Step 101, the access network device sends System Information (SI), which includes the target TAC.

And 102, receiving the SI sent by the access network equipment by the UE.

And step 103, the UE acquires the target TAC according to the SI.

The target TAC may be a TAC of a TA to which a cell where the UE currently resides belongs. Specifically, the target TAC may be a TAC configured by the access network device for a cell where the UE currently resides.

In the embodiment of the invention, the base station can broadcast the SI, and the UE can acquire the target TAC according to the SI broadcast by the base station. Specifically, the SI may include a Master Information Block (MIB) and a System Information Block (SIB). The SIB contains the identity of the cell where the UE currently resides, the PLMN identity and TAC of the TA to which the cell belongs, etc.; the UE may read the SIB in the SI to acquire the target TAC.

For example, when the UE moves from one cell to another cell, the UE may acquire an identifier (e.g., identifier 1) of the another cell where the UE currently resides, and read, according to the identifier 1, an SIB including the identifier 1 in an SI broadcast by an access network device (an access network device that provides service for the second cell), so as to acquire a TAC of a TA to which the another cell belongs.

And step 104, comparing the target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE by the UE according to the length of the target TAC to obtain a comparison result.

In the embodiment of the invention, when the UE is located in one TA for the first time and the UE is registered in the TA, the UE can save the TAI of the TA in the UE; when the UE moves from one cell to another cell, the UE may obtain the corresponding TAC from the TAI stored in the UE to obtain at least two TACs, and compare the target TAC with the at least two TACs.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, the UE may store the TAI of the TA in the UE in the form of a TA list.

And step 105, the UE determines whether to initiate the TAU according to the comparison result.

Optionally, in a first possible implementation manner of the embodiment of the present invention, the at least two TACs may include at least one first TAC and at least one second TAC, where a length of each of the at least one first TAC is a first length, and a length of each of the at least one second TAC is a second length; and the target TAC includes one TAC.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, at least one first TAC may be stored in the first TA list, at least one second TAC may be stored in the second TA list, and the first TA list and the second TA list are different lists. Alternatively, the at least one first TAC and the at least one second TAC are stored in one TA list.

Optionally, in an embodiment of the present invention, the first length may be 2 bytes, and the second length may be 3 bytes. Of course, it is understood that the first length and the second length may also be any other possible lengths, which may be determined according to actual use requirements, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the first length of 2 bytes is exemplified by a 4G network, and the second length of 3 bytes is exemplified by a 5G network, and specifically, when a network changes, the first length and the second length may also change, which is not listed in the embodiment of the present invention.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, in the first possible implementation manner, as shown in fig. 4 with reference to fig. 3, the step 104 may be specifically implemented by a step 104a and a step 104b described below.

And step 104a, if the length of the target TAC is the first length, the UE compares the target TAC with each first TAC to obtain a comparison result.

In the embodiment of the invention, after acquiring the target TAC, the UE can read the length of the target TAC; if the length of the target TAC is the first length, the UE acquires at least one first TAC from a TA list saved in the UE and compares the target TAC with each first TAC to determine whether the target TAC is the same as each first TAC.

Exemplarily, a TA list stored in the UE includes at least one TAI, where a length of a TAC of each TAI in the at least one TAI is a first length, and the UE may extract a corresponding TAC from each TAI in the TA list as a first TAC, so that at least one first TAC may be obtained from the TA list.

And step 104b, if the length of the target TAC is the second length, the UE compares the target TAC with each second TAC to obtain a comparison result.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the UE moves from one cell to another cell, the UE may obtain a TAC (i.e., a target TAC) of a TA to which the another cell belongs, and when the target TAC is one TAC, the UE may more accurately determine whether the UE has moved out of the TA to which the UE currently resides by comparing the target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE, where the length of the TAC is the same as that of the target TAC, so that the UE can more accurately determine whether to initiate a TAU.

Optionally, in the first possible implementation manner, the first length is smaller than the second length. Illustratively, the step 104b can be specifically realized by the following steps 104 b' and 104b ″.

And step 104 b', if the length of the target TAC is the second length, the UE acquires target data in the target TAC.

The target data in one TAC comprises data corresponding to a start byte to a target byte of the TAC, and the length from the start byte to the target byte is a first length.

