CN114765791A

CN114765791A - Method, device and system for processing connection failure information

Info

Publication number: CN114765791A
Application number: CN202111509893.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 耿婷婷; 曾宇; 吴烨丹; 胡星星
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-01-14
Filing date: 2021-12-10
Publication date: 2022-07-19
Also published as: WO2022152220A1

Abstract

The application discloses a communication method, a communication device and a communication system, wherein after a switching process is started, if a first connection failure is detected, first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure is recorded, a timer is started, and then indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored is sent after the timer is stopped or overtime, wherein the connection failure information at least comprises the first connection failure information. Whether the indication information storing the connection failure information can be sent to the network equipment is determined according to the running condition of the timer, so that the terminal equipment can provide complete failure information in a mobility process, and correct reference is provided for mobility optimization of the network equipment.

Description

Method, device and system for processing connection failure information

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of mobile communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method, apparatus, and system.

Background

At present, besides a normal handover (legacy handover) flow (also called a process), there are Dual Active Protocol Stack (DAPS) handover and Conditional Handover (CHO). However, in a DAPS handover procedure, a conditional handover procedure, or a normal handover but CHO configuration (for example, after the terminal device receives the CHO configuration, before the CHO is triggered or executed, the UE receives a normal handover command, but the CHO configuration received before is still valid), the terminal device may detect more than one connection failure. At present, Radio Link Failure (RLF) reports (report) of terminal devices store and report latest connection (or called link) failure information, however, the inventors of the present application find that there is irrationality in the current processing manner of RLF report, so that the robustness of a mobility policy is insufficient.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method, a communication device and a communication system, which can enable the processing of connection failure information to be more reasonable, so that the method, the device and the system can be used for formulating a reasonable mobility strategy and improving the mobility performance of terminal equipment.

In a first aspect, a communication method, which may also be referred to as a connection failure information processing method, is provided. It will be appreciated that the method of the first aspect may be performed by a first apparatus, which may be a terminal device or a communication apparatus, such as a chip or a circuit or a system of chips, capable of supporting the terminal device to perform the functions required by the method.

For example, after the handover procedure is initiated, the method may include: detecting a first connection failure, recording first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure, and starting a timer; and after the timer stops or times out, sending indication information indicating that connection failure information is stored, wherein the connection failure information at least comprises first connection failure information. When the timer is still running (not stopped or timed out), no information indicating that connection failure information is stored is sent.

The timer may be the second timer described in the detailed description. The duration of the second timer may be preset, may be set by a terminal device, or may be configured by a network device. In the above embodiment, it is determined whether the indication information storing the connection failure information can be sent to the network device according to the operating condition of the second timer, so that the terminal device can provide complete failure information in a mobility process, and provide a correct reference for mobility optimization of the network device.

In some possible implementations, a second connection failure may occur during the running of the timer, and in case that the second connection failure is detected, the running of the timer may be stopped, and second connection failure information corresponding to the second connection failure may be recorded.

In some possible implementations, if the target cell selected by the terminal device after performing cell selection is not a CHO cell; or the terminal device does not have successful access to the DAPS target cell configured at the DAPS HO, or if the target cell selected by the terminal device after performing cell selection is a CHO cell but HOF occurs in the CHO cell, or if the terminal device performs cell selection, is successfully connected to the CHO cell or is handed over to another cell after successful access of the DAPS HO target cell, or if the terminal device enters a non-connected state from a connected state, the timer is also caused to stop running. By considering the scenario of stopping the second timer, the operation mechanism of the second timer can be more perfect.

In some possible implementation manners, there may be multiple manners of sending the indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored, for example, the first indication information may indicate that the connection failure information is stored (in this manner, the network device does not know how much connection failure information is stored), or the second indication information may indicate that at least two pieces of connection failure information are stored (in this manner, the network device may know how many pieces of connection failure information are stored), or the indication information is multiple pieces of information respectively corresponding to the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information (for example, in this manner, the network device may know how many pieces of connection failure information are stored). Optionally, the third indication information and the fourth indication information may be sent to the network device in a time sequence of occurrence of the connection failure, for example, the fourth indication information may be sent when the network device sends the first report to the network device after requesting the first report according to the third indication information.

In some possible implementations, in the case that the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information are stored, the manner of sending the connection failure information may be: sending a first report, wherein the first report comprises first connection failure information and second connection failure information; or sending a first report and a second report, wherein the first report comprises first connection failure information, and the second report comprises second connection failure information. Optionally, the first report and the second report may be sent simultaneously, or the first report and the second report may be sent sequentially according to the time sequence of the occurrence of the failure.

In some possible manners, it may also indicate to the network device that the time for processing the first report is the same as the time for processing the second report, that is, indicate to the network device to process the first report and the second report at the same time, so that the processing of the connection failure information may be more reasonable and flexible, and the target network device may receive the complete connection failure information in time, thereby performing reasonable mobility management. In a second aspect, a method of communication, alternatively referred to as a connection failure information handling method, is provided. It will be appreciated that the method of the second aspect may be performed by a second apparatus, which may be a terminal device or a communication apparatus, such as a chip or a circuit or a system of chips, capable of supporting the terminal device to perform the functions required by the method. The method can be realized in a CHO scene. The method can comprise the following steps: detecting a first connection failure, recording first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure, starting a timer under the condition that CHO continues to be executed and a second connection failure is not HOF, and sending indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored after the timer stops or is overtime.

In some possible approaches, the operating mechanism of the timer may refer to the second timer of the first aspect.

In some possible implementations, if the second connection failure is the HOF, the timer is not started, and second connection failure information corresponding to the second connection failure is recorded.

In some possible implementations, the manner of sending the indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored and sending the connection failure information may refer to the description of the first aspect.

In some possible manners, it may also indicate to the network device that the time for processing the first report is the same as the time for processing the second report, that is, indicate to the network device to process the first report and the second report at the same time, so that the processing of the connection failure information may be more reasonable and flexible, and the target network device may receive the complete connection failure information in time, thereby performing reasonable mobility management.

In some possible implementations, if the target cell is not a CHO cell after the first connection failure, the timer is not started and indication information indicating that the first connection failure information is stored is transmitted.

In a third aspect, a communication method, which may also be referred to as a connection failure information processing method, is provided. It will be appreciated that the method of the third aspect may be performed by a third apparatus, which may be a terminal device or a communication apparatus, such as a chip or a circuit or a system of chips, capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the functions required by the method. The method may be implemented in a DAPS HO scenario. The method can comprise the following steps: detecting a first connection failure, recording first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure, starting a timer under the condition that the handover of the DAPS target cell is continuously executed and the second connection failure is not the HOF, and sending indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored after the timer is stopped or overtime.

In some possible manners, it may also be indicated to the network device that the first report and the second report are processed at the same time, that is, the network device is indicated to process the first report and the second report at the same time, so that the processing of the connection failure information may be more reasonable and flexible.

Through the method of the second aspect or the third aspect, the probability of the terminal device starting the second timer can be reduced, for example, after the connection failure occurs and the connection is successfully established with the CHO or DAPS HO target cell, the terminal device starts the second timer, and the second timer is not started in other scenarios, so that the implementation complexity of the terminal device is reduced, and the unnecessary energy consumption of the terminal device is reduced.

In a fourth aspect, a method of communication, alternatively referred to as a connection failure information handling method, is provided. It will be appreciated that the method of the fourth aspect may be performed by a fourth apparatus, which may be a network device or a communication apparatus, such as a chip or a circuit or a system of chips, capable of supporting the network device to perform the functions required by the method. The method may be carried out independently or in combination with any of the first to third aspects. The method can comprise the following steps: receiving information indicating that first connection failure information is stored from a terminal device, and requesting the terminal device to acquire the connection failure information according to the access type of the terminal device in an access network device, wherein the connection failure information at least comprises the first connection failure information.

In some possible implementations, the access type is a conditional handover CHO or a dual activation protocol stack handover DAPS HO, and then, after the first time period arrives, the terminal equipment may be requested to acquire the connection failure information.

In some possible implementation manners, the access type does not belong to the conditional handover CHO or the dual activation protocol stack handover DAPS HO, and the connection failure information may be directly requested from the terminal device without waiting for the first duration.

In some possible implementations, the first duration may be determined according to information received from a source network device, or the first duration is preset, or the first duration is determined according to time information indicated by the terminal device.

In some possible implementations, the connection failure information is carried in a first report, and after receiving the first report, the first report may be processed, for example, forwarded to the target network device, including: and sending a first report to the target network equipment and indicating a mode of receiving the first report, wherein the mode of receiving the first report comprises conditional switching or dual-activation protocol stack switching.

In the embodiment of the application, the network device can be prevented from requesting the incomplete connection failure information from the terminal device through the behavior of the network device, so that the wrong adjustment of the mobility parameters can be prevented from being executed according to the incomplete connection failure information, and the robustness of the mobility strategy is improved.

