CN113543266A

CN113543266A - Wireless communication link establishment method and device, terminal and relay equipment

Info

Publication number: CN113543266A
Application number: CN202010302484.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 孙明; 苗润泉; 刘莹莹; 其他发明人请求不公开姓名
Original assignee: Spreadtrum Semiconductor Nanjing Co Ltd
Current assignee: Spreadtrum Semiconductor Nanjing Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-16
Filing date: 2020-04-16
Publication date: 2021-10-22
Anticipated expiration: 2040-04-16
Also published as: CN113543266B

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses a method and a device for establishing a wireless communication link, a terminal and relay equipment, wherein the method comprises the following steps: a first terminal sends a first relay request message to first relay equipment; the first terminal receives a relay response message of a first relay request message from a second relay device, wherein the second relay device comprises at least one relay device in the first relay device, and the at least one relay device is a relay device which receives a second relay request message from the second terminal; the first terminal determines target relay equipment from the second relay equipment according to the relay response message; the first terminal establishes a first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal through the target relay device. Therefore, in the embodiment of the application, the two sides of the terminal initiate the relay request process in two ways, and the second relay device participates in the establishment process of the communication link, so that the number of the relay devices is reduced, the relay resources are saved, and the communication efficiency is improved.

Description

Wireless communication link establishment method and device, terminal and relay equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for establishing a wireless communication link, a terminal, and a relay device.

Background

The Service and System Aspects (SA) group of the third Generation Partnership Project (3rd Generation Partnership Project,3GPP) began research related to Proximity-based Services (ProSe) communication at the protocol version 12(Release 12).

Currently, ProSe communication related studies are being further conducted at Release17 stage. Among the two main points of research for ProSe communication include support for user equipment to user equipment relay (UE-to-UE relay) and support for direct path switching between the Uu and PC5 interfaces. In the research for supporting UE-to-UE relay, the selection problem of UE-to-UE relay needs to be considered specifically. In addition, in the process of establishing the wireless communication link, a large number of UE-to-UE relays participate in the process, which wastes relay resources.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a method and a device for establishing a wireless communication link, a terminal and relay equipment, so that the process of two-way initiation of a relay request by both terminals is expected to be realized, the relay equipment for establishing a communication link service is reduced, the relay resource is saved, and the communication efficiency is improved.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for establishing a wireless communication link, including:

a first terminal sends a first relay request message to first relay equipment;

the first terminal receives a relay response message of a second relay device to the first relay request message, wherein the second relay device comprises at least one relay device in the first relay device, and the at least one relay device is the relay device which receives the second relay request message from the second terminal;

the first terminal determines target relay equipment from the second relay equipment according to the relay response message;

and the first terminal establishes a first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal through the target relay equipment.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for establishing a wireless communication link, including:

the relay equipment receives a first relay request message from a first terminal and receives a second relay request message from a second terminal;

the relay equipment sends a relay response message to the first terminal, wherein the relay response message is used for the first terminal to execute the following operations: determining target relay equipment from the relay equipment according to the relay response message; establishing, by the target relay device, a first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a wireless communication link establishing apparatus, which is applied to a first terminal; the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit being configured to:

transmitting a first relay request message to a first relay device through the communication unit;

receiving, by the communication unit, a relay response message to the first relay request message from a second relay device, the second relay device including at least one relay device of the first relay devices, the at least one relay device being a relay device that receives a second relay request message from a second terminal;

determining target relay equipment from the second relay equipment according to the relay response message;

establishing, by the target relay device, a first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a wireless communication link establishing apparatus, which is applied to a relay device; the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit being configured to:

receiving, by the communication unit, a first relay request message from a first terminal and a second relay request message from a second terminal;

sending, by the communication unit, a relay response message to the first terminal, the relay response message being for the first terminal to perform: determining target relay equipment from the relay equipment according to the relay response message; establishing, by the target relay device, a first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal.

In a fifth aspect, this application embodiment provides a terminal, which is a first terminal, including a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs, where the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, and the program includes instructions for performing the steps of any of the methods in the first aspect of this application embodiment.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a relay device, including a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs, where the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, and the program includes instructions for performing the steps of any of the methods of the second aspects of the embodiments of the present application.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip, including: and the processor is used for calling and running the computer program from the memory so that the device provided with the chip executes part or all of the steps described in the method of any one of the first aspect and the second aspect of the embodiment of the application.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program for electronic data exchange, where the computer program makes a computer perform part or all of the steps described in any one of the methods of the first aspect or the second aspect of the present application.

In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program, where the computer program is operable to cause a computer to perform some or all of the steps as described in any of the methods of the first or second aspects of the embodiments of the present application. The computer program may be a software installation package.

It can be seen that, in the embodiment of the present application, first, a first terminal sends a first relay request message to a first relay device, and a second terminal sends a second relay request message to the first relay device; then, a second relay device in the first relay device receives the first relay request message and the second relay request message and sends a relay response message to the first terminal; and finally, the first terminal determines the target relay equipment from the second relay equipment according to the relay response message, and establishes a new wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal through the target relay equipment. Because both communication terminals initiate the relay request process in two ways and a part of the relay devices (second relay devices) in the first relay device participate in the establishment process of the wireless communication link, the relay devices providing the service of establishing the communication link are reduced, the relay resources are saved and the communication efficiency is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or the prior art descriptions will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings without creative efforts.

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

fig. 2 is a schematic flowchart of establishment of a direct connection communication link according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for establishing a wireless communication link according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic architecture diagram of a wireless communication scenario provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is an architecture diagram of another wireless communication scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for establishing a wireless communication link according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a block diagram illustrating functional units of a wireless communication link establishment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a block diagram of functional units of another wireless communication link establishment apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a relay device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application are described below with reference to the drawings.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may be applied to a wireless communication system, and the wireless communication system may include a non-terrestrial communication network (NTN) system, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, an LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, an LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), a fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) new air interface (new radio, NR) communication system, or a future evolution communication system.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and the exemplary communication system 100 may include a terminal 110A, a terminal 110B, a terminal 110C, a terminal 110D, and a network device 120. Among them, the terminal 110A may establish a wireless communication link with the terminal 110B or the terminal 110C through the PC5 interface, the terminal 110B may establish a wireless communication link with the network device 120 through the Uu interface, and the terminal 110C may establish a wireless communication link with the terminal 110D through the PC5 interface. It should be noted that, when the link quality of the direct communication link between the terminal 110A and the Network device 120 becomes poor, the terminal 110A may establish a wireless communication link with the Network device 120 through the terminal 110B, and at this time, the terminal 110B may serve as at least one relay device, that is, a user equipment-to-Network relay (UE-to-Network relay). Likewise, when the link quality of the direct communication link between the terminal 110A and the terminal 110D becomes poor, the terminal 110A may establish a wireless communication link with the terminal 110D through the terminal 110C, and at this time, the terminal 110C may serve as at least one relay device, i.e., a user equipment-to-user equipment relay (UE-to-UE relay). In addition, the terminal 110A, the terminal 110B, the terminal 110C, and the terminal 110D may be collectively referred to as the terminal 110, and the terminal 110 may include other terminals besides the above terminals, and this application example is not particularly limited.

