CN114270792B

CN114270792B - Method and device for transmitting information

Info

Publication number: CN114270792B
Application number: CN201980099561.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 范强; 娄崇
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-11-07
Filing date: 2019-11-07
Publication date: 2023-09-12
Anticipated expiration: 2039-11-07
Also published as: CN114270792A; WO2021087923A1

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for transmitting information, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that the decompression side device receives an Ethernet frame from the compression side device and first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to establish or update context information of the decompression side; when the first indication information indicates to establish or update the context information, the decompression side device establishes or updates the context information of the decompression side according to the Ethernet frame; or when the first indication information indicates that the context information is not established or updated, the decompression side device does not establish or update the context information of the decompression side according to the Ethernet frame. The embodiment of the application is helpful for avoiding the error of understanding the compression side equipment by the decompression side equipment.

Description

Method and device for transmitting information

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for transmitting information.

Background

In industrial control scenarios, such as industrial internet (industrial internet of things, IIoT) scenarios, most industrial control data has time delay sensitive characteristics, and the industrial control node needs to generate data at certain points in time and need to transmit to the correspondent node at certain time intervals. To support the transmission of industrial control data, most industrial control networks employ ethernet technology at deployment.

Ethernet is a local area network communication technology, and the IEEE 802.3 working group of institute of electrical and electronics engineers (institute of electrical and electronics engineers, IEEE) has established an ethernet technical standard that specifies the contents of the protocols including the physical layer of wiring, electronic signals and medium access control (media access control, MAC). Current industrial control scenarios use wired ethernet to transmit data, where data transmitted based on ethernet communication technology may be referred to simply as ethernet data. With the rapid development of wireless communication technology, unlimited possibilities are provided for flexibility, mobility, diversity and retrofittability of future factories for transmission. Thus, in an industrial control scenario, the transmission of ethernet data may also be achieved by wireless communication. For example, the console sends instructions to the machine device via the wireless network, and the machine device performs corresponding actions based on the received instructions and reports its own status information to the server. Industrial control data is transmitted through the wireless network, so that the problems of cost, safety, maintenance and the like existing in the deployment of the wired network are avoided, and flexible deployment and mobility of the industrial control nodes can be supported.

The ethernet header compression (ethernet header compression, EHC) mechanism supports only one ethernet format compression, but in practice, there are multiple ethernet formats in industrial applications, and when the ethernet format submitted by the upper layer and the ethernet format supported by EHC do not match, the EHC cannot compress the ethernet frame, and may cause the decompression side device to misunderstand the intention of the compression side.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and a device for transmitting information, which are helpful for avoiding that decompression side equipment erroneously understands compression side equipment.

In a first aspect, there is provided a method of transmitting information, the method comprising: the method comprises the steps that the decompression side device receives an Ethernet frame from the compression side device and first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating whether to establish or update context information of the decompression side; when the first indication information indicates to establish or update the context information, the decompression side device establishes or updates the context information of the decompression side according to the Ethernet frame; or when the first indication information indicates that the context information is not established or updated, the decompression side device does not establish or update the context information of the decompression side according to the Ethernet frame.

According to the method for transmitting information, the device at the over-compression side indicates whether the data packet carries the context information or whether the context information needs to be established or updated to the device at the decompression side, the compression side can support the transmission of Ethernet frames in various formats, and for the Ethernet frames which cannot be compressed, the device at the compression side can directly transmit the original Ethernet frames to the device at the decompression side and indicate that the context information is not carried or the context information is not established or updated, so that the understanding error of the device at the decompression side is avoided, and the EHC function error is caused.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the receiving, by the decompression side device, the ethernet frame and the first indication information from the compression side device includes: the decompression side device receives a packet data convergence protocol data unit PDCP data PDU from the compression side device, the PDCP data PDU including the first ethernet frame and the first indication information.

In the embodiment of the application, the decompression side device can clearly determine the intention of the compression side device by carrying the first Ethernet frame and the first indication information in the PDCP data PDU, thereby avoiding the understanding error of the decompression side device and simultaneously being beneficial to saving the expenditure of signaling.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the PDCP data PDU includes an ethernet header compression header including the first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether the ethernet header compression header includes a context information identification CID and a header format indication F field, and when the first indication information is used to indicate that the CID and the F field exist, the first indication information is used to indicate that the CID and the F field do not exist, and when the first indication information is used to indicate that the CID and the F field do not exist, the first indication information is used to indicate that the context information is not established or updated; or, the ethernet header compression header includes the CID and the F field, and the first indication information is used to indicate whether to establish or update context information of the decompression side according to the CID and the F field; or, the first indication information is further used for indicating that the ethernet frame is a complete ethernet frame or a compressed ethernet frame; alternatively, the ethernet header compression header includes the CID including the first indication information.

In the embodiment of the application, the first indication information can be carried in the Ethernet frame header compression header in the PDCP data PDU, and the decompression side device can clearly determine the intention of the compression side device, so that the decompression side device can avoid understanding errors, and meanwhile, the signaling overhead can be saved.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the F field is located before the first indication information, and the F field indicates that the ethernet frame is a complete ethernet frame.

In the embodiment of the application, the F field is located before the first indication information, and the decompression side device may parse the F field first, and parse the first indication information when the F field indicates that the ethernet frame is a complete ethernet frame; the first indication information may be skipped when the F field indicates that the ethernet frame is a compressed ethernet frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the PDCP data PDU includes a PDCP header including the first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate whether an ethernet header compression header in the PDCP data PDU includes a CID and an F field, and when the first indication information is used to indicate that the CID and the F field are present, the first indication information is used to indicate that the CID and the F field are not present, the first indication information is used to indicate that the context information is not established or updated; or, the ethernet header compression header includes the CID and the F field, and the first indication information is used to indicate whether to establish or update context information of the decompression side according to the CID and the F field.

In the embodiment of the application, the first indication information can be carried in the PDCP header in the PDCP data PDU, the decompression side device can clearly determine the intention of the compression side device, the understanding error of the decompression side device is avoided, and the signaling overhead is saved.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: when the first indication information indicates that the context information is not established or updated, feedback is not performed to the compression side device.

In the embodiment of the application, when the first indication information received by the decompression side indicates that the context information is not established or not updated, feedback can not be carried out to the compression side equipment, thereby being beneficial to avoiding the expenditure of signaling.

In a second aspect, there is provided a method of transmitting information, the method comprising: the decompression side device receives a first Ethernet frame and a first CID from the compression side device; the decompression side device establishes or updates context information corresponding to the first CID according to the first Ethernet frame; the decompression side device sends first feedback information to the compression side device and starts a first timer, wherein the first feedback information is used for indicating that the context information is established or updated; wherein, during the operation period of the first timer, feedback is not performed on the received second ethernet frame any more, and the ethernet header compression header of the second ethernet frame includes the first CID.

In the embodiment of the application, the timer is introduced into the decompression side equipment to limit the feedback signaling to be sent once or a few times within the time length of the timer, or the counter is introduced into the decompression side equipment to limit the feedback signaling to be sent a few times only in a plurality of data packets, thereby being beneficial to reducing the feedback signaling cost and the occupation of resources.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the decompression side device receives the third Ethernet frame and the first CID from the compression side device; the decompression side device updates the context information corresponding to the first CID according to the third Ethernet frame; the decompression side device sends second feedback information to the compression side device and restarts the first timer, wherein the second feedback information is used for indicating that the context information corresponding to the first CID is updated.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the decompression side device receives a fourth Ethernet frame and a second CID from the compression side device, wherein the second CID is different from the first CID; the decompression side device establishes or updates the context information corresponding to the second CID according to the fourth Ethernet frame; the decompression side device sends third feedback information to the compression side device and starts a second timer, wherein the third feedback information is used for indicating that the context information corresponding to the second CID is established or updated, and feedback is not carried out on the received fifth Ethernet frame in the operation period of the second timer, and an Ethernet frame header compression head of the fifth Ethernet frame comprises the second CID.

In the embodiment of the application, different CIDs or context information can correspond to different timers, so that for the same CID, the decompression side device can start the timers after sending feedback information to the compression side device, thereby being beneficial to reducing the feedback signaling overhead and the occupation of resources.

In a third aspect, a method of transmitting information is provided, the method comprising: the compression side equipment acquires an Ethernet frame; the compression side device transmits the ethernet frame and first indication information to the decompression side device, the first indication information being used for indicating whether to establish or update the context information of the decompression side.

