CN115696480A

CN115696480A - Cell switching method, terminal and network equipment

Info

Publication number: CN115696480A
Application number: CN202110858874.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐敏
Original assignee: Spreadtrum Communications Shanghai Co Ltd
Current assignee: Spreadtrum Communications Shanghai Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-28
Filing date: 2021-07-28
Publication date: 2023-02-03
Also published as: WO2023005768A1

Abstract

The application provides a cell switching method, a terminal and a network device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: sending a first handover request to a first network device, wherein the first handover request is used for requesting to be switched from a first cell to a second cell, and the first network device is a network device to which the first cell belongs; and establishing connection with the second network equipment, wherein the second network equipment is the network equipment to which the second cell belongs.

Description

Cell switching method, terminal and network equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a handover method, a terminal, and a storage medium.

Background

The terminal can reside on the cell of the base station, so that data interaction is completed with the core network. In some embodiments, the ue may switch from one base station (denoted as a source base station) to another base station (denoted as a target base station), and specifically, the terminal may report a measurement report to the source base station based on the configuration, and the source base station determines whether the terminal performs handover based on the measurement report. For example, the terminal transmits a measurement report to the source base station, where the measurement report includes measurement result information of multiple cells, such as the received strength of the pilot signal. And the source base station determines a target base station according to the received measurement result information of the plurality of cells, and then sends a switching request to the target base station, thereby completing the switching of the terminal.

In the prior art, a base station completes handover based on a measurement report reported by user equipment, which is not suitable in some scenarios.

Disclosure of Invention

In a first aspect, the present application provides a cell handover method, which is applied to a terminal, such as the terminal 200 in an embodiment, and the cell handover method includes:

sending a first switching request to first network equipment, wherein the first switching request is used for requesting to be switched from a first cell to a second cell, and the first network equipment is network equipment to which the first cell belongs; the second cell may comprise a second cell to which network device 206 belongs or a wireless cell to which network device 208 belongs in embodiments. The first handover request includes a handover request transmitted by the terminal 200 to the network device 204 or a handover request transmitted by the terminal 200 to the network device 208.

And establishing connection with second network equipment, wherein the second network equipment is the network equipment to which the second cell belongs.

In one embodiment of the present application, the first handover request includes an identity of the second network device or an identity of the second cell.

In one embodiment of the present application, the method further comprises:

and sending a first message to the second network equipment, wherein the first message is used for establishing the bearing of the terminal on the second cell.

In one embodiment of the present application, the first message includes at least one of the following information: the identifier of the first network device, the identifier of the first cell, and the bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell.

In one embodiment of the present application, the method further comprises:

using the same bearer configuration on the second cell as the first cell;

sending a second message to the second network equipment, wherein the second message comprises indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating the second network equipment to reuse the bearing configuration information before the cell switching is carried out by the terminal; or, the second message includes bearer configuration information used by the terminal.

In an embodiment of the present application, the handover method further includes:

and after the terminal is accessed to the second network equipment, sending a third message to the first network equipment, wherein the third message is used for requesting the first network equipment to release the connection with the terminal.

In one embodiment of the application, releasing the connection with the terminal comprises one or more of: and releasing the context of the terminal and releasing the communication resource between the terminal and the terminal.

In one embodiment of the application, before sending the second message to the first network device, the method further comprises:

data transmission on the first cell is maintained.

In one embodiment of the present application, the first network device is a base station, and the second network device includes a WIFI access point or a base station.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a terminal, comprising:

a sending module, configured to send a first handover request to a first network device, where the first handover request is used to request handover from a first cell to a second cell, and the first network device is a network device to which the first cell belongs; (ii) a

In a third aspect, the present application provides a cell handover method, applied to a first network device, including:

receiving a first switching request from a terminal, wherein the first switching request is used for requesting to switch from a first cell to a second cell, the first network equipment is network equipment to which the first cell belongs, and the switching request comprises a second network equipment identifier or an identifier of the second cell;

sending a second switching request to the second network equipment based on the second network equipment identifier or the identifier of the second cell, wherein the second switching request comprises the bearing configuration information of the terminal in the first cell; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and receiving a request message from the second network equipment, and sending the bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell to the second network equipment according to the request message, wherein the request message comprises the identifier of the second network equipment or the identifier of the second cell.

