CN110381608B

CN110381608B - Data transmission method and device of relay network

Info

Publication number: CN110381608B
Application number: CN201810333204.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李铕; 刘菁; 袁世通; 朱元萍; 戴明增
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-04-13
Filing date: 2018-04-13
Publication date: 2021-06-15
Anticipated expiration: 2038-04-13
Also published as: CN110381608A

Abstract

The application discloses a data transmission method and device of a relay network, relates to the field of communication, and can reduce delay and reduce the probability of connection interruption. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that a first communication device receives configuration information of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) function sent by a second communication device, wherein the configuration information of the RRC function is used for indicating the first communication device to activate the preset RRC function; the first communication equipment activates a preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function; the first communication device sends feedback information to the second communication device, wherein the feedback information is used for informing the second communication device that the preset RRC function is successfully activated.

Description

Data transmission method and device of relay network

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a data transmission method and apparatus for a relay network.

Background

A Long Term Evolution (LTE) relay (relay) technology is a technology for forwarding data between a base station (evolved non-radio access network node B, eNB) and User Equipment (UE) by deploying a Relay Node (RN) in a network, and can enhance network capacity, solve backhaul connection between base stations, and solve coverage holes.

In a wireless relay networking scene facing 5G (5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems), besides a scene supporting LTE relay, a multi-hop wireless relay and a multi-connection scene are also supported. In the networking scene of the multi-hop wireless relay, the number of relay nodes participating in data forwarding between user equipment and a base station is at least two, and the number of the relay nodes is the hop number.

In a multi-hop wireless relay networking scenario, the relay nodes may use Radio Link Control (RLC) management on a hop-by-hop basis, that is, each relay node may directly use a 5G/NR (new radio, NR) method to process data destined for a next hop or a previous hop.

However, in a relay network with multiple hops, the relay nodes may have various forms, for example, the relay nodes may be layer 2relay nodes or layer 3 relay nodes. The layer 2relay node means that the relay node realizes layer2 forwarding, and the layer 3 relay node means that the relay node can independently manage users, and is equivalent to a base station, namely, has the functions of high layers such as RRC.

The layer 2relay node equipment is simple and can realize high-performance forwarding. However, in a multi-hop relay network, in some scenarios, the nodes in layer2 may also cause problems, which may result in excessive delay or connection interruption.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present application provide a data transmission method and apparatus for a relay network, which can reduce delay and reduce a probability of connection interruption.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the present application adopts the following technical solutions:

in a first aspect, a data transmission method of a relay network is provided, where the data transmission method is applied to a first communication device or a chip in the first communication device, and the first communication device is a relay node of the relay network. Specifically, the data transmission method provided in the embodiment of the present application is: the method comprises the steps that a first communication device receives configuration information of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) function sent by a second communication device, wherein the configuration information of the RRC function is used for indicating the first communication device to activate the preset RRC function; the first communication equipment activates a preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function; the first communication device sends feedback information to the second communication device, wherein the feedback information is used for informing the second communication device that the preset RRC function is successfully activated. In this way, the first communication device can directly process part of the RRC signaling of the third communication device through the activated RRC function without being processed through the first communication device, which reduces the number of times the RRC signaling is forwarded in the network and reduces the delay and the probability of connection interruption.

In order to ensure the safety of information interaction between the first communication equipment and the third communication equipment, the configuration information of the RRC function comprises safety parameters configured to the first communication equipment by the second communication equipment; wherein the third communication device is provided with security parameters; in this way, after the first communication device activates the predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, the first communication device sends the first RRC signaling to the third communication device according to the security parameter, so that the third communication device decrypts the first RRC signaling according to the security parameter; or after the first communication device activates the predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, the first communication device receives a second RRC signaling sent by the third communication device according to the security parameter, and decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter.

In addition, the first communication device and the second communication device may encrypt and integrity-protect information interaction between the first communication device and the third communication device and information interaction between the second communication device and the third communication device using the same security parameters. The security parameters comprise a security algorithm, a secret key and a count value of the security algorithm; after the first communication device sends the first RRC signaling to the third communication device according to the security parameters, the first communication device synchronizes the count value of the security algorithm of the security parameters to the second communication device; or after the first communication device decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter, the first communication device synchronizes the count value of the security algorithm of the security parameter to the second communication device.

Optionally, the second communication device may not perform encryption and integrity protection on the information sent to the third communication device by the first communication device, and the first communication device may not perform encryption and integrity protection on the information sent by the third communication device forwarded to the second communication device. Such that the first communication device does not need to synchronize the count value of the security algorithm to the second communication device.

Optionally, the first communication device and the second communication device may use different security parameters, for example, the information interaction between the first communication device and the third communication device is encrypted and integrity-protected by using the security parameters, and the information interaction between the second communication device and the third communication device is encrypted and integrity-protected by using the security parameters. Such that the first communication device does not need to synchronize the count value of the security algorithm to the second communication device.

Optionally, the RRC function includes: a switching function; the first communication device activates a predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, and then includes: acquiring topology configuration information sent by second communication equipment, wherein the topology configuration information comprises at least one other communication equipment; the at least one other communication device comprises: other relay nodes except the relay node in the relay network; the target communication device is determined among the at least one other communication device and a handover command is sent to the third communication device, wherein the handover command includes an identification of the target communication device.

Optionally, the RRC function includes: a switching function; the first communication device activates a predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, and then includes: acquiring measurement reporting information sent by third communication equipment, wherein the measurement reporting information comprises pilot frequency configuration or identification of the pilot frequency configuration; acquiring pilot configuration information sent by second communication equipment, wherein the pilot configuration information comprises identifiers of other communication equipment and pilot configurations or identifiers of the pilot configurations corresponding to the other communication equipment; other communication devices include: other relay nodes except the relay node in the relay network; and determining target communication equipment according to the measurement report information and the pilot frequency configuration information, and sending a switching command to third communication equipment, wherein the node switching command comprises the identification of the target communication equipment.

In a second aspect, a data transmission apparatus is provided, which is a relay node or a chip in the relay node of a relay network. Specifically, the data transmission device comprises a receiving unit, a processing unit and a sending unit. The functions implemented by the unit modules provided by the present application are specifically as follows: the receiving unit is configured to receive configuration information of a radio resource control RRC function sent by the second communication device, where the configuration information of the RRC function is used to instruct the first communication device to activate a predetermined RRC function; the processing unit is used for activating a preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function acquired by the receiving unit; and the sending unit is used for sending feedback information to the second communication equipment, wherein the feedback information is used for informing the second communication equipment that the preset RRC function is successfully activated.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RRC function includes security parameters configured by the second communication device to the first communication device; wherein the third communication device is provided with security parameters; the sending unit is further configured to send a first RRC signaling to the third communication device according to the security parameter after activating the predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, so that the third communication device decrypts the first RRC signaling according to the security parameter; or, the receiving unit is further configured to receive a second RRC signaling sent by the third communication device according to the security parameter after activating the predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function; and the processing unit is also used for decrypting the second RRC signaling received by the receiving unit according to the security parameters.

Optionally, the security parameter includes a security algorithm, a secret key, and a count value of the security algorithm; the sending unit is further configured to synchronize a count value of a security algorithm of the security parameter to the second communication device after sending the first RRC signaling to the third communication device according to the security parameter; or, the sending unit is further configured to synchronize the count value of the security algorithm of the security parameter to the second communication device after the receiving unit decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter.

Optionally, the RRC function includes: a first communication device switching function; the receiving unit is further configured to acquire topology configuration information sent by the second communication device, where the topology configuration information includes at least one other communication device; the at least one other communication device comprises: other relay nodes except the relay node in the relay network; the processing unit is further configured to determine a target communication device among the at least one other communication device, and send a handover command to the third communication device through the sending unit, where the handover command includes an identification of the target communication device.

Optionally, the RRC function includes: a first communication device switching function; the receiving unit is further configured to obtain measurement reporting information sent by the third communication device, where the measurement reporting information includes a pilot configuration or an identifier of the pilot configuration; the receiving unit is further configured to acquire pilot configuration information sent by the second communication device, where the pilot configuration information includes an identifier of another communication device and a pilot configuration or an identifier of a pilot configuration corresponding to the other communication device; other communication devices include: other relay nodes except the relay node in the relay network; the processing unit is further configured to determine a target communication device according to the measurement report information and the pilot configuration information, and send a handover command to a third communication device through the sending unit, where the node handover command includes an identifier of the target communication device.

In a third aspect, a data transmission apparatus is provided, which includes: one or more processors, a communication interface. Wherein the communication interface is coupled with the one or more processors; the data transmission apparatus communicates with other devices via a communication interface, the processor is configured to execute computer program code in the memory, the computer program code comprising instructions to cause the data transmission apparatus to perform the data transmission method as described above in the first aspect and its various possible implementations.

In a fourth aspect, there is also provided a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein; which when run on a data transmission apparatus causes the data transmission apparatus to perform a data transmission method as described above in the first aspect and its various possible implementations.

In a fifth aspect, there is also provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a data transmission apparatus, cause the data transmission apparatus to perform the data transmission method as described in the first aspect and its various possible implementations.

In the present application, the names of the above-mentioned data transmission devices do not limit the devices or functional modules themselves, and in actual implementation, the devices or functional modules may appear by other names. Insofar as the functions of the respective devices or functional modules are similar to those of the present application, they fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents.

For a detailed description of the second, third, fourth, fifth and their various implementations in this application, reference may be made to the detailed description of the first aspect and its various implementations; moreover, the beneficial effects of the second aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect and various implementation manners thereof may refer to the beneficial effect analysis of the first aspect and various implementation manners thereof, and are not described herein again.

In a sixth aspect, a data transmission method of a relay network is provided, where the data transmission method is applied to a second communication device or a chip in the second communication device, and the second communication device is a host base station of the relay network. Specifically, the data transmission method of the relay network includes: the second communication equipment sends configuration information of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) function to the first communication equipment, wherein the configuration information of the RRC function is used for indicating the first communication equipment to activate a preset RRC function; and the second communication equipment receives feedback information sent by the first communication equipment, wherein the feedback information is used for informing the second communication equipment that the preset RRC function is successfully activated. In this way, the first communication device can directly process part of the RRC signaling of the third communication device through the activated RRC function without processing through the first communication device, which reduces the number of times of forwarding the RRC signaling in the network, reduces signaling overhead, reduces the time delay of sending the RRC signaling, and reduces the probability of connection interruption.

In order to ensure the security of information interaction between the first communication device and the third communication device, the configuration information of the RRC function includes security parameters configured by the second communication device to the first communication device.

Optionally, the first communication device and the second communication device may use the same security parameters to encrypt and protect integrity of information interaction between the first communication device and the third communication device, and to encrypt and protect integrity of information interaction between the second communication device and the third communication device. The security parameters comprise a security algorithm, a secret key and a count value of the security algorithm; after the first communication device sends the first RRC signaling to the third communication device according to the security parameters, the second communication device obtains the count value of the security algorithm of the security parameters synchronized by the first communication device; or after the first communication device decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter, the second communication device obtains the count value of the security algorithm of the security parameter synchronized with the first communication device.

A seventh aspect provides a data transmission apparatus, where the data transmission apparatus is a host base station or a chip in the host base station. Specifically, the data transmission device includes a transmitting unit and a receiving unit.

The functions implemented by the unit modules provided by the present application are specifically as follows:

a transmitting unit, configured to transmit configuration information of a radio resource control, RRC, function to the first communication device, where the configuration information of the RRC function is used to instruct the first communication device to activate a predetermined RRC function; a receiving unit, configured to receive feedback information sent by a first communication device, where the feedback information is used to notify a second communication device that a predetermined RRC function is successfully activated.

Optionally, the configuration information of the RRC function includes security parameters configured by the second communication device to the first communication device.

Optionally, the security parameter includes a security algorithm, a secret key, and a count value of the security algorithm; the receiving unit is further configured to obtain a count value of a security algorithm of a security parameter synchronized by the first communication device after the first communication device sends the first RRC signaling to a third communication device according to the security parameter; or, the receiving unit is further configured to acquire, after the first communication device decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter, a count value of a security algorithm of the security parameter synchronized by the first communication device.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a data transmission device, comprising: one or more processors, a communication interface. Wherein the communication interface is coupled with the one or more processors; the data transmission apparatus communicates with other devices through the communication interface, the processor is configured to execute computer program code in the memory, the computer program code includes instructions to cause the data transmission apparatus to perform the data transmission method as described in the above sixth aspect and its various possible implementations.

In a ninth aspect, there is also provided a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein; when run on a data transmission apparatus, cause the data transmission apparatus to perform the data transmission method as described in the above sixth aspect and its various possible implementations.

In a tenth aspect, there is also provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a data transmission apparatus, cause the data transmission apparatus to perform the data transmission method as described in the above sixth aspect and its various possible implementations.

For a detailed description of the seventh aspect, the eighth aspect, the ninth aspect, the tenth aspect, and various implementations thereof in the present application, reference may be made to the detailed description of the sixth aspect and various implementations thereof; moreover, for the beneficial effects of the seventh aspect, the eighth aspect, the ninth aspect, the tenth aspect and various implementation manners thereof, reference may be made to beneficial effect analysis in the sixth aspect and various implementation manners thereof, and details are not repeated here.

