CN113133084A

CN113133084A - Communication method, terminal, network unit and computer readable storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN113133084A
Application number: CN202010040184.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈宁宇; 胡南; 李男
Original assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Current assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Priority date: 2020-01-15
Filing date: 2020-01-15
Publication date: 2021-07-16

Abstract

A communication method, terminal, network element and computer readable storage medium, the method when applied to a first terminal comprising: receiving a notification message on a second slice sent by the first network unit, wherein the second slice is different from a first slice of the first terminal currently accessing the first network unit; accessing to a target network element on the second slice in response to the notification message. The embodiment of the invention can realize that the terminal residing on the first slice can receive the information on the second slice and can access the network on the second slice according to the received information, thereby solving the problem that the information sent to the terminal on the original slice after the terminal accesses the new slice is unreachable.

Description

Communication method, terminal, network unit and computer readable storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of mobile communication technologies, and in particular, to a communication method, a terminal, a network unit, and a computer-readable storage medium.

Background

The concept of Slicing (Slicing) was introduced in the fifth generation mobile communication (5G) network architecture. The slice (also called network slice) creates a plurality of independent exclusive virtual sub-networks in the same physical network, each virtual sub-network can have different functional characteristics and flexibly cope with different requirements and services, the virtual sub-networks are mutually isolated, and when one virtual sub-network fails, other virtual sub-networks cannot be influenced, so that multiple services can be realized while sharing a set of broadband network infrastructure, and the service realization is relatively independent. For example, mobile broadband, multimedia, large-scale Machine Type Communication (mtc), Critical Machine Type Communication (CMTC), and high-reliability Low Latency Communication (urrllc) services can be implemented by using a network slice.

Network slices typically have the following four characteristics:

1) isolation: different network slices are isolated from each other, and the exception of one slice does not affect other slices.

2) Virtualization: a network slice is a virtual network divided over a physical network.

3) Customizing according to requirements: the method can customize the service, function, capacity, service quality and connection relation of the network slices according to different service requirements, and can also manage the life cycle of the slices as required.

4) End-to-end: the network slice is for the whole network, and not only needs a core network, but also includes an access network, a transmission network, a management network, and the like.

For three application scenarios of 5G network slicing, the slice types may be divided into an eMBB slice, an mtc slice, and a urrllc slice according to a service scenario. The 5G network slicing technology is one of key methods for realizing diversified architectures of networks, and with the continuous development of technologies such as virtualization and the like, the value and significance of network slicing are gradually shown.

Disclosure of Invention

At least one embodiment of the present invention provides a communication method, a terminal, a network element and a computer-readable storage medium, which enable a terminal residing on a first slice to receive information on a second slice and to access a network on the second slice according to the received information.

According to an aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a communication method, applied to a first terminal, including:

a first terminal receives a notification message on a second slice sent by the first network unit, wherein the second slice is the same as or different from a first slice of the first terminal currently accessed to the first network unit;

the first terminal initiates access to a second slice of a target network element, which is different from the first network element, in response to the notification message.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, the step of the first terminal initiating access to the second slice of the second network element comprises:

and the first terminal accesses to a second network unit on the second slice according to the context of the second slice which is locally reserved.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, before the step of initiating access to the second slice of the second network element, the method further comprises: the first terminal receives configuration information of a second slice sent by the first network unit;

the step of initiating access to a second slice of the target network element by the first terminal includes:

accessing a second network unit on a second slice according to the context of the second slice when the configuration information of the second slice is matched with the context of the second slice;

and when the configuration information of the second slice is not matched with the context of the second slice, reselecting or switching to a third network unit according to the configuration information of the second slice, and accessing the third network unit on the second slice.

According to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the configuration information of the second slice includes at least one of a target frequency point, a target cell ID, and a random access resource of the second slice.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises:

and the first terminal receives the user data forwarded by the first network unit, wherein the user data is the data sent to the first terminal on the second slice.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, before receiving the notification message on the second slice, the method further comprises:

the first terminal resides in or accesses a second network unit;

the first terminal reselects or switches to a first network unit from the second network unit, sends first information to the first network unit, and reserves the context of a second slice of the first terminal;

wherein the first information comprises: at least one of a terminal identification of the first terminal, a slice identification of the second slice, and an identification of the second network element.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, the step of reselecting or handing over from the second network element to the first network element comprises:

when the first terminal needs to initiate a service on the first slice, the first terminal accesses to the first network unit on the first slice through a cell reselection or handover process, and initiates the service on the first slice.

and after the state of the first terminal on the first slice is converted into an idle state or an inactive state, accessing the second terminal on the second slice to a second network unit or a fourth network unit through a cell reselection process according to the context of the reserved second slice, wherein the fourth network unit is a network unit supporting the second slice.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, the notification message is one of: paging messages, handover messages, radio resource control, RRC, release messages or RRC reconfiguration messages.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a communication method, applied to a second network unit, including:

a second network unit receives a first notification message sent to a first terminal on a second slice sent by a core network unit, wherein the first terminal is currently accessed to the first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the second slice;

and the second network unit sends a second notification message which is sent to the first terminal on the second slice to the first network unit according to the first notification message.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, after sending the second notification message, the method further comprises:

and responding to an access process initiated by the first terminal on a second slice, and restoring the connection of the first terminal on the second slice according to the context of the first terminal on the second slice and/or the connection between the first terminal and a core network unit on the second slice.

