CN115884312A

CN115884312A - Communication method and related device

Info

Publication number: CN115884312A
Application number: CN202111139089.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 酉春华; 范强
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-09-27
Filing date: 2021-09-27
Publication date: 2023-03-31

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and a related device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: sending a first request message to a second network device, wherein the first request message is used for requesting auxiliary information of a first cascade, and the first cascade comprises a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) cascade or a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) cascade; receiving a first response message from the second network device, the first response message including assistance information of the first cascade; and sending the configuration information of the first cascade to terminal equipment, wherein the configuration information of the first cascade is determined according to the auxiliary information of the first cascade. By implementing the embodiment of the application, more reliable PDCP cascade connection or SDAP cascade connection is realized.

Description

Communication method and related device

Technical Field

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

Background

Currently, a Dual Connectivity (DC) repetitive transmission technique may be employed to improve the reliability of data transmission. It will be appreciated that in a DC scenario, two base stations are often involved, such as a primary base station and a secondary base station. Generally, the primary base station may transmit data to the secondary base station, and then the secondary base station transmits the data to the terminal device. Of course, the main base station may also directly transmit the data to the terminal device. If the data transmitted by the main base station is too small, the main base station may need to perform cascade processing on a plurality of data and then transmit the data to the auxiliary base station or the terminal equipment. Or, if the data sent by the terminal device is too small, there may be a case that the terminal device needs to perform cascade processing on multiple data and then send the data to the secondary base station or the primary base station. However, the current concatenation is Medium Access Control (MAC) concatenation or Radio Link Control (RLC) concatenation, packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) concatenation or Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) concatenation. Therefore, how to implement more reliable PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation becomes a technical problem to be solved urgently at present.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a related device, which realize more reliable PDCP cascade connection or SDAP cascade connection.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, where the method is applied to a first network device, and the method includes:

sending a first request message to a second network device, wherein the first request message is used for requesting auxiliary information of a first cascade, and the first cascade comprises a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) cascade or a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) cascade;

receiving a first response message from the second network device, the first response message including assistance information of the first cascade;

and sending the configuration information of the first cascade to terminal equipment, wherein the configuration information of the first cascade is determined according to the auxiliary information of the first cascade.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by sending a first request message requesting for auxiliary information of PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation to a second network device, the second network device sends the auxiliary information to the first network device, and further can determine configuration information of PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation according to the auxiliary information, and send the configuration information to a terminal device, thereby determining the configuration information of PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation under a negotiation condition of different devices, so that the configuration information can meet requirements of different devices for PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation, thereby implementing more reliable PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation.

Optionally, if the first concatenation is PDCP concatenation, the auxiliary information of the first concatenation includes auxiliary information of PDCP concatenation of the first radio bearer, and if the first concatenation is SDAP concatenation, the auxiliary information of the first concatenation includes auxiliary information of SDAP concatenation of the first radio bearer, and the first request message further includes an identifier of the first radio bearer.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by sending the identifier of the first radio bearer to the first network device, the first network device may perform PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation on a data packet transmitted by the first radio bearer according to the configuration information, so that a small data packet may be concatenated into a larger data packet, thereby reducing L2 overhead during transmission.

Optionally, the auxiliary information of the PDCP concatenation or the SDAP concatenation of the first radio bearer includes one or more of the following:

the number of data packets included in the concatenated data packets transmitted by the first radio bearer;

the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer;

a load of the second network device.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by sending the auxiliary information of the PDCP cascade or the SDAP cascade of the first radio bearer to the first network device, the first network device can determine the configuration information more accurately according to the requirement of the second network device, so that the configuration information of the PDCP cascade or the SDAP cascade is determined under the negotiation of different devices, and the configuration information can meet the requirement of the different devices for performing the PDCP cascade or the SDAP cascade, thereby implementing more reliable PDCP cascade or the SDAP cascade.

Optionally, the first request message further includes a quality of service (Qos) parameter.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, because the first request message further includes a Qos parameter, the first network device may determine the configuration information according to the Qos parameter, so that the determination of the configuration information of the PDCP cascade or the SDAP cascade is achieved under a negotiation condition of different devices, so that the configuration information may meet requirements of different devices for performing the PDCP cascade or the SDAP cascade, thereby achieving more reliable PDCP cascade or SDAP cascade.

Optionally, the first request message further includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that a transmission mode of the first radio bearer is a transmission mode of a first Radio Link Control (RLC), and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation when a preset condition is met.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by sending the first indication information to the second network device, the second network device does not perform segmentation processing on the data packet, which is transmitted by the first radio bearer and has undergone PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation, or does not perform segmentation processing when a preset condition is met, so as to avoid the problem of increased L2 overhead caused by segmentation or excessive segmentation.

Optionally, the method further includes: and sending first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is the transmission mode of a first Radio Link Control (RLC), and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation under the condition of meeting preset conditions.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by sending the first indication information to the terminal device, the terminal device does not perform segmentation processing on the data packet that is transmitted by the first radio bearer and has undergone PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation, or does not perform segmentation processing when a preset condition is met, thereby avoiding a problem of L2 overhead increase caused by segmentation or excessive segmentation.

Optionally, the preset condition includes one or more of the following:

the size of the concatenated data packets transmitted by the first radio bearer is less than or equal to a first threshold;

the number of times of segmenting the concatenated data packets transmitted by the first radio bearer is greater than or equal to a second threshold.