In one embodiment of the present application, the handover method further includes:

receiving a third message sent by the terminal, wherein the third message is used for requesting the first network equipment to release the connection with the terminal;

and releasing the connection with the terminal according to the third message. Releasing the connection with the first user equipment comprises one or more of: and releasing the context of the first user equipment and releasing the communication resources with the first user equipment.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a first network device, comprising:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first handover request from a terminal, where the first handover request is used to request handover from a first cell to a second cell, a first network device is a network device to which the first cell belongs, and the handover request includes an identifier of the second network device or an identifier of the second cell;

a first sending module, configured to send a second handover request to a second network device based on an identifier of the second network device or an identifier of a second cell, where the second handover request includes bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and the second sending module is used for receiving a request message from the second network equipment, and sending the bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell to the second network equipment according to the request message, wherein the request message comprises the identifier of the second network equipment or the identifier of the second cell.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides an electronic device, where the electronic device further includes a processor and a storage device, where the storage device stores program instructions, and the program instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform the handover method according to the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides an electronic device, where the electronic device further includes a processor and a storage device, where the storage device stores program instructions, and when the program instructions are executed by the processor, the electronic device performs the handover method shown in the third aspect.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions that, when executed on a computer device, cause the computer device to perform the handover method of the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions that, when executed on a computer device, cause the computer device to perform the handover method of the third aspect.

Based on the method disclosed by the application, the switching of the terminal between the network devices can be completed more quickly.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating a network handover in the related art;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system 210 according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3A is a flowchart illustrating interaction between devices in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3B is a flowchart illustrating interaction between devices in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3C is a flowchart illustrating interaction between devices in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3D is a flowchart illustrating interaction between devices in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3E is a flowchart illustrating interaction between devices in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3F is a flowchart illustrating interaction between devices in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of a handover method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal 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. In the description of the embodiments herein, "/" means "or" unless otherwise specified, for example, a/B may mean a or B; "and/or" herein is merely an association describing an associated object, and means that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone.

In the following, the terms "first", "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of that feature. In the description of the embodiments of the present application, "a plurality" means two or more unless otherwise specified.

The network device handover in the prior art may include handover of a terminal between base stations. Specifically, the network equipment handover may refer to a handover of a terminal from one base station (denoted as a source base station) to another base station (denoted as a target base station), where the terminal may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE). The source base station may be referred to herein as a first network device and the target base station may be referred to as a second network device. Specifically, the handover of the terminal from the source base station to the target base station may be understood as the handover of the terminal from the cell to which the source base station belongs to the cell to which the target base station belongs.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a terminal performing handover between network devices in the prior art.

The base stations in the prior art include various types, such as 2/3G base stations, 4G base stations, 5G base stations, and the like. The source base station handover to the target base station may include inter-handover among a 2/3G base station, a 4G base station, and a 5G base station. In fig. 1, the source base station 102 and the target base station 104 may both be 5G base stations, such as a gNB.

The core network 106 may be a 5G core network. Wherein, the 5G core network at least comprises: a User Plane Function (UPF) network element, an access and mobility management function (AMF) network element, a Session Management Function (SMF) network element, a Policy Control Function (PCF) network element, and so on. .

Referring to fig. 1, a description is given of a handover procedure between network devices of a terminal in the prior art.

In fig. 1, the terminal 100 initially camps on a first cell, which may be a cell to which the source base station 102 belongs. The terminal 100 may exchange data with a UPF network element in the core network 106 based on the source base station 102.

In step 0, the AMF in the core network 106 may provide the source base station 102 and the target base station 104 with the mobile control information.

In step 1, the terminal 100 may perform neighbor cell measurement and report a measurement report to the source base station 102 based on the configuration of the source base station 102.