According to the method for transmitting information, the device at the over-compression side indicates whether context information is carried in a data packet to the device at the decompression side or indicates whether the device at the decompression side needs to establish or update context information, the compression side can support transmission of Ethernet frames in various formats, and for the Ethernet frames which cannot be compressed, the device at the compression side can directly transmit original Ethernet frames to the device at the decompression side and indicate not to carry context information or indicate not to establish or update context information, so that the device at the decompression side can avoid understanding errors and cause errors of EHC functions.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the sending the ethernet frame and the first indication information to the decompression side device includes: the compression side device transmits a PDCP data PDU including the first ethernet frame and the first indication information to the decompression side device.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the PDCP data PDU includes an ethernet header compression header including the first indication information therein, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate whether the ethernet header compression header includes a CID and an F field, and when the first indication information is used to indicate that the CID and the F field exist, the first indication information is used to indicate that the CID and the F field do not exist, and the first indication information is not used to indicate that the context information is not established or updated; or, the ethernet header compression header includes the CID and the F field, and the first indication information is used to indicate whether to establish or update context information of the decompression side according to the CID and the F field; or, the first indication information is further used for indicating that the ethernet frame is a complete ethernet frame or a compressed ethernet frame; alternatively, the ethernet header compression header includes the CID including the first indication information.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the F field is located before the first indication information, and the F field indicates that the ethernet frame is a complete ethernet frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the PDCP data PDU includes a PDCP header including the first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate whether an ethernet header compression header in the PDCP data PDU includes a CID and an F field, and when the first indication information is used to indicate that the CID and the F field are present, it is indicated that context information is not established or updated, and when the first indication information is used to indicate that the CID and the F field are not present; or, the ethernet header compression header includes the CID and the F field, and the first indication information is used to indicate whether to establish or update context information of the decompression side according to the CID and the F field.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the method further includes: when the first indication information is used for indicating to establish or update the context information of the decompression side, the compression side device receives feedback information sent by the decompression side device, wherein the feedback information is used for indicating that the establishment or update of the context information of the decompression side device is completed.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method of transmitting information, the method comprising:

the compression side device sends a first Ethernet frame and a first context information identification CID to the decompression side device and starts a first timer; and in the operation period of the first timer, the compression side equipment sends a second Ethernet frame and first indication information to the decompression side equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the decompression side equipment not to establish or update the context information, and an Ethernet frame header compression head of the second Ethernet frame comprises the first CID.

In the embodiment of the application, the timer is introduced at the compression side to limit the context information to be sent once within the duration of the timer, so that the decompression side only triggers the sending of one or a plurality of feedback signaling; or a counter is introduced at the compression side to limit that only a few packets in a plurality of data packets can send the context information, so that the decompression side can not send feedback signaling for each received data packet, and the cost of EHC feedback signaling and the occupation of air interface resources can be reduced.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: the compression side equipment updates the context information corresponding to the first CID according to the third Ethernet frame; the compression side device transmits a third ethernet frame and the first CID to the decompression side device and restarts the first timer.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: the compression side device sends a fourth Ethernet frame and a second CID to the decompression side device and starts a second timer, wherein the second CID is different from the first CID; and in the second timer running period, the compression side device sends a fifth Ethernet frame and second indication information to the decompression side device, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating that the decompression side device does not establish or update the context information, and an Ethernet frame header compression head of the fifth Ethernet frame comprises the second CID.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides an apparatus for transmitting information, comprising means or means for performing the steps of the above first or second aspects.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides an apparatus for transmitting information, comprising means or means for performing the steps of the above third or fourth aspects.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides an apparatus for information transfer, comprising at least one processor, for interfacing with a memory, to invoke a program in the memory to perform the method provided in the first or second aspects above. The memory may be located within the device or may be located external to the device. And the processor includes one or more.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a random access device comprising at least one processor for interfacing with a memory to invoke a program in the memory to perform the method provided in the third or fourth aspect above. The memory may be located within the device or may be located external to the device. And the processor includes one or more.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a random access device comprising at least one processor and interface circuitry, the at least one processor being configured to perform the method provided in the first or second aspect above.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a random access device comprising at least one processor and interface circuitry, the at least one processor being configured to perform the method provided in the third or fourth aspect above.

An eleventh aspect provides a terminal comprising the apparatus provided in any one of the fifth to tenth aspects above.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a network device comprising the apparatus provided in any one of the fifth to tenth aspects above.

In a thirteenth aspect, the present application provides a program for performing the method provided in the first or second aspect above, when the program is executed by a processor.

In a fourteenth aspect, the present application provides a program for performing the method provided in the above third or fourth aspect when being executed by a processor.

In a fifteenth aspect, the present application provides a program product, such as a computer-readable storage medium, comprising the above program.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an ethernet frame format according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a PDCP PDU according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a PDCP header according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a method for transmitting information according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is another schematic diagram of a PDCP header according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is another schematic diagram of a PDCP data PDU according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is another schematic diagram of a PDCP data PDU according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is another schematic diagram of a PDCP data PDU according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of an ethernet header compression header provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 is another schematic diagram of an ethernet header compression header provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 12 is another schematic diagram of an ethernet header compression header provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 13 is another schematic flow chart of a method for transmitting information provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 14 is a schematic diagram of limiting the feedback number of times of feedback information by the decompression side device through a timer in the embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 15 is a schematic diagram of limiting the feedback number of feedback information by the decompression side device through a counter in the embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 16 is another schematic flow chart of a method for transmitting information provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 17 is a schematic diagram of limiting the feedback number of times of feedback information by the compression side apparatus according to the embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 18 is a schematic diagram of limiting the feedback number of feedback information by the compression side apparatus through a counter in the embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 19 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for transmitting information provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 20 is another schematic block diagram of an apparatus for transmitting information provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 21 is another schematic block diagram of an apparatus for transmitting information provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 22 is another schematic block diagram of an apparatus for transmitting information provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 23 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 24 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 25 is a schematic structural diagram of a core network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, some terms in the present application will be described:

in the embodiment of the present application, a terminal is also called a terminal device or a User Equipment (UE), which is a device having a wireless communication function, and may be connected to a slave, and is called a terminal device in the following embodiments. The terminal device may be independent of the slave, or may be integrated with the slave; when independently arranged, the terminal device may refer to a device having a wireless communication function, which may be connected to a slave, for connecting the slave to a wireless network; when integrated together, the terminal device may refer to a device, such as a chip or a system-on-chip, that integrates the slave physical entity and wireless communication functionality. The terminal device may comprise a wireless terminal in an industrial control (industrial control), but may also be a terminal with similar requirements in other control systems, such as a wireless terminal in a self driving, a wireless terminal in teleoperation (remote medical surgery), a wireless terminal in a smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in a smart city, or a wireless terminal in a smart home (smart home), etc.

The access network device is a device in a wireless network, such as a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) node that accesses the terminal apparatus to the wireless network. Currently, some examples of RAN nodes are: a gNB, a transmission and reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, wifi) Access Point (AP), etc. In one network architecture, the access network device may include a Centralized Unit (CU) node, or a Distributed Unit (DU) node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node.

In a network architecture, the RAN includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device, where the baseband device may be implemented by one node, or may be implemented by multiple nodes, and the radio frequency device may be implemented independently from the baseband device, may be integrated into the baseband device, or may be partially integrated into the baseband device. For example, the RAN may include a baseband device and a radio frequency device, wherein the radio frequency device may be remotely located relative to the baseband device, such as a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU) remotely located relative to the BBU.

