CN116074805A

CN116074805A - Paging method and device

Info

Publication number: CN116074805A
Application number: CN202111269655.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 朱浩仁; 诸华林; 徐艺珊
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-10-29
Filing date: 2021-10-29
Publication date: 2023-05-05
Also published as: WO2023071979A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a paging method and device, which are used for reducing resource expenditure of a core network and paging expenditure of network elements of an access network. The method comprises the following steps: the network capability opening function network element receives a first paging request from the application function network element, wherein the first paging request carries the label identification and at least one access network element identification; the network capability opening function network element determines a target access network element according to the identification of at least one access network element; the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the target access network element, wherein the second paging request carries the label identification, so that the target access network element pages the label according to the label identification carried in the second paging request.

Description

Paging method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

When considering the tag as a new terminal type to be accessed into the core network, the tag is mostly passive, so that the connection with the core network cannot be maintained for a long time, if the network pages the tag in a paging mode of a conventional terminal, a huge number of tag contexts stored by the core network for a long time are needed, and huge core network resource expenditure is brought; if the core network does not store the context of the tag, the access network elements in the global range are required to page the tag, so that huge paging overhead of the access network elements is brought.

Therefore, how to reduce the resource overhead of the core network and the paging overhead of the access network element is a technical problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a paging method and device, which are used for reducing resource expenditure of a core network and paging expenditure of network elements of an access network.

In a first aspect, a paging method is provided, where the method may be applied to an access network element or a chip in the access network element, and the method is applied to the access network element as an example, and the method includes: the network capability opening function network element receives a first paging request from the application function network element, wherein the first paging request carries the label identification and at least one access network element identification; the network capability opening function network element determines a target access network element according to the identification of at least one access network element; the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the target access network element, wherein the second paging request carries the label identification, so that the target access network element pages the label according to the label identification carried in the second paging request.

According to the scheme, the label can be accessed to the core network in a connectionless manner (namely, the core network does not need to keep the context of the label for a long time), so that the resource utilization rate of the core network can be improved; when the application function network element pages the tag, the control plane network element can send a paging request to the target access network element (namely, the access network element which is likely to provide service for the tag at present), so that the target access network element pages the tag, and the access network element in the global range is not required to page the tag, thereby saving the cost of the whole access network element.

In one possible design, the identity of the at least one access network element is provided by the core network element to the application function network element.

Thus, the application function network element can acquire the identification of at least one access network element so as to initiate paging to the tag.

In one possible design, the first paging request also carries an inventory command, where the inventory command is used to instruct a read and/or write operation to be performed on the tag.

Therefore, the complexity of the interaction flow of the tag and the core network element can be reduced, and the waiting time of the tag is shortened.

In one possible design, the at least one access network element comprises an access network element that last served the tag; the network capability opening function network element determines a target access network element according to the identification of at least one access network element, and comprises the following steps: the network capability opening function network element determines a first target access network element according to the access network element which provides service for the label for the last time; the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the target access network element, including: the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the first target access network element.

Thus, the network element with open network capability can improve the hit rate of paging based on the last paging label of the access network element for providing service for the label.

In one possible design, the at least one access network element comprises a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag; the network capability opening function network element determines a target access network element according to the identification of at least one access network element, and comprises the following steps: the network capability opening function network element determines a second target access network element according to a plurality of access network elements which provide service for the tag through history; the second target access network element is a predicted access network element which provides service for the tag currently; the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the target access network element, including: the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the second target access network element.

Thus, the network element with open network capability can improve the hit rate of paging based on the predicted paging label of the access network element which currently provides service for the label.

In one possible design, the network capability opening function network element determines a second target access network element from a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag, including: the network capability opening function network element sends a plurality of identifiers of the access network elements which provide service for the tag in history to the network data analysis function network element, and the network data analysis function network element is used for predicting a second target access network element which provides service for the tag currently according to the identifiers of the access network elements which provide service for the tag in history; the network capacity opening function network element receives the identification of the second target access network element from the network data analysis function network element, and determines the second target access network element according to the identification of the second target access network element.

In this way, the prediction of the second target access network element can be performed by the network data analysis function network element, so that the cost of the network capacity opening function network element can be reduced, and the calculation efficiency can be improved.

In one possible design, the at least one access network element further comprises a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag; the method further comprises the steps of: the network element with the network capability opening function determines that the paging label of the first target access network element fails; the network capability opening function network element determines a second target access network element according to a plurality of access network elements which provide service for the tag through history; the second target access network element is a predicted access network element which provides service for the tag currently; the network capability opening function network element sends a third paging request to the second target access network element, wherein the third paging request carries the label identification, so that the second target access network element pages the label according to the label identification carried in the third paging request.

Therefore, the hit rate of paging can be further improved by firstly paging the label through the access network element which provides service for the label for the last time and then paging the label through the predicted access network element after failure.

In one possible design, before the network capability opening function network element receives the first paging request from the application function network element, the method further includes: the application function network element fails to page the tag through the user plane network element.

Therefore, the application function network element passes through the user plane network element paging label first, and if the application function network element fails to pass through the user plane network element paging label, the application function network element passes through the control plane network element paging label again, so that the paging hit rate can be further improved, and the time required by paging can be reduced.

In one possible design, the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the target access network element, including: the network capability opening function network element sends a fourth paging request to the target access and mobility management function network element corresponding to the target access network element, wherein the fourth paging request carries the label identification and the target access network element identification, so that the target mobility management function network element sends a second paging request to the target access network element according to the label identification carried in the fourth paging request and the target access network element identification.

In a second aspect, a paging method is provided, where the method may be applied to an application function network element or a chip in the application function network element, and the method is applied to the application function network element as an example, and the method includes: the application function network element obtains the label identification and the identification of at least one access network element providing service for the label; the application function network element stores the label identification and the identification of at least one access network element; the application function network element sends a first paging request to the network capability opening function, wherein the first paging request carries the identification of the tag and the identification of at least one access network element.

In one possible design, the at least one access network element comprises the last access network element that served the tag.

In one possible design, the at least one access network element includes a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag.

