CN113543244B

CN113543244B - Switching indication method, MN and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN113543244B
Application number: CN202010313716.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 金巴·迪·阿达姆·布巴卡; 杨晓东
Original assignee: Vivo Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Current assignee: Vivo Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-20
Filing date: 2020-04-20
Publication date: 2022-09-20
Anticipated expiration: 2040-04-20
Also published as: WO2021213213A1; CN113543244A

Abstract

The invention provides a switching indication method, a terminal and an MN, wherein the terminal is in communication connection with at least two nodes, the at least two nodes comprise a main node MN and an auxiliary node SN, and the method comprises the following steps: under the condition that the terminal fails to connect in the MN, MN failure information is sent to the MN through the SN; wherein the MN failure information comprises measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell comprises cells except a first Master Cell Group (MCG) corresponding to the MN. In this way, the MN failure information reported by the terminal includes the measurement information of the cells except the first master cell group MCG corresponding to the MN, so that the problem of failure in handover connection due to only including the measurement information of the MCG cell can be avoided, and the handover effect is improved.

Description

Switching indication method, MN and storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a handover indication method, a terminal, and an MN.

Background

The multi-connection in the communication system means that at least two nodes provide services for the same terminal, that is, the terminal can be simultaneously connected to a plurality of nodes, and the plurality of nodes provide data transceiving services for the terminal at the same time. One of the multi-connected service nodes is a Master Node (MN), and the other is a Secondary Node (SN), and in the multi-connected system, includes a Master Cell Group (MCG) and a Secondary Cell Group (SCG).

In a multi-connection scenario, when an MCG link failure (MCG link failure) occurs due to poor MCG downlink channel conditions, that is, when a link failure occurs at an MN node, a terminal may initiate a fast MCG failure recovery (fast MCG failure recovery). The fast MCG failure recovery process means that when MCG link failure occurs, the terminal reports main node failure information (MN failure information) in the SN, where the reported information can reach the MN, and the reported information usually includes MCG-related measurement results. According to the information reported by the terminal, the MN can select other MCG cells and reallocate the terminal to recover MCG connection in the new MCG cell, namely, the terminal is switched (HO) to the new MCG cell. However, the reported MN failure information may not always have an effective MCG measurement result due to the problems of MCG signal quality, etc., so that the fast MCG failure recovery process may fail.

Therefore, the switching effect of the conventional switching indication method is poor.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a switching indication method, a terminal and an MN (mobile node), which aim to solve the problem of poor switching effect of the conventional switching indication method.

In order to solve the technical problem, the invention is realized as follows:

in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a handover indication method, which is applied to a terminal, where the terminal establishes a communication connection with at least two nodes, where the at least two nodes include a master node MN and a slave node SN, and the method includes:

under the condition that the terminal fails to connect in the MN, MN failure information is sent to the MN through the SN;

wherein the MN failure information comprises measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell comprises cells except a first Master Cell Group (MCG) corresponding to the MN.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a handover indication method, which is applied to a master node MN, where the MN establishes a communication connection with a terminal, and the terminal also establishes a communication connection with an auxiliary node SN, where the method includes:

receiving MN failure information sent by the terminal through the SN, wherein the MN failure information comprises measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell comprises cells except a first MCG corresponding to the MN;

and switching the terminal to a target cell in the at least one cell based on the MN failure information.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal, where the terminal establishes communication connection with at least two nodes, where the at least two nodes include a master node MN and a slave node SN, and the terminal includes:

a sending module, configured to send MN failure information to the MN through the SN when the terminal fails to connect with the MN;

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a master node MN, where the MN establishes a communication connection with a terminal, and the terminal also establishes a communication connection with an auxiliary node SN, where the MN includes:

a receiving module, configured to receive MN failure information sent by the terminal through the SN, where the MN failure information includes measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell includes cells except for a first MCG corresponding to the MN;

and the switching module is used for switching the terminal to a target cell in the at least one cell based on the MN failure information.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal, including a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, where the computer program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps in the handover indication method according to the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a master node MN, including a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, where the computer program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps in the handover indication method according to the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and when being executed by a processor, the computer program implements the steps in the handover indication method according to the first aspect; alternatively, the computer program realizes the steps of the handover indication method described in the second aspect when executed by a processor.

In the embodiment of the invention, under the condition that the connection of the MN is failed, the terminal sends MN failure information to the MN through the SN; wherein the MN failure information comprises measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell comprises cells except a first Master Cell Group (MCG) corresponding to the MN. In this way, the MN failure information reported by the terminal includes the measurement information of the cells except the first master cell group MCG corresponding to the MN, so that the problem of failure in handover connection due to only including the measurement information of the MCG cell can be avoided, and the handover effect is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without inventive exercise.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a network system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applicable;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a handover indication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of another handover indication method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an MN according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of another terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of another MN according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

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

The terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, in the description and claims of this application, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Furthermore, the use of "and/or" in the specification and claims means that at least one of the connected objects, such as a and/or B, means that three cases, a alone, B alone, and both a and B, exist.

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

Embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The uplink resource determining method, the indicating method, the terminal and the network equipment provided by the embodiment of the invention can be applied to a wireless communication system. The wireless communication system may be a New Radio (NR) system, or other systems, such as: an Evolved Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, or a subsequent Evolved communication system, etc. Further, the method can be applied to an Unlicensed Band (Unlicensed Band) in the wireless communication system.

