CN113133133B

CN113133133B - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN113133133B
Application number: CN201911398766.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐海博; 王君; 彭文杰; 王键
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-30
Filing date: 2019-12-30
Publication date: 2022-11-11
Anticipated expiration: 2039-12-30
Also published as: CN113133133A

Abstract

The application discloses a communication method and a communication device, which are used for solving the problem of how to acquire sending resources for sending access stratum information of UE. The method comprises the steps that the terminal equipment is in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) idle state or an RRC deactivation state, under the condition that an application layer of the first terminal equipment is configured to receive data and the application layer is not configured to send the data, if it is determined that access layer information needs to be sent through a sidelink and system information of resident cell broadcast does not include a sending resource pool of the sidelink, the terminal equipment initiates an RRC connection establishment flow; therefore, the terminal device enters a connected state, and further, the terminal device can request a sending resource for sending the access stratum information from the network device, and then send the access stratum information by using the sending resource requested.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus.

Background

In a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system or a New Radio (NR) system, a communication interface between a User Equipment (UE) and a base station is called a Uu port. The communication interface between the UE and the UE is called PC5 port. The link between the UE on the PC5 port and the UE for transmitting data may be referred to as a Sidelink (Sidelink).

In one-to-one unicast communication between a UE and the UE, the UE may need to transmit Access Stratum (AS) information in addition to transmitting application layer generated data through the PC5 port. For transmitting the AS layer information, when the UE moves from one cell to the coverage of another cell, how to obtain the transmission resource of the another cell for transmitting the access layer information of the UE needs to be studied.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and device, which are used for solving the problem of how to acquire transmission resources for transmitting access stratum information of UE when the UE moves from one cell to the coverage area of another cell.

In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a first terminal device, or may be performed by a component (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system) of the first terminal device. The following description will be given taking the execution subject as the first terminal device as an example. The first terminal equipment determines that access layer information needs to be sent to the second terminal equipment through a side link; wherein the first terminal device is in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) idle state or in an RRC deactivated state. If the system information of the cell broadcast in which the first terminal device resides does not include a transmission resource pool of a sidelink (the transmission resource pool includes a transmission resource capable of being used for transmitting access stratum information), the first terminal device initiates an RRC connection establishment procedure. The RRC connection is used for the first terminal device to obtain a sending resource for sending the access stratum information to the network side, that is, the first terminal device enters an RRC connection state after initiating an RRC connection establishment procedure, so that the first terminal device can request the network device for sending the sending resource of the application stratum information. The method can enable the terminal equipment to acquire the special resource to send the message or the data of the AS layer, thereby better ensuring the quality of service (QoS) of the service.

The first terminal device may execute the scheme in the first aspect when the application layer has only the capability of receiving data. Of course, the first terminal device may also execute the scheme in the first aspect when the application layer has a capability of receiving data and a capability of sending data, which is not limited herein.

In a possible design, if the system information broadcasted by the cell where the first terminal device resides does not include the transmission resource pool of the sidelink, the first terminal device initiates the RRC connection establishment procedure, which may be implemented in the following manner:

when determining that the system information broadcasted by the cell where the first terminal device resides does not include a resource pool for transmitting a sidelink, an RRC layer entity of the first terminal device transmits a first indication to a non-access layer entity, wherein the first indication is used for requesting to initiate an RRC connection establishment flow; further, the non-access stratum entity of the first terminal device triggers the RRC layer entity to initiate an RRC connection establishment procedure according to the first indication. Specifically, after receiving the first indication, the non-access layer of the first terminal device may send a notification to the RRC layer entity, and then the RRC layer entity initiates an RRC connection establishment procedure according to the notification.

In one possible design, the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device sends the first indication to the non-access stratum entity, and specifically, the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device may send the first indication to the non-access stratum entity through the RRC layer entity when it is determined that the capability of sending information through the sidelink is available. Thus, the non-access stratum entity triggers the RRC layer entity to initiate the RRC connection establishment process according to the first indication.

In one possible design, the determining, by the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device, that the capability of sending information via the sidelink may be implemented as follows: the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the information can be sent through the side link according to the configuration information; or, the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device receives a second indication sent by an upper layer entity of the RRC layer entity, where the second indication is used to indicate that information can be sent through the sidelink, or is used to indicate that the first terminal device and the second terminal device have established a communication connection of the sidelink.

In the design, the RRC entity is configured in advance by the upper layer and can send information through the sidelink, and when the access stratum information needs to be sent, the sending efficiency can be improved without requesting any more. The information sending capability through the sidelink is determined by adopting a mode of receiving the upper layer indication, the configuration information is not required to be stored, and the occupation of resources is reduced.

In one possible design, the determining, by the first terminal device, that access stratum information needs to be sent to the second terminal device over the sidelink includes: the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the signaling protocol connection of the sidelink is established between the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment.

In the above design, when it is determined that a signaling protocol connection of the established sidelink, such as a PC5-S connection, may next generate access stratum information, so as to initiate an RRC connection establishment procedure in advance, acquire a transmission resource, and improve data transmission efficiency.

In one possible design, the first terminal device determines that access stratum information needs to be sent to the second terminal device via the sidelink, which may be implemented as follows: an RRC layer entity of first terminal equipment determines that access layer information to be sent to second terminal equipment exists; or the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the RRC connection is established with the RRC layer entity of the second terminal equipment.

In the above design, when the RRC layer entity determines that the RRC connection is established with the RRC layer entity of the second terminal device, access stratum information may be generated next, so that an RRC connection establishment procedure is initiated in advance, a transmission resource is obtained, and data transmission efficiency can be improved.

In one possible design, the MAC layer entity of the first terminal device determines that there is access layer information to be sent to the second terminal device, and then determines that the access layer information needs to be sent to the second terminal device through the sidelink.

In a possible design, the method provided in this embodiment of the present application may further include: before the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment sends a first instruction to the non-access layer entity, a first notice from the MAC layer entity of the first terminal equipment is received, and the first notice is used for informing that the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal equipment exists on the MAC layer entity.

