CN114423052A

CN114423052A - Voice fallback method and related equipment

Info

Publication number: CN114423052A
Application number: CN202111630137.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 梁灏泉; 吕振华; 吴敏清; 李雪馨; 李文苡
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2021-12-28
Filing date: 2021-12-28
Publication date: 2022-04-29

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a voice falling method and related equipment, and relates to the technical field of computers. The method performed by the AMF network element comprises: acquiring a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE and position information of the UE, wherein the UE initiates or carries out a VoNR service in a non-roaming area; generating an RFSP index value of the voice fallback according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identification of the UE and the position information of the UE; and sending the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station accessed by the UE, so that the 5G base station informs the UE of initiating the EPS fallback. The method can avoid the problem of conflict between the cross-operator VoNR switching and the requirement of the home operator caused by the related roaming technical scheme, and can also ensure the continuity and the service experience of the voice service of the user.

Description

Voice fallback method and related equipment

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of computer technologies, and in particular, to a voice fallback method, an access and mobility management function network element, a 5G base station, an electronic device, and a computer-readable storage medium.

Background

For a demand scenario of heterogeneous roaming of a 5G independent networking (SA) core network, part of home operators require that 5G voice in a roaming area adopts an Evolved Packet System (EPS) fallback scheme, that is, when User Equipment (UE) initiates an IP multimedia Subsystem (IP multimedia Subsystem, IMS) call on a 5G network, the 5G voice falls back to 4G, and a voice service is implemented through a 4G network.

In the related roaming technical solution, if a home operator and a visited operator both enable new Voice over new radio (VoNR) over air in their own networks, during the process that the UE moves into a roaming area, a VoNR handover across operators occurs, which causes the VoNR service of the visited operator to be used in a visited place and conflicts with the requirements of the home operator. It is to be noted that the information disclosed in the above background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and thus may include information that does not constitute prior art known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a voice fallback method, an access and mobility management function network element, a 5G base station, electronic equipment and a computer readable storage medium, which can avoid the problem that cross-operator VoNR switching conflicts with the requirement of an attribution operator caused by a related roaming technical scheme and can also ensure the continuity and service experience of a user voice service. The technical scheme of the disclosure is as follows:

according to an aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a voice fallback method, executed by an access and mobility management function AMF network element, including: acquiring a mobility analysis result of User Equipment (UE), a voice stream identifier of the UE and position information of the UE, wherein the UE initiates or carries out a new air interface voice (VoNR) service in a non-roaming area; generating a radio access type/frequency selection priority RFSP index value of voice fallback according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identification of the UE and the position information of the UE; and sending the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station accessed by the UE, so that the 5G base station informs the UE of initiating an Evolved Packet System (EPS) fallback.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, generating a radio access type/frequency selection priority RFSP index value for voice fallback according to a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE includes: obtaining the confidence of the UE moving to a roaming area according to the mobility analysis result of the UE; generating an RFSP index value for the voice fallback if the following conditions are satisfied: the confidence degree of the UE moving to the roaming area is higher than a preset confidence degree threshold value, the voice service quality Qos flow identification which is initiated by the UE or has 5QI (quality of service) 1 is determined according to the voice flow identification of the UE, and the 5G tracking area of the UE reaching the roaming boundary area is determined according to the position information of the UE.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further comprises: configuring a 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary region.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining, according to the location information of the UE, a 5G tracking area where the UE reaches a roaming boundary region includes: and if the position information of the UE is in the coverage range of the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area, determining that the UE reaches the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, obtaining a mobility analysis result of a user equipment UE includes: subscribing the mobility analysis result of the UE to a network data analysis function NWDAF network element, and receiving the mobility analysis result of the UE sent by the NWDAF network element.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the 5G base station configures a priority list of an access type corresponding to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, where the priority list of the access type is that the priority of a 4G frequency point is higher than that of a 5G frequency point.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the notifying, by the 5G base station, the UE to initiate an evolved packet system EPS fallback includes: and the 5G base station sends the priority list of the access types to the UE so that the UE can select the wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access types, and then the UE is switched to a 4G base station to carry out voice VoLTE call carried through long term evolution.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a voice fallback method, performed by a 5G base station, including: receiving an RFSP index value of voice fallback sent by an AMF network element, wherein the RFSP index value of voice fallback is generated by the AMF network element according to a mobility analysis result of UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE and position information of the UE, and the UE initiates or is carrying out a VoNR service in a non-roaming area; and initiating EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further comprises: and configuring a priority list of access types corresponding to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, wherein the priority list of the access types is that the priority of a 4G frequency point is higher than that of a 5G frequency point.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, initiating an EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback includes: and sending the priority list of the access types to the UE so that the UE can select the wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access types, and then switching the UE to a 4G base station to carry out VoLTE conversation.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided an AMF network element, including: an obtaining module, configured to obtain a mobility analysis result of a UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, where the UE initiates or is performing a VoNR service in a non-roaming area; a generating module, configured to generate an RFSP-free index value of voice fallback according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identifier of the UE, and the location information of the UE; a sending module, configured to send the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station accessed by the UE, so that the 5G base station notifies the UE to initiate an EPS fallback.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the generating module is further configured to: obtaining the confidence of the UE moving to a roaming area according to the mobility analysis result of the UE; generating an RFSP index value for the voice fallback if the following conditions are satisfied: the confidence degree of the UE moving to the roaming area is higher than a preset confidence degree threshold value, the voice service quality Qos flow identification which is initiated by the UE or has 5QI (quality of service) 1 is determined according to the voice flow identification of the UE, and the 5G tracking area of the UE reaching the roaming boundary area is determined according to the position information of the UE.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the AMF network element further includes a first configuration module, configured to: configuring a 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary region.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the generating module is further configured to: and if the position information of the UE is in the coverage range of the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area, determining that the UE reaches the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area.