In an eleventh aspect, a data transmission method of a relay network is provided, where the data transmission method is applied to a third communication device or a chip in the third communication device, and the third communication device is a user equipment UE of the relay network. Specifically, the data transmission method of the relay network includes: the third communication equipment acquires the security parameters; the third communication equipment receives a first RRC signaling sent by the first communication equipment and decrypts the first RRC signaling according to the security parameter; the first RRC signaling is sent after the first communication equipment activates a preset RRC function according to configuration information of the RRC function sent by second communication equipment; or, the third communication device sends the second RRC signaling to the first communication device according to the security parameter, so that the first communication device decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter after activating a predetermined RRC function according to configuration information of the RRC function sent by the second communication device.

In a twelfth aspect, a data transmission apparatus is provided, where the data transmission apparatus is a user equipment UE or a chip in the UE. Specifically, the data transmission device comprises an acquisition unit, a receiving unit, a processing unit and a sending unit.

an acquisition unit for acquiring security parameters; a receiving unit, configured to receive a first RRC signaling sent by a first communication device;

a processing unit, configured to decrypt the first RRC signaling according to the security parameter; the first RRC signaling is sent after the first communication equipment activates a preset RRC function according to configuration information of the RRC function sent by second communication equipment; or, the sending unit is configured to send the second RRC signaling to the first communication device according to the security parameter, so that the first communication device decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter after activating a predetermined RRC function according to configuration information of the RRC function sent by the second communication device.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a data transmission apparatus, comprising: one or more processors, a communication interface. Wherein the communication interface is coupled with the one or more processors; the data transmission apparatus communicates with other devices via a communication interface, the processor is configured to execute computer program code in the memory, the computer program code includes instructions to cause the data transmission apparatus to perform the data transmission method as described in the eleventh aspect and its various possible implementations.

In a fourteenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein is also provided; when run on a data transmission apparatus, causes the data transmission apparatus to perform a data transmission method as described in the eleventh aspect and its various possible implementations.

In a fifteenth aspect, there is also provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a data transmission apparatus, cause the data transmission apparatus to perform the data transmission method as described in the eleventh aspect and its various possible implementations.

For the beneficial effects of the various implementation manners of the eleventh aspect to the fifteenth aspect in the present application, reference may be made to beneficial effect analysis in the first aspect, the sixth aspect and various implementation manners thereof, and details are not described here.

These and other aspects of the present application will be more readily apparent from the following description.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a relay network topology according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a multi-hop wireless relay networking scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a multi-hop multi-connection networking scenario provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a multihop relay network according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a protocol stack of a UE, an RN, a DgNB and an NGC according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a multihop relay network according to another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic hardware structure diagram of a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic hardware structure diagram of an RN according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic hardware structure diagram of a DgNB according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic signaling interaction diagram of a data transmission method of a relay network according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a protocol stack diagram of a control plane of an RN3 in a data transmission method of a relay network according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic signaling interaction diagram of a first security scheme in a data transmission method of a relay network according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a signaling interaction diagram of a security scheme two in a data transmission method of a relay network according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a signaling interaction diagram of a security scheme three in a data transmission method of a relay network according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method for switching an RN according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 is a first schematic structural diagram of a data transmission device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a data transmission device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram of a data transmission device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution 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 application. The chinese-english control and english-abbreviated forms of the technical terms provided by the examples of the present application are provided in table 1 below:

TABLE 1

In the description of the present application, "/" indicates an OR meaning, for example, A/B may indicate A or B; "and/or" herein is merely an association describing an associated object, and means that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. Also, in the description of the present application, "a plurality" means two or more than two unless otherwise specified. In addition, for convenience of clearly describing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, "first" and "second" and the like in the embodiments of the present application are used for distinguishing different objects or distinguishing different processes on the same object, and are not used for describing a specific order of the objects.

To facilitate an understanding of the present application, reference will now be made to the description of the related concepts related to the embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that the names of all nodes and messages in the present application are only names set for convenience of description in the present application, and the names in the actual network may be different, and it should not be understood that the present application defines the names of various nodes and messages, on the contrary, any name having the same or similar function as the node or message used in the present application is considered as a method or equivalent replacement in the present application, and is within the protection scope of the present application, and will not be described in detail below.

A Relay technology (Relay) is introduced into a 4G LTE system, and data between a base station eNB and user equipment UE are forwarded by deploying a Relay node RN in a network, so that the purposes of enhancing network capacity, solving backhaul connection between the base stations and solving a coverage blind area are achieved. A simple network topology is shown in fig. 1. The link between the donor base station/donor base station DeNB and the relay node is called a backhaul link BH, and the link between the relay node and the UE is called an access link AC.

In a wireless Relay networking scene facing a new air interface NR/5G Relay, besides a scene supporting an LTE Relay, a multi-hop wireless Relay and a multi-connection scene are also supported. Fig. 2 shows a multi-hop wireless Relay networking scenario, a network topology on a wireless access network side may be regarded as a Tree based topology (Tree based topology), that is, an RN and a host base station DgNB serving for Relay have a clear hierarchical relationship, and each Relay node regards a node providing backhaul service for the Relay node as a unique upper node. For example, the relay node RN2 regards the RN1 providing backhaul service for it as a superior node; the upper node of RN1 is DgNB. Correspondingly, an uplink data packet of the UE served by the RN2 is sequentially transmitted to the host site DgNB via the RN2 and the RN1, and then is sent to the gateway device (e.g., a user plane function unit UPF in a 5G network) by the DgNB; the downlink data packet is received from the mobile gateway device by the DgNB, and then transmitted to the UE through the RN1 and the RN2 in sequence.

Fig. 3 illustrates a multi-hop multi-connection networking scenario, and due to the introduction of multi-connection, one relay node may provide backhaul service by two or even more superior nodes (base stations or relay nodes). As shown in FIG. 3, RN1 and RN4 may simultaneously provide backhaul service for RN 2. Correspondingly, uplink data of the UE1 can be transmitted to the DgNB through RN2 and RN1, or can be transmitted to the DgNB through RN2, RN4 and RN 3; and vice versa. Therefore, RN2, RN1, and DgNB constitute one path of data transmission, and RN2, RN3, RN3, and DgNB constitute the other path of data transmission. After the multi-hop multi-connection topology is introduced, a link between the relay node and the relay node may also be referred to as a BH link. In general, hop count levels may be used to describe the location of a RN in the network. The hop count level of a RN in direct communication with the host base station is 1, the hop count level of a RN in communication with the host base station via another RN is 2, and so on. After the multi-hop topology is introduced, a link between the relay node and the relay node may also be referred to as a BH link.

It should be noted that the donor base station is a base station to which the relay node is accessed, and the connection is established between the donor base station and the relay node through one-hop or multi-hop wireless links. It should be understood that the relay node or relay is used in this application only for the sake of simplifying the description, and in a 5G network, other names such as access backhaul IAB node may be adopted. The use of relay/relay by this application does not limit the scope of what this application claims. The host base station may also consist of CUs and DUs in a 5G system. CUs are generally responsible for centralized radio resource and connection management control, and DUs typically contain functions that implement distributed user plane processing, mainly handling physical layer functions and layer 2(L2, physical layer) functions with higher real-time requirements.

In summary, a node providing wireless backhaul link resources is referred to as an upper node of the relay node, and a node accessing the network through the relay node is referred to as a lower node of the relay node. In general, a lower node may be regarded as one user equipment UE of an upper node. Correspondingly, downlink transmission refers to transmission of information or data from a higher node to a lower node, and uplink transmission refers to transmission of information or data from a lower node to a higher node. It should be understood that the relay node herein may be any relay node. In addition, the backhaul link of the RN is referred to as a Un port. The Un port comprises a wireless transmission interface between the RN and a superior node of the RN, or a wireless transmission interface for the RN to communicate with the RN. An access link serving the UE by the RN or the donor base station is called a Uu port. The Uu port includes: a wireless transmission interface between the RN and the UE, or a wireless transmission interface between the host base station and the UE.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 4, the multihop relay network includes a donor base station DgNB, relay nodes RN1 to RN4, and UE user equipments 1 to UE 6. The host base station directly communicates with the relay node 1 and the relay node 4, an interface between the host base station and the relay node 1 is a Un1 interface, and an interface between the host base station and the relay node 4 is a Un4 interface. The interface between the relay node 1 and the relay node 2 is a Un2 interface, and the interface between the relay node 2 and the relay node 3 is a Un3 interface. The user equipment 1 communicates with the relay node 1 over a Uu1 interface, the user equipment 2 communicates with the relay node 2 over a Uu2 interface, the user equipment 3 communicates with the relay node 3 over a Uu3 interface, the user equipment 4 communicates with the relay node 4 over a Uu4 interface, the user equipment 5 communicates with the relay node 1 over a Uu5 interface, and the user equipment 6 communicates with the relay node 4 over a Uu6 interface. Since the host base station directly communicates with the relay node 1 and the relay node 4, the hop count levels of the relay node 1 and the relay node 4 are 1; the relay node 2 communicates with the host base station through the relay node 1, so that the hop count level is 2; similarly, the hop count level of the relay node 5 is also 2; the relay node 3 communicates with the host node through the relay node 2 and the relay node 1, and thus its hop count level is 3. As can be seen from the above description, the relay node 1 is an intermediate forwarding node of the relay node 2, the relay nodes 1 and 2 are intermediate forwarding nodes of the relay node 3, and the relay nodes 1 and 2 are intermediate forwarding nodes of the user equipment 3 and 5, and the like. The relay node 1 is a service node of the user equipment 1, the relay node 2 is a service node of the user equipment 2, the relay node 3 is a service node of the user equipment 3 and the user equipment 5, and the relay node 4 is a service node of the user equipment 4 and the user equipment 6. For the relay node with hop number 1, since it directly communicates with the donor base station, its upper node is the donor base station. Correspondingly, the relay node may be referred to as a subordinate node of the donor base station.

In the Relay scenario, in order to make the data transmitted between NRs less subject to processing by some protocol layers, so as to achieve shorter delay and less signaling overhead, layer2 relaying is a better choice. The Layer 2relay generally only has a partial Layer 2(Layer2, L2) protocol stack, and in a multi-hop or multi-connection relay scenario, a PDCP Layer corresponding to a packet processed by a PDCP Layer of a UE may be placed in the host base station system, and an RLC Layer corresponding to a packet processed by an RLC Layer of a UE may be placed in the RN. Thus, for the data of the UE, the RN only needs to complete the processing of the adaptation layer (adaptation layer), the PHY layer, the MAC layer, and the RLC layer.

Referring specifically to a in fig. 5, a User Plane (UP) protocol stack (denoted as NG-UP/UPF in the figure) of the UE, the RN, the DgNB, and an entity NGC of the next generation core network serving the UE is shown. The user plane protocol stack of the UE comprises an IP layer, an SDAP layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from top to bottom. The user plane protocol stack of the RN and the UE comprises an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from top to bottom, and the user plane protocol stack of the RN and the DgNB comprises an Adpt layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from top to bottom. The user protocol stack of the DgNB for communicating with the RN comprises an SDAP layer, a PDCP layer, an Adpt layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from top to bottom, and the user plane protocol stack for communicating with the NG-UP/UPF comprises a GTP-U layer, a UDP layer, an IP layer, an L2 layer and an L1 layer from top to bottom. The NG-UP/UPF comprises an IP layer, a GTP-U layer, a UDP layer, an IP layer, an L2 layer and an L1 layer from top to bottom. For a protocol stack of a user plane, a peer entity of a PDCP layer of the UE is in the DgNB, and peer entities of an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer of the UE are in the RN; the relay node forwards the PDCP PDU; the PDCP PDU is processed by an Adaptation Layer (Adaptation Layer) added between the PDCP and RLC layers. Taking downlink transmission as an example: the DgNB encapsulates the PDCP PDU into an adaptation layer PDU and then delivers the adaptation layer PDU to the RLC layer, and the adaptation layer adds information such as UE ID, DRB ID and the like; and the RN selects the corresponding UE DRB to process the data according to the UE ID and the DRB ID and then sends the data to the UE.

B in fig. 5 shows the control plane CP protocol stack (denoted NG-CP in the figure) of the UE, RN, DgNB and the entity NGC of the next generation core network serving the UE. The control plane protocol stack of the UE comprises an NAS layer, an RRC layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from top to bottom. The control plane protocol stack of the RN and the UE comprises an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from top to bottom, and the control plane protocol stack of the RN and the DgNB comprises an Adpt layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from top to bottom. The control protocol stack of the DgNB for communicating with the RN comprises an RRC layer, a PDCP layer, an Adpt layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from top to bottom, and the control protocol stack for communicating with the NG-CP comprises an NG-AP layer, an SCTP layer, an IP layer, an L2 layer and an L1 layer from top to bottom. The NG-CP comprises a NAS layer, a NG-AP layer, a SCTP layer, an IP layer, a L2 layer and a L1 layer from top to bottom. For the protocol stack of the control plane, the peer entity of the RRC layer of the UE is deployed in the Donor node. Therefore, the RRC signaling is encapsulated into PDCP PDU after completing encryption and integrity protection by the PDCP, and then is forwarded by the RN. The Adaptation Layer is used for identifying the UE to which the data belongs and the DRB of the UE when the RN and the DgNB forward the data; the SDAP layer is a newly introduced protocol layer for NR versus LTE, and is used for processing QoS flow to DRB mapping. The interface between RN and donor node may also be F1AP, GTP tunnel, or F1AP with extended functionality, GTP tunnel, etc.

