CN115884100A

CN115884100A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115884100A
Application number: CN202111154781.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 沙桐; 李秉肇; 常俊仁
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-09-29
Filing date: 2021-09-29
Publication date: 2023-03-31
Also published as: WO2023051114A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for improving the continuity of Multicast Broadcast Service (MBS) service. The method comprises the following steps: sending first information to access network equipment corresponding to a serving cell, wherein the first information is used for requesting MBS configuration information of a neighboring cell of the serving cell; and receiving second information from the access network equipment, wherein the second information comprises MBS configuration information of at least one adjacent cell of the service cell. By requesting the MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell in the service cell, the MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell can be obtained in advance, and the MBS configuration information of the cell does not need to be obtained after the new cell is reselected, so that the cell reselection time delay during moving can be reduced, and the continuity of the MBS service is improved.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

In a mobile communication system, a terminal device in an idle state or an inactive state may measure signal quality of a serving cell and a neighboring cell, and if the signal quality of the serving cell is poor and the signal quality of the neighboring cell is good, the terminal device may actively reselect a cell with better signal quality as the serving cell, which is called cell reselection.

With the development of communication, multicast and Broadcast Service (MBS) technology is introduced, where the MBS service is a service facing multiple terminal devices, such as a live broadcast service, a public safety service, a batch software update service, and the like.

Because the current cell reselection process is performed for unicast service, and for MBS service, multiplexing the current cell reselection process may affect the continuity of the MBS service.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for improving the continuity of MBS service.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal device, or may also be a chip or a circuit, or a device or a module in the terminal device. The method comprises the following steps: sending first information to access network equipment corresponding to a serving cell, wherein the first information is used for requesting MBS configuration information of a neighboring cell of the serving cell; and receiving second information from the access network equipment, wherein the second information comprises MBS configuration information of at least one adjacent cell of the service cell.

Compared with the way that the terminal device reads the special MBS system message of the new cell to acquire the configuration information of the MBS control channel after reselecting the adjacent cell (new cell) of the serving cell and then reads the MBS control channel to acquire the MBS configuration information of the new cell, in the embodiment of the application, the terminal device can request the MBS configuration information of the adjacent cell in the serving cell, so that the MBS configuration information of the adjacent cell can be acquired in advance, and the MBS Control Channel (MCCH) of the cell does not need to be acquired after reselecting the new cell, so that the time delay for acquiring the MBS configuration information of the new cell during moving can be reduced, and the continuity of the MBS service is improved.

In one possible embodiment, the terminal device may send the first information when the trigger condition is met. Wherein the trigger condition may include: a cell with signal quality meeting preset conditions exists in the adjacent cell of the service cell. Specifically, the trigger condition may include: at least one cell with signal quality meeting preset conditions exists in the adjacent cells of the serving cell, or N cells with signal quality meeting preset conditions exist in the adjacent cells of the serving cell, that is, the number of cells with signal quality meeting preset conditions in the adjacent cells of the serving cell is greater than or equal to N, where N is a positive integer greater than 1, or the ratio of cells with signal quality meeting preset conditions in the adjacent cells of the serving cell is greater than or equal to a threshold value, for example, the ratio is greater than 0.2. Through the design, the terminal equipment can acquire the MBS configuration information of the new cell in advance before reselecting the new cell.

In one possible design, the trigger condition may further include: the signal quality of the serving cell is less than or equal to a fifth threshold value during the time interval T. Through the design, the request information can be prevented from being sent too early, so that the times of acquiring the MBS configuration information of the adjacent cell by the terminal equipment is reduced, and the power consumption of the terminal equipment can be reduced.

In one possible design, the cells whose signal quality satisfies the predetermined condition include at least one of the following:

a first type of cell with a signal quality greater than or equal to a first threshold value in a time interval T;

a second type of cell with a signal quality greater than or equal to a second threshold value during a time interval T;

a second type of cell having a signal quality greater than the signal quality of the serving cell during time interval T;

a third type of cell with a signal quality greater than or equal to a third threshold value in a time interval T;

a third type of cell having a signal quality greater than the signal quality of the serving cell during time interval T;

a fourth type of cell having a signal quality greater than or equal to a fourth threshold value during a time interval T;

wherein, the first type of cell comprises at least one of the following: the cell of the different frequency point with higher priority than the service frequency point, the cell of the different system frequency point with higher priority than the service frequency point;

the second type of cell is a cell of a pilot frequency point with the same priority as the service frequency point;

the third type of cell is a cell with the same frequency point as the service frequency point;

the fourth type of cell includes at least one of: the cell of the different frequency point with lower priority than the service frequency point, and the cell of the different system frequency point with lower priority than the service frequency point.

In one possible design, the first information carries an identification of at least one cell whose signal quality satisfies a predetermined condition. Specifically, the identifier of the at least one cell whose signal quality meets the preset condition may be identifiers of all cells in the cells whose signal quality meets the preset condition, or identifiers of some cells in the cells whose signal quality meets the preset condition. Through the design, the accuracy of the MBS configuration information of the adjacent cell sent by the access network equipment can be improved.

In one possible design, the first information is carried in random access message 3 or random access message 5.

In one possible design, third information may be received from the access network device before the second information is received from the access network device, the third information being used to notify the MCCH change; receiving second information from the access network device, comprising: second information is received in the MCCH. By the above mode, the terminal device can receive the second information in time, so that the continuity of the MBS service can be further improved.

In a possible design, the third information carries indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that the MCCH is modified to be used for broadcasting MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell. By the method, the terminal equipment can receive the MCCH according to the requirement of the terminal equipment to acquire the second information, and the method is favorable for reducing the power consumption of the terminal equipment.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, where an execution subject of the method may be an access network device, or may also be a chip or a circuit, or an apparatus or a module in the access network device. The method comprises the following steps: receiving first information from a terminal device and sending second information to the terminal device, wherein the first information is used for requesting Multicast Broadcast Service (MBS) configuration information of a neighboring cell of a service cell, and the second information comprises MBS configuration information of at least one neighboring cell of the service cell.

Compared with the way that the terminal equipment reads the MBS special system message of the new cell to acquire the configuration information of the MBS control channel after reselecting the adjacent cell (new cell) of the serving cell and then reads the MBS control channel to acquire the MBS configuration information of the new cell, in the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can request the MBS configuration information of the adjacent cell in the serving cell, so that the MBS configuration information of the adjacent cell can be acquired in advance, the cell MCCH does not need to be acquired after reselecting the new cell, the time delay for acquiring the MBS configuration information of the new cell during moving can be reduced, and the continuity of the MBS service is improved.

In one possible design, the first information carries an identification of at least one cell. Through the design, the accuracy of sending the MBS configuration information of the adjacent cell by the access network equipment can be improved.

In one possible design, third information for notifying MCCH modification may be sent to the terminal device before the second information is sent to the terminal device. Sending second information to the terminal device, including: the second information is transmitted in the MCCH. By the above mode, the terminal device can receive the second information in time, so that the continuity of the MBS service can be further improved.

In a possible design, the third information carries indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate that the MCCH is modified to be used for broadcasting MBS configuration information of a neighboring cell. By the method, the terminal equipment can receive the MCCH according to the requirement of the terminal equipment to acquire the second information, and the method is favorable for reducing the power consumption of the terminal equipment.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal device, or may also be a chip or a circuit, or a device or a module in the terminal device. The method comprises the following steps: determining that the first frequency meets a preset condition, wherein the preset condition comprises that part or all of candidate cells on the first frequency can provide the first MBS service; or, the preset condition includes that the number or the proportion of candidate cells capable of providing the first MBS service in the candidate cells on the first frequency is greater than a threshold value; the first frequency is determined to be the highest priority frequency in cell reselection evaluation.

In the embodiment of the application, when determining whether the frequency is the highest priority frequency, the judgment condition for providing the current MBS service by the candidate cell on the first frequency is increased, so that the probability that the terminal equipment reselects the cell which does not support the current MBS service can be reduced to a certain extent, and the continuity of the broadcast service can be improved.

In addition, if a large number of terminal devices request to enter a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connected state to receive MBS services through unicast, cell congestion may be caused, and the embodiments of the present application may effectively prevent the terminal devices from accessing a cell that cannot provide the MBS services that the terminal devices want to receive, and may effectively avoid the occurrence of cell congestion under the above circumstances.

In one possible design, before determining that the first frequency satisfies the preset condition, the method further includes: the method comprises the steps of obtaining first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating a mode of providing first MBS service on a first frequency to provide the first MBS service on a part of cells of the first frequency.