In a fifth aspect, a communication method, which may also be referred to as a connection failure information processing method, is provided. It will be appreciated that the method of the fifth aspect may be performed by a fourth apparatus, which may be a network device or a communication apparatus, such as a chip or a circuit or a system of chips, capable of supporting the network device to perform the functions required by the method. The method may be carried out independently or in combination with any of the first to third aspects. The method can comprise the following steps: and indicating the way of receiving the first report and/or the second report to the first target network device or a third target network device, wherein the first target network device is a target network device corresponding to the first report, and the third target network device is a target network device corresponding to the second report. The receiving network device indication is, for example, the above report received in a DAPS HO, or CHO scenario. Alternatively, the first target network device and the third target network device may be the same or different network devices. By the method, the target network device can know the scene of the first report and/or the second report or receive the mode that the network device receives the first report and/or the second report, so that the method can be used for reference of mobility optimization and improves robustness of a mobility policy. In a sixth aspect, a communication method, which may also be referred to as a connection failure information processing method, is also provided. The method may be implemented by the terminal device or a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) usable with the terminal device. The method can comprise the following steps: detecting a first connection failure, and recording first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure; and if the second connection failure is detected, the terminal equipment determines a processing method of the first connection failure information according to whether the cell corresponding to the second connection failure is a cell executed by the terminal equipment in CHO or is a cell related to the execution of the CHO or is a cell recovered by the CHO. For example, in the case that it is determined that the cell corresponding to the second connection failure is a cell for which the terminal device performs CHO execution or a cell related to CHO execution or a cell for which CHO recovery is performed, the second connection failure information is recorded without deleting the currently stored first connection failure information; or, in the case that the cell corresponding to the second connection failure is determined not to be the cell executed by the terminal device for CHO or not to be the cell related to the execution of CHO or not to be the cell executed by CHO recovery, deleting the first connection failure information and recording the second connection failure information. Optionally, the method may further include: and sending the recorded connection failure information. By the method, the terminal equipment can process the connection failure information according to the mode of whether the cell in which the new connection failure occurs is the cell executed by the CHO by the terminal equipment or whether the cell is related to the execution of the CHO or whether the cell is recovered by the CHO, thereby reducing the implementation complexity of the terminal equipment and reducing the unnecessary energy consumption of the terminal equipment.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, which has the functionality to implement the actions or steps of the method of the first aspect. The communication means may be a terminal device or a component (e.g. a chip or a circuit) that can be used in a terminal device. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions. In one possible design, a communication device includes: the device comprises a detection unit, a processing unit and a transceiving unit. Optionally, a storage unit may be included, which may be used to store instructions and/or data. These modules/units may perform corresponding functions in the method example of the first aspect, for specific reference, detailed description of the method example is given, and details are not repeated here.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a communication device having a function of implementing the actions or steps of the method of the second aspect described above. The communication means may be a terminal device or a component (e.g. a chip or a circuit) that can be used in a terminal device. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions. These modules/units may perform corresponding functions in the method example of the second aspect, for specific reference, detailed description of the method example is given, and details are not repeated here.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus having a function of implementing the actions or steps in the method of the third aspect described above. The communication means may be a terminal device or a component (e.g. a chip or a circuit) that can be used in a terminal device. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions. These modules/units may perform corresponding functions in the method example of the third aspect, for specific reference, detailed description of the method example is given, and details are not repeated here.

A tenth aspect provides a communication device having functionality to implement the acts or steps of the method of the fourth aspect. The communication means may be a network device or a component (e.g. a chip or a circuit) that may be used in a network device. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions. These modules/units may perform corresponding functions in the method example of the fourth aspect, for specific reference, detailed description of the method example is given, and details are not repeated here.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a communication device having functionality to implement the acts or steps of the method of the fifth aspect described above. The communication means may be a network device or a component (e.g. a chip or a circuit) that may be used in a network device. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions. These modules/units may perform corresponding functions in the method example of the fifth aspect, for specific reference, detailed description of the method example is given, and details are not repeated here.

In a twelfth aspect, a communication device is provided, which has the functionality to implement the actions or steps of the method of the above sixth aspect. The communication means may be a terminal device or a component (e.g. a chip or a circuit) that can be used in a terminal device. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above. These modules/units may perform corresponding functions in the method example of the sixth aspect, for specific reference, detailed description of the method example is given, and details are not repeated here.

In a thirteenth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a communication apparatus implementing any one of the communication methods of the first to sixth aspects. The communication device includes a processor and a memory. Wherein the memory is for storing computer programs or instructions or data and the processor is coupled to the memory for causing the communication device to perform the method of any aspect when the processor reads the computer programs or instructions or data. Optionally, the communication device may further comprise a communication interface.

Illustratively, the communication interface may be a transceiver in a communication device. The transceiver may be used for the communication device to communicate with other devices.

In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor and is configured to implement any one of the methods in the first aspect to the sixth aspect. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory to store program instructions and/or data. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a fifteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which includes one or more of the communication devices of the seventh to thirteenth aspects.

In a sixteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when executed, causes any of the above aspects to be performed.

In a seventeenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program that, when executed, causes any of the above-described aspects to be implemented.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a communication system applied in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a possible scenario in which a connection failure occurs in a CHO flow of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart of an example of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of an example of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of an example of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of an example of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6A is a flowchart of an example of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application described below may be applied to a network architecture as shown in fig. 1, where fig. 1 is only an example of a communication system, and the communication system may include at least one terminal device and at least one network device, and fig. 1 takes 1 terminal device and 2 network devices as an example, and terminal device 1 may be handed over from network device 1 to network device 2. It is understood that the number of terminal devices and the number of network devices in fig. 1 are only examples, and there may be more terminal devices and network devices in the communication system, and any one network device may provide services for the terminal devices within the coverage area.

The terminal device is a device with a wireless transceiving function, and may be a fixed device, a mobile device, a handheld device, a wearable device, an in-vehicle device, or a device (e.g., a communication module or a chip system) built in the above devices. The terminal equipment is used for connecting people, objects, machines and the like, and can be widely used in various scenes. And may also be referred to at times as User Equipment (UE), access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user device. The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet (pad), a computer with wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in an internet of things (IoT) system, a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation security), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol), a local loop phone (SIP), a wireless local loop phone (local loop), a personal digital assistant (SIP), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication functionality, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle mounted device, a vehicle mounted communication apparatus, a vehicle mounted communication processing chip, a wearable device, a terminal device in a 5G network or a terminal device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) for future evolution, etc. It should be understood that the present application is not limited to the particular form of the terminal device.

The network device may be an access network device, and the access network device may also be referred to as a Radio Access Network (RAN) device, which refers to a device in the access network that communicates with a wireless terminal through one or more sectors on an air interface, and may also be considered as a device that provides a wireless communication function for the terminal device. Access network equipment includes, for example but not limited to: a next generation base station (gbb) in 5G, an evolved node B (eNB), a baseband unit (BBU), a Transmitting and Receiving Point (TRP), a Transmitting Point (TP), a base station in a future mobile communication system or an access point in a WiFi system, and the like. The access network device may also be a wireless controller, a Centralized Unit (CU), and/or a Distributed Unit (DU) in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) scenario, or the network device may be a relay station, a vehicle-mounted device, a network device in a PLMN network that is evolved in the future, and the like.

CUs and DUs may be physically separate or deployed together. A plurality of DUs can share one CU. One DU may also connect multiple CUs. The CU and DU may be connected via an interface, such as an F1 interface. CUs and DUs may be partitioned according to protocol layers of the wireless network. For example, one possible division is: the CU is configured to perform functions of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer, and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, and the DU is configured to perform functions of a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, a Media Access Control (MAC) layer, a physical (physical) layer, and the like. It is to be understood that the division of CU and DU processing functions according to such protocol layers is merely an example, and may be performed in other manners. For example, a CU or DU may be partitioned to have more protocol layer functionality. For example, a CU or DU may also be divided into partial processing functions with protocol layers. In one design, some of the functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers above the RLC layer are set in the CU, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer are set in the DU. In another design, the functions of a CU or DU may also be divided according to traffic type or other system requirements. For example, dividing by time delay, setting the function that processing time needs to meet the time delay requirement in DU, and setting the function that does not need to meet the time delay requirement in CU. The network architecture shown in fig. 1 may be applied to a 5G communication system, which may also share one or more components or resources with an LTE system. In another design, a CU may also have one or more functions of the core network. One or more CUs may be centrally located or separately located. For example, the CUs may be located on the network side to facilitate centralized management. The DU may have multiple rf functions, or may have a remote rf function.

The functionality of a CU may be implemented by one entity or by different entities. For example, the functionality of the CU may be further split, e.g. the Control Plane (CP) and the User Plane (UP) are separated, i.e. the control plane (CU-CP) and the user plane (CU-UP) of the CU. For example, the CU-CP and CU-UP may be implemented by different functional entities, which may be coupled with the DUs to collectively perform the functions of the access network device.

The terminal device may communicate with access network devices of different technologies, for example, the terminal device may communicate with an access network device supporting Long Term Evolution (LTE), may communicate with an access network device supporting 5G, and may simultaneously communicate with an access network device supporting LTE and an access network device supporting 5G. The embodiments of the present application are not limited.

The examples of this application first briefly introduce a CHO and a DAPS HO.