In step 2, the source base station 102 may determine, based on the measurement report, to handover from a first cell to a second cell, where the first cell is a cell to which the source base station belongs, and the second cell may be a cell to which the target network belongs. Specifically, the measurement report includes measurement result information of multiple cells, and the source base station 102 may determine that the terminal is handed over from the first cell to a second cell based on the measurement result information of the second cell, where the second cell is the cell to which the target base station 104 belongs.

In step 3, the source base station 102 sends a handover request to the target base station 104. Specifically, the source base station 102 may send a handover request to the target base station 104 based on the cell identifier of the second cell obtained in the reported measurement event. The source base station 102 may send the target base station 104 configuration information of the terminal 100 at the source base station, etc

In step 4, the target base station 104 determines handover after receiving the handover request. And sends a message confirming the handover to the source base station 102 in step 5.

In step 6, the source base station 102 may send an indication to the terminal 100 to determine the handover.

In step 7, the source base station 102 may send a data transmission status or the like to the target base station 104. It can be understood that the uplink and downlink data between the core network 106 and the UE 100 are still carried by the source base station 102 before the terminal is handed over from the first cell to the second cell.

In step 8, the terminal 100 performs a random access procedure. The target base station 104 may send the result of the random access to the source base station 102.

After the random access between the terminal 100 and the target base station 104 is completed, the target base station 104 may transmit and receive data of the terminal 100.

In step 9, the target base station 104 may send a path switch request to the AMF in the core network 106, and in step 10, the AMF and the PMF perform path switch.

In step 11, the AMF transmits a message confirming the path switching to the target base station 104. The terminal 100 and the core network 106 may carry interactive data based on the target base station 104.

In step 12, the target base station 104 transmits a request for releasing the connection with the terminal to the source base station 102, so that the source base station 102 releases the connection with the terminal.

It should be noted that fig. 1 is only an example of the prior art. In the prior art, there are also methods for switching between other network devices, and the method is not limited to the above steps. However, it can be determined that, in the prior art, the terminal generally performs handover between network devices according to instructions of the network devices based on measurement event reporting. However, in some specific scenarios, the procedure for switching network devices based on measurement events is too tedious and the switching period is long. Meanwhile, the switching process is mainly based on the network signal quality condition, and if the quality of the cell where the terminal is located is good, the switching process is generally not triggered.

Based on this, the present application provides a cell switching method, and a terminal runs the cell switching method provided by the present application, which can simplify the switching steps and perform switching between network devices more efficiently.

The cell switching method provided by the present application may be applied to various communication systems, for example, a vehicle-to-any object (V2X) communication system, a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, an internet of vehicle communication system, a 4th generation (4 g) mobile communication system, such as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) system, a fifth generation (5 g) mobile communication system, such as a new radio, NR) system, and a future communication system, such as a sixth generation (6 g) mobile communication system.

In an embodiment of the present application, the method for switching a cell may be applied to a terminal, and the terminal may be referred to as User Equipment (UE). The terminal may specifically include a smart phone (e.g., a mobile phone with an Android system or an iOS system), a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a palmtop computer, a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, a smart band, etc.), or other devices that may access the internet.

The cell handover method in one embodiment of the present application may also be applied to a network device, where the network device includes not only a base station but also a WiFi access point.

Referring to fig. 2, a schematic structural diagram of a communication system 210 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is provided.

Communication system 210 may include terminal 200, terminal 202, network device 204, network device 206, and network device 208. In one example, terminal 200 may be referred to as a first terminal and terminal 202 may be referred to as a second terminal. The network device 204 and the network device 206 may be specifically a Home base station HeNB (Home eNB), a Micro base station (Micro Site), a small base station (Pico Site), a Pico base station (Femto Site), and the like.

In an embodiment of the present application, the network device 208 may be a WIFI access point, and the terminal 200 may access a wireless cell (WIFI network cell) under the WIFI access point.