For the understanding of the embodiments of the present invention, some related concepts involved in the embodiments of the present invention will be described first.

Dual connectivity is a technology introduced in LTE and can also be used in NR. The dual connectivity means that a User Equipment (UE) can be connected to two nodes at the same time, and the two nodes provide data transceiving services for the UE at the same time. Because the UE can use the wireless resources of the two nodes at the same time, the service data transmission rate of the UE is improved by times.

Two nodes serving the same UE have signaling interfaces between them, which can communicate the configuration information of the related UE.

The serving nodes of the dual connectivity UE may belong to the same Radio Access Technology (RAT), e.g., two LTE enbs; it may also belong to different RATs, e.g. one LTE eNB, one NR gbb. The invention can be applied to double-connection nodes of any type combination, and the type of the double-connection node is not limited.

One serving Node of the dual connectivity UE is a primary Node (MN) and one serving Node is a Secondary Node (SN), wherein each Node can support Carrier Aggregation (CA). The network configures two Special cells (Special cells) for the dual connectivity UE, that is, configures one serving Cell of the MN as a Primary Cell (PCell) of the UE, and configures one serving Cell of the SN as a Primary Secondary Cell (PScell) of the UE. The other Cell serving the UE by the MN and the SN is a Secondary Cell (Scell) of the UE.

Multi-connectivity refers to more than two nodes serving the same UE. The invention is also applicable to multi-connection, and the type of the multi-connection base station is not limited.

Similar to dual connectivity, one of the serving nodes of the multi-connectivity UE is MN, and the others are secondary nodes.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a structural diagram of a network system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applicable, and as shown in fig. 1, the network system includes a terminal 11, an MN12, and an SN13, where the terminal 11 may be a User Equipment (UE) or other terminal-side devices, for example: it should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, a specific type of the terminal 11 is not limited. Both MN12 and SN13 may be base stations, for example: macro station, LTE eNB, 5G NR NB, gNB, etc.; the MN12 and SN13 may also be small stations, such as Low Power Node (LPN) pico stations, femto stations, or Access Point (AP); the base station may also be a network node composed of a Central Unit (CU) together with a plurality of TRPs it manages and controls. It should be noted that the specific types of MN12 and SN13 are not limited in the embodiments of the present invention. The network system may be a 5G communication system or a Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication system, and may not be limited specifically.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a flowchart of a handover indication method according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is applied to a terminal, where the terminal establishes a communication connection with at least two nodes, where the at least two nodes include a primary node MN and a secondary node SN, and as shown in fig. 2, the method includes the following steps:

step 201, sending MN failure information to the MN through the SN under the condition that the terminal fails to connect in the MN;

the MN failure information comprises measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell comprises cells except a first master cell group MCG corresponding to the MN.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal establishes communication connections with at least two nodes, where the at least two nodes include a master node MN and a slave node SN, that is, the terminal is in a Multi-RAT Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) mode, where the MR-DC may include Evolved Universal mobile telecommunications system Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) with MCG and NR with SCG Dual Connectivity (E-UTRA NR Dual Connectivity with MCG and SCG using NR, EN-DC), Next Generation Radio Access Network (RAN-Radio Access Network, RAN-NR Dual Connectivity, NGEN-DC), NR-NR Dual Connectivity (NR-NR Dual Connectivity, NR-DC) and NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity (EN-DC), and the MR-DC mode may not be particularly limited in the embodiments of the present invention.

The connection failure of the terminal in the MN may be a connection failure of the terminal with a cell in the MN, that is, the terminal has MN failure in an MN node.

Wherein the connection failure may include any one of:

signaling Radio Bearers (SRB) Integrity protection failures (Integrity Check Failure);

radio Resource Control (RRC) Reconfiguration Failure (Reconfiguration Failure);

MN Handover Failure (HOF);

radio Link Failure (RLF);

the handover through the conditional handover fails.

That is, the terminal has any one of SRB Integrity Check Failure, RRC Reconfiguration Failure, MN HOF, RLF, and handover Failure via conditional handover on the MN, which means that the terminal has a connection Failure on the MN.

In this case, the terminal needs to report MN failure information to its service node, that is, report MN failure information, so as to initiate a fast MCG failure recovery (fast MCG failure recovery), and since a connection failure occurs between the terminal and the MN at this time, in order to ensure that the MN failure information can be transmitted to the MN, the terminal may report the MN failure information to an SN, and the SN forwards the MN failure information to the MN, where data may be transmitted between the MN and the SN through a signaling interface.

In order to ensure that the MN can perform fast connection handover on the terminal based on the MN failure information to recover the connection between the terminal and the MN node, measurement information of at least one cell may be carried in the MN failure information, and the at least one cell includes cells except for the first master cell group MCG corresponding to the MN, so as to avoid that the terminal recovers the connection failure when only the measurement information of the MCG cell is carried and the carried MCG cell measurement information is invalid. It should be noted that the terminal may measure information of different cells according to the frequency point, and then report the measured cell information carried in the MN failure information.

The measurement information may include relevant information such as cell ID, signal quality, network type, frequency point, and the like.