First, DAPS HO

After receiving a handover message (e.g., a handover command or an RRC reconfiguration message) from a source network device, a terminal device maintains data transmission with the source network device, that is, the terminal device maintains a user plane protocol stack corresponding to the source network device, does not perform layer 2 recovery/reestablishment on the user plane protocol stack corresponding to the source network device, and establishes a user plane protocol stack corresponding to a target network device for performing random access and data transmission with the target network device. Before the terminal equipment releases the connection with the source network equipment, the terminal equipment maintains two sets of security keys (or security contexts) and two sets of header decompression contexts (or two sets of header compression contexts), and the terminal equipment processes the received data packet by adopting a corresponding key/header decompression context according to whether the data packet is from the source network equipment or the target network equipment. After the terminal device completes the access of the target network device, the terminal device continues to perform data transmission (uplink and/or downlink data transmission) with the source network device before receiving a release message sent by the target network device to release the connection between the terminal device and the source network device; and when the terminal equipment receives a release message which is sent by the target network equipment and used for releasing the connection between the terminal equipment and the source network equipment, the terminal equipment releases the connection between the terminal equipment and the source network equipment. Optionally, the flow or signaling for the DAPS HO may further refer to the description in 3GPP TS 38.300 V16.3.09.2.3.2 section. For example, a scenario or procedure for detecting a connection failure in a DAPS HO may include: before the terminal device successfully completes the random access with the target network device, the terminal device continues to perform Radio Link Failure (RLF) monitoring (or detection) on the connection between the terminal device and the source network device; in the process of performing random access between the terminal device and the target network device, the terminal device may detect handover failure (HOF); after the terminal device successfully completes the random access with the target network device, the terminal device may monitor a radio link of the connection between the terminal device and the target network device to determine whether there is a radio link failure. In the embodiment of the present application, for convenience of description, the command or message for instructing a DAPS HO may also be referred to as a DAPS HO command. The cell belonging to the source network device accessed by the terminal device is called a source cell, the cell belonging to the target network device accessed by the terminal device is called a target cell, the information of the target cell is configured by a DAPS HO command, and the target cell can also be called a DAPS target cell.

II, CHO

The CHO configuration information sent by the source network device to the terminal device includes information of one or more candidate cells configured for the terminal device by the source network device. The information of the candidate cell may include information indicating identification information of the candidate cell, and corresponding one or more handover trigger conditions (or may also be called execution conditions) and configuration information of the candidate cell. The information indicating the identification information of the candidate cell may be a CHO configuration identification or CHO candidate cell information. The cell information may be at least one of a Cell Global Identifier (CGI), a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), a frequency point, a cell identifier (cell ID), a non-public network identifier (NPN ID), a non-terrestrial network identifier (NTN ID), or other cell identifiers of the cell. The CGI may include a public land mobile network (PLMN ID) and a cell ID. In the embodiment of the present application, the candidate cell in the CHO configuration information may be referred to as a CHO cell for short.

After receiving the configuration information of the CHO, the terminal device determines whether each CHO candidate cell meets the handover triggering condition according to the configuration information, and the process can be understood as normal CHO. And if the CHO candidate cell meeting the switching triggering condition is taken as the candidate target cell, switching from the source cell to the target cell.

If the terminal device receives a handover command without a CHO configuration (that is, the handover command does not carry CHO configuration information) before any CHO execution condition is satisfied, the handover command may also be converted into a normal handover (normal HO or legacy HO), and the terminal device executes a handover procedure according to the normal handover command. It will be appreciated that at this point the terminal device has available CHO configurations, and the handover type corresponding to this scenario may also be referred to as CHO. In this embodiment of the application, each scenario in which the terminal device receives the CHO configuration information and the CHO configuration information is not cleared may be referred to as a CHO configuration available to the terminal device, and may include: normal CHO, or if the terminal device receives a handover command without CHO configuration before any CHO execution condition is satisfied. In the embodiment of the present application, for convenience of description, a command or a message having CHO configuration information may also be referred to as a CHO command, and the CHO command may be, for example, an RRC reconfiguration message. In the embodiment of the present application, a handover type corresponding to any scenario with available CHO configuration may be referred to as CHO.

When the terminal device has available CHO configuration, the terminal device detects that the connection fails, and if a suitable cell selected by the terminal device is a CHO candidate cell, the terminal device may attempt a CHO execution, which may also be referred to as CHO recovery (CHO recovery); if the target cell selected by the terminal equipment is not the CHO candidate cell, the terminal equipment executes a reestablishment process; and if the terminal equipment does not find a suitable cell within a period of time, the terminal equipment enters an idle state. It can be understood that, if the terminal device in the CHO flow tries the CHO execution 1 time (i.e. the terminal device performs the CHO recovery), the terminal device detects the connection failure again, and no matter whether the suitable cell selected by the terminal device is the target cell in the CHO candidate cell, the terminal device does not try the CHO execution (or the CHO recovery), and optionally, the terminal device may execute the reestablishment flow. It can be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may try 1 time again after detecting the first connection failure in the CHO flow (i.e., the terminal device performs 1 CHO recovery), in the CHO flow, after detecting the first connection failure, the terminal device may try N times of CHO executions (or CHO recoveries), where N is a preset maximum number of times for limiting the number of times of CHO executions (or CHO recoveries) that may be tried after detecting the first connection failure in the CHO flow, and N is greater than or equal to 1.

It is to be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, messages or commands for implementing a handover configuration or a handover indication may also be collectively referred to as handover messages or handover commands.

Fig. 2 exemplarily shows a possible scenario in which at least 2 connection failures occur in the CHO flow, as shown in fig. 2, after the source cell triggering condition is switched, the terminal device first attempts to switch to the target cell B (T-cell B), after the connection failure occurs in the T-cell B, performs cell selection, selects the target cell C (T-cell C) in the CHO candidate cells, and then attempts to switch to the T-cell C (i.e., the terminal device attempts to perform CHO recovery with the T-cell C), and also occurs a connection failure in the target cell T-cell C, and the CHO flow is ended. The connection failure may include a failure caused by HOF, RLF, or timer expiration. Here, T-cell B may be referred to as the first target cell in the CHO procedure. It can be understood that, for the legacy HO procedure with the CHO configuration, a scenario as shown in fig. 2 may also occur, that is, the terminal device performs handover to a target cell B (the target cell indicated by the legacy HO) according to the legacy HO, after a connection failure occurs in the cell B, performs cell selection and selects a target cell T-cell C in the CHO candidate cells, the terminal device retries handover to the T-cell C (that is, the terminal device attempts CHO recovery with the T-cell C), and a connection failure also occurs in the target cell T-cell C, and the CHO procedure is ended. . In addition, there are also multiple failures in other CHO scenarios. Taking the example that the terminal device executes a CHO attempt at most after detecting the first connection failure: the terminal equipment receives the CHO configuration, does not trigger the CHO switching and detects the connection failure between the terminal equipment and the source network equipment; the terminal device determines to perform cell selection and selects a target cell B (T-cell B) in the CHO candidate cells, the terminal device performs CHO to the T-cell B (i.e., the terminal device attempts CHO recovery with the T-cell B), and the terminal device may detect that the connection between the terminal device and the T-cell B fails.

For the DAPS HO procedure, there may also be more than one connection failure in one DAPS HO procedure, for example, after the terminal device receives the DAPS HO command in the source cell, the terminal device detects a connection failure with the source cell, such as RLF, the terminal device continues to perform DAPS HO with the target cell, and the terminal device detects a connection failure between the terminal device and the target cell, such as HOF or RLF. For another example, after the terminal device receives the DAPS HO command in the source cell, the terminal device detects a connection failure with the target cell, for example, HOF, the terminal device returns to the source cell to attempt to perform connection restoration with the source cell, and the terminal device detects a connection failure between the terminal device and the source cell.

In the embodiment of the present application, a process before the terminal device starts to switch to a state of successfully accessing the target cell or turning to another non-connected state may be referred to as a primary switching process (or a primary switching process). CHO, DAPS HO, normal handover (which may be referred to as normal HO or legacy HO), etc. are understood as different handover types. For a CHO scenario, the timing at which the base station of the source network equipment transmits the CHO configuration information may be regarded as initiation of handover, for a DAPS HO scenario, the timing at which the source network equipment transmits a DAPS HO command to the terminal equipment may be regarded as initiation of handover, and for a normal handover, the timing at which the source network equipment transmits the handover command to the terminal equipment may be regarded as initiation of handover.

It is understood that the above-mentioned one-time handover procedure may also be referred to as one-time mobility procedure. During the mobility procedure, at least one connection failure may occur, and for the occurred connection failure, the terminal device may record connection failure information.

As an example, the connection failure information may include at least one of the following information:

1) failed primary cell identity (failedPCellId): the terminal device detects the RLF or the primary cell information for which the first timer expires (expires), or the target primary cell information for the HOF. The timer may be, for example, a timer started after the terminal device sends the measurement report, and if the terminal device has not received the handover command after the first timer expires, it may be considered that a connection failure occurs, and the first timer may be, for example, T312.

Optionally, the connection failure information may not include the failed primary cell identity (failedPCellId) but include the failed cell identity (failedCellId). The failed cell identifier is cell information of a link failure detected by the terminal device or a timer expired, or target cell information of a handover failure, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

2) Connection failure type (connectionFailureType).

The connection failure type may be RLF or HOF or timer expiration, as examples. The connection failure type may also be referred to simply as a failure type.

3) Previous primary cell identification (previousps cellid): the terminal equipment receives the information of the previous main cell of the switching command last time.

Optionally, the connection failure information may not include the previous primary cell identifier (proviouscellid) but include the previous cell identifier (proviouscellid). The previous cell identifier is previous cell information of the terminal device that last received the handover command, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

4) Reestablishment of cell identity (resessabelishmenticellid): cell information for attempting to re-establish after connection failure.