In one possible design, before the application function network element sends the first paging request to the network capability opening function, sending a fifth paging request to the user plane network element, where the fifth paging request carries the identifier of the tag, so that the user plane network element pages the tag according to the identifier of the tag; and confirming that the user plane network element fails to page the label.

In a third aspect, a paging method is provided, the method being applicable to an access and mobility management function network element or a chip in an access and mobility management function network element, taking as an example the application of the method to the access and mobility management function network element, the method comprising: the access and mobility management function network element obtains the label identification and the label providing service access network element identification; the access and mobility management function network element sends the identification of the access network element and the identification of the tag to the application function network element, and the identification of the access network element and the identification of the tag are used for paging the tag by the application function network element.

In one possible design, the access and mobility management function network element receives a fourth paging request from the network capability opening function network element, where the fourth paging request carries the identifier of the tag and the identifier of the access network element; the access and mobility management function network element sends a second paging request to the access network element according to the label carried in the fourth paging request and the label of the access network element, wherein the label is carried in the second paging request, so that the access network element pages the label according to the label carried in the second paging request.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising means for performing the method described in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect.

Illustratively, the communication device includes: the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving a first paging request from the application function network element, wherein the first paging request carries the identification of the tag and the identification of at least one access network element; the processing module is used for determining a target access network element according to the identification of at least one access network element; the receiving and transmitting module is further configured to send a second paging request to the target access network element, where the second paging request carries a tag identifier, so that the target access network element pages the tag according to the tag identifier carried in the second paging request.

In one possible design, the at least one access network element comprises an access network element that last served the tag; the processing module is used for: determining a first target access network element according to the access network element which provides service for the tag for the last time; the transceiver module is used for: and sending a second paging request to the first target access network element.

In one possible design, the at least one access network element comprises a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag; the processing module is used for: determining a second target access network element according to the access network elements for providing service for the tag according to the histories; the second target access network element is a predicted access network element which provides service for the tag currently; the transceiver module is used for: and sending a second paging request to a second target access network element.

In one possible design, the processing module is specifically configured to, when determining the second target access network element according to a plurality of access network elements that historically provide services for the tag: the method comprises the steps that identifiers of a plurality of access network elements which provide service for the tag in history are sent to a network data analysis function network element, and the network data analysis function network element is used for predicting a second target access network element which provides service for the tag currently according to the identifiers of the access network elements which provide service for the tag in history; and determining the second target access network element according to the identifier of the second target access network element returned by the network data analysis function network element.

In one possible design, the at least one access network element further comprises a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag; the processing module is also used for: determining that the paging label of the first target access network element fails; determining a second target access network element according to the access network elements for providing service for the tag according to the histories; the second target access network element is a predicted access network element which provides service for the tag currently; the transceiver module is also for: and sending a third paging request to the second target access network element, wherein the third paging request carries the label identification, so that the second target access network element pages the label according to the label identification carried in the third paging request.

In one possible design, the application function network element fails to page the tag through the user plane network element before the transceiver module receives the first paging request from the application function network element.

In one possible design, the network capability opening function network element is specifically configured to, when sending the second paging request to the target access network element: and sending a fourth paging request to a target access and mobility management function network element corresponding to the target access network element, wherein the fourth paging request carries the label identification and the target access network element identification, so that the target mobility management function network element sends a second paging request to the target access network element according to the label identification carried in the fourth paging request and the target access network element identification.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising means for performing the method described in the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect.

Illustratively, the communication device includes: the processing unit is used for acquiring the identification of the tag and the identification of at least one access network element for providing service for the tag; storing the label and at least one access network element; and the receiving and transmitting unit is used for sending a first paging request to the network capability opening function, wherein the first paging request carries the identification of the tag and the identification of at least one access network element.

In one possible design, the identification of the at least one access network element is provided to the communication device by the core network element.

In one possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to: before sending a first paging request to a network capability opening function, sending a fifth paging request to a user plane network element, wherein the fifth paging request carries a label identifier, so that the user plane network element pages the label according to the label identifier; the processing module is also used for: and confirming that the user plane network element fails to page the label.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising means for performing the method as described in the third aspect or any one of the possible designs of the third aspect.

Illustratively, the communication device includes: the processing unit is used for acquiring the label identification and the identification of the access network element providing service for the label; the receiving and transmitting unit is used for sending the identification of the access network element and the identification of the label to the application function network element, and the identification of the access network element and the identification of the label are used for paging the label by the application function network element.

In one possible design, the transceiver unit is further configured to: receiving a fourth paging request from a network element with an open network capability, wherein the fourth paging request carries the identification of a label and the identification of an access network element; and sending a second paging request to the access network element according to the label carried in the fourth paging request and the label of the access network element, wherein the label is carried in the second paging request, so that the access network element pages the label according to the label carried in the second paging request.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving signals from or transmitting signals from a communication device other than the processor for implementing the method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the third aspect or any one of the third aspect, by logic circuitry or executing code instructions.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a communication device, implement a method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the third aspect.

A ninth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause a method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the second aspect or any one of the possible designs of the third aspect to be performed.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising:

a communication device as described in the fourth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect;

a communication device as in the fifth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fifth aspect;

a communication device as in the sixth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the sixth aspect.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional RFID system architecture;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a 5G communication system;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a servitization interface of the 5G communication system;

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

FIGS. 5A-5C are schematic diagrams illustrating a deployment mode of a reader-writer;

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

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an access and mobility management function network element providing an application function network element with an identification of an access network element;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a paging procedure of a target access network element to a tag;

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

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

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, a conventional radio frequency identification (Radio Frequency Identification, RFID) system will be described.