Specifically, the terminal 110 in this embodiment may include a User Equipment (UE), a user terminal, a handheld terminal, a notebook computer, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a cellular phone (cellular phone), a smart phone (smart phone), a wireless data card, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) computer, and may also include a vehicle-mounted device, a vehicle-mounted terminal, a vehicle device, or an automobile device. The terminal 110 may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capability, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a relay device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a 5G NR system, or a terminal device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) for future evolution. The embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited to this.

Specifically, the network device 120 may be regarded as a Radio Access Network (RAN) device or AN Access Network (AN) device, and is mainly responsible for functions of radio resource management, quality of service (QoS) management, data compression and encryption, and the like on the air interface side. Network device 120 may include various forms of base stations, such as: macro base stations, micro base stations, relay stations, Access Points (APs), and the like. In communication systems employing different radio access technologies, the names of devices that function as base stations may differ. For example, in a fifth generation (5G) communication system, it is called next generation node B (gNB) or next generation evolved node B (ng-eNB); in the LTE system, referred to as an evolved node B (eNB or eNodeB) or; in the third generation (3G) system, the node b is called node b (node b).

Before describing the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application in detail, a UE-to-UE relay communication scheme related to the embodiment of the present application is described.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic flowchart illustrating establishment of a direct communication link according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Wherein terminal 1 needs to establish a wireless communication link with terminal 2, which wireless communication link can be established through a UE-to-UE relay. Firstly, a terminal 1 directly broadcasts a direct communication request message, wherein the direct communication request message can be received by a relay device 1 and a relay device 2, and the relay device 1 and the relay device 2 can be used as a UE-to-UE relay; secondly, the relay device 1 and the relay device 2 may decide whether to broadcast and forward the direct connection communication request message; thirdly, the terminal 2 receives the direct connection communication request message from the relay device 1 and the relay device 2, and selects the relay device 1 to feed back the request response message; finally, the terminal 1 receives the request response message from the relay device 1, and establishes a wireless communication link between the terminal 1 and the terminal 2 through the relay device. It will be appreciated that the procedure initiated by one of the two parties to the terminal (terminal 1) to establish a unicast communication over the UE-to-UE relay.

In the above fig. 2, in the process that both terminals establish unicast communication through the UE-to-UE relay, all relay devices are required to forward the direct communication request message, because the link quality between some relay devices and the terminals is poor in all the relay devices, for example, the distance between the relay device 1 and the terminal 2 which determine to forward the direct communication request message in fig. 2 is long or is blocked by an obstacle, this may cause that some relay devices may fail to forward the direct communication request message, which may not help both terminals to establish unicast communication, and waste resources required for the relay devices to forward the direct communication request message.

In view of the above existing problems, the following describes the steps of the wireless communication link establishment method from the perspective of a method example, please refer to fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for establishing a wireless communication link according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method includes:

s310, the first terminal sends a first relay request message to the first relay device.

Specifically, the first relay device may include at least one relay device that satisfies ProSe communication with the first terminal and at least one relay device that satisfies ProSe communication with the second terminal, such as the first relay device 1, the first relay device 2, and the second relay device. It should be noted that the first relay device needs to be authorized as a user equipment-to-user equipment relay (UE-to-UE relay) through the network device. The first relay device may obtain the authorization of the network device in a system flow such as a registration flow (registration flow), a configuration update flow (configuration update flow), a policy association establishment flow (policy association update flow) or a policy association modification flow (policy association modification flow).

Specifically, the first terminal and the second terminal need to be authorized by the network device to use the relay service. The first terminal and the second terminal may obtain authorization of the network device in system flows such as a registration flow, a configuration update flow, a policy association establishment flow, or a policy association modification flow. In addition, the first terminal may transmit the first relay request message to the first relay device in a broadcast, multicast or unicast manner.

Specifically, the first relay request message may include at least one of the following information: a link-layer identifier of the first terminal or an application-layer identifier of the first terminal, a link-layer identifier of the second terminal or an application-layer identifier of the second terminal, a quality of service (QoS) requirement of the first relay request message, and a relay type supported by the first terminal.

The service quality may be represented by parameters such as a data packet loss rate (packet error rate), a data delay (packet delay bucket), a priority level (priority level), a Maximum Data Burst Volume (MDBV), a 5G service quality Identifier (PC 55G QoS Identifier, PQI) of a PC5 interface, a guaranteed traffic bit rate (GFBR), a Maximum Flow Bit Rate (MFBR), and a total maximum bit rate (PC5 k-AMBR) of each LINK; the relay type may include layer 2 relay and layer 3 relay devices, while layer 2 is a data link layer including a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and layer 3 is a network layer including a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer and a non-access (NAS) layer.

In one possible example, the first terminal transmitting the first relay request message to the first relay device may include: the method comprises the steps that a first terminal sends a first relay request message to first relay equipment under the condition that the link quality of a second wireless communication link is smaller than a preset threshold value, wherein the second wireless communication link is a direct connection communication link established between the first terminal and a second terminal. It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, before the first terminal sends the first relay request message to the first relay device, a direct communication link is established between the first terminal and the second terminal through the PC5 interface for data communication. And when the link quality of the direct connection communication link is smaller than a preset threshold value, the first terminal and the second terminal need to establish a wireless communication link through the relay equipment. The condition that the link quality of the direct connection communication link is reduced comprises that the first terminal and/or the second terminal continuously move, so that the distance between the first terminal and the second terminal is increased, and the link quality is reduced finally; alternatively, the continuous movement of the first terminal and/or the second terminal changes the wireless signal between the first terminal and the second terminal from line-of-sight (LOS) propagation to non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation, which eventually degrades the link quality.

Further, the first terminal or the second terminal may evaluate or detect the link quality of the second wireless communication link according to a Reference Signal (RS). The parameter signal may include Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), channel state information reference signal received power (CSI-RSRP), and channel state information reference signal received quality (CSI-RSRQ). For example, when the RSRP is lower than the preset threshold, the first terminal or the second terminal may determine that the link quality of the current second wireless communication link is poor, and therefore a new wireless communication link needs to be established through the relay device.

The above example describes that the first terminal sends the first relay request message to the surrounding relay devices when the link quality is poor, and the embodiment of the present application considers that the first relay request message needs to be transmitted on the first time-frequency resource, which is specifically described as follows.

In one possible example, the first relay request message is transmitted on a first time-frequency resource, which may include one of: and the first terminal and the second terminal interact with available resources after the determined time and available resources after the pre-configured time. It will be appreciated that when the link quality between the first terminal and the second terminal deteriorates, both terminals may decide to initiate a relay request on available resources after a negotiated time or a preconfigured time. The two terminals can determine the available resources after the moment through a signaling interaction mode on the second wireless communication link established currently; or the network device pre-configures the available resources after the moment to both terminals in a pre-configuration mode.

And S320, the second terminal sends a second relay request message to the first relay equipment.

Specifically, the second relay request message may include at least one of the following information: the relay server comprises a link layer identifier of a first terminal or an application layer identifier of the first terminal, a link layer identifier of a second terminal or an application layer identifier of the second terminal, a service quality requirement of a second relay request message, and a relay type supported by the second terminal. The service quality and the relay type are as described above, and are not described herein again.