In this way, the MN may receive the MN failure information reported by the terminal and forwarded by the SN, and may perform connection handover on the terminal based on the MN failure information, specifically, may determine a target cell to be handed over according to measurement information of at least one cell carried in the MN failure information, and switch the terminal to the target cell, that is, establish connection between the terminal and the target cell. The target cell may be one of the at least one cell, and may be a cell in which measurement information in the at least one cell meets a preset requirement, such as a cell with better signal quality or a cell with the best signal quality, so as to ensure that the terminal can have more stable network connection and better communication quality after switching connection.

Optionally, the at least one cell includes at least one of:

the SN corresponds to a cell in a first auxiliary cell group SCG;

a cell other than the first MCG in a Radio Access Technology (RAT) of the first MCG;

a cell other than the first SCG in the RAT of the first SCG;

cells of other RATs than the RAT of the first MCG or the first SCG.

The cell in the first SCG corresponding to the SN, that is, the cell in the secondary cell group covered by the SN, may specifically include one or more cells in the first SCG.

In the RAT of the first MCG, the cell other than the first MCG may refer to a cell in a non-MCG among network types accessed by the first MCG, that is, a cell with a network type the same as that of the first MCG but not an MCG, for example, if the network type accessed by the first MCG is LTE, the cell other than the MCG may refer to a cell with a network access type LTE and not belonging to an MCG.

In the RAT of the first SCG, the cells other than the first SCG may refer to cells that are not in the SCG, in the network type accessed by the first SCG, that is, the network type is the same as that of the first SCG, but are not in the SCG.

The above-mentioned cells of other RATs except the RAT of the first MCG or the first SCG may be cells of other network access types except the network type accessed by the current MCG or the network type accessed by the current SCG, for example, if the network type accessed by the current MCG is LTE, the cells of other RATs may be other cells with network access types NR and the like, that is, may be cells covered by a node with network access type NR; for another example, if the network type of the SCG access is NR, the cell of the other RAT may be another cell with the network access type being LTE, that is, a cell covered by a node with the network access type being LTE.

That is, the measurement information of the at least one cell may include one or more of cell measurement information in a current SCG, cell measurement information of a non-MCG, cell measurement information of a non-SCG, and cell measurement information of another RAT except for a current MCG RAT or SCG RAT.

Optionally, the at least one cell further includes a cell in the first MCG.

That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, the at least one cell may include not only one or more of the above cells, but also a cell in the first MCG, that is, a current MCG cell, so that the MN may select a cell with the best signal quality as possible for the terminal to perform handover according to multiple cell measurement information carried in the MN failure information.

In the handover indication method in this embodiment, when a connection failure occurs in an MN, a terminal sends MN failure information to the MN through an SN; wherein the MN failure information comprises measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell comprises cells except a first Master Cell Group (MCG) corresponding to the MN. In this way, the MN failure information reported by the terminal includes the measurement information of the cells except the first master cell group MCG corresponding to the MN, so that the problem of failure in handover connection due to only including the measurement information of the MCG cell can be avoided, and the handover effect is improved.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a flowchart of another handover indication method provided in an embodiment of the present invention, which is applied to a master node MN, where the MN establishes a communication connection with a terminal, and the terminal also establishes a communication connection with a secondary node SN, as shown in fig. 3, the method includes the following steps:

step 301, receiving MN failure information sent by the terminal through the SN, where the MN failure information includes measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell includes cells except for a first MCG corresponding to the MN.

Step 302, based on the MN failure information, the terminal is switched to a target cell of the at least one cell.

It should be noted that, this embodiment is used as an implementation of the MN side corresponding to the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and for a specific implementation of this embodiment, reference may be made to the relevant description in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, so as to avoid repeated description, and this embodiment is not described again. In this embodiment, the effect of handover can be improved as well.

Wherein the connection failure may include any one of:

signaling radio bearer SRB integrity protection fails;

radio resource control, RRC, reconfiguration failure;

MN switching fails;

a radio link failure, RLF;

the handover through the conditional handover fails.

Optionally, the at least one cell includes at least one of:

a cell in a first SCG corresponding to the SN;

a cell other than the first MCG in a RAT of the first MCG;

a cell other than the first SCG in the RAT of the first SCG;

cells of other RATs than the RAT of the first MCG or the first SCG.

Optionally, the at least one cell further includes a cell in the first MCG.

The above optional implementation may refer to the description of the relevant implementation in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and in order to avoid repeated description, this embodiment is not described again.

Optionally, the step 302 includes:

determining the target cell to be switched based on the measurement information of at least one cell in the MN failure information;

and sending a switching request to a target node corresponding to the target cell, wherein the switching request is used for requesting the target node to switch the terminal to the target cell.

Specifically, a target cell may be determined as a cell to be switched based on measurement information of the at least one cell carried by the MN failure information, where the target cell may be a cell whose measurement information meets a preset requirement, such as a cell with better signal quality or a cell with the best signal quality, so as to ensure that the terminal can have more stable network connection and better communication quality after switching connection.

After the target cell to be switched is determined, a switching request, that is, an HO request, may be sent to a target node corresponding to the target cell, so that the target node switches the terminal to the target cell after receiving the switching request, where the target node is a node where a coverage cell includes the target cell. It should be noted that, when the target cell is a cell covered by the MN, the target node is the MN, when the target cell is a cell covered by the SN, the target node is the SN, and when the target cell is a cell covered by a node other than the MN and the SN, the target node is a new node other than the MN and the SN.

