CN113950121A

CN113950121A - Context recovery method and device

Info

Publication number: CN113950121A
Application number: CN202010679546.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 齐翠苓; 刘兵章; 左晓
Original assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-07-15
Filing date: 2020-07-15
Publication date: 2022-01-18
Anticipated expiration: 2040-07-15
Also published as: CN113950121B

Abstract

The invention provides a context recovery method and a context recovery device, which are used for solving the problem of resource waste. The method comprises the following steps: under the condition that the terminal equipment in the non-activated state needs to enter the connected state, the first base station receives a first request, wherein the first request is used for acquiring the user context of the terminal equipment, the first request carries the temporary wireless network identification information, and the temporary wireless network identification information comprises first information and second information; the first base station is a base station where the terminal equipment resides currently; the first information comprises a resource identifier for identifying processing resources where the first cell is located and a user temporary identifier of the terminal equipment; and when the second information indicates that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station, acquiring the user context of the terminal equipment corresponding to the first information from the processing resource identified by the resource identifier. Therefore, the user context can be directly acquired from the cell processing resource storing the context without searching on each processing resource in the base station, and the message interaction among the processing resources is reduced.

Description

Context recovery method and device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for context recovery.

Background

The New Radio (NR) system adds an INACTIVE (RRC _ INACTIVE) state, and when a User Equipment (UE) enters the RRC _ INACTIVE state, it will keep the core network user context and will not release. If there is data to receive or transmit in the RRC _ INACTIVE state, the connection (RRC _ connected) state is only required to be transitioned through a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Recovery (RESUME) process, and at this time, the context is only required to be recovered by carrying an INACTIVE-Radio Network temporary Identity (I-RNTI). The I-RNTI is used for identification of identity information of the terminal device and identification of identity information of the serving base station.

The multiple cell resources on the base station side are equally distributed to different processors or processes. The management of multiple cell resources at the base station is managed by a single processor core or process. When the terminal device transits from the RRC _ INACTIVE state to the RRC _ connected state, a message needs to be sent to a processor core or a process for managing a plurality of cell resources, and then the processor core or the process for managing the plurality of cell resources needs to send a message to the processor cores or the processes in which the plurality of cells are respectively located, so as to retrieve the context of the user and perform the identity information verification of the terminal device.

As the number of users accessing the base station increases, the number of users who switch between the RRC _ INACTIVE state and the RRC _ connected state also increases, which causes frequent interaction between a processor core or process for managing resources of a plurality of cells and the processor core or process in which the plurality of cells are respectively located, and causes resource waste.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a context recovery method and a context recovery device, which are used for solving the problem of resource waste.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a context restoring method, including:

under the condition that terminal equipment in an inactive state needs to enter a connected state, a first base station receives a first request, wherein the first request is used for acquiring a user context of the terminal equipment, the first request carries wireless network temporary identification information, and the wireless network temporary identification information comprises first information and second information; the first base station is a base station where the terminal equipment resides currently;

the first information comprises a resource identifier for identifying processing resources where a first cell is located and a user temporary identifier of the terminal device, the second information is used for indicating a base station to which the cell resided when the terminal device enters an inactive state belongs, and the first cell is the cell resided when the terminal device enters the inactive state;

and when the second information indicates that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station, acquiring the user context of the terminal equipment corresponding to the first information from the processing resource identified by the resource identifier.

By the scheme, the first information comprises the resource identifier of the processing resource of the cell, so that the processing resource of the cell for storing the user context can be determined by the processing resource of the current service cell of the terminal equipment according to the first information, the user context can be directly obtained from the processing resource of the cell for storing the context, retrieval on each processing resource in the base station is not needed, message interaction among the processing resources is reduced, and resource waste is reduced.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request is an RRC recovery request, and the receiving, by the first base station, the first request includes:

the first base station receives an RRC recovery request sent by terminal equipment in an inactive state when the terminal equipment needs to enter a connected state.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request is a context obtaining request, and the receiving, by the first base station, the first request includes:

the first base station receives the context acquisition request sent by the second base station according to the wireless network temporary identifier sent by the terminal equipment; a second part of the radio network temporary identifier sent by the terminal equipment indicates that a base station to which a cell resided when the terminal equipment enters an inactive state belongs is the first base station;

the method further comprises the following steps:

and sending a context acquisition response to the second base station, wherein the context acquisition response carries the user context.

In a possible implementation manner, the resource identifier of the processing resource in which the first cell is located is an identifier of a processor core in which the first cell is located or an identifier of a process in which the first cell is located.

In a possible implementation manner, when the second information indicates that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station, acquiring, from the processing resource identified by the resource identifier, the user context of the terminal device corresponding to the first information includes:

the second cell of the first base station determines that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station according to the second information; the second cell is a cell where the terminal device currently resides;

the second cell sends a first request to the first cell according to the resource identifier, wherein the first request is used for requesting to acquire the user context of the terminal equipment;

and the second cell receives the user context of the terminal equipment corresponding to the first information sent by the first cell.