In a possible design, when the MAC layer entity of the first terminal device sends the notification to the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device, the second notification may be sent to the RRC layer entity when, but not limited to, the MAC layer entity does not receive an indication of receiving a sidelink grant configured by the RRC layer entity for the dynamic scheduling, the MAC layer entity does not configure a sending resource for sending the access layer information, and the MAC layer entity does not receive a configuration grant class.

In one possible design, the method may further include: the MAC layer entity of the first terminal equipment sends a second notification to the upper layer of the RRC layer entity, wherein the second notification is used for notifying that access layer information to be sent to the second terminal equipment exists on the MAC layer entity; before the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment sends the first indication to the non-access stratum entity, a third indication from an upper layer of the RRC layer entity is received, and the third indication is used for indicating that the RRC layer entity can send information through a sidelink.

In one possible design, the method may further include: when the system information broadcast by the cell in which the first terminal device resides includes a transmission resource pool, the first terminal device acquires access layer information to be transmitted to the second terminal device, and transmits the access layer information through the transmission resource included in the transmission resource pool.

In one possible design, the pool of transmission resources includes transmission resources for transmitting access stratum information. For example, the transmission resource pool is a resource pool for transmitting the access stratum information, (i.e., the transmission resources included in the transmission resource pool are used for transmitting the access stratum information). Another example of the transmission resource pool includes transmission resources for transmitting access stratum information and transmission resources for transmitting information other than the access stratum information.

In one possible design, the access stratum information referred to in the embodiments of the present application includes one or more of the following: RRC layer messages of the sidelink, reliable header compression feedback of the packet convergence protocol layer of the sidelink, radio link control layer RLC status report of the sidelink, or channel status information of the sidelink.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus, which may implement the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect. The device comprises corresponding units or means for performing the above-described method. The means comprising may be implemented by software and/or hardware means. The apparatus may be, for example, a terminal device, or a chip, a chip system, a processor, or the like that can support the terminal device to implement the method.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus, including: a processor coupled to a memory, the memory being configured to store a program or instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of the first aspect, or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable medium, on which a computer program or instructions are stored, and when the computer program or instructions are executed, the computer program or instructions cause a computer to perform the method described in the first aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, which includes computer program code, when the computer program code runs on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method described in the first aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip, including: a processor coupled to a memory, the memory being configured to store a program or instructions, which when executed by the processor, causes the chip to implement the method of the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

For technical effects that can be achieved by the second aspect to the sixth aspect, reference may be made to the above analysis description of the first aspect and each possible design in the first aspect, and details are not described here again.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an LTE D2D system protocol stack in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a control plane protocol stack of the NR V2X system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a user plane protocol stack of the NR V2X system in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary scenario in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of another exemplary scenario in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of an apparatus 800 according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus 900 according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic view of an apparatus 1000 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The embodiment of the application can be applied to an LTE system, an NR system or a future communication system (such as a 6G communication system). For example, as shown in fig. 1, a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application is shown, which includes a terminal device and a network device. Specifically, the terminal device and the network device may communicate, and the terminal device may communicate via a sidelink. For example, the communication interface between the terminal device and the network device may be a universal UE to network interface (Uu interface). Therefore, the communication between the terminal device and the network device may also be referred to as Uu port communication. Specifically, the Uu port communication includes uplink communication and downlink communication.

Sidelink communications in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as sidelink communications or sidelink communications. For example, the interface of the terminal device for sidelink communication in the embodiment of the present application may be referred to as a PC5 port. Resources used for sidelink communications may also be referred to as sidelink resources, and specifically include time domain resources and frequency domain resources.

The network equipment and the terminal equipment of the embodiment of the application can be deployed on land, including indoor or outdoor, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface; it may also be deployed in airborne airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc. The embodiment of the application does not limit the deployment scenes of the network equipment and the terminal equipment.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, communication between the network device and the terminal device and between the terminal device and the terminal device may be performed through a licensed spectrum (licensed spectrum), may also be performed through an unlicensed spectrum (unlicensed spectrum), and may also be performed through both a licensed spectrum and an unlicensed spectrum, which is not limited herein. The network device and the terminal device may communicate through a frequency spectrum smaller than 6 gigahertz (GHz), may communicate through a frequency spectrum greater than or equal to 6GHz, and may simultaneously communicate using a frequency spectrum smaller than 6GHz and a frequency spectrum greater than or equal to 6 GHz. That is, the present application is applicable to both low frequency scenarios (e.g., sub 6G) and high frequency scenarios (greater than or equal to 6G). The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used between the network device and the terminal device, and between the terminal device and the terminal device.

It should be understood that the network architecture of the communication system shown in fig. 1 is only an example, and does not limit the network architecture of the communication system in the embodiment of the present application. The number of network devices and the number of terminal devices in the communication system are not limited in the embodiments of the present application. For example, when a plurality of network devices are included in the communication system according to the embodiment of the present application, multipoint cooperative communication may be performed between the network devices and the network devices. For example, the communication system includes a plurality of macro base stations and a plurality of micro base stations, where the macro base stations and the macro base stations, the micro base stations and the micro base stations, and the macro base stations and the micro base stations may perform multi-point cooperative communication.

The method and the device are applied to the scene of side link communication, such as vehicle to X (V2X) communication, device to device (D2D) communication and the like.

In a one-to-one unicast transmission scenario between a terminal device and the terminal device, the terminal device may need to transmit Access Stratum (AS) information in addition to sending data generated by an application layer through a sidelink. For example, in the LTE D2D system, for unicast transmission, two terminal devices performing sidelink communication need to establish PC5-S (PC 5signaling protocol) connection. Thus, in unicast communication, the terminal device needs to send PC5-S signaling in addition to the application layer generated data. The protocol stack corresponding to the transmission of PC5-S signaling is shown in fig. 2. In fig. 2, each protocol layer includes, from top to bottom, a PC5-S layer, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and a physical layer (PHY) layer.

