CN114451066A

CN114451066A - Data transmission method and device

Info

Publication number: CN114451066A
Application number: CN201980100682.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 于海凤; 李秉肇; 陈磊; 许斌
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-10-22
Filing date: 2019-10-22
Publication date: 2022-05-06
Also published as: WO2021077299A1

Abstract

The application provides a data transmission method, a data transmission device and data transmission equipment. The method is suitable for supporting communication between terminal equipment with multiple SIM cards and network equipment, according to the data transmission method provided by the application, the terminal equipment can transmit a data packet of a second SIM through user plane connection of a first SIM, correspondingly, the network equipment can determine the association relation among the multiple user plane connections according to the association information among the multiple SIMs and determine target user plane connection; and the data packet of the second SIM is transmitted through the connection of the target user plane, so that the interruption of data transmission is avoided, the data receiving and transmitting efficiency of the terminal equipment supporting multiple SIM cards is improved, and the user experience is optimized.

Description

Data transmission method and device

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a data transmission method and apparatus.

Background

With the development of 5G networks, more and more people are beginning to pay attention to dual Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card services based on 5G networks. The 3GPP standards have now begun to discuss 5G-based multi-SIM services. Two or more number cards of the same or different systems of networks can be inserted into one mobile phone at the same time, and the mobile phone can enjoy services from different networks, namely dialing, answering, receiving and sending short messages, surfing the internet and the like, so that a user can enjoy the freedom of mobile office and the pleasure of rest and entertainment, and the mobile phone with multiple SIM cards becomes the future trend.

From the technical realization of 4G, the dual SIM cards in the market are the mainstream at present, and the corresponding dual card schemes are provided with a plurality of types. One is a dual-card dual-standby dual-pass scheme, which is realized by two sets of chips, namely, two sets of baseband chips, radio frequency chips and a memory system are arranged in the mobile phone, namely, two complete mobile phone mainboards are combined together and are placed in the same mobile phone shell. The realization mode can support two SIM cards to work simultaneously, and the switching does not need to be restarted, but the problems are that the cost is almost twice of that of a common mobile phone, the power consumption is often twice of that of a normal mobile phone, and the scheme is used for a plurality of heavy double-card double-standby mobile phones on the market at present. One scheme is a dual-card dual-standby single-pass scheme, wherein two SIM cards share modules such as a baseband and a radio frequency, and a network is manually switched by adding an Analog Switch (Analog Switch) on a traditional mobile phone chip set. The latter is usually the implementation mode of a 'dual-card single-standby' mobile phone, but enterprises use the mobile phone for dual-standby later, so that the problems of incompatibility with various SIM cards, immature control software and the like easily occur, and the disconnection rate during conversation is high.

In terms of the dual-card dual-standby single-pass scheme, due to the fact that modules such as a baseband and a radio frequency are shared, only one SIM card can work at the same time, when the SIM1 card works normally, if the SIM2 card needs to perform data transmission, the SIM1 card needs to be disconnected, and connection between the SIM2 card and a network needs to be established, so that communication delay of the SIM2 card is caused, and user experience is affected.

Furthermore, the mainstream solutions discussed at the present time have disadvantages: the usage scenario is not universal and is not favorable for system performance, and further research is still needed.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the specification provides a data transmission method and device, which can meet the requirement of using scene universality and improve the data receiving and sending rate of dual-card UE, so that the use experience of a user is improved.

In a first aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a data transmission method. The method is applicable to the second network equipment or a chip inside the second network equipment. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a first data packet, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to terminal equipment of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity; determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between a first user plane connection and a second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting the first data packet, and the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection or the second user plane connection; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the first aspect, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity. In a further possible implementation, the method further includes sending the association to the first network device.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the first aspect, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity; a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity; association indication information from the first network device.

In a possible implementation in combination with the first aspect, the target user plane connection is determined according to at least one of the following conditions:

the terminal equipment is in an RRC idle state or an RRC non-activated state in a network corresponding to the second user identity;

a load connected to the second user plane;

a load connected to the first user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the first aspect, when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the method further includes: and sending the first data packet to the first network equipment. In a further possible implementation, the method includes sending, to the first network device, first information for instructing the first network device to send the first data packet on the first user plane connection.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the first aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity, or is used for transmitting data of only the second user identity.

In a possible implementation manner combined with the first aspect, the determining a target user plane connection according to an association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection includes determining the target user plane connection according to the association relationship and an IP address in the first data packet, where the IP address corresponds to the second user identity.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the first aspect, in a case that the first network device and the second network device are the same network device, the method further includes the second network device sending the first data packet to the terminal device of the second user identity through the target user plane connection. In a further possible implementation, the method further includes sending a second data packet to the terminal device through the target user plane connection; wherein the second data packet comprises the first data packet and information of the first subscriber identity of the terminal device.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a data transmission method. The method is applicable to the first network equipment or a chip inside the first network equipment. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a first data packet from a second network device, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to a terminal device of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity; determining a first user plane connection, where the first user plane connection is used to send the first data packet to a terminal device with the second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the second aspect, the determining the first user plane connection includes: determining to send a first data packet through the first user plane connection according to the incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection; or, determining to send a first data packet through a first user plane connection according to first information, where the first information is from the second access network device.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the second aspect, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity. In a further possible implementation, the method further includes sending the association to the first network device.

In a further possible embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of:

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity;

a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity;

association indication information from the second network device.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the second aspect, the method comprises: sending a second data packet to the terminal equipment through the first user plane connection; wherein the second data packet comprises the first data packet and information of the first subscriber identity of the terminal device.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the second aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity, or is used for transmitting data of the second user identity only.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a data transmission method. The method is applicable to a terminal device, the terminal device supports a first user identity and a second user identity, and the method comprises the following steps: receiving a first data packet through a target user plane connection, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to terminal equipment with a second user identity; the target user plane connection is a first user plane connection or a second user plane connection; the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between the first user identity and a first network device, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal device and a second network device; an association relationship exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the third aspect, the method comprises one of:

sending a first access message to the first network device with the first subscriber identity, wherein the first access message is used for indicating association information between the first subscriber identity and the second subscriber identity;

sending a second access message to the second network device with the second user identity, wherein the second access message is used for indicating association information between the first user identity and the second user identity;

sending a first message to the first network device with the first user identity, and sending a second message to a second network device with the second user identity, wherein the first message and the second message are used for indicating association information of the first user identity and the second user identity; the first message comprises the information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the information of the first user identity.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present specification provides a data transmission method, where the method is applied to a terminal device, where the terminal device supports a first user identity and a second user identity, and the method includes: determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting a third data packet, and the third data packet corresponds to the second user identity and is used for being sent to second network equipment; the target user connection is a first user interface connection or a second user interface connection, the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the second user identity and second network equipment; and sending the third data packet through the target user plane connection.

In a possible embodiment combined with the fourth aspect, the method further comprises: the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is indicated by third information, where the third information is from the first network device or the second network device.

In a further possible embodiment, the method comprises one of:

sending a first message to the first network equipment with the first user identity, and sending a second message to the second network equipment with the second user identity, wherein the first message and the second message are used for indicating the association information of the first user identity and the second user identity; the first message comprises information of a second user identity, and the second message comprises information of a first user identity;

and the incidence relation between the first user interface connection and the second user interface connection is determined according to the incidence information between the first user identity and the second user identity.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the fourth aspect, the target user plane connection is determined according to at least one of the following conditions:

a load of the second user plane connection;

a load connected to the first user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the fourth aspect, when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the method further includes:

sending a fourth data packet to the first network device through the first user plane connection; wherein the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and information of the first network device.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the fourth aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or only for transmitting data of the second user identity.

In a possible implementation manner combined with the fourth aspect, the determining the target user plane connection according to the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection includes determining the target user plane connection according to the association relationship and an IP address in the first data packet, where the IP address corresponds to the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner combined with the fourth aspect, the determining a target user plane connection according to an association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection includes determining the target user plane connection according to the association relationship and the IP address, where the IP address corresponds to the second network device.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a data transmission method. The method is applicable to the first network equipment or a chip inside the first network equipment. The method comprises the following steps:

receiving a third data packet sent by the terminal device in a second user identity, wherein the third data packet is used for being sent to the second network device; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment through the first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment through the second user identity.

In a possible embodiment combined with the fifth aspect, the method comprises: sending the association relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection to the terminal equipment; and the incidence relation between the first user interface connection and the second user interface connection is determined according to the incidence information between the first user identity and the second user identity.

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from a terminal device of the first subscriber identity;

a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity and a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity, wherein the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity, and the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity;

association indication information from the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner combined with the fifth aspect, the receiving the third packet includes: receiving a third data packet through the first user plane connection;

the method also includes transmitting the third data packet to the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the fifth aspect, the receiving the third data packet through the first user plane connection includes:

receiving a fourth data packet over the first user plane connection; the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and an identification of the first subscriber identity.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the fifth aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or only for transmitting data of the second user identity.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a data transmission method. The method is applicable to the second network device or may also be applied to a chip inside the second network device. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a third data packet from the first network device, wherein the third data packet is from the terminal device of the second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment in a second user identity; and an association relation exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the sixth aspect, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity; the method comprises the step of sending the association relation to the terminal equipment.

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from a terminal device of the second subscriber identity;

association indication information from the first network device.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present specification provides a network device, where the network device is a second network device and includes: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations:

receiving a first data packet, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to terminal equipment of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity;

determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between a first user plane connection and a second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting the first data packet, and the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection or the second user plane connection;

the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.

In a possible implementation manner combined with the seventh aspect, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity. In a further possible embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity; a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity; association indication information from the first network device.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the seventh aspect, the processor is further configured to perform the following operations:

determining a target user plane connection based on at least one of:

a load connected to the second user plane;

a load connected to the first user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the seventh aspect, when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the processor is further configured to: and sending the first data packet to the first network equipment. In a further possible implementation, the processor is configured to perform the following operations: and sending first information to the first network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the first network device to send the first data packet on the first user plane connection.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the seventh aspect, the first user plane connection is used to transmit data of the first user identity and the second user identity, or is used to transmit data of only the second user identity.

