CN116074805A - A paging method and device - Google Patents

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

A paging method and device

technical field

The present application relates to the technical field of communications, and in particular to a paging method and device.

Background technique

When considering using tags as a new type of terminal to access the core network, because most tags are passive, they cannot maintain a connection with the core network for a long time. If the network uses the paging method for conventional terminals to For paging, the core network needs to store a large number of tag contexts for a long time, which will bring huge core network resource overhead; if the core network does not save the tag context, all access network elements in the global Paging brings huge paging overhead for network elements of the access network.

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

Contents of the invention

Embodiments of the present application provide a paging method and device for reducing resource overhead of a core network and paging overhead of network elements of an access network.

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

In the above solution, tags can be connected to the core network in a connectionless manner (that is, the core network does not need to maintain the context of the tag for a long time), which can improve the resource utilization of the core network; when the application function network element paging the tag, it can pass The control plane NE sends the paging request to the target access network element (that is, the access network element that may currently provide services for the label), so that the target access network element can page the label without global The network elements of the access network all perform paging on the label, so the overhead of the network elements of the overall access network can be saved.

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

In this way, the application function network element can obtain the identifier of at least one network element of the access network, and then initiate paging for the label.

In a possible design, the first paging request further carries an inventory command, and the inventory command is used to instruct to perform a read and/or write operation on the tag.

In this way, the complexity of the interaction process between the tag and the network element of the core network can be reduced, and the waiting time of the tag can be reduced.

In a possible design, at least one access network element includes the access network element that provided services for the label last time; the network capability opening function network element determines the target access network element according to the identification of at least one access network element The network element includes: the network element with the network capability opening function determines the first target access network element according to the access network element that provided services for the label last time; the network element with the network capability opening function sends the second The paging request includes: the network element with the network capability opening function sending the second paging request to the first target access network element.

In this way, the network element with the network capability opening function paging the label based on the network element of the access network that provided the service for the label last time, which can improve the hit rate of paging.

In a possible design, at least one access network element includes multiple access network elements that have historically provided services for tags; the network capability opening function network element determines the target access network element according to the identification of at least one access network element network element, including: the network element with the network capability opening function determines the second target access network element according to multiple historical access network elements providing services for the label; wherein, the second target access network element is the predicted current The network element of the access network that provides services for the label; the network element with the network capability opening function sends the second paging request to the network element of the target access network, including: the network element with the network capability opening function sends the second paging request to the network element of the second target access network Two paging requests.

In this way, the network element with the network capability opening function paging the tag based on the predicted network element of the access network currently providing services for the tag can improve the hit rate of paging.

In a possible design, the network element with the network capability opening function determines the second target access network element according to multiple access network elements that have provided services for the label in history, including: the network element with the network capability opening function sends network data analysis The functional network element sends the identifiers of the access network elements that have provided services for the label in multiple histories, and the network data analysis function network element is used to predict the current service for the label based on the identifications of the access network elements that have provided services for the label in multiple histories The network element of the second target access network; the network element with the network capability opening function receives the identifier of the second target access network element from the network element with the network data analysis function, and determines the second target access network element according to the identifier of the second target access network element 2. The target access network element.

In this way, the prediction of the network element of the second target access network can be performed by the network element with the network data analysis function, which can reduce the overhead of the network element with the network capability opening function and improve the calculation efficiency.

In a possible design, at least one access network element also includes a plurality of access network elements that have provided services for tags in history; the method further includes: the network capability opening function network element determines the first target access network element The paging tag fails; the network element with the network capability opening function determines the second target access network element according to multiple historical access network elements that provide services for the tag; where the second target access network element is the predicted current The network element of the access network that the label provides services; the network element with the network capability opening function sends a third paging request to the network element of the second target access network, and the third paging request carries the identification of the label, so that the second target access The network element pages the tag according to the tag identifier carried in the third paging request.

In this way, by first paging the tag through the network element of the access network that provided services for the tag last time, and then passing the predicted paging tag of the network element of the access network after the failure, the hit rate of paging can be further improved.

In a possible design, before the network capability opening function network element receives the first paging request from the application function network element, it further includes: the application function network element fails to paging the label through the user plane network element.

In this way, the application function network element first passes the paging label of the user plane network element, and if the application function network element fails to pass the paging label of the user plane network element, the application function network element then passes the control plane network element paging label, which can further improve paging hit rate and reduce the time required for paging.

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

In the second aspect, a paging method is provided, which can be applied to an application function network element or a chip in an application function network element. Taking the method applied to an application function network element as an example, the method includes: the application function network element obtains the label identification, and the identification of at least one access network element that provides services for the label; the application function network element saves the identification of the label and at least one identification of the access network element; the application function network element sends the first search to the network capability opening function paging request, the first paging request carries the identifier of the label and the identifier of at least one network element of the access network.

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

In a possible design, the first paging request further carries an inventory command, and the inventory command is used to instruct to perform a read and/or write operation on the tag.

In a possible design, at least one network element of the access network includes the network element of the access network that provided services for the label last time.