It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the target data in the target TAC includes data corresponding to a start byte to a target byte of the target TAC, and a length from the start byte to the target byte is a first length.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, the target TAC has a length of 3 bytes, the UE acquires a first part of data in the target TAC, that is, data corresponding to a start byte to a target byte, and the length of the start byte to the target byte is a first length (e.g., 2 bytes).

And step 104 b', the UE compares the target data in the target TAC with the target data in each second TAC to obtain a comparison result.

The target data in one second TAC includes data corresponding to a start byte to a target byte of the one second TAC, and the length from the start byte to the target byte is a first length.

Illustratively, the UE compares the data of the first part in the target TAC with the data of the first part in each of the second TACs as shown in fig. 5, respectively, to determine whether the data of the first part in the target TAC is the same as the data of the first part in each of the second TACs.

Assuming that the first length is 2 bytes and the second length is 3 bytes as an example, if the target TAC acquired by the UE has a length of 3 bytes, the UE may extract data of the first 2 bytes in the target TAC (i.e., the target data described above), and then the UE compares whether the data of the first 2 bytes is the same as the data of the first 2 bytes in each second TAC, thereby determining whether to initiate a TAU according to the comparison result.

In the embodiment of the invention, the UE can more accurately determine whether the target TAC is the same as the second TAC by comparing the target data in the target TAC with the target data in each second TAC, so that the UE can more accurately determine whether to initiate the TAU.

Optionally, in a second possible implementation manner of the embodiment of the present invention, the at least two TACs include at least one first TAC and at least one second TAC, where a length of each of the at least one first TAC is a first length, a length of each of the at least one second TAC is a second length, the target TAC includes a third TAC and a fourth TAC, a length of the third TAC is the first length, and a length of the fourth TAC is the second length.

For other descriptions of the at least one first TAC and the at least one second TAC, reference may be specifically made to the description of the at least one first TAC and the at least one second TAC in the above first possible implementation manner, and details are not described here again.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, in the second possible implementation manner, as shown in fig. 6 with reference to fig. 3, the step 104 may be specifically implemented by a step 104c described below.

And step 104c, comparing the third TAC with each first TAC by the UE, and comparing the fourth TAC with each second TAC by the UE to obtain a comparison result.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, a method for the UE to compare the third TAC with each first TAC is similar to the method for the UE to compare the target TAC with each first TAC described in the step 104a, which may specifically refer to the related description in the step 104a, and is not described herein again. The method for comparing the fourth TAC with each second TAC by the UE is similar to the method for comparing the target TAC with each second TAC by the UE described in the step 104b, which may specifically refer to the related description in the step 104b, and is not described herein again.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the UE moves from one cell to another cell, the UE may obtain the TAC (i.e., the target TAC) of the TA to which the another cell belongs, and when the target TAC is two TACs, the UE may more accurately determine whether the UE has moved out of the TA to which the UE currently resides by comparing at least two TACs stored in each target TAC with the TAC having the same length as the target TAC, so that the UE can more accurately determine whether to initiate the TAU.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, in combination with step 104a in the first possible implementation manner, step 105 may be specifically implemented by step 105a and step 105b described below.

And 105a, if the target TAC is different from each first TAC, the UE determines to initiate the TAU.

And 105b, if the target TAC is the same as one of the first TACs, the UE determines that the TAU does not need to be initiated.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, in combination with step 104b ″ in the first possible implementation manner, step 105 may be specifically implemented by step 105c and step 105d, which are described below.

And 105c, if the target data in the target TAC is different from the target data in each second TAC, the UE determines to initiate the TAU.

And 105d, if the target data in the target TAC is the same as the target data in one second TAC in each second TAC, the UE determines that the TAU does not need to be initiated.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, in combination with step 104c in the second possible implementation manner, step 105 may be specifically implemented by step 105e and step 105f described below.

And 105e, if the third TAC is different from each first TAC and the fourth TAC is different from each second TAC, the UE determines to initiate the TAU.

105f, if the third TAC is the same as one of the first TACs; or, the fourth TAC is the same as one of each of the second TACs; or the third TAC is the same as one of each first TAC, and the fourth TAC is the same as one of each second TAC, then the UE determines that it is not necessary to initiate a TAU.