5) Connection failure time (timebonnfailure): the length of time since the last (or most recent) receipt of the handover command (or reconfiguration message) until the connection failed.

6) Time after failure (timeSinceFailure): the length of time to start recording when the connection fails. Generally refers to the length of time from connection failure to reporting of a failure report.

7) Reason for connection failure (rlf-Cause): the reason for the connection failure may include HOF, RLF, reconfiguration synchronization failure, NR to other system handover failure, integrity check failure (RRC connection reconfiguration failure), or RRC connection reconfiguration failure.

8) Location information (locationInfo): information of a location where the connection failure occurs in the terminal device.

9) Random access information (ra-information common): and the terminal equipment carries out random access information in the cell.

9) The measurement results are as follows: may be cell and/or beam measurements, which may include measurements of a serving cell and/or neighbor cell.

10) Receiving the time information (timeCHOcfgExe) from the CHO configuration to the triggering of the normal CHO execution (i.e. CHO execution condition trigger)

The connection failure information in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as link failure information.

In the embodiment of the present application, in a mobility process, if the number of times of connection failure is greater than 1 (for example, M times, where M is an integer greater than 1), the terminal device may have two ways of reporting connection failure information.

Mode (1): include failure information for M connection failures in one report (e.g., RLF report);

mode (2): the M connection failure messages correspond to M reports, respectively.

It can be understood that, in the above manners (1) and (2), the terminal device reports part or all of the connection failure information by using the RLF report as an example for description, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the form of the bearer or the report for storing the connection failure information by the terminal device.

In order to solve the problem of how to reasonably process connection failure information under the condition that the number of times of connection failure occurrence is M times in a mobility process, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, and it can be understood that the communication method may also be called a connection failure information processing method. In the communication method, after starting a switching process, a terminal device detects a first connection failure (first connection failure), records first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure and stores the first connection failure information, the terminal device does not immediately indicate to a network device that the connection failure information is stored, but starts a timer, and after the timer stops or times out, the terminal device sends indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored. As for the case of the timer operation, reference may be made to the detailed description of the following embodiments.

As shown in fig. 3, for example, when M ═ 2, the communication method includes:

s301, the terminal device detects the connection failure.

It is understood that, in the present embodiment, the connection failure may be referred to as a first connection failure. The detection of the connection failure by the terminal device may be: the terminal device receives the CHO configuration, does not trigger the CHO execution condition, and detects a connection failure between the terminal device and the source cell, such as a failure triggered by an RLF or a timer expiration; or the terminal device receives the CHO configuration, triggers the CHO execution condition or receives the normal handover command, and detects the connection failure between the terminal device and the target cell, such as the HOF or the RLF; or after the terminal device receives the DAPS HO command, it detects a connection failure between the terminal device and the source cell, such as RLF; or after receiving the DAPS HO command, the terminal device detects a connection failure, such as an HOF, between the terminal device and the target cell.

After the handover procedure is initiated, before the handover procedure is ended, a connection failure of the terminal device in the source cell or the target cell may occur. If the terminal device determines that a connection failure is detected, S302 may be performed. The connection failure detected at S301 may be referred to as a first connection failure.

It can be understood that, if the terminal device does not detect the connection failure, which means that the terminal device can normally complete the handover procedure, the procedure of the embodiment of the present application may not be executed.

In this embodiment, a cell in which the terminal fails to perform the first connection may be referred to as a first cell.

S302, the terminal device records the connection failure information.

Accordingly, the connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure recorded in this step may be referred to as first connection failure information, and may also be referred to as first connection failure information.

When the terminal device detects the connection failure, the terminal device records and stores the connection failure information.

In some possible implementations, subsequently, when the terminal device reports the first connection failure information, the first connection failure information may be reported through a first report (e.g., a first RLF report).

S303, the terminal device starts a second timer.

The second timer is used for the terminal device to determine whether the indication information of the connection failure information stored in the terminal device can be sent to the network device. The duration of the second timer is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. It is understood that the duration information of the second timer may be configured by the network device, for example, the network device to which the first cell belongs may send the duration information of the second timer to the terminal device through a system message or a handover message. Optionally, the network device to which the first cell belongs may receive, from the target network device, the duration information of the second timer, for example, receive the duration information of the second timer in the handover confirmation message sent by the target network device. Alternatively, the duration of the second timer may also be configured by the source network device, or may also be set by the terminal device.

It is understood that S303 may be executed after S301 or S302, or may be executed in synchronization with S301 or S302. That is, the second timer may be started when or after the terminal device detects the connection failure, or the timer may be started when or after the terminal device records the connection failure information.

After S303, S304 may be performed. It is understood that S304 does not necessarily occur in an actual scenario.

S304, during the second timer running, the terminal device determines that the connection failure is detected again.

During the operation of the second timer, after detecting the first connection failure, the terminal device continues to attempt access in at least one other cell (the second cell), for example, the selected suitable cell is a CHO candidate cell, and the terminal device may attempt CHO execution (alternatively referred to as CHO recovery); or continue to attempt handover with the target cell of the DAPS HO; or the terminal equipment detects the HOF between the terminal equipment and the target cell of the DAPS HO and tries to return to the source cell for connection recovery. .

It is understood that, on the basis of the first connection failure, a connection failure may occur again, and in the embodiment of the present application, the connection failure occurring again may be referred to as a second connection failure. If the terminal device detects the connection failure again, S305 is performed. If the terminal device does not detect the connection failure again during the second timer running, it means that the terminal device can access normally. Then S306 may be performed when the second timer expires.

S305, stop the second timer, and the terminal device records the connection failure information of the second connection failure.

And when the terminal equipment detects that the connection failure times reach M, the terminal equipment stops the second timer. Taking M ═ 2 as an example, when the terminal device detects the second connection failure, the terminal device stops the second timer. Further, the terminal device records connection failure information (second connection failure information) corresponding to the second connection failure. It is understood that the recording of the second connection failure information and the stopping of the second timer may be performed simultaneously or sequentially (the order of recording the second connection failure information and stopping the second timer is not limited).

Optionally, the terminal device may also record the run-time length information of the second timer, where the recorded run-time length information of the second timer may be a part of the connection failure information.

Optionally, the terminal device may report the second connection failure information through a first report, or report the second connection failure information through a report (a second report) different from the first report.

It is to be understood that the scenario in which the terminal device detects the second connection failure is to stop the second timer, and in other scenarios, the terminal device may also stop the second timer, for example: the target cell selected by the terminal equipment after cell selection is not a CHO cell; or the terminal equipment can not be successfully accessed in the DAPS target cell configured by the DAPS HO; or the target cell selected by the terminal equipment after cell selection is a CHO cell, but HOF occurs in the CHO cell; or after the terminal equipment executes the cell selection, the connection is successfully established with the CHO cell or the terminal equipment is switched to other cells after the DAPS HO target cell is successfully accessed; or the terminal equipment enters a non-connection state from a connection state. It is understood that, the above is only to illustrate the recording of the connection failure information by detecting the connection failure again, and for any of the above cases, when the connection failure occurs, the connection failure information may also be reported in the above-mentioned manner (1) or (2). And for any case of stopping the second timer, S306 may be continued after stopping the second timer.

S306, the terminal device sends indication information, wherein the indication information indicates that the terminal device stores the connection failure information or indicates that the terminal device stores the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information.

The terminal device may send the indication information to the network device (may be referred to as a receiving network device) after the second timer is stopped or expires, and the specific sending time of the indication information after the second timer is stopped or expires is not limited in this embodiment of the application. The receiving network device may be the same as or different from the source network device/the network device that detects the connection failure, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In some possible implementations, the indication information may be first indication information, that is, the first indication information indicates that the terminal device stores connection failure information (the connection failure information at least includes the first connection failure information); alternatively, the indication information may be one piece of information (second indication information), that is, the second indication information indicates that the terminal device stores at least two pieces of connection failure information, or the indication information may be a plurality of pieces of information (for example, third indication information and fourth indication information) corresponding to the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information, respectively, that the third indication information (for example, rlf-Info 1Available) corresponding to the first connection failure information indicates that the terminal device stores the first connection failure information, and the fourth indication information (for example, rlf-Info 2Available) corresponding to the second connection failure information indicates that the terminal device stores the second connection failure information, or the second indication information indicates that the terminal device stores M pieces of connection failure information. Optionally, the third indication information and the fourth indication information may be sent at the same time or at different times, for example, the third indication information and the fourth indication information may be sent to the network device in sequence according to the time sequence of the occurrence of the corresponding connection failure. It can be understood that, for the manner indicated by the second indication information and the third and fourth indication information, the network device may know how many connection failure information the terminal device stores.

It should be noted that, for a case that only one connection failure information occurs in one mobility procedure, the terminal device may also indicate, to the network device through the first indication information, that the connection failure information is stored in the terminal device.

Alternatively, when the second timer is still running (i.e. the second timer is not stopped or expired), even if the terminal device already stores the first connection failure information, the terminal device may not send the network device the indication information that it stores the connection failure information.

Optionally, S307 may be further performed after S306.

S307, the receiving network device requests the terminal device to acquire the connection failure information according to the indication information.

In a possible implementation manner, the receiving network device may request the terminal device to acquire the first connection failure information or request to acquire the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information.