It should be further noted that, when the target node is the same as the MN, the sending of the handover request to the target node corresponding to the target cell may be sending of the handover request to an interface corresponding to the target cell, where different cells covered by the MN have interfaces capable of communicating with each other. Of course, since the target node and the MN belong to the same node, the step of sending the handover request to the target node may not be performed, and the terminal may be directly handed over to the target cell.

Wherein, the handover request may carry a handover reason, and the handover reason indicates that the terminal has a connection failure on the MN.

In order to enable the target node to quickly respond to the handover request to quickly recover the connection between the terminal and the MCG and avoid influencing the current service of the terminal due to handover delay, a handover reason may be carried in the handover request to indicate the target node, where the reason for initiating the handover request is that the terminal has failed to connect on the MN, that is, the handover request is initiated based on a fast MCG failure recovery initiated by the terminal.

Thus, after receiving the handover request, the target node may process the request as the highest priority level, immediately respond to the request, and establish the connection between the terminal and the target cell without delay or response contention.

Optionally, the switching the terminal to a target cell in the at least one cell includes any one of:

switching the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a second cell of the MN;

switching the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a cell in a second MCG, wherein the second MCG is a newly added master cell group;

and performing resource reconfiguration on the terminal on the MN and/or the SN so as to configure the terminal to the target cell.

Specifically, the behavior of the MN to handover the terminal to the target cell may include a plurality of different handover manners as follows:

in the first method, the terminal may be switched from the first cell of the MN to the second cell of the MN, that is, the MN is still kept as the master node of the terminal, but the cell of the MN, which the terminal is connected to before MN connection failure occurs, is switched to the first cell, which is the first cell, of the MN to recover the connection between the terminal and the MN.

Further, in the first mode, the handover of the terminal from the first cell of the MN to the second cell of the MN may include any one of:

switching the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a second cell of the MN, wherein the terminal retains a connection with the SN;

and switching the terminal from the first cell of the MN to the second cell of the MN and switching the terminal from the third cell of the SN to the fourth cell of the SN.

That is, when the terminal is handed over from the first cell of the MN to the second cell of the MN, there may also be two different handover behaviors for the terminal to connect with the SN:

one is to reserve the connection between the terminal and the SN, that is, the terminal is not switched to the cell connected in the SN, and the connection between the terminal and the SN is not released;

and the second is to switch the terminal from the third cell of the SN to the fourth cell of the SN, that is, still keep the SN as the secondary node of the terminal, but switch the cell of the SN connected by the terminal before MN connection failure occurs, that is, the third cell, to another cell in the SNs, that is, the fourth cell, where the fourth cell may be a cell with better signal quality than the third cell, so as to implement switching the terminal to an SN cell with better signal quality.

In a second manner, the terminal may be switched from the first cell of the MN to a cell in a second MCG, where the second MCG is a newly added master cell group, that is, a new node may be added to replace the current MN as a new master node, so that a cell covered by the newly added master node is used as a new master cell group, that is, the second MCG, and a first cell in the MN to which the terminal is connected before MN connection failure occurs is switched to a cell in the newly added master cell group to establish connection between the terminal and the newly added master node.

Further, in the second manner, the handing over the terminal from the first cell of the MN to a cell in a second MCG may include any one of the following:

switching the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a cell in the second MCG, wherein the terminal retains a connection with the SN;

switching the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a cell in the second MCG and switching the terminal from a third cell of the SN to a cell in a second SCG, wherein the second SCG is a newly added secondary cell group;

and switching the terminal from the first cell of the MN to a cell in the second MCG, wherein the terminal releases the connection with the SN.

That is, when handing over the terminal from the first cell of the MN to a cell in a second MCG, there may also be three different handover behaviors for the terminal to connect with the SN:

secondly, the terminal is switched from the third cell of the SN to a cell in a second SCG, that is, a new node may be added to replace the current SN as a new secondary node, so that the cell covered by the newly added secondary node is used as a new secondary cell group, that is, the second SCG, and the third cell in the SN connected by the terminal before MN connection failure occurs is switched to the cell in the newly added secondary cell group to establish connection between the terminal and the newly added secondary node;

and thirdly, releasing the connection between the terminal and the SN, that is, releasing the connection between the terminal and the cell in the SN, for example, when there is no cell whose signal quality meets a preset requirement in the SCG cell corresponding to the SN, releasing the connection between the terminal and the SN, in which case, the terminal may be switched from the original dual-connection or multi-connection mode to the single-connection mode. Of course, in order to ensure the service quality of the terminal, the new node may be configured as an auxiliary node of the terminal under the condition that a new node with a signal quality meeting a preset requirement is subsequently searched, so as to recover the terminal to a dual-connection or multi-connection mode.

In a third manner, the resource reconfiguration may be performed on the MN and/or the SN to configure the terminal to the target cell, that is, the resource reconfiguration may be performed on the MN or the SN, or the resource reconfiguration may be performed on the MN and the SN to re-issue a new network configuration resource to the terminal to re-establish the connection between the terminal and the MN and/or the SN, where the cell to which the terminal is connected after re-establishing the connection between the terminal and the MN and/or the SN is the target cell.