In an eighth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a network device, which is a first network device and includes: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations:

receiving a first data packet from a second network device, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to a terminal device of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity;

determining a first user plane connection, where the first user plane connection is used to send the first data packet to a terminal device with the second user identity;

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the eighth aspect, the processor is further configured to perform the following operations: determining to send a first data packet through the first user plane connection according to the incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection; or, determining to send a first data packet through a first user plane connection according to first information, where the first information is from the second access network device.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the eighth aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity, or is used for transmitting data of the second user identity only.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the eighth aspect, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity. In a further possible embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from a terminal device of the second subscriber identity; a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity; association indication information from the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the eighth aspect, the processor is further configured to perform the following operations: sending a second data packet to the terminal equipment through the first user plane connection; wherein the second data packet comprises the first data packet and information of the first subscriber identity of the terminal device.

In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a communication apparatus, for example, a terminal device, supporting a first user identity and a second user identity, the communication apparatus including: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations: receiving a first data packet through a target user plane connection, the first data packet being for transmission to a communication device of a second subscriber identity; the target user plane connection is a first user plane connection or a second user plane connection; the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between a first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between the communication device and second network equipment by a second user identity; an association relationship exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the ninth aspect, the processor is configured to perform one of the following operations:

sending a first message to the first network equipment with the first user identity, and sending a second message to the second network equipment with the second user identity, wherein the first message and the second message are used for indicating the association information of the first user identity and the second user identity; the first message comprises the information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the information of the first user identity.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a communication apparatus, for example, a terminal device, supporting a first user identity and a second user identity, the communication apparatus including: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations:

determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting a third data packet, and the third data packet corresponds to the second user identity and is used for being sent to second network equipment; the target user connection is a first user interface connection or a second user interface connection, the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the second user identity and second network equipment;

and sending the third data packet through the target user plane connection.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the tenth aspect, the processor is configured to perform the following operations: receiving an association between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection from the first network device or the second network device. In a further possible implementation, the processor is configured to perform one of the following operations: sending a first access message to the first network device with the first subscriber identity, wherein the first access message is used for indicating association information between the first subscriber identity and the second subscriber identity; sending a second access message to the second network device with the second user identity, wherein the second access message is used for indicating association information between the first user identity and the second user identity; sending a first message to the first network equipment with the first user identity, and sending a second message to the second network equipment with the second user identity, wherein the first message and the second message are used for indicating the association information of the first user identity and the second user identity; the first message comprises information of a second user identity, and the second message comprises information of a first user identity; and the incidence relation between the first user interface connection and the second user interface connection is determined according to the incidence information between the first user identity and the second user identity.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the tenth aspect, the processor is configured to perform the following operations: determining a target user plane connection based on at least one of: the terminal equipment is in an RRC idle state or an RRC non-activated state in a network corresponding to the second user identity; a load of the second user plane connection; a load connected to the first user plane; efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data; the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer. In a further possible implementation, when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the processor is configured to: sending a fourth data packet to the first network device through the first user plane connection; wherein the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and information of the first network device.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the tenth aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or only for transmitting data of the second user identity.

In an eleventh aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a network device, which is a first network device and includes: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations:

receiving a third data packet sent by the terminal device in a second user identity, wherein the third data packet is used for sending the data packet to the second network device; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment in a second user identity.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the eleventh aspect, the processor is configured to perform the following operations: sending the association relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection to the terminal equipment; and the incidence relation between the first user interface connection and the second user interface connection is determined according to the incidence information between the first user identity and the second user identity. In a further possible embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from a terminal device of the first subscriber identity; a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity and a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity, wherein the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity, and the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity; association indication information from the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the eleventh aspect, the processor is configured to perform the following operations: receiving a third data packet through the first user plane connection; the processor is configured to perform the following operations: and sending the third data packet to the second network equipment.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the eleventh aspect, the receiving the third data packet through the first user plane connection includes: receiving a fourth data packet over the first user plane connection; the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and an identification of the first subscriber identity.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the eleventh aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or only for transmitting data of the second user identity.

In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a network device that is a second network device and that includes: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations: receiving a third data packet from the first network device, wherein the third data packet is from the terminal device of the second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment in a second user identity; and an association relationship exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the twelfth aspect, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity; the processor is configured to perform the following operations: and sending the association relation to the terminal equipment. In a further possible embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity; a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity; association indication information from the first network device.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with one of the first aspect to the twelfth aspect, the association information includes a first card identifier and a second card identifier of the terminal device; the first card identifier is an identifier of the first card, and the second card identifier is an identifier of the second card.

In a thirteenth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a communication apparatus, for example, a network device. The network device is configured to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect. In particular, the network device may comprise means for performing the method of the first aspect or any of its possible implementations, for example comprising processing means and transceiver means. Illustratively, the network device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in a communication device.

Illustratively, in the communication apparatus, the transceiver module is configured to receive a first data packet, where the first data packet is used to be sent to a terminal device of a second subscriber identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity;

the processing module is configured to determine a target user plane connection according to an association relationship between a first user plane connection and a second user plane connection, where the target user plane connection is used to transmit the first data packet, and the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection or the second user plane connection;

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the thirteenth aspect, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity. In a further possible embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity; a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity; association indication information from the first network device.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the thirteenth aspect, the processing module is further configured to determine the target user plane connection according to at least one of the following conditions:

a load connected to the second user plane;

a load connected to the first user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the thirteenth aspect, when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the processing module is further configured to send the first data packet to the first network device. In a further possible implementation manner, the processing module is further configured to send first information to the first network device, where the first information is used to instruct the first network device to send the first data packet on the first user plane connection.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the thirteenth aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or only for transmitting data of the second user identity.

In a fourteenth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a communication apparatus, for example, the communication apparatus is a network device. The network device is configured to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect. In particular, the network device may comprise means for performing the method of the second aspect or any of its possible embodiments, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means. Illustratively, the network device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in a communication device.

Illustratively, in the communication apparatus, the transceiver module is configured to receive a first data packet from a second network device, where the first data packet is used to send to a terminal device of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity;

the processing module is configured to determine a first user plane connection, where the first user plane connection is used to send the first data packet to the terminal device with the second user identity;

In a possible implementation manner combined with the fourteenth aspect, the processing module is further configured to determine to send a first data packet through the first user plane connection according to an association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection; or, determining to send a first data packet through a first user plane connection according to first information, where the first information is from the second access network device.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the fourteenth aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity, or is used for transmitting data of only the second user identity.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the fourteenth aspect, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity. In a further possible embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity; a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity; association indication information from the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the fourteenth aspect, the transceiver module is further configured to send a second data packet to the terminal device through the first user plane connection; wherein the second data packet comprises the first data packet and information of the first subscriber identity of the terminal device.

In a fifteenth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a communication apparatus, for example, a terminal device, supporting a first subscriber identity and a second subscriber identity, for performing the method in the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the third aspect. In particular, the terminal device may comprise means for performing the method of the third aspect or any of its possible embodiments, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means. Illustratively, the terminal device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device.

Illustratively, in the communication device, the transceiver module is configured to receive a first data packet through a target user plane connection, where the first data packet is for transmission to a communication device of a second user identity; the target user plane connection is a first user plane connection or a second user plane connection; the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between a first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between the communication device and second network equipment by a second user identity; an association relationship exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the fifteenth aspect, the processing module is configured to send a first access message to the first network device with the first subscriber identity, where the first access message is used to indicate association information between the first subscriber identity and the second subscriber identity;

the transceiver module is further configured to send a second access message to the second network device with the second subscriber identity, where the second access message is used to indicate association information between the first subscriber identity and the second subscriber identity;

the transceiver module is further configured to send a first message to the first network device with the first subscriber identity, and send a second message to a second network device with the second subscriber identity, where the first message and the second message are used to indicate association information of the first subscriber identity and the second subscriber identity; the first message comprises the information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the information of the first user identity.

In a sixteenth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a communication apparatus, for example a terminal device, supporting a first subscriber identity and a second subscriber identity, for performing the method in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect. In particular, the terminal device may comprise means for performing the method of the fourth aspect or any of its possible embodiments, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means. Illustratively, the terminal device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in the communication device.

Exemplarily, in the communication apparatus, the processing module is configured to determine a target user plane connection according to an association relationship between a first user plane connection and a second user plane connection, where the target user plane connection is used to transmit a third data packet, and the third data packet corresponds to a second user identity and is used to be sent to a second network device; the target user connection is a first user interface connection or a second user interface connection, the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the second user identity and second network equipment;

and the transceiver module is used for transmitting the third data packet through the target user plane connection.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the sixteenth aspect, the transceiver module is further configured to receive, from the first network device or the second network device, an association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection. In a further possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to perform one of the following operations: sending a first access message to the first network device with the first user identity, wherein the first access message is used for indicating association information between the first user identity and the second user identity; sending a second access message to the second network device with the second user identity, wherein the second access message is used for indicating association information between the first user identity and the second user identity; sending a first message to the first network equipment with the first user identity, and sending a second message to the second network equipment with the second user identity, wherein the first message and the second message are used for indicating the association information of the first user identity and the second user identity; the first message comprises information of a second user identity, and the second message comprises information of a first user identity; and the incidence relation between the first user interface connection and the second user interface connection is determined according to the incidence information between the first user identity and the second user identity.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the sixteenth aspect, the processing module is further configured to determine the target user plane connection according to at least one of the following conditions: the terminal equipment is in an RRC idle state or an RRC non-activated state in a network corresponding to the second user identity; a load connected to the second user plane; a load connected to the first user plane; efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data; the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer. In a further possible implementation manner, when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the transceiver module is further configured to send a fourth data packet to the first network device through the first user plane connection; wherein the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and information of the first network device.

