CN115699871A

CN115699871A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115699871A
Application number: CN202080101769.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 严乐; 耿婷婷
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-08-03
Filing date: 2020-08-03
Publication date: 2023-02-03
Also published as: WO2022027201A1

Abstract

The application discloses a communication method and a device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the target network equipment receives a switching request message from source network equipment, wherein the switching request message comprises position information of terminal equipment and information of a first PLMN (public land Mobile network) to which the source network equipment belongs or information of a first AMF (advanced mobile radio) connected with the source network equipment; and the target network equipment determines that the position of the terminal equipment is located in a first area covered by the target cell according to the position information of the terminal equipment, and the PLMN corresponding to the first area does not comprise the first PLMN, or the AMF corresponding to the first area does not comprise the first AMF, and then the target network equipment sends a handover failure message to the source network equipment. By adopting the technical scheme, the access/switching process of the terminal equipment can meet the communication strategy requirements of the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment belongs, and the terminal equipment is prevented from being accessed from the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment does not belong.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

The non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system provides seamless coverage for the terminal device by deploying the functions of the access network device or part of the access network device on the non-ground devices such as a high-altitude platform or a satellite, and because the high-altitude platform or the satellite is located in the air and is less affected by natural disasters, the NTN communication system has higher reliability.

An important feature of NTN communication systems is that the coverage area of an NTN cell is usually large, for example, the cell coverage diameter may reach several tens to thousands of kilometers, and thus, there may be a situation where one NTN cell covers the geographic areas of multiple countries or the service areas of multiple operators. Taking the NTN system as an example of a satellite communication system, a satellite may indicate that it can support services of multiple countries or operators by broadcasting information of multiple Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), or a satellite may indicate that it can support services of multiple countries or operators by broadcasting information of multiple access and mobility management functions (AMFs).

In the process of cell handover, if a target cell is an NTN cell supporting multiple PLMNs or multiple AMFs, and because communication strategies corresponding to different PLMNs or different AMFs are different, if a scheme for handover to the target cell is determined according to cell quality in the prior art, a situation that a terminal device requests access to a PLMN or an AMF whose position is not matched with that of the terminal device may exist, at this time, a communication behavior of the terminal device may not meet a communication strategy requirement of the PLMN or the AMF to which the terminal device requests access, which may cause a handover procedure failure and affect communication performance.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a device, which are used for providing a cell switching method when a target cell is an NTN cell supporting a plurality of PLMNs or a plurality of AMFs, so that the switching process of terminal equipment can meet the communication strategy requirements of the country or operator to which the terminal equipment belongs, and the switching success rate is effectively improved.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be performed by a target network device or a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) configured in the target network device, and in the following description of the present application, the target network device performs the method as an example.

The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that target network equipment receives a switching request message from source network equipment, wherein the switching request message is used for requesting to switch the terminal equipment to the target network equipment, and the switching request message comprises position information of the terminal equipment and information of a first PLMN to which the source network equipment belongs or information of a first AMF connected with the source network equipment when the terminal equipment is communicated with the source network equipment; the target network equipment determines that the position of the terminal equipment is located in a first area covered by a target cell according to the position information of the terminal equipment, and the PLMN corresponding to the first area does not comprise a first PLMN, or the AMF corresponding to the first area does not comprise a first AMF, wherein the target network equipment manages the target cell; the target network device sends a handover failure message to the source network device.

By adopting the technical scheme, the target network equipment can make a reasonable judgment when access control or switching judgment or other scenes are needed according to the mapping relation between at least one area covered by the target cell of the target network equipment and the PLMN and/or AMF and the position information of the terminal equipment, and determine the PLMN to which the target network equipment belongs or the AMF connected with the target network equipment to which the terminal equipment can be accessed/switched, so that the access/switching process of the terminal equipment meets the communication strategy requirements of the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment belongs, and the terminal equipment is prevented from being accessed from the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment does not belong.

In a possible design of the first aspect, the handover failure message includes one or more of the following information: the information of the failure reason, the information of PLMN which the target network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access, and the information of AMF which the target network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access; the failure reason information is used for indicating that the handover failure reason is invalid PLMN, or invalid AMF, or invalid location information, or an illegal request.

In a possible design of the first aspect, the handover failure message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be performed by a source network device or a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) configured in the source network device, and in the following description of the present application, the source network device performs the method as an example.

The method comprises the following steps: a source network device sends a switching request message to a target network device, wherein the switching request message is used for requesting to switch a terminal device to the target network device, and the switching request message comprises position information of the terminal device and information of a first PLMN (public land Mobile network) to which the source network device belongs or information of a first AMF (advanced metering function) connected with the source network device when the terminal device is communicated with the source network device; the source network device receives a handover failure message from the target network device.

In one possible design of the second aspect, the handover failure message includes one or more of the following information: the information of the failure reason, the information of PLMN which the target network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access, and the information of AMF which the target network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access; the failure reason information is used for indicating that the handover failure reason is invalid PLMN, or invalid AMF, or invalid location information, or an illegal request.

In a possible design of the second aspect, the handover failure message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

In one possible design of the second aspect, the method further includes: the source network equipment sends position measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment, and the position measurement configuration information indicates the terminal equipment to carry out position measurement; the source network equipment acquires the position information of the terminal equipment.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a source network device or a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) configured in the source network device, and in the following description of the present application, the source network device performs the method as an example.

The method comprises the following steps: the source network equipment acquires the position information of the terminal equipment; the source network equipment determines that the terminal equipment is located in a first area covered by the target cell according to the position information of the terminal equipment, and the first area covered by the target cell corresponds to a second PLMN or a second AMF; a source network device sends a switching request message to a target network device, wherein the switching request message is used for requesting to switch a terminal device to the target network device, the switching request message comprises first information, and the first information indicates that a PLMN requesting access is a second PLMN or an AMF requesting connection is a second AMF; the source network device receives a handover request acknowledge message from the target network device.

By adopting the technical scheme, according to the mapping relation between at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF, the source network equipment can send the information of the PLMN which is requested to be accessed or the information of the AMF which is requested to be connected to the target network equipment, so that the target network equipment can access/switch the terminal equipment to the PLMN or AMF corresponding to the position of the terminal equipment, the access/switching process of the terminal equipment conforms to the communication strategy requirement of the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment belongs, the terminal equipment is prevented from being accessed from the countries/operators to which the position of the terminal equipment belongs, and the switching success rate is effectively improved.

In one possible design of the third aspect, the method further includes: a source network device sends a first message to a terminal device, wherein the first message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates the terminal device to report position information of at least one area covered by a target cell and information of a PLMN and/or an AMF corresponding to the at least one area; the source network device receives a second message from the terminal device, where the second message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

In one possible design of the third aspect, the method further includes: the source network device receives a third message from the target network device, where the third message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be executed by a terminal device, or may be executed by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) configured in the terminal device, and in the following description of the present application, the terminal device executes the method as an example.

The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment receives a first message from network equipment, wherein the first message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment reports position information of at least one area covered by a neighboring area and information of a PLMN (public land Mobile network) and/or an AMF (advanced mobile switching function) corresponding to the at least one area; the terminal equipment acquires the position information of at least one area covered by the adjacent area, and the information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area according to the first indication information; and the terminal equipment sends a second message to the network equipment, wherein the second message comprises the position information of at least one area covered by the adjacent area, and the information of the PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

By adopting the technical scheme, the terminal equipment can acquire/report the mapping relation information between at least one area covered by the adjacent cells and the PLMN/AMF, so that after the service network equipment of the terminal equipment acquires the mapping relation of the adjacent network equipment, the terminal equipment can make reasonable switching judgment/switching request/admission control according to the mapping relation and by combining the position information of the terminal equipment, thereby ensuring that the switching/access of the terminal equipment can meet the communication strategy requirements of the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment belongs, and avoiding the terminal equipment from accessing from the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment does not belong.

In one possible design of the fourth aspect, the method further includes: the terminal equipment receives position measurement configuration information from the network equipment, and the position measurement configuration information indicates the terminal equipment to carry out position measurement; and the terminal equipment sends the position information of the terminal equipment to the network equipment.

In a possible design of the fourth aspect, the first message further includes second indication information, where the second indication information indicates that the terminal device reports the cell global identity CGI of the neighboring cell.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a network device or a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) configured in the network device, and in the following description of the present application, the network device performs the method as an example.

The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that network equipment sends a first message to terminal equipment, wherein the first message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment reports position information of at least one area covered by a neighboring area and PLMN information and/or AMF information corresponding to the at least one area; the network device receives a second message from the terminal device, where the second message includes location information of at least one area covered by the neighboring cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

In one possible design of the fifth aspect, the method further includes: the network equipment sends position measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment, and the position measurement configuration information indicates the terminal equipment to carry out position measurement; and the network equipment receives the position information sent by the terminal equipment.

In a possible design of the fifth aspect, the first message further includes second indication information, where the second indication information indicates that the terminal device reports the cell global identity CGI of the neighboring cell.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be executed by a first network device, or may be executed by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) configured in the first network device, and in the following description of the present application, the first network device executes the method as an example.

The method comprises the following steps: the first network equipment generates a third message, wherein the third message comprises the position information of at least one area covered by the first cell managed by the first network equipment, and the information of a PLMN and/or an AMF corresponding to the at least one area covered by the first cell; the first network device sends the third message to the second network device.

In one possible design of the sixth aspect, the method further includes: the first network device receives a fourth message from the second network device, where the fourth message includes location information of at least one area covered by a second cell managed by the second network device, and information of a PLMN and/or an AMF corresponding to the at least one area covered by the second cell.

By adopting the technical scheme, the mapping relation between at least one area covered by each cell and the PLMN/AMF can be interacted between the network devices, so that the first network device or the second network device can make a reasonable decision when access control or switching judgment is needed subsequently or in other scenes based on the mapping relation after the mapping relation of the other side is obtained, the access/switching of the terminal device can meet the communication strategy requirements of the country/operator to which the position of the terminal device belongs, and the terminal device is prevented from being accessed from the country/operator to which the position of the terminal device does not belong.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which has a function of implementing a target network device in any one of the possible designs of the above first aspect or the first aspect, or has a function of implementing a source network device in any one of the possible designs of the above second aspect or the second aspect, or has a function of implementing a source network device in any one of the possible designs of the above third aspect or the third aspect, or has a function of implementing a network device in any one of the possible designs of the above fifth aspect or the fifth aspect, or has a function of implementing a first network device in any one of the possible designs of the above sixth aspect or the sixth aspect. The apparatus may be a network device, or may be a chip or a circuit included in the network device.

The communication device may also have the functionality of a terminal device in any of the possible designs implementing the fourth aspect or the fourth aspect described above. The device can be a terminal device, and can also be a chip or a circuit included in the terminal device.

The functions of the communication device may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software, which includes one or more modules or units or means (means) corresponding to the functions.