Further, in the third mode, the reconfiguring the resource of the terminal on the MN and/or the SN may include any one of the following:

performing resource reconfiguration on the terminal on the MN, wherein the terminal reserves connection with the MN and reserves connection with the SN;

performing resource reconfiguration on the terminal on the MN and/or the SN, configuring the MN as an auxiliary node of the terminal, and configuring the SN as a main node of the terminal;

and reconfiguring the connection between the terminal and the SN, wherein the terminal releases the connection with the MN.

That is to say, the resource reconfiguration performed on the terminal on the MN and/or the SN may specifically have the following three different reconfiguration behaviors:

one of them may be to perform resource reconfiguration on the terminal only on the MN, that is, to re-issue a new network configuration resource to the terminal through the MN to re-establish the connection between the terminal and the MN, and may reserve the connection between the terminal and the MN and the connection between the terminal and the SN, that is, to continue to keep the configuration of the MN as the master node of the terminal and the configuration of the SN as the slave node of the terminal unchanged.

The second method may be to perform resource reconfiguration on the MN and/or the SN, that is, to re-issue new network configuration resources to the terminal through at least one of the MN and the SN to reestablish the connection relationship between the terminal and the MN and the SN, and may exchange the relationship between the MN and the SN, that is, configure the original primary node and the MN as a new secondary node, and configure the original secondary node and the SN as a new primary node. For example, the original MN may be reconfigured as a new SN and the original SN may be reconfigured as a new MN if the signal quality of the cell covered by the SN is better than the signal quality of the cell covered by the MN.

And thirdly, reconfiguring the connection between the terminal and the SN, releasing the connection between the terminal and the MN, namely reconfiguring the connection between the terminal and the cell in the SN, releasing the connection between the terminal and the cell in the MN, namely releasing double-connection or multi-connection configuration, and switching the original double-connection or multi-connection mode of the terminal into a single-connection mode. For example, when there is no cell with a signal quality meeting a preset requirement in an MCG cell corresponding to the MN, the terminal may be released from the MN. Of course, in order to ensure the service quality of the terminal, when a new node with a signal quality meeting a preset requirement is subsequently searched, the new node may be configured as a primary node or a secondary node of the terminal, and the terminal may be restored to a dual-connection or multi-connection mode.

Therefore, when the terminal is switched in connection, the terminal can be selected in different switching or reconfiguration modes, and the terminal can be effectively switched in connection by selecting an expected mode according to requirements, so that the switching flexibility can be ensured, and the switching effect can be improved.

In the handover indication method in this embodiment, a receiving terminal receives MN failure information sent by an SN, where the MN failure information includes measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell includes cells other than a first MCG corresponding to the MN; and switching the terminal to a target cell in the at least one cell based on the MN failure information. In this way, the MN failure information reported by the terminal includes the measurement information of the cells except the first master cell group MCG corresponding to the MN, so that the problem of failure in handover connection due to only including the measurement information of the MCG cell can be avoided, and the handover effect is improved.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the terminal establishes a communication connection with at least two nodes, where the at least two nodes include a primary node MN and a secondary node SN, and as shown in fig. 4, the terminal 400 includes:

a sending module 401, configured to send MN failure information to the MN through the SN when the terminal 400 fails to connect with the MN;

Optionally, the at least one cell includes at least one of:

the SN corresponds to a cell in a first auxiliary cell group SCG;

a cell other than the first SCG in a RAT of the first SCG;

cells of other RATs than the RAT of the first MCG or the first SCG.

Optionally, the at least one cell further includes a cell in the first MCG.

Optionally, the connection failure includes any one of:

signaling radio bearer SRB integrity protection fails;

radio resource control, RRC, reconfiguration failure;

MN switching fails;

a radio link failure, RLF;

the handover through the conditional handover fails.

The terminal provided by the embodiment of the present invention can implement each process implemented by the terminal in the method embodiment of fig. 2, and for avoiding repetition, details are not described here, and the handover effect is improved.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a structural diagram of a primary node MN according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the MN establishes a communication connection with a terminal, and the terminal further establishes a communication connection with a secondary node SN, and as shown in fig. 5, the MN500 includes:

a receiving module 501, configured to receive MN failure information sent by the terminal through the SN, where the MN failure information includes measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell includes cells except for a first MCG corresponding to the MN;

a switching module 502, configured to switch the terminal to a target cell of the at least one cell based on the MN failure information.

Optionally, the at least one cell includes at least one of:

a cell in a first SCG corresponding to the SN;

a cell other than the first MCG in a RAT of the first MCG;

a cell other than the first SCG in the RAT of the first SCG;

cells of other RATs than the RAT of the first MCG or the first SCG.

Optionally, the at least one cell further includes a cell in the first MCG.

Optionally, the switching module 502 includes:

a determining unit, configured to determine the target cell to be switched based on measurement information of at least one cell in the MN failure information;

a sending unit, configured to send a handover request to a target node corresponding to the target cell, where the handover request is used to request the target node to handover the terminal to the target cell.

Optionally, the handover request carries a handover reason, where the handover reason indicates that the terminal fails to connect on the MN.