Optionally, the method further includes: sending a first uplink authorization to the terminal equipment; sending and receiving second indication information from the terminal equipment, wherein the second indication information is sent according to the first uplink authorization, and the second indication information is used for indicating that the cascade data packet to be transmitted corresponding to the first radio bearer cannot be transmitted through the first uplink authorization; sending a second uplink authorization to the terminal equipment according to the second indication information; and receiving the cascade data packet to be transmitted from the terminal equipment through the second uplink authorization.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by sending the first uplink grant to the terminal device, the terminal device sends the second indication information to the first network device according to the first uplink grant, so that the second uplink grant is sent to the terminal device when it is known that the terminal device cannot transmit the to-be-transmitted concatenated data packet based on the first uplink grant, and the terminal device can send the to-be-transmitted concatenated data packet through the second uplink grant.

Optionally, the second indication information further includes one or more of the following items:

a logic channel identifier corresponding to the cascade data packet to be transmitted;

the size of the concatenated data packets to be transmitted.

Therefore, in the technical scheme, the first network device can know the logical channel identifier corresponding to the concatenated data packets to be transmitted and/or the size of the concatenated data packets to be transmitted, and then can better allocate the uplink authorization to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can transmit the concatenated data packets to be transmitted based on the uplink authorization.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, where the method is applied to a second network device, and the method includes:

receiving a first request message from a first network device, the first request message being used for requesting assistance information of a first cascade, the first cascade comprising a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) cascade or a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) cascade;

sending a first response message to the first network device, where the first response message includes the auxiliary information of the first cascade, and the auxiliary information of the first cascade is used to determine the configuration information of the first cascade.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by receiving a first request message requesting auxiliary information of PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation from a first network device, a second network device may send the auxiliary information to the first network device, and further, the first network device may determine configuration information of PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation according to the auxiliary information, and send the configuration information to a terminal device, thereby determining the configuration information of PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation under a negotiation condition of different devices, so that the configuration information may meet requirements of different devices for PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation, and thus, more reliable PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation is achieved.

the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer;

a load of the second network device.

Optionally, the first request message further includes a quality of service Qos parameter.

Optionally, the first request message further includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is the transmission mode of the first radio link control RLC, and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation when a preset condition is met.

In a third aspect, a communication device is provided, the device comprising a transceiver module for transmitting and receiving data

the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer;

a load of the second network device.

Optionally, the transceiver module is further configured to send first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is the transmission mode of the first radio link control RLC, and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation when a preset condition is met.

Optionally, the preset condition includes one or more of the following:

and the number of times of segmenting the concatenated data packets transmitted by the first radio bearer is greater than or equal to a second threshold value.

Optionally, the transceiver module is further configured to send a first uplink grant to the terminal device; sending and receiving second indication information from the terminal equipment, wherein the second indication information is sent according to the first uplink authorization, and the second indication information is used for indicating that the cascade data packet to be transmitted corresponding to the first radio bearer cannot be transmitted through the first uplink authorization; sending a second uplink authorization to the terminal equipment according to the second indication information; and receiving the cascade data packet to be transmitted from the terminal equipment through the second uplink authorization.

the size of the concatenated data packets to be transmitted.

In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, the device comprising a transceiver module for transceiver module

sending a first response message to the first network device, where the first response message includes the first concatenated auxiliary information, and the first concatenated auxiliary information is used to determine the first concatenated configuration information.

the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer;

a load of the second network device.

Optionally, the first request message further includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that a transmission mode of the first radio bearer is a transmission mode of a first radio link control RLC, and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation when a preset condition is met.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a communications device comprising a processor and a memory, the processor invoking a computer program stored in the memory to implement the method of any one of the first or second aspects.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising a processor and a communication interface for inputting and/or outputting information, the processor being configured to execute a computer program such that the apparatus performs the method of any of the first or second aspects.

In a seventh aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program is stored, which, when executed, implements the method according to any one of the first or second aspects.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program product having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method of implementing any of the first aspects, or the second aspects, or the third aspects.

A ninth aspect provides a communication system, which includes the terminal device, the first network device, and the second network device.

Drawings

Reference will now be made in brief to the drawings that are needed in describing embodiments or prior art.

Wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a protocol stack;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a packet processing flow;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a data processing flow involved in a scenario in which PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation is provided in the present embodiment;

fig. 4 is an infrastructure of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating connection of different devices through an interface according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic hardware structure diagram of a communication device applicable to the 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 another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

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

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

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a simplified network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. In which the terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. Unless otherwise specified, "/" indicates a relationship where the objects linked before and after are "or", e.g., a/B may represent a or B; in the present application, "and/or" is only an association relationship describing an associated object, and means that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. Also, in the description of the present application, "a plurality" means two or more than two unless otherwise specified. "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 one or more. In addition, in order to facilitate clear description of technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, words such as "first" and "second" are used to distinguish identical items or similar items with substantially identical functions and actions. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terms "first," "second," and the like do not denote any order or importance, but rather the terms "first," "second," and the like do not denote any order or importance.

Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments," or the like, means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in one or more embodiments of the present application. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," or the like, in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but rather "one or more but not all embodiments" unless specifically stated otherwise. The terms "comprising," "including," "having," and variations thereof mean "including, but not limited to," unless expressly specified otherwise.

The following detailed description is provided for further explaining the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application, and it should be understood that the following detailed description is only exemplary of the present application and is not intended to limit the scope of the present application, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like made on the basis of the technical solutions of the present application should be included in the scope of the present application.