In a possible design, at least one access network element includes multiple access network elements that have historically provided services for tags.

In a possible design, before the application function network element sends the first paging request to the network capability opening function, it sends a fifth paging request to the user plane network element, and the fifth paging request carries a tag identifier to Make the user plane network element page the label according to the label identification; confirm that the user plane network element fails to page the label.

In the third aspect, a paging method is provided, the method can be applied to the access and mobility management function network element or the chip in the access and mobility management function network element, and the method can be applied to the access and mobility management function Taking a network element as an example, the method includes: the access and mobility management function network element obtains the identification of the label and the identification of the access network element that provides services for the label; the access and mobility management function network element sends the application function network element The identification of the network element of the access network and the identification of the label, the identification of the network element of the access network and the identification of the label are used for the paging label of the application function network element.

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

In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, including a module configured to execute the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect.

Exemplarily, the communication device includes: a transceiver module, configured to receive a first paging request from an application function network element, the first paging request carries an identifier of a tag and an identifier of at least one access network element; a processing module, It is used to determine the target access network element according to the identification of at least one access network element; the transceiver module is also used to send a second paging request to the target access network element, and the second paging request carries the identification of the label , so that the network element of the target access network pages the tag according to the tag identifier carried in the second paging request.

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

In a possible design, the first paging request further carries an inventory command, and the inventory command is used to instruct to perform a read and/or write operation on the tag.

In a possible design, at least one network element of the access network includes the network element of the access network that provided services for the tag last time; the processing module is configured to: determine the first The target access network element; the transceiver module is configured to: send the second paging request to the first target access network element.

In a possible design, at least one access network element includes a plurality of access network elements that have provided services for labels in history; the processing module is configured to: determine the The second target access network element; wherein, the second target access network element is a predicted access network element that currently provides services for the label; the transceiver module is used to: send the second target access network element to the second target access network element Two paging requests.

In a possible design, the processing module is specifically configured to: send multiple The identification of the access network element that has provided services for the label in history, and the network data analysis function network element is used to predict the second target access that currently provides services for the label based on the identification of multiple historical access network elements that provide services for the label A network element; determine 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 a possible design, at least one access network element further includes a plurality of access network elements that have historically provided services for the tag; the processing module is also used to: determine that the first target access network element fails to page the tag ; Determining a second target access network element according to a plurality of historical access network elements providing services for tags; wherein, the second target access network element is a predicted access network element currently providing services for tags; The transceiver module is also used to: send a third paging request to the network element of the second target access network, and the third paging request carries the identification of the label, so that the network element of the second target access network according to the third paging request The identification of the tag carried by the paging tag.

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

In a possible design, when the network element with the network capability opening function sends the second paging request to the network element of the target access network, it is specifically used to: manage the target access and mobility corresponding to the network element of the target access network The functional network element sends a fourth paging request, and the fourth paging request carries the identifier of the tag and the identifier of the target access network element, so that the target mobility management functional network element and sending the second paging request to the network element of the target access network with the identifier of the network element of the target access network.

In a fifth aspect, a communications device is provided, including a module configured to execute the method described in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect.

Exemplarily, the communication device includes: a processing unit, configured to obtain an identifier of the tag and an identifier of at least one access network element providing services for the tag; save the identifier of the tag and the identifier of at least one access network element; send and receive A unit, configured to send a first paging request to the network capability opening function, where the first paging request carries the identifier of the label and the identifier of at least one network element of the access network.

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

In a possible design, the first paging request further carries an inventory command, and the inventory command is used to instruct to perform a read and/or write operation on the tag.

In a possible design, at least one network element of the access network includes the network element of the access network that provided services for the label last time.

In a possible design, at least one access network element includes multiple access network elements that have historically provided services for tags.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is also configured to: before sending the first paging request to the network capability opening function, send a fifth paging request to the user plane network element, where the fifth paging request carries the identification of the label , so that the user plane network element pages the label according to the label identification; the processing module is further configured to: confirm that the user plane network element fails to page the label.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, including a module for performing the method described in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect.

Exemplarily, the communication device includes: a processing unit, configured to obtain an identifier of the tag and an identifier of an access network element that provides services for the tag; a transceiver unit, configured to send the identifier of the access network element to the application function network element and The identification of the label, the identification of the network element of the access network and the identification of the label are used for paging the label of the application function network element.

In a possible design, the transceiver unit is also configured to: receive a fourth paging request from a network element with a network capability opening function, where the fourth paging request carries an identifier of a label and an identifier of an access network element; according to the first The identification of the label carried in the paging request and the identification of the network element of the access network send a second paging request to the network element of the access network, and the identification of the label is carried in the second paging request, so that the network element of the access network according to The identifier of the tag carried in the second paging request is a paging tag.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, including a processor and an interface circuit, and the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices other than the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to the communication device. In addition to other communication devices, the processor is used to implement any possible design of the first aspect or the first aspect or the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect or the third aspect through a logic circuit or executing code instructions Or the method described in any possible design of the third aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. Computer programs or instructions are stored in the storage medium. When the computer programs or instructions are executed by a communication device, any possible design or The second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect or the method described in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect.