Optionally, the switching module 502 includes any one of the following:

a first switching unit, configured to switch the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a second cell of the MN;

a second switching unit, configured to switch the terminal from the first cell of the MN to a cell in a second MCG, where the second MCG is a newly added master cell group;

a reconfiguration unit, configured to perform resource reconfiguration on the MN and/or the SN to configure the terminal to the target cell.

Optionally, the first switching unit includes any one of:

a first handover subunit, configured to handover the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a second cell of the MN, where the terminal reserves a connection with the SN;

and the second switching subunit is used for switching the terminal from the first cell of the MN to the second cell of the MN and switching the terminal from the third cell of the SN to the fourth cell of the SN.

Optionally, the second switching unit includes any one of the following:

a third handover subunit, configured to handover the terminal from the first cell of the MN to a cell in the second MCG, where the terminal reserves a connection with the SN;

a fourth switching subunit, configured to switch the terminal from the first cell of the MN to a cell in the second MCG, and switch the terminal from a third cell of the SN to a cell in a second SCG, where the second SCG is a newly added secondary cell group;

a fifth handover subunit, configured to handover the terminal from the first cell of the MN to a cell in the second MCG, where the terminal releases the connection with the SN.

Optionally, the reconfiguration unit includes any one of:

a first reconfiguration subunit, configured to perform resource reconfiguration on the MN for the terminal, where the terminal reserves a connection with the MN and reserves a connection with the SN;

a second reconfiguration sub-unit, configured to perform resource reconfiguration on the MN and/or the SN, configure the MN as a secondary node of the terminal, and configure the SN as a primary node of the terminal;

and the third reallocation subunit is used for reconfiguring the connection between the terminal and the SN, wherein the terminal releases the connection with the MN.

The MN provided in the embodiment of the present invention can implement each process implemented by the MN in the method embodiment of fig. 3, and for avoiding repetition, details are not described here, and a handover effect can be improved.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of a terminal for implementing various embodiments of the present invention, where the terminal establishes a communication connection with at least two nodes, where the at least two nodes include a primary node MN and a secondary node SN, and the terminal 600 includes, but is not limited to: a radio frequency unit 601, a network module 602, an audio output unit 603, an input unit 604, a sensor 605, a display unit 606, a user input unit 607, an interface unit 608, a memory 609, a processor 610, and a power supply 611. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal structure shown in fig. 6 does not constitute a limitation of the terminal, and that the terminal may include more or fewer components than shown, or some components may be combined, or a different arrangement of components. In the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal includes, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a palm computer, a vehicle-mounted terminal, a robot, a wearable device, a pedometer, and the like.

The radio frequency unit 601 is configured to send MN failure information to the MN through the SN when the terminal fails to connect with the MN;

Optionally, the at least one cell includes at least one of:

the SN corresponds to a cell in a first auxiliary cell group SCG;

a cell other than the first SCG in the RAT of the first SCG;

cells of other RATs than the RAT of the first MCG or the first SCG.

Optionally, the at least one cell further includes a cell in the first MCG.

Optionally, the connection failure includes any one of:

signaling radio bearer SRB integrity protection fails;

radio resource control, RRC, reconfiguration failure;

MN switching fails;

a Radio Link Failure (RLF);

the handover through the conditional handover fails.

The terminal 600 can implement each process implemented by the terminal in the foregoing embodiments, and is not described herein again to avoid repetition. The terminal 600 of the embodiment of the invention can improve the switching effect.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the radio frequency unit 601 may be used to receive and transmit signals during a message transmission or call process, and specifically, receive downlink data from a base station and then process the received downlink data to the processor 610; in addition, the uplink data is transmitted to the base station. In general, radio frequency unit 601 includes, but is not limited to, an antenna, at least one amplifier, a transceiver, a coupler, a low noise amplifier, a duplexer, and the like. Further, the radio frequency unit 601 may also communicate with a network and other devices through a wireless communication system.

The terminal provides wireless broadband internet access to the user through the network module 602, such as helping the user send and receive e-mails, browse web pages, and access streaming media.

The audio output unit 603 may convert audio data received by the radio frequency unit 601 or the network module 602 or stored in the memory 609 into an audio signal and output as sound. Also, the audio output unit 603 can provide audio output (e.g., a call signal reception sound, a message reception sound, etc.) related to a specific function performed by the terminal 600. The audio output unit 603 includes a speaker, a buzzer, a receiver, and the like.

The input unit 604 is used to receive audio or video signals. The input Unit 604 may include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) 6041 and a microphone 6042, and the Graphics processor 6041 processes image data of a still picture or video obtained by an image capturing apparatus (such as a camera) in a video capture mode or an image capture mode. The processed image frames may be displayed on the display unit 606. The image frames processed by the graphic processor 6041 may be stored in the memory 609 (or other storage medium) or transmitted via the radio frequency unit 601 or the network module 602. The microphone 6042 can receive sound, and can process such sound into audio data. The processed audio data may be converted into a format output transmittable to a mobile communication base station via the radio frequency unit 601 in case of the phone call mode.