In an embodiment of the disclosure, the obtaining module is further configured to: subscribing the mobility analysis result of the UE to a network data analysis function NWDAF network element, and receiving the mobility analysis result of the UE sent by the NWDAF network element.

According to still another aspect of the disclosed embodiments, there is provided a 5G base station including: a receiving module, configured to receive an RFSP index value of a voice fallback sent by an AMF network element, where the RFSP index value of the voice fallback is generated by the AMF network element according to a mobility analysis result of a UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, and the UE initiates or is performing a VoNR service in a non-roaming area; and the initiating module is used for initiating the EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the 5G base station further includes a second configuration module, configured to: and configuring a priority list of access types corresponding to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, wherein the priority list of the access types is that the priority of a 4G frequency point is higher than that of a 5G frequency point.

In one embodiment of the disclosure, the initiating module is further configured to: and sending the priority list of the access types to the UE so that the UE can select the wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access types, and then switching the UE to a 4G base station to carry out VoLTE conversation.

According to still another aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device including: a processor; a memory for storing the processor-executable instructions; wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions to implement the voice fallback method described above.

According to yet another aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having instructions therein, which when executed by a processor of an electronic device, enable the electronic device to perform the above-mentioned voice fall-back method.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure at least brings the following beneficial effects: when the UE initiates or is performing a VoNR service in a non-roaming area, the AMF network element may generate an RFSP index value of a voice fallback according to a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, and then the AMF network element sends the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station to which the UE accesses, so that the 5G base station may notify the UE to initiate an EPS fallback, which enables a VoNR user to fall back before entering a roaming area, avoids a problem that a cross-operator VoNR handover caused by a related roaming technical scheme conflicts with a requirement of an home operator, and also ensures continuity and service experience of the voice service of the user.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure and are not to be construed as limiting the disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a voice fallback method according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a voice fallback method according to yet another exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a voice fallback method according to yet another exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating data interaction in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an AMF network element in accordance with an example embodiment;

fig. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a 5G base station in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating the structure of an electronic device with a voice fallback, according to an example embodiment.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical solutions of the present disclosure better understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of the present disclosure and in the above-described drawings are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used is interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the disclosure described herein are capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. The implementations described in the exemplary embodiments below are not intended to represent all implementations consistent with the present disclosure. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with certain aspects of the present disclosure, as detailed in the appended claims.

It should be noted that the user information referred to in the present disclosure, including but not limited to user device information, user personal information, etc., is information authorized by the user or sufficiently authorized by each party.

The method provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can be executed by any type of electronic device, such as a server or a terminal device, or by interaction between the server and the terminal device. The terminal device and the server may be directly or indirectly connected through wired or wireless communication, and the application is not limited herein.