In the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5th generation, 5g) system, the protocol stack includes the following protocol layers: SDAP, PDCP, RLC, MAC, physical (PHY), different protocol layers have their own functions. Illustratively, referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a protocol stack. As shown in fig. 1, the terminal device or the base station includes a protocol stack. The data processing sequence of the terminal equipment or the base station is as follows: SDAP- > PDCP- > RLC- > MAC- > PHY. The main processing of data in the SDAP includes: mapping of QoS flows (flows) to Radio Bearers (RBs). The main processing of data in PDCP includes: ciphering, integrity protection, header compression, adding a PDCP Sequence Number (SN), etc. The data of different RBs are obtained in the PDCP layer, and the terminal equipment can perform respective processing on the data of the different RBs. One logical channel corresponds to one RB. Main processing of data at RLC: for Acknowledged Mode (AM), automatic repeat request (ARQ), segmentation, reassembly, adding RLC SN; for Unacknowledged (UM) mode, segmentation, reassembly, RLC SN is added. The processing of data in the MAC mainly includes multiplexing of logical channels and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). A packet is processed in the above order and finally transmitted by the PHY. On the receiving side, the reverse processing may be performed in the reverse order, which is not described herein again.

At present, a data packet needs to be processed by SDAP, PDCP, RLC, and MAC in sequence, then cascaded in RLC layer or MAC layer, and finally sent to a network device. For example, referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a packet processing flow. As shown in fig. 2, for RBx and RBy, after an nth Internet Protocol (IP) packet, an n +1 st IP packet, and an mth IP packet are processed in sequence by SDAP, PDCP, RLC, and MAC, a packet transmitted by RBx and a partial packet transmitted by RBy are concatenated in the MAC layer. As can be understood, a data packet transmitted by RBy is segmented into two parts in RLC layer, i.e. Service Data Unit (SDU) segment (segment) 1 and SDU segment2 in fig. 2. Wherein, the part of the data packet transmitted by RBy can be understood as MAC SDU with SDU segment1 at MAC layer.

In addition, for a packet (e.g., 50 bytes), the header overhead of L2 is about 6bytes, and the header overhead ratio is 6/56, which is higher. In other words, if concatenation is performed at the RLC layer or the MAC layer, L2 overhead is large. In order to solve the problem of large L2 overhead, the scheme provides PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation. For a data processing flow involved in a scenario of PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation, refer to fig. 3, where fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a data processing flow involved in a scenario of PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation provided in an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 3, it can be seen that the data packet may be subjected to concatenation, sequence number assignment, header compression, ciphering, and integrity protection in sequence, where the concatenation is PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation. For example, the terminal device may first concatenate a plurality of SDUs to obtain a data packet, where the data packet may be referred to as a concatenated SDU; then, the terminal equipment distributes SN for the cascaded SDU, and the SN is used for identifying the cascaded SDU; then, the terminal equipment carries out header compression on the concatenated SDU; and finally, encryption, integrity protection and the like are carried out. However, the current concatenation is Medium Access Control (MAC) concatenation or Radio Link Control (RLC) concatenation, packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) concatenation or Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) concatenation. Therefore, how to implement more reliable PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation becomes a technical problem to be solved urgently at present.

Based on this, the present application provides a communication method to solve the above technical problem, and the following describes embodiments of the present application in detail.

It should be understood that the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may be applied to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture, a fifth generation mobile communication technology (5 g), a 4.5generation mobile communication technology (4.5 g), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system, and the like. The technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to other future communication systems, for example, a 6G communication system, etc., in which the functions may be kept the same, but the names may be changed.

The following describes an infrastructure of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application. Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is an infrastructure of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the communication system may include a first network device 10, a second network device 20, and a terminal device 30 communicating with the first network device 10 or the second network device 20. Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram, and does not limit an applicable scenario of the technical solution provided in the present application.

The first network device 10 and the second network device 20 are entities on the network side for transmitting signals, or receiving signals, or both. The first network device 10 and the second network device 20 may be devices deployed in a Radio Access Network (RAN) to provide a wireless communication function for the terminal device 30, and for example, may be a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), a base station, and various forms of control nodes. For example, a network controller, a wireless controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) scenario, and the like. Specifically, the network device may be a macro base station, a micro base station (also referred to as a small station), a relay station, an Access Point (AP), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved node B, or home node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a transmission point (TRP), a Transmission Point (TP), a mobile switching center, and the like, which are in various forms, and may also be an antenna panel of the base station. The control node may be connected to multiple base stations, and configure resources for multiple terminals under the coverage of multiple base stations. In systems using different radio access technologies, the names of the devices that function as base stations may differ. For example, the network device may be a gNB or an ng-eNB in 5G, or a network side device in a network after 5G or a network device in a PLMN network evolved in the future, and the specific name of the network device is not limited in the present application. In addition, the first network device 10 and the second network device 20 may further include a Central Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) integrated on the gNB.

The terminal device 30 is an entity for receiving signals, or transmitting signals, or both, at the user side. The terminal device 30 is used to provide one or more of voice services and data connectivity services to the user. The terminal device 30 may be a device that includes a wireless transceiving function and can cooperate with a network device to provide a communication service to a user. In particular, terminal equipment 30 may refer to User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user device. The terminal device 30 may also be a wireless terminal in a wireless network, a wireless network in an internet of things (IoT), a Station (ST) in a WLAN, a cellular phone (cellular phone), a smart phone (smart phone), a cordless phone, a wireless data card, a tablet, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device, a laptop (laptop computer), a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal, a handheld device with wireless communication capability, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle mounted device, a wearable device (also referred to as a wearable smart device), a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (intelligent) terminal, an industrial intelligent control (AR) terminal, a remote control terminal in a wireless network in a city, a wireless network in a city, a wireless network, and the like. The terminal device 30 may also be a device to device (D2D) device, such as an electric meter, a water meter, etc. The terminal device 30 may also be a terminal in a 5G system, and may also be a terminal in a next-generation communication system.