In one possible embodiment, the method further comprises:

when the terminal equipment enters an inactive state, the first cell generates the wireless network temporary identification information;

and sending the wireless network temporary identification information to the terminal equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, after the first cell generates the radio network temporary identification information, the method further includes:

the first cell association stores the first information and an identification of the user context.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a context restoring apparatus, applied to a first base station, including:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a first request when a terminal device in an inactive state needs to enter a connected state, where the first request is used to obtain a user context of the terminal device, and the first request carries radio network temporary identification information, where the radio network temporary identification information includes first information and second information; the first base station is a base station where the terminal equipment resides currently;

a first processing unit, configured to, when the second information indicates that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station, obtain, from the processing resource identified by the resource identifier, a user context of the terminal device corresponding to the first information.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request is an RRC recovery request, and the receiving unit is specifically configured to:

and receiving an RRC recovery request sent by the terminal equipment in the inactive state when the terminal equipment needs to enter the connected state.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request is a context obtaining request, and the sending unit is specifically configured to:

receiving the context acquisition request sent by the second base station according to the wireless network temporary identifier sent by the terminal equipment; a second part of the radio network temporary identifier sent by the terminal equipment indicates that a base station to which a cell resided when the terminal equipment enters an inactive state belongs is the first base station;

the device further comprises: a sending unit, configured to send a context obtaining response to the second base station, where the context obtaining response carries the user context.

In a possible implementation manner, the first processing unit belongs to a processing resource of a second cell, where the second cell is a cell where the terminal device currently resides; the apparatus further comprises a second processing unit belonging to a processing resource of the first cell;

the first processing unit is specifically configured to determine, according to the second information, that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station; sending a first request to the second processing unit according to a resource identifier, wherein the first request is used for requesting to acquire the user context of the terminal equipment, and the resource identifier is used for identifying the second processing unit;

the second processing unit is configured to obtain the user context of the terminal device corresponding to the first information, and send the user context of the terminal device to the first processing unit.

In a possible implementation, the second processing unit is further configured to:

when the terminal equipment enters an inactive state, generating the wireless network temporary identification information for the terminal equipment;

the sending unit is further configured to send the wireless network temporary identifier information to the terminal device.

In a possible implementation manner, the second processing unit is further configured to create a mapping relationship between the first information and a user context of the terminal device after the radio network temporary identification information is generated for the terminal device, that is, associate and store an identification of the first information and the user context.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a context restoring apparatus, which may be applied to a first base station, and includes a memory and a processor;

a memory for storing program instructions;

a processor, configured to invoke the program instructions stored in the memory, and execute the method performed by the source base station in any implementation manner of the first aspect according to the obtained program.

In a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the above method.

In addition, for technical effects brought by any one implementation manner of the second aspect to the fourth aspect, reference may be made to technical effects brought by different implementation manners of the first aspect, and details are not described here.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3A is a schematic diagram illustrating centralized management of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3B is a schematic diagram illustrating distributed management of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an RRC recovery procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another RRC recovery procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a context restoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7A is a Unindex schematic provided in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 7B is a schematic diagram of a base station cell resource management architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a context restoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating another context restoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a context restoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a context restoring apparatus 1100 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a context restoring apparatus 1200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The application scenario described in the embodiment of the present invention is for more clearly illustrating the technical solution of the embodiment of the present invention, and does not form a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present invention, and it can be known by a person skilled in the art that with the occurrence of a new application scenario, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present invention is also applicable to similar technical problems. In the description of the present invention, the term "plurality" means two or more unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 1 illustrates a communication system architecture, it should be understood that the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the system shown in fig. 1, and moreover, the apparatus in fig. 1 may be hardware, or may be a functionally divided software, or a combination of the two. As shown in fig. 1, a system architecture provided in the embodiment of the present invention includes a first base station and a second base station. The communication system may further include a terminal device, a core network element (not shown in fig. 1), and the like. For example, the terminal device may perform handover between the first base station and the second base station during moving. For another example, the terminal device may also perform handover between different cells of the same base station. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the number of base stations included in the communication system and the number of terminal devices are not limited.

A Terminal device (UE), also called a Terminal device, a Terminal, a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc., is a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a User, for example, a handheld device, a vehicle-mounted device, etc. with a wireless connection function. Currently, some examples of terminals are: a Mobile phone (Mobile phone), a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a palm computer, a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a wearable Device, a Virtual Reality (VR) Device, an Augmented Reality (AR) Device, a wireless terminal in Industrial Control (Industrial Control), a wireless terminal in unmanned driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote surgery (remote medical supply), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and the like.