According to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the first notification message and the second notification message are any one of a paging message, a handover message, a radio resource control, RRC, connection release message, or an RRC reconfiguration message.

the second network unit receives user data sent by a core network unit, wherein the user data is data sent to the first terminal on the second slice;

the second network element forwards the user data to the first network element.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, before sending the second notification message, the method further comprises:

in case the first terminal reselects or hands over from the second network element to a first network element, the context of the first terminal in a second slice is preserved, and/or the connection between the first terminal and a core network element in the second slice is preserved.

receiving first information sent by the first network unit, wherein the first information comprises: at least one of a terminal identification of the first terminal, a slice identification of the second slice, and an identification of the second network element.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication method applied to a first network element, including:

a first network unit receives a second notification message sent to a first terminal on a second slice sent by a core network unit or a second network unit, wherein the first terminal is currently accessed to the first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the first slice;

and the first network unit forwards the second notification message to the first terminal according to the second notification message.

According to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the second notification message is any one of a paging message, a handover message, a radio resource control, RRC, connection release message, or an RRC reconfiguration message.

and the first network unit sends configuration information of a second slice to the first terminal, wherein the configuration information of the second slice comprises at least one of a target frequency point, a target cell ID and a random access resource of the second slice.

the first network unit receives user data sent by a core network unit or a second network unit, wherein the user data is data sent to a first terminal on the second slice;

the first network element forwards the user data to the first terminal.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, before receiving the second notification message, the method further comprises:

receiving first information sent by the first terminal in case of reselection or handover from the second network element to the first network element;

sending the first information to a core network unit or a second network unit;

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first terminal comprising:

a first receiving module, configured to receive a notification message on a second slice sent by the first network unit, where the second slice is the same as or different from a first slice of the first network unit currently accessed by the first terminal;

a response module for initiating access to a second slice of a target network element, the target network element being different from the first network element, in response to the notification message.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first terminal comprising a transceiver and a processor, wherein,

the transceiver is configured to receive a notification message sent by the first network element on a second slice, where the second slice is the same as or different from a first slice in which the first terminal currently accesses the first network element;

the processor is configured to initiate access to a second slice of a target network element, the target network element being different from the first network element in response to the notification message.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first terminal comprising: a processor, a memory and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which program, when executed by the processor, carries out the steps of the communication method as described above.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a second network element comprising:

a resident first receiving module, configured to receive a first notification message sent by a core network unit and sent to a first terminal on a second slice, where the first terminal is currently accessed to a first network unit and resides in a first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the second slice;

and the first sending module is used for sending a second notification message which is sent to the first terminal on the second slice to the first network unit according to the first notification message.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a second network element comprising a transceiver and a processor, wherein,

the resident transceiver is configured to receive a first notification message sent to a first terminal on a second slice sent by a core network unit, where the first terminal is currently accessed to a first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the second slice;

and the processor is configured to send, to the first network unit, a second notification message that is sent to the first terminal on the second slice according to the first notification message.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a second network element comprising: a processor, a memory and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which program, when executed by the processor, carries out the steps of the communication method as described above.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a first network element comprising:

a first receiving module, configured to receive a second notification message sent to a first terminal on a second slice sent by a core network unit or a second network unit, where the first terminal currently accesses the first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice resides the same as or different from the first slice;

and the forwarding module is used for forwarding the second notification message to the first terminal according to the second notification message.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a first network element comprising a transceiver and a processor, wherein,

the transceiver is configured to receive a second notification message sent to the first terminal on a second slice sent by a core network unit or a second network unit, where the first terminal is currently accessed to the first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the first slice;

and the processor is configured to forward the second notification message to the first terminal according to the second notification message.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a first network element comprising: a processor, a memory and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which program, when executed by the processor, carries out the steps of the communication method as described above.

According to another aspect of the invention, at least one embodiment provides a computer readable storage medium having a program stored thereon, which when executed by a processor, performs the steps of the method as described above.

Compared with the prior art, the communication method, the terminal, the network unit and the computer-readable storage medium provided by the embodiment of the invention can realize that the terminal residing on the first slice can receive the information on the second slice, and can access the network on the second slice according to the received information, thereby solving the problem that the information sent to the terminal on the original slice after the terminal accesses the new slice is unreachable.

Drawings

Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Also, like reference numerals are used to refer to like parts throughout the drawings. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a flowchart of a communication method applied to a terminal side according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention applied to a second network element;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention applied to a first network element;

FIGS. 4-7 are exemplary diagrams of interaction procedures of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a first terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

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

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a second network unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a second network unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a first network unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is another schematic structural diagram of the first network unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the invention can be embodied in various forms and should not be limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

The terms first, second and the like in the description and in the claims of the present application are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used is interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the application described herein are, for example, capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. In the description and in the claims "and/or" means at least one of the connected objects.