In other words, the receiving network device sends a message requesting the first report or requesting the first report and the second report to the terminal device.

After the receiving network device receives the indication information, it can be known that the terminal device stores the connection failure information, so that the terminal device can be requested to send a report corresponding to the connection failure information. Accordingly, the terminal device may send the first report and/or the second report to the receiving network device according to a request of the receiving network device.

In a possible implementation manner, for a case that the indication information is first indication information, the receiving network device requests the terminal device to acquire first connection failure information (a first report).

In a possible implementation manner, for the case that the indication information is the second indication information, the receiving network device requests the terminal device to acquire the first connection failure information (the first report) and the second connection failure information (the second report) or requests the terminal device to acquire the first report. Optionally, the terminal device may send the first report and the second report simultaneously, or may send the first report and the second report sequentially according to a time sequence of occurrence of the failure.

In a possible implementation manner, for the case that the indication information is the third indication information and the fourth indication information, the manner in which the receiving network device requests the terminal device to acquire the first connection failure information (the first report) and the second connection failure information (the second report) may be the following a or B:

a: if both the third indication information and the fourth indication information are sent to the network device before the receiving network device makes the request (e.g., the third indication information and the fourth indication information are sent to the receiving network device at the same time), the receiving network device may request the first connection failure information (first report) and the second connection failure information (second report) from the terminal device. Optionally, the terminal device may send the first report and the second report simultaneously, or may send the first report and the second report sequentially according to a time sequence of occurrence of the failure.

B: if the third indication information and the fourth indication information are not both sent to the network device before the receiving network device makes a request (for example, the third indication information is sent to the receiving network device first), the receiving network device may first request the first connection failure information (a first report) to the terminal device through the first message according to the third indication information, the terminal device may also send the fourth indication information to the receiving network device in addition to sending the first report to the receiving network device, and the receiving network device further requests the second connection failure information (a second report) to the terminal device through the second message according to the fourth indication information. In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device may carry the fourth indication information in a user equipment information response (UE information response) message.

It will be appreciated that for mode B, there may be instances where the receiving network device successfully received the first report but did not successfully receive the second report. For example, after the terminal device sends the first report to the receiving network device, the connection between the terminal device and the receiving network device is disconnected, for example, the terminal device detects that the connection with the receiving network device fails, or the terminal device executes CHO to another cell, or the terminal device receives a normal handover command or a connection release command sent by the receiving network device. In this case, the terminal device may store the first connection failure information after sending the first report, and when the terminal device determines that the first report and the second report are successfully sent to the receiving network device, the terminal device deletes the stored first connection failure information and second connection failure information. In a possible implementation manner, if the receiving network device determines that the terminal device stores the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information and determines that the terminal device does not receive the first report and the second report, the receiving network device may delete the received first report or the received second report, and correspondingly, the receiving network device does not execute S308.

Optionally, after S307, S308 may also be performed.

S308, the receiving network equipment processes the received report.

As described above, according to the method (1), the receiving network device may process the first report, and according to the method (2), the receiving network device may process the first report and the second report separately, and the processing manners of the first report and the second report are similar, but the timing for processing the first report and the second report may be the same or different.

It is to be understood that, for the same case when the first report and the second report are processed, the protocol may specify that the receiving network device processes the first report and the second report simultaneously (the process may be, for example, forwarding, and specifically, refer to the description of the following embodiments), or the receiving network device processes the first report and the second report simultaneously according to an instruction (fifth instruction information) of the terminal device. For example, the fifth indication information indicates that the receiving network device processes both the first report and the second report, or indicates that the receiving network device processes the first report and the second report simultaneously, or indicates that the first report and the second report belong to one mobility procedure.

The manner in which the receiving network device processes the received report is illustrated below as the processing of the first report by the receiving network device, and it can be understood that the processing of the second report is similar to the processing of the first report.

The receiving network device may determine, according to the received connection failure information, a target network device that forwards the first report (the first target network device, where different connection failure information in the first report may correspond to different first target network devices). As an example, if the connection failure type in the first report is an HOF, the receiving network device may determine, according to the "previous primary cell identifier", that the network device to which the cell corresponding to the receiving network device belongs is the first target network device, optionally, the first target network device may further perform corresponding processing according to the first report, so that mobility robustness may be improved. If the connection failure type in the first report is RLF or the first timer expires, the receiving network device may determine, according to the "failed primary cell identifier", that the network device to which the cell corresponding to the receiving network device belongs is the first target network device, and optionally, the first target network device may further perform corresponding processing according to the first report, so that mobility robustness may be improved. Optionally, if the first target network device may further determine whether the first report needs to be forwarded to a network device (may be referred to as a second target network device) to which a cell corresponding to the "previous primary cell identifier" belongs, if so, the first target network device may send the first report to the network device to which the cell corresponding to the "previous primary cell identifier" belongs. For example, the first target network device may determine that a first time for the terminal device to perform handover to the detected connection failure with the failed primary cell is less than or equal to a certain threshold, and the first target network device may send a first report to the network device to which the cell corresponding to the "previous primary cell identifier" belongs. It can be understood that, when the first target network device and the receiving network device are the same network device, the forwarding may not be performed, and the receiving network device performs corresponding processing according to the first report, or, when the first target network device and the second target network device are the same network device, the forwarding may not be performed, and the first target network device performs corresponding processing according to the first report, so that mobility robustness may be improved.

It should be noted that the target network device (first target network device) corresponding to the first report and the target network device (third target network device) corresponding to the second report may be the same or different network devices. Optionally, the receiving network device may further indicate, to the first target network device or the third target network device, a manner or a scenario in which the first report and/or the second report is received, for example, indicate that the report is received in a DAPS HO or a CHO scenario. It is understood that the manner in which the receiving network device determines that the first report and/or the second report is received may be determined according to the manner in which the terminal device accesses the receiving network device, for example, the terminal device performs a CHO configuration to access the receiving network device, and the manner in which the receiving network device determines that the first report and/or the second report is received may be a CHO; alternatively, the manner in which the receiving network device determines that the first report and/or the second report is received may be a DAPS HO, such as when the terminal device is accessing the receiving network device in a DAPS HO configuration. In some possible implementations, the receiving network device may indicate to the target network device the manner in which it received the report in the failure indication message or the radio link failure indication information, that is, may include information indicating the manner in which the first report and/or the second report is received in the failure indication message or the radio link failure indication information. By indicating the manner or scenario of receiving the first report and/or the second report, the target network device may be made aware of the scenario of the first report and/or the second report occurring or the manner in which the receiving network device receives the first report and/or the second report, and may thus be used for reference for mobility optimization. It will be appreciated that the manner in which the receiving network device indicates to the first target network device or the third target network device that the first report and/or the second report is received may be decoupled from the previous embodiments, that is to say, the first report and/or the second report is not limited to being stored by the manner of the previous embodiments, for example, the first report and/or the second report may be obtained without using the second timer.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the processing procedure and manner of the first report and/or the second report by the network device, and for example, the processing procedure and manner may be to adjust a mobility parameter according to information in the first report and/or the second report, and/or perform operations such as the first target network device determining whether to send the first report and/or the second report to the network device to which the cell corresponding to the previous primary cell identifier belongs according to the connection failure time.

Optionally, for a case that the receiving network device successfully receives the first report but does not successfully receive the second report, which may be in the mode B, the receiving network device may further send, when forwarding the first report to the target network device, sixth indication information to the target network device, where the sixth indication information may indicate that the first report is an incomplete report, and/or indicate that the first report only includes failure information corresponding to the first connection failure, and/or indicate that the first report is also associated with the second report, and/or indicate that the second report is not successfully received. Through the sixth indication information, the target network device may confirm that the received first report information is incomplete, and then the target network device may not adjust the mobility parameter based on the first report, or may adjust the mobility parameter according to the first report and the second report after waiting for receiving the second report.

In some possible implementations, if the target network device is a CU, the method according to the embodiment of the present application further includes: the CU sends part or all of the information of the first report/second report to the DU.

In the above embodiment, it is determined whether the indication information storing the connection failure information can be sent to the network device according to the operating condition of the second timer, so that the terminal device can provide complete failure information in a mobility process, and provide a correct reference for mobility optimization of the network device.

It is to be understood that, in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the second timer is started after the first connection failure is detected, and further, the timing or scenario for starting the second timer may also be distinguished, for example, in the CHO or DAPS HO procedure, whether to start the second timer is determined according to the type of failure of the reoccurring connection failure, which is described below in fig. 4 and 5 with respect to the CHO and DAPS HO procedures, respectively.

As shown in fig. 4, it can be understood that, according to the communication method for the CHO scenario provided in the embodiment of the present application, the communication method may also be called a connection failure information processing method. The method can comprise the following steps:

s401, the terminal device detects that the first connection fails.

The terminal device detects a connection failure in the first cell. This step may further refer to the relevant description in S301 applicable to the CHO scenario.

S402, the terminal equipment records the connection failure information.

The connection failure information is the first connection failure information, and further, the step may refer to the related description at S302, which is not described herein again.

Optionally, the subsequent terminal device may report the first connection failure information through the first report.

S403, the terminal device performs cell selection and determines a target cell, thereby determining whether to continue CHO execution.