The server may be an independent physical server, a server cluster or a distributed system formed by a plurality of physical servers, or a cloud server providing basic cloud computing services such as a cloud service, a cloud database, cloud computing, a cloud function, cloud storage, a Network service, cloud communication, a middleware service, a domain name service, a security service, a CDN (Content Delivery Network), a big data and artificial intelligence platform, and the like.

The terminal device may be, but is not limited to, a smart phone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a desktop computer, a smart speaker, a smart watch, and the like.

In a 4G network, when a UE initiates a voice service, there are two ways: voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) and circuit domain fallback (CS fallback). Two voice access modes are also defined in the 5G network: the new air interface carries Voice over new radio (VoNR) and EPS fallback. At present, the open sharing of an operator network is actively promoted, and a demand scene of the heterogeneous network roaming of a 5GSA core network exists. For example, the following typical foreign network roaming scenario: the visited home network has no 5G signal but has 4G signal, the roaming user preferentially uses the visited 5G network, falls back to the home 4G network in the area with insufficient coverage of the visited 5G signal and the edge area, and the visited 5G network and the home 4G network interoperate. In the above scenario, some home operators require that the 5G voice in the roaming area adopts an EPS fallback scheme, that is, access is performed through the 4G signal of the home operator.

For the above scenario, in the related art, a visited operator in a roaming area needs to enable a new Network number (i.e. a new Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN)). In the non-roaming area, the network element of the home Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) sets the new network number as an Equivalent PLMN (PLMN, which is the same priority as the PLMN currently selected by the terminal and is in the same position as the PLMN currently selected by the terminal) and issues the new network number to the terminal, so that the service continuity can be ensured even if the PLMN number changes during the process that the terminal moves into the roaming area. However, if the home operator and the visited operator have enabled the VoNR in their own networks, during the course of moving into the roaming area, a VoNR handover occurs across operators, resulting in the VoNR service of the visited operator also being used at the visited place, conflicting with the requirements of the home operator.

In order to solve the above problem, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a voice fallback method. FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a voice fallback method according to an example embodiment. The method provided in the embodiment of fig. 1 may be performed by an AMF network element, and may include the following steps.

Step S110, obtain the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identifier of the UE, and the location information of the UE. Wherein, the UE initiates or carries on VoNR service in the non-roaming area.

Step S120, according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identifier of the UE, and the location information of the UE, generates an index value of radio access type/Frequency Selection Priority (RFSP) of the voice fallback.

Step S130, sending the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to the 5G base station accessed by the UE, so that the 5G base station notifies the UE to initiate an evolved packet system EPS fallback.

In the voice fallback method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, when the UE initiates or is performing a voice service in a non-roaming area, the AMF network element may generate an RFSP index value of the voice fallback according to a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, and then the AMF network element sends the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station to which the UE is accessed, and the 5G base station may notify the UE to initiate an EPS fallback, so that a VoNR user can perform the EPS fallback before entering a roaming area, a problem that a cross-operator VoNR handover conflicts with a requirement of an affiliate operator due to a related roaming technical scheme is avoided, and continuity and service experience of the voice service of the user can be ensured.

In step S110, the AMF network element may obtain a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, and further generate an RFSP index value of the voice fallback according to the obtained information. The AMF Network element may directly obtain the voice stream identifier of the UE and the location information of the UE, and may also obtain a mobility analysis result of the UE through a Network Data analysis Function (NWDAF) Network element.

In an exemplary embodiment, obtaining the mobility analysis result of the user equipment UE may include: and subscribing the mobility analysis result of the UE to the NWDAF network element, and receiving the mobility analysis result of the UE sent by the NWDAF network element. The mobility analysis result of the UE may include identification information of the UE, location information of the UE, and a confidence level of the UE moving to the roaming area.

In the current 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) standard, the AMF element does not support dynamic Generation of RFSP index values, is only responsible for forwarding the signed RFSP index values, and is not flexible enough. Although 3GPP R16 proposes that a Policy Control Function (PCF) network element can be issued by an AM Policy, how to generate a dynamic RFSP index value is not defined, and an application scenario thereof is not clear. In the embodiment of the disclosure, through AMF network element enhancement, a decision is made according to a mobility analysis result, a voice stream identifier and position information, and an RFSP index value of the early EPS fallback of the different-network roaming 5G voice is dynamically generated.