The base station (including the first base station and the second base station) related in the embodiment of the present invention may also be referred to as AN Access Node (Access Node, or AN for short) to provide a wireless Access service for the terminal. The Base Station may be a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) System or a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) System, a Base Station (NodeB) in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) System, a small Base Station device, a wireless Access Node (WiFi AP), a wireless interworking Microwave Access Base Station (WiMAX BS), and the like, and may also be an evolved Node B (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE System, or a Base Station device in a 5G network or a new radio Access (NR) network, or a Base Station device in a future network, which is not limited in the present invention.

Illustratively, the core network device may include an Access and Mobility Management entity (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), and the like.

Referring to fig. 2, the communication system is exemplified as an NR system. The first base station and the second base station are both gNB. As an example, the gbb may adopt an integrated base station structure or a distributed base station structure. In fig. 2, the integrated base station structure is taken as an example of the gNB1, and the distributed base station structure is taken as an example of the gNB. The gNB includes a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU). The CU is connected with the DU through an F1 interface. The communication system may further include a core network, which is referred to as 5GC in fig. 2. The core network is connected with the gNB through an NG interface. The gNB can be connected through an XN interface.

The RRC _ INACTIVE state is a new state added to 5G in order to allow the UE to quickly recover to the connected state without re-access. In order to reduce the time delay of UE access, the flows of bearer establishment, authentication, and the like are reduced from INACTIVE state (or referred to as RRC _ INACTIVE) to CONNECTED state of the UE compared with from IDLE state to CONNECTED state, and the UE service can be recovered more quickly, including that the user context of the UE can also be transferred in a copying manner in the moving process between different gNB base stations.

If there is data to be received or transmitted in the RRC _ INACTIVE state, the Radio Resource Control (RRC) Recovery (RESUME) procedure may transition to the connected (RRC _ connected) state, and at this time, only the I-RNTI needs to be carried to recover the context. The I-RNTI is used for identification of identity information of the terminal device and identification of identity information of the serving base station. The I-RNTI is a parameter of NG-RAN level. The I-RNTI has two types, one type being 40 bit (bit) full-I-RNTI and 24bit short-I-RNTI. The base station indicates by usefullresumed in a System Information block 1 (SIB 1) message, and the presence of usefullresumed in the SIB1 message indicates the use of full I-RNTI, and indicates the UE to initiate the recovery procedure using RRCResumeRequest1 message. If not, the representation indicates to use short I-RNTI and the UE initiates a recovery flow by using RRCRESUMREQUEST message. As an example, referring to Table 1, full-I-RNTI may include GnbitPart and UEIndexPart. The UEIndexPart may include UE identity information (UE specific reference or referred to as UEIndex). The GnbitPart may include a NG-RAN node address index (NG-RAN node address index), or the GnbitPart may be composed of a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) + NG-RAN node address index (NG-RAN node address index). The NG-RAN node address index may be, for example, a gbb (5G base station) ID or an eNB ID. The configuration file corresponding to full-I-RNTI can be applied to any NG-RAN radio access technology (This profile may be applied for any NG-RAN RAT).

TABLE 1

The base station carries suspend configuration information (suspendConfig) through an RRC Release (Release) message, the suspendConfig includes an I-RNTI, notifies the terminal device to enter an RRC _ inactive state, and notifies the terminal device to Release Radio Link Control (RLC) Layer resource/Media Access Control (MAC) Layer resource/Physical Layer (PHY) Layer resource at the base station side, and notifies a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) Layer of the terminal device to enter the RRC _ inactive state. The terminal equipment uses RRCRESUMeRequest1/RRCRESUMeRequest message to carry I-RNTI when initiating the resume flow. The bit occupied by GnbidPart and UeIndexPart in the I-RNTI is uniformly planned by the base station and needs to be configured in a certain area. In a possible implementation manner, the cell resource allocation at the base station side is maintained by one processor core/process at the base station side in a centralized management manner. As shown in fig. 3A, the processor core/process for centrally managing cell resources is referred to as gnueindex management module as an example. In this implementation, the utilization of hardware resources is low. In another possible implementation manner, the cell resource allocation at the base station side adopts a distributed management manner, and is maintained and managed by a processor core/process in which each cell is located, but the operations of generating the I-RNTI for each cell and the like are executed by a gnbUEIndex management module. Referring to fig. 3B, in fig. 3B, a base station includes n cells and n processor cores are taken as an example. The N processor cores are PROC0-PROC N respectively. Wherein PROC0 deploys the gnbuueindex management module. PROC1 corresponds to cell 0 and cell 1. PROC2 corresponds to cell 2 and PROC n corresponds to cell n. And the gnbUEIndex management module is responsible for generating I-RNTIs for each terminal device entering a non-connected state and sending the generated I-RNTIs to a processor core or a process where a service cell of the terminal device is located. The processor core or process where the serving cell is located creates a mapping relation between the I-RNTI (including UeIndex) and the user context of the terminal equipment.