For another example, in the NR V2X system, two terminal devices performing sidelink communication need to establish a PC5-S connection for unicast transmission. Therefore, in unicast communication, the terminal device needs to transmit PC5-S signaling in addition to data generated by the application layer. In addition, a PC 5-Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection needs to be established between two terminal devices performing sidelink communication. In the NR V2X system, a control plane protocol stack for performing unicast communication is shown in fig. 3, and a user plane protocol stack is shown in fig. 4. The control plane protocol stack comprises an RRC layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer and a PHY layer from top to bottom. Each protocol layer of the user plane protocol stack includes, from top to bottom, a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, an MAC layer, and a PHY layer.

Illustratively, the access stratum information may include access stratum messages or data. The access stratum information may include one or more of the following:

1) PC5-RRC layer messages, such as a PC5 RRC connection reconfiguration message, a PC5 RRC connection reconfiguration complete message, or a PC5 RRC connection reconfiguration failure message, etc.

2) RLC status report (status report) of the sidelink. In unicast transmission, when an sidelink radio bearer supporting an RLC Acknowledged Mode (AM) is established between two terminal devices, the terminal device needs to transmit an RLC status report.

3) Signal status information (CSI) of the sidelink. The terminal device at the receiving end needs to feed back CSI of the sidelink to the terminal device at the transmitting end, and is used for determining a modulation and coding scheme used when the terminal device at the transmitting end transmits data.

4) Reliable Header Compression (ROCH) feedback for the PDCP layer of the sidelink. The terminal device at the receiving end needs to feed back the decompression result of the header compression of the header PDCP data packet to the terminal device at the transmitting end.

If the target terminal device moves from a cell to the coverage of another cell and the application layer of the target terminal device is configured to receive data sent by other terminal devices, at this time, the target terminal device may need to send access layer information to other terminals, so that other terminals can correctly send data to the application layer of the target terminal device according to the received access layer information. However, in this case, when the current target terminal device moves from one cell to another cell within the coverage area, it may not be able to send its own access stratum information to other terminals because the resource for sending the access stratum information has not been acquired yet, and thus communication failure may be caused.

Taking the first terminal device and the second terminal device as an example, unicast communication needs to be performed between the first terminal device and the second terminal device. When the application layer of the second terminal device supports receiving the data sent by the first terminal device, the application layer does not support sending the data to the first terminal device. In an exemplary scenario, referring to fig. 5, in order for UE2 to establish a unicast connection with UE1, UE2 needs to send a PC5-S message to UE 1. When UE2 and UE1 establish a unicast connection, UE2 may send the PC5-S message with the pre-configured transmission resource since UE2 is out of signal coverage (when no cell signal is searched). In the unicast communication process, the UE2 moves to the coverage of the cell 1, and the system message broadcasted by the cell 1 does not include a sending resource pool capable of being used for sending the access stratum information, so that the UE2 cannot search for a resource used for sending the access stratum information to the UE1 in the cell 1, and cannot send the access stratum information to the UE1, and further the UE1 cannot send data to the UE2, which causes communication failure. In another exemplary scenario, referring to fig. 6, in order for UE2 to establish a unicast connection with UE1, UE2 needs to send access stratum information to UE 1. In the unicast communication process of the UE2 and the UE1, the UE2 moves from the cell 1 to the coverage of the cell 2, and since the system message broadcasted by the cell 2 does not include a sending resource pool capable of sending the access stratum information, when the UE2 needs to send the access stratum information to the UE1, for example, send an RLC status report, the UE2 cannot acquire sending resources used for sending the access stratum information to the UE1, and further the UE1 cannot send data to the UE2, which causes a communication error.

Based on this, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus, which are used to acquire a transmission resource for transmitting access stratum information when a UE moves from one cell to the coverage of another cell.

Referring to fig. 7, a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to the embodiment of the present application is shown. The method may include S701 and S702.

S701, a first terminal device determines that access layer information needs to be sent to a second terminal device through a side link; the first terminal device is currently in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) idle state or in an RRC deactivated state.

S702, if the system information broadcasted by the cell where the first terminal device currently resides does not include the transmission resource pool of the sidelink, the first terminal device may initiate an RRC connection establishment procedure. And further acquiring a sending resource for sending the access stratum information in the RRC connection establishment process. Wherein the transmission resource pool comprises resources that can be used to transmit access stratum information.

It should be noted that, in an implementation scenario of the foregoing solution, the application layer of the first terminal device is configured with a capability of receiving data, which may be understood as that the application layer of the first terminal device is capable of receiving data from the second terminal device, but the application layer of the first terminal device is not configured with a capability of sending data to the second terminal device.

It should be understood that the system information broadcast by the cell in which the first terminal device resides may be system information related to sidelink communications, such as sidelink resources used for data transmission between terminals included in the system information broadcast by the cell.

When the first terminal device initiates the RRC connection establishment procedure, specifically, the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device may initiate the RRC connection establishment procedure. The access stratum information may be information generated by the RRC layer or may be information generated by the MAC layer. Illustratively, the system information broadcasted by the cell where the first terminal device resides does not include a transmission resource pool used by the first terminal for transmitting the access stratum information, which can be understood as that the carrier frequency where the first terminal device resides is the carrier frequency where the first terminal device performs the sidelink communication, but the system information broadcasted by the cell where the first terminal device resides does not include the transmission resource pool used by the first terminal for transmitting the access stratum information. Or it may be understood that the system information broadcasted by the cell in which the first terminal device currently resides includes a carrier frequency for the first terminal device to perform sidelink communication, but does not include a transmission resource pool used by the first terminal device to transmit the access stratum information.

By the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can trigger the RRC connection establishment process when the information or the data of the AS layer needs to be sent, enter the RRC connection state and request the network equipment for sending resources for transmitting the information or the data of the AS layer. In addition, the method can enable the terminal device to acquire the dedicated resource to send the message or data of the AS layer, thereby better ensuring the quality of service (QoS) of the service.

In a possible embodiment, the first terminal device determines that the access stratum information needs to be sent to the second terminal device through the sidelink, which may be implemented by, but is not limited to:

a first possible way: the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device determines that a signaling protocol connection of the sidelink is established between the first terminal device and the second terminal device, for example, the first terminal device and the second terminal device establish a PC5-S connection. The PC5-S connection is established between the two terminal devices, and if the two terminal devices are supposed to generate the access layer information, the first terminal device is determined to need to send the access layer information to the second terminal device through the side link.