In addition, in one possible embodiment, the RAN node may comprise a gNB, which provides termination of NR user plane and control plane protocols, or a ng-eNB, which provides termination of E-UTRAN user plane and control plane protocol stacks. And the gNB is connected with the gNB, the gNB is connected with the ng-eNB, and the ng-eNB is connected with the ng-eNB through an Xn interface. In other words, the first network device 10 and the second network device 20 may be a gNB or an ng-eNB. The gNB and NG-eNB may be connected to a core network (5 GC) via an NG interface. For example, referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating connection of different devices through an interface according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, the gNB and the gNB, the gNB and the ng-eNB, and the ng-eNB are connected through an Xn interface. The gNB and NG-eNB are connected to the core network (5 GC) via an NG interface. Specifically, the gNB and the NG-eNB are connected with an access and mobility management function (AMF) network element through an NG-C interface, and the gNB and the NG-eNB are connected with a User Plane Function (UPF) network element through an NR-U interface.

It should be understood that, in the present application, the first network device and the second network device are connected through an Xn interface. It should be noted that, if the present solution is applied to a DC scenario, the first network device is a Master Node (MN), and the second network device is a Secondary Node (SN).

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

Optionally, each network element (for example, the first network device 10, the second network device 20, the terminal device 30, and the like) in fig. 4 may be implemented by one device, may also be implemented by multiple devices together, and may also be a functional module in one device, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application. It is understood that the above functions may be either network elements in a hardware device, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform).

For example, each device in fig. 4 may be implemented by the communication apparatus 600 in fig. 6. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of a communication device applicable to the embodiments of the present application. The communication device 600 includes at least one processor 601, a communication link 602, and at least one communication interface 604.

The processor 601 may be a general processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control the execution of programs according to the present disclosure.

The communication link 602 may include a path for transmitting information between the aforementioned components.

Communication interface 604 is any transceiver or other device (e.g., an antenna, etc.) for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as an ethernet, RAN, wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), etc.

Optionally, communication apparatus 600 further includes a memory 603, where memory 603 may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that may store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device that may store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to these. The memory may be separate and coupled to the processor via a communication link 602. The memory may also be integrated with the processor. The memory provided by the embodiment of the application can be generally nonvolatile. The memory 603 is used for storing computer-executable instructions for implementing the solution of the present application, and is controlled by the processor 601 to execute. The processor 601 is configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 603, thereby implementing the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application described below.

Optionally, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application program codes, which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In one possible implementation, processor 601 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in FIG. 6.

In one possible implementation, communications apparatus 600 may include multiple processors, such as processor 601 and processor 607 in fig. 6. Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

In one possible implementation, the communications apparatus 600 may further include an output device 605 and an input device 606. Output device 605 is in communication with processor 601 and may display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 605 may be a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a Light Emitting Diode (LED) display device, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, a projector (projector), or the like. The input device 606 is in communication with the processor 601 and may receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 606 may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, or a sensing device, among others.

The communication apparatus 600 may be a general-purpose device or a special-purpose device. In a specific implementation, the communication device 600 may be a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a network server, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wireless terminal device, an embedded device, or a device with a similar structure as in fig. 6. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the type of the communication apparatus 600.

The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. The first network device in fig. 7 may be the first network device 10 in fig. 4, the second network device in fig. 7 may be the second network device 20 in fig. 4, and the terminal device in fig. 7 may be the terminal device 30 in fig. 4. As shown in fig. 7, the method includes, but is not limited to, the following steps:

701. the first network device sends a first request message to the second network device, wherein the first request message is used for requesting auxiliary information of a first cascade, and the first cascade comprises PDCP cascade or SDAP cascade.

Accordingly, the second network device receives the first request message from the first network device.

Optionally, the first radio bearer may be a split (split) radio bearer, a duplicate (duplicated) radio bearer, and the like, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, the auxiliary information of the PDCP concatenation or the SDAP concatenation of the first radio bearer includes one or more of the following: the number of data packets included in the concatenated data packets transmitted by the first radio bearer; the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer; the load of the second network device. The load of the second network device may include a Central Processing Unit (CPU) processing efficiency of the second network device, resource allocation information of the second network device, and the like, which is not limited herein.

Illustratively, the number of packets included in the concatenated packets transmitted by the first radio bearer may be 10, and the size of the concatenated packets transmitted by the first radio bearer may be 5000 bits (bits).

Optionally, the first radio bearer may be one or more radio bearers, which is not limited herein. It can be understood that, if the first radio bearer is a plurality of radio bearers, the first concatenated assistance information includes assistance information of PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation of each radio bearer in the plurality of radio bearers. Wherein, if the first concatenation is PDCP concatenation, the auxiliary information of the first concatenation includes auxiliary information of PDCP concatenation of each radio bearer in the plurality of radio bearers; if the first cascade is the SDAP cascade, the auxiliary information of the first cascade includes the auxiliary information of the SDAP cascade of each radio bearer in the plurality of radio bearers.

Wherein the auxiliary information of the PDCP concatenation or the SDAP concatenation for each radio bearer may include one or more of: the number of data packets included in the concatenated data packets transmitted by each radio bearer; the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by each radio bearer; the load of the second network device.

Optionally, the first request message further includes a Qos parameter. Wherein the Qos parameters may include one or more of: time delay and packet loss rate, which are not limited herein.

Optionally, the first request message further includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is the transmission mode of the first RLC, and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation when a preset condition is met. It can be understood that the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation, i.e., the transmission mode of the first RLC has no segmentation function; the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation when a preset condition is satisfied, that is, the transmission mode of the first RLC has an enhancement of a segmentation function. The enhancement of the segmentation function refers to avoiding the re-segmentation function.

Wherein, the transmission mode of the first RLC may further include an ARQ function.

Optionally, the preset conditions include one or more of the following: the size of the concatenated data packets transmitted by the first radio bearer is less than or equal to a first threshold value; the number of times of segmenting the concatenated data packets transmitted by the first radio bearer is greater than or equal to a second threshold. The concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer may include the remaining concatenated packets transmitted by the first radio bearer after being segmented.