When the terminal equipment is accessed to a base station, a gnbUeIndex management module allocates UeIndex (the allocation principle can be determined according to the actual situation) for the terminal equipment, when the terminal equipment enters an RRC _ INACTIVE state, Gnbid (a base station unique identifier which can be configured through O & M) accessed by the terminal equipment at present is obtained to form I-RNTI, and the gnbUeIndex management module at the base station side maintains the mapping relation between the I-RNTI and the UeIndex; and each cell in the base station maintains the mapping relation between UeIndex and the user context.

It should be noted that after the terminal device is in the RRC _ INACTIVE state and before the terminal device transitions from the RRC _ INACTIVE state to the RRC _ connected state, the terminal device may perform cell switching from one cell to another cell. The cell before handover may be referred to as a source serving cell, the source serving cell stores a user context of the terminal device, and the cell after handover is referred to as a target serving cell. When the terminal device transits from the RRC _ INACTIVE state to the RRC _ connected state, the terminal device sends RRCResumeRequest or RRCResumeRequest1 to the base station where the target serving cell is located. The following description will be given by taking RRCRESUMeRequest1 as an example. In the embodiment of the present invention, a base station where the target serving cell is located is referred to as a target base station, and a base station where the source serving cell is located is referred to as a source base station. After receiving RRCRESUMeRequest1, the target base station acquires UneIndex according to the I-RNTI carried in RRCRESUMeRequest1 and the bit number of GnbidPart according to the bit number of UneDexpart in the planned I-RNTI, determines that GnbidPart is matched with the identity information of the base station, determines that the target base station and the source base station are the same base station if the GnbidPart is the same, and acquires the user context of the terminal equipment from the target base station. And if the target base station determines that the GnbidPart is not the same as the identity information of the base station, determining that the target base station and the source base station are different, and acquiring the user context of the terminal equipment from the source base station.

Referring to fig. 4, a source base station and a target base station are taken as the same base station as an example. Taking the target base station including four processor cores (proc 0-proc 3) as an example, the gnbUeIndex management module is located at the processor core 0(proc0), and each cell of the base station is deployed on the processor cores 1-3. Take the example where the target serving cell is located in processor core 1. The source serving cell is located in proc2 for example.

S401, the terminal equipment sends RRC recovery request 1(RRCRESUMeRequest1) to the target base station, and RRCRESUMeRequest1 carries I-RNTI. I-RNTI includes Gnbid and UeIndex.

S402, the target serving cell (i.e. proc1) of the target base station receives RRCResumeRequest1, and sends a context acquisition request1 to proc 0. The context acquisition request1 carries the I-RNTI.

The target serving cell determines that the target base station and the source base station are the same base station according to Gnbid, that is, the user context of the terminal device is in the target base station, and it can also be interpreted that the source serving cell and the target serving cell both belong to the target base station.

S403, after the proc0 receives the context acquisition request, acquiring UeIndex from the I-RNTI, determining that the user of the terminal equipment is the user of the target base station according to the UeIndex, and retrieving the user context of the terminal equipment from each processor core included in the target base station.

S404, the proc0 sends a context acquisition request 2 to proc1-proc3 respectively, and the context acquisition request 2 carries the I-RNTI.

S405, proc1-proc3 respectively receive the context acquisition request 2, and verify the identity information of the terminal device according to UeIndex, for example, perform short MAC-I (media access control information for data integrity of signaling messages) verification.

If the identity information of the terminal equipment is verified by proc1 and proc3 according to the UeIndex, since the terminal equipment is not connected with the cells deployed on proc1 and proc3, proc1 and proc3 cannot identify the identity of the terminal equipment. And the source serving cell deployed by proc2 accesses the terminal device, so that proc2 verifies and succeeds the identity information of the terminal device, and obtains the stored user context of the terminal device.

S406, the source serving cell deployed by proc2 sends the user context of the terminal device to proc1 where the target serving cell is located.

S407, the proc1 where the target serving cell is located sends an RRC recovery setup (rrcred setup) message to the terminal device.

S408, after receiving the rrcredume setup, the terminal device sends an RRC recovery complete (rrcredume complete) message to the proc2 where the source serving cell is located.

S409, the proc2 where the source serving cell is located releases the mapping relation between the I-RNTI and the UeIndex.

Referring to fig. 5, the source base station and the target base station are taken as different base stations as an example. Taking the source base station including four processor cores (proc 0-proc 3) as an example, the gnbuindex management module (may be abbreviated as the UeIndex management module) is located at the processor core 0(proc0), and each cell in the base station is deployed on the processor cores 1-3. Take the example where the target serving cell is located in processor core 1. The source serving cell is located in proc2 for example. The division of the modules in the embodiment of the present invention is merely an example, and is not particularly limited.

S501, the terminal equipment sends RRC recovery request 1(RRCRESUMeRequest1) to the target base station, and RRCRESUMeRequest1 carries I-RNTI. I-RNTI includes Gnbid and UeIndex.

S502, the target base station receives rrcresemequest 1, determines that the target serving cell where the terminal device resides currently and the source serving cell where the terminal device resides before handover belong to different base stations according to Gnbid, and sends a Context acquisition request1 (for example, a retrieve UE Context request) to the source base station where the source serving cell where the terminal device resides before handover belongs. For example, the target base station sends a context acquisition request1 to the source base station through the XN interface.