If the first MBS service is provided on only a portion of the cells on the first frequency, the terminal device may reselect to a cell that does not support the MBS service that the terminal device wants to receive during cell reselection. In the above design, by increasing a determination condition for determining the first frequency as the highest priority frequency when the first MBS service is provided on only a part of cells on the first frequency, that is, increasing "part or all of the candidate cells on the first frequency can provide the first MBS service, or" the number or proportion of the candidate cells capable of providing the first MBS service in the candidate cells on the first frequency is greater than a threshold value ", and determining whether the first frequency is the highest priority frequency according to the existing determination condition when the first MBS service is provided on all the cells on the first frequency, the existing mode for determining the highest priority frequency can be reused as much as possible, and the change on the protocol is small.

In one possible design, the first information is carried in system information of a serving cell, or the first information is included in a User Service Description (USD) provided by an application layer or a service layer of the terminal device.

In one possible design, the terminal device may further receive second information, where the second information carries a cell list capable of providing the first MBS service.

In one possible design, the terminal device may obtain PCIs of one or more candidate cells on the first frequency and a PCI list of a neighbor cell capable of providing the first MBS service. The terminal device may determine whether the first frequency satisfies the preset condition by comparing the PCI of the candidate cell with the PCI list of the neighboring cell.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal device, or may also be a chip or a circuit, or a device or a module in the terminal device. The method comprises the following steps: determining to receive the MBS service on N frequency points, wherein N is an integer greater than 1; and determining the frequency point with the highest priority when the cell is reselected and evaluated according to the MBS services respectively provided by the N frequency points.

By the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can be ensured to preferentially reside on the frequency point capable of providing more MBS services in the cell reselection process, so that the continuity of more MBS services can be ensured; or, the continuity of the highest priority MBS service may be preferentially guaranteed; or, it is able to preferentially guarantee the continuity of the MBS service currently ongoing.

In one possible design, the frequency point with the highest priority may satisfy the following condition: the number of MBS services that can be provided is the largest. Through the design, the MBS server can preferentially reside on the frequency points capable of providing more MBS services, so that the continuity of the more MBS services can be ensured.

In one possible design, the frequency point with the highest priority may satisfy the following condition: the MBS service that can be provided has the highest priority. Through the design, the continuity of the MBS service with the highest priority can be preferentially ensured.

In one possible design, the frequency point with the highest priority may satisfy the following condition: the method can provide the first MBS service, and the first MBS service is the MBS service currently received by the terminal equipment. Through the design, the continuity of the current MBS service can be preferentially ensured.

In a possible design, the terminal device may determine, as a high priority frequency point, a frequency point capable of providing the most MBS services being received or interested by the terminal device, and select, as the highest priority, a frequency point corresponding to the highest priority of the MBS services if there are a plurality of frequency points that can provide the same number of MBS services.

In a possible design, the terminal device determines a frequency point where the MBS service with the highest priority is located as a high priority frequency point, and if there are multiple frequency points with the same priority, selects a frequency point which can provide the most MBS services being received or interested by the terminal device as the highest priority.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal device, or may also be a chip or a circuit, or a device or a module in the terminal device. The method comprises the following steps: sending first information to access network equipment, wherein the first information comprises information for requesting a first SI message (SI message) and information for requesting a first SIB or MCCH, the first SIB is carried in the first SI message, and the first SIB is used for configuring the MCCH; and receiving the MCCH from the access network equipment, wherein the MCCH carries MBS configuration information.

Currently, if the first SIB (i.e. SIB for configuring MCCH, such as MBS SIB, SIB15, etc.) and other SIBs are in the same SI message, the terminal device can only request the SI message, and the access network device does not know whether the request is for the first SIB or other SIBs (such as SIB2-SIB 14) in the SI message after receiving the request. In the embodiment of the application, the first SIB is requested by the explicit indication, that is, the first information includes information for requesting the first SIB, so that the access network device may accurately determine that the purpose of the terminal device for sending the first information is to request the first SIB or request the MCCH, so that the access network device may start broadcasting the MCCH in time, and the terminal device may acquire configuration information necessary for receiving the MBS service in time and start receiving broadcast data, thereby reducing the time for interrupting the MBS service and ensuring the continuity of the broadcast service. In addition, unnecessary signaling overhead caused by the fact that the access network equipment broadcasts the MCCH when the terminal equipment actually requests the second SIB can be avoided, resources are saved, and especially control plane wireless channel resources are saved.

In one possible design, the first SIB may be received from the access network device after sending the first information to the access network device. Through the design, the access network equipment can send the configuration information of the MCCH in time, thereby being beneficial to the continuity of the MBS service.

In one possible design, after sending the first information to the access network device, second information may be received from the access network device, the second information indicating the MCCH change. By the method, the terminal equipment can receive the MCCH in time, so that the continuity of the MBS service can be further improved.

In one possible design, the first SI message includes a first SIB and N second SIBs, N being an integer greater than 0, and the first information may include a first bit corresponding to the first SIB for indicating that the first SIB is requested.

In one possible design, the first information may further include bits corresponding to N second SIBs, where the bits respectively indicate whether to request the corresponding second SIBs, N is the number of the second SIBs included in the first SI message, and N is greater than 0.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, where an execution subject of the method may be an access network device, or may also be a chip or a circuit, or an apparatus or a module in the access network device. The method comprises the following steps: receiving first information from terminal equipment, wherein the first information comprises information for requesting a first SI message and information for requesting a first SIB, the first SIB is carried in the first SI message, and the first SIB is used for configuring MCCH; and sending the first SIB to the terminal equipment.

Currently, if the first SIB (i.e. SIB for configuring MCCH) and other SIBs (such as SIB2-SIB 14) are in the same SI message, the terminal device can only request the SI message, and the access network device does not know whether the request is for the first SIB or other SIBs in the SI message after receiving the request. In the embodiment of the application, the first SIB is requested by the explicit indication, that is, the first information includes information for requesting the first SIB, so that the access network device can accurately determine that the purpose of sending the first information by the terminal device is to request the first SIB, so that the access network device can start broadcasting the MCCH in time, and the terminal device can acquire configuration information necessary for receiving a broadcast service in time and start receiving broadcast data, thereby reducing the time for interrupting MBS service and ensuring the continuity of the broadcast service. In addition, unnecessary signaling overhead caused by the fact that the access network equipment broadcasts the MCCH when the terminal equipment actually requests the second SIB can be avoided, resources are saved, and particularly control plane wireless channel resources are saved.

In one possible design, after receiving the first information from the terminal device, the second information may be sent to the terminal device, where the second information carries MBS configuration information. Through the design, the access network equipment can send the MBS configuration information in time, thereby being beneficial to the continuity of the MBS service.

In one possible design, after receiving the first information from the terminal device, third information may be sent to the terminal device, where the third information is used to indicate the MCCH change; sending second information to the terminal device, including: the second information is sent in the MCCH. By the above mode, the terminal device can receive the second information in time, so that the continuity of the MBS service can be further improved.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may implement the method implemented by a terminal device in the first aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or any possible design thereof. The device comprises corresponding units or means for performing the above-described method. The means comprised by the apparatus may be implemented by software and/or hardware. The apparatus may be, for example, a terminal device, or a component or a baseband chip, a chip system, or a processor that may support the terminal device to implement the method described above.

Illustratively, the communication device may comprise a transceiver unit (or communication module, transceiver module) and a processing unit (or processing module), which may perform the corresponding functions of the terminal device in the first aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or any possible design thereof. When the communication apparatus is a terminal device, the transceiving unit may be a transmitter and a receiver, or a transceiver obtained by integrating a transmitter and a receiver. The transceiver unit may include an antenna, a radio frequency circuit, and the like, and the processing unit may be a processor, such as a baseband chip and the like. When the communication device is a component having the functions of the terminal equipment, the transceiver unit may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing unit may be a processor. When the communication device is a chip system, the transceiving unit may be an input/output interface of the chip system, and the processing unit may be a processor of the chip system, for example: a Central Processing Unit (CPU).

The transceiving unit may be configured to perform the actions of receiving and/or transmitting performed by the terminal device in the first aspect or the third aspect or the fourth aspect or the fifth aspect or any possible design thereof. The processing unit may be adapted to perform actions other than the receiving and transmitting performed by the terminal device in the first or third or fourth or fifth aspect or any possible design thereof. For example, the first information is determined, and a cell with signal quality meeting a preset condition exists in the neighboring cell of the serving cell. For another example, it is determined that the first frequency meets a preset condition, and the first frequency is determined to be the frequency with the highest priority when the cell reselection is evaluated. For another example, it is determined to receive the MBS on the N frequency points, and determine the frequency point with the highest priority when performing cell reselection evaluation according to the MBS services provided by the N frequency points, and the like. As another example, the first information is determined, etc.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communications apparatus, which may implement the method implemented by the access network device in the second aspect or the sixth aspect or any possible design thereof. The apparatus comprises corresponding units or means for performing the above-described method. The means comprised by the apparatus may be implemented by software and/or hardware. The apparatus may be, for example, an access network device, or a component or a baseband chip, a chip system, or a processor that may support the access network device to implement the foregoing method.

