CN113498138A

CN113498138A - Communication method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN113498138A
Application number: CN202110218644.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 葛翠丽; 李濛; 杨艳梅
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-07
Filing date: 2021-02-26
Publication date: 2021-10-12
Anticipated expiration: 2041-02-26
Also published as: CN113498138B; WO2021203944A1

Abstract

The application server simultaneously maintains broadcast transmission paths of two networks (such as 5G and EPS) adopting different access technologies and sends description information of broadcasts of the two networks to the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can immediately receive broadcast service data on the broadcast paths of the accessed networks when moving from a broadcast coverage area of one network to a broadcast coverage area of the other network, service delay caused by movement of the terminal equipment between the broadcast coverage areas of the different networks can be reduced, and service continuity is enhanced.

Description

Communication method and communication device

The present application claims priority from chinese patent application, entitled "communication method and communication apparatus," filed on 7/4/2020 by the chinese patent office, application number 202010264031.3, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

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

Background

In wireless communications, a terminal device receiving service data using broadcast or multicast may move between broadcast coverage areas of different communication systems, for example, the coverage area of an Evolved Packet System (EPS) broadcast and the fifth generation (the 5)^thgeneration,5G) system broadcast coverage area, which may cause Radio Access Technology (RAT) handover, user plane path reestablishment or handover, etc., resulting in large service delay, even service interruption, and poor service continuity.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method which can enhance service continuity.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, including: the method comprises the steps that an application server acquires broadcast Radio Access Technology (RAT) capability information of a group of terminal devices, wherein the broadcast RAT capability information is used for indicating the type of radio broadcasting capability of the group of terminal devices, and the type of the radio broadcasting capability comprises at least one of broadcast supporting a first network and/or broadcast supporting a second network; according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices, under the condition that a first broadcast of a first network and a second broadcast of a second network are determined to be established, the application server acquires description information of the first broadcast and/or description information of the second broadcast, wherein the description information of the first broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the first broadcast, and the description information of the second broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the second broadcast; the application server sends the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast to the group of terminal devices.

The broadcast RAT capability information may also be used to indicate whether the group of terminal devices supports receiving broadcasts in an idle state, i.e., the broadcast RAT capability information includes the capability to support receiving broadcasts in an idle mode and the capability to receive broadcasts only in a connected mode.

According to the technical scheme provided by the application server, the application server simultaneously maintains the broadcast transmission paths of two networks (such as 5G and EPS) adopting different access technologies, and simultaneously sends the description information of the broadcasts of the two networks to the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can immediately receive the broadcast service data on the broadcast path of the accessed network when moving from the broadcast coverage area of one network to the broadcast coverage area of the other network, the service delay caused by the movement of the terminal equipment between the broadcast coverage areas of the different networks can be reduced, and the service continuity is favorably enhanced.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the obtaining, by the application server, the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast includes: the application server obtains the description information of the first broadcast from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, and/or the application server obtains the description information of the second broadcast from a broadcast network element of the second network.

In one architecture, an application server interfaces with a core network of a first network and a core network of a second network, respectively. In this architecture, the description information of the first broadcast is obtained from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is obtained from a broadcast network element of the second network by the application server.

In one possible case, the control plane and the user plane of the core network of the second network are integrated on one network element, i.e. the broadcast network element of the second network in the present application.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the method comprises the steps that an application server obtains user plane address information of a user plane function network element of a core network of a first network, wherein the user plane address information of the user plane function network element is used for the application server to send broadcast service data to the first network; and the application server acquires the user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network, wherein the user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network is used for the application server to send the broadcast service data to the second network.

In a framework that an application server is respectively in butt joint with a core network of a first network and a core network of a second network, a control plane network element of the first network respectively acquires user plane address information of a user plane function of the first network and user plane address information of a broadcast network element of the second network, and provides the user plane address information and the user plane address information to the application server, so that the application server uses the user plane address information of the user plane function network element and the user plane address information of the broadcast network element to respectively send broadcast service data to the first network and the second network.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the obtaining, by the application server, the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast includes: the application server acquires the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, wherein the description information of the second broadcast is acquired by the control plane network element of the core network of the first network from a broadcast network element of the second network.

In another architecture, the application server interfaces only with the core network of the first network, and then interfaces with the core network of the first network and the second network. In this architecture, the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast are both obtained by the application server from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is obtained by the control plane network element from a broadcast network element of the second network. The complexity of the application server and the network docking can be simplified, and excessive signaling interaction during the docking can be reduced.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the application server acquires user plane address information of a user plane functional network element of a core network of a first network; and the application server sends broadcast service data to the first network and the second network according to the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element.

In the architecture that the application server is only in butt joint with the core network of the first network, the application server acquires the user plane address information of the user plane function of the first network, and uses the user plane address information of the user plane function network element to send the broadcast service data to the user plane function network element of the first network under the condition that the broadcast service data needs to be sent. Further, the user plane function network element of the first network sends the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network. Providing a single data distribution portal through the network side can simplify the complexity of interfacing the application server with the network.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: under the condition that the number of terminal equipment accessed to a first network reaches a first threshold, an application server sends broadcast service data to a user plane functional network element of a core network of the first network; or, under the condition that the number of terminal devices accessing the second network reaches a second threshold, the application server sends broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network; or; under the condition that the number of the terminal devices accessed to the first network is lower than the first threshold, the application server stops sending the broadcast service data to the user plane function network element of the core network of the first network; or, in the case that the number of terminal devices accessing the second network is lower than the second threshold, the application server stops sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

The number of the terminal devices respectively accessing the first network and the second network by the application server determines whether to send the broadcast service data to the first network or the second network, so that the performance of sending the broadcast service data can be improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the application server sends broadcast service data to a user plane functional network element of a core network of a first network; under the condition that the number of terminal devices accessing the second network is lower than a third threshold, the application server sends first indication information to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network, or the application server sends the first indication information to a control plane network element of the core network of the first network; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate a user plane function network element of the first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

The application server can instruct the user plane function of the first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network through the control plane or the user plane, so that the distribution condition of the data in different networks can be controlled, the resource of the second network can be saved, and the accuracy and the efficiency of data distribution are improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the application server sends second indication information to a user plane function network element of the first network; or, the application server sends the second indication information to a control plane network element of a core network of the first network; wherein the second indication information is used for requesting a user plane function network element of the first network to resume sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

The application server may instruct the user plane function of the first network to resume sending broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network via the control plane or the user plane. The method can flexibly control the distribution of the service in different networks, and improve the accuracy and the efficiency of data distribution.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the obtaining, by the application server, broadcast RAT capability information of a group of terminal devices includes: the application server acquires the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal equipment; or, the application server obtains the accessibility information of the group of terminal devices in the network from the capability open network element, and determines the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices according to the accessibility information; or, the application server obtains the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices from a user equipment wireless capability management function UCMF; alternatively, the application server obtains the broadcast RAT capability information of the set of terminal devices from a group management server GMS or a user data configuration server.

The application server can obtain the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal equipment in a plurality of ways, and the accuracy and the integrity of the application server for obtaining the broadcast RAT capability of the group of terminal equipment are enhanced.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the determining to establish the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices includes: the application server determines to establish the first broadcast and/or the second broadcast according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices and one or more of the following information: location information of the group of terminal devices; information of broadcast reception quality of the group of terminal devices; the distribution condition of the group of terminal devices in an area covered by a first network and an area covered by a second network; the number of terminal devices of the set of terminal devices that support broadcasting of a first network and the number of terminal devices that support broadcasting of a second network; a network to which the set of terminal devices currently access, the network including the first network and the second network; the core network type accessed by the group of terminal equipment; service information of the group of terminal devices; broadcast capability information of a base station serving the set of terminal devices; the network currently accessed by the group of terminal equipment and the association state of the group of terminal equipment; a network to which the set of terminal devices is currently accessing, a current state of a base station serving the set of terminal devices, and an association state of the set of terminal devices.

The application server comprehensively judges the type of the broadcast service to be established according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the terminal equipment and by combining a plurality of factors such as the position information of the terminal equipment, the broadcast receiving quality information, the distribution condition of the terminal equipment in the first network and the second network and the like, and can establish the broadcast service type which is more in line with the actual requirement, thereby improving the performance of the broadcast service.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, in a case that the application server determines to establish a broadcast of a first network and a broadcast of a second network, the obtaining, by the application server, description information of the first broadcast and/or description information of the second broadcast includes: the application server sends a broadcast service request message to a control plane network element of a core network of a first network, wherein the broadcast service request message carries the type of a broadcast service requested to be established, and the broadcast service request message is used for requesting the control plane network element to establish a broadcast of the first network and a broadcast of a second network.

The application server requests the control plane network element to establish the type of the broadcast service by sending a broadcast service request message to the control plane network element, and obtains the description information of the first broadcast of the first network and the description information of the second broadcast of the second network in the process of establishing the broadcast service, and provides the description information to the application server. By establishing broadcast in advance and acquiring the broadcast description information, the time delay of establishing and using the broadcast is reduced, and the continuity of the service is enhanced.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a method of communication, the method comprising: the terminal equipment receives description information of a first broadcast and/or description information of a second broadcast from an application server, wherein the description information of the first broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the first broadcast of a first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the second broadcast of a second network;

under the condition that the terminal equipment is accessed to a first network, the terminal equipment receives broadcast service data from a first broadcast by using the description information of the first broadcast; or, the terminal device receives the broadcast service data from the second broadcast by using the description information of the second broadcast under the condition of accessing the second network.

In the technical scheme, the terminal device obtains the description information of the first broadcast of the first network and the description information of the second broadcast of the second network from the application server at the same time, so that when the terminal device moves between the coverage area of the first broadcast and the coverage area of the second broadcast, the terminal device can receive the broadcast service data of the current access network according to the description information of the broadcast of the current access network, thereby reducing service delay and enhancing service continuity.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, including: a control plane network element of a core network of a first network receives a broadcast service request message from an application server, wherein the broadcast service request message carries a type of a broadcast service requested to be established, and the type of the broadcast service comprises at least one of a broadcast of the first network and a broadcast of a second network; the control plane network element establishes the broadcast service requested to be established; and the control plane network element sends description information of the first broadcast and/or description information of the second broadcast to the application server, wherein the description information of the first broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the first broadcast of the first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the second broadcast of the second network.

In the technical scheme, the control plane network element establishes the type of the corresponding broadcast service based on the broadcast service request message of the application server, obtains the description information of the established broadcast and provides the description information to the application server. Therefore, the application server simultaneously sends the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast to the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can receive the broadcast service data of the current access network according to the description information of the broadcast of the current access network when moving between the coverage area of the first broadcast and the coverage area of the second broadcast, thereby reducing the service delay and enhancing the service continuity.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: and the control plane network element sends the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element of the core network of the first network to the application server.

In the architecture 2 described in the embodiment of the present application, the control plane network element of the first network provides the user plane address information of the user plane function network element to the application server. Subsequently, the application server takes the user plane address of the user plane functional network element as the next hop address of communication and sends the broadcast service data to the user plane functional network element under the condition that the broadcast service data needs to be sent. Further, the user plane functional network element sends the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network, so that the application server can send the broadcast service data to the two networks through the user plane functional network element.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the establishing, by the control plane network element, the broadcast service requested to be established includes: the control plane network element sends a broadcast service activation request to a broadcast network element of the second network, and obtains description information of the second broadcast and user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network from the broadcast network element of the second network.

In the architecture 2 described in the embodiment, the control plane network element of the first network takes the role of AS, activates the broadcast bearer of the second network, and obtains the description information of the second broadcast and the user plane address of the broadcast network element of the second network. Subsequently, the control plane network element may provide the description information of the second broadcast to the AS, and the AS sends the description information of the second broadcast to the UE for the UE to receive the broadcast service data. In addition, the control plane network element provides the user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network to the user plane functional network element of the first network, so that the user plane functional network element sends the broadcast service data received from the AS to the broadcast network element of the second network.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the establishing, by the control plane network element, the broadcast service requested to be established includes: the control plane network element obtains user plane address information of a user plane functional network element of a core network of a first network.

In the architecture 2 described in the embodiment, the control plane network element of the first network acquires the user plane address of the user plane function network element and provides the user plane address to the AS, so that the AS can send the broadcast service data to the user plane function network element by using the user plane address information of the user plane function network element AS the next hop address for sending the broadcast service data.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementation manners of the third aspect, the acquiring, by the control plane network element, user plane address information of a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network includes: the control plane network element distributes user plane address information of a user plane functional network element of a first network; or, the control plane network element obtains the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element of the first network from the user plane functional network element of the first network.

The user plane address information of the user plane functional network element may be allocated by the control plane network element, or may be allocated by the user plane functional network element itself, and may be predefined by the system.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the establishing, by the control plane network element, the broadcast service requested to be established includes: and the control plane network element sends the user plane address information of the application server to the user plane function network element of the core network of the first network.

The control plane network element passes the user plane address information of the AS to the user plane functional network element, and the user plane functional network element stores the user plane address information of the AS, so that the user plane functional network element can conveniently identify whether the subsequently received data comes from a specific application server, and accordingly the received data is correspondingly processed. For example, if the user plane functional network element determines that the received data is not from AS 1 according to the stored user plane address information of AS 1, but only the data of AS 1 needs to be sent to the broadcast network element of the second network, the user plane functional network element does not need to send the received broadcast service data to the broadcast network element. For another example, if the user plane functional network element determines that the received data is from AS 1 according to the saved user plane address information of AS 1, the user plane functional network element sends the received data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the establishing, by the control plane network element, the broadcast service requested to be established includes: and the control plane network element sends a request message to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network, wherein the request message carries user plane address information of a broadcast network element of the second network.

In the framework 2 of the embodiment, a control plane network element of a first network sends a request message to a user plane functional network element, where the request message carries user plane address information of a broadcast network element of a second network. Subsequently, the user plane functional network element may use the user plane address information to send broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the control plane network element receives first indication information from an application server, where the first indication information is used to instruct a user plane function network element of a core network of a first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of a second network; and the control plane network element sends third indication information to the user plane function network element of the first network, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the user plane function network element of the first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: a control plane network element receives second indication information from an application server, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a user plane functional network element of a first network to restore to send the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of a second network; and the control plane network element sends fourth indication information to the user plane function network element of the first network, wherein the fourth indication information is used for indicating the user plane function network element of the first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, including: a user plane functional network element of a core network of a first network receives a request message from a control plane network element of the core network of the first network, wherein the request message comprises user plane address information of a broadcast network element of a second network; a user plane functional network element receives broadcast service data from an application server; and the user plane functional network element sends the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network according to the user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network.

In the framework 2 of the embodiment, a control plane network element of a first network sends a request message to a user plane functional network element, where the request message carries user plane address information of a broadcast network element of a second network. Subsequently, the user plane functional network element may send the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network by using the user plane address information, thereby implementing that the AS sends the broadcast service data to the second network through the user plane functional network element of the first network that is in butt joint with the AS.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: the user plane functional network element receives user plane address information of the application server from the control plane network element.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the user plane function network element receives first indication information from the application server, where the first indication information is used to instruct the user plane function network element to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network; or, the user plane functional network element receives third indication information from the control plane network element, where the third indication information is used to indicate the user plane functional network element to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the user plane function network element receives second indication information from the application server, where the second indication information is used to indicate the user plane function network element to resume sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network; or, the user plane functional network element receives fourth indication information from the control plane network element, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the user plane functional network element to resume sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, after the user plane functional network element of the core network of the first network receives the request message from the control plane network element of the core network of the first network, the method further includes: and the user plane function network element sends a response message of the request message to the control plane network element, wherein the response message comprises the user plane address information of the user plane function network element.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, including: the method comprises the steps that an application server acquires broadcast Radio Access Technology (RAT) capability information of a group of terminal devices, wherein the broadcast RAT capability information is used for indicating the type of radio broadcasting capability of the group of terminal devices, and the type of the radio broadcasting capability comprises at least one of broadcasting supporting a first network and broadcasting supporting a second network; according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices and one or more of the following information, in the case that the first broadcast of the first network and/or the second broadcast of the second network are determined to be established, the application server acquires the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast: a network to which the set of terminal devices currently access, the network including the first network and the second network; the core network type accessed by the group of terminal equipment; service information of the group of terminal devices; broadcast capability information of a base station serving the set of terminal devices; the network currently accessed by the group of terminal equipment and the association state of the group of terminal equipment; a network to which the set of terminal devices is currently accessed, a current state of a base station serving the set of terminal devices, and an association state of the set of terminal devices; wherein the description information of the first broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the first broadcast, and the description information of the second broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the second broadcast; the application server sends the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast to the group of terminal devices.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, the application server simultaneously sends the description information of the broadcasts of the two networks to the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can immediately receive the broadcast service data on the broadcast path of the accessed network when moving from the broadcast coverage area of one network to the broadcast coverage area of the other network, the service delay caused by the movement of the terminal equipment between the broadcast coverage areas of different networks can be reduced, and the service continuity is favorably enhanced.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the method further comprises: the application server determines a broadcast RAT currently used by the set of terminal devices.