Illustratively, the concatenated data packets transmitted by the first radio bearer are RLC SDUs, which are 6000 bits. The RLC segmentation obtained by the first segmentation is 5000 bits, and the remaining RLC segmentation is 1000 bits, that is, the remaining concatenated packets after segmentation transmitted by the first radio bearer are 1000 bits. If the first threshold is 1500, the size of the remaining concatenated packets after being segmented for the first radio bearer transmission is smaller than 1500, and therefore the remaining concatenated packets after being segmented for the first radio bearer transmission are not segmented any more.

702. The second network device sends a first response message to the first network device, the first response message including the first concatenation of assistance information.

Accordingly, the first network device receives the first response message from the second network device.

Optionally, after the second network device receives the first request message from the first network device, the second network device may generate the first concatenated assistance information according to the capability of the second network device PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation, that is, the second network device may determine the first concatenated assistance information. In other words, the first concatenated assistance information is generated according to the capabilities of the second network device PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation. It is to be appreciated that after the second network device generates the first concatenated assistance information according to the capabilities of the second network device PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation, the second network device may send a first response message to the first network device.

703. The terminal device receives the configuration information of the first cascade from the first network device, and the configuration information of the first cascade is determined according to the auxiliary information of the first cascade.

Correspondingly, the first network device sends the first cascaded configuration information to the terminal device.

Wherein the configuration information of the first concatenation may be used to configure PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation for the first radio bearer. If the first concatenation is PDCP concatenation, the configuration information of the first concatenation may be used to configure PDCP concatenation of the first radio bearer; if the first cascade is an SDAP cascade, the configuration information of the first cascade may be used to configure the SDAP cascade of the first radio bearer.

The auxiliary information of the first cascade and the configuration information of the first cascade may be the same or different, and are not limited herein.

Optionally, the sending, by the first network device, the configuration information of the first cascade to the terminal device may include: the first network device sends the first cascade configuration information to the second network device, and the second network device sends the first cascade configuration information to the terminal device.

Optionally, the method may further include: the first network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is the transmission mode of the first Radio Link Control (RLC), and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation under the condition that a preset condition is met. It can be understood that the first network device may send the first cascaded configuration information and the first indication information to the terminal device at the same time, or the first network device may send the first cascaded configuration information to the terminal device first and then send the first indication information to the terminal device, or the first network device may send the first indication information to the terminal device first and then send the first cascaded configuration information to the terminal device, which is not limited herein.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by sending the first indication information to the terminal device, the terminal device does not perform segmentation processing on the data packet, which is transmitted by the first radio bearer and has undergone PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation, or does not perform segmentation processing when a preset condition is met, thereby avoiding a problem of an increase in L2 overhead caused by segmentation or excessive segmentation.

Optionally, the method further includes: a first network device sends a first uplink authorization to a terminal device; the first network equipment sends and receives second indication information from the terminal equipment, the second indication information is sent according to the first uplink authorization, and the second indication information is used for indicating that the cascade data packet to be transmitted corresponding to the first radio bearer cannot be transmitted through the first uplink authorization; the first network equipment sends a second uplink authorization to the terminal equipment according to the second indication information; and the first network equipment receives the cascade data packet to be transmitted from the terminal equipment through the second uplink authorization.

The concatenated data packet to be transmitted may be an RLC SDU to be transmitted or an RLC segment to be transmitted, which is not limited herein. That is, the second indication information is used to indicate that the RLC SDU to be transmitted or the RLC segment to be transmitted cannot be transmitted by the first uplink grant (where RLC SDU or segment appended by acknowledged by a grant size).

Optionally, the second indication information may further include one or more of the following items: a logic channel identifier corresponding to the cascade data packet to be transmitted; size of the concatenated packet to be transmitted. And the second uplink authorization is determined according to the size of the cascade data packet to be transmitted. For example, the size of the second uplink grant is greater than or equal to the size of the concatenated data packets to be transmitted.

Optionally, the second indication information may further include a message type of the to-be-transmitted concatenated data packet, and the message type of the to-be-transmitted concatenated data packet may be a control plane message.

Illustratively, after receiving the first indication information from the first network device, the terminal device may perform PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation on a first data packet and a second data packet transmitted on a first radio bearer to obtain a first concatenated data packet; the terminal device may perform PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation on the third data packet and the fourth data packet transmitted on the first radio bearer to obtain a second concatenated data packet; the terminal device can also process the first cascade data packet and the second cascade data packet according to the first indication information to obtain the processed first cascade data packet and the processed second cascade data packet. After the terminal device receives the first uplink grant from the first network device, the terminal device may package the processed first concatenated data packet according to the first uplink grant, and send the package through the first uplink grant. It can be understood that the terminal device may also group package the concatenated data of different logical channels with the processed first concatenated data packet. For the second concatenated data packet, the terminal device may choose not to send the second concatenated data packet because the size of the first uplink grant cannot transmit the complete second concatenated data packet. Because the second concatenated data packet does not satisfy the preset condition, the terminal device also does not select to segment the second concatenated data packet. In this case, the terminal device may transmit the second indication information to the first network device.

The following describes embodiments of the present application by taking PDCP concatenation as an example.

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The first network device in fig. 8 may be the first network device 10 in fig. 4, the second network device in fig. 8 may be the second network device 20 in fig. 4, and the terminal device in fig. 8 may be the terminal device 30 in fig. 4. As shown in fig. 8, the method includes, but is not limited to, the steps of:

801. the first network device sends a first request message to the second network device, the first request message being used for requesting auxiliary information of PDCP concatenation, the auxiliary information of PDCP concatenation including auxiliary information of PDCP concatenation of the first radio bearer.