In a possible design, the apparatus structurally includes a processing module and a transceiver module, where the processing module is configured to support the apparatus to perform a function corresponding to a target network device in any one of the above-mentioned designs of the first aspect or the first aspect, or to perform a function corresponding to a source network device in any one of the above-mentioned designs of the second aspect or the second aspect, or to perform a function corresponding to a source network device in any one of the above-mentioned designs of the third aspect or the third aspect, or to perform a function corresponding to a terminal device in any one of the above-mentioned designs of the fourth aspect or the fourth aspect, or to perform a function corresponding to a network device in any one of the above-mentioned designs of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect, or to perform a function corresponding to a first network device in any one of the above-mentioned designs of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect. The transceiver module is configured to support communication between the apparatus and other communication devices, for example, when the apparatus is a target network device, the transceiver module may receive a handover request message from a source network device. The communication device may also include a memory module, coupled to the processing module, that stores the device's necessary program instructions and data. As an example, the processing module may be a processor, the communication module may be a transceiver, the storage module may be a memory, and the memory may be integrated with the processor or disposed separately from the processor, which is not limited in this application.

In another possible design, the apparatus may be configured to include a processor and may also include a memory. A processor is coupled to the memory and is operable to execute computer program instructions stored in the memory to cause the apparatus to perform the method in any one of the possible designs of the first aspect or the first aspect described above, or to perform the method in any one of the possible designs of the second aspect or the second aspect described above, or to perform the method in any one of the possible designs of the third aspect or the third aspect described above, or to perform the method in any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect or the fourth aspect described above, or to perform the method in any one of the possible designs of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect described above, or to perform the method in any one of the possible designs of the sixth aspect described above. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a communication interface, the processor being coupled to the communication interface. When the apparatus is a network device or a terminal device, the communication interface may be a transceiver or an input/output interface; when the apparatus is a chip included in a network device or a chip included in a terminal device, the communication interface may be an input/output interface of the chip. Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transmit-receive circuit and the input/output interface may be an input/output circuit.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, including: a processor coupled to a memory, the memory being configured to store a program or instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system-on-chip to implement the method in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or the method in the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect, or the method in the third aspect or any one of the possible designs of the third aspect, or the method in the fourth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fifth aspect, or the method in any one of the possible designs of the sixth aspect.

Optionally, the system-on-chip further comprises an interface circuit for interacting code instructions to the processor.

Optionally, the number of processors in the chip system may be one or more, and the processors may be implemented by hardware or software. When implemented in hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like. When implemented in software, the processor may be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

Optionally, the memory in the system-on-chip may also be one or more. The memory may be integrated with the processor or may be separate from the processor, which is not limited in this application. For example, the memory may be a non-transitory processor, such as a read only memory ROM, which may be integrated on the same chip as the processor, or may be separately disposed on different chips, and the type of the memory and the arrangement of the memory and the processor are not particularly limited in this application.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program or instructions are stored, which when executed, cause a computer to perform the method in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or perform the method in the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect, or perform the method in the third aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the fifth aspect, or perform the method in the sixth aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the sixth aspect.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product, which, when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or the second aspect, or the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect, or the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect, or any one of the possible designs of the sixth aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which includes a network device and at least one terminal device. Optionally, the network devices in the communication system may include a source network device and a target network device. Optionally, the network device may include a first network device and/or a second network device. Optionally, the communication system may further include a core network device.

Drawings

Fig. 1a and fig. 1b are schematic diagrams illustrating a network architecture of a satellite communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of different logical cells corresponding to different areas covered by a satellite cell in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a network device configuring location measurement for a terminal device in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a specific example of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of another specific example of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is another schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, general Packet Radio Service (GPRS), LTE system, LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), fifth generation (5 g) system, or NR system, or may be applied to future communication systems or other similar communication systems.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system and can also be applied to a scene of mixed deployment of NTN and Terrestrial Networks (TN). The NTN communication system may include a satellite communication system, a High Altitude Platform (HAPS) communication system, or other non-terrestrial communication system.

The network architecture applied in the present application is described in detail below by taking an NTN communication system as a satellite communication system as an example.

Referring to fig. 1a, a network architecture of a satellite communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application is shown, where the network architecture includes a core network device 110, a radio access network device 120, a satellite 130, and at least one terminal device (e.g., the terminal device 140 shown in fig. 1 a). As an example, the core network device, the radio access network device and the terminal device in fig. 1a are located on the ground, while the satellite is located in the air.

The wireless access network equipment communicates with the core network equipment in a wireless or wired mode. The core network device and the radio access network device may be separate physical devices, or the function of the core network device and the logical function of the radio access network device may be integrated on the same physical device, or a physical device may be integrated with a part of the function of the core network device and a part of the function of the radio access network device. It should be understood that the radio access network device mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may correspond to different devices in different communication systems, for example, in a 5G system, an access network device in 5G, such as a gNB or an ng-eNB, and in a 4G system, an access network device in 4G, such as an eNB or an en-gNB.

The communication between the radio access network equipment and the terminal equipment transmits signals through the satellite, namely the satellite can receive the signals of the radio access network equipment and transmit the signals to the ground to form a satellite cell, and service coverage is further provided for the terminal equipment on the ground. In this case, the satellite corresponds to a relay node or a repeater, and thus, the scenario may be referred to as a transparent repeater (transparent) version of the satellite.

In the transparent relay format, the satellite cell may be fixed on the ground (may be referred to as a "fixed cell") or may move on the ground as the satellite moves (may be referred to as a "mobile cell"). For the "fixed cell" scenario, the satellite cell is terrestrial fixed, which means that the terrestrial coverage of the satellite cell is fixed, either for a period of time or permanently. For example, for a high earth orbit satellite, the satellite cell formed by the satellite is generally stationary relative to the ground. For a low earth orbit satellite, the satellite can adjust the transmitting angle of its antenna or other physical parameters as the satellite moves relative to the ground, so that the formed satellite cell is fixed relative to the ground.

For the "mobile cell" scenario, the satellite cell moves as the satellite moves, i.e., as the satellite moves, the satellite cell also moves on the ground following the satellite. The reason for the common occurrence of mobile cells is that as the satellite moves, the satellite does not dynamically adjust the direction of the beam, which in turn causes the projection of the beam generated by the satellite on the ground to move as the satellite moves.

It should be noted that the present embodiment does not specifically limit the existence scenario of the mobile cell. When the satellite provides service coverage in a transparent forwarding form, one possible scenario of existence of a mobile cell may be: the satellite establishes connection with the original wireless access network equipment, and a cell forwarded by the satellite under the original wireless access network equipment moves for a period of time along with the movement of the satellite, namely the satellite keeps connection with the original wireless access network equipment for a period of time; at a certain moment, the connection between the satellite and the original radio access network equipment is disconnected due to the reasons of long distance, weak signals and the like, the satellite is connected to a new radio access network equipment, and then the satellite starts to transmit the signals of the new radio access network equipment to form a new satellite cell. It can be understood that although the satellite is continuously operating, since the position of the terrestrial radio access network device is not changed, for a scene with a moving cell, if the satellite retransmits a signal of a certain terrestrial radio access network device, the formed satellite cell under the radio access network device will also move to a certain extent along with the operation of the satellite, but the moving range of the satellite cell is generally around the periphery of the radio access network device.

Please refer to fig. 1b, which is a schematic diagram of another network architecture of a satellite communication system to which the embodiment of the present invention is applied, the network architecture includes a core network device 110, a satellite 130, and at least one terminal device (e.g., the terminal device 140 shown in fig. 1 b). As an example, the core network equipment and terminal equipment in fig. 1b are located on the ground, while the satellite is located in the air.

The difference with the network architecture shown in fig. 1a is that in the network architecture shown in fig. 1b, radio access network equipment, such as base stations, may be deployed on the satellites. The satellite can generate a cell signal by itself and transmit the cell signal to the ground to form a satellite cell, so that service coverage is provided for terminal equipment on the ground. Therefore, this scenario may also be referred to as a regenerative (regenerative) version of the satellite.

In the regenerative form, the satellite cell moves with the movement of the satellite, i.e. as the satellite moves, the cell it generates also moves following the ground, and may therefore be referred to as a "mobile cell". Since the "mobile cell" is generated by the satellite itself, the satellite "mobile cell" can move on the ground following the orbit of the satellite. Typically, when a satellite is removed, a new satellite is subsequently moved in order to ensure as continuous coverage as possible. The coverage areas of the new satellite and the previous satellite may be the same or different. It will be appreciated that the ground coverage area of the 2 satellites may not necessarily be exactly the same due to differences in satellite directions of travel, beam transmission directions, and beam transmission capabilities.

Although only one terminal device is shown in fig. 1a and 1b, it should be understood that one radio access network device or satellite or core network device may provide services for one or more terminal devices, and the number of core network devices, radio access network devices, satellites and terminal devices included in the satellite communication system is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In addition, the terminal device may be fixed in position, or may be movable, which is also not limited in this application.

The radio access network device and the terminal device, and the terminal device, may communicate via a licensed spectrum (licensed spectrum), may communicate via an unlicensed spectrum (unlicensed spectrum), and may communicate via both the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum. The radio access network device and the terminal device, and the terminal device may communicate with each other through a frequency spectrum of 6 gigahertz (GHz) or less, through a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or more, or through a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or less and through a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or more. The embodiment of the application does not limit the frequency spectrum resources used between the wireless access network equipment and the terminal equipment.

The network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiment of the present application are for more clearly illustrating the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and do not form a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, and as a person of ordinary skill in the art knows that along with the evolution of the communication network architecture and the appearance of a new service scenario, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

The cell referred in the embodiment of the present application may be an NTN cell, and the details of the cell in the present application are described below by taking the NTN cell as a satellite cell as an example.

In addition to the above-mentioned mobility-related features, another important feature of a satellite cell is its large coverage. The coverage diameter of a satellite cell can reach tens to thousands of kilometers. Therefore, there are cases where one satellite cell covers geographical areas of a plurality of countries or service areas of a plurality of operators. Generally, a satellite may indicate that it can support services of multiple countries/operators by broadcasting information of multiple PLMNs (such as PLMN identification information) or information of an AMF (such as AMF identification information), and a terminal device may determine an appropriate PLMN/AMF to access according to a mapping relationship between its own location, area information of cell coverage, and the PLMN/AMF.

For example, physical cell C covers the geographic regions of country a, country B. Wherein, country a corresponds to PLMN1/AMF1, country B corresponds to PLMN2/AMF2, and physical cell C may broadcast PLMN1/AMF1 information and PLMN2/AMF2 information. It can be understood that country a corresponds to PLMN1/AMF1, which means that PLMN of administrative cell C deployed by country a is PLMN1, or AMF connected to access network equipment to which cell C belongs is AMF1; the country B corresponds to PLMN2/AMF2, which means that the PLMN of the administrative cell C deployed by the country B is PLMN2, or the AMF connected to the access network device to which the cell C belongs is AMF2.

Thus, for UE1 in country a and within the coverage of cell C, UE1 may access cell C through PLMN1/AMF 1; or, when the UE1 wants to access the cell C, the UE may access the cell C through the PLMN1/AMF 1; or, when UE1 wants to access cell C, UE1 may access a cell corresponding to PLMN1/AMF 1; or, when the UE1 wants to access the cell C, the core network device connected to the access network device that the UE1 can access is AMF1, and the access network device that the UE1 can access belongs to the PLMN1.