In a dual connectivity scenario, the application server determines two broadcast RATs currently used by the terminal device.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the determining, by the application server, a broadcast RAT currently used by the group of terminal devices includes: the application server receiving a broadcast RAT from an application client indicating a current use of the set of terminal devices; or, the application server receives, from the application client, an identifier of a cell to which the group of terminal devices currently access, and the application server determines, according to the cell to which the terminal devices currently access, a broadcast RAT currently used by the group of terminal devices.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the method further comprises: and the application server acquires the core network type accessed by the group of terminal equipment.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the obtaining, by the application server, a core network type to which the group of terminal devices access includes: the application server acquires subscription information from the SCEF + NEF node, and acquires the core network type currently accessed by the group of terminal equipment according to the subscription information; or the application server sends request information to PCF according to the IP addresses of the group of terminal devices, wherein the request information is used for requesting to acquire the core network type accessed by the group of terminal devices; the application server determines the type of the core network currently accessed by the group of terminal equipment according to the indication information received from the PCF; or, the application server receives indication information which is sent by the group of terminal devices and used for indicating the type of the core network currently accessed by the group of terminal devices, and the application server determines the type of the core network currently accessed by the group of terminal devices according to the indication information.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the method further comprises: the application server obtains capability information of a base station serving the set of terminal devices.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the obtaining, by the application server, capability information of a base station serving the group of terminal devices includes: the application server receives broadcast capability information of a base station serving the group of terminal devices from the group of terminal devices or a core network connected to the group of terminal devices, wherein the broadcast capability information of the base station is used for indicating whether the base station supports broadcast of a first network or broadcast of a second network.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the method further comprises: and the application server acquires the service information of the group of terminal equipment.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the acquiring, by the application server, the service information of the group of terminal devices includes: when the application server is an application service server, the application server acquires the service information of the group of terminal equipment through the application server; when the application server is a communication enabling server or a platform server with communication enabling, the application server obtains the service information from other application service servers.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in certain implementations of the fifth aspect, the method further comprises: the application server determines a type of broadcast service to be established, the type of broadcast service including a first broadcast of the first network and/or a second broadcast of the second network.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the determining, by the application server, a type of broadcast service to be established includes: the application server determines the type of the broadcast service to be established according to the position information of the group of terminal equipment and the broadcast RAT capability information; the method comprises the following steps: in the group of terminal devices, the application server establishes a broadcast of the first network if the terminal devices are located in a specific area (or in a specific group member) and the number of terminal devices supporting access to the first network is greater than or equal to a first threshold.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the determining, by the application server, a type of broadcast service to be established includes: the application server determines the type of the broadcast service to be established according to the position information of the group of terminal equipment, the type of the accessed core network, the RAT currently used by the group of terminal equipment and the broadcast RAT capability information; the method comprises the following steps: in the group of terminal devices, if the terminal devices are located in a specific area (or in a specific group member), access to a core network of the first network through the first network and support Idle mode to receive broadcast, the application server establishes broadcast of the first network.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the determining, by the application server, a type of broadcast service to be established includes: the application server determines the type of the broadcast service to be established according to the position information of the group of terminal equipment, the type of the core network accessed, the RAT currently used by the terminal equipment, the broadcast RAT capability information and the capability information of the base station serving the terminal equipment, and the method comprises the following steps: in the group of terminal devices, if the terminal devices are located in a specific area (or in a specific group member), access to a core network of a first network through the first network, support the capability of Idle mode for receiving broadcast, and the base station serving the group of terminal devices supports the number of terminal devices supporting broadcast transmission of the first network, which is greater than or equal to a third threshold, the application server establishes broadcast of the first network.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some implementations of the fifth aspect, the determining, by the application server, a type of broadcast service to be established includes: the application server determines the type of the broadcast service to be established according to the position information, the service information and the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal equipment, and the method comprises the following steps: when the type of the service is MCPTT, in the group of terminal devices, when the number of the terminal devices which are located in a specific service area (or a specific group member) and support to access the second network is larger than or equal to a fourth threshold value, the application server establishes the broadcast of the second network; or, when the type of the service is MCVideo, in the group of terminal devices, when the number of terminal devices supporting access to the first network located in a specific service area is greater than or equal to a fifth threshold, the application server establishes a broadcast of the first network. In the methods of the above aspects, in certain implementations, the first network is a fifth generation 5G network and the second network is a fourth generation 4G network.

In the methods of the above aspects, in some implementations, the description information of the first broadcast includes an identification of the first broadcast and configuration parameters of the first broadcast, and the description information of the second broadcast includes an identification of the second broadcast and configuration parameters of the second broadcast.

In the methods of the above aspects, in some implementations, the description information of the first broadcast further carries a group identity or a service identity, and/or the description information of the second broadcast further carries a group identity or a service identity, wherein,

the description information of the first broadcast carries the group identifier and shows that the broadcast service data of the terminal equipment group corresponding to the group identifier is sent through the first broadcast; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the description information of the first broadcast carries the service identifier, and data representing the service corresponding to the service identifier is sent through the first broadcast; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the description information of the second broadcast carries the group identifier and shows that the broadcast service data of the terminal equipment group corresponding to the group identifier is sent through the first broadcast; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the description information of the second broadcast carries the service identifier, and data representing the service corresponding to the service identifier is sent through the second broadcast.

In a sixth aspect, the communication device has a function of implementing the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner thereof, and the function may be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which has a function of implementing the method in the second aspect or any possible implementation manner thereof, where the function may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication device having a function of implementing the method in the third aspect or any possible implementation manner thereof, where the function may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication device having the functions of implementing the methods in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation manner thereof, where the functions may be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the above functions.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides an application server comprising a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. Wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to call and run the computer program stored in the memory, and control the transceiver to transmit and receive signals, so that the application server executes the method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation manner thereof.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a terminal device comprising a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. Wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to call and run the computer program stored in the memory, and control the transceiver to transmit and receive signals, so as to make the terminal device execute the method according to the third aspect or any possible implementation manner thereof.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a control plane device of a core network, including a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. Wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to call and run the computer program stored in the memory, and control the transceiver to transmit and receive signals, so as to enable the core network device to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner thereof, or to perform the method of the sixth aspect or any possible implementation manner thereof.

In a thirteenth aspect, the present application provides a user plane device of a core network, comprising a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. Wherein the memory is used for storing the computer program, and the processor is used for calling and running the computer program stored in the memory, and controlling the transceiver to transmit and receive signals, so as to make the control plane device execute the method according to the fourth aspect or any possible implementation manner thereof.

In a fourteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause a method as in the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof to be performed.

In a fifteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the method as in the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof to be performed.

In a sixteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause a method as in the third aspect or any possible implementation thereof to be performed.

In a seventeenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause a method as in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation thereof to be performed.

In an eighteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code to, when run on a computer, cause a method as in the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof to be performed.

In a nineteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the method as in the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof to be performed.

In a twentieth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the method as in the third aspect or any possible implementation thereof to be performed.

In a twenty-first aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer program code to, when run on a computer, cause a method as in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation thereof to be performed.

In a twenty-second aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising a processor and a communication interface for receiving and transmitting signals to the processor, the processor processing the signals such that the method as in the first aspect or any possible implementation thereof is performed.

In a twenty-third aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising a processor and a communication interface for receiving and transmitting signals to the processor, the processor processing the signals such that the method as in the second aspect or any possible implementation thereof is performed.

In a twenty-fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising a processor and a communication interface for receiving a signal and transmitting the signal to the processor, the processor processing the signal such that the method as in the third aspect or any possible implementation thereof is performed.

In a twenty-fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device comprising a processor and a communication interface for receiving a signal and transmitting the signal to the processor, the processor processing the signal such that the method as in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation thereof is performed.

A twenty-sixth aspect provides a wireless communication system comprising one or more of the devices as described in the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth aspects.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an architecture diagram of a 5G communication system.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a mechanism for multicast and unicast converged transmission of 5G.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a multicast or broadcast architecture of 5G.

Fig. 4 is another schematic diagram of the multicast or broadcast architecture of 5G.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating the MBMS architecture of fig. 4G.

Fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method provided in the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an interworking architecture of a 4G network and a 5G network provided in the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of the AS establishing a broadcast of the 5G network.

Fig. 9 is a flow chart of broadcast bearer of the AS-enabled 4G network.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of another interworking architecture of a 4G network and a 5G network provided in the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of broadcast by an AS for establishing a 4G network through a 5 GC.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of an application server acquiring broadcast RAT capability information of a terminal device according to the present application.

Fig. 13 is an example of a communication method provided in the present application.

Fig. 14 is another example of a communication method provided in the present application.

Fig. 15 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 1000 provided in the present application.

Fig. 16 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 2000 provided herein.

Fig. 17 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 3000 provided in the present application.

Fig. 18 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 4000 provided in the present application.

Fig. 19 is a schematic configuration diagram of the communication device 10 provided in the present application.

Fig. 20 is a schematic configuration diagram of the communication device 20 provided in the present application.

Fig. 21 is a schematic configuration diagram of a communication device 30 provided in the present application.

Fig. 22 is a schematic configuration diagram of a communication device 40 provided in the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

For ease of understanding, the relevant architectures and techniques referred to in this application are first briefly described.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is an architecture diagram of a 5G communication system. As shown in fig. 5, the 5G system architecture includes two parts, an access network and a core network. The access network is used to implement radio access related functions. The core network mainly comprises the following key logic network elements:

a radio access network (R) AN, AN access and mobility management network element (AMF), a session management network element (SMF), a user plane network element (UPF), a policy control network element (PCF), a unified data management network element (UDM), and AN Application Function (AF).

RAN: the terminal device is provided with wireless access equipment including but not limited to eNodeB, WiFi AP, WiMAX BS and the like.

AMF: it is mainly responsible for mobility management in mobile networks, such as user location update, user registration network, user handover, etc.

SMF: it is mainly responsible for session management in mobile networks, e.g. session establishment, modification, release. The specific functions include allocating an IP address to a user, selecting a UPF providing a message forwarding function, and the like.

PCF: is responsible for providing policies, e.g., QoS policies, slice selection policies, etc., to AMFs, SMFs.

UDM: for storing user data, e.g. subscription information, authentication/authorization information.

AF: is responsible for providing traffic to the 3GPP network, e.g., affecting traffic routing, interacting with the PCF for policy control, etc.

UPF: it is mainly responsible for processing user message, such as forwarding and charging.

DN: refers to a network providing a data transmission service for a user, for example, an Internet protocol multimedia service (IP IMS), the Internet, and the like. There may be multiple application servers in the DN.

The UE accesses the data network by establishing a session (PDU session) between the UE to the RAN to the UPF to the DN.

Wherein the interfaces between the network elements may be as shown in fig. 1.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a mechanism for multicast and unicast converged transmission of 5G. As shown in fig. 2, a plurality of UEs receiving multicast traffic each establish a separate unicast PDU session at the control plane. For example, UE a establishes PDU session a1, UE B establishes PDU session B1, and UE C establishes PDU session C1, which receive the same multicast service.

The multicast of 5G differs from the unicast transmission in that there is only one path within the mobile network for the user plane where multiple UEs transmit the multicast traffic. As shown in fig. 2, the data of the multicast service is transmitted between the UPF and the RAN only on one QoS flow, wherein the QoS flow may be the QoS flow of one UE of the UEs receiving the multicast service, or the common N3 QoS flow for the multicast service between the UPF and the RAN. For example, in fig. 2, the data packet of the multicast service is transmitted on the QoS flow of UE a. At the RAN node, the RAN uses a multicast scheduling manner for the data packet of the multicast service received from the QoS flow over an air interface, that is, the NR-RAN configures a group-radio network temporary identifier (G-RNTI) for the UE of the multicast service, and sends the group-radio network temporary identifier to a plurality of UEs, such as UE a, UE B, and UE C, that receive the multicast service. The QoS flow is a channel for transmitting UE data inside the mobile network, and data of different QoS types are generally transmitted using different QoS flows, that is, one UE may have multiple QoS flows, and data of one or more application services may be transmitted on one QoS flow. For the unicast scenario, the data of the application service is sent independently on the QoS flow of each UE.

For the UPF side, the SMF needs to configure specific packet detection and forwarding rules to the UPF, and send a multicast service packet to the RAN side through an N3 tunnel. When the application server sends the data packet of the multicast service to the UPF per UE, that is, the UPF receives the data packet of the multicast service of each UE of the plurality of UEs, the data packet of the multicast service of one UE is selected, and its destination IP address is replaced with an IP address (generally, a multicast IP address) for transmitting the multicast service.

For the (R) AN side, the SMF needs to configure information of a group of UEs corresponding to the multicast service to the (R) AN, where QoS flows of multiple UEs are all marked as corresponding to the multicast service, for example, index or content ID, and the multiple UEs may be bound to AN N3 tunnel for downlink multicast service. Thus, the RAN can know that the data packet received on the N3 tunnel belongs to a group of UEs, and the (R) AN can schedule radio resources for this group of UEs to transmit data using the G-RNTI.

In this case, SMF and UPF in the 5G network architecture are given new functionality, as in fig. 3 below.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a multicast or broadcast architecture of 5G. In 5G multicast/broadcast, the unicast session of the UE is bound to the multicast/broadcast user plane path. As shown in fig. 3, a-upf (multicast) is an anchor gateway for the multicast/broadcast user plane. The multicast/broadcast traffic data is sent to one or more NG-RANs via a-upf (multicast). It should be noted that fig. 3 shows only one NG-RAN and one UE for simplicity. The NG-RAN sends to a group of connected UEs (i.e., multicast) or to all UEs (i.e., broadcast). Meanwhile, UE A can also receive data of other application services through a unicast user plane path, namely A-UPF (Unit) -NG-RAN. The N9 interface between a-upf (multicast) and a-upf (unicast) is used when the UE switches from a broadcast/multicast supported NG-RAN to a non-broadcast/multicast supported NG-RAN, the multicast data is forwarded from a-upf (multicast) to a-upf (unicast) and then sent to the UE via the user's unicast user plane path.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is another schematic diagram of the multicast or broadcast architecture of 5G. Unlike in fig. 3, a plurality of UEs (specifically, two UEs) are shown in fig. 4. As shown in fig. 4, UE B and UE a access the same NG-RAN to receive multicast/multicast service data, but the non-multicast/broadcast services of UE B and UE a are received through respective independent unicast user plane paths, and other descriptions are the same as those in fig. 3 and are not repeated.

In the above fig. 3 and 4 and the following embodiments, multicast/broadcast means multicast or broadcast, and multicast/multicast means multicast or multicast. The broadcast generally indicates sending data to all terminal devices, and generally does not know how many users or specific users there are before sending, and a user can receive service data without explicitly joining (join) or subscribing (subscribe) to a service, and the network side generally sends data to all terminal devices in a certain area, or sends data to all terminal devices subscribing to the broadcast service in the area. Multicast means that the network side sends data to a group of specific terminal devices, which have already determined before data transmission, and the terminal devices need to explicitly join or subscribe to the multicast service to receive the service data. Multicasting generally refers to the network side sending data to multiple users, as opposed to broadcasting and multicasting. In this application, broadcast, multicast may be used interchangeably to mean sending data of a broadcast (or multicast, multicast) service to a plurality of end devices.

The 4G multicast broadcast architecture is described further below.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of the MBMS architecture of fig. 4G. As shown in FIG. 5, the network elements involved in MBMS mainly include E-UTRAN, MME, MBMS-GW and BM-SC. The network element functions and reference points and their functions on the reference points associated with the following 4G MBMS architecture are described below.

Broadcast-multicast service center (BM-SC): as an entrance of broadcast transmission of a content provider (content provider) and a group communication application server, having a transmission management function includes being responsible for allocating a Temporary Mobile Group Identity (TMGI), establishing a control plane connection and a user plane connection with the content provider and the group communication application server, such as MB2-C and MB2-U, performing a session management including performing MBMS session start, update, stop procedures to maintain a network layer MBMS bearer, and the like.

Multicast broadcast gateway (MBMS-gateway, MBMS-GW): performs broadcast session management functions (e.g., completing the start, update, and end of an MBMS session in cooperation with the BM-SC and the RAN), receives user-plane data sent by the BMSC and sends to the corresponding RAN over the M1 interface, and assigns a RAN multicast receive address.

Mobility Management Entity (MME): mobility management function: a broadcast session management function is performed.

RAN: and executing a broadcast session management function, receiving service data from the MBMS-GW, and sending the service data to the UE positioned in the broadcast coverage area from an air interface broadcast channel.