In an exemplary embodiment, generating the RFSP index value of the voice fallback according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identity of the UE, and the location information of the UE may include: obtaining the confidence degree of the UE moving to the roaming area according to the mobility analysis result of the UE; and if the following conditions are met, generating an RFSP index value of the voice fallback: the confidence degree of the UE moving to the roaming area is higher than a preset confidence degree threshold value, the voice service quality Qos flow identification which is established by the UE or has 5QI (quality of service) 1 is determined according to the voice flow identification of the UE, and the 5G tracking area of the UE reaching the roaming boundary area is determined according to the position information of the UE. It can be seen that the AMF network element can generate the RFSP index value of the voice fallback in case the following three conditions are met.

The first condition is as follows: the confidence of the UE moving to the roaming area is higher than a preset confidence threshold.

The mobility analysis result of the UE sent to the AMF network element by the NWDAF network element comprises the confidence degree of the movement of the UE to the roaming area. The AMF network element may determine whether the confidence level of the UE moving to the roaming region is higher than a preset confidence level threshold. The preset confidence threshold is preset by the AMF network element, and the specific value can be adjusted according to the actual situation.

And a second condition: and determining that the UE initiates establishment or already has a voice quality of service (Qos) flow identifier with 5QI being 1 according to the voice flow identifier of the UE.

The AMF network element may query the voice flow id of the UE, and determine whether the UE initiates establishment or already has a voice Qos flow id of 5QI ═ 1. Wherein, 5QI ═ 1 is the key identifier of the IMS voice QoS flow. If the UE has a voice Qos flow identity of 5QI ═ 1, it indicates that the UE is initiating or conducting IMS voice.

And (3) carrying out a third condition: and determining a 5G tracking area of the UE reaching the roaming boundary area according to the position information of the UE.

The AMF network element may determine whether the UE reaches a 5G Tracking Area (TA) of the roaming boundary region according to the location information of the UE. Where TA is the LTE/SAE (i.e. the project name of 3GPP, LTE is the generic name of radio network and core network, SAE is the architecture evolution of core network) system is a concept newly set up for location management of UE, which is defined as a free mobility area where UE does not need to update service. The TA function is to manage the location of the terminal, and may be divided into paging management and location update management. The TA is a configuration at a cell level, multiple cells may configure the same TA, and one cell may belong to only one TA.

In an exemplary embodiment, the voice fall-back method may further include: and configuring a 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area. And determining, according to the location information of the UE, a 5G tracking area where the UE reaches the roaming boundary area, which may include: and if the position information of the UE is in the coverage range of the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area, determining that the UE reaches the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area.

That is to say, the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary region is configured in advance on the AMF network element, so that the AMF network element can determine that the UE reaches the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary region in the coverage range of the 5G tracking area where the location information of the UE reaches the roaming boundary region.

When the AMF network element determines that the three conditions are all satisfied, it may determine that the UE moves to the roaming border area 5G tracking area, generate an RFSP index value of the voice fallback, and further send the generated RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station to which the UE accesses, so that the base station may notify the UE to initiate an EPS fallback.

In an exemplary embodiment, the informing the UE of initiating the EPS fallback by the 5G base station may include: and the 5G base station sends the priority list of the access types to the UE so that the UE can select the wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access types, and then the UE is switched to the 4G base station to carry out VoLTE conversation. And the priority list of the access types corresponding to the RFSP index values of the voice fallback is configured on the 5G base station, and the priority list of the access types is that the priority of the 4G frequency point is higher than that of the 5G frequency point.

The RFSP index value is a numerical value sent to a base station by a core network, and the value range is 0-255. The meaning of the specific index value can be set on the base station. For example, for a certain index value, the base station may correspond to a priority list of access types. In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the AMF network element may generate an RFSP index value of a voice fallback, and send the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to the 5G base station. The 5G base station may configure a priority list of the access type corresponding to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, so that the 5G base station may issue the priority list of the corresponding access type to the UE after receiving the RFSP index value of the voice fallback sent by the AMF network element, and then the UE may select a wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access type, and further the UE may switch to the 4G base station to perform VoLTE call.