In one embodiment of the present application, the communication system 210 may be a home networking, and the terminal and each network device may be disposed under the home networking. In one embodiment, terminal 202 and terminal 200 may communicate with each other. The terminal 200 may establish a communication connection with the terminal 202 based on a number of ways, such as based on a bluetooth network connection, a WiFi network connection, or a cellular network connection, among others.

In one example, the terminal 202 may be a control end, the terminal 200 may be a controlled end, and the terminal 202 may control whether the terminal 200 performs network device switching. Illustratively, the terminal 200 may be embodied as a VR headset, and the terminal 202 may be a handle, controller, or other electronic device capable of controlling the VR headset. The terminal 202 may determine whether the terminal 200 performs handover according to the location of the terminal 200 and the location of the network device, or the terminal 202 may determine whether the terminal 200 performs handover according to the location history information of the terminal 200 or a predicted movement trajectory of the terminal 200.

In one embodiment of the present application, the terminal 200 currently resides in a first cell, which is the cell to which the network device 204 belongs. Further, the terminal 200 or the terminal 202 may obtain the device identifiers of the network device 204 and the network device 206 in the communication system 210, or the terminal 202 or the terminal 200 may further obtain the identifier of the second cell, which may be a cell to which the network device 206 belongs. In one example, the device identifier of the network device 206 and the identifier of the second cell may be pre-stored in the terminal 202 or the terminal 200, so that the terminal 202 or the terminal 200 may acquire the device identifier of the network device 206 or the identifier of the second cell at any time.

In one embodiment of the present application, the terminal 200 may send a handover request to the network device 204, which may be referred to as a first handover request for requesting handover from a first cell to a second cell, so that the terminal 200 establishes a connection with the network device 206. Further, the terminal 200 may determine whether the terminal 200 performs handover according to the location of the terminal 200 and the location of one or more network devices (e.g., the network devices 204 and/or 206 and/or 208), or the terminal 200 may determine whether the terminal 200 performs handover according to location history information of the terminal 200 or a predicted movement trajectory of the terminal 200.

Further, in an example, the first handover request sent by the terminal 200 to the network device 204 may include the device identifier of the network device 206 or the identifier of the second cell, so that the network device 204 may determine to handover to the network device 206 and then perform a handover procedure of the terminal 200 from the first cell to the second cell.

As already indicated above, terminal 200 and terminal 202 may be in a controlling relationship, and terminal 202 may control terminal 200 to perform network device switching. In one embodiment, before the terminal 200 sends the first handover request to the network device 204, the terminal 202 may send a fourth message to the terminal 200, the fourth message being used to instruct the terminal 200 to send the first handover request to the network device 206.

In an embodiment of the present application, after the terminal 200 sends the first handover request to the network device 204, the terminal 200 may send a first message to the network device 206, and the network device 206 may establish a bearer of the terminal 200 on the second cell based on the first message.

Illustratively, the first message includes at least one of the following information: the identifier of the network device 204, the identifier of the first cell, and the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell.

In one example, the network device 206 may send the request to the network device 204 based on the identifier of the network device 204 or the first cell identifier in the first message, the network device 204 may send bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell to the network device 206, and the network device 206 may perform bearer configuration on the terminal 200 in the second cell according to the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell.

In another example, the network device 206 may directly establish the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 on the second cell according to the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 on the first cell in the first message.

In this embodiment, the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 established by the network device 206 on the second cell may be different from the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 on the first cell.

In this embodiment, the network device 206 may more quickly establish the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 on the second cell based on the first message.

In another embodiment of the present application, the terminal 200 may use the same bearer configuration on the second cell as the first cell.

Specifically, after sending the first handover request to the network device 204, the terminal 200 may send a second message to the network device 206, where the second message includes indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate that the network device 206 reuses bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 before cell handover, that is, the network device 206 reuses bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell. Or, the second message may include bearer configuration information used by the terminal 200, where the bearer configuration information is bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell, so that the network device 206 may directly use the bearer configuration information of the first cell to perform bearer configuration on the terminal 200 in the second cell.