Similarly, for UE2 in country B and within the coverage of cell C, UE2 may access cell C through PLMN2/AMF 2; or, when the UE2 wants to access the cell C, the UE may access the cell C through the PLMN2/AMF 2; or, when the UE2 wants to access the cell C, the UE2 may access the cell corresponding to the PLMN2/AMF 2; or to say, when the UE2 wants to access the cell C, the core network device connected to the access network device that the UE2 can access is AMF2, and the access network device that the UE2 can access belongs to the PLMN2.

Considering that communication strategies of different countries or operators are different, the satellite cells may be divided into finer granularity, for example, the entire service coverage area of the satellite cell is divided into a plurality of areas with regular or irregular shapes, which may be referred to as virtual cells or virtual areas, so as to better fit geographical areas of different countries or service areas of different operators. As shown in fig. 2, different areas in the same satellite cell may correspond to different PLMNs/AMFs, so that a plurality of logical cells are formed in the same satellite cell, and further, the mobility of the terminal device may be effectively managed according to different areas.

The embodiment of the application can also be applied to a cell handover scenario, where the terminal device may be handed over from the source network device to the target network device due to movement of a location, a change in service, a change in network coverage, or other reasons. The source network device is a network device accessed by the terminal device before executing the switching, or a network device providing service for the terminal device before switching; the target network device is a network device to which the terminal device needs to be switched, or a network device which is accessed after the terminal device successfully performs switching, or a network device which provides service for the terminal device after the terminal device is successfully switched. Correspondingly, the source cell refers to a cell accessed by the terminal device before performing handover, and the source cell is a cell covered by the source network device, or the source cell is a cell administered by the source network device, or the source cell belongs to the source network device. The target cell refers to a cell accessed by the terminal device after performing handover, and the target cell is a cell covered by the target network device, or the target cell is a cell administered by the target network device, or the target cell belongs to the target network device.

It is to be understood that the source cell and/or the target cell in the embodiments of the present application may be the NTN cell described above, for example, a satellite cell. That is, the service coverage area of the source cell and/or the target cell may be divided into a plurality of areas, and different areas may correspond to different PLMNs and/or AMFs to form different logical cells.

Some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained below to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

1) The terminal equipment related in the embodiment of the application is equipment with a wireless transceiving function, can be deployed on land and comprises an indoor or outdoor, a handheld, a wearable or a vehicle-mounted terminal; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); the terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiving function, a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a wearable device, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned 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 phone (smart phone), and the like.

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable equipment can also be called wearable intelligent equipment or intelligent wearable equipment and the like, and is a general term for applying wearable technology to carry out intelligent design and develop wearable equipment for daily wearing, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes, shoes and the like. The wearable device may be worn directly on the body or may be a portable device integrated into the user's clothing or accessory. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device has full functions and large size, and can realize complete or partial functions without depending on a smart phone, for example: smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application function, and need to be matched with other equipment such as a smart phone for use, such as various smart bracelets, smart helmets, smart jewelry and the like for physical sign monitoring.

The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may also be an on-board module, an on-board component, an on-board chip, or an on-board unit that is built in the vehicle as one or more components or units, and the vehicle may implement the method of the present application through the built-in on-board module, the on-board component, the on-board chip, or the on-board unit.

2) The radio access network device related in the embodiment of the present application is a device in a network for accessing a terminal device to a wireless network. The radio access network device may be a node in a radio access network, which may also be referred to as a base station, which may also be referred to as a RAN node. In the present application, a radio access network device refers to a radio access network device deployed on the ground, and in the following description, the radio access network device may be simply referred to as an access network device or a network device.

The access network device may include an evolved Node B (NodeB, eNB, or e-NodeB) in an LTE system or an evolved LTE system (LTE-Advanced, LTE-a), such as a conventional macro base station eNB and a micro base station eNB in a heterogeneous network scenario, or may also include a next generation Node B (gNB) in a 5G system or an NR system, or may also include a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), a home base station (e.g., a home evolved Node B, or a home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a base band pool, or a wireless fidelity (fidelity), a wireless access point (AP, wireless Access Point (AP), a distributed access network (CU, or wireless access point), or a distributed access network (AP, CU, or wireless access point (AP, CU) in a distributed access network, and/or wireless access network (AP) system, or a distributed access network, or a wireless access network (AP, or wireless access network).

For example, in one network structure, the network device may be a CU node, or a DU node, or an access network device including a CU node and a DU node. Further, the CU node may be divided into a control plane (CU-CP) and a user plane (CU-UP), where the CU-CP is responsible for control plane functions, and mainly includes Radio Resource Control (RRC) and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) -C, and the PDCP-C is mainly responsible for encryption and decryption of control plane data, integrity protection, data transmission, and the like. The CU-UP is responsible for user plane functions, and mainly includes a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) and a PDCP-U, where the SDAP is mainly responsible for processing data of a core network and mapping a flow (flow) to a bearer (bearer), and the PDCP-U is mainly responsible for encryption and decryption of a data plane, integrity protection, header compression, sequence number maintenance, data transmission, and the like. The CU-CP and CU-UP may be connected through an E1 interface. The CU-CP represents a CU connected to the core network via Ng interface and to DU via F1-C (control plane). The CU-UP is connected via F1-U (user plane) and DU. Of course, there is also a possible implementation where PDCP-C is also in CU-UP.

3) The core network device in the embodiment of the present application refers to a device in a Core Network (CN) that provides service support for a terminal device. Currently, some examples of core network devices include: an AMF entity, a Session Management Function (SMF) entity, a User Plane Function (UPF) entity, and the like. The AMF entity is used for being responsible for access management and mobility management of the terminal equipment; the SMF entity is used for being responsible for session management, such as session establishment of a user and the like; the UPF entity is a functional entity of the user plane and is mainly used for connecting an external network. It should be noted that the entities in this application may also be referred to as network elements or functional entities, i.e. the AMF entity may also be referred to as AMF network elements or AMF functional entities, and the SMF entity may also be referred to as SMF network elements or SMF functional entities. In the following description of the present application, the core network device may be referred to as an AMF.

4) The satellite in the embodiments of the present application refers to a network device located on the satellite, and for convenience of description, the "network device on the satellite" may be simply referred to as the "satellite". The satellite may be a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or a medium earth orbit (mto) satellite or other network equipment moving in high altitude. Generally, satellites in a satellite communication system can be classified into three types, namely, a geostationary orbit (GEO), a low orbit (LEO) and a medium orbit (mid) satellite, according to the orbital altitude of the satellite. The high-orbit satellite may be called a geostationary satellite, and the operation speed of the high-orbit satellite is the same as the rotation speed of the earth, so that the high-orbit satellite is kept in a stationary state with respect to the ground, and accordingly, a satellite cell formed by the high-orbit satellite is also stationary. The low-orbit satellite, which may be called a low earth orbit satellite, moves relatively fast with respect to the ground, and thus, a satellite cell formed by the low-orbit satellite moves along with the movement of the satellite. A medium orbit satellite refers to a satellite located at an orbital elevation between a high orbit satellite and a low orbit satellite.

5) It should be noted that the terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. The "plurality" means two or more, and in view of this, the "plurality" may also be understood as "at least two" in the embodiments of the present application. "at least one" is to be understood as meaning one or more, for example one, two or more. For example, the inclusion of at least one is meant to include one, two or more, and is not limiting of which are included. For example, including at least one of A, B, and C, then what is included may be A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Similarly, the understanding of the description of "at least one" and the like is similar. "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. In addition, the character "/" generally indicates that the preceding and following related objects are in an "or" relationship, unless otherwise specified.

Unless stated to the contrary, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal numbers "first", "second", etc., for distinguishing between a plurality of objects, and do not define the sequence, priority or importance of the plurality of objects, and the description of "first", "second", etc., does not define that the objects are necessarily different.

It is understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, a terminal device and/or a network device may perform part or all of the steps in the embodiment of the present application, and these steps or operations are merely examples, and the embodiment of the present application may also perform other operations or variations of various operations. Further, the various steps may be performed in a different order presented in the embodiments of the application, and not all operations in the embodiments of the application may be performed.

In the embodiment of the present application, the PLMN and AMF entities are taken as examples to describe the related method, but the present invention is not limited to the PLMN and AMF entities. A PLMN may also be other communication networks or a device implementing part of the functionality of a communication network. The AMF entity may also be other entities or devices that may implement mobility management functions or similar functions in a communication network.

Please refer to fig. 3, which is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, the method includes:

step S301, the source network device sends a handover request message to the target network device, where the handover request message is used to request to handover the terminal device to the target network device. Accordingly, the target network device may receive a handover request message from the source network device.

The handover request message includes location information of the terminal device, and information of a first PLMN to which the source network device belongs or information of a first AMF to which the source network device is connected when the terminal device communicates with the source network device. The information of the PLMN may include identification information of the PLMN, for example, a PLMN-identifier. Similarly, the information of the AMF may include identification information of the AMF, for example, an AMF-identifier.

In some scenarios, if the target cell may support/correspond to multiple PLMNs and/or multiple AMFs, but the source network device does not know the mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMNs and/or AMFs supported/corresponding by the target cell, the source terminal device generally requests to access the target cell through the PLMN1 or AMF1 when requesting to handover the terminal device to the target cell if the terminal device accesses the source cell through the PLMN1 or AMF1. In view of this, the information of the first PLMN included in the handover request message may also be understood as that the terminal device requests to access the target cell through the first PLMN, or the terminal device considers that the target cell requesting access belongs to the first PLMN. Similarly, the information that the handover request message includes the first AMF may also be understood as that the terminal device requests to access the target cell through the first AMF, or the terminal device considers that the target cell requested to be accessed is a cell managed by the first AMF, or the terminal device considers that the AMF connected to the target network device requested to be accessed is the first AMF.

In this embodiment, the location information of the terminal device in the handover request message may include one or more of longitude information, latitude information, and altitude information, or may also be location information in other forms, which is not limited in this application. In one possible embodiment, the location information may be used to describe a specific location point, such as longitude, latitude and altitude information of the location point where the terminal device is currently located. In another possible embodiment, the location information may also be used to describe a general area range, i.e. an area range where the terminal device is currently located, for example, the area range may be represented by parameters such as longitude, latitude and height of a central point, and a diameter or radius of the area range. In yet another possible implementation, the location information or the area information may be represented by an identifier, for example, the identifier may be an index or an ID, and a mapping relationship between the identifier and the location information or the area information may be agreed by a protocol, or the mapping relationship is sent by the network device/core network device to the terminal device, that is, the terminal device, the network device, or the core network device may determine the corresponding location or area according to the identifier. Of course, the description of the area range may have other expressions, and the present application does not exemplify the area range.

Further, the location information of the terminal device may be received by the source network device from the terminal device, for example, the source network device may receive a measurement report reported by the terminal device, and the measurement report may include its own location information measured by the terminal device. Alternatively, the location information of the terminal device may be received by the source network device from other network devices, for example, the source network device may receive the location information of the terminal device from the core network device. Or, the location information of the terminal device may also be determined by the source network device, for example, the source network device may perform location positioning on the terminal device, so as to obtain the location information of the terminal device. The location information of the terminal device may also be obtained by the source network device through other manners, which is not limited in this application.