A second possible way: the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device determines that an RRC connection, such as a PC5-RRC connection, has been established with the RRC entity of the second terminal device. The PC5-RRC connection is established between the two terminal devices, and if the two terminal devices need to send signaling through the PC5-RRC connection, it is determined that the first terminal device needs to send access stratum information to the second terminal device through the side link.

A third possible way: the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device determines that there is access stratum information, such as a PC5-RRC message, to be sent to the second terminal device.

A fourth possible way: and the MAC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal equipment exists.

In the following, a manner for acquiring a transmission resource for transmitting access stratum information in the embodiment of the present application is described in detail with reference to a specific embodiment, in view of the above-mentioned determination that access stratum information needs to be transmitted to a second terminal device through a sidelink. In addition, in the following examples, the first terminal device may each satisfy the following condition:

condition 1, a first terminal device is in an RRC idle state or in an RRC deactivated state;

and 2, the system information broadcasted by the cell where the first terminal equipment currently resides does not include the sending resource pool.

In a first possible embodiment, a first terminal device determines that a PC5-S connection has been established with a second terminal device, and if the first terminal device RRC layer entity determines that sidelink transmission is enabled and determines that conditions 1 and 2 are satisfied, the first terminal device RRC layer entity sends a first indication to a non-access stratum (NAS) entity, where the first indication is used to request initiation of an RRC connection establishment procedure. And the NAS entity triggers the RRC entity to initiate an RRC connection establishment flow according to the first indication. Illustratively, the NAS entity sends a notification to the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device according to the first indication, so as to notify the RRC entity to initiate the RRC establishment procedure, so that the RRC layer entity initiates the RRC connection establishment procedure according to the received notification.

The first terminal device RRC layer entity determines that sidelink transmission is possible, that is, the first terminal device RRC layer entity has the capability of transmitting information via the sidelink, in a manner that configuration information of the first terminal device RRC layer entity indicates that it can transmit information via the sidelink, and the configuration information may be indicated to the RRC layer entity by an upper layer entity of the RRC layer entity. In another mode, the RRC layer entity receives a second indication sent by an upper layer entity of the RRC layer entity, where the second indication is used to indicate that the first terminal device can send information through a sidelink, or is used to indicate that the first terminal device and the second terminal device have established a sidelink communication connection. And the RRC layer entity determines that the information can be transmitted through the sidelink according to the second indication.

In a second possible embodiment, the first terminal device determines that the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device has established the PC5-RRC connection with the RRC layer entity of the second terminal device, and if the first terminal device determines that the conditions 1 and 2 are satisfied, the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device sends a first indication to the NAS entity, where the first indication is used to request initiation of an RRC connection establishment procedure. And then the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment initiates an RRC connection establishment flow when receiving the notice sent by the NAS entity according to the first indication.

In a third possible embodiment, the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device determines that there is access stratum information to be sent to the second terminal device, such as a PC5-RRC message, and if the first terminal device determines that conditions 1 and 2 are met, the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device sends a first indication to the NAS entity, where the first indication is used to request initiation of an RRC connection establishment procedure. And then the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment initiates an RRC connection establishment flow when receiving the notification sent by the NAS entity.

A fourth possible embodiment, an example:

a1, a first terminal device determines that an MAC layer entity determines that access layer information to be sent to a second terminal device exists, the MAC layer entity sends a first notification to an RRC layer entity, and the first notification is used for notifying that the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal device exists on the MAC layer entity.

Exemplarily, the MAC layer entity of the first terminal device sends the second notification to the RRC layer entity when determining that the following conditions 3, 4, and 5 are satisfied:

condition 3: the MAC layer entity does not receive the side link authorization configured by the RRC layer entity and used for receiving the dynamic scheduling;

condition 4: the MAC layer entity is not configured with a sending resource for sending the access layer information;

condition 5: the MAC layer entity does not receive a Configured Grant class (Configured Grant), such as including Configured Grant Type1 or Configured Grant Type2.

Correspondingly, if the MAC layer entity receives the sidelink grant configured by the RRC layer entity and receiving the dynamic scheduling, the MAC layer entity may acquire the transmission resource for transmitting the access layer information in a dynamic scheduling manner. If the MAC layer entity configures a transmission resource for transmitting the access layer information, the access layer information may be transmitted using the configured transmission resource. If the MAC layer entity configures the authorization type1, the MAC layer entity may request a transmission resource for transmitting access layer information according to the authorization type1, and further transmit the access layer information according to the requested transmission resource.

And A2, when the RRC layer entity receives a first notification from the MAC layer entity, and when the conditions 1 and 2 are determined to be met, the RRC layer entity sends a first indication to the NAS entity, and further when the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment receives the notification sent by the NAS entity according to the first indication, the RRC connection establishment flow is initiated.

In another example of the fourth possible embodiment, the first terminal device determines that the MAC layer entity determines that the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal device exists, and sends a second notification to an upper layer entity of the RRC entity, where the second notification is used to notify that the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal device exists on the MAC layer entity; and after receiving the second notification, the upper layer entity of the MAC layer entity sends a third instruction to the RRC layer entity, wherein the third instruction is used for indicating that the RRC entity can send information through the sidelink. Therefore, after receiving the third indication, the RRC layer entity sends the first indication to the NAS entity when determining that conditions 1 and 2 are satisfied, and further, the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device initiates the RRC connection establishment procedure when receiving the notification sent by the NAS entity according to the first indication.

The above description is made in a case where the system information broadcasted by the cell in which the first terminal device resides does not include the transmission resource pool. In another possible implementation, the network device may configure a transmission resource pool in the system information related to the sidelink, where the transmission resource pool may be a resource pool for transmitting the access stratum information, or the transmission resource pool includes a transmission resource for transmitting the access stratum information and a transmission resource for transmitting other information besides the access stratum information. For convenience of description, a resource pool for transmitting access stratum information is referred to as a special transmission resource pool. A resource pool including transmission resources for transmitting access stratum information and also including transmission resources for transmitting information other than the access stratum information is referred to as an exception (explicit) transmission resource pool. For the special resource pool manner, the network device configures a special resource pool in the system information related to the sidelink, where the resource included in the special resource pool is used for transmitting the access stratum information.