In a ninth aspect, a computer program product is provided, including instructions, which, when run on a computer, make the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect or the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect The method described in the design or the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect is carried out.

In a tenth aspect, a communication system is provided, including:

The communication device as described in the fourth aspect or any possible design of the fourth aspect;

The communication device as described in the fifth aspect or any possible design of the fifth aspect;

The communication device as described in the sixth aspect or any possible design of the sixth aspect.

Description of drawings

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

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the 5G communication system;

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

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

5A to 5C are schematic diagrams of the deployment mode of the reader;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a paging method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of providing an identifier of an access network element to an application function network element by an access and mobility management function network element;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a paging process for a label by a target access network element;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a possible communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another possible communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

Hereinafter, a traditional radio frequency identification (Radio Frequency Identification, RFID) system is introduced.

Referring to FIG. 1 , it is a schematic diagram of a traditional RFID system architecture, including: a tag (Tag), a reader (Reader), middleware, and a back-end application system. Among them, tags are classified into passive tags (or called passive tags) and active tags (or called active tags). Passive tags do not have a built-in battery, and the working power of passive tags needs to be supplied by the reader. When the tag is outside the read-write range of the reader, the tag is in a passive state. When the tag is within the read-write range When inside, the reader sends an excitation signal to generate a magnetic field around it, and the tag can obtain an induced current in the magnetic field, and then send a response signal to the outside (such as sending out the product information stored in the chip); while the active tag The working power can be completely supplied by the internal battery, so the product information stored in the chip can be actively sent out without the need for the reader to send an excitation signal. After the reader receives the information sent by the tag, it forwards the information to the back-end application system through the middleware for processing.

The Electronic Product Code (EPC) standard defines the interface protocol between components in the RFID architecture, among which the UHF radio frequency identification protocol (EPC global Class1Generation2) (referred to as Gen2 for short) is used between the tag and the reader. protocol); between the reader and the middleware is the Low Level Reader Protocol (LowLevel Reader Protocol, LLRP) protocol; between the middleware and the backend application system is the application level event (Application Level Events, ALE) protocol. The EPC standard uses the EPC code to uniquely identify the tag. For security reasons, the tag and the reader can use the Secret Identifier (SID) to interact.

The following is an introduction to the 5th Generation Mobile Communication Technology (5G).

See Figure 2, which is a schematic diagram of the 5G 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP) system architecture, including terminal equipment, (wireless) access network ((Radio) Access Network, (R) AN) network elements and core network elements.

The access network element can be a base station (Base Station), an evolved base station (Evolved NodeB, eNodeB), a transmission reception point (Transmission Reception Point, TRP), and a next-generation base station (Next Generation NodeB, gNB) in a 5G mobile communication system. ), the next-generation base station in the sixth generation (6th Generation, 6G) mobile communication system, the base station in the future mobile communication system or the access node in the WiFi system, etc.; it can also be a module or unit that completes some functions of the base station, such as , which can be a centralized unit (Central Unit, CU) or a distributed unit (Distributed Unit, DU). The CU here completes the functions of the radio resource control protocol of the base station and the packet data convergence layer protocol (Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP), and can also complete the function of the service data adaptation protocol (Service Data Adaptation Protocol, SDAP); the DU completes the functions of the base station The functions of the wireless link control layer and the medium access control (Medium Access Control, MAC) layer can also complete the functions of part or all of the physical layer. For the specific description of the above-mentioned protocol layers, please refer to the third generation partnership project (3rdGeneration Partnership Project, 3GPP) related technical specifications. The network element of the access network may be a macro base station (such as 110a in Figure 1), a micro base station or an indoor station (such as 110b in Figure 1), or a relay node or a donor node. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technologies and specific equipment forms adopted by the network elements of the access network. For ease of description, the network elements of the access network in the following are all taken as an example of a base station.

A terminal device may also be called a terminal, a user equipment (User Equipment, UE), a mobile station, a mobile terminal, and the like. Terminals can be widely used in various scenarios, for example, device-to-device (Device-to-Device, D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (Machine-Type Communication, MTC), Internet of Things (Internet of Things) Of Things, IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. Terminals can be mobile phones, tablet computers, computers with wireless transceiver functions, wearable devices, vehicles, drones, helicopters, airplanes, ships, robots, robotic arms, smart home devices, etc. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal.

Base stations and terminals can be fixed or mobile. Base stations and terminals can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on water; they can also be deployed on aircraft, balloons and artificial satellites in the air. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios of the base station and the terminal.

A core network element may include one or more network elements (or one or more network function entities). Examples include but are not limited to the following network elements:

User Plane Function (UPF) network element: mainly responsible for forwarding and receiving user data in terminal equipment. It can receive user data from the data network and transmit it to the terminal device through the access network element; the UPF network element can also receive user data from the terminal device through the access network element and forward it to the data network. The transmission resources and scheduling functions that provide services for terminal equipment in the UPF network element are managed and controlled by the SMF network element.