S503, the XN Application Protocol (xnp) module of the source base station receives the context acquisition request 1. The XNAP module is implemented by one processor core/process. Illustratively, the XNAP module may be deployed on the processor core 1 with both the target serving cell.

S504, the XNAP of the source base station sends the context acquisition request1 to proc 0.

S505, after the proc0 of the source base station receives the context obtaining request1, obtaining UeIndex from the I-RNTI, determining that the user of the terminal equipment is the user of the source base station according to the UeIndex, and retrieving the user context of the terminal equipment from each processor core included in the source base station.

S506, the proc0 sends a context acquisition request 2 to proc1-proc3 respectively, and the context acquisition request 2 carries the I-RNTI.

S507, proc1-proc3 receive the context acquisition request 2 respectively, and verify the identity information of the terminal equipment according to UeIndex, for example, execute short MAC-I verification.

S508, proc2 where the source serving cell is located sends the user context of the terminal device to the XNAP module.

S509, the XNAP module sends the user context of the terminal device to the target base station. The XNAP module sends a retrieve UE Context response to the target base station. The retrieve UE Context response carries the user Context.

S510, the target base station sends an RRC resume setup (rrcred setup) message to the terminal device.

S511, after receiving the rrcredume setup, the terminal device sends an RRC recovery complete (rrcredume complete) message to the proc2 where the source serving cell is located.

S512, the proc2 where the source serving cell is located releases the mapping relation between the I-RNTI and the UeIndex.

As can be seen from fig. 4 and 5, when the base station is in a distributed management manner, and the terminal device transitions from the RRC _ INACTIVE state to the RRC _ connected state, the terminal device needs to send a message to the processor core where the gnbndex management module is located to identify the identity information of the terminal device, the processor core where the gnbndex management module is located also needs to retrieve the user context to each other processor core and perform short-MACI security check, multiple message interactions need to be performed between different processor cores inside the base station, and maintenance and release of the mapping relationship between the I-RNTI and the uelndex need to be performed inside the base station, which results in resource waste.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present application provide a context recovery method and apparatus, which are used to solve the problem of resource waste. The scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention is described in detail in the following with reference to the attached drawings.

Referring to fig. 6, a flowchart of a context restoring method according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown.

S601, when a terminal device in an inactive state enters a connected state, a first base station receives a first request, wherein the first request is used for acquiring a user context of the terminal device, the first request carries wireless network temporary identification information, and the wireless network temporary identification information comprises first information and second information; the first base station is a base station where the terminal device resides currently.

The first information includes a resource identifier for identifying processing resources where the first cell is located and a user temporary identifier of the terminal device, the second information is used for indicating a base station to which the cell where the terminal device resides when entering the inactive state belongs, and the first cell is the cell where the terminal device resides when entering the inactive state.

The radio network temporary identity information may be an I-RNTI.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing resource in which the first cell is located may be a processor core in which the first cell is located or a process in which the first cell is located. The resource identifier of the processing resource of the first cell is an identifier of a processor core of the first cell or an identifier of a process of the first cell. The identity of the processor core, such as an index or number of the processor core. The identification of a process is for example an index or a number of the process.

S602, when the second information indicates that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station, obtaining, from the processing resource identified by the resource identifier, the user context of the terminal device corresponding to the first information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when a terminal device enters an inactive state, a first cell serving as a previous serving cell of the terminal device generates the radio network temporary identifier information for the terminal device; and sending the wireless network temporary identification information to the terminal equipment.

The radio network temporary identification information includes first information and second information. The first information is used for identifying the identity information of the terminal equipment. The first information may be referred to as unexdenxpart. The second information is used for identifying the identity information of the base station to which the cell resided before the terminal equipment is subjected to cell switching (or when the terminal equipment enters an inactive state). The second information may be referred to as GnbidPart. In an embodiment of the present invention, the first information is a process-level index.

As an example, the first information may be identified by a resource identity of the cell and a user temporary identity of the terminal device. Referring to fig. 7A, taking the processing resource of the cell as the processor core, that is, the processor core may be called PROC, and the resource identifier of the cell may be PROC ID. The user temporary identifier of the terminal device is a user temporary identifier in the processor core, such as a user number or index in the processor core. Take the radio network temporary identifier information as full-I-RNTI as an example. The first information occupies 16 bits, and the second information occupies 24 bits. For example, 16 bits of the first information are numbered by 2 bits of PROC ID and 14 bits of PROC. It should be understood that the number of bits representing the processor core number and the number of bits of the user number within the PROC may be determined on their own by the plan.