For example, the communication device may include a transceiver unit (or called communication module, transceiver module) and a processing unit (or called processing module), which may perform the corresponding functions of the access network device in the second or sixth aspect or any possible design thereof. When the communication device is an access network device, the transceiving unit may be a transmitter and a receiver, or a transceiver obtained by integrating the transmitter and the receiver. The transceiving unit may comprise an antenna, a radio frequency circuit and the like, and the processing unit may be a processor, such as a baseband chip and the like. When the communication device is a component having the functions of the access network equipment, the transceiver unit may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing unit may be a processor. When the communication device is a chip system, the transceiving unit may be an input/output interface of the chip system, and the processing unit may be a processor of the chip system, for example: a CPU.

The transceiving unit may be adapted to perform the actions of receiving and/or transmitting performed by the access network device in the second aspect or the sixth aspect or any possible design thereof. The processing element may be adapted to perform actions other than the receiving and transmitting performed by the access network device in the second or sixth aspect or any possible design thereof. Such as determining the second information, etc. As another example, a first SIB is determined, and so on.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising a communication device performing the method as set out in the first aspect or any one of its possible designs and a communication device performing the method as set out in the second aspect or any one of its possible designs.

A tenth aspect provides a communication system comprising communication means performing the method shown in the third aspect or any one of its possible designs, and further comprising an access network device.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising a communication device performing the method shown in the fourth aspect or any one of its possible designs, and further comprising an access network apparatus.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising a communication device performing the method shown in the fifth aspect or any one of its possible designs and a communication device performing the method shown in the sixth aspect or any one of its possible designs.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium for storing computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method shown in the first to sixth aspects or any one of its possible designs.

In a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions for storing computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method as set forth in the first to sixth aspects or any one of their possible designs.

In a fifteenth aspect, there is provided a circuit, coupled to a memory, for performing the method of the first to sixth aspects or any one of its possible designs. The circuit may comprise a chip circuit.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic multicast diagram according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic architecture diagram of a network system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

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

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

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

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The particular methods of operation in the method embodiments may also be applied to apparatus embodiments or system embodiments.

Hereinafter, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained so as to be easily understood by those skilled in the art.

1) MBS: the MBS is a service simultaneously transmitted to multiple terminal devices, such as a live broadcast service, a public safety service, a batch software update service, and the like. MBS may include multicast services, broadcast services, and the like. The MBS is from a data server, firstly the data server sends the data of the MBS to the core network equipment, then the core network equipment sends the data of the MBS to the access network equipment, and finally the access network equipment sends the data of the MBS to at least one terminal equipment for receiving the MBS. When the core network equipment sends the data of the MBS to the access network equipment, the data of the MBS is transmitted through a common transmission channel, namely, an MBS conversation, and when the access network equipment sends the data to the terminal equipment, two transmission modes are provided: the first can adopt point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission mode; the second method may use a point-to-point (PTP) transmission method. As shown in fig. 1.

It should be noted that MBS is only an exemplary name of a multicast service, and names of multicast services in different communication systems may be different, for example, in Long Term Evolution (LTE), a multicast service may be called Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), in a New Radio (NR), a multicast service may be called MBS, in future communication development, a multicast service may also be called other, and this application is not limited in particular.

2) Cell reselection: the terminal equipment in the RRC idle state/non-activated state measures the signal of the service cell and the adjacent cellAnd if the signal quality of the serving cell is poor and the signal quality of the neighboring cell is good, the terminal device may actively reselect a cell with a higher priority or better signal quality as the serving cell, and this process is called cell reselection. The cell reselection process comprises three stages of starting neighbor cell measurement (judging whether to start the neighbor cell measurement according to measurement starting conditions), reselection evaluation judgment (judging whether the signal quality of the neighbor cell meets the cell reselection standard, if the signal quality meets the cell reselection standard, executing cell reselection, otherwise, residing in the current cell), and cell reselection execution (receiving system information of a target cell, and if the target cell does not have access limitation, residing in a new cell). The signal quality may be a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), or a Measured cell RX level value (Q) _rxlevmea ) Or Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), or measured cell quality value (Q) _qualmeas ) Or cell selection reception level value (S) _rxlev Cell selection RX level value, in dB), or Cell selection quality value (S) _qual Cell selection quality value in dB), or the RSRP measurement Q used for Cell reselection _meas Or Rs of a serving cell in the cell ranking criterion, or Rn of a neighboring cell in the cell ranking criterion, and the like, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. 3) In the embodiments of the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple.

And, unless stated to the contrary, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal numbers "first", "second", etc., for distinguishing a plurality of objects, and do not limit the size, content, sequence, timing, priority, degree of importance, etc., of the plurality of objects. For example, the first threshold and the second threshold are only used to distinguish different thresholds, and do not indicate a difference in size, priority, or importance of the two thresholds.

The foregoing describes some of the noun concepts related to embodiments of the present application, and the following describes some features related to embodiments of the present application.

With the development of communication, MBS technology is introduced, and MBS services are services oriented to multiple terminal devices, such as live broadcast services, public security services, batch software update services, and the like.

Currently, a terminal device in an idle state or an inactive state may measure signal quality of a serving cell and a neighboring cell, and if the signal quality of the serving cell is poor and the signal quality of the neighboring cell is good, the terminal device may actively reselect a cell with a higher priority or better signal quality as the serving cell, which is called cell reselection. Since the current cell reselection process is performed for unicast service, after MBS service is introduced, if the current cell reselection process is continued, the continuity of the MBS service will be affected.

For example, the MBS service is configured in a two-step configuration manner: the access network equipment broadcasts MBS special system information (such as MBS SIB), and the MBS special system information carries the configuration information of MCCH. And then transmitting the MBS configuration information on the MCCH in the configured transmission window. When terminal equipment interested in MBS service enters a cell providing the MBS special system message and receives MCCH change notification, the terminal equipment can acquire MBS configuration information on the MCCH. Since the MBS configuration information is cell-level configuration information, which may include an ID of an MBS session provided by a cell, configuration and scheduling information of the MBS session, and the like, MBS configuration information carried by the MCCH of each cell may be different, and when a terminal device in an idle state or an inactive state performs cell reselection, it is necessary to read MBS dedicated system information of the reselected cell to obtain configuration information of the MCCH after accessing the reselected cell, and then read the MCCH to obtain configuration information of the MBS configuration information of the reselected cell. The mode causes larger time delay, causes MBS service interruption and influences the continuity of MBS service.

For another example, in LTE, the terminal device employs the following mechanisms to perceive frequency points/areas providing MBS services: an application layer/service layer of a terminal device provides User Service Description (USD) of MBS service, where the USD includes MBS session IDs such as Temporary Mobile Group Identity (TMGI), session start time and end time, frequency points of the MBS session, and MBS Service Area Identity (SAI), and each service area is composed of a group of cells. Or, the terminal device adopts the following mechanism to perceive the frequency point/area providing the MBS service: the serving cell broadcasts a system message (e.g., SIB 15) in which the MBS SAI of the current frequency point and each neighboring frequency point is provided.

In LTE, when a terminal device wants to receive a certain MBS and can only camp on this frequency point to receive this MBS service, then the frequency point is considered as the highest priority at cell reselection. When a frequency point is regarded as the highest priority, the following two conditions need to be satisfied:

the first condition is as follows: if the service cell does not broadcast the system message (such as SIB 15), but the frequency point is the frequency point provided in the USD of the MBS service; if the serving cell broadcasts a system message (for example, SIB 15), the SAI of the frequency point broadcasted in the system message includes the SAI indicated for the frequency point in the USD of the MBS service.

And a second condition: the terminal equipment supports single-cell point-to-multipoint transmission (SC-PTM) reception, and the candidate cell on the frequency point broadcasts the MBS special system message.

However, since there is no SAI concept in NR, when a certain MBS service is deployed only in a partial cell of a certain frequency point, if the terminal device still regards the frequency point as a high priority according to the principle of cell reselection frequency point priority in LTE, the terminal device may reselect to a cell that does not support the MBS service, thereby causing an interruption of the MBS service or an increase in the time delay for the terminal device to receive the MBS service.