Referring to fig. 1, a schematic architecture diagram of a conventional RFID system includes: tags (tags), readers (readers), middleware, backend applications, and the like. Among them, tags are classified into passive tags (or referred to as passive tags) and active tags (or referred to as active tags). The passive tag is not provided with a built-in battery, the working power supply of the passive tag needs to be supplied by a reader-writer, when the tag is out of the read-write range of the reader-writer, the tag is in a passive state, when the tag is in the read-write range of the reader-writer, the reader-writer sends out an excitation signal to generate a magnetic field around the tag, the tag can obtain induced current in the magnetic field, and then a response signal (for example, product information stored in a chip is sent out) is sent out; the working power of the active tag can be completely supplied by an internal battery, so that the product information stored in the chip can be actively sent out without sending an excitation signal by the reader-writer. After the reader-writer receives the information sent by the tag, the information is forwarded to the back-end application system for processing through the middleware.

The electronic product code (Electronic Product Code, EPC) standard defines an interface protocol between each component in the RFID architecture, wherein an ultrahigh frequency radio frequency identification protocol (EPC global Class 1Generation 2) (abbreviated as Gen2 protocol) is adopted between the tag and the reader; a low-level reader protocol (Low Level Reader Protocol, LLRP) protocol is adopted between the reader and the middleware; an application layer event (Application Level Events, ALE) protocol is employed between the middleware and the back-end application system. The EPC standard uses EPC codes to uniquely identify tags, and secret identifiers (Secret Identifier, SIDs) can be used to interact between the tags and readers for security.

Next, a fifth generation communication technology (5th Generation Mobile Communication Technology,5G) is described.

Referring to fig. 2, AN architecture diagram of a third generation partnership project (3rd Generation Partnership Project,3GPP) system of 5G includes a terminal device, (Radio) Access Network (R) AN Network element, and a core Network element.

An access network element may be a Base Station (Base Station), an Evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission and reception point (Transmission Reception Point, TRP), a Next Generation NodeB (gNB) in a 5G mobile communication system, a Next Generation Base Station in a sixth Generation (6th Generation,6G) mobile communication system, a Base Station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system, etc.; the present invention may be a module or Unit for performing a function of a base station part, for example, a Centralized Unit (CU) or a Distributed Unit (DU). The CU can complete the functions of a radio resource control protocol and a packet data convergence layer protocol (Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP) of the base station and can also complete the functions of a service data adaptation protocol (Service Data Adaptation Protocol, SDAP); the DU performs the functions of the radio link control layer and the medium access control (Medium Access Control, MAC) layer of the base station, and may also perform the functions of a part of the physical layer or the entire physical layer, and for a detailed description of the above protocol layers, reference may be made to the relevant technical specifications of the third generation partnership project (3rd Generation Partnership Project,3GPP). The access network element may be a macro base station (e.g. 110a in fig. 1), a micro base station or an indoor station (e.g. 110b in fig. 1), a relay node or a donor node, etc. The specific technology and specific equipment configuration adopted for the access network element in the embodiment of the application are not limited. For convenience of description, the following access network elements will take base stations as examples.

The terminal device may also be referred to as a terminal, user Equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. The terminal may be widely applied to various scenes, for example, device-to-Device (D2D), vehicle-to-Device (Vehicle to Everything, V2X) communication, machine-type communication (Machine-Type Communication, MTC), internet of things (Internet Of Things, IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autopilot, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, and the like. The terminal can be a mobile phone, a tablet personal computer, a computer with a wireless receiving and transmitting function, a wearable device, a vehicle, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a helicopter, an airplane, a ship, a robot, a mechanical arm, intelligent household equipment and the like. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology and the specific equipment form adopted by the terminal.

The base station and the terminal may be fixed in position or movable. Base stations and terminals may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; the device can be deployed on the water surface; but also on aerial planes, balloons and satellites. The application scenes of the base station and the terminal are not limited in the embodiment of the application.

The core network element may comprise one or more network elements (or one or more network functional entities). Examples include, but are not limited to, the following network elements:

user plane function (User Plane Function, UPF) network element: and is mainly responsible for forwarding and receiving user data in the terminal equipment. User data can be received from the data network and transmitted to the terminal equipment through the access network element; the UPF network element may also receive user data from the terminal device via the access network element and forward the user data to the data network. The transmission resources and scheduling functions in the UPF network element that serve the terminal device are managed and controlled by the SMF network element.

Session management function (Session Management Function, SMF) network element: mainly responsible for user plane network element selection, user plane network element redirection, internet protocol (internet protocol, IP) address assignment, bearer establishment, modification and release, and quality of service (Quality of Servic, qoS) control.

Access and mobility management function (Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF) network element: mainly responsible for the signaling processing part, such as: access control, mobility management, attach and detach, gateway selection, etc. In the case that the AMF network element provides a service for a session in the terminal device, a storage resource of a control plane is provided for the session, and a session identifier, an SMF network element identifier associated with the session identifier, and the like are stored.

Authentication service function (Authentication Server Function, AUSF) network element: mainly provides authentication functions, supports authentication of 3GPP access and Non-3GPP (Non-3 GPP) access.

Network slice selection function (Network Slice Selection Function, NSSF) network element: is mainly responsible for selecting network slices for UEs.

Network capability open function (Network Exposure Function, NEF) network element: the network capacity and the events can be safely exposed to the third party by the NEF, so that the application service quality is enhanced or improved, and the 3GPP network can safely acquire related data from the third party to enhance the intelligent decision of the network; while the network element supports the retrieval of structured data from or the storage of structured data into a unified database.

Network function library (Network Repository Function, NRF) network element: and the storage function and the selection function of the network function entity information are mainly responsible for providing other network elements.

Policy control function (Policy Control Function, PCF): the method mainly supports the provision of a unified policy framework to control network behavior, provides policy rules for a control layer network function, and is also responsible for acquiring user subscription information related to policies.

Unified data management (Unified Data Management, UDM) network element: is mainly responsible for managing the user subscription context.

-application function (Application Function, AF) network element: interaction with the 3GPP core network is mainly supported to provide services, such as influencing data routing decisions, policy control functions or providing some services of third parties to the network side.

Among them, UE, (R) AN, UPF are generally referred to as user plane network function entities. The Data traffic of the user can be transmitted through a protocol Data unit (Protocol Data Unit, PDU) session established between the UE and a Data Network (DN), and the transmission can pass through two Network elements, namely (R) AN and UPF; the other parts are called control layer network function entity, which is mainly responsible for authentication and authentication, registration management, session management, mobility management, policy control and other functions, thus realizing reliable and stable transmission of user layer flow.