The technical scheme provided by the application is described as follows.

In the technical scheme of the application, in order to avoid the problems that service continuity is not maintained favorably, such as service delay and service interruption caused by RAT switching and reconstruction or switching of a user plane path, in the process of moving between broadcast coverage areas of two networks adopting different access technologies, of terminal equipment receiving multicast or broadcast, an interworking architecture for the two networks is provided, transmission of broadcast service data is realized based on the interworking architecture, service delay can be reduced, and service continuity is ensured.

It should be noted that the two networks related to the interworking architecture provided in the present application refer to networks that the terminal device needs to access by using different access technologies, for example, a 5G network and a 4G network, and a 5G network and a 6G network. Hereinafter, the two networks are referred to as a first network and a second network, respectively, i.e., the first network may be a 5G network and the second network may be a 4G network, or the first network may be a 6G network, the second network may be a 5G network, etc.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method provided in the present application.

210. The application server obtains broadcast RAT capability information for a group of terminal devices.

The application server may be a functional entity providing a specific application service, for example, a server functional entity providing a vertical application service such as a car networking service, a drone service, a video service, and the like. The application server may also be an enabling server (e.g., mobile communication network (EPS, 5 GS)) that provides an application enabling capability, specifically, a unicast/multicast/broadcast transmission capability for the application service server, for example, a network resource management server (network resource management server) in an application enabling architecture of 3GPP SA6, or a group communication enabled server (group communication enabled server). Or the server may be other platform type servers with unicast/multicast/broadcast transmission capability, such as edge enabled server (edge enabled server). When the application server is a communication transport enabled server or a platform server, a plurality of application service servers can be served. Wherein the broadcast RAT capability information is to indicate a type of wireless broadcast capability of the group of terminal devices, the type of wireless broadcast capability including at least one of a broadcast supporting a first network and a broadcast supporting a second network. In other words, the types of the wireless broadcast capability include a broadcast supporting the first network and not supporting the second network, a broadcast supporting the second network and not supporting the first network, and a broadcast supporting the first network and the second broadcast.

Further, the broadcast RAT capability information may also be used to indicate whether the group of terminal devices supports receiving broadcasts in an idle state, i.e., the broadcast RAT capability information includes a capability of supporting receiving broadcasts in an idle state (idle mode) and a capability of receiving broadcasts only in a connected state (connected mode). Specifically, the broadcast RAT capability information may be 4G broadcast, 5G multicast, 5G broadcast, etc.

In addition, the group of terminal devices may be a group of terminal devices composed according to multicast, such as a set of users subscribing to a same Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) channel, or may also be a group of terminal devices composed according to service types, such as a set of internet of things (IoT) devices, or a group of terminal devices composed according to a service organization structure of an application layer, such as a branch of police or a department of a hospital, or may also be a group of terminal devices divided according to a broadcast service area, such as all terminal devices located in a same sports venue, and the basis for the composition of the group of terminal devices is not limited herein.

220. The application server determines the type of broadcast service to be established (or to be established) according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices.

Optionally, in step 220, the application server determines that the type of the broadcast service to be established may include a broadcast of the first network, a multicast of the first network, a broadcast of the second network, and several situations, such as a broadcast of the first network and a broadcast of the second network, a multicast of the first network and a broadcast of the second network. The following describes detailed procedures for establishing a broadcast of a first network, establishing a broadcast of a second network, and establishing a broadcast of the first network and a broadcast of the second network, respectively, for each architecture.

In the following embodiment, when the first network is a 5G network, the broadcast of the first network may be replaced by multicast of the first network, that is, a multicast establishment procedure of the first network. And under the condition that the second network is the 4G network, replacing the broadcast of the second network with the multicast of the second network, namely obtaining the establishment flow of the multicast of the second network. Hereinafter, only the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network are taken as an example for description, and according to the establishment procedure under the converged architecture of the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network provided by the present application, a person skilled in the art can obtain the multicast of the first network and the establishment procedure under the converged architecture of the multicast of the second network.

The following describes two system architectures provided in the present application.

Framework 1

In the architecture 1, the application server establishes the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network by interfacing with the core network of the first network and the core network of the second network, respectively, and there may be no interface between the core network of the first network and the core network of the second network.

The architecture 1 will be described below by taking an example in which the first network is a 5G network and the second network is a 4G network.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an interworking architecture of a 4G network and a 5G network provided in the present application. AS shown in fig. 7, an N6 interface connection is established between the AS and a User Plane Function (UPF) of the 5GC, and an MB2 interface connection is established between the AS and a BM-SC of the 4G, wherein the MB2 interface connection includes MB2-C and MB 2-U.

The AS establishes the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network, and sends the description information of the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network to the UE, wherein the description information of the broadcast is used for describing the attribute of the broadcast and is used for the UE to receive the broadcast service data. The AS may send the description information of the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network to the UE before the UE sends the broadcast service data or before the UE switches to another network. For example, when the UE currently accesses the first network, the AS sends the description information of the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network to the UE, or when the UE currently accesses the second network, the AS sends the description information of the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network to the UE. The AS may carry the description information of the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network in the same message to the UE, or may carry the description information of the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network in two separate messages to the UE. In the moving process, under the condition that the UE moves from the broadcast coverage area of one network to the broadcast coverage area of another network, the UE can receive the broadcast service data by adopting the broadcast description information of the currently accessed network, so that the switching or reconstruction of a user plane path is avoided, the switching time delay can be reduced, and the continuity of the broadcast service data is ensured.

For convenience of explanation, it is assumed hereinafter that the first network is a 5G network and the second network is a 4G network.

Case 1

Establishing a broadcast of a first network

The process of the AS triggering the establishment of the broadcast of the first network is explained below in connection with fig. 8.

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of AS triggering the broadcast of establishing a 5G network.

301. The application server sends a broadcast service request to a control plane network element of a core network of the first network. The broadcast service request is used to request to establish a broadcast of the first network, and the broadcast established in the first network by triggering of the application server is referred to as the first broadcast hereinafter.

In one example, in a 5G network, a control plane network element of the 5GC may be a PCF or an SMF, and a user plane functional network element of the 5GC may be a UPF.

It should be noted that, in this application, the first broadcast refers to a broadcast transmission path from a user plane network element of a core network of the first network to an access network of the first network, and from the access network of the first network to the terminal device. Thus, establishing the first broadcast means establishing a broadcast transmission path from a user plane network element of a core network of the first network to the terminal device. And in the process of triggering the establishment of the first broadcast by the application server, the establishment of the user plane connection between the application server and the user plane network element of the core network of the first network is also completed, that is, the N6 interface connection. The user plane network element of the core network of the first network is a user plane functional network element for transmitting data of the broadcast service, and specifically may be a broadcast service anchor point user plane functional network element.

Similarly, "establishing a second broadcast" appearing hereinafter means establishing a broadcast transmission path from a user plane network element of a core network of the second network to an access network of the second network, and from the access network of the second network to the terminal device. The user plane network element of the core network of the second network is a user plane network element used for transmitting data of the broadcast service, and may specifically be a BM-SC of the 4G network.

The broadcast service request may carry QoS requirements of the service, an advertisement mode of the service (for example, sent by an application or sent by a network), coverage area information of the service, and description information of the service, such as a start time of the service and an end time of the service.

Optionally, in an example, if the application server has previously obtained the identifier of the first broadcast from the control plane network element, the broadcast service request may also carry the identifier of the first broadcast.

Taking the first network as a 5G network as an example, the identifier of the first broadcast may be a fifth generation group identifier (5 GGI).

302. The control plane network element of the first network acquires user plane address information of a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network, where the user plane address information may include an IP address and a port number of the user plane function network element, or a downlink tunnel identifier of an N6 interface.

Optionally, in an example, the control plane network element may allocate the user plane address information of the user plane function network element to the user plane function network element, and send the user plane address information to the user plane function network element.

Optionally, in another example, the user plane address information of the user plane function network element may also be allocated by the user plane function network element and sent to the control plane network element.

Optionally, the control plane network element allocates an identity of the first broadcast.

Optionally, the control plane network element obtains description information of the first broadcast.

303. And the control plane network element returns a response message to the application server, wherein the response message carries the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element.

Optionally, in some examples, the response message further includes an identifier of the first broadcast, description information of the first broadcast, and the like. The identification of the first broadcast is used for identifying the first broadcast, and the description information of the first broadcast is used for describing the attribute of the first broadcast. For example, the description information of the first broadcast may include a frequency (frequency) of the first broadcast at which data is transmitted over the air interface, a broadcast service area identifier (mbs id), and other relevant configuration parameters of the first broadcast, and may refer to TS 26.346 in detail.

Optionally, the identifier of the first broadcast and the description information of the first broadcast may be sent to the application server by the control plane network element through two messages, or may also be sent through one message, which is not limited. In one example, the identification of the first broadcast may be included in descriptive information of the first broadcast.

Subsequently, the application server may send an identification of the first broadcast and description information of the first broadcast to the group of UEs. The description information of the first broadcast is used for the UE to receive broadcast service data from the first broadcast, and specifically may also be used for the UE to join in the first broadcast in a network layer.

The application server subsequently uses the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element to send the broadcast service data to the user plane functional network element. Further, the user plane functional network element sends the broadcast service data to a corresponding access network, and finally the access network sends the broadcast service data to the corresponding UE.

In another example, the application server may request the control plane network element to obtain the identity of the first broadcast in advance, and the control plane network element returns one or a set of broadcast service identities to the application server based on the request of the application server. After obtaining the identifier of the first broadcast, the application server executes the process illustrated in fig. 8 to request the establishment of the first broadcast.

In this case, the broadcast service request in step 301 may carry the identity of the first broadcast, and the control plane network element may not reallocate the identity of the first broadcast in step 302.

Case 1

Establishing a broadcast of a second network

The procedure for the AS to establish the broadcast of the second network is described below in conjunction with fig. 9.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a flow chart of broadcast bearer of the AS-enabled 4G network.

401. And the application server sends an MBMS bearer activation request to the BM-SC, wherein the MBMS bearer activation request is used for requesting the BM-SC to establish the broadcast of the second network, and the broadcast established by the application server in the second network is referred to as a second broadcast hereinafter.

Alternatively, the MBMS bearer of the 4G network is sometimes referred to herein as a broadcast bearer of the 4G network.

Optionally, as an example, the MBMS bearer activation request may carry an identifier of the second broadcast and one or more of the following information: QoS requirements of a service, coverage area information of the service, an announcement mode of the service, description information of the service, for example, a start time of the service and an end time of the service, and the like.

402. BM-SC triggers the establishment or update of MBMS load, and establishes or updates broadcast session.

403. And the BM-SC returns a response message to the application server, wherein the response message carries the user plane address information of the BM-SC.

The user plane address information of the BM-SC may include information such as a user plane IP address and a port number of the BM-SC.

Optionally, in some examples, the response message further includes an identifier of the second broadcast, description information of the second broadcast, and the like. The identifier of the second broadcast is used to identify the second broadcast, and if the second network is a 4G network, the identifier of the second broadcast may be a TMGI. The description information of the second broadcast is used to describe the attribute of the second broadcast, for example, the description information of the second broadcast may include a frequency of sending data over an air interface of the second broadcast, a broadcast service area identifier, and other relevant configuration parameters of the second broadcast, and refer to TS 26.346 in detail.

After receiving the response message, the application server may send the description information of the second broadcast to the UE. Wherein the description information of the second broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the second broadcast.

Or, the description information of the second broadcast is used for the UE to receive the broadcast service data from the second broadcast.

404. In the MBMS conversation process triggered by BM-SC, BM-SC allocates the air interface broadcast resource of RAN for MBMS bearing successfully.

Optionally, the flow shown in fig. 9 may further include step 405.

405. The BMSC sends MBMS sending state indication information to the application server, which is used for indicating whether the MBMS transmission resource allocation is successful.

Subsequently, when the application server has broadcast service data to send, the user plane address information of the BM-SC is used as the next hop communication address to send the broadcast service data to the BM-SC, in step 406.

406. The application server transmits the broadcast service data from the activated MBMS bearer.

After receiving the broadcast service data from the application server, the BM-SC transmits the MBMS bearer (i.e., broadcast bearer) established in step 402 to a group of UEs located in a service area of the second broadcast.

Case 3

Establishing a broadcast of a first network and a broadcast of a second network

In the architecture 1, the application server may specifically establish a first broadcast with the first network and a second broadcast with the second network.

Specifically, the flow for establishing the first broadcast by the application server and the first network may refer to the flow chart in fig. 8, and the flow for establishing the second broadcast by the application server and the second network may refer to the flow chart in fig. 9, which is not described herein again.

According to the above architecture 1, based on the procedure of establishing the first broadcast in the case 1, the application server obtains the description information of the first broadcast from the control plane network element of the first network, and based on the procedure of establishing the second broadcast in the case 2, the application server obtains the description information of the second broadcast from the broadcast network element of the second network. After acquiring the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast, the application server sends the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast to the UE.

In the architecture 1, the application server simultaneously maintains the broadcast transmission paths of the two networks, and sends the description information of the broadcasts of the two networks to the UE in advance, so as to ensure that the UE can immediately receive the broadcast service data sent on the broadcast path of the network to which the UE is currently accessed under the condition that the UE moves from the broadcast coverage area of one network to the broadcast coverage area of the other network, thereby facilitating to enhance the service continuity of the mobile UE in the broadcast coverage areas of different networks, reducing the service delay caused by the movement of the UE in the broadcast coverage areas of different networks, and avoiding possible service interruption.

It should be noted that, as described herein, the application server sending the description information of the broadcasts of the two networks "in advance" to the UE means that the UE receives the description information of the broadcast corresponding to the network before receiving data from the network side or before not accessing the network. Therefore, after the UE moves to the broadcast coverage area of the network and accesses the network, the broadcast service data of the network can be received, and the service continuity is enhanced.

Framework 2

In architecture 2, the application server interfaces with the core network of the first network, and then interfaces with the core network of the second network.

Taking the first network as a 5G network and the second network as a 4G network as an example, the application server interfaces with the 5GC, and the 5GC and the EPC interface, thereby completing network interfacing of 4G broadcast and 5G broadcast.

Referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of another interworking architecture of a 4G network and a 5G network provided in the present application. AS shown in fig. 10, the AS interfaces with the 5GC, specifically, an N6 interface is established between the UPFs of the AS and the 5GC, and a control plane connection is established between the AS and a control plane network element (e.g., PCF or SMF) of the 5 GC.

For example, AS an example, in fig. 10, an N5 interface is established between an AS and a PCF of a 5 GC. The UPF of the 5GC is used AS the user plane function of the AS to establish MB2-U connection with the BM-SC, and the control plane network element of the 5GC is used AS the control plane function of the AS to establish MB2-C connection with the BM-SC.

In addition, in the architecture 2, a control plane network element of a core network of the first network interfacing with the AS may be specifically a PCF, or an SMF, which is not limited herein.

It should be noted that the control plane function and the user plane function of the core network of some networks are respectively deployed on different network elements, for example, 5G UPF and PCF/SMF, and the control plane function and the user plane function of the core network of some networks are integrally deployed on one network element, for example, 4G BM-SC. In this application, a network element in which the control plane functions of the core network are integrated with the user plane functions is referred to as a broadcast network element.

In the architecture 2, the step 220 may also include several cases, such as establishing a broadcast of the first network, establishing a broadcast of the second network, and establishing a broadcast of the first network and a broadcast of the second network, which are described below.

Case 1

A broadcast of the first network is established.

In architecture 2, if the application server establishes the broadcast of the first network, the same procedure as the establishment in architecture 1 is followed. That is, the application server establishes a control plane connection with a control plane network element of the 5GC, and simultaneously establishes a user plane connection, for example, an N6 interface connection, with a user plane functional network element of the 5 GC.

The process of establishing the first broadcast of the first network refers to fig. 8 and its description, which are not described herein again.

As can be known from the process of establishing the first broadcast in the above architecture 1, by establishing the first broadcast, the control plane network element of the first network sends the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element of the first network to the application server, so that the application server sends the broadcast service data to the user plane functional network element by taking the user plane address of the user plane functional network element as a destination address of a next hop under the condition that the broadcast service data is sent. In addition, AS described in fig. 8 above, the AS establishes the first broadcast through the control plane network element of the 5GC, and the AS may acquire description information of the first broadcast from the control plane network element. Further, the AS may send the description information obtained for the first broadcast to the UE receiving the broadcast service data.

In addition, the control plane network element also provides the address information of the application server to the user plane functional network element. According to the address information of the application server, the user plane functional network element can distinguish from which application server the received service data comes from.

Case 2

Establishing a broadcast of a second network

In architecture 2, if the application server establishes the broadcast of the second network, since there is no interface between the application server and the second network, it is necessary to establish a connection between the core network of the first network and the broadcast network element of the second network, which is different from architecture 1.