In the embodiment of the invention, aiming at different conditions of the target TAC and the at least two TACs stored by the UE, the UE can adopt different implementation modes to compare the target TAC and the at least two TACs stored by the UE, and determine whether to initiate the TAU according to the comparison result. This may enable the tracking area update method provided by the embodiment of the present invention to be applied in different scenarios, for example, in the first case and the second case described earlier as the method embodiment shown in fig. 3.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned steps 101 to 105 describe a process in which the UE determines whether to initiate a TAU, and a method for configuring a TAC for a cell in which a control plane device controls an access network device to provide a service for the access network device is the same as that in the prior art, which may specifically refer to related descriptions in the prior art, and is not described again here.

Currently, a control plane device may control an access network device that provides a service to configure a TAC for a cell that the access network device provides a service. Since in the normal case, there may be a case where there are TACs of two lengths in one cell (i.e. the first case described above before in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3); or a case where there are two types of length TACs in one TA (i.e., the second case described above before in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3), when the UE moves between two cells in one TA (where there are two types of length TACs in the two cells), the UE may misunderstand that the UE has moved out of the TA to which the cell where the UE currently resides due to the length change of the TAC, and thus may mistakenly initiate a TAU.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention provides another tracking area updating method, and an exemplary description is provided below for the tracking area updating method provided by the embodiment of the present invention.

Based on the communication system shown in fig. 2, another tracking area updating method is provided in the embodiment of the present invention, which may include steps 201 to 204 described below, as shown in fig. 7.

Step 201, the control plane device determines at least one access network device.

Wherein, the cell served by the at least one access network equipment belongs to one TA.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, the step 201 may be specifically implemented by the following step 201a and step 201 b.

Step 201a, the control plane device determines at least one cell belonging to one TA.

In this embodiment of the present invention, each TA may be an area physically divided according to the location distribution of a cell, and each TA includes at least one cell. The control plane apparatus may determine at least one cell belonging to one TA divided in advance according to the TA.

Step 201b, the control plane device determines an access network device providing service for each cell according to at least one cell, so as to determine at least one access network device.

For example, assume that the control plane device determines that cell 3, cell 4, and cell 5 belong to the same TA. The control plane device determines that the access network device providing service for the cell 3 is an access network device a, the access network device providing service for the cell 4 is an access network device b, and the access network device providing service for the cell 5 is an access network device c, that is, at least one access network device determined by the control plane device is an access network device a, an access network device b, and an access network device c, respectively.

Step 202, the control plane device sends a configuration message to each access network device of the at least one access network device.

The configuration message may be used to indicate that the target access network device that receives the configuration message configures a TAC of the TA for a cell that provides service for the target access network device, where the length of the TAC is a first length or a second length, and the first length is different from the second length, and the TAC is used to determine whether to initiate a TAU.

Step 203, the target access network device receives the configuration message sent by the control plane device.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present invention, in fig. 7, interaction between each access network device of at least one access network device and a control plane device is described by taking a target access network device (one access network device of at least one access network device) as an example. The interaction between each access network device and the control plane device is similar to the interaction between the target access network device and the control plane device shown in fig. 7, and is not described herein again.

And step 204, the target access network equipment configures the TAC for the cell providing the service for the target access network equipment according to the configuration message.

It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the target access network device may be any access network device that receives the configuration message in at least one access network device.

For example, assuming that cell 3, cell 4 and cell 5 belong to TA1, at least one access network device is access network device a, access network device b and access network device c, after the control plane device sends a configuration message to access network device a, access network device b and access network device c, if access network device a and access network device c receive the configuration message sent by the control plane device and access network device b does not receive the configuration message sent by the control plane device, the target access network devices may be two, that is, one target access network device is access network device a and the other target access network device is access network device c, so that access network device a configures TAC of TA1 for cell 3 (that is, the cell served by access network device a) according to the indication of the received configuration message; access network device c configures the TAC of TA1 for cell 5 (i.e., the cell served by access network device c) according to the indication of the configuration message it receives.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the first length may be 2 bytes, and the second length may be 3 bytes. That is, the TAC of at least one cell belonging to one TA may be a 2-byte TAC, or a 3-byte TAC.