When the first terminal equipment determines that the access layer information needs to be sent through the sidelink, and the first terminal equipment meets the condition 1 and the condition 2, if the system information broadcasted by the cell where the first terminal equipment resides is determined to include a special sending resource pool, the first terminal equipment selects a sending resource from the special sending resource pool to send the access layer information. Here, the corresponding access stratum information that needs to be sent through the sidelink is the access stratum information that exists on the RRC layer entity and is to be sent to the second terminal device or the access stratum information that exists on the MAC layer entity and is to be sent to the second terminal device.

For the manner of the exceptional transmission resource pool, the network device configures one exceptional transmission resource pool in the system information related to the sidelink, and the special transmission resource pool includes both transmission resources for transmitting the access stratum information and transmission resources for transmitting information except the access stratum information.

When the first terminal device determines that the access stratum information needs to be sent through the sidelink, and the first terminal device meets the condition 1 and the condition 2, if the system information broadcasted by the cell where the first terminal device resides is determined to include an exception sending resource pool, the first terminal device selects a sending resource used for sending the access stratum information from the exception sending resource pool to send the access stratum information. Here, the corresponding access stratum information that needs to be sent through the sidelink is the access stratum information that exists on the RRC layer entity and is to be sent to the second terminal device or the access stratum information that exists on the MAC layer entity and is to be sent to the second terminal device.

By configuring the special sending resource pool or the exceptional sending resource pool in the system information by the network device provided by the embodiment of the application, the terminal device can acquire the sending resource for sending the message or data of the AS layer in the RRC idle state or the RRC deactivated state, and the terminal device can be prevented from initiating the RRC connection establishment process, so that the additional signaling overhead is reduced.

In one possible implementation, if the upper layer (application layer or PC5-S layer) of the first terminal device configures the UE to be capable of performing transmission of sidelink communication and relevant data to be transmitted is available, the first terminal device may acquire the transmission resource in different manners under different circumstances.

Case 1: when the first terminal device is out of the cell coverage, the first terminal device sends information to be sent through the pre-configured sending resource, where the information to be sent may include access stratum information and/or application layer data.

Case 2: when the first terminal device is in an RRC idle state and a cell in which the first terminal device resides broadcasts system information for sidelink communication, and the system information includes a transmission resource pool, the first terminal device transmits information to be transmitted through a transmission resource in the transmission resource pool in the RRC idle state;

case 3: when the first terminal device is in an RRC connected state and a serving cell of the first terminal device supports sidelink communication, the first terminal device sends sidelink UE information (sidelink UE information) to the network device, and then the network device configures the first terminal device to adopt one of the following resource allocation manners:

resource allocation method 1: a resource allocation based on scheduling. The first terminal equipment needs to request the network equipment for sending resources by sending a scheduling request and a sidelink cache status report;

resource allocation method 2: a manner in which the first terminal device autonomously selects the resource. The network equipment configures a sending resource pool for the first terminal equipment, and the first terminal equipment selects sending resources from the sending resource pool to send the information to be sent.

Case 4: when the first terminal device is in an RRC idle state and a cell in which the first terminal device resides broadcasts system information for sidelink communication, but the system information does not include a transmission resource pool, the first terminal device initiates an RRC connection establishment procedure when an upper layer (application layer or PC5-S layer) of the first terminal device configures the first terminal device to perform transmission of the sidelink communication and related data to be transmitted is available, and a manner of acquiring a transmission resource is the same as in case 3.

Case 5: when the first terminal device is in an RRC connected state and the network device configures the first terminal device to acquire the transmission resource in a resource allocation mode 1, if the first terminal device has an exception, the first terminal device transmits the information to be transmitted through an exception transmission resource pool configured by the network device. For example, exceptions include: a radio link failure occurs at the first terminal device.

Corresponding to the method provided by the above method embodiment, the embodiment of the present application further provides a corresponding apparatus, which includes a module for executing the above embodiment. The module may be software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a device. The apparatus 800 may be a terminal device, or may be a chip, a chip system, or a processor that supports the terminal device to implement the method described above. The apparatus 800 may be used to implement the method described in the above method embodiment, and specific reference may be made to the description in the above method embodiment.

The apparatus 800 may include a determining module 801 and an initiating module 802. The determination module 801 determines that access stratum information needs to be sent to the second terminal device over the sidelink. Wherein the first terminal device is in an RRC idle state or in an RRC deactivated state. The application layer of the first terminal device is configured with the capability of receiving data. As an example, the application layer of the first terminal device is configured with the capability to receive data, which may be understood as the application layer of the first terminal device being capable of receiving data from the second terminal device, while the application layer of the first terminal device is not configured with the capability to send data to the second terminal device. If the system information broadcast by the cell in which the first terminal device resides does not include the transmission resource pool of the sidelink, the initiating module 802 initiates an RRC connection establishment procedure; wherein the transmission resource pool comprises transmission resources that can be used for transmitting the access stratum information. In one possible example, the transmission resource pool is a resource pool for transmitting the access stratum information; or, the transmission resource pool includes a transmission resource for transmitting the access stratum information and a transmission resource for transmitting other information except the access stratum information.

In one possible example, the functions of the determining module 801 and the initiating module 802 may be implemented by an RRC layer entity. When determining that the system information of the cell broadcast in which the first terminal device resides does not include a transmission resource pool of a sidelink, the RRC layer entity transmits a first indication to a non-access layer entity, wherein the first indication is used for requesting to initiate an RRC connection establishment process; and the non-access layer entity triggers the RRC layer entity to initiate an RRC connection establishment process, so that the RRC layer entity initiates the RRC connection establishment process under the triggering of the non-access layer entity.

In a possible example, the RRC layer entity is specifically configured to send the first indication to the non-access stratum entity through the RRC layer entity when it is determined that the capability of sending information through a sidelink is available.