Note that the adapt. layer has at least one of the following capabilities: the method comprises the steps of adding routing information which can be identified by a wireless backhaul node to a data packet, performing routing selection based on the routing information which can be identified by the wireless backhaul node, adding identification information which can be identified by the wireless backhaul node and is related to QoS (quality of service) requirements to the data packet, and performing QoS mapping on a plurality of links containing the wireless backhaul node for the data packet. It should be noted that the name of the protocol layer with these capabilities is not necessarily Adapt. It should be noted that fig. 5 is a protocol stack architecture in which an adapt sublayer is added above the RLC layer. In one possible implementation, the adapt. sublayer may also be below the RLC layer; the adapt may also be used as a sublayer of RLC or PDCP or MAC. The illustration in fig. 5 should therefore not be construed as an exclusive limitation of adpt.

Based on the protocol stack of the L2relay, all entities corresponding to the data packets processed by the RRC layer of the UE are deployed on the DgNB. Taking mobility management related functions (measurement control, mobility management, bearer configuration reconfiguration) as an example — when performing RRC control on a UE, an RRC signaling needs to be forwarded by multiple RNs between the UE/RN and the Donor, as shown in fig. 6, regarding downlink transmission, the RRC signaling needs to be transmitted to the UE sequentially through RN1, RN2, RN3, and RN 4; for uplink transmission, RRC signaling needs to be transmitted to DgNB sequentially through RN4, RN3, RN2, and RN 1; when the RRC function that requires frequent signaling interaction between the UE and the DgNB is executed, signaling overhead and time delay caused by forwarding RRC signaling through multiple RNs are large, and finally, connection interruption may be caused.

In view of the foregoing problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission method, where a first communication device (or a chip in the first communication device) receives configuration information of a radio resource control, RRC, function sent by a second communication device (or a chip in the second communication device), where the configuration information of the RRC function is used to instruct the first communication device to activate a predetermined RRC function, the first communication device activates the predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, and sends feedback information to the second communication device, where the feedback information is used to notify the second communication device that the predetermined RRC function is successfully activated. In this way, the first communication device may directly process a part of RRC signaling of the third communication device through the activated RRC function without processing through the first communication device, and in addition, to ensure security of information interaction between the first communication device and the third communication device, the configuration information of the RRC function may include security parameters configured by the second communication device to the first communication device; wherein the third communication device is provided with security parameters; thus, after the first communication device activates the predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, the first communication device sends the first RRC signaling to the third communication device according to the security parameter, so that the third communication device decrypts the first RRC signaling according to the security parameter; or after the first communication device activates the predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, the first communication device receives a second RRC signaling sent by the third communication device according to the security parameter, and decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter. Therefore, the times of forwarding the RRC signaling in the network are reduced, the signaling overhead is reduced, the time delay of sending the RRC signaling is reduced, and the probability of connection interruption is reduced.

The above fig. 6 may be referred to as a schematic structural diagram of a communication system provided in the embodiment of the present application. In this embodiment, the first communication device may be any relay node RN in a realy network, the second communication device is a donor base station DgNB, and the third communication device is a UE.

The communication system shown in fig. 6 comprises RN1-RN10, NGC, DgNB and UE, wherein RN is connected with the NGC through Un interface, DgNB is connected with NGC through NG-U/C interface, and RN1 is directly connected with DgNB through Uu interface. For downlink transmission, RN2 and RN8 serve as lower nodes of RN1, RN3 and RN6 serve as lower nodes of RN2, RN9 serves as lower node of RN8, RN4 and RN5 serve as lower nodes of RN3, RN7 serves as lower node of RN6, and RN10 serves as next hop relay node of RN 9. The BH link composed of RN1-RN5 is illustrated in the following embodiments of the present application.

The UE in this embodiment of the present application may refer to a mobile phone (e.g., the mobile phone 700 shown in fig. 7), a tablet computer, a personal computer PC, a personal digital assistant PDA, a smart watch, a netbook, a wearable electronic device, and the like, which can implement data transmission with a control plane and a user plane of the RN4 (or RN5), and the specific form of the device is not particularly limited in this embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 7, taking the mobile phone 700 as the UE for example, the mobile phone 700 may specifically include: processor 701, radio frequency RF circuitry 702, memory 703, touch screen 704, bluetooth device 705, one or more sensors 706, wireless fidelity Wi-Fi device 707, positioning device 708, audio circuitry 709, peripheral interface 710, and power supply device 711. These components may communicate over one or more communication buses or signal lines (not shown in fig. 7). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the hardware configuration shown in fig. 8 is not intended to be limiting, and that the handset 700 may include more or fewer components than those shown, or some components may be combined, or a different arrangement of components.

The following describes the components of the handset 700 in detail with reference to fig. 7:

the processor 701 is a control center of the mobile phone 700, connects various parts of the mobile phone 700 using various interfaces and lines, and performs various functions of the mobile phone 700 and processes data by running or executing an application program stored in the memory 703 and calling data stored in the memory 703. In some embodiments, processor 701 may include one or more processing units. In some embodiments of the present application, the processor 701 may further include a fingerprint verification chip, configured to verify the acquired fingerprint.

The radio frequency circuit 702 may be used for receiving and transmitting wireless signals during the transmission and reception of information or calls. In particular, the rf circuit 702 may receive downlink data of the base station and then process the received downlink data to the processor 701; in addition, data relating to uplink is transmitted to the base station. Typically, the radio frequency circuitry 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 circuitry 702 may also communicate with other devices via wireless communication. The wireless communication may use any communication standard or protocol including, but not limited to, global system for mobile communications, general packet radio service, code division multiple access, wideband code division multiple access, long term evolution, email, short message service, and the like.

The memory 703 is used for storing applications and data, and the processor 701 executes various functions and data processing of the mobile phone 700 by running the applications and data stored in the memory 703. The memory 703 mainly includes a program storage area and a data storage area, where the program storage area may store an operating system and application programs (such as a sound playing function and an image processing function) required by at least one function; the storage data area may store data (e.g., audio data, a phonebook, etc.) created from use of the handset 700. Further, the memory 703 may include high speed Random Access Memory (RAM), and may also include non-volatile memory, such as magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other volatile solid state storage devices. The memory 703 may store various operating systems, such as an iOS operating system, an Android operating system, and the like. The memory 703 may be independent and connected to the processor 701 through the communication bus; the memory 703 may also be integrated with the processor 701.

The touch screen 704 may specifically include a touch pad 704-1 and a display 704-2.

Wherein the touch pad 704-1 may capture touch events on or near the cell phone 700 by a user (e.g., user manipulation on or near the touch pad 704-1 using a finger, stylus, etc. of any suitable object) and transmit the captured touch information to other devices (e.g., the processor 701). Wherein, a touch event of a user near the touch pad 704-1 can be called a hover touch; hover touch may refer to a user not having to directly contact the touchpad in order to select, move, or drag a target (e.g., an icon, etc.), but rather only having to be in proximity to the device in order to perform a desired function. In addition, the touch pad 704-1 may be implemented using various types, such as resistive, capacitive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave.

Display (also referred to as a display screen) 704-2 may be used to display information entered by or provided to the user as well as various menus for handset 700. The display 704-2 may be configured in the form of a liquid crystal display, an organic light emitting diode, or the like. The touch pad 704-1 may be overlaid on the display 704-2, and when the touch pad 704-1 detects a touch event thereon or nearby, it may be communicated to the processor 701 to determine the type of touch event, and the processor 701 may then provide a corresponding visual output on the display 704-2 based on the type of touch event. Although in FIG. 7, touch pad 704-1 and display screen 704-2 are shown as two separate components to implement the input and output functions of cell phone 700, in some embodiments, touch pad 704-1 and display screen 704-2 may be integrated to implement the input and output functions of cell phone 700. It is understood that the touch screen 704 is formed by stacking multiple layers of materials, and only the touch pad (layer) and the display screen (layer) are shown in the embodiments of the present application, and other layers are not described in the embodiments of the present application. In addition, the touch pad 704-1 may be disposed on the front surface of the mobile phone 700 in a full panel manner, and the display screen 704-2 may also be disposed on the front surface of the mobile phone 700 in a full panel manner, so that a frameless structure can be implemented on the front surface of the mobile phone.

In addition, the mobile phone 700 may also have a fingerprint recognition function. For example, fingerprint recognizer 712 may be disposed on the back side of cell phone 700 (e.g., below the rear facing camera), or fingerprint recognizer 712 may be disposed on the front side of cell phone 700 (e.g., below touch screen 704). Also for example, the fingerprint acquisition device 712 may be configured in the touch screen 704 to implement the fingerprint identification function, i.e., the fingerprint acquisition device 712 may be integrated with the touch screen 704 to implement the fingerprint identification function of the cell phone 700. In this case, the fingerprint acquisition device 712 is configured in the touch screen 704, can be a part of the touch screen 704, and can be configured in the touch screen 704 in other manners. The main component of the fingerprint acquisition device 712 in the embodiments of the present application is a fingerprint sensor, which may employ any type of sensing technology, including but not limited to optical, capacitive, piezoelectric, or ultrasonic sensing technologies, etc.

The handset 700 may also include bluetooth means 705 for enabling data exchange between the handset 700 and other short-range devices, such as a handset, a smart watch, etc. The bluetooth device in the embodiment of the present application may be an integrated circuit or a bluetooth chip.

The handset 700 may also include at least one sensor 706, such as a light sensor, motion sensor, and other sensors. Specifically, the light sensor may include an ambient light sensor that adjusts the brightness of the display of the touch screen 704 according to the brightness of ambient light, and a proximity sensor that turns off the power of the display when the mobile phone 700 is moved to the ear. As one of the motion sensors, the accelerometer sensor can detect the magnitude of acceleration in each direction (generally, three axes), can detect the magnitude and direction of gravity when stationary, and can be used for applications of recognizing the posture of a mobile phone (such as horizontal and vertical screen switching, related games, magnetometer posture calibration), vibration recognition related functions (such as pedometer and tapping), and the like; as for other sensors such as a gyroscope, a barometer, a hygrometer, a thermometer, and an infrared sensor, which are also configured on the mobile phone 700, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

The Wi-Fi device 707 is used for providing network access to the mobile phone 700 according to Wi-Fi related standard protocols, the mobile phone 700 can access to a Wi-Fi access point through the Wi-Fi device 707, so that the user can be helped to receive and send e-mails, browse webpages, access streaming media and the like, and wireless broadband internet access is provided for the user. In other embodiments, the Wi-Fi apparatus 707 can also act as a Wi-Fi wireless access point and can provide Wi-Fi network access to other devices.

A positioning device 708 for providing a geographical location for the handset 700. It is understood that the Positioning device 708 may be a receiver of a Global Positioning System (GPS) or a Positioning System such as a beidou satellite navigation System, russian GLONASS, or the like. After receiving the geographic location sent by the positioning system, the positioning device 708 sends the information to the processor 701 for processing, or sends the information to the memory 703 for storage. In still other embodiments, the positioning device 708 may also be a receiver of an assisted global positioning satellite system, AGPS, which assists the positioning device 708 in performing ranging and positioning services by acting as an assistance server, in which case the assistance positioning server provides positioning assistance by communicating with the positioning device 708 (i.e., GPS receiver) of the device, such as the handset 700, over a wireless communication network. In some other embodiments, the location device 708 may also be a Wi-Fi access point based location technology. Because each Wi-Fi access point has a globally unique MAC address, the device can scan and collect broadcast signals of the surrounding Wi-Fi access points under the condition of starting Wi-Fi, and therefore the MAC addresses broadcasted by the Wi-Fi access points can be obtained; the device sends the data (e.g., MAC address) indicating the Wi-Fi access points to the location server via the wireless communication network, and the location server retrieves the geographical location of each Wi-Fi access point, and calculates the geographical location of the device according to the strength of the Wi-Fi broadcast signal and sends the geographical location to the positioning device 708 of the device.

Audio circuitry 709, speaker 713, and microphone 714 may provide an audio interface between a user and the cell phone 700. The audio circuit 709 may transmit the electrical signal obtained by converting the received audio data to the speaker 713, and convert the electrical signal into an audio signal for output by the speaker 713; on the other hand, the microphone 714 converts the collected sound signals into electrical signals, converts the electrical signals into audio data after being received by the audio circuit 709, and then outputs the audio data to the RF circuit 702 to be sent to, for example, another cellular phone, or outputs the audio data to the memory 703 for further processing.

Peripheral interface 710 for providing various interfaces to external input/output devices (e.g., keyboard, mouse, external display, external memory, sim card, etc.). For example, the mouse is connected through a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, and the SIM card provided by a telecom operator is connected through metal contacts on a card slot of the SIM card. Peripheral interface 710 may be used to couple the aforementioned external input/output peripherals to processor 701 and memory 703.