In one possible implementation, before the source network device sends the handover request message to the target network device, the source network device may configure the terminal device to perform location measurement. Specifically, as shown in step S304 to step S305 in fig. 4, the source network device may send location measurement configuration information to the terminal device, where the location measurement configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to perform location measurement. Furthermore, the terminal device can perform location measurement according to the location measurement configuration information, and send the measured location information of itself to the source network device through the measurement report.

Step S302, the target network device determines that the position of the terminal device is located in a first area covered by the target cell according to the position information of the terminal device, and the PLMN corresponding to the first area does not include the first PLMN, or the AMF corresponding to the first area does not include the first AMF.

Step S303, the target network device sends a handover failure message to the source network device, where the handover failure message is used to refuse to handover the terminal device to the target network device. Accordingly, the source network device may receive a handover failure message from the target network device.

That is to say, in this embodiment of the application, the target network device may determine whether to allow the terminal device to access the target network device according to the location information of the terminal device, the location information of the at least one area covered by the target cell, and the information of the PLMN and/or the information of the AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

It should be noted that, the location information of the at least one area covered by the target cell and the information of the PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area may be understood as a mapping relationship between the at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF. The information of the PLMN and/or the AMF corresponding to the at least one area may be information of the PLMN and/or the AMF corresponding to each area of the at least one area, or information of the PLMN and/or the AMF corresponding to a partial area of the at least one area, which is not limited in this application. Moreover, the information of the PLMN and/or the information of the AMF corresponding to different areas may be the same or different, and the present application is not limited thereto.

Specifically, when the location of the terminal device is located in a first area covered by the target cell, but a PLMN corresponding to the first area does not include a first PLMN to which the source network device belongs, or an AMF corresponding to the first area does not include a first AMF connected to the source network device, the target network device may reject the terminal device to be switched to the target network device. In turn, the target network device may send a handover failure message to the source network device. The handover failure message may also be referred to as a handover preparation failure message or have another name, and the application is not limited thereto.

Optionally, the handover failure message may include one or more of the following information:

1) The failure reason information or the handover failure reason value is used for indicating that the handover failure reason is invalid or wrong PLMN, or invalid or wrong AMF, or invalid location information, or an illegal request, or PLMN which does not support the request, or AMF which does not support the request, and the like. The invalid or wrong PLMN means that the target network equipment does not belong to the PLMN requested in the handover request message; an invalid or erroneous AMF means that the AMF requested in the handover request message is not responsible for managing the target network device; the illegal request means that the target network device does not support the handover request of the terminal device, or the target network device does not support the PLMN or AMF requested in the handover request message.

2) The information of the PLMN to which the target network device allows the terminal device to access, or the information of the PLMN to which the target cell to which the target network device allows the terminal device to access belongs, or the information of the PLMN to which the target network device belongs.

It should be noted that the information of the PLMN the terminal device is allowed to access by the target network device may include: the information of the PLMN allowed to be accessed by the terminal device corresponding to the target cell, and/or the information of the PLMN allowed to be accessed by the terminal device corresponding to other non-target cells belonging to the target network device.

3) The target network device may manage the AMF of the target cell to which the terminal device is allowed to access, or manage the AMF of the target cell to which the terminal device is allowed to access.

It should be noted that the information of the AMF that the target network device allows the terminal device to access may include: the information of the AMF allowed to be accessed by the terminal device corresponding to the target cell, and/or the information of the AMF allowed to be accessed by the terminal device corresponding to other non-target cells belonging to the target network device.

Optionally, the handover failure message may further include: the position information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and the information of PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area. I.e. the mapping between at least one area of the latest or available target cell coverage and the PLMN and/or AMF is indicated by the handover failure message.

Optionally, the handover failure message may further include: the location information of at least one area covered by other non-target cells belonging to the target network device, and the information of the PLMN and/or the information of the AMF corresponding to the at least one area covered by the other non-target cells. That is, the mapping relationship between at least one area covered by other non-target cells belonging to the target network device and the PLMN and/or AMF is also indicated by the handover failure message.

It will be appreciated that there may be one or more other non-target cells belonging to the target network device. When there are multiple cells belonging to other non-target cells of the target device, the handover failure message may indicate a mapping relationship between an area covered by all or part of the cells of the other non-target cells and the PLMN and/or AMF, which is not limited in the present application.

Thus, after receiving the handover failure message, the source network device may determine, according to the information included in the handover failure message, the correct PLMN or AMF information corresponding to the terminal device at the current location when accessing the target network device/target cell, and further send the handover request message again to request the terminal device to be handed over to the logical cell in the target cell matching with the location of the terminal device.

When it is determined that the location of the terminal device is located in a first area covered by the target cell and the PLMN corresponding to the first area includes the first PLMN, or the AMF corresponding to the first area includes the first AMF, the target network device may determine to allow the terminal device to handover to the target cell or a cell belonging to the target network device and corresponding to the first PLMN/the first AMF, and send a handover request acknowledgement message to the source network device, where the handover request acknowledgement message indicates that the terminal device is allowed to be handed over to the target network device. Furthermore, the source network device may send a handover message to the terminal device, instructing the terminal device to handover to the target cell.

For example, UE1 supports PLMN1 and PLMN2 simultaneously, and UE2 supports PLMN1 and PLMN2 simultaneously. The positions of UE1 and UE2 are shown in fig. 2, i.e. UE1 and UE2 are both located in the coverage area of the target cell, but UE1 is located in the area corresponding to PLMN1/AMF1 in the target cell, and UE2 is located in the area corresponding to PLMN2/AMF2 in the target cell.

Thus, if the current access base station of the UE1 and the UE2 is the source base station belonging to the PLMN1, the access base station requests to be switched to the target base station belonging to the PLMN1. Then, for UE1, since UE1 located at the edge of the source cell is located in an area corresponding to PLMN1/AMF1 in the target cell, the target base station may determine to allow UE1 to handover to an underlying target cell belonging to PLMN1 or a logical cell corresponding to PLMN1, or, the target base station may determine to allow UE1 to handover to an underlying target cell managed by AMF1 or a logical cell corresponding to AMF1. Subsequently, for UE1, the target base station may send a handover request acknowledge message to the source base station. Further, after receiving the handover request confirm message, the source base station may send a handover message to UE1, instructing UE1 to perform handover to the target cell. The handover message may also be referred to as a reconfiguration message, or may also have other names, and the present application is not limited thereto.

For UE2, because UE2 located at the edge of the source cell is located in an area corresponding to PLMN2/AMF2 in the target cell, the target base station may determine that it cannot support UE2 to switch to a target cell belonging to PLMN1 below or a logical cell corresponding to PLMN1, or the target base station may determine that it cannot support UE2 to switch to a target cell belonging to AMF1 below or a logical cell corresponding to AMF1 below, that is, the target base station needs to reject the handover request of UE 2. Subsequently, for UE2, the target base station may send a handover failure message to the source base station. Furthermore, after receiving the handover failure message, the source base station may send a handover request message to the target base station again according to the indication information that the PLMN allowed to be accessed by the UE2 is PLMN2 or the AMF allowed to be accessed by the UE2 is AMF2, which is included in the handover failure message, to request to handover the UE2 to the target cell belonging to the PLMN2 below the target base station or the target cell managed by the AMF2.

Therefore, by adopting the technical scheme, the target network equipment can make reasonable judgment when access control or switching judgment or other scenes are needed according to the mapping relation between at least one area covered by the target cell of the target network equipment and the PLMN and/or AMF, and the terminal equipment is allowed to be accessed/switched to the PLMN/AMF corresponding to the position of the terminal equipment, so that the access/switching process of the terminal equipment meets the communication strategy requirement of the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment belongs, and the terminal equipment is prevented from being accessed from the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment does not belong.

Further, in the handover process, the target network device may further interact with the source network device about mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF. Therefore, the source network equipment can conveniently and reasonably judge according to the mapping relation and the position of the terminal equipment and request to switch the terminal equipment to the logic cell corresponding to the position of the terminal equipment, and the switching success rate is effectively improved.

Fig. 5 and fig. 6 are two specific examples related to a handover procedure in a communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The specific example shown in fig. 5 corresponds to a scenario in which there is a directly connected interface between the source network device and the target network device, and the source network device and the target network device may perform a handover procedure based on the directly connected interface. The directly connected interface may be an Xn interface, for example, and in this case, the handover procedure may also be referred to as Xn interface based handover (Xn based HO) or Xn handover procedure. The scheme shown in fig. 5 is also applicable to the case where the directly connected interface is an X2 interface, and the present invention is not limited thereto. The specific example shown in fig. 6 corresponds to a scenario in which there is no directly connected interface between the source network device and the target network device, which may perform a handover procedure based on the interface between the access network device and the core network device. The core network device may refer to, for example, an AMF, and an interface between the access network device and the core network device may be, for example, an NG interface, and in this case, the handover procedure may also be referred to as a NG interface based handover (NG based HO) or an NG handover procedure. The scheme shown in fig. 6 is also applicable to the case where the interface between the access network device and the core network device is an S1 interface, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

As shown in fig. 5, in step S501, the UE may send a measurement report to the source base station, and optionally, the measurement report includes location information of the UE. In step S502, the source base station may send a handover request message to the target base station, where the handover request message includes location information of the UE and information of PLMN1 and/or AMF1 that the UE requests to access. It should be noted that the location information of the UE included in the handover request message may be obtained by the source base station from a measurement report reported by the UE, or may be obtained by the source base station through other methods, for example, obtaining the location of the UE by positioning, or obtaining the location information from other network devices, which is not limited. The PLMN1 that the UE requests to access may be a PLMN that the UE accesses in the source cell or a PLMN to which the source cell belongs, and similarly, the AMF1 that the UE requests to access may be an AMF that the source base station connects in the source cell or an AMF that manages the source cell.

In step S503, the target base station may determine whether to allow the UE to handover to the target cell according to the location information of the UE and the mapping relationship between the at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF. Specifically, if the UE is located in an area covered by the target cell, but the area corresponds to the PLMN2 and/or the AMF2, the target base station may determine that the handover fails, and may need to reject the handover request of the UE, that is, reject the UE to be handed over to the target cell under the UE, which belongs to the PLMN1, or reject the UE to be handed over to the target cell under the UE and managed by the AMF1. Then, the target base station may send a handover failure message to the source base station in step S504, and carry the handover failure cause value and information indicating a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the latest or available target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF in the handover failure message. Thus, for the UE, the source base station may subsequently determine, according to the mapping relationship of the target cell and the location information of the UE, a PLMN to which the target cell to which the UE needs to be switched belongs, or manage an AMF of the target cell to which the UE needs to be switched. Further, optionally, the source base station may initiate a handover request for handing over the UE to the PLMN/AMF managing the target cell matching the location of the UE, so that the UE may successfully access the target cell. For other subsequent UEs needing to be switched, the source base station may determine, according to the mapping relationship and the location information of the UE, a PLMN and/or an AMF that matches the location of the UE, and then directly initiate a handover request for switching the UE to a target cell/target AMF that matches its location, thereby effectively improving the success rate of handover.