In a possible embodiment in combination with the sixteenth aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or only for transmitting data of the second user identity.

In a seventeenth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a communication apparatus, for example, a network device. The network device is configured to perform the method of the fifth aspect or any possible implementation of the fifth aspect. In particular, the network device may comprise means for performing the method of the fifth aspect or any of its possible embodiments, for example comprising a processing means and a transceiver means. Illustratively, the network device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in a communication device.

Illustratively, in the communication apparatus, the transceiver module is configured to receive a third data packet sent by a terminal device with a second subscriber identity, where the third data packet is used for a data packet sent to the second network device; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment in a second user identity.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the seventeenth aspect, the processing module is further configured to send an association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection to the terminal device; and the incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to the incidence information between the first user identity and the second user identity. In a further possible embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from a terminal device of the first subscriber identity; a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity and a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity, wherein the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity, and the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity; association indication information from the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the seventeenth aspect, the processing module is further configured to receive a third data packet through the first user plane connection; the transceiver module is further configured to send the third data packet to the second network device.

In a possible implementation manner with reference to the seventeenth aspect, the transceiver module is further configured to receive a fourth data packet through the first user plane connection; the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and an identification of the first subscriber identity.

In a possible embodiment combined with the seventeenth aspect, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or only for transmitting data of the second user identity.

In an eighteenth aspect, embodiments of the present specification provide a communication apparatus, for example, a network device. The network device is configured to perform the method of the sixth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect. In particular, the network device may comprise means for performing the method of the sixth aspect or any of its possible embodiments, for example comprising processing means and transceiver means. Illustratively, the network device is a communication device, or a chip or other component provided in a communication device.

Exemplarily, in the communication apparatus, the transceiver module is further configured to receive a third data packet from the first network device, where the third data packet is from a terminal device of a second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment in a second user identity; and an association relation exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

In a possible implementation manner in combination with the eighteenth aspect, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity; the transceiver module is further configured to send the association relationship to the terminal device. In a further possible embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity; a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity; association indication information from the first network device.

In a nineteenth aspect, the present specification embodiments provide a computer storage medium comprising computer instructions that, when executed on an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of the first aspect to the sixth aspect.

In a twentieth aspect, the present specification provides a computer program product comprising program code which, when executed by a processor in an electronic device, implements the method of the first to sixth aspects.

Drawings

FIG. 1A is a diagram of a passive mode dual-card UE;

FIG. 1B is a diagram of a dual-card UE in DSDS mode;

FIG. 1C is a diagram of a DSDA mode dual-card UE;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a dual-card UE data transmission method under a 5G network architecture according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of a downlink data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a format for forwarding downstream packets by a network device;

fig. 5 is another format for forwarding downstream packets by a network device;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method of downstream data transmission according to yet another embodiment of the present description;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a method of downstream data transmission according to yet another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a flowchart of an uplink data transmission method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a diagram of a format for forwarding upstream packets by a network device;

FIG. 10 is another format for forwarding upstream packets by a network device;

fig. 11 is a flowchart of an uplink data transmission method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 12 is a flowchart of an uplink data transmission method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method of a second network device during data downlink;

fig. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method of a first network device during data downlink;

fig. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method of a terminal device during data downlink;

fig. 16 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method of a terminal device during data uplink;

fig. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method of a first network device during data uplink;

fig. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method of a second network device during data uplink;

fig. 19 illustrates a hardware configuration diagram of a network device that can be used to implement the related art described above according to an embodiment of the present specification;

fig. 20 illustrates a hardware configuration diagram of a terminal device that can be used to implement the above-described related art according to an embodiment of the present specification.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the embodiments described are only a few embodiments of the present disclosure, and not all embodiments.

Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments," or the like, means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in one or more embodiments of the specification. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," or the like, in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but rather "one or more but not all embodiments" unless specifically stated otherwise.

Wherein in the description of the present specification, "/" indicates a meaning, for example, a/B may indicate a or B; "and/or" herein is merely an association describing an associated object, and means that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, in the description of the embodiments of the present specification, "a plurality" means two or more.

In the description of the present specification, the terms "first", "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implying any number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of that feature. The terms "comprising," "including," "having," and variations thereof mean "including, but not limited to," unless expressly specified otherwise.

The application relates to data transmission between a terminal device and a network device. The embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: LTE (Long Term evolution network)/SAE (System Architecture evolution network), LTE-a (LTE-Advanced, LTE evolution edition) System, New Radio, NR (New Radio, NR) System, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), or future communication System, and is not particularly limited.

To this end, the various concepts referred to in this application are first introduced.

1. Terminal device

The terminal device comprises a device for providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user, in particular, a device for providing voice to a user, or a device for providing data connectivity to a user, or a device for providing voice and data connectivity to a user. For example, may include a handheld device having wireless connection capability, or a processing device connected to a wireless modem. The terminal device may communicate with a core network via a Radio Access Network (RAN), exchange voice or data with the RAN, or interact with the RAN. The terminal device may include a User Equipment (UE), a wireless terminal device, a mobile terminal device, a device-to-device communication (D2D) terminal device, a vehicle-to-all (V2X) terminal device, a machine-to-machine/machine-type communication (M2M/MTC) terminal device, an internet of things (internet of things) terminal device, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber station), a mobile station (mobile station), a remote station (remote station), an access point (access point, AP), a remote terminal (remote), an access terminal (access terminal), a user terminal (user terminal), a user agent (user), or user equipment (user), etc. For example, mobile telephones (or so-called "cellular" telephones), computers with mobile terminal equipment, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-embedded mobile devices, and the like may be included. Examples of such devices include Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and the like. Also included are constrained devices such as devices that consume less power, or devices that have limited storage capabilities, or devices that have limited computing capabilities, etc. Examples of information sensing devices include bar codes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), sensors, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), laser scanners, and the like.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable equipment can also be called wearable smart device or intelligent wearable equipment etc. is the general term of using wearable technique to carry out intelligent design, develop the equipment that can dress to daily wearing, like glasses, gloves, wrist-watch, dress and shoes etc.. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device includes full functionality, large size, and can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smart phone, such as: smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to be used in cooperation with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart bracelets, smart helmets, smart jewelry and the like for monitoring physical signs.

The various terminal devices described above, if located on a vehicle (e.g., placed in or installed in the vehicle), may be considered to be vehicle-mounted terminal devices, which are also referred to as on-board units (OBUs), for example.

In this embodiment, the terminal device may further include a relay (relay). Or, it is understood that any device capable of data communication with a base station may be considered a terminal device.

In the embodiment of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the terminal device may be the terminal device, or may be an apparatus capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the function, for example, a chip system, and the apparatus may be installed in the terminal device. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, a device for implementing a function of a terminal is taken as an example of a terminal device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

2. Network device

Network devices, including, for example, Access Network (AN) devices, such as base stations (e.g., access points), may refer to devices in AN access network that communicate with wireless terminal devices over one or more cells over AN air interface. The base station may be configured to interconvert received air frames and IP packets as a router between the terminal device and the rest of the access network, which may include an IP network. The network device may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface. For example, the network device may include an evolved Node B (NodeB or eNB or e-NodeB) in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system or an advanced long term evolution (LTE-a), or may also include a next generation Node B (gNB) in a New Radio (NR) system (also referred to as an NR system) of a fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G), or may also include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) in a Cloud RAN network (Cloud RAN) system, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

The network device may further include a core network device including, for example, an access and mobility Management Function (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), a User Plane Function (UPF); mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (S-GW), PDN Gateway (P-GW).

In the embodiment of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the network device may be a network device, or may be an apparatus capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a system on chip, and the apparatus may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, a device for implementing a function of a network device is taken as an example of a network device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

3. Radio resource control state

Regarding Radio Resource Control (RRC) states, a terminal device has 3 RRC states: RRC connected state (connected state), RRC idle state (idle state), and RRC inactive state (inactive state).

Herein, "connected state" and "RRC connected state" are the same concept, and the two designations may be interchanged): the terminal device establishes RRC connection with the network and can perform data transmission.

Herein, "idle state" and "RRC idle state" are the same concept, and the two designations may be interchanged): the terminal device does not establish an RRC connection with the network and the base station does not store the context of the terminal device. If the terminal device needs to enter the RRC connected state from the RRC idle state, an RRC connection establishment procedure needs to be initiated.

Herein, "deactivated dynamic," "deactivated," "inactive," "RRC inactive," and "RRC deactivated" are the same concept, and these designations may be interchanged): the terminal device has previously entered the RRC connected state and the base station then releases the RRC connection, but the base station maintains the context of the terminal device. If the terminal device needs to re-enter the RRC connected state from the RRC inactive state, an RRC connection recovery procedure (alternatively referred to as an RRC connection re-establishment procedure) needs to be initiated. Compared with the RRC establishment process, the RRC recovery process has shorter time delay and smaller signaling overhead. However, the base station needs to store the context of the terminal device, which occupies the storage overhead of the base station.

4. User identity

In the embodiments of the present application, "user identity" (e.g., first user identity or second user identity, etc.) is a logical concept. For example, the "subscriber identity" may correspond to a SIM card or subscriber information or a virtual SIM card or subscriber identity (e.g., International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) or Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI), etc.). From the perspective of the network side, different "user identities" logically correspond to different communication entities served by the network side, such as UEs in 4G and 5G systems, for example, a terminal device supporting two user identities, which can be regarded as two communication entities for the network side. For another example, when the "user identity" corresponds to the SIM card or the subscriber information, the network side may identify two terminal devices supporting different SIM cards or different subscriber information as two different communication entities, and may also identify the same terminal device supporting multiple different SIM cards or multiple subscriber information as multiple different communication entities, even though in practice, the terminal device supporting multiple different SIM cards or multiple subscriber information is only one physical entity. In the embodiment of the present application, a SIM card corresponding to a "subscriber identity" is mainly taken as an example for description.