Because one of the two terminals initiates establishment of a wireless communication link through UE-to-UE relay in the conventional scheme, for example, in fig. 2, the terminal 1 broadcasts a direct communication request message to all relay devices, and the terminal 2 waits for the direct communication request message forwarded by all the terminal devices, under the condition that the number of relay devices in all the relay devices is large, some invalid relay devices may participate in establishment of the wireless communication link, and resources required by the some invalid relay devices to forward the direct communication request message are wasted. The partially disabled relay device may be understood as a relay device that cannot help both terminals to establish a wireless communication link due to poor link quality between the relay device and both terminals. For example, in step 220 of fig. 2, when it is determined that the distance between the relay device 1 and the terminal 2 for forwarding the direct communication request message is long or there is an obstacle blocking the relay device, and thus the link quality between the relay device 1 and the terminal 2 is poor, the relay device 1 may be regarded as an invalid relay device.

Therefore, the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can consider that the two sides of the terminal initiate the relay request process in two ways, avoid invalid relay equipment from participating in the establishment process of the wireless communication link, and improve the communication efficiency of the relay equipment. It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present application, the UE-to-UE relay may be divided into a valid relay (usable relay) and an invalid relay (unusable relay). The valid relay device may be defined as a relay device that receives relay request messages of the first terminal and the second terminal; the invalid relay device may be defined as a relay device that receives only the relay request message of the first terminal or the second terminal, or may be defined as a relay device that does not receive the relay request message of both the first terminal and the second terminal.

For example, please refer to fig. 4, and fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a communication scenario according to an embodiment of the present application. The example communication scenario 400 includes a first terminal, a second terminal, and at least one relay device. The at least one relay device may include at least one relay device that satisfies ProSe communication with the first terminal and at least one relay device that satisfies ProSe communication with the second terminal. Among the at least one relay device, there are a relay device that receives the relay request messages of the first terminal and the second terminal, that is, a valid relay device 1 and a valid relay device 2. Meanwhile, there are also relay apparatuses that receive only the relay request message of the first terminal, i.e., the invalid relay apparatus 1, the invalid relay apparatus 2, and the invalid relay apparatus 3, and relay apparatuses that receive only the relay request message of the second terminal, i.e., the invalid relay apparatus 4, the invalid relay apparatus 5, and the invalid relay apparatus 6, among the at least one relay apparatus.

S330, the second relay device receives the first request message and the second request message and sends a relay response message to the first terminal.

The second relay device may include at least one relay device of the first relay devices, where the at least one relay device is a relay device that receives the first relay request message and the second relay request message. It will be appreciated that the second relay device may be considered to be an effective relay device for the above example and may comprise at least one effective relay device.

For example, please refer to fig. 5, and fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an architecture of another communication scenario provided in the embodiment of the present application. Wherein, the relay device 1, the relay device 2 and the relay device 3 receive the relay request message 1 and the relay request message 2. At this time, the second relay apparatus may include the relay apparatus 1, the relay apparatus 2, and the relay apparatus 3. Then, the relay apparatus 1 may transmit a relay response message 1 to the first terminal, the relay apparatus 2 may transmit a relay response message 2 to the second terminal, and the relay apparatus 3 may transmit a relay response message 3 to the first terminal.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, it is considered that the second relay device may send the relay response message to the first terminal, and may also send the relay response message to the second terminal. And for convenience of description, the present application only considers that the second relay device transmits the relay response message to the first terminal. In a case that a person skilled in the art can understand that the sending of the relay response message to the second terminal by the second relay device is also applicable to the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and is not particularly limited for this reason.

In order to effectively determine which relay devices in the first relay device can be used as valid relay devices, that is, the second relay device, the embodiment of the present application further considers that the relay devices need to receive the relay request messages of both terminals within a certain time, which is specifically described as follows.

In one possible example, the receiving, by the second relay device, the first relay request message from the first terminal and the receiving the second relay request message from the second terminal may include: the second relay device receives a first relay request message from the first terminal and receives a second relay request message from the second terminal within a preconfigured second time.

And the second time is the duration of the second time window or the running time of the third timer. It can be understood that only the relay device of the first relay device that receives the relay request messages of both terminals for the duration of the same time window or the running time of the timer can be used as the second relay device, and the second relay device can be used as a valid relay device.

For the case of a time window, it should be noted that the relay device may count the starting time of the time window when receiving the relay request message for the first time. For example, in fig. 5, when the relay device 1 first receives the relay request message 1, the relay device 1 starts timing and waits for the relay request message 2 to be received for the duration of the time window. Then, after the relay device 1 receives the relay request message 2, a relay response message 1 is sent to the first terminal; alternatively, when the relay device 1 first receives the relay request message 2, the relay device 1 starts timing and waits for receiving the relay request message 1 for the duration of the time window. Next, after the relay device 1 receives the relay request message 1, it transmits a relay response message 1 to the first terminal.

For the case of the timer, it should be noted that the relay device may start the timer when the relay request message is received for the first time. For example, in fig. 5, when the relay apparatus 1 first receives the relay request message 1, the relay apparatus 1 starts a certain timer and waits for receiving the relay request message 2 before the timer times out. Then, after receiving the relay request message 2, sending a relay response message 1 to the first terminal; alternatively, when the relay device 1 receives the relay request message 2 first, the relay device 1 starts a certain timer and waits to receive the relay request message 1 before the timer times out. Next, upon receiving the relay request message 1, the relay response message 1 is transmitted to the first terminal.

The above example describes that the relay device needs to receive the relay request messages of both terminals within a certain time period of pre-configuration, and then send the relay response message to the first terminal or the second terminal. The relay response message is specifically introduced in the embodiment of the present application as follows.

In one possible example, the relay response message may contain at least one of the following information: the service quality which can be provided by the second relay equipment, the traffic load of the second relay equipment, the link quality between the first terminal and the second relay equipment, and the link quality between the second terminal and the second relay equipment. It can be understood that the relay response information may carry the above-mentioned various information, and the above-mentioned various information is used for indicating the capability of the second relay device capable of establishing the wireless communication link for both terminals.

Specifically, the quality of service that the relay device can provide may be represented by parameters such as data packet loss rate, data delay, priority, MDBV, PQI, GFBR, MFBR, and PC5 LINK-AMBR; the link quality may be represented by reference signals such as RSRP, RSRQ, CSI-RSRP, and CSI-RSRQ.

In one possible example, the relay response message may include first parameter information, which is generated according to a preset generation rule by at least one of the following information: the service quality which can be provided by the second relay equipment, the traffic load of the second relay equipment, the link quality between the first terminal and the second relay equipment, and the link quality between the second terminal and the second relay equipment. It should be noted that the first parameter information may be regarded as a relay quality parameter and is used to indicate the capability of the second relay device to establish a wireless communication link for both terminals.

Specifically, the preset generation rule may include a priority weighting manner according to the information. It is to be understood that the first parameter information may be one scalar information obtained by weighting the priority levels of the above-described respective information. It should be noted that, compared with the relay response message in the above example that the relay response message directly carries the above information, the scalar information is generated from the above information by using the preset generation rule, which is beneficial to reducing the information carried in the relay response message and reducing the frame structure of the relay response message.

The above examples describe how the second relay device needs to send the relay response message to the first terminal or the second terminal, and how the second relay device determines whether to send the relay response message to the first terminal or the second terminal still needs to be considered. That is, there may be a relay apparatus that does not transmit a relay response message to both terminals in the second relay apparatus. Therefore, in one possible example, the second relay device may determine whether to transmit the relay response message to the first terminal according to preset condition information.