When the UE enters an RRC-ACTIVE state, a processor core where a cell where the terminal equipment currently resides distributes process level indexes for a user of the terminal equipment, the user number in 2-bit PROC ID + 14-bit PROC is combined into UeIndex of user I-RNTI, Gnbid of a base station where the cell where the terminal equipment currently resides is obtained, Gnbid is located at the high bit of the I-RNTI according to the planned I-RNTI, and the UeIndex is located at the low bit of the I-RNTI to form the I-RNTI. The base station maintains a mapping relationship between a user number (which may be referred to as undenexplc) in PROC at a process level and a user index (which may be referred to as undenexpcb) for identifying user identity information in the base station, and a mapping relationship between the undenexplc and an identification of a user context (or a mapping relationship between first information and an identification of the user context). The identification of the user context may be an index of the user context, or a storage address of the user context, etc.

From the above, the processor core of each cell may separately manage the UeIndex of the terminal device served by the cell, or the processor core or the process of each cell is deployed with an UeIndex management module, which is used to manage the terminal device UeIndex served by the cell of the processor core or the process. Illustratively, referring to fig. 7B, n processor cores, PROC0-PROCn, are deployed on the base station. Each PROC includes an UeIndex management module. When the UE enters an RRC-INACTIVE state, an UeIndex management module on a processor core of a cell where the terminal equipment resides currently allocates a process-level index for a user of the terminal equipment, and the user number in 2-bit PROC ID + 14-bit PROC is combined into the UeIndex of the user I-RNTI.

When the terminal equipment enters a connection state from a non-activated state, when a base station where a cell where the terminal equipment currently resides receives an RRC recovery request of the terminal equipment, acquiring UeIndex according to an I-RNTI carried in a context response request and acquiring Gnbid according to the bit number of UeIndexPart in a planned I-RNTI and the bit number of GnbidPart, and matching with Gnbid of the base station/an adjacent base station according to the Gnbid. In one case, the cell storing the user context and the cell where the terminal device currently resides (the cell where the terminal device resides when entering the connected state from the inactive state) are the same cell, that is, the terminal device does not perform cell switching after entering the inactive state, that is, the resume flow in the same process as the base station is executed. In another case, the cell storing the user context and the cell where the terminal device currently resides are different cells, but the base station to which the cell storing the user context belongs and the base station to which the cell where the terminal device currently resides are the same base station, that is, the resume flow of different processes of the same base station is executed. In another case, the base station to which the cell storing the user context belongs and the base station to which the cell where the terminal device currently resides are different base stations, that is, resume processes of different base stations are executed.

The resume flow of the co-process with the base station is described in detail with reference to a specific example, and is shown in fig. 8.

S801, when data is required to be sent or received on the terminal device in the non-activated state and the terminal device needs to enter the connected state, an RRC recovery request is sent to the first base station, and the RRC recovery request carries the I-RNTI. The I-RNTI comprises first information and second information. The first information includes a PROC ID and a user number within the process. The second information includes gnbid. Take the processing resource of the cell where the terminal device currently resides on the first base station as PROC0 as an example.

S802, the PROC0 identifies gnbid as the identification of the first base station according to the second information in the I-RNTI.

S803, the PROC0 acquires the PROC ID from the first information of the I-RNTI, and the PROC ID is determined to be PROC 0.

If the ProcID obtained is the same as the Proc ID of the process that received the RRC resume request, that is, the Proc ID is true for Proc 0.

S804, the PROC0 obtains the user context according to the user number in the process in the first information and executes short-MAC-I check.

And acquiring an index UeIndexProc of the user in the proc0 process according to the planned UeIndexProc in the UeIndexPart, directly matching the user index (UeIndexGnb) in the mapping relation saved in the proc0 process and carrying out short-MACI verification.

S805, the PROC0 sends an RRC recovery response to the terminal device, where the RRC recovery response carries the user context.

S806, the terminal device sends an RRC recovery complete message to PROC 0. If PROC0 receives a success, then the resume flow is complete.

Different processor cores or processes manage and plan the Undex independently, namely the Undex management module is distributed in each processor core or process. Compared with a distributed management mode, a processor core used for management independently does not need to be configured, signaling interaction between the processor core of the resident cell and the processor core used for management can be reduced, in addition, the processor core used for management searches instruction overhead of user contexts from other processor cores, the base station can search the user contexts of the terminal equipment more quickly, service is recovered quickly, user perception is improved, and the mapping relation between the I-RNTI and the UeIndex does not need to be maintained.

The resume flow of a process different from the base station is described in detail with reference to a specific example, which is shown in fig. 9.

S901, when data is required to be sent or received on the terminal equipment in the non-activated state and needs to enter the connected state, an RRC recovery request is sent to the first base station, and the RRC recovery request carries the I-RNTI. The I-RNTI comprises first information and second information. The first information includes a PROC ID and a user number within the process. The second information includes gnbid. Take the processing resource of the cell where the terminal device currently resides on the first base station as PROC0 as an example.

S902, the PROC0 identifies gnbid as the identity of the first base station according to the second information in the I-RNTI.