Step 801 may refer to the related description of step 701 in fig. 7, which is not repeated herein.

802. The second network device sends a first response message to the first network device, the first response message including the PDCP concatenated assistance information.

Step 802 may refer to the description related to step 702 in fig. 7, and is not repeated herein.

803. The terminal device receives configuration information of the PDCP concatenation from the first network device, and the configuration information of the PDCP concatenation is determined according to auxiliary information of the PDCP concatenation.

Step 803 may refer to the description related to step 703 in fig. 7, which is not repeated herein.

After step 803, the present scheme may be implemented in any of the following manners. Step 804A-step 807A; step 804B-step 807B.

804A, if the first radio bearer is a split radio bearer, the first network device performs PDCP concatenation and split of a plurality of data packets transmitted by the split radio bearer according to configuration information of the PDCP concatenation to obtain a first concatenated data packet and a second concatenated data packet.

The first cascade data packet is a cascade data packet transmitted through a communication link between the first network device and the terminal device, namely the first cascade data packet is a cascade data packet of an MN link; the second concatenated data packet is a concatenated data packet transmitted through a communication link between the second network device and the terminal device, that is, the second concatenated data packet is a concatenated data packet of an SN link.

805A, a terminal device receives a first concatenated packet from a first network device.

Correspondingly, the first network device sends the first cascade data packet to the terminal device.

806A. The second network device receives the second concatenated packet from the first network device.

Accordingly, the first network device sends the second concatenated packet to the second network device.

807A the terminal device receives the second concatenated packet from the second network device.

Correspondingly, the second network device sends the second concatenation data packet to the terminal device.

804B, if the first radio bearer is a repeated radio bearer, the first network device performs PDCP cascade on a plurality of data packets transmitted by the shunted radio bearer according to configuration information of the PDCP cascade to obtain a third cascade data packet, and the first network device copies the third cascade data packet to obtain a fourth cascade data packet.

And the third cascade data packet and the fourth cascade data packet are the same data packet. It can be understood that the third concatenated data packet is a concatenated data packet transmitted through a communication link between the first network device and the terminal device, that is, the third concatenated data packet is a concatenated data packet of an MN link; the fourth-level concatenated data packet is a concatenated data packet transmitted through a communication link between the second network device and the terminal device, that is, the fourth-level concatenated data packet is a concatenated data packet of an SN link.

805B the terminal device receives the third concatenated packet from the first network device.

Correspondingly, the first network device sends the third cascading data packet to the terminal device.

806B, the second network device receives the fourth concatenated packet from the first network device.

Correspondingly, the first network device sends the fourth concatenation data packet to the second network device.

807B, the terminal device receives the fourth concatenated packet from the second network device.

Correspondingly, the second network device sends the fourth concatenation data packet to the terminal device.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by sending a first request message requesting auxiliary information of PDCP concatenation to a second network device, the second network device sends the auxiliary information to the first network device, and then may determine configuration information of PDCP concatenation according to the auxiliary information, and send the configuration information to a terminal device, thereby determining the configuration information of PDCP concatenation under a condition of negotiation between different devices, so that the configuration information may meet requirements of different devices for PDCP concatenation, and thus, more reliable PDCP concatenation is achieved. In addition, the PDCP cascade saves L2 overhead, and enables the terminal device to acquire data packets from different network devices.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The first network device in fig. 9 may be the first network device 10 in fig. 4, the second network device in fig. 9 may be the second network device 20 in fig. 4, and the terminal device in fig. 9 may be the terminal device 30 in fig. 4. As shown in fig. 9, the method includes, but is not limited to, the following steps:

901. the first network equipment sends configuration information of PDCP concatenation and first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is the transmission mode of the first RLC.

Accordingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information of the PDCP concatenation and the first indication information from the first network device.

For step 901, reference may be made to the related description of step 703 in fig. 7, which is not repeated herein.

902. The terminal equipment performs PDCP (packet data convergence protocol) cascading processing on a first data packet and a second data packet transmitted on a first wireless bearer to obtain a first cascading data packet, and performs PDCP cascading processing on a third data packet and a fourth data packet transmitted on the first wireless bearer to obtain a second cascading data packet.

903. And the terminal equipment processes the first cascade data packet and the second cascade data packet according to the first indication information to obtain the processed first cascade data packet and the processed second cascade data packet.

904. The first network equipment sends a first uplink authorization to the terminal equipment.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first uplink grant from the first network device.

Wherein step 904 may be performed before step 903.

905. And the terminal equipment sends the processed first cascade data packet to the first network equipment through the first uplink authorization.

Correspondingly, the first network device receives the processed first concatenated data packet from the terminal device through the first uplink authorization.

Wherein step 905 may be performed after step 906.

906. And the first network equipment receives second indication information from the terminal equipment, the second indication information is sent according to the first uplink authorization, and the second indication information is used for indicating that the cascade data packet to be transmitted corresponding to the first radio bearer cannot be transmitted through the first uplink authorization.

Correspondingly, the terminal device sends second indication information to the first network device according to the first uplink authorization.

Step 906 may refer to the related description of step 703 in fig. 7, which is not repeated herein.

907. And the first network equipment sends a second uplink authorization to the terminal equipment according to the second indication information.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second uplink grant from the first network device.

Step 907 may refer to the description related to step 703 in fig. 7, which is not repeated herein.

908. And the terminal equipment sends the processed second cascade data packet to the first network equipment through the second uplink authorization.

Correspondingly, the first network device receives the processed second concatenation data packet from the terminal device through the second uplink grant.

It can be seen that, in the above technical solution, by sending the configuration information of the PDCP cascade and the first indication information to the terminal device, to process the data packet according to the configuration information of the PDCP cascade and the first indication information, it is achieved that, in a non-DC scenario, when the terminal device cannot transmit the processed second concatenated data packet through the first uplink authorization, the terminal device may send the second indication information to the first network device to request the second uplink authorization, and then may send the processed second concatenated data packet based on the second uplink authorization.