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 allocation, bearer establishment, modification and release, and service quality ( Quality of Service, QoS) control.

Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) network element: mainly responsible for signaling processing, such as access control, mobility management, attachment and detachment, and gateway selection. When the AMF network element provides services for the session in the terminal device, it will provide the session with storage resources on the control plane, and store the session ID, the SMF network element ID associated with the session ID, and the like.

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

Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) network element: mainly responsible for selecting network slices for UE.

Network Exposure Function (NEF) network element: It mainly supports the secure interaction between 3GPP network and third-party applications. NEF can safely expose network capabilities and events to third parties to enhance or improve application service quality. 3GPP network It is also possible to securely obtain relevant data from a third party to enhance the intelligent decision-making of the network; at the same time, this network element supports restoring structured data from the unified database or storing structured data in the unified database.

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

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

Unified Data Management (UDM) network element: mainly responsible for managing user subscription context.

Application Function (Application Function, AF) network element: It mainly supports interaction with the 3GPP core network to provide services, such as affecting data routing decisions, policy control functions, or providing some third-party services to the network side.

Among them, UE, (R)AN, and UPF are generally referred to as user layer network functional entities. The user's data traffic can be transmitted through the protocol data unit (Protocol Data Unit, PDU) session established between the UE and the data network (Data Network, DN), and the transmission will pass through the two network elements of (R)AN and UPF; and The other part is called the control layer network functional entity, which is mainly responsible for functions such as authentication and authentication, registration management, session management, mobility management, and policy control, so as to realize reliable and stable transmission of user layer traffic.

It should be understood that FIG. 2 shows the interaction relationship between network functional entities and the corresponding interfaces. For example, the interaction between UE and AMF can be performed through the N1 interface. The interaction between other network functional entities is similar and will not be repeated here. Part of the interface can be implemented in the form of a service-oriented interface. For example, as shown in Figure 3, the NSSF provides the Nnssf interface externally, and the NEF provides Nnef externally. Other network elements are similar and will not be described again.

This application considers the tag as a new terminal type, accessing the cellular network through the air interface of the cellular network (for example, accessing the network shown in Figure 3), and the access network element reads the tag under the control of the core network element /Write.

For example, refer to FIG. 4 , which is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. Including tags, access network elements, and core network elements. Tags correspond to multiple readers deployed on access network elements. Middleware and back-end application systems are connected to core network elements. Through core network elements and Reader communication. Wherein, for the network elements of the access network and the network elements of the core network, reference may be made to the relevant introduction in FIG. 2 above, and details are not repeated here.

It should be understood that Figure 4 is an example where the backend application system is deployed outside the core network. The interface through which the terminal application system accesses the core network. However, in practical applications, the back-end application system can also be deployed in the core network. For example, the back-end application system is provided by the network operator, and the network operator can directly deploy the back-end application system on the AF in the core network. It should be understood that Fig. 4 is only an example, and there may be other deformations in actual application.

As an optional implementation, the reader can be independently deployed in a micro base station (Micro), as shown in Figure 5A;

As another optional implementation manner, the reader can be deployed in a pan-access node (NodeX node), as shown in FIG. 5B . In this scenario, the NodeX node can interact with the tag through D2D.

As an optional implementation manner, the functions of the reader/writer can also be separated, for example, the sending and receiving functions of the reader/writer are separately deployed on different physical devices. For example, as shown in Figure 5C, the sending module is deployed on the NodeX node to perform the sending function of the reader, and the receiving module is deployed on the macro base station to perform the receiving function of the reader, because the NodeX node is closer to the tag than the macro base station. Therefore, the excitation signal sent by the NodeX node can make the tag obtain more energy to send the response signal, so that the response signal can reach the macro base station, so the macro base station can directly receive the response signal sent by the tag.

In the communication system shown in Figure 4, signaling (such as authentication, read or write commands) or data (such as user data) can be exchanged between the tag and the middleware through the core network, and the subsequent middleware and the backend application system to interact. Alternatively, signaling (such as authentication, read or write commands) or data (such as user data) can be directly exchanged between the tag and the back-end application system through the core network.

In a cellular network, the conventional way for a UE to access the core network is connection-oriented, that is, the core network will save the context of the UE (such as UE identity, recently accessed area information, etc.), and when the core network needs to page the UE, The core network can send a paging request for the target UE to a radio access device (RAN) in the nearest access area according to the saved context, and then the RAN further pages the target UE.

According to the above introduction, there are two types of tags: active tags and passive tags. For active tags, because they have power, they can be considered as a type of UE similar to NB-IOT, and their paging method can follow the paging process of conventional UEs (or follow the paging process optimized for NB-IOT). For passive tags, the embodiment of this application considers the following two ways to connect passive tags to the core network:

Method 1. The core network regards the tag as a special UE and is still connection-oriented, that is, the core network saves the context of the tag, and the paging method is similar to that of a conventional UE.