It should be understood that fig. 2 shows the interaction relationship between the network function entities and the corresponding interfaces, for example, the interaction between the UE and the AMF may be performed through the N1 interface, and interactions between other network function entities are similar and will not be described herein. Some interfaces may be implemented by adopting a service interface, for example, as shown in fig. 3, NSSF provides an Nnssf interface to the outside, NEF provides an Nnef to the outside, and other network elements are similar and will not be described again.

The present application considers the tag as a new terminal type, and accesses the cellular network (for example, accesses the network shown in fig. 3) through an air interface of the cellular network, and the access network element reads/writes the tag under the control of the core network element.

Exemplary, referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of a communication system is provided in an embodiment of the present application. The system comprises a label, an access network element and a core network element, wherein the label is arranged on the access network element corresponding to a plurality of readers, and a middleware, a back-end application system and the like are connected with the core network element and are communicated with the readers through the core network element. The related description of fig. 2 may be referred to for the access network element and the core network element, which are not described herein.

It should be appreciated that fig. 4 is an example where the back-end application system is deployed outside the core network, e.g. the back-end application system is provided by a third party (i.e. a third party other than the operator, the user), and the AF in the core network may be used as an interface for the back-end application system to access the core network. In practical applications, however, the back-end application system may also be deployed in the core network, for example, the back-end application system is provided by a network operator, which directly deploys the back-end application system on the AF in the core network. It should be understood that fig. 4 is only an example, and that other variations are possible in practical applications.

As an alternative embodiment, the reader/writer may be independently deployed in a Micro base station (Micro), as shown in fig. 5A in particular;

as another alternative implementation manner, the reader/writer may be deployed in a generic access node (node), as shown in fig. 5B, and in this scenario, the node may interact with the tag in a D2D manner.

As an alternative embodiment, the functions of the reader-writer may also be separated, for example, the transceiver functions of the reader-writer are separately deployed on different entity devices. For example, as shown in fig. 5C, a transmitting module is disposed on the node for performing the transmitting function of the reader/writer, and a receiving module is disposed on the macro base station for performing the receiving function of the reader/writer, because the node is closer to the tag than the macro base station, the node can transmit the excitation signal so that the tag obtains greater energy to transmit the response signal, and the response signal can reach the macro base station, so that the macro base station can directly receive the response signal transmitted by the tag.

In the communication system shown in fig. 4, the tag and the middleware can perform signaling (such as authentication, reading or writing commands, etc.) or data (such as user data) interaction through the core network, and then the subsequent middleware interacts with the back-end application system. Alternatively, the interaction between the tag and the backend application may be directly through the core network, with signaling (e.g., authentication, read or write commands, etc.) or data (e.g., user data).

In cellular networks, the conventional manner in which the UE accesses the core network is connection-oriented, i.e., the core network may save the context of the UE (e.g., UE identity, recently accessed area information, etc.), and when the core network needs to page the UE, the core network may send a paging request for the target UE to a radio access equipment (RAN) in the recently accessed area according to the saved context, and then the RAN pages the target UE further.

As can be seen from the above description, the tags are classified into active tags and passive tags. For active tags, because of its own power supply, it can be considered as a similar NB-IOT type UE, and its paging mode can follow the paging procedure of a conventional UE (or follow the paging procedure optimized for NB-IOT). For passive tags, the following two ways are considered in the embodiments of the present application to access the passive tag to the core network:

the mode 1, the core network views the label as special UE, is still connection-oriented, i.e. the core network keeps the context of the label, and the paging mode is similar to the paging mode of the conventional UE.

This approach is limited by the specificity of passive tags to obtain energy, relying on excitation signals to obtain energy, so it is difficult to maintain a connection to the core network for a long period of time, while the mass tag context stored by the core network for a long period of time may occupy the resources of the core network.

And 2, the core network is regarded as special UE (user equipment) and is oriented to connectionless, the temporary context of the tag is maintained only in the short time of tag access, a temporary control surface or a user surface transmission channel is provided for the tag, and the temporary context of the tag is released when the data transmission of the tag is completed or a timer is overtime.

The method is suitable for the scene that a large number of tags are accessed to a core network in an ultra-short time, but the core network does not store the context of the tags, so that the tags cannot be paged by using a conventional UE paging mechanism, when a specific tag needs to be checked, the core network needs to initiate paging of access network elements in a global range (namely, all the access network elements send excitation signals, and the tags initiate response after acquiring energy), and the paging expense of the access network elements is increased.

In view of this, the embodiment of the present application further provides a paging scheme, which can improve the resource utilization rate of the core network and reduce the paging overhead of the global access network element on the tag. This scheme is described in detail below.

Referring to fig. 6, a flowchart of a paging method according to an embodiment of the present application is taken as an example, where the method is applied to the communication system shown in fig. 4, and the method includes:

S101, an application function network element sends a first paging request to a network capability opening function network element, wherein the first paging request carries a label identification and at least one access network element identification; correspondingly, the network capability opening function network element receives the paging request.

The identification of the tag carried in the first paging request is used for indicating the paged tag.

As an alternative embodiment, the application function network element further needs to acquire and save the identifier of the tag and the identifier of the at least one access network element before sending the first paging request to the network capability opening function network element. After that, the first paging request can be generated and transmitted.

As an alternative embodiment, the identification of the at least one access network element may be provided by the core network element to the application function network element. The core network element may be any core network element capable of acquiring an identifier of at least one access network element, including, but not limited to, an access and mobility management function network element, a session management function network element, a user plane function network element, and the like.

As an alternative embodiment, the at least one access network element comprises an identification of the at least one access network element that served the tag. The core network element provides the identification of the at least one access network element to the application function network element in the process that the at least one access network element provides the service for the tag.

Taking the first access and mobility management function network element as an example, the first access and mobility management function network element may obtain the identifier of the tag and the identifier of the first access network element that provides the service for the tag, and send the identifier of the first access network element and the identifier of the tag to the application function network element. Correspondingly, the at least one access network element comprises a first access network element.