The techniques described herein are not limited to NR systems and Long Time Evolution (LTE)/LTE Evolution (LTE-a) systems, and may also be used for various wireless communication systems, such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably. CDMA systems may implement Radio technologies such as CDMA2000, Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), and so on. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA) and other CDMA variants. TDMA systems may implement radio technologies such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). The OFDMA system may implement radio technologies such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), evolved-UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.21(Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16(WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are parts of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). LTE and higher LTE (e.g., LTE-A) are new UMTS releases that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE-A, and GSM are described in documents from an organization named "third Generation Partnership Project" (3 GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named "third generation partnership project 2" (3GPP 2). The techniques described herein may be used for both the above-mentioned systems and radio technologies, as well as for other systems and radio technologies. However, the following description describes the NR system for purposes of example, and NR terminology is used in much of the description below, although the techniques may also be applied to applications other than NR system applications.

The following description provides examples and does not limit the scope, applicability, or configuration set forth in the claims. Changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements discussed without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Various examples may omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate. For example, the described methods may be performed in an order different than described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. In addition, features described with reference to certain examples may be combined in other examples.

After the slicing technology is introduced, a common application scenario is as follows: a certain terminal originally resides in base station/cell B, and base station/cell B only supports slice 2 and does not support slice 1, at this time, the terminal needs to initiate a service on slice 1. For the above application scenario, the solution of the prior art is that a terminal accesses to a base station/cell a supporting slice 1, so as to initiate a service on slice 1 through the base station/cell a. When a terminal accesses base station/cell a, the context of the terminal in base station/cell B and the connection with the core network on slice 2 are released, which results in that the data or page sent by slice 2 to the terminal is not reachable.

To solve at least one of the above problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a communication method, as shown in fig. 1, when applied to a first terminal, including:

step 11, the first terminal receives a notification message on a second slice sent by the first network unit, where the second slice is the same as or different from the first slice of the first terminal currently accessing the first network unit.

Here, the first terminal resides on a second network element, different from the first network element, on a second slice before reselecting or handing over to the first network element. The first network element/second network element may specifically be a base station or a cell. Assuming that the first terminal is currently accessed to the first network unit and resides in the first slice, the first network unit forwards the notification message sent to the first terminal in the second slice to the first terminal, so that the first terminal can still receive the message in the second slice while residing in the first slice.

Whether two slices are the same or different can be generally determined based on the slice ID, and if the slice ID of two slices is the same, the two slices are considered to be the same, whereas if the slice ID is different, the two slices are considered to be different.

Specifically, the notification message may be any one of the following messages: a paging message, a handover message, a Radio Resource Control (RRC) release message, or an RRC reconfiguration message.

And step 12, the first terminal initiates access to the second slice of the target network unit, and responds to the notification message, wherein the target network unit is different from the first network unit.

Here, after receiving the notification message in step 11, the first terminal may initiate access to a second slice of the target network element (e.g., a second network element), switch or reselect to the target network element, and access to the target network element on the second slice, so that the first terminal may respond to the notification message on the second slice.

Through the above steps, the embodiment of the present invention can implement that the terminal residing on the first slice can receive the information on the second slice, and can access the target network unit on the second slice according to the received information, thereby solving the problem that the information sent to the terminal on the original slice after the terminal accesses the new network unit or the slice is unreachable, and implementing that the terminal residing on the first slice can receive the information on the second slice, and can access the network on the second slice according to the received information.

In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the first terminal camps on or accesses the second network element on the second slice before camping on the first slice. The first terminal may then reselect or handover from the second network element to the first network element, at which point the first terminal may send the first information to the first network element and retain the context of the first terminal in the second slice.

Here, the first information may include: at least one of a terminal identification of the first terminal, a slice identification of the second slice, and an identification of the second network element. The context of the first terminal in the second slice may generally include one or more of terminal capabilities, frequency points of the second slice, cell IDs, and random access resources.

In the above step 12, the first terminal may access to the target network element on the second slice according to the context of the second slice that is locally reserved. For example, the second network unit is re-accessed to the second slice according to the information such as the frequency point, the cell ID, and the random access resource in the context.

The first terminal may move out of the coverage of the second network element, taking into account the mobility of the terminal itself. In the method of the embodiment of the present invention, when sending the notification message to the first terminal, the first network unit may further send, to the second terminal, configuration information of a second slice that can currently provide a service for the second terminal according to location information of the second terminal, where the configuration information may specifically include at least one of a target frequency point, a target cell ID, and a random access resource of the second slice. In this way, the first terminal may receive the configuration information of the second slice sent by the first network unit, where the configuration information may be sent to the first terminal together with the notification message in step 11, or may be sent separately, and may be sending the configuration information first and then sending the notification message, or sending the notification message first and then sending the configuration information, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Then, in step 12, access is performed according to the configuration information and the context of the locally reserved second slice. Specifically, the method comprises the following steps:

1) and when the configuration information of the second slice is matched with the context of the second slice, accessing a second network unit supporting the second slice according to the context of the second slice, wherein the second network unit is determined according to the context of the second slice and supports the network unit of the second slice.