The communication between the RAN and the terminal follows a certain protocol layer structure. For example, the control plane protocol layer structure may include the functions of protocol layers such as a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer, a packet data convergence layer protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a medium access control (media access control, MAC) layer, and a physical layer. The user plane protocol layer structure may include the functions of protocol layers such as PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer; in one implementation, a traffic data adaptation (service data adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer may also be included above the PDCP layer. The functions of these protocol layers may be implemented by one node, or may be implemented by a plurality of nodes; for example, in one evolution structure, the RAN may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU), and a plurality of DUs may be centrally controlled by one CU. The CU and the DU may be divided according to protocol layers of the wireless network, for example, functions of a PDCP layer and above are set at the CU, and functions of protocol layers below PDCP, for example, functions of an RLC layer and a MAC layer, etc. are set at the DU. The division of the protocol layer is merely an example, and other protocol layers may be divided, for example, division in the RLC layer, where functions of the RLC layer and above are set in the CU, and functions of the protocol layer below the RLC layer are set in the DU; alternatively, the protocol layer may be divided, for example, by setting a part of functions of the RLC layer and functions of protocol layers above the RLC layer to CU, and setting the remaining functions of the RLC layer and functions of protocol layers below the RLC layer to DU. In addition, the functions that require processing time to meet the latency requirement may be set in the DU and the functions that do not require processing time to meet the latency requirement may be set in the CU in other manners, such as time-lapse partitioning.

Alternatively, the rf device may be remote, not placed in the DU, or may be integrated in the DU, or a portion of the remote may be integrated in the DU, without any limitation.

Alternatively, the Control Plane (CP) and the User Plane (UP) of the CU may be implemented separately and separated into different entities, i.e., a control plane CU entity (CU-CP entity) and a user plane CU entity (CU-UP entity), respectively.

In the above network architecture, the signaling generated by the CU may be transmitted to the terminal through the DU, or the signaling generated by the terminal may be transmitted to the CU through the DU. The DU may be passed through to the terminal or CU directly through the protocol layer encapsulation without parsing the signaling. In the following embodiments, transmission or reception of signaling by a DU includes such a scenario if such signaling is involved in the transmission between the DU and the terminal. For example, the signaling of the RRC or PDCP layer is eventually processed as the signaling of the PHY layer to be transmitted to the terminal, or is converted from the received signaling of the PHY layer. Under this architecture, the signaling of the RRC or PDCP layer can be considered as being sent by either a DU or by both a DU and a radio frequency.

When the above CU-DU structure is adopted, the access network device may be a CU node, or a DU node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node.

The apparatus in the following embodiments of the present application may be located in different devices according to the functions it implements.

In the discussion of the 5G standard, it is being considered to support the transmission of service data in the vertical industry by using the 5G system, for example, using the 5G system as the last hop of the industrial control network, to implement wireless substitution of the last hop wire. In this deployment scenario, ethernet data generated by the console needs to be transmitted to the control node through the 5G system, and ethernet data generated by the corresponding control node also needs to be transmitted to reach the console through the 5G system. The ethernet protocols that are in practical use are numerous, and fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an ethernet frame format. As shown in fig. 1, the format of an IEEE 802.3 ethernet frame is shown schematically, which includes: a preamble (preamble) of 7 bytes, a start of frame delimiter (start of frame delimiter, SFD) of 1 byte, a destination MAC address of 6 bytes, a source MAC address of 6 bytes, a length/type (e.g., 802.1 QTagType) field of 2 bytes, a TAG control information (tagging control information, TAG)), a MAC client length/type of 2 bytes, a variable length payload or payload, and a frame check sequence (frame check sequence, FCS) of 4 bytes, wherein the payload may include data (e.g., MAC client data), and the optional payload may further include a padding (padding) field. In an actual industrial ethernet environment, a console controls several terminal devices, the ethernet addresses of the console and the terminal devices are fixed, for a terminal device, the destination address field is filled with its own MAC address, the source address field is filled with the MAC address of the console, and in addition, the control information is usually fixed for the 802.1QTagType field and the TAG; accordingly, the above fields are also typically fixed for the data streams sent by the terminal device to the console. In order to improve the utilization efficiency of radio resources, the field with a fixed ethernet frame header in the ethernet data stream may be considered to be compressed, so as to reduce the size of the ethernet frame, thereby reducing the occupation of radio resources.

During the current discussion of the 5G standard, the introduction of the ethernet header compression (ethernet header compression, EHC) mechanism has been agreed, and the definition of the EHC mechanism is entirely in the 3GPP standard. The EHC mechanism allows for compression of relatively fixed fields in the ethernet header, thereby reducing the size of the data packets transmitted over the air, as well as the resource overhead.

Currently, for EHCs, some of the following are agreed:

the EHC function is performed at the PDCP layer;

the preamble, SFD, FCS fields in the Ethernet header may not be compressed, and the destination address, source address, TAG related fields, MAC client length/type fields may be compressed; the NRR16 standard agrees to support compression of only one ethernet frame format;

the EHC adopts the concept of context, the compression side and the decompression side associate a Context Identifier (CID) with the value of a specific field to be compressed of an ethernet header, and for a stream, the compression side needs to transmit at least the complete ethernet header and context ID to the decompression side so as to establish context information for the CID at the decompression side;

the ethernet frame generates an EHC header in the PDCP layer, including: CID, ethernet header compression header format indicates an F field (F field indicates whether a complete ethernet header or a compressed ethernet header is contained);

After receiving context information sent by the compression side, the decompression side sends feedback signaling to the compression side; after receiving the feedback signaling, the compression side determines that the corresponding context information is established at the decompression side, and can execute ethernet header compression by using the context information.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture 200 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, the system architecture 200 includes a compression side device 210 and a decompression side device 220, where the compression side device and the decompression side device can store context information for a CID, the compression side device 210 can compress an ethernet header according to context information corresponding to the CID, and send the compressed ethernet header to the decompression side device 220, and the decompression side device 220 can decompress the compressed ethernet header by using the CID corresponding to the context information to obtain a complete ethernet header; alternatively, after acquiring an ethernet frame conforming to an ethernet frame format supported by an EHC function, the compression side device 210 may send a complete ethernet frame and a CID to the decompression side device, where the decompression side device may establish context information corresponding to the CID using the CID, send feedback information to the compression side device to indicate that the context information corresponding to the CID has been established, and after receiving the feedback information, the compression side device may compress an ethernet frame sent subsequently using the context information.

It should be understood that the compression side device and the decompression side device of the above-described ethernet header compression scheme may be a terminal and a network device, or a network device and a terminal, respectively, or may be two terminals that communicate on a side-link (sidelink) interface, or may even be a terminal and other core network devices, such as a user plane function (user plane function, UPF), etc.

Currently, the compression side device indicates whether the complete ethernet header is carried or the ethernet header is compressed through an F field in the EHC header, but cannot indicate whether the decompression side needs to establish or update context information according to the CID carried in the EHC header. If the compression side device indicates that the complete ethernet frame header is carried through the F field, but it is not desirable that the decompression side device establishes or updates context information corresponding to the CID, and the decompression side device also establishes or updates context information corresponding to the CID after receiving the complete ethernet frame, so that the decompression side device understands an error, thereby causing an EHC function error.

The following describes several scenarios in which the compression side does not want the decompression side device to establish or update context information corresponding to CID:

scene one

The Ethernet frame received by the compression side device does not conform to the Ethernet frame format supported by the EHC function, the compression side device cannot perform Ethernet header compression processing on the Ethernet frame, at the moment, the compression side device can only send complete original Ethernet frames, context information is not established, and meanwhile, the decompression side does not wish to establish or update the context information.

Scene two

For the value of a part of the field to be compressed, the compression side device only receives the corresponding ethernet frames occasionally, and at this time, the necessity of establishing and maintaining some context information for the ethernet frames received occasionally is not strong (the context information is maintained for a long time, but only used for compressing/decompressing a very small number of ethernet frames), in this case, the compression side device may choose not to establish context information for the frames, and at the same time, it is not desirable for the decompression side to establish or update context information.

Scene three

In order to achieve a certain enough flexibility for the compression side device, the compression side device can be allowed to directly transmit part of the ethernet frames, for example, for some ethernet frames needing to be transmitted as soon as possible, the compression or decompression can be not performed, a context action is established or updated, and extra time delay is avoided for the transmission of the part of the ethernet frames.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a packet data convergence protocol data unit PDCP data PDU, and fig. 3 is a diagram showing a format of PDCP data PDU generated by an EHC function configured data radio bearer (data radio bearer, DRB) agreed in the present standard. As shown in fig. 3, the PDCP header (PDCP header) is followed by an SDAP header (SDAP header) and an ethernet header compression header (EHC header). The EHC header agrees to include: CID, F field (F field indicates whether the complete ethernet header or the compressed ethernet header is contained). The length of the packet data convergence protocol layer sequence number (packet data convergence protocol sequence number, PDCP SN) in the PDCP header of fig. 3 may be 12 bits, and in practice, the PDCP SN may be configured as 12 bits or 18 bits, and when configured as an 18 bit PDCP SN, the PDCP header may be as shown in fig. 4.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic flow chart of a method 500 for transmitting information according to an embodiment of the present application. The method 500 may be used in the system architecture shown in fig. 2 and described above, and as shown in fig. 5, the method 500 includes:

s510, the compression side device acquires the Ethernet frame.