For another example, in LTE, system messages (SI) are periodically broadcast to terminal devices. The SI in the NR network is divided into a minimum SI including a Master Information Block (MIB) and a system information block 1 (SIBs 1 ) and other SIs including a plurality of SIBs (e.g., other SIBs except for SIB 1) that are not broadcast in the minimum SI. The SIB1 carries scheduling information of the SI message. Each SI message may carry one or more SIBs.

For other SIs, the terminal device may actively request for broadcast, i.e. on-demand (on-demand) for SI, e.g. the terminal device may send a SI request message to the access network device to request a SI message containing the required SI. MBS SIB carrying MCCH configuration information belongs to other SI, if the access network equipment supports on-demand request SI, the terminal equipment can request the MBS SIB by adopting an on-demand mode. However, if the MBS SIB and other SIBs are in one SI Message, since the terminal device can only request the SI Message, the access network device does not know whether the request is for the MBS SIB or other SIBs in the SI Message after receiving the request. When the access network equipment does not broadcast the MCCH, for example, the access network equipment selects to send the MCCH in an On-demand MCCH manner, and when the terminal equipment requests the SI message, if the access network equipment only broadcasts the SIB On the SI message without broadcasting the MCCH, the terminal equipment cannot obtain the MBS configuration information, thereby causing MBS service interruption or delay increase in receiving the MBS service. However, if the access network equipment starts broadcasting the MCCH each time it receives the request message of the SI message containing the MBS dedicated system message, unnecessary signaling overhead and resource overhead may be incurred.

Based on this, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus, which are used to improve the continuity of an MBS service. The method and the device are based on the same inventive concept, and because the principles of solving the problems of the method and the device are similar, the implementation of the device and the method can be mutually referred, and repeated parts are not repeated.

The communication method provided by the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example, internet of things (IoT), narrowband band internet of things (NB-IoT), LTE, fifth generation (5G) communication system, a mixed architecture of LTE and 5G, a new communication system appearing in 6G or future communication development, and the like. The 5G communication system described herein may include at least one of a non-standalone (NSA) 5G communication system and a Standalone (SA) 5G communication system. The communication system may also be a machine to machine (M2M) network, machine Type Communication (MTC), or other network.

As shown in fig. 2, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be applied to a communication system, where the communication system includes an access network device and six terminal devices, i.e., user Equipments (UEs) 1 to 6. In the communication system, the UEs 1 to 6 may send uplink information to the access network device, and the access network device may receive uplink data sent by the UEs 1 to 6. Further, UE4 to UE6 may also constitute one sub-communication system. The access network device may send downlink information to the UE1, the UE2, the UE3, and the UE5, where the UE5 may send the downlink information to the UE4 and the UE6 based on a device-to-device (D2D) technology, or the UEs 4 to 6 may communicate with each other based on a device-to-device (D2D) technology.

The embodiment of the application can also be used for other communication systems as long as multicast transmission is required in the communication system. In addition, the embodiment of the present application is applicable to not only a scenario in which one access network device communicates with multiple UEs, but also a scenario in which multiple access network devices cooperate to communicate with one or multiple UEs at the same time (for example, a Single Frequency Network (SFN)).

The terminal devices shown above may be UEs, terminals (terminals), access terminals, terminal units, terminal stations, mobile Stations (MSs), remote stations, remote terminals, mobile terminals (mobile terminals), wireless communication devices, terminal agents, terminal devices, cellular phones, cordless phones, session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices, handheld devices with wireless communication functions, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable devices, terminal devices in future 5G networks, or terminal devices in future evolved PLMN networks, etc. The terminal device may be capable of transceiving, and may be capable of communicating (e.g., wirelessly communicating) with one or more access network devices of one or more communication systems and receiving network services provided by the access network devices, including but not limited to the access network device shown in fig. 2.

In addition, the terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; the terminal equipment can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); terminal devices may also be deployed in the air (e.g., airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc.). The terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical treatment (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in home (smart home), and the like. The terminal device may also be a communication chip having a communication module, a vehicle having a communication function, an in-vehicle device (such as an in-vehicle communication apparatus, an in-vehicle communication chip), or the like.

The access network equipment (or access network site refers to equipment providing a network access function, such as a Radio Access Network (RAN) base station (or RAN equipment) and the like.

For example, access network devices include, but are not limited to: a next generation base station (G nodeB, gbb) in the 5G, an evolved node B (eNB) in the LTE system, a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a radio controller under a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) system, a Base Station Controller (BSC), a home base station (e.g., home evolved node B, or home node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a transmission point (transmitting and receiving point, TRP), a Transmission Point (TP), a mobile switching center, an evolved Node (NB) in LTE (eNB or eNodeB), a base station device in the 5G network or an access network device in a PLMN network in the future, and a wearable device or a vehicle-mounted device.

In some deployments, the access network equipment may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU). The access network equipment may also include an Active Antenna Unit (AAU). The CU implements part of functions of the access network device, and the DU implements part of functions of the access network device, for example, the CU is responsible for processing non-real-time protocols and services, and implements functions of an RRC layer and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer. The DU is responsible for processing a physical layer protocol and a real-time service, and implements functions of a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, a Media Access Control (MAC) layer, and a physical layer (PHY) layer. The AAU implements part of the physical layer processing functions, radio frequency processing, and active antenna related functions. Since the information of the RRC layer eventually becomes or is converted from the information of the PHY layer, the higher layer signaling, such as the RRC layer signaling, may also be considered to be transmitted by the DU or by the DU + AAU under this architecture. It is to be understood that the access network device may be a device comprising one or more of a CU node, a DU node, an AAU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into access network devices in the RAN, or may be divided into access network devices (may be referred to as CN devices) in a Core Network (CN), which is not limited in this application.

Furthermore, the access network device may be connected to the CN device, and the core network device may be configured to provide core network services for the terminal device accessing the access network device. The core network device may correspond to different devices in different systems. For example, in 3G, the core network device may correspond to a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) of a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and/or a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) of a GPRS. In 4G, the core network device may correspond to a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a serving gateway (S-GW), or the like. In 5G, the core network device may correspond to an access and mobility management function (AMF) entity, a Session Management Function (SMF) entity, or a User Plane Function (UPF) entity, etc.

The following describes possible configurations of the access network device and the terminal device with reference to the drawings.

By way of example, fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a possible configuration of the device. The apparatus shown in fig. 3 may be a communication device, or may be a chip applied in a communication device, or other combined devices, components (or called components) having functions of the communication device shown in this application, where the communication device may be an access network device shown in this embodiment of the application, or may also be a terminal device shown in this embodiment of the application. The apparatus may include a processing module 310 and a transceiver module 320. The transceiver module 320 may be a functional module, which can perform both the transmitting operation and the receiving operation, for example, the transceiver module 320 may be configured to perform all the transmitting operation and the receiving operation performed by the communication device, for example, when the transmitting operation is performed, the transceiver module 320 may be considered as a transmitting module, and when the receiving operation is performed, the transceiver module 320 may be considered as a receiving module; alternatively, the transceiver module 320 may also be two functional modules, and the transceiver module 320 may be regarded as a general term for the two functional modules, which are respectively a transmitting module and a receiving module, where the transmitting module is configured to perform a transmitting operation, for example, the transmitting module may be configured to perform all transmitting operations performed by the communication device, the receiving module is configured to perform a receiving operation, and the receiving module may be configured to perform all receiving operations performed by the communication device.

For example, when the apparatus is a communication device, the transceiver module 320 may include a transceiver and/or a communication interface. The transceiver may include an antenna, radio frequency circuitry, and the like. A communications interface such as a fiber optic interface. The processing module 310 may be a processor, such as a baseband processor, which may include one or more CPUs therein.

When the apparatus is a component having the functions of the communication device described herein, the transceiver module 320 may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module 310 may be a processor, such as a baseband processor.

When the apparatus is a system on chip, the transceiver module 320 may be an input/output interface of a chip (e.g., a baseband chip), and the processing module 310 may be a processor of the system on chip and may include one or more central processing units.

It should be understood that the processing module 310 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 320 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component.