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

The above mainly introduces the scheme provided by the present application from the perspective of interaction between various devices. It is understood that, in order to implement the above functions, the above devices include hardware structures and/or software modules for executing the functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the various illustrative modules and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first network device or the second network device may be divided into function modules according to the method example, for example, each function module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module, and the integrated module may be implemented in a form of hardware or a form of software function module. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the module is schematic, and is only one logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation.

In the case of using an integrated module, referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1000 can be applied to any of the methods shown in fig. 7-9, and as shown in fig. 10, the communication device 1000 includes a transceiver module 1001. The transceiving module 1001 may be a transceiver or a communication interface. The communication device may be configured to implement the functions of the first network device or the second network device in any of the above method embodiments, or to implement the functions of the devices in any of the above method embodiments. For example, the communication device may be a first network device or a second network device. The first network device or the second network device may be a network element in a hardware device, a software function running on dedicated hardware, or a virtualization function instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). Optionally, the communication device 1000 may further include a storage module 1002 for storing program codes and data of the communication device 1000.

Illustratively, when the communication apparatus is used as a first network device or a chip applied in the first network device, the communication apparatus 1000 includes a transceiver module 1001 and performs the steps performed by the network device in the above method embodiments. The transceiver module 1001 is configured to support communication with a terminal device, a second network device, and the like, and specifically perform actions of sending and/or receiving performed by the first network device in fig. 7, fig. 8, or fig. 9, which are not described herein again. Such as to enable the first network device to perform one or more of steps 701, 801, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein.

Exemplarily, the transceiver module 1001 is configured to send a first request message to the second network device, where the first request message is used to request auxiliary information of a first cascade, and the first cascade includes a PDCP cascade or an SDAP cascade; receiving a first response message from the second network device, the first response message including the first concatenation of assistance information; and sending the configuration information of the first cascade to the terminal equipment, wherein the configuration information of the first cascade is determined according to the auxiliary information of the first cascade.

Illustratively, when the communication apparatus is used as a second network device or a chip applied in the second network device, the communication apparatus 1000 includes the transceiver module 1001 and performs the steps performed by the network device in the above method embodiments. The transceiver module 1001 is configured to support communication with a terminal device, a second network device, and the like, and specifically perform actions of sending and/or receiving performed by the second network device in fig. 7, fig. 8, or fig. 9, which are not described herein again. Such as to enable the second network device to perform one or more of step 702, step 802, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein.

Exemplarily, the transceiver module 1001 is configured to receive a first request message from a first network device, where the first request message is used to request assistance information of a first cascade, and the first cascade includes a packet data convergence protocol PDCP cascade or a service data adaptation protocol SDAP cascade; sending a first response message to the first network device, where the first response message includes the auxiliary information of the first cascade, and the auxiliary information of the first cascade is used to determine the configuration information of the first cascade.

In one possible implementation, when the communication device is a chip, the transceiver module 1001 may be an interface, a pin, a circuit, or the like. The interface can be used for inputting data to be processed to the processor and outputting processing results of the processor outwards. In specific implementation, the interface may be a general purpose input/output (GPIO) interface, and may be connected to a plurality of peripheral devices (e.g., a display (LCD), a camera (camara), a Radio Frequency (RF) module, an antenna, and the like). The interface is connected with the processor through a bus.

The memory module 1002 may be a memory module in the chip, such as a register, a cache, or the like. The Memory module may also be a Memory module located outside the chip, such as a Read Only Memory (ROM) or other types of static Memory devices that can store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM), and the like.

It should be noted that the functions corresponding to the processor and the interface may be implemented by hardware design, software design, or a combination of hardware and software, which is not limited herein.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a simplified terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. For easy understanding and illustration, in fig. 11, the terminal device is exemplified by a mobile phone. As shown in fig. 11, the terminal device includes at least one processor, and may further include a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor may be configured to process a communication protocol and communication data, and may be further configured to control the terminal device, execute a software program, process data of the software program, and the like. The terminal device may further comprise a memory, which is mainly used for storing software programs and data, and these related programs may be loaded into the memory at the time of shipment of the communication apparatus, or may be loaded into the memory at a later time when needed. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal devices may not have input/output 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. 11. 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 receiving unit and a transmitting unit (which may also be collectively referred to as a transceiving unit) of a terminal device, and a processor having a processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 11, the terminal device includes a receiving module 31, a processing module 32, and a transmitting module 33. The receiving module 31 may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting module 33 may also be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc. The processing module 32 may also be referred to as a processor, processing board, processing device, or the like.

The processing module 32 is for example adapted to perform the functions of the terminal device in the embodiments shown in fig. 7 or fig. 8 or fig. 9.

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a simplified network device according to an embodiment of the present application. The network device includes a radio frequency signal transceiving and converting portion 42, which includes a receiving module 41 and a transmitting module 43 (which may also be collectively referred to as a transceiving module). The radio frequency signal receiving, transmitting and converting part is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals; the 42 part is mainly used for baseband processing, network equipment control and the like. The receiving module 41 may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting module 43 may also be referred to as a sender, a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc. Portion 42 is generally a control center of the network device and may be generally referred to as a processing module for controlling the network device to perform the steps described above with respect to the network device in fig. 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8. Reference is made in particular to the description of the relevant part above.

Section 42 may include one or more boards, each of which may include one or more processors and one or more memories, the processors being configured to read and execute programs in the memories to implement baseband processing functions and control of the network devices. If a plurality of single boards exist, the single boards can be interconnected to increase the processing capacity. As an optional implementation, multiple boards may also share one or more processors, or multiple boards share one or more memories, or multiple boards simultaneously share one or more processors.