When determining that the side link has the capability of sending the information, the RRC layer entity is specifically configured to determine, according to the configuration information, that the side link can send the information; or, the RRC layer entity receives a second indication sent by an upper layer entity of the RRC layer entity, where the second indication is used to indicate that information can be sent through a sidelink, or is used to indicate that the first terminal device and the second terminal device have established a sidelink communication connection.

In one possible example, the determining module 801 may be an RRC layer entity, which is specifically configured to determine a signaling protocol connection of the established sidelink between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

In one possible example, the determining module 801 may be an RRC layer entity, which is specifically configured to determine that the access stratum information to be sent to the second terminal device exists; or determining that an RRC connection is established with an RRC layer entity of the second terminal device.

In a possible example, the determining module 801 may also be a MAC layer entity, and the MAC layer entity is configured to determine that the access stratum information to be sent to the second terminal device exists. In a possible example, the RRC layer entity is further configured to receive a first notification from the MAC layer entity of the first terminal device before sending the first indication to the non-access stratum entity, where the first notification is used to notify that the access stratum information to be sent to the second terminal device exists on the MAC layer entity.

In one possible example, the MAC layer entity is further configured to send the first notification to the RRC layer entity when it is determined that the following condition is satisfied:

the conditions include: the MAC layer entity does not receive the indication of receiving the side link authorization of the dynamic scheduling configured by the RRC layer entity, the sending resource which is not configured on the MAC layer entity and is used for sending the access layer information, and the MAC layer entity does not receive the configuration authorization class.

In a possible example, the MAC layer entity is further configured to send a second notification to an upper layer of the RRC layer entity, where the second notification is used to notify that the access layer information to be sent to a second terminal device exists on the MAC layer entity; the RRC layer entity is further configured to receive a third indication from an upper layer of the RRC layer entity before sending the first indication to the non-access stratum entity, where the third indication is used to indicate that the RRC layer entity can send information through a sidelink.

In a possible example, the method further includes an obtaining module 803, specifically configured to obtain access stratum information to be sent to a second terminal device when the system information broadcasted by the cell where the first terminal device resides includes the sending resource pool. A sending module 804, configured to send the access stratum information through the sending resources included in the sending resource pool.

In one possible example, the access stratum information may include one or more of: RRC layer messages of the sidelink, reliable header compression feedback of the packet convergence protocol layer of the sidelink, radio link control layer RLC status report of the sidelink, or channel status information of the sidelink.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic structural diagram of another apparatus. The apparatus 900 may be a terminal device, and may be a chip, a chip system, or a processor, which supports the terminal device to implement the method described above. The apparatus may be configured to implement the method described in the method embodiment, and refer to the description in the method embodiment. The apparatus has a function of implementing the terminal device described in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the apparatus includes a module or a unit or means (means) corresponding to the terminal device executing the terminal related steps described in the embodiment of the present application, and the function or the unit or the means may be implemented by software, or hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software, or by a combination of software and hardware. Reference may be made in detail to the respective description of the corresponding method embodiments hereinbefore.

The apparatus 900 may include one or more processors 901, where the processors 901 may also be referred to as processing units and may implement certain control functions. The processor 901 may be a general-purpose processor or a special-purpose processor, etc. For example, a baseband processor or a central processor. The baseband processor may be configured to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processor may be configured to control a communication device (e.g., a base station, a baseband chip, a terminal chip, a DU or CU, etc.), execute a software program, and process data of the software program.

In an alternative design, the processor 901 may also store instructions and/or data 903, and the instructions and/or data 903 may be executed by the processor, so that the apparatus 900 performs the method described in the above method embodiment.

In an alternative design, processor 901 may include a transceiver unit for performing receive and transmit functions. The transceiving unit may be, for example, a transceiving circuit, or an interface circuit. The transmit and receive circuitry, interfaces or interface circuitry used to implement the receive and transmit functions may be separate or integrated. The transceiver circuit, the interface circuit or the interface circuit may be used for reading and writing code/data, or the transceiver circuit, the interface circuit or the interface circuit may be used for transmitting or transferring signals.

In yet another possible design, the apparatus 900 may include circuitry that may implement the functionality of transmitting or receiving or communicating in the foregoing method embodiments.

Optionally, the apparatus 900 may include one or more memories 902 having instructions 904 stored thereon, which are executable on the processor to cause the apparatus 900 to perform the methods described in the method embodiments above. Optionally, the memory may further store data therein. Optionally, instructions and/or data may also be stored in the processor. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or may be integrated together. For example, the correspondence described in the above method embodiments may be stored in a memory or in a processor.

Optionally, the apparatus 900 may further comprise a transceiver 905 and/or an antenna 906. The processor 901, which may be referred to as a processing unit, controls the apparatus 900. The transceiver 905 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver device, a transceiver module, or the like, and is used for implementing a transceiving function.

Optionally, the apparatus 900 in the embodiment of the present application may be configured to perform the method described in the above embodiment of the present application.

The processors and transceivers described herein may be implemented on Integrated Circuits (ICs), analog ICs, radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs), mixed signal ICs, application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), electronic devices, and the like. The processor and transceiver may also be fabricated using various IC process technologies such as Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS), N-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), P-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS), bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

The apparatus in the above description of the embodiment may be a terminal device, but the scope of the apparatus described in the present application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the apparatus may not be limited by fig. 9. The apparatus may be a stand-alone device or may be part of a larger device. For example, the apparatus may be:

(1) A stand-alone integrated circuit IC, or chip, or system-on-chip or subsystem;

(2) A set of one or more ICs, which optionally may also include storage components for storing data and/or instructions;

(3) An ASIC, such as a modem (MSM);

(4) A module that may be embedded within other devices;

(5) Receivers, terminals, smart terminals, cellular phones, wireless devices, handsets, mobile units, in-vehicle devices, network devices, cloud devices, artificial intelligence devices, machine devices, home devices, medical devices, industrial devices, and the like;

(6) Others, and so forth.

Fig. 10 provides a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device. The terminal device may be adapted to the scenario shown in fig. 1. For convenience of explanation, fig. 10 shows only main components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal apparatus 1000 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the whole terminal, executing software programs and processing data of the software programs. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user.