For example, the SIM card may be understood as a key for the terminal device to access the mobile network, and for convenience of description, the SIM card and its evolution are collectively referred to as the SIM card in the embodiments of the present application. For example, the SIM card may be an identification card of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) digital mobile phone user, which is used for storing an identification code and a secret key of the user and supporting authentication of the GSM system to the user; for another example, the SIM card may be a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), which may also be referred to as an upgraded SIM card.

SIM cards may be distinguished using identification. The identifier may be an identifier assigned by the core network to the SIM card of the terminal device, such as a Temporary Mobile Station Identifier (TMSI) or a 5G network temporary mobile station identifier (5G temporary mobile station identifier, 5G-TMSI), or an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI). The identifier may also refer to an identifier allocated by the access network to the SIM card 1 and the SIM card 2 of the first terminal device, such as a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI).

The terminal devices with different user identities may assume different operating modes, for example dual-card dual-standby. Dual Card dual standby means that the terminal device can insert two SIM/UICC (Subscriber Identity Module/Universal Integrated Circuit Card) cards, and the two cards (SIM1 and SIM2) can be in standby at the same time. A dual-card dual-standby mobile phone can be generally set to the following situations: <1>, SIM1 only is open; <2>, SIM2 only is stuck on; <3>, double click. The dual-card dual-standby mode can be that both cards are of the same standard, i.e. support the same RAT (such as LTE or NR), or that both cards support different standards, e.g. one card supports LTE and the other card supports NR; or one card supporting UMTS and another supporting CDMA, etc. The dual-card dual-standby mode or dual-mode dual-standby mode is also called dual-network dual-standby mode or dual-mode dual-standby mode. In addition, according to the service progress, a distinction can be made between dual card/network dual standby single access or dual card/network dual standby dual access, where "single access" refers to whether two cards can simultaneously perform a service (e.g., two cards make a call at the same time). The following embodiments are only described by taking dual-card dual standby as an example, but those skilled in the art realize that the present specification is not limited to the number of SIM cards contained in the terminal device.

The foregoing has described some of the noun concepts to which embodiments of the present application relate, and the following has described some features of the embodiments of the present application.

Currently, more and more smart phones support the simultaneous insertion of two SIM cards, for example, one SIM card is used for private services and the other SIM card is used for work; or, one SIM card is used for data services and the other SIM card is used for voice services. The two SIM cards in one mobile phone can belong to the same mobile operator or different mobile operators; the systems may belong to the same system (the systems include NR, LTE, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) 2000, GSM, etc.), or may belong to different systems. According to the difference of the transceiving capacity of the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment with the double SIM cards can have one of the following three modes:

(1) passive mode, or also referred to as DSSS mode: although two SIM cards can be inserted, only one can be used at a time.

Fig. 1A is a schematic diagram of a passive mode dual-card UE. In fig. 1A, two SIM cards, USIM1 and USIM2, are taken as examples. At time 1, USIM1 operates (or is in RRC connected state (connected)), that is, USIM1 can transmit and receive data, and at this time USIM2 cannot be used; alternatively, at time 2, the USIM2 operates (or is in an RRC connected state), i.e., the USIM2 can transmit and receive data, at which time the USIM1 cannot be used.

(2) DSDS mode: two SIM cards share a set of transceivers, and for the idle (idle) state, the transceivers need to listen to paging messages of the two cards. For example, the transceiver may listen in a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) manner.

Fig. 1B is a schematic diagram of a dual-card UE in DSDS mode. In fig. 1B, two SIM cards, USIM1 and USIM2, are taken as examples. At time 1, the USIM1 operates (or is in an RRC connected state), that is, the USIM1 can transmit and receive data, and at this time, the USIM2 may be in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state (inactive); alternatively, the USIM2 operates (or is in an RRC connected state), that is, the USIM2 can transmit and receive data, and at this time, the USIM1 may be in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state.

(3) DSDA mode: the two SIM cards use respective transceivers. The two SIM cards can be in RRC connected state at the same time, i.e. the terminal device can receive and send data of the two SIM cards at the same time.

Fig. 1C is a schematic diagram of a DSDA mode dual-card UE. In fig. 1C, two SIM cards, USIM1 and USIM2, are taken as examples. When the USIM1 operates (or enters RRC connected state), that is, when the USIM1 transceives data, the USIM2 may also operate, that is, the USIM2 and the USIM1 may be in RRC connected state at the same time.

In the passive mode or the DSDS mode, the terminal device may simultaneously maintain RRC connections of two SIM card networks, and switch the networks back and forth in a time Division multiplexing (tdm) manner. However, if the TDM method is adopted to switch the network, it is better for regular service but not suitable for burst service arrival.

Assume that in TDM mode, the time of operation on SIM1 is 4 minutes and on SIM2 is 6 minutes. When the SIM1 operates for 2 minutes, at this time, burst service data arrives at the SIM2, and a wireless/radio frequency module is wanted to be used, and since the service time of the SIM2 is not yet reached, the service communication of the SIM1 cannot be performed according to the TDM manner, and data transmission and reception on the SIM2 must be performed only after the specified operating time of the SIM2, thereby causing a delay in communication of the SIM2 and affecting user experience.

In another situation, the terminal device corresponding to the SIM1 reports the auxiliary information to the corresponding network device, so that the network device releases the RRC connection of the SIM1, and the terminal device corresponding to the SIM1 establishes the RRC connection. Although the scheme allows the corresponding RRC connection to be established as needed when the burst service arrives, the method of "releasing first, then establishing the RRC connection and the bearer required for data transmission" has a large delay, which is not favorable for the system performance.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device may adopt different network architectures. The network architecture may be a 5G network architecture, a 4G network architecture, or various hybrid architectures.

The present application will be described below in conjunction with a 5G network architecture.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a dual-card UE data transmission method under a 5G network architecture according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 2, the network includes a terminal device, a first network device and a second network device, and a first access device and a second access device.

The terminal device supports a first user identity and a second user identity. The terminal device establishes a first user plane connection with a first network device by using a first user identity, so as to perform service 1(service) with a first data network, for example, to transmit uplink data or receive downlink data; the terminal device establishes a second user plane connection with the second network device in the second user identity, so as to perform service 2 with the second data network, for example, sending uplink data or receiving downlink data. An association relationship may be established between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection, and the association relationship is notified to related devices, that is, the terminal device, the first network device, and the second network device.

The first access equipment and the second access equipment establish RRC connection with the terminal equipment in the first user identity or the second user identity, and through the RRC connection, data packets of the terminal equipment are sent to the network equipment, and data packets of the network equipment are sent to the terminal equipment.

When a data packet needs to be downloaded from the second network device to the terminal device of the second user identity, a target user plane connection may be determined from the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection according to the association relationship, where the target user plane connection is used to transmit the data packet. In a case where it is determined that the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the first network device transmits the data packet to the first network device, and transmits the data packet to the terminal device through the first user plane connection.

Similarly, when a data packet needs to be uplinked from the terminal device of the second user identity to the second network device, a target user plane connection may be determined from the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection according to the association relationship, where the target user plane connection is used to transmit the data packet. In the case that the target user plane connection is determined to be the first user plane connection, the terminal device sends the data packet to the second network device through the first user plane connection in the first user identity, and then sends the data packet to the second network device.

In one embodiment, the target user plane connection may be determined based on at least one of the following conditions: the terminal equipment is in an RRC idle state or an RRC non-activated state in a network corresponding to the second user identity; a load connected to the second user plane; a load connected to the first user plane; efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data; the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer.

In one embodiment, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity.

In one embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity; a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity; association indication information from the first network device.

The following description will be made separately for the case of downlink data transmission and uplink data transmission.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a downlink data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The data transmission method can be implemented by using the network architecture shown in fig. 1.

As shown in fig. 3, in step 302, the terminal device initiates a first user plane connection with a first user identity, in other words, the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device and the first network device with the first user identity. The terminal equipment simultaneously supports two user identities, namely a first user identity and a second user identity. Optionally, the first user identity and the second user identity of the terminal device, and the first network device are respectively identified by using respective identification information.

The user interface connection service is a service for exchanging data packets between the terminal equipment and the data network; the user interface connection service is realized by the terminal equipment initiating the establishment of the user interface connection. The user plane connection is directed to the network device via a session management function entity SMF. After a user plane connection is established, a data transmission channel between the terminal device and the data network is established. The terminal device may establish a plurality of user plane connections to the same data network and access the data network via the same or different user plane connections.

The user interface connection is established, modified and released between the terminal equipment and the session management function entity SMF through NAS SM (Non-access stratum session management) signaling. The terminal equipment establishes a plurality of user plane connections, and the session management function entities SMF corresponding to each user plane connection can be different.

Of course, the network side may also trigger the establishment of the user plane connection: 1) when an application server wants to establish a user plane connection, a trigger message is sent to a 5G Core network (5G Core, 5GC), 2) when the 5GC receives an establishment request of the application server, a message for triggering the establishment of the user plane connection is sent to terminal equipment, 3) after the terminal equipment receives the message, the message is sent to corresponding application on the terminal equipment, and 4) when the application on the terminal equipment initiates the designated user plane connection according to the content of the trigger message.

Optionally, the terminal device sends, to the first network device, identification information of a second user identity of the terminal device through the first user plane connection in the first user identity. Optionally, the first user plane connection may be identified by an identifier. In one example, the identity of the user plane connection is assigned by the terminal device and is unique within the terminal device. In yet another example, the identification of the user plane connection is assigned by the network device, e.g., may be assigned by the network device during the user plane connection establishment procedure.