In the embodiment of the application, the compression side device can generate the Ethernet data frame by the application layer of the device and process and deliver the Ethernet data frame to the PDCP layer by layer; the compression side device may also obtain ethernet frames from other devices connected, such as ethernet devices.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the ethernet frame may be a complete original ethernet frame, or a compressed ethernet frame obtained by compressing an ethernet header of an original ethernet frame, where the ethernet frame may include an ethernet header and an ethernet payload (payload), and may not include information added by the PDCP layer (such as a CID field and an F field), where the ethernet header may be an original ethernet header, or a header obtained by compressing an original ethernet header.

The compression side device sends the ethernet frame and the first indication information to the decompression side device, where the decompression side device receives the ethernet frame and the first indication information sent by the compression side device, and the first indication information is used to indicate whether the context information of the decompression side device is established or updated, whether the context information is established or updated by the compression side device, or whether EHC processing is required for the ethernet frame by the decompression side device.

Optionally, the compression side device sends the ethernet frame to the decompression side device, including: the compression side device transmits PDCP data PDU including the ethernet frame to the decompression side device.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first indication information may be carried in the PDCP data PDU and sent to the decompression side device, or may be sent to the decompression side device through other signaling except for the PDCP data PDU.

Optionally, the compression side device sends the ethernet frame and the first indication information to the decompression side device, including: the compression side device transmits a PDCP data PDU including the ethernet frame and the first indication information to the decompression side device.

For example, when the first indication information is carried in PDCP data PDU and transmitted to the decompression side device, there may be the following ways of indication.

Mode one

An indication field E field may be introduced in the PDCP header, indicating whether the CID field and the F field are included in the following sequence through the E field. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a PDCP header according to an embodiment of the present application. Taking the PDCP SN length of 12 bits as an example, the E field may be 1 bit in length. When the value of E is 1, it indicates that the data packet includes a CID field and an F field, and fig. 7 shows another schematic diagram of the PDCP data PDU provided by the embodiment of the present application.

For example, when the decompression side device receives the PDCP data PDU and finds that the value of the E field is 1, it can determine that the PDCP data PDU carries a CID field and an F field, and parse the data packet. For example, when the F field in the ethernet header compression header indicates that the ethernet header includes a complete ethernet header, the decompression side device may generate corresponding context information based on the value of the field to be compressed in the ethernet header, and send feedback information to the compression side device; if the F field indicates that the compressed Ethernet frame header is contained, the decompression side device can reconstruct the original Ethernet frame based on context information stored or maintained by the CID and the decompression side.

For example, when the decompression side device receives the PDCP data PDU and finds that the value of the E field is 0, it may be determined that the PDCP data PDU does not carry the CID field and the F field, where a format schematic diagram of the PDCP data PDU may be shown in fig. 8. Included after the SDAP header is the original Ethernet frame, i.e., the original complete frame header when the Ethernet frame header; when the decompression side device discovers that the E field value is 0 after receiving the PDCP data PDU, the context information maintained by the decompression side does not need to be established or updated.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, if the context information corresponding to the CID is not stored or maintained by the decompression side device, the context information carried by the PDCP data PDU may be stored, i.e. the context information corresponding to the CID is established; if the decompression side device stores context information corresponding to the CID, but the context information carried in the received PDCP data PDU is inconsistent with the stored context information, the decompression side device may replace the previous context information with the newly received context information, that is, update the context information corresponding to the CID.

In fig. 6 to 8, the E field is 1 bit, occupying the first reserved bit (R bit) in the existing PDCP header. The specific length of the E field and the specific position in the PDCP header in the embodiment of the present application are not limited. For example, the E field is 1 bit, occupying the second or third R bit; or the E field may occupy 2 bits, such as the first and second R bits; or first and third R bits; or second and third R bits; alternatively, the E field may occupy 3 bits, etc. In addition, the number of bits occupied by the F field and the CID field, and the position in the PDCP data PDU are not particularly limited.

Mode two

In a similar manner to the first embodiment, an E field may be introduced in the EHC header, with the E field indicating whether the CID field and the F field are subsequently included.

Mode three

A G field is introduced in the PDCP header and the F and CID fields in the ethernet header compression header always exist.

The compression side device may indicate through the G field whether the decompression side device needs to parse the F field and the CID field. Fig. 9 is another schematic diagram of a PDCP data PDU according to an embodiment of the present application, where the PDCP SN length is 12 bits, and the G field may be 1 bit.

For example, when the value of G is 0, it indicates that the decompression side device does not need to parse the F field and the CID field, and the complete ethernet header is carried subsequently, and the decompression side device does not need to establish or update context information; when the value of G is 1, indicating that the decompression side device needs to parse the F field and the CID field, for example, when the F field in the header of the ethernet frame indicates that the header of the ethernet frame contains a complete header of the ethernet frame, the decompression side device may generate corresponding context information based on the CID and the value of the field to be compressed in the header of the complete ethernet frame, and send feedback information to the compression side device; if the F field in the Ethernet header compression header indicates that the compressed Ethernet header is contained, the decompression side can reconstruct the original Ethernet frame based on the context ID and the context information stored/maintained by the decompression side.

In the PDCP data PDU shown in fig. 9, the G field is 1 bit, occupies the first reserved bit (R bit) in the present PDCP header, is not limited to a specific length of the G field, and a specific position in the PDCP header, for example, the G field is 1 bit, and may occupy the second or third R bit; or the G field may occupy 2 bits, occupying first and second R bits; alternatively, the first and third R bits are occupied; alternatively, the second and third R bits are occupied; alternatively, the G field may occupy 3 bits, etc. In addition, the number of bits occupied by the F field and the CID field, and the position in the PDCP data PDU are not limited.

Mode four

Similar to the third mode, one G field may be introduced in the ethernet header compression header, and the F field and CID are always present in the ethernet header compression header. The compression side device indicates, through the G field, whether the decompression side device needs to parse the F field and the context ID field, and fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of an ethernet header compression header provided in the embodiment of the present application.

Another implementation of the fourth mode is to introduce a G field in the ethernet header compression header, and the F field and CID in the EHC header are always present. When the F field indicates that the complete ethernet header is carried, the decompression side device indicates, according to the G field, whether the decompression side device needs to establish or update context information based on the CID and information carried by the ethernet header, for example, the G field may be 1-bit length. Illustratively, a value of 1 indicates that context information needs to be established or updated; a value of 0 means that context information does not need to be established/updated. When the F field indicates that the compressed ethernet frame is carried, the decompressing side device ignores the value of the G field, reconstructs the ethernet header based on the CID and the maintained context information, and fig. 11 shows another schematic diagram of the ethernet header compression header provided by the embodiment of the present application.

Mode five

The F field in the ethernet header compression header not only indicates whether the whole ethernet header or the compressed ethernet header is carried later, but also indicates whether context information is carried or whether the decompression side needs to establish or update the context information. Fig. 12 shows another schematic diagram of an ethernet header compression header provided by an embodiment of the present application, where the F field may be 2 bits in length. By way of example, various meanings shown in table 1 below are indicated by specific values.

TABLE 1

When the decompression side device receives the data packet, a corresponding action can be executed according to the value of the F field, for example, when the value of the F field is 10, the data packet carries a compressed Ethernet frame, and the decompression side device needs to reconstruct the original Ethernet frame according to context ID and context information stored/maintained by the decompression side device; if the value of the F field is 00, the data packet carries an original Ethernet frame, and the decompression side device does not need to establish or update context information according to the context ID; if the value of the F field is 01, it indicates that the data packet carries an original ethernet frame, and the decompression side device needs to establish or update context information according to the context ID. Table 1 indicates that an implementation manner of the corresponding relation between the value of the F field and the representation meaning may have different implementation manners in practical application, for example, another implementation manner is that the F field is 2 bits long, where the value of 11 indicates that a complete ethernet frame needs to be built/updated context information, 10 indicates that a complete ethernet frame needs to be built/updated context information, 01 indicates that a compressed ethernet frame header, and 00 indicates that reservation is required.