After detecting that the first connection fails, the terminal device may perform cell selection, and continue to attempt to access in at least one other cell. If the target cell is a non-CHO cell, S409 may be performed. If the target cell is a CHO cell, the terminal device may perform CHO, i.e. perform S404.

S404, the terminal device continues to execute the CHO and detects whether the HOF occurs in the CHO cell.

In the process of the terminal device continuing to execute the CHO, if the terminal device detects the HOF with the CHO cell, S405 may be executed; s406 may be performed if the terminal device and the target cell successfully establish a connection.

S405, the terminal device records connection failure information corresponding to the HOF.

The connection failure information corresponding to the HOF is connection failure information (second connection failure information) that occurs again.

Optionally, the subsequent second connection failure information may be reported through the method (1) or (2) described in the foregoing embodiment, and specifically, reference may be made to the description of the foregoing embodiment and the second connection failure information. S405 may be followed by S409.

S406, the terminal device starts a second timer.

The description about the second timer may refer to the related description at S303.

Optionally, after S406, S407 may be performed.

S407, during the second timer running, the terminal device determines whether a connection failure is detected again.

S408 may be performed if the terminal device detects a second connection failure during the second timer running.

If the terminal device does not detect the connection failure again during the second timer running, it means that the terminal device can access normally. S409 may be performed when the second timer expires.

S408, stopping the second timer, and recording the connection failure information of the second connection failure by the terminal equipment.

When the terminal device detects the second connection failure, the terminal device stops the second timer. In addition, the terminal device records connection failure information (second connection failure information) corresponding to the second connection failure. The operation mechanism of the second timer can be further referred to the related description of the embodiment of fig. 3. Similarly, other scenarios for stopping the second timer may also refer to the related description of the embodiment in fig. 3, and are not repeated here.

For any scenario where the second timer is stopped, the terminal device may continue to execute S409.

S409, the terminal device sends indication information, wherein the indication information indicates that the terminal device stores connection failure information or the terminal device stores first connection failure information and second connection failure information.

For the transmission of the indication information, reference may be made to the relevant description at S306, which is not described herein again.

Optionally, after S409, S410 may also be performed.

And S410, the receiving network equipment requests the terminal equipment for the first report or requests the first report and the second report according to the indication information.

S411, the receiving network device processes the received report.

It is understood that S410 and S411 are similar to S307 and S308, respectively, and further reference may be made to the description related to the foregoing embodiments, which are not repeated herein.

As shown in fig. 5, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication method for a DAPS HO scenario, and it can be understood that the communication method may also be called a connection failure information processing method. The method can comprise the following steps:

s501, before the terminal device successfully performs handover to the DAPS target cell, it detects a connection failure.

The connection failure may be referred to as a first connection failure, and for the first connection failure, reference may be further made to the relevant description applicable to the DAPS HO scenario in S301, which is not described herein again.

S502, the terminal equipment records the connection failure information.

S503, the terminal device continues to perform handover to the DAPS target cell, and determines whether or not the HOF is detected.

After detecting the first connection failure, the terminal device may continue to perform handover to the DAPS target cell, that is, continue to perform the DAPS HO procedure. In the process of continuing to perform the handover procedure, if the terminal device detects the HOF, S504 may be performed, and if the terminal device and the DAPS target cell successfully establish a connection, S505 may be performed.

And S504, the terminal equipment records the connection failure information corresponding to the HOF.

The connection failure information corresponding to the HOF is connection failure information (second connection failure information) that occurs again, and the second connection failure information may be reported in the manner (1) or (2) described in the foregoing embodiment, and specifically, reference may be made to the description related to the second connection failure information in the foregoing embodiment. After S504, S508 may be performed.

And S505, the terminal equipment starts a second timer.

Optionally, after S505, S506 may be performed.

S506, during the second timer running, the terminal device determines to detect the connection failure again.

S507 may be performed if the terminal device detects a second connection failure during the second timer is running.

If the terminal device does not detect the connection failure again during the second timer running, it means that the terminal device can access normally. Then S508 may be performed when the second timer expires.

And S507, stopping the second timer, and recording the connection failure information of the second connection failure by the terminal equipment.

When the terminal device detects the second connection failure, the terminal device stops the second timer. In addition, the terminal device records connection failure information (second connection failure information) corresponding to the second connection failure. The operation mechanism of the second timer can be further referred to the related description of the embodiment of fig. 3.

Similarly, other scenarios for stopping the second timer may also refer to the related description of the embodiment in fig. 3, and are not described herein again.

For any scenario where the second timer is stopped, the terminal device may continue to execute S508. And S508, the terminal device sends indication information, wherein the indication information indicates that the terminal device stores connection failure information or that the terminal device stores first connection failure information and second connection failure information.

For the transmission of the indication information, reference may be made to the related description at S306, which is not described herein again.

Optionally, after S508, S509 may be further performed.

S509, the receiving network device requests the terminal device for the first report or requests the first report and the second report according to the indication information.

S510, the receiving network device processes the received report.

It is to be understood that S509 and S510 are similar to S307 and S308, respectively, and further refer to the related description of the foregoing embodiments, which are not repeated herein.

In some possible implementation manners, for the embodiments shown in fig. 4 and fig. 5, the terminal device may select different manners to process the connection failure information according to different scenarios, and correspondingly, the network device may also process the connection failure information according to the received connection failure information. Through the embodiment shown in fig. 4 or fig. 5, the probability that the terminal device starts the second timer may be reduced, for example, after a connection failure occurs and the terminal device successfully establishes a connection with the CHO or DAPS HO target cell, the terminal device starts the second timer, and the second timer is not started in other scenarios, so as to reduce implementation complexity of the terminal device and reduce unnecessary energy consumption of the terminal device.

It should be noted that, in the above embodiments of fig. 3 to 5, the maximum number of connection failures occurring in one mobility procedure is illustrated as 2, and similar to the case where the maximum number of connection failures occurring is greater than 2, except that the terminal device records and sends connection failure information more times, and the second timer stops running when the mth connection failure occurs. Optionally, in any embodiment of fig. 3 to fig. 5, after the second timer is stopped or expires, if the terminal device detects a new connection failure, the terminal device may delete the currently stored connection failure information, record connection failure information corresponding to the new connection failure, regard the new connection failure as a first connection failure, and perform the subsequent steps of detecting the first connection failure as in the foregoing embodiments.

In the embodiments of fig. 3 to fig. 5, a timer is set in the terminal device to record and report the multiple connection failure information, and also, the behavior of the network device may be used to record and report the multiple connection failure information in one mobility procedure (for example, a first handover procedure). Optionally, the method may be implemented independently, or may be combined with the manner in which the terminal device stores the first report in any of the embodiments of fig. 3 to 5, and the method may include:

s601, the terminal device detects connection failure.

S601 is similar to S301, and reference may be made to the related description in the embodiment of fig. 3, which is not repeated herein.

S602, the terminal equipment records the connection failure information.

Accordingly, the connection failure information recorded in this step may be referred to as first connection failure information, and may also be referred to as first connection failure information.

In some possible implementations, the terminal device may report the first connection failure information through a first report. In case of a subsequent connection failure, the connection failure information in the same mobility procedure may be reported through the first report or other reports.

S603, the terminal device sends, to the network device, indication information indicating that the first connection failure information is stored.

After the current serving cell successfully establishes a connection (accesses the network device), the terminal device may send, to the network device (receiving network device) to which the current serving cell belongs, indication information indicating that the first connection failure information is stored.

Optionally, if the terminal device side has the second timer running as in the foregoing embodiment, the terminal device may send, in addition to the indication information indicating that the first connection failure information is stored, information indicating that the second timer is running to the network device, and/or the terminal device may send the current running length information of the second timer to the network device. If the terminal device only sends the second timer duration information (the current operation duration and/or the remaining duration) to the network device, it can be understood that the terminal device implicitly indicates to the network device that the second timer is operating.

S604, the receiving network device determines the access type.

It is understood that this step may also be referred to as the receiving network device determining (identifying) the handover type or access mode of the terminal device accessing the receiving network device.

If the receiving network device determines that the access type is a CHO or DAPS HO, S605 may be performed; for example, the terminal device executes CHO configuration to access the receiving network device, and the receiving network device determines that the access type of the terminal device accessing the receiving network device is CHO; alternatively, for example, the terminal device is accessing the receiving network device by performing a DAPS HO configuration, and the receiving network device determines that the access type of the terminal device accessing the receiving network device is a DAPS HO.

If the receiving network device determines that the access type does not belong to a CHO or a DAPS HO, i.e. a non-CHO or a non-DAPS HO (e.g. a re-established access method, or a connection established access method), S606 may be performed.

It should be noted that S604 may be an optional step. S604 may not be performed if the terminal device sends information indicating that the second timer is running and/or the current running length of the second timer to the network device. Alternatively, the network device may determine the subsequent process not by the access type, but by whether or not the information indicating that the second timer is running and/or the current runtime long information of the second timer is received, for example, if the network device receives the information indicating that the second timer is running and/or the current runtime long information of the second timer, S605 may be performed, and if the network device receives the information indicating that the second timer is running and/or the current runtime long information of the second timer, S606 may be performed.

S605, after the receiving network device reaches the first time, the receiving network device requests the terminal device to acquire the connection failure information.