For example, the AMF network element sends the RFSP index value to the 5G base station 99, and the 5G base station pre-configures the priority list corresponding to the RFSP index value to be 4G 1.8GHz higher than 5G 2.1GHz higher than 5G 3.5 GHz. And when the 5G base station receives that the RFSP index value sent by the AMF network element is 99, the 5G base station sends the priority list to the UE, and the UE preferentially selects 4G 1.8GHz, selects 5G 2.1GHz again and selects 5G 3.5GHz again according to the priority of the list.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a voice fallback method according to yet another exemplary embodiment. The method provided in the embodiment of fig. 2 may be performed by a 5G base station, and may include the following steps.

Step S210, receiving the RFSP index value of the voice fallback sent by the AMF network element.

Step S220, initiating EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback.

The UE initiates or carries on VoNR service in the non-roaming area, and the 5G base station is the base station accessed by the UE. And the RFSP index value of the voice fallback is generated by the AMF network element according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identifier of the UE and the position information of the UE. In the above, how the AMF network element generates the RFSP index value of the voice fallback has been described in detail, and will not be described again here.

In an exemplary embodiment, the voice fall-back method may further include: and configuring a priority list of access types corresponding to the RFSP index values of the voice fallback, wherein the priority list of the access types is that the priority of a 4G frequency point is higher than that of a 5G frequency point. That is to say, the 5G base station may configure the priority list of the access type corresponding to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, so that the 5G base station may issue the priority list of the corresponding access type to the UE after receiving the RFSP index value of the voice fallback sent by the AMF network element, thereby initiating the EPS fallback for the UE.

In an exemplary embodiment, initiating an EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback may include: and sending the priority list of the access types to the UE so that the UE can select the wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access types, and then switching the UE to a 4G base station to carry out VoLTE conversation. That is, after receiving the RFSP index value of the voice fallback sent by the AMF network element, the 5G base station may issue the priority list of the corresponding access type to the UE, and then the UE may select the wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access type, and further the UE may switch to the 4G base station to perform the VoLTE call.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a voice fallback method according to yet another exemplary embodiment. Referring to fig. 3, a UE initiates or is engaged in a VoNR service in a non-roaming area, and the UE moves from the non-roaming area to a roaming area. When the UE moves to a roaming border Area 5G TAC (Tracking Area Code) B, the home AMF network element triggers generation of an RFSP index value of a voice fallback, and sends the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a gNB (i.e., a 5G base station) of the 5G TAC B, i.e., a 5G base station to which the UE accesses. Then, the gNB of the 5G TAC B notifies the UE to initiate EPS fallback, and the UE may switch to the eNB of the 4G TAC Bb (i.e., the 4G base station) to perform VoLTE call. Moreover, after the UE enters the visited operator 5G TAC X in the roaming area, according to the 3GPP standard, the user in the voice state does not initiate PLMN reselection when entering the roaming area, so that an event of switching VoLTE of the home operator to volr of the visited operator does not occur, and even if the UE frequently roams into and out of the border of the roaming area during the call, the UE keeps always accessing the 4G base station of the home operator (e.g., eNB of 4G TAC Bb or 4G TAC Cc) to perform VoLTE call. The home AMF network element may make a decision according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identifier of the UE, and the location information of the UE, and trigger generation of the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, where a specific generation process is described in detail above and is not described here again.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating data interaction, according to an example embodiment. Referring to fig. 4, the border area gNB pre-configures the frequency point priority of the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, that is, the border area gNB pre-configures a priority list of the access type corresponding to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, that is, the priority of the 4G frequency point is higher than that of the 5G frequency point. Wherein, the edge area gNB is a 5G base station accessed by the UE. The UE may complete user registration and session establishment. The AMF network element may subscribe to the NWDAF network element a mobility analysis result of the UE, and then the AMF network element may receive the mobility analysis result of the UE returned by the NWDAF network element. When the UE is initiating or establishing a VoNR voice session in a non-roaming area, the AMF network element may make a decision according to a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, and generate an RFSP index value for voice fallback if a condition is satisfied. Then, the AMF network element may issue the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to the edge area gNB. The edge region gNB may then initiate an EPS fallback according to the RFSP index value of the received voice fallback. Finally, the UE may start an EPS fallback and switch to the edge area eNB for VoLTE call.