Mode six

The compressed header of the Ethernet frame indicates whether the decompression side device needs to establish or update context information through the CID field.

For example, the compression side device indicates, through a reserved value of CID, such as a value of all 0 or all 1, that the current PDCP data PDU of the decompression side device does not contain context information, and the original complete ethernet frame is carried in the PDCP data PDU, so that the decompression side device does not need to establish or update context information based on the context ID and the ethernet header content. Accordingly, the F field may indicate a full ethernet header, or a compressed ethernet header. At this time, when the decompression side device reads that the CID is the reserved value, it can be determined that the complete ethernet frame is carried subsequently, and no ethernet header decompression operation is required, or context information operation is established or updated.

Another implementation of the sixth mode is that the F field indicates a compressed ethernet header, but the CID field is one CID value that has not been used by the compression side device or a CID value that is not associated with one piece of context information. At this time, when the decompression side device reads that the F indication is the compressed ethernet frame header, but the context information corresponding to the CID is not found, it is determined that the complete ethernet frame is carried subsequently, and no ethernet header decompression operation is required, or context information establishment/update operation is required.

In the above-described modes, the compression-side apparatus may instruct the decompression-side apparatus whether the ethernet frame needs EHC processing or whether the ethernet frame has been processed or compressed using the EHC module/EHC protocol, through the above-described first instruction information. If the first indication information indicates that the ethernet frame does not need EHC processing or the ethernet frame is not processed by using an EHC module/EHC protocol, the decompression side device determines that the ethernet frame is carried subsequently, does not need to perform an ethernet header decompression operation or establish/update context information operation.

S531, when the first indication information indicates to establish or update the context information, the decompression side device establishes or updates the context information of the decompression side according to the ethernet frame.

Optionally, the decompression side device establishes or updates the context information according to the CID and the value of the field to be compressed in the ethernet header.

S532, when the first indication information indicates that the context information is not established or updated, the decompression side device does not establish or update the context information of the decompression side according to the ethernet frame.

Optionally, when the first indication information indicates that the context information is established or updated, the method 500 further includes:

After the context information is established or updated, the decompression side device sends feedback information to the compression side device, wherein the feedback information is used for indicating that the context information of the decompression side device is established or updated.

Specifically, the feedback information may indicate that the context information corresponding to the CID in the decompression side device has been established or updated.

In the embodiment of the application, the compression side device indicates whether the transmitted data packet carries context information or whether the decompression side device needs to establish or update the context information to the decompression side device, the compression side device can support the transmission of multiple Ethernet frame formats, and for the Ethernet frame formats which cannot be compressed, the compression side device can directly transmit the original Ethernet frame to the target side and indicate that the compression side device does not carry the context information or does not establish or update the context information, so that the understanding error of the decompression side device is avoided, and the EHC function error is caused.

And if the compression side device does not establish the context information for the Ethernet frame supported by the EHC, the compression side device sends the context information to the decompression side device, and compression operation is performed after receiving the feedback information, and the decompression side device feeds back after receiving the context information for indicating to establish or update a certain CID, so that the cost of feedback signaling is brought.

The embodiment of the application provides a method for transmitting information, which is characterized in that a timer is introduced into a decompression side device to limit the feedback information to be transmitted once within the time length of the timer, or a counter is introduced into the decompression side device to limit the feedback information to be transmitted only a few times in a plurality of received data packets, so that the feedback signaling overhead and the occupation of resources are reduced.

Fig. 13 shows a schematic flow chart of a method 600 for transmitting information provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method 600 may be used in the system architecture shown in fig. 2, where the method 600 includes:

s610, the compression side device sends the first ethernet frame and the first CID to the decompression side device, and the decompression side device receives the first ethernet frame and the first CID sent by the compression side device.

It should be appreciated that the manner in which the compression side device transmits the first ethernet frame and the first CID to the decompression side device may refer to the description in the method 500 above, and for brevity, will not be described herein.

And S620, the decompression side device establishes or updates the context information corresponding to the first CID according to the first Ethernet frame.

Optionally, the compression side device further sends first indication information to the decompression side device, and the decompression side device receives the first indication information sent by the compression side device, where the first indication information is used to instruct the decompression side device to establish or update context information of the decompression side device.

And S630, the decompression side device sends first feedback information to the compression side device and starts a first timer, wherein the first feedback information is used for indicating that the context information is established or updated, and during the operation of the first timer, the decompression side device does not feed back the received second Ethernet frame, and an Ethernet frame header compression header of the second Ethernet frame comprises the first CID.

Fig. 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating limiting, by a timer, the feedback number of times of feedback information by a decompression side device according to an embodiment of the present application.

The decompression side equipment receives PDCP data PDU 1, wherein context information (such as CID=1) is carried, the context information is established or updated by the decompression side equipment is indicated by carrying indication information, and if the context information corresponding to the CID=1 is not stored by the decompression side equipment, the context information corresponding to the CID=1 is stored by the decompression side equipment; the decompression side device sends feedback information for cid=1 and starts a first timer corresponding to cid=1 or the piece of context information.

The decompression side device receives PDCP data PDU 2 and PDCP data PDU 3, wherein context information is carried (for example, cid=1), and instructs the decompression side device to establish or update the context information, and the decompression side device stores the context information corresponding to the cid=1. If the first timer corresponding to the CID or the context information is running, the decompression side device does not send feedback information.

The decompression side device receives PDCP data PDU 4, wherein context information (such as cid=1) is carried, and instructs the decompression side device to establish or/and update the context information, and if the context information corresponding to cid=1 stored in the decompression side device is different from the information indicated by the data packet, the decompression side device may replace the context information corresponding to cid=1 stored before with the context information carried in PDCP data PDU 4; after the decompression side device sends the feedback signaling for cid=1, a timer corresponding to cid=1 or the piece of context information is started/restarted. In this case, another way to operate the timer is that when the decompression side device covers the previous context information with the new context information, if the timer corresponding to cid=1 or context information is running, the timer is stopped or reset, and after the decompression side device sends the feedback information, the first timer corresponding to cid=1 or context information may be started.

Or, the decompression side device receives PDCP data PDU 4, which carries context information (e.g., cid=1), and instructs the decompression side device to establish or/and update the context information, and if the context information corresponding to cid=1 and the information indicated by the data packet stored by the decompression side device are the same, but the timer has timed out when PDCP data PDU 4 is received, the decompression side device may send feedback information to the compression side device and restart the first timer.

In the above process, the decompression side device maintains a timer for each CID or each context information. The other way is that the decompression side device only maintains one timer, and as long as the decompression side device sends the feedback signaling aiming at a certain CID, the timer is started, and when the timer runs, the decompression side device can not send the feedback signaling aiming at any CID.

Another implementation of this embodiment is to implement the function of the timer described above by introducing a counter (count). The network side may configure the maximum count value max_count of the counter. When the decompression side device receives the PDCP data PDU sent by the compression side and includes context information, and the decompression side device does not store the corresponding context information, the decompression side device stores the context information (for example, cid=1), and sets count=1 for the CID. When count is less than N, the decompression side device receives context information carried in the PDCP data packet and sends feedback signaling; when count is more than or equal to N, the decompression side device does not send feedback signaling when receiving context information carried in PDCP data PDU. And when the decompression side equipment receives PDCP data PDU once, the context information carried in the PDCP data PDU is the same as the context information which is stored by the decompression side equipment and corresponds to CID=1, the count value is updated to be the original count value modulo max_count plus 1.

Fig. 15 is a schematic diagram showing that the decompression side device limits the feedback times of the feedback information through a timer in the embodiment of the present application.

Let max_count=2, n=1. The decompression side equipment receives context information with CID=1 carried by PDCP data PDU 1, and if the context information is not stored, the count=1 is set, and a feedback signaling is sent; after receiving PDCP data PDU2 and PDCP data PDU 3, the decompression side device does not send feedback information, and the count value is updated to 2 and 1 respectively; after receiving PDCP data PDU 4, the decompression side may send feedback information again.

In the above procedure, the decompression side device maintains a counter for each CID or each context information. The other way is that the decompression side device only maintains one counter, and limits that at most N feedback signaling is sent for every max_count+1 PDCP data packets carrying context information are received.

It should be appreciated that the method 600 described above may also be combined with the method 500 described above.