When the terminal device is started, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, analyze and execute the instruction of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit processes the baseband signals to obtain radio frequency signals and sends the radio frequency signals outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is transmitted to the terminal device, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, the radio frequency signal is further converted into a baseband signal, the baseband signal is output to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into the data and processes the data.

For ease of illustration, fig. 10 shows only one memory and processor. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, and the like, which is not limited in this respect in the embodiment of the present invention.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit, where the baseband processor is mainly used to process a communication protocol and communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used to control the whole terminal device, execute a software program, and process data of the software program. The processor in fig. 10 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors, and are interconnected through a bus or the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include a plurality of baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, the terminal device may include a plurality of central processors to enhance its processing capability, and various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor can also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit can also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the processor executes the software program to realize the baseband processing function.

In one example, the antenna and the control circuit having the transceiving function may be regarded as the transceiving unit 1011 of the terminal device 1000, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as the processing unit 1012 of the terminal device 1000. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal device 1000 includes a transceiving unit 1011 and a processing unit 1012. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiving unit 1011 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiving unit 1011 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiving unit 1011 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the sending unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc. Optionally, the receiving unit and the sending unit may be integrated into one unit, or may be multiple units independent of each other. The receiving unit and the transmitting unit may be located in one geographical location, or may be dispersed in a plurality of geographical locations.

It is understood that some optional features in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented independently without depending on other features in some scenarios, such as a currently-based solution, to solve corresponding technical problems and achieve corresponding effects, or may be combined with other features according to requirements in some scenarios. Correspondingly, the devices provided in the embodiments of the present application may also implement these features or functions accordingly, which are not described herein again.

Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks and steps (step) set forth in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design requirements of the overall system. Those skilled in the art can implement the described functions in various ways for corresponding applications, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It is understood that the processor in the embodiment of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components.

The approaches described herein may be implemented in a variety of ways. For example, these techniques may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. For a hardware implementation, the processing units used to perform these techniques at a communication device (e.g., a base station, terminal, network entity, or chip) may be implemented in one or more general-purpose processors, DSPs, digital signal processing devices, ASICs, programmable logic devices, FPGAs, or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinations of the above. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration.

It will be appreciated that the memory in the embodiments of the subject application can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM, enhanced SDRAM, SLDRAM, synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The present application also provides a computer-readable medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a computer, performs the functions of any of the method embodiments described above.

The present application also provides a computer program product which, when executed by a computer, implements the functionality of any of the above-described method embodiments.

In the above embodiments, all or part of the implementation may be realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. 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 on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that includes one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Video Disc (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, the various embodiments are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment throughout the specification. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

It is understood that in this application, "when 8230, if" and "if" all refer to a device that performs the corresponding process in an objective manner, and are not intended to be limiting in time, nor do they require certain judgment actions to be taken in the implementation of the device, nor do they imply other limitations.

The term "simultaneously" in this application is to be understood as being at the same point in time, as well as being within a period of time, and also being within the same period.

Those skilled in the art will understand that: the various numerical designations of first, second, etc. referred to in this application are merely for convenience of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The specific values, numbers and positions of the numbers (which may also be referred to as indexes) in the present application are only used for illustrative purposes, are not only used in a unique representation form, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The reference to the first, second, etc. various numbers in this application are merely provided for ease of description and distinction and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Reference in the present application to an element using the singular is intended to mean "one or more" rather than "one and only one" unless specifically stated otherwise. In the present application, unless otherwise specified, "at least one" is intended to mean "one or more" and "a plurality" is intended to mean "two or more".

Additionally, the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein. The term "and/or" herein is merely an association describing an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B, may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, wherein A can be singular or plural, and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

Herein, the term "\8230 \ 8230at least one of \8230; \8230atleast one of;" means all or any combination of the listed items, e.g., "at least one of A, B, and C", may mean: a alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, B and C together, and six cases of A, B and C together exist, wherein A can be singular or plural, B can be singular or plural, and C can be singular or plural.

It is understood that in the embodiments of the present application, "B corresponding to a" means that B is associated with a, from which B can be determined. It should also be understood that determining B from a does not mean determining B from a alone, but may be determined from a and/or other information.

Predefinition in this application may be understood as defining, predefining, storing, pre-negotiating, pre-configuring, curing, or pre-firing.

Those of ordinary skill in the art would 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 technical solution. 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 application.

For convenience and simplicity of description, a person of ordinary skill in the art may refer to corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments for specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses, and units, which are not described herein again.

It is to be understood that the systems, apparatus and methods described herein 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 type of logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, multiple 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.

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 functions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if they are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as separate products. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the 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 same or similar parts between the various embodiments in this application may be referred to each other. In the embodiments and the implementation methods/implementation methods in the embodiments in the present application, unless otherwise specified or conflicting in logic, terms and/or descriptions between different embodiments and between various implementation methods/implementation methods in various embodiments have consistency and can be mutually cited, and technical features in different embodiments and various implementation methods/implementation methods in various embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments, implementation methods, or implementation methods according to the inherent logic relationships thereof. The above-described embodiments of the present application do not limit the scope of the present application.

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.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the first terminal equipment determines that access layer information needs to be sent to the second terminal equipment through a sidelink; wherein the first terminal device is in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) idle state or in an RRC deactivated state;

if the system information of the cell broadcast in which the first terminal equipment resides does not include the sending resource pool of the sidelink, the first terminal equipment initiates an RRC connection establishment flow; wherein the transmission resource pool comprises transmission resources that can be used for transmitting the access stratum information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein if the system information broadcasted by the cell in which the first terminal device resides does not include the transmission resource pool of the sidelink, the first terminal device initiates an RRC connection establishment procedure, which includes:

when determining that the system information of the cell broadcast in which the first terminal device resides does not include a transmission resource pool of a sidelink, the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device transmits a first indication to a non-access layer entity, where the first indication is used to request initiation of an RRC connection establishment procedure;

and the non-access stratum entity of the first terminal equipment triggers the RRC layer entity to initiate an RRC connection establishment flow according to the first indication.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the RRC layer entity sending a first indication to a non-access stratum entity comprises:

and when the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the capability of sending information through a sidelink exists, sending the first indication to the non-access stratum entity through the RRC layer entity.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining by the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device the capability to send information over a sidelink comprises:

the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the information can be sent through a side link according to the configuration information; or,

and the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment receives a second indication sent by an upper layer entity of the RRC layer entity, wherein the second indication is used for indicating that information can be sent through a sidelink, or is used for indicating that the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment have established communication connection of the sidelink.