It can be seen that in the voice fallback method provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure, when the UE initiates or is performing a VoNR service in a non-roaming area, the AMF network element may generate an RFSP index value of the voice fallback according to a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, and then the AMF network element sends the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station that the UE accesses, so that the 5G base station may notify the UE to initiate an EPS fallback, which enables a VoNR user to perform an EPS fallback before entering a roaming area, avoids a problem that a cross-operator VoNR handover conflicts with a requirement of an affiliate operator due to a related roaming technical scheme, and also ensures continuity and service experience of the voice service of the user.

Further, through AMF network element enhancement, a decision is made according to a mobility analysis result, the voice stream identification and the position information, and an RFSP index value of the different-network roaming 5G voice early EPS fallback is dynamically generated. Therefore, the voice fallback method provided by the embodiment of the disclosure only needs enhancement of the function of the AMF network element of the home operator, and other network elements and voice service flows all follow the current 3GPP standard, so that the voice fallback method has better compatibility. And the visiting operator can follow the prior roaming technical scheme without additional modification of the network of the visiting operator, thereby reducing the implementation resistance of the inter-operator inter-network roaming. In addition, even if the UE frequently roams in and out of the roaming area boundary in the call process, the UE can be always accessed to the 4G base station of the home operator to carry out VoLTE call, and the event that VoLTE is switched back to VoNR cannot occur, so that the method has good applicability in the extreme scene.

Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an AMF network element in accordance with an example embodiment. Referring to fig. 5, the AMF network element may include: an acquisition module 510, a generation module 520, a transmission module 530, and a first configuration module 540.

The acquisition module 510 may be configured to: and acquiring a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE and position information of the UE. Wherein, the UE initiates or carries on VoNR service in the non-roaming area.

The generation module 520 may be configured to: and generating an RFSP index value without voice fallback according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identification of the UE and the position information of the UE.

The sending module 530 may be configured to: and sending the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station accessed by the UE, so that the 5G base station informs the UE of initiating the EPS fallback.

In an exemplary embodiment, the generating module 520 may be further operable to: obtaining the confidence degree of the UE moving to the roaming area according to the mobility analysis result of the UE; and if the following conditions are met, generating an RFSP index value of the voice fallback: the confidence degree of the UE moving to the roaming area is higher than a preset confidence degree threshold value, the voice service quality Qos flow identification which is established by the UE or has 5QI (quality of service) 1 is determined according to the voice flow identification of the UE, and the 5G tracking area of the UE reaching the roaming boundary area is determined according to the position information of the UE.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first configuration module 540 may be configured to: and configuring a 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area.

In an exemplary embodiment, the generating module 520 may be further operable to: and if the position information of the UE is in the coverage range of the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area, determining that the UE reaches the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area.

In an exemplary embodiment, the obtaining module 510 may be further configured to: and subscribing the mobility analysis result of the UE to the NWDAF network element, and receiving the mobility analysis result of the UE sent by the NWDAF network element.

Fig. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a 5G base station in accordance with an example embodiment. Referring to fig. 6, the 5G base station may include: a receiving module 610, an initiating module 620, and a second configuring module 630.

The receiving module 610 may be configured to: and receiving the RFSP index value of the voice fallback sent by the AMF network element. And the RFSP index value of the voice fallback is generated by the AMF network element according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identifier of the UE and the position information of the UE. And the UE initiates or carries out the VoNR service in the non-roaming area.

The initiation module 620 may be configured to: and initiating the EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback.

In an exemplary embodiment, the second configuration module 630 may be configured to: and configuring a priority list of access types corresponding to the RFSP index values of the voice fallback. The priority list of the access types is that the priority of the 4G frequency point is higher than that of the 5G frequency point.

In an exemplary embodiment, the initiating module 620 is further operable to: and sending the priority list of the access types to the UE so that the UE can select the wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access types, and then switching the UE to a 4G base station to carry out VoLTE conversation.

With regard to the apparatus in the above-described embodiment, the specific manner in which each module performs the operation has been described in detail in the embodiment related to the method, and will not be elaborated here.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating the structure of an electronic device with a voice fallback, according to an example embodiment. It should be noted that the illustrated electronic device is only an example, and should not bring any limitation to the functions and the scope of the embodiments of the present invention.