As shown in fig. 6, in step S601, the UE may send a measurement report to the source base station, optionally, the measurement report includes location information of the UE. In step S602, the source base station may transmit a first handover request message to the AMF1, where the first handover request message may include location information of the UE and information of the PLMN1 and/or information of the AMF1 that the UE requests to access. The first handover request message may be a HO required message or others, without limitation. The location information of the UE included in the first handover request message may be obtained by the source base station from a measurement report reported by the UE, or may be obtained by the source base station through other manners, which is not limited. The PLMN1 that the UE requests to access may be a PLMN that the UE accesses in the source cell or a PLMN to which the source cell belongs, and similarly, the AMF1 that the UE requests to access may be an AMF to which the source base station is connected or an AMF that manages the source cell.

Further, in step S603, the AMF1 may send a second handover request message to the target base station, where the second handover request message may include location information of the UE and information of the PLMN1 and/or AMF1 that the UE requests to access. The second handover request message may be an HO request message or other messages, but is not limited thereto.

It should be noted that, here, the location information of the UE included in the second handover request message is obtained by AMF1 from the first handover request message, and may also be obtained by AMF1 through other means, for example, obtaining the location of the UE by positioning, or obtaining from other network devices, which is not limited.

In step S604, the target base station may determine whether to allow the UE to handover to the target cell according to the location information of the UE and a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF. Specifically, if the UE is located in an area covered by the target cell, but the area corresponds to PLMN2 and/or AMF2, the target base station may determine that the handover fails, and may need to reject the handover request of the UE, i.e., reject the UE to be handed over to a cell under the UE (such as the target cell mentioned above) belonging to PLMN1 or reject the UE to be handed over to a cell under the UE (such as the target cell mentioned above) managed by AMF1. Then, the target base station may send a first handover failure message to the AMF1 in step S605, and carry a handover failure cause value and information indicating a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the latest or available target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF in the first handover failure message, where the handover failure cause value may be, for example, an invalid or wrong PLMN or an invalid or wrong AMF. The first handover failure message may be a handover failure message or other messages, which is not limited.

Subsequently, in step S606, the AMF1 may send a second handover failure message to the source base station, where the second handover failure message carries a handover failure cause value and information indicating a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the latest or available target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF, where the handover failure cause value may be, for example, an invalid or wrong PLMN, or an invalid or wrong AMF. The second handover failure message may be a handover failure message or other messages, but is not limited thereto. Accordingly, the source base station may receive the second handover failure message.

Thus, for the UE, the source base station may subsequently determine, according to the mapping relationship of the target cell and the location information of the UE, a PLMN to which the target cell to which the UE needs to be switched belongs or an AMF of the target cell to which the UE needs to be switched is managed, and further, optionally, the source base station may initiate a switching request for switching the UE to the PLMN/AMF of the target cell/managed target cell to which the target cell/target cell matched with the UE in location belongs again, so that the UE may be successfully switched to the target cell. For other subsequent UEs needing to be switched, the source base station may determine the PLMN and/or AMF matched with the location of the UE according to the mapping relationship of the target cell and the location information of the UE, and further initiate a switching request for switching the UE to the target cell/target AMF matched with the location of the UE, thereby effectively improving the success rate of switching.

It should be noted that, the specific example shown in fig. 6 is described by taking an example that the source base station and the target base station belong to the same AMF, that is, the AMF1 shown in the drawing. It can be understood that the source base station and the target base station may also belong to different AMFs, and at this time, the handover procedure may further include a handover procedure between the AMFs, and the message for handover interacted between the AMFs also includes one or more of location information of the UE, a reason of handover failure, information of a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the target base station and the PLMN and/or the AMF, and the like, which is not described herein again.

Please refer to fig. 7, which is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method includes:

step S701, the source network device acquires location information of the terminal device.

In this embodiment of the application, the location information of the terminal device may include one or more of longitude information, latitude information, and altitude information, or may also be location information in other forms, which is not limited in this application. In one possible embodiment, the location information may be used to describe a specific location point, such as longitude, latitude and altitude information of the location point where the terminal device is currently located. In another possible embodiment, the location information may also be used to describe a general area range, i.e. an area range where the terminal device is currently located, for example, the area range may be represented by parameters such as longitude, latitude and height of a central point, and a diameter or radius of the area range. In another possible implementation, the location information or the area information may be represented by an identifier, for example, the identifier may be an index or an ID, and a mapping relationship between the identifier and the location information or the area information may be agreed by a protocol, or the mapping relationship is sent by the network device/core network device to the terminal device, that is, the terminal device, the network device, or the core network device may determine the corresponding location or area according to the identifier. Of course, the description of the area range may have other expressions, and the present application does not exemplify the area range.

Further, the source network device may obtain the location information of the terminal device from the terminal device, for example, the source network device may receive a measurement report reported by the terminal device, where the measurement report includes its own location information measured by the terminal device. Alternatively, the source network device may also obtain the location information of the terminal device from other network devices, for example, obtain the location information of the terminal device from a core network device. Or, the source network device may also determine the location information of the terminal device by itself, for example, the source network device may perform location positioning on the terminal device, and further obtain the location information of the terminal device. The source network device may also obtain the location information of the terminal device in other manners, which is not limited in this application.

Optionally, if the source network device obtains the location information of the terminal device through the measurement report reported by the terminal device, the source network device may further configure the terminal device to perform location measurement before the source network device receives the measurement report reported by the terminal device. Specifically, the source network device may send location measurement configuration information to the terminal device, where the location measurement configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to perform location measurement. Further, the terminal device may transmit the measured location information to the source network device through the measurement report.

Step S702, the source network device determines, according to the location information of the terminal device, that the terminal device is located in the first area covered by the target cell, and the first area covered by the target cell corresponds to the second PLMN or the second AMF.

Step S703, the source network device sends a handover request message to the target network device, where the handover request message is used to request to handover the terminal device to the target network device, and the handover request message may include first information, where the first information indicates that the PLMN requested to be accessed is the second PLMN or the AMF requested to be connected is the second AMF. That is, the first information may be information of the second PLMN and/or information of the second AMF.

If the first information indicates that the PLMN requested to be accessed is the second PLMN, the first information may include information of the second PLMN, which indicates that the PLMN requested to be accessed to the cell corresponding to the second PLMN or the target cell requested to be accessed to the target cell belonging to the second PLMN or the target cell requested to be accessed belongs to the second PLMN, where the information of the PLMN may include identification information of the PLMN, such as PLMN-identifier. Similarly, if the first information indicates that the AMF requesting connection is the second AMF, the first information may include information of the second AMF, which indicates that the cell corresponding to the second AMF is requested to be accessed, or the target cell managed by the second AMF is requested to be accessed, or the target cell requested to be accessed is managed by the second AMF, where the information of the AMF may include identification information of the AMF, such as an AMF-identifier.

In this embodiment, the source network device may determine, according to the location information of the terminal device, the location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and the information of the PLMN and/or the information of the AMF corresponding to the at least one area, that the current location of the terminal device is located in a first area covered by the target cell, where the first area corresponds to the second PLMN or the second AMF. Further, a handover request message may be sent to the target network device requesting handover of the terminal device to a cell belonging to the second PLMN or a cell managed by the second AMF.

As described above, the location information of the at least one area covered by the target cell and the information of the PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area may be understood as indicating a mapping relationship between the at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF.

In one possible embodiment, the source network device may receive information indicating a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF from the terminal device. The specific procedure of this embodiment may refer to the following description about steps S801 to S803.

In another possible embodiment, the source network device may receive information from the target network device indicating a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMN and/or AMF. It should be noted that, the receiving of the information indicating the mapping relationship from the target network device may be that the source network device receives the information indicating the mapping relationship through a handover failure message or a handover preparation failure message in a handover process performed between the source network device and the target network device, as described in step S303 above; alternatively, in a non-handover scenario, the source network device and the neighboring network device may interact with each other in a process of mapping relationship information between at least one area covered by each cell and the PLMN and/or AMF, and the detailed description of the process may refer to the following description in relation to steps S901 to S903.

Step S704, the target network device sends a handover request acknowledgement message to the source network device. Accordingly, the source network device may receive a handover request acknowledgement message from the target network device.

Therefore, by adopting the technical scheme, the source network equipment can make a reasonable judgment when a switching judgment or other scenes are needed according to the mapping relation between at least one area covered by the target cell and the PLMN and/or the AMF, and request to access/switch the terminal equipment to the proper target cell/PLMN/AMF corresponding to the position of the terminal equipment, so that the access/switching process of the terminal equipment meets the communication strategy requirements of the country/operator to which the position of the terminal equipment belongs, the terminal equipment is prevented from being accessed from the countries/operators to which the position of the terminal equipment belongs, and the switching success rate is effectively improved.

It should be noted that, similar to the handover process shown in fig. 5 and fig. 6, the handover process described in the foregoing steps S701 to S704 may be implemented based on a directly connected interface (such as an Xn or X2 interface) between the access network devices, or based on an interface (such as an NG or S1 interface) between the access network device and the core network device, which is not further exemplified herein.

Please refer to fig. 8, which is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, the method includes:

step S801, a network device sends a first message to a terminal device, where the first message includes first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the terminal device acquires and/or reports location information of at least one area covered by a neighboring cell, and PLMN information and/or AMF information corresponding to the at least one area.

Accordingly, the terminal device may receive the first message from the network device.

In this embodiment of the application, the location information of the at least one area covered by the neighboring cell, and the information of the PLMN and/or the information of the AMF corresponding to the at least one area may be understood as information indicating a mapping relationship between the at least one area covered by the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or the AMF. Correspondingly, the first indication information may also be understood as information that indicates the terminal device to acquire and/or report mapping relationships between regions covered by neighboring cells and PLMNs and/or AMFs. It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the application, a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or the AMF may be one-to-one, or may be one-to-many, or may be many-to-one, and this application is not limited.

And the position information of each area in at least one area covered by the adjacent area is used for describing the geographical range contained in the area. In one possible embodiment, the location information of an area may include one or more of at least one longitude information, at least one latitude information, and at least one altitude information (such as altitude information or altitude information relative to the ground level, or others) of the area, which are used to represent the geographical range covered by the area in the three dimensions of longitude, latitude, and altitude, respectively. In another possible embodiment, the location information of an area may also be represented by an identifier (such as an ID or an index), where there is an association or mapping relationship between the identifier of the area and a specific location of the area (i.e., a specific geographic range included in the area), and the association or mapping relationship may be predefined by the system, or may be sent by the network device to the terminal device through a system message, an RRC message, or a layer two message, which is not limited in this application. That is, both the network device and the terminal device may determine their corresponding area information/location information according to the identifier (e.g., ID or index).

The neighboring cell may be a neighboring cell of a cell to which the terminal device is currently connected, or a neighboring cell of a serving cell of the terminal device. The cell currently accessed by the terminal equipment or the service cell of the terminal equipment is the cell administered by the network equipment, namely, the cell currently accessed by the terminal equipment belongs to the network equipment, or the service cell of the terminal equipment belongs to the network equipment. It should be noted that the cell currently accessed by the terminal device and the serving cell of the terminal device may be the same concept, and in the following description, the technical solution of the present application will be described in detail by uniformly adopting the expression of the cell currently accessed by the terminal device.