Specifically, the preset condition information may include at least one of the following information: the service quality requirement of the first relay request message, the service quality requirement of the second relay request message, the current traffic load of the second relay device, the link quality between the first terminal and the second relay device, the link quality between the second terminal and the second relay device, and the terminal type supported or served by the second relay device.

It should be noted that, when the second relay device meets the qos requirement of the first relay request message, and/or meets the qos requirement of the second relay request message, and/or the current traffic load of the second relay device is lower than a certain preset threshold, and/or the link quality between the first terminal and the second relay device is greater than a certain preset threshold, and/or the first terminal meets the terminal type supported or served by the second relay device, the second relay device may send a relay response message to the first terminal. Of course, the second relay device may also determine whether to send the relay response message to the first terminal according to other information, and the application is not particularly limited. Similarly, the second relay device may determine whether to send the relay response message to the second terminal based on the above determination process, for example, the second relay device meets the service quality requirement of the second relay request message, and the application is not limited in particular. Therefore, the second relay device judges whether the relay response message is suitable for being sent to the first terminal or the second terminal according to the preset condition information, so that the failure of sending the relay response message is avoided, and the stability and the efficiency of communication are improved.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, after the relay device 1 determines according to the preset condition information, it may send a relay response message 1 to the first terminal; and after the relay device 2 determines according to the preset condition information, it may send a relay response message 2 to the second terminal.

Since there are cases where the number of the second relay devices is greater than 1, there may be a case where some of the second relay devices transmit the relay response message to the first terminal and another some of the second relay devices transmit the relay response message to the second terminal. For example, the relay device 1 in fig. 5 may transmit the relay response message 1 to the first terminal, and the relay device 2 may transmit the relay response message 2 to the second terminal. In order to ensure that the second relay device only sends the relay response message to the first terminal or the second terminal, in one possible example, the relay device determines to send the relay response message to the first terminal according to a preset response rule.

Specifically, the preset response rule may include that the identification information of the first terminal is smaller than the identification information of the second terminal or that the identification information of the first terminal is larger than the identification information of the second terminal; the identification information may include a link layer identification or an application layer identification. It is to be understood that the second relay device may both transmit the relay response message to the terminal whose identification information is larger or smaller. Therefore, the consistency of the response message is favorably ensured by presetting the response rule. For example, in fig. 5, the identification information of the first terminal is smaller than the identification information of the second terminal, and the second relay device sends a relay response message to the first terminal by using a preset response rule to ensure response consistency.

Since there may be a case where both terminals periodically transmit the relay request message to the first relay device, when a certain terminal receives the relay response message of the second relay device, the terminal may stop periodically transmitting the relay request message to the first relay device, and another terminal may still periodically transmit the relay request message to the first relay device because it does not receive the relay response message. In this regard, in the embodiment of the present application, a certain mechanism needs to be considered to ensure that the other terminal stops periodically sending the relay request message to the first relay device, which is specifically described as follows.

In one possible example, the first terminal sends first indication information to the second terminal through the second wireless communication link, the first indication information indicating that the first terminal receives the relay response message of the second relay device. It can be understood that, when the first terminal receives the relay response message from the relay device, the first terminal may send a signaling to the second terminal through a direct communication link previously established between the first terminal and the second terminal, so that the second terminal knows that the first terminal has received the relay response message, and at this time, the second terminal may stop sending the relay request message periodically. It should be noted that, in the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, in consideration of the first terminal receiving the relay response message, the first terminal sends the first indication information to the second terminal to indicate that the first terminal has received the relay response message. Based on the same description above, in a case that the second terminal receives the relay response message, the second terminal may also send indication information to the first terminal to indicate that the second terminal has received the relay response message, and this embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited.

In one possible example, the first terminal sends second indication information to the second terminal over the second wireless communication link, the second indication information instructing the second terminal to stop periodically sending the second relay request message to the first relay device. It can be understood that, when the first terminal receives the relay response message from the relay device, the first terminal may send signaling to the second terminal through the direct communication link previously established between the first terminal and the second terminal, where the signaling may directly instruct the second terminal to stop sending the relay request message periodically.

In one possible example, the first terminal starts a first timer after transmitting the first relay request message to the first relay device, the first timer being used to determine a time when the first terminal stops periodically transmitting the first relay request message. It is to be understood that the first terminal may stop periodically transmitting the relay request message by the timeout of the timer.

In one possible example, the second terminal starts a fourth timer after transmitting the second relay request message to the first relay device, and the fourth timer may be used to determine a time when the second terminal stops periodically transmitting the second relay request message. It is to be understood that the second terminal may stop periodically transmitting the relay request message by the timeout of the timer.

In one possible example, the relay device may send third indication information to the second terminal, where the third indication information may be used to instruct the second terminal to stop periodically sending the second relay request message to the relay device. It is to be understood that, when the relay device transmits the relay response message to the first terminal, the relay device may transmit the indication information to the second terminal so that the second terminal stops periodically transmitting the relay request message. It should be noted that, in the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, in consideration of the first terminal receiving the relay response message, the relay device sends the third indication information to the second terminal to indicate to stop periodically sending the relay request message. Based on the same description above, in a case where it is considered that the second terminal receives the relay response message, the relay device may also transmit indication information to the first terminal to indicate that the periodic transmission of the relay request message is stopped, and the application is not particularly limited.

Specifically, the third indication information may be 1-bit signaling.

S340, the first terminal receives the relay response message and determines the target relay equipment from the second relay equipment according to the relay response message.

Since the number of the second relay devices sending the relay response message to the first terminal may be greater than 1, which results in that the first terminal needs to receive a plurality of relay response messages, for example, the first terminal may receive the relay response message 1 and the relay response message 3 in fig. 5, the first terminal is further considered to receive the plurality of relay response messages within a certain time in the embodiment of the present application, which is specifically described as follows.

In one possible example, the receiving, by the first terminal, the relay response message from the second relay device may include: within a preconfigured first time, the first terminal receiving a relay response message from the second relay device; wherein the first time is the duration of the first time window or the running time of the second timer. It can be understood that, by setting a certain time to ensure that the terminal receives the relay response message from the relay device, it is beneficial to further improve the communication efficiency and stability.

For the case of the time window, it should be noted that the first terminal may count the starting time of the time window when the first relay request message is sent, or count the starting time of the time window when the relay response message is received for the first time. For example, in fig. 5, when the first terminal finishes transmitting the relay request message 1, the first terminal starts timing and waits to receive at least one relay response message for the duration of the time window. If the first terminal receives the relay response message 1 and/or the relay response message 3 after the duration of the time window is over, the first terminal determines a target relay device, such as the relay device 1, from the relay device 1 and/or the relay device 3 according to the received relay response message. Alternatively, when the first terminal first receives the relay response message 1, the first terminal starts timing and waits for receiving the relay response message 3 for the duration of the time window. If the duration of the time window is over and the first terminal receives the relay response message 1 or the relay response message 1 and the relay response message 3, the first terminal determines a target relay device, such as the relay device 1, from the relay device 1 and/or the relay device 3 according to the received relay response message.