It should be noted that, in order to better describe the implementation manner of the embodiment of the present invention, step 203 and step 204 are exemplarily described by taking an access network device, that is, a target access network device as an example, and for other access network devices, the method is the same as that shown in step 203 and step 204, and is not described again here.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the control plane device configures TACs with the same length (for example, the first length or the second length) for at least one cell belonging to one TA, so that when the UE moves between two cells belonging to one TA, it is ensured that the UE does not acquire TACs with different lengths, thereby solving the problem in the prior art that when the UE moves between two cells belonging to one TA (the two cells have TACs with different lengths), the UE mistakenly considers that the UE has moved out of the TA to which the cell currently camped by the UE belongs and causes the UE to mistakenly initiate a TAU due to a change in the length of the TAC, and further enabling the UE to more accurately determine whether to initiate a TAU.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the above steps 201 to 204 describe a process in which the control plane device controls the access network device providing services to configure the TAC for the cell providing services for the access network device, and for a process in which the UE determines whether to initiate the TAU according to the TAC, the process is the same as that in the prior art, and reference may be specifically made to relevant descriptions in the prior art, and details are not described here again.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of a UE involved in the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 8, the UE 80 may include: an acquisition unit 81, a comparison unit 82 and a determination unit 83.

The obtaining unit 81 is configured to obtain a target TAC, where the target TAC is a TAC of a TA to which a cell where the UE currently resides belongs. The comparing unit 82 is configured to compare the target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE according to the length of the target TAC acquired by the acquiring unit 81, so as to obtain a comparison result. A determining unit 83, configured to determine whether to initiate a TAU according to the comparison result obtained by the comparing unit 82.

In a possible implementation manner, the at least two TACs include at least one first TAC and at least one second TAC, where a length of each first TAC is a first length, and a length of each second TAC is a second length. A comparing unit 82, configured to compare the target TAC with each first TAC if the length of the target TAC is the first length; or if the length of the target TAC is the second length, comparing the target TAC with each second TAC.

In one possible implementation, the first length is less than the second length. A comparing unit 82, specifically configured to obtain target data in the target TAC; and compares the target data in the target TAC with the target data in each of the second TACs. The target data in one TAC comprises data corresponding to a start byte to a target byte of the TAC, and the length from the start byte to the target byte is a first length.

In a possible implementation manner, the at least two TACs include at least one first TAC and at least one second TAC, a length of each first TAC is a first length, a length of each second TAC is a second length, the target TAC includes a third TAC and a fourth TAC, a length of the third TAC is the first length, and a length of the fourth TAC is the second length. The comparing unit 82 is specifically configured to compare the third TAC with each first TAC, and compare the fourth TAC with each second TAC.

In a possible implementation manner, the at least one first TAC is stored in a first TA list, and the at least one second TAC is stored in a second TA list; or, the at least one first TAC and the at least one second TAC are stored in a TA list.

In one possible implementation manner, the first length may be 2 bytes, and the second length may be 3 bytes.

The UE provided in the embodiment of the present invention can implement each process implemented by the UE in the foregoing method embodiments, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

The embodiment of the present invention provides a UE, wherein when the UE moves from one cell to another cell, because the UE may compare a target TAC (i.e., a TAC of a TA to which the other cell belongs) obtained according to the length of the target TAC, and determine whether to initiate a TAU according to a comparison result, for example, the UE may determine whether to initiate a TAU by comparing the TACs with the same length, so that compared with the prior art in which the UE directly determines whether to initiate a TAU according to a result that the UE may find a TAC with the same length as the target TAC in a TA list stored in the UE, the UE provided in the embodiment of the present invention can solve the problem that, in the prior art, when the UE moves between two cells (where TACs with different lengths exist in the two cells) belonging to one TA, the UE mistakenly considers that the TA belonging to the cell where the UE currently resides has moved, and the caused problem that the UE initiates the TAU is avoided, so that the UE can more accurately determine whether to initiate the TAU.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of a control plane device involved in the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 9, the control surface apparatus 90 may include: a determination unit 91 and a transmission unit 92.

The determining unit 91 is configured to determine at least one access network device, where a cell served by the at least one access network device belongs to one TA. A sending unit 92, configured to send a configuration message to each access network device in the at least one access network device determined by the determining unit 91, where the configuration message is used to indicate that a target access network device receiving the configuration message configures a TAC of a TA for a cell serving the target access network device, where the length of the TAC is a first length or a second length, and the TAC is used to determine whether to initiate a TAU.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining unit 91 is specifically configured to determine at least one cell belonging to one TA; and determining access network equipment for providing service for each cell according to the at least one cell so as to determine the at least one access network equipment.