The purpose of sending the identification of the second subscriber identity (second subscriber identity ID) to the first network device over the first user plane connection (e.g. PDU Session1) is to tell the first network device that the identification of the second subscriber identity and the connection initiator (identification of the first subscriber identity) belong to the same terminal device, and that there is an association between them.

Likewise, in step 304, the terminal device initiates a second user interface connection with the second user identity, in other words, the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device and the second network device with the second user identity. Optionally, the second network device has identification information to distinguish it from other devices.

Optionally, the terminal device sends, as the second user identity, the identification information of the first user identity of the terminal device to the second network device through the second user plane connection. The purpose of including the identification of the first subscriber identity in the access message in the second user plane connection (e.g. PDU Session2) is to tell the second network device that the identification of the first subscriber identity and the connection initiator (identification of the second subscriber identity) belong to the same terminal device, with an association.

As described above, the first network device and the second network device may obtain the association information between the first user identity and the second user identity through the access message of the terminal device. In addition, the first network device and/or the second network device may acquire the association information between the first user identity and the second user identity in the following various ways.

In one example, the first network device and/or the second network device may receive subscription information from the core network device, the subscription information indicating that an association exists between the first subscriber identity and the second subscriber identity.

In one example, the first network device and/or the second network device receives an access message sent by the terminal device with a corresponding user identity (a first user identity or a second user identity), wherein the access message is used for indicating that an association exists between the first user identity and the second user identity. For example, the access message may be a message sent when the terminal device establishes a user plane connection with the first network device in the first user identity, and the access message includes association information between the first user identity and the second user identity; or, the access message may also be a message sent when the terminal device establishes the user plane connection with the second network device in the second user identity, where the access message includes an association relationship between the first user identity and the second user identity; or, the access message includes a first access message sent when the terminal device establishes the user plane connection with the first network device with the first user identity, and a second access message sent when the terminal device establishes the user plane connection with the second network device with the second user identity, where the first access message includes the second user identity, and the second access message includes the first user identity.

In one example, one of the first network device and the second network device, which has learned the association information, may forward the association information to the other through the association indication information.

Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the order of steps 302 and 304 may be interchanged.

In step 306, the first network device interacts with the second network device, and determines an association relationship between two corresponding user plane connections (i.e., the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection) according to the association information between the first user identity and the second user identity.

In one example, one of the first network device and the second network device may send a request to the SMF asking for the identification ID of the second user identity and the connection status established by the second user identity; in response, the SMF returns an identifier of a second user plane connection established between a second user identity (second user identity ID) and the second network device to the network device; the network device completes the establishment of the association relationship and calls the other network device of the first network device and the second network device to inform the association relationship.

In one example, the association may be an association between two user plane connection identities. Alternatively, the user plane connection identity may be a PDU session identity.

In step 308, the second network device receives a data packet, which is intended to be sent to the terminal device of the second subscriber identity.

The data packets may include control signaling and/or user data. The control signaling may include RRC, NAS signaling. The user data may include uplink data (UL data), and downlink data (DL data).

In one example, the second network device receives a data packet from the data network DN, the data packet including IP2 information (Info). The IP2 information indicates that the packet is destined for the second subscriber identity's end network, where a "2" may indicate that the source device of the packet is the second network device and the destination device is the second subscriber identity's end device. In one example, the IP2 information includes an IP address of the second subscriber identity.

In step 310, the second network device determines the target user plane connection of the data packet to be transmitted according to the association relationship.

Determining the target user plane connection sometimes needs to consider the RRC connection state of the terminal network, and sometimes needs to consider the load condition of the first user plane connection/the second user plane connection and the efficiency of the respective data transmission. The load of the first user plane connection/the second user plane connection may be a data amount, a data rate, or a number of data packets transmitted by using the first user plane connection/the second user plane connection.

When the second network device determines that the link status of the terminal device with the second user identity is normal, the second network device may directly send the data packet through the second user plane connection.

And when the second network equipment determines that the terminal equipment of the second user identity is in an unreachable state (idle, inactive) or in an active state but the link is loaded, determining to send the data packet to the first network equipment according to the association relation.

Optionally, in step 312, when it is determined in step 310 that the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, a data packet is sent to the first network device.

In one example, a generation instruction is sent to the first network device, and the generation instruction is used for instructing the first network device to send the data packet to the terminal device.

Further, the sending instruction further includes first instruction information, where the first instruction information is used to instruct the first network device to send the data packet on the first user plane connection. For example, the first indication information comprises an identification of the first user plane connection. In an alternative case, the first indication information includes a list of related user plane connection identifiers, and the list may include one or more user plane connection identifiers for instructing the first network device to send the data packet via one or more user plane connections. Optionally, the maximum number of the user plane connection identifiers that can be carried in the list may be predefined by the protocol or may be configurable.

In a possible implementation, the first network device and the second network device belong to the same network device. In this case, step 312 may be omitted.

In step 314, the first network device receives a data packet from the second network device, and determines a first user plane connection, where the first user plane connection is used to send the data packet to the terminal device of the second user identity.

In one example, the data packet is determined to be transmitted through the first user plane connection according to a pre-known association relationship.

In one example, it is determined to send a data packet over the first user plane connection based on information from the second network device. The information from the second network device may include a first user plane connection identification. Alternatively, the first user plane identity may be a PDU session identity.

In one example, a data packet is transmitted to a terminal device over a first user plane connection.

Packets from the second network device may be sent unchanged (in the form of IP2 information) directly on the first user plane connection without adding IP1 information, as shown in fig. 4. This has the advantage of saving transmit packet bit overhead. However, when there is both a first user identity packet and a second user identity packet on the first user plane connection, it may not be distinguished. In this way, the first network device may explicitly know that a data packet is to be sent to the second network device.

Another method for transmitting the data packet from the second network device is the IP in IP mode (as shown in fig. 5), i.e. adding the information of IP1 (such as the first subscriber identity identifier) on the basis of the data packet of the second subscriber identity (already including the IP2 information), which is equivalent to including two pieces of IP information. The IP1 information here is information of a first subscriber identity of the terminal device, which is used to indicate that the data packet is to be sent to the terminal device of the first subscriber identity, where "1" may indicate that the destination device of the data packet is the terminal device of the first subscriber identity. The IP1 information may be an identification of a first subscriber identity for addressing or routing to the terminal device; alternatively, the IP1 information may be an IP address. The IP in IP approach can effectively distinguish data packets from/directed to different user identities, but at the cost of increased data packet overhead. In this way, the first network device may implicitly learn that a data packet is to be sent to the second network device.

And under the condition that the first network equipment and the second network equipment belong to the same network equipment, the data packet can also be sent through the first user plane connection in an IP in IP mode.

In step 316, the first network device sends the data packet to the terminal device of the first subscriber identity and is received by the terminal device.

In step 318, the terminal device knows that the received data packet is addressed to the terminal device with the second subscriber identity with the first subscriber identity.

In step 320, the terminal device forwards the data packet to the second subscriber identity with the first subscriber identity.

In the embodiment of the present specification, for a terminal device supporting at least two user identities, according to an association relationship between the user identities, when a certain user identity is in an idle state or an inactive state and has data to receive, a downlink data packet may be received through a link of another user identity in a connected state, so that a time delay when the user identity enters the connected state is omitted, a data receiving rate is accelerated, and a user experience is improved.

Generally, the path of the user plane connection further includes an access device, and the access device is responsible for sending a data packet of the terminal device to the network device and sending a data packet of the network device to the terminal device. QoS flow (flow) may be used between the access device and the network device to identify traffic with certain quality requirements, which may be some indicator of latency, reliability, class of service, etc. The QoS information in the data packet corresponds to a QoS flow. In addition, a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) is also used between the terminal device and the access device to carry QoS flows with certain requirements. The 5G network has a plurality of service types, so that QoS flows with different service requirements are more; however, the number of DRBs that can be used between the terminal device and the access device is limited, and therefore, the core network will specify the mapping relationship between the QoS flow and the DRB and send the mapping relationship to the access device. When the access device receives a certain QoS flow, the QoS flow may be mapped to the corresponding DRB according to the pre-stored mapping relationship.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a downlink data transmission method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig. 6 is different from fig. 3 in that the first access device reconfigures the QoS flow mapping rule in the case that the QoS information of the received data packet is not in the existing mapping relationship, so that the data packet is transmitted using the new mapping rule. The following description will be made only for this purpose, and the details of the other contents will not be repeated.

As shown in fig. 6, a data packet is sent from the first network device to the access device at step 616, the data packet including QoS information. When the first access equipment receives the data packet of the second user identity, the matched DRB can not be found in the existing mapping relation between the QoS flow and the DRB according to the QoS information requirement of the data packet. At this point, step 618 is entered, and the first access device reconfigures the mapping relationship. When the reconfiguration is completed, the first access device sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device of the first subscriber identity in step 620, where the RRC reconfiguration message indicates that the flow ID1 corresponding to the QoS information is mapped to the default DRB or other DRBs.

In step 622, the first access device may map the data packet of the second subscriber identity to the corresponding DRB according to the reconfigured mapping relationship, and then send the data packet to the terminal device of the first subscriber identity, so as to forward to the terminal device of the second subscriber identity.

The embodiment of the present specification may reconfigure the QoS flow mapping rule for the QoS flow, so that the downlink data packet may be quickly sent by using the new mapping rule.

In the above embodiment, the first user plane connection may transmit data addressed to the terminal device of the first user identity, or may forward data addressed to the terminal device of the second user identity. The forwarding data packet may occupy resources originally required for the service of the first user plane connection, which may interfere with the normal operation of the first user plane connection.

Based on this, the present specification provides another downlink data transmission method, where the first network device may establish a dedicated first user plane connection for the second user identity in advance for data packet transmission to and from the terminal device of the second user identity.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart of a downlink data transmission method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. On the basis that the terminal device establishes the first user plane connection with the first user identity, the terminal device establishes a special third user plane connection with the first user identity as the second user identity, and obtains the association relationship between the first user plane connection/the third user plane connection and the second user plane connection through the interaction of the first network device and the second network device. As shown in fig. 7, in step 703, the terminal device initiates a third user plane connection with the first user identity. Optionally, the identity of the second subscriber identity is sent over a third user plane connection, whereby a further user plane connection is established between the first subscriber identity of the terminal device and the first network device.