For example, referring to fig. 7, a schematic diagram of providing an identifier of an access network element to an application function network element for an access and mobility management function network element includes:

s201, the tag acquires an excitation signal of an Access network element and completes interaction with a bottom layer (such AS an Access Stratum (AS)) of the wireless Access network element;

s202, completing a security flow between the tag and the core network element, wherein the security flow comprises authentication, authorization and the like of the core network to the tag.

In specific implementation, the security flow is completed by the tag and the core network element through the radio access network element, and the embodiment of the application does not limit the communication protocol between the tag and the core network. For example, the Access network element may build a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) layer connection for the label to implement interaction between the label and the core network, specifically for example: the access network element can add a function module to unify an access gateway function (Unified Access Gateway Function, uni-AGF) to build a control surface for the label generation, and is used for supporting interaction between the label and the core network, so that the core network can sense the label (because the label has no NAS layer, the interaction of the NAS layer with the 5GC can not be directly carried out as common UE); or for example the access network element may interact with the core network directly via N2 messages (interface messages between the access network element and the access and mobility management function network element).

In one possible implementation, the core network-to-tag authentication is a two-way authentication, i.e. includes core network-to-tag authentication and tag-to-core network authentication.

In one possible implementation manner, the bidirectional authentication of the tag and the core network may be completed based on an authentication framework of the cellular network, for example, the core network may complete the bidirectional authentication of the tag through an authentication network element, where the authentication network element is, for example, an authentication service function (Authentication Server Function, AUSF) network element, a unified data management (Unified Data Management, UDM) network element, or the like, and the application is not limited; alternatively, the two-way authentication of the tag may be accomplished by way of Network Slice and an authentication and authorization function (NSSAAF) of an independent non-public Network. In another possible implementation, the tag may have no operator attributes. Here, authentication and authorization can be completed by a third party network element in a manner similar to the private network external authentication in the R17 version of 3 GPP.

In one possible implementation manner, the tag can complete interaction of related security parameters such as authorization, authentication and the like with the core network element based on a Hash (Hash), a symmetric key, an asymmetric key and the like.

S203A, a core network establishes a Control Plane (CP) forwarding channel;

specifically, the core network stores general subscription/configuration information of the tag, establishes a context of the tag according to an identifier uploaded by the tag (for example, a protected security identifier (Security Identifiers, SID) or a temporary SID or other identifier capable of uniquely representing the tag), and constructs a control plane forwarding path for the tag, where a specific forwarding path may be: label → access network element → access and mobility management function element → network capability open function element → application function element (it is understood that the intermediate passing core network element is not limited to the access and mobility management function element, the network capability open function element, and actually may be other core network elements).

S203B, the core network establishes a User Plane (UP) forwarding channel;

compared with S203A, after the label completes the security procedure, the core network establishes a user plane forwarding channel for the label, for example, a specific forwarding path may be: label → access network element → user plane function element → application function element.

It should be understood that, in implementation, the core network may only establish a control plane forwarding channel for the tag, may only establish a user plane forwarding channel for the tag, or may simultaneously establish a control plane forwarding channel and a user plane forwarding channel for the tag, which is not limited in this application. In other words, only one step or both steps may be actually performed in S203 and A, S B.

After S203A and/or S203B, connection establishment between the tag and the core network is completed, and based on the connection, the core network element and the access network element may provide a data transmission service for the tag, for example, the core network and the application function network element/application server may exchange data through a control plane forwarding channel or a user plane forwarding channel. In the process that the access network element provides service for the tag, the core network keeps the connection between the tag and the core network, namely, the core network keeps the temporary context of the tag; when the service provided by the access network element for the tag is finished (for example, the data transmission between the core network and the tag is finished or the connection between the tag and the core network is overtime), the core network disconnects the tag from the core network, i.e. the core network releases the temporary context of the tag.

S204, in the process that the access network element provides service for the tag, the access and mobility management function network element obtains the identification of the access network element providing service for the tag;

s205, the access and mobility management function network element reports the identification of the access network element to the application function network element.

In one possible implementation, the identity of the access network element may be a globally unique identity, i.e. the identity of one access network element uniquely identifies one access network element.

In one possible implementation, the access and mobility management function network element or the network capability opening function network element or other core network element may anonymize the identifier of the access network element acquired by the access and mobility management function network element and then send the identifier to the application function network element. For example, if the identifier of the access network element is an access network element identifier defined by an operator, the access network element identifier may be anonymously processed, so as to avoid directly providing identifier information inside the operator for a third party, thereby reducing security risk. The anonymization processing may be, for example: the identification can be subjected to pseudonymization, encryption, inhibition or shielding and other treatments to obtain an indirect identification; and then generalizing or randomizing the indirect identifier to obtain an anonymized identifier. It should be understood that the above is by way of example only, and the present application is not limited to the particular steps of anonymization processing

In one possible implementation, the core network element provides the identity of the access network element to the application function network element according to the addressing information of the application function network element. The addressing information of the application function network element can be obtained through general subscription information or configuration information, or can be obtained according to a routing field in the identifier, and the precise address (such as the IP address of the application function network element) of the application function network element can be further obtained through a domain name resolution system (Domain Name System, DNS).

According to S201 to S205, it is seen that the access and mobility management function network element provides the identity of the access network element to the application function network element.

It should be understood that S201 to S205 above may occur when the tag is first connected to the core network (i.e. first connected to the core network), or when the tag is disconnected from the core network and is re-connected to the core network, which is not limited in this application.

It should be noted that S201 to S205 above take as an example that the core network element provides the label to the application function network element to provide the identifier of the access network element in the primary connection process. According to the foregoing, the tag may establish multiple connections with the core network, so that in each connection process, the core network element may provide the identifier of the access network element that provides the access service for the tag to the application function network element. In addition, after the label is reconnected to the core network, the access network element, the access and mobility management function network element that again provides service for the label may be the same as or different from the access network element, the access and mobility management function network element that previously provides service for the label, which is not limited in this application. The application function network element may obtain the identities of a plurality of different access network elements that serve the tag sequentially.