For the case of the timer, it should be noted that the first terminal may start the timer when the first relay request message is sent, or start the timer when the relay response message is received for the first time. For example, in fig. 5, when the first terminal finishes transmitting the relay request message 1, the first terminal starts a certain timer and waits to receive at least one relay response message before the timer expires. If the timer is overtime and the first terminal receives the relay response message 1 and/or the relay response message 3, the first terminal determines a target relay device, such as the relay device 1, from the relay device 1 and/or the relay device 3 according to the received relay response message. Or, when the first terminal receives the relay response message 1 first, the first terminal starts a certain timer and waits to receive the relay response message 3 before the timer times out. If the timer is overtime and the first terminal receives the relay response message 1 or the relay response message 1 and the relay response message 3, the first terminal determines a target relay device, such as the relay device 1, from the relay device 1 and/or the relay device 3 according to the received relay response message.

As for how the first terminal determines the target relay device from the second relay device according to the relay response message, in the embodiment of the present application, the first terminal may determine through information carried in the relay response message, which is specifically described as follows.

In one possible example, the determining, by the first terminal, the target relay device from the second relay device according to the relay response message may include: the first terminal selects one terminal device as a target relay device from the relay devices corresponding to the first parameter information larger than the preset threshold; or, the first terminal takes the relay device corresponding to the maximum first parameter information as the target relay device. It should be noted that the number of the second relay devices may be greater than 1, resulting in the first terminal receiving multiple relay response messages. Therefore, when the plurality of relay response messages carry the first parameter information, the relay device corresponding to the first parameter information carried by the plurality of relay response messages and larger than a preset threshold value is taken as a candidate relay device, and one relay device is randomly selected from the candidate relay devices as a target relay device; or, the relay device corresponding to the maximum value in the first parameter information carried by the plurality of relay response messages is taken as the target relay device.

For example, in fig. 5, the first terminal receives a relay response message 1 and a relay response message 3. At this time, the relay response message 1 carries the first parameter information 1, and the relay response message 3 carries the first parameter information 2. And if the first parameter information 1 and the first parameter information 2 are both larger than a preset threshold value, randomly selecting the relay device 1 or the relay device 3 as the target relay device. If the first parameter information 1 is greater than the first parameter information 2, the relay apparatus 1 is regarded as a target relay apparatus.

In one possible example, the determining, by the first terminal, the target relay device from the second relay device according to the relay response message may include: and the first terminal selects the target relay equipment according to at least one type of information carried in the relay response message. It should be noted that, since the relay response message may carry information such as the service quality that the relay device can provide, the traffic load of the relay device, the link quality between the first terminal and the relay device, and the link quality between the second terminal and the relay device, the first terminal may target the relay device through the information.

For example, in fig. 5, the first terminal receives a relay response message 1 and a relay response message 3. At this time, the relay response message 1 carries information such as the service quality that can be provided by the relay device 1 and the traffic load of the relay device 1, and the relay response message 3 carries information such as the service quality that can be provided by the relay device 3 and the traffic load of the relay device 3. If the service quality that can be provided by the relay device 1 is better than the service quality that can be provided by the relay device 3, and/or the traffic load of the relay device 1 is better than the traffic load of the relay device 3, the relay device 1 is taken as the target relay device.

S350, the first terminal establishes a first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal through the target relay device.

Since the second relay device only sends the relay response message to the first terminal, the second terminal may not know that the first terminal has found the target relay device. At this time, the first terminal may inform the second terminal by initiating a direct communication request procedure as described in fig. 2, or by sending signaling to a communication link previously established between the first terminal and the second terminal so as to establish a wireless communication link directly through the target relay device. Compared with the direct connection communication request process as shown in fig. 2, in the embodiment of the present application, the first terminal only needs to send the direct connection communication request message to the target relay device without broadcasting the direct connection communication request message to all the relay devices around, which is beneficial to improving the communication efficiency, and the specific description is as follows.

In one possible example, the first terminal establishing a first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal through the target relay device may include: the method comprises the steps that a first terminal sends a direct connection communication request message to target relay equipment, and the direct connection communication request message is used for the target relay equipment to receive the direct connection communication request message and forward the direct connection communication request message to a second terminal; the first terminal receives a direct communication response message from the target relay device, wherein the direct communication response message is forwarded by the target relay device receiving the direct communication response message from the second terminal; and the first terminal establishes a first wireless communication link according to the direct connection communication response message.

In accordance with the foregoing example, an embodiment of the present application further provides a flowchart of a method for establishing a wireless communication link, please refer to fig. 6, where the method includes:

and S610, under the condition that the link quality of the second wireless communication link is smaller than a preset threshold, the first terminal and the second terminal decide to switch to relay communication.

The second wireless communication link is a direct connection communication link established between the first terminal and the second terminal. It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, before the first terminal sends the first relay request message to the first relay device, a direct communication link is established between the first terminal and the second terminal through the PC5 interface for data communication. And when the link quality of the direct connection communication link is smaller than a preset threshold value, the first terminal and the second terminal need to establish a wireless communication link through the relay equipment.

S620, the first terminal sends a first relay request message to the first relay device.

Specifically, the first relay device may include at least one relay device that satisfies ProSe communication with the first terminal and at least one relay device that satisfies ProSe communication with the second terminal, such as the first relay device 1, the first relay device 2, and the second relay device.

Specifically, the first relay request message may include at least one of the following information: the relay system comprises a link layer identifier of a first terminal or an application layer identifier of the first terminal, a link layer identifier of a second terminal or an application layer identifier of the second terminal, a service quality requirement of a first relay request message, and a relay type supported by the first terminal.

S630, the second terminal sends a second relay request message to the first relay device.

Specifically, the second relay request message may include at least one of the following information: the relay server comprises a link layer identifier of a first terminal or an application layer identifier of the first terminal, a link layer identifier of a second terminal or an application layer identifier of the second terminal, a service quality requirement of a second relay request message, and a relay type supported by the second terminal.

S640, the second relay device receives the first relay request message and the second relay request message, and sends a relay response message to the first terminal.

The second relay device may include at least one relay device of the first relay devices, where the at least one relay device is a relay device that receives the first relay request message and the second relay request message.

In one possible example, the relay response message may contain at least one of the following information: the service quality which can be provided by the relay equipment, the traffic load of the relay equipment, the link quality between the first terminal and the relay equipment, and the link quality between the second terminal and the relay equipment. It can be understood that the relay response information may carry the above-mentioned various information, and the above-mentioned various information is used for indicating the capability of the second relay device capable of establishing the wireless communication link for both terminals.

And the second time is the duration of the second time window or the running time of the third timer. It can be understood that only the relay device of the first relay device that receives the relay request message of both terminals for the duration of the same time window or the running time of the timer can be used as the second relay device.

In one possible example, the second relay device may determine whether to transmit the relay response message to the first terminal according to preset condition information.

In one possible example, the second relay device determines to send the relay response message to the first terminal according to a preset response rule.

S650, the first terminal receives the relay response message and determines the target relay device from the second relay device according to the relay response message.

In one possible example, the receiving, by the first terminal, the relay response message from the second relay device may include: within a preconfigured first time, the first terminal receiving a relay response message from the second relay device; wherein the first time is the duration of the first time window or the running time of the second timer.