In this embodiment, the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 on the second cell established by the network device 206 is the same as the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 on the first cell.

In one embodiment of the present application, data transmission in the first cell is maintained before the terminal 200 sends the second message to the network device 206.

In an embodiment of the present application, after the terminal 200 establishes a connection with the network device 206, for example, after the terminal 200 receives the acknowledgement information for the second message or the first message sent by the network device 206, the terminal 200 may send a third message to the network device 204, where the third message is used to request the network device 204 to release the connection with the terminal 200. After receiving the third message, the network device 204 may release the connection with the terminal 200. Wherein the network device 204 releasing the connection with the terminal 200 comprises one or more of: and releasing the context of the terminal 200 and releasing communication resources with the terminal 200.

In one example, the network device 204 may delete the data transmission channel with the core network or the gateway after receiving the third message.

In one embodiment of the present application, data transmission in the first cell is maintained before the terminal 200 sends the third message to the network device 204.

In an embodiment of the present application, after receiving the first handover request sent by the terminal 200, the network device 204 may send a second handover request to the network device 206 based on the identifier of the network device 206 or the identifier of the second cell, where the second handover request includes bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell. The network device 206 may perform bearer configuration on the terminal 200 in the second cell based on the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell.

In another embodiment of the present application, the terminal 200 may send a third handover request to the network device 204, where the third handover request is used for the terminal 200 to handover from the first cell to a third cell, where the third cell is a wireless cell to which the network device 208 belongs, so that the terminal 200 and the network device 208 establish a connection.

In an embodiment of the present application, after the terminal 200 establishes a connection with the network device 208, or after the terminal 200 and the network device 208 are successfully associated, the terminal 200 may send a third message to the network device 204, where the third message is used to request the network device 204 to release the connection with the terminal 200. After receiving the third message, the network device 204 may release the connection with the terminal 200. Wherein the network device 204 releasing the connection with the terminal 200 comprises one or more of: the context of the terminal 200 is released, and communication resources with the terminal 200 are released.

In this embodiment, the terminal maintains data transmission with the network device 204, so that the success rate of switching the network device and the interruption of data transmission caused by switching the network device in the communication systems such as home networking are improved.

Referring to fig. 3A, a flowchart of a cell handover method according to an embodiment of the present application is provided, and the method may be applied to the terminal 200 shown above.

In step 302A, the terminal 200 sends a handover request to the network device 204. The handover request may be referred to as a first handover request.

In one example, a first handover request is for requesting a handover from a first cell to a second cell. The first cell is a cell to which the network device 204 belongs. The second cell is the cell to which the network device 206 belongs.

In this embodiment, the identity of the network device 206 or the identity of the second cell may be included in the handover request. The identifier of the network device 206 or the identifier of the second cell may be stored in the terminal 200 in advance, or the terminal 200 may obtain the identifier of the network device 206 or the identifier of the second cell from other devices.

The terminal 202 may determine whether the terminal 200 performs handover according to the location of the terminal 200 and the location of the network device, or determine whether the terminal 200 performs handover according to location history information of the terminal 200 or a predicted movement trajectory of the terminal 200. When the terminal 200 determines that a handover is required, a first handover request is sent to the network device 204.

In step 304A, the terminal 200 establishes a connection with the network device 206.

Specifically, network device 204 may handover terminal 200 from the first cell to the second cell based on the identity of network device 206 or the identity of the second cell, such that terminal 200 establishes a connection with network device 206.

In this embodiment, the terminal 200 does not need to perform measurement, and directly sends a switching request to the network device 204, so that the efficiency of switching the network device by the terminal in a communication system such as home networking is improved.

Referring to fig. 3B, a flowchart of a cell handover method according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided, where the method may be applied to the terminal 200 shown above, and specifically includes:

in step 302B, terminal 202 sends a fourth message to terminal 200.

Wherein, the fourth message is used to instruct the terminal 200 to perform network device handover. In particular, the fourth message may indicate that terminal 200 is handed off by network device 204 to network device 206. The fourth message may include the device identifier of the network device 206 or an identifier of a second cell, where the second cell is a cell of the network device 206.