S102, the network element with the network capability opening function determines a target access network element according to the identification of at least one access network element.

Wherein the target access network element is an access network element that may currently serve the tag, the network capability open function network element may attempt to page the tag through the target access network element.

In a possible implementation, the at least one access network element comprises the last (i.e. last) access network element serving the tag. Correspondingly, the network capability opening function network element can determine the target access network element according to the access network element which provides the service for the tag for the last time, namely, the target access network element is the access network element which provides the service for the tag for the last time. For ease of distinction, the target access network element determined from the access network element that last served the tag will be referred to herein as the first target access network element.

In one possible implementation, the at least one access network element comprises a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag. Correspondingly, the network capability opening function network element can determine the target access network element according to a plurality of access network elements which provide service for the tag according to history, and the target access network element is the predicted access network element which provides service for the tag currently. For ease of distinction, a target access network element determined from a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag will be referred to herein as a second target access network element.

Alternatively, the plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag may or may not include the last access network element serving the tag.

Alternatively, the identifiers of the plurality of access network elements that historically provide services for the tag may be in the form of a list, for example, the first paging request carries a list, where the list includes identifiers of the plurality of access network elements that historically provide services for the tag. Further, the list may further include time information for each access network element to provide services for the tag, location information of the tag, and so on.

In an alternative manner, the predicting of the second target access network element may be performed by a network capability opening function network element, i.e. the network capability opening function network element predicts the second target access network element currently serving the tag according to the identifiers of the access network elements historically serving the tag.

In another alternative, the prediction of the second target access network element may also be performed by other network elements than network capability opening function network elements. For example, the network capability opening function network element may send a plurality of identifiers of access network elements that historically provide services for the tag to the network data analysis function network element, so that the network data analysis function network element predicts a second target access network element that currently provides services for the tag according to the identifiers of the access network elements that historically provide services for the tag, and sends a prediction result (for example, the identifier of the second target access network element) to the network capability opening function network element, and the network capability opening function network element receives the prediction result and determines the second target access network element according to the prediction result.

In a possible implementation manner, the at least one access network element includes the first target access network element (the access network element that most recently serves the tag) and the second target access network element (i.e., the predicted target access network element).

Of course, the foregoing manners are merely examples, and are not limiting, and there may be other specific implementations of at least one access network element, a target access network element, a paging procedure, etc., which are not limited in this application.

S103, the network element with the network capability opening function sends a second paging request to the target access network element, wherein the second paging request carries the label identification; correspondingly, the target access network element receives the second paging request.

According to various possible implementations of the target access network element in S102, the network capability openness function network element sends the second paging request to the target access network element, including but not limited to the following implementations:

the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the first target access network element (i.e. the access network element which provides service for the tag for the last time), wherein the second paging request carries the tag identifier, so that the first target access network element pages the tag according to the tag identifier carried in the second paging request.

Mode 1 can improve the hit rate of paging based on the access network element paging tag that last served the tag.

In mode 2, the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to a second target access network element (i.e., an access network element that currently provides service for the tag based on the prediction of the history data), where the second paging request carries the tag identifier, so that the second target access network element pages the tag according to the tag identifier carried in the second paging request.

Mode 2 can improve the hit rate of paging based on the predicted access network element paging label that currently serves the label.

In the mode 3, the network element with the network capability opening function may first send a second paging request to the first target access network element, where the second paging request carries the identifier of the tag, so that the first target access network element pages the tag according to the identifier of the tag carried in the second paging request. If the paging label of the first target access network element fails (for example, the network capability opening function network element receives a paging response returned by the first target access network element, the paging response indicates that the paging fails), the network capability opening function sends a third paging request to the second target access network element, and the third paging request carries the label identification, so that the second target access network element pages the label according to the label identification carried in the third paging request.

In the mode 3, the hit rate of paging can be further improved by firstly paging the label through the access network element which provides service for the label for the last time and then paging the label through the predicted access network element after failure.

In the mode 4, the network element with the network capability opening function may first send a second paging request to the second target access network element, where the second paging request carries the identifier of the tag, so that the second target access network element pages the tag according to the identifier of the tag carried in the second paging request. If the paging label of the second target access network element fails (for example, the network capability opening function network element receives a paging response returned by the second target access network element, the paging response indicates that the paging fails), the network capability opening function sends a third paging request to the first target access network element, and the third paging request carries the label identification, so that the first target access network element pages the label according to the label identification carried in the third paging request.

The method 4 can further improve the hit rate of paging by firstly predicting the paging label of the access network element and then providing service for the label for the access network element in the last time after failure.

Mode 5, the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the first target access network element, and sends a third paging request to the second target access network element (the sending time of the second paging request and the sending time of the third paging request are not in sequence), wherein the second paging request and the third paging request both carry the label identification, so that the first target access network element and the second target access network element both page the label.

Mode 5 can reduce the time required for paging while improving the paging hit rate by simultaneously predicting the access network element and the access network element paging label which provides service for the label last time.

Of course, the foregoing several ways are merely examples, and are not limiting, and other specific implementations are possible, and the application is not limited.

In a possible implementation manner, the network capability opening function network element sends the second paging request to the target access network element through the target access and mobility management function network element corresponding to the target access network element. The target access and mobility management function network element can forward between the network capability opening function network element and the target access network element in a transparent transmission or non-transparent transmission mode, and the application is not limited. For example: the target access and mobility management function network element directly receives a second paging request from the network capability opening function network element, and then sends the second paging request to the target access network element (transparent transmission mode); or the target access and mobility management function network element receives a fourth paging request from the network capability opening function network element, the fourth paging request can carry the label identification and the target access network element identification, and the target access and mobility management function network element sends a second paging request to the target access network element according to the target access network element identification carried in the fourth paging request (non-transparent transmission mode).

S104, the target access network element pages the label according to the label mark carried in the second paging request.