In this embodiment, the mobile phone 700 may communicate with other devices in the device group through the peripheral interface 710, for example, display data sent by other devices may be received through the peripheral interface 710 for displaying, and the like, which is not limited in this embodiment.

The mobile phone 700 may further include a power supply device 711 (such as a battery and a power management chip) for supplying power to various components, and the battery may be logically connected to the processor 701 through the power management chip, so as to implement functions of managing charging, discharging, and power consumption through the power supply device 711.

Although not shown in fig. 7, the mobile phone 700 may further include a camera (front camera and/or rear camera), a flash, a micro-projector, a NFC device, and the like, which are not described in detail herein.

Fig. 8 is a schematic composition diagram of an RN according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 8, the RN may include at least one processor 81 and a transceiver 82.

The following specifically describes each constituent component of RN with reference to fig. 10:

the processor 81 is a control center of the RN, and may be a single processor or a collective term for a plurality of processing elements. For example, the processor 81 is a CPU, or may be a specific integrated circuit ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present application, such as: one or more microprocessors DSP, or one or more field programmable gate arrays FPGA. Of course, the RN may also include a memory 83.

The processor 81 may independently perform the functions of the RN in the present application, or may perform various functions of the RN by running or executing a software program stored in the memory 93 and calling data stored in the memory 83.

In a particular implementation, processor 81 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 shown in the figure, as one embodiment.

In a specific implementation, the RN may include a plurality of processors, such as the processor 81 and the processor 85 shown in fig. 8, as an embodiment. Each of these processors may be a single-Core Processor (CPU) or a multi-Core Processor (CPU). A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

The memory 83 may be, but is not limited to, a read only memory ROM or other type of static storage device that may store static information and instructions, a random access memory RAM or other type of dynamic storage device that may store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read only memory EEPROM, a compact disc CD-ROM or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. The memory 83 may be separate and coupled to the processor 81 via a bus 84. The memory 83 may also be integrated with the processor 81.

The memory 83 is used for storing software programs for executing the scheme of the application, and is controlled by the processor 81 to execute.

A transceiver 82 for communicating with other devices or a communication network. Such as for communication with an ethernet, radio access network RAN, wireless local area network WLAN, etc. communication network. The transceiver 82 may include all or part of a baseband processor and may also optionally include an RF processor. The RF processor is used for transceiving RF signals, and the baseband processor is used for processing baseband signals converted from RF signals or baseband signals to be converted into RF signals.

The bus 84 may be an industry standard architecture ISA bus, a peripheral component interconnect PCI bus, an extended industry standard architecture EISA bus, or the like. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 10, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

The device structure shown in fig. 8 does not constitute a limitation of RN, and may include more or less components than those shown, or combine some components, or a different arrangement of components.

The DgNB in the embodiment of the present application may be an independent DgNB, and the DgNB may be a base station BS or a base station controller for wireless communication, and the like; or may be composed of DU and CU.

Specifically, the main functions of the DgNB include one or more of the following functions: configuration information of the RRC function is transmitted to the RN, security parameters are provided to the RN, and the like.

When the DgNB is an independent donor base station, the name of the donor base station may be different in systems using different radio access technologies. For example: in an LTE network (or called 4G system), the name of a donor base station is an evolved NodeB (eNB) or eNodeB; in a 3G system, the name of a host base station is base station (Node B); in the next generation wireless communication system (e.g., 5G system), the name of the donor base station is DgNB. This name may change as communication technology evolves. Furthermore, the donor base station may be other devices that provide wireless communication functions for the terminal device, where possible.

When the DgNB is an independent donor base station, fig. 9 shows a hardware structure of the donor base station. As shown in fig. 9, the donor base station may include at least one processor 91 and a transceiver 92.

In particular implementations, processor 91 may include one or more CPUs such as CPU0 and CPU1 in fig. 9 for one embodiment.

In one embodiment, the donor base station may include a plurality of processors, such as processor 91 and processor 95 in fig. 9. Of course, the RN may also include a memory 93. The processor may thus perform various functions of the host base station by running or executing software programs stored in memory 93, as well as invoking data stored in memory 93. Further, a bus 94 is included that connects the processor 91 with the transceiver 92 and the memory 93.

The function of the various devices shown in fig. 9 and other descriptions may be illustratively referred to above.

Further, the device structure shown in fig. 9 does not constitute a limitation on the host base station, and may include more or less components than those shown, or combine some components, or a different arrangement of components.

Based on the above network system and hardware, an embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission method for a relay network, which is shown in fig. 10 and includes the following steps:

101. the RN3 receives configuration information of the radio resource control RRC function transmitted by the DgNB, the configuration information of the RRC function being used to instruct the RN3 to activate the predetermined RRC function.

It should be noted that, before step 101, the UE has completed initial access through the DgNB and established RRC connection with the DgNB by first sending a connection establishment request or a traffic request to the DgNB through a relay link formed by RN4, RN3, RN2 and RN1, and the DgNB completes pilot configuration to RN1-RN 4. It should be understood that, here, the RN3 may be configured as an RRC, or may be another relay node, and it should not be understood that the present application is limited by using the RN3 as an example.

In addition, the trigger condition of the configuration information of the RRC function sent by the DgNB may be: the RN4 providing direct access for the UE is connected to the DgNB for more than a certain number of hops; or the connection between the UE and the DgNB exceeds a certain hop count N, wherein N > is 1; or backhaul link congestion between RN4 and DgNB providing direct access for the UE, or channel quality degradation; of course, the trigger condition may be: the UE initially accesses the network or establishes an RRC connection, the UE establishes a dedicated bearer, the UE applies for a delay sensitive service, such as a URLLC service, and the corresponding DgNB configures a dedicated RN3 for the UE, and configures an RRC function on the RN3, so as to process an RRC signaling of the UE through the RN 3. It is understood that the configuration manner of the RRC function in step 101 may be for each RN. If the mobility of the RN is considered, RN switching operations can be triggered according to the flow processed by the UE. Or the RN includes a UE function, and when an upper node connected to the RN is changed, the RN can be managed to be switched through a switching process of the UE. Accordingly, the configuration of the RRC function may be specific to each RN or UE function (module) in the RN, and thus the configuration information of the RRC function includes the identity of the RN or the identity of the UE function (module) in the RN.

The content of the configuration information of the RRC function may include: indication information of a predetermined RRC function, for example, indication information corresponding to a mobility management and measurement result processing function. Content of configuration information of RRC function: UE Identity (ID) may also be included, and as described in the above triggering condition, the RRC function may be configured for each (per) UE, and at this time, the configuration information of the RRC function carries the UE identity, so that the RN3 processes RRC signaling of the corresponding UE. The content of the configuration information of the RRC function may further include: configuration of SRB, considering that RN3 may send RRC signaling directly to UE, DgNB needs to provide configuration of SRB to RN so that RRC signaling corresponding to RRC function deployed on RN3 can interact with UE through the SRB. The configuration of the SRB includes at least one of: SRB ID; PDPC configuration; RLC configuration, e.g., mode of RLC; logical channel configuration, e.g., logical channel ID. Of course, the configuration of the SRB may also be sent in a separate message. If the information is sent independently by another message, the sending sequence of the message may be sent after the DgNB sends the configuration information of the RRC function to RN3, or after the DgNB receives the feedback information of RN 3. The content of the configuration information of the RRC function may further include: path or routing information for forwarding the RRC signaling sent by RN3 to the destination UE or for passing the RRC signaling of the UE to RN3 configured with partial RRC function. The configuration of the SRB may be sent in the same message as the configuration information of the RRC function, or may be sent independently. If the SRB configuration is sent independently by using another message, the sending sequence of the message may be sent after the DgNB sends the configuration information of the RRC function to RN3, or after the DgNB receives the feedback information of RN3 about the configuration information of the RRC function.

Of course, the configuration information of the RRC function may be configured for RN3 as follows: when the DgNB provides the UE context to RN3 or triggers the UE context establishment, the DgNB carries the configuration information of the RRC function in the UE context or the information indication triggering the context establishment.

The configuration information form of the RRC function is as follows:

a. when a certain RRC function is agreed by a protocol at RN3, or when RN3 enters the network, and a certain RRC function is already configured by the DgNB configuration or OAM entity, the configuration information of the RRC function may be a flag (flag), and when the flag is included in any signaling sent by the DgNB to RN3, RN3 activates the RRC function agreed or configured in advance. Similarly, the configuration information of the RRC function may be an On/off (On/off) indication, for example, 1bit, so that "1" may be used to indicate that the corresponding RRC function is On, and "0" may be used to indicate that the corresponding RRC function is off.

b. The configuration information of the RRC function may carry a specific RRC function, for example, if the DgNB desires to configure the mobility management and measurement result processing function at the RN3, the configuration information carries indication information corresponding to the mobility management and measurement result processing function.

c. The configuration information of the RRC function may carry specific message types, for example: the DgNB informs the RN3 of which types of messages can be handled by the message type, for example, measurement reports can be handled, handover commands can be sent, etc. For this scheme, the corresponding relationship between the message type and the RRC function needs to be agreed in advance, and the RN3 can identify the RRC function according to the message type, thereby activating the corresponding RRC function. Of course, the correspondence between the message type and the RRC function may be agreed by a protocol, or configured to RN3 by a DgNB configuration or OAM entity when the RN3 accesses the network, or agreed by other approaches.

d. The configuration information for the RRC function may carry information indicating the protocol level of management-as described in the background, the control plane functions are distributed at different protocol levels as described above, and thus, may indicate which protocol levels the RN3 manages. For example, RN3 deploys RLC and MAC layers, then DgNB may instruct RN3 to control the processing of the RLC and MAC layers. The protocol layer is a complete protocol layer or a partial protocol layer, for example, the RLC is further divided into a High RLC (including ARQ for example) and a low RLC (including Segmentation/Segmentation re-Segmentation function for example). Of course, in this scheme, the control plane protocol stack for RN3 to communicate with DgNB configures the RRC layer, and referring to fig. 11, protocol stacks of UE, RN3, DgNB, and NG-CP are provided, where UE, RN3, and NG-CP are similar to the above scheme and are not described again, and after RN3 activates the RRC function through configuration information of the RRC function, the control plane protocol stack for RN3 to communicate with DgNB adds the RRC layer equivalent to the RRC layer of UE, so that RRC signaling of UE can be processed.

In addition, considering different connection modes between RN3 and DgNB, DgNB may send configuration information of RRC function to RN3 through different message types, for example: if an F1AP interface is established between the RN and the DgNB, a new F1AP message can be defined to carry configuration information of the RRC function; or may be carried in an existing F1AP message, such as a UE Context Setup Request message carrying configuration information of an RRC function; or, the configuration information of the RRC function is transmitted simultaneously with the UE Context Setup Request message. If the DgNB uses RRC signaling to control RN3, a new RRC message may be defined for the DgNB to send RRC function configuration information to RN 3. The transmission method of the other information (e.g., SRB configuration, UE ID, path or routing information, etc.) required to the RN3 is the same as the transmission method of the configuration information of the RRC function, and is not repeated herein. It should be understood that, here, the DgNB sending RRC message to RN3 may be handled by RN3, and the configuration information of the RRC function mentioned here is mainly used to configure the RRC function between RN3 and the UE, i.e. whether RN3 can handle RRC message from the UE, or send RRC message to the UE, and does not represent that there is no basic RRC function between RN3 and DgNB.

102. The RN3 activates a predetermined RRC function according to configuration information of the RRC function.

After receiving the configuration information of the RRC function, the RN3 performs the following operations: if RN3 already stores the procedures and/or algorithms required for RRC function execution, the corresponding RRC function may be directly activated. If RN3 does not store the procedures and/or algorithms required for RRC function execution, it may be downloaded by a network side entity, such as an OAM entity, DgNB, etc., and activated after the download is completed.

103. RN3 sends feedback information to DgNB, where the feedback information is used to notify the DgNB that the activation of the RRC function scheduled by the DgNB succeeds.

Specifically, for the case of using the flag or the on/off indication, the feedback information may carry a configuration success message or a configuration failure message. For the case where the DgNB provides a specific list of RRC functions, the feedback information may carry activated RRC functions, and/or non-activated RRC functions.

In this way, RN3 may directly process a part of RRC signaling of the UE through the activated RRC function, and does not need to process the part through the DgNB, which reduces the number of times that the RRC signaling is forwarded in the network, reduces signaling overhead, reduces the time delay of RRC signaling transmission, and reduces the probability of connection interruption.

If the DgNB updated the SRB configuration to RN3 in step 101, the following steps are also performed:

104. and the DgNB sends configuration information to the UE, and carries the configuration of the SRB in the configuration information, or the RN3 sends the configuration of the SRB to the UE after the RN3 activates the RRC function.