The control plane device provided in the embodiment of the present invention can implement each process implemented by the control plane device in the above method embodiments, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a control plane device, where the control plane device configures a TAC with the same length (for example, the first length or the second length) for at least one cell belonging to one TA, so that when a UE moves between two cells belonging to one TA, it is ensured that the UE does not acquire TACs with different lengths, so as to solve a problem in the prior art that, when the UE moves between two cells belonging to one TA (there are TACs with different lengths in the two cells), the UE mistakenly considers that the UE has moved out of the TA to which the cell currently camped on the UE belongs to mistakenly initiate the TAU due to a change in the length of the TAC, and thus, the UE can more accurately determine whether to initiate the TAU.

Fig. 10 is a hardware diagram of a UE implementing various embodiments of the present invention. As shown in fig. 10, the UE110 includes but is not limited to: a radio frequency unit 111, a network module 112, an audio output unit 113, an input unit 114, a sensor 115, a display unit 116, a user input unit 117, an interface unit 118, a memory 119, a processor 120, and a power supply 121.

It should be noted that, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, the UE structure shown in fig. 10 does not constitute a limitation of the UE, and the UE may include more or less components than those shown in fig. 10, or combine some components, or arrange different components. For example, in the embodiment of the present invention, the UE includes, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a palm computer, a vehicle-mounted terminal, a wearable device, a pedometer, and the like.

The processor 120 may be configured to acquire a target TAC, where the target TAC is a TAC of a TA to which a cell where the UE currently resides belongs; comparing the target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE according to the length of the target TAC to obtain a comparison result; and determining whether to initiate TAU according to the comparison result.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the radio frequency unit 111 may be used for receiving and sending signals during a message sending and receiving process or a call process, and specifically, receives downlink data from a base station and then processes the received downlink data to the processor 120; in addition, the uplink data is transmitted to the base station. In general, radio frequency unit 111 includes, but is not limited to, an antenna, at least one amplifier, a transceiver, a coupler, a low noise amplifier, a duplexer, and the like. In addition, the radio frequency unit 111 may also communicate with a network and other devices through a wireless communication system.

The UE provides the user with wireless broadband internet access through the network module 112, such as helping the user send and receive e-mails, browse webpages, access streaming media, and the like.

The audio output unit 113 may convert audio data received by the radio frequency unit 111 or the network module 112 or stored in the memory 119 into an audio signal and output as sound. Also, the audio output unit 113 may also provide audio output related to a specific function performed by the UE110 (e.g., a call signal reception sound, a message reception sound, etc.). The audio output unit 113 includes a speaker, a buzzer, a receiver, and the like.

The input unit 114 is used to receive an audio or video signal. The input Unit 114 may include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) 1141 and a microphone 1142, and the Graphics Processing Unit 1141 processes image data of a still picture or video obtained by an image capturing device (e.g., a camera) in a video capturing mode or an image capturing mode. The processed image frames may be displayed on the display unit 116. The image frames processed by the graphic processor 1141 may be stored in the memory 119 (or other storage medium) or transmitted via the radio frequency unit 111 or the network module 112. The microphone 1142 may receive sound and may be capable of processing such sound into audio data. The processed audio data may be converted into a format output transmittable to a mobile communication base station via the radio frequency unit 111 in case of the phone call mode.

The UE110 also includes at least one sensor 115, such as light sensors, motion sensors, and other sensors. Specifically, the light sensor includes an ambient light sensor that adjusts the brightness of the display panel 1161 according to the brightness of ambient light, and a proximity sensor that turns off the display panel 1161 and/or the backlight when the UE110 moves to the ear. As one of the motion sensors, the accelerometer sensor can detect the magnitude of acceleration in each direction (generally three axes), detect the magnitude and direction of gravity when stationary, and can be used to identify the UE attitude (such as horizontal and vertical screen switching, related games, magnetometer attitude calibration), vibration identification related functions (such as pedometer, tapping), and the like; the sensors 115 may also include fingerprint sensors, pressure sensors, iris sensors, molecular sensors, gyroscopes, barometers, hygrometers, thermometers, infrared sensors, etc., which are not described in detail herein.