S903, the PROC0 acquires the PROC ID from the first information of the I-RNTI, and the PROC ID is determined to be PROC 1.

If the acquired ProcID is not the same as the Proc ID of the process receiving the RRC resume request, i.e. PROC ID! PROC0 and PROC ID! PROC 1.

S904, PROC0 sends a context fetch request to PROC 1. The context acquisition request carries the I-RNTI.

S905, the PROC1 obtains the user context according to the user number in the process in the first information and executes short-MAC-I check.

And acquiring an index UeIndexProc of the user in the proc1 process according to the planned UeIndexProc in the UeIndexPart, directly matching the user index (UeIndexGnb) in the mapping relation saved in the proc0 process and carrying out short-MACI verification.

S906, the PROC1 sends a context acquisition response to the PROC 0. The context acquisition response carries the user context.

S907, the PROC0 sends an RRC recovery response to the terminal device, where the RRC recovery response carries the user context.

S908, the terminal device sends an RRC recovery complete message to PROC 1. If PROC1 receives a success, then the resume flow is complete.

Compared with fig. 4, different processor cores or processes manage and plan the uendex separately, i.e. the uendex management module is distributed in each processor core or process. Compared with a distributed management mode, a processor core used for management independently does not need to be configured, signaling interaction between the processor core of the resident cell and the processor core used for management can be reduced, in addition, the processor core used for management searches instruction overhead of user contexts from other processor cores, the base station can search the user contexts of the terminal equipment more quickly, service is recovered quickly, user perception is improved, and the mapping relation between the I-RNTI and the UeIndex does not need to be maintained.

The resume flow of different base stations is described in detail with reference to specific examples, and is shown in fig. 10.

S1001, when data is required to be sent or received on the terminal equipment in the non-activated state and the terminal equipment needs to enter the connected state, an RRC recovery request is sent to the first base station, and the RRC recovery request carries the I-RNTI. The I-RNTI comprises first information and second information. The first information includes a PROC ID and a user number within the process. The second information includes gnbid.

S1002, the first base station identifies the gnbid as the identifier of the second base station according to the second information in the I-RNTI.

S1003, the first base station sends a context obtaining request1 to the second base station through the XN interface, and the context obtaining request1 carries the I-RNTI. The context acquisition request1 is a retrieve UE context request.

S1004, the XNAP of the second base station receives the context obtaining request1 sent by the first base station through the XN interface, obtains the PROC ID from the first information of the I-RNTI, and determines that the PROC ID is PROC 1. The XNAP runs on a processor core or process other than PROC 1.

S1005, the XNAP sends a context acquisition request 2 to the PROC 1. The context acquisition request 2 carries the I-RNTI.

S1006, PROC1 obtains the user context according to the user number in the process in the first information and executes short-MAC-I check.

S1007, PROC1 sends a context acquisition response 2 to the XNAP. The context acquisition response 2 carries the user context.

S1008, the XNAP sends a context obtaining response 1 to the first base station, and the context obtaining response 1 carries the user context.

S1009, the first base station sends an RRC recovery response to the terminal device, where the RRC recovery response carries the user context.

S1010, the terminal device sends an RRC recovery complete message to PROC 1. If PROC1 receives a success, then the resume flow is complete.

Compared with fig. 5, different processor cores or processes manage and plan the uendex independently, i.e. the uendex management module is distributed in each processor core or process. Compared with a distributed management mode, a processor core used for management independently does not need to be configured, signaling interaction between the processor core of the resident cell and the processor core used for management can be reduced, in addition, the processor core used for management searches instruction overhead of user contexts from other processor cores, the base station can search the user contexts of the terminal equipment more quickly, service is recovered quickly, user perception is improved, and the mapping relation between the I-RNTI and the UeIndex does not need to be maintained.

Based on the same inventive concept as the method described above, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a context restoring apparatus 1100, which is applied to a base station, such as a first base station, for example, the context restoring apparatus 1100 may be a chip or a chip system in the base station, or one or more processors. Referring to fig. 11, the context restoring apparatus 1100 includes a processing unit 1101, a receiving unit 1102, and a transmitting unit 1103, where the transmitting unit 1103 is responsible for transmitting signals, and the receiving unit 1102 is responsible for receiving signals. The processing unit 1101 may include a first processing unit 1101A and a second processing unit 1101B, and may further include other processing units, which is not limited in the present invention.

A receiving unit 1102, configured to receive a first request when a terminal device in an inactive state needs to enter a connected state, where the first request is used to obtain a user context of the terminal device, and the first request carries radio network temporary identification information, where the radio network temporary identification information includes first information and second information; the first base station is a base station where the terminal equipment resides currently;

a first processing unit 1101A, configured to, when the second information indicates that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station, obtain, from the processing resource identified by the resource identifier, a user context of the terminal device corresponding to the first information.

Optionally, the first request is a radio resource control, RRC, recovery request, and the receiving unit 1102 is specifically configured to:

Optionally, the first request is a context obtaining request, and the sending unit 1103 is specifically configured to:

the device further comprises:

a sending unit 1103, configured to send a context obtaining response to the second base station, where the context obtaining response carries the user context.