The terminal 202 may determine whether the terminal 200 performs handover according to the location of the terminal 200 and the location of the network device, or determine whether the terminal 200 performs handover according to location history information of the terminal 200 or a predicted movement trajectory of the terminal 200.

In step 304B, the terminal 200 sends a handover request to the network device 204.

In one example, the handover request is for the terminal 200 to handover from a first cell to a second cell. The first cell is a cell to which the network device 204 belongs. The second cell is the cell to which the network device 206 belongs.

In step 306B, the terminal 200 establishes a connection with the network device 206.

Specifically, the network device 204 may handover the terminal 200 from the first cell to the second cell based on the identity of the network device 206 or the identity of the second cell, such that the terminal 200 establishes a connection with the network device 206.

In this embodiment, the terminal does not need to perform measurement, and directly sends the switching request to the network device 204, so that the efficiency of switching the network device by the terminal in the communication systems such as home networking is improved.

Referring to fig. 3C, a flowchart of a cell handover method according to an embodiment of the present application is provided, and the method may be applied to the terminal 200 shown above.

In step 302C, the terminal 200 sends a handover request to the network device 204.

In step 304C, the terminal 200 establishes a connection with the network device 206.

Specifically, the network device 204 may switch the terminal 200 from the first cell to the second cell based on the identity of the network device 206 or the identity of the second cell in the handover request, such that the terminal 200 establishes a connection with the network device 206.

In step 306C, the terminal 200 sends a first message to the network device 204, where the first message is used to establish a bearer of the terminal 200 on the second cell.

Specifically, the first message includes at least one of the following information: the identifier of the network device 204, the identifier of the first cell, and the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell.

In an example, after receiving the first message, the network device 206 may send a request to the network device 204 based on the identifier of the network device 204 and the identifier of the first cell, obtain the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell, and then the network device 206 establishes the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 in the second cell based on the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell.

The bearer configuration of the terminal 200 in the second cell may be different from the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 in the first cell.

It can be understood that, if the first message includes the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell, the network device 206 may directly establish the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 in the second cell based on the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell.

In this embodiment, the terminal 200 may enable the network device 206 to establish the bearer of the terminal 200 in the second cell more quickly by actively sending the first message to the second network device.

Referring to fig. 3D, a flowchart of a cell handover method according to an embodiment of the present application is provided, and the method may be applied to the terminal 200 shown above.

In step 302D, the terminal 200 sends a handover request to the network device 204.

In this embodiment, the identity of the network device 206 or the identity of the second cell may be included in the handover request. The identifier of the network device 206 or the identifier of the second cell may be stored in the terminal 200 in advance, or the terminal 200 may acquire the identifier of the network device 206 or the identifier of the second cell from other devices.

In step 304D, the terminal 200 establishes a connection with the network device 206.

In this embodiment, the terminal does not need to perform measurement, and directly sends the switching request to the network device 204, so that the efficiency of switching the network device by the terminal in a communication system such as home networking is improved.

Step 306D, using the same bearer configuration on the second cell as the first cell; a second message is sent to network device 206.

Exemplarily, the second message includes indication information, where the indication information is used to instruct the network device 206 to reuse the bearer configuration information before the terminal 200 performs cell handover; or, the second message includes bearer configuration information used by the terminal.

In this embodiment, the bearer configuration of the terminal on the second cell is the same as the bearer configuration of the terminal on the first cell. The network device 206 may use the same bearer configuration as the first cell based on the second message. Specifically, the bearer configuration information used by the terminal in the second message refers to the bearer configuration information used by the terminal 200 in the first cell.

In this embodiment, the terminal 200 may enable the network device 206 to establish the bearer of the terminal 200 in the second cell more quickly by actively sending the second message to the second network device.

Referring to fig. 3E, a flowchart of a cell handover method according to an embodiment of the present application is provided, and the method may be applied to the terminal 200 shown above.