The following description will proceed with reference to fig. 11, taking the first network as a 5G network and the second network as a 4G network as an example.

Referring to fig. 11, fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a broadcast of an AS establishing a 4G network through a 5GC, which is provided in the present application.

501. The application server sends a broadcast service request to a control plane network element of a core network of the first network. The broadcast service request is used for requesting to establish a second broadcast, and the broadcast service request may carry an identifier of the second broadcast or indication information of the second network broadcast. For example, the second network is a 4G network, the identity of the second broadcast may be the TMGI. The indication information broadcasted by the second network may be indication information of an Evolved Packet System (EPS), 4G broadcast, and the like.

The control plane network element receives a broadcast service request from an application server.

502. And the control plane network element is used as the role of the application server to activate the 4G broadcast bearer.

For the process of activating the 4G broadcast bearer by the control plane network element of the 5G network, see fig. 9, specifically, the GAS AS shown in fig. 9 may be replaced by the control plane network element of the core network of the first network, and details are not described here.

It can be appreciated that through the corresponding procedure of step 502 (see fig. 9 and the description thereof in particular), the control plane network element of the first network may obtain the user plane address information of the broadcast network element (e.g., BM-SC) of the second network and may provide it to the user plane function network element of the first network.

In addition, the control plane network element of the 5G network may send a broadcast service activation request (e.g., the MBMS bearer activation request shown in fig. 9) to the broadcast network element of the 4G network, and obtain the description information of the second broadcast through a procedure of activating the 4G broadcast bearer, and provide the description information to the AS. Further, the AS may send the description information of the second broadcast acquired from the control plane network element of the 5G network to the UE receiving the broadcast service data in the 4G network.

Case 3

A broadcast of a first network and a broadcast of a second network are established.

It can be understood that, in the architecture 2, the case 1 may be referred to for the broadcast for establishing the first network by the application server, and the case 2 may be referred to for the flow for establishing the broadcast for establishing the second network by the application server, so that the first broadcast and the second broadcast may be established, which is not described herein again.

According to the above architecture 2, based on the procedure of establishing the first broadcast in the case 1, the application server obtains the description information of the first broadcast from the control plane network element of the first network, and based on the procedure of establishing the second broadcast in the case 2, the application server obtains the description information of the second broadcast from the control plane network element of the first network. After acquiring the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast, the application server sends the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast to the UE.

In the framework 2, the application server simultaneously maintains the broadcast transmission paths of the two networks, and sends the description information of the broadcasts of the two networks to the UE in advance, so as to ensure that the UE can immediately receive the broadcast service data sent on the broadcast path of the network to which the UE is currently accessed when moving from one network to the other network, thereby facilitating to enhance the service continuity of the mobile UE in the broadcast coverage areas of different networks, reducing the service delay caused by the movement of the UE in the broadcast coverage areas of different networks, and avoiding possible service interruption.

Regardless of the architecture 1 or the architecture 2 described above, after establishing the first broadcast and the second broadcast, the application server transmits the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast to the terminal device, as in step 230.

230. The application server sends the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast to the group of terminal devices.

In one embodiment, in step 220 above, in the case where the application server determines to establish the first broadcast, in step 230, the application server transmits description information of the first broadcast to the terminal device.

Alternatively, in step 220, in the case where the application server determines to establish the second broadcast, in step 230, the application server transmits description information of the second broadcast to the terminal device.

Alternatively, in step 220, in the case where the application server determines that the first broadcast and the second broadcast are established, in step 230, the application server transmits description information of the first broadcast and description information of the second broadcast to the terminal device.

In another embodiment of the present application, after acquiring the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of UEs, the application server establishes the first broadcast and the second broadcast by default, and sends the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast to the terminal device. Therefore, the application server can use the established broadcast when the broadcast service data is transmitted.

Accordingly, each terminal device in the group of terminal devices receives the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast.

Subsequently, the terminal device receives the broadcast service data according to the accessed network by using the corresponding description information of the broadcast, in step 240.

240. Under the condition that terminal equipment is accessed to a first network, receiving broadcast service data of a first broadcast from the first network by adopting description information of the first broadcast; or, the terminal device receives broadcast service data of a second broadcast from a second network by using description information of the second broadcast under the condition of accessing the second network.

According to the technical scheme provided by the application server, the application server simultaneously maintains the broadcast transmission paths of the two networks and forwards the description information of the broadcasts of the two networks to the UE, so that the UE can immediately receive the broadcast service data sent on the broadcast path of the network to which the UE is currently accessed when moving from one network to the other network, the service continuity of the mobile UE in the broadcast coverage areas of different networks is further enhanced, the service delay caused by the movement of the UE in the broadcast coverage areas of different networks can be reduced, and possible service interruption is avoided.

Optionally, in step 210, there are various ways for the application server to obtain the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices, which is described below with reference to fig. 12.

Referring to fig. 12, fig. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an application server obtaining broadcast RAT capability information of a terminal device according to the present application.

For example, as shown in fig. 12 1a, an application client (app client) on the UE acquires broadcast RAT capability information of the UE from the UE where the application client is located, and reports the acquired broadcast RAT capability information to the application server.

Alternatively, the application client may obtain the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE through an operating system of the UE or from an underlying layer of the UE. The underlying layer of the UE may be, for example, a Non Access Stratum (NAS) layer, a physical layer, or a chip of the UE.

In addition, the application client may report the broadcast RAT capability of the UE to the application server multiple times. For example, the application client may report upon detecting that the UE is connected to the application server, or the application client may report upon a change in the broadcast RAT capability of the UE. As some examples, the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE may be carried in a registration (registration) message, or an association request (affinity request) message, a group call request, or a response message sent by the UE to the application server. Alternatively, the application client may report the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE through an independent message.

The application server determines broadcast RAT capability information for a group of UEs based on broadcast RAT capability information for each UE in the group or for a specified number of UEs (e.g., more than half of the total number of the group of UEs).

For example, when the broadcast RAT capability of at least one UE in the group of UEs is to support 4G broadcasting, the application server determines that the broadcast RAT capability of the group of UEs includes support of 4G broadcasting.

For another example, if the broadcast RAT capability of at least one UE in the group of UEs is to support 4G broadcast and 5G broadcast, or the number of UEs in the group of UEs having broadcast RAT capabilities to support 4G and 5G exceeds a preset threshold, or the number of UEs having broadcast RAT capabilities to support 4G and 5G exceeds a preset ratio, the application server determines that the broadcast RAT capabilities of the group of UEs include support 4G broadcast and 5G broadcast.

For another example, if the broadcast RAT capability information of each UE in the group of UEs is only capable of 4G broadcasting, or the number of UEs only capable of 4G broadcasting exceeds a preset threshold, or the number of UEs only capable of 4G broadcasting exceeds a preset ratio, the application server determines that the broadcast RAT capability of the group of UEs is that the group of UEs only capable of 4G broadcasting does not support 5G broadcasting.

For another example, if the broadcast RAT capability information of each UE in the group of UEs is 5G broadcast capable, or the number of UEs that only support 5G broadcast exceeds a preset threshold, or the number of UEs that only support 5G broadcast exceeds a preset ratio, the application server determines that the broadcast RAT capability of the group of UEs is 4G broadcast not supported by only 5G broadcast.

It should be noted that the UE described above supports only 4G broadcast or only 5G broadcast, with respect to the UE supporting both 4G broadcast and 5G broadcast. That is, one UE supports 4G broadcasting but not 5G broadcasting, i.e., only 4G broadcasting is supported for the UE. One UE supports 5G broadcast but not 4G broadcast, i.e. only 5G broadcast is supported for the UE.

In addition, a UE supports only 4G broadcast or only 5G broadcast, which only represents a description of the broadcast RAT capability of the UE and should not limit other capabilities of the UE.

Optionally, the broadcast RAT capability information may specifically be description information of the broadcast RAT capability, such as "4G broadcast supported", "5G broadcast supported", and may also be indication information of the broadcast RAT capability, such as UE radio capability identity (UE radio capability ID). The UE radio capability identifier is used to index a radio capability parameter set of the UE, one UE may have multiple radio capability configurations (profiles), and each configuration may be indexed by one UE radio capability identifier. The mode that the application client reports the radio capability ID of the UE to the application server can save air interface resources. At this time, the application server acquires the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE in the manner of fig. 12.

Optionally, the application client reports, to the application server, a broadcast RAT currently used by the UE, that is, a broadcast RAT at which the UE receives broadcast data, or a broadcast RAT at which the UE can receive broadcast data. For example, "currently using 4G broadcast", "currently using 5G multicast", currently being able to use 4G broadcast "," currently being able to use 5G multicast ". In a dual connectivity scenario, for example, the UE connects to 4G broadcast and 5G broadcast simultaneously, the application client needs to report all broadcast RATs accessed by the UE. The application server can determine the broadcast RAT capability of the UE according to the reported broadcast RAT currently used by the UE, and further can determine the broadcast RAT capability of the group of UE and the statistic condition of the broadcast RAT currently used by the group of UE.

The application client can also report the cell currently accessed by the UE to the application server only, and the application server determines the broadcast RAT currently used by the UE according to the cell currently accessed by the UE. For example, the cells of 4G and 5G are planned separately (the cells of 4G and 5G have globally unique cell IDs), and the application client reports an identifier of a cell currently accessed by the UE, such as a cell identifier (cell ID), a tracking area identifier (TA ID), or a Service Area Identification (SAI), to the application server. The application server judges the broadcast RAT currently used by the UE according to the cell identification, and further can determine the broadcast RAT capability of the group of UE and the currently applicable broadcast RAT statistical condition thereof.

As shown in fig. 12 at 1c, the application server obtains the broadcast RAT capabilities of the group of terminal devices from UCMF via NEF.

Specifically, as an example, the following implementations may be included:

in the first mode, the application server acquires the wireless capability information of the UE through the NEF, and acquires the broadcast RAT capability of the UE from the wireless capability information.

At this time, the application server sends a subscription request for the wireless capabilities of the set of terminal devices to the NEF, and the subscription request may include UE radio capability IDs of the set of UEs. Wherein the UE radio capability IDs of the set of UEs may be provided by the application client to the application server. The NEF sends a UE radio capability subscription request to the UCMF for requesting radio capability information of the group of UEs. And the UCMF returns the wireless capability information corresponding to the UE radio capability IDs to the NEF, wherein the wireless capability information comprises the broadcast RAT capability information or RAT capability information of the UE. The NEF returns the wireless capability information corresponding to the UE radio capability IDs to the application server. And the application server determines the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE according to the wireless capability information corresponding to the UE radio capability IDs. Specifically, when the radio capability information of the UE includes the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE, the application server uses the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE included in the radio capability information as the broadcast capability information of the UE, and determines the broadcast RAT capability information of a group of UEs according to the broadcast RAT capability information of each UE or a specific number (for example, more than half of the total number of the group of UEs) of the group of UEs. For example, when the broadcast RAT capability of at least one UE in the group of UEs supports 4G broadcasting, the application server determines that the broadcast RAT capability of the group of UEs includes support of 4G broadcasting; or, if the broadcast RAT capability of at least one UE in the group of UEs supports 4G broadcast and 5G broadcast, the application server determines that the broadcast RAT capability of the group of UEs includes support of 4G broadcast and 5G broadcast.

And secondly, the application server acquires the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE from the NEF, and the NEF acquires the broadcast RAT capability of the UE from the wireless capability information returned by the UCMF.

The application server sends a subscription request for broadcast RAT capabilities of the set of terminal devices to the NEF, which may include UE radio capability IDs of the set of UEs. Wherein the UE radio capability IDs of the set of UEs may be provided by the application client to the application server. And the NEF sends a subscription request to the UCMF, wherein the subscription request is used for requesting the wireless capability information corresponding to the UE radio capability IDs of the group of UE. And the NEF judges the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE respectively corresponding to the UE radio capability IDs according to the radio capability information corresponding to the UE radio capability IDs returned by the UCMF and sends the radio capability information to the application server. And the application server obtains the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of UE according to the obtained broadcast RAT capability information of each UE. Or the NEF obtains the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of UEs according to the broadcast RAT capability information of each UE, and sends the broadcast RAT capability information to the application server. The NEF may refer to the description of the application server obtaining the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminals in the first embodiment.

And thirdly, the application server acquires the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE from the NEF, and the NEF acquires the broadcast RAT capability information of the UE from the UCMF.

The application server sends a subscription request for broadcast RAT capabilities of the set of terminal devices to the NEF, which may include UE radio capability IDs of the set of UEs. Wherein the UE radio capability IDs of the set of UEs may be provided by the application client to the application server. The NEF sends a subscription request to the UCMF, and the subscription request is used for requesting broadcast RAT capability information corresponding to UE radio capability IDs of the group of UE. The UCMF determines broadcast RAT information of the UE according to the radio capability information of the UE corresponding to the radio capability IDs of the UE (one possible way is that the radio capability information includes the broadcast RAT capability information, and the other possible way is that the UCMF determines that the UE supports the broadcast RAT of the corresponding RAT according to the RAT capability information of the UE). The UCMF sends broadcast RAT capability information corresponding to UE radio capability IDs to the NEF. At this time, the NEF may transmit the received broadcast RAT capability information to the application server in the above manner, or the NEF derives the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminals and then transmits to the application server.

In the above three ways, where the subscription request indicates one subscription, a notification of the subscription request (i.e., a response message to the subscription request) is received multiple times, where the notification may be periodic or event-triggered, for example, the UE switches the network to access. Alternatively, the subscription request may be a single request message, i.e. a response message for the request message is received only once.

For another example, as shown in 1b in fig. 12, the application server acquires information on reachability of the group of terminal devices in the network from the capability openness network element, and determines broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices according to the information on reachability.

Specifically, the application server may send a reachability subscription request to the SCEF/NEF, where the reachability subscription request includes an identifier of the group of terminal devices or an identifier of a group to which the group of terminal devices belongs, so as to subscribe to a reachability event of the group of terminal devices. And after the SCEF/NEF receives the reachable events or messages of the group of terminal equipment, returning the reachability notification messages of the group of terminal equipment to the application server. And the application server determines the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal equipment according to the accessibility of the group of terminal equipment. For example, when the application server acquires the reachability notification message of at least one terminal in the group of terminal devices from the SCEF, the application server considers that the group of terminals supports 4G broadcasting. For another example, when the application server acquires the reachability notification message of at least one terminal device in the group of terminal devices from the NEF, the application server considers that the group of terminals supports 5G broadcasting. For another example, when the application server obtains the reachability notification message of at least one terminal device in the group of terminal devices from the SCEF and the NEF simultaneously or sequentially, that is, the at least one terminal device appears in the 4G network and the 5G network sequentially, the application server considers that the broadcast RAT capabilities of the group of terminal devices support the 4G broadcast and the 5G broadcast. Further, the application server may determine a broadcast RAT currently used by the set of terminal devices based on reachability of the set of terminal devices. In a dual connectivity scenario, for example, the UE connects to the 4G broadcast and the 5G broadcast simultaneously, where the core network is required to obtain or store information of two access RATs of the UE, the application server may obtain all broadcast RATs currently used by the UE from the SCEF/NEF.

For another example, as shown in fig. 12 d, a Group Management Server (GMS), a user data configuration server (CSC server), or a user database (user database) acquires the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of UEs through the above-mentioned 1b,1c or pre-configuration, and then provides the broadcast RAT capability information to the application server.

Further, in step 220, the application server determines the type of the broadcast service to be established according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices.

In one example, the application server determines the type of broadcast service to be established, e.g., establishing the first broadcast or establishing the second broadcast, or establishing the first broadcast and the second broadcast, based on the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices.

For example, when the application server determines that the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices supports the first broadcast and supports the second broadcast, the application server determines that the types of the broadcast service to be established are the first broadcast and the second broadcast, that is, the first broadcast of the first network and the second broadcast of the second network need to be established at the same time. When the application server determines that the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices only supports the first broadcast, the application server determines that the type of the broadcast service to be established is the first broadcast. And when the application server determines that the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal equipment only supports the second broadcast, the application server determines that the type of the broadcast service to be established is the second broadcast.

In another example, the application server determines the type of the broadcast service to be established according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices, in combination with one or more of the following information, which may also be understood as determining the type of the broadcast service required by the service:

location information of the group of terminal devices;

information of broadcast reception quality of the group of terminal devices;

the distribution of the group of terminal devices in the area covered by the first network and the area covered by the second network;

the number of terminal devices of the set of terminal devices that support broadcasting of the first network and the number of terminal devices that support broadcasting of the second network;

a network to which the set of terminal devices currently access, the network including the first network and the second network;

the core network type accessed by the group of terminal equipment;

service information of the group of terminal devices;

broadcast capability information of a base station serving the set of terminal devices;

an association status (affinity status) of a network to which the group of terminal devices currently access and the group of terminal devices;

a network to which the set of terminal devices currently access, a current state of a base station serving the set of terminal devices, and an association status (affinity status) of the set of terminal devices. Alternatively, in one example, the broadcast reception quality of a terminal device may be divided into several levels, in which case the broadcast reception quality of a terminal device may be characterized by the level to which the broadcast reception quality of the terminal device belongs.