For example, for a network device, the sending module 43 is configured to execute the functions of the network device in the embodiments shown in fig. 7, 8, or 9.

The present application also provides a communication device comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the processor calls a computer program stored in the memory to implement the method according to any one of the possible implementations of fig. 7, fig. 8 or fig. 9.

The present application also provides a further communication apparatus comprising a memory and a communication interface for inputting and/or outputting information, a processor for executing a computer program, such that the apparatus performs the method as in any one of the possible implementations of fig. 7 or fig. 8 or fig. 9.

The present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed, the method in any possible implementation manner of fig. 7, fig. 8, or fig. 9 is implemented.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one position, or may be distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the elements may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiments of the present application. In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if it is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a separate product. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be substantially or partially implemented in the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to enable a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a cloud server, or a network device) to perform all or part of the steps of the above-mentioned method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes. While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the scope of the invention is not limited thereto, and those skilled in the art can easily conceive various equivalent modifications or substitutions within the technical scope of the invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method applied to a first network device, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first concatenated assistance information comprises PDCP concatenated assistance information for a first radio bearer if the first concatenation is a PDCP concatenation, wherein the first concatenated assistance information comprises SDAP concatenated assistance information for a first radio bearer if the first concatenation is a SDAP concatenation, and wherein the first request message further comprises an identification of the first radio bearer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the assistance information for the PDCP concatenation or the SDAP concatenation for the first radio bearer comprises one or more of:

the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer;

a load of the second network device.

4. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the first request message further comprises a quality of service QoS parameter.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the first request message further comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is the transmission mode of the first Radio Link Control (RLC), and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation if a preset condition is met.

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

and sending first indication information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the transmission mode of a first radio bearer is the transmission mode of a first Radio Link Control (RLC), and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation under the condition of meeting preset conditions.

7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the preset conditions comprise one or more of:

8. The method according to any one of claims 1-7, further comprising:

sending a first uplink authorization to the terminal equipment;

sending and receiving second indication information from the terminal equipment, wherein the second indication information is sent according to the first uplink authorization, and the second indication information is used for indicating that the cascade data packet to be transmitted corresponding to the first radio bearer cannot be transmitted through the first uplink authorization;

sending a second uplink authorization to the terminal equipment according to the second indication information;

and receiving the cascade data packet to be transmitted from the terminal equipment through the second uplink authorization.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second indication information further comprises one or more of:

the size of the concatenated packet to be transmitted.

10. A method of communication, the method being applied to a second network device, the method comprising:

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first concatenated assistance information comprises PDCP concatenated assistance information for a first radio bearer if the first concatenation is a PDCP concatenation, wherein the first concatenated assistance information comprises SDAP concatenated assistance information for a first radio bearer if the first concatenation is a SDAP concatenation, and wherein the first request message further comprises an identification of the first radio bearer.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the assistance information for PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation of the first radio bearer comprises one or more of:

the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer;

a load of the second network device.

13. The method of any of claims 10-12, wherein the first request message further comprises a quality of service Qos parameter.

14. The method according to any of claims 10-13, wherein the first request message further comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is the transmission mode of the first radio link control RLC, and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation if a preset condition is met.

15. A communication apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises a transceiver module for

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the assistance information of the first concatenation comprises assistance information of a PDCP concatenation of a first radio bearer if the first concatenation is a PDCP concatenation, wherein the assistance information of the first concatenation comprises assistance information of an SDAP concatenation of a first radio bearer if the first concatenation is an SDAP concatenation, and wherein the first request message further comprises an identification of the first radio bearer.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein assistance information for PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation of the first radio bearer comprises one or more of:

the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer;

a load of the second network device.

18. The apparatus of any of claims 15-17, wherein the first request message further comprises a quality of service Qos parameter.

19. The apparatus of any one of claims 15 to 18, wherein the first request message further comprises first indication information, and wherein the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is a transmission mode of a first Radio Link Control (RLC), and wherein the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation if a preset condition is met.

20. The apparatus of any one of claims 15-19,

the transceiver module is further configured to send first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information is used to indicate that a transmission mode of a first radio bearer is a transmission mode of a first radio link control RLC, and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation when a preset condition is met.

21. The apparatus of claim 19 or 20,

the preset conditions include one or more of the following:

22. The apparatus of any of claims 15-21, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to transmit and receive data to and from the wireless device

Sending a first uplink authorization to the terminal equipment;

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the second indication information further comprises one or more of:

the size of the concatenated packet to be transmitted.

24. A communication apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises a transceiver module for

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the assistance information of the first concatenation comprises assistance information of a PDCP concatenation of a first radio bearer if the first concatenation is a PDCP concatenation, wherein the assistance information of the first concatenation comprises assistance information of an SDAP concatenation of a first radio bearer if the first concatenation is an SDAP concatenation, and wherein the first request message further comprises an identification of the first radio bearer.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein assistance information for PDCP concatenation or SDAP concatenation of the first radio bearer comprises one or more of:

the size of the concatenated packet transmitted by the first radio bearer;

a load of the second network device.

27. The apparatus of any of claims 24-26, wherein the first request message further comprises a quality of service Qos parameter.

28. The method according to any of claims 24-27, wherein the first request message further comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission mode of the first radio bearer is the transmission mode of the first radio link control RLC, and the transmission mode of the first RLC does not allow segmentation or does not allow segmentation if a preset condition is met.

29. A communications device comprising a processor and a memory, the processor invoking a computer program stored in the memory to implement the method of any one of claims 1-14.

30. A computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored which, when being executed, carries out the method according to any one of claims 1-14.