In one possible example, the determining, by the first terminal, the target relay device from the second relay device according to the relay response message may include: the first terminal selects one terminal device as a target relay device from the relay devices corresponding to the first parameter information larger than the preset threshold; or, the first terminal takes the relay device corresponding to the maximum first parameter information as the target relay device.

In one possible example, the determining, by the first terminal, the target relay device from the second relay device according to the relay response message may include: and the first terminal selects the target relay equipment according to at least one type of information carried in the relay response message.

And S660, the first terminal forwards the direct connection communication request message to the second terminal through the target relay equipment.

And S670, the second terminal forwards the direct connection communication response message to the first terminal through the target relay device.

And S680, the first terminal establishes a first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal according to the direct communication response message.

It should be noted that, relevant contents related in this example may be as described in the above example, and are not described herein again.

It can be seen that, in the embodiment of the present application, first, the first terminal and the second terminal decide to switch to the relay communication when the link quality is degraded; secondly, sending a first relay request message to the first relay equipment through the first terminal, and sending a second relay request message to the first relay equipment through the second terminal; thirdly, a second relay device in the first relay device receives the first relay request message and the second relay request message and sends a relay response message to the first terminal; then, the first terminal determines a target relay device from the second relay device according to the relay response message, and forwards the direct communication request message through the target relay device; and finally, the first terminal establishes a new wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal through the direct connection communication response message forwarded by the target relay equipment. Because both communication terminals initiate the relay request process in two ways and a part of the relay devices (second relay devices) in the first relay device participate in the establishment process of the wireless communication link, the relay devices providing the service of establishing the communication link are reduced, the relay resources are saved and the communication efficiency is improved.

The above-mentioned scheme of the embodiment of the present application is introduced mainly from the perspective of interaction between network elements in the method side. It is understood that the terminal includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions in order to implement the above-described functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal may be divided into the functional units according to the above method example, for example, each functional unit may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing unit. The integrated unit may be implemented in the form of hardware, or may be implemented in the form of a software program module. It should be noted that the division of the units in the embodiment of the present application is illustrative, and is only one division of the logic functions, and there may be another division in actual implementation.

In the case of an integrated unit, fig. 7 shows a block diagram of functional units of a wireless communication link establishment apparatus. The wireless communication link establishing apparatus 700 is applied to a first terminal, and specifically includes: a processing unit 702 and a communication unit 703. The processing unit 702 is configured to control and manage actions of the first terminal, for example, the processing unit 702 is configured to support the first terminal to perform all or part of the steps in fig. 3 and fig. 6 and other processes for the technical solutions described in this application. The communication unit 703 is configured to support communication between the first terminal and the relay device or the second terminal. The first terminal may further include a storage unit 701 for storing program codes and data of the first terminal.

The processing unit 702 may be a processor or a controller, and may be, for example, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), 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, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processing unit 702 can also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, a combination of DSPs and microprocessors, or the like. The communication unit 703 may be a communication interface, a transceiver, a transceiving circuit, etc., and the storage unit 701 may be a memory. When the processing unit 702 is a processor, the communication unit 703 is a communication interface, and the storage unit 701 is a memory, the wireless communication link establishment apparatus 700 according to the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal shown in fig. 9.

In a specific implementation, the processing unit 702 is configured to perform any step performed by the first terminal in the above method embodiment, and when performing data transmission such as sending, the communication unit 703 is optionally invoked to complete the corresponding operation. The details will be described below.

The processing unit 702 is configured to: transmitting a first relay request message to a first relay device; receiving a relay response message to the first relay request message from a second relay device, wherein the second relay device comprises at least one relay device in the first relay device, and the at least one relay device is the relay device which receives the second relay request message from the second terminal; determining target relay equipment from the second relay equipment according to the relay response message; a first wireless communication link between a first terminal and a second terminal is established through a target relay device.

In one possible example, in terms of sending the first relay request message to the first relay device, the processing unit 702 is configured to: and sending a first relay request message to the first relay device under the condition that the link quality of a second wireless communication link is smaller than a preset threshold, wherein the second wireless communication link is a direct connection communication link established between the first terminal and the second terminal.

In one possible example, the processing unit 702 is further configured to: and sending first indication information to the second terminal through the second wireless communication link, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the first terminal receives the relay response message of the second relay equipment.

In one possible example, the processing unit 702 is further configured to: and sending second indication information to the second terminal through the second wireless communication link, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the second terminal to stop periodically sending the second relay request message to the first relay equipment.

In one possible example, the processing unit 702 is further configured to: after the first relay request message is sent to the first relay device, a first timer is started, and the first timer is used for determining the time when the first terminal stops sending the first relay request message periodically.

In one possible example, in receiving a relay response message from a second relay device to a first relay request message, the processing unit 702 is to: receiving a relay response message from the second relay device within a preconfigured first time; wherein the first time is the duration of the first time window or the running time of the second timer.

In one possible example, the starting time of the first time window is counted when the first terminal finishes sending the first relay request message or is counted when the first terminal receives the relay response message for the first time; the second timer is started when the first terminal sends the first relay request message, or when the first terminal receives the relay response message for the first time.

In one possible example, in establishing a first wireless communication link between a first terminal and a second terminal through a target relay device, the processing unit 702 is configured to: sending a direct connection communication request message to the target relay equipment, wherein the direct connection communication request message is used for the target relay equipment to receive the direct connection communication request message and forward the direct connection communication request message to a second terminal; receiving a direct communication response message from the target relay device, the direct communication response message being forwarded by the target relay device receiving the direct communication response message from the second terminal; and establishing a first wireless communication link according to the direct communication response message.

In one possible example, the first relay request message contains at least one of the following information: identification information of the first terminal, identification information of the second terminal, a service quality requirement of the first relay request message, and a relay type supported by the first terminal; the identification information comprises a link layer identification or an application layer identification; the second relay request message contains at least one of the following information: identification information of the first terminal, identification information of the second terminal, a quality of service requirement of the second relay request message, and a relay type supported by the second terminal.

In one possible example, the first relay request message is transmitted on a first time-frequency resource comprising one of: the first terminal and the second terminal interact with available resources after the determined moment and available resources after the pre-configured moment; the second relay request message is transmitted on the first time-frequency resource.

In one possible example, the relay response message contains at least one of the following information: the service quality which can be provided by the second relay equipment, the traffic load of the second relay equipment, the link quality between the first terminal and the second relay equipment, and the link quality between the second terminal and the second relay equipment.

In one possible example, the relay response message includes first parameter information, and the first parameter information is generated according to a preset generation rule by at least one of the following information: the service quality which can be provided by the second relay equipment, the traffic load of the second relay equipment, the link quality between the first terminal and the second relay equipment, and the link quality between the second terminal and the second relay equipment.

In the case of an integrated unit, fig. 8 shows a block diagram of functional units of yet another wireless communication link establishment apparatus. The wireless communication link establishing apparatus 800 is applied to a relay device, and specifically includes: a processing unit 802 and a communication unit 803. The processing unit 802 is configured to control and manage actions of the relay device, for example, the processing unit 802 is configured to support the relay device to perform all or part of the steps in fig. 3 and 6 and other processes for the techniques described herein. The communication unit 803 is configured to support communication of the relay device with the first terminal and the second terminal. The wireless communication link establishing apparatus 800 may further include a storage unit 801 for storing program codes and data of the relay device.