For example, the broadcast reception quality may be divided into 3 levels, level 1, level 2, and level 3, respectively. The broadcast receiving quality corresponding to the level 1 is the best, the broadcast receiving quality corresponding to the level 3 is the worst, and the level 2 is between the level 1 and the level 2.

Optionally, in an example, the application server obtains a core network type accessed by the terminal device.

For example, the application server subscribes the core network type accessed by the terminal device from the SCEF and NEF co-deployment node, and acquires the core network type currently accessed by the UE according to the subscription information.

For another example, the application server requests and obtains the core network type accessed by the terminal device from the PCF according to the IP address of the terminal device.

For another example, the terminal device reports the type of the core network accessed to the application server, and the application server determines the type of the core network accessed by the terminal device according to the reported information of the terminal device.

Optionally, in one example, the application server obtains capability information of a base station serving the terminal device.

For example, when the terminal device is in a connected state, the application server receives, from the terminal device or a core network to which the terminal device is connected, broadcast capability information of a base station serving the terminal device, where the broadcast capability information of the base station may be used to indicate whether the base station supports a broadcast of a first network or a broadcast of a second network. It should be understood that the terminal device may report the broadcast capability information of the base station serving the terminal device to the server of the application when initially accessing the base station or switching the base station.

For another example, when the terminal device is in an idle state, the terminal device may be woken up so that the terminal device is in a connected state, and then the application server receives broadcast capability information of a base station serving the terminal device from the terminal device or a core network to which the terminal device is connected. Specifically, for example, downlink data is sent to the terminal device in an idle state, and the downlink data needs to be sent to the terminal device through the core network, so that the core network needs to wake up the terminal device to be in a connected state, and at this time, the application server may receive broadcast capability information of a base station serving the terminal device from the terminal device or the core network connected to the terminal device.

For another example, the application server obtains broadcast capability information of base stations in an area, the scene may be applicable to public safety service, and the areas where terminals holding the public safety service perform tasks may be relatively fixed and concentrated, so that broadcast capability information of base stations serving the group of terminals may be determined in this way. It should be noted that, in a dual-connection scenario, the terminal device needs to report broadcast capability information of two base stations.

Optionally, in an example, the application server obtains service information of the terminal device.

For example, when the application server is an application service server, the application server obtains service information of a service to be transmitted by the terminal device through the application server; when the application server is a communication-enabled server or a platform server with communication capabilities, the application server may obtain service information from other application service servers, such as service type V2X, MCPTT/MCVideo/MCData, drone, etc.

The application server comprehensively determines the type of the broadcast service to be established according to the above information, which is exemplified below.

Optionally, in an example, the application server establishes the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network when the number of terminal devices, which simultaneously support the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network, in the group of terminal devices reaches a preset threshold, that is, in case 3 of the above-mentioned architecture 1 and architecture 2.

Alternatively, in another example, the application server decides the type of the broadcast service to be established according to the information of the broadcast reception quality of the group of terminal devices. For example, in a case where the number of terminal devices supporting the broadcast of the first network among the group of terminal devices reaches a first threshold value and the number of terminal devices supporting the broadcast of the second network reaches a second threshold value, the application server establishes the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network. For another example, in a case where the number of terminal apparatuses of the group of first terminal apparatuses whose level of broadcast reception quality reaches the first level reaches the second threshold value and the number of terminal apparatuses of the group of first terminal apparatuses whose level of broadcast reception quality reaches the second level reaches the third threshold value, the application server establishes the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network.

For another example, in another example, the application server does not establish the broadcast of the first network in a case that a number of terminal devices supporting the broadcast of the first network among the group of terminal devices does not reach a set threshold. Or, the application server does not establish the broadcast of the second network in the case that the number of terminal devices supporting the broadcast of the second network in the group of terminal devices does not reach the set threshold.

For another example, in another example, according to the location information of the group of terminal devices, if the number of terminal devices located in the broadcast coverage area of the first network does not reach a set threshold and the number of terminal devices located in the broadcast coverage area of the second network does not reach another set threshold, the application server does not establish the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network.

For another example, in another example, the type of broadcast service to be established is decided based on location information and broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices. For example, if the number of terminal devices supporting access to the first network among terminal devices located in a specific area (or in a specific group member) reaches a set threshold, the application server establishes a broadcast of the first network.

For another example, in another example, the type of broadcast service to be established is determined based on location information of the set of terminal devices, the type of core network accessed, the RAT currently used by the terminal device, and broadcast RAT capability information. For example, if the number of terminal devices located in a specific area (or in a specific group member), accessing to the core network of the first network through the access network corresponding to the first network and supporting the capability of Idle mode to receive the broadcast reaches a set threshold, the application server establishes the broadcast of the first network.

Optionally, in another example, the type of broadcast service to be established is determined according to the location information of the group of terminal devices, the type of core network accessed, the RAT currently used by the terminal device, the broadcast RAT capability information, and the capability information of the base station serving the terminal device. For example, if the number of terminal devices located in a specific area (or in a specific group member), accessing to the core network of the first network through the access network corresponding to the first network, supporting the capability of Idle mode to receive the broadcast, and supporting the broadcast transmission of the first network by the base station serving the terminal device reaches a set threshold, the application server establishes the broadcast of the first network.

For another example, in a case that the first network is a 5G network, the broadcast of the first network may be replaced by the multicast of the first network, and the multicast service type to be established may be determined according to the location information of the group of terminal devices, the type of core network accessed, the RAT currently used by the terminal device, and the broadcast RAT capability information. For example, if the number of terminal devices supporting Idle mode to receive broadcast does not reach the set threshold (that is, the terminal devices supporting receiving multicast of the first network reach the set threshold), the application server establishes multicast of the first network. Specifically, for example, if the number of terminal devices located in a specific area (or in a specific group member), accessing to the 5GC through NR, and supporting Idle mode to receive 5G broadcast reaches a set threshold, the application server establishes a 5G multicast service, for example, configures a multicast indication of the service to a core network element NEF, UDM/UDR, and PCF, where the multicast indication may be a multicast address, or an indication message allowing combined transmission.

For another example, in a case where the first network is a 5G network, the broadcast of the first network may be replaced by the multicast of the first network, and the multicast service type to be established may be determined according to the location information of the group of terminal devices, the type of core network to be accessed, the RAT currently used by the terminal device, the broadcast RAT capability information, and the capability information of the base station serving the terminal device. For example, if the number of terminal devices located in a specific area (or in a specific group member), accessing to the core network of the first network through the first network, supporting Idle mode to receive broadcast, and supporting multicast of the first network by the base station serving the terminal device reaches a set threshold, the application server establishes multicast of the first network.

For another example, in another example, the type of broadcast service to be established is decided based on location information, traffic information and broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices. For example, when the service type is MCPTT, if the number of terminal devices supporting access to the second network in a specific service area (or a specific group member) reaches a set threshold, the application server establishes a broadcast of the second network. For another example, when the service type is MCVideo, if the number of terminal devices supporting access to the first network in a specific service area (or in a specific group member) reaches a set threshold, the application server establishes a broadcast of the first network. For another example, in another example, the type of broadcast service to be established is determined according to the network currently accessed by the group of terminal devices and the association status of the group of terminal devices. For example, if the number of terminal devices accessing to the broadcast of the first network and being in the associated state reaches a set threshold, the application server establishes the broadcast of the first network; and if the multicast of the second network is accessed and the number of the terminal devices in the associated state reaches the set threshold value, the application server establishes the multicast of the second network. Specifically, for example, when the number of terminal devices associated (aftername) to a group and using 5G multicast in the group reaches a set threshold, the server determines to use the 5G multicast service for the communication service of the group.

For another example, in another example, the type of broadcast service to be established is determined according to a network currently accessed by the group of terminal devices, a current state of a base station serving the group of terminal devices, and an association state of the group of terminal devices. The current state of the base station serving the group of terminal devices includes a ratio of the number of terminal devices in a connected state currently accepted by the base station, or a ratio of resources used by the base station to process the connected terminal devices. For example, the application server establishes a broadcast of the first network when the number of terminal devices accessing the broadcast of the first network, being in an associated state and being connected to a particular base station reaches a certain threshold. Specifically, for example, when the number of terminal devices associated (aftername) to a group in the group, using 5G multicast, and connected to a specific base station reaches a set threshold N, the server decides to use the 5G multicast service for the group communication service. For another example, when the number of associated (aftercare) terminals in a group, which use 5G multicast and are connected to a specific base station, reaches a set threshold M, the server decides to use the 5G broadcast service for the communication traffic of the group. Generally, M > N.

It should be noted that some of the information in the above examples may reflect the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices, such as the broadcast reception quality information of the group of terminal devices, the information of the networks currently accessed by the group of terminal devices, and the broadcast capability information of the base station serving the group of terminal devices, in which case the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices does not need to be acquired separately.

Illustratively, the application server obtains location information of the group of terminal devices, a type of core network accessed, a RAT currently used by the terminal device, and capability information of a base station serving the terminal device, but does not obtain broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices, and determines a broadcast service type to be established. If the number of terminal devices which are located in a specific area (or in a specific group member), are accessed to a core network of the first network, support the capability of Idle mode for receiving the broadcast and support the broadcast transmission of the first network by a base station serving the terminal device reaches a set threshold value, the application server establishes the broadcast of the first network.

In other examples, the application server may not obtain the broadcast RAT capability information for the set of terminal devices separately when the broadcast RAT capability information for the set of terminal devices may be reflected by other information. The related schemes are similar to the above examples, and are not described herein again.

The above list is merely an example of determining what broadcast service type needs to be established by the application server, and the application server may determine what broadcast service type is established according to other combination determination methods, which is not limited.

The above describes methods for establishing different types of broadcast services in architecture 1 and architecture 2, and the following describes the transmission of broadcast service data after the broadcast establishment of the above network.

Similarly, in view of the difference between different architectures in the path of sending broadcast service data by the application server, the following description will be made for architecture 1 and architecture 2, respectively.

Framework 1

In the architecture 1, the transmission process of the broadcast service data is described for each type of the established different broadcast services.

Case 1

A first broadcast of a first network is established.

In the architecture 1, the application server directly interfaces with the core network of the first network, and establishes a user plane connection with a user plane functional network element of the core network of the first network. Thus, after the first broadcast is established, the application server may send the broadcast service data directly to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network.

The user plane functional network element receives the broadcast service data from the application server, sends the broadcast service data to the corresponding (R) AN, and then the (R) AN sends the broadcast service data to the corresponding terminal equipment.

Case 2

A second broadcast of a second network is established.

In architecture 1, the application server interfaces with a broadcast network element of the second network. After establishing the second broadcast, the application server may send the broadcast service data directly to a broadcast network element of the second network.

And the broadcasting network element of the second network receives the broadcasting service data from the application server, transmits the broadcasting service data to the corresponding RAN, and transmits the broadcasting service data to the corresponding terminal equipment by the RAN.

Case 3

A first broadcast of a first network and a second broadcast of a second network are established.

It can be understood that, in the case that the application server establishes the first broadcast and the second broadcast at the same time, the broadcast service data of the first broadcast is sent to the terminal device through the user plane function network element of the first network, and the broadcast service data of the second broadcast is sent to the terminal device through the broadcast network element of the second network.

Specifically, the application server may decide whether to transmit the broadcast service data of the first broadcast or whether to transmit the broadcast service data of the second broadcast based on some determination.

For example, when the number of terminal devices accessing a first network reaches a first threshold, an application server sends broadcast service data to a user plane function network element of the first network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and under the condition that the number of the terminal devices accessing the second network reaches a second threshold, the application server sends the broadcast service data to a broadcast network element of the second network.

For another example, when the number of terminal devices accessing the first network is lower than the first threshold, the application server stops sending broadcast service data to the user plane function network element of the first network; or, in the case that the number of terminal devices accessing the second network is lower than the second threshold, the application server stops sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

Further, after the application server stops transmitting the broadcast service data, the application server may resume transmission of the broadcast service data according to a change in the number of terminal devices accessing the first network or the second network, or based on some other factors.

Framework 2

In the architecture 2, since the application server is only connected to the core network of the first network, when the broadcast of the first network, the broadcast of the second network, or both the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network are established, the broadcast service data is transmitted through the user plane functional network element of the core network of the first network.

Specifically, the user plane functional network element of the first network receives the broadcast service data from the application server and sends the broadcast service data to the RAN of the first network and the broadcast network element of the second network, and then the RAN of the first network sends the broadcast service data to the terminal device in the first network that receives the broadcast service data, and the broadcast network element of the second network sends the broadcast service data to the RAN of the second network, and the RAN of the second network sends the broadcast service data to the terminal device in the second network that receives the broadcast service data.

Similarly to the architecture 1, the application server may decide whether to transmit the broadcast service data of the first broadcast or whether to transmit the broadcast service data of the second broadcast during the process of transmitting the broadcast service data based on some judgment.

For example, when the number of terminal devices accessing the second network is lower than the third threshold, the application server may notify the user plane functional network element of the first network through the signaling plane or the user plane, and stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

In one example, the application server directly sends first indication information to a user plane function network element of a first network, where the first indication information is used to instruct the user plane function network element to stop sending broadcast service data to a broadcast network element of a second network.

In another example, the application server sends first indication information to a control plane network element of the first network, where the first indication information is used to instruct the user plane function network element to stop sending broadcast service data to a broadcast network element of the second network. Further, the control plane function network element sends third indication information to the user plane function network element, where the third indication information is used to indicate the user plane function network element to stop sending broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network. The first indication information may be a request message sent by the application server to the control plane network element of the first network, and the third indication information may be a request message sent by the control plane function network element to the user plane function network element.

After the application server instructs the user plane functional network element of the first network to stop sending broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network, the sending of the broadcast service data may be resumed based on some other factors.

For example, in one example, the application server sends second indication information to the user plane function network element of the first network, where the second indication information is used to instruct the user plane function network element to resume sending broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network. Alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

in another example, the application server sends second indication information to a control plane network element of the first network, where the second indication information is used to instruct the user plane function network element to resume sending broadcast service data to a broadcast network element of the second network. And when the first network is in the first-network-address-first-network address distribution, the control plane function network element sends fourth indication information to the user plane function network element, wherein the fourth indication information is used for indicating the user plane function to restore and send broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network. The second indication information may be a request message sent by the application server to the control plane network element of the first network, and the fourth indication information may be a request message sent by the control plane function network element to the user plane function network element.

An example of a method for transmitting broadcast service data under architecture 1 and architecture 2 in the embodiment of the present application is given below.

Referring to fig. 13, fig. 13 is an example of a communication method provided in the present application.

601. Broadcast RAT capability information for an application server or a group of UEs.

Step 601 can refer to any one of the

ways

1a,1b,1c and 1d described in fig. 12, and will not be described herein again.

602. The application server obtains location information of the group of UEs. This step is optional.

603. The application server determines to establish the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network simultaneously according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of UEs and optionally according to the location information of the group of UEs.

In this embodiment, the application server decides to trigger the establishment of the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network.

Among them, a broadcast established in the first network is referred to as a first broadcast, and a broadcast established in the second network is referred to as a second broadcast.

It should be noted that, the determination of the type of triggering the establishment of the broadcast service by the application server may be described with reference to the above description, and in step 603, the application server determines to establish the first broadcast and the second broadcast according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of UEs and the location information thereof, which is only an example.

604. The application server triggers a first broadcast that establishes a first network.

In step 604, the application server triggers the establishment of the first broadcast, including the application server acquiring the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element of the core network of the first network, and acquiring the description information of the first broadcast from the control plane network element of the core network of the first network.

The detailed flow of step 604 may refer to fig. 8 and its description, which are not described herein again.

605. The application server triggers a second broadcast that establishes a second network.

In step 605, the application server triggers to establish the second broadcast, including the application server acquiring the user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network and acquiring the description information of the second broadcast from the broadcast network element of the second network.

The detailed flow of step 605 may refer to fig. 9 and its description, which are not described herein again.

606. The application server sends description information of the first broadcast and description information of the second broadcast to the group of UEs.

As described above, the description information of the first broadcast may include an identification of the first broadcast and configuration parameters of the first broadcast, and the description information of the second broadcast may include an identification of the second broadcast and configuration parameters of the second broadcast.

Further optionally, the description information of the first broadcast may also carry a group identification (group ID) or a service identification, and/or the description information of the second broadcast may carry a group identification or a service identification.