In this embodiment of the present application, the information of the PLMN may be identification information of the PLMN, such as a PLMN-identifier. The information of the AMF may be identification information of the AMF, i.e., an AMF-identifier.

It should be noted that, in an implementation manner, the first indication information in this embodiment may be of a cell level (per cell), that is, the first indication information is specific to a certain neighboring cell of a cell to which the terminal device is currently accessed, and is used for instructing the terminal device to acquire and/or report mapping relationship information between at least one area covered by the neighboring cell and a PLMN and/or an AMF. It can be understood that the cell to which the terminal device is currently connected or the serving cell of the terminal device may have one or more neighboring cells, and different neighboring cells may correspond to different first indication information. In another implementation, the first indication information may be at a terminal device level (per UE), that is, the first indication information is specific to all neighboring cells that can be detected by the terminal device, and is used to instruct the terminal device to acquire and/or report mapping relationship information between at least one area covered by each of the neighboring cells that can be detected by the terminal device and the PLMN and/or AMF. It can be understood that the neighboring cell that can be detected by the terminal device includes one or more cells, where each cell corresponds to the first indication information.

The present application specifically uses one of the one or more neighboring cells as an example to describe in detail the technical solution of the present application hereinafter.

Specifically, the first message may be an RRC message, a layer two message, or another message, which is not limited in this application.

The first indication information may be indication information represented by a binary value or a boolean value, or may be a certain cell carried in the first message, or may have other expression forms, which is not limited in this application.

For example, if the first indication information is represented by a binary value, the first indication information may be a flag bit occupying 1 bit in the first message, when a value of the flag bit is "1", the flag bit indicates that the terminal device needs to acquire and/or report mapping relationship information between at least one area included in the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or AMF, and when a value of the flag bit is "0", the flag bit indicates that the terminal device does not need to acquire and/or report mapping relationship information between at least one area included in the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or AMF.

If the first indication information is represented by a boolean value, the first indication information may be a boolean flag bit in the first message, where when a value of the flag bit is "TRUE", the flag bit may indicate that the terminal device needs to acquire and/or report mapping relationship information between at least one area included in the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or AMF, and when a value of the flag bit is "FALSE", the flag bit indicates that the terminal device does not need to acquire and/or report mapping relationship information between at least one area included in the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or AMF.

If the first indication information is a certain cell carried in the first message, the first indication information may be an "AcquireMapping" cell included in the first message, that is, when the first message includes the "AcquireMapping" cell, the first indication information may indicate that the terminal device needs to acquire and/or report mapping relationship information between at least one area included in the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or AMF, and when the first message does not include the "AcquireMapping" cell, the first indication information may indicate that the terminal device does not need to acquire and/or report mapping relationship information between at least one area included in the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or AMF.

Optionally, before the network device sends the first message to the terminal device, the network device may further send location measurement configuration information to the terminal device, where the location measurement configuration information indicates that the terminal device performs location measurement. Therefore, the terminal device can measure the position of the terminal device according to the position measurement configuration information, and report the measured position information to the network device.

The location information obtained by the terminal device through measurement is a location measurement result obtained by the terminal device through location measurement of its own location, where the location information may include one or more of longitude information, latitude information, and altitude information, or the location information may include an identifier (such as an ID or an index). In one possible embodiment, the location information may be used to describe a specific location point, such as longitude, latitude and altitude information of the location point where the terminal device is currently located. Alternatively, in another possible embodiment, the location information may also be used to describe a rough area range, that is, an area range where the terminal device is currently located, for example, the area range may be represented by parameters such as longitude, latitude and height of a central point, and a diameter or radius of the area range; alternatively, the area range may be represented by parameters such as a plurality of longitude values, a plurality of latitude values, a plurality of height values, and the like. Of course, the description of the area range may have other expressions, and the present application does not exemplify the area range.

Optionally, before the network device sends the first message to the terminal device, the network device may also send measurement configuration information to the terminal device, where the signal measurement configuration information indicates that the terminal device measures the signal quality of the neighboring cell. The measurement configuration information may include frequency information, which is used to indicate an object or a frequency point that the terminal device needs to measure. For example, the frequency information may include an absolute frequency location of a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) and/or a reference resource block, and/or the like.

Thus, the terminal device may perform the measurement of the signal quality according to the measurement configuration information, and after detecting a new cell (e.g., a neighboring cell of the serving cell), report the Physical Cell Identifier (PCI) of the cell, the signal quality, and the like to the network device. Subsequently, if the network device determines that the cell detected by the terminal device is a new neighboring cell, the network device may send, through the first message, second indication information used for indicating that a Cell Global Identifier (CGI) of the cell is reported. The second indication information may include a PCI value, and correspondingly, the second indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device reports the CGI of the cell identified as the PCI value, or the second indication information may include frequency information, and correspondingly, the second indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to report the CGI of the cell corresponding to the frequency information. The second indication information may also be referred to as measurement task information, or CGI measurement indication, or have other names, which are not limited in this application.

It should be noted that the network device may send location measurement configuration information and/or measurement configuration information for performing signal quality measurement to the terminal device. In a scenario where the network device sends the location measurement configuration information and the measurement configuration information for performing signal quality measurement to the terminal device, the location measurement configuration information and the measurement configuration information for performing signal quality measurement may be sent in the same message, or may be sent in different messages, for example, may be sent in different RRC messages, which is not limited in this application.

Step S802, the terminal device obtains the location information of at least one area covered by the neighboring cell, and the information of the PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area according to the first indication information.

Specifically, the terminal device may read, according to the indication of the first indication information, a system message of the neighboring cell, and obtain, from the system message of the neighboring cell, location information of at least one area included in the neighboring cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

Step S803, the terminal device sends a second message to the network device, where the second message includes location information of at least one area covered by the neighboring cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

That is, the second message may include information indicating a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or AMF. It should be noted that the information of the PLMN and/or the information of the AMF corresponding to the at least one area may be information of the PLMN and/or the AMF corresponding to all areas covered by the neighboring area, or may be information of the PLMN and/or the AMF corresponding to a partial area covered by the neighboring area, which is not limited in the present application.

For example, a neighboring cell exists in a cell to which the terminal device is currently connected, and the neighboring cell covers country a and country B. Suppose that the area belonging to country a in the neighborhood is denoted as area 1, the area belonging to country B is denoted as area 2, and country a corresponds to PLMN1/AMF1, and country B corresponds to PLMN2/AMF2. The information broadcast in the system message of the neighboring cell may include one or more of the following: location information of area 1, identification information of PLMN1 and/or AMF1, location information of area 2, identification information of PLMN2 and/or AMF2.

In this way, the information, which is obtained from the system message of the neighboring cell and is used to indicate the mapping relationship between the at least one area covered by the neighboring cell and the PLMN and/or AMF, may be expressed as { location information of area 1, identification information of PLMN1 and/or AMF1 }, { location information of area 2, identification information of PLMN2 and/or AMF2 }. Furthermore, the terminal device may report the information to the network device through the second message.

The second message may be an RRC message or a layer two message or other messages, which is not limited in this application.

Optionally, the second message may further include a CGI of the neighboring cell measured by the terminal device.

Therefore, by adopting the technical scheme, the terminal device may obtain/report mapping relationship information between at least one area covered by the neighboring cell and the PLMN/AMF, for example, in an Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR) flow, so that after the serving base station of the terminal device obtains the mapping relationship of the neighboring base station, a reasonable handover decision/handover request may be made for a handover process of the terminal device according to the mapping relationship and in combination with the location information of the terminal device, so that the handover/access of the terminal device may meet communication policy requirements of a country/operator to which the location of the terminal device belongs, and the terminal device is prevented from accessing from a country/operator to which the location of the terminal device belongs.

Please refer to fig. 9, which is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, the method includes:

step S901, the first network device generates a third message, where the third message includes location information of at least one area covered by the first cell managed by the first network device, and information of a PLMN and/or information of an AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

Step S902, the first network device sends a third message to the second network device. Accordingly, the second network device may receive the third message from the first network device.

Step S903, the second network device generates a fourth message, where the fourth message includes location information of at least one area covered by the second cell managed by the second network device, and information of a PLMN and/or information of an AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

Step S904, the second network device sends a fourth message to the first network device. Accordingly, the first network device may receive a fourth message from the second network device.

In addition, the present application does not specifically limit the execution sequence between the step S902 and the step S904. That is, the first network device may first send the third message to the second network device, and after receiving the third message, the second network device sends the fourth message to the first network device as a response to the third message. Or, the second network device may send a fourth message to the first network device first, and after receiving the fourth message, the first network device sends a third message to the second network device as a response to the fourth message.

In this embodiment, the information of the PLMN may include identification information of the PLMN, for example, a PLMN-identifier. Similarly, the information of the AMF may include identification information of the AMF, for example, an AMF-identifier.

In the NR system, the third message and the fourth message may be XN SETUP REQUEST messages or XN SETUP RESPONSE messages, or other messages. In the LTE system, the third message and the fourth message may be X2 SETUP REQUEST messages or X2 SETUP RESPONSE messages, or other messages.

In a possible implementation, the first network device and the second network device may be two adjacent access network devices, such as base stations, or CUs in the two adjacent access network devices. When there is a directly connected interface (such as an X2/Xn interface) between two access network devices, they can interact with the information of the mapping relationship between the respective areas covered by the respectively managed cells and the PLMN/AMF through the interface. For example, the information of the mapping relationship between each area covered by the cell and the PLMN/AMF may be included in the XN SETUP REQUEST message or the XN SETUP RESPONSE message. For the information about the mapping relationship between each area covered by the cell and the PLMN/AMF, reference may be made to the above description, and further description is omitted here.

For example, cell C belongs to gNB1, covers country a and country B, and is assumed that an area belonging to country a in cell C is denoted as area 1, an area belonging to country B in cell C is denoted as area 2, and country a is assumed to correspond to PLMN1/AMF1 and country B is assumed to correspond to PLMN2/AMF2. The cell D belongs to the gbb 2, covers the country B and the country C, and is assumed that an area belonging to the country B in the cell D is denoted as an area 3, an area belonging to the country C in the cell D is denoted as an area 4, the country B is assumed to correspond to the PLMN2/AMF2, and the country C is assumed to correspond to the PLMN3/AMF3.

Then, taking the NR system as an example, the XN SETUP REQUEST message sent by the gNB1 (or gNB 1-CU) to the gNB2 (or gNB 2-CU) may include information of mapping relationship between each area covered by the cell C and the PLMN/AMF, such as { location information of area 1, identification information of PLMN1 and/or AMF1 }, { location information of area 2, identification information of PLMN2 and/or AMF2 }. Accordingly, the XN SETUP RESPONSE message sent by the gNB2 (or the gNB 2-CU) to the gNB1 (or the gNB 1-CU) may include information of mapping relationship between each area covered by the cell D and the PLMN/AMF, such as { location information of the area 3, identification information of the PLMN2 and/or AMF2 }, { location information of the area 4, identification information of the PLMN3 and/or AMF3 }.