After the first network device receives an indication to send a data packet from the second network device at step 312 and determines to send the data packet to the user plane connection of the first subscriber identity according to the association at step 314, the first network device sends the data packet to the second subscriber identity through a dedicated third user plane connection at subsequent step 616 and 622.

In a first possible implementation, the first network device establishes an association using the third user plane connection and the second user plane connection of the second network device, so that the third user plane connection can completely replace the first user plane connection. In other words, the data of the first subscriber identity and the second subscriber identity may be transmitted over a first user plane connection or only used to transmit data of the second subscriber identity over a third user plane connection. The description related to the third user plane connection may refer to the above contents related to the first user plane connection, and will not be repeated.

In a second possible implementation, the first network device establishes an association using the first user plane connection and a second user plane connection of the second network device, so that the second network device side only knows the first user plane connection and does not know the third user plane connection. When the second network device determines that the data packet needs to be transmitted via the user plane connection between the first network device and the first subscriber identity, the data packet may be directly forwarded to the first network device. The first network device determines which user plane connection to use for transmitting the data packet according to the efficiency and load condition of the first user plane connection and the third user plane connection. Specifically, the first network device determines which user plane connection to use for transmitting the data packet or determines that two user plane connections are used simultaneously for transmitting the data packet according to the first condition. Wherein the first condition may be at least one of: the efficiency of the first user plane connection, the efficiency of the third user plane connection, the load condition of the first user plane connection, and the load condition of the third user plane connection.

In a third possible implementation, the second user plane connection may establish an association relationship with a user plane connection corresponding to at least one first user identity; the user plane connection corresponding to at least one first user identity comprises at least one first user plane connection and/or at least one third user plane connection; in other words, the terminal device establishes at least one shared first user plane connection and/or at least one dedicated third user plane connection with the first network device in the first user identity; the sharing means that the user plane connection transmits data between the terminal device and the first network device in the first user identity and between the terminal device and the second network device in the second user identity, and the exclusive-use means that the user plane connection only transmits data between the terminal device and the second network device in the second user identity. The second network device is aware of the association. When the first network device and the second network device are different, the second network device may determine and inform the first network device, through the indication message, on which one or more user plane connections corresponding to the first subscriber identities the data packets are transmitted. The indication message comprises at least one user interface connection identifier corresponding to the first user identity. Of course, as discussed above, the determination of the user plane connection may be performed by the first network device itself.

For example, the terminal device establishes a shared PDU session1 and PDU session2, and a dedicated PDU session 3 with the first network device in the first subscriber identity. The second network device and/or the first network device may transmit data to the terminal device of the second subscriber identity via PDU session 3. When the amount of data that needs to be transmitted is large and the PDU session1 or 2 is less loaded, a portion or all of the data may be transmitted through the PDU session1 or 2. In another case, when the amount of data to be forwarded is large, the terminal device may also establish another dedicated PDU session (which may be referred to as PDU session 4) with the first network device and the first subscriber identity to transmit data from the second network device.

Through the embodiment of the present specification, when the second user identity is in the idle state or the inactive state and there is data to be received, the second network device may place the data packet of the second user identity on at least one dedicated or shared user plane connection of the first user identity in the active state for transmission according to the pre-obtained association relationship between the user plane connection of the first user identity and the at least one user plane connection of the second user identity, so that the receiving rate of the downlink data may be increased, and the interference to the normal reception of the first user identity may be reduced.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart of an uplink data transmission method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The data transmission method can be implemented by using the network architecture shown in fig. 2.

As shown in fig. 8, in step 802, the terminal device initiates a first user plane connection with a first user identity, that is, the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device and a first network device with the first user identity. The terminal device supports two user identities, namely a first user identity and a second user identity.

Optionally, the terminal device sends, to the first network device, identification information of a second user identity of the terminal device through the first user plane connection in the first user identity.

Likewise, in step 804, the terminal device initiates a user plane connection to the second network device with the second user identity, that is, the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device and the second network device with the second user identity.

Optionally, the terminal device sends, as the second user identity, the identification information of the first user identity of the terminal device to the second network device through the second user plane connection.

As described above, the first network device and the second network device may obtain the association information between the first user identity and the second user identity through the access message of the terminal device. In addition, the first network device and/or the second network device may acquire the association information between the first user identity and the second user identity in a plurality of ways:

In one example, the first network device and/or the second network device receives an access message sent by the terminal device with a corresponding user identity (a first user identity or a second user identity), wherein the access message is used for indicating that an association exists between the first user identity and the second user identity. For example, the access message may be a PDU session including the second subscriber identity information sent by the terminal device in the first subscriber identity, may also be a PDU session including the first subscriber identity information sent by the terminal device in the second subscriber identity, or may also be both.

In one example, after determining the association information between the first user identity and the second user identity, the first network device or the second network device may forward the association information to the other party through the association indication information.

In step 806, the first network device interacts with the second network device, and determines an association relationship between two corresponding user plane connections according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity.

In one example, the association may be an association identified between two user plane connections.

In step 808, the second network device informs the association relationship to the terminal device through the second user identity; in step 810, the first network device informs the terminal device of the association relationship through the first user identity.

Specifically, the first network device and/or the second network device may send indication information to the terminal device, where the indication information is used to indicate that an association relationship exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the order of steps 802 and 804 may be interchanged. The order of steps 808 and 810 may be interchanged.

At step 812, the terminal device receives the data packet with the second subscriber identity. Optionally, the data packet includes IP2 information. The IP2 information indicates that the data packet is intended for a second network device, wherein the IP2 information may be used to indicate that the source device of the data packet is a second subscriber identity end device and the destination device is the second network device. In one example, the IP2 information includes an IP address of the second network device.

In step 814, the terminal device determines a target user plane connection according to the association relationship, where the target user plane connection is used for transmitting the data packet.

The terminal equipment determines the target user plane connection of the data packet to be transmitted by evaluating the state of the terminal equipment or the load of the user plane connection path and the like. In addition, the target user plane connection may also be determined by evaluating the efficiency of each user plane connection in transferring data.

Specifically, when the terminal device determines that the link state to the second network device is normal, it determines that the target user plane connection is the second user plane connection; when the second user identity is determined to be in an unreachable state (idle, inactive) or in an active but link-heavy state, determining that the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection.

In step 816, the terminal device sends the data packet through the target user plane connection.

In one example, when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, a data packet is sent to the first network device through the first user plane connection.

In step 818, the terminal device sends the received data packet via the first user interface connection of the first user identity according to the pre-known association relationship of the user interface connection with the first user identity.

Data packets from the second user identity may be sent directly (in the form of IP2 information) over the first user plane connection without change, without adding IP1 information, as shown in fig. 9. This has the advantage of saving packet overhead. However, when there is both a packet of the first network device and a packet of the second network device on the first user plane connection, it may not be distinguished. In this way, the first network device may explicitly know that a data packet is to be sent to the second network device.

Another method for transmitting the data packet from the second user identity is the IP in IP mode (as shown in fig. 10), i.e. adding IP1 information (e.g. the first network device identifier) on the basis of the second user identity data packet (already including IP2 information), which is equivalent to including two IP information. The IP1 information here is information of the first network device indicating that the packet is destined for the first network device, where a "1" may indicate that the destination device of the packet is the first network device. The IP1 information may be identification information for addressing or routing to the first network device; alternatively, IP1 may be an IP address. The IP in IP approach can effectively distinguish data packets from/destined to different terminal devices, but the cost is increased. In this way, the first network device may implicitly learn that a data packet is to be sent to the second network device.

In step 820, the end device sends a data packet to and is received by the first network device over the first user plane connection.

In step 822, the first network device learns that the received data packet is intended for the second network device.

At step 824, the first network device forwards the data packet to the second network device.

Sometimes, the first network device and the second network device belong to the same network device. In this case, step 824 may be omitted.

When the data packet received by the terminal device with the second user identity includes the QoS information and the user plane connection between the terminal device with the first user identity and the first network device cannot meet the quality requirement specified by the QoS information, the data packet can be sent through the second user plane connection. Further, after receiving the data packet forwarded through the first user plane connection, the second network device needs to determine whether the forwarded data packet meets the quality requirement according to the QoS information, and if not, needs to resend the data packet.

In the embodiment of the present specification, for a terminal device supporting at least two user identities, according to an association relationship between the user identities, when a certain user identity is in an idle state or an inactive state and has data to send, the user identity may be sent through a link of another user identity in a connected state, so that a time delay when the user identity enters the connected state is omitted, a data receiving and sending rate is increased, and a user experience is improved.

Fig. 11 is a flowchart of an uplink data transmission method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig. 11 differs from fig. 8 in that the second user plane connection reconfigures the QoS flow mapping rule in case the received data packet does not meet the quality requirement of the QoS information, so that the data packet is sent with the new mapping rule. The following description will be made only with respect to this development, and the other contents will not be repeated.

In step 1126, the second network device determines whether the data packet forwarded by the first network device meets the quality requirement of the QoS information. If not, step 1128 is entered and an indication is sent to the SMF that the quality requirement of the QoS information is not met.

In step 1130, the SMF sends the reconfigured QoS flow mapping rule to the first access device, and forwards the QoS flow mapping rule to the terminal device of the first subscriber identity through the first access device (step 1132).

In step 1134, the terminal device loads the data packet on the new DRB configured according to the reconfiguration rule with the first user identity, and sends the data packet to the first access device, and then sends the data packet to the first network device through the first access device, so that the data packet meeting the quality requirement of the QoS information is sent to the second network device.

The embodiment of the present specification may reconfigure the QoS flow mapping rule for the QoS flow, so that the uplink data packet may be quickly sent by using the new mapping rule.