In one implementation, when the communication device is an access network device as shown in the embodiment of the present application, the processing module 310 may be configured to perform all operations performed by the access network device in the embodiment of the present application except transceiving operations, such as processing operations, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Transceiver module 320 may be used to perform all of the receiving and transmitting operations performed by the access network equipment in embodiments of the present application, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In another implementation, when the communication device is a terminal device shown in this embodiment, the processing module 310 may be configured to perform all operations, such as processing operations, other than transceiving operations, performed by the terminal device in this embodiment, and/or other processes for supporting the technology described herein, such as determining that a cell with signal quality meeting a preset condition exists in a neighboring cell of the serving cell. Transceiver module 320 may be used to perform all of the receiving and transmitting operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

Fig. 4 shows another possible structural diagram of a terminal device. As shown in fig. 4, the communication device includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency unit (or radio frequency circuit), an antenna, an input/output device, and other structures. The processor is mainly used for processing a communication protocol and communication data, controlling the device, executing a software program, processing data of the software program, and the like. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency unit 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 devices.

When data needs to be sent, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signals and sends the radio frequency signals to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves 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. 4. 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, an antenna and a radio frequency circuit having a transceiving function may be regarded as a transceiving unit of a terminal device (the transceiving unit may be a functional unit, and the functional unit is capable of implementing a transmitting function and a receiving function, or the transceiving unit may also include two functional units, which are respectively a receiving unit capable of implementing a receiving function and a transmitting unit capable of implementing a transmitting function), and a processor having a processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 4, the terminal device includes a transceiving unit 410 and a processing unit 420. 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. Optionally, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiver unit 410 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiver unit 410 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit 410 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. A transceiver unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving circuitry, 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 is understood that the transceiving unit 410 may correspond to the transceiving module 320, or the transceiving module 320 may be implemented by the transceiving unit 410. The transceiving unit 410 is used to perform the transmitting and receiving operations of the terminal device in the embodiments illustrated herein, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The processing unit 420 may correspond to the processing module 310, or the processing module 310 may be implemented by the processing unit 420. Processing unit 420 is configured to perform operations on the terminal device other than transceiving operations in the embodiments illustrated herein, such as performing all receiving and transmitting operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiments illustrated herein, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein.

Fig. 5 shows another possible structure diagram of the access network device. As shown in fig. 5, the access network device includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency unit (or radio frequency circuit) or an antenna. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the access network 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 unit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals.

As shown in fig. 5, the access network device may include a transceiver unit 510 and a processing unit 520, where the transceiver unit 510 may include a transmitter and a receiver, or the transceiver unit 510 may be a unit capable of implementing a transmitting and receiving function. The transceiver unit 510 may correspond to the transceiver module 320 in fig. 3, i.e., actions performed by the transceiver module 320 may be performed by the transceiver unit 510. Alternatively, the transceiver unit 510 may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, etc., and may include at least one antenna 511 and a radio frequency unit 512. The transceiver unit 510 is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals and baseband signals. The processing unit 520 is mainly used for performing baseband processing, controlling access network devices, and the like. The transceiver unit 510 and the processing unit 520 may be physically disposed together or may be physically disposed separately, that is, distributed access network devices.

Illustratively, the transceiver unit 510 may include one or more radio frequency units, such as Remote Radio Units (RRUs), and the processing unit 520 may include one or more BBUs (also referred to as DUs).

In an example, the processing unit 520 may be formed by one or more boards, and the multiple boards may jointly support a radio access network of a single access system (e.g., an LTE network), or may separately support radio access networks of different access systems (e.g., an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The processing unit 520 also includes a memory 521 and a processor 522. The memory 521 is used to store necessary instructions and data. The processor 522 is configured to control the access network device to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the access network device to perform the operation procedure related to the access network device in the embodiment shown in this application. The memory 521 and the processor 522 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.

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 it can be known by a person skilled in the art that the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems along with the evolution of the network architecture and the appearance of a new service scenario.

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. For ease of description, the method is performed by the access network device and the terminal device as an example hereinafter.

In the embodiment of the present application, the MBS service may also be referred to as "MBS service", "MBS broadcast service", "MBS session", "MBS broadcast service", "MBS", and the like.

In the embodiment of the application, the frequency and the frequency point can be replaced mutually.

Referring to fig. 6, a flowchart of a communication method provided in the present application is shown. The method comprises the following steps:

s601, the terminal device sends first information to the access network device corresponding to the service cell. Accordingly, the access network device receives the first information.

The first information is used for requesting MBS configuration information of a neighboring cell of the serving cell.

In one possible embodiment, the terminal device may send the first information to the access network device on the serving cell.

In this embodiment, the access network device corresponding to the serving cell may refer to an access network device that implements the function of the serving cell. Alternatively, the serving cell may be a cell in which the terminal device currently camps (or accesses).

The neighboring cell is a cell adjacent to the serving cell, or a cell of a frequency point adjacent to the current serving frequency point, where the serving frequency point is a frequency point where the cell where the terminal device currently resides is located.

In one implementation, the terminal device may send the first information when the trigger condition is satisfied. For example, the trigger conditions may include: and a cell with signal quality meeting preset conditions exists in the adjacent cell of the service cell. In an example, the terminal device may send the first information when it is determined that a cell whose signal quality satisfies a preset condition exists in a neighboring cell of the serving cell. Specifically, the trigger condition may include: at least one cell with signal quality meeting preset conditions exists in the adjacent cells of the service cell. Alternatively, the trigger conditions may include: in an example, the terminal device may send the first information when it is determined that N cells whose signal qualities satisfy the preset condition exist in the neighboring cell of the serving cell, that is, the number of cells whose signal qualities satisfy the preset condition in the neighboring cell of the serving cell is greater than or equal to N, where N is an integer greater than 1. Alternatively, the trigger conditions may include: in an example, the terminal device may further send the first information when it is determined that the ratio of the cells whose signal quality satisfies the preset condition in the neighboring cell of the serving cell is greater than or equal to the threshold value, for example, the ratio is greater than 0.2.

As an example, the cells whose signal quality satisfies the preset condition may include, but are not limited to, at least one of the following:

a first type of cells with a signal quality greater than or equal to a first threshold value in a time interval T, wherein the first type of cells comprises: a cell of a different frequency point with higher priority than the service frequency point, a cell of a different system frequency point with higher priority than the service frequency point, and the like;

a second type of cells having a signal quality greater than or equal to a second threshold value during a time interval T, wherein the second type of cells comprises: the cell of the different frequency point with the same priority as the service frequency point, the cell of the different system frequency point with the same priority as the service frequency point, and the like;

a third type of cell with a signal quality greater than or equal to a third threshold value in a time interval T, where the third type of cell may include: cells with the same frequency point as the service frequency point, and the like;

a fourth type of cell with a signal quality greater than or equal to a fourth threshold value in the time interval T, where the fourth type of cell may include: the cell of the different frequency point with the priority lower than that of the service frequency point, the cell of the different system frequency point with the priority lower than that of the service frequency point, and the like.

Optionally, the triggering condition may further include: the signal quality of the serving cell is less than or equal to a fifth threshold value during the time interval T.

The first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, the fourth threshold, and the fifth threshold may be the same or different, and are not specifically limited herein. Each threshold may be fixed in a protocol, or obtained by receiving signaling from an access network device, where the signaling may be higher layer signaling, such as RRC layer signaling, MAC layer signaling, or the signaling may be physical layer signaling, such as Downlink Control Information (DCI), or a combination of higher layer signaling and physical layer signaling, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

It can be understood that, in this embodiment of the present application, the first information is used to trigger the access network device to send MBS configuration information of neighboring cells of the serving cell, and the access network device specifically sends MBS configuration information of which neighboring cells, which may be indicated by the terminal device through the first information, for example, the first information may carry an identifier of at least one neighboring cell. Or, the specific MBS configuration information sent by the access network device in which neighboring cells are located may also be determined by the access network device itself.

Optionally, in an implementation manner that the terminal device indicates, through the first information, which neighboring cells the access network device sends MBS configuration information, the first information may carry an identifier of at least one neighboring cell of the serving cell, and specifically, may carry an identifier of at least one cell whose signal quality meets a preset condition. The identifier of the at least one cell whose signal quality meets the preset condition may be identifiers of all cells in the cells whose signal quality meets the preset condition, or identifiers of some cells in the cells whose signal quality meets the preset condition.

Illustratively, the cell identifier may be a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI) or the like.

Or, the first information may not carry the identifier of the neighboring cell, and in this way, the access network device may determine which MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell is sent by the access network device.

Optionally, the first information may also carry MBS session identification information requested by the terminal device, such as the TMGI, and/or the MBS session ID. Correspondingly, the access network equipment can send the MBS configuration information corresponding to the MBS session identification information when sending the MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell.

S602, the access network equipment sends the second information to the terminal equipment. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the second information.

The second information comprises MBS configuration information of at least one adjacent cell of the service cell.