Alternatively, the XN SETUP REQUEST message sent by the gNB2 (or gNB 2-CU) to the gNB1 (or gNB 1-CU) may contain information of mapping relationship between each area covered by the cell D and the PLMN/AMF, such as { location information of area 3, identification information of PLMN2 and/or AMF2 }, { location information of area 4, identification information of PLMN3 and/or AMF3 }. Accordingly, the XN SETUP RESPONSE message sent by the gNB1 (or the gNB 1-CU) to the gNB2 (or the gNB 2-CU) may include information of mapping relationship between each area covered by the cell C and the PLMN/AMF, such as { location information of the area 1, identification information of the PLMN1 and/or AMF1 }, { location information of the area 2, identification information of the PLMN2 and/or AMF2 }.

Further, in consideration of the CU-DU architecture adopted by the access network device, in another possible implementation, the first network device and the second network device may also be a CU node and a DU node inside the same access network device. That is, a CU node of a certain access network device may send information of a mapping relationship between at least one area of cell coverage belonging to the access network device and a PLMN/AMF to a DU node of the access network device, and/or the DU node of the access network device may also send information of a mapping relationship between at least one area of cell coverage belonging to the access network device and a PLMN/AMF to a CU node of the access network device.

For example, an F1 SETUP REQUEST message sent by the gNB-DU to the gNB-CU, an F1 SETUP RESPONSE message sent by the gNB-CU to the gNB-DU, an F1 SETUP FAILURE message sent by the gNB-CU to the gNB-DU, a UE CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST message sent by the gNB-CU to the gNB-DU, a UE SET SETUP RESPONSE message sent by the gNB-DU to the gNB-CU, a GNB-CONFIGURATION UPDATION message sent by the gNB-DU to the gNB-CU, a B-CONFIGURATION UPDAKNOWLEDGE message sent by the gNB-CU to the gNB-DU, a GNB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDAILURE FAILURE message sent by the gNB-CU to the gNB-DU, a GNB-DU-CONFIGURATION UPGRATION UPDAILURE message sent by the gNB-CU to the gNB-DU, a GNB-CU-CONCU overlay information of at least one of the coverage area of the GUNB-PLMN, and PLMN-PLMN information that includes a mapping relationship between the GUNB-PLMN-NB-PLMN-CONCU.

Still further, if the CU nodes in the access network device can be divided into CU-CP and CU-UP, then in yet another possible implementation, the first network device and the second network device can also be the CU-CP portion and the CU-UP portion of the CU nodes. That is, the CU-CP of a CU node inside the access network device may send information of the mapping relationship between the at least one area of cell coverage and the PLMN/AMF to the CU-UP of the CU node, and/or the CU-UP of the CU node may send information of the mapping relationship between the at least one area of cell coverage and the PLMN/AMF to the CU-CP of the CU node.

For example, GNB-CU-UP 1 SETUP REQUEST messages sent by gNB-CU-UP to gNB-CU-CP, GNB-CU-UP 1 SETUP RESPONSE messages sent by gNB-CU-CP to gNB-CU-UP, GNB-CU-UP 1 SETUP FAILURE messages sent by gNB-CU-CP to gNB-CU-UP, GNB-CU-CP E1 SETUP REQUEST messages sent by gNB-CU-CP to gNB-CU-UP, GNB-CU-CP E1 SETUP RESPONSE messages sent by gNB-CU-UP to gNB-CU-CP, GNB-CU-CP E1 SETUP FAILURE messages sent by gNB-CU-UP to gNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU-UP CONFIGURATION UPDATE message sent by the gNB-CU-UP to the gNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU-UP CONFIGURATION UPDATE message sent by the gNB-CU-CP to the gNB-CU-UP, gNB-CU-UP CONFIGURATION UPDATE message sent by the gNB-CU-CP to the gNB-CU-UP, gNB-CU-CP CONFIGURATION UPDATE message sent by the gNB-CU-UP to the gNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU-CP-CONFIGURATION UPDATE message sent by the gNB-CU-CP to the gNB-CU-CP, and the like, and may include at least one of the PLMN area/area mapping relationship between small areas.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, by introducing a mechanism of information of a mapping relationship between at least one area covered by an interactive cell between nodes and a PLMN/AMF, after the nodes obtain the mapping relationship, a reasonable decision can be made based on the mapping relationship when, for example, access control or handover decision is required subsequently or in other scenarios, so that access/handover of the terminal device can meet communication policy requirements of a country/operator to which the location of the terminal device belongs, and the terminal device is prevented from accessing from a country/operator to which the location of the terminal device does not belong.

Referring to fig. 10, a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided, where the communication device 1000 includes: a transceiver module 1010 and a processing module 1020. The communication apparatus may be configured to implement the functionality of any of the above method embodiments that relates to a network device (e.g., a first network device or a target network device). For example, the communication means may be a network device or a chip or circuit included in the network device.

For example, when the communication apparatus performs the operation or step corresponding to the target network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, the transceiver module 1010 is configured to receive, from the source network device, a handover request message for requesting to handover the terminal device to the target network device, where the handover request message includes location information of the terminal device and information of a first access and mobility management function AMF to which the source network device or a first public land mobile network PLMN to which the source network device belongs when the terminal device communicates with the source network device is connected; the processing module 1020 is configured to determine, according to the location information of the terminal device, that the location of the terminal device is located in a first area covered by the target cell, and a PLMN corresponding to the first area does not include the first PLMN, or an AMF corresponding to the first area does not include the first AMF, where the target network device manages the target cell; the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to send a handover failure message to the source network device.

In one possible design, the handover failure message includes one or more of the following information: the information of the failure reason, the information of PLMN which the target network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access, and the information of AMF which the target network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access; the failure reason information is used for indicating that the handover failure reason is invalid PLMN, or invalid AMF, or invalid location information, or an illegal request.

In a possible design, the handover failure message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

When the communication apparatus executes the operation or step corresponding to the source network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, the transceiver module 1010 is configured to send a handover request message to the target network device, where the handover request message is used to request that the terminal device is handed over to the target network device, and the handover request message includes location information of the terminal device, and information of a first public land mobile network PLMN to which the source network device belongs or information of a first access and mobility management function AMF to which the source network device is connected when the terminal device communicates with the source network device; the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to receive a handover failure message from the target network device.

In one possible design, the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to send location measurement configuration information to the terminal device, where the location measurement configuration information indicates that the terminal device performs location measurement; the processing module 1020 is configured to obtain location information of the terminal device.

When the communication apparatus executes the operation or step corresponding to the source network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 7, the transceiver module 1010 is configured to obtain the location information of the terminal device; the processing module 1020 is configured to determine, according to the location information of the terminal device, that the terminal device is located in a first area covered by the target cell, where the first area covered by the target cell corresponds to a second public land mobile network PLMN or a second access and mobility management function AMF; the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to send a handover request message to the target network device, where the handover request message is used to request that the terminal device be handed over to the target network device, and the handover request message includes first information, where the first information indicates that the PLMN requested to be accessed is a second PLMN or the AMF requested to be accessed is a second AMF; the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to receive a handover request acknowledge message from the target network device.

In a possible design, the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to send a first message to the terminal device, where the first message includes first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the terminal device reports location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area; the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to receive a second message from the terminal device, where the second message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

In a possible design, the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to receive a third message from the target network device, where the third message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

When the communications apparatus executes the operation or step corresponding to the network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8, the transceiver module 1010 is configured to send a first message to the terminal device, where the first message includes first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the terminal device reports location information of at least one area covered by a neighboring cell, and information of a public land mobile network PLMN and/or information of an access and mobility management function AMF corresponding to the at least one area; the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to receive a second message from the terminal device, where the second message includes location information of at least one area covered by the neighboring cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

In one possible design, the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to send location measurement configuration information to the terminal device, where the location measurement configuration information indicates that the terminal device performs location measurement; and the network equipment receives the position information sent by the terminal equipment.

In a possible design, the first message further includes second indication information, where the second indication information indicates that the terminal device reports the cell global identity CGI of the neighboring cell.

When the communications apparatus performs the operation or step corresponding to the first network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 9, the processing module 1020 is configured to generate a third message, where the third message includes location information of at least one area covered by a first cell managed by the first network device, and information of a public land mobile network PLMN and/or information of an access and mobility management function AMF corresponding to the at least one area covered by the first cell; the transceiver module 1010 is configured to send the third message to the second network device.

In a possible design, the transceiver module 1010 is further configured to receive a fourth message from the second network device, where the fourth message includes location information of at least one area covered by a second cell managed by the second network device, and information of a PLMN and/or an AMF corresponding to the at least one area covered by the second cell.

It is to be understood that the processing module 1020 involved in the communication apparatus may be implemented by at least one processor or processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 1010 may be implemented by at least one transceiver or transceiver-related circuit component or communication interface. The operations and/or functions of the modules in the communication apparatus are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows of the methods shown in fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, fig. 8, or fig. 9, and are not described herein again for brevity. Optionally, the communication device may further include a storage module, where the storage module may be configured to store data and/or instructions, and the transceiver module 1010 and/or the processing module 1020 may read the data and/or instructions in the access module, so as to enable the communication device to implement the corresponding method. The memory module may be implemented, for example, by at least one memory.

The storage module, the processing module and the transceiver module may be separated, or all or part of the modules may be integrated, for example, the storage module and the processing module are integrated, or the processing module and the transceiver module are integrated.

Please refer to fig. 11, which is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device may be specifically a network device, for example, a base station, and is configured to implement the function related to the network device (such as the first network device or the target network device) in any of the method embodiments described above.

The network device includes: one or more radio frequency units, such as a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) 1101 and one or more baseband units (BBUs) (which may also be referred to as digital units, DUs) 1102. The RRU 1101 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver circuitry, or transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 11011 and a radio unit 11012. The RRU 1101 portion is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals. The BBU 1102 part is mainly used for performing baseband processing, controlling a base station, and the like. The RRU 1101 and the BBU 1102 may be physically disposed together, or may be physically disposed separately, that is, distributed base stations.

The BBU 1102 is a control center of a base station, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and is mainly used for performing baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and the like. For example, the BBU (processing unit) 1102 may be configured to control the base station to perform the operation procedure related to the network device in the above-described method embodiment.

In an example, the BBU 1102 may be formed by one or more boards, where the boards may collectively support a radio access network (e.g., an LTE network) with a single access indication, or may respectively support radio access networks (e.g., LTE networks, 5G networks, or other networks) with different access schemes. The BBU 1102 may also include a memory 11021 and a processor 11022, the memory 11021 being configured to store the necessary instructions and data. The processor 11022 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the transmission operation in the above method embodiment. The memory 11021 and the processor 11022 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and processor may be provided separately on each board. Multiple boards may share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

Referring to fig. 12, a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown, where the communication device 1200 includes: a transceiver module 1210 and a processing module 1220. The communication device can be used for realizing the functions related to the terminal equipment in any of the above method embodiments. For example, the communication device may be a terminal device, such as a handheld terminal device or a vehicle-mounted terminal device; the communication means may also be a chip or a circuit included in the terminal device, or a device including the terminal device, such as various types of vehicles and the like.