5. The method of claim 3 or 4, wherein the first terminal device determining that access stratum information needs to be sent to the second terminal device over the sidelink comprises:

and the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the signaling protocol connection of the sidelink is established between the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment.

6. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first terminal device determining that access stratum information needs to be sent to the second terminal device over the sidelink, comprises:

the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal equipment exists; or,

and the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the RRC connection is established with the RRC layer entity of the second terminal equipment.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the first terminal device determining that access stratum information needs to be sent to the second terminal device over the sidelink, comprising:

and the MAC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal equipment exists.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

before the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device sends a first indication to the non-access layer entity, receiving a first notification from the MAC layer entity of the first terminal device, where the first notification is used to notify that there is access layer information to be sent to a second terminal device on the MAC layer entity.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the MAC layer entity of the first terminal device sends a first notification to the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device, comprising

When the MAC layer entity of the first terminal equipment determines that the following conditions are met, the first notification is sent to the RRC layer entity:

the conditions include: the MAC layer entity does not receive the indication of receiving the side link authorization dynamically scheduled configured by the RRC layer entity, the sending resource used for sending the access layer information is not configured on the MAC layer entity, and the MAC layer entity does not receive the configuration authorization class.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

the MAC layer entity of the first terminal equipment sends a second notification to the upper layer of the RRC layer entity, wherein the second notification is used for notifying that the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal equipment exists on the MAC layer entity;

before the RRC layer entity of the first terminal equipment sends the first indication to the non-access stratum entity, receiving a third indication from an upper layer of the RRC layer entity, wherein the third indication is used for indicating that the RRC layer entity can send information through a sidelink.

11. The method of any of claims 1-4, 7-10, further comprising:

and when the system information broadcasted by the cell in which the first terminal equipment resides comprises the sending resource pool, the first terminal equipment acquires the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal equipment, and sends the access layer information through the sending resources contained in the sending resource pool.

12. The method of any of claims 1-4, 7-10, wherein the access stratum information comprises one or more of:

RRC layer messages of the sidelink, reliable header compression feedback of the packet convergence protocol layer of the sidelink, radio link control layer RLC status report of the sidelink, or channel status information of the sidelink.

13. A communication apparatus, wherein the communication apparatus is applied to a first terminal device, the apparatus comprising: a determining module and an initiating module;

the determining module is used for determining that access layer information needs to be sent to the second terminal equipment through the sidelink; the first terminal equipment is in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) idle state or in an RRC deactivation state;

the initiating module is configured to initiate an RRC connection establishment procedure when the system information broadcasted by the cell in which the first terminal device resides does not include the transmission resource pool of the sidelink; wherein the transmission resource pool comprises transmission resources that can be used for transmitting the access stratum information.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the apparatus further comprises a non-access stratum entity, the determining module and the initiating module are included in a RRC layer entity;

the RRC layer entity is configured to send a first indication to a non-access stratum entity when it is determined that the system information broadcasted by the cell in which the first terminal device resides does not include a sending resource pool of a sidelink, where the first indication is used to request initiation of an RRC connection establishment procedure;

the non-access stratum entity is used for triggering the RRC layer entity to initiate an RRC connection establishment process according to the first indication.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the RRC layer entity is configured to:

and when determining that the capability of sending information through a sidelink is available, sending the first indication to the non-access stratum entity through the RRC layer entity.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the RRC layer entity is specifically configured to:

determining that information can be transmitted through a sidelink according to the configuration information; or,

and receiving a second indication sent by an upper layer entity of the RRC layer entity, wherein the second indication is used for indicating that information can be sent through a sidelink, or is used for indicating that the first terminal device and the second terminal device have established a communication connection of the sidelink.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 or 16, wherein the determining module is an RRC layer entity;

the RRC layer entity is specifically configured to determine that a signaling protocol connection of a sidelink has been established between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 or 14, wherein the determining module is an RRC layer entity;

the RRC layer entity is specifically configured to determine that the access stratum information to be sent to the second terminal device exists; or determining that an RRC connection is established with an RRC layer entity of the second terminal device.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the determining module is a MAC layer entity;

the MAC layer entity is specifically configured to determine that the access layer information to be sent to the second terminal device exists.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the RRC layer entity is further configured to:

before sending the first indication to the non-access stratum entity, receiving a first notification from the MAC layer entity of the first terminal device, where the first notification is used to notify that the access stratum information to be sent to a second terminal device exists on the MAC layer entity.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the MAC layer entity is specifically configured to send the first notification to the RRC layer entity of the first terminal device when it is determined that the following conditions are satisfied:

22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the MAC layer entity is further configured to:

sending a second notification to an upper layer of the RRC layer entity, wherein the second notification is used for notifying that the access layer information to be sent to a second terminal device exists on the MAC layer entity;

the RRC layer entity is further configured to receive a third indication from an upper layer of the RRC layer entity before sending the first indication to the non-access stratum entity, where the third indication is used to indicate that the RRC layer entity can send information through a sidelink.

23. The apparatus of any one of claims 13-16, 19-22, further comprising an acquisition module and a transmission module;

the acquiring module is configured to acquire access stratum information to be sent to a second terminal device when the system information broadcast by the cell in which the first terminal device resides includes the sending resource pool;

and the sending module is used for sending the access stratum information through the sending resources included in the sending resource pool.

24. The apparatus of any one of claims 13-16, 19-22, wherein the access stratum information comprises one or more of:

RRC layer information of the sidelink, reliable header compression feedback of a packet convergence protocol layer of the sidelink, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer status report of the sidelink, or channel status information of the sidelink.

25. A communications apparatus, comprising: a processor coupled with a memory, the memory to store a program or instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 12.

26. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program or instructions, which when executed cause a computer to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 12.