The first duration may be preset, or may be sent by the source network device to the receiving network device, or may also be determined by the receiving network device according to duration information of the second timer received from the terminal device. That is, the receiving network device continues to wait for the first time period and then requests the terminal device to acquire the connection failure information when determining that the access type is CHO or DAPS HO.

In addition, a third timer may be set, where an operation duration of the third timer is the first duration, and after the third timer is overtime, the receiving network device may request the terminal device to acquire the connection failure information. The third timer may be started after receiving indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored.

Optionally, if the terminal device disconnects from the receiving network device before the first duration arrives, S606 and subsequent steps may not be executed, and the terminal device may send, to another network device different from the receiving network device, indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored and send the connection failure information.

S606, receiving the connection failure information requested by the network device to the terminal device.

After the receiving network device requests the terminal device to acquire the connection failure information, the terminal device may send the connection failure information to the receiving network device through the first report.

Optionally, after S605 or S606, S607 may be performed.

S607, the receiving network device processes the received report.

The processing manner of the received report by the receiving network device may refer to the related description at S308, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that, in the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to fig. 6, the interaction between the receiving network device and the target network device may be a direct interaction or an indirect interaction. The receiving network device may send some or all of the above-described first report/second report information to the target network device directly (via an interface between the base station and the base station, such as an X2, Xn interface) or indirectly (via an interface between the base station and the core network device, such as an S1 or NG interface). The information may be sent, for example, through at least one of the following messages: a FAILURE INDICATION (FAILURE INDICATION, RLF INDICATION) message of the X2/Xn interface, a HANDOVER REPORT (HANDOVER REPORT) message, or an uplink RAN CONFIGURATION transmission (uplink RAN CONFIGURATION transmission) message, a downlink RAN CONFIGURATION transmission (downlink RAN CONFIGURATION transmission) message, a base station CONFIGURATION transmission (eNB CONFIGURATION transmission) message, a core network device CONFIGURATION transmission (MME CONFIGURATION transmission) message of the S1/NG interface.

As shown in fig. 6A, it can be understood that, according to another communication method for a CHO scenario provided in the embodiment of the present application, the communication method may also be called a connection failure information processing method. The method can comprise the following steps:

S601A, the terminal device detects that the first connection fails.

S602A, the terminal device records the connection failure information.

In one possible implementation, the terminal device records the first connection failure information in a reporting variable, which may be, for example, varRLF-report.

S603A, the terminal device performs cell selection and determines a target cell, thereby determining whether to continue CHO execution.

After detecting that the first connection fails, the terminal device may perform cell selection, and continue to attempt to access in at least one other cell. If the target cell is a non-CHO cell, S608A may be performed. If the target cell is a CHO cell, the terminal device may perform CHO, i.e. perform S604A.

S604A, the terminal device continues to execute the CHO, and detects that a connection failure (second connection failure) occurs in the CHO cell.

S605A, the terminal device determines whether the cell corresponding to the second connection failure is a cell for which the terminal device performs CHO execution or a cell related to CHO execution or a cell for which CHO recovery is performed.

If the terminal device detects that the second connection fails, and the terminal device determines that the cell corresponding to the second connection failure is a cell executed by the terminal device in CHO, or a cell related to the execution of CHO, or a cell executed by CHO recovery, 606A may be executed;

if the terminal device detects that the second connection fails, and the terminal device determines that the cell corresponding to the second connection failure is not a cell for which the terminal device performs CHO execution or is not a cell related to CHO execution or is not a cell for which CHO recovery is performed, 607A may be performed.

S606A, the terminal device records the second connection failure information.

The terminal device records the second connection failure information, and the terminal device does not delete the currently stored first connection failure information, that is, the terminal device records and stores the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the manner in which the terminal device records and stores the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information. In one possible implementation, the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information may be recorded in the same reporting variable, which may be, for example, varRLF-report. Optionally, after S606A, S608A may also be performed.

S607A, the terminal device deletes the first connection failure information, and the terminal device records the second connection failure information.

It is to be understood that this step may be understood as an update of the first connection failure information. For example, the terminal device deletes or clears the first connection failure information in the varRLF-report, and records the second connection failure information in the varRLF-report.

In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device may use the second connection failure information as the first connection failure information and continue to perform the subsequent steps of detecting the first connection failure in this embodiment. Optionally, after S607A, S608A may also be performed.

S608A, the terminal device sends the recorded connection failure information to the network device (receiving network device).

The manner in which the terminal device sends the connection failure information to the network device may refer to the related description of the foregoing embodiments.

For example, in the case that the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information are stored, the manner in which the terminal device sends the connection failure information may refer to other descriptions in this embodiment, and details are not described here again. Can be as follows: sending a first report, wherein the first report comprises first connection failure information and second connection failure information; or sending a first report and a second report, wherein the first report comprises first connection failure information, and the second report comprises second connection failure information. Optionally, the first report and the second report may be sent simultaneously, or the first report and the second report may be sent sequentially according to the time sequence of the occurrence of the failure. For example, the terminal device may send the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information to the network device through the first report.

S609A, the receiving network device processes the received report.

This step may refer to the related description at S308, which is not described herein again.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may perform processing on the connection failure information according to a manner whether the cell in which the new connection failure occurs is a cell in which the terminal device performs CHO execution or a cell related to CHO execution or a cell in which CHO recovery is performed, so that implementation complexity of the terminal device may be reduced, and unnecessary energy consumption of the terminal device may be reduced.

The following describes an apparatus for implementing the above method in the embodiment of the present application with reference to the drawings. Therefore, the above contents can be used in the subsequent embodiments, and the repeated contents are not repeated. In order to implement the functions in the method provided by the embodiments of the present application, each network element or apparatus may include a hardware structure and/or a software module, and implement the functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module. Whether any of the above-described functions is implemented as a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technical solution.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 700 may correspondingly implement the functions or steps implemented by the terminal device in the method embodiments shown in fig. 3 to fig. 6A. The communication apparatus 700 may be a terminal device or a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit, etc.) that may be adapted to the terminal device or the communication apparatus 700 may be a system-on-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

In some possible implementations, the communication device may include a detection unit 710, a processing unit 720, and a transceiving unit 730.

Illustratively, when used to implement the method of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3:

the detecting unit 710 may be configured to detect a first connection failure and record first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure; the processing unit 720 may be configured to start the second timer, and the sending unit is configured to send, to the network device, the indication information that the connection failure information is stored after the second timer is stopped or times out.

In some possible implementations, the detecting unit 710 is further configured to detect a second connection failure and record second connection failure information corresponding to the second connection failure during the running of the timer, and the processing unit 720 stops the running of the second timer when the detecting unit detects the second connection failure.

In some possible implementations, the transceiving unit 730 is further configured to send the first report to the network device or send the first report and the second report to the network device according to a message received from the network device requesting to obtain the connection failure information.

In some possible implementations, the processing unit 720 may be further configured to stop the operation of the second timer when any one of the following conditions: the target cell selected by the terminal device after performing cell selection is not a candidate cell configured in the CHO configuration information, or the terminal device has no DAPS target cell configured in the DAPS HO to access successfully, or the target cell selected by the terminal device after performing cell selection is a candidate cell configured in the CHO configuration information, but a handover failure occurs in the candidate cell configured in the CHO configuration information, or the terminal device establishes connection with the candidate cell configured in the CHO configuration information after performing cell selection or is handed over to another cell after the DAPS HO target cell accesses successfully, or the terminal device enters a non-connected state from a connected state.

In some possible implementations, the transceiver unit 730 does not send information indicating that connection failure information is stored while the timer is still running (not stopped or timed out).

In some possible manners, the transceiver 730 may further indicate to the network device that the first report and the second report are processed at the same time, that is, indicate to the network device that the first report and the second report are processed at the same time.

Illustratively, when used to implement the method of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4:

the detecting unit 710 may be configured to detect a first connection failure, record first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure, the processing unit 720 may be configured to start a timer if the CHO continues to be executed and the second connection failure is not the HOF, and the transceiver unit 730 may be configured to send indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored after the timer is stopped or expires.

In some possible implementations, if the second connection failure is an HOF, the processor 720 does not start a timer, and the detecting unit 710 records second connection failure information corresponding to the second connection failure.

In some possible manners, the transceiver unit 730 may further indicate to the network device that the first report and the second report are processed at the same time, that is, indicate to the network device that the first report and the second report are processed at the same time.

In some possible implementations, if the target cell is not a CHO cell after the first connection failure, the processing unit 720 does not start the timer, and the transceiving unit 730 may be configured to send the indication information indicating that the first connection failure information is stored.

Illustratively, when used to implement the method of the embodiment shown in FIG. 5:

the detecting unit 710 is configured to detect a first connection failure and record first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure, the processing unit 720 is configured to start a timer when handover of the DAPS target cell is continuously performed and the second connection failure is not an HOF, and the transceiving unit 730 sends indication information indicating that the connection failure information is stored after the timer is stopped or times out.

In some possible implementations, if the second connection failure is an HOF, the processing unit 720 does not start a timer, and the detecting unit 710 is configured to record second connection failure information corresponding to the second connection failure.