For example, when the communication apparatus performs the operation or step corresponding to the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 8, the transceiver module 1210 is configured to receive a first message from the network device, where the first message includes first indication information, where the first indication information indicates that the terminal device reports location information of at least one area covered by a neighboring cell, and information of a public land mobile network PLMN and/or information of an access and mobility management function AMF corresponding to the at least one area; the processing module 1220 is configured to obtain, according to the first indication information, location information of at least one area covered by the neighboring cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area; the transceiver module 1210 is further configured to send a second message to the network device, where the second message includes location information of at least one area covered by the neighboring cell, and information of a PLMN and/or information of an AMF corresponding to the at least one area.

In one possible design, the transceiver module 1210 is further configured to receive location measurement configuration information from the network device, where the location measurement configuration information indicates that the terminal device performs location measurement; the processing module 1220 is further configured to perform a location measurement according to the indication of the location measurement configuration; the transceiver module 1210 is further configured to transmit the measured location information of the terminal device to the network device.

The processing module 1220 involved in the communication device may be implemented by at least one processor or processor-related circuit components, and the transceiver module 1210 may be implemented by at least one transceiver or transceiver-related circuit components or a communication interface. The operations and/or functions of the modules in the communication apparatus are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows of the methods shown in fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6, or fig. 8, and are not described herein again for brevity. Optionally, the communication device may further include a storage module, where the storage module may be configured to store data and/or instructions, and the transceiver module 1210 and/or the processing module 1220 may read the data and/or instructions in the access module, so as to enable the communication device to implement the corresponding method. The storage module may be implemented, for example, by at least one memory.

The storage module, the processing module, and the transceiver module may be separated, or all or part of the modules may be integrated, for example, the storage module and the processing module are integrated, or the processing module and the transceiver module are integrated.

Please refer to fig. 13, which is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application. The communication device may specifically be a terminal device, and the communication device may be configured to implement the functions related to the terminal device in any of the method embodiments described above. For ease of understanding and illustration, in fig. 13, the terminal device is exemplified by a mobile phone. As shown in fig. 13, the terminal device includes a processor and may further include a memory, and of course, may also include a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, an input/output device, and the like. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the terminal equipment, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs and the like. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal devices may not have input/output means.

When data needs to be sent, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be sent and then outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit carries out radio frequency processing on the baseband signals and then sends the radio frequency signals to the outside in an electromagnetic wave mode through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in FIG. 13. In an actual end device product, there may be one or more processors and one or more memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc. The memory may be provided independently of the processor, or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the radio frequency circuit having the transceiving function may be regarded as a transceiving unit of the terminal device, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 13, the terminal device includes a transceiving unit 1310 and a processing unit 1320. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. A processing unit may also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, or the like. Alternatively, a device for implementing the receiving function in the transceiving unit 1310 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing the transmitting function in the transceiving unit 1310 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiving unit 1310 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. A transceiver unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuit, or the like. A receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, or the like. A transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc. It should be understood that the transceiving unit 1310 is configured to perform the transmitting operation and the receiving operation on the terminal device side in the above method embodiments, and the processing unit 1320 is configured to perform other operations besides the transceiving operation on the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a chip system, including: a processor coupled to a memory, the memory being configured to store a program or instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the system-on-chip to implement the method of the corresponding terminal device or the method of the corresponding network device in any of the above method embodiments.

Optionally, the system on a chip may have one or more processors. The processor may be implemented by hardware or by software. When implemented in hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like. When implemented in software, the processor may be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

The chip system may be a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a Central Processor Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Microcontroller (MCU), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD) or other integrated chips.

It will be appreciated that the steps of the above described method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of the 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.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where computer-readable instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer-readable instructions are read and executed by a computer, the computer is enabled to execute the method in any of the above method embodiments.

The embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, which when read and executed by a computer, enables the computer to execute the method in any one of the method embodiments.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, where the communication system includes at least one network device and at least one terminal device, and the at least one network device may include a source network device and a target network device, and may also include a first network device and a second network device. Optionally, the communication system may further include a core network device.

It should be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a Central Processing Unit (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, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (dynamic RAM, DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), SLDRAM (synchronous DRAM), 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 the various numerical references mentioned in the various embodiments of the present application are merely for convenience of description and differentiation, and the serial numbers of the above-mentioned processes or steps do not imply any order of execution, and the execution order of the processes or steps should be determined by their functions and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present invention.

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 technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It 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.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

In the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or conflicting with respect to logic, the terms and/or descriptions in different embodiments have consistency and may be mutually cited, and technical features in different embodiments may be combined to form a new embodiment according to their inherent logic relationship.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope 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 present application, and shall 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

A method of communication, the method comprising:

a target network device receives a handover request message from a source network device, wherein the handover request message is used for requesting a terminal device to be handed over to the target network device, and the handover request message includes location information of the terminal device and information of a first Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) to which the source network device belongs or information of a first access and mobility management function (AMF) to which the source network device is connected when the terminal device communicates with the source network device;

the target network device determines, according to the location information of the terminal device, that the location of the terminal device is located in a first area covered by a target cell, and the PLMN corresponding to the first area does not include the first PLMN, or the AMF corresponding to the first area does not include the first AMF; wherein the target network device manages the target cell;

and the target network equipment sends a switching failure message to the source network equipment.
The method of claim 1, wherein the handover failure message comprises one or more of the following information: the information of the failure reason, the information of the PLMN which the target network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access, and the information of the AMF which the target network equipment allows the terminal equipment to access;

wherein the failure reason information is used for indicating that the handover failure reason is invalid PLMN, or invalid AMF, or invalid location information, or illegal request.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the handover failure message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

a source network device sends a switching request message to a target network device, wherein the switching request message is used for requesting a terminal device to be switched to the target network device, and the switching request message comprises position information of the terminal device and information of a first Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) to which the source network device belongs or information of a first access and mobility management function (AMF) connected with the source network device when the terminal device is in communication with the source network device;

the source network device receives a handover failure message from the target network device.
The method of claim 4, wherein the handover failure message comprises one or more of the following information: failure reason information, information of a PLMN which the target network device allows the terminal device to access, and information of an AMF which the target network device allows the terminal device to access;

wherein the failure reason information is used for indicating that the handover failure reason is invalid PLMN, or invalid AMF, or invalid location information, or illegal request.
The method according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the handover failure message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a corresponding PLMN and/or AMF of the at least one area.
The method according to any one of claims 4 to 6, further comprising:

the source network equipment sends position measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment, and the position measurement configuration information indicates the terminal equipment to carry out position measurement;

and the source network equipment acquires the position information of the terminal equipment.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

the source network equipment acquires the position information of the terminal equipment;

the source network equipment determines that the terminal equipment is located in a first area covered by a target cell according to the position information of the terminal equipment, and the first area covered by the target cell corresponds to a second Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) or a second access and mobility management function (AMF);

the source network device sends a switching request message to the target network device, wherein the switching request message is used for requesting to switch a terminal device to the target network device, the switching request message comprises first information, and the first information indicates that a PLMN requesting access is a second PLMN or an AMF requesting connection is a second AMF;

the source network device receives a handover request acknowledge message from the target network device.
The method of claim 8, further comprising:

the source network device sends a first message to the terminal device, where the first message includes first indication information indicating that the terminal device reports location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area;

and the source network device receives a second message from the terminal device, wherein the second message comprises the position information of at least one area covered by the target cell and the information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.
The method of claim 8, further comprising:

the source network device receives a third message from the target network device, where the third message includes location information of at least one area covered by the target cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

a terminal device receives a first message from a network device, wherein the first message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the terminal device reports position information of at least one area covered by a neighboring cell and information of a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) and/or access and mobility management function (AMF) corresponding to the at least one area;

the terminal equipment acquires the position information of at least one area covered by the adjacent area, and the information of a PLMN (public land Mobile network) and/or the information of an AMF (advanced Mobile radio frame) corresponding to the at least one area according to the first indication information;

and the terminal equipment sends a second message to the network equipment, wherein the second message comprises the position information of at least one area covered by the adjacent area, and the information of the PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.
The method of claim 11, further comprising:

the terminal equipment receives position measurement configuration information from the network equipment, and the position measurement configuration information indicates the terminal equipment to carry out position measurement;

and the terminal equipment sends the position information of the terminal equipment to the network equipment.
The method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the first message further includes second indication information, and the second indication information indicates that the terminal device reports the cell global identity CGI of the neighboring cell.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that network equipment sends a first message to terminal equipment, wherein the first message comprises first indication information, the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment reports position information of at least one area covered by a neighboring area, and information of a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) corresponding to the at least one area and/or information of an access and mobility management function (AMF);

the network device receives a second message from the terminal device, where the second message includes location information of at least one area covered by the neighboring cell, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area.
The method of claim 14, further comprising:

the network equipment sends position measurement configuration information to the terminal equipment, and the position measurement configuration information indicates the terminal equipment to carry out position measurement;

and the network equipment receives the position information sent by the terminal equipment.
The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the first message further includes second indication information, and the second indication information indicates that the terminal device reports the cell global identity CGI of the neighboring cell.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

the first network equipment generates a third message, wherein the third message comprises the position information of at least one area covered by a first cell managed by the first network equipment, and the information of a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) corresponding to the at least one area covered by the first cell and/or the information of an access and mobility management function (AMF);

the first network device sends the third message to a second network device.
The method of claim 17, further comprising:

the first network device receives a fourth message from the second network device, where the fourth message includes location information of at least one area covered by a second cell managed by the second network device, and information of a PLMN and/or AMF corresponding to the at least one area covered by the second cell.
A communication apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to any of claims 1 to 3, or comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to any of claims 4 to 7, or comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to any of claims 8 to 10, or comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to any of claims 11 to 13, or comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to any of claims 14 to 16, or comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to claim 17 or 18.
An apparatus for communication, the apparatus comprising at least one processor coupled with at least one memory:

the at least one processor configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the at least one memory to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 3, or to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 4 to 7, or to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 8 to 10, or to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 11 to 13, or to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 14 to 16, or to cause the apparatus to perform the method of claim 17 or 18.
A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a method of any one of claims 1 to 3 to be implemented, or cause a method of any one of claims 4 to 7 to be implemented, or cause a method of any one of claims 8 to 10 to be implemented, or cause a method of any one of claims 11 to 13 to be implemented, or cause a method of any one of claims 14 to 16 to be implemented, or cause a method of claim 17 or 18 to be implemented.
A communication device comprising a processor and interface circuitry;

the interface circuit is used for interacting code instructions to the processor;

the processor is configured to execute the code instructions to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, or the processor is configured to execute the code instructions to perform the method according to any one of claims 4 to 7, or the processor is configured to execute the code instructions to perform the method according to any one of claims 8 to 10, or the processor is configured to execute the code instructions to perform the method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, or the processor is configured to execute the code instructions to perform the method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, or the processor is configured to execute the code instructions to perform the method according to claim 17 or 18.
A computer program product, which, when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 3, or to perform the method of any one of claims 4 to 7, or to perform the method of any one of claims 8 to 10, or to perform the method of any one of claims 11 to 13, or to perform the method of any one of claims 14 to 16, or to perform the method of claim 17 or 18.