In the embodiment of the application, the timer is introduced into the decompression side equipment, so that the feedback information is limited to be sent once within the time length of the timer; or introducing a counter into the decompression side device, and limiting the received multiple data packets to only send a few feedback information times, thereby reducing the feedback information cost and the occupation of resources.

In order to avoid that the compression side device frequently sends data packets with context information, which causes the decompression side device to send more feedback signaling, a timer can be introduced into the compression side device to limit the number of context information carried in the data packets sent in a period of time.

Fig. 16 shows a schematic flow chart of a method 700 for transmitting information according to an embodiment of the present application. The method 700 may be used in the system architecture shown in fig. 2, the method 700 including:

s710, sending the first Ethernet frame and the first CID to the decompression side device and starting a first timer.

S720, during the operation period of the first timer, sending a second Ethernet frame and first indication information to the decompression side device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the decompression side device does not establish or update the context information, and an Ethernet frame header compression head of the second Ethernet frame comprises the first CID.

For example, when a new ethernet frame packet arrives at the compression side device, it is found that the EHC supports the ethernet frame format for compression, but no context information available for compression is established, a new context information may be established, and a new CID may be allocated to the context, for example, cid=1. When the compression side device sends the PDCP packet composed of the ethernet frame, context information may be carried in the packet, and the decompression side device may be instructed to establish or update the context information in the manner in the method 500, and at the same time, the compression side device may start a timer corresponding to cid=1 or the context information.

When a new ethernet packet arrives, the compression side device finds that the EHC supports the ethernet frame format for compression, and has established context information available for compression, such as corresponding cid=1, but that context cannot be used for ethernet header compression (e.g. feedback information for cid=1 or that context information has not been received by the decompression side device). If the context information or the timer corresponding to cid=1 is in an operation state, when the compression side device sends the context information or the timer corresponding to cid=1 to the PDCP packet assembled by the ethernet frame, the decompression side device is instructed not to establish or not to update the context information in the manner of the method 500; if the context information or the timer corresponding to cid=1 is not in an operation state, for example, the timer has timed out or stopped, when the compression side device sends the PDCP packet composed of the ethernet frame, the context information may be carried in the packet, and the timer corresponding to cid=1 or the context information may be started or restarted.

When a new ethernet frame packet arrives, the compression side device finds that the EHC supports the ethernet frame format for compression, but does not establish context information available for compression, then a new context information may be established, and a used CID is associated with the new context information (i.e. a CID to which context information has been previously associated, e.g. the compression side device has established a lot of context information, all available CIDs have been exhausted, at which time the compression side device may replace a previously established piece of context information with the new context information, i.e. an used CID is associated with the newly established piece of context information). If the timer corresponding to the CID or the context information is not running, the compression side device can carry context information in the data packet and start a timer corresponding to the CID or the context information when sending the PDCP data packet composed of the Ethernet frames; if the timer corresponding to the CID or the context information is running, the compression side device can carry the context information in the data packet and start/restart the corresponding timer when sending the PDCP data packet composed of the Ethernet frames. In this case, another way to operate the timer is that when the compression side device covers the previous context information with the new context information, if the CID or the timer corresponding to the context information is running, the timer is stopped or reset, and after the compression side device sends the PDCP packet carrying the context information, the timer corresponding to the CID or the context information may be started.

When receiving a feedback signaling for a CID or context information sent by a decompression side, the compression side device can determine that the context information is available, and if a timer corresponding to the CID or context information is running, the timer can be stopped/reset; or the compression side device may ignore the running state of the timer and not actively stop/reset the timer. When a new ethernet frame packet with the ethernet frame header matched with the context information arrives, the compression side device can compress the ethernet frame header by using the context information and send the compressed ethernet frame.

The above-described process is described below with reference to fig. 17. The compression side device has new Ethernet data stream arrival and does not establish matched context information, establishes a new context and distributes CID; when the compression side equipment sends PDCP data PDU 1, carrying context information and indicating that the decompression side equipment can establish or update the context information, and starting a timer corresponding to the allocated CID; the PDCP data PDU 2 and PDCP data PDU 3, which are transmitted when the timer runs, do not carry context information in the data packet, or instruct the decompression side device to not establish or update the context information. When the timer is overtime, the compression side equipment does not receive the feedback signaling corresponding to the CID sent by the decompression side yet, and the context information is not validated yet; at this time, when the compression side device sends PDCP data PDU 4, the compression side device carries context information and instructs the decompression side to establish or update the context information, and start/restart a corresponding timer. After receiving the feedback signaling corresponding to the CID by the decompression side, the compression side device determines that context information corresponding to the CID is effective, and if a timer corresponding to the CID is running, the compression side device can stop the timer. When the compression side device transmits PDCP data PDU 5, EHC compression can be performed using the context information.

In the above embodiment, a context information is exemplified. The context information carried by PDCP data PDU 4 is the same as PDCP data PDU 1. When PDCP data PDU 4 is transmitted, the context information cannot be used for compression processing because it has not yet received feedback from the decompression side. Meanwhile, if the timer corresponding to the context information is not running or has timed out, the unacknowledged context information can be sent again in the PDCP data PDU 4, so as to prevent the decompression side device from failing to receive the PDCP data PDU 1 or the feedback information (feedback) sent by the decompression side device from losing packets.

A context information corresponds to a specific value of a field to be compressed, and any data packet whose value of the field to be compressed matches the context information can be considered as a data packet in the same data stream. The ethernet frames with different values of the field to be compressed belong to different ethernet data streams and correspond to different context information. In the above embodiment, the data packets of the same data stream are exemplified, that is, context information corresponding to PDCP data PDUs 1 to 5 in fig. 17 is the same. The transmission of one data stream corresponds to the process described in one embodiment, with different data streams being transmitted corresponding to different parallel processes.

In addition to the CID, the feedback signaling sent by the decompression side device may also carry other content, for example, include specific context information corresponding to the CID, that is, a specific value of a field to be compressed, and so on. After receiving the feedback signaling, the compression side device judges that context information contained in the feedback signaling is consistent with context information corresponding to the CID maintained by the compression side device, and considers that the context information is successfully confirmed by the decompression side, so that the compression side device can be used for EHC compression.

In the above process, the compression side device maintains a timer for each CID or each context information, and there may be a problem of excessive maintenance of the timer. The other way is that the compression side device only maintains a timer, and as long as the compression side device carries a certain context information in the data packet and instructs the decompression side device to establish or update the context information, the timer is started, and when the timer runs, the compression side device can not send the data packet carrying any context or carrying the instruction information instructing the decompression side device to establish or update any context information.

Another implementation of this embodiment is to implement the function of the timer described above by introducing a counter (count). The network side may configure the maximum count value max_count of the counter. When a new ethernet stream arrives and finds that the EHC supports the ethernet frame format for compression, but no context information is established that is available for compression, a new context information may be established and a new CID is allocated for the context, e.g. cid=1, and count=0 is set for the CID. When the count is less than N, the compression side equipment can carry context information in the PDCP data packet, and when the count is more than or equal to N, the compression side equipment does not carry context information in the PDCP data packet. And when the compression side equipment transmits the PDCP data packet once, the Ethernet frame header contained in the PDCP data packet is matched with context information corresponding to CID=1, the count value is accumulated by 1 and the max_count is modulo.

Fig. 18 is a schematic diagram showing that the compression side apparatus limits the feedback number of times of the feedback information by the timer in the embodiment of the present application.

Let max_count=2, n=1. The compression side equipment receives a new Ethernet data stream, if no context is matched, context information is established, CID is allocated, and count=0 is set; the PDCP data PDU 1 is sent to carry context information, the count value is updated to be 1, and the PDCP data PDU 2 and the PDCP data PDU 3 which are sent after that can not carry the context information any more, and the count value is respectively updated to be 2 and 0; the compression side device may carry context information again when transmitting PDCP data PDU 4.

In the above procedure, the compression side device maintains a counter for each CID or each context information. The other way is that the compression side device only maintains one counter, and only N data packets in each max_count packet are limited to carry any context information.

It should be appreciated that the method 700 described above may be combined with the method 500 described above.

In the embodiment of the application, the timer is introduced into the compression side equipment to limit the transmission of context information once within the time length of the timer, so that the decompression side equipment only triggers the transmission of feedback signaling once, or the counter is introduced into the compression side equipment to limit the transmission of context information of only a few packets in a plurality of data packets, so that the decompression side equipment cannot transmit feedback signaling for each received data packet, and the cost of EHC feedback signaling and the occupation of air interface resources can be reduced.