The SRB configuration may be sent using RRC reconfiguration signaling. Specifically, in the first scheme, the configuration of the SRB used by RN3 and the configuration of the SRB used by DgNB may be consistent, and one configuration scheme of the SRB is as follows: the DgNB updates the configuration of the SRB used for communication with the UE and sends the configuration of the SRB to the RN 3; alternatively, the DgNB communicates with the UE using the configuration of the SRB before configuring the RRC function for RN3 and sends the configuration of the SRB to RN 3. Thus, the UE uses one SRB corresponding to the SRBs distributed over RN3 and DgNB. In the second scheme, RN3 uses one SRB to communicate with UE, and the information transmitted between DgNB and RN3 to UE does not use SRB, for example, the information sent by DgNB to UE needs to be repackaged in RN3, and the configuration of SRB used by RN3 may be consistent with or may be reconfigured by the SRB used by DgNB before RN3 configures RRC function. Of course, the reconfiguration process may be initiated by RN3 or DgNB. If the configuration is updated, the UE needs to be provided with the configuration of the new SRB. In scheme three, two different SRBs are configured for the UE, one for communicating with RN3 and the other for communicating with DgNB. For example, at least the SRB IDs are different. Similar to the above first and second schemes, the update of the configuration of the SRB of RN3 may be initiated by RN3 or by DgNB; if the configuration is updated, the UE needs to be informed of the configuration of the new SRB.

For the case of scheme one or two (UE uses one SRB), if RN3 or DgNB initiates the configuration update of SRB, the DgNB sends the configuration of SRB to the UE to ensure that the UE can resolve the signaling for updating the SRB configuration. Of course, if the configuration of the SRB is not changed, the configuration of the SRB may also be sent to the UE by the RN 3. Specifically, if the configuration of the SRB is updated, the DgNB or RN3 sends the updated configuration of the SRB to the UE using the configuration of the SRB before the RN3 configures the RRC function; and then waits to receive feedback of the UE with the configuration of the new SRB. For the second scheme, after the DgNB sends the configuration of the SRB, the configuration of the local SRB may be released. For case three (UE uses 2 SRBs) the configuration information of SRB is sent by DgNB to UE.

105. And the UE feeds back configuration completion information to the DgNB.

The configuration complete information may be RRC reconfiguration complete signaling, and if the configuration of the SRB is updated in step 104, the configuration complete information is sent using the configuration of the new SRB.

106. The DgNB configures path or routing information to other RNs.

RRC signaling needs to be interacted between the UE and the RN3, and path configuration or routing information needs to be configured to support the interaction of the RRC signaling. The path or routing information is different from the path or routing information adopted by information interaction between the UE and the DgNB. For uplink transmission (UE to RN3) -consider that the operation is transparent to the UE: the DgNB selects a path or route for communication between the UE and RN3, and configures path or route information, such as path identifier or destination address identifier, and identifier corresponding relation with the UE or even specific RB for RN involved in RRC signaling transmission, such as RN3 and RN 4; the mapping relationship between the UE's SRB and the DRB or SRB of RN3, that is, the RRC signaling generated by RN3 is carried in the per UE's SRB, and then forwarded through the RN 3's DRB or SRB-different UE RBs may map to the same RN RB, and multiple RBs of the same UE may map to different DRBs of RN 3. Based on the above configuration, the processing of each other RN is as follows: the last hop or the node directly providing access for the UE, for example, RN4, adds the path identifier or address identifier configured by the DgNB (adaptation layer, or protocol layer handling routing) when forwarding the RRC signaling of a certain SRB of the UE. And an intermediate node between the RN4 and the RN3 forwards data according to the path identifier or the route identifier. The RN with partial RRC function, for example, RN3, (adaptation layer, or protocol layer for processing routing) interprets the information according to the path identifier or address identifier and needs to be processed at the node, and delivers the information to the upper layer. The path or route information for RN3 may be included in the configuration information of the RRC function in step 101 or transmitted simultaneously with the configuration information of the RRC function. Of course, specific path or routing information may not be configured for "signaling interaction between RN3 and UE", for example, all RNs forward information to DgNB of UE, RN3 configured with RRC function may determine whether RRC signaling should be processed locally through UE identity — if RN3 configures partial RRC function for a certain UE, when the received RRC signaling (for example, in the packet header of an Adpt PDU) includes the identity of the UE, it may be submitted to an upper layer to trigger processing. Accordingly, for forwarding of RRC signaling, the RRC signaling needs to carry a UE ID, and the RN needs to know the DgNB of the UE in advance for forwarding of information. Forwarding operation, for example, the RN4 obtains a corresponding DgNB identifier according to a UE identifier carried in an RRC signaling when forwarding the RRC signaling, and then adds the corresponding DgNB identifier to the RRC signaling; thereafter, a transmission path is selected according to the DgNB identity.

In order to ensure the security of RRC signaling interaction between the RN3 and the UE, a method for encrypting RRC signaling transmitted between the RN3 and the UE is provided, which specifically includes the following steps:

for the transmission procedure of RN3 regarding RRC signaling:

201. and after the RN3 activates the preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, sending RRC signaling to the UE according to the security parameters.

Wherein, the configuration information of the RRC function in step 101 includes security parameters configured by the DgNB to the RN 3; of course, the security parameter may also be sent separately, for example, after step 101 or 103, by DgNB to RN3 via a separate message.

202. The UE acquires the security parameters.

Illustratively, the UE may acquire the security parameters prior to step 101. Similarly, the security parameters may include a security algorithm, which may be transmitted by the DgNB, and a key, which may be generated by the UE.

203. And the UE receives the RRC signaling sent by the RN3 and decrypts the RRC signaling according to the security parameters.

For the receiving procedure of RN3 regarding RRC signaling:

301. the UE acquires the security parameters.

302. The UE sends RRC signaling to RN3 according to the security parameters.

303. And the RN3 receives the RRC signaling sent by the UE after activating the preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, and decrypts the RRC signaling according to the security parameters.

In the relay network, the RN3 receives the RRC signaling sent by the UE, and there are the following ways: the first method is as follows: the RN3 is used as a destination node for receiving the RRC signaling, and any RN firstly judges that the RRC signaling needs to be processed by the node according to the destination node (the identifier of the RN3) or the path identifier of the RRC signaling. Correspondingly, the RN4 directly connected to the UE needs to set the destination address as the identifier corresponding to the RN3 or set the path identifier as the identifier of the path where the destination is the RN3 when sending the RRC signaling generated by the UE. The second method comprises the following steps: the RRC signaling sent by the UE still uses the DgNB as a receiving destination node, when any RN forwards the RRC signaling, it determines whether to process the RRC signaling according to the UE identifier included in the RRC signaling, and if the node configures the RRC function for the UE, the RN (e.g., RN3) processes the RRC signaling. Accordingly, the RN4 directly connected to the UE needs to add the UE identity to the data packet when sending the RRC signaling generated by the UE, which indicates that the RRC signaling is generated by the UE. Further, the data packet may further include an SRB identifier, and any RN determines whether it should process the RRC signaling in the data packet at this node based on the UE identifier and the SRB identifier. The third method comprises the following steps: any RN can judge whether to process RRC signaling or not based on the routing information, the UE identification and the SRB identification at the same time. Only if the three identifiers are all satisfied, the RN processes the information; otherwise, the information is continuously forwarded according to the routing rule. Where the RN identity may be the number of the RN node, allocated by the DgNB or by the network management entity OAM. The UE identity may be an RNTI, a UE context ID, etc. When RRC signaling is sent between RNs, it may be encapsulated in PDU of F1AP, PDU of GTP, PDU of adaptation layer, even RLC PDU or PDCP PDU, which carry routing identity, UE identity and SRB identity information.

Illustratively, the security parameters may include a security algorithm, a key, and a COUNT value COUNT of the security algorithm. The security algorithm comprises an encryption algorithm and an integrity protection algorithm, and the encryption algorithm and the integrity protection algorithm have respective keys. Among these, a number of types of encryption algorithms defined in the standard, such as EEA1, EEA2, NEA0, NEA1, NEA2, NEA 3. Several types of integrity protection algorithms, such as EIA1, EIA2, NIA0, NIA1, NIA2, NIA 3. The receiver needs to know the algorithm used by the opposite end to send data so that the same algorithm is selected to process when receiving. In addition, the encryption algorithm needs to be executed by using the COUNT value COUNT, the round ID (SRB ID, DRB ID), the RB transmission direction (uplink or downlink transmission), the key corresponding to the encryption algorithm, and the length of the data to be encrypted. When the integrity protection algorithm is executed, the COUNT of the integrity protection algorithm is needed,The bearer ID (e.g., SRB ID from 1 to 3), the direction of RB transmission (uplink or downlink), the key corresponding to the algorithm, and the protected information itself. The security protection of RRC signaling includes both ciphering and integrity protection, so that both algorithms use the same COUNT when processing the same RRC signaling. Optionally, ciphering and integrity protection maintain respective COUNTs. Alternatively, only ciphering or integrity protection may be performed, and accordingly, only one COUNT may be used. The key is an input parameter for algorithm execution. The key is not interacted between the receiver and the sender through an air interface, but the two parties generate the key required by the encryption and integrity protection functions through local operation. The two nodes guarantee that the two parties use the same key by the pre-specified criteria of the protocol. For example, in LTE, after UE access authentication, both base station and UE can obtain root key, e.g. K, according to the rules of the protocol_eNB(ii) a The nodes are then based on K_eNBObtaining/deriving keys required for algorithms individually, e.g. key K for RRC signalling integrity protection_RRCintAnd a key K for encryption_RRCencAnd an encryption key K for user data_UPenc. The COUNT may consist of the SN number of the HFN and PDCP PDU. For the same RB, if the direction of the RB has both uplink and downlink, there are two COUNTs for uplink processing and downlink processing, respectively.

The following describes a security scheme for RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN 3.

In a first security scheme of RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN3, referring to fig. 12, the following steps are included:

401. the DgNB sends security parameters to RN 3.

The security parameters may be carried in configuration information of the RRC function, and of course, the security parameters may also be sent separately, or if the separate sending may be sent after step 101 or 103, where if the DgNB sends the security parameters separately, for example, the DgNB may send the security parameters by using signaling of F1AP or send the security parameters by using other security mechanisms supported by RN3, and when the security parameters are sent by using signaling of F1AP, it refers to using a security mechanism inherent in transmission of F1AP message to ensure security, for example, the F1AP signaling uses SCTP to provide security guarantee of information interaction for the signaling. RRC signaling between RN3 and DgNB may also be used to send security parameters, at which time the security protection of the communication mechanism between RN3 and DgNB is used to confirm the reliability and security of the information. It may also be that the control signaling of RLC layer or PDCP layer, MAC layer, even physical layer is used to send security parameters — for example, PDCP control PDU (PDCP entity transfer between RN and Donor) may also be defined to carry security parameters.

The security parameters include a security algorithm and a key. The security algorithm used by the DgNB and the UE to process RRC signaling is pre-configured by the DgNB. In the embodiment of the present application, taking the example that DgNB uses the same security algorithm as RN3, DgNB configures the security algorithm to RN. If RN3 does not support the security algorithm being used by DgNB, it needs to select in combination with the security algorithms that UE can support, the security algorithms that RN3 can support and the security algorithms that DgNB can support. Accordingly, a command to reconfigure the security algorithm needs to be sent to the UE. Wherein the security algorithm can be configured with each (per) RB as granularity, i.e. different RBs can adopt different security algorithm types; all SRBs adopt the same security algorithm type, all DRBs adopt the same security algorithm type, and the specific security algorithm types of the two types of RB configuration can be the same or different; the security algorithm may be configured for granularity by each (per) relay node RN, where all RBs use the same security algorithm.

With respect to the key, DgNB provides directly to RN3 a key corresponding to a ciphering function and a key corresponding to an integrity protection function, e.g. key K of a ciphering algorithm_RRCencAnd a secret key K of an integrity protection algorithm_RRCint(ii) a Alternatively, DgNB provides a root key, e.g. K, to RN3_eNBThe RN3 derives/derives keys for integrity protection functions and ciphering functions based on the root key. Root key K_eNBTypically of RN granularity, i.e. the root key applies to all RBs, RN3 ultimately generates a K based on the root key_RRCencAnd K_RRCintAnd a key K for data transmission_UPenc. In addition, when the corresponding security algorithm is per RB granularity, the key may also be per RB granularity.

The security parameter may also contain a COUNT value COUNT of a security algorithm, which the RN3 may use for activating an encryption of the first RRC signaling sent to the UE by the predetermined RRC function or for decrypting the received first RRC signaling sent by the UE. The COUNT value is typically the granularity of per RB; each RB is independently updated after a security operation.

402. And the DgNB receives the security parameter configuration completion signaling sent by the RN 3.

After the RN3 completes the security parameter configuration or activation, it sends a security parameter configuration completion signaling to the DgNB to inform the DgNB of the successful configuration. The security parameter configuration completion signaling may be display information and may be carried in the feedback information of step 103, or of course, one of them may be omitted, or even only the message type is used to indicate that the configuration is completed, that is, as long as the feedback information of step 103 is received, the DgNB confirms that the RRC function of the RN is activated and the security parameter configuration is completed. It is also stated in the above scheme that the security parameter may further include a COUNT value COUNT of a security algorithm, and the security parameter configuration complete message may include a COUNT value COUNT of a security algorithm, which is determined by RN3, and the DgNB may use the COUNT value to send RRC signaling to the UE. Of course, COUNT may also be sent separately, and if it is sent separately, the DgNB receives the security parameter configuration completion signaling sent by RN3, and sends COUNT to the RN, as described in step 403.