The MBS configuration information may be MBS broadcast configuration information in a 3GPP protocol, or may also be configuration information related to MBS in future communication development, such as MBS multicast configuration information, MBS dedicated configuration information, and the like.

As an example, the MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell may include at least one of the following: an ongoing MBS session Identifier (ID) of the neighboring cell, a group radio network temporary identifier (G-RNTI), MBS Radio Bearer (MRB) configuration, and MBS Traffic Channel (MTCH) scheduling information.

In a possible implementation manner, the access network device may obtain MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell through an X2 interface or an Operation and Administration and Maintenance (OAM).

In a possible implementation manner, the serving cell and the neighboring cell belong to the same access network device, or the DU corresponding to the serving cell and the DU corresponding to the neighboring cell are connected to the same CU, so that the access network device corresponding to the serving cell can obtain MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell.

Next, a transmission method of the first information will be described.

In one possible embodiment, the transmission time of the first information may be earlier than the completion of cell reselection, or the transmission time of the first information may be before the terminal device resides in the reselected cell, for example, the transmission time of the first information may be earlier than the time when the terminal device receives a system information block (such as SIB 1) of the reselected cell.

As an example, when the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state, the terminal device sends the first information to the access network device corresponding to the serving cell when the above-mentioned trigger condition is met.

In an example, the first information may be indicated by the random access message 3 or the random access message 5, for example, the first information may be carried in the random access message 3 or the random access message 5. The random access message 3 may be an RRC establishment request message (RRCSetupRequest), an RRC recovery request message (rrcresumererequest), an RRC reestablishment request message (rrcreetablesupplimentrequest), or the like. The random access message 5 may be an RRC setup complete message (RRCSetupComplete) or an RRC recovery complete message (RRCResumeComplete) message, or an RRC reestablishment complete message (rrcreestablshmenticomplete) or the like.

In another example, the first information may be indicated by the random access message 1, for example, the terminal device may indicate the first information by using a dedicated preamble or a dedicated random access channel opportunity (RACH occasion, RO).

Next, a transmission method of the second information will be described.

In a possible implementation, the second information may be carried in the MCCH, that is, the terminal device may receive the second information in the MCCH. Optionally, in this embodiment, the access network device may send third information to the terminal device before sending the second information, where the third information is used to notify an MCCH change, for example, the third information may be an MCCH change notification. Optionally, the MCCH change notification indicated by the third information is used to indicate that the current MCCH content is changed. By the above mode, the terminal device can receive the second information in time, so that the continuity of the MBS service can be further improved.

The third information may not indicate the MCCH which is modified when notifying the MCCH modification, or may indicate the MCCH which is modified, which is not specifically limited herein.

In an optional scheme, the third information may further carry indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that the MCCH is modified to broadcast MBS configuration information of a neighboring cell. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment which wants to receive the MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell can acquire the updated MCCH in the MCCH transmission window according to the configured MCCH repetition period.

Optionally, the third information may further indicate that the MCCH content of the cell is not modified or the MBS configuration information of the cell is not modified.

By the above method, the terminal device may determine whether to receive the MCCH to acquire the second information according to its own requirement, and if the terminal device that does not want to receive the neighboring MCCH or the neighboring MBS configuration information (for example, a terminal without mobility requirement) may not repeatedly detect and/or receive the MCCH, the method is helpful to reduce the power consumption of the terminal device.

In another possible embodiment, the second information may also be sent by dedicated signaling. For example, after the terminal device sends the first information by using the random access message 3, the access network device may send the second information by using the random access message 4, where the random access message 4 may be an RRC recovery message (RRCResume message), an RRC setup (RRCSetup message), an RRC reestablishment (rrcreestablshment message), or the like. For another example, after the terminal device sends the first information by using the random access message 5, the access network device may send the second information by using another RRC message.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can request the MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell in the service cell, so that the MBS configuration information of the neighboring cell can be obtained in advance, and the cell MCCH does not need to be obtained after a new cell is reselected, thereby reducing the time delay of obtaining the MBS configuration information of the new cell during moving and improving the continuity of MBS service.

In addition, after receiving the first information of the terminal device, the access network device may explicitly indicate in the MCCH change notification that the MCCH change is for providing neighbor MBS configuration information, so that the terminal device may determine whether to acquire the updated MCCH according to its mobility requirement, thereby avoiding the terminal device without mobility requirement from repeatedly receiving the MCCH and avoiding additional power consumption for the terminal device.

Referring to fig. 7, a flow chart of another communication method provided by the present application is shown. The method comprises the following steps:

s701, the terminal equipment determines that the first frequency meets a preset condition.

The preset condition comprises that part or all of candidate cells on the first frequency can provide the first MBS service; or, the preset condition includes that the number or the proportion of candidate cells capable of providing the first MBS service among the candidate cells on the first frequency is greater than a threshold value.

It is to be understood that "a part of candidate cells on the first frequency provide the first MBS service" may be understood as the presence of candidate cells on the first frequency providing the first MBS service.

Optionally, the terminal device may determine whether the candidate cell on the first frequency can provide the first MBS service by: and the terminal equipment receives second information, wherein the second information carries a cell list capable of providing the first MBS service.

For example, the terminal device may obtain the PCIs of one or more candidate cells on the first frequency by measuring synchronization signals and physical broadcast channel blocks (SSBs) of the neighbor cells. The terminal equipment acquires a PCI list of a neighboring cell capable of providing the first MBS service through neighboring cell information carried in the MCCH broadcasted by the service cell.

The terminal device may determine whether the first frequency satisfies a preset condition by comparing the PCI of the candidate cell on the first frequency with a PCI list of a neighboring cell providing the first MBS service.

As an optional scheme, the preset condition may further include the following condition:

the first condition is as follows: if the serving cell does not broadcast system messages for MBS service continuity (e.g., SIB 15), but the first frequency is the frequency provided in the USD for this MBS service; if the serving cell broadcasts a system message (for example, SIB 15) for MBS service continuity, the one or more identifiers of the frequency point broadcasted in the system message include an identifier provided in the USD of the MBS service, or the one or more IDs of the frequency point broadcasted in the system message are the same as the identifier provided in the USD of the MBS service, where the identifier may be at least one of an MBS session ID, a TMGI, an MBS session group identifier, a TMGI group identifier, a service area identifier, or a cell group identifier, or a combination thereof.

And a second condition: the SIB1 of the candidate cell on the first frequency point comprises scheduling information of the first SIB; or the candidate cells on the first frequency point can provide first SIB, wherein the first SIB is used for configuring SIB of MCCH, for example, the first SIB is MBS SIB.

And (3) carrying out a third condition: the terminal device is receiving or interested in receiving the first MBS service and can only camp on the first frequency to receive said first MBS service.

S702, the terminal device determines that the first frequency is the frequency with the highest priority when in cell reselection evaluation.

Optionally, the terminal device may also use a cell capable of providing the first MBS service on the first frequency as a high-priority cell during cell reselection. When the cell meets the cell reselection criterion with high priority, for example, the cell signal quality meets the cell reselection threshold with high priority, the cell reselection is executed. Optionally, for a cell that cannot provide the first MBS service on the first frequency, the terminal device does not change the priority of the cell during cell reselection.

If the first MBS service is provided on only a portion of the cells on the first frequency, the terminal device may reselect to a cell that does not support the MBS service that the terminal device wants to receive during cell reselection. In the embodiment of the application, when determining whether the frequency is the highest priority frequency, the condition that the candidate cell on the first frequency provides the current MBS service is increased, so that the probability that the terminal device reselects the cell that does not support the current MBS service can be reduced to a certain extent, and the continuity of the third information of the MBS can be improved.

In addition, if a large number of terminal devices request to enter an RRC connected state to receive MBS services through unicast, cell congestion may be caused, and the embodiments of the present application may effectively prevent the terminal devices from accessing a cell that cannot provide the MBS services that the terminal devices want to receive, and may effectively avoid the occurrence of cell congestion in the above situation.

In one implementation, the terminal device may perform the method shown in fig. 7 when the first MBS service is provided on a part of cells of the first frequency in a manner of providing the first MBS service on the first frequency.

Optionally, in this implementation, the terminal device may determine the manner of providing the first MBS service on the first frequency by: the terminal device may determine the manner of providing the first MBS service on the first frequency by acquiring the system message (e.g., SIB 15) for MBS service continuity broadcast by the access network device, for example, the system message for MBS service continuity broadcast by the access network device may carry the first information, and the first information indicates the manner of providing the first MBS service on the first frequency.