The terminal 600 also includes at least one sensor 605, such as a light sensor, motion sensor, and other sensors. Specifically, the light sensor includes an ambient light sensor that can adjust the brightness of the display panel 6061 according to the brightness of ambient light, and a proximity sensor that can turn off the display panel 6061 and/or the backlight when the terminal 600 is moved to the ear. As one of the motion sensors, the accelerometer sensor can detect the magnitude of acceleration in each direction (generally three axes), detect the magnitude and direction of gravity when stationary, and can be used to identify the terminal posture (such as horizontal and vertical screen switching, related games, magnetometer posture calibration), vibration identification related functions (such as pedometer and tapping), and the like; the sensors 605 may also include fingerprint sensors, pressure sensors, iris sensors, molecular sensors, gyroscopes, barometers, hygrometers, thermometers, infrared sensors, etc., which are not described in detail herein.

The display unit 606 is used to display information input by the user or information provided to the user. The Display unit 606 may include a Display panel 6061, and the Display panel 6061 may be configured by a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED), or the like.

The user input unit 607 may be used to receive input numeric or character information and generate key signal inputs related to user settings and function control of the terminal. Specifically, the user input unit 607 includes a touch panel 6071 and other input devices 6072. Touch panel 6071, also referred to as a touch screen, may collect touch operations by a user on or near it (e.g., operations by a user on or near touch panel 6071 using a finger, stylus, or any suitable object or accessory). The touch panel 6071 may include two parts of a touch detection device and a touch controller. The touch detection device detects the touch direction of a user, detects a signal brought by touch operation and transmits the signal to the touch controller; the touch controller receives touch information from the touch sensing device, converts the touch information into touch point coordinates, sends the touch point coordinates to the processor 610, receives a command from the processor 610, and executes the command. In addition, the touch panel 6071 can be implemented by various types such as a resistive type, a capacitive type, an infrared ray, and a surface acoustic wave. The user input unit 607 may include other input devices 6072 in addition to the touch panel 6071. Specifically, the other input devices 6072 may include, but are not limited to, a physical keyboard, function keys (such as volume control keys, switch keys, etc.), a track ball, a mouse, and a joystick, which are not described herein again.

Further, the touch panel 6071 can be overlaid on the display panel 6061, and when the touch panel 6071 detects a touch operation thereon or nearby, the touch operation can be transmitted to the processor 610 to determine the type of the touch event, and then the processor 610 can provide a corresponding visual output on the display panel 6061 according to the type of the touch event. Although in fig. 6, the touch panel 6071 and the display panel 6061 are two independent components to realize the input and output functions of the terminal, in some embodiments, the touch panel 6071 and the display panel 6061 may be integrated to realize the input and output functions of the terminal, and this is not limited here.

The interface unit 608 is an interface for connecting an external device to the terminal 600. For example, the external device may include a wired or wireless headset port, an external power supply (or battery charger) port, a wired or wireless data port, a memory card port, a port for connecting a device having an identification module, an audio input/output (I/O) port, a video I/O port, an earphone port, and the like. The interface unit 608 may be used to receive input (e.g., data information, power, etc.) from an external device and transmit the received input to one or more elements within the terminal 600 or may be used to transmit data between the terminal 600 and an external device.

The memory 609 may be used to store software programs as well as various data. The memory 609 may mainly include a program storage area and a data storage area, wherein the program storage area may store an operating system, an application program required by at least one function (such as a sound playing function, an image playing function, etc.), and the like; the storage data area may store data (such as audio data, a phonebook, etc.) created according to the use of the cellular phone, and the like. Further, the memory 609 may include high speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as at least one magnetic disk storage device, flash memory device, or other volatile solid state storage device.

The processor 610 is a control center of the terminal, connects various parts of the entire terminal using various interfaces and lines, and performs various functions of the terminal and processes data by operating or executing software programs and/or modules stored in the memory 609 and calling data stored in the memory 609, thereby performing overall monitoring of the terminal. Processor 610 may include one or more processing units; preferably, the processor 610 may integrate an application processor, which mainly handles operating systems, user interfaces, application programs, etc., and a modem processor, which mainly handles wireless communications. It will be appreciated that the modem processor described above may not be integrated into the processor 610.

The terminal 600 may further include a power supply 611 (e.g., a battery) for supplying power to the various components, and preferably, the power supply 611 is logically connected to the processor 610 via a power management system, so that functions of managing charging, discharging, and power consumption are performed via the power management system.

In addition, the terminal 600 includes some functional modules that are not shown, and are not described in detail herein.

Preferably, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a terminal, including a processor 610, a memory 609, and a computer program stored in the memory 609 and capable of running on the processor 610, where the computer program, when executed by the processor 610, implements each process of the foregoing embodiment of the handover indication method, and can achieve the same technical effect, and in order to avoid repetition, details are not described here again.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a structural diagram of another primary node MN according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the MN establishes a communication connection with a terminal, and the terminal further establishes a communication connection with a secondary node SN, as shown in fig. 7, the MN700 includes: a processor 701, a transceiver 702, a memory 703 and a bus interface.

The transceiver 702 is configured to receive MN failure information sent by the terminal through the SN, where the MN failure information includes measurement information of at least one cell, and the at least one cell includes cells except for a first MCG corresponding to the MN;

in the embodiment of the present invention, the MN700 further includes: a computer program stored on the memory 703 and executable on the processor 701, which computer program, when executed by the processor 701, performs the steps of:

Optionally, the at least one cell includes at least one of:

a cell in a first SCG corresponding to the SN;

a cell in a RAT of the first MCG other than the first MCG;

a cell other than the first SCG in the RAT of the first SCG;

cells of other RATs than the RAT of the first MCG or the first SCG.