403. DgNB sends COUNT to RN 3.

At this time, it is not necessary to pay attention to whether the DgNB receives the RRC signaling of the UE, or the DgNB has sent the RRC signaling to the UE — at this time, the DgNB may send COUNT corresponding to uplink transmission and downlink transmission at the same time, and the RN3 uses the COUNT as an initial COUNT value of the integrity protection algorithm and the ciphering algorithm.

In addition, when RN3 uses the COUNT sent in step 403, it needs to synchronize the COUNT to DgNB. Specifically, the step 404 may be further included after the RN3 sends the RRC signaling to the UE according to the COUNT, or after the RN3 decrypts and/or verifies the UE by using the COUNT and sends the RRC signaling. The step of sending the RRC signaling to the UE by using the COUNT means that the RRC signaling is encrypted and/or integrity protected by using the COUNT, and then the processed RRC signaling is sent.

404. RN3 synchronizes COUNT to DgNB.

Specifically, the COUNT value COUNT used by the security algorithm may include: the COUNT of the ciphering algorithm and the COUNT of the integrity protection algorithm. This COUNT may consist of the HFN and the SN number of the PDU, so if there are remaining mechanisms between RN3 and DgNB to synchronize SN or HFN, the message content of RN3 to DgNB synchronizing COUNT may contain only HFN or SN. According to the current protocol, the ciphering and integrity protection functions are performed simultaneously, so that both operations can use the same COUNT. Further, COUNT is per RB granular; and respectively maintaining a COUNT for different directions, such as uplink and downlink, of the same RB. In addition, RN3 synchronizes COUNT to DgNB, which may be sending the used COUNT directly to DgNB, which updates the used COUNT before using it; or RN3 updates the used COUNT and sends it to DgNB, for example RN3 adds 1 to the used COUNT and sends it to DgNB; the DgNB uses the updated COUNT directly.

The content of the message from RN3 to DgNB synchronizing COUNT may be secured by using the following transmission method of the security parameters between RN3 and DgNB, which is not described herein again.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned partial security parameters, such as security algorithms and keys, may be provided by an entity NGC of the core network, such as MME or AMF; root Key (e.g., K) typically obtained by DgNB_eNB) Is provided by the NGC or AMF, and therefore the root key K is used for embodiments of the present application_eNBOr directly sent to RN3 by NGC or AMF, for example, using NAS connection transport root key K established by RN3 and NGC or AMF_eNB(ii) a At this time, the DgNB needs to send a request to the NGC or AMF to request the NGC or AMF to send the root key K_eNBSent to RN3, the request at least includes RN3ID and UE ID, so that NGC or AMF acquires the corresponding K of UE at RN3_eNBAnd then sends the key to the corresponding RN3 according to the RN3 identification. Or the DgNB issues the key to the NGC or AMF, which provides the key to RN3 via NAS signalling over the NAS connection with RN 3. The encryption algorithm and the integrity algorithm may also be obtained in a manner similar to the key obtaining described above, and are not described here again.

In the above scheme, the security algorithm is selected by the DgNB according to the algorithm capabilities supported by the RN3 and/or the UE, and certainly, the algorithm may also be selected by the RN3, which is specifically described as follows: the DgNB provides the RN3 with algorithm 1 currently used by the DgNB and the UE or algorithms supported by the DgNB and the UE respectively; the RN3 combines the algorithm capability of the RN, and if the RN supports the algorithm 1, feeds back the current algorithm 1 in a safety parameter configuration completion signaling sent to the DgNB; if not, determining a new algorithm 2 by combining the information provided by the DgNB and the local capability, and feeding back the new algorithm 2 in the security parameter configuration completion signaling sent to the DgNB. And if the DgNB discovers that the algorithm configuration is changed, triggering the adjustment of the algorithm configuration of the UE.

In the first security scheme for RRC signaling interaction between the UE and the RN3, security parameters are interacted between the RN3 and the DgNB, so that security required for RRC information transceiving between the UE and the RAN-side entity (RN3 or the DgNB) is ensured, and meanwhile, since the SRBs for the UE correspond to the SRBs distributed on the RN3 and the DgNB and use the same security parameters, transparency of operation to UE behavior is also ensured. From the point of view of UE and RAN side entity signaling interaction, the RRC entity of RN3 can be regarded as "hot spare" of the RRC entity of DgNB — because the type of ciphering and integrity protection algorithms used by RN3 and DgNB is the same, the keys are the same, and the sequence numbers of PDCP processing ciphering and integrity protection are also kept consistent by the COUNT synchronization operation of this embodiment when communicating with the UE.

In the second security scheme for RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN3, the difference from the first security scheme for RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN3 is that DgNB does not perform ciphering and integrity protection on RRC signaling sent to UE through RN3, and RN3 does not perform ciphering and integrity protection on RRC signaling sent by UE forwarded to DgNB.

Referring to fig. 13, the method includes the following steps:

501. the DgNB sends security parameters to RN 3.

The security parameters may be carried in the configuration information of the RRC function, and of course, may also be sent separately, and if the separate sending may be sent after step 101 or 103, for implementation of step 501, reference may be made to step 401, which is not described herein again.

502. And the DgNB receives the security parameter configuration completion signaling sent by the RN 3.

For the control information sent by the DgNB to the UE, the following steps 503 and 504 are performed:

503. and the DgNB transmits RRC signaling to the RN3 in an information format agreed with the RN 3.

504. The RN3 encrypts and transmits RRC signaling to the UE through security parameters.

For example, in the RN handover scenario, DgNB generates measurement configuration signaling, which is passed to RN3 through the interface between DgNB and RN 3; and the RN3 identifies that the measurement configuration signaling needs to be further forwarded to the UE, encrypts and integrity-protects the measurement configuration signaling, and then sends the measurement configuration signaling to the UE.

For the control information sent by the UE to the DgNB, the following operations are performed in steps 505 and 506:

505. and the RN3 receives the RRC signaling sent by the UE and decrypts the RRC signaling according to the security parameters.

506. The RN3 sends the decrypted RRC signaling to the DgNB in the information format agreed with the DgNB.

Specifically, for the RRC signaling generated by the UE, after the RN3 completes information decryption and integrity check, it determines whether to continue forwarding to the DgNB according to the type of the RRC signaling. The agreed information format includes signaling that can adopt F1AP, and at this time, the security is guaranteed by using the intrinsic security mechanism in the transmission of the F1AP message, for example, the F1AP signaling provides security guarantee for information interaction by using SCTP. RRC signaling between RN3 and DgNB may also be employed, where the security protection of the communication mechanism between RN3 and DgNB is utilized to confirm the reliability and security of the information. It is also possible to transmit security parameters using control signaling of the RLC layer or PDCP layer, MAC layer, or even physical layer-for example, PDCP control PDU (PDCP entry transfer between RN and Donor) can also be defined. Because the same set of security parameters are not used by the DgNB and the RN, the DgNB may store or delete the security parameters after the RN configures a part of the RRC function and configures the security parameters.

Furthermore, the procedure of the DgNB configuring security parameters to RN3, if the key of the DgNB (e.g. root key, K in LTE) is triggered_eNB) Updating, requiring triggering of the UE to update as wellA root key. DgNB triggers a key update after determining that a part of RRC function is to be configured on RN3, and generates a root key K_eNB*. Then DgNB converts the K_eNBTo RN3, it may be possible to provide K directly, similar to the above scheme_eNBAlternatively, the ciphering and integrity protection key may be generated by the DgNB before it is sent to RN 3. The DgNB also triggers a key update of the UE, e.g. by providing the UE with parameters for calculating a new key, e.g. NCC, through RRC signaling. The UE algorithmically updates the key to K based on the parameter and predefined/preconfigured criteria_eNBA first step of; further, a key required for encryption and integrity protection may be obtained based on the root key. The NCC is usually carried by the handover command/handover control information, and in this scheme, only a part of the RRC function is activated at RN3, and the RRC function may be a handover-related function or possibly other functions, so that the UE handover is not triggered in this scheme, and therefore, the NCC information is not provided by the handover command/handover control information, but is transmitted using RRC reconfiguration information that does not include the handover command, or newly defined RRC signaling. The process of configuring the key to RN3 and the UE may be performed simultaneously, or the UE may be configured to RN3 after the configuration of the UE is completed, or the order may be exchanged. After the UE completes the key update, the key required for ciphering and integrity protection is obtained, and then the RRC signaling is processed with the new key, for example, the new key is used to process and send a configuration complete message to the DgNB. Further, at this time, RN3 may have configured the RRC function or key, may process the configuration complete message and send an acknowledgement to DgNB, or may forward the configuration complete message to DgNB after completing decryption and integrity check.

In a second security scheme for RRC signaling interaction between the UE and the RN3, the security of communication between the RN3 and the UE is ensured through a coordination mechanism between the RN3 and the DgNB, and the feasibility of deploying a partial RRC function on the RN3 is ensured. Therefore, the signaling overhead and the processing time delay caused by the multi-hop multi-connection network can be reduced. In contrast to the first security scheme of RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN3, the COUNT value COUNT of the security algorithm does not need to be synchronized when RN3 and DgNB process RRC signaling. Meanwhile, the SRBs corresponding to the UE and distributed on the RN3 and the DgNB use the same security parameters, so that the operation is transparent to the UE behavior. The RN3 uses one SRB to carry RRC signaling of UE interaction, and the information of the UE transmitted between the DgNB and the RN3 does not use the SRB.

In the third security scheme for RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN3, the difference between the first and second security schemes for RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN3 is that the UE loads two sets of security parameters, which correspond to DgNB and RN, respectively. Therefore, the DgNB and the RN need to be identified for the operation of sending and receiving RRC signaling on the UE, or the UE needs to distinguish the destination node or the source node of the RRC signaling, so as to select the corresponding security parameters.

Wherein the security parameters may be generated by the DgNB option or by RN3 option.

Referring to fig. 14, when the security parameters are selectively generated by the DgNB, the method includes the following steps:

601. the DgNB sends the first security parameters to RN 3.

Exemplary first security parameters are used to indicate security algorithms and keys used by RN3 in communicating with the UE. The transmission mode of the first security parameter may be carried in the configuration information of the RRC function, or may be separately transmitted, and if the separate transmission mode is separately transmitted, the separate transmission mode may be transmitted after step 101 or 103. Specifically, reference may be made to the description of the transmission manner of the security parameters in step 401.

Specifically, the security algorithm may be a ciphering algorithm and an integrity protection algorithm that are selected by the DgNB and used when the RN3 communicates with the UE, where the selection of the security algorithm needs to be based on the support capability of the UE for the algorithm and the support capability of the RN for the algorithm. The key can be generated in the following way: before configuring the first security parameters of RN3, the keys (e.g., K) used by the DgNB for RN3 to communicate with the UE are generated_RN) Illustratively, DgNB maintains a COUNT COUNT1 corresponding to RN3, with the DgNB using the COUNT1 and the DgNB's own key (e.g., root Key K)_eNB) Generating a key (e.g., K) for communication between RN3 and the UE_RN(ii) a RN according to K_RNA key used by the encryption algorithm and the integrity protection algorithm is obtained. The second method comprises the following steps: the DgNB sends the RN the parameters required for key calculation, which generates the key (e.g., K) used by RN3 for communication with the UE_RN) Illustratively, DgNB directly maps K to K_eNBAnd RN3 correspondence maintained by DgNBIs sent to RN3, and RN3 calculates K by itself_RN。

The first security parameter may be sent through configuration information of the RRC function, or may be sent independently, for example, after step 101 or 103.

602. The security parameter configuration completion signaling sent by RN3 to the DgNB.

603: and the DgNB sends the second security parameter to the UE.

The second security parameters may comprise keys and security algorithms, wherein RN3 and DgNB may use the same security algorithms, and further, the second security parameters may be configured by default, and when the second security parameters do not comprise algorithms, the UE may consider the same security algorithms used when interacting with RN3 signaling as the algorithms used when interacting with the DgNB by RN 3. A displayed indication, such as 1bit, may be used, with a1 indicating that the two are the same. Or the second security parameter comprises a security algorithm specifically used by the UE. The generation method of the key is as follows, it can provide COUNT1 corresponding to RN3 to the UE (like NCC mentioned in the above embodiment, or SCG COUNT in DC); DgNB based key, e.g. K, for UE_eNBAnd the above COUNT1 to calculate the K used by RN_RN(ii) a UE may be according to K_RNObtaining/deducing the key of encryption algorithm and integrity protection algorithm, after the configuration of UE is completed, UE has 2 sets of security algorithm and key at the same time, namely, security algorithm 1 and corresponding key K used by signaling interaction between UE and DgNB_eNB(ii) a And a security algorithm 2 and a corresponding key K used for signaling interaction between the UE and the RN3_RN. An exemplary second security parameter may be passed through security algorithm 1 and a corresponding key K_eNBAnd carrying out safety protection.

When the security parameters are selectively generated by the RN3, the method comprises the following steps:

701. the DgNB sends the first security parameters to RN 3.

The transmission mode of the first security parameter may be carried in the configuration information of the RRC function, or may be separately transmitted, and if the separate transmission mode is separately transmitted, the separate transmission mode may be transmitted after step 101 or 103. Specifically, reference may be made to the description of the transmission manner of the security parameters in step 401. Exemplary first security parameters are used to indicate keys used when the RN3 communicates with the UE, and security algorithms supported by the UE. The key generation method and the configuration method thereof are not described herein with reference to step 601. RN3 may select the security algorithm used by the UE to communicate with RN3 according to the security algorithms supported by the UE, and may also include the security algorithm used by the UE and the DgNB directly in the first security parameter.