The processing unit 802 may be a processor or a controller, and may be, for example, a CPU, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. Processing unit 802 can also be a combination that performs computing functions, e.g., a combination comprising one or more microprocessors, a DSP, a microprocessor, or the like. The communication unit 803 may be a communication interface, a transceiver, a transceiving circuit, etc., and the storage unit 801 may be a memory. When the processing unit 802 is a processor, the communication unit 803 is a communication interface, and the storage unit 801 is a memory, the wireless communication link establishing apparatus 800 according to the embodiment of the present application may be a relay device shown in fig. 10.

In a specific implementation, the processing unit 802 is configured to perform any one of the steps performed by the relay device in the above method embodiments, and when performing data transmission such as sending, the communication unit 803 may be optionally invoked to complete the corresponding operation. The details will be described below.

The processing unit 802 is configured to: receiving a first relay request message from a first terminal and receiving a second relay request message from a second terminal; sending a relay response message to the first terminal, wherein the relay response message is used for the first terminal to perform the following operations: determining target relay equipment from the relay equipment according to the relay response message; establishing, by the target relay device, a first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal.

In one possible example, in terms of receiving a first relay request message from a first terminal and receiving a second relay request message from a second terminal, the processing unit 802 is configured to: receiving a first relay request message from the first terminal and receiving a second relay request message from the second terminal within a preconfigured second time; and the second time is the duration of the second time window or the running time of the third timer.

In one possible example, the start time of the second time window is timed upon receipt of the first relay request message or the second relay request message; the third timer is started upon receiving the first relay request message or the second relay request message.

In one possible example, the processing unit 802 is further configured to: judging whether to send the relay response message to the first terminal according to preset condition information; the preset condition information comprises at least one of the following information: the service quality requirement of the first relay request message, the service quality requirement of the second relay request message, the current traffic load of the relay device, the link quality between the first terminal and the relay device, the link quality between the second terminal and the relay device, and the terminal type supported or served by the relay device.

In one possible example, the processing unit 802 is further configured to: determining to send a relay response message to the first terminal according to a preset response rule; the preset response rule comprises that identification information of the first terminal is smaller than a link layer identification of the second terminal or the identification information of the first terminal is larger than the link layer identification of the second terminal, wherein the identification information comprises the link layer identification or an application layer identification.

In one possible example, the processing unit 802 is further configured to: and sending third indication information to a second terminal, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the second terminal to stop periodically sending the second relay request message to the relay equipment.

In one possible example, the processing unit 802 is further configured to: receiving a direct connection communication request message from a first terminal, wherein the direct connection communication request message is used for a relay device to receive the direct connection communication request message and forward the direct connection communication request message to a second terminal; and receiving a direct communication response message from the second terminal, wherein the direct communication response message is used for the relay equipment to receive the direct communication response message and forward the direct communication response message to the first terminal.

In one possible example, the first relay request message contains at least one of the following information: the method comprises the steps of identifying information of a first terminal, identifying information of a second terminal, the service quality requirement of a first relay request message, and the relay type supported by the first terminal, wherein the identifying information comprises a link layer identifier or an application layer identifier; the second relay request message contains at least one of the following information: identification information of the first terminal, identification information of the second terminal, a quality of service requirement of the second relay request message, and a relay type supported by the second terminal.

In one possible example, the relay response message contains at least one of the following information: the service quality provided by the relay equipment, the traffic load of the relay equipment, the link quality between the first terminal and the relay equipment, and the link quality between the second terminal and the relay equipment.

In one possible example, the relay response message includes first parameter information, and the first parameter information is generated according to a preset generation rule by at least one of the following information: the service quality which can be provided by the relay equipment, the traffic load of the relay equipment, the link quality between the first terminal and the relay equipment, and the link quality between the second terminal and the relay equipment.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The terminal 900 includes a processor 910, a memory 920, a communication interface 930, and at least one communication bus connecting the processor 910, the memory 920, and the communication interface 930.

The memory 920 includes, but is not limited to, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (PROM), or a portable read-only memory (CD-ROM), and the memory 920 is used for related instructions and data.

Communication interface 930 is used to receive and transmit data.

The processor 910 may be one or more CPUs, and in the case that the processor 910 is one CPU, the CPU may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

The processor 910 in the terminal 900 is configured to read the one or more program codes 921 stored in the memory 920 and perform the following operations: transmitting a first relay request message to a first relay device; receiving a relay response message to the first relay request message from a second relay device, wherein the second relay device comprises at least one relay device in the first relay device, and the at least one relay device is the relay device which receives the second relay request message from the second terminal; determining target relay equipment from the second relay equipment according to the relay response message; a first wireless communication link between a first terminal and a second terminal is established through a target relay device.

It should be noted that specific implementation of each operation may be described in the method embodiments shown in fig. 3 and fig. 6, and the terminal 900 may be configured to execute the method at the first terminal or the second terminal side of the method embodiments described above in this application, and details are not described here again.

In the terminal 900 depicted in fig. 9, first, a first relay request message is sent to a first relay device by a first terminal, and a second relay request message is sent to the first relay device by a second terminal; then, a second relay device in the first relay device receives the first relay request message and the second relay request message and sends a relay response message to the first terminal; and finally, the first terminal determines the target relay equipment from the second relay equipment according to the relay response message, and establishes a new wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal through the target relay equipment. Because both communication terminals initiate the relay request process in two ways and a part of the relay devices (second relay devices) in the first relay device participate in the establishment process of the wireless communication link, the relay devices providing the service of establishing the communication link are reduced, the relay resources are saved and the communication efficiency is improved.

Referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a relay device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Wherein, the relay device 1000 comprises a processor 1010, a memory 1020, a communication interface 1030 and at least one communication bus for connecting the processor 1010, the memory 1020 and the communication interface 1030.

The memory 1020 includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, PROM or CD-ROM, and the memory 1020 is used to store relevant instructions and data.

The communication interface 1030 is used for receiving and transmitting data.

The processor 1010 may be one or more CPUs, and in the case where the processor 1010 is one CPU, the CPU may be a single-core CPU or a multi-core CPU.

The processor 1010 in the relay device 1000 is configured to read one or more program codes 1021 stored in the memory 1020, and perform the following operations: receiving a first relay request message from a first terminal and receiving a second relay request message from a second terminal; sending a relay response message to the first terminal, wherein the relay response message is used for the first terminal to perform the following operations: determining target relay equipment from the relay equipment according to the relay response message; a first wireless communication link between a first terminal and a second terminal is established through a target relay device.

It should be noted that specific implementation of each operation may be described in the method embodiments shown in fig. 3 and fig. 6, and the relay device 1000 may be configured to execute the method on the second relay device side in the method embodiments described above in this application, and details are not described here again.

In the relay apparatus 1000 depicted in fig. 10, first, a first relay request message is transmitted to a first relay apparatus by a first terminal, and a second relay request message is transmitted to the first relay apparatus by a second terminal; then, a second relay device in the first relay device receives the first relay request message and the second relay request message and sends a relay response message to the first terminal; and finally, the first terminal determines the target relay equipment from the second relay equipment according to the relay response message, and establishes a new wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal through the target relay equipment. Because both communication terminals initiate the relay request process in two ways and a part of the relay devices (second relay devices) in the first relay device participate in the establishment process of the wireless communication link, the relay devices providing the service of establishing the communication link are reduced, the relay resources are saved and the communication efficiency is improved.