The display unit 116 is used to display information input by the user or information provided to the user. The Display unit 116 may include a Display panel 1161, and the Display panel 1161 may be configured in the form of a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED), or the like.

The user input unit 117 may be used to receive input numeric or character information and generate key signal inputs related to user settings and function control of the UE. Specifically, the user input unit 117 includes a touch panel 1171 and other input devices 1172. Touch panel 1171, also referred to as a touch screen, may collect touch operations by a user on or near it (e.g., user operations on or near touch panel 1171 using a finger, stylus, or any suitable object or accessory). Touch panel 1171 can include two portions, a touch detection device and a touch controller. The touch detection device detects the touch direction of a user, detects a signal brought by touch operation and transmits the signal to the touch controller; the touch controller receives touch information from the touch sensing device, converts the touch information into touch point coordinates, sends the touch point coordinates to the processor 120, receives a command from the processor 120, and executes the command. In addition, the touch panel 1171 can be implemented by various types such as resistive, capacitive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave. In addition to the touch panel 1171, the user input unit 117 may also include other input devices 1172. Specifically, the other input devices 1172 may include, but are not limited to, a physical keyboard, function keys (such as volume control keys, switch keys, etc.), a track ball, a mouse, and a joystick, which are not described herein.

Further, touch panel 1171 can be overlaid on display panel 1161, and when touch panel 1171 detects a touch operation thereon or nearby, the touch operation can be transmitted to processor 120 to determine the type of touch event, and then processor 120 can provide a corresponding visual output on display panel 1161 according to the type of touch event. Although in fig. 10, the touch panel 1171 and the display panel 1161 are two independent components to implement the input and output functions of the UE, in some embodiments, the touch panel 1171 and the display panel 1161 may be integrated to implement the input and output functions of the UE, and the implementation is not limited herein.

The interface unit 118 is an interface for connecting an external device to the UE 110. For example, the external device may include a wired or wireless headset port, an external power supply (or battery charger) port, a wired or wireless data port, a memory card port, a port for connecting a device having an identification module, an audio input/output (I/O) port, a video I/O port, an earphone port, and the like. The interface unit 118 may be used to receive input from external devices (e.g., data information, power, etc.) and transmit the received input to one or more elements within the UE110 or may be used to transmit data between the UE110 and external devices.

The memory 119 may be used to store software programs as well as various data. The memory 119 may mainly include a program storage area and a data storage area, wherein the program storage area may store an operating system, an application program required by at least one function (such as a sound playing function, an image playing function, etc.), and the like; the storage data area may store data (such as audio data, a phonebook, etc.) created according to the use of the cellular phone, and the like. Further, the memory 119 may include high speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as at least one magnetic disk storage device, flash memory device, or other volatile solid state storage device.

The processor 120 is a control center of the UE, connects various parts of the entire UE using various interfaces and lines, performs various functions of the UE and processes data by operating or executing software programs and/or modules stored in the memory 119, and calling data stored in the memory 119, thereby performing overall monitoring of the UE. Processor 120 may include one or more processing units; preferably, the processor 120 may integrate an application processor, which mainly handles operating systems, user interfaces, application programs, etc., and a modem processor, which mainly handles wireless communications. It will be appreciated that the modem processor described above may not be integrated into the processor 120.

UE110 may also include a power supply 121 (e.g., a battery) for powering the various components, and preferably, power supply 121 may be logically coupled to processor 120 via a power management system to manage charging, discharging, and power consumption management functions via the power management system.

In addition, the UE110 includes some functional modules that are not shown, and are not described herein again.

Optionally, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a UE, which includes a processor 120 shown in fig. 10, a memory 119, and a computer program stored in the memory 119 and capable of running on the processor 120, where the computer program, when executed by the processor 120, implements the processes of the foregoing method embodiment, and can achieve the same technical effect, and details are not described here to avoid repetition.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed by the processor 120 shown in fig. 10, the computer program implements the processes of the method embodiment, and can achieve the same technical effect, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition. The computer-readable storage medium may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

Fig. 11 is a hardware schematic diagram of a control plane device implementing various embodiments of the present invention. As shown in fig. 11, the control plane device 130 includes, but is not limited to: at least one processor 131, memory 132, a user interface 133, and at least one network interface 134. The various components in the control plane device 130 are coupled together by a bus system 135.