2) And when the configuration information of the second slice is not matched with the context of the second slice, reselecting or switching to a third network unit according to the configuration information of the second slice, accessing to the third network unit supporting the second slice, wherein the third network unit is determined according to the configuration information and supports the network unit of the second slice.

According to at least one embodiment of the invention, the first network element may also send data addressed to the first terminal on the second slice directly to the first terminal without the first terminal residing on the second slice. For example, when there is a small amount of user data to be sent to the first terminal in the second slice, the first network element may receive the user data forwarded by the second network element and continue forwarding to the first terminal. At this point, the first terminal may receive the user data forwarded by the first network element without reselecting or switching to a network element supporting the second slice.

As can be seen from the foregoing, the first terminal in the embodiment of the present invention originally accesses the second network unit and resides on the second slice, and when the first terminal needs to initiate a service on the first slice, the first terminal may access the first network unit on the first slice through a cell reselection or handover process, and initiate a service on the first slice. Furthermore, after the service is finished, after the state of the first terminal on the first slice is converted into the idle state or the inactive state, the first terminal may access to the second network unit or a fourth network unit (assuming that the first terminal has moved out of the coverage of the second network unit) on the second slice through a cell reselection process according to the reserved context information of the second slice, where the fourth network unit is a network unit supporting the second slice.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above from the terminal side, and the following description will be made from the network element side.

Referring to fig. 2, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention, when applied to a second network element, includes:

step 21, a second network unit receives a first notification message sent to a first terminal on a second slice sent by a core network unit, where the first terminal is currently accessed to the first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the second slice.

Here, the second network unit receives a first notification message sent by the core network, where the first notification message is a notification message sent to the first terminal on the second slice, and specifically, the first notification message may be any one of a paging message, a handover message, an RRC connection release message, and an RRC reconfiguration message.

And step 22, the second network unit sends a second notification message sent to the first terminal on the second slice to the first network unit according to the first notification message.

Here, after receiving the first notification message, since the first terminal is currently accessed by the first network unit and resides on the first slice, the second network unit sends a second notification message to the first terminal, where the second notification message may be any one of a paging message, a handover message, an RRC connection release message, and an RRC reconfiguration message. Specifically, the notification content included in the second notification message may be the same as the notification content included in the first notification message. For example, when the first notification message is a paging message for the first terminal on the second slice, the second notification message may be a paging message indicating that a paging message for the first terminal arrives on the second slice.

Through the steps, the embodiment of the invention can still provide the information on the second slice for the terminal when the first terminal resides on the first slice, thereby avoiding the problem that the information sent to the terminal on the original slice after the terminal accesses the new slice is unreachable.

After step 22, the second network unit may further respond to an access procedure initiated by the first terminal on the second slice, and resume the connection of the first terminal on the second slice according to the context of the first terminal on the second slice and/or the connection between the first terminal and the core network unit on the second slice.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, when the first terminal resides on the first slice, the forwarding processing of the user data on the second slice is still provided for the first terminal, and at this time, the second network unit may receive the user data sent by the core network unit, where the user data is the data sent to the first terminal on the second slice; the second network element then forwards the user data to the first network element. The first network element then forwards the user data to the first terminal.

Further, before the forwarding processing of the notification message or the user data is performed, in a case that the first terminal reselects or is handed over from the second network element to the first network element, the second network element continues to reserve the context of the first terminal in the second slice, and/or reserve the connection between the first terminal and the core network element in the second slice, so as to facilitate subsequent fast recovery of the connection of the first terminal in the second slice. After the first terminal accesses the first network element, the first network element may send the information related to the current access of the first terminal to the second network element, and at this time, the second network element may receive the first information sent by the first network element, where the first information includes: at least one of a terminal identification of the first terminal, a slice identification of the second slice, and an identification of the second network element. In this way, the second network unit may forward, when receiving the user data or the notification message sent to the first terminal on the second slice, the user data and the notification message to the corresponding first network unit according to the first information.

Referring to fig. 3, a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention, when applied to a first network element, includes:

step 31, the first network unit receives a second notification message sent to the first terminal on a second slice sent by the core network unit or the second network unit, wherein the first terminal is currently accessed to the first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the first slice.

Here, the first network element may receive a second notification message from the core network or the second network element, where the second notification message is a notification message sent to the first terminal on the second slice, and specifically may be any one of a paging message, a handover message, an RRC connection release message, and an RRC reconfiguration message.

Step 32, the first network element forwards the second notification message to the first terminal according to the second notification message.

Here, the first network unit forwards the second notification message to the first terminal after receiving the second notification message, so that when the first terminal resides on the first slice, the information on the second slice can still be provided for the terminal, and the problem that the information sent to the terminal on the original slice after the terminal accesses a new slice is unreachable is avoided.