The present application further provides a chip, where the chip includes a processor, configured to call and run a computer program from a memory, so that a device in which the chip is installed performs some or all of the steps described in the first terminal and the relay device in the foregoing method embodiments.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program for electronic data exchange, where the computer program makes a computer perform some or all of the steps described in the above method embodiments for a first terminal and a relay device.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, where the computer program product includes a computer program operable to cause a computer to perform some or all of the steps described in the above method embodiments for the first terminal and the relay device. The computer program product may be a software installation package.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in hardware, or may be implemented by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions may consist of corresponding software modules that may be stored in RAM, flash memory, ROM, Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), registers, a hard disk, a removable hard disk, a compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium may also be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC may reside in the first electronic device or the second electronic device. Of course, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in the first electronic device or the second electronic device.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in one or more of the examples described above, the functionality described in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented, in whole or in part, by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that includes one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

The above-mentioned embodiments are intended to illustrate the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application in further detail, and it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only specific embodiments of the present application, and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements and the like made on the basis of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application should be included in the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a wireless communication link, comprising:

a first terminal sends a first relay request message to first relay equipment;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first terminal sends a first relay request message to a first relay device, and wherein the first relay request message comprises:

the first terminal sends the first relay request message to the first relay device under the condition that the link quality of a second wireless communication link is smaller than a preset threshold value, wherein the second wireless communication link is a direct connection communication link established between the first terminal and the second terminal.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

and the first terminal sends first indication information to the second terminal through the second wireless communication link, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the first terminal receives the relay response message of the second relay equipment.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

and the first terminal sends second indication information to the second terminal through the second wireless communication link, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the second terminal to stop periodically sending the second relay request message to the first relay equipment.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

and after the first terminal sends the first relay request message to the first relay device, starting a first timer, wherein the first timer is used for determining the time when the first terminal stops sending the first relay request message periodically.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first terminal receiving a relay response message from a second relay device to the first relay request message comprises:

the first terminal receiving the relay response message from the second relay device within a preconfigured first time; wherein the first time is the duration of a first time window or the running duration of a second timer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a starting time of the first time window is counted when the first terminal finishes sending the first relay request message or counted when the first terminal receives the relay response message for the first time;

the second timer is started when the first terminal finishes sending the first relay request message, or is started when the first terminal receives the relay response message for the first time.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first terminal establishing the first wireless communication link between the first terminal and the second terminal via the target relay device comprises:

the first terminal sends a direct connection communication request message to the target relay device, wherein the direct connection communication request message is used for the target relay device to receive the direct connection communication request message and forward the direct connection communication request message to the second terminal;

the first terminal receiving a direct communication response message from the target relay device, the direct communication response message forwarded by the target relay device receiving the direct communication response message from the second terminal;

and the first terminal establishes the first wireless communication link according to the direct connection communication response message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first relay request message comprises at least one of the following information: the identification information of the first terminal, the identification information of the second terminal, the service quality requirement of the first relay request message, and the relay type supported by the first terminal; wherein the identification information comprises a link layer identification or an application layer identification;

the second relay request message includes at least one of the following information: the identification information of the first terminal, the identification information of the second terminal, the quality of service requirement of the second relay request message, and the relay type supported by the second terminal.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first relay request message is sent on a first time-frequency resource, wherein the first time-frequency resource comprises one of the following resources: the first terminal and the second terminal interact with available resources after the determined moment and available resources after the pre-configured moment; the second relay request message is transmitted on the first time-frequency resource.

11. The method according to any of claims 1-10, wherein the relay response message comprises at least one of the following information: the quality of service that the second relay device can provide, the traffic load of the second relay device, the link quality between the first terminal and the second relay device, and the link quality between the second terminal and the second relay device.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the relay response message contains first parameter information, and the first parameter information is generated according to a preset generation rule by at least one of the following information: the quality of service that the second relay device can provide, the traffic load of the second relay device, the link quality between the first terminal and the second relay device, and the link quality between the second terminal and the second relay device.

13. A method for establishing a wireless communication link, comprising:

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the relay device receives a first relay request message from a first terminal and receives a second relay request message from a second terminal, and wherein the method comprises:

the relay device receives the first relay request message from the first terminal and receives the second relay request message from the second terminal within a preconfigured second time; and the second time is the duration of a second time window or the running time of a third timer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein a starting time of the second time window is timed upon receiving the first relay request message or the second relay request message;

the third timer is turned on upon receiving the first relay request message or the second relay request message.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

the relay equipment judges whether to send the relay response message to the first terminal according to preset condition information; wherein the preset condition information includes at least one of the following information: a quality of service requirement of the first relay request message, a quality of service requirement of the second relay request message, a current traffic load of the relay device, a link quality between the first terminal and the relay device, a link quality between the second terminal and the relay device, a terminal type supported or served by the relay device.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

the relay equipment determines to send the relay response message to the first terminal according to a preset response rule; the preset response rule comprises that the identification information of the first terminal is smaller than the link layer identification of the second terminal or the identification information of the first terminal is larger than the link layer identification of the second terminal; wherein the identification information includes a link layer identification or an application layer identification.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

and the relay equipment sends third indication information to the second terminal, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating the second terminal to stop periodically sending the second relay request message to the relay equipment.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

the relay device receives a direct connection communication request message from the first terminal, wherein the direct connection communication request message is used for the relay device to receive the direct connection communication request message and forward the direct connection communication request message to the second terminal;

the relay device receives a direct communication response message from the second terminal, and the direct communication response message is used for the relay device to receive the direct communication response message and forward the direct communication response message to the first terminal.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the first relay request message comprises at least one of the following information: the identification information of the first terminal, the identification information of the second terminal, the service quality requirement of the first relay request message, and the relay type supported by the first terminal; wherein the identification information comprises a link layer identification or an application layer identification;

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the first relay request message is sent on a first time-frequency resource, wherein the first time-frequency resource comprises one of the following resources: the first terminal and the second terminal interact with available resources after the determined moment and available resources after the pre-configured moment; the second relay request message is transmitted on the first time-frequency resource.

22. The method according to any of claims 13-21, wherein the relay response message comprises at least one of the following information: the service quality provided by the relay device, the traffic load of the relay device, the link quality between the first terminal and the relay device, and the link quality between the second terminal and the relay device.

23. The method according to any of claims 13-21, wherein the relay response message contains first parameter information, and the first parameter information is generated according to a preset generation rule by at least one of the following information: the quality of service that the relay device can provide, the traffic load of the relay device, the link quality between the first terminal and the relay device, and the link quality between the second terminal and the relay device.

24. A wireless communication link establishing apparatus, applied to a first terminal; the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit being configured to:

25. A wireless communication link establishing device is applied to a relay device; the apparatus comprises a processing unit and a communication unit, the processing unit being configured to:

26. A terminal, the terminal being a first terminal, comprising a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the programs comprising instructions for performing the steps in the method of any of claims 1-12.

27. A relay device comprising a processor, a memory, a communication interface, and one or more programs stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, the programs comprising instructions for performing the steps in the method of any of claims 13-23.

28. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that it stores a computer program for electronic data exchange, wherein the computer program causes a computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-12 or 13-23.