702. The security parameter configuration completion signaling sent by RN3 to the DgNB.

And the security parameter configuration completion signaling comprises a security algorithm which is determined by the RN3 according to algorithm capability supported by the RN3 and a security algorithm supported by the UE and is adopted when the RN3 interacts with the UE signaling.

703. And the DgNB sends the second security parameter to the UE.

The second security parameter includes a key and a security algorithm, and the specific implementation manner is similar to that in step 603 and is not described here again.

After the security parameter configuration of the UE and the RN3 is completed, the signaling interaction between the UE and the DgNB uses a security algorithm 1 and a corresponding key K_eNB(ii) a And a security algorithm 2 and a corresponding key K used for signaling interaction between the UE and the RN3_RN. In contrast to the first security scheme of RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN3, the security algorithm COUNT value COUNT does not need to be synchronized when RN3 and DgNB process RRC signaling.

Specifically, in the third security scheme of RRC signaling interaction between the UE and the RN3, the way in which the UE receives and processes RRC signaling is distinguished by SRB, for example, SRB1 is used between the DgNB and the UE, and SRB3 is used between the RN3 and the UE. The intermediate node RN carries the SRB identifier when forwarding the RRC signaling. And the UE selects the security parameters according to the SRB identification to process the RRC signaling. If the RRC function is mapped to a node, such as RN3 and DgNB, according to the "RRC function" or the "RRC signaling type", the SRB corresponding to each node needs to be selected, and corresponding security parameters are used for encryption and integrity protection. If mapped to a particular SRB, the encryption and integrity protection operations may be performed directly.

When the RN3 sends the RRC signaling, the established SRB and corresponding security parameters are used for carrying out encryption and integrity protection on the RRC. When the RN3 receives the RRC signaling of the UE, the RN3 determines whether the information needs to be processed locally according to the UE identifier and the SRB identifier, and if the RRC function of the UE has been configured and the signaling is transferred through the SRB3, the RN3(PDCP layer) decrypts and checks the integrity of the RRC signaling, and then delivers the RRC signaling to the RRC layer for processing; if the information of a certain UE does not need to be processed (SRB identifier is not consistent, UE identifier is consistent), or the RRC function of the UE is not configured (UE identifier is not consistent), the signaling is continuously forwarded. The forwarding operation relies on path identification or routing information in the message, such as destination node identification. The RN3 may also determine whether it is the destination node of information processing based on the routing information. Meanwhile, the UE identification and the SRB identification are combined with the routing information to judge whether the signaling needs to be processed or not.

Referring to fig. 15, when the DgNB configures the RN3 with the RN handover function, RN3 needs to acquire another information in order to ensure that the handover control can be performed at RN 3.

801. The RN3 obtains the pilot configuration information sent by the DgNB, where the pilot configuration information includes the identifiers of other RNs and the identifiers of the pilot configurations or pilot configurations corresponding to other RNs.

Wherein, since the RN may not have its own cell ID, when the DgNB triggers the UE configuration measurement (through the RRC Reconfiguration message), the UE can only obtain the measurement result through the measurement on the CSI-RS. At this time, the UE cannot distinguish the RN and cannot perform cell quality comparison based on the RN to trigger measurement reporting. The DgNB provides the pilot configuration information of the neighbor cell to RN3 while configuring the measurement for the UE. The pilot configuration information comprises identifiers of other RNs and pilot configurations or identifiers of the pilot configurations of the other RNs, such as CSI-RS set or CSI-RS set ID; the other RNs are other RNs than the RN3 in the relay network. The measurement report information of the UE carries a pilot configuration or an identifier of the pilot configuration, such as a CSI-RS set ID or a CSI-RS ID; at this time, RN3 may associate the measurement result reported by the UE with the RN based on the pilot configuration information sent by the DgNB, then perform quality comparison of the RN (cell), determine whether handover needs to be triggered, select a target cell/target RN, and send a handover command to the UE, where the handover command includes an identifier of the target RN.

In addition, since the DgNB may configure multiple pilots for the UE corresponding to different RNs, the RN3 with partial RRC function collects only partial pilot configuration information of the RNs, or only controls partial RNs (e.g., RN4, RN 5). Therefore, the DgNB may provide the RN3 with topology configuration information to explicitly manage the scope — for example, RN3 may directly manage the rest of RNs involved in the topology, collect the state information (data buffer status, load status, etc.) of RNs in the topology configuration, or directly trigger these RNs to perform bearer configuration for the UE after the handover decision. Thus also including step 802.

802. RN3 obtains the topology configuration information sent by DgNB.

The topology configuration information comprises at least one other RN; the at least one other RN comprises: RNs other than RN3 in the relay network. The topology configuration information may be a cell list, and may further include a connection relationship between the RN and the RN; the cells in the list may be considered to belong to the same topological area. After the RN3 receives the measurement result reported by the UE, if the RN with good cell quality is not in the topological range of the topology configuration information, it may consider selecting the RN with good cell quality and/or meeting the service quality requirement from the topological range as the target RN; and if the topological area can not be selected to meet the service quality, triggering the RN3 to interact with the DgNB to realize the mobility management of the cross-topological area, selecting the target RN for the UE by the DgNB, and sending a switching instruction to the UE. It should be noted that, both the topology configuration information and the pilot configuration information are sent by the DgNB to the RN3, and may be transmitted in one message or may be transmitted in two messages.

In addition, when the RRC function is deployed only in the DgNB, since the handover decision is performed in the DgNB, the DgNB needs to collect state information of each RN, such as information about the number of users accessing and the buffer status; and selects a proper cell as a handover destination cell according to the information. In this application, when the RN3 deploys a handover function and can perform RN access control of the UE, it is also necessary to collect state information of each RN or RNs within the topology range area of the topology configuration information. Thus also including step 803.

803. The RN3 acquires the status information sent by other RNs.

Specifically, after RN3 deploys part of RRC control plane function, DgNB sends an indication message to the rest of RNs managed by RN3, indicating that the respective status information is sent to RN3, and provides routing information for the rest of RNs to interact with RN 3. Thus, when the rest RNs send state information, the state information carries a path identifier, or a destination address is set as an identifier corresponding to the RN 3; when the RN3 forwards the information, it determines that the information needs to locally extract the state information sent by other RNs according to the path identifier or the destination node identifier. Or when the other RNs send the state information, the destination node still indicates the DgNB, and the source node identifies the identifications of the other RNs sending the state information; the RN3 determines whether the node can resolve the information according to the identifier of the other RN and the topology configuration information in step 802, and if the identifier of the other RN is included in the topology configuration information, resolves the status information sent by the other RN. Finally, RN3 makes a handover decision according to one or more of the above pilot configuration information, topology configuration information, and state information, and performs access control, specifically may send a UE context setup request (UE context setup request) to RN5 to be handed over, and after receiving a response message fed back by RN5, send a handover command to UE, where the handover command includes an identifier of RN5, and the UE sends a handover success message to RN3 after switching to RN 5. After the handover is completed, RN3 controls RN4 to release UE context and possibly synchronize UE context with DgNB, for example, provide information of UE current serving node RN5, UE moving speed, etc. to DgNB.

In the process of the handover management, the RN3 is used to manage the UE to switch the RN, so that the delay and signaling overhead caused by the need of performing the information such as the handover decision and the state report of the multi-hop network in the DgNB are avoided.

In the above-mentioned handover management process, RN3 only manages RNs within a specific topological area, and when a UE moves between these RNs (RN3, RN4 and RN5 shown in fig. 1), the processing of measurement results and even handover decisions can be processed by the RN 3. When the RN with good cell quality is not within the topological range (as RN7), if RN7 is selected as the target RN, then RN3 and DgNB coordination need to be considered.

The specific description is as follows: when RN3 deploys part of the RRC function of the UE (such as the handover function of the RN), the DgNB still has the corresponding RRC function for the UE. When RN7 is taken as the target RN of the handover, RN3 finds that the target RN of the handover does not belong to the topological range managed by RN3 according to the measurement result of the UE, and sends the measurement result of the UE to DgNB. The DgNB controls subsequent processing procedures, such as handover decision, access control, RN reconfiguration and the like. Wherein, the information transmission between the UE and the RN3, the information transmission between the RN3 and the DgNB, and the information transmission between the UE and the DgNB, refer to the above-mentioned first, second, and third security schemes of RRC signaling interaction between the UE and the RN3 to perform security operations.

In combination with the security scheme of RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN3, RN3 forwards the measurement results to DgNB after ciphering (of PDCP) and integrity protection. Alternatively, RN3 saves a copy before parsing the signaling carrying the measurement result, which has no decryption or integrity check; when the RN finds that the UE moves out of the managed topological range, it sends the copy directly to the DgNB. When combining the security scheme II of RRC signaling interaction between the UE and the RN3, the measurement result forwarded to the DgNB by the RN does not undergo the encryption and integrity protection of the PDCP, and when the measurement result is forwarded to the DgNB by the RN3, the information adopts the format of the RRC signaling; further, it may be in a specific information format, and is used for carrying the measurement result of the UE when the information is exchanged between RN3 and the DgNB. In combination with the security scheme three of RRC signaling interaction between UE and RN3, RN3 processes the measurement result of UE using SRB, such as SRB1 (if the signaling interaction between RN3 and UE uses SRB3), of the signaling interaction between UE and DgNB, and then sends the result to DgNB. Or in a mode of combining a security scheme two of RRC signaling interaction between the UE and the RN 3. When RN3 deploys part of the RRC function of the UE (such as the handover function of the RN), the DgNB still has no corresponding RRC function for the UE. For the RN7 as the target RN of the handover, the signaling interaction between RN3 and DgNB may adopt the existing handover request and handover request response, i.e. the handover operation is regarded as the handover process controlled by RN 3. It can be understood that, when the UE initially accesses, it accesses to an RN, i.e. a peer RRC entity of the UE RRC is deployed on the RN. Accordingly, the configuration of RN3 may be performed by the RN.

The embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission apparatus 300, where the data transmission apparatus 300 is a first communication device or a chip in the first communication device. The first communication device is a relay node of a relay network. The data transmission apparatus 300 is configured to perform the steps performed by the first communication device in the above data transmission method. The data transmission apparatus 300 provided in the embodiment of the present application may include modules corresponding to the respective steps.

In the embodiment of the present application, the data transmission device 300 may be divided into functional modules according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided according to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. The division of the modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic, and is only a logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

Fig. 16 shows a schematic diagram of a possible configuration of the data transmission device 300, in the case of dividing the functional modules according to the respective functions. As shown in fig. 18, the data transmission apparatus 300 includes a receiving unit 31, a processing unit 32, and a transmitting unit 33. The receiving unit 31 is configured to support the data transmission apparatus 300 to perform

steps

101, 106, 303, 401, 403, 501, 505, 601, 701, 801, 802, and 803 in this embodiment of the present application; the processing unit 32 is configured to support the data transmission apparatus 300 to perform step 102 in the embodiment of the present application, and encrypt and/or protect integrity of the sent RRC signaling or decrypt and/or verify integrity of the received RRC signaling according to the security parameter; the sending unit 33 is configured to support the data transmission apparatus 300 to execute

steps

103, 201, 203, 402, 404, 502, 504, 506, 602, and 702; of course, the data transmission device 300 provided in the embodiment of the present application includes, but is not limited to, the above modules, for example, the data transmission device 300 may further include a storage unit. The memory unit may be used to store the program code of the data transmission device 300. All relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again.

When the data transmission apparatus 300 is a relay node or a chip on a relay node, the processing unit 31 may be the processor 81 in fig. 8, where the processor 81 supports the RN to perform step 102 in the above embodiment, and encrypt and/or protect integrity of the transmitted RRC signaling or decrypt and/or check integrity of the received RRC signaling according to the security parameters; the transmitting unit 31 and the receiving unit 32 may be the transceiver 82 in fig. 8, when the transceiver 82 supports the RN to perform

steps

101, 106, 303, 401, 403, 501, 505, 601, 701, 801, 802, 803 in the above embodiments; and steps 103, 201, 203, 402, 404, 502, 504, 506, 602, 702.

When the data transmission apparatus 300 operates, the data transmission apparatus 300 performs the steps of the first communication device in the data transmission method of the above-described embodiment.

Another embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which instructions are stored, and when the instructions are executed on the data transmission apparatus 300, the data transmission apparatus 300 executes the steps of the first communication device in the data transmission method of the foregoing embodiment.

In another embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium; the at least one processor of the data transmission apparatus 300 may read the computer-executable instructions from the computer-readable storage medium, and the execution of the computer-executable instructions by the at least one processor causes the data transmission apparatus 300 to implement the steps of executing the first communication device in the data transmission method of the above-described embodiment.

The embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission apparatus 400, where the data transmission apparatus 400 may be a host base station or a chip in the host base station. The data transmission apparatus 400 is configured to perform the steps performed by the host base station in the above data transmission method. The data transmission apparatus 400 provided in the embodiment of the present application may include modules corresponding to the respective steps.