In addition, in order to facilitate the first terminal to camp on the second slice and respond to the second notification message, the first network unit may further send configuration information of the second slice to the first terminal, where the configuration information of the second slice includes at least one of a target frequency point, a target cell ID, and a random access resource of the second slice. For example, the first network unit may determine information such as a base station/cell that can serve the first terminal and support the second slice according to the current location information of the first terminal, and then transmit the information to the first terminal as configuration information of the second slice.

According to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the first network unit may further receive user data sent by a core network unit or a second network unit, where the user data is data sent to the first terminal on the second slice; then, the first network unit forwards the user data to the first terminal, so that the user data on the second slice can be received without accessing the first terminal to the second slice, and the receiving processing of the first terminal on the user data on other slices is simplified.

In addition, before the step 31, when the first terminal reselects or hands over from the second network element to the first network element, the first network element may receive first information sent by the first terminal, where the first information includes: at least one of a terminal identification of the first terminal, a slice identification of the second slice, and an identification of the second network element. Then, the first network unit may send the first information to the core network unit or the second network unit, so that the core network or the second network unit may forward the relevant information of the first terminal on the second slice to the first network unit when subsequently receiving the relevant information.

The communication method according to the embodiment of the present invention has been described above from the terminal and the network element side, respectively. In order to facilitate understanding of the above method, the communication method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be further described below by combining several specific examples through an interaction flow between devices.

In the following examples, the base station may be various base station devices in the prior art, and may also be a cell or a network access device. The terminal can be various mobile phones (such as smart phones), and can also be an internet of vehicles terminal, an internet of things terminal, a relay node and the like. Here, assume that base station a supports slice 1; base station B supports slice 2, or base station B may support both slice 1 and slice 2; the terminal then supports slice 1 and slice 2. The base station a and the base station B correspond to the first network element and the second network element in the above, respectively, and the slice 1 and the slice 2 correspond to the first slice and the second slice in the above, respectively. The base stations in the following examples may also be replaced with cells.

Example 1:

the terminal resides in the base station B and resides on the slice 2, and when the terminal wants to initiate a service on the slice 1, the terminal accesses the base station a and resides on the slice 1, but the terminal does not delete the context on the slice 2 at this time, and the base station B does not delete the context of the terminal on the slice 2 and the connection between the terminal on the slice 2 and the core network.

As shown in fig. 4, the main flow of this example includes:

401. and after the terminal accesses the base station A and resides in the slice 1, reporting at least one of the ID of the original base station B and the slice ID of the slice 2 to the base station A.

402. Base station a transmits at least one of the terminal ID, the ID of slice 2, and the ID of base station a to base station B.

403. And the base station B receives the notification message of the terminal on the slice 2 or the user data of the terminal sent by the core network.

Here, when the terminal is in an IDLE (IDLE) state, the base station B receives a notification message, such as a paging message. When the terminal is in an INACTIVE (INACTIVE) state, the base station B receives downlink data of the terminal.

404. And the base station B sends a notification message to the base station A to notify the terminal that the notification message exists on the slice 2. The notification message may be a handover message, or a paging message, or other RRC message, for handing over the terminal to another base station or cell. Or the base station B informs the base station A that the user data of the terminal arrives, and the data is sent to the base station A by the base station B and then forwarded to the terminal.

405. The base station a sends a notification message to the terminal, where the notification message may be a handover message, that is, a notification message notifying the terminal to handover from the base station a to another base station, where the other base station may be a base station B or another base station. The notification message may also be a connection release message for the terminal to reselect or redirect or connect to another base station or cell. Or the base station a forwards the user data to the terminal.

406. The terminal reselects or switches to base station B and camps on slice 2, responding to a notification message of the core network on slice 2, such as responding to a page.

In the procedure of example 1, in step 401, the terminal reports to the base station a at least one of the following information: ID of base station B, ID of slice 2. The above information is used to indicate to the network side (base station a) that context information of the terminal on slice 2 is stored in base station B. The notification message sent by the base station in step 405 may include at least one of the following information: a third base station ID, a third slice ID and a third frequency point. The information is used for the terminal to access a third frequency point, a third base station or a second slice, so as to obtain service. The third base station may be base station B or another base station that is not base station B. The third slice may or may not be slice 2. When the network calls the terminal, the terminal may have left the coverage of the original base station B, and the network side may instruct another base station (not base station B) that lets the terminal support slice 2. Of course, the third base station may also be base station B if the terminal is not moving.

The notification message in step 405 may be a handover message, which is used to handover the terminal from the base station a to the base station B; or may be a paging message, which is used to notify the terminal of receiving a page on the third slice; or the RRC release message may carry a slice ID or a base station/cell ID, and the terminal reselects the base station/cell/slice after receiving the RRC release message.

If the notification message in step 405 is a handover message, in step 406 in fig. 4, after receiving the handover message, the terminal switches to the third base station and accesses the third slice of the third cell. It can be seen that the role of the handover message is to handover the terminal from a base station supporting slice 1 to a base station supporting the third slice (slice 2).