This method is limited by the particularity of passive tags to obtain energy, relying on excitation signals to obtain energy, so it is difficult to maintain a connection with the core network for a long time, and the massive tag context stored by the core network for a long time will occupy the resources of the core network.

Method 2. The core network regards the tag as a special UE, which is oriented to connectionless. It only keeps the temporary context of the tag during the short period of tag access, and provides a temporary control plane or user plane transmission channel for the tag. When the data transmission of the tag is completed Or when the timer expires, the label temporary context is released.

This method is suitable for the scenario where a large number of tags are connected to the core network in an ultra-short period of time. However, since the core network does not save the context of tags, it cannot use the conventional UE paging mechanism to page tags. When a specific tag needs to be inventoried, the core network needs a global scope. All access network elements in the access network initiate paging (that is, all access network elements send incentive signals, and the tags initiate a response after obtaining energy), which increases the paging overhead of the access network elements.

In view of this, the embodiment of the present application also provides a paging solution, which can reduce the paging overhead of the network elements of the global access network for labels while improving the resource utilization rate of the core network. The scheme is described in detail below.

Referring to FIG. 6 , it is a flow chart of a paging method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The method is applied to the communication system shown in FIG. 4 as an example. The method includes:

S101. The application function network element sends a first paging request to the network capability opening function network element, and the first paging request carries the identifier of the label and the identifier of at least one access network element; correspondingly, the network capability opening function network element Receive the paging request.

Wherein, the tag identifier carried in the first paging request is used to indicate the tag to be paged.

As an optional implementation, before the application function network element sends the first paging request to the network capability opening function network element, the application function network element also needs to obtain and save the label identification and at least one access network element logo. After that, the first paging request can be generated and sent.

As an optional implementation manner, the identifier of at least one network element of the access network may be provided by the network element of the core network to the network element of the application function. Among them, the core network element can be any core network element that can obtain the identity of at least one access network element, including but not limited to access and mobility management function network element, session management function network element, user plane function Network elements, etc.

As an optional implementation manner, at least one access network element includes an identifier of at least one access network element that has provided services for the tag. The network element of the core network provides the identifier of at least one network element of the access network to the network element of the application function when at least one network element of the access network provides services for the label.

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 services for the tag, and send the application The functional network element sends the identifier of the network element of the first access network and the identifier of the label. Correspondingly, the at least one access network element includes the first access network element.

Exemplarily, referring to FIG. 7 , it is a schematic diagram of providing an identification of an access network element to an application function network element by an access and mobility management function network element, including:

S201. The label obtains the excitation signal of the network element of the access network, and completes the interaction with the bottom layer (such as the access (Access Stratum, AS) layer) of the network element of the wireless access network;

S202. A security process is completed between the tag and the network element of the core network, where the security process includes authentication and authorization of the tag by the core network.

In specific implementation, the security process is completed between the tag and the core network element through the wireless access network element, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the communication protocol between the tag and the core network. For example, the access network element can build a non-access (Non-Access Stratum, NAS) layer connection for the label to realize the interaction between the label and the core network. For example, the access network element can add a new functional module for unified access The gateway function (Unified Access Gateway Function, Uni-AGF) builds a control plane for the label agent, which is used to support the interaction between the label and the core network, so that the core network can perceive the label (because the label does not have a NAS layer, it cannot communicate with the normal UE directly interact with the 5GC at the NAS layer); or for example, the access network element can directly communicate with the core network through the N2 message (the interface message between the access network element and the access and mobility management function element) interact.

In a possible implementation manner, the authentication of the label by the core network is a two-way authentication, which includes authentication of the label by the core network and authentication of the label by the core network.

In a possible implementation, the two-way authentication between the label and the core network can be completed based on the authentication framework of the cellular network. Server Function, AUSF) network elements, unified data management (Unified DataManagement, UDM) network elements, etc., this application is not limited; Authentication and AuthorizationFunction, NSSAAF) to complete the two-way authentication of tags. In another possible implementation, the tag may have no operator attribute. Here, a method similar to the external authentication of the private network in the R17 version of 3GPP is adopted, and the authentication and authorization can be completed by a third-party network element.

In a possible implementation manner, the tag can interact with network elements of the core network based on hash (Hash), symmetric secret key, asymmetric key and other methods to complete authorization, authentication and other related security parameters.

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

Specifically, the core network saves the general signing/configuration information of the tag, and establishes the context of the tag according to the identifier uploaded by the tag (such as a protected security identifier (Security Identifiers, SID) or a temporary SID or other identifiers that can uniquely represent the tag). , constructing a control plane forwarding channel for the label, the specific forwarding path may be: label→access network element→access and mobility management function network element→network capability exposure function network element→application function network element (it should be understood that here For example only, the network elements of the core network passed in the middle are not limited to access and mobility management function network elements and network capability opening function network elements, and may actually be other core network network elements).