In the embodiment of the present application, the data transmission device 400 may be divided into functional modules according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided according to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. The division of the modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic, and is only a logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

Fig. 17 shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of the data transmission apparatus 400 in this embodiment, in the case of dividing each functional module according to each function. As shown in fig. 17, the data transmission apparatus 400 includes a transmitting unit 41 and a receiving unit 42. The sending unit 41 is configured to instruct the data transmission apparatus 400 to perform

steps

101, 104, 106, 401, 403, 501, 503, 601, 603, 701, 703, 801, and 802 in this embodiment; the receiving unit 42 is configured to support the data transmission apparatus 400 to perform

steps

103, 105, 402, 404, 502, 506, 602, and 702 in the embodiment of the present application. All relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again. Of course, the data transmission apparatus 400 provided in the embodiment of the present application includes, but is not limited to, the above modules, for example, the data transmission apparatus 400 may further include a storage unit. The memory unit may be used to store program codes and data of the data transmission device 400.

The transmitting unit 41 and the receiving unit 42 may be the transceiver 92 in fig. 9, where the transceiver 92 supports the DgNB to perform

steps

101, 104, 106, 401, 403, 501, 503, 601, 603, 701, 703, 801, and 802 in the above embodiments; and steps 103, 105, 402, 404, 502, 506, 602, 702 in the above embodiments.

Another embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium including one or more program codes, where the one or more programs include instructions, and when a processor in the data transmission apparatus 400 executes the program codes, the data transmission apparatus 400 executes the data transmission method provided by the above-described embodiment.

In another embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium; the at least one processor of the data transmission apparatus 400 may read the computer-executable instructions from the computer-readable storage medium, and the execution of the computer-executable instructions by the at least one processor causes the data transmission apparatus 400 to implement the steps of executing the host base station in the data transmission method provided by the above-described embodiment.

Fig. 18 shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of the data transmission apparatus 400 in this embodiment, in the case of dividing each functional module according to each function. As shown in fig. 18, the data transmission apparatus 500 includes an acquisition unit 51, a reception unit 52, a processing unit 53, and a transmission unit 54. The obtaining unit 51 is configured to instruct the data transmission apparatus 400 to perform steps 202 and 301 and/or other processes for the techniques described herein in the embodiments of the present application; the receiving unit 52 is configured to support the data transmission apparatus 400 to execute steps 104, 201, 203, 504, 603, and 703 in this embodiment. The processing unit 53 is configured to support the data transmission apparatus 400 to perform encryption and/or integrity protection on the transmitted RRC signaling or decryption and/or integrity check on the received RRC signaling according to the security parameters in the above embodiments. The sending unit 54 is used to support the data transmission apparatus 400 to execute the steps 105, 302, 505 in the above embodiments. All relevant contents of each step related to the method embodiment of the present application may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, which is not described herein again. Of course, the data transmission device 500 provided in the embodiment of the present application includes, but is not limited to, the above modules, for example, the data transmission device 500 may further include a storage unit. The memory unit may be used to store program codes and data of the data transmission device 500.

The obtaining unit 51 and the processing unit 53 may be the processor 701 in fig. 7, where the processor 701 supports the UE to perform steps 202 and 301 in this embodiment, and encrypt and/or protect integrity of the sent RRC signaling or decrypt and/or verify integrity of the received RRC signaling according to the security parameters; the transmitting unit 41 and the receiving unit 42 may be radio frequency circuits 702 in fig. 9, and the radio frequency circuits 702 support the UE to perform steps 104, 201, 203, 504, 603, 703 and 105, 302, 505 in the above embodiments.

Another embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which includes one or more program codes, where the one or more programs include instructions, and when the processor in the data transmission apparatus 500 executes the program codes, the data transmission apparatus 500 executes the data transmission method provided by the above-mentioned embodiment.

In another embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium; the at least one processor of the data transmission apparatus 500 may read the computer-executable instructions from the computer-readable storage medium, and the execution of the computer-executable instructions by the at least one processor causes the data transmission apparatus 500 to implement the steps of executing the host base station in the data transmission method provided by the above-described embodiment.

In the above embodiments, all or part of the implementation may be realized by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, may take the form of a computer program product, either entirely or partially. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. The procedures or functions according to the embodiments of the present application are all or partially generated when the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, e.g., the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data terminal device including one or more available media integrated servers, data centers, and the like. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy Disk, hard Disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

Through the above description of the embodiments, it is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and simplicity of description, the foregoing division of the functional modules is merely used as an example, and in practical applications, the above function distribution may be completed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the device may be divided into different functional modules to complete all or part of the above described functions.

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

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

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application may be essentially or partially contributed to by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solutions may be embodied in the form of a software product, where the software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to enable a device (which may be a single chip, a chip, or the like) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk. The above description is only an embodiment of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present disclosure should be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

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

Claims

1. A data transmission method of a relay network is applied to a first communication device or a chip in the first communication device, wherein the first communication device is a relay node of the relay network, and the method comprises the following steps:

the first communication equipment receives configuration information of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) function sent by second communication equipment, wherein the configuration information of the RRC function is used for indicating the first communication equipment to activate a preset RRC function;

the first communication equipment activates a preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, so that the first communication equipment directly processes part of RRC signaling of third communication equipment;

and the first communication equipment sends feedback information to the second communication equipment, wherein the feedback information is used for informing the second communication equipment that the preset RRC function is successfully activated.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the configuration information of the RRC function includes security parameters configured by the second communication device to the first communication device; wherein the third communication device is provided with the security parameter; the method further comprises the following steps:

after the first communication device activates a preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, first RRC signaling is sent to the third communication device according to the security parameter, so that the third communication device can decrypt the first RRC signaling according to the security parameter;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and after the first communication equipment activates the preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, receiving a second RRC signaling sent by the third communication equipment according to the security parameter, and decrypting the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the security parameters include a security algorithm, a key, and a count value of the security algorithm;

the first communication device sends a first RRC signaling to the third communication device according to the security parameter, and then includes: the first communication device synchronizing a count value of a security algorithm of the security parameter to the second communication device;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the first communication device decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter, and then includes: the first communication device synchronizes a count value of a security algorithm of the security parameter to the second communication device.

4. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the RRC function comprises: a switching function; the first communication device activates a predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, and then includes:

acquiring topology configuration information sent by the second communication equipment, wherein the topology configuration information comprises at least one other communication equipment; the at least one other communication device comprises: relay nodes other than the relay node in the relay network;

determining a target communication device among the at least one other communication device and sending a handover command to the third communication device, wherein the handover command comprises an identification of the target communication device.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the RRC function comprises: a switching function; the first communication device activates a predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, and then includes:

acquiring measurement reporting information sent by third communication equipment, wherein the measurement reporting information comprises pilot frequency configuration or identification of the pilot frequency configuration;

acquiring pilot configuration information sent by the second communication device, wherein the pilot configuration information comprises identifiers of other communication devices and identifiers of pilot configurations or pilot configurations corresponding to the other communication devices; the other communication device includes: relay nodes other than the relay node in the relay network;

and determining target communication equipment according to the measurement report information and the pilot frequency configuration information, and sending a switching command to the third communication equipment, wherein the switching command comprises an identifier of the target communication equipment.

6. The data transmission method of the relay network is characterized by being applied to second communication equipment or a chip in the second communication equipment, wherein the second communication equipment is a host base station of the relay network;

the second communication equipment sends configuration information of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) function to first communication equipment, wherein the configuration information of the RRC function is used for indicating the first communication equipment to activate a preset RRC function; causing the first communication device to directly process a portion of RRC signaling of a third communication device;

and the second communication equipment receives feedback information sent by the first communication equipment, wherein the feedback information is used for informing the second communication equipment that the preset RRC function is successfully activated.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the RRC function configuration information comprises security parameters configured by the second communication device to the first communication device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the security parameters include a security algorithm, a key, and a count value of the security algorithm;

after the first communication device sends a first RRC signaling to a third communication device according to the security parameters, the second communication device obtains the count value of the security algorithm of the security parameters synchronized by the first communication device;

or after the first communication device decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter, the second communication device obtains the count value of the security algorithm of the security parameter synchronized by the first communication device.

9. A data transmission method of a relay network is characterized in that the method is applied to a third communication device or a chip in the third communication device, and the third communication device is User Equipment (UE) of the relay network;

the third communication equipment acquires security parameters;

the third communication equipment receives a first RRC signaling sent by the first communication equipment and decrypts the first RRC signaling according to the security parameter; the first RRC signaling is sent after the first communication equipment activates a preset RRC function according to configuration information of the RRC function sent by second communication equipment;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the third communication equipment sends a second RRC signaling to the first communication equipment according to the security parameter, so that the first communication equipment can decrypt the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter after activating a preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function sent by the second communication equipment;

part of the RRC signaling of the third communication device is handled directly by the first communication device.

10. A data transmission apparatus, wherein the data transmission apparatus is a relay node of a relay network or a chip in the relay node, and the apparatus comprises:

a receiving unit, configured to receive configuration information of a radio resource control, RRC, function sent by a second communication device, where the configuration information of the RRC function is used to instruct a first communication device to activate a predetermined RRC function;

the processing unit is used for activating a preset RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function acquired by the receiving unit, so that the first communication equipment directly processes part of RRC signaling of the third communication equipment;

a sending unit, configured to send feedback information to the second communication device, where the feedback information is used to notify the second communication device that the predetermined RRC function activation is successful.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the configuration information of the RRC function includes security parameters configured by the second communication device to the first communication device; wherein the third communication device is provided with the security parameter;

the sending unit is further configured to send a first RRC signaling to the third communication device according to the security parameter after activating a predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function, so that the third communication device decrypts the first RRC signaling according to the security parameter;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the receiving unit is further configured to receive a second RRC signaling sent by the third communication device according to the security parameter after activating a predetermined RRC function according to the configuration information of the RRC function;

the processing unit is further configured to decrypt the second RRC signaling received by the receiving unit according to the security parameter.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the security parameters comprise a security algorithm, a key, and a count value of the security algorithm;

the sending unit is further configured to synchronize a count value of a security algorithm of the security parameter to the second communication device after the first RRC signaling is sent to the third communication device according to the security parameter;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the sending unit is further configured to synchronize a count value of a security algorithm of the security parameter to the second communication device after the receiving unit decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter.

13. The apparatus according to any of claims 10-12, wherein the RRC function comprises: the first communication device switching function;

the receiving unit is further configured to acquire topology configuration information sent by the second communication device, where the topology configuration information includes at least one other communication device; the at least one other communication device comprises: relay nodes other than the relay node in the relay network;

the processing unit is further configured to determine a target communication device among the at least one other communication device, and send a handover command to the third communication device through the sending unit, where the handover command includes an identifier of the target communication device.

14. The apparatus according to any of claims 10-12, wherein the RRC function comprises: the first communication device switching function;

the receiving unit is further configured to acquire measurement reporting information sent by a third communication device, where the measurement reporting information includes a pilot configuration or an identifier of the pilot configuration;

the receiving unit is further configured to acquire pilot configuration information sent by the second communication device, where the pilot configuration information includes an identifier of another communication device and a pilot configuration or an identifier of a pilot configuration corresponding to the other communication device; the other communication device includes: relay nodes other than the relay node in the relay network;

the processing unit is further configured to determine a target communication device according to the measurement report information and the pilot configuration information, and send a handover command to the third communication device through the sending unit, where the handover command includes an identifier of the target communication device.

15. A data transmission device is characterized in that the data transmission device is a host base station or a chip in the host base station; the method comprises the following steps:

a sending unit, configured to send configuration information of a radio resource control, RRC, function to a first communication device, where the configuration information of the RRC function is used to instruct the first communication device to activate a predetermined RRC function; causing the first communication device to directly process a portion of RRC signaling of a third communication device;

a receiving unit, configured to receive feedback information sent by the first communication device, where the feedback information is used to notify a second communication device that the predetermined RRC function activation is successful.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the configuration information of the RRC function comprises security parameters configured by the second communication device to the first communication device.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the security parameters comprise a security algorithm, a key, and a count value of the security algorithm;

the receiving unit is further configured to acquire a count value of a security algorithm of the security parameter synchronized by the first communication device after the first communication device sends the first RRC signaling to the third communication device according to the security parameter;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the receiving unit is further configured to acquire a count value of a security algorithm of the security parameter synchronized by the first communication device after the first communication device decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter.

18. A data transmission device is characterized in that the data transmission device is User Equipment (UE) or a chip in the UE; the method comprises the following steps:

an acquisition unit for acquiring security parameters;

a receiving unit, configured to receive a first RRC signaling sent by a first communication device;

a processing unit, configured to decrypt the first RRC signaling according to the security parameter; the first RRC signaling is sent after the first communication equipment activates a preset RRC function according to configuration information of the RRC function sent by second communication equipment;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

a sending unit, configured to send a second RRC signaling to the first communication device according to the security parameter, so that after the first communication device activates a predetermined RRC function according to configuration information of the RRC function sent by the second communication device, the first communication device decrypts the second RRC signaling according to the security parameter;

part of the RRC signalling of the third communication device is handled directly by the first communication device.