If the notification message in step 405 is a paging message, the terminal performs cell reselection in step 406 in fig. 4, reselects to a third cell, and accesses to a third slice. It can be seen that the paging message serves to inform the terminal of the paging message from slice 2 or of paging messages from other network elements, so that the terminal reselects to a network element supporting the third slice (slice 2).

In the prior art, a terminal directly initiates access in a cell in which the terminal receives a page, but in the example 1, the terminal receives a page in a base station a supporting slice 1, and if slice 2 is indicated in a paging message, the terminal reselects the cell supporting slice 2 to respond to the page; or the paging message carries the frequency point or cell ID identification of the base station B, the terminal reselects the base station B, and the base station B responds to paging.

In addition, some steps of steps 401 to 405 of the above flow may not be executed, and there is no strict sequence between the other steps. For example, after step 402, there may or may not be step 403. For example, after a terminal accesses base station a, a paging message of the terminal does not necessarily reach base station B.

As can be seen from example 1, in the embodiment of the present invention, after the terminal accesses to the base station a or the cell a, the context of the terminal in the base station B or the cell B is not deleted. For example, the context of slice 2 for the terminal is still retained at base station B. However, in the prior art, after the terminal accesses or reselects to the base station a/cell a, the context of the base station B/cell B and the connection between the terminal and the core network on slice 2 are released.

In the application scenario that a terminal initiates a service of slice 1 in a cell a, but the cell a does not support slice 2, according to the prior art, the context of the slice 2 is released, and the terminal can no longer receive paging or data on the slice 2.

Example 2:

as shown in fig. 5, the main flow of this example includes:

501. and after the terminal accesses the base station A and resides in the slice 1, reporting at least one of the ID of the original base station B and the slice ID of the slice 2 to the base station A.

502. The base station a sends the terminal ID and/or the slice information of the terminal, which is the ID of the slice supported or requested by the terminal, e.g. the ID of slice 2, to the core network.

503. The core network sends a notification message or data to the base station a, wherein the notification message contains slice 2 information and/or a terminal ID, and is used for indicating that the terminal receives a page of slice 2. The data is the user data sent to the terminal on slice 2 by the network side.

504. And the base station A sends a notification message or data to the terminal, wherein the notification message comprises at least one of slice 2 information, a frequency point of the slice 2 and a cell, and is used for indicating the terminal to access the frequency point or the cell of the slice 2.

505. And the terminal reselects or switches to a frequency point or a cell supporting the slice 2, such as a base station B.

Example 3:

as shown in fig. 6, the main flow of this example includes:

601. and after the terminal accesses the base station A and resides in the slice 1, reporting at least one of the ID of the original base station B and the slice ID of the slice 2 to the base station A.

602. The base station a sends the terminal ID and/or the slice information of the terminal, which is the ID of the slice supported or requested by the terminal, e.g. the ID of slice 2, to the core network.

603. The core network node a sends the terminal ID and/or the slice information of the terminal to the core network node B.

604. And the core network node B sends a notification message or data to the core network node A, wherein the notification message comprises a terminal ID and/or slice information and is used for indicating the terminal to receive the message on the slice. The data is the user data sent to the terminal on slice 2 by the network side.

605. The core network node A sends a notification message or data to the base station A, wherein the notification message contains slice 2 information and/or a terminal ID and is used for indicating that the terminal receives the slice 2 message.

606. And the base station A sends a notification message or data to the terminal, wherein the notification message comprises the slice 2 information and/or the frequency point or cell of the slice 2 and is used for indicating the terminal to access the frequency point or cell of the slice 2.

607. And the terminal reselects or switches to a frequency point or a cell supporting the slice 2, such as a base station B.

Example 4:

in this example, assuming that when the terminal communicates with the base station/cell a, there is no paging message or data sent to the terminal on slice 2, as shown in fig. 7, the main flow of this example includes:

701. after the terminal accesses the base station A, at least one of the ID of the original base station B and the slice ID of the slice 2 is reported to the base station A.

702. Base station a transmits at least one of the terminal ID, the ID of slice 2, and the ID of base station a to base station B.

703. After returning to IDLE or INACTIVE state, the terminal reselects back to the original cell or other cells, such as the base station B.

Example 5:

the flow of this example 5 is similar to example 4, including:

s1, after a terminal accesses a base station A and resides in a slice 1, reporting at least one of an ID of an original base station B and a slice ID of a slice 2 to the base station A.

And S2, the base station A sends at least one of the terminal ID, the ID of the slice 2 and the ID of the base station A to the base station B.

And S3, after returning to an IDLE state or an INACTIVE state, the terminal reselects back to the original cell or other cells, wherein the original cell or other cells support the slice 2.

In example 4 and example 5 above, the terminal may initiate traffic for slice 1 at base station a and quickly return to slice 2 after the traffic ends.

Various methods of embodiments of the present invention have been described above. An apparatus for carrying out the above method is further provided below.