An electronic device 800 according to this embodiment of the invention is described below with reference to fig. 7. The electronic device 700 shown in fig. 7 is only an example and should not bring any limitation to the functions and the scope of use of the embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 7, electronic device 700 is embodied in the form of a general purpose computing device. The components of the electronic device 700 may include, but are not limited to: the at least one processing unit 710, the at least one memory unit 720, and a bus 730 that couples various system components including the memory unit 720 and the processing unit 710.

Wherein the storage unit stores program code that is executable by the processing unit 710 such that the processing unit 710 performs the steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the present invention as described in the above section "exemplary method" of the present specification. For example, the processing unit 710 may execute step S110 shown in fig. 1, and acquire a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, where the UE initiates or is performing a VoNR service in a non-roaming area; step S120, generating an RFSP index value of the voice fallback according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identification of the UE and the position information of the UE; step S130, sending the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to the 5G base station accessed by the UE, so that the 5G base station notifies the UE to initiate EPS fallback. For another example, the processing unit 710 may execute step S210 shown in fig. 2, and receive an RFSP index value of a voice fallback sent by an AMF network element, where the RFSP index value of the voice fallback is generated by the AMF network element according to a mobility analysis result of the UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, and the UE initiates or is performing a VoNR service in a non-roaming area; step S220, initiating EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback.

The storage unit 720 may include readable media in the form of volatile memory units, such as a random access memory unit (RAM)7201 and/or a cache memory unit 7202, and may further include a read only memory unit (ROM) 7203.

The storage unit 720 may also include a program/utility 7204 having a set (at least one) of program modules 7205, such program modules 7205 including, but not limited to: an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data, each of which, or some combination thereof, may comprise an implementation of a network environment.

Bus 730 may be any representation of one or more of several types of bus structures, including a memory unit bus or memory unit controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processing unit, or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The electronic device 700 may also communicate with one or more external devices 800 (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, bluetooth device, etc.), with one or more devices that enable a user to interact with the electronic device 700, and/or with any devices (e.g., router, modem, etc.) that enable the electronic device 700 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur via an input/output (I/O) interface 750. Also, the electronic device 700 may communicate with one or more networks (e.g., a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and/or a public network, such as the internet) via the network adapter 740. As shown, the network adapter 740 communicates with the other modules of the electronic device 700 over the bus 730. It should be appreciated that although not shown in the figures, other hardware and/or software modules may be used in conjunction with the electronic device 700, including but not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, RAID systems, tape drives, and data backup storage systems, among others.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, there is also provided a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program product capable of implementing the above-described method of the present specification. In some possible embodiments, aspects of the invention may also be implemented in the form of a program product comprising program code means for causing a terminal device to carry out the steps according to various exemplary embodiments of the invention described in the above section "exemplary methods" of the present description, when said program product is run on the terminal device.

According to the program product for implementing the method, the portable compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) can be adopted, the program code is included, and the program product can be operated on terminal equipment, such as a personal computer. However, the program product of the present invention is not limited in this regard and, in the present document, a readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The program product may employ any combination of one or more readable media. The readable medium may be a readable signal medium or a readable storage medium. A readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the readable storage medium include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable disk, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated data signal may take many forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A readable signal medium may also be any readable medium that is not a readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, C + + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device, partly on the user's device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device and partly on a remote computing device, or entirely on the remote computing device or server. In the case of a remote computing device, the remote computing device may be connected to the user computing device through any kind of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or may be connected to an external computing device (e.g., through the internet using an internet service provider).

It should be noted that although in the above detailed description several modules or units of the device for action execution are mentioned, such a division is not mandatory. Indeed, the features and functionality of two or more modules or units described above may be embodied in one module or unit, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Conversely, the features and functions of one module or unit described above may be further divided into embodiments by a plurality of modules or units.

Moreover, although the steps of the methods of the present disclosure are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this does not require or imply that the steps must be performed in this particular order, or that all of the depicted steps must be performed, to achieve desirable results. Additionally or alternatively, certain steps may be omitted, multiple steps combined into one step execution, and/or one step broken down into multiple step executions, etc.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily understand that the exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented by software, or by software in combination with necessary hardware. Therefore, the technical solution according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a non-volatile storage medium (which may be a CD-ROM, a usb disk, a removable hard disk, etc.) or on a network, and includes several instructions to enable a computing device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a mobile terminal, or a network device, etc.) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. This application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure following, in general, the principles of the disclosure and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice within the art to which the disclosure pertains. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.