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

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

It should be understood that during specific implementation, the core network may only establish a control plane forwarding channel for labels, or may only establish a user plane forwarding channel for labels, or may simultaneously establish a control plane forwarding channel and a user plane forwarding channel for labels. This application does not Do limit. In other words, only one of the steps above S203A and S203B may actually be executed, or both steps may be executed.

After S203A and/or S203B, the connection between the label and the core network is established. Based on the connection, the network element of the core network and the network element of the access network can provide data transmission services for the label, such as between the core network and the application function network element/application server They can exchange data through the control plane forwarding channel or the user plane forwarding channel. During the process that the network element of the access network provides services for the label, the core network maintains the connection between the label and the core network, that is, the core network maintains the temporary context of the label; The data transmission between the core network and the label is completed or the connection between the label and the core network times out), the core network disconnects the connection between the label and the core network, that is, the core network releases the temporary context of the label.

S204. During the process of the network element of the access network providing the service for the label, the network element with the access and mobility management function acquires the identifier of the network element of the access network providing the service for the label;

S205. The access and mobility management function network element reports the identifier of the access network element to the application function network element.

In a possible implementation manner, the identifier of an access network element may be a globally unique identifier, that is, an identifier of an access network element uniquely determines an access network element.

In a possible implementation, the access and mobility management function network element or the network capability opening function network element or other core network network elements can use the access network element obtained by the access and mobility management function network element The identifier is anonymized before being sent to the application function network element. For example, if the identifier of the access network element is the identifier of the access network element defined by the operator, the identifier of the access network element can be anonymized to avoid directly providing the operator's internal identifier information to the third party, thereby reducing the Security Risk. Wherein, the anonymization process, for example, may be: first perform pseudonymization, encryption, suppression or shielding on the identification to obtain an indirect identification; and then generalize or randomize the indirect identification to obtain an anonymized identification. It should be understood that the above are examples only, and this application does not limit the specific steps of anonymization processing

In a possible implementation manner, the network element of the core network provides the identifier of the network element of the access network to the network element of the application function according to the addressing information of the network element of the application function. Among them, the addressing information of the application function network element can be obtained from the general contract information or configuration information, or can be obtained according to the routing field in the identifier, and the precise address of the application function network element can be further obtained through the domain name resolution system (DomainName System, DNS) ( Such as the IP address of the application function network element).

According to S201-S205, it can be seen that the access and mobility management function network element can provide the identification of the access network element to the application function network element.

It should be understood that the above S201-S205 may occur when the label first connects to the core network (that is, establishes a connection with the core network for the first time), or it may occur when the label is disconnected from the core network and reconnects to the core network, which is not limited in this application .

It should be noted that, the above S201-S205 is an example in which the network element of the core network provides the identification of the network element of the access network as a label to the network element of the application function during a connection process. According to the foregoing, the tag can establish multiple connections with the core network, so during each connection, the core network element can provide the application function network element with the identification of the access network element that provides access services for the tag. In addition, after the tag is reconnected to the core network, the access network elements, access and mobility management function NEs that provide services for the tags again can communicate with the access network elements, access and mobility management functions that previously provided services for the tags. The network elements with the management function are the same or different, which is not limited in this application. The application function network element can obtain the identifiers of multiple different network elements of the access network that successively provide services for the label.

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

Wherein, the target access network element is an access network element that may currently provide services for the tag, and the network capability opening function network element may try to page the tag through the target access network element.

In a possible implementation manner, at least one access network element includes an access network element that provides services for the label last time (that is, last time). Correspondingly, the network element with the network capability opening function can determine the target access network element according to the access network element that provided services for the label last time, that is, the target access network element is the access network element that provided services for the label last time. Yuan. For ease of distinction, here the target access network element determined according to the access network element that provides services for the label last time is referred to as the first target access network element.

In a possible implementation manner, at least one access network element includes multiple access network elements that have historically provided services for the label. Correspondingly, the network element with the network capability opening function can determine the target access network element according to multiple historical access network elements that provide services for the label, and the target access network element is the predicted access network element that currently provides services for the label. network element. For ease of distinction, the target access network element determined according to multiple historical access network elements providing services for the tag is referred to as the second target access network element.

Optionally, the plurality of access network elements that have provided services for tags may or may not include the access network elements that provided services for tags last time.

Optionally, the identifiers of multiple access network elements that have historically provided services for tags may be in the form of a list, for example, a list is carried in the first paging request, and the list contains multiple historical access network elements that have provided services for tags ID of the element. Further, the list may also include time information when each access network element provides services for the tag, location information of the tag, and the like.

In an optional manner, the prediction of the second target access network element may be performed by the network element with the network capability opening function, that is, the network element with the network capability opening function provides services for the label according to multiple histories. A network element of the second target access network that is predicted to currently provide services for the tag is identified.