Referring to fig. 8, an embodiment of the present invention provides a first terminal 80, including:

a first receiving module 81, configured to receive a notification message sent by the first network unit on a second slice, where the second slice is the same as or different from a first slice in which the first terminal currently accesses the first network unit;

a response module 82, configured to initiate access to a second slice of a target network element, the target network element being different from the first network element in response to the notification message.

Optionally, the response module is further configured to access to a second network element on the second slice according to a locally reserved context of the second slice.

Optionally, the first terminal further includes:

a second receiving module, configured to receive configuration information of a second slice sent by the first network unit;

the response module is further configured to:

Optionally, the configuration information of the second slice includes at least one of a target frequency point, a target cell ID, and a random access resource of the second slice.

Optionally, the first terminal further includes:

a third receiving module, configured to receive user data forwarded by the first network unit, where the user data is data sent to the first terminal on the second slice.

Optionally, the first terminal further includes:

an access control module configured to camp on or access a second network element before receiving the notification message on the second slice; and, in case of a reselection or handover from the second network element to a first network element, sending first information to the first network element and preserving the context of the first terminal in a second slice;

Optionally, the access control module is further configured to access to the first network element on the first slice through a cell reselection or handover process when a service needs to be initiated on the first slice, and initiate the service on the first slice.

Optionally, the access control module is further configured to access the second network unit or a fourth network unit on the second slice through a cell reselection process according to the reserved context information of the second slice after the state of the first slice is converted into an idle state or an inactive state, where the fourth network unit is a network unit supporting the second slice.

Optionally, the notification message is one of the following: paging messages, handover messages, radio resource control, RRC, release messages or RRC reconfiguration messages.

Referring to fig. 9, a schematic structural diagram of a first terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided, where the terminal 900 includes: a processor 901, a transceiver 902, a memory 903, a user interface 904, and a bus interface.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the first terminal 900 further includes: a program stored on the memory 903 and operable on the processor 901.

The processor 901 implements the following steps when executing the program:

receiving a notification message on a second slice sent by the first network unit, wherein the second slice is the same as or different from a first slice of the first terminal currently accessing the first network unit;

initiating access to a second slice of target network elements, the target network elements being different from the first network elements in response to the notification message.

It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, when being executed by the processor 901, the computer program can implement each process of the communication method embodiment shown in fig. 1, and can achieve the same technical effect, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

In fig. 9, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with one or more processors represented by processor 901 and various circuits of memory represented by memory 903 being linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 902 may be a number of elements including a transmitter and a receiver that provide a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. For different user devices, the user interface 904 may also be an interface capable of interfacing with a desired device externally, including but not limited to a keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick, etc.

The processor 901 is responsible for managing a bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 903 may store data used by the processor 901 in performing operations.

In some embodiments of the invention, there is also provided a computer readable storage medium having a program stored thereon, which when executed by a processor, performs the steps of:

When executed by the processor, the program can implement all the implementation manners of the communication method applied to the first terminal side, and can achieve the same technical effect, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a second network unit 100 shown in fig. 10, including:

a first receiving module 101, configured to receive a first notification message sent by a core network unit and sent to a first terminal on a second slice, where the first terminal is currently accessed to a first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice reside the same or different;

a first sending module 102, configured to send, to the first network unit, a second notification message sent to the first terminal on the second slice according to the first notification message.

Optionally, the second network unit further includes:

and a response module, configured to respond to an access procedure initiated by the first terminal on the second slice after the second notification message is sent, and restore a connection of the first terminal on the second slice according to a context of the first terminal on the second slice and/or a connection between the first terminal and a core network unit on the second slice.

Optionally, the first notification message and the second notification message are any one of a paging message, a handover message, a radio resource control, RRC, connection release message, or an RRC reconfiguration message.

Optionally, the second network unit further includes:

a data forwarding module, configured to receive user data sent by a core network unit, where the user data is data sent to a first terminal on the second slice; forwarding the user data to the first network element.

Optionally, the second network unit further includes:

an access control module, configured to, before sending the second notification message, reserve a context of the first terminal in the second slice and/or reserve a connection between the first terminal and a core network unit on the second slice in a case where the first terminal reselects or is handed over from the second network unit to the first network unit.

Optionally, the second network unit further includes:

a second receiving module, configured to receive first information sent by the first network unit, where the first information includes: at least one of a terminal identification of the first terminal, a slice identification of the second slice, and an identification of the second network element.

Referring to fig. 11, an embodiment of the present invention provides a structural diagram of a second network unit 1100, including: a processor 1101, a transceiver 1102, a memory 1103, and a bus interface, wherein:

in this embodiment of the present invention, the second network unit 1100 further includes: a program stored on the memory 1103 and executable on the processor 1101, the program when executed by the processor 1101 performing the steps of:

receiving a first notification message sent to a first terminal on a second slice sent by a core network unit, wherein the first terminal is currently accessed to the first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the second slice;

and sending a second notification message which is sent to the first terminal on the second slice to the first network unit according to the first notification message.