When the description information of the first broadcast carries the group identifier, broadcast service data indicating the terminal device group corresponding to the group identifier is sent by the first broadcast. Or, each UE in the terminal device group corresponding to the group identifier receives broadcast service data of the terminal device group using the description information of the first broadcast. Alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and under the condition that the description information of the first broadcast carries the service identifier, sending data which represents the service corresponding to the service identifier through the first broadcast. Or, each UE in the group of terminal devices receives the data of the service corresponding to the service identifier by using the description information of the first broadcast.

And under the condition that the description information of the second broadcast carries the group identification, the broadcast service data which represents the terminal equipment group corresponding to the group identification is transmitted through the second broadcast. Or, each UE in the terminal device group corresponding to the group identifier receives broadcast service data of the terminal device group using the description information of the second broadcast. Alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and under the condition that the description information of the second broadcast carries the service identification, sending data of the service corresponding to the service identification through the second broadcast. Or, each UE in the group of terminal devices receives the data of the service corresponding to the service identifier by using the description information of the second broadcast.

On the terminal side, each UE in the set of UEs receives description information of the first broadcast and description information of the second broadcast from the application server.

Assume that the first network is a 5G network and the second network is a 4G network.

607. After the first broadcast of the 5G network and the second broadcast of the 4G network are successfully activated, the application server transmits the broadcast service data.

Specifically, on the one hand, the AS sends broadcast service data to the BM-SC of the 4G network, AS shown in step 607a in fig. 13; on the other hand, the AS transmits the broadcast service data to the upf (multicast) of the 5G network, AS shown in step 607b in fig. 13.

Whether the AS sends the broadcast service data to the upf (multicast) of the 5G network or the BM-SC of the 4G network, or whether to stop sending the broadcast service data to the AS, or whether to resume sending the broadcast service data after stopping sending the broadcast service data, may be determined by the AS according to many factors and dynamically changed in real time. The plurality of factors may include, for example, the above-described location information of the group of UEs, the number of the group of UEs accessing the 5G network and the 4G network respectively, the distribution of the group of UEs in the 5G network and the 4G network, the broadcast reception quality of the group of UEs, whether the number of UEs accessing the 5G network reaches a threshold, whether the number of UEs accessing the 4G network reaches a threshold, and the like, which are not exhaustive.

Optionally, in some examples, if the AS learns that no group UE has accessed the 5G network, or that there are no UEs yet receiving the broadcast traffic data in the 5G broadcast coverage area, the AS may stop sending the broadcast traffic data to the upf (multicast), via step 602.

Or, after the UE accesses the 5G network or the number of UEs accessing the 5G network reaches the threshold M, the AS sends the broadcast service data to the upf (multicast). Alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and under the condition that the number of the UE accessed into the 4G network does not reach the threshold value N, the AS stops sending the broadcast service data to the BM-SC. Alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and under the condition that the number of the UE accessed into the 4G network is not less than the threshold value N, the AS sends broadcast service data and the like to the BM-SC.

It should be understood that the above-mentioned several cases of transmitting or stopping the transmission of the broadcast service data are only examples, and the AS may also determine whether to transmit or stop the transmission of the broadcast service data according to other factors or a combination of factors, without limitation.

For the UE, according to the currently accessed network, selecting the corresponding broadcast description information to receive the broadcast service data. For example, in the case that the UE accesses the 4G network, the UE receives broadcast service data using the description information of the second broadcast, as shown in step 608. In the case that the UE accesses the 5G network, the UE receives broadcast service data by using the description information of the first broadcast, as shown in step 609.

608. And in the case that the UE accesses the 4G network, the UE receives the broadcast service data from the second broadcast by using the description information of the second broadcast.

609. In case that the UE accesses the 5G network, the UE receives a broadcast service description from the first broadcast using the description information of the first broadcast.

Specifically, in the case of accessing the 5G network, the UE first needs to activate a broadcast service of the 5G network. See 609a-609c for details.

609a, the UE sends a service join message to an smf (unicast) corresponding to the unicast service, where the service join message includes an identifier of the broadcast service of the 5G network, for example, 5GGI, and information such as an application identifier and an application triplet.

It should be noted that the SMF (unicast) corresponding to the unicast service in step 609a refers to an anchor SMF (anchor SMF, a-SMF) of the PDU session of the UE, and is mainly responsible for managing the unicast QoS flow of the UE, which may refer to the above description of the background art. The SMF corresponding to unicast is denoted herein as SMF (unicast) or A-SMF (unicast).

609b, the SMF (unicast) interacts with PCF/SMF (multicast) of the 5G network to associate UE and broadcast service, and trigger RAN and UPF to issue data in a connection-state broadcast mode.

Herein, smf (multicast) refers to an anchor point gateway of a broadcast user plane, which may also be referred to as a-smf (multicast) herein to distinguish from a-smf (unicast).

609c, the UE receives the broadcast service data from the 5G network by adopting the description information of the first broadcast.

Due to the movement of the UE, if the UE moves from the broadcast coverage area of the 5G network to the broadcast coverage area of the 4G network, the UE needs to switch from receiving broadcast service data using the description information of the first broadcast to receiving broadcast service data using the description information of the second broadcast as in step 610.

610. In case that the UE moves from the broadcast coverage area of the 5G network to the broadcast coverage area of the 4G network, the UE receives broadcast service data of the second broadcast using description information of the second broadcast.

It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, since the UE obtains the description information of the first broadcast of the 5G network and the description information of the second broadcast of the 4G network from the AS in advance, that is, the UE receives the description information of the broadcast corresponding to the network before receiving data or before not accessing to the corresponding network, in a case where the UE leaves the 5G network and accesses to the 4G network, the broadcast service data can be received by using the description information of the second broadcast of the 4G network.

The UE switches from the broadcast coverage area of the 5G network to the broadcast coverage area of the 4G network, and the switching process may be as shown in steps 610a-610 c.

610a, the UE sends a service leaving message to the smf (unified), wherein the service leaving message is used for requesting to leave the broadcast service of the 5G network.

In step 610a, the trigger condition for the UE to send the service leaving message is not limited, for example, the UE may be in a case of leaving a broadcast coverage area of the 5G network, or the UE may be in a case of monitoring that the broadcast reception quality of the 5G network is poor, or based on other factors, the UE requests to leave the 5G network. Specifically, the UE sends a service leaving request message to the smf (unified), where the service leaving request message includes an identifier of a broadcast service that the UE requests to leave, for example, 5GGI, and the service leaving message may further include information such as an application identifier and an application triplet.

610b, SMF (unicast) cancels the association of UE and broadcast service by interacting with PCF/SMF (multicast), and informs RAN.

610c, the UE accesses to the 4G network and receives the broadcast service data from the 4G network by adopting the description information of the second broadcast. At this time, the UE is handed over from the 5G network to the 4G network.

Referring to fig. 14, fig. 14 is another example of a communication method provided herein.

701. Broadcast RAT capability information for an application server or a group of UEs.

Step 701 may refer to any one of the

ways

1a,1b,1c, and 1d described in fig. 12, which is not described herein again.

702. The application server obtains the location information of the group of UEs, which is an optional step.

703. The application server determines that the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network are required to be established simultaneously according to the broadcast TAR capability information of the group of UE and optionally according to the position information of the group of UE.

704. And the application server sends the broadcast service request message to a control plane network element of a core network of the 5G network.

Wherein the broadcast service request message is for requesting establishment of a broadcast of a 5G network and a broadcast of a 4G network. The broadcast service request message may carry an identifier of a broadcast service of the 5G network and an identifier of a broadcast service of the 4G network, for example, 5GGI + TMGI.

Optionally, the control plane network element may be an SMF or a PCF, and hereinafter, the control plane network element may be a PCF/SMF.

705. The SMF/PCF plays the role of an application server and activates the broadcast of the 4G network.

Wherein, the implementation of step 705 can be seen in fig. 9 and the description thereof above. Specifically, the GCS AS shown in fig. 9 may be replaced by PCF/SMF, which is not described herein.

706. The SMF/PCF triggers a broadcast that sets up the 5G network.

Specifically, the SMF/PCF establishes an N6 connection of the 5G network, and establishes a user plane connection between the upf (multicast) of the 5G network and the BM-SC of the 4G network.

Optionally, the N6 connection between the AS and the upf (multicast), and the user plane connection between the upf (multicast) and the BM-SC may be implemented in two separate interactive flows, or may be implemented in one interactive flow. The following are described separately.

Mode 1

The N6 connection between AS and upf (multicast), and the user plane connection between upf (multicast) and BM-SC are implemented by two independent interaction flows.

N6 connection establishment procedure:

PCF/smf (multicast) of the 5G network sends a request message to upf (multicast) requesting establishment of an N6 connection between the AS and upf (multicast). The request message may carry the IP address and port number of the application server. Alternatively, the smf (multicast) may allocate the user plane address information (e.g., IP address and port number) of the upf (multicast) for the N6 connection and carry it in the request message.

After receiving the request message, if the request message does not include the user plane address of upf (multicast), or the system presets the user plane address information allocated by upf (multicast), then upf (multicast) allocates the user plane address information of upf (multicast), and returns it to SMF in the response message of the request message.

And (3) establishing a user plane connection between the A-UPF (multicast) and the BM-SC:

706a, PCF/smf (multicast) sends a request message to upf (multicast) for establishing a user plane connection between BM-SC and upf (multicast), the request message including the user plane address of BM-SC. Further, the request message may carry address information of the application server, or the request message may carry an N6 connection identifier, e.g., an N6 tunnel identification.

Alternatively, the N6 connection may also be referred to herein as the user plane connection of the N6 interface.

706b, UPF (multicast) establishes the N6 connection.

706c, UPF (multicast) sends a response message to PCF/SMF (multicast) requesting the message.

706d, PCF/smf (multicast) creates and stores the context of the 5GGI and N6 connections.

Subsequently, if receiving the packet identified by the address information of the application server, or if receiving the packet from the N6 connection identified by the N6 connection identifier, the upf (multicast) sends the received packet to the BM-SC.

Mode 2

The N6 connection between AS and upf (multicast), and the user plane connection between upf (multicast) and BM-SC are realized by a separate interactive flow.

706e, PCF/smf (multicast) of the 5G network sends a request message to upf (multicast) requesting establishment of a user plane connection between upf (multicast) and BM-SC, and a user plane connection between upf (multicast) and AS.

The request message may include user plane address information of the BM-SC, address information of the application server, and the like.

Alternatively, the smf (multicast) may allocate the user plane address information of the upf (multicast) for the N6 connection and carry it in the request message.

706f, if the request message does not contain the user plane address information of UPF (multicast) after the UPF (multicast) receives the request message, or if the system presets the user plane address information allocated by UPF (multicast), then UPF (multicast) allocates the user plane address information (e.g. IP address and port number) of UPF (multicast), and returns the user plane address information to smf (multicast) in the response message of the request message. Otherwise, the upf (multicast) stores the information carried in the received request message, for example, the user plane address information of the BM-SC, the address information of the application server (for example, IP address and port number, etc.).

706g, UPF (multicast) sends a response message to PCF/SMF (multicast) requesting the message.

706h PCF/SMF (multicast) creates and stores the context of the 5GGI and N6 connections.

By means of the above mode 1 or mode 2, the application server establishes a first broadcast of the 5G network and a second broadcast of the 4G network.

707. The PCF/smf (multicast) returns a response message of the broadcast service request message to the application server, where the response message may carry the user plane IP address and port number of the N6 connection (i.e., the IP address and port number of the UPF of the 5G network), the 5GGI, and the TMGI.

708. The application server sends, to the group of UEs, description information of a first broadcast of the 5G network and description information of a second broadcast of the 4G network.

709. In case that the UE accesses the 4G network, the UE receives broadcast service data from the second network using the TMGI and the description information of the second broadcast.

710. The AS sends the broadcast service data to the UPF (multicast), and the UPF (multicast) sends the received broadcast service data to the BM-SC.

Specifically, the flow shown as steps 710a-710c in FIG. 14.

710a, AS sends broadcast service data to upf (multicast).

710b, UPF (multicast) copies the received broadcast service data, and sends the copied broadcast service data to BM-SC.

710c, the BM-SC receives the broadcast service data from the UPF (multicast), and sends the broadcast service data to the UE of the 4G network through the E-UTRAN of the 4G network.

It should be noted that, the upf (multicast) receives broadcast service data from the AS, and may send the broadcast service data to the BM-SC according to an indication of the AS, or stop sending the broadcast service data to the BM-SC, or resume sending the broadcast service data to the BM-SC.

Alternatively, the upf (multicast) sends broadcast service data to the BM-SC, which can also be expressed as the upf (multicast) distributes broadcast service data to the BM-SC. Wherein "distribution" may be denoted as deliverer or distribution.

The term "distribution" refers to that the upf (multicast) receives broadcast service data from the AS, and if the broadcast service data is transmitted to the BM-SC according to the instruction of the AS, the upf (multicast) copies the received broadcast service data and transmits the copied broadcast data to the BM-SC.

In the process of sending broadcast service data to the upf (multicast), AS an example, the AS may comprehensively determine whether to send broadcast service data to the BM-SC according to information such AS distribution conditions of the group of UEs in the 4G network and the 5G network, broadcast reception quality conditions, and the like. Further, the AS may indicate whether upf (multicast) forwards data to the BM-SC.

Optionally, in one mode, the AS may instruct the upf (multicast) to start sending the broadcast service data to the BM-SC through the user plane, or may instruct the upf (multicast) to stop sending the broadcast service data to the BM-SC through the user plane. In another mode, the AS may send, by signaling, an indication message to the PCF/a-smf (multicast), where the indication message is used to indicate that the upf (multicast) stops sending the broadcast service data to the BM-SC, and further, the PCF/a-smf (multicast) sends an indication message to the upf (multicast), where the upf (multicast) stops sending the broadcast service data to the BM-SC.

For example, the AS directly sends first indication information to the upf (multicast), where the first indication information is used to indicate the upf (multicast) to stop sending broadcast service data to the BM-SC. Alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the AS sends first indication information to the PCF/A-SMF (multicast), wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the UPF (multicast) to stop sending the broadcast service data to the BM-SC. And the PCF/a-smf (multicast) sends third indication information to the upf (multicast), wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the upf (multicast) to stop sending the broadcast service data to the BM-SC.

For another example, the AS directly sends second indication information to the upf (multicast), where the second indication information is used to indicate the upf (multicast) to resume sending broadcast service data to the BM-SC. Alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

ASPCF/A-SMF (multicast) sends second indication information, and the second indication information is used for indicating UPF (multicast) to resume sending broadcast service data to BM-SC. Further, PCF/a-smf (multicast) sends fourth indication information to upf (multicast), where the fourth indication information is used to indicate upf (multicast) to resume sending broadcast service data to BM-SC.

Likewise, the AS may indicate in the same way whether the upf (multicast) sends broadcast traffic data to the NG-RAN of the 5G network.

711. In case the UE accesses the 5G network, the UE joins (or activates) the broadcast of the 5G network.

Specifically, flows 711a-711c may be as follows.

711a, the UE sends a service join message to the smf (unified), where the service join message is used to request to join the broadcast service of the 5G network, and the service join message includes an identifier of the broadcast service of the 5G network, such as 5GGI, and information such as an application identifier and an application triplet.

711b, the SMF (unicast) interacts with PCF/SMF (multicast) of the 5G network, associates UE and broadcast service, and triggers RAN and upf (multicast) to transmit data in a connection-state broadcast manner.

711c, SMF (multicast) sends broadcast service data to UEs within the broadcast coverage area of the 5G network via the NG-RAN of the 5G network.

712. Subsequently, when the UE leaves the 5G network, the smf (unified) cancels the association between the UE and the broadcast service, and notifies the NG-RAN to trigger the RAN and the upf (multicast) to stop sending data to the UE in a broadcast manner.

Specifically, in the case where the UE leaves the 5G network, the UE sends a traffic leave message to the smf (unified), the traffic leave message being used to request to leave the 5G network. The service leaving message includes an identifier of the broadcast service that is requested to leave, for example, 5GGI, and may further include information that the application identifier conforms to the application triplet. The SMF (unicast) interacts with the SMF (multicast)/PCF, cancels the association of the UE and the broadcast service, and informs the NG-RAN. Thereafter, the UE leaves the 5G network.

713. And in the case that the UE moves from the broadcast coverage area of the 5G network to the broadcast coverage area of the 4G network, the UE accesses the 4G network again, and continues to receive the broadcast service data of the second broadcast by using the description information of the second broadcast.

In addition, UPF (unified) appearing in the above examples is A-UPF, and UPF (multicast) is A-UPF (multicast).

AS can be seen from the embodiments of fig. 13 to 14, when the UE switches between the broadcast coverage area of the 5G network and the broadcast service area of the 4G network, because the AS issues the description information of the first broadcast of the 5G network and the description information of the second broadcast of the 4G network to the UE in advance, no matter the UE switches from the 5G network to the 4G network or from the 4G network to the 5G network, the UE can always use the description information of the broadcast of the currently accessed network to receive the broadcast service data of the corresponding broadcast, which can reduce the service delay caused by moving between the broadcast coverage areas of two different networks and enhance the service continuity.