In another optional manner, the prediction of the network element of the second target access network may also be performed by other network elements than the network element with the network capability opening function. For example, the network element with the network capability exposure function can send the identifiers of the access network elements that have provided services for the tag in multiple histories to the network element with the network data analysis function, and then the network element with the network data analysis function has provided services for the tag according to the multiple histories. The identification of the network element predicts the second target access network element that currently provides services for the label, and sends the prediction result (such as the identification of the second target access network element) to the network capability opening function network element, and the network capability opening function The network element receives the prediction result and determines the network element of the second target access network according to the prediction result.

In a possible implementation manner, at least one access network element includes the first target access network element (the access network element that provided services for the label last time) and the second target access network element (ie predicted target access network element).

Of course, the above methods are only examples and not limiting. There may be other specific implementation methods for at least one access network element, target access network element, and paging process, which are not limited in this application.

S103. The network element with the network capability opening function sends a second paging request to the network element of the target access network, and the second paging request carries the identifier of the tag; correspondingly, the network element of the target access network receives the second paging request.

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

Method 1. The network element with the network capability opening function sends a second paging request to the first target access network element (that is, the access network element that provided services for the label last time), and the second paging request carries the identification of the label , so that the network element of the first target access network pages the tag according to the tag identifier carried in the second paging request.

Mode 1 paging the tag based on the network element of the access network that provided the service for the tag last time, which can improve the hit rate of paging.

Mode 2, the network capability opening function network element sends a second paging request to the second target access network element (that is, the access network element currently providing services for the label predicted based on historical data), and the second paging request Carrying the identifier of the label, so that the network element of the second target access network pages the label according to the identifier of the label carried in the second paging request.

In mode 2, the tag is paging based on the predicted network element of the access network currently serving the tag, which can improve the hit rate of paging.

Method 3. The network element with the network capability opening function may first send a second paging request to the first target access network element, and the second paging request carries the identifier of the label, so that the first target access network element according to the first target access network 2. The identification of the tag carried in the paging request paging tag. If the paging label of the first target access network element fails (for example, the network capability opening function network element receives the paging response returned by the first target access network element, and the paging response indicates paging failure), the network capability is opened The function then sends a third paging request to the network element of the second target access network, and the third paging request carries the identifier of the label, so that the network element of the second target access network Identifies the paging label.

In mode 3, the tag is first paging through the access network element that provided services for the tag last time, and then the paging tag of the predicted access network element is used after the failure, which can further improve the paging hit rate.

Method 4. The network element with the network capability opening function may first send a second paging request to the second target access network element, and the second paging request carries the label identifier, so that the second target access network element 2. The identification of the tag carried in the paging request paging tag. If the paging label of the network element of the second target access network fails (for example, the network element with the network capability opening function receives the paging response returned by the network element of the second target access network, and the paging response indicates paging failure), the network capability is opened The function then sends a third paging request to the first target access network element, and the third paging request carries the tag identifier, so that the first target access network element Identifies the paging label.

In mode 4, the paging tag of the predicted access network element is used first, and then the paging tag of the access network element that provided services for the tag last time is used after the failure, which can further improve the paging hit rate.

Method 5: The network element with the network capability opening function sends a second paging request to the network element of the first target access network, and sends a third paging request to the network element of the second target access network (the second paging request, the third The sending time of the paging request does not distinguish the sequence), 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 are both paging tab.

In mode 5, the tag is paged through the predicted access network element and the last access network element that provided services for the tag at the same time, which can reduce the time required for paging while improving the paging hit rate.

Of course, the above several ways are only examples rather than limitations, and there may be other specific implementation ways, which are not limited in this application.

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

S104. The network element of the target access network pages the tag according to the tag identifier carried in the second paging request.

Exemplarily, referring to FIG. 8, the paging process of the label by the network element of the target access network may include:

S301. After receiving the second paging request, the network element of the target access network activates the excitation signal;

S302. The tag obtains the excitation signal of the network element of the target wireless access network, and completes the interaction with the bottom layer (such as the AS layer) of the network element of the target access network;

S303. The network element of the target access network sends a paging response to the application function network element, wherein the paging response is used to indicate that the paging tag is successful. It should be understood that this step is optional, and S303 is marked by a dotted line in FIG. 8 as an optional step ;

S304, the security process is completed between the label and the core network element, the specific implementation of this step can refer to the previous S202, and will not be repeated here;

S305. The core network establishes a control plane and/or user plane forwarding channel for the label. The specific implementation of this step can refer to the previous S203A and S203B, which will not be repeated here.

According to the above S101-S104, the tag can be connected to the core network in a connectionless manner (that is, the core network does not need to maintain the context of the tag for a long time), which can improve the resource utilization of the core network; while the application function network element is paging the tag When , the paging request can be sent to the target access network element (that is, the access network element that may currently provide services for the label) through the control plane network element, so that the target access network element can page the label, There is no need for all network elements of the access network to page the label, so the overhead of the network elements of the overall access network can be saved.