It should be noted that, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, the structure of the control surface device shown in fig. 11 does not constitute a limitation of the control surface device, and the control surface device may include more or less components than those shown in fig. 11, or some components may be combined, or a different arrangement of components may be used.

Wherein, the at least one processor 131 may be configured to determine at least one access network device, where a cell served by the at least one access network device belongs to one TA; sending a configuration message to each access network device in at least one access network device, where the configuration message is used to indicate a target access network device that receives the configuration message to configure a TAC of a TA for a cell that provides service for the target access network device, where the length of the TAC is a first length or a second length, and the TAC is used to determine whether to initiate a TAU.

It will be appreciated that the bus system 135 is used to enable communications among the components. The bus system 135 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are labeled as bus system 135 in fig. 11.

The user interface 133 may include, among other things, a display, a keyboard, or a pointing device (e.g., a mouse, a trackball, a touch pad, or a touch screen, among others.

It will be appreciated that memory 132 in embodiments of the invention may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a ROM, a Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be RAM, which acts as external cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (ddr Data Rate SDRAM, ddr SDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous DRAM (ESDRAM), Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM). The memory 132 described in connection with the embodiments of the invention is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

In some embodiments, memory 132 stores the following elements, executable modules or data structures, or a subset thereof, or an expanded set thereof: an operating system 1321 and application programs 1322.

The operating system 1321 includes various system programs, such as a framework layer, a core library layer, a driver layer, and the like, and is configured to implement various basic services and process hardware-based tasks. The application programs 1322, including various application programs such as a media player, a browser, and the like, are used for implementing various application services. The programs that implement the methods of embodiments of the present invention may be embodied in application programs 1322.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the control plane device 130 may further include a computer program stored on the memory 132 and operable on the processor 131, and the computer program, when executed by the processor 131, implements the steps of the method provided by the embodiment of the present invention.

The method disclosed by the above embodiment of the present invention can be applied to the processor 131, or implemented by the processor 131. The processor 131 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 131. The Processor 131 may be a general-purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software modules may reside in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, among other computer-readable storage media known in the art. The computer readable storage medium is located in the memory 132, and the processor 131 reads the information in the memory 132 and performs the steps of the above method in combination with the hardware thereof. In particular, the computer readable storage medium has stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by the processor 131, implements the steps of the method embodiments as provided by the embodiments of the invention.

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

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

Optionally, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a control surface device, including the processor 131 shown in fig. 11, a memory 132, and a computer program stored in the memory 132 and capable of running on the processor 131, where the computer program, when executed by the processor 131, implements the processes of the foregoing method embodiments, and can achieve the same technical effects, and details are not repeated here to avoid repetition.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed by the processor 131 shown in fig. 11, the computer program implements the processes of the method embodiments, and can achieve the same technical effects, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition. The computer readable storage medium is, for example, ROM, RAM, magnetic disk or optical disk.

It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will clearly understand that the method of the above embodiments can be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly can also be implemented by hardware, but in many cases, the former is a better implementation manner. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk) and includes instructions for enabling a terminal (such as a mobile phone, a computer, a server, an air conditioner, or a network device) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present invention.

While the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, which are illustrative and not restrictive, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A tracking area update method, the method comprising:

user Equipment (UE) acquires a target Tracking Area Code (TAC), wherein the target TAC is the TAC of a tracking area TA to which a cell where the UE currently resides belongs;

the UE compares the target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE according to the length of the target TAC to obtain a comparison result;

and the UE determines whether to initiate a Tracking Area Update (TAU) according to the comparison result.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least two TACs include at least one first TAC and at least one second TAC, each of the first TACs having a length of a first length and each of the second TACs having a length of a second length;

the UE compares the target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE according to the length of the target TAC, and the method comprises the following steps:

if the length of the target TAC is the first length, the UE compares the target TAC with each first TAC;

and if the length of the target TAC is the second length, the UE compares the target TAC with each second TAC.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first length is less than the second length;

the UE comparing the target TAC with each of the second TACs, including:

the UE acquires target data in the target TAC;

the UE compares target data in the target TAC with target data in each second TAC;

the target data in one TAC comprises data corresponding to a start byte to a target byte of the TAC, and the length from the start byte to the target byte is the first length.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least two TACs include at least one first TAC and at least one second TAC, each first TAC having a first length and each second TAC having a second length, the target TACs include a third TAC having a first length and a fourth TAC having a second length;

the UE compares the third TAC with the each first TAC and compares the fourth TAC with the each second TAC.