The embodiment of the present application also provides an apparatus for implementing any one of the above methods, for example, an apparatus is provided that includes a unit (or means) configured to implement each step performed by the decompression side device in any one of the above methods. As another example, another apparatus is provided that includes means (or means) for implementing the steps performed by the compression-side device in any of the above methods.

For example, please refer to fig. 19, which is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for transmitting information according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus is used for a decompression side device, and as shown in fig. 19, the apparatus 1900 includes a receiving unit 1910 and a context information processing unit 1920. Wherein the receiving unit 1910 is configured to use an ethernet frame from a compression side device and first indication information indicating whether to establish or update context information of a decompression side; the context information processing unit 1920 is configured to, when the first indication information indicates to establish or update context information, establish or update context information on the decompression side according to the ethernet frame; or when the first indication information indicates that the context information is not established or updated, the context information of the decompression side device is not established or updated according to the ethernet frame.

The apparatus 1900 may further include a transmitting unit 1930, where the transmitting unit 1930 is configured to not feed back to the compression-side device when the first indication information indicates that the context information is not established or updated.

For example, please refer to fig. 20, which is a schematic diagram of another apparatus for transmitting information according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus is used for a decompression side device, and as shown in fig. 20, the apparatus 2000 includes a receiving unit 2010, a context information processing unit 2020, a transmitting unit 2030, and a timer starting unit 2040. Wherein the receiving unit 2010 is configured to receive the first ethernet frame and the first CID from the compression-side device; the context information processing unit 2020 is configured to establish or update context information corresponding to the first CID according to the first ethernet frame; the transmitting unit 2030 is configured to transmit first feedback information to the compression-side apparatus, the first feedback information being used to indicate that the context information has been established or updated, and to start a first timer; the timer starting unit 2040 is further configured to start a first timer, and during the operation period of the first timer, the sending unit 2030 does not feed back the received second ethernet frame any more, and the ethernet header compression header of the second ethernet frame includes the first CID.

The receiving unit 2010 is further configured to receive the third ethernet frame and the first CID from the compression-side device; the context information processing unit 2020 is further configured to update context information corresponding to the first CID according to the third ethernet frame; the sending unit 2030 is further configured to send second feedback information to the compression side device, where the second feedback information is used to indicate that the context information corresponding to the first CID has been updated; the timer starting unit 2040 is also used to restart the first timer.

For example, please refer to fig. 21, which is a schematic diagram of another apparatus for transmitting information according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus is used for a compression-side device, and as shown in fig. 21, the apparatus 2100 includes an acquisition unit 2110 and a transmission unit 2120. Wherein the acquisition unit 2110 is used for acquiring an ethernet frame; the transmitting unit 2120 is configured to transmit an ethernet frame and first indication information to the decompression side device, the first indication information being configured to indicate whether to establish or update context information on the decompression side.

The apparatus further includes a receiving unit 2130 for receiving feedback information transmitted by the decompression side when the first indication information indicates that the context information of the decompression side is established or updated.

For example, please refer to fig. 22, which is a schematic diagram of another apparatus for transmitting information according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus is used for a compression-side device, and as shown in fig. 22, the apparatus 2200 includes an acquisition unit 2210, a transmission unit 2220, and a timer starting unit 2230. Wherein the acquiring unit 2210 is used for acquiring a first ethernet frame; the transmitting unit 2220 is configured to transmit the first ethernet frame and the first context information identification CID to the decompression side device; the timer starting unit 2230 is further configured to start a first timer; the sending unit is further configured to send, during operation of the first timer, a second ethernet frame and first indication information to the decompression side device, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the decompression side device does not establish or update the context information, and an ethernet header compression header of the second ethernet frame includes the first CID.

The apparatus 2200 further comprises a context information processing unit 2240 configured to update context information corresponding to the first CID according to the third ethernet frame; the transmitting unit 2220 is further configured to transmit the third ethernet frame and the first CID to the decompression side device; the timer starting unit 2240 is also used to restart the first timer.

The sending unit 2220 is further configured to send a fourth ethernet frame and a second CID to the decompression side device, where the second CID is different from the first CID; the timer starting unit 2240 is further configured to start a second timer; the sending unit 2220 is further configured to send, during the second timer running period, a fifth ethernet frame and second indication information to the decompression side device, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the decompression side device does not establish or update the context information, and an ethernet header compression header of the fifth ethernet frame includes the second CID.

It should be understood that the division of the units in the above apparatus is merely a division of a logic function, and may be fully or partially integrated into a physical entity or may be physically separated when actually implemented. And the units in the device can be all realized in the form of software calls through the processing element; or can be realized in hardware; it is also possible that part of the units are implemented in the form of software, which is called by the processing element, and part of the units are implemented in the form of hardware. For example, each unit may be a processing element that is set up separately, may be implemented as integrated in a certain chip of the apparatus, or may be stored in a memory in the form of a program, and the functions of the unit may be called and executed by a certain processing element of the apparatus. Furthermore, all or part of these units may be integrated together or may be implemented independently. The processing element described herein may in turn be a processor, which may be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, each step of the above method or each unit above may be implemented by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor element or in the form of software called by a processing element.

In one example, the unit in any of the above apparatuses may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, for example: one or more specific integrated circuits (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), or one or more microprocessors (digital singnal processor, DSP), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA), or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. For another example, when the units in the apparatus may be implemented in the form of a scheduler of processing elements, the processing elements may be general-purpose processors, such as a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU) or other processor that may invoke the program. For another example, the units may be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

The above unit for receiving (e.g. a receiving unit or a communication unit) is an interface circuit of the device for receiving signals from other devices. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the receiving unit is an interface circuit of the chip for receiving signals from other chips or devices. The above unit for transmitting (e.g., a transmitting unit or a communication unit) is an interface circuit of the apparatus for transmitting signals to other apparatuses. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the transmitting unit is an interface circuit of the chip for transmitting signals to other chips or devices.

Fig. 23 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present application. The access network device is used to implement the operations of the compression side device or the decompression side device in the above embodiments. As shown in fig. 23, the access network device includes: antenna 2310, radio 2320, baseband 2330. The antenna 2310 is coupled to a radio 2320. In the uplink direction, the radio frequency device 2320 receives information transmitted by the terminal device through the antenna 2310, and transmits information transmitted by the terminal device to the baseband device 2330 for processing. In the downlink direction, the baseband device 2330 processes information of the terminal device and transmits the processed information to the radio frequency device 2320, and the radio frequency device 2320 processes information of the terminal device and transmits the processed information to the terminal device through the antenna 2310.

Baseband device 2330 may include one or more processing elements 2331, including, for example, a master CPU and other integrated circuits. In addition, the baseband device 2330 may further include a storage element 2332 and an interface 23933, the storage element 2332 being used to store programs and data; the interface 2333 is used to interact with the radio frequency device 2320, such as a common public radio interface (common public radio interface, CPRI). The above means for access network equipment may be located at baseband means 2330, e.g., the above means for access network equipment may be a chip on baseband means 2330 comprising at least one processing element for performing the steps of any of the methods performed by the above access network equipment and interface circuitry for communicating with other means. In one implementation, the units of the access network device implementing the steps in the above method may be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler, for example, the apparatus for the access network device includes a processing element and a storage element, where the processing element invokes the program stored in the storage element to perform the method performed by the access network device in the above method embodiment. The memory elements may be memory elements on the same chip as the processing elements, i.e., on-chip memory elements, or may be memory elements on a different chip than the processing elements, i.e., off-chip memory elements.

In another implementation, the unit of the access network device implementing each step in the above method may be configured as one or more processing elements, where the processing elements are disposed on the baseband device, and the processing elements may be integrated circuits, for example: one or more ASICs, or one or more DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, or a combination of these types of integrated circuits. These integrated circuits may be integrated together to form a chip.

The units of the access network device implementing the steps of the above method may be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC), e.g. the baseband device comprises the SOC chip for implementing the above method. At least one processing element and a storage element can be integrated in the chip, and the processing element invokes the stored program of the storage element to implement the method executed by the access network device; alternatively, at least one integrated circuit may be integrated within the chip for implementing the method performed by the above access network device; alternatively, the functions of the partial units may be implemented in the form of a processing element calling program, and the functions of the partial units may be implemented in the form of an integrated circuit, in combination with the above implementations.