In this embodiment, steps 302E and 304E may refer to steps 302A and 304A, respectively, in fig. 3A.

In step 306E, after establishing the connection with the network device 206, the terminal 200 sends a third message to the network device, where the third message is used to request the network device 204 to release the connection with the terminal 200.

In this embodiment, releasing the connection with the terminal 200 includes one or more of the following: and releasing the context of the terminal 200 and releasing communication resources with the terminal 200.

In this embodiment, the terminal actively sends a request to the network device 204 to release the connection with the terminal 100, so that the resources occupied by the terminal 100 in the network device 204 can be released more quickly.

Referring to fig. 3F, a flowchart of a cell handover method according to an embodiment of the present application is provided, and the method may be applied to the terminal 200 shown above.

In step 302F, the terminal 202 sends a fourth message to the terminal 200, where the fourth message is used to instruct the terminal 200 to switch from the first cell to a third cell, the network device 204 is a network device to which the first cell belongs, and the third cell may be a wireless cell to which the network device 208 (WiFi access point) belongs.

Illustratively, the fourth message may carry a device identification of the WiFi access point, and the like.

Step 304F, a handover request is sent to the network device 204, the handover request being for requesting a handover from the first cell to the third cell.

In step 306F, the terminal 200 establishes a connection or association with the network device 208.

In step 308F, the terminal 200 sends a third message to the network device 206, where the third message is used to release the communication connection between the terminal 200 and the remaining network device 204.

In this embodiment, the terminal maintains data transmission with the network device 204, so that the success rate of switching the network device and the interruption of data transmission caused by switching the network device in the communication system such as home networking are improved.

Referring to fig. 4, a flowchart of a cell handover method provided in an embodiment of the present application may be applied to the network device 204 shown above, where the method includes:

step 402, receiving a first handover request from the terminal 200, where the first handover request is used to request handover from a first cell to a second cell, the first network device 204 is a network device to which the first cell belongs, and the handover request includes a second network device identifier or an identifier of the second cell;

step 404, the network device 204 sends a second handover request to a second network device based on an identifier of the second network device or an identifier of the second cell, where the second handover request includes bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell;

specifically, the network device 204 may send a second handover request to the second network device based on the second network device identity or the identity of the second cell, for handing over the terminal 200 from the first cell to the second cell.

For example, the second handover request may include bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell, and after receiving the bearer configuration information of the first cell, the second network device 206 may establish bearer configuration of the terminal in the second cell based on the bearer configuration information of the first cell.

Alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

in step 404, the network device 204 receives a request message from the second network device 206, and sends bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell to the second network device according to the request message, where the request message includes an identifier of the second network device or an identifier of the second cell.

Unlike step 404A, the network device 206 actively requests the network device 204 for the bearer configuration information of the terminal 200 in the first cell in step 404B to quickly establish the bearer configuration of the terminal 200 in the second cell.

Each functional unit 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. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

Referring to fig. 5, a schematic structural diagram of a terminal 5 according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. The terminal shown in the application can execute the switching method. The terminal 5 further includes a processor and a storage device, where the storage device stores program instructions, and when the program instructions are executed by the processor, the terminal 5 is caused to execute the handover method provided in the application embodiment.

Illustratively, the terminal 5 includes, but is not limited to, a processor 11, a memory 12. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that fig. 1 is merely an example of the terminal 5 and does not constitute a structural limitation of the terminal 5, and may include more or less components than those shown, or combine some components, or different components, for example, the terminal 5 may further include input and output devices, network access devices, buses, etc.

The Processor 11 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), other general purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component, or the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The memory 12 may be an internal storage unit of the terminal 5, such as a hard disk or a memory of the terminal 5. The memory 12 may also be an external storage device of the terminal 5, such as a plug-in hard disk provided on the terminal 5, a Smart Media Card (SMC), a Secure Digital (SD) Card, a Flash memory Card (Flash Card), and the like. Further, the memory 12 may also include both an internal storage unit of the terminal 5 and an external storage device. The memory 12 is used for storing computer programs and other programs and data required by the terminal 5. The memory 12 may also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or is to be output.