It will be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the precise arrangements described above and shown in the drawings and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A voice fallback method, performed by an access and mobility management function, AMF, network element, comprising:

acquiring a mobility analysis result of User Equipment (UE), a voice stream identifier of the UE and position information of the UE, wherein the UE initiates or carries out a new air interface voice (VoNR) service in a non-roaming area;

generating a radio access type/frequency selection priority RFSP index value of voice fallback according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identification of the UE and the position information of the UE;

and sending the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station accessed by the UE, so that the 5G base station informs the UE of initiating an Evolved Packet System (EPS) fallback.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein generating the RFSP index value of the radio access type/frequency selection priority of the voice fallback according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identifier of the UE and the location information of the UE comprises:

obtaining the confidence of the UE moving to a roaming area according to the mobility analysis result of the UE;

generating an RFSP index value for the voice fallback if the following conditions are satisfied: the confidence degree of the UE moving to the roaming area is higher than a preset confidence degree threshold value, the voice service quality Qos flow identification which is initiated by the UE or has 5QI (quality of service) 1 is determined according to the voice flow identification of the UE, and the 5G tracking area of the UE reaching the roaming boundary area is determined according to the position information of the UE.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: configuring a 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary region.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the 5G tracking area of the UE reaching the roaming boundary region according to the location information of the UE comprises:

and if the position information of the UE is in the coverage range of the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area, determining that the UE reaches the 5G tracking area of the roaming boundary area.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the mobility analysis result of the UE comprises:

subscribing the mobility analysis result of the UE to a network data analysis function NWDAF network element, and receiving the mobility analysis result of the UE sent by the NWDAF network element.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the 5G base station configures a priority list of access types corresponding to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, wherein the priority list of access types is that the priority of a 4G frequency point is higher than that of a 5G frequency point.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the 5G base station informing the UE to initiate an Evolved Packet System (EPS) fallback comprises:

and the 5G base station sends the priority list of the access types to the UE so that the UE can select the wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access types, and then the UE is switched to a 4G base station to carry out voice VoLTE call carried through long term evolution.

8. A voice fallback method, performed by a 5G base station, comprising:

receiving an RFSP index value of voice fallback sent by an AMF network element, wherein the RFSP index value of voice fallback is generated by the AMF network element according to a mobility analysis result of UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE and position information of the UE, and the UE initiates or is carrying out a VoNR service in a non-roaming area;

and initiating EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

and configuring a priority list of access types corresponding to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback, wherein the priority list of the access types is that the priority of a 4G frequency point is higher than that of a 5G frequency point.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein initiating an EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback comprises:

and sending the priority list of the access types to the UE so that the UE can select the wireless access type/frequency according to the priority list of the access types, and then switching the UE to a 4G base station to carry out VoLTE conversation.

11. An AMF network element, comprising:

an obtaining module, configured to obtain a mobility analysis result of a UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, where the UE initiates or is performing a VoNR service in a non-roaming area;

a generating module, configured to generate an RFSP-free index value of voice fallback according to the mobility analysis result of the UE, the voice stream identifier of the UE, and the location information of the UE;

a sending module, configured to send the RFSP index value of the voice fallback to a 5G base station accessed by the UE, so that the 5G base station notifies the UE to initiate an EPS fallback.

12. A 5G base station, comprising:

a receiving module, configured to receive an RFSP index value of a voice fallback sent by an AMF network element, where the RFSP index value of the voice fallback is generated by the AMF network element according to a mobility analysis result of a UE, a voice stream identifier of the UE, and location information of the UE, and the UE initiates or is performing a VoNR service in a non-roaming area;

and the initiating module is used for initiating the EPS fallback for the UE according to the RFSP index value of the voice fallback.

13. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor;

a memory for storing the processor-executable instructions;

wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions to implement the method of any of claims 1 to 7 or the method of any of claims 8 to 10.

14. A computer-readable storage medium, whose instructions, when executed by a processor of an electronic device, enable the electronic device to perform the method of any of claims 1-7 or the method of any of claims 8-10.