As an example, the access network device may carry, in the system information of the serving cell, the frequency information and MBS information corresponding to the frequency, such as information of MBS services that can be provided by the current frequency and the neighboring frequency, for example, an MBS service ID and/or TMGI that can be provided by the current frequency and the neighboring frequency, or an MBS service group ID. In addition, for the MBS service or MBS service group, the access network device further indicates whether the MBS service is deployed on all cells or some cells of the frequency. Optionally, the mode of providing the first MBS service on the first frequency is indicated by 1-bit information.

In an embodiment, the access network device may obtain the frequency information and the MBS information corresponding to the frequency through an X2 interface or OAM.

Or, the terminal device may also determine the manner of providing the first MBS service on the first frequency by: the terminal device may obtain first information in a USD provided by an application layer or a service layer of the terminal device, where the first information indicates a mode of providing the first MBS service on the first frequency.

As an example, the terminal device may obtain the frequency providing the MBS service through the USD provided by the application layer or the service layer, and also indicate in the USD whether the MBS service is deployed on all cells of the frequency or only on part of the cells on the frequency. Optionally, the mode of providing the first MBS service on the first frequency is indicated by 1-bit information.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, providing the first MBS service on a part of cells of the first frequency indicates that a cell incapable of providing the first MBS service exists on the first frequency in a given geographic area, or only a cell located in a specific area on the first frequency is capable of providing the first MBS service, where the cell of the specific area may refer to a cell in which the first MBS service is deployed. The "providing the first MBS service on a partial cell of the first frequency" may also be described as "dynamically providing the first MBS service on the first frequency", "providing the first MBS service on the first frequency per cell granularity (per cell)", "first MBS service deployed on the first frequency per cell", and so on.

Providing the first MBS service on all cells of the first frequency means that the cells on the first frequency in a given geographic area can provide the first MBS service, and optionally, the geographic area may be within a Tracking Area (TA), or within a RAN, or within an SIB active area, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present invention. The "providing the first MBS service on all cells of the first frequency" may also be described as "non-dynamically (or statically) providing the first MBS service on a cell of the first frequency", "providing the first MBS service on the first frequency at a frequency granularity", "first MBS service is deployed on the first frequency by frequency", and so on.

Referring to fig. 8, a flow chart of another communication method provided by the present application is shown. In the embodiment of the application, when the terminal device is interested in one or more MBS services on multiple frequency points, the terminal device can determine a frequency point with the highest priority to preferentially reside in the multiple frequency points by designing a frequency point priority judging mechanism. The method comprises the following steps:

s801, the terminal equipment determines to receive the MBS service on N frequency points, wherein N is an integer larger than 1.

S802, the terminal equipment determines the frequency point with the highest priority when in cell reselection evaluation according to the MBS services respectively provided by the N frequency points.

Illustratively, the frequency point with the highest priority may satisfy at least one of the following conditions: the maximum number of MBS services that can be provided; the priority of the MBS service which can be provided is the highest; the method can provide the first MBS service, and the first MBS service is the MBS service currently received by the terminal equipment.

In one implementation, if the terminal device is receiving or interested in multiple MBS services, the frequency point with the largest number of MBS services that can be provided may be selected as the frequency point with the highest priority. For example, the priorities of the frequency points may be ordered according to the number of the frequency points that can provide the MBS services being received or being interested in being received by the terminal device, and the greater the number of the frequency points that can provide the MBS services, the higher the priority of the frequency points.

In another implementation manner, if the terminal device is receiving multiple MBS services or is interested in multiple MBS services, the frequency point where the MBS service with the highest priority is located may be selected as the frequency point with the highest priority. For example, the priorities of the frequency points may be sorted according to the priorities of the MBS services provided by the frequency points, and the higher the priority of the MBS services provided by the frequency points is, the higher the priority of the frequency points is. As an example, one implementation is that the priority of the MBS service is provided in the USD or in system messages (such as SIB 15) for MBS service continuity.

In another implementation manner, the terminal device may select a frequency point where the MBS service currently being received is located as the highest priority. For example, when a terminal device starts to be interested in a new MBS service during a cell reselection process, the continuity of the currently receiving MBS service is preferentially ensured, and the terminal device preferentially resides on a frequency point capable of providing the currently ongoing MBS service during the cell reselection.

Optionally, in the three implementation manners, if the priorities of the multiple frequency points are the same, the terminal device may select any one of the frequency points as the frequency point with the highest priority, or select one frequency point as the frequency point with the highest priority according to a preset rule, for example, the preset rule may be that the signal quality is the best, and the like.

It should be noted that the three implementation manners described above may be used independently, or any two or three of them may be used in combination, and the order of use of the combination of the various manners is not limited. For example, when the first implementation manner and the second implementation manner are used in combination, the terminal device may first determine a frequency point capable of providing the most MBS services being received or being interested to be received by the terminal device as a high priority frequency point, and if there are a plurality of frequency points that can provide the same number of MBS services, select a frequency point corresponding to the highest priority of the MBS services as the highest priority; or, the terminal device determines the frequency point where the MBS service with the highest priority is located as the high priority frequency point, and if there are multiple frequency points with the same priority, selects the frequency point where the MBS service which is being received or is interested to be received by the terminal device is the most as the highest priority.

By the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can be ensured to preferentially reside on the frequency point capable of providing more MBS services in the cell reselection process, so that the continuity of more MBS services can be ensured; or, the continuity of the MBS service of the highest priority may be preferentially guaranteed; or, it is able to preferentially guarantee the continuity of the MBS service currently ongoing.

Referring to fig. 9, a flowchart of a communication method provided in the present application is shown. The method comprises the following steps:

s901, the terminal device sends first information to the access network device. Accordingly, the access network device receives the first information.

The first information includes information for requesting a first SI message and information for requesting a first SIB, where the first SIB is carried in the first SI message and is used to configure the MCCH, for example, the first SIB may be an SIB carrying MCCH configuration information, for example, the first SIB may be an MBS SIB or SIB15, or the like. In an exemplary illustration, the first information can be a SI request message (rrcsysteinforequest). Alternatively, the "information for requesting the first SIB" may also be described as "information for requesting MCCH".

It is to be appreciated that the first SI message may include a first SIB (such as MBS SIB, SIB15, etc.) and at least one second SIB (such as SIB2 through SIB 14).

Currently, if the first SIB and other SIBs are in the same SI message, the terminal device can only request the SI message, and after receiving the request, the access network device does not know whether the request is for the first SIB or other SIBs (such as the second SIB) in the SI message. In the embodiment of the application, the first SIB is the MBS SIB for configuring the MCCH, that is, the first information includes information for requesting the first SIB, or the first information includes information for requesting the MCCH, so that the access network device can accurately determine that the terminal device sends the first information for requesting the first SIB or for requesting the MCCH, so that the access network device can start broadcasting the MCCH in time, and the terminal device can timely acquire the configuration information necessary for receiving the broadcast service and start receiving broadcast data, thereby reducing the reception delay of the MBS service, avoiding interruption of the MBS service, and ensuring continuity of the MBS service. In addition, unnecessary signaling overhead caused by the fact that the access network device broadcasts the MCCH when the terminal device actually requests the second SIB (i.e. non-MBS SIB) can also be avoided, which saves resources, especially control plane radio channel resources.

In a possible implementation, if the serving cell includes the scheduling information of the first SIB in SIB1, but the serving cell does not broadcast the first SIB and the MCCH, the terminal device that wants to receive the MBS service may send the first information to the access network device, for example, send the first information through the random access message 3.

S902, the access network equipment broadcasts MCCH, wherein the MCCH carries MBS configuration information. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the MCCH from the access network equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, after receiving the first information, the access network device may further send the first SIB to the terminal device.

In a specific implementation manner, the access network device may send the second information to the terminal device before sending the MCCH, where the second information is used to notify MCCH modification, for example, the second information may be an MCCH modification notification. By the method, the terminal equipment can receive the MCCH in time, so that the continuity of receiving the MBS service by the terminal equipment can be further improved.

The following describes possible forms of the first information: taking the example that the first SI message includes the first SIB and N second SIBs, where N is an integer greater than 0, the first information may include a first bit, where the first bit corresponds to the first SIB for indicating whether to request the first SIB, for example, if the state of the first bit is 0, it may indicate that the terminal device does not request the first SIB, and if the state of the first bit is 1, it may indicate that the terminal device requests the first SIB. In the embodiment of the present application, the first bit in the first information may be 1. Alternatively, the first information may include a first bit indicating whether the MCCH is requested. For example, if the status of the first bit is 0, it may indicate that the terminal device does not request the MCCH, and if the status of the first bit is 1, it may indicate that the terminal device requests the MCCH. In the embodiment of the present application, the first bit in the first information may be 1.