It will be seen that the above apparatus for an access network device may comprise at least one processing element and interface circuitry, wherein the at least one processing element is adapted to perform a method performed by any of the access network devices provided by the above method embodiments. The processing element may be configured in a first manner: that is, the method of calling the program stored in the storage element executes part or all of the steps executed by the access network device; the second way is also possible: i.e. by means of integrated logic circuitry of hardware in the processor element in combination with instructions to perform part or all of the steps performed by the access network device; of course, it is also possible to perform part or all of the steps performed by the access network device above in combination with the first and second modes.

The processing element herein, as described above, may be a general purpose processor, such as a CPU, or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, such as: one or more ASICs, or one or more microprocessor DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. The memory element may be one memory or may be a collective term for a plurality of memory elements.

Fig. 24 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the application. The terminal device is used to realize the operation of the compression-side apparatus or decompression-side apparatus in the above embodiments. As shown in fig. 24, the terminal device includes: an antenna 2410, a radio frequency part 2420, a signal processing part 2430. The antenna 2410 is connected to a radio frequency portion 2420. In the downlink direction, the radio frequency part 2420 receives information transmitted from the access network device through the antenna 2410, and transmits the information transmitted from the access network device to the signal processing part 2430 for processing. In the uplink direction, the signal processing section 2430 processes information of the terminal apparatus and transmits the processed information to the radio frequency section 2420, and the radio frequency section 2420 processes information of the terminal apparatus and transmits the processed information to the access network device through the antenna 2410.

The signal processing section 2430 is configured to implement processing of each communication protocol layer of data. The signal processing portion 2430 may be a subsystem of the terminal device, and the terminal device may further include other subsystems, such as a central processing subsystem, for implementing processing of the operating system and application layers of the terminal device; for another example, the peripheral subsystem may be used to implement connections with other devices. The signal processing section 2430 may be a separately provided chip. Alternatively, the above means may be located in the signal processing section 2430.

The signal processing portion 2430 can include one or more processing elements 2431, including, for example, a master CPU and other integrated circuits. In addition, the signal processing portion 2430 can also include a storage element 2432 and an interface circuit 2433. The storage 2432 is configured to store data and a program, and the program for executing the method executed by the terminal apparatus in the above method may or may not be stored in the storage 2432, for example, in a memory other than the signal processing section 2430, and the signal processing section 2430 loads the program into a cache for use in use. Interface circuit 2433 is used to communicate with a device. The above means may be located in a signal processing section 2430, which signal processing section 2430 may be implemented by a chip comprising at least one processing element for performing the steps of any of the methods performed by the above terminal means and interface circuitry for communicating with other means. In one implementation, the units implementing the steps in the above method may be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler, for example, the apparatus includes a processing element and a storage element, and the processing element invokes the program stored in the storage element to perform the method performed by the terminal apparatus in the above method embodiment. The memory element may be a memory element where the processing element is on the same chip, i.e. an on-chip memory element.

In another implementation, the program for executing the method executed by the terminal device in the above method may be a storage element on a different chip from the processing element, i.e. an off-chip storage element. At this time, the processing element calls or loads a program from the off-chip storage element on the on-chip storage element to call and execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

In yet another implementation, the unit of the terminal device implementing the steps of the above method may be configured as one or more processing elements, which are disposed on the signal processing portion 2430, where the processing elements may be integrated circuits, for example: one or more ASICs, or one or more DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, or a combination of these types of integrated circuits. These integrated circuits may be integrated together to form a chip.

The units implementing the steps in the above method may be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC) chip for implementing the above method. At least one processing element and a storage element can be integrated in the chip, and the processing element invokes the stored program of the storage element to implement the method executed by the terminal device; alternatively, at least one integrated circuit may be integrated within the chip for implementing the method performed by the above terminal device; alternatively, the functions of the partial units may be implemented in the form of a processing element calling program, and the functions of the partial units may be implemented in the form of an integrated circuit, in combination with the above implementations.

It will be seen that the above apparatus may comprise at least one processing element and interface circuitry, wherein the at least one processing element is adapted to perform a method performed by any of the compression side devices or decompression side devices provided by the above method embodiments. The processing element may be configured in a first manner: that is, a part or all of the steps executed by the compression-side device or the decompression-side device are executed by calling the program stored in the storage element; the second way is also possible: i.e. by means of integrated logic circuitry of hardware in the processor element in combination with instructions to perform part or all of the steps performed by the compression-side device or the decompression-side device; of course, part or all of the steps performed by the compression-side apparatus or the decompression-side apparatus may be performed in combination of the first and second modes.

Fig. 25 is a schematic structural diagram of a core network device according to an embodiment of the present application, which is used to implement the operation of the compression side device or the decompression side device in the above embodiment. As shown in fig. 25, the core network device includes: processor 2510, memory 2520, and interface 2530, processor 2510, memory 2520, and interface 2530 are in signal connection.

The method performed by the compression-side apparatus or the decompression-side apparatus in the above embodiment can be implemented by the processor 2510 calling a program stored in the memory 2520. That is, the device for compression side or decompression side includes a memory for storing a program that is called by the processor to execute the method executed by the device for compression side or decompression side in the above method embodiment. The processor here may be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities, such as a CPU. The apparatus for a core network device may be implemented by one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above method. For example: one or more ASICs, or one or more microprocessor DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. Alternatively, the above implementations may be combined.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the 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.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting information, comprising:

receiving a first ethernet frame and a first context information identification CID from a compression side device;

establishing or updating context information corresponding to the first CID according to the first Ethernet frame;

sending first feedback information to the compression side equipment and starting a first timer, wherein the first feedback information is used for indicating that the context information is established or updated;

and during the operation period of the first timer, no feedback is carried out on the received second Ethernet frame, and an Ethernet frame header compression head of the second Ethernet frame comprises the first CID.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a third ethernet frame and the first CID from the compression side device;

Updating the context information corresponding to the first CID according to the third Ethernet frame;

and sending second feedback information to the compression side equipment and restarting the first timer, wherein the second feedback information is used for indicating that the context information corresponding to the first CID is updated.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the method further comprises:

receiving a fourth ethernet frame and a second CID from the compression-side device, the second CID being different from the first CID;

establishing or updating context information corresponding to the second CID according to the fourth Ethernet frame;

transmitting third feedback information to the compression side device and starting a second timer, the third feedback information being used to indicate that the context information corresponding to the second CID has been established or updated,

and during the operation period of the second timer, no feedback is performed on the received fifth Ethernet frame, and an Ethernet frame header compression head of the fifth Ethernet frame comprises the second CID.

4. A method of transmitting information, comprising:

transmitting a first Ethernet frame and a first context information identification CID to decompression side equipment and starting a first timer;

And in the operation period of the first timer, sending a second Ethernet frame and first indication information to the decompression side device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the decompression side device does not establish or update the context information, and an Ethernet frame header compression head of the second Ethernet frame comprises the first CID.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

updating the context information corresponding to the first CID according to a third Ethernet frame;

and sending a third Ethernet frame and the first CID to the decompression side device and restarting the first timer.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the method further comprises:

transmitting a fourth ethernet frame and a second CID to the decompression side device and starting a second timer, the second CID being different from the first CID;

and in the operation period of the second timer, sending a fifth Ethernet frame and second indication information to the decompression side device, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating that the decompression side device does not establish or update the context information, and an Ethernet frame header compression head of the fifth Ethernet frame comprises the second CID.

7. An apparatus for transmitting information, comprising: a unit for performing the steps of any one of claims 1 to 3.

8. An apparatus for transmitting information, comprising: a processor for invoking a program in memory to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 3.

9. An apparatus for transmitting information, comprising: a processor for communicating with other devices and an interface circuit for performing the method of any of claims 1 to 3.

10. An apparatus for transmitting information, comprising: a unit for performing the steps of any of claims 4 to 6.

11. An apparatus for transmitting information, comprising: a processor for invoking a program in memory to perform the method of any of claims 4 to 6.

12. An apparatus for transmitting information, comprising: a processor for communicating with other devices and interface circuitry for performing the method of any of claims 4 to 6.

13. A computer readable storage medium storing a program which, when called by a processor, is executed by the method of any one of claims 1 to 6.