Illustratively, when used to implement the method of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6A:

the detecting unit 710 may be configured to detect a first connection failure and record first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure; processing unit 720 may be configured to perform cell selection by the terminal device and determine a target cell to determine whether to continue CHO; the detecting unit 710 detects that a second connection failure occurs in a CHO cell, the processing unit 720 is configured to determine whether a cell corresponding to the second connection failure is a cell performed by the terminal device for CHO or is a cell related to CHO execution or is a cell subjected to CHO recovery, if the processing unit 720 determines that the cell corresponding to the second connection failure is a cell performed by the terminal device for CHO or is a cell related to CHO execution or is a cell subjected to CHO recovery, record the second connection failure information without deleting the currently stored first connection failure information, if the processing unit 720 determines that the cell corresponding to the second connection failure is not a cell performed by the terminal device for CHO execution or is not a cell related to CHO execution or is not a cell subjected to CHO recovery, record the second connection failure information and delete the currently stored first connection failure information. Optionally, the transceiving unit 730 may further be configured to send the recorded connection failure information.

It should be understood that the detection unit 710 and the processing unit 720 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by at least one processor or processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver unit 730 may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver-related circuit component or a communication interface. In addition, the above units may be separated or integrated, which is not limited in this application embodiment.

Optionally, the communication apparatus 700 may further include a storage unit 740, where the storage unit 740 may be configured to store instructions or data, and the processing unit 720 may execute or read the instructions or data stored in the storage unit to enable the communication apparatus to implement corresponding operations. Alternatively, the storage unit 740 may be implemented by at least one memory.

It is understood that, regarding the coupling between the units of the communication apparatus 700 and the specific implementation, reference may be made to the description of the method embodiment, and details are not described here.

As shown in fig. 8, a communication apparatus 800 provided for the embodiment of the present application can implement the functions of the network device in the methods provided in the embodiments of fig. 3 to fig. 6A of the present application. The communication apparatus 800 may be a network device; or the communication apparatus 800 may also be an apparatus capable of supporting a network device to implement the corresponding functions in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application; alternatively, the communication apparatus 800 may be a system-on-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The communication device 800 may include a transceiving unit 810 and a processing unit 820. For example, the transceiving unit 810 may be configured to receive information indicating that the first connection failure information is stored from the terminal device, the processing unit 820 may be configured to determine an access type of the terminal device at the access network device, and the transceiving unit 810 may be configured to request the terminal device to obtain the connection failure information according to the access type.

In some possible implementations, when the access type is a conditional handover CHO or a dual activation protocol stack handover DAPS HO, the transceiver 810 may request the terminal device to acquire the connection failure information after the first duration arrives, and the processing unit 820 may control the first duration through a timer.

In some possible implementations, when the access type does not belong to the conditional handover CHO or the dual activation protocol stack handover DAPS HO, the transceiver unit 810 may directly request the connection failure information from the terminal device without waiting for the first duration

The processing unit 820 in the embodiment of the present application may be implemented by at least one processor or processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver unit 810 may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver-related circuit component or a communication interface. In addition, the above units may be separated or integrated, which is not limited in this application.

Optionally, the communication apparatus 800 may further include a storage unit 830, the storage unit 1030 may be configured to store instructions or data, and the processing unit 820 may execute or read the instructions or data stored in the storage unit, so as to enable the communication apparatus to implement corresponding operations. Alternatively, the storage unit 830 may be implemented by at least one memory.

It is understood that, regarding the coupling between the units of the communication apparatus 800 and the specific implementation, reference may be made to the description of the method embodiment, and details are not described here.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver 810 may be configured to indicate, to a first target network device or a third target network device, a manner of receiving the first report and/or the second report, where the first target network device is a target network device to which the first report corresponds, and the third target network device is a target network device to which the second report corresponds. For example, the transceiver unit 810 indicates the above report received in a DAPS HO, or CHO scenario.

As shown in fig. 9, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 900, which may be used to implement or be used to support the communication apparatus 900 to implement the functions of the network device or the terminal device in the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application. The communication device 900 includes at least one processor 910 and at least one memory 920 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 920 is coupled to the processor 910. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form, which is used for information interaction between the devices, units or modules. The processor 910 may operate in conjunction with the memory 920. Processor 910 may execute program instructions and/or data stored in memory 920 to cause communication device 900 to implement corresponding methods. Optionally, at least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

The communications apparatus 900 can also include a communication interface 930 for communicating with other devices over a transmission medium such that the apparatus used in the communications apparatus 900 can communicate with other devices.

The specific connection medium among the communication interface 930, the processor 910, and the memory 920 is not limited in this embodiment. For example, in fig. 9, the memory 920, the processor 910, and the communication interface 930 are connected through a bus 940, the bus is indicated by a thick line in fig. 9, and the connection manner between other components is merely illustrated schematically and is not limited by the illustration. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 9, but this does not indicate only one bus or one type of bus.

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

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

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, which is used for implementing all or part of the steps of the above method embodiments. For example, the communication system may include the above-described terminal device. Optionally, the communication system may further include at least one network device.

Also provided in embodiments of the present application is a computer-readable storage medium, which includes instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the method performed by the terminal device in the embodiments shown in fig. 3-6A to be performed.

Also provided in embodiments of the present application is a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the method performed by the network device in the embodiments shown in fig. 3-6A to be performed.

Also provided in embodiments of the present application is a computer program product including instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the method performed by the network device or the terminal device in the embodiments shown in fig. 3-6A to be performed.

It should be understood that the terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning 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, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c or a-b-c, wherein a, b and c can be single or multiple.

And, unless stated to the contrary, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal numbers "first", "second", etc., without limiting the sequence, timing, priority or importance of the plurality of objects. For example, the first timer and the second timer are for the purpose of differentiating roles.

It should be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a CPU, and may also be other general purpose processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It will also be appreciated that the memory referred to in the embodiments of the application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM, enhanced SDRAM, SLDRAM, Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, the memory (memory module) is integrated in the processor.

It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

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

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

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

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

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, it 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. The procedures or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application are all or partially generated when the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that 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 Drive (SSD)), among others.

The above description is only for the specific implementation of the present application, but the scope of the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the embodiments of the present application, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered by the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for processing connection failure information, the method comprising:

detecting a first connection failure, recording first connection failure information corresponding to the first connection failure, and starting a timer;

and after the timer stops or times out, sending indication information indicating that connection failure information is stored, wherein the connection failure information at least comprises first connection failure information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a second connection failure during the timer run;

and stopping the timer, and recording second connection failure information corresponding to the second connection failure.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein sending indication information indicating that connection failure information is stored comprises:

the indication information indicates that connection failure information is stored, or the indication information indicates that at least two pieces of connection failure information are stored, or the indication information comprises information indicating that first connection failure information is stored and information indicating that second connection failure information is stored.

4. The method of claim 2 or 3, further comprising:

and sending a first report to the network equipment according to a message which is received from the network equipment and requests to acquire the connection failure information, wherein the first report comprises the first connection failure information and the second connection failure information.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

and sending a first report and a second report to the network equipment according to the message which is received from the network equipment and requests to acquire the connection failure information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein sending the first report and the second report to the network device according to a message received from the network device requesting to obtain the connection failure information comprises:

receiving a first message requesting to acquire first connection failure information from the network device;

sending the first report and the information indicating that second connection failure information is stored to the network device;

receiving a second message requesting to acquire the second connection failure information from the network device;

sending the second report to the network device.

7. The method according to any of claims 1-6, wherein the first connection failure occurs in a Conditional Handover (CHO) procedure or in a dual activation protocol stack handover (DAPS) HO procedure.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the timer is stopped when any one of:

the target cell selected by the terminal device after performing cell selection is not a candidate cell configured in the CHO configuration information, or the terminal device has no DAPS target cell configured in the DAPS HO to access successfully, or the target cell selected by the terminal device after performing cell selection is a candidate cell configured in the CHO configuration information, but a handover failure occurs in the candidate cell configured in the CHO configuration information, or the terminal device establishes connection with the candidate cell configured in the CHO configuration information after performing cell selection or is handed over to another cell after the DAPS HO target cell accesses successfully, or the terminal device enters a non-connected state from a connected state.

9. A method for processing connection failure information is characterized by comprising the following steps:

receiving information indicating that first connection failure information is stored from a terminal device;

determining the access type of the terminal equipment;

and requesting the terminal equipment to acquire connection failure information according to the access type, wherein the connection failure information at least comprises first connection failure information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the requesting connection failure information from the terminal device according to the access type comprises:

determining the access type to be Conditional Handover (CHO) or dual-activation protocol stack handover (DAPS HO);

and after the first time is up, requesting the terminal equipment to acquire the connection failure information.

11. The method of claim 9 or 10, wherein the requesting the connection failure information from the terminal device according to the access type comprises:

determining that the access type does not belong to a Conditional Handover (CHO) or a dual activation protocol stack handover (DAPS HO);

and requesting the connection failure information from the terminal equipment.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first duration is determined according to information received from a source network device or the first duration is preset or the first duration is determined according to time information indicated by the terminal device.

13. The method according to any of claims 9-12, wherein the connection failure information is carried in a first report, the method further comprising:

and sending the first report to target network equipment and indicating a mode of receiving the first report, wherein the mode of receiving the first report comprises conditional switching or dual-active protocol stack switching.

14. A communication device, characterized in that it is adapted to implement the method according to any of claims 1-8.

15. A communication device, characterized in that it is adapted to implement the method according to any of claims 9-13.

16. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program that, when executed, causes the method of any of claims 1-13 to be performed.

17. A computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the method of any of claims 1-13 to be implemented.