It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, when being executed by the processor 1101, the computer program can implement each process of the communication method embodiment shown in fig. 2, and can achieve the same technical effect, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

In fig. 11, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with one or more processors, represented by processor 1101, and various circuits, represented by memory 1103, linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 1102 may be a plurality of elements including a transmitter and a receiver that provide a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium.

The processor 1101 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1103 may store data used by the processor 1101 in performing operations.

The resident program, when executed by the processor, can implement all the implementation manners of the communication method applied to the second network element, and can achieve the same technical effect, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a first network unit 120 shown in fig. 12, including:

a first receiving module 121, configured to receive a second notification message sent to a first terminal on a second slice sent by a core network unit or a second network unit, where the first terminal currently accesses the first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the first slice;

a forwarding module 122, configured to forward the second notification message to the first terminal according to the second notification message.

Optionally, the second notification message is any one of a paging message, a handover message, a radio resource control, RRC, connection release message, or an RRC reconfiguration message.

Optionally, the first network unit further includes:

and a configuration sending module, configured to send configuration information of a second slice to the first terminal, where the configuration information of the second slice includes at least one of a target frequency point, a target cell ID, and a random access resource of the second slice.

Optionally, the first network unit further includes:

a data forwarding module, configured to receive user data sent by a core network unit or a second network unit, where the user data is data sent to a first terminal on the second slice; and forwarding the user data to the first terminal.

Optionally, the first network unit further includes:

a second receiving module, configured to receive, before receiving the second notification message, first information sent by the first terminal in a case of reselection from the second network element or handover to the first network element;

a sending module, configured to send the first information to a core network unit or a second network unit;

Referring to fig. 13, an embodiment of the present invention provides a structural diagram of a first network unit 1300, including: a processor 1301, a transceiver 1302, a memory 1303 and a bus interface, wherein:

in this embodiment of the present invention, the first network element 1300 further includes: a program stored on the memory 1303 and executable on the processor 1301, the program, when executed by the processor 1301, performing the steps of:

receiving a second notification message sent to a first terminal on a second slice sent by a core network unit or a second network unit, wherein the first terminal is currently accessed to the first network unit and resides in the first slice, and the second slice is the same as or different from the first slice;

and forwarding the second notification message to the first terminal according to the second notification message.

It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, when being executed by the processor 1301, the computer program can implement each process of the communication method embodiment shown in fig. 3, and can achieve the same technical effect, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

In fig. 13, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with one or more processors represented by processor 1301 and various circuits of memory represented by memory 1303 linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 1302 may be a plurality of elements including a transmitter and a receiver that provide a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium.

The processor 1301 is responsible for managing a bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1303 may store data used by the processor 1301 in performing operations.

When executed by the processor, the program can implement all the implementation manners of the communication method applied to the first network element, and can achieve the same technical effect, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

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

In the 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 apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection 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 or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment of the present invention.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention 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 functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

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

Claims

1. A communication method applied to a first terminal is characterized by comprising the following steps:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of the first terminal initiating access to a second slice of a second network element comprises:

3. The method of claim 1,

prior to the step of initiating access to the second slice of the second network element, the method further comprises: the first terminal receives configuration information of a second slice sent by the first network unit;

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the configuration information of the second slice comprises at least one of a target frequency point, a target cell ID and a random access resource of the second slice.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5,

prior to receiving the notification message on the second slice, the method further comprises:

the first terminal resides in or accesses a second network unit;

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of reselecting or handing over from the second network element to the first network element comprises:

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the notification message is one of: paging messages, handover messages, radio resource control, RRC, release messages or RRC reconfiguration messages.

10. A communication method applied to a second network element, comprising:

11. The method of claim 10, wherein after sending the second notification message, the method further comprises:

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first notification message and the second notification message are any one of a paging message, a handover message, a radio resource control, RRC, connection release message, or an RRC reconfiguration message.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

the second network element forwards the user data to the first network element.

14. The method of any of claims 10 to 13, wherein prior to sending the second notification message, the method further comprises:

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

16. A communication method applied to a first network element, comprising:

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second notification message is any one of a paging message, a handover message, a radio resource control, RRC, connection release message, or an RRC reconfiguration message.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

the first network element forwards the user data to the first terminal.

20. The method of any one of claims 16 to 19,

prior to receiving the second notification message, the method further comprises:

sending the first information to a core network unit or a second network unit;

21. A first terminal, comprising:

22. A first terminal comprising a transceiver and a processor, wherein,

23. A first terminal, comprising: processor, memory and program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which when executed by the processor implements the steps of the communication method according to any of claims 1 to 9.

24. A second network element, comprising:

25. A second network element comprising a transceiver and a processor, wherein,

26. A second network element, comprising: processor, memory and program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which when executed by the processor implements the steps of the communication method according to any of claims 10 to 15.

27. A first network element, comprising:

28. A first network element comprising a transceiver and a processor, wherein,

29. A first network element, comprising: processor, memory and program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which when executed by the processor implements the steps of the communication method according to any of claims 16 to 20.

30. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a computer program is stored on the computer-readable storage medium, which computer program, when being executed by a processor, carries out the steps of the communication method according to one of claims 1 to 20.