In one embodiment, the terminal 5 may also include a display screen for displaying images, video, etc., and may also be used to accept user input data. The display screen includes a display panel. The display panel may be a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, AMOLED), a flexible light-emitting diode (FLED), a miniature, a Micro-oeld, a quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED), or the like. In some embodiments, the terminal 5 may include 1 or N display screens 104, N being a positive integer greater than 1.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in essence or part of the technical solutions contributing to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solutions, may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: flash memory, removable hard drive, read only memory, random access memory, magnetic or optical disk, and the like.

The above description is only an embodiment of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present disclosure should be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A cell switching method is applied to a terminal, and the method comprises the following steps:

sending a first handover request to a first network device, wherein the first handover request is used for requesting to be switched from a first cell to a second cell, and the first network device is a network device to which the first cell belongs;

and establishing connection with the second network equipment, wherein the second network equipment is the network equipment to which the second cell belongs.

2. The cell handover method of claim 1, wherein the second network device identity or the identity of the second cell is included in the first handover request.

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

and sending a first message to the second network equipment, wherein the first message is used for establishing the bearer of the terminal on the second cell.

4. The handover method according to claim 2, wherein the first message includes at least one of the following information: the identifier of the first network device, the identifier of the first cell, and the bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell.

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

using the same bearer configuration on the second cell as the first cell;

sending a second message to the second network device, where the second message includes indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate the second network device to reuse the bearer configuration information before the terminal performs cell handover; or, the second message includes bearer configuration information used by the terminal.

6. The handover method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising:

and after the terminal accesses the second network equipment, sending a third message to the first network equipment, wherein the third message is used for requesting the first network equipment to release the connection with the terminal.

7. The handover method according to any of claims 1-6, wherein the releasing the connection with the terminal comprises one or more of: and releasing the context of the terminal and releasing communication resources between the terminal and the terminal.

8. The handover method according to any of claims 1-7, wherein before sending the second message to the first network device, the method further comprises:

maintaining data transmission on the first cell.

9. The handover method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the first network device is a base station and the second network device comprises a WIFI access point or a base station.

10. A terminal, comprising:

a sending module, configured to send a first handover request to a first network device, where the first handover request is used to request a handover from a first cell to a second cell, and the first network device is a network device to which the first cell belongs; (ii) a

11. A cell switching method applied to a first network device includes:

sending a second handover request to the second network device based on the identifier of the second network device or the identifier of the second cell, where the second handover request includes bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

receiving a request message from the second network device, and sending the bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell to the second network device according to the request message, wherein the request message includes the identifier of the second network device or the identifier of the second cell.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising:

and releasing the connection with the terminal according to the third message. The releasing of the connection with the first user equipment comprises one or more of: and releasing the context of the first user equipment, and releasing communication resources between the first user equipment and the first user equipment.

13. A first network device, comprising:

a receiving module, configured to receive a first handover request from the terminal, where the first handover request is used to request handover from a first cell to a second cell, the first network device is a network device to which the first cell belongs, and the handover request includes a second network device identifier or an identifier of the second cell;

a first sending module, configured to send a second handover request to the second network device based on the identifier of the second network device or the identifier of the second cell, where the second handover request includes bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

a second sending module, configured to receive a request message from the second network device, and send, to the second network device according to the request message, bearer configuration information of the terminal in the first cell, where the request message includes an identifier of the second network device or an identifier of the second cell.

14. An electronic device, comprising a processor and a memory device, wherein the memory device stores program instructions that are executed by the processor

Cause the electronic device to perform the handover method of any one of claims 1-9.

15. An electronic device, further comprising a processor and a storage device having stored thereon program instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform the handover method of claim 11 or 12.

16. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer instructions which, when run on a computer device, cause the computer device to perform the handover method of any one of claims 1-9.

17. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer instructions which, when run on a computer device, cause the computer device to perform the handover method of claim 11 or 12.