For example, referring to fig. 8, the paging procedure of the target access network element to the tag may include:

s301, after receiving a second paging request, a target access network element activates an excitation signal;

s302, the label acquires an excitation signal of a target wireless access network element to complete interaction with a bottom layer (such AS an AS layer) of the target access network element;

s303, the target access network element sends a paging response to the application function network element, wherein the paging response is used for indicating that the paging label is successful, and it is understood that this step is optional, and in FIG. 8, the step S303 is marked by a dotted line as an optional step;

s304, completing a security flow between the label and the core network element, wherein the specific implementation manner of the step can refer to the foregoing S202, and the detailed description is omitted herein;

the core network establishes a control plane and/or a user plane forwarding channel for the label in S305, and the specific implementation of this step may refer to the foregoing S203 and A, S B, which are not described herein again.

According to the above S101 to S104, the tag may be connected to the core network in a connectionless manner (i.e., the core network does not need to keep the context of the tag for a long time), so as to improve the resource utilization rate of the core network; when the application function network element pages the tag, the control plane network element can send a paging request to the target access network element (namely, the access network element which is likely to provide service for the tag at present), so that the target access network element pages the tag, and the access network element in the global range is not required to page the tag, thereby saving the cost of the whole access network element.

As an alternative embodiment, each paging request (e.g., first paging request, second paging request, third paging request, fourth paging request, etc.) herein may also carry an inventory command for indicating to perform an operation on the tag. For example, the inventory command is used to instruct the tag to perform a read and/or write operation, although, as an example only, the inventory command is used in practice to instruct the tag to perform a read and/or write operation. And the target access network element sends an inventory command to the tag after receiving the second paging request and activating the excitation signal. The method can reduce the complexity of the interaction flow of the tag and the core network element and reduce the waiting time of the tag by additionally carrying the inventory command in the paging request.

As an optional implementation manner, after receiving the inventory command, the tag triggers a security flow between itself and the core network element, and after completing the security flow (i.e., after the tag and the core network element pass through bidirectional authentication, authorization, etc.), the tag responds to the inventory command. In this way, the security of the tag data can be improved.

As an optional implementation manner, the application function network element may also page the tag through the user plane network element first, and if the application function network element fails to page the tag through the user plane network element, the application function network element then pages the tag through the control plane network element. Thus, before the network capability opening function network element receives the first paging request from the application function network element, it may further include: the application function network element fails to page the tag through the user plane network element. In a specific implementation, the application function network element sends a fifth paging request through the user plane forwarding channel established between the application function network element and the fifth paging request carries the label, and if the application function network element receives a response returned by the user plane function network element (on the user plane forwarding channel established between the application function network element) or the access network element and used for indicating paging failure, the application function network element determines that the user plane network element fails to page the label, and then sends a first paging request to the network capability opening function network element through the control plane network element paging label. Optionally, the fifth paging request carries an inventory command. In this way, the paging hit rate can be further improved and the time required for paging can be reduced.

It should be understood that the above embodiments may be implemented separately or in combination with each other.

It will be appreciated that, in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the base station and the terminal include corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the elements and method steps of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application scenario and design constraints imposed on the solution.

Fig. 9 and 10 are schematic structural diagrams of possible communication devices according to embodiments of the present application. These communication devices may be used to implement the functions of any of the network elements in the method embodiments described above, and thus may also implement the advantages provided by the method embodiments described above.

As shown in fig. 9, the communication device 900 includes a processing module 910 and a transceiver module 920. The communication device 900 is configured to implement the functionality of any of the network elements of the method embodiments shown in fig. 6 or fig. 7 or fig. 8 described above.

When the communication device 900 is used to implement the functionality of the access network element in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6: the transceiver module 920 is configured to receive a first paging request from an application function network element, where the first paging request carries an identifier of a tag and an identifier of at least one access network element; the processing module 910 is configured to receive a first paging request from an application function network element, where the first paging request carries an identifier of a tag and an identifier of at least one access network element; the transceiver module 920 is further configured to send a second paging request to the target access network element, where the second paging request carries an identifier of the tag, so that the target access network element pages the tag according to the identifier of the tag carried in the second paging request.

When the communication device 900 is used to implement the functionality of the application function network element in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6: the processing module 910 is configured to receive and send the module 920; storing the label and at least one access network element; the transceiver module 920 is configured to send a first paging request to the network capability opening function, where the first paging request carries an identifier of a tag and an identifier of at least one access network element.

When the communication device 900 is used to implement the functionality of the access and mobility management function network element in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6: the processing module 910 is configured to obtain an identifier of a tag and an identifier of an access network element that provides a service for the tag; the transceiver module 920 is configured to send, to the application function network element, an identifier of the access network element and an identifier of the tag, where the identifier of the access network element and the identifier of the tag are used to page the tag by the application function network element.

The above-mentioned more detailed descriptions of the processing module 910 and the transceiver module 920 may be directly obtained by referring to the related descriptions in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6, which are not repeated herein.

As shown in fig. 10, the communication device 1000 includes a processor 1010 and an interface circuit 1020. The processor 1010 and the interface circuit 1020 are coupled to each other. It is understood that interface circuit 1020 may be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1000 may further comprise a memory 1030 for storing instructions to be executed by the processor 1010 or for storing input data required by the processor 1010 to execute instructions or for storing data generated after the processor 1010 executes instructions.

When the communication device 1000 is used to implement the method shown in fig. 6, the processor 1010 is configured to implement the functions of the processing module 910, and the interface circuit 1020 is configured to implement the functions of the transceiver module 920.

It is to be appreciated that the processor in embodiments of the present application may be a central processing module (Central Processing Unit, CPU), but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), application specific integrated circuits (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, it may be any conventional processor.

The method steps in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions may be comprised of corresponding software modules that may be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, erasable programmable read only memory, electrically erasable programmable read only memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may reside in a base station or terminal. The processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a base station or terminal.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable apparatus. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer program or instructions may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired or wireless means. The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that integrates one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium, e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, tape; but also optical media such as digital video discs; but also semiconductor media such as solid state disks. The computer readable storage medium may be volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage medium.