In the above embodiment, the first user plane connection may transmit data destined for the first network device, or may forward data destined for the second network device. The forwarded data packet may crowd resources that would otherwise be required for the service of the first user plane connection, causing interference with the normal operation of the first user plane connection. The first network device may establish a dedicated third user plane connection for the second user identity in advance for the second user identity distribution.

Fig. 12 is a flowchart of an uplink data transmission method according to still another embodiment of the present disclosure. On the basis that the first user identity establishes the first user plane connection, the terminal device establishes a special third user plane connection by taking the first user identity as the second user identity, and obtains the association relationship between the first user plane connection/the third user plane connection and the second user plane connection through interaction of the first network device and the second network device. The description about the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the third user plane connection is referred to the description in the above description with reference to fig. 7, and is not repeated.

As shown in fig. 12, in step 1203, the terminal device establishes a third user plane connection with the first user identity. Optionally, the identification information of the second user identity of the terminal device is sent to the first network device via a third user plane connection, so that another user plane connection is established between the first user identity and the first network device.

After the terminal device receives the data packet from the second user identity with the first user identity in step 816 and determines to place the data packet on the user plane connection of the first user identity according to the association relationship in step 1218, the terminal device will send the data packet to the first network device through the third user plane connection with the first user identity in next step 1220. Steps 1218 and 1220 are otherwise identical to steps 818 and 820, respectively, and are not repeated.

Through the embodiment of the present specification, when the second user identity is in an idle state or an inactive state and there is data to be sent, the terminal device may place the data packet of the second user identity on at least one dedicated or shared user plane connection of the first user identity in an active state for transmission according to an association relationship between at least one user plane connection of the first user identity and the user plane connection of the second user identity, so that the sending rate of uplink data may be increased, and interference with normal sending of the first user identity is reduced.

The discussion of the present application above focuses on the interaction between devices. Next, the present application will discuss implementation details of the present application from inside the device. Fig. 13 to 15 discuss the execution flows inside the second network device, the first network device and the terminal device on the data downstream side, respectively, and fig. 16 to 17 discuss the execution flows inside the terminal device, the first network device and the second network device on the data upstream side, respectively. Fig. 19 and 20 respectively provide internal hardware structures of the network device and the terminal device for providing the above-described execution flow.

Fig. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method in data downlink. The method is applicable to a second network device.

As shown in fig. 13, in step 1302, a first data packet is received, where the first data packet is used to be sent to a terminal device of a second subscriber identity; the terminal device supports a first user identity and a second user identity.

In step 1304, a target user plane connection is determined according to an association relationship between a first user plane connection and a second user plane connection, where the target user plane connection is used for transmitting the first data packet, and the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection or the second user plane connection. The first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.

In a further embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of:

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity;

association indication information from the first network device.

In one embodiment, the target user plane connection is determined based on at least one of the following conditions:

a load connected to the second user plane;

a load connected to the first user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer.

In one embodiment, when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the method further comprises: and sending the first data packet to the first network equipment. In a further embodiment, the method includes sending, to the first network device, first information for instructing the first network device to send the first data packet on the first user plane connection.

In one embodiment, the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or only used for transmitting data of the second user identity.

Fig. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method in data downlink. The method is applicable to a first network device.

As shown in fig. 14, in step 1402, a first data packet from a second network device is received, the first data packet being for transmission to a terminal device of a second subscriber identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity;

in step 1404, a first user plane connection is determined, where the first user plane connection is used to send the first data packet to the terminal device of the second subscriber identity. The first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.

In one embodiment, the determining the first user plane connection comprises: determining that the first user plane connection is used for sending a first data packet according to the incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection; or, determining to send a first data packet through a first user plane connection according to first information, where the first information is from the second access network device.

In a further embodiment, the association between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined based on association information between the first user identity and the second user identity.

In a further embodiment, the association information is determined based on at least one of: subscription information from core network equipment; an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity; a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity; association indication information from the second network device.

In one embodiment, the method comprises: sending a second data packet to the terminal equipment through the first user plane connection; wherein the second data packet comprises the first data packet and information of the first subscriber identity of the terminal device.

Fig. 15 is a schematic flowchart of a data transmission method in data downlink, where the method is applied to a terminal device, and the terminal device supports a first subscriber identity and a second subscriber identity.

As shown in fig. 15, at step 1502, a first data packet is received over the destination user plane connection, the first data packet being for transmission to a terminal device of a second subscriber identity. The target user plane connection is a first user plane connection or the second user plane connection; the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between a first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between terminal equipment and second network equipment; and an association relation exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

Wherein the association relationship is determined by association information of the first user identity and the second user identity, and the determination method of the association information comprises one of the following steps:

sending a first access message to a first network device by using a first user identity, wherein the first access message is used for indicating association information between the first user identity and the second user identity;

sending a second access message to a second network device by using a second user identity, wherein the second access message is used for indicating association information between the first user identity and the second user identity;

sending a first message to a first network device with a first user identity, and sending a second message to a second network device with a second user identity, wherein the first message and the second message are used for indicating association information of the first user identity and the second user identity; the first message comprises information of a second user identity, and the second message comprises information of a first user identity.

Fig. 16 is a schematic flowchart of a data transmission method in data uplink, where the method is applied to a terminal device, and the terminal device supports a first subscriber identity and a second subscriber identity.

As shown in fig. 16, in step 1602, a target user plane connection is determined according to an association relationship between a first user plane connection and a second user plane connection, where the target user plane connection is used to transmit a third data packet, and the third data packet corresponds to a second user identity and is used to be sent to a second network device; the target user plane connection is a first user plane connection or a second user plane connection, the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the second user identity and second network equipment;

at step 1604, the third data packet is sent over the target user plane connection.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises: the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is indicated by third information, where the third information is from the first network device or the second network device.

In one embodiment, the method comprises one of:

sending a first message to a first network device with a first user identity, and sending a second message to a second network device with a second user identity, wherein the first message and the second message are used for indicating association information of the first user identity and the second user identity; the first message comprises information of a second user identity, and the second message comprises information of a first user identity;

a load of the second user plane connection;

a load connected to the first user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer.

In a further embodiment, when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the method further comprises: sending a fourth data packet to the first network device through the first user plane connection; wherein the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and information of the first network device.

Fig. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method of a first network device during data uplink.

As shown in fig. 17, in step 1702, receiving a third data packet sent by the terminal device with the second subscriber identity, where the third data packet is used for the data packet sent to the second network device; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal device and the first network device in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal device and the second network device in a second user identity.

In one embodiment, the method comprises: sending the association relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection to the terminal equipment; and the incidence relation between the first user interface connection and the second user interface connection is determined according to the incidence information between the first user identity and the second user identity.

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from a terminal device of the first subscriber identity;

association indication information from the second network device.

In one embodiment, said receiving a third data packet comprises: receiving a third data packet through the first user plane connection;

In a further embodiment, said receiving the third data packet over the first user plane connection comprises: receiving a fourth data packet over the first user plane connection; the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and an identification of the first subscriber identity.

Fig. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a data transmission method performed by the second network device.

As shown in fig. 18, in step 1802, a third data packet is received from the first network device, the third data packet being from a terminal device of a second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment in a second user identity; an association exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

In one embodiment, the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to the association information between the first user identity and the second user identity; the method comprises the step of sending the association relation to the terminal equipment.

In one embodiment, the association information is determined according to at least one of:

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity;

association indication information from the first network device.

Fig. 19 illustrates a hardware configuration diagram of a network device that can be used to implement the related art described above according to an embodiment of the present specification. The block diagram illustrates the hardware basis upon which the method flows of fig. 13-14 and 17-18 may be implemented. As shown in fig. 18, network device 1900 may include a processor 1910, a memory 1920, a communication interface 1930, and a bus 1940. Processor 1910, memory 1920, and communication interface 1930 in network-side device 1900 may establish communication connections through a bus 1940.

Processor 1910 is used to control the overall operation of the network device. In one example, processor 1510 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU).

The memory 1920 may store data and software that is loaded from the memory 1920 and thereby controls the processor 1910 to perform the corresponding operations.

When the network device is configured to implement the method for downlink data transmission by the second network device discussed in conjunction with fig. 13, processor 1910 performs the following operations: receiving a first data packet, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to terminal equipment of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity; determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between a first user plane connection and a second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting the first data packet, and the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection or the second user plane connection; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.

When the network device is configured to implement the method for downlink data transmission by the first network device discussed in conjunction with fig. 14, the processor 1910 performs the following operations: receiving a first data packet from a second network device, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to a terminal device of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity; determining a first user plane connection, where the first user plane connection is used to send the first data packet to a terminal device with the second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.

When the network device is configured to implement the method for uplink data transmission by the first network device discussed in conjunction with fig. 17, processor 1910 performs the following operations: receiving a third data packet sent by the terminal device with a second user identity, wherein the third data packet is used for being sent to the second network device; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment through the first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment through the second user identity.

When the network device is configured to implement the method for uplink data transmission by the second network device discussed in conjunction with fig. 18, processor 1910 performs the following operations: receiving a third data packet from the first network device, the third data packet being from a terminal device of a second subscriber identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment in a second user identity; an association exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

The specific operation of the network device in the different roles is described with reference to the flow discussed above in connection with fig. 13-14 and 17-18. And will not be described herein.

Fig. 20 illustrates a hardware configuration diagram of a terminal device that can be used to implement the above-described related art according to an embodiment of the present specification. The block diagram illustrates the hardware basis upon which the method flows of fig. 16 and 16 may be implemented. As shown in fig. 20, terminal device 2000 may include a processor 2010, a memory 2020, a communication interface 2030, and a bus 2040. The processor 2010, the memory 2020, and the communication interface 2030 in the network device 2000 may be communicatively coupled by a bus 2040.