As an optional implementation, each paging request herein (such as the first paging request, the second paging request, the third paging request, or the fourth paging request, etc.) may also carry an inventory command, and the inventory Commands are used to instruct actions to be performed on tags. For example, the inventory command is used to instruct to perform read and/or write operations on the tag. Of course, this is only an example. In practical applications, the inventory command includes but is not limited to instructs to perform read and/or write operations on the tag. After receiving the second paging request and activating the excitation signal, the network element of the target access network sends an inventory command to the tag. This method can reduce the complexity of the interaction process between tags and core network elements and reduce the waiting time of tags by additionally carrying an inventory command in the paging request.

As an optional implementation, after the label receives the inventory command, it triggers the security process between itself and the core network element, after completing the security process (that is, after the label and the core network element pass two-way authentication, authorization, etc.) , and then respond to the inventory command. In this way, the security of tag data can be improved.

As an optional implementation, the application function network element can also pass the user plane network element paging label first, if the application function network element fails to pass the user plane network element paging label, the application function network element then passes the control plane network element paging tab. Therefore, 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 paging the tag through the user plane network element. In specific implementation, the application function network element first sends the fifth paging request through the user plane forwarding channel established between them, and the fifth paging request carries the identification of the label. If the application function network element receives (the user plane established between If the response returned by the user plane functional network element or access network element on the forwarding channel of the user plane to indicate paging failure is used, the application function network element determines that the user plane network element has failed to page the label, and then passes the control plane The network element paging tag, for example, sends a first paging request to a network element with a network capability opening function. Optionally, the inventory command is carried in the fifth paging request. 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-mentioned implementation manners may be implemented independently or in combination with each other.

It can be understood that, in order to implement the functions in the foregoing embodiments, the base station and the terminal include hardware structures and/or software modules corresponding to each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software with reference to the units and method steps of the examples described in the embodiments disclosed in the present application. Whether a certain function is executed by hardware or computer software drives the hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 are schematic structural diagrams of possible communication devices provided by the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to realize the function of any network element in the foregoing method embodiments, and thus can also realize the beneficial effects of the foregoing method embodiments.

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

When the communication device 900 is used to implement the functions of the access network element in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6: the transceiver module 920 is used to receive the first paging request from the application function network element, and the first paging request carries The identification of the label and the identification of at least one access network element; the processing module 910 is configured to receive the first paging request from the application function network element, and the first paging request carries the identification of the label and at least one access network element The transceiving module 920 is also configured to send a second paging request to the network element of the target access network, and the second paging request carries the identification of the label, so that the network element of the target access network carries the label according to the second paging request. The label of the paging label.

When the communication device 900 is used to realize the function of the application function network element in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6: the processing module 910 is used for the transceiver module 920; the identifier of the label and the identifier of at least one access network element are stored; the transceiver module 920 is configured to send a first paging request to the network capability opening function, where the first paging request carries the identifier of the label and the identifier of at least one network element of the access network.

When the communication device 900 is used to realize the function of the access and mobility management functional network element in the method embodiment shown in FIG. Identification; the transceiver module 920 is used to send the identification of the network element of the access network and the identification of the label to the application function network element, and the identification of the network element of the access network and the identification of the label are used for paging the label of the application function network element.

More detailed descriptions about the processing module 910 and the transceiver module 920 can be directly obtained by referring to the relevant descriptions in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , and details are not repeated here.

As shown in FIG. 10 , a 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 can be understood that the interface circuit 1020 may be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1000 may further include a memory 1030 for storing instructions executed by the processor 1010 or storing input data required by the processor 1010 to execute the instructions or storing data generated by the processor 1010 after executing the instructions.

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

It can be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application can be a central processing module (Central Processing Unit, CPU), and can 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 Array (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. A general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor, or any conventional processor.

The method steps in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by means of hardware, or may be implemented by means of a processor executing software instructions. Software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and software modules can 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 hard 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. Of course, the storage medium may also be a component of the processor. The processor and storage medium can be located in the ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in the base station or the terminal. Certainly, the processor and the storage medium may also exist in the base station or the terminal as discrete components.

In the above embodiments, all or part of them may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product comprises one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on the computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are executed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, network equipment, user equipment, or other programmable devices. The computer program or instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer program or instructions may be downloaded from a website, computer, A server or data center transmits 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 or a data center integrating one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magnetic tape; it may also be an optical medium, such as a digital video disk; or it may be a semiconductor medium, such as a solid state disk. The computer readable storage medium may be a volatile or a nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

In each embodiment of the present application, if there is no special explanation and logical conflict, the terms and/or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referred to each other, and the technical features in different embodiments are based on their inherent Logical relationships can be combined to form new embodiments.

In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "multiple" means two or more. "And/or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three types of relationships, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A, B can be singular or plural. In the text description of this application, the character "/" generally indicates that the contextual objects are an "or" relationship; in the formulas of this application, the character "/" indicates that the contextual objects are a "division" Relationship. "Including at least one of A, B and C" may mean: including A; including B; including C; including A and B; including A and C; including B and C; including A, B and C.

It can be understood that the various numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for convenience of description, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the serial numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its functions and internal logic.

Claims (22)

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 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 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;

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 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 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;

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.

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