The communication method provided by the present application is explained in detail above, and the communication apparatus provided by the present application is described below.

Referring to fig. 15, fig. 15 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided herein. As in fig. 15, the communication apparatus 1000 includes a processing unit 1100, a transmitting unit 1200, and a receiving unit 1300.

A processing unit 1100, configured to obtain broadcast radio access technology, RAT, capability information of a group of terminal devices, where the broadcast RAT capability information is used to indicate a type of radio broadcast capability of the group of terminal devices, where the type of radio broadcast capability includes at least one of a broadcast supporting a first network and a broadcast supporting a second network;

a processing unit 1100, configured to, in a case that it is determined to establish a first broadcast of the first network and/or a second broadcast of the second network according to broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices, obtain description information of the first broadcast and description information of the second broadcast, where the description information of the first broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of the first broadcast, and the description information of the second broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of the second broadcast;

a sending unit 1200, further configured to send description information of the first broadcast and description information of the second broadcast to the group of terminal devices.

Alternatively, transmitting unit 1200 and receiving unit 1300 may be integrated into a single transmitting/receiving unit, and have both receiving and transmitting functions, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the processing unit 1300 is specifically configured to: and obtaining the description information of the first broadcast from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, and obtaining the description information of the second broadcast from a broadcast network element of the second network.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the processing unit 1100 is further configured to:

acquiring user plane address information of a user plane functional network element of a core network of the first network, wherein the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element is used for the communication device to send broadcast service data to the first network; and the number of the first and second groups,

and acquiring user plane address information of a broadcast network element of the second network, wherein the user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network is used for the communication device to send broadcast service data to the second network.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the processing unit 1300 is specifically configured to: and obtaining the description information of the first broadcast and the description information of the second broadcast from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, wherein the description information of the second broadcast is obtained by the control plane network element of the core network of the first network from a broadcast network element of the second network.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the processing unit 1100 is further configured to obtain user plane address information of a user plane functional network element of a core network of the first network;

and the sending unit 1200 is further configured to send broadcast service data to the first network and the second network according to the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the sending unit 1200 is further configured to:

under the condition that the number of terminal devices accessed to the first network reaches a first threshold, sending broadcast service data to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

under the condition that the number of terminal devices accessing the second network reaches a second threshold, sending broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

under the condition that the number of the terminal devices accessing the first network is lower than the first threshold, stopping sending the broadcast service data to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and stopping sending broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network when the number of the terminal devices accessing the second network is lower than the second threshold.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the sending unit 1200 is further configured to send broadcast service data to the user plane function network element of the core network of the first network;

and sending first indication information to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network or sending the first indication information to a control plane network element of the core network of the first network under the condition that the number of terminal devices accessing the second network is lower than a third threshold;

wherein the first indication information is used to indicate a user plane function network element of the first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the sending unit 1200 is further configured to:

sending second indication information to the user plane function network element of the first network; or, sending the second indication information to a control plane network element of a core network of the first network;

wherein the second indication information is used to request the user plane function network element of the first network to resume sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the processing unit 1100 is specifically configured to:

acquiring broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

acquiring reachability information of the group of terminal equipment in a network from a capability open network element, and determining the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal equipment according to the reachability information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

obtaining the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices from a user equipment radio capability management function (UCMF); alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

obtaining the broadcast RAT capability information for the set of terminal devices from a GMS or a user data configuration server.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the processing unit 1100 is specifically configured to determine to establish the first broadcast and/or the second broadcast according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices and one or more of the following information:

location information of the group of terminal devices;

information of broadcast reception quality of the group of terminal devices;

the core network type accessed by the group of terminal equipment;

service information of the group of terminal devices;

a network to which the set of terminal devices currently access, a current state of a base station serving the set of terminal devices, and an association status (affinity status) of the set of terminal devices.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the description information of the first broadcast includes an identifier of the first broadcast and configuration parameters of the first broadcast, and the description information of the second broadcast includes an identifier of the second broadcast and configuration parameters of the second broadcast.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the description information of the first broadcast further carries a group identifier or a service identifier, and/or the description information of the second broadcast further carries a group identifier or a service identifier, wherein,

the description information of the first broadcast carries the group identifier, and the broadcast service data of the terminal equipment group corresponding to the group identifier is sent through the first broadcast; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the description information of the second broadcast carries the group identifier, and the broadcast service data of the terminal equipment group corresponding to the group identifier is sent through the first broadcast; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

Optionally, in an embodiment, the sending unit 1200 is further configured to send a broadcast service request message to a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, where the broadcast service request message carries a type of a broadcast service requested to be established, and the broadcast service request message is used to request the control plane network element to establish a broadcast of the first network and a broadcast of the second network.

In one implementation, the communication device 1000 may be an application server in a method embodiment. In this implementation, the sending unit 1200 may be a transmitter and the receiving unit 1300 may be a receiver. The receiver and the transmitter may also be integrated into one transceiver. The processing unit 1100 may be a processing device.

In another implementation, the communication device 1000 may be a chip or an integrated circuit in an application server. In this implementation, the transmitting unit 1200 and the receiving unit 1300 may be communication interfaces or interface circuits. For example, the sending unit 1200 is an output interface or an output circuit, the receiving unit 1300 is an input interface or an input circuit, and the processing unit 1300 may be a processing device.

The functions of the processing device may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. For example, the processing device may include at least one processor and at least one memory, wherein the at least one memory is used for storing a computer program, and the at least one processor reads and executes the computer program stored in the at least one memory, so that the communication device 1000 performs the operations and/or processes performed by the application server in the method embodiments.

Alternatively, the processing means may comprise only the processor, the memory for storing the computer program being located outside the processing means. The processor is connected to the memory through the circuit/wire to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory. Optionally, in some examples, the processing device may also be a chip or an integrated circuit.

Referring to fig. 16, fig. 16 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 2000 provided herein. As in fig. 16, the communication apparatus 2000 includes a receiving unit 2100, a transmitting unit 2200, and a processing unit 2300.

A receiving unit 2100, configured to receive description information of a first broadcast and description information of a second broadcast from an application server, where the description information of the first broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of the first broadcast of a first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of the second broadcast of a second network;

the receiving unit 2100 is further configured to receive broadcast service data from the first broadcast using the description information of the first broadcast in a case where the processing unit 2300 accesses the first network; alternatively, in the case that the processing unit 2300 accesses the second network, broadcast service data from the second broadcast is received using the description information of the second broadcast.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the first network is a fifth generation 5G network, and the second network is a fourth generation 4G network.

Optionally, in an embodiment, the description information of the first broadcast carries a group identifier or a service identifier, and/or the description information of the second broadcast carries a group identifier or a service identifier, wherein,

the description information of the second broadcast carries the group identifier, and the broadcast service data of the terminal equipment group corresponding to the group identifier is sent through the second broadcast; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

In one implementation, the communication apparatus 2000 may be a terminal device in the method embodiment. In this implementation, the receiving unit 2100 may be a receiver and the sending unit 2200 may be a transmitter. The receiver and the transmitter may also be integrated into one transceiver. The processing unit 2300 may be a processing device.

In another implementation, the communication device 2000 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in the terminal equipment. In this implementation, the receiving unit 2100 and the transmitting unit 2200 may be communication interfaces or interface circuits. For example, the transmitting unit 2200 may be an output interface or an output circuit, the receiving unit 2100 may be an input interface or an input circuit, and the processing unit 2300 may be a processing device.

The functions of the processing device may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. For example, the processing device may include at least one processor and at least one memory, where the at least one memory is used to store a computer program, and the at least one processor reads and executes the computer program stored in the at least one memory, so that the communication device 2000 performs the operations and/or processes performed by the terminal device in the method embodiments. Alternatively, the processing means may comprise only the processor, the memory for storing the computer program being located outside the processing means. The processor is connected to the memory through the circuit/wire to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory. Optionally, in some examples, the processing device may also be a chip or an integrated circuit.

Referring to fig. 17, fig. 17 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 3000 provided herein. As in fig. 17, the communication device 3000 includes a receiving unit 3100, a transmitting unit 3200, and a processing unit 3300.

A receiving unit 3100, configured to receive a broadcast service request message from an application server, where the broadcast service request message carries a type of a broadcast service requested to be established, where the type of the broadcast service includes at least one of a broadcast of a first network and a broadcast of a second network;

a processing unit 3300, configured to establish the broadcast service requested to be established;

the sending unit 3200 is further configured to send, to the application server, description information of a first broadcast and/or description information of a second broadcast, where the description information of the first broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of a first broadcast of a first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of a second broadcast of a second network.

Alternatively, receiving unit 3100 and transmitting unit 3200 may be integrated into a single transmitting/receiving unit, and have both receiving and transmitting functions, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, in an example, the sending unit 3200 is further configured to send, to the application server, user plane address information of a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network.

Optionally, in an example, the sending unit 3200 is further configured to send a broadcast service activation request to a broadcast network element of the second network, and obtain description information of the second broadcast and user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network from the broadcast network element of the second network.

Optionally, in an example, the processing unit 3300 is further configured to obtain user plane address information of a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network.

Optionally, in an example, the processing unit 3300 is specifically configured to:

allocating user plane address information of the user plane functional network element of the first network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and obtaining user plane address information of the user plane functional network element of the first network from the user plane functional network element of the first network.

Optionally, in an example, the sending unit 3200 is further configured to: and sending the user plane address information of the application server to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network.

Optionally, in an example, the sending unit 3200 is further configured to: and sending a request message to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network, wherein the request message carries user plane address information of a broadcast network element of the second network.

Optionally, in an example, the receiving unit 3100 is further configured to receive first indication information from the application server, where the first indication information is used to instruct a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network;

and the sending unit 3200 is further configured to send third indication information to the user plane function network element of the first network, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the user plane function network element of the first network stops sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

Optionally, in an example, the receiving unit 3100 is further configured to receive second indication information from the application server, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the user plane function network element of the first network resumes sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network;

and the sending unit 3200 is further configured to send fourth indication information to the user plane function network element of the first network, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the user plane function network element of the first network stops sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

In one implementation, the communication device 3000 may be a control plane network element (e.g., PCF/SMF) of a core network in the method embodiment. In such an implementation, the receiving unit 3100 may be a receiver and the transmitting unit 3200 may be a transmitter. The receiver and the transmitter may also be integrated into one transceiver. The processing unit 3300 may be a processing device.

In another implementation, the communication device 3000 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in a control plane network element. In such an implementation, the receiving unit 3100 and the transmitting unit 3200 may be communication interfaces or interface circuits. For example, the transmitting unit 3200 is an output interface or an output circuit, the receiving unit 3100 is an input interface or an input circuit, and the processing unit 3300 may be a processing device.

The functions of the processing device may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. For example, the processing device may include at least one processor and at least one memory, where the at least one memory is used to store a computer program, and the at least one processor reads and executes the computer program stored in the at least one memory, so that the communication device 3000 performs the operations and/or processes performed by the control plane network element in the method embodiments. Alternatively, the processing means may comprise only the processor, the memory for storing the computer program being located outside the processing means. The processor is connected to the memory through the circuit/wire to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory. Optionally, in some examples, the processing device may also be a chip or an integrated circuit.

Referring to fig. 18, fig. 18 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 4000 provided herein. As shown in fig. 18, the communication apparatus 4000 includes a receiving unit 4100, a transmitting unit 4200, and a processing unit 4300.

A receiving unit 4100, configured to receive a request message from a control plane network element of a core network of a first network, where the request message includes user plane address information of a broadcast network element of a second network;

a receiving unit 4100, further configured to receive broadcast service data from an application server;

a sending unit 4200, configured to send the broadcast service data to a broadcast network element of the second network according to the user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network.

Alternatively, the receiving unit 4100 and the transmitting unit 4200 may be integrated into one transceiver unit, and have functions of receiving and transmitting, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, in an example, the receiving unit 4100 is further configured to receive user plane address information of the application server from the control plane network element.

Optionally, in an example, the receiving unit 4100 is further configured to:

receiving first indication information from the application server, where the first indication information is used to indicate the user plane function network element to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

receiving third indication information from the control plane network element, where the third indication information is used to indicate the user plane functional network element to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

Optionally, in an example, the receiving unit 4100 is further configured to:

receiving second indication information from the application server, where the second indication information is used to indicate the user plane function network element to resume sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

receiving fourth indication information from the control plane network element, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the user plane functional network element to resume sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

Optionally, in an example, the sending unit 4200 is further configured to send a response message of the request message to the control plane network element, where the response message includes user plane address information of the user plane function network element.

In one implementation, the communication device 4000 may be a user plane function network element (e.g., UPF) of a core network in an embodiment of the method. In such an implementation, the receiving unit 4100 may be a receiver and the transmitting unit 4200 may be a transmitter. The receiver and the transmitter may also be integrated into one transceiver. The processing unit 4300 may be a processing device.

In another implementation, the communication device 4000 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in a user plane functional network element. In this implementation, the receiving unit 4100 and the transmitting unit 4200 may be communication interfaces or interface circuits. For example, the transmitting unit 4200 is an output interface or an output circuit, the receiving unit 4100 is an input interface or an input circuit, and the processing unit 4300 may be a processing device.

The functions of the processing device may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. For example, the processing means may comprise at least one processor and at least one memory, wherein the at least one memory is used for storing a computer program, and the at least one processor reads and executes the computer program stored in the at least one memory, so that the communication apparatus 4000 performs the operations and/or processes performed by the user plane function network element in the method embodiments. Alternatively, the processing means may comprise only the processor, the memory for storing the computer program being located outside the processing means. The processor is connected to the memory through the circuit/wire to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory. Optionally, in some examples, the processing device may also be a chip or an integrated circuit.

Referring to fig. 19, fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of the communication device 10 provided in the present application. As shown in fig. 19, the communication device 10 includes: one or more processors 11, one or more memories 12, and one or more communication interfaces 13. The processor 11 is configured to control the communication interface 13 to send and receive signals, the memory 12 is configured to store a computer program, and the processor 11 is configured to call and run the computer program from the memory 12, so that the processes and/or operations performed by the application server in the method embodiments of the present application are executed.

For example, the processor 11 may have the functions of the processing unit 1100 shown in fig. 15, and the communication interface 13 may have the functions of the transmitting unit 1200 and/or the receiving unit 1300 shown in fig. 15. In particular, the processor 11 may be configured to perform the processes or operations of fig. 6-14 performed internally by the application server, and the communication interface 13 may be configured to perform the acts of transmitting and/or receiving performed by the application server of fig. 6-14.

In one implementation, the communication device 10 may be an application server in a method embodiment. In such an implementation, the communication interface 13 may be a transceiver. The transceiver may include a receiver and a transmitter. Alternatively, the processor 11 may be a baseband device and the communication interface 13 may be a radio frequency device. In another implementation, the communication device 10 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in an application server. In such an implementation, the communication interface 13 may be an interface circuit or an input/output interface.

Referring to fig. 20, fig. 20 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 20 provided in the present application. As shown in fig. 20, the communication device 20 includes: one or more processors 21, one or more memories 22, and one or more communication interfaces 23. The processor 21 is configured to control the communication interface 23 to send and receive signals, the memory 22 is configured to store a computer program, and the processor 21 is configured to call and execute the computer program from the memory 22, so that the procedures and/or operations performed by the terminal device in the method embodiments of the present application are performed.

For example, the processor 21 may have the function of the processing unit 2300 shown in fig. 16, and the communication interface 23 may have the function of the transmitting unit 2200 and/or the receiving unit 2100 shown in fig. 16. In particular, processor 21 may be used to perform the processes or operations of fig. 6-14 that are performed internally by the terminal device, and communication interface 33 may be used to perform the acts of transmitting and/or receiving performed by the terminal device of fig. 6-14.

In one implementation, the communication device 20 may be a terminal device in the method embodiment. In such an implementation, the communication interface 23 may be a transceiver. The transceiver may include a receiver and a transmitter. Alternatively, the processor 21 may be a baseband device and the communication interface 23 may be a radio frequency device. In another implementation, the communication device 20 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in the terminal equipment. In such an implementation, the communication interface 23 may be an interface circuit or an input/output interface.

Referring to fig. 21, fig. 21 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 30 provided in the present application. The communication device 30 includes: one or more processors 31, one or more memories 33, and one or more communication interfaces 33. The processor 31 is configured to control the communication interface 33 to send and receive signals, the memory 33 is configured to store a computer program, and the processor 31 is configured to call and run the computer program from the memory 33, so that the procedures and/or operations performed by the control plane network element in the method embodiments of the present application are performed.