Processor 2010 is configured to control the overall operation of the network device. In one example, processor 2010 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU).

The memory 2020 may store data and software that is loaded from the memory 2020 and thereby controls the processor 2010 to perform the corresponding operations.

When the network device is configured to implement the method for performing downlink data transmission by the terminal device discussed in conjunction with fig. 15, the processor 2010 performs the following operations: receiving a first data packet through a target user plane connection, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to terminal equipment with a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports both the second user identity and the first user identity; the target user plane connection is a first user plane connection or the second user plane connection; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between a first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between terminal equipment and second network equipment by a second user identity; and an association relation exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.

When the network device is configured to implement the method for performing uplink data transmission by the terminal device discussed in conjunction with fig. 16, the processor 2010 performs the following operations: determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting a third data packet, and the third data packet corresponds to the second user identity and is used for being sent to second network equipment; the target user connection is a first user plane connection or a second user plane connection, the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the second user identity and second network equipment; and sending the third data packet through the target user plane connection.

Specific operation of the terminal device in different roles refers to the flow discussed above in connection with fig. 15 and 16. And will not be described herein.

The method steps in the embodiments of the present description may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by software instructions executed by a processor. The software instructions may consist of corresponding software modules that may be stored in Random Access Memory (RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, a hard disk, a removable hard disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium may also be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC.

In the above embodiments, all or part of the implementation may be realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the procedures or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present specification are generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted over a computer-readable storage medium. The computer instructions may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

It is to be understood that the various numerical references referred to in the embodiments of the present specification are merely for descriptive convenience and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present specification.

Claims

A data transmission method, wherein the method is applied to a second network device, and the method comprises:

receiving a first data packet, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to terminal equipment of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity;

determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between a first user plane connection and a second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting the first data packet, and the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection or the second user plane connection;

the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to the association information between the first user identity and the second user identity.
The method of claim 2, wherein the association information is determined according to at least one of:

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity;

a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity;

association indication information from the first network device.
A method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it comprises:

determining a target user plane connection based on at least one of:

the terminal equipment is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state in a network corresponding to the second user identity;

a load connected to the first user plane;

a load connected to the second user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer.
The method according to one of claims 1 to 4,

when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the method further comprises:

and sending the first data packet to the first network equipment.
The method of claim 5, further comprising sending first information to the first network device, wherein the first information is used to instruct the first network device to send the first packet on the first user plane connection.
The method according to one of claims 1 to 6,

the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or only transmitting data of the second user identity.
A data transmission method, wherein the method is applied to a first network device, and the method comprises:

receiving a first data packet from a second network device, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to a terminal device of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity;

determining a first user plane connection, where the first user plane connection is used to send the first data packet to a terminal device with the second user identity;

the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.
The method of claim 8, wherein determining the first user plane connection comprises:

determining that the first user plane connection is used for sending a first data packet according to the incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection; or

And determining to send a first data packet through the first user plane connection according to first information, wherein the first information comes from the second access network equipment.
The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the method further comprises:

sending a second data packet to the terminal equipment through the first user plane connection; wherein the second data packet comprises the first data packet and information of the first subscriber identity of the terminal device.
The method according to one of claims 8 to 10,

the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or is only used for transmitting data of the second user identity.
A data transmission method, wherein the method is applied to a terminal device, and the terminal device supports a first user identity and a second user identity, the method comprising:

receiving a first data packet through a target user plane connection, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to terminal equipment with a second user identity;

the target user plane connection is a first user plane connection or a second user plane connection; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and second network equipment by the second user identity; an association relationship exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.
A data transmission method, wherein the method is applied to a terminal device, and the terminal device supports a first user identity and a second user identity, the method comprising:

determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting a third data packet, and the third data packet corresponds to the second user identity and is used for being sent to second network equipment;

the target user connection is a first user interface connection or a second user interface connection, the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the second user identity and second network equipment;

and sending the third data packet through the target user plane connection.
The method of claim 13, further comprising:

the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is indicated by third information, where the third information is from the first network device or the second network device.
The method according to claim 13 or 14, comprising:

determining a target user plane connection based on at least one of:

the terminal equipment is in an RRC idle state or an RRC non-activated state in a network corresponding to the second user identity;

a load connected to the first user plane;

a load connected to the second user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane is connected to the efficiency of data transfer.
The method according to one of claims 13 to 15,

when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the method further comprises:

sending a fourth data packet to the first network device through the first user plane connection; wherein the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and information of the first network device.
The method according to one of claims 13 to 16,

the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or is only used for transmitting data of the second user identity.
A data transmission method, wherein the method is applied to a first network device, and the method comprises:

receiving a third data packet sent by the terminal device in a second user identity, wherein the third data packet is used for being sent to the second network device; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal device and the first network device in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal device and the second network device in a second user identity.
The method of claim 18, wherein the method comprises: sending the association relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection to the terminal equipment; and the incidence relation between the first user interface connection and the second user interface connection is determined according to the incidence information between the first user identity and the second user identity.
The method of claim 18 or 19,

the receiving the third data packet comprises: receiving a third data packet through the first user plane connection;

the method also includes transmitting the third data packet to the second network device.
The method of claim 19, wherein the association information is determined according to at least one of:

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from a terminal device of the first subscriber identity;

a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity and a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity, wherein the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity, and the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity;

association indication information from the second network device.
A data transmission method, wherein the method is applied to a second network device, and the method comprises:

receiving a third data packet from the first network device, wherein the third data packet is from the terminal device of the second user identity; the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the first network equipment in a first user identity, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established between the terminal equipment and the second network equipment in a second user identity; and an association relation exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.
The method according to claim 22, wherein the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to the association information between the first user identity and the second user identity;

the method comprises the step of sending the association relation to the terminal equipment.
The method of claim 23, wherein the association information is determined according to at least one of:

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity;

a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity;

association indication information from the first network device.
A network device, the network device being a second network device and comprising: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations:

receiving a first data packet, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to terminal equipment of a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity;

determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between a first user plane connection and a second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting the first data packet, and the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection or the second user plane connection;

the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.
The network device of claim 25, wherein the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity.
The network device of claim 26, wherein the association information is determined according to at least one of:

subscription information from core network equipment;

an access message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity;

a first message from the terminal equipment of the first user identity and a second message from the terminal equipment of the second user identity, wherein the first message comprises the identification information of the second user identity, and the second message comprises the identification information of the first user identity;

association indication information from the first network device.
The network device of any one of claims 25-27, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determining a target user plane connection based on at least one of:

the terminal equipment is in an RRC idle state or an RRC non-activated state in a network corresponding to the second user identity;

a load connected to the second user plane;

a load connected to the first user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane connects efficiency of data transfer.
The network device according to one of claims 25 to 28,

when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the processor is also configured for:

and sending the first data packet to the first network equipment.
The network device of claim 29, wherein the processor is configured to: and sending first information to the first network equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating the first network equipment to send the first data packet on the first user plane connection.
A network device, the network device being a first network device, comprising: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations:

receiving a first data packet from second network equipment, wherein the first data packet is used for being sent to terminal equipment with a second user identity; the terminal equipment supports a first user identity and a second user identity;

determining a first user plane connection, where the first user plane connection is used to send the first data packet to a terminal device with the second user identity;

the first user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a first user identity and a first network device, and the second user plane connection is a data transmission channel established by the terminal device with a second user identity and a second network device.
The network device of claim 31,

the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or is only used for transmitting data of the second user identity.
The network device of claim 31, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determining that the first user plane connection is used for sending a first data packet according to the incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection; or

And determining to send a first data packet through the first user plane connection according to first information, wherein the first information comes from the second access network equipment.
The network device of claim 33, wherein the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is determined according to association information between the first user identity and the second user identity.
The network device of any one of claims 31-34, wherein the processor is further configured to:

sending a second data packet to the terminal equipment through the first user plane connection; wherein the second data packet comprises the first data packet and information of the first subscriber identity of the terminal device.
A communication device supporting a first user identity and a second user identity, the communication device comprising: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations:

receiving a first data packet through a target user plane connection, the first data packet being for transmission to a communication device of a second subscriber identity;

the target user plane connection is a first user plane connection or a second user plane connection; the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between the first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established between the communication device and second network equipment by the second user identity; an association relationship exists between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection.
A communication device supporting a first user identity and a second user identity, the communication device comprising: a communication interface and a processor configured to perform the following operations:

determining a target user plane connection according to an incidence relation between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection, wherein the target user plane connection is used for transmitting a third data packet, and the third data packet corresponds to the second user identity and is used for being sent to second network equipment; the target user connection is a first user interface connection or a second user interface connection, the first user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the first user identity and first network equipment, and the second user interface connection is a data transmission channel established by the second user identity and second network equipment;

and sending the third data packet through the target user plane connection.
The communication device of claim 37,

the association relationship between the first user plane connection and the second user plane connection is indicated by third information, where the third information is from the first network device or the second network device.
The communications device of claim 37 or 38, wherein the processor is configured to:

determining a target user plane connection based on at least one of:

the communication device is in an RRC idle state or an RRC non-activated state in a network corresponding to the second user identity;

a load of the second user plane connection;

a load connected to the first user plane;

efficiency of the first user plane connection transmitting data;

the second user plane connects efficiency of data transfer.
The communication device according to one of claims 37 to 39,

when the target user plane connection is the first user plane connection, the processor is configured to:

sending a fourth data packet to the first network device through the first user plane connection; wherein the fourth data packet includes the third data packet and information of the first network device.
The communication device according to one of claims 37 to 40,

the first user plane connection is used for transmitting data of the first user identity and the second user identity or is only used for transmitting data of the second user identity.
A computer storage medium comprising computer instructions that, when executed on an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of any of claims 1-24.
A computer program product comprising program code for performing the method of any one of claims 1-24 when executed by a processor in an electronic device.