As an example, the first information may be as follows:

the first information: : = SEQUENCE

Requested-SI-List BIT STRING(SIZE(maxSI-Messge)),

Spare BIT STRING()

}

The Requested-SI-List field may include information for requesting the first SI message, and the Spare field may include information for requesting the first SIB or MCCH, i.e., the first bit having a state of 1.

Optionally, the first information may further include bits corresponding to the N second SIBs, respectively, and respectively indicate whether to request the corresponding second SIBs. With reference to the above example, N bits corresponding to the N second SIBs may also be included in the Spare field.

In the embodiment of the application, when the access network equipment supporting the MBS service selects to broadcast the MCCH as required due to the conditions of resource load, signaling overhead and the like, when the terminal equipment residing in a cell wants to receive the MBS service, an On-demand SI mechanism can be adopted to request the access network equipment to send the first SIB carrying the MCCH configuration, so that the access network equipment can accurately determine that the purpose of sending the first information by the terminal equipment is to request the first SIB or request the MCCH, the access network equipment can start to broadcast the MCCH in time, and the terminal equipment can acquire the configuration information necessary for receiving the broadcast service and start to receive broadcast data in time, thereby reducing the time delay for receiving the MBS service, avoiding the interruption of the MBS service and ensuring the continuity of the broadcast service. In addition, unnecessary signaling overhead caused by the fact that the access network equipment broadcasts the MCCH when the on-demand SI request message sent by the terminal equipment is actually used for requesting the second SIB can be avoided, resources are saved, and especially the resources of a control plane wireless channel are saved.

It should be noted that the methods described in fig. 6 to 9 may be implemented as one embodiment, or any two, three, or four methods may be implemented as one embodiment.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication device. The communication apparatus may be used to implement the terminal device according to the above embodiment, and the communication apparatus may include the structures shown in fig. 3 and/or fig. 4.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication device. The communication device may be used to implement the access network apparatus according to the above embodiments, and the communication device may include the structures shown in fig. 3 and/or fig. 5.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication system. The communication system may comprise at least one terminal device and at least one access network device, wherein the terminal device and the access network device in the communication system may perform the method as shown in any of the above method embodiments.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer may implement a process related to a terminal device or a network device in any one of the embodiments shown in the foregoing method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, where the computer program product is used to store a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer may implement the process related to the terminal device or the network device in any one of the embodiments shown in the foregoing method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a chip or a chip system, where the chip may include a processor, and the processor may be configured to call a program or an instruction in a memory, and execute a procedure related to the terminal device or the first access network device in any one of the illustrated embodiments of the method described above. The chip system may include the chip, and may also include other components such as a memory or transceiver.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a circuit, which may be coupled to a memory and configured to perform a process related to a terminal device or a network device in any of the illustrated embodiments of the method. The chip system may include the chip, and may also include other components such as memory or a transceiver.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and so forth) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

Claims

1. A method of communication, the method comprising:

sending first information to access network equipment corresponding to a serving cell, wherein the first information is used for requesting Multicast Broadcast Service (MBS) configuration information of a neighboring cell of the serving cell;

and receiving second information from the access network equipment, wherein the second information comprises MBS configuration information of at least one adjacent cell of the serving cell.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to sending the first information to the access network device, the method further comprises:

and determining that a cell with signal quality meeting preset conditions exists in the adjacent cell of the serving cell.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the cell whose signal quality satisfies a preset condition comprises at least one of:

the second type of cell having a signal quality greater than the signal quality of the serving cell for a time interval T;

the third type of cell having a signal quality greater than the signal quality of the serving cell during a time interval T;

a fourth type of cell with a signal quality greater than or equal to a fourth threshold for a time interval T;

wherein the first type of cell includes at least one of: the cell of the different frequency point with higher priority than the service frequency point, the cell of the different system frequency point with higher priority than the service frequency point;

the fourth type of cell includes at least one of: the cell of the different frequency point with the priority lower than the service frequency point, and the cell of the different system frequency point with the priority lower than the service frequency point.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the first information carries at least one identification of a cell whose signal quality satisfies the preset condition.

5. The method of any of claims 1-4, wherein the first information is carried in a random access message 3 or a random access message 5.

6. The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein prior to receiving the second information from the access network device, the method further comprises:

receiving third information from the access network equipment, wherein the third information is used for notifying the change of an MBS control channel MCCH;

the receiving second information from the access network device includes:

receiving the second information in MCCH.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the third information carries indication information for indicating that the MCCH is modified for broadcasting MBS configuration information of neighboring cells.

8. A communication method is applied to an access network device corresponding to a serving cell of a terminal device, and the method comprises the following steps:

receiving first information from the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for requesting Multicast Broadcast Service (MBS) configuration information of a neighboring cell of the serving cell;

and sending second information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second information comprises MBS configuration information of at least one adjacent cell of the service cell.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first information carries an identification of at least one cell.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the first information is carried in random access message 3 or random access message 5.

11. The method of any of claims 8-10, wherein prior to sending the second information to the terminal device, the method further comprises:

sending third information to the terminal equipment, wherein the third information is used for notifying the change of an MBS control channel MCCH;

the sending of the second information to the terminal device includes:

transmitting the second information in MCCH.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the third information carries indication information for indicating that the MCCH is modified for broadcasting MBS broadcast configuration information of a neighboring cell.

13. A communications apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

the receiving and sending module is used for communicating with the access network equipment corresponding to the service cell;

a processing module, configured to send first information to the access network device through the transceiver module, where the first information is used to request multicast broadcast service, MBS, configuration information of a neighboring cell of the serving cell; and

and receiving second information from the access network equipment through the transceiver module, wherein the second information comprises MBS configuration information of at least one neighboring cell of the serving cell.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

before the first information is sent to the access network equipment through the transceiver module, the cell with the signal quality meeting the preset condition in the adjacent cell of the service cell is determined.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the cells with signal quality satisfying a preset condition comprise at least one of:

the second type of cell having a signal quality greater than the signal quality of the serving cell during a time interval T;

the third type of cell having a signal quality greater than the signal quality of the serving cell for a time interval T;

wherein the first type of cell comprises at least one of: the cell of the different frequency point with higher priority than the service frequency point, the cell of the different system frequency point with higher priority than the service frequency point;

16. The apparatus according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the first information carries an identification of at least one cell whose signal quality satisfies the preset condition.

17. The apparatus of any one of claims 13-16, wherein the first information is carried in random access message 3 or random access message 5.

18. The apparatus of any of claims 13-17, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

before receiving second information from the access network equipment through the transceiver module, receiving third information from the access network equipment through the transceiver module, wherein the third information is used for notifying the change of an MBS control channel MCCH;

the processing module is specifically configured to:

receiving the second information in MCCH through the transceiver module.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the third information carries indication information for indicating that the MCCH change is used for broadcasting MBS configuration information of a neighboring cell.

20. A communication apparatus, wherein the apparatus is applied to an access network device corresponding to a serving cell of a terminal device, and the apparatus comprises:

the receiving and sending module is used for communicating with the terminal equipment;

a processing module, configured to receive, by the transceiver module, first information from the terminal device, where the first information is used to request multicast and broadcast service MBS configuration information of a neighboring cell of the serving cell; and

and sending second information to the terminal equipment through the transceiver module, wherein the second information comprises MBS configuration information of at least one adjacent cell of the service cell.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the first information carries an identification of at least one cell.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 or 21, wherein the first information is carried in random access message 3 or random access message 5.

23. The apparatus of any one of claims 20-22, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

before sending second information to the terminal equipment through the transceiver module, sending third information to the terminal equipment through the transceiver module, wherein the third information is used for notifying the MBS control channel MCCH change;

the processing module is specifically configured to:

and sending the second information in MCCH through the transceiver module.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the third information carries indication information for indicating that the MCCH is modified for broadcasting MBS broadcast configuration information of a neighboring cell.

25. A communications apparatus, comprising: a processor coupled with a memory, the memory to store instructions;

the processor to retrieve and execute the instructions from the memory, causing the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 1-7.

26. A communications apparatus, comprising: a processor coupled with a memory, the memory to store instructions;

the processor to retrieve from the memory and execute the instructions to cause the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 8-12.

27. A communication system comprising a communication device according to any of claims 13-19 and a communication device according to any of claims 20-24.

28. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when invoked on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 1-12.

29. A computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-12.

30. A circuit coupled with a memory, the circuit to read and execute instructions stored in the memory to perform the method of any of claims 1-12.