For example, the processor 31 may have the functions of the processing unit 3300 shown in fig. 17, and the communication interface 33 may have the functions of the transmitting unit 3200 and/or the receiving unit 3100 shown in fig. 17. In particular, the processor 31 may be configured to perform the processing or operations performed by the control plane network element in fig. 6-14, and the communication interface 33 is configured to perform the actions of transmitting and/or receiving performed by the control plane network element in fig. 6-14.

In one implementation, the communication device 30 may be a control plane network element in the method embodiment. In such an implementation, the communication interface 33 may be a transceiver. The transceiver may include a receiver and a transmitter. Alternatively, the processor 31 may be a baseband device and the communication interface 33 may be a radio frequency device. In another implementation, the communication device 30 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in a control plane network element. In such an implementation, the communication interface 33 may be an interface circuit or an input/output interface.

Referring to fig. 22, fig. 22 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 40 provided in the present application. As shown in fig. 22, the communication device 40 includes: one or more processors 41, one or more memories 44, and one or more communication interfaces 44. The processor 41 is configured to control the communication interface 44 to send and receive signals, the memory 44 is configured to store a computer program, and the processor 41 is configured to call and execute the computer program from the memory 44, so that the procedures and/or operations performed by the user plane function network element in the method embodiments of the present application are executed.

For example, the processor 41 may have the function of the processing unit 4400 shown in fig. 18, and the communication interface 44 may have the function of the transmitting unit 4200 and/or the receiving unit 4100 shown in fig. 18. In particular, processor 41 may be configured to perform the processes or operations of fig. 6-14 that are performed internally by the user plane functionality network element, and communication interface 44 is configured to perform the acts of transmitting and/or receiving performed by the user plane functionality network element of fig. 6-14.

In one implementation, the communication device 40 may be a user plane function network element in the method embodiment. In such an implementation, the communication interface 44 may be a transceiver. The transceiver may include a receiver and a transmitter. Alternatively, processor 41 may be a baseband device and communication interface 44 may be a radio frequency device. In another implementation, the communication device 40 may be a chip or an integrated circuit installed in a control plane network element. In such implementations, the communication interface 44 may be an interface circuit or an input/output interface.

Optionally, the memory and the storage in the foregoing apparatus embodiments may be physically separate units, or the memory and the processor may be integrated together, which is not limited herein.

The present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores computer instructions, and when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the operations and/or processes executed by an application server in the method embodiments of the present application are executed.

In addition, the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer instructions are stored, and when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the operations and/or processes executed by the terminal device in the method embodiments of the present application are executed.

Furthermore, the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer instructions are stored, and when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the operations and/or processes performed by the control plane network element in the method embodiments of the present application are executed.

Furthermore, the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer instructions are stored, and when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the operations and/or processes performed by the user plane function network element in the method embodiments of the present application are executed.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code or instructions to cause the operations and/or processes performed by the application server in the method embodiments of the present application to be performed when the computer program code or instructions are run on a computer.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code or instructions to cause the operations and/or processes performed by the terminal device in the method embodiments of the present application to be performed when the computer program code or instructions are run on a computer.

The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes computer program code or instructions, when the computer program code or instructions runs on a computer, cause the operations and/or processes performed by the control plane network element in the method embodiments of the present application to be performed.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program code or instructions to cause the operations and/or processes performed by the user plane functional network element in the method embodiments of the present application to be performed when the computer program code or instructions are run on a computer.

In addition, the present application also provides a chip including a processor. A memory for storing the computer program is provided separately from the chip, and a processor is used for executing the computer program stored in the memory, so that the operations and/or processes performed by the application server in any one of the method embodiments are performed.

Further, the chip may also include a communication interface. The communication interface may be an input/output interface, an interface circuit, or the like. Further, the chip may further include the memory.

The present application further provides a chip comprising a processor. A memory for storing the computer program is provided separately from the chip, and a processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory, so that the operation and/or the process performed by the terminal device in any one of the method embodiments is performed.

The present application further provides a chip comprising a processor. A memory for storing the computer program is provided separately from the chip, and a processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory, so that the operations and/or processes performed by the control plane network element in any of the method embodiments are performed.

The present application further provides a chip comprising a processor. A memory for storing the computer program is provided separately from the chip, and a processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory, so that the operations and/or processes performed by the user plane function network element in any of the method embodiments are performed.

Furthermore, the present application also provides a communication device (for example, a chip) comprising a processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface is configured to receive a signal and transmit the signal to the processor, and the processor processes the signal, so that the operation and/or the processing performed by the application server in any one of the method embodiments is performed.

The present application also provides a communication apparatus (which may be, for example, a chip) including a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface being configured to receive a signal and transmit the signal to the processor, and the processor processing the signal so that the operations and/or processes performed by the terminal device in any of the method embodiments are performed.

The present application also provides a communication apparatus (which may be a chip, for example) comprising a processor and a communication interface for receiving and transmitting signals to the processor, the processor processing the signals such that the operations and/or processes performed by the control plane network element in any of the method embodiments are performed.

The present application also provides a communication device (which may be, for example, a chip) comprising a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface being configured to receive a signal and transmit the signal to the processor, and the processor processing the signal so that the operations and/or processes performed by the user plane function network element in any of the method embodiments are performed.

In addition, the present application also provides a wireless communication system, which includes one or more of the application server, the terminal device, the control plane network element, and the user plane functional network element in the embodiments of the present application.

The processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having the capability of processing signals. 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, or discrete hardware components. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware encoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the encoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads information in the memory and completes the steps of the method in combination with hardware of the processor.

The memory in the embodiments of the present application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may 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 (DRRAM). 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.

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 application.

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 several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, 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.

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 term "and/or" in this application is only one kind of association relationship describing the associated object, and means that there may be three kinds of relationships, for example, a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. A, B and C may be singular or plural, and are not limited.

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 application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including 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 application. 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 application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that an application server acquires broadcast Radio Access Technology (RAT) capability information of a group of terminal devices, wherein the broadcast RAT capability information is used for indicating the type of radio broadcasting capability of the group of terminal devices, and the type of the radio broadcasting capability comprises at least one of broadcasting supporting a first network and broadcasting supporting a second network;

according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices, under the condition that a first broadcast of the first network and/or a second broadcast of the second network are determined to be established, the application server acquires description information of the first broadcast and/or description information of the second broadcast, wherein the description information of the first broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the first broadcast, and the description information of the second broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the second broadcast;

the application server sends the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast to the group of terminal devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining, by the application server, the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast comprises:

the application server obtains the description information of the first broadcast from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, and/or the application service obtains the description information of the second broadcast from a broadcast network element of the second network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining, by the application server, the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast comprises:

the application server obtains the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, wherein the description information of the second broadcast is obtained from a broadcast network element of the second network by the control plane network element of the core network of the first network.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

the application server acquires user plane address information of a user plane functional network element of a core network of the first network;

and the application server sends broadcast service data to the first network and the second network according to the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element.

5. The method of any of claims 1,3,4, further comprising:

the application server sends broadcast service data to the user plane functional network element of the core network of the first network;

under the condition that the number of the terminal devices accessing the second network is lower than a third threshold, the application server sends first indication information to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network, or the application server sends the first indication information to a control plane network element of the core network of the first network;

6. The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein the obtaining, by the application server, broadcast RAT capability information for a group of terminal devices comprises:

the application server acquires broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal equipment;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the application server acquires reachability information of the group of terminal equipment in a network from a capability opening network element, and determines the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal equipment according to the reachability information;

alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the application server acquires the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal equipment from a user equipment wireless capability management function (UCMF);

alternatively, the application server obtains the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices from a group management server GMS or a user data configuration server.

7. The method of any of claims 1-6, wherein the determining to establish the broadcast of the first network and/or the broadcast of the second network according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the set of terminal devices comprises:

the application server determines to establish the first broadcast and/or the second broadcast according to the broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices and one or more of the following information:

location information of the group of terminal devices;

information of broadcast reception quality of the group of terminal devices;

the core network type accessed by the group of terminal equipment;

service information of the group of terminal devices;

the network to which the group of terminal devices currently access and the association state of the group of terminal devices;

a network to which the set of terminal devices is currently accessing, a current state of a base station serving the set of terminal devices, and an association state of the set of terminal devices.

8. The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein the description information of the first broadcast comprises an identification of the first broadcast and configuration parameters of the first broadcast, and wherein the description information of the second broadcast comprises an identification of the second broadcast and configuration parameters of the second broadcast.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 and 3 to 8, wherein, in the case that it is determined that the broadcast of the first network and the broadcast of the second network are established, the obtaining, by the application server, the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast comprises:

the application server sends a broadcast service request message to a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, where the broadcast service request message carries a type of a broadcast service requested to be established, and the broadcast service request message is used to request the control plane network element to establish a broadcast of the first network and a broadcast of the second network.

10. A method of communication, comprising:

the terminal equipment receives description information of a first broadcast and/or description information of a second broadcast from an application server, wherein the description information of the first broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the first broadcast of a first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the second broadcast of a second network;

under the condition that the terminal equipment is accessed to the first network, the terminal equipment receives broadcast service data from the first broadcast by using the description information of the first broadcast; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and under the condition of accessing the second network, the terminal equipment receives the broadcast service data from the second broadcast by using the description information of the second broadcast.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first network is a fifth generation 5G network and the second network is a fourth generation 4G network.

12. A method of communication, comprising:

a control plane network element of a core network of a first network receives a broadcast service request message from an application server, wherein the broadcast service request message carries a type of a broadcast service requested to be established, and the type of the broadcast service comprises at least one of a broadcast of the first network and a broadcast of a second network;

the control plane network element establishes the broadcast service requested to be established;

and the control plane network element sends description information of a first broadcast and/or description information of a second broadcast to the application server, wherein the description information of the first broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the first broadcast of the first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is used for indicating the attribute of the second broadcast of the second network.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the establishing of the broadcast service requested by the control plane network element comprises:

the control plane network element sends a broadcast service activation request to a broadcast network element of the second network, and obtains description information of the second broadcast and user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network from the broadcast network element of the second network.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the establishing of the broadcast service requested by the control plane network element comprises:

and the control plane network element sends the user plane address information of the application server to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network.

15. The method according to any of claims 12-14, wherein the establishing of the broadcast service requested by the control plane network element comprises:

and the control plane network element sends a request message to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network, wherein the request message carries user plane address information of a broadcast network element of the second network.

16. The method according to any one of claims 12-15, further comprising:

the control plane network element receives first indication information from the application server, where the first indication information is used to indicate a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network;

the control plane network element sends third indication information to the user plane function network element of the first network, where the third indication information is used to indicate the user plane function network element of the first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

17. A method of communication, comprising:

a user plane functional network element of a core network of a first network receives a request message from a control plane network element of the core network of the first network, wherein the request message comprises user plane address information of a broadcast network element of a second network;

the user plane functional network element receives broadcast service data from an application server;

and the user plane functional network element sends the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network according to the user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

the user plane function network element receives first indication information from the application server, where the first indication information is used to indicate the user plane function network element to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and the user plane function network element receives third indication information from the control plane network element, where the third indication information is used to indicate the user plane function network element to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

19. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a processing unit, configured to obtain broadcast radio access technology, RAT, capability information of a group of terminal devices, where the broadcast RAT capability information is used to indicate a type of radio broadcast capability of the group of terminal devices, and the type of radio broadcast capability includes at least one of a broadcast supporting a first network and a broadcast supporting a second network;

the processing unit is further configured to, in a case that it is determined to establish a first broadcast of the first network and/or a second broadcast of the second network according to broadcast RAT capability information of the group of terminal devices, obtain description information of the first broadcast and/or description information of the second broadcast, where the description information of the first broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of the first broadcast, and the description information of the second broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of the second broadcast;

a sending unit, configured to send description information of the first broadcast and/or description information of the second broadcast to the group of terminal devices.

20. The communications apparatus as claimed in claim 19, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

and obtaining the description information of the first broadcast from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, and/or obtaining the description information of the second broadcast from a broadcast network element of the second network.

21. The communications apparatus as claimed in claim 19, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

and obtaining the description information of the first broadcast and/or the description information of the second broadcast from a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, wherein the description information of the second broadcast is obtained by the control plane network element of the core network of the first network from a broadcast network element of the second network.

22. The communications apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein the processing unit is further configured to obtain user plane address information of a user plane functional network element of a core network of the first network;

and the sending unit is further configured to send broadcast service data to the first network and the second network according to the user plane address information of the user plane functional network element.

23. The communications device according to any one of claims 19,21, and 22, wherein the sending unit is further configured to send broadcast service data to the user plane function network element of a core network of the first network;

24. The communication device according to any of claims 19 to 23, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

obtaining the broadcast RAT capability information for the set of terminal devices from a group management server GMS or a user data configuration server.

25. The communications apparatus of any of claims 19-24, wherein the processing unit is configured to determine to establish the first broadcast and/or the second broadcast based on the broadcast RAT capability information for the group of terminal devices and one or more of:

location information of the group of terminal devices;

information of broadcast reception quality of the group of terminal devices;

the distribution of the group of terminal devices in the area covered by the first network and the area covered by the second network; and

the core network type accessed by the group of terminal equipment;

service information of the group of terminal devices;

the network currently accessed by the group of terminal equipment and the association state of the group of terminal equipment;

26. The communications apparatus of any of claims 19-25, wherein the description information of the first broadcast comprises an identification of the first broadcast and configuration parameters of the first broadcast, and wherein the description information of the second broadcast comprises an identification of the second broadcast and configuration parameters of the second broadcast.

27. The communication device according to any of claims 19 and 21-26, wherein the sending unit is specifically configured to: and sending a broadcast service request message to a control plane network element of a core network of the first network, where the broadcast service request message carries a type of a broadcast service requested to be established, and the broadcast service request message is used to request the control plane network element to establish a broadcast of the first network and a broadcast of the second network.

28. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive description information of a first broadcast and/or description information of a second broadcast from an application server, where the description information of the first broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of the first broadcast of a first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of the second broadcast of a second network;

the receiving unit is used for receiving the broadcast service data from the first broadcast by using the description information of the first broadcast under the condition that the processing unit is accessed to a first network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the receiving unit is configured to receive broadcast service data from the second broadcast using the description information of the second broadcast when the processing unit accesses a second network.

29. The communications apparatus of claim 28, wherein the first network is a fifth generation 5G network and the second network is a fourth generation 4G network.

30. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a broadcast service request message from an application server, where the broadcast service request message carries a type of a broadcast service requested to be established, and the type of the broadcast service includes at least one of a broadcast of a first network and a broadcast of a second network;

a processing unit, configured to establish the broadcast service requested to be established;

a sending unit, configured to send description information of a first broadcast and/or description information of a second broadcast to the application server, where the description information of the first broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of a first broadcast of a first network, and the description information of the second broadcast is used to indicate an attribute of a second broadcast of a second network.

31. The communications apparatus of claim 30, wherein the sending unit is configured to send a broadcast service activation request to a broadcast network element of the second network, and obtain description information of the second broadcast and user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network from the broadcast network element of the second network.

32. The communications device according to claim 30 or 31, wherein the sending unit is specifically configured to send the user plane address information of the application server to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network.

33. The communications apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 30 to 32, wherein the sending unit is specifically configured to send a request message to a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network, where the request message carries user plane address information of a broadcast network element of the second network.

34. The communications device according to any one of claims 30 to 33, wherein the receiving unit is configured to receive first indication information from the application server, where the first indication information is used to instruct a user plane function network element of a core network of the first network to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network;

the sending unit is configured to send third indication information to the user plane function network element of the first network, where the third indication information is used to indicate that the user plane function network element of the first network stops sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

35. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a request message from a control plane network element of a core network of a first network, where the request message includes user plane address information of a broadcast network element of a second network;

the receiving unit is further configured to receive broadcast service data from an application server;

a sending unit, configured to send the broadcast service data to a broadcast network element of the second network according to the user plane address information of the broadcast network element of the second network.

36. The communications apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the receiving unit is configured to receive first indication information from the application server, the first indication information being used to instruct the communications apparatus to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the receiving unit is configured to receive third indication information from the control plane network element, where the third indication information is used to instruct the communication device to stop sending the broadcast service data to the broadcast network element of the second network.

37. A communication apparatus comprising a processor and interface circuitry, wherein the interface circuitry is configured to receive and transmit computer code or instructions to the processor, the processor executing the computer code or instructions, the method of any of claims 1-9 being performed; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the method of claim 10 or 11 is performed; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the method of any one of claims 12-16 is performed; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the method of claim 17 or 18 performed.

38. A communications apparatus, comprising at least one processor coupled to at least one memory, the at least one processor configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the at least one memory, the method of any one of claims 1-9 being performed; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the method of claim 17 or 18 performed.

39. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 1-9 to be performed; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the method of claim 17 or 18 performed.