5. The method according to any of claims 2-4, wherein the at least one first TAC is stored in a first TA list and the at least one second TAC is stored in a second TA list; or,

the at least one first TAC and the at least one second TAC are stored in a TA list.

6. The method of any of claims 2 to 4, wherein the first length is 2 bytes and the second length is 3 bytes.

7. A tracking area update method, the method comprising:

the control plane device determines at least one access network device, and a cell served by the at least one access network device belongs to a tracking area TA;

the control plane device sends a configuration message to each access network device in the at least one access network device, where the configuration message is used to indicate a target access network device that receives the configuration message to configure a tracking area code TAC of the TA for a cell that the target access network device provides service, where the length of the TAC is a first length or a second length, and the TAC is used to determine whether to initiate a tracking area update TAU.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the control plane device determining at least one access network device comprises:

the control plane equipment determines at least one cell belonging to one TA;

and the control plane equipment determines access network equipment for providing service for each cell according to the at least one cell so as to determine the at least one access network equipment.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the first length is 2 bytes and the second length is 3 bytes.

10. A User Equipment (UE), the UE comprising:

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a target tracking area coded TAC, where the target TAC is a TAC of a tracking area TA to which a cell where the UE currently resides;

the comparison unit is used for comparing the target TAC with at least two TACs stored in the UE according to the length of the target TAC acquired by the acquisition unit to obtain a comparison result;

and the determining unit is used for determining whether to initiate a tracking area update TAU or not according to the comparison result obtained by the comparing unit.

11. The UE of claim 10, wherein the at least two TACs include at least one first TAC and at least one second TAC, each first TAC having a length of a first length and each second TAC having a length of a second length;

the comparing unit is specifically configured to compare the target TAC with each of the first TACs if the length of the target TAC is the first length; or if the length of the target TAC is the second length, comparing the target TAC with each second TAC.

12. The UE of claim 11, wherein the first length is less than the second length;

the comparison unit is specifically used for acquiring target data in the target TAC; and comparing target data in the target TAC with target data in each second TAC;

13. The UE of claim 10, wherein the at least two TACs include at least one first TAC and at least one second TAC, wherein the length of each first TAC is a first length, the length of each second TAC is a second length, the target TACs include a third TAC and a fourth TAC, the length of the third TAC is the first length, and the length of the fourth TAC is the second length;

the comparing unit is specifically configured to compare the third TAC with each of the first TACs, and compare the fourth TAC with each of the second TACs.

14. The UE according to any of claims 11-13, wherein the at least one first TAC is stored in a first TA list and the at least one second TAC is stored in a second TA list; or,

15. The UE of any of claims 11 to 13, wherein the first length is 2 bytes and the second length is 3 bytes.

16. A control plane device, characterized in that the control plane device comprises:

a determining unit, configured to determine at least one access network device, where a cell served by the at least one access network device belongs to a tracking area TA;

a sending unit, configured to send a configuration message to each access network device of the at least one access network device determined by the determining unit, where the configuration message is used to instruct a target access network device that receives the configuration message to configure a tracking area code TAC of the TA for a cell that the target access network device provides service, where the length of the TAC is a first length or a second length, and the TAC is used to determine whether to initiate a tracking area update TAU.

17. The control plane device of claim 16, wherein the determining unit is specifically configured to determine at least one cell belonging to one TA; and determining access network equipment for providing service for each cell according to the at least one cell so as to determine the at least one access network equipment.

18. The control plane apparatus as claimed in claim 16 or 17, characterized in that the first length is 2 bytes and the second length is 3 bytes.

19. A user equipment, UE, comprising a processor, a memory and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, implementing the steps of the tracking area update method according to any of claims 1 to 6.

20. A control plane device comprising a processor, a memory and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, implementing the steps of the tracking area update method as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 9.

21. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored which, when being executed by a processor, carries out the steps of the tracking area update method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 or the steps of the tracking area update method according to any one of claims 7 to 9.