Optionally, the resource identifier of the processing resource in which the first cell is located is an identifier of a processor core in which the first cell is located or an identifier of a process in which the first cell is located.

Optionally, the first processing unit 1101A belongs to a processing resource of a second cell, where the second cell is a cell where the terminal device currently resides; the apparatus further comprises a second processing unit, the second processing unit 1101B belongs to the processing resources of the first cell.

As an example, the first processing unit 1101A may be a processor core in which the second cell is located or a process in which the second cell is located. The second processing unit 1101B may be a processor core in which the first cell is located or a process in which the first cell is located.

The first processing unit 1101A is specifically configured to determine, according to the second information, that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station;

sending a first request to the second processing unit 1101B according to a resource identifier, where the first request is used to request to obtain a user context of the terminal device, and the resource identifier is used to identify the second processing unit;

the second processing unit 1101B is configured to acquire the user context of the terminal device corresponding to the first information, and send the user context of the terminal device to the first processing unit 1101A.

Optionally, the second processing unit 1101B is further configured to:

the sending unit 1103 is further configured to send the wireless network temporary identifier information to the terminal device.

Optionally, the second processing unit 1101B is further configured to, after the radio network temporary identifier information is generated for the terminal device, associate and store the identifier of the first information and the user context.

The division of the unit in the embodiments of the present invention is schematic, and is only a logical function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation, and in addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present invention may be integrated in one processor, may also exist alone physically, or may also be integrated in one unit by two or more units. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

Another context restoring apparatus 1200 is provided in the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 12, including:

a communication interface 1201, a memory 1202, and a processor 1203;

wherein, the context restoring apparatus 1200 communicates with other devices, such as receiving and sending messages, through the communication interface 1201; a memory 1202 for storing program instructions; a processor 1203 is used for calling the program instructions stored in the memory 1202 and executing the method according to the obtained program.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the specific connection medium among the communication interface 1201, the memory 1202, and the processor 1203 is not limited, for example, a bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like.

In the embodiments of the present invention, the processor may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the memory may be a nonvolatile memory, such as a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), and may also be a volatile memory, for example, a random-access memory (RAM). The memory can also be, but is not limited to, any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. The memory in embodiments of the present invention may also be circuitry or any other device capable of performing a storage function for storing program instructions and/or data.

The context restoring apparatus 1200 may be applied to a base station, and the functions of the receiving unit 1102, the transmitting unit 1103 and the processing unit 1101 described above may be implemented by the processor 1203. Alternatively, the functions of the receiving unit 1102 and the sending unit 1103 are implemented by the communication interface 1201, and the function of the processing unit 1101 is implemented by the processor 1203. That is, the processor 1203 may include multiple processor cores or processes (i.e., multiple processing units). Specifically, the processor 1203 is configured to call the program code in the memory 1202, and implement the function executed by the source base station or the first base station in the foregoing method through the communication interface 1201.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide a computer-readable storage medium, which includes program code for causing a computer to perform the steps of the method provided above in the embodiments of the present invention when the program code runs on the computer.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all such alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method for context restoration, comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) resume request, and wherein the first base station receives the first request, comprising:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request is a context acquisition request, and wherein the first base station receiving the first request comprises:

the method further comprises the following steps:

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the resource identification of the processing resource in which the first cell is located is an identification of a processor core in which the first cell is located or an identification of a process in which the first cell is located.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when the second information indicates that the base station to which the first cell belongs is the first base station, acquiring the user context of the terminal device corresponding to the first information from the processing resource identified by the resource identifier, comprises:

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

7. The method of claim 6, wherein after the first cell generates the radio network temporary identification information, the method further comprises:

8. A context restoring apparatus applied to a first base station, comprising:

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first request is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) resume request, and wherein the receiving unit is specifically configured to:

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first request is a context acquisition request, and wherein the sending unit is specifically configured to:

the device further comprises:

a sending unit, configured to send a context obtaining response to the second base station, where the context obtaining response carries the user context.

11. The apparatus of any of claims 8-10, wherein the resource identification of the processing resource in which the first cell is located is an identification of a processor core in which the first cell is located or an identification of a process in which the first cell is located.

12. The apparatus of any of claims 8-10, wherein the first processing unit belongs to processing resources of a second cell, the second cell being a cell in which the terminal device currently resides; the apparatus further comprises a second processing unit belonging to a processing resource of the first cell;

13. The apparatus as recited in claim 12, said second processing unit to further:

when the terminal equipment enters an inactive state, generating the wireless network temporary identification information;

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the second processing unit is further configured to, after generating the radio network temporary identification information for the terminal device, associate and store the first information with the identification of the user context.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory and a processor;

a memory for storing program instructions;

a processor for calling the program instructions stored in the memory and executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 7 according to the obtained program.

16. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.