In the various embodiments of the application, if there is no specific description or logical conflict, terms and/or descriptions between the various embodiments are consistent and may reference each other, and features of the various embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. In the text description of the present application, the character "/", generally indicates that the associated object is an or relationship; in the formulas of the present application, the character "/" indicates that the front and rear associated objects are a "division" relationship. "including at least one of A, B and C" may mean: comprises A; comprises B; comprising C; comprises A and B; comprises A and C; comprises B and C; including A, B and C.

It will be appreciated that the various numerical numbers referred to in the embodiments of the present application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The sequence number of each process does not mean the sequence of the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined according to the function and the internal logic.

Claims

1. A paging method, comprising:

the network capability opening function network element receives a first paging request from an application function network element, wherein the first paging request carries a label identification and at least one access network element identification;

the network capability opening function network element determines a target access network element according to the identification of the at least one access network element;

the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the target access network element, wherein the second paging request carries the label identification, so that the target access network element pages the label according to the label identification carried in the second paging request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification of the at least one access network element is provided to the application function element by a core network element.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first paging request further carries an inventory command, the inventory command being used to instruct a read and/or write operation to be performed on the tag.

4. A method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the at least one access network element comprises an access network element that last served the tag;

The network capability opening function network element determines a target access network element according to the identification of the at least one access network element, and comprises the following steps:

the network capability opening function network element determines a first target access network element according to the access network element which provides service for the tag for the last time;

the network capability opening function network element sending a second paging request to the target access network element, including:

and the network capability opening function network element sends the second paging request to the first target access network element.

5. A method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein said at least one access network element comprises a plurality of access network elements historically serving said tag;

the network capability opening function network element determines a second target access network element according to the access network elements for providing services for the labels according to the histories; the second target access network element is a predicted access network element which currently provides service for the tag;

And the network capability opening function network element sends the second paging request to the second target access network element.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the network capability opening function network element determining a second target access network element for the access network element serving the tag based on the plurality of histories comprises:

the network capability opening function network element sends the identifiers of the plurality of access network elements which historically provide service for the tag to a network data analysis function network element, and the network data analysis function network element is used for predicting a second target access network element which currently provides service for the tag according to the identifiers of the plurality of access network elements which historically provide service for the tag;

the network capability opening function network element receives the identification of the second target access network element from the network data analysis function network element, and determines the second target access network element according to the identification of the second target access network element.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one access network element further comprises a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag; the method further comprises the steps of:

The network capability opening function network element determines that the first target access network element fails to page the tag;

the network capability opening function network element sends a third paging request to the second target access network element, wherein the third paging request carries the label identification, so that the second target access network element pages the label according to the label identification carried in the third paging request.

8. The method according to any of claims 1-7, further comprising, before the network capability opening function network element receives the first paging request from the application function network element:

the application function network element fails to page the tag through the user plane network element.

9. The method according to any of claims 1-8, wherein the network capability opening function network element sending a second paging request to the target access network element comprises:

The network capability opening function network element sends a fourth paging request to a target access and mobility management function network element corresponding to the target access network element, wherein the fourth paging request carries the label identification and the target access network element identification, so that the target mobility management function network element sends the second paging request to the target access network element according to the label identification carried in the fourth paging request and the target access network element identification.

10. A paging method, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that an application function network element obtains the identification of a tag and the identification of at least one access network element providing service for the tag; the application function network element stores the label identification and the identification of the at least one access network element;

the application function network element sends a first paging request to the network capability opening function, wherein the first paging request carries the label identification and the identification of the at least one access network element.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the identification of the at least one access network element is provided to the application function element by a core network element.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the first paging request further carries an inventory command, the inventory command being used to instruct the reading and/or writing operations to the tag.

13. The method according to any of claims 11-12, wherein the at least one access network element comprises an access network element that last served the tag.

14. The method according to any of claims 11-12, wherein the at least one access network element comprises a plurality of access network elements historically serving the tag.

15. The method of any one of claims 10-14, further comprising:

before the application function network element sends the first paging request to the network capability opening function, sending a fifth paging request to a user plane network element, wherein the fifth paging request carries the label identification, so that the user plane network element pages the label according to the label identification;

and confirming that the user plane network element fails to page the tag.

16. A paging method, comprising:

the access and mobility management function network element obtains the label identification and the identification of the access network element providing service for the label;

The access and mobility management function network element sends the identification of the access network element and the identification of the tag to the application function network element, and the identification of the access network element and the identification of the tag are used for paging the tag by the application function network element.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising:

the access and mobility management function network element receives a fourth paging request from the network capability opening function network element, wherein the fourth paging request carries the label identification and the access network element identification;

the access and mobility management function network element sends a second paging request to the access network element according to the label carried in the fourth paging request and the label of the access network element, wherein the second paging request carries the label so that the access network element pages the label according to the label carried in the second paging request.

18. A communication device, comprising:

the receiving and transmitting module is used for receiving a first paging request from an application function network element, wherein the first paging request carries the identification of a tag and the identification of at least one access network element;

A processing module, configured to determine a target access network element according to the identifier of the at least one access network element;

the transceiver module is further configured to send a second paging request to the target access network element, where the second paging request carries an identifier of the tag, so that the target access network element pages the tag according to the identifier of the tag carried in the second paging request.

19. A communication device, comprising:

the processing unit is used for acquiring the identification of the tag and the identification of at least one access network element for providing service for the tag; the application function network element stores the label identification and the identification of the at least one access network element;

and the receiving and transmitting unit is used for sending a first paging request to the network capability opening function, wherein the first paging request carries the label identification and the identification of the at least one access network element.

20. A communication device, comprising:

the processing unit is used for acquiring the identification of the tag and the identification of the access network element providing service for the tag;

the receiving and transmitting unit is used for sending the identification of the access network element and the identification of the tag to the application function network element, wherein the identification of the access network element and the identification of the tag are used for paging the tag by the application function network element.

21. A communication device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving signals from other communication devices than the communication device and transmitting signals from the processor to the processor or sending signals from the processor to other communication devices than the communication device, the processor being configured to implement the method of any of claims 1-9 or 10-15 or 16-17 by logic circuitry or executing code instructions.

22. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a communication device, implement the method of any of claims 1-9 or 10-15 or 16-17.