Optionally, the at least one cell further includes a cell in the first MCG.

Optionally, the computer program when executed by the processor 701 implements the following steps:

the control transceiver 702 sends a handover request to a target node corresponding to the target cell, where the handover request is used to request the target node to handover the terminal to the target cell.

Optionally, the computer program, when executed by the processor 701, implements any of the following steps:

switching the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a second cell of the MN;

Optionally, when executed by the processor 701, the computer program implements any of the following steps:

and switching the terminal from the first cell of the MN to the second cell of the MN, and switching the terminal from the third cell of the SN to the fourth cell of the SN.

The MN700 described above can improve the handover effect.

The transceiver 702 is configured to receive and transmit data under the control of the processor 701, and the transceiver 702 includes at least two antenna ports.

In FIG. 7, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, with various circuits representing one or more processors, in particular processor 701, and memory, in particular memory 703 being linked together. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 702 may be a number of elements including a transmitter and a receiver that provide a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The user interface 704 may also be an interface capable of interfacing with a desired device for different user devices, including but not limited to a keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick, etc.

The processor 701 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 703 may store data used by the processor 701 in performing operations.

Preferably, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an MN, including a processor 701, a memory 703, and a computer program stored in the memory 703 and capable of running on the processor 701, where the computer program, when executed by the processor 701, implements each process of the foregoing embodiment of the handover indication method, and can achieve the same technical effect, and in order to avoid repetition, details are not described here again.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer program implements each process of the embodiment of the handover indication method shown in fig. 2, or when the computer program is executed by the processor, the computer program implements each process of the embodiment of the handover indication method shown in fig. 3, and the same technical effect can be achieved, and in order to avoid repetition, details are not repeated here. The computer-readable storage medium may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

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

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

While the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but is intended to cover various modifications, equivalent arrangements, and equivalents thereof, which may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A switching indication method is applied to a main node MN, the MN establishes communication connection with a terminal, and the terminal also establishes communication connection with an auxiliary node SN, and is characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:

switching the terminal to a target cell of the at least one cell based on the MN failure information;

the switching the terminal to a target cell of the at least one cell includes any one of:

switching the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a second cell of the MN;

performing resource reconfiguration on the MN and/or the SN to configure the terminal to the target cell;

the handing over the terminal from the first cell of the MN to the second cell of the MN comprises any one of:

switching the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a second cell of the MN and switching the terminal from a third cell of the SN to a fourth cell of the SN;

the handing over the terminal from the first cell of the MN to a cell in a second MCG comprises any one of:

switching the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a cell in the second MCG, wherein the terminal releases a connection with the SN;

the reconfiguring the resources of the terminal on the MN and/or the SN includes any one of the following:

reconfiguring the connection of the terminal with the SN, wherein the terminal releases the connection with the MN.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one cell comprises at least one of:

a cell in a first SCG corresponding to the SN;

a cell other than the first MCG in a RAT of the first MCG;

a cell other than the first SCG in the RAT of the first SCG;

cells of other RATs than the RAT of the first MCG or the first SCG.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the at least one cell further comprises a cell in the first MCG.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the handing over the terminal to a target cell of the at least one cell based on the MN failure information comprises:

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the handover request carries a handover reason indicating that the terminal has failed to connect on the MN.

6. A main node MN, MN establishes communication connection with a terminal, the terminal also establishes communication connection with an auxiliary node SN, and the MN is characterized by comprising:

a switching module, configured to switch the terminal to a target cell of the at least one cell based on the MN failure information;

the switching module comprises any one of:

a reconfiguration unit, configured to perform resource reconfiguration on the MN and/or the SN to configure the terminal to the target cell;

the first switching unit includes any one of:

a first handover subunit, configured to handover the terminal from a first cell of the MN to a second cell of the MN, where the terminal retains a connection with the SN;

a second switching subunit, configured to switch the terminal from the first cell of the MN to the second cell of the MN, and switch the terminal from the third cell of the SN to the fourth cell of the SN;

the second switching unit includes any one of:

a fifth handover subunit, configured to handover the terminal from the first cell of the MN to a cell in the second MCG, where the terminal releases the connection with the SN;

the reconfiguration unit comprises any one of the following:

a second reconfiguration subunit, configured to perform resource reconfiguration on the MN and/or the SN for the terminal, configure the MN as a secondary node of the terminal, and configure the SN as a primary node of the terminal;

a third reallocation subunit, configured to reallocate a connection of the terminal with the SN, wherein the terminal releases the connection with the MN.

7. The MN of claim 6, wherein the at least one cell comprises at least one of:

a cell in a first SCG corresponding to the SN;

a cell in a RAT of the first MCG other than the first MCG;

a cell other than the first SCG in the RAT of the first SCG;

cells of other RATs than the RAT of the first MCG or the first SCG.

8. The MN of claim 6 or 7, wherein the at least one cell further comprises a cell in the first MCG.

9. The MN of claim 6, wherein the switching module comprises:

10. The MN of claim 9, wherein the handover request carries a handover reason indicating that the terminal failed to connect on the MN.

11. A master node MN, comprising: memory, processor and program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which when executed by the processor implements the steps in the handover indication method according to any of claims 1 to 5.

12. A computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program which, when being executed by a processor, carries out the steps of the handover indication method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.